We’re kicking off a brand new devblog series about the upcoming update for Gatekeeper, titled “The Nowhere Throne” — aka version 1.0.

There’s a lot to talk about (and we do mean a lot), but as tradition demands, we’re starting with what matters most — the new Gatekeeper.

Aegis commanded the Order of the Delta Guardians — a force that covered the retreat of allied troops. On the day the Void Empire broke through the defenses, Lord Crustad cast him into a crystal well — the heart of an arcana mine.

Arcana did not let the body disappear. Shards grew through his armor, preserved the flesh, and dragged his mind into the Nowhere. There, the Creators offered him a place among the Gatekeepers. He accepted.

Fires a crystal shard from one hand that pierces up to 3 enemies.

• Evo 1: Each enemy pierced increases the shard's damage.

• Evo 2: The shard explodes on destruction, dealing AoE damage.

• Evo 3: Two extra shards spawn at the first hit location.

A simple but brutally effective skill — especially against groups.

 

Places a stationary Glyphon at a targeted location. Only one can be active at a time — placing a new one replaces the old.

• Evo 1: Max active Glyphons +1

• Evo 2: Max active Glyphons +1

• Evo 3: Glyphons gain access to Aegis’s artifacts.

Yes — Aegis can summon up to three Glyphons, and each one can use your artifacts. How cool is that?

 

Leaves behind a Spectra and enters a phase state. The state ends if you take any action other than movement, or when the timer runs out. The Spectra vanishes once Aegis reappears.

• Evo 1: Creates a pulling pulse at the activation point.

• Evo 2: Explodes when the Spectra is destroyed.

• Evo 3: Creates a weakening cloud on death.

Low on HP? Drop a decoy, phase through enemies, and flank from the side. Profit.

 

Activates Ascension for Aegis and all active Glyphons.

While Ascended, Aegis fires from both hands with enhanced Splinters. Consumes all available charges — increasing fire rate and shard size, but slowing Aegis down.

• Evo 1: Kills replenish the Ascension meter.

• Evo 2: Shards pierce unlimited enemies.

• Evo 3: Each hand fires two shards at once.

This is, without exaggeration, our most over-the-top ability yet. Press one button — turn the battlefield into a crater.

Nice and simple — while Aegis stands near a Glyphon, it absorbs part of the damage he takes.

I’ve played a lot with Aegis, and as of now — he’s my favorite Gatekeeper. His kit feels really fresh for Gatekeeper, and I think many of you will love the playstyle.

Charging into a horde with 4 Ascension charges active, Glyphons blasting, shards flying — yeah, it’s definitely a “wow” moment.

 [dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/2106670/Gatekeeper/"][/dynamiclink]

That’s all for today — but the next devblog is already cooking. We’ll be diving into tons of QoL improvements and balance changes, so if brutal tweaks and spicy balance changes are your thing… stay tuned.

Next post drops in two weeks.

Until then...

See you in the Throne Room

— Gravity Lagoon

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Ahoy freebooters we are back with a new playtest build! As usual it's a mix of new features, UI improvements and bug fixes.


New features

• Changed layout in journal so there’s now a dedicated page for seeing the status for the crew and one for their combined stats

• Duties UI also got an overhaul

• Faction economies where favour can be earned and spent

• The choice based text content now shows if it is connected to a quest

• Quests can now lead to an area instead of a specific location making spotting more useful to find what you are looking for

• Whole game got a color pass so there’s more omph to the visuals

• Sunken City got more artwork implemented

• Island and harbour generation also got an overhaul

• When selling in shops the items and equipment the shop will not buy is now shown but greyed out

• When starting a new run the journal automatically opens to let you assign crew

• Map got an overhaul with an arrow pointing towards the quest marker if it is outside range

• Bunch of other tweaks to the UI

• More quest content including potential multiple endings

• More world events

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bunch of issues with save games. Thanks for reporting them @Chimpmoney03 and @TropicalHero!

• Audio mixing including the exposure swirls being too loud. Thanks for reporting it @VonOptimum!

Known issues

• Enemies sometimes still fly around, maybe we should just make an airship game?

Also old saves should still work but if not please let us know on Discord!

Safe winds

Captain Alex

Dear Nested Lands Demo survivors!

A huge and awaited update for the DEMO has arrived. We have prepared a lot of changes and will be happy to hear your thoughts about them. Remember: your voice matters, and we always follow your requests, so feel free to quote on Discord and Steam.

Combined list of changes:

Features:

Add naked villager with genitals

Add NPCs footstep VFX

Add VFX foot track ton for the NPCs

Added mouse sensitivity and motion blur options.

Added player heavy attack

Added new VO and text messages on all random events and now player speaks when interacting with dead animals for the first time;

Added new Player VO for day night cycle, looting and Village Management;

Added player consumes stamina on block and have better block detection based on attack direction.

Added torches for the NPCs

Added new items into the spots

 

Fixes:

Localizations updated;

Various graphics updates

Tons of optimization and bugfixes

Updated the village management system

Various balance fixes with the Plague

Various balance fixes for the village

Changed Stone Spear damage from 130 to 80; Throwing Spear damage from 30 to 80;

Increased Plague Medicine find chance (50 to 90 in some loot places);

NPC graphics improvements

Removed some useless quests

Fixed the Plague spot interaction time so that a player could avoid catching a Plague for the first time

Changed rain and fog chances to appear

Various village immersion changes

Overall, more than 150 fixes and changes were made and we will be happy to hear your thoughts about it.

Join our Discord server for real-time support, updates, and more. You can leave your feedback there and seek help from the devs and fellow players.

If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to tag our community manager @lutra_lutra for help.

You can also post on the Steam Community Hub, where our team is actively monitoring feedback.

After you test the game, we will ask you to complete a survey on your impressions and rate different aspects of the game. This feedback will help us improve Nested Lands and enhance your future gaming experience. You will find the link to the survey in the game menu. We will also remind you about it and post the link on our Discord and Steam accounts.

The Nestled Lands Demo represents an early glimpse into the world we are building. While it's fully playable, please note that many features and systems are still under active development. For example:

• Multiplayer is not available yet

• Only a limited number of biomes can be explored

• Some enemies are not included

• Difficulty settings (easy, medium, hard, custom) are not implemented (the demo runs on a single preset difficulty)

• The quest system is being actively expanded and refined

• NPCs are undergoing some polish (facial animations, voice acting, etc.)

• …more changes and refinements are in the works at this very moment!

This is just the beginning! As development continues, much more new content will be added, existing content polished, and gameplay depth enhanced. We appreciate your patience and feedback, and we are excited to share more with you in the future!

Your support and feedback during the demo phase mean everything to us. Nestled Lands is being shaped by players just like you, actively improved with the community’s help. And we’re just getting started.

Stay vigilant, – The Nested Lands Team

Today we’re bringing you two big updates: a brand-new trailer, and — deep breath — the official release date!

The 1.0 version is packed with new content — and we’ll be sharing the details step by step over the next couple of months. So make sure to follow us on Steam so you don’t miss anything ;)

Aegis is a heavy-hitting ranged Gatekeeper with slow but powerful shots that pierce multiple enemies. He can deploy arcane turrets that copy his damage, shift into a ghostly form to avoid danger, and enter an enhanced state to unleash rapid dual attacks. Perfect for players who like methodical control, high burst damage, and battlefield dominance.

We’ll cover his abilities in more detail in a dedicated dev blog.

[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/2106670/Gatekeeper/"][/dynamiclink]

We hope you enjoyed the trailer and are just as hyped for 1.0 as we are :)

(We may or may not have rewatched it a hundred times already)

Stay tuned — we’ll be announcing beta testing for the release version very soon. If you want early access, don’t miss it!

See you in the Throne Room,

— Gravity Lagoon

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HOLY SHIT - we just reached the $175K stretch goal, meaning VR handholding is confirmed in PROJECT MIX! 

There will be high-quality, soulful handholding scenes tailored for each romantic route. It will be unlike anything ever seen before in a videogame. 

I don't know what will be the consequences of what you guys just unleashed into the world, but we're making the future of VR anime games happen. 

Anyway, let's unleash Shoji Meguro into the VR gaming world - onto the next stretch goal!!

Only 9 hours left. Regardless of what happens, I want to say thanks to all of our backers for making us come this far.

Link to the PROJECT MIX Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plectrumsoft/project-mix-upcoming-vr-indie-title-inspired-by-90s-anime

For those who haven't seen, here is a preview of what handholding could look like in PROJECT MIX.

100 men verses one gorilla simulations have been making the rounds on social media posts and viral videos so now USA based LavaWorks takes your wonder of the answering that question into the world of interactive gameplay.

One of a kind player capabilities as a Gorilla takes you through a maze of levels to see how you'd fare to beat the recent theoretical trendy meme quandary to see who would win.

With less cost than a trip to the arcade at $14.99 USD you can own & play this meme-fueled arcade brawler game Gorilla Smash on your PC game system.

"We wanted to create a fun simulation for the player to be able to play out the viral question of the moment with toughness and speed," said Jae Woodward, Co-Founder of LavaWorks. "Gorilla Smash is the first game to launch in 2025 for the USA based gaming company that is working on industry trailblazing content soon to be released"

The game is offered in over 15 languages with enthusiasm reaching far and wide with pre sales interest seen across the world.

LavaWorks release of Gorilla Smash is available for purchase on Steam on Thursday June 19th. Currently there is a free demo available up on https://steampowered.com as well as a trailer.  Keep a look out for LavaWorks next release out later this year featuring a fantasy adventure game

Flesh and Spirit.

1.Karma Card warehouse slot + 1 when the citizen star level up

2. QUICKLOAD added to in-game menu (Back to title is not necessary)

3. You can see the number of waste tickets during battle when Karma Cards are active

4. Click Esc button to close some interface：Menu, Xiao Tian's Shop, Lottery Store,Talent

1.Fixed erroneous "Work" option at LA BELLE (East Street Restaurant)

2. Resolved trait display glitches in Talent interface

3. Eliminated task tracker Bug after completion

4. Cards will not being obscured by their info

5. Patched random crashes in Winner Battle (Cash Mode)

6. Restored missing cabinet in Residential Zone rentals (Existing tenants receive replacement cabinet via Furniture Inventory)

7. Fixed Bug in "Urgent Recruitment" task (now completable at Tier 4)

8. Fixed the issue of getting stuck in the trash can

Subdivisions have been neglected for quite some time, and we have long made plans to gradually upgrade them. 

We have now decided to focus on updating Subdivision Battles and its modes, as this is the main activity for subdivisions currently.

In this article, we'll go into more detail about the changes awaiting players, and also try to explain why certain decisions were made. 

After the update of Subdivision Battles, we will undertake a redesign of the entire subdivision system.

All materials represented do not reflect final results and may be changed! 

Some of the described mechanics may be changed by the time the update is released or removed from the update entirely.

Let's begin with the most popular Subdivision Battles mode — Brawls. 

1. Subdivision Battles is content with a fairly high entry threshold, as it requires numerous participants and most importantly, the experience of playing participants; 

2. Many people are lacking massive clan content, but some don't want to accept a need to get involved in politics;

3. Long wait for the game — losing the first fight — no awards — sleep.

1. Subdivisions of 15 participants or more will be allowed to enter Brawls;

2. Bracket is formed with 16 subdivisions, which are split into groups of 4;

3. There are no losers. Each subdivision will play 3 matches;

4. During the match, subdivisions earn capture points, from which they will share in a percentage of the stage's prize pot;

5. From stage to stage, subdivisions will be re-grouped on the basis of top of earned Crimson Casings within the current bracket.

We expect these changes to help advance those subdivisions with few participants and little understanding of internal politics.

At the same time, the changes should also satisfy those who consider themselves experienced and strong enough to enlist someone else's support. 

Now you can play 1vs3 and still get your piece of the pie!   After the first defeat, forget about the word “sleep”. No more losses — only matches.

Brawls reworked bracket view

Moving on to content for esports players — Tournaments.

1. A matchup of opponents of too different power within the bracket; 

2. There is no redistribution of rankings between closely matched subdivisions because they do not intentionally face each other;

3. Rewards levels do not correlate with the opponents' power level or their labour input in battle, but remain at the same level for everyone;

4. Trying so hard doesn't pay off when you lose;

5. Long wait for the game — losing the first fight — no awards — sleep.

1. Bracket participants are matched as closely as possible by their ranking level;

2. According to the rank of the strongest subdivision, the reward level for all stages of the bracket is set;

3. An effort reward appears, which is obtained if a subdivision scores the minimum required capture points and loses;

4. All subdivisions play three rounds. The results of the match will determine which group the subdivisions will qualify for in the next stage;

5. The draw as the outcome of the match was removed.

We'll talk about ranks a little later, but for now, one thing is important:
- The higher the ranking of opponents in the bracket — the higher the rewards for stages in this bracket. 

What are the groups, and how will everyone play the three stages anyway?
- It's simple. Initially, 8 subdivisions close to each other by ranking are selected for the bracket, starting with the strongest ones.
Then they are randomly paired with each other and play matches in the 0-0 group (win-loss score).
At the end of the match, the subdivisions are divided into 1-0 and 0-1 groups, where they are again randomly paired with each other, they play again and get into the next 2-0, 1-1 and 0-2 groups.

• 3-0 | Subdivision won all matches in the bracket. Good job!

• 2-1 and 1-2 | Subdivisions performing well in the bracket.

• 0-3 | Subdivision lost all matches in the bracket. Looks like it was their bad day.

Even if you lose all matches in the bracket, but show results, you will still get Crimson Casings, treasury and other rewards.
And losing in higher ranked brackets can be just as valuable as winning in lower ranked brackets. So there will always be motivation to strive for a level of play with more challenging opponents. 

Top players may justifiably point out that high-level brackets will have the most sweat and exhausting battles, and they would be completely right.
We do fear that this could happen, and the top subdivisions will exhaust themselves, but that's why the S ranked brackets will be the most valuable, and the season rewards even more valuable. 

Tournaments reworked bracket view

Before we move on to the rewards, it's worth discussing how the approach to rating seasons will change, and what changes will happen to the rating itself.

There will be a lot of nuances and complex information here, but it is important for understanding the whole idea.

1. Seasons start with a zero rating, causing large rating swings in the first few weeks;

2. There is no save of rankings between seasons so that when a new one starts, everyone isn't thrown into total battles;

3. Ranking seasons have to be held in a few months to allow the rankings to become representative;

4. Simultaneous holding of several rating events. For example, when the subdivision ranking season and the event ranking are going on at the same time.

There will be a total of 6 subdivision ranks:

1. S | Best 8 subdivisions of 2000 rating;

2. A |  > 2000 rating;

3. B | 1750 - 1999 rating;

4. C | 1500 - 1749 rating;

5. D | 1250 - 1499 rating;

6. E | 0 - 1249 rating.

A subdivision is initially assigned a 1000 rating (E) the first time it participates in the Tournament. 

During the ranking season, a subdivision gains/losses ranking when participating in Tournament matches. 

Ranks affect the reward levels in the Tournament bracket stages, and the rewards at the end of the ranking season.

With the start of the rating season, the rating is reset as follows:

1. All A and S level subdivisions are reset to 2000 rating;

2. Lower level subdivisions are reset to the lower threshold of their level if they have not participated in at least 3 game days during the season;

3. If a subdivision is at the lower threshold of its level and has not played 3 game days, it drops to the lower boundary of the previous level;

4. D subdivisions are reset to 1000 rating;

5. Tier E subdivisions are not subject to any rating changes from season to season.

The subdivision must meet the requirements to receive the season reward:

• 50% of rating days must be counted as game days;

• A minimum of 40% of the subdivision stages have been attended.

A day is counted as a game day for a subdivision when at least one stage for that day was counted as something other than a runaway.

A stage counts for a particular subdivision as a runaway if one of the following conditions has been met:

• Less than 30 players were killed on the stage in total. In this case, runaway counts for the team with the most points scored below;

• A team scores less than 10% of the total capture score;

• No tent was purchased;

• A tent was bought but not placed/not taken out by an enemy player;

• Fewer players entered the stage than the minimum required for registration.

Off-season is a period of time outside the active ranking season during which Tournaments do not change rankings, rewards are set at the same level, and opponent selection is once again randomised. 

It's necessary so that players and subdivisions can take a break from the intense wars, make player substitutions, accumulate resources before the new season, and distract to the season event. 

Well, now the most delicious part! What's the point of all this fuss, and when are the guarantees coming?!

We will not disclose absolutely all the rewards that await you, but we will tell you about some of them.

As before, rewards remain to be given to the subdivision and its members, but we also plan to give rewards to leaders as well.
We are currently planning to issue some amounts of game currency, which the leader can spend at their discretion: to strengthen the equipment of their fighters, save money for the production of consumables or spend it on themselves for their labours. 

We will be actively monitoring money flows and how the leaders decide to manage it. Remember that big brother is…

It's a foundation that will help us issue more rewards and resources for you in the future.

As you may have noticed, we've dropped the faction top rewards. Subdivisions now participate in the overall scoring among all factions. 

Each rank will have its own level of rewards, and the S rank even has numbered positions that will earn distinguished numbered rewards. When released, these should be the Season Cups for your Hideout. 

The most important and valuable reward at the end of the seasons will be crimson tokens (the current crimson tokens are not the tokens that will be on release.   You'll need to spend them by 21.08.2025, or they'll burn up!).
The higher your rank, the more tokens you get. You'll be able to spend them for a guaranteed weapon and attachment if you're missing part of the blueprint or if you don't have any at all.

In addition to the above-mentioned cups, we've got one new weapon in the case for Crimson Casings, cool charms, and something special: styles for Albatross Heavy Assault Armored Exoskeleton and Gauss Rifle!

Styles will be the most expensive items in the subdivision shop, which are purchased with crimson tokens.

We will be adding new customisation items to the subdivision shop in the future.

1. Take too long and exhaust the participants;

2. Hardly doing a good job of confronting the top subdivisions and redistributing the rankings between them;

3. The subdivisions involved in the ranking race are additionally loaded.

1. There is no rating change on Base captures;

2. Participation in Base captures is not obligatory. Removed the 160 rating penalty for not attending the mode;

3. All subdivisions that have at least a unit of rating are eligible to participate in Base captures;

4. All four bases are being captured at the same time;

5. The maximum number of participants of each base is four;

6. Changed the format of the bracket. A “second chance bracket” has appeared.

Let's start by explaining how registration to the mode works now: 

Any subdivision with a rating can prioritise the bases they qualify for in the registration window and then submit a request for participation.
When registration closes, the system will start assigning subdivisions to bases according to their ranking and priority.
In other words, if you are the highest ranked subdivision among all, you are guaranteed to participate in the base capture that you put as the first priority.  
The TOP-16 ranked subdivisions will be selected from all those who have applied and will be distributed to the bases.
Subdivisions that did not make it to the Base captures will be refunded their registration costs. 

For the off-season, the rating obtained in the previous season will be relevant. Registration to the mode will be based on it. 

View of the redesigned Base сaptures registration screen

It's pretty simple with the bracket. We rejected the “Losers are out” format in favour of “Losers move on to the second chance bracket” to reduce the overall time of the mode, but to preserve the opportunity to win back for those who came in with “their monitors off” in the first stage.
However, there is an unpleasant moment with the fact that the winners of the upper bracket will have to wait for the “losers” in the third stage to decide who is worthy to go to the finals. We hope this does not create much discomfort. 

Base captures reworked bracket view

In addition, an updated subdivision leaderboard awaits you, where you can see the history of the tops over the past seasons.

View of subdivisions leaderboard in the overall ranking

A history of your matches and your subdivision's matches will be added. In your match history, you will be able to track the subdivisions where you have achieved combat feats.

Match history window view

There are also plans to add a match centre where you can see all active and past brackets in all Subdivision Battles modes.
You'll be able to expand each bracket and see the participants and the outcome of the battle. No more screenshots will be necessary.

You know that we don't like to make promises about release dates, as unforeseen circumstances can occur during development that shift the release dates of updates.  
We realise the importance of this update and want to release it with as few problems as possible. So there can be postponements.

For now, we believe in September of this year.

That's it! Share your thoughts and ideas. Tell us what you liked and what causes you concern.
We hope you enjoyed it all and look forward to some good feedback! And remember, this is just the beginning…

Punihiloader 2 will implement Steam Cloud Save functionality in the next update.
This will enable synchronization of save data across different hardware.

While we have taken sufficient precautions to ensure the safety of existing save data, we kindly ask you to back up your save data in case of any issues with synchronization with Steam Cloud.

Please copy and store the following folder.

Windows PC
Steam Deck

The next update is scheduled for June 22 at 0:00 (JST).
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section.

221GAMES

The Steam Playtest is now up and public — jump in, break things, and let me know how badly it all goes.

This early build already includes:

• 🔥 A functional campfire cooking system (with actual fuel management)

• 🎒 Inventory with stacking, splitting, and drag-drop

• ⚒️ Crafting, resource gathering, and tool use

• 🌄 A full day/night cycle

• 🧍 Fred, our miserable protagonist, freshly dumped and shipwrecked

This is very much a work-in-progress — expect bugs, glitches, placeholder art, and general sadness. Just like Fred.

🛑 Before you jump in — Join the Discord!
That's where all feedback, bug reports, and chaotic suggestions go.
👉 https://discord.gg/ttSc5HyzYD

Let's make this island a little less lonely.