Highlights

• Level-Up, then Choices: On level gain, the game flashes a “Level Up!” banner first, then opens the in-game upgrade popup. Clear moment → cleaner decision.
• Curated Rarities: Static upgrades now have hand-tuned rarity tiers. No more weird pulls; the pool respects design intent.
• Run Pacing Revamp: A run now lasts 15 minutes. Boss #1 at 10:00, Boss #2 at 15:00. Tight loop, no filler.
• Missiles Mean It: Dark Missile and Light Missile damage doubled. Glass cannons? More like glass railguns.
• Spawn Pressure Up: Normal enemy spawns changed from 4 every 3s (~1.33/sec) to 2 every 1s (2/sec). Denser waves, cleaner cadence.

New Power-Ups (Yes, plural)

• Health Regen: a small, steady “don’t panic” drip.
• Damage Up: straight to the point.
• Attack Speed Up: faster swings, faster things.
• XP Multiplier: level faster, choose more, snowball smarter.
• Immune Shield: brief invulnerability to bail you out (or in).
• And no, the magnet won’t vacuum power-ups anymore. You’ve got to walk to greatness.

Skills & Abilities

• Sphere & Aura Radius increased. Reads better, feels better, hits better.
• Aura Cooldowns now tick on hit (per damage tick) instead of pure real-time, scales predictably with attack cadence.

UX, Audio, and Clarity

• Audio Navigation has been added across menus, with subtle blips that make the UI feel alive.
• Demo Skill Placeholders are in, so newcomers get the full picture even inside the demo scope.
• ESC Behavior after win/lose takes you back cleanly (no accidental pause screen detours).
• Main vs Demo Saves are separate. Profiles don’t contaminate each other.

TL;DR Patch Notes (one breath)

Level banner → upgrade popup • Manual rarity for static upgrades • 15-minute runs • Boss at 10:00 and 15:00 • Dark/Light Missile ×2 dmg • Spawns 2/sec (was ~1.33/sec) • Health Regen / Damage Up / Attack Speed Up / XP Multiplier / Immune Shield power-ups • Magnet ignores power-ups • Aura radius & sphere radius ↑ • Aura CDs tick on hit • Audio navigation sounds • Demo skill placeholders • ESC exits end screens cleanly • Main/Demo saves separated • % formatting unified • Tooltips refresh on language change • Dash CD UI fix • Reroll & gamepad placeholders

That’s the drop. Level up, enjoy the shiny new knobs, and tell us where the curve bites too hard (or not hard enough).

Guard the light. Bend the shadow. 

Important Announcement

Based on the feedback we’ve received from our players, we are beginning a major overhaul aimed at improving the overall player experience and strengthening the long-term sustainability of the game.

This includes significant changes to core mechanics, world structure, and the loot system.

Because of this ongoing work, we may not release new patches for a while. But don’t worry, it’s for a very good reason.

We’re working on big surprises behind the scenes, and we can’t wait to show you what’s coming next for Torch of Shadows.

Stay tuned.

Short version: we polished a lot, sped up even more, and taught the game a few new party tricks. Long version: enjoy the ride 👇

Highlights

• Elites behave. Their skills no longer spawn outside the arena; everything spawns inside walls like a law-abiding void creature.
• Reroll is in. Don’t like your upgrade options? Reroll right there in-run.
• Rarity is in. In-game upgrades now have rarity tiers with tuned weights—especially for Attack Power and Attack Speed.

Performance (a.k.a. the Big Chill)

• Ward Totem optimized; no more stutters when it lands.
• Corruption Trail / Radiant Trail refactored; heavy moments are smooth.
• Separation logic tuned for large crowds; CPU bonfires extinguished.

Audio & Music

• The run music was a lullaby. So we added ~28 dynamic tracks that rotate every run, plus 11 menu tracks that shuffle outside runs. Every session sounds fresh.

UX & Quality of Life

• Dash cooldown display bug after “cooldown down” effects—fixed.
• Reroll keyboard & gamepad placeholders—added, so you always know the inputs.
• “Having a bug? Reset the game” button—added for quick recoveries.
• ESC after win/lose now returns you cleanly (no more accidental pause tries).
• Critical hits got a shiny icon. Crunch meets clarity. Next updates will have critical hit chance and damage.
• Flask count is now 3. Also, Flask Cooldown Reduction was removed to keep resource timing crisp.
• Disclaimer & Ancient Bestiary open/close skip bugs—fixed.

Systems & Rewards

• Boss & Elite rewards: 2x XP and refreshed drop tables. Risk up, reward up.
• Main Upgrade early unlocks are now achievement-gated (earn it, keep it).
• Main Upgrade costs are higher; economy pacing is cleaner.
• Per-level scaling: previous +2% felt stingy, so we moved to +4% for better early-mid momentum—tempered by the new rarity weights to avoid late-game overflow.

Language & Text

• Percentage (%) formatting standardized across languages.
• In-game tooltips now update properly when you switch language.
• German pass completed. Umlauts are happy.

Lore & Collection

• Ancient Book/Bestiary added: enemies show as GIFs in-game; when new entries unlock, you’ll see a “Bestiary updated” toast on the right side. Knowledge is power (and cosmetics).
• itch.io demo is now live. Another doorway to the temple—mind the gravity.

TL;DR Patch Notes (one breath)

• Bugfix: Elites spawn inside walls
• Upgrade screen animations
• Reroll added
• Rarity added (AP/AS weights tuned)
• Ward Totem perf
• Corruption/Radiant Trail perf
• Separation perf
• Dash CD UI fix
• Reroll & gamepad placeholders
• “Reset game” button
• ESC exits end screens properly
• Crit icon
• Flask = 3, Flask CD reduction removed
• Boss/Elite = 2× XP + new drops
• Main Upgrade early unlocks via achievements
• Main Upgrade costs increased
• Per-level scaling to +4% with rarity balancing
• % formatting standardized
• Tooltips refresh on language change
• German localization pass
• Bestiary with GIFs + update toast
• itch.io demo live

That’s the batch! Try a few runs, abuse the reroll (responsibly), and tell us how the new music mix and rarity curve feel in the wild.

Guard the light. Bend the shadow. 

Hey Torchbearers!
Big news: a playable preview demo of Torch of Shadows is now live on Steam. Come try the Light vs Dark tug-of-war, defeat the Twin Warden (Boss), and tell us what breaks (so we can fix it before it breaks you 😅).

Wishlist on Steam: Torch of Shadows

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Highlights

• New 32×32 tilesets across the board, crisper, cleaner, moodier.
• Arena polish: we trimmed 64 px off the playfield to kill those edge of screen weirdness gremlins.
• Controller aware UI: menus and prompts adapt to gamepad or keyboard automatically.
• Faster, spicier combat: enemy spawns doubled, player attack cooldowns halved. Same purity of design, more chaos per minute.
• Four maps in the demo, the rest are marked “Not available in demo.”
• Languages: English, Turkish, German and French have been added, with a language switch on the Main Menu.
  

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Quality-of-Life & UI

• Removed the mysterious white navigation circle. (It knows what it did.)
• Pause Screen now experiments with a bottom stats strip: quick glance, zero clutter.
• Main Menu makeover: cleaner layout; Extras got tucked under a single Extras button.
• Simple Options menu added (finally).
• Credits are in! If your name’s not there yet, it will be after you tell us how you broke the demo.
• Loading Screen replaces the old tutorial with:
  • Key mapping display (no more “what was Dash again?”), and
  • Game hints that rotate to keep things fresh.
• Navigation on UI screens is more free-form. On the Map screen, you can now move between items fluidly instead of getting stuck in rigid rows.
  

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Map & Progression

• New Map screen art (fresh paint!), and the Main Upgrade access moved into the Map screen for a tighter loop.
• The percentage change in the unentered region was reflected directly as 5%. This was updated to increase the percentage of the control form for the unentered region by 5%.
• When a region hits 50%, it no longer falsely locks into a “balanced” state if conditions change, bug squashed.
• Demo flow: If you reach 50% on a map and defeat the Twin Boss, you’ll see a “Congrats” demo completion screen with a friendly nudge to follow us, then choose New Game to dive back in or call it a day.
  

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Enemies, Bosses & Behaviors

• Twin Warden (Boss) encounter at the 50% mark is in for the demo.
• Enemies now push each other more sanely; we simplified the old shove logic that could cause memory leaks in extreme crowds.
• If enemies bunch up too hard, they enter a short scatter behavior to spread the love (and the danger).
• Critical fix: If you die during a Boss fight, returning to the map and re-entering now resumes properly (instead of… not).
  

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Content Status (Demo)

• Achievements: placeholders are in (badges are brewing).
• Collectibles: placeholders are in (final art incoming).
• Maps: 4 regions are playable; others are gated with a clear “Not available in demo” tag.
  

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Changelog (Nuts & Bolts)

• Refreshed all tilesets to 32×32; world pass for readability and collision clarity.
• Playfield reduced by 64 px to eliminate edge visibility issues.
• Controller/Keyboard-aware UI implemented game-wide.
• Pause Screen: stats moved to a minimal middle bar.
• Region growth logic refined to +5% of total map area on return (not a flat percentage tick).
• Language options: English, Turkish, German, French + Main Menu switch.
• Demo build uploaded to Steam for preview.
• Only 4 maps remain for demo; others hidden with “Not available in demo.”
• Achievements & Collectibles: placeholders wired.
• Demo completion: beating Twin Warden (Boss) after 50% control → Congrats screen + CTA, with New Game to restart.
• Main Menu reorganized; Simple Options added; Extras consolidated; Credits added.
• Spawn rate x2, player cooldowns −50% for snappier pacing.
• Tutorial removed in favor of Loading Screen with keymap + rotating hints.
• UI Navigation made freer on grid screens (esp. Map).
• Enemy push (anti-stack) code simplified; resolved memory-leak edge cases.
• Scatter behavior added for heavy enemy clustering.
• After killing the Twin Warden (Boss) and picking up the collectible at 50%, the map closes as intended.
• Fixed a 50% control “balanced” lock bug that ignored subsequent shifts.
  

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Thanks for carrying the Torch.

If the demo made you smile, scream, or switch forms at exactly 1 HP, please wishlist and leave feedback. It helps a ton for our tiny studio and shapes what ships next.

👉 Play / Wishlist: Torch of Shadows on Steam

TL;DR

Combat feels snappier, enemies are smarter (and fairer), Light/Dark swapping and cooldown behavior are fixed, controller support is in, elite mutations multiplied, the tutorial is clearer, UI/UX got a glow-up, and audio/visual polish landed. Surprise: POWER-UPS! (magnet/health/poison trail) and new drops are live! 💫

⚔️ Combat Flow & Balance

• Enemy floods under control: There’s now a cap on the number of enemies on screen; reduces clumping, corner cheesing, and that “meat grinder in the middle” effect.

• Speed & vitality tuning: Normal/Tank/Elite speeds increased; unnecessary tankiness reduced.

• Gentler scaling: Per level and per unlock decreased. Fairer early game, challenge preserved later.

• Boss at minute 15 & 30: When a boss spawns, the field clears; “stutter” during boss arrival has been removed. This made players think the game is stuttering. That is why we want to remove it.

• Opposition multiplier toned down: Over-rewarding same-form kills is no longer a viable loophole.

• Anti-cheese behaviors: Updated wall/area pressure and pursuit logic to make endless kiting harder.

👹 Smarter Enemies & New Elite Mutations

• Added Mortar, Lightning Strike, Corruption/Radiant Trail, Hellfire Barrage, Ward Totems, Waller, Lifebond — each with an in-game info card.

• Lifebond stability improved (proximity/chain prioritization reworked).

• Special spawn indicator added; out-of-bounds spawns blocked.

• Exploders now truly explode (sorry, not sorry 😊).

• Fast enemies won’t get one-tapped as easily.

• All attacks and their icons reworked.

• Knives now home to the first target; fixed “stuck inside enemy” and ricochet “touring the map” issues. If no target, they fly straight and despawn.

🗡️ Abilities & Attacks – Rework Pack

• Triangle redesigned; accuracy and usefulness up.

• Dark Ground ↔️ Holy Sword pairing: area/duration balanced to match.

• Sphere: Split/explode bugs fixed; added on-orb indicator for detonation; form-swap now keeps owner correctly.

• Aura lifesteal one-off bug solved.

• Cooldown vs. Attack Speed separated cleanly; fixed the “feels like 2× faster” and “max cooldown halves itself” bugs.

• AoE pre-hit indicators added for readability.

• Fixed auto-attack lockups during Light/Dark swaps.

🎮 Controls & QoL

• Full gamepad integration.

• Light/Dark toggle and key remapping added.

• On level-up, keyboard/gamepad selection works; ESC exits consistently.

• When the game pauses, cooldowns pause too — now they actually do.

• Potion hotkey shown in the UI with a small reminder; flask counter (used/remaining) on screen.

🎓 Tutorial & Flow

• Tile painting examples corrected (kill Light on Dark ground with Light attack, and vice versa).

• Sun/Moon drops diversified; teaching Sun collectible explicitly.

• Region select UI clickability fixed after tutorial.

• Prologue has new music and shows once on your first run (then it’s tucked away). New video is on the way.

🖥️ UI/UX – Fresh Coat of Paint

• All-UI rework: disclaimer, pause, glory, and fail screens redesigned.

• Reel: Only upgrades in the pool are shown; the chosen one arrives last and snaps elegantly into its slot.

• Cooldown bar behavior: “Drop fast, fill slow” for better readability.

• Health bar is longer/more rectangular; when you gain max HP, there’s a bar stretch effect.

• Map tile possess ratio centered; tile click bugs fixed.

• Short introduction scene when entering a region.

• “Center of the Universe” now has a pulsing effect.

🔊 Audio & FX

• Attack SFX added; Light vs. Dark energy pickup sounds are now tonally distinct.

• EXP sound spam limited (when collecting 10+ at once, it consolidates).

• Heal text is smaller and fades faster; optionally replaced with a green flash to say “you’re healed.”

• Ground-painting particles feel more “spray” and read better.

• Blue edges on intro letters cleaned up.

🎁 Power-Ups & Drop Economy

• Magnet, Health Drop, Poison Trail are in!

• Drop chances by enemy type tuned (different rates for Normal /Fast /Tank /Elite /Boss).

• Bosses have a high chance to drop power-ups.

• Magnet pickup bug fixed.

• Enemy introductions now save to your file (collection progress persists).

🧰 Performance & Bug Hunt

• Fixed the take_damage overlap, max cooldown halving, knife stuck, ESC scattering knives, region UI half-dead, sphere/hitbox/pathing, and more.

• Performance gains via escort search optimization.

• Out-of-map spawns disabled; enemy-enemy collision improved.

• Skill roll screen glitches cleaned up.

🔢 By the Numbers

Spawn tempo (summary):

Normal: 1/sec → 2 every 5s; 1 every 30s; 3 every 45s.

Fast: 4 every 15s → 3 every 25s.

Elite: 1 every 150s, available from minute 3 (was minute 10).

HP scaling: Per level −50%, per unlock −50%.

Cooldown tweaks: Dark Axe / Dark Ground / Holy Sword CD↑; Light/Dark Knives CD↓.

Ricochet: Range limited; if no target, goes straight and despawns.

📌 What’s Next?

• The new prologue video,

• more enemy roles (shield-givers, pesky bead-throwers),

• mini-events,

• and QTE-style surprises.

We’ll keep iterating balance with your feedback. Tell us what you think

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