Across the Obelisk - oxonomia
Greetings to everyone!

We are working on and putting the finishing touches to the next free content patch for Across the Obelisk, the Update 1.4.

Here you have a preview of the improvements that the next update will bring.

Sound Rework

As we talked about in the previous Dev Diary, we will improve the sounds of the game in several aspects:

- Every hero in the game, boss and almost all enemies have three new sounds when hit. These sounds will cycle when possible, so if a hero is hit or you hit an enemy several times in a row it will not sound the same sound.

- New sounds have been added when dragging a card to be cast. The sounds are different depending on the type of card you are going to use.

- We have also modified and added several sounds to the UI of the whole game to give a better feeling of responsiveness. And a new characteristic sound to the multiplayer games to indicate that it's your turn.

Finally, as we said in the sound rework dev diary, when the new sound rework goes live with patch 1.4 you will always have the option at any time to switch to the previous sounds. Also, reading your feedback, we have added an additional option to use the new sound system, but keeping the 2 most characteristic and charismatic hit sounds of the game, such as the sheep and owl sounds.



Improved narrative

We have added a new member to the Across the Obelisk team to help us with the game's narrative. Not only will we be able to produce content faster than before, but it offers us the possibility to add content and lore to the existing content.

In this new patch several new events have been added in all zones of the game. But most of all we have focused on adding new hero specific responses for all heroes in existing events.

We have always wanted the world of Across the Obelisk to be rich in backstory, and for each of its heroes to have their own personality, relationships, reasons for acting and to have many options for interaction in the world.

This is also very important for the cooperative aspect of the game, because when a player chooses a character, he should have different options in events to participate with the rest of his team mates, and due to the lack of time when developing content, this subject wasn't progressing as well as we wanted it to.

In this and future patches, we hope to continue working on it and will fill in those story gaps wherever possible.

New Cards, Items and Balance

This patch introduces four new cards, one for each class.


In addition to four new items that will drop randomly during the game.


As for the game balance, we have made changes to the bosses of the game, especially to the ones that appear in the Obelisk Challenge and we have removed the Weak Immunity. Sometimes it was not easy to get one of those rare cards that weaken the enemies in the Obelisk and it didn't feel powerful that all the bosses were immune to it.

We have reworked several cards and made a balance pass to many others. Expect the full list of changes a few days before Update 1.4.

New languages

With the Update 1.4 the game will be fully translated into German and French.

The Wolf Wars

Our intention is that, whenever possible, we will add content or improvements to the old DLCs. So, as we did with the Halloween DLC, we will take the opportunity and with the Update 1.4 we will add two new skins to the Wolf Wars DLC.

Young Reginald and Young Thuls.


Also, with this update, we have removed the obligation to complete the different events for it, and all the skins of the Wolf Wars will be available for use from the beginning just by owning the DLC.

We are very excited about what's to come.

Stay tuned as we will be revealing more in the following weeks!

- The Ato Team.
Atomic Heart - Gevil
Hello everyone!

Step into the surreal realm of Atomic Heart with an exclusive opportunity to own the iconic Twin ballerinas immortalized in a meticulously crafted statue! Our 30 cm hand-painted resin masterpiece is a must-have for enthusiasts and collectors alike, offering a captivating glimpse into the game's enigmatic universe.

Craftsmanship Beyond Compare

Conceived and brought to life by Mundfish, this statue captures the beauty of Left and Right in their graceful balletic stance. Meticulously hand-painted and individually numbered, this 30 cm marvel consists of two distinct parts—the mesmerizing Twins and their celestial base!


Don't Miss Out

Seize this limited opportunity to claim your piece of Atomic Heart universe and join the ranks of those who dare to explore its mad and explosive world. Embrace the mystique of the Twins and invite their magnificent presence into your home today!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/668580/Atomic_Heart/
Buckshot Roulette - Harry Fink
Greetings, High Rollers.

We’re happy to announce that BUCKSHOT ROULETTE Trading Cards and Community Items are finally live on Steam, so now you can gamble for these cute trinkets while gambling with your life. Exciting, isn’t it? ːdealerrizzː

We'll also be adding even more Buckshot items to the Steam Points Shop at a later date (including the animated background with falling shells you've been asking for so much), so please stay tuned for that. But for now feel free to brag about your luck with the community items in the comments below while we move to our next important subject for today.

We’ve been absolutely blown away by the creativity and love you guys share for BUCKSHOT ROULETTE (and The Dealer in particular…), so we want to give you all some of that love back — and that’s why we decided to host regular Community Spotlights showcasing some of the fan art that Mike and us loved the most this month.

Oh, and if you want your art to get showcased next time, tweet us using the #BuckshotRoulette hashtag or submit your art in the #fan-creations channel on our Discord server.

And now, let the Community Spotlight begin!

Starting off with ‘A First Impression’
(via SeanBOI12123 on Twitter)


From sinister to adorable, up next we have a Plushie Dealer pic
(via NeonPink_1 on Twitter)


Arguably, this is the hardest The Dealer ever went
(via BillExcluido on Twitter)


That’s absolutely cheating, but our friends from Finch Bird Studio also made a fan-art for Buckshot’s launch
(via FreakedFleapit on Twitter)


We don’t even have the words to describe how much this one rocks, Buckshot Roulette for GBA when?
(via o5976755 on Twitter)



Not even VTubers are safe from this deadly game of chance
(via dohoon416 on Twitter)



What if Buckshot Roulette was called 𝓕𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓽 𝓡𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮
(via Yanaiba on Twitter)


Greed from The Binding of Isaac learning new tricks from his colleague
(via TheBeknighted on Twitter)


And capping it all off with an anime-fied Dealer
(via unagi_to_kame on Twitter)



And with that, our first community spotlight is officially over. Once again we’d like to thank you for sticking around with us and we’ll see you quite, quite soon! Now go get those trading cards, High Rollers, the night is still young!

The machine hungers for more, greed everlasting.
Mike Klubnika, CR Channel & V̶̺̋Ǫ̶͒L̴͉̂T̶̺̈À̸̤ ̴̫̉Ś̴̱ţ̵͗ạ̷̄ñ̶͉d̴̋ͅa̶̩͝r̵̯͛d̴͙̓ ̶̖̎E̵͈͆l̵͍̐e̵̺͠c̴̟̄t̶̜̒r̸̪͠o̶͎͘n̶̰̄ị̵͑ç̷̄s̶͝

May 2, 2024
The Battle of Polytopia - redish2098
We are happy to announce another month of Polysseum! This month we are playing Luxidoor!

How to join?
  1. Open The Battle of Polytopia -> Multiplayer -> Tournaments. Once you find the tournament that suits you, click "Join".
  2. Follow our Tournaments Hub on Challengermode and find your favourite tournaments.
Don't forget to confirm your participation 15 minutes before the tournament start.
You can find more details on how to join in the FAQ.

This May

Leaderboard scoring
  • 1st - 400 pt
  • 2nd - 250 pt
  • 3rd-4th - 125 pt
  • 5-8th - 40 pt
  • 9-16th - 10 pt
Maps

Week 1
Drylands
Week 2
Archipegalo
Week 3
Continents
Tournament capacity
Players will be split between up to 3 tournaments.
  • There will be a maximum of 16 players per tournament.
  • If there are 10 or more on the waiting list, then a new tournament will be created for them.
  • Players will be distributed evenly based on their check-in time. So if 16 players confirm participation and 10 are on a waiting list, it will create 2 tournaments with 13 players in each.
  • All of this means that if you are on a waiting list, don't go too far from your device because you might have a tournament to play.
May schedule

A reminder about Polysseum format

Daily tournaments
  • 9 weekly tournaments - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. 27 tournaments per month.
  • Up to 48 players, split into a maximum of three 16-player tournaments.
  • 1v1 Single elimination, finals Bo3.
  • Live games, Might, Small map.
  • Tribe of the Month.
  • Prize pool per tournament - €10.
Monthly Leaderboard
Players will be automatically placed on the leaderboard once they participate in the tournament. The top 16 players will be invited to the Monthly tournament.

Monthly Finals
  • May Finals - June 1-2nd
  • 16 players.
  • Live games, Might, Small map.
  • Prize pool - €200 and 4 spots in the Season Finals.
  • Bracket format TBA.

How to follow Polysseum?
Bitmagic - Gurhalt From Trivia
Two bits of news for the price of none.

Hello hello!

We have had some amazing advancements with enemy types and their behaviours.

Now, we know the best sorts of enemies are those you see driven before you, but what about those enemies that shamble, that run, that hunt you down?

Maybe you don’t want enemies but tiny little NPCs or just some random pedestrians. We got em.

We have options for those of you who want to populate your games with the sorts of NPCs you want. Ranging from brain-eating zombies to average Joe citizens.



In the FX department we have some great news also!

We recently welcomed a brand new member to the team here at Bitmagic, and oh boy, are they awesome!

Ari is our Tech Artist, and he is doing some amazing work! His main goal for you Creators is to help bring your games to life, by giving Bitmagic's AI the FX to truly make your game come alive!

Every sword stroke, every prompt, every breath you take… maybe not that, but with all the games you create, the AI will know what you want and give it to you, just like that!

Explosions, implosions, lighting, water, foliage. The list goes on. Each world you prompt and each game you create will now feel more alive, more responsive and more fun-packed than ever.

Some of the other work Ari has been doing has been to do with vehicles.

Some FX are very visual, but some are more subtle, and Ari has been working on making vehicles feel more individual. Through our AI, Bitmagic can now give each vehicle some extra personality through sound and visuals. But not olnly that, Ari is also working on improving the feeling of driving by adding the feeling of weight. A big, heavy truck should feel that way!

Ari, welcome to the team!

Fear not; I will return… with more juicy news!

-JB


TerraTech - Matt
Find out how to switch from the TerraTech main branch to the TT_Unstable Beta branch here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_ce_yPOflo

New Blocks:
  • Space Junkers Scrapheap Juicer
  • Space Junkers Angled Girder
  • Space Junkers Jagged Girder
  • Space Junkers T-Shaped Girder
  • Space Junkers Debris Rover
  • Space Junkers Small Bullbar Armour Plate
  • Space Junkers Medium Bullbar Armour Plate
  • Space Junkers Cornered Bullbar Armour Plate
  • Space Junkers Large Bullbar Armour Plate
  • Space Junkers Battlecry Cab Armour Plate
  • Space Junkers Warcry Cab Armour Plate
  • Space Junkers Battler Cab
  • Space Junkers Fuel Tank
  • Space Junkers Armoured Radar
  • Space Junkers Rotating Anchor
  • Space Junkers Bulkhead Light
  • Space Junkers Turbo Booster
  • Space Junkers Block Magnet
  • Space Junkers Scraphead A.I Module
  • Space Junker Sticky Bomb Mortar
  • Space Junkers Hemispherical Roller
  • Space Junkers Scrap Gun
  • Space Junkers Spiked Armour Plate
  • Space Junkers Spiked Corner Armour Plate
  • Space Junkers Spiked Girder
  • Space Junkers Spiked Tusk
  • Space Junkers Screw Track
  • Space Junkers Block Deconstructor
  • Space Junkers Anchored Scavenging SCU
  • Space Junkers Component Break-aparter
R&D Only
  • Reticule Research Tech Movement Axis Controller
  • Reticule Research Tech Rotation Controller
  • Reticule Research Tech Throttle Controller
  • Reticule Research Logic Toggle
  • Reticule Research Logic Latch
  • Reticule Research Logic Multiplexer
  • Reticule Research Left Ornithopter Wing
  • Reticule Research Right Ornithopter Wing
New Missions
  • Rusty's Junkyard Quiz #1
  • Rusty's Junkyard Quiz #2
  • Rusty's Junkyard Quiz #3
  • Rusty's Junkyard Quiz #4
  • Novice Junk Crafter I
  • Novice Junk Scrapper I
  • Advanced Junk Crafter I
  • Advanced Junk Crafter II
  • Advanced Junk Scrapper I
  • Advanced Junk Scrapper II
  • Expert Junk Crafter I
  • Expert Junk Crafter II
  • Expert Junk Scrapper I
  • Expert Junk Scrapper II
  • Non-unique missions to Space Junkers Progression, i.e. Gangland, Special Delivery etc...
Block Adjustments:
Note: We do not foresee these changes affecting any existing Snapshots that features these Blocks.
  • The GeoCorp Scrap Gun, GeoCorp Catapult and Reticule Research Electric Precision Ray have moved to Space Junkers. Therefore the following changes have been made to these Blocks:

    Old
    New
    GeoCorp Scrap Gun
    Space Junkers Scrap Gun
    GeoCorp Catapult
    Space Junkers Blast Barrell Bomber
    Reticule Research Electric Precision Ray
    Space Junkers Precision Laser
  • The Reticule Research Signal Receiver has had its antennae removed:

    Old
    New
    Size: 2x1x1
    Size 1x1x1

Design Tweaks
  • Updated Space Junkers Junkyard Spinner crafting recipe to use the correct Better Future Wheels to match its model
  • Updated Rusty Cab crafting recipe
  • Rebalanced GeoCorp Repair Bubble, so it doesn't eat away as much power as before
  • Updated the Grade and Rarity of the majority of initial Space Junkers blocks from last update
  • Space Junkers One Block, Space Junkers Two Block & Space Junkers Four Block received a buff in HP
  • Space Junkers Geode Rumbler, Space Junkers Junkyard Rainmaker & Space Junkers Rustic Cannon received a buff in HP & DPS
  • Rebalanced Space Junkers Rubble Runner to give it more grip when driving
Quality of Life Improvements
  • Large Blocks now more gracefully enter SCUs
  • SpawnBlock Command autocomplete now includes modded block names
  • SpawnTech Command from snapshots
  • Added Space Junkers Steam Workshop tag
  • Circuits & Systems Debug. Use 'Circuits.EnableDebugger' in the Command Input to open the Circuits & Systems Debug panel.
Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an issue that caused the Command Input to sometimes cause Block interaction to become unavailable
  • Fixed team lookup on Circuits & Systems Sensor Blocks to account for Multiplayer teams not being the default Single Player team
May 2, 2024
Orcs Must Die! 3 - Robot Entertainment Community
Calling all War Mages!

A new update is coming to Orcs Must Die! 3 –

The update will include:
  • Crossplay between Steam and Epic Games Store players.
  • OMD!3 EGS/Steam Patch Live: May 2, at 10:00 AM CST
  • Orcs Must Die! 3 will be free to download between May 2 until May 9 on Epic Games Store.
Patch Notes:

Update 1.2.5.1
  • Miscellaneous crashes have been addressed and fixed.
  • Crossplay is active between Steam and Epic players and works for hosting and joining lobby games.
  • Steam and Epic players can also link their accounts. This enables friend invites via platform overlays. This is optional for players who wish to play with friends across Steam and EGS!
  • To link your account, go to "options" and click "yes" for "link external accounts".
    • This will require a restarting of the game, at which point you can follow the onscreen instructions from the account you are linking.
Thank you for your continued support!
Wartales - Dynamo [Shiro CM]
Wartales v1.0.34584

Base
General
  • Fixed several UI issues, including:
    • Paths menu which wasn’t properly displayed for some languages
    • Controller UI that didn’t match with the actual inputs
  • Fixed an issue with overloaded prisons
World
  • Fixed pitons after recent updates
Co-op
  • Fixed some crashes
  • Fixed minor UI issues
Camp
  • Fixed camp equipments and companion’s position changing
Pirates of Belerion
Battle
  • Fixed duel animation
The Tavern Opens
Profession
  • Fixed several bugs linked to specialities
RKGK / Rakugaki - Gearbox_CM Noelle


RKGK is a single player 3D platformer filled with style, graffiti culture, self-expression, and thrills. It will be released on May 22, 2024 on Steam.

Propaganda has been blasted on every screen in the neobrutalist Cap City, turning citizens into mindless conformists and draining the city of its vibrancy. A group of rebels, led by Valah, is fighting back by covering the screens with graffiti and restoring individuality to the city's inhabitants.

Valah utilizes her vibrant paint to navigate through the city by effortlessly jumping, gliding, and surfing amidst the dull infrastructure. Her mission: tagging and concealing the draining screens to thwart their mind-altering influence, part of our larger effort to dismantle B Corp's control and ignite a movement for reclaiming individuality before it's lost forever.

Gameplay
RGKG gameplay prioritizes being fun, fast, colorful, and fluid as you traverse the city to take down B Corp's CEO, Mr. Buff, and his lackies.

Valah sprays her paint for extra momentum, with the press of a button you can glide around on a colorful trail that coats the grey industrial complexes of Cap City. Surf, jump, and gain speed to get through the levels faster for a greater challenge.



As you come across unwanted enemies patrolling the area, attack them with a jolt of spray paint or your fisticuffs to make them explode! As you keep chaining together your attacks and movements in this fast-paced gameplay, Valah will activate Defacer Mode.



Defacer Mode


Entering Defacer Mode gives Valah an extra edge. Fill up the Defacer bar at the bottom of the screen, and you’ll have Valah moving even more quickly through those challenging levels and kicking even more B Corp butt! Your momentum will even create an indestructible force-field in front of you that you can use to destroy enemies just by running into them!

Players also get a 10X multiplier, for those looking to get the highest scores in each level. You’ll want to get into Defacer Mode as fast as possible and keep maintaining it for the best scores and times.



Progression
We start off in the Urban Ramparts on the outskirts of the city. As you progress in RKGK, each level gets you closer to the center and B Corp’s HQ where you’ll find the merciless CEO, Mr. Buff.



As you go through a level, you’ll receive a letter rank and gameplay stats based on your performance. Higher ranks are awarded based on how fast you make it through and how high your score is for the level. If you run out of lives, you’ll fail the level and must try again to keep progressing.

After completing a level, they are re-playable, so at any point you can go back and try and get a higher score, complete challenges, or grab coins or Ghosts that you might have missed your first time through.

Coins and Ghosts can be used by talking to your friends in the Hideout, where you can exchange them for various customizations.

For players that love competition: While RKGK is a single-player game, we made the Session Result screen easily shareable to go head-to-head with other RKGK players and prove that you have the fastest times and highest scores!



Make sure to wishlist RKGK to pick it up when it launches on May 22, 2024 and follow us on social media for even more information! See ya soon!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2146570/RKGK__Rakugaki/

Follow RKGK!
https://rkgk.com/ | Tiktok | Instagram | Threads | Twitter | Facebook

Content Creators! We're on Lurkit! Sign up for a key here: https://www.lurkit.com/campaigns/rkgk
shapez - Jelle
Hello everyone!

Last devlog we talked about trains, so let's look at your other option today: Space Belts. You'll likely be using these a lot, so let's take a look at what we're working with.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/

News

Devlog survey
We're really interested to learn if there are ways for us to improve the quality of the devlogs and/or align them more with what you'd truly like to know about shapez 2! This survey includes questions about quality, usage of visuals, your interests as well as a suggestion box where you can suggest topics for future devlogs. So whether this is your first devlog or you've already read all twenty(!) of them, we would really appreciate it if you could take the time to check out the survey!


Alpha 20

Not only do you get Devlog 020 today, Patreons also just got access to Alpha 20! This new build includes everything mentioned in this blog, plus a bunch of new features and visuals. Updated content includes train collision avoidance, simulation improvements, map generation improvements, new visuals for a couple of buildings and much more.

Disclaimer

Just a reminder, everything shown in this blog is still in development and is still subject to change. They're not quite placeholders anymore, but the visuals of the Space Belts are not finished yet. Your thoughts and feedback are welcome, as always!



A brief history

Space Belts are an essential tool to transport large quantities of shapes between platforms. Ideal for short distances, they allow you to easily cross a gap or connect a train station to your factory for pickups or deliveries. However, their original design was quite different from what we’re working with now. Let’s walk you through it!

Just build it yourself!
Initially, you were expected to build connections using these platforms manually. You would place platforms and then build belts and launchers on them to create connections. It quickly became obvious that this is very burdensome to do all the time for every connection (as you may expect), so we started working on improvements.

Old build

Space Tunnels
One of the first improvements was the addition of special tunnel platforms. These allowed your connections to transport shapes under other platforms, making connecting across sections much easier. Additionally, their ability to consistently transport large quantities of shapes essentially made them function as Space Belts, but without the flexibility of seamlessly splitting and merging. The tunnels exist as their own form of transport alongside the buildings you know from shapez 1, as well as Shape Launchers.

Old build

Hyperbelts
The first step towards improving space platform connections was Hyperbelts. Despite the fancy name, it was just a tool that allowed you to easily place prebuilt versions of the space platforms with belts & launchers without having to build all of it yourself. It was based on the idea of belt placement in your factory, but very simplified - it didn't support merging or splitting unless you manually made platforms to do so.

Old build

This system is what you saw in the demo and this is – as expected – something we got a lot of feedback on. Technically we could’ve made more prebuilt versions to allow for more complexity, but it would still be clunky and not very pretty. We can do better.

Space Belts
With a ton more feedback under our belt, the Hyperbelt’s flaws became clearer and clearer. Aside from the lack of complexity we already mentioned, it was also just very slow. They moved shapes at the same speed as all other belts in your factory, and when you’re crossing larger distances, it really did take a while before your shapes got anywhere. Essentially, what we needed was a system that had all the functionality of regular belts, but much larger, faster and independent of platforms. So, we made just that.



Enter: Space Belts. They’re huge belts that support up to 12 regular belts across 3 layers, move shapes way faster and retain the flexibility you expect from belts, all without needing platforms to build on! This makes Space Belts your best option to connect platforms over shorter distances. If you need to move something over long distances however, Trains are the better option.

Shapes moving across the Space Belt



When there are Space Belts, you also need Space Pipes. With the recent fluid system rework, it became possible to transport fluids across notches with pipes. This then allowed us to make the prototype of the Space Belt’s younger brother, Space Pipes! These work identical to Space Belts, but move fluids instead of shapes and have a different look to reflect this. Have a look at the concept below.

This may or may not be what it will actually look like

Merging with Tunnels
For close-distance transport, we would now have both Space Tunnels and Space Belts & Pipes. The key difference between the two is that Tunnels can move shapes under a platform, bypassing it without slowing down. However, they can only go straight and have a range of 4 chunks, which is where Space Belts and Pipes come in.

Now, you’ll likely come across a situation where you’d like to place your Space Belt across a platform, without connecting to said platform. That’s where you connect a Space Tunnel to your Space Belt! However, keeping Space Tunnels and Space Belts separate doesn’t make much sense anymore as they work closely together now. So, Space Tunnels now have a brand new visual that matches that of the Space Belts, they’re both part of the Space Belts category in the UI and Tunnels can now be integrated into the smart-placement tool.



What’s next?

Space Belts are already in a really good state, but there are some improvements yet to be made. As we just mentioned, the Space Tunnels still need to be integrated into the placement behaviour of Space Belts. That’s to say, Tunnels should automatically be placed when you drag a Space Belt across a platform.

We are already considering other ways of improving them even more, however: a topic that has come up internally is that merging or splitting across different factory lanes and layers in space is too troublesome for too small of a result. To make this easier, we are evaluating Merge/Split Balancers. These special space platforms would have one side that can receive up to 12 belts and another 36 split across 3 other sides. The Merger takes up to 36 input lanes and distributes contents evenly across up to 12, while the Splitter takes up to 12 input lanes and distributes the contents evenly across up to 36.




Well, that's everything for now. The bottom line is that Space Belts should act similar to regular belts, but a lot bigger. Anyway, progress is going very well and we have plenty more to show, so we hope to see you again for the next devlog.

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team


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