Wow, it's finally here.
After a year and a half of development in Early Access, I'm proud to announce that Left-Hand Path has left Early Access and is now fully released in 1.0.0. It's also got a whole pile of new features and polish!
If you've come from another site and are not aware of Left-Hand Path: it's a Dark Souls inspired VR horror/RPG where you learn spells and cast them by drawing runes in the air. It's also one of the rare full-length games in VR, totaling around 15 hours of gameplay, with replayability and achievements on top of that. It's had a great reception in Early Access, currently sitting at Very Positive - 85% Positive reviews on Steam.
Many A True Nerd called it "One of the most interesting and promising experiments in making large, complex games I've seen on the Vive." So that was nice!
In order to get Left-Hand Path up to scratch as a full release, I've worked for six months on polishing it, adding Quality Of Life features, and responding to community feedback. Today's update adds all that to the game and brings it out of Early Access.
Thanks to everyone who responded there, and to everyone who has been so supportive of Left-Hand Path on Steam and on Reddit. This has been an amazing experience and I'm super grateful to you all.
Changes from the Early Access version include:
- Massive graphical improvements including a total overhaul of all spell effects, teleport effects, a new Grimoire, and more.
- Light Level Overhaul - based on numerous comments and feedback, I've significantly raised the light levels throughout the game. It's still scary (have tested, can confirm) but you can now see what you're doing!
- Better Braziers - I've also raised the light levels on lightable braziers and fires.
- Low-Terror Mode - allows people who love RPGs but don't love being scared out of their wits to play Left-Hand Path with seriously reduced terror, including much more visibility and adjusted monster placement and effects.
- Story Mode - want to experience the story and the world of Left-Hand Path without banging your head against Dark Souls-like difficulty? This mode's for you.
- New Lobby - I've completely redesigned the first thing you ever see in the game. The black room is no more - now your very first introduction to the game is much clearer and contains a bunch of new features too, including an ever-expanding library of lore.
- Tutorial - lots of people said that the Early Access version was a little hard to get into. So a new introduction area now teaches you the basics of spellcasting and ritual, as well as filling out a bit more of Left-Hand Path's story.
- Locomotion overhaul - I've gone through every area in Left-Hand Path and improved locomotion, as well as overhauling the locomotion system in general. If you prefer locomotion to teleporting you'll find the 1.0.0 release a much smoother experience!
- Sound effect improvements - including foley effects for almost every object in the game.
- Book Code Overhaul - You no longer need to twist your wrist around to read books. A tiny change with a huge impact!
- Front-Facing Play Support - if you play in a front-facing configuration, that's now supported in Left-Hand Path, with a new "turn" option on the controls.
- Return To Previous Zones - when you've defeated the greatest challenges in each area, you can now return there to find spells and story you missed.
- Destructive Power - your spells aren't just dangerous to creatures any more! You can destroy most things in the game with arcane power, and sometimes that'll be useful in your journey.
- New Ritual Of Husks - Find objects of meaning throughout the world of Left-Hand Path, and leech their treasured - or horrifying - memories dry for power.
- Many, many, many bug fixes - I wouldn't be surprised if the bug fix list is in the thousands of bugs. It's certainly well into the hundreds. From difficult-to-navigate areas to weird spell interactions, I've been on a fixing frenzy.
I'd like to shout out to my awesome beta-testing team: Chilkoot, /u/Styggpojk, /u/arislaan, /u/countjocular, VR-For-Ever, Dave Lloyd, and especially my tireless QA tester Ian Mulliner who continued hacking through the release version looking for bugs even when he was nearly bedridden with flu. (And thanks too to the person I've inevitably forgotten to mention, and advance apologies if that was you!)
I hope you enjoy it - and as always, if you have any problems, comments or feedback, do let me know. I'm serious about that - contact me on Reddit, Steam or email (hugh.hancock AT strangecompany DOT org) and I'll get back to you!
We Who Watch The Well wish you success - enjoy Left-Hand Path!