The "skip intro" button is a good suggestion. I will add that too. Thank you ^^
So this is what the new character selection screen currently looks like:
The Thief Rank progress bar increases when completing objectives. When it's full, the Thief Rank increases and unlocks a new game feature. This could be new environments, characters, skins or custom game options.
Skills can be increased with mission gold. They decrease action times, increases movement and so on. Bright stars show the current skill level and dark stars the maximum skill level. The maximum depends on the selected character.
The fastest way to increase the Thief Rank is by completing the bonus objectives.
I will include at least the puzzle missions and level editor in the custom game options by default. These are much easier and more accessible than the main game. I know at least one player that prefers to only play these missions and create them. The other features could be unlocked through the main game.
Probably I will release a demo on Steam before working on the level editor. I need to find out if anyone is interested in this game before I add too many features and make this game a year project or longer. But if I do a level editor, I would probably also allow players to share them online, have anyone play them and score these player-created missions. And the ability to sort player-created missions based on player score averages. It would be a big new feature for me ^^
So far, no, you can't increase the Thief Rank with gold. But you can increase the skills with gold.
I was able to reproduce the problem with hiding under those tables, so I will fix that bug in the next release. Thank you for pointing that out with a very clear screenshot. That was very helpful! ^^
