Hello guys!

It's Black Friday, and our heroes inside the Killsquad universe have gone in a shopping spree! Do you want to see all the new cosmetics, coming to you in our Christmas update? Look no further than the video below, straight from the dev team!



All these cosmetics will drop as part of our Christmas update mid-December. But there's more:

- Talismans, which bring passive permanent perks to our heroes
- A new Colosseum mechanic to earn these Talismans
- Better balancing of all the existing skills and perks.
- A whole new soundtrack. Yes, the full game is getting new music.

Oh... and it's not only Black Friday for us, it's also Black Friday for you all! Go get Killquad 30% off, during our Steam Autumn event, from now til Monday.

Halloween is over and Xmas is getting closer! This update brings ping display in crowded contracts. Players will be able to judge their network experience in multiplayer without the need of joining in blindly.


New Ping system
In the Contract selection screen, once you click a Contract with a player hosting / playing the game, the Ping will appear in the bottom right-corner of it.

• Added Ping to be displayed in the "Confirm Contract" selection screen. Ping numbers will be displayed in green, yellow and red as a recommendation for the multiplayer experience.
  
• Added Join priority between players hosting the same Contract. Clients will Join players with less lag and their pings will be displayed first.

• Reverted back the previous Lobby decorations now that the Halloween Event has ended.
  
• Restricted back Badges, Portraits, Halloween Skins and updated its descriptions.

• Updating the texts of all the available languages (Thank you again for your Portuguese reports Mazter!).
  
• Revisiting Cass' Shuriken bug.
  
• December's Update.
  
• If your game crashes, a Crash reporter will appear. Please add the details of what you were doing at the time of the crash and send it to us. If you want to, feel free to contact us directly here at killsquad@novarama.com, with your "Saved" folder (C:\\Users\\%USERNAME%\\AppData\\Local\\Killsquad) attached.

Hello guys!

Today's dev diary is rather short, as we are working on a number of things that will surface in the next few weeks. Let's go!

Public vs. Private
As you will have noticed, private contracts are back, as we promised, just download the last update (from today) and you're good to go. We needed 2 weeks to do some R+D, that's done, so thank you for your patience. We'll be rolling out some changes based on this R+D, such as...

Ping!
We are working on a Hotfix, which will drop next week, which adds ping counters to all contracts. Here's an image of how this will look like:



Here's a zoom, so you can see it better:


So, before entering a contract, you'll know the quality of service you can expect, and only join if ping seems reasonable to you. These will be color coded (green/yellow/red) for easy scanning.

Talisman work
Last, but not least, our Xmas update is coming up nicely. Here's some work on Talismans, first, the Talisman Chest, where you'll find Talisman fragments:



And here are different UI elements of the Talismans, straight from the developer's hands:



So again, a small update as a lot of work this week goes into internal systems. Next week we kick off our marketing campaign, so we will be way more active on social media. We hope to see you there!

As today we are also dropping a Hotfix with the Public vs. Private, please read below the full patch notes:

This Hotfix update includes the return of the Host: Private option, more to come in the upcoming updates. We've gathered enough feedback and we want to thank you for your support.

General:

· Added back the ability of hosting private servers. Thank you for your feedback.
· Reworked the finding sessions to display more consistently players hosting public games.
· Reworked the ping displayed in-game to be more accurate with the ping between players and the Host of the game.
· Removed the loud sparks sounds in the Lobby menu.

What are we doing right now:

· Adding a Ping displayer in the Contract Selection Screen.
· Updating the texts of all the available languages (Thank you for your Portuguese reports Mazter!).
· Revisiting Cass' Shuriken bug.
· December's Update.
· If your game crashes, a Crash reporter will appear. Please add the details of what you were doing at the time of the crash and send it to us. If you want to, feel free to contact us directly here at killsquad@novarama.com, with your "Saved" folder (C:\\Users\\%USERNAME%\\AppData\\Local\\Killsquad) attached.

Hello guys!

We at team Killsquad know you are sensitive people: always showing off your inner, soft core. Like when you smash the skull of an enemy. Or when you run towards victory totally ignoring our team mates, seeking MVP status. Killsquad is definitely a game for sensitive players!

That's why on our Christmas update we're focusing on giving you more ways to express yourselves.

Enter the new emote / animation system, dropping next month. Here's a quick internal video: you'll be able to press a button/key, and then select animations to show your state to your crew, or to celebrate. Check it out:



We are going to do functional animations (hello, come here, etc.) and also celebratory ones, so you can show off at mission end. Expect more of these soon, as the system is completed! Here's a pretty cool taunt animation for Kosmo. Romantic, isn't it?



But we are working on other ways for you guys to feel powerful emotions. I want to highlight two. The first is the new weather patterns. Look at this beautiful rain: doesn't it make you want to hold hands, while we all walk towards sure destruction in the hands of the Abomination?



And last, but not least, we have an announcement to make. If the animation system and the new weather effects didn't really touch your soul, this will: we are revamping the whole Killsquad soundtrack. Yep. All of it. We are now selecting pieces, but expect a much more varied soundtrack as you cross the Outer Reach. If you play the videos above, you may catch glimpses of it here and there.

So, are you in a state of deep emotion? We thought so. And, if you're not, remember Killsquad is 30% off this weekend. So go grab a friend, and go crush some alien bones.

Because destruction is so emotional.

Here are today's patch notes:

Localization

• Added up to date Chinese translations.
  
• Added up to date Korean translations.
  
• Added up to date Japanese translations.
  
• Added up to date Italian translations.
  
• Added up to date Russian translations.
  
• Added up to date Portuguese translations.
  
• Added up to date French translations.
  
• Added up to date German translations.
  
• Updated localization files.
  
• Fixed some text elements in English.

The upcoming update (next week) will include more text fixes and revisions. If you find a mistake in your language and you want to reach out us, please join our Discord server and go to the #bug-localization channel.

Here you can access all the supported languages in Killsquad:

Master Localization File

What are we doing right now:

• Updating the texts of all the updated translations.
  
• Revisiting Cass' Shuriken bug.
  
• December's Update.

If your game crashes, a Crash reporter will appear. Please add the details of what you were doing at the time of the crash and send it to us. If you want to, feel free to contact us directly here at
http://killsquad@novarama.com, with your "Saved" folder (C:\\Users\\%USERNAME%\\AppData\\Local\\Killsquad) attached.

Hello guys! What a recent two weeks we have had! Reviews are rising, sales are rising, we couldn’t be happier. So, first of all, THANK YOU guys for appreciating the effort we put in CORE. But we’re not here to talk about us: ego is the path to the dark side as the Master would say. Let’s talk about what comes next in Killsquad. Being an Early Access means you guys get an open window into our development process, so expect a design-heavy Dev Diary today. So, come on, grab your thinking hats! Here we go!

We have realized we have two communities in the game. Some of you want to meet new people to play with. Others prefer Solo/Private play. So, sometimes the game is actually very active, but there seems to be no-one to play with, as everyone is doing Private contracts. Both sides are right, and we’re trying to please both with a game that caters to both audiences. To better understand the issue, we put all contracts Public for a few days to understand what is going on under the hood.

As a result of our analysis, we are beginning to take action. First, we are working on a fix that will lower the overall lag in the game. It will also tell you from the contract map what the ping time will be on each contract, to ensure the best online experience. Giving you guys a good online experience is key to us, so we expect us to roll this out soon. But rest assured: private contracts will return. We appreciate your patience while we fix this.


One question we are asked a lot is: how will the new Talisman system work? What are passives gonna be like? Ok, here’s a deep-dive, thanks to Miki, the game’s Lead Designer:

• We want to give you better control on your hero’s build
  
• So, we want to give you items you can equip, that create passive mods that boost your hero in some way. Some may be stat boosts, some may be more creative stuff you will need to discover.
  
• These are the Talismans
  
• Talismans are ancient artifacts of power, owned by The Unseen.
  
• These Talismans have been shattered, and are now broken in pieces
  
• Talisman pieces can be found in some contracts, and also as a reward for beating the Colosseum: some Talismans on the recruit Colosseum, some on the Veteran
  
• So, to activate a Talisman, first you need to assemble it from its pieces
  
• Once the Talisman is assembled, you unlock its passive ability. This is vector-less, so Talismans don’t become old as you Vector up. So for example a Talisman can give you increased Dodge regen time regardless of what your Vector is
  
• On top of that, Talismans become better with use: the more you use them, the stronger they become, up to a cap in their power
  
• And you can equip two of them any given time, so better choose well which are your weaknesses to assess what do you need to boost.

As you can see, Talismans are a veteran / end game feature. They will begin appearing in late recruit, but we feel these are for pro players who really want to max out their heroes. Here's a first look at the Talisman UI:



Talismans will be deployed this Christmas, but will play a bigger role in our future updates, where we will unlock our endgame section (Inferno and Spec Ops where they will be much needed).

As you saw with Core, we are making sure we give you as many opportunities to customize your hero as we possibly can, within our design of “customize by equipment”: it’s the equipment what makes your hero different, not stats.

Part of that is cosmetics, which we had way too little of: we had some skins, and that was about it. On the next update, this is going to change. You are going to get funky hats. Boots. Cool animations to celebrate victory (or defeat!). Today, we bring you a quick sampler of these. First, some cosmetic pieces of equipment:



And here is a cool Cass animation for you to trigger in game:





Yes, translations are here. If you download today’s build, there is support for:

• Simplified Chinese
  
• Korean
  
• French
  
• German
  
• Portuguese
  
• Russian
  
• Italian
  
• Spanish
  
• Japanese
  
• English

These are all human-made translations. But we know how this is a very sensible matter. So, as we did last time, we are publishing our localization file.

If you find a mistake in your language and you want to reach out us, please join our Discord server and go to the #bug-localization channel. We are aware of some issues, which we will fix next week with a Hotfix.

So that's it for today! What are you doing here still? Come on, go play!!!

It's spooky times on Killsquad!

The game lobby has been taken by the forces of evil, scattering spiderwebs and darkness all over the place.

For a limited time, and to celebrate the launch of Killsquad: CORE, come play our Halloween special event. We have unlocked four Halloween-only exclusive skins, one per hero, for you to collect.

Remember: these are only going to be available for a few days, so GO GET THEM NOW! All you require is to pay their price, in Echoes of the Plague. So only the more worthy Bounty Hunters shall get them. Here they are!










Also, we have unlocked five Halloween-exclusive character portraits for you to collect.




Our Halloween event starts today, October 29th, and is live until the dreary Friday, the 13th of November.

After 7 months of hard work & feedback from the community, we are pleased to release CORE today, Killsquad's newest update. CORE brings deep changes to all internal game systems & redefines the Killsquad experience. Every piece of feedback we got, we took it on board. And vowed to fix all of them in a single, mega-update. CORE has been on Beta testing now for a few weeks, during which the recent review score of Killsquad on Steam has risen from 64 to well over 85. So, the wait is over. Welcome to CORE, we hope you like it.

Before CORE, enemies levelled up: you levelled up, so did they. Bad idea: why keep playing, if enemies level up with you and the ratio stays the same? The full system is gone. Now, enemies have a static level. You don’t. So, level up to crush them mercilessly. And feel pleasure in doing so.

If you out-level enemies, we need more of them. CORE brings many new enemies across all sections of the game. Plus, it brings Enemy Generations: we have created +30 new enemy variations: new behaviours, new color schemes, new attack patterns… so there’s much more to hunt and destroy.

Enemies, attacks and weapons now have elemental resistance. So you’ll need the right tool for the right monster. Don’t use a freeze gun on an ice monster, you fool! You can also equip gear that builds up resistance against certain types of damage. So if Helldörren is frying you, gear up to counter that.

With elemental resistance, picking the right weapon is more important than ever. That’s why we give you dual weapons slots, with different damage profiles. Let’s call these the mob clearing and the boss buster weapon. Choose them wisely: both influence your level and your chances of survival.

In Killsquad, your character build comes from your gear. That’s why we introduce the Gadget system: consumable power-ups you can buy, carry with you and unbalance the battle. Life pools. Poison areas. Gadgets bring an unprecedented layer of customization, and mean life or death on harder missions.

Of course if we give you all this equipment, we need a place to go shopping, right? Enter the new shop! And also, pay attention to the contract end screens, these have all been revamped and now do a much better job at getting you excited about the new equipment you just earned.

This one is self-explanatory. Yes, a campaign map. A lovely one indeed, +20 contracts for you to unlock and master. Go check it out! And, while we are at it, new tutorials so all game systems are explained.

You have been crossing a perilous land for 45 minutes. Only to reach the final boss who, as bosses do, kills you in one strike. Back to the start! So unfair. We have fixed that. The game now automatically saves progress at key moments, so you can restart from there. More fun. Less frustration.

We have replaced all the lighting code. Expect dark nights. Red sunsets. Rainy days. The kind of atmosphere that would feel extremely romantic, if it wasn’t because a ten ton monster is crushing your guts. So yeah, do kill the monster. But enjoy the views along the way.

Please be aware that CORE is temporarily only available in English and Spanish. A language pack including Italian, French, German, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Korean & Japanese support will be released next week as we confirm there are no bugs on the game.

CORE is just the beginning. Here is our Roadmap update. Christmas will bring cosmetics and Talismans. Q1 next year will take us on a journey to Skua, the base of the Feds. And summer next year we will unleash our endgame features and a fifth hero so the team building options expand.





Killsquad is an Early Access game. As such, it is a product in development. Have encountered a bug? We are sorry. Please report it by joining our Discord community. Please do so here:

https://discord.com/invite/killsquad[/url] You can report bugs on the #beta-bug-report channel. Please be specific describing the bug: the easier for us to trigger the bug, the faster we solve it. If you don’t like Discord, do get in touch directly at [url=killsquad@novarama.com]killsquad@novarama.com[/url] with the bug info. [h3]We need your help! [/h3] Do you like our game? Would you like to help an independent developer? Here is what you can do: [b]Reviews![/b] Please write a review. This is THE single most important thing you can do. Reviews do magic to the Steam algorithm. Or, if you wrote a negative review back in the day, and feel we’ve done a good job, do you know you can update your review? Reviews are the blood that keeps us alive! [b]Social media follow: [/b] Discord: [url=https://discord.com/invite/killsquad]https://discord.com/invite/killsquad[/url] Twitter: [url=https://twitter.com/killsquadgame]https://twitter.com/killsquadgame[/url] And on the Steam forums [b]Streaming![/b] Stream Killsquad, post videos on Youtube. Tell the world about it. If you have a significant following, contact us at [url=killsquad@novarama.com]killsquad@novarama.com[/url], and we’ll try to support you in any way we can. [b]Media[/b] Are you a member of the media? We want to meet you! Contact us at [url=killsquad@novarama.com]killsquad@novarama.com[/url] [h3]About Killsquad[/h3] Killsquad is an action-packed 4 player action RPG where sci-fi mercenaries raid planets seeking fame and glory. With three planets to explore, over twenty unique contracts to master, more than 100 weapons and 30 unique enemies, Killsquad offers an adrenaline-pumping journey into a dystopian future full of blood and black humour. Killsquad is now on Steam Early Access, with an approximate launch date of Summer 2021. [h3]About Novarama[/h3] Killsquad is developed by Novarama, a Barcelona-based independent games developer with +18 years of experience, 11 of them as a Sony exclusive studio. With a team of +40 people, Novarama's mission statement is to building innovative games for mass audiences. Killsquad is our first fully self-published game. Visit Novarama's website at [url=www.novarama.com]www.novarama.com[/url]

You can report bugs on the #beta-bug-report channel. Please be specific describing the bug: the easier for us to trigger the bug, the faster we solve it. If you don’t like Discord, do get in touch directly at http://killsquad@novarama.com with the bug info.


Do you like our game? Would you like to help an independent developer? Here is what you can do:

Reviews!
Please write a review. This is THE single most important thing you can do. Reviews do magic to the Steam algorithm. Or, if you wrote a negative review back in the day, and feel we’ve done a good job, do you know you can update your review? Reviews are the blood that keeps us alive!

Social media follow:
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/killsquad
Twitter: https://twitter.com/killsquadgame
And on the Steam forums

Streaming!
Stream Killsquad, post videos on Youtube. Tell the world about it. If you have a significant following, contact us at http://killsquad@novarama.com, and we’ll try to support you in any way we can.

Media
Are you a member of the media? We want to meet you! Contact us at http://killsquad@novarama.com


Killsquad is an action-packed 4 player action RPG where sci-fi mercenaries raid planets seeking fame and glory. With three planets to explore, over twenty unique contracts to master, more than 100 weapons and 30 unique enemies, Killsquad offers an adrenaline-pumping journey into a dystopian future full of blood and black humour. Killsquad is now on Steam Early Access, with an approximate launch date of Summer 2021.


Killsquad is developed by Novarama, a Barcelona-based independent games developer with +18 years of experience, 11 of them as a Sony exclusive studio. With a team of +40 people, Novarama's mission statement is to building innovative games for mass audiences. Killsquad is our first fully self-published game. Visit Novarama's website at http://www.novarama.com

The famous physicist Werner Heisenberg once wrote that, in physics, some things can be, and be not, at the same time. Well, enter our own Heisenberg Launch! Killsquad CORE is live. And it’s not. Depending on who you ask.

As many of you have noticed, YES, Killsquad:CORE is now ready to download by all Steam users. So, do you want to play Killsquad: CORE this weekend? Go for it! It is waiting for you in your Steam library, not as a lame BETA, but as a full release. Come on, go play!

At the same time, we won’t be doing our marketing push today, we need to delay that to next week. Why? Because we’re still hunting one nasty bug we want to clear before announcing the game publicly. But we don’t want to keep you guys waiting. So that’s why it’s live. And that’s why we’re telling no-one until next week. Except for you guys.

So go play! Enjoy! The full game is there for you to explore. Just make sure to keep an eye on this bug: on teams of 3 or 4, you will select the contract and load. And sometimes the game will enter an endless load loop, and the mission won’t begin. A variant of the same bug is that the load will end, but you will be stuck in a first person camera view, and the game won’t work.

If this happens, don’t panic: all you need to do is close the game and try again. The bug won’t break your save game or anything like that, but it’s annoying enough that we want to fix it before going all in with the big marketing gun.

As a second note, the update is only available in English or Spanish. We will be dropping the rest of languages in the next few days (Portuguese, French, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German and Italian) as they arrive from the translators.

As soon as we have that bug cleared, we’ll do our big announcement: a Steam event, trailers, the full package. Expect mariachis, a marching band, and creatures unknown to man roaming the streets to announce the world the arrival of Killsquad: CORE.

If you want to find out all the new goodies on Killsquad: CORE, full patch notes will come next week in the official announcement. But here is the Beta release article, which lists all the new game features:

Killsquad: CORE Beta Features

If you are part of our Beta crew, you'll be happy to know today’s build also fixes many bugs found since Beta 2. Here’s the list, on a Steam Forum post:

HotFix Patch Notes

Last, but not least, everyone at Novarama would like to personally thank all the people who took the time to write a review about Killsquad this week. We are speechless, humbled and thankful. This makes up for all the long hours of work.

.
.
.
.
.
.

What? You read this far? Well, you didn't think we wouldn't reward you for doing that, right? Here, take this gift:

Hello all!

Welcome to another Dev Diary! As you know, every Friday we bring you the latest on Killsquad's development to you, the community. Let's cut to the chase, shall we?


Since CORE dropped last Friday, Reviews on Steam have been super positive. All the feedback on Discord has been very encouraging. Our Discord server is gaining new followers every day. We couldn't be happier. And the best is yet to come.

But today, let's talk about the Beta: we asked, and you responded. We received lots of bug reports, and we're clearing them quick. A big shout out to tehgreg, Bum, Petrisis, Mazter, shisaya24, leonardo_768, scotilen, griPP, zerogear, sikedjonny, MC, and everyone who reported issues on this beta update. Here is the report as of today:

• Fixed the bug where Zero's weapon, "Red Baron", could share its overcharged state when switching weapons.
  
• Fixed the bug where Troy's weapon, "Cognita Finem", dealt a 100% of Critical Hits (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• Fixed the bug where the game crashed when players used the Gadget "Ice Age Bomb" against Helldorren on its "Showtime" attack (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• Fixed the bug where the first encounter with the Runaway appeared with a higher Vector than intended.
  
• Fixed the bug where the first encounter with the Prototype Guerrilla appeared with a higher Vector than intended (Thanks lopedo).
  
• Fixed the bug where players would stop suddenly every time they pressed B with the controller to skip dialogs (Thanks Bum).
  
• Fixed the bug where after selecting "host private" in a contract, players returned to the Main Lobby without any selected contract (Thanks Bum).
  
• Fixed the bug where an exclamation mark appeared in Completed Quests (Thanks Petrisis).
  
• Fixed the bug where players couldn't unlock Spec Ops Contracts (Thanks Petrisis and tehgreg).
  
• Fixed a localization bug in the description of "VectorUpCase 30" (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• Fixed the bug here players didn't earn Faction EXP in some situations (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• Fixed the bug where the Runaway's Codex entry couldn't be unlocked (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• Fixed long and missing texts in Quests (Thanks Bum and tehgreg).
  
• Fixed the small text that appeared in the "Move Right" Input Settings (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• And countless bugs found by our trusty internal QA team (Thanks Hannah, Arnau, Bing, Alba and all led by Jmen)

We've fixed approximately 60% of the bugs reported by fans. At this pace, we'll be out of Beta soon. Now, to celebrate, we're happy to drop, effective now, Beta 2, which has all these bugs addressed. So it's a much better build. All the same rules of Beta 1 apply here, which I'll summarize below:

Joining the Beta
Follow this link http://Killsquad Discord Channel and enter the #beta-instructions channel.

Save games
The Beta uses a branch of your save game. You’ll start beta with your existing save game, but the progress made during Beta won’t transfer to your main branch save game.

Backing up your save game
Please do back up your main branch save game following these instructions:

Backup everything that it’s inside the “SaveGames Folder, which can be located here:

Users\\%Username%\\AppData\\Local\\Killsquad\\Saved\\SaveGames

Inside Steam’s “userdata” folder, you can find a couple of numbered ones. In here, you have to find Killsquad’s folder (910490) and backup these folders.

Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\userdata

And check out if you have this folder route. If you have it, back it up. If not, ignore.

SteamLibrary\\steamapps\\common\\KillSquad\\Game\\Saved\\SaveGames

Streaming the Beta
Please stream the beta! But please do not do it to showcase bugs or broken systems: we are constantly working on Killsquad and of course Betas *do* have bugs.

Reporting bugs
Report bugs in the #beta-bug-report of our Discord channel. Please be specific describing the bug: the easier for us to trigger the bug, the faster we solve it.


Reviews!
Haven’t written a review? This is THE single most important thing you can do! Please write one if you like our work!

Social media follow:
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/killsquad
Twitter: @Killsquadgame
And on the Steam forums

Streaming!
Stream Killsquad! Tell the world about it, on Twitch, on Youtube, anywhere. If you have a significant following, contact us at killsquad@novarama.com, and we’ll try to support you in any way we can.

That's it for today. Come on, go play!