Fractal Space News

We have updated the game today to version 0.53 on Steam! This update brings hundreds of bugfixes reported by players since 0.52 last week!

Restart Steam to ensure the download is detected, then check top-right of the main menu that you are on the latest version.

We only going to detail here a few of the important bugfixes and changes from this update.

More Steam keys are going to be sent now for a few new players.

Originally posted by Games

Please remember: silent dialogues are normal as they are changing - not bugs
If you are in Chapter 3: Restart CHAPTER required!

Here are listed the known bugs. You can avoid them, but please don't report these bugs again, unless you have found new information or a 100% reproducible situation to help solve them:

• Aim Stabilizer: Auto-aim when high angle vertically (object right on top or right above you) will result in fast camera rotation instead of auto-aiming. Will be solved in a next update
• Camera Rotation: Maybe a consequence of another bug, that can cause "camera jumps" when looking around you. Please report if you find any way to reproduce the occurrence of this bug. Possibly only with a gamepad.
• Chapter transition might result in playing 2 soundtracks. Restarting the chapter should fix it, or exit the game and resume. Will be fixed in future update.

Below are listed the changes - not bug fixes of this update. Bugfixes are listed further down.



[h2]UPGRADE | SAFE LANDING[/h2]


The behavior has changed for this upgrade:

• Now only displayed when GROUND is detected, AFTER flying at least once over an UNSAFE area (this avoids it being displayed most of the time, when unnecssary, like small jumps).
• Now shows LIMIT for relocation detection, 2 to 10m before reaching the lower limit (only a few meters to avoid always showing where limits are from far away, different per-relocation systems)
• Always displayed when flying over a HAZARD (electrity, large laser fields)
• Doesn't show VOID anymore to avoid showing it too often, and it's best to inform when it's safe rather than when there is nothing to land on.
• Distance always shown if distance < 30m (except for limit detection, for which distance display varies)

There may be new bugs with this new behavior, like false-positives on GROUND detection. To be tested! Please note it will still show GROUND when normal lasers / saws are present. This is intended, as it's up to you to avoid small traps ;)

[h2]SEQUENCE | SWITCHES[/h2]



Sequence switches were reacting to Cubes in addition to the player. They have been changed to only react to the Player. This is the intended behavior.

[h2]OTHER | CHANGES[/h2]



Chapter 2: Changed the large button platform to require player presence to start. No longer possible to "stay behind" (safer relocation system).



Chapter 3: You could place cubes through the small breakable windows, at the glass-window station area in zero-gravity. This was not intended, and not possible before:



List of some of the bugs that were solved in 0.53:

• Chapter 1: First dialog sequence fixed
• Chapter 1: Picked up recordings were not played correctly
• Being crushed could sometimes cause character to teleport through crusher
• A bug allowed you to interact with Terminals from further away than before, and without facing them (not intended)
• Skipping cutscenes could create a game error, leading to cutscene events not being executed properly
• Jumping in an accelerated lift with Speedrun Mode enabled could cause you to fall through it
• Chapter 2: New change in first Shooting Cameras would make them being active too early
• Chapter 3: Large button and moving platform after double-cube door safer if you try to leave the platform or skip (relocations and others should trigger correctly). To be tested!
• Chapter 3: Player pressure plates (sequence switches) were also reacting to cubes. Won't anymore (intended this way).
• Breakable Windows: Various bugs solved with them. Shouldn't result in "flying parts" anymore as well.
• Many various bugs fixed in Chapter 4
• Safe Landing: Could previously show false-positives for "VOID"
• Color Packs Stats: CH1 would display "3/4" max, and CH3 too. Fixed, but requires a SAVE RESET if you want this counter to be correct. If you don't reset your save, you'll keep "3/4" as max for CH1, and will reach "5/4" for CH3 if you find them all.
• Bonus Rooms Objectives won't be activated anymore in End Game mode. They might still appear as "Completed". Will be solved in the future.
• Many other bugs and rendering issues reported in some Chapters were fixed

Thank you to all players who reported bugs from the game, and helped solving these!

Hi there, Fractal Space players! New update 0.52 is finally live! This update includes many changes, improvements and bugfixes!


This update contains many bugfixes and changes to make the game more stable, and fix various gameplay bugs & additions, and save system reworks.

Originally posted by Games

IMPORTANT: These changes imply that a full RESET SAVE is required for the game to function properly. We strongly recommend you press the !Reset Save! button in the main menu after the update!

Chapter 1 had many old dialogues coming from the Pocket Edition, and most of the new PC-exclusive dialogues were simply not present.

We have added the missing dialogues in Chapter 1 for PC; they are silent – and this is not a bug.

As we are reworking them all in the game, please ignore the fact that the audio is not yet recorded, and read subtitles meanwhile.

Please note that new dialogues are not yet localized, and they should not yet be translated as they are liable to still change. Some lines are the same as on mobile – good chance these will change as well in the future. They will only be added to the Localization Sheet when they are considered to be final.

In addition to Chapter 1 dialogues, there are also many new dialogue events. Here are a few examples:

• Dialogues for first Upgrade Terminal discovery
• Dialogues after taking an upgrade
• Dialogues for approaching already used Upgrade Terminals in New Game+
• Dialogues which only exist in New Game+, or changed for New Game+
• Dialogues for trying to get out of the level (relocation system)

Speedrun Mode now disables many dialogues in Chapter 1 (around 60% are disabled) to prevent having too much talking during Speedrun sessions. If you want to test the new dialogues (silent, only subtitles for now), please play without Speedrun Mode first. This will be applied to all Chapters in the future.


Many changes were made to various areas in most levels – sometimes these are small changes and fixes, and a few larger ones:

• Chapter 1: Cutscene that shows the door closing in front of you in 1..2.. SLICE room has been removed, to allow skip using HyperSpeed without the need to disable cutscenes.
  
• Presure Plates: Reworked in Chapter 1 before Taser Room in order to solve many bugs with their logic. They now enter lockdown for the second time you enter that room, after picking up Taser, preventing many possible bugs, and making them inactive (intentional).
  
• Chapter 2: A room now has higher ceilings to avoid the feel of being “too constrained”.
  
• Chapter 3: First breakable wall with Upgrade Terminal has changed into Bonus Room 6; now also contains a recording and has been rebuilt differently.
  
• Chapter 3: The corridor with the breakable wall above now has higher ceiling
  
• Chapter 3: The area in which you must destroy the Generator to disable the laser field, before the Sequence Room, has changed a bit
  
• Chapter 3: The Bonus Room 7 next to the Sequence Room area has been built and should be functional
  

The End Game was one of the main game systems that was not yet functional – and it is now! There might be bugs with this, but the main logic is implemented.

The End Game system is activated when the player has found all Upgrade Terminals in the game, and none are available to use:

• Makes all terminals available for a second upgrade
• These terminals will now provide you with missing upgrades
• When the player acquires all upgrades in the game, all terminals become unavailable

Selecting New Game also resets all picked up Recordings and Color Packs (intended). Only New Game+ keeps upgrades and collectables. Selecting New Game+ should never reset anything.


A new Upgrade has been added to the game!

[h2]SCANNER[/h2]
This upgrade helps finding Recordings, Upgrades Terminals and Color Packs. It has 2 levels of upgrade:

• Level 1: Be notified when an Upgrade Terminal is nearby
  
• Level 2: Be notified when Recordings or Color Packs are nearby
  

The Chapters page has been reworked to be more suitable to PC and gamepads. Each Chapter now has a specific image and loading image.

It now also displays new stats for each Chapter:




This update introduces new statistics available in the Pause Menu. Later on, we’ll rework the interface display to be easier to read, but for now it’s important to check it regularly to see if it displays accurate information at all times:



Both stats of your current Upgrades (left) and the current Chapter are displayed (right)

Originally posted by Games

IMPORTANT: It’s intended that Chapter Stats (right side) are NOT DISPLAYED on the first run of the game. Upgrade stats are displayed after acquiring your first Upgrade.

Changes and fixes were made to various upgrades in the game, detailed below.

[h2]HOVER | FIXES[/h2]
Level 3 Upgrade of Hover had a bug, and felt like walking freely in the air because of perfect air control. Changed to feel like hovering, while still having more air control than previous levels.

[h2]JETPACK | HYPER-SPEED[/h2]

• Jetpack light and gauge color now yellow to make it easier to distinguish between health / hover / hyper-speed and another element to be revealed in Chapter 5
• Health Backpack and Hyper-Speed display improvements, now above health gauge
  
• Health gauge now becomes blue while Hyper-Speed is active, and becomes red when not enough health to activate Hyper-Speed. The gauge and buttons now look like it has been “Toggled On”:

[h2]AIM | STABILIZER[/h2]



Many improvements were made to the Aim Stabilizer upgrade mechanic:

• Now shows “Stabilizing…” gauge when auto-aim is starting and waiting for you to stop moving the camera. Any camera movement will cancel stabilization. it will resume if you stop moving the camera again. This will allow you to still play normally with Aim Stabilizer, and only use it by not moving the camera and prefer to wait for Aim Stabilizer to perform.
• Longer delay before auto-aim kicks in.
  
• Will no longer instantly auto-lock while in air / hovering / using Jetpack, in order to avoid unintentional instant auto-lock. Instant auto lock now only works if you aim close to the target while on the ground.
• Instant auto-lock when starting to aim close to a target to now exclusive to Aim Stabilizer Level 2.

Many bugfixes and improvements were made to Sprint and Crouch mechanics for this update:

• Requesting to Crouch shortly after touching the ground wouldn’t be taken into account properly. It will now work and crouch as expected.
• Holding the Sprint key would not always work if the character could not sprint at that moment (cannot stand up or other scenarios). Any Sprint request should now always be performed as soon as possible.
• Crouch: TOGGLE mode is now the default mode.
  
• Crouch: Various bugs fixed cause by alternating between crouch and sprint

If you have played Chapter 4 on PC, the word “Progress” might ring a bell 😉

Chapter 5 is a lot of work, just like Chapter 4 on PC was. We’re gradually getting there, though. We’re getting more rooms functional. There’s a few new features that were added for this Chapter, and creating rooms, puzzles and traps that use them takes time.



We’re hoping to have a first playable of Chapter 5 in Experimental Builds in April. Thank you for your patience!


We have started to rework the Taser-Gun exclusive for the PC version. It will have the following major improvements over the current (mobile) version:

• The Taser model have better visuals
• All Taser–related Upgrades will have a visual impact on the Taser in-game: Batteries will be added, scope attachment, etc.
• Ammo will be displayed more clearly as a number instead of gauge
  
• Taser Customization will affect more parts of the Taser
• Reloading system: Batteries will be ejected and replaced with a reloading animation
• New animations
• Taser Power Level 2 and 3 will be replaced by a “Charged Shot Level 1 and 2″ mechanic. A Charged Shot will consume more ammo, but will break walls (Level 1) and destroy cameras (Level 2) . This will allow you to still choose to only stun a camera, even after reaching max Taser Power level, by not charging the shot thus saving ammo. This change will also make Taser Capacity and Taser Backpack upgrades more meaningful.

The new Taser system requires a lot of work as well, in parallel of Chapter 5. The first playable version is planned to be tested at the same time as Chapter 5 PC. If it’s ready before CH5, it will be set live before 😉


Here’s a list of the many other various bugfixes of this update – many more have been fixed, only listing the major ones here:

• Crashes & Optimization: GPU memory load has been improved for all Chapters. Crashes on old graphics card should occur less often when loading next chapters. Chapter 4 might still have issues, thoughm as there is still work to do for this one. Let us know how it goes!
  
• Subtitles: Could sometimes display slowly or with wrong timings with Hyper-Speed active – should now work fine in all cases
  
• Jump: Low framerate would make it impossible to jump quite often, usually after interaction. Should now be at least reduced, or fixed – let me know if it still happens
  
• Fast Moving Platforms / Smashers / Lifts: Reworked to ensure smooth movement while standing on them, and avoid going through them at low framerate. Please don’t jump while in accelerated lifts for now, still not perfect 😉
  
• Water: Would only be rendered if Depth of Field was Enabled, or Reflections was set to Dynamic. Should now always be displayed, as intended.
  
• Triggers / Events: A bug could provoke some triggers / events to be activated twice, when they should only work once. This could create many level bugs, like unexpected relocations.
  
• Save System: After loading a save, some triggers or objects could be enabled when they shouldn’t be – would create unexpected random level bugs
  
• Aim Stabilizer: Could continue trying to aim after stopped aiming Taser.
  
• Jetpack: Starting using jetpack when a vertical moving platform just started to move upwards would provide massive boost to jetpack.
  
• Jetpack: QuickSave / Quickload will keep Jetpack Fuel at time of save (avoid exploits). For Auto-Saves / Last Checkpoint, fuel will now be fully recharged
  
• Exit Crash: Fixed crash that could occur upon game exit
  
• Shadows / Reflections: Many reflections / shadows fixes that were reported
  

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!
Charles from Haze Games

The latest updates of the PC version now support a new Dynamic level of Reflections in the Graphics options:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Static reflections are precomputed and greatly optimized, so it should be fine keep Reflections to Medium or Low even with an integrated graphics card. The main drawback is that as the environment changes (a door opens, a screen changes color, etc.), these new changes are not seen in the reflections. It is a performance VS realism compromise.

The new Dynamic reflections level uses Screen Space Reflections and solves the issue stated above. However, it is resource demanding, and should be used only if you already have a good framerate. It usually lowers the FPS significantly on integrated graphics cards.

If you are on integrated graphics instead and not a dedicated GPU, you should keep Reflections to Medium or Low level.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
The Electrified Grounds were only made of an electricity visual effect. We have improved them:

• Optimized the electricty effect to have a lower impact on framerate - will be even more optimized later on
• Water has been added below them, with the associated sound effects

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Vent doors were using a small regular door visual. This was temporary. They now all have been replaced with the new visual! They have been improved to:

• Look better from both sides
• New animation that avoids sticking out through walls and windows

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
The Depth of Field effect can simulate the blur that can be observed by a real-world camera, when it is focusing on close or distant objects. If this effect is enabled, it will be used in the following cases:

• Aiming Taser: The aimed at point becomes the focus. When aiming at close objects, distant objects are blurred, and vice-versa
• Taking Damage: The screen becomes blurry for a few seconds

This effect is demanding; if you have an integrated graphics card and a low framerate, it's best to keep it disabled.






The aiming laser for the Taser -Gun has been reworked significantly to fix the following issues:

• The laser was not always pointing at the exact position the shot would be performed
• The laser point was sometimes positioned wrongly to the left or right of the laser line's end
• With a high Field of View setting, the laser would not be aligned with shooting final point (with default FOV, it was working correctly most of the time)
• The laser line could be seen through some solid objects in some cases, making it hard to perform precise shots (ex: through pipes)
• Aim Assist on mobile and PC would use the center point of the screen, resulting in sometimes locking slightly next to the target (because the laser end point cannot always be at a perfect center of the screen depending on the distance and angle with aimed object). It is now using the laser's end point instead. This was much more complex to accomplish than it seems! Pfew!

You can see the issue described above, in the following image:



With the newly reworked Taser aiming system:

• Aiming laser always points exactly where the shot will be performed, regardless of the conditions or current FOV value
• Laser point now has dynamic lighting: makes the Laser color from Taser Customization more visible, and allows easier aim in dark areas without having to turn on the flashlight
• Aim assist will always perfectly lock at the desired target, regardless of distance and angle with the target

Here's an image of the updated version of aiming, with these issues fixed:




In the game, for quite a while, it was possible to get on the wrong side of some doors as they were closing; this would result in being softlocked, requiring to reload from last checkpoint.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Since we have introduced Hyper-Speed in Chapter 3, there were 3 major design problems to solve:

• The player should not be able to skip all doors of the game by slowing down time using Hyper-Speed: only some that are intended
• The player should not be able to use Hyper-Speed to go backwards while a door is closing. By doing so, he can get stuck behind a locked door, resulting in a softlock :(
• If a door can be slowed down with Hyper-Speed, it needs to be clear to the player, using a different visual for doors that are Hyper-Speed proof. This way, the player can plan his action accordingly, and doesn't have to try skipping every single door with Hyper-Speed only to see if it will be slowed down by the ability or not

In order to solve the issues above, we have introduced a new door type: the Hyper-Door:

• It always closes or opens at a constant speed, even if Hyper-Speed is activated.

With this new door type and other changes to the door closing system, it is now impossible to go backwards behind a closing door and remaining stuck. This means many softlocks were solved.

If you find any softlocks while playing, let us know!


We have added 3 new upgrades to the game; the upgrades distribution has also been changed to reflect the new upgrades and a few new improvements were made:

• All playable Chapters have the correct amount of Upgrade Terminals per level, using temporary Work in Progress Bonus Rooms
• All work in progress Bonus Rooms have the intended Upgrade Terminal even if the rooms are not built yet.
• Associated Bonus Room screen will now reflect the state Incomplete or Completed if the upgrade in that room has already been consumed
• All Upgrade Terminals already consumed will now display the selected upgrade on this Terminal.

Allows to zoom while aiming with the Taser. Simply use the scrollwheel or Directional Pad Up/Down while aiming to start using the Scope. The Aim Stabilizer is disabled while using Scope to allow precision shots.

It has 2 levels of upgrade:

• Level 1: Moderate maximum zoom
• Level 2: High maximum zoom

Taser aim assistance module, which automatically locks aiming to the closest aimed at target. It has 2 levels:

• Level 1: Only works while standing still. Any horizontal character movement requested by the player will prevent the Aim Stabilizer from locking to targets
• Level 2: Works in all conditions and faster lock on targets

As this upgrade makes the game much easier, it is only available from Chapter 2.

This system is hard to make comfortable in all situations. At the end of this post, we have some additional details on how it works ;)

You can see these 2 upgrades in action in the following video:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This upgrade informs the player if it's safe to land below him. It has 2 Levels of upgrade:

• Level 1: Displays a notification when a hazard is detected below the player
• Level 2: In addition, shows a view camera of what is directly below the player in realtime. This feature has not yet been implemented.

You can see this Hazard notification at the bottom of the screen:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We have reworked and improved elevators in all Chapters of the game:

• Ensure they open faster and earlier in case you are speedrunning
• Ensure they move much faster in Speedrun Mode
• Avoid elevator doors to "stick out" that could block you
• Avoid activating an elevator switch if you are not inside: prevents having the lift leave without you

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We have added a new Skip path in Chapter 1! It is located in the very first lift, and is only accessible after activating the elevator, using Dodge in New Game+.

The first time you try it, you might not be faster than the lift - however with a bit of training, high Speed upgrade level and Sprint ability, you will be able to get up much faster than the lift ;)

In addition, this new skip path contains a Bonus Room (currently empty), in which you can acquire an additional upgrade.


A new Bonus Room has been added to Chapter 4, just before the Enhanced Camera. It allows you to acquire an additional upgrade.



This is one of the rare Bonus Rooms that will be accessible on the first run and not only in New Game+, as it doesn't require a specific ability, and is only protected by a Breakable Window.


We have been working a lot on the PC version of Chapter 5 in parallel. Progress is slow, but steady. It's a complex Chapter, introducing quite a few new elements, similarly to Chapter 4 on PC.



We can't give you too many details as we don't want to spoil your first experience with this new Chapter when it's available to play. Here's what we can say:

• It will be quite surprising
• It will have a few new elements that you haven't seen in the previous Chapters
• It will start with new PC exclusive content, and end with a "similar logic" than Chapter 4 on mobile, but reworked and improved

In parallel, we have also worked on the Level Editor, but we are still currently focusing on Chapter 5 and mobile updates, so it's still not ready to be tested. Here's a bit of news on the status.

We have started to create a basic user interface (currently, all icons are the same) to add objects, and edit selected objects, in addition to a customizatble Quick Access hotbar:

• Placing/deleting objects
• Changing "floor": construct on ground floor, or at higher / lower levels to build vertically
• Placing walls, grounds, windows
• Placing doors, buttons, cubes, pressure plates
• Placing Lasers, Mines
• Customizable damage for lasers and mines, and option to make blinking lasers
• Saving/loading a work in progress level
• Hooking events to ensure buttons/pressure plates can interact with the environment
• Testing a level instantly: not perfect yet, a few bugs, but mostly functional

Here's a list of what we need to work on before a first version can actually be tested or shown:

• Checkpoints must also save while "really playing" a level
• Placing checkpoints, saws, invisible triggers
• Placing invisible killzones
• Placing collectibles: Taser Ammo packs, Healthpacks
• Placing Jetpack, Taser collectibles
• Customizing player spawn point, player stats (health etc) and if player starts with Taser / Jetpack and which upgrades
• Improving the user interface (many functions are only on hotkeys currently)
• Interface to load different levels (only 1 level supported right now)

When we will have the features above ready, we will either upload a video or livestream a demo of these basic functions before it can be tested by players ;)


We have fixed hundreds of bugs in the last few updates; one major victory was made on mysterious crashes some users were experiencing every time the game was trying to reload the latest checkpoint.


The crashes upon last checkpoint reload were linked to some Graphics Cards not supporting some specific instructions.

After a lot of work and testing of special development builds from these users (thanks again for helping out!), they are finally fixed and these users can enjoy the game again without crashes!

• Jump: If the character was standing on an edge (half on the ground, half in the air), he would sometimes refuse to jump
• Reflections: There was a bug that could cause LOW or MEDIUM level of static reflections to not be displayed
• Cameras: Destroying a camera while the room was in lockdown could result in a softlock. Other bugs were fixed with Cameras.
• Interface: Many interface elements adjusted to reduce pixelization, including Dodge Cooldown widget, center crosshair and objective markers
• Performance Guide: Has been updated to explain and describe the new Dynamic Reflections and Depth of Field effect.
• Steam Leaderboards: Were not updating properly in Chapters page

Here are a few additional details about the Aim Stabilizer system:

• Disabled while using Scope
• Works with both mouse and gamepad aiming
• Does not snap to breakable windows or breakable walls, as they are large targets - all other targets can be locked

• If you start aiming with a target next to the center of the screen, it will immediatly lock it
• If you move your aim next to a target while already aiming the Taser, it will start locking after a short delay (this delay is to avoid snapping to the wrong object while moving the camera to find your desired target)

• While locked to an object, shooting or moving the camera (a certain camera movement threshold is required) will cancel the lock. If a lock is cancelled in this case, it will not try to lock again until you aim somwhere else and then aim again at this object or release aim button (this is to avoid repeatedly lock an object you have just explicitly stopped aiming at)

• While aiming is locked to an object, any visibility obstruction will cancel the lock. Example: wall or moving platform coming in between
• However, in this case, it will auto-lock again to this target immediatly when it is visible again

That's it! Thank you all for reading and see you next time! Happy gaming, Charles from Haze Games

Hi there, dear Fractal Space players!

We’ve had quite a lot of new things added to the game recently, and many long-lasting issues were addressed in the latest updates.

We’ll discuss here the new and changed elements in Fractal Space.

You can also check this post on our official website here.


We’re very happy to announce a new feature that was requested a lot over time by the community on both PC and the Pocket Edition of Fractal Space: The ability to customize your Taser!
https://youtu.be/QsX_JiNxozg
In the video above, you’ll see that you can separately select a color for:

• Structure: Color of the Taser’s body structure; becomes brighter when aiming at an interactive element
• Laser: Color of the laser when not aiming at an interactive element
• Laser Active: Color of the laser when aiming at an interactive element
• Screen: Color of the Taser’s screen when aiming at an interactive element
• Impact: Changes the color of the shooting impact lightning effect, particles and explosion lighting (not visible in the video)

When you start the game, you have access to a 2 default unlocked color swatches:

• Cyan: Default Taser Structure / Laser / Screen color
• Green: Default Laser Active color

There will be approximately 20 color swatches in total. In order to unlock new color swatches, you’ll have to find them by exploring all levels and picking up the Color Packs in the game:



If you try to activate a locked color, a hint will show you in which Chapter it can be found:



Some Color Packs can be found in the first run; rare Color Packs can only be accessed in New Game+ using Taser Power Level 2, Dodge and Hyper-Speed.


The game was missing a core element: objectives and objective markers. We have now added this to the game, and completely reworked the objectives system. You can see a demonstration of this new Objectives Systemin this video:
https://youtu.be/tcTrL-R96NU
As you can see in the video above:

• Multiple objectives can be active simultaneously
• An objective can be completed or cancelled
• Objectives can have an associated Marker, showing an action name and distance

We are keeping objectives as general goals like “Open the Door” or “Find an Exit”, and we rarely provide step-by-step help in order to avoid making the game too easy.

However, it’s now much harder to forget what you are supposed to do, by simply pressing Tab or Dpad Down to see your current objectives and their markers anytime.

Chapters 1, 2 and 3 have new, reworked objectives throughout the level; we will soon be adding them toChapter 4 too on the Experimental branch.

Controls Remapping has been improved, bugs have been fixed, which makes it more stable and all cases should work fine:
https://youtu.be/AZFgbkXt0_I

Many changes were done to the core gameplay of the game; some that are hard to notice if you don’t know about them, but they should prove to make the game more comfortable especially for newcomers.


We have added a new hidden area in Chapter 1 in which you can find a Bonus Recording (coming later) and a Color Pack:
https://youtu.be/uS2FfoLrePo
And below is a Time Lapse of how this area was created if you’re curious :)
https://youtu.be/ohMcypxl06Q

The game now supports multiple paths to reach the very first Taser Ammunition Pack in Chaper 1 on New Game+ demonstrated in the video below using the Dodge ability:
https://youtu.be/Z45gvUuRpqo

We have added a new skip path in Chapter 1 for New Game+ only, next to the very first crushers you encounter in the game:
https://youtu.be/JAT3AJylcnQ

In Chapter 1 on New Game+, you can walk on the vent next to the very first Power Core; this area looked visually buggy; it has been reworked to look more like an intended secondary path:

• All interactions no longer require to aim precisely to objects
• Power Cores can now be inserted even while they are currently moving to their “insertion preview position”

In some cases, the character wouldn’t respond to jump requests; now this shouldn’t happen anymore and the player should always jump when requested, even while moving fast – considering there is a valid ground below.


There were many issues when the player was moving fast on slopes. Now, moving fast up or down a slope will still ensure the character remains “sticked” to the ground all the way instead of “slowly flying down” the slope sometimes (that was preventing you from jumping while going fast down slopes).

• Jetpack activation requests wouldn’t work every time, especially if you requested to activate the Jetpackjust as you were touching the ground. It should now always turn on when requested, or jump if there is no more fuel.

We have reworked the mine beams visual effect to be more distinguishable from normal lasers, and to look nicer:
https://youtu.be/gbTSm4CXR5k

We have reworked the in-game bug reporting system. It is now:

• Faster to upload
• More stable: Sometimes, there could be errors after posting bugs
• Uploads screenshots, log files and save games directly to Haze Games
• Reported bugs in-game are now linked to the Discord Server

https://youtu.be/WFpqZqjnv9I
It is now the recommended way to report bugs: Please press ALT+B directly in-game.

A great addition thanks to these changes and The Promidius’ hard work on the Discord Server code, bugs are now fully linked to the server, and it will automatically post a new bug report on the #active-bugs channel!

• Heartbeat: There are 2 new heartbeat looping sounds: slow (low health), fast (low health while Hyper-Speed is active)
• Jetpack: New sounds for firing the jetpack, the jetpack loop and jetpack stop
• User Interface Sounds: New sounds for user interface confirm, cancel, show taser screen, etc
• Dodge: New “fast wind” sound when performing a Dodge

From now on, we have the following main next steps that we are going to be actively working on.

Chapter 4 on PC is currently only available in EXP builds. We will now make some final additions:

• Implement all remaining temporary silent dialogues
• Integrate all the Objectives using the new Objectives System to help guide the player
• Minor level changes to result in more clear puzzles / somes easier challenges based on feedback of experimental testers

After these 3 steps are completed and testing is done, Chapter 4 will be available in the default branch!


We have just started the work on Chapter 5 for PC; It will be a long journey of work, estimated to 2 months.



Chapter 5 will be a reworked version of Chapter 4 on mobile, with many new rooms and new PC-Exclusive content. The existing mobile content will be completely re-designed to look and play better with the PC gameplay mechanics.

When it will be ready to be tested, it will first only be playable on EXP builds.


We have started working on first tests for a Level Editor for Fractal Space a while back. However, it’s in a very early state, and cannot be tested currently.

We will now be spending some time every week working on the Level Editor in parallel, and we will now share screenshots and progress of how the Level Editor is coming up on social media, hopefully once a week!


https://youtu.be/1s2iQAbm29g
With our focus on progress for the PC version recently, we haven’t updated the mobile version for a while. We’ll now be working on the mobile version in parallel, in order to:

• Fix many bugs that were reported
• Add Taser Customization to all mobile versions of the game, with exclusive colors for players who Donate or purchase the HD Edition on Android and iOS.
• Add Speedrun Mode support on mobile versions

We’ll keep you updated as progress is made on the mobile version update; there will first be a Beta-Testing phase on both Android and iOS.

That's it for this month! Thank you for your support and for reading us!

We hope you're all doing great since last time! We had quite a lot of updates of the PC version since the last article - I'll try to summarise them all up here!

It took a great amount of time to get this new, exclusive Chapter 4 ready for you to play and test to help improve and find bugs, but it's finally available in an early, experimental version! This new Chapter features quite a lot of new gameplay mechanics - we sincerely hope you'll enjoy them!



It's currently missing objectives and voice-over dialog; even if they are silent, subtitles are displayed to help you understand what to do as you play.

There was a very first release of Chapter 4 a few weeks ago, but it had various bugs and was missing some rooms, that have since then been added in the latest update v0.4.2c_EXP. In addition, the first version wasn't optimized; the latest should now run better on low-end computers.



Even if the ending of Chapter 4 is still missing the latest version, most of Chapter 4's playable content is now here. Chapter 4 will then be available on the main Default branch for all players only once the final ending of the Chapter is implemented. This is estimated to be for the end of May 2019.

I would like to thank all the early testers that have already tested the new Chapter through our official Discord Server!



I'm not going to provide more details of this new Chapter to avoid spoilers :) If you're interested in trying out the current Experimental version of Chapter 4, head to the Official Steam Guide for accessing Experimental Builds!



New Upgrade available, with 3 upgrade levels! You can find it in all Chapters. This new upgrade is called Hover: It allows you to hover in-air for a short duration while you aim your taser, making it easier to shoot while airborne. This upgrade is meant to be functional before picking up the Jetpack, which is why it's a separate system than the Jetpack. However, it does prevent the Jetpack from recharging while in use (intended).

Check out a video of the new Upgrade here!

Health Backpack and Taser Backpack upgrades are now considered Abilities until first unlock to Level 1. Then, can be upgraded to Level 2 and finally, Level 3. Until now, there were only 2 upgrade levels possible for these upgrades - we have now brought it up to 3 in order to carry up to 3 of each item types (Healthpack or Taser Battery).


The game now has a new Display Type option in the Graphics tab: Select either Fullscreen, Borderless or Windowed mode.



We have added a new Depth of Field option in Graphics tab: Enable or Disable the hit blur visual effects (high performance impact on low-end integrated graphics cards)


We have started to rework the sounds of the game! Philip, a good friend of mine and sound designer, is working on his free time to replace gradually the sound effects of the game, and he will help with some new music sound tracks.



We already have quite a few new sounds implemented: taser shooting sounds, heal, healthpack / taser battery pickup, taser reload, ui notifications, and a few more.

More will come over time as he has time to work on them!


In the previous major updates of the game, we had already made big optimization improvements, making the game more playable on low-end computers.



With this latest update, many of the rooms that were still a bit more demanding have now been adjusted, re-structured and optimized to be easier to render on integrated graphics cards.

• Use Dodge ability into it a Fragile Window to blast through it without consuming Taser ammo!
• Many Dodge ability improvements: Smoother + Verticality in dodge movement now more accurate in Zero-Gravity. Dodging temporarily interrupts Jetpack, but Jetpack resumes correctly if Jump button still pressed. You can now dodge while crouched, but will be forced to stand up if dodging up vertically
• Linux builds should now launch properly in both Default and Experimental branches.
• Many level design and visual bugs were fixed
• Fixed: Various Taser aiming laser bugs: misalignment when aiming laser switches from "far away empty space" to touching an object, and sometimes going through objects should now all be fixed. Makes it easier and more precise to aim far away objects.
  
• Changed: If cutscenes are disable OR speedrun mode, first intro of the game is automatically skipped
• Changed: Disabling Cutscenes, OR enabling SpeedRun Mode will always automatically skip the respawn animation
  
• NEW (EXP only): New additional rooms at the end of Chapter 4! The ending is still missing, but the transitional rooms towards the ending of Chapter 4 are now here. It's not very long, and they will be improved a bit since this is a first version, but please tell me if you find any problems or bugs already :)
  
• Changed (EXP only): Optimized more rooms in Chapter 4: A lot of areas should now run fine on integrated graphics cards. Still some rooms are required to be optimized (50% done)
  
• Changed: Optimized Destructible Walls: Some Areas in CH3 were heavy on performance due to presence of 2 or more destructible walls; should now be much better. It is a known issue that the "interior" sides of wall parts have a texture visual bug - ignore it - it will be fixed later.
  
• Changed: Optimized Destructible Windows: Destructible Windows should be much less heavy on performance than before. Still some optimization to do on them once they are broken, that will come later.
  
• Fixed: Dodging into a breakable window during Zero-G will also break it (used to work only in non-Zero-G)
• Many gameplay bugs reported by the Discord Community were fixed. Check the #solved-bugs channel of our Official Discord Server to know more.
• Changed: Smoother Jetpack: Short jetpack impulsions while falling used to create a "jump" - no longer the case. Acceleration is faster after long fall (used to take up to 4 seconds to start going up again)

Now that most of Chapter 4's content is functional, we have the ending of the Chapter to create. This will be done in a future update, as it's going to require a lot of additional work. We will now be focusing on that.


Once we have implemented the ending of Chapter 4, the chapter will be out of Experimental build for all players to test, and we'll start working on Chapter 5, which will be a longer, improved version of the mobile version's Chapter 4.


Currently, the mobile version's updates are on hold as we focus on the PC version. However, we're planning to fix a few additional bugs, and improve performance and quality even more within the next 1 or 2 months.

We are aware you all would love a Level Editor. We still haven't announced anything yet, as we are still researching the possibility of adding a Level Editor in the PC version of Fractal Space.

Yes, we are experimenting, in parallel of creating the ending of the game. However, we will only start focusing on a Level Editor once we are closer to releasing the final version of the PC version.



Once experiments are concluded and if they are successful, we'll officially announce a Level Editor and start a beta-testing phase for the feature. However, at this stage, we still cannot confirm there will be one, and when it will be released.

One thing is sure: if there will be a Level Editor, it will be completed and available to the public only after the story mode is completed, as we are too small a team to work on the game itself and a fully-fledged Level Editor.

Thank you all for playing, for your endless support and for reading! Talk to you soon,