Hey all! Some quick patch notes, and then instructions for folks who'd like to opt in to our beta branch on Steam.

• Resolution options reset/do not keep.
  
• Shops do not show items properly
  
• Doubling effect on party menu sprites

• Interaction effects on ability buttons.

Now for those beta branch instructions!

Right click FLAMBERGE in your Steam library -> Click properties.

Click on the BETAS tab.

Choose the beta branch. You will now receive FLAMBERGE builds more frequently, but with less stable gameplay.

As always, thank you so much for your continued support. Please drop us a comment if you have any questions!

~Ben

Hey y'all! Small patch today; here are the latest notes.

• Vulneraries can now be used to heal others, as well as its owner.

• Obtaining party members causes the party menu to bug out and lose the new character.
  
• Nochwood guy who gives you money resets on each visit
  
• ESC menu accessible on skip tutorial screen
  
• Interceptor attacks don’t cross gaps during aiming
  
• Some abilities show 0 damage on promotion
  
• Chosen party members reset to the first 5 available at the start of every battle
  
• Execute button available during aiming confirmation

Thank you so much for your continued play and support! Please let us know if you're running into any new problems.

~Ben

Hope you like your elbows protected, 'cause it's time for some patches! Michael's got the deets for you below; thanks again for all your feedback!
~Ben

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Hi all! Michael here. I’ve prioritized some of the higher-priority bugs for this patch. I’ll be continuing on to the lower-priority bug fixes and other general improvements in the next patch.

• Currency/skill point overlay shows up in places it shouldn’t.
  
• Mouse goes beneath currency/skill point overlay.
  
• Cannot select units around/behind interactable objects and the interact button.
  
• Crazy bug where the sprites go away on several menus/dialogue screens.
  
• Numbers on party menu character buttons don’t match character’s level.
  
• Enemies spot friendly units even when hidden in darkness.
  
• Some enemy torches have two layers of light, while some only have one.
  
• Roland joins party but it doesn’t update on the party menu until a scene load.
  
• Enemy health is visible in fog/when enemy is invisible.
  
• Players can exit Uhr during party scene.
  
• Players can revisit Uhr and trigger party scene again.
  
• Items stolen from enemies do not get added to inventory after battle.
  
• Collider missing on Capital Passage.
  
• Exit on Meepthos Peak is difficulty to find.
  
• Restarting levels where allies are gained allows you to gain them infinite times.
  
• Volley attack reticle doesn’t go over gaps (but the attack does). Interceptor may still have this glitch. I’m still working on it.
  
• Peaceful avatar has very large collider.
  
• Middle mouse on tutorial is sometimes called “Mouse 3”.

• Some Mac users are experiencing difficulties launching FLAMBERGE. If you are one of these affected users, please let us know in the comments. Reinstalling the game usually gets things working again, but we obviously want to squash this bug for good.
  
• Enemies sometimes improperly indicate actions.
  
• Some abilities listed on promotion menu falsely indicate that they deal 0 damage.
  
• Sound sliders in options menu still a bit buggy.

Like the Greek hydra, I’m sure dozens of bugs will arise to replace the ones I’ve just knocked out; please let us know if any of the problems listed are still cropping up during play. As for known issues, we are addressing many smaller problems we've not included on this list.

Thanks so much to the folks who send so much feedback every day (shoutout to Kons and Navarth). Progress on fixes has been sped up considerably because of the help.

~msb

Hello everyone! It's been just five days since pushing FLAMBERGE's latest build, and we've been thrilled with your reception so far!


We're very pleased that y'all have taken our in-game feedback forms so seriously; we've received over 70 submissions that are helping us to nail down problems and create a much smoother gaming experience overall.

Some players have even written in multiple times to give us updates on their playthroughs. To those of you who have been submitting feedback, thank you so very much! ALSO, a huge shoutout to the great folks on the forums, who I will be responding to shortly.


Going forward, we'll be pushing out hotfixes and patching things up on a problem-by-problem basis, so expect a few smaller updates to the game rather than one fully bug-free push. These will be rolling out over the next few weeks.


Michael and I spent the weekend demoing FLAMBERGE at Orlando iX! It's always a priviledge to experience players' first interactions with the game. For those of you we met, thank you again for your support, and welcome to the FLAMBERGE community!

This event was a bit last-minute for us, but in the future we'll be notifying the community about FLAMBERGE showcases. If you live near the venues we visit, please swing by! We'd love to meet you all.

That about wraps up this update; for those of you still waiting for a totally bug-free experience (or as close as you can get, anyway) we'll post another community update when all of this build's documented problems have been addressed.

Much love,
~Ben

It's time, everyone. Chapter 3 is officially live! We've got tons of revamped features coming your way. Michael's detailed the scope of the update below; read on to learn about our latest build from the man himself.
~Ben
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Hey all! Michael here. I'm proud to present our newest version of Flamberge! Thanks for the wait- we're back in business!
~msb

This update contains a new, smaller chapter, but is mainly a giant overhaul to the UI and presentation of the game. Future updates will contain much more content than this one; we recommend playing the game from the beginning to experience all of the cool new stuff.

Content

• One new chapter of mainly story-focused content.
  
• Minor changes to chapter one.
  
• Totem powers, new abilities that can be unlocked after finishing chapter one. There are 7 available in the current version.
  
  • These are unlocked by spending skill points, which are earned after each battle.

• Entirely new title menu.
  
• New cinematic intro when starting a new game.
  
• New settings menu allows toggling of various features, setting of resolution and audio levels.
  
  • Yes, this means the Unity dialogue on startup is goooone.
• Entirely new battle UI.
  
  • More visible ability details, including damage and cooldowns.
    
  • Better sound feedback on everything.
• Refurbished party menu.
  
  • Everything should feel a bit more satisfying.
• New tip system
  
  • More direct than the previous tutorial window. This system will be used to introduce players to any new mechanics that need explanation.

• New controls in peaceful areas
  
  • Pathfinding was creating problems, so peaceful areas just use directional movement now.
• Partial joystick support!
  
  • You can play 90% of the game with a joystick now, aside from any typing.
    
  • So far, I’ve only tested this with an Xbox 360 controller. Other controllers may not work.
• Units now ‘bleed’ points from their total health if they aren’t healed quickly.
  • This is to make the medic/healing items more desirable on the frontline.
• Scoring after each battle. Players will be scored based on three things:
  
  • Red Score: % of enemies defeated, and how quickly
    
  • Gold Score: Health of the party, avoidance of damage
    
  • Blue Score: Stealth (based on how many turns your team remained spotted)
    
    • Blue scoring is much, much kinder on levels where stealth isn’t an option (e.g. bosses)
  • These scores will earn red/gold/blue skill points, which can be spent on totem powers.
• Slightly reworked promotion abilities.
  
• Various balances to early abilities. Some examples:
  
  • Archer ‘shoot’ can no longer use auto firing mode.
    
  • Swordsman ‘lunge’ can now pierce multiple enemies (in a small line).

A feedback menu is available from the system menu (ESC). It can be opened pretty much anywhere in the game. I’d like to get people’s thoughts in the moment of using a feature/playing a level. Does the new totem menu feel unwieldy? Was a level fun, but you know just the thing that would improve it? Let me know! You can send a message directly from the menu, without ever tabbing out of the game.

• Feedback I’m looking for:
  • Bug reports (as always!)
    
  • Usability of the new UI
    
  • Balancing/usability of the new totem powers
    
  • Fairness of the battle scoring
    
  • Overall improvements that could be made to battles

Starting now, I’m focusing very hard on making sure the battle progression in Flamberge makes sense and has a proper difficulty curve. As I start making content for chapter four, I’d like to keep revisiting and reworking the battles for chapters one through three.

In order to help improve these earlier levels, Flamberge will send me small amounts of battle performance data. This can be turned off in the new settings menu. This data will contain no identifying information. What I receive on my end looks kinda like this:

“Victory: Nochwood – Red Score: 80, Gold Score: 50, Blue Score: 77 – Hommel Death (217,48) (Turn 6) – Vulnerary Used (400, 250) (Turn 7) – Party: Logan, Hommel, Arberine”

“Defeat: Hilt – Hommel Death (155, 55) (Turn 3) – Logan Death (188, 33) (Turn 3) – Arberine Death (222,15) (Turn 4)”

In the interest of time, I opted not to add some of these features to the current build. They’re well within the works, so expect them soon.

• Visions. These will be optional side quests involving other characters who are not in your party.
  
  • Regular side-quests are still being planned.
    
  • The vision menu will also allow players to replay battles (this feature will take a lot longer to set up, though).
• Player-influenced stat progression. Every 5 level-ups or so, I’d like to give players the choice of which stat point to give to their party member.
  
  • First, though, I need to make sure that each stat is balanced (VIT, STR, DEF, SPD, RNG). Right now, DEF (defense) is way better than all the rest. I’ll be changing this soon.
• Visible ability formulae.
  
  • When stats change, they change various things in each ability. Some abilities even change based on defense/vitality! I want to make this information visible. Not sure how- maybe a guidebook of some sort where I can put a lot of extra words.
• Fixing up the challenge editor
  
  • I had planned on making changes to the challenge editor for this build, but it’s still a bit old and clanky. I’ll be touching it up soon.
• Difficulty modes

• Chapter four. This chapter will be a long arduous journey up into the mountains. I’m still brainstorming what kinds of mechanics will be introduced there, but it’ll probably get pretty interesting.
  
• Side-content intermittent throughout the current chapters.
  
• Heavy improvement to current stages/levels.
  
  • Difficulty balancing
    
  • More interesting variation/mechanics (instead of just easy enemies -> harder enemies)
    
  • Beautification
• Support score/conversations
  
  • As allies cooperate closely, I want to start fleshing out their personalities one-on-one. This will involve skits between one-on-one pairs, as well as a ‘support/coordination’ score of some sort, which if earned, may improve their abilities when used closely with each other.
    
  • This will involve writing hundreds of conversations. I’ll put some in the game once I have a good first batch.

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Thanks for reading, everyone! As always, please sound off in the comments or on our discussion page. We love hearing your feedback, and couldn't be doing any of this without you!

Hey y'all!

Lots of new stuff coming your way, so it's time for another community update! We're nearing completion of Chapter 3, and have decided to push it as a standalone update rather than paired with Chapter 4; I think we're all tired of waiting!

As mentioned in the last community update, Chapter 3 is more story than gameplay driven, but this upcoming build is still chock full of new features. Here's a breakdown of some of the changes you'll be seeing.

First off, we've revamped the entire UI, and the whole thing is more functional and much more readable. Here's the new party menu:
Hmm, wait a minute... I think there's a new button by the bottom tabs... that looks a bit ominous, huh?

Our new post-battle screen is looking slick, and we've got a sweet new feature: you can see three new grade performance meters at the bottom of the window; these are percentage scores based on your speed/lethality, party health (throughout a match, not just what you end a battle with), and stealth. And that leads into our third image...
Totem powers! These new abilities are activated independently of any individual characters, and the powers range from party-wide stat buffs to massive AOE damage. There are many different powers to discover, as you can see below!
Introducing the Scout class! The Scout's spotting ability allows you to learn more about your enemies and take advantage of various weaknesses. You can also see that enemy sprites sizes now reflect their prowess and difficulty.
New health indicators appear above enemies while aiming, allowing for faster, more efficient battle planning.
As for story, we won't say too much, but prepare yourself for a very royal meeting at the heart of Abbol.
Finally, a strange new menu has appeared in-game... What could it mean!?
Now for the biggest news of all: we're looking to push this update to you within the next month! We're so impossibly excited to be bringing new FLAMBERGE content to you, and we can't wait to hear your thoughts on these new features.

For those who are itching for even more ways to play the game, we're in the process of structuring a beta initiative; players will be able to offer feedback much more directly, and help squash those bugs to get new content rolling out more quickly. We'll have more details on the FLAMBERGE beta soon.

That about wraps things up for this community update; please feel free to send us questions via comments, discussion boards, or email at contact@hydezeke.com.

Thanks so much for your patience and support; the enthusiasm and positivity we receive from y'all means the world to us.

Until next time,
-Ben

Hello, all!

We've been getting very helpful feedback from the community when it comes to keeping everyone up-to-date with progress on the game. Since we can't push full game updates as often as we'd like to, we have decided to pull back the curtain and show off some of the new features currently in development for our next build!

For those wishing to avoid spoilers, we've hidden all story information within this post; however, some of the included screenshots and gifs may still reveal slivers of info.

Players who would rather remain completely spoiler-free, ye have been warned.

We've been hard at work on Chapters 3 and 4 of FLAMBERGE, which take place intwo brand-new areas: the Bastion and the Mountains.

At the end of Chapter 2, our band of heroes received a Sigil which allows communication with spirits... on your journey you will find yourself traversingthe Bastion, a haunted land full of histories and secrets.Prepare yourselves for encounters with strange new enemies and entities...

The just-released background music for this area is one of my personal favorites; you can listen to it by following this link[soundcloud.com]. On the note of music (pun absolutely intended), the entire FLAMBERGE soundtrack is being remastered from the ground up for a better auditory experience; we're hoping to include this change in the next build.

Speaking with spirits...
Who -or what- are these strange new enemies?
Chapter 3 will berelatively story-heavy, so we're most likely going to release it along with Chapter 4, which is much more gameplay driven. We're not quite ready to show the core of Chapter 4 yet, but here's a little teaser for you:
After some in-person QA at Awesomecon in March, we've made some changes to the tutorial elements in Chapter 1, as well as many general quality of life improvements. In other words, our updated build feels extra shiny.

Here's something new we've been wanting to add into the game for quite some time! Our new skit system will give players the chance to delve deeper into the thoughts of your party's characters. Think of it as a sort of campfire simulator; a (completely optional) way to get to know your party members.
Additionally, we've chosen to expand on the concept of translating enemy dialogue, and are implementing banter between enemy groups that can be seen during battle. Here's a glimpse at the battle for Nochwood (before the Translation Sigil is received).
And finally, our next update will contain a Link to the Past style intro featuring new music, artwork, and story content! Here's some context-free stills:
Your feedback is immensely valuable to us, both in terms of the game itself and our management of the Steam community. We'd love to hear your thoughts on these upcoming features, as well as your feelings towards these community text updates.

Thanks so much for reading; we can't wait to show y'all even more great stuff!

*originally posted Dec 24, 2017 in the Flamberge Community Discussions*

Happy Holidays, everyone!

We know it's been a while since our last update, and we owe our players an explanation. One of our major goals in the development of Flamberge is transparency with you, our community. We've fumbled in this goal and let you all down, and for that we would like to apologize.

This year has been long, strange, and full of challenges; somewhere along the way, we (very regrettably) clammed up on our forums. As independent game developers, it is often difficult to separate our personal lives from our work. Everything we do or don't say online reflects on the game, and when hardships arise, it can be difficult to know what is and isn't appropriate to share with our players. In short, we don't like making excuses for ourselves, but sometimes, well, life happens.

So where have we been? Over this past year, Michael has been nose-to-the-grindstone working through his final year of college; as for myself, between a cross-country relocation and two hospitalizations (don't worry, I'm okay!), things are just now settling into a consistent rhythm.

We know that some of you have been worried, but I'd like to confirm for you all that Flamberge is ABSOLUTELY still in development. Progress this year has admittedly been slower than anticipated, but we can't wait to share the things soon to come. Thanks to all of the support you have given us, this game is shaping up to be something truly special.

A few notes on how we update our game, for those who are new to our community:
- We only push updates that have been thoroughly tested. The last thing we want to
do is break the game for our early access players, so rather than adding individual
features, we push out "chunks" of the game that can be played in their entirety. Of course,
we also understand the value of community playtesting, and are always appreciative of
notes and bug reports that are sent our way.
- Our updates take time, but they are always BIG. Each major update we've pushed so far
has doubled the content of the game; while we don't anticipate continuing on that
exponential path, when an update arrives, you can certainly expect something worth
playing.
-We love your feedback! If something about the game rubs you the wrong way, we want to
hear about it (though we do appreciate compliments, too! <3). While we do have a certain
vision for the game, fun and accessibility will always be THE top priority for us. Please let
us know what we can do to improve the experience for you.

We have been thrilled to see that, despite our absence in online presence, our wonderful community has such a dedicated interest in Flamberge. We would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts; when we first set out to create this game, we never anticipated such kindness and enthusiasm from players across the globe.

I will be going through all of your discussion posts in the next week or so to answer any specific questions you may have. Please feel free to sound off in the comments below!

All the best,
-Ben

Disclaimer:
If anyone encounters a game breaking bug, please email me ASAP (contact@hydezeke.com) - our ability to QA test is very minimal, so bugs will slip through the cracks often.

Hey all - I've just pushed a new update for the game, here's the rough changelog:

• Challenge editor - Available in the singleplayer menu, the challenge editor lets you create custom challenges by placing units in existing levels. Eventually, this may become a full level editor, but for now I'm sticking to these basic features.
  
• Note - challenges are stored as .flch files and can be shared like any other file.
  
• Major change to vision - woolbrush no longer "blocks" enemy vision. Only standing inside woolbrush will hide your units. Standing behind woolbrush will not.
  
• Felina (boss 2) has been changed in a number of different ways. Give us feedback! What is fun about the fight/what isn't?
  
• Run in peaceful mode by double-clicking
  
• Slight changes to stats (characters may be slightly slower - let us know if this causes any issues)
  
• Prettier promotion screen (still WIP)
  
• Slight enemy placement changes (to accommodate new stealth)

Let me know if you have any questions! School is rough lately, but I have some free time this weekend to work/do hotfixes if needed.

-msb