Hello everyone,

The whole team at Goblinz is so glad to finally announce that Sandwalkers will launch into early access on June 19th!



It's been a while since we first announced this game. We've gone through a successful Kickstarter campaign, released several demos, ran some betas, and tweaked the game the best we could.

Your feedback helped us a lot to optimize the game as much as we could, and we just can't wait for you to dig into this early access version.
There's still a long way to go until the full release, but we hope you will enjoy this first version and we're counting on you to get your feedback on our Discord server.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1639080/Sandwalkers/

To keep you waiting, here's our latest devlog about our work on management and progression mechanics in Sandwalkers.
Enjoy!



For this devlog, we're diving into the management and progression mechanics that you’ll encounter as you lead your caravan through the Phithi in Sandwalkers. We're going to give you a closer look at what will keep your caravans moving and evolving, despite the challenges thrown its way.



Managing a caravan in Sandwalkers is a multi-faceted endeavor. Each caravan must carefully manage its Hope, Supplies and caravaneers’ Health points, while also considering the weight of items they carry.



Your caravan will be able to find a multitude of useful items like equipment, fetishes and consumables while exploring the map, getting into combat as well as completing quests. These items can dramatically impact the capabilities of your caravan.



Equipments bolster your stats, fetishes unlock new attacks, and consumables can be crucial in an emergency.

Experience points are pooled together, allowing you to strategically choose which caravan members to level up, enhancing their skills and stats significantly.

Each level-up not only boosts stats but also presents a crucial upgrade choice—will you enhance exploration abilities or combat skills?



By strategically assigning specific items and upgrades to certain characters, you can forge powerful synergies that significantly enhance your caravan’s survival and efficiency.

These choices play a critical role in maximizing your caravan’s potential and navigating the dangers of the Phithi.

As your caravan ventures through the lands, its actions unlock Memories, crucial to Sandwalkers' roguelite mechanics as they are shared across all runs.



These Memories not only accumulate Memory Points, used for permanent upgrades in the Crystal Library but also tie into deeper narrative elements, like the discovery of a mysterious bas-relief by the 13th Caravan.



By earning the trust of various factions and collecting fragments of the low relief, your caravan might just piece together the history and perhaps, find a way to resolve the meteorological chaos.

The Crystal Libraryhouses different upgrade slots, each corresponding to a vital aspect of caravan survival—be it maximizing supplies, enhancing damage dealt, and more.

These upgrades are tiered, and unlocking higher levels may require bas-relief fragments, adding another layer to the strategic management of your resources.



Each decision in Sandwalkers is impactful, shaping not only your current journey but also future expeditions. We hope you enjoyed this devlog and that you are excited for the early access release!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1639080/Sandwalkers/

Hi,

This is the Armor Attack team, and it's the end of May 2024. That means that it’s been a year since our last major blog update, and it’s time to check in our progress against the plan.


During the second year, we planned to deliver the following features:

• Account progression system.
  
• Unit and weapon progression system.
  
• Maps and modes.
  
• New units and weapons.
  
• Matchmaking.
  
• Squads.

As promised, the account progression system is based on the evolution of threehangars, one for each faction. You level up by successfully completing quests, unlocking new battle machines and weapons along the way. Currently, a basic set of quests is available, but we plan to expand and diversify them in the future.

Once new units and weapons are unlocked, you can upgrade them through talent branches, as we previously mentioned. The current progression structure is not final, and we aim to make the experience more rewarding when you fully upgrade something.. Same for specific perks and improvements, we have plenty of room to explore alternative arrangements. We are testing these features with you to determine the best direction for future development.

Our core vision remains unchanged,we aim to create a system that allows you to quickly and comfortably combine different types of units, weapons, and their upgrades to build a diverse roster for every type of battle, rather than focusing on customizing a perfect battle machine.

We’ve added a new map, Shipyard, which differs significantly from the previous one with its point of interest mechanic, landscape and battle tactics. We significantly changed the Bastion Terminal map, reworked the Boss mechanic and its look from scratch, added main building destruction that opens a new tactical corridor. Both maps still require a lot of work, we made important changes based on your feedback but there is a lack of details that make maps more interesting, optimised and beautiful.



We still have no details on new modes but we really want to share them as soon as possible!

Out of the six new units we've introduced, three are already playable: Jagger, Paladin and Genesis. We're actively developing the remaining three, with previews of two already available on our social channels: https://x.com/armorattack/status/1778437727039508926 and https://x.com/armorattack/status/1773730874980291035 . These units serve as support classes for Bastion and Empyreals. As for the third unit, its details will remain a secret for now.



During the development of new units, we also completely changed the visual design of the Hermit faction, their passive ability and part of their unit abilities. And more to come, we made a step forward in a variety of unit controls. In the near future, you'll witness new movement systems for Hoplite and Jagger. Our goal is to add more differentiation factors to each type of battle machine, ensuring they have a greater impact on gameplay.

Our primary objective is to move to the beta stage, enabling you to start your gaming journey without fear of losing progress and allowing you to engage with more real players.

To achieve this, we need to improve base gameplay mechanics, stabilise technical side of things for different types of devices, add more weapons and some general features that sometimes are not very visible but complete the puzzle.

Let’s share some details.

Both our team and our players have expressed some concerns about our aiming system. Instances of target flips, sometimes it may choose an enemy on the other side of the map and change the outcome of this fight dramatically.

To address this, we're improving our auto-aiming system to be more intelligent. It will prioritise a larger number of targets in its line of sight and be more responsive to manual targeting.

Additionally, we are going to deliver the long-awaited manual target lock. After the auto-aiming system chooses the opponent, you can press the button so you can focus on a target you prefer. A sneak peak of this system:



In the latest test version, you'll notice the game's minimal graphics level, which we achieved during another optimization sprint. Despite this accomplishment, we're still addressing numerous small details to further improve optimization overall and unlock the level of graphics that you could see previously for the owners of high-end devices. Now everyone will be able to choose what graphic settings they want.

We’re set to unlock three weapons at the same moment: some serious and old-school triple-barrel gun for Bastions; Empyreal’s laser weapon for those who prefer to focus on someone and roast them; and a massive revolver for Hermits.




In addition to the above, we're also focusing on important content that will be released during Beta:

We've already teased concept art of the third map: https://x.com/armorattack/status/1784233286132232682 , and yes, this map will introduce a canyon environment to our world. Our most loyal fans could recall that we had canyon concepts in our very first posts together with Bastion Terminal. Back then we already had our first prototype of the map’s level design. But it was too early for the canyon. After our main developments Shipyard we have decided to continue working on a canyon-looking map. The same way as for other maps we have a unique map mechanic: you can convey a drone to the enemy’s base to steal some victory points!



As mentioned earlier, we’ve introduced two of the three upcoming new units, each representing a different faction. Our primary objective before the game’s release is to have a starting lineup of classes that will allow the game to fully unfold and begin to align with its original design. At the same time, we are starting to design the next set of units, and there’s a possibility that we’ll be discussing our ideas with you on Discord as soon as they arise.

To immediately build matchmaking around player skills and ensure a comfortable gaming experience depending on your preference—whether you want to play more casually or always be at the forefront of the community—we will introduce leagues during the beta stage. There’s no rocket science behind leagues; you are probably familiar with this system: the more victories you achieve, the more points you earn. Upon accumulating a certain number of points, you move up in the league. Then you transition to the next league and encounter new opponents. This approach aims to foster fairness for both you and your opponents.


Yes, the Beta is almost upon us. We've chosen to start it earlier to grant us more time for refinements before the game’s release.

The transition to beta will happen gradually over the coming months. The first stage will be the opening of the Android pre-beta version for Latin American countries (excluding Brazil) and Thailand, with the game available for download from Google Play. In the first half of the summer, the pre-beta will extend to iOS, including all Latin American countries and select areas in the Asian region. By the end of the summer, we aim to launch the full beta for all Android users worldwide and for new countries on iOS (specific countries will be announced later). Following this, all countries will have access on iOS, and the PC beta will open simultaneously in all regions.
We're gradually opening regions and platforms to ensure the game's stability in specific countries and on specific devices, while also maintaining a stable flow of players for PvP matches.



The upcoming alpha update, scheduled for release in June-July this year, will be the final one. This version will be accessible on all platforms and in all regions, allowing you to test it until your region and/or device type is opened in the pre-beta or beta.
The upcoming alpha update will include changes to the targeting system, introduce new weapons, and other quality improvements described in the second part of this blog. Additionally, we will also speed up your progress in the alpha by providing a starter currency pack.
Transitioning to the beta will eliminate the need to download separate game files and allow for automatic updates, as well as preserving your progress from version to version. Once the beta is open to everyone, we will maintain a closed testing process for the most active community members, where they can test the most experimental versions of the game and influence the development of new updates at very early stages.

We're here to address any questions you have on Discord, Facebook, or Twitter. Additionally, we'll keep you updated on our development progress through these platforms.

v1.1.2f - Released 29 May 2024

* Multiplayer: Some wolves having no origin pack name in Known Wolves panel.
* Multiplayer: Some wolves disappear from Known Wolves panel,
* In some situations, excessive number of NPC wolves spawned in rival packs.
* At at least one Rendezvous Site, pups refuse to go into tall grass.
* Pup pathfinding issues at a few dens.
* Small Dot coat: White around the eyes.
* Hellroaring DLC: A few scent posts are beyond map borders.
* Minor issues at a few dens.
* Lost River DLC: Increased translucency of some windows.
* Minor terrain issues.

This game has passed Steam's review, and the release date has been set for June 17, 2024.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1114390/Air_Combat_MF/

Hello brave Wardens,

Thank you so much to everybody who bought our game for release week! We've been busy working on our first updates and we're delighted to share a big one with you today.


We added a huge amount of lore to the game just before shipping and wanted to make sure that the translation quality was as good as possible before we launched - that is why it took longer than expected.

Going forward, we're also working on Chinese and Japanese localisation and we'll have some more updates on that soon.

As always, if you spot any bugs or any errors in the translations, please report them to us so we can address them quickly.

• When dashing the footstep sound the player makes will now be a walking and not a running footstep, therefore not alerting Sound Fiends on dash
  
• Increased the sight distance values of the Devourer when the player is hiding in the cornfields

• Adjusted water reflection colors to not look green and be confused with the poisoned water (which is green)
  
• Added missing effects to Proxy Poppet when it's not available to use

• Updated credits

• Fixed cases where the Devourer would get stuck for a few seconds or not move at all
  
• Fixed cases where the Devourer wouldn't receive damage when attacked with Tools
  
• Fixed the Devourer not playing their emerge animation if the player were shining the lantern on them

• Spare Mask Whisper would sometimes not work due to initialization issues which are now fixed

--

Please leave the review (HUGE thank you if you have already!) and come chat to us on Discord if you have any suggestions or just want to meet the team.

Thank you for playing!
The Villains


For all the latest wicked schemes and updates, keep an eye on us, the team at Villainous Games!

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We have made another game! It's only taken us 14 years.

- answering the question, what if Revenge of the Titans were multiplayer?



We've got the beta uploaded to Steam and we've had a small bunch of dedicated beta testers kicking the tyres and helping direct development.

Now we just need a bit of financial help to get it over the line and give it the best chance of a launch that it can get.

You can join in the BATTLEDROID KICKSTARTER!

Pledge as much or as little as you can - every little helps, and you'll be rewarded with beta access and an opportunity to carve out your space in the world before everyone else turns up.

Cas :)

1. Fixed the bug where adjusting the volume was ineffective.
2. Optimized the text.
3. The account name is temporarily out of use.

After nearly two months of productive work, we are introducing Steam Achievements for the Halver!

They are categorized into four difficulty levels:

• EASY ― In green color
  
• MEDIUM ― In yellow color
  
• HARD ― In red color
  
• INSANE ― Tough, in purple

More detailed description of achievements:
https://steamcommunity.com/stats/1358440/achievements


If you unlock all the achievements, you will be able to set new skin for the main hero:



We have tried to make achievements as interesting as possible to highlight hidden aspects of the game. You can think of them as a new game mode

Update Notes 0.9.1:
• Introduced Steam Achievements
• Added hints to all the levels
• Enhanced aiming algorithm
• Hints kept until level passed
• Fixed issue with changing resolution on some devices
• Resolved disappearing music on level 48

Minor changes:
• Added various fairy messages
• Started work on Speedrun game mode
• Fixed several issues with levels game objects
• Updated Unity version up to 2022.3.30f1
• Updated Steamworks SDK to 1.57

P.S. We are working on the Level Editor, but decided to provide achievements for you earlier : )

• Stool -> Chair. This was changed to teach a more generic and usable word, this word's mastery progress has been reset.
  
• 2 typo fixes
  
• 2 Small signs at the convenience stores have been updated to retain an E for Everyone rating
  
• Fixed a bug regarding the quiz mode selection on controller
  
• The Find/Quiz Mode menu now has a small animation to show that it can be swapped more clearly.
  
• The "Export Favourites" button in the pause menu now has an icon

The game window is now resizable. :)

Thanks for playing!

- Chera