Greetings, friends!

And a Happy Monday to all of you!

I have some good news for all you metroidvania lovers out there (in case you are one of the lucky fellas that own a Steam Deck of course): OUTBUDDIES DX was recently reviewd and got verified for the Steam Deck! ːsteamhappyː

This means that you can enter the sunken city of Bahlam and enjoy the adventure of Nikolay and his Buddy unit in all its glory on the Steam Deck wherever you want to: at home in the bed, on the train, the car or underground, in the bathroom (if it takes a little longer again...) - just about anywhere!

All the best and stay healthy everyone!
Julian


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083310/OUTBUDDIES_DX/

Hey friends,

we have some awesome news, which we can finally share with you today: We - that's Thunderful Games - welcome all of you to the premiere of our very first digital games showcase ‘Thunderful World’! ːsteamhappyː

Find out more in the following press release:


Gothenburg, Sweden - October 28th, 2021 - International developer and publisher Thunderful Games, creator of the multi-award winning and multi-million selling SteamWorld franchise, is welcoming everyone to a new digital games showcase, ‘Thunderful World’. The event will be taking place on November 10th at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm GMT / 8pm CET, hosted by Hollywood and pop culture icon Mark Hamill. Tune in to the livestream on Twitch, YouTube and the thunderful.world website.



Tune in to see Mark delight us with a ton of exciting new game reveals and announcements from Thunderful. The event will deliver updates on exciting upcoming titles including the surprise indie hit of Summer Game Fest, Planet of Lana. There will also be more news on Thunderful titles like Firegirl, Cursed to Golf, Source of Madness, Tinkertown and White Shadows.

Alongside Mark’s headline hosting role, the event will also feature appearances from Thunderful Group CEO Brjánn Sigurgeirsson, Corporate Vice President at Xbox Sarah Bond, plus a few other surprise industry partners.

Thunderful is proud to be partnering with Xbox and The MIX for Thunderful World. To sign up for the event and be the first to know all the important information ahead of the show on November 10th, head over to thunderful.world. As your one stop shop for all things Thunderful World, the website will be updated with new announcements and reveals as the event unfolds.


Stay tuned and tune in on Nov 10th - see you all in the event!
Your Thunderful Games-Team


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083310/OUTBUDDIES_DX/

Hey Guys,

the OUTBUDDIES DX build 1.0.4 just went online, so here's what you get:

• Added support for Portuguese. The translation was done by Brazilian Streamer, and one of Outbuddies' greatest supporters, Max Clayton. Please support this awesome Buddy here: https://dlive.tv/MAX1DELIFE
  
  
  
  
• Map Update: Important key-rooms that need a specific item-setup to progress are now marked. Also, color-coded doors got reworked for more clarity
  
• Fixed a bug in boss rush mode (Blackthorn batch did not save)
  
• Revisited and fixed some minor level layout issues
  
• Fixed a bug in the menus where the cursor could get oob.

I wish you all the best and I hope you all are doing well! ❤️

Best,
Julian


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083310

Guys, be prepared!

Today's post will be a personal one. And today is also a day to celebrate! After tireless seven years of development and over 7000 hours of work next to a regular daytime job I can finally call Outbuddies DONE.


When I release the game here on Steam about 6 months ago it really wasn't ready in many aspects but I had desperately and finally wanted to get it out there and be played.

Despite a wacky start, we received a warm welcome here on Steam, and while many things weren't perfect (and some aspects of the game never will be) you provided me tons of encouraging feedback and ideas how to make the game more enjoyable, more accessible and just more fun. I did fully commit to the task and released 16 major updates in total to reshape and balance almost every aspect of Outbuddies.

To sum it up, we now have much improved visuals, fixes to the world's layout, a rework of the control scheme and platforming mechanics, lots of equipment and weapon tuning, boss reworks, difficulty and drop-chance tuning, new QoL tools, a completely new UI and, finally, a new dialogue system with localization to seven major languages.

I'm incredibly thankful for this period of development. It for sure was damn exhausting, but in the end many of you helped me make the game I actually had envisioned to make, respecting it's core designs and not demanding it to be a thing it should not be.

To celebrate the result of the last months of post-launch development, we decided to re-brand Outbuddies today as Outbuddies DX!

The DX-update also applies some final touches to the platforming engine, sound FX and the early-game‘s flow. Pressing F2 during gameplay will now show the game-timer for you speedrunners out there, and you can manually adjust screen margins in the options menu, a little feature I needed to implement for the game‘s PS4 port.

Speaking of ports: Outbuddies DX releases on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One in EU and US these days! PS4 will follow very soon, so if you own any of those you can now grab your new favorite Metroidvania for those systems too ;)

So what's next on the horizon? That's a really good question. When I started making this in 2013, I honestly had no idea what I would get myself into. The last years have been an enormous strain, financially, mentally, and even physically. Now, seven years later, I know a lot about making games and this industry. I made I game that will release on all major consoles, which is truly crazy. But, I'm also pretty broke and exhausted, gained 20 pounds of weight, and I have cumulated a sleep deficit of over 100 full days (just actually calculated that). Long story short: I really need to recover from this, and I will. I will also start making another game another day, but it can't be tackled like I did it with Outbuddies, that's certain.

Next to you guys, our players, I also want to take this chance and thank my publishing partners at Headup for always supporting me in so many ways, for investing in this niche thing at all, for not dropping it, despite stakes being high. I thank you for all your hard work in the evenings and on the weekends, adjusting to my own crazy work hours. You really are damn awesome, guys!

I also want to do a big shout out for my game engine provider Clickteam, the actual true veterans of game engines. You started my "career" in this community with the famous Click & Play when I was 12 years old. Today, you're still the same humble guys surviving in this crazy market, doing everything you can to keep up the Fusion Game Engine. You've my deepest respect and admiration. You also did an outstanding job with porting Outbuddies to consoles and it was a great experience working with you!
I'll continue to care for Outbuddies and fix it whenever needed. I'll not drop the love for this and I'll not drop the love for making games. I hope the DX rebranding and console release will help Outbuddies to leave it‘s hidden gem status and reach a wider audience of players in the future.

Please continue supporting Outbuddies yourselves! Spread the word about this DX release, recommend it to your friends, write a review, and help keeping-up and growing our awesome little community.

I'll leave you with some quotes from actual player reviews, it's often just words like those that keep us indie devs going against all odds.

Thank you so much!
Julian


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083310

Hey Guys!

We're currently porting Outbuddies to consoles and this update makes sure you get all the fixes and improvements too. Also, we now have a windowed build available in the beta tab (see below!).

Change Log April 2020 updates (Build 1.57 & 1.58)

• Steam rolling in Homunculus form will now maintain the stance. If you also have the Spin Blade equipped (extra i-frames), you can now dash while rolling into lava or acid
  
• Boss names are now displayed over their health bars
  
• A bigger chunk of the Corridium Mines is now open to be explored in the early game

• Nikolay‘s face now is darker, giving him a more badass look
  
• Performance optimizations, done in the process of porting the game to consoles
  
• Some more asset and sprite improvements
  
• Rebalancing of missile drops: Picking up one missile item will now restore 3 missiles
  
• Rebalancing of rescued Wozan spawning during boss fights with health drops
  
• Achievements now unlock directly during gameplay, in case you're playing offline, they'll be dragged from local saves and transmitted on the next reboot
  
• Implemented input buffers for executing the Steam roll: It will now also trigger if you‘ve just leaped over an edge or if the input is a little early before landing. This also fixes the issue of accidentally activating the jetpack in heated combat situations that some players reported

• Game menus are restored after minimizing the game.
  
• Fixed a rare bug that could corrupt the map save-file.
  
• Minimizing the game during the final dialogue could freeze the game

A windowed build is now available in the Steam beta-tab. This had been requested by a couple of players and streamers in the last weeks.

For loading it go to: Outbuddies --> right click --> properties --> betas --> Choose "windowed build".

The windowed build will boot-up in a 720p window and can be maximized to fit your desktop resolution.
The windowed build is identical to the fullscreen build, besides CoOp mouse control not being available for Buddy and a fixed camera.

I wish you all the best and I hope you all take care during the pandemic! ❤️

Best,
Julian


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083310

Hey Guys!

Build 1.55 just went live! This is the build we'll submit to Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft for OUTBUDDIES' console ports. Those still need some tweaking and QA but they're not far away anymore!

I would call this build the definitive edition of OUTBUDDIES, as finally, five months after the game's release last year, the experience is exactly where I wanted it to be. You guys helped me so much with this and I cannot thank you enough for your ongoing encouragement and support.

Here's the change-log:

• New final scene added to the staff roll
  
• HUD elements polish, especially the equipment screens and boss rush menu
  
• Rework of Buddy‘s scanning ability, new icon elements, graphics, and sound FX:
  
  
  
  
• Wozan now speak a little gibberish
  
• New prompts giving clues on how to handle the game‘s more obscure bosses
  
• Full visual rework of the last two bosses Nocturne and Xion:
  
  
  
  
• New idle stance for the player sprite as well as some minor other tweaks

• Optional mechanism in the Buluc boss room to tune down his difficulty
  
• Bosses will expose CoOp specific weak spots only on actual CoOp, as doing this on single-player confused some players.
  
• Shooting and Charge-Shooting directly after a double jump or wall jump is easier now
  
• Buddy can now accelerate by holding the run button LT, due to a legacy issue this was only possible with LB in previous builds
  
• Rebalanced the volume of some clipping sound FX
  
• Rework of the game‘s map, now showing all connections between rooms

• The menu cursor could move out of place in rare circumstances
  
• Fixed a possible soft lock in the transition between lower mines and the Cenote area
  
• Holding the run button on gamepads blocked activating some facilities and speaking to Wozan

For the game‘s console release, we‘ll probably also do a rebranding on Steam, but that‘s not finally decided yet. Trading cards will be a thing for sure!

I wish you all the best and I hope you all take care during the pandemic! ❤️

Best,
Julian


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083310

Hey my Dudes,

OUTBUDDIES build 1.54 just went live! And this is a really huge update!

• Full localization of all in-game dialogues and tutorials as well as most of the menu texts to Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Russian. More languages will follow in the future, I hope the localization will bring more players on board and provide me the needed resources for this!
  
• Adjusted intro sequence and implemented a completely new staff-roll, showcasing all of the game‘s creatures in a bestiary and featuring a new cutscene done by my brother Tobi.
  
• A new boss rush mode was added to the game. It unlocks once you‘ve finished the game, hooked to having the “Final Curtain“ achievement unlocked. You will then be able to challenge each boss in an instant-death duel. Managing to beat all of them will unlock the new achievement “King of Monsters“.
  
• Movie playback is now compliant with playing the game on Linux using Steam Proton. The only thing you still need to do is installing the needed custom fonts manually (see Linux thread).

Started reworking some in-game HUD elements, more polish will follow with the next update.

• The player is now invincible while entering ore leaving a teleporter.
  
• Pausing the game during screen transitions could result in a black screen.
  
• Some spitters would continue erupting when frozen.

Please help me spread the word about OUTBUDDIES on Steam, especially now since the localization is done! Thank you so much for your support, guys!

Best!
Julian


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083310

Hey Guys!

I’m back with another update. Hope you like it. ːsteamhappyː

• “Continue Session“ feature: You can now restore your last run without having saved. This feature will respawn you at the last gate you entered and allows quitting the game anytime. Please note that you‘ ll still need to activate save points to permanently store your game on its selected save slot, this is especially important in case you have saved games on multiple slots in parallel. To start using this new feature, load any saved game or start a new one. Then it will be available after quitting your run.
  
• I’ve added a new Easter Egg to the game. Let’s see who figures it out first – let me know in the comments! A lot of players would be thankful for sure XD.

• New shortcuts were added to the map layouts. There’s now a vertical shaft looping back to the Great Portal after the Tam Tam Miniboss. Also, a new teleporter was placed in the upper Toxic Swamps, looping you back to close to the swamp’s Wozan village.
  
• New Sound FX were added for enemies spitting acid or fire.
  
• The game’s fonts were modified for a clearer input display. Linux/ Steam-Proton users, please manually download and install the new fonts on your system: DOWNLOAD HERE!

• Gates and ceilings more robust against accidental OOB glitching.
  
• Fixed weird air-hovering that could occur with some crawler AIs
  
• The Blackthorn Miniboss had lost his health bar in build 1.52.
  
• Fixed a game breaking bug where players dying with the Missile Launcher equipped, directly after acquiring it, would respawn with a dysfunctional launcher unable to switch back to the plasma gun.
  
• Pausing the game in the exact same frame a dialogue trigger would induce a black screen.
  
• The in-game options menu would scale too small in some room layouts.

Thank you so much for your ongoing encouragement and support! ❤️

Best!
Julian


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083310

Hey Guys!

Build 1.52 just recently went online. ːsteamhappyː I've added some fancy stuff for you with this one, with the main features being completely reworked menus, new background assets and support for PS4 and Nintendo Switch gamepad layouts.

Please let me know if you experience any issues with build 1.52. Following the console porting process, huge parts of the codebase had to be adjusted or were even completely redone!

• Dialogue System: Implemented a new font-based text display. This was an important step to fully localize the game in the next weeks.
  
• User Interface: Completely reworked the game’s options menu. The gameplay options are now separated from the PC-specific system configuration. Players now have the ability to manually select gamepad layouts for Xbox, PS4 and Nintendo Switch in the system configuration tab. All in-game button prompts and tutorials, as well as background billboards, will adjust accordingly.
  
• Visuals: Added a huge set of assets from pixel artist Daniel Szadi, spicing-up the game’s backgrounds and tilesets to create even more memorable places. [[url=https://www.artstation.com/szadi83]Artstation

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[/list]

• As a side-effect of our localization efforts and the new tutorials, the Direct Input gamepad support had to be abandoned. I had come to the conclusion that it was rarely used and, on the other hand, caused a lot of confusion. You’re still able to configure keyboard inputs in-game, of course.
  
• A compatibility mode for Steam Proton added to the system options. Selecting this mode will auto-skip the intro sequence as well as the staff roll, as movie playback currently is not working on Linux. We’ll find a better solution in the future. Also, make sure to download and manually install the needed custom fonts for build 1.52 if you’re on Linux: DOWNLOAD HERE!
  
• Bugfixes
  
• Fixed some smaller glitches and typos.

In case you experience any major issues with build 1.52, I also left the build 1.51 on Steam in the beta tab. Right-click Outbuddies → Properties → Betas → Choose “last build”. A password is not needed.

Thanks you all for your ongoing ecouragement and support!

Best!
Julian


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083310

Hey Guys!

First of all: Have a great start in 2020! I want to share a couple of lines with you, reflecting on Outbuddies’ first months on Steam as well as our plans with the game this year. There’s a lot to come!

As many of you know, Outbuddies still is a project of passion made by myself mainly in the evening hours or even at night. After nearly seven years of development, I was really thrilled to finally release the game last October. Given the indie nature of the project, the whole thing was for sure a bit rough and unpolished on released and I’m really thankful so many of you gave me constructive criticism and enabled the project to grow, pointing out bugs and design flaws that kept the game from being truly outstanding.

Your encouragement and kind words gave me the energy to continue and pushing forward, despite our visibility on Steam being way too low. I was able to release seven major patches since October and I feel we’re finally approaching a great level of quality. I enjoyed it very much seeing the game being dissected and glitched by so many skilled players! With your feedback, I was able to distill the maximum potential out of the game’s core mechanics, gear, and weapon upgrades. Also, the controls were refined a lot and we got rid of some clunky input schemes and design decisions that did not quite deliver. The world-design of Outbuddies now also is much more robust to sequence breaking, while also ensuring a great and stable experience for casual players. I cannot thank you enough for this, I would never have been able to pull it off without your support.

2020 will be a very exciting year for the project. I’m teamed-up with German publisher Headup and also Japanese publisher Chorus Worldwide to bring the game to Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4. The ports will be done by Clickteam, the inventor of the great Fusion game engine Outbuddies is made in. Having a perspective to release on a Nintendo system is one dream coming true for a kid of the 90s.

Our efforts to release the game on consoles will come with additional funding and new features that will, of course, be implemented for the game’s PC version too. The biggest thing will be a full localization to many additional languages, ensuring many players around the world will have a much easier time learning the game’s mechanics and enjoying the background story. I can already confirm German, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, French and Korean. We may, of course, be able to add more languages in the future, fan-translations included.



Next to localization, Outbuddies will receive a completely reworked UI and a boss rush mode very soon. We‘ll also have an option to select tutorials adjusting to PS4 and Nintendo Switch button layouts and I‘ll provide some fixes making Outbuddies 100% compliant with the the Steam Proton layer. It can already be used to play Outbuddies on Linux, but atm the movie-playback needs to be manually skipped.

Being on Steam with Outbuddies has been a great experience so far, so let’s continue this together! I wish you all a great 2020! ːsteamhappyː

Julian


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1083310