Oct 20

Runeborn - jcharette_idream

Hey adventurers!

What an incredible first week it’s been. Runeborn officially launched into Early Access, and the response has been beyond anything we could have hoped for. We’ve been listening, patching, and chatting nonstop, and we wanted to take a moment to share some highlights and updates.

💬 About That Discord Pop-Up...

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The Discord pop-up after each run caused quite an uproar, definitely more than we expected! We understand how disruptive it felt, and we’ve heard you loud and clear.

We’ve since released a patch that makes it appear only once, so you’ll never see it again after dismissing it. That said… we’d still love for you to join us on Discord and say hello! 😉

500+ Strong and Growing

Speaking of Discord, we recently hit over 500 members! The conversations, bug reports, and suggestions have been incredible. Our dev team is actively reviewing feedback and already implementing many of your ideas and fixes.

Your input is helping shape Runeborn in real time, and we couldn’t be more grateful.

🐛 Two Hotfixes + One Patch Down

We’ve released two quick hotfixes on Friday and another on Saturday, mainly addressing softlock issues during Malakar fights and a few other edge cases. We also dropped our first larger patch last week. Check out the patch notes from Thursday's 0.6.91 patch. Thanks to everyone who reported these quickly; it helped us immediately push out fixes.

📈 By the Numbers

We’re thrilled to share some early stats from launch week:

421 peak concurrent players
4,500 daily active users
103 positive reviews earning Very Positive status
The average total coin value on a Run success is 496.6 coins
Otherwise, win or lose, the average total coin value is 174.6 coins
On average, if they're spending coins, most players will spend around 8 coins per shop
Most players will die on Level 6 (12,443 times), second most on Level 10 (7,890)
A total of 49 players died on Level 1... somehow
Most players will reach their first run win within 2 or 3 runs
The most-destroyed rune element is Dark at 167,315 times. Surprisingly, the least-destroyed element (excluding Wilds) is Lightning at 63,865
The most prolific trinket in a winning inventory would be Copycat at 2,455, second-most is Executioner at 2,079 and Primrose Medallion at third with 1,667
We found most players skipped the tutorial at Steps 11 and 14: the Trinket Swap and Level Select steps. Yappa yappa...
Most players will lose a fight within ~27% of the enemy's HP, except at level 14, where it's at 19%
The most chosen enemy is the Carbuncle at 85.05%, the most chosen elite is Gunkor at 63.66%
The least chosen enemy is the Pincer at 14.89%, the least chosen elite is Klepta at 41.74%
Out of 724 attempts, there have been 22 successful Edition 8 runs! That's around 3.03%!

Seeing so many of you diving into runs, experimenting with builds, and sharing screenshots has been amazing.

💖 Thank You for Supporting Runeborn

To everyone who purchased the game, thank you! Your support means everything to our small team. And for anyone still on the fence, our 30% launch discount is live until Oct 23rd. There’s never been a better time to jump in and see what Runeborn is all about.

We’ve got more updates coming soon (and some exciting surprises on the horizon 👀). In the meantime, thank you for playing, testing, and helping us make Runeborn the best it can be.

~~let us cook~~

The Runeborn Team

Oct 20

Retro Endurance 8bit hits 48 games! New boss battle and various improvements!

Retro Endurance 8bit - zsKnight

New boss battle!

Here's a new boss battle for you! This will be the 5th boss battle facing a little squeaky guy! He's got less hit points than the other bosses, but he's also quite a bit more technically challenging than the other bosses. Good luck!

Four new games!

As mentioned in the last update, I'm going to be just focusing on adding new games to the shuffler mode. Once I hit 52 games, then I'll shift my focus over to adding more games to the arcades. We're almost there! Just 4 more games to go! But for now...

A new game approaches! This is the 45th game in Retro Endurance called Rocket Upwards. Use the button to accelerate and use the controls to move the rocket. Avoid all the junk in your way. Can you make it to space?

Another game approaches! 46th game called Fill Screen. It's a Qix clone, but it's faster paced and has additional elements such as collectables and spikes. Just in time for Halloween, you control a spider and fill up the screen with icky webs. Hold the button to create a line across without hitting an enemy to fill an area of the screen outside of the red enemy.

New game! 47th game called Bouncy Tanks. It's kind of based off of Tank-Pong in the game Combat for the Atari 2600. But it's more updated with a much faster pace and can get quite chaotic. It's just you against other tanks. Just watch out as the bullets, including both yours and your enemies, can bounce around everywhere!

And the last new game of this update: 48th game called Trampoline. Now there's a good amount of games that this is based on, but the last one I played that inspired this is the "Puppy Love" stages in Earth Worm Jim 2. Now you get to feel the frustration as you attempt the near impossible task of saving those blobs jumping off the burning building!

And other improvements!

- Game name now displays over disable icons and arcades on sale when the player goes near them

- CRT Scanline Filter added - enable it in the settings. (Thanks AdmiralClassy for the idea!)

- New unlocked games will now play up to 3 times in a row as long as an even newer game doesn't get unlocked

Oct 20

Unity Security Update

SKY TOMB - breadnbuttercult

Unity recently identified a security vulnerability in all games built on Unity 2017.1 and later. This patch addresses that. More information with regards to the vulnerability can be found at https://unity.com/security/sept-2025-01/remediation

I also wanted to take the opportunity to discuss the future of this game.

Let me start by apologizing for taking so long since the last update. As you can tell, I'm also writing this as "I," not "we." Evidently there've been some changes in the team structure since last time - things have not exactly gone according to plan.

Back in November 2022, I proposed to a good friend to moonlight on a prototype I'd built in my spare time. We were both game developers by trade, though still new to the industry. It was a chance to work on something we had chosen to do, rather than our superiors. Having gotten to a point where we had something stable enough for people to play through early access, we wanted to expand - which led to inviting another fellow game developer friend of ours to work on it. Our plans kept expanding, but the time we were able to allot became ever lessened.

And then the past few years happened. The consequences of the industry-wide layoffs were severe. My original partner in crime was eventually laid off despite his competence and had to focus on providing for his family. Our later addition to the team had less and less time and regrettably never really had a chance to get started. And I, seeing my coworkers disappear one by one - both on this project but mainly at my day job - felt I had to double-down on my normal work to keep my employment.

That's how we ended up here, with the last update having been released nearly 3 years ago. For ages I've thought about how and when I was going to write this update, and I don't know if I ended up wording it correctly. But no amount of feeling bad is going to give people something to play, so let's get to that part.

If you read this far, thanks for listening to my ramblings :)

As established, I'm effectively a lone developer on this project and have been for some time. That, however, does not mean there's been zero headway made. I don't want to spoil too much, but I would like to tease a few things that I'm working on.

Before

After

Before

After

Obviously, the artstyle has changed quite a bit. My hope is that this new direction will resonate better with some of the content I've been planning, but it's also a style I personally like.

I should also mention that the new UI is not fully implemented yet, as can be seen by the empty and full HP and XP bars in the HUD example, since it's from a Figma mockup. There's a good amount that I've yet to show though, and I'm very excited to do so when the time is right.

And don't worry - graphics are not the only thing being overhauled. The entire gameplay model is going to be seeing some vast changes that hopefully allow SKY TOMB to be set apart from other Survivors-likes/Bullet Heaven games out there. Not only that, but new levels, enemies, player ships and meta progression is of course also in the works.

It's very likely that I will not be drip-feeding this new content, however, as I believe I'm more comfortable with releasing a more cohesive package in the form of a major update.

All in all, I'm very excited to show what I've been working on, but I also recognize that I'm late. Hopefully I can make it up to you all :)

This is B, signing off.

Oct 20

The Bleakest Keep: Melee Weapons Update!

The Bleakest Keep - Cache of Bones

Hi everyone. Here's a pretty big content update! This update is adding some more melee weapons that you can find in the starting gear menu! There's also 2 new special attacks added as well!

These 3 new melee weapons add some more gameplay options that I hope you'll like!

Juliet is also getting another unlockable outfit!

Please follow me on Twitter!

Twitter is where I post the most and is where you can see what I am working on. So please follow me there if you are interested in my current and future games!

Thanks for playing!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3231520/The_Bleakest_Keep/

New

3 new melee weapons can be equipped in starting gear. There are some requirements to unlock them though. After you defeat a certain boss or die a few times, they will become available.
- Heavy Sword
  - This sword swings slower but deals more damage. You also start each run with bloodlust and blocking attacks gives you 2 seconds of invincibility. The range is also slightly longer. But you can not upgrade the range, your max health is 70, and your dodge regeneration is twice as long.
- Club
  - This club swings slightly faster but does 50% less damage. Your dodge and special attack regeneration is also slightly slower and you only gain half a second of invincibility after blocking an attack. Your ranged weapons lose their durability slower and you start each run with an extra 50 health.
- Unarmed
  - You attack fast but have little range. Punching enemies will increase the next punch's damage and attacking after blocking an enemy attack will do twice as much damage. If you attack while rolling, you will throw a heavy punch that can knock back enemies.
Added 2 new special attacks.
- Charge
  - Charge forward and damage enemies in your way.
- Parry
  - Parry an enemy attack to deal damage to the attacker. Parrying a projectile sends a projectile back towards the attacker.

Added Juliet Outfit 5. It can be unlocked by beating Cormac while unarmed.
Added damage numbers. They can be enabled or disabled in the gameplay settings.

Changes

Practice can now spawn all enemy types.
- Practice has been moved to the main menu.
Increased Double Barrel Shotgun accuracy.
Healing Revolver will heal 2 HP instead of 1. (Forgot to update description, it will be updated in a later update.)
Buffed throwing knives special attack.
- Final upgrade will deal damage to nearby enemies as well, but will not stun them.
Luck potion description mentions that it increases extra luck to your perks to hopefully better explain what the luck potion does.
King Eadgar now takes extra headshot damage. That's right, he didn't have this before. This was actually a mistake but he's been nerfed so much already, so he's probably used to it by now.
When first time ever starting the game, it will lock to 90 FPS instead of unlimited. This does not apply to players who have already started the game.

Bug Fixes

Fixed Juliet's outfit being incorrect or Juliet not even appearing when buying a weapon from her while having random outfits enabled.
Fixed melee attacks going through walls.
Fixed rolling while having speed potions active causing very abrupt stops. It should feel smoother now.
Fixed one of Juliet's animations clipping into her body.
Fixed the lights for Juliet's shop in level 3 where the torches were the wrong color or stuck in a wall.
The word align is no longer misspelled and the message explaining how to leave Juliet's shop has also been corrected.
A few changes made to hopefully prevent rare crashes.

Oct 20

Beta 2.5.5

Pro Soccer Online - Brylos

Gameplay:

- Slightly decreased touch slowdown.

- Increased how much momentum gets cancelled whenever a ball is kicked/dribbled. This should make it so the ball generally feels more responsive to kick/dribble inputs. 1st time kicks/volleys should feel better from this change.

- Slightly increased GK drop kick power multiplier.

Bug Fixes:

- Fixed GK catches/deflections not working in multiplayer training.

General Changes/Additions:

- Added accept match button for ranked matchmaking. Now whenever a match is ready, it will ask all players to accept the match. This should reduce issues related to players being AFK when joining a ranked match, and also reduce issues related to ranked lobbies starting but missing 1 or more players.

- Switched Sydney servers to Singapore servers. Sydney has been inactive and there are some players asking for Singapore servers so we'll try them out and see how it goes. If the level of activity isn't adequate enough to justify both Singapore and Seoul servers we're going to end up removing 1 of them. Of course if the player base grows we can always re-add servers as needed for both Asia and Australia.

Oct 20

Introducing The Making of Eastward: Design Works - Part 1

Eastward - Pilgrim

We are super excited to share with you today, Lost in Cult’s new documentary ‘The Making of Eastward: Design Works - Part 1’. Yes, that means there will be more to come as the team follow the chapters of their Eastward: Design Works book.

Last year the wonderful team at Lost in Cult visited Shanghai to interview Pixpil about their inspirations, artistry, and to learn more about the wonderful people who came together to create Sam and John’s journey through a broken world.

In this first episode Lost in Cult sit down with Pixpil to talk about their backstory, check out artist Hong Moran’s early sketches, and take a seat with the folks at Souviens Ten-Zan, creators of Eastward's iconic opening cinematic.

If you missed your chance to get hold of the gorgeous Eastward Design Works companion book, they’ve also reprinted 1,000 additional copies to celebrate Eastward’s 4th birthday! 🎂 Pre-orders are live at

https://www.lostincult.co.uk/eastward

We also want to take this moment to say a special thanks to Imogen May for (directing, producing, filming and editing) this incredible documentary series and Shaun Hughes for writing and editing the Design Works book in the first place. Finally, shout out to everyone who has helped support Lost in Cult over the years, from translators and animators, to sound designers and directors. You’re the best!

Until next time!

Oct 20

Starsand Island achieves great success!

Starsand Island - Starsand Island

Dear islanders,

We're truly grateful to everyone who joined our cozy world during Steam Next Fest. Your support, feedback, and kind words have meant the world to us.

As a token of our appreciation, the Free Demo will remain open — though the exact closing date will be announced later.

The festival may have ended, but our story on the island continues — and during this extended period, we will continue updating the Demo, optimizing your experience and fixing issues, so that Starsand Island can greet you in an even better state.

For those who haven’t visited the island yet, this is the perfect time to come and experience its cozy charm!

Thank you for being part of this healing journey. Let's keep building, exploring, and creating new memories together on Starsand Island.

— The Starsand Island Team

Join our official Discord to get the latest updates:

Discord：

http://discord.gg/HHnJvsspk4