Patch 04 for The Drifting Crown demo is now live.

This one touches quite a few areas of the game. We've done a larger art and UI pass, added more environmental hazards and destructible objects, introduced the new compass and upgrade station, continued improving the audio, and fixed a number of gameplay issues.

Audio

We've continued working on the audio and how the game responds to what is happening around the player.

• Refactored how footstep sounds are handled.

• Added speed-dependent equipment sounds to Alex.

• Added more sounds to hazard areas.

• Refined several explosion sound effects.

• Added separate fire sounds to the new particle systems.

• Refined the upgrade sounds and changed them to 2D audio so they're easier to recognise.

• Continued refining the parry and charge sound effects.

• Added more audio detail to destructible objects.

Environment and Art

We've added more variation and detail to the environment, as well as more things for the player to interact with — and destroy.

• Added more tile variations.

• Added new environmental hazards and destructible objects.

• Built the new upgrade station.

• Updated the brick and wood materials.

• Added edge wear to metal assets.

• Optimised vertex counts on a number of assets.

• Fixed some textures loading at a blurry resolution.

UI and Map

The UI has had a fairly substantial art pass in this patch as we continue to settle on the visual style of the game.

• Full UI art pass with an updated art style.

• New 3D art for the main menu.

• New artwork for the compass.

• Added the compass prompt to the HUD.

• Added a button prompt to the map icon on the HUD.

• Added artwork for the new upgrade tile.

• Added UI sounds to the difficulty selection screen.

Gameplay

The biggest new gameplay addition in this patch is the player compass. This should make navigating the world and keeping track of useful locations a bit easier.

We've also made some changes to quests, conversations and the upgrade flow.

• Added the player compass.

• Set up the new upgrade station card.

• Added a fixed player location during NPC conversations.

• Added a help point to the Generator tile explaining Electricity Connections.

• Updated the Electricity Quest to handle a number of edge cases and objective redirections.

• Fixed issues with lights activating on tiles.

• Fixed graphical issues with background widgets in the pause menu.

• Fixed the Bug Report dialogue in the pause menu.

• Fixed an issue with the Generator cutscene.

• Fixed an issue when quitting to desktop from the pause menu.

Bug Fixes

And, as usual, we've been working through bugs found during development and reported while playing the demo.

• Tutorial enemies could attack from too far away.

• The fight after receiving the first upgrade could start before the upgrade sequence had finished.

• Levers with a usage limit could still be used after reaching their limit.

• Chests could continue appearing on the compass after being opened.

• Using Lightning Strike could prevent further player interactions.

• The player could take damage while the game was paused.

Thanks to everyone who has been playing the demo and sending us feedback and bug reports. We're continuing to work through them while building out and polishing the game.

More to come.