In this update, we've tried to address some of the more frequent issues players (especially new players) are having. One of these includes a new equipment that is also available for use in case files.
Spray Paint
The spray paint item was added to help people who were finding chapters 4 and 6 rather difficult to navigate. We had originally added some small QoL bits (different coloured lights, paint splashes etc) to break up the area in Chapter 6. Navigation is still an issue for many people in Chapter 6 and Chapter 4 is often brought up as having a similar issue. Our solution is to give people the ability to make their own system of markings by giving them a spray can!
The spray can has four different colours which can be accessed by holding right click (or the relevant VR controller button). You also have access to eight different symbols which you can cycle using right click (or the relevant VR controller button). Sprays can be rotated by either holding left click and moving your mouse or by using the scroll wheel prior to spraying (for VR players, you can just rotate your hand freely).
Each spray can has 50 sprays worth of usage in it. They can be found at the start of Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 or purchased in the case files shop for tickets. We're excited to see people's creativity with them!
Chapter 1 Puzzle Change
While we love the iconic tiles puzzle in Chapter 1, we've decided to replace it with another to make the chapter less difficult and help get players into Chapter 2 quicker. We noticed a lot of players get stuck on the first puzzle which can be frustrating and lead to them becoming demoralised by the time they complete it and get into Chapter 2. We've gone ahead and added a replacement that should be much more simple and straight forward and requires visiting the missing letters (something players also skipped and were then getting stuck on the cryptex). We hope this change helps introduce more players to the game that would have otherwise given up.
Yes, this puzzle is also available in the case files!
Some Minor Changes
Alongside the above, we've also gone ahead and made some minor changes and a few QoL improvements.
- A new crouch animation has been added that both looks better and lowers the player further
- Sprint drinks have had their uses increased to 3
- Fog city has had changes to it's end puzzle to help VR players interact with it
- Custom cases now allows you to manually choose how many of each monster you want on your case
- Custom cases now saves the last used configuration
- The lowerable walls in Chapter 6 and now usable by a single player when in multiplayer mode
- Several small IK and animation tweaks to help make the players feel less static
- VR players now have access to the same colour wheel as desktop players
We know many players have been asking for some of these changes, so we've delivered.
Bug Fixes
We've also fixed several bugs:
- A potential fix has been added to help with WMR headsets sometimes displaying blue lines on the screen borders
- A fix to prevent the mercy system taking into account people retrying the same cases repeatedly
- The miner lantern cosmetic has been corrected to point forwards rather than at an angle
- Some minor performance changes
- Fixed a bug that prevented VR players from changing their characters
Blog and Plushies
We've started to see people receiving their pigman plushies, so if you grabbed one while the campaign was live, you should have one coming soon!
Finally, for those who haven't seen it or are not apart of discord, you can find out what we've been up to and the game we're working on in the December blog Valko Game Studios - December Developer Update
That's all for now! As always, feel free to drop your feedback and suggestions on discord, we read everything and we'd love to hear people's thoughts on the update: Valko Games Official Discord
