Flame Keeper News

[h3]Untold Tales is opening its treasure room, with all our games and a couple of bundles getting big discounts!
[/h3]

We're featuring Flame Keeper there, along with a whole pack of our other celebrated titles.

Here’s just a taste of what is on offer!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Head over to the sale page and start finding your untold tale!

We’ve also got bundles galore with games like GRIS, Röki, Tails of Iron, Eldest Souls as well as a special section of upcoming games from some of our friends.

The sale lasts until Sunday, April 30th.

See you there

[h3]Greetings, fellow protectors of Orbis![/h3]

We're excited to announce the release of Update 01 for Flame Keeper! This update brings a host of new features, improvements, and bug fixes to the game. Here's a rundown of what's new:

Perks

• Added 6 multi-level perks (3 levels each) and 17 single-level perks
  
• Players can select a random perk after each lamp charge
  
• Perks window displays after lamp charged
  
• Active perk icons are visible under HP bar
  

Weapons

• Added 9 new weapons dropping from totems and some enemies
  
• Three groups of weapons, each with its own effect on the last combo hit
  
• Each weapon type overrides basic melee attack and changes speed, damage, and range
  
• The forge building in the village can be upgraded to unlock new weapon drops
  
• Added weapon throwing (hold strong attack button)
  

Other

• Enemies now respawn after the player gains a perk
  
• Modified and wrapped the stamina bar around Ignis for better visibility
  
• Added two additional difficulty levels
  
• Made small translation tweaks
  
• Added widescreen support
  
• Added the ability to run the game in the background
  
• Improved dropped item visibility
  
• Improved opened totems FX (old ones were too intense and blocked visibility)
  
• Decreased the intro volume
  
• Fixed various bugs, including Vulpis dropping less energy than collected, desynchronized platforms preventing walking through wind zone, and missing textures on some assets
  

We hope you enjoy the new features and improvements in Update 01! As always, we appreciate your feedback and support. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to join our Discord server, and we'll be happy to assist you.

Stay vigilant!

Best,
Untold Tales and Kautki Cave

Hello everyone.

[h2]Welcome to the perks dojo![/h2]

In the next update, Ignis is going to practice some new kicks on the enemies he's going to face: we're adding perks to the game, run-specific upgrades that you unlock after bringing a lantern to the Flame,
choose your playstyle as you make your way through the monster hordes!

Here's what it's going to look like:



Offensive, or defensive, many interesting perk combinations will give you an edge in your battle against obscurity!

I leave the mic to Paweł from the dev team to explain the whys and hows of this new addition:

Originally posted by Paweł

We decided to implement Perks for a few reasons:

[h3]1. Roguelite element and better replayability.[/h3]
Flame Keeper had some basic rogue-lite mechanics but we were missing some greater gameplay randomization so that every new run could be more diverse. Now after putting a lantern around the fireplace you can pick 1 out of 3 random perks. They have a great influence on your playstyle and add a lot of fun and variation even if you are replaying the same stage.

[h3]2. Reward for your sacrifice: more fun more often.[/h3]
Before perks were implemented, the player was charging the fireplace with their own life energy to win. It was some kind of reward but we were missing something more enjoyable and more frequent. Therefore we decided to fill that gap by giving a new perk exactly after the lantern is brought to the fireplace to reward you for giving your life.

[h3]3. Enemies respawn - update.[/h3]
In the current version of the game, enemies just respawn after some time. It was sometimes annoying when they did so just in front of you when you were peacefully bringing a lantern to the fireplace. Now enemies respawn after the lantern is loaded in the fireplace. That makes exploring the map a much nicer experience, because your influence on it (killed enemies, peaceful regions) lasts longer you can decide when you want to respawn them (and thus plan how much risk you're willing to take).

That's what we've been cooking, we're excited to hear your feedback in the comment section, see you soon for more updates, and don't forget to check the roadmap to get a taste of what's coming!

Signed: The Kautki Cave team and Untold Tales

[h3]Dear protectors of the Orbis,[/h3]

It's time for a little sneak peek of our upcoming "Lethal Update", which will be released somewhere within a month from now.

Two major improvements are:

PERKS
Players can now select one of three random perks after each lamp charge, allowing for diverse Ignis builds every playthrough. The perks will disappear after each death or return to the village.



WEAPONS
Each forge level in the village unlocks a new tier of weapons that can be found during gameplay. Each tier features a unique modifier on the final combo hit (slow, poison, burn).



Then there are smaller, yet key fixes we intend to introduce:

• DIFFICULTY LEVELS -> choose from easy, normal, or hard at the beginning of each game, or adjust it anytime in the settings.
  
• STAMINA BAR -> the stamina bar is now located beneath Ignis for improved visibility.
  
• COMBAT DUMMY -> practice your attack combinations and damage output in the village.
  
• WIDESCREEN -> widescreen support would be added.
  
• LAMPS & RUNES -> added extra effects to make dropped lamps and runes easier to find.
  

Here's also a look at a neat stone punch WIP animation!



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Now, also last week we had an amazing opportunity to answer some questions from our Flaming community on r/nintendoswitch. We thought that maybe some of those answers could be helpful for a broader audience so we decided to share a few of them here with you!

▶ What was your biggest inspiration for Flame Keeper and why? If I had to guess I’d go with Cult of a Lamb :)

Cult of the Lamb was a good inspiration when we started developing the Vulpis Village but it was quite late in our timeline. Initially, we were heavily influenced by Hades and we drew a lot from Children of Morta. Generally, we tried to explore this genre and try to find solutions that we liked the most and make them in our own style. We liked Hades for its dynamic combat and we were trying to keep this in our game, and we like a lot of the solutions from Children of Morta like the sequence of stage 1, stage 2, the boss and then the next biome. We also liked the random items, abilities and character upgrades.

▶ About the weapons you want to add. Do you mean equippable ones? Like sword, shield etc? Thx

Weapons will be more like temporary basic attack upgrades. They will drop from totems (small ones that you charge by your own energy and bigger ones that you need to find a rune to open). They will have some durability and they will override basic attacks. The last combo attack adds modificators depending on weapon type: slow, poison, burn. They are also divided into 3 groups by their attack speed, damage and distance. So in general it makes 9 weapons for now. Of course, you will have to build a blacksmith hut in the village first to unlock weapons.

▶ What was the hardest part of developing the game?

I think the hardest part was accepting some elements as it is. Many game mechanics were a prototype first, which we then extended, got feedback on, and that we changed again, and there always were some elements that I know can be done better, but at some point, we have to accept it even though we know that we can still make some changes. Otherwise, we would never have finished it :) So in general, planning, management, and sticking to it.

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That is all for today!
If you still have some questions that you would like to ask us - you can join our discord anytime and we will be happy to provide you with the answers!

Have a great day! 🔥
Flame Keeper team

[h3]Thank You![/h3]

Thank you for playing Flame Keeper! Such a warm welcome, this made our little coal hearts shine brighter!

You slayed pixies, slashed through hordes of spiders, and... you brought us a nice bag of bugs! Good. Keep them coming, the Eternal Flame won't be satisfied until all of them have disappeared from the face of Orbis! Our QA team (short for Qualified Arthropod-exterminators) and expert developers are examining their guts at this very moment, we're keeping you updated on the state of their "fixing", I mean, death by cremation.

[h3]The Roadmap[/h3]

Now that you cleared up this hostile jungle around the village some brave Vulpis explorers have ventured far from the hearth, and caught a glimpse of exotic lands with strange beasts and many legs... But it will take some time for a proper path to be established. Check the roadmap, the works have already begun!



Stay tuned for more updates (here of course, but also on Discord, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok), or Facebook), we'll keep the smoke signal coming!

If we were not burning hot from the enthusiasm (and the red cheeks) we would give you a big hug!

Signed: Ignis, the Kautki Cave team and Untold Tales