Hey everyone!

I wanted to give a quick update on our Steam Deck progress and where things are headed leading up to the demo release planned for Q1 2026.

I’ve been testing the game on my own Steam Deck and have base combat already working, which has been super exciting to see in action. There’s still some work ahead to get the menus, inventory, and other systems fully functional, but it’s coming together nicely.

We’re also planning to have full controller support in before the demo and the next playtest. That’s been a big focus for us lately, and it fits perfectly with the Steam Deck work since both need the same kind of input improvements.

I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who joined our first public playtest. Your feedback and enthusiasm really helped shape where we’re going next. I’m looking forward to the next round - especially for those of you playing on Steam Decks or controllers, since this next version should feel a lot smoother and more natural.

Appreciate all the support — more updates coming soon!

- Joseph @ Mudtek

Today marks a truly special moment for Liftoff: Micro Drones, a worldwide first! We're unveils a brand-new drone by CADDXFPV to the world, debuting in the simulator and reality at the same time. A rare moment where virtual flight and real innovation lift off together.

"PROTOS is a digital HD FPV drone independently developed by CADDXFPV. It weighs just over 100 grams and has powerful performance. It also features a highly, integrated true HD digital Ascent system, which is rare on the market. Whether flying indoors or outdoors, it offers a smooth and immersive flight experience." - Leo Liu-Caddx 

This update adds space bar support! You can use it to input mash notes on either side of the screen. If no mashes are present, it's a heat input.

We've also added a handful of minor fixes involving courses, and player names in the leaderboards now support Korean (if you entered Korean characters before, you'll need to play the update at some point for them to be visible).

Hotfix #80 (1.9.4) is currently rolling out across our platforms. In the meantime, you can read the notes below. 

Overall we’re very happy with the outcome of the previous patch. Build variety has increased and win rates are more even between those builds. There are, however, a few points and outliers that we want to tackle.

• Arbites

  • Arbites Vigilant

    • Duration 10s -> 12s

  • Retaliatory Force

    • Attack Speed 10% -> 15%

  • Castigator’s Stance While we’re happy with the defensive power of the Ability, it’s currently being used a bit too frequently so we’re adjusting the Cooldown of it.

    • Cooldown 45s -> 50s

  • Walk it OffThe uptime and effectiveness of Walk it Off was simply too strong in comparison to similar nodes.

    • 15% over 3s  -> 10% over 3s

• Veteran

  • Covering Fire

    • Duration 3s -> 6s

  • Lock and Load

    • Clip Size 15% -> 25%

  • Redirect Fire

    • 2% -> 2.5%

  • Fire Team

    • 5% Damage -> 7.5%

  • Duty and HonourThe long duration paired with the Low cooldown of Voice of Command gave the effect too high uptime.

    • Bonus Toughness Duration 15s -> 10s

• Zealot

  • Punishment

    • Impact 5% -> 8%

    • Duration 5s -> 8s

  • Pious Cut-Throat
    We’re lowering the Cooldown Regeneration due to how easy it is to keep uptime on it.

    • 100% for 2s  -> 75% for 2s

  • Riposte

    • Melee Damage 4% -> 3%

• Psyker

  • Inner Tranquility

    • Peril Reduction 6% -> 8%

  • Kinetic Presence

    • Damage 7.5% -> 10%

  • Psykinetic’s AuraPsykinetic’s Aura came out of the previous patch too strong, resulting in very low Ability Cooldowns.

    • Cooldown Regeneration 100% for 3s -> 60% for 5s

• Ogryn
  The Ogryn can still be extremely tanky without investing that many points into the defensive nodes. We’re increasing the power of a few nodes in the defensive parts of the tree with the intent that we will see more successful builds that prioritize defense.

  • Stay Close!

    • Toughness Increase 15% -> 20%

  • For the Lil’Uns

    • Cooldown 30s -> 20

  • Feel No Pain (Keystone)

    • Stack Replenish Rate 3s -> 2s

  • Get Stuck In

    • Duration 4s -> 6s

  • Delight in Destruction

    • Stacks 4 -> 6

    • DR per stack 8% -> 5% (32% -> 30%)

• Scab Captain health has been changed:

  • Uprising from 24000 to 20000

  • Malice from 32000 to 24000

• Dreg Captain health has been changed:

  • Uprising from 21000 to 17500

  • Malice from 28000 to 21000

Dev Note: Fix for unintended health increases; this change will bring the Captain's health back to where it’s intended.

• Lowered spawn chance for the Scab Plasma Gunner during events.

• Crash fixes

  • Fixed a crash that could occur when rendering in-game icons and portraits. 

    • Dev Note: Commonly encountered when switching loadout in your operative screen or browsing various options in the barber.

  • Fixed a crash which could occur if two players managed to start the Auspex minigame at the exact same time.

  • Fixed a rare crash which would occur when trying to equip items to an operative. 

    • Dev Note: This was affecting players with old loadout preset data and as a result of the fix, operative loadouts will be deleted for some players.

  • Fixed a rare crash which could occur when voting for a mission started while a player was Sacrificing weapons.

  • Fixed a crash which could occur when loading icons in the modify appearance options and when switching to a loadout with a previously equipped item that has been deleted.

• Cosmetic Fixes

  • Corrected the colors in the naming of the Veteran “Scavenged Kantrael MK XF Flak Helm” headgear cosmetics for the previously labeled 'Green' and 'Red' items.

  • Fixed an issue where facial hair would clip with the Psyker “Krieg Witch Mask” type headgear cosmetics.

  • Fixed issues with some backpack accessories clipping with the Zealot “Pilgrim’s Jerkin” upper body cosmetic.

• Lawbringer Mk IIb Power Falchion

  • Tweaked attack ranges for Light attacks to be more aligned with each other (particularly, slightly increased the reach of the Light 1 attack).

    • Dev Note: Thanks to player “aroth68” for bringing this to our attention!

  • Smoothened out the windup of the Heavy 2 attack animation.

• Catachan “Devil's claw” Sword

  • Fixed an issue where an incorrect third person animation would be played when performing the windup of specific Heavy attacks on mk IV and mk VII.

• Fixed an issue where 'Time to Kill' would proc on non-damaging backstabs like 'Fury of the Faithful' impact hit.

• Fixed an issue where 'True Grit' applied the wrong amount of Health damage.

• Fixed an issue where Psyker's 'Charged Strike' talent electrocution damage would scale with the 'Empowered Psionics' Keystone damage boost.

• Fixed an issue where 'Remote Detonation' would not get extra charges from buffs or mission modifiers (e.g. “Enhanced Blitz” Maelstrom modifier).

• Fixed an issue where 'Crystalline Will' would still deal corruption even when canceling the Perils of the Warp explosion (e.g. by quelling Peril through 'Venting Shriek').

• Fixed an issue where 'Steady Grip' could fail to trigger after using a weapon Special action with certain weapons.

• Fixed an issue where Penance unlock popups during missions could sometimes show wrong information.

We’ll see you on the Mourningstar. 

– The Darktide Team

About a month ago my game about Drunk Batman got selected for a PAX Rising Showcase, which not only made my game much more visible on Steam, but also got me my own stand at PAX WEST 25, where I had a chance to talk with you guys, amazing gamers, and journalists and literally everyone who dropped by. We even got a chance to visit Valve’s headquarters and it was an awesome experience.

You might say… meh, and you got what from that, 10 wishlists? That might be a really big surprise for you, but that one weekend made my game go from 3-4 wishlists a day to… skyrocketing into hundreds and even thousands of wishlist additions A DAY. Of course after the event it all stabilized, but just think how big of a deal that is! Just by attending a show like that with my own table and talking with real people I managed to cross the 10,000 wishlists milestone for my indie game, which is MIND BLOWING.

And yeah. It was hard getting there. It definitely wasn’t easy. But it was worth it. And that’s another thing I want you to do later. Look for some ways to show off your game in public. Even if it would be an after-class meeting at your school with only 5 people attending, doesn't matter. You have to build courage to actually… stand out. And show your game to real people. Posting stuff on bluesky, or tumblr, or twitter is not as efficient as it was back then, so you gotta find some other ways. And live events are my proposition for that. Check my video on YouTube, to find out what else we realised!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1937880/Hank_Drowning_On_Dry_Land

Hey guys, lately we've been attentively watching our top players interact with the game and we decided that we could help them, this is the goal of this update. Without further ado, here are the changes:

• Added best time ghosts on each level: players runs will now be recorded locally and their best time will be replayed as a ghost. It can be enabled or disabled in the pause menu.

• Made the grappling hook great again: we removed all cooldowns or hindrance when latching to a hook point or slinging.

• Improved the leaderboards: they will now only show top 15 + player's best score

• Added checkpoints on level 3 and 4 because new players were hating us

• Level 1 intro will always play at the same speed no matter the difficulty settings

• World record achievement was unfair because it was less accessible the more players speedrunned the game, so we reworked it

• Worm will now have smoother rotations and will not curl up weirdly anymore

• Fixed Gosu achievement not being able to obtain anymore

• Fixed a bug where rope length would sometimes vary after spending too long in the same level

• Fixed a bug where bursting would be impossible when clicking on a hook point

• Fixed a bug where players would glitch through the ground in endless mode

• Fixed a bug where bursting would not trigger if cursor was too far away from player

Braves!

The Goblin Bank has made a large purchase of equipment from the blacksmith and is ready to share it with you!

From October 20 to 24, until 12:00 UTC, you can buy the Mage Set in the “Sales” tab with a 750% bonus! More building materials for you!

From October 20 to 22, until 12:00 UTC by completing any locations, you will receive more building materials!

Do not miss the chance to strengthen your hero and gather all the necessary resources!

Greetings fellow wizardfolk,

The Doors Update (v0.05.00) is out and with that:

Another core feature of deckbuilders has now made it into the game! This time, we've added path selection. But instead of the classic map with routes that you've come to expect from roguelike deckbuilders, we opt for something a little simpler...

In most deckbuilders you have a route-based map (e.g. in Slay the Spire), where you can see all available routes well in advance. But why is that the common way to do it?

First off, you can balance risk and reward when everything is visible at a glance. From the get-go, you can decide to take a path with a lot of events, shops and rest sites to mitigate your health attrition. Conversely, you can pick a path with a bunch of elite encounters to maximize your rewards.

So why DON'T we use it then? One reason is mental load. Combat in Bibidi Bibidi is quite cerebral. Each card has multiple effects, and there's a tradeoff for picking each one. Then, there are multiple cards you need for a single spell, as well as picking the right monster to target.

It's quite puzzly and at the end of an encounter, your brain can get a bit overloaded. We think jumping into a map with so many macro choices right away won't give you the rest that you need to prepare for the next encounter.

Another reason is immersion. We want to give you the feeling that you're exploring a dungeon in which you can get lost. Having a whole map of the dungeon and seeing where you're at feels antithetical to that dungeon-crawling theme.

So instead, we opt for a handful of options in the form of doors. Each door has an ominous name and a scary design, to try to evoke a sense of mystery about what's behind them.

---

🚪 Path selection system with doors; pick between shops, rest sites and standard or elite encounters.
🏕️ Rest Sites, where you can restore your health between encounters.
🃏 New cards with the Upgradeable boon effects.
👨‍🎓 Basic tutorial at the start of the game.
🍹 Quality of life improvements and polish:
• Animate cards as they move between piles and from your hand.
• Improve card highlighting when in a spell slot, to make it clearer which effect will be used.
• Screenshake when you deal or take damage.

⚖️ Notable balance changes:
• Restore health after Boss encounters.
• Gain gold instead of healing when you skip a reward.

🌲 Evergreen improvements like rebalancing & bug fixes.

---

For now, the background art on the door selection screen is the same for each area of the game. In future updates, we will make that art distinct for each floor.

Also, with this update, the pacing and economy of the game have changed drastically. We'd love to hear how these changes have changed your experience, and any feedback in general is welcome. Please join us on Discord where we can speak directly and understand your critique better!

Happy casting!

Jonas & Daan

Following the Technocolor update and As Advertised update that replaced the shaders and rebalanced the colors for the world's terrain and decorations, the HUD and servers needed their own overhaul. This update replaces many HUD elements and makes the servers pop with sizzling neon!

When you aim at servers or enemies, you now see a compact bar with security types, health bars, and other info. Server and enemy names are colored to match, making it easier to tell which enemies belong with which server. New icons and detail about buffs / debuffs coming in the next updates.

When aiming at a shop or interactable item, you'll get on-screen prompts under the reticle telling you how to interact with them. Similarly, you'll get warnings when you're being ambushed or hacked with instructions what to do next. In the next update, that will include instructions for defeating Lockout enemies and Proxy security.

If you leave the hack radius, you now get on-screen warnings with a countdown until the hack cancels, helping you time split-second flanking maneuvers.

When you hack, defend, or battle a boss, persistent event bars track your progress at the top of the screen. These can stack with each other and with the targeting info, helping you to battle multiple targets and objectives at once.

When 2 servers fight, you'll see a "tug of war" meter with their enemy counts and the rewards each side is offering. Help one color fill the meter to get their reward!

Allied servers now display as chrome, along with chrome spawns that are clearly your friends.

The old chat messages were hard to read, especially during combat. Between a new cyberpunk font, better text outlining, and sender icons, it's much easier to tell at a glance who you're talking to and what they have to say. More important messages also trigger notification bubbles in the corner of the screen, also replacing the old tutorial message system. Expect these improvements to come to the Inbox and mission system soon...

The next 2+ patches will complete the HUD and gameplay menu improvements.

First, the new HUD elements will be extended to the courier delivery missions while connecting them to specific companies and their lore, such as deliveries for the Knights of Ishkar or Machiavelli's Pizza. The payload events will be improved and adapted to work within story missions, destroying and defending payloads before they get to their destinations. I'll also add more elements and information to smaller HUD elements like the reticle, the buff / debuff feedback, more information when aiming at items/powerups, and more NPC and system icons for the chat system.

The second upcoming patch will focus on the Inventory, Progression, and Inbox screens. I've been getting a lot of feedback that those are the most confusing UIs that need improvements. In the inventory, better item tooltips and item icons that match the type of gun rather than its payload. The Progression screens will get an overhaul to make them less confusing and fit the cyberpunk flavor. The Inbox will also get an overhaul with better information about the missions, sender avatars and images to make it easier to tell who you're talking to, and more feedback on the rewards and objectives. Both items and servers will get a new batch of icons for their modifiers.

Altogether, these changes will make you feel more like a hacker interfacing with hardware and software modules and also provide smoother gameplay experiences.

Since these are some of the oldest systems and oldest code, please be patient as it takes a lot of time to debug everything that breaks while making the necessary changes. This update alone changed more than 10,000 lines of code in 300 files. But if you look at the Before / After shots from recent patches, it's worth the wait!

• Added new info bars for target info, hack events, defense/takeover events, and boss fights.

• Replaced the chat system with new message window and popup notifications.

• Added alerts when you leave the hack radius and a countdown to get back before it cancels.

• Added new animated waypoints for Hack, Deliver, Defend, and Destroy events.

• In addition to the XYZ world location, your current Sector is displayed above the RAM bar.

• Linked servers' targeting info now displays how many servers are linked and the +X levels added from those servers. Hacking the defenders now decreases the displayed hack level.

• Replaced most of the menu prompts with ouroborOS wireframes.

• Replaced the Game Over screen with info about what killed you (images coming in a future patch)

• Replaced the Escape Menu (music player info & visualizer coming in a future patch)

• Added several new fonts for UI readability.

• Replaced most of the loading screen backgrounds.

• Streamlined the tutorial with better prompting and covered some missing fallback states.

• Replaced the item loadout for the demo with more exciting weapons like a bouncy MG, a missile shotgun, the (Manta) Ray Gun, and Einar's Flame War.

• The miniatures of Einar's servers located in the Arcade are now gold-plated.

• So many small bugs were discovered and fixed during these upgrades that there's too many to list!

  - Nonadecimal & superdupergc

This update focuses on improving your gameplay experience with a handy new feature and a wide range of fixes to make the game smoother than ever.

 

Features:

– Added reset functionality for physics puzzles.

 

Fixes:

– 183 issues and bugs were fixed. Everything from crashes to menu updates and visual glitches.

 

Thank you for playing and sharing your feedback – it truly helps us make the game better!❤️