Heart & Slash (now at Endless Mode Update) $

[getter77]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/326840/ Win/Mac/Linux/PS4 $14.99

Heart&Slash is a 3D brawler that is set in a world where machines are all that remains from the Human civilization.

You play as Heart, an innocent robot fighting to escape the grip of the evil and all seeing machine QuAsSy (Quality Assurance Systems).

But make no mistake Heart&Slash is a hard game. Every death is permanent and means a new randomly generated level for you to start over with a different set of weapons and items you can use, new enemies to fight and secrets to explore.

Heart&Slash is an indie game developed by a small but passionate team. We have a tiny budget but big hearts, and we are giving it all to make this game (our first) the best we can.

Features (on final release):
-3 worlds to explore and fight in. Each world includes its unique enemies an bosses.
-Dozens of different weapons and equipment pieces (more than 100 in total) to customize Heart and your play style.
-Perma-death, but a persistent progression system that gives you more options as you play the game.

We hope you enjoy Heart&Slash as much as we enjoy making it!

Welcome!

The time has finally come. Two and a half years since we officially started working on the project, Heart&Slash is released on PC. It's been a long journey, including a successful Kickstarter, lots on iteration on the different ideas on how to properly tell Heart's journey and, most of all, lots of work.

The release comes with the addition of the soundtrack as optional DLC.

We are very proud of the final form the game has reached. Thanks to the feedback from our backers and Early Access players, we think we have managed to reach a level of polish we wouldn't have otherwise. So far, the Steam reviewes are there to back this impression.
We hope it will remain the same and new players will enjoy it as much as we have creating it.

WHAT'S ON VERSION 1.0.0
For the official release we have implemented several fixes and improvements. These stack on top of the releases of the last couple of weeks, which introduced a new version of the third level, Super Elite versions of bots with randomized weaknesses and resistances and a refactor of how the heads worked.

The most important changes coming in 1.0.0 are:
Chances of getting a piece of equipment are greater if seen less often than others.
COPGORE encounter improvements, including speed, collisions and difficulty.
FRANK-Y encounter can be completed faster with physical equipment. But FRANK-Y is also a bit more vicious in its attacks.

And bugixes implemented:
Recycling heads with a target locked no longer breaks the camera.
Steps sound in third level fixed.
Disco Bomb plays in the music channel.

Also included is a present for hardcore players who were trying to unlock all achievements. In the enemies encyclopedia you can now see how many enemies of each kind you have defeated, making it easier to plan your runs.

WHAT'S IN STORE FOR THE FUTURE
We still have a Kickstarter goal to complete: the Endless Dungeon mode. We will start working on it now. It should be ready in a few weeks and will be released on a beta channel before going live.

We also have to work on some rewards for Kickstarter backers. We will get in touch with you as things progress.

And, of course, we'll keep fixing bugs and making small improvements gradually.

FOR PLAYERS OF OLD BUILDS
If you were an Early Access player but have not played for some time, be adviced that some configuration files have changed in recent versions of the game. We recommend removing the settings files (and purging Steam's cloud sync for Heart&Slash) before playing again. Check the pinned discussion for information on how to do it.


And that's all. Thanks for the journey and enjoy the game!

Best wishes from the aheartfulofgames team.

[Aleksanderus]

Totally original title 11/10 IGN

[Lord_Mork]

Wow, what a nice "roguelike" game. 

[getter77]

Endless Mode

Hi, all!

Today we are finally releasing the Endless Dungeon mode of Heart&Slash. Follow Slash in its eternal struggle to escape from QUASSY's grip. It might be a never ending fight, but doesn't mean you can't have fun trying!

This new mode is available to all players, and will pitch you against a maze of rooms, filled with ever stronger enemies and less and less equipment to support you. The deeper you get, the more scarce your resources. Use every trick and exploit every weakness, and climb to the top of the rankings!

Improvements to rankings display, specially for the top 3.
Removed Heartless enemies from all transitions minus the loop one in Endless Dungeon.
Added new, hardest versions of the Heartless encounter in Endless Dungeon.
By default, camera speed is set to 50%, instead of 100%.
Set Slash's theme as soundtrack for Endless Dungeon.
Added new enemy Heartless on Endless Dungeon.
Fixed rooms in Endless Dungeon which would not open after completing the combat.
Fixes to Endless Dungeon rankings.
Meat Cleaver no longer spawns in Endless Dungeon.
Balance changes to Endless Dungeon.

Heartless, a version of Heart which does not feel the same way towards Slash. They will be special enemies found regularly, with varied equipment.

We've also tweaked the length of sections and adjusted the difficulty. The number of enemies and their speed scales a little slower now, so a whole cycle is relatively achievable.

ENDING
Now, once SLASH is present at the final encounter, it can be defeated as usual, getting you the "bad ending." We have also made some changes so that it's a bit easier to guess how to achieve the "good ending."

HALLWOEEN REMINDER

But before that, a quick reminder: an extra character can be unlocked during this and the next week. It comes with its own achievement, but it still cool nonetheless!
So remember to run the game and try it out!

LOCKED FRAMERATE

Regarding the patch, it brings some minor improvements, but the most relevant change is the addition of a locked framerate option. If you're PC is beefy enough, you're probably running Heart&Slash at 200+ frames per second, unnecessarily turning your system into a small scale heater.

Now, by default, Heart&Slash runs at locked 60fps. That should be good enough for most users, but those interested in higher (or lower) framerates in tandem with v-sync, you can modify the framerate by editing the video settings file and adding or modifying a line:

fpsLimit:30

to set the framerate to locked 30fps.
If the line is not present, you can change any video setting, exit the game to make sure the new value is saved and then open the settings file.

Of course, we don't recommend setting the framerate to anything below 30fps, because the game will run much slower than desired and the dynamic resolution system will kick in.