We would like to let you know that the sci-fi story-driven 4X strategy The Pegasus Expedition has just left Early Access!
During the first week after the full launch, it will be 15% off, so get your hands on it as soon as possible. There is also a deal running where you can get The Pegasus Expedition in a bundle with Space Rangers HD: A War Apart. This bundle is discounted by another 10% and that counts even if you already own one of the included games.
Puzzle Fest is here, get yourself a copy of BLACKHOLE!
Hello everyone!
This week, we celebrate the beauty of one of the most terrifying and scary genres ever created - puzzles! Let's be honest, we've all encountered a puzzle in our lives that we were not able to solve and it still haunts us to this day.
Not today though! Today, we are going to face the puzzles and beat them all. Steam's Puzzle Fest brings discounts to tons of puzzle games across the whole platform, BLACKHOLE included, meaning you can get the game for 80% off until May 1st.
So get to it and let us know how long did it take for you to beat it! Share your results and tag our social media accounts.
We are so happy to announce that the Fulqrum Publisher Sale just started and Blackhole is a part of it with an amazing discount! ALL of Fulqrum Publishing's games are discounted by up to 90% for an entire week! The sale ends on October 27.
Besides, we have just launched a brand new game into Early Access, that being The Pegasus Expedition. If you have not checked it out yet, now is the perfect time!
Enjoy the sale, buy as many games as possible while they're discounted, play The Pegasus Expedition and don't forget to follow us on our Social Media so you never miss any important info!
Introducing our new project: MATCHO
Dear Endera agents, It has been a while since we talked about new stuff in our development team. Since BLACKHOLE, we strive to create better games, trying to outdo ourselves. Therefore, we are proud to present our newest project to you: MATCHO.
Matcho is a unique action-adventure match-3 shooter that plays like no other FPS game you've ever experienced.
Start your new epic journey with Max and his friends as he tackles a mysterious alien invasion that could lead to curing his illness and saving the Earth.
Fight in action-packed arenas like never before and explore intricate areas – all that with breathtaking visuals and an insane arsenal of abilities, including the freedom of parkour movement.
It's Match-3 FPS - a unique combination of genres that merges frenetic shooting with quick decision-making. Explore story-driven chapters as you choose destiny for Max, his friends, and the rest of the world.
Also, we hope that you will be surprised since MATCHO's story is happening in the shared universe with BLACKHOLE.
Intense and clever tactical fighting built around the match-3 shooter concept.
Dazzling visuals powered by Unreal Engine.
A non-linear, humor-packed plot with multiple endings.
An extensive, built-in parkour system lets you wall-run, double-jump, float, and dash in any direction.
A modern take on clever puzzle design and the platforming experience.
Spectacular combo chains to launch, execute, and enjoy.
A cast of colorful characters with full English voiceovers.
Accessibility settings for colorblindness and difficulty curve.
The game is coming on Steam sometime around Q4 2022 / Q1 2023. So feel free to join the discussion on our new Steam page for the project.
We hope you will enjoy the news, FiolaSoft Studio ːaurielː
BLACKHOLE - Czech & Slovak GAMES WEEK Sale Starts Now!
As a part of the Czech and Slovak Games Week sale event taking place between 15. - 22. November, you can now grab the game at a great price with 80% off!
The Coffee Cup - a free event for everyone, live now!
Hello crew members, we are back with another update! We prepared a special event that is going to take place from 11th September to 18th September - The Coffee Cup!
During this week we are going to run a special season of Challenge Vault, our game mode that can now also be played for free! In this mode, players can play a new level every day and compete with each other by trying to finish it as fast as possible. To join the event, all you have to do is to get the BLACKHOLE demo version on Steam for free and start playing Challenge Vault. The existing owners of full version can also join, no matter whether they are playing on PC, Mac or Linux.
Besides enabling the Challenge Vault in the demo version, we also updated the singleplayer demo levels, so in case you don’t own the full game yet, you can experience a selection of 6 levels from the main campaign!
We are also going to be streaming our playthough of the game with developer commentary and we might attempt to beat some of the leaderboard times, too! You can watch the stream and check out our schedule on our Twitch channel.
Thanks!
-The Endera Crew
BLACKHOLE is coming to Xbox One and PS4 on Aug 8th, Last Mission is still in development
Yesterday we announced the console version of BLACKHOLE. We wanted to announce it so many months ago, but unfortunately, the process of publishing the console version is harder than we thought. Anyway, a lot of you are asking us how's the work on BLACKHOLE: Last Mission going.
Last Mission, of course, is still in our plan. Unfortunately, some complications occurred in the financing itself. We believe that now, after the release of the console version, we will be able to pay for the last missing voiceovers and finish the last screens and systems that are necessary for the release.
Although we've never announced the date of release, it is fair to say that the game will be out before the end of this year.
In the meantime, if you want to help us promote the console version of BLACKHOLE, please join our Nouncy program! Just connect your Facebook / Twitter with this site and specify what you want to post on your social media when we hit the release date. You're going to be a part of our super-power marketing team! At the time of writing this status, we've got social reach of 8500, which is amazing! Thanks to all of you!
So let's recap:
- the release of the console version is on August 8th, 2017
- there's not a scheduled box version yet, but we're discussing it
- Blackhole: Last Mission release date and information will come soon after the release of console version.
Thank you for your patience. We're trying to do our best.
BLACKHOLE 1.9 AVAILABLE NOW
Dear Endera Agents, The newest patch is now available for everyone using Windows, MacOS and Linux. This new update is focused on stability and performance issues instead of adding new features. We have revamped a lot of internal systems to create a smoother gameplay experience. It has been a really long and ongoing process over the last whole year (unbelievable).
Besides fixing the smaller bugs, we deactivated uploading your previous progress on Challenge Vault server. From now on you can't upload your older times and you have to achieve them again in order to get them uploaded. The previous solution had been fair until the newcomers started to be affected by ghost-players, who weren't playing BLACKHOLE but just started the game recently. The times for LEVEL 10 and SOE LEVEL 1 are purged for every player as the replays and times unfortunately got corrupted by this update.
We tried to avoid this purge as much as we could, but unfortunately the changes made in our game recently unabled us to solve this in another way.
We hope you all will enjoy our improvements. You can find the changelog below.
1.9 CHANGE LOG
MAIN ISSUES
Fixed more than 300 small bugs
2015 profile upload to Challenge Vault server deactivated
Fixed the blocker when skipping the main menu during the start of the game
New function in leaderboards - skip on top / bottom
New "Director's Cut" dialogue lines
Fixed spacing in subtitles for all languages
Fixed minor mistakes in all languages
We removed all "inappropriate language" from the dialogues in respect of rating
Fixed Challenge Vault functionality for Vanilla Levels
Xinput & Direct Input Controllers are now supported on MacOS
Added Direct Input Controllers functionality for DualShock 4 Controller to options menu
RESOLVED ISSUES
(FIX) Fixed names of achievements
(FIX) New asynchronous save system
(FIX) New asynchronous loading system
(FIX) Fixed players' names in leaderboards
(FIX) Fixed bug causing that controller's vibration function continues indefinitely
(FIX) Fixed achievement for "Spilled coffee" which was granted everytime even if the player didn't spill the coffee
(NEW) Added the information to the profile about the game completion in percantage (%)
(NEW) Added functionality which will copy your original profile when entering into Easy Mode - that way, you can switch back later without losing your progress
(NEW) Now instead of text representation, you will see actual icons on selected controller in options menu
KNOWN ISSUES We are working hard to fix these reported issues as soon as possible:
There aren't any issues right now. If you know about some bug which affected your gameplay, please tell us here: Discussion forum
What's next?
We finished the console version of BLACKHOLE last week. And since we are waiting for its release, we can finally move to our planned spin-off. We announced BLACKHOLE: Last Mission in the Czech Republic, but very soon we will have more information in English, too. Stay tuned! You can check the website of the game for more information.
We want to thank you for all of your reviews and all the reported bugs. We are fully focused on making the game even more enjoyable and looking forward to hearing how you'll like the update on our Steam Discussion forum!
Also, we have released a troubleshoot article to help you solve various problems with the game. Feel free to check it out here! :)
Enjoy the game,
FiolaSoft Studio :auriel:
Tips you may have missed
We have prepared a special list of a few interesting features and options that BLACKHOLE offers and you may have not known about them before.
Collector’s Edition - extra content
DLCs and bonus levels
Leaderboards and replay system
In-game tools and statistics
Increasing FPS for better performance
Using controllers
You don’t have to collect all selfburns
Collector’s Edition - Extra Bonus Content
In case you have bought BLACKHOLE: Collector’s Edition, you can check out some of the extras that come with the game. The bonus content includes things such as the digital artbook, soundtrack in MP3 and FLAC, wallpapers and the original prototype of the game!
You can find these files in the folder with game content (install folder of the game). It is probably something like: steamapps\common\BLACKHOLE\COLLECTORS CONTENT folder, and the soundtrack is located in steamapps\common\BLACKHOLE\OST folder.
Together with extra content you also have access to all the DLCs and bonus levels!
DLCs and bonus levels
There are several DLCs available in the Collector’s Edition of BLACKHOLE - Testing Laboratory, Challenge Vault, Secret of the Entity and Director’s Cut. You can access all of them right away, but it is highly recommended to complete the main gameplay and story sequence first!
Testing Laboratory contains 10 new tests as well as some back story on the Endera mission (and what happened before the events of the main story).
Director’s Cut contains 10 difficult levels, which are meant to challenge even the best BLACKHOLE players. Most of these levels were too hard for the main game, so they were replaced by their easier counterparts. But in case you want to really test your skills, try to complete all of them (preferably after you beat the main game)!
Challenge Vault is probably the most unique out of these three DLCs - it consists of 15 levels, but each of them can be played only for one week. Your time gets uploaded to in-game leaderboards, where you can compete with all the other players. At the end of the 15th week, the winner gets announced and they become the King of the Vault for that season! Next season of Challenge Vault is going to start very soon, so be sure to participate!
Secret of the Entity will unlock once you finish the main story line. This DLC adds more "end game" content and additional story events. The twelve levels of this DLC are very challenging!
Leaderboards and replay system
Leaderboards are not just for Challenge Vault, they are also available in the original game levels! After completing each level (and collecting all selfburns), your time gets uploaded to the global leaderboards.
NOTE: If you complete the level under a certain time, you will get a "Coffee Time" award (as shown in the picture).
To access the leaderboards, enter the game, pause it and use the in-game menu select “Leaderboards”. The compact version of leaderboards is also shown after you complete a level. Another option is to pause the game while being in a specific level - that way you can quickly open the leaderboards of the current level. You can view your position as well as time of other players.
You can also share the replay of your level, if you would like to show others how you have managed to complete it. Use “Share Replay” to do so. You can also view the replays of other players - in case they shared it.
Also, here is a really cool tip for you: There is an option to turn on the specator mode, so you can move around the level while the replay is playing back! You can use this to directly compete with someone else, or to check out some move by repeating it after the replay ghost!
In-game tools and statistics
While you are exploring the overworld, you can display a 3D visualisation of The Entity. You can activate it by pressing the “N” key, “Tab” key or the left shoulder button on your Xbox controller. This is a great tool to check out the secrets scattered around the environment.
While you are in a level, you can also explore it by moving the camera around. Simply hold down “Q” key, “M” key or left trigger on your Xbox controller, then use arrows or joystick to move your view around. You may notice arrows pointing in various directions - these are meant to guide you to a collectible or a task nearby. This can come in handy when you get lost.
When you pause the game while being in the overworld, you can view your statistics on the right side of the in-game menu. It displays stats like the amount of opened levels, total of collected Selfburns or how far you ran in total. You can also view the total number of your deaths!
One of the useful features found in the in-game menu is the “Teleport” option. With this, you can quickly teleport to levels you have been in before. This can save you a lot of time you would spend by returning back through the Entity. On the other hand, you may find some hidden collectibles if you choose to explore the overworld. Another menu option is to view found blackboxes and dog tags. You can access them by choosing “Collectibles” from the in-game menu.
And finally, the ultimate lifehack - if you hold down the restart button while being in the overworld, you can quickly teleport to the spaceship!
Increasing FPS for better performance
In the newest version of BLACKHOLE (1.7), we did a lot of optimization work. We improved and revamped a lot of game systems such as light engine, shadows and asynchronous saving. If you are still experiencing problems with low FPS or stuttering, please consider following steps:
Set "Shadows" to "Disabled"
Change "Background Quality" to "Low"
Set "Parallax" to "Disabled"
Set "Particle Quality" to "Low"
Set "Extra Effects" to "Low"
Set "Shaders" to "Disabled"
You don’t have to change all of these options, feel free to combine them in different ways. However, turning most of them off should rapidly increase your frame rate - but the game will use lower quality textures and effects, so it won't look as good.
Please, be aware that our game is not meant to be played on Intel HD Graphics (integrated graphics cards), but the game may be functional on them.
Also make sure you are using the newest hardware drivers and the most recent version of your operating system. And if you are experiencing any trouble, let us know immediately.
Using controllers
We recommend to use the Xbox 360 Controller or Xbox One Controller for BLACKHOLE. However, all Xinput controllers may be functional, but we did not test them. Feel free to experiment in this area, but please make sure that you are going to follow the right button layout - the one from Xbox 360 Controller.
If you decide to use PS4 controller, rebind your controls to be same as Xbox 360 Controller, then in the game switch the icons for buttons in options menu / controller scheme.
If you have a keyboard or Xbox 360 Controller, you are ready for an adventure out of the box - no matter what platform you use. If you would like to know how to install drivers for controllers on Linux and Mac, follow our guide.
You don’t have to collect all selfburns
A crucial moment of BLACKHOLE is also the time when you have to decide to let go of trying to collect all the selfburns in a level and continue in the story instead of repeating same level again and again. You need just one selfburn to unlock the next level, so sometimes it is better to move onto a different level. Of course there are times, when you will need to go back to earlier levels. But the magic in our game is that you will learn new tricks along the way, so you can use newly learned strategies to collect all the selfburns. That extremely hard level you have never beaten at the start? After finishing the 3rd chapter it is going to be a piece of cake for you. Trust us.
And that is it!
After reading all these tips, you are pretty much a BLACKHOLE expert! Now you can master the game controls, explore all of the content and fix some of the most common problems!
Time for a coffee break, then back to collecting the selfburns! ːselfburnː
-FiolaSoft developers
BLACKHOLE 1.7 FOR WINDOWS & LINUX OUT NOW
Dear Endera Agents, The newest patch is now available for everyone using Windows or Linux. MacOS version will be released in a few days. This new update brings a lot of new things!
Mostly it's all about optimization. So you should get higher FPS and less stuttering during gameplay for the most configurations now. We worked really hard on this one - to finally wrap up our development on BLACKHOLE.
We will still improve the game if we find something wrong, don't worry. We are not abandoning the title. We are in the middle of porting the game to Xbox One and PS4, and a lot of improvements are now available to you because of the optimization of console versions.
The game has a new game mode now! The 'Minimal Story' mode is a great mode for streamers and video makers, because it turns off 95% of all dialogues in the game. That's even twice more than 'Less Dialogues' mode!
We hope you all will enjoy our improvements. You can find the changelog below.
1.7 CHANGE LOG
MAIN ISSUES
New game mode! MINIMAL STORY - great for streamers, video makers and speedrunners!
New level 10 - changing "Hellishly Deep" to easier "Dungeon"
Game now supports the native PS4 Steam Support
Fixed issues in Adventure Mode
Optimization of Sacred Library
Optimization of Lava run
Optimization of Avalanche run
Fixed issues in game's epilogue
Fixed collision system issues
Fixed layers of depth graphics glitches
Added new music
Fixed issues in Testing Laboratory
Fixed 99% of all game's fatal errors
Revamped asynchronous save system
Revamped options menu system
Revamped main menu
RESOLVED MAIN ISSUES
(FIX) Fixed bug which caused crash when rescuing Skelet
(FIX) Fixed stuttering when entering/leaving the portal
(FIX) Fixed stuttering when entering overworld
(FIX) Fixed lacking controller support
(FIX) Fixed out of memory error for good
(FIX) Fixed memory leak in sound engine
(FIX) Fixed bug in pause game state
(FIX) Fixed light engine bug causing glitches in overworld
(FIX) Fixed spectate mode in all environments
(FIX) Fixed music volume for cutscenes
(FIX) Fixed pre-loading sprites data between levels
(FIX) Fixed bug in replay system showing unreal times
(FIX) Fixed bug in replay system causing death to player on some places
(FIX) Fixed elevator sound glitch
(FIX) Fixed stuttering when game loads the tutorial actor
KNOWN ISSUES We are working hard to fix these reported issues as soon as possible:
On OS X it is not possible to use gamepads for an "unknown" reason. We are working on deploying 1.7 that fixes this issue soon.
What's next?
We are going to release the version 1.7 for MacOS, in the meantime, we hope you will enjoy these new improvements in advance on Windows & Linux.
We want to thank you for all of your positive reviews and all the reported bugs. We are fully focusing on making the game even more enjoyable and looking forward to hearing how you like the update on our Steam Discussion forum!
Also, we have released a troubleshoot article to help you solve many problems with the game. Feel free to check it out here! :)
