Our big Jan... well, February (almost March) Update is out!
Dear Unheimers, in our first big update we present you a chaotic mix of gameplay improvements, quality of life changes and audiovisual overhauls!
First and foremost, we completely reworked the Hospital Entity, which we (and many of you as well) felt was lacking in terms of gameplay mechanics and overall scariness. We are much happier with the new version, and hope you feel the same way!
Our other main focus was on improving our anomalies. We removed some of the less interesting ones, as well as those that felt duplicated, while adding scarier ones across all levels.
Additionally, we allowed some of the more ambiguous anomalies to have more than one type, so finding out the correct code for reporting becomes less of a guessing game.
We also made some changes to our difficulty settings:
We turned Sanctuary into an easier version of Nightmare mode, where the entity can now appear as well. For unlocking new levels, beating Sanctuary mode is sufficient. To compensate, we added a new mode called Training, which replaces the old Sanctuary mode, allowing you to focus on anomaly reporting without fearing any intervention from our malevolent entities.
Besides that, we added balancing changes, bugfixes and audiovisual improvements across the board. You can find the full list of changes below.
As always we would love to hear about your feedback, either in the steam discussions or on our discord!
Happy Anomaly Hunting!
Full list of changes
Entities
- Completely reworked the Hospital Entity, now called "Gramweberin", to match the overall vibe of the game
- Items stolen by the Smiling Man now appear inside the level as anomalies of type "Personal" and can be retrieved by reporting them
- Smiling Man now is less forgiving when being ignored and will no longer make himself audibly known before killing the player
- Smiling Man now generally grants less time to react to his presence
- The panic button now has interactions with the entities from Level 1, 2 and 3.
- Adjusted Journal entries related to the new Hospital Entity, the Gramweberin.
Anomalies
- Reworked all missed-activity-polaroids to show missed activities more clearly
- Anomalies can now have multiple valid types, making it easier to deduce the code for reporting them
- Replaced some of the less interesting anomalies, and added new anomalies across all levels
- Removed special anomaly types from each level (except "Personal" as it's gameplay relevant)
- Fixed or replaced some incorrectly or confusingly categorized anomalies
Observer Screen
- Updated magnifier icon to better reflect its function
- The P.A.I.M. button (1st enhancement) on the observer screen no longer blinks when the overall Paranormal Activity in the level has increased.
Audio
- Replaced and polished Ambient sound for all levels
- Reworked entity related sound effects
- Adjusted audio volumes across the board
Localization
- Updated some descriptions and localizations
- Replaced handwriting font for Simplified Chinese for better readability
Balancing
- Turned Sanctuary into an easier version of Nightmare mode, where the entity can now appear as well. To compensate, we added a new mode called "Training", which replaces the old sanctuary mode.
- New levels can now be unlocked by beating the current level in "Sanctuary" difficulty or above.
- All screens inside the van now need to go through a short boot sequence when turning on the power.
- Shortened each bible passage to just a single number to make finding the corresponding audio clip easier.
- Playing the wrong audio clip when the priest is around now is the best way to get yourself stabbed.
- Changed the arm waving behaviour of the Maneki Neko (waving cat)
Menu
- All settings can be reset to default now
- Added placeholder for Game-Won screen. Will be replaced again in our Story update later this year.
Tutorial
- Added additional explainers for newly unlocked gameplay elements.
Quality of Life
- In case of a power outage, the protagonist now does the reasonable thing and turns on their flashlight
- The journal has a new colour to stand out more from the background
- The Journal now has an indicator for unread entries
- Game Over/Game Won Screens can now be skipped
- Made it easier to click on the handles for the battery and the fuse box
- The Pizza is now edible
Twitch Integration
- The wildcard button now always fixes an anomaly if at least 1 correct vote has been cast by the viewers
- Voting chart is cleared completely after using the wildcard button.
Bugfixes
- Fixed a bug where the smiling man just wouldn't stop laughing
- Twitch: Cooldowns now correctly apply to subscriber- and bit events
- Prevented Fusebox sound from playing when loading the Van scene for the first time
- Fixed several visual bugs related to the "Death by too many anomalies" event in the museum level
- Potentially fixed a rare issue that would lead to freeze frames every few seconds.
Known Issues
- Overall performance is not quite where we would like it to be yet, and we're still working on optimizing the game across the board for a stutter-free experience
- Some Steam Achievements have no description and will either be removed, adjusted or are still being worked on during Early Access
- Steam sometimes doesn't recognize the game as being closed after shutting it down. This leads to the impression that the game is still running even though it's not. (We're not mining crypto in the background on your machine, we promise!)