Soul Stalker News

Hi everyone!

Beta 1.4.1 came out 3 days ago on the beta branch and I mentioned how some more updates would come your way before it went on the public branch. Now, Beta 1.4.2 is out and it includes the aforementioned additions!

(Also, the game's on discount, so get it now because it's ending this week!)

• Added the ability to upgrade your weapons in campsites, on top of the already-existing option to evolve them.
  
• You now all of your health upon defeating an act boss.
  
• Added a timer in elites and act bosses that kills you if you haven't defeated the boss by the end of it. The timer is quite hard to reach naturally, but is there to not have players chip away at bosses' health with low-damage attacks with certain builds.
  
• Added Ascension 5 - Defeating bosses heals less.
  
• Added Steam achievement for Sultan.
  
• Added Steam achievement for Vitas.
  
• Added Steam achievement for Prime Comradery.
  
• Made it such that the "Surface Decor" setting affects the overworld, as well as a wider range of combat decorations.
  
• Added a new unique environment for the Act 2 map.
  
• Adjusted the graphics of the Act 3 map environment.
  
• Added sound effects for the final boss' thunder attack.
  
• Added Spanish and French localization for all of the additions in Beta 1.4.0 and Beta 1.4.1.
  
• Increased how much the Hourglass trinket reduces your power.
  
• Increased how much the Possessed Mask increases your regeneration.
  

Anyways, that's it for this update, I look forwards to getting your feedback, and I hope you all enjoy this new version of the game!

P.S. A review would be greatly appreciated, it helps so much :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714240/Soul_Stalker/

- Conrad, Lead Developer

Hi everyone!

Beta 1.4.0 came out 2 days ago on the beta branch, and now Beta 1.4.1 is out to address some minor bugs! Here are the

• Fixed a bug that caused music to be overridden by sound effects if there were many playing at once. This was fixed in a previous update, but was rolled back because of an engine upgrade. It should be definitively fixed now.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused some users to be unable to change their resolution settings. This was also caused by the engine update mentioned in the previous fixed, but the resolution detection method has now been changed so it works for those users, and remain unchanged for the ones for who it worked for already.
  

Anyways, that's it for this update, I look forwards to getting your feedback, and I hope you all enjoy this new version of the game!

P.S. A review would be greatly appreciated, it helps so much :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714240/Soul_Stalker/

- Conrad, Lead Developer

Hi everyone!

Since the last update we've been making tons of progress on 1.4.0 and I'm happy to announce that you can play it RIGHT NOW on the beta branch!

If you're not sure how to access the beta branch but want to play right now, you can do the following:

1. Right click on the game in your Steam library.
   
2. Open Properties.
   
3. Click on Betas.
   
4. Select the "testing" branch.
   
5. That's it! There should be no code required or anything to access it. If you want to switch to the base version of the game, do the same thing again but select "default branch" as your selected branch.
   

Once we're sure that this update is bug free, we'll put it up on the main branch so everyone will be able to play it without needing to adjust their properties!

Also, I just posted a new devlog going over this very update so watch it below if it sounds interesting to you!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Either way, here are the patch notes, it's a huge one:

• Added Act 3 to the game, together with the final boss.
  
• Added PETS! Once you find the hidden turnip in the overworld, the pet turnip will appear south of the Journey Globe, which you can use to select pets and purchase them with souls. In total, there are 18 pets in the game at the moment.
  
• Added the pet system, which has you select a companion that follows you around in combat and attacks enemies. Its stats are upgraded together with yours, so they can be used to bolster a build, or to cover your weak spots.
  
• Added multiple new locations that you will encounter in both Journeys and Jobs. These are some of the best ones in the game in terms of visuals, hope you enjoy them!
  
• Added a new character, Vitas - Deals more damage to enemies the longer he stays still.
  
• Added a new character, Sultan - All stats start low, but his growth rate is higher.
  
• Added a new character, Pure Comradery - Doubles stat gains from pets, and pets attack more quickly.
  
• Added a new music track for the final boss.
  
• Added 5 new enemies that will appear in Act 3, as well as a new elite.
  
• Adjusted some character animations to make them move more fluidly.
  
• Fixed some localization errors.
  
• Moved some combat locations from act 1 to act 2, and vice versa.
  
• Adjusted general rendering to improve the game's visual fidelity.
  
• Adjusted textures for more efficient RAM usage.
  
• Removed currency drops from Act 2 boss.
  
• Adjusted collision in some combat areas.
  

And that's what's in the game as of 1.4.0! We're also planning more additions and updates throughout the next week, which will contain the following:

• Adding the option to upgrade your weapons in campfires on top of being able to heal and evolve weapons.
  
• Adjusting regeneration trinkets to heal more.
  
• Adding automatic healing after act bosses, as well as an ascension level that decreases the healing.
  
• Localization for 1.4.0 additions in Spanish and French.
  
• Extra SFX for the final boss and Act 3 elite.
  
• Decreasing Act Bosses' health, but giving them a ~120 second time limit before they automatically kill you.
  
• Modifying the Act 2 map screen to make it more unique like the one for Act 3.
  

One last thing is that you can get a bundle of both Soul Stalker and our other game, Wanted Shadows, for a super nice discount! If you own Soul Stalker, you can get Wanted Shadows for a discount just like that, no catch! So get that in the link below if it interests you! Soul Stalker on its own is also on discount, so now's the perfect time to get it with 1.4.0!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36217/Rad_Roguelikes/

Anyways, that's it for this update, I look forwards to getting your feedback, and I hope you all enjoy this new version of the game!

P.S. A review would be greatly appreciated, it helps so much :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714240/Soul_Stalker/

- Conrad, Lead Developer

Hi everyone!

Last week we released Soul Stalker's biggest patch ever that introduced the new hub, job system, and more! Today, as part of the Steam Winter Sale, the game is on discount! You can get it below :)

P.S. If you like the game, a review would help me out so much :)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714240/Soul_Stalker/

I also just posted a new video on YouTube that goes over one of the level design processes I use in my games, so check that out if it interests you!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you haven't played my other game, Wanted Shadows, you can get it at a discount through the bundle below if you already own Soul Stalker, and that game is also on its biggest discount ever through the Winter Sale! It's in the same genre as Soul Stalker but with more emphasis on action combat, so get the game if that sounds like what you'd like!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36217/Rad_Roguelikes/

- Conrad, Lead Developer

Hi everyone!

This patch here is a small one to fix some stuff related to the new hub. Below are the patch notes:

• Fixed bug that caused ascensions to be unlocked by jobs.
  
• Fixed bug that caused quijano and joe to not have proper shaders.
  
• Fixed bug that caused you to be able to skip the second gate in the overworld.
  
• Fixed bug that caused ascension 6 to be accessible, which had no parameters assigned to it.
  
• Fixed bug that caused the Prime Fire weapon to not have any description when evolved.
  
• Fixed bug that caused the weapon info screen to not display the evolved icon when a weapon is evolved.
  

If you want to see everything that we added in the latest patch, I made a video going over everything, watch it below!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

That's it for this patch, I'll see you soon for any smaller updates we might do for bug fixes, or otherwise the next big one!

- Conrad, Lead Developer