The focus over the past month—and for the next one—has been stability and overall improvements to the gameplay experience. We deeply appreciate everyone who has been joining our playtest evenings, helping us test these builds, and providing valuable feedback. Your input has been essential in getting us here, and we can’t thank you enough!
Game Development
- Localization is here! Castle of Blackwater is now available in English, Turkish, Spanish, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Russian.
- Werewolf Adjustment – Prey targets no longer see the werewolf on the minimap when a soul is picked up (but can still hear him). Surviving just got a whole lot harder.
- Anti-Cheat Upgrades – Two non-intrusive versions of anti-cheat have been implemented to keep the gameplay fair and enjoyable for everyone.
- Voice Chat Overhaul – Simplified voice chat controls in the settings panel and added per-player volume controls in the right-click player options menu. Communication has never been clearer.
- Player Analytics – A new version of player analytics has been added to help us understand how you interact with the game and improve it even further.
- New Emote Sounds & Songs – Check out the latest emotes, featuring a variety of sounds and songs to enhance gameplay.
- Automatic Ready-Up – Players are now automatically marked as ready when moving into a newly joined lobby.
- Book Stack Improvements – Significant changes have been made to Book Stack, making it a much more balanced and engaging experience.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where the sound manager wouldn’t destroy itself upon leaving the lobby, preventing multiple music tracks from overlapping.
- Fixed various issues causing dead ghosts to get stuck or freeze in place.
- Resolved a bug that prevented new players from saving their load-outs.
- Fixed the recordkeeper note not displaying correctly during voting rounds.
- Addressed frequent teleporting issues for dead ghosts that caused maps to fail to load.
- Fixed player list breaking under specific conditions.
- Locked player movement while interacting with the lobby inventory to prevent unintended glitches.
- Ensured the lumberjack ability cannot be used while in a minigame.
- Implemented stability fixes for player disconnects during voting rounds.
- Fixed several minor broken UI elements.
- Resolved an issue where long player names broke non-dynamic UI frames.
- Fixed a bug where the game wouldn’t end after five turns.
- Resolved an issue causing the psychic ability to trigger twice.
- Fixed the "You’ve been silenced" text not disappearing after a player’s death.
- Fixed a bug where winning as Werewolf was not displayed on the victory screen.
- Resolved an issue where emote sounds weren’t playing in the inventory.
- Fixed layering issues and improvements in various minigames.
Work in Progress
- Addressing networking-related edge cases to improve stability during laggy conditions.
- Continued UI cleanup to make interfaces simpler and more efficient.
- Adding custom logic to support hosting Next Fest events.
Next Fest is Two Weeks Away!
We’re thrilled to showcase Castle of Blackwater to a wider audience during Next Fest. This is a major milestone for our community, and we can’t wait to see you all supporting the game! A huge thank you to the entire team and our amazing players for making this possible.
Let’s keep the momentum going and take Castle of Blackwater to new heights!