Hey everyone,

We're back with yet another Devlog update for NIRAVASI. Speaking of which, I feel like now's a good time to make a soft return to the old weekly format and maybe start hosting them on Wednesday's instead (y'know, to commemorate NIRAVASI's launch day earlier this month). With that said, there's quite a lot to talk about for this week, so let's jump straight into it, shall we?

Review & Repair

So this past week has definitely been a busy one. In addition to attending an important family event last weekend, I've also went through the process of applying not one, but two major hotfixes to the game. These were made to address some critical soft-locks (bugs that prevent you from playing the game, but doesn't pause the program) discovered by players within both the Perfection Complex and Palace of Nira Ishan levels. These issues have since been fixed and players can be rest-assured that no other soft-lock bugs have been reported (so far) since then. But there's still many bugs out there to be reported, as well as insightful pieces of feedback regarding the feel of gameplay of NIRAVASI. As such, I'll be releasing another update for the game (Hotfix 1.0.3) sometime tomorrow. For Steam users, these Hotfixes will apply automatically and just need to be updated. But for itch.io and GameJolt users, you'll unfortunately have to reinstall the game with the newest build (I continually update the downloads of these pages to include the newest versions at the top).

Hotfix 1.0.3 will include a LOT more fixes and adjustments to existing systems within the game than the previous two hotfixes, which I'm hoping will address some of the most common critiques being given for NIRAVASI. I don't want to spoil too much, but these will include improvements to the game's diagonal movement controls, as well as some tweaking to the game's sound effects (Text Message and Balloon Icons in particular).

Vigarium Vacuity

Vigarium artefacts, right? You either love them or hate them. For those of you that don't know, Vigarium artefacts are a collectible resource that can be found all over the levels of NIRAVASI. For the longest time, players have asked/speculated what these shiny treasures of interest could be and whether or not they served a greater purpose at the end of the game. To answer that question, I'll need to explain the thought process behind them and why you should look forward to a rework in the future.

So Vigarium artefacts were made to be an extra collectible that you could find by exploring around each of the game's seven levels, with the hopes of unlocking a secret ending sequence within the game. There are (I believe) 50 Vigarium artefacts in the game right now, so it's still definitely worth collecting them when you can. The problem with them right now, however, is three things. The first is that unless you collect all 50 of them, it will not affect the conditions of your game's ending. I feel as though that's maybe a bit too harsh on the player, which is why I will be including some additional endings that change, depending on how many you collect.

• 0 Vigarium artefacts: Poor Ending
• 5 Vigarium artefacts: Okay Ending
• 10 Vigarium artefacts: Good Ending
• 25 Vigarium artefacts: Great Ending
• 40 Vigarium artefacts: Awesome Ending
• 50 Vigarium artefacts: Perfect Ending (currently exists in the game right now)

Now this is all just a rough explanation and is prone to being changed going forward. Don't worry though, my friends. You'll still get a positive ending out of all of these options. I'm still applying philosophy that completing the game from start-to-finish nets you a good ending regardless of how its done, so you don't have to worry about anything like Mura being killed off-screen.

The second issue with the Vigarium artefacts is that it's just not clear on WHY you'd want to collect them. Sure, Mura tells the players that they're worth a lot of money, but that's really it. Without a clear reason on why it's important to collect them, players are just going to ignore them and sail on their merry way. That's why in a later patch for the game, I'll not only be adding in the new additional endings listed above, but also tweaking the dialogue of when you pick up any Vigarium artefact to better highlight their importance for an improved ending sequence. There is also, however, another third issue I originally wanted to include the Vigarium artefacts in for, but that's going to need its own section to talk about down below.

Open Your Mind

One other purpose that the Vigarium artefacts were meant to serve was a way in which the players would be able to kickstart the journey into NIRAVASI's Secret Ending (now known as Moksha). I don't want to spoil too many details just yet, but within every level of NIRAVASI, there exist some mysterious doors with very visible keyholes at the centre of them. You cannot currently interact with these doors, nor are there any exploits available to get past them. All that can be gathered from them is that a faint heartbeat trickles from whatever lays behind them, and that the game will outright refuse to run should you attempt to enter them while being chased by the CALI unit.

This was not always planned to be the case, you see. My original plan with these doors is that they could be opened by starting the game's Secret Ending questline and retracing your steps all the way back to the start of the game. But the more I thought about it, the less appealing that idea began to sound. So in conjunction with the upcoming deadline for the game, this idea was ultimately scrapped, with the intention of receiving a rework after the game's release. Now that I've got a better idea I'd like to try implementing for Moksha, the Vigarium artefact system will be the key in unlocking that ending's questline. When Moksha releases to the public, there will be a serious of buildings opened throughout the game's different levels (one for each) that contain an ominous looking door and seven pedestals. By sacrificing seven of your Vigarium artefacts, you'll gain the key item needed to unlock the mysterious locked doors that I mentioned before and enter [REDACTED]. As such, I will be restructuring the location of each of the Vigarium artefact's locations, so that there are only seven to be found in each level (with one being found just before the game's climax at the last point of no return). I'm really excited to show you what I've got to show you for Moksha for when the time comes, so keep your eyes peeled for any updates until then.

That's it for this week's Devlog for NIRAVASI. This was definitely one of the bigger ones and it's certainly been a lot of fun keeping tabs on the games and pushing it out there for people to enjoy. It's been over two weeks since the game launched and there's still a lot that can be done in the meantime. Until then, thank you very much for reading and I hope you all have a lovely afternoon.

Kind regards,
Angus (Sangos)