Hey all, Update 0.19 is live. Join Lost Flame's discord server if you are interested in following the game's development more closely, or just want to chat. I have a clear plan towards 1.0 release, which will happen in 2025. Check here the major remaining work. There will be other things too, but this is the minimal 1.0. This doesn't mean that I will stop working on the game after release, however I've heard some concerns about the game being so long in early access and how it discourages some people from trying it out. I will also increase game's price few months before 1.0, so grab it while it's at current price:) There are 2 major highlights of this update - improved UI (including steam deck support) and additional character voiceovers. Steam deck is a big thing for me, because this was a must have and, honestly, working on this was pretty boring:). There was quite a bit of testing required to make it decent, hope you enjoy it. Wrapping up NPC voice lines and working with voice actors to record them on the other hand was really exciting.

Improved UI and Steam deck support

This update includes out-of-the-box suport for steam deck, including reworked user interface for the console. Main differences are circular menu for using actions and accessing items that you can bind for quick-action, but there are also multiple smaller changes that improve the experience on Steam Deck.
Update also includes controller and key mapping configuration accessible from the in-game menu
I did playtesting on Steam Deck myself, but this feature was not tested more broadly, so please share any feedback you might have. Update also includes configurable preferences how you want to handle some automatic actions, and autoexplore:
If you carry identified uncursed scrolls of enchant item, you can now use them from the item action menu

Voiceovers

This update includes almost 200 new recorded lines (something like 30 minutes of recorded voiceovers total) for NPCs such as Arabelle, smith, Brokbrog, and few smaller NPCs too. Lines expand on lore and allow to uncover some of the secrets more naturally. The lines get triggered based on you progresssing in the game, and there is some randomness involved so not every line will be said on every playthrough. There is still work happening on voiceovers as we speak - namely Violet Pepper lines and a completely new NPC - Lady Aveline.

Other small changes

QoL improvements

• the game now shows the specific shield value on the hp bar
• added a timeout in Abysm armory that unlocks the door after some time has passed
• added option to wield item with specific hand from inventory
• spirit phial and wands will now show their charges in the quick action menu
• you can now use mouse to equip items to specific slots in inventory by clicking them after selecting an item
• items on the right side of inventory are interactable with mouse now
• added confirmation pop up when trying to feed phial or square bottle to brokbrog
• buying an item will no longer reset focus to first item

Bug fixes

• fixed single/two handed descriptions being shown in wrong order in item details
• attempting to throw outside of range, or cancelling throwing no longer wastes time
• centered the input for manual seed input
• fixed swap weapons action sometimes messing up which item is in which hand
• fixed leafbringer needing 2 hands to wield it
• fixed a bunch of typos and spelling mistakes
• shades that get summoned after killing [spoiler]one of the witches[/spoiler] will disappear after some time
• fixed swapping with allies with mouse sometimes making your character spend time doing nothing
• fixed those few mob descriptions that are there displayed wrongly
• fixed Amulet of Life Saving not granting you proper protection if you receive two deadly blows within one tick
• fixed message log overlapping with chat on lower resolutions
• fixed showing items through chat not working (CTRL+click)
• fixed shield slam from big enemies pushing through walls (e.g. could happen during Calven fight)
• fixed twilight boon being not usable when at 0 stamina, even though activating it does not cost stamina

Hope you have fun, Bartek

[ 2024-12-19 19:19:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a small fix for a bug that caused more time to pass when using mouse swap through allies in some cases. Best, Bartek (Next update is cooking and will be live late December)

[ 2024-11-29 08:49:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

hey, It's a small update fixing a bug where touching a pushable boulder would sometimes freeze the game and doors and pyres would be unusable sometimes in the overworld after using empowered blood soaked scoria. Bartek

[ 2024-11-08 08:04:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, This small update addresses game sometimes crashing after getting one of the endings. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2024-08-19 06:35:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, This small update fixes Elara not starting the fight if attacked from a long range. Hope you have fun, Bartek

[ 2024-08-12 07:23:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, I've uploaded a new version to stable branch:

• Added a safety net in Armory Fissure (the one with fire traps), the "arena" doors will open after some time regardless of killing all enemies in the area
• Added a safety net in deeper areas of Abysm - now there is a limit of how many enemies can spawn there (previously they would spawn endlessly potentially causing performance issues, or possibly freezes- although I did not manage to ever replicate this)
• Fixed Elara fight where in some cases Ivory Arbiters would protect Elara even in statue form (I also did not manage to replicate it, the damage protection should not be active at all, but I added a dummy check there - "if you are a statue don't protect anyone")

Hope you have fun, Bartek

[ 2024-08-11 08:11:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, This is a small hotfix which fixes the game potentially freezing when opening a chest in a small locked area with not enough space for all items. Cheers, Bartel

[ 2024-07-14 07:54:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, This is a small hotfix for amulet of antimagic and having over 100% of any elemental resist. Now the negative elemental damage that you get will not make the amulet have negative absorbed damage. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2024-07-13 13:32:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, This small update improves the balance of tentacles multiplying. Following things are changed:

• after getting hit by a tentacle you will spawn a few tentacles, potentially more than before, however you also get a short immunity from further spawns - so more than 1 tentacle hitting something in short window won't cause a horde of tentacles to spawn
• non-alive monsters won't spawn tentacles off them (e.g. golems, children of iphe)

To see the changes in action you can watch a quick video of me going against a bunch of tentacles here: tentacle update. Previously going against the Abysm as a summoner was a death sentence, here I manage to fight it off. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2024-07-12 06:13:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, A small hotfix for zoom setting not being saved between game restarts is live. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2024-07-08 07:18:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, This update fixes the game chat not working after recent update. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2024-07-06 11:21:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, 0.18.12c is live

• added back the zoom setting to in-game options
• mouse wheel should now browse through skills properly
• holding left alt will show you the details of all status effects
  
• fixed scroll of enchant item and identify sometimes fizzling without any effect
• fixed key-binding pop up being out of screen for items lower in inventory

Cheers, Bartek

[ 2024-07-06 07:13:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, A quick hotfix is live: * fixes issue when saving and reloading a game would make most of the skills stop working (if you just reload any save then it should get automatically fixed) * fixed an issue where shield stat could overflow with some highly synergistic builds (addded a very high hardcap for shield stat) Cheers, Bartek

[ 2024-07-01 06:13:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, It's been a long time, but version 0.18 is released! It features new content, bug fixes and improved stability of the game. If you want to get involved in future beta tests of new content, or just chat about Lost Flame, please join the official Discord server

Character Stat Progression

The update introduces stat progression that allows for more customizability for your character. Together with this, all weapons also got scaling stat describing how their damage increases based on specific stats. Each level you gain 1 soul shard, and every 4 levels starting from level 8 you get 4 soul shards. You can spend you soul shards at any point to increase one of 6 stats. Each stat grants different bonuses:

• Endurance - increases your stamina by 1
• Vigor - increases your hp by 1
• Consitution - increases your encumbrance capacity by 10%, increases elemental resists by 3%
• Strength - increases damage of weapons scaling with strength, increases poison resist by 3%, increases fist damage by 1
• Dexterity - increases to hit chance by 1%, increases damage of weapons scaling with dexterity
• Intelligence - increases attunement by 1 (and attunement increases power of evocations and increases all elemental damage dealt by 4%/point - includes, weapons, wands, evocations, etc.)

If you don't want to pigeonhole into any build, and want to stick to being defined by items you can just level up endurance and vitality, which has the same effect as previous leveling system. There is also a way to respec, but [spoiler]it requires crafting a scroll of amnesia by Violet Pepper from Iphe's essence[/spoiler]

Ivoryreach

If you look well enough, you will be able to find a new location accessible in the early parts of the game. The ivory white castle located near Silver Lake is pretty hard though (I would say around late Tower of Mirth difficulty-wise). The location is ice-centered and introduces around 10 new enemies, 2 new boss fights and opens up a few shortcuts around the kingdom of Hiraeth.

Inventory screen rework

The update introduces new inventory screen. Not much to say about this, here's how it looks:

Game ported to LibGDX game engine

The biggest effort was behind porting the game to LibGDX game engine. Previous versions of the game were using Slick2D, which is a legacy engine, which was not updated in 10 years. The engine had its issues, causing flickers, crashes and all kind of unexpected behaviours for some of the players, which were very difficult to trace and address. I've also had to modify parts of its code every now and then. LibGDX introduces better performance, hopefully much higher stability, much bigger community in case of any issues, and active team behind it that is updating it regularly. There are some missing things after the port, which I will readd as a hotfix within a week or so, notably:

• zoom/scaling option - if the tiles in game are too small for you - as a workaround change the resolution to a lower one
• using mouse wheel to browse through available skills - no clean work around for that

Other small new content

• game playable without numpad - using shift+arrow will move your character in the next direction clockwise to the arrow (e.g. shift+up arrow will move you up-right, shift+down will move you down-left)
• autoexplore will show you the list of seen stairs once the map is fully explored and you will be able to choose which one to go to
• autoexplore now allows you to navigate to pyres once whole level is explored
• Silver Lake Cavalier now deal ice damage instead of fire
• added 4 new achievements, and removed achievements related to weekly runs

QoL improvements

• explode flesh will no longer be cast in auto-fight mode
• right mouse button will now cancel selected action
• added more details to the armor tooltip in inventory (e.g. what kind of damage gets reduced and how much)
• fixed autoexplore in Hideout ignoring some "events"
• when crafting last possible item, the crafting menu will get autoclosed
• selection boxes (e.g. pyre travel, or NPC interaction) now scale their size based on the number of options
• bottle knight will autohide to bottle if his maximum stamina gets drained to less than 8
• when dying on mainland, the message will now show the current location, not "Mainland"
• added an icon for broken square bottle + a sound/text notifications when this happens

Bug fixes

• fixed amulet of wardship giving negative shield when having resistance greater than 100%
• fixed most of the situations where autoexplore would go into loop
• fixed mouse cursor sometimes not appearing in menu
• fixed Rising Tide attack markers displayed wrong
• ctrl+movement will be stopped if gating to/from Neith
• fixed some spelling mistakes
• when finishing a run, sometimes wrong run is highlighted on the leaderboard
• fixed not connected back stairs between Abysm 1 and Abysm 2 (forge variant of Abysm)
• fixed encumbrance showing 10x the value in post game character log
• fixed sounds sometimes getting stopped mid play
• fixed the path to Abysm from Monastery spawning incorrectly with shallow ("red") variant of Abysm
• fixed Rianne being able to disappear after getting killed sometimes
• fixed crash when going to Neith in Abysm
• stability and performance improvements

Balance changes

• higher cooldown to Fireball
• increased Rain of Molten Wax damage
• Wretched Brute - bigger delay before he attacks, and longer window to hit him between his invulnerability
• reduced cooldown for tumble for lower encumbrance while increased it for higher encumbrance
• reduced the teleport enemy skill range for soulless witches mainland (previously they were able to teleport you from Istimid to Secluded Courtyard, which usually meant you were a toast)
• ring of rocks now applies to fist attacks

Hope you have fun! Bartek

[ 2024-06-27 08:05:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, This is a small hotfix that sorts out the issue when log file is being spammed with error messages when Steam is in offline mode - that sometimes results in game crash. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2023-10-23 08:13:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey, This is a small hotfix:

• fixed autoexplore getting stuck in Hythe
• fixed game sometimes freezing when traveling through Pyres
• fixed wrong order of single handed/2handed encumbrance in item description

Cheers, Bartek

[ 2023-10-07 17:49:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all! 0.17.18 is live! This is another big update expanding Lost Flame in several directions. Please join Lost Flame's Discord server if you want to chat about the game, get notified about much more frequent beta branch updates or just hang around!

Autoexplore

Newest update introduces autoexplore. Just press 'z' and let your character automatically travel to the nearest unexplored tile while collecting valuable items. Once all accessible locations are explored, your character will travel to the nearest unused stairs. You can also use this function during more simple skirmishes as autoexplore will perform basic attacks and use basic skills against the enemies.

Dynamic attack markers

After this update monster attack markers will grow bigger the closer they are to landing. The most important "big" marker is shown 10 ticks before landing, so it allows to land an easy parry or lets you know that it's last opportunity to dodge (assuming you have base speed). If the marker is hovering on the player's character, the character is shown in black if the attack is <=10 ticks to landing and white otherwise. Of course some enemies are attacking faster, so the opportunity to perfectly dodge and parry will not always be there.

Encumbrance system & mobility

Ok, hear me out - this update introduces encumbrance system. Each equippable item (other than jewelry) has an encumbrance value assigned and with higher encumbrance some of the mobility skills are not available (e.g. jump over, lunge, jump away, etc.). However! now "heavy" armor items give stronger defense - most notably kite shields and tower shields. Heavy shields no longer need time to become readied, they just block 2-3 hits each turn at the cost of high encumbrance. But that's not all, now you can dual wield 2 heavy weapons (greatswords, halberds, etc) and be the heaviest hitter you can imagine, just the encumbrance cost of wielding 2 such weapons will be hefty. To flesh it out new ability is being introduced - 'tumble'. Tumble allows to cross 2 tiles in 1 action. It's cooldown is dependent on encumbrance. With super low encumbrance it has no cooldown at all and costs no stamina, so you can actually try to just grab a short sword, buckler and nothing else and you can be a super mobile agile skirmisher. Weapons and armor also got rebalanced - obsidian is the strongest but heaviest material, while silver is the lightest one, adamantite is something in between. Another related change is a feasible unarmed build - no weapons and no shields allows you to strike twice for 1 base damage and parry with very low cooldown. Attacking stunned enemies with bare hands buffs the damage a lot. Also any rings buffing on-hit damage (of damage, glacier, etc) work on both strikes. Remember that you can also wield rings and amulets for 2 more jewelry slots, which still allows you to fight unarmed!

Evocations

Unlock the secrets of arcane magic with the introduction of three distinct schools of magic: witchcraft, waxmancy, and carnomancy, each boasting five related evocations. Discover items that boost your magic skill level (e.g., witchcraft +3) and gain access to new evocations as you progress your magic skill level. Evocations are fueled by a new stat called attunement, which can also be increased by magical items. Attunement also increases the effectiveness of some of the wands and all elemental damage that you deal, so it's not a dead stat even without magic. Additionally, many rings that previously only affected weapon attacks now also augment damage-dealing evocations.

Hythe Monastery small rework and new alternate path

Hythe Monastery has undergone a transformation. Beneath its solemn halls lies a network of catacombs leading to the [spoiler]Castle Istimid[/spoiler], however every now and then there will be a new, optional, more intense (and shorter) path available which skips [spoiler]Istimid[/spoiler] completely.

Shared leadeboard

Say farewell to weekly runs, as they make way for a more inclusive shared leaderboard. Now, all your runs are recorded, complete with detailed statistics and insights. The game tracks various types of stats across multiple runs, including enemies defeated, bottle knight summons, and successful parries. You can easily access and explore these stats from the menu, with plans to expand this feature with even more stat tracking in the future.

There are also multiple smaller changes and fixes introduced:

smaller but still noteworthy:

• added the option to switch left-right weapon at no stamina and time cost (hotkey 'p')
• added a small area near Hythe with all tutorial tablets if you want to reread them after you've completed tutorial
• blessed scrolls of teleport allow you to select where you want to teleport
• cursed scrolls of teleport will teleport you to a nearby group of monsters (similar like soulless witch ability)
• improved the game stability significantly
• added a warning icon to enemies which have weapons with potential very high damage equipped (e.g. * of thirst, * of brutality, Smasher unique axe)
• more options for crafting - added some randomized crafts too, so crafting options are not the same each game
• randomized crafts and items for sale are now based on world seed
• bottle knight will no longer equip identified cursed items (unless you hand it to him directly)
• new randomized rooms in Abysm
• new Abysm monsters
• multiple new affixes, uniques, rings and wands
• rings and amulets are now shown in a separate row in inventory
• shades in Neith now attack anything that is not a shade, not only you
• ranged enemies will be less willing to run away and will attack more aggressively, so chasing should be slightly easier
• some of the staves affixes are more potent when not wielding other weapons or shields (you can still wield a ring or amulet in your offhand)
• shades will now charge up before cursing your equipment, now you have around 20 ticks to either break line of sight or kill them before your equipment gets cursed
• bottle knight will avoid acid and poison better
• removed the penetration stat from the weapons
• enemies will use their push back attacks less often and those attack have been tuned down noticeably
• shortened some of the game areas (Mage's Chambers by 1 level, poison vault by 1 level, Castle Istimid has smaller maps)
• reworked halberds abilities a little bit (all are faster, stab instead of halberd strike, halberd slash is much faster but no longer strikes nearby tiles)
• most weapon skills now take attack speed into consideration (so slow monsters will no longer attack faster with skills such as stab, also most skills will be faster now from player's persepective)
• parry is now bound to the same key for all weapons (default: 'w')
• new music for Calven Duning
• added on-screen notification for monsters and player standing on acid or web, or when getting petrified
• most ranged enemies will appear even outside of FoW when attacking or aiming at the player (e.g flamelobbers, Nixie, all shades)
• cooldown for skills which are on cooldown is now shown on the skills tab
• if you hover over an enemy (with mouse or 'l'ook ability) only their attack markers will be shown, so if you want to you can analyze which enemy is attacking where in a bigger fight
• added a bunch of new strong affixes to staves

less noteworthy:

• fixed Arthar Duning attack marker not being accurate
• added multiple missing sounds
• world seed is shown in bottom right corner when starting the game
• Gargoyle's Cuirass no longer pushes allies away
• added the ability to attack only with right hand weapon (e.g. useful when wielding two heavy weapons, for lower stamina cost), hotkey 's'
• updated tutorial with new info tablets
• shield maiden's amulet no longer hurts allies
• fixed Olivar Steros teleporting the player to Royal Dungeon instead of Neith
• new sprites for tentacles
• cleaned up some items descriptions
• fixed some of the tiles not showing properly on minimap (e.g. prison bars)
• changed order of skills to be more consistent with other items for long swords and great axes
• fixed ctrl+move stopping at front of allies (now it will swap with them into travel direction)
• fixed section selection in vendors being reset to "all" after buying or crafting an item
• fixed wrong attack marker for Cyclone unique halberd
• lowered the acid damage from tentacle a little bit
• one new scroll
• Calven Duning's sword now always has the subdual affix
• ring of fires changed to exploding when hitting something (so still pretty bad for melee combat, but can be useful with evocations, or other ranged builds)
• The Archmage now does not heal after [spoiler]escaping to Neith[/spoiler]
• staves now can parry
• cleared up some in-game text messages
• lowered the price for shields a little
• minor performance improvements (mostly when having lots of allies)
• mending stone now also heals all visible allies
• now monsters which are summoned in a distorted area/world will also get distorted
• fixed main menu not respecting keybindings from options.config
• multishot ability is now faster
• fixed some skill tooltips
• Ivar will spit back any key you try to feed him
• wands of summon monster will summon more powerful monsters with higher enchant
• Ngotraimuucs increasing poison level will displace items that were on a poison tile
• reduced the chance of enemies using shield bash attack
• fixed sparkling elixirs being generated from rings with affixes
• fixed swing and lunge being blocked by an enemy which died during swing part of the skill
• added ambient sound to the destroyed barrier near Abysm
• fixed arrows changing their enchant level randomly when being fired
• reworked gladiator's ring to being active when not wielding any shields
• children of Iphe will no longer transform into living obsidian
• reduced the size of the circular version of hungry caverns
• ctrl+move will no longer walk into acid or poison
• fixed mouse incorrectly showing which tile is aimed on smaller maps
• fixed polymorphed mobs not dropping their original equipment
• removed doors in Cadell's cell which could potentially hardlock the player if entering the room "from the back"
• fixed a bug which would freeze the game when quickly spamming enter near pyres
• living obsidian can no longer be randomly summoned in Hythe Monastery
• blood-soaked scoria is no longer destroyed in NG+
• fixed all campfires still accessible after moving to NG+
• fixed double kill notification appearing after killing a polymorphed unique monster

Hope you enjoy the new content! Bartek

[ 2023-10-01 08:28:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Added the option to force specific resolution. To do so:

• Open game console/chat (~)
• type resolution:WIDTHxHEIGHT e.g resolution:3840x2160
• Press enter

I suggest to use it with borderless or windowed mode. Non-standard resolution might not work in full screen Also fixed on bug where game would crash if player got teleported onto a primordial Child of Iphe

[ 2023-07-15 08:41:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

0.16.16 is a small update with a few fixes: * fixed an issue where player's character would sometimes freeze randomly * fixed mini map showing previous area after using scroll of travel * fixed a performance bug related to mini map rendering * fixed mini map sometimes slightly glitching when moving in a bigger area * fixed a few spelling mistakes * Nixie slightly less hp * fixed visited locations and experienced events being mixed up in post game character log * fixed no music being played in Prison Cells * removed reference to dexterity from disarm skill description * added a 16 tick delay to potion of polymorph effect, if the player cures during this period, the polymorph will not happen

[ 2023-07-10 07:12:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Quick fix addressing game freezing sometimes when wearing both ring of vital burst (deal fire damage when healing) and ring of elemental siphoning (heal when dealing elemental damage)

[ 2023-07-03 18:49:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Added a toggle to turn off the looped heavy breathing when out of stamina in in-game options

[ 2023-07-03 07:02:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all, Version 0.16 is going live! Join Lost Flame's discord if you want to follow the beta branch changes, or just chat! This is another big update containing changes from the past 3 months of work and I can imagine in 2 or 3 such updates the game will reach 1.0 state (so somewhere between december and march).

Graphical overhaul

The update introduces smoother "animations" for characters moving and attacking, monsters gibbing into pieces when killed and on-screen status and damage indicators.

You can also find elements of the UI updated:

Semi-permadeath mode

The update introduces new optional semi-permadeath mode, which is explained in the new tutorial. When running the game for the first time it will be started in this mode. In short: dying will reload the game to the last pyre that you've found (losing all progress since then) and get your character debuffed with more and more curses (which can be removed with some items). At some point you will get 'doomed' debuff, and if you die before removing it the game will be over. This usually gives 2-3 additional chances, before the number of curses gets too overwhelming (although it's possible with some builds to survive more deaths). This also replaces the previous difficulty level system - now the game is always played on former "normal" difficulty.

Mouse control QoL

This update introduces several improvements for mouse control, including things such as better inventory management, "smart" skill usage, better character control. You can find the details below:

• added 'smart skills' when using mouse. When clicking an enemy that is 1 tile away your character will use the 'lunge' skill if it's available. If clicking an enemy that is 1 tile away and lunge is not available 'stab' will be used. When clicking behind a nearby enemy 'jump over' will be used if available. I plan to expand it with more skills in the future
• double clicking or right clicking an item in inventory will cause a default action to happen depending on item type (equip/unequip/use)
• when using mouse to walk around if any of allies stand in your way you will swap places with them instead of being stopped
• you can use mouse wheel to browse through your skills
• sped up the camera when using mouse controls
• hovering mouse on doors, chest or enemy, will properly mark the tile visually
• waiting using mouse (by clicking on your character) will rest until stamina is restored

Crimson pyre rework/Curse system

Crimson pyre event is completely reworked. Now carrying cursed items for a longer time will result in the player getting cursed. Curses are various effect which usually debuff the player's character. At some point if the player does not address those curses they will get doomed. Getting doomed makes all of the equipment cursed. The player will no longer be forced into Neith when doomed, however if whole equipment is cursed, the player will be given the option to travel to Neith through a pyre. There are some ways to remove those curses and doomed debuff - either use blessed scrolls of remove curse, which remove one of such curses, or travel to Neith where blight eaters can be found. Blight eaters are unusual type of shades - they uncurse your equipment and killing them removes one of the curses from the player.

Abysm tunnels and new locations

The update introduces two small locations. [spoiler]Desolate Lighthouse is a late game area just east of the Grey Shore accessible at the very start[/spoiler] with a unique monster which built its nest around a blood-soaked scoria and absorbed some if its time controlling power.
[spoiler]The Buried Retreat hidden deep in the Abysm[/spoiler] which introduces a campfire in a very remote location and an NPC offering a new way to trade with the player
The update also introduces a number of tunnels all over the Hiraeth. The tunnels are getting spread by the Abysm to reach something.. And you can use them to do some shortcutting between distant areas. One of such tunnels can be found before Tower of Mirth. Be aware that the tunnels are pretty dangerous!

Hurt boss tiles

All bosses received additional tiles showing them getting more and more hurt.

New ending

The update introduces new way to end the game - now you can [spoiler]try to restore the barrier that used to surround the Abysm[/spoiler].

Other changes

New content

• blood-soaked scoria can now be empowered with scrolls of power, using it will bring your character back to the Gray Shore and regenerate all areas with beefed up versions of monsters (NG+ style)
• achieving any of the game endings will show a text description of the consequences of the player's choices
• added flavor texts for all potions, scrolls and a bunch of other items
• scroll of travel now behaves slightly different, when used in some areas it will teleport you to other predefined places
• changed how cursed scrolls of travel work - now they will also grab all nearby allies and enemies with you
• Added a new type of "big" monsters [spoiler]abyss worms[/spoiler]
• Reworked the early game tutorial - the original tutorial level got removed, now when a new player starts a game their early levels will be generated slightly differently and will include stone tablets that can be read for some tips on how to play the game
• Added 2 new types of shades
• various mainland areas have names now - there is no "mainland" area name displayed anymore
• added a simple rain effect to the swamps before the Tower of Mirth
• added 13 new Steam achievements
• added much more webs in the Northern Tunnel
• blood-soaked scoria can now also be found [spoiler]deep in the Abysm[/spoiler]
• added a basic sea wave "animation" on the Grey Shore
• added a very basic campfire "animation"
• mages summoning flesh will no longer show blinking dots before the spell procs
• some minor changes around Arnet's Quarters
• when traveling through campfire you will appear on the other side of it, not top left corner every time
• changed slightly how player's stats are shown in the inventory
• added music to Sisterhood area
• updated sprites for Children of Iphe

Bug fixes

• added missing sounds to several different effects
• fixed Deflector short sword's name being shown wrongly when unidentified
• fixed ring of regeneration desription being shown twice
• removed the mini blink when opening the first door at Tower of Mirth 3
• fixed binding short cuts to items not being usable in the turn they were created
• essence will no longer be generated cursed or blessed
• changed the death message for automations to "crumbles to dust"
• cleaned up description for brutality affix
• cleaned up description for bleed effects
• changed font in player inventory to a more readable one
• bosses blocking stairs will now also block campfires (this only affects one area)
• fixed scroll of power and scroll of travel interaction
• changed the ladder tile to the correct one on passage between Hall of Candles 2 and Hall of Candles 1
• cleaned up descriptions, fixed some typos for a bunch of items
• Fixed a bug where sometimes you would hear the waves ambient sound in menu when quickly closing the game after start
• Now both [spoiler]Arnet and Grand Executioner[/spoiler] need to be killed to unblock the ladder at their area
• the small hp bar near player's character is no longer displayed
• fixed acid and web not being shown on an open door tile
• fixed distorted monsters not having full hp after an area reset
• Whirlwind spear no longer hits allies
• fixed some singular/plural text messages for plural items (e.g. trousers, greaves)
• fixed minimap not always scaling properly when changing resolution
• fixed the sea ambient sound starting before the game actually starts sometimes
• a small shadow no longer shows in the middle of a tile when standing below a "high" tile, such as a tree or Thayer's furnace
• removed any graphical artifacts that sometimes shown on some graphical scaling values
• killing children of Iphe will log them as children of Iphe, not whatever they were trasnformed into
• fixed some monsters having corrupted name when being distorted
• ring of blood spurt no longer harms allies
• fixed a bug where low-stamina heavy breathing would sometimes not stop on death
• fixed the color of feathered creature, depending if it's ally or not
• ring of fowl now works correctly if given to bottle knight and does not agro npcs in Hythe
• fixed a bug where game would behave weirdly if bottle knight had spear and rope and got disappeared when having a hooked enemy

QoL changes

• distortion level is shown near the area's name above the minimap
• when [spoiler]Calven Dunning[/spoiler] is killed all other nearby enemies will die 1 by 1
• essence is now autopicked up, like other consumables
• using 'l'ook command will start the cursor from the player position instead of the mouse's cursor
• Brokbrog's 'feed items' screen will no longer close after selecting an item, making it easier to feed him multiple items
• increased the size of the box around status icons in top left corner
• when carrying a shield and the shield is not readied, an empty shield icon will be displayed in the status area (top left corner)
• changed the color of the chat notification whenever someone wins the game
• lowered volume of poison damage and sword attacks slightly
• changed the high pitched hound yelp into a different sound
• added visual notifications for "petrifying", "stunned" and "confused" effects
• Smasher great axe now has a text notification when its effect procs
• changed the game default resolution, when starting it first time ever, to full screen borderless mode
• added option to clear F1-F12 binding

Balance changes

• reduced the weekly run score for the easier wins
• added a few more campfires throughout the game
• fixed the flame wave not disappearing when [spoiler]The Archmage escapes to Neith[/spoiler]
• Headguard of Frozen Dusk reduces sight even more, however enhanting it weakens the debuff
• executioner's essence can no longer be used to craft executioner's ring - changed to ring of punishment
• added petrification resistance for Archmage and Olivar Steros
• being invisible now grants a dodge bonus
• attacking from invisibility grants 20% to hit bonus
• increased the probability of scrolls of travel and scrolls of power to spawn
• sweep around greatsword attack no longer self stuns for 1 turn, increased stamina cost to 5
• soulless witches got higher cooldown for 'teleport enemy' attack
• scroll of antimagic - reduced the duration of the buff
• scroll of antimagic now also grants polymorph immunity
• when enemy disarms you, your weapon will always drop to the ground where you are standing. If any item was there before, the item will be displaced to a nearby free tile.
• eating Iphe's essence will cause a random debuff (similar as when attacked by ||Primordial Child of Iphe||)
• bottle knight no longer has a timer after which he disappears - he will only disappear when hurt heavily or after using square bottle again
• wand of ice storm - increased the damage
• executioner's ring - reduced the base percentage chance of beheading 20%->15%

Hope you have fun! Bartek

[ 2023-06-27 06:45:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update fixes a bug where game would rarely freeze during world generation.

[ 2023-04-20 06:44:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a small update which hotfixes the key in Sisterhood not matching the doors

[ 2023-04-15 18:19:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

This small update hotfixes jump away and jump over skill freezing the game on activation.

[ 2023-03-27 13:33:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, Newest update is on the default branch. This update is the biggest update yet, hope you find it fun. Join the discord channel if you want to be up to date with what's happening on the beta branch and access new content earlier, or just want to hang out.

Highlights

Hungry Caverns update

The Hungry Caverns get 2 alternate new different layouts: The Bog and The Twisted Chambers. I have also added 6 new bosses, so that each of 4 types of Hungry Caverns has 2 bosses that you could meet.

The Bog

The Twisted Chambers

Stealth

This update introduces a bunch of items that grant stealth. The stealth is always gained for a short time, meant to manouever during combat, not avoid enemies completely. There is also a bunch of items that give you specific bonuses when surprising enemies with attacks. An enemy is surprised either if you attack from stealth or if you attack them within 10 ticks after getting into 3 tiles range, which can be done even if you have no items granting stealth.

World seeds and Weekly Runs

Each world has a seed that is shown after you die (or with "showseed" command in chat). The seed can be reused when starting a game which will make the generated areas identical. Achievements cannot be unlocked when playing with manual seed. This update also introduces weekly runs which replace current leaderboard system. Each week there is a specific seed, the same for everyone, and you can compete with others on a leaderboard. You can play the weekly run only once, the leaderboard is reset each week on friday UTC 00:00. The weekly runs will usually be standard random seed, however from time to time they will be curated, for example when there are new items introduced, the weekly seed might be predefined so the new items get dropped early in the game. This week's seed will have a ring of stealth drop in the Ivar's cave.

New rare items

The update introduces new rare items.

Istimid Compressor and new elixirs

The Istimid Compressor allows you to extract a magic power from a ring or amulet and create an elixir out of it. The elixir grants you permanently the effects of the item used in the process. You can also find such elixirs randomly in different places.

Blood-Soaked Scoria

This item gives the possibility to reset the current area - bringing all of the defeated enemies back to life while increasing their power and filling back all of the chests in this area. This includes unique monsters and unique items.

New areas

The update introduces several new areas, smaller and bigger.

Arnet's Quarters

The area is located close to the [spoiler]top of the Tower of Mirth[/spoiler]. This is where Arnet the Honest spent his time experimenting on the inmates. The area has guaranteed either Blood-Soaked Scoria or Istimid Compressor.

Violet Pepper's Hut

The area is hidden [spoiler]near the swamps between Castle Istimid and Tower of Mirth[/spoiler]. You can find a new NPC Violet Pepper with her 9-headed pet hydra Serenity there.

The Sisterhood

A new side-area with several new monster types and a fourth of the royal wardens. The area is hidden [spoiler]near Castle Gisea[/spoiler], although there is also a way to reach it earlier, during the crimson pyre event.

Crimson pyre event

Spending too much time with cursed items also affects the bearer and at some points imbues the character with a curse which affects the travels through campfires.

Abysm's Depths

The update fleshes out the deeper levels of Abysm, including its very bottom where you can try to [spoiler]destroy the being that created the Abysm[/spoiler]. The passage to the deeper areas of Abysm is hidden.

Parrying

The update introduces the ability to parry enemy attacks when wielding a 1-handed weapon. Parrying blocks all melee attacks in the next 10 ticks and strikes all the attacking enemies with a riposte attack dealing 100% weapon damage (and applying all on-hit effects). If more than 1 enemy is parried the ability will also stun all attacking enemies, the more enemies are parried the longer the stun. If no attacks are parried then your character will self stun for 2 actions (or you can cure it within first action with phial). To help with visual clarity most essential statuses, such as stuns, will also be shown on enemy tile.

Alternate endings

This update introduces 2 new alternate ways to end the game:

Iphe

[spoiler]Venturing deep into abysm and defeating the being there will achieve this ending. The way to do this is pretty straightforward, although this is probably the most difficult way to finish the game.[/spoiler]

Four witches

[spoiler]Killing the four witches you can find throughout the game will achieve this ending.[/spoiler]

Other changes

New content

• added character log when they die, you can find the log in the game folder and it looks like this, last 5 character logs are stored
• 21 new achievements
• more variation to the destroyed buildings outside of Castle Istimid
• 2 new music tracks - Abysm and Poison Vaults
• big rocks can now be pushed - when pushed into water they allow you to pass through it afterwards, there some random rooms and areas where this could help you
• acid now disolves ice tiles
• some more random rooms in Hungry Caverns
• added a few really strong enchant effects for staves
• scrolls of jump and other jump effects can now be used to jump over water
• scroll of jump has additional effects if cursed or blessed
• using fire damage on tiles with acid will make it explode
• added ~20 new monsters and ~30 new items
• flying monsters can now actually fly over some of the obstacles
• introducing polymorph effect - you and enemies can be temporarily polymorphed into rabid frogs via potions of polymorph or abilities of some of the more powerful enemies
• with this update you can wield rings and amulets instead of weapon/shields which will grant you the effect of the ring/amulet, giving some more flexibility in how you want to build your character

Bug fixes

• added some missing status icons and descriptions
• fixed soulless torturers appearing sometimes in the cells in Tower of Mirth
• fixed "you feel better" appearing at start of the game on normal and easy difficulty
• fixed game sometimes freezing if Ivar would die to green mold acid mid-swing
• fixed the color of allies sometimes not being gray
• fixed the color of non-ally feathered creature being gray
• fixed ring of sight granting less sight range than in the description
• added missing sounds for some of the effects
• fixed ladder to the Traveling Laboratory not being red
• fixed columns in Castle Istimid 3 being ugly (Gargoyles' area)
• fixed cancelling of throw action making some time pass
• Tyrannical Stompers' won't play the *STOMP* sound when walking nearby automatons in Istimid
• "this is trousers" fixed a bunch of gramatical errors
• harming a webbed big enemy with fire will destroy a random web that holds them, instead of the one in the top left corner only
• The Blizzard's effect now won't hurt allies
• fixed the stone statues in Armory not appearing on mini map
• fixed the Furnace Flame effect not appearing after weapon skills on the skills list
• fixed/cleaned up how wielding 2 shields works - now the character will first block with his right hand shield and once it's "out of blocks" the left hand shield will take over
• Fixed bugmoon eggs and tentacles being able to be stunned
• Fixed Brokbrog taking an equiped item from you if it had the same as the one that you offered to him
• fixed items from chests sometimes appearing behind a nearby wall
• fixed shields in off-hand inreasing the character's AC
• fixed the Abysm stairs sometimes appearing too close to each other
• fixed butchered convicts sometimes exploding twice
• fixed issues with the "show item in game chat" functionality
• fixed Brokbrog being able to multiply your items if fed stackable items
• improved the performance of Annora Rise generation
• fixed acid damage not agroing the NPCs in Hythe
• fixed crafting items not working after save/load
• fixed crafting only taking one essence if it was cursed
• fixed being able to teleport into locked out areas in Armory
• fixed some chat messages not matching the VO
• dying to acid will display a proper message now
• fixed trying to use phial in the last ticks before death when petrifying not saving you
• fixed the description of statuses showing only after a delay when hovering mouse over them
• fixed too much time passing when traveling back from [spoiler]Neith[/spoiler]
• fixed children of Iphe dropping gold when dying transformed into something that has gold (they still will drop gold if you hurt them when they are transformed into gold golems)
• fixed ice aura monsters (e.g. ice golems) harming other enemies
• fixed some enemies not showing in black color when hovering an attack over them
• removed the chat action for non-talking allies
• fixed a bug when some of the door in Armory were not opened after defeating [spoiler]Hiedra[/spoiler]
• fixed the hidden passage to [spoiler]Abysm 3[/spoiler] sometimes not being generated
• fixed small areas sometimes not being displayed properly (one row of the tiles would be outside screen)

QoL changes

• after getting hurt movement and attack commands are blocked for a very brief moments (depending on damage but it's around ~0.5 sec) - should help in cases where you explore and something attacks you unexpectedly, say from out of sight)
• slightly changed the color of nothingness on minimap
• added red warning message when standing on acid/web
• added a tick sound when moving around the chat options when talking to other characters
• added a short cooldown before showing the name of the area after entering it, when walking on the edge of 2 areas back and forth
• damage received by your character is shown in red color in chat now
• when leveling up, all of the items in your sight range will be identified

Balance changes

• buffed the duration of Obsidian Handguards of Infinite Rage and added enchant scaling to the effect's power
• reduced the power of gauntlets of power
• reduced the amount of potions of poison in Poison Vault
• more potions will drop in different areas of the world
• Tyrannical Stompers' damage now scales with enchant
• Bottle Knight slightly more hp
• The HP threshold when Bottle Knight will hide to the bottle is slightly higher now
• gladiator's ring now also works for dual wielding 1-handed weapons
• Mending stone now heals and restores stamina (but only for yourself) in addition to restoring charges in phial
• skull helmet now scales with enchant
• potions with negative effects (liquid fire, poison, etc) will now explode on throw affecting all nearby mobs
• some of the NPCs in Hythe are *MUCH* stronger now
• ice drakes will create more ice around them
• bloodsuckers slight rework - now they suck much more life and are slightly faster, but the effect can be cured
• increased push away effects' cooldown for a bunch of bosses
• [spoiler]Arthar Duning[/spoiler] - reduced the frequency of him applying blind
• amulet of life saving now grants short invulnerability after proccing (based on enchant level), but will always be destroyed afterwards
• potion of protection shield gain is additionally increased based on your permanent shield value
• the [spoiler]bugmoon infested Abysm[/spoiler] will always contain the [spoiler]Bugmoon Elder Queen[/spoiler]
• Dawnguard no longer grants protection from curses and the "destroy shades" effect is only proccing if the shield is not cursed
• Increased Liver's hp
• ring of jumping buff, now the jump range scales with enchant
• all attacks against stunned or confused characters are guaranteed to land
• stunned or confused characters won't be able to use their shields to block incoming attacks

Thanks to everyone who helped with beta testing and lmk if you have any issues! Bartek

[ 2023-03-25 08:33:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi All, If you are looking for some new content please be invited to check out the Steam beta branch of the game and join the Lost Flame's Discord, where you will learn about any changes available for beta testing. The beta branch already has quite a bit of new stuff (81 tasks mark as done in my backlog) - you can read about the changes here. I will upload the full changelog to Steam once the update goes to the stable branch (ETA: beginning of March), but the major points are:

• parrying! With some help from the Discord community, we have managed to pull off parrying in a turn based game - all single handed weapons have additional skill "parry". When parrying you block all incoming melee attacks in the next 10 ticks damaging all attacking enemies and stunning them if more than 1 enemy was parried. Failed parry will result in a short selfstun.
• several new hidden areas in mid/late game (e.g. you can try to find the passage to Abysm 3 and try to explore its depths, and a bunch of others), those areas give 2 alternate ways to end the game
• lots of different small content changes and bug fixes, such as allowing the player to wield rings and amulets in hands instead of weapon to gain their benefits, or making acid explode when damaged with fire and of course new items and enemies

Some teaser screenshots below. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2023-02-07 21:14:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, This is a small update which fixes Bugmoon Abysm 2 generation which would sometimes put the stair to Abysm 1 in an inaccessible place. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2023-02-04 14:19:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just a small update adding the option to disable in-game chat (in in-game options)

[ 2023-01-27 15:48:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a quick update which fixes the game crashing when swapping in and out The Leafbringer staff. It also reduces the chance to have your items destroyed when receiving ice/fire damage to roughly 1/3 of previous chance.

[ 2023-01-27 08:05:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, 0.14.11 update is almost ready and will be published to stable branch within the next 24 hours. Your saves will not be compatible between current version and the one that I plan to release. If you want to get it faster, you can switch your Steam game branch to "beta". As always please be invited to Lost Flame's discord channel. There are three major points of this release and around 50 smaller changes.

Abysm rework

The Abysm area got 4 new alternate versions. You will encounter new monsters and minibosses there. Some of those can get really tense at times! The plain version of Abysm also received a makeover with more varied generation algorithm. The new levels introduce completely new mechanics such as [spoiler]fire breathing stone statues[/spoiler], [spoiler]monsters that can transform into any other monster[/spoiler] or [spoiler]ice covered tiles[/spoiler]

Late game clean up

Those of you who have reached the final areas know that the boss fights there were mostly placeholders - well, not anymore. The [spoiler]Arthar Duning[/spoiler] fight is a fully fledged fight now. The same goes with [spoiler]Rianne[/spoiler] and [spoiler]The Archmage[/spoiler] fight. When it comes to [spoiler]The Archmage[/spoiler] - the [spoiler]Mages' Chambers[/spoiler] got slightly reworked too with new miniboss to meet there! I have also rebalanced most of the mid-game boss fights as well.

1-handed weapon combo-skills

With this update each and every dual-wielded 1-handed weapon combination will give you a special attack or two. There are 6 single handed weapon classes so in total there are around 36 such combo-skills, the skills also depend on which weapon is in right hand and which one is in the left - so bastard sword+sabre is different than sabre+bastard sword.

Other Changes

There is also a ton of other, smaller changes - here they are:

New Content

• Aerith the Green, Boneheaded Beldwin, Ngotraimuucs and all new minibosses give essence and have their crafts now
• 8 new achievements
• clubs/maces received new abilities: a small 2 tile slash strike and a lunge which attacks 2 tiles instead of one
• some more possible crafts by Brokbrok added, some more secret than other:)
• added some missing sounds
• there is another way to get [spoiler]the Cure[/spoiler] ending now
• the alternate plane where most of the souls went after the Sundering is accessible for the player now, this is just a first taste though, more of it is work in progress:)
• [spoiler]killing Arabelle in Hythe will have consequences now[/spoiler]
• 2 new non-level specific minibosses

QoL Changes

• lots of additional key rebind options via options.config
• stamina bar now shows how much stamina will be used by a skill when you hover it
• fields that are outside your vision will not show that an enemy wants to attack it
• you can force an attack by a new advanced action 'a'ttack
• fixed tutorial message not disappearing - this time for sure:D
• you cannot feed equipped items to Brokbrog anymore (as it was too easy to do it by mistake)
• message log will no longer show duplicate messages that are not relevant
• polished the hp bar a little when having a temp or permanent shield
• bottle knight will also identify item that he carries when the player levels up
• improved inventory control via keyboard a little
• improved error logging
• Brokbrok will not drop items under himself or other characters anymore
• after feeding items to Brokbrok the hover will stay on "feed item" chat opions, so it's more convenient to feed him multiple items
• all friendly monsters are shown in white colour now - previously it was impossible to distinguish them from enemies

Bug Fixes

• significant improvements in the speed of level generation
• when killing a big enemy with elemental attack the elemental icon was only shown on of the tiles the monster stood fixed
• if the game crashes in ladder mode - you should get some points back for your run
• mature sand dragons will not activate their lightning aura if they are not fighting anyone (i.e. they will not zap you over a wall if you haven't seen each other)
• fixed strange behaviour when traveling via stair when stuck in web
• fixed blinking icon after drinking elixir of regeneration
• mobs will not attack air anymore and should use their skills slightly better now
• mobs' abilities not working during the first tick after their spawn fixed
• fixed sound of throwing items always being iron (except potions, which were fine)
• fixed soulless torturer special attack staying on map after he got killed
• throwing potions incorrectly giving "%%monster drinks %%potion" message fixed
• flying mobs will no longer get hurt by acid pools
• flying mobs can fly over some of the obstacles now
• throwing an item and zapping a wand takes consistently 10 ticks now (for default speed)
• fixed mobs making ambient sounds too often sometimes
• fixed cursor not reappearing when going back to menu after it was hidden in the game
• fixed description for ring of damage

Balance Changes

• flamelobbers have higher attack delay now (12 ticks instead of 10)
• tower of mirth got harder - stronger native monsters and increased danger level of other enemies that can appear there
• big axes and axes - improved their attack speed
• nerfed heavy ring, ring of focus, absorption ring and ring of the slayer
• temporary shield decays much faster, especially for very high values
• soulless hybrids and soulless bugfiends will no longer use weapon skills
• Dismal Lowlife has slightly weaker weapons now
• bottle knight base stats got lowered (improved his scaling with enchant though)
• swap weapons takes 7 ticks now (so quicker than wielding a weapon from inventory)

Hope you have fun, Bartek

[ 2023-01-23 06:51:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, Today I have pushed all of the changes from the beta branch to the default stable branch. If you played on beta than you are probably familiar with most of them, but if not you can learn about what has changed from this post. Please be invited to join Lost Flame's discord server at https://discord.gg/cq4YkS946F

Major changes

Brokbrog, the giant from Hythe

You will finally have a reason to visit him. Brokbrog can eat any kind of item and in some cases he will spit something out afterwards. For example, if you feed him any 2 rings he will probably spit out a new random ring. There are few combinations right now with more to come.

Soul essence

Some of the bosses will drop their essence which will allow you to craft some items at Hythe. Those items are always the same. The goal is to have all bosses give essence and have their respective items that you can craft. The items are quite specific in what they do, so there won't be clear "always need to craft it" candidates.

Bottle Knight update

Now you can give items to bottle knight! He will wield any weapon you give him, and wear any armor (or jewelry) that you give him. He will also use any items that you give to him. This creates an additional layer of item combinations and synergies between yourself and the bottle knight. As a consequence his base armor and resists were slightly reduced. Another change is that the bottle knight will pick up some items by himself if he thinks they are better than what he has - however you can always ask him to give them back.

Other changes

Changes in existing content

• Grand Executioner level and fight slight rework
• Calven Duning fight slight rework
• some enemies will pick up items
• all summoned monsters will grant you exp when killing enemies
• removed Infested Tunnel level (Hungry Caverns now connect directly to Abysm)
• monsters summoned by scrolls of summon monsters will usually be friendly and will fight for you
• scroll of teleport is usable when webbed now

QoL changes

• added new option in the in-game menu for changing zoom/scale of the display
• alt-tab will not force the game to revert to windowed mode
• all rings, amulets and wands will have icon in the inventory - similiar to potions and scrolls - so that is easier to recognize them in the inventory
• improved the visibility of item counts in inventory for stackable items
• you can enable/disable chat sounds in in-game menu
• you can enable/disable borderless mode in in-game menu
• some clean up in text messages
• added status icon and text notification when fighting unarmed
• the game will load it's data differently, so launching your first game should no longer take as long
• added the possibility to rebind the chat key (via options.config file)
• improved the visibility of which item is currently selected in inventory
• added the visual indication of items' enchant level when in inventory (let me know if it makes the UI messy/too convoluted)
• you can press shift+space to hide/show ui (e.g. if messages cover the area too much)
• killing istimid gargoyles will give a notification in chat
• changed how the results of the ladder mode are displayed
• added status and text notification when fighting unarmed

Balance changes

• slightly more drops on easy and normal difficulty on early levels
• slightly more drops in early levels and slightly less drops later
• bottle knight will last much longer before disappearing and he can also follow you between areas
• butchered convicts will now explode also on death
• significantly reduced the amount of gold you get from sacks
• charred behemoths now deal much more damage with their melee attacks
• some other small balance changes that I didn't note down

New content

• new special type of potions - grant you permanent buffs, at a cost
• ~30 new items
• added 3 new achievements (crafting an item, getting an item from brokbrog, defeating Arnet, the Honest)
• added a little more variety to Dismal Lowlife's den

Bug fixes

• bug fix for some messages in tutorial not disappearing
• fixed duplicating item glitch when having 2 stacks with the same cursed/uncursed/blessed status
• axe attack - swap places will move you even if you kill enemy
• added some missing sound effects
• fixed a bug when sometimes inventory would open with menu and the player would not be able to close the inventory.
• fixed rune of leech crashing the game
• blighted Spikeshield now works properly and grants weapons the on-hit bonus
• player does no longer move when typing in chat and movement is bound to hjkl
• fixed game crashing when using cursed wand of fires
• improved error handling in general - even in case of errors the game is more likely to handle it without crashing
• fixed some issues with giving/taking cursed items to/from bottle knight
• added some missing sounds
• fixed Moonsword not increasing the lifesteal strength with enchants
• added missing status icons and descriptions
• fixed a small bug when displaying to hit bonus for weapons

If you encounter any bugs, or unexpected behaviour don't hesitate to ping me! Cheers, Bartek

[ 2022-12-27 18:42:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi People, I have a biig update for you - currently on the beta branch. It adds some new content and three new mechanisms which hopefully will make the game more interesting, varied with a little more control if you know what you are doing:).

Brokbrog, the giant from Hythe

You will finally have a reason to visit him. Brokbrog can eat any kind of item and in some cases he will spit something out afterwards. For example, if you feed him any 2 rings he will probably spit out a new random ring. There are a bunch of such combinations right now with more to come.

Soul essence

Some of the bosses will drop their essence which will allow you to craft some items at Hythe. Those items are always the same. If this idea works out well I will have all bosses give essence and have their respective items that you can craft. The items are quite specific in what they do, so there won't be clear "always need to craft it" candidates.

Bottle Knight update

Now you can give items to bottle knight! He will wield any weapon you give him, and wear any armor (or jewelry) that you give him. He will also use any items that you give to him. This creates an additional layer of item combinations and synergies between yourself and the bottle knight. As a consequence his base armor and resists were slightly reduced. Another change is that the bottle knight will pick up some items by himself if he thinks they are better than what he has - however you can always ask him to give them back.

Other changes

New content

• new special type of potions - grant you permanent buffs, at a cost
• a bunch of new items

Changes in existing content

• Grand Executioner level and fight slight rework
• Calven Duning fight slight rework
• Some enemies will pick up items

QoL changes

• alt-tab will not force the game to revert to windowed mode
• all rings, amulets and wands will have icon in the inventory - similiar to potions and scrolls - so that is easier to recognize them in the inventory
• improved the visibility of item counts in inventory for stackable items
• you can enable/disable chat sounds in in-game menu
• you can enable/disable borderless mode in in-game menu
• some clean up in text messages

Balance changes

• slightly more drops on easy and normal difficulty on early levels
• slightly more drops in early levels and slightly less drops later
• bottle knight will last much longer before disappearing and he can also follow you between areas
• Butchered convicts will now explode also on death

Bug fixes

• bug fix for some messages in tutorial not disappearing
• fixed duplicating item glitch when having 2 stacks with the same cursed/uncursed/blessed status
• axe attack - swap places will move you even if you kill enemy
• added some missing sound effects

Hope you have fun:) Bartek

[ 2022-12-22 12:40:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, I've pushed a new version to the default branch. The update contains a bunch of bug fixes, here is a list:

• player does no longer move when typing in chat and movement is bound to hjkl
• Blighted Spikeshield now works properly and grants weapons the on-hit bonus
• using rune of leech no longer crashes the game
• fixed a level generation bug on Abysm 2 when stairs to Infested Tunnel would not be generated properly
• fixed a bug when sometimes inventory would open with menu and the player would not be able to close the inventory.

If you haven't already, I encourage you to join the game discord server: https://discord.gg/cq4YkS946F Cheers, Bartek

[ 2022-06-28 18:07:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all! After some testing on beta branch the new content arrives on your standard, default branch. This update includes:

New content

• A bunch of new monsters, and minibosses
• expanded poison vaults, which now sometimes can appear instead of Castle Istimid (including 2 new bosses)
• much more variety in early levels (Hungry Caverns)
• some new achievements

Bug fixes

• fixed bug with throwing readied items crashing the game
• fixed a number of mapgen bugs
• fixed bug which would allow opening inventory and game menu at the same time
• fixed plenty of bugs that were added with the new content:P
• a bunch of other bugs that I haven't noted down

Thanks everyone for helping with testing on beta branch and plenty of great ideas. If you haven't done this already I encourage you to join our discord server: https://discord.gg/QpZ2aH7d Cheers, Bartek

[ 2022-06-20 21:34:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, It's been some time. Check out Official Discord server. There are new changes on beta branch:

New stuff

• New side level with new environment, enemies, boss and new item type
• New elite monster in Istimid
• Hythe monastery map generation slightly more varied
• all axes get a new skill - "hit&swap with enemy"
• all sabres get a new skill - "hit&jump away"

Bug fixes

• fixed a bug with autopicking consumables when full inventory
• fix for lunge and jump over bugging out and hitting yourself in some scenarios
• fix for missing path between Secluded Underpass and Annora Rise
• there should be much less "teleport traps" (you shouldn't get stuck in some remote space if you use teleport scroll which could happen, for example, in overworld and Tower of Mirth)
• duplicate grab and pull for some axes removed
• some bug fixes - honestly I don't remember, I fixed them some time ago and didn't note it down
• some fixes to high res play - fixed some visual glitches and adding graphics scaling, so you should be able to play normally in 4k

Balance changes

• throwing rebalanced - heavy weapons have very short range for throwing
• first Royal Warden has ~25% more hp

If you have any questions feel free to ask them here or on Discord. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2022-02-27 21:16:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, The newest update is on live branch. It contains some bug fixes and some new stuff. New stuff:

• 5 new early game mini bosses
• 2 new monsters
• improved Hungry Caverns 3 generation a bit (some more variety in the level layout)
• 9 new items (rings/amulets) some with completely new effects and builds possible,
  

Bug fixes:

• Fixed (hopefully) ladders, campfires glitching from time to time randomly
• Numpad can be used to navigate main menu
• Hungry Caverns 3 should no longer generate the stairs in the middle of water
• Current equipment popup only appears when looking at items with mouse fixed

For the next update I want to focus on high resolution issues (problems with full screen and UI not scaling) Cheers, Bartek

[ 2021-01-12 19:54:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, Live version is updated. Last week I didn't manage to polish the end game as much as I wanted, it's a little better but still needs more work. Patch notes:

• new optional end-game area - obsidian mine
• 4 new achievements
• 2 new alternate ways of winning the game
• fixed game crashing when you throw a shield
• fixed one of the causes of "random" game crashes
• Abysm levels are much smaller now
• Hungry Caverns 1 are smaller now
• Petrification debuff will stop any long actions (like ctrl-move or mouse-click move)
• Fixed monsters not always getting agroed by bottle knight
• Specters are petrification resistant now
• Fixed Giant shaman summoning too many Living Rocks

In the next week I will focus on early game variety - items, areas and monsters. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2020-12-23 10:41:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, I have updated the default branch, changes are following:

• added ladder mode
• added another skill for 2 weapons combination (small axe/short sword) - Grab and Stab, you pull the enemy towards you with your small axe and stab him with your short sword; my aim is to have all possible 2 weapon combinations covered
• added auto pick up for potions, scrolls and any ammo that you are already carrying
• fixed Grand Hall of the Candles 1 generating without stairs to next area (I am like 86% sure it is fixed, if you ever encounter it again, please let me know)
• all grabbing skills (grab and pull, grab and stab) won't work in melee anymore

Main plan for next week is to have 1 new late game area, 2 additional possible endings and polish the current ending (mostly make the boss fight more interesting). I have already done some work for this (most of the new area is done, I have recorded the VO for involved characters). For people who have not checked beta branch, here is how ladder works: [olist]

It tracks your performance across many games

It is unlocked after you complete the tutorial at least once

It plays on hard difficulty

You get points based on how far you get in your current game

You cannot save game when in this mode

When you start a new game in this mode you lose 10% of your current score and when you die/finish the game you get points based on how far you got. Basically the more points you have, the further you need to get each game to get more points. [/olist] Cheers, Bartek

[ 2020-12-12 18:24:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, I am testing a small fix for leaderboard display bug and it should be available on beta branch within like an hour. My main aims for next week will be to:

• polish the leaderboard a little bit and make it good enough for live branch
• write dialogues for end game and find voice actor to record them

I don't want to promise any big changes soon, but I want to get back to the habit of regular updates, thank you for all your patience. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2020-12-06 20:46:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, I've been playing around with a leaderboard system for Lost Flame and I have pushed a very rough version of it to beta branch. The system is inspired by the ELO rating system and it measures your performance across multiple games, here is how it goes: 1. Starting a ladder game reduces your score by 10% 2. When you finish the game (die/win) your score gets increased by a number of points (currently mostly based on your total experience gained) So basically the higher your overall score/rank is, the better you need to play to gain more points, since first you need to 'gain back' the lost 10%. Losing very early could even reduce your overall score if your score was previously high. I've used a similiar system in one of my previous games "Madness of Little Emma" and I think it worked quite well there. To try it out you need to be on the beta branch of the game and start a new game with 'Hard (Ladder)' difficulty. The ladder is very rough right now, so use it at your own risk. Although I would really appreciate some feedback on the system. Some remarks: 1. Top 10 of the ladder is shown when starting new game/loading previous game. Full ladder can be viewed via Steam. 2. Your rank and score is shown in the bottom right corner of the menu 3. If Lost Flame crashes during ladder then you might lost your initial 10% of points and gain 0. 4. Ladder games cannot be saved/loaded for obvious reason.

[ 2020-07-02 18:28:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, It's been some time but there is a new update going live. List of changes is below:

• changed mouse controls a little - now RBM anywhere on the screen performs the current default action (same as 'enter' key), LBM on character performs 'wait' command
• added a large version of mini map - press 'm' or access it via clickable menu in the 'advanced' section in the bottom menu
• added a slight red glow to identified cursed item, so it's easier to see what is cursed at quick glance
• changed kb controls when managing inventory, let me know what you think about it
• changed 'r'eady to be the first/default action for arrows
• added some missing skill icons
• rebinding movement keys will affect the controls for aiming
• changed Tyrannical Stompers so they only play the 'stomp' sound when you damage an enemy with them

Sorry for a long break, things will be better in the next months. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2020-06-30 18:47:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, Version 0.8.2 is live. Patch notes:

New stuff

• new dialogues and voice overs for 3 NPCs in the later part of the game
• more flavor texts added to items
• new mini boss that can randomly appear
• 19 new achievements
• new powerful magical affixes that can appear on staves
• from level 20 all items are identified right off the bat
• being stunned/confused produces a message in message log until the effect ends
• muckling shamans have a limit on how many mucklings they can summon
• changed the color of some wands due to visibility issues (black->gray)
• magical effects which are based on % of dealt damage are limited by monster hp now (if you overkill a monster, the % will only be taken from monster hp not full damage)
• shield decays much quicker for very high values of shield
• you can rebind more controls now (using options.config file in the game folder, it is generated when you start the game)

Bug Fixes

• you should no longer receive experience for nothing on mainland (previously it happened from time to time)
• cursed amulet of saving is now properly getting destroyed after proccing the effect
• summoned mucklings no longer give experience
• the Pestilence long sword now works properly
• the game should no longer crash when in offline mode

Cheers, Bartek

[ 2020-01-24 18:04:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! This weekend you can try out Lost Flame for free and get it 20% cheaper as well! Have fun! Bartek

[ 2020-01-24 17:43:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, Version 0.8 is live. Patch notes:

Content changes

• Hall of Candles 2 reworked
• some missing sounds and icons added
• new potion type
• changed description for dying shades
• changed sound for dying sand golem
• flesh colossus deals slightly more damage now

QoL changes

• added possibility to rebind movement (via config file, see discussion here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/856570/eventcomments/2619338771815004946)
• petrification sound is played less often for enemies getting petrified

bug fixes

• shield maiden's amulet not giving exp fixed
• fixed some spelling mistakes
• stairs to Cadell's cells have proper color now
• truding automations/destroyers not getting disabled sometimes fixed
• fixed mouse not working correctly on tutorial level

Cheers, Bartek

[ 2020-01-01 18:52:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, So it's been quite quiet recently and to be honest I haven't worked on Lost Flame for almost 3 months (sep-nov). The reason was quite simple, a new, mentally demanding job and really bad sales were a total downer. Now I got used to my new job so I have some mental capacity to work on Lost Flame in the afternoons and weekends, also I got over the other issue, so expect some regular updates in the next weeks/months. Going back to 0.7. I worked on the update for around a month and the focus was removing tedious stuff and giving some options to protect yourself from lucky powerful blows that can land on you. With the recent changes I have managed to "win" the game as it is now, for the first time ever just a few hour ago. Content changes:

• Castle Istimid is much shorter and has more treasures worth collecting. The change is really significant, I always considered this area pretty boring and now it is no longer the case
• some new handcrafted rooms in Castle Istimid
• [spoiler]new mini boss level in the middle of Castle Istimid[/spoiler]
• I have reworked most of the boring amulets and added some new, now there are some options which can protect you from powerful blows (for example they grant you a huge temporary shield when a hit can kill, or almost kill, you)
• now the character has two amulet slots, my rule of a thumb is to save one slot for a defensive amulet and use the second slot for whatever you want
• buffed a number of rings, which previously felt bad/useless
• stab can harm the monster in the back even if the first one survives the strike
• very minor change in bandit fortress generation
• buffed a number of rings, which previously felt bad/useless

QoL changes:

• you can enable borderless mode - type "debug:borderless" in game console, type it again to disable it
• added the possibility to change some keybindings (explained at the end of the post)

Bug fixes:

• some long monster names were not displayed properly
• "The" is no longer shown for identified uniques (so you won't see "+2 The Spider's Bite")
• ring of adroit strike now works properly with lunge
• some missing tooltips, descriptions and icons were added
• fixed showing potential enchant effect for fabled and legendary items
• fixed showing potential enchant effect for shields
• fabled and legendary prefix properly affects to hit chance now
• bucklers work as expected when restoring stamina (previously they did not work in the following turn after restoring stamina from 0)
• ring of cobweb works properly now
• fixed killing enemies by poison/bleed not granting experience
• arrows can longer be generated "penetrating" (this effect was useless on them)
• Istimid stalwart now attacks properly over chests

Keybindings: If you want to edit keybindings, you can add new rows to options.config file in the game directory: KEYMAPPING skill1 A KEYMAPPING skill2 B etc. Valid values for key mappings are (skill1, skill2,..., skill0 and binding1, binding2,...,binding12) skills are by default bound to numbers, "bindings" are by default bound to f1-f12 keys. Cheers, Bartek

[ 2019-12-26 21:29:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, I got back from vacation yesterday and there is a small update for Lost Flame. A small 0.5 update was deployed to stable branch and 0.6 was deployed on beta branch. The patch is not backwards compatible for saves. If you want to finish your previous game you need to switch to 'oldstable' branch. This branch wll always be one version behind main branch. After that don't remember to switch back to default branch! Patch notes for 0.5: New stuff: 10 new rings For the 0.6 version on the beta branch the new stuff is rework of how poison and bleed work - now you can check how much damage you are going to receive. Poison deals much less damage in total, but it does it much faster. I've also made most of the magical afixes and unique items scale with enchantment level, so there are even more reasonable possibilities when designing your character. Some weapon types also scale better with enchant level (for example greatmaces get +2 to damage per enchant level). Also a new option was added to in-game options - "show time" - setting this to 'Yes', shows the current tick of the game world and the number of ticks last action took - this is another step in making the game mechanics more transparent. Detailed patch notes will be provided when the version goes to main branch. roadmap can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nYjSvi_5SJ7kMHYnjgDv0l1yzBHBvgTB7wBZ7nrAlRA

[ 2019-09-02 19:51:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, 0.4 was deployed to stable branch and 0.5 was deployed on beta branch. The patch is not backwards compatible for saves. If you want to finish your previous game you need to switch to 'oldstable' branch. This branch wll always be one version behind main branch. After that don't remember to switch back to default branch!

Patch notes for 0.4:

New stuff:

• added description for some monsters
• you can now "win" the game, added a first and very rough version of last area (Royal Dungeons) - later there will be some more stuff between dungeons and Annora Rise
• added a little challenge before Annora Rise
• added a very rough first version of second mini hub location

QoL changes:

• added a sound effect for petrification (the sound is played when you begin to petrify+every 10 ticks - you will hear it 3 or 4 times before you die)

Balance changes: Nothing Bug fixes:

• Royal Guardians' weapons are always magical
• Sand Dragons lightning AOE does not hurt monsters to which the dragon is not hostile
• fixed some spelling mistakes+ring descriptions
• fixed wrong enchant description when hovering over a weapon with elemental damage

For the 0.5 version on the beta branch the new stuff is 10 new magical rings with unique effects, for example 1 ring harms all nearby enemies when you heal (from whatever source, lifesteal, phial, etc). Some new builds should be viable:) roadmap can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nYjSvi_5SJ7kMHYnjgDv0l1yzBHBvgTB7wBZ7nrAlRA I will be going on a vacation soon, so there won't be any updates in the next 2 weeks.

[ 2019-08-20 17:55:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, 0.3.2 was deployed today morning on beta branch and in an hour or two I will deploy it to main branch without waiting, due to the fact that it fixes some critical bugs. The patch is not backwards compatible for saves. If you want to finish your previous game you need to switch to 'oldstable' branch. This branch wll always be one version behind main branch. After that don't remember to switch back to default branch!

Patch notes:

New stuff:

• Annora Rise almost completed - it's definitely playable right now, I will add some more details to the map in the next days - this is right now the latest area in the game
• one new ring
• one new late game monster (also found in Annora Rise)

QoL changes:

• current pyre is no longer shown in the list when attempting to travel
• unvisited pyres are marked in yellow colour (there is one event which unlocks a pyre in a different area)
• new option in in-game settings - 'exit to menu'
• nothingness in the Abysm has different tile (no longer looks the same as fog of war)
• improved logging a lot - crashes will always leave a separate file, which is not overwritten by starting a new game, also crashing will always attempt to save the current game (you might be able to restore the save and continue the game and if not, you could send the save to me with the crash report)
• tutorial becomes optional after reaching level 3 (previously was 4)
• global chat notification for level up is every 4 levels now (starting level 8), instead of every 5. Previously level ups pretty often aligned with killing bosses, which made them kind of pointless
• when you receive 0 damage it is not shown in chat anymore

Balance changes:

• Effect of Obsidian Handguards of Infinite Rage is longer now (70 ticks, instead of 50)

Bug fixes:

• fixed crash when trying to enter Grand Hall of the Candles 2
• fixed some spelling and formatting issues
• when entering chat or pyre no longer moves the selected option if entered directly from top or bottom
• fixed not getting death pop up and not sending global notification when dying from acid or petrification, right now it temporarily shows "killed by something" - will be changed later
• Inventory is limited to 110 items now, previously picking too many items caused the inventory to bug out
• Royal Guardian's wield 1-handed weapons only (it was a bug for them to wield 2-handers)

roadmap can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nYjSvi_5SJ7kMHYnjgDv0l1yzBHBvgTB7wBZ7nrAlRA Bartek

[ 2019-08-11 18:05:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! First update is here. Not much new stuff, since I've spent most of the time working on the Linux version, which is here and confirmed that it works from 2 different sources. The patch is not backwards compatible for saves. If you want to finish your previous game you need to switch to 'oldstable' branch. This branch wll always be one version behind main branch. After that don't remember to switch back to default branch!

Patch notes:

New stuff:

• Linux version is ready.
• 3 new late game monsters (mostly to be found in Annora's Rise)

QoL changes:

• messages received in chat stay there after you die
• numpad works when chatting with NPCs

Bug fixes:

• fixed bug with trudging automations not being awaken when hit with lightning
• fixed wands working even when out of charges
• fixed some spelling and formatting issues

Balance changes:

• increased armor for some monster types

roadmap can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nYjSvi_5SJ7kMHYnjgDv0l1yzBHBvgTB7wBZ7nrAlRA Bartek

[ 2019-08-06 16:11:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Lost Flame has been released as Early Access! Linux support is delayed, however it will be added this weekend. You can check out the initial roadmap here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nYjSvi_5SJ7kMHYnjgDv0l1yzBHBvgTB7wBZ7nrAlRA The roadmap covers only big things, stuff like "more monsters", "more items" is not covered there, but more content will be added with almost every update. If you want to contact me you can do it on:

• Steam Lost Flame discussion board
• lost flame subreddit
• my twitter

You can expect bi-weekly or monthly stable updates on the main branch, however you can also opt into Lost Flame beta branch and get updates much more often, however you can encounter more bugs, balance issues, etc. there. Also saves might not be compatible between updates. To opt into beta branch:

• open your Steam library
• right click Lost Flame
• select properties
• switch to "betas" tab
• select "beta" in the drop down list

My plan for the nearest future is:

• finalize Linux release
• stabilize the game after EA release, resolve any issues you might encounter
• finalize Annora Rise - one of the game areas, right now it's the final area of the game.

[ 2019-08-02 18:44:53 CET ] [ Original post ]