We just sent out a press release to a bunch of news outlets with our 1.0 date on Steam (it's December 5) and we wanted to share that news here where players can see it too. This is just the beginning for the game, but we owe a huge thank you to everyone who played the game and gave us feedback over the last two years. You all helped shape the game into what it is today and we wouldn't have reached this milestone without you!
Retro-Future Shooter The Anacrusis to Blast Out of Early Access after 22 Months, 53+ Updates, and More Than a Million Players Served
After 23 months of intensive Early Access development, more than a million players, 53 updates (and counting), and the constant help of our community of players; The Anacrusis will reach version 1.0 and leave Early Access on Steam on December 5, 2023.
The Anacrusis tells the story of four survivors of a surprise alien attack set in a retro-futuristic sci-fi world. The unlikely survivors are stranded at the edge of space, where they must search for other humans, find a way to warn the rest of humanity about the alien threat, and maybe pick up some corn dogs—all while locked in a desperate fight for survival against endless alien hordes.
The Anacrusis is a multiplayer co-op shooter, with 1-to-4-player cooperative story and holdout modes as well as a 1-8 player competitive versus mode. With multiple intensity settings, The Anacrusis delivers the experience players want, whether they’re looking for a social hangout with friends or a difficult game that requires coordinated action and solid teamwork. The game is built for replayability—each time you play an episode, you learn more about the story and the characters.
Developed by the creative lead of Left 4 Dead series, The Anacrusis builds on what was learned making those games to create something new and modern that still feels familiar to returning players. The core of The Anacrusis is a new breed of AI Director. The AI Director monitors players’ status and ability, then uses its control over enemy, weapon, health, and ammo spawns to dynamically change the state of the game—pushing players right to the edge of their capabilities, before letting off and giving them time to recover. By creating the peaks and valleys necessary to build alternating feelings of dread, excitement, and relief in players, The Anacrusis’s AI Director makes every game exciting.
Stray Bombay launched The Anacrusis in Early Access because we knew we how difficult it is to make a game that’s simultaneously accessible to new players and challenging for experienced players. Since the Early Access launch in January of 2022, we’ve built the game with the community – 53 updates later, our new Steam reviews are Very Positive and the community is thriving.
In addition to the traditional co-op and holdout modes, we added asymmetrical Versus to The Anacrusis this summer. Versus lets players take on the role of the Special aliens, working together to prevent the human Survivors from reaching their goals. (Because of its asymmetrical nature, we like to think of it as a form of sanctioned griefing—teams basically take turns being mean to each other.) Unlike other titles, Versus is tuned to allow between 1-8 players to play, with our AI bots taking on unfilled roles. That means you can play a Versus game with any size group of friends, you don’t need to get 8 players together to have a compelling game. Additionally, our full bot support lets players practice as the aliens against AI Survivors.
One of our most requested community features was Steam Workshop support. We rolled that out last year, giving players access to community-built episodes, unique cosmetics, emotes, character skins, and more.
We’re proud of how far the game has come during our Early Access period. We embraced the spirit of Early Access—a virtuous circle of feedback from the community followed by updates to the game followed by more feedback—to create a successful game. The game wouldn’t be in the place it is now without the active community that’s formed around The Anacrusis. We owe a great deal of thanks to everyone who has given us feedback and helped us build the best co-op shooter.
“The Anacrusis is built on everything I learned from making the Left 4 Dead series," said Chet Faliszek, founder of Stray Bombay. “I wanted to modernize the core L4D concepts, so we started with a strong, replayable story mode and built from there. The Anacrusis is among the best of the genre and showcases our unique take on co-op shooters. I’ve enjoyed working directly with the players and modders for the last two years, but what we’re shipping with 1.0 is just the beginning for the game."
Today, we’re reaching out to share some important news regarding our much-anticipated title, "Estelaroid: Escape Room."
We've encountered a few unexpected challenges that have pushed back our timeline. While we are eager to get the game into your hands, quality and player experience remain our top priorities, and we believe it's crucial to address these issues to ensure the best experience possible.
We understand that delays can be disappointing, and we are just as eager to see our game come to life as you are. However, we are committed to using this time to enhance gameplay, squash bugs, and polish each puzzle to perfection.
We'll keep you updated with our progress and, in the meantime, we appreciate your patience and support. Your enthusiasm fuels our work, and we can't wait to deliver a stellar escape room adventure that will be worth the wait!
Stay tuned, and thank you for being the best part of Estelaroid!
We’ve heard you loud and clear. XP progression needs a few tweaks. While we had plans to wait until a future season to introduce a few changes at once, we’re going to fast-track some of those changes today to get you leveling your Wayfinders and weapons faster! While not a complete list, here are some changes that are live today in Patch 0.1.10.0.
Patch 0.1.10.0
Increased XP gains from all enemies by 386%. This includes mini-bosses and bosses in Expeditions and Hunts.
Increased XP from Expedition completion bonus by 237%.
Increased Reward Tower XP from all repeatable sources by 325%. This includes opening chests, breaking resource nodes, collecting memory fragments, completing events, and completing Expeditions & Hunts. *NOTE: We’ll revisit this Reward Tower increase in the future when the Job Board and has been released.*
Added XP multipliers to each mutator slot. 10% bonus for one imbuement – 20% bonus for two imbuements – 30% bonus for three imbuements.
Fixed a bug on the Expedition/Hunt completion screen that was displaying the incorrect XP gained.
Fixed a bug with Wingrave's Divine Aegis upgrade at rank 2 resulting in exponential increases in damage.
Fixed Tooth and Claw VFX being misaligned when sheathed.
The wait is over! Survivors Mode is coming this Friday, November 10th!
We are extra excited about this Major Update because it feels like releasing another game. Now you can play Vampire Hunters in a whole different way. Can you survive the mayhem?
Check out this sneak peak of what is coming!
We are crafting this new content with a lot of love and couldn't be happier with how much Vampire Hunters is improving. Seeing all of you playing the game and giving us so much feedback ignites us to create the best game we can!
We can't wait for this Friday to see you all playing the new Survivors Mode! Stay tuned to our Discord (https://discord.com/invite/N8w7PmS) and Steam for all the details and more goodness to come!
- Rebalanced and fixed some issues with certain classes, including the Dwarf, Gnome, Elf, & Vampire. - Changed the way damage works in preparation for an upcoming co-op mode; damage amount is now set when a projectile is created, rather than being persistent.
We’d like to apologize for the delay in getting Quickie: Fantasy Adventure released for you all! We're trying to get the game on Steam as soon as possible, but due to the Steam review process, this could take some time. We promise to launch Quickie: Fantasy Adventure at the earliest opportunity!!
It’s been a week since we launched our biggest update yet, The Reaver King! We hope that you have had a chance to jump in and unravel the mysteries of the Hollow Heart and its twisted enemies that lurk within. This update comes with four new Main Story Quests, two new Hunts, new weapons to arm yourselves with and more.
If you haven’t had a chance to sink your teeth into this new content, be sure to get all caught up on the Main Story Quests! The Reaver King will require you to complete up to the ‘Dread Legion’ Main Story Quest. Once you’ve completed Dread Legion, Graymourn will guide you on your new quest to confront these new foes.
Grab a Founder’s Pack now to instantly unlock Early Access and challenge the crown today!
As we release new content, we continue to squash bugs and make overall improvements to the game. Recently, we released Patch 0.1.9.0 that included some needed balance adjustments to a few weapons and an increase to Hellswarm’s ability. We also made a few fixes to the Reaver King boss fight as well as some quests. You can read up on the detailed list of improvements and fixes.
Community Hot Topics: XP & Patch 0.1.10.0
We’ve heard you loud and clear. XP progression needs a few tweaks. While we had plans to wait until a future season to introduce a few changes at once, we’re going to fast-track some of those changes today to get you leveling your Wayfinders and weapons faster!
While not a complete list, here are some changes that are live today in Patch 0.1.10.0. Additionally, we’ll share some initial thoughts on future plans, yet to come.
XP GAINS FROM NON-QUEST SOURCES IS TOO LOW
We agree. We’re going to be tuning these gains across the board. Also included in this patch will be increased XP in Hunts, creature kills (inside Lost Zones and Highlands) as well as fixing some enemies who previously gave no XP. We’ve also added modifiers based on the number of imbuements you have applied, meaning the bigger challenges will reward more XP.
REWARD TOWER LEVELING AND ALT LEVELING IS SLOW
We also agree. The big thing that we had planned for Founder’s Season 2 is the Job Board. This allows you to quickly level up your Reward Tower by selecting missions you want to undertake for the day. We’re looking at releasing this along with XP scrolls sooner than FS2. In the meantime, we’ll be more than doubling the rate at which Reward Tower keys are gained in this patch. We’ll revisit this Reward Tower increase in the future when the Job Board has been released.
ALTERNATE WAYS TO GET XP
We’re looking at new and exciting ways for players to get XP. One of the things we’ll be doing is rethinking the expedition bar. While this was always meant to fill up as you explored expeditions, we think we can do more to reward the level of activities you’re doing. If you come across 2-3 puzzles in a side room, you should get some good loot and XP for completing those. We’ll have more on how we’ll address these at a later date. We’re also finalizing plans for double XP weekends and hope to have those implemented soon.
While this is something we will continually be fine tuning to make sure it’s the best experience, here is a list of changes live now.
Patch 0.1.10.0
Increased XP gains from all enemies by 386%. This includes mini-bosses and bosses in Expeditions and Hunts.
Increased XP from Expedition completion bonus by 237%.
Increased Reward Tower XP from all repeatable sources by 325%. This includes opening chests, breaking resource nodes, collecting memory fragments, completing events, and completing Expeditions & Hunts.
Added XP multipliers to each mutator slot. 10% bonus for one imbuement – 20% bonus for two imbuements – 30% bonus for three imbuements.
Fixed a bug on the Expedition/Hunt completion screen that was displaying the incorrect XP gained.
Fixed a bug with Wingrave's Divine Aegis upgrade at rank 2 resulting in exponential increases in damage.
Fixed Tooth and Claw VFX being misaligned when sheathed.
NOTE: We’ll revisit this Reward Tower increase in the future when the Job Board and has been released.
Those are our immediate plans, but we will continue to look for ways to improve your XP experience—and please continue to let us know your thoughts on our socials and Discord or Feature Upvote. We are listening!
Tips and Tricks
Looking to get that little extra edge on your next Expedition? We’ve poked our busy devs to give you some tips and tricks that can help you on your adventures across Evenor!
Wingrave: Righteous Strike, Wherever you Are
Keep in mind what kind of enemies you’re fighting and equip a ranged weapon or melee weapon accordingly! When performing a Righteous Strike with a ranged weapon, it is a spearing thrust. With a melee weapon, Righteous Strike becomes more of a traditional sweep attack.
Party Composition: Let’s get this Party Started
There’s no right or wrong when it comes to who is in your party, but there are certainly some advantages to a balanced group! Mix and match support heroes like Wingrave and Venomess with damaged focused weapons. Whether they are laying down the DPS or healing, the group is covered! If you don’t have Ven or Wingrave in your party, don’t fret – the power of Echoes can come in handy with max health and life steal attributes.
Matchmaking: Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Please not a Match
Wayfinders are stronger together, but on rare occasions it can be advantageous to go at it alone. If you are trying to complete a specific objective in a Lost Zone or just want to explore the area at your own pace, try turning off matchmaking before accepting your Lost Zone selection. Matchmaking will default back to multiplayer, so you’ll never have to worry about turning it back on. Happy hunting!
Community Events
It has been great to see Wayfinders participating in the community events and contests, including our first art contest! You can see the winners and their stunning art here.
If you’re looking for a way to test your latest build, look no further. More community activities have been popping up and we are thrilled! Here are a few upcoming tournaments organized by talented creators from the community. Don’t miss out on the fun!
Frostyhuntz
CalebWarta
We’ll be jumping into these tournaments and livestreaming the action over on our Twitch channel and lending our support with some awesome prizes for both tournaments!
1st Place
2000 Runesilver
Gloomdagger USB Drive
Wayfinder T-shirt
2nd Place
1000 Runesilver
Joe Mad Signed Venomess Poster
3rd Place
500 Runesilver
There is still some space to sign up to participate in CalebWarta’s tournament here!
Join our official Discord and checkout the Guilds and Communities channel to find a community to call your own and to keep an eye on any upcoming events!
Well adventurers, that wraps up another Wayfinder Wednesday. Jump into Wayfinder and let us know how you feel about The Reaver King update and our XP buffs. We’ll see you in Wayfinder Wednesday #06 on November 22!
Do Not Press The Button (Or You'll Delete The Multiverse) - Theseus Games
We are pleased to announce that the official demo of "Do Not Press The Button (To Delete The Multiverse)" has been released! The demo serves as a prologue level for the full game, where the player will have to pass a series of compliance tests in order for The Developer to determine if THE BUTTON is safe around them.
