Heartbound News

Patch 1.0.9.643

With this updated I polished the Emelio and Rhode interactions during The Clash section of the game. These previously had no facial expressions, contained missing dialogue, and the textboxes were all static. It's now much more emotionally impactful and feels correct. Next update will be Fern's entire section for this part of the game. This room is the second to last for all of Animus so there is a lot that needs to be done here.

Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
English is the only language past the Mossbacks.

Facial animations have been updated for all interactions in The Clash.
Textbox positioning has been updated for all interactions in The Clash.
A new facial expression for Emelio has been added.
Music timing has been updated for Emelio in The Clash.
SFX timing has been updated for Emelio in The Clash.
Rhodes interactions in The Clash have been updated.
Emelios interactions in The Clash have been updated.
The Factus can now make an appearance during The Clash.
Combat timing for Rhodes Breakdown has been changed to be slightly faster when Hometown interactions are negative.
New Music has been added to the Heartbound OST.

Updated Heartbound to Steam SDK 1.6.1 which should help with Steam Deck issues. If you're unable to play on this platform please use Compatibility mode found in Library > Heartbound > Properties > Compatibility. Proton Experimental option seems to work for most systems.

Please report any issues on our official Discord at https://discord.gg/piratesoftware
There is a channel called #heartbound-ticket where you can report stuff!
Include a screenshot, it makes things much easier to fix!

The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.

Patch 1.0.9.642

With this update I have added a number of routes for Rhode in The Clash section of the game. This area is accessible after The Mossbacks if you take a more negative route. If you need help reaching this location please contact me via the Discord ticketing system detailed under Bug Reporting.

Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
English is the only language past the Mossbacks.
Facial expressions in Emelios Clash scene are missing.
Some audio queues in Emelios Clash scene are missing.
Facial expressions in Rhodes Clash scene are missing.
Some audio queues in Rhodes Clash scene are missing.

New routes have been added for every possible interaction path with Rhode during The Clash. This section is exceptionally complex due to your choice to skip her entirely, fight her in the dark world, fall out of the dark world on Emelio, or go to lunch with fern instead. As such this took quite a bit longer to write so apologies for that!
We went to Judgement and told Emelio we wanted things to be this way.
-> We went to lunch with Rhode
--> We fought Rhode and won in combat.
---> We killed Rhode.
---> We did not kill Rhode.
--> We fought Rhode and lost in combat.
---> We never moved during the encounter.
-> We went to lunch with Fern.
We went to Judgement and told Emelio we didn't want things to be this way.
-> We went to lunch with Rhode.
--> We treated her badly.
-> We went to lunch with Fern
--> We treated her badly.
We didn't go to Judgement.
-> We went to lunch with Rhode.
--> We treated her badly.
--> We treated her well.
-> We went to lunch with Fern
--> We treated her badly.
--> We treated her well.

The Steamdeck version no longer crashes on startup under some configurations.
The Linux version no longer crashes on startup under some configurations.

Please report any issues on our official Discord at https://discord.gg/piratesoftware
There is a channel called #heartbound-ticket where you can report stuff!
Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.

April Update - Moved

Was going to drop the update the last week or so but a lot needed to be changed and I was very busy with our ferret rescue work. Thankfully I have everything written and implementation is a breeze so that's not going to be an issue.

With that in mind here are all the routes in the upcoming patch.
This is split into three primary trees and will branch out based on other choices.
In total it's around ~200 new dialogue lines between you and Rhode.
This has been spoilered for those of you that don't want to know.

We went to Judgement and told Emelio we wanted things to be this way. -> We went to lunch with Rhode --> We fought Rhode and won in combat. ---> We killed Rhode. ----> We destroyed the flower crown. ---> We did not kill Rhode. ----> We were bit during the encounter. --> We fought Rhode and lost in combat. ---> We never moved during the encounter. -> We went to lunch with Fern.

We didn't go to Judgement. -> We went to lunch with Rhode. --> We treated her badly. --> We treated her well. -> We went to lunch with Fern --> We treated her badly. --> We treated her well.

We went to Judgement but told Emelio we didn't want things to be this way. -> We went to lunch with Fern. -> We went to lunch with Rhode.

The ARG has also been updated to the next step.
The Steam version of the game has also been fixed in this next update.

Also, as a point of clarity for those that are upset at my streaming schedule and the games I play on there. I run a company of 15 people and a ferret rescue of 60+ animals. If this indie game could pay for it all I definitely would just be doing this. It cannot and has never been able to. The stream and the community that supports me streaming -allows- me to work on this game and accomplish all of the objectives I set out to do.

Stay Frosty.

Upcoming Patch 1.0.9.642

The next update should drop this week.

I was going to launch this on the 1st but the dialogue with Rhode just didn't hit right.
She previously didn't discuss any of the timelines in which you went to the Dark World and fought her.
This made those routes feel incredibly disjointed and took the player completely out of the experience.
I will be doing the implementation for this section live like we did last month.
Gives a good time to talk about the game and systems involved as well.

I've also been looking into reports that the game is crashing on Steam Deck.
We've had this reproduce internally finally so I have some data to go on for a fix.
Will let you know what I find when I do.

Animus has been tough with all of these routes but I think it's worth it to do it right.
See you then!

Patch 1.0.9.641

With this update I am mostly looking for feedback on story direction for the end of Animus. If people find Emelio's actions here to be compelling then I will continue pushing this area until completion.

Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
English is the only language past the Mossbacks.
Facial expressions in Emelio's Clash scene are missing.
Some audio queues in Emelio's Clash scene are missing.

The Clash is now accessible after the Mossbacks scene all goes wrong. This area has a number of different routes based on how you played through the entire chapter. It also dynamically changes based on how you act through this room. Most things in Animus work like this but this room has a lot more complexity to it as it's the culmination of every potential route. For now Emelio's section is the only one available.
Dialogue has changed for the Artifact in some areas.
Some things in Animus are now remembered.
All memories have been forgotten.
All changes from Patch 1.0.9.64 have been merged into the public branch.

Text has been updated to reflect you carrying a singular duck in a bathroom.
There is no longer an incorrect audio check when music has ended.
Steamdeck will now be more stable when dealing with audio assets.
Steamdeck will now be more stable when dealing with large texture pages.

Please report any issues on our official Discord at https://discord.gg/piratesoftware
There is a channel called #heartbound-ticket where you can report stuff!
Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.