Hey Panda Peeps!

The time for summer fun has come, and with it, your chance to experience an actual pirate adventure! Complete the Beach Bash Event to unlock Kira, the most beautiful pirate captain to ever sail the seven seas. She’s not like other pirates, either. Sure, she’s ambitious and adventurous, but she’s also a classy lady! Once you meet her, you’re sure to be HOOKED!

Remember, you have from July 20 to 26 to check off all your goals during this tropical affair! Then, and only then, will we surrender the booty!

We love you so hard,

The Pandas

Hello there!

It’s been exactly one year since Realms of Magic was released as a Full Version. To celebrate our first anniversary, we are excited to share our plans for the future!



Quite a long time ago, we had a dream - to create our own fantasy sandbox RPG. And we had absolutely zero skill, knowledge, or experience to pull off a project of that scale. That didn’t seem like a reason good enough not to try anyway, so we did… aaand it took us 8 long years to finally create something we could call a complete game.

The game turned out pretty decent, considering our lack of resources. Despite being very janky and lacking in many aspects, it sold over 50k copies, earned 80% positive reviews on Steam, and, most importantly, showed us the potential for this game idea.

Realms of Magic is a clear example of a game that is better than the sum of its parts. It doesn’t have great platforming, combat, story, or sandbox mechanics - each part of the game is mediocre at best, yet mixed together, they create a magical experience.

When we were getting close to finishing the development of the full version, we started wondering what kind of game Realms of Magic could be if all of the parts were actually well made: precise and responsive platforming, dynamic and juicy combat, captivating story with memorable characters and diverse sandbox mechanics with depth. Well, our next goal is to find out exactly that!



To continue working on the Realms, we had to make an important decision on which development model to pick: smaller updates, an expansion pack, or a sequel.

The most common way to further develop sandbox games is through smaller incremental updates. But Realms of Magic is not only a sandbox game but also an RPG. Do we want to stay in the Old Kingdom and replay the same story over and over again? Or do we want to explore different parts of the Ezran continent and experience new storylines? We decided on the latter, so an expansion pack or a sequel would make more sense.

While we had a complete and working game to build upon, the development in recent years significantly slowed down due to the game’s code and data being what you call spaghetti. But no ordinary spaghetti. More like barbed wire spaghetti. It was really painful and slow to get any major changes done. This mess resulted from an inexperienced team making a game that was way out of their depth.

We started analyzing which parts of the game we wanted to improve drastically. And the answer was… all of them. That made it clear, instead of trying to fix our mess, starting from scratch would be more efficient since we want to remake every system anyway. So a sequel it is.

But this time, we want to do it properly. No more jank, each game element must meet certain industry standards. No more skimping on refactoring and proper development practices, we want to create a foundation we will be able to efficiently build upon in years to come. As developers, we grew and learned a lot over the years and are confident in our skills to pull it off properly.



So it’s official, we are making Realms of Magic 2. But what kind of game will it be? Our goal is simple: the same idea but much better execution.

A significant part of the sequel will be the brand-new content. We will leave the Old Kingdom and explore new parts of the Ezran continent, discover new biomes, meet new cultures, fight new creatures, gather new resources, craft new items, and experience a new epic storyline. While we won’t share any more details today, all we will say for now is that work on the new setting is in pretty advanced stages, and our entire team is really excited about how it’s shaping up. We can’t wait to share more!

One of the fundamental parts of the game is the physics system, which is especially important since we are not only a sandbox, an RPG, but also a platformer. To achieve smooth and precise platforming gameplay, we wrote our custom character physics, and we are quite proud of how it turned out. After getting used to the new system, getting back to the original game is really painful, the difference between RoM 1 and RoM 2 physics feel is massive.

Another fundamental part is the animations, which in the original game were stiff and robotic. Most pixel-art games use handmade sprite animations for better quality. We can't do that because we require a lot of different parts and animations, and drawing a frame for each part and animation combination is not viable. We'll stick to skeletal animation, but we're working on a solution to give them depth and make them look more like traditional frame-by-frame animations.

The next element we will be reworking is the combat system. Combat in RoM 1 lacked impact, proper pacing, and juiciness. The enemy variety was lacking, and their AI was simply bad. Character progression was very linear, lacked depth, and the build variety wasn’t great. And there weren’t any range weapons. All of the above will be improved in the sequel.

Another core element that will be improved is sandbox mechanics. The main issue with sandbox in the original game was that all mechanics were frontloaded from the start, overwhelming new players and not introducing new mechanics later on, which resulted in a lack of depth and a repetitive experience. We will be solving that by proper progression and adding more complex mechanics at later stages. Oh, and we are making talent trees for profession skills!

One of the areas that were lacking in Realms of Magic was the narration. Instead of all dialogues happening in a small box while the game is paused, we want to create a more cinematic experience. When you initiate dialogue, the camera will zoom in, and characters will animate their faces and can perform movements and gestures. We will also be focusing on creating more choices and their consequences. And we will be moving away from filler quests, a quest that doesn’t tell an interesting story won’t have a place in Realms of Magic 2.

The final major part of the game that will be improved is the interface and user experience. We want it to be more intuitive and more convenient to use. We will improve inventory, building experience, quest tracking, and more. And we will be adding full controller support!

One of the heavily requested features is localization for additional languages. We will be adding support for localization, and we plan to create professional translations for a number of the most popular languages (details to be determined later). But even if your language won’t make it on the official list, we will be adding support for community-made translations.

Another fan favorite is mod support. And we are happy to announce that Realms of Magi 2 will feature official mod support! We are designing the game with mods in mind, we want as much content to be as easily modifiable as possible. We can’t wait to see what our community will create!

Finally, let’s discuss that one feature everyone asks about - multiplayer. After deep research and analyzing all our options, we concluded that we wouldn’t be able to deliver it with our resources in a timely manner without seriously compromising the game’s quality. Realms of Magic 2 will be a singleplayer only game. If you are waiting to journey through the Realms with friends, do not lose hope, and please be patient. After we create solid foundations in the sequel, multiplayer will be the next major step we want to explore in the Realms of Magic series. When we’ll do it, we’ll do it right.



Realms of Magic 2 is not only a singular game but the start of a series of games in which we want to build and expand upon previous entries instead of throwing everything away and starting from scratch each time. Following this principle, we have a second major announcement: Realms of Magic Remastered.

What is Realms of Magic Remastered? Basically, it’s the content from the first game running on the sequel codebase and mechanics. We are not planning on adding any major content or features to the remaster (those will be available in the sequel), but it will take advantage of all new updates to the mechanics, such as physics, animations, combat, narration, interface, etc.

What does it mean for updates for the original game? We are not planning any significant updates besides potential fixes to high-priority issues. To fix all the problems with the game, we would need to completely remake the game - which is precisely what we are doing.

All Realms of Magic owners will receive the remastered game for free.



We hope you are as excited about the future of the Realms as we are!

In the upcoming months, we’ll be focused on recruiting and expanding our team size. We plan to provide more regular development updates once new team members are up to speed and the dust settles.

In the meantime, join our official Discord, where we created a channel on which you can discuss your ideas and suggestions for Realms of Magic 2 with us!

Youkoso. Welcome, to another MicroWorks update. In this update, we've focused on improving overall server experience and stability, as well as additional methods to fight off bad actors.

We've also got your usual batch of fixes, QoL improvements, and even some rebalances! You can read all about it in the changelog below.

• Host takeover! When a host abandons a public match, the game will find the next best possible host and move the server to them, with all previous players and progress in tact.
  
• New moderation system: You can now report other players who are being abusive or acting inappropriately. Bad behavior may result in a permanent ban from the entire game, so be nice to each other!
  
• Reworked and improved the voting system:
  
  • The threshold to passing a vote has been reduced from 75% to 70% of votes from players in the server.
    
  • If a vote times out without reaching the threshold, it will compare the amount of votes on both sides, and, if the yes vote count is substantially higher, it will pass it (instead of just always picking "No").
    
  • Added the ability to initiate a vote to skip a boss stage (from within the player list).
    
  • Added a 60 second cooldown period before you can initiate a new vote.
    
  • In order to combat abuse, initiating votes will be limited to players who finished at least 7 games. Party Pass owners are exempt from this limit.
    
  • Increased vote timeout period from 30 to 45 seconds.
    
  • Fixed inaccurate display on the vote count fill icons.
• Added "Double XP" special round.
  
• Jetfrogs rebalances and fixes:
  
  • Increased score payouts from 500 to 750
    
  • Opened up and de-cluttered the starting area
    
  • Moved starting checkpoint closer to the obstacle, rather than the very beginning
    
  • Straightened out and improved collision on the final bridge
    
  • Fixed a bunch of spots you could get stuck in
    
  • Improved collision in a bunch of different spots
    
  • Minor performance improvements
• Robot Rumble rebalances and fixes:
  
  • Blocking now only protects your front - hits from behind will still count.
    
  • Slightly reduced boxing gloves damage output.
• Added new UI to "Press All The Buttons" microgame.
  
• Renamed Airblast microgame to make the objective clearer.
  
• The text size in the "Shrinked" argument will now adjust according to your display resolution.
  
• (Slightly) increased special round odds.

• Fixed a bunch of server connection issues.
  
• Fixed quickmatcher matching you into servers you were banned from.
  
• Fixed certain achievement icons not displaying properly in the achievements display.
  
• "Scratched" argument microgames will now display the unscratched text at the end of the round.
  
• Fixed an issue where custom emotes uploaded from .jpg files could not be edited after being submitted.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Jetfrogs icon would persist even after the boss ended.
  
• Players will now properly receive score if their opponent in Standoff shoots too early.
  
• Fixed an issue where if a player who is inside the ring/up next to join the ring in Robot Rumble were to leave the game, the boss would not end.
  
• Fixed mutators not working in the Boss Rush gamemode.
  
• You no longer need to have any microgames enabled to start a mutated Boss Rush server.
  
• Fixed "Unfreezable" achievement being achievable while spectating.
  
• "Lucky Guess" achievement can now be earned inside Trivia Mastermind too.
  
• "Bonus life" argument should no longer appear in Last Player Standing.
  
• "Don't Blow Up" microgame will now only count failure if you died from a barrel, and not from a player.
  
• Fixed "Shooting Stars" special round not awarding score upon picking up the star.
  
• Fixed "Megapush" special round not applying for late joiners.

With the F2P update, many of you came flooding in and filled our niche little game with life - we are incredibly thankful. Unfortunately though, a few people also took to souring other people's experiences, spouting disgusting things in the chat, harassing players, abusing features like the vote kicking/banning, and more.

With this update, we are making a clear statement:
Toxic behavior is not welcome here, and you will be banned!

The Nexus welcomes everyone, and every user should feel comfortable and safe while playing our game. If someone is harassing you or is acting in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, you can now report them and bring them to our attention by holding Tab in a game to bring up the player list, selecting the offending user, pressing on "Player Details", and pressing on "Report".

That's all for now! As always, thank you so much to everyone who's playing our game and supporting it. It means the whole world to us.

This summer's v1.5.9 update introduces a handful of new costumes to help you recreate certain looks! I also took the opportunity to finally fix the glitchy "Transparent" hair. Other polishing includes a new stumbling alternative to flying off the edge of furniture, which keeps you on your feet more often. The way focusing works in roaming is also evolving, as you now automatically disengage from anybody you repeatedly walk away from. It's still possible to achieve this manually by holding the focus command, which frees up the left stick button for sleeping.



You can study all the other bug fixes too tiny to mention at the back of the manual:
http://mdickie.com/guides/wempire.pdf

Updates in Build 1939

- option to turn off water ripple fx
- option to turn off lens flare
- config.conf was replaced by settings.conf
- seperated console commands to hide the hud and gun (HUD and GUN respectively)
- show which sound device is used in sound options
- fix for number keys on non-us keyboards

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1833710/My_Museum_Treasure_Hunter/

Hey everyone,

We are taking part in a Steam event called Simfest in collaboration with our pals at Auroch Digital and Stray Fawn.

You can find Shadows of Doubt and a whole load of other awesome simulation games here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/simfest

The event is designed to celebrate all simulation games and we are happy to be a part of the amazing selection of games they have there!

Stay tuned for some more news on the roadmap coming tomorrow!

Join our Discord to get involved in the conversation

It's Louise, Communication Manager of Reus 2, and I'm pleased to say that we're participating in this year's Sim Fest. Discover a ton of great simulation games and hidden gems during the festival!



So don't forget to wishlist Reus 2 and look at other cool sim games!

Playtest data

Last month we had our first official playtest. And we were honestly not ready for that much enthusiasm! You were a crazy amount of players participating and sharing your feedback. For that, we're very thankful! This feedback is super valuable so we can create the best experience possible! So here are some data collected during the playtest.



If you did not get the chance to try the game yet, we're soon arriving with great news. Stay tuned!

Don't forget to join our Discord, it's where all the fun happens: https://discord.gg/EANmk2rbVG

To celebrate our inclusion in this years SimFest we are pleased to offer an update to the Horticular demo!

You check out the full patch notes for the demo below!



Major Changes:

Added a new animal: Rat.
Added Japanese language (99% translated).
Added new animal traversal and animation systems. Certain creatures now traverse multiple mediums, such as water and land.
Added creature swimming particle effect.
Reworked all existing animal assets to be in line with the overall aesthetics. This includes new idle animations to add more life.
Ground cursors polished to be more distinct.
Removed traversal overlay.
Fixed rare path-finding crash.
Fixed incorrect granite fact.

Hello Tacticians,

The time has come! - The all new Tales & Tactics demo is now live ahead of it's launch on August 10th! If you played our most recent demo and were itching to play more we have you covered as the new demo features the unlock and meta progression mechanics! You will now be able to spend your mastery points to help you progress, provide more variety and even cosmetics! Not every unlock is available in this demo compared to what will be in the Early Access launch, but we wanted to give a bigger preview and ask for your help testing out our progression, unlocks, game modifier, and cosmetics systems.



if you missed the previous demo and don't know what to expect from Tales & Tactics, now is a great time to try it out!

Tales & Tactics blends the roguelike strategy genre with the squad-based autobattler genre, creating a one-of-a-kind experience tailor made for a single player adventure. No time limits and no pressure means you have all the time in the world to take in the game's mechanics and characters, and to strategize correctly for the fight ahead of you. With a quick and easy tutorial, and mechanics that start off simple and approachable, anyone can learn to play. The mechanics will only get more complex if you want them to, with our unique "complexity at your own pace" unlock system.



The demo is live until July 26th! So there is plenty of time for you to get to grips or attempt to master Tales & Tactics ahead of the August 10th Launch! consider adding Tales & Tactics to your Wishlist to be notified when it launches!