Soul Stalker News

Hi everyone!

Last Wednesday I posted a breakdown of the map rework that is going to come to the next update, and initially the intention was for the update to be solely about this.

However, I am happy to announce that the metaprogression implementation has advanced at a much quicker pace than expected! Because of this, the next update will be the "Map & Metaprogression Update", which will probably be one of the biggest in the whole Early Access period! We're been working on both of these reworks/mechanics in some form since August!

Before I break down how the new metaprogression system, as always, I would really appreciate it if you left a review! It's the best way to support the game!


Soul Stalker in general is all about strategizing with your builds, and because of this traditional metaprogression doesn't fit with the game as it would become more of a power fantasy, going directly against the game's strategic DNA. Any system we consider must do the following:

• Rewards you for each run, whether successful or not.
  
• Incentivizes you to play at higher ascensions due to increased rewards.
  
• Allows you to get stronger over time as you unlock more options to create more interesting builds rather than getting stronger in a strict numerical sense.
  

If you've been following the Steam update posts, you'll see that I was seeking feedback a while ago, and I decided to take all of the comments into account for the new system!


In short, all characters are now able to start with any weapon, or any trinket. The weapons and trinkets that used to be the default starters for characters are still shown as "recommended", but you can pass the page and choose any other from the game.... As long as you buy it!


As you can see in the gif above, all weapons are choosable, it's just that the stronger ones are more expensive.


As you can see in the gif above, all trinkets are also choosable! Being able to choose whichever starting trinket is the biggest change to the game in my opinion, once you unlock everything you can start with the most busted combos imaginable (which will be a huge bonus for climbing higher ascensions)!


In order to allow the purchasing of starting weapons and trinkets, a new currency has been implemented - Souls. Whenever you finish a run (whether you win or lose), you will now get souls based on your performance.

Not only do these allow the purchasing of starters, but we've also added the feature of tracking your highest souls gained in a single run so you can try to climb ascensions with the intention of getting the highest score possible! An added bonus is that when we're sure that this is all fully stable, we'll implement online leaderboards so that you can see where you stand compared to the rest of the world!

As an aside, we recently announced a new game in the same genre as Soul Stalker, and it has a free demo out as well! Try it out with the box below, I hope you enjoy it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2491670/Wanted_Shadows

Anyways, that's it for this update, and as always, I would really appreciate it if you left a review! It's the best way to support the game! I'm super excited to show you all what we have in store for Soul Stalker for this huge Maps & Metaprogression Update!

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

- Conrad, Lead Developer

Hi everyone!

It's been a bit under a week since the last update and I wanted to show you what we've been working on for the next big one which is all about the map system rework!

Before we start, as always, I would really appreciate it if you left a review! It's the best way to support the game!



The first thing that we're showing in this post is the updated map screen! I've shown some sneak peaks already but I'm glad to announce that it is now fully implementd! We just need to fix some bugs and adjust some things, so it'll likely make its way to the beta branch soon. Not only does it look more fleshed out, the algorithm used to create the paths is much improved so there will be many meaningful choices that you'll have to make throughout your new runs.



Another thing we've done is split the shop into a trinket and weapon shop. This was one of the ideas that I was initially apprehensive to add, but it actually makes the game feel much better in combination with the new map path algorithm. Previously, the game tried to guess whether you wanted to purchase weapons or trinkets to determine what to serve you at shops, but now it's completely up to you! This makes it easier to pivot mid-run if you want different weapons, or just go all in for specific trinkets.



Another major change is that the healing/upgrading from the shops is its own node. To balance out the fact that you'll see this screen less often, the effects of healing and upgrading are much increased!


This was already shown in the small hotfix post that I made a few days ago, but we've re-done the character select menu to take full advantage of the diverse personalities we have in the game!


Finally, we're introducing a new character - Hanubat! This one's special ability is that it can increase its dodge stat at a much higher rate than usual, so you'll be able to craft cool combos together with the dodge trinkets introduced in the previous and next update!

You might recognize the character if you've been following our studio in general, and that's because it comes from our upcoming game - Wanted Shadows! In short, it's a Bullet Heaven just like Soul Stalker, but it takes the action to the max. You aim your attacks, click to shoot, have a dodge with stamina management, and more! The game is part of the Steam Next Fest right now, so check out the free demo while it's available! The game comes out super soon too, on the 31st of October, Halloween.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2491670/Wanted_Shadows

Anyways, that's it for this update, and as always, I would really appreciate it if you left a review! It's the best way to support the game! I'm super excited to show you all what we have in store for Soul Stalker in terms of this update, and future ones as well!

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

- Conrad, Lead Developer

Hi everyone!

Yesterday we released a major update, and while it's stable in most situations thanks to the beta branch testing, some of you found a few issues. This hotfix fixes them! Also, as always, we would really appreciate it if you left a review! It's the best way to support the game!

• Removed unused plugins that affected loading.
  
• Fixed bug that caused some tooltips to display incorrect text.
  
• Fixed bug that caused tooltips to sometimes display text in an incorrect language.
  
• Fixed bug that caused the resolution setting not to work as a result of an engine update.
  
• Fixed bug that made resolutions appear more than once in the settings on certain machines.
  

Apart from the hotfix, we've been hard at work on the next update. Below you'll see our current implementation of the revamped character select menu!



Also, we recently announced a new game in the same genre as Soul Stalker, and it has a free demo out as well! Try it out with the box below, I hope you enjoy it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2491670/Wanted_Shadows

Anyways, that's it for this update, and as always, we would really appreciate it if you left a review! It's the best way to support the game! Also, play the Wanted Shadows demo and give it a wishlist! That helps us out a ton as well!

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

- Conrad, Lead Developer

Hi everyone!

Over the past few weeks we've been testing the next major update in the beta branch of the game. I'm glad to announce that all of these have been compiled into the game's main branch, meaning everyone can play it now! I've put the patch notes below, which is a combination of new changes/fixes, and the previous beta branch updates.

As always, we would really appreciate it if you left a review! It's the best way to support the game!

• Added an arrow indicator to all dashing enemies to make it even clearer when they're about to dash, and what direction they're dashing in.
  
• Changed the dash enemy AI to make it such that the dash direction is determined when the enemy starts dashing, instead of when the charge is finished. This should make it much easier to avoid dashing enemies.
  
• Fixed bug that made dashing at the wall at high speeds clip out of bounds.
  
• Fixed bug that made it such that you were sometimes unable to increase your max dash count with the new items.
  
• Much increased the max dash limit to the point where it should be unreachable in normal playthroughs.
  
• Fixed some localization bugs that made it such that some items had the wrong descriptions.
  
• Added a new character, Skate. She has incredibly fast dashes.
  
• The Regeneration stat no longer heals you at the end of combats, only in shops. To balance the stat out, all characters now have increased regeneration.
  
• Added the Dodge stat. If you get hit, you have a % to not take damage in accordance with the stat.
  
• New trinket, Ankh Charm - Dodging has a 5% chance to heal 1 HP.
  
• New trinket, Backstab - Dodging has a 5% chance to heal 1 HP.
  
• New trinket, Flying Gold - Dodging grants 10 extra coins.
  
• New trinket, Healthy Heart - Increases dodge chance by 5%.
  
• New trinket, Light Armor - Dash 1 additional time.
  
• New trinket, Sickly Creature - Increases dodge chance by 10% but reduces Max HP by 10.
  
• New trinket, Special Totem - Dodging causes a random projectile weapon to fire.
  
• New trinket, Winged Boots - Getting hit while dashing always results in a dodge.
  
• New trinket, Wolf Dash - Increases dash speed by 20%.
  
• New trinket, Anticipation - Get a stockpiled dodge at the start of each combat.
  
• New trinket, Bat Wings - Increases your chance to dodge by 5%.
  
• New trinket, Cold Blood - Dodging or getting hit applies frost to enemies around you.
  
• New trinket, Contract - Dodging gives you 20 coins.
  
• New trinket, Herba Dodgia - Dodging has a 10% chance to heal 1 HP.
  
• New trinket, Hermes Sandals - Increases dash recharge rate by 15%.
  
• New trinket, Reverse Curse - Get healed for 25% of regeneration at the end of combats.
  
• New trinket, Wave - Dashing surrounds you in a water wake that damages enemies.
  
• Reduced the duration of the first 2 act I combats to 20 seconds, and adjusted gold drops to balance it out.
  
• Reduced the duration of combats after the first 2 of act I to 40 seconds, and adjusted gold drops to balance it out.
  
• Reduced the duration of the first 2 act II combats to 35 seconds, and adjusted gold drops to balance it out.
  
• Reduced the duration of combats after the first 2 of act II to 45 seconds, and adjusted gold drops to balance it out.
  
• All characters now start with 99 coins instead of 50.
  
• Added spawn blocking. This means that if an enemy is about to spawn under you, it picks a different spawn location so it doesn't hit you.
  
• Added pathfinding for the "regular" CPU Load setting. All enemies now follow you and move around obstacles.
  
• Removed the pickup stat, as it had low impact. The Dodge stat now takes its place in the stat display UI.
  
• Fixed some localization bugs.
  
• Added achievement to unlock Skate, the new character.
  
• Fixed bug that tinted the color of the map line incorrectly.
  
• Fixed bug that caused the Act 2 boss to not use the dash arrow correctly.
  
• Fixed bug that caused some spawn blocking to softlock elite combats.
  
• Implemented minor lighting optimizations.
  
• Fixed bug that caused the regeneration stat description to display its old descriptions.
  

Also, we recently announced a new game in the same genre as Soul Stalker, and it has a free demo out as well! Try it out with the box below, I hope you enjoy it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2491670/Wanted_Shadows

Anyways, that's it for this update, and as always, we would really appreciate it if you left a review! It's the best way to support the game! Also, play the Wanted Shadows demo and give it a wishlist! That helps us out a ton as well!


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


- Conrad, Lead Developer

Hi everyone!

We've been hard at work with the Early Access version of Soul Stalker, but behind the scenes we've also been working out the console ports! So... I am very happy to announce that we have partnered up with Origami Panda Studio to port Soul Stalker to help us self-publish on a BUNCH of platforms!

(P.S. If you've been enjoying Soul Stalker, I would really appreciate it if you left a review!)



I'll keep you up to date regarding any big milestones we achieve with consoles, but for now that's it for this announcement!

I also wanted to let you all know that our studio's experimental wing just announced a new game, Wanted Shadows, and there's a free demo available! It's in the same genre as Soul Stalker, but has some key differences like it being more action-focused. If you want to give the demo a try, click below and I would really appreciate a wishlist as well!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2491670/Wanted_Shadows

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

Anyways, that's it for this update, and I'll see you all next time!

- Conrad, Lead Developer