Hey gang, GM Aesop here with an exclusive sneak peek at the next character to join the cast of Eternal Return.

Late last night, I employed my cat-like stealth abilities and snuck into the office of Nimble Neuron’s incredible art team and managed to steal a piece of artwork from the upcoming addition to Eternal Return.

I’m putting my life on the line to share it with you all today:



I’m going to try to sneak back in over the weekend so I can share the full concept art with you in a couple of days.

For now, if you’ve got any guesses or speculation, I’d love to hear from you on our Official Discord!

Eternal Return's Closed Beta Test (CBT) is set to start on June 24th.
We want to apologize for everyone waiting patiently for the game to be playable. We previously mentioned that we were aiming for early June, but for the sake of transparency and respect for our players, want to tell you all the full details on the delay.

This week, the entire Eternal Return team conducted an internal "Fun Test" for two days.
This was our way to test a big project before release with only a very simple prototype version.
Our biggest goal is simply to make a game that is fun. Naturally, you can't really know if it's going to be fun if you don't test it, so it's all about quickly making and testing a very rough version to decide the priorities of the project. However, it's difficult to take on several big projects at the same time.

Between the "big projects" to choose from, Team Mode was the one players requested the most. We came up with a few ideas for team mode:
① Increase the number of players in one game from 15 to 18.
② Introduce Duos and Trios. Work with 1-2 teammates in a match.
③ When your HP hits 0, you enter a "downed" state in which a teammate can revive you.
④ Implement a team chat. This "Fun Test" was a very rough version that contained only these 4 elements. (...and we barely used Team Chat since we were sitting right next to each other!)

It was actually more fun than expected, which made it that much more frustrating for us. We see the great potential it has.

Having a team makes it feel like a totally different game.
Players that participated in the initial very first Alpha test might be familiar with this - it's kinda tough to know for sure how fun it will be only a prototype. You can only imagine.
We've all been there when you've played games and ran into things and thought "Oh. It would be fun if it was really polished and worked super well" or "Ah. It'd be fun if it was well made, but it's just kinda frustrating right now!"

We didn't have team matching ready, we had to all input a special code for each team and... well... *sigh*
Communication was a bit complicated. There was only a team chat, and initially, talking was prohibited.
...Except chat wasn't working right and everyone kind of lost it... "DO YOU HAVE PIANO WIRE? I NEED SOME STUPID PIANO WIRE", "ARE YOU FIGHTING?", "SCHOOL SCHOOL SCHOOL!"

Here are the features that we want to implement in Team Mode:

• Connectivity with the Steam Friends
  
• A lobby to invite your friends and match together.
  
• Improved Team Mode UI - An overlay where you can see your teammates and their HP, mimimap, match result window, and more...
  
• Team Chat
  
• A ping system (Ability to ping the area you want, items/targetted items, attacks, "on the way", etc)
  
• Team spectate feature

Once you want to try doing something, you know how you keep thinking about it and pushing toward it?

The entire dev team really wants to make this as fast, and polished, as possible to share it and play with all players.
Our preference was to release this before Early Access, so we're sticking to that. Just like the 1st and 2nd Alpha test, we're expecting to hear a lot of feedback that will cut us deep, so we double our efforts towards bringing out an even more fun team mode by Early Access.

These two days of testing left us with a lot to think about. We're delaying it for about 3 weeks, so we'll work even harder to complete the above list and ensure that it is available from the beginning of the CBT.

It might seem weird to delay testing to develop faster. You might think "But Nimble Neuron, it's not like you're developing the entire game from scratch!"
Sadly, though, the speed of development slows down greatly while the test is taking place T_T
① The dev team also has to actually play the game in order to really know and understand everyone's feedback. There are a lot of moving parts and we cannot predict everything that happens from planning and internal tests.
② We also always keep an eye on player feedback during the tests in order not to miss a thing. Time flies - even when just looking at the Discord chats (It's tough to take your eyes off Discord and get back to work once you started. It's a constant flow of conversation!)
③ We have to make all the quick fixes based on the feedback received. We can't neglect even the small stuff.
④ There are a lot of things to monitor during the test, like CPU, memory, DB, etc. (Little know fact: game servers start to feel lonely if you take your eyes off them - even for a minute!)

We held a community vote to decide priority: team mode, or character addition. The answers varied depending on the language/region, but we had a lot of players voting... which, in the end, made us realize that we had to do both...
A lot of players might be sad if we pick team mode over character addition!

Because of this, we'll be trying to work even harder to keep up with the original schedule for the characters, in addition to team mode. Our plan is to release two new playable characters at the start of the CBT on June 24th.

Honestly speaking, we truly want to release this team mode a lot, but we also feel very apologetic for delaying the CBT -- this is why our final decision was to speed up the process for the characters and to do what we can to come up with an even better version of the team mode.

Thank you very much!

The game you all know and love will no longer officially be known as “Black Survival: Eternal Return”.

We’re chopping the “Black Survival” off the front and moving it to a subtitular position, thus being known as just


That’s it! It may seem a little strange to you all at first. I mean, all we did is switch the words around, right?

Well, yes and no.

After receiving feedback from the community regarding some sensitivity issues with the name, we’ve decided to rename it in an official capacity to just “Eternal Return.” All of our socials and networks will be updated to reflect the change. “Eternal Return” is also the intended colloquial term!

With that, however, we’re also keeping “Black Survival” as more of a subtitle for longtime fans and people familiar with the original game to show that Eternal Return is still based on, and has the roots of, its predecessor - but is also moving in another direction.
An updated logo is on the way as well, which will better help convey the feeling and visualize the name update.

We’ll be going through the process of changing the name on all of our websites shortly, so don’t be surprised if you just see something suddenly change.

Earlier this week, all you lucky Eternal Return fans got to take a look at the concept art of the newest character to land on Lumia: Li Dailin.

I’m sure you’re all wondering how she’ll look in game! Well look no further, because here she is:



Her wicked cool outfit looks just as good on her model!
Her hair is getting pretty long too, it might be time for her to get a quick trim. Are there any good salons left on Lumia Island?



I’d love to show you her skills as soon as possible, but they still need a touch polish before we’re ready to show them off.

We’ve got some more stuff headed your way, including more characters, so be sure to pop into our official Discord to give us your thoughts on Li Dailin and speculate on who might be next!

Lumia Island's very own master of drunken martial arts, Li Dailin, will be the next character to join the fight very soon. You'll be able to spot her on the Island with her trademark yellow/orange outfit with matching custom shoes! The writing on her shirt (酒) can be translated as wine/liquor, which is, of course, Li Dailin's beverage of choice.

Wishlisting us on Steam is ridiculously helpful for us. Please wishlist us and recommend us to your friends so we can continue to try to make the best possible game for everyone to enjoy.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049590/Black_Survival_Eternal_Return/

Hello friendos! GM Aesop here with your favorite kind of news: a new character will be headed to Lumia Island soon! We’re just not quite ready to let you know who it is yet…

But, since we’re so kind here at Nimble Neuron, we’re gonna give you just a little taste of what’s to come!

We even threw in a little hint for you all to help you along the way~



Any ideas of who it might be? Let us know in our OFFICIAL DISCORD and share your theories with the rest of our awesome community.

Hey gang! GM Aesop here with a little preview of Eternal Return's newest character: Isol, the Guerilla! You'll be able to play him in our upcoming Closed Beta Test in late May. For now, let's check out his skills!



Isol arms traps faster, and his installed traps will explode faster. Enemies that take damage from a trap have their defense reduced.



Isol throws a bomb to the target location that sticks to an enemy or on the ground. If the bomb is thrown on the ground, it explodes after a given time, dealing damage and rooting enemies caught in the blast. If the bomb sticks to an enemy, it explodes after a bit, dealing damage and rooting the enemy. If the bomb is stuck to an enemy, each attack reduces its timer and increases the damage of the explosion.



Isol unleashes a fury of bullets in front of him, dealing damage, and reducing the movement speed of enemies.



Isol rolls forward and blends into his surroundings, going invisible for a bit. While invisible, his movement speed is increased. The invisibility is lifted if Isol does any action other than basic movement.


Isol installs a MOK Operational Mine on the ground that detects enemies. The mine explodes when an enemy enters its range, dealing damage and reducing the movement speed of enemies.

Alright! That's all we have for today. Looks fun, right? Be sure to let us know your thoughts on our official Discord and stay tuned for more news and new character teasers! ;)

Hey everyone, GM Aesop here with a quick announcement for you all. To this point, our studio, Nimble Neuron, has launched 2 games on Steam. That number will soon grow to 3, following BS:ER’s launch into Early Access.

We figured in anticipation of our soon to be Early Access release that it’s about time to have our very own Studio Page on Steam.

The studio page will not only list our games, but also it will notify our followers when our games launch, enter or exit Early Access.

Additionally, we are able to post big studio-wide announcements there to tell our followers about the future of our games and other big developments!

If you like any of our games, (Black Survival, Black Survival: Eternal Return, MINImax Tinyverse) please follow our new Nimble Neuron Page here:

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/nimbleneuron/

Thank you!

As you probably heard, we added voice lines for every character in the 5th Alpha - in both Korean and English.

We’ve went ahead and uploaded all of those voice lines to our Official Gamepedia for you to all check out and listen to while you fall asleep at night. (There are a lot of voice lines, so it might take a bit to load them all.)

You can also find NEW, NEVER BEFORE HEARD voice lines for the newest Lumia Island brawler, Isol, right on his very own Gamepedia page.

We’d love to hear what you think, especially about Isol’s lines! Drop us a line over at our official Discord and let us know what you think!

Hello my dear friends. GM Aesop here and I’ve got just a few more things for you all today, so sit back, relax, and join me for some fireside stats.

First we’ve got the most animal kills in one game.

• 에욱 - 127 kills
  
• Wolf - 103 kills
  
• 카이 - 71 kills
  
• Vintson - 67 kills
  
• Lookie - 63 kills

It looks like Nadine left Lumia Island and possessed a couple players too...


Let’s check out which equipment was most often found on players.
(This data is only pulled from people who placed in 1st place to 5th place)

• Weapon - Scythe
  
• Head - Crystal Tiara
  
• Chest - Optical Camouflage Suit
  
• Arm -Radar
  
• Leg - Bucephalus
  
• Accessory - Veritas Lux Mea

• Weapon - Gatling Gun
  
• Head - Tactical OPS Helmet
  
• Chest - Crusader Armor
  
• Arm - Radar
  
• Leg - Bucephalus
  
• Accessory - Veritas Lux Mea

• Weapon - Frost Petal Hand
  
• Head - Imperial Burgonet
  
• Chest - Commander's Armor
  
• Arm - Draupnir
  
• Leg - Bucephalus
  
• Accessory - Veritas Lux Mea

• Weapon - Volticletto
  
• Head - Crystal Tiara
  
• Chest - Optical Camouflage Suit
  
• Arm - Creed of the Knight
  
• Leg - Bucephalus
  
• Accessory - Veritas Lux Mea

• Weapon - Bohemian
  
• Head - Tactical OPS Helmet
  
• Chest - Crusader Armor
  
• Arm - Radar
  
• Leg - Bucephalus
  
• Accessory - Veritas Lux Mea

• Weapon - Ballista
  
• Head - Crystal Tiara
  
• Chest - Crusader Armor
  
• Arm - Radar
  
• Leg - Bucephalus
  
• Accessory - Veritas Lux Mea

• Weapon - Fang Mace
  
• Head - Imperial Burgonet
  
• Chest - Commander's Armor
  
• Arm - Draupnir
  
• Leg - EOD Boots
  
• Accessory - Schrodinger's Box

• Weapon - Fuhma Shuriken
  
• Head - Crystal Tiara
  
• Chest - Optical Camouflage Suit
  
• Arm - Draupnir
  
• Leg - Bucephalus
  
• Accessory - Schrodinger's Box

If you forget what this armor actually does, you can check out our official gamepedia for more!