Saves that survive a crash
Saves are now flushed to disk before they count. A file that cannot be read is kept aside, and shown as COULD NOT BE READ, instead of being overwritten with a fresh one. The save format is versioned, and settings are saved when the machine goes to sleep. Smaller guards in the same area: a goal touched after the run was lost no longer counts as a clear, and quitting to the map during the GAME OVER beat no longer sends you to the title.
The sound of a patting hand
The vet's patting hands could not be heard. The sound was a low thump that small speakers cannot play. It was rebuilt with a soft slap on top, and its loudness went from about 13 dB short of target to on target (-35.9 to -23.0, against a target of -23). Other sound fixes: boss breathing, snoring and galloping no longer pile up on themselves, sounds pause with the pause menu and stop on a scene change, one sound can no longer take every voice, and volume changes now apply to sounds already playing.
A fast, hidden run of the whole game
Watch the AI can now play the whole game at 20 times speed with no window and no sound, and stop on its own after one pass or an hour, from a single file. The physics steps are the same as a normal run, so the AI plays exactly as it would at normal speed, and every time in its report is game time. Normal play, the AI mode, the attract demo and the test runs all write one shared log per run: errors with where they happened, deaths, wins, boss phases, saves, stuck moments, frame spikes and memory, plus a summary. Logging is buffered so it does not slow the game, and nothing personal is recorded.
Samus now rides moving platforms, with the cat on her back, and ice is as slippery for her as for the cat. The AI's routes and stage guides for 11 stages were updated to match the previous day's level changes, and it now treats permanent sugar traps as hazards and claws its way out if it is stuck in one.
A hostile audit of the art
Every sprite, tile, prop and background went through an "AI slop check": four critics looked at every frame for the mistakes that make art look machine-made. All four sections failed at first. Three rounds of fixes followed, each checked by a different reviewer.
- The co-op cats got real pupils and eye shine and now blink with both eyes. Hollow eyes on the cats went from 98 to 0.
- Enemies were cut off at the edges of their frames in 10 sheets; now none are.
- Simon has proper tiger bands that follow his body, the Duchess no longer looks like she has five heads when she lies down, Snookums sits like a dog, Pip lost his accidental fangs, and the vet's hands have thumbs.
- About twenty-five signs and labels were redrawn so they spell what they should.
- The sleepy cat on the floor, which was never part of the plan, is now a bouncy pet bed, and the dust bunnies were redesigned so they no longer resemble another game's enemy.
Cats, Samus, enemies, most bosses and the world art now pass. A credits screen was added, and a record of where every art set came from. All 224 sounds in the game are generated by the project's own tools, and a copyright and trademark check found no blockers.
Nothing in this round has been played or heard yet. The first fast run will produce the first shared logs.