Shady Knight News

Let's start with the craziest addition that I can't get enough of.
[h2]GRAVITY PARRY
[/h2]
Some may already knew that it is possible to parry fall damage, as any physical strike How to... Consistent Sword Parry

And while it was a fun option to save your flawless run after a high fall, the flow was broken as you had to climb ALL the way back, meaning the risky parry move wasn't really rewarding. Until today.

• Gravity Parry lets you bounce right back into the fight to the height you fell from, if you're willing to take the risk!
  
  
• It is also possible to trigger the ground parry from a smaller fall (Gravity Denial), if you have your parkour charged. Great way to add even more style to your fights!
  
  

[h2]DIRECTIONAL PULL & SLAM
[/h2]
Another dimension for your chained dagger action! You can pull and even slam your enemies sideways!

• Aim left or right while chaining an enemy and enjoy his gracious directional fall (or slam, if your positioning is perfect ;)
  
  
• The chain visuals have been updated to ensure your view is never blocked when looking left or right while chaining an enemy.
  
• A special red blink has been added to indicate the threshold at which you can slam and dropkick.
  
  

[h2]Improvements[/h2]
[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• Improved grounded Weapon Dash consistency. You can't dash while grounded to a weapon that's airborne, so to avoid accidental fling offs, the grounded weapon dash was always meant to be your safe option to switch weapons as opposed to the risky but omnidirectional airborne dash.
  
• Object boost is more stable (no more weak boosts when jumping off a barrel while falling).
  
• Enemy (head/body) boost is slightly stronger when you have some horizontal momentum (to match the feel of the object boost and make it more comfortable).
  
• Wallkicking and Boosting now restore your mid-air Weapon Dash. If Dash Recovery can do that, why can't these? ;)
  
• Nerfed consecutive Head Boost (it's a parkour move after all!) + Lancers and Heavies have unique reactions to it.
  
• You can find experimental Stun Jars on Strong Stance.
  

[h3]UI / Menus
[/h3]

• SSS ranks highlighted with a color in the Hubs Selection Menu for a quicker progress check.
  
• Also added a new special glow effect for the SSS rank on the results screen to make it stand out from other ranks.
  
• Your entry in the leaderboards is highlighted with a color.
• Added new option "Strike Cancel" to Gameplay Options, you can set it to On Tap, 0.2s (hold) or Off completely if you never use it other than accidentally.
  
• Changed debug menu open method for Steam Deck / Controllers: hold both left and right triggers for a second.
  

[h3]Enemies[/h3]

• Blessed Spider's explosion can be blocked by enemies and breakables, so there's a small chance that a knocked deadman could become your bodyguard.
  
• When you're in the air, enemies won't jump to reposition themselves if they're too close below you, preventing unfair damage in some tight spaces.
  
• Nerfed consecutive Head Boost, it was too overpowered for a parkour move and too safe of an option on later enemies + Lancers and Heavies also have unique reactions to your next attempt at consecutive boosts.
  
• The armless knight skips the 'wait' phase, which I don't think anyone would miss, since it was misinterpreted as a bug rather than a threatening state as I originally intended :)

[h3]New Style Points
[/h3]

• Chain Sweeper (directional pull), pull an enemy sideways with the chained dagger.
  
• Wall Slam (directional enemy slam).
  
• Gravity Parry a fall damage parry (high fall).
  
• Gravity Denial a parkour-charged gravity parry from a smaller fall.
  
• and Underslide for a slide between Heavy's legs ;)

[h3]Spinning camera / uncontrolled menu selection issue.
[/h3]If you are paying with mouse & keyboard and have another input device connected that is causing these issues, but would prefer to keep it connected, you can disable "Mixed Inputs" by holding F2 at any time. This will prevent the game from reading ANY inputs from other devices that may be causing the incorrect inputs.

[h2]Fixed Bugs[/h2]

• 1/2 A thrown sword is less likely to get stuck in edges, and even if it does...
  
• 2/2 the dash is also improved to prevent clipping the floor/walls.
  
• No more accidental tangent wallkicks on sloping walls when aiming down.
  
• PARRYCORE Achievement fixed. If you don't have the achievement, but are sure you've parried all five enemy types, try deflecting/parrying another arrow and the achievement should be yours.
• Fixed another bug where arenas would end before the last enemy was dead (some specific enemy deaths counted as double deaths).
  
• Fixed a bow parry bug where your stored/fallback weapon wouldn't equip after a parry bow drop.
  
• Fixed a rare bug when you move to a wrong position due to a climb while dashing or dash while climbing.
  
• Fixed a rare Weapon Dash double boost bug.
  
• Fixed a rare frame-perfect quick-restart-during-level-fading bug when the results screen wouldn't show your time.
  
• Fixed a small debug/speedrun timer bug where it would stop counting deaths for a moment after destroying an orb.
  

That's it for now! I've been working on the practice areas and once again the amount of fixes based on your feedback has reached a critical point + I just couldn't wait to share the Gravity Parry! As always, feel free to share your thoughts and thank you so much for playing!

See you in the next update!

Yours
cptnsigh

Let's celebrate
[h2]Five Hundred Reviews[/h2]
Thank you all for your awesome support!
And thank you for nominating Shady Knight for this year's Steam Awards!

Such a perfect time for this artful community update from Katezillla,
the 2D artist behind all the epic shady arts:
[h2]Trading Cards are live![/h2]

And if you want to decorate your shady profile, there are: backgrounds, animated avatars, and my personal favorite, the chained frame!

[h3]Now you can collect Steam Community Items while playing Shady Knight![/h3]
Collect cards, Craft badges, Get rewards. You can learn more about trading cards here: http://steamcommunity.com/tradingcards/

[h2]Let's slide jump right into the 2024 Steam Awards! [/h2]

There's no true triumph in Shady Knight without a path of countless falls, and there's a fun category specifically for that kind of games!

When you reach the flawless state, it's a very special feeling. Quickly dealing with things that seemed untouchable at first. Parrying even the craziest blows. Falling hundreds of times before pulling sick mid-air combos.

You can become a truly unstoppable force of style, and if you know the feeling, please consider nominating Shady Knight for the upcoming Steam Awards!

I've put too much of myself into making this mad mix of physicality, first-person trickery and melee mechanics work as ONE and I'm so happy to see players resonating with the gameplay I've always dreamt of making. Thank you all so much!

I'll be back soon with new updates
Yours
cptnsigh

[h3]Style Points[/h3]

• Improved conditions and description for Flying Death bonus style point. This style point was originally related to the old arrow kick mechanic, so it has been repurposed in the latest big patch. Feel free to check out this hint if this is the only one you're missing both you and your target should be in the air
• Fixed Kicked Shield, when used against heavies, kicked shield weren't able to knock a heavy as other weapons.

[h3]Small Bugs
[/h3]

• Fixed persistent Pause Menu bug when pressing Quick Restart and Back at the same time from the options menus
  
• Fixed a small visual bug with the combo meter on high numbers. The maximum visible combo is now X300, One Hundred is probably the only place where you can get such a combo ;)

[h3]In-game Timer[/h3]

• Debug/Speedrun timer now works in the Nexus when entering from hub exit portals
  
• The timer can be activated on Steam Deck / Controller from the Debug Menu (hold LT on the main screen)
  

Hi everyone!
I've been working on the new practice mode and I still need more time to finish it.

In the meantime, I've prepared a ton of neat weapon improvements, style point fixes, bug fixes and more.

[h2]Weapon Improvements[/h2]
[h3]Strike Cancel[/h3]
If you've ever had that moment when you're charging up a strike and suddenly there's no one to hit, or you've changed your mind on the fly, you've had no choice but to release your strike. That was before...

Now you can cancel the current attack (while charging/holding it) by pressing an opposite key (throw/strike). Each weapon has a special spin animation to indicate the cancellation and add a new verb to your creative expression : )



[h3]Dagger[/h3]

• Slightly reduced cooldown after grappling an enemy (when grounded and mid-air),
  
• Holding jump while finishing the chained dropkick allows you to get a vertical boost (instead of a knockback)! It's a small special variation to the move to make even crazier combos possible.
  

[h3]Bow Improvements[/h3]

• Now you can fire the basic bow shot MUCH faster, this quick shot does less damage (like with a quick sword slash), but allows you to juggle enemies and react quickly to jumping enemies, or you can wait a bit and charge it for full damage,
  
• A jump instantly charges your first basic bow shot to the full damage,
  
• Added new sound for the Rapid Three strike.
  

[h3]Fixed Spear[/h3]

• Your first move on a jump should always be Stingray (the piercing move). There was an inconsistency where you would charge Sweep instead. Fixed now.
  
• Fixed. Spear clipping trough walls when thrown too close to a surface,
  
• Fixed small visual bug when spear appears more thick.
  

[h3]Shield Improvements[/h3]

• Stamp is triggered not only by knocked enemies, but also by jumping enemies,
  
• Stamp Slam is more consistent,
  
• Air Parry now works with the shield(there was no knockback in the air).
  

[h3]Style Points[/h3]
There are special achievements for unlocking ALL style points in each category (Actions, Parkour, Chaos, Bonus). These achievements are really hard, but having 0.0% completion in 3 out of 4 of them seemed very suspicious. If you are just one or two style points short in some categories, you should be able to unlock them now! Hints below:

• Fixed Object Slam style point,
  
• Fixed two missed chaos points: Flaming Domino, Friendly Fire,
• Fixed Crashed. Now called Surface Bounce (it's a non-lethal crashing kick).

Other SP changes:

• Fixed the description for Crashing Kick (it only triggers when lethal),
  
• Kicked Arrow is now Kick Parry (a well-timed kick to send back an arrow or blessed heavy projectile),
  
• Added New Air Parry style point. This move deserves its own

[h3]Flow improvements[/h3]

• You can slide immediately after an edge climb (just hold the key in advance, like with slide on land),
  
• You can slide immediately after dashing to a grounded weapon,
  

[h3]Other Things[/h3]

• Improved Headless. They can now turn 180 and slash when you approach (you don't have to collide with them, they'll hear you). Now they are more comfy, to practice parry for example,
  
• It takes a bit less time for Deadmen to turn around after their pierce strike.
  
• You can't slam a barrel if there's no ground underneath it, you'll just pull it towards you instead (just like with enemies),
  
• Debug/Speedrunning. Hold TAB to activate in-game timer with a kill counter.
  

[h3]Steam Deck / Controller
[/h3]

• Jumping off Ropes & Chains is now triggered on button press (not on release) to avoid accidental jumping off.
  
• The Ropes & Chains option is hidden from the options as it only works for keyboard & mouse controls.
  

Whew... that was a big one.

Let me know how the new Strike Cancel feels. At first I only made one animation (for the sword) as a test and was wondering if it was worth including in this patch, but when I turned it off I immediately missed this feature, sounds like a good sign!

Yours.
cptnsigh