Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything, either here or on Kickstarter, and I apologize for that.
The last few months have been a mental hell, and it’s been very difficult not to fall into depression. I owe you an explanation before getting into this patch.

The studio is almost dead; I am now officially “alone.” The legal battles are finally over (at last), and I’ll talk about them when I have the courage. Slowly, I’m climbing back up.

Regarding the studio and “upcoming games,” none of our public-fund requests have succeeded, and Noreya’s sales are not doing great, which doesn’t help.

The few remaining members of the studio have now left, leaving me alone.

Fortunately, Lune (pixel artist/animations) and Sarys (audio/music) are still working with me on our next games under a different type of contract. The important thing is that we will continue making things together, on a smaller scale!

Also, I never introduced him, even though he’s been active on the forums for a while. You might come across Thelvaën, who is my partner in my other company and has helped a lot with the Linux/Steamdeck version. He’s also working with me on the console port (an article is coming!). There’s also Zeksa, my other partner, who is working on UpRunner and occasionally helps me with specific points.

So, as you can tell, it’s a challenging period, and it doesn’t make creating new patches or finishing Kickstarter rewards any easier. But as I’ve promised many times, no one will be forgotten!

That’s it for the “studio updates”; now you know the essentials. Let’s move on to the fun part of this post!

I’ve wanted to release a patch to fix some lingering bugs for a while.
While working on that, one morning during a discussion with Lune, we came up with a funny idea (and we both needed a laugh): to create a small Christmas event featuring our favorite pet: the saussage (our nickname for the “Dark Frogs”).

Here’s the result, with this incredible video she made last week (it took her three hours, even though it doesn’t seem like it!).
Noreya now has its first “event” achievement, which will be active throughout December and January: The Saussig Hunt.

Objective: kill 100 Frogs wearing Christmas hats!

If you enjoy this event, we’ll consider adding more in the future ^-^

This is what I love about programming—there are always more improvements to be made, even when you think you’ve reached the end!

This time, I found two optimizations for the game.
The first one involved not loading certain types of data (that was never visible) into the graphics card… A simple solution that no one had noticed until now.

The second improvement is a bit trickier to explain, but essentially, I managed to “cheat” graphically to reduce the number of instances generated for the environment.
The impact is unnoticeable in smaller rooms, but in the larger ones, I’ve managed to save between 300 and 500 instances (an instance is a kind of object duplicated in memory) per room!
That’s no small thing ^-^ (and the console port will appreciate it).

It’s hard to explain and simplify with just a few images, but at least you know that I’ve optimized performance again. I hope players with modest machines will benefit from it!

(Sharing this image again because it makes me laugh)
That’s it for the updates! I wish you all happy holidays—take care of yourselves; it’s important!

The article about the console port will be published in early 2025 to kick off the new year on a positive note!

Now, let’s move on to the patch notes.

Patch 1.3.37
Add:

• christmas saussig
  
• Improve general performances
  
• Improve a bit performance in big rooms (b2_05, b2_23_1/2, giant worm)

Bugs

• remove “G” key which open a menu but is not configurable
  
• fix room b_3_16_L bad configuration in the wave, error that block the game
  
• if the boss die at the same time than you, you survive
  
• rework the exit for giant worm so player cannot skip the loot
  
• some monsters spawn in walls

Hello everyone,

Today we have a new patch that fixes the final bugs and adds a few small improvements. This is part of the ongoing work to port the game to consoles and my desire to have a game with as few bugs as possible!

In this patch, we've mostly fixed things that weren't working properly or were a bit confusing. For example, the steles displayed on the world map are now lit when known, and greyed out when unknown.

Another important point is the Steam achievements—there were 3 achievements that could remain stuck: max life, max attack, and all steles.

Thanks to a player who was stuck with these achievements, I was able to conduct some tests and use a bit of "brute force" coding, which should now allow these achievements to be unlocked.

If you still have trouble unlocking them, feel free to open a ticket on the forum or discuss it with us on Discord, and I’ll explain the procedure to fix the problem.

Important: If you hadn’t unlocked the “teleportation” spell but were still able to use it, that was due to a bug. It’s now fixed, and you will need to unlock the spell in order to teleport from one statue to another.

Patchlog:
Fix:
- input binding screen for the keyboard was showing Inputs button
- fix achievement steles (memorials) count
- fix skeleton hands grabbing side
- fix items misplaced on map
- fix steles (memorials) not displayed correctly on the map
- fix some holes/mistakes in the worldmap
- fix OOB in b1_08 now linking
- fix falling pots in b2_05
-fix possible soft lock if no dash when going to b1_24
- fix some achievements cannot be obtained (or can be stuck) => max-attack / max-health
- fix typo french
- fix missing ceil in b3_08_L
- fix teleport statue bug (can teleport without the skill)
- fix ghost fusion
- fix boss 6 errors
- fix b2_20 giant worm chase does not trigger sometimes
- fix swordmaster skill with ghost
- fix save completion percent is not working correctly
- fix hemenis was taking double damage

Greetings,

Today I’ve uploaded patch 1.3.2, which brings a few changes and fixes.
Know that the console port is progressing; I’ve written an article that I need to finalize before publishing. I hope to be able to show you the game running on the Switch soon!



I’ve added a new Knockback skill to the neutral skill tree, which is relatively quick to unlock.
If you obtain both Knockback skills, the effects will be combined.
I hope this little addition will please the players who requested it as a "default," since it can be unlocked very quickly (after Crawler, it’s quite achievable).
It’s not my intention to have a character with "a lot of default stuff," and I want to keep a game that can be completed without needing a huge arsenal.
In my opinion, that’s one of Noreya’s great strengths.



Once again, I’ve made changes to the first zone to satisfy/reduce the frustration of new players after watching many live streams and reading articles.

It turns out that in the very first areas, there are the backers’ tombstones, which apparently tended to confuse players who didn’t participate in the campaign.
As a result, I’ve removed all the tombstones from this area and placed them in a dedicated map that contains all the tombstones in one place.

This map can still be easily found early in the game!

The second change to the first zone is that the underground section of the forest used to be one-way, which frustrated many people who couldn’t collect the heart tier on their first attempt.
I’ve added platforms that allow movement in both directions, which should reduce the number of players getting lost at the beginning of the game.



Similarly, I noticed that many players complained about not being able to heal during a boss fight, which is quite common in metroidvanias. In Noreya, there are moments to heal, but they are specific and only allow for one heal.
Therefore, I’ve decided to adjust the healing time based on the difficulty level, reducing the first heal by 0.5 seconds in normal mode!



I also took advantage of this update to add some gold nuggets in a few areas that were a bit too empty.

I’ve also increased the amount of gold given by certain rare monsters.
And that’s it for the key changes, here’s the full patch log!


Add/Improvements:

• change first area to remove tombs and allow both way in the underground forest
  
• add a dedicated map for the backers tombs
  
• change first heal speed
  
• add a new knockback skill in the skilltree

Fix:

• fix a critical error on boss 6
  
• fix markers reset after defeating a boss
  
• fix the teleportation to the statue can be used even if you don’t have the skill
  
• fix bug with the gamepad binding when playing with a PS5 controller
  
• fix missing “no respawn zone” in the first area, to avoid falling in loop into the spikes
  
• fix the default values for the outline setting which was not applied

Hello everyone,
I hope you're having a great vacation and enjoying your summer (hang in there if you're working like me ^^).
Today, we're delivering the new (and last?) major update of the game before fully focusing on the console versions.
It's quite difficult to stay motivated to improve a game that hasn’t found its audience, but I want to finish things properly, so I'll keep updating it as necessary.


It is now possible to configure the controller buttons. We've also restored the "B" button for "Back," but you'll need to go to the respective menu and hit "reset" as it's not set by default. :(

Teleportation to another statue now requires holding down X (which frees up the B button).


We've adjusted several attacks and hitboxes to make some bosses less unfair.
With the console version, I'll likely revisit the attack timings (especially for the Sword Master), and a PC update will follow at that time. But nothing is certain yet.
We've also modified the behavior of several enemies so they don't stay "on the edge of a platform," which made navigation difficult and sometimes forced you to take unfair damage.


We've added new sounds to the game, enhancing the feel of combat and actions.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list:

• Specific sound when swinging in the air
  
• Scream for the crazy zombie
  
• Sound when obtaining a hammer piece
  
• Forge completion sound
  
• Charging sound for statue destruction
  
• Teleportation sound
  
• Sound when the Golden Guardian hits a wall
  
• Sound when the Golden Guardian is scared
  
• Crawley’s scream at the start of the fight

We'll continue adding sounds as we identify any missing elements.
PS: We're also working on the final versions of the music tracks and their mixing.


The O and P options used for debugging are now disabled by default.
To reactivate them, you need to add the “debug-mode” option (without quotes) to the game’s launch parameters.

This prevents newcomers from accidentally stumbling upon these keys or trying to use them, ending up in debug mode.
In general, games don't offer this option, but I want to keep it because it’s useful for speedrunners and for identifying certain bugs more easily.


We’ve added a mode for those who wish to help improve the translations.
You first need to add the "translator-mode" option (without quotes) to the game’s launch parameters (Manage -> Properties -> General -> Launch options).

Then, you can access the following shortcuts:

• U to unlock all monsters
  
• I to unlock all steles
  
• K to display the next dialogue (as if interacting with a stele or statue)
  
• J to go back and display the previous one

Note that when this mode is active, achievements won’t be recorded. This mode is solely for verifying whether the texts display correctly, spotting errors, and speeding up the verification process.


We've once again improved the game's performance by tweaking some algorithms here and there and removing unnecessary elements.
We’ll release another patch to further enhance performance once the console version is completed!


I've received a lot of responses to the Kickstarter form since the last email (about a month ago), so I'll be processing the data again and sending out keys either at the end of this week or next week. If you haven't responded yet or if you'd like to switch to the PC version, don't delay! I often receive responses the day after sending out an email, which of course, makes you wait longer…

Next week, I'll post an article detailing how we’re handling the game's console porting. It will be quite technical and only in English, as there’s a lot of “technical jargon.”

Thank you all for your support and feedback ^-^ If you haven't done so yet, I encourage you to leave a rating on the Steam store! (And if you encounter an issue, please reach out on the forum or Discord so we can resolve it—I'm still very active on the game, and giving a negative rating for a fixable problem can be a bit discouraging.)



Adds/Improvements:

• Gamepad mapping
  
• General boss improvements
  
• New SFX and SFX changes
  
• Add Crawley SFX
  
• Add Gold Guardian SFX
  
• Change enemies behavior to not stay on the edge of a platform
  
• Gamepad B = back (but you have to go in the gamepad mapping menu and reset it)
  
• Animation when looting the soul of a Boss
  
• Add the input name in the SkillTree to summons the chakrams (R2)
  
• Improve performances specifically on the maps with the Giant Worm (specifically after the chase)
  
• translator mode
  
• debug mode
  
• slow down the sounds when the animation is also slower
  

Bugs fixed:

• save completion value was wrong
  
• save data was corrupted on death leading to incorrect states between the success and the data in the game
  
• fix a critical error when dying right after the boss death
  
• fix collisions with the giant worm (specifically around the tail) leading to incorrect collisions and damages
  
• attack damage was not correctly resets when starting a new game after loading a previous one
  
• make the ghost stop attacking when the fade animation is played (when attacking as in a physical form)
  
• fix Boss 3 Ghost particles
  
• fix hidden zone fades was not working as expected
  
• health was not correctly displayed after loading many saves
  
• missing sounds on the Dark Lady
  
• fix Bat flap sounds (and reduce the volume)
  
• fix a very specific case when the blocks in a chase-room was not saved and restored so it was not possible to get the power-up behind the walls

Hello,

A week after deploying patch 1.1, here we are already with patch 1.2! Indeed, a lot of things have been done since the release of the game, and not everything was ready for patch 1.1, which explains the short time between these two patches.

We have added a visual accessibility option in this patch, some visual and sound improvements, performance improvements on some problematic rooms in the "Catacombs" biome (I'm still trying to do better), an improved save system, and finally some bug fixes.

Let's dive right into these new features.



I personally have no problem seeing a small character with low contrast. But I absolutely understand feedback from players who would have liked a bigger, more visible character, etc.

Unfortunately, the graphical aspect of the game is entirely out of my control, as it is not my field of expertise. I am entirely dependent on what the team create.

This is also part of what you learn while making the game. AAA games offer a ton of accessibility options, small indies, not nearly as many. And it's for a good reason: It’s very time-consuming.

Anyway, we had an idea that should please many people. This option has several parameters to allow you to make the game fits what you want it to be

This "outline" option can be found in the accessibility menu.

Feel free to let us know if it’s good, if you’d like it bigger, or if you want other specific parameters (color, size of the outline, etc.).



If there’s one thing the game was missing, in my opinion, it’s visual effects when hitting monsters.

Unfortunately, even with a team of about ten people over three years, no one had a precise idea, and it was often a subject of disagreement, leading to a deadlock where the technical and art teams passed the subject back and forth, ultimately neglecting it.

The second issue with feedback stuff related, is that you quickly get used to what you have, and even if it’s minimal, you no longer notice it.

With the calm of summer and a bit of time to think and not rush, I had some ideas that we applied, and they are paying off. See for yourself.

Here’s what it looks like on normal monsters
And, the biggest improvement in my opinion, which will also provide much more understanding of "what’s happening," here’s what it looks like against ghosts when you try to attack them in physical form:
Additionally, the few monsters and bosses that have an invulnerable phase will now be much easier to read.
All monsters and bosses benefit from this improvement.

Moreover, we have also added dedicated sound effects when trying to hit a ghost without success, and another specific effect for attacking an armored monster in an untouchable phase.



This is a painful subject for me, but it must be admitted that the catacombs suffered from slowdowns, especially on certain specific rooms.

First of all, it’s important to know that this part of the game was perfectly smooth before the official release. What caused the slowdown was fixing some bugs and better controlling memory leaks, combined with the fact that some rooms are really, really large, pushing the limits and saturating the game both technically and graphically.

So, I’ll be honest. It’s not perfect yet. I say this because I know what I can do to further improve this area (and I will), but I wanted to have some improvements in this patch.

To explain a bit, Noreya uses a "tile" system, so a map is defined in terms of size by a height/width ratio, multiplied to get the total tiles.
Multiply that by the number of layers, and you realize there are a lot of objects to generate (and in some cases to manage).

The rooms b2_02, b2_05 were way too large, with more than 6000 tiles for b2_05. I reduced this room (and its level design) to fall under 4000.
Same for b2_02, I cut it a bit and reduced the number of things in it.

I took a lot of notes while performing that analyzing task, and I’ll make sure to apply as many optimizations as possible to the console port (this will also come to PC!).



Although I had already spent time developing a more robust system than what was in place, there were still issues. Either because the system locks access to the file (without knowing why), or because the game crash, or due to steam cloud conflicts.

Anyway, it needed improvement.

I have therefore improved the save system.
It will now automatically create a copy of the save each time it is written.
If it doesn’t succeed, it will try to name it differently.

Finally, when you launch the game, if the save is corrupted, it will try to read the copy, and if it still can’t, it will try to read the cache, alerting you that the save was corrupted and it is attempting to recover it!

If you still lose your save due to corruption, the game will save the content of a broken save in clear text.

Open a ticket on the forum or on Discord, and I will do my best to repair your save!

But honestly, I’ve stress-tested it for several hours doing all sorts of things, and the game has always managed to recover the save!


I would like to thank everyone who provides me feedback, whether positive or negative. I don’t plan to abandon the game like this, especially when small details spoil the overall picture.
And a big thank you to the testers and other players who help me test the beta versions!
It doesn’t seem like it, but that’s really what takes the most time in this phase of the game.

I think this was the last big patch of the summer, and now I will focus on the remaining bugs and the console port.
I will write specific dev blogs, but I have no idea when or what it will be about yet.


Improvements:

• healing speed reduced and reviewed, getting faster the more you chain heal
  
• new accessibility option to add an outline to the player and the monsters
  
• new sounds and visual feedback while attacking monsters, with a specific case for Ghosts and Armored monsters
  
• achievements sync with Steam has been reworked and should now work correctly even if it’s a new save
  
• save system has been improved to create and load automatically a backup
  
• improvement of the performances in the big big rooms of the catacombs
  
• add a sound when you destroy a statue
  
• play again the sound when offering gold to a statue
  
• reduced the ratio required to fully discover a room

Bugs fixed:

• fix some achievements
  
• progress of the save is now correct
  
• fix the button “next statue” for old saves
  
• don’t show the hammer button while under ghost form
  
• reset spider attack on enemies
  
• world map controls was not localized
  
• markers where shared between save
  
• stop vibration while changing a room
  
• healing in front of the forge instead of interacting with it
  
• various level art fixes
  
• various level design fixes
  
• fix many bugs related to the giant worm
  
• fix sounds bug with bats
  
• fix sounds bug with paramites
  
• fix many Salluste bugs

Greetings!

As the summer is gently coming around in the south France, the heat is not stopping us and we
keep improving the game and fixing bugs.

Today, we bring you the first major update since the official release of the game!

It has been difficult for me to read all the reviews and decide what I wanted to change. I aspire for Noreya to remain a “simple to pick up” game, and I understand that some people would like to have “everything from the start,” but that’s not my vision of a good video game.

In any case, this update should please many people!


In my opinion, this is the biggest failure of Noreya, as this boss was supposed to have a very “puzzle” aspect. In the end, it became a hit point sponge mixed with a platforming marathon. Despite this, I didn’t think it would be judged as so hard and unfair, since there are many torches that allow you to rest and explore the area in ghost form to prepare your path.

So, we have reworked it to offer several options to defeat it.

• there is now only one layer of destructible blocks, reducing the random aspect and allowing better memorization of the locations
  
• there are ghost tiles to create a “reminder” that this functionality exists, and that exploring in ghost form prevents you from being chased
  
• if you complete all the lights, the Worm will take a certain amount of damage relative to the difficulty level (30% on easy)
  
• touching the Worm will remove 6 hearts, allowing you to survive more than once (unless you arrive here with less than 6 hearts, but it’s not easy so the Worm shouldn’t be a problem)
  
• the Boss’s health bar indicates that you can deal damage to it, thus avoiding running in circles

All these modifications should allow you to better understand what is happening and to overcome it, either by attacking it, by lighting all the lights, or a mix of both (the most interesting in my opinion). This will also make the “perfection” achievement more accessible.

We have also worked on performance improvements specific to this fight.



This is something we wanted to do from the start, but due to time constraints and bugs, it was somewhat forgotten.

You can now place 50 markers on the map as you wish!


Thanks to a player idea, we added this small but nice feature in the "World Map" menu.
Just press a button and it will select automatically the next statue.

You can still move around and select by hand the statue you want, but in case you are lost or just prefer to use a simple button, you now have the choice! ^-^



It's the kind of changes which are quite risky and that's why we do not change it right after the first review, we take the time to analyze, test and look at player's videos and streams.

So we decided to reduce a little bit the time to heal. And to increase a little bit the immune duration after being hit.

Also, the contrast setting value is now by default at 50 (not for the old saves).

Finally, we adjusted some platforms tones in the assets, to make it more visible/readable.



This was something that was discussed within the team and wasn’t implemented initially. No one knew if it was “good or not,” as many games we draw inspiration from do not use this feature.

But the Giant Worm is one of the bosses for which having a visible health bar allows players to know that they need to deal damage to it. It also allows players to “hold on” when there’s little health left, providing a visible sense of progress on the screen.

I believe that nowadays, a health bar on bosses is something all games should have, as many players get frustrated and don’t retry even though they were almost successful.

I admit I was badly influenced as a designer by many titles that inspired me.

You can also note that the health bars of each boss in the game indicate the different phases if there are any.

We hope this new addition will be welcome and help you hold on against the terrible worm from hell ^-^!



Obtaining the true ending is intentionally tedious in Noreya. If it were enough to teleport to all the statues, it would be too easy; we might as well offer it directly when acquiring the items.

However, once acquired, we are limited in terms of teleportation choices, and I agree that it is tedious for no reason.

We have therefore decided to transform all destroyed statues into Aleph statues, but only once the true ending is unlocked!



This is something I felt was really missing in the game. We have now added vibration to the controller. It’s the kind of little thing you underestimate as a designer, and you realize how much it enhances the game once it’s integrated.



It’s not easy to find a date when you have children and many passions, ahah, but I’ve decided. It will be Thursday, July 25th, starting at 6 PM!

We will meet on the Studio’s channel, talk a bit about development, Kickstarter rewards, console porting, and then I will start a new game ^-^ This will be an opportunity for a Q&A session in a relaxed atmosphere.

Dreamirl Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/dreamirl



That’s all for the major changes in this patch. We still need to add the ability to configure controller buttons, which isn’t simple, but it will be available in the next patch, I hope!


Here is the detailed list.

• Boss life bar
  
• Giant worm rework + performance optimizations
  
• Add markers on the world map
  
• Gamepad vibrations
  
• You now must hold the button to destroy a statue and forge the hammer
  
• Retake on many rooms in the Ruins of Lemia to add some dark background behind the spikes (lack of readability)
  
• A few level-art fix
  
• Add a specific sound to the running zombie
  
• Gamepad disconnect trigger the pause menu
  
• Aleph statues will replace the destroyed ones after the true ending is unlocked
  
• Shortcut button to select automatically the next statue
  
• Add a "save lost" warning when quitting the game
  
• Add a "die" option on the menu to force our character death

• attack damage up to 18000
  
• Golden Widow camera lock if it dies to quickly and in some other situations
  
• Hit Flash reveals secret zones
  
• Sword Master can go through the walls while dashing
  
• Destroyed statue sound replay when entering the room
  
• Game crash if opening the world map while changing a room at a specific timing
  
• Ghost monsters do not display as a Ghost if they spawn while we are already in a Ghost form
  
• Giant Worm going through Halo / stuck
  
• Final Boss projectiles sounds bug
  
• optimization in menus
  
• fix some maps with a wrong layer contrast
  
• fix many small spiders wrong offset/direction on init
  
• fix player being able to open map and skillTree during a cutscene

Hello everyone,
While waiting for the next patch we have a good news to share.

We love pixel art games, and we know you do too. So, let’s celebrate together 🎉

We’re super excited to share that Noreya: The Gold Project joins PixElated Festival next week!
This festival is featuring some of the best pixel art games on Steam.

From retro-style classics to contemporary indie gems all in one place!

There will be ✨ discounts ✨ live streams ✨ art contest ✨ demos✨ developer chats ✨ all centred around your favorite games.


Check out the official line-up and more information about the event here: http://pixelatedfest.com/


We will be streaming the game during the event, but also this Thursday 25th around 6PM CET on Twitch, talking about gamedev stuff and the rewards of the Kickstarter event.


The PixElated Festival sounds like an awesome pack of indie games and I'm excited to discover all those new games and try some demos.

See you there!

Almost two weeks have passed since the official release, and I have been very happy to watch plenty of streams, videos, feedback, and reviews.

While some people do not appreciate the simplicity and mobility offered by the game, many players have achieved 100% completion and overall enjoy the experience, with speedruns starting rules the game and post new records.

Although I am convinced that each game is different and cannot please everyone, Noreya was designed to be accessible in terms of difficulty and navigation within the world.
The comparison to the two major titles that everyone uses as a reference is enough to objectively compare the relevant points.
In this sense, I will not make hasty changes to please a few peoples, in the first 30 minutes of gameplay.
Noreya will offer you a unique experience (which I believe is very good) but not in such a short time.

However, with the game's release, many interesting suggestions have been made! ANd if you've been reading the dev blogs, you know I like to include player's ideas.
Some are already implemented in this new patch, and others are coming.

Let's talk about it, you know the format (and if you are new here, welcome! I invite you to read the previous ones).



This is the kind of thing that makes the art team cry of pain, but many of you have asked for something to be done. So we have added two things.

- You now have access to a contrast adjustment from the “accessibility” menu, which will affect the background layers.
Here’s a small sample in 3 images.
- All foreground layers are now slightly transparent, which greatly improves readability when certain decor elements pass in front.
Why did we choose opacity instead of redoing all the foregrounds? Because it’s faster, it maintains a sense of “things passing in front” while preserving readability.
In my opinion, it was the best choice to make.


We have read that the beginning of the game was judged too hard and unfair, and that it didn’t showcase what the game offers.

From what I understand, the quantity of monsters, but especially the presence of ghostly monsters, was problematic because encountering monsters that cannot be defeated is unusual, and many of you were forcing against them.

So, I decided to reduce their number and add “cages” around them to reduce the punitive aspect of the levels concerned.

Also, I even added small rewards for those who venture into that area.
The addition of cages should help new players understand that the game contains new mechanics for later, but also that these monsters cannot pass through.

Initially, this was something reserved for the Ruins of Lemia, but the impatience of new players didn’t allow them the time to get there.

I don’t know if this will be enough; it’s complicated to offer more without destroying the way the world is designed. I remain vigilant to feedback and continue to think about it.



Just below the hearts and fragments, we have added swords for each boost you have collected in the world.

Note, this does not take into account skills or boss souls collected.

Without going into full detail, here is a non-exhaustive list of what will be added:

When the team was working on the project, no one knew if we should add it or not. Based on some Metroidvanias, the team voted no.

With the hindsight of the game's release, and especially because of the “Giant Worm,” I thought it was worth adding a health gauge that will provide a reference point during this misunderstood marathon and an indicator of what needs to be done.

As a player, I have experience with games that offer a health bar and those that do not (without any visual degradation), and I don’t think it’s an addition that will denature the game, so let’s go for it!


This was something I wanted to do, but we were already struggling to meet deadlines and release the game without it being a bug party (and there are still bugs).
So this feature will be released very soon!

It will make map exploration easier with the aids that already exist ^-^


This is a feature that has been suggested on reddit.
And no one in the team had thought of: “the ability to automatically select the next available statue to teleport to.”

The only complexity is choosing which button to use because there are already quite a few things ^^’ but aside that, it’s not very complicated to implement.


A recurring topic, and it’s not that easy.

Several weeks have already been lost on this subject. I’ll see if it’s possible to try again, this time successfully o/



I have seen too many games become “bad” because the development team followed a few complaints about frustration and difficulty.

Don't get me wrong, it's not an easy topic. And it is important, as a designer, to put things into perspective and be objective.

As you know, I like to share with you the experience of creating a game in all its facets, and a few people have asked us to have several skills “by default” in the game, without spending 1 hour, so let's take a quick tour.


The obvious comparison with this one is “Hollow Knight”. Indeed in HK you have it from the beginning, but you also suffer from it, which causes your character to gradually move back, putting you in trouble on platforms.

Also, the HK character is much slower and less responsive than Kali.

Adding this skill at the beginning of the game would make it thoughtless, creating a "run and gun" attack button would be enough to get out of all situations, rather than moving, thinking about the movement to make, and understanding the enemies.

Therefore, it will not be unlocked at the beginning.
Step back, attack again, this is enough to beat the game trust me.


I don’t know if this request comes from the fact that it’s the first skill obtained in Hollow Knight or that some games offer a roll/dodge from the start (with a strong Souls-like presence).

But in Noreya, it will take you about 2 hours to unlock the dash (unless you explore each area as soon as possible), and having it will open many passages.

The dash in Noreya is a movement ability rather than a combat one because the character’s natural mobility doesn’t need a dash against any enemy.

Most of the time moving from left to right is enough to dodge, or a well-placed small jump.

Anyway, offering such a combat-oriented skill at the beginning of the game would ruin almost all the monster patterns, as they were designed around the game as it is right now.

In a game like Blasphemous, for example, monsters were designed with the player’s ability to parry and dodge in mind. If you miss this feature, take a break and analyze the monsters giving you troubles.

You’ll quickly find a solution! (rushing in doesn’t work very well at the beginning of the game btw!)


In my opinion, it’s the “hard” mode that should be renamed to normal because reappearing at the beginning of the level is clearly not the norm.

You should know that the difficulty modes in Noreya do not affect the monsters or exploration.
Only the bosses’ health, health recovery (via loot in pots), and the purchase of skill points are affected. Everything else is the same.

If you struggle on normal, try the game on easy; you’ll see that there’s no big difference, but you can recover up to 3 hearts at each map transition for free, allowing you to rush more at the beginning of the game without being punished.

After a few hours of play and obtaining automatic regeneration and life steal, no matter the difficulty mode, it’s no longer a big issue.

I’m rather bad as a player, so I designed an easy mode “for myself,” and I rush the game without thinking on easy.
The normal mode requires me to concentrate more, and the hard mode, in my opinion, is the equivalent of Hollow Knight (for my skill at least).


The famous ghosts that cannot be killed until you find “the holy skill”.
I understand that this is frustrating, especially in an era where games give you everything from the start, and in my opinion, it would be a total waste of pleasure to give the ghost skill at the beginning of the game.

Sure, it might highlight this original feature more.

But what a loss of flavor, after struggling through so many maps, you get the power to get revenge, and the game reveals itself from another angle (puzzling).

At the beginning of the development, the path to reach the Dark Lady was much longer and without indication! That was really tough.
Over the years, we have always wondered whether we should put this feature at the beginning of the game or not, and although people who test the game for 1 hour (via the demo or purchase before refunding) will never see this feature, it would be, in my opinion, a pure waste to unlock it earlier.

Noreya doesn’t want to play the “wow” card that everyone is playing those days; we want it to take its time, like savoring a good meal.

Also, the rework that I've done to the first area in the Forest should help understanding this kind of monsters, and reduce the frustration hopefully.


From what I remember, these are the main points that come to my mind.
And I know that some people will not agree with what I write here! No problem, we are free to have opinions and respect them ^-^

As a designer we have to take decisions and many time the team was unsure.
I absolutely made sure not to create a Souls-like, as it is trendy, because it’s too hard (for me) and requires too much investment for many people (like parents, yes I am also one of them) who don’t have 200 hours to spend in a game to beat a boss (no the Giant Worm do not requires so much time, yes it is long, bug you can breath in the light as much as you want).


There are frustrating things, but they have a reason to be.

If you don’t enjoy your experience with the game and you chose normal mode, then switch to easy. In this mode, run and gun is much more forgiving.



We made a few adjustments to the bosses, beyond fixing bugs.

- Salluste now projects shockwaves on the ground, which reduces mindless brute force attacks!
- The Giant Worm has had its health reduced by almost 20% again!

The other bosses have not undergone changes except for bug fixes.



Although this topic was addressed before the official release, during very long game sessions and "100%" playthroughs, there are still some issues that we are resolving little by little (thanks to the players who lend us their saves for testing!).

First, the world map exploration has been modified to mark a map as "fully explored" once you have seen a certain percentage of its area.
This will clear all fog history and help lighten the save file.
We have also revised the fog code to make fewer memory footprints, which should help as well.

On the memory leaks side, there were still a few that had little impact in small quantities, but after going through a hundred maps, they became problematic.

And it was mainly the particles that were causing issues! Although there are still and always will be possible improvements, the game will stabilize over time. This only concerns a small number of players who push the game to its extreme corners! But I would like it to be possible to complete the entire game in one go, without a break. So we will continue tracking in this direction!



It's been a long time since I launched a stream, I don't have a specific date in mind yet, but I think I'll launch one sometime in July!

We'll talk about development, Q&A, Kickstarter, and I'll play a bit of Noreya, probably on hard mode, to get my butt kicked (or not), go for a no-death run on hard? Let’s go!



The eternal bug fixing! New people report small issues here and there, even though the game is quite stable.

We haven't been idle despite my vacation huhu, here is the patch log that concludes this post!


Improvements/Changes:

• The Start button on the controller now removes the Pause menu
  
• Reduced the Giant Worm's health (again)
  
• Bats now bounce on trampolines to avoid getting stuck in them
  
• Added an option to skip the animation for karma and world change
  
• Added a contrast option in the accessibility menu
  
• Added a sliding sound on slopes (it was forgotten D: )
  
• Dash attack now requires an attack to be activated
  
• Salluste now projects shockwaves on the ground
  
• The knockback force was too strong on flying enemies
  
• A map will be fully revealed after a certain completion percentage to validate that you have seen everything and reduce the save file size
  
• More enemies are affected by the Golden Widow’s skill
  
• Modified the entrance/exit of the soul devourer’s map
  
• Added “atk+” in the interface

Bugs:

• Items on the map are correctly displayed when you have the respective skill
  
• The value for the number of attack points was “undefined” and not “3” (that’s what happens when you make fixes right before going on vacation… -_- ).
  
• Strange bug when dying at the same time a door is opened by a Garzul
  
• No damage taken after defeating the true ending
  
• Problem with multiple interactions with the forge
  
• Many sound issues with the Soul Cleaver and the Golden Widow
  
• Golden Widow getting stuck in some cases / the camera not locking properly
  
• Fixed a specific FPS problem with Boss 6 in a certain case
  
• Fixed several bugs with the Giant Worm, notably the Halo not resetting properly
  
• Improved mouse/keyboard sync for navigating menus when switching between the two
  
• The final boss door would lock if you quit the game on a specific frame
  
• The Golden Guardian Boss music not stopping when you die during the fight
  
• Chakrams could hit bosses from very far away
  
• The camera not repositioning correctly if you pause at a precise moment
  
• Basic attack damage should no longer exceed 100 (for new saves)
  
• Particles still visible after destroying a statue

Hello everyone,

Quick patch before I leave for my vacations I was supposed to take already lol (I leave tomorrow so this time, it's the last patch before I'm back !!).

Through the weekend I've been testing many things, my mate was able to produce a few builds and it worked, finally!

While the Valve's team is reviewing this again, you can apply the compatibility option yourself to run it "as is" with the gamepad support.
CF: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1760330/discussions/0/3943524562543076483/


We were getting a few issues with some achievements, it's now solved.

Just load your best save to unlock wise and attack (if you have enough to unlock it of course).
And for the God of Greed, you must defeat again.


Some visual glitch was happening with the darkness, we made new optimization before the release but this caused new issues depending on your resolution.

The glitch about the darkness is now fixed.

For the others stuttering and artifacts, we are working on it but as the game is in pixel-art and we use the zoom, we cannot make magic by dividing pixels lol.
Looking for a solution to improve this.

[2]Balance[/h2]
I've been watching many of you playing along the weekend, a few already made it through the true ending!! GG.

But after looking a lot of "average players" (and not hardcore/speedrunners) I decided to drop the prices of skillpoints and increase the amount of gold you get by defeating enemies and collecting golden gems.


Hopefully with those new values the game will be much more enjoyable from the start.

The game offers the technical possibility to add or remove monsters depending on your progression state.

It is something that I wish I could have done everywhere before the release, but the game is massive and with more than 230 maps, it takes time.

In this patch I changed the Forest balance by removing some early enemies, but adding much more when you came back.



That's it for today, thanks everyone !