- Fixed and issue when changing sound options to 0 counts as 1
- Fixed an issue when changing display device may not save on exclusive fullscreen

Hey everyone,

We hope you're all doing well and staying safe! We're thrilled to bring you an exciting update about Chapter 2 of Scarlett Steele: Viral Temptation. Your support has been incredible, and we're eager to share the latest developments with you.

Chapter 2 will introduce exciting new elements. Firstly, we're adding new characters to shift the narrative focus towards dynamic dialogues, moving away from extensive narration. This change is particularly thrilling.

Secondly, we're incorporating our first wave of sexual content, which will allow us to explore blending text and images in innovative ways we haven't tried before. While our writing process will remain consistent, we’re eager to continue experimenting to create content that resonates with everyone.

While we've already received positive feedback on our render quality, we're committed to continuous improvement. You can anticipate significantly improved quality as our 3D developer has acquired new tools and plans to implement advanced techniques to enhance the player experience. We've also addressed the issues with the number of renders in Chapter 1, ensuring smoother production moving forward.

Introducing Iris

Iris is a docile and pretty scientist with a passion for the internet. She’s nerdy yet charming and enjoys walking her dog on the beach. A gentle soul who cannot stand unfairness, Iris is deeply troubled by the corruption she sees within the organization. During her internship, she was dedicated and developed a great admiration for Núbia, becoming the only person Núbia can truly show affection to.



You can expect to be able to tweak Iris's final looks in the upcoming polls.
((Join our Discord for more information.))

A Glimpse into Chapter 2

Chapter 2 kicks off with a dramatic scene featuring Iris and an old doctor. Iris witnesses firsthand how the organization is misusing their power for their own gain. She realizes that things are not as they seem, and she begins to see through the organization's facade. The shady dealings she uncovers set the tone for the rest of the chapter.

Iris, partially hidden, observes the organization's corrupt activities with the old doctor. As she processes the shocking truth, she starts questioning everything she once believed in.

The scene then shifts to Scarlett, who is in the shower in Núbia's room. Players will be initially confused about why Scarlett is there, but it soon becomes clear. Scarlett knows Núbia is harmless and needs the gear. The two engage in a silent yet intense battle of wits and words. Núbia eventually reveals the true nature of the chemical weapon, intensifying the conflict between them.

Núbia admits she can't destroy the weapon alone and needs Scarlett's help. She reveals another key player, Fabio, a reporter who knows the truth. Scarlett is torn between trusting Núbia or the agency. Players must decide: trust Núbia and continue the game, or refuse and face dire consequences.
We're holding back many details for you to experience firsthand.

We're thrilled to bring you these exciting updates that we hope you enjoyed reading about. Stay tuned for more adventures and twists as our story unfolds. Your support means everything to us, and we can't wait to hear your feedback. Until next time, happy gaming!

Best regards,
Ennushka & Tiago
VenusVision Studio

VenusVision Studio DISCORD
VenusVision Studio INSTAGRAM
VenusVision Studio X / TWITTER

Hello everyone.

This is our first post here, so I want to start by explaining to those who are not yet familiar with how our updates work.

We divide our work development into quarters, and each quarter we release content for a character.
Our average number of renderings per quarter is 1,050, and we usually create one render per dialogue, because we believe that each expression in a visual novel is important.
The average reading time per quarter is 1h20m.

Our initial plan is that each character, except for the key characters in the story, will have at least 2 versions, meaning they will be in focus for 2 quarters, but not necessarily consecutive quarters, by the end of the first chapter of "Our Home." At this moment, we have the following status.

• Juliana: 1 Versions.
  
• Emily: 2 Versions (Key character, which means she will have more versions than the other characters.)
  
• Marta: 1 Versions.
  
• Danielle: 1 Version.
  
• MC: ~3 versions (Key character, which means she will have more versions than the other characters.)

We plan for other characters to be in focus by the end of the first chapter.

Now I want to share with you our plans for Q3/2024.

In the next steps for the upcoming three versions of "Our Home". In the next version, our protagonist (MC) will be closer to discovering the truth about his story. However, we first need to connect some important points, involving key characters and significant events. Samantha and Hank will have key roles in this version.



Samantha and Hank will have key roles in this version. Samantha is suspicious of Norah and Hank has promised to help her in an investigation. To start the investigation, Samantha will try to enlist the help of the MC, an entity inside Norah's house. We will find out if the MC will agree to help Samantha.



A few weeks after arriving in the city, Dylan still hasn't had contact with Amelia. It's time to visit an old friend and ask some important questions about his story.



Additionally, MC will start reflecting on his own life. Studies were a promise made to Amelia, so it's time to look for a college and try to enroll. Will someone be able to help our hero on this journey?

Of course, in addition to that, we will have appearances by Norah, Kim, Marta, Danielle, and Lorena, so this version will be full of girls. I hope you are as excited as we are.

Excited for the next steps?! I hope to count on your collaboration to continue building something amazing.

Phew... What a month! The reception has been overwhelmingly positive, it doesn't seem real!



And we just hit 2k followers on Twitter/X in just a month! Seriously, you guys are the best!

I promise, I only share cool stuff, like this one showing P falling to her death, or this one showing a cool parkour gameplay sequence



Go follow MotorSlice on Twitter for extended gameplay, funny clips and behind the scene stuff. AND more importantly, to be the first one to know when we announce our demo!



We also announced that the game's OST is being created by Pizza Hotline. Go check out the Brutal Rush track for some Atmospheric DnB/Jungle bangers!



But this is just the beginning! Follow us and STAY TUNNED

Twitter

Almost two weeks have passed since the official release, and I have been very happy to watch plenty of streams, videos, feedback, and reviews.

While some people do not appreciate the simplicity and mobility offered by the game, many players have achieved 100% completion and overall enjoy the experience, with speedruns starting rules the game and post new records.

Although I am convinced that each game is different and cannot please everyone, Noreya was designed to be accessible in terms of difficulty and navigation within the world.
The comparison to the two major titles that everyone uses as a reference is enough to objectively compare the relevant points.
In this sense, I will not make hasty changes to please a few peoples, in the first 30 minutes of gameplay.
Noreya will offer you a unique experience (which I believe is very good) but not in such a short time.

However, with the game's release, many interesting suggestions have been made! ANd if you've been reading the dev blogs, you know I like to include player's ideas.
Some are already implemented in this new patch, and others are coming.

Let's talk about it, you know the format (and if you are new here, welcome! I invite you to read the previous ones).



This is the kind of thing that makes the art team cry of pain, but many of you have asked for something to be done. So we have added two things.

- You now have access to a contrast adjustment from the “accessibility” menu, which will affect the background layers.
Here’s a small sample in 3 images.


- All foreground layers are now slightly transparent, which greatly improves readability when certain decor elements pass in front.
Why did we choose opacity instead of redoing all the foregrounds? Because it’s faster, it maintains a sense of “things passing in front” while preserving readability.
In my opinion, it was the best choice to make.


We have read that the beginning of the game was judged too hard and unfair, and that it didn’t showcase what the game offers.

From what I understand, the quantity of monsters, but especially the presence of ghostly monsters, was problematic because encountering monsters that cannot be defeated is unusual, and many of you were forcing against them.

So, I decided to reduce their number and add “cages” around them to reduce the punitive aspect of the levels concerned.

Also, I even added small rewards for those who venture into that area.


The addition of cages should help new players understand that the game contains new mechanics for later, but also that these monsters cannot pass through.

Initially, this was something reserved for the Ruins of Lemia, but the impatience of new players didn’t allow them the time to get there.

I don’t know if this will be enough; it’s complicated to offer more without destroying the way the world is designed. I remain vigilant to feedback and continue to think about it.



Just below the hearts and fragments, we have added swords for each boost you have collected in the world.

Note, this does not take into account skills or boss souls collected.




Without going into full detail, here is a non-exhaustive list of what will be added:

When the team was working on the project, no one knew if we should add it or not. Based on some Metroidvanias, the team voted no.

With the hindsight of the game's release, and especially because of the “Giant Worm,” I thought it was worth adding a health gauge that will provide a reference point during this misunderstood marathon and an indicator of what needs to be done.

As a player, I have experience with games that offer a health bar and those that do not (without any visual degradation), and I don’t think it’s an addition that will denature the game, so let’s go for it!


This was something I wanted to do, but we were already struggling to meet deadlines and release the game without it being a bug party (and there are still bugs).
So this feature will be released very soon!

It will make map exploration easier with the aids that already exist ^-^


This is a feature that has been suggested on reddit.
And no one in the team had thought of: “the ability to automatically select the next available statue to teleport to.”

The only complexity is choosing which button to use because there are already quite a few things ^^’ but aside that, it’s not very complicated to implement.


A recurring topic, and it’s not that easy.

Several weeks have already been lost on this subject. I’ll see if it’s possible to try again, this time successfully o/



I have seen too many games become “bad” because the development team followed a few complaints about frustration and difficulty.

Don't get me wrong, it's not an easy topic. And it is important, as a designer, to put things into perspective and be objective.

As you know, I like to share with you the experience of creating a game in all its facets, and a few people have asked us to have several skills “by default” in the game, without spending 1 hour, so let's take a quick tour.


The obvious comparison with this one is “Hollow Knight”. Indeed in HK you have it from the beginning, but you also suffer from it, which causes your character to gradually move back, putting you in trouble on platforms.

Also, the HK character is much slower and less responsive than Kali.

Adding this skill at the beginning of the game would make it thoughtless, creating a "run and gun" attack button would be enough to get out of all situations, rather than moving, thinking about the movement to make, and understanding the enemies.

Therefore, it will not be unlocked at the beginning.
Step back, attack again, this is enough to beat the game trust me.


I don’t know if this request comes from the fact that it’s the first skill obtained in Hollow Knight or that some games offer a roll/dodge from the start (with a strong Souls-like presence).

But in Noreya, it will take you about 2 hours to unlock the dash (unless you explore each area as soon as possible), and having it will open many passages.

The dash in Noreya is a movement ability rather than a combat one because the character’s natural mobility doesn’t need a dash against any enemy.

Most of the time moving from left to right is enough to dodge, or a well-placed small jump.

Anyway, offering such a combat-oriented skill at the beginning of the game would ruin almost all the monster patterns, as they were designed around the game as it is right now.

In a game like Blasphemous, for example, monsters were designed with the player’s ability to parry and dodge in mind. If you miss this feature, take a break and analyze the monsters giving you troubles.

You’ll quickly find a solution! (rushing in doesn’t work very well at the beginning of the game btw!)


In my opinion, it’s the “hard” mode that should be renamed to normal because reappearing at the beginning of the level is clearly not the norm.

You should know that the difficulty modes in Noreya do not affect the monsters or exploration.
Only the bosses’ health, health recovery (via loot in pots), and the purchase of skill points are affected. Everything else is the same.

If you struggle on normal, try the game on easy; you’ll see that there’s no big difference, but you can recover up to 3 hearts at each map transition for free, allowing you to rush more at the beginning of the game without being punished.

After a few hours of play and obtaining automatic regeneration and life steal, no matter the difficulty mode, it’s no longer a big issue.

I’m rather bad as a player, so I designed an easy mode “for myself,” and I rush the game without thinking on easy.
The normal mode requires me to concentrate more, and the hard mode, in my opinion, is the equivalent of Hollow Knight (for my skill at least).


The famous ghosts that cannot be killed until you find “the holy skill”.
I understand that this is frustrating, especially in an era where games give you everything from the start, and in my opinion, it would be a total waste of pleasure to give the ghost skill at the beginning of the game.

Sure, it might highlight this original feature more.

But what a loss of flavor, after struggling through so many maps, you get the power to get revenge, and the game reveals itself from another angle (puzzling).

At the beginning of the development, the path to reach the Dark Lady was much longer and without indication! That was really tough.
Over the years, we have always wondered whether we should put this feature at the beginning of the game or not, and although people who test the game for 1 hour (via the demo or purchase before refunding) will never see this feature, it would be, in my opinion, a pure waste to unlock it earlier.

Noreya doesn’t want to play the “wow” card that everyone is playing those days; we want it to take its time, like savoring a good meal.

Also, the rework that I've done to the first area in the Forest should help understanding this kind of monsters, and reduce the frustration hopefully.


From what I remember, these are the main points that come to my mind.
And I know that some people will not agree with what I write here! No problem, we are free to have opinions and respect them ^-^

As a designer we have to take decisions and many time the team was unsure.
I absolutely made sure not to create a Souls-like, as it is trendy, because it’s too hard (for me) and requires too much investment for many people (like parents, yes I am also one of them) who don’t have 200 hours to spend in a game to beat a boss (no the Giant Worm do not requires so much time, yes it is long, bug you can breath in the light as much as you want).


There are frustrating things, but they have a reason to be.

If you don’t enjoy your experience with the game and you chose normal mode, then switch to easy. In this mode, run and gun is much more forgiving.



We made a few adjustments to the bosses, beyond fixing bugs.

- Salluste now projects shockwaves on the ground, which reduces mindless brute force attacks!
- The Giant Worm has had its health reduced by almost 20% again!

The other bosses have not undergone changes except for bug fixes.



Although this topic was addressed before the official release, during very long game sessions and "100%" playthroughs, there are still some issues that we are resolving little by little (thanks to the players who lend us their saves for testing!).

First, the world map exploration has been modified to mark a map as "fully explored" once you have seen a certain percentage of its area.
This will clear all fog history and help lighten the save file.


We have also revised the fog code to make fewer memory footprints, which should help as well.

On the memory leaks side, there were still a few that had little impact in small quantities, but after going through a hundred maps, they became problematic.

And it was mainly the particles that were causing issues! Although there are still and always will be possible improvements, the game will stabilize over time. This only concerns a small number of players who push the game to its extreme corners! But I would like it to be possible to complete the entire game in one go, without a break. So we will continue tracking in this direction!



It's been a long time since I launched a stream, I don't have a specific date in mind yet, but I think I'll launch one sometime in July!

We'll talk about development, Q&A, Kickstarter, and I'll play a bit of Noreya, probably on hard mode, to get my butt kicked (or not), go for a no-death run on hard? Let’s go!



The eternal bug fixing! New people report small issues here and there, even though the game is quite stable.

We haven't been idle despite my vacation huhu, here is the patch log that concludes this post!


Improvements/Changes:

• The Start button on the controller now removes the Pause menu
  
• Reduced the Giant Worm's health (again)
  
• Bats now bounce on trampolines to avoid getting stuck in them
  
• Added an option to skip the animation for karma and world change
  
• Added a contrast option in the accessibility menu
  
• Added a sliding sound on slopes (it was forgotten D: )
  
• Dash attack now requires an attack to be activated
  
• Salluste now projects shockwaves on the ground
  
• The knockback force was too strong on flying enemies
  
• A map will be fully revealed after a certain completion percentage to validate that you have seen everything and reduce the save file size
  
• More enemies are affected by the Golden Widow’s skill
  
• Modified the entrance/exit of the soul devourer’s map
  
• Added “atk+” in the interface

Bugs:

• Items on the map are correctly displayed when you have the respective skill
  
• The value for the number of attack points was “undefined” and not “3” (that’s what happens when you make fixes right before going on vacation… -_- ).
  
• Strange bug when dying at the same time a door is opened by a Garzul
  
• No damage taken after defeating the true ending
  
• Problem with multiple interactions with the forge
  
• Many sound issues with the Soul Cleaver and the Golden Widow
  
• Golden Widow getting stuck in some cases / the camera not locking properly
  
• Fixed a specific FPS problem with Boss 6 in a certain case
  
• Fixed several bugs with the Giant Worm, notably the Halo not resetting properly
  
• Improved mouse/keyboard sync for navigating menus when switching between the two
  
• The final boss door would lock if you quit the game on a specific frame
  
• The Golden Guardian Boss music not stopping when you die during the fight
  
• Chakrams could hit bosses from very far away
  
• The camera not repositioning correctly if you pause at a precise moment
  
• Basic attack damage should no longer exceed 100 (for new saves)
  
• Particles still visible after destroying a statue

Earlier this year we released Braid, Anniversary Edition, a remastered version of Braid with a bunch of new levels and tons of developer commentary. Now Braid Anniversary is on sale and The Witness is in a bundle with it. Both games have a base discount of 75%, but if you already own The Witness, Braid Anniversary will be cheaper, and vice versa, and of course you get the extra discount if you get both.

Braid, Anniversary Edition
The Witness

Thanks for reading this! As we finally enter the downhill slope of design on the (not yet named) giant new puzzle game, it's nice to be able to go back to games like The Witness and make them a bit cheaper. It's been quite a privilege to have both of these games so well-received. (And we hope to have the new game ready for you on Steam before *too* long!)

achievemnt debugging

Patch - 9 BUILD 1.0.22 - patch notes ⤵️

➡️ Fix broken matches without coins
➡️ Fix non collectable coins
➡️ Fix seekers laugh at the start and at the end of the match
➡️ Fix Grave curse blocking butcher hook
➡️ Fix resetting left players panel in lobby and in castle
➡️ Add controls to jug making task view
➡️ Fix skill check showing even after stopping interaction
➡️ Change required chair/barrel velocity to stun from 1.5 to 1.3
➡️ Add scarecrow bomb indicator
➡️ Add Boo skill cooldown
➡️ Decrease banana collider


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2410490/Sneak_Out/

-Zombies will now sometimes attempt to dodge your shot when aimed at within a certain range.
-Zombies are now more aggressive at all wave levels within a certain range of the player, They will now lunge at the player with an array of different attacks.
-Zombies will sometimes lower there heads when charging at you
-Zombies Now spread out from each other instead of becoming a clump of zombies. Within a certain range of other zombies they will either slow down or attempt to move out of the way of the zombie in front of them. This creates a much more spread out grouping of zombies. (this will be adjusted over time)
-Made tweaks to the zombie ragdoll effect

Other changes
-Added left and right walking weapon sway.
-Corrected an issue where client pistols would not play reload animation until the pistol was out of ammo.
-Lowered zombie navigation planes to better help with zombies floating in air over raised objects
-Major optimizations of Last resort map. (optimizations of this map will change over time and continue to improve)

• New external prefab reload button.

• Tooltips show up faster.
  
• Added more tooltips. Expect the rest to be added/fixed in the next patch.
  
• Made is to the intro now properly updates if you update the metadata info.
  
• Removed F11 notification from editor.

• Fixed Ctrl+R shortcut (the randomization button) not working in the editor with children + parents.
  
• Fixed issue with selecting the editor via the main menu using the keyboard making it so all editor controls would make a noise.
  
• Fixed numerous issues with editor notifications.
  
• Gradient shader now properly handles color comparison. (thanks Unity)
  
• Fixed various issues with post processing effects across the game.
  
• Fixed backgrounds being really colorful in Story Mode.
  
• Fixed issue with getting hit on spawn.
  
• Fixed gravity not working as a default event type.
  
• Fixed parallax objects changing default depth offset.
  
• Fixed minor VN issues.
  
• Fixed editor grid not displaying properly.
  
• Fixed issue with notifications staying longer then they are meant to.

---

• New external prefab reload button. (lmao actually works now)

• Editor tooltips looks way better now.
  
• More fixed tooltips in editor.

• Fixed mouse notification being stuck on screen on startup.

Remember, if you want to be in touch with latest news, join my Discord server!