Author: Christina Lange

We have a lot to share in this season’s update, from events and presentations to major gameplay features, new areas, performance improvements, and plenty of bug fixes. The past couple of months have been busy in the best way, and we are excited to share what we have been working on.

Def Com X

We attended Def Com X in November, and we had a great time meeting everyone who stopped by our booth. It was wonderful to talk with so many players, hear your thoughts, and share what we have been building. Thank you to everyone who came out to support us. We are already looking forward to being back again next year.

Cedarville University

We also had the opportunity to give a presentation at Cedarville University as part of their Alumni Indie Video Game Developers event. Dan spoke on the importance of proper tooling in game development and software development as a whole, and how the right tools will exponentially increase productivity over time.

Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to a great conversation. We are planning to upload the presentation to our YouTube channel soon for those who were not able to attend in person.

Updates and Upgrades

Armor

The armor in Violet just got an upgrade! Armor now adds a new layer of strategy to both exploration and combat, allowing you to customize how you might approach different challenges.

It can also add additional stats, interact with stamina, and provide protection from environmental hazards like extreme heat and cold. Some armor allows you to pick up enemies or interact with the world in entirely new ways.

Armor follows the same merging philosophy as weapons. While there may appear to be around 15 armor types at first glance, each one can be merged into higher rankings. This means there are actually 60 armor variations to discover throughout the game.

1. Leg armor that allows withstanding more hits before being stunned.
2. Ear armor that gives better tolerance to heat and reduces damage from fire.
3. Waist armor that allows consumables to increase in effect.
4. Arm armor that allows you to lift heavier objects.
   
5. Neck armor that increases stealth against vision and hearing.
6. Foot armor that allows faster movement in slower terrain.
   
7. Wearable armor that let’s you see health bars and other statistics not normally available.
8. Wearable armor that increases luck in your favor.
9. Finger armor that increases durability on weapons during use.
10. Ear armor that gives better tolerance to cold and reduces damage from ice.
    

    

11. Chest armor that reduces damage taken.
12. Thigh armor that allows faster movement when attacking and defending.
13. Wearable armor that allows for better bartering.

The Forge Brothers

We also addressed a visual issue that could occur when moving quickly between areas. “Pop in” could be seen, or even a black void, while the next section loaded. To resolve this, we introduced the Forge Brothers, who briefly appear to interrupt movement until the area is ready. While we are continuing to design the world so most transitions load seamlessly, this ensures that fast movement is handled gracefully when it does happen.

Enemy Behavior

Another quality of life improvement focuses on enemy behavior. Enemies will no longer attack dormant Violets. This change not only makes gameplay feel fairer, but it also ties in with the lore.

Asteric Redesign

We also wanted to share a quick update on the ongoing redesign of Asteric. We have completed new animations for his running, walking, dashing, dodging, and balanced weapon swings, along with improvements to his violet animation. This redesign was driven by community feedback, and we finally feel like he’s more fitting for the role of the game’s hero.

New Areas

Northern & Southern Mountains

We have also made significant progress on new environments, starting with the Southern Mountain region. This area features a river running through its center, dividing the map into two distinct sides. Falling rocks from the northern mountains constantly crash down, posing a threat to both Asteric and enemies. You’ll have to keep an eye out for falling boulders while navigating this region!

Northern Mountain Foothills

Work has also begun on the Northern Mountain foothills. While this area is not as snowy as higher elevations, it is still extremely dangerous. Asteric will continue to take cold damage unless he has proper protection. Armor choices are especially important here.

Music

On the audio side, we added updated music tracks for the Southern Mountain, including day, night, and enemy variations. These tracks were originally composed years ago by Dan and recently remixed by Eugene.

Southern Mountain Day:

Southern Mountain Night:

Southern Mountain Enemy:

New Enemy

We have a new enemy to introduce: Rock Squirrels. These guys may look harmless at first, but when damaged or stunned, they harden into rocky shells that make them temporarily invulnerable. You may need to get creative to deal with them effectively. (Though maybe a bomb could blow them up?)

Garbage Collection

Behind the scenes, a huge amount of work went into performance and garbage collection improvements. Game Maker automatically handles garbage collection, but with our interconnected world and dynamic loading systems, this process became increasingly slow. To address this, we rewrote large portions of our systems to reduce unnecessary memory allocation.

We introduced a resource pool to reuse arrays and structs instead of constantly allocating new memory. We also centralized function declarations so that only one copy of each function exists, rather than duplicating them across thousands of instances. Inline functions and callbacks were refactored into this system as well, and temporary arrays were moved to a global structure to further reduce overhead. While these changes introduced a few unexpected bugs along the way, we have been steadily squashing them. Our goal is to get this game to run on a potato!

Optimizations

Additional optimizations include preventing the loader from triggering during battles and adding an adaptive FPS option. This new graphics mode allows the game to dynamically switch between 60 FPS and 30 FPS drawing modes when performance slows down, making gameplay smoother on lower-end hardware.

Bug Fixes

• We fixed an issue where items placed under rocks or boulders could still be picked up before being uncovered. These items now correctly require the obstacle to be removed first.

  

• Items and resources that became stuck inside walls can now be properly picked up. This resolves several frustrating edge cases during exploration.
• We fixed a visual issue where falling debris in the miniboss room was not appearing correctly. This was caused by how our manageActivation system handled visibility.

  

• We resolved waterManager crashes that could occur when warping between areas. The system now correctly removes the active water state before transitioning.

  

• Several mini games were fixed after recent refactors introduced visual bugs. This includes invisible prizes in the Monty Treasure Chest game, missing bows and arrows in the archery game, and clearer messaging when the inventory is full and arrows cannot be added.
• Auto merge behavior has been corrected when using the bow while another item was equipped behind the scenes. We also increased its priority so auto merge can occur properly during combat.

  

• With the addition of picking up enemies, we added proper falling sprites for Violets and other enemies. This ensures animations behave correctly when enemies are dropped or fall from heights.

  

• We addressed a wide range of miscellaneous bugs across the game. These include visual glitches with stone pillars, tree shadows, water worms, as well as issues with enemy navigation on bridges, ore drops, targeting behavior, NPC interactions, and enemy spawning.

  

Game Maker v2024.14 Updates

We updated the project to Game Maker version 2024.14 and resolved a few controller-related issues introduced by the update. Most changes were straightforward, with only minor adjustments required.

Game Maker added built-in array_shift and array_shuffle functions, which conflicted with our existing implementations. We removed our custom array_shift and renamed our original shuffle function to avoid naming collisions, and reported the issue to Game Maker for visibility.

Playback Inputs

We fixed several issues with Playback Inputs to ensure the correct save file is used for each session. Buffer handling during slow playback has also been improved for more accurate input reproduction.

Playback Inputs now function correctly when restarting the game. Previously, restarting would incorrectly create a separate session, which has now been resolved.

Marketing Updates

Finally, on the marketing side, our refreshed logo and branding are still in progress. This update took longer than expected, but we are hopeful it will be ready to share soon.

Conclusion

Thank you, as always, for following along and supporting the project. Dan is now working two days a week at his contracting job and is also learning how to use Angular, so progress has slowed somewhat, but we’re still working hard every spare second!

– The Violet Team

Between convention season and gameplay refinements, we’ve had a packed few months here working on Violet. From reworking tutorials to adding brand-new areas and features, our team has been pushing forward, all while upgrading to Windows 11 (which the in place upgrade was surprisingly good) and keeping development going smoothly.

Latest Demo Updates

With winning the “Best in Show” award at Cleveland Gaming Classic, we decided to add a few updates. While version 1.0.8 was originally planned as the final demo update, we couldn’t resist adding a few more improvements based on your feedback. These include:

• Having an option to Press B to exit inventory / map
• Fixing the gravity on precipitation when using dash / dodge
• Better visibility adjustments for night and cloudy scenes
• Clicking the R-Stick is easier for auto-merge
• Fixed Asteric’s dodge up side animation
• Fixed an issue with the manual merge algorithm that would incorrectly select the wrong item
• Updated character portraits and text

These refinements carry from the main game development and should make for a more polished playthrough. We hope you enjoy the smoother experience and quality-of-life tweaks.

Conventions

This fall, we had the chance to bring Violet on the road and got to meet players and fellow creators across several conventions. It’s always amazing to see people connect with the world we’ve been building and to hear your feedback firsthand.

A huge thank-you to everyone who stopped by our booths at the Cleveland Gaming Classic, GDEX 2025, and Williams County Fountain City Fandemonium. Meeting you all reminded us why we do what we do, and we’re already looking forward to seeing you again next year.

Expanding the World

A major focus this season has been expanding and refining Velare with new areas that connect our existing biomes in seamless, story-rich ways.

Border Regions

We tackled the transition between the grasslands and forest biomes, using creative design tricks to make the seams feel natural. We also restructured Claire’s barn side quest, splitting it into two parts, and temporarily removed the broken bridge into 2×3.

The North Swamp

Our latest environment, the North Swamp, brings murky new terrain to explore, complete with an eerie atmosphere and surprise enemies. Venture too close to the edge of the map, and the Forge Brothers might just appear out of nowhere to prevent you from reaching the world’s limits.

Forest Dungeon Exterior

You can now explore around the outside of the Forest Dungeon, adding more immersion and freedom to the dungeon approach.

Forest Province Edge

We’ve added a new area in the forest province, which is on the edge of the map. We introduced a natural cliff border between the Forest and Swamp provinces to make biome transitions more cohesive.

New Gameplay Features

Auto-Merge When Picking Up Weapons 

While merging remains Violet’s signature mechanic, we know repetition can wear players down. To help with that, we’ve introduced an optional auto-merge feature: hold the L-Trigger while picking up a weapon, and it’ll automatically merge into your inventory.

Bottles and Potion System

One of our longest-planned systems (bottles and potions) has finally arrived! Players can now collect bottles that automatically expand their food and resource inventory, eliminating the need to manually drop items.

You’ll find six bottles throughout your journey, and they can store potions used for healing or status effects (with more planned in future updates). This also ties into the new resource management features, giving players the freedom to choose between upgrading weapons or boosting their food supply.

Animations and Audio

We’ve been adding a ton of new animations to bring the game to life, as well as new music!

• The Violets now has full stun and death animations, complete with matching sound effects.

• Centaur enemies have new death and shield bash animations.

  

  

  

  

• Generic NPCs can now sit, bringing a little more realism to towns and camps.
  

  

• We’ve also updated character portraits throughout the game. Here are a few examples:
  

  

  

  

  

  

  

On the music side, we’ve composed new day and night themes for the woods to give each time of day a distinction.

Wood Day

Wood Night

Asteric Redesign 

After hearing community feedback that Asteric’s design could use a touch more personality, we revisited his look. We leaned into his courier roots by adding a satchel, adjusted his outfit for more depth, and found another visual to show his connection with the violets.

Tutorial Overhaul

The tutorial has been completely redone. It’s now mostly outdoors with a few caves and offers a better sense of pacing and immersion. The new version focuses on core controls first and adds combat encounters earlier to give new players a smoother start that feels closer to the full game experience.

Polish and Performance

Code Cleanup & Optimization

We spent some time clearing out old TODOs, reducing our task list from over 160 down to 80. With Optimized Loading nearly complete, we also moved our data decryption to a separate thread, cut down on load stutters, and improved overall performance.

Big thanks to Anthony for crushing countless bugs during QA and helping us smooth out the experience.

Boulder Physics

Players noticed they could hide behind boulders even though arrows passed right through. We restructured the system so that boulders now properly block projectiles, setting up for future mechanics like pickup-able rocks.

Marketing Updates

Outside of development, we’ve also been refining Violet’s visual identity. Our updated logo and refreshed branding are in the works, with more details to come soon. The goal is to capture the spirit of the game in every piece of design you see from us.

Stay tuned for the reveal!

Conclusion

We’re incredibly proud of how far Violet has come this season. With new features, expanded areas, and plenty of polish behind us, the game is steadily becoming the vision we’ve always imagined.

Thank you for following along on this journey! Your feedback and support keep us inspired as we continue building this world together.

This summer has been a busy season for The Violets of Amicus team, but we’ve made major strides in both art and functionality. From the murky swamps of Tenebris to tuning inventory controls, here’s everything we’ve been working on lately:

The Swamp Province – Tenebris

Our biggest highlight this season is the addition of Tenebris, a murky, mysterious swamp province in the upper left corner of the world map. This area introduces new enemy types, improved environmental logic, and lots of moody atmosphere.

• New Reflection Algorithm: Reflections now behave more naturally, appearing only on water and no longer showing on solid ground.

• Swamp Assets: From trees to ruins, we’ve fleshed out the entire biome with lush and eerie new sprites.

• Throwable Objects: We added swamp-themed throwables to make environmental interaction more immersive.

• New Enemy: Swamp Snake: This foe lurks within water and leaps toward the player when threatened.

Horse Combat Improvements

To prep for future mounted combat, we’ve updated our position tool so Asteric dynamically aligns with the horse’s motion, even while swinging weapons. This will allow smoother transitions and more responsive combat animations once the final horse-riding sprites are in.

Forest Maze, Trap Saps, and Palette Polish

• We’ve darkened the color of the grass to give the world a more-polished feel. In addition, we adjusted the color palettes for our new biomes.  The first image is the starting area grass lands. The second image shows the forest color palette. And lastly, we have the darker color palette in the swamp biome.

• New Forest Area (1×4): Features a bridge between cliffs and denser forest design.

• New Enemy – Trap Saps: A sneaky threat hiding among the foliage.

• Forest Maze Concept: Early layout work underway.

Centaur Combat Updates

These additions bring the Centaur enemies closer to their final forms, making encounters more varied and strategic:

Centaur Bow Pull Right

Feature Fixes & Gameplay Upgrades

We’ve been actively responding to player feedback. Here are some quality-of-life updates:

• Keyboard support: Basic keyboard functionality is now fully supported for smoother play and accessibility. (This applies to the demo as well!)
• Inventory Navigation Option: Players can now close inventory menus with the B button, aligning with common game conventions. This was a frequently requested tweak, so we’re happy to make this game more accessible to all gaming preferences.

Optimization, Lighting Tweaks & Deeper Polish

• Loading Optimization: We continued to refine the loading pipeline from last season. It’s smoother, faster, and more stable. We’re also diving into garbage collection research, which could become its own update.
• Ambient Lighting Adjustments: Alpha values were toned down in response to feedback that the lighting was too intense.

Swamp Music (And more!)

The swamp area now has its own custom track to help set the mood for adventures in Tenebris. We’re still working on polishing the themes, but we’re excited to give each region a distinctive signature.

Enemy Base

This area marks the origin of the Monster Scourge. Expect a mix of stealth and high-stakes combat:

• The first third is a required stealth mission.
• The final two-thirds are optional endgame gauntlets, designed to be among the hardest encounters in the game.

Path Updates (Goodbye Squares!!)

Path tiles got a long-overdue upgrade. After hearing that our paths looked a bit too “square,” we’ve reshaped and redrawn many of them for more organic trails and better flow.

Conventions & Our Team

Earlier this summer, we’ve been attending conventions here in our home base of Ohio. So far, we’ve attended TORG in Sandusky, Ohio and GameCon at Northwest State University. Our story artist, Kennedy, snapped these photos from both of them. Thank you to everyone who came out!

Dan also got to meet our pixel artist, Tony, in person for the first time, along with Tony’s brother. They had a blast playing video games and hanging out for the weekend.

And to all of you, thank you as always for your support and feedback. Each update, big or small, is helping The Violets of Amicus become the game we know it can be.

Until next time!

– The Violets of Amicus Team

It’s been a while since our last update, and we owe you a big thank you for sticking with us. February and March were intense, and after all the chaos, Dan needed a bit of a breather from the social side of things. But we’re back, and we’ve got a lot to share.

Dan has now shifted to working “mostly full-time” on the game, which has been a rollercoaster of its own. Balancing the creative freedom of solo dev life with the pressure of managing every tiny detail has been overwhelming at times, but it’s also been incredibly rewarding. He’s learning that owning your own project is a whole different beast, but he’s committed to making Violet the best it can be.

Art Updates

Centaur Animations

Tony has been hard at work bringing the Centaur to life. Given its larger size, the animations take a bit longer to complete, but the results are absolutely worth it. Here’s a sneak peek at what he’s been working on:

Balanced Swings (In Demo)

Dash Sprites (Going to Demo)

Dodge Sprites (Going to Demo)

 

Swamp Assets (WIP)

To avoid burnout, Tony has also been tackling some fresh ideas. Here’s a look at some work-in-progress Swamp assets that will help expand the game’s atmosphere:

Music Updates

Forest Dungeon Music (In Demo)

Eugene has been composing some fantastic tracks, including two pieces you can already hear in the demo:

Forest Dungeon Night

Forest Dungeon Enemy

Wild Enemy Theme (Going to Demo)

This track, which essentially serves as the Centaur’s battle theme, is set to make its way into the demo soon. It’s intense, primal, and fits the tone of the Centaur perfectly. (Note: Quality reduced slightly for demo size considerations.)

Marketing Insights

We’ve been doing some deep dives into how we present the game, and one takeaway is that some areas have felt a bit too empty. This is partly because we haven’t entered the polish phase yet, where those fine details come in. In response, we’ve made a big decision to “compress” the world a bit, which should help make each area feel more alive. We’ll share more on this below.

Grass Sprites (Going to Demo)

We’ve been refining our grass sprites to add more life to the environments. (We’ll include a few of our favorites below.)

Asteric Art Updates (On Hold)

We received some feedback on Asteric’s character design and have been throwing around some ideas on how to improve him. At the moment, there is not much to report here, but we’re not forgetting about it!

Some of Tony’s rework:

Optimized Loading

One of the major technical challenges Dan has been tackling is optimized loading. If you’ve played the demo, you’ve likely seen the loading screen:

Currently, the demo loads everything at once, which is fine for a small world, but as the game expands, this approach simply won’t cut it. Loading 81 sections at once would slow the game down significantly or even cause memory issues on lower-end devices.

The numbers on the left and right side of the HUD are debug info. The left side shows the total number of dynamic resources. The number on the right side shows what is being loaded / unloaded. The numbers in [] is the section the player is in. The section numbers above the === are the sections being loaded, the topmost currently being loaded and everything else being queued. The section numbers below the === are what is being unloaded, the topmost currently being unloaded and everything else being queued.

So, instead of loading everything up front, the game now loads sections as you approach them, keeping performance smooth and load times manageable.  This is trickier than it sounds, though. Game Maker is a single-threaded engine, meaning loading in the background without affecting gameplay required a lot of creative problem-solving. Dan even had to write a custom extension to handle file I/O on a separate thread to make this possible!  This is because for most of development, we were aware of the buffer_load_async function, that we assumed to load files asynchronously. Well, come to find out, this is not true whatsoever. Our ace up our sleeve was false! buffer_load_async is NOT spun off to another thread, it is just non-blocking.

The good news? After a lot of trial and error, this system is almost ready. It’s a huge step toward making Violet a seamless, sprawling world.  We even have a loading bar now!

7×7 Zone Rooms (Future)

As part of the effort to make the world feel more alive, we’re moving from an 8×8 to a 7×7 zone grid (the black squares in the image below). This decision not only makes combat more engaging but also reduces memory overhead, which will help the game run smoother on all devices.

Other Notable Updates

• Game Maker 2024.13 Update (Going to Demo)
  This was a surprisingly smooth update, with only a minor hiccup involving some function overrides.
• Move Audio Back Out From Game Maker (Future)
  We’re also finished shifting audio files back out of Game Maker to improve performance and encryption security.

Conclusion

Thank You for Your Support!

As always, we can’t thank you enough for following along with our journey. If you’d like to stay up to date with our progress, make sure to follow us on socials and share the game with your friends. Every bit of support helps!

Until next time,

The Violet Team