In-game event

Playtest Recap: Feedback, Fixes, and Features

Arcane Whispers: The Last Stand · published 19 Jan 2025, 16:21 UTC

All news Players around this date Read on Steam

Thank You, Playtesters! 🎮

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you amazing playtesters who have tried out my game over the past two weeks. Your time, feedback, and willingness to share your data have been incredibly helpful in making improvements.

One of the tools I built for this playtest is a "Graveyard" heatmap that tracks where player deaths occur. It’s been a fantastic resource for identifying problem areas, like the "Air" stage, which had a lot of player deaths (including one rage-quit—oops!). Using this data, I’ve made tweaks to make this stage more balanced and enjoyable.

Here’s a preview of the heatmap in action:

I’ve also added a few new features to make the game better:

Steam Cloud Saves: Your progress is now backed up and safe in the cloud.
Crash Reporting: The game can now send crash logs to help me identify and fix issues.
"Restart from Checkpoint" Option: You can now easily retry challenging sections—or get unstuck if you encounter a problem.
Voice (Grunt) Sound Slider: Control how loud the grunt sounds are.
Auto Mute and Pause: Music is muted and the game pauses when you navigate away from the game window.

I’ve also squashed a ton of bugs, including:

Defined the player start position as a checkpoint to avoid unnecessary scene reloads and stat resets.
Fixed scenarios where players could get stuck.
Prevented "jumping up" into inaccessible areas.
Healing output now adjusts correctly based on difficulty.
Fixed cooldown management for the Meteor Fire ability.
Limited sliding to tilted terrain and on top of other characters only.
Fixed casting area abilities on buildings and cliffs.
Lightning ability now consistently hits foes in all scenarios.
Resolved softlocks caused by resetting elemental charges after death.
Fixed UI display for non-conventional (upright) display resolutions.

Thank you again for your support, patience, and feedback. Please keep sharing your thoughts—I’m listening and working hard to make this the best experience it can be!

Here my updated Feedback Survey: https://form.jotform.com/250132202070334

Cheers,
Alex

More from Arcane Whispers: The Last Stand

Other announcements

All news

Steam news15 Mar 2026Arcane Whispers: The Last Stand demo is now available!Hello gamers! I'm excited to finally share the Arcane Whispers: The Last Stand demo! You can play through one full level of the shattered world and try a selection of elemental abilities. Harness the powers of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air to fight enemies and overcome the challenges ahead. If you give the demo a try, I’d really love to hear your feedback!Major update14 Nov 2025Game Juice Update – 2-week playtesting session availableHello gamers! I'm excited to bring you a major update packed with graphical upgrades, UI improvements, audio polish, and general game-feel enhancements. 🌈 Graphics & Lighting Improved Shadows: Especially noticeable on higher quality settings. LUT Blending: Smooth color and mood transitions, e.g. when entering the Research Facility. Sun Flares: New lens flare effects for a more cinematic atmosp…Major update26 May 2025Animation Overhaul, Combat Tweaks & Storytelling PushHello gamers! This update has been a long time coming, and I’m excited to finally share it with you! ⚙️ Under-the-Hood Changes A lot of this update won't be immediately visible, but it's important. The game’s codebase has grown a lot, and I’ve spent time cleaning things up and rewriting systems (especially animation handling) to make development smoother and more scalable. This sets me up bette…