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 lunch with fern instead. As such this took quite a bit longer to write so apologies for that!
• [spoiler]We went to Judgement and told Emelio we wanted things to be this way.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Rhode[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]--> We fought Rhode and won in combat.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]---> We killed Rhode.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]---> We did not kill Rhode.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]--> We fought Rhode and lost in combat.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]---> We never moved during the encounter.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Fern.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]We went to Judgement and told Emelio we didn't want things to be this way.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Rhode.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]--> We treated her badly.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Fern[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]--> We treated her badly.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]We didn't go to Judgement.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Rhode.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]--> We treated her badly.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]--> We treated her well.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Fern[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]--> We treated her badly.[/spoiler]
• [spoiler]--> We treated her well.[/spoiler]

Bug Fixes



• The Steamdeck version no longer crashes on startup under some configurations.
• The Linux version no longer crashes on startup under some configurations.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues on our official Discord at https://discord.gg/piratesoftware
• There is a channel called #heartbound-ticket where you can report stuff!
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.

[ 2025-05-02 01:59:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

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 [spoiler]Rhode.[/spoiler] This has been spoilered for those of you that don't want to know. [spoiler]We went to Judgement and told Emelio we wanted things to be this way.[/spoiler] [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Rhode[/spoiler] [spoiler]--> We fought Rhode and won in combat.[/spoiler] [spoiler]---> We killed Rhode.[/spoiler] [spoiler]----> We destroyed the flower crown.[/spoiler] [spoiler]---> We did not kill Rhode.[/spoiler] [spoiler]----> We were bit during the encounter.[/spoiler] [spoiler]--> We fought Rhode and lost in combat.[/spoiler] [spoiler]---> We never moved during the encounter.[/spoiler] [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Fern.[/spoiler] [spoiler]We didn't go to Judgement.[/spoiler] [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Rhode.[/spoiler] [spoiler]--> We treated her badly.[/spoiler] [spoiler]--> We treated her well.[/spoiler] [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Fern[/spoiler] [spoiler]--> We treated her badly.[/spoiler] [spoiler]--> We treated her well.[/spoiler] [spoiler]We went to Judgement but told Emelio we didn't want things to be this way.[/spoiler] [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Fern.[/spoiler] [spoiler]-> We went to lunch with Rhode. [/spoiler] [spoiler]The ARG has also been updated to the next step.[/spoiler] The Steam version of the game has also been fixed in this next update. Also, as a point of clarity for those that are upset at my streaming schedule and the games I play on there. I run a company of 15 people and a ferret rescue of 60+ animals. If this indie game could pay for it all I definitely would just be doing this. It cannot and has never been able to. The stream and the community that supports me streaming -allows- me to work on this game and accomplish all of the objectives I set out to do. Stay Frosty.

[ 2025-04-22 03:10:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

The next update should drop on the 5th of April. 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!

[ 2025-04-03 17:57:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

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 release story segments for The Clash each week going forward instead of as a monthly update. That way this area comes out quickly and people can play around with it.

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 Artifact in some areas.
• Some things in Animus are now remembered.
• All memories have been forgotten.
• All changes from Patch 1.0.9.64 have been merged into the public branch.

Bug Fixes



• Text has been updated to reflect you carrying a singular duck in a bathroom.
• There is no longer an incorrect audio check when music has ended.
• Steamdeck will now be more stable when dealing with audio assets.
• Steamdeck will now be more stable when dealing with large texture pages.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues on our official Discord at https://discord.gg/piratesoftware
• There is a channel called #heartbound-ticket where you can report stuff!
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.

[ 2025-03-02 11:28:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

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 will allow you to enable/disable graphical information.
• There is a Keyboard/Controller input display on the top left that shows last hit key.

Known Issues



• RURU language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
• Our translator lives in Moscow and cannot be paid due to the war.
• Once we have a way of fixing this the RURU translation will move forward.

Changed Content



• # has been added to the Heartbound font.
• Sheldons storyline has been extended.
• Country Locale codes have been replaced with localized language names.
• A Quit button has been added to the menu with an "Are you sure?" option.
• An end is no longer the end.

Bug Fixes



• The Pocketwatch is no longer on the wrong layer after a sequence in the mines.
• It is no longer possible to softlock by talking to Sheldon while he leaves the house.
• It is no longer possible to softlock by answering a question in the same frame it was asked.
• The credits text no longer fail alignment if you pause during it.
• Fern no longer talks outside the box when it all goes wrong.
• # in names no longer cause newlines on the credits screen.
• A textbox in lunch rush no longer breaks out of bounds
• The pause menu no longer shows the room behind it along the edges while moving.
• Lighting no longer remains on characters when a light is turned off while they stand in a lightsource.
• The game no longer crashes on September 2nd every year.
• The achievement "Engage Headbutts" can now be obtained.
• Multiple names have been changed in the credits per request.
• The client no longer crashes during Rhodes bite mini-game.
• Fixed audio memory issue in numerous rooms.
• Fixed lighting related memory issue in Act 1.
• Fixed lighting related memory issue in Animus Mines.
• Lore can no longer get stuck in a loop intermittently in Animus.
• Fixed multiple performance related issues on Steam Deck.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues on our official Discord at https://discord.gg/piratesoftware
• There is a channel called #heartbound-ticket where you can report stuff!
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.

[ 2025-02-01 21:50:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=G5Q0dpU_zU0;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2025-01-19 23:57:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

These patch notes are totally real. You can trust me. ( ) Check out the daily streams on Twitch. You can now also watch on YouTube!

Known Issues



• There are no issues.

New Content



• Text has been removed from the game. We've replaced all of the text with cinematics. Each of these will be cut into quarters where each quadrant will be the days most popular TikTok video. We find that this increases player retention dramatically.
• There are now ads between each room. Game development is hard and expensive. Ads allow us to keep making the game to the quality we have been. Running ads between each room just makes cents.
• You can now buy Baron as a micro-transaction.
• The Demo is now only $100 and localized pricing has been removed.
• A VPN is now required to play Heartbound.
• Heartbound is now sponsored by Kernel Level Anti-Cheat. Yes, all of them!
• LOOT BOXES IN BIO
• Each chapter is now a DLC sold for only $15.99.
• The previously mentioned DLC is actually a monthly subscription.
• The monthly subscription does not include the battlepass.
• All socks are now NFTs. Blockchain. Ownership. Money. Web3. Crypto. Investment.
• All art is now AI generated which is clearly better than stinky old human hand made art.
• The OST has been removed and replaced with exclusively Mongolian throat singing.
• Heartbound is now a AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA game. The first of its kind.
• Heartbound has been renamed to Y to follow the great example set by X.
• There is now a $0.99 microtransaction fee to respawn after losing a fight.
• Y now has a new Pay Per Step system! PPS is very innovative.
• Single Player now requires online access at all times.
• Battle Royale mode has been released. Where we droppin?
• Y requires 5 Factor Authentication for your account to be approved.
• Y now has extreme time-limited Twitch drops. FOMO is fun!
• Y now has a TOS that you must agree to... or else.
• There are a number of new dance emotes in the cash shop.
• There are now hundreds of new hats in the Gacha system.
• All purchases must now be made with Y-Coin a new cryptocurrency minted today.
• Bees.

Bug Fixes



• There are no bugs. I am a perfect programmer. ( )

Bug Reporting



• There are no bugs to report so you cannot. ( )

Upcoming Content



• This is all the content you need.

[ 2024-04-01 08:08:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Merry Christmas!!! This is the last bug-fix patch before a major content push. There was a ton wrong with our Steamdeck builds and this should resolve most of them. This was over 160 tickets of issues all drilled into a month and a half so we should be stable for the foreseeable future! If you're still having issues on Deck please make sure you're running the game at 60fps on the latest firmware. The Demo will be updated in the next few days as well. I wanted to get a content patch out this month but the community has increased over 50x due to an explosion of our YouTube content. This took a lot of management and time to batten down the hatches and get everything organized. As a studio we're WAY stronger now as a result and there are so many of you here and enjoying the game that it's overwhelming. Thank you for everything and I hope you enjoy what comes next. Check out the daily streams on Twitch. You can now also watch on YouTube!

Known Issues



• RURU language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
• Our translator lives in Moscow and cannot be paid due to the war.
• Once we have a way of fixing this the RURU translation will move forward.
• If you are triggering piracy detection on Linux or Deck please uninstall and reinstall the game.

New Content



• The Settings menu now has an option to disable/enable wiggle text.
• New facial expressions have been added for Sheldon.
• New facial expressions have been added for Shelly.
• Sheldons Stroll cutscene has been updated with better effects.
• Shellys Stroll cutscene has been updated with better effects.
• The Pause Key can now be used to Pause the game in addition to Escape.
• Spacebar can now be used to accept things and move conversations forward.
• Hitting Cancel on controller while on the close menu button now closes the menu.

Bug Fixes



• PC and Linux no longer crash by spamming controller inputs.
• Steamdeck no longer crashes on startup intermittently.
• Steamdeck now has improved performance.
• Steamdeck asset caching has been improved in all environments.
• Steamdeck lighting performance has been improved.
• Steamdeck OLED no longer crashes by spamming controller inputs.
• A number of Shellys animations are now on the correct texture page.
• Rotating text has been slowed down to be more readable.
• Cleaned up some PT-BR translation errors.
• Cleaned up some JA-JP translation errors.
• Cleaned up some ES-MX translation errors.
• The third eyeball in the Barghest encounter is now visible.
• A hidden page in the Darkworld is now visible.
• A textbox should no longer remain forever in the mines.
• Mushrooms no longer appear on top of Lore.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues on our Discord in the Heartbound-Ticket channel.
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
• The next step is the resolution of the Mossbacks family quarrels.
• After this Animus will be completed.

[ 2023-12-25 14:39:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's time for the Steam Awards again and this year Heartbound is up for the Labor of Love award! We've been updating Heartbound for a number of years now and I'm excited to get everything fully finished and out there next year. During this event we've put the game on sale for 20% off and I hope all of you new players have a blast. You can find the stream on Twitch or YouTube! You can also join the community on Discord! Have a great holiday and stay tuned for what comes next! :HBHeart:

[ 2023-11-22 13:08:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

v 1.0.9.62
As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch.

Known Issues



• RURU language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
• Our translator lives in Moscow and cannot be paid due to the war.
• Once we have a way of fixing this the RURU translation will move forward.

New Content



• Shelly has new talky animations.
• Shelly has new standy animations.
• Shelly's storyline has been finished. This portion of Animus is finally complete. Both Shelly and Sheldon have 36+ possible routes in their respective rooms for the Forest Stroll section. There are only a handful of rooms left in Animus before we move on to Jotunheim. Estimated release date for Animus is now December 2023. Will let you know if that changes as we get closer but I doubt it will!

Bug Fixes



• Multiple dialog errors have been fixed in French.
• Multiple dialog errors have been fixed in English.
• Muspelheim no longer crashes the client.
• The credits no longer crash the client.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
• You can also send these to GoPirateSoftware@Gmail.com
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
• The next step is the resolution of the Mossbacks family quarrels.
• After this Animus will be completed. We're targeting December 2023!

[ 2023-10-03 14:08:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch.

Known Issues



• RURU language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
• Our translator lives in Moscow and cannot be paid due to the war.
• Once we have a way of fixing this the RURU translation will move forward.

New Content



• Pending Valves review Heartbound should now be fully compatible with Steam Deck. I will put out an announcement when they approve us!
• Forest March has been added to the OST.
• Miserable Manic Shadows has been added to the OST.
• Meandering Shadows has been added to the OST.
• Shelly has a number of new talky animations.
• Shelly's storyline has been extended. This isn't the entire storyline but it's a good start for her personality. I'm pretty happy with the direction for now and will continue fleshing it out this month. By the end of the month I plan to have the game in the next environment dealing with Ramul/Reme. Should be a lot of heavy story as it's the final step before the end of the chapter.

Bug Fixes



• New detections have been made for a certain kind of player. ( )-- (_)
• The OST now plays in the correct order when launching it through Steam. This is actually a Steam bug and required every song to have the track number placed before the title.
• The D-Pad no longer breaks if you Pause the game on Steam Deck using the power button and then resume the game.
• The D-Pad no longer breaks if you use Volume Up/Down on Steam Deck. Another steam bug this time dealing with Key IDs. If you're a developer out there Steam Deck appears to use Virtual Keypresses that return an ID of 0. Don't swap control types on 0 inputs and it should fix this right up. Additionally you should also not swap inputs on Media Keys which are 173-179.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to @piratesoftware.
• You can also send these to GoPirateSoftware@Gmail.com
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.

[ 2023-09-08 17:25:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=t4HwTWq93ZM;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-09-08 17:25:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch.

Known Issues



• RURU language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
• Our translator lives in Moscow and cannot be paid due to the war.
• Once we have a way of fixing this the RURU translation will move forward.

New Content



• Sheldons storyline has been finished and implemented. There are a few different routes here and it took some time to get it feeling right. Really happy with the outcome. As a writer I have found Sheldon and Shelly to be the most difficult to write for. I have very little personal experience that relates to their personalities and life perspective. They have ideas and behaviors far outside of what is normal for me. To help out with this I talked to a lot of people I know that have similar feelings to these characters. The more I learn about people the easier it is to write a facsimile of them effectively. Hope you like how it's come together!

Bug Fixes



• The Heartbound font is no longer haunted.
• Shelly and Sheldon no longer vibrate off the screen when angry.
• The French translation has had a pass to add correct accent marks.
• It is no longer possible to break a textbox in the Iron Mines.
• 'Fixed' a pixel on the volume slider. ( )

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
• You can also send these to GoPirateSoftware@Gmail.com
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.

[ 2023-08-02 05:56:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=mdV_CLBG3hs;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-07-11 08:18:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=oN6PSnBVEuk;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-07-11 08:16:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch.

Known Issues



• RURU language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
• Our translator lives in Moscow and cannot be paid due to the war.
• Once we have a way of fixing this the RURU translation will move forward.

New Content



• Sheldons storyline has been extended. Right now this is a test to see how it feels narrative wise. If this works out I will be finishing off this branch and then doing the same for Shelly. Right now this is about 1/3rd of the conversation with Sheldon but the rest is already written. There are a bunch of routes here based on how you've played through Animus. There are also different routes based on your choices with Sheldon. After these sections are done we only have a few more rooms in Animus. Until finalization this entire section is in English only.
• A Twitch button has been added to the main menu. Development streams happen every Monday-Saturday from 1:00AM PDT to around 8:00AM PDT. Thor talks about game development, life, the universe, and everything in-between. While the grand majority of Heartbound is developed off stream this is a great place to ask questions. That being said from June 1st to around June 8th Thor is just playing Diablo 4 on there. He worked at Blizzard Entertainment for 7 years and Diablo is his favorite IP. Demon killing vacation is the best vacation.
• A Discord button has been added to the main menu. We're at almost 5,000 active members in the Discord now! Tons of players didn't realize we had this place setup. Hopefully this new button fixes that.
• A YouTube button has been added to the main menu. The channel has a lot of gameplay videos for different releases. We also put the monthly update videos here!
• PT-PT is now a disabled option on the Language menu. This is actively being worked on so I hope you all enjoy it when we're done!
• FAN is now a disabled option on the Language menu. Eventually we plan to release a Fan Translation system. This should let you put in your own translation for the game. It's far off and something we plan to release after the full launch.
• A new song appears in the latest cutscene.
• A new song is now in the OST.
• # has been added to the Heartbound font.
• A number of facial expressions have been added for Sheldon.
• Full Steamdeck Support has been added!
• Full PS4 and PS5 Controller support.

Bug Fixes



• The Pocketwatch is no longer on the wrong layer after a sequence in the mines.
• It is no longer possible to softlock by talking to Sheldon while he leaves the house.
• It is no longer possible to softlock by answering a question in the same frame it was asked.
• The credits text no longer fails alignment if you pause during it.
• Fern no longer talks outside the box when it all goes wrong.
• # in names no longer cause newlines on the credits screen.
• A textbox in lunch rush no longer breaks out of bounds
• The pause menu no longer shows the room behind it along the edges while moving.
• Lighting no longer remains on characters when a light is turned off while they stand in a lightsource.
• Screenshakes no longer break lighting in Animus.
• The cursor no longer goes under the Language menu.
• Fixed an animation pop for Sheldon when turning.
• Fixed an animation pop for Shelly when turning.
• 'Fixed' a pixel on the volume slider. ( )

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
• You can also send these to GoPirateSoftware@Gmail.com
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.

[ 2023-06-01 19:19:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=q9TSMeIm528;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-05-08 05:06:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=1bossFo8a1I;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-04-06 01:15:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch. Took a bit to get this out but it includes a lot of under the hood stuff. With the pause menu in place the only thing left now is chapter content. Making these changes will help our studio for every game that comes after Heartbound too! Hope you all enjoy the update! After this we are moving a monthly release cadence in line with the monthly YouTube update videos. From now until full launch we're running towards the goal and making sure you get what you've paid for. Thank you for all of the support along the way. With April so close the next update will be on May 1st! Looking forward to your feedback!

Known Issues



• RURU language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.
• Our translator lives in Moscow and cannot be paid due to the war.
• Once we have a way of fixing this the RURU translation will move forward.

New Content



• You can now meet the Mossbacks and start their storyline.
• Rhodes storyline is now different when it all goes wrong.
• There is now a settings menu for keybinds and volume that can be activated at ANY time.
• The following symbols were added to the Heartbound font. `=[]
• You now remember a joke about a seat for a later time.
• There is now new dialog in a dead timeline.
• The Heart on the main menu has been improved.
• Wooden signs now have a Talky animation.
• A joke about bags of farts has been updated.
• There is now a save point in front of the Mossbacks house.
• Conversations can now be dynamically interrupted.
• A bow tie can now be in Lores room.
• There are now socks in Animus.
• Many Animus characters have more talky animations.
• Shelly and Sheldon have new walking up animations.
• The backgrounds for the disclaimer rooms are now black.
• The disclaimer scene has been moved for non-Russian languages.

Bug Fixes



• A number of textboxes now appear at the bottom of the screen in Hometown.
• Lores textboxes now appear over his healthbar in combat.
• Boss textboxes now appear over their healthbar in combat.
• Rhodes textboxes now appear over [REDACTED] during something terrible.
• Text systems will now use much less CPU.
• The Barghest fight will no longer continue fighting on a killing blow.
• Some laundry can now be interacted with from the bottom.
• Lore will no longer flash for one frame when entering his house.
• It is no longer possible to softlock in Emelio's house.
• The lighting in Emelio's home is now on the right layer.
• Fern and Rhodes portraits now appear on the correct sides during a talk at the bridge.
• Rhode no longer double talks during something terrible.
• Borders in Rhodes minigames no longer vibrate due to floating point errors.
• Rhodes storyline now has better texture page management for improved performance.
• An ant trail now correctly extends beyond the treeline.
• Gizmo's talkable box has been tightened to his model.
• The Factus's talkable box has been tightened to its model.
• Pool Pal Paul now throws a locket over a ladder instead of under it.
• Avocados portrait is now on the correct side if you select too many wrong answers while fishing.
• OScar now correctly notices when you don't feed all the employees.
• Damaged crops now correctly save to the save file.
• The Pocketwatch no longer goes behind environment objects.
• The Pocketwatch now remains visible when visiting the Mossbacks.
• Vertical lighting is now calculating distance correctly.
• Vertical lighting now cuts off at the edges of the light.
• Lighting now casts on entities even in light bypass mode.
• Lighting now exists in Lores livingroom again.
• Texture memory is now flushed at the start of each room for improved performance.
• Screenshakes can no longer migrate the camera permanently.
• Heartbound now installs VC++ ReDist 2022 to prevent Steam from thinking you're a pirate.
• The save file no longer contains Scientific Notation at values above 1,000,000.
• Updated the social media accounts at the early access end of the game.
• Weather effects will no longer appear on top of the pocket watch.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
• You can also send these to GoPirateSoftware@Gmail.com
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.

[ 2023-03-26 11:31:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=UeRYVodYRGQ;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-02-27 02:51:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=jhILSi4o5sw;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2022-12-31 05:32:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

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[ 2022-11-13 22:59:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

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[ 2022-10-03 22:22:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

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[ 2022-09-10 17:03:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

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[ 2022-08-06 13:48:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

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[ 2022-07-12 20:31:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch. This minor patch adds the first secret ending to Heartbound. All endings are canon and there is no true ending. Normally I wouldn't release a small patch like this but I find this to be significant. This is a pretty huge milestone for the story and also heavily updates the ARG. Our more puzzly folks have been aching for new stuff so this one is for them. Have fun and happy hunting!

Known Issues



• RURU language has not been updated past Fern/Rhode in Animus.

New Content



• The ARG has received a major update.
• The Good Friends route now has a conclusion.
• FRFR language has been updated to include Avocado's section of Animus.
• ESMX language has been updated to include Avocado's section of Animus.
• PTBR language has been updated to include Avocado's section of Animus.
• JAJP language has been updated to include Avocado's section of Animus.

Fixed After Launch



• Saving the game now correctly ends all music from the previous area.

Internal Changes



• Wiki-Warriors can now turn off the Animus Pocket Watch with Left Shift.
• This should improve the quality of maps on the Official Wiki.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
• You can also send these to GoPirateSoftware@Gmail.com
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
• The Mossbacks are up next and will include some heavy topics.

[ 2022-06-29 15:05:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is honestly a pretty huge honor so thank you to YoYo Games for doing this! We're competing with four other awesome titles for the Most Anticipated game category. The voting doesn't require an account and only takes a few seconds to complete. If you'd like us to win then please take part in this!

> VOTE HERE <

[ 2022-06-13 22:48:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch. This has been a really rough couple of months as shown in our latest development video. Thank you for being an awesome community and being there for us. I never expected such kindness and it means a lot to me. This is the last minor patch for Animus. After this it will be two major patches and the chapter will be done. The next one will be all of the Mossbacks storyline. After that we will launch the boss fight and Animus will end. From there we don't really have a huge amount to make. Animus was largely the most complicated section of the game. Jotunheim and [REDACTED] will be a breeze by comparison. I can't wait to show you what's coming next. You guys rock. HBHeart

Known Issues



• Multiple translations are missing for Avocados section and beyond.
• We're working to get these finished and implemented as soon as possible.

New Content



• Avocado can now invite you over to her house.
• Emelio now talks about giving you a better axe.
• Emelio can now only fix the hands of the Pocket Watch.
• A stolen potion is now useful for something.
• Certain environments in Animus now change based on your choices.
• The Pocketwatch now appears in Lores bedroom.
• The Pocketwatch now appears on the bridge if you're a terrible person.
• The Factus now appears in Lores bedroom.
• The Factus now gets other cacti talking.
• The Aspects now judge you for your actions.
• You can now meet the Mossbacks.
• There is now an Auto-Save before a fight in a terrible place.
• There is something new to solve.

Fixed After Launch



• There is no longer a softlock during judgement if you're on a particularly ancient save file.
• Dark music no longer continues to play if you're mean to Avocado.
• A tree has been removed from Avocado's yard to make the path more visible.
• Lore now yells at Misery and Mania in plural when they are hiding from him.
• Avocado's lamp is now on when you first enter her house.
• Lore remembering something terrible during a Cryptid hunt now has better audio and visuals.
• Interactive areas in Avocado's house are now less large.
• Some mud bubbles are no longer a screaming turtle.

Bug Fixes



• Looping Animus as a positive and then negative route will no longer break combat.
• The final message at the end of Animus is now visible again.
• Avocado can now react properly to Emelio fixing a portion of the watch.
• Fixed audio transforms on Terry for multiple routes.
• The Artifact no longer disappears from Lores Bedroom when thrown.
• The Pocketwatch no longer uses sprites from the wrong texture page.
• The Pocketwatch now slides onto the screen instead of popping into place.
• Lore no longer slides inside a tentacle in the darkworld version of Emelios house.
• The Amphibious Magician achievement now works correctly.
• A thrown shoe now splashes correctly.
• Various dialog portions no longer leave the textbox.
• Rebuilt part of the core text system to be more resilient.
• Underscores can now be displayed in the Heartbound font.
• Lowercase 'f' and 'l' have been modified to be more readable.
• The Disclaimer cutscene now plays again at the beginning of Avocados section.
• Animus Day music no longer plays after the fishing mini-game.
• The Early Access description has been updated.
• Linux users should now be able to launch directly from Steam.

Internal Changes



• Wiki-Warriors can now turn off shadow effects to take better screenshots of maps with Left Shift.
• This should improve the quality of maps on the Official Wiki.

Studio Changes



• We've hired a new Brazilian Portuguese translator.
• We've hired a new Russian translator.

OST



• There are now 97 songs in the OST!
• Forest Sprits has now been correctly renamed as Forest Spirits
• You can pick it up here.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
• You can also send these to GoPirateSoftware@Gmail.com
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
• The Mossbacks are up next and will include some heavy topics.

[ 2022-06-13 22:05:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

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[ 2022-05-31 06:21:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=eUlPAgElgkE;full][/previewyoutube] Updates on Heartbound, our studio, and our global community. This month has been tough for a lot of people. You got this, don't worry.

[ 2022-03-10 09:29:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=ZvlMAZNGNGA;full][/previewyoutube] These videos will go out every month to show what new content was worked on. This won't showcase everything that goes into the game just some general direction and specific changes. If you want to follow the team you can find us all at the links below. Hope you guys enjoy!

Thor

• Twitch
• YouTube
• Twitter

Shaye

• Twitch
• Twitter

Stijn

• Twitch
• YouTube
• Website

[ 2022-02-06 01:16:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Starting from January 27th until February 3rd, Heartbound will be 20% off. Happy Lunar New Year everyone! HBHeart

When is the next update?

Really soon actually. I just finished all of the timelines for the end of Avocado's section. This includes a ton of tie-ins to the other chapters so it was a bunch of work to get finished. This stuff will be good to go for the translators soon.

What else is going on?

Planning to release a monthly video update of everything we've worked on to keep everyone updated. Was originally going to be a text post but video carries better on all the socials out there. First one should come out in the first week on February as we get the pipeline for that to handled.

Where can I follow the development?

I stream Heartbound dev Monday to Saturday every week over on Twitch. You can also come hang with the community on Discord or Guilded! As always, thanks for being awesome. You guys rock. -Thor

[ 2022-01-28 08:31:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Starting from December 22nd at 10:00am PST until January 5th, Heartbound will be 20% off. This is our first sale ever for the game and something I was pretty hesitant about before. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and this brings some cheer to you and yours!

Heartbound is still in Early Access why are you going on sale?

I think the last patch really set up enough content that I feel comfortable finally engaging in sales like this. Last year a number of people were upset that we didn't put Heartbound on sale so I thought it would be best to do it this year. With everyone being hit financially by the pandemic it felt even more appropriate to do so.

Why were updates slow this last year?

No easy way around this one, I had Covid. As a small team we can't really adapt to illness and injury as well as larger studios. It took me a little over a year to recover and I am finally back on track and making the game at the pace I feel happy with. For everyone who was upset about the release cadence... sorry. As far as we can plan it won't happen again. Some stuff is just unavoidable.

What's next for Heartbound?

We have a ton of stuff we're working on for Animus right now. Avocado's storyline is roughly half-released and the other half is finished internally so I'm pretty confident in getting the rest out to you in the next few months. After that, we're going to be focusing on The Mossbacks storyline which is a lot of family dynamics and dating related stuff. It's pretty heavy, might hit some people harder than others, and something I'm pretty happy with in terms of writing. When that is finished Animus will have it's final battle and we will be working on Jotunheim. Going forward we will also be putting up monthly development updates here as announcements as I have really only been leaning on the stream to distribute information. As always, thanks for being awesome. You guys rock. HBHeart -Thor

[ 2021-12-22 13:36:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch. After a long hard year of recovering from Covid I'm back working on Heartbound. It's super nice to be able to just hammer out new stuff and keep making the game. Sorry for the delay but it was absolutely unavoidable. This patch has a ton of secret route content and a small amount of main route content. The next focus will be on main route content to finish off Avocado and The Mossbacks storylines. Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

Known Issues



• French, Russian, and Japanese have some missing translation files.
• Due to the pandemic we had to hire new people for some localization positions.
• Missing translations will be fixed as soon as we can get the new team members set up.
• Language updates will be made as micro-patches and updated here.
• Sorry for the inconvenience!

New Content



• All save files have been reset due to structural changes.
• A number of new achievements can now be obtained.
• Emelio, Fern, Rhode, and Avocado can now judge you for your actions.
• Avocado can now teach you about fishing.
• There is now a path best left untraveled in Animus.
• There can now be a fishing rod in Lore's bedroom.
• Things have changed dramatically in the void between chapters.
• New facial expressions were added for Lore, Fern, Rhode, Emelio, and Avocado.
• Added more facial expressions to Fern and Rhodes home scenes.
• Lores combat sprites are now animated for every mini-game.
• The mouse cursor now centers on the screen whenever it activates during combat.
• The mouse cursor now fades in/out whenever it activates/deactivates.
• Lores weapons now fade in/out whenever they activate/deactivate.
• Lores weapons now change polarity based on your actions.
• Losing to the Barghest is now a path forward.
• The ARG has progressed to the next stage.
• Surprise Pirate detection is now funnier.
• Two talky animations can now be played at once.
• Textbox borders can now fade out.

Fixed After Launch



• These are issues we've fixed after launching this patch. Thanks for the reports!
• Lore now says his proper dialog when fighting the Barghest.
• Text regarding a specifically colored beard no longer breaks out of the text box.
• Updated text in the Iron Mines to reflect the proper state of The Artifact.
• Fixed a repeating sound if you beat The Barghest fight in the middle of the dodge game.

Bug Fixes



• Machines running on Integrated Graphics should no longer turn into a visual blender.
• The continue arrow is now half the animation speed it was before.
• All characters now preload into texture memory on room load to improve performance.
• All room dialog now unloads from memory when leaving that room.
• Removed a number of redundant flags in the dialog system across the entire game.
• Buttons on the keypad in The Tower now display correctly.
• Surprise Pirate mode will no longer trigger if you run Heartbound directly from its folder.
• Ferns hair has been fixed on her sad face.
• Combat textures were pruned to remove redundancy.
• Combat no longer continues if the enemy hits 0 health in the middle of a round.
• Rhodes aggressive stance was updated to remove minor pixel errors.
• The game client will no longer run at reduced framerate on some monitors.
• The Barghest health border is no longer duplicated during The Boss fight.
• The Observer is now the default talky expression for all dialog.
• Broken glass is no longer on Dads head after fighting The Boss.
• Logs will no longer improperly stop looping when pushed to the right or down.
• Thrown weapons will no longer briefly appear outside of the arena.
• Enemy healthbars no longer have missing pixels on either side.
• A number of effects will no longer be cut short if Lore loses during The Barghest fight.
• Shaders will no longer cause the screen to distort.
• The collision model for weapons is now more precise.
• Lore's really nervous face no longer has mouth movement.
• Fixed some art inconsistencies on Lores Pajama Darksider talkies.
• Fixed a doorway in Binders Trial.
• Lore can now wear a hat in his pajamas.
• Language selection buttons now have larger text.

Internal Changes



• All of the games sprite sheets have been updated for improved performance.
• All internal references to characters have been changed to ENUMs for easier tracking.
• All FR language files have been updated to FRFR.
• All RU language files have been updated to RURU.
• All JP language files have been updated to JAJP.
• There are now more debug tools for the Wiki Warriors.

OST



• There are now 96 songs in the OST.
• You can pick it up here.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
• You can also send these to GoPirateSoftware@Gmail.com
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
• The Mossbacks and the finale to Avocado's storyline are up next.

[ 2021-12-15 12:06:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! It's time for the Steam Awards again and this year Heartbound is up for the Labor of Love award! Over the last several years we've worked every day on the game and we're not stopping until it's finally completed. If you haven't caught the development streams then that's a great way to check out the progress or reinforce that Thor really hasn't died and the game hasn't been abandoned. HBHeart Outside of that, it's been a heck of a ride getting to where we are today and it's all thanks to you. We wouldn't exist without your support and love as a community so thank you for being there for us and for making Heartbound possible. The next major update is coming soon (or it's already out depending on when this post automatically launches) and we're really excited about it. Thank you again for everything you've done. You all rock so much. -Thor

[ 2021-11-24 18:01:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just wanted to give you guys some info on where we are for the next update.

Finished Stuff



• We've completed 7 incredibly dense and emotional new areas.
• Unlike The Tower all of the areas in Animus have between 15-60 routes.
• These routes change things dramatically and determine who lives and who...
• We've hidden a new fight sequence in a place you should never reach.
• A major storyline component has been moved and it changes the flow of the whole game.
• A ton of bugs and translation errors were fixed.

Stuff To Do



• We still need to finish off the non-horrifying route through Animus.
• Most of the art and music is done for this so it's just down to Thor to get it all done.
• If I don't get this side done then the non-terrible people won't have a lot of new content.
• Shouldn't be much longer so don't fret!

But I thought you died?



• The reports of my death were greatly exaggerated.

Hope you all have a great Halloween!

-Pirate Software

[ 2021-10-31 17:20:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! A number of reviews lately have been saying that we've abandoned Heartbound or are no longer working on major updates. Not only is this not true we actually stream the development of Heartbound for 6-8 hours a day every day except for Sunday. This is my full time job and I literally don't do anything else. The last major update was around 3 months ago and we're almost done with the next one. In terms of completion Animus has 92% of the needed tasks finished for a full launch of the chapter. You can watch the streams here: https://piratesoftware.live You can get involved in the community here: https://discord.gg/piratesoftware

Animus has a huge number of routes for Avocados storyline.

• I've been working on hammering down every possible route through this section and adding dialog and cutscenes for all of it.
• Avocados section splits off dramatically and can lead to the end of the chapter under some circumstances so it needed to be completed along every route at once.
• The cutscenes in this section used a ton of new art, audio, and writing assets that needed to be built as they don't exist anywhere else in the game. Much like the mini-games for Fern/Rhode these assets are unique and used only for this scene.
• Unlike other areas these all need to be completed together because they can all be reached based on different things done in Animus. Waiting on any of them would lead to a terrible experience and ruin stuff for a lot of people.

We've updated the scene between worlds.

• Quite simply this cutscene didn't fit the narrative.
• It now has a ton of dialog and interaction with The Artifact.
• I also removed the chapter plates because they didn't look or feel right.

We've started releasing a ton of backstory content on Ko-Fi.

• Patreon was taking 8% of every transaction and Ko-Fi takes 0%.
• As a small studio this was a pretty big deal so we migrated over to them.
• Our Ko-Fi stuff has tons of physical rewards and write ups for each character every month.
• You can find our Ko-Fi by clicking this link.

I hope that clears up some rumors or perceived lack of work ethic. All we do is work on Heartbound every day, all day, and we do so very publicly. Come hang on stream and watch it come to life! Can't wait to launch this next bit. Thanks and have fun out there!

[ 2021-09-20 02:24:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch. Heartbound has now been fully updated to Game Maker Studio v2.3. This was a ton of work and really delayed adding new content to the game. Now that the conversion is finished we can get back on track. Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

Known Issues



• Integrated graphics cards can sometimes cause incredibly wild graphical glitches.
• We are working on a fix for this but it will take some time and new assets.
• If you have this problem please reach out to Thor#5264 on Discord.

New Content



• You can now have multiple conversations at the same time.
• You can now finish Avocado's storyline in a terrible way.
• Seriously, don't do this.
• What are you doing?
• Oh no...

Performance Upgrades



• All compatability scripts from the GMS 1.4 > 2.3 conversion have been removed.
• A memory leak in the lighting engine was fixed.
• Duplicate text boxes under the primary textbox were removed.
• A memory leak in rainbow text was fixed.
• Compiling the game now takes seconds instead of 10+ minutes.

Bug Fixes



• Gizmo no longer talks from very far away.
• Lasers in Binders trial no longer appear on top of their targets.
• Hitting accept and decline at the same time no longer causes a softlock on questions.
• The drawing depth of hundreds of objects have been manually fixed.
• A ton of text no longer escapes text boxes in many different languages.
• Fern and Rhodes storyline no longer has a softlock.
• All particle systems were rebuilt to fix an issue with GMS2.
• Text no longer suffers from floating point errors caused by GMS2.
• All animated sequences were rebuilt to fix an issue with GMS2.
• All alarms have had their timings changed to fix an issue with GMS2.
• Every environment was rebuilt to work in GMS2.

OST



• There are now 94 songs in the OST.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
• Avocado's Storyline Arc is up next.

[ 2021-06-21 09:06:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Well that went better than expected! Despite numerous engine bugs and a whole lot of lost sleep, Heartbound now works in GMS 2.3. For many of you this means that it now runs at 60fps with a VERY small CPU cost again. On my machine currently it's running at 1.4% CPU and around 150MB of memory. Going forward this also gives us a ton of other rad things like Mac build coming back, console releases, etc. Stay tuned for that in the future. That being said there is still a ton of work ahead of us to finish the full update. Right now, things work correctly for you but the environments on the editor side are a complete mess. We have to go through every room in the game and manually update it all. It's gonna be a bit and take a lot of long nights. Until then you may see weird layering issues in-game. Please report these to us so we can fix them! Thankfully it's not difficult, just time consuming. We will get there and have it done as soon as possible. While this is going on feel free to come ask questions on Discord or tune in to the Twitch development streams. Thanks for your patience and hope to see you there! https://discord.gg/piratesoftware https://piratesoftware.live

[ 2021-04-11 11:35:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Since August of 2020 we've received intermittent reports that Heartbound has been running slowly for some people. We could never track down what was causing this... until this week. Due to a change in Windows any GMS game running at 60fps on a 60hz monitor will drop to 40-45fps. Heartbound has game logic tied to the FPS so that certain parts of the ARG can work. This means the game has been running at 3/4th speed for some of you for over a year. steamthumbsdown That Windows update is now standard and everyone who updates is impacted by this. Thankfully, I found a solution but it's not a perfect one for now. I've changed over to an alternative sync method for the game which brings it back to 60fps. However, if the refresh rate of your monitor is over 60hz it may run EVEN FASTER which makes the game nearly unplayable in the other direction. To fix this for those few users go into the "options.ini" file and change "AlternateSyncMethod=1" to "AlternateSyncMethod=0". For everyone else, things should run fine. The other unfortunate side effect is that the game now runs at around 8x the CPU it did before. I hate this. It's going to make things rough for some of you on lower end machines and I really don't like that at all. In order to fix this entire mess I need to update to Game Maker: Studio v2.3 and I've already started the process. The newer version of the engine has an immense amount of bugs and it's very difficult to work with so it may take some time. While this is going on feel free to come ask questions on Discord or tune in to the Twitch development streams. Thanks for your patience and hope to see you there! https://discord.gg/piratesoftware https://piratesoftware.live

[ 2021-04-05 03:32:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch. Now that I've fully recovered from Covid19 things will be going much faster. I may have an inhaler now but that just means I'm part cool robot. Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

New Content



• Rhode and Ferns storylines can now be fully completed.
• (PTBR language has some portions missing still. Sorry!)
• Something secret has been added to the game files.
• The Credits have been updated with tons of new names.
• Gizmo now has something to say in Lore's room.
• A frog now puts on a magic show... somewhere.
• A save point has been added in the deep woods in Animus.
• New talky animations have been added for Fern when she's wearing a flower crown.
• New talky animations have been added for Rhode.
• New talky animations have been added for Avocado.
• New talky animations have been added for Lore.
• Ants now have a talky animation and voice.
• A portion of Avocado's storyline is now accessible in ENUS language only.
• Avocado's yard is now accessible.
• The Lake is now accessible.
• The pocketwatch now goes haywire in the time room and Lores bedroom.
• The pocketwatch now has new art for painted variants.
• There is now a version number on the bottom left corner of the main menu.
• There is now a chapter name plate each time you choose a new world to explore.
• There are new wallpapers in the wallpaper folder in the games installation folder.
• The text engine now allows for multiple objects to speak at once.
• Violently shaking text has been added to the game.
• Patreon was smelly and has been permanently deleted. (We are looking into alternatives.)

Performance Upgrades



• Speed holes were added to the text engine so it's faster now.
• Speed holes were also added to every talkable object so those are also faster.
• Texture pages in Animus are now properly structured to improve performance.

Bug Fixes



• In Animus, Lore will no longer talk about a TODO while discussing his past adventures.
• Jotunheim now properly resets if you finish The Tower as your first chapter.
• Fixed some tile placement issues in the Animus Mines.
• A massive amount of localization issues have been fixed across all languages.
• Save files will no longer become corrupted if you do chapters in an impossible order.
• There is now a proper delay after The Artifact speaks during Ferns scenes.
• Birds no longer crash the game when leaving the Time Room.
• The Time Room now has proper dialog and working switches.
• Wiggling text can now be skipped at any speed without breaking the wiggles.
• Rainbow text can now be skipped at any speed without breaking the rainbow.
• Leaving the bedroom with the Pocketwatch while not going to Animus now hides the Pocketwatch.
• All of the open world music in Animus has lower volume now.
• and now have their tails in the proper positions.
• The text engine no longer has overlapping hidden textboxes.
• The text box is now center aligned after a cutscene in the deep mines.
• Rhode now faces the correct direction during all conversations at home.
• Waiting around in Ferns house after telling her you need a minute then talking to Fern again no longer causes a softlock.

OST



• 22 New songs were added to the OST bringing it to 94 total songs.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
• Avocado's Storyline Arc is up next.

[ 2021-02-28 08:29:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sorry for the huge gap in updates! You can read the full explanation as to why over on this blog post. https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/567380/view/3460398821854294074 All that being said... I'm back to work on Heartbound again and I hope you like this update! As always you can watch us build the game live on Twitch. Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

New Content



• Fangamer has created a new Heartbound merch line.
• The Credits have been updated with tons of new names.
• You can now play through some of Fern and Rhodes storyline in ENUS only.
• Fern has completely updated talking and overworld sprite animations.
• Rhode has completely updated talking and overworld sprite animations.
• You can now choose The Tower or Animus as your first chapter.
• Animus will end after Fern/Rhode and send you back to world selection for now.
• The Tower can now end in a different way based on your choices.
• The camera in The Tower now works.
• A new secret puzzle has been added.
• Heartbound has been translated into Japanese.
• Tons of new stuff was added to the Patreon.

Bug Fixes



• Emelio's tools no longer stick around when Emelio has them.
• Rhode is no longer a red block when she stands left/right.
• The text for Emelio's forge is far more attractive now.
• Fern's movements are better during her opening cutscene.
• Lore will now use Glowbringer runes during his breakdown if he's positive.
• All language text can now change colors regardless of localization.
• Text positioning on all dialog boxes has been fixed to remove border spacing issues.
• Text positioning on all dialog boxes now works when switching between languages.
• Tower Boss memory of the pool tileset has been fixed to match reality.
• Nekane no longer talks slowly on her side of the table.
• The door to Floor 0 now has a sound when you go through it.
• You can no longer repeat the intro to Misery/Mania in The Mines.
• Text in many localizations will no longer escape text boxes.
• Lore can no longer move during the intro to Fern/Rhode.

Design Changes



• Preamble cutscene has been removed.
• You now get a key for drinking the water in The Tower.
• The door in the Mailshroom now uses a key to unlock.
• Terry's music now only plays when you get near him.
• Unplugging OScar now has future consequences.

Bug Reporting



• Please report any issues via DM on Discord to Thor#5264.
• Include a screenshot, it makes it much easier to fix!

OST



• New songs were added to the OST.

Upcoming Content



• The rest of Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
• Fern/Rhode's resolution will be released next.

[ 2020-07-28 10:45:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Wanted to give some updates on why things have been taking so long and what's in store for Heartbound very soon.

Reason For Delay

Animus was set to be released by now. For the last several months I've been in and out of hospital with severe viral bronchitis. Lost around 70% lung function at one point and went into hypoxia and almost bit the big one. Thankfully, with treatment I've been doing much better. I ended up losing around 2.5 months of work and the stream was offline for over a month total. This is the most amount of work I've missed in 3 years so it's been pretty rough. This image shows the days I have worked on heartbound live on stream. Any day without a green square is one I haven't streamed. Most of these are due to showing Heartbound off at conventions. However, in the last three months I've missed more days than the last three years of development. On the days I did stream I only managed 3-5 hours instead of my normal 8-10.

Japanese Localization

Heartbound is currently being fully translated into Japanese. As with our other translations this takes a long time as every joke or pun needs to be changed to fit that culture. If it didn't fit culturally then the translation would be a pretty big failure. I'm really happy with how this is coming along and it's not a small undertaking.

Fern and Rhode

Fern and Rhodes storylines are almost finished and ready to send over to the translators. The mini-game for Fern took a long while to set up due to my illness but I'm now working on Rhode's and it's going much faster. I hope you enjoy what I put together once it's finished.

Contact Us

As always you can contact me or the other developers at any time over Discord, email, steam chat, or live on Twitch. I'm always available and Shaye/Stijn are available most of the time. If you're ever frustrated with the release schedule or want to know more about whats going on just hit us up. Live Stream Discord Twitter

[ 2020-05-18 23:55:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

I am unable to fix Heartbound on Mac due to an error with the build process. I have already spoken to other developers and Apple's support team about this. As of today we will be officially dropping Mac support for the foreseeable future. This may be resolved once we update to Game Maker: Studio 2.0 Below you will find the answers to a number of questions you may have. If you can't find an answer to your question please reach out to me directly via this email. GoPirateSoftware+Mac@Gmail.com

Why did this happen?

The Mac we use to make Heartbound forced an update to OS Catalina. This obsoleted XCode 9.3 which is required for GM:S 1.4. We make Heartbound in GM:S 1.4 so it's not something we can get rid of.

Why won't this work in XCode versions past 9.3?

Attempting to get this to work in XCode 11 caused a libstdc++ library issue. After trying for multiple days to resolve this I was unable to do so. Even adding that library back to XCode 11 did not resolve this. Running older versions of XCode lead to a generic error from the Apple machine. This could not be resolved using online guides over multiple days of testing. It also could not be resolved by talking to Apple support. I attempted to downgrade to every version between XCode 11 and 9.3 that was compatible with OS Catalina. No version between 9.3 and 11 worked and I was unable to make a working build of Heartbound.

Did this happen because Apple dropped 32-bit application support?

No. It has nothing to do with that.

Why can't I run the game without you doing this?

Apple requires all software to be digitally signed. If XCode doesn't play nice we can't digitally sign the game and you can't run it on Apple hardware.

Why don't you update to GM:S 2.0 now?

Updating Heartbound to GM:S 2.0 would potentially resolve this issue. However, doing so breaks every cutscene in the game and would take multiple months to fix. We will be updating to GM:S 2.0 after fully launching the game. GM:S 2.0 is required for us to make a build for Nintendo Switch.

What if you find a solution?

Even if I do manage to resolve these issues there is no guarantee that the Apple build process won't break like this again. It has happened to us many times before during the development of Heartbound.

Can I still play Heartbound or will I have to buy it again?

You do not have to buy the game again. If you bought Heartbound you have access to it on Windows and Linux currently. You can still play Heartbound on Windows or Linux.

What if I don't want to play on Windows or Linux?

For those on Apple hardware that still want to play you may be able to try Parallels, Bootcamp, or Wine. I cannot guarantee that this will work now or in the future and I don't want to get your hopes up but you can try it. If this isn't something you want to do please refund the game. If you're unable to make this work on Apple hardware or have no other solutions, please refund the game. I'm sorry I couldn't fix this. -Thor

[ 2020-01-19 03:04:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Now that Shaye and I are all moved up to WA and things have settled down we can continue development at a normal pace. A lot has changed in my life this last year and I'm sorry that things have slowed down as a result. Our entire studio is only three people so when any of us go through rough patches it can be tough to get stuff done. Thank you for understanding and I hope you like the new content! I'm going to be launching Animus in updates over the next few months one character arc at a time to get feedback and test things. This patch has everything for Emelio in all languages and the start of Fern/Rhode in ENUS only. There are also a huge amount of bug fixes, translation fixes, and new content in random spots. Also new tracks on the OST so enjoy those! As always you can watch us build the game live. We stream 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

New Content



• You can now play through Emelio's storyline.
• You can now start Fern/Rhode's storyline in english.
• A new build was made for the Wiki Warriors to better help them archive the games different areas.

Bug Fixes



• Nekanes potions no longer crash the game.
• Lore no longer pops forward one pixel after getting out of bed.
• Lore can no longer get stuck behind some... let's call them nightmares in a dark place
• Music no longer cuts out in Emelio's house
• Music no longer cuts out after the mines cutscenes.
• Lore can no longer slide through objects under specific conditions.
• Grayscale shader no longer allows color through alpha channel.
• Particle effects should now take reduced CPU on specific hardware setups.
• You can no longer talk to an object while transitioning to another environment.
• All sounds in the game and OST now have proper metadata.
• Muspelheim and Niflheim selection portal music now loops properly.

Design Changes



• The memory mini-game during the Barghest fight now maxes at 5 steps.
• The memory mini-game during the Barghest fight now scales max steps more slowly.
• You now need to be less curious to reach Floor 0.
• You must drink the water to reach Floor 0.
• OScar is now company property.

Localization



• A ton of PTBR translation fixes
• A ton of RU translation fixes
• A ton of FR translation fixes
• A ton of ESMX translation fixes
• Support for JP translation has begun.
• Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji are all supported.
• We can now support many more glyph based languages in the future.
• has been added to the font list.

OST



• A bunch of new songs were added to the OST bringing the track list to 70.
• Metadata was added to all 70 songs so they should have information and cover art in things like Spotify.
• The OST was converted to the new Soundtrack category from the old DLC category on steam.

Upcoming Content



• Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
• Fern and Rhode's storyline is up next!

[ 2020-01-13 04:34:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another year has come and gone and the Steam Awards are back in town. Heartbound is up for the "Outstanding Story-Rich Game" award this year. If you feel we've hit the mark please take a moment to vote for us!

[ 2019-11-27 00:31:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is the final patch before Animus is ready to launch. We just couldn't wait on some of the more significant engine changes such as full controller support and physics fixes. With those we rolled in a bunch of new secret areas and some fixes for story-line inconsistencies. Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

Hometown - Chapter 1

• New Content

  
  
  • A new cutscene has been added when you first Continue.

• Bug Fixes

  
  
  • Lore can no longer slide through tentacles and become permanently stuck.
  • Crunchy dog noise is now louder.
  • Baron now has emotions in your dreams.
  • Insider Baseball can now be obtained right after combat ends.

The Tower - Chapter 2

• New Content

  
  
  • A new secret environment was added to The Tower.
  • A new secret character was added to The Tower.
  • Choices in The Tower now carry on with you.
  • The Artifact is now more aggressive here.
  • Sounds have been implemented for the Terminated sequence.
  • Floor 0 can now be accessed under different circumstances.
  • Curiosity and Fear now accumulate in The Tower.

• Bug Fixes

  
  
  • The artifact text in the void can no longer be skipped.
  • You can now skip text on the Floor 0 records computer.
  • The first memory sequence is no longer a black screen.
  • Lore now turns to face OScar during the Terminated sequence ending.
  • Boss transitions are now faster.

Animus - Chapter 3

• New Content

  
  
  • A pocket watch has been implemented to better tell the time.
  • A new secret environment was added to Animus.
  • Ramul's storyline starter has been implemented.
  • You can now strike fear into the hearts of trees.
  • Time is now frozen in Animus when you first enter it.
  • Trees now have a ton of randomizations.
  • Lighting now fades based on the time of day and other lightsources in various locations.

• Bug Fixes

  
  
  • Curiousity in Animus no longer counts for The Tower.

Jotunheim - Chapter 4

• Bug Fixes

  
  
  • Muspelheim can now be accessed under different circumstances.

Global

• New Content

  
  
  • A phone in your bedroom can now be used.
  • A new achievement was added.
  • Full Controller support has now been implemented.
    • You can plug/unplug controllers at will even during combat.
    • Let me know if anything goes wrong here. It's super new tech for us.

• Localization

  
  
  • A lot of new content was added here and there so some things may be missing.
  • ESMX translation has been released.
    • Please let us know if you find any missing translation sections or issues of any kind.

• OST

  
  
  • A new song was added to the OST.

• Bug Fixes

  
  
  • Collision calculations have been reduced significantly to improve performance.
    • This was a massive change and should help improve performance for a lot of people.
  • Missing dialog will now revert to English when possible.
  • Rotating text now takes longer before it starts spinning.
  • Rotating text from a space no longer causes letters to hang when they should be floating.

Upcoming

• Language

  
  
  • JP is now planned.

• New Content

  
  
  • Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
    • All of the environment art is finished.
    • All of the character sprites and animations are finished.
    • All of the environments are built and functional.
    • Watch us stream it live here!
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/

[ 2019-09-07 04:34:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

We just got back from PAX West and we're back onto working on Heartbound. We have a bit of stuff to get out for the Kill The Moon Demo before we continue but that will be done by Friday. Hope to see you all on stream! https://gopiratesoftware.com/twitch

[ 2019-09-03 19:34:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

PAX recently selected Heartbound for the 2019 PAX 10! If you're going to PAX West this year please come by our booth and say hello! Check out the other indies that were selected alongside us here: https://west.paxsite.com/indie#heartbound

[ 2019-07-27 07:37:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! It's been a number of months since we've updated and I wanted to let you guys in on what's been going on, who is working on the game, and what we have planned for the future! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. We moved the studio to Washington. There were a number of reasons for this both financial and personal but things should be settling down now as the move is mostly complete and we just have a few more things to do. The new digs will be focused entirely on developing games and running the streams. Right now we're in a temporary shared space but by next week -hopefully- we should be in a permanent new space that isn't shared. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. We have daily dev streams! If you didn't know we stream development of Heartbound live on Twitch every day from 12pm-10pm PST. The first 5 hours is art and the second five hours is programming. Heartbound is the main priority right now and we're working through Animus live so come check it out. We also work on our back-burner game Kill The Moon from time to time or play games and give feedback on them. Recently we ran a game jam and helped a ton of new designers on their path to making cool stuff. You can watch the streams here: https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Animus is in -unstable testing- phase right now and we update this build every Sunday. You can access the unstable version of the game using the code "CheeseAndWhiskers" without the quotes and following the image below for instructions. This build has tons of changes, new stuff, testing stuff, all kinds of things. Animus is a massive undertaking and we are spending time on testing things for feel on top of just making it work. There is no unstable build for Mac or Linux currently. The unstable builds are also only in English. This speeds up development time and reduces issues while we're testing all of this stuff. Once these builds pass and feel good we translate them and move them to the other platforms.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Heartbound is being created by only three people. Shaye - Art/Animation Stijn - Music/Sound Effects Thor - Programming/Writing/Game Design This is a ton of work for three people but we won't be expanding the team. I'm happy with how development has gone so far and I'm proud of what we've accomplished together and what we have planned for the future. Good games take time and I do not intend to rush this. If you're ever wondering who responded to your YouTube video, Tweet, or email all of that was Thor. Small teams do a lot of stuff outside of making games so be kind to your devs! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I know a lot of you just want updates now. I would rather update the game when it's fun and ready. Let me know if you ever want to chat or have any feedback. Thanks, -Thor Discord - https://discord.gg/PirateSoftware Twitter - https://twitter.com/PirateSoftware YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/PirateSoftware Stream - https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/

[ 2019-05-17 03:06:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

The Tower - Chapter 2

• Storyline

  
  
  • A number of interactions were changed to be more in line with characters true motives.

• Quality of Life

  
  
  • PPP's cutscene is now straightforward and less confusing.

Animus - Chapter 3

• New Content

  
  
  • The base environments in Animus are now open for exploration.
  • None of the dialog or interactions in this section work beyond the save point.
  • You may leave this area by walking into the trunk of the Clock Tree.
  • There are day/night cycles in Animus and it takes 24 minutes for a full day.
  • The intention is to build a number of timed events to make Animus a working village where everyone does their part.

• Bugs

  
  
  • Retrieving the AESTHETIC twice is no longer possible and no longer softlocks the game.
  • You can now enter the Vapor Cave multiple times.

Global

• Achievements

  
  
  • A number of secret achievements were added to the game.
  • None of these achievements force path altering actions in any way.
  • These were released earlier to test and are just now being put in the patch notes.

• Wallpapers

  
  
  • There is now a Wallpapers folder in your game installation folder.
  • A bunch of 1080p wallpapers can be found in there. Have fun!
  • File Location: \steamapps\common\Heartbound\Wallpapers

• OST

  
  
  • A ton of new songs have been added to the OST.

• Bugs

  
  
  • Fixed some bad calculations when pushing objects.
  • Audio no longer pops when you finish pushing objects.
  • Lore will now be pushed out of objects if he somehow is pushed into them.
  • Achievements can now be obtained even if your steam overlay is disabled.
  • Steam screenshots can now only be taken if your steam overlay is enabled.

• Credits

  
  
  • More backer names were added to the credits.

Upcoming

• Language

  
  
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
  • JP is now planned.

• New Content

  
  
  • Existing Worlds
    • A phone in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
    • A book in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
  • Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
    • All of the environment art is finished.
    • All of the character sprites and animations are finished.
    • All of the environments are built and functional.
    • Watch us stream it live here!
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/

[ 2019-01-21 02:52:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

The Tower - Chapter 2

• New Content

  
  
  • OScar now stops you if you try to leave the cafeteria without talking to him.

• Language

  
  
  • Major fixes were implemented for the Russian language launch.

Global

• Language

  
  
  • Missing lines will now default to English instead of being blank.

• Credits

  
  
  • Adrien Bernardinis was added for his work on the French translation.

Upcoming

• Language

  
  
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
  • JP is now planned.

• New Content

  
  
  • Existing Worlds
    • A phone in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
    • A book in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
  • Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
    • All of the environment art is finished.
    • All of the character sprites and animations are finished.
    • All of the environments are built and functional.
    • Watch us stream it live here!
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/

[ 2019-01-14 00:00:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

Hometown - Chapter 1

• New Content

  
  
  • Gizmo now has talking animations.

• Quality of Life

  
  
  • Symbols will no longer randomize when using a controller on the memory mini-game in the Barghest fight after doing a bunch of mean things.
  • Beating the Barghest now saves the game.

The Tower - Chapter 2

• New Content

  
  
  • A door now unlocks under specific circumstances revealing something dark and hidden.
  • Trapper now has a gym buddy.

• Bugs

  
  
  • A flying mushroom now makes noise.
  • The save tome on Floor 2 of The Tower can now be opened from the right side.
  • You can no longer move while a squishy bird teleports away.

Animus - Chapter 3

• Bugs

  
  
  • It's now afternoon in Animus instead of morning.

Global

• Platforms

  
  
  • Mac support has been released!
  • Please let us know if anything goes wrong.

• Language

  
  
  • Russian has been released!
  • Please report any translation issues to us!

• Quality of Life

  
  
  • Rotating text now takes longer before it starts rotating.
  • Button ping sounds have increased in volume.

• ARG

  
  
  • Good luck
  • I'm sorry... but not really.

• Credits

  
  
  • More backer names have been added to the credits.
  • JP Baas has been added to the credits for his work on the storm sounds in Hometown.

Upcoming

• Language

  
  
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
  • JP is now planned.

• New Content

  
  
  • Existing Worlds
    • A phone in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
    • A book in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
  • Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
    • All of the environment art is finished.
    • All of the character sprites and animations are finished.
    • All of the environments are built and functional.
    • Watch us stream it live here!
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/

[ 2019-01-13 08:22:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

The Tower

• Quality of Life

  
  
  • Floor 2 now clearly explains what to do with your change.
  • Floor 2 now clearly explains where not to whistle.

• Bugs

  
  
  • Fixed numerous translation issues with FR.
  • Fixed numerous translation issues with PTBR.
  • Thanks for all the reports!

Global

• Music

  
  
  • Two new songs were added to the OST.
  • These songs are not planned to be in the game and can only be found on the OST.

• ARG

  
  
  • RING RING

Upcoming

• Language

  
  
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
  • RU is still being worked on.
  • JP is now planned.

• New Content

  
  
  • Existing Worlds
    • A phone in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
    • A book in your bedroom needs to be interactive.
  • Tower Floor 0 is being actively developed.
    • Environments are almost finished so this should be done soon.
    • Watch us stream it live here!
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/
  • Animus (Chapter 3) is being actively developed.
    • All of the environment art is finished.
    • All of the character sprites and animations are finished.
    • All of the environments are built and functional.
    • Starting on 1/7/2019 we will be working on this chapter live on Twitch.

[ 2019-01-01 13:18:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

French has now been added to the supported languages! Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

The Tower

• Quality of Life

  
  
  • Cheating at puzzles now has different consequences.

• Bugs

  
  
  • A joke in a closet was changed.
  • A blank textbox near Paul was fixed.
  • Whistler's hat lost its green dots.
  • OScar now always has a face in the cafeteria.
  • All of the tiles to the Mailshroom now spawn.

Global

• Language

  
  
  • FR translation has been released!

• Game Files

  
  
  • Heartbound is no longer a single file EXE.

Upcoming

• Language

  
  
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
  • RU is still being worked on.
  • JP is now planned.

• New Content

  
  
  • Tower Floor 0 is being actively developed.
    • Watch us stream it live here!
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/

[ 2018-12-30 04:09:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Wanted to start filling in some storyline and emotional tie-in gaps along with a bunch of bug fixes. This should set the stage for the new additions when we start working on Floor 0. Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

The Tower

• Quality of Life

  
  
  • Phish now tells you how many ducks he's missing.

• Bugs

  
  
  • You can no longer get stuck in the lunch rush door. Oops.
  • OScar no longer gives duplicate directions when you finish all your jobs.
  • You can no longer side-eye talk to objects on desks in The Tower.
  • Terminating at the same time you're terminated no longer terminates the game.
  • G8r has lost the green dots plaguing his face.
  • OScar will no longer double his music just before termination.

• New Content

  
  
  • Joe isn't finished chatting with you.
  • Baron has some words for you.

Global

• Storyline Changes

  
  
  • The fires of muspelheim now burn under different circumstances.

• Steam

  
  
  • The Steam overlay now works. (Shift + Tab)
  • You can take screenshots using your preferred steam key. (F12)
  • The Heartbound OST is now in its own folder in your installation folder.
  • The Heartbound OST now shows up in Library Music.
  • The Heartbound OST now has album art.

• Bugs

  
  
  • A crash during the first portal cutscene that was implemented in this build was fixed.

Upcoming

• Language

  
  
  • FRFR translation will be released next.
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
  • RU is still being worked on.

• New Content

  
  
  • Tower Floor 0 will start active development on 12/27/2018.
    • Watch us stream it live here!
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/

[ 2018-12-27 17:14:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Saw some feedback regarding lack of direction in some parts of The Tower. Working on giving more direction without making it overbearing. These are some minor improvements that I want to test out and see if it helps smooth out portions of the experience. Thanks for all the feedback and support. You guys rock. HBHeart

The Tower

• Quality of Life

  
  
  • OScar will now direct you to your next job if you speak to him again.
    • It's in his programming and he probably enjoys it.
  • Whiteboards now assign Newhires to a cubicle. Lucky you!
  • A handbag is now always at the lost and found. Pick it up if it's yours!

• Bugs

  
  
  • A noise complaint has been filed against the local ducks for whooping too loudly.
  • Sticky notes have lost their ability to phase into noses.

Animus

• Bugs

  
  
  • The camera will no longer get stuck in the trees in Animus if you go there multiple times.
    • No trees were harmed in the fixing of this bug.

Global

• Text

  
  
  • Words should no longer fly out of their assigned boxes. Should.
  • PTBR translation should have a lot less typos and inconsistencies. Also should.

• Credits

  
  
  • The credits are no longer a trap and can be exited by hitting cancel.
    • Credits were harmed in the implementation of this feature.
  • The credits now speed up if you hold accept as they get excited by your approval.
  • A bunch of names were added to the credits. Thanks for being rad!

• Cutscenes

  
  
  • World portals no longer shift out of the visible spectrum.

Upcoming

• Language

  
  
  • FRFR translation will be released next.
  • ESMX is still being worked on.
  • RU is still being worked on.

• New Content

  
  
  • Tower Floor 0 will start active development on 12/27/2018.
    • Watch us stream it live here!
    • https://www.gopiratesoftware.com/twitch/

[ 2018-12-26 14:34:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Global

• Chapter 2 Released

  
  
  • The Tower is now playable.

• OST Released

  
  
  • This has been fixed and can now be downloaded as DLC.

• Pushing Objects

  
  
  • Pushable objects no longer cause a softlock.
  • Pushable objects can no longer be walked into from the side.

The Tower

• Bugs

  
  
  • You can no longer move while talking on Floor 2.

Animus

• Bugs

  
  
  • Entering Animus after beating The Tower should no longer have a broken camera.
  • Animus can now be entered again after finishing it without causing a softlock.

Language

• Brazilian Portuguese

  
  
  • PT-BR has now been released.
  • If you find any issues with the translation please let us know.
  • PT-BR can now be selected via the controller.

[ 2018-12-25 05:24:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

If you guys have any worries about the early access or any questions for us as developers you can always ask here or on the discord. We don't have a wall in front of us and I'm always willing to talk about stuff. We're not worried about losing hype going forward and we're not planning on making small incremental patches other than for bug fixes. We work on Heartbound 10 hours a day 7 days a week live on Twitch. Every day, all day. Outside of that we make secret additions, boss fights, and storyline spoilery stuff off-stream. Early Access let's us get feedback on that pile of work, fix bugs, and move forward with development. Episodic content in the gaming industry is generally pretty gross. Paying for additional episodes is both lame for players and lame for us. So we're not charging anything for the rest of the chapters. Ever. Heartbound will have no DLC outside of the OST and will never have a sequel. In terms of production speed and when additional chapters will be added. All of the environments for Chapter 3 are finished. If you ever want to see them come chat on stream and let me know. I show them off pretty regularly. Yes you will have to wait for us to finish each chapter. No you won't ever have to pay another cent for the game. No it won't take 6 months to release Chapter 3 after The Tower launches. If you're still concerned about any of these points after this please come talk to us. We're always online and always open to discussion. Discord: https://discord.gg/piratesoftware

[ 2018-11-30 07:10:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

In December we will be launching the next chapter of Heartbound and releasing the game into Early Access on Steam. New characters, new world to explore, even more advanced sadness. From there we will be putting out the rest of the game as additional free chapters. Each time we finish a chapter we'll make an announcement, update the OST with more songs, and launch it all. You will NEVER need to pay for one of these updates. Once you buy Heartbound you get all of the updates until we finish the game. If you pre-ordered from our site you already have a Steam key so you're good to go. You can also follow along with development on our daily 10 hour Twitch streams. We stream from 12pm-10pm PST every day of the week! Also, join us on Discord and chat any time! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gopiratesoftware Discord: http://discord.gg/PirateSoftware

[ 2018-10-17 22:04:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Content

• Multiple new worlds to explore.
• Tons of new endings based on your choices and path.
• New music to jam to during your adventure.
• Even more advanced sadness.

Languages

• Brazilian Portuguese has had a major rework.
• Russian has had a major rework.
• Classical French is now available.
• Spanish (Mexico) is now available.

Performance

• Major overhaul of the Audio system cutting CPU needs by 65%
• Major overhaul of the Draw system cutting CPU needs by 30%

Secrets

• Good luck!

[ 2018-04-10 07:42:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Languages

• Massive performance update.
• Faster collision checking.
• Ordered and separated texture pages.
• Better performance for all graphics.

Languages

• Minor Russian language fixes.

Secrets

• Good luck!

[ 2017-10-21 04:03:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

In our haste to update the game we missed a major issue that negatively impacted a number of endings for the Demo. This has now been fixed in Patch 1.15.1 which we just released. Sorry for the issues!

[ 2017-08-30 20:43:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Languages

• Russian language has been added!
• The main menu is now displayed in your language of choice.

Controller Support

• There is now a menu to select controllers instead of mouse and keyboard.
• The left joystick can now be used to move and control actions.
• Combat when using a controller has been improved.

Bug Fixes

• The dresser now asks if you want to wear your sweater in select environments.
• Gizmo now properly disappears after being spoken to.
• The game no longer closes after the end.

[ 2017-08-30 09:29:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Controller Support

• Heartbound can now be played with any gamepad recognized by your computer.

New Content

• Combat mini-games have been updated with new instructional graphics.
• Combat mini-game objectives change when using a controller.
• Additional secrets have been added to the world.
• The final cutscene now changes to more correctly match your playstyle.
• Save points now explain that your progress has been saved.
• Health is now restored before every encounter.

Bug Fixes

• The same eye will no longer be chosen multiple times in a row on the Pattern Minigame.
• Dying during the first encounter and then starting the second encounter without saving no longer immediately ends the second encounter.
• Playing through the entire game without saving and then dying on the final encounter no longer places you outside of the collision in your room.
• Numerous PT-BR language updates.

[ 2017-07-07 08:59:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

New Content

• A few cutscenes have additional effects.
• There is now a PT-BR translation for the entire Demo!

[ 2017-06-25 13:45:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixed Issues

• Going back to your room now requires you to first save the game.
  • This was causing serious file corruption issues.
• It is no longer possible to talk to two objects at the same time.
• Losing in combat now loads your last save point.
• Reduced CPU costs for the entire dialog system.
• Screenshake will no longer slowly slide combat off the screen.
• A duplicate Binder has been removed from the Library.
• Binder will now always show up in the Library.
• Pods no longer crash the game if you lose during their mini-game
• Eyes no longer crash the game if you double click them.
• The game no longer crashes after the final scene.
• A file with developer credits is now included with the Beta.
• Minor dialog fixes and edits.

New Content

• The ARG has been extended with additional pages.
• A bunch of secrets have been added.

Upcoming Changes

• We are working on the PT-BR Translation.

[ 2017-06-17 07:50:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

We just launched the updated Beta we promised in our Kickstarter stretch goals! Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far!

[ 2017-06-15 08:53:16 CET ] [ Original post ]