It's finally here! After over 8 years in development, Carnage in Space: Crucible is now fully content-complete and has left Early Access!

Appropriately for a final release, this update brings several major new features, as well as an excessively long list of smaller improvements.

Kodon's Story (and MORE)

Experience all of the events of Crucible one last time - this time, from the perspective of the gun-slinging do-gooder, Kodon Deinon; Operative Beta. Put his sharpshooting skills, his ideals, and his patience to the test as he fights alongside the former IOTA agent-turned-vigilante Nightmare and the recently-liberated mercenary swordmaster Tuhrahkkkii! Let the other guys dive into the fray, while you try out a variety of powerful ranged weapons to pick off foes from afar as Kodon.

But, while these three misfit warriors are getting into trouble and struggling to preserve their shaky alliance, what's going on back at IOTA? Take a glimpse into the inner workings of the galaxy's foremost peacekeeping organization - and Kodon's reasons for signing on with them - as the mystery continues to unfold.

Boss Rush (and MORE)

Whew, all that cooperation and intrigue gets exhausting! What better way to unwind than by partaking in the ultimate test of precision and combat prowess - the BOSS RUSH EVENT!

It's time to prove you've got what it takes - by facing off against increasingly long marathon battles until you've re-conquered every boss in the entire game. If you manage to do so, perhaps you may even attract the attention of someone very powerful...

...But is that really a good idea?

Wrap-Up (What are are you waiting for? Go play it!)

I'd like to say a great big thank-you to all of my Early Access players and beta testers. Thanks for all the feedback that helped me refine the game and clean up the rough edges over the years. And thanks to everyone who stopped to read the update posts (that means you). And, while we're at it, thanks to everyone who has played or will soon pick up the game. Every player is appreciated.

With this update, the game is now content-complete. Don't expect any more major updates, aside from bug fixes and other long-term-support.

That's all for now. If you'll excuse me, I have to get back to developing the next game...

Thanks again, and enjoy!

~ John (the developer)

Changelog (The aforementioned "more")

If you're still reading by this point, buckle in. This is a really long one - and there might even be a few more changes I forgot to mention.

New Content

• Added Kodon’s story, with 3 all-new levels and additional new cutscenes added to existing levels

• Added Boss Rush mode to the arena

• Added new Nanotech items

• Added 9 new achievements

Audio

• Replaced the music in Chapter 5

• Adjusted the audio level settings to be slightly louder at low levels

• Added settings to adjust SFX and ambience levels individually

• The crowd now cheers when finishing an arena battle event, and sometimes after clearing a wave

• The music now correctly fades out again when dying again after being saved by Second Wind

Cutscenes

• Rewrote some lines of dialogue

• Player & enemy status effects and Kodon’s shield disappear when cutscenes begin

• Kodon’s shield also disappears when talking to NPCs

• Holding the confirm button during a cutscene now triggers fast-forward sooner

• Added a new animation for an action that happens in Chapter 3 outro (N)

Graphics

• Fixed bullet hit FX sometimes appearing on the wrong bullet

• Certain types of bullets now leave a visual trail

• A certain liquid surface that appears in cutscenes now reflects sprites

• Added a “Water FX” setting to toggle off waves and water distortion

• Added a “Shaky text” setting to toggle off shaky/wavy animated text

• The moon now goes behind the clouds in Prologue (N)

Player/Weapons

Nightmare

• Slightly reduced the knockback of Soulfire

• Decreased the knockback of his special (so that more hits can land consistently)

• Fixed a softlock performing special move on a vertically-moving platform

• Nightmare’s special now pierces shields

• The Silencer’s missiles only target enemies, not asteroids

Tuhrahkkkii

• Reworked grapple strike to be easier and more reliable

  • The grapple extends and retracts more quickly

  • You are less likely to be hurt by an enemy when grappling onto it

  • Your jump attack or charged attack will automatically trigger when you collide with a grappled enemy

• Increased the power of double charge (1.5x => 1.75x)

• On critical hit, increased the duration of Berserker Rush (6s => 9s)

• Tuhrahkkkii now correctly falls off of walls when stunned

Kodon

• Reworked Beam Cannon

  • Slightly increased ammo capacity (20 => 24)

  • Added an intermediate charge level with a spread shot

  • Increased the size of the beam shot

  • Increased the speed & lowered the duration of the beam shot damage-over-time effect (total damage remains the same)

  • Updated the animations to reflect the 3 levels of charge

  • Added SFX when the next level of charge is reached

  • The Revenge & Bloodlust perks now increase the damage of the beam shot

• The regen timer for Kodon’s shield now behaves more consistently (it will never recharge immediately after taking damage or breaking)

• Adjusted Gatling gun

  • Slightly increased ammo capacity (200 => 240)

  • Reduced the spin-up and spin-down time

  • Shooting again during spin-down will now skip the spin-up time and shoot near-instantly

• Slowed down the rate at which ammo generator activates (12s => 14s)

• Buffed the damage output of the Hawk’s (Kodon’s ship) beam cannon

All

• You can now use guns or Nightmare’s shield during a dash-jump

• Fixed enemies sometimes turning your cannon beam / laser vision against you (or vice-versa)

• Explosions, such as from Nightmare’s Particle Blaster or Kodon’s Grenade Belt, no longer pierce shielded enemies

• The player’s ammo count will no longer be mismatched after switching guns and dying, or switching guns while another gun is still in your hands

• The Unstoppable nanotech has reduced effectiveness against the strongest attacks

• The Revenge nanotech lasts longer the harder you got hit

• Reduced the knockback increase of the Brute Force Booster nanotech

• Second Wind and Bloodlust can be equipped in the boss rush rest area, even if you’re not at full health

• Bloodlust now doubles the damage dealt by corrosion & burn effects

• Upgraded the “Pit Rescue” nanotech into “Hazard Guard”, which also protects from most hazards

Level

• Fixed a softlock when attempting to play Chapter 5 as Kodon

• Changed a solid wall into a platform in Chapter 8 so you can’t get squished by the nearby moving block

• Swapped out some of the enemies in the arena events with new ones

• Added background details to Chapter 4 (N)

• The mid-atmosphere clouds in Chapter 5 now move slowly

• Colliding with a missile in Chapter 5 will now hurt you, as you might expect. Explosions from missiles that you shot down are still safe.

• Added more variety to the decorations in the arena lobby

• Fixed stage hazards dealing less damage than intended

Enemies

• Reduced Rifleman bursts from 5 bullets to 4

• The thief copters in Chapter 1 now deal a small amount of collision damage

• Fixed the boss of Chapter 6 (N) not charging his special meter

• Reduced the warm-up time of Laina’s gravity well attack

• Laina’s shockwaves can no longer deflect Nightmare’s special attack

• The platforms in the final boss’s room no longer respawn after being destroyed

• Reduced the final boss’s health once again (6400 => 6000)

• Fixed a rare issue where parts of the final boss would be flipped upside down

• Bombardiers return to their patrol zone faster after being knocked upwards (potentially out of the player’s reach)

• Reworked the Chactida rematch in Chapter 7 - changed some attack patterns and turned it a different color to differentiate it from the first one

• Brutes now take longer to recover after a dash attack, and are vulnerable to critical hits at this point

Gameplay

• The “Interact” command now correctly takes precedence if it shares a button with attack/shoot/jump/dash

• Added controller vibration to a variety of situations, like attacking or taking damage

• Added a setting to disable controller vibration

• When talking to an NPC up close, the player will back up to a respectable distance

• Player & enemy status effects now persist when visiting the Settings or Instructions menus

• Adjusted the scoring in the Target Practice minigame, and added a sound effect when you get points

• Changed the requirement for the “Something to Prove” achievement to 24 challenge medals

Interface

• Settings menu

  • It is no longer possible to remap the Cancel & Confirm controls on the keyboard

  • The “Talk” control is now called “Interact” (since it’s also used to open doors)

  • Remapping controls to certain reserved buttons (keyboard Esc, gamepad Start, or gamepad D-Pad) is not allowed

  • Mapping a control (other than “Interact”) to the same button used by another control will swap the two values

  • Added checkboxes and volume bars to some settings

  • Changed the Graphics | Display mode setting to use the slider controls

  • Removed the Data tab

  • Fixed a rare hard-lock when closing Settings

• If playing in Portuguese, the money counter will use the correct thousands separator (“.”)

• Removed the progress bar from the initial loading screen

• Shrunk and moved the arena results screen so the player is still visible in their victory stance

• Adjusted the shading of gamepad button prompts

• Redesigned the new story / character select menu

• Moved boss title text to the top or bottom so it doesn’t cover up the boss it’s describing

• Fixed a softlock pressing cancel after the second warning before erasing your save file

• Added a new popup and fanfare when you unlock a piece of nanotech

• Resized or redesigned all nanotech icons

• The arena/boss rush results screen now correctly shows current/best times in hundredths of a second

• Damage from burn/corrosion effects now appears in a different color

• Star rank icons are now animated

• Challenge mode stars are now medals