WOW, Halfway through January already?

Hello guys!  Nearly halfway through January and my head is ready to explode due to the busy few weeks (both personal and Breeze related). Holidays, Kickstarter, some changes at my job, dental mishaps (still can't feel my tongue, something called paraesthesia?), and Ring Fit... 

Currently, I'm dealing with getting Kickstarter stuff,  like surveys, and handling orders. Trying to get on that quickly so that I can focus on development more in the coming weeks!

Though I did get a fair amount of development done over the winter holidays, and surprisingly during the last couple of weeks, though some of it is spoiler-y, so that makes it kinda hard to share...

Here's a breakdown of some of the major things we worked on:

CODING

• Major file and script cleanup (removed a lot of unused code, test sprites, and debugging messages
  
• Added in a LOT of particle effects that got made but never imported and implemented
  
• Added in a lot other misc effects and feedback such as:
  
  - Hitstun/Lag
  - Screenshake
  - Screenpause
  - Particle Spawning on hit collision
  - Characters bounce/ricochet
  - Background Effects during a special attack
  - Rumble (well, on the controller)
  - Animation based frame data
  - Directional particles
  
  This can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7UQ2HzVCn4
  
• Armor Breaking (Characters have armor now!) This means that some enemies will be a bit resilient to attacks until their armor is broken, and they can be tossed around
  
• Updated how hitboxes work, making it easier for them to change in size and stats at anytime in an attack animation
  
• Fixed a major issue where attacking and jumping at the same time would make Breeze "super jump". (This was annoying to fix)
  
• Performed some updates that allow for generating a map of nodes that AI can use to move around levels and rule out what layers and objects to avoid or ignore.
  
• Made debug messages to easier track when certain things in the game's framework occur. This was needed to trace what happens when a level loads.
  
• Updated Kai's "Fleece" plugin with some improvements that should make expanding the Dialogue system even easier!

We've also been working on animation again, and making characters fit the newer, simplified direction:

I believe that's it! Sorry if this seems a bit roughed together! (it was rushed, I know). I just wanted to give an update during the little bit of spare time I had today!)

Patreons, be prepared for another proto-build soon ~
(also, make sure to update your address info *hint hint*)