Paranormal Cleanup News

[h2]Hi everyone![/h2]

it's been 2 days since Paranormal Cleanup launched, time for another round of bug fixes and tweaks. :)

[h3]Patch 1.0.2[/h3]

• reduced the hunting duration of all entities from 90s to 60s. They can still hunt longer in certain situations though
  
• changed where the furniture gets moved on 'Granny's House' so it no longer blocks paths completly. Even if it's cool, it fucks up the whole level layout and is just less fun to navigate the map. Also moved the window of one of the rooms where you enter the attic, so it's no longer behind the stairs
  
• fixed a bug that caused some settings (e.g. FOV) to reset on game start
  
• added Colorblind Mode Settings (would love some feedback for that because I can't really test if its good or not)
  
• tweaked and changed how the microphone gain and voice chat volume audio settings are interpreted (was waaaay too much gain)
  
• fixed a bug that caused a cult symbol on 'Butcher's Nest' to spawn behind an elecricity box
  
• fixed collision issues on several meshes that caused physics objects to fall through the ground
  
• fixed a bug that caused the second cult guy on 'Ritual Row' to live on even if the main cult guy was banished. They will now both get properly banished
  
• fixed a bug that caused banish-items to not show their particles and glow effects correctly. I also made them glow a bit brighter.
  
• fixed a bug on 'Whispering Studio' that caused players to be unable to interact with items dropped on/near cursed easels
  
• first time players now get a random character assigned and not all just spawn as Anna
  
  

As always, I hope I didn't break anything else and I am looking forward to your feedback. :)

Cheers,
Beepbep

[h2]Hi everyone![/h2]

thanks to your valuable feedback and a scuffed forsen stream I was able to fix some annoying bugs. :D

[h3]Patch 1.0.1a[/h3]

• fixed a bug that caused the UI for the host to disappear when someone joins mid-game
  
• fixed a bug that caused the entity to play it's hunt sounds all the time
  
• fixed a bug that caused the host to be unable to skip map intros
  
• fixed a bug that caused to show the Prestige Level text above a players name even if they didn't have a prestige level
  
• fixed the hitbox for trashpiles and increased the hitbox size
  
• fixed a bug that caused the mouse cursor to disappear in the lobby, locking people into menus
  
• fixed several spots on 'Ritual Row' in which you could get stuck in (I got stuck in the ritual area stairs with 99% cleaned fml)
  
• fixed a bug that caused the "Hard Mode" text to not show when in hard mode
  
• slightly increased the crosshair dot's size
  

As always, I hope I didn't break anything else and I am looking forward to your feedback. :)

Cheers,
Beepbep

[h2]Hi everyone![/h2]

[h3]Paranormal Cleanup is officially out of Early Access! It's time for Patch 1.0![/h3]


[h4]Remember how it all started?[/h4]
0.0.1 launched February 2023 in a bare-bones state with the simple objective to clean up trash piles and trash bags on a single map, a house haunted by an old lady. Nothing else. I think there wasn't even a way to set your keybinds.

[h4]What about now? What's in the game?[/h4]
5 Maps with unique enemies that have their own behavior, abilities, looks, sounds and jumpscares
Several things to clean, from dirty toilets to ectoplasm and bloody symbols
Dynamic, interactive environments with a lot of interactable items
Unique Banish Mechanics on each map to get rid of every entity, like burning down an art studio to destroy cursed paintings
A new interactive lobby to hang out in, no boring static menu
Proximity Voice Chat
We (you and I) iterated through several Objective Systems over the years, from randomized contracts to now full on cleaning jobs where you have to clean a percentage of everything there is to complete your job
Player Perks, so you can play just the way you want to. Want to clean faster while an entity is near or would you rather be able to run faster after cleaning something?
Equipment Upgrades: Permanent improvements to your gear
Daily & Weekly Tasks to gain additional EXP and $$
So many Achievements with ingame rewards

[h4]New with 1.0[/h4]
A Prestige System so you can grind endlessly and get sweet cosmetics
Character Outfits Hard Mode: Up to the Challenge? Unbanishable Entities that hunt non-stop.. for double the job reward
Bug Fixes

BUT, there's still some stuff missing that I promised for the launch, that isn't in the game yet. All that is coming in the next couple weeks, I am working hard to get it done as soon as possible, this is my top priority.

[h4]Coming in the next couple weeks[/h4]
3 New Maps, yes, not one, 3! A new Objective, including a new cleaning item and upgrades for it
Localization
Controller Rework/Tweaks/Fixes
Steam Deck Verified
New Character Skins
Equipment Skins
..and more, based on your feedback :)

[h4]Let's sneak a look at one of the new maps[/h4]



Thank you all for your patience and endless support. Thank you for all the great feedback in the last couple months, it's been amazing doing this for you.

Have fun playing, and as always, see you in game!
Cheers,
Beepbep

[h2]Hey everyone,[/h2]

We are close to launch! With this patch every map is now reworked and polished, every entity can be banished and many more suggested changes and bug fixes were implemented. More content is on the way now. Thank you all for your help! :)

[h3]0.5.0 Patch Notes:[/h3]

• 'Butcher's Nest' and 'The Quiet' have been reworked and polished
  
• You can now banish the entities on 'Butcher's Nest' and 'The Quiet'
  
• The Butcher no longer hunts all the time and instead hunts in waves like all the other entities. He learned a trick or two from grandma though
  
• Entities now end their current hunt when all players are downed
  
• Hunts no longer increase in duration and no longer reduce in cooldown after each hunt and rather hunt for a fixed duration with a slight deviation each time
  
• reduced the chance of an entity searching the exact hiding spot a player is currently hiding in
  
  
• tweaked and fixed Ectoplasm and Cult Symbol spawns on every map so they are more fair/less hidden (Did you know the larger maps have up to 300 spawn points? fuck me)
  
• fixed several collision issues resulting in non-cleanable ectoplasms
  
• fixed a bug that caused the UV Lamp to turn ectoplasm permanently invisible
  
  
• Increased base cleaning speed for all items by 10-20%
  
• Increased base Sprint Speed by 15%
  
  
• Increased texture and mesh quality for important models and stuff you interact with
  
• removed Depth of Field, everything's crisp now
  
• added more Radio Songs, increased radio audio quality and tweaked attenuation and occlusion
  
• lowered TV beep sound volume and added a remote to every TV to turn them off manually
  
• lowered telephone beep sound volume and added the ability to turn the phone off manually
  
• lowered van door chime sound volume
  
• reduced car alarm sound duration down to 10 seconds (was 60s)
  
  
• fixed a bug that caused weekly tasks to not reset properly
  
• fixed a bug that caused players to go into debt just to buy more energy drinks
  
• small tweaks and changes here and there
  
  

Thanks again for your help! I am looking forward to your continued feedback.

Have fun playing and see you ingame! :)

Cheers,
Beepbep

[h2]Hey everyone,[/h2]

thanks again for all the bug reports and suggestions, your help means the world to me! Took me a bit longer than I hoped to get this patch out the door but I think this time I really managed to fix the most frequent crash issues, which was a big priority for me.

[h3]0.4.0 Patch Notes:[/h3]

• You can now banish the entities on 'Whispering Studio' and 'Ritual Row'
  
• 'Whispering Studio' and 'Ritual Row' have been polished and updated
  
• FINALLY fixed the map transition FatalError bug (caused by AudioThread & VoiceChat btw)
  
• Not the first time I said this but this time I actually fixed the game breaking objective spawn bug for ectoplasm, cult symbols and banish items
  
• added 2 UV Lamps to each map which you can carry around to see Ectoplasm even when an entity isn't hunting
  
• all entities (besides the butcher) now have hunt and lurk phases (means cult guys dont hunt all the time anymore, but the butcher does because thats just his thing)
  
• You now need to clean at least 50% on each map to be able to win
  
• Hunts now start a bit later and are shorter initially but get longer with each hunt
  
• Entities now gain movespeed the longer they chase you
  
• Oh, you can jump now.
  
• ..but also can the entities
  
• made some general changes to physics actors to prevent them from clipping through the floor
  
• changes/tweaks to audio attenuation and concurrency
  
• more general GPU and CPU optimizations (improved culling, more/better mesh LODs, smaller textures, reduced drawcalls by around 50% on every map, ..), game is also a bit bigger again(uncompressed) but in turn loads stuff a bit better so D3D timeout crashes might happen less frequent
  
• removed the red entity post process effect for now because it was waaaay too unoptimized and in some cases cost up to 20FPS
  
• fixed a bug causing voice chat to be active all the time even when using push to talk
  
• minor animation tweaks for all entities
  
• aand as always a lot of smaller tweaks/changes in the background as well as minor bug fixes I totally didn't forget about
  
  

Thanks again for your help! I am looking forward to your continued feedback.

Have fun playing and see you ingame! :)

Cheers,
Beepbep