Hey everyone,
We just pushed a minor updated. We fixed a few things in order to make the game run smoother on the soon to be released Valve Steam Deck.
We are pretty excited about the Steam Deck and Pathway plays great on the device. With this update we wanted to make sure that when you get your hands on your Deck, Pathway will just run.
Changelog for 1.4.1
- A few improvements and fixes for Steam Deck compatibility
Hey Adventurers!
Happy 2022! steamhappy
Were pretty excited to announce that Pathway now supports community language mods through the Steam Workshop! Talented members of the community are now able to create translations for the game and publish them directly through Steam. In fact, there's already a completed Italian translation available right now, translated by some of our amazing community members. Check it out here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2678343514 We really hope this will enable even more players the chance to experience Pathway. Keep in mind, these are community translations and any problems/issues with them should be posted directly to their workshop pages so they can be addressed by the team that created them. We can't fix them! If you are interested in starting a community translation project, you can find instructions inside the game's installation folder inside a folder labeled i18n. The readme will give you a starting point on setting up your language, and how to use excel to manage your translations. We'd also highly recommend you join our discord server as there's quite a few people there that may be able to help out in case you run into any problems. Besides this addition, the build also includes a handful of smaller fixes and addresses a crash bug we've seen mentioned quite a few times in the forums recently. Changelog Version 1.4.0
- Added steam workshop support for community translations
- Fixed an OpenGL crash bug that occurred randomly when loading maps
- Fixed a bug that allowed you to unequip items from locked characters
- Fixed a handful of spelling errors
- Updated the visuals of medic enemy units slightly
This latest update is a small patch for the MacOS version to properly launch on OS X 10.10 to 10.13 again.
Hey everyone, This is a very minor bug fix update especially for users of older OSX versions. If your game did not run on OSX please give this build a spin: Change list for 1.3.3
- Fixed an issue that prevented the game to start on older OSX versions.
- Fixed some minor visuals issues.
- Updated some missing translations.
Hey everyone, Its bug fixin time again! First of all, huge thanks to all the players who left nice comments after our latest release, and an even bigger thanks to everyone who spotted and reported bugs that slipped our released patches - youre the unsung heroes making the game better for everybody! Thanks to your reports we manage to catch the bugs and eliminate them: Change list for 1.3.2
- Fixed several issues with the UI that caused tooltips for the mouse to show up incorrectly
- Fixed several cases where you could soft lock the game when playing with the controller
- Removed an exploit where you could steal locked characters equipment
- Fixed an exceedingly rare bug that caused the player to become stuck in between map changes, creating a none working save game
- Fixed some memory leaks that after very long stints of gameplay could cause the game to crash
- General quality of life fixes!
We missed some situations where you could lock up the game while in combat and a crash in the final release of the controller version. This new patch should solve these problems. Changelog Version 1.3.1:
- Fixed crash caused by switching Shadow Settings during an active game.
- Fixed a soft lock when using the ESC key to access the menu during combat.
Controller support has now been officially added to Pathway! Last week we announced that Pathway will be coming to Nintendo Switch on May 27th - this huge update gave us the opportunity to work on an all-important and often-requested controller support for Pathway. The update also brings some UI tweaks and range of bug fixes with it. See full changelog below.
[h4]How to play Pathway with a controller[/h4]You first have to activate controller mode through the options menu. Navigate to the controls tab and select one of the supported controllers from the controls mode list:
Currently we have (official) support for Playstation, XBox and Switch controllers, but other controllers will probably work as well. After selecting your option click apply at the bottom and you should be good to go!
Full Changelog 1.3.0
- Controller Support: The game can now be played fully with a variety of controllers.
- Overhauled load out screen: The load out screen has received an overhaul. Both the character selection and the equipment phase are now combined into one. You can toggle between the jeep storage and the character info.
- A few additional UI tweaks: Some fatter borders around buttons and some additional feedback in some places. A few actions have better target indication now.
- Added some missing translations
- Added some new glyphs to the fonts (Spanish)
- Memory and performance improvements/tweaks
- Fixed loot drops in Adventure 4 final fight
- Fixed Bastet's Amulet missing from Artefact drops
- Fixed some potential map blockers in bunker maps
- Fixed a problem that caused the adventure run time to sometimes be formatted wrongly
- Lots of smaller fixes we're forgetting
We released a minor update for the controller preview branch that mostly fixes a bunch of issues. Switch controllers are now also supported. Changelog Version 1.1.7b15:
- Switch Controller support added
- Fix bug that prevented naming of profiles when not using a controller
- Fix dragging of items in load out
- Fix controller button prompt not always showing in the adventure screen
- Fix inconsistent tooltips when using controllers at merchants and loot screens
- Improved selection UI for some options (replaces drop downs)
- The game can now be exited again from the main menu
We just released a minor update on the preview branch. The controller support has been extended and should work fine now on macOS and Linux. Thank you for the bug reports! Changelog Version 1.1.7b14:
- Fixed some issues with the Linux build
- MacOS build is now also working with controllers
- Added support for more controller types: PlayStation controllers now supported.
- Fix a crash with OpenGL
- Fixed a bug that caused tooltips to not work as intended in some situations
Just a little over two years ago the first version of Pathway came out, and it's been a wild journey since then! We've pushed out over 50 updates since the initial release, and thanks to everyone in our amazing community we now have a game that is far better than what we started out with. Your feedback has been a tremendous help in shaping the game. So thank you everyone for your amazing support throughout the last 2 years!
We wanted to take this moment to highlight two community efforts that we think everyone should know about and a little something from us ...
Warpath Mod (by Petru)
The Warpath mod is to our knowledge the first (and only?) mod Pathway has received. Whilst we're not officially supporting mods through Steam, quite a lot of elements in the game can be tweaked and distributed to other players. Petru is a pillar of our community and he's created a complete rebalancing of the original game. Here's a look at the changes:
We think it's amazing what Petru has done! If you want a new/fresh experience check out the instructions on how to install the mod over on nexusmods: Warpath on Nexusmods There's also a post in the forums if you want to get involved: Warpath Steam Forum Thread
Community Italian Translation (by Darth Vader, Metallo, PiuMeglio)
Darth Vader has been spearheading a community effort to translate the game to Italian. They've just recently reached a huge milestone of translating the entire game. Darth Vader has created a post in the forums and anyone interested in testing this out should head over there for instructions: Lingua Italiana / Italian Language
But wait .. there's one more thing
Today we can finally announce that Pathway is getting controller support! It's taken us a while to get here, for reasons we can't talk about (yet steamsad). As of today, the controller version is available on the preview branch (for instructions how to access the preview version here). Keep in mind, this is a preview release, and with that you can expect some bugs. But if you're ok with a few rough edges, we'd love your help in testing this build before we release it to everyone else! This build also includes a few other UI tweaks and fixes. Note: The macOS version is currently not supported on the preview branch. We will release an updated version asap. Here's the full changelog:
- Controller Support: Finally! This version adds "beta" controller support to Pathway. After launching the game, go to options->controls and change the controls mode to turn on controllers. At the moment only Xbox (compatible) Controllers are fully supported. It may work with other controllers if you remap some of the buttons yourself with a third-party tool. We'll work towards fixing this up before we push it onto the main release branch.
- Overhauled load out screen: The load out screen has received an overhaul. Both the character selection and the equipment phase are now combined into one. You can toggle between the jeep storage and the character info.
- A few additional UI tweaks: Some fatter borders around buttons and some additional feedback in some places. A few actions have better target indication now.
- Added some missing translations
- Added some new glyphs to the fonts (Spanish)
- Some memory and performance improvements/tweaks
- Fixed loot drops in Adventure 4 final fight
- Fixed Bastet's Amulet missing from Artefact drops
- Fixed some potential map blockers in bunker maps
- Lots of smaller fixes we're forgetting
We just released a small update which addresses a few bugs players have encountered. Changelog:
- Fixed user interface not fully rendered when using the "UI scaling" option.
- Fixed wrong position of enemy target indicator arrows when using the "UI scaling" option.
- Fixed crash when the game is run from an installation path containing special characters. (Note: Do NOT install into folders ending with "!", like Y:/ou/have/been/warned!/Pathway.)
- Fixed crash in video options when running the game with exceptional monitor configurations.
- Fixed rare crash when launching the game.
- Fixed missing font glyphs when using certain Windows system language settings.
- Added social buttons to main menu which link to our Twitter account and Discord server.
We just released a small maintenance update to address a bunch of crash bugs players have encountered. Changelog Version 1.1.5:
- Fixed crash caused by switching characters when in Burst Fire mode.
- Fix visual issues when pressing the "Take All" button repeatedly
- Fix crash during AI turn
- Fix crash when using Reaction Shot and standing inside an enemy ambush
- Possible crash fix some users randomly experienced when going into combat
We've just pressed the release button for the Hardcore Mode Update! This is a sizable update that brings an exciting new way to play the game, a bunch of QoL changes and many bug fixes!
Hardcore Mode
In case you haven't seen our last devlog, here's a recap of what the Hardcore Mode is: When you create a new profile you'll see the option to make this profile a Hardcore Profile. Note that you can't change a hardcore profile to a normal profile later. Hardcore Mode follows different rules than standard Pathway: All adventures play in a sequence one after the other. Almost everything carries over to the next adventure and you have to survive with only the things you find during your travels. So that means you won't be able to change your team between adventures and if your characters die, they are gone on this profile! Due to these additional constraints, we recommend to try the game on a default profile first. Some additional differences in Hardcore Mode:
- All jeep upgrades and characters are unlocked from the start.
- Failing or successfully finishing will lock the profile.
- Permadeath: When a character dies, they are dead for good.
- Higher base difficulty
- No achievements
- Hardcore Mode added: A fresh take on Pathway! See above blog for full description.
- Extended difficulty: We have extended the max difficulty, which means you may encounter higher difficulty enemies at the pointy end of the game.
- Added Resource tooltip: When hovering over resources on the exploration bar or in the journal you will now have a tooltip which also tells you the resource's max capacity.
- Added action tooltips: When hovering actions in combat you will now also see available ammo/supplies.
- We've improved selling of valuables hinting. There's now a tooltip when hovering the bag and if you leave a merchant without selling it'll prompt whether you intended to leave without selling (similar to leaving loot behind).
- A total of 12 new weapons have been added: Each weapon category (like shotgun, rifles etc.) have received 2 additional variations.
- New Artifact "Bastet's Amulet" added
- New Hardcore Mode achievement added
- "An Ending and a New Beginning" achievement has been changed: There is a new Achievement that rewards you for finishing x adventures. We've also tweaked the numbers on that achievement. Note that this is a conversion of the fail achievement, so if you've previously unlocked the achievement or made progress towards it, it'll carry over.
- Item Type information is now more consistent across tooltips
- Map/Sector count is now once again visible in the Team Journal
- Fix bravery cost in tooltip for Reaction Shot/Parry
- Fix some collision issues
- Fix some smaller UI issues/alignment/scaling.
- Fix bug that allowed sporebearers to be pushed around with Sucker Punch.
- Fixed a bug that caused Psychic Control to trigger evade
- Fixed a bug that caused the Adventure play time to be skewed when using accelerated AI turns.
- Fixed a bug that could cause a crash when exceeding a certain amount of endurance points.
As of today the next version of Pathway is available on the Preview Branch. This build includes the new Hardcore Mode!
Before we dig into the new version, we have a favour to ask of you. Pathway's OST has been nominated for best OST over at gamesmusic.net. If you enjoy the soundtrack of the game as much as we do, we'd be excited if you voted for it over here. steamhappy
So what exactly is Pathway's Hardcore mode?
When you create a new profile you'll see the option to make this profile a Hardcore Profile. Note that you can't change a hardcore profile to a normal profile later. Hardcore Mode follows different rules than standard Pathway: All adventures play in a sequence one after the other. Almost everything carries over to the next adventure and you have to survive with only the things you find during your travels. Some additional changes:
- All jeep upgrades and characters are unlocked from the start.
- Failing or successfully finishing will lock the profile.
- Permadeath: When a character dies, they are dead for good.
- Higher base difficulty
- No achievements
- Hardcore Mode added: A fresh take on Pathway! See above blog post for full description.
- Extended difficulty: We have extended the max difficulty, which means you may encounter higher difficulty enemies at the pointy end of the game.
- Added Resource tooltip: When hovering over resources on the exploration bar or in the journal you will now have a tooltip which also tells you the resource's max capacity.
- Added action tooltips: When hovering actions in combat you will now also see available ammo/supplies.
- We've improved selling of valuables hinting. There's now a tooltip when hovering the bag and if you leave a merchant without selling it'll prompt whether you intended to leave without selling (similar to leaving loot behind).
- New Artifact "Bastet's Amulet" added
- Item Type information is now more consistent across tooltips
- Map/Sector count is now once again visible in the Team Journal
- Fix bravery cost in tooltip for Reaction Shot/Parry
- Fix some collision issues
- Fix some smaller UI issues/alignment/scaling.
- Fix bug that allowed sporebearers to be pushed around with Sucker Punch.
- Fixed a bug that caused Psychic Control to trigger evade
- Fixed a bug that caused the Adventure play time to be skewed when using accelerated AI turns.
It's been an exciting couple of weeks for us and Pathway!
Last week we were completely surprised to win an award at the German Developer Awards. Pathway took home an award for Best Story. We're incredibly honored to have received this! You can see all the winners and find some more details here (in German).
(photo by EDITORIAL247.COM) We've also been busy preparing a nice little update for Pathway. We're currently doing some internal testing and are hoping to release the update early next year. Besides the usual bugfixes and quality of life improvements we have the following things coming up:
Hardcore Mode
When creating a new profile, you will be given the option to create a Hardcore Profile. A Hardcore profile changes some of the fundamental rules of the game around. Adventures play out one after the other in a linear sequence and everything carries over from the previous map. In practice this means you pick a team once at the beginning and you have to survive with what you find on your travels. However, all characters are unlocked from the start, so you can build any team configuration you like. Hardcore mode also enables permadeath for your party. Once a character dies, they're gone for good. Should you fail on your adventure, the profile is locked. This mode is hard. It'll really allow people who like a serious challenge to experience Pathway in a fresh way. We're pretty excited to hear about your experiences with this!
New Weapons/Items
The update will also introduce a bunch of new weapons and items. They fall into line with the existing categories but will provide more variety at the pointy end of the game! A big thank you from all of us at Robotality for an incredible year. We're really happy that many of you have been enjoying our little game! Stay tuned and see you in the New Year!
Hey everyone! Simon here, Art Director at Robotality.
What a ride the last few months were. We released over a dozen of updates, including one big update called Adventurers Wanted that reworked the core gameplay using your feedback you gave us. We feel honored to have such a nice and supportive community. Thank you!
As you have seen now the Steam Autumn Sale is live and as with every year, you can now also vote for the games you love to nominate for a Steam Awards.
Lets see if we can get a game with pixel art into the Outstanding Visual Style category together
What makes the art style of Pathway so special?
The visual art style of Pathway was a pipe dream of mine I had long before we even started working on the game. During the development of our first game, Halfway we had our first experiments going with the ideas to combine classical pixel art with dynamic lights and shadows, but due to time constraints we never followed through.
After we finished Halfway we started to look into what to do next, and while we worked on the game design for Pathway, we also picked up the old idea again: Can we actually do proper shadows and dynamic light within a pixel art game that are also as close as possible pixel perfect.
No one before us had fully done this so it was an interesting challenge to take up. There are some other games that uses dynamic lighting and normal maps combined with pixel art, but no one did a full dynamic light and shadow setup until now!
After a few months of prototyping we actually had a proof of concept for this:
As you can see, it looked more like Halfway and our concept for Pathway was not even close to the finished product we have now. But... we now knew that it could be done! Little did we know back then, that it would take us another 4 years to complete and for Pathway to become the game it is now.
Here are some more very old prototype screenshots of the Pathway tech:
Even though the game does not look like it in the end, we are using a very limited color palette for the whole game. All assets are made out of a set of 32 colors for the environment and another 32 colors for the character. Here you can see the rough sketches I did to test my 32 colors for the environment back in early 2016:
Next up is a short behind-the-scenes video of how we create our levels and visuals in our custom editor. To achieve the look, we actually use voxels and 3D meshes to generate the scenes and instead of pixels - you see colorized polygons for each pixel on the screen.
https://youtu.be/sHYhSnl7cZo
If you think the result is worth an award nomination on Steam feel free to click on the widget above.
Thank you again for the support, its been a cool ride together. We are looking forward to sharing more news with you folks soon about what we have in store with Pathway.
PS: If you want to have a more detailed look at what we did to achieve the look we have. Let us know in the comments and we will see what we can do.
A smaller maintenance update that includes a handful of bug fixes and some minor improvements to UI!
And also a HUGE thank you to everyone who's been playing and leaving reviews in the last little while. We're really happy to see people enjoying the 1.1 changes steamhappy Changelog Version 1.1.3:
- Added tooltip for burst fire to indicate it can be rotated
- Added an alternative way to rotate burst fire (Q/E)
- Added weapon type descriptor in the weapon tooltip window for better clarity.
- Added a new pixel zoom-option to the settings.json allowing users to set a custom zoom if the default is causing problems.
- Fixed a bunch of localization errors and typos
- Fixed a rare crash when moving the enemy group size slider all the way down.
- Fixed a rare enemy spawn issues that caused enemies to be spawned inside walls
- Fixed a rare crash that sometimes happened when switching between the Pathway window and other windows.
Today's Deal: Save 40% on Pathway!*
Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!
*Offer ends Thursday 10/24 at 10AM Pacific Time
We just released a minor maintenance update that fixes and tweaks an handful of things. Full changelog below!
Changelog Version 1.1.2:
- Grenade impact can now be evaded.
- Splinter DMG buffs on legendary items now also increase the base DMG.
- Tooltips for actions are now shown even if the action isn't available
- The Artifact "Shield Of Perseus" now has the proper buffs.
- Fixed bug that caused Sporebearers/Cultists to still attack vanished characters
- Fixed a bug that caused multiple stat boosts of same type to not be combined in tooltips.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Team Journal screen to not refresh after a recruit event
We just released a smaller update on Steam which includes important bugfixes and the addition of a new default option for AI turn speed.
We'd like to also say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who's been playing the 1.1 update and wrote a review, sent an email or in some other way left us a comment. We're really happy to hear that you're enjoying the changes and additions we've introduced with "Adventurers Wanted"! Here's the full changelog for version 1.1.1:
- Default AI Speed Option: We've added the option to set a default for the AI turn speed. Every combat will begin with this default speed. You can always slow/down speed it up for a specific combat and it'll reset again to the default for the next battle.
- Updated JP/CH loca with a few more missing details
- Added bravery cost to the new abilities in the skill tree.
- Tweaked the timing of some tutorial overlays slightly
- Fixed a crash when using Sudden Strike against Zombies
- Fixed some missing collisions in certain combat arenas
- Fixed a bug that caused the skilltree to not hide properly when opening the menu/codex
- Fixed a bunch of typos in loca
- Fixed a bug that caused unexpected behaviour when creating a new profile after switching between profiles in the main menu.
- Fixed a bug that caused hotkeys to not working properly after a profile switch
After months of work, today is the day we're finally releasing the Adventurers Wanted Update!
This major free update includes A LOT of changes and additions. We are going to list the most important changes below, but you can read a full changelog in the forums here. If you haven't played the game in a while, this is a fantastic opportunity to give it another go. We'd love to hear what you think!
New Abilities
There is a total of 18 new combat abilities in the game. These abilities add many new ways to interact with enemies and allies in combat. For a full list of abilities please see this forum post.
Reworked Skill Trees
Every character has received a new skill tree. You'll notice that each character now lists an ability at level 1. This is the character's starting ability. You will also be able to unlock up to 2 more abilities for each character. These reworked skill trees really help in underlining each character's uniqueness.
New and reworked events
We have added a sizeable amount of new events to the update. There are many new combat arenas (ex. airfield, farms, etc.) providing lots of new combat variety. In addition to this, we've also added dozens of adventure specific events providing flavour that is unique to each adventure. We've also reworked many existing events to provide more interesting choices, rewards and serious consequences.
New Consumables System
Instead of stacking up consumable items like medkits, repairkits or grenades you now collect a new resource called Supplies. When you use a consumable, one supply resource is consumed. Just like other resources such as fuel and ammo you begin each adventure with a starting amount. Supplies can be found as loot or bought from merchants. You still need a medkit item equipped in order to heal your team however!
New Combat Modes
Advantage, Blindsided and Tumult. Each combat mode tweaks how the combat begins. In Blindsided for example, the enemy surprised you. Your squad begins the combat with a panic penalty which only permits one action in the first turn.
Game Rebalanced
We've made tweaks to all enemies, characters and items. The money economy has also been improved. In general the game should feel much more balanced now. We've also added more ways to customize difficulty such as the option to make combat groups larger or smaller.
New Armor system
Armors now work as a direct damage reduction. If you have an armor with 10 AR, you will receive -10 reduction to your incoming damage. As a consequence you will almost always receive a bit of damage to your health. Armor generally receives damage with every hit. How much damage an armor receives is determined by the weapon's "Armor Shredding".
New Item System
The general item system has received an overhaul. Items now follow a level progression. Each higher level being stronger than the previous one. Within each level you may find rare, epic or even legendary variations which will yield additional boosts and benefits. The main reason for this change is to allow a more even progression through the game without having to rely on legendary items. Rare, epic and legendary items still give significant improvements, but are no longer required to finish the game. This removes a lot of the previous RNG-based grinding.
Artifacts
Unique (and very rare) items that can only be found once per profile. Artifacts can be placed in a character's off-hand equipment slot. Some of them yield stat boosts or open up event options whilst others may even unlock new abilities. It's worth noting that Artifacts can be used by all characters and don't require a skill to use.
New Languages
Chinese and Japanese translations are now part of the game in addition to the already existing translations in German and French. Important Note: Due to the significant changes made to characters, this update will reset your character's skill tree. You won't lose your progress, but you get a free reskill. You may also notice that some items have changed. This is also due to some significant changes in the underlying items system. You may prefer to create a new profile and experience all these changes with a fresh start! We really hope you'll enjoy this update! Thank you for all your support and messages throughout the last few months, it's been an incredible journey
We're excited to announce that the 1.1 update to Pathway titled Adventurers Wanted is coming out October 9!
Whilst we're busy getting everything finalized we want to share some more details about the update. In our previous devlog we already talked about the new abilities, Chinese & Japanese translations and the new content. Today we want to expand on a few more changes that are part of the Adventurers Wanted Update:
Reworked Skill Trees
With the addition of the new abilities we've also reworked the skill trees of all characters. Each character now begins with an additional ability specific to them. Natalya for example begins with the "Bait" ability, whilst Brunhilda starts out with "Sucker Punch". As they level-up they can unlock two more abilities. We feel these changes really help in making the character roster feel more varied. Each character now has their own combination of up to 3 special abilities which opens up a range of new tactical options. It gets even more interesting when trying them out in various team configurations.
New euippable item: Artifacts
With 1.1 we're introducing a new type of equippable items: Artifacts. They're unique (and very rare) items that can only be found once per profile. Artifacts can be placed in a character's off-hand equipment slot. Some of them yield stat boosts or open up event options whilst others may even unlock new abilities. It's worth noting that Artifacts can be used by all characters and don't require a skill to use.
More Difficulty Customization Options
We've completely reworked the difficulty customization options in the game. You are now able to adjust the enemy difficulty and the size of combat groups independently. Whilst larger combat groups do increase the difficulty slightly, it mostly presents the player with a more involved combat experience. So if you enjoy longer and more involved combat sessions crank this setting up. On the other hand if you like easy and quick combat you can lower this setting. The difficulty slider really pushes the overall power of enemies up. In practice it means you can play the earlier adventures at the difficulty of later adventures and push the later adventures even higher. If you increase the difficulty of the adventure, you are also going to find better loot. Additionally, each difficulty level presents the adventure in a new daytime setting. We are really excited to get this update into everyone's hands! Oh and if you live near London come say hi to us at the EGX. We will be showing the new update between 17th and 19th of October at the Chucklefish stand! (More details and tickets here: https://www.egx.net/egx)
We have some exciting things to share with you today.
As previously mentioned we are working on a fairly substantial free update to Pathway that will be released later this Summer (Version 1.1). This devlog presents a handful of new things we're adding to the game. We'll reveal more details over the coming weeks.
Japanese/Chinese Localisation
We promised from the start that we'd add support for Japanese/Chinese. The 1.1 update will finally add those localisations. We had to rewrite large portions of our UI code to make this happen and that's is why it took us a bit longer than originally anticipated. The two languages are currently being tested but as you can tell from the above shots, things are nearly there!
New Combat Skills
With 1.1 we're introducing a host of new combat skills to the game. These skills will introduce many new tactical options and will be used to accentuate characters more. Let's take a look at 3 of them:
Psychic Control: Use your psychic powers to temporarily confuse an enemy causing them to attack one of their allies. It's just mean, really.
Sucker Punch: A powerful blow that will push the enemy back. If used cleverly you can push the enemy into other enemies. Wonder what happens when you push an enemy into an explosive barrel?
Healing Shot: Shoot a healing projectile at one of your allies. Restores health slowly over the next few turns. There are a lot more skills we're working on, but this little peek should give you an indication of what to expect!
More Combat Arenas
These shots show two of a whole bunch of new combat arenas we've added to the game. These new environments are part of a bigger rework of the events in the game (We'll talk more about this in another post). Our main goal with the work here has been to add more variety to the existing roster of events. In addition to this, we've also tweaked already existing combat arenas to make them more interesting.
Enemy Indicators
This new UI feature adds small indicators at the corner of the screen giving you a way to easily identify where enemies are outside of the current camera view. Just like when in view you can see their hitchance (and more) when pressing tab. This UI addition makes certain tactical decisions a lot easier. For example if you are moving with one of your snipers you can now easily identify whether you'll be able to attack a target even if outside the current view. Important Note: If you've made it this far, it probably means you're interested in what we're doing with Pathway and we'd love your help: We're actively testing the 1.1 release internally with a handful of testers. If you're ok with bugs, unfinished things and experimental stuff we'd love your help in getting things ready for the update. We're also looking for people who can help us with the Japanese/Chinese localisation testing. The best way to get involved is to join our discord server and get in touch with one of the developers there! Thanks for all your support!
Respec Skill Tree, Improved Dog Friendly mode and a new No Bloodshed mode make it into the latest build!
It's been a while since our last update, but we've got some goodies going into today's version! As mentioned in our previous devlog, our focus in general has shifted towards a bigger free update that we're releasing at the end of summer. We're making fantastic progress on this and we're putting together a blog post soon (next week) to talk about some of the things we're working on. We're still however adding new things to the game and fixing bugs. Thank you everyone for reporting issues and helping us improve the game!
So... what's new in today's build?
Respec Skill Tree
Often requested - We've added the ability respec skill trees. It currently is tied to an increasing cost and each subsequent respec is more expensive than the previous one. The current cost is balanced so that most players in the mid-to-late game won't have a problem respeccing characters a few times, but it does prevent the choices from being completely irrelevant. This behaviour may change again and we welcome feedback on this. This respec option is only available during the team selection phase before you start on an adventure.
Improved Dog Friendly Mode
We always wanted to improve on our dog friendly mode and change some of the animations and graphics when fighting dogs. Dogs now also disappear into a parallel universe when they decide they've had enough of human silliness (as depicted above). This new improved mode also removes character prompts that are hurtful towards dogs. As before, you can activate this in the options menu.
New No Bloodshed Mode
We understand that not everyone appreciates the bloodshed in the game. We ourselves wanted to be able to share this game with our kids and some of the depictions were just a bit too graphic for that. This mode removes all blood and gory parts in the game. Some of them get replaced and some of them are simply removed. You can see the difference in the sample above. The gameplay is in no way impacted by this. Besides this things, there's a slew of bugfixes and improvements listed below. We've got some extremely exciting things baking right now and we can't wait to share it with you soon. Stay tuned and thanks for playing! steamhappy Full Changelog Version 1.0.13:
- Added option to reset skill tree: It is now possible to reset the skill tree of a character during the setup phase before the adventure begins. There's a cost attached to it and every time you reset a character the cost increases exponentially. We may change/adapt how exactly all this works again in the future.
- No Bloodshed option: When active, the game removes or replaces blood and gore. It changes nothing in terms of gameplay, but simply removes some elements of gore.
- Improved Dog Friendly option: When active, the dog friendly mode now in addition to removing sfx also makes the dogs disappear rather then die. We've also disabled any character prompts that may be seen as hurtful towards dogs.
- Characters can now be leveled-up during the adventure setup phase: You'll now notice a little level-up indicator on characters that haven't had their level up choices picked. You may level them up by accessing the skill tree in the skills tab.
- Fixed a bug that caused the loading screen in the final encounter in Adventure III to hang.
- Improved start-up loading time: Especially on older systems the initial start-up time of the game should be improved now.
- Damage calculation has been slightly tweaked. In most situations this won't be noticeable, but in some circumstances it can lead to a slightly increased damage.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Damage Preview for punching to be wrong
- Fixed a bunch of UI issues that caused the journal to not get updated. Amongst other issues, it fixes the problem that level-up selections weren't reflected immediately on the stats and skills.
- Fix a bug that allowed the punch to explode barrels at a distance.
- Fix a bug that showed the Damage Preview for enemies out of range sometimes
- Fixed a crash bug that could occur in rare situations after loading from save game
- Ambushes are now also correctly invalidated by Grenade damage.
- Fixed a bug that caused the game to crash due to the No Bloodshed option in some situations.
- Fixed a bug that caused the XP indicator to still show when characters were at max level.
- Fixed a bug in the skill tree of Donut/Fenris.
- Fixed a bug in LeFantome's skill tree that caused a glitch in some situations
- Fixed a bug that caused infected to die twice when being killed with a bleed and triggering an explosive barrel at the same time.
Preview branch receives Skill Tree respec option and a few words about our future update cycles.
Over the last month and a bit we've worked very hard at adding lots of Quality of Life features to Pathway as well as squishing tons of bugs. It made sense for us to release updates on a weekly basis during this time. The things we're working on now however are a bit more fundamental in their nature and take time. As our focus is now shifting more towards the bigger Summer update, we're not continuing the weekly patch updates and instead we will simply release when there is something significant to show.
Practically speaking this means less frequent updates but bigger ones when they do come around. We will continue to push updates to the preview branch on a regular basis.
We also have something exciting to share today: We just pushed a new build to the Preview Version of Pathway that includes an often requested feature: Respeccing Skill Trees.
Below is a full changelog of what's in the latest preview version.
Version 1.0.13p1 (Preview Version):
- Added option to reset skill tree: It is now possible to reset the skill tree of a character during the setup phase before the adventure begins. There's a cost attached to it and every time you reset a character the cost increases exponentially. We may change/adapt how exactly all this works again in the future.w
- Characters can now be leveled-up during the adventure setup phase: You'll now notice a little level-up indicator on characters that haven't had their level up choices picked. You may level them up by accessing the skill tree in the skills tab.
- Fixed a bug in LeFantome's skill tree that caused a glitch in some situations
- Fixed a bug that caused infected to die twice when being killed with a bleed and triggering an explosive barrel at the same time.
We just published a smaller update for Pathway. This build mostly addresses bugs and changes the Ambush behaviour slightly. We've also added some additional details to the Knife tooltips!
Stay tuned for more soon & thanks for playing! steamhappy
Full Changelog Version 1.0.12
- Ambush behaviour is modified slightly. You can now perform any action after setting an ambush except for moving. If you move, your ambush will be canceled. Previously setting an ambush would prevent most successive actions, but not consistently so. The changed behaviour is now more in line with other special abilities and their behaviour.
- Added a warning message when a move cancels an Ambush
- Added bleed duration and damage to the knife tooltip
- Fixed a bug that caused the damage preview to use the wrong knife when two were equipped
- Fixed a bug that caused the level up and KO indicators to stay after a character died or was dismissed
- Fixed a bug that caused an endless loop when an ambush triggered a zombie retaliate
- Fixed a bug that allowed Burst Fire to be used anywhere on the map
- Fixed a bug that sometimes allowed the AI to do a third move.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Necromancer to not take any actions.
- Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause faulty event behaviour when loading from save.
- Updated LWJGL version. This may improve video card compatibility, high-DPI handling and scaling on some systems.
Stack Splitting and AI Turn Speed-Up are in!
Before diving into the details of today's update, we'd like to mention our plans for the near future. Our weekly updates will continue with QoL features as well as the usual bug fixes. At the same time we're working on some more significant changes that we will release in a bigger update later in the summer. This update will address deeper issues we see with the game as well as bring in a bunch of new content. The Japanese and Chinese translation of the game will also be released as part of that update. We're pretty excited about the things we've got planned and we will start talking about some of the changes soon. steamhappy
To clarify: This update will not be a "DLC" but instead a major free update to the base game that will include some new content and improve the existing game in various ways.
In the meantime here's what we've added in today's update:
Stack Splitting
There's now a new action when clicking on items in your inventory that will allow you to split stacks. Of course you can always combine them back together by dragging them on top of each other.
AI Turn Speed-Up
This is a nice convenience feature for the impatient ;) During the AI turn, you'll find a new button at the bottom of the screen that lets you accelerate the AI's turn by x2 or x4. Clicking on the button will cycle through the various speeds.
Thanks again for playing and may the RNG be with you all. Full Changelog Version 1.0.11
- Stack Splitting consumables added (see above)
- AI Turn Speed-Up button added (see above)
- We've changed the way bravery is handled outside of combat. From now on, your bravery is always fully reset after the completion of a battle. This means that you always enter the battle with the same starting point and should help in making successive battle feel less frustrating due to limiting options.
- Fix a bug that caused units to be revived by the Necromancer on the wrong tile.
- Fixes a bug that caused a crash in some instances after loading from save.
- Fixes a bug that sometimes made it impossible to finish Map 2 in Adventure III
- Fixes a bug that would sometimes cause achievement rewards to disappear if claimed during combat
- Fix a bug that caused evades triggered by a Sporebearer to not count towards the evades achievements
- Fixed a bunch of typos
- Fixed some UI issues on the Adventure Stats screen when playing in French
- Fixed a bug when swapping out a KO character at the recruiter that caused the character to stay in a wrong state on successive adventures.
- Fixed a bug that caused character quotes to spill out of the UI in some languages.
- Fixed a whole bunch of battle arena generators that could cause faulty collisions
- Removed a faulty tooltip when hovering enemy portraits that would mistakenly indicate "Press Tab for Move Range".
This week's build brings hitchance previews, reworked events and a whole bunch of other improvements.
Hitchance Preview
Newly introduced in this update is the ability to preview hitchances before you move to a new location. If you hold down tab when hovering over a move position you'll be presented with additional information about any visible enemy. You can see their hitchance from that location and other information such as their visibility or whether they are out of weapon range.
Improved Event Distribution
This is a first step towards improving events distribution. We've fixed a couple of bugs that caused events to show up more than once in an adventure by mistake. In general events should now never repeat within one adventure. This update also slightly improves the event distribution in general. This is a first step to help reduce the repetitiveness that can occur when playing. We've got lots more planned to help with this. Thanks for playing and we hope you enjoy these changes! Full Changelog for Version 1.0.10:
- Added a new hitchance preview when moving (see above)
- First step towards event distribution overhaul (see above)
- We reworked a number of events that previously had "hidden" perk options. These invisible options were automatically activated if a character on the team had the appropriate skill. Unfortunately this also meant that a lot of players missed out on content due them not being identifiable in any way. We've changed this and the options are now explicit as part of a choice the player can make if the appropriate perk is part of the team. Practically speaking, this means that some events have received new perk options!
- We've reworked the structure of some events to be spread out over fewer pages, effectively reducing the amount of clicks needed. Some events had also their texts shortened where it made sense to do so in order to improve the overall flow.
- Added a confirmation question if the player tries to leave the loot screen without touching any of the loot. It'll also ask for confirmation if the player leaves behind an epic or legendary item.
- New savegame backup system: The game will now automatically create backups at relevant points. This is mainly in place so we can recover saves that may get corrupted when using the preview branch or for some other situations where a bug caused an unfair loss.
- Bellamy can now also be unlocked by purchasing a Disintegrator weapon
- Codex has been updated to include recent changes.
- Time elapsed formatting in adventure stats now shows as hh:mm:ss
- Fixed a bug that caused audio settings to not be properly preserved across game sessions.
- Fixed a grammar mistake in one of Veduti's character comments.
- Fixed a bug that made it impossible to revisit character rescue missions. They can now be revisited even if you didn't recruit the character right away or decided to not engage in combat previously.
- Fixed some combat arena generators causing enemies to get trapped.
- Fixed a country name on one of he loading screens maps
- Fixed a rare crash that occurred when loading the game after updating to a new version
- Fixed a bunch of wrong gender pronoun uses in event texts
- Fixed a bug that caused the camera to move outside of the map bounds
- Fixed a bug that caused the "The Coming War" achievement to not be attainable
- Fixed a bug that allowed people to purchase fuel beyond the jeep's capacity at the merchant
- Fixed a bug that caused the recruit icon to be invisible when on neighbouring location.
- Fixed a bug that caused some event texts to overlap
- Fixed a bug that would allow you to move items into the valuables bag when recruiting people.
- Fixed a bug that caused Sporebearers to not automatically die when the last enemy was killed with a bleed attack.
- Fixed a bug that allowed the player to open the codex during the enemy's turn even though the button was disabled.
Version 1.0.9 is now live!
This update brings the default branch up to date with all the changes we added to the preview branch last week. If you are on the preview branch note that from now on we will post changelogs for what's included there only in the forums and on our Discord server. We will keep these weekly devlogs for changes made to the live branch in order to avoid confusion. If you want to know what's currently cooking on the preview branch head on over here: Preview Branch Changelog
If you missed last week's post, here's the full changelog of what's included in this week's update (you can also read more about some of the changes here).
Full Changelog for Version 1.0.9:
- Added new improved Damage Information when hovering enemies (see above)
- Perk Branches in events have been reworked and are now in most situations a success. Some instances of uncertainty remain.
- Rebalanced loot drops in first 2 adventures to be more generous.
- Added a "Confirm End Turn" option that when enabled forces the player to confirm the end turn when there are characters with unspent action points.
- Added more helpful tooltips when an achievement can't be claimed.
- Changed the "Watch Collectors" achievement to only require 3 watches to be collected.
- Changed the "An Ending and a New Beginning III" achievement to only require 100 failures.
- We're continuing to work on fixing "out of memory" issues some people have encountered. For people who previously had issues, we'd love to hear if there are improvements in this build.
- Block keyboard scrolling when menu or journal is open during an encounter.
- Fixed some battle arenas where enemies would spawn inside walls
- Fixed some localization issues
- Fixed some events where the wrong gender was used in texts.
- Fixed a bug that allowed people to select multiple choices during level-up. This fix will reset people's skill trees that made use of this.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed people to produce money using the Valuables bag undo function.
- Fixed a bug where in some instances the Valuables bag undo button wouldn't reset properly.
- Fixed some Mineshaft battle arena layouts that made battles unplayable.
- Fixed a bunch of collisions that allowed enemies to walk into walls.
- Fixed some inconsistencies in the attack range display.
- 5+ kills in one shot now also count towards the 4 kills in one achievement.
- Fixed a bug that caused achievements to show up as claimed event though they weren't.
- Fixed an issue that caused lost fuel not to count towards the "Environmental Hazard" achievement.
- Fixed a bug that caused a character to show up at the beginning of Adventure V Sector 2 even though they're already in the player's party.
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to trigger a double ambush.
- Fixed a bug that caused the player to continue traveling on foot even though they had received fuel through an achievement.
- Added "--aggressive-gc" command line option. Using this option forces a memory garbage-collection after each event. When used, you'll likely experience a short delay each time the event window closes. While this parameter doesn't fix anything per se, it is supposed to help us narrowing down the out-of-memory crashes and performance issues.
- Disabled use of separate render thread on MacOS. May be related to performance issues some user reported on MacOS 10.14 Mojave.
The first preview build is now available on our "preview" branch and we're moving to our own Discord Server!
New Discord Server
So far our Discord community has lived under the umbrella of the Chucklefish Discord server. This has been fantastic for us, but as the community has grown we feel like it's time to start our own. This will allow us to really separate out discussions more effectively and keep track of everything. So please come join the party here on our brand new Discord server: Robotality Discord Server Invite We won't close down the existing channel on the Chucklefish server, but the new server will become the central community point on Discord.
Preview Build
Todays preview build introduces a whole bunch of new things as well as plenty of fixes. These changes will linger on the preview version for at least a week before making their way onto the default verison. A word of caution: The preview version will contain some cutting-edge changes and we will sometimes use it to try out radical changes to the gameplay before it appears in the default version. Therefore be ready to encounter some unexpected behaviors and problems. However, if you want to help us shape the future of the game this is really the best place to get involved! Here's how you can activate the preview version:
Navigate to Pathway in your Steam Library and right click on the game's name in the games list. From there select Properties and switch to the Betas tab. From the dropdown you should be able to select the preview version.
What's new in the Preview Build?
The big changes we've hinted at last week. For a full changelog see below. Improved Damage Information
We've added an overhauled tooltip when hovering over enemies during an attack action. In the compact view you simply see the effective damage potential. This includes all adjustments that may occur from things like the weapon's damage type or if your character has a special bonus/penalty against an enemy type. If you press tab, you will get a more detailed breakdown of how exactly the final damage calculation came together. We hope this will help in making some of the game's more complex damage calculations clearer. Rebalanced Loot Distribution We've made the beginning adventures more rewarding in terms of loot drops. We want to keep the legendaries for the mid to end game, but we feel like the first two adventures could use a boost of rewarding items. Reworked Perk Branches in Events Generally speaking, perk branches will now give you a success in an otherwise risky situations. There are a few exceptions to this rule still (so don't rely on it). However this change significantly upgrades the value of perk choices in events. Full Changelog for Preview Version 1.0.9:
- Added new improved Damage Information when hovering enemies (see above)
- Perk Branches in events have been reworked and are now in most situations a success. Some instances of uncertainty remain.
- Rebalanced loot drops in first 2 adventures to be more generous.
- Added a "Confirm End Turn" option that when enabled forces the player to confirm the end turn when there are characters with unspent action points.
- Added more helpful tooltips when an achievement can't be claimed.
- Changed the "Watch Collectors" achievement to only require 3 watches to be collected.
- Changed the "An Ending and a New Beginning III" achievement to only require 100 failures.
- We're continuing to work on fixing "out of memory" issues some people have encountered. For people who previously had issues, we'd love to hear if there are improvements in this build.
- Block keyboard scrolling when menu or journal is open during an encounter.
- Fixed some battle arenas where enemies would spawn inside walls
- Fixed some localization issues
- Fixed some events where the wrong gender was used in texts.
- Fixed a bug that allowed people to select multiple choices during level-up. This fix will reset people's skill trees that made use of this.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed people to produce money using the Valuables bag undo function.
- Fixed a bug where in some instances the Valuables bag undo button wouldn't reset properly.
- Fixed some Mineshaft battle arena layouts that made battles unplayable.
- Fixed some inconsistencies in the attack range display.
- 5+ kills in one shot now also count towards the 4 kills in one achievement.
- Fixed a bug that caused achievements to show up as claimed event though they weren't.
- Fixed an issue that caused lost fuel not to count towards the the "Environmental Hazard" achievement.
- Fixed a bug that caused a character to show up at the beginning of Adventure V Sector 2 even though he's already in the player's party.
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to trigger a double ambush.
- Fixed a bug that caused the player to continue traveling on foot even though they had received fuel through an achievement.
- Added "--aggressive-gc" command line option. Using this option forces a memory garbage-collection after each event. When used, you'll likely experience a short delay each time the event window closes. While this parameter doesn't fix anything per se, it is supposed to help us narrowing down the out-of-memory crashes and performance issues.
- Disabled use of separate render thread on MacOS. May be related to performance issues some user reported on MacOS 10.14 Mojave.
Wow, Pathway has been out for only a little over a week!
Up to now we've been in overdrive-mode fixing bugs. Additionally, we've also started introducing a handful of quality of life updates such as the undo button when recycling items as well as improved tooltip comparisons. Updates have been almost daily during this period to make sure critical issues are addressed promptly.
With today's post we want to explain what the next few months are going to look like.
New Update Cycle
From now on, we're switching to a more predictable update cycle: Every Wednesday we will release a new update. However, new features and changes will always first go to our public Preview branch. Once those changes had a bit of time to go through a testing and feedback phase we will then push them to the main branch. So in practice this means changes will generally linger in the preview branch for a week before appearing on the main branch. Sometimes we may decide to keep some things in the incubation stage for a bit longer before they make it to the live branch. The preview branch will serve as an experimental area, where we can try out some changes and gather feedback from the community before making them available to everyone. So if you want to be a part of shaping the game's future, we'd love to have your help there! The first preview build will go live next Wednesday. We will post instructions on how you can join the preview testing then. Here's a little taste of what's coming to the first preview build:
Improved Damage Information
An area we see confusion about frequently is how damage is calculated in Pathway. In the upcoming preview, we're adding an overhauled tooltip when hovering over enemies during an attack action. In the compact view you simply see the effective damage potential. This includes all adjustmens that may occur from things like the weapon's damage type or if your character has a special bonus/penalty against an enemy type. If you press tab, you will get a more detailed breakdown of how exactly the final damage calculation came together. We hope this will help in making some of the game's more complex damage calculations clearer.
Rebalanced Loot Distribution
We're making the beginning adventures more rewarding in terms of loot drops. We want to keep the legendaries for the mid to end game, but we feel like the first two adventures could use a boost of rewarding items.
Reworked Perk Branches in Events
Another feedback we've seen popping up often is that the perk branches in events don't feel weighty enough. We are starting to address this issue by taking a lot of luck out of the perk branches. So far, you'd always have a significantly improved chance at success, but in practice it often felt like you're gambling just as much as when using one of the other standard branches. Starting with this build, perk branches will now give you a success in an otherwise risky situation. There are a few exceptions to this rule still. We think this change will make character perks a lot more rewarding to use and provide a more tangible benefit. There will be a full changelog with the release of the build on Wednesday that will of course also include a bunch of general bug fixes and improvements! THANK YOU again for playing our little game and sending us your feedback. We truly do appreciate every constructive comment coming our way - We're constantly reviewing your ideas and and we are looking to address a lot of the concerns in the next little while.
Pathway has only been out for a little over 24 hours and we can't express enough how grateful we are to all of you! Thank you so much for taking the time to check out our little game!
Of course, we have also noticed the concerns many of you have voiced and we want to address some of the issues raised and hopefully clarify our plans for the future.
Most importantly: We hear you and we are listening. We are entirely committed to Pathway and we will continue supporting and tweaking the game to make it the absolute best it can be. Your incredible support makes this possible.
Over the next few days we will be focused on getting as many bugs fixed as possible. We've already released two hotfix patches and have just now released another version on Steam addressing more issues (changelog below). We will keep working on smaller quality of life updates as things come up.
In the medium term (over the next weeks) we want to look at ways to address some of the more fundamental concerns brought up. Many of you voiced that the game can feel repetitive and that there's not enough variety. Some things like the same event popping up multiple times in the same adventure are simply bugs. Other issues have to do with how the procedural generation works. We believe that with some work on our side we will be able to much better present the variety the game possesses. There is a lot to discover in Pathway, but we can do better at making sure you experience it.
Another issue we want to address in the medium term are the tactical battles. We had a very distinct design goal when designing the combat for Pathway: Make them fast-paced and fun. Our aim never has been to make an incredibly deep combat system but instead an approachable and fun battle system to go alongside our event driven exploration. Big picture, we think we succeeded. However, there are definitely some issues we want to fix and areas to improve. The AI needs work, some mechanics are not clearly communicated and we believe we can do more to characterise the uniqueness of the enemy classes.
Of course, we are also planning on releasing the Japanese and Chinese versions of the game in the near future. More localisations are currently being looked at but we don't have anything confirmed just yet.
Long term we are committed to more content. We have so many ideas on how to expand on Pathway. Northern Africa was a pretty obvious choice for our initial adventures, but there are many more exciting places we want to send our adventurers to.
As mentioned above we have also just released a new patch. Below are the fixes and changes included in this update.
Version 1.0.4 Changelog:
- We added an optional "Confirm Move" toggle in the Game options. When activated, you will have to click again to confirm your move before it is executed. This is to prevent accidental moves.
- We added a "Dog friendly" mode. This can be activated in the Game options. At the moment this simply disables the dog hit/die sfx. But we are planning on expanding on this and completely removing the die animations/blood.
- We've added additional fallback options for our shadow rendering that should fix issues we've seen on certain hardware configurations causing the game to crash at load and during gameplay.
- Added option to disable Reverb SFX effect. This may help on systems that have experience audio issues.
- Fix a bug that would let you recruit a character twice in a row
- Fixed a bug with character unlocks. Some people had met the conditions for unlocking a character but still couldn't use them when starting a new adventure. These characters are now properly unlocked and the issue has been fixed.
- We fixed a bug that caused crit hits that also killed a target to not count towards achievements, combat stats and adventure stats.
- We improved loading times in some events
We've just uploaded a new version of Pathway to Steam. This is mostly to address problems/crashes people have encountered. NOTE: Version 1.0.2 will reset your "Fullscreen" settings toggle and start the game in windowed mode instead. You can of course change this again in the options any time. This reset happens due to some people having problems with the game starting in fullscreen mode by default. Version 1.0.2: - Game now starts in windowed mode to prevent some issues people were having with fullscreen (see above note) - Adds the option to cycle through your team with the left/right arrow during battle. - Fix a crash that happened when you entered a battle after running out of fuel and having your team members die. - Fixed a crush bug when trying to claim an achievement - Custom key bindings are now properly saved Version 1.0.3: - Prevent trashing the dog's fur and teeth by accident - Fix a crash that could happen in the AI turn when fighting with characters that had no weapon in their primary slot - Fix crash when looting certain legendary items and moving them to the valuables bag - Fix a bug that caused a black screen on Windows 7 and macOS Thanks everyone for reporting issues/bugs - we're hard at work addressing the problems popping up.
Begin Your Adventure Today!
The day has finally come - Pathway is Now Available! We'd like to thank everyone who has helped make Pathway possible, including our friends at Chucklefish and - of course - our dedicated Halfway fanbase!
Which path will you choose?
Your first choice... how to buy the game! Currently, there are 3 different ways you can get your hands on Pathway:
- 1. Via Pathway purchase https://store.steampowered.com/app/546430/Pathway/
- 2. Via Robotality Bundle (10% Off both Halfway and Pathway) https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/10665/
- 3. Via Chucklefish Bundle (15% Off Chucklefish Games) https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/4460
INCOMING!
We're very happy to announce today that Pathway - our pulp adventure strategy RPG - is releasing on April 11th! To celebrate this announcement, we've released the launch trailer below: https://youtu.be/wesvzmNEMpU The game will be be available in English, German and French at launch. Japanese and Chinese support coming soon. It's been a long journey to this point - nearly 4.5 years - and Pathway is now properly prepared for you all to saddle up, grab your pistols, pile into the jeep and set off on a grand adventure! Don't forget to Wishlist if you haven't already, and we will see you all in Pathway very soon!
What's in the bunker?!
We have a surprise for you all today! Chucklefish have uploaded roughly 10 minutes of uninterrupted Pathway gameplay footage!
In the video below, you get a small taste of the second adventure - "The Wrath Of God". What you'll see there is just 1 of 3 maps you'll be exploring during this particular quest... https://youtu.be/silXc3DGt0M Also, keep in mind that there is a degree of procedural generation at work here; when you finally get a chance to play the game yourself, your adventure will turn out much different (and perhaps less lucky) than my own! The game is progressing at a rapid pace and we are getting very close to the finishing line. Exciting times steamhappy
Say "Hello" to...
Brunhilda, Queen of the Valkyries (aka Helga Bjarnsdottir) Vitals: 28 year old female Nationality: Icelandic Helga was part of a traveling circus where she used to perform as a female wrestler and strongwoman. Formerly known as 'The Female Volcano' (a reference to her nordic origin), she once rescued Jackson and his crew during one of their adventures, and later decided that "somebody that cute" could use her protection. Since that day, she has stayed at his side to protect him from harm. Tall and buxom, Helga has a very impressive physical presence, and tends to run berserk in the heat of battle. She has a secret crush on Jackson and is not too subtle with it. Subtlety is not her strength - strength is her strength. "That's just my stage name. It's Helga for you, sweetheart."
Boots On The Ground
Over the past few months, we've had an opportunity to exhibit Pathway at three different events; specifically, we demonstrated Pathway at Twitch Vancouver (on August 19th), EGX Rezzed (on September 21st) and most recently at Day of the Devs (hosted by Double Fine on November 11th).
Above are images of our booths at EGX Rezzed and Day of the Devs. Also, we have uploaded an excerpt from an interview with Stefan Bachmann - one of the coders on Pathway and a co-founder of Robotality - that was hosted during our exhibit at Twitch Vancouver https://youtu.be/QOmIGwV18w8 These events have been great for both observing the 'new player experience' in Pathway (or for any unreleased title) and for connecting with new fans in general. Also, conventions tend to be filled with other industry professionals and development studios interested in exchanging those oh-so-valuable 'industry trade secrets', and also with some large publishers/distributors who are scouting new games for their platforms.
On RNG...
In Pathway and other turn-based games, Random Number Generation (RNG) is used to determine if you will hit your target when you fire on them, but this has led to some player frustrations in other games. At the end of the above interview video clip, Stefan took an opportunity to discuss how we have addressed those RNG frustrations in Pathway: "[RNG is] something that a lot of people that play XCOM get frustrated with... where you can stand next to a unit and you have a 99% hit chance, you still miss them, right? Super frustrating! So we try to address this in a way that I think is quite elegant. Which is, basically, if you are exposed and open on the field, you get a guaranteed shot... You got a straight shot? 100% hitchance - no matter what. But if you're behind cover, that's where RNG comes in. So, as soon as you go behind cover, you got maybe a 50% hit chance or a 75% hit chance. And I feel like that's a really neat twist on that system... it makes 'flanking' an interesting strategy. The game becomes a lot about 'how do you position your units to make sure you can optimize on that guaranteed hit'..." That's just a snippet of information from this interview so if you want to know more - and also want to see some of the game (still a work-in-progress though!) - then take a look at the 14 minute video above.
Give us a follow!
That's all for this devlog! Follow us on twitter, Facebook, or here on Steam to stay up-to-date on any news or upcoming events for Pathway!
When venturing across the desert plains or through long-abandoned temples in search of forgotten artifacts, you may sometimes find yourself in tough situations - and tough situations often require tough choices to be made. We call these situations, Events. In this devlog, we’re going to dive into Events, and expand on how your characters abilities might influence the outcomes…
The Old Sewer
Here we’ve discovered an old sewer, and the group has decided to dig deeper after hearing some shouting and gunfire. When we reached the bottom, this is what we found; a gruesome display of soldiers’ bodies among strange plantlife. When presented with the choice of examining the soldiers’ corpses, searching the side corridors, or leaving the scene, we decided to search the side corridors…
Well then, it turns out the plants were carnivorous and deadly to humans! Fortunately, we made it out safely and apparently we were rewarded with some loot for our troubles.
Lone Temple
The Lone Temple Event is a more intricately designed Encounter, which has many different outcomes depending on the path you choose to take.
Let's enter!
Notice, we have an option to use a Raw Strength Perk to try and “Stop the stone” - that seems a bit risky so instead we’ll just jump to the next fork...
After escaping the boulder trap, we make our way to the center of the Temple, where we are able to find some items to take with us before moving on...
Now, let’s go back to the start of this event and see how it could have played out differently. This time, we’ll use our Language Perk to “Read inscription” rather than simply entering the Temple...
This action enabled us to bypass the boulder trap and find the throne room more quickly. However…
We run into some German Officers this time, and are forced to engage in a shootout!
Events Wrap-up
What would have happened differently if we had investigated the front of the temple? What if we had failed to dodge the boulder trap, or had chosen to back up? All of these considerations come together to generate a new, adventurous narrative each time you replay a scenario in Pathway.
- Often times, your Event choices will have a ‘chance of success or failure’ being calculated in the background, so keep that in mind when making your decisions.
- Your Event choices may play a brief animation sequence in the left panel of the Event window. This helps immerse you into the action!
- There are over 300 Events in Pathway (so far), and there are also many different types of events: Combat, Trading, Resting, Recruiting, Encounters… which sometimes result in Experience Gain or Loot (or both).
With every great adventure, you are bound to come across a few interesting characters. Whether you are closely following the story arc of the protagonist, or butting heads with some mysterious and sinister menace, memorable characters are an essential part of any story. We’d like to take an opportunity today to fill you in on how Characters are an important part of your experience in Pathway, and explain our level advancement system in some more detail.
Assemble Your Troupe!
At the start of your adventure, you’ll be given an opportunity to select a couple of characters to begin your journey. One character I find myself using fairly often is Jackson...
Jackson Sheffield Vitals: 32 year old male Nationality: British-American, born in Boston, MA, United States of America The “American Globetrotter”. Jackson is a carefree daredevil with a dry sense of humour. His boyish awkwardness strikes a chord with the ladies and chronically fools male adversaries into underestimating him. Behind his harmless facade lurks a true fighter, tough to the bone. Not classically good-looking, but handsome in a negligent sort of way. A distinctive, unique face upon which life has already left its marks. “See, Fraulein Sturmbannfuhrer, it's not at all what it looks like... Say, has anyone ever told you that you have really beautiful hair? I mean, really beautif- Hey, watch it!”
Learning As You Go…
Pathway boasts a simple-to-use, yet diverse character-leveling system; every character advances in the same way (through Events and Encounters, but more on this later), however, each character has their own unique set of Skill Perks to choose from as they advance. For example, Jackson begins the game with the following, unique Skill Perks:
- Nazi Hunter: +25% dmg vs Nazis
- Animal Lover: -25% dmg vs Animals (usually cute German Shepherds… until they bite!)
Beyond the various tactical choices you’ll be presented throughout your game, Pathway’s leveling system presents you with a choice on how your characters will evolve. This gives them new and exciting ways to tackle the various encounters you will face... Normally your team would be wise to sneak past the fortified Nazi encampment, but Jackson, feeling a bit like a Daredevil, thinks he can rig the fuel depot to explode… What do you do? ːsteamhappyː Oh and whilst we have your attention: What would you like to hear more about? Any aspect of the game you are curious about?
Come gather around! We have a nice little treat for your ears in this Devlog! We (virtually) sat down with Pathway's brilliant music composer and sound designer Gavin Harrison and asked him a bunch questions about his approach to composing. We're also really excited to share some tracks from the game for the first time!
So ... put on your headphones, click play on this video, grab a coffee and read on:
https://youtu.be/ezZdm69UaE0
How did you end up making music for Games?
The starting point for my interest in composing for games reaches right back to the start of the 90’s. I’d been gaming on a ZX Spectrum for as long as I could remember but it was around this point I was introduced to the world of the demo scene. I loved that all these incredibly talented programmers were creating software purely for fun to see just how far they could push the ZX. Of course alongside this were the musicians providing music that was both technically brilliant from the perspective of squeezing the most from the AY chip (or sometimes the 48k beeper) as well brilliant to actually listen to! One month on the Your Sinclair cover tape was a copy of Soundtracker and I guess I never looked back from there. Not only did I start writing for various demo groups but I also ended up building my own MIDI lead and connecting my Spectrum 128K to my first ‘proper’ synth, a Roland D10. Thankfully these beginnings stood me in good stead when it came to composing for games later in life. I’d always maintained an interest in music and continued to compose into my early 20’s. After taking a break for a few years (though never quite stopping completely!) I came into contact with the Dutch indie developer OrangePixel. At the time he was in the process of developing ‘Inc’ so I put myself forward to compose the music, with the idea of using Soundtracker on the original ZX Spectrum to create it all. I’ve been extremely fortunate from this point on to have continued making contacts and finding fantastic projects to work on!
What music inspires you? Any particular inspirations for Pathway?
I have to say I don’t listen to enough music. I know that may sound odd but after composing all day sometimes you just want some silence! However, listening to music is incredibly important - we all have influences and draw our own ideas from the inspirations of others, so I find I have to put aside time for actual listening. Telefon Tel Aviv have been a massive influence on me, they were one of the reasons I starting writing again after the break in my 20’s, I was so inspired by what they were doing with sounds and synths that I had to be a part of that sound. Generally any song that can spark a feeling or a sense of a moment in time is what I’m drawn to. I think when it comes to the Pathway soundtrack most people will be able to come to an accurate conclusion as to the inspirations behind the music. Given the setting for the game though I tried to draw something from the large orchestral soundtracks of the 50’s and 60’s where budget was no constraint and it was all about the dynamics of a piece as opposed to everything being full volume in your face all the time.
What makes a good game soundtrack in your opinion?
That’s a hard one - it’s so particular to each person what they enjoy from the music. For me a good soundtrack is one that compliments, you’re not trying to outdo or overshadow the game. So as a composer I see my role to be another piece of the puzzle that makes for an all round complete experience. If you can achieve this, the soundtrack will be memorable for all the right reasons. Music can be enjoyable but doesn't always have to be at the forefront, indeed I’ve had experiences when composing before where after a lot of ideas / development I’ve gone down the route of stripping all the music back and having little to none - give the game what it needs.
Can you tell us a bit about your process for composing the Soundtrack for Pathway?
It’s been a process of intense composing then a break, followed by more intense composing. Fortunately I’m also responsible for the sound effects so there’s always been work to do but it’s been useful to be able to step back for awhile before approaching things again. I’ve tried to go back to a very simple way of composing, as would have been the case on a lot of the soundtracks I’m drawing influence from. Ideas have all started from me sitting down at a piano and working out harmonies and melodies, thinking in my head how things will work dynamically. Once the main ideas have been formed I’ll start to actually orchestrate the piece and usually at this point I’ll start to think of extra ideas, or perhaps move repeating melodies across the orchestra. I’ve also been fortunate enough to be able to draw upon the talent of Rob Northcott who has helped with some of the orchestration. This is actually a good point, as a musician it’s important to know your own skills and to not be afraid if / where possible to bring in the help of others who may have more expertise in certain areas. Outside opinions are very rarely a bad thing, even if they just reinforce your own view point it’s important to listen.
What are you trying to achieve with the Soundtrack?
I’m trying to give the landscape it’s own sense of life and story. When you see the desert I want players to know that they are in their version of events but that this is a setting full of history and adventures that have happened previously. I also hope to give a sense of scale, events can happen quickly when playing however this is a vast area that would in reality take a long time to explore.
What's been your biggest challenge thus far working on Pathway?
Am I allowed to say writing the music?! As always it’s the ideas. Sometimes it’s possible to write 2 minutes of complete music in a day, other times it can be a matter of seconds and even those can get scrapped the following day. The battle music have been the toughest pieces to write, indeed I still have ideas to finish here. It’s a tough balance between creating a good atmosphere and making sure the music is not repetitive. For me, as is the case on most projects, the greatest challenge is always my own self doubt.
What tools do you use for making the music?
Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m a massive synth head, I sit in a studio everyday when composing surrounded by several (11 at last count) vintage synths from the 70’s and early 80’s. Well, very little of these have been used here! After the initial ideas have been drafted out via a piano everything goes into Logic. I then use a lot of sound libraries to create the full orchestra sound as well as creating a rough mix, finally once I’m generally happy with all the parts and arrangement I bounce everything out into audio and import into Pro Tools. From here I’ll fine tune the mix as well as occasionally adding an extra part where needed, or sometimes taking parts out. I know some people may find it an odd process to move from one DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) to another but having a separate mix process like this really brings a lot to the table. If I need to do any actual sound shaping then I’m a massive fan of UAD plug-ins. Where possible I’m currently in the process of adding some live players into the mix as well. Sound libraries these days are fantastic and can wield extremely impressive results but a live musician will really just add something to the table that a computer can’t. I appreciate it’s not always possible but it’s definitely worth it if you have the option to.
Will the Soundtrack be available for purchase once the game is out?
Yes - I just need to finish it! It’ll be on my Bandcamp page when ready (https://gavinharrisonsounds.bandcamp.com/) and I’m hoping to push it out to iTunes and Spotify.
And lastly, where can interested people find more about you and your work?
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GHarrisonSounds Bandcamp: https://gavinharrisonsounds.bandcamp.com/ Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/gavinharrison Website: http://www.gavinharrisonsounds.com/ And that's it for today's Devlog. We hope you enjoyed this little peek behind the scenes!
Starting today, we want to begin sharing a bit more about the development process of Pathway and what's happening behind the scenes at Robotality.
To get the big question out of the way: We're not quite ready yet to announce when the game is being released, but we're getting very very close to being able to do so. We're still on course to release the game in 2018. We've made amazing progress and are really happy with how the game is taking shape!
In today's devlog we're going to give a quick recap of what's been happening since the announcement of the game.
In case you hadn't seen this, we had the opportunity to chat to PC Gamer about Pathway and shared quite a bit of thoughts around our game design decisions and inspirations behind Pathway: PC Gamer interview
In April we were demoing Pathway for the first time publicly at EGX Rezzed in London. Showing a game in public is always a nerve wrecking experience but thankfully the game was received really well and we've written down pages of notes of feedback. Being holed up in our dev caves it can be super easy to develop a tunnel vision of the game. Getting lots of other people to play the game for the first time is really refreshing and helpful. Thank you to everyone who came and played the game!
Speaking of events, we are showing the game at Overflow #003 on May 30th. Overflow is a local chiptune event in Vancouver, Canada. We're showing the game alongside a few other indie games and of course there's lots of chip inspired music. So if you live near Vancouver this is a great opportunity to play Pathway pre-relase! (You can get tickets here: Overflow #003 Tickets).
And to finish up today's devlog, here's a first look at a new environment we've been working on "The Mines":
Until next time!
Pathway
Robotality
Chucklefish
2018
Indie Strategy RPG Singleplayer
Game News Posts 41
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
Mostly Positive
(1827 reviews)
http://www.pathway-game.com/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/546430
The Game includes VR Support
Pathway Linux 64-bit [855.49 M]
FROM THE MAKERS OF HALFWAY...
THE YEAR IS 1936...
It is a time of global unrest as German military influence is spreading throughout Europe and the Middle East. Rumors of frantic excavations and strange artifacts, not to mention ghastly occult rituals, have begun to surface across secret communication channels...THEY TOOK OUR FRIEND...
Morten has vanished. The Nazis took him because he interfered with their occult research. We have to rescue him before it's too late. And afterwards, who knows what other adventures await?KEY FEATURES:
- THRILLING VISUALS - Classic 16-bit pixel art enhanced with unprecedented depth, lighting and shadows using Pixel/Voxel Hybrid Technology.
- DYNAMIC ADVENTURES - No two adventures are the same; each campaign generates a new procedural map and a different set of unique story encounters.
- TOUGH CHOICES - Every location you visit presents a new hand-crafted story event to explore. Search the well? Save the villagers? It's up to you!
- DECISIVE CONFLICTS - Use cover and positioning in exciting turn-based squad combat. Learn to maximize your items and abilities, as well as your team members' strengths, in ruthless and clever ways!
- HIDDEN TREASURES - Discover rare artifacts to unlock new content and adventures! Recruit from 16 unique companions, each with their own starting equipment and skill trees!
With soundtrack by the critically-acclaimed composer, Gavin Harrison of Halfway fame!
- OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. 64-bit
- Processor: 2.0 Ghz DualCore CPUMemory: 8 GB RAM
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Intel HD4000 or better. OpenGL 3.3
- Storage: 2 GB available space
- OS: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. 64-bit
- Processor: 2.0+ Ghz QuadCore CPUMemory: 8 GB RAM
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce 660 or AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series. OpenGL 3.3
- Storage: 2 GB available space
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