Greetings Adventurers, here's some of what we've been working on in the last few months!

The Game is now Steam Deck Verified

Note: The device photo was taken over a year ago. The game runs even better on the Steam Deck now, with much more content.

New Runes

There are currently five new runes granting passive perks to the player: These are: Cucoon, Healing, Ice Armor, Stunning and Zapper! For instance, Zapper briefly electrocutes nearby enemies upon defeating an opponent.

Combat Arenas

Up for more challenges? Fight off waves of enemies for greater rewards!
There are currently four distinct arena layouts across the first three worlds; each pitting your skills against semi-randomized waves.

Moss

Lush moss and border plants now grow in the Grotto of Guidance, making the world feel even more alive.

Localization

We've been working on improving localization and interface across all languages. With Neon Noroshi's help, we now support Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Japanese languages.

New Publisher on PC: Indie.IO

We've recently partnered with the experts at Indie.IO, after working on the game for many years solo. We look forward to polishing and sharing the game more while working alongside them.

Other Changes Include:

• If you're a returning player, you may find a gift for you at the top left of the hub. Additionally, your XP gain is boosted by 12% for the next 10 days.
• New environmental interactions, such as bouncing/throwing around rocky beetle shells.
• The tutorial is now much more forgiving
• Added a sparkling guide and custom respawn animations to the tutorial
• Numerous optimizations
• Refinements to unlock menus across all languages.
• Adjusted startup screen to avoid the illusion of the application loading hanging on Windows.
• Fixed prerequisite text related bugs
• Giant Slimes will now only drop their item if substantially stunned or slain.
• Much more..

As always, your feedback is most welcome! Have fun!

[ 2025-03-11 15:00:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, we hope you're having a fine festive season! Here's what we've been working on:

New Unlockables

• Orbiting Energy Orbs: Once you summon these, they will circle around you, absorbing hits from small projectiles and striking opponents. The blueprint drops from certain mages.
  
• Dasher (Character Background): Replaces your dodge roll with a midair dash that knocks back and damages opponents.
  
• Two new achievements: Turret Hacker and Bowler
  
  

Dodge roll rework

• Now useable in midair
• Can evade small projectiles.

End Game Content

• Adjustments to final boss ranged attacks, immunities and friendly fire
• Ending title card added
• Caldera Core has a new challenge room before the final boss.
  

Localization

• Various related UI and alignment fixes.
• Fixes for missing phrases in boss dialog.
• Portuguese Translations (translations are currently based on the Brazilian version of Portuguese).
  

More Quality of Life Changes

• 100s of additional words of dialog for Hub NPCs.
• Silex the Scavenger can now appear in any area you've rescued another NPC from (not just Mantle's Edge).
• Minimap rework.
• Updated animated character portraits for the Wanderer and Silex.
• Blink reworked to be easier on the gamepad: Slows down time and player's momentum more, suspending you in midair until you execute the ability.
• Reworked Dodge Roll to be useable midair and dodge small projectiles.
• Various localization and text alignment fixes
• Fixed multiple missing glyphs for capital letters in Spanish and Portuguese in the main font.
• The tutorial has been updated to be more forgiving.

P.s. There will be a present in the hub from the 16th onwards.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[ 2024-12-14 15:44:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings Adventurers! Here's our first set of updates post-launch:

New Npc: Silex the Scavenger

Silex is an explorer, tinkerer, and treasure hunter who frequently gets into trouble (often getting trapped in a cell). He'll share some of his loot with you in exchange for your help.

Localization

The game now supports the following languages:

• Deutch (German)
• Espaol (Spanish)
• Franais (French)
• (Simplified Chinese)
• Italiano

NOTE: Upcoming localizations in the future

• Japanese
• Simplified Chinese
• Polish
• Korean

Other quality of life changes include

• Refinements to the tutorial.
• The early-game bosses have been rebalanced slightly for new players.
• The electrified status effect now works on the player, too (and certain end-game enemies and traps now apply it).
• Fixed a bug where chain lightning was not fully added to the loot pool once it was unlocked.
• Various UI improvements
• Additional dialog.
• And more...

As always, feedback is welcome. Have fun!

[ 2024-10-24 13:05:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=y5rXbvq40NQ;full][/previewyoutube] Greetings Adventurers! After six years of community feedback and refinement in early access, our chaotic tactical roguelike platformer is Finally Released!

Some of the Changes since leaving early access

There's too much to list here, and I don't want to spoil too much, but since the last early access update in July, the game has added

• An entire new world
• Unique NPCs, to be rescued and who can help you.
• An Epic Final Boss
• A light story
• Localization to German and Spanish (with work being underway on Simplified Chinese)
• A lot of UI polish
• Multiple gameplay refinements and new mechanics.
• New graphics and Audio
• So much more...

On Console

You can play the game on handheld devices, too. It's released on Nintendo Switch and also works great on Steam Deck. Thank you for joining us on the development journey, the game is what it is today with the community. The game will still continue to receive updates, with backing from players.

[ 2024-09-24 18:49:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings Adventurers! This update set focuses on giving you the tools to further customize your player build, amongst other features. This will likely be the final update set pre-1.0 (which will have much more content to show you in September).

Forge Menu Ovehaul

In the new menu for equipment upgrades, you can now see and select how you want to enhance your items. Do you want to freeze opponents with that sword (and fix up the slow swing speed)? How about chaining them together instead or picking two random modifiers?

Quantum Runes

When picked up, they will give you a choice between 1 of 3 perks. Bosses and Cursed Chests are guaranteed to drop at least one.

New Achievements

New Music and Sound Effects

• The Hub world now has its own music theme.
• Over 16 new sound effects.
• New level complete stinger.

New Character Upgrade

Choose a starting rune of your choice.

Game Over and Progress menu reworks

• Leveling up will grant 3 tokens instead of 2 (Warning: unlocks will become more expensive to match in the next patch).
• Reworked to give more animation juice and effects.
• Additional dialog to show last unlock.

Further quality of life enhancements

• 
  Shopkeeper NPC.
• Numerous rebalancing improvements
• Numerous UI and gameplay bug fixes
• Much more..

Have fun! We have so much more to show you in 1.0 in September (though we have to keep that content locked away for now..)

[ 2024-07-29 15:12:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Adventurers, Here are some more recent extensions We've added to the game:

Character upgrades

You can now purchase optional buffs to your player, including starting with additional supplies, healing between levels or entering with an additional rune power. These can be unlocked with resonant fragments. You can collect fragments each time you unlock gear, pets, character backgrounds or worlds with experience tokens. Veteran players who want to challenge themselves further can toggle these off at any time, in exchange for a small XP bonus. We've also made the game slightly more challenging to account for the new system.

Gamepad improvements

Players using gamepad will notice that it will now have haptic feedback on certain events. Vibrations occur on taking damage, explosive jumping or special attacks from bosses and more. After much research, we've also changed the default controls for new players, to a more intuitive layout (existing players can reset to the new defaults using Settings->Options->Controls menu).

Improved strike effects and animations

Most weapons strikes and status effects have new and improved animations when hitting a target. Additionally the filters applied on taking damage have been drastically increased.

Other Changes include

• Various optimizations to increase support for low-end pcs and console devices.
• The hunter can now also be stunned by the bright flash of destroyed lanterns or braziers.
• Reworked 2nd part of tutorial to make key mechanics clearer (e.g. picking up and throwing stunend enemies).
• Refinements to various menus, especially those related to inventory management or unlocks.
• Numerous rebalancing improvements
• Numerous bug fixes
• Some surprises..

Patch 0.126.3 (24th of June)

• Fixed issue where mouse position could rarely override the gamepad's weapon wheel selection.
• Added 12% shop cost adjustment to runeist background.
• Minor display fixes to character upgrade menu,

More to come with this update set

• More build customizations options.
• Additional strike effects

Have fun!

[ 2024-06-23 16:46:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, As We gear up for 1.0. Here are some quality of life improvements we've been working on for you in the last couple of weeks.

Powers (a.k.a. spells)

• You can now reforge them at upgrade anvils during your run; two modifiers are currently available, depending on the spell.
• Bosses drop a greater mana star to fully replenish your spell charges.
• Frost Bolt power can now generate chunks of ice when charged up; You can use these to float on liquids or throw them at opponents,

Interface

• Text appears with an outline instead of shadows.
• Text scales better with higher resolutions.
• Reworked Inventory related menu interactions (both grid and weapon wheel), for the gamepad.
• Reworked reforging functions to be much clearer.
• Reworked the unlock menu to be much clearer.
• Loading menu updated.
• The mini map is no longer obscured when pausing the game.
• Gamepad users can now see what runes they've picked up from the grid menu.

Run Generation

• Level theme distribution updated to increase variation throughout the run. Additionally, a few level themes changed to appear once per run; instead of having a chance to appear once per area.
• Dark levels now spawn with slightly more light sources; e.g. poison dart traps are replaced with flaming darts; and there is a carry-able lantern at the entrance.
• You can no longer destroy the bottom-most tiles in most levels.

Other

• Numerous bug fixes and optimizations.
• And Much More...

We plan to release Aura of Worlds in early June or late July 2024 (the latter due to other releases and Steam events happening in June).

[ 2024-04-28 15:57:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Everyone! Update set 0.123.X is out! We've been adding new content and refining/rebalancing existing game systems based on community feedback. Rather than the usual lengthy change list, we thought a trailer might be more fun to watch:

[previewyoutube=MlkmVLiQ_C8;full][/previewyoutube] Note: Everything in the trailer is in-game. Except the unlocks for the 6th world and the chain lightning ability. We also look forward to the game's full release in the next quarter!

[ 2024-03-10 20:59:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We hope you have a well-earned break and time to catch up with friends and family during the festive season. We bear gifts from the latest update - 0.121.9:

Quality of Life Enhancements

• New Portal
• Fixed visual damage effect to be much more noticeable.
• Ice Phoenix Defeat Animation
• Chakram Visual Effects
• Consumables appear much more consistently in shops.
• There is a lot of secret stuff for a subsequent update set that we can't reveal just yet.

Music

• New track for Bronze Knight
• Fixed issue with the intro version of music tracks not playing.

Christmas Tidings

• There's a new gift under the Christmas tree to the left of the starting area (even if you have claimed the one before the update)
• Aura of Worlds is now on sale with 20% off + the discount in early access.
• Festive trimmings
  
• During the festive season, all XP gained is increased by 12%!

Balance and Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue with Anchor, negating shield jumping.
• Fixed a rare solvability issue with one of the entrance templates in the Celestial Catacombs
• Rebalanced Blaze Bat
• Fixed issue with BlazeStar sometimes not being stunned on being hit by a melee attack twice
• Concealed reaction icons when not required.
• Fixed various glitches with displaying fog of war

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[ 2023-12-23 13:19:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings Adventurers! There's been quite a number of changes to make Your travels more...interesting:

Graphical Enhancements

• Gnarled Gardens: Added multiple terrain variations, sprites, and set pieces.
  
• Celestial Catacombs: Added multiple terrain variations, sprites and set pieces.
  
• Various new and reworked animations:
  
  
  
  
• Randomized Hub Worlds

Rune (perk) system rework

• You can level up most perks for stronger effects! For example:
  • Weight lifter II, allows all held objects to be weightless.
  • Vampirism II, causes defeated foes to drop more health orbs.
  • This trend applies to almost every rune type added to the game.
• Runes are now much more common and more evenly distributed across the worlds!
  

New Music

• New track for Hazard level theme (by Mat Dwyer) Here's a preview.
• Rebalanced Necromancer theme.

New enemy variant: Skeletal Archers

They may not be as fast as their crossbow-wielding brethren, but they make up for it with accuracy.

Other Balance Changes and Bug Fixes

• Faster loading times.
• Significant Optimization as we continue to port the game to Nintendo Switch.
• Projectiles fired from dying enemies can cause friendly fire.
• While the Hunter is in a temporarily weakened state, it deals less damage (based on feedback from the Cursed Chest mechanic)
• Enemy health scaling, when jumping between worlds, has been increased.
• Numerous surprises...

Upcoming Halloween Event

Be sure to drop by for some extra goodies around the 27th-31st of October!
NOTE: We will be merging other smaller updates with this announcement, so stay tuned!

[ 2023-10-22 17:02:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Greetings Adventurers! We've been remastering the early gameplay and visuals, This is in response to feedback from testers that the first area needed to be more on par with the latter areas of the game, especially regarding variety.

Grotto of Guidance, Glorified

Environment and Terrain additions

• Objects lodged in stone, double slab pieces, and transition tiles to mix things up.
• Windows - 7 variants!
• New statues, etchings and other decorative objects
• Scaffolding Towers (see below)
• Bronze blocks and shrines (rare)
• New platform types
• And more...

Other Level Generation Changes

• Liquid hazard pools merge better with rooms and are more extensive.
• Enemy distribution now draws from a much wider pool of enemies with reworked probabilities.

Tutorial update

We've updated the graphics of the 2nd tutorial to reflect the grotto's theme and have reworked parts of it to be more intuitive.
We've added more explicit instructions for players who got confused during the blink ability section toward the end.

Enemy variant - Spinner Beetle

While lacking the venom of its counterpart, the acid beetle in the gardens, living in the Grotto has given them keener senses to hunt in the shadows. If You see something fluorescent and pink glowing in the dark, that's probably its jaws, so beware!

Further Additions

Spear Combat Sharpening

With better animation:

Cursed Chests

Rarely, you'll find this guy, who will goad You into taking his contents. There are multiple interactions based on Your choices, but if You want his loot, You'll just have to reach in and bear the consequences! Accepting the challenge will net You multiple items: power runes, gold, and health, but You must endure the curse for the current level and the next..

New Spring Spike Sprites

The old design clashed in some environments, and new players generally found the old design too tame and hard to see. So we've redesigned them from scratch:

Other quality of life improvements and bug fixes

• Crossbow knockback has been buffed by 25%.
• Fixed weird one-block tall floating cave stone islands in Grotto of Guidance.
• The cast projectiles from Enthrall and Sphere of Influence Powers now move much faster.
• The hunter behaves differently on the last level of being cursed.
• More rendering optimizations.
• Numerous smaller balance changes.
• Much more

[ 2023-06-25 17:52:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Updated .Net framework used by the project from 4.5 to 4.7.1
• Multiple Optimizations from the Switch version ported over, especially with regards to:
  • Rendering
  • Object activation and deactivation.
  • Physics of background objects.
• Swapped out SpriteFontPlus libraries with FontStashSharp for updated text rendering and to enable
• New animations on destroying lanterns and creating fire brands.
• Fixed items from chests held in terrain, getting stuck in solid tiles.
• Aquatic enemy pools now have an uncommon chance to appear in the Grotto's generation again.
• Extended Spring event and fixed glitch with dynamic grass in the hub.

NOTE: We've been working on a lot more in the background; we look forward to showing You in the next update...

[ 2023-05-21 14:25:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Additional quality of life improvements

• Added start and dissolve animation to several energy projectiles
• Terrain caching has been heavily optimized, leading to faster loading times.
• Ice Phoenix fight has been updated to be more challenging:
  • She now has more intelligent target tracking during various attack phases.
  • A few of her abilities (such as summoning minions) trigger faster as the fight progresses.
• Additional level generation safeguards have been implemented.

Other Bug fixes/balance changes:

• Fixed spear shadow trail not displaying (though we have an updated animation coming later).
• Giant golden fist traps could previously push around flame throwers in the air.
• Fixed several glitches associated with recreating previously generated worlds from world property caches.
• Reduced Shotbow damage slightly.
• Removed spike pit generation from ceiling gas level theme in the Grotto.
• Enthrall projectiles are slightly faster.

Note: The price of the game will rise in the near future as we draw closer to release Have Fun & Happy Easter!

[ 2023-04-09 06:29:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Optimization in update 0.115.X

Hi folks, We've been testing the game on the Steam Deck and preparing the game for porting to Nintendo Switch. In the process, we found ways we could substantially optimize the game. For example, we noticed that the frame rate would flicker on certain devices when exploring a new part of the map and clearing away the fog of war, so we've been reworking the caching algorithm to run much faster.

Steam Deck related Improvements

• Fixed issue with screen scaling cropping off the left side of the screen.
• Controller support activates automatically on Linux
• Weapon select wheel will not show consumables tabs when there is zero quantity left (outside of tutorial)
• A much smoother experience (partly from the abovementioned optimizations).

Thank You to Flqtline and Dannz0r for sharing their experiences, screenshots, and test data for the Steam deck.

Other quality of life and balance changes

• Fixed input and texture glitch in fullscreen mode on a widescreen monitor.
• Adjusted attack patterns of Golem and fixed bug where it could re-perform the stomp attack multiple times in succession.
• Rush themes such as lava ascent, poison gas, and avalanche move slightly faster (red explosive crystals are more common during avalanches).
• Added additional lines of attack dialogue to Necromancer.
• You can now destroy flamethrower traps in Mantle's Edge with explosives.
• Ice Mage and Golems are now more resilient to damage.
• Area/run health scaling increased slightly.

Enjoy!

[ 2023-03-25 22:46:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Class of Enemies: Golems

• Different types of these can be encountered late-game, providing a new challenge to even skilled players.
• They currently have a shockwave and ranged attack, with the latter varying according to the biome that they're situated.
  

In game improvements

• New Dialogue System This currently applies to the Necromancer's attack dialogue but will be rolled out to more situations. You can also add player speech bubbles to Your screenshots with ~.
• New crate destruction animations that vary with biome.
  
  
  
• Hazard chase level themes (toxic breeze, rising lava, avalanche) now start sooner.
• Stunning and throwing explosive flyers now cause them to detonate on impact.
  
• Several more

Seasonal Bonuses

• We've been doing some redecorating for the hub world.
  
• Spring breeze also applies to the shifting winds themes of Gnarled Gardens.
• New moon variants.
  
• Check the bag at the top-left of the hub
  
• 13% in-game XP bonus.

Bug fixes Include

• Clockwork turrets (particularly ceiling variants) are now lighter.
• Fixed rare dead-end glitch with level generation.

Patch 0.114.3

• Fixed potential crash where spring version of hub would not load for Mac/Linux (due to it being uploaded to the wrong but similarly named subdirectory directory).
• Ice Golem now has its own demise animation.
• Golems drop money on death.
• Fixed visual tilesheet bug with avalanche.

Have fun!

[ 2023-03-13 10:11:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, we hope things are going wonderfully for you with the dawn of the New Lunar Year!

We have some bonuses for you during the festivities:

• You will have an extra 12% XP in each run through the rogue-lite (until the end of February)
• Check the gift at the top left of the hub (if you've previously claimed the present, it will have been refilled as of the 22nd of January).
  
• Some additional environmental background parallax refinements, most noticeably in the Hub.
  
• We've put up other themed decorations, celebrating the year of the rabbit.
  
  
  
• The game is currently on sale by 20% (in addition to the Early Access discount).
  

Additional patches and updates

• Some additional sprite and visual enhancement work.
• Further testing and integration work to improve the experience for Steam Deck players.
• Some more behind-the-scenes work to refactor and reorganize the code base to streamline updates.
• Here's a preview of an upcoming opponent...
  
• We will be merging some more updates and patches with this announcement, so watch this space...

We wish you a prosperous and peaceful new year ahead! !

[ 2023-01-23 05:13:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We hope you're getting a well-earned break and time to catch up with friends and family during the festive season. We have some gifts for you with the latest update - 0.112.X:

Seasonal Tidings

• Aura of Worlds is now on sale with 20% off + the discount in early access.
• Let it snow !
  
• There's a new gift under the Christmas tree to the left of the starting area (even if you have claimed the previous three)
• During the festive season, all XP gained is increased by 12%!

Quality of Life Enhancements

Include...

• Improvement to Steam Deck support: We've been making changes to the game to better support the device. One of which has been making the game start in full-screen by default.
• We've been adding more ice decorations to Cold Crust Caverns, with more to come
  
• Spin Turtles continue to spin with low friction when stunned and thrown, allowing you to bowl opponents away.
  
• New item pickup animation:
  

[ 2022-12-21 15:44:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, the game is currently participating in the Steam Autumn sale, and we have some bonuses for you!

Seasonal Bonuses

• We've been doing some redecorating (as above)
• Check the bag at the top-left of the hub
  
• In-game XP is increased by 12%
• The game is discounted by 20% on top of the Early Access discount.

In game improvements with Patch 0.111.0

• Various optimizations: including a memory spike with sliding ice hitting a wall on a jump-through platform.
• Shortened the Gold fist's detection range.
• The energy orbs fired from gilded serpents; start with a slow velocity before accelerating.
  
• Reforging an item now pauses the screen on Moderate and Easy difficulties.
• Improved Candle Animations
  
• Minor enhancements to Mantle's Edge Parallax
• Decorative gargoyle statues for Mantle's Edge
  

Some other things we've been working on but can't show you yet

• Some more groundwork for the localization system.
• A new bulky opponent.
• Much more

This update isn't quite as large as our regular updates, as we've had to focus more on the admin side of gamedev and porting to Nintendo Switch this month. Have fun!

[ 2022-11-24 14:09:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Halloween, folks! We've got some seasonal bonuses and permanent additions to the game for you!

Seasonal spooky event

With some specials for Steam Scream Fest and beyond

• The game is currently on sale by 20% off, the already heavily discounted (early access) price.
• Check for a gift bag of Goodies at the top left of the Hub. We have a surprise there for you...:
  
• We've been doing a bit of Hub redecorating to get into the spirit.
  
• All XP you gain in-game increases by 12% during Halloween (and up to the 6th of November). You'll need it because:
• Undead enemies rise more frequently during this season!
  

New Opponent: Jack O' Hoppers

Seasonal Slime substitute A specific species of slime use pumpkins as protective mobile homes and is even more territorial than their blue and purple cousins. They have a high chance of appearing during Halloween; when they see you, they will light up and can track you more accurately through the dark.

New Music

We have an overhauled theme for the Necromancer boss; check it out! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mO71uH5ydp1T1olcMiCJXcSZcxB4pYWV/view?usp=sharing

Other New Graphics

• Added multiple vase variants to Mantle's Edge
  
• Added a new randomized parallax layer to Mantle's Edge
  

Other Improvements/Bug Hunting

• Certain enchanted enemies are more likely to appear during this season to...
  
• Arrows fired from Skeletal/Ashen rangers are now stopped by vases, encouraging you to use environmental counters more.
• Fixed bug where a blocked dagger throw; would also throw the player backward.
• Possessed crates can now rise and attack from liquids t0o.
• The skeletons that the Necromancer spawns are a bit weaker, taking into account the Celestial Catacomb's location within the progression.
• Much more...

We hope this season serves up a treat!

[ 2022-10-30 04:20:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Far below the crust caverns and past the thawing lake; lies a world of ritual and fire. It's a biome where supernatural and elemental creatures intermingle with ancient architecture and engineering marvels. The ancients here built shrines around a chasm to maintain balance and appease powerful beings above and below. They viewed Cold Crust Caverns as a place of preservation, with this place as the realm's fiery forge. Gold is much more abundant here, but so are the perils.
The Edge of the Mantle Area marks the 5th biome added to our game and a milestone toward the game's Full Release in 2023.

New Enemies and Traps include

(but are not limited to)

• Giant Golden Fists: The ancients designed these to pulverize intruders, though, with some planning and quick thinking, you might be able to use a few to your advantage...
• Dragon Turrets
• Blaze Stars
• Gilded Serpents
• Ashen Warriors
• +Multiple others, including some surprises...
  

Sword and Dagger Combat rework:

Slashes now use a traditionally animated arc instead of a rotating hitbox; with a much broader reach and effect. This extends to all swords and dagger weapons (except the bronze knife).

New Graphical Polish:

We've added improved unique animations to the game for multiple actions. These include

• item collection
• objects breaking
• opponents getting destroyed and more...

While reworking a sub-image algorithm we also fixed occasional render offset issues with parallax backgrounds and all cave-related terrain.

Item Modifiers:

• All items found during a run have a much higher chance of receiving positive and negative modifiers that affect their utility.
• Items found mid-game are guaranteed to have positive traits added, with more modifiers added in late-game areas (community)
• New Item Modifier - Chaining: Similar to a lighter version of the Sphere of Influence ability, what affects one opponent in the chain will affect the others. Handy for Crowd Control!
  

Other Balance Changes/Bug Fixes:

• The Colossal Worm boss fight has been considerably buff. It now moves/attacks more aggressively and faster, particularly as its health decreases.
• Most other bosses have had (more modest) buffs applied to their attacks and stats.
• Improved level generation in the temple by cleaning up the generation of climbable nets and moving platforms.
• Fixed background pedestals not being generated in the Grotto of Guidance's generation.
• Multiple other improvements.

New Music Track:

For the new area https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yvZQdB94sHxyBpq-90-c3xly_VSU3Gia/view

A note regarding price

Even without the Steam sales factor, we've heavily discounted the game discounted during early access. The project has been extended and polished with community feedback to evolve into quite a different game since early access started in mid-2018. You can see the list of update sets on the news page: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/841600 As such, the game will increase slightly in price this year to help us continue adding extra content to the game for you as we approach full release. NOTE: We're still adding images to the announcement Thanks for reading/playing, and have a Wonderful Week ahead!

[ 2022-09-18 15:52:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

World Generation:

• Fixed several uncommon creation glitches with hazard pits.
• Adjusted decorative tiles at the very top and bottom of the level.
• Reverted temple lava back to its original sprite based on player feedback and optimized its animation.

The Hunter:

• Increased Time limit before the hunter appears on Normal (especially in latter levels and according to the biome), but reduced the time on Hard difficulty. We still encourage players to engage the hunter head-on when it is advantageous to do so (e.g. bouncing off it's head or redirecting it to hit enemies), but also want to encourage more exploration/experimentation early on. More details about the time changes here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/841600/discussions/0/6021892758155021421/
• Hunter's charge attack rate starts of slower but increases to an even faster pace more gradually over time.
• Stays stunned for longer after being hit by an explosive
  

Other:

• Fixed bug with how an attacking possessed crate, bobbed up and down on jump-through platforms.
• Updated game hints.
• Updated cloud projectile physics (e.g. sap of weakness, frost phoenix ice breath and an upcoming trap for Mantle's Edge)
• Buffed bronze knight shield bash slightly.
• Adjustment to shield section of the tutorial.

[ 2022-07-17 15:41:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Folks, Here are some of the most recent updates we've been working on by category:

New Hazards and Opponents

Freeze burst

These icy mines spray large freezing shards in all directions (potentially knocking out unlucky nearby enemies too).

Flower of Fierce Frost

More intelligent and reserved than the former. Don't let its decorative disguise fool you; once the intruder is in striking range, it will track them down to land a few deadly petals.

Clockwork Turrets

Comes in tripod and ceiling varieties. We figured a Steampunk automation shooting charged gears matched the theme of the earlier areas more than futuristic metal.
They're less damage-spongy and easier to hack but still pack quite a punch! Here's what they look if you turn them friendly:
For comparison here's the old more futuristic sprite (we may use this in a latter area after some adjustments).

Adjustments to other enemies and traps

• All skeletal snake species drop throwable skulls on defeat.
  
  
• Fixed glowing eye sprites for skeletal snakes.
• Ice Phoenix now fires much more radial projectiles when enraged.
• New lava texture.
• Fixed issue with rising lava tide getting drawn behind lava pools.
• More enemy types drop money on defeat.
• All slimes have demise animations!
  
  
  

Status effect reworks

You can apply upgrades to your gear can be applied at an Anvil. Some of these had a chance status effect modifiers to weapon strikes based on the damage output and consecutive hits.
While this worked, it still felt too random for some of the effects. Particularly in a game where you can plan your approach to every situation. So now modifiers of poison, flame, and sapping (armor break) aspects are all guaranteed to apply a lighter version of the status effect with every weapon hit over a more extended period. If you chain enough strikes together, you can stack them.

Item buffs

• Daggers are now much faster to recover after hitting a target,
• Field of slowing has a larger radius and duration, even if you don't fully charge the spell.
• Sap spray applies armor break (sapping) for much longer with a more fluid projectile.
• The guaranteed health potion chest on most levels; will now always give you money. Additionally, if you can't carry more health potions, it will drop a few life orbs and an additional small item (usually an emergency teleport or grenade) instead.
• Fixed up chances of shotbow and orb of stunning appearing in chests once unlocked.

Level Generation

• Overhauled slope generation in cavern-like areas (Grotto of Guidance, Cold Crust Caverns, and the upcoming Mantle's Edge biome).
• Level exits and entrances are more consistent according to the area.
• Increased variation of hazard pits.
• A slightly more even distribution of enemies, item drops, and traps.
• Various fixes to rare dead-end situations.
• Improved traceability.

Other balance changes and bug fixes

• Fixed disproportional chance weighting of ranged weapons to proc with status effect modifiers.
• Fixed issue with rebind dodge roll mode not being saved on quitting the game.
• Fixed rare music silencing bug.
• Patched some visual changes with the blink ability.
• Reworked the second level of the tutorial to be more friendly and intuitive.
• Drastically increased chances of shotbow and orb of stunning appearing in starting gear and shop selection once unlocked.
• Accelerator platforms will no longer get stuck if just beneath a jump-through platform.
• Jumping through platforms and objects is now more consistent and less sticky.
• Multiple other improvements.

Upcoming Biome: Mantle's Edge

Sorry for having to tease this a bit longer. We're taking some more time on this one because we want to deliver a more polished and challenging experience with the 5th biome (avoiding the temptation of rehashing previous areas). Without giving to much away, here are some development snapshots from last month, May:

Thanks, everyone! The community's advice and suggestions have been essential for refining the game! We hope that you enjoy the updates and keep well!

[ 2022-06-29 17:57:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, Here are some of the new updates we've been working on:

New Enemies

Cursed Tomes

These books were enchanted to bring the story of intruders to an abrupt end with a variety of melee and ranged attacks. You can find them in the Celestial Catacombs (renamed from the Celestial Temple), with a few in the far corners of Cold Crust Caverns, where they will test the skill of even the most experienced adventurers.

Possessed Crates

Who said spirits could only inhabit vases? These will similarly lunge at their player after levitating to a certain height (albeit with a rush of gravity); however, due to their durability they can provide you with various uses with some lateral thinking.

..

Oversized Mushrooms

Okay, these aren't actually opponents, but they have several applications when encountered in the Grotto, including as an jump boost pad and throw-able object.

Better Level Generation

Hazard Pits v2

Filled with spikes, lava, spring traps, or briars to give a bit more edge to your adventures. In the past these were barely noticeable, small, and prone to occasional glitches. We've drastically reworked them to grow with the terrain and become more expansive with carefully placed platforms.

Improved Level Themes

• Dark levels properly dim the ambient lighting as time progresses
• Avalanche levels have increased speed.
• Flooded levels have now been given multiple enhancements and safeguards for their generation. They can occur in the gardens rather than the catacombs, with the former being more likely.
  

Other

• High-level enemies can now spawn earlier on hard mode, while futuristic opponents are less likely to appear in earlier worlds.
• Improved jump through platform supports.
• Much more.

Additional Improvements/changes

• If you have to quit the game mid-run (through the Pause menu), you will still gain the XP.
• The cost of all in-game items has increased (though items you've unlocked you would have obtained at a discount), added early player rewards to ease players in.
• Added option for changing dodge roll configurations (tapping a given button/ducking while running or a mixture of both).
• Nerfed orb mage projectile speed.
• Now, all mages and cursed tomes drop a few health orbs on defeat.
• Added controller/mouse prompts to all inventory hot slots.
• Sphere of Influencing/chaining status effects last over 3 times longer.
• Fixed greyscale effect on having no tokens/locked world areas.
• Updated Shotbow/arrow graphics.
  
  
• Fixed bug where forging an item would sometimes drop the item from the inventory.
• Added per forge cap for upgrading items. Once an item receives two modifiers from a single reforge, every forge thereafter will only give one modifier, encouraging the use of other items.
• The Celestial Temple was renamed to The Celestial Catacombs. The new name more closely matches the inhabitants of the area, and there's a lore reason for this which we'll get to in a future update.
• Fixed bugs with the glowing eyes of skeletal snakes and phase bats.
• Numerous bug fixes and other balance changes.

Patch 0.104.23.X

Note from glider521al: Sorry, I just found that I put a reference to a local machine folder in the program's startup code and that caused a crash for some players. I've since fixed my mistake and reuploaded. Also readjusted shotbow animation.

Upcoming World Area: Mantle's Edge

We've been working on the next major biome for the game for a while. Without spoiling too much, here's some concept art/tiles to get into the spirit of things.

Thanks, everyone! We hope that you enjoy the updates and keep well during these unusual times!

[ 2022-04-03 16:04:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, we hope things are going wonderfully for you with the dawn of the new year!

We have some bonuses for you during the festivities:

• You will have an extra 12% XP in each run through the rogue-lite (until the end of February)
• Check the gift + Fireworks on the left side of the Hub (even if you've already claimed the former, it will be refilled by the 1st of February when Lunar New Year officially starts for most cultures).
  
• We've put up themed decorations:
  
  
  
• Aura of Worlds is now 20% off for Steam's Lunar New year sale (in addition to the heavy early access discount).

New Items:

With a new year comes new tools to play with!

Shotbow

This weapon trades accuracy for crowd control and a few more points against larger opponents. I.e., it fires three arrows at once!

Repeater

The weapon fires very rapidly in exchange for accuracy and range. Here's introducing a crystal serpent to its recently defeated cousin...

Stunning Orb

A spell that goes through walls knocking out opponents at a distance.

Inventory Management Updated:

Ever wanted to wield a shield, grapple, and crossbow simultaneously without having to press too many buttons? Now you can. We've noticed when watching people play that many players stick to using a couple of ability items for most of the run (leaving much of the inventory to gather dust). We want to encourage more multitasking between abilities as various interactions exist between the tools simultaneously. There used to be a row of quick-swap slots, but many found these awkward to use and would often forget about them during the heat of the moment. As such, we're replacing the quick swap row with another active offhand slot (Default bindings with Mouse and on an Xbox Gamepad). We've also updated all related inventory systems; for example, smart-swapping will prioritize mobility items and non-directional powers to the new offhand slot by default.

Miscellaneous:

• Buffed Recurve Bow and Chakram.
• Fixed parallax stuttering edge cases.
• Multiple other balance changes
• Fixed visual glitch with spear thrust attacks causing the player's hands to disconnect with the weapon.
• Much more...

A note regarding price

Even without the Steam sales factor, we've heavily discounted the game discounted during early access. The game has been extended and polished with community feedback to become quite a different experience each year in early access. You can see the list of update sets on the news page: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/841600 As such, the game will increase in price later on, to help us add extra content to the game for you as we approach full release.

! We wish you all the best for the year of the Tiger !

[ 2022-01-28 16:26:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, We hope you're getting a well-earned break and time to catch up with friends and family during the festive season. We have some gifts for you in the latest patch:

General Updates

• There's a new gift under the Christmas tree to the left of the starting area (even if you have claimed the previous two)
• Let it snow !
• During the festive season, all XP gained is increased by 15%!
• Possessed vases now have animations that telegraph their locations much more clearly.
• Hovering over a perk icon will show its description tooltip (no more having to memorize)!
• New Explosion animations.
• New achievement:
  

Balance changes/bug fixes

• Fixed bug where boss entrance door for Ice Phoenix would not always spawn with the correct graphic.
  
• Launching a bolt from the crossbow will lower any held shield for a split second (had to reduce the cheese based on feedback).
• Fixed rare crash with second last level in Cold Crust Caverns.
• Fixed an uncommon bug where the shop would sell an extra item of equipment you already had.
• Necromancer has slightly more health.
• Recurve Charge bow: damage, crit chance, and knockback increased.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

[ 2021-12-22 12:11:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Everyone! Update set 0.100.X is our greatest update for the game yet. We've been adding a lot of new content and refining/rebalancing existing game systems based on community feedback. Rather than the usual lengthy change list, we thought a trailer might be more fun to watch:

[previewyoutube=f1DzswMsuvk;full][/previewyoutube] The video also highlights a few changes from the most recent updates that we couldn't show earlier. Thanks for watching/playing, have a wonderful week ahead!

[ 2021-10-25 05:42:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Here are some of the new updates we've been working on

New Boss: Grand Luminous Slime

This one serves as an alternative boss in the Grotto of Guidance area. It might look slightly smaller than the other bosses, but don't let that fool you. It's agile, deadly, and adaptable, with six different attacks.
Unlike the knight, it can't block damage from the player and is closer to a more traditional boss battle focused on pattern matching, dodging, and striking. However, throwing the environment around during this fight will give you an edge.

New Enemies Include:

Stone Stars:

These serve as a less aggressive and easier enemy to replace Slice Stars in the first area; they mostly bounce around the stage. It's tricky, but with careful positioning, you can stun then grab, and throw them at high speeds to take out more powerful opponents.
Similar methods work for utilizing their more intelligent counterparts in later areas as well.

Poison Pitchers:

These pesky plants grow on the odd wall of the Gnarled Gardens, throwing spheres of poisonous pollen gas.

New Items

Gooey Adhesive:

Allows you to stick explosives to almost everything, including opponents and terrain.

Orb of Poison:

Shoots a bouncing ball of venom that will explode into a shower of poisonous shots when destroyed.

Graphics updates:

• Over 20 new sprites and animations.
• New randomized parallax for Ice World.
  

Balance Changes and Bug fixes.

• We wanted to focus more on easing new players into the game with this update.
• Grabbing a stunned enemy now adds to the stun timer to allow you to be more accurate with your throwing.
• This included making the Grotto of Guidance easier while still being consistent with the challenge aspect throughout the game:
  • Nerfed max enemy spawn cap for individual rooms.
  • Power orbs fire slower with fewer shots in the first area.
  • Slice Stars mostly replaced with Stone Stars.
• Various traps have been adjusted:
  • Flaming repeater dart traps have reduced projectile speed and fire rate.
  • Trigger Crossbow projectiles more slower, allowing you to rush past them with the right positioning (instead of having to temporarily disarm them each time).
  • Stalactite and rock traps now show the hit path below even if positioned on the screen.
  • Fire Brands from exploding lanterns/torches have reduced speed early on.

Numerous other improvements including adjustments to enemy health and damage outputs.

Follow up note regarding upcoming price change

Even without the Steam sales factor, we've heavily discounted the game discounted during early access. The game has been extended and polished with community feedback to become quite a different experience since mid-2018. You can see the list of update sets on the news page: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/841600 We have continued to cover ongoing development costs with savings far more than sales. As such, the game will increase in price (as mentioned back in February) later this month to help us continue adding extra content to the game for you as we approach full release. This won't affect players who have already purchased the game. Thanks, everyone! We hope that you enjoy the updates and keep well during these unusual times!

[ 2021-08-15 17:15:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, Here are some of the changes for the update:

Level Generation

• Updated algorithm for an increased variety of rooms in the: Grotto, Temple, and Ice worlds.
  
• Introduced faster and more thorough failsafes for path generation.
• Reduced passageway bottlenecks

Enthral Ability Rework

• Opponents are enthralled for longer and are more durable in that state.
• Holding down the ability button charges up an enthral bolt. If it hits an existing ally, it will refresh the timer.
• Tapping the ability button will teleport any thralled allies to a given location (and they will attack anything the bolt hits).
  

Audio

• Some new sound effects.
• 3rd alternative music theme for Grotto of Guidance

Graphics

• Additional scenery for Cold Crust Caverns:
  
• Posturized lighting effects.
• Fixed glitch with left/right wall hanging objects not spawning.
  
  
• Added trail effect for Icer Flyer attacks
  
• Added new jump through platforms for Grotto of Guidance.
  

Balance Changes

• Decreased enemy spawn rate in the first world.
• Spin turtles can no longer reach ridiculous speeds.
• Added aiming cursor for the controller and made it more obvious when manually overriding aiming lock.
• Multiple other adjustments
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed switch to fullscreen mode offsetting screen to menu coordinates.
• Fixed rare occurrence of passageway blocked by terrain.
• Fixed issue where Snowhares were still invulnerable to most attacks after they had emerged.
• Several other smaller bugs

[ 2021-05-31 16:41:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, we hope things are going well for you during the festive period and beyond!

We have some bonuses for you during the festivities:

• You will have an extra 12% XP in each run through the rogue-lite (until the end of February)
• There's another gift for you + Fireworks on the left side of the Hub.
  With some decorations drawing inspiration from Chinese New Year culture.
  
  
• Aura of Worlds is now 10% off for Steam's Lunar New year sale (in addition to the original heavy early access discount).

Level generation improvements:

• More scenic objects:
  
  
  
• Revised one of the recurring templates for procedural generation to add more variety
• Some refinements to 7 hand made templates for the garden/temple area.
• Added biome-specific jump through platforms and supports to the generator for the temple, gardens, and ice world.

A.I. improvements include:

• Humanoids navigate the terrain better on windy levels.
• Held enemy drones will fire indiscriminately at anything in front of them when held by the player (useful for an improvised weapon)
  
  
  
• The Ice mage now telegraphs which projectile it's going to use. Both of which have updated graphics:
  
  

Miscellaneous:

• Significant optimization of the particle system to allow for better accessibility to lower-end computers
• Fixed a rare memory leak regarding accelerator platforms in the ice world.
• Fixed an uncommon bug; where early game achievements would not unlock for new players. Sorry about that; they should unlock the next time you launch the game (while online with Steam overlay).
• More sound effects.
• Multiple balance changes
• Much more...

A note regarding price

Even without the Steam sales factor, we've heavily discounted the game discounted during early access. The game has been extended and polished with community feedback to become quite a different experience since mid-2018. You can see the list of update sets on the news page: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/841600 As such, the game may increase in price later this year to help us to continue to add extra content to the game for you as we approach full release.

! We wish you all the best for the year of the Ox !

[ 2021-02-14 12:58:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! We hope your feeling refreshed for 2021! We have some more content for you!

New Opponents

Snow Hare

It may look cute and coy, but they are quite territorial and aggressive (with half their world destroyed or warped since by the cataclysm. who can blame them)? Unlike most enemies, they'll try to remain burrowed undercover, keeping their distance to strike at range.

Ice Mage

Even though they've been asleep long in cryrgenic suspension, it won't take much to awaken these undead liches. They will zealously defend the remains of their frozen fortification. They employ phasing and an array of guided ranged magic to strike down intruders from all sides.

New Level Themes

Shifting Winds

It applies to the Gardens to...

Avalanche

New Year Bonuses

• There's a present for you on the left side of the Hub:
  
• All XP that you gain in game is increased by 12% during this time
• Fireworks!

(This will run From New Years Day till the end of Chinese New Year)

Other Changes

You can now hide in deep snow

Accelerator Platforms

These replace rail-bound platforms in Cold Crust Caverns.

World Tracing System

The game now keeps track of seeds and other key values (e.g. biome, level themes) of previously generated levels; in the [Steamapps/common/AuraOfWorlds]data/PastWorldCache folder. Allowing us to reconstruct past procedural levels with a high level of accuracy. This will allow us to hunt down any edge case anomalies with greater accuracy instead of simply relying on the log file.

Bug Fixes/Balance Changes

• Offscreen chandelier traps are better telegraphed.
• Fixed bug where Enduring and Resourceful achievements would not trigger unless 4 worlds were completed during a run (instead of 3)
• Improved Telegraphing of ranged cryogenic spikes from this guy:
  
• Fixed bug with warning flavour text for level themes sometimes being hidden.
• Fixed glitch where the unlock menu would not draw the number of tokens properly.
• Fixed glitch where grenades didn't flash when the fuse was about to blow
• Button mashing leads to breaking out of ice faster

We wish you all the best for 2021!

[ 2021-01-17 14:44:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, We hope you're keeping well during the festive season! We are finally making the 4th area of the game available to play:

Cold Crust Caverns

Large open icy mountainous caves become intertwined with frigid ruins and shrines. What could possibly go awry in this wintery paradise?

Currently Featuring:

• New ways to wield the environment!

  
  Things like exploding crystals and re-settable mechanisms present more opportunities to turn the tables on adversity (with more on the way)
  

• Ice, snow, cold stone, and crystal

  
  each with their unique properties, to make traversing the terrain more engaging and challenging.
  

• Active development:

  
  
  The area, while incomplete, has been thoroughly tested to be enjoyable to play. We plan on adding some more hazards, environmental quirks, some unique level themes, and a new boss going forward.

• New Music

  
  Here's a short sample of an older version (note only 30 seconds of a much larger composition looped): https://twitter.com/maskedsound/status/1210627326729428993

• Ten New Enemies & Traps

  
  
  Opponents will team up against you in larger groups than usual, each with unique attack patterns. A few of them can inflict debilitating frost (though there are ways to break out of this quickly)
  
  

• And Much More...

  
  

Festive Rewards :

• New achievement
  
• A few surprises coming this December...

Balance Changes Include:

• Various bug fixes
  
• Rearranged world select shortcut menu so you can choose what path you take from mid and late-game areas.
• Player Damage and knockback buffed slightly.
• Level layout enhancements
• Implemented additional ways for the player to break out of ice; +prevented stun-lock situations involving the frozen debuff.

We wish you a well-earned rest at the end of this tough year. Happy Hanukkah ! Happy Kwanzaa! Merry Christmas !

[ 2020-12-21 16:54:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! We hope things are going well for you in the lead-up to the festive season. We've just rolled out a patch which:

• Fixes two rare dead-end bugs with the level generator.
• Reduces superfluous ladders and other terrain pieces of ascension (e.g., moving platforms right next to each other, moving in parallel). Thus, encouraging a bit more planning in navigating each level and cleaning up the visuals.
• Tiled structural rooms are now more extensive and more common in the Grotto of Guidance.

What's Next?

We're looking forward to finally make the ice world available within the next 1.5 months (without giving too much away, here's a thumbnail teaser):

[ 2020-12-05 12:39:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, We hope you're doing well during these unusual times.

Level Generation

We've been finding ways to drastically improve this through several methods. Such includes:

• The path to the exit branches more, further moving away from the predictable zig-zag path.
  
• Levels have grown, with more seamless connections between segments.
• Rooms no longer need to be locked to grid cells, allowing for more fluid layouts.
  
• Several of the dynamic template types have had their creation patterns rewritten.
  
• Fixed various bugs with inaccessible rooms generating the past.

Gameplay Improvements

Some people who are already quite familiar with roguelites/roguelikes have asked for additional challenge. We want to accommodate this while still allowing the game to be accessible for people who are a bit more new (e.g., having an Easy mode option). Multiple changes address such points (especially with regards to making higher difficulty modes more challenging):

• On higher difficulty modes, player damage and defense has been reduced. This is largely done to balance out the systems of dodging, luck, critical hits, and status modifiers, which made the game significantly easier.
• Health potions have had their potency reduced slightly. We changed this because of how numerous they are within the game. We saw some players had too many leftovers. Keeping your supply up, and discovering other healing methods, provide more reasons to explore the new levels a bit more!
• You've demonstrated how powerful the Chakram could be in the right hands, so much so that it was preferable to all primary weapons. As a result, we've had to nerf its range and speed. It's still quite an effective weapon, but the change should encourage experimentation with other weapon types.
• Certain hazards like lava, spikes, and a few monster attacks have had their damage increased. Such may sound brutal, but remember it can work to your advantage too.
• The Necromancer and Giant Worm have both been extended to be more exciting and less exploitable. For example:
  • Players will no longer be able to freeze lock most of the fight away.
  • The Necromancer is not as vulnerable when healing and will be summoned with fewer crystals destroyed.
  • The Giant Worm has undergone improvements to all its maneuvers and will become increasingly aggressive as it takes damage.
• There are some changes which make things easier, to encourage exploration more. For example:
  • Certain environmental weaknesses have been extended (e.g., some status effects on the Giant Worm).
  • Fewer enemies are spawned on the generation of a boss level.
• Bezoar has a chance to transfer poison enemies (as well as increasing your own resistance).

A special Thanks to all the testers on the Alpha branch Thanks for reading/playing, and have a Wonderful Week ahead!

[ 2020-11-21 15:51:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! We hope you're keeping well during these strange times! We've been working multiple new quality of life and functional changes, not all of which are 100% stable (we won't spoil them until the update is fully released). We've uploaded said changes to the alpha branch, for To access the branch please navigate to: Steam Client->Right Click Aura of Worlds->Properties->Betas tab->Select Alpha from the Dropdown list.

"What's in it for me for reporting on the builds early?"

• Progress carries over into the main branch.
• Our heartfelt thanks.
• The advantage of playing with the new features and mechanics before next major update.
• The gratitude of an awesome community.

The update is almost complete, and we estimate properly releasing within seven days. Have a Wonderful Week ahead!

[ 2020-11-15 21:24:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, Here's a breakdown of the update:

Better level generation:

• Floating structures
  
• New room layout rules.
  

Upgrade forges:

• Are now guaranteed to spawn once per world.
• Knockback modifiers can now apply to ranged weapons.
• New momentum modifier for ranged weapons.

Combat:

• First melee strikes now (briefly) stun most enemies, disrupting their attacks (2.5 second recharge).
  
  
• Lowered average melee damage slightly & added a fractional slow down on hit to balance this.
• Updates to ranged weapons (as above)
• Chakram range and speed nerfed.
• We've enhanced the slash animation for melee weapons from this:
  To this:
  NOTE: If you'd like to swap between them, go to Pause>Other Option->Melee Slash Style.

Shops:

• Increased range of items offered,
• Shops can now sell modified items (i.e., upgrades and flaws are randomly applied)
• locked items have a scarce chance of appearing
• Fixed text overflow bug with U.I.

Other:

• Various optimizations and U.I. bug fixes.
• Luck status effect from opening all chests in the level now shows correctly.

Hot fix 14th of August:

Fixed new level generation from becoming blocked.

Feedback is welcome!

Especially through the forums or on [url=https://discord.gg/qN9J5f4]Discord: https://discord.gg/qN9J5f4 Thanks, everyone! Have a wonderful week ahead!

[ 2020-09-13 17:21:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, A key focus of this update is making equipment much more satisfying to loot and use.

Upgrade Forges

These stations provide you with a way to adds modifiers to your equipment. You can upgrade your equipment multiple times during a run, but only once per forge. Forges allow you to upgrade 2-3 items at a time, to encourage you to experiment with more tools.

Item Modifiers:

These change how your gear behaves: from piercing arrows to recharging shield gauntlets. Or occasionally freezing enemies to sending enemies flying! Modifiers can be applied to any of your items (except consumables and powers). Feel free to experiment with over 16 of them across more than a dozen items!

Altars and Treasure Updates:

An altar will generate several items that you'll need to choose between. This may be equipment items or runes you don't have yet or consumables. There are well over 40 possible items!
In the past, most items would not spawn in game until you had unlocked it as starter equipment. We realize this was a mistake, as it prevented players from experiencing a core part of the game until much later. To remedy this locked items still have a chance to spawn in altars and chests, (just at 1/10th of their regular probability if locked) To make things more interesting, equipment that you loot from the world (e.g. altars and large chests) will usually have random modifiers attached to them (not all of them positive).

New Potions:

Potion of luck: Increases your luck by a substantial period of time (see below)
Flask of Frost: Freezes any enemy that you attack! Just be wary of the temporary resistance to ice after thawing.

Luck
:

May the odds be ever in your favor! Luck increases the chance of good things happening while fighting, forging and other activities. It's always possible to win the game with good skill and poor luck, however it pays to have an edge. Some of the affects that luck has includes:

• Discounts at stores.
• Dodging an attack (despite it touching you)
• The chance of getting more then one positive item modifier upon upgrading.
• Amount of money dropped by enemies.
• and more...!

Dodging and critical hits

There is now a chance to dodge attacks (despite them touching you) and a chance to deal much more damage to the opponent. Factors such as luck, acrobatics, runes and equipment modifiers all affect this.

More Graphics Changes:

• New unlock menus
  
• Each area has it's own water colors.
• Status effects time is now display with a darkened image meter:
  

Other changes:

• Orb mage retreats slower and projectiles can't damage you before their launched.
• Bosses marginal increase in health due to the modifiers making things easier.
• Easy mode XP percentage increased from 70% to 80%
• Fixed bug with mouse/cursor lock would crash the game.
• Fixed various glitches with help prompt displays.
• Foxed bug with
• Various improvements and fixes to the inventory menu,.

Feedback is welcome, especially through the forums or on [url=https://discord.gg/qN9J5f4]Discord: https://discord.gg/qN9J5f4 Thanks everyone! We hope that you enjoy the updates and keep well during these strange times!

[ 2020-08-16 18:20:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

New (& experimental) features

We're trialing a plethora of new features on the alpha branch. So what are the changes...they're a secret. We won't spoil what they are before the update's full release. Though one addition is a system for upgrading your gear during a run! To access the branch please navigate to: Steam Client->Right Click Aura of Worlds->Properties->Betas tab->Select Alpha from the Dropdown list.

"What's in it for me for reporting on the builds early?"

• An in-game XP bonus for testing before the next major update (to be applied after said event).
• Progress caries over into the main branch.
• The advantage of playing with the new features and mechanics before next major update.
• Our heartfelt thanks.
• The gratitude of an awesome community.

Is it stable?

The latest builds been tested for hours, and it's about as stable as the previous update set in May (alright...more like 90%). Let us know if we missed anything! Please report all issues in the Issues and any complications to this forum: https://steamcommunity.com/app/841600/discussions/1/ Have an awesome week ahead!

[ 2020-08-09 16:29:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, Weve been enhancing the engine and adding support for Mac and Linux. Making the game available to people on different platforms has always been a critical goal with this project. We are thrilled to finally provide stable builds on each platform. Anyone playing the game on Mac or Linux before the 9th of May will receive an in-game XP bonus after the event.

Engine work

Lowering the specs required to run the game (though it may not run on a ):

• The game uses significantly less memory than its predecessor.
• The Direct X build is now stable and will run better on older machines than OpenGL.
• Resources are pre-compiled to a pipeline for faster loading time at initialization.

New Music

Since we last spoke about music we've added several tracks, courtesy of the talented Mat Dwyer. Here's a preview for you to enjoy in the first few days of the announcement.

• Tutorial:
  • Variant 1
  • Variant 2
• The Gnarled Gardens area finally has its own track.

Known System Requirements

Mac:

• 64 Bit Operating System
• Mac OS X 10.7-10.14 (WARNING: will not run on Catalina by default, unless special permissions are set to run un-notarized apps).
• Mono Framework 6.5 or higher.
• 1.5 GB RAM

Linux:

• 64 Bit Operating System
• 1.5 GB RAM
• Ubuntu 16 or higher (may potentially work with Steam OS)
• Mono Framework 5.8 or higher.

A huge thanks to our first port testers:

• Jessica Turner (pixel artist)
• Maskedsound
• Andrew Magee
• Volnes
• Awesome players like you

Other changes

• Lighting changed to 2x2 pixel coarseness for better consistency with game's aesthetic.
• When using the controller, timed shield blocks reflect projectiles in the direction of impact by default. Precision aiming is still available with the right analog stick.
• Additional tweaks to enemy and trap spawning.
• Pools of aquatic enemies in the gardens are more manageable.
• Enthrall power now lasts twice as long (longer when charged up), allowing you to make more use of your temporary allies. Opponents are briefly stunned when the effect ends.
• Fixed bug with missing sound effects on the Direct X build.
• Fixed bug with the sphere of influence having an opaque graphic.
• Spear traps are more obvious, and their occurrence in the gardens is much rarer.
• Stalactites have a longer telegraph time with the audio warning playing much earlier. Additionally, there are visual queues for when it's about to fall from off-screen.
• Lantern and brazier traps are more clearly telegraphed.

Letting your voice be heard:

As always, feel free to discuss you'd like to see/any issues through the forums, there are several great community members there who are willing to help. Additionally, we've just started a Discord server, for those who interested in real-time discussions for the game: https://discord.gg/qN9J5f4 Thank you and have a wonderful month ahead!

[ 2020-05-02 16:23:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Making the game accessible to people on different platforms has always been a key goal with this project. We are looking to get this right, and so invite players with Mac/Linux computers to try out the game on a different platform. NOTE: If you're looking to buy the game for Mac/Linux specifically, then you might prefer to wait a week, while testing is underway. Be warned, this functionality is quite alpha. So alpha in fact that it needs to be accessed on the alpha branch! To access the branch please navigate to: Steam Client->Right Click Aura of Worlds->Properties->Betas tab->Select Alpha from the Dropdown list.

Known System Requirements

Mac

• Mac OS X 10.7-10.14
• 64 Bit computer.
• Mono Framework 6.5 or higher.
• WARNING: Not officially notarized so will Not run on Catalina by default.
• 1.5 GB Graphics card memory.

Linux

• Ubuntu 16 or higher.
• 64 Bit computer.
• Mono Framework 5.8 or higher.
• 2 GB RAM
• 1.5 GB Graphics card memory.

Please report all issues in the Issues and any complications to this forum: https://steamcommunity.com/app/841600/discussions/1/

"What's in it for me for reporting on the Mac/Linux builds early?"

• An in-game XP bonus for testing before the next major update (to be applied after said event).
• A preview of content for the next major update.
• The gratitude of an awesome community.
• Our heartfelt thanks.

Is it stable?

The builds have been tested by at least two people on each platform to be working. As such we consider it to be stable enough to provide to the public. A huge thanks to:

• Jessica Turner (pixel artist)
• Maskedsound
• Andrew Magee
• Volnes

For providing intensive testing and diagnostics. We would like to thank you to, the players who keep this project alive!

[ 2020-04-28 15:22:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, This past couple of months, we've been doing significant engine enhancements with a port to Direct X. We hope to support more lower-end computers and port to new platforms. The latest versions use only half the memory of the predecessor. Since 2013, we had been using SFML libraries to connect to OpenGL and Open Audio. The new port to MonoGame is what directly supports Direct X (both are available in the launch options). We anticipate having Ports for Mac and Linux ready for you very soon.

[ 2020-03-27 05:47:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch 0.82.8

• Fixed bug with being forced to do the tutorial if you had a controller.
• Fixed a bug where pressing back on the Choose Equipment Menu in the hub, reloaded the splash screen.
• Fixed not being able to set alt-item in certain scenarios with the weapon wheel.

Update 0.82.5 :

(1st February 2020)

• Updated music logic for early areas.
• Audio additions...
• Refinements to tutorial
• Boomerangs can no longer stun lock opponents, but have a longer stun duration.
• Skeletons have a reaction delay if you get behind them while they swing their weapons (dashing/rolling/etc.)
• Fixed bug where visiting the hub counted as a run.
• Updated credits page

We're working on some engine updates to support more platforms in the near future...

[ 2020-02-14 22:49:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, Weve been working on multiple enhancements and new features for you, over the past couple of months:

New Hub

• Now almost double the size with far more polish than its predecessor.
• Added a plethora of decorations and new tiles.
• Added difficulty select station.

Better Level Generation:

• Level rooms are connected in an even more varied network, joining in a more labyrinth-like fashion.
• Tuned down the probability of large pits.
• Rebuilt the method of random tile graphic selection, to be much less repetitive.
• Chests are more spread out, with higher reward chests more likely to occur in dangerous detours.
• Grotto tiles have a cleaner generation pattern:

Graphics:

• New background objects, including these stained glass windows:
  
• Various U.I. improvements including an updated confirmation dialog box.
• New terrain tiles including those in the picture above.
• Certain background objects can give off a glow when appropriate.
• Updated the sprites of some collectable runes.

Bug Fixes/Balance changes:

• Made the player's hitbox snap more accurately to the animations.
• Fixed colliders on the wooden platforms seen in the hub.
• Fixed diagnostic script printing to console continuously.
• Fixed a glitch where the first grotto level was sometimes too short.
• Tutorial Level 1 has been rebuilt
• The poison status effect now carries more of a punch.

And much more...

More updates/patches in February

See next announcement for full details.

Bushfire Appeal

The recent Australian bushfires have caused devastation to homes, wildlife, property, and human lives. This has been on a scale unprecedented since the 1970s. As Australians, it grieves us to see the disaster hurt those around us. In response to this, we will be donating all proceeds from sales to the bushfire relief: from the 1st of January to the [strike]5th[/strike] 7th of February. This includes the following charities:

• Victorian Country Fire Authority: https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/home
• Wildlife Victoria: Dedicated to protecting and rescuing wildlife during this crisis https://www.wildlifevictoria.org.au/
• World Wildlife Fund: Environmental protection and animal rescue during the crisis https://www.worldwildlife.org/

To be transparent about what this means:

• All proceeds exclude taxes and Steams cut.
• The charities listed above, have ways to donate directly to them. This is much more efficient as theyre not subject to the fees that we are.
• If roguelites/platformers arent the type of game you enjoy at this stage than dont buy (there are other ways of contributing to the appeal, for those interested).
• We receive proceeds from sales, one month after the end of January, though we will offset this with the previous month's sales in the meantime.
• If anything is unclear, please feel free to enquire either by email cognitiveforge@gmail.com or by posting a comment here.

Thank you!

[ 2020-01-12 14:08:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Merry Christmas everyone! The changes are as follows:

• Significant rework of room placement generation. Resulting in, less predictable paths, that requires more exploration.
• Both arrows and chakrams can be coated in poison or armor breaking sap.
• Bugfix: Mines, lantern traps and brazier traps, properly flash red to warn you (previously they weren't fully ported to the color new system),
• Numerous balance adjustments and small U.I. enhancements.

The game is currently on sale for the festive season! NOTE: These changes are the start of a larger update set which we look forward to rolling out to you soon!

[ 2019-12-24 12:04:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Halloween Everyone ! With Update 0.80.56, we have quite a number of additions for you: The Hub:
This starter world comes with portals to the various areas and crafting stations for:

• Cosmetics.
• Unlockables.
• Pets
• Starting Equipment Options
• Character Backgrounds

This allows for much fewer menus, between you and the perils beyond! Additionally, it provides you with unlimited ammo and mana to test your abilities before you jump into the fray.

Engine Overhaul:

We've been rewriting of over 300 code files in preparation for porting to other operating other than Windows. These changes also bring optimizations to allow the game to run better on low-end computers.

Halloween event (31st October, till the 6th of November)

Joining in the festivities for a week:

• The Hunter enrages faster.
  
• Undead foes have an increased chance of spawning
  
• + 16% XP for runs during this period.
• The game is on sale!

Personal note

Sorry that this update set has taken longer than our usual cycle; we encountered some financial challenges with some of the changes to Steam on the 12th of September. We're back on track now, and shall continue providing more updates for this amazing community!

[ 2019-10-31 12:03:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Introducing a new system of Pets

• These companions that will follow you around as you navigate the labyrinths of death and the realms beyond.
• As with most systems (starting gear/worlds/character backgrounds/skins) their unlock cost is discounted during early access. Keep an eye out for those egg collectables...

New Audio

Additional sound effects have been added to the grotto. We also have a new boss piece for the necromancer

New skin tones and outfits

Leading to over 27 new cosmetic combinations since the previous update set.

New Difficulty Mode

A few players have asked for a more gradual difficulty curve. The easy mode provides a much more forgiving game experience, whilst retaining a degree of the core challenge. In case you're wondering what the differences are between the 3 difficulties: Easy:

• Most noticeably there is no timer for the hunter's appearance, so you can take as much time as you like without having to evade it.
• Special pursuit level themes (lava,gas,fading lights...) move slower.
• Your attacks are stronger
• Take 12% less damage.
• Many enemy moves are nerfed including having slower and fewer projectiles.
• Health potions are more effective.
• Be warned though that world/boss completion achievements are disabled in this mode; XP is also earned at a 30% slower rate.

Moderate: The Standard experience. Note that health potions have been adjusted slightly due to the addition of the previous mode. Hard : Designed for the masters

• Bosses have more health and enter their enraged phases sooner.
• Certain enemy moves are faster and happen more frequently (e.g. skeletal warriors become much better at dodging).
• Enemies are more resilient to harm and will deal out more damage per attack.
• Starting health and recovery is smaller.
• Pursuit level themes (lava/pollen flood/fading light etc.) move faster.
• Made slightly harder as of this update.
• Bonuses: + 30% XP, hardest achievements and bragging rights.

New Ability: Sphere of influence

This is a handy spell that knits the life energy of creatures together, allowing you to chain up opponents. Injuring one opponent in the chain, injures them all. Setting one on fire also spreads the light through the connected... Can be particularly powerful against groups of enemies or for hitting more elusive monsters with the right planning.

GUI and other graphics

• Added shield gauntlet collapsed state; actively drawn on character.
  
• New menu for purchasing pets.
• Better scaling of existing menu elements for wide screen.
• Notification icons now appear when a new item/character background/pet becomes available.
• Fixed up the control rebind menu so it is fully compatible with the Xbox controller.
• Additional background set pieces including parallax statues for the grotto and chains for the temple.
• Updated credits screen.

Narrative

We added an intro transition screen for a bit of exposition. Some environmental art has also been added to convey more of the setting It's no substitute for an epic story, but it does set things up for the narrative we have planned for the game...

Steam stats:

• Fixed bug with Ghost Lover achievement and stats not unlocking properly. Sorry about that, if you've met the pre-requisites it should now auto-unlock the next time you play.
• Added additional Steam stats regarding unlockables. These will go to automatically unlocking some new achievements in the future...

Optimization

• Reduced the number of draw calls and render textures created across the entire game.
• Render textures are cached more instead of creating new ones to save on memory and performance.
• Fixed Rare OpenGL memory issue which randomly skipped rendering the lighting layer for a chunk.

Bug fixes and rebalancing

• Behavior for grapple release adjusted to be more intuitive on controller.
• You can stand on fallen stalactites now.
• Nerfed orb mage pre-hard difficulty. It will no longer jet away from you as fast to dish out pain.
• Skeletal soldiers will roll away from you at close range.
• Crystal eye telegraphs where it's going to fire.
• Repeater dart trap have been slowed slightly
• Firebrands/embers are no longer acting like straphnel.
• Fixed issue with notification text not appearing
• Multiple other tweaks
• Additional time before the hunter's summoning is given on the higher levels.
• Progress Menu now shows character backgrounds and pet unlocks at the end of each run (not just equipment items).

Patch 0.79.18

15th July

• Certain pets now glow.
• Fixed uncommon generation glitch where 1 block waterfalls could spawn.
• Updated Steam stats: added world unlocks, tied unlocked_equipment stat to Shining Collector achievement

Patch 0.79.20

20th July

• Pets cloak along with their owner.
• Fixed bug where steam stat for unlocked_equipment didn't get uploaded until game was closed.
• Added new version of level end stinger for completing a boss level.
• Items in quick slots are now much more visible.
• Added Advanced Graphics Options menu.
• Changed damage resistance of Easy mode from 12% -> 15%
• Added an option to change how quick slots are displayed (see advanced graphics options menu)

Patch 0.79.21.5

• Added Legacy Tile Render option (for the rare case of older drivers running out of OpenGL memory). Go to Graphics->Options->Advanced->Tile Renderer on starting the game.
• Added a couple more background art objects to the temple.
• Health potions and vampirism orbs now heal you 8% and 20% more respectively on Easy mode.

Patch 0.79.22.5

11th August Changed the default tile renderer back to legacy for any new players. This was in light of a windows 10 update throttling the amount of memory available to OpenGL on certain drivers. This lead to a rare Out of Memory exception on a few machines (crash/white fog) steamcommunity.com/app/841600/discussions/0/1840188800808448613/ If your driver is updated to have enough memory you can change this in Graphics->Options->Advanced->Tile renderer.

Patch 0.79.23

• Added options to invert X/Y axis on controller right analog stick. As well as an option to swap them. This could give better support for PS4 controller.
• Added more clarity to grotto foreground tiles.

We've been working on much more for the next update set in the background... Have fun!

[ 2019-07-13 18:10:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Character Skins

We don't judge people by their attire, race, background or... (and neither will the monsters...). Now you can choose your clothes and set your skin tone (which will otherwise be set randomly each run)! The options available this will be expanded even further as development progresses. Also unlike world shortcuts, gear blueprints and character backgrounds; skins can currently be accessed for free!

New Music

Players have said they were looking for something more heroic for the first area so... https://drive.google.com/open?id=1s4siCIcjQbgIyTTRwTPFM2p5juTxyxKd

GUI

• Confirm dialogues
• Skins menu
• Some internal tools such as a tilesheet editor (this should help us to get more content in each update set).

Graphical Improvements

• Numerous additional sprites, including:
  
• Grotto has been given additional parallax depth, including randomized light beams
  (Note: as these beams are randomly placed they appear in world rather than infinitely scrolling Splash menu)
• Garden background recolored slightly to improve readability.

Improved Fullscreen support

We added an alternative fullscreen mode to accommodate moore computer setups. The new mode will use your native desktop resolution when deciding what modal to scale up; whilst the legacy fullscreen mode will continue to scale up the lowest resolution.

Steam Cloud Synchronization:

All your most crucial files are shared between your computers.

• game.progression: keeps track of your achievements, gear, character background and world unlocks.
• Player.customization: 'cause style is important!

Bugs fixes

• Numerous in menu texts readjusted.
• Fixed bug with vases from different areas sometimes appearing in the temple.
• Fixed bug with infinite jump using High jump background.
• Prevention of accidental clicks from unintentially closing the menu/game.
• Multi-jump is no longer a starting item; though it's possible to find it in shops or chests.
• Usual rebalancing and squashing smaller bugs.

Bugs detected (27th of April):

• Just discovered an added bug of having to use double click to close the shop menu (instead of single click).
• Forcefield ability needs to shed fire from burning victim... Aiming to patch that tomorrow.

Fixed, 28th April

Behind the scenes

The above isn't all we worked on. Besides some internal tool enhancements that should make the process faster; we've still been chipping away at the ice world behind the scenes (though that's for another update set...). Have fun!

[ 2019-04-20 19:52:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

With this new system comes 9 different player trait/passive ability sets which allow for further customization of play-style. These range from increased defence to gaining double jump & infinite wall vault. Beware that the perks they offer are not without trade-offs. One of our favorite is bloodthirsty which will gradually drain your health but allow you to heal from injured enemies (with a number of other augments to your damage).

Achievements

• 5 New achievements
• Redesigns of 2 previous achievements.
• Steam stat integration.
• Tracking of multiple new player metrics behind the scenes for future unlocks.

Player Damage Overhaul

Getting hit carries more impact and taking heavy damage (particularly from ranged, melee or explosions) can stun you for a split second. This makes running through encounters a fair bit more challenging...

Graphics & Options

• Much better widescreen support. E.g.
  • Shadow sight target markers scale properly.
  • Multiple menu/hud elements reworked to resize with larger resolutions.
• New graphics for character background sets and unlockable items menus.
• Mouse locking now available (See Options->Other).
• Cleaned up player HUD of many extraneous details.

Other Key Changes

• Level generation for the Grotto is much more varied.
• New Sound effects for picking up items.
• Skeletal warriors move more predictably when fighting.
• Multiple medium and high tier enemies have a much greater chance of dropping coins or other items.
• Now all the bosses have enraged phases. For example the bronze knight now becomes considerable faster and more aggressive below a certain HP.
• Damage and knockback adjusted to take into account how player damage has been reworked. Health potions also heal for a little extra.
• Made dodge rolling faster and longer range.
• Multiple other balancing changes.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed rare issue of 2 textures disappearing from the multi-thread rendering
• Disabled buttons are now faded out.
• Fixed bugs with enduring and resourceful achievements triggering without meeting the conditions.
• You can no longer pick up and carry temporal fields.
• Numerous title and description texts fixed.
• Multiple other.

***Update 0.75.7 (24th February)***

• Updated all status/collectable/helper prompt text in game to scale with the resolution (previously they were blitted onto a render texture which was scaled); though testers have told us they've found this much smoother.
• Various tweaks including:
  • Most enemies in the grotto have lower health on normal difficulty.
  • Dodge rolling works against skeletons on hard mode.
  • updated a couple of icons:
    
  • Aquatic enemy pools are a bit less crowded.
  • Fixed mouse detection for weapon wheel at different resolutions.

***Patch 0.75.10 (3rd March)***

• Adjusted enemy health scaling for temple and grotto enemies.
• Aquatic pools have less enemies during pursuing toxic pollen.
• Pursuing toxic pollen is slightly slower on moderate difficulty.
• Ceiling lickers retract with their catch more slowly.
• Fixed glitch with Chakram unlock.
• Added more knockback resistance when the player is hit under water.
• Several other adjustments.

If you have any feedback or suggestions; please let us know in the forum or comments! Enjoy :D!

[ 2019-02-17 14:41:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Update 0.73.5 introduces Achievements, new abilities & more!

New Abilities

• Enthral:
  Turn your opponents into temporary allies.
  Side Note: lighting was disabled for this GIF.

Frost:
Wrap your opponents in ice.

New parallax backgrounds for the grotto

Other mechanics

• 2 New status effects.
• Reworked knockback physics of all melee weapons.
• Chakram is much more versatile now:
  • Can stun unaware opponents.
  • Can hit more often
  • Can travel under water
• The targeting system has been vastly reworked to accommodate how quickly alliances can change...

Bug fixes and optimization

• Substantial rework of Gnarled Gardens plants for much better performance.
• Fixed bug where continuous sounds could loop indefinitely; if played at the same time as an identical non-continuous sound.
• Fixed bug where using quick swap with a given item didn't deactivate the shield (thanks Rubenmenton for flagging that)
• Fixed weird bug where the player's equipped item would appear to be stabbing them at an awkward angle; after being knocked from a ledge they were holding.
• The item order is now consistent on the weapon wheel
• Adjustments to some item descriptions.
• Fixed bug with dart traps not triggering.

Other

• Multiple new sound effects
• New particle animations
• ...

W.I.P. stuff

We're still working on the ice world in the background (though want it to have more polish before putting it out) Here's some (slightly older) artwork

*** Happy New Year's Patch (0.73.11)! ***

• Added 1 achievement.
• Poison flowers in the garden can be picked up and thrown.
• Fixed bug with dragon fly rebounding off and immediately dealing when knocked against a wall with force.
• A lot of polishing work with how Grotto's background tiles generate.
• Added much more randomisation to the grotto of guidance parallax.

Last patch of this update: 2nd January 2019

*** So when's the next major update??? ***

We're pretty close now... There's a lot of new features coming in mid-February...

[ 2018-12-22 21:58:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Abilities:

• Dashing:
  
• Sap of Weakness: The fluid derived from a rare plant can be used to lower the defence of your opponents.
  

Mechanics:

• New Status effect.
• Chests can be carried to block projectiles.
• Lucky dip for unlockables: Optionally spend tokens on a random item at a lower cost.
• Temporal field: now properly slows down special level threats such as pursuing pollen. You can also expand it by holding down the control.
• ...

Rebalancing work:

• Bronze Knight's arena now has semi-destructable floors; with a couple of alternative ways to fight em'.
• Rush level themes (lava, poison etc.) have longer levels.
• Flooded corridors are longer.
• Traps take longer to reset (spears, dart traps etc.; following feedback from PAX players)
• Nerfed giant bat (following feedback from PAX).
• Cost of unlockables has increased as has the max level.
• Several parts of the 2nd tutorial, were remade to be much more forgiving and instructive (following feedback from PAX players)

Optimization:

• New algorithm for tile-render allows caching of the entire map's terrain rather than one chunk at a time.
• Rewrote multiple collision and physics routines to use less processing power.
• Fixed several issues with flickering framerate with vsync on older systems.

Controls:

• Weapon wheel and grid inventory controls have been rewritten slightly to be more intuitive. e.g. you can override which slot certain items go to with just the right/left triggers. You can also instantly consume potions/execute most powers with a single button instead of having to equip them.
• Multi-jump ability can still be used even if it's not in the hotbar.

Graphics/Menu:

• New Weapon wheel graphics
• Some minor bug fixes with humanoid arms.
• Particle and HUD elements for new abilities.
• Larger mini map
• ...

-----**--- PATCH 0.71.4 ---**-----

- 21st of November

• Cleaned up HUD by removing debug variable display.
• Removed links to unfinished editors.
• Other:
  • You now recover more health before entering the knight's arena.
  • Adjustment to laser traps in the tutorial.
  • Updated controller prompt icon.

[ 2018-11-17 15:18:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

It was an insanely busy 3-day weekend; during our 4th and final year at PAX Australia
Having the time to meet with developers, journalists and gamers like you was fantastic!


We've been taking notes from the convention after watching hundreds of players navigate their way through the deadly labyrinths. We will be integrating the feedback/suggestions for new content over the next couple of updates....

[ 2018-11-02 20:58:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! We are super excited to be exhibiting our roguelike platformer at PAX Australia!
If you happen to be in Melbourne, wed love to say hi!

Venue Information

Melbourne Convention Center (MCEC); Australia Booth 47; PAX Rising section

Event Dates

26th - 28th of October

[ 2018-10-19 12:04:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

New items, sound effects, rewards for earlier players and an entirely new set of unlockable goods.

New weapons / abilities

Hammers, Chakrams, Temporal field...

New XP system

• NOTE: This is done in a way that does not compromise on challenge; but allows you to access strategic options and bonuses. You can read about the rationale in the first post here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/841600/discussions/0/1739964947814298396/
  
• Earlier players will also be rewarded a large starting bonus; based on what's been achieved so far. What you've unlocked stays unlocked in the future.
• Levelling up grants tokens which can be spent on various unlockable items/world shotcuts etc.

Unlockables include:

• 7 relating to weapons and abilities.
• Rerolling starter equipment.
• Two world shortcuts will be free if you unlocked them earlier (otherwise they cost 5 tokens each)
  

Menu Stuff

• Multiple menus reprogrammed to work much better with widescreen and higher resolutions.
• Added Progression Menu.
• New graphics for all purchase/equipment related menus.
• Added Unlockables Menu.
  NOTE: costs may be discounted slightly for this update.

Tweaks to player physics

• Reach maximum speed faster; but max sprint speed is marginally lower (<10%) for better control.
• Made grapple swinging more instantaneous.

Animation refinements

• Several new animations including:
  
• Spear slashes now have a weapon trail.
• Fixes to the frames of humanoid entities holding weapons when landing.

Bug fixes and optimizations

• Light colors of melee weapons now reflect their materials more closely (with crystal yielding more light).
• Code optimizations to collision checking.
• Fixed Credits menu cropped at higher resolutions.
• Fixed Choose equipment menu breaking when reopening after changing resolutions.
• Considerably reduced time writing to output files (e.g. saving progression and logging).
• Several others.

Looking forward to hearing what you think :)

[ 2018-09-16 13:04:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

New enemy 1 - Giant blood bats

Stronger, smarter, and immune to many of the tricks that worked on their smaller cousins

New enemy 2 - Skeletal rangers

Their lighter armor makes them considerably more agile then the soldiers you've seen so far...
Oh...and regular soldiers have also learnt to dodge roll now; you're welcome :) Destroying spikes blocks will causes the spikes to fly out. These in turn can be picked up and thrown (TowerClimb ref.).

Crossbow and arrow improvements

• Arrows stick in blocks.
• Arrows shot through pollen clouds become venomous.
• A burst of particles is released when arrows are ignited/envenomed + new graphics!
• Arrows slow down in water.

Necromancer changes

• New animations.
• A warning will display if the boss is unalerted and you're down to the last 3 crystals.
• No more stun-lock cheesing.
• Rebalanced enemy spawning.
• Fixed bug where it would randomly turn away from the player when attacking.

Control improvements

• For items that can be equipped in both hands; you can use the left/right trigger to specify which with the weapon wheel (or just use the default).
• Bouncing off enemies now resets wall vault count/multi jump

Control options

• All remaining control options (toggling default run; gamepad tilt sensitivity determining sprint; changing the aiming mode etc.); are now saved on leaving the game. Some settings are now saved separately per control scheme.
• Auto-wall vault is toggle-able.

Screen

• Multiple HUD design improvements and icon updates
  
• Improved widescreen support.

Bug fixes/balance chances

• Eye lazer attack has been nerfed.
• Crystal weapons now recharge much faster.
• Various graphical glitches related to humanoid arms have been fixed.
• Swords and spears can no longer be drawn on the player's head after they simultaneously try and grapple and climb at the same time.
• Multiple others...

-----**---Patch 29th July, 2018---**-----

• Time between fire dart trap volleys has been greatly increased.
• Boulders and rock traps now displace spike tiles.
• Boulders deal more damage with enough velocity.
• Increased enemy damage resistance slightly.
• Poisoned enemies are more vulnerable to damage.
• This guy...
  

[ 2018-07-15 12:44:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Equipped items are drawn on all humanoid characters!!!

• Small items are synced on the active hand's current animation (only hidden during special actions like dodge rolling)
  
• The larger weapons are drawn in 3 different positions depending on the adventurer's current actions:
  • On the back
    
  • Held passively
    
  • Attacking
    

Other graphics:

• New animation for midair jump
• Status icon for vampirism potion effect.
  

Bug fixes:

• Fixed animation bug when running against a wall. We left this in the game for a while; as some people found it comical. However we've finally figured it was for the best to remove it; R.I.P.
  
• Fixed bug with all skeletons in a given level weilding the same weapon
• Fixed glitch where jumping didn't disrupt the shadow rune
• Various other

P.s. A note to FRAPs users:

If you're using FRAPs to record footage; you can launch the EXE directly from "/steamapps/common/Aura of Worlds" Other popular recording software like OBS work fine as is.

***PATCH 0.66.5.1***

18th of June

• Fixed bug where skeletons arms weren't drawn when an item was equipped on their back.
• Player no longer immediately puts away items on performing actions that would move the equipped item to their back (e.g. ledge climbing/wall climbing/rolling/wall sliding etc.).
• Skeletal warrior sword attacks are telegraphed better.

***Next update in early July***

Thanks for reading folks :D

[ 2018-06-11 04:21:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey adventurers! Just wanted to give a shout-out to the Youtubers and Streamers who have covered Aura of Worlds over the past month. It's all been quite positive so far. They've helped build awareness for the project, as well as providing feedback which has and still is being used to refine the game.

A toast to the following creators

• *IngeniousClown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL2SYdpfGZ4
• MegaGWolf: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JvVZEyU398
• *Marshmallow Machete: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRp_K2ClQyw
• Dyoshii: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e22PzsbLKOs&feature=youtu.be&t=363
• * Olexa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IDqRJSThec
• * FizzToast: https://youtu.be/4g1JHtCRmzQ
• Nookrium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUKd-g05Jxs
• Injured Wolf: https://youtu.be/Ax24gepWcpI
• Penta Hybrid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoKPGi4N9D4
• Sasha Zenko (with no hands!) https://youtu.be/iZZodDe9rOA
• Szakal1807 (no commentary): https://youtu.be/BxZZzycA5Lk
• Wolf Tooth (no commentary): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrFZSpN4T_8
• Bammsters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlVZos97gIk&feature=youtu.be&t=3h9m22s

In addition to the streamers:

• Lolthulhu
• Taelios
• thenewyorkgameryt

They're awesome people; and we thank them for their work! P.s. you can check out other past creators here: https://www.auraofworldsgame.com/news/ P.p.s. Please let us know if we missed anyone! If you've made a video; consider linking it to the Videos tab :)!

[ 2018-05-30 12:40:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, Just wanted to give a quick shout out to both Clemmy Games and Notable Releases for including our roguelite in their listings for the top games to launch last month. You can check our their respective videos here: Clemmy Games: https://youtu.be/TKNBB6Yk86A Notable releases: http://notablereleases.com/post/indie-weekly-2018w17/ https://youtu.be/D_LQfNJUq8g Congratulations to all the teams behind the other excellent titles to!

[ 2018-05-21 14:15:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, We've been listening to your feedback and suggestions over the past two weeks and have been updating the game accordingly :)

Here's what's changed...

• Four New runes:
  
  • Sharpness
  • Shadow
  • Reflective-Roll
  • Double-Jump.
• Fortune rune now causes enemies/chests to drop additional money; instead of applying a flat discount. Vases and crates drop less money.
• You can now interrupt dodge rolling half way; with a jump.
• Controls:
  • Grid inventory and pause button are swapped on controller by default.
  • All standard buttons are rebindable including pause.
• Bug fixes:
  • Skeleton heads properly trigger dart traps even when attached
  • No more out of boomerang prompts while waiting for the last one thrown to return.
  • Can no longer shield bash the object you're carrying.
  • No gap at base of rising lava texture
  • Fixed ugly texture gaps on hud bars; when swapping from a higher resolution back to native (1066x600) res.
  • Various other.
• A.I.:
  • Slimes now attack 33% faster; but regular slimes can only damage you during their jumping attacks.
  • Jellyfish have a telegraph animation.
  • Fewer enemies deal contact damage; and those that do (e.g. giant slimes) have revised rules including an added delay before applying that attack.
  • Mages are smarter and will avoid teleporting into obvious traps like lava or spears.
• Sound/graphics:
  • Improved support for higher resolutions. Title animations and coin prompt animations now scale properly.
  • Wall slide sound effect.
  • Engine support for looped sound.
  • Red "x" appears on items which are out of supplies/charges"
• Numerous other tweaks and balance changes...

[ 2018-05-14 07:53:43 CET ] [ Original post ]