I discovered the incredible project https://buttplug.io/, which creates a single interface for users of toys, and developers (such as myself), to easily use any toy with any game that supports it (or that has had support added by modders).

After just a couple hours of playing with buttplug.io, it appears to be SO easy to program for, that For One Year's early-access launch will definitely include support, to some degree!

The depth and breadth of that support, I can't make specific promises to, since I'm not far enough into using the software to know what problems I may run into. Here are two possible extremes:

Best-case Scenario
In the best-case scenario, For One Year will launch with a feature that allows players, at the start of a scene, to pair devices with parts of their bodies, and to have those devices activated when the character in the game receives attention to those parts of their body. For example, there is a threesome in the game, and your character receives attention on multiple parts of their body, sometimes simultaneously. I believe buttplug.io will make it easy for me to do this.

Worst-case Scenario
In the worst-case scenario, the above proves more complex than expected, and For One Year launches with a simpler "uh, just select one device, and For One Year will activate that one device no matter what part of the player character's body is receiving attention".

What to Expect
I expect reality will play out somewhere in between these two extremes, but where exactly is impossible to know, at this point.

I'll keep you posted! :)

---

For more news & updates, follow Hushberry Games on Patreon!

• Fixed some localization issues

Welcome, Honored Scribes!

As custodians of the Illuminated Library and protectors of its Tomes - you've already been hard at work pushing back the Torn! You've grown, your foes have grown.

This shows the structure of our planned updates - and we'd like to go into more detail on our first Interlude Patch and our first Major Chapter! The timeline of these will become more solidified as we refine our update cadence.

This is very fluid, will definitely change, and will be driven by your feedback as we continue through Early Access.

Our plan for Vellum's Early Access development is split into two, alternating content types: Interlude Patches & Major Chapters.

Below, you can see the kinds of items you can expect from these updates. These items won't all appear in every update; we want to create a compelling (and feasible) selection each time. Our goal is to release a variety within these updates where you can always come back to the Library to check out something new.

• Pages of Power
  
• Torn Pages
  
• Bindings
  
• Cosmetics
  
• General Font Powers
  
• General Bonus Objectives
  
• Quality of Life Features
  
• Balance & Tuning

• New Major Features
  
• Spells
  
• Tomes
  
• Torn: Bosses
  
• Torn: Elites & Standard
  
• Map Sets
  
• Binding Sets

Let's explore what this looks like in practice! Here's a preview of our first Interlude Patch and Major Chapter!

We're immediately, and stylistically, bending some rules to bring you a new Generator Spell in our first Interlude Patch. Normally, as you can see above, we'd wait for a Major Chapter to drop a new ability - but we want to cover an attack profile we've been eager to expand on: melee.


Foil is a three-hit combo generator ability - summoning an inky blade to slice twice, then lunge forward to damage many foes at once.

We're pumped to bring our first melee spell to the game, and are looking forward to hearing and iterating on your feedback!

To continue on the feedback thread - we're planning to add a selection of new Pages of Power to be found in Tomes. We want to expand the coverage of defensive pages for some Signature Inks. We'll also be redistributing the power of a few over-performing pages to spread strength and make different angles more accessible (rather than too many feast or famine feelings).

There's bound to be some fun shenanigans, as well!

Dying is bad - but a death recap helps make resurrection that much better! Seeing who dealt you a killing blow should help with directing your vengeance - or simply learning a bit more about the dangers of those 37 extra Bindings you threw on because "how bad could they be, really?".

In the week since launch, we've heard a lovely piece of feedback: more. We're planning to address that feedback with two new features.

An endless mode has been suggested and asked about quite often - so we're making it the centerpiece of our first Major Chapter. Have the perfect build? Want to throw out just a few hundred more Swoops with that busted combo? Time to shine!

Once unlocked, you'll be able to Continue the Saga when defeating a boss at the end of a Tome!

You and your fellow Scribes will be presented a difficult choice: pick 1 of 3 Appendices - randomly rolled groupings of Bindings! Beat the next three Chapters (2 standard, 1 Boss), then pick from additional Appendices and keep the run alive - if you can!


When all the Ink has been researched - the cycle of Scribes will still get to continue! We'll be adding the ability to Prestige, resetting your Ink Level, Binding Attunement, Quillmarks, and unlocks - but you will keep your Gildings and Cosmetics!

Reaching higher levels of Prestige will yield cosmetic rewards - show off all that research you've done! You'll also get the chance to admire your Lifetime Quillmarks - so don't worry about that stockpile you might be accruing!

We're raring to get more of our spell ideas out into the wild - each with their own upgrades and specific combat profiles. With a new Generator (Foil) coming soon, we're going to be looking toward the other spell categories to start rounding out more of the roster.

This is a great area for your feedback to help us decide what's next in line - what are you interested in? What combat profile do you really want to spend all your mana on? How do you want to use a new movement spell to strategically enter/avoid combat? Let us know!


For us, Early Access is all about making new, exciting discoveries. The feedback process is pivotal in helping us make those discoveries together - it has already helped us immensely in shaping the outline for the future of Vellum.

There's no better time to join the Vellum Discord and tell us of your grand victories and heartbreaking defeats - we love to hear about them!

Thank you all and we'll see you in the Library!

- The Vellum Team

In the latest update, we've implemented some exciting enhancements to Stan, your favorite interviewer! Stan has undergone a significant intelligence boost, making interactions with him even more fun. He is also able to ask you a wider range of questions, which should make subsequent interviews more fun.

Thanks to 'Phew' for suggesting the name 'Stan' in his review. :)

After discussing with the community, the sausage's friction has been slightly modified, increasing from 0.05 to 0.18, making the sausage slightly less slippery on all surfaces. Good luck to everyone!

Hello everyone, I just wanted to let you know that Fate and Life: The Mystery of Vaulinhorn and its DLC are now available for purchase!

By buying it on Steam, you'll always receive the latest updates of the game. But please make sure to leave a positive review if you enjoy the game because positive reviews are super important in Steam's algorithm. Success on Steam means I can finally buy the RTX 4090, expand the team, hire voice actresses, hire professionals to create custom music, and purchase more premium Daz3D assets.
If you've been following me and the development of my game from the beginning, you'd know that I've never lied and always kept my promises. That's why when I say success on Steam is so crucial, I'm being totally honest, I can make this game much better with steam money. So, I hope you purchase it on Steam and leave a positive review. Thank you and have a nice day :)

Chapter 10 Trailer:


There is also a new animation on Steam page


Some of the game's new renders:

Hello, this is Jaeeun Park, Creative Director of Blackout Protocol.

Have you had a chance to look at the roadmap we announced as we hit the PAX East floor?
I hope you give it a read as I tried to give a lot of detail and show you what to expect in 2024, on our road to the official launch.
We received a lot of feedback at PAX but we always look forward to hearing our players' thoughts so please check it out and let us know what you think.

Anyway, in this dev log, we’re going to talk about levels.

Over the last two years of development, our game has gone through a lot of changes in terms of our philosophy of level design.

In our current approach, each level has a conceptual framework (e.g. a warehouse full of shipping containers). This is then subdivided into multiple mini-areas, and we use randomized variants of these mini-areas (or the whole level) to give the player some variety from run to run.

<Current level design for the parking lot>

This approach has had benefits. It’s let us make the overall presentation of levels really authored and visually pretty, avoiding that feeling that sometimes arises from roguelikes heavy on procedural content, where it feels like an endless stream of the same content, over and over.

But this approach also has some drawbacks. Now that the game has been out in the wild for a while, feedback from our players has shown us that the way we’ve approached things so far gives us limited flexibility when designing new content.

So: we’re rethinking our overall approach to level design, to expand our toolbox as designers, and provide more interesting gameplay experiences to you, the player.

Moving forward, our current thinking is to keep the levels we have, but remix the structure, by adding a bunch of new branching routes between them. And in these new routes, we’ll crank up the amount of procedural content. Essentially, we’re taking what we already have and building outward and on top of it, in the hopes of a result that gives players the best of both worlds.

That all sounds a little confusing, so here’s a picture that sums it up better (with some tactfully placed question marks to avoid spoilers):


<The new structure we’re currently pursuing>

With a top-down shooter like this, the simplest version of procedural generation would be to just string together a bunch of areas with randomly generated interiors – two ammo kits here, 3 standard enemies there, etc.

We actually tried an approach like this about two years ago, back when the game was in alpha. But we moved away from it pretty quickly because, frankly, it was pretty boring as there was no cohesive sense of how these areas were connected.

<Old footage of our attempt at a procedural level system>


<An example of a procgen level in our RnD build>

Since those early days, we’ve spent a lot of effort to enhance our procedural generation system, aiming to heighten the fun and overall experience it provides. And I'm happy to report that we’re starting to see concrete results. Instead of merely connecting areas randomly from the start to the end, we are implementing procedural generation of elements such as secret rooms and challenge rooms, fostering exploration of the levels.

While that may still sound a little simple, I believe that by incorporating the unique characteristics of each map into the system, the end result will yield very interesting levels indeed.

All of which is a very long way of saying: We're working hard to get new level content in your hands as soon as possible, and we hope you’ll enjoy it.

- Jaeeun

DISCORD | TWITTER | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | TWITCH | KICK

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2111870/Blackout_Protocol/

Mercenaries!

Click the coupon icon on the top right of the game lobby and type:
-----------------
APRILWEAPON2
------------------

[Reward]
> Mega Weapon Box *1

[The coupon can be redeemed during this schedule]
> Time (UTC) : 2024. 04. 06, 00:00 AM ~ 2024. 04. 07, 00:00 AM

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Your AVA Operations Team

- Fixed a bunch of dialogue issues
- Fixed an issue where options wouldn't display correctly

- Sound Electric Saw Correct
- Key 1 2 3 4
- Added visual aid in the intro (apartment) + Cursor
- Fixed Sphere in the elevator
- Boxes no longer fly away
- More coal & copper