The Devourer: Hunted Souls News

Hello investigators!

First off, we want to sincerely apologize for the long silence and delay in releasing Chapter 2. 2024 has been much wilder than we ever could have predicted, especially with the release of PANICORE as you might know. With this announcement we mainly want to tell you one thing: While being silent about it, we've worked on Chapter 2 and it will happen!

[h2]Current Progress on Chapter 2[/h2]

We're aiming for the next chapter to be better than anything we've been doing so far. Here’s what you should know right now:

• Estimated percentage of progress: We'd say around 70% of the chapter is done right now, missing parts are mainly last parts of the chapter and a transition into the game's current story flow as well as testing & polishing phases
  
• New Content: the chapter will not be the only new content to the game, you will also find new content in the forest which will be available in the public beta soon
  
• Public Beta Updates: While no new content has been added yet, small teasers for Chapter 2 can already be found in the beta version. We have also implemented several technical improvements, a full voice chat overhaul, a complete menu overhaul and a new UI including a better controller support. This version has been updated frequently in the last few weeks so make sure to switch if you want to experience current updates to the game!
  
• Saving & Loading Rework: In our last announcement, we mentioned potential issues with the saving/loading system. We are happy to tell you that we've successfully reworked the system without losing previous save files, so your progress from Chapter 1 should be safe!
  
• Performance Boost: We have managed to improve performance, especially for lower-end computers.
  
• Connection Issues: If you've been experiencing problems connecting with other players, we highly recommend trying out the public beta. This will help us gather valuable feedback that Chapter 2 will benefit a lot from.
  

[h2]When Will Chapter 2 Be Released?[/h2]

We would love to release the chapter within this quarter. However, despite being late we are still taking our time to ensure it meets our own standards and surpasses the quality we’ve delivered so far. We don't want to release the chapter "just to release something" which is hopefully understandable. Your patience means the world to us, and we promise it will be worth the wait! If not during this quarter, we can guarantee to release it in the second quarter of this year.

Once again, we apologize for the long time this is taking. Thank you for sticking with us on this journey. Your support, feedback, and enthusiasm continue to drive us forward. Stay tuned for more updates!

Your two brothers at ZTEK Studio

Investigators!

With this news announcement, we would like to give you an overview of what's happening with The Devourer & what else is happening around it. We'll be as transparent as possible with the informaton we're giving you.

To start off, we would like to apologize for the long wait. For all players that have been around here since the demo's release, they might remember that the implementation of Chapter 1 took around 6-7 months. This being said, we assume around the same amount of time needed for Chapter 2 including playtesting and bug fixing. For you this would mean the expected update for Chapter 2 should be around Mid-End of May!

What can you expect?

• Of course, Chapter 2 as the next story chapter which will have its own flair to it. You can again expect around 2 hours of playtime in this chapter - more if you want to walk around the forest and do everything, but as done with Chapter 1, this will have its own location - which we are showing you in a few screenshots attached to this post :)
  
• New elements in the forest to discover
  
• New dangers / entities
  
• Fully redesigned menu system including technical fixes
  
• Reworked saving / loading system - which unfortunately means you'll need to play the intro with the graves etc. again, but Chapter 2 will be accessible without playing Chapter 1. During Early Access development the save file structure will change which will probably always come with saves getting corrupted
  
• Fully reworked lobby system, the lobby is a playable 3D lobby now
  
• Reworked Voice Chat system so it is fully functional
  

What else should you know?

By now you might also know that we have decided to develop our second title PANICORE while going on with The Devourer. This has multiple reasons:

• We wanted you guys to have something made by us to play inbetween chapter waits
  
• We wanted to improve our skills: this one is huge for us, for example a fully functional and better voice chat has been implemented for PANICORE which The Devourer will benefit from. And this is just one of MANY examples developing PANICORE has helped us with!
  
• We wanted to grow: With the release of PANICORE's demo our Discord server has DOUBLED its size in around TWO WEEKS. A portion of these players also know of The Devourer and played it now!
  
• The game will assist The Devourer's future development financially
  

PANICORE will be released right before or after Chapter 2 as a FULL RELEASE which means it shouldn't need too much work after.

Thank you for your patience and happy gaming!
Your team at ZTEK Studio



Extra notes:

Since the game is released we will probably have updates on the public beta before updating the main game, meaning you COULD access Chapter 2 before its official release when we start testing it. If you want to do this, keep in mind that the public Beta won't be as stable as the full release. We will announce this happening in another post!

The Devourer: Hunted Souls - Patch Notes (Version 0.4.1.7) Date: December, 21st 2023 4pm CET

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where your session was not in the session list when the session had no name typed in
  
• Fixed a bug where an important item did not spawn after a save
  
• Changed a few meshes' placement to avoid being softlocked in barn
  
• Fixed FSR bugs leading to crashes
  

Known Issues:

• Introduction Video/Audio might appear just white
  
• Items can be stuck in your hip inventory without being accessible
  
• Character hair sometimes go crazy
  
• Incorrect collisions and clipping at different parts of the map
  
• Sometimes the game seems to not have the rights to create save files which leads to save games not being created
  

The Devourer: Hunted Souls - Patch Notes (Version 0.4.1.6) Date: November, 9th 2023 2pm CET

Language:

• Added Polish language
  

Optimization:

• Changed loading behaviour to increase performance
  

Bug Fixes:

• Potential fix for language settings not being saved correctly
  
• Changed a few meshes' placement to avoid being softlocked
  
• Changed navigation in opera room that AI can’t get stuck there
  

VR changes:

• Removed player collisions moving when moving in room-scale
  
• 3D Widgets are now in front of every object.
  

Known Issues:

• Lobbies of different regions can’t be seen: To fix this, change the Download Region in your Steam settings to your friend’s, use Steam’s invitation system or the invitation system inside the game
  
• Introduction Video/Audio might appear just white
  
• Items can be stuck in your hip inventory without being accessible
  
• Character hair sometimes go crazy
  
• Incorrect collisions and clipping at different parts of the map
  
• Sometimes the game seems to not have the rights to create save files which leads to save games not being created
  

The Devourer: Hunted Souls - Patch Notes (Version 0.4.1.5) Date: November, 4nd 2023 0:10am CET

General Changes:

• Removed Speech recognition from EMF Type Reader (will be added back after some fixes)
  

Bug Fixes:

• Reduced number of crashes by removing speech recognition
  
• Setting FPS value to unlimited should work now
  
• Fixed a bug where you could be stuck in the intro cutscene by spamming space bar
  

Known Issues:

• Lobbies of different regions can’t be seen: To fix this, change the Download Region in your Steam settings to your friend’s, use Steam’s invitation system or the invitation system inside the game
  
• Introduction Video/Audio might appear just white
  
• Items can be stuck in your hip inventory without being accessible
  
• Character hair sometimes go crazy
  
• Incorrect collisions and clipping at different parts of the map
  
• Sometimes the game seems to not have the rights to create save files which leads to save games not being created
  
• Language doesn’t correctly load, you have to often set it again