Greetings, Realmwalkers!

Since the moment we revealed Nightingale to the world we’ve found ourselves overwhelmed by the Skyfaller-sized response we’ve received to the first glimpse of our little multi-realmic survival game. As the community has grown (*cough* on our social channels and Discord *cough*) so too have the messages hitting our inbox -messages full of incredible art, cosplay images, gameplay ideas, and other examples of your boundless creativity.

In the first of what we hope to be many Community Spotlight posts on this blog, we wanted to devote some space to celebrate your contributions to the world of Nightingale and its community.

If you want to be featured in a future Community Spotlight - whether that be inspired artwork, video shorts, beguiling cosplay, or extravagant back tattoos featuring your favorite nightmarish creature - share them across our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook using the hashtag #PlayNightingale.

As we await the wonderful things you create, here are a few of our favorite creations we’ve received over the past few months. Take a look and give the artists a follow.


‘Realmwalker Journal’ by Twitter user Mesmefy


‘The Next Stage of Nightingale’ Minecraft Design by Instagram user Nirzemc


‘Harpy’ by Instagram user Kadekin


Discord/TikTok user Prince Faelan has been recreating Realm Cards by painting in the real world


‘Bestest Boy’ by Discord user Kiitarie


Artwork by Twitter user Ceph

Hello! I hope this update finds you well.


It has been a while without updating you on how the Deck RX project is going and today, we finally bring you some news. The superbackers that are part of the Open Dev Access have more info on this topic as we talk to them from time to time on Discord about how the development is going. Feel free to join!

A Kickstarter campaign, although successful, with a total amount of 10.000€ like ours does not allow us to complete in its entirety the ambitious project we have in hand. And above all, we don't want to deliver a bad or unfinished product. We want to do things right and even if it takes us more time, even if it hurts us, we prefer to tell publicly that Deck RX will be delayed from Q4 2022 to 2023.

We made this decision because as some of you may know we are also Publishers for other studios, helping them to bring their games to the public both PC and major consoles.

We have already published Ignited Steel, on March and it will soon receive an update and will be ported to consoles. Also, we are currently working on Running on Magic, which is now available both on PC and consoles.

We are also working on commissions and collaborations that we are not allowed to announce yet but they will be revealed in the following months. We support our studio with these, allowing us to survive and keep making our own games on our spare time. Unfortunately, we have been especially busy these past few months.

As I was saying, we are forced to delay the release of Deck RX as well as its beta for backers with this reward tier just for a few months. We believe it is better to delay it and deliver a product that best resembles our intention with the game. We rather prefer this than launch the game on an incomplete state pretending it is in its final form.

We can show you that we are still working on Deck RX as soon as we can free up a few more weeks. A large update is underway, with a new pilot, new cards, a new world, a new enemy, and a whole new “inventory” system where you can equip parts on each car. Here's a video of a new map (with its special mechanic included and functional, though not with the final game's look) and a new character that is already in the game, Rusty.




We will keep informing about the progress of Deck RX both here and in our Twitter and Discord.

We hope you all are staying safe and fine, big greetings from all the Meteorbyte team!

- Names of the winners of the TOP 10 MASTERS contest on reaching 100% of the achievements, added to the list.
- Added a day-night switching antenna on Death Pixels base, so the player can see all possible dialogs without changing the PC time manually.
- SAMson and dark SAMson barrier now has a small opening to avoid jamming the player.
- Now an eye watches everything on the island, at the end of the game the eye is half sunk in the water.
- Pause menu eye changed to hologram.
- Changed text about respawn in tutorial and adjusted invisible trigger that indicated key. Now the player will always see the indications.
- In the dark blind compiler level you no longer have to make a leap of faith at the end of the level but the player is guided better.
- Now the texts of the photo mode are translated to all languages.
- The 3 cameras of the factory that focus the player can now be broken with the missile.
- The third factory camera only appears on hard difficulty, as it was too complicated.
- The paper airplanes now appear again when using the glider.
- It is no longer necessary to have the pink chip to open from inside, this avoids that some player is stuck without being able to leave.
- Dark SAMson works perfectly again.
- The platforms that fall when the player is on them have been optimized.
- The box at the beginning of the level now goes up with the platform when activating the button in the Central Server.
- The second checkpoint of the factory has been made more visible.
- Fixed date system on factory surveillance cameras.
- Improved flashlight illumination in the factory, now it is brighter.
- Increased flashlight range in the old commercial area.
- The flashlight is activated at the end of Samanta to better see the environment.
- Jetpack radius in Samanta is now bigger in medium and easy difficulty.
- Added a checkpoint halfway in Samanta.
- The teleports with eyes on the island now have the 3D eye, avoiding to create weird transparencies with the water.
- Fixed visual bug with fog in impatience islands level.
- Edacra notes translated to all languages.

TL;DR: due to drama surrounding one of the contractors who’ve worked on this game, I will probably no longer work on this game further. Depending on how Steam process my request, some of you may not receive refunds for your purchase. For this, I am deeply regretful and truly sorry.

Ultimately, I will no longer work on this game because my physical and mental health is such that it simply is impossible for me to do good work anymore. I’ve been unable to retain food, sleep and sometimes feel my limbs as stress responses to the situation.

This is a failure on my part. A strong developer would not be reacting like I do to things that I’m experiencing, and a braver developer would push through even if they did. Regrettably, I am both weak and cowardly. I am sorry.

For those of you who care about what happened, I will retell what I believe is an approximate version of events. To not bore you and as a part of my coping mechanism, I arranged what I know of the events in what is hopefully a slightly entertaining form. It may come across as glib or even smug, but I feel nothing but.

I hope you will be amused by taking part in what is perhaps the most short-lived early access game and this account of its history:

Dramatis Personae:

G - myself, the developer
S - the owner of the character “Seaworthy”
N - a digital artist
C - a client of N
B - a friend of C

Prelude:

Once upon a time G met S online. They became friends and agreed to make a game together, where G planned to work on the technical side of things and S on everything else.

So the work began. During this process several artists of different fields were contracted to provide artwork for the game, one of whom was N.

All was well, until N was commissioned by C not long before the game’s launch.

Act 1:

C commissioned N to make some artwork. After a span of silence had passed, C grew impatient of N’s complete non-response and asked for a refund. N refused.

Things escalated until N and C began taking hostile actions against each other. Among other things, N doxxed C and posted C’s information online, leading to harassment against C. N also asked C for money as ransom for the information posted.

C disappears from the internet, but not before letting B, a friend, know about some of the occurrences.

Act 2:

The game launched.

Immediately, B posted a negative review on the game accusing all involved in the game as N’s ally and guilty by association. B also posted information about Act 1 in the review.

G sees the review and is stunned by the information. Until now, nobody else working on the game had any idea of what N had done. G brings this to S and the two agree to remove N from future contracting and all of N’s work from the game.

G communicates this intention to B.

However, unsatisfied by the lack of immediate evidence of G and S’s dissociation from N, B demands to G that S should post something in public denouncing N.

G communicates this demand to S.

Act 3(?):

S refuses to make a public denouncement of N, seeing it as taking things too far after N was already removed from the game—an already costly decision. Furthermore, infuriated by the trouble caused by B, S block B on social media.

Seeing that these actions from S have unsurprisingly escalated the conflict between S and B, G despairs.

Afterword:

Okay. I’ll be serious now: I’m truly sorry to everyone who bought this game with the hope that it will grow as an early access title. As a developer of the game, I was completely unaware of how woefully unfit I was to dealing with the difficulties surrounding, and not within game development.

I will spare you the details, but C and in some ways N have both been subjected to horrible treatment from each other and other people online. I myself had only received the secondary anger of B, and this alone was enough to destroy me.

I know what I had to deal with was the last and least of everything, but I am weaker and more cowardly than I thought was possible—even looking at the development interfaces makes my body go cold and my gut twist, and the things said to me echoes in my head over and over whenever I’m not forcing myself to think of something else. I can’t imagine myself being a competent developer under these conditions.

As such, I will no longer work on this game, at least not for the foreseeable future.

Finally, I will make my cliche but necessary apologies:

I’m sorry, S, I could not be strong enough to overcome my own anxiety to finish the game we started. I will never forget what you’ve done for me, but I fear that this will only be the beginning of conflicts to come, and I do not have the strength to endure them.

I’m sorry, B, I could not help you obtain justice for your friend. I was too hesitant and emotional, and I’m sorry that in some ways I’ve become your antagonist. Although you may not believe me, I’d like to think that I sympathize with what your friend must have gone through, even if what I felt must only be a fraction of your friend’s suffering. I hope something can be done to truly help your friend.

At last, I’m sorry, dear player, I’ve failed my first duty to you as a developer. Because of my incompetence, you’ve not been nearly compensated enough for your money. As an early access title, you’ve bought this game with the hope of it becoming something better than what you first received, and I’ve disappointed you. For this, I am deeply ashamed. I’ve requested Steam to refund your payments if possible, although I can never repay the trust you’ve put in me, however little that might be, and for that, I am sincerely sorry.

Features:
- Added FXAA option for less powerful hardware.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed bug with synchronized fish swimming after loading a save;
- FidelityFX and render scale now work properly as before the august update;
- Localization fixes.

Two main things to go over today: Version 0.127 has some nice bug fixes and improvements that advanced vehicle builders will appreciate, while the game's future updates will become larger but less frequent (more details below).

VERSION 0.127 IMPROVEMENTS

I had planned to do a few bug fixes after a short trip last week, but the 0.127 update has expanded into more than just that. Let's take a look at the changelist, and then go over details of a few of the changes:

* Added New Part: Angled Y-Split (like a double turn 45 combined into one part)
* Added Copy-Paste for part settings (CTRL+C to copy, CTRL+V to paste)
[NOTE: Paste is to the HIGHLIGHTED part, not selected part]
* Added Copy-settings placement option (hold CTRL while adding a part)
* Increased max speed of vehicle spawn/despawn animation
* Added triple-speed option for vehicle spawn/despawn (hold SHIFT)
* Added warning for workshop vehicles with hacked strength values
* Changed lighting settings for Compound
* Fixed bullet collision issue that made them collide with water incorrectly (and disappear mid-air)
* Fixed custom island loading issue with old islands
* Fixed key-holding bug when you started gameplay
* Disabled shot cost display in advanced mode

I plan to do a more extensive vehicle building update in the future, but one thing that would really help speed up large vehicle designs is not having to adjust settings for so many parts. There are now two ways to do that, depending on how your prefer to work. The first is using traditional copy-paste, with Control+C making a copy of the selected part's settings, and Control+V pasting those settings to the highlighted part. Note the difference, as this means you can just mouse over a part without having to click on it for the pasting. Also note the game doesn't stop you from pasting settings between different part types, but it does give you a warning each time you do so. The second way is to hold CTRL while adding a part. It'll use whatever the last copied settings are instead of the defaults (it also has no part-type restriction, just a warning).

If you look through a lot of vehicles on the workshop, you'll probably appreciate the animation speed being increased more on large vehicles, and you can now hold SHIFT to triple the speed on top of that. It can cause a little framerate slowdown, but it helps overall. There were also a couple important bug fixes, and the angled Y-split part was an easy addition that'll make it a little easier to create compact angled designs.

LARGER, LESS FREQUENT UPDATES

Version 0.127 marks the 20-something-th update to the game since it was released in March, and there have been 25+ more minor updates for bug fixes/etc. That's a lot of updates in a short amount of time, and I've enjoyed working at this pace. But aside from the occasional YouTube video to highlight the featured vehicles or significant new features, I've completely stopped promoting the game in any way. Coverage of the game is way down as well (aside form Scrapman, no big YouTubers still consistently play the game). I think the constant stream of updates can be a bit overwhelming to keep up with, and only hardcore players are really aware of all the changes going into the game. It's also hard to know whether version 0.123, 0.124, or 0.125 is the one to promote (for instance), as they each added significant things, but if they were all combined, I would have felt more justified in telling more people about the update.

So even though I enjoy creating smaller updates every week or two (or more often sometimes), I'm going to shift to larger, more significant updates, with more of a theme to the updates, and more promotion to go alongside them. There are some definite development advantages to larger updates, aside from the focused attention each release can receive. I can focus on larger issues with the game, and tackle multiple related larger tasks, and it'll help me focus my long-term plans a bit more. Speaking of long-term plans, I'll be writing up a list of bigger updates I plan to do and updating the sticky Roadmap thread later today.



With all that said, I'm going to get to work on finishing that roadmap and do more a bit more planning, then get to work on whatever the first big update ends up being.

Hello everyone!

Due to some special reasons, this game will leave the Steam store, your game will still be in the library, please don't worry.

The community has shown a lot of love for Aztlan Uncovered so far!
We have noticed it and seen some people speedrunning our game.

We have added a category on https://www.speedrun.com/aztlan_uncovered for all people that want to participate.

Let us know what you best time is on our discord! and we can all praise you for it!

Best regards,
Slappy Inc.

Hey, folks!

It's been 3 years working without any significant interuption on the game but the final push for version 1.0 was a thing of its own. I had to force myself out of workaholic behaviour after the Summer Sale to be able to take some down time. I had to be careful not to burn out myself after the release craziness and the same went for the artist.

I personally had a blast, spent more time with my son who can now walk on his own, read 2 whole books, even played some Elden Ring (I've only reached the Academy of Raya Lucaria. Oh, boy, this thing is HUGE.) Discovered Coffee still tasted good when not working which was great.

I have promised a little gift edition to several people who have helped immensely with the project at various stages and I was satisfied I had the first component finished. Did some planning and promotion for the game as well so I hope the second half of the year will see Fabled Lands attending some sweet festivals.



Nevertheless, feeling refreshed and rejuvinated for some more action! Working on the DLC(s) for the new areas that I want to add to the base game and I am excited to start sharing the progress there. Peter who did the wonderful achievements in the game and play tested it in the 100s of hours started helping me convert the rest of the books in Ink at this early stage, so we'll see how many I'll squeeze in! But first things first, a new patch to take care of some issues.

---

• Increased the sell price of the golden nugget fallen from the sky to 9999 Shards from 999.
  
• Added an alternative way to find a Scarab Amulet.
  
• Reworked A pitfall random event (former Brigands Attack) in Golnir. Added Thievery roll as a secondary ability to avoid being trapped. Added Climbing gear option as an additional escape mechanism.
  
• Reworked Nerech. You can learn an additional way to handle manbeast encounters at Marlock City's Inn (as intended by the initial text in Book 1). Added an additional ability roll and more choices as an escape mechanism for the Damsel in Distress quest in Nerech.
  
• Options for teleportation at Trefoille with a Verdigris key are now explicit.
  
• Added failed charisma check passage of text when attempting to ask for a boon from the Baroness.
  
• Fixed additional stash tabs bought from one character (save) can be accessed from another character (save).
  
• Fixed label for character money in House Stash not refreshing when purchasing an additional Stash tab.
  
• Fixed Golden Net quest not failing upon returning to seek the Sunken City if you've teleported out of it.
  
• Fixed wrong resurrection deal obtained at Tyrnai's temple in High King's Seat causing you to be resurrected in Caran Baru instead.
  
• Fixed a bug when summoning more than four ally units on the battlefield causing them not to spawn.
  
• Fixed a typo when travelling with a ticket from Ringhorn to Aku.

As always, enjoy your time adventuring in the Fabled Lands and wishlist it if you haven't:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1299620/Fabled_Lands/

Hotfixes

• Scoreboard stats will persist over launches.
  
• Using any of the debug menu "cheats" prevents scoreboard stats from accumulating for the rest of the run (have to restart client).
  
• Added a "Highest Wave" stat.
  
• Changed the formatting of the stats so they work better for very, very large numbers (which is necessary if they accumulate overruns).
  
• Despawning the blood decals after 2k decals are spawned (it isn't very pretty, but with thousands in the arena at once, likely won't be noticed).
  
• wave progression past the first 10 waves - up to 100% increased damage, vitality, armor, and stability at wave 110.