Jul 10

The Long Sleep: Boss Slayer: Zero initial build released, roadmap for Alliance!

Alliance of the Sacred Suns - texashawk76

Hey everyone! Steve here. First of all, I know it's been quite a while since I last posted. As I alluded to in my last post, I've been working through a lot this year after being dropped by HH, and while I've made a lot of positive progress, it's still hard sometimes to reach out, but I think I'm finally in a place where I can go back to regular updates and interacting with the community. I actually love this part of game dev - old-timers to Alliance/Imperia will remember that I used to be super-responsive and chatty, probably to a fault, but obviously the penduluum has swung way too far the other way, and I'm sorry about that.

So first thing first - I've been busy the last several months working on a smaller passion project called Boss Slayer: Zero. Game description below:

It's a tactical strategy/RPG game set in the near future where you are an inmate with a life sentence, but you are given a chance to be pardoned if you participate in an experimental VR construct called JANUS. You signed up, but 92 years later, you realize you're much worse off then before.... can you escape JANUS, outwit a malevolent Warden AI known as simply The Judge, and possibly even save humanity from extermination?

And the big news - As of today, I've released the initial public build for BS:0!

Currently, BS:0 is in a late-stage prototype. Most of the core game loop is in, and the UI has been upgraded significantly from the early prototype stage, but a lot of 'gamey' elements are not yet present, like animated fighters, upgraded graphics, full SFX, and full UI motion. I wanted to add enough of the UI/camera work to show what I'm aiming for with the design and the 'feel' of the game.

Anyway, I know many of you are 4x fans, and I know this is not a 4x game. It is a strategy game however, and it combines several genres of strategy (tactical, RPG, asset management, roguelike) into what I believe is a neat recipe.

If you're interested in checking BS:0 out, you can always get the latest version on itch.io here: https://texashawk76.itch.io/boss-slayer-zero It's free for now (you can donate if you're so inclined, and that would certainly help with Alliance, but not necessary!) Once BS:0 gets to a sufficient development stage, I'll create a Steam page for it and make that the focus.

Also, here is a gameplay video that showcases the combat side of the game: https://youtu.be/fQzfJWGx5VEThere's also an overworld/development aspect that I will also create a video for later today and update this post with, but this will at least give people an idea of what gameplay is like, even in this prototype version!

UPDATE: Here is the second video - it's the first video in a series that shows the career mode:

https://youtu.be/CIYRYnCulgw

"Great, Steve. That's just great. What the hell is going on with the game I signed up for, though?"

Valid question. So here's the deal. Right now, I am doing some limited work on Alliance, mainly optimizing and organization stuff like culling old assets, scripts, prefabs, art, etc. I'm also working on inline documenting many of the functions so when I go back to working on it full-time I won't have to relearn my code structure.

Without going too much into psychoanalysis, I needed to release BS:0. I needed to prove to myself that I could code and bring to a reasonably solid state a game, even a much smaller game, into the public eye. And I needed most of all to prove that I could handle all aspects of game development myself, including coding, writing, UI, and debugging. I'm happy with where I'm at with these skills, so that bodes well for restarting active work on Alliance.

So what that means from a practical perspective is that while my focus right now is on Boss Slayer: Zero, I am about to restart development - at least on a *very* part-time basis - on Alliance.

My first overriding goal is to hammer the current dev build into a state as stable and documented as I can make it - tooltipping everything, cleaning up some interim UI elements, documenting internally and creating good comments, updating some LUA scripts, etc. Basically, I want to take what we have so far and make that as solid and stable as possible, and then go from there.

At that point, I will more than likely start reaching out again to publishers. I have been in contact with several over the last 9 months, and there is still significant interest in the game and concept, but I wasn't yet ready to come back to New Terra. As of today, I haven't landed planetside yet, but I'm at least in orbit of the planet. :-)

Finally, a word about timelines/release dates/promises in general: I've come to learn, especially for a small/solo studio, to be very careful about committing to things that I can't for certain complete/do. I'm well aware that I've burned a lot of trust in this community with that behavior, and all I can do going forward is to be here. Be consistent, be responsive, and be realistic. That much, I can promise this community. I don't take you for granted, and I'll be answering a lot of the tougher comments/posts today, and going forward I'm devoting an hour a day or so solely for social media/marketing/community interaction - I've neglected this part of the job, and I'm sorry.

I will be posting a development diary shortly on BS:0 if you're interested in that project, along with an actual roadmap, albeit one without firm dates ;-)

And as always, you can follow both projects on our Discord: https://discord.gg/fqHr82WeHY That's generally the best place to get the latest on both games.

Long live the Celestial Empire,

Steve Hawkins

Owner, KatHawk Studios

Jul 10

New release date and progress on the game

CyberTaxi: Lunatic Nights - hedmediagames

Dear taxi drivers!

First of all, we apologize for the long break in communication about CyberTaxi: Lunatic Nights. What is the reason for it? It's simple - we are working on the game all the time. Creating such a complex and action-packed dystopian taxi simulator takes time, especially since a very small team is developing the game. We want to thank you for your interest and support of the project so far.

After a few more weeks, we are ready to reveal when the game will be in your hands and present what we have been working on.

The early access release of CyberTaxi: Lunatic Nights will take place on September 2, 2025.

We realize that this means additional weeks of waiting for the game, but we hope you will stay with us and the final product will meet your expectations. We want to spend the extra time refining the gameplay and adding all our ideas to the game. Below are some of the things we have already implemented into the game.

A glimpse of what we are working on

More interesting missions

We added more tutorials to the game, showing the various simulation mechanics and the combat system. We refined the missions undertaken by the player, in which one often has to look into the strangest corners of Prison City.

Improved driving physics and fare rating system

We want driving a cab to be as much fun as possible, so we've paid a lot of attention to refining this element. The game also includes clearer methods of evaluating cab courses with a summary of the rating given by customers.

New AI of opponents

In addition to driving, there will be a lot of shooting action and on-foot combat in our game. Enemies already behave very dynamically, thanks to the new artificial intelligence system, and we are working on making the combat as engaging as possible.

A richer world

We are constantly enriching the game world with additional attractions, secrets, and places where you can find something interesting. Among other things, we have added stores where you can buy some food to recover your health.

Better performance and quality of life features

We have updated our in-game settings to provide better graphics scalability and optimization. Now, particular video presets have much more impact on the game's overall performance. Additionally, we have added such quality of life features as dynamic FOV, invert Y-axis, various sensitivity controls, and many other settings that will make the experience much more fun.

Other elements

We plan to implement many other things in the game by the release, including such features as dialogues recorded by actors and text translation into key languages. Also, we're constantly conducting intensive play-through sessions to eliminate bugs and optimization issues (which, as the examples of many recently released games show, is incredibly complicated in the case of Unreal Engine 5.0).

Summary

As you can see, the early access of CyberTaxi: Lunatic Nights is on the final straight, and the finish line is already visible. Thanks again for your interest and support! We'll see you on September 2 on the streets of Prison City.

Greetings,

Hed Media Games team

Jul 10

Take Your Seat at the Table; Occlude is Out Now

Occlude - pantaloon.

Exuberant greetings to you penitents, supplicants and mendicants!

Occlude, our game of occult solitaire is available right now on Steam, and we've saved you a seat at the table.

Come. Play. Try, fail. Undo your mistakes. Try, succeed.

Then break the world.

If you played the demo you will have seen only a few of the game's Rituals, but now you can unlock all seven in game.

Each of the seven Rituals steadily increase in difficulty, revealing more about the world of Occlude as you unlock the multiple endings, Objects and Documents.

We have two game modes to offer: The fiendishly difficult Classic Mode and less tricky but still challenging Story Mode.

We're very proud of what we've made with Occlude. We hope you find it pleasantly frustrating, terrifyingly illuminating, and morbidly triumphant in that exact order.

I can't wait to see you disappear down the rabbit hole...

Lore Drops

As a reminder we're doing Occlude Lore Drops every time we hit milestone numbers of Steam Reviews!

These little snippets of secret lore from our game's world have been specially made for launch by our superb writer Harry Tuffs. Each time we get a certain number of reviews, we'll be uploading them to our Discord lore-drops channel as soon as humanly possible.

Though they're not needed to unravel the mystery of Occlude, they are still fascinating little glimpses into the secret history of this occult game.

So please do leave a review - Not just to get the lore drop, but because It helps us out so, so much - Each review pushes Occlude to at least two other people's eyes, who may love the game. So you're doing both us and them a favour!

Speaking of which...

The Eschaton Edition

Picking up Occlude and leaving a review is honestly all the support we could ever want.

Despite this, a few lovely people over the years have asked us "what can I do to support the studio even more?"

To those very kind people, we're proud to offer Occlude: The Eschaton Edition. This "Support The Devs" style bundle gives you the full game and:

The Occlude Original Soundtrack, by Ed Sibley, featuring 28 minutes of in-game music.
An bonus Archive Document as a printable, high-definition PDF, to further fuel your conspiracies and theories.
The genuine gratitude of a small team with big ambitions.

The Road Ahead...

The end is never really the end, of course.

As well as the continuation of our Seven Cards, Seven Entities ARG (there are still two cards to be found), and the start of our Lore Drop series, we'll also be gathering feedback from you obsessively.

Once you've played the game consider heading over to our Discussion page and sharing your thoughts.

We want to hear them, we want to act on them, we want you to come back, see what we've done and be most pleased.

Finally, to everybody that's wishlisted, played the demo or joined us on Discord already - The team can't thank you enough for your support. You're as much a part of this game as we are.

So what are you waiting for? Go play Occlude.

We can't wait to see what you discover.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3547010/Occlude

Jul 10

System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster – PC Patch #2

System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster - Literally Thousands of Bees

Patch 1.0.1 for System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster went live on PC platforms, including Steam, GOG, Epic Games, and Humble Bundle, on June 27. Since then, our team has been hard at work on an additional patch that’s live now on PC and consoles, including Xbox One, Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. We're still waiting for patch approval from Nintendo, with the patch expected to roll out on Nintendo Switch in the coming weeks.

HOTFIX (7.11.2025)

Fixed HUD scaling incorrectly when reverting settings.
Fixed saves sometimes failing to load.

PC PATCH #2 / CONSOLE DAY ONE PATCH (1.1)

Fixed music not playing at all in certain levels.
Added many more bindable actions on keyboard and controller, such as using more types of hypos and placing navigation markers.
Players can now hotswap their positions in a lobby session.
Fixed the options screen scrolling while using a controller.
Gun muzzle flashes now appear correctly on the ends of guns.
Raised maximum number of navigation markers from 1 to 12 per player.
Fixed the multiplayer menu sometimes randomly opening.
Fixed various animation and AI issues in multiplayer.
Fixed “Lean Toggle” not working properly on keyboard. "Lean Toggle" is now unbound by default on keyboard to prevent confusion.
Increased the granularity and minimum range of the mouse sensitivity sliders.
Fixed decals on windows in Hydroponics being drawn under other objects.
Fixed transparency issues on the wormskin armor, and fixed light armor glowing in the dark.
Fixed rendering of flat color polygons in static models.
Mitigations for some uncommon crashes reported by players.
Fixed some explosions showing black/pink borders.
Fixed music playback being delayed when using FMOD.
Removed the “Quit Game” entry in the keyboard bindings menu.

PC ONLY

Made the “unstick_player” console command available.
Restored Windows 7 compatibility to the best of our abilities.

KNOWN ISSUES

There is a bug that is causing players to get stuck on some corners. This will be fixed in the next patch.
The “Advanced Ammo Usage” help text is incorrect in English.
There are some quirks when using multi-monitor setups with at least one very high refresh rate monitor.
Customized bindings may be temporarily incorrect while the player’s inventory is open.

KNOWN ISSUES (FOR MODDERS)

There is a bug that is causing wrong IDs (when compared to NewDark) assigned to relations. This will be fixed in the next patch.
There is a bug that is causing fingerprinting checks to only succeed when all fingerprints match, instead of only one match being enough. This will be fixed in the next patch.

We’re continuing to monitor bug reports and aim to have another patch to address these and other issues released by the end of July. If you’re experiencing issues with the game that haven’t been resolved through our recent patches, please email our support team (https://nds-support@atari.com). Thank you!

Jul 10

Designing an Open World for Bike Heaven

Wheel World - narbeha

Hey,

I’m Mark Essen, creative director at Messhof. We’re really excited for you to jump into Wheel World when it launches later this month on July 23. We’ve been working on it for years, and it’s finally almost ready.

At its heart, Wheel World is a game about riding bikes through a giant open world, finding secrets, collecting weird parts, and building your dream ride. Early on we tried all kinds of ideas: delivery missions, long-distance rides with stamina management, hill climbs. But what stuck with us the most was the feeling of spotting AI cyclists on the road, drafting behind them, and timing your slingshot to leapfrog forward. It felt good every time.

Racing is a big part of the game, but it’s not the whole picture. This world is full of people who ride for fun, not just to win. Each neighborhood has its own local legends who ride the roads nearby. We wanted the game to feel informal and unsanctioned. Something more organic. You learn an area by riding its races. After doing a few in the Farmlands, you’ll be ready to take on the boss of that region, whose route pulls pieces from the other races you’ve already seen.

To make this kind of world work, we built a tool that helps us quickly shape and reshape large open spaces. Every road is its own asset, with properties like width, texture, traffic settings, and car speed. Designers can lay down a few nodes, connect them, and the game fills in the terrain automatically. This let us test ideas quickly. We could sketch out a race, try it, and then drop it into the main world once it felt right. We spaced races out so that exploring between them felt natural. We also thought a lot about visual flow. We made sure that no matter where you were, you could always see something cool in the distance. It might be Velo City up on the hill, the Rooster DeGallo statue in the Farmlands, or the coastal lighthouse in the Preserve.

Sometimes we’d find areas that didn’t feel like much, even though you passed through them often. Rather than stuffing in more content, we could just shift the roads around and the terrain would adapt. This worked great early on when a lot of the environment was still procedural. Later in development, as we hand-decorated more of the world, we locked down those areas and planned more carefully. We gave extra attention to the places where players might run into NPC bike gangs, making sure they stood out and drew you in.

Getting lost is part of the fun, but we also wanted to give players a way to find their way back. That’s where the Bicycle Bell Shrines come in. These are tall towers that send beams of light into the sky, so you can spot them from far away. When you reach one, it reveals more of the local map and gives you a boost upgrade. You can use them to track where you’ve been and where you still need to explore.

Thanks for reading. We’re thrilled to share Wheel World with you soon. Whether you’re in it for the racing, the bike builds, or just cruising through the countryside, we hope you’ll love the ride.

See you out there

Mark

Creative Director, Messhof