It's been a couple of weeks since the release of the stealth RPG Ghost of a Tale, the story of a mouse minstrel in a medieval dungeon on a quest to reunite with his true love. The game is now "what it should have been right from the start," developer SeithCG says, courtesy of the update that was released over the weekend, which clears up "the vast majority of the remaining bugs."
"In case some of you are wondering why those bugs were there to start with, the answer is simple (besides the fact that Ghost of a Tale is quite complex under the hood): a dozen persons testing the game on and off over a period of 2 months is simply no match for having thousands of people all starting to play at the same time. That being said, it's my fault of course," developer SeithCG wrote.
"When I realized what was happening it was obviously too late to say, 'Whoops, sorry I’ll put it back in the fridge for moment.' The fact that most sounds didn’t play in the second half of the game furthermore gave the impression that it wasn’t finished. And that sucked."
Despite the troubles, it doesn't appear to have been a disastrous launch by any measure. Steam user reviews are "very positive," and it boasts a solid 76 aggregate review score on Metacritic. But SeithCG said the problems were especially frustrating because the Early Access period went so smoothly.
"Today ... the game is what it should have been right from the start. So let this serve as an apology to the players who felt the game was not up to their technical standards when it launched, and an invitation to those who've been waiting to come and visit the world of Ghost of a Tale."
The fixlist:
- No ambient sounds playing in the catacombs, harbor, great hall and shore.
- Abrupt transitions between ambient sounds.
- Elevators (courtyard, baskets, bells, etc…) don’t play their sounds.
- Ravik’s arrival sequence (on the bridge) doesn’t play any sounds.
- Sounds during dialogs are sometimes too loud.
- Spiders don’t play their sounds.
- No sounds when climbing ladders.
- Several reverb zones are not kicking in.
- Gallworms don’t play their sounds.
- Pressure plates don’t play their sound.
- Pinecones don’t play their sounds (collapsing worm holes, etc…).
- All ambient sounds are turned off after quitting and relaunching the game.
- The rebel mice remain visible although the skiff has left the harbor.
- An invisible wall keeps Tilo from crossing the already-opened metal gate in the harbor near the crab’s pen (coming from the elevator).
- The commander is sometimes not visible in his office.
- It is possible to sleep in the commander’s bed.
- Rolo at the forge is not hammering and talks about weird unrelated stuff.
- The camera is too close to Tilo after reloading a save.
- Cases where reloading an autosave results in the camera remaining locked on the spot.
- Cases of invisible Ravik on the bridge.
- The Gusto & Fatale’s achievement is not triggered.
- The Lore Master achievement is not getting unlocked.
- The wrong map is shown after getting to the shore via the cave.
- Some map markers for items on the maps are wrong.
- The well key can sometimes get stuck in an unreachable place.
- The HUD is not properly restored after leaving photo mode.
- The guards in the harbor can chase Tilo beyond the harbor (and disappear).
- Some French characters are not properly displayed in the books UI.
- The grid ladder in the jail tower can sometimes get stuck (after reloading multiple times).
- Problems when reloading a save while the end sequence is still playing.
- Some trees on the shore are missing their colliders.
- Rare cases where Silas is awake instead of sleeping.
- Some missing colliders in the catacombs walls.
- Tilo can sprint and sneak while wearing the armor when launching the game and loading a save with the armor upgrade skill.
- Ambient music abruptly kicks in instead of fading in.
- Guards’ knocked out timer UI remains on screen after leaving the area of the guards.
- Shutters don’t play their sounds when Tilo opens them.
There are separate fixes with spoilers which you'll have to hit up Steam to see, because I don't want to spoil any surprises. The developers are also still trying to bring Chinese support to the game. There's no timeline for it yet, "but it will happen eventually!" In the meantime, why not ogle the adorable GIFs Chris made of the game's mousy protagonist?
