- Savage Updated to 2.672 - Game Breaking Issues - 4 June 2026
Big thanks to those of you continuing to find bugs causing crashes, softlocks, etc. - stuff preventing progress (especially a nasty one where a room wasn't properly initialized, causing you to not progress through the game whatsoever in Highland Cliffs). Still hunting down some more elusive ones (like stackable objects crashing the game sometimes, like a pickup landing on an empty treasure chest > treasure chest being destroyed). The game has been updated to 2.672: Crashes and Game Breaking Bug Fixed issue with Dire Bears where you could attack their leftover “damage mask” object which would crash the game (they spawn/despawn based on story progress) Fixing a screen/room in Highland Cliffs that completely stopped critical progression (you wound up outside the game world because many elements deactivated) Fixed softlocked controls on some cinematic movie sequences/screens (also updated d…
- Hotfix - Softlocked in Skills/Codex menu - 29 December 2025
Much to my chagrin, while testing on the Steam deck, I discovered a pretty nasty softlock -- if you MASTER a weapon (i.e. Pickaxe), then go into the menu > Codex > Skills tab, and select an entry, once the dialogue box plays, you are stuck in a loop and can't exit back to the menu (the dialogue box would constantly recreate itself when trying to close the dialogue).This is fixed.I also took a moment to do some tidy up/polish to some of the visuals in there, like making the little spinning arrow static while a dialogue box is playing, similar to how other menus and submenu systems are drawn/displayed.Sorry about this if you've run into it, and thanks!
- Merry Christmas! Savage Update - 25 December 2025
Merry Christmas! It's been quite some time. I'm very sorry for that. A combination of the Venezuelan stuff (everybody lived happily ever after), some ongoing health issues, and work overloaded me for quite a while there.I've been chipping away at things, but without a good solid update. I am hoping to get things into a more stable rotation with this game now.A big one is having to remove support for the 32 bit version, as GameMaker no longer compiles to this. I am very sorry if this has affected anyone.I've also just about wrapped up work on reformatting all the tilesets and rooms to the GMS2 version (which, if you remember, has been an ongoing thorn in the side this project).I tried to get this out on Christmas Eve, but it looked like Steam was having some issues -- and I also broke something within the install pipeline early in the evening, so this is going out early Christmas AM.Here…
- Happy Thanksgiving! Barbaric Autumn Update - 26 November 2021
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5190eaafe4b02ecd0eaa56a3/88c736bf-82d5-4cee-8c66-f2abde6425fd/Kell-VS-Horror-Color-headers-for-updates.png?format=1000w Hail and Happy Thanksgiving, barbarian, to all who slay, eat, drink, and be merry today! The battle rages on with porting Savage over to GMS2. I have encountered many pitfalls and speedbumps along the way, but the porting process is nearly complete, with only a few remaining locations left to fully re-tile and bring up to full GMS2-functional, as well as cleaning up some GMS1 to GMS2 compatibility scripts. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5190eaafe4b02ecd0eaa56a3/4be4276d-c695-4bc6-8ecf-da374f5d3cad/Tilesets-and-Rooms.png?format=500w Along the way, I have taken the opportunity to do things like very basic room rebalance where the need strikes, like repositioning enemies, adding new ones, or taking away, as well…
- GMS1 Exodus Part 2 - 27 June 2021
Hail and happy weekend, Barbarians! ⚔ The exodus from GMS1 to GMS2 goes on, and I wanted to be a bit further along with it before patching the game, but certain issues have come up (thanks for letting me know!) that I couldn't let go without another batch of fixes. This patch includes those hotfixes, as well as some minor improvements, balancing, tweaks, and general spot cleaning to issues I noticed while testing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5190eaafe4b02ecd0eaa56a3/1624824121095-V2OAO7PU7G7W0GRIE8GJ/June+27+Update_small_1.gif?format=500w https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5190eaafe4b02ecd0eaa56a3/1624824159165-UUY1BWKCXM37B3S8H8N6/June+27+Update_small_2.gif?format=500w https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5190eaafe4b02ecd0eaa56a3/1624824206463-G479UQKIWJZ77VR7JDWL/June+27+Update_small_3.gif?format=750w During the room rebuilds from GMS1 to GMS2, I…
- HOTFIX - Game Not Running/Installer Running Every Time - 31 May 2021
Very sorry to anyone having trouble playing the game! There are now two launch options for Savage when you play the game, one for 32-bit Windows and one for 64-bit: If you were having trouble launching the game, go with the first option. The game will now no longer run the installer every time you want to play at startup. I am also working on updating the free demo and the beta branch in a similar way. Very sorry for the inconvenience and trouble, and thanks to everyone who let me know about these issues! ⚔ - Matt
- Savagepocalypse – From The (1.X) Ashes - 30 May 2021
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5190eaafe4b02ecd0eaa56a3/1622363068389-S5YQRCD1N00VXZI000UA/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kByIAqRYWAwi3Pwi5V-AxUkUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKco7GTpFgkhtE-FJ_kGK5-YCJcIdxnIm81yhuPd5yqXBuzk336N-qdcliKfo2A68bf/2.6-header.png?format=1000w ⚔ HAIL Barbarians! ⚔ This update is a complicated one, and while it does not contain a massive amount of new content, it changes a massive amount of stuff under the hood thanks to a necessary move to GMS2 (I was developing on GMS 1.X). Ticking Time Bomb It recently came to my attention that games made with GMS 1.X were behaving strangely, ir not refusing to even load, thanks to the recent batch of Windows 10 updates. Some developers still using that version of GameMaker weren’t even able to open GameMaker due to said Windows 10 updates. This sort of made the decisio…
- HOTFIX - 2.5.1 - 26 March 2021
BONED (badumtish) HOTFIX! Hail, barbarians! 🗡️ Here's a quick hotfix to fix a few issues that have been recently reported. If you have run into these issues, sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for taking the time to let me know about them! Fixed the Femur 1 handed club weapon so it is NOT doing 10 million damage (I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted, lol) Fixed the way damage for weapons and shields was being read and stored, giving some wildly inaccurate displays on gear comparisons in the equipment view and vendor lists CRASH: Entering a particularly important screen in the Highland Cliffs would crash the game CRASH: Sometimes, when opening a chest, a particular sound wouldn't be declared, resulting in a crash Fixed the "level up" Essence screen stats flashing if you interacted with the Essence Vessel (save cup) using "up" on an analog stick via gamepad - stats on the screen…
- SAVAGE Enhanced! - 14 March 2021
SAVAGE Hits 0.2.5 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5190eaafe4b02ecd0eaa56a3/1615680768034-20HEHSJTXX8530340LO3/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kByIAqRYWAwi3Pwi5V-AxUkUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKco7GTpFgkhtE-FJ_kGK5-YCJcIdxnIm81yhuPd5yqXBuzk336N-qdcliKfo2A68bf/Kell-VS-Horror-Color-version-number.png?format=1500w Hail barbarian! ⚔️ Hither comes a new update with some important improvements, as well as some "quality of life" changes! New weapons and items have also been added, and the world of Gosen becomes just a bit deadlier with new traps, puzzles, and enemy behaviors. Highlights in this Update No More Auto Pickup for Gear Gear Drops are no longer a pain in the loincloth! By default, weapons, armor, and shields will no longer be automatically picked up when you collide with them. Instead, on item collision, the name of the dropped…
- Pre-Volunheim Mega Patch - 22 July 2020
Hail, Barbarian Horde! ⚔ This update is big, juicy AND nutrient rich - but does not include Volunheim. We will get there! For now, I wanted to deliver a video to you covering the bigger, more interesting additions, fixes, and improvements to SAVAGE as I hack and slash my way toward a big, PROPER Volunheim content update. Below, for fun, are some of the info graphics and GIFs used in the presentation. Player Traversal Fixes and Improvements Fixed a TON of softlock and outright crash issues related to moving around, climbing, speed, entering and exiting certain rooms - LOTS of improvements to the worldmap - Kell and other overworld assets look better' Entering and exiting locations feel a lot better and less janky - Fixes to the overworld camera - Overall better game feel - New "dust/air" sprites for jumping, landing, dodge rolling, and skidding ALL COLLISION SPRITES have been redone (dam…
- MEGA Update - Pre-Volunheim MegaPatch! - 9 July 2020
HAIL Barbarian Horde! This patch brings with it a hefty amount of fixes, improvements, some new features, and some new content to make ready for Volunheim, and beyond! Some of the main highlights here include: LOTS of fixes and improvements to general traversal (speed fixes, running, jumping, climbing, downward-striking off of ALL SORTS of interactive objects, like moving blocks, enemy objects, and destructibles) -- this makes gameplay and getting around quite a bit more fluid and smooth BIG improvements and fixes across just about every enemy type -- hitboxes (especially larger, stranger shaped monsters), melee object placement and animation frames not matching Many enemies and bosses have gotten improvements to their behaviors, and even some new attack sets, making them more interesting to fight Stats, character growth and building have gotten BIG overhauls in a few ways -- stat scali…
- Happy New Year and Thank You!! - 16 January 2020
Thank you all so much for a great year, all of the support and patience! I hope you had a great holiday season and are set to have an even better new year! I wanted to take a moment to throw a video together thanking you - whether you picked Savage up in Early Access, you are an early supporter and/or Kickstarter backer, you've taken the time to try the demo, left feedback, spread the word -- or ALL OF THE ABOVE - thank you SO MUCH! The video also includes a few things to look forward to in the next Savage Mega-Update, as well as other irons I have in the fire, including issue #1 of the MegaDex. Again, thank you so much, I hope you've had some fun with what's currently available in the game, and it certainly wouldn't be nearly as interesting of a project without your support! I'll see you for the next Savage update! Happy New Year! - Matt
- Early Access Mega Post! - 13 September 2019
YES, SAVAGE: The Shard of Gosen has made it to Early Access! Hey everyone, Matt here, coming out of the grind cave for another update! Apologies for the lack of any news across EVERYTHING - it's been a pretty heavy grind to get the game where it is now, and I generally am not very good at finding a solid work/news update balance. So, apologies for keeping so quiet. I was very unsure about Early Access, but I started to change my mind once some very kind people started asking me to make the game available in that capacity, so they could support the game and get a copy at the same time. It also helps get more eyeballs on the game that I wouldn't have otherwise, and all the extra help is greatly appreciated. Speaking of which, thank you VERY much for all of the bug reports, feedback and critiques; this stuff is going to help me turn Savage into a MUCH better game. All of the support across…
- New Patch - Series of Fixes - 2 September 2019
First of all, thank you so much for all of the support!! All of the feedback, livestreams and encouragement has been insane and is absolutely flooring me! I managed to fix a few issues that have been brought up - but there's one here definitely worth mentioning on its own: If the game is crashing for you when entering water, or weather is active, this might be a solution: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/179113/how-to-install-the-latest-version-of-directx Your version of DirectX might be out of date and might have something to do with a Windows 10 update (thanks to Binaryferret for this fix). Now for the patch notes: Fixed 16:10 aspect ratio crashing the game when starting a new game, right before the name entry screen Fixed parallax and background layers for 16:10 Fixed 16:10 jankiness on the title screen mouse positions in menus in 16:10 (they were incorrect!) Fixed a bunch of…
- Cultural Differences - New Build! - 30 November 2018
**IMPORTANT** GameMaker games and Windows 10 seem to be butting heads on certain systems. If your display goes black and then white (showing nothing and no response from Savage) when starting the game in Fullscreen, here's what seems to fix the issue. TO FIX: RIGHT CLICK on the Savage .exe and open Properties and navigate to the Compatibility tab. CHECK the box under Settings labeled "Disable fullscreen optimizations". Click APPLY. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F10529598%2F01362a64debc0e498650e88f4cb2561b6d52ce47.png Doing this seems to have worked for the user that reported it (THANK YOU Gallus!). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hail, Barbarians! I come to you now at the turn of the tide... Or, with a big fat update. This is probably the biggest update I have put out of the game as…
- Retropalooza - Coming Up for Air and Mini-Update - 27 September 2018
Hi everyone! Firstly I want to apologize to you all for the lack of updates. I have been buried up to my neck in this game (for probably too long, ha!) and I forget to come up for air sometimes -- especially with the end of the year looming. I'm still grinding away on Savage full time, and then some. Some things I'll bring up real quick are that I switched compilers within GameMaker: Studio and the dang thing (Savage) runs LIKE BUTTER after compiling in the new setup. A lot of this has been in preparation to switch over to GameMaker Studio 2 (YoYo stopped supporting Studio 1 in June/July) which will make things better overall (including potential porting to other platforms). It hasn't all just been raw systems level work, though -- the game is popping with new locations, armor, items, enemies - ALL NPCS CAN NOW BE KILLED (and/or engaged in combat/made hostile) -- so there's a ton to go…
- 2017.12.13 - Corpse Party and New Build! - 13 December 2017
Hail, Loinclothed Heathens! https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/019/586/477/e30376895e9c89580ad9e58e5d00fa47_original.png?w=639&fit=max&v=1513166711&auto=format&lossless=true&s=7e11e4101f7a945bf012275b135fa50f Let's get some bad news out of the way RIGHT NOW, shall we? It is becoming crushingly apparent that I won't get to a 100% finished Savage powerhouse of a game by the end of this year. BUT, what I've got right now is fantastically close. It's feeling better (mechanically and content-wise) than I could have ever imagined, so we're getting there! There is indeed a shiny new playable build to talk about, too, so let's dive in! Leveling the Playing Field Item number one for me over the last couple of months has been to MAKE. THE MAP. MATTER! I'm churning out stages, levels and areas like crazy, so here's a sneak peak at one of the more complicated areas I've had to tackle: https://ksr-ugc…
- 2017.12.13 - Corpse Party and New Build! - 13 December 2017
Hail, Loinclothed Heathens! https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/019/586/477/e30376895e9c89580ad9e58e5d00fa47_original.png?w=639&fit=max&v=1513166711&auto=format&lossless=true&s=7e11e4101f7a945bf012275b135fa50f Let's get some bad news out of the way RIGHT NOW, shall we? It is becoming crushingly apparent that I won't get to a 100% finished Savage powerhouse of a game by the end of this year. BUT, what I've got right now is fantastically close. It's feeling better (mechanically and content-wise) than I could have ever imagined, so we're getting there! There is indeed a shiny new playable build to talk about, too, so let's dive in! Leveling the Playing Field Item number one for me over the last couple of months has been to MAKE. THE MAP. MATTER! I'm churning out stages, levels and areas like crazy, so here's a sneak peak at one of the more complicated areas I've had to tackle: https://ksr-ugc…
- 2017.09.12 - Thrusting All Over (and New Build!) - 12 September 2017
Horizontal thrusts? Up thrusts? DOWN thrusts?! I've got you covered, Barbarian Horde! The last few months I've been grinding away at the one last juicy feature I felt was necessary to make Savage really shine: Directional combat! I mean, I can't cite one of my big inspirations as Zelda 2 without allowing players to strike their enemy's head from above. Let's have a look. Directional Combat https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/018/296/413/e6cb201dc4c4a84422a3b3b0235042a3_original.gif?w=639&fit=max&v=1505227674&auto=format&gif-q=50&q=92&s=850177f2bfe6dec8b5a3fd57d8226d7d https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/018/296/425/60a9b5f675cdb3ef4b4688c60822cb35_original.gif?w=639&fit=max&v=1505227700&auto=format&gif-q=50&q=92&s=1cfe95a8c20228de3a1a68a95a23f032 https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/018/296/439/e7127bd3550812fdb78967210986a19d_original.gif?w=639&fit=max&v=1505227732&auto=format&gif-q=50&q=92&s=ce…
- 2017.09.12 - Thrusting All Over (and New Build!) - 12 September 2017
Horizontal thrusts? Up thrusts? DOWN thrusts?! I've got you covered, Barbarian Horde! The last few months I've been grinding away at the one last juicy feature I felt was necessary to make Savage really shine: Directional combat! I mean, I can't cite one of my big inspirations as Zelda 2 without allowing players to strike their enemy's head from above. Let's have a look. Directional Combat https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/018/296/413/e6cb201dc4c4a84422a3b3b0235042a3_original.gif?w=639&fit=max&v=1505227674&auto=format&gif-q=50&q=92&s=850177f2bfe6dec8b5a3fd57d8226d7d https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/018/296/425/60a9b5f675cdb3ef4b4688c60822cb35_original.gif?w=639&fit=max&v=1505227700&auto=format&gif-q=50&q=92&s=1cfe95a8c20228de3a1a68a95a23f032 https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/018/296/439/e7127bd3550812fdb78967210986a19d_original.gif?w=639&fit=max&v=1505227732&auto=format&gif-q=50&q=92&s=ce…
