This is a very important update because it's all based on community feedback:

• Player re-spawn on top of other players and objects improved;
  
• CPU cars health implemented;
  
• Player health is not affected by collision with other cars anymore;
  
• Balls on bedroom tracks are smaller, translucent, and don't affect player health before race starts;
  
• Visual cue for low health implemented (still needs tweaking).

In the spirit of many people being trapped at home, this weekend your maps will become... Confined.



This special PVP map will be active in all games (except Pandora) until Midnight tomorrow, April 18th.

Social distancing requirements will be temporarily relaxed in Faeria matches during this time.

Find more information here, in today's Faeria Friday.

Rover Wars is now live on Steam and Nintendo Switch.
Be sure not to miss out on this awesome launch deal -40% as it only lasts for 1 week after release.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1259130/Rover_Wars/
https://www.nintendo.be/nl/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Rover-Wars-1753702.html

Hi everyone,

besides still focusing on fixing existing issues we managed to add a new grass system, new rocks and bigger Grassy Island. The new Tall Grass can be used as material for the new Grass building modules tier. The Long Canoe allows transporting of boxes, chests and barrels attached to its back part. A couple of older game breaking issues were fixed too.

The finally arrived optimized new grass system (along with a new ground texturing mechanic) opened the path for introducing bigger islands. The first in the list is the new bigger (to this time the biggest) Grassy island which features also the new Grass and new Rock models.



The new Tall Grass can mainly be found on this island type which can be used as a building material for a brand new sort of building modules.


The Grassy island offers slightly limited building methods because only small bushes are available and the only way to get away from this island is to build a canoe or small raft from driftwood.

The new Long Canoe allows to transport boxes, chests and barrels attached to its back part. It moves slower than the simple Canoe but can be a big help when it is needed to transport objects against the wind over shorter distances.


Among a couple of minor ones also two major issues were fixed: Attached crates, chests, boxes and barrels aren't automatically detaching during longer journeys between the islands; Seagulls sitting on the Nest rocks don't fall/clip into rocks after being shot down.

Changelog: (* needs new game)

New features:

01. Added: Optimized Grass system
02. Added: Optimized ground texturing mechanic
03. Added: Grassy Island*
04. Added: Tall Grass Roll build material*
05. Added: Grass based building modules
06. Added: Long Canoe for transportation

General:

01. Added: New realistic Rocks*
02. Added: New realistic Grass
03. Added: Filtering possibility of materials in Build screen

Fixes:

01. Fixed: Old Iron Axe damage increased to 130
02. Fixed: Missing Stone Arrow on some Lagoon Islands
03. Fixed: Missing inventory icon for Banana Shelter 2
04. Fixed: Not stackable empty Coconut pots (for originally empty Coconut pots after cooking)
05. Fixed: Incorrect displaying 'Empty' hotkey for WaterHolder on Cookplace
06. Fixed: Incorrect displaying 'Fill' hotkey for WaterHolder on Cookplace
07. Fixed: Incorrect ground texture (grassy) for Rocky Islands
08. Fixed: Incorrect HP shown for Old Stick Paddle before first use
09. Fixed: Recipes not Cooking on CookPlaces
10. Fixed: Not applying hunger value when Drinking Cooked recipe (for example Boiled meat and Egg)
11. Fixed: Missing description text in inventory for Dead Grass and Old Stick Paddle
12. Fixed: Shot down Seagulls clipping into Nest rocks
13. Fixed: Small live Seagull body size
14. Fixed: Auto "detaching" objects from Raft bases on the ocean when travelling to islands far away

For the next update we plan to recheck the raft building mechanic and to continue the work on the Sailing UI with higher priority. The additional plans include also the Old Telescope, Old Knife, Old Watch, Sun Clock, Map UI, Fruit ripening, Fruit regrow, Spear, Smoker, Sailing UI, Dolphins, Simple Quests, Building modules aging ... We will work also on solving new issues and we will recheck some older issues too. Other new features will be added as implementing the planned features and fixing issues will allow us to.

Thank you for your patience and for your constructive feedbacks helping us to get rid of the issues as fast as is possible.

Do you like our game and want to help even more during development? We look forward to every positive review posted on our Steam page and thank everyone who decides to support us along the way!


G4GTeam.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to ask us. We will try to answer your questions in detail.


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Siema! I’m Kamil, game director/producer at Awaken Realms Digital, and I’m really happy that I’m finally able to share this update with y’all!

Mostly because over the past few months we made a huge leap forward in every aspect of the game.


As you may know, we’ve run a closed pre-alpha test of Tainted Grail for Kickstarter backers of the board game in December – we really wanted to see how players will react to a very rough version of the game in order to get as much feedback as possible. We asked them to complete a “short” survey after they were done with the demo and well… we got swamped with responses. We got a tremendous amount of answers and they still keep on coming.

We are amazed by this reception. So first of all: thank you! Engaging with our community is one of our core values at Awaken Realms and we always take your feedback seriously.

We went through all the answers, we’ve read all you had to say on our Discord (and spoiled some stuff over there already), we’ve read our Steam forums (and responded to everything we could), and we’ve been keeping close watch on everything that had been published about Tainted Grail on the web.

We were looking for things that keep coming back in your feedback. And so, taking everything you said into consideration (after running it through our internal filters), we’ve decided to change and improve some things in the game.

Here’s some of the stuff that’s been happening with Tainted Grail since December 2019!

We’re going to talk about:

• COMBAT
  
• TURNS
  
• THE MAP
  
• WHEN IT WILL BE PLAYABLE
  
• TRANSLATIONS

Oh, and one quick note before we get to the core: in our surveys we asked “what do you feel is the game’s most solid and enjoyable aspect?”, and we saw that most common answers – 75% – point to the following topics:

• story (32%), lore (7%)
  
• atmosphere (13%), visuals (11%)
  
• combat (12%)

But, as you may know, we’re Polish, and so even though we could’ve said that it’s a job well done and call it a day, we – like our DNA dictates – decided to focus mostly on the negatives instead. That’s how we’ve been raised, that’s what our parents usually did! ;)

So. The interesting thing that came up when we asked “what one thing should be improved in the game” is that the most popular keyword was...

Here’s a funny thing. How is it possible that “combat” was both one of the best rated elements of the game and one that you felt should be improved the most?

I’d say that the answer seems pretty simple: our game was based on a very weird dissonance. It looked and played like an RPG while its combat felt like… well, another boring card game. We’ve seen this problem reflected in our surveys, on our Steam forums, and in plenty of other places.

There was an interesting paradox we faced, though. It seems that people are fed up with card-based games EVEN THOUGH when they did try out Tainted Grail they seemed to like the gameplay we’ve built around cards.

So, thanks to the amount of positive feedback we received and a lot of interest we’ve seen around the game we decided that we definitely need to find time and resources to do something about this.

Here’s one of the main things that we've been working on: we moved our combat to full 3D.


There's still a lot we have to polish in here and we're working on that - we could've waited to show you a better version... but we're so happy to be able to finally say that it WORKS that we just couldn't restist sharing even a work-in-progress video with you all!

Let us know what you think! For us - It already feels really good to play (that screenshake! :D). And we’re honestly not sure whether there’s another card-based game out there which does the same thing with combat visuals. We couldn’t find any.

Now we're finally sure that we are going to keep this feature and so we can finally share it with y'all - and we're really happy about that because going full 3D was the only logical step we could take if we wanted to keep the RPG feel in the game while also keeping the main building blocks of our combat’s systems intact.

So there are various reasons why we decided to do this – obviously, we wanted to make the experience more visually appealing and more immersive – but I won’t bullshit you with this kind of PR talk. One of the greatest things we achieved by going full 3D is that we can finally let you spend more time with your heroes and let you see them grow in power. We couldn’t do that with tiny low poly models moving around the game’s map that turned into static portraits on the combat screen. Now, when you build an awesome combo, you can actually witness and feel its real power! :D

“BUT… IS IT STILL A CARD GAME? :(“
Well. You see, the design problem we’re facing here is that unless they’re based on your physical dexterity (like Skyrim or The Witcher 3) most turn-based video games offer skills and abilities that deep down are just like cards – they only have different ways of visualizing them.

What we are looking for while designing Tainted Grail, and what’s best achieved in our case by cards and turn-based combat, is

• letting players try out various playstyles,
  
• giving them lots of interesting gameplay choices,
  
• turning every combat encounter into an exciting puzzle to solve,
  
• laying out a rich collection of systems that affect one another,
  
• chosing new skills, managing them, and creating awesome combos.

Using turns and cards also allows us to have some fun with the game’s pacing: Tainted Grail currently feels like a fast-paced puzzle game (for “arcade” gamers like myself) WHILE also having plenty of opportunities for min-maxing and optimizing the game’s systems (for hardcore deck builders – like our designers).

But enough about that – it’s not the only change I have to tell you about!

This will be quick. At some point in the game you were able to recruit a second character. When you did that, the game shifted to turn-based movement – and plenty of players hated that part because we didn’t implement it properly. It was confusing and tiresome to move characters separately (while we couldn’t just add a “party” because it would’ve been totally weird (as in “why is only one of my characters fighting or participating in that story encounter?” weird)) and/or game-breaking in certain points.

What we did is this: we got rid of turns as a limitation (“you can’t go there this turn, you need to wait until the next one”) and kept them only as a way to measure time. So now you can move freely on the map – it’s just that the time will pass and it will be measured in arbitrarily set turns. Why? One of the reasons is that some things in our storyline demand it! Also, there are some items and statuses that last for limited amount of time - and turns are pretty clean and easy when it comes to representing the flow time.

What players really loved about Tainted Grail’s demo was its atmosphere and visuals. Our artists did a great job at translating the world of the board game into its digital version in December BUT we knew we could do better.

Or rather they’ve known that they want to do better because… well, the only explanation I have is that they are insane. Like, seriously, I haven’t met a group of people who are that crazy about polishing every single thing (that nobody’s going to notice, like, ever). But, as always, they did an amazing job with the graphical overhaul of the entire game.

But first – let me explain why we felt that Tainted Grail needs a visual makeover.

When we started the project, it was based around certain assumptions – that the terrain will be of fixed size and height, and that the placement of locations should be more or less similar to the board game. This means that, for example, Grubwood – a haunted forest in which the Fore-dwellers were slain in huge numbers – would’ve had to be a location designed as a single “node” that could be placed on the map so that you could interact with it. Pretty much like a single card in the board game.

This meant that Grubwood would’ve had one entrance, and upon interacting with it you’d see a pop up with its storyline.

We didn’t want that to happen:



However, we didn’t have time to tackle this problem properly in December so our Grubwood looked like any other forest in the game:



We couldn’t do much about it back then. In order to fix that we’d have to start over – rebuild the entire map from scratch.

So what did we decide to do when we saw you all really excited about the game’s visuals after our pre-alpha demo? Well. Obviously we decided to start over and rebuild the entire map from scratch in order to make it even prettier! :D

But what does it mean for gameplay?

Skipping all technical stuff, it’s enough to say that now the map can be as big or as small as we want. And this, obviously, means that the game got… bigger. And more diverse in terms of landscapes you’ll be able to visit and experience.

This, in turn, means that we can add more quests, more events, more STUFF.

(And that I – being in charge of quest design, too – won’t sleep for a couple of months BUT OH WELL #INDIEGAMEDEV)



Second great thing we have now – various tools which help us out in differentiation of textures and vegetation in order to create plenty of different biomes. Cities should feel like cities and forests should feel like forests now. Do you remember the Witch’s cottage near Cuanacht?

In December:



Today:



Also, remember our old Grubwood – that blue forest? Here’s our new Grubwood:



Third thing: that damned scale.

I have nightmares about this topic, seriously. It kept coming back in our discussions for the past year or so, and we’ve been running in circles trying to fix this problem. It’s all because we just couldn’t stand this:



The fact that our heroes are the size of houses was a total immersion breaker for most of the people on the development team. Any solution would’ve required a redesign of the entire game map. Would’ve required a redo of plenty of our already existing models (like houses), plenty of entirely new ones, entirely new terrain. It would’ve required a lot of time and effort…

And, as you already know, that’s precisely what we did.

And it was soooo worth it.









Now let’s get to the best part.

Soon™.

After some thoughts and consultations, we decided that we will launch this game in Early Access (this upgrade will come for free to all Kickstarter backers, your version of the game will just upgrade). You may think that story focused RPGs are not the best material for Early Access for various reasons and well… You are quite right.

BUT there are a lot of people who asked us whether it's possible to play the game somehow (THANK YOU, the fact that you wanted to play our pre-alpha feels so amazing!), even if it was just a tiny fragment of the full experience. So, even though we will have only 3-4 hours of main campaign's gameplay ready for our Early Access launch, we will make sure it will be an enhanced and improved version of what some of you have already seen. For example, we're going to implement/ehnance/fix:

1. Better quests, more sidequests
   
2. More choices and branching with more consequences
   
3. More voiceovers!
   
4. WAY better visuals (as you've seen in this update), sound, and overall UI improvements
   
5. ...less bugs & better optimization

But, to be honest, we would feel bad if this was be the ONLY thing we would offer to all the people who will help us in creating Tainted Grail by participating in our Early Access.

This is why we are creating A WHOLE, ADDITIONAL MODE for the game.
And you'll be able to enjoy it... endlessly.

An entirely new game experience. For free.In addition to the RPG, not instead.

It started as, well, just a crazy idea, but after a while... it turned out into something really amazing! I can’t tell you more right now and this update is REALLY LONG already… But stay tuned: we’re going to have more details soon and we are really excited to share it with you all!

Oh, I almost forgot. One last thing you’ve been asking about...

This will be quick. We spent a lot of time creating a backend and tools which will eventually allow us to translate the game to various languages but – to be completely honest – we won’t be able to support other languages than English for the Early Access launch. The game’s text and storyline is going to be changing during this phase and we just can’t afford to spend our resources on this particular feature because translations and voice acting… well, they are really expensive.

However – you can help us out.

Steam allows us to see precisely how many players downloaded or wishlisted the game in a certain region/country. This means that we can clearly see both the existing player base AND the possible demand – and right now all our player numbers come from the Kickstarter backers.

We will be looking at all those numbers closely (like “f5” every single minute closely) before, during, and after the Early Access launch – so we just want to ask you for a click. If you’re interested in the game’s translation to the language you speak or you know someone who will only play the game if it’s translated: tell them to let us know by adding Tainted Grail to their wishlist. We can’t (it’s physically impossible) count how many of you will ask us about this on Discord or email – we can see the numbers in our control panel, though.

So: make yourself visible by wishlisting and playing the game – this lets us know not only how many of you are there, but also WHERE you are!

It is time to start the countdown - only two weeks left until full release!

We are excited and we hope you are also as excited as we!

Firstly we want to thank you for your patience! We feel we need reward you this time you were waiting for the release game! For doing so, we are going to make some contests!

Second thing we want kindly to remind you that you can play a demo version of our game! If you didn’t - try it now!

And the last thing - Train Station Renovation - First Job will be available next week! We are preparing something special for that occasion, so stay tuned and follow us here on steam and social media!

About Contests





1. Enter Train Station Renovation store page and choose “Community Hub” over the logo and game description
2. Choose “Follow” on TSR Community main window on top.



As you can see above we want to give you a discount for the game on the launch day! If we hit 6k people in our group!


Check our social media to find more contests!



Best regards
Train Station Renovation team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/914010/Train_Station_Renovation/

Can you feel the AWESOME energy radiating from the Levelhead Community?? I certainly can, so buckle up and let this blissful force take you for a ride.

As always, remember to click the level names to bookmark them for later on. HERE WE GO!


Tune in for the very first Live Stream of the Levelhead Delivery Championship happening this weekend! A few of the AWESOME community members have put together this event as a way to thank the rest of the community for their support on the streams and also celebrate the end of Levelhead's early access. Live commentating & competitive speedrunners make this an event not to miss!
The Levelhead Speedrunning Guild has risen from the ashes! Make sure to participate in the trial run of the Phoenix Cup which ends on April 18th. The participation will encourage the creators to keep it going and bring many other cups to a post-launch world!


The Levelhead soundtrack on Spotify has been updated with the five new tracks that are coming at Launch. Get a sneak peek and enjoy the groovy tunes!


GR-18, The Robot Rock has to continue to climb through elevators and what not in Tobvet's Skyscaperesque level Fix Elevator. Will the Robot Rock rescue its loved one???


WATCH OUT, there is a Robot Monkey on the loose in SleepyDoof's thrilling level Climb With Caution. Sliding, climbing and stealing packages --- RUN for cover!


Throw caution out the window, put on those running shoes and take off in Yucca's engaging level Crombler Sprint Or Jem!? Or just do what you want: This is Levelhead!


GR-18 Croft has to jump, slide, kill enemies, and solve mysteries to gather all the pieces of the map in Salmaster's gripping level Scavenge The Grand Factory. What secrets will the map REVEAL????

• Spekio's Bramble Blast Off is all about flying! Up up & away!
• Espurrator's Dark Temple Of Whizblade is all about the dark side of Whizblades!
• Cyro's Keep Yo Speed! is all about that need for SPEEEEEEB!

*Season mode score bug fixed.
*Event mode prize money bug fixed.
*AI will no longer get a speed boost when the player is on p1.

Hello everyone, I added the Steam Workshop feature to the game. At present, I have added a "Magic Book" Mod. I will continue to add some Mod, I hope you like this new feature.

We are proud to present you our Roadmap for our future plans for Artificial Extinction! There are a lot of exciting things coming to the game, namely the Advanced Levels unlocked after beating the 9 days.

Before we talk about the upcoming Advanced Levels, here is the Roadmap:



We're hard at work on the first Advanced Level. It's adding new systems and components which takes time to create but rest assured that it will be released as soon as it's ready. As a rough guide, we're expecting to release the first Advanced Level in the 2 week range.

We hope you are as excited as we are about the future of Artificial Extinction!

Now let’s talk about the Advanced Levels.

The Advanced Levels are only unlocked for players who have finished the 9 days. Therefore, the levels will be a lot more challenging which we are sure you will enjoy! The levels will be longer, introduce special events such as darkness or weather, new sentry types, new terrain challenges, new enemy classes and enemy abilities to keep you on your toes.

Each level will be 1 hour long with an automatic trigger for level saving at 50% fuel. So if you die at 51% fuel, you will have the option to restart the level from the beginning or resume playing from 50% fuel.

We are planning on releasing the first Advanced Level as Roadmap update 1. We love your feedback and once you've beaten Advanced Level 1 let us know what you think in the Discussion Forum! That will help us with planning the next Advanced Levels.

Thank you to everyone for your support and kind words, we can’t wait to make this game even better! If you're enjoying the game, nothing motivates us more than to see a positive review. Thank you to everyone who contributes with their ideas, bug reports and suggestions!