Hey everyone! Excited to announce that a new update just went live introducing a lot of fixes and QoL updates based on community feedback! Thank you to everyone who left reviews and popped into the discord for discussions, your feedback was invaluable and you've helped get the game into a better place.
On top of the new content, there is also now a native Linux build of the game available! In case you missed it in the last post, there's also an official Steam Input controller layout for the game, and I can personally verify that it plays great on the Steam Deck.
Patch Notes:
Added an in-game map that will fill out as you explore zones in the game
Accessed by pressing M (can be rebound)
There's a function to place markers anywhere on the map to keep track of things, with several different shapes and colors to choose from!
Existing saves will not have map data available retroactively, and may encounter minor oddities since the unlock triggers for regions were set assuming the player started from the beginning of the game
Implemented a new "hinting" mode that can be toggled on or off. While enabled, the game will give you subtle guidance on what lore, items and locations are most important for forward progression via a special highlight
You will be prompted if you want this on or not whenever you start a new game, and it can also be freely toggled from the settings menu
Should work and show appropriate progress hints with existing saves!
Added a new reward for completing The Broken Shrine that increases your movement speed by 50% to make late game exploration less tedious
Can be toggled on or off from the inventory screen
Added two new accessibility features to the settings menu:
An option to use a non-pixelated font in the tome to be easier on the eyes
An option to enable subtitles for sound effects that give potentially relevant information to the player
Fixed the ability to take screenshots through Steam (sorry this was broken so long)
Added several new magenta flowers to most zones as shortcuts for getting around faster once the relevant ability is unlocked
You can now understand her words without needing to do anything outside the game
Tweaked certain elements related to a late game ability: Green Torch secrets marking items or giving hints for early game puzzles that could be solved without it will now be deleted the next time you load the room to avoid confusion on return visits
Moved the starting position of a movable conduit in The Royal Parterre that previously allowed you to bypass a significant part of a major puzzle there
While I don’t want to prevent clever players from doing the puzzle “wrong”, in this instance skipping that step led to confusion with multiple later puzzles
Changed the default textbox typewriter sound
Added a new late game hint to a non-critical early game puzzle in Moonglade Lake that a majority of players seemed to struggle with
Adjusted the logic for how the credits scroll is drawn to prevent a crash at very high resolutions, and in general it should look better and more consistent across all resolutions now
Adding a bookmark to a lore entry in the tome now has a sound effect tied to it
Fixed the combination input outside the fortress gate having an absurdly large interact radius
Fixed a puzzle element that was not saving its state properly in Erennia's Rest
Tweaked the tome-based hint for a late game word to hopefully be easier to parse
Added an interaction glint to shrines for clarity
Activating the magenta torch now makes you stop pushing any blocks if you were doing so simultaneously so that the sound effect loop doesn’t keep playing until you toggle the ability off
Adjusted the position of a magenta flower in the royal parterre that accidentally made an entire configuration for the maze pointless
The configuration in question also now triggers a few more vines as an alternate path to another puzzle input area
Fixed several minor issues with collision tiles being slightly off or elements being at the wrong elevation relative to the player
Fixed a few typos discovered in the lore
Added a black outline to a few green torch secrets in the Plaza/Parterre to improve readability against the light ground
The fox leaves a trace more often
A Note On Mac
At one point, I had mentioned looking into making a Mac port of the game alongside the Linux build that was released with this update. Unfortunately, after exploring a few different options it became clear this wasn't going to be possible, as the version of the engine I built the game in is too outdated to be viable for release on MacOS and its strict software policies. Apologies to anyone who would have been interested in that port!
Till The Fox Laughs Again
This is very likely the last update the game will receive, so I wanted to give a quick thanks to the community! It's been incredible seeing the response the game has gotten and being able to read through so many people's thoughts and experiences with this world I spent so long building. I've learned that I could probably spend the rest of my life just watching other people play the game!
I'll be moving on to work on a new project, but Artahk will always hold a special place in my heart, and I truly hope you all enjoy your time with it. There are many more stories to tell, I hope I'll see you there!
From beneath a shining sky,
Bismuth Tales
