OVERVIEW

Gameplay: more fixed gamesaves Graphics: fun with dust renderers Audio: dialogue volume adjustments Text: fixed typos thanks to your submissions UI: Cutscene subtitles, and Chess puzzle STEAM DECK: more touch control stuff!!!! A small update just in time for the weekend...

GAMEPLAY

Last update we talked a little bit about areas in the game that could get you stuck if saved in a particularly inopportune time. We're now following up with two more areas that will now feature 100% less getting stuck. Hopefully. We think... Hover over black bars with care! Night at the Museum It's all about timing. Unless of course you, or the game, decided the best timing to create a gamesave was [spoiler]the very split second before George gets shot...[/spoiler] Then it's all about regretting that terrible choice, because reloading this gamesave would load you in just in time to [spoiler]get shot again[/spoiler] and not much else. That's what we in the biz call a[spoiler]deathloop[/spoiler] and that's what we in the biz also call a[spoiler]bug[/spoiler]. So we squashed it. Locked out of the toilet This one requires a bit of setup. In Syria when Ultar has left to [spoiler]wait for you at his taxi[/spoiler] George can not leave the club [spoiler]without leaving the toilet keys on the bar![/spoiler] When you do that, a bespoke animation plays, and it would really appreciate if you let it finish. Because for those who interrupted the animation by Fast Exiting out of the club, that animation was still pending! Not a big deal if you return to let the animation finish before saving or quitting the game. Else you'd get stuck forever... Pending logic is never saved because the game never expected to be so rudely interrupted. Well it should get used to it, cause Fast Exits are here to stay! This should now be adjusted in past, and future gamesaves!

GRAPHICS

Fun with Dust Renderers This is an environment you briefly experience in Spain when you [spoiler]descend into an ancient well[/spoiler] - and if you know anything about [spoiler]descending into ancient wells[/spoiler] it's how dusty it can be. That's why this animation was so befittingly labelled "Dust". Though, we wouldn't blame you if you never noticed that it was supposed to be dust at all... Here it is in Original:
Here it was in Reforged: (can't tell? neither could we...)
Here it is in Reforged now - new and improved flavour:
Steam Updates only support gifs 5MB and under, so maybe you should check it out for yourselves, but we can really tell the difference, and we think it's so pretty :) V-Sync enabled by default Smoother and better behaved on devices with high refresh rates! Under Pressure In Update #1 we briefly touched on the light map! While this is not technically related, it's still affecting the overall feel of vibrancy in the game. This time just a little colour adjustment on the blood pressure gauge in the Hospital. We debated even mentioning it, but are curious if you'd notice the difference?

AUDIO

More Adjusted Audio Levels We have already turned the default music volume down and adjusted the master levels! This time we've also revisited dialogue volumes in one of the final impactful cutscenes. Hopefully that's now a lot more enjoyable. This is just a continuation of our initial improvements. Please read Update #1 for details on audio feedback!

TEXT

More Typos and Errors Thank you all for submitting us typos, mis-translations, and copy and paste errors in various languages of the game. It truly helps us, and we were able to put quite a lot of them in :) Was that all of them, or are there more?! As stated previously, text takes its lead from the speech files, so in the few cases where the original voice lines have more complex circumstances that aren't quite typos, we're taking the side of the voice lines...

UI

Check Mate As in, check, Mate, if the UI will be in the way of the [spoiler]Chess [/spoiler] puzzle... Which, technically it probably didn't if you knew which moves to make, but if you were tying your luck with the [spoiler]top row[/spoiler] you would inevitably open the top bar menu, hiding the very area you were tying to interact with! We can't believe this hasn't been complained about more, but if you had an unnecessarily difficult time with that puzzle, we are so sorry, and after this update it will never ever happen again. Hopefully. We think... Subtitles in Cutscenes In Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged, you get to style your subtitles! For some reason though, the cutscenes would always show the default colour and font. This has now been addressed!
Turns out some of the times Speaker Names weren't properly displaying in the subtitles either! Tricky because it wasn't missing all of the time, or consistently for specific characters, but happened seemingly random? We took a swing at it and hope this is now fixed as well :) Tiny Controller Improvement The Controls Help menu is now ironically easier to navigate with a controller.

STEAM DECK

Steam Deck! Steam Deck! Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments about our touch controls! We got so many messages, and so much helpful feedback. This update includes even more extra effort we put into the touch controls of this game, so that if you wanted to, you could complete the entire game using only touch inputs! And as last time, we invite you to do just that and let us know how it feels! That way we can make them even better! Some things we refined: More improvements to dragging and dropping items Better interaction with a moving target Dragging & Dropping The main "problem" with touch is that once you select what you want to interact with, your grubby little finger is in the way!!!! The most classic solution, and the one we also opted for, is raising the object above your finger by an offset to let you continue to see what you're doing, as you're dragging and dropping. Groovy! Less groovy if that invisible offset remains applied from then forth, making you feel like you're missing everything you want to interact with. That would be crazy making... Hopefully much less crazy making now!!!!! Moving target Or more accurately; moving hotspot. Most of Broken Sword is pretty stationary, and so are the hotspots. However some locations have moving environments, and/or moving interactable characters. In both instances the hotspots would be dynamic. To make it easier to interact with characters as they are moving about, we make those hotspots "sticky" as soon as you engage with them. Sticky means the game thinks you're still pressing, even if you're not physically pressing. This actually competed with a different feature; exploring your environments by sliding your finger over the screen. Now you had this character moving around the environment like some sort of beacon!!!!! That should not be happening anymore. What also shouldn't be happening anymore is the UI de-spawning because the character you tried to engage with has moved since you first tapped on them. The little action pop up box should now follow the character around! We might continue to refine touch controls more, depending on your feedback, so let us know what you think :)

JOIN US ON DISCORD

discord.gg/revolutionsoftware That's the best place to engage with us directly, and be part of our community! We always try to be here for you, and read as many messages as possible. Be it to collect your feedback, documenting the bugs, or troubleshooting issues you might be experiencing, we always try to be there for you, and read as many messages as possible. Join our wonderful community of adventure gamers, and come say hi! Thank you for playing Broken Sword, and we hope you know how much we appreciate all of you. As always we look forward to hearing your thoughts on this update!

Love from us all at Revolution