Feb 5, 2024

Sea Dogs: To Each His Own - Joruba

Ahoy!

As Steam Next Fest approaches and the release date draws near (Caribbean Legend becomes available on February 15th), we have some exciting updates to share:

ːjollyrː We've made significant improvements to the demo, addressing all major stability issues identified so far, and we've raised the level cap to 10. This means you can enjoy at least eight hours of gameplay!

Please note that while the demo doesn't feature updated textures (which is a significant update), the story mode, or a substantial portion of the full release content, it still provides the ultimate pirate freeplay experience!

ːjollyrː We'll be discontinuing the demo permanently on February 12th, making way for Caribbean Legend: Sandbox – a free version of the game with no level cap whatsoever.

ːjollyrː To celebrate, we've organized a Steam key giveaway for the full version of the game!
Participating is easy – simply download the demo, play the game, capture a screenshot, share it on Twitter using the hashtags #caribbeanlegend and #SteamNextFest, and don't forget to tag @ValkyrieInitia1.

Once Steam Next Fest concludes, we'll select three lucky participants who will receive a complimentary Steam key! This is the second and the last free giveaway we are doing for Caribbean Legend.

ːjollyrː 10 days until the release! Caribbean Legend sets sail on February 15th, with a $24.99 price tag after the release discount. Normally, we would offer a 10% or 15% discount for a week, but we're giving all Sea Dogs and Open World RPG fans a chance to snag the best deal possible – a 25% discount for two whole weeks!

ːjollyrː We will also be adjusting prices for different regions of the world, ensuring fair pricing according to local spending power.

ːjollyrː Important reminder: Exclusive Edition owners will enjoy pre-release access on February 8th. This edition boasts a ton of unique content, and your last chance to acquire it will be from the 8th to the 17th of February. Hop aboard our Discord to ensure you don't miss the ship on this final opportunity!

Good hunting, pirates.
ːauthorityː

Feb 5, 2024

DevLog #2

Meta-Ghost: The Breaking Show - noiremo

The Spring Festival is approaching, and I would like to give my best wishes to everyone here! This is our second dev log. In the previous one, we provided a general overview of the gameplay. In this log, we will focus on the in-game build, which mainly contains Drivers and Relics.

Keywords:
Five types of Drivers
Fusion Driver
Relics
Build

Five types of Drivers:

We have five main drivers at present, provided by the four major sponsors of the Breaking Show and a special driver for “Wingman”.

Participants can initially use the drivers from Romani Biosciences and Foundation Industries. These two major sponsors offer their drivers to all participants "free of charge" throughout the entire competition. After using these drivers, even unknown players like Taisuke gain the possibility of a "breaking".

"Romani Biosciences" (Color: Green) is one of the sponsors of the Breaking Show. The company's representative, Kumeiji Hikari, has a complex personality and unpredictable emotions, while she has a particular enthusiasm for various experiments. Drivers sponsored by Romani Biosciences often enhance participants' attributes, such as attack speed, move speed, and critical hit rate.

Foundation Industries (Color: Blue) is represented by Aleksi, a laid-back and easygoing individual who appears carefree but is, in reality, highly responsible. The drivers provided by Foundation Industries can inflict "Technological Damage" on enemies through means such as launching a "Lightning Chain" and applying the "[Electrified]" status. This is a good choice for participants who enjoy electronics.

The other two major sponsors of the competition are Awaken Energies and Rise Technologies. They only make an appearance after participants successfully overcome significant challenges and gain some fame, only offering drivers to those they believe in.

Awaken Energies (Color: Yellow) is represented by their CEO, Leo Sundman, who also serves as the mayor of the Celpolis. Beneath his calm and generous exterior lies a highly proud and arrogant personality. Awaken Energies' drivers provide powerful enhancements in shield stacking and ultimate energy recovery. Participants can choose drivers that suit their own style.

Rise Technologies (Color: Red) sends their Chief Product Officer, Ruru, to spectate. She is warm and friendly towards participants, offering drivers that can weaken or control enemies, aiding participants in overcoming challenging levels.

The Assistant Armament driver (Color: Orange) is provided by the event organizer M.O.T.H.E.R. It is given to participants when they break through the qualifiers and enter the preliminary rounds for the first time. Originally, the “Wingman” was dispatched to monitor vital signs and convey competition rules. Once Assistant Armament driver is obtained, the “Wingman” transforms into a combat support unit, offering various functional assists to participants in battle.

The functionalities provided by the “Wingman” include [Speed Boost Zone] (self-enhancement), [Interference Field] (enemy weakening), and [Electromagnetic Storm] (damage to enemies). Participants can strategically combine these features based on the situation.

Fusion Drivers

As the core of in-game builds, Fusion Drivers could significantly influence on how far you can go in one match. Therefore, it's crucial to plan your build outside of the match by referring to the Database, which is also based on your character and Weapon Customization. This allows you to focus on your goal from the beginning.

Once a participant acquires at least six drivers, they can use a special console within the game to Fusion six drivers of up to two different categories (two colors). This process results in a powerful "Fusion Driver" that surpasses the effects of regular drivers. It can either significantly enhance existing abilities or just provide new powerful capabilities.

For example, if you aim to obtain the Fusion Driver "Eagle Eye Protocol" and "Electric Resonance", you should try to collect nine green drivers and three blue drivers in your route choices.

However, participants should pay attention to the following rules during Fusion:

1) Each regular drive can only participate in Fusion once. For instance, if a participant has 11 regular drivers, regardless of how he strategize combinations, he can only obtain one Fusion Driver at most.

2) The effects of Fusion Drivers are solely determined by the types (colors) and quantity of drivers involved in the Fusion. It is unrelated to the specific effects of the individual regular drivers. For example, Fusion of any six Romani Biosciences drivers will definitely result in the same " Eagle Eye Protocol". Besides, participants cannot obtain multiple identical Fusion Drivers either.

3) After Fusion, the effects of the original regular drivers will not disappear. Therefore, participants are encouraged to fusion as many of their drivers as possible!

Relics

Relics are divided into four levels, with rarity increasing. The highest level, Level IV relics, can only be obtained under certain conditions, such as defeating the bosses of every 10 rooms or encountering special events in Random Event rooms. So Level IV relics possess extremely powerful effects.

The effects of relics generally have generality, including:

1) Providing attribute promotion to participants.

2) Enhancing survival capabilities.

3) Having synergies with certain drivers.

4) Granting one-time acquisition of drivers or Likes.etc.

Build

In the Breaking Show, participants can choose their preferred build to battle. The core of each build lies in the selection of drivers and Fusion Drivers. Of course, powerful relics can also have a cherry-on-top effect, assisting participants in smoothly advancing through the competition.

Here's an example of a special Ultimate build:
The core drivers are the powerful Fusion Drivers "[Kinetic Conversion]" and "[Vulnerability Insight]," significantly increasing the recovery speed of Ultimate energy.

In the selection of regular drivers, it's prioritized to gather a combination of 10 yellow drivers and 2 green drivers to meet the requirements for Fusion. If possible, drivers related to Ult Energy and Critical Hit Rate can be preferred, for example—

In the choice of relics, there's a Level IV relic that fits perfectly—

Of course, not obtaining the Level IV relic doesn't affect the experience of this build so much; it just makes the battle more satisfying. If you're lucky enough to assemble this build well, you'll experience the exhilaration of continuously releasing Ultimate!

Beside of drivers and relics, Prosthesis Weaponizing can also bring powerful enhancements to participants. For instance, Taisuke's "Minagiri" set (as shown below), when properly customized, forms a very potent combat effect—under specific Weapon Augmentations and a perfectly matched build, you can even achieve theoretically infinite unleashing of heavy attacks! We will detail Weapon Augmentation and Prosthesis Weaponizing in the next dev log.

Once grasping the basic concept, the rest is left for all participants to explore and enjoy to the fullest of our game!

Feb 5, 2024

The shapez 2 Demo is now taking part in the Steam Next Fest!

shapez 2 - Jelle

Hello everyone! Today we’d like to officially announce that the shapez 2 Demo is now officially taking part in the Steam Next Fest.

If you’ve already played the demo, the following segment may not be too interesting for you. Feel free to skip to Initial Feedback!

What to expect from the Demo

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.

Grab the demo here:

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

Initial Feedback

We’ve received a lot of glowing feedback from everyone so far! Of course, it’s not perfect yet, but we’re really happy to hear a lot of you are happy with the quality we’re aiming for. We will continue aiming for this level of quality and polish working on Early Access.

We have a couple of bigger changes in mind. We’re planning to poll them so you can let us know how you feel about these changes before we put our time and resources into it. Yesterday, a survey went out with proposals for reworking the research system, adding an energy resource to balance blueprints and trains, making the map unlockable instead of being accessible immediately and making the starting platform around the Vortex modular for more flexibility. You can find this survey and future polls or surveys in #discussions in our Discord server.

There are a couple of known issues, including some that prevent players from launching the Demo. Please read through our known issues forum thread to check for potential solutions. If none of them work, please join our Discord server, check #troubleshooting and start a thread in #bug-reports there so we can assist you!

Our Plans

Currently, we’re evaluating our options for Early Access. We’re happy with the feedback and the quality we provided in the Demo, but there’s still plenty for us to change and iron out, including the things that will be polled and so may or may not make it in the game.

We have a couple of internal scenarios to consider as 2024 seems to be a busy year for the factory building genre, so we’ll keep you updated on the estimated release window!

We would like to thank everyone who has already tried out the demo already. Your support has been amazing and keep the feedback coming!

If you haven’t tried the demo yet, don’t wait too long! It will be available until February 26th.

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team

Join the community:

X / Twitter YouTube Discord Reddit TikTok Patreon

Feb 5, 2024

Brazen Blaze Open Beta Test Start!

Brazen Blaze -3vs3 Brawl Arena- - kei.sato

The Open Beta Test of Brazen Blaze has started worldwide today, February 5, 2024.
Download for free to join.

■ OBT Period (PST)

February 5, 2024 10:00 - February 12, 2024 19:59

During the Open Beta Test period, we are planning maintenance to add a new Runner to the game.
The maintenance period we have planned is below.

Maintenance Period (PST)
February 7, 2024 19:00 - 23:59

■ New Runner “Sunshine” added!

After the maintenance, a new Runner “Sunshine” will be available for play.

Sunshine, the explosive robot with a knack for comedy!
Meet Sunshine, the explosive comedian robot trying to save the world through laughter. Just watch out, because when the jokes fall flat, things tend to go boom! This tricky character specializes in explosive area attacks and even uses explosions for some fancy moves. Get ready for a blast with Sunshine!

■Runners available in the Open Beta Test

Riot, Legacy, Skybolt, and Velvet are playable from the start of the OBT.

Check the following links for details on each character’s Main Weapon and Skills.
Riot
Legacy
Skybolt
Velvet

■Addition of Training Mode

In addition to the 3v3 Online Match, a Training Mode where you can practice moves is now available.

■ Open Beta Test Participation Reward

“Hazen Gems” and “Player Card: Beta Tester” will be rewarded to all OBT participants on official launch.
To receive the reward, players will need to create a MyDearest account, and link the account to the game.

■What are Hazen Gems?

Hazen Gem is a currency to be used in Brazen Blaze to exchange various in-game items such as Character skins and Gauntlet skins.
*Hazen Gems can be exchanged for exclusive skins for Runners and Gauntlets.
*Character skins and Gauntlet skins can be exchanged for 1,000 Hazen Gems.

Thank you for supporting Brazen Blaze.