Good Morning! Good Afternoon! Good Evening! Good Night!

First of all, thank you to everyone who chose to follow gaming news.

I am pleased to announce the official release date of Underwater Diving.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2178190

The Steam release of Underwater Diving is set for:
Wednesday August 7, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. CEST.

The game is 99% complete.
I still need to refine the balancing and polish the game.
The demo will be updated regularly and will remain available after the game's release.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2427780

To wait, don't hesitate to take on the challenges of my first game, Ninja Scroller.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2150800

Its next update is coming very soon.

I wish you a good game!

Olivier Raveneau
Mars Touch Studio

Adjustments on some structure values and fixed an issue with prestige

We set out to make a game that felt 100% authentic to Professor Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Something for fans, by fans. The response from The Lord of the Rings community has been wonderful.

The podcast Keep on Tolkien said, “There are so many things... so many little lores that they created for this game that fits so well I couldn’t tell if it was just something I didn’t know or what. That’s good lore building. It's believable.”

And on YouTube, The Nerd of the Rings said, “It feels like this game was built specifically for me.”


Building out the lore started with the Dwarves. We knew we wanted something with a lot at stake. And what better place to survive than Moria? The great realm of Khazad-dûm would let us explore their entire history.

But fans like us know the War of the Ring inside and out. How do we avoid rehashing the same things we’ve seen before? With help from our friends at Middle-earth Enterprises it became clear: the Fourth Age! We could go beyond the end of the Ring to tell the epic tale of how the Dwarves reclaimed their ancient homeland.


When our story begins, decades after The Return of the King, there are two great Dwarven realms. To the north lies Erebor and the current King Under the Mountain: Thorin II, called Stonehelm. To the south lies the Glittering Caves, led by the new Lord Gimli.


He has promised his old friend Aragorn to rebuild the gates of Minas Tirith with Mithril. That precious metal is only found under the mountains of Khazad-dûm. And this makes Gimli impatient to get in there and take it back!

King Stonehelm refuses to let Erebor help. He believes they must wait “Till Durin Wakes From Sleep.” It’s a phrase the Dwarves often say to each other as a farewell, to remind themselves that their work here in Middle-earth is not done. But the King takes it very literally and believes any attempt to enter Moria is doomed unless led by the return of the great father of the Dwarves.


Gimli, being a less traditional Dwarf in experience and thinking, does not want to wait. That is where our players get involved in this tale. Along the way they’ll discover the history of Khazad-dûm, what happened when the Balrog emerged, the Dwarves’ own creation myth and how they see their role in the world.

That is a lot of weighty topics to adapt or invent! It had to be done in a way that felt authentic. So how did we do it?

It started with the team's experience. The game's Director, Jon-Paul Dumont, previously worked as the loremaster for The Lord of the Rings games at Electronic Arts. Many of the engineering team worked on The Return of the King game for the PlayStation.

Together with the rest of the team, we dove into everything Professor Tolkien wrote about the Dwarves. We set out a few key values that stayed with us the entire development of the game.

1. Only use Professor Tolkien’s actual words. Avoid secondary interpretations.
   
2. Every choice must honor the spirit of Middle-earth, as described by the text, its influences and his letters.
   
3. Reinforce and never undercut the stakes of the published works.

This last value is the reason we do not have a Balrog. We had to live our values and that meant we would not lessen Gandalf’s sacrifice to Durin’s Bane. That was his story, not ours.

With our values in hand, we enlisted the help of four experts to aid in our quest.


Writer TS Luikart
First, we brainstormed how the world building and gameplay could come together with veteran tabletop game designer and writer, T.S. Luikhart. He contributed to many of the published Lord of the Rings role-playing games. These sessions are when the framework for the player’s journey came together.


Second, we wanted to immerse ourselves in what it meant to be a Dwarf in the same way J.R.R. Tolkien would have – through language! We turned to famed linguist David Salo, who consulted on all six of the Peter Jackson films and published a book on the Elvish languages. For Return to Moria he invented an entire lexicon and grammar for Khuzdul. He also translated much of the game’s spoken dialogue.


Third, we needed to know if we were on the right track. Well into development we had concept art, built environments and a full story treatment. This is when we reached out to The Tolkien Professor, Corey Olsen. We frustrated him by refusing to tell him anything about the game until he read our planned narrative. We needed him to come in cold and tell us if our plans would feel authentic and would pass muster with fans who studied the lore as much as him.


Finally, it would only be right if everyone’s favorite dwarf reviewed things. It was a highlight of the entire project to work directly with John Rhys-Davies as he reprised his role as Gimli. Hearing him say the opening lines of the game just felt right. Only the real Gimli could say “Everything you know about Dwarves was told to you by Hobbits and Elves. It is time we told it ourselves.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFYTKnwRItA

From the beginning we knew the story of Khazad-dûm and Durin’s return is not our story, it belongs to Professor Tolkien. We were just the next set of hands and minds to try our best to tell the tale. And for those of you who have experienced the journey's end know its just the first part of that grand adventure.

The result is world building and a campaign story we hope will feel right at home with your love of The Lord of the Rings!

Fixed export issue preventing launch on some machines

Changes:

• Added 12 new modifiers to Mayhem mode, increasing the total number from 8 to 20. The new modifiers include quad shot (shoot in every direction at once) and slow shield (the shield travels slowly enough for players to set up advanced reflect combos using multiple shields).
  
• Added "modifier combos" which may trigger later on in Mayhem mode matches. These activate two modifiers at once, creating even more chaotic fun.
  
• Added 5 new music tracks! A million thanks to vrklgn for the musical contributions. There might also be another track hidden somewhere...
  
• The win screen now shows each player's total number of wins for the current session (the session is reset when exiting to the main menu).

Fix some bugs. If you find any new bugs, please leave a message in the community, and the author will fix them.

Hello everyone!

The Hidden Room - Pyramid V0.1.2 is now available with the following changes:

Fixed an issue with documents not being visible after loading a savegame (sorry about this)
Please note: This fix only applies to new savegames. Old savegames that already have this issue (even if saved again) will still have the same issue.
Fixed an issue with shadows on the second floor that made them invisible
Fixed an issue with some interactable items being too large when examining them
Fixed an issue with a puzzle not working as designed
Various small map fixes

Thank you for playing!

Усім привіт!
Сьогодні до гри додано українську локалізацію.
Над перекладом працювала локалізаційна спілка SBT Localization разом із волонтерами. Це була дуже величезна робота, перекладено більше мільйона символів, ми дуже дякуємо вам, SBT Localization!


Hello, we have added a Ukrainian localization to the game.
This version also includes a hotfix:
- Fixed texture corruption on the Steam Deck.
- Fixed video playback issues on the Steam Deck.
- Fixed decals in Forward lighting.
- Fixed Sherbetov's safe: The PIN dialog only appears after a successful steal attempt.
- Fixed Agil and the Ruslans quest.
- The Steam Deck version is now up to date with console releases.

Prepare yourselves to enter Shadow Falls National Park...
Our trailer will be releasing soon!

In the meantime here's some historical information about the Park:



But be warned you best follow the RULES!

Patch Notes

* Fixes *
Lowered sensitivity in the collectibles menu.
Collectible notification fixed.
Seesaw Event fixed most instances where the game would get stuck.

* New Additions *
Added 4 Abilities!
Added sound to indicate out of coins.

* New Codes *
" YOUREAWIZARD " + 3 to each ability
" 4THOFJULY " + 150 coins and + 4 gems available until July 10th.