Missed some of Lara Croft's adventures? Catch up on her legendary expeditions by grabbing select Tomb Raider titles at a huge discount during Steam's Spring Sale, including:
If you haven't already heard, we're throwing a giant Snail Party tomorrow! We're going to have *hundreds* of snails on the game for the first time ever
Next week we'll be heading over to Boston to show off Path of Exile 2 at PAX East from March 21st. We will be there throughout the event from March 21 to the 24th.
If you're planning to visit the expo, it's a great opportunity to check out the latest Path of Exile 2 demo!
Missed some of Lara Croft's adventures? Catch up on her legendary expeditions by grabbing select Tomb Raider titles at a huge discount during Steam's Spring Sale, including:
To celebrate the end of our 8th Anniversary Event, we are hosting a very special Golden time Event! Starting tonight at 00:00 PST, enjoy a 3x EXP, 3x Skill, and 3x Drop event!
Event Duration: March 15, 2024 00:00 - March 17, 2024 23:59 Pacific
This 8th Anniversary rate event is only available until March 17th, at midnight, so don't wait to take advantage of these increased gains!
In between attempting to save the citizens of Eterra, and eradicating them, almost 70,000 of you have joined in with your voices to discuss mid-cycle balance changes. The turnout for this survey has been fantastic; and further, is in addition to the many discussions here on the forums and other platforms on the topic. We want to first thank you all for your enthusiasm on this topic driving it forward.
Today, we want to share the results of the survey, as well as the decisions which have come as a result of the feedback.
For the purpose of reading the below results, the following information can help:
Scale:
1 - Strongly Disagree
2 - Disagree
3 - I have no opinion on this topic
4 - Agree
5 - Strongly Agree
When we first started the survey, the scale was in reverse. We received immediate feedback about this, and swapped it before too many results came in. While the results below do not reflect this change, we made this change very early into survey so it had minimal impact on the results
OVERPERFORMING BUGS
With over 74% of all votes in the survey crushing the other options, as well as in written feedback, the stance from the involved community is fairly clear. We should be fixing bugs which cause skills or items to highly overperform, and as such, will be doing so. This is a change from our previous stance where we didn’t want to alter balance mid-cycle. Now, if it’s the case of a bug, we will be pushing out these fixes in mid-cycle patches.
MILDLY OVERPERFORMING BUGS
In the case of a bug resulting in a build, skill, or item mildly overperforming, there’s a much less clear stance. From written feedback, it’s a bit clear as to why: What is “mildly” overperforming? Being a bit of a vague categorization, it’s left up to an individuals interpretation.
We have decided in this case to use case-by-case discretion. This would be based on feedback we’re seeing in the community, and just how far the bug results in a power shift. So we may chose to, or not to fix bugs which are ‘mildly’ overperforming mid-cycle and will discuss them as they arise.
OVERPERFORMING BALANCE
On the other hand, if a build is overperforming, but not caused by a bug, the feedback has largely weighted towards “do not change”. While not quite as one sided as with bugs, this is still a fairly strong sentiment from the community with over 57% voting not to make these changes. This also matches our existing stance as well, in not taking too many steps to alter balance mid-cycle. As such, we’ll be avoiding balance changes which are not bug related, even if it’s resulting in a build, skill, or item highly overperforming.
MILDLY OVERPERFORMING BALANCE
As one might expect, as the power from something not bug-related becomes less impactful, the desire is even less for changes to be seen to them. Weighted quite heavily towards no changes, we agree with this stance and will not be making balance changes mid-cycle which are not bug related, and only result in the skill, build, or item mildly over-performing.
MID-CYCLE LEADERBOARD RESET
In the event that we release a change or bug-fix which was resulting in an item, skill, or build to overperform, the desire for leaderboards to reset has been quite mixed. We discussed this a fair amount, and have made the following determination: We will not reset leaderboards in this instance, however, we will instead add information to the entry to indicate when the entry occurred. The goal of this being to make the information available to identify entries which may have used a build that has since changed.
We decided against a mark or icon on the entry indicating it was an overperforming build, as we didn’t want these to appear as a “mark of shame”. We felt this was the best way to be able to allow competitive players to continue competing on the leaderboards, without taking away other player’s previous hard work on their builds, even if they were overperforming.
PARTIAL LEADERBOARD RESET
While the above answer also addresses this question, for consistency we want to show the results of all of your votes here.
NOTIFICATIONS VIA PUBLIC POSTS
To everyone’s surprise, it looks like almost everyone agrees that receiving notifications about upcoming balance altering bugfixes or changes is a very strong desire. As we’ve been showing this last week since we started getting feedback on the survey, we fully agree with this, and will start trying to provide more head’s up when these changes are coming.
Though with this, we will still reserve the right to not provide information regarding the upcoming change if: Doing so would result in players rushing to take advantage causing severe issues, or we could release the fix almost as fast as releasing the notification that the fix is coming
So for these changes, if we feel we can release the information in full about the change, we’ll do so. Otherwise, we may try to be more vague (such as with the Infernal Shade infinite damage bug) to limit its impact before the change, or we may withhold it completely if it’s something which is regularly crashing servers when it’s utilized to minimize its impact until we can get it fixed.
CONCLUSION
This round of discourse with the community has resulted in some great changes to our stances that we’re quite happy with. The two big changes here being:
We will release fixes mid-cycle for bugs which result in an item, skill, or build highly overperforming
We will add leaderboard functionality displaying which specific patch, or timespan an entry happened during.
Once again, we’d like to thank everyone for your involvement in Last Epoch, and taking the time to make your voices heard. It’s with all of your feedback we’ve made Last Epoch as great as it is, and is only by continuing to work with the community and listening to feedback that we’ll continue to improve.
It has been a busy few weeks. Snow has started melting around here with spring around the corner. I heard that you may have had to set your clocks forward on Sunday for Daylight Savings. That seems like a strange thing to have, we’ve never had to set our clocks forwards in Everafter Falls. Once the clock is set we just leave it.
I had so much fun talking with Ou, the developer of Everafter Falls at SquareHusky about what he has been working on in the new year.
Latest News Announcements
Physical editions
Some exciting news - Akupara Games have secured plans for the release of physical copies in Asian markets, and I believe there are also plans for a limited run for physical release for western markets too.
Xbox and Playstation
In addition to the Switch and PC releases, Akupara Games and I have decided to move forward with releasing the game for both Playstation and Xbox. Akupara’s team have been working hard on the Switch port and have also started work on these additional consoles in order to ensure it is completed in a timely manner.
Release Date
We have finally settled on the release date which will be later this year. The additional console versions have pushed back the release date another couple of months. We are planning a simultaneous launch across all platforms. I do apologize for yet again, to any backers disappointed by this further delay.
The additional time does allow me the time I need to work on some additional content for the game, namely, the Cooking System and Hersha’s Bakery. As mentioned previously, this was intended as a post patch update, but it will make it into release.
Everafter Falls will be launching this summer on all Steam platforms, Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Xbox and Playstation 4 and 5!
What’s new
Alternative NPC schedules
All NPC’s now have alternative schedules every 5th day, which can be considered a weekend. No shops are closed though as they are all self-checkout anyhow, and I know nobody likes having to wait a whole day to access their favorite store. The alternative schedules also give a bit more insight into who the townsfolk like to hang out with and makes them a little more life-like.
Localization
The localization team at AllCorrect have done an amazing job with translations so far and while we’re still working on ironing out all the bugs, it is really cool to see the game actually working in another language!
Localization was rather challenging for me, and much more difficult and time consuming than I imagined before this stage. Some advice I would give to those planning to localize their game, is to make sure to have a system in place that can pull in all the strings you need from a separate CSV (or similar format that can be edited in a spreadsheet). This needs to be done from the get-go, the earlier you can address this, the less work and issues you will encounter later on. It took a fair amount of time for me to sift through all the code and find out where I’ve lazily hard-coded in strings, so doing it right from the start is highly recommended. It’s also a really good learning experience for those new to game development because it is a fairly self-contained system with a straightforward goal of intermediate difficulty. If you can tackle this, you’ll feel like you can tackle anything!
Restocking Prize Cabinets
The Prize Cabinet system where you can exchange Keys earned from spending gold now restock at the start of each year. They do so only if they are empty, and for each time they get restocked, the number of Keys required to unlock them increases by one. There are a couple of new items created just for these cabinets which you cannot craft or find elsewhere in game, so keep a lookout for those!
Your Pigeon Friend and the Replica Treehouse
At some point in the game, you’ll be able to recruit a pigeon friend who will follow you around and occasionally dig up worms (and caterpillars). For those who want a break from the myriad of creatures following you, you can complete a Replica Treehouse project. Using this item, you can leave your Pixie and Pigeon friends here to hang about while you do more important things like going fishing.
Some cool things achieved in game by beta testers
RecitedPlay’s first giant lotus!
EpicSilence has found the impossible-to-find Red Fishing Mod!
Modding Support
In the latest versions, files that control values and content for various aspects of the game, which include things like item costs, crafting recipes, crop details, monster stats, equipment, quests and more - have been made easily editable in the games install directory. I hope to make the game easily accessible for modders, and plan on exposing even more values when I get some time.
This has also allowed me to more easily fine tune numbers to balance the game, a lot of progress has been made here with help and feedback from testers so another shoutout to them :)
Looking ahead
A work-in-progress preview of the interior of Hersha’s bakery, which is being worked on and will be making it into release at launch. Her shop will also sell various appliances and recipe books you will need to stock your kitchen with in order to cook. The additional content will also include a couple of new quests, and a cutscene. These will be keeping me very busy while Akpupara work on the ports for all the consoles.
Some funny bugs that have cropped up during testing.
National Park Girls: Love Our Parks Edition - Crystal Game Works
Hey everyone, Syon here!
It's absolutely insane to think about it, but it's officially been five years since the first episode of National Park Girls launched. As cliche as it is to say, it feels like both a lifetime ago and not very long ago at all. Either way, I'm so glad we got Episode 5 out before reaching this milestone. That would've been embarrassing.
To celebrate this occasion, I'm stoked to reveal that we've got a couple announcements for ya! The first of these announcements is small, but important. Steam achievements are finally fixed across the board, the credits in Episode 5 display now, and the art gallery has been updated with lovely new art. Including work from Élan's very own Adirosa.
It won't be the last update, though. Because we'll soon be doing a massive overhaul of National Park Girls. This includes:
Redone backgrounds.
Completely new UI.
Increased accessibility options.
Improvement to sprite direction (specifically so that everyone is facing each other when speaking, like in Episode 5.
Additional proofreading and slight quality of life adjustments to the script.
An additional key visual from Satchely.
The goal of these updates is to make NPG a smoother, more consistent visual novel, and to align it with the quality our audience has come to expect from Studio Élan games. Please look forward to it. We still aren't done, though. Because all these updates will be included in National Park Girls: Love Our Parks Edition!
Very soon, all five episodes of National Park Girls will be delisted from digital platforms and replaced with one release that includes every episode. This has been something we've wanted to do for quite a long time, and I can think of no better opportunity than now. We're still figuring out details such as what price this edition will be retailing at, so stay tuned. While I love NPG's episodic structure, it has often deterred people from enjoying the series. With this update, I hope more people will get to experience Eve's story.
And finally, it will be National Park Girls: Love Our Parks Edition that we will be offering up as a physical release! Over the last several years, Studio Élan and Bellhouse titles have received physical editions, and National Park Girls will soon accompany them. Expect to be able to purchase the physicals at conventions we booth at and the Studio Élan webstore. More details will be revealed at a later date.
In addition to all these announcements, we are pleased to let you know that we'll be offering a batch of brand new NPG keychains featuring the various Park Girls, drawn by our friends Ringo and Myuto! Expect those on the webstore and at conventions as well.
Once again, thank you for continuing to play and enjoy National Park Girls. My life would look quite different without these nature gremlins. I hope they've brought as much to your life as they have to mine.
