Hello, adventurers! Today's patch brings with it a couple of new things that we think greatly improve the smoothness of the gameplay and make boss encounters more rewarding. Of course, there's also a handful of other polish and bug fixes included, as well. Read on for more details!
Rings!
Arguably the least satisfying element of the game so far, in our opinion, has been that defeating bosses only unlocked progression without giving you a proper reward for your heroism. Rings are how we remedy that. Now, bosses not only guard the path you're on, but also precious gems! When combined with a ring band, these gems can be used to create rings that grant passive buffs when worn.
Each gem has a particular facet of the game that it can augment. One gem might affect how stealth works, another what your luck is like when mining or opening chests, while another might determine how your arrows behave and so on. Depending on whether you combine the gem with a gold or iron ring band (both of which can be purchased from the shop), the ring will grant you a different buff related to that facet of the game. So basically, these rings give you another option in how you want to play the game by allowing you to choose an upgrade that suits your playstyle best.
You can wear up to 4 rings at a time--2 per hand. By the end of the game you'll have more than you can wear at once, so you'll be able to either sell the ones you find least useful, or swap them out on the fly where beneficial.
Quick Slot Belt!
Something we've been meaning to get added to the game for quite a while is a quick slot belt. While consumables such as potions don't really play a major role in the game at the moment, nor are they intended to, we still feel like it's necessary to allow you access to a couple of things without having to pull out your backpack each time. We imagine most people will use the new belt, which provides you with 2 storage slots that are always accessible, to store their pickaxes, but you can keep whatever you like in there. Additionally, the belt has a status medallion on it so your health/mana is never more than a quick glance away.
To see these new additions in action, you can check out our latest devlog below!
[previewyoutube="WJcZcy_iKLE;full"]
Full Patch Notes
Additions and Improvements
Added rings to the game--a new type of craftable equipment that provides a buff when equipped.
Added a quick slot belt for easy access to pickaxes and consumables.
Changed the lighting in the Spider Queen fight to create a more menacing atmosphere.
Cleaned up some of the navigation in the Spider Queen boss arena.
Added some gold ore around those Shrines of the Eternal Flame that require backtracking to provide a greater reward for your time.
Added a haptic effect when activating Shrines of the Eternal Flame.
Tweaked the haptics when interacting with your inventory to be a bit cleaner/more predictable.
Better optimized the Serafin Palace area.
Better optimized the final boss arena of chapter 1.
Increased the time window for casting Kinetic Thrust/Sanctuary slightly to give you just a little more time to release the trigger.
You can no longer "quick store" swords/scepters while in combat as too many people were doing it by mistake midswing, and there's really never going to be a time where you would conceivably want to do that in the middle of a fight.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that could cause tiles placed in the main gate guarding the Serafin Palace to disappear if you backtracked to the swamp without first saving your progress. Additionally, if this already happened to you, the game will now correct itself when you load into the scene by placing those missing tiles in your backpack.
Updated the Spider Queen so that she can't be made to remain perched on her platform.
Fixed a bug that would load you in at the entrance of the Stormy Swamp when returning from the Serafin Castle, rather than at the exit as expected.
Fixed a bug where you could force your way into the Shrine of the Eternal Flame in the maze in the depths without having first learned flame wave, effectively trapping yourself there.
Corrected the sizing of the particle effect that would spawn on the Reaper of Souls when an enemy is slain.
Removed an unintended behavior from the Seraf fight that would allow you to bypass a section of the encounter much more safely than intended.
Fixed an issue in the tutorial map that would allow you to teleport through an invisible wall into an area of the map meant to be off limits.
That's all for today, everyone! As always, we invite and encourage you to join the game's discord to share your feedback on the game and help us shape development going forward. We appreciate all the community feedback we've received so far as it's really made a difference in how the game plays and feels. You guys are awesome!
Until the next one--happy adventuring, everyone!
New Upgrade and Improved Menu Interface! (Devlog Inside)
Hello, everyone! Today's patch is a very exciting one for me as it addresses some things that we've felt were missing from the game for quite some time but weren't considered high enough importance to prioritize them over the release of chapter 2. It also brings with it some balance changes and other quality of life improvements.
One of the main drawbacks of the game in our eyes has been the one and done nature of the areas as you travel through them and we've recently decided on a way to address this:
Introducing Shrines of the Eternal Flame! Constructed by the Order of the Eternal Flame, these shrines are located throughout the world as places where the most devout could come to worship. Lighting the candles at these shrines will grant you a permanent bonus to the potency of your destruction spells!
You'll encounter these shrines throughout your journey, but they won't always be accessible when you first find them. From time to time, you'll need to learn a new ability in order to traverse the path that leads to them. This isn't meant to be something overly tedious, so don't expect to have to make hour long treks returning to them, but do keep your eyes peeled for some that you may want to return to later. These shrines will provide you with a very worthwhile incentive to backtrack and an opportunity to discover hidden treasures you may have missed your first time through. In a future patch we'll also be changing up the enemies that you encounter when backtracking--after all, the world is being invaded...there should be invaders!
The second major improvement to the game is an overhaul of the options menu. Up until now the main menu has been relegated to a means of adjusting settings(if you could find them all) with no means of tracking your progress. That changes today! This update adds 3 new pages to the menu book. You can now keep track of your stats and perk bonuses on the main character sheet, see recent developments in your adventure on the journey summary page, and perhaps most useful, you can now reference a list of the Serafin spells you've learned to learn more about them and find casting instructions for those you may have forgotten. Beyond that, we've also added tabs to the sides of the book to make navigating between these different pages a bit easier and more noticeable.
Full patch notes:
Additions and Improvements
Added Shrines of the Eternal Flame to the game as a means of increasing the potency of your destructive magic and encouraging exploration.
Added a character sheet to the menu book where you can view your current stats and perk bonuses.
Added a journey summary page to the menu book where you can view recent developments pertaining to your adventure.
Added a spell sheet to the menu book where you can view information regarding the spells you've learned on your adventure and how to cast them.
Improved the means of navigating the menu book with tabs.
Remade the burning effect on enemies to both look better and be more performant.
Arrows are now properly armor piercing, so no more damage mitigation from enemy helmets and the like.
Tweaked the way your body collides with the environment to make it less likely that you'll be able to push your face into meshes and see through them in some areas.
Tweaked the way mined ore spawns so that it should never spawn inside a mesh where you might not see it.
Bug Fixes
Corrected an issue that would cause the projectile at the Sanctuary altar to sometimes disappear if it hit your hand.
Fixed a bug that prevented torches from glowing properly when targeted with kinesis.
Corrected a potential exploit that would allow you to bypass the main gate in the Serafin Castle courtyard.
See this stuff in more detail in our latest devlog! [previewyoutube="XwtY1mpJliQ;full"]
That's all for this patch! As always, we invite everyone who'd like to share their feedback and help us improve the game to our discord. The next update will be just as exciting, and we can't wait to show you guys what we have planned! And, of course, chapter 3 is being worked on alongside these improvements. Until next time, happy adventuring!
New save management and balance changes.
Hello, everyone! Today's patch brings some long needed upgrades to the save management system and the Kinetic Thrust spell in particular, but also some other quality of life improvements and bug fixes that help improve the game overall. Full notes below!
Improvements and Changes
Reworked the save management UI to require confirmation when deleting save files as well as show a screenshot of your current checkpoint to better distinguish your different save files from each other. Current saves will show general screenshots for the scene you're in, but any from this patch onward will be appropriate to your current checkpoint.
If an enemy is not immediately knocked down by a Kinetic Thrust, they will now be put into an off-balance state for a short duration. While off-balance, enemies take double damage and have a chance to be knocked down by incoming damage (critical incoming damage has a much higher chance to knock them down, as well).
Similarly to off-balance enemies, enemies attacked from behind or while not alerted to the player's presence have the same chance to be knocked down by incoming damage.
Reworked the ballistae throughout the Serafin Castle. Making minor adjustments to their aim is now much more responsive.
Both the Vampire boss and King Seraf can now be ignited by sources of fire damage for additional damage over time.
Gave a facelift to the Life Fruit tree area outside the Serafin Castle.
Added a sign post to the entrance of the Forbidden Mine that better directs players as to where to go once the water has been drained, as well as clues the player in a bit more to the lore of the environment.
Changed the wording on the Firewave altar plaque to be clearer in regards to the player's need to collect quest items to solve it.
Additional optimization throughout the game, most notably on the left side of the Serafin Castle Courtyard.
Improved some of the enemy pathfinding in the Serafin Palace.
Bug Fixes and Corrections
Fixed a bug that would sometimes allow you to overlap cogs when placing them onto the pegs of the water wheel device after the troll boss.
Corrected an issue with the ballistae in the Serafin Castle occasionally shooting through solid objects, and in the case of one of them, resetting the placement of the permanent bolts prematurely.
Corrected some particle and audio effects in the Vampire fight that were ending prematurely.
Added missing collision to the banisters in the Serafin Palace Library.
Fixed some missing or flawed collision throughout the first two chapters.
Cleaned up some incorrectly configured normal maps.
That's it for this patch. More coming soon as we continue to work through our current roadmap and develop chapter 3. As always, we invite you to join us in the game's discord to share your thoughts and feedback in helping us make the game the best it can be. Happy adventuring, everyone!
Our Current Roadmap
Hello, adventurers! As you know, we recently released chapter 2 of the game as a major free content update and we've been getting great feedback from you guys, for which we're super appreciative. There's still plenty more to come, though, with 2 more chapters before the game is considered content complete. While we're currently in the planning stages of Chapter 3 (and REALLY excited about what we've got planned) there are a few other things we've been holding off on implementing as chapter 2 was considered the priority. Rather than just work in silence, we wanted to let you all know what we've got planned moving forward and what you can expect as your adventures continue. Below you'll find a list of improvements and additions that we're working on to improve the game and add more variety and meaningful gameplay. Bug fixes and polish are still priority, though, so if you find anything that seems out of sorts or game breaking, please let us know on the forums or in our discord. Thanks!
Planned Improvements
A rework of the save management interface. This is pretty long overdue and will include such changes as screenshots for each save profile that will indicate where in the game you last saved as well as a much needed confirmation prompt when deleting saves.
An improved menu book that will not only allow access to settings, but provide detailed character information like current health and mana values, as well as what perks you have unlocked and references to the different spells you have available and their gestures.
Planned Additions
A belt with item/consumable quick slots that doubles as a health/mana gauge. (Finally, a way to grab your pickaxe without having to go into your bag every time!)
Adding drops to bosses that can be used to craft special items. (This is the thing we're most excited about!)
Unlocking Ultimate Perks!
New consumables.
Chapter 3 Content (New areas, enemies, puzzles, etc.)
We'll be going into much more detail about each of these things with devlogs in the near future. Chapter 3 will of course get the most coverage, but that's much further out than most of the things on this list which are more likely to be delivered within weeks rather than months.
We'd also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's purchased the game, told their friends about it and provided us with feedback. We know that early access can often seem like a gamble, and we appreciate you coming on this journey with us. We want you to know how committed we are to making Vengeful Rites the best game it can be and delivering an experience that we're proud of and you can all enjoy and remember. As always, we invite everyone to join our discord to share your thoughts and feedback. Happy adventuring!
Chapter 2: Into the Fire is now live!
[previewyoutube="7oOb-n-ufzM;full"] Hello, everyone! Today is an exciting day for us as we move Chapter 2: Into the Fire from the test branch over to the main branch! This new chapter doubles the content of the game and marks the first use of quest items and a handful of new interactions while adding more difficult enemies and a more open feeling environment that lets you choose the order in which you tackle the various challenges that await you. We can't wait for you all to get in there and experience what we've been working on for the past several months and we hope you're as excited as we are!
Your adventure now takes you through the Stormy Swamp and deep into Serafin Castle, where your order of magical monster slayers originated. Don't expect a warm welcome home, however, as the war with the Order of the Eternal Flame has left the castle in ruins and the brotherhood completely wiped out. Undead skeletons, wraiths, goblins, traps and more await you as you delve into the recesses of this ancient stronghold to uncover its secrets and avenge your fallen order in your quest to find and defeat Dragore. New abilities, ancient treasures and fearsome enemies await you on your journey. Do you have what it takes to defeat those who would stand in the way of your vengeance?
The Steam page has been updated with new screenshots and a new trailer for you to check out and we've got some patch notes below with all the changes and improvements that carry over from chapter 1. This patch has been in the works for quite some time and we're thrilled to finally be getting it into the hands of you, the players. Enjoy, and as always, we look forward to your feedback and help improving the game going forward!
Full Patch Notes:
New Content
Added a second chapter to the game that adds an average of 3-4 hours of content with new enemies, spells, weapons, collectibles, bosses, puzzles and more!
Changes and Improvements
Upon death or returning to checkpoint you'll now always respawn with at least 12 arrows in your quiver if you have a bow.
Enemy weapons will no longer block your arrows.
Your arrows will no longer collide with and embed themselves in enemy arrows.
Changed the way arrows are detected when nocking one to your bow. Removed the jank so it will always catch now no matter when you squeeze the trigger.
Increased player movement speed by 33% when using sliding locomotion.
Improved enemy pathfinding a bit.
Enemies chasing you are now smart enough to destroy breakable obstacles in their paths.
Sticking your head into ladders and other climbable surfaces will no longer trigger the "head inside something" warning message.
Reduced the mana cost of the Sanctuary spell from 60 to 40.
Reduced the mana cost of the Kinetic Thrust spell from 60 to 40.
Reduced the likelihood that an enemy hit with Kinetic Thrust would be knocked down from 50% to 20%.
Knocked down enemies will now die to any damage taken instead of taking 300% damage.
Enemies will now take double damage if attacked from behind whether they've detected you or not.
Chests of gold will now vary in value between 150 and 250 gold instead of always having a set 200 gold in them.
Reduced the effect of the mana reduction perk from 10/30/50% to 10/20/35%.
Replaced some textures and effects throughout the game.
Optimized the fireball explosion effects to have less of an impact on performance when spammed.
Bug Fixes:
Spell Altar Statues now have collision.
Reduced the likelihood that enemy arrows would sometimes pass through solid objects.
Moved some gold ore nodes that were placed too far into walls and would sometimes spawn some gold inside those walls.
Fixed a bug that would sometimes have the Sanctuary spell altar projectile fizzle when striking your shield/hand.
You'll no longer feel earthquakes in the Forbidden Mine while selecting perks.
Fixed a bug that would sometimes allow you to activate a mana vein again after having already received the upgrade.
Entering a cutscene will now correctly end any magic held in your hands and close the spell discipline menu.
Fixed a bug that would sometimes prevent enemies from reacting to a Kinetic Thrust while chasing you.
Fixed an issue that would cause enemies in the tutorial area to sometimes end a strafe by going waist deep into the ground.
That's gonna do it for this patch, everyone! Your feedback is super important to us so please feel free to post on the forums here or join our discord if you have suggestions and feedback to share! Happy adventuring, everyone!
Chapter 2: Into The Fire releasing September 27th!
Prepare thyself, adventurer! The Serafin Castle, located in the dreary Stormy Swamp is no place for the faint of heart! Undead skeletons, fiery wraiths, goblins, traps, dragons and more await thee on thy journey!
Nothing has been the same since the Order of the Eternal Flame decimated these lands. The dead rise from their shallow graves to walk again, and more, to fight!
But you, so skilled in the ways of magic...certainly you can overcome the undead blight that taints this place.
And of course, when all else fails...one can always fight fire with FIRE!
Hello, everyone! We're so excited today to announce the release of Chapter 2: Into The Fire! This chapter has been in development for some time now and we can't wait to get it into everyone's hands! With this free content update, the length of the game is doubled (in fact, slightly more than doubled) bringing the average play time up to 8+ hours.
The chapter is full of new challenging enemies to fight, new spells, new upgrades and loads of hidden treasure--including a recipe for a powerful new sword. The whole area is more open and free flowing than what you've experienced in Chapter 1 and the puzzles and bosses are more challenging than ever! You'll need to be quick, clever and resourceful to overcome the challenges that lie in wait, adventurer. We can't wait for you to continue your adventure as we continue ours! Chapter 2: Into The Fire releases September 27th! Mark your calendars!
Chapter 2 now on the test branch!
Hello, everyone!
We've just updated the test branch of the game with the entirety of chapter 2! This new content effectively doubles the size of the current game.
This test version is not fully optimized yet and is still using some placeholder textures/effects and missing a lot of the furniture/props which will be added over the coming week, but should be playable from beginning to end. If you'd like to help us out by testing the game, we'd greatly appreciate it! To opt in to the test branch, right click the game in your Steam library and go to properties -> betas and select "test" from the dropdown.
Things we're especially interested in:
• Places that are accessible/inaccessible depending on your locomotion settings. i.e. You can't teleport somewhere that you can walk, or vice versa.
• Places you can get out of the map/force your way through collision, especially if you can't get back without returning to checkpoint.
• Anything that prevents you from progressing. Is something too obscure, or have you done something you believe to be the correct way, but the expected outcome isn't happening?
• High points and low points: What do you like most about the new content? What rubs you the wrong way?
Other than that, general insight and especially bugs are very useful to us.
P.S. Your existing save should work fine with the game, but we suggest you back it up to be safe. You can find your save files in
Steam apparently won't let me post directory locations without removing the backslashes, so replace each dash there with a backslash.
We've also uploaded a save file you can use if you don't have one up to chapter 2 or would rather not chance any unforeseen issues with your existing save file. You can download it on our discord, which is the best place to submit your feedback, as well.
Thanks for all your help in getting this patch finalized for release! We hope you all enjoy the adventure as much as we're enjoying creating it!
New Devlog: Chapter 2 Dungeon Reveal
Hello, everyone!
It's been a little over a month since we posted anything here and we don't typically like going that long without keeping everyone informed about the goings on of development. Typically we'd have patched the game a couple of times by now, but our primary focus has been on developing chapter 2, which obviously isn't released yet. So, in an effort to keep everyone in the loop, we've released a new devlog that shows some of what we've been working on. The new dungeon has a completely different feel to it than the Forbidden Mine of chapter 1 and we're really happy with how it's shaping up. You can see my rambling introduction to the next dungeon in the video below!
As always, we'd like to invite you to join our discord to get involved with development and share your feedback.
If you'd like to help support development beyond purchasing the game, you can do so at our GoFundMe: Link in the video description.
Happy adventuring!
Testing Oculus SDK support!
Hey, everyone! We've been working on getting the game to run on the Oculus SDK and we just published a test build that runs on it. If you'd like to try it out and help us fine tune any issues that we might have missed, you can opt-in to the Oculus version by right clicking the game in your Steam library and going to the properties window, then selecting the Oculus SDK from the drop-down menu in the betas tab. This version doesn't use SteamVR at all, so you'll need an Oculus device to play (only tested on the Rift so far). This version also has the swamp area from chapter 2 included.
Some changes of note:
The controls have changed a bit to better take advantage of the face buttons on the Touch controllers. These are mentioned in the tutorial tooltips, but the narration audio hasn't changed to match yet.
The spell selection window is opened with the A/X buttons, not the grip.
Similarly, placing items in your backpack when wearing it has also been moved from the grip to the A/X buttons.
Teleporting is now done by pushing the analog stick forward and then releasing, instead of pushing the stick in.
Main things we're looking for are issues with haptics and items not aligning correctly with your hands, but all bugs are worth noting.
If you do try it out and want to report a bug or just join the community to share your ideas, the best place to do so is in our discord.
That's all for today. Happy adventuring, everyone!
First part of Chapter 2 is now live on the test branch!
Hello, everyone!
Today we patched the test build of the game to include the next area after chapter 1. This swamp area is roughly the size of the tutorial zone from chapter 1 (the area before entering the Forbidden Mine dungeon) and serves much the same purpose for chapter 2. The area is much more open and free form than those you'll have seen in chapter 1 and offers a ton of upgrades and new experiences. You'll find new enemies, a new spell, a new type of meteor shard, gold, iron, health and mana upgrades and a perk elixir. There's also new weapons available in the shop.
The area has not been fully optimized yet, so performance might be a bit shaky in spots. We're mainly looking for feedback on enemy AI, anywhere you might be able to get out of the map, places where you should be able to teleport and can't, general bugs, etc.
To opt into the test branch, right click the game in your Steam library and select properties, then select the test branch from the dropdown menu in the betas tab.
The best place to share your feedback is in our discord, but the Steam forums are also closely monitored. We look forward to hearing from you, and we can't wait to get the next dungeon out for testing, as well! Happy adventuring!
