Bloodthief news & patch notes

Hey folks!

Medium-sized update coming your way - mainly with quality of life stuff and bug fixes. Here are the release notes:

New Stuff

• Some new features that should make Full Game runs, New Game runs, and just replaying in general easier and more fun

  • Save slots: Now you can choose between 1 of 3 save slots from the main menu. The new button is in the top left of the main menu.

  • "Full Game Run" timer: Now each save slot tracks the total play time associated with that save slot. You can display this in real time below the normal run timer by enabling it in the user settings.

• Add a mappable action for "Ground Slam (Keep Momentum)" for those that would prefer this over the default "quick tap" behavior of ground slam

  • Note: It is not mapped to any button by default so if you prefer this option over the default you need to map it to a button in the controller settings

• Final boss got some major tweaks to help the arena react and move along faster if you're speedrunning it

• Update LBs with new badges from competitions

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug where you could ground slam through damage areas sometimes (most commonly seen in final boss)

• Prevent double collection of the same key

• Fix some Japanese translation errors

• Custom Maps bug: Fix bug with vt_trigger_area `trigger_dependency_count` parameter

• 5db reduction of stone sword sound

• Fixed 1-6 end level area being too low

• Made lava more robust

  • Now it will continue to hurt you as you stand in it which should fix issues where you could find yourself able to stand inside lava

  • the game will attempt to "depenetrate" you from the lava to prevent clipping through the map scenarios

• Improved controller support: Now triggers can be remapped
• Made it so long User Map names don't break the level select
• Added the ability to add Map tags from the map settings pause screen (See the Bloodthief Workshop for featured tags, including the one for the ongoing map jam, Speed Jam: Gherisa Swamplands)
• Fixed custom checkpoint spawn positions in custom maps
• Fixed global leaderboards in custom maps
• Added new map setting: "Continue Music on Restarts" which makes it so if you hit "Restart Map" the music just keeps going as opposed to restarting. Useful when you're grinding top times and don't want to hear the same 2 second beginning of a song over and over
• Fixed bad geometry in Oex Labor Bell
• Now the creator name is displayed in the Workshop Maps select menu
• Fixed bug where a lava that is entirely clip brush caused a crash
• Made it so in Custom Maps you can use light_color or key_color in byte mode (RGB 0-255) or float mode (RGB 0-1)
• Added the ability to delete your own custom maps from the level select
• Fixed weapon switching bug that caused a crash
• Added the ability for mappers to set which areas are "navigable" which will make navigation in custom maps more optimized.

Hey Everyone! Bloodthief's Steam Workshop is now live and you can now play custom user maps with the click of a button!

How to Play Custom Maps

Hey Everyone! New patch coming your way, here's what is new:

New Features

• Arachnophobia mode - can enable in settings

• Change the color of blood to whatever color you want! - can enable in settings.

Bug Fixes and Tweaks

• Slightly Increased air control for Dawnblade, Stone Sword, Sire's Blade, Godslayer, Godsteel, Maila's Kiss, Sliver of Darkness, Combobulator, Glurm's Club

• Increased the Combobulator detection range

• Added a level select button to the pause screen

• Fix bug where the Life Harvester interacted weirdly with the skulls in the boss battle

• Made the Life Harvester dash cost 0.3 blood

• Made it so the boss moves faster if you're moving faster

• Fixed a bug where you could dash through lava or goo

• Fixed bug where water effects could persist even after exiting water

• Increased the max time that level intros stay on the screen so they don't disappear when you're still reading

• Fixed bug where tooltips over various artifacts were all messed up sometimes in the level select

• Added a drop shadow to the In-game timer so it's more readable

ALSO

For those of you that don't know, I'm also planning a feature where people can make their own custom maps using Trenchbroom (a popular free software for making levels in games), and share / play other people's maps via Steam Workshop. Stay tuned for that feature, it's coming soon! In the meantime, you can beta test an early version of it, details are on my Discord Server. Thanks! - Blargis

Hello! Today's patch is small but I think it will improve the experience substantially in 2-5 and 3-9.

• Added a tutorial book in Buried Keep that teaches you that air dash takes longer to charge when targeting big enemies

• Map 2-5 Tweaks

  • Added some launchpads that can save you in a pinch.

  • Made it so enemy waves progress faster if you take out the prior wave

  • fixed spot where you could clip through the ceiling

• Reduced Pain Golem projectile damage (the purple projectiles)

• Increased air control of Stone Sword and Dawnblade

• Fixed bug where you could get killed by an invisible enemy in S-1

Thanks! Blargis

Hey everyone! This patch contains a bunch of bug fixes and a new "Overall Rank" leaderboard that combines your ranks from each level and gives you an overall rank. Just a heads up, this leaderboard only updates once per day. Here are the patch notes! New Stuff

• Added "Overall Rank" leaderboard (accessible from main menu). It takes the average of all your ranks on all levels (Note: Only updates once per day)

• Added a button so you can see a level's leaderboard from the level select screen

• Added Korean translation

• Added badges for SNF competition

• Now Dawnblade has 2 starting Blood

• Now Silken Edge has increased air control

Bug Fixes

• Fix a whole bunch of broken level geometry, holes, and broken lavas (nothing that should impact any routing in this patch)

• Fix hitbox of bow pickup in Cloud Castle being too small

• Increase hitbox of all artifact pickups

• Fix bug where you could wall jump on lava waterfalls

• Fix bug where you could dash with Skrike after switching weapons sometimes

• Fix issue with the Toothpick that made it so you could jump insanely high off of a ground pound bounce

• Improved DirectX performance some more

• Fix crash that could occur in in 3-9 when using DirectX launch option
• (Hopefully) fix steam cloud sync error that could pop up sometimes
• Fix Rage Mushroom description giving the wrong hint
• Fix a few minor restart-related issues with the last level
• Fix clip that could allow you to skip to the end in 1-3
• Fixed issue where you missed end game message if you quit to main menu after beating the game
• Fix a trigger that would sometimes not fire in 3-2

• Major optimization: Fixed a bug that was putting a ton of load on the CPU. If you were experiencing consistent lag before, it may be much improved now
• Fixed a bunch of bad geometry that lead to being able to see through walls in some levels
• Fixed random walls that hurt you in some places
• Fixed random lavas that didn't hurt you in some places
• Improve geometry in 1-4 so you can't clip through to the end
• Fixed issue where lb times in Sandbox weren't submitting
• Fixed a few broken item descriptions
• Fixed issue where beating the Sandbox level showed you the end credits
• Fixed issue where sometimes you submitted a strange and large time into the leaderboards

• Added a little message that will pop up if you have the bad AMD driver and need to update your driver
• Fix some bad geometry in level 3-5
• Block the way behind you in 3-8
• Fix lava bug with the Stone Sword
• Reduce stuttering in 3-4
• Add the perk description to the "new weapon unlocked" modal in the end level screen
• Fixed a bad trigger in 3-6 that would cause enemies to not spawn if you went around it on accident
• Fixed a bad trigger in 2-1 that could be missed
• Fix an Out of Bounds in 1-4
• Fix broken description for Fire Slug
• Fix key jail being squeeze-throughable in 1-9

Hey everyone, Bloodthief is out!!!

Thank you all for the support over the last 2.5 years!

What's Next?

I'll be supporting the game and looking to the community to see what kind of features folks want added. Right now that looks like mapping / modding support. But let me know what you think in the Discord Server or in the Community forum!

Hey folks!

Bloodthief launches in about 24 hours (Monday, Sept 22 at 10 AM PST), just wanted to do a post and give you all some key details

PRICE

Price will be: $19.99 USD with regional adjusted pricing + a 10% launch discount

MOST IMPORTANT: UPDATE YOUR GPU DRIVERS

AMD 25.8.1 Driver had a number of issues with many games, Bloodthief included. If you currently have this driver installed, Bloodthief may not work! Update your drivers to the latest (right now that is 25.9.2).

Nvidia Driver 576.52 is also known to give a lot of folks issues. If you use Nvidia and have this driver installed, update your drivers!

If you're still running into driver issues launch the game with the DirectX 12 launch option.

WHAT'S IN THE GAME

• 31 levels in the main story

• Over 20 weapons

• Lots of new enemies

• 100+ secrets

• 22 achievements

• Tons of surprises...

STEAM DECK / CONTROLLER SUPPORT

Yes Steam Deck and controllers are supported (steam gave it a "Playable" rating), BUT, I highly recommend playing with Mouse Keyboard as Bloodthief is very difficult with the joysticks. I'm thinking of adding some sort of auto-aim feature for joysticks post launch, drop me a message in the discussion boards or on discord if you want this!

BLOODTHIEF OST

It will be for sale soon after launch!

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE DEMO?

Demo progress will not transfer over, but the demo will remain available and the demo leaderboards will remain intact (though they will be completely separate from the full game leaderboards).

WHERE TO GET SUPPORT

Best place to get fast support would be the Discord Server, this is where the Bloodthief community is! But I'll be monitoring the discussion boards and the discord server for issues. You can also email me at [email protected]

That's all for now!

-Blargis

Hi everyone,

Just pushed patch 0.5.2, which just has a few fixes:

• Hopefully fixes the issue where the game gets stuck on the loading screen forever. Please let me know in the comments if this is fixed for you or if you're still running into the issue.

• NOTE: if the above wasn't work, many users have reported that they could get things to work by closing the other programs running on their computer, including background apps (ie. web browser, OBS, Discord, etc).

• Fixes an issue that made sliding on slopes sometimes triggered this slide-stand-slide-stand jittering back and forth.

More patches are coming in the next few days, I just wanted to try and handle the most critical ones first!

Thanks,

Blargis

Doing a stream for Next Fest! Hop in and watch me try to get Godkiller medals in all the levels!

How to play

Demo Trailer

Newest Devlog

Where to follow the development of Bloodthief

• My YouTube Channel : I post ~monthly devlogs here where I talk about the status of the game and give a behind the scenes look!
• Discord : This is where I mostly hang out, send, announcements, post updates, and all that stuff. Come say hi!
• Twitter: I'm just starting to ramp this account up, so go give it a follow and help me out with that twitter algorithm!

Where to report an issue or bug?

Gameplay changes

Bug Fixes

Aesthetic Changes

Optimizations

• The bulk of the Bloodthief community lives in my Official Blargis Discord Server. This is where I hang out every day and chat, take feedback, hash out bugs, etc. Come say hi! If Discord isn't your thing, feel free to post questions/comments here or on the Playtest Steam community as I'll be monitoring these spaces as well!
• This Demo is only going to be available for FPS Fest. Not to fear though! All the content from the Demo will be pushed to the ongoing Bloodthief Playtest, which is 100% free and open. You can join the playtest by clicking "Request Access" on the Bloodthief Steam Page
• Devlogs and promotional content for Bloodthief can be found on my YouTube Channel. Here's the latest devlog:
• Bloodthief has a growing Speedrunning community! If you're a speedrunner, go check out the Bloodthief Speedrun.com page. Learn what the top runners are doing and submit some runs! Bloodthief also has a dedicated discord just for speedrunning, check it out here.