Category: Release

0.7.0 Release Notes

Summary

Welcome to the big ol’ grand ✨ Performance Update ✨. We’ve improved loading, we’ve improved transitions, we’ve improved shaders, surfaces, FPS stability, memory usage – the list goes on! We’ve also added a few QoL changes, a little bit of polish and a bunch of various bug fixes. Plus a bunch of engine upgrades! See the change log for the full list of changes.

It is available to download on Itch, Gamejolt and Steam.

If you come across any issues, please log them here. For more dedicated support feel free to send us a Tweet or DM, message on the Discord Server, or email us.

Change Log

Improvements

  • Drastically improved performance for loading maps, transitioning between screens, etc.
  • Improved performance for shadows, interiors, tall grass, overworld objects and the minimap
  • Improved performance for all entities that use surfaces and shaders
  • Sped up most screen transitions
  • Lengthened the DBattle transition
  • Added a splash screen on startup
  • Lower BGM when ambience is playing
  • Added button hover effects
  • Added party swap animation
  • Made some improvements to SFX
  • Added VFX when running over sand, dirt, water, etc.
  • When gaining items, items that you can use in battle are auto assigned to the battle wheel if there is an empty space
  • Party portraits are now always displayed in the inventory

Fixed

  • Fixed many, many, many issues related to Gamemaker upgrades (70+)
  • Fixed some flickering that may occur when starting cutscenes
  • Fixed confusing minimap arrow in bandit camp
  • Fixed crash when interacting with certain bandits in the bandit camp
  • Fixed an area where you could get stuck and soft-lock in the bandit camp
  • Fixed an area where you could get stuck near wiska forest
  • Fixed some enemy attacks not occurring
  • Fixed the countdown clock showing hours in battles
  • Fixed DBattle music playing after a transition and not before
  • Fixed party members who are not in party any more levelling up and gaining exp in debates
  • Fixed Continue From Save breaking when in a battle triggered by a cutscene
  • Fixed flashing battle bar at the start of TTBattles
  • Fixed use item in inventory not applying when clicking on the characters face
  • Fixed automatic inventory assignment causing duplicate entries
  • Fixed white border on fighters in opening cutscene
  • Fixed action events not visible after valid cutscene without map reload
  • Fixed post cutscene events may run out of order when loading a map
  • Fixed shaders breaking when entering into the menu from inside of a house
  • Fixed an infinite popup that may occur when interacting with a locked door
  • Fixed input may be checked when the window is unfocused
  • Fixed double shader effect inside buildings
  • Fixed laggy skill up button
  • Fixed being able to click on buttons during a screen transition
  • Fixed infinite dialog box popup
  • Fixed minimap crashes
  • Fixed interior crashes
  • Fixed title screen buttons disappearing when pressing back at the start of the game

Other

  • Upgraded Gamemaker to v2023.11.1.160 Runtime
  • Upgraded Steamworks SDK
  • Upgraded DLLs to work with x64 configurations
  • Reimplemented all Debates to use Chatterbox
  • Changed input handling to use Input

0.6.1 Release Notes

Summary

This is a small patch to address a few issues that players have run into with the most recent update.

Please note that there is currently a bug with cutscenes where cutscenes will randomly not complete correctly for different users in different places. We are unable to reproduce, but thanks to the information provided by users we’ve put together a potential fix. Please let us know if this solves the issue, if not please provide us with as much information as possible including save files, videos and screenshots.

It is available to download on Itch, Gamejolt and Steam.

If you come across any issues, please log them here. For more dedicated support feel free to send us a Tweet or DM, message on the Discord Server, or email us.

Change Log

  • Fixed the wishlist button appearing after returning the stolen bread in the Steam Demo
  • Fixed a crash when trying to sleep in Vuni’s Inn
  • Attempted to fix a random cutscene bug that would make it not possible for players to proceed through the game

0.6.0 Release Notes

Summary

It’s been a while since our last demo update. This update focuses on addressing feedback from the last update, adding new assets, and some adjustments and improvements. See the change log for the full changes.

It is available to download on Itch, Gamejolt and Steam.

If you come across any issues, please log them here. For more dedicated support feel free to send us a Tweet or DM, message on the Discord Server, or email us.

Change Log

Added

  • Added more SFX, and added new SFX to existing cutscenes
  • Added a respawn timer to overworld and patrol enemies
  • Added sunset music for Vuni
  • Added an area identifier to the minimap for quest goals within a general area
  • Added animations to flag pole and boat flags
  • Added a tumbleweed animation when no move is made during a TTBattle
  • Added palette swap versions for most enemies
  • Added running animations for most enemies
  • Added a modern font option

Fixed

  • Shop Confirm Button not working
  • Not being able to buy items at the shops
  • Crashes that occurred in some cutscenes near the end of the demo
  • Bomb animation vertical bounce
  • Hours value missing when there was less than 1 hour of play time
  • Adjusted Apple description
  • Skill and Inventory layouts not matching the main menu layout
  • An enemy outside of Wynoa being stuck in a collision when spawned
  • Dodge Shine Animation not playing
  • Both Inn options being highlighted
  • Newly added party members not appearing in the menu
  • Party members losing stats after leaving the party
  • Entering Wiska Forest before you could (players should get less lost now)
  • MSQ were not necessarily being set as the default quest when gained after completing a previous MSQ
  • The last frame of an animation sometimes would not appear in TTBattles
  • World map opening when pressing space
  • Fullscreen mode not working when it was sunset or nighttime
  • Minimap not updating when changing quests in the menu
  • Depth layout ordering for characters in TTBattles
  • Water in Vuni in some places was missing
  • Crashing when trying to experiment

Other

  • Heavily Refactored the TTBattle System & fixed various bugs related to it
  • Heavily Refactored the TTBattle Animation System & fixed various bugs related to it
  • Upgraded Gamemaker to 2.3.3
  • Refactored a few overworld functions to become more efficient so we could put more objects on maps
  • Upgraded Skill, Status & Item Icons with Higher Resolution versions
  • Changed the Debate Battle bubble
  • Removed last save point text from the main menu screen
  • Run mode is now the default upon starting a new game
  • Steam Demo now matches Itch and Gamejolt Demo

0.4.0 Release Notes

Summary

Our Winter Beta Update is now here! This update finishes off the story in Lakure! Look forward to traveling the province, conversing with locals, and convincing Lord Katerina to help you!

This update also contains a large number of technical improvements we made over the summer which were previous released in the demo update a few months ago. Another thing of note is that all of SFX has been redone and updated, and we’ve added some new features like books and eavesdropping.

We recommend making a copy of your save files (the .sqlite files) in your game directory before continuing. There should be no issues, but we do upgrade the files in this release.

If you come across any issues, feel free to send us a Tweet or DM, message on the Discord Server, or shoot us an email. Bug reports and feature requests can also be logged here.

Release Notes

Added

  • Added a number of enemy, player, and equipment name strings to the translation file
  • Added new debate facts
  • Added new debates
  • Added new cutscenes
  • Added new skits
  • Added more SFX, and added new SFX to existing cutscenes
  • Added new item icons
  • Added new audio
  • Added NPCs and houses to Lakure, and unblocked the city
  • Added new character sprites
  • Added books
  • Added eavesdropping events
  • Added new overworld tiles

Fixed

  • Fixed UI briefly appearing after transitioning screens before an event plays
  • Fixed lists accidentally cutting off Text
  • Fixed flashing when starting a cutscene
  • Fixed flashing when changing maps during a cutscene
  • Fixed actors during cutscenes sometimes not appearing
  • Fixed Shop Confirm Button not working

Other

  • Upgraded to Gamemaker 2.3
  • Converted & consolidated all of the cutscenes to a new system
  • Converted & consolidated all of the skits to a new system
  • Refactored how quests are stored and loaded
  • Refactored how debate statements are stored and loaded
  • Redid all of the pre-existing SFX

0.3.1 Release Notes

Summary

It’s been almost one year since we released our graphical overhaul demo! This demo was really big since not only did we redo a TON of assets, we also switched game engines to Gamemaker, adjusted story content, and addressed a lot of feedback.

We’ve been working hard on development since then, and decided to release an update to the demo with all of the improvements we’ve made! We hope you all enjoy it, and maybe find some requested features down below!

It is available to download on Itch, Gamejolt and Steam.

We recommend making a copy of your save files (the .sqlite files) in your game directory before continuing. There should be no issues, but we do upgrade the files in this release.

If you come across any issues, feel free to send us a Tweet or DM, message on the Discord Server, or shoot us an email. Bug reports and feature requests can also be logged here.

Highlights

Status Point Shortcut

We often watch people who post Let’s Plays or do live streams of the game, and something we noticed a LOT was that people would often forget to use their status points they gained when levelling up.

Generally speaking, setting one or two points can make a very big difference in battle, so after going through a whole area, and then facing a boss, you might find yourself in a lot of trouble. In fact, lots of people failed when fighting the first boss battle because they forgot to set points.

Although we have a reminder in the main menu screen, it wasn’t enough, and we wanted to provide an unobtrusive way to remind you about it. So now when you have status points to spend, you will have a shortcut on the HUD to the skills screen beside the main menu icon!

Full Screen Support

Something that was highly requested was the ability to fullscreen the game. A big reason why we haven’t supported it thus far is that Gataela’s UI is not pixelated, while the game itself is. This means that either the pixel art is blurry or the UI is pixelated when scaling.

We took the first step to add this to the game, and it’s now available in the demo!

Please keep in mind this is more “experimental” and will be improved over time, but we hope that this will help those who had difficulty with the smaller windowed size of the game.

Difficulty Options

We’ve started to add difficulty options! Two options that are now available in the demo is “Enemy HP Multiplier” and “Enemy EXP Multiplier”.

If you’re finding turn-based battles take too long, try decreasing the amount of HP the enemies have. If you dislike grinding, increase the amount of EXP you get from battles! These options can be changed at any time while playing, so we hope you can tweak the game to your preferences!

Battle Improvements

We have made a TON of battle improvements within this release such as displaying levels, adding criticals and misses, adding chances to fail escaping from battles among other fixes such as fixing the block and dodge skills, and how stats are used during battle!

Please see the release notes for full details on what sort of changes we’ve made!

Release Notes

Added

  • Added a block animation for when the Block skill plays
  • Added a dodge animation for when the Dodge skill plays
  • Added swapping party members
  • Added a level indicator to enemies in turn-based battles
  • Added NPCs in the market when coming back from Cole’s encounter
  • Added a number of enemy, player, and equipment name strings to the translation file
  • Added new debate facts
  • Added an animation to text boxes when they appear
  • Added Battle Critical Font
  • Added load from save on the game over screen
  • Added color variations for Bandit Girl and Bandit Boy characters
  • Added the ability for enemies to have randomized color variations & ensured they matched the overworld when engaging with them
  • Added dialogue to man outside Vuni’s inn
  • Added a blocker to Wiska Forest to prevent early entry
  • Added a chance to fail escaping
  • Added max and min inventory item counts
  • HP bars will now change color to better reflect remaining percents
  • Added gameover modals
  • Added a short input delay when a text box appears to prevent spamming the button and missing key dialogue
  • When a character levels up, they will gain new skills if appropriate
  • Added a shortcut to adding points to your character’s stats
  • Added Criticals and Misses to battles
  • Added confirm changes modal to a number of menu screens
  • Added new difficulty options: modify the enemy’s EXP and HP values using a multiplier.
  • Skills can level up after use
  • Added first pass of fullscreen mode

Fixed

  • Fixed UI briefly appearing after transitioning screens before an event plays
  • Fixed camera abruptly jumping to follow Rob in opening cutscene
  • Fixed crash in inventory when no items exist
  • Fixed camera during Cole’s encounter from having a tangent with the outside wall
  • Fixed lists accidentally cutting off Text
  • Fixed player sprite ordering issue in mountains near border with chimney
  • Fixed transition bug to the north east of Pharyon
  • Fixed missing boundaries near the mountain flower field
  • Fixed transition bug when heading between the Villa and the Town in Wynoa
  • Fixed main menu opening with interact key
  • Fixed text for post-Wiska Forest quest to be clear where to go in Wynoa
  • Fixed being unable to interact with the innkeep npc or use the inn in Vuni
  • Fixed learned recipes not being saved properly
  • Fixed crafting resulting in the wrong learned recipe
  • Fixed key items not being readded to the crafting grid after experimenting
  • Fixed a bug where you could accidentally soft-lock the game by interacting with the minimap just after starting a cutscene
  • Fixed typo in opening cutscene
  • Fixed player getting stuck when transitioning in to western Wynoa
  • Fixed sprite overlay issue in eastern Wynoa
  • Fixed character walking in place after battles
  • Fixed ambience audio blipping out when transitioning screens
  • Fixed area name continuously appearing when standing on a trigger
  • Fixed hidden collidable objects being interactable
  • Fixed transition bug in mountains
  • Fixed a HMS format bug when playing for over 10 hours
  • Fixed Big Meanie skit not being removed after the relevant quests
  • Fixed Block and Dodge to now work correctly
  • Fixed skill information not being included when calculating battle damage
  • Fixed equipment information not being included when calculating battle stats
  • Fixed boss battles being marked as being escape-able
  • Fixed line beside skit button on the HUD
  • Fixed party members not correctly executing their actions in the right order during battles
  • Fixed shadow appearing wrong in Vuni behind a house
  • Fixed a number of bugs in the Equipment Screen
  • Fixed tile checking for water was incorrect
  • Fixed a potential save crash
  • Fixed flashing when starting a cutscene
  • Fixed flashing when changing maps during a cutscene
  • Fixed actors during cutscenes sometimes not appearing

Other

  • Replaced Battle Damage Font
  • Made running children unstoppable
  • Refactored how quests are stored and loaded
  • Made the Turn Based & Debate Battle Results Screen show all characters that leveled up
  • Updated cutscenes and overworld NPCs to use the new bandit color variations
  • Adjusted some dialogue during the flower hunt quest
  • Upgraded saved files to gain facts in previous cutscenes
  • Upgraded to Gamemaker 2.3
  • Converted & consolidated all of the cutscenes to a new system