It's been ages since we posted an update here about the "Project N". Partly because, the game is a big departure from FS and we didn't want to bombard you with irrelevant information. So, why arew we posting irrelevant info now? Well, we believe that there might be a handful of people who are interested in our work regardless of the genre, and as it's getting closer to a release date, it would be unfair to keep them in the dark. If you only interested in Frozen State you can stop reading here, otherwise let me show what "Project N" has turned into. "Project N" is now called Mist Hunter and it's fats-paced, colorful, FPS roguelite with magic weapons and weird enemies.
Currently, we've made two absolutely different from each other modes:

The Summoning

- endless arena mode where you can practice and hone your skill in quick fights, and compete for the highest score on the leaderboard.

Nexus

- is a dungeon crawler and it has completely different flow with labyrinth-like levels, secrets and bosses.
If it's your kind of games you can try the both modes out in the demo. https://store.steampowered.com/app/937870/Mist_Hunter/ Any feedback is much appreciated, and if you want to stay tuned you can follow the Mist Hunter page. We'll be posting frequent updates there. Cheers, Alex and Anton

[ 2019-11-13 14:16:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, The linux version is playable again and works fine. We've updated the game for every OS. There is no significant changes, just fixed a few small things here and there and compiled it all with a newer version of unity. Thank you for you patience and understanding, Devs

[ 2017-07-13 17:42:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, The linux version is playable again and works fine. We've updated the game for every OS. There is no significant changes, just fixed a few small things here and there and compiled it all with a newer version of unity. Thank you for you patience and understanding, Devs

[ 2017-07-13 17:42:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, The linux version is playable again and works fine. We've updated the game for every OS. There is no significant changes, just fixed a few small things here and there and compiled it all with a newer version of unity. Thank you for you patience and understanding, Devs

[ 2017-07-13 17:42:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, The linux version is playable again and works fine. We've updated the game for every OS. There is no significant changes, just fixed a few small things here and there and compiled it all with a newer version of unity. Thank you for you patience and understanding, Devs

[ 2017-07-13 17:42:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, Apologies for a rather long gap between the updates. It’s been so much work that I didn’t even notice how the time just flew by. I’ve been throwing some gifs on reddit pretty regularly, but haven’t given any updates on where we are and how everything is going.

The progress

As the core idea gradually taking up a more defined form, we are cutting down things that we think might not work together or just simply too ambitious for us. Yeap, we’ve learnt this lesson the hard way. After many discussions we decided to drop the 4-weapon slot system. I think, with this loadouts, where you could sort of define your own character build, we wanted to bring something new, but in reality it would clash with the fast-paced nature of the game. Any kind of interaction with the inventory to swap the gun in the middle of a fight would inevitably slow the pace or, what in my opinion even worse, would require you to be more defencive. We want you to feel powerful, reckless and be in control of the battle. You are a hunter and your enemies is your prey. Besides, to justify the loadouts we would need a big variety of weapons, otherwise it becomes pointless. And as I said in the beginning, we know our limits. It takes me about 60-80 hours to make a gun model, from a concept stage to its final, textured model with vfx and animations. Even twenty guns would be roughly about 1500 hours. In days it’s almost two months of ceaseless work without sleep and breaks. In real life those 2 months will easily stretch into 4-5 in the best scenario. And it’s just weapons. For a game you need enemies, levels, environment art, vfx and so on and on and on. That’s why many indie games take years to make. Knowing all that, we reduced the number of weapons to seven. Each with a secondary fire mode and a distinct role in the gameplay. This is what we have so far: 1) The basic handgun: Primary mode - rapid fire, not very accurate, close to mid range. Secondary mode - large, relatively slow projectile that can slow enemies.
2) Shotgun: Primary mode - slow, large spread, shot to mid range. Secondary - a fast projectile that explodes spawning bouncing shrapnel.
3) Machine gun: Primary mode - very fast, good accuracy, mid range. Secondary - grenade launcher, explode on impact, average damage.
4) Railgun: Primary mode - slow, perfect accuracy, long range, projectile can bounce of the surface and change direction. Secondary - scope.
5) Plasma rifle: Primary mode - slow projectiles, high damage, close to mid range. Secondary - energy beam, fast, instant hit, gradually builds up damage with time.
6) Rocket launcher: Primary mode - fast projectile, high direct and splash damage, large radius. Secondary - grenade launcher with bouncing projectiles.
7) Plasma shotgun: - huge spread, high damage, close distance. Secondary - heat wave, very close range, massive damage.
As you can see, many of the models are untextured and don’t have animations. It helps to iterate quickly and change design without being too attached to your work. These is our first iteration and I’m sure the guns’ firing modes will change as the first feedback starts to come in.

Enemies

Designing our enemies we’re trying to follow a simple design principle inspired by chess. In chess every piece has its own, unique set of move/attack patterns. If you look at each piece by itself, their patterns pretty simple and straightforward. Yet the game is very deep and complex due to a massive number of possible combinations those pieces can occupy the board. If we translate it into the dimension of video games, with clear patterns and in the right combination even a simple AI can create interesting and complex situations. So, for the last few weeks, my priority has switched from guns to enemies. I’ve fully finished two more enemy types: the Oracle and the Knight. And just started a new one, which I call the Restless Sleeper. Though it is more an environmental hazard, than an ordinary enemy.
Oracle - is a slow flying head that casts large orbs of energy.


The Knight - has two types of attacks. Her main is wide, rapid sword slashes. And If you gain a large distance there is a chance that she’ll toss a grenade at you.


And the family photo
There is some lore behind each of them and how they all come together, but I want to keep it for the game) Meanwhile, Anton has re-written and optimized the code for our procedural test levels, which will be our playground for testing the core mechanics. The system is relatively simple. It uses hand-made rooms and put them together in a particular order. Similar to Spelunky. However, it’s NOT a rogue-lite. This procedural part will eventually become a separate mode where you’d be able to generate a level for a quick play. Ok, what else…. Oh, yes! We’ve made gibs! It’s actually pretty fun, gory, and maybe slightly over the top, but it completely changes how the gunplay feels. This gif is a bit old, and we’ve already changed a few things, but it gives the idea)
I think, this is all for today. Thank you for sticking around and making it to the end) Devs

[ 2017-06-04 18:58:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, Apologies for a rather long gap between the updates. Its been so much work that I didnt even notice how the time just flew by. Ive been throwing some gifs on reddit pretty regularly, but havent given any updates on where we are and how everything is going.

The progress

As the core idea gradually taking up a more defined form, we are cutting down things that we think might not work together or just simply too ambitious for us. Yeap, weve learnt this lesson the hard way. After many discussions we decided to drop the 4-weapon slot system. I think, with this loadouts, where you could sort of define your own character build, we wanted to bring something new, but in reality it would clash with the fast-paced nature of the game. Any kind of interaction with the inventory to swap the gun in the middle of a fight would inevitably slow the pace or, what in my opinion even worse, would require you to be more defencive. We want you to feel powerful, reckless and be in control of the battle. You are a hunter and your enemies is your prey. Besides, to justify the loadouts we would need a big variety of weapons, otherwise it becomes pointless. And as I said in the beginning, we know our limits. It takes me about 60-80 hours to make a gun model, from a concept stage to its final, textured model with vfx and animations. Even twenty guns would be roughly about 1500 hours. In days its almost two months of ceaseless work without sleep and breaks. In real life those 2 months will easily stretch into 4-5 in the best scenario. And its just weapons. For a game you need enemies, levels, environment art, vfx and so on and on and on. Thats why many indie games take years to make. Knowing all that, we reduced the number of weapons to seven. Each with a secondary fire mode and a distinct role in the gameplay. This is what we have so far: 1) The basic handgun: Primary mode - rapid fire, not very accurate, close to mid range. Secondary mode - large, relatively slow projectile that can slow enemies.
2) Shotgun: Primary mode - slow, large spread, shot to mid range. Secondary - a fast projectile that explodes spawning bouncing shrapnel.
3) Machine gun: Primary mode - very fast, good accuracy, mid range. Secondary - grenade launcher, explode on impact, average damage.
4) Railgun: Primary mode - slow, perfect accuracy, long range, projectile can bounce of the surface and change direction. Secondary - scope.
5) Plasma rifle: Primary mode - slow projectiles, high damage, close to mid range. Secondary - energy beam, fast, instant hit, gradually builds up damage with time.
6) Rocket launcher: Primary mode - fast projectile, high direct and splash damage, large radius. Secondary - grenade launcher with bouncing projectiles.
7) Plasma shotgun: - huge spread, high damage, close distance. Secondary - heat wave, very close range, massive damage.
As you can see, many of the models are untextured and dont have animations. It helps to iterate quickly and change design without being too attached to your work. These is our first iteration and Im sure the guns firing modes will change as the first feedback starts to come in.

Enemies

Designing our enemies were trying to follow a simple design principle inspired by chess. In chess every piece has its own, unique set of move/attack patterns. If you look at each piece by itself, their patterns pretty simple and straightforward. Yet the game is very deep and complex due to a massive number of possible combinations those pieces can occupy the board. If we translate it into the dimension of video games, with clear patterns and in the right combination even a simple AI can create interesting and complex situations. So, for the last few weeks, my priority has switched from guns to enemies. Ive fully finished two more enemy types: the Oracle and the Knight. And just started a new one, which I call the Restless Sleeper. Though it is more an environmental hazard, than an ordinary enemy.
Oracle - is a slow flying head that casts large orbs of energy.


The Knight - has two types of attacks. Her main is wide, rapid sword slashes. And If you gain a large distance there is a chance that shell toss a grenade at you.


And the family photo
There is some lore behind each of them and how they all come together, but I want to keep it for the game) Meanwhile, Anton has re-written and optimized the code for our procedural test levels, which will be our playground for testing the core mechanics. The system is relatively simple. It uses hand-made rooms and put them together in a particular order. Similar to Spelunky. However, its NOT a rogue-lite. This procedural part will eventually become a separate mode where youd be able to generate a level for a quick play. Ok, what else. Oh, yes! Weve made gibs! Its actually pretty fun, gory, and maybe slightly over the top, but it completely changes how the gunplay feels. This gif is a bit old, and weve already changed a few things, but it gives the idea)
I think, this is all for today. Thank you for sticking around and making it to the end) Devs

[ 2017-06-04 18:57:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi guys, If you have missing files and cannot start the game, try a new build in the beta branch. It should fix the issue. Thank you, Devs

[ 2017-05-29 10:32:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi guys, If you have missing files and cannot start the game, try a new build in the beta branch. It should fix the issue. Thank you, Devs

[ 2017-05-29 10:32:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, A small update is up, you can find it in the beta as always. There isn't a lot of changes, but we added several crafting recipes. You can now craft matches and empty flasks. We have also made some changes to the overall balance and items spawn rates, based on your feedback. Changelist New crafting recipes: matches and empty flask Spawn rate of matches and paper ( including books) has been reduced Gun Powder and Weapon Upgrade kits has become less rare Weapon upgrade kits can spawn in cars Enemies can drop upgrade kits too, though it's a relatively small chance Carabine spawn chance has been increased Thank you, Devs

[ 2017-03-28 13:01:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, A small update is up, you can find it in the beta as always. There isn't a lot of changes, but we added several crafting recipes. You can now craft matches and empty flasks. We have also made some changes to the overall balance and items spawn rates, based on your feedback. Changelist New crafting recipes: matches and empty flask Spawn rate of matches and paper ( including books) has been reduced Gun Powder and Weapon Upgrade kits has become less rare Weapon upgrade kits can spawn in cars Enemies can drop upgrade kits too, though it's a relatively small chance Carabine spawn chance has been increased Thank you, Devs

[ 2017-03-28 13:01:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys!

Frozen State

Finally, have time to give you an update. There have been several interesting suggestions on the forum and I'm going to implement them in FS. The suggestions are mostly about re-balancing certain stuff(drops and items spawn) and adding a new crafting recipe. I'll try to make it all done by the next weekend.

"Project N"

The development of the new game is moving at a good pace. For the last couple of months, Anton has been working primarily on a pathfinding system and its editor.  If you don't know what the pathfinding is and what it does, the bast way to explain it would be a thing that helps AI (everything that isn't directly controlled by the player)  navigate on the level. In other words pathfinding is one of the most fundamental technical things in many games. Unity, like many other third-party engines, offers its own buit-in solution, and it's quiet good. However, it has some limitations that make this, pretty much a one-click solution, unusable for us. So, to make the game we want, we need to start with the tools. Anton did a great job and came up with a node-based pathfinding system. It's very cool and gives me, as a level designer, a lot of freedom and control. Instead of relying on generated navigational mesh, which to be honest isn't particularly precise, I can paint/erase the paths for AI on the level where I want. I can also edit every node and its parameters to fix problematic areas, or to simply add some variety to how enemies move around.  Besides it also allows to make paths for flying AI, which can navigate throughout any level efficiently. This is how it looks in the editor. A pathfidning layer for the ground types enemies
And another one in exactly same room for the flying types.
There are a few disadvantages though. One of the most significant is time. All paths on each level must be drawn by hands. It's not as bad as it sounds, but it takes time nonetheless. A small stress test for the system
On my side, I've been working on the visuals, designing, modeling and animating. Simple primitives like cubes and spheres are indispensable for quick prototyping and testing, but at some point you need more complex 3d assets to see how it comes together. These are our first enemies, which you'll be seeing quite a lot from now on. A Zbrush concept
And the actual in-game model inside Unity.
This fella is still in the concept stage
We intentionally chose a more stylized, cartoony look. Firstly, because it's a bit faster/simpler in production and as I'm going to make all the assets alone speed is very important. The second reason, I just really enjoy working on something like that. Saturday morning cartoons and anime are a big source of inspiration. A few guns, which I'm pretty sure change with time



I know, it's not much and everything isn't final,  but it should give some overall idea about the art direction. Don't forget to follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/Flox_Studios or reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/FLOX/ Thank you, Alex

[ 2017-03-15 20:27:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys!

Frozen State

Finally, have time to give you an update. There have been several interesting suggestions on the forum and I'm going to implement them in FS. The suggestions are mostly about re-balancing certain stuff(drops and items spawn) and adding a new crafting recipe. I'll try to make it all done by the next weekend.

"Project N"

The development of the new game is moving at a good pace. For the last couple of months, Anton has been working primarily on a pathfinding system and its editor. If you don't know what the pathfinding is and what it does, the bast way to explain it would be a thing that helps AI (everything that isn't directly controlled by the player) navigate on the level. In other words pathfinding is one of the most fundamental technical things in many games. Unity, like many other third-party engines, offers its own buit-in solution, and it's quiet good. However, it has some limitations that make this, pretty much a one-click solution, unusable for us. So, to make the game we want, we need to start with the tools. Anton did a great job and came up with a node-based pathfinding system. It's very cool and gives me, as a level designer, a lot of freedom and control. Instead of relying on generated navigational mesh, which to be honest isn't particularly precise, I can paint/erase the paths for AI on the level where I want. I can also edit every node and its parameters to fix problematic areas, or to simply add some variety to how enemies move around. Besides it also allows to make paths for flying AI, which can navigate throughout any level efficiently. This is how it looks in the editor. A pathfidning layer for the ground types enemies
And another one in exactly same room for the flying types.
There are a few disadvantages though. One of the most significant is time. All paths on each level must be drawn by hands. It's not as bad as it sounds, but it takes time nonetheless. A small stress test for the system
On my side, I've been working on the visuals, designing, modeling and animating. Simple primitives like cubes and spheres are indispensable for quick prototyping and testing, but at some point you need more complex 3d assets to see how it comes together. These are our first enemies, which you'll be seeing quite a lot from now on. A Zbrush concept
And the actual in-game model inside Unity.
This fella is still in the concept stage
We intentionally chose a more stylized, cartoony look. Firstly, because it's a bit faster/simpler in production and as I'm going to make all the assets alone speed is very important. The second reason, I just really enjoy working on something like that. Saturday morning cartoons and anime are a big source of inspiration. A few guns, which I'm pretty sure change with time



I know, it's not much and everything isn't final, but it should give some overall idea about theart direction. Don't forget to follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/Flox_Studios or reddithttps://www.reddit.com/r/FLOX/ Thank you, Alex

[ 2017-03-15 20:27:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys! The "controller" bug has slowed us down, but a new patch has just been uploaded. It's in beta branch as usual. The controller seems to be working fine for the most part of the game, however when you in a dialogue window sometimes you can't switch between the answers. We're still not sure what can cause it. We've fixed a few things but we have some inconsistency in our results. If you have a controller, please try whether it's working or not, particularly in the dialogues. These achievements should be working properly now. -Animal Friend -Doesn’t count -Adventurer -Pacifist We also fixed a few bugs with animals' AI. Thank you, Dev

[ 2017-02-04 17:25:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys! The "controller" bug has slowed us down, but a new patch has just been uploaded. It's in beta branch as usual. The controller seems to be working fine for the most part of the game, however when you in a dialogue window sometimes you can't switch between the answers. We're still not sure what can cause it. We've fixed a few things but we have some inconsistency in our results. If you have a controller, please try whether it's working or not, particularly in the dialogues. These achievements should be working properly now. -Animal Friend -Doesnt count -Adventurer -Pacifist We also fixed a few bugs with animals' AI. Thank you, Dev

[ 2017-02-04 17:25:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

I intended to post this update a week a go, but it took me way more time to finish than I had expected.

BACK TO WORK

While we were on holidays, we received several bug reports mostly regarding some broken achievements( one of them is "alpha" which should be available to everyone), and issues with controller in FS. All those issues will be fixed soon. Actually, most of the achievements are already fixed, but we’ve found several more bugs which need extra time to fix. I hope we release a beta update next week.

NEW PROJECT

In the last FS update, I mentioned that we had started working on something new and it wasn't related to FS. So, what's the new project? If you follow us on twitter or reddit you definitely could see some 3D models that would give you a hint. Naturally, you may already figured it out, but if you didn’t, the next genre we’d like to work on is first person shooter. I know, this is quite a departure from our previous games and a whole new uncharted territory for us as developers. Making our next game in a genre we’ve worked before would be much safer, but as indies we have a luxury of creative freedom and willing to take the risk. Besides, I think with the help of community we can make a great game in any genre. So, what kind of a fps? Well, the concept is slowly shaping up. Its details will certainly change and evolve over time, but the core is a fast-paced, reckless action with a high ceiling for mastery. All other mechanics are going to be built around this core. The main focus will be single-player, with a high chance of co-op, though much later down the line. If it’s still vague, try imagine borderlands (minus its gazillion guns and rpg-ish elements) and quake 1 had a baby. It’s not very good to use other games to describe your own, as it may lead to a certain misconception, but at this stage it should give you at least a rough idea of what we have in mind.

GAME DESIGN AS EXPERIMENT

OK, we’ve already established that fps is a new genre with a bunch of unknowns for us. To tackle those unknowns, we want to take a slightly different approach this time and share every process and design ideas from the get-go. That means you’ll be seeing lots of unfinished and unpolished stuff, including our design thoughts and prototypes. The purposes of which is with your help discard bad ideas and design decisions as early as possible. Scientists very often use experiments as a tool to test their hypotheses. Game design isn’t a science, but I think we can employ this method to design better games. In our case, the hypotheses would be certain game elements that require a playtesting in order to understand how they contribute to the gameplay and whether they are fun or not. Such elements can be : enemies, guns and fire mods, controls, etc. . However, before we start discussing our hypotheses, I need to say a few words about our main design principles upon, which we will be generating them. -Easy to learn hard to master - simple, transparent game mechanics, orthogonal enemy design -Exploration - nonlinear levels, secrets, key hunting -Fast, aggressive combat - no reloads, no health/shield regeneration, high player mobility In order to test the hypothesis, without actually building a whole game, we need a test environment. Currently we are developing a playground which we call “Arcade Mode”. These mode will allow to generate semi-procedural levels and test new features. We haven’t thought how we’re going to distribute it to the testers, but I think we will use itch.io or a similar platform.

HYPOTHESES

Even though our testing environment is very much in progress right now, I have a hypothesis to discuss. -Hypothesis #1 Many contemporary shooters have a two-weapon loadout system without any inventory or very simplified one. In Borderlands you have quick access to up to 4 guns ( + inventory). Destiny offers 3 gun slots + inventory. The old school shooters used to have an impressive arsenal of 9-11 instantly available guns. While none of those systems isn’t inherently bad or good, each offers a different gameplay experience. For our game we want to make around 12-15 unique weapons each with it’s own role, playstyle, and upgradable firing modes. All weapons can be found on the levels and carried in the player’s inventory, but you’ll have only three-four gun slots available to switch on the fly. One might argue that it can limit the strategy in a fast paced game. The more weapons you have at you hand the quicker you can react and change your strategy in the combat. Which is obviously true, however, in my opinion most players always have a handful of either favorite guns or the guns that better suit their play style, and they switch to other weapons when they can’t or don’t have their favorite. So, if you have any thoughts on this, please leave them in the comments. Please subscribe/follow on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FLOX/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Flox_Studios Thank you Alex (satori)

[ 2017-01-29 17:02:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

I intended to post this update a week a go, but it took me way more time to finish than I had expected.

BACK TO WORK

While we were on holidays, we received several bug reports mostly regarding some broken achievements( one of them is "alpha" which should be available to everyone), and issues with controller in FS. All those issues will be fixed soon. Actually, most of the achievements are already fixed, but weve found several more bugs which need extra time to fix. I hope we release a beta update next week.

NEW PROJECT

In the last FS update, I mentioned that we had started working on something new and it wasn't related to FS. So, what's the new project? If you follow us on twitter or reddit you definitely could see some 3D models that would give you a hint. Naturally, you may already figured it out, but if you didnt, the next genre wed like to work on is first person shooter. I know, this is quite a departure from our previous games and a whole new uncharted territory for us as developers. Making our next game in a genre weve worked before would be much safer, but as indies we have a luxury of creative freedom and willing to take the risk. Besides, I think with the help of community we can make a great game in any genre. So, what kind of a fps? Well, the concept is slowly shaping up. Its details will certainly change and evolve over time, but the core is a fast-paced, reckless action with a high ceiling for mastery. All other mechanics are going to be built around this core. The main focus will be single-player, with a high chance of co-op, though much later down the line. If its still vague, try imagine borderlands (minus its gazillion guns and rpg-ish elements) and quake 1 had a baby. Its not very good to use other games to describe your own, as it may lead to a certain misconception, but at this stage it should give you at least a rough idea of what we have in mind.

GAME DESIGN AS EXPERIMENT

OK, weve already established that fps is a new genre with a bunch of unknowns for us. To tackle those unknowns, we want to take a slightly different approach this time and share every process and design ideas from the get-go. That means youll be seeing lots of unfinished and unpolished stuff, including our design thoughts and prototypes. The purposes of which is with your help discard bad ideas and design decisions as early as possible. Scientists very often use experiments as a tool to test their hypotheses. Game design isnt a science, but I think we can employ this method to design better games. In our case, the hypotheses would be certain game elements that require a playtesting in order to understand how they contribute to the gameplay and whether they are fun or not. Such elements can be : enemies, guns and fire mods, controls, etc. . However, before we start discussing our hypotheses, I need to say a few words about our main design principles upon, which we will be generating them. -Easy to learn hard to master - simple, transparent game mechanics, orthogonal enemy design -Exploration - nonlinear levels, secrets, key hunting -Fast, aggressive combat - no reloads, no health/shield regeneration, high player mobility In order to test the hypothesis, without actually building a whole game, we need a test environment. Currently we are developing a playground which we call Arcade Mode. These mode will allow to generate semi-procedural levels and test new features. We havent thought how were going to distribute it to the testers, but I think we will use itch.io or a similar platform.

HYPOTHESES

Even though our testing environment is very much in progress right now, I have a hypothesis to discuss. -Hypothesis #1 Many contemporary shooters have a two-weapon loadout system without any inventory or very simplified one. In Borderlands you have quick access to up to 4 guns ( + inventory). Destiny offers 3 gun slots + inventory. The old school shooters used to have an impressive arsenal of 9-11 instantly available guns. While none of those systems isnt inherently bad or good, each offers a different gameplay experience. For our game we want to make around 12-15 unique weapons each with its own role, playstyle, and upgradable firing modes. All weapons can be found on the levels and carried in the players inventory, but youll have only three-four gun slots available to switch on the fly. One might argue that it can limit the strategy in a fast paced game. The more weapons you have at you hand the quicker you can react and change your strategy in the combat. Which is obviously true, however, in my opinion most players always have a handful of either favorite guns or the guns that better suit their play style, and they switch to other weapons when they cant or dont have their favorite. So, if you have any thoughts on this, please leave them in the comments. Please subscribe/follow on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/FLOX/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Flox_Studios Thank you Alex (satori)

[ 2017-01-29 17:02:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, We'd like to thank everyone for playing Frozen State, for your love and support, for the good and bad comments, for your help and encouragement. It's been a long journey on which we've made a ton of mistakes that almost every new developer makes. Frozen State was our first baby and even though its development wasn't always easy and fun we still love it and proud that we managed to finish it. Despite all the rough corners (like controls for example) and difficulties we have faced during the development Frozen State is a pretty unique game with its own charisma and atmosphere. I think the world we've created and the ideas we planted in it deserve to be carried forward in a more refined form. There are many aspects of the game that I would like to give a redesign: controls, story, survival elements and crafting. I would also like to change the camera to a first person perspective and shift the game into a more story-driven experience. However, jumping back into development of a new FS right now would be another big mistake. We need time to thoroughly analyze what went wrong and how we can avoid the same pitfalls in the future. Besides the post-apocalyptic theme has been done in so many shapes and forms in other very cool games that if we want to bring something innovative to the table we need our heads fresh. A break form FS will help us get new ideas and replenish our creativity. That’s why Anton and I have decided to begin a new, unrelated to FS project. It’s too early to announce it properly. All I can say it’s way different from anything we have ever done before. But it’s exactly what we need in order to clear our minds, before we start working on the next part or a reboot of FS. Considering that now we have more than one project and there are only two of us. It’s getting a bit hard to maintain constant presence on all the forums and social networks. On top of that, I don’t always receive notifications from the Steam forums. I was thinking about setting up a dedicated forum on our website, but then I remembered why we closed the old one. Nobody really wants to register and check yet another website. As many of us already use Reddit, I decided to resurrect one of the old subreddits I started awhile ago, and turn it into a place for our community. It doesn’t mean that we will stop monitoring the Steam forums, but if it works as planned, you’ll be able to get in touch much quicker. So here is the link REDDIT please subscribe and feel free to comment, post bugs and so on. I’ll be posting a lot work-in-progress stuff from the new projects too. Have a great time and happy holidays! See you next year! Alex (430satori)

[ 2016-12-23 10:39:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, We'd like to thank everyone for playing Frozen State, for your love and support, for the good and bad comments, for your help and encouragement. It's been a long journey on which we've made a ton of mistakes that almost every new developer makes. Frozen State was our first baby and even though its development wasn't always easy and fun we still love it and proud that we managed to finish it. Despite all the rough corners (like controls for example) and difficulties we have faced during the development Frozen State is a pretty unique game with its own charisma and atmosphere. I think the world we've created and the ideas we planted in it deserve to be carried forward in a more refined form. There are many aspects of the game that I would like to give a redesign: controls, story, survival elements and crafting. I would also like to change the camera to a first person perspective and shift the game into a more story-driven experience. However, jumping back into development of a new FS right now would be another big mistake. We need time to thoroughly analyze what went wrong and how we can avoid the same pitfalls in the future. Besides the post-apocalyptic theme has been done in so many shapes and forms in other very cool games that if we want to bring something innovative to the table we need our heads fresh. A break form FS will help us get new ideas and replenish our creativity. Thats why Anton and I have decided to begin a new, unrelated to FS project. Its too early to announce it properly. All I can say its way different from anything we have ever done before. But its exactly what we need in order to clear our minds, before we start working on the next part or a reboot of FS. Considering that now we have more than one project and there are only two of us. Its getting a bit hard to maintain constant presence on all the forums and social networks. On top of that, I dont always receive notifications from the Steam forums. I was thinking about setting up a dedicated forum on our website, but then I remembered why we closed the old one. Nobody really wants to register and check yet another website. As many of us already use Reddit, I decided to resurrect one of the old subreddits I started awhile ago, and turn it into a place for our community. It doesnt mean that we will stop monitoring the Steam forums, but if it works as planned, youll be able to get in touch much quicker. So here is the link REDDIT please subscribe and feel free to comment, post bugs and so on. Ill be posting a lot work-in-progress stuff from the new projects too. Have a great time and happy holidays! See you next year! Alex (430satori)

[ 2016-12-23 10:39:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi there, The new patch is up and available in the beta branch. The changelog: - Car batteries became considerably heavier , 4.5k per unit. - Old books and paper have a higher spawn chance - Old books, paper, rope can drop from enemies - Skill level required to craft rope was lowered - a small bug with achievements was fixed - other small fixes Thank you, Devs.

[ 2016-12-11 16:51:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi there, The new patch is up and available in the beta branch. The changelog: - Car batteries became considerably heavier , 4.5k per unit. - Old books and paper have a higher spawn chance - Old books, paper, rope can drop from enemies - Skill level required to craft rope was lowered - a small bug with achievements was fixed - other small fixes Thank you, Devs.

[ 2016-12-11 16:51:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all! The "sleep bug" that causes black screen when you rest in the sleeping bag or any bed has been fixed. We're really sorry for the inconvenience and bad experience. Please, don't forget to update the game to its latest version. Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-10-18 09:57:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi there, The new patch is leaving the gates of beta and will be available to everyone. We didn't release it last week, as we initially intended, because we came across a few bugs which we wanted to fix before moving the build into the default branch. If you missed the change log from the last beta, you can find it here: http://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791435765549/announcements/detail/586981663616990640 Some other fixes - some other changes: - PPSh - now use 7.62 ammo instead of 9mm - loot system has changed a bit - drops of ammo in large quantity (300+ bullets) - enemies have higher chance to drop loot - the cellar door in one of the locations had a chance to spawn without an exit point Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-10-11 17:44:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, The new patch is ready and siting in the beta branch. This patch contains multiple fixes and improvements. The build will go live on Monday if nothing game-breaking shows up during the weekend. Changelog: - Fixed AI behaviour: Animator Cull Completely changed on Cull Update Transform - Fixed bug with AI with weapons physics (when player in car) - the quest "Strange Conversation" in the bunker was fixed. If you don't take the quest in the beginning the control panel in the bunker will not respond even if you have the hard drive. You'd need to return to the terminal and get the quest. - the dialogue with the control panel was slightly changed. - Fixed some campfire and UI behaviour - Fixed vehicle ray cast - Animal flee path from the path obstacles (doors) now considered as flee target (Player/AI) position (from door to door path case) - New melee check with SphereCast. - Equipped items will be automatically unequipped if they get broken - New save preparation method. This should solve the problem with the disappearing car. - Steam stats save on max lived days. - Vehicle recharging now searching for fuel in vehicle inventory if it was not found in player inventory - Some small optimisations - Fixed enemies footprints - Footprints react properly on flashlight - Fixed: Human NPCs react on their own shots noise. As always feel free to drop us a line if you find any new bugs or glitches. Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-09-23 12:54:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, The mac and linux builds are working fine now. Really sorry that it happened and you couldn't play the game. This is a full changelog for the yesterday's - today's patches. If you've been playing the beta branch you probably already know about the fixes. - FIXED - character deals (melee) damage being too far away from the target - brake chance upgrading/repairing items has been reduced. The crafting skill reduces this chance too. At level 10 it's almost zero. - FIXED - grumpy boy's quest has been fixed - FIXED - invisible enemy - FIXED - item icon can get stuck in the menu - FIXED - overlapping numbers and despairing progress burs in the skill window - FIXED - dead enemies wasn't saving when you exist location. Now they are being saved only if the have something in the inventory. - FIXED - The wall in the underground tunnel( 16 Micraraion building 11/1) didn't have a collider - FIXED - achievements - FIXED - 1 arrow from 10 planks. Now you get 6 arrows - FIXED - some ladders and hatches may not be highlighted. - FIXED - friendly NPC hybrid attacks the player - FIXED - small animals didn't run away from doors if they hit it - FIXED - Gaunt spit didn't inflict damage - FIXED - character could stuck in falling animation in some areas - FIXED - sometimes even non-hostile enemies could try to attack the player - FIXED - AI path issues in some locations - FIXED - Gargantua didn't inflict any damage - added damage from falls - Craftable weapons have been re-balanced crossbow: dam +/ resource - / noise - short spear: range + /resource - shank : dam + /resource - /range - /stamina - /noise -/ weight -/ spike club : dam + /stamina +/ weight + hockey knife: dam + / resource - -New items in crafting: nails, big flashlight, gunpowder, fur jacket, fur hat, fur hood, burnt ointment, moonshine, toy goggles, berry mash, torch. -Roasted fish has been removed from crafting. The raw wish can only be cooked on fire -The weight of the sleeping bag has been reduced. Known issues: The first one, the car can disappear when you reload your save. The second one, you can get a duplicate of the car upon arrival in a new location. We weren't able to replicate these two, so if you know how to do it with a certain degree of success or have a save ( with a duplicate car), please let us know. Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-08-18 20:39:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, Yesterday's update didn't go smoothly. Some Mac and Linux players have been reporting problems launching the game. There seems to be an issue with a script that assembles MAC and Linux builds. PC build is working fine. If you have been affected by this issue switch back to the beta. The beta branch still contains the old build. Really sorry for the inconvenience, we will fix it shortly. Devs P.S. If you have a multi-monitor set up and the game launches not on your main monitor, please try deleting the settings file it might help. Also check if the monitor you usually use as the main is detected as monitor 1.

[ 2016-08-18 09:02:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi guys, Today the build from beta branch is going into default. The build contains many bug fixes, improvements some new items and crafting recipes. If auto-update is disabled on you PC, don't forget to download it manually. Your old saves should be compatible with the new update. Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-08-17 19:04:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Guys, we made a new build, it's in the beta. The good news your old saves should be playable now. The duplicate items and subsequent crashes have been fixed too. Please let us know if you find anything else. Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-08-11 15:49:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, We've made a new build and it's sitting in the beta branch. If you weren't with us during the early access it's a branch where we upload all our new patches before they go live into the default branch. To activate it, simply right click on the game in your steam library and go to properties>betas, select the beta branch and download the patch. The patch was made on a newer version of unity which should improve the performance and fix some other engine related bugs. However , yesterday we ran into a small issue with the transition objects like ladders and hatches. For some reason they are not highlighted. They are active and working fine. If you press "E" you'll see a pop-up window as before. Everything else is also working properly. Because this bug is visual and has very little effect on the gameplay we decided to release the patch with this issue to address more serious stuff. So, if you find a ladder or hatch which isn't highlighted it's a known bug and we're working on it at the moment. Of course if come across anything else please report it to us. The changelog: - FIXED - character deals (melee) damage being too far away from the target - brake chance upgrading/repairing items has been reduced. The crafting skill reduces this chance too. At level 10 it's almost zero. - FIXED - grumpy boy's quest has been fixed - FIXED - invisible enemy - FIXED - item icon can get stuck in the menu - FIXED - overlapping numbers and despairing progress burs in the skill window - FIXED - dead enemies wasn't saving when you exist location. Now they are being saved only if the have something in the inventory. - FIXED - The wall in the underground tunnel( 16 Micraraion building 11/1) didn't have a collider - FIXED - cchievements - FIXED - 1 arrow from 10 planks. Now you get 6 arrows - Craftable weapons have been re-balanced crossbow: dam +/ resource - / noise - short spear: range + /resource - shank : dam + /resource - /range - /stamina - /noise -/ weight -/ spike club : dam + /stamina +/ weight + hockey knife: dam + / resource - New items in crafting: nails, big flashlight, gunpowder Roasted fish has been removed from crafting. The raw wish can only be cooked on fire The weight of the sleeping bag has been reduced. - small fixes In the next patch we will keep our focus on fixing bugs and adding more crafting recipes. Thanks to the community for some insightful ideas. If you have low fps, first of all turn off HDOF, SSAO and Antialiasing. You can also reduce the current resolution. If you're playing on a laptop with discrete graphics card make sure that the game is running on it. Sometimes it may start on your integrated card which isn't great for gaming. The bugs we could't replicate yet: - infinite ammo - happens when you don't empty the clip and press reload. - disappearing ammo from containers - very little info on this one, but from what we know it may happen when you put some ammo in a wooden box or some other container, leave location and after sometime return to that box the ammo will be gone. If you know how to replicate them please let us know. Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-08-10 12:32:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, It's a big day for us! Frozen State is finally leaving the gates of Early Access and we'd like to thank everyone who has been playing our game and actively participated in its development. Without your contribution it would've been a very different game. Having such a devoted community really means a lot to us! Guys you're awesome! Devs

[ 2016-08-05 23:08:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey there, The beta branch has a new patch ready for testing. We fixed a bunch of bugs you've reported and added a few enemies to some locations. The changelog: - damage from enemies guns has been increased - FIXED - sometimes, during sleep the camp fire didn't provide enough heat - FIXED - missing icons for the two new items: splint , handmade cooking pot - FIXED - character could stuck in one animation cycle, usually jumping or falling - FIXED - character had some difficulties ascending staircase in "The 16th Microraion Buildings 8 and 10" - you can get call by burning any type of wood and not only small planks. - 12 gauge casings are much easier to find now - buildable structures will be shown on the mini map when you build them - Antrazidol drop has been slightly increased - some other fixes Tomorrow will be another small patch that fixes bugs with achievements. Enemies will react better on noise and will break doors when they hear you. Another big news. As you may already knew, we were going to release Frozen State in August and we finally have a firm release date which is 5 August. The price will go up by 2$, so starting from the 5th the game will cost 11.99$. Not a big bump, but if you wanted to grab a copy it's a good time. Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-07-28 16:37:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, I'd like to thank everyone who's been sending us the bug reports and ideas, your contribution is priceless. The latest patch is being moved into the default branch and now available to everyone. The current build was complied with a different version of unity, if the game doesn't start deleting the settings file should help. The current patch contains a lot of fixes and improvements: - Fixed - black trees ( it turned out that it was a unity bug. We had to switch to an older, but more stable version.) - Fixed - equipped shovel may caused some frame rate drops - Fixed - sometimes when you flip the car on the roof, it may not flip back on "wheels" - Fixed - empty flask/thermoses didn't spawn in the inventory after consuming cooked food/ water. - Fixed - enemies ragdolls have been readjusted. This should reduce the chance of "flying-corpses", but it's not perfect and we are still working on this - Fixed - invisible soldier, I know it's been kinda fixed already, but it came back again. - Fixed - human enemies could stuck in the idle animation. Weren't attacking the character or may just sliding toward him. - Fixed - entrance in the severs on the map Grocery Store, Novator's Street - Fixed - the NPC in the garage didn't talk to the character - Fixed - the NPC in the woods didn't give a reward after completing his questline. - Fixed - both mechanical and electronic lockpics may not unlock the locks even with a sufficient skill level - Fixed - the mini map didn't show the buildings on the map "Warehouse" - Fixed - a small exploit with free Antrazidol - Fixed - enemies AI, sometimes humans didn't attack hybrids - Fixed - weapon "range" upgrades upgraded "reload speed" - Fixed - Hybrid jumper - performance optimization - Fixed - cooked rice used to spawn an empty flask instead of a thermos - focus vision works only when the character is crouching. You don't have to chance the stance to activate focus hearing. By pressing the "V" key, the character will change his/her stance automatically - the weight of the water flasks with clean/dirty water has been reduced - all hybrids has can drop more Andrazidol - craftable cooking pot - craftable splints to fix broken bones - proofreading - morphine was renamed to M-fine, and it's less effective against fractures - some locations have more monsters and human enemies - footprints were optimized to improve performance - characters in hard mode will start with some basic items known issues - empty flasks/thermoses don't spawn if food/water was consumed from the cooking slot Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-07-19 20:49:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, A patch note with some bug fixes. - Some players might have black trees in certain locations - fixed - Broken teleport in sewage on Novatorov street location - The password from the locked bunker door (location Old Railroad) placed in the more visible place - if you don't play the beta builds, this update will also fix the disappearance of water flasks and thermoses Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-06-15 10:06:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi guys, The new update is live on steam. Actually it was live since yesterday for those of you who have opted to the beta branch. As we have fixed some serious bugs, we are going to put the current build in the default branch. Here is the changelog: - black trees upon re-loading the game - Fixed - food didn’t restore health - Fixed - missing german intro - Fixed - added new NPCs which provide some clues for thte main quest - inconsistent footprints - Fixed - humanoid enemies and NPC didn’t attack the hybrids - Fixed - some animals could charge you endlessly - Fixed - some other small fixes Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-05-29 11:03:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi there There is a new build available in the beta branch. It contains a lot of bug fixes and a few new additions. Changelog: Unlimited food/water containers - Fixed Snow can be collected almost anywhere on the map ( except indoors). You need to equip a spade or a handcrafted scoop and hold “E” to start collecting the snow. New items : Spade and Handcrafted Scoop The campfire smoke highlighted - FIxed Broken drag-n-drop in the inventory - Fixed Cooked food will stay fresh longer Spoiled food has negative effects Weapon disappearing - Fixed Melee weapons break in one hit - Fixed Game will be pauses when you Alt+Tab to switch between windows Broken underground “teleport”, the character can spawn outside the location - Fixed A door spawn in the bunker wall - Fixed New ambient sounds New items names have been added to the translation files Updated colliders on the stairs in some buildings where the character could get stuck or had difficulties ascending them. The localisations files are located in the game directory. You can edit them as you please, the changes will be updated immediately, but if you make any syntax error ( missing comma or bracket) the game will either stop loading or some items/words/sentences may become invisible or missing. Make yourself a copy before you start experimenting. We know about the broken intro and the manual in the German localisation, I’ll fix it in a few days (probably tomorrow) and update the build. One of the very annoying bugs that hasn’t been fixed yet is the “black trees”. It only happens, when you continue the game and never when you start new game. We unsuccessfully spent the entire weekend trying to find what may caused it. The tricky part is that it doesn’t happen in the game engine and the log file has no errors. So, until we find a solution for this problem we are going to release all fixes and updates in the beta and test branches. If you play regularly and want to be up to date, I’d recommend to switch the game to the beta branch. Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-05-11 12:11:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, The new update is ready and up on Steam. Here are the most important changes: - The cooking window ( the one you see interacting with the campfires) has changed and now cooking is slightly more realistic. You now need to have a container for cooking and another container for keeping the cooked food. The same scenarios applies for melting snow. - The LUCH tabs are now have dedicated hotkeys, which instantly open up LUCH on the tab you want. Inventory - I Skills - K Map - M Manual - L Info - O Crafting - U Journal - J Building - B - Hunger, fatigue and dehydration have been re-balanced and will build up slower by around 25%-30% depending on the character. -The melee walking animations have been changed and now match the normal unarmed animation. -The guns animations are now more smooth and accurate -The dodging became more fluid and snappy -The locations with summer houses have random cellars. They can spawn in different places but always near the houses. - Ropes can be crafted -Every character starts with 3 empty flasks, one camp pot and a thermos .The basics for cooking. When you use a flask with water an empty one will be added to your inventory. However, when you use a water flask in crafting the empty container doesn’t spawn. So be careful with your water in this update. -28 achievements have been added and can be unlocked starting from this update -Small notes from the citizens who lived in the city -Attack range of some enemies has been slightly reduced to make dodging more predictable - The watch tower has been fixed - Multiple places where the character could stuck have been fixed. If you find a new one please report) - The doors on the balconies in apartment buildings have a better trigger, easier to open from outside. - Translating the game into other languages became easier. The folders with languages have been moved outside of the project and can be tweaked directly. All changes you make will be visible in the game immediately. I’m going to make a separate post on how to use it and how to add new languages - Some other small bug fixes Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-04-29 18:02:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi there, The so long-awaited update is finally here! Thank you all for your patience! There have been so many changes that I don’t know where to start, I guess I should begin with the main reason why we even started this big overhaul - the melee combat. The melee combat, the animations and the overall controller have been reworked from scratch. Now, next to your health bar (yes the health bar has changed too) you’ve got another bar of the “quick stamina”, which depletes every time you hit something, dodge or sprint. The quick stamina regenerates on its own when you stay still or even walk. However, if you need to replenish it quickly in the combat you can drink a flask of water and it will restore instantly. The dodge - you character can make a small jumps in all four directions to avoid being hit or just for fun of you like jumping around)In order to dodge just press the “Space”, by default the character jumps backwards. But, if you hold any of the “WASD” keys and press the “Space” he will jump in the direction of the pressed key. The jumps does not interpret other animations! So, if you start spamming the Space key in the middle of the attack animation nothing will happen. Also don’t forget to monitor the quick stamina, you cannot dodge when it’s too low. The Sprint - have replaced the run. It works in exactly the same way (by pressing Caps/Shift) as the run used to work, except your character moves way faster and can sprint for a short period of time. But bare in mind that the sprint speed will depend on the type of weapon you hold in your hands. While sprinting you can hit the “Space” to make a leap. Now you can jump over very little obstacles, but we’re going to improve it. The Crouch stance - have also received a new pack of animations and a few gameplay changes. When you perform a melee attack your character will automatically stand up and hit. Another way to quit the crouch stance quickly is by hitting the Space key, the character will jump back and stand up. Sometimes it can be very handy. We have also added a bunch of small animations for falls, death, reload and so on. The quick stamina bar can be upgraded by leveling up the Endurance, the max level will double the amount of the quick stamina. All enemies have been re-balanced, especially the damage and the animations speed to fully employ the new combat system. The human enemies will no longer deal extra damage like bleeding and fractures with bare hands. The friendly NPCs have become tougher and harder to kill, so think twice before you attack them. There are a few new locations, which contain the underground bunkers with some really good stuff. The current build has 65 fully explorable locations + some underground mini levels, which is quite a lot. The docks’ door has been fixed and now can be opened with the key. The weapon parts are now being generated along with the other loot, what make it easier to find. The R key properly rotates the big building objects without canceling the blueprint. Visual improvements - the day time became brighter and looks really gorgeous. Added subtle snow particles that moves by the wind, they a more visible during the bad weather. The enemy can be stunned, the stun chance depends on the character's damage and the amount of health of the enemy. In other words the bigger your damage and the weaker your opponent the higher the chance to get him stunned. We will add the visual indication of the stunned enemy in a few days, for now a stunned enemy will just stand still for a few seconds. There are some other small bug fixes and improvements. As always we are glad to hear your feedback and suggestions. For the next patch we’re going to focus on polishing the existing combat system and making the survival elements deeper. Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-03-10 12:22:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi there, I know, it's been rather quiet around here, but we've been  busy reworking the new character controller and adding more animations. As you may know the game development is all about iterations. We'd love to make things faster, but very often, in order to find the most optimal solution one must make a dozen of bad ones. So, to fix the problem with our combat system, we decided to take some time and experiment to see what can be done. Actually since the last update we've made around three different controllers and all went to the rubbish bin. This is the first glimpse on the new unarmed combat system, the one that we really like. There still won't be a blocking system, but your character will be able to jump back to dodge the enemies' blows. http://gfycat.com/KeenGoldenDore Thank you, Devs

[ 2016-01-25 14:14:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all! Hope you all have had great time during last week) Unfortunately, I've caught a flu and I cannot spend much time in front of the monitor right now((( I'm writing it because there are new people on the forum and they have questions about the game, the old community members are doing the great job answering them. Thanks for the help guys! Once I get better, I'll jump straight in and will answer every question) Thank you and Happy New Year! Alex Satori

[ 2016-01-04 08:06:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, This is a small Christmas update to keep you guys in the loop. Right now we’re experimenting with the character controller and the melee combat, adding more animations and working on new locations. We also changed the lighting a bit what improved the overall look. All these things will come in the new year:) All our team wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Cheers! Flox team

[ 2015-12-24 14:17:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, If you want to try the latest build it's waiting in the beta branch. It mostly fixes the old bugs and have a few small improvements. Thank you, Devs

[ 2015-12-09 12:14:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi guys, This hotfix should eliminate the following issues: - flickering footprints - disappearing corpses - animals stand up idling after being killed - closing side panel - loot from the animals Thank you, Devs

[ 2015-11-14 15:54:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, It's been a really incredible and emotional month for me. Just over two weeks ago I got married) It still feels odd saying that I'm a married man, but it is one of the most important steps in my life. In spite of the stress and time spent on preparation for the wedding, we've managed to make quite a big update with a long requested feature - to add wildlife in the game. So here it is, the new update is ready and waiting to be played. The full changelist: - wildlife - the game is now populated with different wild animals : fox, boar, bear, moose, deer, hare. Wild animals are randomly generated throughout the world and their number and kind can vary from playthrough to playthrough. The animals have a higher chance to spawn in forest areas than in urban-suburban locations. All animals leave trails of footprints so you can track them. Hybrids can hunt and kill animals too. - new craftable items fur coat and reinforced fur coat from the hides of wild animals - new items: hide, raw animal meat, roasted steak. - Humans and some hybrids leave footprints on the snow - Inventory window was slightly changed, the bags slots were moved to the right side next to the armor, making more room for the items list -Antrazidol is now visible in the inventory along with the other items - Crafting level for the handcrafted axe was reduced to zero - procedural snow shader was fixed - Attack animation bug was fixed - German localisation was added, big thanks to our community member Omnicron. But bare in mind it’s still work in progress. - bags durability fixed - sight cones of the enemies and friendly NPCs have different colours - small fixes known issues: - invisible soldier ( if you meet him, send us the save) - main menu GUI glitches The bug when your character could stuck in doorways. We’ve found and fixed one issue that might have caused this, but if you come across this again send us your save with output_log. Thank you, Devs

[ 2015-11-08 13:57:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, New update is now available to download, it mainly contains multiple bug fixes and tweaks. - ambient music and sounds were fixed - Linux build had a bug that may cause instant death upon start - throwing items wasn’t working properly with controllers - putting items back in containers (cupboards, boxes, etc) with controllers was fixed - added controller support for Linux ( Xbox360 and Xbox One) - human enemies now have a very high chance to drop their weapon and ammo - Nemostor soldiers are now mainly equipped with machine guns - Soldiers can have a much higher chance to spawn with a gun than with a melee weapon - random white doors fixed - non-transparent roofs in the cabins - non-transparent roof in the grocery store in location “22nd Microrayon” - added inventory weight meter to the quick side panel Our fellow indie developers from Bristol are currently running a kickstarter campaign for a new episode of “The Adventures of Bertram Fiddle”. If you like point-and-click adventure games, Victorian England, and good humor you definitely should check it out.
Thank you, Devs P.S. if you pirate games, at least have a decency to not write the developers, asking them about where you can download the latest version.

[ 2015-10-11 13:02:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, The bug making the game unplayable on MACs has been fixed, have fun playing the new build! Cheers, Devs

[ 2015-10-03 11:49:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi there, Don't like spamming but communication is the key. Build 160 contains a very serious bug that may not allow you to play the game on MAC machines, we are looking for solution.

[ 2015-09-30 09:10:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

There is a small patch that address the following issues: - Intro keyboard skipping - Intro hints fix - Double quotation marks fix - Dialog Window translation fix, pause fix, positioning fix - Maria strength Skill bonus fix - Fixed: if a NPC attacks another NPC from the same faction they start attacking each other - Hearing toggle on keyboard - Looting and Campfire side windows get "Y" button assigned to "Take all" and "Take" actions correspondingly - Gamepad scrolling parameter fix We might make a few more tweaks during the day and release another patch. P.S. forgot to mention that with help of our community members you can play FS in French and Spanish

[ 2015-09-29 09:54:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all,   I’d like to thank everyone for the patience and apologise for a very delayed update. Sometimes the most simple things take the most of the time. So what has been done, the most important is a transition from Unity 4 to Unity 5, it may look like a piece of cake because at the first glance it’s the same old unity only with a greater number, but it’s not. Unity 5 is way different from Unity 4 and we had to rewrite big chunks of code and rework some of our custom shaders which didn’t work in Unity 5. Besides Unity 5 is a new engine and it’s being constantly updated, almost every week it has some new patches, which sometimes do affect our builds. For instance this build you’ll be playing was compiled on unity 5.1.3 and not 5.2.0 because in 5.2.0 something has been changed in Mecanim and it got all our animations messed up, even though in 5.1.3 everything works perfectly fine. Anyway, despite all the hurdles and setbacks it was definitely worth it, the graphics got a little better the overall performance increased noticeably, and we managed to hook up the controller. Yes, it meant to be easier on Unity 5, in fact it still was, it helped us avoid many crutches which would have been necessary in Unity 4, but it did take significantly more time that we initially expected. The second thing is a controller support. It’s finally in the game, I know many of you have wanted this feature for a long time, and I wanted it to myself, so here it is, now you can play FS with xbox one or xbox 360 controllers. However controllers work only on Windows so far, I guess it may still work on Mac and Linux if you use some third party software. We made hints and key binding diagram for the controller. If you find key hints too obtrusive, you can always disable them in the settings.  
  Another Changes and Bug Fixes -Three new locations -Broken items are now coloured in red in the inventory -Nearly broken items are coloured in yellow/orange -Focus hearing automatically goes on when you’re hiding in objects like wardrobes or dumpsters -The amount of food generated in the world has been reduced by 15-20% ( depends on the type of food). -Campfires now not only heat a small area around it but also raise the entire room’s temperature, but this only works inside relatively intact buildings. If you place a campfire outdoors or in a ruined building you will still have to be very close to it. -Bug that made certain quest impossible to complete was fixed. All quests are now can be completed. However because there is no ending the final quest “Continue the Journey” will not let you leave the game, this is not a bug. -Sometimes locations on the world map could spawn out of the world coordinates causing the black screen bug.   Known issues -Sometimes you may see white doors, restarting the game should fix it -Changing controller from keyboard and mouse and back again may result in unresponsive UI ( restarting the game, should help. There is no need to start a new game, just quite the game and launch it again). -Apparently there is a bug in the skill section, that may cause inappropriate leveling.   Enjoy the new update, and I’m are going back to development;) Thank you, Devs

[ 2015-09-28 12:30:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, I just want to let you know that we are here and working hard to bring the new update as soon as possible. We successfully moved Frozen State to Unity 5, it works really great. Most of the bugs you've reported have been fixed. However we came across an issue implementing gamepad support. We underestimated the complexity of this deceptively simple task and we have to delay the update until we finish it completely. I'm really sorry for the delay. Thank you, Alex (satori)

[ 2015-09-10 10:54:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys and gals, I wrote before, we are moving Frozen State into Unity5, the process goes well though not entirely painless. There are some issues mostly shaders related which hinder us little bit. Currently we are rewriting and replacing the things that don't work in Unity 5. The big upside of this transition will be better performance and improved graphics. We are also working on the bugs, and suggestions that you put forward. Some of them were really great and we will be looking for ways of how to implement them. Thanks to our community member, Darklord77, FS has received Spanish localisation. Right now this build seats in the beta branch, if you want to try it out switch the game into the beta mode, the password is - betaTESTER21. Another news relate to our team, we officially have changed our business name from Snow Arc to Flox. In fact, we wanted to do it a long, long time ago, Snow Arc was a very spontaneous and not a particularly good name (in our opinion). It's also a good reason to finally revamp the old, crappy website. In a few days, I'll update the info on our steam page, but I decided to give you a heads up beforehand. Our new contact email is info@floxstudios.com , if you sent us an email to the old address and still haven't heard from us, please send it again to the new one. Stay tuned for more news, Alex (Satori)

[ 2015-08-18 11:03:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, This small fix addresses the bug that doesn't allow to continue the game. Everything should work now, but please let us know if you still have this problem. Thank you, Alex (satori)

[ 2015-08-04 13:08:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey there, Sorry for a small delay I was visiting my family, and almost entire weekend I didn’t have access to the internet. A new FS update is live on Steam, and here is the change list. 1) The game now has two modes. Normal mode is pretty much unchanged in terms of difficulty compared to the previous build, except it doesn’t have perma death any more. It means when you die you can resume your game from the last visited location. The hard mode obviously is much harder, your start the game with the absolutely empty inventory. Your health does not replenish during the sleep. The characters can carry two times less weight. Enemies do not have sight cones in focus hearing. 2) The main quest. The game finally has an objective, you must find spare parts to repair your truck and continue the journey. There are some NPCs which can provide you clues on where the parts could be. All NPCs can be killed, and if you act aggressively they become hostile for the rest of the game. However the quest can be finished even with the NPCs being dead. When all the parts are collected, you can finish the quest by going to the location with the truck ( shown on the world map as a square with a big truck) and repairing it. There is no ending yet, so you’ll remain in the world no matter what option you choose (continue the journey or stay) 3) Now enemies will aggro on the car and attack it. 4 )We reworked the world generation system that you could leave the car in random locations without losing it. 5) Buildings in the locations “Kommunarov street 46/12” and “Kommunarov street 158” had a few doors that spawned in the walls, it was fixed. Thank you Alex (Satori) Prokhorov

[ 2015-08-03 18:57:58 CET ] [ Original post ]