- Added date to Play Test schedule
- Fixed team names in Scoreboard
- Fixed: volume options does not affect bullet fly-by sounds
- Fixed: victory/defeat reward giving phantom items
- Fixed: distant network objects always occluded

Hello Duelists!

Duels of Fortune's first-ever Character Popularity Poll has ended, with an absolutely astounding 103 RESPONSES submitted! You guys SERIOUSLY shattered our expectations with this, thank you so much to everyone who voted!

We know what you're here for though, so let's not waste any time! Here are the results for each category!

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For the playable fighters, we split the voting into two categories: favourite gameplay, and favourite character.

In the gameplay category, the vote actually ended with a TIED first place! But which fighters' playstyles were the most beloved of all? Well...


It was none other than our karate boys, Shoto Kanji and Derrick Stone! Quite the amazing coincidence! And as a cherry on top, our beloved guest character Ember from Hyper Team Recon is right behind them in third!

Here are the full results from this category:


In a sad, yet painfully fitting tragedy, Guy didn't manage to get a single gameplay vote. Keep your chin up, bud — you'll get 'em next time. Maybe.

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This is the category we were personally most interested in. With Story Mode still being in the works, all that's available on the characters is lore entries and snippets of dialogue from match quotes, and we were very curious to see how the fighters would stack up with just that much to go off.

If you can believe it, this category ALSO had a tied first place in the end! What are the chances?! Let's see who in our cast resonated with you guys the most...


Our main man Clyde Brightstar ties with Derrick Stone for first place, with Lumina Blackjack as a very close third! ...Wait, Derrick again?! Yeah, you guys REALLY seem to like him on both the gameplay AND character fronts, and we can hardly blame you. He's just such a loveable, goofy guy!

We're very happy to see Clyde at the top as well, seeing as he's going to be the main protagonist of Story Mode. If you guys are fans of him now, just you wait!

Full results:


Unlike the previous category, not a single character was left unvoted for, which we're VERY happy to see! Poor Shoto though, all alone in last place...

You may also notice that we left the guests, Johnson and Ember, out of this category. Those characters were of course created by their respective owners, not us, so it didn't feel right to include them here. In their places, we added Shin and Roy Urboi as options, two costume characters who will both appear in Story Mode (albeit, with one of them having a MUCH more prominent role than the other). We were quite impressed to see them manage 3 votes each!

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Just for fun, we decided to take the combined totals of both the playable fighter categories, and put them into a single list!

Not gonna bother with a big reveal here, because the results here should be apparent based on the previous two categories. So here are the full results right away!


In terms of average rating across both categories, Derrick is unsurprisingly the favourite by a landslide, with Lumina following as a convincing second place, and Clyde and Shiverskull tying for third! Despite not placing top 3 in either category, the Captain still got enough votes in total to sneak his way there when the votes were combined!

Also, despite only being selectable in one of the two categories, Ember somehow managed to outplace ERROR, Guy, AND Callowman in total votes. CALLOWFANS, WHERE ARE YOU AT?!

With the playable fighter results now out of the way, it's time to get into the results for the optional bonus categories! These proved to be quite interesting in their outcomes, so let's check them out!

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We simply HAD to give some love to our cast of alternate costume characters, with how cool and unique many of them are. That being said, it was almost inevitable who the uncontested top spot would go to...


It's the mother-anglin' Evilobster, baby! Being such a popular character in his own game, Schwarzerblitz, it's no surprise that he would be just as beloved in Duels of Fortune! Shin and Roy Urboi ended up tying for second place below him, which is very nice to see!

Full results:

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This category received 94 votes, which was the least of any category, but that's still more than enough to see some solid results! So which boss is the boss of them all? According to you guys, it's...


The Arcade Mode secret boss, Masked Oni! Seems his mysterious nature and fast-paced battle made him quite a memorable opponent! Trailing behind him with a pretty sizable gap is The Pill, followed by Tiny Evil Clyde. The sillier bosses also turned out to be quite popular.

Full results:

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The companions that some of the playable characters fight alongside are important, too! We felt it was only right to give them some dedicated appreciation. However, one of them in particular ended up completely sweeping this category, and you might be able to guess who...


It's Chip Blackjack, Lumina's undead brother-slash-puppet, who received a whopping 43.2% of the votes in this category! Sylvan's bodyguard Withers and Annie's robotic helper Gizmo took second and third place respectively, but neither were particularly close to matching Chip's dominant placement.

Full results:


Sadly, none of Shiverskull's crew managed to crack the top 3, sitting at the bottom instead. Better luck next time, mateys!

It only occurred to us after the voting began that we probably should've included Derrick's dog Rocky and Johnson's sharkman friend Shaz in this category as well. Oh well, they can show up on the next poll!

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This was the category that shocked us the most. While the frontrunner wasn't too surprising, it was most of the results beyond that which made us either pop off or scratch our heads in confusion. That being said, I think most of you already knew who would be leading the pack here...


First place by a landslide goes to Master Locks, the karate instructor/hairstylist who has already captured the hearts of many fans! In second place is the King of Hell himself, Collin Calcium, and third place is a tie between The Shadow and... Wood Demon... we can only assume that he was carried by the memes.

Full results:


It's mostly the silly characters who ended up near the top, but our boy Bronze has done quite well for himself, too! How a creature like Cain the Cane has received 4 entire votes is beyond us, but we won't judge.

We will, however, be introducing more NPC lore entries starting in the Azutron update! That way, you folks will actually have something more concrete to go on for the next time we do a poll like this! Plus, it's always fun to learn about the characters who don't get much time in the spotlight, right?

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Out of the upcoming fighters who are publicly known, we wanted to see who was the one people are most excited about! And the results are quite intriguing...


The gunslinging mercenary Lance Marshall is undoubtedly the most hyped of the bunch! Below him, the duo fighter Miko Starfinder and the sports/workout-themed Punching Bag were constantly trading second place throughout the week, so the fact that they ultimately tied for it in the end is quite poetic. Finally, we have the soon-to-release Azutron S-Type, who we assume probably didn't do as well since he's already nearing completion, and the majority of his moveset is publicly known. He doesn't quite have that mystery factor to him anymore, like the other three do.

Do note that these results won't affect the order in which we develop fighters. However, luckily for you many Lance fans, he's already planned to be coming later this year, so look forward to that!

Before him, though, the next fighter after Azutron will be a surprise. A mysterious "samurai" who we've been holding off on revealing for several years... we hope you're excited to hear about them once they're ready!

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Grembo.


Grembo.

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And that's the results! Once again, we'd like to thank everyone who took the time to fill out the form. If you missed your chance, don't worry, because we'll definitely be doing one of these again once Story Mode is at least partially released. By then, there'll no doubt be even more characters to choose from!

For now, though, we'll continue to work hard on bringing more characters and content to the game, and work our way towards our ultimate goal of Story Mode! The Azutron update is entering the final stretch now, so the wait shouldn't be much longer!

Thank you all so much for your continued support of Duels of Fortune! We'll see you again very soon!
- Ben and Kaleb

Huge congratulations to our Weekly Showdown Grand Final Winner, BlazeofGlory02 who wins with a great round!
Our course this week produced a very competitive Grand Final with 23 riders going clear and less that 1 second between the top 3!
Congratulations to everyone who made it through and did so well :)

• ILLWILL was inspired by Dusk
  
  
• The clock on the Meat Factory always shows a mirror image of real time. This is a reference that the game takes place in a parallel universe.
  
  
  
  
• Initially, the model of the violin was planned differently. And the violin was used as a placeholder, but I liked the way it looked so much that I decided to leave it as it is. By the way, regular violins can be found in the game.
  
  
  
  
• Camel sounds were used to voice the monster Jade Toad.
  
  
  
  
• Painhead's voice acting is the processed voice of the younger sister of our Sound Designer.
  
  
  
  
• Wormgun larvae suck the life out of opponents. But if you use them on Pigbot, they will restore armor.
  
  
  
  
• The Mammoth Rifle is a reference to the legendary double-barreled shotgun from Doom 2, which is considered one of the best fps weapons of all time. It works in a special way, the pellets pass through dead enemies, this feature allows you to mow down entire crowds of light enemies with one shot. I tried to recreate this mechanic in ILLWILL, and even started a separate channel for tracing bullets. But still, I was not able to convey this magical feeling from the legendary weapon from Doom 2. Nevertheless, the Mammoth Rifle in ILLWILL is very, very good.
  
  
  
  
• In the room where the game starts. The number of marks on the wall is approximately equal to the number of days spent on the development of the game.
  
  
  
  
• The dolls in the Dolls Factory level are from my other game called inlove. Which were inspired by artist John Kenn Mortensen. Later, on the basis of these dolls, Painheads and Mifiks were made. They are called Mifiks because they are very similar to Meeseeks from Rick and Morty.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The TV in the starting room is the legendary Sony PVM that retro gamers love so much.
  
  
  
  
• All ammo pickups in the game are physical meshes with active moving parts. And the heart, on top of everything else, is still beating. Where else have you seen this? Okay, the beating heart was in Blood.
  
  
  
  
• Butcher's head can be kicked like a soccer ball. This is a reference to the legendary Blood.
  
  
  
  
• Painheads always explode in turn. This is done specifically for spectacularity. Barrels from Half-Life 2 work on a similar principle.
  
  
  
  
• While jumping, the Hunters take double damage. This is done on purpose so that you can kill him at the last moment.
  
  
  
  
• C’thulhu was inspired by Super Metroid Phantoon.
  
  
  
  
  
• There are many references to the paintings of Salvador Dali on the Dali Dali map.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The hands on the Mystic House are a reference to some street art. To be honest, I don't remember where I saw this.
  
  
  
  
• The entire game, with the exception of music and sound, was made by one person.
  
  
• The last levels of the game are very similar in spirit to Serious Sam. It happened by accident, but it probably could have been influenced by the fact that in my youth I made maps for Serious Sam as a hobby.

The vehicle jittering a lot, causing the player to be shaken and sometimes launched off the ramps and similar should be be fixed now.

Vehicle UI jitter on the control panel is yet to be fixed.

You can grab couch combat now with a 50% discount!

Gameplay:
- Added unlockable Hardcore story mode. You must have completed the Story this option to appear. Good luck!
- Fog effects were significantly reduced across all levels. You're welcome, Kantsche.


UI:
- Story Mode button will now display "Continue" if there is a game in progress.
- I removed the popup displaying the name of the current music track (it just wasn't it, ya know?).
- The wrong Story avatar sprite was being displayed in the dialogue boxes. This should be fixed.

Fixes:
- AI only Matches were broken! They should now progress as intended until completion.
- Various Story dialogue typos and other errors have been touched up.
- Completing the Story with a given Archmage was not being shown under the Archmage Victories section of the Story Achievements on the Main Menu. This should be fixed.

Welcome back, beans!
We hope you’ve been enjoying our Limited Time Infection Event over the past weekend.

All the Zomburrito vs. Chef chaos has really worked up our appetite… for feedback.

That’s right! We want to hear from YOU about your experience so far with our Limited Time Events. So, we’ve put together this short survey:
{LINK REMOVED}https://bit.ly/3Q1FDlX

Food for thought — Once you spill the tea, we’ll gather all the dish which will help us cook up our future events to your tastes. Just saying!

Let your voice be heard!
Say suspicious.

Small bugfixes and improvements
Fixed cars losing value after purchasing in junkyard
Fixed multiplayer cars starting to jitter when multiple people work on them
Fixed items falling through player built building floors
Fixed some cars not getting wear
Added keyboard steering sensitivity slider in options
also made keyboard steering more linear.
Jump height now depends of how long you hold jump key before releasing
this makes possible to jump in truck bed and other high places

As FPS Fest unfolds, join us in our excitement with a fantastic new major version update of 001 Game Creator, full release of the 3D Step Dungeon Maze Kit, Open Dev Kit updates and stunning deals for our community! Whether you're looking to craft intricate mazes with our latest 3D Step Dungeon Maze Kit or action-packed shooters using our FPS Kit, our current offers will help elevate your game design to the next level. Read on to find out what's new and grab these deals while they last!


We're thrilled to announce that our 3D Step-Dungeon Maze Kit DLC is stepping out of early access and into full release. Thanks to your invaluable feedback, we've ironed out many issues and added many exciting features for you to explore and utilize!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up7wx1yax5o


See below for a condensed version of the changelog:

• Added new traps and interactive tiles! You can now place Holes, Buttons with Sliding Walls, Dark Cells and 90° Rotators (plus up to 26 Switches and Gates per floor)!
  
• Added 2 New Maze Themes! Crumbling Halls & Hedge Gardens with new tiles, maze objects as well as sound effects and backgrounds.
  
• You can now test new maze maps from the Map Editor, and specify ranges for different maze themes to appear when exploring the maze.
  
• You can now return to the Town Hub from the top floor of each maze area, with maze areas now unlocking in the Maze Selection Screen after being reached for the first time.
  
• Cleared out unused tiles, condensed existing tile-sets and cleaned up interfaces and scripts and added additional comments.
  
• Fixed several issues with enemies, interfaces, as well as teleporters and other tiles in general.
  
• Fixed issue with double-stepping when entering the maze, causing the "Reference Map" and "3d maze" map actors to get out of sync, which then caused a bunch of other issues.

Check out the DLC's store page for more details and get ready to build more immersive and complex mazes with ease:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2598260/001_Game_Creator__3D_Step_Dungeon_Maze_Kit/



001 Game Creator has been updated to v2024.004.000! This update includes a bunch of bug & crash fixes, Steam Deck compatibility improvements for built games, and a whole lot of HTML5 issues resolved, as well as a few major UNICODE problems regarding user data and project folders which prevented users from using 001 Game Creator.

Since we were able to resolve many HTML5 issues, we also made sure to update and greatly improve all of our HTML5 Games hosted on our website, especially the Tower Defense Demo which now runs beautifully.

Check them out here: https://001gamecreator.com/games/html5/

View the full change log here: https://001gamecreator.com/changes/



Couple great things have happened since last time on the Open Dev Kit side of things we're sure a lot of you can't wait to learn about. So keep on reading!



We're very excited to be introducing you to our newest Demo project: "Turtle 3D"! For those familiar with the "Turtle Drawing" educational concept of learning how to code, we have recreated this concept but in 3D. Turtle 3D is a Demo introducing robotics through simple Lua scripts, serving as an invaluable resource for students who're learning how to program.

Using Lua scripting, you'll be able to instruct various animals to walk paths or draw lines. This is an excellent way to learn coding and logic in a visual way, as your instructions will play out for you step-by-step. Although simple in nature, this demo can help you gain knowledge applicable across various STEM fields such as robotics and simulations, or visualizing how a 3D printer works.

For those more interested in the technical aspect, this demo showcases the use of multiple canvas rendering the same game scene across multiple windows, plus GUI windows interacting with game scenes. You'll definitely want to check it out next update!

Beyond that, we've also made countless improvements, including refined actor physics functions, dynamic manipulation of physics properties, runtime gravity adjustments, and improved UX features like window closing cancellation and canvas framerate control. We've also enhanced Jolt and Box2D physics, giving you now even more freedom to get creative with immersive gameplay physics!

Reminder that Open Dev Kit has recently also received a few new features such as extended OpenAI integration, Virtual Reality implementation, and now we now also have an exciting new devlog series over on our Patreon that starts with a Roadmap about ODK!


Check all of that out by joining the Open Dev Kit alpha here: https://opendevkit.com/pricing/

Also consider joining us on Patreon for early access to many other things like Software Betas, Devlogs and Polls that let you shape the future of our products: https://www.patreon.com/softweir



Don't let the eclipse overshadow your chance to snag unbeatable deals. From now until April 27th, enjoy a staggering 75% off on 001 Game Creator, plus up to 25% off our DLCs, with the FPS DLC at a special 25% discount in honor of FPS Fest and the newly polished Maze DLC at 20% off. No time like the present to expand your toolkit!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/347400/001_Game_Creator/