The Forbidden Arts
Happy New Year! New Version - 0.9.2.0 is Live + News!
Version 0.9.2.0 is live! Experience the latest and greatest version of The Forbidden Arts, which adds a bit of polish and enhancement to various parts of the game. Here's a list of what's new in version 0.9.2.0:
- Updated Post Processing Effects
- Improved ambient occlusion
- Modified the ambiance, lighting, and color grading in every scene of the game
- Fixed a rare bug related to an enemy freezing when playing a stunned animation
- Modified enemy AI for the Bandit in Temple of Spirit
- Updated texture map and details for the Chiromancer
- Improved player ledge hang detection and accuracy
- Cleaned up the music track for Elia's theme song
- Modified the player's stun animation logic
- Various visual improvements to Elia's background story cutscene
- New environment for the Necromancer scene of Elia's background story cutscene
- Modified Geomancer scene in intro cutscene
- Improved the magic FX in Elia's background story cutscene for the Aeromancer, Chiromancer and Necromancer
- Revised music for Enchantress Boss Fight
- Revised music for Korrath Woods
- Fixed a bug in French that improperly displayed the date and time of a save file in the load game menu
- Improved camera controls on the world map
- Various bug fixes and minor improvements
We've been very hard at work on rewriting the game's save system. The updated save system is not included in this version of the game, but will likely make it into the next version. It's lightning fast! I mean fast! As we were preparing for console ports we knew the game would need a better and faster save system and we're nearly complete. We now need to do a ton of testing. Don't worry, we're also working hard to make sure your save data will transfer smoothly to the new and improved system.
RELEASE DATE UPDATE:
Last month we stated a Spring 2019 release was in order for the full game. It looks like we're going to shoot for Summer 2019. There is simply a bit more polish we want to add to the game, and we want to release the full game simultaneously on all platforms, so a tremendous amount of testing needs to be done on each platform to ensure the game works great and plays smoothly. We can confirm our target platforms for the full release are Steam/Windows 10 (PC), XBox One, Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch. A Mac/Linux version may not make it into the initial release, but we're still planning to release on those platforms at some point via Steam.
We are still planning to improve a lot of the game as we continue to port to consoles. We have plans to do a lot of texture improvements, and continued level modifications. The game is in a very stable point in development, but there's still room for polish and we're going to keep at it.
Early Access has, and always will be about improving the game to us. We are very glad to have entered the game into Early Access, as it's improved tremendously over the past year. We thank everyone who has submitted feedback, whether direct, or indirect, we read and watch everything and have done all we possibly can to improve the game to the best of our abilities.
The next update you can likely expect more polish across the board, support for Japanese localization, and the new and improved save system!
If you are enjoying the game, we'd love to see a nice review, but don't feel obligated :) We appreciate criticism, but nothing is more powerful and motivating than positive feedback.
Thank you for your support and interest in The Forbidden Arts. If you have any questions or feedback, please reach out. We will always do our best to respond in a timely manner.
-Sterling & Stingbot Games
Version 0.9.1.0 is Live! Massive Update!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6FfpjYKOhg
We are aiming to release the completed version of the game by Q2, 2019, but a lot of that is dependent on how fast we can port the game to other platforms and pass certification.
Most of our media assets are outdated, so once we are ready to announce our official release date for the completed game, we will release a brand new, high quality video trailer along with new screenshots that reflect the completed version of the game.
Below are the release notes of what’s new in version 0.9.1.0 of The Forbidden Arts. As always, thanks for following along and stay posted for further updates.
Release Notes (Version 0.9.1.0):
Localization:
- Added Localization for French
- Added Localization for German
- Added Localization for Chinese (Simplified)
- Fixed some translations for Spanish
- Fixed some translations for Russian
- Fixed some labels missing translation keys
- Unless a specific language is chosen via the Options menu, the user's default language they use for their operating system will now be used for text within the game, so long as that language is supported.
- Fixed some text in the Character Abilities Menu. The Title and description text will no longer overlap in some languages
AI:
- Improved the AI for the Golden Spider in The Hives
- Bandit will no longer take damage from fireballs when enraged
- Red Bixie's shooting reset time has been reduced and she will now fire projectiles at a faster rate.
- The Frogman High Shaman Boss will now jump back to the throne and reset the battle phase instead of attempting to attack the player again, post-summoning the player
- Fixed a bug in the Aeromancer boss fight where the boss would sometimes not set to proper heights when lowering back to the ground
- Increased the size and modified the Golden Spider's poison spray in the Hives
- When the Harpy dies, her particle projectiles will disable immediately, preventing damage to the player
- Revised/Improved the rage logic AI for the Gnoll in The Abandoned Mines and the Bear in Korrath Woods
- The assassin will no longer take damage when performing his shadow step attack in Korrath Woods
Player:
- Player can no longer jump on top of the Bee while on the world map
- Player will no longer stay crouched when he becomes Dazed if he was in a crouched state prior to becoming dazed
- the player is no longer able to grab a ledge while climbing
- Player can no longer grab onto a ladder when crouching
- Player can no longer change abilities unless specific conditions are met
- Fixed some animation issues related to sliding on slippery surfaces in the Mountains of Orin Ice Caves
- if The player changes to a stunned or dazed state while siphoning fire, the siphon fire particle FX will now properly deactivate and reset
- Player can no longer take damage when the scene is inactive
- Player will no longer attempt to grab onto a ledge that is within 2 meters from the ground
- The player is no longer allowed to collect a chunk of gold while poisoned
- Fixed some animation transitions for the player
- Fixed a bug in the desert challenge level which forced the player to get stuck in climb mode
- Fixed some bugs relating to ground rolling
- Fixed a rare bug related to opening treasure chests that can potentially freeze the player
- Fixed a bug related to grabbing a ladder quickly following siphoning fire
Level Design:
- Added a lot more props to enhance the visuals in The Abandoned Mines and the Mines Challenge Level
- Enhanced lighting and environment particle FX in The Abandoned Mines
- Modified enemy placement in The Abandoned Mines
- Modified the lighting, ambiance and camera effects for the Hives Palace (Enchantress Boss Scene)
- Modified level design and environment effects in the Swamp of Green Mist overworld
- The desert sandstorm FX has been improved in the beginning of the Temple of Spirit level
- Fixed some environment tiles in the Swamp of Green Mist
- Fixed some colliders in the Geomancer boss fight
- Enhanced the lighting and environment effects in the Hydromancer Boss's Lair
- Re-designed the Geomancer's Lair: New lighting, new particle FX, new environment FX
- Added some missing 3d tile meshes to the Hives near the honey river at the end of the scene
- Huge performance boost in the swamp of green mist world map by improved culling techniques and mesh optimizations
- Modified prop placement in Temple of Spirit
- Fixed some colliders in The Abandoned Mines
Audio:
- Modified music for the title screen
- Modified music for The Hives
- Audio will no longer overlap if you skip through dialogue quickly
- Added environment ambiance sound fx to the overworld
- Added some new sound effects to the Hydromancer Boss Fight
UI:
- Fixed some bugs relating to key navigation while navigating menus
- Tons of various UI code updates and improvements
- Fixed some bugs relating to UI navigation with game controllers
MISC:
- Added and modified various character texture maps, including specular, normal, emission and detail maps. - Phoenix, Kodiakk, Geomancer, Hydromancer and Necromancer. We will be modifying the remaining characters throughout the remainder of Early Access. We will also be enhancing various environment textures.
- Fixed some minor detection issues with ps4 controllers
- Adjusted the mini map for all scenes. It now takes up less screen space
- Added a lot more auto save checkpoints throughout the game
- if the player is spamming the continue dialogue button when finishing a conversation, the dialogue will no longer attempt to re-initialize
- Hitting the switch in the Desert Challenge level will now disable player movement until the sequence is complete
- Removed the death trigger from the stalactites in the Geomancer boss fight
- If you pause the game shortly after a scene loads, the screen will no longer remain faded
- Enhanced the particle FX on the Hydromancer Boss Fight
- Updated achievement logic
- Continue Dialogue button can now be clicked if using keyboard controls
- Game can no longer be paused when exiting a scene
- Fixed some issues with saving gold on the world map
- Tweaked the lighting on the title screen
- Various minor bug fixes
Version 0.9.0.0 is Live! Localization and tons more!
- We added localizations for Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Hungarian and Korean. You can change the language in the Options menu at any time.
If you notice any translations that don't look right please inform us so we can correct them.
Besides localization we've polished up tons of other aspects of the game, and increased game performance across the board:
- Graphics Optimizations to improve frame rates
- Added a lot more props to enhance the visuals in the Abandoned Mines (This is very time consuming and an ongoing process. We are not remotely done with this, so expect to see more soon, as well as other scenes)
- Added an option in the Video Options menu to disable post processing effects to improve performance on low-end hardware
- Post processing optimizations were made to improve overall game performance
- Added animated grass and revised level design in Black Fang Pass overworld
- Tweaked some colliders in the Temple of Spirit
- Player can no longer attack in the air more than once per jump
- Adjusted camera viewing distance in parts of The Hives and Mountains of Orin
- Improved some animation blending for the Geomancer
- Collision issues when the player dies has been fixed
- When an enemy takes damage, their attack reset timer has been sped up so the enemy will attempt to attack the player much faster than before
- When the Gnoll performs his special attack, he will now be invulnerable to fireballs
- Modified AI for the Bear in Korrath Woods
- Adjusted enemy placement in Korrath Woods
- Minor bug fixes
Throughout version 0.9.x you can expect to see more language support for the game, as well as lots of revisions and improvements on all aspects of the game from visual to audio to gameplay. We're not going to be done until we're fully satisfied.
We hope to finish the game by the end of 2018, but the game will not be fully released until several months later as we want to simultaneously release on all platforms we are targeting. More info on this to come next month.
Unless any game-breaking bugs are reported we will not upload another version of the game until December.
Thank you for following along, and stay posted for more updates!
Version 0.8.2 is live!
Version 0.9+ will include a lot of final polish and we will integrate localizations into the game. We have currently translated the text into Russian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Korean and Hungarian. We may translate into more languages prior to the full launch. If you want to see the game in your preferred language, please let us know and we will take it into account and do our best to meet demand.
The game will remain in version 0.9+ for quite a few months as we finish things up. We feel there is still a bit of polish to add to the game and we will keep tweaking it until we are satisfied. We want to release the game! But we've come this far and it has to be as perfect as we can get it!
We also have lots of great announcements to make in the future, so stay posted for lots of great news!
Here is what's been changed/improved on in version 0.8.2:
- Improved AI for the Gnoll (New Special Attack)
- Fireballs will no longer be able to penetrate the Gnoll Shaman's force field when the forcefield is active
- Improved AI for the Bixies
- Improved AI for the Yeti
- New voiceover for the fire spirit
- Revised intro cutscene
- Improved anti aliasing. Fixed bleeding from post processing effects.
- Improved environment effects and added new visual enhancements to the Enchantress Boss Fight
- Various minor Bug fixes and improvements
Thanks for following along as we continue development. There's lots of great things to come!
Version 0.8.1 is live! New animation system + more
https://youtu.be/2QJMHQ42Ajc
Here's a full list of what's new in version 0.8.1 of The Forbidden Arts:
- Major overhaul of the player animation system. The new system offers much smoother animation blending and responsiveness. We now use two different animation controllers, depending on whether the player is in 2d mode or 3d mode. Both animation controllers have been improved dramatically. 2d mode has much better blending and instant reactions to certain functions like jumping. 3d mode now blends walking and running and we've adjusted the character's velocity to match the animation speed to give a bit more polish.
- Improved player's weapon collision detection. The collision points are now much more accurate
- Improved the enemy AI for the Bandit in Temple of Spirit - improved overall behaviour and added a new parry/counter attack when low health
- Improved the enemy AI for the Male Assassin in Korrath Woods. He now shadow steps into a more charging type of attack, and enters a shadow mode that renders him invulnerable during the brief period of time that he charge attacks
- Fixed some collision issues in Challenge Level 2
- Player's Spirit will now perform front flips during the long jumps in challenge level 2
- Added more enemies to Korrath Woods
- Adjusted enemy knockback settings to improve collision detection
- Improved ground rolling
- Various camera improvements
- Various Minor Bug Fixes and misc improvements
Thanks for following along, and stay posted for more updates!
Version 0.8 is Live! MUST READ!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgOFt-Ojuss
Also, check out our new promotional art if you haven't seen it yet:
Below is a list of what's new in Version 0.8:
- Dungeon mini maps are now active in the game. You can toggle the mini map on/off by pressing "M" on the keyboard or, if you use a gamepad, pause the game and you can toggle it on/off from the pause menu. By default the mini map is on, but if you toggle it off the game will save knowing you last turned it off).
(Please note we did not and will not be creating mini maps for the overworld or spirit challenge levels, only the main levels (dungeons)).
- Camera now zooms in/out smoothly, as opposed to snapping to varying distances
- When taking damage, enemies will now be knocked back slightly, relative to the direction they got hit
- Added visual effects when the player's daggers collide and damage an enemy
- Improved collision detection when jumping
- Improved collision detection for ledge hanging
- Modified some colliders in Korrath Woods, Abandoned Mines, Mountains of Orin and Challenge Level 1
- Updated gamepad plugin
The remainder of version 0.8 will include tweaking/improving the player's animation system, improving the AI a little more, adding some overall polish in various areas of the game, and preparing to integrate localizations for version 0.9.
So far we have localized the text into Russian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Korean and Hungarian. The localization is not yet in the game, we've simply translated all the text. We may or may not localize into more languages. We have yet to decide and will need to assess demand.
Thank you for following along as we continue development of the game and we welcome feedback as always.
Version 0.7.4.0 is Live! The last of version 0.7.x!
Things are really shaping up and we have tons of things in the works, including new, higher quality promotional art to prepare for the final release, new screenshots to come of the Underworld, the coolest and most beautiful area of the game, and some new professional quality video trailers for the full release of the game. We never spent much time or money on creating great trailers for Early Access as budget was of concern, but we assure you we have big plans for the full release. We are taking no shortcuts, so be sure to follow along as we get closer and closer to the full release of The Forbidden Arts in early 2019.
Completing version 0.7.x of the game has been a massive amount of work but we've completed it and here's what's been improved/changed in version 0.7.4.0:
- Your last used ability will now be saved as the active ability when loading a save game. It will no longer default to the fireball if another ability was previously in use
- Improved AI player detection
- AI for the bandit in Temple of Spirit has been improved. New strike attack
- Assassin will now seek out player in Korrath Woods
- After assassin strikes the player she will now attempt to jump back and prepare her next move, instead of idling in front of the player
- Modified level collision for Korrath Woods, Abandonded Mines, The Hives, Mountains of Orin, Pools of Murk and Temple of Spirit to prepare for dungeon map integration
- Fixed a bug related to overwriting save files which would cause the UI to improperly update
- Various minor improvements and bug fixes
Thanks for all the feedback. We greatly appreciate it. Your feedback helps the game get better and better and we can't thank you enough, whether you suggested something small, or helped fix some bugs, or recorded some video on Twitch or Youtube. It all helps and we listen/watch/respond to everything and work hard to make adjustments to improve the game while staying true to our vision.
Version 0.7.3.0 is live!
Before we get into what's been changed/improved in this version, here's a bit of what's coming:
1. We've begun work on dungeon maps
2. We have finalized text for localization, so that will begin next month.
3. Our animator is working on creating animations for the final cutscenes of the game
4. The final boss fight is being coded and it's chaos! We want to go out with a bang!
Here's what's new in version 0.7.3.0:
- You can now switch between full screen and windowed display modes via the Video Options menu
- Improved the visibility of the HUD Text when using keyboard controls by increasing the size by 70%
- Increased mouse sensitivity on world map to allow smoother camera rotation
- Hearts will no longer drop when player is full health
- Hearts will now always drop from an enemy if you were poisoned by that enemy
- Modified level design in challenge level 1
- Modified level design in challenge level 6
- Modified level design in Swamp of Green Mist
- Modified level design in Mountains of Orin
- Modified level design in The Hives
- Modified level design in Palace of the Hives (Enchantress Boss)
- Modified level design in the Abandoned Mines
- Adjusted mechanics of Aeromancer boss fight
- Updated game progression tracker in save management
- Adjusted pushing mechanics to fix some jittery issues
- Modified the particle effects for the Roots of Fire (Super Jump) ability
- Modified the particle effects for the Griffin Shriek in Korrath Woods
- Various bug fixes
If the update isn't showing in Steam just yet, just be patient while Steam updates.
Thanks for the feedback and following along as we continue development. Stay posted for more updates!
Version 0.7.2.0 is Live!
Another big update for The Forbidden Arts has arrived! The game just keeps getting more and more polished and we're right on track for our Early 2019 full release!
Lots of work has gone into this update and I want to thank user Darkmikasonfire for all the amazing feedback as well as Green Man Gaming for the video they broadcast last week, in which they played 3 hours of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD0v6AHeWn4
It's always great seeing other people play because they mention things and find bugs and or things that could use improvements, and if you don't know by now, we really try very hard to pick up on these things. We've made tons of improvements and will continue to do so until we are done with the game. Here's what's new in version 0.7.2.0:
- Completely redesigned the Black Fang Pass world map (3rd complete overhaul and it's the final one now we promise. 3rd time's the charm! :))
- Player's movement speed has been decreased by 70% when melee attacking while on the ground
- Modified level design in Green Vale
- Modified level design in The Abandoned Mines
- Modified level design in The Hives
- Modified level design in Mountains of Orin
- Modified level design in Pools of Murk
- Modified level design in Temple of Spirit
- Improved mechanics of Geomancer Boss Fight
- Improved enemy AI for the snake in Temple of Spirit
- Improved enemy AI for the bandits in Temple of Spirit
- Fixed a bug related to collecting gold in the temple of spirit. It will now correctly update when player is in a dark zone
- Fixed a bug where player would remain dazed permanantely if he was stunned prior to becoming dazed.
- Fixed some bugs in the Chiromancer boss fight
- Improved overall game performance by refactoring a lot of the AI code
- Improved the save system to allow auto-saving more often
- Changing quality settings in the game will now require a restart of the game to avoid any potential shader issues.
- Various minor bug fixes
Thanks for your support and as always, we greatly appreciate feedback.
Version 0.7.1.0 is live! Check out what's new!
Besides modifying this world map we've been hard at work on lots more. Here's what else has been changed/improved in version 0.7.1.0:
- Modified the background story cutscene
- Fixed/Improved some AI
- Fixed some death trigger colliders in Temple of Spirit
- Various Bug Fixes
Check out the updated story trailer below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y27S6BQWpTg
**Known Issue: Changing quality settings in the video options menu during gameplay can have weird effects on various shaders in the game with some video cards. Restarting the game will fix this. We are working on a permanent fix and will implement it in a future build.**
Stay posted for more updates and thanks for playing The Forbidden Arts.