🎮 Soon available on Steam: Family Adventures Paris 🗼

Greetings, puzzle lovers!

We're happy to announce our own developed game: Family Adventures - Paris. Be part of an incredible journey with the Millers family, loving parents Peter and Emily, talented Jessica, and sporty Steven - as they travel to the French capital, exploring the beautiful streets and experiencing the culture, art, and history that Paris holds for them.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2445970/Family_Adventures_Paris/

Get ready to turn on your brain and show your strategic skills by solving six different puzzletypes along the adventure of 50 mysteries. From exciting Match 3 challenges to tricky Hidden Object scenes, from challenging jigsaw puzzles to strategic Onet, Drag 'n Drop and Frogger. Each puzzle presents a unique call to test your observation, pattern recognition, and quick-thinking skills.

1. Content Update, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 Score Balance Adjustment
   
2. Bug Fixes

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1335360/

While I originally thought the previous update would be the last one, I just couldn't help myself to freshen the Demo up a bit with some content and QOL changes.

The major changes include:




As teased in the previous Devlog, this patch brings the Mesa to the Demo as an alternative Area to the Desert, acting as an appetizer to this whole feature for the full release. It acts as an alternative take on the area featuring a different color palette, some quirks and a new enemy.



This area has a 50% chance of appearing instead of the Desert.


Upgrades in the previous version of the Demo felt a bit lackluster sometimes. The game's Upgrades are generally ordered in 3 tiers; Cheap, Medium and Expensive, with the goal being to allow me to design a variety of Upgrades and keep it all balanced with the price tag attached to them. The problem was that some expensive upgrades felt rather weak, and that the game in general was a bit shy with letting Upgrades truly have a massive impact. Especially when it comes to letting upgrades destroy enemies.

We're taking off the limiters for this one; Upgrades have generally been rebalanced; Some made more Impactful, some moved into more-fitting categories. This includes stuff like Carlos & Blast Processor now being able to fully destroy vehicles instead of dealing 50 damage and more.

To make up for the lack of impactful, expensive upgrades, 3 new ones have been added to fill the gap:

GUISE OF SAFETY



A maybe-familiar-looking angelic scarf. Once fully charged by dealing damage, it will grant the player temporary immunity to any non-melee attack, such as bullets. A defensive item to survive the chaos of 13 gunners on screen.

PUZZLING JIGSAW



A saw. Also charged by dealing damage. Once fully charged, releases a ring of damaging saws around the player, each powerful enough to knock out a vehicle on their own. A very powerful, offensive item.

STUNNING SKYROCKET



Obligatory roguelite firework item. Destroy an enemy, and it might launch a homing rocket, ready to explode on a near enemy, dealing enough damage to knock them out entirely.

Other changes include JOYFUL BUZZER being able to deal damage, ENHANCED GRIPPER straight up exploding whatever victim you side-slam into and much more. Overall, upgrades should feel a lot better now, whether that be from an impact standpoint or their general balancing.


Enhanced Pause Menu



The Pause Menu has received a bit of a do-over, pushing the options to the left with a more stylish looking backdrop instead of just having them hover in the air. The main new feature here, however, is that you can now navigate to the right side of the screen and check what each of your upgrades are doing. Forgot what an Upgrade does? Think you got a good combo? No problem!

Improved Upgrade Visuals & Audio



In the Quest to make Upgrades more impactful, the game has also been equipped with a variety of new SFX and visuals to make Upgrades stand out a bit more. This includes:

• The "Upgrade Icons" on the left now being replaced by a 2D sprite of the Upgrade, rather than a generic icon for the effect.
  
• A ton of Upgrades now have a more in-your-face visual effect instead of just relying on the icon, such as ENHANCED GRIPPER coloring your vehicle in a different color, MOUTH FOAM actually having your vehicle foam, or ANCIENT CARTIFACT displaying a halo when the effect is still up.
  
• Whether it be a vulnerable hit, dealing increased damage, taking decreased damage, all of these interactions are now equipped with a fitting sound effect. Really something that should've been there from the get go, but better late than never.

Improved Health Gain Listing



Previously, with DMG NUMBERS enabled, whenever you dealt damage to an enemy and gained health, the numbers would just pop out of the interaction. This, in hindsight, was of course pretty confusing. They all had the same color and overlapped each other.
All player health-gain has now been moved to a display next to the healthbar, leaving the numbers that pop out reserved to damage. This little display even temporarily stacks the health received, so if you knock out 3 enemies at once, you can review how much health that gave you in total, rather than one-by-one. Useful for stuff like SUPER HONK, in case you want to see if the SUPER HONK ended up paying for itself.

New Base Desert Big Enemy



This isn't really a QOL change but I couldn't fit it anywhere else. The Big Cop has been retired as the mainstay Big Enemy of the Desert, now instead being reserved to a rare spawn whenever the game would spawn a normal Cop instead. It's place is now taken by the Desert Gunner.

While the first area was intended to be easy, the big enemy just being the same as a normal cop but big felt pretty underwhelming and made the first area feel kinda boring. This new enemy is intended to spice things up a bit, without significantly raising the difficulty.

A Ton Of Other Stuff I Forgot To Note Down, Woops

Since I didn't really anticipate another Patch, I didn't note down a bunch of changes, but there are a bunch of unnoted ones here. Most of them are minor and visual, or some simple stat tweaks. So if the color of the Desert Ground looks slightly different, or an enemy turns slightly differently, you'll know why.

------------------------------------------------------------
I am now pretty happy with the Demo. It's a bit hard to make a Demo that feels good for a game that is, by concept, intended to be short. I hope it is now equipped with enough boom to really give you a good idea of what the full game will be like if you give it a try.

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- Alexander

Hello everyone,

The patch 1.3.1 is out!

Improved/Changed/Adjusted:

• Voice Recognition is enabled again.
  
• FSR is temporarily disabled.

Fixes:

• EXCEPTION_STACK_OVERFLOW crash fixed.
  
• Tools getting stuck in hiding spots when dropped.
  
• Bedlam doll spawn location in the cells fixed.

Clock Wizard Games

We've been selected to participate in the Storyteller's Festival and have decided to celebrate with an impromptu stream!

The artist/director and the writer of our game will be doing a special play-through of our demo while discussing the development process and shenanigans might ensue.
What's even more fun is that our writer hasn't played the demo in full yet themselves so we might get some great reactions. Don't miss this unique event on Steam and join us this Saturday Feb 3rd at 6PM (BST) for some sorcery and magic as we play-through our fantasy visual novel (with RPG elements) and try to reach the end of the demo!

For those in other timezones here's a breakdown:
GMT/BST — 6pm Sat Feb 3rd 2024
EST/EDT — 1pm, Sat Feb 3rd 2024
PST/PDT — 10am, Sat Feb 3rd 2024

Hoping to see you there!

Much love,
Team Galens

A free upgrade is available to all Train Sim World 4 players that own the West Somerset Railway route Add-on! New scenery, a short boundary extension, TSW4 features and a whole new timetable give England’s longest heritage railway a new lease of life!

We’ve also got an update for you on the forthcoming second part of the Winter Core Update. If you want to skip ahead, this is found at the bottom of this article.




The remastering of this route comes as a result of the passion and enthusiasm of our Development Team, with much of the work being done by Game Designer Liam. The work involved has resulted in this route Add-on from a few years ago being brought fully up to Train Sim World 4 standards, including the following:

• TOD4 Lighting and Dynamic Weather
  
• Volumetric Fog and Chained Paths in Scenario Planner
  
• Scenery Updates, including Minehead town, Watchet Harbour and the yard at Bishops Lydeard
  
• Audio improvements to the route, Class 47, Class 09 and Class 33 and Class 52 loco Add-ons
  
• Short extension to the track scenery at Norton Fitzwarren to include part of the Bristol – Exeter Main Line for AI traffic.
  
• Coal loading, functioning water towers and AI whistling at whistle board locations.
  
• A new, additional timetable based on the real-world gala timetable from 2022 allowing for steam services, shuttles, winter specials and rail tours for players with relevant Add-ons.

The results will see this popular route tie into a host of Add-ons from the wider Train Sim World back catalogue, including more recent releases like the Flying Scotsman loco Add-on. A full break down of additional layers and the specific services they add to the new timetable can be found further down in this article.

The new steam gala timetable pivots mainly around the Peak Forest Railway route Add-on and the addition of Jubilee, 8F and 4F steam locomotives, all of which have visited the real-world railway in recent years. Coal loading is functional at Minehead Station (players can pull into a designated spot, where coal will automatically load) as are existing water towers and a newly modelled one at Bishops Lydeard.



Even for those playing the native route with the preserved Class 47 and Class 09 in the existing timetable can enjoy the upgraded visual features whilst operating heritage trains between Bishops Lydeard and the seaside town of Minehead, with shunting moves at either end of the line.

There are also some audio improvements, from the locomotives themselves and their reaction to the environment (under bridges for example), to the sounds made when finding collectibles and the rain hitting canopies.



Both Class 33 and Class 52 loco Add-ons (available separately) also get a refresh, with the new Train Sim World 4 rain effects implemented on the windscreens and audio improvements to their horns. These then layer into the original timetable. The West Somerset Railway route Add-on is required to make use of these loco Add-ons.



If you want learn more about the upgrades and content, the remastering process and get an insight into the real-world West Somerset Railway, join Matt, Liam and Joe for tonight’s livestream at 1900 UTC on YouTube and Twitch where they’ll be showcasing the West Somerset Railway: Remastered route Add-on to kick off the Festival of Rail!

Train Sim World 4: West Somerset Railway: Remastered route Add-on is available now for Xbox One,
Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Epic Games Store, and Steam for £19.99/€24.99/$24.99.

Train Sim World Compatible: Peak Forest Railway route Add-on is available for £29.99/$39.99/€35.99

Train Sim World Compatible Class 33 / Class 52 Loco Add-ons are available for £11.99/$19.99/€13.99

Scroll down for a full list of content required for playable and AI service layers.




The updated layering, timetable and environment for the West Somerset Railway route Add-on takes much of its inspiration from the real-world railway and the various guests and unusual operations that it has seen in recent years.




Railways Galas have run on heritage railways since their first appearance following branch line closures in the 1960s and 70s. Often these events were celebratory occasions run by volunteers and locals without much need for profit or visitor attendance. Today however they form vital parts of the events calendar and with 20 miles of track to play with, the West Somerset Railway takes great pride in hosting two or three per year, normally themed around steam or diesel traction.

Both the original and new timetables represent diesel and steam gala operations, with the latter hosting full length runs, shuttles, visits to Norton Fitzwarren (not normally visited by service trains) and freight moves! This is based on the real-world gala timetable from 2022.




Today, the real-world WSR is known primarily as a tourist steam railway. As a result, the new timetable layers in three steam locomotives from the Peak Forest Railway route Add-on as well as the iconic National Railway Museum locomotive: LNER Class A3 60103 Flying Scotsman, available as a loco Add-on or as part of Train Sim World 4: Deluxe Edition.

Flying Scotsman last visited the WSR in 2017, providing one of the busiest events ever held in the railway’s history. Every seat on the trains that it hauled along the line were full and last minute ‘no shows’ quickly had their seats taken up by those on a last-minute waiting list! Photographers and railfans lined the lineside and a commemorative booklet was produced documenting the occasion. The locomotive does make occasional appearances on rail tours down in Devon and Cornwall, running along the stretch of main line past Norton Fitzwarren on its way there and back.



Similarly, main line LMS Jubilee locomotives often visit the line during rail tours, with loco swaps occurring at Bishops Lydeard. No.45596 visited as recently as 2023, with others making an appearance on the line in 2021 and 2016.

2016 also saw an LMS 8F visit the line in the form of no.48624 for that year’s Spring Steam Gala. This included some double-headed trains with other visiting locomotives.



Players that have completed the Tier 2 Mastery Challenges on the West Somerset Railway will have seen an LMS 4F scenery tile being unloaded at Dunster Station. Now, this locomotive can form part of the timetable, recreating the occasions that no.44422 visited the railway in 2006, 2016 and 2017.

Steam services also form the backbone of the Winter Specials and Santa Trains that make up a crucial part of heritage railways’ business in the ‘off’ season and players that own the West Cornwall Steam Railtour Add-on will be able to recreate those, complete with festive lights and music!




The West Cornwall Local route Add-on allows for the running of Class 150 shuttles from off the map at Taunton, through Norton Fitzwarren to Bishops Lydeard. This important main line connection has run shuttles over many years, including the 1992 GWR 150 celebrations. More recently, a full trial of services was run in the summer of 2019 with the hope of one day justifying regular connections to Taunton in the future.




Great Western Express owners will see AI services running along the stretch of main line at Norton Fitzwarren, as was the case during the route Add-on's era of 2017 / 2018. Today these are more often run by more modern IETs, but GWR HSTs have run the length of the WSR as recently as 2023, when the operator was required to store them at Minehead. Players can recreate their running between Norton Fitzwarren and Minehead in Free Roam.


Despite being a heritage railway, the connection to the main line at Norton Fitzwarren facilitates a number of different freight moves by other operators, including regular ballast cleaning trains that use the Norton Triangle to the benefit of the WSR. These are almost exclusively run by Class 66 locomotives, which have also appeared on the line to haul specials, such as one at a 2016 event hosted by model railway company PECO.

Players with any of the Class 66 Add-ons (Southeastern Highspeed, East Coast Main Line, Great Western Express, Engineering Express Pack) can make use of this locomotive in Free Roam mode. Southeastern Highspeed and the RHTT Add-ons result in AI / static stock appearing.




Though the Class 101 has never ventured onto WSR rails, players with Northern Trans-Pennine or Tees Valley Line can enjoy using this DMU in the original timetable to represent 3-car services that run during events. In reality, these are run by the similar Class 115.

Midland Main Line players may also wish to use the EMT Class 158 in Free Roam to recreate the Class 158 rail tours and charters that have used the WSR over the years, including some in the mid-2000s SWT livery that was very similar to that of EMT’s.

And for some fun (but non-prototypical) running, those with Blackpool Branches can see what a visiting Class 142 Pacer would do along the line in Free Roam. Pacers used to be seen on the main line stretch of track at Norton Fitzwarren running down to Devon but have not yet run onto WSR rails.

Blackpool Branches also allows players to run different liveries of the Class 47, including specific, named examples.


Class 08, 09, 20, 31, 33, 37, 40, 45, 47, 52 and 66 Locomotives



The original West Somerset Railway timetable makes plenty of use of the diesel locomotives available from other Train Sim World releases to create a real mixed bag of visitors for the in-game gala experience. The Class 47, Class 33 and Class 52 represent the WSR’s home fleet from circa 2017 / 2018, owned and run by the DEPG (Diesel Electric Preservation Group) whereas the 09 represents the WSR’s Bishops Lydeard-based shunter, which occasionally sees action at Minehead too.



Beyond this, services can be run with substituted locomotives from other route and loco Add-ons, all of which have seen action on the line at Diesel Galas over the years. Tandem 20s visited in both 2017 and 2018 whereas a Class 40 and 45 guested during September of 1995 and again in 1997. Class 08 no.08377 was a regular shunter on the line before moving on to another heritage line in 2013 and Class 31s have appeared, like Class 37s, as both guest locomotives and main line visitors in the past. Class 31s also hauled the notable Butlin’s Express services from Bristol Temple Meads to Minehead and have brought departmental test trains to the line between 2012 and 2014.

Whilst only the original timetable still makes use of some of these as playable content, players can use Train Sim World 4’s Free Roam feature to operate them within the new timetable too.


All of the Compatible Layers that can be implemented into West Somerset Railway: Remastered can be found below. All players require Train Sim World 4 to make use of the upgrades and new timetable.

Playable Layers (in the NEW timetable)

• West Somerset Railway
  
• Flying Scotsman 
  
• Peak Forest Railway (8F, 4F, Jubilee)
  
• West Cornwall Local (Class 150)
  
• West Cornwall Steam Railtour

Playable & AI Layers (in the ORIGINAL timetable)

• WSR Class 33
  
• WSR Class 52
  
• Northern Trans-Pennine (Class 101 / 47 / 45)
  
• BR Heavy Freight Pack (Class 40 / 08)
  
• Tees Valley Line (Class 37 / 101)
  
• DSN Class 20
  
• BR Class 31

AI Layers (in the NEW timetable)

• BR Heavy Freight Pack (Class 40 / 08)
  
• Tees Valley Line (Class 37 / 101)
  
• DSN Class 20 
  
• Great Western Express (HST)
  
• Northern Trans-Pennine (Class 101 / 47 / 45)
  
• Rail Operations Group BR Class 37/7 
  
• RHTT 
  
• Southeastern High Speed
  
• WSR Class 33 
  
• WSR Class 52 

Optional Content for some Free Roam fun!

• Midland Main Line (Class 158)
  
• Blackpool Branches (Class 142 Pacer + 47 / 08 liveries)

We hope you all enjoy the new lease of life given to West Somerset Railway, and it’s at this stage we wanted to let you know what’s happening with the next part of our Winter Core update, which is due next week.

We’ll provide a full Patch Notes list with the update, but to whet your collective whistles, here are some highlights which we’re currently testing and hope to release:

• Improved PIS Brightness for more visibility and readability in day/night
  
• Multiple Free Roam fixes for locos that weren’t able to move after spawning
  
• Scoring adjustments so achieving a Platinum medal is more in line with expectations
  
• Added option to disable Traction Lock icon in the Minimal HUD

Alongside next week’s update, we’ll be offering Steam players the opportunity to try out and feed back on perhaps the most exciting of our upcoming Core updates, Formation Designer. However, we’ll be doing it a little differently to normal.

Formation Designer will allow you to assemble your own consists and formations for use in Scenario Planner and Free roam. This will increase customisation options to create the perfect Scenario and remove the need to spawn different preset formations into the world and rearrange them manually (although that can be quite fun in itself). In its final release, Formation Designer will also allow for your created consists and combinations to be share via Creators Club, similar to Livery Designer and Scenario Planner.

Because of the sheer number of permutations and options players will be able to combine, testing every possible option is very challenging – so, rather than hold the update any longer, we’re looking for your help. We’ll open up a bespoke feedback forum with details on how you can get involved with the beta, and you can let us know what you think. What you enjoy, what you don’t enjoy, any issues you encounter and any combinations of rolling stock which are proving challenging. Please note: this beta is only available for Steam players. For players of other platforms, we’ll release Formation Designer when we’ve had a chance to review initial beta feedback, and we’re happy it’s ready.

We want it to be a cornerstone of player creativity going forward, so want to bring you into the fold as we shape it up for full release. More details to come next week, but we thank you all in advance – we can’t wait to see what you think!

Find out more about Train Sim World 4 by following @trainsimworld on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok.

In the "Reinforcements received" events, you’ll upgrade your army with unique and well-armed squads, rare weapons, vehicles and always-useful items. Main rewards will help you unlock content that normally takes more time to reach in a regular lineup.

From 1st February (13:00 UTC) to 29th February (13:00 UTC), get battle score in battles and move up the rewards ladder!

Please note: you now have two days to complete each task!


You'll get rewards during the whole event, and the further you progress through it, the more valuable they'll become. You can easily skip a few tasks and still get the main rewards!




Mobile rally points with weapons and protection for a whole squad! If not an ultimate instrument of war, then very close to it.

Universal Carrier - a small and lightly armored vehicle, which served as the main "workhorse" of the British army in WWII and was supplied to other allied countries.

It was really universal - reconnaissance, transportation of infantry and supplies, towing anti-tank guns, and even a self-propelled artillery. Good maneuverability, speed up to 48 km/h and excellent off-road capability helped it to cope with any tasks.

This variant is protected from small arms fire, and is equipped with a Bren machine gun on a tripod and a Boys AT rifle in the front of the hull to counter light armored vehicles.

The crew of this little guy consists of four soldiers.

Sd.Kfz. 251/9 - an easily recognizable half-track APC, one of several variants used extensively by the German Army in WWII.

The main advantage of the Sd.Kfz. 251 is its good protection from small arms, for both the crew and the soldiers in the fighting compartment. While its main disadvantage is the high silhouette, which can not be confused with anything.

This variant is capable of performing the role of both an APC and a formidable self-propelled 75-millimeter gun.

Additionally, the forward mounted MG42 machine gun will help to fight off enemy infantry.

The crew consists of four soldiers - no more can be taken into battle, otherwise there would be no room for the shells.

• Squads are issued to specific countries in this event.
  
• Tasks are updated every two days at 13:00 UTC, and the scoring starts again. Be sure to collect your reward before then, if you have managed to accumulate the required number of battle points, otherwise the task will not count.
  
• The task can be completed in the Squads mode.
  
• From 29th February (13:00 UTC) to 2nd March (13:00 UTC), after the end of the event, you will have the opportunity to purchase any missing rewards for Gold.

I’m so happy to announce that the Kickstarter campaign for my game Dreamed Away has just gone LIVE!

What an exciting month ahead of us!
I've worked so hard for the past two years on Dreamed Away, I can't wait to see how this campaign goes.

We also have really cool stretch goals that would allow us to make the game even better, it'd be incredible if we managed to unlock them all!



Please check it out for yourself and don't miss out on some awesome rewards!



Nico & Pineapple Works

Yes, we have a release date!!! Start your quest to find the star of the legendary cat beauty contest "Ricky's Finest" - Mr. Fumbleclaw - on March 21!

Scott Whisker's first adventure takes you through a hilarious, family-friendly story full of challenging puzzles, quirky characters and colorful locations. A story about cats, Star Trek and life itself.

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well 😃
Today's announcement is jam-packed with information about Sigh of the Abyss, the full game!
Let's dive right in!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2025310/Sigh_of_the_Abyss/
Sigh of the Abyss has a release date! Mark your calendars, the game will become available June 26!
A new voiced demo will release some weeks prior as well, and I will try to make save files compatible between the main game & the new demo!

Sigh of the Abyss will be priced at $17.99 / € 17.49 / £ 14.99 £ / A$ 26.50 / CDN$ 23.49 (and make use of Steam's regional pricing tool 😃).
All the backgrounds of the game are complete, and so is the soundtrack!
Have a taste of both in this video about the sights and sounds of Carolise:

I am currently editing the script, which is also being looked at by the proofreader. It's... 396k words in total?! 😳

Once the script is ready, coding will begin in earnest, and selected scenes will be given to the VAs to receive voiced lines ✨
Sigh of the Abyss has been invited to the Storyteller's Festival! If you enjoy narrative games, you can't miss this event! Head over to the festival's Steam page to discover amazing new games, demos & more ✨

I'll be sharing more about the game as the release date approaches. A wishlist not only helps a ton, it also ensures the game's announcements will show up in your library hub ✨
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2025310/Sigh_of_the_Abyss/

Thank you so much for reading until here.
Toodles~