1. OVIS LOOP
  2. News

OVIS LOOP News

Public Playtest 2.0 Kicks Off Soon – Sign Up Now!

Hey Protectors! You heard the news, right? On the 25th of May our fight against Doctor Wolf’s minions reignites. With our public playtest 2.0 almost upon us, sign up now to make sure you’re ready to jump in.



This playtest loop focuses on ironing out issues you flagged within the previous playtest. However, we’ve also added in some brand-new content and some surprise mechanics, too!

If you’re curious about the changes, you’ll be able to experience them yourself in just a few days! We’re really hoping for another incredible fight from our Protectors. Your feedback is absolutely vital, and helps us to keep refining STAND-ALONE and push towards a top-quality full release.

[h3]How can you get involved?[/h3]

🐑 Test Type: Open, unlimited wipe test. We got so much incredible feedback from Protectors in our last playtest, and we’re keeping things open here. You’ll start a new playthrough of STAND-ALONE and experience optimised, refined and entirely new game features

🐑 Important Dates: May 25th 02:00 BST – June 1st 17:00 BST (UK Times)

🐑 How to Join: Visit the STAND-ALONE Steam storefront and click Request Access. You can request access any time from now until June 1st.

🐑 How to Play: Once the playtest goes live on My 25th, approved Protectors will be notified through Steam. After this, you’ll be able to install and play the new Playtest 2.0 version.



If you’re enjoying STAND-ALONE you can also support our small indie development team by;

🐑 Wishlisting STAND-ALONE on Steam

🐑 Sharing our game with your friends

🐑 Following on X (Twitter)

🐑 Joining our Lifuel official Discord

Your support means the absolute world to us here at Lifuel. Sheep need grass. Mecha-sheep need RAM, but your support is what keeps us powered ⚡.





"STAND-ALONE" Live Streaming Session is now open!

Live Streaming Schedule: Starting now.

Live Streaming Frequency: 24/7 (Fingers crossed for a reliable computer, no internet or power cuts...)

Tune in to our live stream to explore the game content of "STAND-ALONE" with us! You can also interact and communicate with other players in a friendly manner.

What's Next for STAND-ALONE?

Hello once again, dear Protectors! After so many of you jumped in to get your hooves dirty, Lee and Jae from the Lifuel team wanted to give you an update on how this will look for STAND-ALONE moving forwards. This of course begins with a huge thank you to all of those who joined the recent STAND-ALONE playtest. We are truly grateful for your support and passion, and the time you took to jump into the playtest and leave feedback.

During the test and in the days following, we received a lot of great, constructive feedback from you Protectors, as well as loads of helpful suggestions. Though there were various languages and styles, many of you highlighted key issues related to the core of the game, and our team have carefully reviewed every single one.

After removing duplicated and already-updated items (including the two hot fixes deployed during the playtest), we ended up with 109 unique focus points. All of these have been carefully sorted and added to our internal development database, to allow close tracking and resolution.

Here, we wanted to chare with you a summary of the feedback, alongside out plans for future development of STAND-ALONE. Please note, the order of items here simply represents our development workflow, and does not equal importance of each point. We consider each point to be equally valid and have meaning for you, as players.



[h3]First Priority[/h3]

Our top priority is to fix critical bugs and crashes which seriously affect your gameplay experience. We recognise that stability issues which were revealed during the playtest, and are working to fix these issues as soon as we can. In addition, there are several key features which we believe will resolve issues and provide meaningful impact for players:

  • Fixing controller input iossues (across all device controllers)
  • Fixing keyboard mapping stability to stop resetting during gameplay
  • Fixing crashes and forced shutdowns caused by various issues
  • Fixing game freezes and looping
  • Fixing inputs not responding following wall climbing
  • Addition of confirmation prompts when creating or overwriting a save
  • Addition of a skill preview feature when selecting skills
  • Fixing an issue where rewards did not reset after restarting the game
  • Changes to skill cooldown (refunding cooldown when cancelling skills due to dodging)
  • Various minor fixes and improvements


[h3]High Priority[/h3]
Our second focus will be on addressing issues which may prevent players from fully understanding systems or game content. This can potentially lead to gameplay which doesn’t align with our intention during design, and could cause confusion or restrict progression. Ultimately, it can lead to a worse experience for players. These fixes will centre around UX improvements:

  • Addition of D-pad control support
  • Adding a WASD + Mouse control preset
  • Adding a stats and attributes user interface
  • Adding the ability to remove and / or reset skills
  • Include unskippable tutorials (including for passive skills and combos)
  • Other, related improvements




[h3]Standard Changes[/h3]
We then plan to move on to core development. This includes areas such as repetition, controls, balance and pacing, aiming to improve these over time. We aim to continue refining and optimising these areas wherever possible, delivering this initially through:

  • Addition of standard difficulty levels (Easy, Normal and Hard)
  • Redesigning of under-performing skills, and addition of new ones
  • Optimisation of mouse control features
  • Addition of a tutorial for Stun status
  • Addition of jump functionality during dodge animations
  • New game content


[h3]Low Priority[/h3]
Our low-priority considerations aim to further improve STAND-ALONE’s polish and overall fun factor. This includes new content to add depth and variety, and enhanve the overall player experience. This also includes minor bugs which don’t affect gameplay, with planned improvements including:

  • Addition of a blocking tutorial (while this mechanic is currently implemented, it lacks guidance and many players missed it)
  • Fixing of awkward mech skill controls on jump pads
  • Addition of secondary key bind functionality
  • Fixing text overflow within NPD dialogue boxes
  • Reducing visual fatigue within desert background areas
  • Addition of a combo-building training room and Bestiary
  • Replacement of the fake computer crash screen which can mislead players
  • Fixing of enemy behaviour within infinite lightening builds (where they may get stuck in the air)



[h3]The Future is in Our Hooves[/h3]
There are so many pieces of additional feedback which we can’t list individually here. Many of these issues have already been addressed within hot fixes during the playtest (including addition of a downward strike, reduced lightning delay and other bug fixes).

Once again, a heartfelt thank you to everybody who has taken part in the test and to those who’ve provided feedback through the in-game function or through Discord. STAND-ALONE is still taking shape at this early stage of development, but all of your feedback has been incredibly valuable and we will continue to consider this during development.

We were especially moved by how thoughtful and consistent everybody’s comments were. All of the messages we’ve received were clearly written with care and a passion for improving STAND-ALONE. Many of you even expressed concern that your feedback may discourage our team and this kindness has meant a great deal to us. We are sincerely grateful for your support and understanding.

We’ll be returning again soon with a more polished and mature version of STAND-ALONE. Implementation of the areas above may take time, but we hope to be able to tell you and show you more of what we’re working on, along the way. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts, we cannot wait to continue this journey with you, our dear Protectors, as we shape STAND-ALONE into something special.


The STAND-ALONE Playtest is Now Closed

[h2]Hello Protectors![/h2]

Our STAND-ALONE playtest has now closed, and we’ve been thrilled by the incredible response from all of you. The feedback we’ve received from you all has been invaluable. We’ve had some brilliant, constructive thoughts and this has already begun shaping STAND-ALONE.

If you’d like to let us know your thoughts, it’s not too late. While the playtest is now closed, you can still give feedback through the Steam Community, or by joining the official Lifuel discord server, and we'd love to hear from you.



Overall, Protectors fought your way through nearly 27,000 trials, reaching nearly 700,000 rooms! I know that with over 7,000 of you reaching the Chapter 2 Boss Room, you really showed Doctor Wolf that we’re not going to have the wool pulled over our eyes. We’ve loved watching the numbers rise as Protectors took the fight to the wolves:
    There were 26,839 trials in total
    The Chapter 1 Boss defeated you 3,794 times
    You reached 695,932 individual rooms
    7,038 of you reached the Chapter 2 Boss
    Who defeated you 5,317 times

    While this playtest has now finished, keep your eyes on the STAND-ALONE Steam storefront, the official Discord and the STAND-ALONE X (Twitter) to keep up to date with progress and news from the Lifuel team. We’ll have more to share in the coming weeks, so stick around!

    Playtest_v0.2 Patch Notes

    [h2]Hello Once More, Protectors![/h2]
    We’ve made it well into the STAND-ALONE playtest and wanted to send another big thank you to all the support you’ve provided for our Lifuel team. We’ve been working to fix various crash-related bugs, as well as provide quality of life changes and a little more localisation for English-speaking audiences.

    We sincerely appreciate all of you little lambs who have jumped into STAND-ALONE, and those who’ve provided feedback on your experience. If you haven’t, it’s never too late and you can find the Survey option on the main menu. If you have a moment, we truly value the feedback as we work to improve the game.

    We’ve been working to provide several change, bug fixes and localisation tweaks in this playtest update 0.2:
    [H3]Changes[/h3]
    • Changed lightning generation for Thunder Strike from static spawning to throwable bolts (and improved usability, with future optimisation planned)
    • Adjusted detection for backpack wolves using ranged ammunition (recognition appears earlier when firing, allowing players to see this more easily)
    • Added a wind-up animation for the Chapter Two Boss drop attacks (adjusting gameplay balance)
    • Added an option to hold the attack button to perform continuous attacks
    • Charge attacks can now be adjusted, while charging, allowing users to change direction (we’d especially love feedback on this change, and if this is helpful for players)
    • Added a new attack basic vertical slam attack – unlockable through the growth system

    [h3]Bug Fixes[/h3]
    • Fixed an issue where some UI elements could not display feature descriptions
    • Fixed a crash issue caused by final hit effect triggering while also using flame wave while the user has the Energy Recovery starting module (which likely also cause other flame-wave related crashes)
    • Fixed an issue where using the dash skill at the edge of an area could cause the character to move out of bounds
    • Fixed an issue where attack speed was always shown as 1% (regardless of the actual value)
    • Fixed a crash issue which occurred when opening the backpack after expanding skills
    • Fixed an intermittent forced-exit issue caused by text files (which we understand may have caused further unexplained crashing, which should also now be resolved)
    • Fixed an intermittent crash when swapping identical modules within the shop
    • Fixed a crash caused by using the Warp Grenade when attack speed was high
    • Fixed an issue with skills slots overlapping in the meta-progress system while using a controller
    • Fixed a crash caused by repeated connection / disconnection of controllers
    • Fixed an issue where the Burn build could enter an infinite loop, causing the game to freeze
    • Progress has been made to resolving players becoming stuck on the ceiling while attacking enemies with the hammer
    • Other minor fixes

    [h3]Localisation[/h3]
    • Corrected translation error: "Health Increase" instead of "Energy Increase."
    • Corrected various translation errors
    • Shortened some text areas to make them easier to understand

    [H3]Another HUGE thank you[/h3]

    All of the feedback which Protectors have provided has been incredibly valuable. While the playtest is closing soon, we will continue to work on these issues and hope that you have had a fantastic time protecting your flock in STAND-ALONE