Fractal Space Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, XONE game

Update 0.587 is LIVE!

Hello, dear players of Fractal Space!

We thank you again for the many bug reports, suggestions and more that we have received lately.

We've been delaying the hundreds of Steam key requests to access the Pre-Alpha, in order to solve these first before having new players report new bugs :)

The latest update 0.587 is now live on Steam! It solves many more bugs, and adds new improvements, various levels changes and more. We'll discuss the important ones here.

DIALOGUES | REPETITION

Some players were complaining about hearing the same dialogues again after dying and respawning. We have changed the system to:

• Do not play already played level dialogues again within the same session
• There might be exceptions for some dialogues because some should be repeated in the same session
• If you exit the game and resume, these dialogues will be played again (intended)

We hope this change will make dying feel less repetitive, and avoid hearing the same level dialogues over and over.

Respawn dialogues have not changed, and will still be different at each death, until there are no more available, in which case it will then be "sighs" instead of sentences.

CUTSCENES | HANDS

In this update, you can now see the player character's hands during the very first introduction of the game, and during Respawn cutscenes!

They should work correctly with any FoV setting - even though high FoV will always result in slight distortion of objects, which is normal. Ensuring animations work well with all FoV values isn't as easy as it sounds, so it has to be tested ;)

On some specific respawn points, you might see the hands go through objects or the ground; please report in-game when this happens, so it can be fixed in the next updates.

FRAGILE | WINDOWS

Fragile Windows have been reworked in order to solve multiple issues:

• They had holes, which required you to aim more precisely to avoid shooting through he holes instead. This was intended, but it seems like more players are annoyed by this than anything - so they no longer have holes, but they do have visible cracks.
• Holes were partly also present to make the fragile windows stand out more from regular windows and make them more visible. This new version now has a much more visible crack to help making them more noticeable, as some players had a hard time differentiating them.
• After shooting a first time on a fragile window, shards will then break with player weight and / or dropped cube on them. It now makes more sense that they do not do so until a first shot has been fired.

You can see the crack is much more noticeable than previously, and holes have been removed:

CHAPTER 1 | NEW AREA

Just after the first 2 pressure plates, in front of the Math door, you can now freely access the “white light hole” to your right.

There will be a recording here in the future:

It is meant to be accessible and completable in New Game. You can do this before or after getting the Taser. The roof above the math door will still relocate you for now, but in the future there will be a recording accessible only in New Game+ up there as well.

CHAPTER 1 | OPTIONAL RECORDING

The optional Recording to get around the first Smashers area (requiring Cube/Dodge to reach the Roof) is now protected to be inaccessible or by simply Dodging from below, or by using various other techniques to reach the ceiling:

CHAPTER 2 | LAST ROOM

The Power Core Storage button will no longer disable the lasers above the Power Core, and will only open the door. You will need to open the door, then enable Zero-G to get the Power Core that will be pushed out:

In addition, the optional Upgrade in this room will now require Zero-G to be accessed:

OTHER

Other new additions worth noting here:

• Chapter 1: New checkpoint added above the “Go Left, Go Right” area to save outside as well. In addition, checkpoints here will save multiple times after various key interactions are done.
• Cameras: Disabled Cameras can now be destroyed
• Physics Debris: You can now shoot “through the cylinder” of floating pipes debris in Chapter 3 (The Cube area)
• Tablets / Power Cores / Encryption Keys: Will now react to Taser shots (be pushed) in Zero-G.

CHANGES

Below is a list of various important changes in this update:

• Lasers: Various insta-kill lasers now have more tightly-packed lasers to make it more clear you won’t survive if you try to get through. Many of these areas will have similar additions over the next updates to make it more predictable.
• Saws: Some saws (especially moving saws, or static that should be jumped over) are always more tolerant than others (intentionally) to avoid you getting damaged when a “fairly acceptable jump” was performed instead of a “perfect jump”. This will remain for the upper part to avoid frustration. Though the sides shouldn’t behave like this for this saw. They will now damage the player more accurately from the sides. Please report any unintended damage by saws that may now occur with this change (in some specific areas, this change might be an issue)
• Doors / Vent Doors: Closing a vent door with a Cube in the middle would now push it better “out of the way” since the previous update already. With Power Cores, it’s more complicated due to their shape. Now, if a Power Core gets “caught” inside a closing door or vent door, it will be automatically forced out of the way. This solves the issue. To be tested in case it creates new bugs!
• Dodge Cooldown: The Dodge cooldown gauge could sometimes remain indefinitely visible when used with the Taser Toggle system. In addition, it could sometimes not be visible with Taser Toggled on, preventing you from knowing when it has finished recharging.
• Dodge Cooldown: Will now always be displayed, and move downwards while aiming in order to avoid being disturbed when trying to aim with the Taser.
• Speedrun Mode: Some lasers have player collisions in speedrun mode only. Previously, changing Speedrun Mode during a level would not update laser collisions (restart of Chapter required). It will now change appropriately instantly.
• Chapters Replay: Selecting Chapter 1 from the “Chapters” page would not play the first introduction (it was only played on New Game without Speedrun Mode).
• Chapter 1: Pipes to reach the skip (Fragile Wall) next to the Smasher button are kept, but not the “lowest” one, as it creates more confusion than anything (was intended to be here to help and provide a hint that roof is accessible).
• Chapter 1: Small vent in Taser Room cannot be closed after being opened to prevent potential softlock
• Chapter 1: Saw in “This is bad” room has a new path, which doesn’t clip through the Door pillars. Other various small changes and improvements were made in this room.
• Chapter 3: Vertical row of Lasers next to the Camera (for which you must disable Shield to get through, that is looking at the vent), could let you go through with somedamaged - they are meant to kill if you go though. Now changed to reflect this.
• Chapter 3: Horizontal lasers in the area after the 2 breakable glass to access the Power Core to disable the camera shield mentioned above, will now instantly kill you if you go through it to prevent you from skipping this room.
• Chapter 3: Solved potential softlock with locking the cube on the wrong side in the Initialization Room
• Chapter 4: When reaching the last room, the retractable walls will now deploy to prevent you from backtracking to a potential softlock (room with flames)
• Upgrades: Tutorial about upgrades (and associated dialogues) will not play when interacting with a mandatory Upgrade Terminal if it’s your very first terminal ever (ex: first terminal ever interacted with is Hyper-Speed terminal in Chapter 3). This is because the player has no choice for this terminal.

BUG FIXES

Below is a list of the most important bugfixes included this update:

• Taser Toggle: When toggled always on, the Taser could be shown after a Cutscene, even with an object currently in hands.
• Saws: “Cannot Stand Here” could happen when crouched really close to a Saw
• Room Control: Sometimes, a button would require clicking it twice to perform the turn ON/OFF of a specific action. Should be fully solved. To be tested - as this change may have caused unwanted new bugs in various other Room Control interfaces.
• Moving Platforms: Vertical Dodge from a moving platform could sometimes result in “bouncy reception” upon the next moving platform landing. This should now be fixed (to be tested).
• Power Cores: You could potentially encounter bugs if you inserted a Power Core inside a Power Core Slot at the same time as Relocation would be happening. You can no longer drop / insert a Power Core Core while a relocation is in progress (to prevent this bug, and to prevent unintended situations / softlocks due to leaving a Power Core in an unreachable area).
• Lasers: Laser beams could go through the edges of vent doors (leak). Now fixed.
• Taser: In some specific cases / angles, you could sometimes shoot through walls. Shouldn’t be possible anymore.
• Sprint: When a sprint is pending, and getting out of a vent could result in sprinting while remaining crouched.
• Chapter 1: Ensured the Ext door of the very first Camera room will not sometimes re-open once you went past the door (could happen in some cases).
• Chapter 1: Relocation could sometimes briefly be displayed upon entry of the very first Cube room.
• Chapter 1: Math Door: Entering slightly then returning back, could result in relocation bug that allowed to skip the “Laser Cage” room if you were to go outside on attempted to reach the roof.
• Chapter 2: Solved possible unintended backtracking after disabling lasers in the first “Electrified Room” if you returned outside using the vent below, after going past these (now disabled) lasers.
• Chapter 3: You could skip the 2 “cages” with cubes by flying further on the sides
• Chapter 3 You could activate “The Cube” button remotely with the Taser, earlier than you should be able to. Now fixed (not usable until going actually through)
• Chapter 3: Generator to break for glass-cubes area (just after the Tunnel): There were multiple bugs with the vents / lasers in this room, could cause laser issues, and softlocks. All should be fixed. Added an Ammo Pack in this room as well to prevent soflocks.
• Chapter 3: “The Cube” Area Encryption Key Formatter: The game should now only save in front of the formatter Terminal, after leaving it, but only if the Lasers have already been disabled by breaking the generator. This avoids potential softlock if went through using cover, then removed it, or passed through and survived during Dodge.
• Chapter 3: In the last hallway, sometimes laser fields would not be properly activated for the Bridge power puzzles (where you must deploy only necessary Bridges). Should now always be the correct way (all laser fields enabled correctly)
• Chapter 4: The Map of the Room Control Terminal in the Hyper-Speed suppressor area would not be displayed correctly upon very first interaction
• Chapter 4: Portable mirrors were “falling like leaves” when Zero-G was disabled. Should now behave correctly.
• Saving: A change was made on saving data, hopefully will help reduce chances of having an in-game error about “a value being negative”. However, if your game crashes while saving, or you exit the game with ALT+F4 while saving, data will still be corrupted (like with any other game). Later on, there will be a backup system in case this happens, but this is not here yet.
• Texts: Texts that appear “gradually” (tutorials, etc.) could display the full text for a very short period of time, before starting the smooth apparition. Should now be fixed.
• Reported Bugs: Fixed many in-game reported bugs

Thank you for testing! We'll continue working on the various remaining bugs, and re-update over the next few days for next bugs ;)