Keeper's Toll News

Big Changes are coming to Soul Survivors, and this first change might come as a shock, but let's start with branding. We realize some people don't like change, but Early Access is and has always been about improving the game to us, and over the past few months we have improved a lot!

Soon, the game will no longer be called Soul Survivors. We will be announcing the new name as soon as the new promotional art and logo is finished up (likely next week).

We are not abandoning the game. We are simply re-branding, as we strongly believe this is the right decision for the long term. The game itself is not changing, and we will continue to push out weekly updates as we progress forward in Early Access.

Second, We would like to introduce you to Kalinov, the Keeper of Souls. Kalinov is a key character, not yet in the game, but he will be introduced when we arrive at Castle Usvit in version 0.7.x.



We want to introduce you now, as he is going to play a role in the rebranding of the game.

If you've been here since the beginning you will know there have been a massive amount of changes and improvements we've made to the game, and we will continue to improve the game until it is finished. We released in Early Access to build a small community and get player feedback to develop the best version of this game, and we believe we are succeeding in that. We listen to everything players say and we appreciate the feedback!

There is lots of other changes to come over the coming weeks/months, including a new character class, The Shadow Monk, a new XP system, enhanced lighting and scenery with new environment props and additions, and lots more. We will post more on all of this in the coming weeks.

[h2]Build 0.5.30 Notes:[/h2]

- NEW Curse: Avarice Arrows. Greed may get the best of you!

- Inferno Flames spawned from Inferno Boots merchant item are now pooled for a slight performance boost

- Improved Inferno Flames sprite sorting logic so it renders properly relative to other enemies in the scene

- UI - Fixed/Improved Resolution Dropdown scrolling while using a gamepad

- UI - Added the ability to scroll through input bindings using a gamepad

- Improved logic for input detection to easily change between different control schemes

- Bug Fix: when returning to Application from alt-tabbing there should no longer be issues enabling input with the controller

- Bug Fix: Input Bindings - If a binding is currently listening for input then the other bindings will no longer be selectable until the player presses input or exits the menu

- Bug Fix: Input Bindings - When re entering the bindings menu after exiting the menu while listening for input, the buttons are properly re-initialized and navigation is reset

- Bug Fix: fixed an ability pooling issue with some abilities for the ranger

- Changed some logic related to slowing certain types of enemies

- Loads of text has been updated to prep for Localization

- Code refactoring

Thank you for all your support. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please do not hesitate to reach out. We strive to release a new build every week, so stay posted for more updates. Lots to come!

Stingbot

This week's build is a smaller update, but not because we have not been working hard on the game. Quite the contrary. We're working extremely hard right now as we have so much stuff planned to announce over the course of the next few months. There's going to be some big updates/announcements soon, and we look forward to sharing the details with everyone as soon as we can.

[h2]Devlog - World Generation[/h2]

Are you a game dev, an aspiring game dev or just someone who appreciates how stuff is created? Then you may enjoy our new video we uploaded to YouTube. Did you know our world is a hybrid of random and procedural generation? We share some details about how this system works. Let us know if you would like to see more of this type of stuff and we'd be happy to make some new DevLog videos as we continue development.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Progress Update[/h2]

Next week we'll have some big announcements along with our weekly build update. In the meantime rest assured we are putting insane hours into the creation of the Shadow Monk class and Castle Usvit. We make more and more progress every week. We'll post more details on all of this soon.

[h2]Build 0.5.29 Notes[/h2]

- NEW: Uncommon Merchant Item: Inferno Boots. Burn your enemies across the battlefield with this powerful new set of boots.

- Added some frost particle FX to Bogatyr's Frost Strike Passive to improve visibility

- Bug Fix: Added a check against an enemy to only become slowed/display slow icon if AI is actually still alive. If becoming slowed during the same frame the enemy is killed, then it should no longer trigger the slow effect on the enmy

- Bug Fix: Cursed Elites will now properly reset shaders after poison fades, displaying the outline if it's toggled on or off

- Improved Key Bindings Logic and added in-game keyboard binding support for Movement (Up,Down,Left,Right). More to come

- Popup windows will now be automatically closed when the merchant window is activated, to prevent UI overlap

- Code refactoring

As always, thank you for your continued support. There's lots more to come. If you have any feedback, bugs to report or just wanna chat, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us.

Stingbot

[h2]Bruce Lee to Shadow Chi[/h2]



The upcoming fighter class has undergone some big changes in design and appearance. From a traditional martial artist to an armored monk, we have now arrived at what will be the final class form: The Shadow Monk. The Shadow Monk is inspired by characters such as Noob Saibot from Mortal Kombat, and of course, our love for Dark Fantasy and Souls-lore. He's got his own set of unique abilities and a completely new combo system we designed just for him that we think you all are going to love. We spent a lot of time working on class design including developing cool synergies and fighting styles that can literally transform the game depending how you build the character. We're doing something different with this class and we can't wait to show you more!

Here's a timeline showing the character art development:



We plan to add the Shadow Monk to the game sometime later next month! Stay posted for lots more details and some videos in the coming weeks.

[h2]Castle Usvit[/h2]

Our newer content is becoming more polished and we have lots of tricks up our sleeve to plan to update older content as we continue development. We'll have some interesting updates soon on Castle Usvit, so stay posted for some previews, lore and some minor details on what to expect and how it takes our design and gameplay to the next level.

[h2]Build 0.5.28 Notes: [/h2]

- NEW: Necromancer Passive Skill: Bone Venom: Skeletons have a chance to proc poison on any hit

- NEW: Ranger Passive Skill: Chilled Shot: Small chance to shoot an icy quick shot, slowing enemies for 5 seconds

- NEW: Bogatyr Passive Skill: Frost Strike: Small chance to shoot an ice-coated quick strike, slowing enemies for 5 seconds

- NEW: Merchant Item: Nimble Boots: Makes the wearer immune to root (excludes enemy attacks) and take 50% reduced damage from spike traps

- Usvit Depths: Reduced HP of the Skelewheel Elite, Armored Monk Elite and Butcher Cursed Elite

- Usvit Depths: Butcher Elites can no longer spawn during a Challenge Event. Only the Cursed elite can be a butcher

- Challenge Event: Elites that are not tied to the event will no longer spawn while the event is active

- Adjusted the Circle for Sundance Curse in usvit Depths. It was improperly scaling resulting in some lines overlapping between sprites

- Bug Fix: Necromancer flail damage boost will now be properly affected by the Thresh Talent

- Bug Fix: Necromancer flail will no longer receive multiplier dmg based on selecting the character over and over again in the character select menu

- Bug Fix: Fixed a null pointer related to enemy Slow logic

- When starting a new game, the game can no longer be paused until the camera fade is complete

- Adjusted some Curse Logic for what can be played with a nightmare cloak in Usvit Depths

- Text Formatting Updates

- Loads of Code refactoring

Don't forget, we have a community thread where you can share ideas for new items to add to the Merchant's pool:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/2002220/discussions/0/3802777561344234382/


We also have a thread for adding ideas for more Curses:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/2002220/discussions/0/3810658408032922878/


Thank you all for your support, and the best is yet to come. We appreciate all the feedback, bug reports, suggestions etc. Never hesitate to reach out. There's lots more to come!

Stingbot

Hi Everyone,

We would like to introduce first boss of Castle Usvit:

[h2]The Gatekeeper[/h2]





The Gatekeeper is a strong and powerful boss, that will test your skills in sparring and avoidance. We are finishing up his art right now and will begin coding the fight this week. He's been a lot of work in terms of design and art creation/animation, but he's coming together nicely and we're very excited to put the fight together.

We're a few months away from releasing the content for Castle Usvit, but we have 3 artists working on the content right now, and assure you it will be worth the wait! We're taking the game to the next level and kicking everything up a notch.

in the meantime, we will continue to push out weekly builds with revisions and additions to existing content, as we have since launching in Early Access. There's lots to come!

[h2]Patch Notes: Version 0.5.26[/h2]

- NEW: Merchant Common Item - Gold Magnet. Idea from Community Member, Djezze. Thank you!

- NEW: Curse - Dead Reckoning. Idea from Community Member, Cookies for Everyone! Thank you!

- New: Curse - Death's Bargain. Idea from Community Member, Cookies for Everyone! Thank you!

- Velya is now invulnerable when first loading to the scene to prevent unwanted damage

- Curses Survived will now be shown on screen in the top left corner when curse mode is active

- Fixed compression on the bomb satchel merchant icon

- Bug Fix: Input will no longer be detected If spamming any input before save data is loaded

- Bug Fix: Firebomb Item will no longer negate Firebomb Powerup

- Curse Modification: Sundance - Circle size has been increased by 20% in Usvit Depths

- Added a sound effect when the Merchant appears

- Modified text to prep for Localization

Thank you for all your feedback and support. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us, and stay posted for future updates!

Stingbot

Hi Everyone,

Version 0.5.24 is Live, and comes with a bunch of QoL improvements, fixes and a couple new things. More on that below.

[h2]Monk Class[/h2]

We're re-naming the Fighter to Monk, as ultimately with the inclusion of his spirit attacks and meditation abilities, that's what he is. He's a monk, and is he going to be interesting! With each new character we want to try something new, and what we have planned for the Monk will be unlike anything you've seen so far in the game. We're going to keep it a secret for now, but as of today, half of the character has been coded, and most of him has been designed. The art team is focusing solely on the next environment of the game, Castle Usvit, so there has not been much love to the creation of the monk or his abilities yet, but we're programming everything in the background. Here's a WIP preview of his new look. He will be refined quite a bit more by the time we're done.



[h2]Castle Usvit[/h2]

Castle Usvit is a very ambitious part of the game. It has about as much content as the first 2 worlds put together, if not more, with all the secrets and additions we are adding. The scenery will also change from 3 different tile sets: Outdoor, Indoor, and Courtyard.

Here's a pic of the Indoor setting (Work in Progress). We'll showcase lots more as soon as we finish things up.



[h2]Version 0.5.24 Patch Notes[/h2]

- NEW: Merchant Item: Bomb Satchel

- Added Support for Ultra Wide Monitors. Some of the game is not designed to support such wide view angles, and you may notice some enemies or props spawn in during gameplay. The game is not designed to optimally run in such wide resolutions, but the UI and game will now properly scale in ultra wide aspect ratios.

- Began work on adding custom key bindings to the game. There has been a key bindings menu added to the options menu, but it only affects keyboard bindings (not game controllers) and only in-game bindings, not menu navigation. The system requires a major overhaul on the structure of the game and is a WIP and will be updated periodically over several updates until it's fully complete.

- Changed some trigger settings on the player character to slightly boost performance

- Ranger: Reduced the Enemy Knockback Distance from Ranger arrow attacks

- Ranger: Modified and balanced the healing Salve heal amount

- Refactored and restructured loads of skill description code to prep for future Localization

- Reduced time between spawn waves of a challenge event from 20 seconds to 15 seconds

- Increased the cost of Likho's Dice by 100 gold on each purchase

- Curse: Insect Swarm (slow curse) will now toggle on/off every 6 seconds, as opposed to remaining active permanantely

- Catacombs: Added a 1/2 second wind up to the Elite Butcher attack

- Bug Fix: Torch Zombie Runner should now properly dissolve on death

- Bug Fix: Boss Souls will now activate and allow for immediate collection. Collision events will no longer disable the soul if attempting to collect on spawn

- Bug Fix: Challenge Event and Associated UI will now properly disable when teleporting into a boss fight with Autlaic or Velya

- UI: Modified the Options Menu Layout

- Updated key bindings logic and structure

- Code Refactoring

As always, I would like to thank everyone for your support. We appreciate all of the feedback and we look forward to continue building the game with you all.

Stingbot