Apr 15, 2024

Scorching Engines - Whitemountain Games

Fixed Bugs:

Restarting crashes the game.
Terrain can generate inside the research facility.
The Vehicle can spawn below ground
Vsync can't be toggled
Vehicle gets stuck when there are blocking rocks in front of and behind the vehicle.
Quickly moving the resource render distance slider up and down crashes the game.

Changes:

- Refactored the resource spawning system to be more performant, and spawn resource zones in a better way. No longer should resources be able to spawn on top of the player / vehicle. Resources will no longer respawn in previously explored areas.

- You no longer freeze when inside the research facility. Vehicle freezing zone has also been refactored.

- The Vehicle can reverse, with a colour on the speed bar showing the direction you're driving in.

- Terrain snapping for the research facility. It sometimes look a bit weird at the entrance, due to terrain spawning too steeply. will be solved in a later update.

- Terrain generation performance has been improved to be less stuttery, higher framerate during generation, and slightly reduce memory allocation.

As well as some other minor changes, and performance improvements.
Game file size has also been improved a bit.

Known bugs:

There is no falling snow around the player.
Humanoid Raiders seem to have lost their AI.
Vehicle UI jittering.
The inventory updates too slowly, and shows a ghost resource for a frame.
There is a small pixel missmatch between the hotbar inventory slots and the normal inventory slots.
The hotbar ends up in the wrong position if you change resolution while playing.
Terrain holes between chunks.
Raiders sometimes never respawn

Apr 15, 2024

Major Update - New Map, Minimap, 19 Weapons & Balancing Improvements

Vampire Hunters - Gamecraft Studios

Hello Hunters,

It's time for another huge content and balancing update! There's a brand new map, 19 new weapons, new relics, a minimap and a lot of polishing and balancing improvements.

We are on a quest to make Vampire Hunters an absurdly amazing Bullet Heaven FPS, and your feedback has been paramount to that effort. We can't wait to hear your thoughts on this update!

We have created a lot of new content for this update and some of this new content was suggested by our players, so keep them coming! Let's dive into the new goodies!

Changelog:

Corrupted Necropolis:

An ancient Necropolis has been corrupted due to the cursed energy released by the portals that have opened throughout the world. Hunter, your mission is to hold off for 30 minutes so the two Anks can be restored. Collect and sacrifice them to the Sphinx.

Minimap:

A lot of you have asked for a minimap, so we heard the call and implemented it in the game! We really loved playing Vampire Hunters with the minimap and we can't wait to hear your thoughts. Besides seeing all the enemies nearby, you'll also be able to see potions, chests and bosses in the minimap! It's important to say that if you don't want to play with the minimap, you can simply turn it off in the settings.

19 New Weapons:

New Primary Weapons:

Garlic Gun
Pestilence
Bubble Blaster
Acid Flower
Shattered Lightning
Pixie Shooter
Luminous Whirlwind
Javelin

New Secondary Weapons:

Black Hole
Shrinknator
Volcannon
Storm Coil
S.L.A.P. (Super Loud Automatic Pound)
Laser Saber
Knife Thrower

New Passive Weapons:

Familiar: Shark
Magic Deck
Meteor
Familiar: Werewolf

New Monsters:

Tomb Raider
Skeleton Warrior
Cursed Mummy
Mummy Overseer
Djin
Serpopard
Corrupted Toth
Corrupted Bastet
Corrupted Anubis
Corrupted Sobek
Scarab

New Bosses:

Desert Worm
Scorpion King

New Relics:

Lemon Balm Potion
Holy Potion
Giant Slayer Spear
Death`s Amulet
Warlord's Belt
Ice Breaker
Devil's Cursed Bullets
Divine Steel Brass Knuckles
Tree of Life’s Trunk

Balancing Improvements:

Old Primary Weapons' Balancing:

One of the most difficult problems of the survivors-like games is balancing. We've been learning a lot as we develop Vampire Hunters. We've come up with a new technique to help with the weapon's balancing. We've done a lot of tweaks to the old primary weapons, and we know there is still a lot of room for improvement. So keep giving your feedback and we'll keep tweaking the balancing.

Old Relics' Boost:

We heard your feedback and gave a boost to the old relics! We have also increased the chance of rarer relics showing up at level up.

Characters' Skill Tree Boost:

All characters got stronger! We've tweaked their upgrades, artifacts and skills so you can progress faster and get stronger. We've also changed how their artifact works: you don't get copies of the same artifact anymore, now you upgrade and stack it.

Parallel Skill Tree:

We've introduced a new skill tree for each character. It'll unlock new weapons and relics as you level up your characters.

Brotherhood Chateau Balancing Improvements:

One other balancing aspect of the game that we've been working really hard is in the maps. We got a lot of feedback about the Brotherhood and Chateau and putting our heads together, we've come up with another technique to help with the balancing of the maps. We've made a lot of tweaks to the difficulty progression of the monsters, and like the weapons, we know there is still room for improvement. So keep giving us feedback and we'll keep working hard on our end.

Endless Mode:

You can access Endless Mode by equipping the Carina constellation. We've made some tweaking to it and just like the other things we've mentioned, we know that there's still room for more improvements. That's exactly what we are doing right now, so you can expect a lot more balancing improvements on the next update.

Other Balancing Improvements:

We've increased the base collect distance.
We've increased the base luck to 1%.
We've Increased health potion base heal from 20 to 25.

Steam Deck Improvements:

Vampire Hunters already runs really well on Steam Deck but we've made even more improvements to it! Players who uses controllers will also enjoy those improvements.

Manual Level Up:

Now you can access the manual level up screen by pressing a single button - you don't need to go all the way to the settings anymore.

Visual and Performance Improvements:

We've improved the VFX of some weapons and also improved the overall performance of the game. We've also made some improvements to the game UI and how the enemy animation level of detail works.

Other Improvements and Bug Fixing:

We've fixed two crash issues reported by our players.
We've changed the text from "Resume" to "Skip" on the level up screen.
We've fixed some collider issues that were causing exploits in the maps.
New achievements so you can have a lot of fun collecting them all.
Now you can see the unlock requirements for each level on stage select.
Fixed a bug that was causing defragmentation and burn to deal the wrong amount of damage.
Fixed a bug that was causing the vertical + horizontal shot to deal the wrong amount of damage.
We've fixed the aim assist issue with pew gun.
Now you can refund specific nodes of the skill tree and not just the entire tree.

Wow, that was a lot! As you all can see, we are working really hard on Vampire Hunters and putting a lot of love into it. We really want to keep improving the game, making it even more fun to play.

We ask you to please keep giving us feedback and help us spread the word about Vampire Hunters!
We hope you all have a lot of fun with the new content!
And as always, have a nice hunt!

Apr 15, 2024

Delta's Dawn: 30XX 1.2 Patch Notes - April 15, 2024

30XX - batterystaplegames

Hello! Hope you've had a fine 2024 to date - it's about to get a little more GLORIOUS!

Today's 30XX 1.2 Patch, DELTA'S DAWN, introduces Delta as a playable character to the game. Delta plays as a highly variable hybrid character between Nina and Ace with unique spins on weapon charging and NRG that reward fast play and calculated aggression, and he's unlocked the same way the Entropy Cluster is (spoilered details on that below). 1.2 also introduces the first of our ALTPHASES, new level alternate level design features added to Burning Temple, Highvault, and Deepverse that'll shake things up from run to run. It also adds a new enemy, a handful of new Augs, a new button for all characters (most notably providing Ace with a new Bladeswap ability), a new Shortmode option called Ephemeral Journey that makes the game a tighter, tougher 5 level run, and much more!

Delta is free for all players of 30XX - unlike 20XX, we've decided to try releasing 30XX's first new character for free, instead of making it into a paid DLC. This is kind of an experiment for us - we'll see how it goes! To celebrate his release, 30XX will be at its lowest price ever on Steam - 30% off, or $14 USD - for the next two weeks. He'll go live on Switch soon, as well - just waiting for the update to pass their certification.

GAME FIXES & CHANGES:

Delta debuts! I'll spoiler tag the character's mechanics below in case you'd like to discover them for yourself. Unlock note (spoilers): Unlocked the same way the Entropy Cluster is -- either a game win or 5+ level 5-or-higher runs will unlock Delta. Players who have already achieved this will see a Delta unlock pop-up immediately when starting the game, and will not have to re-unlock him.
Delta wields both Ace and Nina's weapons and powers, and is encouraged to aggressively switch between them as the situation demands to sate his need for Glory.
Weapons: Delta can use most of Ace and Nina's weapons, and begins the game with both the N-Buster and the A-Saber bound. He can only use one Nina beam at a time (no stacking). When completing a Contemplation Room, he'll receive either an Ace or a Nina weapon at random. Delta can't find Ace's weapon augs.
Instead of charging normally, Delta charges his Weapons by using them - three Nina hits charges the next Ace attack, and vice versa.
Weapon hits build Hype. At 20+ stacks, Delta can press RT (the previously unused button) to consume them and become Glorious, fully recharging his NRG and giving a damage/speed boost for 5 seconds. Hype does not decay when hit (unlike Ace). Activating Glory is Delta's primary NRG recovery mechanism, so you want to time the activation such that it'll give you lots of extra juice for your Powers while also being in position to utilize the damage or speed buffs Glory grants.
Powers: Delta can find both characters' Powers - at the end of each boss fight, he'll be offered one at random. Delta can find Power Augs, but can't fuse Powers. Because of his rapid NRG recovery via Glory, Delta's Nina Powers have a base cost of 2x their Nina cost. Delta's Powers are bound like Ace's Techniques (and his Nina Powers default to their Ace-technique-counterpart keys). Delta doesn't have Unleash Blade - a few Ace weapons work differently to account for this (For example, Edgewall is the shield by default, and fires the charged boomerang when the attack is charged). Aiming Gear aims automatically.
Added Alt Phases, intended to spice up level variety between runs. As of this patch note, three levels have alternate phases (Burning Temple, Deepverse, Highvault) - if you encounter these stages on level 3+, they might spawn with a few twists!
Added a new button that performs a different action depending on your character.
- Nina's action is Stance Lock, keeping you in place and letting you aim your weapons more easily.
- Ace's action is Blade Swap, letting you quickly switch between primary weapons.
- Delta's action is Glory, which consumes active Hype Stacks (if 20+) to grant full NRG and a temporary speed/damage boost.
Added a new Highvault enemy, the Storm Demon! Watch the skies. Caw.
Added a new Aug: Charm, which lowers shop prices by 20%.
Added datalore for enemies and bosses. (Note: These are currently in English only. It's a lot of words.)
The Entropy Cluster now shows your current entropy level on the machine.
Entropy Conditions are now saved between sessions (Standard Mode only).
Moved a few Entropy Conditions that did not increase Entropy Level into the World Configurator, a new device next to the Entropy Cluster.
Added a new World Configurator option: Ephemeral Journey, which halves the amount of levels in a Standard run. (The run will generate five levels instead of 10, at difficulties 2, 3, 5, 7, and 9.)
If you've completed a run before, you can now skip the escape sequence through a green teleporter.
The final level is now guaranteed to have a slot machine.
The Speedwalker achievement now requires a completed run within 32 minutes (was 28).
The Speedy Pilgrim achievement now requires a completed Pilgrimage 2 run within 40 minutes (was 35).
Repros are now a bit rarer, and have increased shop costs.
Vagrant's Dissonance (Arm Core) is now less insanely busted than before. Mathematically, it's about a 25% increased damage multiplier still. (Down from.. a lot more than that.)
Vagrant's Waltz (Leg Core) reworked a bit
instead of the unwieldy blinkdash, dashing while overheating now starts an Unstoppable Force-style movement. This is usable while horizontally airdashing, and is awesome.
Vagrant's Yearn (Body Core) now uses a small amount of Corruption when releasing a damaging Nova while overheating (so it isn't permanent, endless giga-damage with the resonator and full set).
Added some new Character Palette options.
Ace, Jest and Delta can now re-order their Powers even with Still Waters active.
Zen Disciples now have a minimum time before they can divekick at you, so they're a little easier to get under from point blank.
Slot Machines now have the very rare Super Jackpot, granting three Augs at once.
When attempting to salvage an unsalvage-able Aug, the game now displays a popup to inform you. (Instead of just picking it up.)
Astral Terminus (Power Aug) now lets Ace destroy vending machines with Ryuusei.
Fixed vending machines visually sticking around when destroyed with Crushing Void.
Arrow Blocks now have a tell when they're about to disappear, and give a bit more leniency before losing their collision.
Improved behavior when Arrow Blocks collide with each other.
Fixed Water Platforms and Hydrophobic Platforms appearing a little higher than they should.
Fixed background filters sometimes not covering the whole screen with certain scrolling backgrounds.
Fixed Doppelgel being able to duplicate Triplicate Spirits (and causing weird behavior).
Laurent's Evade now ends when making wall contact (so you can jump immediately).
Autoloader now grants additional benefits when Resonated (more Beams for Nina, Weapon Aug benefits for Ace).
Fixed corpses displaying ERRSTR.
Fixed a misalignment in L10's "inside" background.
Chronovane pieces can no longer spawn in Slot Machines (preventing an awkward situation where one is slated to spawn late in a run in one - this makes it easier to complete).

Spoilers for updates to a certain endgame quest below - click at your own risk!:
Removed the Symbol of Peace as a prototype. You can now start a "peace run" through a portal in the Rev Device room. (This was done to eliminate the inherent RNG involved.)
You can now talk to bosses when you have the Symbol of Peace.

MAKER FIXES & CHANGES:
Added Delta and his new Augs.
Added the Storm Demon enemy to Highvault.
Moved character-exclusive Augs into their own categories, for clarity.
Echobeast now has the correct palette.
1.1's new Augs now have localized text.
Fixed an issue where background tiles could not be deleted if an asset on a disabled layer overlaps them.
Fixed Power/Weapon Augs being selectable for Weapon Blocks.

Apr 15, 2024

Changelog | New Big Patch is Live!

Contain - adre

Hey, everyone!

As a small development team, like those big patches started to take time to release. With this patch, we have introduced many fixes, changes, and new features with a new CQB mission - Echo Surge.

Fixes

Fixed the issue if a player enters and exits the pause menu after death, they can move the character.
Fixed the bug where players that are in a down but not dead state can still shoot.
Fixed mouse cursor disappearing when entering and exiting the pause menu while dead.
Fixed VoIP not working at mission levels.
Improved VoIP sound quality.
Fixed the empty mag bugs that occur randomly upon reloading.
Fixed hold lean setting.
Fixed hold aim setting.
Fixed VSYNC setting.
Fixed stretching issues of loading screens in wider screens.
Fixed some settings not being saved correctly.
Fixed the Joining a session via Steam friends list issue.
Fixed the bug where if the Specimen (Weeping Angel) in Loose Ends mission kills a player, the post-death UI does not appear.
Fixed some client-side network problems regarding mission object interactions.
Fixed some belt & vest attachment bugs.
Fixed a bug where the fire modes break if a player changes weapon while in burst fire mode to a weapon that doesn't have burst fire mode.
Fixed a bug caused by network issues that cause endless loading time while connecting to a game in the main menu.
Fixed session list not auto-refreshing on start.

Changes (UI/UX & Gameplay)

Players now are immune to all damage received within 4 seconds of being revived. (Community Request)
You can now switch to both of your primary and secondary weapons and inspect them at the Base of Operations main floor (Community Request)
We are changing the datapad/scan mechanic as mentioned before. It's now working with a one-button stroke and shows where the objectives are with markers. The scan still shows anomalies/objectives behind the walls with a red overlay. (Community Request)
We've also added the mission name and difficulty details on the screen for joining players. This way, they can know which mission and difficulty has been chosen by the Host player. (Community Request)
Added an FOV slider to the Control Settings menu. (Community Request)
Increased max primary magazine amount limit to 8. (Community Request)
Reworked character health/damage/death system entirely: Now players always get in the down but not dead state after sustaining enough damage to drain their health. If they can't revive themselves or get revived by a teammate in time, they will die. Additionally, if a player chooses to die instantly while in the down but not dead state, they can hit the interact button to let go.
Removed some unused controls in the settings.
You can no longer heal yourself while on max health.
The Datapad screen no longer stays off when not in use. Now, you can track the percentage of Recalibration live. We are making changes to suit the new UI and task-tracking system.
We've removed the placeholder for Player Card Info and made it cooler and more detailed. Now, you can see your teammates' health & resources, such as the number of grenades they have, etc.
Mission loading screens have been reworked.
When a player joins or leaves the Base of Operations, the other players will be informed on the HUD.
Option added to unequip NVGs without changing headgear.
You now can see the equipment info while attaching equipments to your vest or belt.
Restart Mission button added to the post-death widget, visible for the host player.
Equippable max stimpack amount limited to 7.
Restocking now refills stim packs as well as grenades.
More QoL changes at Gun Customization UI
Flashlight & Laser activation and deactivation sounds changed.

Missions

We made some layout and lighting changes.
We have added Ammo Refill locations.

New Features

Now you can always track the next objective location(s) on your compass, with no need an active scanning. (Community Request)
Gameplay UI can be Hide/Show with one TAB button stroke. (Community Request)
We have added a small screen shake if the player gets shot. (Community Request)
Jump - yep, now you can jump over or onto small obstacles. (Community Request)
Mag Counts. While reloading, restocking, or during a magazine check, you can now see how many magazines you have and the amount of ammo in each. The current magazine is always displayed on the right side (Next to your gun), separated by a small yellow line. (Community Request)
Some sidearms now have built-in flashlights.
HUD now includes a health bar, info about remaining grenades & stimpacks and hotkeys to use previously unshown equipment. (Community Request)
Missions are now shown in the HUD.
Door mechanics added into Echo Surge Mission.
A new mini-game mechanic added into Echo Surge Mission a PC Terminal / Console.

We're introducing two new Anomaly Soldier types equipped with SMGs and Shotguns.
Their behavior will differ from those carrying ARs. As expected, soldiers armed with SMGs and Shotguns will prefer more closer range for combat. Particularly, AI utilizing Shotguns will attempt to close the distance to players. While doing so, they will sprint until reaching a certain minimum distance.
Soldier AIs won't walk and pass next to you with/without shooting anymore. And if they are out of their shooting range they will start sprinting to get closer to you or your teammate.
That will depend on the EQS's threat calculation at that moment.
We reduced Anomaly Soldier AI's sight angle from 90 to 65, this change made them more humane(ish) they won't see to over 65 degrees on the sides if they are not aware.
This may change again with the feedback we will get
We increased Anomaly Soldier AI's sight and hear radius.
Crawler (Named as Queen by our community) now can die before her animation ends.
Queen's animation and behavior may change on the next patches.
We decreased the aggressiveness of other anomaly enemies.
Also, this one may change again with the feedback we will get
New Enemy-type Husk (Melee Horde Spawns) added into Echo Surge Mission. (Experimental)

Please continue giving us your feedback. And consider sending your bug or if you want to get in touch and speak with us please consider joining our Discord . We are online, and we mostly use Discord for instant, direct communications.

- Contain DEV Team.

Apr 15, 2024

Amygdala 2.9.0 - Personal Room, General Fix & Gameplay adjustments

Amygdala - Stigma Studios

Hi everyone!

The Virtual Photo event ends today and with that comes an update for Amygdala!
Amygdala updates to a new version 2.9.0 and adds, corrects and modifies some functions

Amygdala 2.9.0 - Update Info

To avoid compatibility problems with save games I recommend everyone start a new game. Otherwise you may encounter unwanted issues due to some non-retroactive gameplay changes.

Personal Room: Inside the Amygdala there is now a personal room, with no function other than to let the Nightmare Seeker relax. Inside the Personal Room you will find the three paintings of the three screens chosen during the Virtual Photo Event. it is likely to be expanded in future updates.
New Achievement: A new Achievement related to the Personal Room has been added.
General Bug Fixs: Some bugs have been fixed, however it is possible there are others, don't forget to let me know via steam threads, I will try to fix them as soon as possible.
Beauty Nightmare - Part II, gameplay change Some changes have been made to reduce the redundancy of searching and using keys. In the second part of the beauty nightmare, the player had to find two keys inside the cells to open two doors on the sides of the trapped heart. Now the player will have to turn off the monitors inside the cells in order to destroy the organic blocks and continue into the side rooms.
Emergency switches removed: The emergency switches were buttons that were used to eliminate the final door when a bug occurred, but they confused the player. Now it seems that the bug no longer occurs (in the final door), so these buttons have been removed.

Special thanks to all the participants of the Virtual Photo Event, selected, they were all beautiful screens!
Three honorable mentions present within the game as painted:

ZEUS - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3185971817
Warchief - https://x.com/Warchief____/status/1769768797622169698
Angela M McCann - https://x.com/anmanarrative/status/1769112643304931527

New updates are expected in the future, I'll let you know!
Thanks for the support!

Apr 15, 2024

Retchid is on Sale for the Steam FPS Fest

Retchid - FromBeneathSoftware

Hello everyone,

During the Steam FPS Fest Retchid has a 20% discount.

What is Retchid?

For the uninitiated, Retchid is a gory, atmospheric first person shooter that challenges you throughout without holding your hand.

The first episode currently available in early access contains 7 hand built non-linear levels with some light puzzling, shortcuts, collectibles, and secrets.

Use the PDA to read about what was happening at the TEC complex, track your objectives, statistics, weapon/suit information, and read about the collectibles you find.

Fight against various life forms ranging from humans to creatures from the abyss using various weapons like the ARC-Tool, SMG, Shotgun, TEC-Nade Launcher, and the Mining Laser, which discoverable upgrades scattered throughout the levels (not 100% fully implemented yet).

Join our discord where you can also talk to the developers about Retchid

Improvements

Since release we've provided a few patches that fixed various bugs, visual improvements, optimisations, and improved the gameplay experience:

Improved Hit Feedback when shooting enemies: