We hope you don’t mind getting a little sticky, because this wiggly waifu has a habit of getting everywhere! We’re pretty sure she even had an uncredited role as the pink goo in this old eighties movie you’ve probably never heard of…
Jelle, one of the O.G. Monster Girls, has returned to Crush Crush as a Limited Time Event! So if you haven’t yet caught ‘em all, now’s your chance! Log in every day, collect your daily Event Tokens, and maybe put some plastic sheeting down on the floor because this hands-on slime tutorial is extra squishy!
That's right baby. A Steam announcement. How cool? Like, I'm asking you how cool it is. I know right? It is pretty cool. I bare gifts with this announcement, lot's of sneak peaks into what I've been working on. Can't wait to read all about it? Are you sure? You can't possibly wait? I won't stop you then. It's just... I had this whole speech planned and... No, it's ok, go ahead, I only spent hours prepping. No really it's fine. Read about all the cool stuff I've been working on, see If I care!
What's New?
Leveling And Equipment Progression
One of the key elements of this module is the level mechanic that's been introduced. You can now gain experience by completing main and optional objectives. The amount of experience you earn from a game is tied to how much money you earn, as in it's the same amount. As you level up, they unlock new equipments and upgrades for equipment they have already unlocked.
I've designed the equipment progression to be pretty tight. There is 47 equipment unlocks spread across 50 levels. Now, that's pretty tight. The prices for the equipment upgrades are set so that you should be able to unlock and upgrade all equipment to tier 3, while making player choice important during the earlier parts of the progression path.
Secondary Equipment
Another large part of this module are the secondary equipment. Secondary equipment act like passive equipment that are attached to your character like an accessory. These secondaries grant passive or unique abilities, some more useful than others.
Unlike normal equipment, the tier 1 variant of secondary equipment are not unlocked for free. Instead, they have to be purchased for pretty large fee. But, after purchasing secondary equipment, you never have to spend a dime. Purchasing a secondary equipment grants you an unlimited supply of that secondary equipment. Pretty good deal? Maybe.
I will level with you, as of typing this, secondary equipment is pretty fresh out of the oven, you know? So right now, the only secondary evidence working at the moment is the head cam and the night vision goggles. Don't fret, there will be more.
New Equipment Variants
A lot of new variants of your beloved equipment have been willed into existence. I don't have to much to say about them because I don't want to spoil some of their "gimmicks". Some are useful, some are "interesting". I will say though, currently my favourite piece of equipment would have to be the tier 1 EMF reader. It is very noisy.
Some buffs and nerfs have also been applied to the classic equipment you've grown to love in the demo. Things like, the tier 2 writing book is a little bit more active, and the glow stick just isn't as bright as it use to be. I'm sure people will be heavily impacted by the loss of glow stick light.
Truck Surveillance
A feature I've been putting off for a while, the truck surveillance. You can now place video camera around the investigation location, and access them from the truck. Video cameras tier 2 and above can also be rotated from the truck using their remote swivel technology. Yeah.
It's not so much a useful mechanic at the moment, but I'm sure it might be more appreciated when I start working on the Photon module.
With this new truck UI, I almost moved the Sanity and Activity UI over to their own TV screens in the truck. These screens are now also disabled in Nightmare and Insanity difficulty. Sincere apologies to those who heavily relied on these to play the game. I have no idea how you will continue to live after this drastic change.
New Ghost Behaviours
A whole lot of changes were made to how the ghost behaves. These changes and additions were really just things I forgot to add in the Reconstruction module. But they're here now!
The ghost no longer throws items around. This used to cause items can tossed outside of the map or in really weird spots. The ghost now simply makes stuff hover. You'll know it when you see it. These items the ghost interacts with will have EMF evidence on them as long as they are hovering.
The ghost can now also pick items up. They can't pick up equipment, just normal stuff. This was just a fun little idea I had, that I thought might also make tracking the ghost a little easier, as they can now just give themselves away. Items the ghost pick up will have EMF evidence as long as the ghost is holding them.
The ghost will now leave EMF evidence after completing a ghost event. Ghost events along with making items hover or picking them up, can all leave EMF 5 evidence. So with these specific ghost behaviour changes, EMF evidence should be a bit easier to get.
The probability of each ghost event happening is now mixed. The chance of each of ghost event happening in the current demo version is all the same, whereas now some events are rarer than others. Some ghost types also have their own unique odds for ghost events happening.
Spirits have higher ghost ball odds
Mares have higher light break odds
Onis have higher stare odds
And more...
Other than these major changes, some other additions have been made to some ghost types, to give players more secondary evidence to look out for on harder difficulties.
Poltergeists can make multiple items hover at once
Banshees can be heard from much farther during hunts
Mylings can't be heard from as far as normal during hunts
And more secrets...
Player Customisation
Other than the secondary equipment which apply a visual accessory to your character, you can now change your character from your new crazy cool profiles! There's not really a lot to say about the new profiles. At the moment you can only customise your skin from you profile, but I plan on allowing you to be able to change your background banner for your profile and the badges attached to your profile. Badges are basically just an in-game reward for completing achievements that you can show off.
From you profile you can also see your crazy cool steam username. I put in the 5 minutes of effort of importing Steamworks into the game, which at the moment is only used for grabbing your username. Your welcome.
You can also check the amount of experience you have and need until you level up again. Other than that, profiles are just a cool little thing.
Some Balance Improvements
If you manage to guess the ghost correctly, complete all 3 optional objectives, take 10 3 star photos including a ghost photo, you are now rewarded with a perfect game bonus. Now this bonus is chunky, currently worth $240. Getting a perfect game in an Insanity difficulty game will get you around $2200 and 2200 experience. Now that's a lot, and it makes progression a fair bit faster, but honestly without this bonus, you'll find progression in the latter half of the progression path will take you a fair bit of time. At the moment, it takes about 70 perfect insanity games to get to max level, which is a lot. But don't worry, I have some even grander money makers planned before release.
You can now only get optional objectives based off the equipment you bring with you. Making progression early on a little more fair. Optional objectives now have different values; they're not all worth the same anymore. And the optional objectives that require you to purchase equipment to complete offer a higher reward.
Ummm... And if the difficulty has you starting at 50% sanity or below, you can't get the sanity optional objective. Yeah.
Closing Words
That's all I have to show you for now. All the words and stuff above represent a huge chunk of the Progression module. But, there is still more work to do. I thought I would do an announcement now rather than when the modules finished because I thought this would be a good opportunity to test out the Steam announcements.
Anyway, get well soon, or whatever they say. I'll have more to share sooner or later. Just wait around I guess till then.
- Fixed controller calibration settings not saving - Fixed some campaign autosave problems - Switched pause menu button on Oculus to “Y” - Various minor fixes
We are currently working on fixing a common stuttering/fps issue that people are having, particularly with Virtual Desktop. More soon!
We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of the players that joined us for the journey through Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown during Steam Next Fest and beyond. Your feedback has been incredibly valuable and your support has been greatly appreciated. Your insights shared via Discord and our demo survey have helped shape the future of Thrive: Heavy Lies The Crown.
“From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for taking the time to play our demo. We know there are countless ways you could spend your time, and the fact that you chose to explore Thrive: HLtC means the world to us.
Your support is not just motivating—it's invaluable. Each playthrough, comment, and piece of feedback is a building block in the foundation of our game. We're not just creating a game; we're crafting an experience. And that experience is made richer and more meaningful with your participation.”
Branden Sloane, Founder/CEO Zugalu Entertainment
As the demo period draws to a close on March 11th, 4PM MST, this serves as a final call for those eager to revisit Nysamore, or for those who have not yet explored the lands and delved deep into the world. Seize this last chance to immerse yourself in Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown before our Early Access launch later this year!
Join our Discord to stay up to date on future updates, announcements, and our regular dev diary content - and we look forward to sharing further details on Early Access soon.
Will you choose kindness or cruelty? The fate of Nysamor awaits your decision!
Until our paths cross again, farewell for now.
Thrive: Heavy Lies the Crown is available to Wishlist on Steam now!
Pi day is upon us so I figured that would be an appropriate date for the next build, 0.3.0.
New extras menu where you can find the Pi Challenge as well as the side-scrolling car chase challenge. Any future mini-games will go here.
Pi Challenge will task you with collecting the correct next digit of Pi that spawns from the top. I only went to 100 digits, hopefully that is enough for most people. We can get crazier in the future if need be.
Furthermore, behind the scenes there are 'scoring zones', so if you're confident enough in your answer and on the right vine you can get the highest multiplier for your score. Aim for a high score and bragging rights!
PST (UTC -8): Tuesday, March 5th, 2024 4:00 PM - Tuesday, March 19th, 2024 4:59 AM (PDT)
CET (UTC +1): Wednesday, March 6th, 2024 1:00 AM - Tuesday, March 19th, 2024 12:59 PM
AEDT (UTC +11): Wednesday, March 6th, 2024 11:00 AM - Tuesday, March 19th, 2024 10:59 PM
Event Details:
Who will be the Mapler to win Gold Richie’s riches?
Requirement: Lv. 101 and above (Zero characters must have completed up to Chapter 2).
You can start the event by accepting the ‘[Safe] Gold Richie's Safe’ quest in the star notifier on the left side of the screen or by talking to Gold Richie in Henesys, Cernium Square, or Nameless Town during the event.
You can obtain up to 400 Safe Tickets a day per world by defeating monsters near your level (20 levels below and 20 levels above).
These Safe Tickets are shared between your characters within the world.
Ex:If Character A obtains 310 tickets and Character B obtains 90 tickets, you can no longer obtain any more for the day because you’ve reached a total of 400 Safe Tickets (max daily limit).
You can obtain Safe Tickets (x100) and 2x EXP Coupon (15 min) (x2) by defeating 2,000 monsters near your level (20 levels below and 20 levels above) to complete the ‘[Safe] Gold Richie’s Daily Quest’.
This daily quest can be completed once a day per world.
The Safe Tickets obtained from this daily quest do not count towards the 400 Safe Ticket daily limit.
Guess the Safe Code
You can spend 100 Safe Tickets to guess the Safe Code by clicking on the Safe in Henesys, Cernium Square, or Nameless Town during the event.
Two rounds of guessing the Safe Code will be held every day.
Round 1: 12:00 AM - 11:59 AM UTC daily
Round 2: 12:00 PM - 11:59 PM UTC daily
Each round, all the duplicate Safe Codes will be removed from the list. Only unique numbers that don’t have duplicates will be counted, and the smallest number out of that list will be selected as the winning Safe Code.
If there isn’t a number that satisfies these conditions, there will be no winner for that round.
In the above case, “1” is the smallest number but there is a duplicate. Out of the other numbers which were only registered once, “2” will be selected as the Safe Code as it is the smallest unique number in the list of entries.
You can enter the Safe Code 15 times per round, and the same combination that has been registered in the same round before cannot be registered again.
You can only participate in one world per round.
Ex:If you've already submitted Safe Codes in Scania world, you cannot participate again in Bera world until the next round.
Rewards:
Day 1(March 6th)
Round 1
Special Outfit Set Selection Box B: Tradeable within account, 30-day duration. Use to select one of the following:
Dread Master Set Coupon: Tradeable within account, Permanent. Use to receive an untradeable and permanent outfit set.
Timemaster Set Coupon: Tradeable within account, Permanent. Use to receive an untradeable and permanent outfit set.
Master Flora Set Coupon: Tradeable within account, Permanent. Use to receive an untradeable and permanent outfit set.
Round 2
Petite Luna 3rd Pet Full Set Coupon: Tradeable within account, 30-day duration. Use to receive:
Dusk Pet Coupon: Tradeable within account, Permanent. Use to receive:
Dusk: Untradeable, 90-day duration. Pet can be revived using Water of Life. (Petite Luna set effects are not available on Heroic worlds.)
Dawn Pet Coupon: Tradeable within account, Permanent. Use to receive:
Dawn: Untradeable, 90-day duration. Pet can be revived using Water of Life. (Petite Luna set effects are not available on Heroic worlds.)
Lil Glowy Pet Coupon: Tradeable within account, Permanent. Use to receive:
Lil Glowy: Untradeable, 90-day duration. Pet can be revived using Water of Life. (Petite Luna set effects are not available on Heroic worlds.)
Day 2(March 7th)
Round 1
Special Hair Selection Coupon C: Tradeable within account, 30-day duration. Use to select one of the following:
Snow Royal Hair Coupon: Tradeable within account, Permanent. Use to select one of the following:
The largest part of this update is the inclusion of 17 new languages! These translations have been very generously provided by the Windowkill community, huge thanks to everyone who helped out, all their names are in the credits :)
Also, as of this update Windowkill has reached an "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating on Steam! I really can't thank everyone enough, I appreciate all the support wholeheartedly. Thank you <3
With that said, here's the full changelog!
New Features
Added support for 17 new languages!
French
Italian
German
Spanish
Polish
Russian
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Japanese
Korean
Arabic
Dutch
Bulgarian
Czech
Filipino
Added Steam Cloud support
Added unique upgrade icons for a few characters
Added fun behavior to detach
Added "disable timed mode cutscene" option
Changes
:)'s finger behavior has had many tweaks
Faster startup speed when changing targets
No longer roams outside of boss hitboxes
Multiple fingers can now target the same enemy
Larger effect from Chase Speed upgrade, and now affects other values regarding tracking
Tunnellers are no longer targeted when underground
Bastion's laser can now hit multiple walls at the same time
This allows shooting at the window corners to expand in both directions
Zephyr's dash now pushes walls
Increased base firerate for epsilon
Enemy spawns are now paused for a period after a boss spawns
Reduced tunneller health
Upgrading Peer now increases minimum window size
Increased clicks necessary for title easter egg
Increased volume of "ability ready" sound effect
Increased volume of "dash ready" sound effect
Can now move with controller and aim with mouse
Assigning a stick to the "Shoot" control now allows pushing the stick from neutral to trigger shooting
Spread out the ramp up for action item's weights (i.e. action items now take longer in a run to fully populate the shop)
Reduced purchase count requirement for action item inclusion
Removed rarity increase for Heal 20 (i.e. Heal 20 doesn't become more rare as you buy more of the item)
Backing window now ignores "shrink screen size" setting and spans the entire screen regardless
Backing window now visible on the title screen
Fixes
Fixed Game Over being visible on restart sometimes
Fixed multi-mouse stuck enabled between singleplayer and multiplayer
Fixed confirm window text incorrect after opening a different one first
Fixed Sweeper coins spawning in the wrong location when using Nyx
Fixed timed mode icon stretching with speedrun timer
Fixed transparency on cursor windows (Orb Array, Smiley controller aid, and multi-mouse) for some users
Fixed torrent laser persisting on death
Fixed torrent stuck enabled if not pushing a stick direction when activated using controller
Fixed controller inputs not updating when removing an option
Fixed drain target alignment
Fixed being able to resize orb windows
Fixed finger particle layer
Fixed "prevent max orb charge" stuck enabled if setting becomes unavailable
Fixed screens forced out of bounds if previous monitor becomes unavailable
Fixed timed mode unlock not triggering immediately
NOTE: in the future, I will be prioritizing getting updates out quickly rather than waiting for translations to finish. So newly added text may take an update or two to be fully translated to every language.