We're very happy to make a surprise stop with our new free-to-play game, The Mr. Rabbit Magic Show, at LudoNarraCon during our 10 years of Rusty Lake Festivities! ✨

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3472550/The_Mr_Rabbit_Magic_Show/

Take a seat, get comfortable, and prepare to solve some puzzles in The Mr. Rabbit Magic Show! This anniversary free-to-play adventure from Rusty Lake will take you through 20 whimsically bizarre acts bound to test your ability to think outside the “box”. Don’t be surprised when things are not what they seem… or are they?

Thank you, Fellow Traveller, for including our newly launched adventure, The Mr. Rabbit Magic Show, in the official LudoNarraCon selection! It's a huge honour to be among such amazing narrative-driven game gems!



🔗 For more information on the event and its impressive lineup of speakers, check out https://www.ludonarracon.com/

Support us here 👉 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pixelalmostperfect/octarace

Today we are asking for the KickStarter community's help to raise just enough funds to manage production costs in the final stretch before the end.
Your support will allow us to communicate about the game, secure physical production costs, and think about long term support (content, features, online).

A playable demo is available on Steam for the occasion.
Coming in 2025, so get those engines started! 🚗💨

Hello Pool fans!

Welcome to the first of our Pure Pool Pro Dev Diaries.

Over the coming months, we’ll be jumping in here to share behind-the-scenes insights into the development of the game - starting today with a closer look at the announcement screenshots.

We'll also be using this diary to answer any of your burning questions along the way - so be sure to add them in the comments!

Read on for thoughts from our Ripstone art team on why these shots were chosen and what they reveal about the technology and artistry driving Pure Pool Pro.


This close-up also became the game's key art! We feel it showcases the incredible level of detail we're pushing for in Pure Pool Pro. When a cue strikes, you’ll notice minute chalk dust particles dispersing - a result of our Magma Engine's real-time particle effects.



Looking closer, you'll notice our ball surfaces aren't just glossy and super reflective. They're textured with micro-imperfections, clear coat scratches, and subtle colour bleed - simulating the real-world wear, dirt, and lacquer imperfections seen on professional equipment. In the game, this will be rendered at native 8K fidelity.

Fun fact: for images, Steam's upload filesize limit is just 5MB! So we're hosting the 8K screenshots, here. We recommend pulling them up on your biggest and best display and zooming in on the details.

This action shot highlights not just movement but also material accuracy. Each ball features real-world manufacturing effects, including clear coat lacquer, colour variation, and minute flaws.



In the background, the Pure Pool Pro Arena recreates the feel of a real-world competitive venue - crowds, moving branding, LED boards, and camera rigs. In the full game, the branding and themes will even change depending on the event you’re playing, bringing variety and atmosphere to every match.

Here, speed and atmosphere collide. We know players have mix feelings about motion blur - but we us it dynamically to capture the pure force of each shot.



Even the baize (table cloth) has been custom simulated with displaced cloth techniques, individual fluff strands, and nap distortion to enhance that hyper-realism!

On close inspection, you’ll see not just reflections but also fine imperfections — dirt, wear, scuffs, and clear coat flaws, all behaving accurately under dynamic lighting. Our physically-based rendering ensures every ball and surface reacts just like real materials.


We couldn't reveal the game without giving you a glimpse of your stage for the next generation of pool.



The TetraDome is a fully dynamic tournament arena, inspired by real-world pro events. A 1000-strong crowd, broadcast cameras and atmospheric lighting all combine to create the complete professional sports experience.

We hope this gave you a deeper dive into the work going into Pure Pool Pro!

As always, we’re keen to hear your thoughts and questions - drop them below or join us on http://discord.gg/ripstone where the team regularly chats with the community.

And if you haven’t already:

👉 Don’t forget to wishlist Pure Pool Pro to stay updated!

NebuLeet includes two archetypes of pilots:

• Humans with behavior (I'll call them mercenaries for convenience)
  
• Programmable androids

Human pilots behavior depends on their stats, level, and personal traits (like Coward). They bring an auto-battler aspect into the game. You build and configure vessels, they do the piloting part.

And while this game can be played without programming, it's an essential feature that can improve the experience and open new possibilities.

A fully automated vessel? Great, that's possible.
A partially automated vessel, where you manually control the other parts? Yes, do it!

Or what about a manually-controlled vessel? You heard it correctly, programming is a way to get an arcade-style or RTS-style control of a unit, just make sure it moves, fires, and rotates in response to your button mashing.

Here is an example of the manual movement control scheme:



These little blocks are called commands. A sequence of commands (from top to bottom) forms a program.

There are several challenges when trying to combine auto-behavior of mercenary pilots and programmable androids. If no good programming is done, mercenaries are much better and require less efforts from the player. But if you create a good algorithm, it can dominate the scene.

And there is also an onboarding aspect of that - programming is harder to get into as you need to learn more mechanics of the game. We can't throw everything the game has onto the player and expect them to figure it out.

Instead, the player starts with a very limited set of commands available to them:



This reduces the cognitive load at the start. It also fixes the problem of overpowered androids in the early-game phase.

All equipment parts (navigation bridges, weapons, artifacts) also have default programs preinstalled. This serves as a programming example for beginners. In addition to that, it makes purchased items useful right away, without any re-configuration. There are multiple preinstalled programs, but only one of them is usually available from the start - the most basic one. This is because the programming commands pool is so limited, nothing fancy can be loaded into device even if it has the program listed.

So how do we unlock new programming commands? This is where software tech tree (ahem, grid) comes into play!



This grid is randomized every time you start a campaign. It consists of "command bundles". The bundles usually contain around 2-3 closely related commands.

You start by selecting a tech tree root - it can be any tile, for free. Then you can move from there by unlocking a tile that is adjacent to any of already unlocked tiles. The price increases every next tile, so prioritization is the key.

Once you unlock a tile, new commands that this tile (command bundle) provides are added to your pool. This means you can create more sophisticated programs on your own or use a more advanced pre-installed program of any given device.

You get Android Evolution Points when android pilots get combat experience. That's it - if there are no androids in your squad, no points are awarded. Both mercenaries and androids have their merits and it can be beneficial to use both, so consider this to be another parameter for optimization.

I hope this system will make multiple styles of gameplay somewhat balanced: from a full autobattler wth zero or very little programming to a full programming showdown in the style of Carnage Heart.

Hello Folks!

We're thrilled to be featured once again at the Latin American Games Showcase, this time in collaboration with Gamescom LATAM! Join us to explore the exciting developments happening across the region.



Stay tuned to their Twitch and YouTube channels! We look forward to seeing you (virtually) there on May 1st. Catch SOPA at the stream and get a glimpse into the most exciting games in the region!

Con mucho cariño,
- Team StudioBando

Bug Fixes

• Friendship XP heart animation now appears properly when gifting items to friends
  
• Flavor icons are now correctly hidden until the associated feature is available

Hello everyone!

For this update, two more systems have been added into the game: quests and conversations.

Here's a video that demonstrates a lot of the below: conversation, quest branches, group fights (militia vs undead), quest completion, quest chain, location hints.



Quests

Quests are very important in Sigil of Kings, so there are going to be plenty of them. Since the world is dynamic and unique because of procedural generation, all of these quests will be specific and uniquely tailored to your game. So, when developing a quest system, it's not just about creating quests and the UI, but we're creating a way to synthesize quests based on the state of this unique world. It's a long way to say it's harder than normal.

The types of quests supported so far are plenty, and are pretty standard: kill enemy, get item, return item to somebody, be somewhere at a specific time, escort somebody to safety, etc.





There's a new screen for the list of all quests and detailed current quest information, the Journal screen. The design is typical CRPG design, and is partly inspired from Avowed.



Some quest information is also shown in the main game UI on the right hand side: the currently pinned quest is always there and other recently acquired/modified quests are shown temporarily before fading out.

Location hints are supported for quest objectives, so sometimes it's possible to see where is a target that we need to reach, e.g. some particular city or dungeon, approximately or precisely.



Conversations

There are multiple ways to get and complete quests. One is by just triggering events while playing the game normally, e.g. arrive somewhere, kill something, etc. Another way is to talk to people in cities. City screen is not implemented yet, so that's coming later. A third way is to talk to NPCs in levels, e.g. in settlements.

When talking to NPCs in selttlements, you should get context-specific information regarding the NPC and the location they're found in.



To support quests, we need to be able to inject dynamic quest information, to some of those NPCs. That's done, and shown in the first video.

This is all for now, stay tuned for more.

Until next time!

Various merge interface corrections

Ghouls are running amok and Vay Hek needs your help thinning out the hordes to reclaim stolen goods!

For the first three weekends of May, tactical Alerts will appear in an all-new event offering components for exciting new weaponry: the Tak & Lug and Tonkkatt! Check out the complete schedule below:


After you complete an Alert for the first time, you will receive an Inbox message containing Blueprint for whichever Weapon is currently up for grabs. Subsequent playthroughs of each Alert will then award random components based on which weekend you're playing!


When: Friday, May 2 at 11 a.m. ET until Monday, May 5 at 11 a.m. ET
Available Rewards: Tonkkatt Blueprint and Components

• Tonkkatt Blueprint
  
• Tonkkatt Blade
  
• Tonkkatt Handle

Note: The Tonkkatt requires two blades and two handles to craft!


When: Friday, May 9 at 11 a.m. ET until Monday, May 12 at 11 a.m. ET
Available Rewards: Tak & Lug Blueprint and Components

• Tak & Lug Blueprint
  
• Tak & Lug Blade
  
• Tak & Lug Handle
  
• Tak & Lug Guard

Note: The Tak & Lug requires one blade, one handle, and one guard to craft!


When: Friday, May 16 at 11 a.m. ET until Monday, May 19 at 11 a.m. ET
Available Rewards: All Tak & Lug and Tonkkatt Components

• Tonkkatt Blueprint
  
• Tonkkatt Blade
  
• Tonkkatt Handle
  
• Tak & Lug Blueprint
  
• Tak & Lug Blade
  
• Tak & Lug Handle
  
• Tak & Lug Guard

• 🤖 The AI now plays more creatively, with clever team actions and unexpected combinations.
  
• 🎯 Spectacular through balls have been added, especially when top-statted players are involved.
  
• ⚔️ Both your team and the opponent benefit from this update — get ready for a tougher and more exciting challenge!

Join our Discord and help shape the future of Motion Soccer! https://discord.gg/M5vWbVmEbJ