Author Topic: Soulblight  (Read 118429 times)

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #105 on: March 15, 2018, 10:08:51 PM »
Hi Everybody
So we're finally here - Just a moment ago Soulblight when live on Steam. :)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/530930/Soulblight/

As you might know Soulblight is a personal project for us. For this special day I asked our story designer Jurek to tell you about it:

=========================================

Hi, Jurek here
Today I wanted to tell you about a week when I got really annoyed with Kuba - Soulblight's designer, programmer and generally the heart and soul of the project.

With our release date approaching Kuba wanted me to write something personal about our game and about what we wanted to say with it. I wasn't really happy with the idea, for two reasons. Firstly, everything I wanted to say with Soulblight I already said in the game using all the tools we had to convey it. I feel that retelling it here would spoil it for those who are actually going to play the game. And secondly, I don't think it's ever a good idea to interpret any piece of art form for someone else. That's something that has to come to every single person individually.

But Kuba insisted. We argued a little bit about it, I tried to explain that I don't know anything about marketing, and of course as a writer I had to throw in "I'm not a salesman" somewhere into the discussion. But it still didn't change his mind.

So I sat down and tried writing knowing that I will fail so that I could show him the results and say "See, I told you so!"



I tried approaching it from many different perspectives. I started by explaining why we wanted to make a difficult game. The obvious reason being that those are the games that we ourselves enjoy. We like the challenge whether it be a From Software production or something conjured by the likes of Bennett Foddy. I would also slip in something about how what we wanted to say would not work had the game been easy.

But I wasn't quite happy with the result so I tried another approach



I started writing about what kind of a gamer is a rogue-like player? Someone who is willing to lose all the in-game progress with every attempt and what does that say about them and their determination? Then I started to wonder what would happen if they were presented with another way? A short cut. Would they take it? What if we tempted them enough? Then I touched a little bit on morality systems in video games and how we wanted to incorporate them in Soulblight.

But again it seemed that with every word I wrote I got further away from what's my personal take on this game.



So I wrote about how the idea of Soulblight came to be. I explained how Kuba surprised me when he told me about wanting to make a story-driven rogue-lite. I didn't expect that since it's not typical of a game of that genre.

But I didn't feel that it was good enough either. I told Kuba that I don't know what else to do, but he annoyingly (to me at that time) said "keep trying and remember keep it personal". I felt hopeless and angry.

I needed some way of venting my frustrations. So instead of writing I, naturally, started to procrastinate. After a while I decided to pick up a controller and play our game, you know to "look for inspiration". It successfully managed to distract me from what I was really supposed to do. So I played and I died a couple of times, as I usually do. But I didn't quit, knowing what's waiting for me as soon as I'm done. With each play through I got a little bit further. After a couple of hours of playing something unthinkable happened. I managed to beat that one boss that I always lose to. I couldn't believe it. I had to adjust myself in my seat as I continued to play. I got a little further then I beat another level and then another boss. That's when my palms started to sweat as I knew I was getting closer and closer to the end. Then another boss fell. Despite the fact that I knew exactly what would happen next I got nervous and a thought came to my mind "Oh my God, I'm going to do it! I'm going to beat this game!". After an evening of avoiding responsibilities I did it, for the first time since the beginning of the production process I managed to beat our game from beginning to end.

As a game creator you hope to invoke partilucar feelings in people playing your game. But because you yourself designed it, wrote it and seen it numerous times you can't know for sure if you achieved that effect. So the only thing you can do is to hope that it's there and that the players will know what you meant. And when I finally beat the game, despite hundreads of hours of testing I have a feeling that maybe they will. That's when I thought "Maybe that's something worth telling people about?".



That's all I wanted to say. Sorry it took this long to say it, but if I was to shorten this whole thing to a single line, I don't think it would do us any good - "Soulblight - it's more fun than writing a paper".

Lastly, if you got through this whole text, I applaud you. That's a good indicator that you don't give up easily, so maybe, just maybe you're the person we're speaking to.

That's it from me. I really hope you'll enjoy our game.
Jurek

*Before writing this I didn't realize that I'm this childish.

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #106 on: March 20, 2018, 04:04:51 PM »
Hello Everybody
Hope you didn't think that I will stop posting after the launch :)

Although the game is released we're still putting some extra effort into it. If you haven't noticed Sunday night there was an update. Here's a short change log:
  • Slightly decreased shop prices
  • The Dead pixel issue in the middle of the screen fixed
  • The info about game progress and best run time added to the save slot
  • Minor fix in the Sound pipeline (hope this was the thing causing sound staggering. I can't be 100% sure as I wasn't able to reproduce it :( )
  • Slight Taint power adjustment for the purposes of balance
  • Other minor bug fixes

Also for thous of you who has been following us since the kickstarter. You might remember this stretch goal:

Forgot to mention It earlier but although we didn't reach this stretch goal we decided we can't imagine our game without it - the game has two endings :)

Cya Around
Kuba

P.S
For thous who follow my weekly dev vlog here's the missing one form the last week (I recorded it but didn't have time to post it)
https://youtu.be/hsqz6a9w1IQ
And here's another one I recorded yesterday
https://youtu.be/A0pfi4_pEeY

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #107 on: March 26, 2018, 03:26:05 PM »
Hey Everybody
Before we move on to this week's topic Let's tackle the official part first - New Soulblight update has just went live :) Here's the change log:
  • New Language Support: French
  • New Language Support: Italian
  • Stamina Cost of Block lowered (We want for it to be more useful for heavy armored characters)
  • Pad control schemes with inverse block and dash buttons added
  • Every locked chest will now contain at least one item
  • Slight re-balance of Dr. Morikay Boss fight. (More info here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/530930/discussions/0/2650805212060856683/)
  • Other minor bug fixes



Ok so now let's move to the topic at hand - What's next for Soulblight

Although the game has already been released we'd like to continue improving it on weekly basis. I've sat down this week and wrote up a roadmap. I decided it would be best to keep you guys up to date so here's the plan for 3 upcoming weeks:
  • Taint Room progression
  • Leaderboards
  • Two additional taints
If you guys have any ideas on what you'd like to see added to the game feel free to post them on our subreedit - r/MyNextGames

Cya Around
Kuba

P.S
And of course dev vlog for this week :)
https://youtu.be/WMmeW-10OEI
And here's combat mechanics discussion thread I mentioned:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/530930/discussions/0/1697168437869857476/
« Last Edit: March 26, 2018, 04:00:41 PM by abraksil »

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #108 on: April 01, 2018, 08:19:56 PM »
Hey Everybody - Happy Easters!
Yup! The new Soulblight update is now live. When you launch the game you might noticed the following things:
- Taints are now randomly assigned to the path
- Not all taint room paths are unlocked from the start



What we've realized during last couple of weeks was that allowing player to chose from all 4 taints every level actually decreased the replay value of our game. After few runs everybody has a favorite setup and stops experimenting with other available option. Yes - randomly assigning taints to the path and adding a lot of new taints would have solved the problem. Although we plan on adding new personalities it will take some time and we thought this problem couldn't wait that long. On the other hand some of you mentioned the game could use some additional progression mechanics. And so the idea pop into our minds - we've decided to kill two birds with a one stone :)



Now at the start of the game only two paths with random taints will be available. This way you will no longer be able to use the same taint setup in every game. To get access to additional choice options you will need to unlock the other paths. You do it with Corrupted Cores. Every time you defeat the boss you will get one Corrupted Core. Power up the taint room with 3 of thous and a new path will open :)



To add even more depth to taint selection we've also introduced to the game a less powerful version of the core. The Energy Core will alow you to re-role one of the taint options and it is now available to buy at Cecil's Dungeon Crawling Paraphernalia Emporium ;)

Cya Around,
Kuba

P.S
The Dev vlog for this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoNbfnnuCwQ

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #109 on: April 09, 2018, 09:51:32 PM »
Hey Everybody
As you might know on Saturday we were celebrating Soulblight release in Kraków

I stayed up a bit longer on friday to finish adding leaderboards to the game. And so the new the update is live :) Now the players will be ranked by two factors. First base on their progress, then base on their time. When you launch the game you might realize that actually it includes two simular rankings.

As I plan to regularly update the game to keep results relatively comparable the scores from the last few updates will be stored in the "THIS ROUND" category. This leaderboard will be cleared on month to month bases. Don't worry though, we won't let your best runs to fall into oblivion :) Thous will be stored in "ALL TIMES" category as well :) If you've been able to pull of particularity good run before this update and you have it on your Save Slot it should be included in the ranking as soon as you launch the game.

Hope to see some of you tomorrow in Kraków :)
Cya Around,
Kuba

P.S
And the dev vlog for this week :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJSjq6d8pxo

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #110 on: April 13, 2018, 07:30:50 PM »


Hey Everybody
Another week - another Soulblight update :) This week we've added new Hypochondriac taint to the game. There is of course a new achievement available for aquiering it as well :)



P.S
In this week's vlog we have a special guest :) Bartek my cousin's son doped by basement studio :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEDB3aEoxh4

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #111 on: April 22, 2018, 02:56:29 PM »

This week somthing for speedrunners - The Impatient Taint :)

And of corse the dev vlog for this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mbGlDv004Y
And if you're intrested in Hyperion audiobook I mentioned here it is:
https://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Hyperion-Audiobook/B002V5BLIW

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #112 on: April 29, 2018, 06:32:08 PM »

For this week's update we have three new gauntlet type weapons. As you can see this are designed around dealing passive damage. We've also significantly increased overall passive damage effectiveness. With this changes we hope to create new play style for both faster and slower characters. Pick up a pair of gauntlets and bleed your enemies to death! :D

Cya Around,
Kuba

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #113 on: May 05, 2018, 01:25:19 PM »

Hello everybody,
This week we added three more gauntlets. They will empower your fist fighting efficiency or can be used in combinations with other weapons as well.

As you can see, we keep adding new stuff on weekly basis. We have lots of ideas for how to enrich the game and we want you to help us choose thous we should go with first :) This is why starting today once a week we will set up a poll on our Discord channel. Currently we're considering witch of the light armors we should add in the next update - sneaky Nerajatan Robe and spikey Camahueto Armor!

Here's the link to the discord channel where you can vote: https://discord.gg/trP7mPE
Poll will be ending on next Wednesday

Cya Around
Kuba

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #114 on: May 14, 2018, 01:09:46 PM »
Hello everybody,
This week’s update is a bit late as we needed to patch couple of new bugs that you’ve reported after the optimization round we’ve performed last week. The build with all the fixes is now up and running :).

The new version of the game includes also a new Camahueto Armor Set that you’ve chosen to be added in last week’s pool. Its Passive Damage ability will empower your close-combat-oriented style and maybe help you survive a bit longer then without it ;)

This week’s weekly Discord poll is already up as well. It gives you a chance to decide between another two armors - light Bull-leaper's Suit (on the left) and studded Armor of Oblivion(on the right). Poll is ending this Wensday
Vote here: https://discord.gg/trP7mPE

Cya Around
Kuba

P.S
Took a one week break from my weekly vloging and decided to move the vlog day to wensday. Here's the vlog from last week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTtqCOU6njM

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #115 on: May 18, 2018, 11:13:37 PM »
Hello everybody,
This week Soulblight armory have been enriched by Bull-leaper Suit which you've chosen in our Discrod poll! (www.discord.gg/trP7mPE) Although it offers small protection value its power lies with “Faster Sneaking” unique property. Thanks to this you’ll be able to avoid damage in another, more gentle way ;)

Also this week we’ve added an utility feature that you all might find very useful - a chance to preview the taint before acquiring it! Just walk onto the selected platform and the card with all the info will appear. Now, you will never be forced to blind pick the taint when you don’t remember it’s symbol.

And of course the poll. :) This week it’s a bit different as you are choosing between two taints: Superstitious and Slothful.

Which one should we add to the game first? Let us know by voting at our Discord channel: www.discord.gg/trP7mPE
Poll is ending traditionally next Wensday.

Cya around,
Kuba

P.S
I bumped into NetMoverSitan Soulblight series this week. Love his voice over for characters and epic episode cliffhangers :D Go check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kPzUm8InNQ

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #116 on: May 26, 2018, 01:41:45 PM »

Hello everybody,
Yep Another week - another update :) This time in our weekly poll ( discord.gg/trP7mPE ) you’ve chosen the Superstitious taint to be added to the game.

There has been a lot of changes in Soulblight recently, hasn’t it? The time has come to refresh the competitive element of our game :) Today we'll be resetting our online ranking. (don't worry you best run will still be stored in all times section). Let us all take one final look at this rounds best players and congratulate Terk for being at the top for such a long time.

With the launch of a new round of competition we would like to spice the things up a bit and introduce Soulblight Weekly chellenge!

Here's how it will work:
- From now on every Friday evening we will be resetting "This Round" leaderboard
- The Person at the top of the board at the moment of the reset will be announced the winner
- The winner of the challenge will be rewarded with a little reword that we will announce at the start of every round

This week you are fighting for a game made by our good friends at Bulbware - Bulb Boy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/390290/Bulb_Boy

Ohh and a new weekly poll is already live! Once more we're choosing a Soulblight armory. Which one should we add next week? Light Estaut armor (right) or Studded Armor with passive damage(left)?
Let us know by voting at our Discord channel: discord.gg/trP7mPE
Poll is ending traditionally next Wensday.

Cya around,
Kuba

P.S
NetMoverSitan made a taint guide - go check it out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv7s7qbkJn8&t=0s

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #117 on: June 04, 2018, 12:20:15 PM »

Hello everybody,
Today we have a little surprise for you all :D This week we’ve launched Soulblight Demo on Steam! We will be updating it along the main game. If you’d like to follow our and you don’t own the game drop by our Steam page and Downlaod the Demo
https://store.steampowered.com/app/530930/Soulblight/

Our first Weekly Soulblight Challenge is behind us. Let’s all congratulate NetMoverSitan for winning this round!

To those who didn’t make it - don’t warry, The next Soulblight Weekly Challenge is about to begin! This time you are fighting for “Archaica: The Path of Light” - The game made by two brothere Marcin and Piotrek Tureccy also know as The Two Mammoths.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/550590/Archaica_The_Path_of_Light/
As to our weekly poll - you’ve chosen the Estaut Armor to be added to the game. It’s a fancy one yet boosts your sneaking ability! It’s another one with “Faster Sneaking” special property. It seems to us you like this ninja-like approach to the game ;)

And of course a new weekly poll is already live! This time your choosing on of two taints based on diferen designe aproach. Insted of granting you ability to build up synnergy they ofere a you a small fixed bonus and a powerful combat altering mechanics empowering certain equipment builds.

Let us know witch of these should we add to Soulblight this week by voting in a poll on our Discord channel: www.discord.gg/trP7mPE
Poll is ending traditionally next Wensday.

Cya around,
Kuba

abraksil

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #118 on: June 10, 2018, 12:44:49 PM »

Hello
Another week is behind us and once more a new update is live. This time you’ve chosen an
Unyielding taint to be added to the game. Of course a new weekly poll is also already live. Armor of Oblivion or Nerajatans Robe decide which should we include in next weeks update. Vote on our discord channel www.discord.gg/trP7mPE Voting ends on next Wednesday.

As to our Weekly Soulbluht challenge - This week the winner is Kruker and he receives the Archaica steam key.

The “This Round” leaderboard has been reseted and the competition for another reward has begun. This time - Lust for Darkness. The game isn't finished yet but we've got our hands on the exclusive demo available only during their kickstarter campaign:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/523650/Lust_for_Darkness/

Person on the top of "This Round" leaderboard next friday evening will be receiving the key

That would be all for this week
Cya Around
Kuba

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Re: Soulblight
« Reply #119 on: June 17, 2018, 01:14:14 PM »
Hello everybody,
And another Weekly Soublight Challenge is over! This time, Kruker is the winner of Lust for Darkness steam key! Congratulations!

We don’t slower the pace - the next prize to win in your struggle will be demo of a photorealistic survival horror game - The Beast Inside!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/792300/The_Beast_Inside/
Armor of Oblivion turned out to be our weekly poll winner!
This nice piece of armor have a fine protection from distant strikes and gives you a passive damage bonus, when you are in close combat!

And finally, our new weekly poll is already live! This time we are moving to more advanced taints from second level. You’re choosing between Stubborn and Sly. The first one is for fanatics of exploration and long Soulblight sessions ;) The second Taint make your character borned with a silver spoon in his mouth - you obtain a chance of doging the atack, when you are seconds away from getting injured or even killed.

Let us know which of these should we add to Soulblight this week by voting in a poll on our Discord channel: www.discord.gg/trP7mPE Poll is ending traditionally next Wensday

Cya Around,
Kuba
« Last Edit: June 17, 2018, 01:16:18 PM by abraksil »