Greetings, gunslingers!

Hope you're ready for a "drawsome" Rose & Locket behind-the-scenes devlog!

We wanted to share some insight behind the scenes of Rose and Locket’s development

The story of Rose & Locket is a tale of Rose, an ex outlaw who’s been blackmailed by an evil Spirit of the Underworld, and her odyssey through the dangerous Underwest to free her daughter's spirit, imprisoned in a silver locket.
We want to provide players with an action packed adventure of Rose against great odds of the Underwest.

Our ambition was to craft a narrative rich in emotion encompassing themes of love, loss, and the journey in between. But we also want to weave an exhilarating adventure so unforgettable that even a humble tumbleweed couldn’t resist taking the voyage.

The visuals in Rose & Locket are distinct in their comic-like aesthetic. We went through many iterations before finally settling on an art style that we hope really ‘hits the bullseye’ for players with its aesthetic appeal.



We drew our game inspiration from Samurai Jack by Genndy Tartakovsky, an animated series famous for its blend of action, animation, and atmosphere, as well as its own distinctive artstyle. Genndy Tartakovsky's "Samurai Jack'' art style is minimalist and geometric, using clean lines and stark light-shadow contrast. Heavily influenced by Japanese woodblock prints and manga, it leans on visual storytelling and sound design, contributing to the show's mythic quality.

We are huge fans of minimal designs and using negative space and you can definitely see that in the Rose and Locket visuals.


Samurai Jack concept art


Rose and Locket art

Another major influence was Mike Mignola, the creative genius behind Hellboy! Mike Mignola's "gothic noir" style is marked by stark contrasts and simplified, yet exaggerated forms. Drawing inspiration from Lovecraftian elements, his symbolic, iconographic approach creates an eerie atmosphere. His unique blend of abstraction and storytelling and creative use of negative space have significantly impacted the comic book industry.



Mike Mignola art


Rose and Locket art

Similarly, Ashley Wood’s style blends traditional and digital art for a layered, mixed media aesthetic. Using bold brushstrokes, muted colors with vibrant bursts, and a mix of gritty realism and abstraction, his work is distinctively raw and dynamic. His stylized characters and chaotic compositions contribute to an often unsettling mood.


Ashley Wood art

As for the general in-game design of Rose & Locket, our end goal is a harmonious dance between detail and minimalism. We believe that leaving some room for imagination and interpretation is more compelling spelling everything out. We want you to saddle up, take the reins of your imagination, and ride alongside us through the story!


Rose & Locket

On the gameplay front we turned to the classics, finding inspiration in titles like Lucas Arts' Outlaws 1997 with its emphasis on adventure and story of revenge in the old west. It created a memorable setting and characters that stuck in our memory.



Games like this have taught us that engaging gameplay and thoughtful design can and do stand the test of time. We are striving to lasso the spirit of these iconic games and bring it galloping into the present to bring you an engaging experience throughout your adventure.



Rose & Locket's visuals emerged from years of inspiration, creativity, and developer experience, melding cinematic storytelling, action-adventure gameplay, and hand-drawn animation with cherished digital world influences.



Today’s deep-dive into the influences behind Rose & Locket has taken us from inspiration to in-game design. We’ve delved into our art and highlighted the influences from classic titles to comic aesthetics. As we continue on this exciting journey, we eagerly look forward to sharing more about our work.

In our next devlog we’ll dive into the process behind monster, character, and weapon design in Rose & Locket. Stay tuned for an exciting glimpse into these key aspects of our game, and follow us on social media & Discord to stay up-to-date on the latest updates and news

So long for now from the Underwest!

• Improved how dynamic Solar Invaders (archers) are in combat:
  
  • Increased how much and how frequent they move between attacks.
    
  • Added another short fleeing state that can happen more often, not just after taking a lot of damage.
    
  • Reduced their kick damage by 25%.
    
  • Reduced their arrow damage by 11%.
• Majasa’s Blood Pools tick 4 times per second from 5 and deal 10% more damage per tick (resulting in 12% less damage per second). The ticks now always show damage number and hit vfx, so that it's clearer that they're dangerous
  
• Immobilized enemies no longer start using movement skills (immobilizing an enemy will not interrupt a movement skill in progress).
  
• Improved internal performance telemetry to assist our server optimization efforts.
  
• Overhauled the mechanics and visuals of Soul Cage and Soul Warden enemies.
  
  • Added new on-hit particle, hit flash and death flash visuals for Holy Fire, Holy Lightning and Blood abilities.
• Previously these visuals would look the same for all abilities of a given damage type. Now a Physical ability can use Blood visuals instead, for example.
  
• Added new loading screen art for Lake Liath zones, Divine Era Maj’elka zones, and various Imperial Era zones.
  
• Updated frozen breakables in the Tomb of Morditas.
  
• Added new emerging sound effects for spider enemies.
  
• Updated the vocal sounds for all Osprix enemies to match the new sounds added for the Chapter 1 rework.
  
• Added new sounds for Basic Attack that change with weapon type.
  
• Updated the Game Guide to add region selection and the Sanctuary of Eterra.
  
• There is now a confirmation prompt when purchasing a cosmetic with Epoch Points.

• Fixed the game stuttering when spawning new enemy types in Arena starting in the second Arena layout of the run.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Sanctuary of Eterra window did not close after being used, allowing it to be used several times and causing it to block the screen.
  
• Portal cosmetics now apply to the portals you open after completing an Echo.
  
• Fixed a bug where item visuals and cosmetics would sometimes disappear after transitioning to a new zone.
  
• Fixed a bug where visual effects could project on top of some cosmetics.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused some "when landing" effects in Fury Leap's skill tree such as Frenzied Onslaught, Wings of Endurance and Battle Bloom to not apply to Maul with Werebear Form's Skull Crusher allocated.
  
• Fixed a bug where Earthquake's Aftershock did not scale with strength, and also incorrectly said it receives 40% increased damage per point of strength. It receives 4% increased damage per point of strength.
  
• Fixed a bug where Spirit Thorns did not apply ailments to enemies hit by more than one Spirit Thorn.
  
• Fixed a bug where when using Avalanche’s Precision node, the skill appears to not properly cast at the location of the Player's cursor after the initial cast.
  
• Fixed a bug where the visual for Lightning Blast and Lightning Smite would appear twice (once in its previous cast location).
  
• Fixed Bone Golem’s leap attack having a firey ground effect visual.
  
• Fixed Manifest Armor not having an outline in Online mode.
  
• Fixed a bug where lightning wolves' unique appearance would be reverted to the regular summoned wolf visual when they were hit.
  
• Fixed rare Void Despair enemies not having a visual effect for changing their triple projectile attack.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Ice Breath from Frozen Wolf enemies cast in the wrong direction in Online mode.
  
• Changed the positioning of off-hand weapons for Sentinels to prevent clipping.
  
• Fixed Humming Bee uniques facing the wrong direction when in your Offhand, and being invisible when used as an Offhand for Mages.
  
• Fixed a bug where quest item drops in the Council Chambers would happen for all players present in the zone, but would only happen once. If a player joined the zone later and tried to turn in a quest, they wouldn’t get the item.
  
• Fixed a bug where players could rarely be in 2 parties at the same time, causing various buggy behavior with party functionality.
  
• Added a quest progression failsafe for the first Blood, Frost and Death quest echo: you can skip talking to the first Wengari if needed.
  
• Fixed the world map showing that the Fortress Gardens has a waypoint, when it does not.
  
• Fixed a bug where there was no quest pulse leading you to speak to Balthas in The Summit.
  
• Fixed a bug where Orian’s entrance animation could sometimes play while he’s off screen in The Summit.
  
• Fixed the world map not fading nicely when switching between eras.

Thank you to everyone who is continuing to report bugs and provide feedback, we really appreciate it. At this point our designers are primarily working on content for our next major update, but as you can see we are still dedicated to bug fixing and polish.

One initiative that isn’t visible in the patch notes is that we have an internal team dedicated to improving performance, particularly on the server side. There are significant technical changes underway that will have a big impact, but we’re still in early stages. We’re also working on reducing zone transition times.

Besides that, here are some specific changes we are working on. We’ll keep looking through your reports to pick other things to fix as well.

• Chat sometimes re-enables itself - also it says “Chat is Disabled” when it actually isn’t.
  
• Rarely, a failed attempt to transition to another zone can become completed after loading a different character.
  
• Summoned Spriggans don’t gain the Cold Minion tag when cold converted.
  
• The Journey To Maj’elka quest does not advance when talking to the Nagasa in Soreth’Ka. You can move to the next zone without talking to them, however.
  
• You can get stuck in place if you join the Sanctum of the Architect after the fight starts.
  
• Further Ambush encounter and Chapter 1 enemy scaling changes.

Yep, it's official. A sequel to Socrates Jones: Pro Philosopher will be coming to Steam next year! Pro Philosopher 2: Governments and Grievances takes on a whole new domain of debate— Political Philosophy! (Oh boi.)

Here's the first teaser for the game:



The broad strokes for Pro Philosopher 2 have been floating around since the release of the original game, with the first serious pass at a script back in 2015. This one's been slow-cooking for a very long time, building on everything we learned from making the first game and all our other projects. We're thrilled to finally share it with you!

We've got additional info and screenshots on the Steam page! If you like what you see, be sure to wishlist— helps the almighty algorithm know people care.

1.06.19
-added credits & attributions screen on main menu

Loading game from main menu now should work properly

Correct Day number is now loaded

Survival stats are now saved (will load 0 from old save)

You can now buy beans in the Fast food

food increase players health

Hello!

We are happy to announce that Wizardry School: Escape Room is now available!

The Headmaster needs your help to recover the Philosopher's Stone. Will you save the school?

Remember to give us a review, it helps us a lot.
Thanks and enjoy the game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1991980/Wizardry_School_Escape_Room/

Hello!

We are happy to announce that Wizardry School: Escape Room is now available!

The Headmaster needs your help to recover the Philosopher's Stone. Will you save the school?

Remember to give us a review, it helps us a lot.
Thanks and enjoy the game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1991980/Wizardry_School_Escape_Room/

Hello!

We are happy to announce that Wizardry School: Escape Room is now available!

The Headmaster needs your help to recover the Philosopher's Stone. Will you save the school?

Remember to give us a review, it helps us a lot.
Thanks and enjoy the game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1991980/Wizardry_School_Escape_Room/

Hello!

We are happy to announce that Wizardry School: Escape Room is now available!

The Headmaster needs your help to recover the Philosopher's Stone. Will you save the school?

Remember to give us a review, it helps us a lot.
Thanks and enjoy the game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1991980/Wizardry_School_Escape_Room/

Hello!

We are happy to announce that Wizardry School: Escape Room is now available!

The Headmaster needs your help to recover the Philosopher's Stone. Will you save the school?

Remember to give us a review, it helps us a lot.
Thanks and enjoy the game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1991980/Wizardry_School_Escape_Room/