Hey there!

This week has been outrageously busy, but also exciting and far beyond all of our hopes! A great big thank you to everyone who has trusted us and chosen to support us. With your help we’ll be able to make Dead Cells into everything that we want it to be. We’ve already made it to Steam’s top sellers list, which is a huge achievement for us, but we’re not done yet...

We’re currently focusing on two major areas. Fixing critical bugs preventing people from playing the game and the first content update.

The first content update will happen close to the end of the month and will include a mix match of new things:

• Weapons and items!
  
• NPCs - More of the little chaps hanging around taking the mickey...
  
• Achievements - We hear you like achievements...
  
• Stats - Now you'll be able to measure, compare and brag all you want.
  
• Lots of balancing - Bleed damage we're looking at you...
  
• A new monster - Kill or be killed!
  
• Music is coming - Yoann is hard at work, doing stuff.
  
• New mechanic: Use the elements to turn the tide in your favor!
  
  
  
  
  
  

That’s the exciting stuff, but our real priority these last few days and for the rest of the week is getting on top of some of the critical bugs we’ve seen.

• OutOfBounds Issues
  
• Stuck into walls and floors
  
• Crash when entering in a new level (seems especially happening with the Prison depths)
  
• Fog Fjord unreachable exit on some seeds - We've already fixed a number of issues in the Fog Fjord with the most recent patch, but some may have been left out.
  
• Improvement of the Watcher (root, stun and frost work properly)
  
• Blue/disappearing background - sadly, this is a problem with how Xsplit supports OpenGL. So eventually once we support DirectX this should get better, but it's not going to happen quickly.

Fortunately for us and you, these critical bugs don't seem to be impacting too many people. However, these are the ones that we've seen popping up the most frequently on the forums and they're behind the majority of people who haven't been able to have fun with the game.

The uncaught exceptions, access violations and nul access related crashes are caused by many different factors and in each and every case they require a good deal of time to track down and fix. So we will have to ask for your patience on these ones.

As for the smaller less critical bugs, we'll be fixing them little by little with each patch during the early access, but the priority is anything that stops people from playing.

We've noticed that a good deal of people are afraid to start a new game for fear of losing their progress (unlocked runes/health flasks/weapons etc)... So we wanted to clarify. CHOOSING NEW GAME WILL NOT RESET YOUR PROGRESS. It will only restart a new run. The only way to reset a save slot entirely is by going to the save slot and selecting 'RESET'.

This is a little UX issue that we will fix ASAP.

If you're having a problem with OpenGL or your Intel HD card. That might be because you're using unsupported equipment. Remember that we only support more recent Nvidia and Radeon graphics cards and we require i5 processors or better.

We're working on improving this and we will only increase compatibility during the early access. You can fins out a little more here.

Once again, many thanks for your support, ideas and of course, bug reports!

Cheers!

Hey there!

This week has been outrageously busy, but also exciting and far beyond all of our hopes! A great big thank you to everyone who has trusted us and chosen to support us. With your help we’ll be able to make Dead Cells into everything that we want it to be. We’ve already made it to Steam’s top sellers list, which is a huge achievement for us, but we’re not done yet...

We’re currently focusing on two major areas. Fixing critical bugs preventing people from playing the game and the first content update.

The first content update will happen close to the end of the month and will include a mix match of new things:

• Weapons and items!
  
• NPCs - More of the little chaps hanging around taking the mickey...
  
• Achievements - We hear you like achievements...
  
• Stats - Now you'll be able to measure, compare and brag all you want.
  
• Lots of balancing - Bleed damage we're looking at you...
  
• A new monster - Kill or be killed!
  
• Music is coming - Yoann is hard at work, doing stuff.
  
• New mechanic: Use the elements to turn the tide in your favor!
  
  
  
  
  
  

That’s the exciting stuff, but our real priority these last few days and for the rest of the week is getting on top of some of the critical bugs we’ve seen.

• OutOfBounds Issues
  
• Stuck into walls and floors
  
• Crash when entering in a new level (seems especially happening with the Prison depths)
  
• Fog Fjord unreachable exit on some seeds - We've already fixed a number of issues in the Fog Fjord with the most recent patch, but some may have been left out.
  
• Improvement of the Watcher (root, stun and frost work properly)
  
• Blue/disappearing background - sadly, this is a problem with how Xsplit supports OpenGL. So eventually once we support DirectX this should get better, but it's not going to happen quickly.

Fortunately for us and you, these critical bugs don't seem to be impacting too many people. However, these are the ones that we've seen popping up the most frequently on the forums and they're behind the majority of people who haven't been able to have fun with the game.

The uncaught exceptions, access violations and nul access related crashes are caused by many different factors and in each and every case they require a good deal of time to track down and fix. So we will have to ask for your patience on these ones.

As for the smaller less critical bugs, we'll be fixing them little by little with each patch during the early access, but the priority is anything that stops people from playing.

We've noticed that a good deal of people are afraid to start a new game for fear of losing their progress (unlocked runes/health flasks/weapons etc)... So we wanted to clarify. CHOOSING NEW GAME WILL NOT RESET YOUR PROGRESS. It will only restart a new run. The only way to reset a save slot entirely is by going to the save slot and selecting 'RESET'.

This is a little UX issue that we will fix ASAP.

If you're having a problem with OpenGL or your Intel HD card. That might be because you're using unsupported equipment. Remember that we only support more recent Nvidia and Radeon graphics cards and we require i5 processors or better.

We're working on improving this and we will only increase compatibility during the early access. You can fins out a little more here.

Once again, many thanks for your support, ideas and of course, bug reports!

Cheers!

• 11 levels - Each with a variation of enemies, design and ambience.
  
• 20 monsters - More in fact, but there will be plenty of ways for you to die.
  
• 50 items - Tons of weapon, active skills, traps, amulets and so on to experiment with!
  
• 1 fluid fun combat system - Wait to you get to explore. It feels pretty nice.
  
• Hours and hours of gameplay - anywhere from 10 to 30 hours or more depending on your skill level.

If you’re a streamer then feel free to reach out to us through Keymailer. You’ll find Dead Cells in there and we would love to work with you! A little note though, we will be focusing on people with 1000 plus followers.



We've put a system of forums in place here on Steam. You will be able to give us feedback on critical bugs, small annoying ones, suggestions for weapons, monsters, new worlds... Anything you can think of.

• 11 levels - Each with a variation of enemies, design and ambience.
  
• 20 monsters - More in fact, but there will be plenty of ways for you to die.
  
• 50 items - Tons of weapon, active skills, traps, amulets and so on to experiment with!
  
• 1 fluid fun combat system - Wait to you get to explore. It feels pretty nice.
  
• Hours and hours of gameplay - anywhere from 10 to 30 hours or more depending on your skill level.

If you’re a streamer then feel free to reach out to us through Keymailer. You’ll find Dead Cells in there and we would love to work with you! A little note though, we will be focusing on people with 1000 plus followers.



We've put a system of forums in place here on Steam. You will be able to give us feedback on critical bugs, small annoying ones, suggestions for weapons, monsters, new worlds... Anything you can think of.

Hey there!

We're now only 5 short days away from releasing Dead Cells into the wild and things are coming along nicely! Streamers have started to be given access to the full version of the game, so if you find a good one you might get to see a little more of the new levels.

The road-map has been put together, well at least for the overall goals and the first few weeks of production. On top of that we've also chosen a price. So let's have a look.

At day one of the Early Access we'll be a little ahead of schedule. We've managed to complete:

• 11 levels - Each with a variation of enemies, design and ambience.
  
• 20 monsters - More in fact, but there will be plenty of ways for you to die.
  
• 50 items - Tons of weapon, active skills, traps, amulets and so on to experiment with!
  
• 1 fluid fun combat system - Wait to you get to explore. It feels pretty nice.
  
• Hours and hours of gameplay - anywhere from 45 minutes to 30 hours or more depending on your skill.

This represents about 40-50% of the content that we would like to add to the world as we go. That means more levels, more bosses, more items, more meta skills and progression. This however doesn't take into account feedback from the community and things that you guys are going to want to see in the game.

We estimate that we will need at least 8 months, but up to and perhaps beyond 12 months to incorporate new asides, finish our vision for the project, balance it and prepare for any eventual console releases.

https://youtu.be/ndzo05T10d4
As such we're going to be launching the game based on a price of $16.99 USD. This will mostly likely increase as we progress and add content to the game, however as a little thank you for every one who jumps on board day one, we'll be launching at 15% discount. Meaning you'll be paying less than $15 for the game.

We'd love to hear what you think about this, but basically we think that a game that currently takes a skilled player between 16 and 25 hours to finish once, without talking about unlocking everything or any replay value, is worth between 15 and 20 dollars.



On one last note, we'd also like to thank everyone who got involved in the beta, who took the time to stream our game, those of you who have been sharing and following along! As a sign of our gratitude we want to let you know that if you have received a demo or beta copy, that is yours for good and it will be upgraded to the full version a few days prior to launch. So keep streaming and keep on enjoying the game.

If you know any streamers that want to contact us they can reach out through keymailer, however we will be targeting channels with 1000 plus followers from now on.

Thanks to everyone for your support, help and ideas. Wish us luck!

Steve and the Motion Twin team.

Hey there!

We're now only 5 short days away from releasing Dead Cells into the wild and things are coming along nicely! Streamers have started to be given access to the full version of the game, so if you find a good one you might get to see a little more of the new levels.

The road-map has been put together, well at least for the overall goals and the first few weeks of production. On top of that we've also chosen a price. So let's have a look.

At day one of the Early Access we'll be a little ahead of schedule. We've managed to complete:

• 11 levels - Each with a variation of enemies, design and ambience.
  
• 20 monsters - More in fact, but there will be plenty of ways for you to die.
  
• 50 items - Tons of weapon, active skills, traps, amulets and so on to experiment with!
  
• 1 fluid fun combat system - Wait to you get to explore. It feels pretty nice.
  
• Hours and hours of gameplay - anywhere from 45 minutes to 30 hours or more depending on your skill.

This represents about 40-50% of the content that we would like to add to the world as we go. That means more levels, more bosses, more items, more meta skills and progression. This however doesn't take into account feedback from the community and things that you guys are going to want to see in the game.

We estimate that we will need at least 8 months, but up to and perhaps beyond 12 months to incorporate new asides, finish our vision for the project, balance it and prepare for any eventual console releases.

https://youtu.be/ndzo05T10d4
As such we're going to be launching the game based on a price of $16.99 USD. This will mostly likely increase as we progress and add content to the game, however as a little thank you for every one who jumps on board day one, we'll be launching at 15% discount. Meaning you'll be paying less than $15 for the game.

We'd love to hear what you think about this, but basically we think that a game that currently takes a skilled player between 16 and 25 hours to finish once, without talking about unlocking everything or any replay value, is worth between 15 and 20 dollars.



On one last note, we'd also like to thank everyone who got involved in the beta, who took the time to stream our game, those of you who have been sharing and following along! As a sign of our gratitude we want to let you know that if you have received a demo or beta copy, that is yours for good and it will be upgraded to the full version a few days prior to launch. So keep streaming and keep on enjoying the game.

If you know any streamers that want to contact us they can reach out through keymailer, however we will be targeting channels with 1000 plus followers from now on.

Thanks to everyone for your support, help and ideas. Wish us luck!

Steve and the Motion Twin team.

Hey there everyone!

It's been a while since we stopped by to let you know how the development of Dead Cells is advancing.

Since we've never really taken the time to introduce the project here on the community hub I thought we'd have a quick look at how this game is supposed to work.

We're taking some of the elements that we liked from two major "genres" of games.

Rogue-LITE:
This is a game style that has seen a lot of success recently and given birth to a few of our favourite games. Rogue legacy, Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain and FTL are all titles that have in some way influenced Dead Cells. We've taken permadeath and tempered it with a nice system of progression, so that while you'll be freaking out when you're low on life and close to a checkpoint, it's not the end of the world if you die, because you'll probably have unlocked a permanent upgrade.

Metroidvania:
We loved Castlevania and we love games where you feel like you're exploring a dangerous world with secrets around every corner, shortcuts, wildly different areas and monsters that force you to rethink your strategy. This is why we've made a world that you'll have to explore little by little. With each trial that you make it through, be it beating a boss or unlocking a shortcut hidden behind a secret, you'll feel like you're learning more and more about your world.

RogueVania
We're licking this mongrel of a word and claiming it as our own. In reality Rogue Legacy is the closest thing that we've seen to a mix between these two genres so far (although there are a couple more good ones planned for this year). But we want to go further. We don't just want to take two genres and moosh them together, the aim is to make something new and something awesome.

The threat of permadeath, balanced with a generous system of progression, the exhilaration of discovering new hidden areas, alternate paths to progress through the castle and a pinch of procedural generation to keep you on your toes. This is the heart of Dead Cells.

Anywho that's the basics of the game. We'll let you figure te rest out in two short weeks, when it launches onto early access!

Let’s start by taking a look at the level we've almost finished... It's getting a coat of polish as I type... The Courtyard, is an exterior biome with some “inside” fights taking place in caves and cellars. The mandatory bats are present to make the things a bit more challenging and to distract you from the real threats.

Here is some concept art from Gwen.


And here is an ingame screenshot of the current state of the Courtyard level. As we said we’re still working on polishing the level and getting towards the finish that Gwen imagined.


We’ve also started work on one of the last levels that will be included for the Early Access release, The Graveyard. As you can see we’re not too far off hitting that moody look that Gwen has put together for the concept art.

Concept:


Screenshot:


Moving forward, we finally found some time (and by we, I mean Carduus, our very, very lonely animator) to make some proper animations for interacting with the environment. Now you can kick innocent furniture, which only really ever wanted to help, you sadist you!



But Thomas’ animations aren’t limited to flipping tables and generally wrecking the place. He’s also been busy building new monsters and making sure that the existing ones are significantly differentiated.

For example, his somewhat, peeved peg-legged pirate...



And, of course, our work would not be done without adding new and wonderful ways of slaughtering your enemies. Say hello to the Ice Grenade, perfect when things are heating up a little too much, the Magnetic Grenade, the Temporal Distortion skill, and, my new best friend, the hook!









Anywho, that ought to give you an idea of just how busy we all are getting ready for this launch! The excitement is real...

We'll be back next week with some more info on what we've been up to.

The MT Team.

Hey there everyone!

It's been a while since we stopped by to let you know how the development of Dead Cells is advancing.

Since we've never really taken the time to introduce the project here on the community hub I thought we'd have a quick look at how this game is supposed to work.

We're taking some of the elements that we liked from two major "genres" of games.

Rogue-LITE:
This is a game style that has seen a lot of success recently and given birth to a few of our favourite games. Rogue legacy, Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain and FTL are all titles that have in some way influenced Dead Cells. We've taken permadeath and tempered it with a nice system of progression, so that while you'll be freaking out when you're low on life and close to a checkpoint, it's not the end of the world if you die, because you'll probably have unlocked a permanent upgrade.

Metroidvania:
We loved Castlevania and we love games where you feel like you're exploring a dangerous world with secrets around every corner, shortcuts, wildly different areas and monsters that force you to rethink your strategy. This is why we've made a world that you'll have to explore little by little. With each trial that you make it through, be it beating a boss or unlocking a shortcut hidden behind a secret, you'll feel like you're learning more and more about your world.

RogueVania
We're licking this mongrel of a word and claiming it as our own. In reality Rogue Legacy is the closest thing that we've seen to a mix between these two genres so far (although there are a couple more good ones planned for this year). But we want to go further. We don't just want to take two genres and moosh them together, the aim is to make something new and something awesome.

The threat of permadeath, balanced with a generous system of progression, the exhilaration of discovering new hidden areas, alternate paths to progress through the castle and a pinch of procedural generation to keep you on your toes. This is the heart of Dead Cells.

Anywho that's the basics of the game. We'll let you figure te rest out in two short weeks, when it launches onto early access!

Let’s start by taking a look at the level we've almost finished... It's getting a coat of polish as I type... The Courtyard, is an exterior biome with some “inside” fights taking place in caves and cellars. The mandatory bats are present to make the things a bit more challenging and to distract you from the real threats.

Here is some concept art from Gwen.


And here is an ingame screenshot of the current state of the Courtyard level. As we said we’re still working on polishing the level and getting towards the finish that Gwen imagined.


We’ve also started work on one of the last levels that will be included for the Early Access release, The Graveyard. As you can see we’re not too far off hitting that moody look that Gwen has put together for the concept art.

Concept:


Screenshot:


Moving forward, we finally found some time (and by we, I mean Carduus, our very, very lonely animator) to make some proper animations for interacting with the environment. Now you can kick innocent furniture, which only really ever wanted to help, you sadist you!



But Thomas’ animations aren’t limited to flipping tables and generally wrecking the place. He’s also been busy building new monsters and making sure that the existing ones are significantly differentiated.

For example, his somewhat, peeved peg-legged pirate...



And, of course, our work would not be done without adding new and wonderful ways of slaughtering your enemies. Say hello to the Ice Grenade, perfect when things are heating up a little too much, the Magnetic Grenade, the Temporal Distortion skill, and, my new best friend, the hook!









Anywho, that ought to give you an idea of just how busy we all are getting ready for this launch! The excitement is real...

We'll be back next week with some more info on what we've been up to.

The MT Team.

I'm just going to let this video and the date do the talking. Three weeks to go! Here we come baby!

https://youtu.be/KV6fBYuuPMg