- 2nd Anniversary Update Live! - 30 April 2026
Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well. As promised, here is the actual game update to celebrate the occasion. It comes with quite a few goodies I hope you will enjoy! - An online high score leaderboard is accessible from the options menu. Your personal record should automatically be uploaded as long as you are connected to Steam, and the top 50 users are visible. - Various voice lines were added for both ships, courtesy of BuckChickens and Silphio. Voices can be disabled in the options menu as well if you feel like it. - Tweaks were made to many bosses (Hydrast, Narpass & Paylo, Duchminn) - Pongo now looses health naturally so he cannot be milked for graze - Sound and sprite telegraph for the closing doors in Stage 7 - Added a "Bright Bullets" setting that might improve bullet visibility - Capped the possible point gain from grazing - Added a telegraph to the static wall-based t…
- Happy "The Rush" 2nd Anniversary - 21 April 2026
"Yes, I am still alive." Hello everyone, it's been a while. I hope this message finds you well. I assume you've already read the title, so you must've figured out that it is this game's 2nd anniversary. Time sure does fly. I'll start by thanking all of you guys, the people of the internet that decided that this game was worth even a fleeting moment of your time. Hopefully you still feel that way after playing it, hah! I know there aren't a lot of you, but I'm very grateful to even have gotten this far. Next I ought to thank the wonderful people that have supported me during and after the game's development. I'm not sure they would like to be explicitly pointed out in this spontaneous post, but they are all in the game's credits of course. I couldn't have made The Rush without their support, and outside of the game I couldn't have asked for better friends. It does strike me as a tad odd,…
- Very Minor Update II - 31 January 2025
- Normalized diagonal movement (you won't go faster when moving diagonally) - slight balance tweaks to enemy hp - Improved the attract mode sequence As always, thank you for your continued interest!
- Music Room! - 28 January 2025
Enjoy a fairly basic music room in the options menu! Thank BuckChickens for the OST coming out as good as it did. I also fixed another bug with the medals on the select screen. That's all! :)
- New Year's Update - 26 January 2025
"Yes, I am still alive." Even though I'm pretty much done with this game (which I have said before), it is fun to add stuff to The Rush once and a while to supplement my other projects. Here's what this update brings... - Rebalanced a number of boss attacks in regards to difficulty scaling and bullet speeds - Added a new attack to the Stage 1 Boss to prevent graze milking - Made Paylo drop a points capsule on death - Reduced the time it takes for a weapon capsule to convert into a points capsule by 8 seconds - Resprited Mr. Membrane - Fixed a bug with the displayed achievement badges on the Arcade Mode select screen - Added an achievement badge for the "Technical Monkey" achievement - Added a "Slowdown" setting, which when enabled causes the game's fps to drop when many bullets and enemies are in play (off by default) - Added a new achievement correlating to a secret in Stage 5 Thank yo…
- August 3 Very Minor Update - 3 August 2024
- Boss health bars now display the unique boss name instead of simply "BOSS" - Stage 5's visuals and terrain mapping were improved - Some balance changes and fixes that nobody really care about Sorry for the small size of this update, but I do feel very satisfied with the game in its current state and would prefer to work on other projects (at the moment). Thank you for your continued interest.
- Bug Squashing Update - 24 July 2024
Here's what's going on this time: - Fixed visual error when pausing during Stage 4 - Removed the ability for the Respawn Type and Bonus Life Threshold to be changed on the pause menu - Gave the Stage 7 Boss more hp and an additional attack during its second phase - Fixed various bugs related to Steam Achievements - Updated info sidebar hud - Added some tricky bonus capsules to a few stages - Set default starting lives back to 5 (you're welcome!) - Added a funny easter egg (source: bro trust me) Thank you again for playing The Rush!
- Polish, Polish, More Polish - 28 June 2024
I really don't feel like writing patch notes right now but there's a lot I swear. Totally no secret stage at all either.
- Point Lives are here! - 23 June 2024
I forgot to set the default starting lives to 3, and already published the build. Darn. Well, enjoy some slightly easier default settings until the next update... Also, Platinum's Machine Gun (Yellow M capsule) got significantly buffed. Alterations were also made to Stage 4. When I get a chance I will add settings in the options menu relating to point lives. (This update was rushed out primarily for my brother. I coaxed him to attempt a 1CC.)
- Additional Fixes & Polish... For Now... - 17 June 2024
I know it may appear that "real content" isn't being added in any of these post launch updates, but that's because nobody is supposed to know about the secret stage I'm almost done with! Among relatively minute tweaks, some larger changes include: - New music tracks when practicing each of the stages - Stage 2 is less claustrophobic and hopefully a bit easier - Dramatic Fixes to the overall DPS of "piercing" attacks against bosses (such as bomb explosions & the 2nd or 4th boss weapons)
- Post Launch Minor Update - 26 May 2024
This update includes... Bug fixes (particularly regarding boss I-frames and the Option Punch) More polish (just a couple of new sprites and animation tweaks) Audio fixes (the correct versions of certain stage themes will now play) Thank you for playing THE RUSH! I have a secret update in the works for those who actually like the game, but I wanted to get some bugs out of the way first...
- Release Version 1.0 Is Finally Here - 20 April 2024
- More achievements, less glitches, and a better looking stage 3! - Some random edits to stage 7 - Inner terrain now has proper collision! - Sound effect mixing tweaks - Ending theme - that's all I can remember right now...
- Final Early Access Update - 19 April 2024
I am so close to release I can just taste it! This update adds an actual functioning ending, complete with (rather short) credits. Thanks to everybody who has been playing The Rush so far! Some bugs were also fixed, and new sounds were added among other minute changes. Once I do a bit more polishing and make more achievements I will take the game out of Early Access purgatory for good! Remember to voice any opinions you have on the game. I will definitely still update The Rush after release with both fixes and new content, so don't worry if you find some game-breaking bug...
- Second Wind Update - 15 April 2024
A second playable ship is now fully functional! However, function and balance are two different things... Feel free to voice any balancing concerns regarding the second ship (or anything for that matter). Additionally, Stage 2 got some visual improvements, and the game can technically be completed. I will add looping and credits in the very near future (I'm on break for a bit). Stage 8 has also been improved (?). Thank you for playing!
- Stability & Sanity Update - 30 March 2024
- Fixed a bunch of crashes... sorry about those - Added a new cutscene when game is started - Minor balancing and enemy placement changes - Recuperated my personal sanity a bit Sorry to the 2 people who play for the general lack of updates as of recent. As it turns out, the final 10% of a game takes 5 times as long as the rest of the game, especially when time is hard to come by. Thank you to all players!
- Almost There (For Real) Update - 21 February 2024
Tons of little visual, audio, and gameplay tweaks/polish. I seriously don't have time to list all of the changes.... assuming I remember them. By the way, the final escape section is a stage now (which is basically done) because scope creep.
- Practice Makes Perfect Update - 10 December 2023
As the name would suggest, the main feature if this update is a fully functioning practice mode to prepare yourself for that 1CC (which is still technically impossible by the way). Other notable changes include... - The first two phases of the final boss are functional, but the game will crash after the second phase... - Most bosses have some i-frames as they spawn for balancing purposes - Stage 4 received a dramatic visual overhaul - Option Punch has slightly reduced DPS - Machine Gun has higher overall DPS - Sound effect and mixing tweaks - Back-end code improvements nobody cares about - A new stage 3 theme (don't worry, the old one will come back) - Nerfs to certain bosses at varying difficulty levels - The 6th boss now drops a life as compensation for not having a weapon - Visual improvements to tracking bullets - Minor checkpoint alterations - Sprite adjustments for increased visua…
- Almost There Update! - 11 November 2023
This update has it all... except the final boss! Some important changes include... - Large buff to machine gun - More sound effects!!! - The final stage all the way up to where the last boss should be - Typical polish and balance changes - More forgiving checkpoints on difficulties under 1 Surely I forgot something... but that is for you to find out!
- Nondescript Update - 10 October 2023
- Fixed some issues with keyboard and controller inputs - Expanded and tweaked stage 7 - Fixed some bugs - Added a checkpoint to stage 2, but only on lower difficulties (more similar checkpoints will be added to other stages soon) - Tweaked pause menu dialogue - Nerfed Triple (just a hair) - Other things I cannot remember right now
- September 23 Update - 24 September 2023
I actually listed the changes as I made the update this time... - Made D-Pads function correctly in game - Made attract mode less intrusive - Overhauled the menu system (start/shoot can progress menus, bomb moves back through menus) - Added Training Mode (currently inaccessible) - The escape key (when using keyboard) and the back/select button (when using controller) now quit the game when pressed - Made Option Punch less random and fixed an oversight with its DPS - Added stuff to the blank parts of the pause menu Extra options may be added to arcade mode later depending on how much I want to feature creep the game.
