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Occultus Vitae - Hidden Life

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A psychological horror adventure where you explore abandoned locations and unravel dark legends. Set in a remote castle hiding a black magic experiment gone wrong, you'll face haunting environments, challenging puzzles, and a fight to survive the horrors lurking within.

$12.99

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🛠️ Patch Notes – Version 0.3 (Build 0.3.3)

Oct 7

Hey everyone,

Update 0.3 is the biggest technical update in the history of Occultus Vitae. Under the hood almost everything has been touched: AI, sound, interaction, guidance, cinematics, settings and localization. And yes, there is a new chapter waiting for you. We won't tell you anything about it. Go and find out yourself.

🧠 Adaptive Enemy AI – It Learns How YOU Play

This is the heart of the update and honestly the thing we are proudest of. We built a completely new enemy system from scratch, and it doesn't just follow a script. It watches you, it remembers, and it adapts to your playstyle.

Real perception: enemies see through a view cone with true line of sight, so walls, doors and corners actually protect you. Detection builds up gradually instead of being instant, so a quick glimpse is not a death sentence, but staying in sight is.
Light matters: your flashlight is your best friend and your biggest risk. A lit flashlight makes you visible from much further away.
Sound matters: sprinting and hard landings make noise. Moving slowly keeps you quiet. Enemies investigate what they hear.
Smart behaviour: patrolling, investigating noises, chasing, searching your last known position and giving up when they lose you. They pause, listen, sniff and move on.
It learns your habits: the system tracks how you play and gets better at countering it:
- Hide a lot? It will start checking hiding spots on its own.
- Love your flashlight? It will spot your light earlier and from further away.
- Always sprinting? It will hear you from further away.
- It remembers places where it has seen you and comes back to check them.
Your behaviour is saved with your game. Load a save, and it still remembers what you taught it.
Doors are no longer a safe zone. Enemies can open doors, and when they are angry enough, they break them down.
Fair combat: attacks can be dodged. A hit only counts if it actually connects.
New hiding system: hide in lockers and watch the world through the slits. But if something sees you climb in...
Improved pathfinding, smarter navigation through doorways and automatic recovery if an enemy ever gets stuck.

🖐️ Reworked Interaction System

Interacting is now much more reliable: a precise aim check with a slightly wider fallback makes small items like keys and batteries far easier to pick up, while walls still block.
Interaction prompts no longer stay visible on objects you have already turned away from.
Interaction reach has been tuned to feel more natural.
Keys now catch your flashlight beam with a short metallic glint when you look at them, so small items are easier to spot in the dark.
New interaction type: electronic keypads with their own on-screen number pad, operated with the mouse, including a display, status light and audio feedback.

🧭 Guidance & Objectives

Objectives now separate active and completed goals in their own columns in the inventory (TAB key). Long objective lists scroll instead of pushing the screen out of view.
New thought system: if you're stuck on an objective for a long time, your character's own thoughts will give you a subtle nudge. First vague, later more concrete. Quick players will never see them.
Clue notes in the journal grow with every new discovery, including hand-drawn sketches.
Additional save points in the new chapter.
Long titles in the journal now wrap properly instead of running off the page.

🎬 Cinematics & Atmosphere

New cinematic camera sequences with multiple camera shots, smooth transitions and fades.
New original music. Selected tracks now continue seamlessly across a level change instead of cutting off.
Phone conversations play with fitting background ambience instead of silence.
More varied lighting: flickering, dimmed and failing lights make every corner feel a little less predictable.

🎧 Sound Engine Overhaul

Fully reworked 3D audio: natural distance falloff, sound occlusion through walls (sounds behind walls are quieter and muffled) and distance filtering.
All positional sounds are now properly spatialized, so you can actually hear where something is.
Room reverb: footsteps and sounds now reflect off the environment.
New dynamic music system: music fades in and out with phases of silence in between, instead of looping endlessly.
The engine can now play twice as many sounds at the same time.
New sound priority system: every sound in the game now has a defined priority. Music, menus, phone sounds and atmosphere always win over footsteps and small effects, so nothing important drops out when a lot is happening at once.
Fixed an issue where all running sounds could stop when a level was loaded.

🔊 New Audio Option: Stereo / Surround

Some 7.1 headsets lost sounds coming from behind. The new "Output" option in the audio settings (default: Stereo) fixes this. The setting takes effect the next time a level loads.

💥 New Screen Effects

Intense moments now come with dynamic screen effects: pulsing vignettes, field-of-view distortion and camera shake that react to what's happening to you.

🌍 Localization

All new content is available in English, German, Polish, French and Spanish.
English item names no longer show underscores (e.g. "Archive_Key" is now "Archive Key").

📜 Credits

The credits now show the current version number and list new music, sound effects and more special thanks.

🐛 Fixes

Fixed a rare issue where a combination lock wheel could register a different digit than the one shown.
The player no longer gets stuck on ceiling lamps and the ceiling fan in the house's stairwell.
Fixed a sound that could stay at its starting position and never stop playing.
Fixed scripted scene transitions that could be noticed under certain camera angles.
Fixed an enemy that could get stuck at a door during a scripted sequence.
Many smaller fixes and polish.

Thank you for playing, for every bug report and for all your feedback. You helped shape this update more than you know.

– Place2Start Studio 💀

Occultus Vitae - Hidden Life

Occultus Vitae – Major Update 0.2 is LIVE

Oct 3

The wait is over.

Hey everyone,

it has been far too long since our last update – and we know it. But we didn't spend that time sleeping. Over the past months we have taken the Introduction chapter apart piece by piece and rebuilt it from the ground up.

Major Update 0.2 is by far the biggest update Occultus Vitae has ever received – and the first real step into Jason's story.

⭐ Highlights

A completely new opening – wake up in the house, haunted by a dream you can't quite shake.
Story – a phone conversation with Dr. Brinkmann, traces of Toby, and rewritten documents.
Objectives, inventory & survival – find your flashlight, manage batteries, keys and medicine.
Save system – three slots and typewriters that work only once.
New scares – the forest is no longer a safe place.
New main menu, full settings menu and our own original soundtrack.
5 languages – English, German, Polish, French and Spanish.

📜 Full Patch Notes

🌑 A Completely New Opening

The old intro videos have been replaced by a new text-basedanied by our own original soundtrack.
You now wake up in the house – disoriented, haunted by a dream you can't quite shake.
New loading screens with cryptic hints… that may only make sense much later.

📱 Story & Documents

A new phone conversation with Dr. Brinkmann sheds first light on what Jason is really doing in these woods.
Toby has left traces behind. Follow them… and listen closely.
All documents have been rewritten for better language, meaning and readability. New notes have been added.
Long documents can now be scrolled.

🎯 Objectives

A new main and optional objective system shows you what to do next – without breaking immersion.
Press [TAB] to view all current, optional and completed objectives.
Explore the woods and keep track of how many notes you've f

🔦 Inventory & Survival

The flashlight must now be found first. Batteries drain over time – the light dims and starts to flicker. Press [R] to replace the battery.
New inventory screen [TAB] with item descriptions: bmore.
Some doors are locked and require the right key.
New stamina system for sprinting and jumping, plus fall damage and a subtle damage effect.

💾 Save System

Three save slots with Continue from the main menu.
Save your progress at old typewriters scattered throughout the world – but be careful: each typewriter works only once. Choose wisely.

👻 New Scares

Several new scare sequences have been added throughout the chapter – including one in a certain hut you might want to avoid…
The old corridor jumpscare has been completely reworked.

🌲 Atmosphere & Visuals

New night sky with moon, stars, drifting clouds and fog.
Reworked forest vegetation and lighting.
New forest ambience with wind and subtle sounds in the distance.
Lamps now actually glow – and go dark when the lights go out.

🏚️ New Main Menu

A completely new, atmospheric main menu – with a storm outside, a desk lamp and music playing from an old radio.
Early Access info with direct links to our Discord and website.
A "What's New" window shows you the latest changes – reopenb] button.
New credits sequence at the end of the chapter.

⚙️ Settings Overhaul

Audio: separate volume for master, music, sound effects, voices, ambience and menu.
Video: display mode, resolution, graphics quality, frame rate limit, VSync, brightness, motion blur and FPS counter.
Controls: mouse sensitivity, invert Y-axis, field of view and full key rebinding.
All settings are now saved between sessions.

🌍 Languages

Occultus Vitae is now available in English, German, Polish, French and Spanish – selectable in the settings menu.

🔢 Combination Lock (for real this time)

The lock now has its own light while you use it, and the selected wheel is highlighted without covering the numbers.

🚀 Performance & Fixes

Improved performance, especially inside the starting house.
The interaction prompt on doors now moves with the door.
Many smaller bug fixes and polish throughout the chapter.

🔮 What's Next?

The Introduction chapter is only the beginning. Jason's story continues beyond these woods – new places, new fears and the truth behind his past are already in the works. We'll keep you posted.

❤️ Thank You

This update is the result of many months of work – and of all your feedback. Thank you for your patience, for every bug report and for sticking with us.

If you run into any problems or want to share your thoughts, join us on Discord[discord.gg]. And if you enjoy the game, a review on Steam helps us more than you might think.

See you in the dark.

– Place2Start Studio 💀

Occultus Vitae - Hidden Life

🛠️ Patch Notes – Version 0.1.6

Nov 3, 2025

Hey everyone,

Update 0.1.6 is live! This patch focuses on atmosphere, lighting, and some important quality improvements:

💡 Lighting & Shadows Overhaul

The first level’s lighting has been completely reworked. Unrealistic light sources were replaced with darker, dusk-like illumination for a more immersive and eerie look.

📜 Forest Cabin Document Fix

The document on the table inside the locked forest cabin has been moved deeper into the room, preventing it from being picked up through the window.

🐰 New Easter Egg Added

A hidden Easter Egg has been added to the first level. Can you find it? 👀

🎧 Ambient Sound Loop Fixed

Ambient background sound now loops continuously instead of stopping after one playthrough.

🔢 Combination Lock Visibility Improved

Lighting and indicators on the combination lock have been adjusted to ensure visibility across all graphic settings.

More atmospheric updates and hidden details are coming soon, thank you for playing and helping us shape Occultus Vitae!

– Place2Start Studio 💀

Occultus Vitae - Hidden Life

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