Soulstone Survivors News

[h3]Welcome to our second Soulstone Survivors Devlog![/h3]
This has been another busy week at the studio and while some stuff is still a secret we want to keep secret, we are super excited to share some of the cool stuff we are working on!

[h2]Dev Talk #3[/h2]
We have recently released our 3rd Dev Talk on YouTube!! In these videos we talk about various aspects of the development of the game in detail and you might even catch some early sneak peeks about upcoming content in there! We have three of them up and running and you can expect more of them to come. Check it out below:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]New Soundtrack[/h2]
As we have showed in our previous Devlog, Gama has now finished the new soundtrack that is coming with some exciting new content for the game (which we don’t want to spoil just yet!), and we wanted to show you all a bit of the process of what it is like to record and edit it.

This is @lizett.tt with her amazing voice, recording a part of the vocals that went into this track:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
And this is Gama himself, jamming to the beats in style:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
A few words from Gama “In this track, I recorded 2 singers, a girl from Ukraine and a guy from Belarus. Then, I recorded them several times and created a small choir. The main elements were the voice and the organ, heard in our last devlog, that fit very well with the next upcoming gameplay theme in mind.”

[h2]Automated Testing Framework[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
This is our brand new automated testing framework. Because of the sheer volume of player characters, enemies, summons, skills and so on, it is virtually impossible for us to manually test every combination of them to ensure the game is stable.

To help with this, Max, one of our programmers has been working on this tool which runs a whole lot of tests and tries to identify if something is not right. For example: we spawn/recycle every last entity in the game; cast every last skill; ask entities to move around the map, etc.

If anything goes wrong, the system can tell us what went wrong for example: an entity was unable to move in the expected time given its configured speed. Or an exception was thrown when spawning this entity.

These are essentially sanity checks which should catch most simple errors before they make their way to you folks. Over time, we plan to improve the tool to test more sophisticated scenarios and identify harder issues.

[h2]Memory Analysis and Improvements[/h2]
Anderson, one of our programmers has been working on improving the memory consumption of the game. After a ton of memory profiling and analyzing a lot of data, we found a few surprising results and a few big wins we can address with changes to the code base, so hopefully we will be able to considerably reduce memory usage over the next few updates.

[h2]Character Concepts[/h2]
Alex, our 2D artist has worked on a lot of the cool stuff we see in-game. He is currently working on some new super secret stuff, but today we wanted to showcase some of the Concept Art he has done for the Engineer character!

Still talking about the art of the game, (Fernando) Colombo, our 3D artist also turns these stunning concepts into what we see in-game! Check it out:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Damage Area Visibility Improvements[/h2]
Lucas, one of our programmers has been looking into an issue that has been pestering our players for a long time. Some of our skills VFX, more specifically Ice Vortex, Blizzard, Frozen Shard, Poison Puddle, Weaking Shot and Napalm Blast were overlapping with the damage areas which would make them hard to see at times. We’ve implemented a few changes to the shader code, and you can check out the before and after below:


A few words from Lucas "Damage areas being overlapped by VFX has always been an issue of the game and it can make the game way more difficult than it should be. With our push towards more production quality and polish, we are also working on these kinds of quirky problems.”

[h2]Meta Progression Toggle[/h2]
Juan has now finished the implementation of this new feature that allows you to toggle multiple parts of your meta progression. With new UI and other user experience improvements such as proper controller support and further testing to verify all is working well.


This was all we had to show for today’s Devlog ya’ll! It has been a blast to be able to continue developing the game alongside our player base and we are very excited for the future of the game.

Let us know in the comments below which of these excites you the most and, if there is anything else you are curious about and would like us to showcase! 👀

[h3]We also want to remind you about our new mailing list!, You can sign up by clicking here![/h3]



We hope you all have a great day,

~ Soulstone Team

[h3]Welcome to the first ever Soulstone Survivors Devlog![/h3]
With this new series, we want to bring you a bit closer to us, and share a little bit of everything that goes behind the scenes on the development of the game. We are working on a bunch of stuff but we made a special selection for today, so lets get started!

[h2]New Soundtrack and SFX[/h2]
For the past few weeks, our sound expert and guru has been working on something GRAND!! To say the least. It does sound like I’m getting married on Halloween or something. Take a listen to this snippet of what he has been cooking:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
A few words from Gama “In this part of the track that you just listened to, the voices are very evident, and might already give you a pretty good hint on what is coming, can you all guess what it could be? This track is the first time I’ve used breakcore and drum’n’bass elements together, so it has been really interesting to compose!”

Gama has also been working on new sound effects for the Myrmidon’s ascension that will be coming with the next update, check it out:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Performance Improvements - Collision Detection[/h2]
Given how insanely the game can scale, we are working on a new collision detection system to be used by most of the skills in the game. This new system is multithreaded and will make much better use of your CPU, and while it is still in early tests, it is showing considerable gains so far:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
While you can definitely see the difference in the video above, keep in mind that "FPS" is not a great metric for speed. A much better metric is "time per frame", and using our internal performance analysis tool, we can have a better idea of the actual results:



In this test, we can see that the average time per frame was reduced from 210ms to 35ms, 83% faster than before.

A few words from Allan “Please keep in mind these are still early tests, and these results will vary greatly based on your device and what skills are being used, but I must say I’m very excited with the results so far. Other folks on the team are working on different performance areas, so I’m confident that over the next few updates we can score some big wins in this sense!”


[h2]Quality of Life[/h2]
Please, come in and don’t mind the placeholders. With this new UI feature Juan has been working on, you will finally be able to enable and disable various features the game has to offer such as your skill tree, central skill tree, weapon stats and so on, giving you a lot more control over how you play the game.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
A few words from Juan “You will be able to play without all the different modifiers, and it's interesting to see how this affects and changes the gameplay. With everything enabled, the character becomes considerably stronger. Regarding the implementation, it was more about identifying where all the resources were added to the player and then enabling/disabling them individually and making sure only the right stuff gets applied. In the end you only really notice the colossal difference, especially with the skill tree, when you're without it!”


[h2]Better Communication[/h2]
It has been quite a ride so far. The game has been changing a lot and we are continuing to work hard to deliver the best game we possibly can, but one crucial and very important change we want to make is to be more transparent and open with you, our community, about what we are currently working on, make sure that the curious minds can be satiated.

This devlog is the first step in our masterplan, but not all of it! We are planning a bunch of different stuff, including regularly scheduled Q&A’s, State of The Game videos, and will also be starting a new mailing list!

[h3]You can sign up to our new mailing list clicking here, even though it will probably be a little bit before we send out the first edition![/h3]

And of course, if you would like to see more posts like this, or have other ideas of things you would like to know from us, do let us know in the comments! We read... everything👀!



We hope you have a great day,
~ Soulstone Team

[h3]We are happy to announce that we are taking part in The Steam Summer Sale! To celebrate this occasion we have a special offer for you, 30% off! Grab the copy for yourself or let your friends know about it before it ends on 11 July![/h3]



Stay informed about the latest news and updates via Facebook and Twitter pages!

Don’t forget to join our Discord server to discuss and share your achievements related to Soulstones Survivors! Come join us at Game Smithing Official Discord server!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2066020/Soulstone_Survivors/



Best regards,

~ Soulstone Team

The Tides of the Void update is here, and with it, we are bringing many changes and fixes to the game! The new update is bringing a lot of changes to the gameplay, adding a new character, weapons, skills, and much more!



Here is a full list of changes for EA Update 11b:

[h3]New Character - The Myrmidon[/h3]

• Hailing from the depths of the abyss, the Myrmidon joins the void hunters! This relentless warrior is unmatched when wielding the trident, and can harness the power of the tides to purge the corruption of the void, in a quest to prove herself worthy of her goddess! She comes equipped with new weapons, new unique skills, runes, and a powerful new Ascension!
  

[h3]New Artifact Power system [/h3]

• In the previous update the Blacksmith learned the ancient skills necessary to improve your weapons. Now, the Void Hunters found a way to channel the full power of their Artifact weapons, unlocking powerful new skills that can obliterate enemies when charged up. Currently only available for the Myrmidon, you can unlock these powers by upgrading a weapon to the Artifact rarity. New powers coming with the next update!
  

[h3]General changes and fixes:[/h3]

• Reworked Map selection screen, including a sneak peek of something that is coming sooooon….;
  
• Reduced the power of Skill Chain power ups from 8% / 10% / 12% to 6% / 8% / 10%;
  
• Fixed an issue with Icy Veins where it could incorrectly cause the skill that triggered it, to also be launched multiple times;
  
• Fixed an issue where Doom could expire before it timed out and dealt unexpected damage. It should now be considerably more reliable with the health bar;
  
• Fixed an issue where Burn, Bleed and Poison health bar overlays were not taking into consideration certain power ups and runes that increase the speed in which the negative effects cause damage. The health bar overlay should be considerably more reliable now;
  
• Created a new group on the Runes page for runes related to Buffs;
  
• Fixed an issue where certain elite enemies could disappear from the map inadvertently;
  
• Suicide summons such as the Frenzied Bunnies will no longer leave their bodies behind, as they could pile up a little too much in intensive scenarios;
  
• Fixed an issue where suicide summons could block themselves and stop themselves from exploding;
  
• Fixed tons of gamepad navigation issues all across the game which should offer a much smoother gamepad experience;
  
• Tons of SFX and sound improvements across the game;
  
• Static summons like Totems and Turrets now have smoother rotation;
  
• Fixed an issue where enemies could go inside a boulder in the Frozen Wasteland;
  
• Fixed an issue where the visual for the Corrupted Engineer was incorrect;
  
• Major localization review to increase consistency and quality of localization for every language. If you notice anything out of place that you think is incorrect, please do let us know!
  
• Fixed an issue where certain special effects could be wrongly positioned with the Engineer's ascension;
  
• Fixed a visual issue with the Legendary effect in the Level Up screen;
  
• Fixed an issue where Flamethrower and Pesticide Burst were unable to destroy neutral crystals (including healing crystals);
  
• Fixed a ton of visual issues related to enemies disappearing;
  
• Fixed an issue where the Blacksmith screen wouldn't update properly when crafting the last available weapon for a character;
  
• Fixed Arcane Weaver crystals sometimes having weird rotations;
  
• Fixed Elementalist Earth orb with a weird visual effect when collected;
  

As always we want to thank you so much for your support! There is still a lot coming to the game, as "Tides of the Void" is released we are already hard at work on the next major update and we have a few big surprises coming... so make sure to get the Myrmidon up to speed, as you will need all the help you can get!

We hope you enjoy the update, and if you want to be among the first to learn more about the next update, Join us On Discord

Have a great day!



~Soulstone Team

We have just released Hotfix Update 10g2, which addresses the following issues:

• New sound effects for Engineer skills and ascension;
  
• New visual effect when upgrading a weapon;
  
• Fixed an error in the damage calculation of skills that cause damage based on the accumulated abnormal damage on the target (such as Bleed, Doom, etc). These skills were ignoring effects from other negative effects (such as Fragility, etc), and should now be considerably stronger;
  
• Fixed an issue where in a specific scenario where you had multiple summons and negative effect sources, that could lead the game into a situation where kills are not counted, bosses wouldn't drop loot, etc;
  
• Fixed an issue where certain bonuses would not show in certain Engineer skills, like "+ Damage" bonuses not appearing for Guided Missiles (visual fix only);
  
• Fixed the Devastating description used on the Portable Nuke skill;
  
• Fixed issue with achievements not being highlighted in a very specific scenario;
  
• Fixed typo in Extended Magazines rune which had a duplicated "%" symbol;
  
• Fixed an issue where the weapon name could show as "Character01";
  
• Fixed a few visual effects in the game throwing exceptions which could lead to performance degradation;
  

We hope that these changes will make your gameplay experience smoother and as always, if you run into any issues do let us know!



~Soulstone Team