After gathering feedback and observing gameplay, I’ve added a new mechanic: the player can now use the whip and sub-weapons while climbing ladders. This means the player is no longer defenseless during ladder sequences. 

In addition, I made a few minor changes, such as in the ladder room in Challenge Level 1, where you now need to use this new ladder attack mechanic to activate the button. There are also a few added candles in the tutorial level to encourage players to try out this mechanic.

Another update concerns the splash screen. Originally, it used GameMaker Studio 2’s built-in splash screen system, but after some investigation, I found that this might have caused crashes for some players when launching the game from Steam. Note that this might not still fix the issue, but hopefully it will.

Besides these updates, there are some smaller fixes listed below.

Have a whipping weekend!

List of fixes:

•  Added the ability for the player to use the whip and sub-weapons while climbing a ladder
• Changed the splash screen display method
• Added notes about the new ladder mechanics in the tutorial area
• Added a very minor vertical momentum when the player let's go of a ladder, improving ladder platforming slightly
• Adjusted the collider size at the top of ladders
• Fixed an issue where the player could grab a ladder when pressing down while already on solid ground, which could cause the player to get stuck
•  Fixed a sub-weapon loading issue where the last equipped sub-weapon was not saved when saving and loading a game
• Removed V-Sync, as it might also cause crashes for some users when launching the game
• Adjusted the collider size of the Armless Maiden’s projectiles
• Added minor visual hints in Challenge Level 1 to make some secrets slightly easier to find, as players were having trouble discovering them
• Some small graphical adjustments