Labyrinthine News

Hey Everyone,

Chapter 5 and Randomisation are progressing along well, please check the April devblog if you haven't already. This update brings the features and changes from public_testing over to the live build.

Changes
- Added the ability to switch glowstick colour
- Added a basic crouch mechanic
- Added a new objective system, you will now be notified of objective changes and can see your current objective/progress in the escape menu.
- Chapter 3 has had some map changes to make it clearer where to go and make everything feel more natural
- Chapter 4 gates now shut less often
- Reduced number of crypt zombies in Chapter 4 by half
- Optimized hedges to be instanced indirect ( should give a performance boost, especially to older hardware )
- Removed a bunch of objects that were not visible in each scene to help performance
- Added a secondary LOD to hedges to improve performance further
- Wickerman is slightly slower to give players a better chance to escape
- Chapter 1 has been re-arranged to have the first statue obvious on entry
- Chapter 1 no longer gives a UI message about the letters not being on busts
- Made a book in Chapter 1 more visible (was a little hard to see in the grass)
- There is now a gate preventing you from wandering too far before solving the tiles puzzle in Chapter 1
- You can no longer jump on lamp posts in Chapter 3
- You can no longer destroy effigies prior to learning about them in the attic
- You will now be rejected if you try join a game from another branch
- The serverlist will detect if the lobby has a version mismatch
- Pigman's stalk music reworked to be much more noticeable
- Pigman's spawn location changed
- Chapter 4 ambient music reduced

Fixes
- Fixed Push to Talk
- Fixed Push to Talk key remapping
- Fixed Voices not being muted at 0% voice volume
- Fixed an issue where players would sometimes have objects fail to spawn (i.e. gates/lever in chapter 2)
- Controller support option should now work much better and disabling it should stop players from spinning
- Achievements should now pop instantly rather than on closing the game
- Fixed an issue where the witch could get stuck in an aggro loop
- Fixed an issue where Crypt Zombies didn't aggro properly in certain situations
- Fixed an issue where animations would still play as if walking despite controller support being disabled
- Fixed the witch not targeting
- Improved AI movement in chapter 2, should prevent some scenarios where the witch could get stuck in an aggro loop
- Fixed an issue where smiley could instantly dis-engage
- Fixed the menus appearing vertically for a moment
- Fixed an issue with the menus either having vertical text or being scrunched together
- Further optimisations to remove stutter when loading
- Fixed several navigation issues in chapter 2 including the "stump of safety" and the table.
- Fixed a bug that allowed you to fly by crouching and interacting with notes
- A few small map fixes in various zones (i.e. the flames being missing in the house in chapter 3)
- Fixed an issue where you could break the networking by picking up the tablet at the start of chapter 4
- Fixed a potential disconnect when interacting with items
- Fixed an issue where updating an objective would disconnect everyone
- Fixed an issue that would cause the cursor to disappear

Hey Everyone!

We're sad to say, we're cancelling the development of Labyrinthine to make a mobile pong game.

Okay mandatory April Fool's joke aside, we're happy to share another developer update on what's been going on behind the scenes! We've got sneak peeks of Chapter 5, Merchandise and a more in-depth look at the randomisation system that's currently in development. This post is packed full of juicy information!

You can find it here: https://www.valkogames.com/april-2021-developer-update/

As always, we genuinely can't thank you all enough for the support and positive comments you leave. While we don't respond/reply to as many positive reviews on steam, it's great to read through them all every morning. If you left us one on there (like you should :wink:), we have 100% read it!

Discord: Valko Game Studios Official Discord

Valko Game Studios.

Changelog:

Changes
- Reworked layout of zone 4 to make it easier to find things
- Added more light to zone 4 and slightly increased the brightness
- Zones should now be unlocked if you played them prior to zone 4's release
- Wickerman will no longer camp players endlessly
- Pigman has had his speed reduced
- Death music has been reduced significantly
- Crypt zombies no longer "dance"
- Pigman's AI now correctly charges at you and should stun if he hits a wall
- Pigman no longer wanders into the left section of zone 4
- Pigman's visibility has been increased and his footsteps are now louder and more noticeable
- Player voice ranges increased slightly
- Crypt gates volume reduced slightly
- Compass needle is now much easier to see
- Zone 3 is now a little bit brighter
- Cryptex speed much quicker
- Stone tile puzzle speed slower
- Zone 4 lighting rebaked to remove artifacts
- Spinner Puzzle now shows the matching symbol on each pillar
- Changed the middle block of the center pillar

Fixes
- Log files should no longer be spammed with null
- Fixed several areas in the house where interaction would be difficult from certain angles
- Wickerman will also no longer charge into the cabin or house
- The hole in zone 2 is now patched up
- Fixed an issue where the cryptex could sometimes be out of sync between players
- Fixed an issue where the spinner block could sometimes be out of sync between players
- Push to Talk should now work correctly
- Fixed an issue that made crypt zombies bug out / not aggro
- Fixed an issue where the witch would repeatedly scream at you if she can't reach you.
- Fixed an issue where going into zone 2 and dying could put you outside of the map
- The compass is now correctly unlocked in zone 2,3 and 4 when resuming from the lobby
- You can no longer open the mausoleum prior to finding the dagger
- Zone 3's lighting bugs are fixed (no more square shadows)
- Altered the way controller input is detected (may help with spinning issue)
- Reworked a lot of the way the settings are stored and applied to help fix various issues with settings resetting
- Going beyond 5 keys no longer causes the gate to open repeatedly

Hey everyone, we hope you've all had a chance to play the latest update and enjoyed the new content / new networking system.

We've decided that going forward, we're going to have an open testing branch where changes can be pushed for the public to test before they go live. For the most part, this will is to help us verify our fixes are working and to balance any issues. To join the public test branch, simply right click labyrinthine on steam, go to properties, then click BETAS and choose public_testing from the dropdown. Hopefully we can react faster to people having issues without affecting regular players. This won't be fully replacing private testing so if you've signed up for that, you're still on the list for future updates.

To avoid spamming people's connected discords with testing branch notes, we have created a separate announcement channel [#public-testing] on discord. Feel free to follow that if you want to get notifications when we update the testing branch. We do have changes live on there right now; Including a slightly reworked layout for Zone 4 to make things a little easier to navigate (some people are really struggling), a patch to unlock the chapters for players who played prior to the update, a bunch of fixes for reported issues as well as several major fixes to the pigman's AI.

The female character model is still coming, we're just waiting for the streamer it's based on to play (she's had an emergency IRL that has delayed the stream) before we set her live.

Finally, we have several new major systems in the works as well as chapter 5. There is no ETA on them right now, but we're hoping to get something out soon...

Thanks for all of your support everyone, we've loved reading your comments/suggestions in discord as well as the positive reviews you've left on steam.

With this update we're bringing the next chapter in our story as well as a completely overhauled network system that fixes several game-breaking bugs and issues. We want to thank everyone for being patient and supportive, especially on discord!

[h2]Changes and Additions[/h2]
- Complete rework of the entire networking system
- Improved performance of hedges
- Lobby system added with character selection
- Removed old "checkpoint" system and replaced with a per-zone unlock system
- Reduced audio of video player to prevent sound clipping
- Added Zone 4
- Added Zone 1 achievement to find 30 Jonny books
- Added Zone 2 achievement to find another 30 Jonny books
- Notification of collecting achievement item (key item support coming)
- Added inverted mouse support
- Revamped vsync system and added more selection
- Added the option to disabled controller support
- Improved speed of item switching
- Improved flashlight distance
- Improved lantern radius
- Slightly increased brightness of Zones 1 and Zone 2
- Zone 3 brightness reduced
- Zone 3 new ambience
- Added another exit from the graveyard in Zone 3
- Changed wording on early access
- Loading screen now has an animated title
- Added invite button to lobby
- Added microphone selection
- Re-coloured wood for the safezone sheds
- more performance changes for "potato" mode
- Added a new playable character
- Forced the game to run through steam (Sorry Pirates)
- Improved the resolution of some textures
- The network will now properly register disconnects and return you to the menu
- "offline" warning changed to yellow to be less threatening
- Effigies now whisper louder
- Reduced the delay before vines become impassable

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
- Fixed issue where menu was not interactable after leaving a game
- Fixed issue with players being unable to join games after disconnecting
- Fixed issue with players being unable to host after leaving a game
- Fixed a crash that could occur when trying to host
- Fixed issue with players being unable to interract with objects in other games
- Fixed an issue that could prevent the cryptex from being solvable
- Fixed some weird colliders near objects in Zone 2
- Fixed an issue where players were unable to toggle the stone tiles in Zone 1
- Fixed several issues with occlusion
- Fixed brightness slider not saving correctly
- Fixed issue with voice chat cutting out when more than 2 players
- Fixed issue with voice chat sometimes just not working at all
- Fixed issue where stalk music would sometimes not work for a client
- Fixed issue where the cursor is invisible after being disconnected from a game
- Fixed a handful of lighting issues
- Fixed a light set to the wrong type in Zone 1
- Fixed an issue where some options would reset others
- Fixed a bug where players could keep items between games
- Fixed a bug where settings would reset on starting the game
- Fixed a scaling issue preventing people from getting past the early access notice
- Fixed an issue where players would be disconnected at random in-game
- Fixed an issue where players could appear in multiple lobbies on steam
- Fixed an issue where players would appear as "Steam User"
- Fixed an issue where players would have no body
- Fixed an issue that could cause lobbies to break upon leaving a game

[h2]Monster Changes[/h2]
- Wickerman patrol speed increased
- Wickerman line of sight increased
- Wickerman pathing improved
- All monsters should now detect invalid paths
- Witch should now be able to switch to the closest player
- Smiley is now much faster once you've aggro'd him
- Smiley will no longer attempt to attack people in the cabin
- Fixed some areas the witch could get stuck on


We have likely missed some changes and bugfixes from the list. Please continue to let us know if you encounter any bugs or issues via our official discord, Valko Game Studios Discord. We are also hoping to get plenty of feedback on our new zone as well as the new networking system so make sure to let us know!