Hi everyone,

If you had been keeping tabs on the recent weekly coverage of VoidBound's development, you may have noticed us mentioning revised minimum OS requirements. Today, we just wanted to go into a bit of detail and quickly shine some light as to what happened and why.

Lets start with the basics:

What is RPG Maker MV?

RPG Maker MV is a game development engine that allows developers like us to create role-playing games (RPGs), as in our case, VoidBound. Supporting a user-friendly interface, a built-in database, and the ability to customize it extensively, something we did at great length, made it our engine of choice.

What is nw.js?

NW.js is a runtime environment that allows us to create native desktop applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It is based on Chromium and Node.js, which means that it has all of the features of a modern web browser but with the added ability to project it in a software format so it can run as a standalone separate application.

So how are these two interconnected?

So like we said- RPG Maker MV is a game engine that lets you create games while NW.js is a tool that lets you turn web apps into desktop apps which allows players to play our game on their computers without needing to have a web browser open.

To put it in a simple example, consider RPG Maker MV something similar to a kitchen, and NW.js like an oven. You can use RPG Maker MV to prepare all the ingredients for your game, and then use NW.js to cook it into a finished game that people can play on their computers.

There are a few benefits to doing this:

• Desktop apps are faster and more reliable than web apps.
• Desktop apps can be played offline, without an internet connection.
• Desktop apps look and feel more like traditional computer games.

So how does Windows fit into all of this?

As of version 0.72.0 update, nw.js no longer supports Windows 7 and 8.1 operating systems. As aforementioned, NW.js is based on Chromium and after the latest 2023 update it expressly requires Windows 10 or higher to function.

Essentially, the heart that powers our game engine has forced us to drop Windows 7/8.1 compatibility. We could drop back to an older version of nw.js, such as version 0.71.0 to restore compatibility but, it is important to note that older versions of nw.js may not have all of the latest features and security fixes. We already had the issue of Microsoft Defender "FALSELY" marking our older Game build that had the previous nw.js version- a Doplik virus, something we discussed here in great detail.

It is also important to note that Microsoft no longer supports Windows 7 and 8.1. This means that security updates are no longer being released for these operating systems and subsequently, program makers are expected to follow suit as well.

To sum it up, our sincerest apologies to all our fans who are still in Windows 7 and 8.1. Going forward, VoidBound will most definitely not run properly on your systems, something we truly regret but ultimately powerless to provide any aid about whatsoever. Windows 10 has now become the bare minimum requirement.

Hope this explanation sates any and all doubts, but if you still have any, feel free to reach out to us here or on our Discord.

Thank you for reading.

Kind Regards,

Cursed-Atelier Team