Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Indie
Wraithbinder
Thanks for playing Wraithbinder's final open beta
Fair tidings, player of legend!
A massive thank you to all who played Wraithbinder's latest open beta. Your enjoyment, feedback and support are much appreciated. Next is coming the public demo, Steam Next Fest and Early Access.
That's all for now. Cheers and happy new year,
Nat Code, Art & Music
3 days left to play Wraithbinder’s open beta
Greetings, brave warrior!
Wraithbinder's open beta still has 3 days left of open beta play. After Jan 9, the game will no longer be playable in your Steam library but the public demo will soon be available because Steam Next Fest is coming up February 5th.
The game has been updated today and here's what's new:
Power Up More
When powering up your character, the amount of Light you invest now goes a lot further towards increasing the percentage of the attribute you are powering up. For example, the first pip of Max Health used to increase by a fraction of a percent and now it increases a whole 3 HP.
Random Crashes Fixed
The game used to crash randomly when transitioning between floors and sometimes when you used the menu. This has now been fixed! You can now play Wraithbinder for hours on end reliably.
Steam Input Support
In addition to the game's native support for keyboard, mouse and controllers, Wraithbinder now supports Steam Input. It should just work out-of-the box with many types of controllers. If you have any issues, please let me know on Wraithbinder's Discord server.
Release Notes
Here's the full release notes for the latest version:
v0.8.10 : Jan 6, 2024
Solved random crashes
Added Steam Input support in addition to the game's native controller, keyboard and mouse support
When powering up, made the lower pips count for more
Make Radruiel have slightly less spiders, no elemental archers & warps more
Nerfed all floor 2 bosses by removing elemental trails
Made Rizoel’s attack box a little smaller
Made the Forge only remind you to use light a few times
Made it show your character's grade on character select
Solved Boots was the only choice instead of Boots and Blink
Solved enemy meta patterns swapping every floor instead of every run
Solved the FPS setting not working on Windows
Solved talking to Shorebot means you cannot Save & Quit
That's all for now. Cheers and happy new year,
Nat Code, Art & Music
Play Wraithbinder’s open beta now to Jan 2
Fair tidings, legendary person!
Wraithbinder's open beta has begun and runs until Jan 2. Crack out your favorite weapon and prepare to slay some goat-headed demons, space pirate style.
If you haven't already, click Request Access on the Steam page and Wraithbinder will be playable in your Steam library.
Sharing your feedback on Wraithbinder's Discord server helps to make this game more awesome. Your feedback will also help improve the game for Steam Next Fest this Feburary 2024 and Early Access launch sometime after that.
Exclusive Hair Style
As a thank you for playing Wraithbinder's beta, please enjoy claiming this exclusive hairstyle. Only players of the beta will ever be able to own this item. Grab it now or forever hold your peace. Just visit the Forge on the ship in-game and purchase 'Beta Haircut.' It only costs 1 gold:
Here's part two of all the new stuff in Wraithbinder. There's also part 1 in case you missed it.
New Objects
You'll find many fun new objects to interact with. Exploding barrels damage both you and enemies, so it's best to trigger them from afar:
Watch out for raised floor plates which can trigger arrow traps:
Sometimes you will encounter chests that run away, not wanting to be opened:
Some rooms will lock themselves until you defeat all nearby enemies:
Player Experience Improvements
All enemies you encounter are now outlined in red while friendlies are outlined in green. This helps to immediately clarify who is trying to hurt you versus help you:
Whenever your character or an enemy is low on health, they will glow red. This is a visual indicator to help you notice when you are critically low on health or an enemy is nearly vanquished:
A small health bar appears beneath your feet temporarily when you are hurt. This helps you to catch a glimpse of your health reserves without having to take your eyes off the center of the screen:
Your character now glows white when you have leveled up. This, along with a persistent announcement, ought to help you to notice whenever you have an ability point to spend:
Other Improvements
Several improvements have been made to the game's art style. The shadows are now more smooth & solid. The edges of circular objects are now perfectly circular:
You can now have both hair and a helmet, allowing you to combine the two in your own way:
The Revealer relic has been improved, showing secret blocks as obviously red-colored with an X on top:
Thickets now expand to nearby blocks when re-growing:
Walls can be hit once, releasing a poof of smoke and changing to look cracked:
The boss platform falls away beneath your feet:
What's Next?
Wraithbinder will be participating in Steam Next Fest, Feb 05 - 12, 2024. There's some significant new content you will be able to experience in February's demo that won't be a part of December's beta.
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 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 0.8.9 beta, in case you want all the details:
v0.8.9 : Dec 22, 2023
Gameplay:
New bosses: Rizoel (dwarf), Gzrel (archer) and Puriel (slider)
New floor types: dark floor with light switches, chase floor with new Rizoel boss
Bosses now have elemental effects & random sidekicks
Created fog of war
Enemies are now semi-transparent or invisible if they are covered by fog
Secret areas are entirely covered by fog
Created exploding barrels, arrow traps & chests that can run away
Created locked rooms
Created secret items hidden in a single random wall block
Surrounded goal elevator with gate blocks where you have to use the ability you've gained on that floor
Added a new type of world layout where floors lie adjacent to each other & you walk upstairs instead of use an elevator
Input:
Separated bindings into in-game versus menu bindings
Made the sword button X and dash button A to match many other top-down action RPGs
Made the A/B buttons power up attributes on the Light menu instead of having to press left/right
Got rumble working on Steam Deck and Mac
Balance:
Made it possible for rare & epic items to be found on any floor
Be able to jump over pillars
Changed wraithbind attribute to boost wraith health instead of increasing amount of bindable wraiths
Increased experience required per level a bit
Increased the curve of how much light it takes to power up attributes the more pips you've powered up
Made Boomerang cost some mana
Made the Shield last longer
Made player arrow a little less heat seaking
Reduced mana per rock a little
Be able to bind spiders as wraiths
Disabled bonus runs after victory
Reduced amount of experience Radruiel grants on death
Make equipment at the Armory cost more at higher tiers
Escalated the cost of checkpoints based on character grade
UI/UX:
Show a small health bar beneath your feet temporarily when you are hurt
Made all enemies outlined in red & friendlies outlined in green
Made your character glow white when you have leveled up & have an ability point to spend
Made enemies & your character glow red when low on health
Increased the quality of all fonts & all UI elements
Improved the UI for the Leaderboard
Made the inventory detail popup not cover the character
Made character selector a list instead of a dropdown-like thing
Announce to powerup using the forge on the ship whenever you have light
Announce on death what the player keeps
Announce that checkpoint has been depleted
Art Improvements:
Be able to have both hair & helmet
Made shadows more smooth & solid
Made circular voxel edges perfectly circular
Improved the swoosh attack animations
Solved high-res models having some garbled voxels
Solved white pixels left behind when enemies fall off an edge
Solved some lights becoming really intense
Made Guardian more noticeable
Increased the amount of sloshing in the health & mana baubles
Made item & equipment icons able to be runtime 3d renderings of models
Made many small visual improvements to animations, models & artwork
Audio:
Create a sound for when enemies wake up & are alerted
Solved music stuttering when transitioning between floors
Other:
Improved the Revealer relic to show secret blocks as obviously red-colored with an X on top
Created the Vim Nudger (+5 max mana) & Vigor Nudger (+5 max health) mini-relics
Made thickets expand to nearby blocks when re-growing
Randomized the order of bosses & floor paradigms
Placed some secret items on the boss floor
Created unique art & mechanics for the Wraithbind & Shield gates
Made revealing a boss announce it's name
Made walls able to be hit once & change to look cracked
Made the Blink ability's animation trail red to indicate that it does damage
Added more variation to the room patterns
Made the boss platform fall away beneath your feet
Made the camera rotate during a boss reveal
Added an menu choice to Exit Game within a run
Prefer the word "run" to "game" on the main menu
Made changing the window size on Mac and Linux work properly
Laid some important foundational work to the game's systems in preparation for online multiplayer
Bug Fixes:
Made items warp to a good location if they accidentally land inside a wall
Solved not being able to hold Y to activate a Guardian
Remove old hair when buying new hair
Solved buying a scroll sometimes didn't unlock the attribute for powering up
Solved if you pick up a relic before the others spawn you can get multiple
Solved being able to pick up covered chest relics again if you leave & return to the dungeon
Solved closing the equipment menu but character is not wearing new armor
Solved nearby creeps taking team damage whenever player chains lightning
Solved sometimes there is a oneway door with the switch on the wrong side
Solved sometimes there is no button shown when you need to hold Y to interact with something
Solved shield duration says 120s instead of 1.2s
Solved a random crash
Performance:
Increased the speed of rendering shadows
That's all for now. Cheers and happy holidays,
Nat Code, Art & Music
Play Wraithbinder’s next beta Dec 22 - Jan 2
Fair tidings, person of note!
Play Wraithbinder's next beta from Dec 22 to Jan 2. Let's crack out the swords and prepare to slay some goat-headed demons, space pirate style.
Make sure you click Request Access on the Steam page ahead of the beta. From Dec 22 to Jan 2, Wraithbinder will be playable in your Steam library.
Please share your feedback on Wraithbinder's Discord server. It helps to make this game more awesome. Your feedback also helps improve the game for Steam Next Fest Feburary 2024.
Exclusive Hair Style
As a thank you for playing Wraithbinder's beta, please enjoy claiming this exclusive hairstyle. Only players of the beta will ever be able to own this item. Grab it during the beta or never. Just visit the Forge on the ship and purchase 'Beta Haircut.' It only costs 1 gold:
There's a whole bunch of new content since last beta. Let's check out what's new.
New Bosses
You'll discover three new bosses lurking in the world of Wraithbinder.
Rizoel, Lord of the Insatiable, carries a powerful hammer that can destroy permanent walls. Running from his chaos of destruction is only natural:
Gzrel, the Piercing Wind, carries an ancient bow crafted by her long-dead progenitors. Be wary of her ability to teleport and summon deadly sidekicks:
Puriel, Archangel of Punishment, can launch himself into a blazing sprint of death dealing. A wise wraithbinder will dodge his elemental trails of woe:
Metroidvania Elements
What makes Wraithbinder unique from other top-down roguelikes like Hades, Warm Snow, Binding of Isaac, etc. is that it blends in Metroidvania elements. Guided non-linearity, utility-gated exploration and progression are hallmarks of this genre that are gradually being added to the Wraithbinder experience.
With this in mind, I've created a fog of war system for Wraithbinder. It adds a fun sense of mystery to the game and rewards you for thorough exploration. The fog also hides secret areas by only dissipating once you've uncovered a secret path:
I remember the joy of discovering a hidden energy tank in the ceiling of a cavern in Super Metroid. Using this as inspiration, there are now secret wall blocks in Wraithbinder where attacking them can reveal a powerful hidden item:
New Floor Types
There are new types of floors you'll find randomized into each run. Dark floors have fog that is so thick and encroaching that enemies can seem to burst from the mist:
Take care on this kind of floor and remember to ignite fires that drive away the darkness:
New Enemies
There are many new types of enemies you will discover.
There's a new relic called Wraithbinder that increases your total amount of bindable wraiths. Attack Buffer will buff all your wraiths' attacks while Defense Buffer will buff their defense:
More New Stuff
There's lots more new content but this post is already getting long so let's save it for part 2 next week...
What About the Multiplayer?
The important, foundational work for online co-op is done, yet there is much left to do. Since Wraithbinder will be participating in Steam Next Fest, I've decided to focus on creating the best demo possible and save the online co-op for sometime during the game's Early Access period.
What's Next?
Wraithbinder will be launching its first public demo during Steam Next Fest, Feb 05 - 12, 2024. There's some significant new content you will be able to experience in February's demo that won't be a part of December's beta...
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.
Wraithbinder's 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.
That's all for now. Cheers and happy holidays,
-Wizard
Playing Wraithbinder Live
Join me as I play Wraithbinder live at Steam Next Fest! In this stream, I will be continuing a new character from a previous run. Root for me (or not) as I attempt to beat the final boss. I will be pausing the game to answer your questions in the chat as they come up.
Time and date subject to change... Set a reminder to know exactly when.
Wraithbinder is a top-down roguelike game with metroidvania elements from the creator of Songbringer. Each run you gain a random set of abilities, each one allowing you further access to the randomly-generated world. When you die, you keep some gold & light to power up your character permanently for another attempt.
Cheers,
Wizard
Playing Wraithbinder Live
Join me as I play Wraithbinder live at Steam Next Fest! 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.
Time and date subject to change... Set a reminder to know exactly when.
Wraithbinder is a top-down roguelike game with metroidvania elements from the creator of Songbringer. Each run you gain a random set of abilities, each one allowing you further access to the randomly-generated world. When you die, you keep some gold & light to power up your character permanently for another attempt.
Cheers,
Wizard
Another Beta Dedicated to Multiplayer is Coming Soon
Greetings, brave warriors!
Here we are wrapping up another fun Wraithbinder beta. Thanks to your feedback, some improvements were made like solving random crashes and adding Steam Cloud sync.
About that multiplayer...
Welp, after working on this feature non-stop for most of the last few months, there are still some quality issues. Basically, making a multiplayer game by myself has been a supreme technical challenge. lol. Rest assured, I have made an online multiplayer game before, so I'm confident everything will work out eventually.
Another beta soon-ish
I want to share this multiplayer feature with you when it is high quality, smooth as butter and a super fun experience with friends. In light of that, Wraithbinder will return soon with another beta dedicated entirely to multiplayer.
As soon as I am confident with the code, I will post an announcement on Twitter, Discord and Steam letting you know it’s available to play. It will be like a surprise beta!
A list of what's new in the latest couple updates:
Solved the Boss missing his axe weapon
Made relics land in an X shape so they are never on top of each other
Solved "server timeout" message between floors when not connected to the Internet
Solved a framerate slowdown issue
Enabled Steam Cloud sync
Separated settings per platform so a player can have different settings depending on the device they are using
Improved menu sounds so they are less bleep bloop
Solved character's name off the top of the traits menu for some window ratios
Solved Continue always starting player aboard ship in offline mode
Solved character getting stuck aiming in one direction
Solved characters able to use Blink, Boots, Bow and Boomerang during cutscenes
Hopefully solved the random crashes when transitioning to next floor
Created a menu down arrow animation for menus that are scrollable
Made the mouse cursor more noticeable
Made all menu options cycle / wrap so its easier to use when only left clicking
Made character style choice either random or sequential based on option
Changed "X ability is required" to "An ability is required" to not influence player's choice of ability
Disallow Dash ability from crossing Boots or Blink gates
Solved Bomb and Jump abilities missing tooltips
Solve characters rotating on main menu accidentally
Solved a bug where picking up an alternate weapon would instantly crash the game
Created the Join Game menu which lists matches a player can join
Made small chests spawn multiple items in multiplayer
Made multiplayer share exp for creep kills when players are near each other
Limited multiplayer co-op mode to 2 players for now
Solved many, many multiplayer desyncs
That’s all for now, bravest of warriors,
-Wizard
Play Wraithbinder’s beta from now to July 28
Game on. 🎮 Wraithbinder beta is now playable in your Steam library. Multiplayer is planned to be enabled with an update next week.
TL;DR: Please enjoy the single player version of Wraithbinder beta for now. There's an update coming next Tuesday and next Friday, either of which might have online co-op multiplayer finished.
Because of this delay in multiplayer, I'm extending this beta's finish date from July 25th to July 28th.
Thanks for your patience,
Wizard
Play Wraithbinder’s beta with online co-op July 14 - 25
Hello person, I really want to thank you for the valuable feedback you’ve provided so far. It really helps to understand how to improve the game experience. Now it’s time for you to show your friends how to bind Wraiths and wreak havoc. Tell me what you think of this new co-op mode.
To invite a friend to play with you, make sure you both click Request Access on the Steam page ahead of the beta. From July 14 to 25 Wraithbinder will be playable in your Steam library. Simply launch the game, head over to “New Game” and select “Co-op” to create a session that your friends can join. Your friend will need to select “Join Game”, then choose a match. What could possibly go wrong?? lol
More players, enemies, rewards, fun
The number of enemies will be proportional to the number of players here to slay them: two players means twice the amount of enemies on the map. Rewards like gold and light are also multiplied by the number of players. Items and Wraiths are outlined with the color of the player who owns them so it's easy to identify what’s yours or not. Relics and ability items have also been increased to accommodate multiple players.
Four arms, many Wraiths and two brains
Some coordination is required in co-op. Please note that characters will be teleported to the boss whenever one player triggers the encounter. Also players must all use the elevator to proceed to the next floor of the dungeon.
Improvements based on your feedback
I’ve done some visual improvements and some general refinements thanks to the feedback you shared during the last beta. I’m also happy to share that the game uses less memory and less disk space. Check the release notes below for more details.
Surprises
There might be some new relics with fun effects being added to the game…
Your feedback is crucial
The best way to help the development of the game is to join the dedicated Discord server and share your thoughts there.
See you aboard the Ship,
Wizard
—-----------------
Release Notes A recap of the changes since the last beta in April:
Added the ability to drop an item from your inventory
Got multiplayer clients able to communicate peer-to-peer (P2P) which can have less lag than the client-server model
Got multiplayer clients able to create lobbies to wait until other players join
Got multiplayer clients able to use elevators together so dungeon transitions can happen in sync
Got multiplayer clients able to continue a saved match together
Increased the amount of relics per chest and abilities per dungeon to four so up to four players can gain
Increased enemy counts, elemental counts, boss HP and item rewards in multiplayer
Nerfed enemy HP, speed and damage slightly for advanced, high-grade, high-total-light characters
Made all players teleport to the boss when one player triggers the encounter
Made items colored depending on which player owns them
Made ping time turn red when multiplayer desync is detected
Made Levitate do an upwards blink at first
Made eroding dungeon erode at a consistent speed no matter the width of the dungeon
Abilities are now announced on screen before you pick them up
Increased the speed of the online server
Solved many, many multiplayer desyncs
Improved the visual clarity by reducing the messiness of 45-degree rotated voxel models
Improved the aesthetic of hero animations by applying highlights to specific sections
Improved the aesthetic of hero animations by reducing visual noise
Rendered player behind bow normally, not xray
Made Boomerang trail more consistent and fade faster
Saved the game when you beat a boss and when you pick up the items
Reduced voxel engine memory usage
Reduced disk usage significantly and startup duration sometimes by not using the file cache
Improved loading speed significantly
Got multiplayer clients to wait until all are ready before opening curtains
Got multiplayer clients able to pause to wait for other players
Solved some multiplayer desyncs
Solved announcements fading too fast sometimes
Solved visiting the cosmetic menu taking a long time
Stopped moving the mouse if the window is not in focus
Solved several buffer overflow, buffer overlap and deleted memory access issues
Solved an important issue where dash i-frames would not work
Made it easier to tell whats friendly & what isn't, enemies now have a warning animation when they first see you
Made the Inventory menu show at a glance the Magical / Rare / Epic kind and whether it is an increase or decrease compared to equipped item
Made enemies not render with x-ray vision if occluded by other enemies (reduces visual noise)
Made player animations able to mix upper and lower body parts so you can run while shooting, etc.
Improved the aesthetic of player models by using more contrast, more solid colors and reducing noise
Improved the aesthetic of getting hit by using solid colors (reduces visual noise)
Improved the aesthetic of Boots, Blink and Jump animations
Increased the quality of explosion animations
Reduced the noisy visuals of Pillars, Jars, Light
Made air woosh animation less noisy by not layering on top of itself
Made warning animations not cast shadows
Made menu buttons and tabs able to animate a pressed state
Got two multiplayer clients able to join and send packets to each other in sync
Got creep wraiths, abilities and other tokens transmitted to all clients
Added the libraries for P2P multiplayer support on Windows, Linux and Mac
Solved an issue where sometimes dashing would not have a white outline
Solved an issue where wiggling the mouse caused a sound effect to be played too much
Solved the running dungeon sometimes not having clouds
Thanks for playing! Next beta is July 14 - 25
Thanks for playing Wraithbinder's 3rd beta and for sending your feedback! Hope you enjoyed. Your feedback has gone into a prioritized list and will be worked on over the next few months.
The next public beta will take place July 14th through the 25th. It will have online co-op and more. See the updated roadmap.
