In our last post, we took our first look at Níwenborh, the kingdom’s new capital that you’ll be working to restore throughout your campaign. We touched on the utility of essential buildings such as the Magic Amplifier, recruitment Camps, Training Grounds, Oracle, and Marketplace, and how they can be used to bolster the strength of your forces, improve the Commander’s abilities, and trade precious resources!

This time around we’ll be examining some of the more specialised buildings that you’ll be constructing and utilising in the later stages of your adventure.


Mercenary Camp - One of the strongest buildings you can erect in the Capital, this tall tower allows you to begin recruiting unique and dangerous units that would not otherwise be available through camps.



While these creatures hold no loyalty to the Dragoness, they can be bought for a price. Commanders can use the rare resource, Mercenary Sigils, to hire these Units for their next quest. Players can hire multiple mercenaries at the same time and mix them into their army with regular units, provided they have enough space of course!

Shrine of Souls – An essential upgrade for those with an affinity for battle. The Shrine of Souls maintains a record of all the beast units that you have defeated while undertaking quests. If you defeat enough of a specific creature, you will unlock extra resources which in turn can be used to build more capital structures.



The more powerful or rarer the slain unit, the better the rewards!


Ancient Forge – As you explore the Drairthir Peninsula you’ll discover and collect various exotic artifacts and rare shards.

Artifacts are powerful items that the Commander can equip to provide offensive and defensive buffs to her army and improve her spells and abilities. Shards on the other hand are artifact fragments which can be smelted down at the Ancient Forge to craft entirely new items.



By upgrading the Ancient Forge you’ll eventually be able to combine two of the same artifacts to craft an even more powerful version. Just remember that an artefact can reach a maximum of two-star levels, at which point it can no longer be improved.

Black Market – Unlike the regular Marketplace which trades in resources, the Black Market deals exclusively with artifacts. As you explore and through the use of the Ancient Forge you’ll gradually start gathering multiples of the same artifact. Fortunately, any unwanted or spare artifacts can be traded on the Black Market for random artifacts of the same star level.




Almost all the buildings that you construct in the Capital can be upgraded in some way. These upgrades vary depending on the structure but all will aid you in your quest to overcome the Shai-Va and the mysterious affliction that has blighted the peninsula.

For example, upgrading the Ancient Forge unlocks the ability to create more powerful artifacts by merging duplicates. Further upgrades will then increase your percentage chance of creating more powerful artifacts when smelting shards, or reduce the cost of shards needed when creating a new artifact!



Níwenborh will gradually become more vibrant and grander as you continue to work on its restoration. You’ll notice this when you upgrade an existing structure, with new visual elements appearing as you purchase each upgrade.

And that is everything you need to know about the capital of Níwenborh! We hope you’ll enjoy creating a mighty city to act as a bulwark against the chaos spreading throughout the kingdom.

In our next update, we’ll be elaborating more on the use of Artifacts as well as their importance during battles.

See you then!

- Crazy Goat Games & PQube

Follow PQube Indies on:

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀

Very soon, you’ll be able to set off on the adventure of a brave teddy bear to rescue his owner Alicia from the other side of “happily ever after”!

In honor of this, we, together with our publisher 101XP, announce a GIVEAWAY of 10 keys for the publisher hits: The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (5) and For the People (5).

Join our 👾 Discord server to participate:

From my battle to our war, MMORPG MIR4.

Greetings, this is MIR4.

Golden goblin, a creature passionated with gold, lives around MIR world.

Golden goblin, wandering and searching for treasures nearby Bicheon area and Secret Peak, is now here to take a business!

Check out Golden goblin's surprising packages on [Goblin Market].

Remember that Golden goblin will only be on Saturday, we recommend you not to miss out this great opportunity!

※ Please be aware that all products on sale will be available for the day (~ 23:59) and they will not be purchasable after this period.
※ Golden goblin packages can be found on [Goblin Market] in [Shop] menu.

Welcome to the fifth entry in our SITREP developer diary series! Up until this point, we have tackled community questions regarding visuals—environments, lighting, equipment, and gear. There’s still more work that we’re doing in these areas that we’d like to discuss in the future, but there is another fundamental puzzle piece of Six Days we haven’t addressed. We’ve briefly touched on audio in previous diaries, but now’s the time for a deep dive. Today, we want to answer the questions, “How does Six Days sound,” and “Why?”

Please remember that all assets shown are currently a work-in-progress.

Audio authenticity is paramount to the tactical shooter experience we’re building. The Second Battle of Fallujah was a three-dimensional, 360-degree battlefield - and hearing is the only three-dimensional, 360-degree sense we have. Audio that differs based on type, distance, and environment gives players the feedback needed to make sound tactical decisions and complete the mission. In Six Days, you can hear when a PKM is bunkered down in a house across the street, when an enemy reloads his AK-47 in the room next door, and when someone knocks over a chair deep into the house you’re clearing. However, authenticity doesn’t come without its own unique set of challenges—especially when tackling audio in a video game.

The first, and arguably biggest, question we have as a team is where to draw the line. As we set out to create an authentic retelling of the hundreds of stories we’ve been told, our initial instinct was to design with a 1:1 correlation in mind. This approach makes perfect sense on paper, but it’s just not feasible in practice (at least, as far as audio is concerned). For example, mirroring gunshots and explosions entirely to their real-world counterparts would cause permanent hearing damage to our players. It’s important to remember that we’re not creating a physical carbon copy of what happened in Fallujah. Our goal is to tell the true stories of those who experienced the battle. Here, the key word is experience.

Secondly, you can’t always predict the future in game audio. Sounds are more dynamic when players are involved, with a number of outcomes that don’t have to be accounted for in television and movies. In a movie, a character can walk onscreen and shoot his gun. The team records the footsteps and gunshots to match the actions onscreen. In games, footsteps and gunshots happen in real-time, at will. Here, the possibilities are multiplicative—actions can happen at any time, on any surface, at any distance, at any speed, etc. And, they can even be repeated. If you have 3 movement speeds, 20 surfaces, and 10 variations each, that’s 600 footstep sounds (and that’s just an example for one character). It takes tens of thousands of sounds to make a game the size of Six Days in Fallujah.

Finally, let’s talk about the challenges associated with producing a final game mix. Unlike movies, we can’t plan for specific scenes. Instead, we plan for scenarios. We do this in two steps: first, we track a variety of gameplay parameters that are constantly changing (eg, player location and movement, player heath state and damage, sound sources, etc). Next, we set the audio engine to update the mix in response to these parameters. Our solution boils down to programming the game to mix itself intelligently as it is being played.

DEVELOPER COMMENT
We created a unique parameter called “Enclosedness” in response to the stochasticity of our Procedural Architecture. In most games, player locations can be tracked because these are static on the map. Since we don’t have that luxury in Six Days, we constantly track the closest surfaces around the player in every direction and combine the results into a single value. With the Enclosedness parameter, we can reduce the sounds of distant combat as you creep through a tight alley, calm the wind as you duck into a corner, or make cramped rooms sound more claustrophobic than spacious ones.

Our reference materials for audio are sourced from two places: documentary footage and high-fidelity recordings. Our research team provides footage of every sound in the game, usually from the battle itself. These include voices, footsteps, weapons, equipment, vehicles, and even animals. These references help us understand how often the sounds occurred, how they sounded at the typical distances and perspectives, how they interacted with the environments in Fallujah, and how they mixed with the soundscape of the battle.

The biggest flaw with this historical footage is the sound quality. These were mostly captured by the handheld digital camcorders of the early 2000s, which had microphones that were not designed to capture the sounds of battle. The recordings imparted a unique coloration and distortion to the sounds. Luckily, the coloration is consistent. Like learning to read a person’s cursive, we’ve learned to listen past the unique qualities of the camcorder mics and decipher what it really would have sounded like.

That’s where the second type of audio reference comes in. For nearly all the weapons, equipment, and vehicles in Six Days, the audio team has been able to source authentic, high-quality recordings. If camcorder footage is a letter written in cursive, then these recordings are an email typed in Times New Roman. They are recorded with equipment that captures the full range of frequencies without any perceptible distortion, from multiple angles, distances, and perspectives. We compare the recordings with the documentary footage and manipulate them to play in game.


Our community might be surprised to learn that in-house recording at the studio is used as a last resort. Sound libraries are vast and accessible, but there have been cases in which we needed something very specific to our project. Sometimes it’s something boring like a piece of metal debris falling on a sand dune. Other times it’s more exciting and unique, like authentic Iraqi-Arabic voice acting. While many of our recordings are just for reference, some have more specific applications.

When covering reverb in games, there is an apparent cinematic quality. The reverbs give a sense of how large spaces are and what materials they are made of. Their sounds have a certain subtlety and beauty, and the reverbs in Six Days initially followed this common practice. However, we found this wasn’t meeting our authenticity standards.

DEVELOPER COMMENT
A member of the team who frequents indoor shooting ranges kept telling us, 'You know, that isn’t actually how guns sound indoors. They are way more bassy and overpowering.' He took us to an indoor shooting range and we took our recording equipment, and our recordings from that day fundamentally changed how we handle interior reverbs.

The environments in Fallujah are boxy and full of hard, reflective surfaces, and we made the weapon fire excite the environment reflections much more than typical shooters. It makes the sound of gunfire in our environments overwhelming and oppressive. It’s the opposite of subtle and beautiful, and it sounds different than any other game.


The spatial environment also provides important clues for localizing the sound source, especially when you’re under fire. If you listen closely, reverb can help pinpoint sounds—tight reflections tell us it’s a small room, loose reflections tell us it’s outside, and long reverberant tails tell us it’s a large interior like a large hall. Each space in Six Days has realistic acoustic characteristics that help inform the location of sound sources.


With Procedural Architecture, no individual sound space exists in a vacuum. They are created and recreated in new ways relative to each other as the environment changes. With our audio engine, the reverbs of each space feed into each other, creating a unique acoustic signature for each building that Procedural Architecture creates. When a reverberant space has an opening—like when a door or window is open, or a wall has a hole blasted through it—we call that an “acoustic portal.” Sounds and their reverberations diffract through acoustic portals in realistic ways. This means you can track down an Insurgent’s footsteps deep into a building or follow the sound of your friend’s voice through doorways.

A common community question related to audio is how VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) communication works in Six Days in Fallujah, and we’re finally tackling this today. Success in our game depends on coordinating with your team, and in-game squad communication becomes essential in cooperative modes.


Our voice communication works just like any other sound in the game—it’s positioned in 3D space, gets quieter as you walk away, uses environmental reverb, and diffracts through doors and windows and around corners. When you talk to your teammates in-game, you have instant feedback about where they are around you. When your team gets separated, you can use the radio. Holding the radio button sends your voice over the team radio channel. Your fireteam will hear your voice in their radios, and anyone in close-proximity will still hear you speaking with your natural voice. But be warned, your character only has two hands. You cannot talk on the radio and perform other actions—like firing your weapon—at the same time.

Filtering of the sound source makes a difference here, too. When your buddy yells from across the street, he’s not only quieter but also slightly muffled. It gets even more muffled if he turns away from you or if objects come between his mouth and your ears.

The chaos of battle also impacts your ability to communicate. Most games duck loud sounds so you can always hear voice comms, but Six Days isn’t like most games. If you’re near loud sounds like gunshots or explosions, you’re not going to be able to hear your teammates.


Let’s move to audio configurations and hardware. One of the upsides of real time mixing systems is that the mix is agnostic of speaker configuration up until the last step of the process. Each sound in the game is positioned in space, not panned to a specific speaker. When the game runs, it determines what kind of speaker setup you have and performs appropriate panning for stereo, 5.1, 7.1, 7.1.2, and all the other industry standard configurations. You’ll always get the correct panning for your speaker setup no matter if you’re playing on headphones, on your TV, or on a surround sound system. We also have a mono output mode, so players with hearing loss in one ear aren't at a disadvantage.

DEVELOPER COMMENT
When you choose the headphone mix in the audio options, the game detects whether you are using stereo headphones or virtual surround headphones. If you have stereo headphones, we enable our built-in 3D audio tech. If you want to use your favorite pair of surround sound gaming headphones or a surround sound speaker system, the game lets your system handle the spatialization instead.

While the best way to experience Six Days audio is on a great pair of stereo headphones or a high-end surround sound system, you’ll always get the highest fidelity of 360-degree surround sound that your system can play back, no matter what you use.

Traditionally, audio is infamous for being one of the last components to be completed on a project. This is because audio can be found in almost every step in the long chain of game development. And, it relies heavily on the completion of the feature it’s designed to support. While we can’t change dependencies on audio, we can take a proactive approach to audio design in the development process. And, that’s exactly what we have done.

In the early days of the project, our audio team compiled lists of every potential sound that might be featured in the game. Sounds were specifically made malleable, modular, and data-driven to compliment any changes that would be made as features were implemented. For example, every gun could be heard from any distance and perspective, every part of each piece of equipment could make a sound, every surface could interact with every other surface in several ways, etc. Instead of reacting to new features, our audio team was ready and waiting for them. Now, the team is tying up loose ends and refining the work that’s been done over the years. Testing, tuning, bug fixes, audits, and mixing are the names of the game.

As we look forward to the road to release, we want to remind our community of a few things when it comes to audio: firstly, audio can only be experienced in time. You have to take the time to experience it, or you won’t experience it at all. Secondly, our brains interpret audio based on context. You can’t listen to an isolated sound because the rest of the game audio changes how you hear it. You can’t listen to an audio recording of the game because what we see influences what we hear. You can’t even watch a video recording because you interpret the audio differently when you experience the stress of playing the game. Audio is one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal, and we’re excited for our community to experience the entire soundscape for themselves.

For some time in #WishlistWednesday, I present you with a new update for my game The 8 Sins, but because I wanna reach the next steam Festiwal, I need to focus on launching the demo for my current project.

So today, and next Wednesday there will be no update!

Some time ago I was mentioning about creating a folder of concepts for the incoming major update, here it is:
https://sta.sh/2bhjr4upibw?edit=1

As for the Major update.

Steam Next Festival Require that game will have a premiere after the ending festival, which means October 10.

So for now you can bet that this date will be the start time of work on the major update.

For now, the main goal for this update is:
1. Redesign creature stats for new battlefield games mechanic;
2. Redesign battlefield mechanics;
3. Redesign gluttony race;
4. Adding new terrain objects: altars and pillars;
5. Expanding the 13th turn;
6. New version of town screens (there will be more functionality in future major updates);

Hello hello, everybody!

Starting now, we’ll be publishing monthly dev posts and reporting the progress on Nova Lands! The development is picking up the pace even more now, and we want you to know what’s going on. Speaking of which…

We’ve hired a new artist!

Now, our team has an amazing artist, Lucas Lazora, who will be helping us with all things visual. With Lucas on our team, we can focus more on the development of Nova Lands and make sure the game is ready faster and is more polished as well!
Here’s a little taste of what Lucas has been working on:



We wish we could share more but we want to avoid giving you even more spoilers. Be sure to feast your eyes on his Instagram, because we sure did! Welcome, Lucas!

Polishing, fixes, improvements

Naturally, our work continues in regards to the refinement of in-game systems, addressing bugs, and making sure the game is as enjoyable to play as possible. Big thanks to all of you who continue to submit bug reports—it’s tremendously helpful!

Just in case you find anything while playing the demo, do report your findings through the in-game form, please!

Nova Lands: Emilia’s Mission prologue is coming soon!

We’ve been hard at work not just fixing bugs and polishing the game, but also on the game prologue. As you can gather from the name, the prologue will be centered around Emilia’s arrival to the planet and introduce the players to in-game systems and automation at a more steady pace.

Check out the game page, it’s already live!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2083040/Nova_Lands_Emilias_Mission/

That’s all for now, thanks for tuning in!

Ed, Douglas, and Lucas @ Behemutt!

Congratulations to the winners of the June Nova Cup!
- Division 1: abrasiert: Kingdanzz & Widderson
- Division 2: geegee: GehPennen & fine
- Division 3: timba: Termico & PePePistola
- Division 4: thelegionofphilosophers: FleurDeMur & Yldren
- Missed the action? Check the results & VODs casted by Pennywise with Ofma & Drachir on the new Legion TD 2 eSports portal!

The upcoming July Nova Cup takes place July 23-24. $750 in cash prizes and signup is free - first come first served!

There are four skill divisions, so no matter what your rating is, you have a chance to win.

New Participation Prize!
For the July Nova Cup only, every participant who plays all of their matches will receive a FREE random card. If you haven't played a tournament yet, this is a great time to join.


Sign-up begins now!!!

• Sign-ups are open from now until July 23 at 9am PDT / 6pm CEST.
  
• To sign up, find a teammate and log into Legion TD 2. Both players should join a unique chat lobby by typing /join team name (e.g. /join Snail Kings) in Global Chat. After you're both in the lobby, have one player type /signup.
  
• The first 16 teams to sign up in each division can participate. Other teams are waitlisted. There are usually no-shows, so waitlisted teams are encouraged to be present in the Discord and ready to play. {LINK REMOVED}View the team list to see your sign-up position and division.
  
• Both players must join the Legion TD 2 Official Tournament Discord. Set your server nickname to match your in-game name.

Saturday, July 23

• Check-in window: 8:45 - 9:15am PDT / 5:45 - 6:15pm CEST
  
• Games: 10am - 1:30pm PDT / 7 - 10:30pm CEST
  
  • Round of 16 (Best of 3)
    
  • Quarter-finals (Best of 3)

Sunday, July 24

• Check-in window: 9 - 9:30am PDT / 6 - 6:30pm CEST
  
• Games: 10am - 1:30pm PDT / 7 - 10:30pm CEST
  
  • Semi-finals (Best of 3)
    
  • Final (Best of 5)

Check-in

• Teams must check in via the Legion TD 2 Official Tournaments Discord. Waitlisted teams should also check in.
  
• Any team that fails to check in will be disqualified. The next team on the waitlist that checked in will earn a spot.

Format

• Mastermind 2v2 (Tournament Mode)
  
• Hybrid is banned
  
• Single elimination
  
• Best of 3. Best of 5 final

See the Nova Cup FAQ for prizes and all other details.

For questions & support, please join the Legion TD 2 Official Tournament Discord.

See you on July 24th! The Nova Cup will be casted and streamed at https://twitch.tv/ltd2

Sincerely,
Your Legion TD 2 Tournament Staff

During this event, which usually lasts 6-7 days, with daily replenishment, you will accumulate stars, for these stars in the Star Pack column you can receive bonus rewards.


Don't miss your chance to get one of the strongest units for 26 stars.

also, bonus rewards will be for 4 | 8 | 16 stars and for 26


Best regards,JTGGame Team!

It’s me, PDD, and yet another month has passed. I have heard comments from Steam that this doesn’t “seem” to be a devblog. I am fully aware of that, but guess what, I don’t mean to make it sound like a boring devblog full of technical stuff. I’m the dev, yes, but this is rather a blog for everyone to catch up on and share this journey with me in creating and working on Shred & Tear in all aspects, Kajun-chan and Shred & Tear. Yes, I will update the WIP and tech side, but also other things that I find exciting to share!

Hope you’ll enjoy this saucy time of the month with me! Let’s jump right in.





Welp, Steam Next Fest was really designed for all stripes of indie game developers out there. It was a real and strong motivation for me to complete the early prototype for this festival, and Steam had been very supportive as they encouraged players to try out and share their feedback with developers. By the end of 7 days of Steam Next Fest, we have seen more than 26,000 unique player downloads, one of the biggest milestones for me up to this point. Many of them had taken their precious time to sit down and provide us with very wholesome and constructive feedback.
I almost have a heart-attack reading through the feedbacks seeing people shred & tear the game apart with their opinions but I think it's good for me to grow as an indie dev.
Feedback from players is the most valuable thing an indie dev can receive! Not gonna lie about that!

I’ll keep it short and share with you guys our big achievements this June, with generous help from Steam!


Here are some thoughts on the game that people shared with us on Discord & Steam.

- Kazemel89

- Manectricz

- Cuê

Just a little reminder that this is more or less merely a prototype! Please look forward to our “Alpha Demo version” around the end of this year!


Some games are just so good not to take screenshots of during gameplay, and as an avid gamer myself, I understand the frustration of not being able to just “snap” the right moment. Thus, we have decided to implement a Photo Mode and a contest where fellow players can share their spiciest moments!

The scale that I chose for the contest was based on the badass and lewd level that Kajun-chan is. So far, we have received over 100 screenshots from our playtesters, even after the contest has officially ended, and picked 2 of them for the platinum prize! Let’s take a few minutes to admire their masterpieces again!

and there are alot more beautiful shots featuring the finest of Kajun-chan's as well , please sure to check out our Discord for more !
here are a few more from user Kuroshu !


According to our Steam statistics, the players in our community take around 15-20 minutes to finish the Demo. Meanwhile, there’s a little speed run competition among the troops. The best one out there must be from Horsen!



This is what I’ve been working on too - A worldwide Leaderboard! The competition will be fierce, though, so prepare yourself should you decide to brave the charts.

I can see that the skill range of Shred & Tear players are alot wider to those of common games, ranging from fellow cultured men with very few gaming experience picking up the game just for the plots to hardcore gamers want to try out new Hack&slash challenges. So it would be a big challenge for me in the future to do with difficulty ballance and options.


During this month, Shred & Tear has caught the attention of so many journalists, YouTubers, and streamers. I have read all of their feedback and felt extra grateful that Shred & Tear has really managed to exceed my expectations and garnered so much support, from literally all over the world. Have a quick peek if you’d like and read through some of the most significant reviews for Kajun-chan!

I cannot thank you guys enough!


A very excited playthrough by a fellow tentacle enthusiasmn appreciator Malik Torihane!


Planet Bu thought the tunnel raid was way too hard >,<



Tama Ch from Japan gave huge compliments on our girl’s visual heeehee

and alot more press has covered my little game XD !

Keshino from GameSpark Japan gave us some critical feedback on game speed and operation sensitivity and his experiences as a whole.
Another great piece by Calum Fraser and Alpha Beta Gamer. They gave us recognition for both visuals and gameplay!
2BLaraSex and PlayGround Russia for taking some time to look into my background!




As always, I have saved the best for last! After the team’s hard work on the Demo, I’ve finally found the time to create a trailer to better depict Shred & Tear’s flaming hot action. What do you guys think about this new version? Let me know in the comment section!



After going through your comments, I have been working really hard on the solution for the battle mechanics in general. This targeting system will help with selecting and quickly locking onto the targeted Tentamons. What do you think/expect of the implementation in the official build of the game? Please let me know.



A lewd game cannot be completed without a little lewd minigame ! This image is not particularly Shred&tear related, just something I am doing in my sparetime but it gave me a good idea the view we should have for a little mini game featuring around Kajun-chan body ! let me know what kind of mini game you are expecting for a lewd & action game ?


That's it for today! I'll see you in the comment section!

The updates this month will be less constant due to time doing business stuff outside the studio.

• Fixed issue with Kelp Crab having an absurd HP Regen with serotoning.
  
• Fixed issue with Porcelain Crab and Kelp crab not having a burrowed animation.
  
• Fixed issue about not able to change spectator mode by pressing select.
  
• Fixed performance issue in Showcase_Map with 4 players due to lack of LOD on characters, Height Fog and Translucent shaders overlapping each character.