Agents and investigators, it's time for another week's developer's diary.

But, first, we are having some suspicious situations in Liu.
Your operations have been watched by those guys.

They are monitoring you from a distance. They will escape if you get too close.
However, you can still get rid of them by deploying traps.


They are wearing Chinese opera masks. Thus, it is likely that the Dragons (or at least the Dragon's subdivisions in China) are sending them to you. There is no evidence so far. Their motivations are also unknown for now.

Regarding the masks, here is what an Illuminati doctor says:


In this secret world, everyone wears masks for quite obvious reasons.
Almost everyone wants to keep things quiet to avoid getting too much attention. The civil system in the "normal" world can't fully understand what is happening. Thus, a hunter who kills a human-like monster in a city may still be charged with murder. Furthermore, in a city like Liu where there are security cameras everywhere, even a slight crime may be detected immediately and police forces will get called in. Secrecy becomes so important that someone built "This is a bar" to work as a huge brainwashing center making sure people will think all the strange things happening around them as "normal." No matter what that is, it can be simply explained: "Because...this is a bar..."

The exception is when members of secret societies find themselves already in a hot spot where a crisis is already taking place. The zombie outbreak in Queensmouth is in such a case. Local residents are under direct threats of supernatural activities. They have seen enough and there is no need to cover their eyes. At least when such a crisis is still ongoing. In this case, the masks worn by different secret society members may serve a different purpose. It may provide protection or attribution enhancement to let agents handle the situations better. For example, in one of this week's updates, the blueprints of Illuminati's gas masks can now be acquired. Craft them from a 3D printing machine and you can find them very useful against poison hazards.

Meanwhile, as the development is back to the north side of Queensmouth town, the main story will be continued from here. The Illuminati front base can now be entered if you've already completed previous stories. Their soldiers may or may not be hostile to you depending on your story progress and the choices you make.

The Mayor of Queensmouth can now also be found in the town hall. But, he has become something...different.

The shade does not only consume people's memories, invading the collective consciousness of humanity. They may sometimes infect and turn people as well. When he is defeated, you may discover the tragedy of his own story and a clue about how the shade comes to Queensmouth in 1978 in the first place.

That's for this week. More story-related content is scheduled next. But, making art assets is very time-consuming and I am honestly not really good at that.

Today's update log:
English
#########Content#####################
Added a strange girl in the Queensmouth Airport Control Center.
Added a merchant and Illuminati Shirt in the Queensmouth Airport Control Center.

The list of changes:

• width greatly reduced;
  
• balloons moved under the hull;
  
• cannons can now be directed at 180 degrees (forward)
  
• base durability increased from 400 to 450

- Needle's base durability increased from 370 to 430
- The width of all controllable skyships has been slightly reduced
- Increased shield duration from 1.2 to 1.8 seconds
- Increased shield energy cost from 4 to 5
- Reduced the spread of the Three-Shot Cannon
- Reduced the damage of the Automatic Cannon
- Reduced the damage of the Hunter's Rocket Cannon
- Reduced the damage of the Swarm Cannon
- Swarm Cannon can now overheat
- Changed the upgrade that reduces cannon overheating (level 1: -20% (instead of -40%), level 2: -40% (instead of -80%)
- Re-balanced the parameters of skyship cannons overheating
- Elephant now can have the maximum of 5 hull breaches instead of 4
- Changed tier 2 shielders' rate of turn: now they move similarly to the rest of the shielders
- Fixed shielders' rate of turn change during pause and time stop

- Fixed a tablet bug where the controls were not blocked in some windows
- Fixed a bug where you could leave the helm while interacting with the tablet
- Fixed the Swarm plant damage bug in the Swarm Zone
- Fixed a bug where you couldn't control the skyship after leaving the shipyard
- Fixed an issue where, in the Swarm boss's attack on the Moth Village cutscene, the player was "turned off" for the duration of one frame and started the fight stuck in the animation without a weapon
- Fixed an issue where in the radial menu in the Equipment window when switching to the Modify window, button navigation stopped functioning
- Fixed the gate at the location of the Moth Nest
- Fixed an issue where Eva filled all the first-aid kit slots and it was still possible to pick up another one from a flower (now it is indicated that all the slots are full)

- Fixed the Fathership location name and flag mapping
- Resource icons are now visible when you zoom the camera close enough for the location names to appear - and vice versa
- The map legend now takes up less space
- Added gradients around the edges to improve the readability of the control hints and legend
- Disabled the outdated marking of the Western Aspya region

- Improved the design of the "Moth Nest" location
- Improved the design of the "Wing Islands" location
- Improved the design of the "Big Water Island" location
- Improved the design of the "Broken Stairs" location
- Improved the design of the "Windyriver" location
- Improved the design of the "Sickle Archipelago" location

- Luma's ability to transfer resources is now unlocked immediately after the prologue
- Luma now carries things and the player faster
- While aboard a skyship, you can now look around by holding down the spacebar and using the mouse
- Increased power of tier 3 ground enemies
- Enemy power is now updated not only when enemies spawn but also after closing the tablet
- Added several cutscenes with Falcons on various islands
- Reduced Swarmlit processing time from 30 to 8 seconds
- Increased the chance of Marble dropping in one of the Swarm Zone subzones
- Fixed the chance of asteroids dropping coal
- When a Falcon skyship is destroyed, a real skyship model falls into the sky instead of just a hull image
- Improved memory management when working with navigation grids of some bigger locations.


Keep your feedback coming!

--------------------

Please, update your game.

It's launch day, which means that problems are going to come up last minute. Luckily this was a small one. There was a problem with the UI in regards to picking colors for your username, but that's now been solved! I hope everything else runs smoothly, and if you run into problems, please let us know on Discord, the Steam forums, or via the feedback option in game.

After several major updates were released in the early access phase, the moment for the Coloring Game 4 full release has finally come!

A compliment from the developer: the number of free images that were added during the latest update has been doubled.


- Feature to change the color of the highlighted cells.



- Now you can change the hotkeys by editing the file config.json. The keys get set with the use of the KeyCode which can be found on the following website: https://keycode.info/.

- The player’s game progress is now saved in a separate file. It used to be stored in the settings file, which could sometimes lead to progress loss in case the file integrity got damaged.

Note: if your progress is lost, you can restore it (based on your achievements) by using a key combination Ctrl+F3.



After our artist comes back from his summer vacation, he will start working on several more DLCs for CG4 that are going to be released before the end of the year. As for me, I’m getting down to a new project that is not related to CG. Minor updates concerning the game performance and the error elimination in the CG series will be released as well.



https://store.steampowered.com/app/1698250/Coloring_Game_4__Nature/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1698251/Coloring_Game_4__Insta/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1698252/Coloring_Game_4__2Bit_Palette/

The new operation «Ringing of Shell» starts today. By completing contracts and winning matches you will gain operation points and earn unique rewards, such as the new weapon, the Knight's Armament LAMG machine gun for the Destroyer class. There are also new weapon mods and camouflages for the Destroyer class in the operation crates.




The operation will last until September 3, 2021, inclusive.



With the release of the operation, we have also made some changes in the game.

• Fmod sound system - introducing the first iteration of the completely new sound system. We have transitioned from the standard Unity sound engine to the Fmod engine.
  
• Team GunGame game mode readjusted - now the weapon progress is synced for the whole team. Enemy kills will give the team points for the next level, while deaths in the team will take points away. Teams will get IronClad in turns, killing which will instantly move the team to the next level.
  
• Revamped the respawn system for the Team Elimination game mode - now the players respawn simultaneously every few seconds. The respawn location will be closer to teammates whenever possible.
  
• Added the ability to purchase reward weapons from the previous operations for WB.
  
• Adjusted the visual effects of laser sights, added a 15% aiming speed bonus with a laser sight enabled.
• Added a display of the effect on aiming speed for weapon modules.
  
• Magnum buckshot (Stormtrooper shotgun ammo) - reduced the range penalty to 15%, increased the damage bonus to 25%.
  
• AP-HS ammo (Scout SMG ammo) - reduced the range penalty to 20%.
  
• ACR - increased the ammunition to 3 magazines.
  
• PDR-C - reduced the recoil of the first shot, reduced the shooting spread.
  
• EVO3 - reduced the shooting spread.
  
• UZI PRO - increased the damage to 35.

Bryan - This week I’ve been playing through the whole game… a lot. Actually, all of us are. Trying to test all the game’s features to make sure they work takes a lot of time, but it’s obviously an important step as we get close to release. However, I still find little bits to polish and places to add final details. Today I put in some props to accompany an unwell Cosmo who can’t help Morvin due to a surprise flare-up of “space rickets.” I hope he’s not faking it to get out of work!



Lauren - This week I’ve been reaching out to the community and expanding our Twitter following, recording content from the full game for our Tiktok, setting up some future collaborations with some awesome streamers and playtesting Cosmo’s Quickstop. This week has been an utter blast! It’s so fun playing through the campaign and seeing how much has been added over the years. I’m having the time of my life! :)


Erin - TESTING, ALWAYS BE TESTING!


Ian - Big surprise, I've been doing a lot of testing too! However, most of my time is spent fixing all the bugs all these other testers find. A lot of these bugs are very quick things here and there and don't even make it to our "main" bug list. The nastier ones stick around longer but we have had success crushing them due to the fact that all of the playtesters are now recording their screens during play. Here is a list of bugs I fixed just in the past couple days.




One last thing! If you've been waiting for a sign to give our demo a try, this is it! For very exciting, top secret reasons, we're going to have to take the demo down from Steam on Sunday evening. That means there's just a few days left to beat your high score (and don't forget to share it with our community on Discord!)

Don't worry though! You won't be deprived of Cosmo's Quickstop fun times for long, I promise. Make sure you keep your eyes and ears out for all sorts of Cosmo's Quickstop news coming your way soon.

Dear subscribers! Once again, the latest issue of the post-apocalyptic CRONUS Weekly is on your screens. Can anyone hear us?

Today we want to talk about what was added to our release build after the fifth content patch.




Yes, you heard us right. The full Encased release date is September 7th. Mark the day on your calendars and get ready to explore the fully opened Dome in just over a month. Dozens of new quests, new story chapters, multiple endings, weapons, artifacts, and that's just the tip of the content iceberg, that’s awaiting you.

To brighten up your waiting time, we will continue to publish all the most interesting things from the Encased development.




Our artists continue to add new and, most importantly, memorable pictures to the game. You'll see them while loading locations, as well as in text vignettes or even on posters in living rooms. We try to make the world as lively as possible, that is easy to believe and immerse yourself in.




The combat system continues to change and get better, which is why we are so grateful for player feedback! Very soon the game will be more convenient, and most importantly, more fun. Everyone will miss a lot less now in battles.




Today we want to show you another new location that you'll be able to visit at the game's release this September. It's much more vertical than the previous ones, which will absolutely affect your combat tactics.






https://store.steampowered.com/app/921800/

Please Wishlist and click Follow to stay updated!

The game is still in the development so if you want to stay in touch on other channels than Steam you can follow us on social media and visit other cool resources with game updates information new artworks and lore pieces.

Encased: A Sci-Fi Post-Apocalyptic RPG

:lwCheckPoint: Character Generator - create a character that may appear in the game as NPC and get the cool story item.
:chat: Official Discord Server
:checklist: Newsletter
:checklist: Twitter (game updates)
:checklist: Facebook (game updates)
:checklist: Youtube (trailers, livestreams and dev diaries)
:checklist: VK (game updates in russian)
:checklist: Instagram (art and stories)


Dark Crystal Games

:RideCheck: Dark Crystal Games dev page on Steam
:RideCheck: Press Center (presskit and publications)
:RideCheck: Dark Crystal Games (news and jobs)
:RideCheck: Artstation (art production and stories)


Black Tower Publishing
:tower: Black Tower Publishing on Steam
:tower: Black Tower's Blog
[/list]

Hello friends! Every Friday 17:30 UTC/GMT we hold a “Let’s play together” competition. During next 24 hours everyone is welcome to try and score the best time in a preselected level. Join our Discord server and keep Discord running while playing — your results will be automatically published in the #lets-play-together channel. You need to get 5 stars to qualify.

Glittering prizes include:
1) Top 3 winners receive one random card each. Collect 18 locomotive cards and advance to next set of 6 all new cards! Complete that second set and enter a final tier of 2 very special and super limited cards! Assemble 26 cards and receive a special prize. Easy!
2) Every player registered by our Discord bot has a chance to get a card. The number of cards depends on the number of participants: one additional card for every 10 train connoisseurs on the list. More players means more prizes!

Visit our Discord server (#lets-play-together channel) to learn more.

A level we are playing this week is
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2219897841
Just open the game - there's a link right in the main menu.

Good luck everyone!

A strange problem with liquids on planet surfaces has been fixed. Somehow the water/wave shader stopped working at certain distances, causing the liquid to turn into a flat color.

Here's what it may have looked like:


I found out that I had foolishly set a distance on whether shaders would be drawn or not. This caused the water shader to turn off at a certain distance from the center of the map, where the water model's origin was. Turning this limit off fixed the problem.

However, in the process of figuring this out, I was able to address a similar but unrelated issue. The water model also had a strange way of reflecting light, causing it to brighten up significantly when the player approached the center of the planet map. This actually looked very similar to the image above, though one could still see the water ripples in this case, and the color would stay roughly the same (though brighter).

I assumed this was the problem being experienced, and tweaked the way liquids respond to light. The result is a much more stable water shader that should not brighten up in unusual ways, nor disappear completely. Enjoy!

You awaken. Not from a dream but from something remembered, something distant, something forbidden. Welcome Betrayer, welcome.... to The Spine.

Thank you for your interest in Betrayer: Curse of the Spine. In this game you are taking on the role of the Betrayer aka Aiden in his quest to escape the curse of The Spine. You won't do it alone though. Along the way you will be granted incredible powers, learn to craft useful items that will aid you, and develop rich combat and traversal skills to journey through The Spine in a bid for redemption and escape.

This prologue is a brief glimpse into the world that we are building for Betrayer: Curse of the Spine but we hope that it will show you enough of what we have planned that you'll jump back into this world with us right away when we launch into Early Access in August. But we didn't want to just expect you to show up for nothing, so we're planning on rewarding any players that download and play the Betrayer: Prologue with exclusive items that will unlock in Betrayer: Curse of the Spine.

For now we hope you download, play and enjoy this short trip into The Spine and we absolutely can't wait to share more of this world with you soon.


Wishlist the full game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1382290/Betrayer_Curse_of_the_Spine/