The good news is that we are sure we fixed the big bug that made the game crash randomly.
The bad news is that in the process we damaged the Mining Drill.
We've been out of office for a few weeks and dealing with some seasonal flu and stuff, but finally we got hands back on deck and fixed the bug, so now the Mining Drill works fine again :D

With Patch 1.4.0, one thing players are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to do is to delete your SaveGames folder as shown below as previous save games will NOT work.

1. Open File Explorer
   
2. In the search bar paste in %localappdata%\surroundead\saved
   
   
3. Delete SaveGames folder

• Being low on stamina no longer causes you not to be able to melee, but will slow down your attack speed delay between swinging your weapon
  
• Throwables explosion delay shortened by one second
  
• Removed a melee animation causing the player to swing quite low
  
• Equip/unequip animations have been made slightly shorter

• Fixed issue causing keycards to have extremely low chance to spawn in loot containers
  
• Fixed issue causing 'Open' container not to show
  
• Fixed not being able to walk out of new bunker
  
• Fixed name, sex & occupation not saving/loading as what player set it to (Loads as default)
  
• Fixed being able to scope in when changing weapons
  
• Fixed weapons like the Exterminator spawning with 0/0 ammo
  
• Fixed loot at random events/camps
  
• Fixed wrenches not spawning
  
• Fixed cartridges & vaulting when in proximity to an infestation

Hi everyone!
Just dropping by to invite you all to play the new build of Pact of the Ancients that we'll be exclusively releasing on Discord this Friday! All you need to do is join our Discord channel. See you there!

• Love vs Friendship, Select the Bond! Event
  (2023-07-05 00:00 ~ 2023-07-18 23:59)
• Hedgehog Draw Lots Event
  (2023-06-07 00:00 ~ 2023-07-18 23:59)

• Noah Retro Picnic Costume
  (2023-07-12 00:00 ~ 2023-09-05 23:59)
• Noah Small Corner in the Forest Custom Motion
  (2023-07-12 00:00 ~ 2023-09-05 23:59)

• Noah Sunshine Convertible Custom Motion
  (2023-05-17 00:00 ~ 2023-07-11 23:59)
• Noah Bluesky Convertible Custom Motion
  (2023-05-17 00:00 ~ 2023-07-11 23:59)
• Laby Beat Elrios Custom Motion
  (2023-05-17 00:00 ~ 2023-07-11 23:59)
• Noah Beat Elrios Custom Motion
  (2023-05-17 00:00 ~ 2023-07-11 23:59)

Game optimizing, and difficulty balancing

Howdy Agents,

I'm Brandon, localization editor and narrative designer at Ocean Drive.

Blackout Protocol is entering early access on July 19 PT, and we're all super excited for you to get in there and start blastin' some zombos. As part of our pre-launch preparations, I've been asked to grab a pick-axe and come work a shift in the Content mines.

So today we're gonna talk about the game’s setting.

Our studio's first game, Lost Eidolons, is a story-heavy behemoth of a tactical RPG. Blackout Protocol ain't like that. This is a fast, fun multiplayer game that's light on words and heavy on bullets. But like any good multiplayer game, it's got a flavorful world that sets a strong mood.

And that mood is: oh f*** oh f*** OH F*** AHHHHHH NO GET AWAY

In Blackout Protocol, you'll play as an employee of The S2P Corporation: a shadowy, globe-spanning organization dedicated to the containment and study of Quarantined Entities (also known as QT’s) for science and profit.

But mostly science. Promise.


The jewel in S2P's crown? Section 13, a remote research base located somewhere in the American southwest, with a purpose so top-secret even most of the people who work there don't know what it is.

Normally that kind of compartmentalization works great. In a crisis? Not so much.

Now the QT’s are loose, the eldritch ichor’s hitting the fan, the whole place is on lockdown, and nobody on the outside knows what's going on. Even worse? It's a weekend, so all the real badasses are off the clock!

And so, it's up to you — the best of the rest — to grab a flashlight, strap on a holster, and get on in there, champ.


But don't worry. S2P doesn't just send its valuable team-members into certain death without taking precautions. You know that slight stinging sensation you felt in the base of your skull about five minutes ago? That was senior management activating your Death Nullification chip.

What’s that, you ask? A cutting-edge quantum medical device, which ensures that any time you die during a field mission, your consciousness will zip backwards in time to the start — retaining certain skills and abilities, but jettisoning all those pesky productivity-killing memories of being disemboweled by a former coworker in a dimly-lit parking garage.


Or, yknow, whatever silly stuff happened in there. The past is the past! Don't think about it too much. Just get back on that horse, cowboy up, and have fun with it.

And if you can, try to collect some good data while you're in there.

You know. For science.


- ODS Brandon

DISCORD | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | TWITCH

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111870/Blackout_Protocol/

Thanks to our last Kickstarter, we were able to fund physical editions of PC game copies, soundtracks, and artbooks for each of our yuri games, including Highway Blossoms!



We have plenty of extras that are ready to ship. The PC copies of Highway Blossoms are the Gold Rush edition, meaning it also includes Highway Blossoms: Next Exit, the sequel side story to Highway Blossoms.

You can pick up the physical copies of the game, soundtrack, and artbook on our store!

To help celebrate the recent 7th anniversary of Highway Blossoms, we also added some new merch and some older merch featuring the cast! (yes you can carry Tess around as a keychain)



You can find all of our Highway Blossoms merch on our website.

Thank you everyone who's played Highway Blossoms these past 7 years! You can keep up to date on our ongoing games by signing up for our newsletter, following our Tumblr or supporting us on Patreon.

Even though Control launched a number of years ago, it’s great to see people are still coming on board and joining this incredible community. With that in mind, we wanted to ask our most experienced Directors if they had any top tips or advice to share. And of course, you didn’t disappoint us with your responses!

Here are some useful nuggets of info from those who have already explored the Oldest House.


Ozzatron - Always save a bit of energy to dodge. While you might want to use every last bit of energy on Launch to maximize damage output, you never know when you will need to dodge a rocket or grenade, or an exploding Hiss. Fully expending your energy creates a delay where you can't use any powers, leaving you helpless.

harvesthawk130 - Level 'health' and 'energy' early on. Level 'launch damage' early as well. 'Seize' is useful to level also. Keep moving. Certain weapon types are stronger/weaker against certain enemies. Use levitate and dodge to get out of bad situations. Remember to backtrack as you unlock higher security clearances. Look up, you'll often find something you can float up to.

Yggdrasil - No shame in turning down the difficulty in a single player game.


(Credit: @redkatan)

CrazedFoxxo - Learn the enemies. Each one has behaviours and abilities that make them a pain, so learning how to prioritize targets and pick them off swiftly is paramount. Don't forget your powers. You might have your powerful gun, but your powers upgrade more easily and never stops being useful.

JibGold - Crouching behind cover is a surprisingly solid strategy, especially in the early game. Didn't really take advantage of the cover system until my second playthrough and let me tell you, it changes everything. Being able to take cover behind an object, pick up said object and throw it at an enemy, and move up to the next cover while they're stunned feels incredibly good as well.

Electra77 - I think others have stated it very well. You should just enjoy yourself. You can take your time and enjoy the scenery. The reading and exploring are fun, as is the action.


(Credit: Badrayne31)

Mr. P - Side quests are AMAZING, and to get yourself more immersed in the world, I would recommend searching around for secrets, reading some of the creepy documents littered about, WATCH THE DARLING TAPES, THEY ARE SO FUN! This game thrives off of its worldbuilding, and to have an amazing time really get into all aspects of the world and what makes the FBC so [REDACTED].

Grimoire78 - Just enjoy the game and you will find yourself falling in rhythm with the game's combat pacing. Before long, you will be flying- no zooming around and throwing couches at enemies and you won't even know it's happening. It'll be another day in paradise and you won't break a sweat. Just enjoy the world of Control, the Oldest House, the FBC, etc.

"Joker's Reign" - Remember to alternate between defensive and offensive fighting styles. Launch keeps most enemies away and from getting close and paired with the shotgun shot you'll be better at keeping enemies off you in melee. Large groups with guns however I recommend just decimating them with a hail of bullets and launch ability use. Use cover and weave a lot in battle staying still is as good as being dead in battle.


(Credit: Th3rOcK)

Dragonbornmab - Practice makes perfect! Go back through areas and fight. Getting used to the unusual abilities in regular fights goes a long way later with the harder fights. Also, do every side mission you can, totally worth the time and effort!

Saaaf - Make sure to get the Shield ability! It's easy to miss, so stay alert when you go out exploring. Make sure to level it up as well, it's great especially against certain bosses, it made their fights so much easier (also, the 'burst' you can make when the shield is almost about to drop, amazing).

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to our latest blog! For more top tips from our players, head here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/870780/view/3702566762264956331

Not yet explored the Oldest House? Now is the perfect time! Enjoy a huge 75% off until July 13th.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/870780/Control_Ultimate_Edition/

Hi, today we have your monthly update about the development of RAT MEMORY!

Unfortunately, the development is slowed down due to my job. I'm a solo dev after all! But will keep working on this game until it is at least released on Steam.

• Here is the level I'm making now, set at night:
  
  
  
• Too dark, right? So here is a new mechanic made for it:
  Here is a preview.
  Pick the lights to be able to see the level better.
  
• I'm currently giving it the final touches, like sound effects and placing decorations.

Just got another music for RAT MEMORY, you will be able to hear it in the full game and when I upload it to Youtube.

Stay tuned for more updates, and I see you soon!

Please follow Quero Games on Twitter and Youtube.

Hello everyone, I hope you're doing great and enjoying the new content in the Blue Hour DLC. If you haven't installed it, please check it out, it's free after all.

I'm publishing a minor update, v1.3.1, which fixes some historically problematic things and, sadly, removes a feature. But it's for a good reason.

Feature removal: MP3 support.
I'm not sure how many players use this feature, but Slipstream allows you to add your own music files to the game. If you put a music file in '[user config dir]/ansdorGames/Slipstream/music', it will be playable during gameplay and treated like any other song in the soundtrack. Up until now, the game has supported three formats: ogg, wav and mp3. When I rewrote the game in version 1.2, I switched the underlying game library from libGDX to FNA, and FNA does not have native support for MP3. For the whole v1.2 cycle and v1.3.0, I used SDL2_mixer as an alternative, but this created new problems, mostly on macOS. Supporting the macOS version is extremely hard for me because I don't have a Mac computer and the OS isn't trivially virtualized like Windows and Linux.

In this new version, I removed the dependency on SDL2_mixer, so now the game only requires FNA and should run exactly the same on every PC platform. But, sadly, MP3 support had to go. The game still supports user-provided music, but only in the OGG format. If you use this feature a lot, I suggest you to convert your Slipstream playlist to the OGG format, it's a free format with many conversion tools available for every system. If FNA adds support for MP3 in the future (maybe I'll add it myself, if I have the time), I'll bring back support. But for now, it's goodbye to MP3. This should fix the recent audio problems on macOS. If you still have problems, send me an email.

Audio Improvements, Engine Sounds
The whole audio system has been refactored, and this brings back a feature that was lost in the v1.2 update: The engine pitch shift. Now the car engine sound is slightly more realistic and a lot more pleasant to the ear.

Leaderboard Improvements
The leaderboard system was one of the last things I implemented in Slipstream v1.2, when I was already tired of the whole rewrite and far beyond what should be my deadline. It's always been buggy and weird. Now I took the time to rewrite it properly and it should work better in general. One tangible improvement is that it doesn't show "Leaderboard Empty" when you don't have a entry on the Leaderboard.

Also, two tracks from the Blue Hour DLC, Transylvania and Pompeii, had a bug that prevented them from being added to the Leaderboards system. That is also fixed, and the Blue Hour Cup now has its own Leaderboard too.

UI Change: Navigation Arrow
The in-game radar now displays an arrow, like a compass, indicating the direction of the next curve. This should improve QoL on low-visibility tracks like Mystic Cave and Pompeii. The arrow becomes red when the next curve is to the right, and green when the next curve is to the left. This should allow players to predict the next curve without having to take their eyes off the road, just seeing red/green in the corner of the eye should be enough to feel where the next curve goes.

And that's all for this update. Thanks for playing!