Time for the May update! It’s been a big month of work and progress and fun for Word Turtle Island. More powerful word capture, More helpful objectives guidance!

Word capture, word capture, word capture! It’s much more powerful than before. Hit the button or start typing any time.

Word Capture

You can now battle effectively without powers or word weapons if you press that word capture button or type those words which has the same effect. Letters become projectiles and help you survive battle and rescue those books and readers.

Word capture is the emphatic heart of the game. Powers and word weapons are still around but not all at once. More on that after more word capture news.

SLOW MOTION FOCUS

Typing a word will bring the battle into slow motion for a few seconds. This is the big advantage to typing!

Non-typers get a way to use slow motion focus too! Use the word-next button for a brief slow motion focus time. Use it as a tool in battle to sort through the action and know for sure which word you’re working with.

Use both word-next and typing and you have some powerful tools to survive all kinds of tough battles! It gives you time to think, dodge, and make your next move whether you use typing or one button to capture words.

Word Capture ANYTIME

Another new thing is that no matter when or where you start typing a word will appear. If you are near most any text in the game like an exit, a book, a creature, almost anything with text near it you’ll be able to type that text.

Fast Move via Word Capture

AND each letter of that text will become a projectile, as it does when creatures throw words at you. AND-AND when you finish capturing that word you will move to that spot. Want a fast exit? Type that exit’s name, you’ll instantly be there. Want to pick up a book? Start typing its title and you’ll pick it up instantly when you’re done typing the title.

EASIER TO GET STARTED

New onboarding and flow. From years of testing I’ve learned how folks relate to the features, visuals, and fun in Word Turtle Island. One thing that was a sticking point for lots of folks was starting out with too many things to deal with, too much to learn.

Now you start with only Word Capture and movement. Word Capture is more powerful than before, So you are both ready for battle and more focused to start.

Level up to unlock the DASH move, ability to use WORD WEAPONS, and the automatic POWERS. Grow more powerful as you gain levels and experience.

Starting a new game is much faster with a far shorter tutorial welcome.

Compass upgraded to OBJECTIVES GUIDANCE!

The compass button would cycle through important places to go. Now I’ve added a navigation line to help clarify where the compass wants you to go next.

NAVIGATION

Your selected focus will give you a guidance arrow, any time, just press the compass button and you’ll see the path that will get you to that helpful destination.

OBJECTIVES LIST

All that is now part of the objectives guidance system which will let you choose what’s important to focus on, cycle through a list of options, then when you choose what you want to focus on the guidance line has arrows to help you navigate. One press of the compass button gives a fresh guidance line, two presses of the compass button and you now are choosing among the available objectives.

MINI MAP

The mini-map is now part of the guidance system. Any time you pick a focus the mini-map will focus too, showing you a location hint for all the items in that focus. If you want to find books, then it will only show books, or talk with characters that have something to say it will only show those.

1.0 is getting closer and closer!

This is the biggest update yet to Word Turtle Island. All the pieces of the game are almost all here, and I’ve learned lots from years of research and testing the game with folks, now my work is to connect the pieces with more fun and refinement. A few other gaps and bugs to fix too. But still, 1.0 is near in that I can both see it and feel that it’s so.

Thank you for being part of the early access community of Word Turtle Island! I so needed to get this in your hands for this past year to no longer be working so isolated. Thank you!

– Rob Stenzinger

Yay!

Translated by Lumeish.

• Item Jump Pad Frenzy:
  -Now only 1 instance of this item can be active at once

• Reduced </color=green>Jump Pad air time by 20%
  
• Added config option to enable/disable passing inside the safety zone (default: on)

• Cultist:
  -Gold mines will no longer show generated faith to all players
  
• Fixed spawn buff at level 10 not activating when a jump pad has been placed on the spawn field
  
• Fixed Jump Pad not throwing Hopper Mines onto other Jump Pads

• A new final boss fight song! Turn off Classic Music to enjoy it.
  
• Modern Mode
  
  • Enemy freeze time limit increased to 15 seconds (was 10 seconds).
    
  • Ice shards from the Icus Coldus rune no longer thaw enemies.
    
  • Skills that trigger on a frozen enemy also trigger if it was only unfrozen in the past half-second.
    
  • Fixed Frostbite to damage every second as intended (was every two seconds).
    
  • Armageddon now burns trees.
    
  • Armageddon and other explosions now do a better job of triggering on-hit switches.
    
  • Fixed timing/typos on some commentary nodes.
    
  • Chapter 1
    • Beginnerton: A visual hint has been added to the Fairy Bell puzzle.
  • Chapter 3
    • Off The Deep End: Added more feedback and fixed confusing resets on the skill shard puzzle.
      
    • The Guest Chambers: Added more feedback and fixed confusing resets on the skill shard puzzle.
  • Chapter 4
    • Puzzling Caverns: The rune puzzle now gives a hint when you fail.
      
    • Horkboxes: Added more feedback and fixed confusing resets on the skill shard puzzle.
  • Madcap
    • Fix enemies being thawed 5x faster than intended by damage.
• Challenge Mode
  • Fix bugs in Modern Challenge Mode after collecting 256 stars.

I've finally made a new full episode of The Garden! It harmonizes several of the game's features and is the biggest and most challenging. It has over 100 levels and many of them are large in size with epic difficulty.



The Hexagonal goal is now unlocked in Episode 4, and the new Beekeeping mini-game has built in an Advanced hexagonal mode.

The last missing scroll will now become available in this episode. It reveals several digits of "1" at the beginning of the level.

• New episode 4 "Garden" for 100+ levels!
  
• A new mini game "Beekeeping"
  
• Advanced hexagonal mode is now built into the mini game
  
• 3 new achievements for the mini game
  
• A new scroll that reveals multiple digits of "1"
  
• New minefield skin
  
• The goal "Hexagonal" is now unlocked in Episode 4

Hey everyone!

I’m excited to announce that the first playable demo of Chains on Sand is almost here! After months of development and feedback from testers, I’m preparing to open the doors for you to experience the gritty tactical combat at the heart of the game.

15 rounds of brutal, turn-based arena battles—build your contender, fight for survival, and earn your freedom (or fall to the sands).

Deep tactical combat with stamina, crippling injuries, weapon reach, armor, magic, and meaningful crowd decisions.

Procedural opponents: Every enemy is unique, with different archetypes, weapons, and strategies.

Paperdoll equipment system: Swap weapons, shields, armor, and see them on your character.

Item looting and durability: Take gear from fallen foes (and watch it break!).

Character progression: Level up between fights, spend XP, unlock skills and traits.

Reputation and crowd judgment: The crowd will remember your mercy (or cruelty).

Most of the art is placeholder and many UI elements are still work-in-progress.

Some features, such as the town/rest phase and legendary challenges, are not in the demo yet.

Sound, music, and certain visual effects are being refined—expect rough edges!

But the core combat system is already deep and rewarding. You’ll get a real taste of the tense decision-making and consequences that define Chains on Sand.

The demo offers about 15 arena rounds, enough for several runs and plenty of emergent moments.

I can’t wait to see your feedback and stories from the arena. Thank you for checking out the game—your input will help shape the final release!

Add Chains on Sand to your wishlist to support the project, and let me know what you think after you try the demo!

Hey survivors!


Over the past few weeks, I've been busy:

• Crafting a brand-new trailer packed with mutant-blasting action
  
• Creating eye-popping GIFs that show off the chaos
  
• Capturing screenshots that highlight the game’s best moments

Boom, Die, Repeat is a roguelite zombie shooter where you:

• Choose your survivor and build your arsenal
  
• Mutate mid-run with absurd powers
  
• Deploy traps, turrets, and grenades to survive the onslaught
  
• And build totally unhinged loadouts with elemental madness

No two runs are the same. Everything from enemy spawns to upgrade paths is randomized - forcing you to adapt on the fly or die trying.


The Steam Fest runs May 26 to June 2, so be sure to check out the game during the event!

See you in the wasteland.

– Decayed Games

We're excited to announce that Chronescher will be part of the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase, a steam event and celebration of all things puzzle.

The showcase runs from May 29th through June 5th and durinng this time you can grab Chronescher at a 35% discount.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911170/Chronescher/

Alongside the Showcase we are also launching our new puzzle game TRAILS!

TRAILS is a cozy puzzle game in which you plot routes for floating sand ships. Deliver vital cargo to remote outposts - without collisions, dead ends, or backtracking. Every move counts in the wasteland.

Get ready to board the ship and hoist the sales, as we prepare to set off on a cozy puzzle adventure across the wasteland.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3605120/Trails/

Big changes on the Omnicore! It often felt frustrating and clunky to use. We’ve removed several unnecessary or annoying mechanics to make it a smoother, more fun tool and reduce unfun downtime during gameplay.

• Skill notifications no longer spawn in the middle of the screen, they now appear at the top as intended.

• Removed the dialogue skipping delay in solo mode.

• Omnicore no longer has health or armor: it can’t die anymore.
  
• Removed the throw mechanic.
  
• Removed Omnicore overload (no explosion anymore).
  
• Omnicore no longer bounces it can only be passed between players and turrets.
  
• New trajectory when passing.
  
• Improved pass smoothness.

Add over 320 DJ themed artistic AI visuals to AI-VJ, from across 12 different styles!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3516320/AIVJ__DJ_3_Visuals/

Show them you're always fresh!

These visuals are pre-generated for optimum performance, carefully selected and manually tweaked for artistic quality, by an experienced DJ

The visuals are recorded at 60fps, which is double the normal video framerate, to ensure smooth visuals at every BPM. The total unique runtime of all visuals together is over 40 minutes. With some duplicate plays that's standard practice in VJ sets, this package is more than enough for a two hour long DJ set

After installing the DLC you can add these visuals to your deck through the "Visuals DLCs" top menu

Part of the Real Series: Using the latest AI for realistic imagery and movements!

(We're also happy to let you know that these visuals were created using green energy)