Oct 1, 2018

Shadowcrawl: The Dark Pilgrimage - alex.d.osuna

How's it going everybody? it's been a couple months since launch and I'm really excited to see you all enjoying the game so much. It is definitely a huge passion project to me and something I made just because enjoy playing it so much so it really brings me joy to see that so many other people feel the same way I do about Shadowcrawl.

As some of you may have noticed, there has been a constant stream of updates to the game since launch so here I will go into some of the features and fixes that were included in the updates.

Shadowcrawl Post Launch Updates

Changed how most consumable items work.
- Changed the Flame Scrolls to shoot a ranged fireball spell.
- Changed the Stun Potion to be throwable up to 8 tiles.
- Removed the throwing spike and replaced it with a deployable stun trap.
Adjusted all of the stats for all 10 of the Base Mini-Boss enemies (Blood God, Creeping Willow, Goblin King etc).
Adjusted Health Stat to Hit Point ratios increasing them for all characters ever so slightly.
Dramatically altered how Armor Rating and Defense relate to Damage reduction. Nearly doubling it for Barrier Protection and increasing it somewhat for Health Protection. This has resulted in players being able to manage larger crowds as their Defense hits extreme values later in the game.
Performed dramatic general balance fixes all across the board in an attempt to make the combat feel better.
Added the Trophy System to the Game as well as the first 5 boss trophies and a sub-menu to interface the trophies that can be accessed from the inventory screen.
If you acquire a trophy on a level it now shows you what trophy you've earned at the end of that level.
The secret endings used to only depend on player alignment, I've changed them to also require all 5 boss trophies.
I made it so lone wall tiles in the maze without any neighbors will be replaced by a "Pillar" graphic specific to the current floor's Wall Biome. This really adds visually to the levels as well as changing the flow of rooms within the dungeon.
I changed the Lady of Blades to appear at the player spawn point on floors where the "Goblin Uprising" quest are available. This flows a lot better in terms of story and provides the player some combat support for the quest as well as a warning of what lies in wait for them.
I have done the same thing with the Lady of Blades on floors where the "Refute Thy Fealty" quest is available. This provides a much needed warning about the high levels of difficulty that lie ahead as well as how dramatically you will forever alter your game world.
I intend to do this for all late game quests in future updates.
Killing The Butcher now unleashes new Cult Shrines and secret enemies into the game world. Specifically releasing the Demon Michael and adding shrines of Demon and Meat worship to the level generator.
On that note I have added new forms of Meat and Demon Worship to the game.
- After Killing the Butcher:
  - Players can find a non aggressive Michael and worship him to gain the Demon perk without sacrificing an NPC.
  - Players can find Meat Altars to gain the Undeath Perk and Blood Bath spell.
- Players can also create their own meat altar by placing 7 severed heads on the floor into a pile together. This can be done without having killed The Butcher yet.
Fixed the infamous "Compass Bug" which would cause the compass to fail after several floors.
Fixed transparency issues with the ending cinematic sequences.
Some enemies had the forbidden-perk "Double-Step" left over from when I balanced it out of the game. I've managed to remove it entirely (I think).

Anyways again I'm really grateful to see you all so interested in the game and I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks about all the feature additions. Keep an eye out for more update logs coming too as I am constantly adding fresh and fun new features to the game.

I also post most of the changes I make to Twitter on a much more regular basis so you should follow me if you want fresh news on fresh changes.

I really enjoy feedback and love to hear from users so if any of you have any suggestions, ideas or general comments please feel free to reach out to me through any of my many means of contact. I will also be much more active on the discussion boards moving forwards.

Anyways thanks everyone for playing and I hope to hear from you all soon!

Reach out to me on Twitter -> www.twitter.com/Shadow_Crawl
Email -> AlexOsuna@gmail.com
And on our discord channel -> https://discord.gg/AsX9uZb

We also have a Wiki you can check out! -> shadowcrawl.wikia.com/wiki/ShadowCrawl_Wikia

And there is more information about the game on our website www.wickedcakegames.com/shadowcrawl.html

Oct 1, 2018

Tech Trees - A complete overhaul

Eden Rising - Elea

After the monsters and the sieges, let's talk about menus! We said it already, but this update will be a huge game changer in many ways. Your feedback and comments are very important for us. It allows Eden Rising to get better and better!

Until now, harvesting raw materials unlocks crafting recipes for gear and other technologies. We wanted players to see the potential in all their gear, so we've added a new feature! The next update will change this system by introducing Tech Trees!

Tech Trees?!

Crafting remains in the game and it's still one of the most important features of Eden Rising. Tech Trees allow a better and more clear classification of gear. You’ll be able to purchase crafting recipes step by step, according to their complexity to craft.

How does it work?

At the current state of development, Eden Rising has 5 main areas and just as many Crucibles to defend.

Tier1 of Tech Trees are unlocked when a Crucible is activated. The other Tiers are unlocked when sieges are completed: the more sieges you complete, the more Tiers (and recipes!) you’ll unlock!
Another reward is waiting for you. Every Tree has its own Master Node, a special recipe automatically unlocked when all sieges of the Crucible are completed.

How to unlock recipes?

Essences gain a brand-new role in the next update. They are currently primarily used for Crucible improvements. But in the next update, Essence will be the currency of Tech Trees and allow the player to buy crafting recipes.

Essences are obtained when a siege is successfully completed. The rate depends on how well you complete the siege. So the better you are at sieges, the more Essence you earn! Check out the Siege menu to see your rank and remaining rewards.

Thank you for your patience and your kindness as we work on this next update. We really want you to have the best content as possible. We only currently say that this update is coming very soon and we’re very excited to release it. So stay tuned here and in our social media for future news!

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Website
Discord
Official Facebook Page
Official Twitter Page
Instagram
Youtube Channel

Oct 1, 2018

Most Compelling Game Mechanics Award

Depths of Sanity - Owen

Depths of Sanity received the award for Most Compelling Game Mechanics
at Boston Festival of Indie Games 2018

The northeast tour for our underwater metroidvania, Depths of Sanity, has come to a close and what a wild ride it was. We visited three different cities (Boston MA, Hartford CT, and New York NY) all within only 2 months. During that time, we had over 1000 unique players and gave out thousands of pieces of swag including finger puppets, buttons, pens and pins. While there are so many memories that stuck out we figured we'd share the highlights of each show.

Play NYC

We kicked off with an amazing expo in New York City, Play NYC (https://www.play-nyc.com/) Apart from our booth and demo, we live streamed our game from the main stage of the expo to thousands of viewers on Twitch. Here's a view from the stage as well as some other great pictures:

Retro World Expo

Our next stop was in Hartford Connecticut for the Retro World Expo (http://retroworldexpo.com/). With so many amazing retro titles and classic games to buy, we almost forgot about Depths of Sanity and spent the whole time shopping! The biggest highlight was a talk that our Lead Programmer and Lead artist gave about what it's like creating retro games with modern tools. The folks at n3rdabl3.com did a great write up about the talk here: https://www.n3rdabl3.com/2018/09/rwx-2018-whats-old-is-new-again/

Boston Festival of Indie Games

And for our last stop we came home to Boston to show off Depths of Sanity one last time. Boston FIG fest (https://www.bostonfig.com/) is a curated event so we were honored even to be accepted into the showcase. However, our biggest highlight and proudest moment as game developers so far came when we won the award for Most Compelling Game Mechanics at BFIG. You can see the other amazing winners here: https://www.bostonfig.com/festival/figgies-awards/
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It was an incredible tour and we'd like to thank all of the players who came out and tried Depths of Sanity. A special thanks as well to all of the event organizers and volunteers who helped make these shows possible. We hope to visit even more events in the coming year.

If you were unable to play Depths of Sanity at any of these events, the demo is available on IndieDB here: https://www.indiedb.com/games/depths-of-sanity/downloads/new-demo2 . Please download it and give us your honest feedback. We'd love to have your input on how to improve it.

Owen
Lead Programmer, Bomb Shelter Games

Oct 1, 2018

Accidental revokes keys explanation, please view my updates here:

Evolvation - HyperReuts

Note: Latest update last

First update after couple of minutes after accidental revoke:

Hi there!

The developer here. I am trying to rebrand the game, have a lot of updates ready etc. But a lot of games are being sold illegally. So i just tried the "ban keys options" but it was a mistake that also some activated keys got banned (Just happened). I want to make it up to you guys. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to fix it?

Honest mistake,

Eric

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Update 10 minutes later:

- I have setup the mail: steamgiftskey@hyperreuts.com where you are able to request a key.
- I have asked Valve for new keys
-- I have asked Valve to undo the ban
- I will contact SG admin if they are able to sent new keys to the winners list,
-- Already in contact with SG

I have developed this game together with one friend and invested nearly all our savings in this game. There is sadly no way that we have the capacity to get near the attention or players that is required for a multiplayer game, unlike the major publishers. With the new updates coming I hope to establish a player base so we are able to play together, which is the intend of the game.

That is also why I did give away 10.000 keys. In order to get a playerbase or people who would love to help an indie to reach some audience and just develop a fun game. It was very sad to see that a major amount was sold illegally. This sucked since our total revenue of our game in all time was never even larger than 100 dollars (Excluding taxes and cuts).

However, it a a quite good game besides there is no player base. That is why I am trying to re-brand the game. The first course of action was to ban the unused games which are being sold illegally. This actually had led to this forum in a couple of seconds. I am deeply sorry that I made a honest mistake and want to fix it immediately. I love the irony that nobody plays the game, however the moment I made a mistake I reach an audience bigger than I have ever got. Thank you all for responding this fast! This gives me the strength to develop further and make even more games, even though I make mistakes.

Love,

Eric

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Update 19:45 GMT 30 September 2018:

Done everything I can for now:

- Contacted Valve and SG about the mistake of the ban of the keys
- I am waiting for a response for a fix. I asked steam to un-ban, made sure that SG knows that it was not your fault and you get un-banned
- In the meantime I work on redundant solves (if needed) such as asking Steam for keys to re-give and asking SG to re-give them

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Update 04:13 GMT 1 October 2018:
- Valve denied my request of new keys without explanation. Requested again with better explanation...
- Evolvation is whitelisted on SG, this should solve the ban i guess?

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Update 19:05 GMT 1 October 2018:
- Still waiting on response of Steam. Request are being denied without explanation. I even requested to make the game completely free for a week so the problem can be solved. I am just an indie which is trying hard. In the mean time my company is getting ruined by getting negative reviews, hateful comments, and bad publicity by pressing (non intentionally) on a single button. I have created a lot new content and made a new marketing strategy for the game to start a new campaign in which I really believe it would work and which I communicated with Steam. It's a pity that the game and my company (and myself) is now being destroyed before I can even try. I doing everything I can.

Update 15:55 GMT 2 October 2018:
- In bellevue washington it is nearly 9 o clock (steam HQ). I hope they answer soon on all my requests.

Update: 21:54 GMT 2 October 2018:
- Steam just denied my keys again for redistribution
- I've asked them again to if they are not going to give the keys, that they can make the game for free for the upcoming period so everyone can add it to their library if they want.

Update 19:38 GMT 3 October 2018:
- Waiting on update from Steam.

Update: 8:00 GMT 4 October:
- Update from steam, not possible to undo the ban (as expected) but they are going to help explore other solutions.

Update: 11:17 GMT 5 October:
- Waiting on response of Steam, I expect an answer and solution soon (hope today).
- I am currently setting op my booth at the GameCon Firstlook, hope to have a great weekend and promote the new Evolvation

Update: 20:29 GMT 6 October:
Hi there,

I want to resupply everyone with new keys. But unfortunately, it seems that this is not going to happen since Valve denies the key request. When I did giveaway these 10.000 copies, Steam had a different policy for issuing keys. It now seems that they want to restrict supplying keys. https://www.polygon.com/2017/8/18/16167462/valve-steam-keys-limiting-developers

This is very annoying for me and for you. But within these limits I am trying to find a solution. And the fairest thing I can come up with is making the game temporarily free so people are able to add it to their library. so I've suggested this to Steam.

I am currently (again) waiting on a response of Steam. They are very slow in responding, and if responding, it is mostly not specific. I have now specifically requested to make the game temporarily free the next weekend so you are able to add the game to your library.

Hope this helps you. I am doing everything I can within (and out of) the limits and boundaries given to me.

With the kindest regards,

Eric

Update GMT: 17:56 8 October:
I've had contact with Steam and we decided to make the game temporarily free of now. So you are able to add it to your library. Hopes this helps you guys out and solves the issue. I am losing big time here, but I did this so the issue is being solved. I am sorry for the inconvenience. Feel free to add the game to your library!