ㅤ
Welcome, Survivors!
It's been a while, hope you're having a great 2026 so far!
Today, I'd like to talk about the progress we're making and the changes we plan to implement soon.
Full Release Development Update
Work on version 1.0 is going on nicely and we're still aiming to release it in the first-half of the year.
At the time of writing, we're in the second half of the implementation of the brand new, main hub location, which is the Survivor's base camp in which you'll be chilling and spending time in-between runs. We're looking into translating the various existing main menu interfaces into Hub-integrated menus. Rest assured that we're ensuring your experience will be as seamless as possible. If you prefer to quickly navigate to your destination with a few button presses, you'll still be able to do so.
We've already written a lot of text, including character stories, quests and random dialogue between all the survivors, as well as radio station banter. In the final version, you'll have more than enough stuff to read, if you like to. That last part is important - we won't be forcing anyone into reading all that stuff - we'd love for everyone to take part in the game's lore and story, but if you'd prefer to jump straight into the action and have a great time doing just that, you can skip every bit of dialogue!
The same goes for the quests, which offer a fun way to learn about the characters, their motivations and how they ended up in a post-apocalyptic world. This content will remain optional, and there'll be no major unlock gated behind quests. Although completing quests will make your meta-progression faster, you'll still be able to obtain 99% of the unlocks without them. We might add an achievement or two related to them, but we're not yet certain about this, so let us know what you think!
PS The final map is looking good so far, and its environmental hazards certainly make things interesting!
Additional Languages Coming Soon!
As we're getting closer to the full version release, we're ready to announce the additional languages that will be available for the release version of the game (in addition to English, Polish & Simplified Chinese).
We're working on implementing the following translations,
available later this month, in the upcoming version 0.9.2:
- German
- French
- Japanese
- Russian
- Portuguese-Brazilian
- Korean
- Spanish
If your language isn't on the list, let me explain. We now have 25,000 words of text in the game, and this will increase significantly with the addition of the Hub location, NPC dialogue, quests and more. While we'd love to add all the requested translations, please bear in mind that we're an indie team and professional translations are very expensive.
That said, we'll consider adding more languages in the post-release support phase. For now, however, our focus will be on ensuring that these 11 translations display and work flawlessly!
New Systems & In-Game Content!
In addition to the things listed above, we're working on adding and tweaking more in-game systems. Here are some ideas we have for version 1.0 or even 0.9 still:
Disclaimer: Content described below is subject to change (please share your feedback!)
- Weapons Effective Range
We're working on a new system to improve weapon diversity. The plan is to seamlessly implement range to all current and future weapons. This will make your weapon choices matter more by changing their damage output depending on the distance at which they hit their target. Now, your weapon choice will depend more on your build and team setup. For example: A shotgun will be more effective at short to mid range, while a sniper rifle will do more damage at long range. This will also allow us to enhance the gameplay with features such as Pyro's axe dealing extra damage when it hits an enemy with the blade end.
- Item Upgrades - New Event
This one's was on our list for a long time. Here's the core idea: Depending on the game mode, up to three of your items will be able to be upgraded into their superior form, which will offer three to five times their normal bonus, or transform the way they work by adding new modifiers or even changing their effects completely. The best part is that the upgrading process will bring along a new in-game event, catching two birds with one net. We're looking at this system as a way to further diversify your runs by making different upgrade combinations viable in varied scenarios. Now, only one question remains: Will you dare to upgrade the Potato?
- Badge System Expansion
We all love us some badges, so we aren't looking to removing them - instead, we're thinking of boosting them beyond their max ranks and adding a collection component to them, making you want to play "just one more run!". Our current idea is to make this system a bit more PoE-like, by adding badges as a randomized drop you get in your runs. By ranking up your badge nodes in each of your Survivor's skill tree, you could make higher ranked badge drops possible. These badges could be able to have special modifiers that can boost certain Survivors in addition to their normal effects. Once you have collected enough badges, you would be able to upgrade them to a higher tier, combine them for a shared (but slightly weaker) effect, and decide what to do with any additional special effects they might offer. In short, you can think of it as an additional layer of meta-progression!
- Team Leader Passives
If you played the game in its early days, you might remember that starting with different Survivors as team leaders would grant you some stat bonuses. This system later evolved into the Badge System, but we've been saying that we'd like for it to return in an improved form. The current vision is for each Survivor in the game to have three different passive effects that can be unlocked and chosen from when selecting them as the team leader (starting character). Naturally, we want for these effects to be interesting, to add an incentive to who do you choose as your first Survivor for each run, but balanced enough so that you don't feel forced into any single option. Think things like an SOS Signal or an Item Chest spawning right away in your runs, but with the total amount staying the same as it would be without said passives. In short: additional interesting run modifiers!
Bullet Heaven Tag Situation Update!
Remember our fight to get a genre-defining tag on Steam? Well, it's still not here yet, but that doesn't mean things haven't been set in motion. In fact, Valve (Senpai) has noticed of our efforts!
There will be an official Steam event for both Bullet Hell & Heaven games! This new event will launch on 8'th of June, so we'll make sure to remind you all about it when the time comes.
Small wins = still wins! Thank you all for your support so far! Although this event is still some time away, we're happy that things are moving in the direction of making things easier for gamers and developers alike.
Check out Diana's latest short video on this topic:
Watch on YouTube
Important note: Many of you have suggested different names for the genre, and that's perfectly fine - your opinions and choices are valid. That said, we still need to take action, and this requires just one tag. So, let's at least agree that it's best to go with the option that received the most votes. While alternative names for the genre are all well and good, nothing will come of taking multiple options - we still need a single tag to make change for us all. So, please continue to tag the games you know in this genre as "Bullet Heaven" to help the cause and bring about positive change to the current gaming landscape. Thank you!
Happy Golden Retriever Day from Bekon & Figa!
Thanks for sticking with us!
We're always grateful to have such an awesome community. It is your support that drives us forward. Keep sharing your feedback, ideas and suggestions - let's keep improving the game together!
On a quick note, we've recently updated the demo version of the game on Steam. YAZS is constantly being developed for all modern gaming platforms, so expect a demo version for PS4 and PS5 very soon (apologies for the delay!). If you own an Xbox, you can already check out the Game Preview (Early Access) version. Nintendo Switch demo will come at a similar time to the full release, due to this specific platform's requirements (sorry!).
Finally: Stay safe! The world can be a scary place at times, but let's believe that positive change is possible if we're given the chance. So stay strong, stay vigilant, and most importantly...
ㅤStay awesome,
ㅤㅤKalafiorek @ Awesome Games Studio