Hello everyone!

It has been some time since the last update of Destroy The Monoliths or the last time I posted anywhere. The reason being that I have been hard at work! With the post-launch content update of DTM out, I was finally able to fully focus on my new project. I am very happy to share today that I am indeed working on a new game!

My prototype is starting to feel right and fit what I envision. So I think this is a good time to talk more about this game. It has no official name for now, so let's refer to it as Project Exodus for the time being!


If you happen to follow the YouTube devlogs of Jonas Tyroller (one of the two developers behind Thronefall) or Lemon (the developer of Patch Quest), you are probably already aware of how a new game comes into being. I really like these devlogs because they capture the reality of how messy and chaotic the early phase is. Working on a prototype really is some kind of search for a new perfect idea. It is highly experimental, with a lot of code and tests that end up in the trash. But that's how you refine your creative vision. Slowly expanding on what sticks and feels interesting, while reworking or discarding what feels tedious and boring.

Does this prototyping phase get easier with experience? Yes. But it remains a long and tough process. Experience makes you more aware of what was already made, of which mechanics don't blend well, of what players enjoy or hate, of what the current market trends are. So you test and trash bad ideas quickly and move on with your search faster, slowly finding your way. Also, previous games play a role. You may want to create something similar that your existing audience can enjoy. But make it too similar and people will find it boring (and it will also be boring to develop).

My new project went through all of that messiness. Look at the montage below and see how it changed over time.



I experimented with different top-dow and isometric views, with plain 2D or 3D, with a moving character or just cursor-based actions, with wave timers, with auto scrolling, with power management, etc. It took some time to find a set of mechanics that harmonize and convey the fun I had in mind. Now, it has reached a more stable state and I'm starting to see the end of the prototyping phase. So let's talk more about what this game is heading towards!


My starting point for Project Exodus was to make some sort of hybrid between FTL and Dome Keeper. The latter was already a big inspiration for my previous game Destroy The Monoliths. Back then, I pushed it more into the RTS and Tower Defense genres. For Project Exodus, I want to keep this mix of mining and fighting, but tackle it with more of this management and adventure vibe I enjoy so much in FTL.

Before I give you the pitch, let's start with a first screenshot!



Project Exodus is an action mining shooter and crew-management roguelike. In this new game, you will lead a group of characters wandering in space, mining resources, collecting power-ups, fighting waves of enemies, and making hopefully the best decisions to survive as long as possible.

Players will control the leader the group. Other members of the force will follow and act on their own, much like companions in automatic mode. During a run, you will recruit new members for your force. Maybe dismiss people, or switch leader. You will also manage a few options to influence how your companions behave. Characters will have various classes, which give them access to different abilities, weapons and power-ups.



Exploring space can help you find ore and resources, but also random structures like crates or trading posts. These structure won't have a fixed output as they will trigger random events and force you to make wise decisions.




As always, I will document the whole process on my blog, so expect more devlog posts in the future. It is way too early for this game to have a Steam page, but don't worry Steam players, I've got you covered! Until the game page comes up, I will publish all the devlogs on my Steam developer page. So be sure to follow it to see new posts in your activity feed!
My number one priority is to get a playable pre-alpha build. It is important to gather player feedback as early as possible and this project will be no exception to the rule. The current version still needs a lot of work, but I am getting closer each day. I will keep you updated when a playtest happens!

That's it for the first devlog of this new project! I hope you are excited about this game as much as I am! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Or even give some feedback based on the few screenshots I posted. I am very interested to see what you understand of the game with just a few static screenshots. This helps me refine the first-glance readability, which is very important to appeal to the right audience.

Thanks for reading this far, and I'll see you next time!

-Radiant Sloth

Hi everyone!

After no more than one day the challenge has already been completed! Congratulations to the following winners (listed in order of completion):

1. TheProxE
   
2. Houdou
   
3. butts
   
4. RevVoice
   
5. BLOP

I will reach out to you all via email in the following days to give you your keys and to discuss the co-creation of your custom secret pages! Again, congratulations on the win!

Thanks everyone for participating! I hope everyone has fun getting the other endings / achievements. And if you have trouble you can always hop on by the discord!

- Finn

The update you've all been waiting for has arrived!
Here's a list of things we've fixed and what we have been working on from that list of known bugs put out on Feb. 26th.

We fixed----

- Save data from 1.5 and before once and for all!!! (...or so we hope we are still going to be testing and updating this.). Alot of time has gone into this one because since launch it's been the game's biggest issue.

- Pathfinding has been optimized to use less RAM. This was causing the crashes and lagging the FPS for many players.

- The various issues from the Shovel Knight arena have all been fixed!

- Various freezes when enemy skills would occur.

- Stat balancing with various enemies and their attacks.

- A few typos.

We are still working on---

- Enemies chasing you / pushing you into corners can cause soft-locks in rare instances.

- In the Personal Demons case in Chs6-7 after leaving the Towers if you fight Lady Tempt at one of the places she's causing trouble. Then the battle ends and then you go to trigger the same fight again she won't show up causing a soft-lock in battle because she doesn't reappear in the scene.

- Carrying 99 of an item and being able to break the 99 cap by getting a treasure in the game you already have 99 of. This also causes weirdness in shops when trying to sell items over the cap.

- Adding mods to weapons can sometimes give an incorrect stat result.

- Mod icon can disappear from V-Money's knives when adding it to her weapon from the Upgrade menu in shops.

- Sometimes equipped gear doesn't carry over to New Game +

- In CRDTech mini-game very rarely when two abilities trigger it can soft lock the game.

- PS5 controller icons show up as a generic controller icon.

- There is a ladder in the Towers scene where you can hit a fall collider and ladder climb collider which can get characters stuck in the climbing position. This doesn't break the game because you can just move up to trigger the climbing collider again to fix the issue.

- Some ladder's climbing speeds can be slower than others.

- Hugging walls severely slows down character speed.

- Paper / rolling can object's 3d audio immune to sound settings- Mute All or Sound Effects volume.

- BGM volume can decrease if going in and out of interiors

- BGM volume can increase while toggling investigation mode on and off repeatedly in certain areas.

- When you have the map toggled on then teleport to another scene, the map goes away, But if you talk to someone (any intractable) the map comes back.

- Coffee Break skill timed hit not working if healing another ally in battle.

- When Detective dies against Tornado, and then then Woof revives him, he auto re-equips his weapon after fighting barehanded to begin with.

- Door marker in investigation mode can be seen in other rooms from the one you are currently in.

As always if you have a bug you want to talk directly to the devs about please join our discord server and tell us about them. It's fun, it's interesting and it's helpful to us having you the players contribute to the QA process!

Fixed the issue where the Seals of the Yao Monk would increase the cost of Bottom card.

Fixed the issue where the game would freeze when transforming into Loong with insufficient Action Point. Meanwhile, addressed the problem where some effects were not affecting the True form card.

Fixed the issue where some hand cards would not transform into "Claw Strike" when transforming into Loong.

Fixed the issue where attempting to play the Bottom Card just before transforming into Loong would first draw cards and then generate "Claw Strike".

Fixed the settlement order error in the resolution of "Crushed Ice".

Fixed the issue where, after the resolution of the Channel card,transforming into a dragon would result in Ao Yu standing idle in the same place. This problem could potentially lead to the game freezing

Added some translations to the text.

Added some missing art assets.

The description of "Lightness" has been revised.

Espiocracy is participating in Digital Tabletop Fest: Roll of the Dice, hosted by Auroch Digital.

This annual festival celebrates tabletop-inspired games and the dedicated game studios that make them. From March 7th to March 11th, you'll find demos, previews of upcoming titles, panels from developers, and game discounts too.



Here's a title for those of you who play rogues and other shadowy characters in tabletop games.



Espiocracy is our upcoming grand strategy game based on the Cold War, where you personally lead an intelligence agency from one of seventy-four playable countries. Intrigue and subterfuge are the tools used to stage coups, influence elections, and wage proxy wars.

Command operatives, re-write, and skirt the edge of nuclear brinkmanship.

Wishlist Espiocracy now and lead your agency in 2024.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650

Release version 1.2 is now avaliale.


1) Fixed a bug where the game scene doesn't do transition.
2) Fixed a bug where pressing "t" does not toggle the hud.

1) Improved the texture of all transparent materials.
2) Improved the quality of the baked shader.
3) Further improved terrain's realism.
4) Improved fog behaviour.

Mostly hotfixing some issues…

FIXES:

-Critical fix for triggering ending dream logic during the initial connection limbo (causing the missing HUD when starting a new universe)
-Fixed issue of stream completely breaking after talking with Petar.
-J.W convo fixes
-Fixed two more instances of k15 chair bouncing during Kiril convo

IMPROVEMENTS:

-Info Console articles and images (98% complete…173 images now)
-Quantum Limbo audio expansion

TWEAKS:

-Reduced volume of iDGi-1 stream distortion

Hello!

We've added a weapon-selection wheel.
You can bring it up by holding Q or R1, then select a weapon icon with your mouse or right stick.
Time slows down while the wheel is open.
Quick switching to the last used weapon still works - by just tapping Q or R1.

Helblinde joins the Music Library! 50+ songs, including additional songs under duo Fractal Dreamers, are available now!

Fixed:

• Improved models of the great and long sword.
  
• Performance fixes for the HUD.
  
• Missing characters for certain fonts.
  
• Improved mesh collider for sand cast flasks.
  
• Fixed rigidbodies' wake-up call, which caused some objects to twitch.
  
• Increased the frequency and accuracy of physics to keep some objects from bouncing when they shouldn't.