Level 2 Available news - Heart & Slash

Hi there, Heart&Slash; has been on Early Access for now 2 weeks now and a LOT has already happened. Let's do a little re-cap:

Linux Build Available

Kike managed to get the Linux build up and running. We've encountered some important bugs and managed to fix most of them. Although most of our players are using Windows as an OS. We're happy to be able to say that the game actually runs on all the platforms we planned on releasing it to, especially that early.

Bug Fixing and Improvements

Improvement on Combat

We've also received plenty of suggestions for improving the combat which for us are extremely valuable due to the number of weapons and items and the spectrum of combinations that those allow. We want to make sure that each of them is as balanced as possible. (Check out this discussion if you want to give us your ideas on how to improve combat.

New Camera

One of the most important change in this update, is the new camera. There was a nasty bug (basically a system design mistake carried over from the initial prototype) that made the camera update at 30-40 fps, no matter what the real fps of the game was. The issue came from our code updating logic (things that matter) 40 times a second, but updating visuals (things that don't change the behaviour of the game) as fast as we could. But the camera was tied to the logical updates, not the visual ones at it should.

This is now solved, and the game now runs crazy smooth when high framerates are attained. I think this looks very good indeed! But the change affected many systems that had also to be changed, and it has probably introduced many new bugs. Even though, the camera is now much better and resolves corner cases (cases in which the camera was stuck in an awkward position) in much more elegant way.

New Level: The Overworld

The first build on Early Access, featured the Factory and the Sewers. Last Friday we've added a brand new level set to Level 2: "The City", aka, The Overworld.

The Overworld is Part 2 of Level 2. After beating Level 1 (The Factory) and depending on what level was generated and which boss was spawned, you'll either exit the Factory through the Sewers or through the main Factory entrance which leads to an outdoor environment.

Factory Exit to Overworld:

Heart&Slash; is set in a future in which Humans are extinct and all that remains are the robots they've created to serve them. In the Overworld, Heart will be exploring a ruined futuristic city which depicts the Robot Uprising and the formation of the C.O.P robot unit in charge of containing it:
C.O.P, SERVE AND PROTECT:

DO NOT FEED THE ROBOTS:

As you can see, the Overworld is and outdoor environment which should bring a welcomed change of pace after the almost claustrophobic Factory level. Note that Heart will not be able to go back to the Factory so any weapon that you leave behind will be gone forever unless it spawns again. As I said before, the Overworld is part of Level 2. This means that it will be connected with the Sewers via special zones or rooms (we use the term room in our procedural level generator). An example of the special rooms is the CRASHED SHIP:

Crashed Ship Exterior:

Crashed Ship Interior:

Crashed Ship/Sewer Connection:

Of course, there are more of such special zones but we will let you guys discover them on your own :)Note: These images are rendered in our modeling tool and the level in-game will look totally different (for the better)!

That's All Folks!

We're really excited to bring this update to you so that you can experience fighting in a more open environment. This will mean new strategies for you to discover and an opportunity to dive deeper into the world of Heart&Slash;.
Click here to get Heart&Slash; for Steam!

Cheers, Aheartfulofgames