Not too long ago, we invited you to join us for something a little different: three special livestreams where our colleague Annie brought a canvas to life with brush and paint. Many of you tuned in, and together we watched as an image began to take shape.

As we mentioned several times during those streams, the painting Annie was working on was not just an artistic experiment. It was created with purpose, and it has always carried a meaning, one that points toward the future of American Truck Simulator.

If you missed those livestreams or would like to refresh your memory, you can revisit them right here:

Episode #1

Episode #2

Episode #3

Across these sessions, we had a great time chatting, speculating, and watching as the mysterious picture gradually revealed itself. And now, we’d like to bring it back into the spotlight!

We won’t say too much for now, but rest assured, this image was chosen carefully. It represents something important for the road ahead in ATS. Now we’d love to hear from you, the #BestCommunityEver.

What do you think this painting represents? Why do you believe that? Share your thoughts and guesses with us in the comments below or on our social channels. We look forward to hearing them!

Don't miss out on all the latest news by following us on our official social media channels X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, and TikTok, or by subscribing to our newsletter.

Three weeks ago, we launched the very first closed alpha playtest for Fading Echo. Today, that playtest comes to an end and we couldn’t be more grateful for the incredible support we’ve received from all of you.

Seeing the game in your hands and witnessing how warmly it was received by the community means the world to us. Your enthusiasm and encouragement are a huge motivation as we continue building Fading Echo.

Of course, this is only the beginning of an exciting journey. Every single piece of feedback you shared has been carefully reviewed, and we’re already working on improvements to make the experience even better in the future.

Looking ahead, we’re preparing another opportunity for players to get hands-on time with the game. While the format and timing isn’t locked in yet, we’ll keep you updated as soon as we have more details to share.

From the bottom of our hearts — thank you for playing, testing, and sharing your thoughts with us. We can’t wait to show you what’s coming next.

Stay tuned for more updates soon. and don’t forget to stay hydrated 💧

The Fading Echo & Emeteria Team

✨ Wishlist Fading Echo

Steam | Epic Games Store | PlayStation Store | Xbox Store

💬 Join the Echoverse on Discord

And follow the adventure:

YouTube | TikTok | Instagram

There’s a lot of excitement surrounding the launch of Tormented Souls 2 this week, so we thought it would be a good idea to post a handy FAQ to address all your questions!

What time does Tormented Souls 2 release?

The Steam version will launch at 4pm BST / 5pm CEST / 8am PDT / 11am EDT / 11pm CST. See below for the global release timings map:

How much will it cost and will there be a launch discount?

Tormented Souls 2 is priced at £24.99 / €29.99 / $29.99 and there will be a 10% launch discount running on top of this until 6th November 2025.

What is performance like?

The final release version of Tormented Souls 2 will run at a stable 60FPS on PCs that meet the recommended system requirements. 60FPS will be achievable on PCs that meet the minimum system requirements and have in-game graphics settings set to low. Please be aware that due to the constraints of the hardware the frame rate has been capped at 30FPS on Steamdeck.

Will I need to download any patches before playing?

For the best experience we recommend that all players update to version 1.2.0 or higher. This patch not only improves the game’s performance, but also includes a number of important bug fixes.

Are there multiple endings?

There are two endings to unlock and we won’t spoil them. Just be aware that like the first game, the true ending involves a little bit of lateral thinking in order to achieve… 

What do I unlock by completing the game?

• Complete the game on ‘Assisted’ difficulty or higher to unlock the ‘Lazy Sunday’ bonus outfit for Caroline.

• Complete the game on ‘Normal’ difficulty or higher to unlock the ‘Carabinero’ bonus outfit for Caroline and the ‘Tormented’ difficulty mode.

• Complete the game on ‘Tormented’ difficulty or higher to unlock the ‘Cheerleader’  bonus outfit for Caroline. 

What is the Digital Deluxe Edition Upgrade?

Priced at £4.49 / €4.99 / $4.99 the ‘Digital Deluxe Edition’ upgrade is a separate DLC available at launch that includes the ‘Classic Caroline’ and ‘Rebel Biker’ bonus outfits for Caroline. This DLC content is entirely cosmetic and was designed for players that either want more options without having to first beat the game, or would simply like to show a little bit more support for us and our future projects 🙏

The bonus outfits can be accessed once you return to the wardrobe in the Convent Guest Room, roughly 15-20 minutes into the game.

Are there any plans for post-release content?

We’re not quite ready to reveal what we have planned for post-release content yet, but rest assured we do have a few things in the works that we’ll reveal as soon as we can! 

Can I buy the Original Soundtrack?

The Tormented Souls 2 Original Soundtrack composed by NyxTheShield (Tormented Souls) will be available to purchase via Steam. It contains 52 x tracks and will be priced at £3.49 / €3.99 / $3.99. 

How do I report bugs or issues?

You can either post in the bug reporting thread in the Tormented Souls 2 Steam forum or in the ‘Bug reports’ channel of our Discord server.

Thanks again for all the love and support, just a few more days to wait!

Dual Effect & PQube

Lilith didn’t see the dark rituals of the cult that raised her as a choice. As she grew into an unearthly beauty, she was instructed to use her pretty face to bring in newcomers for membership—or sacrifice, but she was never given the power that those sacrifices supposedly granted.

The newest DLC, Cry of the Caged Bird, is out now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3713770/Hunt_Showdown_1896__Cry_of_the_Caged_Bird/

Welcome board members!

We are thrilled to announce the third update for Rise of Industry 2 - Home and away🏢🏖️

Get ready to explore 6 new maps from Kauai, Hawaii to Key West, Florida with an expanded, truly random, sandbox mode allowing you to tailor your sandbox experience with new optional randomness and more control over where you start.

With these new maps comes new resources to exploit and the nerds over at R&D have cooked up new pharmaceuticals for you to introduce to the market.

But that's not all! Cities have also been tweaked with new interactions and impact on your industries. They may even request material support depending on your production lines!

So, what exactly has changed?

✈️6 new maps:

With Frank taking some time outside of the states and the prying eyes of regulatory alphabet agencies, new business opportunities have opened up in his wake.

Explore the islands of Key West, Florida, see the engineering masterwork of the Hoover Dam in Boulder City, Nevada. Conquer diverse terrains from the rugged mountains and valleys of Cortez, Colorado to the tropics of Puerto Rico. Follow the setting sun and relax on the beaches of Guam, or head east and explore the rich volcanic island of Kauai, Hawaii. We promise the volcano is mostly dormant.

These maps are available in the newly expanded Sandbox mode.

🏢City rework:

Cities have been given an expansion with new ways to interact with and support your workforce, whilst making management more important. Balancing housing and jobs has been made more impactful, your workers will become unhappy and less productive if there is too much housing without jobs, or if they have to travel from out of town to work.

It’s not all challenges however. Cities can request contracts of various consumer goods which will greatly boost your worker’s happiness (as well as your wallet’s), ranging from basic goods like lumber or sand, to end products like soft drinks, or tires.

💊Pharmaceuticals:

New land also means new products! Pharmaceutical drugs can now be manufactured, combining basic chemicals with some research points to get basic drugs which can be refined into consumer grade pharmaceuticals.

🔨Sandbox expansion:

The sandbox mode has also been tweaked and expanded. In addition to existing modifiers for difficulty, we have added more randomness in road, utility and city placement. On top of this, resources and ports have extra options for further randomness, or toggling whether they generate. This aims to make the sandbox feel more unique, increasing variety between playthroughs as certain resources may be far away, and your typical production chains may become sub-optimal.

At the start of sandbox scenarios you can also now choose where to start, unlocking a plot and its surroundings with additional slots for access rights.

We hope you enjoy these updates and best of luck taking your business to the top! Let us know any feedback or suggestions.

🛠️Patch notes

Major updates:

- Sandbox settings update:

- Starting city locations can now be set to place randomly during new map generation

- Initial road, rail, pipe and wire networks can now randomly generate during new map generation

- Players can select if maps generate with harbors (if available), airports or rail connections

- Initial resource deposits can be randomly placed at generation or be set to follow the distribution and arrangement from the related scenario

- Players select the starting lot/location for their initial parcels of owned land

- In addition to selecting owned initial lots, players now select 5 initial lots for access rights to reach road/utility networks if necessary or to explore the map

- Six new sandbox-exclusive maps:

- Boulder City, Nevada

- Cortez, Colorado

- Guam

- Kauai, Hawaii

- Key West, Florida

- Ponce, Puerto Rico

- New tropical biomes are in place for Guam, Kauai, Key West and Puerto Rico

- New mini-vertical for manufacturing pharmaceuticals

- New resources:

- Drugs

- Pharmaceuticals

- Players need to invest part of their daily research into manufacturing

- New models for pharma complex

- Central office

- Drug production/lab

- Pharmaceutical production

- Cities in the game will sometimes approach players with contract opportunities to sell certain resources to the local municipality

- Cities will also sometimes approach players to purchase utilities (power and water)

- There is a new season progression timeline in the reports front page to help track season length in each map

- Worker happiness is adjusted to be more demanding and cities will expand on their own far less frequently

- Workers will react negatively to having far more excess housing than available jobs (aka unemployment)

Minor changes/updates/bug fixes

- Executive assistants will no longer appear in sandbox maps with useless requests

- Some manager traits and upgrades for farms and furnaces were not working as advertised

- VP of PR upgrades to discount housing subsidy costs were not working as advertised

- Update some event triggers to exclude scenario events from sandbox

- When you are granted a new lot in a mission or as a result of an action, the camera can be panned to the new lot

- Hawaii will now have a pin on the globe

- Sandbox scenarios no longer give an introductory message

- \[BUG FIX] Fix up international contracts so that they no longer offer to sell players things that are "end products" (cars, toys, foodstuffs, etc.)

- \[BUG FIX] On controller, the confirmation button on conveyor management was sometimes unreachable

- \[BUG FIX] Sometimes overlapping urgent notifs would block one another resulting in a soft lock

- \[BUG FIX] You couldn't do a lunch meeting if your influence was precisely 0

- \[BUG FIX] Battery purchase orders weren't laddered correctly in a couple of instances

- \[BUG FIX] Cold calling will no longer show people you already know

- \[BUG FIX] Sometimes (especially with coal), you would be granted the same lot over and over again

- \[BUG FIX] You could try to send your VP of Sales to an international show while attending a regular trade show

- \[BUG FIX] Sometimes contract deliveries to be met went negative

- \[BUG FIX] Sometimes the number of stars in investor tracking was not totalling correctly

- \[BUG FIX] Trucks no longer go offroad around complexes

- \[BUG FIX] Fixed some instances where saves were failing to load

- \[BUG FIX] Fixed some instances where stars were not totalling correctly

- \[BUG FIX] Cities would occasionally try to offer contracts for products that don't exist on the map

- \[BUG FIX] City contracts would sometimes be un-negotiable

- \[BUG FIX] Pause menu was inaccessible during the plot selection process for sandbox

- \[BUG FIX] International contracts will now allow you to deal drugs and pharma products

- \[BUG FIX] Utility throughput would something stop working

- \[BUG FIX] Menus would occasionally refuse to close

- \[BUG FIX] Rare softlock when accessing plot mode in sandbox

- Some minor visual and animation updates

- Small typo, translation and text updates

Now if you are on NG+ items that are unlocked after day 4 will be unlocked
Improved depthsorting of the cum particles in the internal view
Fixed apperance sprite overwrite mods not working
Now after eggs have been fertilized >50 times a counter appears on top of them to make it clear the count is going up
Repackaged the modingstarterpack folder
Increased player base tech 5 -> 10
Increased sex base speed by 10%
Decreased turbo badge speed increase by 10%

• Made looting easier with visual indicators on dead bodies

• Improved waypoint system - now possible to set waypoints from anywhere to anywhere (e.g., directly from prison wing to shower)

• Added facial reactions when attacking or getting hit, with animations showing pain and other expressions

• Added slight variations to give each NPC a slightly different face

• Added looting icon displayed on dead bodies for easier identification

• Added instructions in "How to Play" section on how to change camera view

• Slight change in facial structure for larger body types
  Fixed arrest bug when getting arrested during sleep schedule

• Fixed ragdoll bug

• Fixed wall clipping issues while performing tackles

It is known that samurai were not only accomplished swordsmen, but also masters of diplomacy. Studying from their wisdom, the Shadow of the Road team understands that proper communication is key to success. So, we're delighted to share some exciting news: French and German localisations have now been added to the game!

If you’ve been on the fence because of the language barrier, now is the perfect time to dive in and experience the demo in the language of your choice.

Unfortunately, whether you say bonjour, guten Tag, or just hello - the hungry yōkai will most likely try to eat you anyway… but at least you’ll know what’s going on!

Until next time - à bientôt, bis dann, and see you soon!

And other platforms!

📍 Facebook

📍 X (Twitter)

📍 Instagram

📍 Youtube

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1173980/Shadow_of_the_Road/

I've been working on items that came from player feedback in the Alpha-0.0.1 build. This integrerates a load of them and sets up the road to having a working demo. There isn't really any new content, but a lot of other things have been streamlined.

• Added a collect samples quest to track how many samples exist and how many you've found.

• Delivering samples now plops them into Home Base. Previously it was just running a dialogue, and now it releases the samples when scanned.

• Added the concept of Quest Groups. Quests now have a relationship to a group, and the pinned objective will default to that when there is no pinned quest.

• Trees can now be burned with the Squiggler.

• Cars can now explode.

• Added a new building destruction system. This is only on a few houses atm, you can find them in the new ghost estate.

• Prepped for quality levels. All trees and grass are now generated at runtime and in the future the density can be set using a player preference.

mejoras en el entorno (puede que el rendimiento baje un poco en esta actualizacion estoy trabajando en ello)