We’re so thankful for the warm reception of the first Rain of Reflections this far, and so happy to see that critics and Steam buyers alike seem to enjoy the unique adventure-strategy blend we’ve really poured our hearts into!

Ever since the release we’ve been actively engaging with you, listening to and reading your feedback, and trying to answer any questions you’ve had.

One major take-away from these discussions has been that the pricing for the different Chapters has not been motivated and communicated clearly enough.




For all you early adopters/buyers (to whom we’re so very thankful), we will offer compensation for this sudden change in pricing. You will get to choose from one of these two options:

1. A second, free Steam key for Chapter 1 (for you to give away).
   
2. The price difference (7-9 euros/dollars) in the form of a Steam voucher.

We are encouraging you to contact us on support@lionbite.se with your Steam handle (with which you bought the game), specifying which of the two options you’d like us to compensate you with.

Thank You for your continued support and understanding as we continue trying to do our best, and – this goes without saying – keep listening to your feedback!



Last but not least, we want to take the opportunity to make a clarification of the Chapters.

We have three Chapters planned, each a full game release focusing on a different protagonist and their unique perspective and abilities.

The very idea is to have the Chapters stand firmly on their own, not depending on each other, while at the same time eventually connecting them together.

As we’re sure you’re already aware, the first Chapter, “Set Free”, has you playing Wilona with cloaking and hacking tools to her disposal.
Meanwhile the next Chapter, “Open Eye”, will focus on Dwennon in the cyberpunk-esque Cluster, and he in turn will offer new abilities and different gameplay relative to his character.
Then finally comes resistance fighter Imra in Chapter “Undercurrent”, starting off her journey in the Infrared shelter, the Root, bringing even more fresh locations and gameplay into the mix.

Part of the vision is always keeping it intense, fresh and moving forward – never overstaying our welcome.

We have so much exciting stuff left for you to experience, and we will start showing the upcoming Chapters off as we keep progressing.

Loyal citizens, hi there and welcome.

Another month went by since our previous post in which I described Dream Engines' gameplay in more detail. Let me share some of what we’ve been up to since then. In this post I’ll tell you about some of what we’ve been doing and also share some insights into our thought process and reasoning behind some important design decisions.

My main goal this past month was to reach a point in which a collection of mechanics and interfaces ceases to be just that, and starts feeling like a game that is actually fun to play. I needed the game to become challenging, and allow players to create intrinsic goals (objectives that you set for yourselves, such as researching a certain key technology).

If you have any more questions, Feel free to ask in the discussions page or in our discord, and I’ll answer as best I can. And if you haven't yet, please wishlist & follow us to stay in touch!


For our first Early Access release, the main gameplay mode will be Survival mode.

In survival mode your goal is to survive, expand, and progress, playing in a different random generated world each time. While this mode will be mostly sandbox-style without a story to guide you, we plan to have one or more victory conditions which you can achieve to win the game. We plan to allow for different difficulty levels and perhaps other “modifiers” that affect how you play the game each time.

This mode makes most sense for the earlier versions of the game, since it has limited scope, is fairly easy to change, and provides a lot of replay value.



Most of the game plays on a “local map” that is randomly generated every time the city lands, until the player decides to take off and travel to a new location. One of the biggest questions we’ve had since the start of the project was “how long will players play on each map” before moving on?

This simple question shapes a lot of the game. Can players take their time, and move at their own pace? Explore a map and exploit all its resources before moving to a new one? Or should they be pressed for time, dealing with increasing threats, and always being on the move?

We finally came to a conclusion that the best way to create a feeling of threat and survival is through faster pacing. A faster pace also allows for quicker games, and more willingness to start over after losing, which is important for the game to be replayable.

Therefore each landing will have a very limited time window (10-15 minutes real-time) in which the player will race to exploit as many resources as possible, before being pounded by massive waves of powerful enemies. Every time the city travels, the game gets harder and harder, and if the city’s progress is too slow, it will very likely be annihilated before long.

Note that the game will still feature active-pause, so the faster pace doesn’t mean you can’t stop and think. It just means you have to be efficient and make wise choices.



One super important element in both making the game fun and in providing replay value is generating interesting maps. The map is one of the most critical random elements, and when not generated correctly, all playthroughs may feel similar to one another and replayability is lost.

This is a mistake I made in our previous game, Judgment, and am keen on avoiding now. While there are random maps in Judgment, they don’t really matter enough to affect your choices. Luckily we have other more interesting elements such as random survivors that make up for it.

So, I spent a lot of time this month in researching and testing new map generation methods. I needed both interesting shapes - providing interesting tactical choices - and smart distribution of enemies/resources - random enough to make playthroughs different from each other, but also making sure it’s always fair and balanced. Tough challenge.

The best solution I found was to build a map made of many interconnected “islands” of open territory, surrounded by blocked areas. This creates an interesting open-air dungeon-like map in which larger areas have limited access points that the player can defend or explore.

The way the resources are distributed on islands makes the map much more interesting and more uniform than our previous topography-based map. Players don’t just randomly move units anymore, there are now clear “paths” to explore, and points of interest guarded by enemies.



Before, the enemies that were scattered around the world and those that raided your city were there same. These enemies were fairly strong (as strong as 2 of your units, more or less), fast, and had relatively long attack range. These made for interesting raids, especially later in the game, because the enemy waves reached the city quickly and delivered a suitable challenge for the city’s stationary defences.

These enemies, however, made poor mobs on the map. They were so strong that the players had to send all their units in one big group to minimize loss. That made for slow-paced exploration, exploring areas one by one with a lot of dead time. Moreover, they were so strong that we had to keep their numbers small, and then a lot of the map was just empty.

Instead, we now have new types of enemies for spawning around the map (we don't have their art yet, so no screenshots here). These are much slower and short ranged. You can send smaller groups to explore several areas at once, and only send larger forces to clear areas that are strategically important. These enemies will damage and destroy your units in large numbers, but in smaller numbers all they do is delay and hinder your exploration.

A month ago, early-game attack waves were repelled using your mobile units, and you didn’t need to (actually couldn’t) build walls or turrets until later on. That did not work so well.

For one, you had to recall your exploring units to base whenever you were attacked, or leave your city defenseless. This added a lot of dead time in which you just watched your units traveling from their faraway locations to the city and back.

There was also a huge jump in your defensive capabilities when unlocking stationary defenses. It was very hard to balance attack waves around this, they were either too easy once you built defenses, or too hard before you did so.

So I added lower tier defenses that are unlocked from the start. They are also cheap enough so that you feel comfortable building them outside, protecting choke points leading to the city, and abandoning them when you take off.

On the art side, our artists Yoni and Peter made a lot of improvements and performance optimizations to our visuals, and are always creating new content for future use. Here’s some concept art of ancient ruins that we’ll be adding to the game. These will provide important benefits to those able to exploit them.



I now feel that we are finally there, and when playing Dream Engines actually feels like a real game - it keeps me interested and I no longer just play because I have to, I actually enjoy the challenge. Finally!

Now we will build on top of that, add content and features that will expand on the base that we have built, add more flavor and increase the enjoyment. This is definitely a big step in the right direction, but there’s still much work to be done.

I really hope to start external playtesting soon, we’ll be sure to let you all know when you can apply. If you’re interested in more frequent updates and peeks into our progress, you can join our discord and follow us on Twitter.

- Tomer and the Suncrash team

Greetings Innkeepers!

Thank you for all the support we’ve received from you during last week! You are amazing and your feedback (both positive and negative) was a great help while working on patches. The game is everyday closer and closer to what we wanted it to be from the beginning, but there is still some work to do! This time we decided to focus on a bugs you seemed to encounter most frequently lately as we want you to enjoy Crossroads Inn without annoying crashes and glitches.

Please find changelog below:

AI:

- The workers will no longer become stuck while trying to pick up mugs and plates
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be advised that we have noticed this issue mostly occurs when the player either blocks access to the Counter, or severly limits it by leaving very little space for the workers to go through. In case of encountering a similar issue in the future, please make sure to take this into consideration
- Fixed an issue that occasionally caused Bards to lock the Stage
- Mugs and Plates will now be cleaned correctly in the Dishwasher
- Improved pathing on and near the Pallet to prevent workers from getting stuck while trying to pick up goods
- An Oven will no longer spawn massive amounts of Bread constantly
- Alestro will no longer be blocked in a loop while trying to save the Countess

UI:

- Dialogue with The Seer will now correctly trigger during campaign
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please note that this requires loading a slightly older save, from before this objective - this is only valid for players who have a saved game exactly at this moment
- Fixed incorrect number display for reputation with all factions
- Progress will no longer persist between different Sandbox gameplay sessions
- Ale can now be sold correctly
- Fixed an issue that prevented Vedetas to use "Seduce" command after they return from a mission

Miscellaneous:

- Fixed an issue that prevented progress in the Campaign on "Unlock Nobles" objective
- Fixed an issue that prevented Distressed reputation from increasing if the tavern was too fancy
- A furniture that's on fire can no longer be moved

We have released a small update to enable support for the HTC Vive Cosmos. Should you experience any issues at all, please feel free to swing over to our discussions and let us know.

As always your feedback is really appreciated.

Thank you for your support and have fun!

- Psytec Games

French has been added to the game and can be selected from the drop down menu on the login screen.

Hey there! It’s Weekly News time!



A new section of Bumsville is completed - an abandoned district.



This place is the home and headquarters of your rival bum gang known as The Bugs.

The registration for the Altruism experiment is open. The goal is to test the payoffs of altruism in DbD. Participants will be asked to play either altruistically (help and rescue others) or not, as well as playing with the sole objective of escaping (sacrificing for the killers).

Player selection

• Random selection of 1 000 participants.
  
• US PC players only.

Directives

• Be available to play your matches on November 8th between 8AM EST and November 8th 16PM EST (XXXPM UTC to XXXAM UTC).
  
• Play at least 15 regular matches with your allocated role (killer or survivor).
  
• Use a Vanilla loadout (no perks, no items, no addons, no offerings).
  
• Play solo games.
  
• Do not use the hatch.
  
• Complete at least 15 matches, without disconnecting, with your allocated role (killer or survivor), with your allocated playstyle.

The second ruler of the Monarch's Journey, Llewellyn II "the Great" Aberffraw, is now available to play in CKII! Launch Crusader Kings 2 to play as Llewellyn II "The Great" and earn yourselves rewards you can use in Crusader Kings 3!

As a reminder: the Monarch’s Journey is a new way of exploring the world of Crusader Kings and will help you earn cosmetic add-ons for Crusader Kings III through Ruler Challenges.

The Ruler Challenges present you with a new realm with a specific objective to achieve. Whether you are a newcomer or a veteran The Monarch’s Journey is your chance to (re)learn parts of the game, try new worlds and new ways of play in our infinite medieval sandbox!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/203770/Crusader_Kings_II/

Hi everyone,

The new Steam update has added additional privacy settings that may be causing a "Could not retrieve your Steam Friends List" message in Wolfenstein: Youngblood:



You will need to update your Steam Profile Privacy settings and set your Friends List to "Public."



This should allow you to access your Steam Friends List in Wolfenstein: Youngblood!

The high-quality metal posters by Displate are really decorative. In-game Kingdom Come: Deliverance maps, landscapes & other amazing artworks will embellish your home. Use the code "KCD30" to get a decent 30% discount at the shop. Follow the link
https://displate.com/kingdom1?art=5da7113d431d2