https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgoLy4uaCp4

On Friday, Phil, Elliot and Dan revealed the first details on EV2 and talked about our new "mid-milestone" update coming in April: the Unholy Catacombs!

• Series EV2: Her core fantasy is based all around her gun.
  
• Series EV2 Lore:
  
  • Matured mentally from DD1 but not physically
    
  • Grew apart from the four original heroes
    
  • Left to join the Talon Guard
    
  • Severely damaged, original chassis shattered
    
  • Sought out her creator
    
  • Has now returned with a new body
• Series EV2 Node Defenses:
  
  • In DD1, you connected point A to point B with nodes. The length of the line determined how much DU it cost.
    
  • In DD2, you can connect point A to B to C and on and on.
• Series EV2 Pickup Defenses:
  
  • Using defense mana, EV2 can create pickups with defense mana that give attachments to her gun. Think of these like gun pickups in arena shooters.
• Series EV2 Arm Cannon:
  
  • Uses canisters based on the different weapon types in the game. When a weapon drops and it’s for EV2, it’ll turn into a canister. Each canister type changes her primary attack and secondary attack based on the weapon type, so for example a Sword Canister will give EV2 more up-close-and-personal attacks. EV2’s eyes and canister color will change depending on the canister type used.

• First, what is a mid-milestone update? Our major patches (like Calling All Heroes) are called milestone updates. These happen usually every 6-8 weeks. We’re experimenting with putting out a smaller update with a little bit of content in the middle of a milestone to give you something to do while you wait for the larger updates.
  
• Contains:
  
  • The Unholy Catacombs map (our remake of DD1’s Foundries & Forges)
    
  • Spectral Knight Incursion
    
  • Unique Map Drop: Claymore of Unholy Fire Squire Sword. Unique Legendary item that adds a flamethrower to the Squire shield block and adds a chance to oil enemies (so you could activate the Ignite combo)! This sword has multiple variables that can roll in a wide range, including the iPWR (rolls up to 750), the cone angle, the range, the amount of damage it deals and the chance to oil. The idea is to bring back the DD1 mentality of having maps with unique drops that you can farm to find the best of the best and that there’s more than just iPWR differences between the different variations of the sword.
    
  • Unique Map Drop: iPWR 750 Chest Piece. Drops for any hero.
    
  • Hero slots will be purchasable for 2,000 Defender Medals
    
  • Storm Elemental Variant Monk Costume

• Gun Witch officially wins the Influence Vote!
  
  • Soon, you'll get to pick the hero after the Gun Witch.
    
  • Gun Witch uses a new weapon type. Still figuring out the name, but we're calling them Gun-Brooms. If you have a name suggestion, please tell us in the comments!
• We had our first Weekend Event: Mission Madness! Last weekend, you could get a Daily Mission every 8 hours. If you liked it, please let us know.
  
• New Enemy: Siege Tank: A new slow moving, long-range enemy that fires rockets at the core and at players. Crushes defenses that get in its way including traps. Has a weak spot in the back that, when a player starts to shoot it, will cause the Tank to focus on that player.
  
• Abyss Lord is now 10,000 medals. If you haven't earned him yet, now's the perfect time to get him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgoLy4uaCp4

On Friday, Phil, Elliot and Dan revealed the first details on EV2 and talked about our new "mid-milestone" update coming in April: the Unholy Catacombs!

• Series EV2: Her core fantasy is based all around her gun.
  
• Series EV2 Lore:
  
  • Matured mentally from DD1 but not physically
    
  • Grew apart from the four original heroes
    
  • Left to join the Talon Guard
    
  • Severely damaged, original chassis shattered
    
  • Sought out her creator
    
  • Has now returned with a new body
• Series EV2 Node Defenses:
  
  • In DD1, you connected point A to point B with nodes. The length of the line determined how much DU it cost.
    
  • In DD2, you can connect point A to B to C and on and on.
• Series EV2 Pickup Defenses:
  
  • Using defense mana, EV2 can create pickups with defense mana that give attachments to her gun. Think of these like gun pickups in arena shooters.
• Series EV2 Arm Cannon:
  
  • Uses canisters based on the different weapon types in the game. When a weapon drops and it’s for EV2, it’ll turn into a canister. Each canister type changes her primary attack and secondary attack based on the weapon type, so for example a Sword Canister will give EV2 more up-close-and-personal attacks. EV2’s eyes and canister color will change depending on the canister type used.

• First, what is a mid-milestone update? Our major patches (like Calling All Heroes) are called milestone updates. These happen usually every 6-8 weeks. We’re experimenting with putting out a smaller update with a little bit of content in the middle of a milestone to give you something to do while you wait for the larger updates.
  
• Contains:
  
  • The Unholy Catacombs map (our remake of DD1’s Foundries & Forges)
    
  • Spectral Knight Incursion
    
  • Unique Map Drop: Claymore of Unholy Fire Squire Sword. Unique Legendary item that adds a flamethrower to the Squire shield block and adds a chance to oil enemies (so you could activate the Ignite combo)! This sword has multiple variables that can roll in a wide range, including the iPWR (rolls up to 750), the cone angle, the range, the amount of damage it deals and the chance to oil. The idea is to bring back the DD1 mentality of having maps with unique drops that you can farm to find the best of the best and that there’s more than just iPWR differences between the different variations of the sword.
    
  • Unique Map Drop: iPWR 750 Chest Piece. Drops for any hero.
    
  • Hero slots will be purchasable for 2,000 Defender Medals
    
  • Storm Elemental Variant Monk Costume

• Gun Witch officially wins the Influence Vote!
  
  • Soon, you'll get to pick the hero after the Gun Witch.
    
  • Gun Witch uses a new weapon type. Still figuring out the name, but we're calling them Gun-Brooms. If you have a name suggestion, please tell us in the comments!
• We had our first Weekend Event: Mission Madness! Last weekend, you could get a Daily Mission every 8 hours. If you liked it, please let us know.
  
• New Enemy: Siege Tank: A new slow moving, long-range enemy that fires rockets at the core and at players. Crushes defenses that get in its way including traps. Has a weak spot in the back that, when a player starts to shoot it, will cause the Tank to focus on that player.
  
• Abyss Lord is now 10,000 medals. If you haven't earned him yet, now's the perfect time to get him.

It’s official: Gun Witch wins! She’ll join the game after the arrival of Series EV2. With every round combined, the New Hero Vote was our largest Influence Vote yet with more than 250,000 points cast. Here’s the final point tally!

1. Gun Witch: 117,116
   
2. Lavamancer: 85,381
   
3. Barbarian: 52,401

Also, tune in to the Devstream tomorrow at 5PM EDT on our TrendyEnt channel! This week, we’re showing a sneak peek at Series EV2 and giving away Molten Master costumes!

Siege Tank kicked off today. Woot! Already rigged! Check out the cool model Jordan cranked out in like a day. (Screenshot below)


Quote of the week. “I give you tank!” - Jordan Kerbow (famous artist)

Gun Witch design done, dusted, and kicked off. John’s getting started on some of her cool gun-broom snipes and fully auto-shots, moves, polymorphs, and other aerial magic and gun-broom toting stuff. Dan and Derek are cranking on EV2 so we can play her soon. She has some cool new mechanics evolved from the original and some brand new things no other hero has. (Think 3D printer plus Big GUNs) Abe and John knocked out her animations last month. I’m so happy she has a MEGADEATH Laser. (Good band) I think we’re going to show off some of her stuff in this week’s Devstream. Phil, did I reveal too much? Crap. Sorry, got excited.

We have the scope on the next series of feature releases and improvements laid out and you’ll be jammed to know we have a kick butt design development schedule and multiple module plan from Dan and Brys for the new Game Browser! YES. You’ll be able to see matches in a list, create games with names, filter, and see details, all the stuff you need to play the kind of game you want, even multiple maps! It’ll be a few phases to do it all, but I think it will make playing DD2 much better. The War Table from last year is cool so we’re working from that as a base, but it always bugged us not knowing what games are going so we can join one!

Of course, we blend all that stuff with more heroes, cooler UIs, tons of fixes, improvements, and on-going live gameificationages. Don’t forget next release is PC+PS4 all in one!

Another week of plenty. Working with Brys on the Game Browser matchmaking redesign. Working also on the Lavamancer design for the future, helping out with the Gun Witch and working with Collins to try and plan out a cool new thing for the DD1 maps we’ve been showing all of you. Pretty sure I’ll be going dark and focusing in on wrapping up EV2 and making sure she is ready to go, for the time being, just a bunch of theoretical design planning and miscellaneous stuff.

I got so many hotfixes I had to put ‘em on sale just to clear space on the show floor for next milestone inventory. But seriously folks, we got PS4 hotfixes and milestone planning going on right now and PC hot-fixing and discussions about defender medals among other things happening left and right at Trendy this week. It’s going to be an exciting couple weeks in Etheria with all the things we have in store for you.

New week and new level on its way! Expect a hot, very hot level with really high temperatures near the core.

It's time for another DD1 remake level! Currently blocking out the entire level by adding basic geometry such as walls, ceilings and floors. As promised in the last Dev Log, here is a work-in-progress shot of the new level.



We finally have a plan of everything that’s going into the next few releases, which is a big relief for all of production. Our major beats are the DD1 map releases along with new Heroes. We’re continually working on the strategic revamp as well as a matchmaking overhaul, but those are on a longer timeline for completion.

This past week involved herding our developers into rooms to get detailed breakdowns of the work involved for every step of the process. I’m coordinating with RQA to get playtest builds of the strategic revamp into their hands for feedback. Those are the major beats that are probably more interesting to hear about. Other non-player facing development beats this week includes managing the various feature branches so that we don’t lose work.

So we’ve been working on the remake of the Foundries & Forges map from DD1, getting it ready for release. Still some issues to hammer out, but it seems to be on track for release. (Not sure when that is. Or do I???)

Other than that, we’re finishing our hotfix builds as they come in and we’re getting to start up on more content for the next release. We’re also planning for all the new major update stuff including EV2. Although most of us wish we could go straight to Gun Witch!

I just want to thank each of our amazing community members for helping us test, balance, tune and bughunt our last major update. The new UI and the Abyss Lord are much better thanks to your playtesting, feedback and ongoing contributions. The gates will be opening for new testers and those on the waiting list very soon.

It’s official: Gun Witch wins! She’ll join the game after the arrival of Series EV2. With every round combined, the New Hero Vote was our largest Influence Vote yet with more than 250,000 points cast. Here’s the final point tally!

1. Gun Witch: 117,116
   
2. Lavamancer: 85,381
   
3. Barbarian: 52,401

Also, tune in to the Devstream tomorrow at 5PM EDT on our TrendyEnt channel! This week, we’re showing a sneak peek at Series EV2 and giving away Molten Master costumes!

Siege Tank kicked off today. Woot! Already rigged! Check out the cool model Jordan cranked out in like a day. (Screenshot below)


Quote of the week. “I give you tank!” - Jordan Kerbow (famous artist)

Gun Witch design done, dusted, and kicked off. John’s getting started on some of her cool gun-broom snipes and fully auto-shots, moves, polymorphs, and other aerial magic and gun-broom toting stuff. Dan and Derek are cranking on EV2 so we can play her soon. She has some cool new mechanics evolved from the original and some brand new things no other hero has. (Think 3D printer plus Big GUNs) Abe and John knocked out her animations last month. I’m so happy she has a MEGADEATH Laser. (Good band) I think we’re going to show off some of her stuff in this week’s Devstream. Phil, did I reveal too much? Crap. Sorry, got excited.

We have the scope on the next series of feature releases and improvements laid out and you’ll be jammed to know we have a kick butt design development schedule and multiple module plan from Dan and Brys for the new Game Browser! YES. You’ll be able to see matches in a list, create games with names, filter, and see details, all the stuff you need to play the kind of game you want, even multiple maps! It’ll be a few phases to do it all, but I think it will make playing DD2 much better. The War Table from last year is cool so we’re working from that as a base, but it always bugged us not knowing what games are going so we can join one!

Of course, we blend all that stuff with more heroes, cooler UIs, tons of fixes, improvements, and on-going live gameificationages. Don’t forget next release is PC+PS4 all in one!

Another week of plenty. Working with Brys on the Game Browser matchmaking redesign. Working also on the Lavamancer design for the future, helping out with the Gun Witch and working with Collins to try and plan out a cool new thing for the DD1 maps we’ve been showing all of you. Pretty sure I’ll be going dark and focusing in on wrapping up EV2 and making sure she is ready to go, for the time being, just a bunch of theoretical design planning and miscellaneous stuff.

I got so many hotfixes I had to put ‘em on sale just to clear space on the show floor for next milestone inventory. But seriously folks, we got PS4 hotfixes and milestone planning going on right now and PC hot-fixing and discussions about defender medals among other things happening left and right at Trendy this week. It’s going to be an exciting couple weeks in Etheria with all the things we have in store for you.

New week and new level on its way! Expect a hot, very hot level with really high temperatures near the core.

It's time for another DD1 remake level! Currently blocking out the entire level by adding basic geometry such as walls, ceilings and floors. As promised in the last Dev Log, here is a work-in-progress shot of the new level.



We finally have a plan of everything that’s going into the next few releases, which is a big relief for all of production. Our major beats are the DD1 map releases along with new Heroes. We’re continually working on the strategic revamp as well as a matchmaking overhaul, but those are on a longer timeline for completion.

This past week involved herding our developers into rooms to get detailed breakdowns of the work involved for every step of the process. I’m coordinating with RQA to get playtest builds of the strategic revamp into their hands for feedback. Those are the major beats that are probably more interesting to hear about. Other non-player facing development beats this week includes managing the various feature branches so that we don’t lose work.

So we’ve been working on the remake of the Foundries & Forges map from DD1, getting it ready for release. Still some issues to hammer out, but it seems to be on track for release. (Not sure when that is. Or do I???)

Other than that, we’re finishing our hotfix builds as they come in and we’re getting to start up on more content for the next release. We’re also planning for all the new major update stuff including EV2. Although most of us wish we could go straight to Gun Witch!

I just want to thank each of our amazing community members for helping us test, balance, tune and bughunt our last major update. The new UI and the Abyss Lord are much better thanks to your playtesting, feedback and ongoing contributions. The gates will be opening for new testers and those on the waiting list very soon.

• Playing/losing Nightmare Onslaught no longer causes lower difficulties to drop Nightmare iPWR.
  
• Dragging heroes into the Hero Deck to replace the active hero no longer removes the active hero's passives and Skill Spheres from towers.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Abyss Lord’s Skill Sphere could be purchased with gold instead of Defender Medals.
  
• Fixed a bug where changing Skill Spheres and then pulling the hero out of the Hero Deck and replacing it without transitioning would not change the Skill Sphere visuals.
  
• Abyss Lord can now equip the carnival masks.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Boulder pet ability.
  
• Fixed a bug where selecting an Onslaught reward before the "Waiting for more players" timer finished caused players to gain a reward before the start of the first round.
  
• Fixed the issue where the Abyss Lord bundle cost would appear incorrect from time to time. The bundle costs 2,000 gems, not 2,500 gems.
  
• Added spawn SFX to the Abyss Stone ability.
  
• Added enemy impact SFX to the Skeletal Ramster’s attack.
  
• Added enemy impact SFX to the Abyss Knight ability.

• Playing/losing Nightmare Onslaught no longer causes lower difficulties to drop Nightmare iPWR.
  
• Dragging heroes into the Hero Deck to replace the active hero no longer removes the active hero's passives and Skill Spheres from towers.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Abyss Lord’s Skill Sphere could be purchased with gold instead of Defender Medals.
  
• Fixed a bug where changing Skill Spheres and then pulling the hero out of the Hero Deck and replacing it without transitioning would not change the Skill Sphere visuals.
  
• Abyss Lord can now equip the carnival masks.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Boulder pet ability.
  
• Fixed a bug where selecting an Onslaught reward before the "Waiting for more players" timer finished caused players to gain a reward before the start of the first round.
  
• Fixed the issue where the Abyss Lord bundle cost would appear incorrect from time to time. The bundle costs 2,000 gems, not 2,500 gems.
  
• Added spawn SFX to the Abyss Stone ability.
  
• Added enemy impact SFX to the Skeletal Ramster’s attack.
  
• Added enemy impact SFX to the Abyss Knight ability.

The second round of our New Hero Vote is underway! This vote is between the Lavamancer and the Barbarian. So far, we’re on track to surpass the first vote in total points invested. Remember: It’s about how many points a hero has after all three rounds, so it ain’t over ‘til it’s over! Go vote!

Also: All of our new heroes will be 12,000 Medals for two weeks only. After two weeks, the Defender Medal cost will go down to 10,000 Medals. :D

P.S. Next Devstream is on April 15th!



Abyss Lord! One down another 100 to go! I’m super proud of the team for shipping our first new hero! This is a huge accomplishment, especially after having to streamline the studio, the nasty water flood, plus getting PS4 caught up to the Dragonfall Carnival. We did not really get started until February 16th or so. This is our first stab at the UI Hero Deck improvements since we pitched it on December 20th. Like anything new, it’ll take lots of refinement and constant improvement to get perfect, but it’s a great start and a lot dev team members worked very, very, very, hard on their piece of the big thing to make it cool.

We have unsung heroes in house and remote who don’t always appear here in our dev logs. QA testers, artists, programmers, our one IT dude, Ice (he calls it a department) all of which are either making awesome new stuff or fixing/tracking down complicated issues that would make Einstein’s nose blow a gasket. General Patton once said, "The soldier is the army." It’s true. Here’s a shout out to ALL the Dungeon Defenders II dev team members here for winning this first battle. I’m proud of ya.

I’m stoked so many of you are using hero swapping in combat in cool ways and loving what I’m seeing on streams. Remember, this is a live game. We have a mega-ton of more things to do, fix up, improve, add, and refine. We’re just really getting started. Please keep the feedback coming. Feedback does not have to be happy-happy joy-joy, but feedback driven by a passion for FUN gaming is super motivating for us. We may be a small studio, but we really want the game to be cool for you. That’s why we do this job to be honest.

We’re honing in on the details coming for the next milestone. EV2 is already animated! I just finished playing the Unholy Catacombs map (Foundries & Forges) in Steve’s playtest, and I love the layout and limited visibility. We have plans for a nasty tank, a cool new over-the-top monk costume, a new thematic weapon, more UI updates and improvements, the strategic refactor (This is a BIG one!), the next hero, skill spheres coolification, enchantment awesominjectioness. TONS of stuff! We’re making sure to stage stuff out and want to do so we can get a release to you guys really soon. We know it was a long one since the Dragonfall Carnival, so know that we agree.

We’re watching the New Hero Influence votes like a hawk. Don’t forget that’s a multi-round thing so every vote along the way adds towards the final tally. Long one from me. Check out ‏Elandrian’s picture he drew. Mad Skillz.



Patches and hotfixes… patches and hotfixes… I’ve been trying to stay out in front of issues on the Carnival Update for PS4. We have a hotfix coming out early next week that should fix some of the most egregious issues. Other than that we’re just starting in on MS22 planning and development.

PC side, the Live Team is doing its thing and squashing bugs and patching problems. Expect more in the coming weeks!

Aw snap! Carnival going down on PS4 and Abyss Lord Shenanigans on PC. Tons of cool things incoming. It’s really awesome to see everyone having fun experimenting with new builds with their new-found resistance freedom.

So finally we are gladly to say that Glitterhelm remake level is coming to its end this week! (In terms of world building.) We’re ensuring it comes with a bunch of skulls, bones, cobwebs and more nightmarish stuff! Also we have some really cool plans for the next two levels. Really excited about them!





Like Daniel said, we are almost done with the Glitterhelm level. Just adding now some nice touches!

Hopefully next week we’ll share with you some pics of what could be the next level!

Glad to see people having fun with the Abyss Lord. Now on to the next one.

The second round of our New Hero Vote is underway! This vote is between the Lavamancer and the Barbarian. So far, we’re on track to surpass the first vote in total points invested. Remember: It’s about how many points a hero has after all three rounds, so it ain’t over ‘til it’s over! Go vote!

Also: All of our new heroes will be 12,000 Medals for two weeks only. After two weeks, the Defender Medal cost will go down to 10,000 Medals. :D

P.S. Next Devstream is on April 15th!



Abyss Lord! One down another 100 to go! I’m super proud of the team for shipping our first new hero! This is a huge accomplishment, especially after having to streamline the studio, the nasty water flood, plus getting PS4 caught up to the Dragonfall Carnival. We did not really get started until February 16th or so. This is our first stab at the UI Hero Deck improvements since we pitched it on December 20th. Like anything new, it’ll take lots of refinement and constant improvement to get perfect, but it’s a great start and a lot dev team members worked very, very, very, hard on their piece of the big thing to make it cool.

We have unsung heroes in house and remote who don’t always appear here in our dev logs. QA testers, artists, programmers, our one IT dude, Ice (he calls it a department) all of which are either making awesome new stuff or fixing/tracking down complicated issues that would make Einstein’s nose blow a gasket. General Patton once said, "The soldier is the army." It’s true. Here’s a shout out to ALL the Dungeon Defenders II dev team members here for winning this first battle. I’m proud of ya.

I’m stoked so many of you are using hero swapping in combat in cool ways and loving what I’m seeing on streams. Remember, this is a live game. We have a mega-ton of more things to do, fix up, improve, add, and refine. We’re just really getting started. Please keep the feedback coming. Feedback does not have to be happy-happy joy-joy, but feedback driven by a passion for FUN gaming is super motivating for us. We may be a small studio, but we really want the game to be cool for you. That’s why we do this job to be honest.

We’re honing in on the details coming for the next milestone. EV2 is already animated! I just finished playing the Unholy Catacombs map (Foundries & Forges) in Steve’s playtest, and I love the layout and limited visibility. We have plans for a nasty tank, a cool new over-the-top monk costume, a new thematic weapon, more UI updates and improvements, the strategic refactor (This is a BIG one!), the next hero, skill spheres coolification, enchantment awesominjectioness. TONS of stuff! We’re making sure to stage stuff out and want to do so we can get a release to you guys really soon. We know it was a long one since the Dragonfall Carnival, so know that we agree.

We’re watching the New Hero Influence votes like a hawk. Don’t forget that’s a multi-round thing so every vote along the way adds towards the final tally. Long one from me. Check out ‏Elandrian’s picture he drew. Mad Skillz.



Patches and hotfixes… patches and hotfixes… I’ve been trying to stay out in front of issues on the Carnival Update for PS4. We have a hotfix coming out early next week that should fix some of the most egregious issues. Other than that we’re just starting in on MS22 planning and development.

PC side, the Live Team is doing its thing and squashing bugs and patching problems. Expect more in the coming weeks!

Aw snap! Carnival going down on PS4 and Abyss Lord Shenanigans on PC. Tons of cool things incoming. It’s really awesome to see everyone having fun experimenting with new builds with their new-found resistance freedom.

So finally we are gladly to say that Glitterhelm remake level is coming to its end this week! (In terms of world building.) We’re ensuring it comes with a bunch of skulls, bones, cobwebs and more nightmarish stuff! Also we have some really cool plans for the next two levels. Really excited about them!





Like Daniel said, we are almost done with the Glitterhelm level. Just adding now some nice touches!

Hopefully next week we’ll share with you some pics of what could be the next level!

Glad to see people having fun with the Abyss Lord. Now on to the next one.

Thanks for the feedback on Tuesday's big update! If you see a bug, please report it to the Tavernkeep in-game or through our Bug Reporting form. :)

Here's the note for today's hotfix:

• Fixed a bug where some people were able to purchase items for gold instead of Defender Medals.

Love,
The Trendy Team

Thanks for the feedback on Tuesday's big update! If you see a bug, please report it to the Tavernkeep in-game or through our Bug Reporting form. :)

Here's the note for today's hotfix:

• Fixed a bug where some people were able to purchase items for gold instead of Defender Medals.

Love,
The Trendy Team