Steam Next Fest Demo Update: Chat, Softer Rescues & Better Stability

Hey climbers!

Our Next Fest Update is out!

The big one is chat: you can now talk to the people on your wall. We also made rescues feel a lot nicer, reworked how long falls end, gave the altitude bar a memory, and fixed the controller navigation in the inventory and menus.

Important: Please restart your Steam Client to download the update!

Full notes below:

Chat with other players

The chat panel used to show only rescues, server announcements and inactivity warnings. Now it’s a real chat.

• Press Enter to open chat and start typing. Typing is keyboard-only for now; on controller, you can read chat but not write.
• Everyone in the same server region shares one chat room.
• To report a message, open chat, hover over the message and pick Report. You can Report, or Report and Block the player in one go.

Rescue cloud

Catching a falling friend now feels soft and is much harder to miss.

• The cloud dips under your weight and springs back instead of stopping you dead. A harder fall dips deeper.
• It’s wider, and it follows you sideways until you land on it.
• The cloud is better at finding a safe spot to set you down, including ledges slightly above it.

Falls and animation

• Fall for 4 seconds or more (down from 10), and you land in a hard, heroic crouch, with a 1-second pause before you can move.
• Fall for 10 seconds or more, and you hit the ground flat.
• The camera now shakes while you fall.
• Idle characters look at other players nearby.
• General animation polish

Altitude bar

• Your current height in meters sits next to your name, with digits that roll as you climb. They change colour during a long fall.
• A marker shows the highest point you’ve stood on in that world
• Your best height is saved for your account locally on your computer, separately for each world.

Controller and menus

• Menus no longer get stuck.
• Redeem code and Inventory on the title screen are now reachable on controller.
• The inventory scrolls to follow your selection. On controller, pressing Down from the search field reaches the tag filters.
• The Companion tab now starts with a “no companion” card. Pick it to put your companion away.

World

• Plants, grass and small ground details keep their natural variety across the whole world.

Connection and stability

• Fixed the issues causing disconnects on shaky connections.
• Updated multiplayer engine with general stability fixes.

Thanks for all the feedback this week. Keep it coming in the Q&A channel on Discord, and we’ll see you on the wall!