Soulash Series -40% off in Endlessly Replayable Fest
Greetings fellow gods,
It's been a while! I keep getting occasional messages from those of you who remembered the good old days of being a wrathful god, and finally discovering a sequel in the works after over 2 years since Soulash was completed. Unfortunately, my Steam announcement went to "cross-promotion," so probably nobody saw it, and many of you who weren't on our Discord missed the chance to find out about it.
So, I hope this one will find its way to you if you haven't heard about Soulash 2 yet. Soulash 2 was announced a few months after Soulash was released, and I've shared over 40 devlogs documenting the series' new direction based on your feedback for Soulash.
You wanted a more replayable experience, with NPCs that are not necessarily aggressive, with a procedural world, simulated history, you wanted to build structures, trade to amass your fortune, and have more depth in progression and crafting - I heard you, and I decided the best course of action was to redesign the game from the ground up to offer what you asked for without destroying what so many already loved. There's no durability in the sequel, too. All of the mentioned features have already made their way into the continuation, and more are coming.
Soulash 2 will continue the story after the ash ending of Soulash when the 1.0 release hits next year. Right now it's an open-world sandbox roguelike RPG with no predefined goals or endings, where we begin as mere mortals.
How I always think about the sequel since the very first devlog is Soulash + some Dwarf Fortress Adventure inspiration, mainly the world generation with history simulation, with simulation continuing with the same rules independently of us affecting the world or not + some Mount & Blade Bannerlords inspiration mainly around the conquest and leading armies aspect from the single-character perspective that I believe will fit the roguelike genre very well. It's already becoming something quite unique, unlike any of the mentioned games, and it's updated weekly with new content and following the feedback from fans, with major updates planned every 3 months. You can find our roadmap to 1.0 with details.
Circling back to the purpose of this wall of text, I wanted to offer a better price to those who joined early to thank you for supporting my dream and helping improve the game with your feedback. Back in 2019, I did the same for Soulash, offering it on Itch only, and I know some of you were disappointed the full release on Steam was actually really the end after supporting the game for 3 months with new content updates. The development didn't continue in the direction you hoped since the story was complete and the changes wouldn't fit the game, but now's your chance to participate in an evolving game with an active community if you still desire it.
Since I finished Soulash, I have been able to go full-time indie and get more help to make a game with an even grander vision, and that's all thanks to you. We have a Soulash Series bundle with an extra 15% discount for all Soulash fans since day 1 release as well. This week will be the last chance to grab the Soulash Series or just the sequel at its cheapest price, as I will be increasing the base price for Soulash 2 to $18.99 soon after, with another price increase planned in December once we reach the 1st full year of Early Access development.
I hope you try the game and join us on Discord, it's been quite lively for a few months now, with plenty of players to talk strategies, ask for help or collaborate on cool mod ideas.
Thank you for reading this far, and happy soul-hunting, Artur
Soulash 2 Announcement
Greetings fellow gods,
As many of you may know, I've been able to commit myself fully to game development for the past year, and I've been hard at work on the sequel to Soulash. I've decided to begin a new project to redesign it from the ground up with all the features I had in mind during the failed Kickstarter in 2021, with all the stretch goals we had at the time - procedural world and history simulation, procedural locations, factions, building, and skill-based progression system. I've also included many of the requests I've received from players, adding trading, expanding the crafting system, adding mouse movement, removing durability, expanding the modding capabilities, adding procedural portraits, and more. I might not have left a stone unturned. :)
Soulash 2 will be a unique mix of traditional roguelike, roleplaying, sandbox, and strategy genres. The easiest way to describe where I want the game to end up is somewhere between Soulash, DF Adventure, and M&B Bannerlord. I don't want to oversell this idea because the game is developed by me and a single artist on a very low budget and attempting to make a game unlike any available today, but I believe strongly in this vision and that it will result in a unique and fun gaming experience that will fit the theme of world conquest perfectly. The story will continue after the world's destruction in Soulash, but progressing through it will be optional, and there will be more opportunities in the game to pursue your own goals.
I've been documenting the entire development process in devlogs every 2 weeks (26 by now) if you would like to know the details about the changes and current state of the game, as well as my plans for where the game is going. New devlogs are announced on Discord every other Friday.
And today, I'm happy to announce that we have a Steam page for Soulash 2 to gather wishlists in preparation for the EA launch that will happen sometime this year, with the details about what the sequel will be about and the EA questionnaire about the overall plans for its duration and scope.
You can wishlist the game here to get notified on release and follow it for further announcements.
Hotfix 1.0.12.3
Greetings fellow gods,
Small hotfix today to address issues with UTF-8 characters in Windows username causing crash on startup.
Fixed - Fixed a crash related to Windows username using non-latin characters. - Fixed a crash related to attacks performed by some not aggressive animals, like deer.
Hotfix v1.0.12.1 & 1.0.12.2
Greetings fellow gods,
Quick hotfix today to address the crafting menu crash.
Changed
- Resting and sleeping no longer closes the Crafting Screen.
Fixed
- Fixed crash in Crafting Screen when hovering over Heavy Crossbow.
Edit: Hotfix 1.0.12.2 fixes the issue related to rest until healed and sleep not being canceled correctly.
Hotfix v1.0.12.1
Greetings fellow gods,
Quick hotfix today to address the crafting menu crash.
Changed
- Resting and sleeping no longer closes the Crafting Screen.
Fixed
- Fixed crash in Crafting Screen when hovering over Heavy Crossbow.
Soulash v1.0.12 Deck of Entities
Greetings fellow gods,
Today's update addresses some bugs and improvements reported on the official Soulash Discord server, as well as a new unique item - Deck of Entities, a single-use item designed by Sinful, one of our Patrons, that can provide a random benefit or disadvantage. See the full changelog below:
Added
- New unique item Deck of Entities designed by Sinful. - The delete key will now clear the contents of an active input field. - Mouse wheel can now be used to zoom in or out in the Map Editor. - Temporary entities now have information on when they will disappear in their tooltip.
Changed
- Improved navigation in Mod Editors and added hotkeys for New Entity, New Ability, and New Animation buttons. - Items of type Resource like tree trunks that have Armor no longer display resistances in its tooltip. - Recipe learning message during salvage now displays the base item name instead of the name changed by applied affixes. - Increased backpack tabs from 2 to 4. - Increased damage of Heavy Crossbow by 2. - Enemies will now attack the player on different z-level when it blocks the stairs. - The camera no longer changes position when moving between different region maps in Map Editor.
Fixed
- Fixed an issue with abilities not being learned by the player on killing gods by summons. - Fixed the "on impact" and "inner animation" mappings in non-overwriting mods. - Fixed AoE animations in mods sometimes being displaced and centered around the character despite correctly damaging a selected area. - Fixed an issue in Map Editor that caused the last spawn group to not show up if there were more than 12. - Some rings and amulets couldn't be crafted with affixes. - Fixed sidebar scroll in Entity Maker not resetting position when creating a new entity. - Fixed crash in Data Table modding screen. - Fixed rare crashes during the new world generation. - When Golden Lamp durability drops to 0, it's no longer possible to cast Summon Djinni that comes from the item. - Having an ability from an item doesn't prevent it from being learned when leveling up. - Fixed message for tile-based abilities to indicate they need to be cast on an unoccupied tile. - AI with a light source will no longer keep spamming the Light spell on itself. - Immobile enemies will no longer get stuck attempting to chase the player. - Fixed an issue that prevented the display of some particles in Animation Editor on low resolution. - Hidden enemies are no longer marked as valid targets on abilities, which previously allowed to determine where's the target by the color of the border.
Enjoy, Artur
Soulash v1.0.12 - Deck of Entities
Greetings fellow gods,
Today's update addresses some bugs and improvements reported on the official Soulash Discord server, as well as a new unique item - Deck of Entities, a single-use item designed by Sinful, one of our Patrons, that can provide a random benefit or disadvantage. See the full changelog below:
Added
- New unique item Deck of Entities designed by Sinful. - The delete key will now clear the contents of an active input field. - Mouse wheel can now be used to zoom in or out in the Map Editor. - Temporary entities now have information on when they will disappear in their tooltip.
Changed
- Improved navigation in Mod Editors and added hotkeys for New Entity, New Ability, and New Animation buttons. - Items of type Resource like tree trunks that have Armor no longer display resistances in its tooltip. - Recipe learning message during salvage now displays the base item name instead of the name changed by applied affixes. - Increased backpack tabs from 2 to 4. - Increased damage of Heavy Crossbow by 2. - Enemies will now attack the player on different z-level when it blocks the stairs. - The camera no longer changes position when moving between different region maps in Map Editor.
Fixed
- Fixed an issue with abilities not being learned by the player on killing gods by summons. - Fixed the "on impact" and "inner animation" mappings in non-overwriting mods. - Fixed AoE animations in mods sometimes being displaced and centered around the character despite correctly damaging a selected area. - Fixed an issue in Map Editor that caused the last spawn group to not show up if there were more than 12. - Some rings and amulets couldn't be crafted with affixes. - Fixed sidebar scroll in Entity Maker not resetting position when creating a new entity. - Fixed crash in Data Table modding screen. - Fixed rare crashes during the new world generation. - When Golden Lamp durability drops to 0, it's no longer possible to cast Summon Djinni that comes from the item. - Having an ability from an item doesn't prevent it from being learned when leveling up. - Fixed message for tile-based abilities to indicate they need to be cast on an unoccupied tile. - AI with a light source will no longer keep spamming the Light spell on itself. - Immobile enemies will no longer get stuck attempting to chase the player. - Fixed an issue that prevented the display of some particles in Animation Editor on low resolution. - Hidden enemies are no longer marked as valid targets on abilities, which previously allowed to determine where's the target by the color of the border.
Enjoy, Artur
Soulash v1.0.11 Gauntlet of the Lich Lord
​Greetings fellow gods, We have a new update today, with a unique item designed by Sinful, one of our Patrons, a bunch of fixes, and QoL improvements. Changelog below:
Added
- New unique item, Gauntlet of the Lich Lord - designed by Sinful. - Added Unarmed, Improvised, and Natural weapon types to available ability requirements. - Added the possibility to increase or decrease the craft counter in the Crafting screen with plus and minus keys when an item is selected and not currently being crafted. - Added the possibility to change the z-level with plus and minus keys on the Map screen. - Two new properties for Durability in Entity Editor.
Changed
- Look action can now be remapped in Keymap. - Stackable items can no longer have affixes. - Map screen keys used to move the map now correspond to the movement keys selected instead of wasd/arrow keys.
Fixed
- Fixed crash when the item being dragged no longer exists. - Fixed wording on some abilities mentioning targeting enemies when they affect allies as well. - Fixed missing background tiles in one of the regions of Yelling Mountains. - Fixed graphic issue related to Mushman icon. - Fixed Torch having ranged attack animation. - Crafting recipes now properly show negative resistances. - Kobolds now have unique names and no longer use goblin descriptions. - It's now possible to drink when the thirst meter is at 100% while having a dehydration mark. - Fixed victory tweet on Cemetery screen. - Fixed true damage, sometimes removing background tiles. - AI characters no longer use Break ability on the player. - Fixed issue that prevented display of cemetery files when Windows user name had a dash. - Fixed AI sometimes not casting debuff abilities. - Numpad 0 - 9 keys are now considered different keys than numeric when assigning them in Keymap. - Inventory, Map, Abilities screens key no longer work when in the Options screen, causing issues when remapping them. - It's now possible to use Crafting screen key on Inventory screen to swap directly between the screen.
Enjoy!
Soulash v1.0.10 Difficulty Selection released!
Greetings fellow gods,
Today as we start the Going Rogue Festival on Steam with a 20% discount on Soulash, we have some very special treats for you in our latest v1.0.10 update. This new patch brings 2 major additions - Difficulty Settings before starting a new game, and data tables for modding.
We have 4 tweaks that you can customize for both Easy and Hard difficulty modes.
For easy difficulty, you can reduce enemy stats and health to make them easier or speed up combat encounters if you feel they are too drawn out. You can start with a couple of Phoenix Feathers if you're not a big fan of permadeath, each feather will heal you to full just when you're about to die. And last but not least, you can bump the durability of items if you don't feel like replacing your gear too often.
All of the easy difficulty tweaks will reduce your final score, but all achievements can be unlocked.
The normal difficulty remains as it was, and the hard difficulty offers 4 more tweaks that cannot be combined with easy difficulty tweaks.
The increased number of spawn groups will make the world denser in a couple of places, especially in the early game where there's a lot more variety in types of enemies in different regions. Additional abilities can be added to every enemy, which will make the opponents that are known to be easy, a bit more unpredictable. Trust me, Brown Bears are really not that scary on Normal, but Brown Bears casting Winds of Decay and Dragon's Breath are. The abilities will match the enemy level when possible. The next setting, item quality, will make it so enemies will have better gear on themselves, which is a double-edged sword since that will make them stronger, but also means you will acquire better gear quicker as you go on your murderous rampage. This setting will reduce the benefit of crafting, which also means it won't be as easy to gain that extra advantage over your enemies by creating extra items. And the final setting is for those of you who prefer a more impactful survival mechanics - an increase of consumption systems like hunger, thirst, bloodthirst, golem resource consumption, etc.
The second major addition is mainly for modding, but also for people who feel the need to play with a wiki with all the answers. We've added Data tables with a lot of information regarding mods data files - listing all enemies, items, resources, and abilities, with a lot of information about how to acquire them, or which crafting recipes use them. To access modding editors you'll need to start your own mod by following the instructions provided with the game inside the Soulash/data/docs/index.html file. As you're there, take a stab at making a mod, it doesn't require any coding, you can create your own maps, items, enemies, and abilities by simply duplicating and tweaking what already exists.
Below is the full changelog.
Added
New difficulty selection screen when starting a new game with customizable difficulty settings for additional easy and hard modes. Tweaking these options will affect the final score.
Easy: The durability selection screen (100% - 500%) will increase the base durability of items in the game.
Easy: Change enemy health (100% - 50%). If you would like to speed up the fights, be aware, however, that his option affects summons as well.
Easy: Change enemy stats (100% - 60%). If you find enemies too difficult to progress in the game, this option will reduce their base stats resulting in lower damage and resistances. This option affects summons as well.
Hard: Spawn groups per region (1 - 3). More enemies will spawn when more than one alternative spawn group is available in the region. This will result in a more dense world with more enemies in some areas.
Hard: Enemy random abilities (0 - 2), every enemy created during world generation receives additional abilities. This affects regular enemies and minibosses but does not affect summons or gods.
Hard: Enemy gear level (0 - 10). The quality of items used by enemies depends on their level. This attribute will bump that quality by up to 10 levels, giving them a higher chance to wield magic and artifact items.
Hard: Extra consumption (100% - 350%). This setting affects how quickly hunger, thirst, bloodthirst, and other consumption-related mechanics will be reduced.
Data Table option is now available in Mod Editors, providing a lot of information about entities and abilities in the mod. Beware, this screen contains massive spoilers! You can access Entity Editor from these lists by selecting a specific entity.
List all AI actors with the ability to filter them by level. The list includes their health, stats, speed, and worn items.
Abilities list is split by profession and level, as well as universal level 0 abilities available only on items.
List of all weapons in the game with additional filter by type, including all weapons statistics and information about who wields them.
List of all armors in the game with additional filter by type, including all statistics of armors and information about who wears them.
List of all resources in the game with information about the value, weight, and their usage in crafting.
Added Spawn Group editor documentation in Soulash/data/docs/index.html modding documentation with instructions on using modding tools to create new enemy groups.
Added Affixes documentation in Soulash/data/docs/index.html modding documentation with instructions on adding your own prefixes, suffixes, and artifacts.
Changed
Changed the Stone Stairs graphic to be more visible in the Forgotten Temple location.
Candles and Lanterns now have durability.
Draw All Glyphs is now selected by default in the mod creation screen so that Core GFX works correctly by default. It should be disabled for ASCII mods.
Fixed
AI no longer constantly attempts to summon a zombie on top of an existing zombie.
Giant Spider no longer leaves a humanoid corpse.
I hope the patch will make the game more enjoyable for you guys, and keep providing us with that valuable feedback! Please let everyone know about the game and about the Going Rogue discount if you do enjoy it!
Artur
Soulash v1.0.9 Mushman
Greetings fellow gods,
Soulash v1.0.9 is now live and it features Mushman, a new playable race designed by one of our Patrons - Thorvall, a Lizardman race buff, crafting improvements, auto pickup of shot arrows, and other fixes and improvements.
Full changelog below:
Added
- New playable race - Mushman, designed by Thorvall! - Added Clean Up action icon on the equipment screen when a liquid container is selected. - Player character will pick up shot arrows automatically when walking in range. - Added the "Max count" button to the crafting screen to fill in the count input considering the available resources. - Added filter buttons to the crafting screen to easily filter craftables by item types.
Changed
- Lizardman now has his bonus movement speed while under Wet effect instead of only when walking on the water tiles. - Repentance now scales off enemy intelligence and 300% of its base weapon damage instead of scaling from caster intelligence. Cooldown increased from 4 turns to 10. - Potions are not of item type Usable instead of Resource. - Slightly increased chance for Elven Villagers and Human Peasants to have Scissors. - Destroying Bookcases can now provide Paper.
Fixed
- Fixed missing background tiles under the fence on one of the regions. - Fixed drunk liquid counter on the death screen. - Fixed frames drop on AI archer getting stuck on attempting to attack the player. - Gigantic Dwarf achievement correctly works when playing as a dwarf only. - Fixed some dialogue typos. - Fixed crash that happened when dragged corpse got butchered. - Fixed a rare crash related to AI attempting to stash loot without a proper place in the area. - Fixed a rare crash during the liquid changing tile (for example, blood tile changing to when exceeding a certain limit). - It's no longer possible to drop the stack of items while splitting it, causing a crash. - Fixed Cheat Console crash when attempting to spawn without providing an entity id. - Fixed issue that sometimes caused teleportation to unload parts of the region nearby and caused a crash when attempting to teleport into that region.
