Welcome back - have a fresh update! This one has taken a bit, but I promise the wait has been worth it!



[h2]Key changes:[/h2]

• The Inverted Tower's depths are now much more interesting! (No spoilers!)
  
• The guaranteed "first dungeon" is now different.
  

• Many more dungeon pieces fit together, resulting in less predictable and denser-feeling layouts.
  
• Chests no longer trap characters/effects that are not supposed to be in them
  
• In the second level of the Prison, the exit should much more reliably be far away from the start.
  
• Stabbing attacks, projectiles, and similarly less-physical objects can pass through iron bars/grates and other "porous" obstacles. Enemies take advantage of this.
  
• Bonfires in the dungeon now emit more light.
  
• Enemies now path around tables.
  
• Doors no longer open to a full 90 degrees, making things become trapped by them less frequently.
  
• Knight-Wardens now hold Pikes less frequently.
  
• Giant Rats are now more deadly.
  

• Popup tutorials are now less intrusive when they appear but accumulate in the bottom right of the screen.
  
• Now, when popup tutorials are "opened" via the Start button, they pause the game and appear as "info" windows in the center of the screen
  
• Popup tutorials now display an image that adds context.
  
• Picking up an item in a non-standard hand is now more intuitive.
  
• The prompt that explains how to swap back after auto-stowing an item on pickup now also indicates how to drop items.
  
• The Prologue now more clearly indicates how to drop an item in a specific hand.
  

• Updated Unity version to 2023.3.21f1.
  
• Updated pathfinding library to latest version.
  
• Updated dialogue library to latest version.
  
• Sounds no longer play when offscreen by a sufficient margin, and their volume is always correct.
  
• GradualChangeFloatVal no longer causes extraneous error logging due to object inaction.
  
• Lightmaps can now contribute to the detected light level on entities.
  
• "Manaforged" arrows generated by "Producing" bows now deal 2 damage instead of 1, making them more viable.
  
• Various other visual tweaks and enhancements.
  

Tiny update here!

I was just traveling for a couple weeks, and noticed some bugs while away that I wanted to fix! (And some tweaks to the lighting stuff were suggested, which I have now incorporated!



[h2]Key changes:[/h2]

• Some lighting bugs have been fixed, and overall lighting quality has been further enhanced.
  
• The buttons for Invocations and Carried Items have been swapped on gamepad (making the layout closer to Dark Souls, and more aligned with the HUD).
  
• Demon packs in the second level are slightly less numerous.
  
• The Priest of Bones now has less health.
  
• Fixed a teleportation bug with certain boss arenas.
  
• It is now harder to get stuck behind objects in the dungeon.
  
• Animation rate changes (such as from becoming chilled) now better react to mid-animation adjustments
  

Greetings, dungeon delvers! With Steam Next Fest on the horizon, here's a massive polish update to make your Descents even more sinister!



[h2]Key changes:[/h2]

• Many things look significantly better.
  
• Many dungeon rooms have been revised.
  
• The boss fights on the first floor of the Prison have been revamped and made harder.
  

• Lighting quality now gracefully degrades as game quality is lowered. (Medium is now more performant on Steam Deck.)
  
• Added bloom to the game.
  
• The game now applies a dithered noise effect to the rendered game view. (This can be disabled in the graphics options if desired.)
  
• There are now several options to adjust how responsive the game camera is, reducing motion sickness in sensitive players.
  
• Bosses should now be prevented from being flung out of their arenas due to physics bugs.
  
• Initial audio volume is a bit less loud.
  
• Torches are a tiny bit brighter and less flicker-y.
  
• Footsteps are generally more audible, there is more variety in sound when stepping on various things, and footstep loudness more consistently interacts with entity AI.
  
• Greatbows are now a bit faster when firing power shots.
  
• Knight Lossaire is now less baffled by columns.
  
• The Knight of Blood's Thorn Rapier looks different, has more reach, and has a less stun-locky moveset when in close melee.
  
• Ice skulls are slightly less dangerous.
  

Tiny update here!

In preparation for the much bigger update that's coming, I added some fancy new lighting techniques in INTO EVIL!

Feast thine eyes:



I wanted to get this update out to make sure players could report any issues before the next update lands. Specifically, there's a slight chance this might cause performance issues on low-end devices - as such, the Quality setting in the options menu will actually impact certain things about lighting quality now.

Please let me know if you run into any problems at all!

[h2]Key changes:[/h2]

• Prepare thyself for even more demonic foes
  
• Ranged combat has been revised (see below)
  

• Three more terrifying fiends have been added to the depths: the Skinless Walker, Doomringer, and Ignifex
  
• Cruciform Thralls now sometimes scream when charging you
  
• The Priest of Blood's boss arena now contains foul, mysterious eggs...
  
• Gums can now shove their bulk backwards, knocking away players at their rear
  
• Greaselings now spread fire to nearby creatures and objects while burning
  
• Various other minor tweaks to enemy difficulty
  

• You can now find more ranged weapons: shortbows, longbows, and greatbows
  
• Bolts are now Arrows, and are used by both crossbows and regular bows
  
• Arrows have a high chance to persist after being fired, allowing you to pick them up again
  
• Projectiles now fire with different speed/duration multipliers from different weapons
  
• Crossbows now take longer to reload
  
• Quivers no longer provide endless ammo, but instead provide a larger, dedicated ammo pool that gets refilled as you discover ammo of the same type on your Descent.
  
• Individual arrows now gleam on the ground (like gold)
  

• Vampiric blood consumption now glows, making it much more visible in dark areas
  
• The Frozen Needles spell has been reworked and now provides a buff that auto-summons needles over time, instead of constantly needing to be recast
  
• Icicles summoned by Frozen Needles can now be used as arrows if you have no other ammo
  
• Carried items now show a comparison against the slot they would replace (if no space remains)
  
• Dropped horns can now be played
  
• Corpses of summons and ephemeral creatures now fade away and vanish
  

[h2]Enemy changes[/h2]

• Beware: 9 new devilish enemies have been added to the game.
  
• Tower Shield Guards now have an additional weapon, better AI, and are more "active"
  
• The branding iron no longer inflicts knockback (cultists instead are personally imbued with unnatural force)
  
• Flesh cultists should no longer stand around idle when no more frontline allies remain to engage with the player
  
• All demons now have darkvision.
  

• The "close" prompt for popup tutorials now moves a bit to help players see it
  
• Status icons are always shown if the user has a temporary/expiring one, making it easier to track their status
  
• All items with imbued spells now show a more fleshed-out description of the spell they cast
  
• Fixed a bug where dying in the character select hub soft-locked the player
  
• Recharge times of various spells have been tweaked for better balance.
  
• Armor now plays clash FX when fully negating a damaging blow
  
• Displayed item/ability info now handles the width of displayed content better
  
• Fixed a bug causing certain characters to spawn with equipment/property modifiers applied twice 9_9
  

[h2]Key changes:[/h2]

• Magic and spells have been revised and expanded (see below)
  
• The HUD has been revised and expanded (see below)
  
• All playable characters and NPCs have updated portraits (and their in-game appearance has been updated to match)
  
• The Barbarian and the Rogue have been removed from the game - they will return as part of the Mighty Weapons and Dual Wielding content updates after the Early Access launch (respectively)
  

• Pyromancy has been revised and contains 6 spells: Firebolt, Fireball, Ignition, Bonfire, Fireforge, and Mantle of Fire
  
• Cryomancy has been revised and contains 6 spells: Snap Freeze, Winterchill, Iceshatter Mine, Blizzard, Frozen Needles, and Mantle of Frost
  
• Tempestry has been revised and contains 6 spells: Step of the Wind, Static Spark, Lightning Bolt, Wind Blast, Sparkdash, and Thunderstorm
  
• Divination has been revised and contains 6 spells: Starlight, Starsight, Cartography, Intuition, Clarity, and Astral Projection
  
• Iasotrophy has been revised and contains 6 spells: Heal, Regeneration, Bolster, Inoculate, Blightbolt, and Toxic Mist
  
• Most spells can now be "charged up" to cause a "better" version of the effect with different properties
  
• Charging up spells causes your character to chant, which is audible to nearby enemies
  
• If your spell is disrupted before it is properly unleashed, it is "disrupted" and appropriate effects indicate that you lost the charge
  
• Spells that create an effect at a target spot can be more precisely placed with a mouse
  
• More effects now have magical auras that can be percieved
  
• Magical auras now (once revealed) can display text that explains what a given effect or aura "does"
  
• Spell Tomes are now held items that passively increase your knowledge of a selected spell while equipped held
  
• There is no longer a way to spend Vitae to permanently learn a spell; this feature will return in an upcoming update that will revise character progression
  
• There are now additional popup tutorials explaining the above during gameplay
  
• "Heroism" invocations - Battlecry, Flicker Dodge, etc - have been removed from the game and will be reworked in a later update.
  

• The look and feel of the on-character menu + HUD has been entirely redone
  
• Your player character's portrait now appears in the HUD "root menu"
  
• There is a new on-character submenu - "Invocations" - that explains the effects of all invocations a player currently has access to (including those castable from items)
  
• There is a new on-character submenu - "Active Effects" - that shows a description of any active status effects/debuffs on your character
  
• Buffs/sustained effects are now dispelled via the "Active Effects" menu
  
• Status bars/icons now appear above the player during active gameplay
  
• The HUD is now colorized with your player color
  
• You can now change your player color during character select
  

• Invocation order and focused carried item/invocation now properly persists between levels
  
• Bleed is now more dangerous
  
• Bloodfly clouds now apply bleed at a much faster rate
  
• Shock now damages entities that have negative lightning defense (such as from metal armor)
  
• The gates of the cages in the Prologue can no longer accidentally trap the player
  
• The shortcut in the Prologue can no be opened from the other side of the wall
  
• Knight Lossaire no longers cares about allies outside the boss arena
  
• Map generation should be more tolerant of rare errors
  

Welcome to the DUNGEON!

I will be hosting a livestream of INTO EVIL on October 11th! Swing on by and check it out!

A smaller update this time, mostly centered on usability improvements and bugfixes.

As usual, please file feedback in the Steam forums or on the INTO EVIL Discord!

[h2]HUD/Menu changes:[/h2]

• Carried items are no longer arranged "around" the character in the in-game HUD but are instead below them (mirroring the displayed Invocations)
  
• The multiplayer color indicator has been slightly adjusted to be more visible but less intrusive at all levels of camera zoom.
  
• Things are much more dramatic when a boss is slain
  
• "Escape" (or any other configured "start/menu" button input) now escapes the pause menu in the Descent.
  
• A list of all connected controllers is displayed in the Options > Input > Controllers menu
  
• The focused consumable slot can now be properly dropped from the Gear > Carried Items wheel
  
• Cycling through empty consumable slots on a gamepad no longer causes a "nothing to drop" popup (only long press)
  
• Long-range crossbow aiming now shows the prompt to "shoot" via hitting the Interact button for precise shots
  

• The game now auto-pauses when a player's controller is unplugged
  
• Auto lock-on and auto target switch can be disabled in the Options menu
  
• Enemy auto-lock is now weighted by "enemy importance" (i.e., it's easier to stay locked on to a boss instead of its minions)
  
• Manual locked-on target switching on gamepad has been improved and made easier to track
  
• It is easier to pan the camera around the edges of the screen with mouse and keyboard, and lock-on no longer disrupts this.
  
• You no longer dodge when leaving the on-character menu on a gamepad
  
• Crossbow fine-grained aiming now works properly again on gamepad.
  

• Enemies no longer turn their back to you when projecting your movement
  
• The fire pools in the Hellfire boss arenas now properly damage you repeatedly
  
• The whirling blades in the Priest of Flesh's boss arena now only cause regular damage flashes (to reduce visual noise when minions are getting struck)
  
• The flesh walls summoned by the Priest of Flesh now do not act as lock-on targets.
  
• Shields no longer block "zone" attacks (pools of fire, blizzards, etc)
  
• Quivers drop less frequently
  
• The crossbow aim indicator is no longer disabled when travelling between levels
  
• The radius in which you hear Blood Demon chittering has been decreased
  
• Fixed a typo in the demo final boss fight dialog.
  

[h2]Key changes:[/h2]

• Enemy AI has been significantly improved (see below)
  
• Item durability has been removed from the game
  

• Enemies avoid hazards and navigate levels much more consistently
  
• Spell effect zones now impact enemy pathing/avoidance
  
• Enemies may now avoid committing to attacks while a hazard/barrier is between them and their target
  
• Enemies detect and react to threats more consistently
  
• Enemy speech barks have been revised
  
• Human enemies are now more vocal about their internal understanding of the world
  
• Certain enemies can now partake in "activities" while not in combat (patrolling, etc)
  
• Characters in the prologue now are connected to the full AI system/path more intelligently
  

• Sneaking is now more consistent / intuitive (may still need tuning though, I'll watch for feedback)
  
• The AI Vision/Hearing systems has been revised
  
• Entities now take a brief period of time to react to sounds
  
• Once alerted, enemies will search for enemies/threats
  
• There is now a "visibility" indicator while stealthing that indicates how much light is on you
  
• Undisciplined enemies now can have an explicit "startled" animation+shout when they are alerted
  
• Startled enemies can now alert nearby allies to their perceived threat
  
• There are now various popup tutorials about stealth and how light/sound affect it
  
• The "Shadow's Veil" cloak now actually makes you harder to see while stealthing
  

• Enemies stay in a parried state spin for slightly longer + travel slightly slower
  
• Running/lunging attacks detect if they are chasing a target and, if so, travel for a longer/farther distance to reach them
  
• There are now tutorials for Parrying
  

• The Codex is now available during the Descent
  
• The Codex's layout has been simplified
  

• Dropping carried item is now "hold down on D-pad" on gamepad (instead of Hold A/X + down)
  
• The Prologue now contains a shortcut gate that can be persistently opened across runs, shortening future runs to the boss
  
• The "You Decend Even deeper" screen has been removed
  
• Bosses no longer have on-character speech barks
  
• Obelisks with directions below now have a blue light (to visually distinguish them from Vitae and link to Maria)
  
• The "static" first Descent now only lasts for a single run (instead of until you defeat the first boss) - it repeating seemed to be more frustrating than helpful
  
• The red vitae orbs embedded in the central pillar of nexus rooms can now be shattered for health pickups
  
• Keybinding now works properly when paused in the Descent
  
• Every Unity-referencing null-coalescing operator has been removed (these seem the most likely culprit for in-build crashes on entity deaths)
  
• The game should be able to recover if VRAM issues cause render textures to be wiped