- 3 new achievements. Check their description to see what they unlock! - 1 new character - 1 new weapon evolution - 1 new passive weapon and relative PowerUp - Saves backup system - new music track for Green Acres:
[previewyoutube="2Tdl2Ze4DpA;full"]
- Tweak: Heaven Sword takes longer to despawn - Tweak: every level in Crown gives +8% experience now - Bugfix: game crashing on picking up multiple chests at the same time - tentative fix for people having high CPU usage or stuck on an empty screen when launching the game
Mac version
The Mac version is out now!
Saves backup system
Backups are automatic, if you ever lose your data, it's probably due to the game engine not shutting down completely or to a rogue file in the save folder. Please try to: - Go to %USERPROFILE%/AppData/Roaming and if there is a file without extension called "Vampire_Survivors", delete it. - Restart your machine to make sure the game is shut down completely, then launch it again, go to Options, finally click "Restore Backup" and "Confirm"
This is a temporary workaround while we try to fix the root cause of the problem.
Issues with launching the game
For people experiencing black or white screens immediately after launching the game, please follow this thread as someone is managing to get through: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1794680/discussions/1/3195868146172344437/
Work on the new engine is going smoothly, still too soon to be able to say for sure when we can do the swap and forget about this kind of rendering issues, but in the meantime I'm still trying to find some workarounds. Please also keep an eye on the launch options for the game, the new option to "Launch with Steam Overlay enabled" also solved the issues for a few players, so new experimental options might be added soon.
What's next
Other than saves backup, there hasn't been much time for QOL this week, so hopefully we'll see some new tweaks in the next one. Stage 3 is in development, with a new layout, enemies, and a new minor game mechanic.
Localisation
Chinese, French, German, Japanes, Korean, and Spanish translations are currently available on the public-beta branch. They need some tweaking but should be good to go soon. Coming later this month Russian, Italian, Portuguese, and possibly more.
Linux version
Still having some trouble with the native version, should hopefully need just a couple more days, but I said the same thing last week so... 🤞🏻
Community
Please welcome Slothie who joined the part-time team as Community Manager! With more than 11K users on Discord and a new peak of 53k concurrent players we really needed the extra help. @everyone thank you once again for your incredible support🙏🏻
Patch 0.2.10 and news
New Content:
- 3 new achievements. Check their description to see what they unlock. - 2 new characters, Dommario and Suor Clerici. - 1 new special, challenge stage that is just like the classic Mad Forest, but has no new enemies nor layout. Comes with a minor new feature that will expand with every new future stage. Enter/exit a run if you've already satisfied the requirements to unlock it. - rework of the Mad Forest layout in preparation of a future feature - new "streamer friendly" soundtrack for the Inlaid Library stage - option to play the old sountrack by disabling "Streamer Safe Music" from the Options menu (affects the Library Stage only for now) - new animations for mudmen, mummies, ghost witches, and Library bosses
[previewyoutube="mGABLSOMtok;full"]
- Bugfix/workaround: the game shouldn't crash anymore on triggering texture errors when "pausing while leveling up" or similar situation - Tweak: minor increase to the chance that killing an enemy with Soul Eater will spawn a little heart - Tweak: minor increase to Pentagram's base chance to not delete items - Tweak: "Refund Powerup" buttons is at the top of the PowerUp Selection screen. Use it often to try new upgrade paths! - Tweak: reduced volume of the infamous "Treasure Found" sound - Added epilepsy warning on launching the game - Made it easier to do certain inputs on the main screen
What's next
Other than the obvious new evolutions and missing base characters, in February we'll be getting Stage 3, that will also unlock a new minor game mechanic, that will in turn give the ability to recruit new, special characters.
Localisation
We couldn't get the translations on time for this patch, so we'll be releasing a new patch during the week, as soon as we get them and after doing QA. New languages will be Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German, French, and Spanish. More languages will be added in February, including Italian, even if I personally really thinky is a bit redundante
QOL improvements
We couldn't wrap up with QOL improvements in January, so things like key rebinding, chicken/money bag lock, smooth out input after leveling up etc. will be added over the next few patches
Mac and Linux builds
They're currently being QAd, so please expect them to drop sometime soon!
Steam Deck
Yes ✔
Mobile version
The mobile version of the game launched as a test in a couple of regions in May 2021, and it ran terribly, so development switched back to PC. We're running a parallel project to move the game to an engine that will allow for a good mobile version. While waiting for the new mobile version, I suggest to try Magic Survival on Android, the game that inspired the original prototype of Vampire Survivors and that was also made by a solo dev.
Engine issues
Old news but have to be repeated unfortunately, as there are still rendering issues on certain hardware, regardless of how powerful it is, that don't let some people play the Steam version. While the best bet is to wait for the new version made in a different engine, we're still experimenting with newer version of Electron/Chromium to see if they have better compatibility. Other issues about save files getting held hostage by game processes not halting completely are being addressed and will probably get fixed by writing a custom save/load system.
Community
A huge thank you once again to the incredible community: between discord bots, fan sites, community leaderboards, and 45k concurrent players, this keeps going way, way beyond expectations and I think that the best way to express my thanks is to keep delivering on the Early Access promises 🙏🏻
35th Anniversary Patch
New content in patch 0.2.9
- the NFT (for those out of the loop, it's a joke, please read below) - Garlic evolution - 1 new "evolution" - 2 new achievements for finding the above two
- Graphics: idle animation for headless skeletons, ectoplasms, giant bats, medusa heads - Tweak: capped Garlic's maximum knocback debuff for bosses - Bugfix: projectiles should now despawn correctly (fixes pauses in Thousand Edge) - Bugfix: gems sometimes not merging if the player stands still for a long time - Bugfix: Inlaid Library boss collision box fixed
What's next
Next week will be focused on bug fixing and having a major review of all the recent feedback and suggestions about quality of life features. Localisation in 5 languages is almost done, key rebinding and a review of the input system to address issues like the interruptions when leveling up is on the way. We're aiming for Mac and Linux builds by the end of the month too. An engine-port project is running in parallel with the development of the current Steam version of the game, so to ease porting to other platforms and ensuring maximum compatibility with the Steam Deck.
The NFT
In commemoration of the 35th (day) anniversary of the Vampire Survivors release on Steam, we decided to jump on the hottest trends in gaming and release our own NFT.
From game patch 0.2.9, the Nduja Fritta Tanto can randomly drop from candles/braziers to add 10 spicy seconds to your runs. Terrible pun, great item. We're against nft practices if that wasn't clear.
Rendering issues at startup and during Treasures or Level Up
We've made some progress on finding a workaround for these blockers, and while we might not be able to get rid of them altogether until the port to the new engine is done, next week we should be able to start testing some of these workarounds in the public-beta branch.
Community
A huge thank you once again to the outstanding community, today we've hit a new peak of more than 10.000 concurrent players! Thank you also for being patient about bug fixes and missing features, we're working as fast as possible to keep up with the sudden growth 🙏🏻
- QOL: Steam Cloud Saves - QOL: Volume sliders - QOL: after unlocking a couple of characters, a stats panel becomes visible on the character selection screen - QOL: after unlocking a handful of weapons, current stats and weapon levels will be displayed when leveling up and on the pause screen
- Tweak: Garlic hits reduce knockback and freeze resistance - Tweak: Orologion doesn't prevent enemies from spawning anymore - Tweak: increased birds's level up area bonus - Bugfix: Axes won't despawn anymore if sent too high - Bugfix: unlocks from Achievements are reactivated on launching the game - Bugfix: corrected movemenet of a few projectiles to be independent from frame rate. They used to go insanely fast if the game was running above 60fps - Bugfix: corrected Garlic description: ignores amount, duration, speed - Added additional logs for people experiencing crashes, can be found in %APPDATA%\Vampire_Survivors\logs
What's next
While January is still about QOL improvements like localisation, key re-binding, Mac/Linux builds, etc, next week we'll be getting a few more bits of content too.
[previewyoutube="3Q807FEkajY;leftthumb"]
Rendering issues at startup and during Treasures
The Steam version of the game is built using Electron and Chromium, that might have rendering issues on certain hardware, regardless of how powerful it is. This could lead to black screens, heavy slowdowns when the there are a lot of semi-transparent pixels on screen, and high CPU usage. We don't have direct control over those issues, so we're currently looking for short terms workarounds, but also starting a parallel rework, in a different engine, for the long term.
Community
The Discord server just reached 1000 members, the all-time concurrent players peak is above 6000 and the positive reviews are well beyond 2000 at the time of writing: once again, a huge thank you to everyone for the incredible feedback 🙏🏻
