Greetings, Captain! Another small update with new goodies. Thank you for your feedback! This update is for you.

Frequency of Updates

You may have noticed a slow frequency of updates to Wraithbinder lately. It's because I'm a solo developer and have to work a full-time day job. It may take me awhile, but progress is being made steadily. Please bear with me! If you want more frequent updates, feel free to change to the beta branch in the Steam client and check out the #patch-notes channel on the Wraithbinder Discord Server for what's new.

Known Issue

If you are playing on Steam Deck, you will need to press the Steam button, then close the overlay before a controller or gamepad will work. I'm currently working to fix the issue. This issue just came up recently. It even happens playing old builds which used to work fine.

Release Notes

Here's the full release notes: v0.9.4 : November 23, 2024 Gameplay:

• Created the Ability Volition item, sold at the Architect, where you can choose from ALL abilities on connector floors!
• Tightened up the player's melee hit box (it was 72x88 with an offset of 24 and now it's back to 72x72 with an offset of 15)
• Balanced the game so advanced characters are not too easy
• Made Bombs drop immediately when you press instead of release the button
• Made Boots do damage twice as often
• Instead of Revealer being a relic, make it a temporary Architect item so you have it for the whole run
• Made Sindraphon cancel his bullet hell attack when damaged and below 75% health
• Fixed Tears not being refunded if you discard Mystic changes after buying a scroll
• Fixed not asking whether to discard when buying a scroll at the Mystic and backing out without spending any Light

Balance:

• Increased maximum level 9 jump height from 300 to 400
• Increased the cost of Boots from 3 to 6 mana per second
• Increased mana cost of Grenades from 16 to 20
• Increased mana cost of Bombs from 16 to 20
• Changed maximum ability cost reduction per item from 20% to 10%
• Changed maximum elemental damage chance per attribute per item from 20% to 5%
• Only mana steal when using melee weapons (it was too OP for explosives and ranged)
• Reduced damage of Grenades from 12 to 8
• Reduced damage of Bombs from 12 to 10
• Reduced damage of Guardian explosions from 12 to 8
• Reduced damage of Mines from 8 to 7

Effects & Animations:

• Applied extra shading to players and any models with an outline for a nice visual pop
• Made gold & light pick up amounts tally up together when they overlap
• Made cloud movement smoother by not nudging it up and down, which was herky jerky
• Made high res and in-game characters use the same color palette
• Made the player's rotation indicator fade out when standing idle
• Fixed hi res character models flashing to brigher colors for one frame
• Fixed high res character models sometimes having red eyes

UI & UX:

• Made the game remember which monitor it used and start there again the next time
• Solved many issues with changing window modes and starting on 2nd monitors
• Solved Mac borderless window being resized wrong
• Solved in-game menu tabs not being clickable with the mouse
• Made it so Radruiel's health bar doesn't visually go back up when he splits
• Made the boss health bar clearer when you die

Input:

• Added an option to the Settings -> Input menu to Reset Gamepads
• Fixed mapping controls for X could also set Y if it had been one of the gamepad sticks or triggers
• Fixed Input -> Map Controls menu showing one extra set of buttons sometimes

Misc.:

• Fixed player stuck floating in the air on the ship after beating the Early Access boss
• Fixed being able to levitate higher and higher if you run out of mana
• Fixed the incorrect display of the '`' grave key on UK keyboard layouts

Thanks for playing Wraithbinder! Nat (the dev)

[ 2024-11-24 03:21:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, Captain! Another small update with new goodies. Thank you for your feedback! This update is for you.

Release Notes

Here's the full release notes: v0.9.3 : July 19, 2024 Local Co-op:

• Did a lot of behind the scenes work for local co-op

Gameplay:

• Fixed enemies accidentally being invincible while frozen (this was meant only for players)
• Created a bullet-hell attack for Sindraphon
• Made Boots ability damage things surrounding you whenever you are holding the button, rather than only once you reach top speed
• Made Boots do a bigger skid stop that does damage along the vector, with a new animation and also skidding is mentioned in the description on the Abilities menu
• Made Boots ability do a damaging skid stop whenever you use it rather than only if you reached top speed
• Allowed running with Boots through jars & rocks
• Made the Mystic encounter drop the Scroll of Pauldrons so players see they can upgrade the first time they use the Mystic at home
• Ensured that small chests will appear in a safe place at the end of speed / disappearing floors
• Ensured that the speed / disappearing floors have an exciting pace where the erosion always happens right behind you
• Ensured that the speed / disappearing floors have the relic in the last, big chest
• Removed a 16ms delay before any weapon is created, player or enemy, for fairness and accuracy in canceling warnings
• Fixed runner chests not restoring properly after speed / disappearing wave consumes them
• Made some of the easy creeps able to have their attacks canceled if you damage them while their warning box is active
• Made it so if an enemy's attack cannot be canceled then their warning box will remain even if you damage them
• Remembered the Skybot building selection across floors
• Created a failsafe for Guardians if their target disappears or becomes inactive
• Created a failsafe for raising bridges on connector floors if there is accidentally no story element to be played
• Made it so ranged attacks like Mage missiles start farther from the enemy's body so they don't accidentally fizzle if the enemy is standing near something
• Created the big metal trade item, offered at the Trader, to exchange 500 gold for 50 metal
• Fixed acid sometimes not spreading correctly

Balance:

• Decreased the overall enemy difficulty escalation for higher level characters from 0.618 to 0.1
• Decreased the mana cost of Whirlwind from 25 to 16
• Increase the range of Ouriel's stop from 86 to 106
• Increased the cooldown of Grenades from 1.0 to 1.5 seconds
• Slightly decreased the chance of finding an epic item at the Blacksmith
• Increase the arrow attack range of Guardians from 160 to 240
• Changed the maximum number of the Trader's currency exchanges from 5 to 4
• Randomly choose some trades at trader
• Fixed being able to cheese bosses by throwing grenades during the boss intro camera rotation

UI:

• Made the armor detail popups able to show many more lines of attributes, description and price
• Got creep attack swooshes to last on screen the entire time the attack is active
• Made enemy health bars stay visible indefinitely after they've been damaged
• Made all health bars always red for clarity's sake
• Made ability icons on the UI turn gray and fade in whenever there is an active cooldown
• Show an item detail popup when you have a choice of armor to pick up
• Tried using the game's normal font instead of the clean font for dialogue to feel more consistent
• Made long announcements line break in the middle so they are more symmetrical
• Split ability descriptions into mutliple lines if they are too long (German, Russian)

Effects & Animations:

• Fixed enemy acid pools not being outlined in red
• Made Ouriel's stomp do a crunchy landing sound effect
• Once you have one NPC at home, a symbol is placed on the ground where the others will go to hint that there are more
• Made skid & blink animations use the correct lower body animation frames
• Fixed the shield being at the wrong offset when a player or boss rotates
• Fixed walking while holding shield or Whirlwind using the wrong lower-body animations
• Fixed Sindraphon's axe swooshes being too far from his body
• Fixed Sindraphon's shield being too close to his body
• Fixed Sindraphon sometimes shooting a fountain of sparks
• Fixed BladeSecret being a different color after Save & Quit then new run
• Fixed your acid pools being accidentally outlined in red instead of blue
• Made acid pools always spawn on the ground
• Added a slight outline to the menu font for clarity

Misc.:

• Allowed binding keyboard actions even while Steam is open
• Fixed if two or more controllers are used without Steam open, the character cannot walk
• Fixed the borderless game window not resizing properly when moved to a different monitor
• Fixed Trader able to offer a big and small light trade
• Fixed two controllers and one analog stick doesn't work until a button is pressed

Thanks for playing Wraithbinder! Nat (the dev)

[ 2024-07-19 23:19:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, Captain! Another small update with new goodies. Thank you for your feedback! This update is because of you.

Release Notes

Here's the full release notes: v0.9.2 : June 8, 2024 Gameplay:

• Got attack speed to feel consistent by making it entirely based on your attack speed attribute rather than a 50-50 blend of attack speed and combo hits, which are hits that cause damage versus hits that whiff
• Slightly increased the maximum amount of attack speed (from 45% cooldown reduction to 50%)
• Fixed attack speed not being applied to knuckles
• Ensure that you can melee, dash, melee, dash in rapid succession without being able to exploit this with simultaneous melee + dash
• Fixed not being able to quickly dash and melee with Boots
• Allow quickly using dash after a Jump
• Expanded the range of Grenade and Bomb explosions from 72 to 120
• Made Grenades stop rolling when they hit an enemy
• Made the Mini-Grenade explosion animation visually match the actual explosion radius (72)
• Fixed cooldown reduction not being applied to upgrading the ability level of Boots

Mana Improvements:

• Increase the Vim Nudger mini relics from +5 to +10 max mana
• Made Vim Nudger also do +5 mana regen
• Increased the Blue Vampire relic from +5% to +25% mana steal
• Created the Blue Vampire mini relic that has +10% mana steal
• Fixed mini relics (like Vigor Nudger) disappearing after Save & Quit
• Increased maximum mana steal from 8% to 100%
• Made all damage to enemies work as mana steal even if the enemy has no mana
• Displayed the amount of mana stolen above your head
• Create the Vampiric Nudger mini relic with +5% mana steal
• Create the Small Replenisher mini relic with +5% mana regen
• Instead of a Vim Nudger, sometimes offer a Vampiric Nudger or Small Replenisher
• Reduce mana regen attributes of armor by 50%
• Increased the mana regen of the Replenisher relic from 10 to 25 mana per minute
• Tried mana regen increasing along with max mana (it didn't feel balanced and meant that mana regen itself had less value)
• Make models for replenisher, booster and vampiric relics unique
• Reduced the mana cost of Grenades from 50 to 20 to match Bombs which do the same base damage

Gold Magnet Improvements:

• Fixed Gold Magnet attribute not working at all in many cases
• Increased the range of Gold Magnet from 32-162 to 48-240
• Made the Gold Magnet effect stronger as long as it is more than the base 10%

Camera / Shaders:

• Made the camera zoom out and pan to keep bosses in view when possible
• Made the background color for each floor change
• Dialed in the shader effect for more optimal color heuristics (essentially its a tad brighter and makes screenshots pop more)

Enemies:

• Made floor 9 knights animate a warning exclamation mark above their heads before using shield
• Reduce floor 9 knight base damage from 6 to 5
• Gave Sindraphon +50% explosive defense (grenades could easily cheese him)

UI:

• When upgrading Dash abilities, mention that they come with cooldown reduction
• Made chest choices announce what each item is even during quick story dialog

Bug fixes:

• Fixed the bug where the UI would be missing fighting Sindraphon
• Fixed an occassional crash when the boss platform falls beneath you
• Fixed upgrading Dash abilities to level 8 or 9 caused them not work anymore
• Fixed not being able to use the mouse in the Achievements menu
• Fixed the Shield ability not having an announcement describing it

Misc:

• Made the dash trail last a little longer
• Created an option to disable the game's auto-pause when you alt+tab in Settings -> Game
• Made the beginning of a floor run more smoothly on slower computers by pre-loading all rather than lazy-loading some
• Flash 'NEED 1' when you do not have enough teleport charges

Thanks for playing Wraithbinder! Nat (the dev)

[ 2024-06-08 23:23:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, Captain! Today Wraithbinder got its first Early Access update with many new goodies. Thank you for your feedback and super fan energies! This update is because of you.

Goodies

You can now pick up all 3 items dropped from minibosses and bosses. This is triple the rewards you used to get from bosses. It also means you don't have to choose just one item while leaving the others behind.
You can now dash in midair! This allows for some really interesting ability combos, like jumping + dashing + landing with a melee strike.
There's a new item for sale at the Trader. The lantern can be purchased using gold and allows you to see farther on dark floors.

Release Notes

Here's the full release notes: v0.9.1 : June 1, 2024 Gameplay:

• Allow picking up all 3 items dropped from minibosses and bosses
• Allow dashing midair
• Create the lantern, for sale at the Trader, allows you to see farther on dark floors
• Create a new attack for Ouriel where he stomps the ground, damaging in a nearby area
• Try making 4 of the secret wall types able to be destroyed by any general damage, not specifically Blade, Speed, Ranged or Explosive
• Improve ranged aim assist so it always prefers targeting a miniboss or boss if one is present
• Placed Guardians closer to the entrance of each room so they are more useful

Balance:

• Reduce the mana cost of bombs from 50 to 16
• Changed experience for activating a Guardian from 32 to 15
• Prefer ability point instead of teleport charges as an option at stores
• Allow hitting Sindraphon from behind when his shield is up
• Make Gzrel warp less often at floor 7 and much less often at floor 3
• Make Gzrel unable to change direction after starting to aim
• Make Gzrel always show a warning before shooting an arrow
• Increased the base damage of Gzrel's arrows from 2 to 4 (because regular archer's base damage is 3)
• Increased Radruiel's base landing damage from 4 to 6
• Increased Puriel's base attack damage from 2 to 4
• Make only one floor 9 knight able to use shield at once
• Increase chance of epic (orange) items from 0.2% to 0.8%
• Increase chance of rare (yellow) items from 2% to 3%
• Increase chance that Sindraphon will drop epic items from 2.5% to 5%
• Increase chance that Sindraphon will drop rare items from 25% to 40%
• Increase gold dropped from minibosses from 32-64 to 50-100
• Increase light dropped from minibosses from 20-60 to 50-100
• Increased the chance of the Blacksmith selling magical, rare and epic armor
• Limit the number of epics and rares the Blacksmith can sell to 1 each
• Increased the base tier of armor for sale at the Blacksmith
• Ensured that armor for sale at the Blacksmith is different each run
• Reduce cost of Jars of Health IV from 500 to 300
• Reduce cost of Jars of Health V from 800 to 400
• Reduced mana cost of activating Guardians from 50 to 25
• Make 1 hit boss on floor 12 able to always kill you with 1 hit

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed ascending from floor 10 accidentally descends
• Fixed buying Whirlwind and next time it is still locked (this was the only ability with this bug)
• Fixed secret wall items on connectors floors can be on the outside and inaccessible
• Fixed the game soft-locking in the event of a crash

Misc.:

• Show metal quantity on UI while not at home
• Made secret wall items on connectors floors in less predictable locations
• Color item auras according to type (blue for magical, etc.)
• Show the experience gained from Guardian activation
• Make a more awesome sound when boss dies
• Create a sound for picking up metal
• Create a sound for picking up ability keys
• Solve riding elevators sometimes feeling like a merry-go-round
• Make quick dialog last longer
• Show visually bigger damage numbers for the dummy target on connector floors
• Select the architect item you just bought
• After selling armor, go back to inventory, not Blacksmith menu
• Don't do a red color trail for creep wraiths
• Make the camera movement smooth while showing the Darkseed between floors
• Quickly pick up ability keys if you already have some
• Solve text misaligned when buying items on ultrawide monitors

Thanks for playing Wraithbinder! Nat (the dev)

[ 2024-06-02 05:33:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, warrior of legend! Wraithbinder has arrived to Early Access! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2126370/Wraithbinder Wrathbinder is a fast-paced action roguelike indie game with secrets, loot, necromancy and ability progression set in the Songbringer universe, created by solo dev and yours truly, Wizard Fu.

The Songbringer Universe

The events of Wraithbinder take place hundreds of years before Songbringer, on the planet Yuerder, where the character Zero was born. Yuerder was once a lush, Earth-like planet but eons of thick, dark cloud cover transformed most of the oxygen-breathing life into nocturnal and bioluminescent creatures while its people built cities to float above the clouds. In Wraithbinder you play as the Captain of a sky sailor ship who discovers an enigmatic, floating city...

About Early Access

This is an Early Access game, which means there is more to come before it is finished. Act I of III of Wraithbinder's story is playable now, this represents about 1/3 of the content the game will eventually have at 1.0 launch. Plans are to be in Early Access for at least one year. Two major things are coming during Early Access: Act II and online co-op multiplayer! Act III will come along with the 1.0 launch.

Get it now or later?

It's up to you and whether you'd rather play the early version and help shape the game as it develops, or whether you'd rather play the final 1.0 version. The game is priced low right now because it is Early Access but the price will increase at 1.0 launch.

Regular Updates

During Early Access there will be small updates every week or so and big updates every month or so. Please share your feedback on the Discord, the Steam forum, or email. There are links in the game. I listen to your feedback & work to incorporate your suggestions into improving the game regularly. You can watch my Wraithbinder live development stream each week on Twitch. Feel free to just chat with me or share your suggestions.

Reviews Help!

If you like Wraithbinder, please follow it on Steam. And if you get it, please leave a review! Thanks, and I hope you enjoy Wraithbinder. Nat (the dev)

[ 2024-05-27 17:03:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greeting, warrior of legend! Wraithbinder is launching into Early Access this Monday, May 27th! Visit Wraithbinder's Steam page and Wishlist in order to be notified when the game goes live. You can get a taste for all the Early Access version has to offer with the playable demo, which has been updated in a major way. Let's take a look at what's new.

Major Gameplay Enhancements

The experience you gain is now permanent across runs, meaning you keep your player level even when you die. Going up a level grants you one Salty Tear, a new currency that allows you to unlock powering up your armor with the new Mystic NPC. Going up a level in experience also means you can wear and find a higher tier of armor. Higher tiers of armor have better base stats. Like a tier one ring might have +6% Melee Damage while a tier 2 ring will have +8% Melee Damage. There are now four NPCs that you gradually rescue within the world who will come to inhabit your home area. They are the Trader, Mystic, Architect and Blacksmith. The Trader sells you the Automap, Compass, Teleporter and can exchange currencies like Gold, Light, Salty Tears, Ability Keys and Metal.
You can meditate with the Mystic to permanently power up your armor, even the new armor you find later. You unlock an armor section, such as Helmets, using Salty Tears. Then you invest light into your Helmets in order to power up all the helmets you currently own and even all the new helmets you will ever find. As you invest more light, more stats get added to the armor and the quality of the stats increases.
The Architect enables you to permanently power up the world. You give them Metal and they deploy their designs into the world. One such power up is Jars of Health I. It costs 50 metal and gives you a 0.5% chance to find 5 Health within any Jar.
Buy and sell armor with the Blacksmith. Peruse his offerings to see if there is maybe a new magical ring you'd like. Or sell him all the equipment you aren't wearing to gain some Gold.

Act I

Wraithbinder's story plays out in a three act structure. Act I is available now and playable in the current demo. Act II will come during Early Access. Act III will come at 1.0 launch. You are the captain of a Sky Sailor ship who must save your child from the clutches of evil... Enjoy the Act I story in the Early Access version this May 27th.

Major Gameplay Enhancements:

You can choose your reward after defeating enemies in each room. Often you will be faced with the choice to improve your character during the current run, like picking up an Ability Point Orb, or to improve your character in the long run, like picking up some Metal to spend with the Architect back home to upgrade the world. The Wraithbind ability is now permanent across runs. Once you discover this ability, you will start your next run able to bind one wraith. Mana Regen has been increased significantly so you no longer need to hit the environment to harvest Mana. You now power up abilities by finding Ability Point Orbs and the maximum ability level has been increased from 3 to 9. Ability levels bring significant gains to your abilities. For example, the level 2 Sword ability does +33% damage. You now keep 100% of the Gold, Light and armor you find during each run. (The game used to drop 50% of Gold, Light and 100% of unequipped armor.) There's also a sweet new animation for when you vanquish a boss.

Translation

Wraithbinder has now been translated into 10 languages in preparation for the Early Access launch: English, Franais, Deutsch, Italiano, Espaol, Portugus-Brasil, , , and .

Release Notes

Here's the full release notes for Wraithbinder's version 0.9.0, in case you want all the details: v0.9.0 : May 11, 2024 Home Area NPCs and Powering Up:

• The Experience you gain is now permanent across runs
• Going up a level grants you one Salty Tear, a new currency that allows you to unlock powering up your armor
• Going up a level in experience means you can wear and find a higher tier of armor
• Higher tiers of armor have better base stats
• Created 4 NPCs that you can rescue who come to inhabit your home area: Trader, Mystic, Architect and Blacksmith
• The Trader sells you the Automap, Compass, Teleporter and can exchange currencies
• Meditate with the Mystic to permanently power up your armor, even the new armor you find
• Give Metal (a new currency) to the Architect to permanently power up the world (like finding Health powerups in Jars)
• Buy and sell armor with the Blacksmith

Story Elements:

• Wrote a three act story. You are the captain of a Sky Sailor ship who must save your child from the clutches of evil.
• Act I is available now. Act II will come during Early Access. Act III will come at 1.0 launch.

Major Gameplay Enhancements:

• You can choose your reward after defeating enemies in each room
• Made the Wraithbind ability permanent across runs
• Increase Mana regen so hitting the environment to regain Mana is no longer necessary
• Made it so you keep 100% of the Gold, Light and armor you find during each run (used to drop 50% of Gold, Light and 100% of unequipped armor)
• You now power up abilities by finding Ability Point Orbs
• Showed how much each Ability Point improves an ability (like bonus damage for your Sword going from 0 to 33%)
• Increased the maximum ability levels from 3 to 9

Artwork & Visual Clarity:

• Created a sweet animation for when a boss dies
• Made damage numbers to or from yourself bigger so you are more aware
• Moved health and mana baubles to the edges of the screen for clarity
• Created a high-resolution, anti-aliased font that scales nicely to any resolution
• Used camera stops along the edges of floors so it naturally hides secret rooms
• Improved the artwork and aesthetic of the main menu
• Made all enemies have glowing eyes
• Improved the aesthetic of background colors
• Made the fog of war less dark, nearly transparent
• Make blocks in other areas darker

Character Creation:

• Expanded character color choices from 8 to 28
• Added an option to change character clothes color
• Expanded character skin color choices from 1 to 5
• Your child is show by your side; you can name your child

Other Gameplay:

• All the boss sidekicks die when the boss does
• Created two new mini relics: the Speed Nudger (+5% move speed) and Haste Nudger (+5% attack speed)
• Made chests locked until you defeat enemies
• Made floors flow effortlessly just to the right areas with minimal backtracking (especially floors 1-6)
• Created safe connector floors where you gain new abilities, learn how to use them and sometimes trigger story elements
• Created secret bridges that allow access to secret rooms
• Allowed holding ranged attacks to repeatedly fire as long as you have Mana (used to be a limit of 16 total attacks)
• Allowed holding Grenade attacks to repeatedly lob
• Allowed using the Shield use as long as you hold the button; Changed Shield Duration stat to Shield Damage Block
• Made relics have prerequisites so you won't find something like Wraithbinder if you don't yet have the Wraithbind ability
• Changed Gold & Light Retention stats to Gold & Light Multipliers
• Made Radruiel boss do damage when they land on you
• Guarantee the minibosses you find on the next run will be different than this one
• Increased the size of rooms with enemies
• Increased the amount of locked rooms
• Placed enemies randomly within rooms
• Created clutch defense: below 1 health you take less damage
• Reduced the Mana cost of Skybot Mines
• Reduced the amount of times you get hit from fire damage from 3 to 1
• Removed Health drops from floor 2 minibosses
• Instead of choosing New Run or Continue from the main menu, you simply Play
• Created the Give Up choice on the pause menu. It takes you back to the home area, similar to the old New Run choice.
• Decreased the size of floor 8

UI:

• Using the mouse, you can now drag and drop to equip armor
• When you gain a new ability, checkmarks are placed on screen to help you learn how to use the ability

Settings:

• Created the Aim Assist input setting which snaps your melee and ranged attacks to an angle matching a nearby foe (enabled by default)
• Created the Attack At Cursor input setting to always melee attack towards the mouse cursor (enabled by default)
• Created the Dash At Cursor input setting to always dash towards the mouse cursor (disabled by default)
• Created the Mouse Lock input setting which keeps the mouse within the window (enabled by default)
• Created a new HUD type in Video Settings called "Extra" which displays FPS, ping time, etc.

Localization:

• Translated the game into Franais, Deutsch, Italiano, Espaol, Portugus-Brasil, , , and

Stats:

• Started tracking some Steam stats like: Minions Vanquished, Wraiths Bound, Swoons, Highest Floor Reached

Other:

• Paused the game when Steam overlay becomes active
• Solved mouse scroll wheel being too fast when using a trackpad
• Make selecting menu choices with the mouse better when you have just used the mouse wheel
• Solved some shadow pixels getting left behind forever
• Animated the menu choices appearing
• Solved Gzrel boss getting stuck not attacking
• Solved being able to spam knuckles and prevent bosses from ever attacking
• Solved boss sidekicks sometimes having gigantic knockback
• Solved a rare issue with native controller support where the left stick would mostly move north or south
• Removed the option for a pixel UI
• Removed the option to skip all dialogue (you can hold B to skip story elements)
• Removed Checkpoints; it's all or nothing, baby
• Solved some rare issues where floors would be unsolvable
• Solved gold thief sometimes not appearing for an entire run
• Solved arrows flipping 180 when hitting target
• Solve mouse wandering on Windows 8; Yes, I actually tested it on Windows 8

That's all for now. Cheers, Nat Code, Art & Music

[ 2024-05-12 06:02:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, freedom fighters! You now have achievements, a new story element, multi-monitor improvements and gameplay balancing in Wraithbinder.

Achievements

There's several achievements that have been added like "You died", "You discovered a secret room", "You beat a miniboss", etc. These are achievable now in the demo and will be so in the Early Access version upon release. Plans are to add more achievements in the future.

A Story Element

When you talk to the Shorebot aboard your Ship, you now get some dialogue. This is meant to provide you with some purpose, some guidance on what to do and what to expect along the way.

Visual Clarity

Chests now look more obviously like chests:
Exploding Barrels look more obviously like they will explode:
Guardians look more like neutral objects rather than vaguely like enemies. In addition, the Skybot can now build Guardians:

Let There Be Light... Automatically

When you walk near a light on dark floors, it will automatically turn on rather than having to manually hold it:

Multi-monitor Improvements

This update brings improved support for multiple monitors. The game remembers which monitor it is supposed to be on. Also it smoothly changes window type, size and ratio. All this on Windows, Mac and Linux.

What's Next?

Thanks so much for watching the live streams at Steam Next Fest, for wishlisting and telling your friends! An Early Access launch is coming soon. I will be making announcements as soon as the date is locked in.

Release Notes

Here's the full release notes for the latest version of Wraithbinder, in case you want all the details: v0.8.14 : Feb 17, 2024 Story Elements:

• The Shorebot aboard your Ship now has some dialog

Achievements:

• Created 5 new achievements: You died, you found a secret room, etc.

Gameplay:

• Enabled building Guardians with the Skybot (mana cost changed from 300 to 60)
• Nerfed the Barrel explosion radius (120 -> 64)
• Doubled the Barrel warning time before it explodes
• On dark floors, lights are automatically used rather than having to manually hold them
• Made most enemies partially visible in the fog and darkness
• Increased the range of light that Wards (built by Skybot) provide to dark floors
• Allowed Mana Regen to be powered up in the demo
• Buffed Rings so they have one more damage attribute
• Made Gzrel (the archer boss) not warp so much

Multi-monitor Improvements:

• Made the game stay on the current monitor whenever the window size is changed (Windows, Mac and Linux)
• Allowed smoothly changing between fullscreen, borderless and windowed mode (Windows, Mac and Linux)

Visual Clarity:

• Made Chests look more obviously like chests
• Made exploding Barrels look more obviously like they will explode
• Made Guardians look more like neutral objects rather than vaguely like enemies
• Changed the shadow angle to improve the aesthetic and reduce the jagginess of shadows

Other:

• Created the video option to disable camera motion
• Solved controllers sometimes not working
• Paused the game when a controller is removed
• Solved character portrait, items and relics being upside-down on Windows

That's all for now. Cheers, Nat Code, Art & Music

[ 2024-02-18 07:59:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, brave one! Wraithbinder has been improved with another update. There's a new fast travel feature, an intro cutscene, improvements to powering up and less demo restrictions. Let's take a look.

Fast Travel

By defeating minibosses, you will earn a new type of currency called Teleport Charges.
Use Teleport Charges by opening up the Map and choosing an area that you've already visited. You will swiftly teleport to that location.
This fast travel feature is a direct response to player feedback. I think it improves the flow tremendously. So thank you, player, for sending your thoughts!

Intro Cutscene

When you start a new character, or you start a new run with an existing character, you will now get an intro cutscene:
It's meant to give you a sense of purpose as a player, to connect you with the story and world. I plan to expand this cutscene in future versions.

Improved Upgrading

When you power up your character, the cost of the first few pips has been decreased significantly. What used to cost 64 now costs 16! This really improves upgrading as it makes the light you earn go a lot further over the long run.

Demo Restrictions Relaxed

Some of the demo limitations have been relaxed. The purpose here is to allow you as a player of the demo to experience all the game has to offer. Instead of being limited to just one pip when powering up your character. You can now get six pips. Instead of being limited to just one choice of relic, you can now choose between two. Also, you can now equip, unequip and drop armor.

What's Next?

Wraithbinder is now participating in Steam Next Fest, Feb 05 - 12, 2024. Thanks so much for watching the live streams, for wishlisting and telling your friends! 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 0.8.13, in case you want all the details: v0.8.13 : Feb 8, 2024 Gameplay:

• Created a Fast Travel feature
• Increase knockback for sword and knuckles
• Decreased the first few pip costs (64 -> 16) when powering-up using light
• Decreased the cost of checkpoints
• Increased the size of rooms on upper floors so you are encouraged to use ranged & explosive weapons
• Made rings have weapon-like attributes
• Made it so a big green marker appears on your map showing you where the boss switch room on floor 5 is
• Granted 1 experience for lighting a flame on dark floors
• Removed decimal places from attributes
• Increased the ability key cost of some items
• Made it so you usually earn 1 ability key per run

Story:

• Created an intro cutscene

Demo:

• Allowed equipping & dropping items in the demo
• Allowed choosing between 2 relics in the demo
• Instead of the demo limiting to one pip per any attribute, it allows 6 pips on Max Health and/or Max Mana

Art / Aesthetic:

• Lightened the revealed fog
• Slightly brightened the screen overall

Other:

• Solved controllers not working if you plugged one in mid-game
• Improved multi-monitor support
• Solved renaming a character meant you could no longer edit hair, etc.
• Solved switch room on floor 5 sometimes hidden
• Solved items & entrance sometimes not visible on map
• Solved gate switches still showing as locked on map after opening
• Solved an issue where there could be no melee weapons on floor 1
• Solved clicking on the map taking you to the wrong menu

That's all for now. Cheers, Nat Code, Art & Music

[ 2024-02-08 23:08:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Version 0.8.12

• Made the hi-res character models fade in
• Changed the default keyboard binding for button Y to Alt / Option
• Got the game running on generic Linux distros
• Make flash red all the way red (had some shadowy pixels)
• Make all "hold Y" prompts have a background
• Reduced HP amounts so they only show when coming from you (like not when an enemy mine goes off)
• Reduced the noisiness of small explosions
• Used high-res glyphs for SDL controllers and mouse buttons
• Don't show announcements or quantities of gold, light or mana gained during the heat of battle
• Made selected power up pips orange, not blue
• Solved leaderboard not updating
• Solved CreepMage firing endlessly at nothing and CreepArcher getting stuck doing nothing
• Solved a potential crash when upgrading pips

Nat Code, Art & Music

[ 2024-01-28 02:31:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greeting, warrior of legend! Wraithbinder's public demo is now released. Crack out your favorite ability build and prepare to slay some goat-headed demons, space pirate style. Just visit Wraithbinder's Steam page to install and play the demo. There's a bunch of new content and features since last time. Let's take a look.

Knuckles

Metal Knuckles are a new type of weapon with a very fast attack speed, light damage and the special feature that you can hold the attack button to keep attacking repeatedly.

Knives

Throwing Knives are a new type of ranged weapon that have a fast cooldown, do light damage and use little mana.

360 Rotation

True 360-degree rotation is now working with both left-stick movement and right-stick aiming. Using the mouse was always 360-degrees but there was a bug in older versions of the game that caused it to sort of snap to 45-degree angles when using a controller. This has now been fixed so proper 360-degree movement and aiming works as expected when playing with a controller.

Rings & Weapon Choice

Wraithbinder is more fun when you get to choose your melee weapon each run. A new type of equipment has been created, Rings, in order to give you this power of choice while still keeping the attributes you get from weapons you find throughout the world. Whenever you find a melee weapon, you will also find a Ring. When you die you drop your weapon but not the Ring. Your next run you get to choose a new melee weapon while keeping the attributes in the Ring you are wearing.

Character Customization Options

When creating a character, there are now separate options for Armor, Hair and Visor. It's more customizable. This amps up the fun of character creation.

Ability Keys

Some abilities are now locked with a new currency called Ability Keys. Using an ability key will permanently unlock that particular ability for the current character, including this run and all future runs. You can earn Ability Keys by defeating bosses. It's pretty fun how the Ability Key system gives you a sense of value around abilities and something to strive for.

Statues Resemble... You

Whenever you encounter a statue, it will take on the likeness of one of the characters of the top players on the leaderboard. Whomever is rank 1 on the leaderboard will be the statue on floor 1 of all the worlds for everyone who is currently playing. Rank 2 on the leaderboard is the statue at floor 2 and so on. Also, when you stand near a statue, it will announce onscreen the name of the player, their rank on the leaderboard and their total amount of gold and light.

Dash Ability Improvements

The dash abilities have been improved. It feels smarter & better overall. Also, the Boots ability now does damage, albeit less than Blink. In addition, when you upgrade your dash ability you also increase how much damage it does along with reducing its mana cost. Elemental damage has been added to the dash ability trails if you have some elemental attributes from relics, armor, etc. Furthermore, a bug was solved where trying to dash near a big boss would fail, generating an invalid sound. This is fixed now so you can dash properly near big bosses and other objects.

UI Improvements

Wraithbinder now uses high-resolution controller glyphs on the UI. Also, custom 2d pixel art icons have been created for all the abilities. This adds some quality to the overall aesthetic.

Demo Limitations

So what's the difference between the demo and the full version of the game? The purpose of the demo is to give you a taste while leaving you wanting more. To that end, here are the limitations of the demo version:

• 1 character
• 1 relic per chest
• 1 maximum pip per attribute power-up
• Cannot equip or sell armor other than the first pieces you find

Feel free to play the demo as long as you like. There are no time restrictions.

Please Share Your Feedback

Have some thoughts or ideas? Find a bug? Please share on Wraithbinder's Discord server.

What's Next?

Wraithbinder will be participating in Steam Next Fest, Feb 05 - 12, 2024. 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 here 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 0.8.11, in case you want all the details: v0.8.11 : Jan 24, 2024 Gameplay:

• Created the Knuckles melee weapon (fast cooldown, light damage, can hold the button to attack repeatedly)
• Created the Knives ranged weapon (fast cooldown, light damage)
• Got true 360-degree rotation working with both left-stick movement and right-stick aiming
• Created the Ring armor type (magical rings embued with attributes)
• A melee weapon is now chosen at the beginning of each run (weapons no longer have attributes -- Rings do though -- and weapons are dropped on death)
• Created Ability Keys which permanently unlock abilities for use in current & future runs
• Improved dash ability in some edge cases (feels smarter & better overall)
• Made the Boots dash ability do some damage (albeit less than Blink)
• Added elemental damage to dash ability trails if you have some elemental attributes from relics, armor, etc.
• Solved getting invalid sound sometimes when trying to dash near a big boss
• Reduced the amount of time you can get frozen by ice
• Ensured that when you are frozen by ice you always have an invincible period afterward so you can never get stun-locked to death
• Removed all gold from pillars so players don't feel obligated to destroy the entire environment
• Made gold thief appear more rarely
• Increased the mana cost of ranged attacks & speed abilities
• Implemented softer pathfinding around obstacles

Characters:

• When creating a character, there are now separate options for Armor, Hair and Visor (more customizable)
• Added a feature to delete a character from the Character Edit menu

Async Multiplayer:

• Made statues have the likeness of leaderboard players

Art / Aesthetic:

• Increased the smoothness of rotating voxels (instead of 8 possible angles per model there are now 40 and it uses less memory overall)
• Outlined all elemental damaging pools with red for enemies and blue for friends
• Created custom 2d pixel art icons for all abilities
• Improved the aesthetic by lengthening the camera angle
• Improved the aesthetic using more contrast in the shading and highlights of voxels
• Increased the quality of the exp bar artwork and made it green colored to match exp orbs
• Used high-resolution controller glyphs
• Enabled motion blur when the camera rotates

Demo Version:

• Created limitations for the demo version: 1 character, 1 relic per chest, 1 pip per attribute power-up

Other:

• Added a message for when you first get some Light so players learn that it is later used to power up your character
• Only rumble the controller if it is being used
• Solved Gzrel boss getting stuck doing nothing
• Solved getting warped beyond the ability item on floors where the ground is falling away
• Solved one of the boss music songs not repeating
• Solved a bug where you could't reach the switch to open gates on floor 5
• Solved a potential crash due to some wayward animation code
• Solved changing window resolution on Windows causes mouse cursor to have an incorrect offset
• Solved main menu didn't have clouds on Windows

That's all for now. Cheers, Nat Code, Art & Music

[ 2024-01-25 08:22:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

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

[ 2024-01-10 19:24:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

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 Rizoels 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

[ 2024-01-07 07:43:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

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
• New enemies: Mages, Jumping Blobs, Chasers, Elusive Creatures, Floating Mines, Baller
• New relics: Wraithbinder (increase bindable wraiths), Attack Buffer (buff wraith attack), Defense Buffer (buff wraith defense)
• 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

[ 2023-12-23 10:05:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

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. Mages, Jumping Blobs, Chasers, Elusive Creatures, Floating Mines, Baller...

New Relics

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

[ 2023-12-15 21:45:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

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

[ 2023-11-28 17:23:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

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

[ 2023-11-28 17:13:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

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 its 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
• Fixed crash handler on Windows so it displays an accurate stacktrace instead of "couldn't map function name"
• 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

Thats all for now, bravest of warriors, -Wizard

[ 2023-07-27 23:36:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

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

[ 2023-07-15 02:36:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello person, I really want to thank you for the valuable feedback youve provided so far. It really helps to understand how to improve the game experience. Now its 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 whats 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 Ive done some visual improvements and some general refinements thanks to the feedback you shared during the last beta. Im 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

[ 2023-07-08 00:21:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

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.
Cheers, Wizard

[ 2023-04-13 22:15:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Open play for Wraithbinder's 3rd beta has begun! Enjoy from March 31 to April 11. If you can beat the boss on your first run I will send you a Songbringer soundtrack. Just click the big green Request Access button on Wraithbinder's Steam page and the game will be available in your Steam library until April 11.
Here's some of the exciting things that have been done since January's 2nd beta:

• New boss & improved existing bosses
• R-stick aiming allows you to fire the Boomerang or Bow faster
• Each time you open a big chest you get to choose between three random relics
• Most of the time you discover a new ability you will have a choice between two
• The dash ability has been improved for a more tactile, responsive feel
• The Boots ability is now more unique. Hold the button to build up speed until you start to do damage to everything in your path.
• The Shield ability now pushes back all nearby foes, including bosses
• New relics! The Resurrector, Revealer, Buffer and Skybot Blaster
• Secret walls!
• A host of art style improvements, including dynamic shadows

Cheers, Wizard

[ 2023-04-02 03:26:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Open play for Wraithbinder's 3rd beta starts next weekend! Enjoy from March 31 to April 11. Just click the big green Request Access button on Wraithbinder's Steam page and the game will be available in your library from March 31 to April 11.
Here's some of the exciting things that have been done since last time:

• New boss & improved existing bosses
• R-stick aiming allows you to fire the Boomerang or Bow faster
• The dash ability has been improved for a more tactile, responsive feel
• The Boots ability is now more unique. Hold the button to build up speed until you start to do damage to everything in your path.
• New relics!
• A host of art style improvements

Cheers, Wizard

[ 2023-03-24 23:11:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Curious about when you can next play Wraithbinder? This infomagical Roadmap lets you know when the next planned beta will be and all the other exciting goodies planned for 2023. It covers when online co-op will be introduced and even when Early Access launch may be. If you want to join the beta, just click the green "Request Access" button on the Steam page. When the next beta goes live on March 31st, you will be able to install and play the game with your Steam client.
Note that whenever the Roadmap says "Player suggestions" that also includes bug fixes and feedback incorporation. Incorporating your feedback and taking action on your direct suggestions has led to some of the best improvements to the game, in my humble opinion.
Thanks for playing, Wizard

[ 2023-03-09 18:38:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks for playing Wraithbinder's 2nd beta and sending me feedback. You are much appreciated and I'm already working on the things you have suggested. Wraithbinder will have a third beta in early March. Here's some of the exciting things that are planned:

• Floors 7 through 11
• Multiple new bosses
• Lots of new enemies
• New relics
• New abilities
• Art style improvements

And here's some things that are planned for further down the road:

• Twitch drops / collectible items
• Streamer mode (influence a streamer's run)
• Online co-op

Cheers, Wizard

[ 2023-01-17 17:54:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

The 2nd beta will remain live and playable until Jan 12! Just visit the store page and click the green "Request Access" button. Cheers, Wizard

[ 2023-01-10 19:59:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

The 2nd beta is now live and playable through Monday, Jan 9! Just visit the store page and click the green "Request Access" button. Anyone is welcome to play. What's new? Unique enemies One new thing you will discover in this beta is that each enemy has been crafted to have a unique identity. All enemies have specific behaviors that make them feel distinct. There's a shy sneaky enemy, a knight who uses a blade & shield and an archer who hangs back and strikes from the shadows. In addition, there are now elemental versions of each enemy. These have either fire, ice, lightning or acid attacks. These elemental enemies are more tough than their normal counterparts. They have at least 300% hit points and 200% damage. What else? Checkpoints Another new thing is Checkpoint objects. Activating a Checkpoint means that if you die you will wake up aboard the Ship with a portal object. Using the portal gives you a choice to use the checkpoint or start over. Starting over means you start a brand new run. Using the checkpoint means you will warp back to the beginning of the floor where you activated the checkpoint. You will have all the same abilities and relics that you picked up on the previous run, but you will start at player level one. This gives you another chance at victory, albeit with the challenge of regaining your experience and ability levels. There's more... There's hundreds of other things that are improved in this 2nd beta version of Wraithbinder, but I will leave that to you to experience. If you are curious, you can always check the Changelog.txt file in the game's root folder for details on every little thing that's changed and improved. Thanks for being, Wizard

[ 2023-01-06 23:40:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=N5VlHk31a6M;full][/previewyoutube] Play the 2nd beta this weekend, Friday Jan 6 to Monday Jan 9! This will be an open beta, meaning anyone is welcome to play. If you are new to Wraithbinder, just visit the store page any time this weekend and click the big green "Request Access" button. You will be automatically approved.
If you've already played the 1st beta, just fire up your Steam client and play this weekend. That's all! What's new? So much! lol. Look for another Steam post this Friday for more details on all the juicy new juices. Thanks for playing, Wizard

[ 2023-01-04 19:26:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks for playing the Wraithbinder beta! Over the last two weeks, your feedback was instrumental in making this a more exciting and playable video game.
What Was Accomplished You mentioned the game was a bit boring without an initial attack ability and dedicated dodge ability. This was improved in the Punch & Dodge Update. Later, you mentioned that combat could be a bit button-mashey without any indicators that an enemy was about to attack. This was improved in the Combat Precision Update. In addition to these main topics, nearly 70 other things were improved over the course of the beta thanks to your feedback. There are many things left on my list still to be done and I will tackle them in a prioritized manner. What is to Come While the play test is now finished and will soon no longer be playable, I have plans to bring it back multiple times before Early Access launch sometime in 2023. For news on this, please wishlist and follow Wraithbinder. The general plan is thus: 1. Improve the game using your remaining feedback 2. Run another Play Test or Demo 3. Gather and prioritize your feedback 4. Repeat Thanks again, person! Wizard

[ 2022-11-02 20:43:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, person! Thanks again for your recent feedback. I've prioritized your top comments and updated the game accordingly. More of your comments are still waiting in my notes to work on next.
One important improvement is that enemies now have a warning animation and sound before they attack. This warning is about 0.5s in the first dungeon, then gets shorter as you progress further, making enemies more difficult. This makes Wraithbinder's combat feel more precise and intentional. It's less button mash-y. The Dodge, Blink and Boots abilities now feel more useful as you can see when an enemy is about to strike and dodge away if you are fast enough. Also the dodging abilities have been finely tuned in this update. You can now begin holding the button, then press the direction. This makes dodging feel more intentional. You can be facing in one direction, press the button, then choose a completely different direction to dodge in. In addition, there are some i-frames now. You will be invincible for a fraction of second while dodging. Another notable thing: the game now remembers rooms that you've cleared of enemies and the map that you've uncovered. So if you descend back to a previous dungeon to go for a relic that you now have the ability to reach, you won't have to fight those mobs of enemies that you already did. You will also have the map revealed for the portions of the dungeon that you've already explored. There's about thirty fixes and improvements in this latest version. Check this post for details or read the Changelog.txt. Cheers, Wizard

[ 2022-10-28 18:02:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, person! You spoke and I listened. When you start a fresh run, you will now begin with the Punch and Dodge abilities. This makes things more fun and interesting from the get go.
Punch is a melee attack like your Blade strike. While Punch does less damage than Blade, it has a faster cooldown so you can attack more rapidly. When you find the Blade ability, it replaces Punch. Dodge is a speed ability like Blink. It shoots you forward and does a little damage on impact. This damage can be used as a skill shot. If you damage an enemy that is low on HP with the Dodge, Blink or Boots abilities it will automatically become a critical hit. The Dodge ability is replaced by Blink or Boots once found. Elements like Fire, Acid, Ice and Lightning no longer use MP. When you vanquish all enemies in a room, a little reward item will appear. In addition, enemies will no longer respawn after a time. Mappings for Xbox controllers have been updated so if you use one of these, please delete the "controller-xxxx" section of your Saves.txt in order to use the new mappings. For more details on over 40 new improvements check the Update Notes for Oct. 23.

[ 2022-10-23 20:00:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, person! After listening to feedback from you all playing the Wraithbinder Beta, here's the first update. Another update is planned for tomorrow, October 22nd. Punch and Dodge are two new abilities which you always start with. When you get the Blade ability it will override your Punch. When you get any of the Speed abilities, they will override your Dodge. In addition, Dungeon 1 is full of enemies rather than being bare. The elements (Fire, Ice, Acid & Lightning) no longer cost MP. You no longer have to wonder why your mana is draining. If anyone was using an Xbox controller and thought it weird that you pressed up & down on the right stick to rotate the camera, this was actually a binding issue. You can delete the "controller-xxxx" section of your Saves.txt and it will automatically use the new bindings which correctly map the camera rotation to left & right on the right stick. In addition to these improvements, the following things are part of this latest build: * Created a ranged Creep that fires arrows * Created the Blade Gate, Shield Gate and Wraithbind Gate * Created a new variety of dungeon where there are permanent walls instead of sky * Increased MP cost of Bow's Arrow from 1 to 4 MP * Changed hold button from B to Y (used when purchasing items, using elevator, etc.) * Required holding Y to use a key * Enabled some extra defense when using Boots * Made frozen entities more blue colored * Disabled camera locking onto one area * Made it so if you clear an area of Creeps, they will not respawn * Changed healing of small red orb from 15 to 10 HP, medium red orb from 25 to 20 HP * Changed cost of Guardian from 125 to 300 MP * Disallowed building Mender in dungeon mode * Made small red orbs more rare * Reduced the maximum spawnable Creeps from 255 to 127 (Spider miniboss cannot create as many now) * Created support for ultrawide (21:9) and super ultrawide (32:9) aspect ratios * Solved an issue where all spiders would run in the same direction * Solved an issue where you could get stuck with a charged blade * Solved Xbox One controller on Windows had left/right axis mixed up with up/down axis * Solved missing libfmodstudio.so on Linux * Solved "Disk write error" trying to install Windows version Cheers, Nathanael

[ 2022-10-22 06:51:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings, person! From now till November 1st, you can play the beta version of Wraithbinder. May your experience be wondrous and fill your heart with glee. What can you expect in this beta version? 1. Single-player only. Im saving multiplayer for a future Play Test as it still needs some work 2. Demo-length game. You are playing only 6 out of 16 dungeons planned for the final version. Many things still need some work like the ability-progression gates. How can you give comments, report bugs, etc.? 1. Built-in online form. Whenever you succeed or die in the game it offers you a link to this Google form to share your thoughts. Feel free to submit this multiple times if you wish. 2. Discord channel. Theres also a Feedback channel on the Discord server where you can share your comments, report bugs, etc. When reporting bugs, a screen recording video helps if possible. How long will this beta version be available? Until November 1st, 2022. Future play tests? There might be a future play test for the multiplayer co-op and PVP. If you want to be a part of this, wishlist and follow Wraithbinder so you can be notified Updates Your feedback is very helpful. I will be patching and updating the beta version often over the next couple weeks to incorporate as many of your suggestions and fix as many issues as possible. Ready to play? Just click Request Access button on the Wraithbinder's Steam page. Cheers, Nathanael

[ 2022-10-18 18:39:11 CET ] [ Original post ]