Hey everyone!

A number of reviews lately have been saying that we've abandoned Heartbound or are no longer working on major updates. Not only is this not true we actually stream the development of Heartbound for 6-8 hours a day every day except for Sunday. This is my full time job and I literally don't do anything else. The last major update was around 3 months ago and we're almost done with the next one. In terms of completion Animus has 92% of the needed tasks finished for a full launch of the chapter.

You can watch the streams here:
https://piratesoftware.live

You can get involved in the community here:
https://discord.gg/piratesoftware

• I've been working on hammering down every possible route through this section and adding dialog and cutscenes for all of it.
  
• Avocados section splits off dramatically and can lead to the end of the chapter under some circumstances so it needed to be completed along every route at once.
  
• The cutscenes in this section used a ton of new art, audio, and writing assets that needed to be built as they don't exist anywhere else in the game. Much like the mini-games for Fern/Rhode these assets are unique and used only for this scene.
  
• Unlike other areas these all need to be completed together because they can all be reached based on different things done in Animus. Waiting on any of them would lead to a terrible experience and ruin stuff for a lot of people.

• Quite simply this cutscene didn't fit the narrative.
  
• It now has a ton of dialog and interaction with The Artifact.
  
• I also removed the chapter plates because they didn't look or feel right.

• Patreon was taking 8% of every transaction and Ko-Fi takes 0%.
  
• As a small studio this was a pretty big deal so we migrated over to them.
  
• Our Ko-Fi stuff has tons of physical rewards and write ups for each character every month.
  
• You can find our Ko-Fi by clicking this link.

I hope that clears up some rumors or perceived lack of work ethic. All we do is work on Heartbound every day, all day, and we do so very publicly. Come hang on stream and watch it come to life!

Can't wait to launch this next bit.

Thanks and have fun out there!

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch.

Heartbound has now been fully updated to Game Maker Studio v2.3.
This was a ton of work and really delayed adding new content to the game.
Now that the conversion is finished we can get back on track.

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

Known Issues
• Integrated graphics cards can sometimes cause incredibly wild graphical glitches.
  
• We are working on a fix for this but it will take some time and new assets.
  
• If you have this problem please reach out to Thor#5264 on Discord.

New Content
• You can now have multiple conversations at the same time.
  
• The keypad in The Tower can now be used with your numpad.
  
• The keypad in The Tower now directly reflects a keyboard numpad.
  
• A new achievement can now be obtained.
  
• Avocado is now more emotionally consistent.
  
• The fishing rod can now appear in Lores room.
  
• A name has been added to the credits.
  
• You can now finish Avocado's storyline in a terrible way.
  
• Seriously, don't do this.
  
• What are you doing?
  
• Oh no...

Performance Upgrades
• All compatability scripts from the GMS 1.4 > 2.3 conversion have been removed.
  
• A memory leak in the lighting engine was fixed.
  
• Duplicate text boxes under the primary textbox were removed.
  
• A memory leak in rainbow text was fixed.
  
• Compiling the game now takes seconds instead of 10+ minutes.

Bug Fixes
• Gizmo no longer talks from very far away.
  
• Lasers in Binders trial no longer appear on top of their targets.
  
• Hitting accept and decline at the same time no longer causes a softlock on questions.
  
• The drawing depth of hundreds of objects have been manually fixed.
  
• A ton of text no longer escapes text boxes in many different languages.
  
• Fern and Rhodes storyline no longer has a softlock.
  
• All particle systems were rebuilt to fix an issue with GMS2.
  
• Text no longer suffers from floating point errors caused by GMS2.
  
• All animated sequences were rebuilt to fix an issue with GMS2.
  
• All alarms have had their timings changed to fix an issue with GMS2.
  
• Every environment was rebuilt to work in GMS2.
  
• Shards now appear during the portal cutscene.
  
• Rainbow text no longer appears red for a moment when skipped.
  
• Breaking lightbulbs in the Dark World now show sparks above the shadow layer.
  
• ( and ) have been added to the Heartbound font.
  
• Hundreds of broken textboxes in Spanish have been fixed.
  
• Multiple crashes in Spanish have been fixed.
  
• Camera flash in The Tower no longer displays under everything.
  
• The standard mouse cursor no longer displays on Linux.
  
• The answers for who to think about during Rhodes cutscene have been swapped.
  
• The answers to Rhodes question about Fern were updated to be more direct.
  
• A bird is no longer able to fly under Avocados house.
  
• Footsteps in the dark no longer happen during a breakdown.
  
• Avocados music now only fades out if you leave the bridge.
  
• Lore no longer stands on top of the save point in Binders home.
  
• The final screen in PTBR no longer says "Things".
  
• Rotating text now takes longer before it begins.

OST
• There are now 94 songs in the OST.

Bug Reporting
• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
  
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content
• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
  
• Avocado's Storyline Arc is up next.

Well that went better than expected!

Despite numerous engine bugs and a whole lot of lost sleep, Heartbound now works in GMS 2.3. For many of you this means that it now runs at 60fps with a VERY small CPU cost again. On my machine currently it's running at 1.4% CPU and around 150MB of memory.

Going forward this also gives us a ton of other rad things like Mac build coming back, console releases, etc. Stay tuned for that in the future.

That being said there is still a ton of work ahead of us to finish the full update. Right now, things work correctly for you but the environments on the editor side are a complete mess. We have to go through every room in the game and manually update it all. It's gonna be a bit and take a lot of long nights. Until then you may see weird layering issues in-game. Please report these to us so we can fix them!

Thankfully it's not difficult, just time consuming.
We will get there and have it done as soon as possible.

While this is going on feel free to come ask questions on Discord or tune in to the Twitch development streams. Thanks for your patience and hope to see you there!

https://discord.gg/piratesoftware
https://piratesoftware.live

Since August of 2020 we've received intermittent reports that Heartbound has been running slowly for some people. We could never track down what was causing this... until this week.

Due to a change in Windows any GMS game running at 60fps on a 60hz monitor will drop to 40-45fps. Heartbound has game logic tied to the FPS so that certain parts of the ARG can work. This means the game has been running at 3/4th speed for some of you for over a year. ːsteamthumbsdownː

That Windows update is now standard and everyone who updates is impacted by this. Thankfully, I found a solution but it's not a perfect one for now.

I've changed over to an alternative sync method for the game which brings it back to 60fps. However, if the refresh rate of your monitor is over 60hz it may run EVEN FASTER which makes the game nearly unplayable in the other direction. To fix this for those few users go into the "options.ini" file and change "AlternateSyncMethod=1" to "AlternateSyncMethod=0". For everyone else, things should run fine.

The other unfortunate side effect is that the game now runs at around 8x the CPU it did before. I hate this. It's going to make things rough for some of you on lower end machines and I really don't like that at all.

In order to fix this entire mess I need to update to Game Maker: Studio v2.3 and I've already started the process. The newer version of the engine has an immense amount of bugs and it's very difficult to work with so it may take some time.

While this is going on feel free to come ask questions on Discord or tune in to the Twitch development streams. Thanks for your patience and hope to see you there!

https://discord.gg/piratesoftware
https://piratesoftware.live

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch.

Now that I've fully recovered from Covid19 things will be going much faster.
I may have an inhaler now but that just means I'm part cool robot.

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

New Content
• Rhode and Ferns storylines can now be fully completed.
  
• (PTBR language has some portions missing still. Sorry!)
  
• Something secret has been added to the game files.
  
• The Credits have been updated with tons of new names.
  
• Gizmo now has something to say in Lore's room.
  
• A frog now puts on a magic show... somewhere.
  
• A save point has been added in the deep woods in Animus.
  
• New talky animations have been added for Fern when she's wearing a flower crown.
  
• New talky animations have been added for Rhode.
  
• New talky animations have been added for Avocado.
  
• New talky animations have been added for Lore.
  
• Ants now have a talky animation and voice.
  
• A portion of Avocado's storyline is now accessible in ENUS language only.
  
• Avocado's yard is now accessible.
  
• The Lake is now accessible.
  
• The pocketwatch now goes haywire in the time room and Lores bedroom.
  
• The pocketwatch now has new art for painted variants.
  
• There is now a version number on the bottom left corner of the main menu.
  
• There is now a chapter name plate each time you choose a new world to explore.
  
• There are new wallpapers in the wallpaper folder in the games installation folder.
  
• The text engine now allows for multiple objects to speak at once.
  
• Violently shaking text has been added to the game.
  
• Patreon was smelly and has been permanently deleted. (We are looking into alternatives.)

Performance Upgrades
• Speed holes were added to the text engine so it's faster now.
  
• Speed holes were also added to every talkable object so those are also faster.
  
• Texture pages in Animus are now properly structured to improve performance.

Bug Fixes
• In Animus, Lore will no longer talk about a TODO while discussing his past adventures.
  
• Jotunheim now properly resets if you finish The Tower as your first chapter.
  
• Fixed some tile placement issues in the Animus Mines.
  
• A massive amount of localization issues have been fixed across all languages.
  
• Save files will no longer become corrupted if you do chapters in an impossible order.
  
• There is now a proper delay after The Artifact speaks during Ferns scenes.
  
• Birds no longer crash the game when leaving the Time Room.
  
• The Time Room now has proper dialog and working switches.
  
• Wiggling text can now be skipped at any speed without breaking the wiggles.
  
• Rainbow text can now be skipped at any speed without breaking the rainbow.
  
• Leaving the bedroom with the Pocketwatch while not going to Animus now hides the Pocketwatch.
  
• All of the open world music in Animus has lower volume now.
  
• Ц and Щ now have their tails in the proper positions.
  
• The text engine no longer has overlapping hidden textboxes.
  
• The text box is now center aligned after a cutscene in the deep mines.
  
• Rhode now faces the correct direction during all conversations at home.
  
• Waiting around in Ferns house after telling her you need a minute then talking to Fern again no longer causes a softlock.

OST
• 22 New songs were added to the OST bringing it to 94 total songs.

Bug Reporting
• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
  
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content
• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
  
• Avocado's Storyline Arc is up next.

Sorry for the huge gap in updates!
You can read the full explanation as to why over on this blog post.
https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/567380/view/3460398821854294074

All that being said...
I'm back to work on Heartbound again and I hope you like this update!

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch.

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

New Content
• Fangamer has created a new Heartbound merch line.
  
• The Credits have been updated with tons of new names.
  
• You can now play through some of Fern and Rhodes storyline in ENUS only.
  
• Fern has completely updated talking and overworld sprite animations.
  
• Rhode has completely updated talking and overworld sprite animations.
  
• You can now choose The Tower or Animus as your first chapter.
  
• Animus will end after Fern/Rhode and send you back to world selection for now.
  
• The Tower can now end in a different way based on your choices.
  
• The camera in The Tower now works.
  
• A new secret puzzle has been added.
  
• Heartbound has been translated into Japanese.
  
• Tons of new stuff was added to the Patreon.

Bug Fixes
• Emelio's tools no longer stick around when Emelio has them.
  
• Rhode is no longer a red block when she stands left/right.
  
• The text for Emelio's forge is far more attractive now.
  
• Fern's movements are better during her opening cutscene.
  
• Lore will now use Glowbringer runes during his breakdown if he's positive.
  
• All language text can now change colors regardless of localization.
  
• Text positioning on all dialog boxes has been fixed to remove border spacing issues.
  
• Text positioning on all dialog boxes now works when switching between languages.
  
• Tower Boss memory of the pool tileset has been fixed to match reality.
  
• Nekane no longer talks slowly on her side of the table.
  
• The door to Floor 0 now has a sound when you go through it.
  
• You can no longer repeat the intro to Misery/Mania in The Mines.
  
• Text in many localizations will no longer escape text boxes.
  
• Lore can no longer move during the intro to Fern/Rhode.

Design Changes
• Preamble cutscene has been removed.
  
• You now get a key for drinking the water in The Tower.
  
• The door in the Mailshroom now uses a key to unlock.
  
• Terry's music now only plays when you get near him.
  
• Unplugging OScar now has future consequences.

Bug Reporting
• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
  
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

OST
• New songs were added to the OST.

Upcoming Content
• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
  
• Fern/Rhode's resolution will be released next.

Wanted to give some updates on why things have been taking so long and what's in store for Heartbound very soon.


Animus was set to be released by now. For the last several months I've been in and out of hospital with severe viral bronchitis. Lost around 70% lung function at one point and went into hypoxia and almost bit the big one. Thankfully, with treatment I've been doing much better. I ended up losing around 2.5 months of work and the stream was offline for over a month total. This is the most amount of work I've missed in 3 years so it's been pretty rough.

This image shows the days I have worked on heartbound live on stream. Any day without a green square is one I haven't streamed. Most of these are due to showing Heartbound off at conventions. However, in the last three months I've missed more days than the last three years of development. On the days I did stream I only managed 3-5 hours instead of my normal 8-10.




Heartbound is currently being fully translated into Japanese. As with our other translations this takes a long time as every joke or pun needs to be changed to fit that culture. If it didn't fit culturally then the translation would be a pretty big failure. I'm really happy with how this is coming along and it's not a small undertaking.




Fern and Rhodes storylines are almost finished and ready to send over to the translators. The mini-game for Fern took a long while to set up due to my illness but I'm now working on Rhode's and it's going much faster. I hope you enjoy what I put together once it's finished.




As always you can contact me or the other developers at any time over Discord, email, steam chat, or live on Twitch. I'm always available and Shaye/Stijn are available most of the time. If you're ever frustrated with the release schedule or want to know more about whats going on just hit us up.

Live Stream
Discord
Twitter

I am unable to fix Heartbound on Mac due to an error with the build process. I have already spoken to other developers and Apple's support team about this. As of today we will be officially dropping Mac support for the foreseeable future. This may be resolved once we update to Game Maker: Studio 2.0

Below you will find the answers to a number of questions you may have. If you can't find an answer to your question please reach out to me directly via this email. GoPirateSoftware+Mac@Gmail.com


The Mac we use to make Heartbound forced an update to OS Catalina. This obsoleted XCode 9.3 which is required for GM:S 1.4. We make Heartbound in GM:S 1.4 so it's not something we can get rid of.


Attempting to get this to work in XCode 11 caused a libstdc++ library issue. After trying for multiple days to resolve this I was unable to do so. Even adding that library back to XCode 11 did not resolve this.

Running older versions of XCode lead to a generic error from the Apple machine. This could not be resolved using online guides over multiple days of testing. It also could not be resolved by talking to Apple support.

I attempted to downgrade to every version between XCode 11 and 9.3 that was compatible with OS Catalina. No version between 9.3 and 11 worked and I was unable to make a working build of Heartbound.


No. It has nothing to do with that.


Apple requires all software to be digitally signed. If XCode doesn't play nice we can't digitally sign the game and you can't run it on Apple hardware.


Updating Heartbound to GM:S 2.0 would potentially resolve this issue. However, doing so breaks every cutscene in the game and would take multiple months to fix. We will be updating to GM:S 2.0 after fully launching the game. GM:S 2.0 is required for us to make a build for Nintendo Switch.


Even if I do manage to resolve these issues there is no guarantee that the Apple build process won't break like this again. It has happened to us many times before during the development of Heartbound.


You do not have to buy the game again. If you bought Heartbound you have access to it on Windows and Linux currently. You can still play Heartbound on Windows or Linux.


For those on Apple hardware that still want to play you may be able to try Parallels, Bootcamp, or Wine. I cannot guarantee that this will work now or in the future and I don't want to get your hopes up but you can try it. If this isn't something you want to do please refund the game.


If you're unable to make this work on Apple hardware or have no other solutions, please refund the game. I'm sorry I couldn't fix this.

-Thor

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!