The Ares Horizon v2.0.0 - Major Update

Release Notes

Important:

• The game open in full screen, to exit the game, press the escape key on your keyboard or type out "exit"
• When opening the settings menu your mouse pointer will not be able to exit the window, you just have to click the "Apply Changes" button to g back to normal
• The game will pause when the setting menu is open, if you change the typewriting speed, it will apply after the one full line is typed out

Instructions to play the mini-game

• You have to land the space ship, avoiding the spikes
• You would have a 3 second prep timer to get ready
• Use left and right arrow keys to navigate through the spikes
• As the game mode difficulty increases, the speed of the spaceship, and the size of the spikes also increase

New Content & Gameplay

• Landing Minigame: Added a brand new space landing minigame with 3 difficulties and spikes
• Minigame Mode: Successfully landing your will permanently unlock a mode to play the minigame without restarting the story
• Expanded Storyline: A new story choice system has been added, linking your Solar Sails decision in Branch 2 directly to your final choices in Branch 1

Settings & Audio

• Pygame Migration: The setting menu was completely re-built in Pygame to eliminate Tkinter bug issues and to prepare for the whole game conversion to Pygame
• ** Audio Engine**: Switched to Pygame's audio engine to fix cross-platform crash errors on macOS and Linux.
• Text Speed Customization: Added a slider to let players customize how fast the typewriter types text on screen
• Factory Reset Feature: Added a 'Reset All Settings' button to reset all game settings back to defaults
• ** Slider & Mute Toggle**: A audio slider that changes colors with volume changes, with a 'Mute All Sounds' checkbox
• ** Preferences**: Local game audio and player settings are now saved with a .json backend file

UI & QoL

• ** Retry Loop**: A 'Try Again' screen now tracks attempt numbers without forcing users to go through the loading
• New Sound Effects: New sound effects and a looping background soundtrack

Bug Fixes & Other Changes

• Screen Scaling Fix: Fixed a layout bug that would cause buttons to clip out or disappear on small resolutions and non-fullscreen displays
• Cross-Platform Setup Docs: Revamped the installation guidelines in README.md to make sure setup on non-Windows machines

The Ares Horizon v1.0.1 - Bug Fix

What got fixed:

• When loading into the the game, if the user's screen is too small or not in full screen the choice buttons will partially show up or not show up at all
• The fix uses .place now instead of .pack to push the buttons above the bottom of the screen no matter what size it is in

How to play:

1. Download The.Ares.Horizon.Reship.V.exe from the Assets section down below.
2. Double-click the file to execute the Mission Control Terminal boot process.
3. Reminder: Adjust your system volume limits to 30% before running the background audio streams!
4. If using MacOS or Linux, please refer to the README of this repository

The Ares Horizon v1.0.0 - Windows Release

Welcome to the stable release of The Ares Horizon!

This release fixes a critical graphical callback error that would crash the terminal log stream if the window interface container was closed down prematurely during asynchronous script initialization arrays.

New in v1.0.0

• Standalone Executable Added: No Python setup required! Play instantly using the attached .exe file.
• Window Grace-Period Interceptor: Implemented structural checks using winfo_exists() and error handling to ensure thread safety when exiting the game.
• Clean Code Architecture: Added a .gitignore layout matrix to optimize repository maintenance tracking.

Instructions

1. Download The.Ares.Horizon.exe from the Assets section down below.
2. Double-click the file to execute the Mission Control Terminal boot process.
3. Reminder: Adjust your system volume limits to 30% before running the background audio streams!