Jan 11, 2024

shapez 2 - Jelle

Hello everyone!

We’re incredibly excited and proud to finally announce that the shapez 2 Demo will become available this very month! Starting from January 25th, you’ll finally be able to play shapez 2 to your heart’s content. The demo will be part of February’s Steam Next Fest and will run until February 26th.

In case you need a refresher, check out the shapez 2 Reveal Trailer here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/

What to expect

The shapez 2 Demo will feature about 2 hours’ worth of content, depending on how minimalistic or elaborate you build. However, there’s no limit to how long you can play!

Everything up to and including space platforms is unlockable, which is done by completing specified shape delivery goals. Rewards include destroyers, rotators, stackers and a second building layer to go with it. You’ll unlock basic access to blueprints to duplicate production lines or share them with your friends or the community. Most main goals come with one or more side goals that give you various upgrades and buildings to further optimize your factory with. Additionally, you’ll encounter some Demo-exclusive challenges to rack your brain over once you’ve unlocked everything!

The Demo is fully fledged with a tutorial, tips that appear while you play as well as a Knowledge Panel in case you’re stuck. It fully supports English, German, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional) and Japanese. Additionally, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Korean, Turkish, Polish, Russian and Thai are supported through community translations. Keep in mind that the quality of community translations may vary, so be sure to let us know if anything could be improved.

Please note that Demo save files will not be compatible with the Early Access version of the game, planned for later this year. Blueprint save file compatibility is likely but not guaranteed.

So far, shapez 2 has only been available to a limited audience. This Demo finally allows us to get feedback from the broader community and will really show us what still needs to be done before we enter Early Access. The quality of the Demo is representative of the quality of the final version of the game, barring any feedback we may receive. We are very ambitious to make the Early Access version feel like a full, finished game, so your feedback on the Demo will truly be invaluable to us.

If you’d like to join the conversation and give us feedback directly, you can already join the shapez 2 Discord server! There will be a button in the game to take you there. The Steam forums are also always open for you to leave your thoughts.

See you soon!

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team

Join the community:

X / Twitter YouTube Discord Reddit TikTok Patreon

Jan 11, 2024

shapez 2 – Demo Announcement

shapez - Jelle

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/

What to expect

The shapez 2 Demo will feature about 2 hours’ worth of content, depending on how minimalistic or elaborate you build. However, there’s no limit to how long you can play!

Join the community:

X / Twitter YouTube Discord Reddit TikTok Patreon

Jan 11, 2024

Developer Diary | National Spirits

Millennia - Firefly

Happy 2024, all.

Apologies for the delay on this Developer Diary – there are a lot of irons in the fire as we got back into things after the holidays. Embrace the chaos!

I am Ian Fischer of C Prompt Games and today we are going to talk about National Spirits in Millennia.

Role of National Spirits

The concept of player authorship is central to a lot of our design. In Millennia, the National Spirits system does some heavy lifting to support that goal.

Ages, which change the baseline rules of the world and alter the Units, Technologies, Goods, and Capital Buildings involved in the game, provide a way for the world to change for all of the Nations involved, based on the direction they steer history.

National Spirits are similar in that, like Ages, they provide new and different tools to the player, but these are more focused on how one Nation decides to face the challenges presented by the world all of the Nations are in together. We really like the idea of players getting to decide what their Nation is about and we think it makes sense that Nations can develop differently when history moves in different directions.

As an aside on that…. We know from early playtesting feedback that a lot of players come in expecting pre-made Nations that they need to figure out how to put to the best use. Millennia has a different arrangement -- we treat Nations as cosmetic things. You don’t pick Spain because of the bonuses Spain has, rather you pick Spain because … well, because you like Spain – you want Spanish location names, Spanish symbology, you like the idea of “being Spain.” For Millennia, no Nation (aside from fairly minor starting bonuses and the cosmetic elements) is different from any other at the start of a new game.

But … where you take your Spain as history unfolds and you make decisions about how to approach things – Nations grow to become very different from one another as the game develops.

Basic Structure of National Spirits

National Spirits are grouped into four sets, based on the Ages when they are first available – two, four, six, and eight. As soon as a Nation enters an Age where a National Spirit choice is available, they can make a selection from the corresponding set. (There is no cost.)

Only one National Spirit can be selected in each of the Ages when they are available (so a Nation ends the game with four different National Spirits).

The National Spirits available are not exclusive -- more than one Nation can have the same National Spirit. However, National Spirits that have not been selected gain a bonus when other Spirits are adopted, meaning that less popular options are offset by additional rewards.

All National Spirits are associated with a Domain, with the exception of Government (so: Exploration, Warfare, Engineering, Diplomacy, and Arts). Governments are their own unique system and there are no Government National Spirits.

In addition to the content offered by National Spirits, selecting one also causes a Nation to earn additional Domain XP in the related Domain -- if you take a Warfare Domain National Spirit in Age 2, say Raiders, you will earn additional Warfare XP every turn.

This can change the way you think about National Spirit selection in certain circumstances. Usually, you’re focused on what the National Spirit itself has to offer but, on occasion, the extra Domain XP each turn or the bonus Domain XP for picking a less-popular National Spirit can enable different strategies.

Once selected, each National Spirit presents a set of bonuses called Ideals. There are seven Ideals in a National Spirit, organized into tiers. You must unlock at least one Ideal of a lower tier to gain access to the next tier. Ideals have a cost in the Domain XP of the National Spirit’s Domain. So, Raiders mentioned above, a Warfare Domain National Spirit – it has Ideals with Warfare XP costs.

The final tier of each National Spirit is a special Ideal called a Legacy. Legacies are cheap, they cost only one Domain XP, but they have a requirement related to the National Spirit. For example, Theologians, an Age 4 National Spirit, has a Legacy that unlocks when you achieve 40 population following your state religion. Legacies reward Social Fabric points and are one of the easier ways to get these, so they can be quite valuable.

Anatomy of a National Spirit – Khans

Any easy way to think about National Spirits, at a conceptual level, is as a kind of “reputation” – what is a Nation known for?

Common examples we use to illustrate this are things like Spartan Warriors, Swiss Banking, Silicon Valley, or Egyptian Pyramids.

As those examples suggest, that means National Spirits are substantial. What you select will have a lot of impact on your strategy as Ideals provide major bonuses and unique capabilities. The design here is less “your stuff is a little better than everyone else’s stuff”, more “you’re the only ones that have this at all.”

In general, National Spirits provide Ideals that have value in different spans – things that are only good in the era when you first get the National Spirit, things that can be valuable for a bit longer, and things that have utility for the remainder of the game. However, there is some shifting there, with certain National Spirts that are strong “now” (and only “now”) and others that have less immediate but more consistent, ongoing value.

The one we’ll look at in more detail here, Khans, is more of a “now” National Spirit.

Khans is an Age 4 Warfare Domain National Spirit. Thematically, this National Spirit allows you to pursue a direction inspired by the Mongol Empire – you want to unleash your own Genghis Khan on the world.

As soon as Khans is selected, it spawns a special Unit – the Khan. Your Khan is powerful, with a high Tactics score (and free, instant), but only around for 50 turns, so make the time count.

In the first tier of Khan Ideals are Khan, which causes Barbarian neutrality, and Horseback Archery, which spawns Horse Archers.

So, pretty quickly, a Nation with Khans is doing some different things – the only ones with a Khan leader, the only ones with Horse Archers, the only ones not being attacked by Barbarians.

The next tier of Ideals builds on this with Incite Conflict, which gives you a new Domain Power that allows you to, essentially, put the Barbarians to work for you. You can leave it at that – just allowing the Barbarians to pester your enemy, or you could get Uniter of Tribes and give your Khan the ability to treat any Barbarian Camp (ones there on their own or created by you) as a way to add more Horse Archers to your growing Army.

Since you only get the one Khan, Keshing is also a solid pick, making the Khan harder to kill and also providing a Unit Ability that allows spawning Horse Archers at the Khan’s location (convenient when you’re out fighting and have a limited number of turns to wait for Units to arrive after training back in a home Region).

Since you’ll likely have a lot of Horse Archers, Composite Bows, is useful for making them deadlier.

Finally, Call to War adds a unique Culture Power to the set available to you, allowing you to spawn two more Horse Archers at each Region.

Collectively, the intent is to deliver a “Genghis Khan experience” -- you have a powerful and unique military leader, you have a feel of uniting the tribes, your armies are different from the other armies of the era, you can move quickly and push militarily, you don’t have the most powerful Units of the era but they’re strong and you can get a lot of them.

Thanks!

Khans may seem like it provides a powerful set of bonuses, and it does, but so do the seven other National Spirits available in Age Four. Each of these, like Khans, provides a set of Ideals that deliver a unique experience and strategic options.

As you can probably gather, the depth of the different National Spirit options creates a lot of replayability, both individually and when considering strategies built around using a set of complimentary National Spirits.

The modular approach, which allows us to look at each National Spirit as its own special thing instead of having to consider all of the different options as branches on one (huge) tech tree, is very powerful – Millennia delivers a lot of fun, unique gameplay through this system.

We hope you have enjoyed this overview and look forward to the time (soon!) when you can try it out yourself. (And, as usual, if you like what you’ve seen of Millennia, please wishlist us.)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1268590/Millennia/

Jan 11, 2024

Discover Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden’s new touching and intimate trailer now!

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden - liz

As we're getting closer to the game's release on February 13, we're thrilled to share with you the touching new trailer for Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden in which Antea and Red reveal the depth of their relationship.

Delve into an intimate tale of love, death, and sacrifice that binds two lovers together. Navigate the challenges of being haunted ghost hunters and make tough decisions with profound consequences for the living, the dead, and your departed lover.

Discover the trailer now:

Life to the living, death to the dead

New Eden, 1695: Antea and Red are lovers and Banishers, trained spirit-hunters, protecting people from lingering specters. But when tragedy strikes and Antea herself becomes a ghost, you face a choice. Will you honor your Banisher oath or sacrifice the living in a desperate bid to bring your beloved back?

Be prepared to face a tragic twist of fate when Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden releases on February 13th.

Exclusive Editions to enhance your Banisher Collection

Discover the Red Echoes Edition containing an old leather-bound journal illustrated with
Red's memories, as well as an ink writing set, the game on the platform of your choice, and
the downloadable Wanderer Set content!

Also, don't miss out the Collector's Edition of Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, which includes:

The game on the platform of your choice with the downloadable Wanderer Set for Red
A separable statuette of Red and Antea
The official artbook of the game
A Steelbook®
Two Banishers' signet rings.

These versions are exclusive to the Focus Entertainment Store and limited in number. Grab yours before it’s too late!

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden comes to you February 13, 2024. Pre-order the game, buy its Collector's Edition or the Red Echoes Edition, and sign up as a Focus member to get the latest exclusive news and upcoming special offers for Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and the entire Focus catalog.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1493640/Banishers_Ghosts_of_New_Eden/