- Fixed a bug where Toutatis's "Lower damage on low health" passive wasn't working
- Fixed a bug where Belenos' "You take less damage" passive wasn't working
- Fixed Belisama's spears not scaling with dexterity
- Players are now invincible during summoning, to avoid being interrupted by attacks
- Turbo mode can now be unlocked after beating frenzy. Don't worry, you don't have to beat it again if you already did before the patch came out.
- Toutatis's damage has been increased on L2 ability
- Some sigill costs have been reduced

Hoot up, everyone!

Only two weeks left until the release of Helvetii. I'm both pretty excited and nervous, to say the least.

With the 3rd of February looming over, I wanted to take some time to talk a bit about our plans up to the release of the game as well as what's in store for the immediate future (and maybe slightly beyond), i.e. patch 1.1 and beyond.


First of all, a week from now we will be taking down the Helvetii demo. Beta access will also be revoked at that point for the private testers.

The reason for taking down the demo is pretty simple: taking care of all the versions of Helvetii (not just on Steam, but consoles as well) is a not-insignificant-amount of work for a small team such as ours. So having to update the demo as well would be a bit much for us.

You might ask "Why not leave it as is?". It is simply because we think the demo would not be a good representation of the actual product anymore. Even now, the release version already has a bunch of fixes compared to the current demo.

I understand that some people might be disappointed as they like being able to test a product before buying it and I get it. But our ressources are pretty limited as is.

With that said, and to be fairly blunt, the steam refund system is there if you need a demo of the game and aren't sure about your purchase.

Once release hits, we will prioritize our efforts on keeping an eye out for any sort of major bugs and early feedback, in case we need to readjust some things first. We also have the physical Kickstarter rewards to wrap up and send.

Other than that, we'll keep a rather low profile during these first few weeks. Don't expect anything major during that time period.

However, I will continue to use Steam news to keep you all in the loop when I have significant updates to share.

Speaking of which


Okay, here's the real meat and potatoes (in more ways than you think).

We have at least a couple patches planned for the future of Helvetii (1.1 and 1.2). Both of those will serve to add a bit more content as well as addressing some core issues that we couldn't really address before release.

Notably, we want to add a bit of flavor to the runs, continuing to improve the flow and feel of combat and giving extra options to players over time.

Of course we won't be able to do everything at once, but we have laid out some things we want to work on for these first two patches.

As for an ETA of their release: none for the moment.

My hope is "not too long", as some of the visual content for the first patch has already been done. My hope is to have 1.1 done before the middle of the year, and then 1.2 on the second half of 2023 at the most.

As for what will be in the first patch....


One of the things we wanted to do ASAP is bring a few improvements to the user experience.

Notably, we want to make the Sigils (aka the "Upgrade screen" on the character select menu) a bit more useful and comprehensible.

The game has a lot of obtainable upgrades for individual characters as well as the whole team that people might not even know about. Not only that, but the current "toggle" option is pretty much not functioning properly, so we'll be fixing that.

(Below is a mockup, so might see some slight changes)

Sigils will now be ordered by "Acquired/Unlocked/Locked", with the toggle being now for characters instead. More importantly, "Locked" will also show the unlock condition so that you know what to work towards.

Another point we want to improve is the uniqueness of items during run, especially character-specific items.

Right now, you might've come across some items that would improve Divico's moveset for instance. Not just visually, but by adding extra effects or hits.

We want to have a bit more of that extra flair across all characters to make runs feel a bit more unique for each character (regardless of the summons). This includes improvements/changes to existing items, as well as a bunch of new ones that will bring some new options for the characters.

In addition, we will be adding a new move to every character's base kit, a "Dash-Throw cancel" (i.e cancelling your dash with a projectile attack).

These moves will work a bit similarily to regular dash-attacks but will have a bit of a mana cost associated with them (since it's a projectile attack) and are designed towards a more "repositionning" role.

Here's an example for Divico. Obviously a bit WIP and in our secret "testing stuff out" room.

Divico's cancel hits the enemy twice before turning and throwing an axe (which can also get you a wall bounce). Note that the mana cost only triggers on the axe throw after the jump, so savvy fighters could potentially jump cancel before it to save some mana.

.
Moving forward, updating the moveset through items, base kit or even unlocks will always be on the docket as we think a lot of players enjoy having more tools to their kit.


And the one i'm the most excited for: ~COOKING~.

Cooking will be a new minigame added to campfire scenes in-between levels (alongside the resting and dice game options).

Bob and the Boblings are ready to introduce you to Owl Cuisine.

Sitting on too many coins?
Characters maybe a bit low on stats to get that perfect run?
Well then, let Bob cook something up for you!

This mini-game will allow you to spend some of your money to get some (hopefully) delicious meals that will improve the stats across your entire team.

However, quality of said meals will rely on your own abilities to follow Bob's instructions... he's not about to cut those vegetables all by himself after all.

I will be posting more about Bob's cooking minigame once we get closer to the release of the patch!


Of course there are some extra things I'm keeping under wraps. Adjustments, combat tweaks, maybe some encounters... but I don't want to unveil everything just yet.

As for 1.2, I will stay rather coy on that too.
What I can say is that while 1.1 will focus more on individual characters, items and fluff, 1.2 will focus more on "Summons and encounters".

I'll leave it at that for now ~


----

In any case, hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek! And I hope you will enjoy the release of Helvetii as well. I am very excited to finally get this game into everyone's hands.

Don't hesitate to post here if you have any questions regarding release or the game itself!

In the meantime, hooting doooown.

Hey everyone!

As part of Steam Next Fest as lead dev and artist Hoot will play the latest version of the game live, giving a breakdown of all the mechanics as well as the making of the game's art and history.

We will be doing our second next fest stream on October 9th, showcasing more of the game (and possibly a hard mode run??)

Join in to ask questions and discover some of the smaller intricacies behind the game!

Hey everyone!

Join us during Steam Next Fest as lead dev and artist Hoot will play the newest version of the demo live, giving a breakdown of all the mechanics as well as the making of the game's art and history.

There will be a stream both on October 4th and October 9th at around 9PM GMT+1

Join in to ask questions and discover some of the smaller intricacies behind the game!

Hi there everyone!
Hoot here with a few updates concerning both the demo and upcoming events!


FIrst off, we have recently updated the public demo with a brand new version, in anticipation of the next Steam Next Fest.

The list of changes since last September would be too long, but just to list a few:

• Larger FOV and better enemy indicators (giving you a better view of what's surrounding you/about to hit you)
  
• Improved visuals and loads of optimization for weaker machines
  
• Tighter character handling (game's pace has been sped up across the board)
  
• All summons available
  
• Revamped encounters with normal and hard mode
  
• New tutorial
  
• Whole bunch of QOL stuff
  
• And of course, buttons/keys rebinding

(However, we did take out level 2 from the demo. Considering the amount of base content available now, we didn't want to potentially spoil players too early and have them discover more on release.)

We hope both newcomers and players who have played the previous version will enjoy this recent update!
As always, let us know if anything breaks or that you would like to see.
We might not be able to fix things immediately, but we're keeping a close eye and will push a patch if needed.

For those who want to say hello in person and/or try out the game in full, we'll be present at the two following events!

Tokyo Game Show: From September 15th to 18th (public days on the 17th and 18th)

As well as

HeroFest 2022 (in Bern, Switzerland), from October 14th to the 16th

We will be showcasing the game on the Switch for both events and just generally hang around and chill, as indie devs do.

Hey everyone!

A brief update to inform we've patched the demo a few times in the past few days to address some minor issues and tweak a few things that were pointed out to us. Thanks to everyone who has provided us helpful feedback!

On the most notable things:

• We've added a "Disable Screenshake" option in the game
  
• We've fixed some issues related to DS4 and DualSense controllers not working properly and showing the wrong inputs in the UI.

We are aware that Linux users currently have issues with PlayStation inputs not showing properlywhen using DS4/DualSense controllers. We apologize for the inconvenience and we'll continue to look for solutions.

Other than that, we've also slightly tweaked some encounters to ease up a bit for newcomers and some minor bug fixes in the mix.

Our game has native Playstation controller support. If you're having issues with the game registering double inputs, please check your "General Controller Settings" under Settings > Controller and uncheck "Playstation Configuration Support" to see if it solves your issue.

As for now, we probably won't update the demo more, so we can focus on the development of the final game (unless an incredibly critical issue arises). We'll still read all your feedback and work towards improving the end product!

Much obliged so much for your understanding and feedback. We hope you enjoy our demo! ☺