Lost Flame News

Hi all,
The newest update is on live branch. It contains some bug fixes and some new stuff.

New stuff:

• 5 new early game mini bosses
  
• 2 new monsters
  
• improved Hungry Caverns 3 generation a bit (some more variety in the level layout)
  
• 9 new items (rings/amulets) some with completely new effects and builds possible,
  

Bug fixes:

• Fixed (hopefully) ladders, campfires glitching from time to time randomly
  
• Numpad can be used to navigate main menu
  
• Hungry Caverns 3 should no longer generate the stairs in the middle of water
  
• Current equipment popup only appears when looking at items with mouse fixed
  

For the next update I want to focus on high resolution issues (problems with full screen and UI not scaling)

Cheers,
Bartek

Hi all,
Live version is updated. Last week I didn't manage to polish the end game as much as I wanted, it's a little better but still needs more work.
Patch notes:

• new optional end-game area - obsidian mine
  
• 4 new achievements
  
• 2 new alternate ways of winning the game
  
• fixed game crashing when you throw a shield
  
• fixed one of the causes of "random" game crashes
  
• Abysm levels are much smaller now
  
• Hungry Caverns 1 are smaller now
  
• Petrification debuff will stop any long actions (like ctrl-move or mouse-click move)
  
• Fixed monsters not always getting agroed by bottle knight
  
• Specters are petrification resistant now
  
• Fixed Giant shaman summoning too many Living Rocks
  

In the next week I will focus on early game variety - items, areas and monsters.
Cheers,
Bartek

Hi all,
I have updated the default branch, changes are following:

• added ladder mode
  
• added another skill for 2 weapons combination (small axe/short sword) - Grab and Stab, you pull the enemy towards you with your small axe and stab him with your short sword; my aim is to have all possible 2 weapon combinations covered
  
• added auto pick up for potions, scrolls and any ammo that you are already carrying
  
• fixed Grand Hall of the Candles 1 generating without stairs to next area (I am like 86% sure it is fixed, if you ever encounter it again, please let me know)
  
• all grabbing skills (grab and pull, grab and stab) won't work in melee anymore
  

Main plan for next week is to have 1 new late game area, 2 additional possible endings and polish the current ending (mostly make the boss fight more interesting). I have already done some work for this (most of the new area is done, I have recorded the VO for involved characters).

For people who have not checked beta branch, here is how ladder works:

1. It tracks your performance across many games
   
2. It is unlocked after you complete the tutorial at least once
   
3. It plays on hard difficulty
   
4. You get points based on how far you get in your current game
   
5. You cannot save game when in this mode
   
6. When you start a new game in this mode you lose 10% of your current score and when you die/finish the game you get points based on how far you got. Basically the more points you have, the further you need to get each game to get more points.
   

Cheers,
Bartek

Hi all,
I am testing a small fix for leaderboard display bug and it should be available on beta branch within like an hour.
My main aims for next week will be to:

• polish the leaderboard a little bit and make it good enough for live branch
  
• write dialogues for end game and find voice actor to record them
  

I don't want to promise any big changes soon, but I want to get back to the habit of regular updates, thank you for all your patience.
Cheers,
Bartek

Hi all,
I've been playing around with a leaderboard system for Lost Flame and I have pushed a very rough version of it to beta branch.
The system is inspired by the ELO rating system and it measures your performance across multiple games, here is how it goes:
1. Starting a ladder game reduces your score by 10%
2. When you finish the game (die/win) your score gets increased by a number of points (currently mostly based on your total experience gained)

So basically the higher your overall score/rank is, the better you need to play to gain more points, since first you need to 'gain back' the lost 10%. Losing very early could even reduce your overall score if your score was previously high. I've used a similiar system in one of my previous games "Madness of Little Emma" and I think it worked quite well there.

To try it out you need to be on the beta branch of the game and start a new game with 'Hard (Ladder)' difficulty.
The ladder is very rough right now, so use it at your own risk. Although I would really appreciate some feedback on the system.

Some remarks:
1. Top 10 of the ladder is shown when starting new game/loading previous game. Full ladder can be viewed via Steam.
2. Your rank and score is shown in the bottom right corner of the menu
3. If Lost Flame crashes during ladder then you might lost your initial 10% of points and gain 0.
4. Ladder games cannot be saved/loaded for obvious reason.