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The NOTH team has some great news! We survived making TAGLINE! The game is officially available to all!

What a journey it's been, 4 years later and here we are! Numb, somewhat amazed, and a little humbled. If we had an ounce of energy left in our crumpled, neglected bodies; we'd give ourselves a pat on the back!A huge thank you to those who wishlisted the game, played the demo, and supported us! Particularly our friends in the discord server. From every last demo player to the those who shared ourwork on socials - you helped this game come true.

Please enjoy this little world we've crafted for you. Remember to share your scores, tell your friends, and tag us if you make any content about TAGLINE.Reviews help out tremendously, so post one on the page and let us know what you think of the game! We've got places to be, bugs to hunt, and naps to take but believe us; we'll be keeping in touch!

Enjoy!
Alex and Oscar
The NOTH Team

Hello everyone!

With our latest map Piana up and running, we’re full steam ahead and working on the White War expansion! No news on its maps and release date, but we’ll be sure to notify you all once we’re ready to do so. In case you’ve missed it, here’s our latest roadmap.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3032136251

Furthermore, we want to thank everyone who filled out our player survey! We’re going through all your responses and analysing the data, which will be very helpful for Isonzo’s future. The winners will also be contacted by email before the end of the month, so please keep an eye out for your inbox (or spam folder).


Isonzo was nominated for the Dutch Game Awards in the category Best Audio! Last night was the award ceremony and we’re happy to share that Isonzo was declared the winner!



Special thanks to Bart Delissen, Lars Tesselaar & Niels van der Leest (Game Audio Squad) for their amazing work on the audio for Isonzo!
If you want to read more about how the title song of Isonzo was created, be sure to read our devblog about it.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1556790/view/3280333372353228993?l=english

You can find the entire OST here on Steam. The Isonzo soundtrack contains about 30 minutes of music. Purchasing the DLC will help out the development of the game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2078340/Isonzo_Soundtrack/

If you can’t afford it, you can also listen to it on our YouTube channel.

Now without further ado, let’s meet a new member of the BlackMill team!

Hello! Could you introduce yourself
Hi! I’m Aitor, a 25 year old (I had to double check) programmer from the Basque Country. I haven’t worked on anything you’ve heard of before Isonzo, so here’s some cool ragdoll tech I developed a few years ago.


I was also a musician for about a decade, before I got deep into game development. I have an obsession with learning new instruments, with my current tally at around 8, depending on how low your skill threshold for counting one is, and I’m a progressive rock nerd.

What is your role in BlackMill Games and for the games?
At BlackMill Games, every programmer does a bit of everything. But we also, as individual programmers, “own” systems based on what we’re interested in. For me, that mostly translates to three things: Third Person Animation, Physics and AI (the bot kind, not the copyright infringement image generating kind).

Where did your passion come from?
As a kid, games always seemed like magic. They were things you could explore and learn inside and out. Years later, it clicked for me that they weren’t magic, that somebody had created that world, those systems, with the intention of them being explored. Since I already liked messing around with computers, it was a perfect fit. I wanted to be that somebody.

What was the first thing you made in Isonzo?
I did a lot of tweaking on ragdolls and the forces that are applied to them, making them feel heavier.



I’ve spent many hours in my career setting up complicated scenarios, all to blow up ragdolls in. Game development really is a dream job.

What is a memorable moment in the development of Isonzo?
In programming, you generally try to gradually improve on what you already have. Sometimes, however, you need to completely rebuild the foundations to really take things to the next level. Of course, rebuilding the foundations means not having a house for a few months.

That’s exactly what happened with our third person animation setup – an animator and I spent months building it from the ground up, and let me tell you, it was terrifying! Thankfully we stuck the landing, and the new foundation allowed us to make dozens of animation improvements like the one Guido showed off in a previous devblog.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1556790/announcements/detail/3649652637281432071?snr=2_9_100003



This is the result of all that work. Here you see just one of 20 layers that can affect the character animation! They don’t all run at the same time, of course, but for a player that is moving while firing at you, the final pose you see can be the result of around 10 different layers of animation, all being mixed together.

Can you show off some of your work process and tell us what you’re doing?
I spend a lot of time tweaking bots. One of the ways I do this is through a behaviour tree, a system that allows me to describe the way a bot will do something.

When a bot is given the mission to contest an objective, the behaviour for that might look something like this:



Let’s say, I wanted to make sure bots healed themselves before fighting for an objective. I can make that happen by adding this new section at the left of the tree.



This was very quick, because I had already implemented these ‘Is At Full Health’ and ‘Heal Self’ nodes when making bots heal in a different situation. By making these modular pieces, I can easily get creative with bot behaviour.

Now, I’ll let you in on a secret: we have a hidden stat describing how emboldened a bot is. Which is to say in simpler terms, how 'dumb' they are. Assault bots are the dumbest (I will not elaborate). It’s also affected by many factors. For instance, every bot gets more emboldened during overtime.
So let’s make dumb bots ignore their bleeding and walk straight into the objective!


Tada! Done.

Of course, in reality (in the game) this is a small branch of a tree, and those colourful nodes hide other trees. (You can imagine how ‘PatrolArea’ alone might get complicated). The whole thing is huge!



Which other game dev/studio inspires you?
Something I greatly appreciate about being a game developer is that I get to work with lots of extremely talented and creative people, and help make their vision come to life. The best games are made when all the different disciplines are working together towards a common goal.

As far as I’m concerned, no team has ever succeeded on that front as hard as Mobius Digital did with Outer Wilds. The story of that game isn’t just in the writing. It’s in the animation, in the music, in the textures, in the physics of the spaceship. An entire team firing on all cylinders. Awe inspiring stuff.



Favourite game atm?
I don’t usually play “forever games”, instead I obsess over one game for a few weeks, then move to the next game on my embarrassingly large backlog.

That said, I’m really enjoying playing Heavenly Bodies in co-op mode. Accidentally and irreversibly hurling my partner into the void of space while reading the half NASA, half IKEA mission debrief is amazing fun. Trust me, disable all the assists. This is a game that is best enjoyed through suffering.

Anything else you wanna share?
Working on animation has the benefit of experiencing the absolute best class of bugs in the medium: funny, non game breaking ones. Here’s a personal favourite.




If you’re looking for fellow players, want to let us know of issues you encounter with the game or just want to chat and hangout, be sure to join our Discord!

• You can no longer obtain Faction Activity Points through Siege.
• Shipbuilding methods were improved.
  • When placing a Drydock, all materials required for Shipbuilding will now be consumed all at once.
  • Due to the changes in how the Drydock is placed, bundles that were used when upgrading a shipbuilding level will no longer be consumed.
  • Due to the improvements, the territory protection duration after placing a Drydock has been greatly decreased.
• Clarified the details about offline Labor regeneration in Patron buff effect and Labor descriptions.
  • Offline Labor Regen Explanation
    • Offline Labor Regen does not restore Labor in real time when logged off. Instead, the system checks whether you are a Patron user or have a buff effect when you log in.
    • If you have a buff effect activated, then you recover the specified amount every 5 minutes when logged off, and if your buff effect has expired, you will not recover any.

 

• Fixed the issue where you occasionally could not obtain any points for gathering at the Island of Abundance.

 
The October Hallowtide Festival has begun.

• The Two Crowns and Solis Headlands become peace zones during the festival period.
• You can move to the festival region through the Worldgate at Marianople, Austera, Diamond Shores, and Growlgate Isle.

 
 

We’re delighted to announce that Season 11: Lights & Cameras releases October 19 on PC!

Available for free to all Year 3 Pass and 3-Year Anniversary Edition owners, this new Season will send you to Scandinavia, featuring two new vehicles and two new maps packed with the glorious sights and sounds of the Nordic countries. A free update featuring new trailers, new cranes, new flat-beds and a set of 10 new stickers will also be available for all players.


Local filmmakers have action scenes that need some heavy lifting, and you’ve got just the trucks for the job. Deliver set-dressing, green-screens, and actors to their rightful place to help make the best movie of the year! When the cameras are off, you can head on over to the local villages and authorities to help renovate the region before the next winter season.


Two new vehicles are also arriving, the NEO Falcon 2000 and Burlak 6x6. The Falcon is the perfect choice for roaming the mountains and general exploring, all thanks to its exceptional ground clearance and versatile suspension. The Burlak is a much larger, powerful vehicle with scouting as its focus, taking a heavy-duty approach to moving up and around the maps. Use its small crane and flatbed options for rescuing or transporting, which help make it a reasonable all-rounder vehicle.


Season 11: Lights & Cameras releases October 19 on PC. Save money on all the content released since launch and beyond with the 2-Year and 3-Year Anniversary Editions. For more information, check out the game’s page on the Focus Store.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1465360/SnowRunner/

• You can no longer obtain Faction Activity Points through Siege.
• Shipbuilding methods were improved.
  • When placing a Drydock, all materials required for Shipbuilding will now be consumed all at once.
  • Due to the changes in how the Drydock is placed, bundles that were used when upgrading a shipbuilding level will no longer be consumed.
  • Due to the improvements, the territory protection duration after placing a Drydock has been greatly decreased.
• Clarified the details about offline Labor regeneration in Patron buff effect and Labor descriptions.
  • Offline Labor Regen Explanation
    • Offline Labor Regen does not restore Labor in real time when logged off. Instead, the system checks whether you are a Patron user or have a buff effect when you log in.
    • If you have a buff effect activated, then you recover the specified amount every 5 minutes when logged off, and if your buff effect has expired, you will not recover any.

 

• Fixed the issue where you occasionally could not obtain any points for gathering at the Island of Abundance.

 
The October Hallowtide Festival has begun.

• The Two Crowns and Solis Headlands become peace zones during the festival period.
• You can move to the festival region through the Worldgate at Marianople, Austera, Diamond Shores, and Growlgate Isle.

 
There is an issue where some of the descriptions for "Tactful Life" are displayed in Korean.

 

Foliage transparency improvement.

Hello, we are the developers of BLACK STIGMA.


Starting in October, we will be conducting the Global Testing Tour.
Please refer to the following information to ensure smooth test participation.




For each region, testing will be conducted over a span of 2 weeks.
Please refer to the chart below for a detailed schedule for each region.

< Click here to check accessible countries by region >

1. Apply to participate and add to wishlist

Access Steam's BLACK STIGMA page through the link below,
then press the "Request Access" button below the "Add to your wishlist" button to participate in the test.

• Steam URL : https://store.steampowered.com/app/1277530/BLACK_STIGMA/

Also, please press the "Add to your wishlist" button to be notified when the game is released!




2. Confirming your participation status

Once you have requested access to the playtest, you will receive an email from Steam when the test begins.
You can also check your application status through the button on the store page.



Your application is complete if the "Request Access" button is not there.

Instructions for the game and authorization information will be provided in a separate announcement.

• STEAM: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1277530/BLACK_STIGMA/
  
• DISCORD : https://discord.com/channels/981093001361231882/
  
• FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Black-Stigma/100084991233105/
  
• X(Twitter): https://twitter.com/PlayBLACKSTIGMA
  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackstigmagame/
  
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@blackstigma

Thank you.

This year we have given both the House and the Lab a spook-tacular makeover that is sure to make you say boo-yah! It also wouldn't be Halloween without some candy that you can feed the Baby.
No trick, all treat!

We have included two brand new Halloween themed outfits which can be found in-game right now!

• The Baby can be dressed up as a creepy Clown but be warned his jokes might not be so funny!
  
• Newt is also getting into the Halloween spirit quite literally and has made his own Ghost costume!

We have also made some quality of life changes and improved performance as well as squashed some creepy crawly bugs, including several softlocks that could occur.
A full of list of changes and bug fixes can be seen below.

Changes:

• Reagent orbs can now be dropped
  
• Machine core can also now be dropped (after it has stabilised)
  
• Improved startup messaging for first-time players
  
• Improved handling of level streaming for seasonal content
  
• Optimisations to reduce initial load times
  
• Performance and stability improvements

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed softlock preventing interaction with Newt during the Monster Chase
  
• Fixed softlock caused by important objects becoming unreachable
  
• Fixed softlock which could occur on interaction with the padlock in Pickman's Madness
  
• Fixed issue preventing Foam Dart Gun bullets from spawning in The Laboratory
  
• Fixed input lock which could occur on exiting the Toybox Menu
  
• Fixed culling issue in the Basement when looking at the doorway from the Doctors doll workshop

- New enemies;
- User can adjust screen brightness and music volume (within the pause menu)

很遗憾地告知大家，《人生牌》将在不久后下架steam商店（很可能是明年初）。这是因为我判断无法达成上架时定下的最终发行版目标。
人生牌在概念阶段就有一个问题是，由于把事件和卡牌效果（=卡牌强度）直接挂钩，有时候追求强度会和“体验人生”矛盾。在上架之后，我一直想要通过进行骨架级别的改动来解决这个问题。（我通过做不同的demo来尝试）然而每次尝试的效果都不太好，且在不断尝试（和不断积累的倦怠）之后，不知不觉间我已经毕业，即将在明年进入一份全职工作。
这和我一开始稳步更新的计划大不相同，并且在这种情况下，明年4月前完成正式版的可能性也非常渺茫。
介于接下来我的自由时间会进一步减少，并且公司对于副业的态度也不积极，我决定下架《人生牌》，这个项目将会被无限期搁置。玩家群也将会被解散。
感谢各位玩家的支持，对期待更新的玩家我感到非常抱歉。
已经入库了的玩家依然可以通过steam下载或打开游戏。
我的下一份工作也在游戏行业，如果有缘，希望我们在下一个游戏相见！