https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx2J27-Ap_A
Hello everyone!

Remember when we asked you to send some questions to our voice actors? Amy Saville took some time to answer some of them; she talks a bit about how she got into voice acting, how she joined our team, and her journey to landing the role and some personal questions you asked too!

We hope you enjoy the video! And who would you like us to interview next?

Quick heads-up on our progress!

We're bringing the two-handed sword back, and we're currently working on Merishya's gameplay too. This will be especially helpful when we bring the dungeon back, as we want to give her more opportunities to shine as a companion!

The Special Attack I'm working on for her is a grappling hook that she can use to pull enemies towards her, pull herself towards them, or even move towards walls for traversal. Her other skills will include throwing fireballs and creating an explosion around herself.

The goal is for her to play more like a "bruiser" type of character.

We're also making steady progress on moving the old cutscenes over to the new architecture. However, our dialogue system is based on events, such as "When this dialogue line plays, move the character to position X, Y, Z" or "When the player chooses this option, add [Value] to Kalyskah's Tendency".

The problem is that hundreds of these events were hardcoded into the old system and character classes, so there's quite a lot of work involved in bringing everything back.

We're moving fast, but we'll need a few more weeks to get it all done. Don't worry, though! We have different team members working on the cutscenes and the companions' combat systems, so we can keep improving and releasing new content for the Blood Arena demo in parallel.

Hello everyone!

I hope you're enjoying the demo so far!
We're bringing the cutscenes to the new architecture, but until the Dungeon is ready to be released, we'll make another Blood Arena update. The next update will also be named Alpha 1.0.0 because it will mark the start of a new era in Kalyskah: The New Architecture is ready to enter a steadier development pace.
This means most of the game's old code has been replaced, and what's left to do runs in parallel to the spine of our game, not the core.
This weekend we plan to release some fixes, such as Controller compatibility and bringing back both the Target Lock-in and input settings and who knows? Perhaps we'll have time to add more spells to the playable characters' repertoire or introduce new enemy behaviour.
Thank you very much for your support, and we're doing our best to get back to adding new quests as soon as possible!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0o1zWYutjg

Hello everyone!
First, let's talk about what everyone is waiting for: When will the demo be released?
We successfully packaged the game yesterday, and then managed to do it again today, which means that the packaging process for creating the executable is now stable. There are just some final touches left to do, and then we'll release the demo on Saturday!
As I mentioned before, it will only have the combat arena. Kalyskah and the other characters won't be able to heal because we're trying to test how far people can get just by using the plain fighting system.
And we have GREAT news when it comes to optimisation: on minimal settings, we reached 200 FPS! On max settings, we were able to get between 60 and 100 FPS depending on whether DLSS was on or off. And that was with 5 enemies on screen!
The computer we're testing the game on is above average, but since we got so much breathing room, we expect you'll feel a massive improvement on your end too!

Other than that, here's another lore video about the game! Here's the transcript:
Kalyskah is ancient and has never had a reliable way of seeing her own face. When she was born, people lived in tribes and mirrors didn’t exist yet, so the visage she knows of herself was what she could see reflected in water.
By the time mirrors appeared, she was already a vampire, and as appearances and fashion became more important around her, that uncertainty became an obsession.
But if Kalyskah’s canon appearance is so important to the story, why do we still have character customisation? As Amara mentions in one of their conversations, this lack of identity is what makes Kalyskah sometimes take on the appearance of other people, as though approximating her looks to someone she has seen and admired or simply found beautiful.
And as you can expect, that doesn’t resolve her uncertainty about her original face.
That’s why, when you explore the Karnstein Legion’s temple, you’ll find so many portraits of her. They show what we consider her canonical appearance, and to Kalyskah, they serve the purpose of mirrors, showing her the woman she believes herself to be: black hair, pale skin and a beauty mark above her lip.
Still, doubt clouds her certainty about their accuracy:
Did the painter get her nose right? Is her face really that symmetrical? Or were they afraid to paint something that wouldn’t flatter her?
As much as Kalyskah hates to admit it, this is a sensitive subject. She talks about it in a conversation where Ilreth jokes about how many portraits there are of her, and depending on how much Compassion Kalyskah has, she can lose her temper and slap the elf across the face.
This sense of self-image bleeds into more than just the story. As you play, your choices influence four of Kalyskah’s personality traits, which we call Tendencies: Loyalty, Compliance, Modesty and Compassion.
If your Kalyskah becomes very compassionate, those portraits will look different when she approaches them. She may see glowing eyes or blood on her painted hands and face. Instead of seeing the beauty she hopes the painter captured, all she can see is a monster.
So, what will your Kalyskah see? A creature, or an idealised beauty whose face she can never truly know?

Hello everyone!
We’re running a little behind schedule with the combat update, so here’s a look at some of the work that has been going into it!

There are quite a few changes happening behind the scenes, and some of them are starting to make a noticeable difference in how combat feels and looks!

We'll show more this week when we apply more of the new animations to the NPCs.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8ejeaFZC6Q 

Hello everyone!
Just wanted to show you more progress we've been making on the combat and cutscene updates!

We're improving the lights and animations on the Forgotten Smith questline, and also have finished Nemesis' Light attacks. The movement of her wings will be improved after I'm done with the Heavy attacks of all the characters. And I'm also playing with the idea of making Ilreth a little cheater who cheats and reposting here Laver's light attacks for those who missed it!
Check the videos on the post!

We have also improved the NPC AI so they will circle the player rather than just stay put and attack you. Which is important becuse now depending on the angle an attack comes, you won't be able to block it and will have to turn towards the opponent.
But I'll make a video about that when we finish the animations, so we can show it alongside the Parry system and potentially the grapple as well!