v0.8.0.0 is the first in a series of Major Updates leading up to Severance's full 1.0 launch this October.
From now until release, these updates will focus heavily on reworking older systems, improving visuals, polishing gameplay, fixing long-standing issues, improving accessibility, and bringing the overall quality of Severance up to where I want it for 1.0.
This first update already brings some pretty substantial changes:
• Completely New First-Person Player
The first-person player system has been rebuilt from the ground up. Giving true first person. A unique animation for every single held item.
• New Death Animation
• New Equipment - Holy Water
Holy Water has now been added and replaces Smudge Sticks. This is to target ease of use, no longer requiring a lighter. Each Holy water has 2 sprays. With water physics for a real indicator of how much spray is left
• New Lighter Model
• New Interaction Helper
A new UI helper at the bottom of the screen displays the relevant controls when interacting with objects. This can be turned off in settings.
• Controller Support
Controller support has now officially been added. With keybinds added in settings too.
• Completely Remade Settings Menu
The Settings Menu has been redesigned and massively expanded.
• New Weekly Challenge
A new weekly challenge has been added.
• Major Graphical Update
Severance has received another graphical overhaul, giving the game a much more cinematic and polished appearance. From post processing, to new shaders and revamping equipment looks and animation.
There are also significantly more graphical settings now available, meaning players with powerful PCs can push the visuals much further, while lower-end systems can disable many of these effects for improved performance.
• New Dead Player Shader
Dead players now have a distorted, ghostly visual appearance.
• Dead Players Can Now See Each Other
• New Lighter Animation
• New Crucifix Burning Animation & Sound
• IK added to the Player for wall avoidance
• Expanded Settings
Including:
More keybind options
Ghost Player keybinds
Controller keybinds
More graphical settings
More Voice chat options
And many more
• New Disconnect Messages
Pop-ups will now explain when you've been disconnected and provide the reason where possible.
• Crucifix Rework
A Crucifix can now activate and burn while being held in your hands if you're within 3 metres of the ghost when it begins hunting.
You no longer have to place it on the floor, although you still can.
• Crucifix Range Indicator
Throwing a Crucifix will briefly highlight its 3 metre protection radius for 2 seconds, making placement much easier to understand.
• Salt Buff
Salt bottles now contain 2 salt piles instead of 1.
• Flashlight rework
The flashlight is now a left handed item, meaning it doesn't take an inventory spot and can be put away and pulled out even while holding other equipment.
• Returned Consumables
If consumables are not used (Crucifix not burning, sanity not taken, etc), they will be given back if the player who brought them survives
• Player Ghost Visuals
Improved the post processing on the Player Ghost to give a more impressive feel
• EVP Change
EVP is now heard by everybody
• Fixed the Swine Head Ghost not awarding a photo reward when photographed during a hunt.
• Fixed players occasionally spawning above their body after dying, potentially causing them to become stuck while dead.
• Fixed the Butcher using incorrect animations.
• Fixed the Tutorial player using incorrect clothing.
• Fixed a bug that caused some players to not have the ingame tablet timer.
• Dead players will now see the current matches Photos.
• Fixed a bug that caused clothing to not save correctly in Singleplayer.
• Fixed a bug that caused equipment to not return to the player if they survived the round.
• Fixed the bug that caused other ghosts to do the Poltergeist behavior.
• Fixed a bug that caused player to get pushed into the wall on the Motel map by standing behind the door while it was being opened.
• Fixed light leaking issues
• Master Key has been removed as an item. (Players felt the key didn't serve much purpose)
• Headlamp has been removed as an item. (The flashlight is now a left handed item)
• Smudge Sticks have been removed and replaced by Holy Water.
• Dust particles from Prison have been removed (mistaken as Ghost Orbs)
• FOV Slider has been removed as bigger FOV cones clip through the players clothes (could be returned later)
A massive thank you to
TheRavenQueen8585, EriktheWriter, GreenDemonTV, and Wendib501
for putting some serious hours into testing this update.
Many of the game’s core systems were completely reworked behind the scenes. Even when something looked unchanged visually, rebuilding those systems introduced new bugs into mechanics everyone was already familiar with.
These testers provided extremely detailed breakdowns, uncovered both major issues and tiny inconsistencies, and repeatedly retested fixes. Their work significantly sped up development and helped us get this update into your hands far sooner and in a much stronger state.
Thank you all.
This is only Major Update #1.
There will be more major updates like v0.8.0.0 between now and Severance 1.0, each targeting different areas of the game that we want improved, rebuilt or polished before leaving Early Access.
The goal is that when Severance reaches 1.0 this October, it doesn't simply have a new version number, it should look, feel and play noticeably better than the Early Access game that came before it.
14 languages + more coming later
Revamp of the Lobby Laptop
Complete rework on the ingame tablet to provide much better and clearer UI, as well as more information
Steam Achievements
More in depth progression
Cloud Saving
New Ghost abilites
New Player Ghost UI
Full audio revamp
New Main Menu for much more polish and clearer UI
New Loadout system
Reoptimizing each location map
Major Halloween Event
And much more!
And once those foundations are where we want them, development after 1.0 can focus much more heavily on new maps, ghosts, equipment and major content updates.
Thank you for continuing to support Severance❤️
Liam