Mar 6

The Rambling Journey of the Producer of Forsaker：DingDing&Blade

Forsaker : DingDing&Blade - 圣剑提灯制作组

Hello everyone, old friends and new friends! I’m Farmer Kakarot, and I was also the producer of Gemtrader Story 1 and Gemtrader Story 2. Recently, many veteran players have asked us some questions, so I’ll take this opportunity to ramble a bit about the journey of creating Forsaker：DingDing&Blade and share some behind-the-scenes stories!

(The image is sourced from the internet.)

Regrets About Gemtrader Story

First, regarding theGemtrader Story series, the former development team disbanded before the shutdown of the third installment. A few remaining members maintained the game until its closure. Due to various reasons, we couldn’t make an announcement at the time of disbandment. Here, on behalf of the former team, I want to say sorry to everyone. We miss you all dearly.

(The image is sourced from the internet.)

As for whether we’ll create more products related to Gemtrader Story, it’s probably not going to happen. Currently, we don’t own the rights to this series, so we need to move forward.
On a side note, I personally feel quite regretful about Proof of Bloodline. I originally wanted to add a DLC as the final conclusion, but unfortunately, it never had the chance to come to fruition.

(The image is sourced from the internet.)

The Rebirth of the Team: BladeLanternStudios

After the disbandment, we went through a period of lostness. We felt abandoned, wondering if we could ever work together again. But one day, the brain-dead planner (Dai Dai) stood up and said he still wanted to continue. So, we tried to rebuild the team.

Now, the BladeLanternStudios team has five members: four veterans and one new teammate. I serve as the producer, original concept designer, and story writer for this project. Back in my younger days, I was a decent animation director, but after not drawing for so long, my skills have deteriorated, though my spirit remains strong. In my spare time, I also help out with miscellaneous tasks for the art team.

Art (Xiao Y): The team’s strongest asset and the only female member, she shoulders the heaviest workload in the project. She was the lead artist during the Gemstone Fantasy era and has consistently pushed forward with the style our team loves over the years.

Brain-dead Planner (Dai Dai): A shameless individual with an incredibly strong will to survive.

Newcomer (Da Yi): Primarily handles miscellaneous tasks while learning the ropes of product development. This is our first attempt at a visual novel, so who knows what he’ll pick up.

Programmer (Sumo): This guy was also the lead programmer for Gemstone Fantasy. I have to mention that our original programmer had to leave due to family reasons, so we reached out to Sumo. He quit his previous job without hesitation and joined us, choosing to power through with passion. Truly a middle-school-level idealist at heart.

Is the story for one chapter a bit too short?

The first chapter of the demo ends at the third section, which is where we’ve decided to stop for now. The subsequent content is still being polished. In the full version, Ian’s chapter will have seven story sections per chapter, with a total of five chapters. For the other two characters, each chapter will have five story sections, followed by the endings and character backstories. In total, there will be over 200,000 chinese words of written content. The script has already been fully completed.

Why a Visual Novel with Roguelike Elements?

The protagonist, Ian, is initially a strong but ordinary character without any "cheat-like" abilities. His combat style, using a single sword, aligns well with his personality.
The card-based gameplay in this project isn’t overly complex, making it a suitable addition to add some depth to the experience. We’ve also included a "lazy mode" for players who prefer to focus solely on the story without engaging in combat.
The combat sequences, which aren’t heavily detailed in the story, have been transformed into gameplay mechanics. Instead of reading lengthy descriptions, we wanted players to actively participate in these moments.

Forsaker：DingDing&Blade is primarily a visual novel with gameplay as a secondary element, reflecting our series’ philosophy. Future projects (if we get the chance to make them) will also match the story’s needs with appropriate complementary gameplay mechanics.

Challenges and Gratitude

Is the animation in the product a bit lacking?

It definitely is. The full version will have some improvements... Currently, our team doesn’t have a dedicated animator. The PV was put together by me and the brain-dead planner, and the few animations in the game were generously contributed by former teammates in their spare time. Animation and Live2D used to be our strong suits, but for now, those skills are on hold. It’s not a big issue, though. Our team’s philosophy has always been to train newcomers rather than hire seasoned professionals. So, if there are any newcomers out there willing to let us nurture you for a while...

Will there be voice acting later?

Not at the moment. We’ll see in the future, as we currently don’t have the resources for it... Voice acting in China isn’t cheap, either.

Can a team of just five people really support a product like this?

It’s definitely a stretch. Relying solely on the team wouldn’t be enough to complete it. That’s why we’re incredibly grateful to all the uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters outside the team who have generously supported us. We bow to you in gratitude. Thank you!

Here’s the thank-you list:

Biggest Benefactor: 丹哥
Sound Guidance: 老郭
Music: 重远、喜碧、峥峥
Sound Effects: 乌芒
Animation Assistance: 小云、小雄、柏云
Art Assistance: 小川
Administrative Support: 朱姐
Early Programming Assistance: 吴老师

Most of these are long-time collaborators and former teammates. We love you all!

The Meaning Behind the Title

"Forsaker" is the name of a type of man-eating monster in the story, formally referred to as "The Abandoned." Literally, it also reflects our own situation. During our lost period, we felt like we had been abandoned, wondering if we could ever work together again. One day, the brain-dead planner stood up and said he still wanted to continue, so we tried to rebuild the team. Even if we’re small, we can still make it work... The story we’re telling this time is quite healing—a free spirit born from facing death! Making indie games is the same: finding a way to keep going. The original Gemstone Fantasy also started as a small indie game, so we’re starting over from scratch.

Final Thoughts

After the release of the Forsaker：DingDing&Blade demo, we were thrilled to see so many veteran players who have been with us all along show up. It’s amazing to know you’re all still here!
We’ve also received a lot of feedback and suggestions, and we’ll do our best to make improvements. Thank you, everyone, and thank you to all who have supported us! We’ll chat again next time...

Mar 6

GUILD ALLIANCES

Stars Reach - sean.weeden

When players get together into friend groups, they often form a Guild in order to share common goals. The guild structure lets them communicate and share resources more easily, and in many games, it also lets them share a guild hall and guild logo.

GUILD TYPES IN STARS REACH

Our plan is to support several types of player organizations. Regular guilds are the sort you are used to from other games, and we see the function of these as primarily social. Because of this, we let you join more than one!

We are also planning on having two more guild types: armies and companies. You can only belong to one of each of these new types of guilds. Both require exclusive membership in order to minimize obvious cheats and keep things fair.

Armies can declare war on one another and companies compete economically instead, and have some special functions related to that.

Lastly, players can also form governments, which are sort of like guilds, but they are based on where you declare your citizenship.

In Stars Reach, we don’t really have the concept of a “guild hall”, but guilds will often organize to govern an entire planet. They can create a visual identity for themselves (via clothing, armor, and/or spacesuits) and they can also visually brand their spacecraft and equipment.

In many games, there is also the concept of a megaguild, which may have hundreds or even thousands of members. It is extremely likely that these organizations will be present within Stars Reach also.

ALLIANCES AND BENEFITS

But megaguilds are not to everyone’s taste. That’s where Guild Alliances come into play.

Let’s say you’re a small- or medium-sized guild running a single planet (or even a couple of planets), but your guild wants to start a trade collective beyond your current reach or a self-defense force to protect your solar system, something that would normally require the coordination and resources of a much larger guild (like a megaguild). With Alliances, you can reach out to other guilds and formalize friendships and bonds between your groups, becoming recognized publicly to any outside forces that your guilds cooperate with, while still retaining their own individual identities.

The Alliances structure provides you channels to formally contact other guilds, start conversations and agree on Alliance identities. This gives your trade discussions more weight, allows you to set up mutual pacts of your choosing, and eventually, when PvP is prevalent in more solar systems, even create military agreements.

It also lets you unify those different organization types into one larger entity: a player organization might have a social guild at its heart, but also include an army and/or a company.

Direct benefits to Alliances include:
An alliance-specific chat channel
Alliance tagging on your character’s nameplate so it’s visible to others (when you so desire)
Alliance logo and colors that can be branded on any guild’s equipment, uniforms, spacesuits, or starships. Even settlement buildings can bear their signature logos.
An alliance roster so that alliance members can be contacted by any other alliance member.
An alliance-specific newsnet channel.
Alliance-specific mission boards, banking functions, and more.

Thus, you can participate in most of the recruiting power and political might of a megaguild while still retaining the cozy friendship of a small core of players, as long as you can balance the personalities and relationships between the guild leaders and keep your Alliance together…which is a game unto itself.

Mar 6

Icarus Week 170 Update | Seven new Operations, and six new recipe alternatives

ICARUS - Shamm

This week’s update completes the conversion of Operations in Open World mode and expands your cooking options by adding six new alternative resources for crafting ingredients used in high-tier recipes. This gives you options if certain key resources are scarce in your area.

This week also features a breakdown of all the free content coming with the massive free update alongside the Great Hunts DLC when it releases.

Jump in and have a read.

Notable Improvements:

Fixed Light Automatic Carbine being unable to be repaired
Added potential fix for 'BPQ_Travel_C SuperStruct' crash that sometimes occurs
Fixed killcams on Stryder causing players to be locked and the projectile not hitting.
Optimization and quality increase on water troughs

This Week: More Olympus Operations

We’ve converted the final selection of Missions to Operations this week, so you can play them in Open World mode on Olympus using the CONT4ACT Device or Radio.

These include:

INFLUX
RESURGENCE
SANDY BRIDGES
FIRE WALK
PAYDAY
STATION TO STATION
DUST UP

BEACHHEAD and SPIRIT WALK weren’t included as they don’t suit Open World mode well, but they are recommended as tutorial Missions to help you learn the basics before diving into an Open World map.

This brings the total number of Operations up to 54 on Olympus, 24 on Styx, and 24 on Prometheus.

This Week: New alternatives to common recipes

We’re adding a bunch of alternatives this week for commonly used consumables in high-tier recipes, giving you multiple ways to craft them if certain raw resources are limited in your region. These are:

Corn -> Flour
Potato -> Flour
Soy -> Vegetable Oil
Avocado -> Vegetable Oil
Kumara -> Sugar
Honey -> Sugar

We have also renamed Seed Oil to Vegetable Oil to more accurately reflect the resources used to craft it.

Keep giving us feedback on other recipe changes you might like in Feature Upvote.

Coming Soon: Great Hunts Free Content

A massive free patch will be added to the Icarus base game alongside the upcoming Great Hunts Expansion. We thought we’d go into some more detail this week breaking down everything you’re going to get as part of this update.

All current World Bosses are going to get a substantial upgrade, with their own legendary weapons and new currency to earn.

These new currencies are:

Sandworm Biomass
Black Wolf Biomass
Scorpion Biomass
Lava Hunter Biomass
Hammerhead Slug Biomass

These will drop when the respective World Boss is slain, and can be used in the new Biolab to craft the new applicable Legendary Weapon and its numerous attachments.

Sandworm World Boss | Legendary ‘Sandslinger’ Sandworm Crossbow

The ‘Sandslinger’ is a gigantic crossbow with an impressive four-second reload time and up to 81 combinations of attachments to the Jaw, Plate, Spine, Barb, and which fires Javelins instead of Bolts. This includes a spine attachment called ‘Pheremone Spine’, which grants a high chance to spawn a friendly Sandworm to fight alongside you.

The Sandworm also has new recipes for Trophies, Attachments, Modules, and even a Building Tier.

Black Wolf World Boss | Legendary ‘Bloodmoon’ Black Wolf Pistol

The ‘Bloodmoon' is a snub-nosed revolver that packs a powerful punch with an extra +15% weak point damage as its base bonus. There are 81 combinations of attachments including one called ‘Lupin’s Fang,' which grants you dramatically increased reload speed, allowing you to shoot so fast that your bullets catch fire and deal extra fire damage.

The Black Wolf also has new recipes for an Armor Set, Shield, Modules, Traps, Attachments, and Trophies.

Scorpion World Boss | Legendary ‘Clawfire’ Scorpion Rifle

The ‘Clawfire’ is a curve-stocked prototype rifle with multiple ways to personalize it, including attachments that allow for multiple spread projectiles, ricocheting projectiles, and even homing projectiles. There are 81 combinations of attachments, including ‘Replenishing Stinger, ’ which allows for self-sustaining electric damage to be added to the projectiles that recharge while in use.

The Scorpion also has new recipes for a Fishing Rod, Modules, Attachments, and Trophies.

Lava Hunter World Boss | Legendary ‘Magma Surge’ Lava Hunter Flamethrower

The ‘Magma Surge’ is a prototype Flamethrower with a lethal 25 fire damage dealt at 140 bursts a minute with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it 0.9 second reload speed. With 81 combinations of attachments, you can personalize this arsonist dream to your heart's delight including ‘Persistent Cocoon,’ which creates lava puddles when you fire it at the ground.

The Lava Hunter also has new recipes for Mines, Turrets, a Backpack, a Sickle, a Fuel Source, Modules, Attachments, and Trophies.

Hammerhead Slug World Boss | Legendary ‘Slugger’ Hammerhead Slug Grenade Launcher

The ‘Slugger’ is a modified Grenade Launcher that shoots toxic slime projectiles with devastating impacts on your foe. With 81 combinations, this can be upgraded to launch corrosive slime puddles, projectiles that slow and poison your foes, or impact explosives to quickly dispatch groups of enemies. For group play, the ‘Rejuvenating Cephalon’ instead heals on impact and leaves healing zones for you and your teammates.

The Hammerhead Slug also has new recipes for Grenades, Epoxy, Axes, Attachments, Modules, and Trophies.

Next Week: Massive FPS improvement on light deployables

Next week, we’re implementing a sweeping change to over 100 deployable items that either directly emit light or have a light source as part of their design.

In some cases, this has led to 2x FPS improvements, thanks to DistanceField shadows.

We’ll have many more details next week, but this should improve the frame rate for most players in large bases with multiple deployable items.

Your support makes these updates possible.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/40692/Icarus_Pets_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/35727/Icarus_Complete_the_Set/

Changelog v2.2.45.134012

New Content

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Unlocked remaining Olympus missions for Open World
Add alternate recipes for Flour, Oil and Sugar
Renamed Seed Oil to Vegetable Oil

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Fixed

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Fixed a number of typos
Added fix for Steam overlay friends list 'Join Game' / 'Invite to Game' buttons not working
Removed most DMs, Materials and Textures in the Root BLD folder
Created base class for Water Troughs instead of everything inheriting from Small water trough
Changed Luxury Fountain PM to Concrete instead of Gravel, Increased Normals to 4k, Add scaled preview mesh to match BP scale
Add Water plane setup for Luxury fountain and removed second LOD (LOD0 is 85 triangles)
Removed BP logic changing position of waterplane in Troughs which didn't work with all setups
Remove unused/unreferenced AudioOcclusion1 scene node
Fixed troughs automatically receiving 250ml of water upon deployment
Increased opacity of Stone Water trough
Converted all troughs to use WaterPlane setup instead of mesh swapping to decrease bloat
Delete unused water materials and textures from Troughs
Removed the last of the SMs from the root BLD folder, on to materials and texture removal
Slightly reducing teh chance of moa idle audio playing, and also slight adjustment to reduce volume over distance for the far layers as they felt a touch too loud in world
Fixed issue where stryder could sometimes get a killcam but the arrow not hit and it would float between the eyes. Increased the hitbox of eyes in physics asset. Added top most bones to a blacklist so it tries to not target it. Thanks to Funreaver from the steam forums for providing the amazing clip!
Replaced DC Storm Debris VFX
Coconut now decays into spoiled plants
Removed another large list of old assets from the root BLD folder
Existing LAC can now be repaired and scrapped, these are now legacy items, any newly crafted LAC will be converted to Sub Machineguns
Added potential fix for 'BPQ_Travel_C SuperStruct' crash that sometimes occurs
Reduced sizemap of BPQC_AnimalSwarm
Disabled PRO_Story5_EnterOutpost's animal swarm spawner as it was never spawning a valid AI type
Relocked BEACHEAD, as this mission doesn't work well in an Open World environment

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Future Content

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Add DT Validation for missing Audio entries in ItemsStatic for Focusable items
Adding Fireball AOE audio for flamethrower upgrade. Audio event and BP Imp
Updated the component class of the aspen sapling foliage type assets
Updated text for homestead decor items
Reduce amount of explosions in IM_D
Fix IM_C loot populating in wrong killed creature
Update BlackWolfRevolver core mesh Physics Asset to better encapsulate entire weapon. This fixes the weapon flickering due to occlusion culling (by the hand) when ADS
Reduce IM_B search area
Move statue and flip bed in IM_A base
Legendary weapon upgrades now correctly attach to their socket, instead of only having their initial location set
Increased cooldown length between Golem Gauntlet special attacks
Adding sub machine gun audio. Fire close, mech, tail, event and data table setup
Clear out lingering reference to redirector from Ramp2x1x1 base class
Adding additional idle audio to end of ape scream idle event to lengthen the sounds to better match the animation
Updated the comoponent class of the tundra aspin saplings, edited FLOD data table
New stat to cap number of projectile bounces (used by Slug Launcher)
New stat for multiple projectiles (used by Slug Launcher)
Legendary Flamethrower toned down vfx and added rotation on lava mesh based on landscape
Elysium - cliff placement + decal and foliage painting in volcanic area surrounding geothermal, red quad
Blockout cliff pass in volcanic on Purple/Orange Quad, Elysium
Cliff Pass, Landscape Sculpting Pass and Foliage Pass, Green and Yellow Quads, Elysium
Added tundra aspen saplings to the project
Removed more assets from the BLD root folder
Statify projectile payloads for Legendary Slug Launcher
Elysium - fixed material complexity inconsistency in Tundra grass (removed terrain blending from some materials)
Added unique wolf spawn ability to Black Wolf Legendary Weapon
Custom rotation socket added for unique spears, Ice mammoth spear melee rotated
fixed rotation for SM_ DCO_Knitting_Decor
Ice Mammoth Arena - Moved spawn closer to get rid of unfinished cave. Added a mountain range to hide prom map from the sky. Moved ice around in the map to cover holes that could trap the player
Added five decorative wildflower art assets to the project
Elysium -Removed temp biome override volume in geothermal. Cliff placement + decal and foliage painting in volcanic area surrounding geothermal, red quad
Tweaks to slug launcher (stat names, direct heal stat)
Adjusted FogTint, MoonIntensity, and SkyLight curves for Geothermal atmosphere - reduced fog and night time brightness
Update M_Liquid shader to be usable with Niagara as requested by ChemistryBench VFX
Elysium - revised slope rock meshes - packed into single texture set, custom LODs
Elysium - revised biome heat map, updated gametexture
Hide mission specific generator from Field Guide
Added ITM_Lantern_Antique, including materials and textures
updated rotation for SK_GRE_Swamp_Ape_Grenade
Updated DEP_Hanging_Pots_Copper
Updated mesh and destructibles for BLD_Wall_HalfPitch_Upper_Brick_R
Adding the sound of the black wolf revolver pistol spawning a wolf by adding a louder more intentional growl when spawned. Audio event and BP
AlienRock_02 - 04 mesh, textures, materials added
VASE deploy auduio and check over jam jars
Rocking chair deploy audio
Fixed an issue where EQS was spawning cave worms indoors. Changed mining platform collision to be 'landscape' instead of 'building' so the eqs works as intended
deploy setup for coffee grinder audio
Adding sewing machine foot pedal and loop audio for when crafting on the sewing machine. Audio and BP Imp
Fixed issue with Black Wolf corpses not being ragdolled correctly for clients joining game after Wolf was killed
Ice Mammoth Trap now has it's own modifier
Added Vintage Jars, Honeypot and Birdfeeder icon
Allow slug launcher to be filled in water devices. Increase water usage and storage, and improved wording of fillable consumption stats
Separated wood logs from SM_DEP_Fireplace_Interior
Fixed workshop unlocks for biomass not showing correct icon. Added currency to Norex workshop page, shifted Norex consumables to correct spacing
Added Rayleigh Scattering Color to D_Atmospheres
Add first pass of slug launcher projectile coloring
Added a bunch of Homestead Item Icons
Update balance of Slug Launcher
Update Legendary Weapon cheat to only show upgrades for current weapon (dev)
Update poison spots and slug grenade modifiers to only play audio on initial modifier addition
Increased melee attack range on Rock Golem Gauntlets
Tweaked Rock Golem Gauntlet action cooldowns
Made Rock Golem Gauntlet's slam attack happen slightly earlier during animation
Adding audio trigger for lava hunter mine turret. Audio, event and anim notify
Fix bestiary progress visual tracker multiplying if gained in a short period
Adding more appropriate ballistic data entry for the friendly sandworm. Adjustment to movement sounds to make them more subtle. Added pre vomit, fixed melee attack vocal being caveworm. adjustment to ballistic impact intensity. Removing profilers
Updated Cave Bat Nest in LC & SW Cave Templates
Small adjustment to sandworm idle friendly move audio
Updated Cave Bat Nest in DC & GL Cave Templates
Sandworm crossbow - added new idle anim/animbp for friendly sandworm so we can have different sounds than the larger one
First few adjustments getting friendly baby suzie ready for sandworm crossbow audio. ANIM BP needs duplicating and animation swapping for audio
Cliff Pass, Landscape Sculpting Pass and Foliage Pass, Green and Yellow Quads, Elysium
Update Sewing Machine to use Skeletal Mesh which animates when crafting. Updated DM to be correct mesh
Fixed LODs swapping to wrong materials
Updated Cave Bat Nest in CF Cave Templates
Sandworm crossbow - Fixed a bug where friendly sandworm wouldnt attack. added new animations to match the new sandworm mesh
Updated Cave Bat Nest in AC Cave Templates
Give players more info about ammo types required when the run out and try to reload (short press reload)
Added SK_GUN_Sub_Machine with reload and fire animations
Fixed bug with Legendary Weapons where only the base SK mesh was correctly occluding outline shaders
Hammerhead Slug Axe - Fixed client issue where the charge would always do 100% of damage regardless of charge %
Blockout cliff pass in volcanic on Purple Quad, Elysium
Foliage Pass, Green and Yellow Quads, Elysium
Added Lava Hunter Mine BP changes missing from earlier commit
Updated Lava Hunter Mine to use new SK mesh / egg assets
Increased texture group quality for Lava Hunter Mine materials
AlienRock_01 - texture and material tweaks
Shortening some long fmod events and adding adsr to stop vocalisation cutting out abruptly
Weapon/Tool display rack prototype
Slight reduction in the legendary ice mammoth sledgehammer reverb send
Adjustments to the distancing of the projectile of the ice mam sledgehammer to better match the distance. adding correct items stat audio row and item audio row
Updated physical material for the honey pot meshes
Adjusted lighting on the Rimetusk Chandelier to highlight vfx and add more light around around the ice shards
Added snow VFX to the Rimetusk Trophy, adjusted lighting
WIP AlienRock_01
Adding corrosive sizzle overlap audio for slug slime gun, also healing overlap sound
Added separate mesh for DEP_Trough_Luxury_Water
Added snow flakes VFX to Ice Mammoth Chandelier
Fix rocking chair seating positions
Fix Ape_C2 progress percentage showing decimal
Tweaking socket on the hunting rifle skeleton used by the scorpion rifle legendary weapon to be able to animate the gun based reload anim, adding gun based reload anim to work with custom 1ST and 3RD person reloads for the scorpion rifle
You can no longer trigger killcam against targets with armour, should fix issues where killcam was getting stuck after shooting Juvenile Rock Golems
Killcam now correctly takes strong-point and weak-point damage into account when determining whether or not the shot was going to be a killing blow, was previously treating all hits against strong-points as headshots
Shifted critical hit damage multiplier code into funtion library so it can be queried elsewhere
Added Deep Ore Deposits to Small Caves and Foliage Pass, Green and Yellow Quads, Elysium
Blockout cliff pass in volcanic on Purple/Orange Quad, Elysium
Swapping ape juvi bite for a different event with more impact
AlienRock_01 mesh, textures, material (WIP)
Elysium - cliff placement + decal and foliage painting in volcanic area surrounding geothermal, red quad
Removed debug prospect join logic from PlayerControllerSpace
Updated buildable mesh references in Dev level
Shortening some overly long audio events taking up channels. Set some boss vocalisations to presets for tidy ups and easier adjustments

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