Hello, I'm Shibuya from Studio Snowblind, the developer of Glaciered.
The Steam demo has been updated for Steam Next Fest, which will start on June 9. This update focuses on improving core gameplay and QOL features, and this was achieved by building upon the feedback we've received from the community.
Please join our official Discord channel to directly send me your thoughts!
English Voiceover Added
We've added an English voiceover to the game! I'm very happy to be able to make the game more immersive for non-Japanese speakers.
The text language and voiceover language can be changed separately, so you could try out a different voiceover language for a new playthrough for a fresh experience!
New Feature: Knowledge
We've added Knowledge, a new feature that digs deeper into the world of the game. Knowledge adds an encyclopedia on the creatures of the underwater world of Glaciered, including the ecology of various creatures and the culture of the Tuai, the player character’s species. You can unlock Knowledge by progressing through the story and completing quests.
Unlocking Knowledge about a creature grants you a bonus that increases the amount of experience you gain from defeating said creature. And with the addition of this feature, names and levels of creatures will no longer be displayed the first time you encounter them. This information will only be displayed once you’ve unlocked one or more Knowledge levels for that creature. We believe this will make for a more immersive experience.
Note: Save data created from the old demo version may not be able to unlock Knowledge. If this happens, please start a new save to experience the new feature.
Player Action Improvements
The protagonist Gray can now fly at high speeds (i.e. in Strom Mode) in four directions: forwards, backwards, left, and right. This was a highly requested feature from the community. This change greatly improves maneuverability and freedom of movement.
We reworked all of Gray’s actions and adjusted the timing for canceling out of attacks, input buffering, and input delay. This makes the action more responsive and satisfying to play.
We’ve also reworked the timing for perfect dodges. Before, there was a slight delay between the dodge input and the perfect dodge judgment. Now, the judgment is made on the very first frame of the dodge. This should make perfect dodges more intuitive.
Camera Improvements
Before, the camera was restricted to not go behind terrain features, which made it prone to stuttering in tight spaces or when right next to a wall. This has been alleviated by making walls and ceilings turn transparent when they get between the camera and Gray. This should improve camera stability and make it easier to fight in tight spaces.
Moreover, I completely redesigned the aim down sights camera from scratch. This alleviated the issues of the camera getting stuck on objects and the inconsistent camera speeds while trying to aim. This makes aiming much smoother than before.
Creature Animation Improvements
All of the character animation in Glaciered is handmade, but the game also computes procedural animations in real time and blends them with the handmade animations, resulting in more natural movements. This system has also been redesigned from the ground up.
Many creatures can now move even more naturally and smoothly than before. This should give them a more lasting impression and make battles feel more immersive.
Moreover, hitting an enemy with an attack will cause the point of impact to vibrate slightly afterwards. This should add more oomph to attacks and make it easier to discern where your attacks hit.
Balancing Tweaks
- Raised the base damage of the special Shard Quills attack “Homing Crystals” from 16 to 18.
- Lowered the recovery speed of ranged crystal shards.
- Lowered the recovery amount of the Pui support skill Shard Recovery.
QOL
- Added a circular stamina gauge displayed next to the player character, which makes it easier to check remaining stamina amount in the midst of battle. The transparency of the stamina gauge can be changed in the options.
- Added a visual indicator of shot accuracy to the crosshair of ranged attacks. Shot accuracy increases when aiming down sights and decreases when hip firing.
- Subtitles are now displayed at the bottom of the screen by default instead of at the top. You can still choose to display them at the top in the options.
- Added a dark background to subtitles. This can be toggled in the options.
- Added the ability to change which screen to display the option menu on. This improves the gameplay experience in multi-screen setups.
- Added crosshair transparency options.
- Added new visual and sound effects and improved existing ones.
- Improved overall performance by preloading game data, changing to asynchronous processing for various tasks, and implementing GPU computing.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that caused the command to save your Pui to remain on the screen.
- Fixed a bug that caused enemy AI to stop responding upon retrying an encounter.
- Fixed a bug where the special variant in the demo endgame quest “Rite of the Hunt” was sometimes not randomized as intended.
Removed Features
- The motion blur feature has been removed. This was a trade-off done in order to add new graphics features and slightly improve performance.
PAX East 2025 Report
Lastly, I’d like to report on our demo showcase at PAX East 2025, back in May 5-May 10 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
I was happy to see players interested in worldbuilding aspects such as the story and underwater exploration, and players even raised some interesting ideas such as “I want to customize the Pui” and “I want to see an eel-like creature”.
Some players struggled with exploring and battling underwater due to the added verticality and expressed the want for difficulty options. The demo is currently fixed to Normal difficulty, but more difficulty options such as Easy and Hard will be added to the full version of the game.
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