Jul 18, 2023

Successor - Wartile

Hello everyone,

Our summer vacation has ended, and we're back in full swing with Successor. So, why not start by sharing what we've been working on?

This time, we've focused on expanding factions and units' abilities and combat styles. Our goal is to enhance every encounter's strategic diversity and challenge, providing you with exciting new gameplay experiences.

Here is a short overview from update 0.7.4.1+

Bandits of Blackrock

Scoundrels can now throw a poison dagger, which can be avoided by moving outside its range.
Scoundrels and Assassins can "escape" by jumping away when they get low on hit points.

Grim Legion

Lifedrain can now be properly interrupted with a stunning ability and has its effects improved.

Dregg

Updated rules for when bloaters explode so it happens less predictably and only when adjacent to a player unit.

Havengore

Added "Rain of Arrows" to Archers and updated its mechanics and telegraphing. It now hits the area 4 times for 10 damage per target.
Added "Battlecry" ability to Knights that increases all Havengore units' damage by 2 and pushes back adjacent player units.
Added "Pious" faction trait that grants +5 holy resistance.

Calsey

Calsey Archers no longer have "Rain of Arrows."
Added "Trained" faction trait that grants +1 to damage.

Darkmoon

All Darkmoon units can trigger "Bloodlust" by sacrificing an adjacent Follower with low HP. Bloodlust heals the unit 50 HP and grants it +5 damage for 12 seconds.

Bigbugs

Added "Cocoon" to small bugs. They can now cocoon themselves; if allowed to hatch, they will turn into a large bug.

Beastmen (unannounced)

Added a Javelin-throwing bandit.
Added a "Hammer Smash" ability to melee bandits where they target a tile for a very hard attack that, if avoided, will make them hit the tile and stun themselves.
Added "Stampede" to all bandits that can make them trample towards a target and will throw/stun the first thing they hit.

Weapons

Sagebane is now a melee staff instead of a ranged wand. Druid and Warpriest can wield it.

Tiles

Mud and Water tiles now grant resistance to fire.

Kingdom Map

Added a dagger when selecting a region.
Added a ruler panel with info on the ruler of the Kingdom (Is static and revealed from the start atm but will be generated at random and be hidden from the get-go and then revealed through rewards).

Skilltree

Updated the UI panels and hover/use FX on the skill nodes.
Added a custom color for the skill tree panel based on the unit.

We expect to open up for another round of playtesting within a few weeks and have
again opened up for the Playtesting sign-ups.

Remember to make a wishlist and follow us to stay updated.

Best regards
The Playwood Project Dev Team

Jul 18, 2023

Critter Cove Dev Log #1

Critter Cove - ABieniek

Ahoy!

My name’s Anchor, your local seafaring skipper - and honorary President (and only member) of the newly formed Critter Cove tourism board!

I'm taking quill to parchment today to share a brief bulletin on the happenings on our isle and how we're faring in the run-up to throwing open our doors to a tide of new explorers later this year through Early Access!

We’ve got some video travelogues planned that will introduce you to the island, its inhabitants, some places you can visit, and activities you can take part in. Still, before we get to those, I wanted to show some of our progress over the last few years since we started working!

A new publisher - and a new lick of paint!

We've managed to rope in a new publisher to help us cast off! We've been toiling behind the scenes with tinyBuild to bring a grand graphical facelift to the island, as well as fresh new looks for me and me fellow islanders!

Take a peek at some of our spanking new models from a recent pictorial gathering (I must say, I do look particularly striking, wouldn't ye agree?)

But the most significant transformation is right here on the island itself! Cast your eyes on these striking before and after snapshots:

We also took a side-by-side shot with a fancy slider you can check out here!

Alongside sprucing up the overall graphics, we've been working on a brand new lighting system, so whether you're out navigating the briny deep under the starlit sky or diving down to sunken galleons in the full blaze of midday, our world is always at its resplendent best!

What’s next?

We're chipping away at a fresh new trailer and the first of our video features, as well as assembling a build of the game that we hope to dispatch to streamers come August! If you're a streamer and fancy featuring us during August, do tip us the wink, and we'll add you to our list!

We're also fashioning the experience for new landlubbers stepping foot on the island! At present, I play a starring role in greeting our guests, but we're aiming to ensure there's a treasure trove of help, quests, and activities on hand the moment you set foot on our sandy beaches.

Not to mention, we're considering dusting off and flinging open the doors of the town's museum now that we're finally expecting some visitors... But more on that in due course!

Be sure to follow our nautical escapades on TikTok and Twitter if you haven't yet, and we'd be over the moon to see you in our Discord where we host community jamborees and giveaways on the regular!

Jul 18, 2023

UPDATE - Lesson 8 release PLUS Lesson 1 VFX visual overhaul

ZenVR - ZennedOut

Lesson 8 - Compassion and Interconnectedness is here, featuring an immersive compassion contemplation meditation only truly experienced in VR!

In the final class of the core curriculum, you will engage in a loving kindness and compassion meditation followed by a visually stunning continuation of the previous talk, digging deeper into the interconnectedness of life, followed by some final Q&A.

This FREE update also includes visual overhauls of Lesson 1 VFX plus updated visuals for Intro through Lesson 7!

It's been found that community can enhance one's practice by promoting focus and motivation. 🧘‍♀️🧘🏾🧘‍♂️🧘🏿🧘🏼‍♂️.

Stay up-to-date and connect with fellow meditators by joining the ZenVR community: http://www.zenvrapp.com/connect on Facebook, Discord, and r/ZenVR. We'll be hosting active discussions with fellow meditators and you’ll also receive regular zen content designed to supplement the lessons and concepts core to meditation as well as encourage you to maintain a regular habit of practicing.

Happy meditating,
Matt Golino - Founder of ZenVR™

Jul 18, 2023

Ara: History Untold's Independent Settlements

Ara: History Untold - Ara: History Untold

It’s time to meet the neighbors! At the start of Act I, Independent Settlements are scattered throughout the world, hidden by the fog of war. You can uncover these villages by sending scouts and other units to explore the wild regions beyond your borders.

Independent Settlements are not initially aligned with any nation and can be ignored, antagonized, or befriended over time. Your relationship with a settlement can range from Hostile to Loyal and will improve by completing various quests. Some groups may ask you to share resources before the coming winter, while others will call for your aid in defeating a rival tribe.

Be careful; pillaging one of these settlements for loot or failing to complete their quests will cause them to grow hostile and create mercenary units in retaliation. Claiming a region inhabited by an Independent Settlement will also result in a group of angry mercenaries at your doorstep.

Beyond improving relationship status, settlement quests have their own rewards, such as rare resources, equipment, and prestige that can help advance your nation quickly. Upon reaching the “Loyal” status with an Independent Settlement, you will be presented with their Capstone Quest. Slightly more challenging than those leading up to it, this quest will allow the settlement to join your nation once completed!

Work swiftly to establish relationships because all surviving settlements disappear at the start of Act II. Depending on your final relationship status, they may gift you resources and equipment or join your nearest city as newly welcomed citizens.

Stay tuned for more info on Ara: History Untold in the coming weeks!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2021880/Ara_History_Untold/

Jul 18, 2023

Hotfix

The Immolate - Long Shift Studios

Hello everyone,

First of all, thank you for your interest. We have made some minor fixes for the issues that appeared in the initial release.

Fixed the issue where items were still visible in the inventory after being used or discarded.
Fixed the bug where the antenna would glitch when placing it while the television was turned off.
Removed the names of the cabinets in the kitchen that couldn't be interacted with.
Resolved some problems with the Russian translation.
Resolved some issues with the German translation.
Fixed the error that displayed "bookshelf" instead of "closet" on clothing cabinets.
Fixed the bug where rain sound wouldn't play when getting out of the car.
Fixed the issue where the F key appeared as usable on lamps.

Added the translation "Left Click" for every language instead of LMB.
Added the usage prompts to the lower left corner for the antenna, similar to other interactable items like Padlocks and Lockpicks.

You can report any bugs or provide feedback in the Discussion section of the Community Center or through the soon-to-be-available website at https://bugs.longshiftstudios.com.

Thank you.

Jul 18, 2023

Diebrary Dev Blog Post #2

Diebrary - Alicja

In order to best prepare for our release on Steam on the 20th, we have decided to disable the Demo version.

You can still get your Diebrary demo at Armor Games, Itch.io, Addicting Games, Kongregate and other portals for free!

We got a few questions about the cookies in web versions - they are there only to save your progress, and you can opt-out of that. We do not collect or store any user information. It's up to you how you want to enjoy our game!

4. What did we have to change? (Color)

Alright, we’re going to get a bit more specific with art terminology here so feel free to leave questions if you are curious about something!

As was mentioned before, we reused a lot of assets to make the pipeline faster. However, just because one thing worked in Loot, doesn’t mean it worked in Diebrary. Characters, enemies and props were the main thing we carried over, but reworking the color palettes across all of those assets was an important part of getting those to look cohesive, like they belonged in the same world. Here is an early look of Diebrary before the color pass and an up to date screenshot after the color pass and with some extra pizazz.

Before (Forest)

After (Forest)

At first glance it might not seem like a huge difference, however, take a closer look at the colors in the environment and on the enemies. The before shot is less saturated, has more blue tones overall and the red is slightly more orange.

In the second screen shot, we’ve taken out as much of the blue as we could and leaned more heavily into the true red/yellow-gold/rich greens. Sticking with those as our primary colors made it easier to come up with color changes for enemies and helped tremendously while making a color pass on the environment props.

These are color swatches our art director, Ben, took from our first color pass and the changes he suggested for the next pass.

First pass colors that include the ultramarine blue tone

After, less blue and that good ol’ green/red/yellow-gold triad

I hope the images above helped with your understanding of this part of our art journey!

5. What did we have to change? (Enemies!)

Fans of this genre (games like Vampire Survivors, Nova Drift, 20 Minutes Till Dawn) know that the bulk of the enemies come from using one model and changing it visually to show that it has gotten tougher than the previous version. Today I am going to use the shamblers as an example of how we achieved this.

First of all, this is what the shambler looked like in Loot. I wanted to make it cuter as a way to separate it from its first life, the “shambling mound”, and turn it into the first enemy you see in Diebrary.

Original Shambling (from Loot)

New Shambler

This is also a good example of how we kept the color palette for enemies to the yellow-gold/red. Dipping into some deep yellow/orange in this case makes sense for the visual progression.

6. New Map!

Initially we were only going to ship with one map, but as luck (and a lot of work!) would have it, we were able to create a new map that has some mechanical differences from the Forest.

The Mountain map features almost all new enemies, props and visual effects. While running up the mountain, you are a bit slower. If you’re running down the mountain, you’re faster! Storms on the left and right sides of the screen block your path, and monsters emerge from within to make your life more difficult. Overall more movement restricted, hopefully more hectic and fun!

7. Thank you for reading!

Unfortunately there are a lot more things to talk about than what will comfortably fit inside a reasonably sized blog post. If you enjoyed reading, from the small amount of history with our other game Loot, to our work on palettes and our work on enemies, characters and weapons, we hope you found something new to learn about! If you have any questions and would like to know more (art post part 3!) OR want us to spotlight another team, please let us know in the comments!

It was a privilege to speak on behalf of the art team for Diebrary and I hope you’ll give the game a shot when it comes to steam on July 20th!

Thanks!
- Shelbo