Arctic Awakening News

[p]Thanks again for all of your feedback, videos, and reports! As a small team, it's really helpful for us to continue improving and refining the experience, and today's update brings another round of polish, improved clarity, and more performance gains.[/p][h3]Gameplay & Level Design[/h3]

• [p]Fixed collider issues that allowed climbing onto the sides of certain walls.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a missing collider that could let you fall through a platform in the power plant area.[/p]
• [p]Minor adjustments to some early scenes to reduce confusion.[/p]
• [p]Added audio feedback from Kai when attempting to climb where no valid hand hold is available.[/p]
• [p]Various level design polish passes.[/p]
• [p]Various additional fixes and small quality-of-life improvements throughout.[/p]

[h3]Performance[/h3]

• [p]Further Steam Deck performance improvements.[/p]
• [p]Performance improvements to rendering large clusters of trees, plants, and grass.[/p]

[h3]Art[/h3]

• [p]Various minor art fixes and polish.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a visual issue with the camera in the credits when using a high FOV setting.[/p]

[p]We’re so grateful for all the support as you continue to play and share your feedback and excitement for the game/story with us and with your friends! If you've been enjoying the game, leaving (or updating) a Steam review really helps us out![/p]

[p]We've been blown away over the last two months since launch by the messages, reviews, and stories you've shared about Arctic Awakening. Hearing how so many of you have connected with Kai, Alfie, and the world we built means more than we can ever express.[/p][p]The Steam Awards nominations are now open through December 1, and if our story stuck with you, we'd be honored if you'd consider nominating Arctic Awakening for Outstanding Story-Rich Game.[/p][p]Thank you for going on this journey with us and for supporting a small indie team that poured it's heart into this game and this story.[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Today’s update brings continued polish, performance improvements, and a few new quality-of-life features. We also recently released a new console patch that includes crash fixes and a new performance mode option bringing 60fps to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.[/p][p]Thank you all again for your feedback, bug reports, and kind words. Every message and screenshot you share helps us keep improving Arctic Awakening![/p][h3]Gameplay & Level Design[/h3]

• [p]General adjustments to food staging for better balance in certain areas.[/p]
• [p]Various minor level design polish passes.[/p]
• [p]Various minor art fixes and polish.[/p]
• [p]Fixed floating objects that could appear after pushing some carts.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Alfie getting stuck in certain scenarios, primarily partway through episode 5.[/p]
• [p]Re-staged flare gun ammo to avoid confusion.[/p]
• [p]Fixed rare flickering black screen glitch in the ice caves.[/p]
• [p]Added a screen effect when wearing a gas mask.[/p]

[h3]Performance & Platform Improvements[/h3]

• [p]More Steam Deck performance optimizations.[/p]
• [p]Fixed random frame hitch during specific events.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Steam overlay not working consistently on macOS.[/p]
• [p]Various minor performance improvements and optimizations.[/p]

[h3]UI & Settings[/h3]

• [p]Improved the design and presentation of the closing credits screen.[/p]
• [p]Added "Extras" menu with options to view credits, access the upcoming merch shop, and access the soundtrack page.[/p]
• [p]Added option in Settings to override detected gamepad glyphs (for third-party controllers that misidentify as Xbox/PlayStation).[/p]
• [p]Fixed a few translation errors.[/p]

[p]We’re so grateful for all the support as you continue to play and share your feedback and excitement for the game/story with us and with your friends! Every review and report helps us make Arctic Awakening better.[/p]

[p]We’ve continued optimizing and polishing the game, and this update focuses heavily on performance improvements across all platforms (console update coming soon) along with a few tutorial updates, fixes, and nice-to-have touches based on all of your feedback and playthroughs.[/p][p]Oh, and one more thing... we're incredibly honored to have been nominated alongside some amazing games for Excellence in Narrative at the upcoming DevGAMM Awards! 🏆
[/p][p][/p][h3]Performance[/h3]

• [p]Significant performance improvements in a particularly colorful area of Episode 5.[/p]
• [p]Various baseline performance improvements across all outdoor areas (10-20% reduction in GPU usage in our tests).[/p]
• [p]Improved performance in many indoor areas.[/p]
• [p]Optimizations to physics and IK systems on drones.[/p]
• [p]Various Steam Deck-specific performance improvements.[/p]
• [p]Improved VSync handling for monitors with non-standard refresh rates.[/p]

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

• [p]Fixed Alfie sometimes getting stuck in areas with scaffolding.[/p]
• [p]Fixed some objects not properly being pushed by carts or other rolling objects.[/p]
• [p]Fixed placed rocks occasionally floating.[/p]
• [p]Fixed rare case where audio could get stuck in “sleeping” mode.[/p]
• [p]Improved footstep sounds on glass surfaces.[/p]

[h3]UI/UX[/h3]

• [p]Added a mini-tutorial for accessing inventory.[/p]
• [p]Improved jogging tutorial to better show that the key/button can be toggled or held.[/p]

[h3]Other Improvements[/h3]

• [p]Added Steam Rich Presence, showing what episode you’re currently playing to your friends.[/p]
• [p]Fixed edge cases where the Weather Man and Pack Rat achievements might not award initially.[/p]
• [p]Updated/improved translations in all languages.[/p]
• [p]Various art polish and minor fixes throughout.[/p]

[p]Hearing from so many of you about how much the story, characters and world have affected you has meant a lot to our small team. Thank you for the reviews and feedback![/p]

[p]We’re continuing to smooth out rough edges and respond to your feedback as you explore the Arctic. Patch 1.0.10 brings a mix of traversal fixes, UI improvements, polish across art and performance, and a handful of rare bug fixes.[/p][p]As always, thanks for sending in your reports! They're a big help in tracking down the stranger edge cases. Here's what's new:[/p][p][/p][h3]Traversal[/h3]

• [p]Various traversal/collider fixes and polish throughout the level design.[/p]
• [p]Increased reach range when rock climbing to prevent feeling stuck.[/p]
• [p]Prevented climbing onto robot arms (no more accidental joyrides).[/p]
• [p]Prevented vaulting over a railing into the chasm.[/p]
• [p]Prevented trapping yourself inside the plane with large branches.[/p]
• [p]Fixed traversal issues in Episode 2 where you could fall off ledges and not recover.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a rare soft lock after performing a traversal.[/p]
• [p]Fixed some collider clipping in the tunnel.[/p]

[h3]Gameplay/Interactions[/h3]

• [p]Fixed Alfie sometimes getting caught on objects or holding branches indefinitely.[/p]
• [p]Fixed Alfie sometimes saying you were going the wrong direction when you weren’t.[/p]
• [p]Minor tweaks to Alfie’s behavior in specific situations.[/p]
• [p]Improvements to some scene triggers to feel more intuitive.[/p]
• [p]Fixed edge case logic issues in Episode 5.[/p]
• [p]Adjusted difficulty in breathing/meditation sequences, especially after repeated failures.[/p]

[h3]UI/Controls[/h3]

• [p]Fixed “Put Down” text sometimes getting stuck on screen.[/p]
• [p]Added “Put Down” under the reticle when placing objects for clarity.[/p]
• [p]Added missing UI icons when assigning mouse side buttons.[/p]
• [p]Fixed collection alert occasionally getting stuck.[/p]
• [p]Fixed spectrum analyzer not showing when loading into a specific scene from a save file.[/p]
• [p]Fixed rare case where breathing exercises UI could get stuck.[/p]
• [p]Various minor translation fixes.[/p]

[h3]Visuals[/h3]

• [p]Added graphics setting to toggle anti-aliasing.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a few shadow clipping issues.[/p]
• [p]Fixed NESE tower not being visible from certain cairn vistas.[/p]
• [p]Various art polish and minor visual fixes.[/p]

[h3]Audio[/h3]

• [p]Fixed rare audio spam issue at the start of a specific Episode 4 event.[/p]
• [p]Fixed music/sound overlap in edge cases.[/p]
• [p]Made Alfie easier to understand under high stress.[/p]

[h3]Stability/Polish[/h3]

• [p]Various minor performance improvements to reduce micro stutters.[/p]
• [p]Minor polish passes throughout.[/p]

[p]We’re so grateful for all the support as you continue to play and share your thoughts with us and with your friends! Every review and report helps us make Arctic Awakening better.[/p]