Hello, Island Bender players! We're thrilled to announce the arrival of the highly anticipated Powerup and Quality of Life Update for our game on Steam. This update introduces exciting new powerups, enhances gameplay features, and implements various quality-of-life improvements based on your valuable feedback. Here's what you can expect:

1. Black Hole: Harness the power of a cosmic anomaly as the Black Hole powerup! This incredible force will suck up matter and grow in size, gradually decreasing over time.
   
2. White Hole: The White Hole powerup complements the Black Hole by pushing matter away. If a Black Hole and White Hole exist simultaneously, the White Hole can also act as a teleporter.
   
3. Poison: Watch out for the toxic Poison powerup! It spawns a dangerous cloud of gas that not only takes away your powerups but also renders rocks and fragments poisonous.
   
4. Accelerate: Unleash the Accelerate powerup to gradually increase the speed of your thrown rocks over time.
   
5. Powerup Spawner: Destroying rocks will now have a chance to spawn a powerup, adding an exciting element of unpredictability to the gameplay.
   
6. Zero Gravity: Experience a whole new level of freedom with the Zero Gravity powerup, which removes the effects of gravity from your thrown rocks.

We've made significant gameplay improvements to streamline your experience from your feedback. The following changes have been implemented:

1. Button Remapping: Enjoy greater flexibility by accessing the new button remapping menu, allowing you to customize controls for all players.
   
2. Simplified Rock Creation and Throwing: Now, you can create and throw rocks using just a single button. If no rocks are nearby, the player will automatically create one, or else it will grab the nearest rock.
   
3. Change color: Personalize your player by changing its color in the game setup screen, allowing for greater customization and expression.
   
4. Random Map toggle: Enable the Random Map toggle to load a randomly selected map, or choose your preferred map from the new Map Selection screen if the toggle is turned off.
   
5. Map Selection: We've added a dedicated Map Selection screen to give you more control over the gaming experience.
   
6. Toggle for inverted Aim: A new toggle in the Game Settings screen allows you to switch the inverted aim on or off for all players, catering to individual preferences.
   
7. First round no powerups: To level the playing field, the game no longer immediately throws in players with powerups during the first round, ensuring a fair start.
   
8. Sound Options InGame: Adjust sound settings on the fly with the new in-game Sound Options menu.
   
9. Settings are saved: Your game settings will now be saved automatically, so you don't have to worry about reconfiguring each time you launch the game.
   
10. Improved Enemy AI: We've made them a bit smarter with better pathfinding. However, we acknowledge that they may still encounter rare moments of getting stuck. If this happens, press the round skip button in the pause menu to continue playing smoothly.
    
11. Ragdoll: Added Ragdoll physics for a realistic player reaction when hit.
    
12. Performance improvements: Significantly improved game performance for a smoother and more enjoyable gaming experience.

We're excited to introduce two brand new islands in the Map Updates:

1. Fox-Shark Island A combination of two favorite creatures, a Fox and a Shark.
   
2. Tiger Island: Find a Tiger Statue in a dense Bamboo forest.
   
3. Stair Way Islands: Find an Island formation that remembers of a stairway to heaven
   

Earn your bragging rights with the latest Steam Achievements! We've added 24 Achievements so far for you to discover. We still need to add textures to those Achievements, though...

We also want to address the experimentation with the element of fire. While it looked visually stunning, we decided it didn't fit the overall gameplay experience. Therefore, we've made the tough decision to let go of this element and will not be adding other elements in future updates.

During our presence at IndieGameFest, we received invaluable feedback from players like you. We appreciate your support and engagement in shaping the game.

Exciting news! We'll showcase Island Bender at Gamescom in the Indie Area in Hall 10.2. We can't wait to meet you there and receive further insights.

Looking ahead, we have some exciting plans for future updates, including:

1. New Map: We're in the process of texturing the Column Island. It's current untextured version can be accessed when enabling untextured scenes
   
2. Character Selection: We're actively working on introducing four playable characters into the game: a big one, a thin one, a strong one, and an agile one. While the controls and moves will remain the same, each character will have distinct properties. For example, the bigger character will create larger rocks, while the smaller one will be faster on foot and have higher jumps.
   

Thank you for your continued support and dedication to Island Bender! We hope you enjoy the latest update and look forward to bringing you more exciting content in the future.