Hello! Today's 20XX 1.42.0 patch fixes an ancient invisible enemy bug, adds Russian Datalore, and sets up crossplay with Epic build of the game! It also adds a new matchmaking feature aimed at public users on different platforms.

At this time, 20XX supports crossplay only between Steam and Epic, via the reworked public matchmaking system.

I know we've got some players concerned about the changes, so I thought I'd take a little time to explain what's changed, and why we did it.

• 20XX's friends-matchmaking is totally unaffected by these changes. (If you have a friend you primarily play with on Steam, this shouldn't affect you at all.)
  
• 20XX public matchmaking now uses Epic's backend services (instead of Steam's). For most players, this should result in no difference in matchmaking quality.
  
• We chose to do this because our data tells us that 20XX's public matchmaking on Steam is largely not used by players - most players play with their friends or find friends via Discord. Most reports we've gotten about the 20XX public matchmaking experience are "I hosted a game for awhile and no one joined, so I stopped."
  
• The best way for us to help fix that is by giving Steam players a bigger pool of public partners to play with! (If the issue really needs "fixing", anyway - after all, 20XX has been out of Early Access on Steam for almost three years.)
  
• We made a few changes to public matchmaking's featureset to accommodate crossplay. Again, to be super clear, none of these changes affect friends-co-op.
  
  • Challenges (Daily/Weekly/Hardcore etc) are no longer playable in public co-op matchmaking. Everything else should work fine! This feature (in public co-op) has gone almost entirely unused since we added it, but we'll keep a close eye out for folks affected by this change.
    
  • Public matching now uses a "passphrase" system to filter the lobbies available when you search. (See below for details.)
    
  • Reconnect relies on Steam's lobby implementation, so that won't work in public online play anymore. (It didn't really work unless you were playing public with a Steam friend of yours, though, anyway, since you have to rejoin via the Steam Overlay.)
• We'll keep a close eye on player feedback here - we feel we've overhauled a feature that players aren't using, but as always, we're looking out for your thoughts on the changes.

Thanks for playing!

CHANGES:

• Public play now uses a "passphrase" system to find lobbies. When searching for a game, you'll only return games that match the passphrase you set before hitting "join" - when you host with a passphrase, players will only see your game if they type it in exactly. This lets players coordinate across platforms where we don't have traditional support for friends/invite systems.
  
• Leave the passphrase blank if you're looking to find a random partner!
  
• This new public matching system applies to all players on either Epic or Steam - the passphrase system applies on both platforms, whether a passphrase is used or left blank.
  
• Improved Seed Racer entry UX (it uses the same logic as the new Passphrase system) - controllers can now enter/exit the field entry instead of it feeling like the game's softlocked (because it previously ignored controller input), and the text field's highlighted while active.
  
• The other changes from 1.41's last test push, which never made it live! The notable one here's an ancient invisible enemy error.
  
• Added a Russian translation of the game's long-form Datalore for Augs, Enemies, and Bosses, courtesy of Canary, a member of 20XX's community. Thanks!

Hello! Today's 20XX 1.42.0 test patch paves the way for crossplay with the upcoming Epic build of the game. It's not super exciting - the exciting part is all the new players coming next week, but we thought we'd get this out a week in advance and see if there are any ancient bugs we ought to squash.

It's live on the test branch now (public branch "20xxtest"). Thanks for playing!

CHANGES:

• Public play now uses a "passphrase" system to find lobbies. When searching for a game, you'll only return games that match the passphrase you set before hitting "join" - when you host with a passphrase, players will only see your game if they type it in exactly. This lets players coordinate across platforms where we don't have traditional support for friends/invite systems.
  
• Leave the passphrase blank if you're looking to find a random partner!
  
• This new public matching system applies to all players on either Epic or Steam - the passphrase system applies on both platforms, whether or not a passphrase is used or left blank.
  
• Improved Seed Racer entry UX (it uses the same logic as the new Passphrase system) - controllers can now enter/exit the field entry instead of it feeling like the game's softlocked (because it previously ignored controller input), and the text field's highlighted while active.
  
• The other changes from 1.41's last test push, which never made it live! The notable one here's an ancient invisible enemy error.
  
• (Coming later this cycle, before this test patch goes live) We'll be adding a Russian translation of the game's long-form Datalore for Augs, Enemies, and Bosses, courtesy of Canary, a member of 20XX's community. Thanks!

Hey, folks! This post also appears in the 30XX feed. If you've seen it there, disregard!

We're happy to get to announce that 30XX will have a playable demo during this year's Steam Summer Festival! You'll be able to get a taste of where the game's headed well before we get there.



We intend to treat the festival week a bit like "Early Access Week Zero" for 30XX - we'll be listening to your feedback, chatting with you about the game (on Discord and on our Steam Community), and iterating as we go! The demo features two of the game's level themes (of 10!), and a light look at our overhauled roguelike progression system. Hope you're ready! The demo will go away when the festival ends (June 14th). We'll be doing some more public streaming/community chats/etc around that time, too! Stay tuned.

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If you can't wait for the 9th to dig in with the 30XX community, we're also starting up a series of 30XX Town Hall chats on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/batterystaplegames). The next one is this coming Friday, May 29th, at 4PM PT. We'll be digging into Ace's new systems, talking about the upcoming Steam Festival, and more! (We might also share some new level stuff.. if it's ready in time. We'll see!)

Hope you can join us - thanks for reading! Stay safe, contractors.

Chris

Hello! Today's 20XX patch... wait! No! Not that. Not today. Old habits die hard.

Today, we're excited to reveal what the team at Batterystaple has been working hard on since we finished our full-time work on 20XX. A thousand years go by in an instant, and here we are: the year 30XX.



30XX is a full-fledged sequel to 20XX in with a brand new art style, courtesy of the masterful Glauber Kotaki (animator of Rogue Legacy, Duelyst, Chasm, and more). Some big highlights along with the visual overhaul:

• 8 brand new level themes (no more sharing between bosses!), each with their own visual aesthetic, radical tunes, and fearsome Guardian to be overcome.. if you can!
  
• Distinct movesets for our heroes - Ace has had hundreds of years to study techniques beyond his comprehension in 20XX, and is ready to adapt to anything!
  
• Radical new metagame progression that puts the game's challenges squarely in your hands, however you see fit!
  
• So, so much more that we're excited to share in the coming weeks and months!

We won't be spamming 20XX's announcements too regularly, so here are a few great ways to keep tabs on the game while we're making it:

• Sign up for our mailing list! You'll get the latest news on development in a casual, "hey bud here's what I'm working on!" kind of style.
  
• Join the Discord server!
  
• Follow the team on Twitter!
  
• Of course, wishlist 30XX! With every wishlist, we grow stronger. It really helps!
  
• Keep being amazing and tell your friends - we're seeing a fantastic reaction to the game already!

If you bought 20XX yesterday or if you've been here since 2014, thank you so, so much for the support - it's insane to us that we get to even consider making another game, and the fact that we've assembled the amazing team we've got for 30XX still has me in disbelief.

Cheers
CK

Hello! Today's 1.41.1 Test Patch (test branch only!) fixes an issue where enemies could suddenly appear out of nowhere. That's all it does! We're pushing it to test first since the fix could potentially break some other stuff, and we'd like to make sure that's not the case before the fix goes live.

Thanks for reading!

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FIXES:

• Fixed an issue causing enemies to blip into existence in the middle of a level segment.

Hello! Today's 1.41.0 patch fixes a few small things. Nothing much to see here! (Unless you're unhappy with our recent Plasma Blender change, in which case you're about to be happier or even less happy.)

Thanks for playing!

--

CHANGES:

• Plasma Blender size-gain-on-combo restored to pre-1.40 levels. Plasma Blender combo damage scaling reduced by 50%. (Previous base damage was 10-17.5 at max size - new damage is 10-13.75.) Overall, this is about a 20% maximum damage nerf without Dracopent's Claw, and a 30% damage nerf with Dracopent's Claw.
  
• Draco now charges Quint Laser in 1 second per stage. (Down from 2)

FIXES:

• Fixed noise clutter when charging Quint Laser with Autocharge on.

Hello! Today's 1.40 patch introduces a few much-requested features, fixes a handful of bugs, and introduces Revenant versions of Hawk and Draco. It also adds fully translated Datalore for German!

It also introduces some test metric collection that we'll improve over time - 20XX will now collect a small amount of usage data (completely anonymized, not tie-able to a given player or their Steam ID whatsoever) that'll help us balance the game going forward. An opt-out toggle is in Advanced Options if desired.

Thanks for playing!

--

CHANGES:

• Hawk and Draco now have Revenant models of their characters.
  
• When Nina hits a Boss with 2-3 shots in a row, the attacks after the first now do more damage (1.0x/0.8x/0.8x, up from 1.0x/0.5x/0.5x). This means that a base 3-hit combo from Nina now deals 10+8+8 = 26, up from 10+5+5 = 20. (This may be 0.1x too far. We'll see!) This change also applies to Draco's projectile combos.
  
• Nina's (and Draco's projectile) shot-refresh timer (the time after which a shot no longer counts as "on screen" for "can I shoot again?" checks upped to 0.75s (from 0.5s).
  
• World Slug removed. The world now moves at an appropriate pace.
  
• Added Auto-charge in Advanced Options. We know this one's contentious, but we've (finally) decided to add it - folks who play the game a lot report hand pain as a limiting factor in their time spent playing 20XX - and we're trying it out.
  
• Death Lotus will now ping his next emerge location a bit in advance.
  
• Steam users J.Clockson_YT and xankrieger have translated the game's detailed enemy & item Datalore into German! (So it's now available in German.) Some of the descriptions run over the text box size. Turns out German uses a lot of characters.
  
• In Endless play, 20XX will now forget what items it's generated every ten levels as long as the endgame gauntlet hasn't begun. This means Once Per Run items will spawn again - repeated pickups won't do anything.
  
• Rebeginners past the third available unit will no longer display or factor into the Repro chain.
  
• Plasma Blender's combo-size-growth rate reduced by 33%. (It's now smaller when combo-charged.)
  
• Increased charged Rapture's speed by 50%. It also now counts as a wall for enemy projectile purposes - it'll block any shots a wall would normally stop.
  
• Scatterblast now fires 2 additional projectiles when charged.
  
• Courtesy of player Cwolfcommander, we've got some better-fitting Autumn and Dvorac character models!
  
• As a pilot program, the test client now defaults to reporting a small amount of player usage data. The data is anonymized, and contains no personally identifying data whatsoever.
  
  • The game currently collects info on how often the eight basic Powers are chosen relative to how often the player has the opportunity to acquire them. It also collects level start/end data, indicating what level (number and theme) players are dying in most often.
    
  • You can opt out of metrics generation in Advanced Options.

FIXES:

• Fixed what I'm hoping is the primary cause of co-op play Endless run crashes.
  
• Implemented a potential fix for the "vaulting" issue some players have noticed.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause enemies to rarely appear out of nowhere (they were being reset to their spawn points at really inopportune times). This usually happened with Agnisort Bzzombs (bees), but was possible elsewhere. This may also take out the rare "invisible enemy" bug where you collide with an enemy hitbox that you can't see or shoot.
  
• Fixed an issue where black-square Prototypes could appear late in Endless runs.
  
• Fixed an issue where Save & Quit resulted in catastrophic Nut Loss.
  
• Fixed an issue where Intensifier wasn't boosting Vika's charged shot.
  
• Fixed Murderdrone doing 8 damage (should be 10) - did I change this on purpose?
  
• Entropy Lock no longer shows up in Boss Rush.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Get Equipped & Provoke achievements would fail to trigger for the client in online co-op.
  
• Fixed an issue where Meganut could be taken into Challenges (if it spawned in HQ as a next-run item).
  
• If the game window loses focus while it's unable to pause (say, because you're looking at a boss intro), it'll pause as soon as it can (instead of not pausing).
  
• Fixed Draco's Rapture & Gemini weapons (bubble, bow) not respecting shot limits.

Hello! Today's 1.40.3 Test Patch fixes fix two potential crashes (one old, one related to the new characters) and adds sound effects for autocharge.

We're closing in on the live date for this patch - thanks for trying it out!

--

CHANGES:

• Autocharge now plays normal sound effects.

FIXES:

• Fixed two crash opportunities. (Endless co-op crashing should really be gone now! At least, the reliable Level 19 crash.)

Hello! Today's 1.40.2 Test Patch makes a few character tweaks, and introduces some test metrics. More Draco/Hawk changes are likely still incoming.

This test patch will (still) likely be updated a few times with additional work before it goes live. Thanks for playing!

--

CHANGES:

• Increased charged Rapture's speed by 50%. As a test, it also now counts as a wall for enemy projectile purposes - it'll block any shots a wall would normally stop.
  
• Scatterblast now fires 2 additional projectiles when charged.
  
• Courtesy of player Cwolfcommander, we've got some better-fitting Autumn and Dvorac character models!
  
• As a pilot program, the test client now defaults to reporting a small amount of player usage data. The data is anonymized, and contains no personally identifying data whatsoever.
  
  • As a first test, the game currently collect info on how often the eight basic Powers are chosen relative to how often the player has the opportunity to acquire them. It also collects level start/end data, indicating what level (number and theme) players are dying in most often.
    
  • This is a test of the system - we'll collect more meaningful data as we develop this test branch before it goes live.
    
  • You can opt out of metrics generation in Advanced Options.

FIXES:

• Fixed an issue preventing Dvorac from picking up Draco's Primaries.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the second player in a game involving Autumn/Draco/Dvorac to get the wrong item after a boss.

Hello! Today's 1.40.1 Test Patch fixes a few bugs in 1.40.0. It also nerfs the Blender.

This test patch will (still) likely be updated a few times with additional work before it goes live. Thanks for playing!

--

CHANGES:

• Made Lotus' new ping more visible as the client in online co-op.
  
• Plasma Blender's combo-size-growth rate reduced by 33%. (It's now smaller when combo-charged.)

FIXES:

• Fixed Uncharging Force giving Draco slightly more than zero Charges.
  
• Fixed (again?!) issues launching the game on Windows 7.
  
• Leaderboards should now show Dvorac/Autumn's names properly. (This should work retroactively, too.)
  
• Fixed Draco's Rapture & Gemini weapons (bubble, bow) not respecting shot limits.
  
• Fixed a bug allowing Dvorac to pick up Core Augs. (They'd still only drop in Challenges if he was alone, as intended.)
  
• Fixed a bug causing Nutsaving Stringwire to occasionally display "free!" to online co-op clients when it was not, in fact, free (and vice versa).