Hey everyone,

Public Testing for our new Skirmish Mode variations is now live for 24 hours on the Hell Let Loose (Public Testing) Steam App!

A huge thank you to all of you who participated in our first PTE for Skirmish. We appreciate the time taken to share feedback; the insights into your experience have been instrumental in helping us tweak and improve gameplay, and we’re working hard to remedy the issues.

We’d like to take this opportunity to reinforce that Skirmish is optional – this mode offers a shorter gameplay experience for players looking to learn the mechanics and immediately throw themselves into the action.

If you missed last week’s PTE, you can read about Skirmish, for a full explanation of what the new mode entails: [Click here]


We’ve redesigned El Alamein to deliver an improved gameplay experience that accommodates Skirmish. Map visuals and layout have been enhanced and improved – bringing graphical consistency to the level with an overall colour and tone pass. We’ve transformed the roads to increase visual quality; populated many open, empty areas; and new military posts have been set up across the map. Please see the full list of adjustments and improvements in the changelog below.



The roads in El Alamein have had a major overhaul to increase the visual quality


The Oasis location has been extended and now includes two towns connected by a bridge that overlooks it



This PTE includes two new variations of Skirmish Mode that we have been developing named Phased and Majority.

Both these variations play out quite differently compared to Foy and Kharkov Skirmish which involved both teams fighting for control over a single Capture Point.


Phased Skirmish is based on two or more phases during a match with one team attacking and the other defending. Each phase can include several Capture Points that must be captured by the attacking team to progress to the next phase. The Defending team always has initial control over the sectors with pre-placed garrisons to support their defensive tactics.

• The attacking team must capture all Capture Points in each phase
  
• Defending team must prevent the attacking team from capturing all the Capture Points

El-Alamein and Driel Bridge are our two Phased Skirmish maps

• German Africa Corps are the defenders, British Eighth Army are the attackers
  
• Map orientation is east to west
  
• The match is structured around two phases, with Capture Points located in the middle sectors of the map
  
• Only the territory in the middle sectors can change hands by gaining control of the relevant Capture Point(s)
  
• Only the hard capture radius is active

• Germany are the defending team, Great Britain are the attacking team
  
• Map orientation is north to south
  
• The match is structured around three phases, with Capture Points located in key sectors around the bridge
  
• Similar to offensive mode, the attacking team can gain control over the majority of the map sectors except for the HQ sectors
  
• Only the hard capture radius is active

Majority Skirmish is based on both teams fighting for majority control over several Capture Points. All Capture Points are unlocked and can be captured and retaken at any time throughout the match. When the match ends, the team with the majority control over the Capture Points wins!

• Capture and hold the majority of Capture Points when the match ends

Driel (non-bridge version) is our Majority Skirmish map

• Germany and Great Britain teams are fighting for majority control over all of the Capture Points
  
• Map orientation is north to south
  
• Only the territory in the middle sectors can change hands by gaining control of the relevant Capture Point(s)
  
• Soft capture and hard capture radius are active

We wanted to try out two different versions, one that focuses on the bridge and one that doesn't.

We also wanted to see what different variations of Skirmish mode the Driel map could support and test both versions in the PTE to see what our community thought about each one and whether or not players prefer one more over the other.

Many of the rules and details from the Foy and Kharkov Skirmish still apply, such as…

• 40 minutes match duration
  
• Limited armour and recon squads
  
• New Forward Position
  
• Smaller map size

• Match duration is 40 minutes with 3 min warmup
  
• Skirmish mode takes place on a smaller map. Playable space is 1.4km x 1.12km (10x8 Skirmish grid)
  
• Sectors and grid sizes are also smaller to reflect the new map size
  
• Grid square is 140 compared to 200 in Warfare
  
• Skirmish mode features a new type of garrison called the Forward Position. Forward Positions have a distance rule of 140 meters from each other. The radius is visually shown on the tactical map
  
• For Driel Majority Skirmish, We show on the tactical map the soft capture i.e. 2x2 grid square where the Capture Points reside

• Currently, the tactical map has not been updated
  
• Some performance issues on the El Alamein level have been highlighted. We are currently doing a full level pass where we are tackling assets that are not performant and reducing the draw calls of smaller assets to increase the frame rate of the level for release
  
• New HQ locations for Skirmish mode
  
• New Capture Point locations for Skirmish mode
  
• Populated open and empty areas with trenches, buildings, and military outposts to provide more cover and improve the overall flow of the map
  
• The map visuals and layout have been enhanced and improved, with an overall colour and tone pass to bring visual consistency to the level
  
• The roads in El Alamein have had a major overhaul to increase the visual quality
  
• The Oasis location has been extended and now includes two towns connected by a bridge that overlooks the Oasis
  
• A large number of exposed empty areas have been populated with winding canyons that provide more cover for infantry and visual interest
  
• Various capture points now have new themes and storytelling added
  
• New mine tunnels have been fully implemented into the map, creating alternative paths and refuge areas for infantry spawns
  
• New military posts have been set up across the map
  
• Trench visuals have been improved and redressed in multiple locations around the map.
  
• Added a variety of trees and vegetation
  
• Heavy optimisation of the level has been implemented and is currently an ongoing task.

• Currently, the tactical map has not been updated
  
• New HQ locations for Skirmish mode
  
• New Capture Point locations for Skirmish mode

Based on the 30th November PTE feedback we have made a temporary improvement change and reduced the opacity of the Forward Position radius in the tactical map



These PTE sessions are a way for you as a community to feedback on Hell Let Loose work in progress, which means we can look to implement your feedback before a patch or update is released. Although we can currently only hold public testing sessions on PC, we encourage everyone to take part to be able to share feedback.

You are welcome to both stream and record PTE footage, but as these sessions are showing unfinished work, it’s always good to let your individual communities know that the footage is from a PTE session, where you might encounter unfinished items, bugs, and other issues.


Once you have completed a game and are ready to provide feedback, please use the forms below!


Check your Steam Library for the Hell Let Loose (Public Testing) application, or re-download it from the Steam store, you’ll want to boot this version up to take part in the PTE!

Once you’re in and have selected a server, you’ll be able to test out the new game mode!

Submit Feedback: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=dzO7_29vdE2wkFIXThwvGavPYX8LIbRMtn3WncW9OkpUNUcwUVNESVkxREc3VFlVQU9TWDZMMUU1NC4u


Share Bug Reports: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=dzO7_29vdE2wkFIXThwvGavPYX8LIbRMtn3WncW9OkpUNlpORllYSk8wWkhQT0pHNlRETkRTUFFZNC4u



Because PTEs are run on development servers that have logging activated, you will experience a slight decrease in performance. You will also not earn any exp and your progress will not be carried over to the live game.

We are so happy to have finally announced The Crimson Maid to the world, accompanied by a playable demo! We hope you had the chance to try the game or at least you're planning to soon. We wanted to follow up with a Q&A about the game and the team, so you can decide if the game is a right fit for you.



What is The Crimson Maid?
It's an adventure game, in the classical sense of the word. You explore a mansion and its surroundings, talk to the people inhabiting it, pick up items and use them to solve various light puzzles, read optional documents, find collectibles and more. You'll spend a lot of time speaking to people, with lots of optional dialogues - while you don't have to go through all of them, they add a lot of depth to the story and the characters.

Who is making the game?
The Crimson Maid is a collaboration between two indie developers, Catalin Marcu (me) from GrimTalin and George Remus P. from Darkania Works. We've previously made Last Days of Lazarus together. And we have lots of experience making games, both indie and in other companies - 17 and 10 years respectively. George's career highlights include Gray Dawn and the upcoming What Have You Done, Father? While I have created The Adventures of Elena Temple and Long Ago: A Puzzle Tale to name a couple of the more recent titles.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1359920/Last_Days_of_Lazarus/


What is the scope of the game?
The demo has three chapters, two playable and one with cinematics only. The current plan for the full game is to have 20 chapters in total, 17 of which are playable. They vary in length, but plenty of them will be quite longer than those included in the demo. We're estimating about 3-4 hours of gameplay, but that will vary a lot depending on your playstyle. As you read above, we're just two people making this rather ambitious game, so we have to keep its scope in check to be able to complete it.

Will the game be voice acted?
The cinematics will feature voice acting, but the in-game dialogues will be text only. There will be thousands and thousands of lines, so it's well outside our budget to hire voice actors for so much dialogue. Even if we had the budget, we believe that reading the lines yourself makes for the best immersion into the story and better connects you to its characters. There isn't any off-putting voice acting to break the immersion. It's just you, your imagination and the story.



How about localization?
Our current plan is to release the game in English only. But we're also prepared technically to localize it in other languages, should we run into a big pile of money. Which means that only with the right partner will we take on this endeavor. With the amount of dialogues in the game and their crucial role to the experience, we can't risk having any subpar localization.

What is the story about?
You play as Marius, a young and inexperienced priest to be. He left home a couple of years ago to study at the seminary, straining his relations with his family - his mother and brother in particular. When his father becomes inexplicably ill, Marius rushes back home to be by his side and try to understand what happened. But he will have trouble focusing on the task at hand when his attention is diverted by the beautiful young maid working for his family. Will they fall for each other? Solve the mystery together? Run into unexpected obstacles? Only by playing the game will you find out. But be prepared - this noble family has a dark legacy. Blood will be spilled, hearts will be broken and destinies will be shattered.



Is this an adult game?
Definitely not. There will be plenty of flirting and maybe some passionate scenes, but everything is tied to the story. There will be no gratuitous nudity, nor is the purpose of the game just to charm the beautiful maid Irina. You have a mystery to solve and as you progress, things will escalate in unexpected ways.

Who is the game for?
First and foremost The Crimson Maid is for adventure gamers. People who enjoy exploration, puzzles and lots of text. Fans of visual novels and walking simulators should also find it up their alley. In general, it's for players who prioritize storytelling over complex gameplay.



When is it coming out?
We hope to release The Crimson Maid sometime near the end of 2024. But a lot of things can change between now and then, so please take that as just a very rough estimate.

Follow us on our development journey and don't forget to wishlist the game!

We have always been huge proponents of modding and designed our games with modders in mind. The Riftbreaker’s data files are not obfuscated or encrypted, and our asset packs are simple zip files you can browse at will. We also gave you access to our custom-made Riftbreaker World Editor suite - the set of tools that we used to create The Riftbreaker’s campaign, databases, maps, and a lot of other things. Once in a while, a modder comes along and does something truly remarkable with these tools. Once again, that person is Molch, the author of the Arctic Map and Rift City mods. This time, Molch decided to recreate a typical European City as a map for The Riftbreaker. In fact, Molch has astounded us all with creativity, the level of detail, and some features that we didn’t even think were possible.



Mr. Riggs taking a peaceful stroll through the streets, bashing some cars along the way.

As mentioned earlier, Molch has already created one city map for The Riftbreaker. We described it at length in this article. This time, however, he went to the next level. The Riftbreaker does not contain great city-building assets by default. Most of the props and entities in the game are either plants, rocks, or futuristic sci-fi buildings. To get access to more buildings that fit a regular city map, he would either need to make them from scratch or port them from our previous games - Zombie Driver or X-Morph: Defense. Molch chose the second option. However, converting assets from our older games to work with The Riftbreaker is not a simple process. For our latest game we introduced Physics Based Rendering, or PBR for short. PBR aims to simulate the way that materials reflect light by giving them properties like roughness or metalness. Molch needed to rework all the materials to make the old props compatible with the new game. We have no idea how long it must have taken, but we’re sure it was a lengthy process.



You can destroy buildings chunk by chunk. Even though they won't collapse, it's still impressive!

Porting the assets from X-Morph: Defense and Zombie Driver had a fun little side effect - most of the props that we made for those games are destructible. When Molch ported these assets, he maintained that property, so everything you see around the city can be blown up if you have enough firepower! What is more - the buildings from X-Morph have had their interiors modeled as well, so when you blow holes through their walls, you can see the degree of your destruction by taking a detailed look at the ravaged remains of what used to be cozy apartments, shops, and offices. Another cute little detail is that our camera object culling system can show you what is inside those buildings when you get close to the wall with your Mech. Apart from all the buildings, trashcans, benches, and decorations, there are also plenty of cars around the city - some based on quite well-known models. You can destroy them, too, obviously!



Nobody can prevent you from going on a motor oil-fueled rampage!

With all these new models now available to him, Molch did a stellar job arranging them into a typical European city landscape. Wandering around the streets of the city, you are going to stumble upon typical elements of such a place. There is a town square with a small local market set up. There are little side streets with shops and other facilities. Parks and gardens add little bits of greenery every now and again, where people can enjoy recreational activities. There are even two football fields for the sports fans out there. The highway running through the city is blocked by an accident scene, and the local police force and paramedics are there to help the victims. It’s crazy how many little stories you can tell with just a couple of well-placed props. However, the city lacked something to make it more lively - humans.


Pedestrians invading the football pitch, players T-posing in an act of protest.

To be honest, we still have no idea how the madman did it, but there are actual people walking around the map! We don’t know where the models are from, what script they’re running, or whether they are a brand new idea from Molch. All we know is that we absolutely love this feature. Pedestrians walking around the city are up to scale - considering Mr. Riggs is 4.5 meters tall, the humans reach somewhere up to his upper legs. They do not seem out of place and give you a feeling of how truly gigantic Mr. Riggs is. While we do not have any evidence for our claims, it would seem that more pedestrians spawn during the day than during the night, which is a great touch as well. Oh, humans are ‘destructible’ as well; do what you like with that knowledge.


If you look closely, you will see the policemen interviewing one of the drivers!

Apart from looking great, the European City mod by Molch is a complete map that allows you to play Survival Mode without any issues. It currently uses the Crystal Caverns creature set and Survival mission rules. You will find a multitude of resource deposits scattered across the map, and the urban environment will create a fun challenge for your base-building skills. You will have to beware, though, as there are plenty of powerful creatures prowling the streets of the city (which doesn’t seem to phase the civilians too much). Bring your best gear when you go exploring, or be prepared for the walk of shame, trying to recover your lost weapons.


What a nice park! And the structure at the top looks strangely familiar. Download the map to see it for yourself!

We will do a playthrough of this map during our live stream today, so join us on www.twitch.tv/exorstudios at 3 PM CET (yes, right now) and watch Void get annihilated by familiar creatures in the unfamiliar landscape. If you want to make maps like that yourself, join our Discord at www.discord.gg/exorstudios and learn from other modders. Our community is growing stronger every day and both EXOR Staff and other modders will help you get started.



Mr. Riggs found the solution to the crowded car park problem.

See you soon!
EXOR Studios

Hey all!

Another, maybe last, quickpatch. It seems the game is already fairly stable by now, so yay for that! I noticed one last minor bug that needed fixing with the in-game timer when it went into hours, so I fixed that. But I also got the recurring feedback that the tutorial was difficult to understand, so I decided to work some more on it and came up with new animations that hopefully are more helpful than what was there previously. And that's all this quickpatch contains, here are the full patch notes:

• Changed the animations for steps 2 and 5 of the introduction to make the rules easier to understand.
  
• Fixed timer shwoing wrong number of seconds when it goes into hours.
  
• Sharing your score now shows the same timer as in-game.

Thanks for all the support everyone! I hope this patch makes it easier for people to get into the game!
Have a very nice day!
-Rémy @ PUNKCAKE Délicieux 🥞

Announcement from Home Sweet Home : Online Team

The server is opened. The following updates and fixes have been applied


New Update

• Joy Controller Support has been added to the game.

Shop Update

• A new Blood Moon Ritual item has been added to the game, Romantic Chang, which is a Skin of Yuri.
  
• New skins of Verona have been added to Greedy Pot: Scarlet Gown and Bloody Gown.

Adjustment

• Survive Mode
  
  • The location of the complete ritual will be shown to the Warden.
    
  • The time required to place an Incense has been reduced from 15 to 12 seconds.
    
  • The time required to open a Ritual Chest has been decreased from 15 to 10 seconds.
    
  • When an escape portal is spawned, its position will be displayed to Visitors for 5 seconds.
• Visitor
  
  • The time required to perform a Ritual has been increased from 70 to 80 seconds.
    
  • If there are more than 20 items on the map, excluding those spawned at the beginning, the cooldown timer of the Item Chest will be paused
• Warden
  
  • The time required to gain each bloodseek has been changed:
    - The time required for the 1st bar has been reduced from 7 seconds to 6 seconds
    - The time required for the 2nd to 5th bars has been decreased from 7 seconds to 4 seconds each.
    
  • Destroying the ritual used to reduce the ritual progress by 10%. It has now been adjusted to 15%.
    
  • The time required to recover when the Warden falls has been reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds.
    
  • The cooldown of skills at the beginning of the match has been reduced from 40 to 30 seconds.
• Belle
  
  • Adjusted the ability of Blood Trail, the skill of Belle: unless there are no Visitors in sight, blood seek will not decrease.
• Prisoner
  
  • Adjusted the ability of Tremor Smash, skill of Prisoner: Charging the Prisoner's attack now increases the radius of the attack to inflict damage.
• Rework Heartrocker
  
  • Added the ''Scream mark" mechanic to the Heartrocker, related to the following skills:
    
  • Adjusted Sonic Wave, if the soundwaves bounce off a Visitor, the Visitor will be marked with a Scream mark and their aura will be revealed. The Scream mark and aura will linger for 5 seconds after this skill is stopped.
    
  • Adjusted Echo Noise, when Heartrocker destroys an object, the soundwave explodes in a 13-meter radius from it. The Visitors hit by the explosion will be marked by a Scream mark and have their aura revealed for 5 seconds.
    
  • Adjusted Scream, if the soundwave hits a Visitor with a Scream mark, they will receive 15 damage.
• Rework The Rigger
  
  • Changed the ability of Dinner, when activated, The Rigger's energy will not be consumed for 15 seconds. Upon the expiration of the buff, The Rigger's movement speed decreases by 200 units for 2 seconds, and this skill will initiate a 20-second cooldown.
    
  • Adjusted Perfume skill to be able to be used continuously.
• Rework Chan
  
  • Changed the ability of Rage, Chan now has 3 bars of stamina. Spending a stamina bar gradually depletes it, and adjusted his move speed from 150 to 120 Units. The bars will deplete immediately upon a successful attack.
• Granny Kham
  
  • Adjusted Glutton, she can consume as follow:
    Traps increase her immunity shield from 1 to 3 seconds per item.
    Energy Drinks and Syringes increase movement speed from 25 to 30 units per item.
    
  • The duration of Glutton, has been increased from 20 to 35 seconds.
    
  • Adjusted Dash, this skill can be used 2 times.
• Kamiko
  
  • She can place traps at trap-setting locations. (Sigil scroll and holy string trap setting location)
    
  • Kamiko can places a maximum of 7 maps. If you exceed the trap limit, the first trap will disappear.
• Saming Dum
  
  • Adjusted Disguise, enabling Saming Dum to move while disguised as an item.
• Yuri
  
  • Adjusted Flash Shutter, the duration of blindness has been increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
• Aisha
  
  • Adjusted Fighto, the skill will also increase her own move speed.

Bug

• Fixed: The incorrect terror radius of the Warden using Corpse's Hair, Curse of Kamiko.
  
• Fixed: Monk Ple's Cowry, Relic of Jane does not work correctly when subjected to Scream, Skill of Heartrocker.
  
• Fixed: The animation has been canceled when Kamiko falling while setting her trap.
  
• Fixed: When Zico uses Muay Thai skills to damage the mannequin of Ratri, it results in a decrease in weapon durability.

Known Issue

• Players can check for bugs and issues that the development team is aware of and currently working to fix. Click Here

For any bug encounters or other issues please contact our support team at hshsupport@ygg-cg.com with the subject line: [bug][issue] alongside attaching screenshots and description of your issue.

Added numerous improvements and suggestions from beta tests.

Also: Steam Achievements for your gamer profile.

Hello everyone,

Long time no see, huh? ...well... Sorry about that. We are game devs first and foremost. Community management and writing blog posts like this isn't really any of our strong suit.
This might be a bit of a long one, though, so I'll maybe get the things most people want to know right out of the way.

So. What is happening with Code.Breaker()?
Well, good news. Yes, we are still alive. Yes, we are still hard at work.
Like I explained in a previous post, we can only really work on the game part-time, so it's taking us longer to finish it. But.
Act 3 is around the corner, in with that the conclusion of Code.Breaker()'s main story.
Yes, finally, you can play the game through to the end!
To give you a peak behind the curtains, there are just two major scenes that still need to be implemented in the game, as well as the actual ending (or endings, rather) and another hangout session with someone other than Kate.
Yes, finally, you'll get to know another character better! I'm pretty excited about that, too.
Kate's dialogue was some of my favorite stuff to write, so I'm pretty hype for getting to do another one.

When will it come out?
Honestly, we wanted to release it on the anniversary of the early access release but... a little birdy told me that isn't a good idea. The game would get buried underneath the big holiday releases, and nobody would know we were ever here. That someone has a lot more marketing savviness than all of us three combined. So... It'll probably be out early next year.
Implementing the story parts of course isn't the only feature we are working on or want to work on, there are still bugs to fix and features to implement/improve. So, after the story wraps up, we'll be using that time to give the game a bit more polish.

What can you expect in this next update?
Well, the conclusion to the story, for one thing. More opportunities to get into more difficult hacks, of course. Characters that only have played a minor role so far will get a bit more limelight as the story heats up, too. There will be some bad endings too, as well as variations to the final ending.
Will your decisions lead you to the "best" ending? Who knows what the best ending will be.
Of course, we want to add more opportunities to hang out and get to know all the characters in the game too, so another one of these hangouts will be added as well.
Once all of that is in, we are planning on leaving early access and finally, formally, releasing the game.
With the game's release, we also want to launch on other platforms than steam, like itch.io, for example. Beyond that, we'll have to see.
One thing we wanna do is port and release the game on Nintendo Switch. It's gonna be real interesting to see how that pans out.

So... is that it? Is that the final version?
Not quite.
We still have features we want to implement, features we promised.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and game development is hard. Honestly, the hardest part is managing your time, really.
There is still so much we want to add, features we need to implement.
We played cards really close to our hands, because we never wanted to promise stuff that won't be in the game eventually. However, there are still features that need to be added.
Our big wish was for you to be able to hang out with every single character, to get to know them.
Part of it was implementing these sort of "watercooler" chats, where you have very few topics, but get to learn about the characters a little better by chatting with them. Those are more of a hidden little feature, though, and they aren't "mandatory". Just a little extra to flesh out the characters more.
The main event, at least in my eyes, are the hangout sessions where you really get to dig into them, really get to know them. The plan is to slowly but steadily introduce possibilities to hang out with each of them. Jay, Martina, Amber, Kate, Amber, Xiao... I feel it important that you have the opportunity to get to know them. It also adds replay value, of course, because you can't talk about everything with everyone in a single playthrough, and you can't hang out with everyone in a single playthrough either.
So, that's like the major thing we want to add over time.
I personally also want to, sort of, add an interlude that might shed some light on the events that lead to Code.Breaker()'s main story. What form will that take, exactly? I don't know yet. But I'm optimistic that it will be interesting.

In the meantime, after Code.Breaker() concludes, the other two will try and hammer on a new game. Will it be a sequel to Code.Breaker()? Something entirely different? That remains to be seen.
Code.Breaker() was kind of my brain child, so it will be interesting to let the others helm something.

Anyways, I want to thank everyone who stuck around for the entire time and enjoyed what we made.
Given the occasion, I want to be real and speak from the heart about the game, its development, and the future.

Code.Breaker(), for us... was an interesting project. Because it wasn't the first game we wanted to work on as a studio. Rather, we noticed during pre-production that the game we actually wanted to make would've taken us forever, working full time. As a small indie studio with basically zero budget, we felt forced to put the project on ice, and work on something more simple. A prequel, we decided, was the best bet. Something with a more self-contained story. Something easier to make. Something we could whip up within a year.
Well... Things are rarely that simple, as you can imagine.
We encountered a lot of hurdles, not all being related to the actual development. Actually, the majority of snags had nothing to do with the game itself, but rather trying to run an indie game studio. There were more days than I can count where I just wanted to dissolve the company and go back to doing this as a hobby, I can tell you that much... but we kept at it, we kept it together, and we want to keep trying. Having a company enables you to do a bunch of stuff that you couldn't as a hobbyist, but of course it is also a burden sometimes.

So anyways, What was that mystery project we had to can?
Well, it all started as a game jam game, called Room Date.
There, you were going on a blind date with someone. But, your character has this special power that allows them to look at a person's room for a minute when you first meet them.
You were then supposed to use the info you gather on your date, without clueing them into the fact that you were in their room. It was a fun little game that never really got finished (as many game jam games do), that was also still very rough around the edges.
This then morphed into Heart.Beat(). A cyberpunk dating sim about being a hacker, going on dates with people, and getting roped up in a mysterious cybercrime plot that could destroy your life and those of all around you.
In this game you would play a thus far unnamed hacker who had recently moved to Neo Chiba because of circumstances beyond their control. Now, they want to make a living in Chiba by working as a freelance hacker. Their good friend Kate would chime in and push them to try and get to know people through the "Heart.Beat'' Dating App.
In the game, you would take hacking jobs for money, spend money on upgrades to your gear and apartment, as well as go on dates with different characters. You get to know these characters by talking to them non-linearly, unlocking new topics to talk about through small talk and other dialogue topics. New events would then unlock, depending on how the character felt about you. You could maybe become good friends and win their trust, or enter a romantic relationship, depending on what you said. You might also say the wrong things, and they end up hating you.
It was a pretty ambitious project for three devs with minimal funding, all things considered.
As you might be able to guess, the hacking aspect and parts of the dating sim gameplay then later turned into what Code.Breaker() would become - A prequel to Heart.Beat().
The unnamed hacker being the same protagonist, and the events of Code.Breaker() being what leads to them moving to Chiba.
And... we still want to make that game. There are places, characters and stories that we wrote for it, but never got to make reality.
We want to come back to Chiba. And we will.
We learned a lot from Code.Breaker(). How long will it take for us to make Heart.Beat()?
Who knows. But it's what we want to do.
The future is rarely certain, and if it is, it still isn't. Nobody can predict the future, least of all three indies who just want to make games that are cool.
Our hope is that, if Code.Breaker() makes enough money to cover our expenses, that we can start working on development full-time again. That would really be the best case scenario. If not, it'll be more part time game dev for us. One thing we definitely know we don't want to do is ever give up on it. We want to keep working on these games. We want to make something we are proud of.

Well, I have stolen more than enough of your time with this overly long, rant-style blog post.
I'll be back once the patch comes out. In the meantime, I'll be focusing on writing for the game again.

Thank you for reading my ramblings, and thank you for supporting the development of Code.Breaker().

• Fixed issue in Expedition where sometimes players couldn't activate EMPs.
  
• Fixed localization issue where several Versus tasks descriptions failed to mention the Ranked Matches.
  
• Fixed issue with an incorrect icon for the Armored Headgear cosmetic item in Malva's shop bundle.

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Patch 0.2.1 is here in preparation of our second weekend of playtest!

Fixed:
- auto team balance for joining players into ongoing match
- max players
- keybinding
- cleaned auto walk old stuff + new fixes for that
- aim fix in cover
- movement filter optimization
- run to crouch ready time set
- fixed laser accuracy, now it shows the correct location of the laser point (not laser tag)
- floating weapons (hopefully)
- grenade trajectory stays on screen after using nade (hopefully)
- Fixed a bug where the quantity of the grenade goes to -1

Adjusted:
- better in-game ping calculation
- maybe ping estimation for lobbies (?)
- minimap icons colors
- changed nade throw sounds
- some UpdateUserInventoryItemCustomData optim.
- scope loc adjust
- less time for crouch spam
- optimizated network call for firing + base weapon firing


Added:
- add axis binding to keybinding, replaced numbers font with monospaced font for legibility
- spawn protection for 5 sec + its ui + visual effect set as well

We've heard your feedback and are excited to announce that we're working on a 'Chill Mode' for Pixel Café!

This new mode is designed for players looking for a more relaxed experience. Stay tuned for a laid-back way to enjoy Pixel's world, without the high-pressure rush.

More details coming next week!


Kisses from Baltoro Dev Team!