Apr 16, 2020

Update v1.1: Quality of Life Improvements

Shieldmaiden: Remix Edition - mbp1225

First of all, thank you everyone that sends us feedback on our Discord Channel. More updates are coming and if you want to help, join our channel: discord.gg/KfDBYWZ

After a couple of days in beta, we are ready to release the first update for Shieldmaiden!
Since this is the first of many, we focused on doing some groundwork to make the overall experience more pleasant.
You'll notice that on the UI side, the player is given many new options to interact with the game, making it simpler to play and replay the game the way ou like.
On the gameplay front we worked on some of the issues that have been bothering the players, such as how death pits work and how easy it was to simply walk through enemies. Expect more tweaks to these points in the future.

Here are the Patch Notes that go into further detail:

Patch Notes v1.1.0f

UI/UX

New Pause and Game Over Screens

Both screens have been reworked to give the player options such as restarting the level from the beggining or the latest checkpoint, going back to the Main Menu, etc.;
Level Select Screen

After playing through the tutorial, the player can acces the Level Select Screen from the Main Menu. From there they can replay any level the have already finished, starting from whatever checkpoint they want;
Key Bindings/Controller Mapping Screen

Now the player can change what both the keyboard keys and the controller buttons do from the Options Screen;
Miscellaneous

* New Fonts;
* New HUD animations:
- Whenever Asta takes damage, the amount of HP lost shows up briefly in white;
- Now there's an animation for when the Burst is ready;

Gameplay

Death Pits Reworked

Now whenever Asta falls into a death pit she takes some damage and returns right before it, whithout having to go throught the Game Over screen and going back to the last checkpoint;
Enemy Interactions Reworked

* Asta can't go throught enemies after taking damage anymore;
* Asta bounces off of enemies whenever she touches them with the shield active;
Miscellaneous

* Game locked at 60 frames per second;
* Some sprites from the tutorial and Level 02 have been revised to prevent confusion between platforms and background.
* Asta flashes when she takes damage;
* Fade-out after boss's death shortened;

Bugs Fixed

* Level names showing up properly on the pause menu during the tutorial and while on the hub.* Walking on crates doesn't trigger damage VFX;* Invincibility VFX doesn’t trigger while the Mt. Runa Boss is still falling after receiving a Burst while still on the air.

Want to give us feedback or need support? Join our Discord Channel
discord.gg/KfDBYWZ

Apr 16, 2020

Putting Pen To Paper - Crafting Soul Reaper's Narrative

Soul Reaper - Benign Feline Clawer

Salutations, Reapers! It's been about a month since we've last spoken, and this Stabbytabby has been hard at work running around The Vault. I've been researching the lore behind my home, and managed to land a few interviews with the local wildlife… Well, at least with the souls I know that won't try to destroy me.

There's a lot of fascinating people to meet around here! I even stumbled upon some folks in The Void recently… It's a little intimidating to be there!

With my cunning cat detective skills, my reconnaissance has proven useful in the pursuit of writing the remaining endings for Soul Reaper.

Yup, that's correct! Not only do we have the scripts written and finalized for the remaining endings, but we also have a few new narrative pieces written as well! Here's a list of the scenes we currently have dialogue for!

*Please be aware that some of the following content will contain minor spoilers, so if you'd like to keep the new scenes a complete surprise, you'll want to skip over these next few sections!*

Single Soul Fragment Endings

Romantic Reaper Ending. Our hero tries (and fails) to ask the Herald out on a date, and things get a little weird from there…
Sleepy Reaper Ending. The Herald's intimidation proves useless as our hero fails to keep his eyes open. In a sleepy haze, the Soul Reaper starts confusing his foe with otherworldly creatures.
Greedy Reaper Ending. Things get off to a rocky start when the Soul Reaper claims that the Herald must somehow be related to the Jackoclops. Later, the Herald's combat strategy is eventually called into question.
Angry Reaper Ending. Upon witnessing the Herald's floating orbs, our hero relegates his foe to the title of "Ball Boy." After a heated exchange with Caps Lock enabled, the Herald starts fighting fire with fire.
Hungry Reaper Ending. The Herald is mistaken as an employee of "Floating Dude Fast Food." After receiving terrible service, the Soul Reaper demands to see his manager.

These endings will follow closely in line with the Arrogant Reaper Ending already featured within the game. Boss fights will play out similarly, and the overall pace of the scenes will feel familiar.

An an aside, obtaining the Insecure Reaper Fragment will unlock the True Reaper. This is why there is no specific ending for the Insecure Reaper, as you will already have satisfied the conditions for the True Reaper Ending.

Special Soul Fragment Endings

Soulless Reaper Ending. Dreary visions have been haunting the Soul Reaper for quite some time, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to discern dreams from reality. What exactly is happening…?
True Reaper Ending. With his faculties reunited, the Soul Reaper demands answers from The Midnight Council. Why are they so committed to fulfilling their doomsday prophecy?

These diverge fairly significantly from the Single Soul Endings. We don't want to spoil the surprise, but look forward to seeing some intriguing twists!

New Scenes

To help flesh out both the lore and characters of Soul Reaper, we've written scripts for two new scenes that will be added to The Void!

The scene triggers will exist along the path to the final boss (located to the right of Vypo). One is intended to be viewed after defeating the Soiloth, and the other, after defeating Jeff. As an incentive to encounter these scenes when intended, a treasure chest will be placed alongside each scene trigger to encourage exploration with the newly gained boss abilities.

Percie's Predicament. Percie and Vipo argue over the portal to the Predeath, and Vypo steps in as a reluctant mediator to tame the heated discussion.
Vault Time. Vypo explains the theory of "Vault Time," a potential reason as to why those who dwell in the The Vault seem to part with their memories so easily.

Small Talk

In the introduction section, players will be given the opportunity to speak with the twins before heading off to fight the Herald. It's a small addition, but these short conversations will help give an idea of how Vipo and Vypo typically interact with their boss early on.

So, When Will All This Cool Stuff Be Implemented?

As of now, we don't have a specific date as to when the new endings or scenes will be added just yet. Ideally, we'd like to start including the new narrative pieces in future patches (as in, adding an ending here and there alongside the bug fix updates), but we don't want to hard commit to a date until we know for sure that the new content will be ready.

On a related note, it's hard to ignore the change in climate since our previous update. While we're blessed to be able to work remotely, it's difficult to say with certainty that the recent pandemic won't impact the speed of Soul Reaper's development. Rest assured, we're still actively working on the project! However, we wanted to bring this up in the event we need to extend the Early Access period beyond the initial 3 month plan. We'll see where we are in the coming weeks, and make an announcement if we feel the game would benefit from more time in development.

These are unprecedented times, and we hope you all are able to maintain both health and high spirits. With enough perseverance, we'll make it through unscathed! Please, stay safe out there!

Mac Build

In a previous update, we mentioned that Soul Reaper's Mac release would be postponed due to a notarization process required by Apple. While we're still fully committed to having a Mac build, we've decided it would be best to focus exclusively on the Windows version first. This would allow us to better improve our workflow, as maintaining both a Mac and Windows build simultaneously would be rather resource heavy on the team.

Once most bugs have been fixed and the majority of content has been added to the game, we'll once again start making preparations for the Mac release!

(In the meantime, players can still access the Open Beta for Mac here if they'd like to get a head start on their adventure!)

The Animation Sensation (Cunning Creatures and April Fools Addition)

We've uploaded quite a number of videos since we've last spoken! So many, in fact, that it'd be easier on the eyes to simply link you to our YouTube playlists!

For our recent monster animation previews (Zeppelineer and beyond), click here!

For our recent gameplay videos (Percie's New Loot Smithing and beyond), click here!

One video we'd like to give special attention to is our Scramrock Animation Preview. It floats gracefully in the wind before it, well… dies. A strange inclusion to be sure, but a fitting creature to showcase on April Fools!

It might not have many animations, but that doesn't mean it's not important! Check out our Scramrock series to learn how you can buff up your squad with Scramrocks!

That about wraps things up for this update! The feedback we've been receiving continues to shape our work for the better, so please don't hesitate to share your opinion with us! Our Discord and Steam Community are the easiest ways of making your voice heard, but feel free to reach out to us via any of our social media links below! Stay tuned for further updates, and we'll see you fine folks next time! Stay safe during these trying times, and remember to prioritize your health!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1163660/Soul_Reaper/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/powerlevelstudios/
Twitter (Studio): https://twitter.com/PowerLvlStudios
Twitter (Game): https://twitter.com/SoulReaperGame1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerlevelstudios/
Medium: https://medium.com/power-level
Discord: https://discord.gg/erupmSD
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQjuCHRCZ1w1fA88zfukhg/
GameJolt: https://gamejolt.com/@PowerLevelStudios
Itch.io: https://powerlevelstudios.itch.io/

Apr 16, 2020

Game Update - v0.1.18.2509

Kynseed - Matt Allen 🦇

Here's the changelog for our regularly released monthly update (with our typical monthly written progress report to get posted next week)! Let us know if you experience any issues or have some burning feedback to send our way. Cheers!

Cʜᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏɢ

🔷 Setup for family secret boxes
ᅠᅠ• Uncover the keys by raising your relationships 'til they tell you their secrets
ᅠᅠ• Only some families currently have secret boxes to unlock
🔷 Partners can now go gathering via the housekeeping book
ᅠᅠ• Allows them to leave the farm to gather items based on equipment given and location chosen
ᅠᅠ• Items gathered will appear in a sack outside your farm building
🔷 First pass of new noticeboard task for watering NPC farm areas
🔷 New skills relating to Fishing and Farming
🔷 Certain animals now poop, which can be collected in the wooden bucket and used as fertiliser (placeholder graphics in use for now)
🔶 NPC gossip/secrets are now geared towards learning more about other NPC's you don't already know info for
🔶 Use and discard confirmation from the inventory
🔶 Dandelions no longer accepted by NPC's as gifts
🔶 Adjusted growable position on farm soil and made its height relative to objects moving past
🔶 Now able to sell a shop via the Select Shop option (which only offers some of your money back and all stock is lost currently)
🔶 Improvements made to Mellowfield regions
ᅠᅠ• Additional area in Outlane
ᅠᅠ• New hut in Testy Acres
ᅠᅠ• Many other fixes and subtle level improvements/prettying
🔶 Slightly more pronounced blacksmith difficulty based on material and more reward based on star ratings
🔶 Apprenticeship balanced to give slightly more reward scaled to star rating
🔶 Trader now shows up in 6 different locations with different goods available in each haven
🔶 Baking and stove recipes are properly divided (the range of recipes is filtered when going to the two different workstations and indicated in the inventory)
🔶 Pressing escape during the intro sequence will skip to the next image instead of jumping all the way to ingame so it feels a little nicer (and helps quicker testing of the later parts for further refinement)
🔶 Some improvements to spouse behaviour
🔶 First pass of a better pickup screen for sack on the farm contents
🔶 Various UI improvements to the player status, trader buying, and skill screens
🔶 Pinned tasks for larger item requests now show the details of items required
🔶 Adjusted interaction priorities so that books and bedside money will have higher priority than nearby characters
❌ Target interaction corrected while riding
❌ Riding won't offset the player's position when getting on
❌ Item star ratings should all default to 1 star as intended
❌ Fix for workers not always matching NPC friendship rating
❌ Fix for task list not always scrolling down properly with a certain number of tasks
❌ Fix for a rare shopper trade crash depending on the item they want to trade in
❌ Fixed new animals not loading their appearance correctly from a savegame
❌ Gifting option is now correctly inactive when you have no items to gift
❌ Fixes for shop customer spawn points to occur offscreen and for shop owners departing when the shop is bought
❌ NPC's now have individual start locations where possible so they don't clump up on certain activities
❌ Fixes around animals being sold at the goods store which could lead to a temporary duplicate or stuck animations
❌ Fix for the pickaxe's level up message getting stuck onscreen
❌ Fix for text bug when hiring a blacksmith worker
❌ Fix for an issue when changing which pig you're riding caused the first pig to be untargetable
❌ Local shoppers should now work in Mellowbrook
❌ Fix for problems with dates while gifting items
❌ Prevented player getting stuck if crafting during the end of year (though will lose any item currently crafted!)
❌ Fixed a case where the cat in the tree wouldn't appear
❌ Fixed a case where duplicate key messages could appear after buying the last cat
❌ Fixed crash when claiming an item from an owned blacksmith shop
❌ Fix for Freyl blessing affecting fruit rather than vegetables as intended
❌ Fix for the ledger's yearly accounts not scrolling and potentially containing blank entries
❌ Chickens now practice good hydration habits and no longer spontaneously explode from drinking water

🔷Additionᅠᅠ🔶Improvementᅠᅠ❌Fixᅠᅠ➕Internal
ᅠ

Apr 16, 2020

Dev Journal #2 – To fight, or not to fight?

Siege Survival: Gloria Victis - BartoldGV

Hello Community!

Welcome to another Dev Journal! Last week you could read about the main goal standing behind Gloria Victis: Siege – to let you experience surviving an invasion of a medieval castle. Such a unique approach requires equally uncommon methods. It quickly comes to one especially significant question:

To fight, or not to fight?

We want you to think about how to survive the siege. But when we were prototyping the mechanics of periodic enemy assaults, any solution in which the civilians controlled by a player had to stand the invaders on the walls, the focus has instantly moved from survival to getting efficient in combat.

The player was encouraged to master the means to defeat the enemy in a fight, not to figure out how to stay alive – which was not playing well with our core assumptions. On top of that, the enemy who can be simply beaten is not scary – such an enemy becomes a mere obstacle, not a real threat.

That’s why, in the end, we’ve had to separate the defenders from civilians. You command a group of civilians, the very last survivors of a well-prospering city below which has been plundered by the raiders from the North. These people aren’t warriors and they won’t stand a chance against the invaders in face-to-face combat. That’s what soldiers do, though, and you’ve got to make sure they survive long enough.

There’s a small group of the castle guards standing against overwhelming enemy forces. If their Bastion falls, the invaders will break into the castle and slay everyone inside. If you’re about to survive the siege, you’ll have to support the soldiers with weapons and provisions, and the wounded and sick will demand your care too. This solution surely adds to the experience of surviving in a besieged castle, and we love it already!

However, in the time of war where resources are scarce, there will be times when you have to balance between sustaining the soldiers’ strength and taking care of your own survival. You’ll have to go outside, to scavenge the ruins of the fallen city and look for the supplies in the streets patrolled by the enemy scouts.

How will you overcome them – coming next week!