Hey everyone,

I'm thrilled to release Hide Seek Survive's One Year Anniversary / Halloween update! I've received a ton of awesome feedback over the past few months and I've also come up with a few other ways to improve the experience:

-Drastically reduced file size. Went from 7 GB to 1.4 GB in this update.
-Optimized codebase and default rendering settings to improve performance. On my setup I am getting roughly 150 FPS while I was getting 130 FPS in the previous build. All this with the game's overall look actually improving as far as I can tell...
-Added smoothed framerate to provide a smoother experience on lower end systems.
-Fixed resolution bug when people open the game for the first time.
-Changed opening music and fixed a bug keeping it from playing in some instances.
-Updated the way the tutorial UI for the doll works. The UI will now stay active until the player finds the doll the first time. From there it will stay active a few seconds each time the doll changes locations, disappearing after a set amount of time.
-The doll's laugh now plays after Hide and Seek Steve is done talking. This change and the above change will make it much easier to determine where the doll is.
-Significantly improved directional audio (horizontal) for the demon. Completely redid how this sound is played and the resulting system makes it much easier to tell if the demon is on your left or on your right. Please let me know if you think this is better than it was. I'll switch the doll to this method if so!
-Made the demon UI flash faster for dramatic effect.

As you can see from the amount of adjustments made in this update, it is the largest we've had since the rerelease of the game this past February. I'm really proud of where the game is at, especially when I go back and look at some of the reviews people posted immediately after its launch. Those of you who have been here since then know what I mean...

Thank you to everyone for all your support and please keep posting reviews. I love seeing the positive ones starting to overwhelm the flurry of negatives I received at launch. Thanks for reading and enjoy the update!

Best,

CampinCarl

What's going on survivors! I've been working on this update for the last month and am really excited to bring these changes to my game. Shoutout to PoppiePlays, who gave me a ton of feedback in a YouTube video early this month that went into this update. I've implemented all of his feedback plus a few other things in the update as well. The changes are the following:

- Code cleanup which resulted in significant performance boosts.
- Fixed bug causing Graphics Settings Menu to not work as intended.
- Fixed bug causing Audio Settings Menu to not work as intended.
- Troubleshooted and improved screen tearing that some users were experiencing.
- Improved opening mechanism of the closets to be more responsive to the player.
- Remade the credits menu to look better from a visual standpoint.
- Added trigger warnings for flashing lights and loud noises to the main menu and steam page.
- Made flashlight no longer flicker until the endgame. I've received some feedback that the flashlight flickering doesn't really add anything to the game as it stood before the update. In order to make it feel like it does add something, the flashlight now only flickers for the last 3 levels of the game, which really heightens the tension in the endgame.
- Made flashlight dim as the player moves through the first few levels. Wanted the game to still somehow feel harder visually as you progress through the early levels even after the flicking change. I feel that this accomplishes the goal but we'll see if people like it.
- Troubleshooted and improved directional audio. I've received some feedback that it's still hard to pinpoint where the demon and doll are using audio so I spent countless hours troubleshooting and improving how it works in game. It's at the point know where I can pretty much always figure out what room the demon / doll is in just by the in game audio. I'm hoping that other players of the game have a similar experience. I've also sped up the footsteps off the demon so you have a more constant stream of information as to where it is.
- Added the Tutorial UI Feature which is essentially a visual representation of where the demon and doll are when they are moving across the map. This will inform new players that they should be paying attention to where the doll and demon are. It will also help people get used to the map and better pinpoint where the demon and doll are as they play. Note that this UI disappears in the endgame so you will have to rely on your listening skills to actually win the game!

I've worked really hard on this update and I hope that you all like it! This game has come so far since launch and I have all the awesome feedback from the community to thank for that. Enjoy the update and keep sending me your feedback!

Best,

CampinCarl