Steam News13 June 202623d ago

New Closed Playtesting Build LIVE

Demo Update! Thanks all for your amazing playtesting and feedback on the closed demo. We've pushed an update with 250 changes! Looking forward to more feedback.

In this update11

Full notes

Full The Freeblades update

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What changed

1 fix7 additions16 changes1 removal

Gameplay
UI and audio
Balance
Performance
Fixes

changedSmarter EnemiesThe entire enemy AI has been rebuilt from scratch using Unreal's latest features. Enemies now use a modular brain system that lets them intelligently position themselves in combat — flanking, spacing, and reacting to what you do. They chain combo attacks, react defensively, and properly manage who they're targeting in parallel tasks. Fights should feel much more dynamic and challenging. Their raw stats and difficulty has been adjusted to compensate (you will get slapped). This was our single biggest piece of work this month, touching over 60 individual changes across the codebase. The old simple aggro system is gone, replaced with perception-driven engage and disengage behaviour — enemies now properly evaluate threat levels, pick their moments to attack, and know when to back off.

addedHotbar Quick SlotsYou can now assign consumables and gear to quick slots — D-pad on controller, number keys on keyboard. Use potions or food mid-fight without opening your inventory. The system fully supports both gamepad and mouse & keyboard, with proper input icons displayed on your inventory items and tooltips so you always know what's bound where.

addedConsumable PropsCharacters now visually hold items when using them. Drink a potion? You'll see the bottle. Eat food? It's in your hand. The props appear and disappear in sync with the use animation. On top of that, potions can now buff multiple attributes — not just HP. Expect more consumable variety going forward.

addedMid-Dungeon CheckpointsIf you die, you can now respawn partway through the dungeon rather than restarting from the beginning. The dungeon should feel challenging without being punishing.

changedCombat BalancingCombat scaling formulas have been reworked. Combo attacks now cost 33% more stamina to discourage button mashing. Overall difficulty has been tuned across the tutorial dungeon.

changedCombat BalancingCombat scaling formulas reworked for better difficulty curves

The Freeblades changes

changedThe entire enemy AI has been rebuilt from scratch using Unreal's latest features. Enemies now use a modular brain system that lets them intelligently position themselves in combat — flanking, spacing, and reacting to what you do. They chain combo attacks, react defensively, and properly manage who they're targeting in parallel tasks. Fights should feel much more dynamic and challenging. Their raw stats and difficulty has been adjusted to compensate (you will get slapped). This was our single biggest piece of work this month, touching over 60 individual changes across the codebase. The old simple aggro system is gone, replaced with perception-driven engage and disengage behaviour — enemies now properly evaluate threat levels, pick their moments to attack, and know when to back off.

addedYou can now assign consumables and gear to quick slots — D-pad on controller, number keys on keyboard. Use potions or food mid-fight without opening your inventory. The system fully supports both gamepad and mouse & keyboard, with proper input icons displayed on your inventory items and tooltips so you always know what's bound where.

addedCharacters now visually hold items when using them. Drink a potion? You'll see the bottle. Eat food? It's in your hand. The props appear and disappear in sync with the use animation. On top of that, potions can now buff multiple attributes — not just HP. Expect more consumable variety going forward.

addedIf you die, you can now respawn partway through the dungeon rather than restarting from the beginning. The dungeon should feel challenging without being punishing.

changedCombat scaling formulas have been reworked. Combo attacks now cost 33% more stamina to discourage button mashing. Overall difficulty has been tuned across the tutorial dungeon.

Demo Update!

Thanks all for your amazing playtesting and feedback on the closed demo. We've pushed an update with 250 changes! Looking forward to more feedback.

Smarter Enemies

The entire enemy AI has been rebuilt from scratch using Unreal's latest features. Enemies now use a modular brain system that lets them intelligently position themselves in combat — flanking, spacing, and reacting to what you do. They chain combo attacks, react defensively, and properly manage who they're targeting in parallel tasks. Fights should feel much more dynamic and challenging. Their raw stats and difficulty has been adjusted to compensate (you will get slapped). This was our single biggest piece of work this month, touching over 60 individual changes across the codebase. The old simple aggro system is gone, replaced with perception-driven engage and disengage behaviour — enemies now properly evaluate threat levels, pick their moments to attack, and know when to back off.

Hotbar Quick Slots

You can now assign consumables and gear to quick slots — D-pad on controller, number keys on keyboard. Use potions or food mid-fight without opening your inventory. The system fully supports both gamepad and mouse & keyboard, with proper input icons displayed on your inventory items and tooltips so you always know what's bound where.

Consumable Props

Characters now visually hold items when using them. Drink a potion? You'll see the bottle. Eat food? It's in your hand. The props appear and disappear in sync with the use animation. On top of that, potions can now buff multiple attributes — not just HP. Expect more consumable variety going forward.

Mid-Dungeon Checkpoints

If you die, you can now respawn partway through the dungeon rather than restarting from the beginning. The dungeon should feel challenging without being punishing.

Victory & Death Screens

Proper screens for both winning and dying, with dedicated animations and run statistics.

Combat Balancing

Combat scaling formulas have been reworked. Combo attacks now cost 33% more stamina to discourage button mashing. Overall difficulty has been tuned across the tutorial dungeon.

Combat scaling formulas reworked for better difficulty curves
Combo attacks now carry a 33% stamina penalty
Overall difficulty tuned across the tutorial dungeon
Various fixes to weapon hit detection and trace geometry

Targeting Improvements

Lock-on targeting got a significant upgrade:

Auto-cycling now prioritises hostile enemies over non-combatants
A new weighted angle-based sorting system makes target selection feel more natural
Lock-on reticles now rotate to give clear visual feedback on your locked target
Targets properly cycle on enemy death instead of dropping your lock
Reticle colour changes when a neutral enemy becomes hostile

Other Updates

Sprint/Dodge: Hold B to sprint, tap B to dodge on controller
Gathering SystemNew timing-based interaction widgets for resource gathering
Game Settings Overhaul: Audio channels, graphics scalability presets, and screen percentage settings all save and apply correctly now
Controller Rumble: You'll feel hits through haptic feedback
Potion Buff FX: Visual effects now play when buffs are active
Cosmetic Damage Cleanup: Arrows stuck in you, blood effects — they now properly clear on recovery or respawn
Inventory Rework: Grid rebuilt for smoother gamepad navigation, less flickering, better item tooltips showing equippability and keybindings
Loading ScreenUpdated style
App Icons: Refreshed window and application icons

Level Design

The horror dungeon's outdoor areas are taking shape — canyon sections, cave networks, pyramid exteriors, and lighting passes across both new and existing areas. The sewer tutorial area also got a lighting unification pass and minor layout fixes.

Under the Hood

Major legacy code cleanup, a crash fix for a known Unreal cloth/PSO issue, AI pathfinding switched to RVO avoidance, networking fixes for dedicated server animation sync, sound system fixes, and performance improvements including Nanite on weapons.

Old AI behaviour tree system fully removed and replaced
Old buff icon system replaced with a modern UE 5.3 approach
Deprecated utility libraries stripped out
Crash fix for a known Unreal engine cloth/PSO issue
AI pathfinding switched from Detour Crowd to RVO avoidance for better enemy movement
Network animation fix — resolved a visual flicker on dedicated servers
Sound system: concurrency limits, channel volume fixes, audio cleanup
PerformanceNanite enabled on weapons, character rendering optimised for dungeon density
Build pipeline now supports multi-target Steam publishing

Bugfixes

Too many to list individually, but highlights include: door interaction reliability, weapon hit detection edge cases, looting while in combat, sprint state issues, UI input conflicts across menus, sound channel saving, and targeting edge cases.

Lots of bugfixes across the board too. More to come. Interested in helping test? Join the Discord and Patreon Communities!

Source

Steam News / 13 June 2026

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