Increased text time at the beginning of the game

We have received feedback from PC players expressing their desire to participate in our in-game tournaments. As a result, Farlight 84's in-game tournaments are no longer limited to mobile devices! Starting now, players on all platforms can join the in-game tournaments and compete for generous diamond and cash rewards!


1. Form Your Team: Navigate to Clan >> Create Your Clan >> Recruit Members

2. How to find the in-game Tournament Page: Navigate to the main interface (top right corner) >> Click on the "Trophy" icon to enter the tournament page!

3. Register your tournament: Navigate to the Tournament Page >> Tournament List >> Registering >> Select a Tournament >> Register
- If there are no suitable tournaments at the moment, you can check the "Schedule" to see all tournaments and their specific registration times, and register in advance!

4. Participate on Time and Compete for the Championship!

5. Win Generous Rewards:
- Diamond rewards will be directly added to your diamond balance;
- To view cash rewards: Tournament/Clan >> Withdraw >> Check the available cash rewards

Thank you all for your continuous support and passion. Show your true skills and earn your honors and rewards!

Act now, join the tournaments. See you on the battlefield!

Farlight 84

To shorten the development time for the first demo, we have decided to focus solely on the inside cafe gameplay first and expand to outside areas after the first demo testing. During May, we progressed significantly with the coffee-making gameplay, decoration system, and overall visual feel and appearance of the game.

🏆 Crushing milestones!
At the time of posting, we have reached 10 000+ wishlists, up from last month's update of 2000+!

☕️ Day and night system:
As mentioned in the previous post, we have now implemented a time system along with day and night cycles in the gameplay. Now we can move on to creating the cafe's working hours!




☕️ Foxy has received a slightly updated look and animations by Dagopls:
(Seems like the scarf doesn't help with the cold too much)


☕️ Expanded drink menu:
The coffee-making menu and its ingredients have been expanded from 2 to 7 based on follower suggestions, with even more types coming later.



☕️ Decor mode expanded to 10 different categories:

🎨 Wallpaper 🪵 Floor ☕️ Cafe counter 🔨 Tables 🪑 Chairs
💡 Lamps 🪴 Plants 🖼️ Wall Decorations 🔨 Carpets 📦 Other



☕️ Added item previews:
Now, when hovering over items in the decor mode and its inventory, you will be able to view the full-size items before buying for easier decor management.



🛠️ Minor edits & fixes:

• Started adding shading for a better visual appearance of the cafe
  
• Fixed issues with confirm/deny order buttons disappearing
  
• Updated Steam tags to better reflect the game and recommendations
  
• Fixed hovering decor items after exiting build mode
  
• Added smooth button hover visuals
  
• Added smooth panel opening animations
  
• Updated Steam page preview images and screenshots

🌻 Coming next:

• Progression system (unlock coffee types and decor with experience)
  
• Save & load system
  
• Item rotation (decor mode)
  
• Bringing Toffee (character) to life
  
• Adding cafe working hours
  
• Adding day counting

If you would like to be part of the development journey, you can vote on various ideas on:
Twitter | Instagram | Leave your own suggestions
Thank you so much for the support - Coffee Beans Dev

Y’know, I’ve been thinking here. I’ve been running my mouth about my latest genius inventions and big ideas for a while, haven’t I? But you are just a human! You might not even know how to stack bricks, or solder, or brush your teeth properly, or do quantum computing with your brain’s microtubules…

Anyways, I think we might need to reel things back a bit and start with the basics. So, just for you, I am starting another series called “Simple Sky”! I am going to keep things simple for you and guide you through all that you need to know. For this issue, I’ll show you the start of the game, and then we’ll go from there. Sound fun?



COMPLEX SKY is all about building. But why-oh-why do we build? To build even more, of course! And do it faster each time. There is no happiness, no success, no living without automation. And to make sure your species lives on — you’re gonna have to master it.

But first you've gotta start somewhere. You need automation tech to automate and you’re gonna have to build some of it on your own (duh). Good thing you have me here to help you!


Note the hub in the center! It’s going to be pretty important…

This small plot of land is all you have to start with. If you’re feeling lost — take a look at the top right; I’ve set up some Quests for you to get into the groove of things. After all, you humans lack parallel computing and can’t process goals all too well unless they’re broken into smaller tasks…

So, let's mine something first! Enter the crafting/mining mode. I made sure this turns your cursor into a little pickaxe. Cute, am I right?

Simply hover your pickaxe over a mineral deposit and click on it. The hovering square icons let you know which resources are stored in the mineral deposits so you don’t waste your precious time.


You can also get wood by “mining” around green grassy spots!

All mine and no craft? Not on my watch! Let’s use our materials and craft an Iron Plate in our Crafting Menu. Pretend we also crafted some things for later use.

Now we have just enough to build our first… thing!

We can now create Support Structure tiles and Foundation tiles. The first type supports almost everything else you're going to build (uh, obviously). Most other tiles are then grafted onto these beams. Don’t be shy and drag your cursor to place a bunch at the same time!
After we do that, let’s select the Foundation tile and neatly place it right on top!





Finally, we’re going to build some buildings! Ah, my favorite!~ Let’s start with putting an apartment block on top of our Foundation. It wouldn’t be a city without people, right? (Even though I’d gladly challenge that stereotype…)
The building’s appearance might be unassuming for now, but don’t worry: we’re just starting out.



Note the three “pillars” colored yellow, blue, and white. They represent electricity, water, and anti-gravity road networks, respectively. Water and electricity tiles should connect from the main hub to the spot the pillars are at. The road should simply touch the building in the same way.



Most buildings need all three to become online and fully operational. You can click on a building to bring up its status menu and check if any of the networks is missing or other things about it.

Now, here’s something neat before we finish for today: I’ll press T for you!


This is the technology menu. Here you can see all the upgrades and other cool stuff you’re going to be unlocking as you develop. Look how much stuff there is! I wonder what it all does?..

And them’s the breaks! This was just a little something to let you feel the vibe of COMPLEX SKY and get into the groove of working together with me! And I feel like we’re going to be spending a whole lot of time together this year!~

Next time we are going to cover some things in more depth, so stay tuned!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1549600/Complex_SKY/

Greetings Touch Typers,

We are very pleased to announce that Touch Type Tale will be furiously typing its way onto Steam later this year.

It's probably a good idea to start honing those WPM skills, it won’t be too long before new touch-typing-RTS challengers enter the arena!

Follow and Wishlist the game on Steam to get notified of the release and any further news.

UTC time 09:30-10:30

Bug Fixes
Bug in Merchant The number of orders is not restored
Cube: Bug that crafting backpack bound and unbound sprites could not be mixed
Corrupted Xanadu - Dynamic blood level of skeleton minion BUG
Adjustment of Skeleton Minion soul drop mechanism
Optimised the scene of Tower of conviction

This level's resolution method was too difficult to recognize, so it was modified.
The location of the trigger that opens the door in exit level 8 has been moved to the front of the alley.
Additionally, a sound was added when the trigger was activated so that it could be clearly recognized.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Hints were added and reinforced for anomalies that had a low detection probability.

Fixed a bug where oxygen did not decrease after going up the stairs in exit 8 level.

I hope this will be a comfort to someone...

-Added a level select button to the pause menu
-Fixed a vram leak which was causing graphics card drivers to crash
-Fixed the task icon not appearing when launching the game in fullscreen/borderless
-Fixed player not spawning infront of the first portal when creating a new save file
-Fixed a pause menu issue in 4-23
-3-21: Minor revert from V1.0.5

I recently announced a triplet of monthly updates. Each of them packs a piece of this year's special event - ExtrapolAtion. I also mentioned that the first part – ExtrapolAtion A – was about 80%-90% done.

Just a week later, we're almost feature complete. This left a bit of room to sit down and finally polish some of ANARCHY's core systems. In this post, I'd like to present these optimizations and also provide a more in-depth technical overview.


From the get-go (i.e. InvAsion), I put a big effort into making the character's visual appearance customisable and scalable. Thanks to Unity's Sprite Libraries, we're able to run all the characters on a single animation tree. We're also using inheritance to derive individual character prefabs from a single base-combatant. This means that changes to colliders, path-finding and many other pieces of logic don't need to be adjusted one-by-one.

However, Variations introduced a bit of a problem. We're running most of the game through ORK, while handling Dialogue separately. Each Variation added a bit of redundancy, since I not only had to make two sets of portraits per Variation – but also create another prefab.

The complexity of this system could also cause desyncs here and there. Switching Variations effectively respawned the character's object. In some cases, the Dialogue System wouldn't recognize that new object as the same character and thus wasn't able to anchor the character's dialogue bubble. In other cases, the camera unhooked itself.


About two weeks ago, I finally came up with a solution. Instead of defining a set of portraits in both ORK and the Dialogue System, I rewrote parts of the latter so it would pull the corresponding portrait directly from ORK. In effect, we now only need one Dialogue Actor per character. That – in combination with a little script handling the different sets of sprites – means we can run all Variations of a character on a single object.

This means less headaches for me and more stability for the game overall. There is an even bigger upside, though! Changing a set of sprites to another is much less invasive than respawning the entire object. In effect, we can now equip Variations almost everywhere.

One result of that is you being able to alter Daphne's appearance all throughout ExcommunicAtion – even while she's in the middle of a dialogue line. The same goes, of course, for ParAdise. As a bonus, there'll be no more camera issues caused by respawning characters. This ties in nicely with another optimization.

Every time you loaded into a new scene, it could be that the camera hadn't adjusted itself to the characters. We diminished that problem by hard-coding about 0.5 seconds of delay before fading in the screen. Since a couple of days ago, the game now properly waits for the camera to be set up – i.e. no more artificial delay.


There's a couple of miscellaneous adjustments, but I'd like to tackle a major one right here. I mentioned ExtrapolAtion A being just about done. Without revealing too much, let's say that the 1926 encounter between Daphne and Ganymede in ANARCHY will be much more physical than AUTONOMY's. I promised it would combine the best of all worlds – and I intend to keep my word.

Generally spoken, ExcommunicAtion is a bit of a tutorial for ANARCHY's basic combat interactions. ExtrapolAtion aims to do something similar for advanced mechanics. One of them is the Knockback we introduced in ANARCHY 0.1.3 (Silhouette). Simply put, the ability tries to push a target one tile away from the user.

That leaves us with three points. An origin (user), a target and a destination. If the destination is an empty cell, the target is pushed back. If something's in the way, the target ends up back where it was – and we'll deal a hefty amount of damage to the target and whatever's occupying the destination. The ability itself is super rewarding, but its implementation has always been a bit undercooked.

You could say the same about ANARCHY's combat in general. Major parts of it were ad-hoc solutions, making the system increasingly hard to work with. To illustrate that point, let's take a look at what happened whenever a combatant uses an ability.


We start in our regular top-down view and gather the combatants involved in the corresponding 'Battle Action'. An 'Action Overlay' appears and so do a couple of HUD elements. The characters, as 'Side-View' sprites, are then placed on predefined spots. There's a couple of animations, sound and visual effects, as the action itself goes through its motions.

Since we're swapping forth between Top-Down and Side-View perspectives, I had to create a custom solution for that. One of the biggest challenges was picking up the right characters, storing their original positions, rotations and scale – all the while making sure it would work both for single- and self-targeted abilities and for cell- and target-based AOEs. Not to speak of special cases like Interception, Construct or Knockback.

At some point, the entire system got so convoluted – I was afraid to touch even a single line. Imagine if you'd like to have a Counterattack where you wanted one or several targets to retaliate. Ideally, we wouldn't close the Overlay between the 'Main Action' and the corresponding Counter. We'd want to open the Overlay, run the initial attack and follow it up with a Counter straight away.


Twelve months into development, I have a much better idea of what the 'Action Overlay' should and shouldn't do. Each Action has a 'User', a 'Target' and a varying amount of 'Collaterals' (for Cleaves / AOEs) at the very least. In addition, there's, 'Intervenors' and 'Assistors'. You've already seen an example of the former. When Icarus sacrifices himself, he's what we now call an 'Intervenor'.

The reason for putting Combatants in abstract boxes like that is to account for all possible scenarios. Going back to our Knockback example, we want to differentiate between entities that are knocked back and those that are in the way. If you think about Knockback projecting a line from the 'User' through the 'Target', we can automatically tell the 'Collateral' has to be on the same line.

In the Side-View, on the other hand, we always want the 'User' on the left and the 'Target' on the right. We thus know that the 'Collateral' has to be placed even further to the right. By creating boxes within boxes, we're accounting for that fact.


To place the combatants, we need more than just a direction – even for simple cases like this right here. We could place them on preset spots depending on what kind of box they're in. Incidentally, that's how we've been handling it for almost a year. It served us nicely, but two major problems became increasingly hard to ignore.

For one, we had to predefine spots for specific abilities. Interception, for example, places the 'User' further to the left. Knockback, as we saw, has a 'User', 'Target' and a 'Collateral' spot. Cleave – hitting the Target and one Combatant to the Target's left and right – thus uses a 'Target' and two 'Collateral' spots along the y-axis.

Now, the last example might have you asking: "Even if you put 'Target' and 'Collateral' in two boxes, how do you know which 'Collateral' is which?". In the scenario above, the 'Collateral' further to the north should also occupy the northernmost spot, right? So why don't we just take their Top-Down constellation and translate it to the side-view?


For every case that works, there's three that won't. In order to represent the original configuration, we have to check the relation between 'User' and 'Target' first. Once again, we can form a line from left to right (x) – and then a line from the bottom to the top (y). Noting the position of the User user(x, y) and target(x, y), we subtract the user's coordinates from those of the target and get a relative position r(x, y). Now we draw a line from (0, 0) to the x and y in r(x, y).

Say the 'User' is one step to the north of the 'Target'. That would be user(2, 2) and target(2, 3). Our relative position would be r(2-2, 3-2), i.e (0, 1). Now draw a line from (0, 0) to (0, 1), and compare it to the line defining the x-axis. The angle would be 90°. If the 'User' is straight to the left of the 'Target', that could be user(2, 2), target(3, 2) – resolving to r(3-2, 2-2) -> r(1, 0). That line would match the x-axis, which means their angle would be 0°.

Now try to rotate the picture in the middle by 180°, and the right one by 270°. We can apply this to every possible configuration to derive an angle by which to rotate the entire thing and end up at the 'User' being left of the 'Target'. Every 'Collateral' is thus placed in relation to its Top-Down position relative to the 'User'.

Simply put: We only need a single preset position as our 'anchor'. With that, we're able to translate Top-Down constellations in terms of their angle and order from left to right. As a bonus we also get their relative distance at the same time. This means that shooting a target from 5 cells away is now accurately represented as well.


The same logic applies to 'Interception'. That means charging point-blank is now automatically shown differently than charging from further away. In the case of 'Knockback', we not only got rid of the 'Collateral' and 'Target' preset spots, but can also scale it up for AOEs pushing Targets outwards from a 'Target', 'User' or 'Cell' – or pulling them in.

All in all, we've made the system more stable and scalable at the same time. Even for simple AOEs, we're now equipped to represent all Combatants in relation to how they're placed on the Top-Down Grid. It's making me so excited – I almost forgot to talk about the catalyst that let me to revisit the 'Action Overlay' in the first place.

I mentioned the Counter, and the way we've reworked the way Combatants are gathered depending on their role within an 'Action'. The good news is: If you keep reading, you'll see a rough but functional implementation of Counteract. It's a Status Effect that makes a 'Target' – 'Collateral' or not – strike back after being hit.


Evidently, we had to consider cases where an attack hits from outside the 'Target's' own range. After rewriting parts of ORK's source code, we're taking that into account as welll. In other words: If a combatant is being shot from two cells away, they need to have a weapon with at least the same range equipped in order to retaliate.

Like Knockback and its abstract class 'Manipulation', 'Counter' adds a whole new dimension to the Combat. It's clear that we'll have to tinker with it over the next couple of months. However, we've effectively transcended the 1-Action-per-Overlay limitation. This opens the door not only for User->Target chains, but could also be refactored into User->User or User->Intervenor sequences.

With our new Ability and a faster, better stronger Action system, we can put our eyes towards the horizon. First off, we'll wrap up the last bits of ExtrapolAtion A. That means putting in the final two or three elements and testing it all. There's a bit of overlap between that and some of the new / reworked combat systems – so the road toward ANARCHY 0.2.2 is already paved.


I'll be out of town for a short work-trip until Sunday. This leaves about a week to polish Renaissance for its beta release around the end of next week.

If you'd like to help make ANARCHY a better game – you're more than welcome to participate. One way or the other, please accept my heartfelt gratitude for reading this lengthy post. I'm learning tons of new things each day – and I consider myself privileged to have you there.

Kissies and huggies all around. 🤗

much love
nory

Hi everyone! I hope you're doing well. I've been very hard at work behind-the-scenes on some very cool stuff, so I apologise for the radio silence right now. But I wanted to share the latest 8-Bit Adventures 2 update, which fixes a lot of lingering bugs.

Most of all, it streamlines, speeds up, or improves dozens of cutscenes in the game 😊 After replaying the game for console testing, I noted down places that were too slow (especially the places where you weren't able to speed up dialogue) or didn't land as intended. Individually they are fairly minor changes, but there's a LOT of them, so they definitely have a cumulative effect on the game.

I've also tried to improve the Golden Sapling side-quest, improved performance on some overcrowded maps, and I've made the screen flashes to transition into battle less bright (since they can be pretty blinding on an LED screen).

As always, I'm trying to make the game as good as it can possibly be, and I think this latest round of adjustments get us pretty close to that goal 🥳

• Streamlined dialogue and text speeds across the entire game. I also removed superfluous dialogue from some scenes to make things flow better, and rewrote minor sections of dialogue (usually to convey something better or more succinctly).
  
  This includes scenes and NPCs in Stonecrest, Azureus, Pheopolis, Sky Forge, Niveus, Burial Grounds, Anbu City, Ancient Fortress, Glade of Graphics, Tropical Island, Bruneus, Maze of Memory, Factory Roof, Green Mage Tower, the Nexus/Ice Cavern, Deep Forest, Time-Space Mansion, the final city, the final dungeon, and at the start of the game’s second Glitch battle.
  
  
• The Golden Sapling side-quest has had an update to make it more difficult, interesting, and rewarding.
  
  Firstly, all of the Golden enemies you fight have gained elemental resistances, as well as the ability Gold Toss. This ability deals damage based on how much gold the player currently possesses.
  
  All of this means that the enemies are harder to kill, and by the end of the game (when you have a lot of Gold), can potentially wipe out your party in a single Gold Toss. So you’ll have to get clever to take them down! For example, by using fast characters to open the battle, and by inflicting status ailments. Additionally, one character’s Personal Ability is very useful for staying alive…
  
  There’s also a new reward – just a bit of fun if your pocket’s overflowing with Gold ;) If you’ve already completed the Golden Sapling side-quest, just return to Glendon’s Glen (next to Pheopolis) and you’ll find the reward sitting on the ground.
  
  Since this side-quest isn’t tied to any achievements, and the rewards are just bonuses, I wanted to make it a bit trickier and more memorable.
  
  
• Made the screen flashes when transitioning into battle slightly darker, as they can be extremely bright on some screens.
  
  
• Overhauled performance in some parts of the game by removing thousands of events from 35 maps – things like water and fire animations. These maps now run more efficiently, which was important for our console preparation. Thanks to Ratalaika Games for their help with this!
  
  
• Altered the syntax for the Priceless Treasure achievement to conform with the rest of the achievements (in preparation for console launch).
  
  
• Fixed a speed issue with the Willie the Wisp boss – specifically when the lantern would re-appear for the second time, it would accidentally have its Agility reduced to 0.
  
  
• Fixed a bug where the Confusion status would be added to an enemy (via the Confuse Attack Augment) and then could get immediately removed by the damage calculation. The Confuse Attack Augment is now fully functional, as intended.
  
  
• Fixed some minor visual bugs inside the painting section of the Glade of Graphics.
  
  
• Fixed a bug where you could open the World Map item during certain cutscenes, which would break the game. Now, like the Escape Amulet, the item is removed from your inventory during these scenes.
  
  
• Fixed a bug where, if you tried to open the World Map on the Floating Continent while in the Airship, it will trigger the landing message instead.
  
  
• Gave the Detective character a walking left and right animation in the Glade of Graphics, as he looked a little odd when he moved without one.
  
  
• Fixed a visual/collision issue on a roof tile outside the Swamp Mansion.
  
  
• Fixed a bug where if you skipped through dialogue in one part of the Desert Ruins, Charlie would be stuck standing still for 300 frames.
  
  
• To avoid a potential issue afterwards, I reset the Escape Amulet’s destination during the Factory Roof cutscene.
  
  
• Fixed a bug where you could open the World Map and Airship Simulator in the Snowcraft during a narrative sequence late in the game.
  
  
• Fixed a bug in the Nexus where the Warrior failed to walk down at one point if you’re speeding through the text, leading to a choreography issue.
  
  
• Added some boss music to the fight with Null. The poor thing needed to feel a bit more special!
  
  
• Fixed a small bug where there was an accidental delay between two text boxes while talking to the Traveller. This made the box do its full closing and opening animation between lines.
  
  
• Fixed a bug where, during a scene where a rock is dropped in the final dungeon, Charlie appeared standing on top of the Mage’s sprite.
  
  
• Made the Mutant Monitor’s Vigilant Vigilante ally immune to the Frozen state, as it made the fight extremely easy.
  
  
• Fixed a bug in the final city’s Inn, where the black screen while you rested wouldn’t cover up the city’s name banner.
  
  
• Fixed a bug where Charlie was able to block the Leviathan’s Tidal Wave attack.
  
  
• Fixed a bug in the Arena where the Hibernator enemy would get slower when it wakes up, whereas it’s meant to get faster.
  
  
• Fixed a bug where the Living Arena’s MP Break attack was able to miss. I also rebalanced his Berserk status to trigger earlier in the fight.
  
  
• Fixed a bug on the Clockwork Controller battle (for the thousandth time XD) which could cause the battle to soft lock the game. Essentially, its AI could get confused and it would become unable to take any actions. Now it will use Retaliation Directive if it gets into that situation.
  
  
• Slightly rebalanced the Savage Strike ability, along with the Cursed status’ attack boost. These mechanics are still incredibly powerful; they’re just a bit more balanced when it comes to formulas that multiply their effects further.
  
  
• Fixed a bug in the Blademaster rematch where he would use Haste on himself twice in a row, wasting a turn. So I incorporated an extra failsafe to prevent him from casting Haste on himself if he already has the status.
  
  
• Fixed a bug when saving Bruno in Stonecrest, where he would flash out of existence before the black transition effect was able to cover the screen.
  
  
• Changed the text box positions in the Azureus shops. This was because the text box would partially overlap the shopkeeper if you talked to them from behind the counter.
  
  
• Fixed a collision issue in late-game Stonecrest where you could walk through a wall.
  
  
• Fixed a collision issue in the Estriatus Inn, where you could walk through the counter.
  
  
• Fixed a mistake where you could open a treasure chest in the Dwarven Tunnels from the side, even though it’s being guarded by a goblin. Now you can only open it after defeating the goblin, and new text was added when you try to open it from the side.
  
  
• Fixed an audio bug during the player’s trip to Niveus via Airship. The propeller noise from the previous cutscene didn’t stop playing in the background after the scene was over, and remained present during gameplay.
  
  
• Fixed a bug in the sequence where Emma crosses the ice in the Ship Graveyard. When you got to the end of the path, one of the triggers wasn’t working properly, and wouldn’t trigger – leading to a lot of confusion.
  
  
• Added menu access when the party is transitioning back from Anbu to the Ice Cavern. That way, the player can un-equip Warrior/Thief/Robot if they want to.