Hello, Runari!
Here's the big news first: Cloudheim will have a demo during Steam Next Fest this October! That means you’ll be able to jump (back) in and play the game real soon.
In the meantime, the team at Noodle Cat has been hard at work diving into Open Beta feedback and making lots of improvements as we prepare for launch. This blog is all about sharing what’s new since then, so let’s get into it!
Open Beta Learnings
During the open beta, we had over 19,000 playtesters checking out Cloudheim that weekend, sharing lots of incredible reactions, feedback, and bug reports.
While it was quick for our environment artists to patch up the various holes in the maps that were reported, some other feedback required a more careful approach in how we could address them. The areas we tackled the most can be put into three buckets: Context, Combat, and Crafting.
Context
While combat will always be the highlight feature of Cloudheim, we heard from many players who loved the world so much they wanted more: more context, more story, and more details about everything.
Who are you? What is this place? What are you doing in the game, and why are you here?
We saw that as a good sign: people are really loving the world and are hungry for more! To answer those questions, we dedicated more time to weaving in narrative elements and tying quests together in a way that better reveals the big picture.
You are one of the chosen Runari, renowned figures of past legend whose powers are drawn from ancient gods that once freely roamed the lands. After Ragnarok, dark forces spread across the world, and you have been called once more to help restore balance. Using the Bifrost, you’ll descend into each area to drive out corruption, reawaken slumbering deities, and gather an eclectic cast of allies along the way.
In addition to more narrative context, we’ve also been chipping away at better game cues and various interfaces to help players navigate the world and what’s happening at any given moment. This includes more interaction prompts and an improved quest log.
An indicator will appear to tell you when you’re close enough to use a lasso point.
Overall, the work in this area should make it easier to understand your goals, follow the flow of quests, and stay grounded in what’s happening around you.
Combat
Of course, we still made updates to combat, since it is the main draw of Cloudheim. Changes include tweaks to how damage works for a more satisfying experience overall; new animations, visuals, and sound effects for various weapon combos and skills; and a revamped armor system for enemies.
In trying to make enemies more distinct, we’ve also given some of them new movesets and abilities. For example, not only do grobb healers restore their allies…they can even resurrect fallen ones!
Finally, we’ve been doing some cool work with dungeons and adding in interesting puzzles and new areas for you to discover while out on your adventures.
Crafting
We’ve saved the biggest section for last, as crafting is where a lot of significant changes happened!
In all the playtests we’ve had, survey results showed that your base on Odin Shell needed some love. While it was easy to grasp the combat and exploration side of the game, we noticed a drop-off in interest when it came to the crafting and shop side.
Here are some of the notable ones:
Weaponcrafting results are more predictable now.
A frequent area we saw raised by beta playtesters was how weaponcrafting was handled in the game. Players found it too random and wanted more control over their outputs, so we went and expanded it out a bit more.
The forge will have four sections, corresponding to each playable class, so you’ll be able to choose what set of weapons you craft based on where the materials are added.
Your base is now even more customizable.
We’ve made some drastic changes to how you build out your home in the skies. Initially, the base was designed to be fairly linear. Your base upgrades resulted in a fixed building with all the related stations and decor appearing in predetermined slots, save for a handful of movable items like sales tables.
We decided to do away with this system and allow for more freeform placement. Rather than being stuck with only one of each station and in fixed locations, you can now purchase multiple and place them more freely.
Of course, for those who are invested in how your base looks, you’ll still have plenty of options to decorate, with even more items and new layouts available in this system.
Basically, we’ve split out the features to be less intertwined, allowing you more options when it comes to optimizing your crafting without feeling constrained, or vice-versa — being able to decorate and show off your cool collections without being limited by various crafting arrangements.
The loot box is now your central storage for items.
Previously, you only had one option when interacting with the box: to have it spit out all your items in a flashy explosion, but then you were left with piles of items on the floor. For many testers, this felt a little too messy and overwhelming.
Now, interacting with the box also offers a proper menu where you can view all of the items you’ve acquired out in the world, all in one location.
As a bonus, we even added a feature where you can locate any placed item on your base — a request we saw during beta testing. Now you can find that one cheese wheel that somehow went missing.
Blins are even more important.
As you progress in your adventures, you’ll be able to recruit Blins and bring them to your base. They’re going to need housing, of course, but as a show of appreciation, they’ll be available to help around in various ways.
Meet Berg, one of the many blins you’ll be able to recruit. (Yes, they all have names!)
Assign Blins to your stations to help boost production speeds, or build out specialized guild hubs to activate unique perks. For example, assigning Blins to the fishing guild can increase yields and the appearance of rarer fish at the pond in your base.
What’s Next…
With Next Fest on the horizon, we’re excited to have players joining the skies of Cloudheim once more. Get ready for plenty of action-packed combat and exploration, building out your base on Odin Shell, and, of course, kicking greebles off cliffs. We can’t wait to see what kind of adventures you’ll create.
See you then!
