TL/DR - Join the multiplayer beta via the Discord server: https://discord.gg/Vb9nQAH Hi all, msb here! It's here! It's unfinished! It's probably a /little/ broken. (I've tried my best) I've been crunching for a few months on the design of a working multiplayer system, and the beginnings of it are finally something I'm comfortable showing people. I've learned so much from the process, and I'm hoping the results are enjoyable for everyone. Beta? My ability to test the system is super duper limited (a few matches here and there- seeing what breaks). Because of that, I know for fact that this game will error out in some unexpected ways once people get their hands on it. Help me break the game! Steam users - this content is on a public beta branch (in the game properties). Instructions are on Discord. Discord? To play the multiplayer beta, please head over to the FLAMBERGE Discord: https://discord.gg/Vb9nQAH It's new and shiny, and all relevant announcements/instructions are there. The instructions for the beta are under the Multiplayer Beta "how-to" channel. FLAMBERGE is on multiple storefronts and in multiple communities, so I'm hoping to pull together a 'hub' for information and feedback. Super sorry if it's inconvenient for anyone. Feel free to email me as usual! (contact@hydezeke.com) I love emails. It broke when I looked at it funny? If the multiplayer bugs out or breaks, please message me! (Email/Discord/Twitter maybe) I'll be especially active online during the coming week, so please don't hesitate to beam me any errors you run into. _______? Email or message me on the new Discord channel if you've got comments/concerns or are just generally confused. Thanks for all the patience as usual! -msb contact@hydezeke.com

Hey all! Some quick patch notes, and then instructions for folks who'd like to opt in to our beta branch on Steam.

Resolved Issues:

• Resolution options reset/do not keep.
• Shops do not show items properly
• Doubling effect on party menu sprites

Added:

• Interaction effects on ability buttons.

Hey y'all! Small patch today; here are the latest notes.

New Features:

• Vulneraries can now be used to heal others, as well as its owner.

Resolved Issues:

• Obtaining party members causes the party menu to bug out and lose the new character.
• Nochwood guy who gives you money resets on each visit
• ESC menu accessible on skip tutorial screen
• Interceptor attacks don’t cross gaps during aiming
• Some abilities show 0 damage on promotion
• Chosen party members reset to the first 5 available at the start of every battle
• Execute button available during aiming confirmation

Hope you like your elbows protected, 'cause it's time for some patches! Michael's got the deets for you below; thanks again for all your feedback! ~Ben ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi all! Michael here. I’ve prioritized some of the higher-priority bugs for this patch. I’ll be continuing on to the lower-priority bug fixes and other general improvements in the next patch.

Resolved Issues:

• Currency/skill point overlay shows up in places it shouldn’t.
• Mouse goes beneath currency/skill point overlay.
• Cannot select units around/behind interactable objects and the interact button.
• Crazy bug where the sprites go away on several menus/dialogue screens.
• Numbers on party menu character buttons don’t match character’s level.
• Enemies spot friendly units even when hidden in darkness.
• Some enemy torches have two layers of light, while some only have one.
• Roland joins party but it doesn’t update on the party menu until a scene load.
• Enemy health is visible in fog/when enemy is invisible.
• Players can exit Uhr during party scene.
• Players can revisit Uhr and trigger party scene again.
• Items stolen from enemies do not get added to inventory after battle.
• Collider missing on Capital Passage.
• Exit on Meepthos Peak is difficulty to find.
• Restarting levels where allies are gained allows you to gain them infinite times.
• Volley attack reticle doesn’t go over gaps (but the attack does). Interceptor may still have this glitch. I’m still working on it.
• Peaceful avatar has very large collider.
• Middle mouse on tutorial is sometimes called “Mouse 3”.

Known Issues:

• Some Mac users are experiencing difficulties launching FLAMBERGE. If you are one of these affected users, please let us know in the comments. Reinstalling the game usually gets things working again, but we obviously want to squash this bug for good.
• Enemies sometimes improperly indicate actions.
• Some abilities listed on promotion menu falsely indicate that they deal 0 damage.
• Sound sliders in options menu still a bit buggy.

Hello everyone! It's been just five days since pushing FLAMBERGE's latest build, and we've been thrilled with your reception so far!

Feedback and Forums

Upcoming Fixes

In Other News...

It's time, everyone. Chapter 3 is officially live! We've got tons of revamped features coming your way. Michael's detailed the scope of the update below; read on to learn about our latest build from the man himself. ~Ben --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey all! Michael here. I'm proud to present our newest version of Flamberge! Thanks for the wait- we're back in business! ~msb This update contains a new, smaller chapter, but is mainly a giant overhaul to the UI and presentation of the game. Future updates will contain much more content than this one; we recommend playing the game from the beginning to experience all of the cool new stuff.

Content

• One new chapter of mainly story-focused content.
• Minor changes to chapter one.
• Totem powers, new abilities that can be unlocked after finishing chapter one. There are 7 available in the current version.
  • These are unlocked by spending skill points, which are earned after each battle.

Presentation/User Interface

• Entirely new title menu.
• New cinematic intro when starting a new game.
• New settings menu allows toggling of various features, setting of resolution and audio levels.
  • Yes, this means the Unity dialogue on startup is goooone.
• Entirely new battle UI.
  • More visible ability details, including damage and cooldowns.
  • Better sound feedback on everything.
• Refurbished party menu.
  • Everything should feel a bit more satisfying.
• New tip system
  • More direct than the previous tutorial window. This system will be used to introduce players to any new mechanics that need explanation.

Gameplay

• New controls in peaceful areas
  • Pathfinding was creating problems, so peaceful areas just use directional movement now.
• Partial joystick support!
  • You can play 90% of the game with a joystick now, aside from any typing.
  • So far, I’ve only tested this with an Xbox 360 controller. Other controllers may not work.
• Units now ‘bleed’ points from their total health if they aren’t healed quickly.
  • This is to make the medic/healing items more desirable on the frontline.
• Scoring after each battle. Players will be scored based on three things:
  • Red Score: % of enemies defeated, and how quickly
  • Gold Score: Health of the party, avoidance of damage
  • Blue Score: Stealth (based on how many turns your team remained spotted)
    • Blue scoring is much, much kinder on levels where stealth isn’t an option (e.g. bosses)
  • These scores will earn red/gold/blue skill points, which can be spent on totem powers.
• Slightly reworked promotion abilities.
• Various balances to early abilities. Some examples:
  • Archer ‘shoot’ can no longer use auto firing mode.
  • Swordsman ‘lunge’ can now pierce multiple enemies (in a small line).

Feedback Menu

Hey y'all! Lots of new stuff coming your way, so it's time for another community update! We're nearing completion of Chapter 3, and have decided to push it as a standalone update rather than paired with Chapter 4; I think we're all tired of waiting! As mentioned in the last community update, Chapter 3 is more story than gameplay driven, but this upcoming build is still chock full of new features. Here's a breakdown of some of the changes you'll be seeing.

New Features & Updates

And Most Importantly:

Hello, all! We've been getting very helpful feedback from the community when it comes to keeping everyone up-to-date with progress on the game. Since we can't push full game updates as often as we'd like to, we have decided to pull back the curtain and show off some of the new features currently in development for our next build! For those wishing to avoid spoilers, we've hidden all story information within this post; however, some of the included screenshots and gifs may still reveal slivers of info. Players who would rather remain completely spoiler-free, ye have been warned.

Story and Campaign

New Features and Updates

Feedback

*originally posted Dec 24, 2017 in the Flamberge Community Discussions* Happy Holidays, everyone! We know it's been a while since our last update, and we owe our players an explanation. One of our major goals in the development of Flamberge is transparency with you, our community. We've fumbled in this goal and let you all down, and for that we would like to apologize. This year has been long, strange, and full of challenges; somewhere along the way, we (very regrettably) clammed up on our forums. As independent game developers, it is often difficult to separate our personal lives from our work. Everything we do or don't say online reflects on the game, and when hardships arise, it can be difficult to know what is and isn't appropriate to share with our players. In short, we don't like making excuses for ourselves, but sometimes, well, life happens. So where have we been? Over this past year, Michael has been nose-to-the-grindstone working through his final year of college; as for myself, between a cross-country relocation and two hospitalizations (don't worry, I'm okay!), things are just now settling into a consistent rhythm. We know that some of you have been worried, but I'd like to confirm for you all that Flamberge is ABSOLUTELY still in development. Progress this year has admittedly been slower than anticipated, but we can't wait to share the things soon to come. Thanks to all of the support you have given us, this game is shaping up to be something truly special. A few notes on how we update our game, for those who are new to our community: - We only push updates that have been thoroughly tested. The last thing we want to do is break the game for our early access players, so rather than adding individual features, we push out "chunks" of the game that can be played in their entirety. Of course, we also understand the value of community playtesting, and are always appreciative of notes and bug reports that are sent our way. - Our updates take time, but they are always BIG. Each major update we've pushed so far has doubled the content of the game; while we don't anticipate continuing on that exponential path, when an update arrives, you can certainly expect something worth playing. -We love your feedback! If something about the game rubs you the wrong way, we want to hear about it (though we do appreciate compliments, too! <3). While we do have a certain vision for the game, fun and accessibility will always be THE top priority for us. Please let us know what we can do to improve the experience for you. We have been thrilled to see that, despite our absence in online presence, our wonderful community has such a dedicated interest in Flamberge. We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts; when we first set out to create this game, we never anticipated such kindness and enthusiasm from players across the globe. I will be going through all of your discussion posts in the next week or so to answer any specific questions you may have. Please feel free to sound off in the comments below! All the best, -Ben

*originally posted Dec 24, 2017 in the Flamberge Community Discussions* Happy Holidays, everyone! We know it's been a while since our last update, and we owe our players an explanation. One of our major goals in the development of Flamberge is transparency with you, our community. We've fumbled in this goal and let you all down, and for that we would like to apologize. This year has been long, strange, and full of challenges; somewhere along the way, we (very regrettably) clammed up on our forums. As independent game developers, it is often difficult to separate our personal lives from our work. Everything we do or don't say online reflects on the game, and when hardships arise, it can be difficult to know what is and isn't appropriate to share with our players. In short, we don't like making excuses for ourselves, but sometimes, well, life happens. So where have we been? Over this past year, Michael has been nose-to-the-grindstone working through his final year of college; as for myself, between a cross-country relocation and two hospitalizations (don't worry, I'm okay!), things are just now settling into a consistent rhythm. We know that some of you have been worried, but I'd like to confirm for you all that Flamberge is ABSOLUTELY still in development. Progress this year has admittedly been slower than anticipated, but we can't wait to share the things soon to come. Thanks to all of the support you have given us, this game is shaping up to be something truly special. A few notes on how we update our game, for those who are new to our community: - We only push updates that have been thoroughly tested. The last thing we want to do is break the game for our early access players, so rather than adding individual features, we push out "chunks" of the game that can be played in their entirety. Of course, we also understand the value of community playtesting, and are always appreciative of notes and bug reports that are sent our way. - Our updates take time, but they are always BIG. Each major update we've pushed so far has doubled the content of the game; while we don't anticipate continuing on that exponential path, when an update arrives, you can certainly expect something worth playing. -We love your feedback! If something about the game rubs you the wrong way, we want to hear about it (though we do appreciate compliments, too! <3). While we do have a certain vision for the game, fun and accessibility will always be THE top priority for us. Please let us know what we can do to improve the experience for you. We have been thrilled to see that, despite our absence in online presence, our wonderful community has such a dedicated interest in Flamberge. We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts; when we first set out to create this game, we never anticipated such kindness and enthusiasm from players across the globe. I will be going through all of your discussion posts in the next week or so to answer any specific questions you may have. Please feel free to sound off in the comments below! All the best, -Ben

Disclaimer: If anyone encounters a game breaking bug, please email me ASAP (contact@hydezeke.com) - our ability to QA test is very minimal, so bugs will slip through the cracks often. Hey all - I've just pushed a new update for the game, here's the rough changelog:

• Challenge editor - Available in the singleplayer menu, the challenge editor lets you create custom challenges by placing units in existing levels. Eventually, this may become a full level editor, but for now I'm sticking to these basic features.
• Note - challenges are stored as .flch files and can be shared like any other file.
• Major change to vision - woolbrush no longer "blocks" enemy vision. Only standing inside woolbrush will hide your units. Standing behind woolbrush will not.
• Felina (boss 2) has been changed in a number of different ways. Give us feedback! What is fun about the fight/what isn't?
• Run in peaceful mode by double-clicking
• Slight changes to stats (characters may be slightly slower - let us know if this causes any issues)
• Prettier promotion screen (still WIP)
• Slight enemy placement changes (to accommodate new stealth)

Disclaimer: If anyone encounters a game breaking bug, please email me ASAP (contact@hydezeke.com) - our ability to QA test is very minimal, so bugs will slip through the cracks often. Hey all - I've just pushed a new update for the game, here's the rough changelog:

• Challenge editor - Available in the singleplayer menu, the challenge editor lets you create custom challenges by placing units in existing levels. Eventually, this may become a full level editor, but for now I'm sticking to these basic features.
• Note - challenges are stored as .flch files and can be shared like any other file.
• Major change to vision - woolbrush no longer "blocks" enemy vision. Only standing inside woolbrush will hide your units. Standing behind woolbrush will not.
• Felina (boss 2) has been changed in a number of different ways. Give us feedback! What is fun about the fight/what isn't?
• Run in peaceful mode by double-clicking
• Slight changes to stats (characters may be slightly slower - let us know if this causes any issues)
• Prettier promotion screen (still WIP)
• Slight enemy placement changes (to accommodate new stealth)

Hey folks - the demo's been finally updated to reflect the current style/features of the game. It's basically a run-through of the first 3 missions of the main game. Tell your friends (or not) - but yes, we are finally rid of that old old old (ancient) piece of software I called the demo. People still liked that thing! It had no tutorial... -msb @hydezeke

Hey folks - the demo's been finally updated to reflect the current style/features of the game. It's basically a run-through of the first 3 missions of the main game. Tell your friends (or not) - but yes, we are finally rid of that old old old (ancient) piece of software I called the demo. People still liked that thing! It had no tutorial... -msb @hydezeke

Hey all- someone wrote to me about an error preventing them from getting past the save screen. I won't be able to fix it today, but I can offer a temporary fix if you're encountering the issue right now. This is for anything resembling "IOException.../saves/ is not empty" in the console For Windows users: Paste this into the address bar of Windows Explorer: (replace "Michael" with your user name for Windows) C:UsersMichaelAppDataLocalLow (OR just navigate to AppData manually if it's not hidden) Look for a folder called "Hydezeke", and delete it. This will reset the folder path for Flamberge and hopefully fix the issue. Feel free to check AppDataLocal and AppDataRoaming if you're on an older Windows system. For OSX users it's a bit weirder: Go to your usersLibrary folder In ApplicationSupport and caches Look for any folders/files containing "Hydezeke" or "flamberge" in their names and delete them. OSX changes its data path pretty frequently so I can't be sure what you guys will see on your side. I hope most of you aren't having this issue, but if you are, I hope this fix works!

Hello, everyone! My name is Ben, the other half of team Hydezeke, and I’m here to deliver some exciting news for you all: We are thrilled to announce that we’ve just pushed out a huge new update to our Early Access users, with an estimated 3 hours of playable content leading up to our second boss battle! Included in this update is our brand new party management system, as well as reworked back-end RPG statistics, items (both consumable and equipable), shops, optional cutscenes, and optional recruitable characters. We appreciate and understand the concerns you have voiced about our transparency and involvement within the Steam community, and will be using this update to refresh our online presence with you all. Moving forward, I will be personally managing our Steam community, logging reported bugs, and answering any burning questions you may have for Michael and I. As always, we cannot thank you enough for your continued support. We realize that this past year has been sparse in updates due to our complete overhaul of Flamberge’s back-end systems, but we firmly believe that this has been time well spent, and hope that these improvements will lead to a much more polished and satisfying experience. All the best, -Ben P.S. We love emails; please send us your thoughts at contact@hydezeke.com!

Hello, everyone! My name is Ben, the other half of team Hydezeke, and Im here to deliver some exciting news for you all: We are thrilled to announce that weve just pushed out a huge new update to our Early Access users, with an estimated 3 hours of playable content leading up to our second boss battle! Included in this update is our brand new party management system, as well as reworked back-end RPG statistics, items (both consumable and equipable), shops, optional cutscenes, and optional recruitable characters. We appreciate and understand the concerns you have voiced about our transparency and involvement within the Steam community, and will be using this update to refresh our online presence with you all. Moving forward, I will be personally managing our Steam community, logging reported bugs, and answering any burning questions you may have for Michael and I. As always, we cannot thank you enough for your continued support. We realize that this past year has been sparse in updates due to our complete overhaul of Flamberges back-end systems, but we firmly believe that this has been time well spent, and hope that these improvements will lead to a much more polished and satisfying experience. All the best, -Ben P.S. We love emails; please send us your thoughts at contact@hydezeke.com!

Hi Steam! Quick note right off the bat: as you all know, I am super, super bad at replying to Steam discussions. This is because I am one person, and a full-time student at that, haha. Please email me (contact@hydezeke.com) or contact me on Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/hydezeke ) if you want a response! Feel free to leave feedback on here for other Steam users, but also please come talk to me on a personal level! Please email me especially if Flamberge is freezing or doing something incredibly game-breaking, so that I can see the issue as soon as possible. I apologize for the lack of content for the past semester. Flamberge has been going through a systematic overhaul, and it has been a nightmare balancing act for me between school and this game. Just remember, Flamberge is my passion project, and I will finish it even if it kills me in the process. It just might take a very long time to finally finish it, haha. For this new build, I have put Flamberge through a major overhaul in terms of programming and also game design. Here are the 2 drawbacks: [olist]

More music available on the title screen! The title track is still in development, so I've put the music player on autoplay on the main screen. Feel free to give a listen to over 30 songs from the soundtrack. [/olist] I hope you can all enjoy/accept the new update. After debuting this build at MAGFest, I felt like I couldn't keep the old unpolished Steam version any longer. I feel like the game is finally in a place where it is naturally fun, and I don't have to go back and tweak things anymore. If you have any questions or comments you want a direct response to, please let me know via email (contact@hydezeke.com) or Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/hydezeke ) Thanks much! -hydezeke
(the two of us from a great MAGFest showcase!)

[ 2016-02-22 20:36:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Steam! Quick note right off the bat: as you all know, I am super, super bad at replying to Steam discussions. This is because I am one person, and a full-time student at that, haha. Please email me (contact@hydezeke.com) or contact me on Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/hydezeke ) if you want a response! Feel free to leave feedback on here for other Steam users, but also please come talk to me on a personal level! Please email me especially if Flamberge is freezing or doing something incredibly game-breaking, so that I can see the issue as soon as possible. I apologize for the lack of content for the past semester. Flamberge has been going through a systematic overhaul, and it has been a nightmare balancing act for me between school and this game. Just remember, Flamberge is my passion project, and I will finish it even if it kills me in the process. It just might take a very long time to finally finish it, haha. For this new build, I have put Flamberge through a major overhaul in terms of programming and also game design. Here are the 2 drawbacks: [olist]

More music available on the title screen! The title track is still in development, so I've put the music player on autoplay on the main screen. Feel free to give a listen to over 30 songs from the soundtrack. [/olist] I hope you can all enjoy/accept the new update. After debuting this build at MAGFest, I felt like I couldn't keep the old unpolished Steam version any longer. I feel like the game is finally in a place where it is naturally fun, and I don't have to go back and tweak things anymore. If you have any questions or comments you want a direct response to, please let me know via email (contact@hydezeke.com) or Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/hydezeke ) Thanks much! -hydezeke
(the two of us from a great MAGFest showcase!)

[ 2016-02-22 20:36:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! I apologize for the lack of updates through the summer. I went to LA to help with Girls Make Games, a camp to teach girls basic game development skills. After that, I've moved and gone back to uni, so I've been really busy. I'm 3 weeks in to the semester, now, so I've gotten into the groove of things. Flamberge is still in development in case you're worried! I've jumped the fence back into coding, and I've been doing some work on the party system. The other day, I worked on a pre-battle draft system that will be useful when your party becomes larger than the battle can support. "So, when can I expect another content update?" I'm gonna paste basically what I told KS - I have a big to-do list of items currently. Unfortunately, the party system is my big focus right now, and while I'm screwing around with that, my version of the build is very unplayable. I'll have a better idea of when I can put out a content update in a couple weeks. Email me if you have any questions! msb@hydezeke.com is the best way to reach me (things miss me all the time on KS/Twitter/Steam - sometimes I look back at one of my pages and am horrified at all the stuff I missed). ❤ -msb

Hey everyone! I apologize for the lack of updates through the summer. I went to LA to help with Girls Make Games, a camp to teach girls basic game development skills. After that, I've moved and gone back to uni, so I've been really busy. I'm 3 weeks in to the semester, now, so I've gotten into the groove of things. Flamberge is still in development in case you're worried! I've jumped the fence back into coding, and I've been doing some work on the party system. The other day, I worked on a pre-battle draft system that will be useful when your party becomes larger than the battle can support. "So, when can I expect another content update?" I'm gonna paste basically what I told KS - I have a big to-do list of items currently. Unfortunately, the party system is my big focus right now, and while I'm screwing around with that, my version of the build is very unplayable. I'll have a better idea of when I can put out a content update in a couple weeks. Email me if you have any questions! msb@hydezeke.com is the best way to reach me (things miss me all the time on KS/Twitter/Steam - sometimes I look back at one of my pages and am horrified at all the stuff I missed). -msb

Hey everyone! Here are the facts about the early access right now:

Release Date

Multiplayer, Bugs

Content

Story

Pricing