Hello, everyone! ːsteamhappyː

Version 1.20 is now publicly available after more than a year of hard work since the release of the 1.0 update. Big thank you to all of our customers as well as people who were testing the new version of our game. You are our heroes!

The update brings a lot of changes to the game, hundreds of fixed bugs and issues as well as some upgrades. If we were to list every single thing, the list would be way too long.

Here is at least selection of the main changes in this new update.

Multiplatform support
Starting today the game is also available on Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck. Xbox and Playstation versions are awaiting final certification from platform holders.
Networking and crossplay

• Cross-platform play support (Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PS4 / PS5, Switch)
  
• A number of synchronization issues fixed - fire barrels burning out too fast for clients, issues with player-to-player trading and more
  
• Overall connection / disconnection stabilization (more robust system for handling unexpected situations - Internet failure, speed drop, etc.)
  
• Possibility to kick, mute, and report other players
  
• Steam backend replaced with Epic Online Services

No external account is needed, everything works with your existing Steam accounts. The only thing that has changed from the player's point of view is the lobby system, which is no longer divided into public lobbies and private/friends' lobbies.

The lobby system now consists of cross-platform lobbies (lobbies that can be accessed from any platform) and single-platform lobbies (for example PS4-only lobbies). Lobbies can now also be password protected. By setting a password for your game you will be able to connect with friends outside of your Friends list (eg. playing on different platforms) without strangers joining your session.

Gameplay

• Complete redesign of the player and camera control (fixed issues with stuttering, smooth movement without lagging, correction of screen tearing and many other problems related to camera and movement)
  
• Complete rework of the save system to make it more stable and reliable
  
• Fixed the Ritual of the Last Boozing and improved the overall function of this mechanic
  
• Fixed the disappearing interaction icons
  
• Fixes in the combat system (disappearing options, incorrect collision detection…)
  
• Redesigned input system allowing for more unrestricted key rebinds
  
• Improved controls during dumpster diving
  
• Notification system improved
  
• Fixed hundreds of smaller bugs reported by the community (in quests, conversations, UI…)
  
• Some slight balancing changes, most notably increased spawn rates of some harder-to-obtain items, and small adjustments to help wean some hobos off of caffeine ;)

Graphics and optimizations

• Overall reduction of game requirements
  
• Asynchronous GI (Global Illumination) and environment streaming (RAM savings)
  
• Asynchronous NPC streaming (RAM savings) and redesign of NPC internal operation (CPU load reduced on average by 60 %)
  
• Faster loading (especially on devices with HDDs)
  
• Faster generation and rendering of dynamic reflections
  
• Change of the default FOV from 60 to 75
  
• Fixes of various graphic bugs (glitched props, holes in models, artifacts…)
  
• Fixed LOD dependence on FOV (render distance no longer decreases with higher FOV)
  
• Redesign of HLOD switching system (hierarchical LOD, high-poly -> low poly…), which results in faster rendering and less noticeable pop-in
  
• Hundreds of micro-optimizations in the code, removing remnants of the early access code.

Localization

• Fixed overlapping of texts and other visual issues with text
  
• Fixes and additions in English, Chinese, German, Russian and Polish translations
  
• Added new translations into Japanese, Spanish, and French.

We have already two new projects in development on Unreal Engine 5. In order to bring you the best possible quality we are continually doing reinvestment of acquired funds into our development. We have built our own mo-cap studio, own cloud infrastructure, team growth significantly (we are not indie anymore) and much more. We can't wait to show you more in Q1 of 2023 :)

- Perun Creative

Hello and good day everyone! ːsteamhappyː

The experimental beta is here and you can finally try it for yourselves! Let me remind you that this is not an official release of the patch. Despite our rigorous testing there might be bugs, occasional crash, or you might experience surprising behavior from the game.

However, it is an important step in the development of both the console version and the better version for the PC, and we’d be very grateful for your help with the testing to help us make the game as polished as possible. You can download the experimental beta following the steps in the GIF below or these instructions:

Right click on Hobo -> Properties… -> Betas - > Enter beta access code “kdyuztobudepublic” -> Check code -> Select “experimental_unstable”

If you do decide to check the experimental beta out, please let us know if you find any bugs, translation errors or other issues.

Use our Discord channel[discord.com], Steam discussions, Reddit or email support@peruncreative.com to report your findings.

There is also one more thing we would like to be honest about and clear up up front. With the public release of the new patch the base price of the game will increase from 20.99 EUR to 24.99 EUR. Changes done to the game in the new patch, especially in terms of stability, optimizations, and future-proofing, would not have been possible without the new talent and technologies we have acquired. Unfortunately, as our studio grows, so do our operating costs. It is a step we do not want to make, but need to.


This list of changes is by no means final and more fixes and features will be rolled out throughout the testing period (over the next month or so).

Localization:

• Fixes and additions in English, Chinese, German, Russian and Polish translations.
  
• Added new translations into Japanese, Spanish, and French.

Networking:

• Cross-platform play support (Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series, PS4 / PS5, Switch)
  
• A number of synchronization issues fixed - fire barrels burning out too fast for clients, issues with player-to-player trading and more
  
• Connection / disconnection stabilization (more robust system for handling unexpected situations - Internet failure, speed drop, etc.)
  
• Steam backend replaced with Epic Online Services

No external account is needed, everything works with your existing Steam accounts. The only thing that has changed from the player's point of view is the lobby system, which is no longer divided into public lobbies and private/friends' lobbies.

The lobby system now consists of cross-platform lobbies (lobbies that can be accessed from any platform) and single-platform lobbies (for example PS4-only lobbies). Lobbies can now also be password protected. By setting a password for your game you will be able to connect with friends outside of your Friends list (eg. playing on different platforms) without strangers joining your session.

Multiplatform Support:

• Steam Deck support
  
  • Automatic quality adjustment has not yet been implemented. For now, we recommend setting the details to medium for the best experience. In one of the following updates, we will add a customized profile for the Steam Deck (eg. some details from higher settings are too demanding for the steam deck and some on the medium are unnecessarily downplayed)
    
  • Complete support (controls, UI, graphic effects) + the ability to scratch off lotto tickets using the touch screen
  
• Replacement of OpenGL with Vulkan API on Linux (and Steam Deck)

Optimalizations:

• Asynchronous graphics streaming (RAM savings)
  
• Asynchronous NPC streaming (RAM savings) and redesign of NPC internal operation (CPU load reduced on average by 60 %)
  
• Asynchronous GI streaming (Global Illumination) -> RAM saving and, thanks to more memory space, an increase in the data resolution itself (better lights, fewer artifacts, etc.)
  
• Faster loading (especially on devices with HDDs)
  
• Acceleration of dynamic reflection generation
  
• Optimization / improvement of grass rendering (larger draw distance, especially on weaker platforms)
  
• UI element animation system refactor (HUD, inventory…)
  
• Faster loading of text files (conversations, quests…)
  
• Acceleration of database loading (item database, config files…)
  
• Physics optimizations
  
• Hundreds of micro-optimizations in the code, removing remnants of the early access code

Gameplay:

• Complete redesign of the player and camera control (fixed issues with stuttering, smooth movement without lagging, correction of screen tearing and many other problems related to camera and movement)
  
• Fixed the Ritual of the Last Boozing and improved the overall function of this mechanic
  
• Fixed the disappearing interaction icons
  
• Fixes in the combat system (disappearing options, incorrect collision detection…)
  
• Redesigned input system allowing for more unrestricted key rebinds
  
• Improved controls during dumpster diving
  
• Notification system improved
  
• Fixed hundreds of smaller bugs reported by the community (in quests, conversations, UI…)
  
• Some slight balancing changes, most notably increased spawn rates of some harder-to-obtain items, and small adjustments to help wean some hobos off of caffeine ;)

Graphics:

• Change of the default FOV from 60 to 75
  
• Fixed LOD dependence on FOV (render distance no longer decreases with higher FOV)
  
• Fixes of various graphic bugs (glitched props, holes in models, artifacts…)
  
• Redesign of HLOD switching system (hierarchical LOD, high-poly -> low poly…), which results in faster rendering and less noticeable pop-in
  
• Fixes and tuning of the player's animation
  
• Improvements to the player's camera positioning
  
• Replacement of FXAA with MSAA

Save System:

• Complete rework of the save system to make it more stable and reliable
  
• Save / load acceleration
  
• More robust backup system
  
• Save file size reduction (orders of magnitude smaller files on the disk)

Other:

• Added illustrated loading screens during transitions (loading times on SSDs are almost instant, in a matter of seconds on HDDs)

Hi, everyone! ːsteamhappyː

As promised in the ancient times of 2 months ago by a different guy, I’m bringing you the anticipated news from our studio. Peter, our previous community manager, has been assigned to our new project and decided to focus more on design and project management. That’s where I come in. So, let me introduce myself.

I’m David, or Ireas as my friends and co-players knows me. I am the new community manager at Perun Creative. If I should mention a few things that describe me I’d say hectoliters of black coffee, an obsession with renaissance Venetian schiavona swords and an unhealthy relationship with the Warhammer 40k lore.

You can reach me every day on Hobo: Tough Life discord server and I will be responding to you in our other communication channels as well.

But enough about me and let’s see what our dev team has prepared for you. Before I start, please accept our apology for not reaching out to you sooner. Our making of the console ports in-house, while also learning on the job, makes it difficult to set specific time frames, as some possibly unforeseen problems can easily lead into delays.

Anyways, good news is that the console ports are basically done by now and we are dealing mainly with stability checks and improvements for the Steam version of the game.

The experimental beta should be ready in the second half of March, likely closer to the end of the month. The best case scenario for the public update release is the end of April, but that’s only if absolutely everything goes according to plan. A release in the first half of May is more likely.

That said, we all know how plans go, so take these dates as my personal qualified guess based on my knowledge of the internal procedures. The final date of the release depends on testing results and validation from platform holders (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo).

The release can be postponed by a week or two if the dev team finds any major issues during testing. We would like to deliver the best possible version of the game we can. Thank you for your understanding and patience in this. It won’t be much longer.

You can expect updates for Chinese, German, Russian and Polish translations. We would also like to announce that we will add Japanese, Spanish and French languages into the game.

We’d be very thankful if native speakers of any of the newly added languages decided to check out the game and let us know about any issues they find!

The new translations probably won’t be complete in the experimental build, as their deadline is at the end of March, but we’ll make sure to update them during the beta test.

To ensure cross-platform support as well as availability on other gaming platforms we had to move from Steam backend to Epic Online Services. Through this technology we can deliver to you the possibility to play on all major consoles (Xbox One, Xbox Series, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch) as well as on the PC together.

If you’d rather stick to your own platform, there will be a cross-platform filtering function, which will allow you to block any of these platforms in your matchmaking.

Another big improvement we are going to add to the game is a ban/kick/mute system for the multiplayer. Thanks to this tool the host will have more control over their game.

We’ve also been hard at work fixing loads of synchronization issues and problems reported post-launch. Clients should no longer see their fires burning out in seconds, and items should no longer disappear into the void during trades, among other things.

If you are one of the happy owners of the new Steam Deck, we have some great news for you! The experimental update will include Steam Deck support, so make sure to check it out and let us know how it is.

As usual for almost any update in any game ever we will bring you more performance improvements, bug fixes, and optimizations, including faster load times, better memory management, more frames-per-second, and fixes to various graphics issues. To top all of that off we’ve also added some quality-of-life improvements and some new features to the game.

And that’s all for this update. We are looking forward to your feedback if you decide to test the upcoming experimental build. Stay safe and healthy in these trying times.

You will hear more from us soon!

David Ireas Kubíček

Hello everyone! ːsteamhappyː

We hope you had wonderful Holidays and properly celebrated the end of 2021. New year is here and we‘ve got some exciting news to share with you all! We know we tend to go radio silent for longer periods of time, but the game is far from abandoned and we‘ve been working tirelessly on the project to meet our internal deadlines.

New update should come into the experimental branch of the game relatively soon. However, it‘s still too early to set a specific date. We‘ll need to test all the changes we‘ve made before going live and the experimental branch is the way to do it.

You‘ll get to play the update early (albeit in potentially unstable form) and your feedback will help us find bugs and problems. We‘ll keep you posted about the availability of the experimental branch of the update.

We‘ve been working on many „behind-the-scenes“ changes in networking, save game stability, optimizations and other features. The update should hopefully once again improve performance considerably across the board.

More bug fixes and new features will be gradually introduced throughout the testing period leading up to the console release in April, which will correspond with the public release of the update on Steam.

Together with the release on consoles, we are also planning on having the game translated into more languages. We can guarantee a Japanese translation with more languages currently being in the talks.
At the moment, there‘s no telling how many more translations we‘ll manage to secure in time for the console release, but we‘ll do our best to get as many of the most requested languages as possible.

As big of a success as Hobo is, it can‘t sustain our studio indefinitely. We need to look to the future if we are to bring more of our ideas to life. At the same time we‘d like to avoid a burnout from working on the same project for such a long time.

Hobo and its console ports is not the only thing we‘ve been working on in the past few months. We‘ve put as much (if not more) effort into improving our studio and internal infrastructure.

We secured more office space, hired more talent, and acquired new technologies, all of which help us not only with the development of Hobo, but with our new next-gen project as well.

Without sharing too much, we can tell you that our next project will also be a cross-genre hybrid. The following environmental concept art and sketches might offer some insight into the possible setting and overall atmosphere of the game:

Hello, everyone! ːsteamhappyː

It’s been quite a while since our last update post. We apologize for this radio silence, but frankly there’s not been much to update on. Until now…

Possibly the most frequent question we’ve gotten post release was “Console ports when?”

Well, we wanted to be done with the console ports by the end of the year. We now know that we’re not going to make it in time for that deadline. We’ve been falling behind the schedule slightly for a while now, but we wanted to wait until the end of September to be absolutely sure.

After some deliberation, we have decided to set the new deadline for the release of the console ports. This deadline is fairly lenient and should allow for enough QA to be done in order to deliver smooth gameplay experience on all the intended consoles.

Console release of Hobo: Tough Life is now planned on the 13th of April 2022 - coincidentally a year after the PC version. That almost calls for a “Year One Feature Update” for the PC version, right? Which brings us to the next point…

The second most frequent question we now get is “New content when?”

Here is a bit of sad news. Unfortunately, there will assuredly be no new content until the release of the console ports. We realize that almost a year-long wait since the PC release is a bit too much to ask, but it is simply not viable for us to add to the project in its current state.

We are simultaneously working on the console ports, cross-platform play infrastructure, and new cloud save system. Any changes and/or additions would require a project rollback, implementation, testing, release, and then reroll back to the current work copy.

It sounds like a simple process, but a single instance of this could take anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks and there is a lot that could go wrong. Simply put, it’s worth neither the risk, nor the time investment.
HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean that PC players will be left empty-handed when the console ports release. We want the console versions to be the most feature-complete and polished versions of the game. That will of course serve to improve the PC version as well.

There are still a lot of issues, bugs, and features that are on our to-do list. Console optimizations will improve performance on PC across the board as well. The “Year One Patch” is going to be big, we can promise you that.

As for any new content past that, who knows. There have been talks about a DLC and mod support, but nothing specific yet. Truth is, Hobo: Tough Life has been in development for almost 7 years. That is a long time and we would like to avoid burnout, which is already slowly creeping in.

Now, to end on a good note, “Hobo: Tough Life” has received a nomination in Central & Eastern European Game Awards 2021![ceega.eu] Next week, we will wrestle for the title of the Best Narrative with Mafia: Definitive Edition, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Medium in Poznań, Poland. Those are certainly formidable opponents so wish us luck! Part of our team will attend the event and keep you posted live on our social media.

That is going to be all for now, stay safe, and remember to stock up on medkits and lifebringers before the winter comes!

This patch will be lighter on the content, as explained in our Steam posts. Work on multiplayer security features still continues, but it's taking much longer than expected. However, fixes introduced in this patch will hopefully solve some repeatedly reported issues.

Apart from fixes, we have also reworked the backend infrastructure for dialogue systems and the item database. It won’t have any noticeable impact on the game right now, but it will help us with optimizations later down the line, especially for consoles.

Fixes:

• * Fixed navigation in the quest "Secret," quest marker leading to Herold should now point to the correct building.
  
• * Fixed a bug that caused the pizza delivery quest to become stuck if the player was drunk during one specific delivery on one of the routes. (this however does not work retroactively, if you are already stuck, it will remain that way)
  
• * Some pizza delivery locations marked better on the map, added a marker for the "gas station" location.
  
• * The whole pizza delivery quest has been rebalanced. Customers are more agreeable, don't complain as often as they did, and requirements for "successful" delivery were made more forgivable. Mr. Kubik should be more happy with your deliveries now.
  
• * Reputation gain with the police adjusted. Now it should be possible to earn the “Model Citizen” achievement. (this however does not work retroactively due to the way how reputation is awarded)
  
• * Fixed a situation where the player might have befriended Bruno and his thugs before being asked by Moiser to beat them up, thus being unable to finish Moiser’s quest line. You can now ask Bruno during that quest to let his people attack you again for a while.
  
• * Fixed the issue where lootables would not refill if the player looted them during the calamity and ended the season before they could refill
  
• * Fixed the issue where it was necessary to read all 30 books in one sitting for the Oldster to unlock. The game now correctly keeps track of the books read and you no longer need to read them all at once.

Hello everyone! ːsteamhappyː

We are nearing the end of June and with it the next “June” update. Or are we?

Unfortunately, we have hit a few bumps on the road and won’t be able to finish the update on time. We will still release a patch addressing some more issues that we have managed to uncover and fix, but the major features that were supposed to be included will not make an appearance just yet.

Main features of this upcoming update were supposed to be “security” measures and player management for multiplayer games.
Firstly, guests would be able to interact with the host's hideout (both stash and placed items) only after a certain amount of time has passed.
Secondly, the host would now have the option to kick or ban players, and also to override the time requirement if a trusted player joins in.

This wouldn’t be a whole lot difficult if we were working with the old matchmaking system. As we have promised earlier, Hobo will support crossplay between various platforms. Because of that, we have to move to a different matchmaking service. Here’s when things get complicated.
We want to first make the transfer to the new service, make sure it works, and then implement these features. However, the transfer is not going as smoothly as we had hoped. In addition to that, one of our programmers has suffered an injury that put him out of action for at least two weeks.

We wanted to let you know that the main features of the June update will be postponed until July to ensure that we can properly implement everything. Bugfix patch will still release as scheduled.

Thank you and stay safe!

Features:

- Begging expertise and mastery perks rebalanced - Expert Begging now gives 30 % chance to get an item in addition to cash. Master Begging increases the chance to 70 %. That should hopefully result in less items cluttering the inventory of master beggars.

- Early elections available - Now, if you've got enough votes, you can ask Herold to start the elections early, allowing you to become the king mid-season.

- Difficulty balance pass - First season has been made a little bit easier (some parameters deplete slower, withdrawal drains less health), to compensate, seasons 2 and 3 are colder and a bit more difficult. Season 2 is mostly the same, Season 3 is a bit harder than it used to be.

- Talisman of Recovery - replaces all the other recovery amulets. Recovers 10 points of all stat maximums lost due to dying. It is more expensive than the individual amulets previously, but considering it recovers all stats, it is actually much MUCH cheaper now to recover from death.

- Stacking items in build mode - You can now stack similar items onto each other in the hideout. There are still some limitations, but to all who wanted to build walls from cinder blocks or worn tires, now's your time! If you delete an object with other objects stacked on top of it, they will be all placed in you inventory, so don't be alarmed if multiple objects disappear.

- Conversations made more difficult - Success chances of further conversations checks beyond the first one have been reduced for early levels of the skill. It evens out at the level 5, but it makes the progress in the skill up to that point more noticeable.

- Hardcore modes added - yes, there's multiple, mostly to avoid potential technical difficulties. You can enable hardcore mode when starting a new game. HC mode can only be selected when starting the game. Once you start a hardcore game, you can't change it later. Hardcore is meant to provide much steeper challenge than the base game and as such does not necessarily have to make sense or "feel realistic."

Hardcore mode features:
- Items can't be stored in the hideout storage.
- Failure in the crafting minigame removes resources.
- Character can't walk while overburdened.
- Damaged equipment can't be repaired.
- Healing consumables heal 50 % less.
- Maisner no longer offers items for buy back after death.
- 15 % more mess in the garbage bins.
- Begging gives 50 % less cash.
- Character can equip only a single luggage item.
- Conversation starts at an effective level of 0 (you start with 0 % in all other dialogue options without using conversations).

Hardcore+ mode features:
- Same as the basic Hardcore mode, but you can't play in multiplayer and once you die, it's over (permadeath).


Fixes:
- fixes to some 3D models
- fixed models of some upgradable items in the hideout
- added missing Satanic altar in the quest "Moiser's Misery." There's 6 of them now, but you only need 5, so it should be easier to find them all.
- multiple fixes to texture work, models, clipping throughout the city
- adjustments to some areas where there shouldn't be snow (inside of the astronomical clock, Stink's hideout and others)
- fixed exploit in a quest "A Little Pickpocketing" where the player could get an infinite amount of stealing XP.
- fixed the issue where holding down LMB to confirm the "Continue..." dialogue option would immediately select the first option in the next step of the dialogue
- fixes to some highlighter in hideouts
- fix to where the local player couldn't see other players building unless they were in a build mode as well
- fixed the possibility of reposition objects that were already being repositioned
- fixed synchronization issues while connecting to a game with models in the process of building
- fix of the cursed noodles from the bistro (ran a lot of errors in the background, potentially crashing the application)
- added option to tell Tony quest information during the quest "Secret" even if Tony is angry at the player