Hi everyone! I've been showing off some of the progress we've been making recently on the hub update... And I'm glad to announce that you can play all of this [b]RIGHT NOW on the beta branch[/b]! If you're not sure how to access the beta branch but want to play right now, you can do the following: [olist] [*] Right click on the game in your Steam library. [*] Open Properties. [*] Click on Betas. [*] Select the "testing" branch. [*] That's it! There should be no code required or anything to access it. If you want to switch to the base version of the game, do the same thing again but select "default branch" as your selected branch. [/olist] Once we're sure that this update is bug free, we'll put it up on the main branch so [b]everyone will be able to play it[/b] without needing to adjust their properties! Also, I just posted a new devlog going over what we've been doing at the studio for the past 6 months (both for Soul Stalker and other games) so watch it below if it sounds interesting to you! [previewyoutube=W9ADfEkGbuU;full][/previewyoutube] Either way, here are the patch notes, it's a huge one: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43508484/3d27c664a2e943722afb1d37dbfad5f25aaa4169.png[/img] [h1]Beta 1.3.0 Patch Notes[/h1] [list] [*] Added the hub world - no longer do you click on menu elements, you can now interact with them in 3D space! [*] Added a new weapon evolution system - the old weapon upgrade system can still be accessed in the weapon shop, but now you can apply unique 1 time evolutions to weapons at campfires! [*] Added the job system - the overworld has a job board that shows 3 randomized runs. These have randomized characters, trinkets, weapons, and locations. Beat these to progress the new gate quest system. They are 1 act long, but the map generation goes longer than usual so in practice they're as long as 1.5 acts. [*] Added many more encounters to regular runs thanks to the extra work we did on job runs. [*] Added gate quests - the overworld has gates that block chest rewards. Complete the quests and get access to them! [*] Added a location system - jobs now have "locations". For instance, you may have a job in Routoxin, so all of the enemies and environments match the poison theme. Another example is Terrisnory, where the enemies and environments match the icy theme. The Journeys (new name for "normal runs") will still have a combination of varied locations. There are currently 7 unique locations, and a total of 16 combat environments (up from the 10 that we had before the update)! [*] Added NPCs! You can talk with them in the overworld and they'll give you tips or lore. [*] Added a "Mixed Shop" node in the map, which shows you both weapons and trinkets. [*] Reduced the game's RAM usage by as much as 90% at times (this one was insane, I might make a video for how it went down on my YouTube channel). [*] Reduced the space that textures take by ~70%, this is why the game is 30% smaller in file size but has ~5x more content and assets. Without the texture reduction, the game likely would've been around 3gb instead of the current 700mb. [*] Improved GPU performance through texture optimization. [*] Added a new character, Gobble - Looking for someone who still owes her some money. Multihits triggered by blue fire can also multihit. [*] Added a new status effect - blue fire. You can double hit enemies by attacking them with a melee attack if they have the blue fire status. [*] Added the Red Fursa enemy - a red panda that has incredibly long dash range. [*] Added the White Fursa enemy - a red panda that has incredibly long dash range. [*] Added the red, green, and white Leaja enemies - ghost leaves that have high health, and try to cut off escape routes. [*] Added a new weapon, Directblade - Slashes enemies in your movement direction, and applies blue fire, which allows melee attacks to multihit. [*] Added a new weapon, Backguarder - Slashes enemies behind you to protect you. [*] Added a new weapon, Prime Fire - Shoots a blast at nearby enemies that applies blue fire, which allows melee attacks to multihit. [*] Added a new trinket, Animal Skull - Using melee attacks on enemies with bleed triggers multihit like blue fire half the time. [*] Added a new trinket, Blue Staff - Increases blue fire chance on attack by 15%, but reduces power by -10%. [*] Added a new trinket, Multithermal Hole - Blue fire deals damage every second. [*] Added a new trinket, Hot Rock - Increases blue fire duration by 0.5s. [*] Added variants of each playable character sprite without the white outline for the overworld. [*] Forge's quest now allows you to progressing by evolving weapons as well. [*] Made it such that Quijano has stat scaling for secondary stats, and is now only restricted in scaling for primary stats. [*] Removed the blinding white glow after you complete a run. [*] Slightly adjusted map generation to make some choices more interesting. [*] Fixed a bug that made it such that hovering over a trinket image in runs sometimes showed untranslated descriptions. [*] Fixed some localization bugs in menus that caused translated text not to show. [*] Fixed bug that caused coins to sometimes give 0 currency in the highest ascension. [*] Fixed bug that caused coins to sometimes fly into the air and remain uncollectable. [/list] Oof that was a big one! I won't go in depth about all the design decisions that went into making this update, but once it's bug-free and on the main branch, I'll post a YouTube devlog going through all of the details so I hope you can enjoy that! One last thing is that you can get a bundle of both Soul Stalker and our other game, Wanted Shadows, for a super nice discount! If you own Soul Stalker, you can get Wanted Shadows for a discount just like that, no catch! So get that in the link below if it interests you! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36217/Rad_Roguelikes/ Anyways, that's it for this update, I look forwards to getting your feedback, and I hope you all enjoy this new version of the game! [i][b][u] P.S. A review would be greatly appreciated, it helps so much :)[/u][/b][/i] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1714240/Soul_Stalker/ - Conrad, Lead Developer