October Bulletin: State of the Upcoming Patch

Space Cadets o7

Today, we bring you a short message from our core dev team- who, after having their fair share of fun during the fest, have now devoted themselves enthusiastically developing the next chapter of Caly's journey into the unknown.

Without adieu, over to them:

Hi everyone! Hope you're having a good day. We just wanted to put out a short statement regarding VoidBound's pace for the remainder of October, and immediate beyond.

Unfortunately, we fell a bit short on our monthly "to do" goals and are regretful to report that despite our best efforts trying to navigate and balance conflicting event schedules, we will not be able to put out a content update this month.

We tried. We really did! But, after analyzing the backlogs, we had to make peace with the fact that haste under the current conditions will only lead to waste and the overall quality loss just to make a date, is only going to end up doing a disservice do our beloved fans. That, is far more unacceptable than suffering your negative sentiments for a delay.

Thus, we are now working consistently on the update with the objective of a November release.

As for what is in the works? Currently, the team has been crunching hard since the end of Summer, with getting the game and a demo out onto Steam, **new writing for quest materials and planning out additions to Tripteen, and of course the big bad Quest Log.* We've got many spinning plates going around and want to be sure none of them fall and crash.*

On the plus side however, the extra delay means we should have more Bounty Hunter content to give out and perhaps even the reforged version of the introduction for Tripteen might just make it in as well*fingers and toes crossed.

The current plan for the planet is to take what works from the first section and expand it. We're even looking to make it into a small hub area to make sure the characters there aren't just met once and then left behind as the story unfolds.

Naturally, our following Progress Reports will show even more of what we're cooking so, stay tuned for those dripping updates.

Till then however, please accept our sincerest apologies, and regret for the delay caused.

We will do our best to make up to you!

Stay safe and have a great weekend(s).

And that, is all they wrote. Of-course be assured, we'll leave no stones un-turned to bug the core team to share more eye candies with us, so we can in turn share them with you! After-all, no release should be without a proper breakdown presentation of its contents.

For now though, while we wait with you, be well and take care.

Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team

VoidBound 0.5.4 - Slime Chronicles now available for select patrons!

Hi everyone,

Patch release 0.5.4, our latest offering, has finally cleared implementation and is now available for Benefactors and above patrons to evaluate! Curious as to what this upcoming content is about? Well..

Tensions are simmering between the newly formed Henosian Defence Force and the mysterious faction of Slimes. With Caly smack in the middle of it, the situation threatens to tear itself apart taking the city down with it. Our fearless protagonist must put aside her goal of rescuing Earth and must instead rescue Henosis from its impending doom! Will she do so by bringing the Slimes to justice? Or will she stand up to power and risk everything for those whom she was hired to hunt? That is for the players to decide..

This content update contains the following:-

Change Logs:

Over 80 newly created CGs encompassing events from both the Slime and HDF factions!

We should also mention that all of these CGs are of the NSFW variety! Yep, Caly had a lot of fun even if she didn't want to.

Over 30 newly added standing arts! [Work In Progress]

With changing faces come creative poses! They range from central characters to mob NPCs, in fact! You might find some missing in action though as we're still in the process of populating a few of them in their respective places :S

13 brand-new enemies have joined the fight!

Of-course when you choose sides, you make yourself enemies and this time is no different. Slimes or Defence Force? Whichever way you go, new nemesis await just around the corner. It seems like Caly makes more enemies than friends with each patch!

10 new battle sprites [Work In Progress]

No gameplay- focused patch would be truly complete without proper combat sprites in the mix! Uniquely minted for each enemy, Caly will have her hands full keeping them all in check on the battlefield. However, we're still in the process of completing some lingering aspects, details about which we'll share in the future!

2 brand new maps!

A large sewer system has been constructed to serve as the base for our slimey friends. They prefer to dwell in the wet and humid underground rather than on the dry and hostile surface of Henosis. Broken into two separate sections, Caly will find plenty of action happening down there. Though, it's entirely up to the player whether it's friendly or hostile!

Over 30 original ambience sounds!

We continue to make the player experience in Henosis more immersive with a range of ambience sounds now being added across the entire city. Fountain sprouting? Yep. Neon signs crackling? Indeed. Waste sewage bubbling? Ugh, yes, and keep your distance! And we aren't done yet! Expect more ambience as updated maps and patches are developed over time!

Finally, a quick bullet point presentation of other significant and insignificant changes!

Gameplay

-Various nerfs to enemies.

-Reduced the amount of items stolen during a certain boss fight.

-Enemy behavior overhauled based on Caly's speed and presence around them.

-Added flash lights to enemies.

-Enemies now feature drop shadows. Exception being summoned items by the player example being: turrets and player model itself.

-Multiple changes to 100+ skills and states ranging from major to minor adjustments. Subject to change based on player feedback.

-Fixed the Simon Says animation not resetting properly when the round ended.

-Fixed Caly's Regret freezing in rare instances towards the end of battle.

-Fixed an unintended issue where players were able to use an item outside of combat.

-All scopes are fixed. Now applying range extensions as intended.

-Fixed an issue where skill animations that target an enemy got displayed on a specific spot, even if the enemy moved away from it.

-Fixed an issue where enemies were behaving in a suicidal manner when targeting themselves with offensive skills.

Audio

-Fixed the audio behavior of movie files in the engine. Turning the music up and down will now also affect cinematic audio.

-Voice acting option ON or OFF will now also work on the Cinematic.

-Fixed the controlling system for ambience sounds. They are now governed by audio settings and can be adjusted at will. Further tweaks were made to suppress the irritating continuations of some.

-Fixed 3D audio system where panning sound would play in unintended scenarios resulting in distortion, peaking and muffled sounds.

Technical

-Raycasting overhauled. Example: Doors block flashlights but will not do so if open.

-Added an additional hotkey to both keyboard/gamepad to toggle the player's flashlight. The F key on the keyboard or the right stick on the controller is the default.

-Fixed performance issues with lighting. Expected 30% FPS gains across the board.

-Fixed older save issues where weapon values didn't sync correctly due to a discrepancy between older settings and newer changes.

-Changed mouse behavior on the title and main menu. Previously two clicks were required to have an option active. It's now been tweaked to one click resulting in smoother option navigation.

Issues that still persist

-*Attempt was made to fix an issue where the engine would randomly fail to execute the intended range of a skill/weapon and instead open up inventory. Investigation ongoing.

-An issue has been identified where player summoned items sometimes multiply in excessive quantities due to random reasons. Investigation ongoing.

And that covers the new update and relevant patch information.

Following our release pattern, this update will be made available to our Observers+ on the 29th of March, 2023

Furthermore, the 0.5.3 patch will be made available to the public on the 25th of March, 2023

As always, if you have queries, thoughts or issues to report, feel free to reach out to us here or on our Discord.

Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team