We are thrilled to announce to all players that FragPunk's Closed Alpha Test is scheduled to begin on June 27th. During the test, players will be able to experience 10 heroes, 15 weapons, 4 unique maps, and most importantly: 70 cards!

Ready to join the test? There are two ways to join:
1. Request Access for Playtest on Steam page, OR
2. Complete the application on https://fragpunk.com by submitting your email and region.

Please also look forward to more information released on the official website and our social channels to get more information about our Closed Alpha Test. We are very much looking forward to our first official meeting with the players!

FAQ:
What platforms will the test be available on?
Our first Closed Alpha Test will take place on Steam and future tests will be on announced later.

What should I expect during the Closed Alpha?
Participants should expect an early version of our game, which includes a roster of 10 edgy Lancers to choose from, 15 different weapons to manipulate, 4 maps to compete on, and 70 of our unique Shard Cards to bend the rules to your will. Please bear in mind that as this is an alpha version, you may encounter bugs and incomplete features. Let us know about your experience through our official survey and our Discord server (https://discord.gg/fragpunk).

How long will the test be?
The test will run from June 27 at 5 pm PDT to July 1 at 11:59 pm PDT, for approximately 5 days of fierce but fun gunfights.

Who can access the test?
This Closed Alpha Test will only be open to participants from the US and Canada. Given this is our first test, we aim to provide a stable and smooth matchmaking experience process for all players by limiting servers for now. As we proceed with more tests and expand our capacity, we plan to broaden access to additional regions. Please stay tuned to our social channels for information on subsequent tests.

How do I sign up?
1. You can register through our website.


2. You may also apply for Alpha access using the Steam Playtest Access Request feature found directly on FragPunk’s Steam Store page.


I signed up, what should I expect next?
1. Selected participants will receive an email confirming their selection, along with their Steam key and redeeming instructions. Please check your junk/spam folders as sometimes mail can end up there.
2. Participants who applied through Steam will receive their confirmation email directly from Steam.

I didn’t get selected for the test, will there be other opportunities?
Yes, there will be other opportunities for you to experience FragPunk. Please stay tuned to our official channels to learn more about when and how you can join.

For more information about us, check out and follow our other social channels.
X | Discord | YouTube | Facebook

The Paradogx Incident is thrilled to announce the release of our first batch of Steam achievements! Dive into a tail-waggingly good time with these accomplishments. Each achievement is a bone-a-fide milestone, waiting for you to fetch it.

Added Features:
Scoreboard is added.

Bug Fix:
A bug that caused monsters to move in a circular motion has been resolved.

Patch 1:
- Maybe fixed sounds not playing :)

Patch 2:
- Maybe fixed sounds not playing, again, I hope
- Fixed gift unlocks not animating while game is paused

Patch 3:
- Fixed "MaterialHolder must be instantiated using the ScriptableObject.CreateInstance method instead of new MaterialHolder."

I think the above caused crashes and may have been related to audio instability?

Patch 4:
- Further attempts at fixing instability.

Testing reveals patch 4 seems to have fixed most of the crashes?

We’re pleased to bring you the latest update for Ocean Keeper! Version 0.5.11 is now live on Steam, featuring enhanced controls and important bug fixes. This update aims to improve your gameplay experience with better controller support and refined input bindings. Check out the full list of changes below:

Features:

• Added controller support for the PC version, specifically for PS5 and Xbox One controllers.
  
• Updated SteamDeck input bindings for more logical button placements.
  
• Added UI navigation to all game elements for SteamDeck and PS5/Xbox One controllers.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed invisible walls in the lava biome.
  
• Fixed bug where the back button in the tutorial would close the upgrade menu.
  
• Fixed an issue where the game would break in the customization menu.

Hey everyone, it's been a while :)

The next update is scheduled for the end of June to the first half of July, and will focus on the game part as a new element.
We are planning to add the "Strategy Rogue Mode".
Additionally, we will add new unique units and fix visual defects.

Below are the planned updates:

Strategy Rogue Mode "Countless Weft Threads" will be added.

You will choose one of 18 factions made up of small units.
And you'll be preparing for powerful enemies and regular special battles by taking advantage of the generous bonuses granted each turn.

Only unique units and their members can participate in special battles that occur every 3 turns.
The ultimate goal in this mode is to continue winning special battles and reach the end of turn 12.

Approximately 20 new unique units will be added.

This is mainly a change to add variety to Strategy Rogue mode, but it is also possible to recruit these new unique units from the various corresponding unique units in the regular main game.

＊Corrected the background transparency of the faction flag displayed at the start of battle in v2.1.0 and later versions.
＊Fixed an issue where some skill effects were in unintended colors since version v2.1.0.


We must apologize that the English translation of the changes regarding the new game mode may not be completed immediately.
We will begin translating parts that are related to the core of the game, so please wait patiently.

Currently, I am doing follow-up content development. So there is no update this week. And I would like share something about this game again.

This time I would like to talk about level design.
In Fountain, levels are designed along these two ideas: [Offense] vs [Defense], [Gathering] vs [Scattering].

Offense and defense, as the name implies, refers to whether the player attacks the enemy or defends the enemy. Gathering and scattering refers to whether the units are gathered together or scattered all over the map.
Occupy level is that player offense, enemy defense, player and enemy are both gathering. Compete level is player and enemy are both offense and gathering. Decapitate level is player offense+gathering, enemy defense+scattering. Escape level is player offense+scattering, enemy defense+scattering. Defense and protect levels are of course player defense+gathering, enemy offense+scattering. Their difference is the defense object is still or moving.
Generally speaking, some lineups are good at offense, such as cavalry based lineups. Some are good at defense, such as infantry+archers. So when choosing a level, choose the one that current lineup is better at dealing with, is the key to advance to later stages.

As for gathering and scattering, gathered units can cooperate better to make a strong combat force. Some friends said that in occupy level archers gathering around a fountain are difficult to deal with. That is a manifestation of gathering. To handle this situation, the most effective way is to cause casualties to enemy each round, make them less gathering, that can actually weaken the enemy.
Compare to gathering, the combat effectiveness of scattered units is also scattered. It's necessary to consider how to locally gather the scattered unit, to form effective combat force. And it is a big challenge. Of course it will affected by randomness. Such as an archer without effective self-protection ability is randomly placed at a corner with a lot of enemies. In this time, some team mates with high mobility are needed to come to support quickly. Or player can choose to bear certain losses and try to preserve other combat force.
This is also the main reason that some friends asked why there is no pre-combat formation phase in Fountain. It's comfort a good experience to have a well positioned formation at the beginning of combat. And it is also a challenging experience to gradually gather the chaotic formation and form an effective combat force.

From stage 4, since the unit number that player controls has increaced, we hope to make the level more complex. So we introduced a new idea of combination: combining different level types together. Such as occupy+defense, or 2 defense objects: defense+protect. Then the team is needed to be divided into 2 groups, to deal with different level objectives. How to distribute the combat force, and how to support each other, are things worth considering. This is also a extension of scattering.

By the way, let me introduce the developing content.
Currently I'm working at adding some new abilities and equipments, and adjusting some existing abilities and equipments. Hoping these can increase the richness of build ideas. At the same time, I'm also developing a brand new unit type, including its new abilities, equipments and new level types. Hope I can finish and release it successfully.
I'm doing all this at spare time. The progress is not fast, but I will definitely continue to polish the existing content and add new content.

That’s all. Wish you have a good game time.

Navigator,
To improve your gaming experience, we've implemented a hotfix. The details of the update are as follows:

Optimizations
- Optimized world chat by adding language-specific channels.
- Optimized some text content.

Bug Fixes
- Fixed the issue preventing manual entry of room invite codes.
- Fixed the issue allowing special characters in player names.

Currently Known Issues
- The in-game survey can't be accessed via the built-in browser.
- Please use your system default browser to complete the survey by selecting the [Open the link using an external browser] option.

We apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.

This update is non-mandatory; players currently in-game will be unaffected. You will receive a prompt to update the client upon restarting it.

Finally we have exciting news for we have the public demo out for limited time for people to try out!

You can make your character smith swords, craft a tiara and meet first few of the characters in the game! I hope you have fun and you can also let us know what you think :)

Thanks for your support and enjoy the free demo here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2226430/CraftCraft_Fantasy_Merchant_Simulator/

(Also if you are wondering who is that cat on the cover image of this post, it is Stanley, a cat of a friend of mine.)






All the best!
Leene

= New Episodes:
Work continues on a series of hand crafted story episodes, designed to pull new players into the game and provide some excellent adventures for existing players.

• Black Hole Sun - Part 1
  
• Black Hole Sun - Part 2
  
• Black Hole Sun - Part 3
  
• A wolf in Sheeps Clothing - Part 3

= New Tutorials
These are short tutorials and are generally incorporated into the story episodes. But will pop up whenever you are trying to do these things for the first time:

• Docking Tutorial
  
• Mining Tutorial
  
• Combat Tutorial
  
• Crew transfer Tutorial

= Performance

• Large improvement to drones when searching for repair works.
  
• Reduced the particle density on ships arriving and departing, to help with performance
  
• Make FindNearby only look at given layer and given object type if object type given. Helps with drone performance.
  
• Calculate incoming quantities of each container only once in TryStoreCargo, improves WorkQueue Update performance.

= Text Input

• You can now filter any long list of files/saves/ships etc by typing a short word
  
• You can now freely move the cursor in a text field and delete characters in any position.
  
  • 'LEFT' or 'RIGHT' to move the cursor backwards or forwards one character.
    
  • 'HOME' or 'DOWN' to move the cursor to the beginning of the input.
    
  • 'END' or 'UP' to move the cursor to the end of the input.
    
  • 'DEL' now forward deletes text in a text input field.

= SMALL CHANGES

• The game mode 'Survival' is now locked until the player completes phase 1 of the stargate
  
• The game mode 'Free Roam' is now locked until the player completes the 'Flight Ready' mission in Creative or Survival mode
  
• Nb. Both modes can be easily unlocked by editing the preferences.txt file:
  
  UnlockSurvival true UnlockFreeRoam true
• Battle Stations button is now available in Tactical mode
  
• Changed drone behaviour to look to use any available Drone Bays
  
• FTL user interface improved. You can now include other ships after clicking the Prepare Jump button
  
• Clicking Prepare Jump from the System Map will now prepare a jump with just that ship, even if another jump is in progress.
  
• The OPPOSITION system that sends hostiles to attack the Stargate on a timer has been completely disabled (it sucked)
  
• Mining Laser now require to be installed either in a wall (like the guns) or on a piece of scaffold.
  
• When installing Mining Lasers they will now auto-rotate to fit the wall/scaffold.
  
• Allow to buy/sell entire stack by ctrl clicking.

= BUG FIXES:

• Issue #258: In creative mode, when entering ship name / author name the key strokes execute in the background
  
• Issue #259: If you outgun the pirate you can kill the ship leading to a hardlock and game CTD.
  
• Issue #260: Docking Tutorial window doesn't go away when you click skip.
  
• Issue #261: The Wolf in sheep clothing mission is available to start from the beginning after completing it.
  
• Issue #267: Only selected ship rotates to align for jump in creative / survival / free roam.
  
• Issue #241: Orders not saved correctly in stargate mode because not copying system id when copying orders.
  
• Issue #243: Meteor shower during resin collection phase of tutorial.
  
• Issue #277: Scavenger still hails you even if destroyed.
  
• Issue #247: Some imported/bought ships will have the crew dying of suffocation.
  
• Issue #161: Install order disappearing when closest box of desired item to install is on a track.
  
• Issue #233: Netural fighters attacking player when in meteor shower.
  
• Issue #229: Turning with thrusters uses engines when another ship is preparing a jump.
  
• Issue #231: If a window is open (eg: FTL jump) and you go to tatical mode, tactical mode stops tracking cursor.
  
• Issue #279: Docking Port flipped on reloading ship, if placed at top of grid in edit mode.
  
• Issue #288: Rescue mission does not fail and disappear if the ship is destroyed.
  
• Issue #225: Weapons consoles not activating connected weapons
  
• Issue #221: Hostile ship not attacking after some ships jump away
  
• Issue #198: Can jump ship when docked with other ship that isn't jumping but ships stay docked.
  
• Issue #234: Stargate progress is incorrect.
  
• Issue #153: Money duplication glitch when buying ship at shipyard.
  
• Fix spelling mistake in the title of the Tech Tree Window: 'RESERACH' -> 'RESEARCH'.
  
• Fix window not closing when window close button is pressed.
  
• Performance slow down with ships arriving / leaving. Should be better with improvements to particle and layer rendering.
  
• Fix flightready mission causing crash when selling original ship and FTL jumping with another ship.
  
• Fix camera moving to wrong place when switching out of tactical if ship moved while in tactical.
  
• Fix tutorial coming back after skipping tutorial.
  
• Preserve ids of layers and objects when restoring a system archive, but still rebase time.
  
• Fix crash on loading a rescue mission on a ship that has been archived.
  
• Docking tutorial now dismisses itself if the target ship is derelict or non-existent.
  
• Track performance in certain situations improved.
  
• Fix install FTL objective not completing in flightready mission.