Now that Shaye and I are all moved up to WA and things have settled down we can continue development at a normal pace. A lot has changed in my life this last year and I'm sorry that things have slowed down as a result. Our entire studio is only three people so when any of us go through rough patches it can be tough to get stuff done. Thank you for understanding and I hope you like the new content!

I'm going to be launching Animus in updates over the next few months one character arc at a time to get feedback and test things. This patch has everything for Emelio in all languages and the start of Fern/Rhode in ENUS only.

There are also a huge amount of bug fixes, translation fixes, and new content in random spots. Also new tracks on the OST so enjoy those!

As always you can watch us build the game live.
We stream 10 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Thanks for all the feedback and support.
You guys rock. ːHBHeartː

New Content
• You can now play through Emelio's storyline.
  
• You can now start Fern/Rhode's storyline in english.
  
• A new build was made for the Wiki Warriors to better help them archive the games different areas.

Bug Fixes
• Nekanes potions no longer crash the game.
  
• Lore no longer pops forward one pixel after getting out of bed.
  
• Lore can no longer get stuck behind some... let's call them nightmares in a dark place
  
• Music no longer cuts out in Emelio's house
  
• Music no longer cuts out after the mines cutscenes.
  
• Lore can no longer slide through objects under specific conditions.
  
• Grayscale shader no longer allows color through alpha channel.
  
• Particle effects should now take reduced CPU on specific hardware setups.
  
• You can no longer talk to an object while transitioning to another environment.
  
• All sounds in the game and OST now have proper metadata.
  
• Muspelheim and Niflheim selection portal music now loops properly.

Design Changes
• The memory mini-game during the Barghest fight now maxes at 5 steps.
  
• The memory mini-game during the Barghest fight now scales max steps more slowly.
  
• You now need to be less curious to reach Floor 0.
  
• You must drink the water to reach Floor 0.
  
• OScar is now company property.

Localization
• A ton of PTBR translation fixes
  
• A ton of RU translation fixes
  
• A ton of FR translation fixes
  
• A ton of ESMX translation fixes
  
• Support for JP translation has begun.
  
• Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji are all supported.
  
• We can now support many more glyph based languages in the future.
  
• Ñ has been added to the font list.

OST
• A bunch of new songs were added to the OST bringing the track list to 70.
  
• Metadata was added to all 70 songs so they should have information and cover art in things like Spotify.
  
• The OST was converted to the new Soundtrack category from the old DLC category on steam.

Upcoming Content
• Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
  
• Fern and Rhode's storyline is up next!

Another year has come and gone and the Steam Awards are back in town. Heartbound is up for the "Outstanding Story-Rich Game" award this year. If you feel we've hit the mark please take a moment to vote for us!

This is the final patch before Animus is ready to launch. We just couldn't wait on some of the more significant engine changes such as full controller support and physics fixes. With those we rolled in a bunch of new secret areas and some fixes for story-line inconsistencies.

Thanks for all the feedback and support.
You guys rock. ːHBHeartː

• New Content
  • A new cutscene has been added when you first Continue.
• Bug Fixes
  • Lore can no longer slide through tentacles and become permanently stuck.
    
  • Crunchy dog noise is now louder.
    
  • Baron now has emotions in your dreams.
    
  • Insider Baseball can now be obtained right after combat ends.

• New Content
  • A new secret environment was added to The Tower.
    
  • A new secret character was added to The Tower.
    
  • Choices in The Tower now carry on with you.
    
  • The Artifact is now more aggressive here.
    
  • Sounds have been implemented for the Terminated sequence.
    
  • Floor 0 can now be accessed under different circumstances.
    
  • Curiosity and Fear now accumulate in The Tower.
• Bug Fixes
  • The artifact text in the void can no longer be skipped.
    
  • You can now skip text on the Floor 0 records computer.
    
  • The first memory sequence is no longer a black screen.
    
  • Lore now turns to face OScar during the Terminated sequence ending.
    
  • Boss transitions are now faster.

• New Content
  • A pocket watch has been implemented to better tell the time.
    
  • A new secret environment was added to Animus.
    
  • Ramul's storyline starter has been implemented.
    
  • You can now strike fear into the hearts of trees.
    
  • Time is now frozen in Animus when you first enter it.
    
  • Trees now have a ton of randomizations.
    
  • Lighting now fades based on the time of day and other lightsources in various locations.
• Bug Fixes
  • Curiousity in Animus no longer counts for The Tower.

• Bug Fixes
  • Muspelheim can now be accessed under different circumstances.

• New Content
  • A phone in your bedroom can now be used.
    
  • A new achievement was added.
    
  • Full Controller support has now been implemented.
    
    • You can plug/unplug controllers at will even during combat.
      
    • Let me know if anything goes wrong here. It's super new tech for us.
      
• Localization
  • A lot of new content was added here and there so some things may be missing.
    
  • ESMX translation has been released.
    
    • Please let us know if you find any missing translation sections or issues of any kind.
      
• OST
  • A new song was added to the OST.
• Bug Fixes
  • Collision calculations have been reduced significantly to improve performance.
    
    • This was a massive change and should help improve performance for a lot of people.
      
  • Missing dialog will now revert to English when possible.
    
  • Rotating text now takes longer before it starts spinning.
    
  • Rotating text from a space no longer causes letters to hang when they should be floating.

• Language
  • JP is now planned.
• New Content
  • Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
    
    • All of the environment art is finished.
      
    • All of the character sprites and animations are finished.
      
    • All of the environments are built and functional.
      
    • Watch us stream it live here!
      
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/
      

We just got back from PAX West and we're back onto working on Heartbound. We have a bit of stuff to get out for the Kill The Moon Demo before we continue but that will be done by Friday. Hope to see you all on stream!

https://gopiratesoftware.com/twitch

PAX recently selected Heartbound for the 2019 PAX 10!
If you're going to PAX West this year please come by our booth and say hello!

Check out the other indies that were selected alongside us here:
https://west.paxsite.com/indie#heartbound

Hey everyone!

It's been a number of months since we've updated and I wanted to let you guys in on what's been going on, who is working on the game, and what we have planned for the future!

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1. We moved the studio to Washington.

There were a number of reasons for this both financial and personal but things should be settling down now as the move is mostly complete and we just have a few more things to do. The new digs will be focused entirely on developing games and running the streams. Right now we're in a temporary shared space but by next week -hopefully- we should be in a permanent new space that isn't shared.

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2. We have daily dev streams!

If you didn't know we stream development of Heartbound live on Twitch every day from 12pm-10pm PST. The first 5 hours is art and the second five hours is programming. Heartbound is the main priority right now and we're working through Animus live so come check it out.

We also work on our back-burner game Kill The Moon from time to time or play games and give feedback on them. Recently we ran a game jam and helped a ton of new designers on their path to making cool stuff.

You can watch the streams here:
https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/

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3. Animus is in -unstable testing- phase right now and we update this build every Sunday.

You can access the unstable version of the game using the code "CheeseAndWhiskers" without the quotes and following the image below for instructions. This build has tons of changes, new stuff, testing stuff, all kinds of things. Animus is a massive undertaking and we are spending time on testing things for feel on top of just making it work.

There is no unstable build for Mac or Linux currently. The unstable builds are also only in English. This speeds up development time and reduces issues while we're testing all of this stuff. Once these builds pass and feel good we translate them and move them to the other platforms.



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4. Heartbound is being created by only three people.

Shaye - Art/Animation
Stijn - Music/Sound Effects
Thor - Programming/Writing/Game Design

This is a ton of work for three people but we won't be expanding the team. I'm happy with how development has gone so far and I'm proud of what we've accomplished together and what we have planned for the future. Good games take time and I do not intend to rush this. If you're ever wondering who responded to your YouTube video, Tweet, or email all of that was Thor. Small teams do a lot of stuff outside of making games so be kind to your devs!

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I know a lot of you just want updates now.
I would rather update the game when it's fun and ready.

Let me know if you ever want to chat or have any feedback.

Thanks,

-Thor

Discord - https://discord.gg/PirateSoftware
Twitter - https://twitter.com/PirateSoftware
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/PirateSoftware
Stream - https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/

Thanks for all the feedback and support.
You guys rock. :HBHeart:

• Storyline
  • A number of interactions were changed to be more in line with characters true motives.
• Quality of Life
  • PPP's cutscene is now straightforward and less confusing.

• New Content
  • The base environments in Animus are now open for exploration.
    
  • None of the dialog or interactions in this section work beyond the save point.
    
  • You may leave this area by walking into the trunk of the Clock Tree.
    
  • There are day/night cycles in Animus and it takes 24 minutes for a full day.
    
  • The intention is to build a number of timed events to make Animus a working village where everyone does their part.
    
  • Trees now react when you get close to them.
• Bugs
  • Retrieving the AESTHETIC twice is no longer possible and no longer softlocks the game.
    
  • You can now enter the Vapor Cave multiple times.

• Achievements
  • A number of secret achievements were added to the game.
    
  • None of these achievements force path altering actions in any way.
    
  • These were released earlier to test and are just now being put in the patch notes.
• Wallpapers
  • There is now a Wallpapers folder in your game installation folder.
    
  • A bunch of 1080p wallpapers can be found in there. Have fun!
    
  • File Location: \steamapps\common\Heartbound\Wallpapers
• OST
  • A ton of new songs have been added to the OST.
• Bugs
  • Fixed some bad calculations when pushing objects.
    
  • Audio no longer pops when you finish pushing objects.
    
  • Lore will now be pushed out of objects if he somehow is pushed into them.
    
  • Achievements can now be obtained even if your steam overlay is disabled.
    
  • Steam screenshots can now only be taken if your steam overlay is enabled.
    
  • You can no longer walk through objects when walking diagonally into their corners.
• Credits
  • More backer names were added to the credits.

• Language
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
    
  • JP is now planned.
• New Content
  • Existing Worlds
    
    • A phone in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
      
    • A book in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
      
  • Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
    
    • All of the environment art is finished.
      
    • All of the character sprites and animations are finished.
      
    • All of the environments are built and functional.
      
    • Watch us stream it live here!
      
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/
      

Thanks for all the feedback and support.
You guys rock. :HBHeart:

• New Content
  • OScar now stops you if you try to leave the cafeteria without talking to him.
• Language
  • Major fixes were implemented for the Russian language launch.

• Language
  • Missing lines will now default to English instead of being blank.
• Credits
  • Adrien Bernardinis was added for his work on the French translation.

• Language
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
    
  • JP is now planned.
• New Content
  • Existing Worlds
    
    • A phone in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
      
    • A book in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
      
  • Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
    
    • All of the environment art is finished.
      
    • All of the character sprites and animations are finished.
      
    • All of the environments are built and functional.
      
    • Watch us stream it live here!
      
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/
      

Thanks for all the feedback and support.
You guys rock. :HBHeart:

• New Content
  • Gizmo now has talking animations.
• Quality of Life
  • Symbols will no longer randomize when using a controller on the memory mini-game in the Barghest fight after doing a bunch of mean things.
    
  • Beating the Barghest now saves the game.

• New Content
  • A door now unlocks under specific circumstances revealing something dark and hidden.
    
  • Trapper now has a gym buddy.
• Bugs
  • A flying mushroom now makes noise.
    
  • The save tome on Floor 2 of The Tower can now be opened from the right side.
    
  • You can no longer move while a squishy bird teleports away.

• Bugs
  • It's now afternoon in Animus instead of morning.

• Platforms
  • Mac support has been released!
    
  • Please let us know if anything goes wrong.
• Language
  • Russian has been released!
    
  • Please report any translation issues to us!
• Quality of Life
  • Rotating text now takes longer before it starts rotating.
    
  • Button ping sounds have increased in volume.
• ARG
  • Good luck
    
  • I'm sorry... but not really.
• Credits
  • More backer names have been added to the credits.
    
  • JP Baas has been added to the credits for his work on the storm sounds in Hometown.

• Language
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
    
  • JP is now planned.
• New Content
  • Existing Worlds
    
    • A phone in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
      
    • A book in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
      
  • Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
    
    • All of the environment art is finished.
      
    • All of the character sprites and animations are finished.
      
    • All of the environments are built and functional.
      
    • Watch us stream it live here!
      
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/
      

Thanks for all the feedback and support.
You guys rock. :HBHeart:

• Quality of Life
  • Floor 2 now clearly explains what to do with your change.
    
  • Floor 2 now clearly explains where not to whistle.
• Reworks
  • Darkworld 103 is no longer a shadow maze.
    
    • This was super boring before. Thank you for the feedback!
      
• Bugs
  • Fixed a cutscene skip in Darkworld 103.
    
  • Fixed numerous translation issues with FR.
    
  • Fixed numerous translation issues with PTBR.
    
  • Thanks for all the reports!

• Bugs
  • Beating the boss of The Tower and then closing the game before finishing the next world section no longer traps you in The Tower Floor 2 forever.
• Music
  • Two new songs were added to the OST.
    
  • These songs are not planned to be in the game and can only be found on the OST.
• ARG
  • RING RING

• Language
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
    
  • RU is still being worked on.
    
  • JP is now planned.
• New Content
  • Existing Worlds
    
    • A phone in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
      
    • A book in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
      
  • Tower Floor 0 is being actively developed.
    
    • Environments are almost finished so this should be done soon.
      
    • Watch us stream it live here!
      
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/
      
  • Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
    
    • All of the environment art is finished.
      
    • All of the character sprites and animations are finished.
      
    • All of the environments are built and functional.
      
    • Starting on 1/7/2019 we will be working on this chapter live on Twitch.