Aura of Worlds News

Hi everyone,

We hope you're getting a well-earned break and time to catch up with friends and family during the festive season.

We have some gifts for you in the latest update (0.101.X):

[h2]General Updates[/h2]

• There's a new gift under the Christmas tree to the left of the starting area (even if you have claimed the previous two)
  
• Let it snow ❄️!
  
• During the festive season, all XP gained is increased by 15%!
  
• Possessed vases now have animations that telegraph their locations much more clearly.
  
• Hovering over a perk icon will show its description tooltip (no more having to memorize)!
  
• New Explosion animations.
  
• New achievement:
  

[h2]Balance changes/bug fixes[/h2]

• Fixed bug where boss entrance door for Ice Phoenix would not always spawn with the correct graphic.
  
• Launching a bolt from the crossbow will lower any held shield for a split second (had to reduce the cheese based on feedback).
  
• Fixed rare crash with second last level in Cold Crust Caverns.
  
• Fixed an uncommon bug where the shop would sell an extra item of equipment you already had.
  
• Necromancer has slightly more health.
  
• Recurve Charge bow: damage, crit chance, and knockback increased.
  

[h2]Patch 25th December - 0.101.2[/h2]

• Implemented new level gen validation algorithm to fix rare bug of blocked exit passageways for the temple.
  
• Added constraints to level complete tune, to work around a rare glitch with the Media Player library not proceeding to the next song on certain systems.
  
• Added Christmas Lights!
  

Wishing you a Merry Christmas 🎄!

[h2]Patch 9th January - 0.101.3.8! Happy New Year🌟🎉 [/h2]

• Fixed New Years Gift 🎁 on left side of the hub not being open-able under certain situations (also fixed open state sprite)
  
• Updated logging system
  
  • Logfiles now separated by date.
    
  • Multi-threaded logging for better performance on some systems.
    
• Added option to disable/enable musical stingers (the short tune that plays at the end of a level or run).
  
  

Hi Everyone!

Update set 0.100.X is our greatest update for the game yet. We've been adding a lot of new content and refining/rebalancing existing game systems based on community feedback.

Rather than the usual lengthy change list, we thought a trailer might be more fun to watch:



[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The video also highlights a few changes from the most recent updates that we couldn't show earlier.

Thanks for watching/playing, have a wonderful week ahead!

Hi everyone!

Here are some of the new updates we've been working on


This one serves as an alternative boss in the Grotto of Guidance area. It might look slightly smaller than the other bosses, but don't let that fool you. It's agile, deadly, and adaptable, with six different attacks.

Unlike the knight, it can't block damage from the player and is closer to a more traditional boss battle focused on pattern matching, dodging, and striking. However, throwing the environment around during this fight will give you an edge.


[h3]Stone Stars:[/h3]



These serve as a less aggressive and easier enemy to replace Slice Stars in the first area; they mostly bounce around the stage.
It's tricky, but with careful positioning, you can stun then grab, and throw them at high speeds to take out more powerful opponents.

Similar methods work for utilizing their more intelligent counterparts in later areas as well.

[h3]Poison Pitchers:[/h3]

These pesky plants grow on the odd wall of the Gnarled Gardens, throwing spheres of poisonous pollen gas.



[h3]Gooey Adhesive:[/h3]
Allows you to stick explosives to almost everything, including opponents and terrain.

[h3] Orb of Poison:[/h3]

Shoots a bouncing ball of venom that will explode into a radial shower of poisonous shots when destroyed.


[h2]Graphics updates:[/h2]

• Over 20 new sprites and animations.
  
• New randomized parallax for Ice World.
  

[h2]Balance Changes and Bug fixes.[/h2]

• We wanted to focus more on easing new players into the game with this update.
  
  
• Grabbing a stunned enemy now adds to the stun timer to allow you to be more accurate with your throwing.
  
  
• This included making the Grotto of Guidance easier while still being consistent with the challenge aspect throughout the game:
  
  • Nerfed max enemy spawn cap for individual rooms.
    
  • Power orbs fire slower with fewer shots in the first area.
    
  • Slice Stars mostly replaced with Stone Stars.
    
• Various traps have been adjusted:
  
  • Flaming repeater dart traps have reduced projectile speed and fire rate.
    
  • Trigger Crossbow projectiles more slower, allowing you to rush past them with the right positioning (instead of having to temporarily disarm them each time).
    
  • Stalactite and rock traps now show the hit path below even if positioned on the screen.
    
  • Fire Brands from exploding lanterns/torches have reduced speed early on.
    
• Crossbow has been buffed slightly.
  

Numerous other improvements including adjustments to enemy health and damage outputs.


[h2]Follow up note regarding upcoming price change[/h2]
Even without the Steam sales factor, we've heavily discounted the game discounted during early access.
The game has been extended and polished with community feedback to become quite a different experience since mid-2018. You can see the list of update sets on the news page:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/841600
We have continued to cover ongoing development costs with savings far more than sales.

As such, the game will increase in price (as mentioned back in February) later this month to help us continue adding extra content to the game for you as we approach full release.
This won't affect players who have already purchased the game.

23rd of August

• 10 New Sound Effects 🔊!
  
• New Boss Animations:
  
• Razor Star enemy types now slow down more on being stunned.
  
• Fixed various rebound issues when throwing stunned razor star objects.
  
• Grotto area difficulty has been tweaked to be slightly easier on moderate and easy difficulties.
  
• Slime boss has been tweaked to be slightly easier on moderate and easy difficulties (e.g. it has less resistance to regular attacks).
  
• Added tips for early game bosses when defeated by them (these are only shown if they're not already both defeated on Hard mode).
  
• Fixed issues with parallax mismatch in ice world.
  
• Fixed issues with jittering in transparent ice background.
  

Thanks, everyone!

We hope that you enjoy the updates and keep well during these unusual times!

Hi everyone,
Here are some of the changes for the update:

[h2]Level Generation[/h2]

• Updated algorithm for an increased variety of rooms in the: Grotto, Temple, and Ice worlds.
  
• Introduced faster and more thorough failsafes for path generation.
  
• Reduced passageway bottlenecks
  

[h2]Enthral Ability Rework [/h2]

• Opponents are enthralled for longer and are more durable in that state.
  
• Holding down the ability button charges up an enthral bolt. If it hits an existing ally, it will refresh the timer.
  
• Tapping the ability button will teleport any thralled allies to a given location (and they will attack anything the bolt hits).
  

[h2]Audio 🎼 [/h2]

• Some new sound effects.
  
• 3rd alternative music theme for Grotto of Guidance 🎼
  

[h2]Graphics [/h2]

• Additional scenery for Cold Crust Caverns:
  
• Posturized lighting effects.
  
• Fixed glitch with left/right wall hanging objects not spawning.
  
• Added trail effect for Icer Flyer attacks
  
• Added new jump through platforms for Grotto of Guidance.
  

[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]

• Decreased enemy spawn rate in the first world.
  
• Spin turtles can no longer reach ridiculous speeds.
  
• Added aiming cursor for the controller and made it more obvious when manually overriding aiming lock.
  
• Multiple other adjustments
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed switch to fullscreen mode offsetting screen to menu coordinates.
  
• Fixed rare occurrence of passageway blocked by terrain.
  
• Fixed issue where Snowhares were still invulnerable to most attacks after they had emerged.
  
• Several other smaller bugs
  

12th of June

• Fixed bug where Grotto lore tablet prompt would not deactivate if helper prompts were disabled.
  
• Updated graphics for Avalanche
  

Hi folks, we hope things are going well for you during the festive period and beyond!



[h2]We have some bonuses for you during the festivities:[/h2]

• You will have an extra 12% XP in each run through the rogue-lite (until the end of February)
  
• There's another gift for you + Fireworks on the left side of the Hub.
  
  
  With some decorations drawing inspiration from Chinese New Year culture.
  
• Aura of Worlds is now 10% off for Steam's Lunar New year sale (in addition to the original heavy early access discount).
  

[h2]Level generation improvements:[/h2]

• More scenic objects:
  
• Revised one of the recurring templates for procedural generation to add more variety
  
• Some refinements to 7 hand made templates for the garden/temple area.
  
• Added biome-specific jump through platforms and supports to the generator for the temple, gardens, and ice world.
  

[h2]A.I. improvements include:[/h2]

• Humanoids navigate the terrain better on windy levels.
  
• Held enemy drones will fire indiscriminately at anything in front of them when held by the player (useful for an improvised weapon)
  
• The Ice mage now telegraphs which projectile it's going to use. Both of which have updated graphics:
  

[h2]Miscellaneous:[/h2]

• Significant optimization of the particle system to allow for better accessibility to lower-end computers
  
• Fixed a rare memory leak regarding accelerator platforms in the ice world.
  
• Fixed an uncommon bug; where early game achievements would not unlock for new players. Sorry about that; they should unlock the next time you launch the game (while online with Steam overlay).
  
• More sound effects.
  
• Multiple balance changes
  
• Much more...
  

[h3]A note regarding price[/h3]

Even without the Steam sales factor, we've heavily discounted the game discounted during early access.
The game has been extended and polished with community feedback to become quite a different experience since mid-2018. You can see the list of update sets on the news page:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/841600

As such, the game may increase in price later this year to help us to continue to add extra content to the game for you as we approach full release.

[h3]恭禧發財! We wish you all the best for the year of the Ox 🏮🐂![/h3]