Hey everyone,
Over here at October Games Drake and I have been hard at work developing a new update for Horror Legends. The update will feature some big changes that will drastically change and improve how the game is played. We are very excited and wanted to communicate with you on some of the changes we have been working on.
Doors
Doors will now open both ways and will always open away from the way you are facing.
We received a lot of feedback from players that they did not enjoy doors opening only 1 way and we agreed that even though it’s less realistic, it provides much better gameplay.
If you crouch and open a door it will open silently
we felt like this was something important to HL as there was never a way to open doors silently but now all of those players looking for more stealthy gameplay will have fun with this one ;)
Some Doors will have deadbolt locks on them that you will be able to lock and unlock.
we always had the intention of adding this, without it cast don’t have many options when getting chased and now they will have opportunities to quickly close and lock a door on a legend.
Some Doors will require a key or a special tool to unlock.
We felt this was essential to horror legends going forward, We wanted to have the ability to lock certain powerful weapons and items behind these doors like the silver sword to kill the werewolf as one example. It also allows us to create sections of a map, buildings, or rooms that can only be accessed by finding a key which creates a mini objective to progress to these areas.
Keys and Tools
Keys can now be found on the map to unlock specific doors.
Some Doors might require a special tool like bolt cutters to open for example.
Knockback Mechanic
Certain attacks and weapons can now knock back a player pushing them in the direction the attacking player is facing.
This Mechanic is so cool, using the bat to knock back Killer Kieth just feels so good, it gives certain attacks so much more utility and it's just one more way a player can save themselves in a chase.
Here are some of the Items and attacks that have a knockback
- Shove
- Bat
- Pitchfork
- Shotgun
- Revolver
Movement Speed Damage
We now have the ability to create weapons, attacks, and aoe abilities / zones that will slow your movement speed. At this time we have yet to implement this in any specific way but some ways we have talked about implementing it are on Killer Kieth’s Attacks and his gas cloud.
Jumping
When you are out of stamina you will still be able to jump.
This change was a lot more complicated than it seems, jumping will still deplete your stamina but you’ll be able to jump when you have no stamina. We knew it was frustrating not being able to jump out of the lava in the dream realm if you fell in with no stamina. This change should help players platform and run from the legend by jumping up hay bails and into a window if you are out of stamina.
Jumping now has a very very short cooldown to prevent bunny hopping.
Bunning hopping was never intended for our game as it looks and feels unrealistic, the cooldown is very short and shouldn't really be noticeable also providing a more realism as you can’t really jump consecutively very fast in real life. We have the ability to change what this cooldown will be, our plan is to find a sweet spot that prevents bunning hoping while still feeling fluid and nice.
Stamina
We are reworking the Stamina system, Giving players a lot more stamina but having the stamina regeneration rate be a lot slower. We are hoping that this will make players use their stamina more wisely and also incentivize them to walk and couch more as you will need to do this to regen your stamina. This also means that items that regen your stamina will be a lot more useful while attacks that deplete stamina will be a lot more effective. This will be a big change and we will keep a close eye on how this plays out.
Stealth
We are thinking about ways to shift horror legends to have more elements of stealth gameplay to it. Right now the balance is heavily focused on finding items and the objective as quickly as possible. We want to provide players another avenue to achieve these same tasks but from a stealthy perspective. We will be keeping an eye and talking about how we can do this going into the future so along with doors opening silently when crouched, we have reduced the audio of the walking and crouch footstep volumes for all characters. (mind you the discrepancy of volume between characters will still remain depending on their stealth stat value).
Animations
We are currently remastering all of the Cast’s third person animations.
Maps
New Map Salvage Yard The Birthplace of Killer Keith, littered with jun, filth, and an ominous fog that looms over the yard. You'll be unsure of what will be lurking around each corner. The map will be a perfect addition as it's layout and feel is like any other that is currently in game.
Farmhouse has had a massive redesign to its vegetation, There were issues that the old vegetation was causing on performance and we are hoping that this map will be much more optimized now. The corn-maze has changed and there are updates to some of the buildings on the map to make the map more interesting and have more character.
Cabin has also had a big redesign in its vegetation, the same performance issues were plaguing the cabin. Also several points of interest have been added to the map to give it more character.
New Playable Cast Member
You will now be able to play as the raver that is featured in the pregame mode.
Corey Sisley
New AI
We have added an AI companion to Corey’s kit; another Corey posing as one of her decoys. If a Cast Member is in range it will attack them revealing them to the Legend. We have been keeping a close eye on Corey, her kit has taken a hit after we had to remove players turning into Corey’s when they die, this decoy change will help her tracking a lot and should add some spook, we have been looking at ways reintroduce dead players turning into Coreys
Character Controller update
Players will no longer be able to stick to and climb steep walls.
We never wanted players to be able to do this and it was just a by-product of the system we had. We have finally been able to update our programming to reflect this change.
Spectator Mode
Players will now be able to spectate games; by pressing escape and clicking the spectate option in the menu screen or in the character select screen.
This feature has been long overdue and we know many of you have been asking for it!
Items spawn system
The Item spawn system has had a massive overhaul. Now each match there will be a much more random set of items you are given. The way our old system worked wasn’t reliable and limited us from what we could ultimately do. We will have the ability to create much more random and interesting spawn sets for each map making each match feel a bit more unique.
Your feedback is so important to us and we want to thank all of you who have expressed your opinions. We encourage you to keep providing feedback. Any thoughts about this preview please share them on our discord. The projected timeline for these features is undetermined but hopefully in the month of May you can expect to see these updates. If you’re interested in testing some of the features sooner, we will be releasing a test build in the coming weeks. So stay tuned and we really appreciate everyone who helps us test the game!
Nicholas Haye a.k.a Spectral Fields
Game Designer / Music Composer