The November Maintenance Update is here! If you haven’t already seen the trailer, it’ll give you a good overview of everything that’s coming in this update (formally known as Patch S04.10). We’ll post that here, and you’ll find the full patch notes and all the details down below.



We’ve added the ability to opt out of Season content, for those of you that want to put your game into a ‘season neutral’ state.

To unlock this ability, you need to reach level 100 in the Performance Pass, and claim the level 100 reward. After you do that, a check box option will become available in the Season Terminal interface.

If you uncheck that box, here’s what happens:

• The Lithophage Corruption Zone will disappear from the map in your Mission Terminal.
  
• The chance of encountering Lithophage Outbreak Warnings on the map will become equal to other mission Warnings (like Rival Presence or Elite Threat, for example)
  
• Rockpox enemy waves will not spawn outside of Lithophage Warnings and Events
  
• The chance of Meteor Strike & Lithophage Corruptor events will become equal to previous season events (like the Rival Prospector)

Put simply, this option makes all Lithophage-related content as common as the Rival content currently is in the game. Doing this will also make it harder to obtain Plague Hearts and complete some Season Challenges, as these depend on Lithophage enemies and infestations. Keep in mind that when joining a lobby, it’s the host’s own season toggle setting that will apply to the session.

This function is completely optional, and you can always turn it on or off whenever you like. We plan on keeping this feature for all future seasons.




You’ll find a new tab in your Season Terminal: the Weapon Maintenance section. This is a bit of new content, meant to track and reward proficiency with the weapons in the DRG arsenal.

The Weapon Maintenance screen tracks your experience with each gun in the game. Once you earn enough XP with a specific weapon equipped (counting toward both your primary and secondary in any mission), you’ll unlock exclusive paint jobs for that gun!

We’re starting with four paintjobs to unlock, one for each season we’ve done so far.
These new Weapon Mastery color schemes are:

1. WM1 'Yellowjacket'
   
2. WM2 'Cobalt Crackle'
   
3. WM3 'Heroic'
   
4. WM4 'Grasshopper

This is going to be a seasonal feature, so with every new season in the future, there’ll be a special paintjob you can earn for every weapon. And these are never going to be season-locked – so you can always earn them for every gun, even if you don’t manage it before the next season rolls around.



Rockpox boils:
- Reduced the infection range when popping a boil
- Fixed the infection not stacking properly when popping multiple boils at once
- Reduced the amount of infection from popping a single boil

Rockpox infection buildup:
- Shortened the delay before infection levels begin to drop
- Increased the infection reduction rate
- Reduced the time it takes to break out when being held by Rockpox
- Fixed the post-breakout infection immunity window not working properly
- Made the player infection buildup stop faster when players leave the source
- Fixed a bug that caused Rockpox buildup to never end
- Fixed a bug that caused Rockpox Exploders to not be feared by Litho-Foam
- Fixed players taking an extra tick of damage from the Rockpox immediately after breaking out

Rockpox Corruptor:
- Improved the visibility of the stomp attack ‘tell’ particles
- Made it so that the spike attack 'tell' now shows the direction of attack
- Reduced the max movement speed
- Improved health bar damage feedback when hitting the vulnerable parts



General:
- Improved the Septic Spreader's shot prediction, so it hits ceilings and other obstructions less often
- You can now shoot the Septic Spreader's projectiles out of the air
- Converted some of the Mactera Frost Bomber’s snowball projectile damage to ice damage
- Made the Glyphid Frost Praetorian do a little bit of damage with its ice breath attack

Stingtail:
- Increased the cooldown of the grab attack slightly
- Added a significant cooldown after a successful grab attack
- Reduced the range of the grab attack
- Tweaked the base HP and added multiple damage weaknesses and resistances to improve breakpoints
- Removed health scaling by player count
- Fixed its horns not blocking damage
- Improved the collision on the "mouth" weak point, making it easier to hit
- Made the glowy armor bits glow more to improve visibility
- Tweaked the spawn values to prevent too many of them at once

New electrocution mechanics:We updated the electrocution system to use the newer slowdown method, which allows enemies like the Dreadnoughts or Oppressor (who previously resisted electrocution completely) to instead partially resist and reduce the slowdown effect of electrocution while still taking damage from the DoT effect. In short, you can now electrocute these enemies. Zap!



As always, any removed upgrades will have their cost automatically refunded. This also applies to the Necro-Thermal Catalyst upgrade for the Coil Gun, as we had to completely rebuild it.

Breach Cutter High Voltage Crossover OC:
- Extended the duration of the electrocution effect from 4s to 5s

Breach Cutter Roll Control OC:
- Significantly increased the spin rate
- Added a lifetime bonus
- Projectile can now be steered while holding down the trigger
- Releasing the trigger no longer stops rotation, just releases steering control

Boomstick Shaped Shells OC:
- Further tightened up the horizontal spread so now the grouping is symmetrical
- The crosshair now changes with this OC to reflect the spread change

LOK-1 Smart Rifle (base weapon traits):
- Fixed the input buffer not working properly when shooting manually
- Reduced the manual rate of fire of the LOK-1 now that it has a functioning input buffer, as the original value was high to compensate for the inconsistent firing.

ArmsKore Coil Gun (base weapon traits):
- Removed all randomness from the trail damage to get more consistency
- Increased the bonus radius of the T5 Dilated Injector upgrade from +0.5 to +1
- Made it so the base trail DoT effect can now stack
- Increased the maximum damage bonus from Overcharger from 32 to 100
- Added a damage bonus vs. burning targets on the T5 Necro Thermal Catalyst upgrade
- Increased the explosion radius of the T5 Necro Thermal Catalyst upgrade from 400 to 600 while reducing the damage from 140 to 80, and changed it to pure fire damage to better set enemies on fire and chain the effect
- Replaced the T2 reload speed upgrade with the T1 recharge speed upgrade, and moved some of the reload speed bonus to the base weapon
- Replaced the T1 charge speed upgrade with a new trail duration upgrade

Coil Gun Hellfire OC:- Removed the trail width bonus

Coil Gun Triple Tech OC:- Increased the damage dealt by the secondary shots from 0.5 to 0.75 (did not increase shot cost)

Coil Gun Backfeeding Module OC:- Replaced the damage penalty with a trail duration penalty

"Stubby" Voltaic SMG (base weapon traits):- Reduced the base recoil slightly
- Reduced the bonus of the T2 recoil upgrade
- Increased the bonuses of the two damage upgrades
- Slightly reduced the bonus of the Hollow-Point Bullets upgrade
- Slightly reduced the bonus of the Conductive Bullets upgrade
- Added an armor breaking upgrade to T4
- Added an accuracy upgrade to T5
- Slightly reduced the accuracy penalty when walking and sprinting

SMG Turret EM Discharge OC:- Removed friendly damage entirely
- Removed damage falloff
- Added a range indicator (visible only to player with the OC) that appears around every turret when the SMG is equipped

SMG Turret Arc OC:- Significantly reduced the rate of friendly fire damage
- Completely removed the friendly fire from the AoE electrocution effect around any turret affected by Turret Arc
- Updated Turret Arc particles to better match the actual AoE radius
- Slightly increased the trigger size for the electric arc
- Added a short tail to the DoT to do a bit more damage to enemies that manage to quickly go through the arc
- Added a visual arc range indicator when placing turrets (only if you have the OC equipped)



- Added equipment loadout slot icons, so you can now use the mission type icons as a loadout icon
- Added more light reflection to the walls of Azure Weald and Hollow Bough to make it a little easier to see what’s going on
- Merch menu: New URL to the board game expansion entry (now links to the backer kit instead of the now-inactive Kickstarter page)
- Info landing screen: removed link to board game merch
- You can no longer activate the Jetty Boots Arcade in the Space Rig while holding an item
- Added Bloom and Lens Flare settings in the graphics options (you're welcome, J.J. Abrams)
- Added a Weapon Sway slider in the accessibility options
- Added a “Hold to Breakout” toggle in the accessibility options, for simpler Rockpox escapes
- Changed the trigger shape of all enemy-produced "puddles" (such as from Goo Bombers and Septic Spreaders) to better match the graphics and to make it easier to cover them with Engineer's platforms.



- Fixed not being able to grab Gunk Seeds while in the air (this was 98% of the whole update)
- Made it so the Full Fluffy beard no longer erases your sideburns
- Fixed a bug that caused Proximity Mines to put the player into a different character state when they pick them up
- Fixed that the +1 Satchel Charge upgrades did not work
- Sentry Gun ammo count now rounds up when resupplied
- Fixed issue with Driller not getting full Satchel Charges with resupplies
- Fixed beers getting a refill if you enter 3rd person (company policy is no free refills)
- Fixed a bug that caused Rockpox immunity after being knocked out
- Fixed a bug that caused a fizz sound to linger in empty beer mugs
- Fixed a bug that caused clients to get the promotion voice line when the host reached level 25
- Fixed incorrect Mission Control voicelines on Salvage Operations
- Fixed throwable items on the Space Rig (like snowballs) getting stuck in the carry animation if you threw them right before you entered 3rd person
- Fixed M1000 focus shot status effects not being applied to certain targets (e.g. Loot Bugs)
- Fixed Gamma Contamination (Wave Cooker OC) not working if you hit armor
- Fixed Mission Control shouting the wrong voice line when all pipelines are constructed
- Fixed a visual bug that made it look like the Dreadnought Twins could twin-heal with the Unknown Horror
- Fixed Q'ronar Shellback + Younglings briefly going into their reference pose (T-pose) when killed by fire, corrosive, Wave Cooker, or chemical explosion (from the Boltshark) before dying
- Fixed Hiveguard continuing its behavior after death
- Added a failsafe so that Fuel Cells dropping on top of the Uplink won't softlock the game
- Fixed a bug that made it so Salvage Mission fuel lines and Rock Cracker cables could be “split” or broken, which caused a softlock of the mission
- Fixed that the dwarves’ thick, magnificent necks were clipping through the Shock Trooper and Tech Trooper helmets
- Added a safety timer that will force the Hiveguard to spawn the Sentinels after a certain time has passed
- Fixed 5th Anniversary hat getting the color of the last hat you equipped
- Potential fix for Boltshark's ammo being weird in Deep Dives (hopefully not weird now)
- Potential fix for ammo not transferring between levels in Deep Dive (for turrets, shield, Satchel Charge and Boltshark bolts)
- Also tried to fix the Boltshark getting stuck in a state where it can't reload on 2nd level of Deep Dives
- Fixed Lederhosen first-person hands/gloves not looking right (now they’re Betterhosen)
- Reduced the range a Rock Cracker pod needs from another one, and improved fail-safe if the pods can't spawn
- Fixed Wave Cooker not properly gaining heat when spam-clicking
- Flare Gun’s flare sound now properly fades away when the flare burns out
- Clients now always see the same Mission Map as the host
- Fixed lingering ambient audio after leaving Deep Dive Terminal
- Fixed a bug where the Terrain Scanner would not get unequipped when the player stopped holding the button
- Fixed an equivalent bug for the Laser Pointer
- Fixed an issue for both the Laser Pointer and the Terrain Scanner when trying to use these items while holding something else
- Fixed bug where Boltshark bolts would stick to player when having the Bodkin Points OC equipped
- Added entry to Miner’s Manual for the Jetty Boot arcade game
- Slightly reduced the chance of the smol meteor event
- Fixed a bug where the Terrain Scanner would slide off the screen without the player releasing the button on high latency clients
- Changed the Terrain Scanner slide-on-screen animation so it no longer resets every time the player releases and holds the button
- Fixed an animation bug that caused the dwarf to move the weapon towards the center of the screen while walking, and view bobbing was not at maximum setting
- Improved EMP discharge indicator flow
- Fixed Cave Leeches’ hissing being too low quiet
- Fixed issue where Boltshark bolts that are shot at other projectiles get stuck in midair
- Sentry Turrets now turn off range indicators when dismantling themselves
- Tweaked escape menu to better fit non-English languages
- Fixed issue with perk equipper layout being weird in the Equipment Terminal
- Fixed issue where accuracy penalties when moving and sprinting were not always being applied



- Fixed some typos





Phew, that's everything! Hope you like it. :)
Have fun out there, be safe, and Rock and Stone!

With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

The witching hour is upon us. Hoxxes Halloween 2023 is officially here! It's the spooky season of thrills, chills and drills. Management warns all employees to ignore any superstitious rumors floating about the Space Rig -- we don't want this ghost malarkey getting in the way of a hard day's work.

Here are the horrors that await you:

• Earn the new Mad Cap Clown mask, and transport your dwarf to the carnival of carnage
  
• Snag all the masks and hats from previous Halloweens through the Last Year's Horrors assignment
  
• Blast the shrieking skulls haunting the caves of Hoxxes, and deposit these cursed craniums for a double mission performance point bonus
  
• Kick some pumpkins, get bit by bats and catch a fright from the spooky Space Rig decorations

Fan artwork by the talented @Genn_pacc -- used with permission <3

The this haunted holiday runs until Thursday, November 9th (13:00 CET), so make sure you get your ghoulish goodies before then.

Have fun! And remember, don't ever feed Steeve after midnight.

With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

November’s just around the corner, which means it’s almost time for the first maintenance update that we mentioned in our recent roadmap. We wanted to give you a quick overview of what we’re focusing on, just so you know what to expect.

Among smaller tweaks and fixes, we’ll be using this to introduce two bigger features: the first being a toggle option for seasonal content like Rockpox, and the second being a new Weapon Maintenance reward system.

Let’s take those two big ones first, and we’ll cover the rest down below.


We heard your concerns about this season’s Lithophage events getting stale, so addressing that is our main focus for this update. We’ll be adding an optional check box at the end of the Performance Pass, for those of you that want to put your game into a ‘season-neutral’ state until Season 5 arrives.

Once you complete the Season 4 Performance Pass, you’ll have the option to disable seasonal content in Deep Rock Galactic. You can always switch it back on, of course.

If you uncheck that box, here’s what happens:

• The Lithophage Corruption Zone will disappear from the mission map.
  
• The chance of encountering Lithophage Outbreak Warnings will become equal to other warning conditions (like Rival Presence).
  
• Rockpox enemies will not spawn outside of Lithophage Warnings and Events.

Of course, doing this will make it harder to obtain Plague Hearts (as these come from Meteorite and Corruptor events), and it’ll also be harder to complete Lithophage Outbreak Season Challenges (as these require the Lithophage Outbreak Warning).

Again, all of this is completely optional, and you can always turn it back on.

The 'seasonal opt-out' check box becomes available once you complete the Season 4 Performance Pass.

Okay, we said these Maintenance Updates wouldn’t add any new content, but we've got a surprise for you. We’re introducing the Weapon Maintenance System to reward proficiency with different weapons, and give some extra shine to your favorite firearms. No tricky gameplay-specific gimmicks here, just a straightforward reward for playing with the guns you like best.

Once you earn enough XP with a specific weapon equipped, you’ll unlock a sweet new paintjob for that gun, so you can show your friends how much you love shooting.


The new Weapon Maintenance page, for tracking progress and cashing in on rewards.
This is going to be a seasonal feature, so with every new season in the future, there’ll be a special paintjob you can earn for every weapon.

We’re also making this retroactive – so when it launches in November, you’ll have four paintjobs to earn for each weapon (one for every season up to now).

The new Weapon Mastery color schemes are:

1. WM1 'Yellowjacket'
   
2. WM2 'Cobalt Crackle'
   
3. WM3 'Heroic'
   
4. WM4 'Grasshopper'

Weapons free, miners!


How the new paintjobs look on a couple different weapons and frameworks.

On top of these two features, we’ve got a number of other things we’re working on for this update. Here’s the rest of our to-do list:

• Nerfing the Stingtail. We’re increasing the cooldown on its grab attack, especially after a successful grab, so you won’t be getting yoinked all over the place as much. We’ll also be tweaking its health and elemental resistances so it’s less of a pain to take down solo.
  
• Making the Septic Spreader projectiles shoot-downable. I can't think of the right word for that so we're running with shoot-downable. You know what I mean.
  
• Rockpox mitigation. We’ve been looking at simple ways to make Rockpox effects less harsh, like making it easier to break out of when you’re stuck. Final tweaks still TBD here.
  
• Weapon & overclock balance tweaks. Just a bit of routine balancing for different weapons and overclocks. These are shaping up to be mostly buffs, so don’t worry about your favorite gun getting nerfed to bits.
  
• Bug fixes. There’s a sizable queue of bugs to address, but we’re still working out which ones are the highest priority for this update.
  
• Typo corrections. Nothing too special here, but figured we’d mention it anyway.

We’re still working on implementing all this, and we’re aiming to have everything finished for a mid-November release. When the update drops, we’ll share more about the specific balance tweaks, Rockpox reductions and bug fixes.

Thanks to everyone who’s shared their opinion on our plans for Deep Rock Galactic lately. We understand that all those feelings, from frustration to excitement, come from a place of passion. We’re glad you care enough about the game to weigh in. <3

Hope everybody’s doing well.
Rock and Stone!


With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

There’s a cruel wind howling in the depths below. The moon gives off a sinister glow, casting shadows that seem to reach for you, clawing at you. Steeve is barking into the darkness, like he senses something you don't.

This can only mean one thing: Halloween is coming to Hoxxes.

The seasonal spook-tacular will return on Thursday, October 26th (13:00 CET), and it runs until Thursday, November 9th (13:00 CET). Management would like to emphasize that mining operations aren’t ramping down because of any alleged hauntings, and that company insurance policies do not cover exorcisms.

What do this event and a bad chiropractor have in common? They’re both gonna send a tingle down your spine! [HOLD FOR LAUGHTER + APPLAUSE] Scroll down to see all the event details.



Do you hear that strange music? Show some wicked clown love with the new Mad Cap Clown mask, coming to you straight from the depths of the dark carnival. All you’ve got to do is complete the Halloween Party Special Assignment, and this frightening bit of fashion is yours forever. Nothing scares a Glyphid (or the FBI) more than an insane clown. Whoop whoop!

In case you were trapped in a coffin last Halloween, you can still earn those seasonal cosmetics from the past. Complete the Last Year’s Horrors Assignment and we’ll dump a bundle of old masks in your locker. Mission Control isn’t too happy about his likeness being used for a mask, but it’s not our fault he’s got that ghastly scowl.

We’re hearing reports of shrieking skulls flying through the caves of Hoxxes. Management doesn’t believe in ghosts, but we might be able to sell the processed bone meal -- so if you see any skulls, bag ‘em and bring ‘em home. Doing so will earn you (and your team) a double mission performance point bonus.

It’s hard for trick-or-treaters to make it to outer orbit, but if they get up here, the Space Rig is ready. You can expect loads of spooky decor, including frightful ghosts, loads of candles (the scary kind) and pumpkins aplenty. The Abyss Bar dance floor is also being converted into a haunted swamp, complete with fog and live bats! Management spent so much on candles that there wasn’t any budget left for rabies vaccines, so don’t startle the bats.

The haunt begins on October 26th at 13:00 CET. Hold onto your butts.

Rock and Stone!

With Love,
-The Spooky Ghost Ship Crew

If you didn’t catch the announcement on our Ghost Ship Publishing: On The Horizon live stream, here’s the big news:

Ghost Ship Games is working on a whole new game! It’s called Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2605790/Deep_Rock_Galactic_Rogue_Core/

We’re really excited about this.
At the same time, we understand that your first thought might be, “Dang, we’re never gonna see Season 5, are we?”

Totally understandable. We’ve been a little quiet about Deep Rock Galactic development for a while. So we figured it’s a good time to update the roadmap, talk about how we’re balancing our projects at Ghost Ship Games, and how we’ll communicate all that moving forward.

Let’s get straight to it: we’ve got good news and less-than-good news.

Good news: Season 5 is coming. Season 6 will happen after that.
Less-than-good news: These seasons aren’t coming as soon as any of us want. Right now, we’re expecting to have Season 5 out in June 2024.

The reason for this delay is, as you probably guessed, Rogue Core. We’ll talk more about that below (scroll down to the FAQ section). But let’s look at the roadmap first, and then we can cover the details after.




If you’re familiar with previous Deep Rock Galactic roadmaps, you’ll notice that the ‘maintenance updates’ are new for this one. These are going to be patches which primarily focus on tweaks and bug fixes. They’re not adding shiny new content, but they are making sure the game stays in good working order.

Maintenance updates may include things like:

• Bug fixes of every size and flavor
  
• Weapon balance changes
  
• Nerfs and/or buffs to enemies
  
• Typo corrections
  
• Optimizations to improve game performance

You shouldn't expect big juicy bundles of new content from these. We’ll save that for the coming Seasons, though they might feel far in the future right now. Until then, we promise we’re not going to neglect the game, or let it fall into disrepair. These maintenance updates aim to keep Deep Rock Galactic in good health, until we’re ready to keep working on new content.



Especially since it’ll be a while until we get more significant in-game content in Deep Rock Galactic, we want to double down on our communications, and to share more about what we’re working on.

We’re taking an open development approach with Rogue Core, where we launch as Early Access and provide plenty of behind-the-scenes peeks along the way. We’ve brought on a full-time writer (hi, it’s me Aaron, the guy writing this) to help us tell more stories that connect you with what we’re up to, and how we approach game development. This applies to Deep Rock Galactic, too.

That means we’ll be sharing a lot more about Season 5 development than we have with previous Seasons, so you’ll be able to follow along as it takes shape.

In the future, you can expect more:

• Developer diaries and sneak peeks
  
• Interviews with GSG crewmates
  
• Long reads about big ideas in game development
  
• A re-launch of the GSG Newsletter
  
• Glimpses into daily life in the GSG studios
  
• Other fun stuff that we’re still figuring out

You’ll find all that coming up here on the Steam blog, as well as the blog page for Rogue Core.



Why can’t you just work on both games at once?
In a perfect world, we’d continue full steam ahead on Deep Rock Galactic while developing Rogue Core at the same time. But we’ve only got so many helping hands on board, and only so many hours in the day.

Instead of trying to do a little bit of work on each game every day, we’d rather block out bigger chunks of time where we give one project our full attention. This might not be the fastest path, but we think it’s what will allow us to give you the best games we can possibly make.

What if you all just worked harder to make this stuff faster?
We don’t believe in crunching here. We want to work at a pace that ensures our whole team is happy and healthy, and where everyone has the time and space to have fun with their work. If we cranked it to 11 and went into mega-overdrive to rush all this out, we’d lose a lot of goofy ideas, cool hats and fun details along the way. To us, that’s the stuff that makes a game great. We’d rather take our time, so we can be sure we’re making something we’re really proud of.

Do you have a specific plan for each maintenance update?
Not yet. We’ve put them into the calendar so that we can block out time to give Deep Rock Galactic a good amount of time and energy. We’ll figure out exactly what to focus on as each update approaches, and we’ll keep you posted on that when the time comes.

Are you taking so long because you’re still trying to figure out a use for Error Cubes?
Maybe.



We continue to be blown away by the support and enthusiasm of this community, and all the creativity, curiosity and connections that Deep Rock Galactic has sparked. It’s what motivates us to make these games, and to keep them alive.

If you’re feeling disappointed about Season 5 not coming sooner, we totally get it. We’d like it to come sooner too. But we really think that Rogue Core is worth our time and focus, even if that means a delay for new content in Deep Rock Galactic. We hope you’ll trust us on this.

We can’t wait to expand the Deep Rock universe, and we promise you’ll be hearing a lot more about what’s going on with that in the coming months.

You heard it here first: fun times ahead.

Rock and Stone forever and always.


With so much love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

This patch contains a small number of fixes, including a fix to Rejoin game, which would fail if a host had previously hosted a game. We also added a Merch tab for the board game expansions!

With Love,
The Ghost Ship Crew

- Fixed issue where some weapons could do massive amounts of damage when shooting a puddle
- Fixed that rejoin game would fail, if the host had previously hosted another game
- Adjusted Large meteor carver to make rock cracker locations more accessible without mining
- Fixed a few typos
- Optimized contagion spikes a bit
- Added a Merch tab to the menu, currently shows the DRG board game + expansion kickstarter

There’s just under a week until we go live on October 5th at 14:00 CEST for Ghost Ship Publishing: On The Horizon, our big broadcast to talk about all things Ghost Ship.

Leading into that, two bits of news: The demos for Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and SpellRogue are officially live! We’ll be talking more about both of them during On The Horizon, and you can find links to the demos down below.

Okay, agenda time.
Here’s what we’ll be talking about next week:

• 14:00 - Welcome!

[/h3] CEO Søren Lundgaard and CCO/Game Director Mikkel Martin Pedersen say hello and get things going.

14:10 - Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is almost here.

[/h3] We’re happy to share that DRG: Survivor will be part of Steam’s Next Fest October 2023! Plus, the game has gotten an official release window – we’ll announce it live on the stream.

14:25 - Spotlight on SpellRogue.

[/h3] SpellRogue’s going to be part of Next Fest as well! We’ll take a look at the game, and also give a sharper idea on when you can expect a release date.

14:40 - Updates from the DarkSwarm devs.

[/h3] We’ll hear from Bitfire Games on what they’ve been up to, and the latest developments from this co-op tactical shooter.

14:55 - New game picked up by Ghost Ship Publishing!

[/h3] Expect a live premiere of the trailer for the fourth game from Ghost Ship Publishing. Hope you like dinosaurs.

15:15 - Hands-on with Deep Rock Galactic: The Board Game’s new expansions, and the PS5 Special Edition.

[/h3] Now that the Kickstarter for these expansions is live, we’ll crack open some samples of the Biomes and Space Rig packs for a hands-on look at what they bring to the table. We'll also take a quick look at what's in the box for the PS5 Special Edition of Deep Rock Galactic.

15:30 - Our plans for Deep Rock Galactic, and Ghost Ship Games.

[/h3] Last, but certainly not least: we’re finally ready to share an update on Deep Rock Galactic, and what we’ve been working on over here. :)

16:00 - That’s all, folks!

[/h3] Søren and Mikkel wrap things up by performing a musical number and dance routine, before getting on two white horses and riding into the sunset.*
[/list]
A note on the board game: We’ve said it before, but Deep Rock Galactic: The Board Game isn’t being developed by Ghost Ship Games. The whole thing has been developed externally by MOOD Publishing, it’s not our project, we’ve been busy working on other stuff over here. Just want to underline that, as we keep seeing some confusion about it online.

If you’re interested in trying the demos for Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and SpellRogue, you can check them out here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2437880/Deep_Rock_Galactic_Survivor_Demo/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2586850/SpellRogue_Demo/

Ghost Ship Publishing: On The Horizon is coming to you live on Thursday, October 5th at 14:00 CET. You can tune in on YouTube right here. Hope you’re able to join us!

With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

*Disclaimer: We haven’t told Søren or Mikkel about the musical number or horse riding yet. That part’s still up in the air.

Mark your calendars: on Thursday, October 5th at 14:00 CET, we’re doing a big livestream to share some updates from Ghost Ship Publishing, as well as what we’ve been working on here at Ghost Ship Games.

We’re calling it Ghost Ship Publishing: On the Horizon. Very cool.

Søren Lundgaard (CEO) and Mikkel Martin Pedersen (CCO and Game Director) will be hosting the event, and we’re hoping to have some special guests join too.

We’ll share a full agenda for the livestream next week, but here’s a peek at what you can expect:

• Progress updates from Ghost Ship Publishing projects
  
• Revealing the next game picked up by Ghost Ship Publishing (!)
  
• Hands-on with the two new expansions for Deep Rock Galactic: The Board Game
  
• News about future plans for Deep Rock Galactic, and what we've been up to at Ghost Ship Games

More details to come! This is just to put the word out.

We hope you’ll be able to join us live on October 5th. We’ve got some news we’re super excited to share.

Also – in case you missed it, the two new expansions for Deep Rock Galactic: The Board Game have officially gotten their Kickstarter campaign primed for launch. It’s set to kick off on September 28th, and will run until October 16th! As mentioned before, this is an external project by MOOD Publishing. We’ve been working on other fun stuff over here at Ghost Ship Games.

You’ll be able to back the Kickstarter here when it launches, and you can see the official trailer below:


That’s all for now – we’ll be back in a week to share the full agenda for Ghost Ship Publishing: On The Horizon. Stay tuned!

With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

Not like you dwarves needed another reason for drinking and dancing, but Oktoberfest 2023 is finally here! And we're celebrating in style:

• Introducing the new Lederhosen outfit, a traditional leather costume as practical as it is flattering
  
• Serving up the Sausagebucket hat, a glorious meaty bouquet for your head
  
• Decorating the Space Rig with inflatable pretzels and tons of hay and flowers (Management is not responsible for fatal allergic reactions)
  
• A special seasonal brew returns! Best Wurst Beer is now on tap at the Abyss Bar
  
• Double Season XP Bonus when you recover a lost beer mug down in the mines
  
• Two seasonal assignments: 'Oktoberfest Celebration' and 'Hunt for Lederhosen'

If that was too much to read, watch this:


Go out there and get while the getting's good -- Oktoberfest 2023 ends on October 3rd at 1pm CET.

Hope you brought your yodeling lungs!

Rock and Stone forever!
With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

Hello Miners,

We’re trying this “Below Decks” series as a way to share more moments from the studio, and give a look into what’s under development. In the future, you can expect some bigger stuff and proper sneak peeks, but we’ll start with something light for this one. Hope you like it. :)

-GSG_Aaron (new content writer)

It’s a Tuesday afternoon in August, and Harpa’s focus for the day is troubleshooting the upcoming sausage hat. The sausages are simply too wiggly.

Harpa Ellertsdóttir, 3D Artist at Ghost Ship Games, is making a new hat for the dwarves. You might not call it a hat by any conventional definition, but the dwarves will be using it as such. It’s a metal bucket with a leather chinstrap, and a big bouquet of sausages flopping out the top.

But making the perfect wiggly sausage hat is easier said than done.

“Right now the sausages are very stiff. They used to be a lot more floppy,” she explains. She’s fine-tuning the hat’s physics setup using Unreal Engine. She punches in some numbers in the model’s properties, and the sausage links go limp, drooping down over the rim of the bucket. She resets the physics, then tests the individual sausages to see how they behave. Each one jumps when she clicks it, responding with a playful little bounce. But one sausage starts misbehaving.

“These ones are wiggling fine, but this one’s wiggling all on its own. It was wiggling normally before, which is concerning,” she says.

Christian Øelund, Senior Technical Artist, rolls his chair over to her desk to help troubleshoot the rogue wiggler. In Maya, they adjust the sausages’ properties for Dampening and Stiffness. But this only makes the rebellious sausage even more wiggly.

“I’m getting hungry looking at this,” Christian says.

“I’m not, I hate sausages,” Harpa says. She used to work at a gas station back in Iceland. “I had to do 12-hour shifts there, and every day I would come home smelling like hot dogs. It’s like my past is haunting me through this hat.”


The 'Sausagebucket' hat as shown its final form, with its bones showing, and with physics colliders visible.

Everybody knows you don't want your wiggly sausage hat to be too wiggly. But where’s the sweet spot?

When it comes to silly hats, Harpa’s approach is to make things as jiggly as possible, without causing problems. Wiggly elements shouldn’t clip through the dwarves’ beards and armor, nor should they completely freak out and defy physics in certain situations.

To ensure that Deep Rock Galactic’s wiggly hats behave “normally”, each hat goes through a rigorous testing regime.

On her second monitor, Harpa runs the prototype sausage hat through these trials, testing every situation it’ll meet once it’s in the dwarves’ hands. She cycles through all the armor models, to make sure there aren’t any stray sausages causing clipping issues. Then she cycles the test dwarf through different animations: dancing, getting downed, reviving, pressing a button, shouting “Rock and Stone” – and notes how the sausages respond. Somehow, the rogue sausage from earlier has fallen back in line.

Structurally speaking, this isn’t a very complex hat, but the wiggly sausages make it a bit of a rascal. ”Programming the physics makes this hat a little finicky. Not all hats are like this,” Harpa says.

Each new hat crosses at least five different desks at Ghost Ship Games, ping-ponging around between artists, art directors, QA testers, and the Founders. All told, Harpa estimates this sausage hat represents about 12 to 15 hours of work.


LEFT: Our muse. RIGHT: Two slappable, wiggly palm trees from the Space Beach Party.
Deep Rock Galactic certainly isn’t the first game with wiggly hats, but we do our best to contribute to this proud tradition.

As Harpa sees it, these jiggly elements are fun because they look a bit broken, but in a purposeful way. It’s hard to be serious when you’re wearing a floppy hat. She pulls up an image of a wacky waving arm inflatable tube guy, the type known to flap around in front of auto dealerships. “This is like, the funniest thing ever. It’s peak comedy,” she says.

Generally speaking, Deep Rock Galactic is at its wiggliest during seasonal in-game events, when the Space Rig gets special decorations and the dwarves get new hats.
Among all the wiggly items in DRG, Harpa gives special historical importance to the inflatable palm tree, introduced to the Space Rig during the summer 2022 Space Beach Party.

When designing that tree, she recalls a “eureka moment” in a conversation with Lead Artist Jacek Oczki that has since inspired the crew’s approach to wiggly bits.

“He saw the model for the palm tree, and was like, ‘Cool, but can you slap it?’ After that, everything’s been a lot more jiggly and slappable.”

The jiggly 'Sausagebucket' hat will be available during this year’s Oktoberfest 2023 celebrations aboard the Space Rig. The party kicks off this Thursday, September 14th, at 13:00 CET.

Rock and Stone!
With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew