Hello survivors! The development of DOLLS: THE HUNT took longer than expected, but it comes with exciting news: more game modes, skins, and challenges to deliver the best experience possible.

The game will feature 3 game modes:

• Hunt Mode: The classic battle where 1 player is the Hunter and the others are the Prey. Best enjoyed with a full lobby!

• Deathmatch Mode: You and your friends fight until only one survives.

• Escape Mode: Play solo or in a group as you try to escape from monsters, labyrinths, and solve puzzles to survive.

Another big update: apart from Hunt Mode, the game will support both first-person and third-person perspectives, giving players more ways to experience the hunt.

• Private matches with friends or global public lobbies with up to 5 players.

• Switch between first-person or third-person gameplay (except in Hunt Mode).

• Create public or private lobbies to challenge players worldwide.

• Communicate with others through voice and text chat.

• Explore richly detailed environments while trying to survive.

• Have fun and interact in tense, strategy-filled matches.

To support the project, add it to your wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3065180/Dolls_The_Hunt/Stay tuned for more updates coming soon!

If you'd like more consistent, bite-size updates, or don't want to miss the updates on the single-player version, consider joining our Discord, where I’m more active. Alternatively, we have a newsletter for milestone community polls and major game updates.

Two things are worth your attention:

I’m running a new round of community polls on potential Quality of Life / User Experience updates — especially around automation and idler mechanics (part of the “less grind, more strategy!” goal). These suggestions come from observing actual player behavior and community requests, but it’s crucial I understand your intentions correctly. Once this round wraps up, more questions will likely follow, as I'd like to consult on a few additional topics.

Your feedback matters whether you like these ideas or not. In fact, if you don’t, letting me know early saves valuable development time and lets me focus those resources on other features you’d enjoy more!

Speak up especially if you’re

• (a) a busy player (interested in idler/automation features),

• (b) an active raider, or

• (c) expansion-focused!

Most projects ask your input too late (or never) - here’s your chance to be heard early.

Don’t miss it!

You can find the polls posted here on our discord.

Thanks for shaping this world with us — your feedback drives everything.

When the current game ends (expected Tuesday, 13:00–14:00 CET), we’ll take a short technical break to update some server settings before launching the next round.

This won’t be a new game version just yet — but rest assured, that’s also coming soon.

Join the Noble Houses! ➻ ✉️ Newsletter | 💬 Community Discord | 💗Patreon

Hi spooky friends!

Development in August felt like a blur. I feel like I was possessed by something and when I woke up, bleary-eyed and staring upon my screen in the middle of the night, the first chapter of Winter Knight was complete.

Chapter one ended up being longer than I initially planned. The playable demo takes up a bit more than half of it, when I thought it would be more like 3/4ths. Two of the three main branches in it are complete; the third one I'll return to once the other chapters are finished since it's unlikely players will see it on a first playthrough.

Now, onto plans and progress!

My goal for September is to finish the character sprites + expressions and make revisions to the first part of chapter two.

The Winter Knight rework was actually started out of order: I planned the broad strokes of the story, then delved into rewriting it from the second act. This made it so that when I went back to do the first chapter, I had a crystal clear view of the events that would happen and what the player would know. I did end up changing pieces of the story when I finished chapter one, though, so I now need to edit the second act again and continue where I left off.

Chapter two is a flashback, where you'll be able to see what the castle and its inhabitants looked like while it was still populated...

The full build currently sits at 37k words, which makes it the biggest project I've coded so far by a long shot. 

Though it wasn't anything too crazy or complex, I had a lot of fun with dynamic music and sound in a certain sequence in the second half of chapter one, and hope I'll be able to do similar things in later sequences.

I've joked that because Nameless Knight is a suit of armour, it's been a blessing not having to draw facial expressions. That doesn't mean he isn't an expressive character, however! I put a lot of attention into how he sounds, while trying not to be too distracting (because in real life, suits of armour make a LOT of noise as they move.)

When the main character of your game is a knight...

There's also a different main BGM track for the rest of chapter one, which like the first track also has dynamic layering depending on where you are in the castle.

All the backgrounds for chapter one and most of the ones for chapter two are complete now. I hope you'll enjoy walking through the castle while it was still bustling and seeing what the ruins used to be like...

The sprites that still need to be completed are the Commander's, "Sir Hero" (an older character who appears in chapter two) and a new knight sprite I can use as a base for the various NPC knights.

Here are a few more sneak peeks at chapter one:

Huh, wonder why those crates are there.

September is going to be jam-packed for Winter Knight, with festivals, events and other tasks for me on top of development, so we'll see how far I get. Hopefully I'll get to tell you about it soon!

Have a great week,

-Eli

Friends! We continue our journey through the world of Silicone Heart, uncovering its secrets.

In Silicone Heart, a major city has its "shadow" — an enclave for those not accepted as their own. Here live the obsolete robots, who failed to integrate into the system and carved out their own outpost.

We’ve developed three conceptual variations:

Which one is closer to your vision? Write in the comments)

warning: old saves (from v 0.2..) will unfortunately be removed and challenge mode will be disabled

• added short tutorial / video instructions for new players in the main menu

• improved hints - grayed out buildings that were not yet encountered

• increased shadows distance

• fix misleading shadowed \\ sunlit hints

At Gamescom, players experienced the signature Anno loop: starting small, expanding settlements, and shaping economies through careful choices. Beginning in Albion’s rugged frontier, every decision—whether building, trading, or managing production—fed into the growth of a thriving Roman settlement. The response was clear: the flow feels natural, immersive, and unmistakably Anno.

Now you can try it yourself with the free Anno 117: Pax Romana Demo now.

Anno 117: Pax Romana launches November 13th on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Shape your empire, and leave your mark on history.

Some people finish the demo in 30 minutes.
This person spent 14 hours on it.

Was it skill? Determination?
…Or just an Alt+Tab lost in the voids of Steam?

We’ll probably never know.

But thank you, unknown player. ❤️
And thanks also to everyone who already took the time to try the demo. 🙏

For those who haven’t yet, the demo recently received a full visual overhaul:
same environments, but with a big graphical upgrade and a reworked atmosphere.

The Steam Next Fest is coming soon, and I hope more brave players will give it a shot.

👉 The demo is free.
One level. No checkpoints. Pure die & retry.

💬 If you’ve played it, feel free to leave a short review, it really helps a lot.

🛠️ PS: I'm currently working on the game's final level.
There’s still more work to do, polishing, tweaking, balancing…
But yes: full release is planned for 2026.

Good luck.
You’ll need it.