After working on Battle Royale all year, I've decided to update the other game modes. Conquest mode in particular got a complete rework and plays MUCH better now. It's such a big rework that I'll just explain how it works from scratch and ignore the old rules completely.

There are 5 control points, connected in a linear line. The scientists start at point A, and the rebels at point E. You must capture the points in order A-B-C-D-E, and the first team to control all 5 points wins. You capture a point in two ways, either by standing next to it for 30s, or by buying the Capturer chemical for $5000 and planting it on the center. Proximity capturing is the main approach, but saving up for a Capturer can be the winning move that gives your team the game.



If you own a control point you can buy from it, warp to it, and also pick up all the free cash which rains down upon it (at a rate of $1000 per minute). So far this all sounds like typical Conquest rules for a linear recapturing game mode. But here's where it gets interesting:

Whenever you capture a control point, BOTH TEAMS will go onto a 60s capturing cooldown. This means that for the next 60s neither team is able to capture a point. You can speed up this cooldown by getting kills (shaving 2s off the timer per kill). This cooldown mechanic effectively creates a race scenario where the match is split up into a series of 60s rounds. It works like this:



The scientists capture a control point, going from 3 vs 2 to 4 vs 1. Both teams are now on a 60s cooldown, and a race has begun to see which team can capture the next point. You get kills as fast as you can to advance the timer faster, and then prepare as best as you can for when the timer reaches 0s, so you can begin capturing instantly.

The winner of this race will capture their point, but more importantly DENY their enemy from capturing their point, as they are put onto a cooldown again. This create intense moments where you need to work with your team to capture points as quickly and efficiently as possible or else the other team will beat you. This race mechanic really adds a sense of rhythm to the game, with alternating moments of preparation and execution, and I hope you enjoy it!



The way cash is earned in the game has changed in a few ways. In non BR modes, the passive cash income has been replaced with looting, so it behaves similar to Battle Royale. Players also get 3x as much cash for killing enemies and the kill combo system has been expanded to allow for longer and bigger combos. Cash will also now fall from the sky into the buy zones (in BR) and control points (in Conquest). These are in little $100 silver coins and fall at a rate of $1000 per minute. This makes camping/defending a viable strategy as you can stay in the one place, protecting one of these key locations and still earn an income.


I have spent about 2 weeks fixing my old outdated OpenGL code to make the game run significantly smoother. If you have a slow PC then this here is probably going to be the single best improvement to the game I've ever released, because the difference is like night and day. Also, the falling from the sky in Battle Royale runs a lot smoother now too!

• Conquest has been completely reworked.
  
• 3x the amount of cash is awarded for killing enemies.
  
• Made huge performance improvements.
  
• Improved the graphics of bullets.
  
• The crosshair now indicates how much ammo you have left.
  
• New players start the game with access to more items.
  
• Light Shifting now improves the recharge time between shifts.
  
• Laser Focus has been replaced with a new skill called Adrenalin Rush which makes you move faster in combat.
  
• Flaregun now fires an explosive bullet.
  
• Increased the movement speed of all weapons in combat.
  
• Fixed a number of issues with the bots behaviour using shared chemicals.
  
• Allied chemicals now display at full size so it's easier to see their range.
  
• Non-BR game modes now give 5x as much cash in the form of loot, but have no passive income.
  
• Pressing 'E' on a bot will make him drop the flag in CTF
  
• Changed how the scoring works in nonBR modes. +1 per kill, +10 per capture, +2 for killing someone holding the flag.
  
• Significantly buffed the UZI's bullet and movement speed.
  
• Buffed the damage of the Photon Beam, Flamethrower, M3 and Barrett.
  
• Health and Mana kits now give +5 max hp instead of +25 temporary hp.
  
• The max hp is now capped at 150 instead of 200hp.
  
• Firing weapons will be disabled for 1.5s after using a warp field.
  
• Updated some translations.
  
• Fixed a bunch of bugs.

Geneshift is of course particpating in the Winter Sale with a thicc 40% discount. Now is the time. Your time - to shine. Also, I'll be away for the next 2 weeks for Xmas, but hit me up on Discord if you have any issues. Otherwise I hope you all have a fantastic Xmas and New Years.

I want to thank everyone who has bought, played or discussed the game in Discord. The game is in a MUCH better state now than it was a year ago and I have you all to thank for it.

Merry Xmas and a happy new year!
Cheers,
Ben.

Geneshift now has supply drops! They will randomly appear in the map with a 30s countdown timer. Everyone in the server is alerted to this and has 30s to get to the area and then fight to be the last man standing to claim the prize. The prize is that a bunch of new ultra-rare loot will drop, including permanent max hp/mana upgrades, a +30% Damage weapon, +10 kill coins and possibly an entire new skill unlocked for free! These supply drops give you an excellent incentive to play agrgressively, and provide interesting king of the hill style battles.



Zombies have been reworked in a big way this version and play a lot better. There is now stuff to actually DO as a zombie and you are much stronger as well. For starters zombie weapons now do 100% damage instead of 50%, which no longer punishes you and lets you continue playing as normal. Resurrections are much easier because of this, and easier still as there is no 20s countdown time anymore - you can resurrect as soon as you spawn. Furthermore, zombies can now keep their gun and max hp benefits when they spawn the next round. This, combined with supply drops gives you something really meangingful to fight over once dead - a chance to start with an extra high damage weapon or more max hp.



You might have noticed in the screenshots above that the camera angle has been tilted! After 10 years Geneshift has finally upgraded from a pure birds-eye shooter into an isometric shooter! Who knows, in another 10 years this might become and FPS! Eitherway, this new camera angle looks a lot nicer on the eyes, and helps you judge the height of boxes in the map as well. It makes for a far more immersive playing experience, especially combined with the other graphical upgrades.

For example, Geneshift now supports 4X MSAA antialiasing and looks a lot smoother because of it. It also has updated player models, where they hold the weapons properly instead of like blockmen. There is even a new "gore" setting in the options menu that can significantly increase the amount of blood that comes out of baddies when you make them go splat.



A number of skills have been buffed, and a few have been buffed in a very interesting way - team buffing. Certain skills, such as Self Repair, Ignition Orb, Xray-Vision and Frenzy will now benefit nearby allies when you cast them, allowing for some really interesting new squad tactics. Other cool tweaks are the new looting system, where if you run over the same type of gun you not only grab its ammo, but can now upgrade the damage of your current gun by +2%. This little boost can really add up and makes looting as a zombie extra fun.



Geneshift is on discount. You know how this works! If you want to support the game now would be a great time to pick it up. Also, to celebrate this new version I decided to create a cybertruck with a flamethrower attached to its forehead - enjoy!

The most requested feature since Geneshift joined Early Access, controller support is finally here! It's been tested with Xbox and Playstation controllers, but should work with other types too. It turned out signficantly better than I expected, and I'd love to hear your opinions on it. All the hotkeys are rebindable in the options menu, but here is the default layout:



Even more exciting is a whole bunch of improvements to how zombies work. For starters, zombies can now buy, loot and use weapons! You're no longer forced to repetitively use the zombie pests or claws. To prevent this being being overpowered, zombies will only deal 50% as much damage when using a normal weapon, and have reduced range too.

Zombies can drive cars too! They've also been buffed up to 50hp instead of 30hp, and their pests weapons has been turned into a mini-shotgun that is far more tactical to play with. Overall being a zombie is a lot more fun this version because there is so much more you can do. But wait.. there's more.

Another big change is that zombies can once again resurrect by killing a player, and get back into the game. However there is a twist, which is that you need to be alive for at least 30s before resurrections are possible. This is shown as a progress bar down the bottom of the screen. This change adds a sense of survival to being a zombie, where the ideal strategy is to no longer brute-force you way to try kill an enemy player, but instead to stealthily survive for 30s, loot up with weapons and health kits, and go for a quality kill instead. It makes resurrections harder to pull off, but so much sweeter when you do.



Another huge change is that chemicals can be shared with allies. This adds all sorts of teamwork in Squads mode. You can place a Warp field and have your ally warp through it. You and your buddy can place Sonar Cells to provide shared vision on all entrances to the final circle. You can sell weapons into Alchemic Acid and split the profits, and of course you can use your friend's sneakily placed Base Chemicals to rebuy ammo. The teamwork options are huge and chemicals in general should get a lot more exposure now that you only have to do half the work to set them up.

• Added full controller support.
  
• Zombies can now use weapons.
  
• Zombies can now use vehicles.
  
• Zombie pests reworked into a tactical shotgun that does 40hp damage per blast.
  
• Zombies now have 50 hp and mana instead of 30.
  
• Zombie claws and knife now do 50hp damage instead of 35.
  
• Active skills now cost 20/30/40/50 mana instead of 15/20/25/30.
  
• Mana regen rate is now +5 mana/s instead of +3 mana/s,
  
• Skill points now cost $2000 each instead of $3000.
  
• Translators can now edit translations in data/translations folder and test them in-game.
  
• Allies can now use eachothers chemicals.
  
• More HUD improvements, showing weapon stats and explaining how and skills trees work.
  
• Reorganised the unlocks grid to make all the chemicals much cheaper.
  
• Updated some translations.

Now that controller support is added Geneshift is really getting ready for another big marketing push. And this of course means more players! I'll update the trailer first, and then start contacting the press. Until then, have fun!

Geneshift now has a party system! Perfect for playing with friends in Battle Royale squads. You can now invite your friends on Steam to join your party, which allows you to chat with eachother while still in the menu and organise what game to play. You can also follow the party leader into a game, which makes it much easier for friends to play in the same server. The game will also ensure you're all put onto the same squad if possible. The max party size is 4, as this matches the max squad size in both Battle Royale and the coop campaign.



The music has received a much needed update, making it sound more badass. The old tunes were too slow for the fast-paced gameplay. Even better, the music will now dynamically change based on the action on screen! Whenever you take damage the music will gradually become more and more intense, fading in a powerful beat and drums based on the action on screen. This effect turned out way better than I expected and really gets the heart racing in times of action. It makes you focus and play at least 30% better than you would otherwise! And that is a Geneshift guarantee.



There are some significant changes to the rules of the Battle Royale this version, which place a far greater emphasis on survival. Geneshift has always been a cross between a Battle Royale and a deathmatch, with it's series of 2 minute back-to-back rounds. But the balance was too deathmatchy, and these new changes tap into that feeling of survival that other BR's capture so well.

The main change is removing the mechanic where zombie players could come back to life by killing a player. While a novel idea, it ultimately made surviving irrelevant as you could always come back after dying. Now, death is final, and if you die you'll stay as a zombie for the rest of the round. You can still loot of course, but you won't get a chance to come back and win that round.



This is especially important because you now get a massive +20 points for winning a round, compared to the previous +5 reward. This means that you NEED to win rounds if you wanna win the game, and to do that you need to survive. There are a few other small changes that further enhance this survival vibe, such as making each round last 3 minutes instead of 2, and awarding players bonus XP over time simply for staying alive. Overall, this survival focus makes the game feel significantly more immersive, makes vehicles and chemicals far more useful as ways to stay alive, and makes round wins far more satisfying (especially when combined with the intense, new dynamic music!)



Geneshift now has a brand new logo! You might have also noticed a new header image on Steam. The HUD has also been improved, as you can see the health and mana bars are now far easier to see. The official maps have also been turned to day-time instead of night time, which is prettier and makes it easier to see enemies and game objects.

• You can now invite Steam friends to join your party.
  
• Changed all the music in the game, and gave it dynamic intensity.
  
• New logo and new brighter new in-game graphics.
  
• Zombies can no longer resurrect by killing a living player.
  
• Rounds now last 3 minutes instead of 2.
  
• Winning a round now gives +20 points instead of +5.
  
• You get +10xp every 30s that you stay alive to reward survival.
  
• Tier 1 guns only do 75% as much damage as before.
  
• Bazooka does 400hp instead of 600hp damage, making cars far more viable.
  
• You can now choose your difficulty on the loading screen, and earn more XP for higher difficulties.
  
• Players now spawn with a USP in Battle Royale mode.
  
• Changed bot behaviour to play with a survival focus and try to avoid players.
  
• Holding TAB in-game now shows daily challenges under the minimap.
  
• Improved the health and mana bars in the HUD.
  
• Tweaked how the civilian wanted level increases, making it easier to reach level 3 then escape further attention.
  
• Guards no longer turn into zombies in the campaign.
  
• You no longer need to return souls in the campaign, simply killing zombies will do.
  
• The game no longer pauses when you open the buy menu in singleplayer PvP modes, as this is inconsistent with multiplayer.
  
• Made the "Top 3 in Match" daily challenge a permanent feature in the top slot, so every day you have a reason to win a game.
  
• Made some in-game graphics sync with the music, like your character will dance to it if you idle long enough.
  
• Fixed a bunch of bugs.
  
• Updated some translations.

Oooohh, a discount. And oh my... it's so big! If you haven't done so yet now is a great time to pick up the game. The next things I'll focus on are making a new trailer, updating all the translations and (trying!) to add controller support. No guarantees on the controller support as it might not work well, but we'll see. Anyway, enjoy the new version and have fun!

It's been 3 months since the last version, but this one is worth the wait. This version completely reworks Geneshift's progression system, changing how you level up, how you unlock things, how XP is earned and more. It introduces a new currency called "Kill Coins" which are used to unlock items, adds the concept of "personalised difficulty", and features a new daily challenges system. Best of all, the menu has got a total makeover and now looks gorgeous! Check out this before and after pic!



The new menu system not only looks better but is significantly easier to navigate. There's a big play button which will auto-join you into the ideal server, daily challenges shown on the left, and every other page has been polished up too. Up the top left we see your current level and XP displayed, along with any kill coins you've earned (more on that later). Specific pages of the menu have been reworked too, such as the challenges page.

The challenge page shown below not only looks swish with it's new hex layout, but changes how challenges are earned too. You can now complete any challenge adjacent to one you've already completed (in the picture below the pink are completed and the blue are able to be completed). This lets you slowly work your way down the challenge grid, and move diagonally from challenge to challenge. This is a big improvement over the previous design where if you got stuck on a challenge it would completely prevent you from claiming any challenges below it.



Speaking of challenges, the main menu now shows 3 new daily challenges. These new challenges are a great way to earn extra XP and kill coins (yes yes, more on that later..). After you complete a challenge it will reset with a new randomly chosen challenge at 0 UTC each day. Also everyone will get the same challenges, which I'm hoping will result in some ridiculous days where everyone is exclusively using sniper rifles to try complete the "Get 10 sniper kills" challenge. These challenges are a lot of fun as they always give you something new to aim for each day.

The XP system has been completely reworked. First of all, you can now go all the way up to level 100. Your level is shown above your head in-game and represents how much XP other players get for killing you. It's a great way to show off your progress and make others fear you, while also valuing the high XP bounty on your head. Every time you level up you will gain +15 kill coins which can be used to unlock items. The XP you earn each day is also used to compete in the daily leaderboards, and the 20 players who earn the most XP each day will receive additional kill coins.



One fun new way to earn extra XP is by playing on a harder difficulty level. This will result in facing more difficult but also higher level bots, and these higher level bots will award more XP whenever you kill them. The cool thing about this new difficulty mechanic is that it is personallised just to you, so you can choose to play on Insane difficulty, whie someone else in the server can play on Standard. This allows veteran players to have a challenge and farm bonus XP without forcing newbies to die to aimbots.

Kill Coins are the new main currency that you can earn. They are used to unlock items which gives you the main sense of progression in the game. Items used to be unlocked with XP but this was quite confusing, as normally players don't expect to "spend" XP and see it go down. So now instead, XP makes you level up, and when you do that you gain +15 kill coins. You also gain kill coins for completing daily challenges and regular challenges. You also get them by topping the daily XP leadboards.



Items are now arranged in a hexagonal grid, and like the challenges, you can only unlock an item that is adjacent to one you've already unlocked. Players can snake their way down the list, picking and choosing which items to get. This adds an element of strategy in the way you progress your account. Do you rush vertically down the list to reach the top-tier skills and weapons? Or do you unlock the significantly cheaper items up the top first?

The previous version also had the concept of "item discovery" which has now been removed from the game. You no longer need to randomly discover an item in the map before you can unlock it (which could sometimes take forever and was frustratingly random). Now you can unlock anything as long as you've reached it in the hexagonal grid and have earned enough kill coins.

There are plenty of other changes too. I'll list some of the highlights below:

• The game automatically logs you in when you open it.
  
• The menu background is now animated with dudes shooting at cars.
  
• Added 20 new challenges, and 30 new daily challenges.
  
• Victory points have been removed from the game.
  
• You no longer require a certain amount of victory points to play on harder difficulties.
  
• Challenges no longer require a certain amount of victory points to complete.
  
• Winning a round now awards +500/300/200 XP instead of victory points.
  
• Challenges no longer need to be "claimed". You get the reward as soon as you complete the challenge.
  
• Challenges that give you items will now actually unlock the item for you, rather than simply "discover" it (as discovery concept has been removed).
  
• Synergy points have been removed from the game, streamlining the skills system.
  
• You can now increase your player's starting skill level by unlocking "skill points" in the new hexagonal unlocks grid.
  
• Made a bunch of UI improvements in the HUD and menu.
  
• Demo players no longer earn 5x less XP than DLC players, instead they can only use 20% of the kill coins they earn (but get the other 80% if they upgrade).
  
• Fixed a bunch of Steam achievements.
  
• The singleplayer campaign can now be played on any difficulty you want. You don't have to finish standard before you can attempt Hardcore or Insane.
  
• Rescaled everyone's XP to try work with the new leveling system (which is now out of 100 instead of 20).
  
• A new supporters badge will show next to the name of players who have bought the full game. This shows in leaderboards and in-game chat.
  
• Cosmetic medallions now only adjust your shoulder pads, not the icon next to your name.
  
• Made it so you can still play the game even without logging in (incase the master server crashes). Your stats and progress can't be saved doing this.
  
• Reworked the options menu, getting rid of a bunch of old obsolute advanced options.
  
• Killing civilians and zombies now awards +1xp per kill.
  
• Added a new accounts page in the menu that shows cool stats like how many daily challenges you've completed, number of vehicles destroyed and weapon accuracy.
  
• Nerfed sprintstun and allowed phase shifts to regenerate even while taking damage.
  
• Made bots generally a bit easier.

Wow, Geneshift is on discount just as a new version is released! Brilliant business strategy batman! Yes, you can get the game for 40% off now if you choose. Or just play the free demo and tell your friends. As always feedback is welcome!

Have fun!

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary since Geneshift first came online, this version is getting a big, immersive, GTA2 inspired makeover. We now have civilians, vehicle friendly maps, and even a 4-star wanted level. This version also introduces a new squad mode, player vs bots coop option, a new difficulty level, new BR mechanics, a more permissive free demo option, and more!


Geneshift now has civilians! They walk around the map on premade paths, cross the street at pedestrian crossings, chill out in the park or loiter near their favourite uhmmmm.. establishments.



Some of them drive cars and blast groovy beats out of the radio. If you fire a gun next to them they'll scream and run away. They really bring the map to life and make the game far more immersive. But best of all, they introduce a fun new mini-game that can be played alongside the main game...


Inspired by the wanted level system in GTA games, you now have a "civilian aggression rating". This ranges from 0 to 4 stars and increases the more civilians you kill. By default civilians will ignore you, which is important as I don't want them distracting from the main gameplay. However if you choose to go on a murderous killing spree, then your rating will start to increase.

As your rating increases, civilians will drop better and better loot, but they'll also become more aggressive towards you. At level 0 they ignore you. At level 1 they will attack with their fists. At level 2 they will fire back with pistols, while level 3 makes them use autos. Finally if you manage to reach level 4 (it's not easy to do) then they will go into an all out riot where every civilian in the map will swarm to your location to destroy you as soon as possible.

This acts as a sort of mini-game where you can try and see how long you can survive against the mob. But what's really cool is that this is an actually viable strategy in-game. If you reach this max wanted level you will earn some seriously good loot, like the new +20% DMG purple super weapons. Also, civilians award a bit of cash when you kill them, so they give you something to farm up while running around the maps.



Demo users (who use the demo linked on the right of the store page) now have far more options in-game. They can now actually unlock items! This is pretty huge, as they can now play Geneshift competitively 100% for free. Of course XP is still earned slower without the full game, but all items in the game can now be used given enough time. Furthermore, when you upgrade to the DLC you will now instantly double your XP, allowing you to get a bunch of cool new items.


Finally for the first time in 10 years Geneshift has wide maps that are actually big enough to drive vehicles in. Before now the maps were either too small or too cramped, but as requested, I have taken the time to finally expand them. And it feels great! You can now hop into a car and just cruise all over the place. New roads have been bulldozed through buildings and annoying boxes have been removed to make for a super smooth driving experience.



Battle Royale now has a new default game mode - squads! Squads support up to 5 players, allowing for some sweet 5v5v5v5 games. Even better, these squads dynamically change size based on the number of players in the server, which lets players play co-op vs the bots.

I think this will do wonders for our community and give a much better first impression to new players. Instead of joining a FFA game and getting destroyed by a veteran, they will now be placed on the same team, working together and introducing some great team play. The menu also has a new "quick play" button which will automatically place you into the best online server too, factoring in ping, players and game type.



Iteration iteration iteration. This version improves in the Battle Royale formula in a few key ways. First of all, the circle now shrinks in a more interesting way, alternating between open looting then sudden shrinking. Loot will also now drop into specific buy zone areas throughout the round as well, which encourages players to fight over key areas to gain a financial edge. The zombie's now have an updated ranged attack as well, making for interesting combat between zombies without overwhelming the remaining players.


There is a new, extremely tough, "Ultimate" difficulty setting for those wanting a challenge. This is especially fun to play with friends using the new Battle Royale squads mode. Bot difficulty itself has been tweaked, to make the bots generally more difficult, and especially smarter at winning rounds. You are no longer guaranteed to win every single round on Standard difficulty, and a lot of the previous exploits against bots no longer work. For example, bots are now smart enough to shift out of the way if you try run them over with a car.



As always there are a bunch of small balance and bug fixes. I can't write them all out but here are some highlights:

• Super weapons have been nerfed in terms of DPS and ammo.
  
• Tier1 guns now cost $2000 instead of $1000.
  
• Tier2 guns now cost $3000 instead of $2000.
  
• Superweapons now cost $3500 to refill instead of $2500.
  
• You now take 15% damage when shot at and inside a vehicle.
  
• A charged knife will now cause vehicles to instantly catch fire, forcing enemies to eject.
  
• Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, Conquest and Checkpoint modes have been added to the new big official maps.
  
• Cash randomly drops into buy zones in BR.
  
• Made bots worse at knifing.
  
• Reduced the range of zombie pests, while increasing it's rate of fire.
  
• Players are now shown as green in BR, as are your squad mates.
  
• Fixed a few broken challenges and Steam achievements.
  
• You can no longer buy vehicles from base chemicals.
  
• The BR circle deals more damage the longer you stand in it.
  
• Goo Trap slow has been nerfed to 70% slow instead of 50%.
  
• Players can now keep their gun when they win a BR, but without ammo.
  
• Reduced the effects of sprint stun, allowing for faster movement speed during combat.
  
• Killing a civilan car will increase your wanted level 4x faster.
  
• Changed the behaviour of the circle to shrink down to the red zombie line, pause there briefly, and then shrink again.
  
• Gave demo users the ability to unlock weapons and cybernetic skills.
  
• Players will now double their total earned XP when they upgrade to the DLC.
  
• Player names are now shown above characters at all times.
  
• Made super bots more difficult in standard difficulty, ensuring a constant challenge.

Wow what a coincidence! Geneshift is on sale at the exact same time this version has comes out. It's like the stars have aligned, and fired a cosmic ray of love straight from your wallet to my bank account. Amazing! Nah in all seriousness, you can get the game cheap now if you want. Or simply play the new demo option, which has been expanded to allow the unlocking of all items anyway. As long as you tell your friends and hop on for a game I'm happy.

Have fun!

It's a big one! Through constant iteration of test versions and discussions in Discord, this version has reworked almost every system in the game. There's a huge focus on usability, making mechanics intuitive to new players, and streamlining everything for the Battle Royale mode. I'll go into detail below, but here are some of the biggest changes:

• Every skill is reworked and actives no longer have penalties.
  
• New skills have been added to replace old/broken/weird ones.
  
• Weapons have been reworked to feel significantly more tactical.
  
• The knife is no longer a 1-shot kill, unless you charge it first.
  
• Chemicals can be bought from anywhere in the map.
  
• Chemicals can be picked up for free at any time.
  
• Cosmetics are now unlocked with XP instead of community credits.
  
• The default heal has been replaced with a passive regen.
  
• The control scheme has changed to become more usable.

The skill system has been reworked in a number of ways. The biggest change is the removal of skill penalties from active skills. Over 15 confusing and unintuitve penalties removed in a single version! Replaced with a single, simple, and easy to understand drawback - the mana you use to cast it. Much simpler.

There's a new philosophy guiding how the skills behave in this version, and that is "bigger is better" (heh). Previously skills didn't make you more powerful because they had penalties. In some situations these penalties would actually make you weaker. While good for competitive gameplay, this was very unintuitive to new players, and not too fun either. So now skills will always make you stronger. And the more skill points you have, the stronger you become. To do this every skill in the game has been reworked, changed and simplified to make them as inutitive for new players as possible. There are also fun new skills such as X-Ray vision which lets you see through walls.

The skill system itself has been streamlined too. For starters, you can now only unlock a maximum of 3 active skills. Before there was no limit, allowing you to get up to 15 active skills, which of course was ridiculously difficult to manage. Now with 3 only there are 3 dedicated hotkeys to use your 3 abilities (right click, C and Z). It feels MUCH easier to cast your skills without having to remember what number cast what ability.

But wait, there's more! The skill trees actually do something now, because once you invest into one of the trees you are unable to invest into the others. This forces players to adopt a certain playstyle and is more similar to the hero or class-based combat seen in other games. However if you really want to multi-tree you can, but it will cost you 6 extra skill points to unlock extra trees. There are more changes too, like the ability to invest synergy points every 8 levels (which are now super powerful), and the ability to reset your skill build mid-game to experiment with different options.



I've changed how the weapons behave as well. The most important one is that knife no longer kills in 1-shot. Honestly it was silly how powerful the knife was before, but now it only does a mere 35hp damage.. unless you charge it. You can now hold the mouse down to start charging your knife, and only after doing this for 1.5s will you be able to do a full 1-shot stab. This massively nerfs knife in normal combat, but still keeps it interesting for ambushes.

Weapons have had some big sweeping changes made to them. For starters, the concepts of damage fadeoff and movement recoil are now removed. Don't know what those are? Don't worry... no one did. That's why they're removed. It wasn't intuitive enough. Weapons now do the same damage at all ranges, making combat a lot more powerful at long distance. Furthermore, weapons will now slow your enemies when you hit them, similar to the tagging system used in CS:GO. This makes combat a lot cleaner and makes cover a lot more important, because if you get hit out in the open you're a sitting duck.

The chemical system is great fun if you know how to use it. But it has always been to hard to use. Well no longer. The biggest change here is that you can buy chemcials from anywhere in the map! Just press B and buy whatever chemical you want. This makes it much easier to set up a base and start building in your favorite area, as you no longer need to trek the chemical all the way across the map to place it. Also you can now hold CTRL to pick-up your existing chemicals off the ground for free. There is also a brand new chemical too called "Goo Trap", which will slow enemies as soon as they step inside it, making this the first combat-oritented chemical.



The old "community credits" system that I made back in 2010 has finally been removed from the game, and merged into the new and improved XP system. It's super streamlined and means that you can now purchase cosmetic unlocks like capes and lightsabers with XP instead of community credits. This is great news, because everyone has XP and no one even knew how to earn community credits.

Combat has been streamlined in other areas as well. There is a big focus on reducing the number of unnecessary key-presses, so you can focus on actually playing the game and not messing about with the keyboard. One way this has been achieved is by removing the default heal that was activated by CTRL. Instead of having to heal yourself during combat, the game will now automatically heal you once you've been out of combat for 4 seconds.

Zombies now have a new ranged weapon called Pests, which is a lot more fun to play with than the melee claws. It is no longer possible to buy weapons from the centre of the BR circle, forcing you to loot fully before commiting to the final showdown, as you can't rely on the buy zone anymore. Random weapon around the map have been given random damage buffs as well, making looting a lot more fun as you might pick up a rifle with x1.15 damage. And more. Much more.



So much has changed in this version I can't write a full list. So here are the top 10% most interesting changes this version, cause I can't type them all out.

• Some weapons randomly spawn with x1.20 damage modifiers.
  
• You can no longer buy weapons at the centre of the circle.
  
• Guns are now much more powerful at range and have no movement recoil.
  
• Weapons now slow enemies when you hit them, like tagging in CS:GO.
  
• Vehicles have fewer hitpoints.
  
• Literally every single skill in the game has been reworked.
  
• Active skills no longer have penalties! Just the mana that it takes to cast them.
  
• The knife no longer does a 1-shot kill! It only does 35hp damage. However if you hold the mouse for 1.5s it will charge up and become a 1-shot again.
  
• Zombies now have a new ranged attack called Pests that behaves a bit like a shotgun.
  
• Tier 2 weapons are now significantly more powerful.
  
• Phase Shifting now drastically reduces accuracy to avoid abuse in close-quarter combat.
  
• You can now buy chemicals from anywhere in the map.
  
• You can now pick up chemicals by holding CTRL on-top of them.
  
• The default control scheme has been streamlined.
  
• There are new chemicals, such as Goo Trap which slows enemies.
  
• Cosmetics are now unlocked with XP. The community credit system has been removed from the game.
  
• Skill Trees are now restricted to just using just 1 tree at a time, however you can unlock other trees by spending skill points.
  
• The default healing ability has been removed from the game, and replaced with a fast auto-regen that kicks in after 4s.
  
• You can now only unlock a maximum of 3 active skills, allowing for streamlined skill-casting hotkeys.
  
• You can now hold up to 3 grenades at the same time.
  
• The HUD has been streamlined to show hotkeys to auto-select your weapons and 3 active skills.
  
• The leveling curve has been changed and is now capped at level 20.
  
• New skills added such as X-Ray Vision, Parasite Swarm, Ignition Orb, Laser Focus, and more.
  
• Late game upgrades have been removed from the game.
  
• Picking up ammo now gives ammo to all weapons, not just your currently held one.
  
• You can now reset your skill build in-game by holding ALT and clicking on a new "Reset" button.
  
• Bots have been made smarter, upgrading their weapons, using the shop and exploring the map better.
  
• Conquest mode now progresses by getting kills rather than earning cash.
  
• Tier1 weapons are now given for free in non-BR game modes.
  
• Reworked the cash rate in non-BR game modes to match up with how BR works and prevent exploits.
  
• Fixed countless bugs and exploits.
  
• Skills now go up to level 4 instead of level 3, with +1 synergy earned for every 8 levels in the tree.

Ok that's it! Oh also, there is a special flaming hot easter egg in the game available only for today. Enjoy!

This version makes your skill actually matter. Last version bots would adjust their difficulty based on your K:D ratio. This was great for new players, but uninteresting for veterans because your skill didn't really matter. You were always going to get the same K:D ratio anyway, so why try? There was also no incentive to unlock more powerful items, either.

This is now fixed! Bots come in 4 new difficulty levels - Playful, Standard, Hardcore and Insane - and if you want to beat the harder bots you will have to play well. Really well. There are rewards for beating harder bots too, such as earning more XP per kill and earning more victory points per win (more on that later). When you first play you only have access to the playful bots, but as you win games you'll unlock the ability to play on higher difficulties.

This gives you something to work towards and wraps the entire game up with a meaningful progression system. Higher difficulties give more XP, which makes you more powerful, which actually mattters now because the bots are harder to kill. They won't go easy on you. Most importantly, you can now have a genuine challenge and be rewarded for playing your best.



You now receive "Victory Points" whenever you win games. These are only awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd players in a match. Victory points are needed to unlock the new bot difficulty levels mentioned above. So if you want to play harder bots and earn more XP, you will need to actually win games! This all or nothing approach makes the final stages of each match far more exciting as the exclusive victory points are at stake.

Even better, there is a new daily leaderboard system which ranks players based on how many victory points they have won each day. These leaderboards can be explored in-game, and the top 20 players each day will receive a bonus XP reward! You can also view previous leaderboards, allowing winners to be recognise in the game for all time!

You can now shoot out the window of vehicles while driving at the same time! This buffs vehicles a lot and is just damn fun. You can also loot for items by driving over them with vehicles, which I think makes vehicles the new best thing to aim for when falling from the sky. Ch-ch-check it:



There's a new anti-zombie mechanic that kills zombies who try to reach the centre of the Battle Royale zone. This gives the remaining human survivors a ring of safety, and lets them focus on eachother instead of the incoming swarm of zombies. This really makes the game feel a lot more "last man standingy". It now comes down to a tactical heads-up between the 2 final players without zombies causing chaos all over the place. Zombie players still have plenty to do outside the circle however, such as looting for cash or placing chemicals.



Here are some other noteworthy changes:

• Zombies move faster as the anti-zombie circle prevents swarming.
  
• Players in the circle of death are now revealed in the map.
  
• Newbie Checklist now awards +300xp instead of +30xp.
  
• The leveling curve is now slower, but goes all the way up to level 50.
  
• There are 4 new late-game unlocks which permanently buff your character.
  
• The first round of the Battle Royale is pistols only.
  
• Tweaked the rates that you earn XP from awesome points and kills.
  
• Awesome points now only happen if you do something actually awesome (get a kill with a vehicle, skill, explosive, etc).
  
• Grenades now do 100hp damage.
  
• The loot drop rate now depends on the difficulty level. Higher difficulties drop more permanent loot (like skill unlocks), but less temporary loot (like free weapons).
  
• You can no longer choose which ally to duo with if they are a bot.
  
• Challenges now require a certain amount of victory points to claim, which matches up with which difficulty level you have unlocked vs bots.
  
• The crosshair is now bigger and sexier.
  
• Missions are removed from Conquest games due to too much complexity.
  
• XP is no longer affected by your kill combo as it was too exploitable.
  
• Superweapons now cost 100% to refill ammo instead of 50%.
  
• Nerfed Spike trap.
  
• Fixed a bunch of bugs.

Geneshift will be on sale starting Monday, Feb 25th. You can fuel my chocolate addiction by buying the game for yourself or a friend! If you have any questions you can ask me in Discord at: http://discord.gg/geneshift

This version adds a new Quake-inspired feature - jump pads! Simply hop onto a jump pad and it will launch you up into the air. Jump pads come in two main flavours, horizontal and vertical. In the gif above we see horizontal ones chained together. Vertical ones are placed next to buildings and let you easily jump over walls and other obstacles.

I added jump pads because I received a lot of feedback that the maps were too maze-like and hard to navigate. Especially in a turbo fast Battle Royale, the last thing you want is to get stuck in a dead-end and killed by the circle. Jump pads solve this issue. I have placed pads in all the dead ends and now it is super easy to get to the centre. So hop into the game and hop onto a jump pad!



I have reworked the XP system to give a new sense of progression. As you kill enemies in-game you will now earn XP, which is similar to the old "points" that you earned to unlock items. However this XP now has a second benefit, which is that it permanently increases the amount of skill points you start a round with. This is applied in the campaign and when playing against bots, and is an optional setting in multiplayer games.

This provides a bit of an MMO mechanic. When you first create an account you will be at level 1. But as you play you'll slowly and permanently level up. After playing for a few hours you might reach level 6, which means you start each game with 6 skill points instead of 1. For convenience I've added a "use previous skill build" button, which instantly loads up the previous build you were using with a single click.

This new system makes you feel more and more powerful as you play and lets you experiment with some fun skill builds. Before, when you started at level 1, the match ended before you had a chance to get a good skill combo going. Now you can enjoy your favourite skills all game.



I have unlocked all 5 additional game modes for base game players (those who don't have the DLC). Previously only DLC owners could play these, but there wasn't much point because there weren't enough players in the servers. Now everyone can play every PvP mode! The new modes are Conquest, Extraction, Checkpoint Racing, Deathmatch and Zombie Survival.

Another big concern with the previous version was the lack of a tutorial. Well this has been (partially) addressed by adding the Newbie Checklist to Battle Royale. It's a little box that sits in the top-right corner of the screen and guides you step by step through all the main areas of combat. It takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete and can be done in-game while playing, and will teach you how to buy guns, use skills, place and destroy chemicals, and more.



I've tweaked a bunch of values based on the feedback over the past 2 months. Here are some of the major changes:

• I have slowed zombie movement speed so they're less overwhelming.
  
• Chemicals are significantly cheaper.
  
• Neutralizing chemicals now awards a fixed $3000.
  
• Tier2 weapons now cost $2000 instead of $3000 and have more ammo.
  
• Default round duration is 2.5 minutes instead of 2 minutes.
  
• Rearranged a bunch of challenges based on completion rates.
  
• Loot now spawns in specific areas, instead of evenly across the map.
  
• Enemies don't show on the minimap while falling in BR.
  
• The "new item discovered" popup box no longer distracts you in pvp servers.
  
• If you win a solo/duo BR round, you get to keep your gun for the next round.
  
• Skills are now capped at level 3 instead of level 5.
  
• Skill points can be purchased in all game modes now, not just BR.
  
• The skill queues system now works in Battle Royale.
  
• Drastically sped up the drop rates for discovering new skills and chemicals in-game.
  
• End of round awards now contribute towards your item and skill level progression.
  
• The bomb that will become the centre of the next round is now highlighted in the minimap.
  
• Self Repair skill now increases the rate you gain mana as you level it up.

Next version I will be reworking the skills system and adding more depth and strategic territory control to the Battle Royale mode. I'll also continue to chip away at the long list of balance, bugs and other suggestions you guys have provided me. It's great to have a clear list of feedback to work from and I hope you guys enjoy this new version!

Also, Geneshift is on sale for 25% off right now. You can fuel my coffee addiction by buying the game for yourself or a friend! If you have any questions you can ask me in Discord at: http://discord.gg/geneshift

So I recently posted about Geneshift on reddit and it exploded to over 64,000 upvotes! This brought thousands of new players to both the game and the Discord. There have been hundreds of positive reviews, plenty of valuable feedback, and non-stop 24/7 players online. Geneshift hasn't been this active all year! The servers crashed twice, and I got about 7 hours sleep in 3 days. It's been wild!



Ok, these weren't real players. This was more of a bug/loophole with Valve's trading card system. Apparently bots were able to idle in Geneshft to collect trading cards, and this spread like wild-fire online until over 200,000 bots were idling the game at the same time. Somehow placing Geneshift on the top 10 leaderboard for the most played games on Steam.. OF ALL TIME! This is totally ridiculous and again, these are not real players, but as a single dev this just blows my mind.



The best part of all this has been the incredibly valuable feedback that I've received. People from all over the world have told me exactly what needs to be done to polish Geneshift up. I'm very proud to say that over 85% of the recent reviews have been positive and am so glad to see people enjoying the game. But there is still a lot more work to be done.

I have read and responded to every single review and comment. I've been compiling a huge TODO list to start working on after Christmas and the new year. This list is massive and will be a few months of work, but it's all valuable and necessary. Here are just a few plans:

• Controller support
  
• A proper tutorial
  
• Special events that allow non-DLC players to enjoy other PvP modes
  
• Expanding and streamlining the maps
  
• Usability improvements
  
• Bug fixes
  
• Menu redesigns
  
• More challenges and reworking existing ones
  
• Zombie nerfs and general balancing
  
• Upgrading netcode and server stability
  
• More translations

The last few days have been crazy, and I'm still busy responding to everyone and doing tech support. I will make a few minor bug fixes over the coming days, and then it will be Christmas and NYE so I'll be busy then too. But starting in the new year I am pumped to get cracking on all your amazing feedback.

This has been the best Xmas present I could have asked for and I can't thank you all enough for playing, telling your friends, writing reviews, and leaving feedback. All of this really helps our community grow. I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Geneshift is on sale for 30% off right now. This will last for the entire Winter Steam sale. If you want to try the other PvP modes, the singleplayer campaign, or just support the game now is a great time to pick Geneshift up. Thanks!

If you have any questions you can ask me in Discord at: http://discord.gg/geneshift