Creature Keeper News

Another batch of updates for the Keepers of Thera! With our fourth patch, we wanted to push our first round of menu improvements, squash more bugs, and bring some much needed Quality of Life to multiple areas of Creature Keeper.

We're excited to share some exciting news with you coming soon as well, and while I can't quite spill the beans yet, it'll be a big step forward for Creature Keeper!


Bug Fixes

- Fixed a cutscene in Act4 where talking to an NPC would trigger a battle scene from earlier in the game
- Fixed a softlock where you could travel backwards after the final fight which would result in a white screen
- Fixed a source of Pocket Garden lag which was caused by an event continuously being retriggered, which would force the game to redraw seeds in the garden
- Fixed another source of Pocket Garden lag caused by multiple instances of your Bottom Right HUD being drawn for each creature that was spawned when you entered PG
- Fixed a bug which was preventing your cursor from moving on the title screen
- Fixed notifications in Bestiary to stop when you've fully completed an entry
- Fixed Creature Name text in party menu overlapping Skill Gem Popup text
- Removed an item that was spawning when Sabi destroyed a plant in a cutscene
- Added extra button prompts to some menus to indicate what button closes the menu
- Fixed Creature Names being displayed over Skill Gem popups


Quality of Life & General Improvements

- Rearranged Pocket Garden elements to make it easier to move around the menu
When you select a Creature Tile or Seed Tile, the cursor automatically moves to the center of the Pocket Garden

- Tweaked how the cursor selects boxes in Pocket Garden
- Added Bumper and Trigger Support in Party menu to aid with selecting creatures and switching tabs respectively
- Added Trigger Support when interacting with the Summoning Stone to aid with finding creatures more quickly
- Added Trigger Support when interacting with Pocket Garden to navigate between seeds more easily
- Added Trigger Support when navigating the Bestiary
- Added Trigger Support for the tips screen to help with navigation
- Added a rebind option for Menu Left.
Options to rebind Menu Right, Menu Left 2, and Menu Right 2 are coming soon!

This initial pass with trigger and bumper support was made with controllers in mind. Keybinds that will help both controllers and keyboards especially is on its way soon!

- Updated art on pause screen
- Updated art on the party screen
- Replaced an asset in the final scene
- Added close button prompts in Bestiary
- Added prompts in Pocket Garden Screen for creature management
- Adjusted button prompts to show only on the left when hovering over Creature Tiles at the top and in the Pocket Garden itself
- Added button prompts to the title screen


We're looking to add much more quality of life, fix up the remaining stickiness in certain menu navigation areas, take a look at creature perks, and many more as we go into the latter half of May. We hope you've all been enjoying the Creature Collector Steam Fest! More updates coming soon.

Indie forever,
Zach

A fresh patch arrives today, and will be our third since Creature Keeper launched on May 8th. While there is still much work to be done, we're in the zone, and are listening closely to all channels for feedback on improving Creature Keeper.


Bug Fixes

- Fixed a softlock related to a warp after an event in Act3
- Changed the pathing in Horn Tower which was causing some softlocks to occur when warping out from the top of the tower
- Prevented an Act3 cutscene from triggering in the wrong spot
- Fixed an issue where lore text from the Act2 dungeon wasn't displaying at all

- Added a scene that was missing where Max Command was increased to 3
*If you were affected by this bug and don't have a Max Command of 3 when you are supposed to, loading your game will fix the issue*

- Fixed softlock caused by dying during the Elemental fight with Millienne
*If you were affected by this bug, it should be fixed upon loading your save*

- Fixed softlock where NPCs in your party were disappearing when finishing Gruff's side quest
*If you were affected by this bug, it should be fixed upon loading your save*

- Fixed some softlocks related to talking to certain NPCS (Millienne and T'Dao) after starting Act2's questline, which would break saves
*Those who have been affected by this bug will have your save restored upon loading the game*


General Improvements

- Pocket Garden prompt picture was incorrect when the player was asked to plant a seed next to a creature
- Pocket Gardent tutorial explanations were changed to be more clear and less wordy
- Fixed a blocked path in the Protestor Camp
- Disabled placing a hat found in a treasure chest directly onto a creature (this does not mean hats equipped to creatures from the party screen is disabled)
- Removed Lutras from displaying on the Sodland World Map Creature Tracker
- Fixed some Missing map and item names
- When you close Befriending screen, prompts now immediately disappear
- Updated some button icons which were incorrectly being shown, related to the Befriending screen
- Removed a mention of a recipe from Sulao's quest
- Adjusted hitbox of the pedestal in The Elysis
- Removed Interaction from pedestal in The Elysis (no dialogue)
- Replaced a sprite in the epilogue



We appreciate all the feedback we've received for Creature Keeper, we're listening, and working hard. More updates coming soon.

Indie forever,
Zach

[h2]Our first round of bug fixes and improvements, with many more to come.[/h2]


Bug fixes:

- Fixed softlock in Act 3 where you could miss a warp, and if you died you couldn't get back to be able to complete the story
Users affected by this softlock will have a fix applied whenever they try to fast travel from a Traveler's Stone

- Fixed softlock in Act 4 where you could talk to Bibb in Bibb's Sanctuary and overwrite Act4 Progress
Users affected by this softlock will have a fix applied when they Go to the Horn Tower



Improvements:

- "Add Fruit" prompt in Befriending screen has been updated to include the right button icon

- Added a sign that shows where Selias and Sodland Inn are shortly after completing the tutorial

- Added button prompts to the intro tutorial, to show which buttons to press when the game pauses during these tutorial sequences:
1. The first dialogue sequence at the start of the game
2. dodge tutorial
3. Perception Mode tutorial

- Added button prompts to the perception mode tutorial, to show what buttons to press when the player needs to pet, or activate their 'make-believe' creature's skill gem

- Increased player damage by 500%.
This may seem like an over-adjustment, but Blank's innate damage doesn't scale as hard as creature damage. So while this will help players feel more agency in the pacing & overall interactive qualities of combat, your creatures should still feel impactful. This should especially help smooth out the experience at the start of the game before you obtain the ability to have more than one creature active at once, and before your creature has time to level up and become stronger.
Lastly, because creatures dealt significantly more damage than the player, relying on creature AI was a frustrating experience, and it wasn't fun to interact with.


While any remaining bugs that are preventing or hindering progression are our top priority, it's important to us to address what makes the game not fun to play. We have plenty more to work on, such as general controls, menu navigation and save options.

Thank you for supporting Creature Keeper, more updates coming soon,
Zach

- Bug fix to address soft lock that prevented certain players from progressing past main story scenes

This list is comprised of bugs & issues we've collected throughout launch day. Such that players know we are going to address them first and foremost, and we communicate issues that may have affected players, or may in the future.


Known Bugs

- If you befriend a Denka into your party or storage before interacting with the first pocket garden sequence, which happens once you first arrive at Horn Tower, it will break the sequence.
This bug has been fixed internally, and will be patched asap

- Some players when launching the game cannot navigate the options or menus with their controller until they return to use their keyboard. Which then allows navigation for controllers.

- There are some sneaky sequence breaks existing specifically for content at the end of the game

- A few players are starting their game with default keybinds unbound

- In very rare cases players are experiencing saving issues, the only cases of this we've seen so far are with losing save 2 or 3 to save 1

- Miscellaneous bugs that may not hinder the gameplay experience much individually, but may collectively


Current Issues

- Player damage is too low when compared to creatures, and makes for non-interactive combat pacing at the beginning of the game

- Navigating menus with controllers is inconsistent when trying to move certain directions in certain menus

- Keyboard controls need improvement, in addition to keyboard prompts

- Playing Creature Keeper on Ultrawide is causing consistent crashes

- Tutorial sections involving dodging out of the way of Aren, and after the first battle with Aren are causing confusion, and are more unintuitive than we intended. The game is waiting for the correct inputs, but is being mistaken for freezing in most cases.
We are looking into short term solutions for this until it can be either be better instructed, or redesigned to prevent confusion.

- The "Black screen" sequence intro at very beginning of the game is causing confusion, especially with keyboard users, when there is not a prompt of which button to press to continue the sequence.

- Localization will be coming to Creature Keeper

- There is not enough visual feedback on when the game is saving. It saves every time you walk near a fast travel location and/or crystal. There is an icon in the bottom left of the screen when this occurs.



We are dedicated to making Creature Keeper the best game it can be, please keep your feedback & bug reports coming. We're watching, listening, and iterating. If there is something we missed in this list, let us know!

Indie forever,
Zach