All right, here we go again -- Dead Danse Denial is back with version 1.1!

I took version 1.0 down just a few days after its debut a week ago. I had discovered a bug caused by an input script going nuts whenever the game window lost focus. This script would keep running, causing Windows to begin aggressively repeating user actions in other programs, leading to greatly increased CPU usage and potential for crashing. In my own experience, if I'd open the Start Menu, Windows would begin cycling through the menu at lightning speed. If I tried to paste something into my image editor, the editor would repeat the pasting action over and over and over until I forcibly shut the game down.

Not. Cool.

Fortunately it seems I've corrected the issue and haven't been able to reproduce the problem. I've fixed the input scripting and modified the game to automatically suspend all functions when the game window loses focus.

Please delete version 1.0 of Dead Danse Denial from your files, if you have it.

Anyway, with the game offline, I took some time to reassess things and tweak the game for the better (or so I hope). Keep reading below for a breakdown of the changes I've made.

New to version 1.1:

• Autopause when game window is not in focus -- as mentioned above, the game autopauses when not in focus and automatically resumes when returned to.

• Modified fullscreen and windowed scaling to better adapt to various monitor sizes -- I set the game to start in fullscreen mode this time around. I figure it looks a little more "professional". Hopefully the dynamic scaling stuff I've added does its job and keeps the game looking great on any display. If fullscreen does looks wiggy for you, press Ctrl+Enter to switch to windowed mode and vice versa. The window (in windowed mode) can be resized however you'd like it.

• Added left thumbstick movement functionality -- as of version 1.1, players using XInput gamepads can now move around using the left thumbstick, if they so choose.

• Modified movement processing -- in 1.0, if the player pressed a button to move right, the Keeper would move one spot to the right and stop there, even with the button held down. The player would need to press, then release, then press the button again each and every time they wanted to move, which gets tiresome and annoying. In 1.1, players can now just press and hold buttons (or tilt the thumbstick) to move around with ease!

• Changed duration of gameplay phases and modified skeleton spawn frequencies -- basically just tried rebalancing the flow of gameplay from one phase to the next, while also modifying skeleton spawn times to scale with the phases more sensibly. I feel the game went on a bit too long in 1.0 and the most interesting phase, where you've gotta dodge lightning as well as wisps, was too short compared to the wind-up and wind-down phases before and after it. Skeleton spawn times have also been adjusted and are a little more reasonable now.

• Modified handling of animation frames to eliminate "ghosting" effect -- thanks to some friendly feedback, I changed the way the game handles player animation frames between movement and attacking, eliminating the weird "ghosting" effect that would occur when moving into an active skeleton. As of 1.1, the interstitial "movement" frame disappears before the player attacks, ensuring the Keeper no longer appears to be in two places (both attacking and moving) at the same time.

• Streamlined pause menu -- simplified the pause menu. Instead of having to move up and down between options, you can now just press an indicated direction for the indicated result (left to resume game, right to restart, down to exit the game).

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading, and happy holidays!