Dec 16, 2022

Banana Drama - Pikachau

Xmas is coming to Banana Drama!

Enjoy the holiday season with Banana Drama and the following specials in the North Pole level:

The monkeys got dressed up in warm Santa outfits
Freeze your opponents with ice flowers
Get some boosts when fairies follow your monkeys
Heal injured monkeys in a warm whirlpool

Further updates:

What?? Now you can create or join public lobbies! :o
Monkeys collect resources a little bit faster
Monkeys move a little bit faster
Gift destroys itself after some time - you better be fast!
Volcano map design improvements
Attack formation improvement
Design improvements on 4:3 screens
Performance improvements
Design & Link changes
Fixed: Monkeys could not be created with each bungalow click
Double click disabled (temporarily)

Dec 16, 2022

Beta Branch Update 2 - Gamespeed & Balancing

Zombie Cure Lab - Maarten [Aerosoft]

We just released Version 0.15.14 on the beta branch as a larger balancing update. 3x highest game speed instead of the previous 2x, workers move faster, all humbies can use defense towers, a new fridge that produces ice packs ad much more to improve the pacing of the earlier phases of the game.

If that is not enough we are currently working on a cooling chamber as a new room type with frozen zombie storage ❄️ units and adding the mines and quarries as a larger next update. So stay tuned!

The beta branch is accessible to anyone and helps us test an update before we make it an official update.

If you don't know how to switch branches in Steam at all, do the following:

Right-click on the game in your library, and click Properties.
Select the Betas tab, and select the branch you want to switch to. Then click OK.

Patchnotes:

Balancing:

- Zombies can take way more hits now, health range times ten to make room for more towers and new damage balancing. The goal is that players need to build more towers early on and it gets a bit harder to freeze lots of Zombies or complete waves.
- Humbie Level 1 and Level 2 can now use defenses, Level 1 humbie dealing only 75% damage
- Threat value is more mission duration and lab size dependent, especially in normal and hard missions. Will be way harder to reach day 50, 60 and beyond. The worker population has a fix threat gain value per worker. Every 10 days threat levels spike even more.
- Easy and very easy mission threat grows way slower to give room for a slower play style.
- You can play the sandbox mission now to have a relaxed ZCL experience where the zombie damage does not really grow much and the threat value neither.
- FASTER GAME SPEEDS, can be set up to 3x instead of previously 2x
- Workers move ~30% faster, goal was to change game pacing, especially for the early phase, overall you should be able to progress quicker.
- Missing production buildings like grill and meat growers now also have storage tags, their input and output storage will be accounted for by nearby producers. In other words, produced meat would directly go to the grill and not the main storage first.
- Science room machines moved to the science tech tree category
- Added a T1 fridge that produces ice packs very slowly for electricity as an alternate ice pack production to play around with.
- Bellow Breezer produces little more ice packs per hour
- Feeding piles 1 and 2 have more capacity for meat, stacks may look a bit nicer now. (Please report if this creates savegame problems)
- Default auto repair threshold increased from 70% to 90%, important for new players that do not know of this feature, you can change this value however you like.
- Repair costs are even further reduced from 25% to 15% and players with large destruction have a better chance to recover.
- Sleeping Pod T3 a bit better, minor value tweaks
- Treatment training requirement for humbie levels unified to three. Humbie Level 3 only needs to train three times instead of five, which greatly reduced the time until he is ready for treatment.

Ui/ Feature:

- Nicer storage amount UI in info boxes, sliders for refill/ take out thresholds more visible
- Improved look of resource icons
- Easier savegame deletion in the save screen
- Worked on final CrowdIn integration (see localization channels)

Bugs:

- Queued need jobs fix where workers sometimes would not abort jobs for needs (Mainly wood cutting)
- Humbies at feeding piles would cancel before finishing eating leading to satisfying less than 30% and making it difficult to produce enough meat for humbies especially when there is already none and their needs are very low.
- Worldmap even reward sunflowers bug fixed, can now be researched after unlocked

Sound:
- Fixed sound bugs, many tweaks and new sound effects

Known Issues:
- Game speed tooltip still shows slower speeds, but it is actually 3x speed on highest now believe me!
- Grilled meat on feeding piles looks bigger than raw meat on other feeding piles (What really matters)

Dec 16, 2022

Public Beta starting in January

SCP: Observer - GetMyIsland

You can now sign up for the first Public Beta on the store page of SCP: Observer. By signing up you will automatically have access to the beta during this time period. I encourage every player to give me feedback and tell me their thoughts about the game.

Public Beta Q&A

Let's start with a little public beta Q&A to answer some general questions.

What is the goal of the public beta?

The main goal of the public beta is to fix potential bugs and improve the game, before fully releasing it.

When can I play the public beta?

You can play the beta from January 2, 2023, 3pm CET, until January 9, 2023, 3pm CET. During this time, you can download the SCP: Observer Public Beta from your Steam library just like you would any other game.

How will the public beta differ from the original game?

There will be no differences in gameplay between the public beta and the original game. The only difference is that the original game has Steam Achievements, which is not the case with the public beta.

How to report bugs?

The best way to give feedback or report bugs is to create a new discussion on the Discussion Board. You can also join the official Discord server where you can message me directly or use one of the channels dedicated to SCP: Observer.

What plans do you have for SCP: Observer after the beta?

SCP: Observer is mostly finished, but I plan to add new events and improve current mechanics. Other things I'm aiming for are support for multiple operating systems, like the Steamdeck. This also means that there will probably be full controller support at some point in the future.

More announcements

The system requirements for SCP: Observer are now available and can be viewed on the store page. Most of you will definitely be able to play it.

Here are more screenshots to get you excited for the game.

Dec 16, 2022

Concept Art Update - Space Stations

shapez - tobspr Games

Hello together!

First of all, we are still waiting for the answer of the funding for Shapez 2, which we expect in January or February. So, since the funding is not settled right now, we can't guarantee that Shapez 2 will ever be released.

Since the prototype is finished (reminder: you can try it out in the Discord server!) and we can't start production yet, it will be a bit quieter around Shapez 2 for the next months.

Nevertheless we wanted to show you the concept art we had in mind for Shapez 2.

At first glance, Shapez 2 looks completely different from Shapez 1, and I understand if that seems unexpected. However, we are very keen to keep the gameplay (what shapez is largely about), and of course expand it. That is, it will still be about processing abstract shapes, resources are infinite, buildings are free, there are no enemies and the focus is on building the factory.

However, we believe that we can make the game much more interesting and tangible by introducing a new visual theme. This will also allow us to introduce new gameplay mechanics, like asteroids and space station modules (more on this when we get the chance).

Please let us know what you think in the comments!

PS: Be sure to wishlist and follow Shapez 2 on Steam, if you haven't yet!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/

~Tobias

Dec 16, 2022

Update Beta 2.4

Handy Harry's Haunted House Services - patben8

Merry Spookmas fellow handymen!
I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!
This update is just a little patch adding a Xmas theme to H4S. There is unfortunately no new content.
I know this is probably quite disappointing, and for that, I'm sorry.

I promise I'm still working on the next update, which should be not only the biggest, but also the most game changing update that has ever been released for H4S. I unfortunately haven't had the time to work on it as much I I'd like. However progress has been made towards the new ghost AI (I think you guys are gonna like it!). But I can't say exactly when the update will be ready by.

Here's a small list of what's planned for the next update:

Missions and level progression.
Ghost AI overhaul #2. With specialised ghost AI. Different ghost types with different behaviours and attack patterns.
Better room variation.
Dropping batteries for other players.
Steamdeck compatibility,
And MUCH more!

(*these mechanics are not final and may be changed or removed)

As you can probably imagine, these changes are not easy, and will take time to develop and test before they are ready for release. I hope you all can bare with me, I know you're excited for new content and I promise I will deliver!

But most importantly, I want to thank everyone for an amazing year! I never imagined H4S would be as loved as it is, let alone still be played and enjoyed by so many people, two and a half years after it's early access release! It's crazy, and it's all thanks to the support and encouragement from you guys. I wish you all an amazing end of 2022 and an even more amazing start to 2023!!!

See you all for Update 3.0! ;)

Enjoy, have fun and I wish you all a spooktacular spookmas!
Ben.