Darkwood News

[p]Darkwood is 80% off during the Hooded Horse Publisher Sale.

Darkwood is a unique take on the survival horror genre. Scavenge and explore a rich, ever-changing world by day. But when night falls, be prepared to hunker down in your hideout and pray you'll live to see the morning light.

Hooded Horse Publisher Sale[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[p]Darkwood is 80% off during the Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale.

Darkwood is a unique take on the survival horror genre. Scavenge and explore a rich, ever-changing world by day. But when night falls, be prepared to hunker down in your hideout and pray you'll live to see the morning light.

Hooded Horse January Publisher Sale

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[p]After years of waiting, it’s official - Darkwood 2 is coming.[/p][p]Crafting the world of Darkwood was a very challenging and long journey for us. After Darkwood, the studio grew. We tried making new games, but ultimately decided that we can’t go on working together. We decided to go on a hiatus, maintaining Darkwood, but not actively developing anything new.[/p][p]In the meantime, Darkwood has garnered a loyal fanbase. Years after release, there aren’t any games quite like Darkwood. With many of you anxious for a sequel, we’ve decided to do the unthinkable - hand over our baby to another studio. After a long time of searching, we think we’ve found the perfect partners for this: Ice-Pick Lodge and Hooded Horse.[/p][p]We’ve been fans of Ice-Pick Lodge since their debut Pathologic, which was an inspiration for Darkwood. IPL was originally based in Moscow, but after the invasion of Ukraine, they condemned Russia’s actions and moved out to Kazakhstan. They have a burning passion for unique games, and they share the same soft spot for Slavic Folklore and Misery™. If anyone is capable of capturing the magic of Darkwood, it’s them.[/p][p]It’s possible that in the past year, I’ve played games published by Hooded Horse the most. Their portfolio is focused mostly on strategy and tactical games, but they are expanding their reach. Their team is amazing, and their care for developers is tremendous. So much so that we’ve decided to hand the publishing of the first Darkwood on PC over to them. [/p][p]So, what is Acid Wizard Studio’s role in this? We are not taking an active part in development. Instead, we are consulting with Ice-Pick Lodge and Hooded Horse on a regular basis, making sure the sequel stays true to the original.[/p][p]Enough yapping! Feast your eyes on the announcement trailer:[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Please keep in mind that the game is still in development. We’ve already received a lot of positive feedback from you, but also concerns about the art style change. Fret not! We hear you and we can confirm that Ice-Pick Lodge has already made significant progress in recreating Darkwood’s unique aesthetic. [/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

"ICE quoting Halo is surely as close as I'll get to hell this week", I said to myself earlier. "Hold my beer," interjected Manor Lords publishers Hooded Horse, before diving into a flyblown burlap sack and fishing out the press release for Darkwood 2. Did you ever play Darkwood? It's the survival horror game about being a horrible hermit in a horrible, horrible, top-down forest. It's the game that persuaded Adam Smith to mercy-kill his dog. The new one is set in "the scorched deserts of a dying sea" that is slowly being engulfed by evil trees.

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It took us WAY longer than we anticipated, but the 1.4 update is finally here. It consists of a huge number of bug fixes, plus many QoL improvements.

This update is compatible with your existing save games, but if you want the best experience, we advise to start a new game (some bugs will still persist on save games from 1.3).

Some macOS players have been experiencing save file issues after the update.Here's a step by step guide on how to fix them.


- Updated Unity version from 5.5.3 to 2021.3.30. This means less software and hardware conflicts, better performance and less crashes.
- Fixed the vast majority of known bugs. We couldn't fix them all though (but believe me, we tried!).
- Fixed many issues with newer Mac systems.
- Fixed many issues on Linux.
- Added Steam DRM on Windows. This DRM is added to pretty much every game on Steam and is nothing like the shitty Denuvo stuff that made DRM a trigger word. We need to add this to have no issues with Steam integration, please read up on it if you're concerned.
- Fixed achievements not unlocking for many players.
- Added better 4k support.
- Updated the UI in some places.
- Added the Automagical Save File Corruption Recovery System. If your saves get corrupted / deleted, the system will try to use the back ups without any input from your part.
- Added Steam Cloud support.
- Many performance improvements.
- If you have a key to open a door, the default action for this door will be to use the key, so you don't need to open up the context menu anymore.
- Some minor changes to the Prologue.
- Some general rebalancing, mostly in the second chapter.
- Added French localization.
- The gamepad control scheme and UI has received many improvements.

[h2]Reworked control bindings[/h2]
Here are the Xbox One Controller bindings:
- Primary Action : A
- Aiming : LT
- Secondary attack: RB
- Run : B
- Vault : B
- Dodge: Right Stick Button
- Reload: Left Stick Button
- Inventory : Y
- Skill Menu: LB
- Player Menu: View Button
- Far look: RT
- Cycle: D-Pad Left
- Effects Cycle: D-Pad Right
- Open context menu: X

[h2]Changes for gamepad mode[/h2]
- Player character auto jumps over objects while running.
- Objects selection has been reworked.
- Context menu has been reworked.
- Inventory: Objects selection has been reworked.
- Throwing objects mechanics have been reworked.
- Autorun has been removed.
- Inventory, Workshop, Saw : UI has been reworked.
- Added optional aim assist.

The full list of fixes and changes can be found here.

Thank you to everyone who helped out during the testing! You are all truly wonderful.

[h3]Update 1.4.1, 31/12/2023.[/h3]
- Fixed input binding menu on higher resolutions.
- Fixed second intro cutscene in Hungarian.
- Hopefully fixed visual glitches around the cursor.
- Fixed cropped notes during dialogue on higher resolutions.
- Fixed missing text in dialogue between chapters.
- Hopefully fixed incorrect damage applied to characters.
- Fixed message displaying on the bottom of the screen when loading game if the Careful Step perk is active.


[h3]Update 1.4.2, 04/01/2024.[/h3]
- Hopefully fixed visual glitches around the cursor.
- Fixed choosing skills on gamepad on higher resolutions.
- Fixed inventory item popups incorrectly displaying on 19:10 aspect ratio.
- Fixed staff attack spam.
- Fixed skillbar icons incorrectly scaling.
- Fixed some tanks being unselectable with gamepad.
- Fixed unselectable doors if there is broken glass beneath them on gamepad.