We hope you've been enjoying the Ship Event update! Thanks to our wonderful community for helping us locate any bugs that weren't caught during internal testing, we've been hard at work to get them resolved as we tie up any loose ends from the update.

This Captain's Log entry contains a brief developer retrospective on the update and how it was handled, and it outlines all of the currently planned content for the grand 1.0 release.

As a friendly reminder, if you run into any bugs with the current version of BR, please report them to us on our Discord. We're not actively reviewing bug reports made on other platforms.

As a whole, we're pleased with the release and reception of the Ship Event update, and we managed to get quite a bit of content sorted out for this one. However, there were some issues that cropped up during development, and we wanted to talk about them here in slightly more depth.

There were several issues that hampered the development process for this update, with the primary problem being that development progressed much more slowly than we'd anticipated.
For context, this update took roughly 5 months to complete. For the amount of content included in the update, this is a comparatively long time. The easiest comparison would be the Crawling Chaos update, which had significantly more content than the Ship Event update and took ~7.5 months to complete. The big holdup for this update was an asset bottleneck where multiple artists had difficulties adhering to internal deadlines. Normally, missing deadlines isn't a huge issue, and with this being a community passion project, we expect it to happen from time to time. In the case of the Ship Event update, it was occurring on such a large and frequent scale that the update as a whole had to be pushed back several times. Moving forward, we'll be adjusting how we handle the allocation of resources to make it easier for us to meet those deadlines without simply delaying them. Just as importantly, we're taking stock of the well-being of our team members to promote a healthy team environment as we carry on to the finish line.

We also made some mistakes regarding how we handled the public deadline. In hindsight, the update release date should have been pushed back a bit, as several developers had to crunch pretty hard in order to meet the August 11th deadline. Additionally, releasing the update so late in the evening (around 9 PM Pacific Time) miscommunicated to our audience when the update was actually going live.
Moving onward to the 1.0 release, we'll likely not be giving out any public release dates until all of the content in the update is essentially done. This both ensures that we prevent crunch and ensures that we don't release something incomplete or break promises we make to our players.



So here we are... the final stretch to the 1.0 release.
This is the update we've been itching to get to. It contains the introduction cinematic to help explain the point of this campaign and what's essentially the entire endgame of Black Reliquary. That is to say, it's the last planned update that will add new content. Here is what we want to ensure is in the final update.

This is a current list of all of our planned content:

• The Black Reliquary Dungeon
  
• Six new Darkest-Level Bosses
  
• The Ascendant Hero
  
• Post-level 6 progression system for heroes
  
• Updated Skill Info (Specifically for heroes with alternate modes accessed via trinket such as Musketeer)
  
• New champion-exclusive enemies for all factions (likely excluding cactonids due to technical constraints)
  
• Activate/Gather quests for Caverns/Catacombs/Exposed Interior
  
• New Difficulties
  
• New Cinematics
  
• Multiple language localization
  
• Balance Adjustments
  
• A plethora of small additions and changes too numerous to list here!

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS LIST WILL LIKELY (IF NOT DEFINITELY) CHANGE OVER THE COURSE OF DEVELOPMENT.

We're looking to release all of this content in one big batch, as much of the content above is interwoven together. (i.e., it'd be weird to include a post-level 6 progression system for heroes if there are no hard quests to use it in.)

We'll be going over some of the more significant features above in finer detail via Captain's Logs over time as we develop them. Expect to see one every 1-2 months or so.

The last thing we want to mention is that players will need to start new saves for the 1.0 release. This was a difficult decision to make, and it was something we wanted to avoid, but there are UI adjustments we'll be making that are objective improvements (Updated Skill Info) and some tweaks to progression that'd be really useful to include, and those require a hard reset.

To be clear, we aren't able to hard wipe your saves ourselves, so you'll still have access to your old saves; However, there will be some visual bugs and a progressional softlock (you won't be able to access the Black Reliquary itself) for saves created before the 1.0 release. Depending on the circumstances, there may be a way to bypass the softlock by editing your base files, but this is not something that we can guarantee at the moment, nor is it something we want to ask of our players.

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It's humbling to get this far and have so many fans of our work, so we're going to give it all we've got to make sure that your patience, fascination, and loyalty are properly rewarded.

Hey everyone! Fressato here ✌️ Lead Designer of Dungeon Drafters.

Excited to be here sharing our recent progress over the past couple of months! Can't wait for you all to check out what I've got for the community today. Enjoy! 🎮

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⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Thanks to MoldMoldNukaCola from our Discord Server for the Picture.

The Grand Prix Award is the pinnacle of recognition at the BIC festival! The incredible support, patience, and unwavering encouragement that our community gave to us as a small indie team and for Dungeon Drafters as a whole have brought us to this moment. Heartfelt thanks to each and every member of our community!

And we were also nominated not only in other categories, but other events too. The sheer honor of being mentioned alongside exceptional titles has filled our development team with immense happiness, even if we were not selected as winners. We extend our gratitude to all of those who gave us the opportunity to be there!

Until now, nominations include:

• BIG Festival Best Brazilian Game 2023
  
• BIG Festival Best International Game 2023
  
• Bitsummit Best International Game 2023
  
• BIC Excellence in Game Design 2023
  
• BIC Jury Prize 2023

Once again, a heartfelt thank you to all!


We're thrilled to be part of the Steam Strategy Fest! Due to Steam guidelines and the recent Dangen Publisher Sale, we can't offer consecutive discounts. However, we're excited to at least participate in the event with other fantastic strategy games and commemorate this genre alongside our community!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYp3ugqPxiA




We'd like to extend our gratitude to all who engaged and warmly embraced the influx of new players from our recent Summer Sale and Dangen Publisher Sale! Our community has expanded significantly, and witnessing daily additions of fresh faces is truly exhilarating!

Now, let's talk about the development progress!

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I want to emphasize that while we won't be introducing a ton of new content, we do have some exciting additions planned to enhance the overall gameplay experience. Here are the upcoming changes for the 1.1 update that are either good to go or already in progress!

• Training Room

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The Training Room is in the works, just as we promised. You can step right in with any deck, even those that aren't valid (think less than 40 cards). Inside, you'll find handy pads designed to enhance testing within the room. These pads offer features like reshuffling, card drawing, and room resetting. Our goal is to empower players to experiment with synergy concepts without the obligation of a full dungeon run.

• New Town Music

Responding to community feedback, we're introducing a fresh town song for players who achieve the secret ending! Our composer enthusiastically agreed to create a brand-new track. This decision was made due to time constraints posed by backend coding, making the implementation of an in-game jukebox unfeasible for now. This means that players will no longer have to endure a tension-filled tune after conquering the ultimate evil. And rest assured, the new song will also find its place in the official OST.

• Enhanced Tower 3 Song

Our composer extended and enhanced the third Tower track, stretching it from 02:28 to 04:55 minutes. With many players investing significant time battling through the final set of combats within the Tower, the music needed a refresh to reduce repetitiveness and heighten tension. This updated composition will also find its place in the OST.

• Better UI in general

We've enhanced the user experience by adding more tooltips, refining card selection when handling a large hand, improving tile selection visibility, and more.

• Better controller responsivity
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We're actively leveraging community feedback to enhance controller responsiveness and gameplay experience, both within and outside of combat scenarios.

• Better deckbuilding UI

Introducing fresh archetype filters for the Deckbuilder! Plus, we've enhanced overall responsiveness and card sorting based on community feedback.

• Better Card Shop UI
  

The shop now features an Archetype Filter and an additional icon to show equipped cards.

• More tutorials

The game will now include a death tutorial that activates after the player's first death, often caused by the tutorial boss. Additionally, a save tutorial will trigger the first time the player comes across a Quill Shrine. Not only that, but now the guide will have some extra entries and explanations that were missing.

• Audio improvements

Our sound team is enhancing game audio and crafting additional SFX we found lacking.

• Visual Improvements
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Minor animation tweaks, new trait icons, and other small enhancements are included.

• Better communication on Cards/Curio Text

Enhancing card and curio communication is vital, as they form the essence of the game. We've streamlined text, ensuring consistency, and addressed any existing issues.

• More consistent AI Patterns

Certain enemies with similar behaviors displayed problems involving irregular patterns. Now, all such enemies will consistently follow patterns, enhancing the player's learning curve while preserving the game's overall challenge.

• Better communication on enemies previews

This typically occurs organically with more consistent patterns, but even enemies with irregular patterns received some enhanced previews. For example, the Ancient Effigy's petrify preview has been improved.

• Additional NPC pop-ups

We aim to enhance accessibility for new players in grasping NPC availability. Thus, we've increased the frequency of pop-ups indicating new or available interactions.

• Balancing Document

The balancing document in the 1.0.7 patch notes still includes our primary planned changes, while there will be additional adjustments will be detailed in the upcoming 1.1 patch notes.

• AI Pathing

We've enhanced monster pathing. Now, they'll smartly consider traps and alternate routes when choosing their path towards their objective. However, they might still brave traps if it shaves off a considerable distance. This tweak shakes up various playstyles, buffing some and dialing down others.

• We're buffing Warden

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• We're hard at work addressing numerous bugs, and we truly appreciate the active engagement of our community in identifying and reporting issues. As a small indie team, your contributions are invaluable in ensuring that our game reaches its fullest potential!

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• Finishing 1.1

We're gearing up to roll out the 1.1 Update as promised for the Q3 release! Stay tuned, it's on its way!

• Console Release

We're working closely with DANGEN and their porting teams to bring you an exciting console release in Q4!

• Kickstarter Rewards

Once those tasks are complete, we'll dive into crafting the Kickstarter backer rewards, which are currently in development, along with other secrets projects that are currently under wraps!

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We cannot describe our gratitude to the awesome Dungeon Drafters community for the incredible support you give us! A warm welcome to all the new players who joined us since our last update. We're excited for the game's healthy growth and everyone's enjoyment of the upcoming 1.1 update. Looking forward to having you with us until the end of September!

See you soon!
~ 📕 Fressato

Ver 0.52で実装した以下の機能にて、高確率で操作不能に陥るケースがある事が判明したため、修正いたしました。

・戦闘準備画面「マップ確認/初期配置設定」で、クリック/決定操作で各ユニットの能力を確認できる機能を実装

BIT HEROES QUEST HARDCORE CHALLENGE



Heroes wanted! Get ready for the greatest of challenges in Bit Heroes Quest - Hardcore.

During this event, you must survive as long as possible while you traverse through your adventure. The catch? You only have 1 life! If you die, you will have to create a new hero to continue in the competition.

Stay alive, Heroes! Only the strongest, smartest, and most hardcore will survive!

Bit Heroes Quest Hardcore 2023 event starts on August 24th 3:00PM PDT and ends on September 6th at 3:00PM PDT.

Event features:
You only have 1 life. Don't die!
You can surrender and escape death, BUT DON'T EVER DIE!
There are 3 Leaderboards for this challenge: Free-2-play, Paid, and NFT.
Everyone begins the challenge on the Free-to-Play track, until they make a purchase in the game. Once you pay for any microtransaction, you will be entered into the Spender track.
Your goal is to level up as much as you can, and push as many flags and zones as you can in the span of 2 weeks.
Trials/Gauntlet + Invasions will also count toward your final overall score in the race. PVP will not be tracked.
For the first time ever, we are releasing a special leaderboard that you can check out here!
We have prizes for the 30 winners of each leaderboard: Free-to-play/Paid/NFT.

How to participate?
Step 1. Create a new character once the contest begins.

Only new characters will be eligible for prizes. We recommend playing the web version of Bit Heroes Quest.

To create a new character, simply sign up for a new Kongregate.com account and load up the game.

Do not use a pre-existing Kongregate account, or you will be disqualified!
Do not change your name during the event!

Note: If you’re a mobile player, we’ve provided a special set of instructions for you here.


Step 2. Register your new character using the form below.
You can fill out this form any time before the contest ends (September 6th, 3:00pm PDT). Make sure to fill this form out correctly - include your character name AND tag.

Not filling the form out correctly with accurate information will make your submission invalid and considered ineligible to receive any rewards.

Step 3. Play your new character without dying.
Compete for the top prizes. If you die at any point in the game, redo these steps to try again!

All Speed Run characters must be made after the event starts to qualify.

Special Rules
No guilds. No friends. Just you and your familiars. The moment you join a guild, make friends, or join friends in a world boss, this will cause immediate defeat!
You can make a new Kongregate account and Bit Heroes Quest character if you die. Just make sure to follow the registration rules and start over!
For those who have current ownership of an NFT account, you can opt in to enter the NFT leaderboard.
You will still need to make a brand-new Kongregate account and Bit Heroes Quest character to run on.
Players who purchase an NFT on the speed running account will be automatically moved to the NFT track.

For more detailed information about the rules, please visit this link.

Got any questions? Join the official Discord server for more information and FAQs.

Huge update to the demo! This has been slowly rolled out in smaller updates but I wanted to make a post letting you know of all of the changes we've made since the last update. Thank you everyone that has taken the time to provide feedback and report issues. We truly appreciate it!

• Brand new tutorial system
  
• New build/combat mode input system
  
• Many Points of Interest are now spread around the world
  
• Added our first NPC!
  
• You can now replace tiles under structures
  
• Streamlined demo progression

• Craft item tooltips now have more information
  
• More input hints
  
• Reworked splitter UI
  
• Foliage can now be destroyed by your sword and blaster
  
• Better feedback when attempting to dig/replace a supporting tile
  
• The forge now dispenses on the bottom left rather than top left
  
• Default craft speed was increased by 50%
  
• Improved tutorial text based on feedback
  
• Changed toolbar to set items with left mouse button

• Fixed an issue with clipping through the ground when jumping
  
• Fixed an issue with closing setting window with Escape
  
• Fixed inconsistency with setting toolbar items with number keys from the inventory
  
• Fixed a crash when rolling
  
• Fixed a crash caused by Mana Turret bullets
  
• Fixed an issue with drills not working on newer versions
  
• Fixed issue with power relay tutorial task not always working

Deleted the "permanent files" file which gives you access to a game without my saves from when testing the game.

• Update splash screen

What is Ringleaders all about?
Ringleaders is a retrofuturistic, prohibition-inspired social deduction shooter. You enter the city of Carillon as a Cypher, an anthropomorphic AI designed for eternal servitude to humanity. But whispers in the digital alleys hint that Luminos bestows Cyphers with sentience—a ticket to freedom! Team up with allies and embark on electrifying missions: guard the convoy, deliver cargo, and lay waste to enemy territories. But tread with caution: among your ranks lurks a traitor, an informant for NERVOS—the looming mega-corporation that pulls the strings of all Cyphers. Will you claim your freedom or remain a puppet? Dive in and decide your fate!

We believe in the power of developing alongside our community. Our goal is to take our players behind the scenes and share our development progress publicly. We welcome – and strongly encourage – any and all feedback and suggestions on the core game loop, community events, and marketing. Use the #feedback-and-suggestions channel of our Discord, as well as Steam forums for this purpose as you see fit!



What should you expect from us?
Closed Beta launch - this fall, we’re going to launch into Closed Beta, at which point we’ll start to bring in community members to playtest Ringleaders! Discord is one of the best places to stay up to date on upcoming events, as well as our TikTok, Twitter, subreddit, and other social media accounts.

Early Access launch - Later on, we’ll launch into Early Access on Steam. At this point, the game will be publicly available.

Stay tuned for more updates on Closed Beta playtests and community events. We’re an open book, so don’t hesitate to say hello and introduce yourself in our Community Discussion board. We are so excited you chose to join us on this journey!

• (Hero) Kara no longer taunts her target with her active. She now also stuns her current target in addition to the enemies targeting her with her active.
  
• (Hero)Layla now shares 125% of her Defense with her Bear. Layla's active no longer give 10 Defense to her Bear on cast.
  
• (Hero)Savos' Buffbots now change color depending on what they are giving as a buff. Yellow = Attack Speed, Blue = Spell Power, Red = Attack Damage. Their buff tooltip also changes color accordingly.
  
• (Enemy) Dark Shadow: Spell damage and Max HP nerfed
  
• (Enemy) Hellguard attack speed and Max HP slight nerfed
  
• (Enemy) Giant Bug Max HP and Attack Damage buffed
  
• (Enemy) Changed Chainer Demon's chains spell to: Stuns and chains the highest damage dealer of the party. The chains have 20% of the Chainer Demon's Max HP, and all damage dealt to the boss is also dealt to the chains. If the chains are not destroyed within 6.5 seconds, the chained hero takes 99% of their Max HP as damage, this damage does not get mitigated by the hero's Defense.
  
• (Enemy) Chainer Demon's Max HP heavily increased (due to the change of how his chain spell works)
  
  
• 3 and 4 star level enemies have been slightly nerfed.
  
• Enemy ranks now grant them a additional exponential Attack and Spell Damage
  
  
• Buddy's Tooth relic's effect revamped to:
  Whenever a hero dies for the first time, you gain X trophies depending on the hero's rank.
  
  Rank 1: 2 trophies
  Rank 2: 6 trophies
  Rank 3: 12 trophies
  Rank 4+: 20 trophies
  
  
• Cup of blood relic now has an additional effect (in bold)
  Your flame cannot be reduced below 1 during combat. Losing a fight makes you lose 5 flame . (You can't lose the run unless you lose a fight) Additionally, after each fight, if you have 1 flame , heal for 7 flame.
  
  
• Some items and effects that scaled with amount of Summons or amount of debuff on the enemy have been changed to consider the highest amount of stacks during the fight instead of the current amount of stacks during the fight. For instance, the drake passives now considers the highest amount of Summons during the fight instead of the current amount of summons. This is also the case with items that scales with highest debuff amount. By doing this, it makes some effect a bit more predictable, and it also solves an issue that when the fight ends, some buffs would show no longer available values. For instance, when winning a fight, the highest amount of X debuff will be 0, since there are no enemies alive, and the buff tooltip of an item that scales with X debuff will show as giving 0 stacks. This is no longer the case!
  
  Note: when the game will be closer to early access release, these balance patches will be fully detailed.

• You can now open the map while in the starting phase (pick 2 heroes an 1 relic).
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to open the map after a boss, and pick a position without proceeding from the fight rewards, which caused a soft lock.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to duplicate items in the hero panel.
  
• Fixed a bug where heroes in the shop wouldn't update their "you already have the same hero, pick to gain 25 XP" when they would be dismissed.
  
• Fixed a bug that would soft lock the game if a hero reached rank 10.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to drag items in the Offer Item Window (events)
  
• Fixed a bug where stunned heroes wouldn't have navigation colliders, and enemies could go through them.
  
• Fixed a bug that allows winning and losing a fight to trigger for the same fight.
  
• Opening the hero panel now closes the hero/enemy card if one is opened. This solves an issue where 2 videos would be played on the same component which would result in a flashing mess.
  
• Fixed some issue with dropping a hero on a hex when also hovering over a large enemy which resulted in being unable to place.
  
• 100+ typos fixed, and improved and more consistent descriptions.

Enemy ranks are now half as strong as before which allows for a much simpler level* creator system. I don't want to get into too much details, cause it could get confusing, instead please have a look at the table which shows how the level system used to work BEFORE compared to NOW.

*A level is an encounter level which includes what enemies are in the level, how are the enemies positioned, what is the enemy power level (stars).

What does it change?
Since enemy ranks are now gained "linearly" across all parts of the game, this means that level creation based on ACTS and not based on PARTS since the game can now make entire levels dynamically scale depending on what part (floor) the player is on. For instance, before, if level XYZ was an ACT 2 PART 1 level, this level was only available in ACT 2 part 1 and you would never see it in ACT 2 part 2 or 3. Now all levels are based per ACT.
Overall, this change makes it easier to create levels since enemy ranks don't have to be changed manually depending on the act and the part. Now it's all done automatically in-game through code. It also increases the diversity of levels that you will see, since now a level can be seen in all parts of an act while before it was restricted per part. EG. before you could only see the level : Abomination 5 stars in ACT 2 part 1, now you can encounter this level anywhere in ACT 2, and his strength (rank) will scale accordingly depending on where you are in the act.

Same Balance/Strength
Some levels might have a slightly different balance, but overall this should not affect balance. Basically heroes gain ranks twice as fast as they did previously, but the strength of a rank has been reduced by half. This does not affect, elites, bosses and event encounter which have specific ranks & stats.

(old) Rank 1 = (new) Rank 1
(old) Rank 2 = (new )Rank 3
(old) Rank 3 = (new) Rank 5
(old) Rank 4 = (new) Rank 7


Level Maker Tool
I made myself a tool which allows me to make levels at a much quicker speed, this in combination with the last section (changes to enemies rank), will heavily increase how much levels I can make for the game.

Level Variations
With the level maker tool, I am now able to create level variations which includes 2 different positioning for the same level + its 2 mirror positioning (4 times the amount of variation). This gives every single level in the game a more unique flair!

Balancing the amount of enemies in the encounter
Previously, the game would only draw a random level from the pool of levels, and never check how many enemies are in the level, which means that it was possible to only encounter a low count of enemies (1-3) during one run, and then the next run, only encounter a high count of enemies (5+). Although, this was unlikely with the current amount of levels, it would have become a much bigger issue as the amount of levels increase in the future. Therefore, I made a system that allows me to adjust and guide the draw towards a desired percentage of 1 enemy encounter, 2-3 enemies encounter, 4-5 enemies encounter and 6+ enemies encounter. Currently this is set to 20%,20%,50%,10% respectively but it will most likely change in the future.

All these systems are going to be very beneficial to the upcoming Endless Mode (only available in the full game & closed beta)

Improved performance. The primary issue has been identified and eliminated.