- Introducing my second (actually first) game, Starless Umbra - 29 September 2025
Thanks so much for your continued interest in Heroes of Umbra. This project started in 2012 as a weird experiment in building my own engine from scratch, learning pixel art, and creating something that reminded me of some of my favorite games. As something I've continued to add content to for over a decade (yikes!), it's become a bigger part of my life than I could ever imagine. I'm at a point now where most of the main things I've wanted to do with Heroes of Umbra are completed. If you haven't played in a while, I've now built six skill trees, an optionally hard superboss, a prestige system, player-hosted servers with 4-digit join codes, save synchronization, a bidirectionally syncing wiki, and implemented a major java version upgrade. All this added to the game, and it's discounted 50% off for the Autumn Sale. If for some reason you haven't played yet... talk about value!The Next (Fir…
- 1.4.0 Launch! - 27 June 2024
Update Notes Hi, hello, long time, heroes! Hope you’re doing well. I just wanted to share a few updates that just went live in 1.4.0. Game Servers You can start your own game server from the character select screen. You’ll get a 4-letter code friends can use to join your game. I looked into lots of server hosting solutions, matchmaking engines, steam networking options again, and ultimately ended up building something myself. I’m pretty proud of it! I hope it makes the game easier to play with friends. This also kills the very buggy Steam networking options. PS, you can enter /share in chat to share it to my discord server! PPS, Servers are US-based for now but I can look into international servers if there’s demand. Save Sync If you’d like to back up your game data across multiple devices (including iOS + Android soon), consider subscribing to dreamstone. In addition to save synchroniz…
- Heroes of Umbra 1.3 - 17 August 2023
Hello and welcome! Lots of updates have been cooking the past year or so, and they're now live on the default branch. Please check out the new-and-improved wiki for more information. New Dungeon: Onyx Keep The Onyx is a new dungeon intended for rebirth players. It requires a consumable item found somewhere in the Orb Gardens New Skill Tree: Summoner Summon creatures to aid in combat and provide helpful auras to allies in battle. Prestige Levels Upon completing a rebirth playthrough, you may rebirth again, exchanging any Orb Ranks for permanent skills. Learning these skills increases your Prestige Level Orb Garden Improvements Significantly revamped the Orb Gardens progression Maze size increases and monster changes are more gradual Tweaked medusa/snake exp. Added several new chunk variants (more map variety). Orb rank is deducted when you first enter the garden, not when you run out of…
- 1.2.9 Live - 13 July 2021
Hi there! Just a small bugfix update + support for some "official" server drops. We'll be giving away copies of the game and a fun headgear if you are able to join in this Friday, July 16th, 7pm-9pm EST / 4pm-6pm PST. Sign Up Here https://i.imgur.com/cr81W6f.png
- 1.2.8 Live - 23 July 2020
1.2.8 is up with a few fixes from the past few weeks. Most notably: Fixed a strange crash on the title screen for some architectures. (Thanks GB!) Corrected some item names (Thanks TTRM!) Prevent subsequent regeneration effects from canceling the first, preferring the longer duration. (Thanks TTRM!) Fixed weird skill rolls on final equips Corrected the death maps for the goosecopter minigame (Thanks TTRM!) Set the nearest map from the fields to the snow village (Thanks TTRM!) ...Others I've forgotten! In the works is an Android build distributed on google play, cross-play with desktop is possible. (iOS also might be feasible). Beyond that, I'd like to revisit some frustrations players have expressed with keybinding, steam networking (if possible), and maybe content after that? I don't have a clear roadmap, and there's no solid timeframe for any of this, but let me know what you'd like t…
- Heroes of Umbra 1.2.0 - 5 April 2020
Hello Heroes! I hope you're staying healthy and doing well in these unprecedented times. It's been over a year since launch, but I'm happy to report the first major content update is complete and in beta now. You can get a sneak peek of the changes below by right clicking Heroes of Umbra in your library, selecting Properties, and entering whowantsabodymassage on the Betas tab. Note, loading an old character upgrades your save file to 1.2.0; you won't be able to go back to the old version. A lot has changed since the last steam build. It's far from perfect but I've taken feedback received to heart and done what I can to improve quality-of-life, fix bugs, and add new stuff. For specifics on what's changed, watch below and read on. Ranged Skill Tree The Ranged skill tree focuses on skills to enhance the new Gun weapon type. Use laser sniping, grenades, rockets and more to destroy enemies f…
- 1.1.27 Release - 4 June 2018
Hello Heroes! https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F32590754%2Fb24cec4a5c0b70d946deee0aa8a9f85d59ad00d6.png I want to thank everyone who has played so far. Opening weekend has been a whirl of excitement, stress, and gratitude. Thank you also for your forbearance as I deal with some of the unsuspecting bugs that crept up this weekend. The focus moving forward will be on bugfixing, some slight skill tree balancing, and then content. Version 1.1.27 has a new "logging mode" to run the game and log any crashes that occur. Version 1.1.27 addresses several bugs: - |player| placeholders when players die in lava, etc should no longer appear - Target dummies should no longer drop money when ransacked - (Probably) fix an issue where the entire screen turns red when you encounter some elites - Fix a crash with German localization - Correct duration of Envenom when other p…
- 1.1.26 Released - We're LIVE! - 1 June 2018
I'm pleased to report that Heroes of Umbra is now live and available for purchase TODAY! This project has been in-progress since late 2012 (!!) and it wouldn't have seen the light of day without your interest and support. I'm excited to share it and begin to plant the seeds of a small community. The game does not need to be played multiplayer, but as a reminder, we're hosting a few games on the discord server if you're looking for people to play with. There's also a Getting Started Wiki (Also available as a Steam guide) for your convenience. If you run into any issues, have any feedback, or just want to chat, please do not hesitate to email [email protected] or tweet @zexyu.
- Join us on Discord! - 24 May 2018
Hello, Heroes. Thanks again for your interest and support. Things are moving fast but I'm still on-track to release in 8 short days. I wanted to share with you our discord channel to discuss the game, get support, and coordinate playthroughs: Join Heroes of Umbra on Discord Games will be coordinated and hosted the weekend following launch; come join us! ːsteamhappyː
- Launch Notes - 24 April 2018
Just five short weeks until the game goes live! At that time, I'll be launching with Windows-only in the following locales: English, Portuguese, German, and Russian. Additional languages and operating systems will follow shortly after once things look stable. Keep an eye out for guides, videos, screenshots, and other content in the mean time. If there's anything you'd like to see, or you just want to chat feel free to email [email protected]. Thank you for reading.
