Voltage High Society news & patch notes

• Fixed the bug where for some users the facility's 2nd set of towers don't move
• Fixed hint popup message getting stuck on screen when dying
• Added the option for the leaning effect (on/off)
• Added the option for mouse sensitivity slider to have decimals

We’re excited to announce trading card support for Voltage High Society, including 6 trading cards, 6 badges, 3 backgrounds and 5 emoticons! Don’t forget: the more you punch, the more you unlock!

1.3 Patch notes:

-Framerate optimization (especially with the gangland / second hub) -Change to Baseball: Does no damage to melee units, but hurts ranged ones. -Added UI hints to ending boss fight -Added two more combat skill to unlock by Liz -Punching a Crab Box will now hurt the hand -adjusted Liz prices, now hit by inflation so they work better over ~5 hours -adjusted Overflower hitboxes to make them more consistent -adjusted enemy movement & forces so they're more consistent -polish and fixes around audiovisuals in levels (missing sounds, visual artifacts, etc) -fixed glitch where a punch hits through but creatures register nothing -fixed shaky hands while game in menus -fixes on UI (loading screen having a gap at top, some texts going out of screen, etc) -fixed some exploits related to hugging walls and jumping and such -fixed the "get to the lighthouse get to the lighthouse" text -fixed Anarchrid animations -fixed Triarchy's bullets sometimes going through walls -fixed Triarchy's shoot spamming and ruckus at the Row Houses -fixed missing chain render bug in gangland -fixed Jimley button not unlocking after meeting him -fixed handcuff misalignment in POV -fixed the red ring spamming a victory fanfare at the digsite -fixed Delirious Bones sometimes not hitting the player (hit distance detection) -fixed Chariot sometimes not moving Thank you for the feedback! Keep on punching!

Fixes:

• One new ring type towards end half of the game

• Polished hands, weapons & ring shading (local light source, looks prettier)

• Fixed right hand pinkie never using a ring

• Adjusted some Relationship discoveries so they're slightly easier to find

• Disabled two Relationships because of bugs, 4 out of 6 in-game now. Will fix in later updates.

• Final Boss: Reactive difficulty settings based on how its going (less combat upgrades means less boss hp)

• Final Boss: Dialogue more clear, added subtitles too

• Final Boss: Projectiles and audio synchronised better

• Final Boss: Cleaned up floor colliders, easier to traverse

• Final Boss: Guards now drop health or energy based on which is lower

• Beach: Added magpies

• Beach: Fixed mesh blob glitch when resume of game from the lighthouse

• Beach: Fixed colliders in lighthouse base floor & spiral stairs

• Beach: Tick-tank adjustments > lasersight, adjusted timers, and added a small audio cue for targeting

• Beach: Fixed one-sided curtains

• Beach: Fixed jump exploit in hideout

• Gangland: Hopefully the final death of bug where players get stuck once exiting facility and getting to the shack with the mutant. Sorry, its been a extremely frustrating and a tough glitch to fix.

• Gangland: Bossfight jumping now much easier & less damage penalty as well
• Gangland: Fixed being stuck in the shack with mutant, post-facility section
• Gangland: Slightly better now with the framerate spikes (work-in-progress!)
• Haunted Place: Fixed that one Riot Truck which nobody should be able to bypass
• Beach: Bossfight, if you die you respawn closer (no need to travel again)
• Beach: Fixed issues with enemies being invincible (should not have been, in the first place)
• Beach: Bossfight, made helicopter projectiles slightly slower
• Beach: Bossfight, modified helicopter's parameters (collider, speed)
• Beach: Bossfight, changed so that there is only one ranged guard
• Beach: Bossfight, added some hints
• Ending Credits: Added a cue that the game is over

1.1 Update aka Post-Release Hangover Patch:

• Added Achievement for the Final Boss
• Added Bind support for special buttons (Mouse4, Mouse5, etc)
• Fixed enemies doing ZERO DAMAGE for some players
• Fixed Head on Wall not getting shuriken damage
• Fixed a Win Fanfare triggering in Gangland for no reason
• Fixed progression lock of no immediate save position after healing water + made a logic check to force stuck players to right place

1.0 RELEASE

• Added last level and an ending

• Added last ability

• Fixed: Flashlight not toggling

• Fixed: Ball Throw was unreliable

• Fixed freezing & electrocution behaviour not triggering on some enemies

• Fixed Key Binds: when adjusting gamepad, the keyboard got reverted

• Fixed Player pushing behaviour getting stuck

• Turret audio so its more consistent

• Mouse smoothing is now less sluggish

• Overflower is more precise, but damage is distance-based

• 1 audio log from first to last level, where it fits better

• Some iteration on the Map view visuals

• First Streets: Touched up the lighting

• Riot Scene: Added save spot at the start.

• Riot Scene: Fixed logic issues with melee guards

• Riot Scene: Fixed visual bugs with drones

• Haunted Place: Fixed enemy navigation errors

• Haunted Place: Removed second Tainted Triarchy

• Ganglands: fixed sequence breaks and soft locking

• Ganglands: added music to the boss fight

TO EARLY ACCESS PLAYERS: Since the EA version had a different save data in the last level's (beach) placeholder scene, now upon continuing from an old save, you will be forced to the proper start position. Sort of a hard reset. Things should hopefully work without friction, but there can be unforeseen bugs that force you to start over from the start. First and foremost, in case of errors, send a message through the discussion board.

TO DO (whispers of plans): After the dust has settled and we've had a summer break, work continues with fixes and polish. Language support is one thing that's on the table, as well as performance optimisation and an OST release. No schedules yet - we're taking things one step at a time.

June 23rd VHS v1.0 will be out.

Exactly four years ago in June, the first version went public. We had a rocky start and plenty of jank, but with enough love and polish, things tend to work out. We thank you for the support and the feedback over the years - without you we wouldn't be here.

As a special treat, here's some early prototype footage. Can you recognize the location?

What you're getting into

In this first-person light-metroidvania, you explore a vast prison island and face its deformed ecosystem. To escape, you must carve a path with your fists and improvised weapons. In good tradition, you'll discover new abilities to open passages that lead deeper into the disturbing construct.

Inspired by Half-Life 1-era visuals, the retro PS1 horror boom, and classic cyberpunk cinema like Tetsuo: The Iron Man, you know the temperature we're aiming for. Twitching meat fuses with the metal.

New in 1.0

Nemo Ultra in its full glory! The final part of the prisoner's journey, a massive polish pass for gameplay and all areas, the last abilities to find, and a pretty neat conclusion to the ride so far. The last area of the game is around the same length in gameplay as any other before it, so its a juicy update.

..and to everyone who played in Early Access

You shaped this. Four years of bug reports, feedback, clips, telling us exactly why punching still felt a bit off so we could perfect it, private DM's and bug reports, save files, whatnot... Everything has helped us immensely. Let alone design decisions (we've definitely played with the design based on player comments). Based on stats, 93% of you stuck the landing with us. Thank you. The 7% may we see somewhere in distant dreams.

Before launch

If Voltage High Society isn't on your wishlist yet, we'd really appreciate your support. You'll get pinged when 1.0 is live, and for a small indie team, every wishlist counts. We live and die based on these kind of things.

All in all, see you soon on Nemo Ultra!

2026 Spring patch

Lots of djustments and fixes. 1.0 is approaching...

• adjustments on jump height, move speed and level colliders

• adjustments on map screen (orient on opening map, area names displayed

• added actual graphics to the tv programs (Warden Green speeches & Lady Abernathy nature doc)

• added few more context-sensitive tutorial messages (taser use and finding energy)

• fixed bug of menus losing input controls

• fixed walking on water

• fixed player jumping through helicopter ceiling

• fixed missing colliders in first level

• fixed a sequence break in the campsite

• fixed sequence breaks in early areas of first level

• fixed a bug of opening the riot truck from the wrong side

• fixed speech bubbles going inside prisoner heads

• fixed harsh clipping in camera movement during some fighting

• fixed gamepad UI highlight helper showing through loading screen

• fixed errors regarding HUD elements disappearing from the game

• fixed part of cavity rendering as the wrong selection in map vie

• fixed Haunted Place laptop outline render bug

• fixed enemy health bar sometimes showing up out of context

• fixed interaction name header misalignment Keep on punching!

Our publisher Coyote Time Publishing just released their latest title. Orbital Overdrive is a roguelite twin-stick arena shooter where your score doubles as your currency. Kill enemies, rack up points, then choose: spend them on weapons and upgrades, or bank them as permanent XP.

Check it out on Steam:

• Fixed the Haunted Place energy gate progress issue

Hello! We're getting close to a full release - now the 2nd last segment of the game is done and published. It's a short piece but in our opinion one of the coolest so far. Besides that, we've added some content, balancing and refinements to the rest of the game as well, most notably the Haunted Place which some players deemed too hard or even annoying. All in all, if you start from the beginning there's definitely some secrets hidden here and there. As before, if you play the game please leave feedback in the form of a review, which helps us immensely both in discoverability and refining the actual game. Happy holidays and have a pleasant new year! -Platonic Partnership

Content Updates:

• Full Widescreen support + UI Refinements

• Added a new area after the Haunted Place

• Added new Ability (Drill Hump) to unlock in Lizard Shop

• New display mode: 80.000 Volt Mode

• Added Underwater audio layer

• Added environment fauna

• Added new ability, Light Scan, which is unlocked in the Haunted Place

• Haunted Place gameplay adjustments (made the level a bit easier)

• More random things to discover (readables, audio logs, secrets)

• 3 new enemy types

• Small audiovisual refinements across the game

Bug fixes:

• Individual inventory dropdown not reacting

• Subtitle spamming from tv screens

• Burger meat leaving collisions in scene

• UV glitches on some moving platforms and buttons

• Last sick mutant disappearing once healed

• Overflower shooting across large distance (sniping)

• Missing colliders on some significant individual geometry

• Monsters walking under water

• Monsters walking into campsite

• Gushing water audio disappearing

• Player getting more and more damage while dead/dying

• Player entering menus while dead/dying

• Game becoming sentient and licking your legs while you sleep

• Burger kiosk UI mishandling on gamepads

• If inventory is full, consumables still disappear (get picked up)

• If health/energy is full, you could still spend consumables

• Head on wall sometimes not dying from thrown balls

Hi, for a good while I've wanted to write a little letter of appreciation on my long-time collaborator, composer of Voltage High Society, Jesse “the_simian” Harlin and his work, as I feel that for the amount of trouble and effort he puts into anything we do needs more recognition. And I figured this might be a interesting read for followers of our game, too. Now, since this is just my idea and unsolicited, I'm not going to dig deep into our lives or history. Just, you know, I figure a small token of appreciation and a peak behind our development. This is a bit unstructured flow of mind, maybe even unprofessional, so bare with me.

So! Me and Jesse, we’ve known each other since maybe around 2008 - I was in my twenties and Jesse a tad older, both really wanting to work on games or mods and such. I'm from Finland, he's from the states, and we mostly talk and meet up so that its late or super early for one of us. For however brutal the timezone difference and daily activities are, we've always got along super effortless. Our earliest project I think, is when we started collaborating on a horror mod for Half-Life 2, called Flesh. I designed the rest of the game, Jesse did the soundtrack (and a website that isn't available anymore).

What struck me about Jesse from early on, is his absolute dedication to the concepts - not only does the man bring great music, but he really sinks his teeth into a game’s story, environment, the lore of it all, bringing so many ideas and layers to things. He really does get immersed into a world and brings in lengthy, rich conversations on the designs and ideas. Which of course, is super motivating and helpful for me as a designer, too. And the tracks! Even with Flesh, a semi-simple horror mod made in our spare time, Jesse delivered intricate songs that were instantly recognizable, with such clear texture, motifs, and dynamics, and they usually went on for a good while, anything from 3 to 10 minutes, no filler. Having something like that for a freebie for a mod was crazy cool back then, and really made the project sing. After Flesh we did collaborate a few times or tried things, but things winded down on the game development front for a while. Life took over, and we chatted less, too. That is, until I got back into making games, this time commercially. It was in the early stages of Voltage High Society that I got into a conversation with Jesse again - I probably shared some videos or work-in-progress screenshots or something. He’s always wanted an actual commercial game with his name on it, and even if our compensation is crap, he wanted to do this and I really wanted to work with Jesse again, after a long time. I'm pretty sure we had a multiple year gap when we weren’t much in contact (as there’s childbirth and work and whatever in our lives), but yeah we continued like nothing had changed. Same Jesse, fun to talk with, relentless passion. This intense dude who delivers intricate, rich tracks full of interesting flow and dynamics. And oh boy Jesse’s dynamics are worth talking of. His body of work is full of these long tracks that don't simply repeat or loop… nah they evolve and shift in complex ways. There's so much going on - layers of engineering, motifs, details, and texture - that you can’t catch it all on one or two listens. His tracks are super fun to take apart and listen repeatedly which, hey, is also great for a game soundtrack. Players might mess around or get stuck in a area for a while so its nice that the music lives on, bringing life into the moment. Jesse's output is so stellar that, I really feel like its a big shame he hasn't had a proper chance at working on commercial games, as he could bring hell of a lot into anything. (Funny little tidbit though, there also exists another composer Jesse Harlin in the games industry, who's worked on such things as Mafia, Star Wars, and Monkey Island remasters. That's why I - and Jesse himself, refer to him by his artist name the_simian.) Maybe sometimes this level of work gets the better of our man - he has a day job, a family, and his obligations and struggles of everyday life. So when it comes to this side activity, he might struggle with a concept for a while, or have a hard time finding the time to put in all the labor he wants, to get all the transitions and layers working right - and I know he's stressed out or feels bad about it sometimes. But I wholeheartedly support and try to help him in every way and let him work with all the time he needs. I don't know what the perception of our development is to the outside world, with this project. The unfortunate reality of indie game development is, that just like everyone else, we mostly work on this after our actual obligations, be it commercial projects with actual monthly income, our lives, children, family, health, and so forth. When you’re younger and got less things going on - back with mods and such - this kind of low-budget development is still manageable.. but age and responsibilities definitely take their toll. With Voltage High Society, we work on the game “when we can”. For me and the team at Platonic its mostly fine, as this is our responsibility and my idea anyhow. I can personally work for little compensation and juggle with "legit" projects where there's steady income, and then the game development happens in drops whenever possible. But Jesse's in too. Willingly, relentless, never ever missing the mark or compromising from his output. For an example, in the Haunted Update, Jesse pulled some all-nighters between his day job and activities. Sometimes he worked up until sunrise. And we're not young men. He did it just to get the boss fight theme in there, without compromises to his ideas. Yet again, it ties perfectly into the story and happenings of the game. Its quite frankly still beyond my comprehension that he’s gone along with my stuff for nearly two decades, always with the same dedication, heart, and long-ass crazy tracks. All in all, what else can I say but I appreciate you so much man. Thank you. Leave some positive comments for our soundtrack and composer, and do check out Jesse's work at https://soundcloud.com/harlinjesse And for sure Jesse will put out Voltage High Society's soundtrack as well, once the time comes. Just don't spam us about it beforehand. (PS. next update, one of the last, is coming relatively soon. But we'll write about that another time.) -Henri

2025.5.2

Changes:

• Added messages related to use of special skills/upgrades

• Improved memory management

• Fixed a rare condition related to menu items

Hello everyone!

We're excited to roll out a new update just in time for the spooky season.

New Content

• The Haunted Place is a brand new level.

• Two new enemies + a bossfight

• More TV broadcasts to find

• New collectible system (Romance cards? Lore cards? Name pending)

• Two new ring types

Changes & Improvements

• Swimming is completely overhauled to be smoother & more responsive.

• Overflower movement and behaviour adjustements and fixes.

• Head-On-Wall cant shoot through walls anymore

• Performance upgrades, bug fixes, and visual polish throughout all levels

• FMOD related system load & behaviour polish.

Keep on punching!

Hello! Summer is over and its almost time to head back into our prison island. Next update will have one new level. We've been working hard on this - at the moment we're finishing assets, doing sequence scripting, fixing bugs, and going crazy. We don't want to spoil anything, but its basically heavy on new visuals and has a bit of a different feel to it - like a breather or a departure from the rest of the game. Gameplay-wise, it won't be long, but yeah it has some real cool stuff to it. The estimated release is in a month, so you can already idk, make plans with your life. And hey, after this level, we´ll get to work on the ending* for the game? Kind of crazy to think we're almost at a version 1.0. It's been quite the journey, longer and harder than anticipated, and we're so very thankful for all of your support, feedback, artwork, comments, and patience. Lets see this thru and finish something cool and noteworthy. *Not much of a spoiler but the last area will deal with that ominous lighthouse you've been seeing in the background

• Fixed missing button mappings with gamepad
• Added better, consistent descriptions to inventory
• Polished gamepad use
• Health & energy rechargers now have descriptions of use
• First jablock now has a tutorial message in case player keeps failing
• Fixed a glitch where players could climb the riot trucks

• Added new Map Screen (3D Navigation, unlockable regions, quest markers)
• Added a new skill, Dodge dash (found in the Lizard Shop)
• Added a new enemy and some new obstacles
• Added seperate Music volume setting into Options
• Added a Ninja Star (replaces the lame pistol)
• Added 1600x900 resolution
• Added (optional) crosshair
• Added info to inventory on what the vending machine items do
• Added subtitles to broadcasts
• Polished camera and movement behaviour
• Polished screen shake
• Polished enemy behaviour
• Polished visuals & performance
• Modified so that not all enemies carry shields
• Modified shields so that you can break them
• Modified Prison Guard Turret AI (they react to enemies now)
• Modified so that Flashlight doesnt consume electricity anymore
• Modified so that Skills consume electricity (Dash, fist pump, etc)
• Modified so that electricity does not act like armor (doesnt consume damage)
• Modified Save Couch visuals & saving behaviour (clearer)
• Modified so that first tv broadcast is at a more quiet spot
• Removed vaulting/grabbing (it was glitchy and its not needed anymore)
• Fixed bug where Volume is always 100% on game start
• Fixed Mouse axis sensitivity not being in sync
• Fixed getting stuck in charging HP or Electricity
• Fixed not all shake & FOV effect disabling from the Options settings
• Fixed known issues with level events being unresponsive
• Fixed old tutorial texts
• Fixed some doors not highlighting
• Fixed health showing for unnecessary targets

• Performance optimization (aimed for low-end & Steam Deck)
• Fixed a scenario where a gate in second level did not open
• Cleaned the visuals for readability (tweaked rendering, lighting, shaders and fx)
• Updated the UI portraits
• Added one more broadcast into the first level
• Cloud saves

Your feedback is our fuel!

GAMEPLAY:

• Upgrades are based on Rings you can equip
• Spendable items (snacks, grenades, etc)
• Two new enemy types
• Enemies carry shields (easier to read which side blocks your punches, this can be toggled off from the options)
• Existing levels have new twists, tweaks, and polish
• Added the start of the next area (beach, you will get there in the Next Update)
• Created audio broadcasts for more narrative depth, and edited a lot of the dialogue.
• Rewrote the save system, now it's more reliable and, for the players, easier to look at (straightforward json files)

AUDIO:

• Complete overhaul using FMOD, for more intricate details and depth
• Player grunt and emote sounds (can be toggled off from the options)

OPTIONS:

• Key bindings
• Screen shake toggle
• Screen zoom effect toggle
• Toggle enemy shield visuals
• Toggle character voice
• And as per a request, a untested 4k resolution. (it is glitchy, based on our quick tries. Will be fixed in future updates.)