Instead of poolside fights, try co-op fun with your friends in Big Helmet Heroes (plenty of brawling provided, but not the cocktails - sorry!)

 

It's currently 20% OFF during our Summer Sales ⚔️

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2397250/Big_Helmet_Heroes/

Internal development

calculate graphics card score to select hopefully the best working one

We just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for the unwavering support you have showed us! It’s amazing to see how each of you connects with the game in your own creative way! We are thankful for the great community that has come together, and we wanted to show off a few of the fantastic pieces of art that have been shared with us!

Thank you for letting us see the world of Spirit Of The North 2 through your eyes :)

[carousel][/carousel]

MontyTH

Bl3iz-Du (commission by Infuse Studio)

[carousel autoadvance="true"][/carousel]

Discord: @kcrotst

TheRoseLocket

Viko_k

Bear47

Riiloo

Nova Galaxy // TikTok: novagalaxywolf // Instagram: nova_the_galaxy_wolf

Kythrie

If you’ve been working on something or just feeling inspired, we’d love to see it! Come hang out and share your art over in the community Discord: it’s a chill, welcoming space where everyone’s creativity is celebrated.

Thanks again for all the love and support. You’re the heart of this world we’re building. 🧡

- Infuse Studio & Silver Lining InteractiveOrder Signature Edition Here!https://store.steampowered.com/app/1778840/Spirit_of_the_North_2/

This week, it was supposed to be the 21st anniversary of the game.
But my life and the direction of the game's update took a dramatic turn on the morning of July 2nd, 2025. My mother quietly passed away during her sleep, just like she went gently into that good night.

You may wonder who she was other than being my mother?
I'd like to take this chance to go over her legendary life.

In the early 1960s, there was a fanatic high-ranking officer in China. Loyal to the idea of Communism, dreaming of building a utopia of equality without corruption, he named his son "Red Army"(红军) and his daughter "Red Guard"（红卫）. He strictly raised both of them with army-like discipline. But, deep down, he always has a preference for his son over his daughter, as it's something deep down in traditional Chinese culture. Even if the daughter tried so hard to prove herself, winning second place in a math competition, getting enrolled in the best high school in the district, and earning two bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and Accounting, rather than just one. She could just be a "Red Princess" and enjoy her life. But she refused to be anyone less than she could be. Yet, his father never recognized her achievements, just because she was his daughter, not his son.

In the end, the "Red Princess" rebelled. If his father could not treat his son and his daughter equally, how could he always lead the country to a utopia of equality? She married the boy who got first place in that math competition. That boy comes from an ex-landlord's bloodline, which is considered very bad in communist China. But she still chose to fall in love with him. Such a tale can equal the great works like Romeo and Juliet, for the Red Army and the Landlords were enemies in the class struggle. Facing all the difficulties, she managed to achieve a happy ending and made it a fairy tale instead of a tragic love story. Her father reluctantly conceded her freedom of marriage back to her.

Furthermore, she refused her father's help to find her an easy job within the party. She even refused to join the Communist Party which really pissed her father. She went on her own way and became a college teacher, concealing her status as a "Red Princess."

All Chinese Communist Party members must take an oath to serve the people with their full hearts
The high-ranking officer, my grandpa, stayed true to this oath as he truly believed in it. He taught his son and all his subordinates to be incorruptible so that they could build this dream one day.
However, many other people consider joining the party as a means to further their own interests, and forget the oath the moment they take it.
My mother is an honest person. She taught me the important quality of keeping oaths and promises. Thus, you can see this game has been updated for 21 years. But, after all that she had experienced, she decided, instead of serving an ideology, to serve her own idea, her family, her students, her college, and the things she truly believed in. Thus, she never joined the party even when all her fellow teachers in that college joined. In the end, she was never a communist.

She continued to be one of the best teachers in her college. She could teach both programming and accounting, becoming a heroine among her peers.

Yet, the cosmos taught it's too easy for her to be like a Mary Sue in her story. Thus, a tragedy happened. She was diagnosed with Uremia in 2004; neither of her kidneys can function anymore. Many thought she might finally give up. She didn't. A year later, after undergoing a kidney transplant surgery, she was back in the game once again!

Since then, she needed to take a lot of medicine every day, enduring side effects such as high pressure and diabetes. Yet, she always accomplishes her teaching tasks and gets more done. Deeply respected by her colleagues, she was voted to receive the honorary title of "Shanghai Adult Education Outstanding Teacher" in 2013.

What makes things more legendary is that she raised me when all that happened. Her approach to education can be very unconventional, just like she was a rebel red princess. She was never a politically correct person.
Lesson No. 1 BE RICH!
To be rich, you will study really hard. Put great effort into achieving that.
Only when you are rich can you seek a great spiritual journey to find out what is really important in your life other than money. By being rich, you can also always find the strength to stand up even when a cruel world wants to press your head and make you kneel down. By being rich, you can have the dignity to say no to whatever you think is wrong. By being rich, you can be kind and donate your wealth to those in need. By being rich, you can have the power to change the world for the better!
Being rich is the foundation for being kind and civil, for you will never need to commit crimes or morally questionable things just to survive.
Thus, after being rich and securing your position in this world, the following lessons come naturally. To be kind, to be loyal, and to be spiritual.

Today, I honor her with my stock market profit.

She said she was proud of me for this.
Actually, she was proud of me for a lot of things. She always encourages me.
She was proud of me for being the developer of the longest-living RPG in China.
She was proud of me for solving a law case.
She was proud of me for taking care of her during COVID-19.
She was proud of me for moving back to China from the US so that she could see me every day.
She was proud of me for basically everything I did.
So, I have become who I am today.
I am a stock market investor.
I am a lawyer.
I am a developer of this game.

So, I am doing what a game developer does.
Just like how I brought Murin back.
I shall bring my mother back in the same form.
I have the technology. I have the game. And one day, maybe I can even have an AI powerful enough to emulate all those I have lost in my life.
Thus,
I created a game character in her memory.
I want her to say she is proud of me more.
I want her to teach more.
I want her to remind me of things that I often ignore.

She was never a beautiful woman, as she spent her life making her points instead of looking good. She was my mother who always cared for me.
This character of hers will remind me of those things, as all her dialogues were based on the messages she once sent to me.

But, deep down, I know that's not her. Just another memento, just like this game is about memory, yet I can never relive all those memories, just like I may only truly see her again once I, myself, go to the other side.

Goodbye, Red Princess.
Goodbye, Juliet, with a good ending.
Goodbye, Mary Sue of her fantasy.
Goodbye, Outstanding Teacher.
Goodbye, Queen of her own fate.
Goodbye, Mother.
See you on the other side, one day.

Knowing she will be waiting out there just like she used to pick me up after school when I was a child, brings me courage.

Her life was a testament, and she loyally adhered to it to the end.
Such a testament and such loyalty brought her great respect.
Today, at her funeral, representatives of her students attended.
Today, at her funeral, representatives of her college attended.
Today, at her funeral, representatives of her classmates attended.
She was well loved...
...even among those who hated her defiance.
Today, at her funeral, representatives of the Army attended.
Today, at her funeral, representatives from the police force attended.
Today, at her funeral, representatives from the National Security attended.
Today, at her funeral, representatives from various government departments and the party attended.

This is the 21st anniversary, and this is a diary about her life.
From now on, every anniversary of this game will also be her death anniversary.
The cosmos certainly has a dark sense of humor.
Life is simply unfair.
But we shall fight on.
Loyalty to the end!


There are, of course, some other updates this week. But compared to her, they are not so important. Such things are:
The store page of the next DLC is live:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2611830/NeolithicBeyond_the_End
You can now burn ghost money for your loved ones on the other side to honor their memories.

The story on the Jiru Island continued a bit before my mother passed away.





So, here we are, at the end of this diary.
Tomorrow is a hope, never a promise. I may take a break after this diary.
But for as long as I stand, I shall stay loyal to what I believe in.
Loyalty to the end!
That's her legacy.

The full update log of this week:
20250628
English
##########Content################
[Pet]You can now reprogram Corrupted Bots.
[Pet]You can now reprogram Cleaning Bots.
[Enemy]Cleaning Bots now have a special attribute that reduces their cleansing skill cost by 350. It's inherited if you turn them into pets.
[Pet]You can now reprogram Assaulter M.K.IV. (Very hard.)
##########DEBUG#################
[Pet]Fixed a bug that causes issue of reprogramming machines if the battle is initialized by a corrupted bot.
简体中文
##########Content################
【宠物】你现在可以重新编程被腐化的机器人。
【宠物】你现在可以重新编程扫地机器人。
【敌人】扫地机器人现在自带一个减少净化技能的消耗350的属性。会在变成你的宠物的时候继承。
【宠物】你现在可以重新编程突击者肆型 （非常困难）
##########DEBUG#################
【宠物】修复了一个在被腐化的机器人触发战斗时无法对机械敌人重新编程的BUG。

20250629
English
##########Content################
[Relationship]Erysea will now appear on your relationship menu after you meet her.
[Relationship]Raerson will now appear on your relationship menu after you meet her.
[Lost & Found]If you somehow lost the reprogramming hack tool from Raerson, you can now purchase it again from Lost & Found vendors. (As usual, price will be extremely high.)
简体中文
##########Content################
【关系】哀瑞希现在会在你首次见到她后出现在关系界面。
【关系】拉尔松现在会在你首次见到他后出现在关系界面。
【失物贩卖】如果你弄丢了拉尔松给你的重新编程黑客工具，你现在可以从失物贩卖商人那里重新找回来。（和往常一样，价格高到离谱。）

20250630
English
##########Content################
[Asmaru Mine]Added some initial story content at the bridge entry. (You cannot progress past this point yet.)
[Asmaru Mine]Added some snakes near the entrance.
[Fjordr Command Center] The location is no longer marked as 'WIP.'
[Firearm]New Firearm: Samurai Edge T.24 (To be given as a quest reward.)
简体中文
##########Content################
【阿斯玛鲁矿山】在吊桥入口加入了一些剧情。（你当前还无法通过这个区域。）
【阿斯玛鲁矿山】在入口附近加入了一些蛇。
【福尔德指挥中心】区域不再被标记为施工中。
【枪械】新枪械：武士之刃 T.24 （将会作为之后的任务奖励。）

20250701
English
##########Content################
[Mission: Improbable]The story continues, you can now get a Samurai Edge T.24. The mission is now waiting for the content on the Dana side to continue.
[Wiki]Updated the page of Mission: Improbable
简体中文
##########Content################
【行动代号：不靠谱】剧情继续，你现在可以获得武士之刃 T.24，该任务现在开始等待达那一侧的内容完工后继续。
【维基】更新了【行动代号：不靠谱】的页面。

20250702
English
##########Content################
[Credit]Added my mother to the credit, in the "In Memory of..." section.
[Art Assets]Added art assets for a character based on my mother's younger self.
简体中文
##########Content################
【制作名单】把我妈加入了制作名单，在【纪念逝者】那一栏。
【美术资源】加入了一个基于我妈年轻时候的样子的角色的美术资源。

20250703
English
##########Content################
[Liu]A new NPC that is named "mother" will now randomly appear in three locations: the bookstore, the hospital, and the restaurant. The exact location is decided each time when the game enters the title screen.
[Liu]Mother has 39 lines of dialogs based on the wechat message she sent me over the past years, including 2 of them that trigger if the current time is my birthday.
简体中文
##########Content################
【疁城】一个名称为【妈】的NPC现在会随机出现在疁城的书店、医院、或餐馆。具体的地点是每次在进入游戏标题画面时决定的。
【疁城】这个NPC有39句基于我妈给我以前发的微信聊天记录的台词，包括两句在我生日时触发的台词。

20250704
English
##########Content################
[Liu]Near that Ancient Stone Bridge, there is now a special area that has a burning fire and a funeral worker.
[Liu]You can use the fire to burn ghost money for your loved one on the other side.
[Liu]You can purchase ghost money from the funeral worker.
简体中文
##########Content################
【疁城】在那座远古的石桥附近，现在有一个特别的区域，有一团火焰，和一个殡葬工作人员。
【疁城】你可以用那团火为在彼岸的亲人烧纸钱。
【疁城】你可以从殡葬工作人员那里购买纸钱。

Here is where the Tale took the team last week...

• Can:

  • Wrap up boss fight sounds for Nirvana level

  • Start on sound design and music composition for Surreality level

  • Sounds for various promo videos

• Keith:

  • Fix legs clipping through robe during roaming monk walking animation

  • Improve Nirvana boss entrance animation sequence

• Chi:

  • End-to-End Surreality boss fight implementation

  • Fixes to combat system

    • Issue where attacks can be quick spammed

    • Issue where attacks that should be landing aren't

    • Add flag to control disabling of character collider on death

    • Implement behaviour to force enemies to lose player detection

    • Improved visuals

• Rockley:

  • Design fixes to Nirvana and Side of the World levels

  • Light and occlusion baking on those levels

• Sara:

  • Social content creation & management

    • Testing various strategies on different platforms

  • More event research & applications

  • Establish campaign plan up to launch

  • Community engagement

• Diego:

  • Wrap up fixes to Labyrinth puzzles

  • Fixes to Labyrinth levers (sync animations with action)

  • Fix various room-specific issues to Labyrinth

  • Integration forced-detection-loss plugin into Labyrinth enemies (when player enters special rooms which the enemies shouldn't enter)

• Ivo:

  • Setup and capture various promo videos

• Perica:

  • Track down issue where spawn after abyss death doesn't properly reset player

  • Fixes to movement behaviour of magical rocks in Labrynth level

  • Add cloth physics to Labrynth NPC

  • Tweak wind avoidance mechanic

  • Various other fixes to Nirvana and Labrynth levels

Greetings Fellow Dwarves! 

We are releasing a new hotfix onto TheNextUpdate branch with some more fixes we've tracked down.  You can access this branch with the code UpdateNow321.  This will be left to run over the weekend and be set live Monday if there aren't any unforeseen problems.

We are busy in the back end preparing for the next anvil update as well, details of which will be released at a later time.  We hope you will enjoy it when it arrives and thank you so much for all your support.  We have been noting down your suggestions for features and QoL requests, and we will try to get round to as much as we can over the coming anvil updates as we make Orebound into the game we all see it has the potential for.

0.0.0.66o

Fixed having two elevators side by side causing a crash fixed

Fixed closing signs in the citadel that would stay up, can close with escape

Doors blocking clients randomly should be fixed, the back end of how doors work is changed to sort this issue.

Portable drills should have "locked in" animation played on clients who join after a drill is placed

Portable drills won't be playing their drill sound when a player joins if the drill is off

Portable drills will properly play drill rotation animation for new joining players if on

Changed order of tutorial, the food and hunger section now comes before the mining section

Fixed Gem infuser not working correctly in multiplayer

Fixed Gem Tombs not working correctly in multiplayer

Fixed Compass not picking up Gems for clients

Fixed tomb doors being hearable on server from anywhere in the map when opened

• Asteroids

• Stations

• Visuals (Planet, skysphere, atmosphere, ring)

• Gate Connection

Cosmic Map (Press "M" to open Cosmic Map)

Gates, Hyperdrive

New Command Action: Silent Mode

We’re just checking in to give you a quick update on the Steam demo version of Tormented Souls 2. Since launching a few weeks back over 27,000 players have now experienced this special demo edition, which is truly staggering! Naturally with so many of you playing, we’ve received A LOT of feedback which we have been reviewing and discussing as a team. 

Today, we’re releasing the 1.0.2 patch for the demo which addresses several of the bigger pain points that the community has raised, please read on for a full list of what we have changed.

• Added Type C control scheme.

• Improved Anna's character model. 

• Increased radius size of interaction points. 

• Improved the animation of the lighter being equipped when coming off a ladder. 

• Fixed issue with physics on the elevator.

• Several fixes to facial animations. 

• Improved melee weapon system on breakable objects. 

• Removed collision from breakable objects.

• Added breakables on staircase at Belltower to decrease backtracking. 

• Added a new hint for the Cryptex puzzle. 

• Updated cable colour for electrical panel in Prison

• Redesigned puzzle for electrical panel.

• Added the ability to pick up the electrical panel puzzle hint. 

• Added zoom in/out feature on Map for Controller 

• Improved performance throughout. 

• Fixed an issue where occasionally players would get into a softlock when dashing with Hammer and switching instantly to the Nailer. 

• Fixed an issue where the Cryptex puzzle where the mesh would separate from the puzzle. 

• Fixed an issue where players will be stuck in auto aiming when switching from the Lighter to the Nailer.

• Fixed issue with corrupted map in Jailer room.

• Fixed a bug where you could attack an enemy before the jump scare. 

• Fixed an issue where the shortcut menu will not work when coming off a ladder. 

• Fixed a crash when loading auto save in Basement and then entering South Corridor 1F

• Fixed issue with FPS dropping when opening the Map.

Thanks for all the feedback and support, we’ll endeavour to address as much as possible before the final release this year, and we’ll be back with more updates over the coming months. 

Dual Effect and PQube.

- Graphics and Lights improved;
- Added Fog in the Dungeon;
- Other minor improvements