Showing posts with label new stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new stuff. Show all posts

Monday, January 14, 2019

2 Year Anniversary Patch


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steam2years

Phew! It's been a crazy year since I last updated Kalaban's blog page.

A lot has happened, and now Kalaban is finally being transferred to a new publisher in Steam. I have gotten my Steamworks developer account back, and I just recently released a new patch for the game. Here's a short list of the updates:

  • Auto-attack while you keep your Attack button down, and keep attacking through reload.
  • The description box on objects has been altered.
  • Esc on main menu will also act as a back function.
  • Main menu intro can be skipped.
  • Brightness setting fixed so that you cannot underset or overset the brightness.
  • All the white edges on the level backgrounds fixed.
  • WMV format on the Main menu background video clip.
  • Paula & Kaarina quest bug fixed where you cannot get the item if they have left.
  • Paula’s freezer taunt fixed after the story has gone forward.
  • Enemy health bar sometimes not appearing fixed.
  • Super armor now visible on paper doll in Inventory screen.
  • Fixed flamethrower damage on the Brambler monster.
  • Horde Mode item pickup recognition enhanced.
  • Horde Mode scene changing taken off because of confusion.

A lot of features on the update are stuff that I have planned to include in the game for over a year. Especially the auto-attack feature really enhances the gameplay feel in combat.

If you own Kalaban and haven't played the game in a while, give it a spin. Let's enjoy the 2 year anniversary of the game together!

Kalaban on Steam


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Sunday, January 29, 2017

Bugs and glitches

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Hello there!

As you might have noticed, we've been updating the game regularly since the release. The latest patch released was the version 1.0.7, which finally fixes most of the inventory handling issues.




Earlier this month we also published a larger content patch, which added one new item for the main story and added quite a lot of flavor text. It also included few new inventory items to play around with. It was done with a lightning-fast speed, compared to the time which it would've normally taken to complete such a large scripting task.

We had to iron out a few bugs after the release, due to the fast pace of the patch work. But overall, I'm personally really happy with the new additions. They cover most of the stuff that we eventually wanted to put in the game, but didn't know how to implement before the initial release.




The game has now reached the state where I believe there won't be as many patches in the future. Or at least not as frequently as we've released them until now. Of course we'll still be keeping our eyes on the Steam Community of Kalaban, and we'll continue to tackle the bugs reported to us.

And we owe a lot to our lovely fans, who have reported fresh bugs with every new version. Without our fans a lot of the glitches would've gone unnoticed. Due to the random and open-ended nature of our game, a lot of the bugs are not so straightforward to find or replicate.




We did have a good group of testers before release, but we also added so much stuff up until the release, that extensive bug hunting would've been required with every version. Also, writing a good bug is a matter of skill and patience, which can be learned, but just requires some time.

When the developer can successfully replicate a bug by following the specific steps written by a tester, then it's considered to be a well-written bug. If the player just states that "the hotbar is broken", it leaves a lot of questions to the developer. How is it broken? Is it broken all the time? Is it more about the contact with the sprites, or hotbar doesn't save and load correctly, or something else?




If you've previously felt that there are still too many bugs in the game to start playing, or you tested one of the first versions, and haven't touched the game since, well now is the time to pick up the game again. Like I said in the beginning, a lot of the bigger issues have now been dealt with, and chances are that you haven't even seen the newest story additions.

There is a line in development, that has to be drawn with the fixing and patching. Especially now, that Kalaban is no longer an Early Access game, and people have already experienced the game a certain way. If we keep on changing it, we risk ruining the game for someone who really liked the original version.




We would like to hear more general feedback about the game and what you want to see from us next. We'll ultimately follow our own plans of course, but your opinions will definitely matter a great deal to us. Now that Kalaban is out and available to the world, you guys are our customers, and our audience.

Send your suggestions, wishes and feedback to our Steam Community, we read each and every one of them. Or, if you want to report some specific issues or write us a longer text, you can mail to: kalaban(at)rayhouseproductions.com

Thank you!