Official Updates & Dev Log
Every post the developer has published on Steam, in order, with the load-bearing sentences quoted rather than paraphrased. This is the only page on this site where nothing can go out of date, because everything on it is a date or a quotation.
Why this page exists at all
The video game guide sites covering this game all cite the same two or three Steam posts, usually the price announcement and a trailer. None of them archives the feed. That matters, because the feed is where the developer answers the questions everyone else is still arguing about: where a boss actually sits in the campaign, what the demo levels really were, and which of the demo's problems the team accepted as real. Feed verified Steam News RSS, appid 2828710.
The developer, answering the two questions nobody else can
Both of these are on the publisher's own channel, and between them they contain details that appear in no written source: what the studio thinks a soulslike is, what the movement powers actually do, and which horror game they were designing against.
Lyrical Games · published 2025-10-05 · verified through the YouTube oEmbed endpoint
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Extraction note: Facts below are extracted from YouTube's automatic captions, which mishear proper nouns and numbers routinely. Nothing numeric is transferred, and one place name is corrected to the spelling the publisher uses in writing.
Lyrical Games · published 2026-04-09 · verified through the YouTube oEmbed endpoint
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Extraction note: Facts below are extracted from YouTube's automatic captions, which mishear proper nouns and numbers routinely. Nothing numeric is transferred, and one place name is corrected to the spelling the publisher uses in writing.
Three corrections we made to our own pages
Reading the developer's own posts overturned three things this site had been stating. They are listed first, before the archive, because a guide that quietly fixes its mistakes without saying so is worth less than one that shows its work.
Correction
We had said: We placed General Lothaire at the end of Chapter I.
Actually: In the retail game he is the boss at the end of Chapter II. The demo placed him at the end of the demo's bespoke Chapter I, where players had roughly thirty minutes of practice, and the studio names that short runway as the reason he felt unfair.
The Final Stretch - Development Update, 2026-09-04
Correction
We had said: We described the demo as shipping Chapter I and Chapter VII.
Actually: It shipped bespoke versions of those chapters, rebuilt for Steam Next Fest. That is why retail optimisation, balancing and bug fixes could not be backported, and it is why demo difficulty judgements deserve a discount.
The Final Stretch - Development Update, 2026-09-04
Correction
We had said: We called the Rapier parry-friendly.
Actually: It has no block at all. Its only defence is a perfectly timed parry, and in exchange it can break enemy weak points without spending firearm ammunition.
Valor Mortis Demo is BACK for Summer events!, 2026-07-20
The complete developer post archive
- Trailer / media
New Gameplay Overview Trailer and Official Voice Cast Reveal
The gameplay overview trailer lands, narrated by James Alexander in character as William, alongside the full voice cast reveal. This trailer is the source for most of what this site knows about the combat loop, the weapon philosophy and the Catalyst and Amber progression.
What it means: This is the single best nine minutes of official material. It is embedded on our homepage and its breakdown is cited throughout the combat, weapons and progression pages.
- Pricing & buying
Revealing the price of Valor Mortis
The publisher states the price for the first time, confirms the Deluxe Edition contents, rules out pre-orders entirely, pegs the story at twenty hours, repeats the free-update commitment, and mentions an accessibility feature nobody had reported: dynamic FOV scaling.
“Did you know that we are using dynamic FOV scaling to make huge bosses more readable in combat?”
on dynamic FOV scaling
“Many of you have also asked us about pre-orders, but we want to let the completed version of our game do the talking. You'll be able to buy it when you have a full picture of Valor Mortis' quality, creativity and craft at launch.”
on no pre-orders
“the quality, fidelity, and playtime in its 20-hour story”
on playtime
“We also have multiple free updates planned that will add more ways to enjoy Valor Mortis in the weeks and months ahead.”
on post-launch support
What it means: Three facts we did not have: no pre-orders, a confirmed 20-hour story, and dynamic FOV scaling as a readability system.
- Development
The Final Stretch - Development Update
The most consequential post in the feed. It sets the demo's offline date, states that the demo chapters were bespoke reconstructions rather than the retail chapters, and directly addresses the most common complaint about the demo boss, including where he actually sits in the retail game.
“Finally, the Steam Demo will go offline next week on September 8.”
on demo offline date
“While the Demo levels are titled Chapter I and Chapter VII, they're actually bespoke versions of those chapters that we recreated for Steam Next Fest. Therefore, it isn't simple to implement the optimization improvements, finely tuned balancing, and bug fixes from the full game in the Demo version.”
on demo chapters are bespoke
“One of the most common criticisms we've seen about the Demo is that General Lothaire is too unforgiving at the end of Chapter I. We feel that this is partly because players have only spent about 30 minutes in the game when they reach the end of Chapter I to fight him. That's a short time to become accustomed to the first-person combat system, which is unique in the soulslike genre. In the full game, General Lothaire is intended as the boss at the end of Chapter II. By that point, you'll have spent more time with the mechanics and leveled up your character, making the difficulty curve much smoother.”
on General Lothaire's retail placement
What it means: We had to correct two things about ourselves after reading this. See the corrections note below the post list.
- Trailer / media
Valor Mortis - New Story Trailer
The gamescom story trailer. Introduces William's dilemma, Napoleon as a voice rather than a presence, and The Shrike as the other pole of the game's central choice.
What it means: This is the source for most of what our characters page says about motivation. It is where the loyalty branch became a confirmed story structure rather than a marketing line.
- Development
GONE GOLD and a new trailer next week
The game reaches gold master. The studio also names the core design problem it has been fighting for the whole project: transferring the environmental awareness that third-person soulslikes take for granted into a first-person camera.
“As of this week, Valor Mortis has gone Gold! This means that the version of the game for physical discs is ready for printing.”
on gold master
“Environmental awareness, field of view, sense of depth perception. These are all challenges for Soulslike gameplay in the first-person perspective.”
on the first-person readability problem
What it means: Gives us a developer-sourced explanation for the single most common criticism of the game. When players say the camera is the real boss, the studio already agreed with them.
- Development
Responding to the biggest feedback from the Demo
The studio answers the four loudest pieces of demo feedback by name. This is rare and unusually specific: it tells you exactly which problems the team accepted as real.
“Improving combat - Readability, hitbox range, staggering enemies”
on combat
“Variety in boss battles - Boss difficulty and the difficulty curve with the Demo skipping from Chapter I to Chatper VII”
on boss variety and pacing
“Optimizing performance - CPU optimization, enemy impact on performance”
on performance
“Platforming vs Combat - How much of the game is platforming and how much is combat?”
on platforming ratio
“Right now, we are in the polishing phase. Every day, the game is playing and performing better than the last.”
on status
What it means: The four areas map almost exactly onto the four criticisms our previews page reports from press. The developer agreeing with the critics is a more useful signal than either group alone.
- Demo period
Valor Mortis Demo is BACK for Summer events!
The demo returns for the summer showcase season, and with it comes the only detailed official description of a single weapon's mechanics anywhere in the feed.
“The Rapier is an exciting new weapon that you can also use in Chapter 7 of the Demo. Unlike the Sabre, its only form of defense is through perfectly timed parries. However, it allows you to hit enemy weakpoints without a firearm.”
on the Rapier
What it means: A hard mechanical fact we had wrong. The Rapier does not block. It is a parry-or-nothing weapon that trades a defensive layer for ranged weak-point access.
- Demo period
Thanks for playing one of the Top Demos of Next Fest!
The studio thanks players after the demo places among the top demos of Steam Next Fest.
What it means: Context for the demo's scale. It peaked at 1,886 concurrent players on its first day and placed in the showcase's top tier, which is a strong signal for a studio's first wholly owned IP.
- Demo period
Next Fest contests to win copies of the game at launch!
Giveaway promotion tied to the demo period.
What it means: Historical. Included for completeness because this page is an archive, not a highlights reel.
- Demo period
Welcome to Steam Next Fest
The demo goes live for Steam Next Fest. Even in the launch post, the studio flags the camera as the design risk.
“The perspective can cause issues regarding sense of space and combat readability.”
on the first-person readability problem
What it means: Dated evidence that the first-person readability problem was known to the studio from day one of the public demo, five months before it appeared in reviews.
Quotations are verbatim from the Steam news feed. Square brackets mark our clarification rather than the developer's wording. One heading in the archive contains the studio's own typo, reproduced as published.
What the studio has committed to but not detailed
Multiple free updates
ConfirmedConfirmed in the same post as the price. The developer says they will add more ways to enjoy the game in the weeks and months after launch. No contents, no dates, no count.
A story DLC in 2027
ConfirmedBundled with the Deluxe Edition. The published description is a single sentence: a major story DLC telling a new story in the same world. That is the entire specification.
Which of the four fixes shipped
ConfirmedThe team named four areas after demo feedback — combat readability, boss variety, CPU performance, platforming balance. It has never said how much of each actually landed in the retail build. Launch day is when that becomes checkable.
Questions about the official record
Where are the official Valor Mortis patch notes?
There are none yet, because the game is unreleased. When patches start shipping they will appear on the Steam news feed, and this page archives that feed, so it will be the first place they are recorded here.
Did General Lothaire change between the demo and the retail game?
His position did, and it is the most important change in the whole record. He is the Chapter II boss in the retail game but stood at the end of the demo's opening chapter, where players had about thirty minutes of practice. The studio says this directly.
Are the demo chapters the same as the retail chapters?
No. The developer states that the demo levels titled Chapter I and Chapter VII were bespoke versions recreated for Steam Next Fest, which is why retail optimisation, balance and bug fixes could not be backported into the demo.