Greetings, sires and dames,

We're quite excited to share that we've just launched a large update which will not only improve the currently playable demo, but the game on launch as well. Here are the details:

When creating a new game, you can now choose to play in Troubadour Mode, which will add 4 extra grail cards to your deck. The intention is to create a way for players more interested in the story and the narrative to have an easier time getting through challenges and combats. We're still testing this out so please let us know if you think it needs more tweaking.

Merlin's grimoire has expanded with the addition of new spells for you to experiment with:

The spells of Bravery, Animal Healing, Second Wind, Swiftness and Purification will all serve an important goal in your adventures, as everything else in the game does. :)

The grimoire now displays two little flames to inform you that new spells can be prepared. This removes the need to manually open your grimoire and check every available spell every time your hand changes.

Additionally, a new indicator is displayed in front of spells that can be prepared now, so you can, at a glance, see which are immediately available to you.

Horses are, of course, one of the most important aspects of Legends of the Round Table. From travelling the land swiftly to horseback combat, a Knight can only be as good as his best horse, right?

We've made multiple improvements to them, both in the demo and the upcoming full release. For starters, we added multiple new looks, from three variations to nine of them! Notwithstanding the different barding a Knight's hose will have depending on their opulence (how rich they are).

Additionally, when at the Round Table, inspecting a Knight's character sheet will display their current steed, and you will be able to choose which mount you want your Knight to use for their upcoming adventures through the new Stable menu.

Special rules that affect certain opponents will now be clearly displayed when hovering their name (just inspect them with ctrl + click first!).

Also, Knights' AP (Action Points) are now prominently displayed in a new UI, above their banners.

Knights and their horses now have new idle animations, both during adventures as well as at the Round Table.

You can now move the camera during combat challenges.

We've removed the subtle shadows beneath characters to better adhere by the original look of medieval art.

We've made multiple performance optimisation.

We've fixed a few issues that could cause the game to crash if characters couldn't pathfind to their destination, or during certain conditions in the Caerleon Great Battle.

WARNING: Some saves from previous versions may no longer work after this update.

The demo is better than it's ever been and now is a great time to give it a try if you haven't yet, or recommend it to friends who like RPGs! Also, please join us on our Discord server - we'd love to chat with you about the game, RPGs, medieval stuff or anything else!

If you've tried the demo, please consider leaving a review to help us get seen by more players.

Until next time! 🤴👸

We're excited to release a FREE wallpaper DLC for all owners of the game!

This collection showcases the evolution of our project, from the early days of Sofia 1.0 in late 2023, through Sofia 2.0 in November 2024, and finally to Episode 1 featuring Sofia as she appeared in December 2024.

What's Inside: This pack includes a variety of wallpapers pulled from different stages of development - some are marketing materials, others are screenshots from older builds that never made it to the final game. While these images don't tie directly into the story, they offer a behind-the-scenes look at how far we've come.

We wanted to give our supporters something extra - a glimpse into Sofia's journey and a chance to surround yourself with more of her dark fantasies. Consider it a thank you for being part of this project.

The wallpaper pack is completely free for all game owners. Download it now and take a trip through Sofia's evolution!

• Activating Burning the Midnight Oil with autofarm on and while sleeping now causes sleeping to end

• Fixed an issue where some of the new researcher books are not giving gold gain as intended when complete

• Fixed an issue where Epiphany was not giving enough pages in certain situations

• Fixed an issue where Squires could end up in dungeon 4 much earlier than they should

• Minor UI fixes

Maid of Venia is an Ode to Joan of Arc! The story and lessons that Joan inspires is a big part of why we started Maid of Venia years ago. If you are new to Maid of venia - Years ago after a successful kickstarter for the beta; my friend and artist for the series took his life. His wife left him after years of struggling with drinking. Clark and I toured in a band for years and I am now solo developing the games. I also use AI for music. I am a lifetime musician, a pianist, guitarist and I am okay at singing but I have to use a lot of autotune.

AI - if you are going to give me trouble about using tools to compete with companies 100 times my size and budgets that are more than I will ever make then you better not be supporting those same AI companies. This includes companies that use AI but have the means to pay people - Which is basically every app you have or product you use - Or companies that take data to train - which is every social media. If you use anything Meta, X, TikTok then you support AI, if you posted your art on those platforms then it trained AI. If you posted music on SoundCloud then it was used by AI or YouTube and so on. If you voted for Trump then you voted for this.

But if you are so lost that you can't see that AI is not the problem but the slow consolidation of power through wealth then I am sorry for you. I am sorry that you are buying into the lies and misdirection. If you can not see our capitalism turning into a monetary feudal system then you need to look harder. Please look at the swamp of monopolies forming in Washington. Please read "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith.

New Level

• The Bathroom - Take part in a massive Tan siege on a Blue research base! (Find it on Page 3 above the Flatlands maps)

New Soldiers

• Pistol Soldier - Unlocked by default in the spawn menu!

• Gasmask Soldier - Can be unlocked by exploring the Lab Playground!

• Pickelhaube Soldier - Can be unlocked by exploring the Garden Trenches!

• A secret unit - .....

New Weapons

• Reloadable 1911, M16 + Underbarrel Grenade Launcher and M16 + Underbarrel Shotgun, Anti-Material Rifle + Red Dot Variant, Legionnaire 33, Paragreen 36, Lee Enfield Sniper, 102nd M2 Carbine, Greystav, 4ths Vulcan (AK-74), Bluehemoth PDW, Reeler, Imperial Clobber, PTRS, MG08/15. Discover these weapons across different levels!

• Combat Knife!

• Anniversary guns: Emperor's Jackhammer, Commonwealth Typewriter, L85, and Spectre! (Added to the Main Menu level for an easy grab and unlock. Thank you!)

• Makarov, Bobarov, MP40, OG Placeholder M16, Chauchat, and MP-18

Additional Updates

• Sandbox pre-battle setup settings. (customization enabled by a toggle at level select)

• Added Dismemberment On/Off button to the menu.

• Helicopter becomes a proper wreck when crashing.

• Improved soldier physics so they don’t look as odd when player is trying to grab them. They can now be grabbed at any point on body when alive.

• Added Helmet prop that can be worn - Unlocked at the Memorial Grave Site on the Backyard Bootcamp level.

• Improved graphics and performance optimizations on all Blue Technocracy Laser weapons.

Pre-Battle Setup Options (WIP)

• Choose which team fights what team.

• Choose which side of the map each team is on. (Each side's props match colors of the chosen teams)

• Choose which team/side player spawns on.

• Set Unit AI Spawned Total: set total NPC soldier spawns via a slider.

• Set AI Team Proportions: set how many soldiers are on each side via a slider.

• Set Player Health Percentage. (can be higher or lower than usual)

• Set Flag Capture Rate.

• Set Score To Win.

Conquest Flag Changes

• Flags can be contested: Flags will stop being captured if too many enemies are in the area, then start flashing between the two contested flag.

• Flags will stop being captured if capturer leaves or is dead and goes back to being neutral or the previously held team.

Conquest Wrist Menu

• New and improved Conquest wrist menu with weapon previews and multiple pages.

• Conquest categories: Recommended and Weapons.

• Unlocked secret weapons appear in conquest wrist menu.

• Conquest has visual interface showing points for either side.

Hello, everyone!

This is the development team of <Mini Cozy Room : Lo-Fi>.

We have updated the game with new rooms, furniture, outfits, and features that many of you have been waiting for.

Here are the details of the update.

The Train Room has been added.

Unlike existing rooms, animation features have been added.

You can click on the train wheels or rail sections to stop the animation or adjust the speed in three stages.

- Multiple new furniture themes with fresh designs and colors have been added.

- 15 new outfits with various themes have been added.

- Login, multilingual search, and bookmark features have been added.

- A preset feature has been added to easily change room, wardrobe, and ambient sound settings.

1. Album Playback Algorithm Changed

- Changed so that going back in shuffle mode plays the previous track instead of a random one

- Modified to start the first song of the next album when an album ends

- Added album repeat playback feature

2. Options

- Added "Display Tray Icon in Normal Mode" feature to Program Icon Display Location

3. Fixed to resume playback when selecting a specific ambient sound while paused

4. Fixed room change arrow colors to match background colors

5. Fixed the hair color selection window to close when pressing the confirm button at the bottom

6. Added animation for the hide widget button in mini mode to disappear to the bottom right of the screen

7. Afro Hair - Processed to hide protruding hair when wearing hats that don't fit all the hair

8. DLC Banner - Added preview feature

9. Added auto-scroll feature for local music slots

10. Changed the purchase cost of outfits obtained through DLC purchases to 0LP

1. Fixed pixelated widget appearance in mini mode

2. Fixed widget size mismatch with taskbar in mini mode (Windows 10 based)

3. Fixed UI position changes for memo/to-do/timer when switching to mini mode

4. Fixed issue where album/ambient sound buttons remained on when switching from mini mode to normal mode with album/ambient sound active

5. Fixed issue where text color was fixed based on the room where the box was placed

6. Fixed issue where furniture interaction was disabled when returning to the game screen after pressing the close button in the exit game popup

7. Session Timer - Fixed text size that was protruding outside

8. Fixed memo and to-do group activation bugs

10. Fixed issue where skin color returned to initial color when restarting the game with one memo or to-do group active

11. Fixed issue where characters remained even after changing activity furniture to empty

12. Fixed issue where embedded music and in-game music played simultaneously in the tray menu

13. Fixed issue where some unpurchased background skins appeared as purchased in specific rooms

We are always grateful for your support and love.

Please continue to share your feedback through the community and various channels, and we will keep improving the game.

Additionally, demos for two other new games we developed have been released.

We are currently participating in the Steam Next Fest, so we ask for your interest and support! (Adding to your wishlist is love)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3804790/TBH_Task_Bar_Hero_Demo/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3895230/PANOPTYCA__Idle_RPG_Manager_Demo/

Thank you.

Hotfix 0.30.01

Updates
• The Tutorial now shows the input for the Air Brake and Phase shift directly under the tutorial text.

Bug Fixes
• Screenshake will now be disabled by default.
◦ Your non-control settings may be reset as a result.
◦ This setting is incompatible with the Steam Deck, and causes frame rate drops. A warning has been added
◦ Hoping to find a solution for this eventually
• Fixed an issue related to the activation and text for the Machine Learning utility
• Fixed some issues that could cause a loss of control when tabbing out and returning if using mouse + keyboard

Welcome to the first Loadstar Devlog!

I plan to publish a devlog with the completion of each alpha version tracking my progress towards the finished game and the features I'm adding along the way.

`Alpha 1` marked what I considered to be the minimum viable trailer version of the game. Everything I needed to put together an initial gameplay trailer and launch the Steam page, no more, no less. Following on from this, I plan to focus on a specific area or 'epic' in each successive alpha version.

The focus for `alpha 2` was combat

One of the first things I wanted to take a look at was how the insides of the ships are drawn. In `alpha 1` I used sprites showing all the parts inside the ship. This looked cool but made it hard to see what was inside the ship vs. what was outside. In `alpha 2` the parts are represented by icons. The icon colour shows the damage level, the borders of the cells clearly show the grid and I can also show if a ship part is powered or not by changing the background.

Old on the left, new on the right

You might also notice I've popped the weapon sprite on the outside of the ship because...weapon sprites look cool!

Something else that's new is bonuses based on where the ship parts are placed. Certain parts get a bonus when placed next to each other. For example, if I put cargo bays next to each other the total cargo capacity is increased.

Plus icon shows adjacency bonus

Some locations on the ship also offer bonuses to engine performance and to the number of hit points a part gets when placed there, so you're encouraged to put engines at the back of the ship and to put your most valuable ship systems in the centre.

Large cargo bay placed on 9 defence bonus squares

This means it's often better to cluster similar parts together but that means putting all your eggs in one basket because...

Rather than hitting a specific part within the enemy ship, weapons now target a number of grid cells with each weapon having a different attack pattern.

Lasers hit squares in a line, where as missiles hit in a cross shape

And some weapons such as Flak scatter randomly based on how far you are away from the target because I also added...

The beauty of FTL's combat system is that you focus on what happens inside the ship rather than the positions of the combatants in space - just like a Star Trek episode. But a core part of combat in games like Elite is controlling the distance between yourself and the enemy.

That gave me the idea to implement range in Loadstar. By powering up the engines and setting the helm control you can choose to close with the enemy or pull away. Each weapon has an accuracy based upon whether you are currently at long, mid or short range. A missile makes a good stand-off weapon whereas flak cannon work best when you get in close.

Closing in on the enemy

Another thing to consider is sensor range. At long range you cannot see the opponent's interior, as you close to mid range you will be able to see where all the systems are placed and at close range you can tell which systems are powered up. If you're planning to pirate a ship and plunder its cargo, you'd better get in close to make sure all that precious cargo doesn't get blown to space dust!

Also new in alpha 2 is projectile weapons including torpedoes, missiles, rockets, flak and railguns along with point defence to shoot them down.

Pew pew

In `alpha 3` I plan to look into something which a lot of you requested...crew!

Catch you in the next devlog.

This was a standard build to fix up and implement features throughout the game. These were mainly functional changes and less visual.

1. Messaging. It's been lacking so we added some basic features to let the player know when they get upgrades and health. We also added some explosions to designate when explosive projectiles have gone off.

2. Rockets! They've been around but a little ugly. We made them a little less....ugly....but they work! More artwork to come

3. Landmines! Oooooh boy they're ugly. Placeholder art in place, more to come. (the tiny white square)

4. Collisions. Hitting the ground will now cause the player to take damage AND it will reset your level speeds.

5. Menus. We had some strange menu issues. Those have been patched and were not detected further in testing, cannot confirm steam deck fix at this time. Be wary.

So.....What's next. A tutorial will be in the works to get everyone familiar with the controls. Possibly some new UI features. A pass on enemy behaviors to make things a little less "messy" on the battlefield.