Hi folks, we hope things are going wonderfully for you with the dawn of the new year!
We have some bonuses for you during the festivities:
You will have an extra 12% XP in each run through the rogue-lite (until the end of February)
Check the gift + Fireworks on the left side of the Hub (even if you've already claimed the former, it will be refilled by the 1st of February when Lunar New Year officially starts for most cultures).
We've put up themed decorations:
Aura of Worlds is now 20% off for Steam's Lunar New year sale (in addition to the heavy early access discount).
New Items:
With a new year comes new tools to play with!
Shotbow
This weapon trades accuracy for crowd control and a few more points against larger opponents. I.e., it fires three arrows at once!
Repeater
The weapon fires very rapidly in exchange for accuracy and range. Here's introducing a crystal serpent to its recently defeated cousin...
Stunning Orb
A spell that goes through walls knocking out opponents at a distance.
Inventory Management Updated:
Ever wanted to wield a shield, grapple, and crossbow simultaneously without having to press too many buttons? Now you can.
We've noticed when watching people play that many players stick to using a couple of ability items for most of the run (leaving much of the inventory to gather dust). We want to encourage more multitasking between abilities as various interactions exist between the tools simultaneously. There used to be a row of quick-swap slots, but many found these awkward to use and would often forget about them during the heat of the moment. As such, we're replacing the quick swap row with another active offhand slot (Default bindings with Mouse and on an Xbox Gamepad). We've also updated all related inventory systems; for example, smart-swapping will prioritize mobility items and non-directional powers to the new offhand slot by default.
Miscellaneous:
Buffed Recurve Bow and Chakram.
Fixed parallax stuttering edge cases.
Multiple other balance changes
Fixed visual glitch with spear thrust attacks causing the player's hands to disconnect with the weapon.
Much more...
A note regarding price
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 each year in early access. You can see the list of update sets on the news page: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/841600 As such, the game will increase in price later on, to help us add extra content to the game for you as we approach full release.
ๆญ็ฆง็ผ่ฒก! We wish you all the best for the year of the Tiger ๐ฎ๐ !
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):
General Updates
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 โ๏ธ!
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:
Balance changes/bug fixes
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.
Patch 25th December - 0.101.2
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 ๐!
Patch 9th January - 0.101.3.8! Happy New Year๐๐
Fixed New Years Gift ๐ 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).
Rise of The Frost Phoenix Update
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:
๐ฅ
[previewyoutube="f1DzswMsuvk;full"]
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!
New boss: Luminous Grand Slime, new enemies, items & more
Hi everyone!
Here are some of the new updates we've been working on
New Boss: Grand Luminous Slime
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.
New Enemies Include:
Stone Stars:
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.
Poison Pitchers:
These pesky plants grow on the odd wall of the Gnarled Gardens, throwing spheres of poisonous pollen gas.
New Items
Gooey Adhesive:
Allows you to stick explosives to almost everything, including opponents and terrain.
Orb of Poison:
Shoots a bouncing ball of venom that will explode into a radial shower of poisonous shots when destroyed.
Graphics updates:
Over 20 new sprites and animations.
New randomized parallax for Ice World.
Balance Changes and Bug fixes.
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.
Follow up note regarding upcoming price change
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.
Update 0.97.8
23rd of August
10 New Sound Effects ๐!
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!
Update Set 0.95.x
Hi everyone, Here are some of the changes for the update:
Level Generation
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
Enthral Ability Rework
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).
Audio ๐ผ
Some new sound effects.
3rd alternative music theme for Grotto of Guidance ๐ผ
Graphics
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.
Balance Changes
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
Bug Fixes
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
Update 0.95.5
12th of June
Fixed bug where Grotto lore tablet prompt would not deactivate if helper prompts were disabled.
Updated graphics for Avalanche
Happy Lunar New Year + Update 0.94.X!
Hi folks, we hope things are going well for you during the festive period and beyond!
We have some bonuses for you during the festivities:
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).
Level generation improvements:
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.
A.I. improvements include:
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:
Miscellaneous:
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...
A note regarding price
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.
ๆญ็ฆง็ผ่ฒก! We wish you all the best for the year of the Ox ๐ฎ๐!
Update Set 0.93.X: More content for the New Year!
Hi folks!
We hope your feeling refreshed for 2021! We have some more content for you!
New Opponents
Snow Hare
It may look cute and coy, but they are quite territorial and aggressive (with half their world destroyed or warped since by the cataclysm. who can blame them)? Unlike most enemies, they'll try to remain burrowed undercover, keeping their distance to strike at range.
Ice Mage
Even though they've been asleep long in cryrgenic suspension, it won't take much to awaken these undead liches. They will zealously defend the remains of their frozen fortification. They employ phasing and an array of guided ranged magic to strike down intruders from all sides.
New Level Themes
Shifting Winds
It applies to the Gardens to...
Avalanche
New Year Bonuses
There's a present for you on the left side of the Hub:
All XP that you gain in game is increased by 12% during this time
Fireworks!
(This will run From New Years Day till the end of Chinese New Year)
Other Changes
You can now hide in deep snow
Accelerator Platforms
These replace rail-bound platforms in Cold Crust Caverns.
World Tracing System
The game now keeps track of seeds and other key values (e.g. biome, level themes) of previously generated levels; in the [Steamapps/common/AuraOfWorlds]data/PastWorldCache folder. Allowing us to reconstruct past procedural levels with a high level of accuracy.
This will allow us to hunt down any edge case anomalies with greater accuracy instead of simply relying on the log file.
Bug Fixes/Balance Changes
Offscreen chandelier traps are better telegraphed.
Fixed bug where Enduring and Resourceful achievements would not trigger unless 4 worlds were completed during a run (instead of 3)
Improved Telegraphing of ranged cryogenic spikes from this guy:
Fixed bug with warning flavour text for level themes sometimes being hidden.
Fixed glitch where the unlock menu would not draw the number of tokens properly.
Fixed glitch where grenades didn't flash when the fuse was about to blow
Button mashing leads to breaking out of ice faster
Patch 0.93.7
Fixed issues where Steam achievements where earlier achievements were not automatically unlocking for new players. Apologies for the inconvenience; the achievements shall unlock be set in your profile the next time you launch the game (and are online).
We wish you all the best for 2๏ธโฃ0๏ธโฃ2๏ธโฃ1๏ธโฃ!
Ice World Now Available โ๏ธ! Merry Christmas ๐๐!
Hey everyone,
We hope you're keeping well during the festive season!
We are finally making the 4th area of the game available to play:
Cold Crust Caverns
Large open icy mountainous caves become intertwined with frigid ruins and shrines. What could possibly go awry in this wintery paradise?
Currently Featuring:
New ways to wield the environment!
Things like exploding crystals and re-settable mechanisms present more opportunities to turn the tables on adversity (with more on the way)
Ice, snow, cold stone, and crystal
each with their unique properties, to make traversing the terrain more engaging and challenging.
Active development:
The area, while incomplete, has been thoroughly tested to be enjoyable to play. We plan on adding some more hazards, environmental quirks, some unique level themes, and a new boss going forward.
Opponents will team up against you in larger groups than usual, each with unique attack patterns. A few of them can inflict debilitating frost (though there are ways to break out of this quickly)
And Much More...
Festive Rewards ๐:
New achievement
Gain 12% extra XP per run when playing in December and early January.
There's a gift for you in the hub area.
Balance Changes Include:
Various bug fixes
Rearranged world select shortcut menu so you can choose what path you take from mid and late-game areas.
Player Damage and knockback buffed slightly.
Level layout enhancements
Implemented additional ways for the player to break out of ice; +prevented stun-lock situations involving the frozen debuff.
Update 0.91.3
Fixed bug where hub menus don't resize with a screen resolution change if done just after they're loaded.
Made Hub area more festive.
Added gift to left of starting area.
We wish you a well-earned rest at the end of this tough year. Happy Hanukkah ๐ ! Happy Kwanzaa! Merry Christmas ๐๐ !
Patch 0.88.11
Hi folks! We hope things are going well for you in the lead-up to the festive season.
We've just rolled out a patch which:
Fixes two rare dead-end bugs with the level generator.
Reduces superfluous ladders and other terrain pieces of ascension (e.g., moving platforms right next to each other, moving in parallel). Thus, encouraging a bit more planning in navigating each level and cleaning up the visuals.
Tiled structural rooms are now more extensive and more common in the Grotto of Guidance.
What's Next?
We're looking forward to finally make the ice world available within the next 1.5 months (without giving too much away, here's a thumbnail teaser):
Level Generator Overhaul + Gameplay Refinements
Hi folks,
We hope you're doing well during these unusual times.
Level Generation
We've been finding ways to drastically improve this through several methods. Such includes:
The path to the exit branches more, further moving away from the predictable zig-zag path.
Levels have grown, with more seamless connections between segments.
Rooms no longer need to be locked to grid cells, allowing for more fluid layouts.
Several of the dynamic template types have had their creation patterns rewritten.
Fixed various bugs with inaccessible rooms generating the past.
Gameplay Improvements
Some people who are already quite familiar with roguelites/roguelikes have asked for additional challenge. We want to accommodate this while still allowing the game to be accessible for people who are a bit more new (e.g., having an Easy mode option).
Multiple changes address such points (especially with regards to making higher difficulty modes more challenging):
On higher difficulty modes, player damage and defense has been reduced. This is largely done to balance out the systems of dodging, luck, critical hits, and status modifiers, which made the game significantly easier.
Health potions have had their potency reduced slightly. We changed this because of how numerous they are within the game. We saw some players had too many leftovers. Keeping your supply up, and discovering other healing methods, provide more reasons to explore the new levels a bit more!
You've demonstrated how powerful the Chakram could be in the right hands, so much so that it was preferable to all primary weapons. As a result, we've had to nerf its range and speed. It's still quite an effective weapon, but the change should encourage experimentation with other weapon types.
Certain hazards like lava, spikes, and a few monster attacks have had their damage increased. Such may sound brutal, but remember it can work to your advantage too.
The Necromancer and Giant Worm have both been extended to be more exciting and less exploitable. For example:
Players will no longer be able to freeze lock most of the fight away.
The Necromancer is not as vulnerable when healing and will be summoned with fewer crystals destroyed.
The Giant Worm has undergone improvements to all its maneuvers and will become increasingly aggressive as it takes damage.
There are some changes which make things easier, to encourage exploration more. For example:
Certain environmental weaknesses have been extended (e.g., some status effects on the Giant Worm).
Fewer enemies are spawned on the generation of a boss level.
Bezoar has a chance to transfer poison enemies (as well as increasing your own resistance).
A special Thanks to all the testers on the Alpha branch
Thanks for reading/playing, and have a Wonderful Week ahead!
