The Void Rains Upon Her Heart News

Probably the last bug fix patch for a while, but I threw in a few extra gifts I had almost finished!

v7.25a - May 20th, 2023
-1 new power gift (Total: 216)
-2 new quick gifts (Total: 77)
-Bug Fix: The Unique FC tracker in the stats page would count any battle with at least a 10% best combo instead of 100%
-Bug Fix: A few miscellaneous monster parts had the wrong defense values

Early access version 7 is finally complete! It only took 25 updates over a quick little 13 months!

Early Access updated game version to v7.25

[h2]Content Added[/h2]

• 1 new monster to love! (Total: 99)
  
• 4 new dreams to fulfill (Total: 637)
  

[h2]Updates and tweaks[/h2]

• Bullets now appear behind Shanx's front leaf arm
  
• Updated in-battle pixel art for Sentinel 4X and Sentinel 0X
  
• Alter Roundsaw: Added new attacks when breaking her small saws and big saw
  
• Alter Blot: Increased the frequency of the wobbling bullets during phase 2
  
• Vibrant Veyeral's event was renamed from Vibrant Trade to Vibrant Art Exchange
  
• Scrambla, Boiler, Prisma, and Vibrant Veyeral have new reactions to specific gifts in their events
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Shanx's hands would stay in hit flash coloring when defeated
  
• During a level 3 battle with Veyeral Quartet's Voltage Veyeral, one of her attacks was blank and did nothing
  
• Abyss had accidentally unused dialog when choosing to take tetrid gifts that she offers
  

Version 7 turned out to be the largest one by far. You have to scroll down about 1/3rd of the in-game Change Log to get to the start of Version 7! It only ended up just a little bigger than I originally planned, but it certainly took much longer than I anticipated. That's just how game development goes I'm afraid. I want to go through all the main additions and reflect on just how much extra work I made for myself during this past year.

First I started with the Altered Story mode which signified the start of Version 7. The mode itself has not changed much since v7.7 when Abyss was added. It will serve as an endgame replacement to normal Story Mode when that is complete.

Version 7 added the bulk of all the events to the game. So many got added, that I decided to give them a place in the collection just to organize them better. Every single Treasure, Trading, and Free Monster Gift event was added in this past year. The various character portraits for all the monsters were very fun to draw, but writing the dialog for each event is one of the most time consuming parts out of anything! (Scope creep also brought you extra events for Unit Lulu, Null Unit, and Venom Veyeral!)

I also added 17 new battles. 9 of them being the new Shiny types that are exclusive to Treasure Events. The shiny battles themselves were not originally planned to have a battle card with all the extra parts that come with that. So that means they would've had no Quickplay battle, no 2 monster achievements, and no place in the collection. They were going to be made as a "scene" battle that played during their events, similar to how the tutorial battle with Unit Lulu works. That would have been much simpler, but as usual, I made more work for myself because it would be way cooler! (Scope creep also brought you Shiny Knot Knott!)

The change with the biggest impact had to be the new Charged Attack system. It was not planned at all, but it was absolutely necessary and I feel so much better about the charged attacks now. It did take about a month of extra work though!

The achievement count also went from 483 all the way up to 637! You know what other game has exactly 637 achievements? It's The Binding of Isaac, a huge inspiration for this game! I thought it would be very funny if we match achievement counts for a while, until I flex on them in the next update. Ha!


First, I'm going to take a break from this game for a month! This is not really a vacation, but rather I have work to do with other dev teams that I want to focus on for a little while. If you are curious, those games are Keylocker and Revita!



[h2]The Towers[/h2]
A new game mode where you must climb a tower and battle monsters on the way up. It's a little similar to a story run except all your gifts are temporary just like quick gifts. There will also be temporary negative cards called Burdens that you must take along the way. You will have to make choices on what positive and negative effects to take on the way to the top!

There will be 7 Towers to climb. The first 6 are each dedicated to the 6 main monster families. You will have to battle every monster in that family that you have seen before. Unlocking and seeing more of them will allow you to climb higher! The newborn monsters will be the focus of these towers in some way.

The 7th tower will be somewhere around 15 battles against any random monsters. Basically a random version of the other towers with the same rules for the gifts.

You will also be able to start tower runs with any Quick Gifts that you have radiated. The limits will be set by each character's carrying capacity. This gives you another reason to unlock their upgrade gifts!

All 7 towers will be available in v8.0!

[h2]Burdens[/h2]
Last year I hinted at the possibility of a negative gift type. This idea was turned into a gift type that will be mostly exclusive to towers mode. They are also temporary like quick gifts with a battle countdown in the corner.

The Alter characters will have permanent versions of Burdens to explain their negative effects. For example, Alter Heart will have a permanent "Forgetful" burden card. If a different character receives this card, it will only be temporary.

Most burden cards will be added in v8.0 with a few more being added in v8.1+

[h2]New Music[/h2]
A 3rd and 4th set of battle themes for each of the 6 main monster types will be added! Where and how they play will be a surprise.

All these songs will be added in v8.0!

[h2]New Events[/h2]
Both Hadesoh and Shanx will have events that deal with Burdens in some way. This will be one of the very few ways they can infiltrate into Story Mode.

These will be added across a few updates in v8.1+

[h2]A Little Bit of Story[/h2]
During version 8, I will also add a small portion of Defect's story! Mainly the real ending to the Totaria path to replace the fake scene that is there now.

I will also add intro and ending scenes to Altered Story for Her Heart, Defect, Alter Heart, and Alter Defect!

These will be added across a few updates in v8.1+



[h2]Final Bosses[/h2]
All final bosses will be added in v9.0 (well... almost all of them)

[h2]Story[/h2]
All story scenes for all characters will be completed for v9.0

In story mode, all characters will have several paths to choose from with different amounts of battles and final bosses in each. Some paths will have whole extra chapters like the one in Altered Story mode. Each heart will have battles with final bosses that others will never meet in their own story.

[h2]Fifth Character[/h2]
This section is exactly the same as last time. She will be added in v9.0

This character has still not been added for a very simple reason, she will unlock when all the other characters advance to a certain point in their stories, but those stories aren't done yet. She would be somewhat of a spoiler if I add her too soon. Especially for the few of you who are too good at piecing things together with those gift memories!

I have confirmed that she will be some sort of helper based character. And yes, she will also have an alter.



[h2]Ultimate Tower[/h2]
The final challenge! Can you climb a massive tower while battling every single monster in the game?
I won't give away all the mechanics of this yet, but heartbreak will not necessarily mean starting over from the bottom. But I'm sure some of you will be able to do it in 1 life!

I don't really want to spoil anything, but c'mon. I know you are expecting something at the top of this thing. Have I ever taken the easy way out before?


Well... last time I said version 7 would take less time than some of the previous 6 versions, and that turned out to be wrong in every possible way. So let's throw some random guesses out there again!

[h3]Early Access v8.X[/h3]
This will take a few months. I want to say 3 months after my 1 month break. So maybe v8.0 will be ready in September? I expect the hardest part will be The Towers game mode itself. The Burden gifts should be surprisingly quick to make because of a certain gimmick to them that I don't want to spoil yet.

There shouldn't be nearly as many v8.X updates as v7 had. Lord help me if It goes up to v8.25 again!

[h3]Early Access v9.X[/h3]
This is the big story update. All the stories and all the final bosses will be added at once. I can't even begin to guest how long this will take. 9 months? If it starts taking too long I may decide to split it up and release some of the story in chunks, but we will see.

[h3]v1.0![/h3]
The ultimate tower will be added very soon after v9.0. It will essentially be v9.1, so this won't take very long, by itself. And then the game will be done!


I want to thank you all for continuing to support me! I sometimes get a little stressed with how long this is taking now. Many early access games that take this long eventually get a bad reputation, but I also realize just how often I update this game. The frequency of updates is unheard of in basically any other game, and I think it's clear that progress is being made all the time. Thinking about the six years with a perfect user review score that still continues to grow sure helps me snap out of it!

Thank you from the bottom of my void heart!
ːradiantheartː ːradiantheartː ːradiantheartː

[h3]Shanx![/h3]
Sorry for the late update again! Shanx turned out to be one of the most complex monsters ever. I knew saved her for last for a reason!

Only her Alter battle remains now, but since that is the only missing piece of v7, I'll be adding her sometime next weekend. I will also post an updated roadmap to v8 and v9 when that update drops!

Early Access updated game version to v7.24
[h2]Content Added [/h2]

• 1 new monster to love (Total: 98)
  
• 2 new dreams to fulfill (Total: 633)
  
• Added a few new variations for scene and event backgrounds
  

[h2]Updates and tweaks [/h2]

• The Star Shot fire rate bar will now drain even slower while moving at a speed that is slower than focus speed
  
• The Star Shot fire rate bar will no longer drain if you are moving against the edge of the screen with an absolute speed of 0
  
• Increased the minimum star rate from 6 to 7.5 for all characters that currently start with Star Shots
  
• Increased the minimum star rate from 6 to 7 for all characters that start with other shot types
  
• Updated the pixel art for Syncron and Alter Syncron to include the new details found on the Shiny Syncron sprites
  
• The blue Shiny Syncron units will now vibrate and always face forward between attacks
  
• Added the signature shiny sparkles that were missing from Shiny Syncron
  
• Small Changes to the pixel art for Sentinel's legs, and they now show cracks when damaged
  

[h2]Quick Gifts Changed[/h2]

• The effects of Chrome Heart have been altered, and it is now unlocked automatically
  
• Increased the temporary max health gained from Small Vitality from 2 to 4
  
• Increased the temporary max health gained from Large Vitality from 4 to 6
  
• Debris has increased duration from 1 to 2 battles
  
• Warp Synapse has increased duration from 1 to 3 battles
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• The collision for instantly breaking small Nix and Tox Polyps with panic attacks or blue bubbles was smaller than intended
  
• Shiny Syncron's full arena zap attack hit with full damage instead of the reduced amount used in shiny battles
  

[h2]Coming Up for v7.X[/h2]

The TRUE final update for version 7 will be next weekend! Or maybe next monday? Definitely within 10 or 11 days!

ːradiantheartː ːradiantheartː ːradiantheartː

[h3]2 New Events[/h3]
This update adds the final treasure event with Shiny Syncron!

Since Knot Knott was turned into an extra shiny battle last time, I also added a new free gift event with Venom Veyeral! This makes up for the free gift event that was supposed to belong to Knot Knott.

[h3]Quickplay Balance Changes[/h3]
I usually don't want to nerf anything if I can avoid it. From what I've seen, most other games in this genre tend to penalize their version of "bombs" with reduced scores, but I'm very big on having zero penalties for using panic attacks.

However in quickplay, a mode where you can equip anything you want for single battles. there should be some kind of limits. It turns out that you can make your limited panics last a very long time. With enough DPS, they can be made to outlast entire battles. I've known about this for a while, but I wasn't sure what to do about it. I don't mind if a strategy can overpower a few quickplay battles, but when it can solve most of them way too easily, then I need to try to do something about it.

I've decided to do an experimental change on this update. In quickplay mode only, using panic attacks will gradually reduce the damage from bullets and auras that come out of your heart. The longer your panic lasts, the more your damage is reduced down to 50% then it returns to normal after the panic ends. My goal with this change is to still allow panics to last a long time, but without them being able to clear entire battles without really needing to dodge anything.

A similar effect will happen if you stay inside an Umbrella blue safety bubble for a long time. This will only reduce damage by up to 25% since they don't seem to be as ubiquitously overpowered in as many battles, but still a lot of them.

Again to be clear, these changes only affect Quickplay and Ultra Quickplay! If I decide to keep this rule, it will eventually be explained in-game somehow.

[h3]Ultra Quickplay Changes[/h3]
I have changed the way overlevel stats get applied to high levels in Ultra Quickplay. Monster fear will now stop naturally scaling after level 15, so the blue extra fear stat can now be mixed into the formula to compensate. At level 42, each stat will be at different values for each monster depending on some of their properties. Monsters with high base fear or ones that are shy battles will end up with less fear scaling and instead distribute more points to the other 2 stats. With this I hope the balance feels a little more thoughtful than before.

Overall most normal Lv 42 monsters will end up with more fear than before, while the big thorned final bosses will now have less fear than before (though still a lot higher than normal monsters). The other 2 stats, Attack Speed and Attack Damage, are a little lower across all monsters at Lv 42. Nothing has changed about scoring, and no scores will be reset by this.

Early Access updated game version to v7.23
[h2]Content Added [/h2]

• 2 new events (Total: 44)
  
• 1 shiny new battle (Total: 97)
  
• 3 new dreams to fulfill (Total: 631)
  

[h2]Updates and tweaks [/h2]

• Details for over/underleveled monsters are now shown on a separate card in the monster selecting menu (this should help new players starting on Mist Rain to understand what the 3 icons mean)
  
• The base monster level (leftmost card in the boss select menu) now has a lower cap in the early stages of story or endless. This is separate from the cap of the highest level card which remains the same.
  
• Blue safety bubbles created by Umbrella and Fallen Angel will drain at a faster rate for an extra 1.5 seconds after you exit them. This reduces the effectiveness of quickly passing in and out of them repeatedly to extend their useable time.
  
• Base contact damage for blue safety bubbles has been increased from 36 to 60 DPS
  
• During special event chapters, their battle backgrounds will now appear in the menu while choosing a monster
  
• Added clarification to the Big Heart Bursts being a "triple shot burst" in the attributes screen
  

[h2]Quickplay Specific Changes[/h2]

• Quickplay Only! Using a very long panic attack will gradually reduce all damage up to -50% until the panic ends (Does not affect helpers or damage from the panic itself)
  
• Quickplay Only! Staying inside blue safety bubbles for a long time will gradually reduce all damage up to -25% until you leave (Does not affect helpers)
  
• Increased Alter Twin's quickplay panic limit by 1
  
• Ultra Quickplay: Completely rebalanced the distribution of overlevel stats for each level. The distributions now depend on some properties of each monster rather than being the same for all of them.
  
• Ultra Quickplay: When you choose a monster, the level selection will start on the level that you have cleared with the highest score instead of the lowest level
  
• Ultra Quickplay: Your best scored level is now shown along with your highest cleared level below the monster card
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• A certain ultra quickplay dream that requires exactly 2 medals would still unlock if a 3rd medal was earned just as the battle ends
  

[h2]Coming Up for v7.X[/h2]

It's just shanx now! The last guardian! Oh wait, that's a different game.

Hopefully the FINAL update for version 7 will be on May 5th!

ːradiantheartː ːradiantheartː ːradiantheartː

v7.22a - March 27th, 2023
-Swapped the unlock rewards for radiating 30 power gifts and radiating a single 3-star gift
-Bug Fix: Event records in the collection pages for Shiny Veyerals and Shiny Knot Knott were not being recorded
-Bug Fix: Extending the limit of special orbital helpers while simultaneously earning a helper above the previous limit would crash the game