HUGE VERSION 1.9.0 UPDATE - Dashing, New Damage System, Release Date Soon...!
Hi everyone!
Last week Soul Stalker's demo was at the Steam Next Fest, and we got tons of awesome feedback! The biggest change that we made as a response to it is that you can now dash. Characters have between 1 and 3 dashes that charge back up after a second or two, and it changes the game massively (for the better)! Check out an example below.
In designing Soul Stalker, my intention was always to make the game technically accessible - that is, the physical execution of the game is basic, but the game has tons of depth through the decisions you make. Because of this, I was initially apprehensive to add another action to the game, but that changed when I made a prototype not too long ago.
Whenever I make a prototype, it's typically to answer a question, and this one's was "what if Soul Stalker's design DIDN'T involve it being technically accessible"? Of course, Soul Stalker won't change this far into development, so I settled for spending a weekend testing out this idea in a new project, and what I got was the clip below...
As you can see, you can kind of tell that the game is based on Soul Stalker, but it's really quite different. Despite this, I really liked how it turned out, and it may even be a candidate for a future game!
The main things that I wanted to bring back to Soul Stalker from this prototype were the dash, and the damage system. The dash I felt would make a good addition to the game because some enemies in the second act start getting hard to dodge without one, and this is doubly the case with lower mobility characters. The ability to add more complex enemies and bring more gameplay variety to the game is worth the tradeoff of adding the dash and introducing slightly more complexity in my opinion!
Separately, one of the main complaints that Soul Stalker has had throughout its development has been that it was hard to know when you've been hit. Over the past few months I've tried to remedy this through adding more clear visuals, VFX, SFX, and just about everything else under the sun. After making this prototype however, I realized what the core issue was: the tick-based damage system. If you've played Soul Stalker, you'll know that there isn't really a clear moment where you're hit - if you're in contact with an enemy then your health is constantly being drained.
Changing the damage system to be one where there is one clean hit allows gives me more options with respect to communicating to the player that they've been hit. For instance, the new "one clean hit" damage system applies slowmo, squash and stretch to the player, a field of view shake, a single clear particle effect, and more! Many of these additions wouldn't really work with the tick-based damage system, so the change has been well worth it. The clip below shows how it looks like to get hit in the new build!
As you can see, all the techniques that I mentioned above (and more) now apply when you're hit, making it much clearer! On top of this, there is also a gust of wind that pushes enemies away from you to allow you to get away from the situation safely! This combined with the new dash makes the game's enemy avoidance incredibly different, and for the better! I'd love to hear your thoughts on it (you can play it right now on Steam)!
Since these 2 changes affect the core game in quite the substantial manner, some considerable balancing had to be done. I won't go into detail about these balance changes like I did the two systems above, but you can see the full patch notes below:
Patch Notes
And those are the patch notes for 1.9.0! The next few weeks and months are going to be incredibly eventful for Soul Stalker as not only are we going to start porting to Nintendo Switch soon, but we'll also be revealing a release date for the PC Early Access release promptly! The Switch release is still scheduled for Q2 2024 with 1.0 as was planned previously, but it will still be incredibly exciting to get more people to play the game!
Leading up to the announcement, we're going to be making tons of quality of life changes, bug fixes, streamlining, and more, so if you have any suggestions feel free to put them in the comments and Steam discussion group!
I mentioned in the previous update that I'd be announcing a new roadmap soon to replace the old one, and that will likely come after we've announced a PC Early Access release date, so keep an eye out for that!
That's it for now, and I look forward to making Soul Stalker ever better in 1.10.0 :)
- Conrad, Lead Developer
Last week Soul Stalker's demo was at the Steam Next Fest, and we got tons of awesome feedback! The biggest change that we made as a response to it is that you can now dash. Characters have between 1 and 3 dashes that charge back up after a second or two, and it changes the game massively (for the better)! Check out an example below.
In designing Soul Stalker, my intention was always to make the game technically accessible - that is, the physical execution of the game is basic, but the game has tons of depth through the decisions you make. Because of this, I was initially apprehensive to add another action to the game, but that changed when I made a prototype not too long ago.
Whenever I make a prototype, it's typically to answer a question, and this one's was "what if Soul Stalker's design DIDN'T involve it being technically accessible"? Of course, Soul Stalker won't change this far into development, so I settled for spending a weekend testing out this idea in a new project, and what I got was the clip below...
As you can see, you can kind of tell that the game is based on Soul Stalker, but it's really quite different. Despite this, I really liked how it turned out, and it may even be a candidate for a future game!
The main things that I wanted to bring back to Soul Stalker from this prototype were the dash, and the damage system. The dash I felt would make a good addition to the game because some enemies in the second act start getting hard to dodge without one, and this is doubly the case with lower mobility characters. The ability to add more complex enemies and bring more gameplay variety to the game is worth the tradeoff of adding the dash and introducing slightly more complexity in my opinion!
Separately, one of the main complaints that Soul Stalker has had throughout its development has been that it was hard to know when you've been hit. Over the past few months I've tried to remedy this through adding more clear visuals, VFX, SFX, and just about everything else under the sun. After making this prototype however, I realized what the core issue was: the tick-based damage system. If you've played Soul Stalker, you'll know that there isn't really a clear moment where you're hit - if you're in contact with an enemy then your health is constantly being drained.
Changing the damage system to be one where there is one clean hit allows gives me more options with respect to communicating to the player that they've been hit. For instance, the new "one clean hit" damage system applies slowmo, squash and stretch to the player, a field of view shake, a single clear particle effect, and more! Many of these additions wouldn't really work with the tick-based damage system, so the change has been well worth it. The clip below shows how it looks like to get hit in the new build!
As you can see, all the techniques that I mentioned above (and more) now apply when you're hit, making it much clearer! On top of this, there is also a gust of wind that pushes enemies away from you to allow you to get away from the situation safely! This combined with the new dash makes the game's enemy avoidance incredibly different, and for the better! I'd love to hear your thoughts on it (you can play it right now on Steam)!
Since these 2 changes affect the core game in quite the substantial manner, some considerable balancing had to be done. I won't go into detail about these balance changes like I did the two systems above, but you can see the full patch notes below:
Patch Notes
- Added dashing to all characters, it is done by pressing spacebar on keyboard, or "A" on a gamepad.
- Changed the damage system to make hitboxes deal one clean hit instead of ticks of damage on constant contact.
- Added health bar to the HUD so that it can be referenced outside of combat for decision making.
- Changed all enemies' hitboxes damage values to work better with the one clean hit damage system.
- Dashing enemies no longer deal extra damage on contact, instead they deal their base contact damage.
- Made it such that there is a damage popup appears when the player is hit so that you can tell how much damage specific enemies deal.
- Made the player invulnerable for half a second after being hit.
- Angled the camera more upwards to have a bit more of a top-down view to make hitbox gauging easier.
- Adjusted enemy hitboxes to be more accurate with the top down camera, and the new default camera.
- Made achievements no longer unlock trinkets and weapons - they are all unlocked from the start.
- Instead, achievements only unlock characters.
- Invee Act 2 elite Max HP 1400 -> 1000.
- Increased all characters' starting Max HP by ~25%.
- Removed the triple dash from all enemies except the act 2 boss.
- Made the act 2 boss' dash slower.
- Fixed bug that caused some enemies to fly back incredibly fast if they were pushed by another enemy.
- Fixed bug that caused the shop to show incorrect regeneration values.
- Fixed some outdated localization strings.
- Updated some Act 1 music to a more polished version.
- Added wishlist button to the main menu (go wishlist Soul Stalker and tell your friends to as well)!
And those are the patch notes for 1.9.0! The next few weeks and months are going to be incredibly eventful for Soul Stalker as not only are we going to start porting to Nintendo Switch soon, but we'll also be revealing a release date for the PC Early Access release promptly! The Switch release is still scheduled for Q2 2024 with 1.0 as was planned previously, but it will still be incredibly exciting to get more people to play the game!
Leading up to the announcement, we're going to be making tons of quality of life changes, bug fixes, streamlining, and more, so if you have any suggestions feel free to put them in the comments and Steam discussion group!
I mentioned in the previous update that I'd be announcing a new roadmap soon to replace the old one, and that will likely come after we've announced a PC Early Access release date, so keep an eye out for that!
That's it for now, and I look forward to making Soul Stalker ever better in 1.10.0 :)
- Conrad, Lead Developer