Good day, Bound Souls!
The Steam Medieval Fest is here, and Soul Chained is taking part!
To celebrate, there's a big update to the demo (which you can play right now!), we've got multiple community events running, and the full game is (almost) feature complete!
No more delays, let's get into it!
Full Game Update + Demo (v1.1.11b)
First, an update on the game as a whole: the game is now content and feature complete (except for the single player mode, which is being re-worked).
This is a huge milestone, which means that Soul Chained can be played from start to finish. This means the remaining months of development will be 100% focused on polish, optimisation, and removing all of the Gen AI assets in favour of human art/voicework. Unfortunately, as Copilot (and similar programs) have been used to speed up the programming, the Gen AI label on Steam will remain, despite this very much being a human effort driven by passion.
But to happier news: The demo has been updated to reflect the current state of the game. Play it now and see how far things have come!
Expanded World Visibility - The demo now uses the same environment setup as the full build, which means that you will see all the areas that will be accessible in the full game, and there's a lot! But no sweet little lies (Todd Howard suddenly appears in the distance) detected - you WILL be traveling through all of them when the game is out.
Single Player Disabled (For Now) - Single-player is being rebuilt from the ground up, so it's been temporarily removed from the demo.
Magic Overhaul - Chain Magic UI has been reworked, and the magic itself has been rebalanced, so you will need to actively use chain mechanics and chain magic during combat. Especially on Hard Mode.
Difficulty Rebalanced - Normal Mode & Hard Mode now feel more distinct from each other. Normal mode is more forgiving, leaning more towards hack & slash playstyles, while Hard Mode now will make you and your friends truly feel like John Darksouls, testing your timing and communication skills!
Physics Improvements - Chain behavior, hitbox timing, and overall combat feel have been refined.
Enemy AI Updates - The enemies are still charmingly dumb, but were made much less frustrating to fight against!
60 FPS Lock Implemented - Rip to everyone who bought a 5090 to play Soul Chained at 1500 FPS. The game has several extremely sensitive physics systems running asynchronously for the chain, combat, and boss weapon targeting. Aaand multiplayer. And at 100+ FPS, it all just stopped working correctly, so a strategic solo dev decision was made to lock the FPS slider. Further improvements for lower-end machines will be made!
Quality of Life - you may now skip tutorials and dialogues and join friends directly via Steam (works when friends are outside the game, or in-game at the lobby menu).
Some Bug Fixes - reduced physics issues, network desync improvements, and general stability fixes across the board.
And finally... The Jank Slider - ... it does nothing. Have fun!
Known Issues and planned fixes - still ironing things out as we head toward full release:
Further performance improvements
World streaming can cause noticeable hitches between regions
Chains can still… do things™
Demo ending video is a bit buggy
Chain magic may impact FPS in large fights
Full control remapping is coming soon!
Community Events!
We’re running two community events during and after Medieval fest! Jump in the demo, participate, and win rewards!
⭐Chain Gang⭐
Grab your squad, strike a pose, and show off your chain! Two (2) Soul Chained keys are up for grabs, so take the best-looking groupies as you can!
STARTS NOW and ENDS with the Steam Medieval Fest (April 27).
Submit a screenshot of you and your buddies in-game:
You may post your screenshot on Social Media with the hashtag #SoulChainedGang, tagging the official Soul Chained account, depending on the platform:
X - @SoulChainedGame
Facebook - @SoulChainedGame
Instagram - @soulchainedgame
BlueSky - @soulchainedgame
OR upload to the event channel on our Discord server
Submit to the ⭐┃chain-gang channel, either as a direct file or a link to your social media post
⭐Chain Reaction⭐
Record your Soul Chained demo gameplay highlights - funny moments, clutch plays, worst deaths, absolute disasters - and share them with us!
Event Prizes:
Top Dev Pick - $25 Steam Gift Card + Game Key
2 Random Submitters - Soul Chained Game Keys
Top 10 Clips - Featured in the upcoming first-ever Soul Chained highlights video
All Participants - Special Discord Role
STARTS NOW and ENDS a week after the Steam Medieval Fest (May 4).
Record your gameplay and submit via:
Social Media with the hashtag #SoulChainedReaction and tagging the official Soul Chained account depending on the platform:
X - @SoulChainedGame
Facebook - @SoulChainedGame
Instagram - @soulchainedgame
BlueSky - @soulchainedgame
OR upload to the event channel on our Discord server
Submit to the 📺┃chain-reaction channel, either as a direct file or a link to your social media post
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