Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Indie
Wraithbinder
Early Access Patch #4: More Gameplay Improvements, Balancing, UX Enhancements
Greetings, Captain!
Another small update with new goodies. Thank you for your feedback! This update is for you.
Frequency of Updates
You may have noticed a slow frequency of updates to Wraithbinder lately. It's because I'm a solo developer and have to work a full-time day job. It may take me awhile, but progress is being made steadily. Please bear with me! If you want more frequent updates, feel free to change to the beta branch in the Steam client and check out the #patch-notes channel on the Wraithbinder Discord Server for what's new.
Known Issue
If you are playing on Steam Deck, you will need to press the Steam button, then close the overlay before a controller or gamepad will work. I'm currently working to fix the issue. This issue just came up recently. It even happens playing old builds which used to work fine.
Release Notes
Here's the full release notes:
v0.9.4 : November 23, 2024
Gameplay:
Created the Ability Volition item, sold at the Architect, where you can choose from ALL abilities on connector floors!
Tightened up the player's melee hit box (it was 72x88 with an offset of 24 and now it's back to 72x72 with an offset of 15)
Balanced the game so advanced characters are not too easy
Made Bombs drop immediately when you press instead of release the button
Made Boots do damage twice as often
Instead of Revealer being a relic, make it a temporary Architect item so you have it for the whole run
Made Sindraphon cancel his bullet hell attack when damaged and below 75% health
Fixed Tears not being refunded if you discard Mystic changes after buying a scroll
Fixed not asking whether to discard when buying a scroll at the Mystic and backing out without spending any Light
Balance:
Increased maximum level 9 jump height from 300 to 400
Increased the cost of Boots from 3 to 6 mana per second
Increased mana cost of Grenades from 16 to 20
Increased mana cost of Bombs from 16 to 20
Changed maximum ability cost reduction per item from 20% to 10%
Changed maximum elemental damage chance per attribute per item from 20% to 5%
Only mana steal when using melee weapons (it was too OP for explosives and ranged)
Reduced damage of Grenades from 12 to 8
Reduced damage of Bombs from 12 to 10
Reduced damage of Guardian explosions from 12 to 8
Reduced damage of Mines from 8 to 7
Effects & Animations:
Applied extra shading to players and any models with an outline for a nice visual pop
Made gold & light pick up amounts tally up together when they overlap
Made cloud movement smoother by not nudging it up and down, which was herky jerky
Made high res and in-game characters use the same color palette
Made the player's rotation indicator fade out when standing idle
Fixed hi res character models flashing to brigher colors for one frame
Fixed high res character models sometimes having red eyes
UI & UX:
Made the game remember which monitor it used and start there again the next time
Solved many issues with changing window modes and starting on 2nd monitors
Solved Mac borderless window being resized wrong
Solved in-game menu tabs not being clickable with the mouse
Made it so Radruiel's health bar doesn't visually go back up when he splits
Made the boss health bar clearer when you die
Input:
Added an option to the Settings -> Input menu to Reset Gamepads
Fixed mapping controls for X could also set Y if it had been one of the gamepad sticks or triggers
Fixed Input -> Map Controls menu showing one extra set of buttons sometimes
Misc.:
Fixed player stuck floating in the air on the ship after beating the Early Access boss
Fixed being able to levitate higher and higher if you run out of mana
Fixed the incorrect display of the '`' grave key on UK keyboard layouts
Thanks for playing Wraithbinder!
Nat (the dev)
Early Access Patch #3: Gameplay Improvements, Balancing, UI Enhancements
Greetings, Captain!
Another small update with new goodies. Thank you for your feedback! This update is for you.
Release Notes
Here's the full release notes:
v0.9.3 : July 19, 2024
Local Co-op:
Did a lot of behind the scenes work for local co-op
Gameplay:
Fixed enemies accidentally being invincible while frozen (this was meant only for players)
Created a bullet-hell attack for Sindraphon
Made Boots ability damage things surrounding you whenever you are holding the button, rather than only once you reach top speed
Made Boots do a bigger skid stop that does damage along the vector, with a new animation and also skidding is mentioned in the description on the Abilities menu
Made Boots ability do a damaging skid stop whenever you use it rather than only if you reached top speed
Allowed running with Boots through jars & rocks
Made the Mystic encounter drop the Scroll of Pauldrons so players see they can upgrade the first time they use the Mystic at home
Ensured that small chests will appear in a safe place at the end of speed / disappearing floors
Ensured that the speed / disappearing floors have an exciting pace where the erosion always happens right behind you
Ensured that the speed / disappearing floors have the relic in the last, big chest
Removed a 16ms delay before any weapon is created, player or enemy, for fairness and accuracy in canceling warnings
Fixed runner chests not restoring properly after speed / disappearing wave consumes them
Made some of the easy creeps able to have their attacks canceled if you damage them while their warning box is active
Made it so if an enemy's attack cannot be canceled then their warning box will remain even if you damage them
Remembered the Skybot building selection across floors
Created a failsafe for Guardians if their target disappears or becomes inactive
Created a failsafe for raising bridges on connector floors if there is accidentally no story element to be played
Made it so ranged attacks like Mage missiles start farther from the enemy's body so they don't accidentally fizzle if the enemy is standing near something
Created the big metal trade item, offered at the Trader, to exchange 500 gold for 50 metal
Fixed acid sometimes not spreading correctly
Balance:
Decreased the overall enemy difficulty escalation for higher level characters from 0.618 to 0.1
Decreased the mana cost of Whirlwind from 25 to 16
Increase the range of Ouriel's stop from 86 to 106
Increased the cooldown of Grenades from 1.0 to 1.5 seconds
Slightly decreased the chance of finding an epic item at the Blacksmith
Increase the arrow attack range of Guardians from 160 to 240
Changed the maximum number of the Trader's currency exchanges from 5 to 4
Randomly choose some trades at trader
Fixed being able to cheese bosses by throwing grenades during the boss intro camera rotation
UI:
Made the armor detail popups able to show many more lines of attributes, description and price
Got creep attack swooshes to last on screen the entire time the attack is active
Made enemy health bars stay visible indefinitely after they've been damaged
Made all health bars always red for clarity's sake
Made ability icons on the UI turn gray and fade in whenever there is an active cooldown
Show an item detail popup when you have a choice of armor to pick up
Tried using the game's normal font instead of the clean font for dialogue to feel more consistent
Made long announcements line break in the middle so they are more symmetrical
Split ability descriptions into mutliple lines if they are too long (German, Russian)
Effects & Animations:
Fixed enemy acid pools not being outlined in red
Made Ouriel's stomp do a crunchy landing sound effect
Once you have one NPC at home, a symbol is placed on the ground where the others will go to hint that there are more
Made skid & blink animations use the correct lower body animation frames
Fixed the shield being at the wrong offset when a player or boss rotates
Fixed walking while holding shield or Whirlwind using the wrong lower-body animations
Fixed Sindraphon's axe swooshes being too far from his body
Fixed Sindraphon's shield being too close to his body
Fixed Sindraphon sometimes shooting a fountain of sparks
Fixed BladeSecret being a different color after Save & Quit then new run
Fixed your acid pools being accidentally outlined in red instead of blue
Made acid pools always spawn on the ground
Added a slight outline to the menu font for clarity
Misc.:
Allowed binding keyboard actions even while Steam is open
Fixed if two or more controllers are used without Steam open, the character cannot walk
Fixed the borderless game window not resizing properly when moved to a different monitor
Fixed Trader able to offer a big and small light trade
Fixed two controllers and one analog stick doesn't work until a button is pressed
Thanks for playing Wraithbinder!
Nat (the dev)
Early Access Patch #2: Mana & Attack Speed Improvements
Greetings, Captain!
Another small update with new goodies. Thank you for your feedback! This update is because of you.
Release Notes
Here's the full release notes:
v0.9.2 : June 8, 2024
Gameplay:
Got attack speed to feel consistent by making it entirely based on your attack speed attribute rather than a 50-50 blend of attack speed and combo hits, which are hits that cause damage versus hits that whiff
Slightly increased the maximum amount of attack speed (from 45% cooldown reduction to 50%)
Fixed attack speed not being applied to knuckles
Ensure that you can melee, dash, melee, dash in rapid succession without being able to exploit this with simultaneous melee + dash
Fixed not being able to quickly dash and melee with Boots
Allow quickly using dash after a Jump
Expanded the range of Grenade and Bomb explosions from 72 to 120
Made Grenades stop rolling when they hit an enemy
Made the Mini-Grenade explosion animation visually match the actual explosion radius (72)
Fixed cooldown reduction not being applied to upgrading the ability level of Boots
Mana Improvements:
Increase the Vim Nudger mini relics from +5 to +10 max mana
Made Vim Nudger also do +5 mana regen
Increased the Blue Vampire relic from +5% to +25% mana steal
Created the Blue Vampire mini relic that has +10% mana steal
Fixed mini relics (like Vigor Nudger) disappearing after Save & Quit
Increased maximum mana steal from 8% to 100%
Made all damage to enemies work as mana steal even if the enemy has no mana
Displayed the amount of mana stolen above your head
Create the Vampiric Nudger mini relic with +5% mana steal
Create the Small Replenisher mini relic with +5% mana regen
Instead of a Vim Nudger, sometimes offer a Vampiric Nudger or Small Replenisher
Reduce mana regen attributes of armor by 50%
Increased the mana regen of the Replenisher relic from 10 to 25 mana per minute
Tried mana regen increasing along with max mana (it didn't feel balanced and meant that mana regen itself had less value)
Make models for replenisher, booster and vampiric relics unique
Reduced the mana cost of Grenades from 50 to 20 to match Bombs which do the same base damage
Gold Magnet Improvements:
Fixed Gold Magnet attribute not working at all in many cases
Increased the range of Gold Magnet from 32-162 to 48-240
Made the Gold Magnet effect stronger as long as it is more than the base 10%
Camera / Shaders:
Made the camera zoom out and pan to keep bosses in view when possible
Made the background color for each floor change
Dialed in the shader effect for more optimal color heuristics (essentially its a tad brighter and makes screenshots pop more)
Enemies:
Made floor 9 knights animate a warning exclamation mark above their heads before using shield
Reduce floor 9 knight base damage from 6 to 5
Gave Sindraphon +50% explosive defense (grenades could easily cheese him)
UI:
When upgrading Dash abilities, mention that they come with cooldown reduction
Made chest choices announce what each item is even during quick story dialog
Bug fixes:
Fixed the bug where the UI would be missing fighting Sindraphon
Fixed an occassional crash when the boss platform falls beneath you
Fixed upgrading Dash abilities to level 8 or 9 caused them not work anymore
Fixed not being able to use the mouse in the Achievements menu
Fixed the Shield ability not having an announcement describing it
Misc:
Made the dash trail last a little longer
Created an option to disable the game's auto-pause when you alt+tab in Settings -> Game
Made the beginning of a floor run more smoothly on slower computers by pre-loading all rather than lazy-loading some
Flash 'NEED 1' when you do not have enough teleport charges
Thanks for playing Wraithbinder!
Nat (the dev)
Wraithbinder's First Early Access Update: A Patch With Many Goodies
Greetings, Captain!
Today Wraithbinder got its first Early Access update with many new goodies. Thank you for your feedback and super fan energies! This update is because of you.
Goodies
You can now pick up all 3 items dropped from minibosses and bosses. This is triple the rewards you used to get from bosses. It also means you don't have to choose just one item while leaving the others behind.
You can now dash in midair! This allows for some really interesting ability combos, like jumping + dashing + landing with a melee strike.
There's a new item for sale at the Trader. The lantern can be purchased using gold and allows you to see farther on dark floors.
Release Notes
Here's the full release notes:
v0.9.1 : June 1, 2024
Gameplay:
Allow picking up all 3 items dropped from minibosses and bosses
Allow dashing midair
Create the lantern, for sale at the Trader, allows you to see farther on dark floors
Create a new attack for Ouriel where he stomps the ground, damaging in a nearby area
Try making 4 of the secret wall types able to be destroyed by any general damage, not specifically Blade, Speed, Ranged or Explosive
Improve ranged aim assist so it always prefers targeting a miniboss or boss if one is present
Placed Guardians closer to the entrance of each room so they are more useful
Balance:
Reduce the mana cost of bombs from 50 to 16
Changed experience for activating a Guardian from 32 to 15
Prefer ability point instead of teleport charges as an option at stores
Allow hitting Sindraphon from behind when his shield is up
Make Gzrel warp less often at floor 7 and much less often at floor 3
Make Gzrel unable to change direction after starting to aim
Make Gzrel always show a warning before shooting an arrow
Increased the base damage of Gzrel's arrows from 2 to 4 (because regular archer's base damage is 3)
Increased Radruiel's base landing damage from 4 to 6
Increased Puriel's base attack damage from 2 to 4
Make only one floor 9 knight able to use shield at once
Increase chance of epic (orange) items from 0.2% to 0.8%
Increase chance of rare (yellow) items from 2% to 3%
Increase chance that Sindraphon will drop epic items from 2.5% to 5%
Increase chance that Sindraphon will drop rare items from 25% to 40%
Increase gold dropped from minibosses from 32-64 to 50-100
Increase light dropped from minibosses from 20-60 to 50-100
Increased the chance of the Blacksmith selling magical, rare and epic armor
Limit the number of epics and rares the Blacksmith can sell to 1 each
Increased the base tier of armor for sale at the Blacksmith
Ensured that armor for sale at the Blacksmith is different each run
Reduce cost of Jars of Health IV from 500 to 300
Reduce cost of Jars of Health V from 800 to 400
Reduced mana cost of activating Guardians from 50 to 25
Make 1 hit boss on floor 12 able to always kill you with 1 hit
Bug Fixes:
Fixed ascending from floor 10 accidentally descends
Fixed buying Whirlwind and next time it is still locked (this was the only ability with this bug)
Fixed secret wall items on connectors floors can be on the outside and inaccessible
Fixed the game soft-locking in the event of a crash
Misc.:
Show metal quantity on UI while not at home
Made secret wall items on connectors floors in less predictable locations
Color item auras according to type (blue for magical, etc.)
Show the experience gained from Guardian activation
Make a more awesome sound when boss dies
Create a sound for picking up metal
Create a sound for picking up ability keys
Solve riding elevators sometimes feeling like a merry-go-round
Make quick dialog last longer
Show visually bigger damage numbers for the dummy target on connector floors
Select the architect item you just bought
After selling armor, go back to inventory, not Blacksmith menu
Don't do a red color trail for creep wraiths
Make the camera movement smooth while showing the Darkseed between floors
Quickly pick up ability keys if you already have some
Solve text misaligned when buying items on ultrawide monitors
Wrathbinder is a fast-paced action roguelike indie game with secrets, loot, necromancy and ability progression set in the Songbringer universe, created by solo dev and yours truly, Wizard Fu.
The Songbringer Universe
The events of Wraithbinder take place hundreds of years before Songbringer, on the planet Yuerder, where the character Zero was born. Yuerder was once a lush, Earth-like planet but eons of thick, dark cloud cover transformed most of the oxygen-breathing life into nocturnal and bioluminescent creatures while its people built cities to float above the clouds. In Wraithbinder you play as the Captain of a sky sailor ship who discovers an enigmatic, floating city...
About Early Access
This is an Early Access game, which means there is more to come before it is finished. Act I of III of Wraithbinder's story is playable now, this represents about 1/3 of the content the game will eventually have at 1.0 launch. Plans are to be in Early Access for at least one year.
Two major things are coming during Early Access: Act II and online co-op multiplayer! Act III will come along with the 1.0 launch.
Get it now or later?
It's up to you and whether you'd rather play the early version and help shape the game as it develops, or whether you'd rather play the final 1.0 version. The game is priced low right now because it is Early Access but the price will increase at 1.0 launch.
Regular Updates
During Early Access there will be small updates every week or so and big updates every month or so. Please share your feedback on the Discord, the Steam forum, or email. There are links in the game.
I listen to your feedback & work to incorporate your suggestions into improving the game regularly. You can watch my Wraithbinder live development stream each week on Twitch. Feel free to just chat with me or share your suggestions.
Reviews Help!
If you like Wraithbinder, please follow it on Steam. And if you get it, please leave a review!
Thanks, and I hope you enjoy Wraithbinder.
Nat (the dev)
Early Access Launch May 27th! Act I Now Playable in the Demo
Greeting, warrior of legend!
Wraithbinder is launching into Early Access this Monday, May 27th! Visit Wraithbinder's Steam page and Wishlist in order to be notified when the game goes live.
You can get a taste for all the Early Access version has to offer with the playable demo, which has been updated in a major way. Let's take a look at what's new.
Major Gameplay Enhancements
The experience you gain is now permanent across runs, meaning you keep your player level even when you die. Going up a level grants you one Salty Tear, a new currency that allows you to unlock powering up your armor with the new Mystic NPC.
Going up a level in experience also means you can wear and find a higher tier of armor. Higher tiers of armor have better base stats. Like a tier one ring might have +6% Melee Damage while a tier 2 ring will have +8% Melee Damage.
There are now four NPCs that you gradually rescue within the world who will come to inhabit your home area. They are the Trader, Mystic, Architect and Blacksmith.
The Trader sells you the Automap, Compass, Teleporter and can exchange currencies like Gold, Light, Salty Tears, Ability Keys and Metal.
You can meditate with the Mystic to permanently power up your armor, even the new armor you find later. You unlock an armor section, such as Helmets, using Salty Tears. Then you invest light into your Helmets in order to power up all the helmets you currently own and even all the new helmets you will ever find. As you invest more light, more stats get added to the armor and the quality of the stats increases.
The Architect enables you to permanently power up the world. You give them Metal and they deploy their designs into the world. One such power up is Jars of Health I. It costs 50 metal and gives you a 0.5% chance to find 5 Health within any Jar.
Buy and sell armor with the Blacksmith. Peruse his offerings to see if there is maybe a new magical ring you'd like. Or sell him all the equipment you aren't wearing to gain some Gold.
Act I
Wraithbinder's story plays out in a three act structure. Act I is available now and playable in the current demo. Act II will come during Early Access. Act III will come at 1.0 launch.
You are the captain of a Sky Sailor ship who must save your child from the clutches of evil... Enjoy the Act I story in the Early Access version this May 27th.
Major Gameplay Enhancements:
You can choose your reward after defeating enemies in each room. Often you will be faced with the choice to improve your character during the current run, like picking up an Ability Point Orb, or to improve your character in the long run, like picking up some Metal to spend with the Architect back home to upgrade the world.
The Wraithbind ability is now permanent across runs. Once you discover this ability, you will start your next run able to bind one wraith.
Mana Regen has been increased significantly so you no longer need to hit the environment to harvest Mana.
You now power up abilities by finding Ability Point Orbs and the maximum ability level has been increased from 3 to 9. Ability levels bring significant gains to your abilities. For example, the level 2 Sword ability does +33% damage.
You now keep 100% of the Gold, Light and armor you find during each run. (The game used to drop 50% of Gold, Light and 100% of unequipped armor.)
There's also a sweet new animation for when you vanquish a boss.
Translation
Wraithbinder has now been translated into 10 languages in preparation for the Early Access launch: English, Français, Deutsch, Italiano, Español, Português-Brasil, 简体中文, 日本語, 한국어 and Русский.
Release Notes
Here's the full release notes for Wraithbinder's version 0.9.0, in case you want all the details:
v0.9.0 : May 11, 2024
Home Area NPCs and Powering Up:
The Experience you gain is now permanent across runs
Going up a level grants you one Salty Tear, a new currency that allows you to unlock powering up your armor
Going up a level in experience means you can wear and find a higher tier of armor
Higher tiers of armor have better base stats
Created 4 NPCs that you can rescue who come to inhabit your home area: Trader, Mystic, Architect and Blacksmith
The Trader sells you the Automap, Compass, Teleporter and can exchange currencies
Meditate with the Mystic to permanently power up your armor, even the new armor you find
Give Metal (a new currency) to the Architect to permanently power up the world (like finding Health powerups in Jars)
Buy and sell armor with the Blacksmith
Story Elements:
Wrote a three act story. You are the captain of a Sky Sailor ship who must save your child from the clutches of evil.
Act I is available now. Act II will come during Early Access. Act III will come at 1.0 launch.
Major Gameplay Enhancements:
You can choose your reward after defeating enemies in each room
Made the Wraithbind ability permanent across runs
Increase Mana regen so hitting the environment to regain Mana is no longer necessary
Made it so you keep 100% of the Gold, Light and armor you find during each run (used to drop 50% of Gold, Light and 100% of unequipped armor)
You now power up abilities by finding Ability Point Orbs
Showed how much each Ability Point improves an ability (like bonus damage for your Sword going from 0 to 33%)
Increased the maximum ability levels from 3 to 9
Artwork & Visual Clarity:
Created a sweet animation for when a boss dies
Made damage numbers to or from yourself bigger so you are more aware
Moved health and mana baubles to the edges of the screen for clarity
Created a high-resolution, anti-aliased font that scales nicely to any resolution
Used camera stops along the edges of floors so it naturally hides secret rooms
Improved the artwork and aesthetic of the main menu
Made all enemies have glowing eyes
Improved the aesthetic of background colors
Made the fog of war less dark, nearly transparent
Make blocks in other areas darker
Character Creation:
Expanded character color choices from 8 to 28
Added an option to change character clothes color
Expanded character skin color choices from 1 to 5
Your child is show by your side; you can name your child
Other Gameplay:
All the boss sidekicks die when the boss does
Created two new mini relics: the Speed Nudger (+5% move speed) and Haste Nudger (+5% attack speed)
Made chests locked until you defeat enemies
Made floors flow effortlessly just to the right areas with minimal backtracking (especially floors 1-6)
Created safe connector floors where you gain new abilities, learn how to use them and sometimes trigger story elements
Created secret bridges that allow access to secret rooms
Allowed holding ranged attacks to repeatedly fire as long as you have Mana (used to be a limit of 16 total attacks)
Allowed holding Grenade attacks to repeatedly lob
Allowed using the Shield use as long as you hold the button; Changed Shield Duration stat to Shield Damage Block
Made relics have prerequisites so you won't find something like Wraithbinder if you don't yet have the Wraithbind ability
Made Radruiel boss do damage when they land on you
Guarantee the minibosses you find on the next run will be different than this one
Increased the size of rooms with enemies
Increased the amount of locked rooms
Placed enemies randomly within rooms
Created clutch defense: below 1 health you take less damage
Reduced the Mana cost of Skybot Mines
Reduced the amount of times you get hit from fire damage from 3 to 1
Removed Health drops from floor 2 minibosses
Instead of choosing New Run or Continue from the main menu, you simply Play
Created the Give Up choice on the pause menu. It takes you back to the home area, similar to the old New Run choice.
Decreased the size of floor 8
UI:
Using the mouse, you can now drag and drop to equip armor
When you gain a new ability, checkmarks are placed on screen to help you learn how to use the ability
Settings:
Created the Aim Assist input setting which snaps your melee and ranged attacks to an angle matching a nearby foe (enabled by default)
Created the Attack At Cursor input setting to always melee attack towards the mouse cursor (enabled by default)
Created the Dash At Cursor input setting to always dash towards the mouse cursor (disabled by default)
Created the Mouse Lock input setting which keeps the mouse within the window (enabled by default)
Created a new HUD type in Video Settings called "Extra" which displays FPS, ping time, etc.
Localization:
Translated the game into Français, Deutsch, Italiano, Español, Português-Brasil, 简体中文, 日本語, 한국어 and Русский
Stats:
Started tracking some Steam stats like: Minions Vanquished, Wraiths Bound, Swoons, Highest Floor Reached
Other:
Paused the game when Steam overlay becomes active
Solved mouse scroll wheel being too fast when using a trackpad
Make selecting menu choices with the mouse better when you have just used the mouse wheel
Solved some shadow pixels getting left behind forever
Animated the menu choices appearing
Solved Gzrel boss getting stuck not attacking
Solved being able to spam knuckles and prevent bosses from ever attacking
Solved boss sidekicks sometimes having gigantic knockback
Solved a rare issue with native controller support where the left stick would mostly move north or south
Removed the option for a pixel UI
Removed the option to skip all dialogue (you can hold B to skip story elements)
Removed Checkpoints; it's all or nothing, baby
Solved some rare issues where floors would be unsolvable
Solved gold thief sometimes not appearing for an entire run
Solved arrows flipping 180 when hitting target
Solve mouse wandering on Windows 8; Yes, I actually tested it on Windows 8
That's all for now. Cheers,
Nat Code, Art & Music
Achievements & Multi-monitor Improvements
Greetings, freedom fighters!
You now have achievements, a new story element, multi-monitor improvements and gameplay balancing in Wraithbinder.
Achievements
There's several achievements that have been added like "You died", "You discovered a secret room", "You beat a miniboss", etc. These are achievable now in the demo and will be so in the Early Access version upon release. Plans are to add more achievements in the future.
A Story Element
When you talk to the Shorebot aboard your Ship, you now get some dialogue. This is meant to provide you with some purpose, some guidance on what to do and what to expect along the way.
Visual Clarity
Chests now look more obviously like chests:
Exploding Barrels look more obviously like they will explode:
Guardians look more like neutral objects rather than vaguely like enemies. In addition, the Skybot can now build Guardians:
Let There Be Light... Automatically
When you walk near a light on dark floors, it will automatically turn on rather than having to manually hold it:
Multi-monitor Improvements
This update brings improved support for multiple monitors. The game remembers which monitor it is supposed to be on. Also it smoothly changes window type, size and ratio. All this on Windows, Mac and Linux.
What's Next?
Thanks so much for watching the live streams at Steam Next Fest, for wishlisting and telling your friends!
An Early Access launch is coming soon. I will be making announcements as soon as the date is locked in.
Release Notes
Here's the full release notes for the latest version of Wraithbinder, in case you want all the details:
v0.8.14 : Feb 17, 2024
Story Elements:
The Shorebot aboard your Ship now has some dialog
Achievements:
Created 5 new achievements: You died, you found a secret room, etc.
Gameplay:
Enabled building Guardians with the Skybot (mana cost changed from 300 to 60)
Nerfed the Barrel explosion radius (120 -> 64)
Doubled the Barrel warning time before it explodes
On dark floors, lights are automatically used rather than having to manually hold them
Made most enemies partially visible in the fog and darkness
Increased the range of light that Wards (built by Skybot) provide to dark floors
Allowed Mana Regen to be powered up in the demo
Buffed Rings so they have one more damage attribute
Made Gzrel (the archer boss) not warp so much
Multi-monitor Improvements:
Made the game stay on the current monitor whenever the window size is changed (Windows, Mac and Linux)
Allowed smoothly changing between fullscreen, borderless and windowed mode (Windows, Mac and Linux)
Visual Clarity:
Made Chests look more obviously like chests
Made exploding Barrels look more obviously like they will explode
Made Guardians look more like neutral objects rather than vaguely like enemies
Changed the shadow angle to improve the aesthetic and reduce the jagginess of shadows
Other:
Created the video option to disable camera motion
Solved controllers sometimes not working
Paused the game when a controller is removed
Solved character portrait, items and relics being upside-down on Windows
That's all for now. Cheers,
Nat Code, Art & Music
You Can Now Fast Travel in Wraithbinder
Greetings, brave one!
Wraithbinder has been improved with another update. There's a new fast travel feature, an intro cutscene, improvements to powering up and less demo restrictions. Let's take a look.
Fast Travel
By defeating minibosses, you will earn a new type of currency called Teleport Charges.
Use Teleport Charges by opening up the Map and choosing an area that you've already visited. You will swiftly teleport to that location.
This fast travel feature is a direct response to player feedback. I think it improves the flow tremendously. So thank you, player, for sending your thoughts!
Intro Cutscene
When you start a new character, or you start a new run with an existing character, you will now get an intro cutscene:
It's meant to give you a sense of purpose as a player, to connect you with the story and world. I plan to expand this cutscene in future versions.
Improved Upgrading
When you power up your character, the cost of the first few pips has been decreased significantly. What used to cost 64 now costs 16! This really improves upgrading as it makes the light you earn go a lot further over the long run.
Demo Restrictions Relaxed
Some of the demo limitations have been relaxed. The purpose here is to allow you as a player of the demo to experience all the game has to offer.
Instead of being limited to just one pip when powering up your character. You can now get six pips.
Instead of being limited to just one choice of relic, you can now choose between two.
Also, you can now equip, unequip and drop armor.
What's Next?
Wraithbinder is now participating in Steam Next Fest, Feb 05 - 12, 2024. Thanks so much for watching the live streams, for wishlisting and telling your friends!
An Early Access launch will follow sometime after Steam Next Fest in 2024. I will be making announcements as soon as the date is locked in.
Release Notes
Here's the full release notes for Wraithbinder's version 0.8.13, in case you want all the details:
v0.8.13 : Feb 8, 2024
Gameplay:
Created a Fast Travel feature
Increase knockback for sword and knuckles
Decreased the first few pip costs (64 -> 16) when powering-up using light
Decreased the cost of checkpoints
Increased the size of rooms on upper floors so you are encouraged to use ranged & explosive weapons
Made rings have weapon-like attributes
Made it so a big green marker appears on your map showing you where the boss switch room on floor 5 is
Granted 1 experience for lighting a flame on dark floors
Removed decimal places from attributes
Increased the ability key cost of some items
Made it so you usually earn 1 ability key per run
Story:
Created an intro cutscene
Demo:
Allowed equipping & dropping items in the demo
Allowed choosing between 2 relics in the demo
Instead of the demo limiting to one pip per any attribute, it allows 6 pips on Max Health and/or Max Mana
Art / Aesthetic:
Lightened the revealed fog
Slightly brightened the screen overall
Other:
Solved controllers not working if you plugged one in mid-game
Improved multi-monitor support
Solved renaming a character meant you could no longer edit hair, etc.
Solved switch room on floor 5 sometimes hidden
Solved items & entrance sometimes not visible on map
Solved gate switches still showing as locked on map after opening
Solved an issue where there could be no melee weapons on floor 1
Solved clicking on the map taking you to the wrong menu
That's all for now. Cheers,
Nat Code, Art & Music
Demo Update Notes for Jan 27, 2024
Version 0.8.12
Made the hi-res character models fade in
Changed the default keyboard binding for button Y to Alt / Option
Got the game running on generic Linux distros
Make flash red all the way red (had some shadowy pixels)
Make all "hold Y" prompts have a background
Reduced HP amounts so they only show when coming from you (like not when an enemy mine goes off)
Reduced the noisiness of small explosions
Used high-res glyphs for SDL controllers and mouse buttons
Don't show announcements or quantities of gold, light or mana gained during the heat of battle
Made selected power up pips orange, not blue
Solved leaderboard not updating
Solved CreepMage firing endlessly at nothing and CreepArcher getting stuck doing nothing
Solved a potential crash when upgrading pips
Nat Code, Art & Music
Wraithbinder's Public Demo is Now Available
Greeting, warrior of legend!
Wraithbinder's public demo is now released. Crack out your favorite ability build and prepare to slay some goat-headed demons, space pirate style.
There's a bunch of new content and features since last time. Let's take a look.
Knuckles
Metal Knuckles are a new type of weapon with a very fast attack speed, light damage and the special feature that you can hold the attack button to keep attacking repeatedly.
Knives
Throwing Knives are a new type of ranged weapon that have a fast cooldown, do light damage and use little mana.
360 Rotation
True 360-degree rotation is now working with both left-stick movement and right-stick aiming. Using the mouse was always 360-degrees but there was a bug in older versions of the game that caused it to sort of snap to 45-degree angles when using a controller. This has now been fixed so proper 360-degree movement and aiming works as expected when playing with a controller.
Rings & Weapon Choice
Wraithbinder is more fun when you get to choose your melee weapon each run. A new type of equipment has been created, Rings, in order to give you this power of choice while still keeping the attributes you get from weapons you find throughout the world. Whenever you find a melee weapon, you will also find a Ring. When you die you drop your weapon but not the Ring. Your next run you get to choose a new melee weapon while keeping the attributes in the Ring you are wearing.
Character Customization Options
When creating a character, there are now separate options for Armor, Hair and Visor. It's more customizable. This amps up the fun of character creation.
Ability Keys
Some abilities are now locked with a new currency called Ability Keys. Using an ability key will permanently unlock that particular ability for the current character, including this run and all future runs. You can earn Ability Keys by defeating bosses. It's pretty fun how the Ability Key system gives you a sense of value around abilities and something to strive for.
Statues Resemble... You
Whenever you encounter a statue, it will take on the likeness of one of the characters of the top players on the leaderboard. Whomever is rank 1 on the leaderboard will be the statue on floor 1 of all the worlds for everyone who is currently playing. Rank 2 on the leaderboard is the statue at floor 2 and so on. Also, when you stand near a statue, it will announce onscreen the name of the player, their rank on the leaderboard and their total amount of gold and light.
Dash Ability Improvements
The dash abilities have been improved. It feels smarter & better overall. Also, the Boots ability now does damage, albeit less than Blink. In addition, when you upgrade your dash ability you also increase how much damage it does along with reducing its mana cost.
Elemental damage has been added to the dash ability trails if you have some elemental attributes from relics, armor, etc. Furthermore, a bug was solved where trying to dash near a big boss would fail, generating an invalid sound. This is fixed now so you can dash properly near big bosses and other objects.
UI Improvements
Wraithbinder now uses high-resolution controller glyphs on the UI. Also, custom 2d pixel art icons have been created for all the abilities. This adds some quality to the overall aesthetic.
Demo Limitations
So what's the difference between the demo and the full version of the game? The purpose of the demo is to give you a taste while leaving you wanting more. To that end, here are the limitations of the demo version:
1 character
1 relic per chest
1 maximum pip per attribute power-up
Cannot equip or sell armor other than the first pieces you find
Feel free to play the demo as long as you like. There are no time restrictions.
Wraithbinder will be participating in Steam Next Fest, Feb 05 - 12, 2024. Join me as I play Wraithbinder live on the opening day of Next Fest at 1pm PST. In this stream, I will be creating a new character from scratch and starting a run or two. Root for me (or not) as I attempt to beat the final boss on the first run. I will be pausing the game to answer any of your questions as they come up. Set a reminder for the event here.
An Early Access launch will follow sometime after Steam Next Fest here in 2024. I will be making announcements as soon as the date is locked in.
Release Notes
Here's the full release notes for Wraithbinder's version 0.8.11, in case you want all the details:
v0.8.11 : Jan 24, 2024
Gameplay:
Created the Knuckles melee weapon (fast cooldown, light damage, can hold the button to attack repeatedly)
Created the Knives ranged weapon (fast cooldown, light damage)
Got true 360-degree rotation working with both left-stick movement and right-stick aiming
Created the Ring armor type (magical rings embued with attributes)
A melee weapon is now chosen at the beginning of each run (weapons no longer have attributes -- Rings do though -- and weapons are dropped on death)
Created Ability Keys which permanently unlock abilities for use in current & future runs
Improved dash ability in some edge cases (feels smarter & better overall)
Made the Boots dash ability do some damage (albeit less than Blink)
Added elemental damage to dash ability trails if you have some elemental attributes from relics, armor, etc.
Solved getting invalid sound sometimes when trying to dash near a big boss
Reduced the amount of time you can get frozen by ice
Ensured that when you are frozen by ice you always have an invincible period afterward so you can never get stun-locked to death
Removed all gold from pillars so players don't feel obligated to destroy the entire environment
Made gold thief appear more rarely
Increased the mana cost of ranged attacks & speed abilities
Implemented softer pathfinding around obstacles
Characters:
When creating a character, there are now separate options for Armor, Hair and Visor (more customizable)
Added a feature to delete a character from the Character Edit menu
Async Multiplayer:
Made statues have the likeness of leaderboard players
Art / Aesthetic:
Increased the smoothness of rotating voxels (instead of 8 possible angles per model there are now 40 and it uses less memory overall)
Outlined all elemental damaging pools with red for enemies and blue for friends
Created custom 2d pixel art icons for all abilities
Improved the aesthetic by lengthening the camera angle
Improved the aesthetic using more contrast in the shading and highlights of voxels
Increased the quality of the exp bar artwork and made it green colored to match exp orbs
Used high-resolution controller glyphs
Enabled motion blur when the camera rotates
Demo Version:
Created limitations for the demo version: 1 character, 1 relic per chest, 1 pip per attribute power-up
Other:
Added a message for when you first get some Light so players learn that it is later used to power up your character
Only rumble the controller if it is being used
Solved Gzrel boss getting stuck doing nothing
Solved getting warped beyond the ability item on floors where the ground is falling away
Solved one of the boss music songs not repeating
Solved a bug where you could't reach the switch to open gates on floor 5
Solved a potential crash due to some wayward animation code
Solved changing window resolution on Windows causes mouse cursor to have an incorrect offset