Waltz of the Wizard news & patch notes

Hey Wizards! Thank you for the wonderful reception to Skully's Fantastic Fails! It's been quite the show for us seeing all the videos of Skully being launched this past month :)

In this patch we are mostly polishing and bug fixing, however we are introducing one new feature: "Type to Talk" giving you the option to type to use voice - this has been a much requested feature since we released voice powers and screen mode. We are initially only making it available on screens but VR players, please let us know if you are interested in this feature as well!

To enable Type to Talk open the in-game Menu > Settings > Audio > enable Type to Talk.

You can now type to talk to chat with Skully or use any voice magic command!

Full list of release notes:

New Features

• Type to Talk (Screen-mode): You can now communicate with Skully and use voice magic by typing with a keyboard or gamepad!

Skully:

• Numerous improvements to various Skully reactions and interactions.

• "Hide and Seek" now functions correctly in the Courtyard.

• Improved respawn reliability for Skully in the Courtyard.

• Added a "Shake" action to shake Skully during scavenger hunts (Screen-mode).

Controls:

• Added a "Remove Wearable" binding for gamepads.

• Added a "Blow" action for Dandelions (Screen-mode), and made them easier to grab.

• Various improvements and fixes to rockets.

Bug Fixes

• Polished gamepad usage within menus.

• Fixed the offset/aiming for Natural Magic Lightning (Screen-mode).

• Fixed a issue in the Fortress where players could fall off a bridge and get stuck.

• Resolved an issue where co-op mode occasionally failed to launch on PC.

• Fixed an issue preventing Skully from spawning in the Courtyard when playing on Steam with a Pico device.

• Plus, various other bug-fixes and improvements

Spooky season greetings, wizards! You can now dive into the massive FREE Skully’s Fantastic Fails major content update, featuring an incredible new rocket launch section in the Courtyard to do some wildly strange rocket experiments, 1,000+ new Skully voicelines and reactions, fully redesigned menu with a detailed Waltz Codex, and even more Tower events! Also Waltz is launching on iOS!

Feature highlights included in Skully's Fantastic Fails:

💀1000+ New Voicelines for Skully! Brand new voice lines are scattered all across the experience — most echo through the Courtyard, but you’ll also discover plenty of new ones up in the Tower.

🚀New Rocket Launch Platform in the Center Courtyard! Get ready to experiment with some of the strangest rocket designs ever imagined. Uncover Igor’s secret combinations to blast Skully into space and hear some unbelievable tales from beyond. Just be warned — most of these attempts will end in spectacular failure… but persistence might just reward you with a new rocket and a strange space tale..

👁️Milton’s New Visit Types Milton now shows up in even more ways — from sucking the air out of the Tower to an explosive sneeze, delivering surprise gifts, and more!

🐩Igor’s Mischief Igor now teases Skully with new howls, scribbles, and messages on his chalkboard.

🏺Smash the vase with the Skull symbol! Break it in the Tower for a wild bat visit! — one Skully is definitely not a fan of.

🌳Courtyard Secrets & Interactions Skully now shares fresh insights about the Courtyard — from the mysterious trashcan to the strange well guy. Carry him around, toss him in every hole, or even throw him over the Courtyard walls and just wait and see what happens. Just be warned — the gnomes have taken a very unsettling interest in Skully lately.

🔖Totally Redesigned In-Game Menu with fast travel, magic codex and much more. In the all new Waltz of the Wizard in-game menu you’ll find some pretty handy stuff to help you on your Waltz journey. Finally Waltz has a landing menu when you start your experience! If you’re ever in need of things to do, check out the Tasks for some fun activities to complete. The Codex includes useful tools like the Map, which lets you fast travel to all discovered areas; Voice, a list of magical voice commands to modify the world; and Skully Phrases, which provides examples of things you can say to Skully.

Skully’s Fantastic Fails is a FREE update to Waltz of the Wizard owners, now live on Steam!

Happy Halloween from the Aldin Team!

🎃🎃🎃

Big things have been brewing in the world of Waltz! We’re thrilled to announce Skully’s Fantastic Fails, a brand-new FREE content update coming this fall—and it’s packed with surprises. The update will follow a totally new release if Waltz of the Wizard on iOS also coming this fall!

For the first time ever, you'll get to explore the Courtyard with Skully, complete with hundreds of new reactions and voicelines. Then there's the new mysterious rocket launch platform in the Courtyard. What does it do? Why is it there? You’ll have to find out for yourself ...

But that's not all!

We’ve also added a host of new Igor and Milton reactions in the Tower—including a few unexpected guests (maybe a few bats!). Also we’ve totally redesigned the in-game menu from the ground up, introducing a highly detailed magical Codex to help you keep track of some of the myriad amount of magic in Waltz.

We’ve got more to share as we get closer to launch, so stay tuned!

General Fixes/Improvements

Improvements

Fixes

There’s more coming…

Riddles, Ramblings and Robots - New Skully Reactions List

• 🧙🏻‍♂️ Test your Waltz knowledge by asking Skully "Give me a riddle"
• 🥱 When all seems idle, Skully still might utter some peculiar showerthoughts.
• 🥴 Be careful not to hit Skully too hard, his eyes can go askew!
• 🫣 Play hide and seek with Skully just by asking him "Can we play hide and seek?"
• 🔮 Skully shares some new insights into his past via the old memory orbs, both before and after you teleport to those memories, depending on what you do.
• 🎃 Greet Skully with "Happy Halloween" for a seasonal surprise!
• 🐀 Skully can get quite upset if you do anything harmful to the rat.
• 😳 Don't stare too long at Skully.
• 🤾 The moment when you are about to throw Skully will not make him happy. Same goes for the moment you are about to throw something at him.
• 🪶 For a giggle, tickle, tickle Skully with his featherpen.
• 💔 Be a little more careful while working the tower, some things are more precious to Skully than others if they break.
• 🎺 The trumpet sound can ring in Skully's ears.
• 👂The earpiece makes Skully react differently to loud sounds.
• 💀 Skully might share some more details if you bring him around the Tower.

Fixes

• Fixed issue on PC where input (such as buttons or hand positions) was broken, rendering the game unplayable for some
• Fixed issue with new the achievements not unlocking if you had already finished all the required steps in the achievement
• Fixed an issue where Skully sometimes popped in at the wrong time in the Courtyard
• Attempt to fix an issue with Occlusion Culling in Fortress not working properly, leading to some elements of the Fortress being invisible

Use voice interactions with blazingly fast responsiveness

Team up with a friend

Play around in a revamped tower

Explore an enhanced observer fortress

Behold your new hands!

Dive into more options in the in-game menu

Full details

Big thanks to all of our fans ♡

Release highlights

• Powers to Change the World

  Voice can be used everywhere, with hundreds of voice commands that let you summon objects, change physical properties like making anything huge or tiny, super bouncy, animate them and play with magic physics in any way you want. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*Bjt7g7d0ZQZdJCR0IF0SHA.gif

• SteamVR/PC Specific 

  Improved texture resolutions, post processing bloom effects and unleash the power of your PC with the ability to summon over a hundred things, enemies and weapons!https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ZsmSUwF3fZ3aFVd-zdM00A.gif

• Fortress

   Added much more variety to levels with new environments, ability to use all kinds of magic in the Fortress using voice such as Air Drawing to create your own weapons or making yourself a giant, to name a few.https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*MmGkQDd6ZGdlnuECnpwhsw.gif

• Infinite Mode 

  The Fortress has a new mode that lets you generate an infinite number of new random levels.https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*706FKFpxJxqf5wRCMW5KFQ.gif

• Enemies

   Tweaked enemy vision and hearing to take better into account what the user is doing. If you are sneaky enough you might just catch them unaware!https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*30UuVhWf22fuk4WBj4EIww.gif

• Voice Suggestions 

  Use "What can I say" for voice suggestions to learn all the huge variety of voice commands. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*ZyDgPt8tVKDrZiuy3jSmDQ.jpeg

• Tower Spells 

  All tower spells can be activated everywhere with voice. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*tF6_lk-9egas5V0lFomhvg.gif

• Sticker Board

   A new sticker-board keeps track of the many things you can experience. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*fpz74vqc2Ep-_M2p9f89hw.png

• Wards 

  Progress through four new magical wards to unlock all parts of the experience. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*4O3NuOCf2RWjuy27kBCdKA.jpeg

• Teleport anywhere, anytime

   Instantly teleport to all parts of the Waltz world using the voice command like "Take me to the Trainstop" https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*jWKQLo3dUc3LlxKmn_Cwqw.gif

• Courtyard

   Expanded and redesigned with new activities and secrets. https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*M5E23lftygzo82H74ODaFw.gif
• … and lots and lots of bug fixes and improvements.

Big thanks to all of our users ❤️

Waltz of the Wizard v2.2.2 - Bug fix patch

Improvements

Fixes

Magical powers

• Lightning Bolt — Rubbing your hands together charges particles with electricity for a lightning cast.
• Tornado — Swirls your hand in circles to form a tornado of particles.
• Neutron Orb — This powerful attack condenses magic into a devastating neutron orb.
• Neutron Explosion — If you’ve formed a neutron orb, you can make it explode to push enemies away.
• Spectral Blade — A quick motion of closed fists spawns a blade. You can have one in each, and it leaves a satisfying streaks and realistic ectoplasm liquid dripping.
• Spectral Orb —Bowling with magic is now possible. Simply do an underhanded bowling cast and see particles form into a ‘solid’ shape.
• Spectral Shield — Quick crossing of your arms creates an instant block for incoming projectiles.

New and improved characters

• Demolisher — This automaton is magically programmed to detonate its explosives as close to you as possible.
• Larvops Droppers — These larger Larvops rain down explosives!

New items

• Regular Grenade (pink) — Simple enough, pull the pin and it beeps until it explodes.
• Proximity Mine (yellow/gray) — Once activated, tentacles slither out of holes and can attach it to any surface. Once attached, it becomes a proximity mine that triggers when you or characters stand too close.
• Sproingbomb (orb) — Like the timer version, but bounces like a rubber ball. Sprooooiiiinng.
• Holy Hand Grenade (gold)— Bathe thine enemies in the holiest of forces.

New environments

Other improvements

• Fixed bug that caused flickering lights/bloom for some PCVR users.
• Reduced chance of crashes on Quest 1.
• Added a 10% deadzone to the thumbstick to avoid drifting on some controllers.
• Disabled picking up automaton pieces (for now), due to it sometimes leading to crashes.
• Fixed -vrmode launch argument not working, not allowing you to force SteamVR or Oculus mode.
• Removed Quest hand tracking posters on PC builds.
• Added CowsGoMoo to experimenters list and fixed misspelling in Conktech_Gaming's name.

The road so far

A brief look at what’s included

We hope you enjoy

FEATURES

• Expanded activities & replayability — As a wizard you will master your skills in wizardry and explore new worlds to recover forbidden knowledge, encounter curious creatures, collect artifacts and face surprising challenges.
• New magic system — Magic flows through the world like a natural force and is connected to other natural forces like gravity and wind. Your natural gestures control those energies, making magic feel and work more as if it’s real. Only the most skillful wizards will fully unleash their mystical powers.
• Castle courtyard — The courtyard expands the castle where you’ll learn to harness magical energies, meet curious creatures and find the mysterious ritual circle to transport to new areas.
• Procedural world — Natural Magic introduces Aldin’s first procedurally generated world; a labyrinth that lives between dimensions, home to mysterious artifacts and prison to the most mischievous beings in the universe.
• Achievements & challenges — Challenges and new achievements let you compare your skills to other wizards in the community.

RELEASE

MORE INFO

Lightning Update & Polish {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35262568/96c837938ae219e4016ad246b41836524ac7931f.png

Community feedback

What’s coming next?

Release Notes

New content

Improvements and fixes

• Fixed bug in 'dark creature once unfurled' Scavenger Clue where progression was impossible unless you restarted the game.
• Made some improvements to Wand projectile collisions and effects.
• Added twinkling stars to the night sky outside the Main window.

The future of Waltz of the Wizard - Announcement tease

Waltz of the Wizard will grow this year

PC remains a key VR platform for Aldin

Scavenger Release Overview

Major optimizations

Valve Index 144Hz optimizations

Lower end hardware & laptops

Release notes

New content

• Scavenger hunt - Embark on a new quest to discover what Skully’s hiding.
• Experimental microphone input option (real-time echo for enhanced presence).
• Magical ear trumpet - Magical device that reveals secrets from cursed artifacts.
• Music box - Add some musical ambience to your magical journey.
• Wands - Cast magic with a flick.
• Wall Cabinet - Secret compartment that beckons to be unlocked.
• Multiple objects (Statues, individual books, spirit bottles, jars and hats).
• Added locomotion to all teleport scenes.
• Multiple new Skully reactions.
• Overhaul of impact audio.
• Added realtime lights to the lantern.
• Accessibility option added to menu for increasing or lowering player height.

Optimizations and other changes

• Major overall performance increase (144Hz on Index).
• Improved loading times.
• Overhaul of magical effects and particles.
• Environmental lighting and effects greatly improved.
• Quality settings added.
• Experimental modes added to the menu, containing: Troll mode (second screen co-op), mic input reverb, smooth camera mode (second screen smoothing for better in-game screen capture).
• Multiple bug fixes and improvements.
• Improved post-processing and enabled HDR.

• Added LIV Mixed Reality support
• Integrated Oculus Touch finger tracking
• Added effect to all paintings when shot
• New Skully reactions when magic is used
• Added effect to all light when shot
• Improved potion drinking
• Crossbow and sword mini-games slightly easier
• Various improvements to in-game menu
• Fixed bug in locomotion when in Giant
• Improved sounds when putting ingredients in the pot
• Input for various platforms improved
• General performance improvements
• Various bug fixes and other minor improvements

New content details and release notes (SPOILERS!)

• 4 new spells and 2 modified (Fireworks, Symphony, Polymorph, Supersize, Miniaturize, Magnetize)
• 3 magic potion flasks (Giant, Little and Vision)
• Achievements!
• Fireball magic can be used in the labyrinth challenge area
• New cauldron water surface with precise, interactive wave dynamics
• Added new magical items to play with in the tower
• Added reach assist so you don’t have to physically reach down to pick things up
• New crossbow mini game with scoring system and Skully commentary
• Improved gargoyle sword mini-game with scoring system and Skully commentary
• New Physical Movement Only mode for novice showcasing
• Index Controller (Knuckles) with finger tracking, optimized natural grabbing and throwing, magical spell controls (finger guns for spells, luftguitar in Symphony spell) and character reactions to finger gestures like pointing, sign of the devil and shaka sign

• Massive overall optimization and performance improvements
• Improved loading times
• New hand models, animations and shader
• New Smooth Artificial Locomotion option with head orientation
• Strafing controls for Smooth locomotion
• Improvements to Teleport locomotion
• Teleportation orb now used to enter the labyrinth area
• Improved and added various models, textures and assets
• Improved lighting, image effects and reflections
• Numerous other improvements and fixes