We have just shipped an updated Steam Deck Client to the Preview/Beta channel.
General
Fixed an error when viewing a screenshot notification for a screenshot that is no longer available.
Restored missing soundtrack controls when viewing a soundtrack in the library.
Steam Input
Gyro On/Off Haptic bump now defaults to "Off". Moved the option to the Haptics area of each mode settings page. Haptic intensity defines how strong the Haptic Bump is.
Camera Angle related actions (Turn 360, Reset Camera, and Face Direction) have been moved out of the "Mouse" binding tab into their own "Camera" tab.
Fix: removed "Mute" button option on Gyro Button Picker for DualShock
Who let the cats out?! We did! It’s time to change theory into practice! Today we are ultra-mega excited to show you the effects of our work with the Ultra Mega Cats demo, which is live NOW! Before you go all in, let’s take a minute to prepare for wreaking furrious havoc and read what awaits you inside.
The demo contents
You can play the demo solo or invite a friend to spread mayhem together in a 2-player co-op mode. There are two pawesome characters for you to control, grow overpowered, and try to complete a test run in our first biome, Machineland (you can read more about it here). The demo version of Machineland consists of five rooms, swarming with enemies, and a final fight with one of our dreadful bosses - the disturbing Rat King.
Please note that the demo could be challenging (especially playing solo) but we will tweak the game's difficulty based on your feedback.
Meet the heroes
KAGERO is the deadliest assassin among all cats. She is a fast-moving, elusive bow-shooting and katana-wielding ninja, whose body has been enhanced with advanced cyber implants. The purrfect damage dealer! You can learn Kagero’s backstory in her reveal trailer.
Kagero skillset breakdown:
Passive Clawdacity: Fury-like energy meter. Killing enemies and receiving damage generates this resource. Once full, Kagero can enter Moewverdive, which boosts all stats.
Primary Kinetic Bow: Shoots an arrow from the bow. The longer you hold a button, the farther the arrow flies and the more damage it deals.
Secondary Slash: Kagero dashes forward, attacking enemies, with Katana dealing small amounts of damage to everyone on her way and dealing more damage to enemies in front of her.
Special Stealth: Kagero becomes invisible and leaves a few spikes behind that can damage enemies. Each second, you regenerate a small amount of Health.
Defensive Dash: Dashes in the direction of movement, dodging all incoming damage.
Utility Meowverdrive: Kagero enters an overcharged state, granting her more movement speed, damage, incoming damage reduction, and cooldown reduction. Upon activation, it also resets all ongoing cooldowns. It can be activated only when the Clawdacity meter is full and, once activated, cannot be stopped or canceled. The Clawdacity meter is set to zero upon activation and doesn't regenerate until Moewverdrive is over.
Move Ability Double Jump: Kagero can jump a second time while in mid-air. This second jump can be performed before landing and is only 50% as high as the main one.
BBkat is our second hero. Don’t get fooled by his cute, innocent looks - he is the demolition kitten! He loves to play, especially the game called “wreaking havoc with flurries of rockets and machine gunfire while staying perfectly safe inside my heavily armored battle mech”. As a tank, he can take a lot of damage and won’t even notice!
BBKat skillset breakdown:
Passive Fortification: Have an additional Shield attribute that protects Baby Cat from incoming damage. Once depleted, the regular Health pool is exposed to attacks.
Primary Machine gun: Automatic heat-based weapon. Shooting generates heat; once it reaches the threshold, the weapon is unusable for a short period and needs to cool down.
Secondary Rocket Launcher: Launches a rocket that detonates on contact with an enemy.
Special Snare Field: Deploys a field of mouse traps around the character. Once the enemy comes close, it clamps on him, dealing damage and rooting for a short duration.
Defensive Purr-tection Shield: Creates a holographic barrier in front of Baby Cat and sends it forward. The shield blocks all projectiles and enemies. It has its health pool - once depleted, the shield is destroyed.
Utility Roll: Transforms you into a ball for a short time. While in a ball form, it regenerates your shield, taunts all nearby enemies, and nullifies incoming damage, but your speed is greatly reduced. Using this ability a second time cancels it, and the cooldown is applied.
Move Ability Jetpack: Soar in the air and smash the enemies from above for as long as the fuel lasts!
Progress to the ultra-mega level
Remember our Aspect System, the way for our Ultra Mega Cats to practically ascend to godhood? You’ll test it on the run! In the demo, two powerful Cat Gods will lend you their powers: Cheetah, the Incarnate of Swiftness, and Jaguar, the Incarnate of Stealth. That means you’ll get critically dangerous and quick! Let’s learn a bit more about the Aspects. They are divided into three groups:
Slotted Aspects can be inserted into predefined slots, one at a time. Upon encountering an Aspect that would go into an occupied slot, the player can swap the old one with the new one. If the chosen Aspect swapped another one in an already occupied slot, its level would be one higher than initially.
Passive Aspects are always active and don’t occupy any particular slot. There are no limits (at the moment) on how many passive abilities you can have. Their power is rather subtle, but boy, can they stack!
Ultra Aspects are passive, too but as scarce as they are powerful. Since their power is usually game-changing, they are limited to a maximum of 2 per run, and at the moment, they can’t be replaced.
Besides the Coalition Chests with the Aspects inside, upon finishing a room you will also find the Power-Up Chests with more typical rewards, such as shop discounts, HP restoration, Aspects alterations, and various upgrades.
Finally, we will give you a taste of the long progression system, a way to upgrade your Cats not just for the duration of the run, but permanently. In the demo, Kagero and Baby Cat have been pre-equipped with some starting M.O.D.S. that influence their play style. In the full version of Ultra Mega Cats, you will be able to change the M.O.D.S. and get even more absurdly and diversly overpowered!
Controls
We want you to quickly achieve mastery in controlling your cats, so we've prepared control schemes for you. Thanks to this, you'll be able to handle arenas without any problems.
Feedback is king
Enough talking, let’s start playing! We hope you’ll have a great time in the Ultra Mega Cats demo and can’t wait to hear from you. Was it pawesome? Or is there room for improvement? Your feedback is crucial. Share your thoughts on the Steam Community Page or our Discord!
Just 3 days left until the end of the campaign, Runa has been trending on Kickstarter for almost a month now, with over 600% funded and 4700 backers currently supporting the project.
Furthermore, we've achieved nine stretch goals, which will add exciting features to the game, including new minigames, new maps, new characters and Emi Evans as a guest vocalist! There are only three days left for exclusive rewards, so take a look and consider supporting us to make the game the best it can be.
In addition to that, today we'll be hosting an Ask Me Anything on the r/JRPG subreddit, so make sure to stop by if you have any questions!
I finally completed one of the key structures for the Island - the Radio-emitter. It can work in three modes, intensively attract enemy waves, completely disable them, or capture Zeus' information flows and pack them into data blocks valuable to the headquarters, so with this structure you get either a game with intense battles (there can be a lot of enemies, so goodbye optimization) or a quiet life with construction.
In parallel, the development of new story missions is underway, and while working on the story, I noticed that there is an opportunity to slightly shift the planned Hunt sector (which was supposed to be three almost identical missions) with the current sector (which did not offer anything special, as both sectors were still to be missions on Earth). The combination of the two sectors should result in more unique and varied missions. In line with these changes, the Home mission will also be moved and merged with the HQ mission, as they were almost identical in gameplay.
So, the new sector will be the final one for the Earth, and the player will finally approach the outskirts of Olympus. I also adjusted the roadmap with these changes:
Island: Added a new large project - Radio-emitter.
Island: Added small walls for sewing up the gaps formed during the construction of roofs.
Island: Significant optimization of the "snapping" mechanism during construction. (When many buildings were built, there were noticeable slowdowns).
Island: Significantly improved the work of the " snap " mechanism for cornices.
Island: The weather/clock screen now has additional channels, with detailed information on wind and solar power generation.
Island: For now, I have disabled the stretching of the building elements at a 45-degree angle on the triangular floor shape, as this approach created new problems.
We're participating in the Endless Replayability Fest! To celebrate we're doing a stream with me, Christer, one of two developers of SNØ. I do mostly visual stuff, drawing, 3D-modeling, shader programing etc.
Hope you guys find it interesting and feel free to Wishlist if the game looks fun! :D
Note: SNØ is still very much in active development so there will be changes and loads of bugfixes.
Join us in celebrating our first-ever fest on Steam with a special -20% discount! Dive into endless survival adventures with Bootstrap Island! 🍍🥥Survive as long as you can!🌴 145 days on top of the global leaderboard. Are you up for the challenge ;)
• Beacons can now show where buried chests are • Humanoid AI now keeps better track of enemy’s around it • Humanoid enemies now avoid hitting each other in combat • Fixed issue with Caroline causing an infinite loop • Optimization and UI updates
