Metavoidal News

Listen, we all know that gaming (as an industry) kind of feels like we're all trapped in the 9 circles of hell. Or The Hunger Games. Or some other third fictional metaphor about fighting to stay alive. And that's exactly what we've been doing! Just like the BeeGees, we've been trying to stay alive.

This resulted in us having to take a momentary step back from Metavoidal. But we're back now, baby!

[h3]#1 Thank you for your support[/h3]
We know we've been talking about our game for literally years at this point. Release dates have been moved, the game's scope has increased/decreased/simply creased our brows multiple times, and we've disappeared for a few months. But we're still very much committed to releasing this game!

[h4]So firstly, thanks for believing in us and our project, and then secondly for sticking around! [/h4]

Now onto the questions you may have:
[h3]#2 What now?[/h3]
Well, when we took a break the game was 90 - 95% complete. So the biggest task for us right now is to playtest the crap out of it and fix the things that are broken.

There are some very obviously broken things, and then there are the things literally only one of us experienced but would really suck if one of YOU experienced it while playing. So we're taking the 220 grit sand paper to the game, and smoothing as many edges as we can.

[h3]BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE![/h3]Metavoidal will be part of the Six-One-Indie Steam event that's happening from the 22nd to 26th of May. We might sneak an update in that has some QoL improvements and bug fixes, but we're pretty happy with the current demo build as it stands. So we won't be changing anything major.

That said we've made the demo a separate page from the main. Why? Because we'd love to see player reviews! So if you've played the demo before, would you mind leaving a little review for us? Just so that we know if there were any bits that you might have particularly liked/disliked!

[h3]#3 What now-now?[/h3]
Just like the good old South African saying implies, the game will be releasing 'now-now'. Meaning: At some point in the near future, just not right now.

That window can be between a week and 2 months from now, depending on how quickly we can smooth the edges... or depending on other, unforeseen factors.

We do have things like the release of the OST planned, so hopefully you'll be able to vibe to the sounds of corrupting metal. But until then, know that we haven't abandoned this wacky idea.

Until the next update,
This has been your beloved band of golden retriever devs,
Yellow Lab Games

[h5] 🔗Don't forget that you can keep up-to-date with our movements through our socials 🔗[/h5]

Alright, let me be very honest with you... Tutorials are hard to make (well). You basically have to distill the essence of your game into the easiest-to-digest, concentrated bite-sized slice to educate the player enough on the mechanics, while also not boring them to death with walls of text. That sentence alone was hard to write, now imagine what the devs have to do...

That said, we always do our best to take player feedback and incorporate it into the game as best we can. And our demo is no different! Whenever there are adjustments made in the main game, the same will be reflected in our demos to try and give players the best possible experience. We want you to fall in love with Metavoidal as much as we have.

And thanks to our community (that's you!), we've been able to make bound after bound of progress in this regard. We've also added a few things that we've been itching to implement because they're just nice to have. Since the Xbox Winter Fest even in December, here's what we've tinkered with:

• There's also a level name banner that pops up at the top to show you where you just spawned in
  
• The flow of the tutorial has been improved, it's also a lot shorter.
  
• It also has new tooltips! No more Less walls of text!
  
• There's a ▶️ 'Listening To' music banner that appears at the start of a level

• The crate in the tut spawns 2 techniques so that you can actually see what the drumkit does... Revolutionary!
  
• New explosion noises when things explode! I think? 🤔 They sound new!
  
• You can now see health hearts on the map! (Thanks for that QoL suggestion

• End-level roulette chests have a chance to drop trinkets now
  
• Added new gigs to the board for trinkets and techniques
  
• There's now a pop-up for trinkets that tell you what it does!

• Naturally, bug fixes. Hopefully no more hard-locks in boss rooms 🤞
  
• Metavoidal: Now with more sticks! We've added stick dispensers to the game so that you'll run out of sticks less.
  
• And finally, WE HAVE STEAM ACHIEVEMENTS! 🎉 There's something like 60+ of them at this point, which is nuts!

DISCLAIMER: There is a thing that we are working on that you need to be aware of; the tool tip for the album types is still a bit funky. Which is completely the wrong genre for the game, so we have to wrangle that back into place. Basically, it'll only pop-up once per type (element & ranged/melee) before/during/or after track selection, so while it does need smoothing down it's not going to break the game.

That's about it! This part is usually where I tell you about our grand plans for the future, but currently we don't have any except 'Finish The Game' and 'Press Release'. If that changes, you'll be the first to know!

As always, tell your friends! Tell your parents! Tell that neighbour that always walks around with their Metallica shirt on when they go to their car! The power to help indie games get eyes on them lies in your hands (or mouths, depending if you're texting or something). And we'd really appreciate the support!

OK BYE, SEE YOU SOON!

A wild Devlog appeared!

[h3]Welcome to a new year, with some new(s)! As of December, you can now experience Metavoidal on your Xbox ːsteamthumbsupː[/h3]

We were fortunate enough to be included in the Winter Demo Fest, which ran until the 31st of December, but going into it we knew we'd be keeping the demo up in perpetuity. So, what that means is, tell your friends who are both console gremlins and metal fans that you've got a hot tip for them about a game they might like!



We are currently working on an update to knock out some of the pesky bugs we've encountered on our end. But, as always, any bug can be reported in our Discord (or literally on any platform where messages can be sent) and we'll jump on it as soon as we can :)


[h3]Oh, and one more thing...[/h3]

THANK YOU SO MUCH for over 2 thousand demo downloads on Steam!

That might not sound like a lot, but have you ever tried to convince the internet to do something? That sh*t's hard, man. That's why we're so thankful for the support and for people actually playing our game.



And while you're here: Yes, the game is releasing this year. Like for real this time. Even if I have to press launch as my last act as YLG's community manager before I disappear into the night.

We'll bring you more info on that soon, but hopefully you'll be seeing some more content creators pick the game up as we wade deeper into 2025.

That said, if you have any content creators that you think would absolutely love to check out Metavoidal, drop a comment here (or on Discord/Twitter/Bluesky/Instagram, etc) and we'll add them to the list!

Personally, I'm really excited for this year because we'll finally be getting the game into your hands. But until then, good luck out there!

See you again soon Your friendly neighbourhood YLG Team

Listen, I won't chew your ear off this update around. In trying to not be like a guitar solo that's gone on way too long, I'll try to keep it as short and sweet as possible without leaving you guessing too much. Here's what you need to know:

[h3]1. We've just updated our demo for the first time since the June Next Fest![/h3]
It's been a while, but that's because we've been trying our best to actually finish the game :P
Which leads me to the next point...

[h3]2. We think this is a really solid build that shows off the game in its nearly-complete glory[/h3]
But nobody's perfect, and there might be some things lurking in the dark that we couldn't see while we were playtesting. So, if you come across any nasty bugs (or some silly goobers) please chuck 'em at me and I'll get it to the team as soon as I can!

Here's a link to our Discord for bug reporting


[h3]3. If you've played the previous demos, give this one another go - there's a few new odds & ends that's been added![/h3]
Obviously, with more development time comes more QoL changes as well as game content additions. And to not bore you with all the details, here are some of the things that you'll find in this updated demo:

• New music -> The electric & holy albums' music is (to the best of my knowledge) finally complete and in the game. Rejoice!
  
• A Gigs Board -> The more you slay, the more enemies you unlock. We thought that since you'll be dying a bunch, as is the nature of the roguelite beast, we wanted to give you little rewards & incentives for being the deadliest drummer this side of the crowd barrier. You can find the gigs board to the left of the green guy in a cage in the Santuary.
• Quality of Life -> There are a few of them, but the most obvious one you'll see is that you no longer have to pick up your extra drum technique each time you spawn in! It now gets automatically spun and added to the open technique slot in your move set. You still need to go and adjust the sequence of your moves at the drum set, but just removing that additional task helps make the whole game feel slightly more polished.
  
• New Moves -> We've added a few new fancy stick tricks. Some are level-boss related, some are just fancy little twirls that refresh your dodge charges. They randomly spawn, so have fun with them when you find one!
  

There are also additional trinkets and other items that have been added to the game, but listing it here would just make this wall of text even bigger. So instead, I'd just encourage you to go find it for yourself in the demo!

We really hope you have fun with the new build. And as always, please let us know of anything and everything you think of when you play our game! Your input makes our game more fun, and that's all we really want.

GLHF OUT THERE, DRUMMERS 🤘🤘

[h2]HELLO! [/h2]

It's currently the China Joy Steam event, and while we are participating, I just wanted to take this opportunity to A. Inform you that we've reached a milestone, and B. Thank you for wishlisting our game! It's been hectic on the backend tying-up loose ends for the launch later this year, so we haven't had much time to celebrate the fact... But I'm making the time!

[h2]Thank you so much for over 7 000 wishlists![/h2]
In fact, we've crossed the halfway mark to 8k, which is even more insane.



We really can't even begin to express how thankful we are for all the support you've shown Metavoidal. It's our first time doing any of this, so the fact that we've smashed through this milestone is something really special to us.

We're doing the work behind the scenes to optimise the game to be the best corruption-busting experience you'll find this side of the crowd barrier. So please stay tuned for that release announcement, it's coming up fast!

If you think your friends might like this game, please send them the demo link for them to try it out. Who knows, this might be their kind of jam, and we'd really appreciate the continued support.

If you have any bugs, suggestions, or things you'd like to chat about, you know where to find me.

Speak to you soon!