Steam Next Fest Is Over!
Well... Steam Next Fest is officially behind us.
First of all, thank you very much to every single person who downloaded the demo, played it, streamed it, speedran it or simply took the time to leave feedback. Reading through hundreds of comments, bug reports, surveys, and discussions has been both incredibly rewarding and mildly soul-crushing (intended), but in the best way possible.
As release gets closer, I wanted to deep dive into what happened during the recent Next Fest, what went wrong, what went right, and what I've already changed because of it.
The Bad News
Ironically, despite the Demo v1.0 being the most polished version of the demo from a technical standpoint, it ended up being the least enjoyable version for players. Our average fun rating dropped to 3.55/5, compared to 4.56/5 across previous demo versions. That one definitely stung.
After digging through all the survey responses, a pattern became very clear: many of the frustrations were caused by my own design decisions rather than the bugs.
Overwhelmingly, players who had a negative experience complained about the chain being too short. I had reduced the base chain length that players start with in order to incentivize upgrading the chain length stat.
Unfortunately, player psychology is interesting, and we found that players still did not really upgrade chain length. Instead, they just got more frustrated as the frequency of being snapped back by the chain increased. Additionally, players in general felt that the chain snapback animation was too long and, therefore, too punishing.
The next most common complaint came from players feeling the combat was too slow, while enemies were too capable of swarming and overwhelming players, making the game too difficult for an early tutorial area.
I had improved enemy AI and the basic sword enemy’s moveset, making enemy encounters a little more difficult - this only made the slow weapons stand out more. Players also frequently reported some hitbox jank and overall lack of combat fluidity.
Finally, some players complained about the graphics and overall visual polish, although a lot of these players seem not to be in Soul Chained’s target audience. We’ll be making changes to the Steam page to make sure we’re attracting the kinds of players who want a chaotic and hilarious Souls-inspired game - not Elden Ring 2.
The Good News
Now, not everything's bad news, of course!
A surprising number of "bugs" turned out to be the intentionally chaotic physics that make Soul Chained's funny and chaotic DNA - launching enemies off cliffs at absurd speeds, accidentally yanking your teammate across the map, and other moments that somehow end with everyone laughing.
There were, of course, genuine bugs that slipped through, and those are already being fixed.
Now, there was a small cohort of players who mentioned very annoying or game-breaking bugs - but after looking into their reports in detail, they were mostly misidentifying frustrating design choices (like the chain snapback on a bad roll) as bugs rather than features they just don’t like.
These were the same players who reported lower fun scores and are the exact players I’m hoping to win over with the balance and polish changes coming in the next demo update.
And now, Demo Version 1.1.11!
You could say this Steam Next Fest gave me the biggest determination to change things. With that said, I've already implemented the biggest changes to the Demo (now v1.1.11) based on everything I learned during Next Fest.
Made the Soul Chain less frustrating
Increased the default chain length from 3.0m to 3.8m
Made the chain snapback more forgiving, allowing players to roll away from each other at a sharper angle before triggering a snapback
Made snapback recovery noticeably quicker, so it is less punishing
Made Chain Yank free to use (no stamina cost) and significantly quicker, encouraging players to save each other more often
Removed snapback when jumping - although funny the first couple times it made platforming too frustrating and slow
Massively Improved Combat
Reworked all hitboxes. Player hits now feel reliable and easy to execute. Enemies are now much easier to parry as their hitboxes more reliably line up with player block
Sped up all weapons 20%, in turn making gameplay more fluid and enemies easier to deal with
Reduce hitstop duration - while hitstop is a nice effect, it was overused and made the combat feel stuttery rather than impactful
Slowed down basic sword knights 12%, so they are slightly less overwhelming
Reduced strong attack wind-up times
Improved the readability of parries and counterattacks
On top of that, I polished the audiovisual feedback throughout the game so that actions feel clearer, hits feel more satisfying, and the overall flow is easier to follow. And yes, plenty of (real) bug fixes too.
What's ahead?
Steam Next Fest gave Soul Chained exactly what it needed: thousands of fresh eyes that weren't afraid to tell me when something wasn't working. As much as I enjoy hearing people say they love the game, the comments explaining why they didn't enjoy certain mechanics have probably been even more valuable.
Every survey response, bug report and "this feels off" comment has helped shape the future versions of Soul Chained.
There's still work to do before launch, but I genuinely believe the game is going to be much stronger because of everything I learned over the past week.
Now... if you'll excuse me, I have approximately seventeen different spreadsheets, a myriad of feedback, and an unhealthy amount of coffee waiting for me.
Back to work!
Become Soul-bound!
The journey through purgatory is much easier when you're not alone. Catch the latest tips, updates, and announcements by becoming part of Soul Chained's community!
Don't miss out on all official purgatorial scoop by following our official social pages!