SAVAGE: The Shard of Gosen News

Hail barbarian! ⚔️

Hither comes a new update with some important improvements, as well as some "quality of life" changes! New weapons and items have also been added, and the world of Gosen becomes just a bit deadlier with new traps, puzzles, and enemy behaviors.

[h2]Highlights in this Update[/h2]

[h3]No More Auto Pickup for Gear[/h3]
Gear Drops are no longer a pain in the loincloth! By default, weapons, armor, and shields will no longer be automatically picked up when you collide with them. Instead, on item collision, the name of the dropped gear will appear above it, allowing you to make a choice on whether you should pick it up or not. To initiate a pickup, you now press DOWN.





This fixes some frustration, where, to make room for a deadly new implement you have run across in the wild, you would drop one or more pieces of gear, only to accidentally pick up all the discarded loot you had just dropped.

Materials, consumables, and the like, are still automatically picked up, as they have an "infinite" space in the inventory.

These will have Game Options associated with them in a future update (Auto Pickup Loot: yes/no).

[h3]Important - SLEEP MARGIN?![/h3]



It looks like there is a setting here in GameMaker that I wasn't aware of -- "Sleep Margin". I have increased this in the hopes that it will fix some speed issues I have seen some people having, and related problems that have been reported to me. One of them being a "slow motion" type effect on the game.

Some games made on GameMaker seem to have this issue, where certain machines running some versions of Windows will set the game's priority to a low value.

Hopefully this fixes this issue if you are experiencing it!

[h3]New Items, Gear, and Brutal Ways to Get 'em![/h3]



New items have been added that will facilitate a fully featured "Forge" system in a future update, as well as weapons, key items, and materials.

[h3]New Hazards, Props, and Puzzles[/h3]

The world once again gets a little more dastardly with some new mechanical and visual additions. Existing puzzle and exploration sequences have also been improved and/or expanded.



[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]

[h3]BUG FIXES[/h3]

• Rising platforms do damage to you (like being crushed) when you pick up or use an item that triggers a “powerup” effect
  
• Fixed some elevators not resetting their levers when coming to a stop, forcing you to exit the room and reenter to use the elevator again
  
• Certain categories of pickups were influenced by moving platforms and are now not
  
• Weapons were not getting their stats from static info, creating different instances of stat blocks if changes were made in a patch
  
• MANY items in a room/screen will stay despawned if picked up, especially many of the “Death Tribute” pickups
  
• Breakable moving solid blocks (like the cave beetle shell) are NOT destroyed on enemy death by weapons that have more than one “hit” value
  
• Fixed treasure chests ONLY containing a random amount of whatever they contain (gold values, consumables, etc.)
  
• Fixed WOUNDS drawing incorrectly on the game HUD
  
• Fixed when knocking a moveable solid into another that is on a slope, the one you hit comes BACK toward VERY fast you after hitting the one on a slope
  
• Fixed attacking a moveable solid that is up against a wall and it’s collision effect doesn’t trigger
  
• Fixed levers still “sparkling” and being hittable when they shouldn’t
  
• CRASH FIX: Fixed climbing onto side-view-doors (open or closed) crashing the game
  
• Floating text prompts have been fixed (were sometimes jarring with where they spawned), and will also now follow a target that makes more sense
  
• Solid objects that you can lift, carry, push, etc., no longer draw BEHIND torches, creating a goofy looking effect
  
• CRASH FIX: Fixed game crashing on picking up a dropped essence orb
  
• Fixed hitting breakable rocks with “mirrored” melee object made it so breakable rock ignored actual weapon collision (i.e. pickaxe wouldn’t work if it hit the rock NOT on the “sweet spot” – THANKS Silverfox!)
  
• Fixed an issue with certain gamepads not registering an “interact” event when pressing UP on the DPad (like the Retro Bit Genesis controller – THANKS Tarxsix!)
  
• Fixed materials not being removed when forging a new weapon, shield, or armor
  
• Fixed hitboxes on several enemies
  
• Fixed hitboxes on several door/gate objects acting screwy
  

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS and CHANGES[/h3]

• Set GameMaker’s “sleep margin” to 10 – potentially gets rid of “slow motion” effect on some machines, improving framerate on others
  
• Redid several rooms and cleaned up event scripting
  
• Improved flow of encounters and enemy placement (also removing enemies in overpopulated screens) in several rooms and screens
  
• Redid several puzzle rooms
  
• Changed the locations of some items, introduced new items to certain chest locations
  
• Essence Vessels (“save” spots) added to improve levels, and in some cases added dedicated rooms for them
  
• Some loot tables redone across enemies and containers (chests, breakable objects, etc.)
  
• Some loot tables now based on Favor
  
• Slightly increased the chance for resource nodes (ore, trees, etc.) to spawn, Luck is also now factored into this
  
• Weapons are now less effective if you do not meet their stat requirements (base damage is limited and reduced)
  
• Certain weapon stats have been tuned differently
  
• Certain enemies now spawning with different behavior and attack properties based on player FAVOR stat
  
• Gear drops (weapons, armor, shields) do NOT automatically get picked up when you run over them now – current default “pick up” button is DOWN (was frustrating to find a new weapon you wanted to pick up, had no room, dropped gear to make room, and then accidentally picked up what you dropped) – this will have a Game Option in the future to turn on and off (“autopickup loot: yes/no)
  
• Gear drops will now also display their name above them when you collide with them so you can make an informed decision on whether to pick them up or not
  
• Doors, chests, levers, and other interactable objects that you can activate by attacking now have an “interact prompt”, much like talking to an NPC – this should fix some confusion and also remedy accidentally attacking NPCs in some cases
  
• Crafted items at the Forge now display their names when crafting is finished much more prominently
  

[h3]NEW STUFF[/h3]

• Several new weapons added to the game across a few weapon categories
  
• New rooms and encounters added to the game
  
• A few new traps added
  
• New puzzle rooms added
  
• Some new enemy behaviors added to certain enemies, as well as the allowance for more status effects (i.e. poison arrows)
  
• A series of new key items added, some of them specifically dealing with future updates to the Forge
  
• Several new materials added for crafting
  
• New secrets and loot drops
  
• New graphic assets, sprites, backgrounds, tiles, for “Relic” style of environments
  

I wanted to include a brand new Map System in this update, but I am still wrestling a bit with the particulars, but I have decided on a look and size for the thing, and hope to include that in the next update. Volunheim is still on the way, as well as updates to current locations (story, NPC dialogue, quests, bosses, etc.).

I wanted a static display and went with a design that allows me to show as many map cells on the screen at one time, so expect it to look something like this.


I also want to thank you so much for contributing to over 1,000 units moved on Steam! I have also just recently hit over 10,000 hours of work on the game (disgusting, oops lol - (beyond) time to start wrapping this thing up!).

All the best to you and yours, and thank you for your support!! ⚔️
- Matt

Hail, Barbarian Horde! ⚔

This update is big, juicy AND nutrient rich - but does not include Volunheim. We will get there!

For now, I wanted to deliver a video to you covering the bigger, more interesting additions, fixes, and improvements to SAVAGE as I hack and slash my way toward a big, PROPER Volunheim content update.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Below, for fun, are some of the info graphics and GIFs used in the presentation.

[h2]Player Traversal Fixes and Improvements[/h2]

• Fixed a TON of softlock and outright crash issues related to moving around, climbing, speed, entering and exiting certain rooms - LOTS of improvements to the worldmap - Kell and other overworld assets look better'
  
• Entering and exiting locations feel a lot better and less janky - Fixes to the overworld camera - Overall better game feel - New "dust/air" sprites for jumping, landing, dodge rolling, and skidding
  
• ALL COLLISION SPRITES have been redone (damage types, collisions, destructibles, etc.) - MORE THINGS to "pogo" (downward strike) off of -- including moveable objects, breakables, and enemy melee objects
  
• More interactive elemets -- i.e., toss a corpse on a springing spike trap to create a rideable elevator that you can stack other things on top of to reach higher locations
  

[h2]ENEMY IMPROVEMENTS!! [/h2]

• Tons of fixes to hitboxes
  
• Enemy melee placements were WAY OFF for many enemies (FIXED)
  
• Tuning to timings, AI, and stats have been adjusted to most enemies
  
• Some enemies and bosses (Lesser Horror, as an example) have gotten NEW movesets
  
• Fixes to bounding box objects for larger, stranger shaped monsters
  

[h2]BOSS IMPROVEMENTS!![/h2]

• Same as above - and also to boss “arenas”
  

[h2]LUCK AND FAVOR REVAMP [/h2]

• Luck behaves independently to Favor, aside from Luck increasing when Favor does
  
• Other events, planned consummables, RITUALS (coming soon) will increase luck
  
• LUCK influences frequency of item drops, rarity of drops, money gained on a gold drop, IF there is gold, gives you a bit of an edge in dialogue skill checks (intimidate, reason, lying, etc.)
  
• FAVOR will now influence things like WHAT enemies will appear in a spawn table in certain areas (like procedurally generated map encounters), and therefore what items will be available to farm (nastier, damage dealing weapons, think more sinister and deadly for negative Favor -- armor, shields and curatives for positive favor)
  
• Favor will also influence bonuses from effects given to gear that has been affixed with a corresponding Fetish, whether or not certain NPCs might appear, what scenarios will appear on the worldmap
  
• Favor will also dictate whether "Shadow Kell" spawns on death, whether he hunts you (all that being said, you could intentionally LOWER your favor, die, spawn Shadow Kell -- RAISE Favor to get access to Shadow Kell exclusive positive Favor drops - Kill Shadow Kell. Profit)
  

[h2]STAT IMPROVEMENTS AND OVERHAULS [/h2]

• Attack and Defense ratings and how they work together has been refactored (dealing damage)
  
• Kell now does very little damage without a weapon, and defense is low without armor
  
• Scaling now matters a LOT more on gear
  
• Began tuning stats across all gear
  

[h2]CUNNING OVERHAUL!! [/h2]

• Points into Cunning actually works now!
  
• Parry system overhaul! "Parry opportunity" stat from Cunning
  
• Critical Strike damage bonuses, along with flashy blood and collision sprites to show you got a critical strike
  
• Critical damage can now be STACKED across certain parameters, like weakness to damage type, position, parry, backstab, headshot
  
• Big, satisfying, juicy critical strike numbers
  
• Evasion is now affected by Cunning -- More points into Cunning makes your dodges faster and have more iframes at the start of your dodge animation -- this ALSO makes shields more effective, and positioning more important if you DON'T put points into Cunning
  
• Individual stat lines are starting to make more impact, making character growth and progression more interesting
  

[h2]NEW ITEMS [/h2]

• Wayward grit has been added to drop tables and actually works now (heals armor hp)
  
• New weapon category: "Whips", along with new whip category weapons
  
• New "knife" category weapons
  
• Certain enemies can have parts of them cut off and used as a weapon (i.e. the Lesser Horror's tongue)
  
• Some new key items and story related items
  
• More weapons and items have been added to containers and drop tables
  
• More items added and changes made to NPC stores -- i.e. the Blacksmith in Gussek now sells keys
  

[h2]TONS OF FIXES AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS [/h2]

• Visit the Steam discussion page to view the pinned patch notes (it's very long)
  

[h2]VERY BIG AND LONG UPDATE [/h2]

• I am going to start doing smaller, more frequent updates. I like putting these out more regularly to you, and it means there isn't a huge amount of stuff to try to communicate to you.
  

ALSO - what do you guys wanna see? I'm sure everybody wants more content -- I WANT more content, too! for smaller systems -- Some things that still need to be added:

• A map system -- "optional" For people who want to be brave (and also lost, most likely) -- optional map consumables
  
• Recipe list for alchemy and cooking - GET ALL THE PERKS/SKILLS in there!
  
• Remaining features for the FORGE (improvement, salvage, "lore")
  
• Bestiary needs to be added (monster names, lore, weaknesses, drops, etc.)
  

Let me know and I will prioritize this sort of stuff for, if not the next update, a future update!

Thanks again for all of your support!!

-Matt

HAIL Barbarian Horde!



This patch brings with it a hefty amount of fixes, improvements, some new features, and some new content to make ready for Volunheim, and beyond!

Some of the main highlights here include:

• LOTS of fixes and improvements to general traversal (speed fixes, running, jumping, climbing, downward-striking off of ALL SORTS of interactive objects, like moving blocks, enemy objects, and destructibles) -- this makes gameplay and getting around quite a bit more fluid and smooth
  
• BIG improvements and fixes across just about every enemy type -- hitboxes (especially larger, stranger shaped monsters), melee object placement and animation frames not matching
  
• Many enemies and bosses have gotten improvements to their behaviors, and even some new attack sets, making them more interesting to fight
  
• Stats, character growth and building have gotten BIG overhauls in a few ways -- stat scaling is much more important across weapons, armor, and shields, armor class + defense and attack values have been balanced and overhauled
  
• The FAVOR system has gotten an overhaul, and now operates (but influences growth of LUCK) independently of LUCK
  
• Luck now dictates things like whether items drop, if RARE items drop, and amounts from gold drops, while Favor dictates WHAT items are being carried by enemies, and also WHAT enemies will spawn (negative VS positive Favor values) -- Luck now deteriorates separately from Favor, and also gives you bonuses during skill checks within dialogues
  
• NEW weapon category, WHIPS, are now implemented, along with a few new weapons within said category
  
• CUNNING now actually WORKS and does all sorts of cool things across sub stats like Parry Opportunity, Evasion, and Critical Strike
  
• PARRYING now actually works the way it's supposed to and is VERY satisfying to pull off
  
• Different kinds of critical damage can now be stacked based on enemy states and player states (i.e. - did you hit an enemy with the damage type it is weak to? Is it a back stab? Is the enemy in a "parried" state? Are they stunned? Is it a headshot?!)
  
• ALL SPECIAL EFFECTS collision sprites (things like stun sprites, damage types, and breakable effects) have been redone, as well as new ones added for traversal (jumping, landing, hard landing, dodging and skidding), and other effects like critical strikes (cool looking impacts and BLOODY animations) making gameplay generally feel more satisfying
  
• Certain enemies can have parts of them broken off and be used as weapons!
  
• MORE interactive elements -- like tossing corpses onto triggered traps, creating a moving elevator that you can stack other things on to reach places you might not be able to otherwise
  
• MORE items, like Wayward Grit - an item that can repair lost armor HP, among others
  
• New rooms, screens, and a few tweaks and improvements to existing areas
  
• LOTS OF BUG FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS to other systems
  

Some screens illustrating a few of these features, updates and fixes:

This is just the tip of the iceberg for this update. I will post more details in the patch notes and go over these items in more detail in a video!

THANK you so much for your continued support, your patience, and your interest in my project! And a big barbaric THANK you and welcome to those who picked the game up during the Summer sale!

More to come! Keep your eyes peeled for VOLUNHEIM!


-Matt

Thank you all so much for a great year, all of the support and patience! I hope you had a great holiday season and are set to have an even better new year!

I wanted to take a moment to throw a video together thanking you - whether you picked Savage up in Early Access, you are an early supporter and/or Kickstarter backer, you've taken the time to try the demo, left feedback, spread the word -- or ALL OF THE ABOVE - thank you SO MUCH!

The video also includes a few things to look forward to in the next Savage Mega-Update, as well as other irons I have in the fire, including issue #1 of the MegaDex.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Again, thank you so much, I hope you've had some fun with what's currently available in the game, and it certainly wouldn't be nearly as interesting of a project without your support!

I'll see you for the next Savage update!

Happy New Year!

- Matt

YES, SAVAGE: The Shard of Gosen has made it to Early Access!

Hey everyone, Matt here, coming out of the grind cave for another update! Apologies for the lack of any news across EVERYTHING - it's been a pretty heavy grind to get the game where it is now, and I generally am not very good at finding a solid work/news update balance. So, apologies for keeping so quiet.

I was very unsure about Early Access, but I started to change my mind once some very kind people started asking me to make the game available in that capacity, so they could support the game and get a copy at the same time. It also helps get more eyeballs on the game that I wouldn't have otherwise, and all the extra help is greatly appreciated.

Speaking of which, thank you VERY much for all of the bug reports, feedback and critiques; this stuff is going to help me turn Savage into a MUCH better game.

All of the support across Kickstarter, early backers and the current round of Early Access has just about floored me. It is surreal and I am humbled by it, and very grateful. Thank you!!

That being said, let's talk about the game, what's currently in it, what didn't make it, and what's coming up in future content updates.

• 50 - 60% of dungeon and area content
  
• New title screen!!
  
• Brand new dialogue system
  
• “Perk” system finally implented with UI and unlockable perks
  
• Alchemy and cooking!
  
• Recipes for alchemy/cooking, tons of new materials, ingredients and consumables
  
• General polish and lots of bug fixes
  

The currently accessible landmass!


The title screen got a significant upgrade!


The new dialogue system is all drawn dynamically based on it's content, has a brand new "response" window that can hold up to 11 responses, and each response can potentially be a skill check against your four primary stats (with success and failure outcomes)!


Leveling up gear and/or items to level 3 "masters" that item -- NOW you have a nice fancy UI and menu system showing you what you've unlocked across several categories!


Alchemy and cooking are now a thing! Experiment by adding ingredients and materials to one, or all of the three available slots with a chance of creating a powerful potion, a rare crafting material, or simply cooking your raw meat to yield better healing results.


Lots of new materials, ingredients and consumables have been added!


Increased inventory limits - “infinite space” for mats/consumables

• Upgrades for weapon/shield and armor inventory space
  
• Map system (probably via crafting and/or vendor)
  
• “Journal” entry moved to the main character menu
  
• Buffs and debuffs to go along with new consumables
  
• More Forge functionality - Repair, Improve, Salvage and Lore
  
• Picking up weapons and armor method and “Discard” in inventory
  
• Stat balancing (damage, HP, BP gain, drop rates)
  
• Animations for new consumables, more perks
  
• Recipe UI for discovered recipes and MORE recipes
  
• More music - variety for individual areas
  

The remaining areas that will receive big juicy content updates - including ship travel!

• Fixed giving Morth ore if you only had 1 ore to give
  
• Losech’s dialogue now triggers automatically
  
• Fixed pickup info appearing twice for “Gal’vek’s Remains”
  
• Fixed Hem dialogue crashing game if he is sad
  
• Fixed Grethelde not remembering if you spoke to her or not
  
• Fixed Reylhast not remembering if you spoke to him or not
  
• Fixed Blacksmith crashing game if you chose certain dialogue
  
• Fixed NPC dialogue objects remaining after NPC went hostile or was killed
  
• Added alchemy and cooking
  
• New title screen with new images and sound effects!
  
• Fixes to green arrows in UI comparison windows
  
• 9 sliced UI for dialogues to allow dynamic window sizes
  
• Fixed Maginoch not spawning and crashing the game during optional boss scenario
  
• Rewrote and fixed logic for dialogue system
  
• Sped up the disclaimer at game start
  
• Brand new dialogue window to display multiple choices
  
• New dialogue choices for Skillchecks (Might, Resolve, Cunning and Favor)
  
• Dialogue system now allows for up to 11 choices
  
• Fixed a bug where the “shift” key would show up as “A” key when remapping controls
  
• Updated mouse sprites for the UI (left click, middle mouse, right click, etc.)
  
• New “typewriter” dialogue sound effect that can be pitch shifted
  
• New “success” dialogue skill check sound effect
  
• New “fail” dialogue skill check sound effect
  
• Fixed falling hazards crashing game if colliding with player’s shield if player didn’t exist
  
• Fixed several vendor bugs where values were not rounding correctly, causing other issues when interacting with shops, crafting and alchemy
  
• Certain NPC dialogue sets updated with optional skillcheck entries
  
• LOTS of new materials, potions and consumables for use in a variety of ways
  
• New recipes for alchemy and cooking
  
• Better gear info and comparison screen with stat icons showing scaling effects and requirements for your stats, also for vendor screens
  
• Fixed a bug where vendor screens were drawing player inventory information in both buy and sell modes
  
• Fixed a bug where if you were equipped with a shield in the intro and viewed the prison capture cinematic, the game would crash when loading the main character into cell
  
• New shield revamped “HITS” system with visible shield hit bar on the HUD
  

• Fixed 16:10 aspect ratio crashing the game when starting a new game in the name entry screen
  
• Fixed parallax layers and background layers drawing correctly for 16:10
  
• Fixed visuals for 16:10 title screen
  
• Fixed being outside room boundaries where no room is assigned for the compass object crashing the game
  
• Fixed mouse cursor positions for menus in 16:10
  
• Fixed scaling and tile drawing issues in 16:10
  
• Fixed drawing water FX in video options menu
  
• Fixed eating/drinking consumables from the items menu soft-locking the player
  
• Fixed picking up throwing dirks and hurlbats giving you “+0”
  
• Fixed hurlbats dropping below 0 quantity
  
• UPDATE DIRECT X if the game crashes due to water FX or weather FX!!
  
• Removed ship docks (they were accidentally left active)
  
• Added a few materials and other items to loot tables for currently available enemies
  
• Death fully restores HP once respawning at a checkpoint
  
• Favor subtracts much slower on death
  
• Improved base drop rates when killing items, destroying objects like crates and opening mundane chests
  

Check out my ramblings here in the video version for more detail on certain aspects of this post:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



Thanks for reading this far if you've made it! Lots of tuning and balance fixes need to be done, in addition to filling the rest of the game up with more content. Keep your eyes peeled!



Fully realized map shown here for fun!

Watch the game being developed on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/toborprime

Join the Discord to ask questions, give feedback and report bugs: https://discord.gg/7KfCNm6

Thanks for all of the support, patience and feedback!

-Matt