Wicked Seed news & patch notes

Hi, everyone! Ryan here, creator of Wicked Seed.

Daybreak is the next content update for Wicked Seed and brings new story content, gameplay systems, weapons, items, enemies, and much more.

The epilogue will exist outside of the main game's progression and feature a new area with its own progression and unlockable rewards.

Setting

After the events of the main game, Ella now finds herself stuck in a quiet, empty rural village. She must scavenge resources from the town, bolster its defenses and gear up if she hopes to survive long enough to find a way to escape.

Gameplay

Combat and exploration remain key and are largely unchanged from the main game. However, time will pass as you explore the town and its surroundings, and when night falls, stronger enemies will appear making it more difficult to get around safely.

Scavenge resources during the day phase to craft new items, upgrade Ella's gear, or enhance the town's defenses to limit or weaken the enemies that arrive when night falls.

Test yourself against dangerous enemies during the night phase and find powerful items and costumes.

You'll need to explore the town in both day and night to find the means to escape.

New Weapons

Vagabond (Handgun)

An easy to use handgun with balanced stats.

• Greatly increases healing received and restore a bit of energy when healed.

• (Mastery) Critical hits restore health.

Last Word (Shotgun)

A sawed-off shotgun that offers quick aiming time and stagger potential, but lacks ammo capacity. Excels at being a support weapon.

• Staggering an enemy grants Haste for 15 seconds.

• (Mastery) Massively increases firepower after swapping weapons during an attack chain.

Soldier (Rifle)

A very powerful single shot rifle. It excels at dealing high single target damage, but repeated shots can be slow.

• Greatly increases the effectiveness of high powered ammo.

• (Mastery) High powered ammo additionally ignores a large portion of enemy defense.

After completing the Daybreak epilogue, un-upgraded versions of these weapons will be added to current and future saved game stashes. To maintain the "clean slate" feeling, saved files created with the "No bonus items" game modifier will not have these weapons added.

Costumes

The Daybreak update will add 10 new costumes, 7 of which are exclusive to the epilogue with the other 3 obtainable from the main game. Here's a look at a few of them.

After completing the Daybreak epilogue, all obtained Daybreak exclusive costumes can be worn in the main game and main game costumes can be worn in Daybreak.

There is other content in the works not specific to the Daybreak epilogue.

Localization

Localization will be added in the Daybreak update and will feature the following languages:

• Japanese

• Simplified Chinese

• Brazilian Portuguese

• Russian

These languages were chosen based on Wicked Seed's analytics and I plan to add more languages in the future. Please continue to let me know which languages you would like to see supported!

Costume Accessorizing

You will now be able to change Ella's hair color and add glasses! Each hair color and glasses choice is saved on a per costume basis, allowing you to easily set up specific looks for each costume.

The Accessorize feature will be accessed from the Costumes tab in the status menu and must first be unlocked from the Extras shop. All hair colors and glasses options are immediately available after unlocking the Accessorize feature.

New Randomizer Mode

A new Randomizer mode called Chaos will be added. All key items and unique items (weapons, armor, etc.) will still be available, but everything else is randomly chosen making it more unpredictable on what you'll find.

Additionally, each weapon, armor, or accessory you find will be immediately equipped and the previous equipment will be scrapped.

Parts you find will automatically be installed and transferred over when swapping equipment.

Any upgrades made on your weapon will also transfer to the new weapon when swapping.

This mode, as the name suggests, is meant to lean more into the chaotic aspects of a randomizer.

Changes to the Endless Mode in The Pit

Currently the endless mode of The Pit has you starting at floor 51 and sees you progress as far as you can, or want, before dying.

Instead of starting at floor 51 at the beginning, floor progress will be saved every 5 floors and will be your new starting point. This will allow you to push deeper into The Pit and make sure that you are facing an adequate challenge as you see how far you can go.

In addition, every 5 floors will now be a boss floor and will follow the same order as The Pit. Floor 55 will be the Floor 5 boss, Floor 60 will be the Floor 10 boss, etc. but with scaled stats to match the difficulty of the current floor.

There will be no new rewards tied to the endless mode and is just there for players who want to keep playing, but felt a bit held back by the endless mode's current implementation.

Quality of Life Changes

Here are some of the notable quality of life changes. A complete list will be put together for the patch notes before release.

• Increased speed when going up or down stairs

• The ability to view the enemy's bestiary entry while in combat

• Added additional stats on the pause menu that show your current score, hits taken, deaths, stash accesses, etc.

• At the upgrade menu, you'll be able to access the parts for all of your held armor, not just the one you have currently equipped

• The 999,999 damage cap will be removed

• Stash space increased from 100 to 350

There will also be a bunch of other minor adjustments and bug fixes that I will lay out in the patch notes before release.

Release Timing

My current plan is to have the public release available early August and have a testing branch available mid July. Details on how to participate in the testing branch will be announced in the near future.

Pricing

As with The Pit update, Daybreak will be free to all owners of Wicked Seed.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support and to everyone who has picked up the game recently. I'm excited to share more Daybreak details soon!

-Ryan

• Fixed the acquisition method for the Allure costume. It was incorrectly stating it is acquired when achieving Expedition Level 50 when you only need 10

• Fixed an issue where the amount of High Powered Ammo that is returned to you when retrying a fight was incorrect if you had multiple stacks of ammo in your inventory

  • High Powered Ammo now stacks to 999999

• Added a description to the Unstuck selection in the pause menu

• Fixed an issue where non-randomized fights on a randomizer run would not spawn correctly

• Increased the upper limit on how many parts you can hold to accommodate the added parts from The Pit

  • There is an issue if you own the majority of the weapon parts and they are unequipped that they will overflow their UI panel in the Parts screen. This will be addressed in a future patch

• Fixed an issue where attacking multiple times with the Blitz with high attack speed would lock you in its "shot" animation

• Added an option under Gameplay to turn off the toggle for Attack All during combat. Since toggling this accidentally could have some negative impact on gameplay, the default setting for this will be off

• The dismiss action can now be used to close out of the pause menu

  • This has been rolled back until more testing can be done. It was having conflicts with other menus in the pause menu.

• When successfully launching the game and loading your save data, a new "session" backup save file will be created. In the event of a power outage or other unexpected closures of the game, this session data, while potentially outdated, can be used to recover save data in the event of data corruption

• Fixed an issue where no button was given focus on the death screen

• Adjusted the text for "Retry" on the death screen to "Return to camp" if you have died in The Pit

• You can now open the pause menu during some interactive story sections

• Fixed a combat soft lock issue if you froze the boss on Depth 15 and killed it while it was frozen

• Fixed an issue where using a shotgun on the boss of Depth 10 would cause a script error and soft lock you in combat

• Fixed an issue where the acid pool left behind by the Grasper's spit attack was not dealing damage to enemies stepping inside

• Fixed an issue where when starting a randomizer run, a fight in Seaspray Trail was not properly randomized, causing errors and potentially soft locking combat

• Fixed an issue and added guard rails against where continuing a save file that was already at max level and max XP would incorrectly level you to 101 and force you to restart the game

• When loading a NG+ save file, you will automatically be given the new quartermaster skill and won't need to backtrack to the cliff to get it

• When exiting photo mode, it would show the axe visual even if you set it to be hidden in the options

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to let you know The Pit update is now live. The demo has also been updated to support the backend changes included in the update, although the actual content of the demo is unchanged.

You can view the patch notes here:

As with most large content updates, it does require redownloading a lot of the level and asset data, but I was able to lower the install size of both the main game and demo.

If you have any feedback, questions, or issues, you can post here, but posting on the discussions board makes it easier for me to manage individual topics.

Thanks and I hope you enjoy!

-Ryan

Hey, everyone! Ryan here, creator of Wicked Seed.

The Pit is a free expansion to Wicked Seed that adds endgame content, new enemies, bosses, costumes, items, photo mode, and a whole slew of adjustments and improvements.

Here are the patch notes for The Pit expansion!

New Features

The Pit

• The Pit is an endgame dungeon exclusive to NG+ and can be accessed past the mysterious stone door.

  • The Pit consists of 50 increasingly difficult floors

  • Checkpoints are on every 5 floors, allowing you to start from that point if you die

  • The difficulty of The Pit is not influenced by your game's difficulty setting, and instead has its own consistent difficulty curve

  • A wide variety of new equipment, parts, costumes, and more can be found here

Photo Mode

• Photo mode has been added and can be accessed from the Pause menu. You can freely move the camera around, adjust a variety of visual settings, and change Ella's pose to set up the perfect shot.

New Costumes

• 7 new costumes have been added

  • 2 have been added to the Extras shop

  • The others are acquired from The Pit content

Expedition Levels

• Upon reaching level 100, all experience gained will now go towards a new progression system called Expedition Levels. Each Expedition Level grants a small stat boost. There's no cap to the number of Expedition Levels and can be used to strengthen Ella past her current caps to tackle the challenges of The Pit.

New Equipment

• 4 new accessories have been added

• 4 new armor have been added

• A new battle consumable, Throwing Axe, has been added

• 5 new weapon parts

• 3 new armor parts

New Skills

• Brace (Active skill): Negate one instance of damage during your action chain

• Savagery (Passive): A permanent passive upgrade to Brutal Attack. Increases Brutal Attack speed and hits the enemy twice

• Quartermaster (Passive): Previously an armor part, now a permanent passive skill acquired where the Quartermaster armor part previously was. Allows for instant weapon swapping during combat.

New Enemies

• 20 new enemies, including mini-bosses and bosses each with their own bestiary entry

• Added a bestiary entry for "Wicked Tendril"

Expanded Weapon Upgrades

• Through progressing in The Pit, you can acquire a new item, Engineering Manual, that increases your weapon's maximum upgrade level up to 20

• The weapon's total upgrade level is now tracked and is used in certain damage calculations such as elemental status damage

• When your weapon's total upgrade level reaches 60 (15 in all 4 categories, for example) you will unlock a new exclusive weapon trait for that weapon

New Status Ailment

• A new weapon part, "Caustic" has been added that grants your shots acid status build up. Once Acid is triggered, it deals damage to the enemy and surrounding enemies and creates a few acid pools that damage enemies as they stand or move on them. These acid pools look distinct from the enemy's and won't hurt you if you step inside. Finally, enemies inflicted with Acid cannot gain armor stacks.

• Caustic can be found in the Sewers

New Challenges

• 25 new challenges have been added that are mostly related to progression in The Pit

New Enemy Behavior

• A new enemy attribute has been added called "First Strike". Enemies with this attribute will now immediately go to attack you when encounter starts. While typically reserved for enemies in The Pit, the following enemies have been given this new attribute:

  • Skitterer

  • Giant Skitterer

  • Splittercrab

  • Retchkin

  • Vilekin

  • Bloodclutch

  • Drainling

  • Phorid Spitter

Adjustments & Improvements

• A Continue option has been added to the main menu. This will automatically load your most recent save file.

• Improved the visual quality of adjusting brightness within the Options

• Slightly reduced installation size of the game

• Slightly improved loading times for most areas

• An option to unstuck yourself, should you get stuck in the geometry, has been added to the Pause menu. This can only be used outside of combat.

• Brutal Attack animation speed has been slightly increased

• Improved the shooting animation for weapons when they get very high attack speed

• Brutal Attack damage is now additionally influenced by your weapon's total upgrade level, to help it scale into The Pit content

• Closed Casket shotgun has been reworked. The idea is to keep its aggressive behavior play style, but to modify the weapon stats so that it better fits that play style

  • Time to aim and fire rate have been buffed by around 35%

  • Increased chance to break armor

  • The unique trait continues to increase damage dealt the closer you are to the enemy, but now also gets an increase in fire rate with each subsequent attack in the action chain

• The Badger's increased stamina regeneration trait has been replaced with a trait that increases the damage and duration of status effects

• Valkyrie's energy on hit has been changed from a flat +2 to +1 + 1%. This will work out to be the same +2 at the beginning of the game, but will scale better into end game as your maximum energy increases.

• Wingman's unique trait no longer has a chance to not consume high powered ammo.

• You now start with Parry when beginning a new Randomizer game

• A number representing your DPS for that encounter is now shown on the encounter results popup

• An enemy's elemental status resistance now increases with each trigger of that element

• The 9999 stagger health cap for enemies has been removed on NG+

• Reduced the amount of defense ignored when dealing critical hits

• The action chain bonus for encounter clears has been increased from a maximum of 5% to 10% (5 actions -> 10 actions)

• With the Attack command selected, you can press Left or Right to toggle between single attack and maximum number of attacks. For example, if you have enough stamina to attack 6 times, it'll change to Attack x6 and immediately queue 6 attacks and pre-select the Confirm command

• Two new Feat objectives have been added

  • Inflict flanking attacks

  • Perform a brutal attack

• Grenade damage was adjusted as follows:

  • Base damage increased around 24%

  • Reduce the damage dealt by 12% for every additional enemy hit, up to 60% damage reduction (6 total enemies)

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the check for duplicate items wasn't done when weapons were being given from certain reward sources (like vending machines)

• Fixed a hole in the terrain in the Misgiving Throat area

• Fixed an issue where the stat gained from completing a Feat would not immediately be updated on the status screen

• Fixed an issue where the Nighty costume wasn't affected by the Damage Visibility Override setting

• Fixed an issue where the jeans for the Rocker costume were transparent in certain lighting conditions

• Fixed a few stuck spots across Seaside Six, Wyatt Park, Back Alleys, and Candle Rock Coast

• Fixed various typos and corrected spelling mistakes

• Fixed an issue where opening the drawer with the Seaside Master Key, but not taking it, made it inaccessible when loading back into the area

• Fixed an issue where the Ammo on Kill effect would sometimes trigger too late when using fast attack speed weapons

• Fixed an issue where the Randomizer Items text file would misclassify items in Wyatt Park (Day) as being in the Police Station

• Fixed an underlying issue related to shot animation time that resulted in some weapons potentially shooting slower than their advertised rate of fire. This likely only surfaced with fast weapons and using additional attack speed buffs like Quick Hands or Haste

• Fixed an issue where it was difficult to target the back flank of Clinger type enemies

• Fixed an issue where the Parry and Block VFX may not play properly when the axe is set to hidden in the options

I hope everyone enjoys the new content and thank you all again for the support you've shown Wicked Seed.

Talk to you again soon with an update on what's next!

-Ryan

Hey, everyone! Ryan here, creator of Wicked Seed.

Just a quick progress update for you all. The Pit update is going well, but it has grown a good bit more than I originally planned. It's still possible I could get it released in late April, but it might sneak into early May as the QA process has been pretty intense.

I've added a wide range of QOL and new features not related to just The Pit content such as:

• Showing your DPS at the end of an encounter

• Adding "Continue" to the main menu to quickly load your last saved game

• A new skill called "Brace" which negates the first hit taken during an action chain

• New battle consumables

• Quartermaster is now a learned skill instead of an armor part

• Improvements to brightness settings in the options

And a bunch more stuff! I'll have the full patch notes out ahead of the update so for those who like to go over all the changes, you'll be able to do so before getting your hands on the update. It's definitely the largest update yet!

The Pit will also come with 7 new costumes instead of the planned 5. Here's a look at two new ones taken with the upcoming photo mode.

I should have the full patch notes out sometime later this week and will keep you updated on when I expect the update to be available.

-Ryan

Hey, everyone! Ryan here, creator of Wicked Seed.

Now that I've made solid progress toward the next content update, I wanted to share what's coming up.

The Pit

The Pit is a New Game Plus exclusive dungeon that brings new challenges and new rewards. It's accessible towards the end of the game on any New Game Plus round.

It consists of 50 floors of increasingly difficult encounters. Each floor layout is the same, but the objects, props, items, and encounters are randomized each time you go in. You should be able to learn the layouts of each floor, but still be surprised by which enemies you come across and which items you find.

Every 5 floors has a miniboss encounter and every 10 floors will have a boss encounter. After clearing a miniboss or boss encounter you can choose to start from that cleared floor instead of at the beginning.

You won't lose any of the progress you made on your run in The Pit if you die, but you will be sent back to camp.

While you're down in The Pit you may come across rare Tin Coins which can be used in a new, peculiar vending machine that dispenses unique rewards.

New Status Ailment: Acid

There will be a weapon part added to the sewer area that when added to your weapon will allow you to expend energy on attacking to inflict acid. Once inflicted you'll deal damage in a small aoe around your target and create acid puddles on the ground that will hurt any enemy (but not you) who steps inside.

Progression Changes

Since enemies in The Pit are harder than anything else in the game, I've included new ways to strengthen Ella for the challenge.

• 3 new accessories

• 4 new armor

• 7 new equipment parts

• New bestiary unlocks

• Max weapon level increased to 20

• New Expedition Level system after you reach level 100

Weapon Mastery Traits

You can raise the maximum level of weapons to 20 by collecting a new item, Engineering Manual, from The Pit. As you upgrade towards this new level cap, each weapon will also unlock a new mastery trait further enhancing its uniqueness.

Expedition Levels

Once you reach level 100, killing enemies in The Pit will award Expedition XP. Increasing your expedition level grants a small stat bonus. There's no cap to Expedition Levels and is there for players to keep leveling up while they descend into The Pit.

New Enemies

There will be around 15 new enemies all with their own bestiary entry to unlock and complete. These 15 enemies includes normal enemies, minibosses, and bosses.

New Costumes

There are 5 planned new costumes. Some will be added to the Challenge Shop and others will be obtainable from The Pit.

New Challenges

There will be 23 new challenges added mostly related to progression in The Pit.

Photo Mode

A much requested feature, photo mode, will also be added in this update.

Release Time and Price

I'm still on track to have the update out in the later half of April and will be free to all owners of Wicked Seed.

Thanks again for everyone's support and interest in the game! Talk to you again soon.

-Ryan

Adjustments

• Burn damage now increases over time, up to double of the initial burn damage

• All new games with the Randomizer modifier will begin with the Axe

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the randomized arena and shooting range rewards didn't have the costume reward at the end

• Fixed an issue where the damage bonus from Pride Ring was being granted in full with any amount of health lost instead of scaling linearly

• Fixed an issue where you would not receive damage while attacking

• Fixed an issue where the Larder Key would spawn in potentially inaccessible locations with the Randomizer modifier on

• The basement cutscene in the police station will no longer be activated during a Randomizer play through to prevent a possible soft lock

Hey, everyone!

Here are the patch notes for the first content update.

New Content

• Randomizer game mode has been added

  • Accessible once you have completed the game

  • Starting weapon and accessory is random, but armor is the same

  • All progression and unique items (weapons, armor, accessories, parts, etc.) are accounted for but are shuffled across the entire game. You could start with the Wingman and find the Valkyrie in the vending machine for example.

  • All enemy encounter locations are the same, but each enemy is randomized within its type. So if an encounter had a Skitterer originally, it might instead be a shark, a phorid drone, a crab, a drainling, etc. but it wouldn't be a miniboss enemy like a Kraken's Arm or Bloodclutch

  • There will always be at least two weapon manuals per run, found in the areas where they are originally, but more could be randomly shuffled in

  • When a new randomized run begins, a text file will be created in the same folder as your save file that will show the area where the items are in. This can be referenced if you get stuck or believe an item may not have been randomized in properly

• Four new costumes have been added (from left to right)

  • Laced: Purchase from the challenge shop

  • Wrapped: Purchase from the challenge shop

  • Sheer: Complete the game on New Game Plus on any difficulty

  • Nighty: Complete the game on any difficulty with the randomizer game mode active

• 12 new challenges have been added

  • Round 2: Complete the game on New Game Plus.

  • All Mixed Up: Complete the game on any difficulty with the randomizer game mode active.

  • Firestarter I: Set 10 enemies on fire.

  • Firestarter II: Set 50 enemies on fire.

  • Popsicle I: Freeze 10 enemies.

  • Popsicle II: Freeze 50 enemies.

  • Barbecue: Inflict a total of 100,000 damage from enemies being on fire.

  • Ice Carving: Shatter 25 frozen enemies with a brutal attack.

  • Farmer: Take a break while at full health.

  • Decaf: Complete the game on any difficulty without drinking coffee.

  • Dodgeball: Perform an action queue with Throw Stone followed by Throwing Knives

  • Locked In: Perform an action queue with Focus followed by 9 attack commands.

• You can now revisit Seaside (Night) after reaching Chapter 3

  • You can return to Seaside (Night) from the Farm House by interacting with the gate near the truck

  • You can also fast travel to Seaside (Night) once fast travel has been unlocked

Adjustments

• Reworked shotgun spread damage:

  • Damage is now evenly spread when shooting multiple targets. Previously the main target would receive 70% of the damage and each additional target would receive 30%, making it deal more damage than intended when hitting 3 or more enemies.

• Ultimaniac has had the following adjustments:

  • Base firepower slightly increased

  • Improved base weapon handling (reload speed, time to aim)

  • Improved the damage bonus while at full health

• Danse Macabre has had the following adjustments:

  • Base firepower slightly increased

  • Increased the flanking crit chance, flanking damage bonus, and counter hit damage bonus of its unique effect

• True Survivor game modifier will now unlock at the same time as Despair difficulty

• Slightly lowered the scrap cost and potency of improvised grenade, improvised flash, and improvised incendiary skills and increased the potency of the item equivalents.

• You will no longer be forced to change costume when going into Chapter 3 after your first play through

• Brutal Attack will automatically be learned when approaching the 2 clinger and 1 tick fight in North Breck Trail if you did not pick up the skill book

• You can now navigate from the top to bottom, and bottom to top of the bestiary list

• Increased the lighting on the poker table in the Manor Lounge to make it easier to see the chips and their color

• The time it takes for a Splittercrab Egg to hatch has been randomized a bit so they won't always hatch together

• The bush where you can call a Gluttonous Tick on the Stalker boss fight now has increased visual indicators when a tick is ready

  • The detection range has also been increased to better indicate it's something to interact with

• When entering combat, if a feat has been activated, it will now show much quicker and will no longer pause while the action menu is up

• The time needed to upgrade a weapon level at the work bench has been reduced from 1.2 seconds to 0.6, and the confirm button can now be held after an upgrade has completed to quickly upgrade multiple levels at a time

• Phorid Aurums will no longer attempt to flee and are now considered a guaranteed reward instead of a potential reward

  • The base chance for a Phorid Aurum to appear has been lowered to compensate for the above change, but the bonus chance for one to appear based on your Luck stat has been increased. This works out to be about the same chance by the time you find these enemies, but will now scale better into New Game Plus

• You can now adjust the volume of footsteps separately in the Options menu

• Added a game modifier to prevent shop items (excluding costumes) from being added to a new game

• Increased the offense contribution to fire damage over time, resulting in an overall increase to burn damage and should better scale in end game and New Game Plus

Fixes

• Fixed a stuck spot in Candle Rock Coast by a back wall near the catwalk tunnel section

• Fixed an issue where a placeholder object was visible on one of the cliff traversal sections towards the beginning of Candle Rock Cliff

• Fixed a stuck spot behind a rock in the Misgiving Throat before the tunnel leading into the third section

• Fixed a stuck spot near the 4 clinger, 2 grasper fight in the Misgiving Throat

• Fixed a stuck spot on the cliff you drop down to on the way to the carver boss fight in Candle Rock Cliff

• Fixed a stuck spot in the Lab, where you could climb over a filing cabinet and get stuck on the other side

• Fixed several stuck spots, and overall flattened the shoreline in Candle Rock Coast

• Fixed an issue where the wall boundary in the final interactive cutscene was not fully encasing the scene making it possible to fall out of bounds if you ventured too far away

• Fixed an issue where there was a Grasper enemy spawning outside the encounter bounds in Candle Rock Coast on Despair difficulty

• Fixed an issue where a fight in Candle Rock Coast on Despair difficulty began too close to the stairs, resulting in the possibility of getting stuck

• Fixed an issue where putting in the 20th coin into the vending machine with full inventory would ruin your chance at the reward

• Fixed an issue where blueberries near the old cabin on Despair difficulty would come back when reloading the area

• Fixed an issue where the weapon manual in The Crawl on New Game Plus would come back when reloading the area

• Fixed an issue where incapacitated egg laying enemies could still lay eggs

• Fixed an issue where Majestra's effects would not be active until clearing an encounter, instead of when it was equipped

• Fixed an issue where the Detective Office puzzle didn't have button action prompts for Left and Right

• Fixed an issue where finishing an encounter in a "draw" (both you and the enemies are dead) would put you in a state of undeath

• Fixed an issue where enemies during the Finality sequence could take damage (such as from being On Fire) and die, resulting in a combat soft lock

• Fixed an issue where enemies that can summon reinforcements could do so during the Finality sequence

• Fixed an issue where the detailed status window would not always update after all stat changes (such as when adding or removing equipment parts)

• Fixed an issue where High Powered Ammo in a drawer in the Manor on Despair difficulty was inaccessible

• Fixed an issue where there were too many missing mesh faces on the back shirt of Rocker

• Fixed an issue where there was excessive clipping on the Ace costume when performing climbing or crawling traversal actions

• Fixed an issue where a Rusty Coin was in an inaccessible location in the Sewer on Normal and Hard difficulties

• Fixed an issue where game results would not properly save on New Game Plus if you had a higher rank and score

• (Hotfix @ 1:27 PM EDT) Fixed an issue where you couldn't adjust the Barefoot Sounds audio setting

• (Hotfix @ 1:27 PM EDT) Fixed an issue where the Ice Carving challenge wouldn't increment if the brutal attack did enough damage to kill the frozen enemy instead of trigger the instant kill shatter

I do have some smaller updates I want to release that didn't make it for this update, such as being able to delete save slots and add a "Continue" option on the main menu to automatically load the last saved game.

If you haven't yet seen my development roadmap going forward, I posted it as a stickied thread on the discussions board here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2767530/discussions/0/765184596329489708/

I'll be updating exactly what's coming with each update as I'm able to share more and will do my best to keep that post up to date.

Thanks again for everyone's support of the game! I'm excited for the opportunity to add more content and will talk to you all again soon.

-Ryan

Adjustments

• Chemical can now be recycled

• The challenge to drag enemies during the Carver ambush fight at the cliffs has been reduced from 25 times to 15. This is to account for the increase in damage from enemy ground effects

• Reduced the number of times you need to exploit the Corundumcarver weakness from 2 to 1

• Reduced the number of weakness exploits needed for Shalecarver and Granitecarver bestiary entries

• You can now adjust the FOV in the options menu under the Camera tab

• Brutal Counter has been adjusted

  • It will still deal damage equal to a brutal attack when parrying an enemy into a staggered state, but the melee attack animation will no longer play. Sometimes the animation put you into harms way when this should only be a beneficial action

Fixes

• Removed an incorrect statement on the fast travel notice about being able to travel to Seaside (night)

  • This will be coming in the future, but it's not ready yet

• Fixed an issue where the chromatic aberration setting would be ignored in the streets area

• Fixed the costume list and acquisition method for costumes when playing the demo version

• Fixed an issue where Empress was not reducing the stamina consumption of skills

• Fixed an issue where using Finality on an enemy while they are in the middle of summoning reinforcements would have them spawn out of the encounter bounds

• Fixed an issue where fast travel/taking a break could affect respawns on other save files

Adjustments

• Health restoral actions when done at full health (taking a break, fast travel, etc) will no longer count as "times healed" when calculating post game score or for the "No Heals Needed" achievement

• Due to the potential of stale data persisting, you can no longer load a saved game while in combat. If you need to do so, please Quit to Title first

• On game launch and after each successful data save, a save backup will be created in the same location as your save file with the extension ".bac". If you need to restore the backup file, remove the current save file and remove the ".bac" extension on the backup file

• Adjusted the way Double Attack is handled (Mangler bestiary bonus and Trigger weapon part). Previously it would add an additional shot, but now it will add the same amount of shots done per attack with that weapon. This should make the double attack bonus consistent across all weapon types

• The projectile volleys that occur during the final boss fight will now check the player's position at the start of the volley and not for each projectile. This should reduce the tracking effect they have and make it easier to move out of the way

• Ground effects and Grasper explosion will no longer kill you, but instead leave you at 1 HP. Taking damage from these effects at 1 health will temporarily slow you down

• Increased the damage dealt to enemies that move in ground effects (like the Grasper's acid puddle) to incentivize using this mechanic more to your advantage

• The number of Retchkins that can spawn during the Vilekin fight has been limited to 3

• Graspers receive armor if they perform an uninterrupted melee attack. This behavior has been removed on Normal difficulty

• Slightly reduced the health of some enemies starting at the Sewers, but enemies in the final areas remain unchanged. This was to soften the difficulty curve in the middle of the game, but leave it untouched for the final areas

• You now start NG+ with the Axe and Crowbar (note: this change is only applied to clear files after the hotfix, not existing ones)

• Added an option to hide the axe while it is on your back. It will only be shown when blocking, parrying, and during brutal attacks

• Reduced the amount of armor Bloodclutch receives after recovering from stagger on Normal and Hard (Normal: 2, Hard: 3, Despair: still 5)

• Made the following adjustments to the Blitz weapon:

  • Increased base firepower

  • Reduced time to aim

  • Added a new trait: Greatly increases damage dealt of subsequent attacks (stacks with Overwhelm part)

Fixed

• Fixed an issue where changing the difficulty on a NG+ clear file would not set the proper amount of coffee servings for the chosen difficulty

• Fixed the duplicated Rush item description

• Fixed the tooltip for Imperatrix to mention it expends energy on each attack

• Added additional safe guard to combat soft lock while attacking fleeing enemies

Hey everyone! Ryan here, creator of Wicked Seed.

Well it's been a week since launch! Admittedly it's been very stressful, but the reaction and support for the game has really blown me away and exceeded any expectation I had going into launch, so thank you very much!

Demo Is Back

For anyone who was waiting on a demo before diving in, thank you for your patience! The demo has been relaunched and is now available to download. The demo features around the first hour of the game and any progress you make in the demo will transfer over to the full game. Just make sure to save your game before closing the demo to make sure you don't lose anything.

Coming Up

I do plan to continue tackling issues as they come up, but with the demo re-released I can start working on the Randomizer mode again. I'll provide more updates on the Randomizer as progress continues.

Thank you again for all the support! Talk to you again soon.

-Ryan

Adjustments

• The costumes awarded for collecting the knight statues will now be awarded immediately after completing the challenge and will no longer require completing the game

• Selecting Confirm on the combat action menu with no actions queued will no longer close the menu

• Added support for save data transfer from demo to full game

Fixes

• If you have completed the knight statue collection challenge(s) and did not get the costume, it should now be automatically added

• Fixed an issue where the damaging aura of Phorid Matron was dealing damage during Finality

• Added some additional safeguards against losing invincibility during repeated, back to back uses of Brutal Attack

• Added a safeguard against an issue where attacking enemies as they flee may soft lock you in combat

Adjustments

• Added an "Unstuck" option to the Home key. This will attempt to move you to the last known safe location such as the last position you were at when you saved, where you entered the map, or close to the most recently cleared encounter. This is just a stopgap measure while I continue to find and fix any spots you can get stuck.

• You can now rebind the UI Dismiss action, which was previously hard bound to RMB/Button East

• You can now adjust vertical sensitivity separately from horizontal sensitivity

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the speed run challenge descriptions didn't mention they need to be completed on a new game only

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where immediately loading a game after starting a new game would save the incorrect Chapter on the loaded file

Hey everyone!

Another large download today, but I have made progress in separating assets to be able to patch code, items, enemy stats, etc. and have them be just a few MB. Having to touch level data still creates large download sizes, but I'm hopeful this should be the last download of this size. I appreciate everyone's patience as I work to improve this!

Let's go over the details of today's patch:

Adjustments

• When loading a clear file you will now have he option to change the difficulty

• Adjusted some of the wording for the Library puzzle and Armory access puzzle to better convey the hints at the solution

• The reload action for the Shooting Range is now tied to the binding for combat reload

• Pulled the camera back a bit in the shooting range and repositioned Ella so that more of the range is in view

• Put in a fix for the reload animation at the shooting range sometimes not activating

• Stalker's bestiary weakness exploit has been changed from killing it with a brutal attack to hitting it with a brutal attack

• The Gluttonous Tick weakness amount to complete its bestiary entry has been reduced from 3 -> 1

• You can now use Hot Coffee as long as both health and energy aren't full

• After completing Chapter 2 you will now automatically receive Brutal Attack and Parry if you did not pick up the skill books earlier. Loading a saved game that is in at least Chapter 3 will retroactively receive these skills as well

• The armor part Rush has been changed to grant the effect of Haste for the first 15 seconds of combat

• Giant Skitterer stagger time slightly increased

• Giant Skitterer stagger health slightly decreased

Fixes

• Put in a potential fix for the screen flickering/automatic action queueing when opening the action menu in combat

• Fixed an issue where the Dining Room encounter could be triggered from outside the room in the Manor on Despair

• Fixed a collision issue on the bridge in the Spew section of the sewer

• Picking up a stat boost item will now properly update the status UI immediate with the effects

• Fixed an issue where saving multiple clear files would increase the NG+ incorrectly

• Fixed an issue where the stamina bonus granted from the armor part Adrenaline was granted before consuming the stamina from the weapon attack

• Fixed an issue where Vanguard was not working correctly

• Fixed an issue where not all attributes were being raised from the Goddess armor part

• Fixed an issue where the one time stat bonuses from certain Bestiary entries were not being applied correctly

• Fixed an issue where loading a saved game in the manor after completing the Library puzzle did not properly reset the puzzle UI

• Fixed an issue where dismissing the status menu and rapidly clicking on the header tabs could soft lock you by placing you in an invalid state

• Fixed an issue where precision level 9 of the Bella Fortuna was awarding the wrong attack range

Thank you to all who have reported issues and suggested feedback! - Ryan

Hey, everyone!

I pushed out an update fixing the below issues:

Adjustments

• Increased stats on Silver Ring and Polished Silver Ring

• The firepower adjustments for level 4 and 5 Power upgrades for Bella Fortuna were fixed. This will make Power level 4 a bit weaker, but overall stronger when at Power level 5

• Parries, in addition to blocks, will now also count towards Splittercrab's bestiary progress

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where key binds were not saved between sessions

• Fixed an issue where certain UI key rebinds were not working properly

• Fixed an issue where placing the sewer valve could pin you between the valve and pipe, if you were too close when using the item

• Fixed a possible out of bounds issue in the backyard of the Vacant Cabin

• Added in a potential fix for a rare issue, wherein at the beginning of Chapter 3 there would not be an interaction point on the door

• Improved hit detection for mouse over on the keypad UI puzzles

• Fixed an issue where a garage wall in the Back Alleys did not have collision set up properly

• Improved the player feedback of the Color Panel puzzle in The Crawl when entering the incorrect sequence. You will now briefly see all 6 inputs before resetting and Ella will mention she must have the wrong order

• Fixed an issue where you couldn't manually skip the conversation at the beginning of Chapter 3

• Fixed an issue where the work bench became inaccessible with Marathon Vest equipped

• Fixed an issue where the work bench became inaccessible with Gigant Vest equipped

• Added a potential fix and additional logging for an uncommon issue where you will sometimes get stuck on a black screen when interacting with a work bench. Ideally this issue will now be fixed, but if it remains, you should instead hear an "error" sound instead of getting stuck behind the black screen. If this does happen and would like to assist further, please reach out to me on the Discussions board. Saving and loading your game should act as a workaround for the time being

• Fixed an issue where moving too quickly during a story cutscene in Chapter 5 could cause the interaction points to not appear

• Fixed an issue where the Scrap used in combat was not properly reimbursed on selecting Retry

• Fixed an issue where queued up item actions that got interrupted were not reimbursed

• Fixed an issue where non-stackable items that were used in combat were not properly handled on selecting Retry

Sorry for the huge download size. When I tweak something, even if it's small, the asset bundles it's a part of need to be redownloaded and copied onto the existing bundles that are currently installed. And there were a lot of small random stuff all over the place I needed to fix. But you aren't downloading all of this as additional space. The install size probably won't change much at all.

I'll do my best to combine as many fixes together as possible to reduce the amount of large update sizes and work to split up the assets more so future updates are a more manageable size.

-Ryan

Hey, everyone! It's Ryan, creator of Wicked Seed.

Wicked Seed has launched and is now available!

It's been a long road filled with ups and down, but I'm very proud of what I've created and am really excited to share the full game with everybody.

I will have a pinned comment on the discussions section that will track any known issues. If you run into anything, posting in that thread will make it easier for me to ensure I'm able to track everything accurately.

Anything coming after launch?

Yes! I've been making good progress on the built in Randomizer game mode. I'm not able to give any timelines at the moment, as I want to make sure my immediate time is spent on addressing any issues players may run into, but as things settle I'll be able to give an update on when I think it'll be available.

I will be bringing back a new, updated demo that allows you to experience the first part of the game and be able to continue where you left off after you purchase the full game. Timing for that is unknown, but may coincide either with or close to the addition of Randomizer.

I would still really like to add localization for other languages so non-native English speakers can enjoy the game to its fullest. This will be looked at after Randomizer has been added.

As for beyond that, time will tell, but I have plenty of ideas as long as the demand is there. Any additional content such as costumes, game modes, areas, etc. will always be released as free updates.

One big final thank you to everyone who has shown interest in the game, shared it among their friends or talked about it online!

-Ryan

Hello everyone!

As discussed in previous updates the demo will be temporarily de-listed ahead of launch. The demo build is no longer representative of the final product and includes some issues that have since been fixed for the full game. Additionally, there may be an expectation that the progress from the demo could carry over to the full game.

Once things have settled post launch I plan on bringing back an updated demo. In the updated demo you'll be able to play a beginning section of the game and be able to continue where you left off when you purchase the full game.

If you have yet to try the demo, and still want to, you can do so up until tomorrow's launch. Even if you don't have time to play it today, adding the demo to your library will keep it active after it gets de-listed tomorrow. Just remember that any progress made in this demo will not transfer to the full game.

Edit: I previously stated that demo activations could be played after the demo was de-listed, but with how Steam handles demos, that is not the case. For those interested in trying the demo post launch I will post an update on when it will be back and updated!

Talk to you all again tomorrow on launch day!

-Ryan

Hey everyone! It's Ryan, creator of Wicked Seed.

One week left! Since last week I've been working on last minute polishing, quality of life, balancing and tuning, doing a lot more testing with gamepad, and trying to 100% the game.

One more achievement to go!

I'll be making the release build candidate today and then it's hands off, unless I find something to fix that can't wait. Afterwards I'll continue play testing and get a head start on working on the Randomizer game mode. For those interested in where that's at, it's fully functional up until the end of the demo content so it's more about just making it work through the rest of the game instead of actually creating the game mode. I don't have an ETA on when the Randomizer will come out after launch, but I'll do my best to keep you updated as I continue work on it.

I've been seeing a steady increase in traffic for the game and I want to thank everyone who has followed the development and have shared the game with their friends!

Just a reminder the demo will be temporarily taken down on January 22nd and will be brought back a little after launch, once everything has calmed down and I can have the demo be in parity with the full game.

Talk to you all again soon!

-Ryan

Hey, everyone! It's Ryan, creator of Wicked Seed.

Just two short weeks to go until Wicked Seed launches! Even though it's just been a little over a week since my last update, I've been hard at work every day polishing and play testing. Admittedly I haven't been able to get the Hitless achievement yet, but I've gotten really close. Part of me thinks one of you will beat me to it!

What I thought was a normal Thursday yesterday turned out to be Wicked Seed's single highest wish list day, even beating out its first day in Next Fest last June! I'm very humbled by the support and seeing this momentum so close to launch has really motivated me so thank you to all who saw the game and checked it out!

I wanted to share a couple of things I've been working on since my last update:

• Dedicated animation for going up and down stairs

• A tooltip while in the stash that gives a brief description of the selected item

• Cloud saves

• A bunch of out of bounds fixes and fixes for getting stuck behind props, and fixes for props that don't have collision set up properly

• While on Dynamic HUD, toggling high powered ammo will now briefly show the UI so you know if it's on or off

• Ella's out of combat run speed has increased! Her base speed is slightly faster than she was with the Hussle armor attachment. I've adjusted animations as well and I think it feels good! Her movement speed in combat will remain the same as before to maintain combat balance.

Demo Plans

While I am confident in the state of the game right now, I know things will pop up after launch and I will be here to fix things as quickly as I can.

With that being said, I will be temporarily removing the demo on January 22nd since it will be outdated for when the full game launches. I'm worried about spreading myself thin by maintaining the code for both the main game and demo and making sure they stay in parallel if and when fixes are needed post launch.

Once things settle down I'd like to bring the demo back and allow progress from the demo to transfer over to the full game for future players who may be on the fence.

Pricing

With the launch around the corner, I wanted to share the final details on pricing:

• Base Price: $19.99 USD

• Launch Discount: 20%

• I've also implemented regional pricing to make sure that Wicked Seed is accessible regardless of where you live

The best way to support the game right now is to wish list it, if you haven't already, and help spread the word with anyone you think might enjoy the game, because Steam will have its eyes set on the game soon!

If you have any questions on the game or anything, ask me over on the Discussions section. I do my best to get back to everyone.

I'll talk to you all again in a bit!

-Ryan

Hey, everyone! It's Ryan, creator of Wicked Seed.

Happy New Year!

Well it's time for the final progress update. I'm really excited to have you all play the full game and I'm very appreciative of everyone who has followed along with the development this past year.

Before we get into it, I do want to announce that the Randomizer game mode will not make it in time for launch, but will be released shortly after. Technically it's working, but it needs more attention and more play testing to make sure that runs won't be soft locked and such. In order to make sure I can address feedback and potential issues with the main game, I want to hold back on the randomizer for launch. Perhaps what I could do is offer the randomizer on a separate beta branch for those who want to check it out early? I'll see what I can do there.

So what will be in for launch?

• First playthrough is estimated to be around 7 to 10 hours, but totally depends on a lot of things. If you like searching every nook and cranny, explore optional areas, etc. then it may take over 10 hours.

• Despair difficulty is unlocked after completing the game. For those who checked out the demo, Despair difficulty rearranges the item, key item, and enemy placement, and adds in some new items and gameplay mechanics to create a fresh play through experience.

• After completing Despair difficulty, a game modifier called True Survivor is unlocked and applicable only to Despair difficulty. It removes some save points, adds a new consumable item that must be used to save your game and you can no longer "Retry" on a fight if you die, you must load a previous save. For those who are into this kind of mode I think you'll enjoy it!

• New Game Plus. After completing the game you can create a save file. Loading that save file will put you at the beginning of the game with your current level, inventory, weapons, upgrades, etc. The only thing that doesn't save are progression based key items. Each iteration, up to NG+5, will get progressively harder with increased rewards. You can use NG+ to complete the bestiary or find costumes and statues you may have missed the first time around, or just for the fun of leveling up really high and destroying everything.

• 51 costumes. All unlocked through gameplay, such as exploration, achievements, etc.

For the steam deck players, I'm still seeing what improvements I can make to the first (demo) area, but I am still targeting 45 fps there. However most other areas of the game I've been able to get 60 fps at native resolution at 70% res scaling with High quality on textures. I'm still working on improvements where I can, but the game plays quite well on the deck in my opinion. I'll most likely create a separate post aimed at steam deck settings and what I've found to be the best balance between quality and performance as I get closer to launch.

For the achievement hunters, I have 82 achievements set up. They correlate with the in-game challenges so you can earn the points needed for costumes and other unlocks while earning the steam achievements.

There's not much else I can share about what I've been working on, as this month I finished up the final boss fight, credits, and that kind of stuff, and besides that, it's been play testing the game every day making sure everything is unlockable and challenges are tuned properly. I've been focusing on using all the weapons to make sure they each have strong build options and doing everything I can to continue adding polish.

There are still costumes that haven't been shown yet, but most will have to wait for the full release! Here's a look at our final costume preview: Undercover

In the final three weeks I'll be continuing to play test and see if I can get some content creators to check out the game for launch!

Talk to you all again soon!

Hey, everyone! It's Ryan, creator of Wicked Seed.

It seemed like I blinked and November was over, but I hit an exciting milestone this month: completing all the game's levels and starting on the final boss fight!

Spoiler Warning

I'll be discussing new features and additions to the game, but nothing story related.

Please remember Wicked Seed is still in active development and any current or planned feature could be changed.

What I've Been Working On

• The first third or so of November was spent on marketing stuff: capturing new gameplay footage, putting together a new trailer, and updating the demo to have it more representative of the game as it exists today.

• Updated the Steam page with some new screenshots and videos

• Reached out to some content creators and news outlets about the updates and new demo

After the marketing stuff, the remainder of the month was spent on adding new content to the game.

• Added the remaining 4 weapons. So now the game has all 12 weapons fully functional

• Made some more adjustments to enemy behavior based on difficulty

• Added Ella's final skill

• Improved door opening so it should always open away from Ella to reduce jarring clipping issues

• Finished the final two areas of the game

• Started work on the final boss fight

As I was going through my list of what I've been doing, most of the work was in those two new areas, but a lot of the other work was done polishing existing areas (not in the demo) or adding features to areas not shown in the trailer and realized it may be too spoiler-y to divulge here.

I'm really excited to be working on the final boss and I am, obviously, very close to finishing the game and having it playable from start to finish. Going into December I'll be finishing the final boss fight, working on the ending, and then begins the final testing and polishing phase. I'll be play testing every day and looking for any way to improve on the game.

I have a big backlog of things I'd like to improve during this time, but if you have any suggestions feel free to leave them here or over on the discussions board.

Here's a look at a new costume: Monarch

See you next month for the final progress update!

Hey everyone!

I'm currently testing the demo update build and I'm on track for making the update public on Friday, November 14.

Some other quick notes: As discussed in Progress Update 7 the demo content will be the same (it will end after the boss in Wyatt Park). But I did swap out some costumes so those familiar with the original demo will have some new costumes to try.

Save data from the original demo will not be available in the new demo because of large changes and additions to the data being saved and accessed.

This update covers over 5 months of changes and improvements, and to be honest, I'm not sure anyone would want to read over the extensive change logs!

But I do want to highlight some key changes and what to expect.

Professional Voice Acting

All AI voice placeholders have been removed and replaced with professional voice talent.

Improved Polish and Quality

• Improved animations

• Procedural breathing, blinking, and eye looking

• New idle and movement animations depending on how damaged you are

• Changes to facial expressions based on the situation and how damaged you are

• UI redesign to strike a higher quality and more cohesive look

• Improved mouse support in menus

• Camera and gameplay improvements such as dynamic character zoom, toggleable depth of field, improved lighting, and more

• Reduced game initialization load times and scene load times

• Improved character art and visuals

Improved Gameplay

• Introduced a line of sight mechanic to make encounter areas feel unique

• Added knockback to heavier weapons like shotguns to help control enemy positions

• Added new status effects like fire and freeze

• Added a bestiary to add some flavor to the enemies you fight, in addition to stat boosts when completing an entry

• Luck plays more roles now, allowing you to potentially receive extra scrap from pickups or negating incoming damage

• Enemies now perform defensive attacks, punishing you for getting too close

• Enemies now have more behavioral quirks: such as getting their turn again faster if they miss you, enraging at low health, etc. Most of these quirks are present on harder difficulties

• In addition to above, Hard and Despair difficulties now have more enemy behavior changes. For example, Bloated Ticks now explode instantly on Normal, but have their "timed" explosion on higher difficulties. Manglers will enrage if they miss you (so block their attack or stagger them first), Tentaclaws now leave behind a damaging acid pool if you break their acid sacs, and so on. I'm hoping by expanding on these behavior changes will make harder difficulties feel harder, and not just by inflating enemy health and damage.

The TL;DR of it all is: the game should feel more polished and fleshed out! Of course I am always looking to improve things where I can, so feel free to continue leaving feedback.

Thanks again for everyone's support! Not too far from launch now.

-Ryan

Hey, everyone! It's Ryan, creator of Wicked Seed.

October was an exciting, but busy month! Let's dive into what I've been up to.

Spoiler Warning

I'll be discussing new features and additions to the game, but nothing story related.

Please remember Wicked Seed is still in active development and any current or planned feature could be changed.

Demo Update

Sometime in mid November I'll be releasing an update to the demo. The update will include all the new features and changes I've been going on about over the last 5 or 6 months. The content of the demo will remain the same (ends at Wyatt Park boss) but you'll get to play around with all the improvements and changes as well as check out the new voices. I'll be releasing a separate post detailing the changes and when exactly the new demo update will come out.

What I've Been Working On

My main goal for October was to wrap up work with voice talent and look for ways to polish and optimize features.

UI

• Overhauled the look of the UI and made sure I had a cohesive and consistent design

• Improved mouse support by allowing you to change tabs by clicking on them in the Status, Options, and Extras screens

• Improved mouse support for inventory and stash making it easier to transfer to and from

• You can now sort your inventory and stash by item type

• Redesigned the equipment parts window at the tool bench so you don't need to press a button to toggle between your part list and the gear's installed parts. You can just navigate between the two normally or just click on whatever you need if using mouse

• Redesigned the "Rest Area" UI. Ella will now be sitting in a chair taking a break while you go through the options

• Added a "Dynamic" HUD option. While moving around out of combat, the HUD will fade out. Standing still for a short time will fade the HUD back in. Since this is just a new option, the other HUD options (always hide, always display, only in combat) are still available to choose from

• Fixed an issue, where if the HUD was being hidden, you wouldn't see important pop ups relating to level ups, new items, xp and scrap changes, etc.

• When making volume adjustments in the options, their changes will occur immediately without needing to exit the options menu

• A bunch of other various, smaller UI improvements and polish

Gameplay

• Added a "Dynamic Zoom" option. By default, while in exterior locations, the camera now sits back a bit further giving you better visibility of Ella and her surroundings. When entering buildings, caves, etc. the camera will zoom to the previous over the shoulder distance. If you prefer to just have the over the shoulder view at all times you can just turn Dynamic Zoom off

• Fixed an issue where your weapon wouldn't be hidden when using certain items or skills

• Improved some of item icons

• Certain items will no longer be used if they have no benefit (for example, trying to use a health drink while at full health)

• Added more unique sound effects for items

• Fixed an issue where using multiple skills in a single action queue wouldn't acquire a new target if the intended target had died

• Shortened the time Ella is stunned when receiving heavy attack damage

• Changed some previous heavy enemy attacks to a new medium attack which temporarily slows you down when taking damage

• Manual Cutscene skip should now be fully functional. You can still enable Auto Skip cutscenes in the options menu to skip transitioning into a cutscene altogether

• Earlier in the month I worked on new content. I'm about halfway through the level design for the final area!

Fixes & Optimizations

• Improved the visuals and design for some areas of the Seaside

• Performance and load time optimizations for the Seaside area

• Improved the "safe spot" calculation when selecting Retry on a failed battle. Hopefully no more respawning back in the middle of the encounter!

• Changed the visuals for the "fog walls" that create the bounds for an encounter to be more visible and better indicate its collision area

What's Next?

• The first part of November will be spent capturing new/updated footage for the upcoming trailer and getting a new demo build out.

• I also want to give the Steam page a bit of a refresh with updated screenshots, GIFs, etc.

• I'll be reaching out to content creators and gaming outlets to try and get more coverage and showcase the updates to the game

• After that, it's back to finishing up the game!

Thanks again to everyone keeping tabs on the game. I'm excited to get the updates in your hands soon!

Here's a look at this month's costume: Agent

Hey, everyone! It's Ryan, creator of Wicked Seed.

September has been a fun month! Let's dive into what I've been up to.

Spoiler Warning

I'll be discussing new features and additions to the game, but nothing story related.

Please remember Wicked Seed is still in active development and any current or planned feature could be changed.

What I've Been Working On

• Spent some time early in the month capturing new footage and put together a new trailer. It'll be released in the next month or so and there's still maybe a couple things I'll adjust, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. The trailer will also announce the release date!

• I've booked the voice actors for the game and started getting lines recorded! Since the script isn't fully completed yet, I'm waiting until then to do a full recording for Ella, but she will be voiced in the upcoming trailer. I'll make an announcement on who the voice actors are when the trailer drops.

• I finished work on the new exterior location for the game and started into the next area (which is actually almost finished, too). I'll be keeping the upcoming areas under wraps since they won't be featured in the new trailer and are a bit spoiler-y.

• Added a "line of sight" mechanic to the combat system. - Previously you could just pick your target and if you're in range, it'll hit them - Now it will take obstacles into consideration. Especially for interior locations I always had to make the encounter areas free of clutter and free of any corners so it didn't look weird shooting through stuff to hit the enemies. - This change allows for more dynamic encounter areas so they don't need to just be rectangles - Walls and other objects will "block" the attack, but if another enemy gets in the way of you and your intended target, they will take the damage instead - There will be an indicator on the enemy target UI that will show whether your attack is blocked

• Certain weapons and skills can now knock enemies back. If an enemy is knocked back into another enemy, they will take damage and get knocked back as well if they are smaller than the enemy who was knocked into them.

• Added a new rifle called the "Wingman"

• Added a new enemy

• Added a new boss fight

• Ella will now turn her head and look at detected (detected being when the UI indicator appears over an object) items, notes, and enemies. I'll most likely allow this to be toggled on or off in the options since some players might feel this option too helpful or hand hold-y

• Took a couple days off to play Silent Hill f!

  That's it for September. I was actually able to work on the game more than I thought as the trailer and voice acting stuff didn't take as long as I estimated.

  For October I will be adding the finishing touches to the current area I'm working on and just keep going to the next. Right now the game is about ~85% complete and is fully playable and polished up to this point.

  Here's a look at this month's costume: Nautical

  Thanks to all who continue to follow and support the game. I'm excited to share the finished version with you. Getting closer each month!