Palmyra Orphanage news & patch notes

We've released a trailer for our new game - The Inn-Sanity. This is a plot-driven horror about several days in a hotel filled with monsters. The Inn-Sanity will be released in the second half of summer. Wishlist it on it's Steam page so you don't miss the release!

Hi! After the last update, we started receiving reports that some players are unable to log into the game due to missing buttons in the main menu. It turns out that during the update, the fonts that support the Chinese language were corrupted. Without them, messages in Chinese were not displayed, which means that the buttons were not displayed either. We've fixed this issue and Chinese players should now see all of the UI again. Sincerely, Team SteppeHare

Our team has been working on Prognostic for over a year and now you can finally play it. In this mystical horror, you will be able to solve crimes through communication with spirits. Every evening you will be sent a new case, which you can solve with the help of ancient rites (such as Tarot, dowsing, runes and others). Various fortune-telling rituals give their own clues, so you determine the course of the investigation. But remember — contact with spirits may draw some unwanted attention. Hurry up to grab Prognostic with a 21% Halloween discount! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/37949620/18106a426bb882adeaab9663497554ace792908b.png

Hello! We are very happy to present you a new update for Palmyra Orphanage. Starting today, you will be able to get Steam cards, emoticons and wallpapers dedicated to our game. In this cards you will find not only a collection of illustrations but also a several facts about the gloomy fate of the orphanage victims. We are hope that you'll find it interesting. Thanks for your support!

Our new game, House on the Hill, has been released on Steam. It is a story-driven mystery that combines various horror genres in a single narrative. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1239050/House_on_the_Hill/ You will be playing as a thief and your family is in trouble. In order to help it, you decided to accept a dangerous job — to steal a jewel from an old manor. Getting there wasn't easy, but it will be much more difficult to get out. Each playthrough is a separate story with its own ending. All of them allow you to lift the veil over the secrets of the mansion. What is hidden in the house? What is your partner hiding? What are you hiding?

What awaits you:

• Discover all secrets that are hidden behind the old walls of this gloomy house.
• Each walkthrough is unique and leads to its own story and ending.
• An intriguing story full of drama and horror.
• A huge Victorian estate is open for exploration.
• Riddles and puzzles that guard the hidden passages and secrets of the house.
• Non-linear walkthrough. Explore the house the way you want.

Get it with 21% discount!

In this update, we added a number of minor fixes, as well as several Easter eggs dedicated to the people who supported us on Twitch. (twitch.tv/steppe_hare_channel) • Now you can use arrows on the keyboard to in addition to the mouse wheel in order to scroll through the inventory items. • The maximum frame rate in the settings was not displayed correctly. Fixed. • The door in the first-aid post now cannot be opened until the cabinet is pushed back. • A new icon has been added to the game. • At the end of the game, a new checkpoint has been added. It allows you to skip a large dialog after restarting. • Now you can now find names of our supporters on the covers of books inside the game (and in the titles).

Hello! Over the past few weeks we've been working hard on one of the biggest updates in the game and preparing Palmyra for the final release. And today we are finally ready to show it to you. Here is what we added to the game:

Extended ending

We expanded the last part of the game by adding an additional ten minutes of gameplay. This new part of the game better explains events that occurred in the orphanage, and allows player to make a more informed decision at the end. This part of the game were voiced by actress and member of the T.O. Multiverse, Polina Moskvina. She took on the role of principal and helped us a lot in conveying the atmosphere of the final scenes. We are really grateful her for that!

Changes in the English translation

English localization also has been seriously improved due to the help of Dmitry Goncharov, one of our players. Thanks to his work on proofreading our texts, the overall quality of the English translation has increased.

Changes in Chinese translation

We took into account your comments about the Chinese translation and decided to completely rework it. To do this, we contacted another translator who manage to translate Palmyra into Chinese from scratch, which allowed us to get rid of many mistakes and inaccuracies. Many thanks to Mr. Albert Chen for his translation and Lemon 🍋 for his help in proofreading and consulting.

Other changes:

• Some players had an issue that at lower graphic settings in the scene on the stairs, instead of the redness effect they saw just a red screen. Fixed. • The distance of character interaction with an active elements has been increased. Now you can take an object from the floor without crouching. • The collision size of keys and other small items has been increased to make them easier to pick up. • Now if the character doesn't have a lighter, he cannot interact with candles. This prevents players from accidentally putting out the lights and staying in a complete darkness at an early stage of the game. • The girl’s voice in one of the corridors now subsides after a while. • A number of other minor changes and fixes.

Hi! The last few days we've been working on the game for the Unreal summer contest (it's called Pencil Heart and you can play it at itch.io/jam/2019-summer-ue4jam/rate/468143), so our update comes a bit later than usual. Here's what you will find in this patch: • Now you can choose to invert Y-axis of the mouse in the settings menu. • Previously, background sounds worked during a pause of the game, if you go to the menu while running down the red stairs. Fixed. • Previously, background sounds worked during a pause of the game, if you go the menu when principal appears in the office. Fixed. • We changed the loading screen to better match the events of the game. • The loading screen now changes depending on progress in the game.

New language support, large-scale sound change, new background elements, new content and, of course, new bug fixes. Long story short, we've prepared a lot of new things in this update! Chinese language support We've received dozens of messages, that were asking us about adding Chinese support to the game. We've been working on it for the past two weeks, and now we are finally ready to say: Palmyra is available in Chinese language. We hope, that you'll enjoy the results of our work. If you find any errors related to this translation, please send us message at [email protected]. Sounds and music We worked hard on improving the overall sound quality of the game and now almost every room in the building has its sounds changed: • A huge number of audio files have been changed to sound more organically: tense moments now have a louder sounds and background sounds became quieter. Due to these changes, we are recommending you to go into the game settings and re-select a volume that will be the most appropriate for you. • Some of background sounds have ended too unexpectedly. Now they begin and end more smoothly. • Some of the sounds, that can be heard when the main door closes, had problem with speed of transition. Now we've added the pause between the sounds, which is more consistent with the movements of principal. • Previously, the first sound of the wind in the game started to play too sharply. Now it sounds more natural. • There were too many sounds during the chase. We've removed the observer's breathing sound to avoid possible cacophony. • Sounds of the chase now will be quieter after an observer strikes you. • The sound of the car engine at the beginning of the game has been replaced by a more suitable one. • The sound of taking aqua regia has been added to the game. Sound of event, that starts after that, has been delayed. • Some of the cabinet doors in the kitchen made no sound. Fixed. • The sound of the toy car has been replaced by a more suitable one. • Positions of the mice sounds have been changed to a more logical ones. • The sound of taking a valve has been added to the game. • Now working shower also has its sound. Environment: We are constantly working on the atmosphere of the shelter. In order to make it more intense, we added a number of subtle, but very important elements: • Broken glass has been added in some rooms of the building. • Dust is now crumbling from the ceiling onto the stairwell. • Ventilation has been added to the archive. • A clock has been added to the meeting room. • Now you can hear barking outside one of the windows. • You also can hear a cricket outside the other window. • The radiator now raises more dust into the air when it falls. • A fan has been added to the teacher's room. • Shadows of the mixer in the medical room now looks more natural. • The cabinet in the first-aid post has been moved slightly away from the wall to more closely match the logic of the room. • Ghosts of children now look more blurry and supernatural. • Unnecessary latches were removed from the game. New Content: • The door to the new room has been open. You can find it next to the classrooms. • An achievement related to the new room has been added to the Steam. Optimization: • The method of loading the basement data has been changed in order to increase the loading speed and optimization. Other fixes: • Previously, if you do not pick up a map and notes from the basement in the first half of the game, but do it in the second half, you can fall through the floor while climbing the stairs. Fixed. • The middle button previously may have been used to zoom in. Now this feature has been disabled. • An event with a cage in children's rooms could repeat after loading from checkpoint. Fixed. • Some interactive objects were not outlined. Fixed. • Previously, notebooks in the classroom could spawn inside the table. Fixed. • Previously, bottles in the medical center has been poured past the mixer. Fixed. • Collision has been removed from paper on the floor. • A collision has been added to the pipes in the basement. • One of the candles near the boiler hung in the air. We brought it back to the ground.

Hello! We want to have a little talk about our plans. Over the past few days, we have been focusing on improving sound quality throughout the game. Right now we don't want to upload sound updates until work on them is fully completed, because the difference in volume of new and old sounds can negatively affect player immersion. This does not mean that the next patch will be dedicated only to this issue. We also currently working on fixing bugs and adding new content to the game, so the next update will contain not only changed sounds, but also a number of other improvements. That's all for today. Stay tuned and thanks for your patience!

In this short update, we are continuing to gradually add new sounds to the game environment. Work on sounds and surroundings is not finished yet, so you can expect new changes in future updates. • Squeaks from mice and rats were added to the several rooms. • The creaking sounds of floorboards were added to the first corridor. • The lighting next to the cage in children's rooms has been changed. Now you can notice it more easily. • You could be stuck in a chair in a locker room. Fixed. • Timing for triggering one of the jumpscares was too long, and players often missed it. Now you have a higher chance to see this scene.

New changes to the game: • We changed material of some notes. • We made some changes the animation, accompanying the titles. • The default brightness value of the game has been increased. • The candle in the dining room could go out by itself. Fixed. • Now you can change the mouse sensitivity in the options menu. • Previously, when playing in windowed mode, the mouse could go off the game borders. Fixed. • The quality of several background sounds has been improved. • In the basement of the shelter some animated items were added.

We are back with a new update. • Palmyra is automatically saves your progress during the key moments of the game. To mark this moment we added an autosave icon. • Previously, the door could be opened not only with left, but also with the right mouse button. We are no longer allow such liberties. The right way is the left way. • One of the candles levitated in the air in the children's room. Fixed. • Decals of scuffs were added to several cabinets. • The texture of the radio has been improved. • You could get stuck between the lockers and the chair in one of the locker rooms. Fixed. • During one of the endings in the Russian version of the game, the letter B was used instead of Б. No, agent Б wasn't fired. It's just a typo. Fixed.

We made a mistake in contact information at the end of our previous post. Our correct email is [email protected]. If you want to offer help in translation into chinese or talk to us about other stuff, send us email at this adress. If you send us email in a last two days, please, check the adress of receiver. Sorry for inconvinience.

Over the past few days we've received many requests to translate our game into Chinese. Initially, we did not plan to translate Palmyra into additional languages, but we are trying to pay attention to the needs of our players, so we decided to change our plans. Now we are at the stage of searching for a talented russian-chinese or english-chinese translator. We will tell you about time frame of translation in the next updates. If you want to offer your assistance in the translation of Palmyra, you can email us at [email protected].

In this update we fixed several bugs with the monster's behavior, expanded the available visual settings and improved visual clues during important gameplay moments. • Now the candles in the one-man cell are lit by default. We did this to avoid cofusion among the players who got there after meeting with the warden. • Under certain circumstances the shelter warden could get stuck in the door during the basement patrol. Fixed. • The note in the crypt was changed. Now it's easier to notice it. • One of the background objects in the main menu began to glow at the low shadow settings. Fixed. • Sometimes the warden could teleport too close to the player. Now he begins his movement further away from you. • The option to adjust the brightness of the game was added to the options menu. • Ability to turn on and off the motion blur were added to the settings. With the next big patch, we plan to add more ambient sounds to make the shelter atmosphere even more hostile. In the meantime, we continue to work on the game based on your comments and feedback. Thank your for help!

After a long months of work on a project, we are very pleased to announce you that Palmyra has finally entered into Early Access stage. We continuing to work on the game and collecting your feedback. We prepared the first patch based on you videos and comments. In the first patch, we added the following changes: • We improved visibility of some shadows in the basement: • The bug during which the event inside the archive did not work if you put a note back into place was fixed. • You opened two of the drawers so hard that they started to flow in the air. Fixed. • The lighting for some events has been changed to make them easier to see. • The sound of a bursting lamp was too loud, we made it quieter. • The map from the basement has been modified to be more noticeable and easy to use. • Number of sounds in the principal's office were changed. • Now if you move across different surfaces your steps will sound differently. • We delayed the time of the final phrase in one of the endings, so that it can be heard more clearly. Thanks you again for your positive feedback and support!