Hello everyone, this is our very first greeting. We are the Dark Lord Defense Team.

First of all, we sincerely thank all players who are following Mawang: Dark Lord Defense. As we prepare for the September demo and Tokyo Game Show, we would like to take a moment to share how this project started and how it has developed so far.

First, let us introduce Zoe, who is working on the amazing pixel art.

Zoe: Hello, I’m Zoe, the main artist. It feels exciting and surreal to finally be able to share my story with you through this Dev-log. I would like to tell you how Mawang: Dark Lord Defense came to have its current concept and art style.

The project began at an in-house game jam.

Two programmers started the project under the name Dark Lord Defense. Since there was no artist back then, everything was built using assets only. Before I joined, it was difficult for them to create original art, so they relied on available assets.

The game received positive feedback at the jam, and as the project naturally transitioned into full development, I joined the team as the artist.

This was my first pixel art project.

At the beginning, I reused existing assets to practice and adjust the bright and cute style into something that matched the darker world of Dark Lord Defense.

As development continued, I realized that the existing assets alone had clear limits in fully expressing the concept we wanted.

So I started retouching them and creating entirely new buildings and characters, gradually building up our own art style.

Since tower defense as a genre naturally has many enemies appearing on screen, flashy effects may look appealing at first, but they easily tire the player during long play sessions.

To solve this issue, I analyzed roguelike-style games. Many of them used simple monochrome or geometric effects for common enemies, and reserved flashy colors and animations for bosses or special enemies.

Based on this, we applied simple yet intuitive and high-quality effects in our game.

Boss unit skills are made the flashiest and most noticeable.

While preparing Dark Lord Defense, I often shared concept sketches with GPT to work on character designs. By feeding GPT with details about Lua, we worked together on visualization.

The results were surprisingly satisfying, and received positive feedback not only within our team but also from others in the company.

After trying out different versions of Lua across various ages, we finally arrived at the current design.

Currently, since the project is at a resource-intensive stage, instead of perfecting every detail from the start, we are focusing on producing a large quantity at a solid quality baseline. Later, we will refine and enhance the details step by step.

This approach is a strategic choice to balance development speed and overall quality.

We also plan to continuously add new decks, units, and presentation elements to raise immersion and completeness of the game.

That was the journey of the art design. Now, let us bring in our director Jiwoo for more about how the gameplay mechanics of Dark Lord Defense came to be.

Jiwoo: Hello, I’m Jiwoo, director of Mawang: Dark Lord Defense. While Zoe has covered the visual evolution, I’d like to talk with our developer Haon about how the game mechanics came together.

Our company held a game jam alongside our other project, PengPong. Every developer dedicated themselves fully to creating their strongest mechanics in their strongest genre. Among the ideas, I thought a defense game about the war between a Dark Lord and heroes could be developed within the short jam period.

The core gameplay mechanism was:

1. Building construction creates paths around it.

2. Monsters spawn and follow the paths around buildings.

3. Towers placed by the player attack the enemies moving along the paths.

4. If too many enemies follow the paths, they attack the building.

I thought it would be fun if players could freely shape paths by constructing buildings, while also managing to prevent overwhelming enemy numbers. Since I was also very interested in the theme of Heroes vs. Dark Lord, it naturally fit into the game.

Originally, players controlled the heroes fighting against the Dark Lord’s army. But since the game’s name was Dark Lord Defense, it felt odd to be on the hero side. So we switched perspectives to the Dark Lord’s army, which gave us more creative opportunities. That set the foundation for the current concept.

Haon: I’ve always enjoyed tower defense games, but what really attracted me was this idea of “paths forming around buildings and enemies following those paths.” Building strategic paths and managing resources to withstand overwhelming waves of enemies was great fun. It also received good feedback from testers, so we developed it into a full project.

Compared to the simpler jam version, the final development expanded enemy and tower patterns, and we spent a lot of time ensuring players could combine and experiment with these systems. We wanted players to think, “If I place this tower here, I can make the perfect kill-zone!” or “Doing this makes me stronger!” We even spent half a day debating specific details.

We’re also very excited about upcoming features: new monster types, towers of various races, growth systems outside of battles, stage-specific gimmicks, and more!

Jiwoo: Through this Dev-log, we hope our sincerity reaches everyone waiting for Mawang: Dark Lord Defense. We’re preparing the following schedule, and we look forward to meeting you both offline and online:

• September 2025: The first closed test of Mawang: Dark Lord Defense will be held via G.ROUND, and we’ll meet many players from East Asia through the Tokyo Game Show Indie Area turnkey booth.

• October 2025: Official release of the Mawang: Dark Lord Defense demo.

• December 2025: Sponsor booth at Taiwan G-EIGHT, meeting Taiwanese players.

• March 2026: Updated demo at the Steam Tower Defense Festival.

We always prioritize communication with players, and actively reflect your feedback in the game, both offline and online. Please visit our Discord anytime and share your thoughts, we’ll reply directly.

See you next time.

All the best,

Team Magye

Did you enjoy reading about our development journey?

Then try playing our work for yourself in the future!

Add Mawang: Dark Lord Defense to your wishlist and check out the latest updates on our main page:

Steam Store Page

Dear Commander,

Tank Arena will update the server (with service suspension) at 16:50 on September 2, 2025, to update game features and related event content. Thank you for your support and understanding. We wish you a pleasant gaming experience!

 

Maintenance Content:

Battlefield Elite

Sharp Gun Attack

Legion Donation

Military Fund Preparation

Military Academy Recruitment

10x Blueprint Supply

Daily Gold Gift

Lucky Supply

Vehicle Recast Event

Recharge Special Offer

Component Exchange

Blueprint Item Special Offer

Component Item Special Offer

Component Discount Purchase

Vehicle Research Package

Material Exchange

Resource Special Offer

Military Soul Supply Benefits

Command Room Supply Benefits

Consumption Benefits

Advancement Material Special Offer

Vehicle Special Offer

Endless Campaign Benefits

Super Deluxe Check-in

Commander Special Offer

Military Supply Package

PLZ-05 "Jade Rabbit" Box

Leclerc-PAC Limited Time Discount

Peak Racing Car Gift

Rune Supply Benefits

Pet Claim Benefits

Electronic Control Supply Benefits

Leopard 2A7 Limited Time Discount

Leopard 2A7 Exchange

Z-9 Starlight Theme

Z-9 Starlight Exchange

Leopard-Phantom Limited Time Discount

15-style Camouflage Set Exchange

99A Camouflage Set

04A Camouflage Set

Z-19 Camouflage Set Exchange

181 Mengshi Camouflage Set Exchange

Guardian "THX" Limited Time Discount

Luxury Feast

Top Vehicle Sale

Vehicle Special Offer Sale

Single-day Weapon Set Package

Single-day Combat Manual Package

Single-day Commander Advancement Package

Single-day Combat Experience Package

Single-day Cumulative Recharge Package

Daily Consumption Benefits

Privilege Congratulations Gift

Privilege Benefits Subscription

Privilege Hero Gathering

Summer Gold Lucky Bag

Summer Recharge Rebate

Summer Red Packet

Wealthy Family Feast

Halsey's Blessing

Daily Recharge Benefits

Black Gold Money Pot

Black Gold Money Seed

Adjustments to tutorial

Hello, Stalkers,

To provide a more stable game environment, we will be conducting maintenance during the hours below.

During this time, new game matching will not be available, but other out-of-dungeon content can be accessed. Please keep this in mind when playing the game.

Maintenance Schedule:

• September 1, 2025, 07:00–08:00 (UTC)

Maintenance Type:

• Game server and matching maintenance

• Login and out-of-dungeon content will be available, excluding dungeon entry.

Maintenance Details:

• Fixed an issue where the camera would fly around in free-look mode after matching.

• Improved server stability.

We will do our best to provide a more stable service environment.

Thank you.

Hello Sinners,

Thank you so much for the incredible support during launch. Mortal Sin has been trending on Steam and the response has been amazing to see. I’m truly grateful for all of you who picked up the game, shared it, and gave it a shot.

Here’s what’s in today’s update:

• Fixed the Hunter’s Eviscerate combo to work with non-spear weapons such as the Halberd and Guan Dao.
  
• Removed large mushrooms in one of the cave rooms that could box players in. Technically you could crouch to get out, but since crouch is rarely used (and some of you might only be learning it exists reading this), I’ve adjusted the room accordingly.
  
• Fixed a soft lock in the combat tutorial if you pressed back on gamepad before opening the combo menu.
  
• Fixed a bug where completing the game on Easy would not count towards unlocking the Enigma class.
  
• Completing a run will now show “Next Round” instead of “New Game” on the button.
  
• Fixed some translation issues, including Spanish not showing the death screen results correctly.

While most of the feedback is positive, as the game reaches a wider audience beyond those who usually enjoy roguelikes or hack and slash games, there has also been a flood of negative reviews from players with low playtime (often 15 minutes or less). If you are enjoying Mortal Sin, I would greatly appreciate it if you left a review. It makes a real difference for the game’s continued success and helps your voice be heard.

Also, if you run into any bugs or issues, please consider stopping by the Discord and leaving as many details as possible. Screenshots, videos, and especially your player log file are a huge help in tracking down and fixing problems quickly.

Thanks again, and keep on sinning!

This is the fifth build following the release of Act 1. We got a lot more bug fixes for you this time. Of course, we're still actively working on new features in the background (mostly localization code, which is nearly done). These features will be rolled out in upcoming builds as they are completed, so please stay tuned!

Here are the changes made since the last patron/substar release (v1.04.001)...

• Fix: Potential error when Haya is Awakened.

• Fix: Potential error with Bax's Bubble Shoot 2 attack.

• Fix: Multipart fullscreen animations don't get fully saved in gallery data if skipped T#218.

• Fix: Fullscreen animations don't save gallery data or trigger achievements immediately T#217.

• Fix: Wrong Bates stats upon rematch T#215.

• Fix: Dialogue blocks HUD (Intro / Bates Cutscenes) T#214.

• Fix: Skip Cutscene Prompt Text Glitch T#213.

• Fix: Level collision issues in Brask's Jungle, Cas's House, Hiroto Dojo, Sheo Islands Beach, Southeast Beach, and Treewish Forest.

  • Fix: Joe can pass through the spaceship with a slide and get stuck in it, in Sheo Islands Beach T#206.

  • Fix: A pass can be made on the other side by sliding between two cases in Hiroto Dojo T#205.

  • Fix: Collision issues: Hiroto Dojo T#191.

  • Fix: Collision issues: Brask's Jungle T#190.

  • Fix: Collision issues: Southeast Beach T#189.

  • Fix: Collision issues: Treewish Forest T#188.

  • Fix: Collision issues: Sheo Islands Beach T#187.

  • Fix: Cosmetic level-design related issue collection up to version 0.15.100 T#11.

• Improve Pause Menu confirmations (return to title / quit game), including a fix to make the window resolution-independent, and a selected button animation.

• Add Koyyle to Credits!

• And even more fixes that are too trivial to list!

• All Known Issues

- Current difficulty is now visible to all non-masterclients in the lobby.

- New: Added Player Stats.

\[Player Stats are accessible under your profile icon in the top right corner of the main menu.]

The following stats will now be tracked:

- Total Kills (*Was already tracked)

- Total Time in Matches

- Matches Played (Matches must be more than 1 minute long to count)

- First Time Played

- Hand Grenade Kills

- Nuke-In-The-Box Kills

- Elite Draugar Killed

- Shots Fired

- Times Downed

- Further increased the chance of drops in higher rounds.

- Made Draugar slightly faster past round 15 (Previously, Draugar only gained a slight speed increase after round 5 and round 10. With this change, they also gain an additional speed increase past round 15).

- Fixed issue causing the M1A1 Bazooka to obliterate Draugar a bit too violently.

Note: Stay tuned for next patch, as it will bring a brand new addition to the Rifle Roulette machine.

One of the biggest updates yet — with major refinements to tutorials, disassembly, time management, a complete overhaul of the Chemical Refining Station, and lots of QoL fixes. Let’s dig in 👇

📚 Tutorial & New Player Experience

• 🖥 Fixed DVD player being shoved under the desk by tutorial popups.
  
• ✍️ Tutorial prompts reworked — clearer but also compact.
  
• 🎮 Controls now introduced gradually (e.g., rotation after picking up the DVD Player).
  
• 📘 First tutorial screen updated to explain how Scrapping Simulator works + highlight underused systems.
  
• 🎁 First-day item spawns now predetermined:
  - Guarantees ~$250 in value to help with the first bill.
  - Balanced, diverse items placed across bins to encourage exploration.

• Cooldown tightened (0.1s → 0.03s).
  
• Tips moved to unified Tip System.
  
• Queue limit raised 4 → 6, with UI counter added.
  
• 🖱 New Pickup Option in Settings:
  - Choose Click/Hold to Pickup, Release to Drop OR Click to Pickup, Click to Drop.

• Day length extended by 75% → less pressure.
  
• Sleep available earlier (~5:30pm).
  
• Wake-up moved to 6am for +1 daylight hour.
  
• 🔥 Furnace Buff: Cooling time halved (240s → 120s).

• 💰 Scrap Yard hover info redesigned — easier to read, clearer price calcs.
  
• Button weights updated: [1g] [100g] [1kg] [All].
  
• 📦 E-Waste item hitboxes improved for better stacking.
  
• ⚠️ Added warning when trying to sleep with active power sources, showing wasted energy cost.

• Auto Save info added.
  
• Hints + Real-World E-Waste facts now show separately.
  
• Music balanced, outdated backdrops refreshed.

• 🏬 Hardware Store bug fixed (no more getting stuck).
  
• 🪙 Pawn Shop & Materials UI improved for clearer interactions.
  
• ❌ Ingot duplication exploit patched (blockers added between rack colliders).
  
• Reduced upper threshold of NPC Scrappers - They will now reach maximum aggro at 100 Active Items rather than 175 - with now a full lockout of New E-Waste Spawns at 175 to encourage Scrapping/Selling large Item Stacks.

• ⚡ PC core rebuilt — smoother performance, simplified code.
  
• 🖥 OS upgraded: Windox 7 → ScrapOS.
  
• 🌐 Browser App returns (with fixed Material Price Checker).
  
• 📦 Deliveries + Emails merged into Browser for cleaner flow.
  
• 🎮 Minigames moved to Desktop.
  
• Added ‘21’ Card Game with Scrapper Tokens (separate from money).
  
• 📊 Stats App removed (redundant with other features).

• Entirely rebuilt for stability + efficiency.
  
• 🔥 Blowtorch now requires fuel, costs if left running.
  
• Adjusted Timings for more Passive style.
  
• New central handler for safer saving/loading.

• Power per panel boosted 1.2kWh → 7.85kWh.
  
• Max output raised 26.4 → 172.7kWh in peak sun.
  
• Weather % indicator added for clear tracking.

• 🏎 New RC Race Track Minigame added to the forest — fun side activity + tech test for future vehicles.
  
• 💾 Save/Load system clean-up (removed 1200+ lines of band aid fixes). Faster + more stable!
  
• 🏆 Steam Achievements restructured → less frame load.
  
• 💡 Removed bugged light flicker in Joe’s house + shadows from desk light.

This update focuses heavily on new player experience, reliability, and QoL improvements, while also introducing fresh extras like the RC Minigame and laying down key systems for v1.0.

✨ Happy Scrapping, All!

1. “Question for yourself without risk” has been renamed to “Question for yourself.”

2. You can enable or disable “no-risk” mode separately for “Question for yourself,” “Question with button,” and “Question for all.” The previous option “Deduct points for a wrong answer” has been removed. The no-risk mode is marked with a shield symbol in the top left corner of the scoreboard.

3. For “Question for yourself,” you can set a score factor (from 1 to 10). The question’s value will be multiplied by this factor. By default, the factor is 2, as before.

4. The button for changing the player type (to human or bot) has been moved from the “Tables” tab to the context menu of each table.

5. A “How to play” mode has been added to the main menu. It helps newcomers understand how to play; what the game button is; and what types of questions and answers exist. If you have ideas to expand this mode—feel free to share them.

6. A new interface for question sources, comments, and authors: comments are displayed on the main screen; authors and sources appear in the chat. Comments in the host’s messages often went unnoticed—this should now be improved. Authors and sources of a question must be displayed to comply with copyright. The old setting that allowed hiding sources has been removed.

7. Support for the Serbian language.

8. At the beginning of each round, the host sees the progress of media preloading for each player (in the bottom left corner of each player’s card). The host can estimate when all participants have downloaded the media and won’t have to wait for it to load during questions (for this feature to work, players must also have the new version).

9. The final game statistics view has been reworked: it is now displayed on the main screen instead of in the chat sidebar, where it was often overlooked.

10. Added the ability to download packs from “Trends.” You can immediately start playing top packs (if the server has a link to them).

11. Switched from daily to weekly “Trends” and now showing 9 top packs instead of 5.

12. Added the ability to add or subtract values when editing a player’s score. Often there is a need to add or subtract a given amount from a player’s score. Previously, the host had to calculate this mentally, which took time. The new controls make this task more convenient.

13. Added a donation button inside the room.

Thank you for your patience. The second demo is now available.

We've made a number of improvements since the previous version. These changes should make the game more accessible and allow you to experiment with a wider variety of builds.

This demo will remain available until the game's official release.

A new "Chance" system has been implemented on the card selection screen, making it easier to create your desired build.

You can now also skip card selection with the new "Skip" button.

Numerous cards have been rebalanced.

We will continue to make adjustments and reworks to ensure more builds are viable in the future.

• Adjusted the costs and effects of several cards.

• Reworked a few cards that weren't functioning as intended.

• Added a few new cards.

We've cleaned up the code, which has led to improved performance.

You should now experience less FPS drops than before.

We also fixed numerous bugs, including those reported by the community.