The day's finally here, the full release of FOUNTAINS! For those of you who came in late, FOUNTAINS is a souls-like action-RPG I've been developing for the best part of five years. It's my take on the game I've always wanted to play - high-skilled combat, mysterious vibes, item-based progression, and most importantly, a world that feels like an interconnected labyrinth.
The combat in FOUNTAINS is meant to be tight and snappy, with each fight being a carefully timed dance with your opponent. It takes inspiration from the best action games ever made: Dark Souls, Hyper Light Drifter, and Hollow Knight. I tried to pick-and-choose the best elements of combat from my favourite games, and turned them into a Frankenstein which somehow feels coherent. Progression in FOUNTAINS will feel familiar to fans of the "metroidvania" genre. The most exciting upgrades come from defeating bosses and stealing their powers. Each upgrade is not only a key which unlocks new parts of the world, but also a tool that can be used in combat. To name a few, you'll be unlocking a laser, a hookshot, a bomb, and a dashing slash. Finding interesting ways to combo your abilities is key to dominating boss fights. If there's any reason to play FOUNTAINS, it's the world design. This is the part of the game I'm most proud of. Each "area" is so tightly connected with the rest of the world that it's hard to define clear borders between them. Throughout the game, you'll be finding shortcuts and tools to make traversal easier, while gradually filling out your map. You can also read notes left by other players for hints about secrets and shortcuts which might be less obvious. Thanks for reading about FOUNTAINS! I hope you give it a try, and let me know what you think.

Patch notes available on the Itch.io page

As the Kickstarter has almost hit its goal, we'd like to celebrate with a speedrunning competition! Whoever defeats the Chainmaster boss in the fastest time will get to name an NPC in the full version of the game, and receive a free extra copy of FOUNTAINS on release! Full rules and details here Have fun!

The second patch of the demo is here! This patch adds a world map system, more music tracks, a lot of bugfixes, and more secret content.
FOUNTAINS Demo 1.3 Patch Notes Features: - World Map System (To open, press X on keyboard, or down on the D-Pad) - New music for Guard Dog boss fight (Thanks, Travis Moberg!) - New music for Overgrown Church area (Again, thanks to Travis Moberg) Tweaks: - Buffed Guard Dog boss's melee damage - Red Mushroom now heals less, and more slowly. - Sprinting is faster - Toned down Doyle's dialect a bit Fixes: - Fix a stuck spot in Palace Garden under some banners - Fixed a typo in Sacha's dialogue - Fixed a possible sequence break: getting to Library before beating Hookmaster - Fixed being able to catch fish through a wooden bridge - Fixed unnecessarily nagging the player about no energy even if they didn't try to use energy - Fixed grapple-able wheat which would let you grapple to an island that wasn't supposed to be reached in the demo - Fixed Miners being permanently killable ... and even more *secret changes*! By the way - the game's Kickstarter is now at 84% funding with ten days to go! Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to the development of a full version of FOUNTAINS, we're almost there!

For those of you enjoying the FOUNTAINS demo on PC, here's something that might make you enjoy it even more: a map system! Here's a video showing it off: [previewyoutube=J6pO2BPrgnA;full][/previewyoutube] Expect the map system to arrive in a patch of the demo within a few days, along with more tweaks and bugfixes. As we've reached 56% funding on the FOUNTAINS Kckstarter with tons of time left, I'd like to announce our stretch goal: a Nintendo Switch port!
To port FOUNTAINS to the Switch, we'll have to work with a third-party service who has already ported the Godot game engine to the platform. If enough of you Switch players support this goal, I'm sure we can reach it! Thanks again to everyone for playing and supporting FOUNTAINS!

As promised, the first demo patch is here! The most important change here is sprinting, so when you're lost in the world of FOUNTAINS it won't take quite so long to find your way! There are tons of other bugfixes, tweaks and minor changes as well. I'd also like to thank everyone who has funded the full version of FOUNTAINS on Kickstarter, we're making great progress!
FOUNTAINS Demo 1.2 Patch Notes Features: - Added sprinting (Hold L2 on controller, shift on keyboard) - Added tutorial for movement and sprinting - Added dog petting animation - Added counter for how many dogs you've pet - Added ability to skip opening messages (Godot logo, controller recommendation) - Added ability to turn down or disable screen shake - Added brightness and contrast settings Tweaks: - Tall grass can now be walked through - Crates and barrels can be broken by rolling - Buffed a lot of enemies' speed to compensate for sprinting being added - Sword Guard and Spear Guard enemies now attack much more frequently - Slightly lowered water gained from hitting normal enemies - Added more flamethrowers in tutorial - Shortened opening cutscene text - Made roll go slightly further Fixes: - Roll will no longer go in the wrong direction after attacking while using keyboard direction controls - Quick item count now properly updates after picking up more of the item - Fixed various stuck spots and out of bounds glitches ... and some *secret changes*!

Thank you to everyone who has played FOUNTAINS in the first week! I'd like to announce that the Kickstarter for a full version of the game has launched! If you enjoyed the demo, please consider supporting the development of a full game. By the way, a patch of the demo is underway, which will fix some of the initial quality of life issues. For example, an option to skip the opening animations, to turn off screen-shake, etc. Most importantly, this patch will add a dog-petting animation, and a counter for how many dogs you've pet! [previewyoutube=ly_gDb-TvPU;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]