It's Finally Time!

After a very busy few months, we are now happy with the feedback and performance of Chapter 5. It's time to release it onto the main branch. Continue to follow in Joan's footsteps after she fled the crypt and into the swamps surrounding the Fir Residence...



This chapter has more enemies, more interactables, more animations and more lore notes than any of the previous chapters. For those achievement hunters out there, we've also added 4 new achievements. One for completing the chapter, one for hunting 10 collectibles and two of which are secret achievements that will require you to think outside of the box...



We *HIGHLY* recommend playing with infinite lives on for your first playthrough as this is by far the longest chapter and follows more of a chapter 3 style of play, having a much slower approach than Chapter 4. Expect 1-3 hours of playtime!

And finally, for those who have already played chapter 5 during public_testing, a big thank you for all of the feedback you gave us on discord. For those who played early-on, we recommend giving it another go! There's been some significant changes and many of the issues people had, have since been addressed.

The Sewer

We are also releasing the sewer for the cases gamemode. This map is dark and claustrophobic like the crypt. Expect to see some familiar faces as well as a new monster!

Labyrinthine OST Available on Youtube

Players have heavily requested that we release the music from the game on youtube. We took some time out to fulfill the request and you can now find the entire (current) soundtrack here: Labyrinthine OST Playlist

Discord, Discord, Discord!

Finally, we just want to extend our discord invites out to more players. Quite a lot of players don't realise that we have an official discord. It's a great place to interact with us directly as well as meet other players and discuss the game. We love hearing what people liked and disliked as well as what they want to see in the game. We regularly chat to players about their suggestions and many things have been taken on-board for the game. So if you're a fan of the game, please hop in and say hello!

Valko Game Studios Official Discord

Changelog

** Please note, these are just the changes we've recorded. There has been a ton of smaller performance tweaks and bug fixes that have gone under the radar **

- Chapter 5 released
- Added the sewers map to the cases gamemode. It is available from level 5
- Added new monster to cases, found only in the sewers
- Changed how light sources work. They will now follow the direction the player looks much more accurately while being smoother and less "clunky". The lantern will now swing and act more like a real lantern
- Fixed skeletons in Chapter 4 not moving
- Player heads now rotate when looking up and down
- Added a small light that appears when being killed so you don't just see a "black screen"
- Reviving is now much more consistent
- The male teen character has been re-rigged to look less like a gorilla
- To help reduce the disparity in sizes, we've added a very large and very small size
- You should now only ever have one Large / Very Large / Giant maze. You will also always have at least 1 Small or Very Small maze which makes quick runs easier
- Reworked how we handle networking once in-game, should fix issues with "endless loading screens"
- Fixed issue where the fog could intensify when going back to the lobby
- Improved jumping so players should "float" less
- Nameplates now only appear when close
- Localisation should now default for some system languages
- Added a black plane to pumpkins to make them look less "derpy" when worn
- Slightly raised the chance for Cornfields/Sewer to appear at lv5
- Fixed an issue where looking at effigies could leave a spyglass on screen
- Fixed a bug where bleedout UI could disappear when reviving other players
- Improved player camera control
- Tweaked player animations when being killed
- Altered camera positions
- Removed patrol points from main corridor of Chapter 2
- Fixed a crate being the wrong scale in Chapter 2
- Fixed several issues around reviving
- Added collision detection during animations (you shouldn't be thrown through a wall now)
- Fixed an issue with the spectate cam during kill animations
- Fixed an issue where you could be killed in spawn
- Added flashlight animations for other players
- Added checks to prevent monsters killing you when a solid object is between you and them
- Added blood to most monster kills
- Fixed the stalk music in spectator mode
- Improved the AI when there is no available spot to move
- Added light "zone" around cauldron in the forest
- Removed "danger" from the contracts (confused people too much)
- Added lives to case files in lobby
- Improved fall detection to try reduce the amount of floating
- Improved player controls to prevent getting stuck in a lot of situations
- Fixed an issue where sometimes your player would disappear when looking at certain angles
- Changed the "cannot interact" cursor from a magnifying glass to a cancelled cog (inspect icon is still a magnifying glass)
- Fixed an issue where it was difficult to get through certain doors or under objects
- Fixed an issue where Thai (possibly some other) players would have issues with no xp at the end of a contract
- Fixed an issue where monsters could "get inside you"
- Fixed an issue where exits could sometimes be unreachable
- Fixed an issue where snow could stop when being revived in certain places on the snowy hedges
- Fixed an issue arising from being in a menu when spectating
- Added snow footsteps for most monsters
- Fixed an issue where you could get stuck examining
- Fixed some navigation issues in the tight hedges
- Made the seed text more obvious at higher resolutions
- Fixed a navigation issue that could occur near the safe zones in the crypt
- Added analytics so we can see where players struggle
- Fixed several issues with lighting in the crypt
- Added a lobby filter (only a few racial slurs currently)
- Fixed an issue where cases could re-roll when exiting back to the lobby
- Fixed an issue where you could become immune to monsters
- You no longer get the chapter 4 achievement for completing chapter 3
- Fixed players floating above ground slightly
- Reduced sway on crouch animation
- Reduced cooldown on stunning the snow witch
- Fixed weather for spectators (currently only in the snowy hedges)
- Fixed a navigation issue in the cages landmark in cases gamemode crypts
- Fixed an issue with pigman's charge cooldown
- Added an angle check for the pigman's stun
- Added a new puzzle to the crypts in cases
- Fixed an issue that could cause examinable objects to get "stuck" in the world
- Improved player's ability to climb onto objects
- Fixed an issue that could cause monsters to get stuck in an animation loop
- Added Reflections to the options menu
- Added a cooldown to monster screams to prevent situations where there's a constant amount of noise
- Several changes to options when using lower quality settings
- Fixed some animation issues when respawning
- Fixed a problem with the camera being tilted for the host in Chapter 4
- Fixed bug where examining could make you float in air.
- Fixed a few materials
- Fixed a crash that could occur
- Improved examining and made the return animation smoother
- Added Czech language
- Fixed the "shininess" of the fur hat
- The mausoleum floor in chapter 3 now falls for everyone
- Added stone material to Mausoleum in Chapter 3