Jun 10, 2022

Frozen Flame - KeeperFF

“Survival” Mode

New mode, new rules. No global goals - build, explore, overcome.. and, of course, survive. The icy winds may cut through your ravaged body, but the hand holding the sword shall not tremble! Onwards, to the new adventures!

For a limited duration all servers will be set to the “Survival” Mode. The Story Mode would still be available via Local Game.

New Equipment

Implemented 5 new items:
5 magical rings with unique properties.
A travel backpack and a torch that will aid you in your journeys.
A jumping platform and a wooden lamp.

Combat Update

Getting used to the realities of this place - that’s your main task." - Hornhead.

To overcome the cruel realities of the Broken Valley you’ll need to learn how to protect yourself. All Pilgrims now can block incoming attacks, but beware - so can your enemies!

Replaced dodge rolls with evasions.
Implemented blocking
Reworked the jumping.
Brought back and revised the stamina.
Bows no longer require arrows to shoot.

Expanded Prologue

Any Pilgrim who desires to arrive into Arcana must first make their way through the Asylum of Faceless guardians. After your imprisonment you’ve lost everything, including your memory and your physical body. But don’t give up hope - Mithra will help you regain your former shape.

Players now start the game as skeletons.
Replaced guardian ghosts with skeletons.
Revised the Prologue’s narrative.
Updated the cinematics.

Updated Citadel

Citadel has been reworked from scratch. Now its somber shape will loom over the lands of Arcana for the entirety of the game, reminding all Pilgrims of the destructive influence of the Curse inflicted by Faceless.

New Adventures

The Forgetful Spirit

There once was a quiet and peaceful village in this grove, now abandoned and infested by ghosts. During the Shattering a band of warriors arrived to the ruins to cleanse it of the Cursed, but now there’s noone who could honor their memory. A lonesome warrior’s spirit can’t leave that place until he remembers how his brothers perished. Help him recollect the events of that dark day and grant him peace at last.

New Broken Valley location: Village of the Cursed
New NPC: Living Bone

The Household Pet

Bonehead is finally coming back with a new task for his favorite pal: to find a needle in a haystack! Oh, he means to find a boar in the Broken Valley.. but that boar is not that simple and is very different from the regular boars, who savor sweet boarberries on the isles. Beware of the SWINEish curse!

New Bonehead quest in the Sanctuary
New NPC: Demon-Boar

Rough Weather Conditions

While the Cradle of Keepers is all warm and comfy, the Broken Valley is much less forgiving to the adventurers. The rumour is, the frequent gentle sunny days will give way to snow and frost.

But worry not - you’ll surely find the blueprints to make warm clothes.. eventually. And there’s plenty stones and branches for campfires scattered around! Just keep an ear out for Crysta’s screeches - they are a tell-tale sign of the approaching blizzards.

Reworked the weather conditions: the Broken Valley is now colder, with occasional snowfalls.
Blizzards occur no more than once every half hour and last for several minutes.

Cooking Update

Any and all travelers who set foot on Arcana simply must familiarise themselves with its delicacies. Even a singular scoop of “Insect Porridge” deserves thousands words of praise!

Cooking and consuming dishes has become clearer and.. tastier.

Updated the recipe list and ingredient effects. There’s now 33 recipes total, including 15 new ones.
Removed the “Hunger” mechanic: now all food items have a set usage cooldown.

Ability Tree Update

Added the ability to reset the Ability Tree progression.
Reintroduced the passive abilities’ levels.
Updated and revised the active abilities.
Reduced the Earth Stomp’s damage.

Other Changes

Gameplay

Enemies became stronger.
Active and passive abilities are no longer tied to weapon types.
Power attacks require a fully filled energy bar.
A club and a pickaxe are now available by default.
Reduced the amout of quickbar slots to four.
Health potions are no longer added to the quickbar automatically.
New conditions for reception of flame upon finishing quests.
Added “Repair” and “Dismantle” categories into crafting.
Building now awards players with flame.
Simplified some of the crafting recipes.
Improved and revised the blueprints.
Reduced the “Flight” cooldown.

Map

Replaced the iron ore nodes in Cradle with flint nodes.
Switched the locations of the Skull Hunter and the Smoldering Warlock.
Updated the map for the Cradle of Keepers.
Added island names to the map.
Added the ability to turn the legend on/off.

Improved the gameplay hints.
Updated the repair/demolish icons in the building mode.
The weight indicator now turns red upon exceeding the carry limit.
Revised the tutorial hints, added new videos.
Updated the gameplay hints’ widget.
Updated the flame obtainment widget.
Added categories to the inventory.
Updated the teleport icon.

Sound

Added more sound options.
Added voiceover for Hornhead and Bard.
Updated weapon sounds.
Improved the sound volume balance for game objects.

Other

Improved gamepad support.
Updated the main menu visuals.
Brought back the mouse sensitivity options.
Updated the “Eagle’s” visuals.
Updated the Frozen Citadel’s appearance.
Reduced the brightness of building modules.
Updated monsters’ weapon trail visuals.
Bubbles now visually change if aggroed.
Changed the chest visuals.
Improved NPC appearance.
Improved abandoned house appearance.
Updated the Broken Valley’s windmil visuals.
Updated the aborigines’ camps appearance.
Improved the droprate of flint from nodes.
Added new bone pile model.
Added new coin pile models.
Revised the inventory item descriptions.
Added a new book to the Arosfen dungeon.
Added a notification for interacting with a magically sealed chest.
Updated some of the memorials’ images in the Cradle of Keepers.
Removed the stone lumps.
Changed the resource gathering animation, increased the time of gathering from 0.5s to 1s.
Revised the condition for Mithra’s doves disappearance.
Campfires change in light intensity depending on the amount of fuel.

Fixes

Animation error for Mithra in the Sanctuary.
Interaction areas for NPCs and some game objects.
Functionality of markers in the 4 Cursed Masks quest.
Incorrect display of players’ names.
Incorrect reward for the Boar quest.
Spells consuming weapon durability.
Distance of boss HP appearance.
Some localisation errors.
Visuals of some helmets with various hairstyles.

We look forward to seeing you in the world of Arkana!

If you would like to know more about the game, join us on Discord, check out all of our other Social and Community channels.

May 6, 2022

Update 0.31.1

Frozen Flame - Logan Garnett

Gameplay

- Inventory is now disabled in the Prologue.
- Reduced the fish disappearance timer.
- Clubs are no longer tied to any classes.
- Changed the list of items dropped from vases.
- The Mystic Cube rewards switch in favour of the Frozen Flame.
- Changed the secret chest reward list.
- Changed the fuel type for Big Torches and Lanterns.
- While building, the roof is only required for the workstations.
- Changed the energy requirements for heavy attacks.
- Increased the energy decay speed, fixed the way it’s displayed in the UI.
- All abilities become available after unlocking the respective class.
- Changed the Skull Hunter’s Idol requirements.
- Increased the straw roof module stability.
- Runic stone hint activates at the same moment as the Ritual.
- Changed the ability placement in the Ability Tree.
- The “Flight” skill can be activated after two seconds of falling.

Map

- Changed the markers’ color on the map.
- The Sanctuary icon became brighter.
- Added a new foragin resource - “tree beetle”.
- Removed monsters from the Titan Bastion.
- Changed the Mithra’s position in the Sanctuary.
- The markers’ size now depends on the map zooming.
- Updated the windmill visuals.

- Updated the visuals for class circles in the Ability Tree.
- Player markers now display in the middle of the compass.
- Added the “Blueprint” to the name of purchasable blueprints.

Other

- Changed the Construction Core barrier visuals.
- Screen now goes dark during teleportation.
- Server settings no longer pop up in chat when joining the server.

Fixed

- Stations can now be properly placed on house foundation.
- Enemies will no longer stay idle in the Prologue.
- Big monsters’ healthbar no longer covers the Rituals’ UI.
- Fixed the shooting range Ritual on one of the small islands.
- Fixed some texts and inscriptions.
- Fixed the female model’s cloth set.
- Damage notifications are now properly displayed during online play.
- Fixed straw roof collision issues.
- Quest markers now properly disappear after opening the coin chest during the Bard’s questline.
- Fixed old save file issues with the Ability Tree.
- Some trees used to disappear a bit too early from the draw distance.
- Some dialogue lines were not playing out.
- Fixed the issue with the construction core teleportation forcing you to move around a bit before being able to actually move.
- Fixed dialogue indicator not disappearing after being exhausted.
- Attributes now properly change upon switching the equipment.
- Fixed the colour indication of the equipment positive effects.

Apr 29, 2022

Update 0.31: Level Up!

Frozen Flame - KeeperFF

Main Changes

Sanctuary and Prologue Update

Prologue Changes:

Reduced the amount of ghosts in the “Asylum of Faceless” location. They no longer respawn after death.
Removed the Prologue intro cutscene.
Removed all spells from the Prologue.

Sanctuary Changes:

The portal to the Broken Valley is initially closed. You’ll need to talk to Chronos to activate it.
Mithra now meets players in the Sanctuary.
Flight ability unlocks after traversing the Broken Valley portal.
The Broken Valley main quest ends when you turn in the Portal Core in the Sanctuary.

Player Progression

Once upon a time, dragons shared the secret of the magic flame with humanity. The key to its power was Flame - the enegy permeating through the lands of Arkana. And throughout the years pilgrims have been using it to master various crafts.

Flame is gained by gathering resources, cooking food, performing rituals and slaying monsters.
After accumulating enough Flame, characters will gain a level and the “Frozen Flame”, which can be spent on unlocking and leveling various Ability Tree classes using the Altar. Leveling up will also increase characters’ max HP.
Ability Tree has been simplified in favour of clarity. For now it only has 3 classes: warrior, ranger and mage. Classes unlock their respective choice of weapons.
After death characters lose all Flame they gathered on the current level, but they can retrieve it at the place of their demise.
Lost Flame can now only be gathered by the character who lost it.

New Approach to Receipe Unlocks

We’ve simplified the crafting system. From the start you’ll only have access to a few basic recipes. New recipes can be found by clearing the Cursed Camps, exploring various locations or buying them off the NPCs.

Building Update

Hard to believe, but over the course of a single update there’s been an entire revolution in the way we approached the building system!
Improved the building UI.
Removed “extra” modules.
Intorduced two new module tiers: wood and stone.
Crafting stations can be packed within the Construction Core area of effect.
Optimized the stability and cost of modules.
Crafting stations can only be placed indoors or in a shelter.
You can only place one Construction Core.
Construction Core barrier can only be seen by its owner.

Improved Navigation

As the members of our team say: “Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Give a man a main quest marker, and he’ll get out of the Broken Valley”.

Compass changes:

Marked the cardinal points.
Thickened up the edging.
Main quest and death markers stand out a bit more among other objects.

Map changes:

Reduced the size of marks, removed the redundant ones.
Added landmark names to the Cradle of Keepers.
Added main quest marker.
Quest log now only displays main quests.

“Fresh Faces” of Arkana

We’ve introduced plenty of new NPCs to the Cradle of Keepers and the Broken Valley isles, all with their own stories and trouble.

Added 5 new NPCs: "Genie in a Bottle”, "Titan’s Head”, "Talking Tree”, "Chest” и “Philosopher-Bubble”.
Added 2 new quest chains.

Fully reworked the visuals of the “Asylum of Faceless” and “Sanctuary” location.

New Tutorial Approach

This update brings a change of approach to our main tutorial systems: during the game you’ll now get short video tutorial tips. If you feel like you’re experienced enough - you can just disable them in the game settings.

Updated Lighting

Lighting in Arkana has become more realistic and colorful.

Other Changes

Gameplay

New item: “Gold Coins”.
New recipe: “Fresh-Soup”.
Added 3 new Rituals and 1 secret activity to the Broken Valley isles.
Rebalanced the heavy attack energy gain.
Reduced the default energy cap.
Temporarily disabled some power attacks.
Reduced the amount of Flame gained for cooking.
Nerfed the Furious Grunt’s damage.
Completely removed stamina.
Increased the drop-rate of pestilent boar’s hide to 100% for player groups.
Temporarily disabled spears.
Changed the first Ritual’s runic stone placement.
Changed the Hornhead’s placement.
Images on memorials with outdated mechanics changed into broken ones.
Added the ability to abandon Rituals.
Titan-destroyer devices no longer require Flame for activation.
Fixed resource node damage for tools, fists and arrows.
Bonfire now requires logs to function.
Increased the fuel burning time.
Reduced the decay time of bulding modules.
Reduced the weight of branches.
Removed branches from bonfire recipe.
Portal Core is contained in the Titan Bastion chest, and can be gathered by all party members.
Added armor level requirements. The better the armor, the higher is the level requirement.

Map

New resource model: “Medium geode”.
New model: “Air stream”.
Upon placing a waypoint on the map, it will be illuminated by a ray of light.
New Cradle of Keepers area: “Mountainous zone”.
Two islands has been reworked for building purposes: monster camps have been removed, and the number of resource nodes - increased.
Visual update for areas around the teleportation circles in the Cradle of Keepers.

Updated the UI for NPC dialogues.
Map can no longer opened while falling.
Added inventory filters.
Expanded control settings.
Added teleportation confirmation.
Potions are now automatically added to the hotbar.
Updated save file information.
Reduced the icon size in the crafting menu.

Sounds

Pressure plate and iron door.
Female character meal.
“Chain lightning” spell.
“High jump” spell”.
Gold coin pick up sound.
Construction core activation.
Mithra’s voice in Prologue.

Other

Expanded the hair color choice.
Aerial turning animations became smoother.
Changed the size and color of teleportation circles.
Added crafting animation.
Updated construction area effect’s description.
Added a new history book to the Bard’s house.
Updated heavy attack visuals.
Increased staff heavy attack damage.
Increased the interaction distance for some objects.
Removed the visual hint for pressure plates.
Increased the waypoint effect view distance for Rituals.
Added flying bubbles to the lakes of the Broken Valley.
Added falling leaves effect to some oaks of the Broken Valley.

Fixes

Fixed facial animations.
Fixed character eyes.
Fixed the “Adventurer” NPC’s animations.
Removed the ability to directly interact with secret passages.
Fixed the gear break-rate formula errors.
Fixed some localization and item description issues.
Fixed the issue when characters’ hair clipped through headgear after flight.
Fixed dialugue icons above NPCs.
Fixed the ghost’s behaviour.
Added staff durability damage.
Fixed close-range bow aim.
Fixed object collision issues.
Increased the object rendering distance.
You’ll now properly die if you fall off the Broken Valley isles.
Fixed female character’s cloth pants.
Fixed sitting animations.
Fixed home altar’s packing.
Fixed Skelly’s dialogue.

We look forward to seeing you in the world of Arkana!

If you would like to know more about the game, join us on Discord, check out all of our other Social and Community channels.

Mar 23, 2022

TITANIC UPDATE 0.30: Story of the Floating Isles

Frozen Flame - KeeperFF

Main Changes

Bard’s Story

The lonely Bard inhabits one of the Broken Valley islands. We advice you pay him a visit, as he can guide you to the key to the Titan Bastion.. for a small favour, of course.

Introduced the Bard’s quest to the Broken Valley.

Updated map

Our finest cartographers have improved the map’s design! Fresh and new, it’s now perfectly adapted for traversing the floating islands!

Updated map’s design.
Updated icons and their placement on the map.

Fast Travel

You can now fast travel from anywhere in the world through your map. Removed the now redundant “stone of teleportation”.

Rage Bar

Combat system has received a brand new rage bar, which fills up during the fights. It can either be partially used to make strong attacks, or depleted fully to make a power strike.

Progression and Crafting Changes

This update overhauls the way character progression resources work, especially the related activities, and things you can spend those resources on.

Ability Tree nodes are unlocked with Dragon Stones. You can find those in various camps’ chests.
Flame can now be used to unlock various recipes. It can be gained by participating in the majority of in-game activities: collecting resources, slaying foes, cooking food, activating memorials. You can gain a large amount of Flame by completing quests and Rituals.

Ability Tree Spells

Ability Tree has been expanded with 9 different spells:

Sky Jump - spring into the air, ascending to hard-to-reach areas.
Arcane Trap - create an ensnaring aura around yourself.
Haste - boost your movement speed.
Water Walk - traverse bodies of water on foot.
Chain Lightning - send out a lightning that would jump from foe to foe.
Heal - heal yourself or your target.
Light Orb - create an orb of light to illuminate your surroundings.
Stone Skin - reduce the incoming damage to yourself or your target.
Fire Breath - ignite the foes in front of you.

You can have up to 3 active spells at a time. To change the active spell - pick it in the Ability Tree and press “activate”.

Titan Bastion

Somewhere among the Broken Valley isles there’s the Titan Bastion. It is not easily reached, but rumors tell it is more than worth it. And what is the harm? Noone has seen a functioning Titan for years anyway.

Introduced a new island.
Added a “Titan Destroyer” device.
Fixed the behaviour and animations of Titans.
Titans can now destroy some elements of the environment.

Other Changes

Gameplay

New resource: “Aerial Flame”, which can be found in the air around the floating islands.
New monsters: spirit boars and pestilent boars.
New NPCs: “Treasure Hunter”, “Bard’s Wife”, “Skeletal Musician”, “Ku”.
New recipe: “Burning Broth”.
New secret activities: tavern basement in the ghost village, and rune-sealed chest.
New ritual: follow the path of magic emanations
Fixed camera shake and visual effects for Titan’s attacks.
Added the “Hunger” status, which regulates the food consumption limit.
“Dodge” and “Jump” separated. Default binding for “Dodge” is “Alt”.
Camp monsters’ health now scales with the amount of players nearby.
Added a delay between Skull Hunter’s “Arcane Trap” activations.
Added rewards for completing NPC quests.
Introduced changes to bow aiming.
Increased starting maximum carry weight by 50%.
Increased resource node respawn rate.
Reduced the amount of gathered berries and apples.
Rebalanced some weapons.
Slowed down the mimics.
Blue crystals no longer drop from geodes.
Chests in common camps no longer drop items.
Removed the tent recipe.
Rebalanced the crafting recipes.
Changed the mystic cubes’ rewards.
Removed the stamina restoration delay after leaving combat.
Increased the safe fall distance.
The Cradle of Keepers is once again open to builders.
Introduced cooldown to the “Flight” ability.
Spells no longer consume Flame on activation.
Changed Idols’ activation requirements in the Cradle of Keepers.
Removed the rare blueprints.
Changed the spell in the Prologue.
Spear has been temporarily disabled.

Map

Added a basement to the tavern of the ghost village.
Fixed the placement of emanations for the Cradle of Keepers frozen area Ritual.
Added new abandoned buildings to the Broken Valley isles.
Removed landmarks from the map.
Increased the amount of fireflies in the Cradle of Keepers forest.
Added more teleports to the Cradle of Keepers.
Added a poisonous area to one of the Broken Valley isles.
Removed the poisonous temple from the Broken Valley.
Changed the “place marker” button from LMB to RMB.

Introduced the first batch of keybinding options.
Updated the spell-bar visuals.
Updated the Ability Tree visuals.
Introduced visual improvements to the player UI.
Added an option of activating spells in the Ability Tree.
Improved gamepad controls.
Added a new animation for the “Flight” ability unlock.
Improved the teleport interactions hints.
Updated the “Flight” ability icon.

Sounds

Fully updated female character’s voice acting.
Added a new sound for the “Flight” ability unlock.
Improved Ritual and quest sounds.
Reduced the distance from which the altar can be heard.
Added sounds to Bonehead and Woodhead NPCs.
Updated the main menu theme.

Other

Bonehead NPC gained a few new lines.
Hornhead NPC gained new lines about the Dragon Stones.
Added the “rotting” effect visuals to buildings.
Improved visuals of the Titan’s crystal.
Updated barrel and crate breaking effects.
Updated Eagle’s flight animation.
Updated sawmill’s textures.
Increased the amount of time given to read Mithra’s birds’ lines.
Changed Crysta’s flight tragectory.
Improved the Sanctuary’s atmosphere.

Fixes

Fixed Woodhead NPC’s visuals and animations.
Fixed ghosts’ behaviour in the Prologue.
Fixed elemental’s behaviour during its AoE attacks.
Fixed the Blacksmith NPC’s animations.
Fixed the Ancient Sword’s attacks.
Fixed the intro cutscene.
Fixed the Ice Zombies’ behaviour.
Fixed the Smoldering Warlock’s behaviour.
Fixed the fog in the main menu.
Fixed the Flame-attacks’ effects.
Fixed the stairs’ collision in the Prologue.
Fixed the issue of monsters leaving their designated camps.
Fixed the sarcophagus collision.

We look forward to seeing you in the world of Arkana!

If you would like to know more about the game, join us on Discord, check out all of our other Social and Community channels.