VOIN News

Thunderborn Update is Available Now

Lightnings,
The Thunderborn Update (Version 0.2.0) is here.

The skies flash with fury, and the world trembles. A storm is rising, and only the Thunderborn can stand against the abominations and spectral horrors summoned by HER will. Will you answer the call?

This is the first of several major updates, bringing long-planned additions to the game, and many of those that were shaped by your feedback. Some arrived in early February (read the patch notes here), but now, I am thrilled to unveil everything that remained behind the veil.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

New MASSIVE Dungeon Awaits

Descend into the abyss beneath the Cathedral of Veiled Lament. Explore breathtaking yet deadly vistas and face the guardian of Hadracon’s Scroll—Nomme, The Summoner of Tears.

I have altered the location of this scroll to make progression feel more natural and introduce greater challenges on the path to unlocking new zones. To open the gates of Hadracon’s Citadel, you must now first overcome its keeper.

New Enemies to Slay

The dead rise at HER call. Put them to rest once more.

HER will has stirred ancient titans of fire and ash. Their purpose is destruction.

HER twisted craft has led to monstrous mutations, creatures grown beyond reason.

New HIGH-LEVEL Arena to Test Your Might

Deep in the dungeon lies the Circle of the Damned. Aid the ancient king Sedogor to purge the arena of filth and claim a weapon so powerful it tears through reality itself. Nothing shall stand between you and the cleansing.

And Much More:

New weapons and items
Rich chests with greater rewards
An optional boss with a unique reward
Gameplay improvements and fixes

The path to cleansing has only just begun. More challenges, expanded world activities, and even greater battles lie ahead. A chilling horror is coming.

To everyone who has already answered the call—I cannot thank you enough for your support. Join us in our sacred Discord, leave your mark with a Steam review, and prepare for what’s to come.

Full patch notes for the Thunderborn Update:
Note: ⚡ indicates changes inspired by the community!

Additions 🆕

Completely new, massive dungeon underneath the Cathedral of Veiled Lament (the first location).
Arena quest where only the mightiest will prevail... with a reward fit for a Vindicator.
New optional boss fight.
5 completely new enemy types for the two new factions of monsters: undead and creatures.
⚡ Any chest (including secret ones) can now be Rich, with a lot more ichor and items of at least Elder (blue) quality. The chance of a chest being Rich scales with difficulty aspects.
Powerful new weapons and multiple items across all types (with the majority of them suggested by the community!). This includes 2 unique weapons, that drop from the new optional boss and as a reward for completing the Arena.

Rebalances ⚖️

⚡ Amount of ichor received per each individual item was reduced.

Bug fixes 🐛

Bosses health now scales properly with the Toughness difficulty modifier (it was capped at 10k before). Expect major differences in the amount of health on higher difficulties. You’ve been warned.
Fixed an issue where meteors summoned by the Dragonhead Necklace were not dealing damage.

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Dark fantasy RPG Voin is like Doom with swords, and its first big update is here

I've already called Voin a 'boomer slasher,' and with the benefit of hindsight, I think it fits the game quite well. On the one hand, it's got the pace, frantic combat, and action of a shooter like Doom, but on the other, it has the methodical swordplay of the soulslike genre. You've also got to explore, find upgrades, and hone your skills while hacking your enemies to pieces, and all of this comes together into a Steam Early Access experience with loads of promise. Solo developer Nikita Sozidar has just released Voin's first major update, too, and it makes everything better.

Read the rest of the story...

Update #1 (Version 0.1.5) is now live

[h2]Lightnings,
Update #1 (Version 0.1.5) is now live.[/h2]

I have spent most of the time refactoring several systems under the hood to make it easier to add future content, so this update will be light on content, but I am almost done with engine-related work, so further progress will be faster and much more noticeable.

Behold the patch notes of the Update #1 (Version 0.1.5) below.
Note: ⚡ indicates changes inspired by the community!

[h2]Additions 🆕[/h2]

The difficulty level affecting the chance of encountering Brutal and Terrifying enemies (Enormity) has been implemented and can now be adjusted.
Brutal and Terrifying versions of enemies inherit random abilities, like the ability to conjure and throw boulders or the ability to spawn shadow clones.
Choosing the level to explore can now be done by selecting the location on a giant planet's miniature at Amarict.
New monster type: Magma Golem, a menacing opponent that can be encountered deep underground.
⚡ Added an option to automatically pick up items based on their rarity.
⚡ Added a toggle for subtitles.
⚡ Added a toggle for HUD crosshair.
⚡ Added options to scale HUD, Damage Numbers, Enemy Healthbars, Subtitles and Crosshair.
⚡ Added a slider to control the camera's side tilt power.
Added a slider to control the game's speed.

[h2]Changes 🔄[/h2]

⚡ Difficulty levels now affect the amount of received Ichor and the chance of encountering higher rarity items.
Most status effects decrease faster depending on the number of stacks.
Calling the portal back to Amarict now requires holding down the input key, instead of triggering instantly, to avoid situations where you didn't mean to do that.
⚡Added unique visual and sound effects for Black Razor's Sudden Death ability.

[h2]Rebalances ⚖️[/h2]

⚡ Bonus to the amount of received Ichor is added to the list of possible Satiety enchants.
⚡ The speed at which Satiety level drops was decreased by half.
The luck attribute was rebalanced to maintain Primeval items being relatively rare, even at high luck. For example, with 100 luck roughly 10% of dropped items will be Primeval, with 200 luck — 20%, etc.
Player levels and Ichor requirements to level up were rebalanced to prepare for the upcoming addition of talent trees. The cost of levelling up now scales up to level 100, which is the new level cap.
Each level-up now increases all characters' damage output by 3% instead of 5%.

[h2]Bug fixes 🐛[/h2]

The fatal crash caused by Hags summoning monsters has been fixed (I think). Let me know if you are still experiencing this.
Lags and hitches in Necrosever are completely eliminated.
Monster spawners now save and load all data properly; spawns are consistent between level changes.
Fleshsmith Rogorog's voice lines are now affected by the volume settings.

[h2]Engine changes 🚗[/h2]
(the majority of development time was spent here)

The way monsters are defined in-engine and the way spawners work were completely remade to make it much easier and quicker to add new content in future.
The game's flow system has also been completely remade to make it easier to add quests, dialogues, achievements and other features in the future. It is currently being used for the tutorial sequence.

Even though this is not the "Thunderborn" update mentioned in the roadmap, it contains the first batch of its content: new difficulty settings (and rewards), enemy affixes, enemy type, bug fixes, and rebalances.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom in the comments sections, Steam forums, and on our sacred Discord server. Please keep on sharing your feedback and let the cleansing continue.

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First promo and Update details

[h2]Lightnings,[/h2]

I am endlessly grateful to everyone who has played and supported VOIN so far. Your feedback, reviews, and enthusiasm have been invaluable in shaping the game.

To celebrate this journey, VOIN is now available at a discounted price for the very first time! If you’ve been waiting to join the fray, now is the perfect moment with 20% off. And for those already cleansing the darkness—thank you for being here from the start.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2464530/VOIN/

[h2]But that’s not all! I’m delighted to give you a sneak peek of the first update:[/h2]

[h3]Revamped Level Selection[/h3]
Explore the world like never before with a new sprawling planetary map. Pick your destination by selecting a zone directly on a world map and the portal will lead you directly to that location.

[h3]New Difficulty Modifier[/h3]
The third skull on the altar has been activated. It introduces the fiercest challenge yet, putting you against elite monster variants with unique affixes. Here’s an example of a Vanguard using two new abilities - side dashes and shadow clones, that are invincible to your attack, but will eventually despawn.

[h3]New Enemy[/h3]
Beware the Lava Golem, a molten force of nature that will test your skill and strategy in battle.

The update is planned for release by the end of this week. We're finalizing the localization for all supported languages to ensure everyone can dive in seamlessly.

Thank you again for walking this path with me. Your support means everything. Let’s continue to shape this world together.

Until then, keep the cleansing going!

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Game's World and Progression Plans

Lightnings,

After the game entered early access and players provided feedback about the lack of content, I decided to take some time to revise the current development plan.

[h2]Game's World and Progression[/h2]

Originally (around 2 years ago), the game was designed to be fairly linear and without deep character progression systems, with an average playthrough lasting about 12 hours (2 hours per location). However, as development progressed, the scope of the game kept expanding, while the original plan for how players would progress through the game remained unchanged. Until now.

Initially, I planned for each location to be visually distinct (each with its own biome), which made sense for a linear game (where visual variety is crucial). However, this approach requires a lot of time to create all the necessary assets. In a situation where the game needs a large amount of content quickly, this plan is no longer realistic.

As a result, I revised the current plan and have already begun implementing it:
Instead of 6 locations for the entire game, the game will now be divided into Acts (or islands), with locations within each Act belonging to a single biome. However, the number of locations will be significantly higher, and the way you progress through them will be different.

For example, instead of 6 locations for the entire game, my next step is to create 17 locations for Act I.

Amarict now features a massive miniature of an entire planet that players can rotate to choose the level they want to explore.

All levels of the Act will be available right from the start. To complete an Act, you need to unlock access to the Act's boss, which is done simply by killing monsters, and then defeat it. It doesn’t matter which location you play on—killing monsters gradually brings the boss closer to appearing within the Act. Defeating this boss will mark the Act as complete.

More precisely, only the first difficulty of the Act will be considered complete, as each Act will have an additional five difficulty levels (separate from the existing difficulty levels), each introducing unique conditions (and rewards).

This means that, in Act I alone, you will be able to explore any of the 17 locations in whatever order you choose. Each run will progress you closer to unlocking the Act's boss. However, be cautious—dying will set back some of that progress.

After defeating the Act I boss, you will unlock higher difficulty levels for the Act, which will improve the rewards. Additionally, they’ll unlock the next Act (if it’s implemented).

[h2]Modifiers[/h2]

Another element I plan to introduce to diversify gameplay is Modifiers. Occasionally, the Act map will refresh, applying to all locations various Modifiers (sorted by rarity depending on their difficulty). Here are some examples:

Attacks no longer regenerate health. Rewards increased by 50%.
The location is shrouded in eternal night. Shadows occasionally spawn Vipers (otvrats with daggers), spreading darkness instead of poison. Rewards increased by 25%.
Upon death, Corrupted items and Ichor will be permanently lost. Rewards increased by 20%.
Two-handed sword damage increased by 50%, while two-handed hammer damage is reduced by 50%. Rewards increased by 10%.
Some parts of the location are covered in molten lava, which gradually applies the Ablazed effect when entered. Rewards increased by 15%.

These changes weren’t part of the original plans, but considering the current state of the game, I felt that significant adjustments were necessary. It's better to implement them now, during the early stages, to ensure that the game’s foundation is solid and stands the test of time.

This may impact the release date of the next update, but I’m doing everything I can to launch it as soon as possible. Let me know your thoughts on these changes: I’m eager to hear your feedback as we shape the game together!

Thank you so much! Happy voining!

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