Dec 24, 2024

PhaigeX: Hyperspace Survivors - JoeOzu

Enjoying the Holidays, Confiners?

For today's quick update, we are working on how to better communicate PhaigeX's game mechanics with less confusion or misinterpretation from vaguely-worded descriptions. Also, reports from recorded streamers shown some visual UI bugs, and we sure have to fix those!

It's now time to clear things up:

GAME CHANGES

EMP Slow Debuff Mechanic

- [EMP Slow] debuff is the term for inflicting [Reduction to Rate of Fire and Movement Speed]
- This basically debilitates the enemies' function, rendering them easy pickings for your weapons
- Applying this debuff in with other sources makes them Stack Additively, slowing down to a halt
- Without stacking, the EMP Slow status eventually weakens out over time until it wears off.
- Remember that the enemy can do the same to you as well with their own disruption tech
Buffs to [Debuff] tag Weapons
- [Lightning Fence Lv2] Lightning Arc now inflicts EMP slow to enemy ships as they pass by
- [EMP Bolt Lv1] can now disrupt homing missile guidance on hit
- [EMP Bolt Lv5] leaves a small shockwave on hit that can disrupt drones and missiles
- As a visual indicator, disrupted missiles loses their thrust and just floats around
SP Tech Descriptions Update

- To lessen confusion of the way to use the SP Techs, [Lv1 text descriptions have been elaborated]
- SP Tech descriptions now tells the way to [Gain Tech Meter] and [Activate SP Tech]

BUG FIXES

Hyperspace Mode: CRITICAL BUG where having an Allied Leviathan (reward from a limited mission) on Megalith Event without [PhaigeX Cavalry] passive causes the stage to freeze
Hyperspace Mode: Added tooltips for those choices that provide resources + ship modifier
Hyperspace Mode: Fixed events that allows both [Defeat Fleet] and [Defeat Boss] success events to trigger at the same mission
Transportal: Fixed Bug where [Rave-N Achievement] triggers when obtaining [Arbalest]
Transportal: Fixed UI display bugs
Game UI Fixed overflowing text display bugs showing up in other systems

We are always on the lookout for opportunities that will help us grow, so keep up the honest feedback!

Towards a brighter future,

The PhaigeX MegaCorp.

Dec 24, 2024

🎄 CHRISTMAS UPDATE 2024 🎁

PEBI - Preview Emotes Badges Icons - SpielmannSpiel

This update is, again way overdue, since the last one (Dec 20, 2023) and brings a lot of quality of life improvements and small fixes.

This is everything I worked on since then, finally released.

LAST STABLE

Updating a productivity tool is always scary (especially when you are sick), because if it breaks you just can’t work anymore. To prevent that there is now a new branch on steam “last_stable”. So you can always switch to the last PEBI version to continue working while I fix whatever was broken.
You do this like you would switch to the development version.
https://youtu.be/FFXwyVMTW5Y

Emote Display Maker

The Emote Display Maker got another big update, especially for GIF's.
You might have guessed it, the top-banner with Vanlau's overly cute art is made with it.
More options to cut and control frames, including the long overdue animation reset option, to bring your animations into sync.
You can get "Your Own Character" from her til Jan. 1. 2025.

Art VS Artist

A bit more experimental is the new ART VS ARTIST feature.
Quickly create art vs artist images for social media.
In action:

Change Log

Full change log:

* (HEAD -> main, tag: 0.26.14dev, origin/main) 0.26.14 * new ad for the DACHstudio Jigsaw Puzzle * Emote Display Maker: allow sync of twitch chat * Emote Display Maker: allow frame-sync; allow adding/removing of rendered frames * emote display maker: fix no transparent background * new jasmineitor link * (tag: 0.26.13dev) 0.26.13 * ad new steam sizes * apply improvements to Banner Maker * artVSartist cms icons * improve artVSartist * remove AI garbage code * artVSartist better mouse wheel zoom * prevent exceptions on images with size 0 * wip mouse wheel zoom * (tag: 0.26.12dev) 0.26.12 * added Art VS Artist maker * steamDlc cleanup * icon maker: external file options + drop-zone * slider in texturia * (tag: 0.26.11dev) 0.26.11 * cache request all DLCs on PEBI start (no need to open HAT selector) #188 * (tag: 0.26.10dev) 0.26.10 * Make DLC's available without steam running #188 * (tag: 0.26.9dev) 0.26.9 * force multi-images to be square + optional settings * make sure only interupting user-close event * (tag: 0.26.8dev) Emote Display Maker: save config/profile #184 * (tag: 0.26.7dev) fix amount view #181 * Animated Preview #181 * (tag: 0.26.6dev) settings behind main window, AGAIN #182 * (tag: 0.26.5dev) Emote Display Maker: set max images on sheet to 9025 + warnings * emote display maker: move label * 0.26.5 * emote display maker: up/down buttons on selected emotes * added Steam Bundle Header * (tag: 0.26.4dev) 0.26.4 * using constants, fix off by 1 error in dialog * writing themes: make theme version detection * adding Grahyas theme (wip), fix theme writing bug * PEBI steamdeck Logo * banner maker: relabel steam stuff * where is the pivot of extracted gif frames?! * fix BannerMaker crash when it was started but an image was deleted * gif pivot is lower left, of course not on 0x0 #175 * typo * (tag: 0.26.2dev) save combined emote sheet * not needed anymore * (tag: 0.26.1dev) 0.26.1 * multi file: spacing #49 * gif frame size differs, broken auto-sheet #175 * too many tiles warning / max tile processing time / limit preview images * fixes more than 1000 emotes in 1 sheet crash #177

and also

Whatever you celebrate or don't, we wish you a great and hopefully (you can wish for ^^") relaxing time 💖

- The SpielmannSpiel Team

Dec 24, 2024

Treasure Hunt Update

Fay's Factory - egor

Hi comrades,

I've released an update to the game. It adds a side-adventure Treasure Hunt, cross-adventure Investments, new quirk and mechanics, and many gameplay changes and quality-of life talked about in previous diaries.

This is a gameplay focused update, but future updates will contain new adventures, and I will do my best to release them smaller-sized, but more often. The game is planned for a full release in 2025.

Here are the full patch notes.

New Side Adventure: Treasure Seas. Buy a boat from a familiar character, and engage in boat-to-boat combat to get to the treasures first. This errand will be given by the Board in HQ, after completing Displace Bay and No Job Slope adventures.
Added New Errand marker ("!") for acquiring certain side-quests. They appear above the building in Edge Harbor, and above the quest-giver

Investments: new mechanic for cross-adventure progression in Edge Harbor. Allows you to buy upgrades for your factory using Investment Rounds. There are currently 5 rows of Investments, affecting your Units per Turn, Health, Heal per Isle, Factory Power, and Max Power per Department. You get Investment Rounds for completing adventures. You will get them retroactively in old saves. You can access Investments through the board in the HQ.
Certain camera moves (opening Journal, opening Pause, etc.) now use percentage value instead of an absolute one, making the zoom-out more consistent in small rooms compared to big islets
Inspect Screen and Calibration Screen now fade out if you have Journal opened
Updated the design of building prompts, now a bit simpler.

Requirements: new mechanic for certain reactions and Engine outputs. You must pass a requirement to use a reaction. Requirements don't show up unless you are failing them. Some examples of requirements are:
"requires at least 1 other magic unit" for "Double 1 random magic unit" reaction
"requires at least 1 other available department" for "Random department of yours goes on Strike. Get 2 Gold" reaction
"requires valid targets" for "Random opponent's department goes on Strike" reaction

[/i]

New Quirk: Hidden. Hidden magic units refuse to reveal their element to you. You must deduce it based on what departments are willing to take it. Opponents get confused by Hidden units, using them in a random way.

New Effect: damage multiplier, applied for certain elements. Damage is rounded in favor of bigger number

New Effect: extra unit at new turn

New Effect: shuffle opponent's factory (might be used against you by the opponent)

New keyword: Overtime, makes a department that was busy for that turn available for use again

Inflict keyword now only inflicts quirks on turn began

[/list]

Reworked Calibration: now departments automatically consume power to support enacted policies, instead of manually adding/removing it. Cutting down on micromanagement.
Reworked Look Close button into Oversee Power button: now it's a lens through which you can quickly manage factory power. Left-click on a department from this lens takes you straight to the Calibration Screen. Right-click on a department quickly reduces power in the department so you can use it elsewhere.
Reset Power button in Calibration replaced with Manage button, which opens Oversee Power mode. Reset Power moved into Oversee Power mode, now located near the power meter.

Calibration policies now display the change in the tooltip, instead of you having to try it to see. This can display changes to damage, element, effects, new crit and crit chance, and authorizing new reactions
New mod type: authorizing new reactions
Added animation for changing the reaction's element through mods
In Reactor Overload (whenever you have departments consuming more power when available), there's now an arrow following your cursor

Calibration Tutorial updated for the reworked mechanics
Building the Spell Tutorial updated, now won't go away until you use a department. Also added an explainer about units per turn mechanic
Factory Building Tutorial updated, now won't go away until you move a department into the Factory
Slightly rebalanced order of after duel rewards, but this will be reworked in the future again
Capitalization breakdown after duels is now available by default, instead of after completing Displace Bay. Hopefully, that will make the system more approachable. Frankie will get another job in future updates

Effect rectangles now appear from the department/engine they are originating from.
New units now appear above the department/engine/effect rectangle they are originating from.
Some effects now have a thread connecting them to their targets (such as Doubling units, Inflicting Curses, Overtiming departments)

In-world UI now can show tooltips. Added tooltip to in-world Factory Power for Building mode
Added a camera cut for Inspect mode, instead of smoothing to it, because that was making me nauseous
Added a camera cut for Engine Inspect mode, and changed how Overdrive animations work (now engine start spinning out of control when you Inspect it during a duel, and cuts away once you click Overdrive so you can continue using the factory instead of watching the full animation)
Fixed return buttons in Engine Inspect, which used to overlap in certain situations

If there are at least 2 reactions, and one of them take Any element, it will now read Any Other, and only work if no other reactions are relevant (this was already the case, but new label makes it official and clear)
Doubled unit now waits until crit roll animation plays out
Rewrote some reactions to be more consistent and clear
Workers now play striking animation when department is On Strike
Broken Engine hint in tooltip now shakes if you try to Inspect a broken engine
Reactions can now have multiple keywords explainers per reaction
Keywords in reactions are underlined
Updated engine tooltip to use more consistent colors with the rest of the factory
Updated department tooltip so that department's name wouldn't overlap with power in department indicator
Updated effect rectangles appearing animation, now doesn't take as long
Updated some effect rectangles icons

Shift-Click on department now opens Calibration
Shift-Drag on parts in Building mode now quickly moves parts between Factory and Inventory
Tooltip now might change input prompts when holding Shift
Tooltip can now show several inputs

Opponents now can use "Select" effects
Opponents now can use Calibration, either on policies assigned by me, or auto-distributing power if they have any available. This is not used widely yet, but I'm planning to use this for new difficulty curves
Added special AI values to be used by opponents for some reactions
Adjusted opponent's timing slightly
Departments now display their status in tooltips, such as Busy (for this turn), on Maintenance (until the end of a duel), on Strike (until the effect is over.)

Polished layout for Journal, now errand steps won't overlap if they're taking several lines of text
Polished Errand Tracker in the top-right, won't overlap with Track button

Improbability Department: fixed improved luck mechanic, now actually checks if you can use the element you get (this is locked behind 1-power policy)
Improbability Department: added new damage reaction, "2 damage for each unique element in unused units." (this is locked behind 1-power policy)
Tsar Cannon: now does damage first, then runs a crit check (with relevant policies)
Wires Department: fixed accumulating damage not resetting between turns
Wires Department: now get +1 damage for each unit that damage, which can be improved into "each unit use" through Calibration
Wires Department: added a new Gold Reaction, "Random department of yours goes on Strike. Get 2 Gold." Must be first authorized through Calibration
Wired Department: updated visuals slightly
Knights' House: added policies for existing reactions
Break Department: updated visuals, removed from the starting factory to reduce confusion in new players
Fay Care: new reactions (Gold: "Restore 3 health", Ice: "Curse next 2 opponent's units"), added policies
Vault: added policies, fixed animations
Hot and Cold Air Manipulation Department: swapped reactions' elements, added policies
Feed the Rich: reworked into a double department, with updated visuals, reactions and policies. Now will do damage or heal both you and opponent
Warehouse: now might be moved into Inventory while you are building the factory, but they still must be in factory to exit Building mode
Warehouse: added mini-version taking only one slot

Train Engine: reworked passive bonus, now gives +1 Fire damage for the rest of the turn on using a Fire unit
Revolution Engine: reworked visuals, replace Overdrive with "Open Build mode"
(new) Drama Engine: "Reroll element of your last remaining unit" as a passive bonus, and "Next crit roll is guaranteed to succeed" as an Overdrive
(new) Inspiration Engine: "Apply random Quirk to random magic unit" as a passive bonus, and "Overtime 2 random departments" as an Overdrive
(new) Nostalgy Engine: "Restore 1 health for each unused magic unit" as a passive bonus, and "Restore 8 health" as an Overdrive

Conversation font size is now a slider, instead of limited options
Slightly adjusted the default conversation font
New font for character names
Added new dyslexia-friendly fonts, Atkinson Hyperlegible and Comic Neue
Freshened up quick conversation settings
If there's too much text on screen in conversation, the text will now go off-screen instead of overlapping with choices

Added toggles in settings where appropriate (instead of list of two options)
You can now press Escape to cancel rebinding
Reviewed settings items, rewrote some explainers

Fixed bug: Microskipping Water sometimes didn't provide a unit as described in tooltip
Fixed bug: After playing Burn the Money mini-game in Displace Bay, departments didn't do any damage until reloading the game
Fixed bug: certain resume gizmos were not moving for a femme Overseer
Fixed bug: Tax Avoider used to give units to the player even if it belongs to the opponent
Fixed bug: save files with longer names sometime had an incorrect layout

Dec 24, 2024

Merry Christmas!!!!! (0.0.15 α) | 24th of December 2024

Budget Backrooms - dabardibid

New Release! What's new?

"But oh David, what took you so long??" Eh, good question, neither I know the answer to that. But hey, at least it's something, right? Right? RIGHT?!
Looking back on the previous years I've noticed that the game, and I, kinda started to hit a creative block. Not good, it's like at the beginning the game developed so fast and more major but now... now well it's not as much as I used to work before. Maybe it has to do with the fact that life could be a bit more stressful than before, or maybe I just don't have the same motivation as before. But hey, at least I'm still working on it.

I'm afraid this game will be discarded before I hit the desired objectives for it, but we'll have to see. I'm not giving up on it, but I'm not sure if I can keep up with the pace I used to have. Hey I'm a solo dev after all, can't stick with Backrooms forever.

TL;DR: Mini dev rant, game still in development, new update, Merry Christmas!

⚙ Game Changes

Adjusted the Sanity drain rate from 0.0003 to 0.00025 per millisecond for better balance.
Increased the default Field of View (FOV) to 95° and resized the flashlight for better visibility.
The Howler now drains more of your sanity when you're near him.
You can now die due to sanity loss and you'll be sent back to Level 0.
Added 2 new achievements: "Tarp Finder" and "Wait, There's a flashlight?".

🎨 UI / Graphical Changes

Added language support: For now, only English, Romanian and Italian are supported. Some text might not be translated, such as the combo box in the Graphics Settings or Achievements. New languages will be added as patches instead of major versions. This will happen as long as contributors are found and have the will to localize (translate) the game into the specified language. These changes will appear in the changelogs anyway.
Fixed exposure inconsistencies throughout the game.
Motion Blur is now disabled by default due to user feedback indicating a dislike for motion blur.
The Sanity Meter has been relocated from the top left to the center top for better visibility.
Renamed the suffix version from Alpha to an actual (α) letter.
Removed version highlights; it will now redirect to the Steam changelog (inside the overlay). Alternatively, it will open the page in an external browser.
Deprecated the Bug Report Form, use the Discord Server, Discussions tab on Steam, or wherever I am reachable to see your bug reports.
FPS, Resolution, and HDR (if supported by the monitor) settings have been added to the Graphics Settings and can now be changed in-game.
Tip: HDR works best if used in exclusive fullscreen mode, due to how Windows 10 handles HDR, with Windows 11 you can also use HDR while windowed.
I am sorry Steam Deck OLED users, I have no idea if it works (on Linux). Please let me know if it does.

🗺 Map Changes

Level 0: Fixed FOV inconsistencies in the first-time cutscene, resulting in a smoother transition. (PS: I've fixed it accidentally, but it's a good thing, right?)
Level 0: More tarps!!
Level 1: The industrial shelves & light models have been replaced with a more lightweight version in hopes of improving performance.
Level 3: Added an almond vending machine.
Level 1 Annex 2: Fixed camera exposure inconsistencies.
Level 4: Relocated a prop (incredible change... I know).

🐞 Known Issues

Level 1 Out-Of-Bounds Bug

Have fun and Merry Christmas!