Sol Cesto news & patch notes

A New Hotfix, Finally!

This is the biggest hotfix we've released for Sol Cesto so far. It fixes a huge number of bugs and required the help of a second programmer, Everade, who previously worked on Zombiehood. Thanks to Everade and our publisher Goblinz's Quality Assurance team, we were able to move much faster and solve some particularly tricky engine-related issues, including the Alt+Tab window duplication bug, Linux achievements, optimization, and more. Huge thanks to them! 🙏

This hotfix took a long time to arrive because, after the second patch and three years of handling all the game's programming on my own, I think I was simply too exhausted to keep going. Thankfully, I'm doing much better now and have gotten back to debugging. And thanks to Everade, development wasn't on hold for too long.

We won't list every single bug that was fixed because there are simply too many, but here's an overview of what this patch includes:

• Dozens of gameplay bug fixes.

• Around twenty localization fixes across the different languages.

• The engine-level fixes mentioned above, including the Alt+Tab window duplication issue and Steam achievements on Linux.

• A few minor balance adjustments.

• Updated credits to include the entire localization team.

There are still a few bugs left to fix, although the list is now much shorter! We'll keep working on them, and we'll also look into adding a few quality-of-life options to make the game more accessible. I know many of you would like to be able to save a run in progress, so I'll see what I can do. 😊

Finally, thank you all so much for your support and patience. And another huge thanks to Everade and Goblinz's QA team for their amazing work.

We're getting very close to 200,000 copies sold, which is absolutely incredible, and it's all thanks to you. Chario, Antoine, and I couldn't have hoped for a better reception. Thank you so much.

See you soon for more updates! 🌞

Géraud, Chariospirale & Antoine

Hello 👋 I’m back with some new fixes! Once again, not all bugs have been resolved yet. But I’m continuing to work full-time on Sol Cesto (with the help of Goblinz's QA team), and debugging remains my top priority 🌞

Here are the fixes and adjustments included in this patch:

• The crash that occurred when using the die at the moment the lizard loses its tail has been fixed.

• It’s no longer possible to get locked by using an item or a power on the very last screen of the game.

• The goblin blade now collects the gem if it kills a monster carrying one.

• The goblin blade no longer causes a lock if it triggers on a screen without monsters.

• Pausing the game while holding an item no longer causes the item to disappear.

• The bucket no longer goes as low as before.

• The vendor’s prices now correctly reset to normal after attempting to knock her out several times in a row.

• The vendor no longer sweats under threat when she is no longer present.

• The hand trap in biome 4 now takes longer before killing.

• Some Spanish translation errors have been fixed.

• Music volume is now preserved when returning to the title screen.

• For some Windows 11 users, the issue with windows multiplying during an alt-tab should now be resolved (we are still working on this complex issue, which depends on the engine we use rather than the game itself).

• Rebalancing of the spawn rate of certain teeth.

• Rebalancing of the price of several items.

Thanks again for your patience and for all your feedback. The game has been a huge success for us, and we’ll do our best to make sure you have a great experience. See you very soon for the next patch 🙌

Géraud.

Hello 👋 After a few days of rest and some excellent work from the Goblinz QA team (our publisher), who compiled all your bug reports, I’ve gotten back to working on the code!

Here’s a first patch (more will follow) with several bug fixes and adjustments:

• The white screen replacing the intro cinematic on the Windows Steam Deck version has been fixed.

• Fixed the spring bug that caused an infinite roll.

• Phase 2 of the first boss can no longer be skipped by clearing the screen in phase 1.

• The spider boss can no longer repeatedly attack on a trap (since bosses no longer have traps).

• The spider boss’s head no longer remains on screen after biome 2.

• No more crashes when rapidly clicking “Return to Surface” on the game over screen.

• Fixed softlocks when killing the shopkeeper twice or picking up an item while holding a bomb.

• It’s no longer possible to block the game over by pressing Escape.

• Save reset has been fixed.

• The pink square that remained on screen after defeating the final boss is gone.

• The gems needed to open the final door are now much more visible during combat.

• The Huntress talent now triggers more frequently.

• Rebalanced the spawn rate of certain teeth.

• And probably plenty of other small tweaks and fixes I made over the past few days but completely forgot to note!

Not everything is fixed yet, but I’m fully focused on bug fixing, so expect more patches soon.

Thanks again to all of you for the warm reception of the game and for helping us report bugs. We thought we were releasing the game in a really solid state, but with over 10,000 of you playing every day, it’s bringing up plenty of situations we had never encountered. In any case, thank you for your patience and kindness. We’ll do our best to clean all this up as quickly as possible 🌞

Géraud.

Hey everyone!

We've got a few things to tell you, and we wanted to keep you posted on what's next for Sol Cesto.

First and foremost, we wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone, once again. To people that were there even before Early Access launch, or to those who just joined us on the quest to retrieve the sun, you've been sending a lot of nice words, there's been gorgeous fan arts shared across the social medias, and that's really heartwarming. All your support and feedback has been a pleasure to read

We've also read the negative reviews, and people having issues with the game. There's been a delay on the Linux native version going out in 1.0, and we apologize about it, but 1.0 is now out natively on Linux!

However, while playing on a Linux System (including Steamdeck) via proton, you might have a white screen issue when launching the game ; we're aware of it and working on it. There's been different feedback on the forums, reviews, and even Discord, and we're gathering them and will also take care of those!

When will it be taken care of?

Currently, the developpers (being two people full time, and only one coder) are having a well deserved few days break. While we know it might be frustrating for some of you to have issues not fixed right away, as you might guess, the journey to a 1.0 version isn't all calm. We'd rather delay the hotfix for a few days if it allows people who develop the game to feel better. We hope you'll understand this decision. They'll resume work by Thursday at the latest, and our goal, counting development and QA tests, would be to deliver an update with a lot of fixes sometime next week

A quick word about the saves too: we've seen that some of you were annoyed that they lost their progress between 1.0 and EA, even with the 1500 gold compensation. Sorry! While we totally understand your frustration, we did not have the choice, as there was a technical conflict between EA and 1.0 versions (due to the revamp of the meta progression), forcing us to reset them. However we should've communicated on this as soon as we knew this would be the case, and we apologize for this.

Once again, thanks for all your feedback, positive or negative, it helps us to know what to tweak, what to fix, and also it's really heartwarming to read what you love about the game.

We'll keep you posted when the next patch is coming out! Thanks for your patience

Have a wonderful day ☀️

We made it!

Sol Cesto is finally out in version 1.0!

As you may know, we’re a very small team (Géraud, designer and developer / Chariospirale, artist and designer / Antoine, composer), and bringing a project like this to completion took a lot of effort and determination.

And that’s not even counting the game development itself. There are so many things you don’t necessarily realize that constantly take up time and energy (promotion, trailers, festivals, etc.). But we made it, we survived! We honestly don’t know how we would have stayed motivated throughout 3 years of development (including one year in Early Access) if the game hadn’t found its audience. So for that… Thank you!

Thank you for being there, and also for all your feedback, which helped us improve and fix the game over time. This is the biggest project we’ve worked on so far, and we’re really happy with the result 😊 By the way, feel free to leave us a review if you’re enjoying the game 🙌

About version 1.0!

The game now includes:

• A different ending for each of the 7 playable characters

• Steam achievements

• Various tweaks and balance changes

• An intro cinematic

• A new (mini) area, deep, very deep down below…

• The Peasant now has his own progression branch and a talent

• A complete overhaul of the interface and options

• New interactions with items and special screens (like selling your items into the well, for example!)

• New secrets and other surprises 👀

But most importantly, we’ve reworked the meta-progression system. Stars are no longer unlocked only with gold coins, some now require specific actions. This is something we wanted to include from the very beginning, so we’re really happy to finally bring this redesign to the full release.

With this new version comes one downside: we can’t keep your old save files without them conflicting with the new system…

To make up for it, we’re offering you a sum of gold coins that will allow you to unlock a good number of stars and ease your progression. You’ll also have the option to refuse these coins (which we strongly encourage), and we’ve added the ability to reset your save at any time.

The game is now in a state we’re very happy with. There are still a few minor (non-blocking) bugs here and there, and we’ll keep working to fix as many as possible. Optimization for Steam Deck, accessibility options (like a more readable font), and controller support are our top priorities going forward.

What’s next?

We won’t lie: after 3 years of development, what we want most is to move on! To start new projects and experiment.

Of course, there are ideas we didn’t have time to add to the game, but we’ve made peace with that. We’d rather release the game now in a finished state than get stuck in endless development. That said, we’re not abandoning the game, we’ll continue fixing what needs to be fixed over the next few months.

One last THANK YOU!

We can’t thank you enough for the motivation you’ve given us to keep going. We hope the game brings you joy and a bit of happiness 🌞

Thanks as well to Goblinz for trusting us and supporting the game over the past few years. We’re so happy we got to work with them! Without them, today’s version of Sol Cesto would never have existed (and it would have launched with many, MANY more bugs).

And thanks to the team behind the intro cinematic, we’re incredibly proud of it! Armand, Tom, Vincent, and Ninon, we hope we get to work with you again someday 🙌

Chariospirale, Géraud, Antoine

Hello everyone! We’ve got a lot of important news to share with you.

First of all: the price of the game will increase from €12 to €14. That’s a €2 increase, which we feel is justified after almost a year in Early Access. This change will happen right after the current sale ends, so you still have time to get the game at a lower price!

Secondly: the new update is out, and here’s what it brings 🦇 :

• A new character: the Vampire. Her power does not affect her movement, unlike the other characters in the game. When she activates it, she boosts her strength and magic stats for one turn and drains one health point from her opponent (if she lands on a monster). Her talent is pretty cool too: when she kills a monster, she has a small chance to spawn a bat, which will eliminate a random monster while stealing one health point from it.

• A new boss in biome 3. It’s a giant sea serpent that can swallow you and spit you back out. Watch out for the bubbles! This boss replaces the one we previously had in biome 3. We hope you’ll like this new one a bit more.

• Two new items at the shop. The pile of rocks, which creates a landslide under the hero’s feet. This landslide destroys all the tiles below, even bonus tiles! And throwing stars, which randomly eliminate between 1 and 4 monsters on the screen.

• A new item in the fountain: the bird. When you use the flute to play a melody, if you’ve unlocked it, the flute breaks. The fountain bird allows you to repair it so you can play a new melody.

Finally, and most importantly: this update is the last one before the arrival of version 1.0. We still can’t give you a date (even though we know it ourselves), but you shouldn’t have to wait much longer before the final version of the game is released. We can’t wait for you to discover all the surprises it has in store!

Once again, thank you all so much for your support and feedback. It has helped us a lot throughout Early Access. We truly hope you’ll find version 1.0 worthy of your expectations 🌞

Géraud, Chariospirale, and Antoine

Hello everyone!

We’ve got a brand-new update for you, and we hope you’ll like it. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, we’ve been focusing on improving existing content, but that doesn’t stop us from adding a bit of new content along the way. In this update you’ll find:

• A new character: the Huntress. We love this character, and I strongly recommend unlocking her talent, it’s a lot of fun. The Huntress comes from the game Pyrene, which had also given a little nod to Sol Cesto.

• And for the occasion, there’s a new Sol Cesto x Pyrene bundle. We really enjoyed Pyrene with Chario, and we hope you’ll like it too if you pick up the bundle.

• A new boss!!! It was a real challenge to add, but we’re happy with the result! Antoine composed a brand-new track especially for this boss.

• Two new items at the shop: the slingshot, which lets you make a monster harmless for one turn and acts as a low-cost weapon; and the toothpaste, which… well, you’ll find out soon enough 👀

• A new fountain item that brings a certain sharp blade back into the spotlight. It should really help if you’re struggling to finish a run.

• And a special effect when you completely clear a combat grid. It’s up to you to discover it!

• Lots of small balance tweaks here and there, and plenty of bug fixes.

We hope you’ll enjoy all this. Chariospirale and I are already working on the next update, which should add a new boss and a new character by the end of January. So we’ll see you again very soon 🌞

Thank you all for your feedback and your patience, and see you soon!

Géraud, Chariospirale, and Antoine.

Hello everyone!

Here’s a post to give you some news about Sol Cesto, both regarding the next update and the game in general. The next update is coming at the end of November. It will feature a new character with a really fun gameplay mechanic, especially when it comes to her talent. This character comes from a game we really like, even though we kept the reference pretty subtle. Let’s see if you can guess who it is 🏹

There will also be two new items in this update. I think the slingshot is pretty easy to understand, but the other one…? We also added a new item in the fountain, related to that damn goblin who keeps popping his head out from the edges of the screen. And finally, something you’ve been asking for a lot: completely clearing a board will now grant you a funny little reward. We hope you’ll enjoy all that! Oh, and we’re also adding a boss!

As for the future of the game, we’ve planned two more updates (after the one at the end of November). The first should be out around the end of January, with roughly the same amount of content as the upcoming one. And the last one, much bigger, will mark version 1.0, and it will be released… later! We’re keeping that date secret for now.

We’ve also decided not to make a fifth biome as originally planned. Chario and I feel that the runs are already long enough, and we’d rather spend our time improving what’s already there. For example, by adding bosses, new characters, and a special, meaningful ending for the game. Believe us, removing the fifth biome isn’t just cutting content for the sake of it, it’s going to make the game more fun to play!

That’s about it for now. See you at the end of the month for the next update 🌞

Géraud, Chariospirale, and Antoine

Hi everyone! A small update with various bug fixes, including some we accidentally introduced with the Biome 4 update (oops!).

• The heat visual effect now only activates in Biome 4 and is disabled on text screens (to make reading easier).

• The secret related to the egg now appears in the correct location, instead of Biome 3.

• The Biome 4 trap no longer breaks when using the resurrection fairy.

• The freezes that sometimes occurred when moving from one room to another should be less frequent now (we hope!).

• The flute should no longer appear in the fountain once it’s already been collected.

• Aside from gold and life, it should no longer be possible to get duplicate items in the fountain.

• Players who couldn’t access certain stars on the character selection screen should now be able to.

• Other minor fixes.

We’ll keep fixing bugs as we go, and we’re already working on the next update, which should arrive in November! Thanks for your patience, and see you soon!

Géraud, Chariospirale and Antoine.

• The 4th biome, bringing you one step closer to the end of the game!
• New monsters, some with brand-new abilities.
• 1 new trap, and 1 new environmental effect.
• 1 new character to unlock… this one’s a bit hidden 👀
• 3 new items to buy in the shop (but you’ll need to unlock them first).
• A new track we absolutely love, composed by Antoine Druaux.

Hello everyone!

Chariospirale and I wanted to give you some news about Sol Cesto. After delivering an optimization update and the update that introduced the flute (and some secrets), we’re now working on the September update.

This update will bring a brand-new biome, the 4th one! Of course, this biome will come with its own monsters, traps, and environmental effects. And watch out, it’s going to be a bit tougher than the previous ones… Antoine is also working on a track that should set a, let’s say, warm atmosphere 🔥🔥🔥

There will also be a few new items, like the fireball and the egg, as well as a new character hidden somewhere in the underground. In short, plenty of new things to further enrich your Sol Cesto experience, starting in September.

Sorry about the roadmap: every time we want to update it with Chariospirale, we realize we want to change our plans. We carefully read your feedback, and it really shakes up the way we deliver updates. But we’ll try to use Steam News more often to keep you informed!

Anyway, thank you all so much for your patience and support. It means a lot to us that so many of you enjoy playing Sol Cesto 🌞

THANK YOU, and see you soon!

Géraud and Chariospirale.

Hello everyone!

Finally, here's the first content update for Sol Cesto. This will be the smallest content update, mainly because the previous patch was released less than 20 days ago. But this one adds an element we wanted to have in the game from the start: the flute. You’ll have to play a bit to find it and uncover its secrets. We won’t spoil anything, so here’s the list of changes included in this update:

• The flute, with its different pieces to collect

• A few melodies with magical effects, hidden in different places

• One small extra secret

• Balancing adjustments to the spawn rate of certain items

• Balancing changes to the fairy, who now only revives half of the hero’s health

• Fixes for numerous minor bugs (we know there are still some left, we’re working on it!)

As for what’s next, Chariospirale and I are currently discussing it. We know what we want to add to the game, but your feedback is making us rethink the order in which we’ll release things! We’d like the next update to be a big one, but first we need to be sure what we can include before updating the roadmap. Sorry about that! But as you’ve seen, less than a month passed between the last update and this one, so we’re actively working on the game and promise great things to come 🌞

Thanks for your patience, and see you very soon for more adventures in the depths of Sol Cesto.

Géraud & Chariospirale

Hello everyone! Following our latest update, some bugs went through our nets and made it to the live version! This hotfix is here to correct them. Thanks once again for your patience, reporting the bugs, and in general for all your feedback, it is really appreciated! Please find the patchnote below:

• Fixed a soft lock situation when destroying a Bee Hive with an arrow. This includes the "Floor 52" bug that some of you have been reporting!

• Fixed a soft lock situation when clicking "Back to the surface" when getting revived by a fairy

• Fixed an issue where being revived after dying from poison would make you immune to poison (some would say it makes sense, but it was not intended! :D)

• Fixed different teeth issues when killing multiple ennemies in a single move

Thanks a lot, and have a nice week-end everyone!

Hey everyone! First of all, we wanted to thank you all for the warm welcome you've given to Sol Cesto!

It's been more than a month that the game is out, and the last build is actually 1 month old! We wanted to thank you so much for your patience. Chariospirale and I put in a ton of work to release Sol Cesto in early access, and we needed a bit of time to recover. The success of the game was totally unexpected, and your support gave us a huge boost of energy, thank you so much!

After a short break, I jumped back in to fix as many bugs as I could and to optimize the game over the past few weeks. And here it is, a fresh new update with lots of fixes, and most importantly, smoother performance across both PC and Steam Deck!

We’ll keep squashing bugs throughout early access, but now Chariospirale and I are focusing on creating new content so we can bring you regular updates. The next one should arrive in a few weeks, around mid-July. It’ll be the smallest content update, but I think it’s going to surprise you. We’ll also be sharing a clearer roadmap in the coming weeks 🌞

Thanks again for all your patience, your kind words, your reviews, and the amazing fan art of Sol Cesto. It gives us so much motivation to keep making the best game we possibly can!

See you soon,

Géraud & Chariospirale

You can have a look to the complete patchnote below. But before that, I've got some news to tell you:

We're activating Steam Cloud! But it comes with some warnings:

Even though we're doing our best so the activation of Steam Cloud is as seamless as possible on your side, please read what follows:

Your save is being uploaded in the Steam Cloud when you're closing the game. This means that there is a possibility, if you launch the game from a computer you've never launched Sol Cesto before, that your most advanced save isn't yet on the Cloud, then pushing the one from this "new device". To avoid this, open and close the game on the device you've the most advanced on first. If you can't, Steam should still see that there's a conflict between local and cloud saves and ask you to choose which save you want to keep, but this trick should "force" Steam Cloud to download the one you want.

Can I get my PC save on my Steamdeck?

Yes you can, but do note that for your save to be clouded, you'd have to play the Proton version of the game. This is the default version Steam uses to launch the game; it means that if you didn't force anything in the Compatibility tab (in your Library > Game Properties > Force Compatibility to Linux runtime) you shouldn't have to do anything, and Steam Cloud should work right away

If you play via Linux runtime environment on your Steamdeck:

We strongly advise that you use the Proton version. Cloud Saves won't work on the Linux version. I've tried my best to make it work but couldn't.

It means, if you go to the Proton version from the Linux Runtime one, that you will lose all your current progression. We're very sorry about that, but we did not find any other solution. We'd rather have you make this switch right now early in Sol Cesto's Early Access rather than later, when the content lost will be higher. While there is a native Linux Version of this 0.51.04 version, if we cannot find a way to make Cloud Saves work on native Linux version, we might drop the support of native Linux versions (the vast majority of you should already be playing via Proton versions, unless you changed compatibility settings, as stated before).

If our information is correct, Linux distributions that do not support proton are pretty rare, so this shouldn't impact a lot of people, and the problems we face are complex, thus this decision might be taken. If some of you wouldn't be able to play anymore if we drop the native Linux version support, please tell us on Discord or on the Forums and explain us why so we can figure out solutions! If we do take this decision, of course you'll be informed, and it won't make any difference about the Steamdeck version; we'll ensure the game is supported on Steamdeck, even if it is via Proton. Feel free to give us feedback on this new version that should have performance improvements!

Lastly, just in case, you can backup your saves on your computer.

To do so, press Windows + R on your keyboard, then in the window that opened paste this:

"%APPDATA%/../local"

In the folder that opened, there should be a "Sol Cesto" folder. Make a .zip of this file. Should you encounter any problem, you can replace the folder with the one you zipped just here. If there's any issues, having this folder somewhere will help us restore your save if you ever have an issue.

Alright, now please find the full patchnote below:

• Overall performance improvements, on PC and Steamdeck versions

• Light rebalancing of the level design on some stages

• Rebalancing of the apparition rate of some teeth (namely those with gold multiplicator)

• Rebalancing of the fairy apparition rate, which now have way less chance to drop twice in a single run

• Overall bugfixes:

  • Fixed Switch and Magicien Monsters not activating in some circumstances

  • Fixed some teeth effects that weren't activating in some circumstances

  • Fixed the Wizard power that was leading to a softlock in some circumstances

  • Fixed an issue when droping below -100% attraction on a room type would prevent from clicking on them

  • Fixed Hive monsters that were spawning too many bees

  • Overall smaller bugfixes, audio bugfixes

  • Some teeth weren't activating correctly in certain situations

Thanks again everyone, and we'll keep you posted on what's next as soon as possible!

Hello everyoooone!

Now what's next?

Sol Cesto Hotfix - 0.48.09

Bugs

• Fixed a bug where the player was locked in the transition between phase 1 and phase 2 of the boss.
• Fixed a bug where the screen was freezing for a long time on the Smith's screen
• Fixed a variety of audio issues
• Fixed some localization issues

Balancing

• 1st, 2nd and 3rd biomes are a bit longer
• 3rd Biome's boss is now a bit harder to beat

☀️ SOL CESTO EARLY ACCESS IS OUT NOW! ☀️

What’s in the Early Access version right now?

• The first 3 biomes out of 5
• 4 playable characters
• 14 items sold by the vendor
• Around 30 teeth available from demons
• 7 magical fountain items
• A few secrets to discover

What’s planned during Early Access?

• Steam Deck compatibility
• New characters
• New biomes
• New monsters
• New teeth, items and secrets
• Achievements
• And a few more surprises!

Your feedback matters

ENJOY!

Sol Cesto Demo - Next Fest Update

• Fight against the first boss
• 2 playable characters
• Floors has been rebalanced
• New teeth - meaning new powers!
• New tutorial
• A lot of different QoL adjustments

Play the Demo now :

• 1 new character to unlock: The Warrior, with a unique movement ability and her own stats and items.
• 3 new special monsters: The Treasure-stealing Magician, the Musician who boosts his monster pals, and the Demon Rabbit who switches between magic and strength.
• 2 new items from the Merchant: The Ice Cube weakens all monsters on screen, while the Wrench destroys any traps blocking your way.
• 2 new items from the Fountain: The Fairy and the Piece of Trash.
• A game rebalance for shorter, more varied runs (25 floors).

Play the demo now:

• Bribe the stars to obtain permanent upgrades
• Collect blessings from the magic fountain
• Save money with the well
• Upgrade statues to increase your mastery of chance
• Face thirty floors to beat the demo

Play now:

• New monster animations: monsters now have a scared state (if they are weak) or aggressive state.
• New interface that indicates damage received on each tile when hovering over a line. No need to calculate in your head anymore.
• New cursed teeth with conditional curse effects. For example: landing on a chest weakens adjacent monsters.
• Cursed teeth that influence percentages have been rebalanced and are more precise: you can modify your attraction to magical, physical monsters, traps, etc.
• There are more floors than before.
• Balancing of the hero's starting stats and monster power.

• 1 playable character with their unique ability
• 1 biome
• 8 items with various effects
• 8 teeth with different curses
• 8 monsters and traps
• over 20 procedurally generated levels
• 3 different "shops" with their unique characters

Play now:

WISHLIST NOW: