Welcome to our fourth Soulstone Survivors Devlog! As we continue to work on delivering the next major update, In this devlog you are going to catch a glimpse of some exciting sneak peeks and some stuff we have been working on.
Next major update is already getting closer and closer, so we also invite you to sign up to our new mailing list and be among the first to find out when its released!
Sneak Peek: New character
Alex, one of our artists has been working on some pretty amazing new concept art for our next upcoming character… we don't want to spoil the surprise too much at this stage but... check these new weapons out! What do you reckon this character could be?
Sneak Peek: New projectile skill behavior
Fellipe just finished creating some new projectile behaviors, that you may or may not see soon with some new content that is coming... PS, visuals are placeholder!
[previewyoutube=IRxc03D4SyA;full][/previewyoutube]
Performance: Stuttering and fps issues
Our last update brought with it a few performance improvements specially around memory, but some players noticed a decrease in performance. We have been hard at work using every tool at our disposal to investigate, replicate and fix these issues, and for the next update we already have a few major changes that should bring considerable performance improvements, we will talk more about those in the next devlog!
However, one curious issue we finally addressed that could cause a bit of "random" stuttering, is related to the destructible objects in the scenario and minerals. To alleviate this, we considerably simplified their colliders and fragments, and made the code controlling those parts a lot simpler, making those essentially free during gameplay. Here is a before and after image of what this looks like.
Here you can check out a video of how it was before and how it is now in-game.
[previewyoutube=rGT46wL-DrE;full][/previewyoutube]
Quality of life: Locked power ups
Lucas has been working on something that the players have been asking for. Your locked skills and power ups will no longer be consumed by replacing your choices with passive power-ups (but will still be consumed in every other scenario, like rerolls, etc). You can check that out in the video below:
[previewyoutube=420-6QcQgkI;full][/previewyoutube]
The Unholy Cathedral soundtrack
Now that the Unholy Cathedral is released, Gama, our sound expert, wanted to share a few more details about everything that went into its creation, so here are a few words directly from Gama:
"The Cathedral music theme was defined to be an obscure kind of “church music”, filled with organs and voices. Here is a little video to illustrate these:"
[previewyoutube=ffeSFNfyWNg;full][/previewyoutube]
"As we have 5 different cycles before facing the final boss, we created 5 different music arrangements. With each cycle the music grows in complexity, to try and help convey the idea that the stakes are getting higher. Here’s a small sample of the dynamic music for the normal music working:"
[previewyoutube=DGMhRd9859I;full][/previewyoutube]
"For the first time we also played with a spacial soundtrack, with an extra organ layer which is attached to the actual organ located inside the cathedral, so if you walk around the scenario and into the altar, you will hear more and more of this layer."
[previewyoutube=LEEtkQN63Oo;full][/previewyoutube]
"We got plenty of other ideas to explore for the new content we are developing and Im excited to see how those will turn out!"
Pssss, too soon to be sharing stuff about that Gama! Ahem... I guess it's better we finish this devlog here! Is there anything you would like us to talk about? Let us know in the comments below! There is still a ton of exciting stuff coming and I personally think it's going to be legendary!
We hope you all have a lovely day or night,
~Soulstone Team
