ENG Hello everyone! My co-dev and I are happy to present to you the release of The Moon Hell, a game that we have been developing for more than 3 years, with the final year being in the midst of war. Your feedback means the world to us. We will be anxiously reading every comment. We sincerely hope you like our vision of the game and its universe. Thank you for your support and understanding. See you in The Moon Hell :)
If you are currently on the release-1.3 public beta branch for testing, thank you! You may wish to set your branch back to default. You can read more about betas and versioning in this Steam guide.
We needed to release a quick update to fix several issues.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed a bug about not correctly calculating the recruit quantity. - Fixed a bug about freezing unlocked location cameras. - Fixed a bug about giving 0 groschens to beggar. - Fixed a bug where it didn't let you travel to Ledethcko even if it's unlocked.
+ Now you can rotate trade goods or units while inspecting.
We may have to release updates in upcoming days if new bugs are found, please report the bugs you encounter at www.snougames.com
Hey all, hope you all have been having a great February so far.
We’ve still got a ways off until launch, so I wanted to start writing monthly dev logs for all of you to give you a peek into the game’s development. To start, it felt fitting to talk about what inspired me to make the game in the first place.
I wrote so many little short stories as a kid–and for a while, a lot of them were tales of pirates and buried treasure. The stories weren’t great, and I never finished any of them, but even at an early age, I knew I wanted to be a storyteller.
The idea for Bilkins' Folly came about after my wife lost her wedding ring in the garden. I was wandering around with a metal detector trying to find it while my dog Holly helped. (Holly’s a big fan of digging around.) While we mostly found useless crap, I thought this experience would make a solid premise for a story and started a small buried-treasure game prototype.
If you would believe it, Bilkins’ Folly never started as a pirate-themed game. It was originally a game about treasure hunting with a metal detector that was set in the modern era. However, as the story developed, the time period changed along with it as I recalled those stories I wrote in my childhood about pirates and treasure. Of course, because of this, the metal detector thing didn’t make sense anymore. That left me wondering how the player would find those hidden treasures…and after recalling how Holly had been so enthusiastic about digging holes with me, it wasn’t a huge leap to bring her into the game.
As development continued further, the (then unnamed) dog in the game grew into more than just a copy of Holly and eventually would represent all the important pups I’ve had throughout my life. There was my childhood dog Bandit, who used to bash around the bush with me as a kid while we’d go exploring. (I was a child of the 80s; parental supervision was optional.) There was also Jess, the family pooch my own kids got to grow up with, who would watch over orphaned lambs and mother tiny fostered kittens…eventually breaking my heart more than anything in this world.
Holly’s playfulness got mixed up with the adventurous spirit of Bandit and the loving nature of Jess, and thanks to them, Drayton was born. This game is dedicated to all three of them.
So in my head, the telling of Bilkins’ Folly started when I was a kid, trying to write my own pirate tales and not doing a great job at it. But it wasn’t until I spent some time reflecting on the relationships from throughout my life that I really had a strong sense of what the story would be and how the themes would tie together.
As far as media goes, there’s a lot that has inspired me to make Bilkins’ Folly–especially other video games, obviously. Breath of the Wild, Link’s Awakening, and Outer Wilds all come to mind. People always tell me the game reminds them of Monkey Island, and that’s partially by design, but the Zelda games are and have always been my biggest inspiration. I’ve always loved how those series of games handle exploration as a lead-in to game progression, which I have tried to capture in Bilkins’ Folly’s design. I was also really inspired by this show called The Curse of Oak Island. Drayton’s name is actually a nod to one of the characters, Gary Drayton–a metal detectorist and career treasure hunter.
That’s my story. This game’s story is really special to me, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you eventually. Until then, feel free to comment below and let me know what else about Bilkins’ Folly you’re itching to learn more about.
Oh, and if you haven’t already, please wishlist the game! I’d really appreciate it.
Xenoids Demo has been updated to version d0.14 Changes: - As a result of optimization, we managed to reduce the weight of the game by almost 3 times. - Now enemies notice the player much faster if he has a flashlight on. - Now you can play without the one-life mode. - Added a more detailed description of the task. - Added a hint with important keys on the loading screen. - Small changes in the starting items of the characters. - Other minor fixes.
Our fearless Queen of Nothing has always been a community favourite since her release, so we wanted to take the opportunity to give her the justice she deserves and delve deeper into her conception, creation and backstory.
WHO IS AELIS?
After Alderin assassins murdered the royal Syren family, a young Princess Aelis was forced into hiding. From the depths of this betrayal, she formed The Rebellion. Aelis, now known as The Queen of Nothing, rules her loyal rebels with unwavering – and often merciless – strength and cunning.
From a young age, Aelis was more interested in the power of persuasion and politics rather than depending on her privileged upbringing. She showed strength in soft-power techniques – bargaining, diplomacy and, at times, manipulation by coercion. After crossing paths with Sir Edwin, Knight of The Order, he took it upon himself to train her as his protégé, in hopes of tempering her manipulative qualities with some positive social interaction and responsibility.
After Aelis went into hiding, she let rumour spread that she had died along with her family, granting her time to heal from injuries sustained in battle and to regroup her remaining loyalists to fight alongside her. She soon realised there was no way to retake her throne, so she began to slowly amass a following of loyal Syren survivors, and villagers loyal to House Syren. From this support, a new House was formed: The Rebellion, with Aelis assuming the title ‘Queen of Nothing’.
THE QUEEN OF NOTHING
The way Aelis’ title ‘The Queen of Nothing’ came to be is deeply intertwined with her backstory and family politics. Aelis was the last-born in the Syren family, which meant she would likely never become Queen. However, Aelis took her future into her own hands, and although she has no lands of her own, she solidified herself as a self made Queen.
Aelis decided to take destiny into her own hands by utilising her own hard-fought skills, rather than relying on her family name.
She trained endlessly to develop physical skills that would bring her success in battle, as well as honing her martial prowess under the tutelage of Edwin Everard. In fact, Aelis was Edwin’s protégé until the Syren family was dethroned and destroyed by the Alderin Empire. Edwin had not completed her training when war broke out, and had thought she had died that day – and for that, he never forgave himself.
As Aelis laid low for months, she began gathering allies and information, which led to the origins of The Rebellion movement. The Royal Guard she trained with were the loyal soldiers that helped Aelis usurp her fathers throne. The events thereafter added to her purpose, her driven nature and her indiscriminate punishment to all against her cause.
REBEL WITH A CAUSE
Visually, her armour is a combination of her time as a member of a royal family, a reminder of the battles she endured, and a symbol of her rebellious spirit. It is made up of many different materials that she accumulated throughout her life. Aelis’ spear and pieces of her clothing are remnants of Syren regalia and attire combined with elements of the new Rebellion motifs. The sigil on her clothing is that of the Syren monarchy, as is the Spear she wears – a trademark of the late Syren Army.
To bring some more of her own personality into her design, Aelis carries with her an ornate chalice. Aelis has always appreciated a fine wine of Bravaris origin, and this remains one of the few things she allows herself to indulge in.
AELIS’ SKILLS
Each Hero has Skills that are unique to them but also tie into their Faction Identity. The Rebellion is known for their ability to rapidly expand their base and Aelis’ Skills lend to this playstyle.
Royal Decree: Aelis’ first Skill is Royal Decree, her passive. While this Skill is not on cooldown, Aelis Condemns enemies she hits, causing them to take 15% more damage from all sources. As she levels up she will gain Loyal Guards to protect her, if Aelis were to die while a Loyal Guard was alive, the weakest Loyal Guard will die instead, and Aelis will heal for 40% of her max health. This powerful passive has a long cooldown, but as Aelis levels up, the bonus damage enemies are inflicted with will increase and the cooldown period will reduce.
Loyal Command: The Loyal Guards come to Aelis’ aid at level 3 with Loyal Command. She has the ability to spawn non-controllable honed esquires that auto-target enemies, starting with one and increasing as she levels up. They will defend Aelis from nearby threats, however If they perish in battle, recasting the Skill will revive any dead Esquires within the maximum available.
Queens Rage: At level 3, Aelis gains her first active Skill, Queens Rage. This gives her the ability to cast an Area of Effect Skill on player units, causing them to lose -30% Max Health with the trade off of increasing their Attack Speed, including Loyal Guards when active. With each additional level, the Attack Damage buff will increase, as well as the duration of the Skill.
Eradicate: Aelis’ Ultimate, Eradicate, is unlocked at level 4. This skill buffs Aelis and her loyal guards, bolstering their damage, movement speed, and attack range, and stun chance..
Bow down to the rightful ruler and let her guide you on a path to victory… will you stand up and fight for the Queen of Nothing?
Please report bugs or crashes to us either through the Steam forums, our Discord server in the ‘bug-reporting’ channel or using the in-game bug reporting tool.
Have a question about the game? We have a handy FAQ we’ve posted on the Steam forums that you can view. If your question hasn’t been answered there, we’ll be doing our best to keep up with questions here, on the forums and our Discord server.
Feedback from a player alerted me to a couple of bugs that have occurred as a result of some changes and additions to the game.
This update pushed to the game client is aimed at addressing this issues for affected players. Please let me know in the forum if the issue is not resolved when you download the update. I've also added some small improvements and balance changes here too.
Thanks to the user who alerted me to the problem via the feedback form in-game. Sorry for any frustration it may have caused. I'm planning on adding a reset defaults button to the video options in the next full update.
Gerard / The Lemur Conspiracy
Client Versions
Early Access: #0.800.4793
Changes
- Bugfix: fixed code that was causing enemy spawning to lock to fewer enemy types after reinforcements were activated in a level - Bugfix: fixed cases where some elite enemies were spawning from tiles when they shouldn't - Bugfix: fixed issue that was preventing the codex achievement from being completed - Bugfix: fixed issue where player could not get the Vactics Destroyed achievement. - Game Balance: Active Citywide Escalations won't be included in the pool of potential district escalations. - Game Balance: Changed how the chance of elites spawning during the daily district is calculated. - Game Balance: Increased the cooldown on the grenade enemies again. They were being too aggressive.
