After a lot of testing on the Experimental Branch, we finally added all the additions and fixes to the Main Branch. In case you missed the latest update, HERE you can find out what we've changed recently.
All you have to do now is just restarting your Steam, then going into the default branch and then downloading the update!
Besides additions and fixes mentioned in the previous announcement, we also added autosave slots count settings, as well as fixed some minor issues.
That's right! We've got TRADING CARDS and it's possible that most of you already notice a couple of them in your equipment. :)
ROAD MAP
In case you were wondering what we have in plans, we've prepared a Road Map showing what's planned for the future content update (1.1.0) and the updates after.
As you can see we're not slowing down. Thank you for being with us, giving us your feedback and all your support!
Remember that we have an official Discord, where you can chat with us anytime!
Your Shockworks
Today's update
Hello hunters!
First of all, we wanted to thank you all for the feedback that you provided us since the launch day. We tried to reply to every comment, but if we didn’t, be aware that we read every post.
We prepared a patch 1.0.5 that addresses most of the issues you found in the game. We fixed bugs and rebalanced the Corruption system (full patch notes are at the end of this post). This is definitely not the last update we will bring to Alder’s Blood, so keep the feedback flowing, we really want it!
Testing environment
To ensure the quality of the new updates we created a special testing environment for it. We created a special branch on Steam called “experimental”, where the new build will be uploaded. This branch is available to everybody and instructions on how to access it are listed below.
DISCLAIMER: We cannot guarantee saves compatibility between the two of the branches. The main branch saves should work on experimental just fine, but not the other way around.
How to access the experimental branch?
First, you need to right-click on Alder’s Blood in your library. Choose preferences and then “Betas” bookmark. From a dropdown menu choose “experimental” and wow, you just have access to the new branch.
When you would like to come back to the main branch, choose NONE - Opt-out of all beta programs.
Why we did it this way?
Since we are a small team of 6 people there is still a possibility that this update will not be perfect. We want to give it a spin for a few days in this testing environment and tinker a bit in various values, see your feedback and react with changes.
What next?
We will keep the update on the experimental branch for a couple of days and when we decide it’s ready, we will push it to the main branch. We will keep this branch operating and use it to test some other ideas for balance, new weapons, items, and features. With your feedback, we believe we can make this game better.
After patch 1.0.5, we will introduce the first content update. It will feature a new hunter skin, more avatars and color variations for already existing skins. We will also add more random missions, so you can have more to do in between main and side quests.
Changes:
Changed the way corruption is applied to hunters. Now only hostile hunter actions will build-up corruption. Corruption values on weapons have been readjusted, and the negative traits threshold has been increased.
Changed Hangman’s Finger Charm to decrease the corruption build-up on a hunter who equips it. Multiple charms of this kind can be equipped to increase the effect.
Small changes in damage values/stamina costs on Double-barreled Shotgun and Marksman Rifle.
Added a button to the options menu on missions to open the Codex.
Added “E” keyboard shortcut for weapon swapping.
Updated City’s Outskirts graphics.
Re-enabled ironman mode.
Fixes
Fixed broken cinematics during some of the missions.
Fixed an issue, where taking a freshly recruited hunter on a mission cause various issues.
Fixed “Critical Damage” sound not taking sound settings into consideration.
Fixed weather widget tooltip not showing up.
Fixed an issue, where a monster walking through multiple traps would freeze the game.
Fixed “Kill all monsters” objective counting non-killable enemies.
Fixed sleeping enemies getting awake on save load.
Fixed conversation voices not being affected by the Voices sound volume slider.
Fixed an issue with stat-based Steam achievements.
Fixed a couple of missing and wrong translations.
Fixed strategy voices and weak damage indicator not respecting game volume settings.
Fixed mission restarting killing hunters in the next loaded save.
Fixed autosave using only the last save slot.
Fixed darkness morphing any enemy (even those essential to an objective).
Fixed older saves missing on new events.
Fixed resisted damage text being too small.
Fixed Deathwalker status indicator.
Random events are temporarily disabled.
Thank you and stay safe! Your Shockworks
There is an update coming, and it's big!
Hey Hunters,
We are sorry for being a bit silent after the launch - here in announcements, as we try to respond on the forums as soon as possible.
The reason is simple, and it's exciting - we were working on an update. Having over 500 daily players keeps us very busy, imagine all of these people bringing us feedback, suggestions, and thoughts - this is the best thing ever, it's helping us to improve the game with sparkles based on the community's comments and their input, but yeah, it's a lot of work!
But enough talking. What's coming on Friday?
1. The save system issue. Something we are truly sorry about, something that slipped through our QA tests, and we know how it feels when you can't save the game properly. That was our priority to fix this. 2. Random events issues - also fixed. 3. Bugged missions? Not anymore. 4. AI has been fixed a little, alongside with other minor issues. 5. We've rebalanced corruption, as well as the negative traits system. 6. A dose of rebalancing also touched weapons and charms. 7. And, something you've been waiting for, we know - we've added charm that lowers the corruption build-up in hunters (Hangman's Finger Charm).
All that is still being polished and will be published as an update on Friday.
You may ask - why is it taking us so long? We had Easter in Poland, a really important holiday for us, which we needed to spend with our families - mostly online, but still. Plus, well, let's address the elephant in the room - coronavirus slows us just as everyone else.
Even Duke took part in the celebration, well - at least he tried.
We wanted to thank all the backers, supporters, everyone who spreads the word about our little indie game - none of these would be possible without you.
Also big thanks to our Localizor translators, thanks to them we have the Russian localization 100% finished, the text just needs some proofreading, implementing, then testing, and we're good to go!
Oh, last, but not least - WE'LL HAVE TRADING CARDS. Yes! Steam unlocked this feature for Alder's Blood, so dear collectors, get ready for some lovely additions to your "decks".
That's it for now. See you in the next one! Your Shockworks
Alder's Blood just launched on Steam!
Hey Hunters,
Finally, after years of hard work - Alder's Blood is available on Steam!
[previewyoutube="TyIxK4yYm1I;full"]
If you like the game and would like to see more screenshots and artworks, follow us on Facebook and Twitter for daily content. If you'd like to chat with us or report a bug, the best way is to join our Discord.
Oh, and since we're here, we really want to say HUGE THANK YOU to all the hard-working gamers, helping us with localizing the game through Localizor. We didn't expect so many participants! The best and most active contributors will be rewarded with a digital copy of the game, digital artbook, soundtrack and their own hunter in the game.
Stay safe, healthy and hunt that corrupt God! Your Shockworks
Alder's Blood + Localizor
Hey Hunters,
Steam, Facebook, Discord, Twitter, email, forums - questions about localization in Alder's Blood pop-up everywhere and we always answer them asap.
What we were able to reply until today, was that we're seeking for possible options. It's no secret that as an indie studio, we have a very low budget and a single localization of all of the text in-game is an overwhelming cost - Alder's Blood is a story-rich game, so we have more than a couple of sentences in the game.
Localization is achievable when you have a budget for that prepared from the very beginning of the development. If you're indie and this is your debut on the market - you have to pick things that are the most important right now. In our case - voice packs and sounding, new content, QA tests, and other essential things.
However, we never said no and we didn't give up. We were looking for solutions and we recently came across LOCALIZOR, which is a tool helping indie developers localizing their game into certain languages with the help of their community.
If you'd like to help us translating the game into Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or Russian, please visit this site:
Sign up, choose the language you want to help with and let's do it together! ːsteamhappyː
We were thinking about Localizor a lot before we posted this announcement. We weren't sure if asking for your help is a good idea - it is a lot of work, after all. But why not giving it a try? At the moment, it is the only possible option for us. Who knows, maybe we have someone here who have enough time to spare?
Of course, we won't let it go without a reward. We'll make sure all the hard-working translators get something from us for their efforts.
Do not hesitate to let us know what do you think about the whole idea.
@EDIT: WOW! We did not expect so many participants! If you need any help with context, please join our Discord here - https://discord.gg/XZ7MMKq and check the #localization_questions sub-channel.
Thank you, Your Shockworks
Another milestone achieved: 20k wishlist additions!
Hey Hunters,
We are extremely happy and thankful because today we have 20 000 awesome gamers wishlisting Alder's Blood!
That's more than we could have wished for before the launch of the game. As you probably know Alder's Blood releases on April 10th and will cost $14.99 during the first week.
Feel free to follow us on Facebook, Twitter to be always up-to-date with new screenshots and artworks. You can also join our Discord where we talk about literally everything! :)
THANK YOU! Shockworks
DevLog: How NOT to play Alder's Blood
Hey everybody! Here are some gameplay tips from Michał how (not) to play Alder’s Blood. If you follow our social media posts and streams, you could already see some tips on how to deal with the monsters. Today we are going to focus on clumsy actions that can easily and quickly kill your hunters.
Running blindly into the fray Alder’s Blood is primarily a stealth game and any hasty action usually ends up a disaster. Movement system in AB is flexible, so you don’t have to worry about ending your turn too early. Move around slowly, scan the area with you hunter sense and position your hunter accordingly. The worst thing that can happen is to walk onto a Shrieker that will alarm a Stalker and a Floater. With the added Reaction System your hunter will either die instantly or will be locked in place awaiting his death in the enemy’s turn.
[previewyoutube="tkyFJWF38ms;full"]
Attacking head-on We mentioned that Reaction System, right? When monsters spot a hunter, they will immediately use a reaction of their own. And with big guys like a Brawler, this can be very, very painful. Distracting a monster wth a pebble and then attacking from the rear is the way to go in most cases.
[previewyoutube="lGYQRBXUE2I;full"]
Using most of your Stamina and not ending a fight Every attack or use of an item costs Stamina and when a hunter runs out of Stamina he looses a whole next turn. Keeping that in mind, it’s not really a good idea to span attacks that won’t kill a high threat target. Your hunter has only 1 stamina bar left and the monster is still standing? Get ready to get knocked down in enemy turn. With one monster only it may not be that big of a deal, but if the group is bigger, or some new monsters join the party, you will be left with only two hunters at your disposal.
[previewyoutube="myzrvFOzIDA;full"]
That’s all for today folks. We hope you will find those tips useful when the release of Alder’s Blood hits! TTYS!
Your Shockworks
Working on character customization
Hey Hunters,
If you were wondering what we're doing right now - we're working hard on content for character customization. Here's a set of animations for the new skin.
How do you like it? 🐺
New website
Hey Hunters,
Just to let you know - Alder's Blood has a new website, so in case you'd like to contact us directly via e-mail, quickly find a link to our social media, Discord, store links, newsletter, trailer. Well, just everything about the game packed in one place - we have you covered! ːsteamhappyː
Every hunter has their own style, that reflects their personality.
What do you think? Does the new website reflect the spirit of the game?
Development Update: Achievements
Hey Hunters,
In the latest update, we've implemented the Steam API (we're using Steamworks.NET), we've set up cloud saves and some placeholder achievements. That is working fine, so the next step will be to create and script proper achievements. This is an ongoing process and it will take us some more time, but we can share with you some achievements that we plan on having.
1. Bleeding.
2. Death.
3. Backstab.
All of these will pop-up while bleeding, dying or backstabbing the beast for the first time and/or specific amount of times.
These are only examples because we want to implement as many interesting achievements as we can. We're also thinking about how to name them in a fun, catchy way.
Icons will also be tweaked and polished. The ones you see now are only a quick "prototype". Our artist, Alex will make sure to make them sparkly. ;)
Maybe you have some ideas for other achievements - that's mostly the question for our beta testers. Or maybe you have some cool names for them in mind? Feel free to share your thoughts!
P.S. Our idea for Backstab achievement's name was "Just the tip", but we don't know if it's appropriate...
