The game comes out of Early Access on Wednesday 27th February. As usual, we post our patch the weekend before so you can prepare for the upcoming build.
Our goals with this build We are done with Early Access and we will be live as a full game. Make note of the following changes if you have been with us during Early Access:
Pricing has changed to reflect full retail pricing (this does not affect current customers)
The game is going live with Chapters 1 and 2 of the game. With the remaining chapters rolled out in a schedule throughout the year of 2019. Please see Steam community pages and store page for the full skinny on how and why this is happening.
The tutorial chapter that you all have been playing during Early Access now contains all the story and quest content that was withheld during Early Access to avoid spoilers.
Controller Support
One of our most asked for features during Early Access was controller support. At launch in this patch, the game will not support controllers immediately. We are taking the time to get controller support very solid before rolling that out in upcoming patches.
As this is a known priority for the community, the first patch of March 2019 will reflect Steam controller and Xbox and Playstation controller support. This is slated for the second weekend of March.
Live Content Schedule
A full content schedule will be made live in the coming weeks. For now, we will be loosely adhering to the following schedule of new content:
Every 2 months: major chapter release
Once a month: additional side content and regular patches for any fixes and improvements needed.
Twice during 2019: a major event update in the game. The first of these will occur in June 2019 and will be the Midsummer Festival of Jordenheim. During this time and during a 4 week period only, the game will contain additional story content and side quests that will allow for limited time rewards.
How to Play Go slow and enjoy the game. Explore, discover, embrace the content. This is a single player RPG, the world and the lore matter.
Follow Up Do not be silent with your views. As the first time, we are doing a limited time live service game at a fixed price as an Indie Dev Team, we need to hear your views. Here is how you shout back at us:
Apologies for the radio silence the last 3 weeks, work has been charging along for the Feb launch of Chapter 1 and 2 of the game.
I am currently targetting a launch between 18-24 February. Dotting I's crossing T's and adding side quests right now.
I will drop another announcement here as per usual when the final build is live for you to download.
best regards
Kosala
Hotfix version 0.3a published
Good afternoon community!
A small hotfix has been published to Steam. Mostly some small bug fixes but also added our new crafting interface.
Changelog:
Crafting interface added for intial crafting on starting zone
A long-standing bug regarding the quest log not updating on task completion is fixed
A new bug found that did not alert the gamer correctly when a quest is completed has been added
XP system and XP bar added
All dialogue has been updated to use the new dialogue system
We are making one large change going forward regarding voice acting. The original plan was to have every voice in the game voice acted. For now it seems unlikely that I will have the budget to do that, so we are going to limit voice acting to Astrid, Birger, and the Narrator only.
best regards
Kosala
Delayed XMAS update is live!
Good afternoony all!
The new update build is now live with the host of changes reflected in our most recent patch notes.
Highlights include the new dialogue systems, improved climbing tolerance, updated visuals, new settings, and performance optimizations and a whole lot more!
This will also be our last Early Access build. We will be releasing the game in chapters (see our FAQ in the discussions forums) and I also want to make sure we have a couple of months before release to add the content into the first levels that you have not actually seen yet in the Early Access phase, to make sure there are no spoilers for you when you start playing the chapter for real.
Thanks for the great feedback we have had during the Early Access (short as it was) and I look forward to bringing you the finished game from February onwards.
best regards
Kosala
Whoops, XMAS patch delayed a few days
Good morning!
I was planning on releasing the new Xmas patch today, but I found a last-minute lighting bug that is causing havoc in the playable build. I will have it live in a few days, apologies for the delay!
best regards
Kosala
Blood Bond Early Access Patch 0.3 Notes and Feedback
Good afternoon all!
The pre-Xmas patch of Blood Bond is upon us! Patch 0.3 will be live on Early Access on the 20th of December.
Our goals with this build Feedback from the community was instrumental in the upgrades made in the last patch and they continue to be the driver of this patch's upgrades as well. Although the last patch was about performance and playability improvements, this patch is now about features.
Core to this patch is the addition of the dialogue and quest improvements, as well as better level design for clarity and mapping for navigation.
We have a lot of features yet to release in the game and you can find out live feature planner on the Trello board linked below.
Features
New Dialogue system implemented
Level design improved for clearer pathing to goals
Lighting and Shadows improved
System Preferences and Settings added
Wider selection of resolutions added to support widescreen formats
Launch menu and starting menu screen added
Climbing improved
Mapping and Navigation System improved
Quest log added
How to Play Go slow and enjoy the game. Explore, discover, embrace the content. This is a single player RPG, the world and the lore matter.
Follow Up One of the greatest things about participating in Early Access is that your voice is heard for sure. Do not be silent with your views. Here is how you shout back at us:
Our Feedback Form This is the structured feedback form that we do for each build. Fill it out as often as you want.
https://www.wrks-games.com/feedback
I have posted a small hotfix to our latest patch today and its live on Steam now. It fixes these things:
a) A part of the map you should have been able to get to was open, and that has now been closed off
b) Resolution settings options have been added to the Game Settings panel.
c) A glitch in the main intro video that caused one part of the animated comic to not transition correctly has been fixed.
d) Procedural foliage generation has been improved
e) Mouse clicking was enabled during the intro comic, that has now been disabled
f) Ledge climbing has been improved but still requires more work that I will leave to a later patch. The current changes remove some of the frustrations with collision that bogged down this feature before.
Happy Gaming and the new patch will be out before XMAS :)
Hotfix incoming!
Good afternoony folks!
Well, we released a major rework of the first tutorial level yesterday to the Early Access on Steam. We have already had two of the community members go through it, and identified a couple of minor issues.
Nothing game breaking, but enough to warrant a hotfix next week. The following issues occur:
a) There is an area on the map that allows you passage to a part of the map you should not be able to go through.
b) During cutscenes, the game registers mouse input
c) The collision detection in climbing sequences occasionally bugs out, resulting in Astrid wavering about a foot away from the rock face - which just looks silly!
These will be rectified in next weeks hotfix. As always, many thanks for participating in Early Access and providing me with this kind of immensely useful feedback.
best regards
Kosala Ubayasekara
Early Access Beta 0.1 Patch Notes Sep 2018
Good afternoon all!
The patch note gremlins have been hard at work and prepared this stirring write-up to give you the best start and to set your expectations for our first build coming out on the 28th of September.
Our goals with this build This is our first Early Access build. Our goals with this patch are to introduce you to the core concepts of the game, introduce you to the story and stress test the game across a wide variety of gaming rigs.
Think of this as a technical early release, that is playable for the first 3 levels. After we have done receiving your feedback and our data for this first patch we will be focusing on releasing new features and streamlining and improving each month. This build is bug-free but features may iterate and change based on feedback.
We have a lot of features yet to release in the game and you can find out live feature planner on the Trello board linked below.
Your feedback and playing of the game are integral to that, as the people that participated in the closed BETA were integral to the build you are now about to receive.
Features
Tutorials (we have a special way of doing these as you will see)
First three levels
One boss fight
Gathering System
Starting Quests
How to Play Go slow and enjoy the game. Explore, discover, embrace the content. This is a single player RPG, the world and the lore matter.
Follow Up One of the greatest things about participating in Early Access is that your voice is heard for sure. Do not be silent with your views. Here is how you shout back at us:
Our Feedback Form This is the structured feedback form that we do for each build. Fill it out as often as you want.
https://www.wrks-games.com/feedback
A quick note to say that early access development is going well. We have completed two levels of the game, completed upgrading and performance enhancements for Unreal Engine 4.20 and completed the ledge climbing mechanic for traversal.
We are now going to spend the rest of the month implementing our new UI and the first boss fight. So far, everything is on track for the end of this month launch of early access on Steam.
