Symbiont Update Is Up

Hey.

After all these years a proper version of Symbiont is done.
It's the game as it was originally envisioned during GBJAM 9. The jam version came out severely unfinished and buggy, not to mention it didn't have all the pretty looking sparks and explosions quite just yet. This new update fixes it all. It's still a game with only just two levels, but now it feels a lot better to play and I can finally fuck off in peace.
That is, if/after I make an HTML5 version so you can play it right here in your browser, because apparently it's not as easy as I hoped it would be. It will take some work, and the resulting version is likely to become a different-feeling game. If I get it done, I'll let you know.

But for now, play the game. Or just check out this changelog:

Level 1 (the run-and-gun level):

• The tentacle now collides with walls (you used to be able to attack through walls)
• The tentacle isn't infinitely spammable anymore: you can't create a new one while one already exists.
• There's way more sounds now and the level has music.
• Vertical scrolling is now smoother.
• The Floater enemy doesn't fall down when the player dies anymore.
• Grenades and tank shells now deal damage to the player on impact, its not just the explosion they make when colliding with something that's dealing damage now.
• Other small changes and fixes.

Level 2 (the shoot-em-up level):

• During the boss startup sequence, you no longer collide with an invisible object if you stay in front of the boss' gun.
• Bullets during the boss battle don't teleport anymore.
• In fact, the entire infinitely looping background during the boss battle has been redone properly. The above issue is related to that.
• You can now beat the level.
• New boss death sequence.
• When the player approaches the boss, a "WARNING" message appears on the screen.
• New level complete sequence after the boss is destroyed.
• Fixed the boss' multi-directional attack.
• There's way more sounds now and the level has music.
• Particle effects for enemies with charge sequence attacks.
• The boss now has a missing laser attack.
• The player's charged shot can now only deal a limited amount of damage, after that it disappears.
• Fixed the laser gunship enemy.
• The power meter now flashes when the charge is full.
• The shield powerup that didn't make the cut is now in the game.
• You can't autoshoot and charge your shot at the same time anymore.
• Other small changes and fixes.

Other:

• Palettes are now fixed: all the 10 available palettes are working properly now.
• There's now sounds and music in the main menu.
• A score system is now in the game, including various performance bonuses. Total score gets calculated at the end of the game.
• Volume sliders are now functional.
• The game now automatically chooses a scale factor based on the user's display height when first launching the game.
• When the player reaches a new checkpoint, there's a message informing the player now.
• Other small changes and fixes

If you actually read this far, go play the game. Go go go. C'mon.