Shattered Haven:Beta Release Notes

Official 1.505

(This hasn't been released yet. We're still working on it.)

Official 1.504

(Released January 5, 2015)

• Since 2010 when we switched to the Unity 3D engine, we've been using their WWW class to load images from the disk asynchronously. However, in more recent versions of unity it's been a case where for a small number of people, if they had multiple network adapters on their machine, then the WWW loads from their own disk would load incredibly slowly. We didn't know until now what exactly caused that.
  • We've now created a new internal ArcenAsyncFile class that is our own implementation of the asynchronous disk calls (and will later be extended for network calls as well). This has been tested on windows, osx, and ubuntu, and it not only works, but seems to load noticeably faster than before. This should also bypass the issue that the WWW class had with getting oddly slow (if it doesn't, then something _seriously_ strange is going on, as they have almost no code in common).
  • Thanks to Vanreis for the latest report, and figuring out that this was related to the number of network adapters.

• The WWW class is no longer used for checking for game updates, but instead the new ArcenAsyncFile is now used.
  • This _should_ provide more fault tolerance when programs like AVAST want to kill the ability of the game to check for updates. Knock on wood!

• A further change has been made to dramatically increase the speed of loading of images from the disk.

Official 1.503

(Released August 4, 2014)

• Due to some sort of glitch on linux with Unity 3D RenderTextures and Graphics.DrawImage (as opposed to Graphics.DrawMeshNow), previously if you were in fullscreen mode in linux with any resolution other than your desktop resolution, then the game would show a black background instead of the world itself.
  • We tried resolving this by using Graphics.DrawMeshNow, which worked fine on windows aside from some flickering that we could have chased down. But on Linux that caused enormous amounts of lag, so that was basically a no-go.
  • Therefore, the game now starts in windowed mode on linux rather than in fullscreen mode (windowed mode always works fine), and for fullscreen resolutions it now only lets you select your desktop resolution on linux. Apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause, but due to the nature of how Shattered Haven draws its complex backgrounds, this is required (none of our other games use RenderTextures in this way, as they don't have so many different tiles all over the screen).

Official 1.502

(Released July 28, 2014)

• Fixed three differing images that were not showing up properly on linux due to case-sensitivity conflicts. Also checked all the other images to make sure there were no further issues of this sort.
  • Thanks to jonasan for reporting.

• Put in some safety code that should prevent bad detection of first keypresses on linux in the unity engine. This is kind of a hackish workaround based on apparently it not working correctly with some drivers and the unity 3d engine at some times, so this may not fully address the issue; if not, we'll have to try again, as we can't directly duplicate it.
  • Thanks to jonasan for reporting.

Official 1.501

(Released July 17, 2014)

• Fixed an issue where the linux versions were not able to set their screen resolution.
  • Thanks to GuardianTce for reporting.

Official 1.500 Linux Support!

(Released July 11, 2014)

• Fixed an issue where in the Prison area in Stantonsburg you could actually get over to the squid's area. There is now a ravine blocking that.
  • Additionally fixed the prison doors that were confusingly breakable with the sledge hammer, but led nowhere. These are now unbreakable metal doors.
  • Thanks to UltimateChaos for suggesting.

• In the Prison in Stantonsburg, the cutscene trigger area is now far larger, and then moves your characters into the appropriate position. This way players who did not think to go south will automatically trip the cutscene anyway, and then be able to progress.
  • Thanks to Shakura Jolithion and UltimateChaos for suggesting.

• The Unity engine (that runs the game) has been updated to version 4.2. For the most part this has no effect, although it does allow us to create a Linux version of the game for the first time.

• Since a lot of people have been missing when there are updates are available in the play menu, a message now shows right in the upper left corner of the main menu screen when there are updates available, telling you how many there are and to go into the play menu to see and download them.

• The new, faster, cross-OS updater that we first debuted in The Last Federation has now been brought to Shattered Haven.

• The OSX build is now universal (32bit or 64bit), rather than just being 32bit.

• Linux support (32bit and 64bit) has been added!

• A new and more attractive circular game icon has been created for the game.

Official 1.013 Shingen Entryway

(Released July 6, 2013)

• Fixed an issue where in rare circumstances if you just happened to get killed at the wrong time, you could get stuck in the mines without being able to get past the purple line of doors.
  • Thanks to Attckcat for reporting.

• If Pierce has died, then the entrance to the Shingen Research Facility is now completely sealed off, without even having a door on the front of it. Pierce has to be alive for you to take this route.

• The first screen of the interior of the Shingen Research Facility has now been partially completed. You can see the cutscene for entering the facility now, and you can see a message on the ground that tells you that currently this area is under construction and will be finished in a future update.
  • Thanks to Attckcat for again getting stuck. ;)

Official 1.012 Flying High

(Released June 12, 2013)

• Added in the names of our Alpha testers and other players who have contributed more than 3 bugs/ideas that made changes in the game credits.
  • Really sorry we didn't get to this sooner.
  • Thanks to greywolf22 for pointing out that we hadn't done this yet.

• Switched the balloon in Hot Air, Deep Woods to be the faster variant rather than the slow one.

• Fixed up the hot air balloons so that they once again properly pass over non-wall obstructions (so things like trees). The lack of this was making the bonus level Hot Air, Deep Woods impossible.
  • Thanks to Shakura Jolithion for reporting.

• Updated the glass water jars so that they no longer trigger until the enemy is literally right on top of the same tile that they are on. This way, the puddle that appears will instantly hit the enemy in question, dealing damage if it would deal damage.
  • Previously, sometimes grays would trigger these in a way that they would get hit by the puddle, and sometimes not. This was most apparent of an issue in Recent Dead Red Alert.
  • Thanks to Zeyurn for reporting.

Official 1.011

(Released April 16, 2013)

• Fixed a bug with enemy movement that was introduced in the prior version.
  • Thanks to Case for reporting.

Official 1.010 Squid Anomaly

(Released April 16, 2013)

• Fixed an issue where at extremely low framerates (well under 20 FPS, particularly noticeable around 5fps) some of the scripting movements could get messed up and into an infinite loop. Having an FPS this low is a problem on its own, usually caused by using an unsupported OS or having something else strange going on like forced vsync from graphics driver software, etc.
  • Thanks to Krautwalderen!! for reporting.

• Made some minor improvements to a certain script in the Ivanwood Marsh for the sake of story consistency.

• Fixed a minor typo in a cutscene in the deadlands.
  • Thanks to Aquohn for reporting.

Official 1.009 Tiki Escape

(Released April 2, 2013)

• Fixed an issue where combination paper doors could not be properly unlocked by empty-handed actions from the inside of themselves, thus locking players in to the new bonus levels from the prior version if they happened to be in the two levels in question.
  • Thanks to johnpeat and an anonymous player for reporting.

• Updated the Tiki Island level to use a different kind of water so that the canoe works properly in it (there was an issue from this based on some past game changes making it no longer possible).
  • Also added bonus objectives to this while we were at it.
  • Thanks to Winge for reporting.

Official 1.008 Bonus Speed

(Released April 1, 2013)

• Snow Hill has had its doors updates to that players should no longer get stuck if they leave and come back at the wrong time.
  • Thanks to nas1m and Cube for reporting.

• Fixed a minor visual issue in Venetian Slow Pursuit with black lines in the water.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• The Phoenix Forest has had two of its levels turned into bonus levels: Crazed Meadow and Switch Maze.
  • Each of these now requires that you come back with different combination papers sometime in the future. This lets you get to Stantonsburg and more interesting levels faster, and contributes to an earlier sense of mystery on the overworld.
  • Thanks to johnpeat for inspiring this change.

• Fixed an issue where if you went into the mines and then exited, you could be barred from going back into them from a lack of blue keys.
  • Thanks to suigfdhuibsyret for reporting.

• Minor typo in Snow Hill fixed.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• There was a room in Snow Hill that had a paper talking about the sickles in the room when there were bullets instead. Fixed.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• Fixed up some scripting at the Stantonsburg shop so that certain of Jackson's text doesn't appear prematurely.
  • Thanks to jerith for reporting.

Official 1.007 Wrath Of Doors

(Released March 29, 2013)

• The shadow thieves in the Forsaken Home now also steal your shovel (so THAT's how people were getting that in the overworld).

• The shadow thieves now show up outside the Forsaken Home to steal your stuff if you take the poison pill or otherwise restart in the overworld with your items, skipping the normal spot where they accost you.
  • Thanks to Aquohn for reporting.

• Once you have pushed the boulder away a single time in the marsh, it disappears after you re-enter the level.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting how that could cause the player to get stuck in the boulder for a few seconds.

• All of Alden Ridge has been updated so that it won't lock players who are re-loading the game.
  • Thanks to Jab2565, Melisma and Aquohn for reporting.

• Fixed an issue where a certain jail cell in snow hill could grab you and trap you forever.
  • Thanks to Cube for reporting.

Official 1.006 Balloon Flight

(Released March 26, 2013)

• Updated the second grave next to Juan's grave in the Ivanwood Marsh to give a hint as to the path to the last level in the Marsh.
  • Thanks to skell and Billick for reporting how hard that was to find.

• Fixed an issue with Thunder Valley where it was possible to cross one screen to another so close to a pit that you'd fall in the pit immediately on entering a screen and thus get stuck in the upper left corner because you'd never been standing on a valid spot.
  • Thanks to Aquohn for reporting.

• Clarified the hints on the Volcano Rock Path even further. You have to go around to the left to get to the portal, not from the east.
  • Thanks to Melisma and nas1m for reporting.

• Adjusted the farm level so that you can easily bait a certain kingsnake without having to have incredible reflexes.
  • Thanks to wololoh, nas1m, and FroBodine for suggesting.

• Put a hint paper into the Alden Ridge - Railway Mountains area.
  • Thanks to Aquohn for inspiring this change.

• Once you've opened the purple door on the Alden Ridge - Hot Air Balloon Pad building, it now remembers and leaves it open for you from then on.
  • Thanks to Aquohn for reporting.

• Fixed a recent bug in Volcano Rock Path where, thanks to the placement of the pillars, the path in the south had accidentally become impassible!
  • Thanks to Melisma for reporting.

• Improved the hot air balloons so that they properly go over roofs and ceilings, and do not cause buildings to lift their roofs off.

• Added a new vehicle! Fast hot air balloon, which moves much faster. These are now used in Alden Ridge.

• Fixed a bug that was preventing players from moving between sublevels when in the hot air balloon.
  • Thanks to Aquohn for reporting.

• Fixed a level design issue where one of the screens in Alden Ridge woudl cause the player 2 follower to disappear.
  • Thanks to Aquohn for reporting.

• NPCs can no longer wake up frozen grays at all.
  • Thanks to Jab2565 for reporting.

Official 1.005 Stantonsburg's Revenge

(Released March 25, 2013)

• Fixed the switch maze to actually have two points items in it.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• Fixed the incorrect description of the eyeball snakes.
  • Thanks to jerith for reporting.

• Fixed an issue that was allowing players to get into the main part of snow hill if they took the mines path. You're not supposed to be able to get into there at all, but rather go directly to Alden Ridge after the central wastes if you take that path.
  • Thanks to Jab2565 for reporting.

• Made it so that "destroyed" roof tiles don't interfere with the interior lighting, as that was leading to some odd effects in places like Jackson's shop.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• The "sliding around obstacles" code has always worked while walking (as opposed to running), however the sliding code always uses a fraction of your normal movement speed and when walking that was so slow as to not really be very useful. Now it uses the same proportional speed as if you were running.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• Previously if you didn't encounter Zombie Mom in Stantonsburg until it was already dark out, you wouldn't be able to see her actions. Now she has light around her like a player. The same is also now true of Shadow Man.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• In Stantonsburg, if the overworld area is complete it now automatically opens the red and purple doors for you. Thus it's impossible to get stuck at them in situations like New Game Plus.
  • Thanks to Jab2565 for reporting.

• Fixed the RockOutCropGray and Brown to make it so that nimble enemies can no longer jump over them. This was making the Children's Mountain Maze level way more difficult than it was supposed to be!

• Fixed an issue in Alden Ridge where the shovel could let you get to the final boss prematurely!
  • Thanks to Jab2565 for reporting.

• Fixed an issue where it was possible to get trapped behind the yellow door in the mines.
  • Thanks to Winge for reporting.

• Fixed a bug in the prior version where the player 2 stand-in NPC could carry boats into really strange non-water places.
  • Thanks to nas1m and Aquohn for reporting.

• Fixed an issue where the player 2 NPC stand-in could trigger frozen grays to come alive.
  • Thanks to Jab2565 and Winge for reporting.

• Improved the game to detect three more conditions where the compositing buffers could get corrupted and display really wrong (hitting F3 always is a solution to fixing this manually, but the game should auto-detect these wherever possible).
  • Whenever the game regains focus after not having had it (such as being minimized).
  • Whenever the game's fullscreen status is changed via external means such as Alt+Enter.
  • Whenever the game was active but then a computer was put into sleep or hibernation mode, and then reopened.
  • Thanks to Aquohn and Nargasse for reporting.

• Fixed another issue in The Farm that would keep people playing 2-player mode from completing it.
  • Thanks to MaxAstro for reporting.

• Updated the Shadow Children in the Forsaken Home to only pop out at you when you are closer to the exit.
  • Thanks to nas1m for suggesting.

• In early Stantonsburg, there were a number of broken bridges that could be pointlessly repaired, one of which actually caused some problems when that was done. Fixed so that they are now a new "broken wood" foreground object, which cannot be interacted with.
  • Thanks to MaxAstro for reporting.

• Fixed a scripting issue in Stantonsburg where you could have Shadow Man disappear inappropriately soon if you visited him from the main town area and stepped on a certain tile.
  • Thanks to MaxAstro for reporting.

• In the boss level in Stantonsburg, the area you first started on no longer collapses into the abyss, because that causes problems in two-player mode in certain circumstances.
  • Thanks to MaxAstro for reporting.

• The scene with Zombie Mom near the shop in Stantonsburg no longer can trigger at all until you beat the boss, rather than as soon as that overworld area is complete.
  • Thanks to MaxAstro for inspiring this change.

• There is a new post-release demo adventure that we use at tradeshows, and that you can use if you just want a quick taste of the game or to show a friend a quick taste.'

• The Deadly Garden now has darker grass to make the trees easier to see. Also, replaced bright weeds with dead ones.

• Fixed Evening at the Office to corral Crazed Grays away from narrow entrance hall. Also, wall/ceiling tweaks.

Official 1.004 Gunfight With An Eyeball Snake

(Released March 22, 2013)

• Fixed an issue in the level The Farm where it was impassible in co-op mode.
  • Thanks to MaxAstro for reporting.

• Added a new boss level in the Ivanwood Marsh (which you can see Chris creating in the recent developer let's play videos).

• In situations where the player 2 follower was getting stuck "walking on water" (these were rare), the player 2 follower now gets into a canoe instead.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Fixed the gray spawners using old terminology of "dead" instead "gray" in the encyclopedia.
  • Thanks to MaxAstro for reporting.

• In the bonus objectives, nicer encyclopedia-style names for the monsters and weapons and such are now used, instead of their internal names as shown in the level editor.
  • Thanks to MaxAstro for suggesting.

• Fixed an issue where it was not possible to use the d-pad on a gamepad to select between the two options after you had died (the analog stick worked, just not the d-pad).
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Fixed a minor issue where you could lay items while falling into water or pits.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• During the reduction of the tutorial in the prior version, the inventory controls explanation was unintentionally excluded. Now it is explained right after the first remarks about the iron tacks.
  • Thanks to Oralordos for reporting.

• Fixed an issue in the last couple of versions where the comic panel cutscenes were not showing if they were not part of a preload script. Gah!
  • Thanks to Oralordos for reporting.

• Added a new Player2FollowerClose foreground object.

• In the latter part of the second section of the tutorial, the Player2FollowerClose is now used so that it's not so hard when you're playing solo as Lela.
  • Thanks to Oralordos for reporting.

• Improved the wording of the bonus objectives again to not use the term "of type," which was overly wordy and overly technical-sounding.
  • Thanks to MaxAstro for suggesting.

• Fixed an issue from the prior version that was causing the lighting model to flicker, particularly when vsync was off.
  • Thanks to Jab2565 and Oralordos for reporting.

Official 1.003 Brevity Is The Soul Of Wit

(Released March 21, 2013)

• Fixed an issue where some "random tracking" enemies, most notably crazed grays, could sometimes get stuck and stop walking.

• Greatly improved the contrast on thorns, so that they are not so invisible.

• Greatly cut down the intro tutorial, so that you get to the real game faster. This isn't cutting out any relevant story bits, it's just cutting out tutorializing that was a bit on the excessive side.

• Fixed a textual overrun in the primary objectives in the goal screen.
  • Thanks to Pepisolo for reporting.

• The primary objective in the two tutorials screen is now customized to tell you what to do.

Official 1.002 Mind The Gap!

(Released March 21, 2013)

• Fixed an issue with the airport in Alden Ridge that would trap players.
  • Thanks to Conradtoid and Professor Paul1290 for reporting.

• In the volcano rock path level, the red chaser bats are now limited to one per screen in solo play, and only have two bats per screen in multiplayer.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for suggesting.

• Updated the volcano rock path level to have more obvious visual hints as to where some of the secret passages are.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for suggesting.

• There is now a "view encyclopedia" keybind for P1 and P2, default bound to keyboard key H, and default unbound on the gamepads.
  • This is useful for players who don't want to have to touch the mouse.
  • Thanks to nas1m for suggesting.

• Fixed a level design minor issue in volcano rock path where a ceiling was being displayed where a wall was supposed to be.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Updated magma spots to no longer show up higher than the player, as that looked pretty strange.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Ported over the improved keybinding screens from Valley 2, with the two gamepad mappings (axis and buttons) combined into one mapping line item. This is far less confusing!
  • Thanks to MaxAstro for reminding us to do this.

• Updated Lela's text in the second part of the tutorial to make it clear that you can't get back across the broken bridge, so you have to travel separately.
  • Thanks to MaxAstro and Mick for suggesting.

• While your character is walking (as opposed to running), they will no longer be able to fall in pits, deep water, lava, step on mines, magma spots, etc.
  • This helps to make it so that you don't need such precision if you're able to go slow and take your time—but of course when you must run because of an earthquake, or grays chasing you or what have you, this isn't an option!
  • Thanks to Penumbra for suggesting.

• Fixed an issue where the lighting would briefly flash off when first looking under a new roof.
  • Thanks to Penumbra for reporting.

• Updated Arlene's text in Stantonsburg to reflect the fact that she is not going to give you the purple key unless you first talk to Willis, because this was confusing many players who were on their second run through Stantonsburg and were expecting her to give you the key right from the start.
  • Thanks to Cyprene for inspiring this change.

• Fixed a bug where pressing down in the player 2 inventory would jump you around wrongly in the inventory.

• Fixed a minor graphical issue where the costs in stores would flash on the screen when the screen was scrolling from one to another.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Corrected an outdated reference in the tutorial to "both hands being full.
  • Thanks to madcow for reporting.

• The Tools section of the encyclopedia has been split into several subcategories to keep it from going off of the screen on smaller screen resolutions.
  • Thanks to Aklyon for reporting.

• The Other Foreground section of the encyclopedia has been split into several subcategories to keep it from going off of the screen on smaller screen resolutions.
  • Thanks to Aklyon for reporting.

• Fixed an issue with leaving the rainy ruins level where you'd appear on the shore rather than in your canoe in the water.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Updated the door to the east village in snow hill to properly remember when you've unlocked it, so that you don't have to get the key repeatedly.
  • Thanks to Jab2565 for reporting.

• Fixed a couple of typos that occur when you first entered the central wastes.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• After a new encyclopedia entry has been unlocked, this becomes the default page that the encyclopedia opens to the next time you open the encyclopedia. After the first viewing, the encyclopedia opens like normal again. If you unlock several entries in a row, only the last entry is what is opened to.
  • Thanks to Penumbra for suggesting.

• As you cycle through your inventory, the last item you selected now shows a tooltip for what it is, without you having to open the encylopedia entry for it.
  • Thanks to James Allen for suggesting.

Official 1.001 Dual Control

(Released March 19, 2013)

• Fixed a bug where if a level did not have any scripting attached to it, then monsters and other foreground objects could become concealed in background objects during regular gameplay. This was evidenced in Rainy Industrial Site in particular. Also this caused things like item drops to sometimes become hidden in the background objects, which was not correct.
  • Thanks to Professor Paul1290, mrhanman, and Winge for reporting.

• In the canoe trip level, the shadow children now only take your tacks when you get closer to the exit. This prevents you from accidentally straying into their territory when you're just trying to finish the level.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Fixed a bug that was causing comic panel cutscenes that were triggered by preload scripts to not be properly marked as complete, and which therefore would cause them to display each time you reloaded the level they were in.
  • Thanks to benjamrom and mrhanman for reporting.

• Added actual functionality to the "New" button in the level editor. Now you don't have to do that via the file system!

• The game now has alternate bindings for the movement directions, which are now automatically bound to the D-pad on the 360 controller. This lets you swap back and forth at will between the D-pad and the analog stick.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for suggesting.

Official 1.000 First Official!

(Released March 18, 2013)

• Tweaked the draw offsets of players, grays, and NPCs such that their feet won't ever stick out of roofs over windows or silly things like that.

• Added a new scripting command: SETMUSICONENTIRELEVEL
  • (args: MusicFile) - Set the music to a new type on all the sublevels in the current level.

• Non-voiceover cutscenes with comic panels have been added at the start of Central Wastes and Alden Ridge.

• Added follower NPC variants of Lela and Pierce, for use in the late game.

• Fixed an issue where sometimes the player-2-standin NPC follower could get stuck in trees or water or whatever when moving between sublevels.

• When the squid follower, or pierce or lela follower, move between levels or sublevels following you, they now behave like the player-2-standin does and move to your exact position.

• Calling PLAYER2NPCWANDER, PLAYER2NPCFOLLOW, or FGTRANSFORM scripts now causes anything that was chasing the old form to start chasing the new form instead.

• When you go through a tunnel and there are friendly entities chasing you, they now also go through the tunnel.

• PLAYER2NPCWANDER previously only worked with MalePlayerFollower and FemalePlayerFollower. Now it also works with Player2Follower.

• Put in code that should fix the issue with objects sometimes not being concealed properly in the background tiles they should be concealed in.
  • Several players reported this, and we could see in the code what was wrong, but we could never duplicate this reliably so it's not something we're 100% positive is fixed. If you see it again, please let us know, but it does seem to be fixed.
  • Thanks to mrhanman and... several other folks we couldn't find the references for in mantis.

• The whip is now a little easier to use over ravines.

• Fixed a bug in stantonsburg where when the area was first complete and the weather changed, the weather would be late in changing on the screen you were first on (whatever level you emerged from when it told you the overworld section was complete).
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• Overworld areas are no longer flagged as complete if they don't have any levels in them. This lets us create overworld levels that don't have any levels in them.

• Fixed an issue where lately slowing objects on the overworld have been slowing you twice as much as they should have been.

• New scripting command: BGEXPLODEVISUALONLY
  • (args: TileNumber ExplosionType) Show the visuals of an explosion at a specific tile location of your choice. Audio and destruction to be scripted separately.
  • ExplosionType: Torpedo, FireFlareup, SeaMineExplosion, GrenadeExplosion, BombExplosion.

• Added a new SquidMonsterFast, SquidMonsterBlazingFast, and Player2FollowerFast, both for use in specific cutscenes.

• Nimble monsters are no longer slowed by walking over objects that are normally slowing.

• The giant squid is now nimble and strong.

• Added two new scripting commands: MOVEP1 and MOVEP2.
  • Both of these are just variants of MOVEFG, but are needed since you never know quite where P1 and P2 are.

• Added two new scripting commands: REMOVEP1 and REMOVEP2.
  • Both of these are just variants of FGREMOVE, but are needed since you never know quite where P1 and P2 are.

• New scripting command: FGREMOVEIFOVERRAVINE
  • (args: OrigTileNumber ) Remove the foreground tile that started at the specified position, if it is over a ravine.

• FGTRANSFORM and similar now preserve the original starting tile of the tile that is being transformed. The fact that that was not happening was leading to some real head-scratching before.

• Shadow Man no longer stops blocking the north Stantonsburg gate until the boss has been defeated.

• Added a new NaturalLightDim object.

• New script command: MARKOTHERSCRIPTASCOMPLETE
  • (args: LevelNumber Sublevel ScriptTitle) mark a different script as complete.

• Added a new script command: CLEARBOTHINVENTORIES
  • Completely clear both player inventories.

• Fixed a bug that was causing enemies to be able to chase the wrong player when one was passively following!

• A scripting error in the last version had actually made the deadlands impossible. Fixed.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting this.

• The level editor is now available for general use by any player!

• Added two new scripting commands:
  • MOVEMALEPLAYER - (args: DestTileNumNumber, Speed) - Move the male player directly to the specified background tile. Execution of other commands in this script will continue after the tile reaches its destination. Note: use a speed of 0 to use the default speed of the entity.
  • MOVEFEMALEPLAYER - (args: DestTileNumNumber, Speed) - Move the female player directly to the specified background tile. Execution of other commands in this script will continue after the tile reaches its destination. Note: use a speed of 0 to use the default speed of the entity.

• Lots and lots (and lots) of cutscene work in the final portion of the game. Mostly in Alden Ridge, but also... well, it's a secret.

• Fixed an issue where a certain building in the central wastes would trap you in a wall.

• Pierce finally has his final graphics.

• Lela has been shrunk a bit in order to be more child-like in her proportions, and to not dwarf Pierce.

• New scripting command: SETPLAYERSCANNOTDIE
  • Players will be knocked down to 1 health but no lower.
  • Contrary to what you might think, this is not to make anything easier. Rather it's for allowing events on death.

• New scripting condition: PLAYERSWOULDHAVEDIED
  • SETPLAYERSCANNOTDIE was called, and the players took enough damage that they would have died had that not been called.

• New scripting command: FGREMOVERANDOM
  • (args: FgTileType Count) Remove X number of this foreground type, chosen at random.

• New scripting command: SETPLAYERSCANNOTDIE
  • Players will be knocked down to 1 health but no lower.
  • Contrary to what you might think, this is not to make anything easier. Rather it's for allowing events on death.

• New scripting condition: PLAYERSWOULDHAVEDIED
  • SETPLAYERSCANNOTDIE was called, and the players took enough damage that they would have died had that not been called.

• Two new scripting conditions have been added:
  • REMOVEMALEPLAYER - Remove the male player foreground tile.
  • REMOVEFEMALEPLAYER - Remove the female player foreground tile.

• Added two new squid variants: SquidMonsterWithTentacles and SquidMonsterWithManyTentacles

• At long last, the town of Alden Ridge is now complete!

• At long last, the final boss battle (well, the main one anyway) is now complete!

• Added a new background object: Giant Ant Hill.

• Added a new foreground object: GiantBeeHive.
  • This spawns hornets when you get too close.

• The default gamepad controls for the XBOX 360 controller have been improved.
  • Thanks to Pepisolo for providing the mappings.

• The strength of knockback in general is now half as strong—it pushes you for a tenth of a second rather than a fifth.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for inspiring.

• Rather than getting grenades in the Deadlands, you now get 5x life gems. And you can only collect them once, you can't farm them.

• Added a new script command: CLEARALLSCRIPTCOMPLETIONS
  • Clear the completion status of all scripts in the game. Typically used as part of new game plus.

• The game epilogue has now been implemented, and with it this also has the exit that lets you start new game plus.

• Added two new script conditions:
  • HASPIERCEBEENSAVED - Script is only run if Pierce has been saved.
  • HASLELABEENSAVED - Script is only run if Lela has been saved.

• Added two new script commands:
  • SETPIERCEHASBEENSAVED - Set the flag that indicates that Pierce has been saved.
  • SETLELAHASBEENSAVED - Set the flag that indicates that Lela has been saved.

• For now, the Shingen Rapid Prototyping Facility has been cordoned off with ravines inside it. This will be released as post-release content.
  • You can't get into this until New Game Plus anyhow, but we wanted to have time to do the boss fight inside here full justice. As it stands you can get all of the endings except two.

• Ganan Fields are now complete (and accessible for the first time).

• Added a new script condition: HASRUNANY
  • (args: <List>ScriptTitle) script is only run if any of the specified other script have already run

• Fixed an issue with FgTransform throwing exceptions if its target was missing.

• Fixed up the exit from the boss in the central wastes not granting you the green/blue life gems properly.

• The game is now capable of running several cutscenes in a row in one script.

• Two different endings for the game are now accessible, though one is much harder to get than the other (and darker, also).

• When NPCs—including your counterpart that follows you—have nothing to say, then they stop throwing up the speech bubble.
  • Thanks to zespri for suggesting.

• Fixed a bug where once you used the green key in the marsh once, you couldn't get back into the building it opened.
  • Thanks to Ipkins for reporting.

• Fixed a bug where when you were fading out of a dark screen, it would flash light.

• Fixed a bug in the intial instructions where the third and fourth action buttons on the keyboard and mouse were being shown incorrectly.
  • Thanks to Hearteater for reporting.

• Fixed another bug in the intial instructions where the third and fourth action buttons on the gamepad were being shown as their keyboard counterparts.

• Fixed a bug in the text display where having a star in the middle of a sentence would cause it to break to the next page. Now it just handles that when it's properly at the start of a new page.

• Fixed an issue in the tutorial with it referencing "empty handed action" instead of the "interact key" still.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• A settings option has been added for disabling voiceovers.
  • Thanks to JP Lafferty for suggesting.

• Tribal Mud Flats now has a plethora of scorpions, to be more interesting and make the bonus objective easier to achieve (there were two scorpions before, despite it not seeming like it; one was trapped in the thin space between some water, but he's now been set free...).
  • Thanks to mrhanman and nas1m for reporting.

• Previously the banner across the screen when starting a new level could not be cleared by using a gamepad axis. Fixed.

• Instead of saying "Continue In Overworld" and "Continue In Level" when you die on the overworld, it now says what it actually does: "Go Back To Overworld Start" or "Continue From Last Entry."
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Fixed the visual offset of the hot air balloon being wrong when flying.

• Fixed the hot air balloon going invisible when you fly over a pit.

• Fixed a minor typo in Lost in the Wilderness.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• The Forsaken Home level now gives you an actual count of how many grays there are in the level, and doesn't consider itself complete until you meet the usual requirements.
  • Thanks to retnuH, Winge, zespri, mrhanman, and Ipkins for reporting.

• Clicking the mouse button (specifically, the button assigned to "hold this to move toward the mouse"), now advances text that is being displayed with a MORE or OK command at the bottom. You can also hold this to make in-engine text scroll faster, too (like the confirm button).
  • Thanks to zespri for suggesting.

• You can now click the mouse to dismiss the goals window.

• You can now click the mouse to move the glass cursor in the inventory.

• Added a new script condition: EITHERPLAYERINVENTORYCONTAINSANY
  • (args: <List>FgTileType) script is only run if either player currently has any of the specified types of item in their inventory.

• The Shadow Children now show up at the Forsaken Home to prevent you from carrying any of the weapons there out into the world.

• The Shadow Children now show up at the Rainy Ruins to prevent you from carrying any of the weapons there out into the world.

• The positions of all the carried items that the characters have are now set properly for the first time since we ported from the old engine (at last!).

• The lighting was going bonkers when scrolling between adjacent screens, previously. We don't do that terribly much, so hadn't noticed. Fixed now!

• All of the remaining levels have had music tracks assigned and those that had not yet had organic backdrop detailings done now have that as well.

Beta .900 Preparing For Launch

(Released March 17, 2013)

• More screens have been at least partially filled-in in Alden Ridge, and more levels are linked to it now.

• All of the NPCs, both numbered and named, have their proper graphics now.

• Non-voiceover cutscenes with comic panels have been added at the start of Snow Hill and Ganan Fields.

• Another minor in-game cutscene has been added in the mines.

• Fixed errors being thrown in the prior version whenever NPC3 was loaded.
  • Thanks to RabidSanity and RockyBst for reporting.

Beta .811 Zombie Mom's Story

(Released March 16, 2013)

• The graphics for the bunnies are now finalized.

• Added a dark-color variant of the bunnies that is the same as their normal form but differently colored for variety.

• Added a new enemy to the game: Blood Scarab.
  • "Blood Scarabs are unique in that they can burrow right under walls and other obstacles without stopping -- even water and lava! Fortunately they don't actively pursue you, but you still have to be quite careful of them. They are also extremely hardy, requiring three hits to kill.

• Added a new script command: REMOVETHESENOENEMYFLAGS
  • (args: TileNumber1 TileNumber2 TileNumber3 etc) - Remove the No Enemy flags on the specified tile(s).
  • This hasn't yet been tested.

• Added a new script command: ALERTTHESEENEMIES
  • (args: OrigTileNumber1 OrigTileNumber2 OrigTileNumber3 etc) Alert the specified enemies of the player presence, so that they start chasing the player immediately. Does not work on lurkers or other enemies with a limited strike range.

• ALERTTHESEENEMIES is now used in the prison to make the new gray follow you intently rather than just standing there.

• Fixed an issue in the Mines with the cutscene with Jake and Arlene; they weren't properly set up to only give their speech once.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Added a new "Tile #s" button in the editor, which lets you toggle on and off the tile numbers without having to pop open the scripts window to do it.

• Updated the text that Willis has about what caused the frozen grays to depart from near his home.

• Adjusted the events outside of jackson's shop so that the golden grays don't just disappear, they are dispatched by zombie mom. This provides the parents' first encounter with her.

• Adjusted the text in the prison to reflect the parents' newfound knowledge of zombie mom prior to getting there.

• Fixed some display order issues with friendly animals drawing under players always, and oddly.

• Fixed another bug with the display order that was causing some of the enemies and items to blink against one another when standing on the same tile.

• Added a new ShadowManFriendly and ShadowChildFriendly for some key (rare) parts of the game when these don't want to kill or chase you.

• Fixed a bug where using the golden book to turn golden grays into regular frozen grays was causing them to have not-found frames.

• Rather than starting your inventory selected spots out as the first four items in the list, the game now starts them out uninitialized. This makes it so that when you pick up a spears wall when your first slot is empty, the spears wall doesn't mysteriously go to slot 2, for instance.

• Added new scripting commands:
  • TELEPORTPLAYER1TO (args: TargetTileNumber) - Move player 1 to the target tile.
  • TELEPORTPLAYER2TO (args: TargetTileNumber) - Move player 2 to the target tile.
  • If player 1 or 2 is not present, then it just skips this gracefully, as with most commands of this nature.

• Once you have completed all the bonus objectives in an overworld section, it now keeps telling you how many bonus levels there are.

• Fixed an issue with NPC3 complaining about not being able to index some frames, and NPC2 complaining about missing some frames.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• Added a new PortalKeepItems type of portal. This isn't functionally any different from a regular portal, but it has visual and thematic differences that the characters remark on when they see it.

• Fixed up the text that comes after you leave the mines to take into better account the events that now happen when you are in the mines.

• When you get to the central wastes for the first time, and then again when you leave, there is now some dialogue centered around what Shadow Man is up to with taking your items.

• Now when you leave the central wastes, Shadow Man actually disappears properly and lets you move on to the next overworld area.

• Updated the CLEARSUBLEVELSCRIPTCOMPLETION and CLEARLEVELSCRIPTCOMPLETION script commands to also clear the "hasrun" status on scripts in the level/sublevel you are currently in.

• Snow hill has been updated to no longer contain any iron sickles, and instead just contains ammo and pickaxes like other overworld areas.

• Fixed a bug where Foggy Neighborhood was taking you back to an early tutorial version of the Williams house, rather than to the Forsaken Home version.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• Added a new weapon to the game: rifle (also large caliber ammo to go with it).
  • This works just like the handgun and small caliber ammo, but its bullets go much farther and faster. The rifle is also much more rare, and can only be found in one specific place in the game. You have a very good chance of not finding it at all on your first playthrough.

• Added a new scripting condition: HASEVERFOUNDRIFLE - Script is only run if the player has ever found the rifle.

• Made it so that large caliber bullets are not seeded if the player has never found the rifle.

• If you have ever found a rifle (probably this means new game plus, unless you do a ton of backtracking for some reason), there is now a rifle available in Stantonsburg.

• If you have ever found a rifle, when you go through the various overworld areas you will now find large caliber bullets hidden where previously there were none.

• Added a new scripting command: CLEARSCRIPTCOMPLETION
  • (args: Level Sublevel ScriptName) - Mark the specified single script from a given level and sublevel as being incomplete (basically this undoes the 'onceonly' and 'hasrun' flags).

• Large and small caliber bullets can both be fired past plants and trees without striking them, now.

• The difficulty of the blue shooting flowers and the flame birds have been toned down, as they were shooting almost like a machine gun sometimes.

• Fixed a bug where flamebirds were always facing to the right.

• Fixed a longstanding issue where fired shots from enemies (like flame birds, plant pods, energy attacks, etc), would kind of bend towards you in an odd way.

• Quartered the amount of damage that flame bird attacks do.

• Fixed an issue where if your active item slots had zero items in them at the moment (but still a visible item), it would overwrite that slot with the next item that you picked up. This led to much finger-confusion in certain levels!

• Added the following boolean conditions checks for script conditions:
  • FGTYPECOUNTGREATERTHAN (args: FgTileType Count) - Script is only run if the current sublevel contains greater than X foreground objects of the specified type.
  • FGTYPECOUNTGREATERTHANOREQUAL (args: FgTileType Count) - Script is only run if the current sublevel contains greater than or equal to X foreground objects of the specified type.
  • FGTYPECOUNTLESSTHAN (args: FgTileType Count) - Script is only run if the current sublevel contains less than X foreground objects of the specified type.
  • FGTYPECOUNTLESSTHANOREQUAL (args: FgTileType Count) - Script is only run if the current sublevel contains less than or equal to X foreground objects of the specified type.
  • FGTYPECOUNTEQUAL (args: FgTileType Count) - Script is only run if the current sublevel contains exactly X foreground objects of the specified type.
  • FGTYPECOUNTNOTEQUAL (args: FgTileType Count) - Script is only run if the current sublevel contains any number other than X foreground objects of the specified type.

• Added a new SquidMonsterTentacleHarmsPlayer enemy that does 1 damage to the player when touched, and lasts for three seconds.

• Characters that cannot be chased (ie the invincible followers) can no longer be knocked back, either.
  • Thanks to Misery for suggesting.

• A new monster that is used in a supporting role in the final boss fight is now in place.

• Numerous behavioral additions for the main monster in the final boss fight are now in place.

• Fixed an issue with the natural lights spinning crazily in the last few versions. ;)

• A really key in-engine cutscene that occurs at the end of the mines is now in place. This is followed by a comic panel cutscene with full voice acting, as well.

• A comic panel cutscene without voice acting has been added for when you first reach the marsh.

• Two minor in-engine cutscenes have been added in the marsh.

• The player 2 follower is also now insubstantial to enemies, as well as not being knocked by them, so that they neither block enemies nor get blocked by them.

Beta .810 Grim Wilderness

(Released March 15, 2013)

• Fixed the animations for the main characters walking to use all their frames, rather than just half of them (oops).

• The generalized story scroll before the credits scroll on the main menu has been removed.
  • The credits also now only scroll on the very bottom of the screen rather than covering the whole thing (basically, what we shifted Valley 2 toward as well).

• The intro cutscene for the main adventure now has a brief four-line textual introduction before the voiceover and graphics start. This conveys the important bits of what was on the main menu scroll before, but it's placed at a point where people are actually more likely to see and read it!

• Fixed a bug that was causing the Central Wastes boss to register as a bonus level for the Phoenix Forest.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting the extra bonus level.

• Fixed a bug where exiting the Central Wastes boss would not take you to the proper place.

• Fixed a bug in the central wastes where the after-boss marker to replay the boss level was not displaying the marker with proper completion statuses.

• NPC1, NPC2, NPC4, NPC5, and NPC6 have had their regular and new-gray forms finalized.

• Previously, in O'Reilly's Mine you could get trapped behind the purple gates. Fixed so that now when you are behind those gates, you can open any of them with the interact button. And after you've stepped behind them and come back into the level, one of them will be open from then on anyhow.
  • Thanks to Telasro for reporting.

• O'Reilly's Mine now has music.

• Finalized the graphics of the snow burrowers, and fixed up their crazy blinkiness that has been there since porting the game to unity.

• Split out the roof overlays into their own compositing layer, because they were making the roofs in places like snow hill become transparent.

• A pivotal in-engine cutscene in snow hill is now complete.

• Some important in-engine cutscenes in the ivanwood marsh are now in place.

• Non-voiceover comic panel cutscenes are now in place for when you first enter Stantonsburg, the Deadlands and the Mines.

• Added a new scripting command: SETISNEWGAMEPLUS:
  • Sets the game to "new game plus" status, which lets other scripts trigger differently the second (or greater) time through the game.

• Added two new scripting conditions:
  • ISNEWGAMEPLUS - Script is only run if the game is currently in new game plus mode.
  • NOTNEWGAMEPLUS - Script is only run if the game is not yet in new game plus mode.

• Added a new background object: MetalGate4NotUnlockable.
  • This can't be unlocked by any keys. It can only be unlocked by there being a secret flag on one side, thus making it something you can open with the interact button.

• Added a one-way MetalGate4NotUnlockable at the exit to the mines.
  • However, via scripting this door will let you go back through it into the mines later if you were already in the mines.

• The mines have been updated both visually and gameplay-wise. They're now more tense to traverse, because... well, you'll see. Also their ceilings are all now using the normal perspective.

• The mines no longer have matches in them, and now have bullets for your handgun. You'll... need them.

• After you pick up the grenades once in the deadlands, they won't respawn in the future. Make them count!

• Added a new weapon to the game: Water Balloon.
  • You can throw these, and they will harm only grays (like glass water jars). However, these can also be used to put out fires, which is also really useful.

• The players no longer get the bucket in Stantonsburg. Instead, they get water balloons. Once they've made their way into the Pit Fest level, there's no more water balloons to be had.

• An extra hint regarding the gray spawners has been put in place in the warehouse boss level.
  • Thanks to Pepisolo for suggesting.

• Improved the cutscene with zombie mom and shadow man in the deadlands such that it's clear that shadow man will kill you if you approach him.
  • Thanks to Pepisolo for reporting.

• Fixed a couple of bugs with the way that level completion markers reported on your past performance:
  • Firstly, they were showing all the objectives you had ever completed, not just the ones you had completed in a single run. Now it shows only the objectives you completed in your top-scoring run.
  • Secondly, it no longer mistakenly grants you thinks like "don't die" or "completed all objectives" at inappropriate times. That was just a visual glitch on the markers, it wasn't showing that way in-level or affecting your score.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

Beta .809 Shadow Children

(Released March 14, 2013)

• The default player 1 keybindings for the four action slots are now ASDF, rather than being 1234. This is far less confusing on the GUI, is more comfortable to reach on most keyboards, and is consistent with Valley 2, which is a minor plus.

• The keys—color and regular keys—now have their final graphics.

• Updated the Dark Creature Cave to note that killing any single enemy opens the portal (which was not clear that it was intended before).
  • Thanks to Telasro for reporting.

• Fixed a bug where the fire urns and water urns were not properly triggering switch points like they were supposed to, making some levels (such as Dark Creature Cave) unbeatable.
  • Thanks to Telasro for reporting.

• Fixed a bug where poison mushrooms were invisible.

• The Cancel button now jumps you straight to the end of the current line of dialogue. If you're trying to skip through a lot of text you've already read (hey, the devs test this too), then you can just hit cancel a bunch of times to get through it quickly.

• The Cancel and Open Menu buttons have been split out, so that they can be mapped more sensibly on gamepads. On the keyboard, these are both still Escape by default.
  • Thanks to Penumbra and Pepisolo for suggesting.

• The names of the characters in speech tags are now always colorized. Specifically:
  • Darrell: Same red as in the comic panel cutscenes.
  • Mary: Blue
  • Pierce: Orange
  • Lela: Yellow
  • Key NPCs (Willis, Jake, Arlene, and Jackson): Light purple
  • Everyone else: Light cyan.
  • Thanks to Hearteater for suggesting.

• "Empty handed action" is now simply called Interact.
  • Thanks to Hearteater for suggesting.

• Added two new story encounters with zombie mom in the deadlands.

• Updated the first tutorial level such that it doesn't make you replay the entire thing if you stop partway through. You still start back in the house, but it doesn't make you replay cutscene parts that you've already done.
  • Thanks to Hearteater for reporting.

• Improved the way Stantonsburg handles new grays; they are now much more smooth in their appearance when you go from sublevel to sublevel.

• Fixed an issue where if you had not visited the prison before you beat the boss in stantonsburg, you couldn't progress.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Fixed an issue where Arlene was still hanging out near the warehouse even after the boss was beaten.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• Fixed an issue where a whole bunch of blue keys could be gotten in Stantonsburg.
  • Thanks to mrhanman for reporting.

• After you have opened and crossed the bridge once in Stantonsburg, it now remembers that and doesn't make you keep going back and reopening it.

• In Stantonsburg, the warehouse red door no longer blips open after you've opened it once and then reloaded the level. It's just open from the start.

• Invisible entities no longer leave a little distortion. That looked really odd for things like bridges in particular.

• Fixed an issue where sometimes the roofs would not lift off properly on really small buildings or in other isolated circumstances.
  • Thanks to Pepisolo and mrhanman for reporting.

• The warehouse boss level marker now acts properly in terms of turning gold and so on.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• Exiting the warehouse boss level now takes you outside its portal rather than to the entrance to the sewers.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• The overworld now shows how many levels out of how many levels you have completed, rather than a percentage.

• The "overworld 100% complete" message should now appear after you complete a given overworld section.
  • However, this has not been tested so do let us know if you don't see it!

• If you replay a level after beating it, it now acts like it did the first time in the status bar, rather than just uselessly telling you the level is complete (because, frankly, it is not on this playthrough of the level).
  • Thanks to Penumbra and nas1m for suggesting.

• Fixed that incredibly annoying hitch in the audio when rain sounds or other ambient tracks looped.

• The loot that you can get in the Phoenix Forest (money items and healing crystals) now stops populating after you complete the Phoenix Forest.
  • Thanks to zespri for inspiring this change.

• The switch maze has been updated to include some fires that cycle on and off, blocking your path but also lighting up helpful things.
  • Additionally, now that there is this threat, the Don't Get Hurt condition has been added for bonus objectives here.
  • Additionally, some points items have been added and there is now a bonus objective of collecting all of them.
  • Thanks to mrhanman and nas1m for reporting.

• Added a new scripting command: CLEARBOTHINVENTORIESOF
  • (args: FgTileType) - Clear any instances of the specified item from both player inventories.

• The stones no longer rise up out of the river in the canoe trip, trapping you in the level. Instead, if you try to take tacks into the deeper part of the level, or out of there, three Shadow Children show up and relieve you of the tacks, then let you pass. Much less confusing this way, and it provides an introduction to the shadow children, which otherwise mostly don't show up until later in the game.
  • Thanks to a variety of players for suggesting something be done here.

• Fixed a bug that was particularly evident in Canoe Trip, where sometimes grays that could not reach you would suddenly warp to your position. This was due to a clamping bug in the multiple pathfinding methods interacting badly with one another.
  • This could also lead to grays in trees or other similar woes.
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting.

• Fixed a bug from the porting of the old engine to the new where levels that had their bonus objectives defined in the old engine would not properly registered "kill X enemy" when X was any sort of gray. That includes "X before Y" enemies, and "don't kill X enemy" and so forth.
  • Thanks to Winge, mrhanman, and nas1m for reporting.

Beta .808 Stantonsburg Renovations

(Released March 13, 2013)

• Added a non-voiceover comic panel cutscene for when the squid first appears during the tutorial. If you've already played through the tutorial, there's not a way to go back and see this in an existing savegame.

• Added a non-voiceover comic panel cutscene that is now part of the shadow man in-engine cutscene when you are first in the Phoenix Forest. If you've already played through that cutscene, there's not a way to go back and see this in an existing savegame.

• The edges of all the comic panels have been softened so that they look nicer in the context of their cutscenes on a black background.

• Added two new scripting commands:
  • ALTERP1INVENTORY
    • (args: FgTileType ItemCountToAlterBy) - Add or remove a specified quantity of an item to/from the player 1 inventory.
  • ALTERP2INVENTORYIF2P
    • (args: FgTileType ItemCountToAlterBy) - Add or remove a specified quantity of an item to/from the player 2 inventory only if two player mode.

• Updated the encounter with Arlene in Stantonsburg so that she puts the purple key directly into your inventory rather than on the ground. This way there's no way for players to ignore the key and then get permanently stuck, which was a very edge case before that nobody had run into yet (but we try to think of these things in advance).

• The text with Willis in the west part of Stantonsburg is now much updated to reflect the fact that he has no intention of leaving Stantonsburg.

• Updated all the grays in the sewers of Stantonsburg to properly be female, as they had been in pre-porting to the new engine.

• Updated lots of text throughout Stantonsburg to conform to the finalized story (there were still some outdated bits from 2008 here and there).

• Grays are now able to navigate better on narrow platforms near ravines.

• Grays no longer chase the player 2 follower NPC.
  • Thanks to nas1m for suggesting.

• Both grays and the player 2 follower NPC now center themselves properly when moving horizontally. This makes it so that they can properly go through narrow spaces between ravines or water or whatever without getting stuck.

• A new item has been added to the game: Blue Life Gems.
  • The green life gems can now only be used by player 1, whereas the blue life gems can only be used by player 2.
  • Otherwise the blue and green life gems are identical.

• The second green life gem (during 2 player play only) in the Stantonsburg and Alden Ridge boss rooms, and in the shops in those two towns, have both been switched to being blue life gems instead.

• The ivanwood marsh now uses its proper soundtrack.

• The southern warehouse building in Stantonsburg has been expanded, and you can now see the blue key in there as soon as you go there. Also the handguns and bullets.
  • However, a ravine blocks you from reaching them until the later trigger events that previously caused those items to appear.
  • All in all this prevents accidentally getting duplicates of the blue key, and it also makes it more obvious where the blue key is; we're not sure any players have even found the mines yet!

• Tweaked Willis's text in Phoenix Forest just a tad.

• Added yet more text at the prison scene, to show the motivations of the parents a bit better.

• Cutscene 3 with voiceover and a comic panel now plays when you leave the prison after seeing shadow man. If you've already passed this point in your current savegame, you can simply go back to near the prison entrance to trigger this.

• Comic panel #24 and #26 are now complete—that's all 27 comic panels for the game!

• When you reach either the mines or the deadlands, you no longer encounter Arlene and Willis. Instead it's Arlene and Jake. The text has also been updated accordingly.

• The player characters now move the same speed on the overworld as they do in levels.
  • Thanks to nas1m and PattyG for suggesting.

• Fixed a bug where "preload" scripts were not logging their completion properly. This was a bug from shortly before the private alpha started, when we shifted around the execution order of the preload scripts.
  • This was causing things like certain cutscenes playing each time you went into a given screen.
  • Thanks to mrhanman and PattyG for reporting.

• The speed of text scrolling in during in-engine text popups now varies based on how long the text is. Also, holding down the confirm button now makes the text scroll 4x faster rather than just 4x faster.
  • The net effect here is to make it so that if you're reading something for the second time or more, you're not having to wait and wait and wait.

• If you go into the mines and meet Arlene and Jake, it now blocks you from going into the Deadlands beyond the first screen. There you find a ravine and a note left behind by Jackson.

• If you go into the Deadlands and meet Arlene and Jake, it now blocks you from going into the mines beyond the first screen. There you find a collapsed bunch of rubble and a note left behind by Jackson.

• Fixed several bugs with the EXIT W command not working properly.

• Fixed a bug where it was not possible to use the scripting "Sublevel" command to go to the main sublevel.

• If you have beaten the Stantonsburg boss, but have not yet found the prison, it won't let you go into the sewers or the mines.

Beta .807 I Can't Feel My Fingers!

(Released March 13, 2013)

• Comic panels #20, #21, #22, and #23 are now done. Only two more to go!

• Three new original tracks by Pablo Vega have been completed, and one track has been pulled over from Children of Neinzul (originally called Deception).

• Fixed a bug where the screen would get distorted and stretched after changing your screen resolution, until you restarted the game. This was particularly confusing because it made it seem like the game didn't support whatever resolution you had switched to, as well as being annoying if you did know about the bug!

• Voiceover cutscene #2 is now complete, and now plays the first time you enter the Phoenix Forest. In existing savegames, if you're already past that point, going back to the screen in front of the Forsaken Home level will let you see it.

• Fixed a nasty bug in the prior version that would cause you to be unable to pick up items after starting a level from the overworld (versus just directly loading into it).
  • Thanks to mrhanman, PattyG, and pedrokof for reporting.

• The stun time of both the pickaxe and the small caliber bullets have been increased from 2 seconds to 3.
  • Thanks to nas1m for suggesting.

• When you shoot a gray with the small caliber bullets, it now makes them visually flash, and you can run past them without getting blocked or taking any damage.
  • This makes it so that if you have the gun, grays can't trap you in tight spaces.
  • Thanks to nas1m for suggesting.

Beta .806 Now I Know Where I Put Those Keys

(Released March 12, 2013)

• More work completed on Alden Ridge.

• Added five new roof variants, mainly for use at the Shingen Rapid Prototyping Facility.

• Added a new inside light type of "Dimmer."

• The entrance to the Shingen Rapid Prototyping Facility is now complete.

• Comic panels #17, #18, #19, #27, and #28 are now complete.

• All of the comic panels have had their color and contrast adjusted to make them more dramatic and to bring out the details more clearly.

• The NPC versions of player 2 are now invulnerable, so that they aren't contributing to the difficulty (or frustration) of any sections of the game.
  • Thanks to nas1m, Winge, and mrhanman for suggesting.

• Previously, the encyclopedia would always revert all found entries to "new" status every time you exited and reloaded the game. Fixed.
  • Thanks to PattyG for reporting.

• A second small building as been added to the "Deadlands - Deep Thorns" screen, and the gray seekers have been moved there, away from the portal to the Venetian Buckets level. This keeps the player from getting trapped by them on coming out of the level.
  • Thanks to Professor Paul1290 for reporting.

• Fixed a bug where taking off the camouflage blanket made it look like you still had it on until you actually moved. Fixed.

• Added a new "ExplorableFogLessThick" weather type.

• Improved level 042 to be two screens high and have proper ceilings, as well as having more grays.

• Level 033, Dead Grassy Pass, has been updated to use the pickaxe instead of the shovel, and has been altered in general to be harder and more puzzling. This is on the advanced path, after all!

• Updated the "sliding around objects" code to vary in speed based on how far you are from the edge. For instance, when you are just barely clipping the edge of an object, it zips you around the corner as fast as it did last release. If you are very far from the corner (more than a tile or two), it doesn't move you at all. If you are more than about half a tile away from the corner, it moves you progressively slower toward the open space.
  • The idea is that it was rather "slippery" trying to walk up to a tree to chop it, or the same issue with things like dirt to dig or whatever. This solution is aiming to keep the nice and fast corner sliding without causing the slipping that was present last release.
  • Feedback is extremely welcome on how this feels!
  • Thanks to nas1m for reporting the issues in the prior version.

• Level 068, Desert Junk Outbuildings, has been expanded to a second screen and given proper ceilings, and more grays have been added to it at the same time.

• Two new music tracks have been added to the game.

Improved Inventory

• The inventory graphics have been changed up; there are no longer bubbles for each inventory slot and a green highlighted slot. Now it instead has a cleaner blank background plus a non-colored glass cursor.

• The size of the player inventory is now 7x6 per player rather than 5x5.

• The game now uses a fixed-position inventory, where items don't move around based on what order you picked them up in, but rather have permanent locations that you can build up muscle-memory for.
  • Thanks to Penumbra for suggesting.

• Fixed a bug where going into a level would sometimes cause double-mapping of a single item having two action slots to it.
  • This was a minor glitch caused by the addition of the two extra active item slots.
  • Thanks to Penumbra, Ipkins, and mrhanman for reporting.

• The act of picking up a green life gem now increases your life; you can't carry it around anymore, because of the risk of losing them when you leave a level and not being able to get them again.
  • Thanks to Ipkins for reporting.

• Fixed longstanding issues with the visibly carried item not properly switching when you use that item, change items in your inventory, or pick up an item.

• Players are no longer allowed to drop "color keys" from their inventory, since that could theoretically lead to some story situations where the players get stuck.

• There is now a "rare items" panel below the regular inventories, which is where the combination papers (Which can't be directly used) go.

• When you have a key in your inventory, you no longer have to equip it and then use the action button tied to that key in order to open a door. Now you can just use your "empty handed action" (keyboard button E by default) to use the key without having to equip it first. This also works for color keys.

Beta .805 Corners Like It's On Rails

(Released March 11, 2013)

• Lots of work on the Alden Ridge overworld section has been done.

• Nine new music tracks by Pablo Vega have been added to the game.

• Updated overworld 004-F Deadlands - Tangled Shore to have player 2 not follow you around and fall in the water a bunch.

• Finalized the music tracks in levels 001, 002, 004, 006, 007, 010, 012, 013, 014, 015, 016, 018, 019, 020, 021, 022, 023, 024, 025, 026, 027, 028, 029, 030, 031, 032, 081, 091, 092, 095, and 096.

• Updated the music tracks in levels 017.

• Several pieces of art updated by Heavy Cat.

• Added ten train cars, and two train tracks.

• Fixed an issue where, on levels with the lighting model in place, the screen could flicker (particularly if vsync was off, but even outside of that depending on your hardware).
  • Thanks to Mick and greywolf22 for reporting.

• Implemented "slide around background object" logic for the player characters, which makes maneuvering in tight spaces feel way more natural. This is something we'd been planning from the start, but hadn't gotten to until now.

• Level 042, Upstairs At The Green Hotel, has been updated to be two screens instead of one, and thus to have proper ceilings and so forth.

• Previously, if you touched a frozen gray on one screen, they would not be woken up on other screens in the same level. Now they wake up throughout the entire level.

• Fixed a bug with the game not being able to find the graphics for the hot air balloon.

• When you die in the overworld, or in an overworld-connected level, you no longer lose all your consumables.
  • Thanks to Ipkins and nas1m for reporting.

• The second player NPC now waits on the far side of the flower path rather than venturing in and getting beat up.

• To avoid confusion, bonus objectives that say "do not do [X]" now show up as complete (green) until such time as they are failed. Previously, they were showing up as incomplete until you left the level, which was really uncertain-making.
  • Thanks to Ipkins for reporting.

• Fixed a visual bug where the "complete all objectives at once" bonus objective was never showing as complete until the level was exited, and another bug where possibly it was not always triggering.
  • Also fixed an issue with it not showing green or displaying an icon when actually completed.
  • Thanks to Ipkins for reporting.

New Weapons

• Added a new weapon to the game: Handgun (plus small caliber bullets as a separate pickup).
  • These don't hurt grays, but let you shoot other enemy animals and such. However, grays that are shot are stunned for two seconds, so that's also useful.
  • These will be used in a variety of overworld areas in place of the traps that can kill grays, for thematic reasons (it's scarier when you can only slow grays, but not kill them) as well as to keep players from farming gray-killing weapons in the overworld and then taking them into levels. Also, because the gun is just plain fun. ;)

• The shop in Stantonsburg now carries handguns for $200 each. Also, in two player mode it now contains a second green life gem, too.

• In Stantonsburg, the warehouse now contains handguns for free after you beat the boss, instead of the other weapons that were there.

• All of the other weapon drops in Stantonsburg are now small caliber ammo drops instead.

• All of the weapons in the Deadlands are now small caliber ammo, except for two semi-hidden sets of grenades. There are also a couple of handguns in the old barn in case you missed the handguns before.

• The weapons in the Ivanwood Marsh are now small caliber ammo drops instead.

• The hammer handle has been visually shrunk so it's more visually distinctive from the other weapons.

• Added a new weapon to the game: Steel Pickaxe.
  • This is another weapon used in the overworld primarily. It's steel, so it doesn't harm grays, but it's sharp enough to stun them for two seconds like the bullets do.
  • The pickaxe can be used to dig like the shovel, or can be used to kill non-gray enemies.
  • Like iron sickles, the pickaxe breaks a bit with each use.

• The Deadlands and Ivanwood Marsh now also contain some pickaxes in addition to small caliber ammo.

Beta .804

(Released March 9, 2013)

• Fixed a bug with one screen in the Deadlands (ravine north) where your character would disappear.
  • Thanks to Winge and Professor Paul1290 for reporting.

• Fixed an issue where there were some weapons that the parents could pick up in the yard when their house is being overrun. These tools then caused confusion and so forth in the Phoenix Forest if players actually went back for them.
  • Thanks to Diazo and Winge for reporting.

Beta .803

(Released March 9, 2013)

• Recent fixes to the Phoenix Forest to no longer let you get the sledge hammer prematurely accidentally busted part of Stantonsburg.
  • Now Arlene gives you a purple key instead of a regular key. If you've already spoken to her and gotten the regular key, you can go speak to her again for the purple one.
  • If you've already unlocked the house in the far northwest corner of the town, then that's where the purple key was supposed to be used. Simply go back into the level inside that house, and then come back out. You'll then find Arlene next to the warehouse like she was supposed to be.
  • Thanks to Winge for reporting.

• The speed on the overworld was really excessive, and actually making things harder rather than more convenient. That has been toned down so that it is still higher than the in-level speed, but is no longer quite so fast.

• Fixed an issue in the Crazed Meadow where grays could sometimes get stuck by the water and you'd be unable to get them. The grays can still get stuck, but now you can easily drop them into a hole if they do.
  • Thanks to retnuH, Ipkins, and Penumbra for reporting.

• Previously, the game did not pause when you had the encyclopedia open. Fixed.
  • Thanks to Ipkins for reporting.

• Fixed some textual references to AVWW in the updater screens.
  • Thanks to retnuH for reporting.

• Fixed an issue with the Canoe Trip level where if you brought any tacks with you to the level you could not get past the rocks in the river. Now it lets you get past the rocks before they pop up.
  • Thanks to Winge for reporting.

• Fixed an issue where XBox wireless controllers were not being detected as xbox controllers and thus used generic button names.
  • Thanks to mrhanman and nas1m for reporting.

Beta .802

(Released March 9, 2013)

• The key bindings for the two original action buttons have had their default bindings (and current bindings) reset, and are now to 1 and 2 instead of Q and W.

• There are now four active inventory slots on the HUD, rather than two. The two new ones map to 3 and 4 for player 1, and multiply and divide for player two.
  • Note that both the P2 defaults, and the gamepad defaults for both players, could stand to be better for these new controls. But for now these are serviceable, and are definitely good for player 1.
  • Thanks to madcow, mrhanman, and Teal_Blue for suggesting.

• The various refinements that were made to the axis noise canceling indexes in Valley 2 have now been ported to Shattered Haven.
  • The default noise canceling for the movement directions has also been increased dramatically, but that will only take effect for new players (or if you delete your settings.dat and settings.bak files).
  • Thanks to mrhanman for suggesting.

Beta .801

(Released March 8, 2013)

• Fixed a bug with the timing of cutscene playback if you're running at anything other than 60fps.

• The offsets of the characters in their sitting-in-boats poses were all a bit hilariously off after the recent upgrades to their graphics. Fixed.

• Previously the game would default to your desktop resolution, which could easily be wildly too large, making the game tiny.
  • Now the screen defaults to 1440x900 if your graphics card supports that, or 1024x768 if your graphics supports that, or whatever your smallest supported (by both the game and your GPU) resolution is. Only if unity for some reason can't detect any supported screen resolutions at all will it now use your desktop resolution.
  • Thanks to madcow and Misery for inspiring this change.

• The description for "Small Red Life Gem" in the Encyclopedia was out of date. Fixed.
  • Thanks to Aklyon for reporting.

• The second-player stand-in NPCs that are just waiting for you to complete the level no longer attract grays in quite the same pathfinding way. This prevents the grays from getting annoyingly distracted with player 2 in The Farm, mainly.

• Adjusted the checkboxes to be colorblind friendly as well as clearer in general.
  • Thank to madcow for suggesting.

Previous Release Notes

Shattered Haven:Pre-Beta Release Notes