Waltz of the Wizard News

[h2]Improvements[/h2]
• Igor's robotic creation can now be posed!
• You can now add hats, glasses and other wearables to Igor's robot
• Music Tower in Courtyard now automatically turns on when you enter
• Increased texture resolution of some explosive effects in the Fortress
• Added camera shakes and footstep when Giant in Screen Mode

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
• Fixed crash on Steam Deck
• Added more alternative answers for riddles
• Fixed realtime lights not being visible on some surface in Fortress
• You can no longer fall down in Elevated when in Smooth Movement in VR
• Grimoire pages are now non-destructible
• Fixed being able to get stuck crouching when holding specific objects (such as Crossbow) in Screen-Mode
• Fixed some NM powers being castable twice in succession in Screen Mode (thanks Magni!)
• Fixed some buttons in Infinity Fortress not being interactable in Screen Mode
• Fixed various issues in final scene after finishing the Fortress
• Fixed some slopes in the Fortress being hard to walk in Screen Mode
• Fixed Puppetered objects sometimes shifting sideways when released
• Fixed voice commands like "Give me A fireball" not working
• Fixed NM powers not functioning as expected when big/small in Screen Mode
• Fixed issue with NM gather gesture detection when small in VR

Seasons greetings wizards! We've seen Waltz grow like never before this year and have been amazed by the reception from our old and new users. Thank you, we are humbled!

It is that magical time of year again and we are thrilled to announce yet another free update to Waltz of the Wizard this year available right now! Riddles, Ramblings and Robots includes a horde of new features and maybe a few bits in the spirit of the season…

Skully is more alive than ever now, adding more than 700 new voice lines and a host of new reactions including a totally new riddle game, questions & answers, humms, whistles with a dash of some shower thoughts - and the update includes an all new Screen Mode! Solving the riddles may (or may not) include some special rewards… And a secret revealed for those who finish!



The voice ring (also known as Aldin's Reality Ring) is also no longer required for chatting with Skully, he's now ready to chat with you from the moment you step into your tower! Just make sure you retrieve the ring to enrich your voice with magical powers.



Now what is that mysterious robot? Well, we also have something that some might find surprising… Waltz is now fully playable on a screen without VR - where you can embody this robotic puppet! It has long been our wish that more people had a chance to experience Waltz of the Wizard and, after so many of you expressed the desire to do so, it's finally possible.

You will now see a new launch option for Waltz in Steam.



Even though Waltz is and will remain VR-first design, we are very excited bring Waltz to an even wider audience and hope you will enjoy the freedom to choose how to play! The screen mode is available to all of our Steam and Meta users that have a PC. (We're looking into Steam Deck and PS5 support but nothing to confirm at the moment!). We'd like to note that all feedback on this mode is most welcome.



We've made big strides to enable the non-VR mode of Waltz to include many interesting options to make the experience more interactive and fun. This includes a brand new Emote radial menu where you can select which action you'd like to perform by default. Natural magic is also now accessible via radial-menu for quick power selection in the non-VR mode.



[h3]There’s more coming…
[/h3]Oh and one last thing, we're happy to tease that another update is coming early next year that will introduce an entirely new feel and companionship in the Fortress! More on that soon.

[h3]Riddles, Ramblings and Robots - New Skully Reactions List
[/h3]

• 🧙🏻‍♂️ Test your Waltz knowledge by asking Skully "Give me a riddle"
  
• 🥱 When all seems idle, Skully still might utter some peculiar showerthoughts.
  
• 🥴 Be careful not to hit Skully too hard, his eyes can go askew!
  
• 🫣 Play hide and seek with Skully just by asking him "Can we play hide and seek?"
  
• 🔮 Skully shares some new insights into his past via the old memory orbs, both before and after you teleport to those memories, depending on what you do.
  
• 🎃 Greet Skully with "Happy Halloween" for a seasonal surprise!
  
• 🐀 Skully can get quite upset if you do anything harmful to the rat.
  
• 😳 Don't stare too long at Skully.
  
• 🤾 The moment when you are about to throw Skully will not make him happy. Same goes for the moment you are about to throw something at him.
  
• 🪶 For a giggle, tickle, tickle Skully with his featherpen.
  
• 💔 Be a little more careful while working the tower, some things are more precious to Skully than others if they break.
  
• 🎺 The trumpet sound can ring in Skully's ears.
  
• 👂The earpiece makes Skully react differently to loud sounds.
  
• 💀 Skully might share some more details if you bring him around the Tower.
  

Full list of new features can be found here: Riddles, Ramblings and Robots Blog Post

Hello! This past month has been wild! Waltz of the Wizard went viral on social media and what’s followed is that poor Skully has never been thrown out the window so often in a single month.

This has all helped Waltz reach new audiences and pushed it to best selling VR on Quest, Steam and PlayStation! Our thanks to everyone who’s been playing and to the streamers — we’ve been thoroughly enjoying all the amazing creativity in your videos.

Skully is already VR’s most interactive character with hundreds of voicelines and enormous amount of unique reactions to what you say, facial expressions and gaze, communicative gestures and people’s behavior along with awareness of the environment. So, we’ve been thinking, why don’t we make VR’s most interactive character…. "even more" interactive?

Skully’s Unruly Reactions update brings +400 new voicelines and a whole bunch of new Skully interactions! From entirely new reactions to extensions of what was there before, the update makes Skully feel more alive and responsive to a greater set of things that you do and say.

You’ll find things like alternate reactions so there’s variety in voicelines, greater commentary on in-world events, greater number of things like impact reactions, extended functionality in how specifically you do things like dunk him in the cauldron and, for the many who have been specifically asking for it, yes, you can kiss him now.

[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZbs4zTznEA[/previewyoutube]

Skully’s Unruly Reactions is a FREE update to Waltz of the Wizard owners, now live on Steam!

Full list of new stuff can be found here: Skully's Unruly Reactions Blog Post

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed issue on PC where input (such as buttons or hand positions) was broken, rendering the game unplayable for some
  
• Fixed issue with new the achievements not unlocking if you had already finished all the required steps in the achievement
  
• Fixed an issue where Skully sometimes popped in at the wrong time in the Courtyard
  
• Attempt to fix an issue with Occlusion Culling in Fortress not working properly, leading to some elements of the Fortress being invisible
  

Hi folks! We've got some exciting new features included in this release, here are some of the highlights:

[h3]Use voice interactions with blazingly fast responsiveness[/h3]
We’ve made great strides to take voice interaction to the next level, and after a total redesign of our voice systems, everything behind voice runs locally on device (no network required!). This new version includes better reliability, better accuracy and much more consistent and faster latency. Voice enables you to modify your own abilities and create anything, anywhere, with just a few words.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
With voice we’re aiming to make true natural interaction possible and we feel that with the improvements in this update we’re closer to that goal than ever before.

[h3]Team up with a friend[/h3]
At anytime you can team up with a friend on a second screen with a controller or mouse/keyboard. You can have some cozy magical times together mixing spells or solving riddles, and when you’re feeling adventurous, enter the Observer Fortress and battle behemoth stone creatures and discover some dark secrets.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We’re really excited to open up the possibility for you to enjoy Waltz of the Wizard with your friends and family. The co-op mode also includes fun new ways for veteran VR users to introduce new VR users to the magic of VR, making it easier for the 2nd user to guide the VR user through the experience by interacting with everything, highlighting items or picking up and throwing items to the VR user.

[h3]Play around in a revamped tower[/h3]
The tower has been totally revamped with improved shaders, models and texture resolutions on everything, making it much more polished than ever before. Skully also has new additions with interesting tips and new greetings every time you visit the tower.


[h3]Explore an enhanced observer fortress[/h3]
New magical hand-prints in start and end rooms for easy return to portal circle, new music loops and ambiences for a deeper dungeon crawling atmosphere, and various props and items like health vials now drop from enemies, crates and barrels.


[h3]Behold your new hands![/h3]
Your virtual hands should feel like a natural blend with your own and the final look has been adjusted to a blend from transparent to a solid form in order to better indicate thaty they are a natural part of you. While this may like a small change, it’s one we believe mentally makes a difference in VR compared to disembodied hands — avoiding the feeling better of being sawed off at the wrist.


[h3]Dive into more options in the in-game menu[/h3]
The in-game menu has been enhanced with new icons, adding the achievement sticker board and making the map fully accessible, along with more additions like microphone calibration. Make sure to glance through it since the menu has a wide range of options to customize the experience to your liking.


[h3]Full details[/h3]
There are numerous additions to improvements to a majority of content in this release of Waltz of the Wizard, see our full release blog post for more details and release notes can be found on our Discord.

[h3]Big thanks to all of our fans ♡[/h3]
We are grateful for the support from our community, appreciate everyone spreading the word and we’re excited to tell you what’s next for Aldin in the coming months.
- The Aldin team