Shady Knight News

After watching countless vids, I saw that for many players, the behaviour of the Blessed Deadman was the furthest thing from my desired gameplay experience. Instead of being a perfect enemy for experimentation, they turned out to be a bottleneck for your creativity. And that is NOT what Shady is about!

The following changes don't affect high-level play, as you still need to use as many moves and abilities as you can for a stylish play, and the enemies aren't weaker, but I hope they will make the game more enjoyable for all players, and help new players get to the true shady experience I indented to make since the day one of this project!

[h2]Enemy Improvements[/h2]
Blessed Deadmen

• They won't block EVERY frontal attack! Combo your moves and show them your wrath: Slash then Kick, Throw-a-Sword then Grapple. The old weaknesses are in power i.e. throwing a barrel or striking from behind are always reliable options!
  
• They won't launch a projectile from behind.
  

Blessed Spiders

• Increased delay before explosion,
  
• Slightly better visuals for differentiation. There will be a better readability improvement for all blessed enemies in one of the future updates.
  

Regular Lancers

• Regular Lancers won't use the Skyfall Strike anymore, they're already an intense enemy and you should have a chance to learn their base moves first,
  
• There's a hint on how to deal with the Skyfall Strike on Carcass before you meet the first Blessed Lancer.
  

[h2]Other Improvements[/h2]

• Taking damage won't stop you from finishing a level with S RANK, a good game is a good game! Only SS and SSS RANKS need no damage!
• Thicker collider for ZipChains, as most of the time you land on them with a high fall momentum,
  
• Slightly thicker collider for the Climb Chains,
  
• Kicking a barrel/object now stuns an enemy, to make this move a bit more special compared to the easier-to-perfom object throw!
  
• Fixed consistency of the boat launch. The arc when entering a level for the first time (the boat cutscene) was slightly different from subsequent runs.
  
• Slide Slam has increased distance and angle to make slide slamming more doable/fun mid fight.
  

[h2]Fixed Bugs[/h2]

• infinite Chained Dropkick (when an enemy dies during the dropkicking)
  
• inconsistent boat launch. The arc when you first time enter a level was slightly different from the next ones due to boat arrival cutscene.
  
• Fixed bug when combo x99 and higher would break the Arena

[h3]Improved levels[/h3]

• Added more necessary gameplay hints for the last two hubs.
  
• Slightly improved Nexus layout with a clear indication of which hub portal is the next one.
  
• Once you've completed a hub, you'll see a warp point next to its entrance portal, allowing you to warp to the exit in the blink of an eye!
  
• The last parkour challenge Living Stairs was impossible! SORRY if you tried to complete it, I know you were flawless! The level layout was improved. The shadow has a correct target time.

There are many question regarding adding a complete move-set list to the game, a sandbox arena, etc. so I think my next post will be a roadmap / my plan for the first content update.

I need some time to recharge and play some amazing demos now.
[h3]As always thank you for playing and for all your amazing reviews!
[/h3]

Yours,
cptnsigh

If you have a problem with hubs portal being locked/uncomplete after beating a level, please make sure you have the latest build.

All completed levels should be marked as completed (you will see filled glowing orbs above the boats), and the next level will be unlocked.

[h3]Improvements
[/h3]

• Improved Spider behavior (too aggressive for new players and even for bigger fights),
  
• Slightly slower bite attack,
  
• Slower jumps to make them more avoidable and fun for perfect sword throws,
  
• When many only ONE can jump at a time to avoid unfair jump spamming,
  
• Thicker rope colliders,
  
• Increased impulse for the advanced Dash Recovery move.
  
• The final boss is locked by the hubs. You don’t need high ranks to unlock the fight, but at least beat all the levels.
  

[h3]Fixed bugs
[/h3]

• Fire Jars stop working after a few resets,
  
• Reaching x99 combo on the secret arena is breaking the gameplay (stop being TOO good!),
  
• Spear Parry counted as Sword Parry,
  
• Results screen didn’t show the Green Frame when run is Flawless (after the first time).
  

[h3]Hints and Level improvements
[/h3]

• Improved WRATH hub traversal bits,
  
• Slightly reworked Ballista Glade tower,
  
• New hints on Hunted (Weapon Boost), on Overwhelmed (Dash Recovery), On Blessed Heavies (Tangent Wallkick)
  

My top priority at the moment is the first player experience, as the learning curve in my game is unusual. I see that half of the frustration with the game is a simple miscommunication/lack of direction but at its best and worst, Shady has always been a game full of hard-to-explain contextual tricks and moves. I'll do my best to invite more people into the fun zone.

Thank you for playing!

Yours,
cptnsigh

Hi everyone,
Here are the most important changes in the latest build:

[h3]Reworked Levels: Warding Flame & Burning Air
[/h3]Due to the abnormal difficulty spike. The introduction of fire shields was ridiculously brutal and even misleading as not only Fire can break them!

• Added more hints on how to play with fire.
  
• Tweaked layouts to give more space to fight with enemies.
  
• Adjusted platforming bits to keep the flow.
  
• More options for fire strikes (Fire Pots, Braziers).
  

I hope the new versions are more in line with the previous towers and finally fun to master!

[h3]The Grappling Range for Grappling Points has been increased significantly.
[/h3]Moments where you can barely reach the point even in a jump aren't very shady.
I want you to have more opportunities for epic comebacks from a fall or in the midst of action.

[h3]Other Improvements
[/h3]

• Improved placement of the hint glyphs for new players.
  
• Reduced the slow-mo effect when taking damage. The old value felt too disruptive, the slow motion is just there to give you a moment to decide what you're going to do when you're vulnerable.
  
• Added a hint to the bonus levels to make the rules clearer.
  
• Added more fall checkpoints in the second half of the game.
  
• Added grappling points to arenas to give a chance of instant redemption.
  
• Hubris' final arena exit platform improved.
  

+ some other tiny things I probably forget to mention.

Thank you so much for playing, leaving feedback and for your amazing reviews!
I’ll keep improving the experience.

Yours,
cptnsigh