- Patch 1.0.9.657 - 1 September 2026
This is the monthly update build for August 2026. This month I focused on the Frost Pipes and Throne Room for Niflheim. These rooms are mirrors of the Muspelheim environments with completely different characters, art, and storyline. I was planning on working on the Slums for Muspelheim this month but I think it's a better direction to keep both Niflheim and Muspelheim at the same level progression-wise. It's been a lot of fun doing design for all of this but next month is more storyline and mechanics heavy. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. There are missing mini-games in the fight with The Aspects. There are missing visual assets in Niflheim. New Content Rebuilt the Firedoors and Frostdoors environments to make sure the view into the next environment matched. Also improved the particle systems…
- Patch 1.0.9.656 - 1 August 2026
This is the monthly update build for July 2026. This month I focused on the Throne Room of Muspelheim. This room will be your first interaction with Muus and will set the stage for the rest of the world. Story in this chapter is a lot more straight forward than in Animus so it's going to go fast. Most of my time spent in this world is in environment design and slapstick humor. It's so much easier to make this place overall. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. There are missing visual assets in the fight with The Aspects. New Content The Muspelheim Throne Room is now completed. This environment has a ton of greebling and some environmental story telling with the Flipper Five. Trying some new stuff with visuals to give more interesting depth options. Should add a lot of visual detail to this chapter…
- Patch 1.0.9.655 - 1 July 2026
This is the monthly update build for June 2026. This month I focused on finishing the first room for Muspelheim as well as internal tooling. The "Firepipes" room is now completely done as a result and I now have tools for localization to help into the future. Also added a bunch more animations for the Penguins which will be used throughout the chapter. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. There are missing visual assets in the fight with The Aspects. New Content Finished up the Firepipes environment in Muspelheim. This environment now has a number of different penguins, new interactions, new lines of dialogue, and all of the environment polish is finished. When I start work on Niflheim it will be the blueprint for that mirror environment as well. This also sets the tone for environments in this zon…
- Patch 1.0.9.654 - 1 June 2026
This is the monthly update build for May 2026. Most of my work this month was doing implementation for some of the penguins and feeling out how they should interact. I really like how their language style came together and plan to expand this throughout the chapter. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. There are missing visual assets in the fight with The Aspects. New Content A new language called PengWings has been added for the penguins to communicate. They speak in image glyphs and say concepts and actions rather than words. This is pretty limited currently but will be a lot of fun to flesh out over time. A new environment has been put together in Muspelheim and it's a bit barebones right now but I think it sets the tone well. Check it out and let me know if you like the direction. This entire a…
- Patch 1.0.9.653 - 1 May 2026
This is the monthly update build for April 2026. Most of my work this month was on fleshing out characters for Chapter 4 and making more content for the ARG. For those not interested in the ARG we have some penguin animations you can see below and while these little dudes are unnamed right now they have enough personality that I am making them into primary characters in Chapter 4. For ARG solvers there have been three teams that hit the time-gate and I have now added more puzzles for them. Good Luck! Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. The Aspects fight is missing polish and mini-games. New Content The ARG has been greatly expanded. Three teams solved the available content in this last month and hit the time-gate. The ARG is a massive set of cryptographic puzzles that start on the website and cont…
- Patch 1.0.9.652 - 31 March 2026
This is the monthly update build for March 2026. Worked on fleshing out a lot of the alternate routes for The Aspects encounter. There is a ton more I want to do here so I will be polishing it up off and on. We got a lot of new assets in for the first room in Muspelheim as well. Need to spend more time designing out the puzzle in this room as my idea for it just didn't work well. I may actually just drop having a puzzle here and make it an introduction to some of the Penguin faction characters. I've added some screenshots of the assets in that room to give you guys an idea of the general style of the new chapter. It's heavily inspired by Act 1 of Secret of Evermore if you're familiar with that game. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. Pricing Changes Steam has added support for Purchasing Power Co…
- Patch 1.0.9.651 - 1 March 2026
This is the monthly update build for February 2026. This one adds a ton of polish and new art to the final combat scene in Animus. It also sets up all of the components to work on new areas in Jotunheim. Next months update will be focusing on Muspelheim which is the lava area accessible by being more curious throughout your run and choosing the world on the right during world selection. I will also be adding a number of routes, minigames, and new dialogue to this combat encounter as we go forward as soon as Shaye finishes the art for it. I wanted to do a lot more this month but I hurt my back quite badly. Had to take over a week off of doing anything and just lay in bed like a slug. Sorry if you don't find this content to be enough of a patch as a result. Stay tuned for next month. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language…
- Patch 1.0.9.650 - 31 January 2026
This is the monthly update build for January 2026. It focuses on the final combat scene in Animus between Lore and The Aspects. Really excited to finish this off and get moving on Jotunheim soon. February will be the final month of Animus development and this chapter will be closed outside of bug fixes. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. There are missing visual assets, narrative, and mini-games in the fight with The Aspects. New Content The Clash is now finished and fully implemented. You can now do battle with The Aspects in a prototype form. This encounter is not finished as there are many missing combat mini-games and narrative. These will be added during February in patches I will launch throughout the month. There was simply too much art and implementation work to get this done in a reasona…
- Patch 1.0.9.649 - 1 January 2026
This is the monthly update build for December. It focuses on setting up the final section of Animus and wrapping up all of the storylines in this region at once. The final component to build now is the fight scene between Lore and The Aspects. With this out of the way I can focus entirely on systems design and combat which is something I greatly enjoy. Looking forward to updating again in January with that in mind. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. New Content The final encounter introduction scene in Animus has been implemented. This scene directly precedes the combat encounter endcap for Animus. It changes dramatically based on your interactions throughout the chapter. Next month I will focus entirely on this final combat encounter and Animus will be functionally complete. From there it's just…
- Patch 1.0.9.648 - 1 December 2025
This is the monthly update build for November. It focuses on adding storyline to The Picnic in the form of a number of routes for Shelly and Sheldon. As always, writing is the lions share of work left in the game. It takes time but I will keep releasing monthly updates until it is done. You can reach The Picnic by progressing through the Mossbacks storyline without killing them. If you're having trouble finding this section of the game reach out on the official Discord and talk to people in the #Heartbound channel. You can reach this channel by selecting the Heartbound role under #channels-and-roles. There are a ton of routes so it can be unwieldly to find specific areas at times. With this update The Picnic only needs some minor polish and route changes. After that I will be working on the final fight scene for Animus. This may take more than one update to complete so I might release n…
- Patch 1.0.9.647 - 31 October 2025
This is the monthly update build for October. It focuses on adding storyline to The Clash in the form of a number of routes for Sheldon. As always, writing is the lions share of work left in the game. It takes time but I will keep releasing monthly updates until it is done. You can reach The Clash by treating The Mossbacks terribly. If you're having trouble finding this section of the game reach out on the official Discord and talk to people in the #Heartbound channel. You can reach this channel by selecting the Heartbound role under #channels-and-roles. There are a ton of routes so it can be unwieldly to find specific areas at times. With this update we can draw The Clash to a close. Animus now only needs The Picnic and the final fight scene to be completed. The Picnic will be next up and shouldn't take much time at all. The fight scene is more complex but it's all mechanics with low n…
- Patch 1.0.9.646 - 30 September 2025
This is the monthly update build for September. It focuses on adding storyline to The Clash in the form of a number of routes for Shelly. As always, writing is the lions share of work left in the game. It takes time but I will keep releasing monthly updates until it is done. You can reach The Clash by treating The Mossbacks terribly. If you're having trouble finding this section of the game reach out on the official Discord and talk to people in the #Heartbound channel. You can reach this channel by selecting the Heartbound role under #channels-and-roles. There are a ton of routes so it can be unwieldly to find specific areas at times. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. New Content Shelly is now accessible in The Clash. Shelly now has a new hurt animation. Shelly now has a new disintegrate animat…
- Patch 1.0.9.645 - 28 August 2025
This ones a bit late as I went on vacation for the first time in years. Hope you enjoy the new stuff! This is the monthly update build for August. It focuses on adding storyline to The Clash in the form of a number of routes for Avocado. As always, writing is the lions share of work left in the game. It takes time but I will keep releasing monthly updates until it is done. You can reach The Clash by treating The Mossbacks terribly. If you're having trouble finding this section of the game reach out on the official Discord and talk to people in the #Heartbound channel. You can reach this channel by selecting the Heartbound role under #channels-and-roles. There are a ton of routes so it can be unwieldly to find specific areas at times. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. New Content Avocado is now a…
- Patch 1.0.9.644 - 17 July 2025
This is the monthly update build for July. it focuses on adding storyline to The Clash in the form of a number of routes for Fern. As always, writing is the lions share of work left in the game. It takes time but I will keep releasing monthly updates until it is done. You can reach The Clash by treating The Mossbacks terribly. If you're having trouble finding this section of the game reach out on the official Discord and talk to people in the #Heartbound channel. You can reach this channel by selecting the Heartbound role under #channels-and-roles. There are a ton of routes so it can be unwieldly to find specific areas at times. For the ARG community a new puzzle was added a few days ago. Finish that one and it will lead you somewhere new. Good luck! Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. New Content…
- Patch 1.0.9.643 - 28 May 2025
With this updated I polished the Emelio and Rhode interactions during The Clash section of the game. These previously had no facial expressions, contained missing dialogue, and the textboxes were all static. It's now much more emotionally impactful and feels correct. Next update will be Fern's entire section for this part of the game. This room is the second to last for all of Animus so there is a lot that needs to be done here. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. New Content Facial animations have been updated for all interactions in The Clash. Textbox positioning has been updated for all interactions in The Clash. A new facial expression for Emelio has been added. Music timing has been updated for Emelio in The Clash. SFX timing has been updated for Emelio in The Clash. Rhodes interactions in Th…
- Patch 1.0.9.642 - 2 May 2025
With this update I have added a number of routes for Rhode in The Clash section of the game. This area is accessible after The Mossbacks if you take a more negative route. If you need help reaching this location please contact me via the Discord ticketing system detailed under Bug Reporting. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. Facial expressions in Emelios Clash scene are missing. Some audio queues in Emelios Clash scene are missing. Facial expressions in Rhodes Clash scene are missing. Some audio queues in Rhodes Clash scene are missing. New Content New routes have been added for every possible interaction path with Rhode during The Clash. This section is exceptionally complex due to your choice to skip her entirely, fight her in the dark world, fall out of the dark world on Emelio, or go to lunc…
- April Update - Moved - 22 April 2025
Was going to drop the update the last week or so but a lot needed to be changed and I was very busy with our ferret rescue work. Thankfully I have everything written and implementation is a breeze so that's not going to be an issue. With that in mind here are all the routes in the upcoming patch. This is split into three primary trees and will branch out based on other choices. In total it's around ~200 new dialogue lines between you and Rhode. This has been spoilered for those of you that don't want to know. We went to Judgement and told Emelio we wanted things to be this way. -> We went to lunch with Rhode --> We fought Rhode and won in combat. ---> We killed Rhode. ----> We destroyed the flower crown. ---> We did not kill Rhode. ----> We were bit during the encounter. --> We fought Rhode and lost in combat. ---> We never moved during the encounter. -> We went to lunch with Fern. We d…
- Upcoming Patch 1.0.9.642 - 3 April 2025
The next update should drop this week. I was going to launch this on the 1st but the dialogue with Rhode just didn't hit right. She previously didn't discuss any of the timelines in which you went to the Dark World and fought her. This made those routes feel incredibly disjointed and took the player completely out of the experience. I will be doing the implementation for this section live like we did last month. Gives a good time to talk about the game and systems involved as well. I've also been looking into reports that the game is crashing on Steam Deck. We've had this reproduce internally finally so I have some data to go on for a fix. Will let you know what I find when I do. Animus has been tough with all of these routes but I think it's worth it to do it right. See you then!
- Patch 1.0.9.641 - 2 March 2025
With this update I am mostly looking for feedback on story direction for the end of Animus. If people find Emelio's actions here to be compelling then I will continue pushing this area until completion. Known Issues Russian language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus. English is the only language past the Mossbacks. Facial expressions in Emelio's Clash scene are missing. Some audio queues in Emelio's Clash scene are missing. New Content The Clash is now accessible after the Mossbacks scene all goes wrong. This area has a number of different routes based on how you played through the entire chapter. It also dynamically changes based on how you act through this room. Most things in Animus work like this but this room has a lot more complexity to it as it's the culmination of every potential route. For now Emelio's section is the only one available. Dialogue has changed for the…
- Patch 1.0.9.64 - 1 February 2025
Had to take a year and focus on everything else as seen here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/567380/view/516325480311292020?l=english Going forward we're doing monthly update builds on the first of each month. These are going to be done on a separate build which you can read about below. These builds will be highly unstable at times so please put in bug reports. Depending on the severity of issues I will put out additional builds throughout the month. Anyway, have fun! Monthly Development Build The code to gain access to this is "PirateSoftware". You can access this by using that code on Heartbound > Properties > Betas within the Steam Library. This build is for WINDOWS ONLY. Make sure your Steam client is fully up to date to get this build. Hitting Shift will allow you to add/remove some blend layers. Hitting Alt will allow you to add/remove the greyscale shader. Hitting Ctrl…
