Vahrin's Call Progress Report - September 2025

It's been an incredibly productive month for the Titan Roc team, with lots of awesome updates across the board. So let's just dive right in, shall we?

Lighting

Improving the world's lighting has been an ongoing task for us, for quite some time.

As you traverse Vahrin's depths and the sun rises and sets over this once great city, the varied lighting conditions alter the atmosphere of each area you explore.

We've always loved experimenting with different times of day and weather with Vahrin's Call, as it allows to cater each area in the game to match the vibe we're aiming to deliver.

That being said, lighting is an incredibly difficult thing to get right, especially when you're working in a tiny team with very limited resources.

We always felt the game looked a little dark at certain times, even when you wouldn't expect it to be. Our recent QA tests confirmed our concerns, which led us to take action and implement some substantial changes that have greatly improved the lighting throughout the world.

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With the updates made throughout September, the degree of control we have over the game's lighting has increased dramatically. We are now able to manually adjust each area in the game to achieve the specific result we're looking for. This ensures the game is bright enough for you to be able to see clearly (when intended), while maintaining the tone and atmosphere of all the locations you'll visit.

Underground lighting has also seen substantial improvements. We now have the ability to seamlessly transition from the bright and sunny outdoors to the depths of that dark, damp cave you just discovered. The lantern is the staple of any serious adventurer's toolkit, please don't lose it..

Everyone on the team, as well as our QA testers are very happy with the recent lighting improvements. We're excited to see what you guys think of it when you're finally able to dive into the world yourselves!

AI

Moving on, let's talk about AI improvements.

As combat polish begins, the team has been focused on fine-tuning the human AI in the game.

A myriad of updates have been made over the last month that have resulted in the combat with human enemies feeling infinitely more engaging, natural and above all else, fun!

Bandits are now feeling much more responsive and significantly harder to cheese in battle.

Added animations and improvements to their pathing have transformed them into a much more aggressive foe, keeping you on your toes and encouraging you to make use of all the weapons, skills and spells you have at your disposal.

Tying into these AI improvements are difficulty settings. These will allow you to customise your experience with the game's combat, depending on the kind of challenge you're looking for.

Increasing enemy health and calling it a day, is something we're actively avoiding. We believe this approach to difficulty scaling only serves to drag out fights and make the combat feel tedious.

With Vahrin's Call, upping the game's difficulty will result in increased enemy aggression, reducing the amount of time you have to catch your breath mid-combat. On the harder settings, groups of enemies won't be as hesitant to take turns attacking you, so you'll need to exercise caution and maybe consider a more strategic approach to your next fight.

It's been really cool seeing the human AI develop over