After the 9.5.0 release, we've been receiving a lot reports about frequent game crashes, as well as issues where a number of maps would inexplicably crash the game servers. After exhaustive investigation, it was determined that these issues are likely caused by some sort of bug in the game’s engine code which we are unable to properly diagnose nor directly fix (as modders, we cannot edit the engine’s underlying engine).

In order to restore stability and resolve these game-breaking issues, we have decided to revert a significant portion of the new additions introduced in the v9.5.0 update.

This step back is a temporary measure, and we will be incrementally reintroducing all the new weapons and uniforms in the days to come.

We apologize for the inconvenience!

See you on the battlefield,
Darklight Games

***

Today with us Maxim Lakomsky - senior game designer and project manager of Deck of Ashes. He is responsible for all your favorite in-game mechanics, powerful card combinations, unique character style, monster mechanics and much more.

Hello, fellow! Tell me about your profession, what do you do? Who's a game designer?

Hey, Sly! A game-designer is a person who creates a general concept of the game and thinks through all its details, all its sides. A game designer creates so-called design documents and technical tasks for the whole dev team. From the basic idea of the game, the story tie, and the basic mechanic, to a detailed description of each individual monster - how it's skils will work for the programmer, how it will look for the artist, how it will sound for the composer and how the game will be presented in the advert materials. In other words, the whole game is in the head of the game designer, and the team embodies his vision through the documentation prescribed by him.

How long have you been in the team? What did you do when you first joined the guys?

I joined the team 3 months before the release of the game in early access. In fact, I was hired to make this release happen. There was a wide range of tasks and it was necessary to bring the project to a playable form. A lot of work has already been done at that time: if I am not mistaken, a tutorial was created right before I got hired. When I joined the team, the first thing I started doing was bosses. Then I started working on monsters' skills and concepts. All the artworks had already been done by that time. I also did a lot more than that. There were a million smaller tasks. And creating a demo version for closed-door shows of the game, of course. It was a very important stage.

What's the hardest part about work for you?

You! *Laughing* Actually, it was Sly's creation phase that was very hard for me, but not the most difficult one. The hardest part was combining several tasks at once. You're afraid to forget something, to miss something, because of that you come back to check tasks several times, and in the end, you spend a lot of time and even less of it remains for the next tasks. A game designer needs to be just an equilibrist of time management. Without that, you can't do anything.

I know that bloodthirsty jester Magnus is your doing. What makes this character so different from the others?

The number of Magnus' unique skills and, in particular, the ability to control the mind of opponents. I came up with this almost as soon as I started working on the game at first. And I waited a long time to finally get to the point where we could bring all my ideas to life. At one point, we decided it was worth making Magnus as powerful as possible and gave him a second important skill, the ability to summon the Phantom. That was a tough technical challenge for our programmer because the mechanics of the game that had already been created didn't include the possibility of creating summoned creatures on the player's side. It was... really exciting!

What are you playing yourself? What games have helped you better understand the direction chosen for Deck of Ashes?

I've played thousands of PC games, no exaggeration, seriously. Many hundreds of games I played to the end, some even a few times. From early childhood, I've played many genres - shooters, strategies, RPGs... To a lesser extent, some kinds of sports, like racing. But I personally associate Deck of Ashes, in many ways, with the Heroes of Might and Magic III. And I don't consider more obvious comparisons - everyone already knows them. But I tried to make sure that the players get at least a fraction of the feelings that I myself once felt, sitting for another mission in HOMM3 - that atmosphere of the gameplay cant be conveyed by words, it must be felt.

Guys who are just beginning their game-designing journey. What would you suggest to them?

Pump up your mind and understand the industry. Just wanting to create a game does not make you a game designer. But the desire plus knowledge of what hundreds of games are made of, how does it work, and how to organize the workflow for yourself. That's what makes you a game designer. But how successful you become depends only on you and your personal qualities. Don't just stand there, pump up!

And finally: blitz! Lovecraft or Steven King? Why a game design? What is the power of a game designer?

1) Lovecraft, definitely. I even read it in the original, I love it. 2) Because I can. 3) The power of a game designer in the imagination and the ability to stand in the place of each team member. A good game designer should be able to at least a little understanding of everything that entrusts the others to do - an art, a code, marketing, all at once.

Thank you for your guidance and detailed answers. It was interesting!

***
Enjoying these interviews?

An interview with Yuliya Novoseltseva, artist of AYGames:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1016730/announcements/detail/1719748588201393714

We are in social networks:

ВКОНТАКТЕ
TWITTER
FACEBOOK

Update notes:
- added a turbo lift (fast travel) from hanger straight to Ship Dock
- fix Module collision in the hanger
- fix Logi7 collider renderer
- fix builder kiosk name
- fix player position bug when loading
- ability to save using the beds in capital ships
- fix Robobed furniture not moving glitch
- Adjusted player 3rd person camera to be more centered

The game is updated to v1.8.3

• Fixed a bug that may cause the buff cards selection appears on Turn 2 in certain missions in the Story Mode. (It should always appear on Turn 1)

• Fixed a bug that may sometimes cause the rolling credits to freeze.

• Fixed a bug that may cause errors in the New Game+ mode while Mu Zhiyun is in your army.

• Fixed some voice casting errors.

Also, we want to take this chance to let you know that we'll be adding a high-difficulty challenge mission "A Sailor's Tale" to The Oriental Pirate DLC recently. (It should be coming along with the DLC, but we didn't finish it in time because of the coronavirus thing.) Please make sure to keep your save files if you have finished Chapter 25 or the main campaign. Thanks for your understanding!

Hi everyone,
Just a short update. Work is still being done on the new level which I plan to release as a wavelevel first. It's close to being done. I am polishing it so framerates aren't bad on lower spec machines.


I also plan on adding a test for the climbing mechanics in the pyramid singleplayer test level.


Lastly I have surprise new character coming up. Not going to show what it is yet, but I think people will like it ;)

Kind regards,
Raymond

Hello everyone!

Join us for a playtest this Sunday, to play the CTF mode with PERKS!
If you don't have the game yet, grab a key from HERE.

Don't hesitate to join us on discord.

See you Sunday at 8:30 PM CET in game!

Update Content:(Feb 15, 17:00)
1.Added the function of locking the officials. Locked officers will be filtered in self-appointing and full-releasing.
2.Added the function of fulling all the attributes of new officers with one click. Added one type as Full-up in the catagory of officers with all 100 attributes and full warcraft.
3.Added the function of Forging magics in the Workshop based on the original three types. It increases rate of success dramatically.
4.Optimized the function of drilling in different cities on the big map. Do not need to confirm and then close the interface.
5.Optimized the tutorial. New players without saves have the process to start with the tutorial. Notice: Old hands with saves will not be affected.
6.Fixed known BUG and interface problems in the Spring Festival version.

Backpack Guy getting excited when he sees you and will wave away when you leave. Click here to see the animation, this is worth it trust me!
Hello, it's BOON! It brings me great joy to share the biggest update we've ever done for Wally.

I made you a special video, and it would mean a lot to me if you could see it as I'll be able to explain myself better on what problems I've been tackling in Wally these past few months and what we added to help make the greatest rogue-lite ever.

https://youtu.be/SQZ9GpmHFvY?t=19

In a nutshell, this update's main goal is to deliver a different experience every time you launch a run, encounter different synergies that end up creating a different experience overall.


Here are the MAJOR changes that Wally has undergone.

• You are now able to walk around corners. This is singlehandedly one of my favorite additions as now being able to run as fast as possible in a dungeon without the fear of accidentally colliding with a Wall.
  
• Camera View size has been increased from 500x275 to 640x360. This will let you see farther away and you'll be able to play faster when going vertically.
  
  
• Dragon boss arena has been replaced with a dynamic boss arena. Your camera will be locked and unable to move.
  
  
• New, First dungeon music.
  
• Only on the first loop of bullet/boomerang mode if you do NOT have the longsword upgrade you will automatically be given the longsword upgrade when fighting the CLOAK boss fight, it will then be removed after the boss fight.
  
• Bombs now have their own dedicated button and can be picked up and found in the dungeon.
  
• When you are trapped by the vortex now there is a UI indication.
  
• Cloud area has new art.
  
• Added new enemies to the cloud area.
  
• Special stage has been reworked: Ghost has been removed instead you have a set amount of time to collect all the coins available to you.
  
• Shops can now be found in the dungeons.
  
• Slot machine and Health Machines can now be found in the dungeons.
  
• Slot machines have a chance to spawn a golden variant if you're past the 5th floor.

18 New Quests have been added to the game


After dealing 150 Damage: you can activate the reward. Then the quest will refresh and you'll be able to complete it again.

QUEST REWARDS
Legendary quests can be found after defeating bosses.

• Get an apple.
  
• Get +5 bombs
  
• Get 1000 coins
  
• Get permanent damage to all weapons
  
• Get permanent attack speed to all weapons
  
• Get permanent health
  
• Get permanent stamina
  
• 10 seconds of invincibility
  
• +1 Persuade (Let’s you skip curses)
  
• (LEGENDARY Badge, can only obtain after killing a boss: Get a random upgrade)
  
• (LEGENDARY Badge, can only obtain after killing a boss: Get a random legendary weapon)
  
• (LEGENDARY Badge, can only obtain after killing a boss: Get 2 apples)
  
• Upgrade stamina buddy (if he cannot attack, allows him to attack), If Stamina buddy can attack, this will increase his attack speed
  
• Get a random badge reward

Second dungeon's art has been revamped.
CHANGES

• Hugging backpack guy only gives out random upgrades
  
• Removed Foxlion boss fight.
  
• Reworked the boomerang tutorial.
  
• Added a new downgrade that increases the speed of grinders.
  
• Added Red Birds
  
• Removed being able to change the darkness level.
  
• Removed line of sight shadows.
  
• Saw blades are removed upon clearing the dungeon
  
• Sawblades are now killable if you destroy the wall they are on.
  
• Bear max hp upon destroying beehive reduced from 12 HP to 10 HP
  
• Fixed the potion’s text not showing up correctly on the ui layer
  
• Added a progression that will let you unlock more upgrades and more content.
  
• Added a zoom effect to the stairs.
  
• Removed the level-up upgrade screen.
  
• All enemies have more knockback (Dragons now have knockback.
  
• Art of the boxes will now change depending on the downgrades or upgrades that you've found. (Ex. The Curse that spawns quills from the box will change the appearance of the box so that they have a sign to advertise to you that they contain quills. If you find the upgrade that destroys all the quills in a dungeon after destroying a box it will add a RED X on the box.
  
• Added
  
• Added bomb pickups to treasure chests
  
• Boss HP bar will always be displayed from now on.
  
• Reduced red dragon boss max hp from 150 -> 120
  
• Reduced red dragon green fireball attack speed from 7 -> 2.5 during the first loop of the game.
  
• Downgrade choices are always one unless an upgrade makes it otherwise
  
• Downgrade options when falling down a hole have a 50% chance they won’t spawn in.
  
• (Sniper) Added lasers sight collision detection when interacting with the walls.
  
• Fixed a glitch that made margins on upgrades titles too narrow
  
• Reworked level up the formula so that you level up more often.
  
• You will never see weapons repeat in a run until you’ve been able to see at every single one the same goes with quests and upgrades.
  
• Gems will now show up in your upgrade queue
  
• Sword can now be aimed with the right analog stick (Thanks to r0ax who suggested this)
  
• Added a rubber chicken (a rare occurrence)
  
• Removed chests from the dungeon, instead they will appear after you complete the level

WEAPONS ADDITIONS
Legendary weapons can only be found after killing a boss.*

• Added New weapon Punch Boy (the shotgun if it was just one bullet)
  
• Added New weapon Toxic deals the most amount of damage per shot BUT it’s a damage over time effect. (deals poison damage over the course of 10 seconds, poison is stackable and decimates bosses)
  
• Added New weapon Snake After it hits an enemy it will ricochet to the nearest enemy until it has no enemy to ricochet to. The bullet has low range
  
• Added New Legendary weapon Old Sniper Rifle, (works just like the old sniper rifle has no miss penalty and 0.3 SEC reload time, very rare)
  
• Added New Legendary weapon Heavy Minigun (has 4x as much as damage as a minigun. You cannot move while holding it, shooting moves you around like a pinball)
  
• Added New Legendary weapon, 4 Way bombs that explode and spawn 4 random 4-way bombs that fly out in random directions.
  
• Added a new weapon, 4-way bullets BUT diagonal only.
  
• Added new Legendary weapon 4 way bullets but you shoot all directions at the same time.
  
• Added new Legendary weapon 4-way diagonal bullets but you shoot all directions at the same time.
  
• Added new Legendary weapon The Pinwheel.
  
• Legendary: Birds Birds Birds

WEAPON CHANGES

• Delayed Shotgun shots now bounce off Walls.
  
• Delayed Shotgun shots speed increased.
  
• You will never find your starting gun.
  
• Sniper is now a legendary weapon and can be found after defeating a boss.
  
• Sniper: KOing an enemy it will reduce you're next reload shot by 50% to accommodate for this change bullet reload from increased from 0.7 -> 1.2 SEC.
  
• Default gun attack speed increased from 0.25 SEC -> 0.1 SEC
  
• Default gun is now manual press to shoot. (Shoot as fast as your trigger finger will allow it.
  
• The shotgun bullet's size has been reduced.
  
• Removed Wall busters (bombs are now pickable and have their own slot from now on)
  
• Added

NEW UPGRADES

• Added a piercing shot upgrade to all weapons.
  
• Added Jalapeno Business: Speed up a weapon reload on kill
  
• Removed rolls deal more damage the more combos you have
  
• Added Siren’s Song: deal +40% more damage when you have more than 5 combos
  
• Removed Sugar Rush (Stamina moves 1,000,000 faster towards you)
  
• Added Old Root, Picking up a new badge queues it, instead of removing the badge
  
• Added a stackable upgrade: BIG BOMB , Increase the wall radius blast of bombs.
  
• Added a stackable upgrade BONUS BOMB, Bomb pickups restore one more bomb
  
• Added a stackable upgrade EXPLOSIVE HORIZON, +3 BOMBS on level up.
  
• Added new upgrade, OVERSHARPENED SWORD, +2 Sword Damage -1 Range
  
• Added new upgrade, Queue, Grabbing a new quest queues it instead of destroying it.
  
• Added new upgrade Cello, Who is this?: Ko an enemy, get 1.5 SECS of +40% Attack speed.
  
• Added new upgrade, Crinkled leaf, adds homing bullets to current weapon type.
  
• Removed Power Nap (Stand still to recover stamina)
  
• Added Golden Harp, Kill an enemy to get 1 second of critical hits.
  
• Added compass into the upgrade pool, reduced the cost of the compass from 1800 to 900
  
• Magnet increase grab range from 4x -> 10x
  
• Magnet: also makes all coins/gems worth +1 more on pickup.
  
• Added new upgrade: Inconspicuous log restore 1 heart after drinking the potion of mystery (stackable)
  
• Added a new upgrade: BOOOOOOOON!!! Double the effects of mysterious potions.
  
• Added a new upgrade: hidden compartments restore half a heart when equipping a new weapon (stackable)
  
• Added a new upgrade: BUBBLE BUDDY! Blocks the first hit you take. (has a 50% chance of refreshing when you restart a room, increase the likelyhood of bubble buddy.
  
• Added a new legendary upgrade STONE FORM: +8 Max stamina, but you cannot see your current stamina.
  
• Added a new upgrade Jalapeno business, KO an enemy, reloads next shot by 50%
  
• Changed upgrade: Toxic venom from give all your bullets poison damage, to give your current weapon poison damage.
  
• Added a new upgrade old relic +12% bullet speed, +12% bullet range
  
• Added new legendary upgrade red orb: +30% bullet damage
  
• Added new legendary upgrade blue orb: +40% bullet attack speed
  
• Added new legendary upgrade yellow orb: +10% chance to deal 450% bullet crit
  
• Added new legendary upgrade brown orb: +30% bullet range +30% bullet speed
  
• Added new legendary upgrade green orb: all bullets deal poison damage
  
• Added new legendary upgrade pink orb: +100% homing to bullets
  
• Added new legendary upgrade purple orb: +1 bullet chain to all weapons
  
• Added new legendary upgrade white orb: Doubles the max ammo of all weapons
  
• Added new legendary upgrade black orb: increases all weapon’s bullet size.
  
• Added new legendary upgrade Party Palooza: Gain +3 Persuades.
  
• Added new legendary upgrade
  
• Added new upgrade: BUBBLE BUDDY, blocks the next instance of damage you take, has a 50% of refreshing after going to the next floor (increases the chance of refreshing with each stack).
  
• Added a new upgrade: Cello, who is this? After KO-ing an enemy get 1.5 seconds of +40% Attack Speed
  
• Added a new upgrade Suspiciously shaped banana, Choose 2 boss rewards instead of one.
  
• Added a new upgrade: INCONSPICUOUS LOG: increase the size of the bullet to your current weapon.
  
• Added a new upgrade: CARAMEL, apples restore more health (¼ for each stack)
  
• Added a new upgrade Friend discount Shop items discount rate increased from 50% -> 75%
  
• Added a new upgrade Say it's your birthday: Shops have more discounts.
  
• Added a new upgrade Helmet: protects you from self harm damage from bombs.
  
• Removed Big Book of baddies as boss hp will always be displayed.

AUDIO

• New, First dungeon music.
  
• New, reworked audio system that’s easier on the memory (Note: The current entire audio system is temporarily slightly broken while WangleLine works on the new one)
  
• New grass footstep sounds
  
• New hitmarker sound
  
• New bird chirping sounds
  
• New bird wing flapping sounds
  
• New crate/box destruction sounds
  
• New bomb explosion sounds
  
• New bomb thunder sounds (plays a bit after the main explosion)
  
• New bomb fuse (activation) sounds
  
• New bomb fuse loop (plays while bomb is about to explode)
  
• New bomb tick sounds
  
• New burn loop sound for fireballs and burning grass
  
• New fire ball creation / shoot sound
  
• New combo sounds
  
• New default gun sounds
  
• New shotgun / shotty gun sounds
  
• New spinner/sawblade loop
  
• New Sniper sounds

BUG FIXES

• Weapons give you ammo when you pick them up as intended
  
• Fixed bears not having knockback resistance while charging.
  
• Increased speed of the cloak boss ball so that it accelerates immediately, but the speed will not carry over to later reflects.
  
• Grinder enemy will now always start on the wall, grinder enemies have new art and new audio.
  
• Chests are now destroyable with bullets.
  
• Stamina buddy will no longer shoot in cutscenes.
  
• Fixed a glitch that caused the camera to go out of bounds whenever they died to the dragon boss in the cloud area.
  
• Fixed a glitch that caused the grinders to stay permanently stuck on walls.
  
• Added some motion blur for circle-shaped room transitions
  
• Improvements to bird behavior
  
• Taking the butterfly to safety quest shows your rewards better
  
• Fixed a bug that caused a soft lock when you died in the manta ray boss room with the mysterious ghost bringing you back to life. (thanks to bilbobaggins for finding the bug)
  
• Removed boxes from spawning when you fell into a new room
  
• Removed grass contacting the hole to the next level if it spawns on top of grass.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused knockback to not go in the direction of your bullets
  
• Hud effect for the vortex has been made much shorter to cover less of the screen
  
• Fixed a camera glitch that occurred while drinking the potion of mystery
  
• Glitch Fixed light circles appearing on the top left part of the map.
  
• Fixed the mystery potion text from randomly dissapearing.
  
• Fixed poison working properly with enemies.
  
• Fixed poison not giving you combos.
  
• Camera is a lot snappier and quicker to respond.
  
• Fixed a glitch that prevented you from moving when walking through walls.
  
• Added a counter to let you know how far you are from getting walk t hrough walls in the secret floor.
  
• Fixed a glitch that made the audio from grabbing coins so high that it hurt the ears. (after grabbing 50 or so the pitch will reset to 0)
  
• Fixed a memory leak glitch that occurred when restarting the game many times. (Thanks to Jacobs for finding this bug)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1219940
This is the most frightening humorous game of all. Scary, because if you see a simple sign (link) in the event in the game, it means that it is a link to a real YouTube interview or another resource that inspired us to write the event in the game.
Do you really think that you know how people live in Russia in 2020? You can't even imagine the hard reality and actual state of things. Young female teachers approach an official of the leading party in the country to inform him that their salary of around $300 per month is nothing. However, he has a bit of sensible advice for them. He just tells those young teachers to find rich men to live in prosperity and forget about any problems. It turns out that being a teacher and educating new generations is not enough to have a normal level of living in Russia. Young ladies need old and rich lovers, who will satisfy all their needs and demands.

In July 2019, forest fire covered more than 9 million hectares in the Krasnoyarsk Region in Russia (it's 70 times larger than the total area of Los Angeles). At the same time, officials and first responders aren't even trying to extinguish them. The governor of the Krasnoyarsk Region found the easiest solution for the problem. According to him, there are no economic rationale and business sense in extinguishing forest fires. By using the same logic, one can easily find a lot of economically useless things and activities. For example, what's the purpose of having kids if there's no economic benefit? I'm not going to show all the cards of the table right now because each and every of you wants to find the tiniest details of the game on your own, don't you? Welcome to the world of the parallel universe, where you will meet 150 million Russians.

Kindly note that our game is a comic and humorous parody, thus the majority of events in the game are imaginary. The key story of the game is based on the fact that you are a spy from the USA. You have the following goal: To provoke a revolution in Russia. To reach your goal, you have to pay a lot of money to officials and lawmakers just to make them doing those silly and unacceptable things, which they like to do once in a while even without money. You will do your best to raise dissatisfaction and discontent of people with the government to the highest level, causing millions of citizens to start protesting and overthrow the regime. Can you make it real? Let's find it out together.

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