We are getting close to finishing the next major content update (v0.7) and there's a lot to discuss. Version 0.7 will be our largest game content update since we launched in Early Access. Version 0.7 brings several hours of new content. Let's dive in to each of the talking points.
New Environment: Castle Usvit
Home to knights and servants of a Demonic Overlord. This environment brings a bunch of new content and difficulty. To enter Castle Usvit, defeating Velya (the fire witch boss) in the Usvit Depths is a requirement. The castle will not be unlocked until she is defeated. It's also recommended you have a well spent talent tree. The game ramps up in difficulty and you should be prepared for a challenge.
30+ new enemies
From servants to knights to phantoms to living armor to court jesters and wizards. You name it, the castle has it. Loads of new attack mechanics not seen anywhere else in the game, the castle boasts some really fun AI and unique encounters.
3 New Boss Fights + 1 returning boss fight
The hardest, and coolest bosses of the game are yet to come. We've spent several months working on these bosses and they are the shining light of Keeper's Toll. We cannot wait for players to fight them.
New Main Story Quest
A mysterious priest awaits you at the entrance to Castle Usvit. Embark on a quest to unravel the mysteries of the castle.
New Merchant Items / Blueprints
Encounter and engage in new events and obtain new blueprints to grant you new powers.
New lighting system
We are building the game atmosphere more and adding 2d lighting and more advanced shadows to parts of the game world. We want to capture more of the darker feel of the games that inspired us such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne. The lighting system we are adding really helps elevate the feel of the game more and capture the vibe we are striving to achieve.
Enhanced Environments
Updated texture details, rain particle FX and more. We want the worlds to feel more alive, and we will continue to improve on this throughout the duration of v0.7, even after launching the update.
Enhanced User Interface
What we began to revise in v0.6 is being continued in v0.7. This will not launch at once, but will be a continual improvement.
New Music
Shout out to Brightbone, our composer. He's made some awesome new music for the game, which will be added in v0.7.
Chinese Localization
We are teaming up with a Publishing partner for the launch of v0.7 and they will be handling the publishing for Keeper's Toll in the Greater China region. Due to this, they have also assisted us with translating the game into Chinese and the game will be localized when v0.7 launches.
Achievements and Tomes
We're adding in lots of new Achievements and Tomes of Knowledge to collect and power up your characters.
New Steam Page and Marketing Assets
We will begin marketing the game more actively once we release v0.7 of KT, and thus we will have a new Steam Page, full of updated GIF's and details. We'll also be scrapping all of our existing screenshots/video and uploading new screenshots/video trailers for the game, as everything up there now will be outdated pretty heavily once we launch v0.7. Of course we need to accurately reflect the game in its current state, and this is a major leap forward for the game, so all assets will be completely new once we launch the update.
We are staying focused on bringing the new content in version 0.7 live to Keeper's Toll, so we've dialed back a bit as for revising/improving the existing content/mechanics. We understand there's always more we can do, but bringing v0.7 live into the game is our top priority right now.
Still, version 0.6.25 brings a handful of QoL, balancing updates and bug fixes to the game.
Patch Notes (v0.6.25)
- Tomes of Knowledge Skill: Focus Ability has been modified and no longer requires max ability rank (5) to activate. It now scales once an ability reaches rank 3. You will earn 3% bonus dmg per rank at ability rank 3, 4% at ability rank 4 and 5% at ability rank 5.
- Ranger - Summon Wolf, Poison Blast, Fleeting Quiver and Nature's Snare cooldowns have been slightly reduced between 5-10%
- UI: Level Up active abilities now display the type of attack next to the "Active" tag. For example: Spell attacks, kick attacks, sword attacks. etc.
- UI: Added an orange end cap to the stamina slider when the player's stamina becomes exhausted
- UI: Added a level icon for Castle Usvit in the World Select menu
- Firebombs will now be thrown further if the player is moving. There is now variable distance based on speed
- A movement speed cap has been set to 20, which is quite high. Much further past this value and the controls start to worsen
- Bug Fix: Animations for elite enemies now properly transition into death animation states
- Bug Fix: Sporelord Rotwood will now properly face his move direction during a strike attack
- Bug Fix: Sporelord Rotwood should now properly transition animations from any state to death
- Bug Fix: Corrupted Souls curse was not collecting corrupted (red) souls. This has been fixed, and collisions now work as expected
- Bug Fix: Bilee will no longer slide when prepping for an attack or teleport move
- Refactored code related to Souls detection and collection
Thank you for following along and joining us on our journey through Early Access. We can't wait to get to v0.7 and let you all experience what we've been working hard on for countless months now. We anticipate releasing the new content sometime in early 2024, likely end of January or beginning of February.
Happy Holidays to all, and if you have any feedback, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Stingbot Games
