Mostly bug fixes in this build and we prep for the Next Fest on Steam.

New Features / Content

• Patch notes can now be viewed in game from the main menu.
  
• Equipment can now be bought back from the mothership if you sell it by mistake.
  
• Added more conversations with ESA when arriving at boss / elite encounters.

Balance Changes

• Proton Torpedoes no longer inherit the velocity of the ship firing them.
  
• Drones no longer engage with enemies more than 300m from their parent ship.
  
• Increased range of Basilisk laser weapon by +50%.
  
• Increased distance traveled by Behemoth plasma bolts by +50%.
  
• Increased distance traveled by Citadel plasma bolts by +100%.

Bug Fixes

• Death overlay will no longer display when exiting ship design in mothership.
  
• Fixed death message to say what was lost and if respawn is available.
  
• Display of velocity in equipment stats now appends the correct units.
  
• Display of "per second" and "second" values are now part of translation.
  
• Projectile Life is no longer displayed for projectiles with infinite life.
  
• Fixed issue where passive equipment slots could not be swapped.
  
• Line breaks are no longer removed when text is run through auto-translation.
  
• Core panel upgrades tab no longer stops functioning after changing ship design.

• Secret cristals have been replaced by Limbo Keys ! They unlock the Limbo Altars that allow you to access the bonus level 🙂 You'll have to find them first though..
  
• New binding for a custom sensitivity : useful when using gamepad or wanting extra precision !
  
• Small changes in chapter 2 !

• LOOK AT THAT MAGNIFICENT CAVE ROOF !! 😎
  
• New models for chapter 2 & 3 ! (Next week I'll be redesigning the levels to use them properly)

• I am aware that some runs are not uploaded so I added some extra debug, please let me know next time it appears !

1. Added an Altar at the start of every level to be more coherent
   
2. Joystick images have been painted black
   
3. New sounds for end level Altars, trees and torches
   
4. Updated the levels buttons images !

• Level design on chapter 2 and limbo levels ! I want you to play some good leveeeeeels

• Thanks a lot for your support as always !! ❤️ Any Steam review would be immensely appreciated !

Hey folks!

We'll start by saying, we are fully funded!!!



Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far, we are reading everything and the team has been blown away by the kindness we've been shown.

We’re now on day two of our campaign! Let's check in with our latest updates to our Stretch & Social Goals…


Last unlocked: €100,000 - Fully funded!
Current goal: €150,000 - English Voice Acting
Next goal & unlock: ??? - Motoi Sakuraba on the entire soundtrack!

We are now fully funded and working towards our first stretch goal, english voice acting! The voice acting will primarily be found in main cutscenes, and combat. After that, we have a goal to have composer Motoi Sakuraba take on even more of the soundtrack!


Last unlocked: Jokes & puns [3 goals]
Current goal: Avatars & Banners [5 goals]
Next goal & unlock: Discord emojis [7 goals]

We unlocked our first social goal! Which means all of our updates will now have jokes. Well, it will have attempts at jokes. Here's a few for you folks:

Q: Why does Kayla always seem to get into trouble?
A: She likes to get into some heated debates.

Q: Why did Kayla drop out of cooking class?
A: She got out of frying pans, and more into fire.

Q: Why is Kayla always getting wax everywhere?
A: Because she's burning the candle at both ends!






Last week, ahead of our Kickstarter launch, we celebrated some of the inspirations that helped pave the way for ALZARA Radiant Echoes. JRPGs are such an important part of our gaming history, as we have memories of seemingly endless summer vacations, rainy Sunday afternoons, quiet 1am nights, and dark car rides by the light of the streetlamps spent saving the world.

As ALZARA is a throwback to these times, we wanted to create fun assets that celebrate these games. I still remember a time when magazines were one of the key places I learned about games. I would pour over previews or even ads as they were my small window into possible adventures. Sometimes, all I had to go off of was a game's box art at a rental store.



We hope these bring back some fond memories and help get you excited about the new memories you’ll make while playing ALZARA!






Yesterday, we introduced one of our collaborators, Motoi Sakuraba!

We hope to have our entire score created by him, which is one of our upcoming stretch goals! To help push towards this goal, we wanted to talk about music.

Music is incredibly important to a JRPG! If I even mention something like “The Man with the Machine Gun,” you can hear the opening notes in your head. (If you need to go listen to it, I’ll wait. I’ll be here in your other browser tab.)

In our game, our characters fight against an invasion, hoping to bring peace to their lands. Hope is, therefore, a central element of the game as well.

We also noticed that game music today is often used simply as background music today. For ALZARA, we want music to play a key role in the player’s perceived emotions, and that's why the soundtrack of the game will consist of melodies that players can hum along to.

Our main musical references come from games we grew up with, such as Golden Sun, Baiten Kaitos or Valkyrie Profile. We want to recreate the feelings we got from these games, but with a more up-to-date approach.

This is why we called on Motoi Sakuraba, a renowned composer who worked on the soundtracks of those exact games we mentioned.

With that in mind, let’s listen to the main theme of ALZARA that Sakuraba-san has been working on:

Soundcloud link: https://soundcloud.com/g4f-records/main-theme-alzara-radiant-echoes/s-rDPsKEJdTjO

Main Theme - Motoi Sakuraba




So you're asking yourself... what is a social goal??? They are kind of like our stretch goals, but are focused on growing our community while also giving back to it! The goals range from growing our social accounts, to sharing photos in our Discord server.

Most of the social goals are straightforward, but our community goals might need some clarity!

Fan Art - We'd love to see any fan art folks make! You can share it on socials and tag us so we see it, or you can share it in our Discord server!

Closet Cosplay - While cosplay can be a lot of hard work and preperation - we'd love to see our community try and dress like our characters just by using whatever they have laying around! You can tag us in the post on socials, or share your outfit on our Discord.

Favorite JRPG Merch / JRPG Inspired Pets - We have a channel in our Discord (aptly named #jrpg-merch-and-pets) where you can share your favorite merch you own from JRPG games, or share your pets (especially if they are named after something or someone from a JRPG)!

??? - You'll have to wait and see!

Social Goal Rewards

The rewards for completing social goals with range from expanding our Discord server to digital bonuses, to even physical merch upgrades and additional rewards! They are our way of saying thank you to our community, and some rewards will be available to everyone - whether you're a backer or not!

Just in case you need 'em, here's some links to all of our socials!

Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
TikTok
{LINK REMOVED}Discord



Keep an eye out later in our campaign as we share an interview with Motoi Sakuraba about his work on ALZARA, his favourite music, and some answers to some other fun questions we got to ask him!

That’s it for this update! I’ll be back tomorrow with a check-in on the campaign, a round-up of press coverage, and some answers to some of your questions!

Until next time!

💛 Colin & the team at Studio Camelia

Way of Rhea is releasing in 4 days!

This blog series walks through some of the mechanics featured in the game. Be warned: mild spoilers ahead! This post covers The Overworld.






Each level in Way of Rhea focuses on a unique skill or idea. Beating a level unlocks other levels that depend on that skill.




Once you complete the first biome, Way of Rhea becomes nonlinear: if you're stuck, you can always return to the hub world to try a different level--no progress will be lost.

In fact, you can revisit all completed puzzles at any time via the checkpoint selector in each level.




There's also a jukebox in the hub world that can play any song you've unlocked! When you beat a level, that level's song is unlocked.

Don't forget to wishlist Way of Rhea! I'll see you tomorrow in Rhea's Biome...

Cheers,
Mason

Hi everyone,
Here is a small balance/bug fix update.

Changes

• Maximum load capacity is increased by 5 for all characters.
  
• Quests at the tavern now give +2 more prosperity to towns.
  
• Adventurer's Guild quests give +5 prosperity to each town instead of +2.

Fixes

• Repairing critically damaged items were showing that it repaired zero durability although it was repairing correctly.
  
• Aquathril Shortbow was producing silver ore instead of aquathril ore.
  
• Abandoned Cart was not spawning any enemies.
  
• Completing Adventurer's Guild quest sometimes didn't give prosperity to towns.

The demo version of the game is now available here on Steam too. Get your day flowing with some retro vibes, and download the demo now!

The demo version includes the game's first chapter. You'll be able to explore the early areas, get to know the beginnings of the story, and complete a bunch of side quests.

If you decide to get the full version, you can continue from where you left off. It requires some manual work, though, as you'll have to copy the save file ("0.sav" if you're using saving on slot #1) manually into the full game's FF/SAVES folder. If you want to transfer the global settings and the bestiary stats from the demo, you'll also need to copy the "settings.sav" file similarly into the full game's FF/SAVES folder.

Cheers!
- T / Uncultured Games

Hi everyone, recently, a player named Fliedner has shared a link to his recorded let's play. While there are several videos on YouTube, what sets this one apart is Fliedner's mastery of Age of Fear mechanics.

I believe I've seen almost all abilities and skills utilized, along with a few combinations I never anticipated. Additionally, such videos assist us in identifying and fixing bugs, enhancing AI, and sometimes even inspire ideas for new features.

Please enjoy the serious showcase of the complexity of Age of Fear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t-PO-S3Jf0&list=PL-GPZ3WPf9ex2QMWj0ZDW8xcDe9XsUxz6&ab_channel=Fliedner

Take care, Les

• Nerobi's dynamic shadow now correctly follows the character's sorting order change.
  
• Added missing audio to the guiding voice's dialogue during the Yagi encounter.
  
• Fixed bug on last save modification date. It is now no longer culture-bound but still displays correctly based on your culture. Existing saves will display a blank date until modified.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the activable door to disappear when loading the status of the scroll already collected in the Forest of Perdition chapter.
  
• Fixed issue that caused settings to be reapplied on every scene change (when starting the game, at the main menu and when loading the game).
  
• Fixed a rare bug that could block Nerobi's jump when coming into contact with Uteki's bounce.
  
• Fixed a bug that didn't trigger the steam deck vibration in the controller vibration slider inside the settings during the gameplay session.

Another update for Decimate Drive is now available. It comes with new content and a couple of improvements.

• The Mulholland Rentals parking lot is now available as level for the Hit & Run game mode.
  
• There are two new killer cars you'll encounter in New Game Plus and the Hit & Run game mode.
  
• An option to invert Y axis and some other minor improvements were added.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!


🕹️ Get the game on Steam or on https://somerandomdesigning.itch.io/decimate-drive/.

🏪 Talk with other players or me about the game on Discord.

📼 Watch trailers, shorts & let's plays on YouTube.

🗞️ Follow me on X for news and #screenshotsaturday.