[Vampire+ Release] Version 0.25.1

Hello everyone, Corintio here!

We are very proud to bring you this demo today. It is the beginning of a whole new page in our project and here is why:

• EDIT: After we updated the demo we noticed a list of issues passed through our QA. We are working on addressing the more urgent issues and we'll release a new patch on the weekend. About the crash people are experiencing, we are collecting logs and on Monday we will debug and find a way to fix it.

•  This is our first proper release in Unreal 5, and now that we unlocked this door, you can expect several new updates in the following weeks as we press forward to try and get the game in the best possible shape so on the last week of this month, we can release an SFW demo on steam.

• Optimization is the type of job that we'll be always doing in the background, and you can expect more improvements in the future as we collect feedback and rework more of the base code, but this patch marks a major milestone towards that goal. Notice that now we have things such as Raytracing and Lumen, so at the same time that the game will run better if you lower your graphic settings, there are options now that can bring the visuals even further than before, and that video cards incompatible with the raytracing technology might struggle. So make sure to take a look at the game settings and tailor the game to what your machine can run.

• We made many improvements to the quality of life. The vampiric vision has never looked as good (although we are still going to bring back the outline of enemies and chests). The loot scattered across the dungeon will now be more varied since we added different layers for the Karnstein Legion armour and as time goes on, we'll be working on new cutscenes between Kalyskah and her former soldiers. So the storytelling, once this is put together with the prologue, might break your heart as much as it's breaking Kalyskah's. These cutscenes and details will be added during the incoming weeks and be worked in parallel with the content of the prologue.

So get ready for this demo that is a major milestone for us, and I hope you enjoy what we have to show you today!

And again, now that this veil has finally been removed, we can start to patch more often as we add characters to the Garden of Earthly Delights until the open world is ready to be playable again.

Fixes from what Unreal 5 broke and that you might have seen in version 0.25.0

• Fixed photo mode not working;

• Fixed Hints on the UI to show the proper keys for game commands;

• Fixed NPC clothes not properly setting their custom colours;

• Fixed targeting enemies not working;

• Fixed Dialogue options not showing during cutscenes;

• Fixed Controller inputs for both the UI and gameplay;

• Fixed evasion not working;

• Fixed Kalyskah taking fall damage. She's a vampire, she doesn't care about gravity;

• Fixed mist form input not working;

• Fixed Skill tree lines and tooltip;

• Fixed navigation tabs in Menu Settings;

• Fixes camera not changing when aiming with a bow;

• Fixed many shortcuts;

• Fixes outlines not appearing when using vampiric vision;

• Fixed interaction with chests;

• Fixed missing tags in the items tooltips;

• Fixed Attributes UI;

Fixes

• Optimized the size of some toysystem animations;

• General optimizations on many materials from the level;

• General optimizations on the Inventory;

• Improvements in UI Performance;

• Fixed Catherine's bra clipping through small breasts, but for now, Kalyskah can't wear this set yet;

• Fixed game options not being properly saved. This was an issue that we've had for A LONG time, now we can finally say that your settings will be stored when you quit the game!

• Fixed dark spots under the arms of some female skins;

• Glasses will no longer cast shadows on character faces;

• Fixed game not saving your changes on the input (French players have specially asked us for this because of their keyboard that isn't WASD);

• Fixed Kalyskah's mouth not disappearing when she entered mist form;

• Fixed TONS of situations where the game would crash;

• Reduced CPU usage for NPC;

• Fixed stun animation that caused male characters to flip 90 degrees;

• Fixed Typo on the Prisoner armour set;

• Prevented other input actions while resting in a coffin;

• Reduced Emissive from blood buff;

Enhancements

• Reworked Nemesis's introduction cutscene and also how she appears in the game for the first time;

• Changed main menu to nighttime by default, this is just a slight hint on what we'll do next to improve it;

• Kalyskah's ruined temple has been completely revamped;

• Improved Nemesis goofy animations;

• Improved materials on the sewers;

• Improved Merishya's eyebrows and made a general glow-up on her character;

• Improved usability of graphic settings and made a way to toggle raytracing On and Off;

• Improved Claw combat animations, Kalyskah will attack with more elegance instead of being as feral as the lesser vampires. It's not 100% done yet;

• Improved movement on tails (Both for Merishya and Nemesis and also for the devil costume);

• The night vision was completely overhauled and now will be much more helpful to allow you to see dark places;

• Improved "waterfalls" on the sewers;

• Created a new method for when we want an NPC to have a custom idle. For now, you will only notice the undead standing and walking differently than kalyskah. In the future, we'll add custom idles for every important NPC, to show off their personality more;

• Improved the eyes of the undead, and also their skins;

• Female undead will have a more high-pitched voice;

• Undeads will be complaining and saying dialogue lines when they are idle;

• Removed the IK on Kalyskah's feet. This was causing several glitches when she climbed stairs;

• Input keys are not sorted alphabetically in the settings menu;

• Reduced Kalyskah's initial health from 400 to 49 to make the game more challenging. This makes feeding and managing the blood buff more important;

• Increased the time it takes for Kalyskah to start recovering her stamina after attacking from 0.01 to 1 second;

• Reduced the threshold for Kalysakh to be visibly thirsty, also reduced her max blood points at the start so she doesn't have any blood shards (those she will get during the story)

• Kalyskah will start with only 30 blood points, so players need to actually try to sneak behind enemies to drink their blood in the early game so they can recover.

• Added tooltips to every option in the game settings

• Kalyskah will equip her weapons when enemies start to target her and unequip when they stop doing so

• Male undead won't always have black hair

• Improved Move and Zoom of the skill tree, increased interaction area

• If Kalyskah doesn't have a weapon equipped and you try to attack, instead of glitching the weapon in her hand as she plays the attack animation, she will properly equip them;

• Reduced the size of some UI elements to not go over 4096px;

• Reduced the size of some general textures;

• Fixed performance in several particle effects;

• Improved the looks of the torch;

Features

• New NPC (Doesn't have dialogue yet) Gabriela;

• New fringe hairstyle;

• Improved Kalyskah's default hairstyle to match the quality of our newest ones;

• New Armour for Merishya;

• Added a proper tutorial to the game, to teach you the basics of how to move, attack, heal, activate night vision and sneak;

• Two whole new areas: The Garden of Earthly Delights and the Garden of Blood. We haven't added the content for the Garden of Delights yet, but you can play in the area and defeat some waves of enemies. Later on, we'll be balancing and better distributing them;

• New cutscenes that I'll leave you to find out;

DOWNLOAD

If you are a VAMPIRE, ROYAL BLOOD or NIGHTSTALKERS patron, follow these instructions:

• Itch: Link your account HERE, and download the game HERE. If you have Itch's launcher, the game will auto-update itself.

• If you have any issues linking your account to itch, feel free to message us to we can send you a mirror to download the patch. But I would recommend downloading it through itch because we are already gathering a list of improvements and there will be a new patch next week to fix some issues that were left and also to add new content.

Kalyskah - Michael Fight (Work in Progress) (YouTube)