Hi folks! Today artist extraordinaire Estivador and I have a little holiday surprise for you! [quote]Speaking of holidays, the game will be on sale for Steam Winter Sale a few hours from now, so that should be a great time to join the fun-loving billiards roguelike family (or tell a friend about it)! [/quote]
This patch includes a whole bunch of new graphics for floor tiles (including special boss-level ones), the outer arena walls and funky new hole graphics!
And yes, you can turn the one below off by deactivating the "gore" checkbox.

Patch notes (v1.27)

• Added a variety of new floor tile graphics.
• Added special floor graphics for boss levels (5 and 10).
• Added alternative graphics for the outer arena walls.
• Added alternative graphics for holes.
• Changed Twitter links to Bluesky. Come say hi!
• Fixed several translation typos and minor bugs.

Finally, with the year coming to a close I'd like to thank each and every one of you for checking out my game! While the games industry is going through rough times, this has been a huge year for me and large parts of that come down to the, overall moderate but personally very significant, success of Rack and Slay (who's willing to help push past 400 reviews btw? ). Not least thanks to your feedback, the game evolved throughout dozens of patches, multiple content updates, post-release ports to macOS and Nintendo Switch, as well as localization to support a total of 7 languages. This is way beyond what I imagined when I started working on this a little more than 2 years ago. So once again: THANK YOU, it means the world! All the best and enjoy the holidays, Fabian

[ 2024-12-19 14:00:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! Excited to let you know that just a few hours from now, The Game Awards for Games Who Can't Afford the Game Awards (or in "short" TGAGWCAGA) will be streamed on YouTube showcasing tons of exciting recently released and upcoming indies!

TGAGWCAGA 2024 Friday, December 13th - 5:00 PM UTC / 6:00 PM CET / 12:00 PM ET Watch the stream here: https://www.youtube.com/@TGAGWCAGA

This is a great opportunity to check out games made by solo devs or tiny teams you may not have heard about yet! The world of indie games is a beautiful space full of creative minds who pour their hearts into deeply personal interactive pieces of art to try bold, wacky new things. This is where it's at! To quote Balatro's Localthunk who (congrats!) just won 3 TGA trophies: "Please, now that Ive been given my flowers, go play another deserving indie game and spread the love around."

[ 2024-12-13 11:11:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! Thanks to none other than the amazing tricko, also known as Empty Bottle (who has also been one of the game's earliest playtesters), Rack and Slay is now fully translated into Italian! Speaking of which, make sure to check out tricko's physics brawler Nice To Yeet You! I don't even have to lie when I say it's easily one of my most anticipated fighting games ever and I've already had a ton of fun with it in various playtests and the demo. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3108230/Nice_To_Yeet_You/

Patch notes (v1.26)

• Added Italian translation.
• Impaler and Dice Juggler now spawn the first spikes / dice with a 90 offset if you have both, so you can more deliberately target an enemy with one or the other.
• Fixed a variety of translation issues.

As usual, if you have any feedback or ideas, please say hi via discord.gg/ludokultur and talk to me. Also maybe consider leaving a review if you like the game (some of the recently added language regions are known for somewhat harsher takes). In any case, thank you so much for playing and benvenuto if you're one of the new Italian players! All the best, Fabian

[ 2024-11-19 12:03:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, it's time to bring roguelike billiards to new audiences! Today's update adds 5 new languages to the game: German, French, Portuguese (BR), Chinese (simplified) and Japanese. Additionally, macOS support and a few general fixes and optimizations! As usual here's a reminder that if you enjoy the game consider leaving a review. It means the world, helps a lot with Steam visibility and ultimately allows me to put more hours into this game that I love so much. So here's a big thank you to anyone who chipped in! To celebrate, Rack and Slay is on sale on Steam (and Nintendo Switch) right now, and is participating in the amazing Roguelike Celebration 2024!

Patch notes (v1.25)

• Implemented localization system and added translations for new languages:
  • German
  • French
  • Portuguese (BR)
  • Chinese (simplified)
  • Japanese
• Added support for macOS.
• Improved performance (endless mode is now enabled on Nintendo Switch btw).
• Fixed a few minor bugs.

New Bundles

In other news, I'm collaborating with a few awesome indie devs in Steam bundles (besides the previously existing cooperations with Luck be a Landlord and the 2 Left Thumbs roguelike bundle)! If you like your roguelikes featuring bouncy ball physics, check out Roundguard: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/44868/Roundguard__Rack_and_Slay/ And to keep the balls rolling, the roulette roguelike Bingle Bingle has got you covered: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/45957/Bingle_Bingle__Rack_and_Slay/ As with all previous updates, I'll be keeping a close eye on the Steam forums and the Discord for your feedback, especially on the new translations (or languages you'd like to see in the future). All the best and have fun, Fabian

[ 2024-10-17 17:01:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

There were a couple hotfixes over the past couple of days that I'm summarizing below in addition to a few smaller tweaks that I just patched. Thanks for the continued feedback and reviews everyone! <3

Patch notes (v1.23)

• In the Boom Town challenge, you can now only be damaged once per TNT crate (even if you're caught in multiple of its explosions at the same time).
• Added option to turn off (un-)fast-forwarding via mouse aim button (speedrunners rejoice).
• Added options to specify the mouse-wheel aim adjust sensitivity.
• Fixed Boss Rush challenge starting with one more shot than it should.
• Fixed last TNT crate in a turn sometimes not exploding due to a race condition.

[ 2024-09-01 18:15:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another small one featuring a couple challenge balancing improvements and a little quality-of-life feature that has been requested by the mouse-only crowd for a while. :)

Patch notes (v1.22)

• Boss Rush challenge now starts with +2 shots to account for the higher number of enemies per level and give you a better chance to actually get through them all.
• Drunken Master backwards shot now never happens the first turn of a level to give you a bit more agency (and not ruin your first-shot abilities).
• Added option to the advanced settings that allows you to use your mouse scroll wheel to micro-adjust your aim.
• Fixed environment (mud/ice) tooltips repeatedly triggering in some cases.

[ 2024-08-28 12:31:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone! It's been a great week! I'm super happy with the reception of the big update. Thank you so much for the heartwarming comments and feedback in reviews, forum posts and the Discord! Today's patch will clean up a bit by improving challenge balancing (a couple of them were a little rough at times, especially on higher difficulties) and making TNT Crates as well as the Culty enemy a little more interesting. There are also a few minor fixes, but nothing major seems broken so far, fingers crossed!

Patch notes (v1.21)

• The Lost challenge now makes healing collectibles heal for 2 instead of 1 to give you a bit more leeway, and you start with Mad Doctor (gain gold for healing) to help you get off the ground.
• Golden Power challenge now guarantees 2 extra shot-power-providing collectibles every level to help with gold generation.
• TNT Crates now cause quadruple explosions to make them more unique, impactful and fit player expectations when seeing tons of dynamite better. This makes the Boom Town challenge slightly harder, but it was relatively easy anyways due to the self-removing obstacles.
• Culty enemy now has a 50% to become a Mimicry (that transforms every turn) at the end of each turn. This goes well with its "dark magic" vibe, makes it more unique and gives you a way to play around its extra spawn by waiting for it to turn into a more favorable enemy type before defeating it (although this can also be kind of risky depending on the situation).
• Fixed rare occasion of turn not ending due to out-of-bounds spike cannon projectiles.
• Small fixes and wording improvements.

I hope you continue to enjoy the update! All the best, Fabian

[ 2024-08-26 11:36:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, it's major update day! If you enjoy the game and the updates, maybe consider leaving a review. It really makes a big difference! Maybe we can break the 300 reviews milestone soon? Anyways, as promised this is a big one expanding on all areas of the game so let's get into it!

NEW ITEMS

Three new items join the compendium!

• Earthshaker has quite a bit of multi-kill potential and can help move enemies even when they're in tricky-to-reach spots.
• Bulldozer gives you a new tool to defeat enemies by smashing them head-on into obstacles.
• Recycler can snowball your collectibles generation and opens up new synergies revolving around picking up lots of stuff.

NEW ENEMIES

Two new enemies and brand-new enemy modifier!

• Gobbly eats the first other enemy it touches, which you can use to your advantage, but then you have to deal with a giant, satiated new "friend"...
• Charmy is such an attractive monster ball, that it makes you shoot towards itself at the end of the turn. Another ability you may be able to make good use of, but that can also be dangerous, so watch out and plan around it!
• The Mimicry modifier can apply to any enemy and causes it to randomly transform at the start of each turn, forcing you to re-evaluate your plans and think on your feet.

NEW COLLECTIBLES

Three funky new pick-ups can spawn in the arena!

• Speaking of the new Mimicry modifier, the Voodoo Doll applies it to enemies who collect it. When you pick it up, you can use its terrifying voodoo powers to make the closest enemy flee in terror!
• Picking up a Banana makes you (or an enemy) stronger, but also randomly changes the collecting ball's trajectory. Oops!
• The Rune Stone adds a new tool to your movement repertoire by teleporting you back towards the spot where you collected it after the turn. Enemies can use it to locate you and move straight at you (which can put you in a pickle, but also enables some new around-the-corner kills).

NEW OBSTACLES

Three new obstacles to play around!

• The Spike Cannon fires a deadly spike on touch. Line up multiple enemies if you can, but make sure you're not caught in the cross-fire!
• TNT Crates will light up on touch and explode at the end of the turn, cause more explosions are always fun!
• And finally the Semicircle obstacle adds another beloved shape for more spatial variety.

NEW CHALLENGES

Many of you really enjoyed the existing Challenge Runs as crazy, pre-defined but still very replayable gameplay variants, so you asked for more. Well, this update DOUBLES the number of challenges! Some of them reward risky plays, some flip the economy on its head, some revolve around the new enemies and obstacles, and one asks you to beat the game without items (say what?). I hope you'll have at least as much fun discovering new strategies as I had designing these new challenges! Of course these new ways to play the game are naturally open to balance tweaks, so if you have any feedback or suggestions, definitely let me know via the Steam forums or the Discord!

NEW RUN MODIFIERS

Six new run modifiers will make your Daily / Wild mode runs even more diverse! I'll leave those for you to discover, but there's some brand-new stuff in it like a chance to dodge damage, enemies eating gems and coins, and a wacky "all-mimicry" mod.

MISC

• Magnet radius doesnt collect enemy swords anymore.
• Raging Bull now correctly pushes enemies away from a collision.
• Fixed Mimic giving less gold than it should per level.
• Fixed Boomy explosions not triggering nearby bombs.
• Fixed run modifiers sometimes not being sorted by type.
• Fixed run modifier icon not showing in Berserk challenge.
• Fixed coin and gem scaling in rare big bridge level type.
• Tentative method to unstuck enemies from walls.
• Lots of minor fixes and tweaks all around.

And that's it! I sincerely hope you have lots of fun discovering how the new stuff integrates into the game and boosts variety all around! Once again, thank you so much for the support, feedback and reviews that allow me to pour even more of my game-making heart into this game!

BUT WAIT... there's more?!

DISCOUNT + DAILY DEAL

Today marks the start of a week-long 20% discount and, thanks to Valve, the game is actually getting featured on Steam's front page! Let's hope this will draw a few more eyes to the game!

NINTENDO SWITCH RELEASE

And finally, the game is OUT NOW on Nintendo Switch (also with a launch discount), which still seems unreal to me! You can find it in the EU/AUS and Americas stores. (FYI: The release version is v1.13, but this new update will come to the console in all its glory soon!) Okay, that's it for real this time! All the best and have fun, Fabian

[ 2024-08-19 17:05:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! Today I'm happy to let you know that work on the big new content update has been going great and the release will coincide with the brand-new Switch version: Both the PC-version update (1.2) and the first Switch release (1.13) will be available on August 19! (In case you're wondering, the new update will come to Switch shortly after and already include any potential hotfixes.)

A Big One

As I already hinted at in the previous news post, this update will add to pretty much ALL types of content in the game (items, enemies, obstacles, pick-up, challenges, modifiers) and overall be significantly bigger than the first major update (1.1).

A few teasers!

The new Earthshaker item will literally shake the arena and hold quite a bit of multi-kill potential!
The new Gobbly enemy will happily eat another monster ball and might help you take out a dangerous foe in a pinch. But then you have to deal with its giant stuffed (but happy) version!
You asked for more challenge runs, and you'll get a 100% increase! Not spoiling details for now, but some will drastically change the economy, while others revolve around new enemy and obstacle types.
I'll be posting more teasers on the Discord and my Twitter until the update drops, so keep an eye out if you're interested. Doing my best to add a whole bunch of new combinations of fun wacky stuff all around with this update! And as usual, thank you so much for playing, supporting and reviewing!

[ 2024-08-09 13:13:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! Given the huge optimization improvements from patch 1.13 have been pretty stable, it's been quiet for a little while in terms of quick-fire updates, BUT that doesn't mean I've been idling. In fact I'm knee-deep in working on the next big content update. Today I'd like to drop the first few teasers! First things first though, thanks so much to everyone who reviewed the game recently. The review number has been creeping up quite consistently and I'm so grateful to see the game is being well received. Really keeps the indie dev motivation going! (Side note: This reception includes the recent article from roguelike afficionado Gideon's Gaming who really got what the game is going for and found it to be "incredibly clever, fast, and easy-to-play".)

What's coming?

Now let's look at what's coming in the next big update though:

• New items that shake the arena and smush enemies
• New enemies, some charming and some very hungry
• New obstacles, some of which are quite trigger-happy
• New pick-ups revolving around tricky positional plays
• New challenges runs to DOUBLE the number of challenges
• New run modifiers for more Daily / Wild run variety

The amazing Estivador also started working on the new art assets already, and while everything's still in the works, here are a few teaser sketches:
Will the bananas be of the "Gros Michel" variety? Who knows!

Switch Release

In other news, I'm very excited to announce Rack and Slay is coming to Switch on August 19! For now, it'll be on the European and Americas stores. The port and approval process have been an ongoing side project for a while, so I'm really happy to get this one out the door. ---

GORGON SHIELD

Your friendly neighbourhood Publisher here, Graeme! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2446920/Gorgon_Shield/ Looking for more creative, genre-blending roguelikes? Check out the upcoming Gorgon Shield, from the creator of Swords and Sandals. It's a party-based RPG, arcade, roguelike. I can guarantee you haven't played another quite like it! Launching at just $8.99, be sure to wishlist the game so you don't miss out!

[ 2024-07-23 14:07:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey! Time for another bunch of improvements! The biggest deal here is a rework of how runs are saved which results in way smaller save file sizes (up to a 100x reduction in my testing on high-level endless runs) and much (up to 10x) faster loading times. The new system has been tested with a wide variety of old and new save files, but of course please let me know if you encounter any issues. Thank you! <3

Patch notes (v1.13)

• Accessibility: You can now hold the aiming mouse button during a turn to fast-forward. No need to use the keyboard anymore.
• Changes: These should primarily keep high-level endless mode or infinite-money craziness at bay and not affect "normal" runs all that much.
  • Duplicator cant be duplicated by Duplicators anymore.
  • Duplicator now only triggers up to 50 times a level.
  • Sleepies cant spawn more Sleepies on defeat (even if the run modifier is active).
• Optimization:
  • Drastically reduced run save file size when holding a large number of items.
  • Drastically reduced loading times when holding a large number of items.
  • More visual effect optimizations.
• Fixes:
  • Fixed Veteran Spelunker sometimes removing too few obstacles.
  • Fixed remaining item uses sometimes not showing.

[ 2024-07-03 12:46:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey! Here's another set of improvements for endless mode (which might also help with some particularly broken pre-endless runs). As always, thanks for the feedback and support! :)

Patch notes (v1.12)

• If you have more than 10 item picks, you are now able to randomly roll your remaining ones and immediately leave the shop. (Especially useful for high-level endless runs.)
  
• Fixed Wild Bomb bombs sometimes moving too slowly.
• Fixed out-of-bounds enemies sometimes not getting cleaned up (which could result in turns or levels not ending properly).
• Optimized lots of explosions being handled simultaneously.
• Optimized memory footprint when holdings lots of items.

[ 2024-07-01 12:05:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey there! The time since Rack and Slay launched has been a blast! The game received more than 230 reviews, has had countless awesome creators making videos and streams and so many invested players providing feedback, suggestions, creating guides etc. I'm super happy with the reception so far!
Just this week I released the first big content update introducing a new endless mode (that goes pretty wild sometimes), a new enemy, a new item, new run modifiers, a big round of balancing and more. I'm still very much in love with the game and dedicated to improving it! So if you've been on the fence about it so far, Summer Sale is a chance to jump in at a discount! As a reminder, here's what you get in the full version:

• 112 game-changing items, with 50+ of them unlockable through playing any mode.
• 20 difficulty levels to unlock in packs (no need to go 1-by-1 if you're that good).
• The full 10-level Crawl Mode for your good old ~30-minute roguelike runs.
• The shorter Delve Mode with half the levels, but double the item drafts.
• The one-level Raid Mode with random items for a quick burst of fun.
• Daily Mode featuring a unique set of game-changing run modifiers every day.
• Wild Mode for random (and sometimes extra crazy) sets of modifiers.
• The option to take victorious runs to Endless Mode and break the game.
• A set of Challenge Runs featuring drastically different gameplay variants.
• A full Item Compendium to track unlocks and collect badges.

Thank you so much for the amazing support! It means the world! P.S. It's an entirely different beast but my previous game WikiArena where Wikipedia articles battle it out over which one's longer or more popular is also on sale! Maybe take a peek! :)

[ 2024-06-27 17:00:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Managed to squeeze in a couple small features while dealing with endless mode shenanigans! :)

Patch notes (v1.11)

• Added a counter for how many Daily Runs you won.
• Added advanced option to show an overlay "shoot" button. This should be especially useful for touchscreen players since the game is now playble by using "left click", i.e. tap, only (if you also activate the "swap mouse buttons" option).
• Capped the gold gain of a few items (Balatro style? ).
  • This applies to Its Over Nineteen (on the plus side it now grants 5% shot power before the gold bonus though), Rich Collector and Banker. In the right situations they still provide by far the best gold per trigger value and especially multiple copies can still go crazy, but they dont completely spin out of control quite as easily in endless mode anymore.
• Fixed Magnet collecting pick-ups during the shop phase.
• Minor fixes and UI adjustments to better handle large numbers.
• Capped some visual effects for better performance (especially in endless mode).

[ 2024-06-27 11:45:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

As expected, endless mode brought with it a whole bunch of crazy shenanigans, most of which I don't want to get in the way of cause that's where the mode's fun is. Some would however literally break (as in crash) the game a little too frequently and easily. One of the major culprits is the ability to effectively buy an infinite number of random items in the shop. Therefore the price for random items will now scale a little faster and become actually when it goes above 999 gold. (Of course it will still reset at the start of each level so you won't be locked out forever.) Let me know if it feels off!

Patch notes (1.1a + 1.1b)

• Random item price scales faster and becomes ("infinite") when above 999 to make crashing in endless due to too many items less likely. (As mentioned I'll monitor if this needs further tweaking.)
• Endless mode now saves your best level reached when entering a level instead of on dying, so your highscore is recorded even if you should get into a "crash on load" situation with your run.
• Fixed bombs sometimes spawning on top of enemies and immediately exploding. (Random level generation makes this is hard to test for 100% certainty, so let me know if you still encounter this.)
• Fixed explosion size indicators sometimes being too large.
• Fixed explosion visuals overlaying the pause menu.
• Fixed Rack's enemy spawn chance being too low.
• Fixed Drunken Master challenge backwards shot chance being too high.

[ 2024-06-26 13:43:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey everyone, the first bigger update is here! Let's dive right in! :)

ENDLESS MODE

If you beat a Crawl or Delve run, you can now choose to keep going on the game end screen. Each level into endless will raise the stakes by adding additional enemies and generating harder layouts, but on top of it an ever-increasing enemy damage multiplier is introduced, making it especially tricky to survive not clearing all enemies with your initial set of shots. Let me know if you find issues or have feedback on this big new addition! How far can you go? How many items does it take for the game to break? (Probably quite literally, but that's part of the fun... right? :D)

NEW ITEM: STOP SHOT

Some players found themselves wishing for more post-shot control, and Stop Shot is here to help. With this item, if you aim at an enemy straight on you will stop in place after hitting it. The maximum angle is 5 with one copy of the item but can be multiplied by stacking it.
The collision prediction will also show a stop sign if your angle is in range to make sure you can reliably plan around the stopping effect.

NEW ENEMY: FLOATY

This balloon-carrying enemy slows down a little quicker than your typical monster ball, but also introduces a new kind of defeat method prioritization gameplay. If you try to send it into a hole, it will spend its balloons to return as a Normy enemy. Other methods of defeat will take care of it immediately though, so you better plan carefully where you send it!

NEW RUN MODIFIERS

These new modifiers will now be able to show up in Daily and Wild runs!

• Positive: There is a 10% chance for a gem to spawn each turn.
• Negative: Take 1 damage when you pick up the first coin or gem in a level.
• Neutral: Mini balls are bigger.

The Gang just got scary...

BALANCING

With one exception, the item changes are all buffs of weaker or very random and/or situational items to hopefully make them more generally useful and pickable.

• Beanstalk now gives 10 gold (instead of 5). Reasoning: Rocky enemies add quite a bit of risk and usually mean you have to at least take a couple shots and / or hits more which almost negated the gold gain already.
• Clumsy Trade now gives 3 (instead of 2) random items. Reasoning: Random items are random and therefore not worth as much as deliberate picks, especially if youre lacking mass item synergy. Plus, losing a random item that might be more important after the level is a considerable downside (unless youre in the last level, which previously was arguably the only decent spot to pick this item, now there should be a few more, especially Hail Mary, situations where it could make sense).
• Make Em Count now increases the price of buying shots by 20 per copy you own. Reasoning: Since the price of an additional shot is based on how many max shots you have, it was too easy to counter the downside of the item (buy just cheaply buying back 1-2 shots) while making full use of the huge power potential gained through its upside in the long run. Sometimes this could even render higher difficulty runs mostly no-brainers. Now playing around the downside (by e.g. buying shots first and then picking up the item after) should lead to more interesting decisions.
• Money Is Power now triggers per 8 gold spent (instead of 10). Reasoning: The power level of this item was just a bit underwhelming in general and it required too much spending to really be worth it, especially on higher difficulties where gold is usually pretty tight.
• Parasite now makes an enemy shoot at the closest other enemy (instead of in a random direction). Reasoning: Fully random mini ball shots can be kind of fun and chaotic but didnt really help the reliability of the item. Now its much more likely to result in enemies dunking one another. Fun? :D
• Patience now grants you 10 gold on top of its other effects. Reasoning: This should make it a little more attractive to pick (or randomly receive) the item earlier in a run, while it previously was really mostly just viable when already in the last level.
• Rack now grants 2 gold (instead of 1) per defeated Normy enemy. Reasoning: The risk the item introduces of adding additional enemies is quite scary to take on, and high risk should come with high reward.
• Raging Bull now also gives 5% shot power. Reasoning: Just making the item more of a certain net positive (and a little more flavorful). Its effect, while generally useful on its own, can be tricky to assign value to as a player.
• Spike Shield now works 2 times each level per copy you own. Reasoning: While it could very situationally be more useful than Impaler (that just grants you the rotating spikes on level start), those moments were so rare that it was usually just a flat-out worse pick. Therefore, more rotating spikes!
• Wild Ball now shoots a mini ball with triple speed. Reasoning: This gives the item more identity (when compared with other mini ball items), makes it more flavorful (its wild indeed now), and also makes up for the randomness of its targeting with more potential. If youre afraid of dunking yourself by the way, make sure to grab those Guard Balls!
• Toxy enemies are now defeated when hit by mini balls. Reasoning: Toxy is a pretty feared enemy, but it's really fun to figure out ways to get rid of it without taking damage, such as hitting other enemies into it to push it into a hole or timing your rotating spikes right. This adds another option in the form of mini ball assassins!
  

MISC

• Added option to swap left/right mouse buttons to aim and shoot.
• Small Steam Deck improvements (game is "verified" now, yay).
• Improved wording of a few items.
• Lots of minor fixes.

Phew, that was quite a bit! I hope you find something to enjoy about this new update. Once again, thank you so much for the continued support, feedback and reviews that allow me to work on this game more, I love every minute! Finally, as always, if you'd like to get in touch about bugs, feedback or suggestions please do so via the comments below, the Steam forums or the Discord! Rest assured I read every post! All the best and have fun, Fabian ---

P.S. Speedrunning Tutorial!

I have to add one final shoutout! Just as I was working on these patch notes, speedrunner extraordinaire SatanHerself dropped a super comprehensive speedrunning tutorial on YouTube including a detailed companion guide document! I'm amazed and honored to see this kind of dedication (and also the runs are super fun to watch)! steamhappy

[ 2024-06-25 13:49:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi again!
Super happy to report that Rack and Slay has just been granted the Verified Steam Deck status by Valve, so you don't just have to take my word for it anymore! :D

Update next Tuesday!

In other news, the recently teased 1.1 update (including a new mode, item, enemy, lots of item buffs and more cool stuff) is coming together nicely and will be out just 3 days from now (Tuesday, June 25th)! Here's another teaser:
Mini ball grew up?

[ 2024-06-22 13:09:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

First things first, thank you! We recently managed to smash through the 200 reviews mark which was so awesome to see. Super thankful for every single player who took the time to write review! So you don't just have to take my thankful words for it though, I'm excited to announce that new stuff will be coming to the game soon!
I'm working on integrating a new enemy, a very unique new item and brand-new mode of play that will allow you to take broken builds to the next level. On top of that, there will be quite a few balancing changes (most of which will be buffs to make some of the overly specific and/or random items more reliably useful), and of course the usual round of fixes and smaller improvements. Hope you're as excited for the update as I am working on it! Again, thank you so much for your support and feedback! It truly means the world. Stay tuned! :)

[ 2024-06-19 13:22:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another update! Thank you so very much for the continued feedback, bug reports and reviews! :)

Patch notes (v1.07)

• New: Added rare special level type with big Switchers (the wooden walls active every other turn).
• Balancing: Extra Bullet item now transforms a Normy every (instead of just the current) level.
• Improvements:
  • Enemies that are already of the Sleepy type dont use up the transformation charges (e.g. Motion Sickness, Blackjack) anymore.
  • Game should now not process any non-mouse aiming input at all when gamepad detection is disabled.
• Fixes:
  • Fixed issue where rerolling twice very quickly would roll the same items both times.
  • Fixed issues when decreasing your shots in the Second Wind challenge.
  • Fixed visual issues when opening the pause menu during a game-over.

P.S.
Still working on getting the new mode's scaling right, but I'm on it (by the way, yes it was actually possible to clear the level shown above, haha).

[ 2024-06-10 12:21:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

150 reviews incoming

Great news! We are approaching 150 reviews! If you enjoy the game but haven't left a review so far, please consider writing one. A few words are enough, and for a tiny indie dev project like this, every single one matters! Thank you so much for playing!

New game mode incoming?

More great news, a new game mode is on the horizon. This patch already includes some backend preparations for it (that you shouldn't notice yet, if something's weird, please let me know). I'll just leave this little image here as a teaser...

Patch notes (v1.06)

• Blowing up a treasure chest now spawns a few guaranteed coins and a gem.
• Reduced backwards-shot chance in Drunken Master challenge to 20% (from 25%).
• Fixed level 2+ Magnet instantly detonating player-thrown bombs.
• Fixed rare issue with aim reset after respawning on top of an enemy.
• Fixed being able to surrender when already at 0 health.
• Backend preparations and performance improvements for a new game mode.
• Several minor fixes.

Special shoutouts to WillOBot and ShadowBulb from the Discord for reporting / suggesting some of these.

[ 2024-06-06 11:08:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here's another couple of small updates to address immediate post-launch issues. Again, much love to everyone who reviewed the game so far. We actually just broke 100 reviews! This means the world to me. Reading those kind words and seeing people enjoy our game is what drives us indie devs and warms our hearts!

Patch notes (v1.04 + v1.05)

• Added option to show PlayStation face-button glyphs (e.g. instead of "Y"). Find it in the main menu -> settings -> advanced options.
• Added info on the (quicker) aim rotation via A/D keys to the pause menu controls overview.
• Fixed incorrect end-of-level damage preview after an enemy transformed.
• Fixed first-turn item effects not working in the Second Wind challenge.
• Fixed a rare case where a level clear was detected a turn late.
• Drastically improved the detection of corrupted save files and how save backups are handled.

[ 2024-06-01 12:32:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Trying to stay as on top of things as possible during launch week, so here's the next update already! This one comes with a couple balancing tweaks, some quality of life improvements for contoller / Steam Deck and a bunch of fixes. Thank you so much for reporting issues and suggesting improvements! Please keep them coming via the Steam forums our swing by the Discord!
Launch is going well so far! We've seen quite a few streamers and YouTubers showcase the game (among others Retromation & Wanderbots). I'm super excited we reached the 50+ reviews milestone (with 98% positive!) too. For a tiny indie project like this, every single review makes a big difference! So here's a big shoutout to everyone who reviewed the game!

Patch notes (v1.03)

• Balancing:
  • Rusher item now grants 2 gold per remaining shot (instead of 1).
  • Drunken Master challenge now grants +3 health (on top of +3 shots).
• Controller improvements:
  • Using digipad left / right on controller now rotates aim (faster than LT/RT).
  • You can now slow down analog stick aim speed (and not just speed it up). Find the setting via: Main Menu Settings Advanced Options top right button
• Fixes:
  • Fixed weird interaction of Extra Bullet and Second Wind challenge.
  • Fixed performance issues when levels containing rotating items were left running for a very long time.
  • Fixed a couple rare visual glitches.

[ 2024-05-29 10:54:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! I just pushed a first post-launch update live. This one just has a couple fixes for some immediate issues that came up, but rest assured I read every bit of feedback and am taking notes on balance, feature suggestions, and quality of life for future updates! Launch has been a wild ride and I want to give a big heartfelt thank you to everyone who picked up the game already! And if you even left a review, you're among my personal super heroes anyways!

Patch notes (v1.02)

• Fixed wall collision issue in Drunken Master challenge.
• Fixed Collector achievement not working.
• Fixed Looter achievement counting too quickly.
• A few more minor fixes.

[ 2024-05-28 08:20:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

WE ARE LIVE! steamhappy

The full-version of Rack and Slay is out now for $5.99 with a 10% launch discount! The game is filled to the brim with fun content to explore:

• 111 game-changing items, with 50+ of them unlockable through playing any mode you like (and yes, in good Slice & Dice tradition there is an "unlock all" option).
• 20 difficulty levels to unlock in packs (no need to go 1-by-1 if you're that good).
• The full 10-level Crawl Mode for your good old ~30-minute roguelike runs.
• The shorter Delve Mode with half the levels, but double the item drafts.
• The one-level Raid Mode with random items for a quick burst of mayhem.
• Daily Mode featuring a unique set of game-changing run modifiers every day.
• Wild Mode for random (and sometimes extra crazy) sets of modifiers.
• A set of Challenge Runs featuring pre-defined gameplay variants that will often drastically change the way you play the game.
• A full Item Compendium to track your unlocks and collect badges for the highest difficulty you beat using each item.

I am so incredibly excited to finally bring this passion project to life and in a more awesome version than I could ever have imagined. Special shoutouts to Graeme of 2 Left Thumbs and artist extraordinaire Victor aka Estivador who took the project to the next level with their hard work and input.

Bundles

If you're into bundles, you have a few bonus options to get the game! The 2 Left Thumbs "We Like Roguelikes" bundle: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/34319/We_Like_Roguelikes/ A bundle with none other than the modern classic Luck be a Landlord: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41926/Rack_and_Slay__Luck_be_a_Landlord/ My personal dev bundle featuring my previous game WikiArena: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/41913/Ludos_Collection/

Creator Shoutout

Also many thanks to the lovely creators who showcased the game leading up to launch. Here's a YouTube playlist featuring those I came across the last couple weeks. Special shoutout to GothicLordUK who already featured the demo throughout multiple videos half a year ago and now returned for the full release! And German indie veteran wildfremd even is 18 episodes deep into a series already!

Next Steps

The top priority post-launch will of course be fixing any bugs players manage to find and recording all the feedback for future polish and balancing updates. Depending on how well things go, I would also love to add additional content in the future. I already have long lists of ideas for new items, enemies, power-ups, modifiers and level elements. So if you like the game and want more, please leave a review and tell your friends about it. For a tiny indie dev project like this, every little bit makes a huge difference! The same is true for one or the other port by the way, but all in due time.

Links and Stuff

If you'd like to learn more, get involved or follow, here's a few links for you:

• Join the Ludokultur Discord full of roguelike fans and indie devs who I would personally say are exceptionally cool and smart!
• Join the 2 Left Thumbs Discord! Graeme has a great eye for unique indies and features many roguelikes in his growing Steam catalog!
• Follow me on Twitter (yes, that's its name) for development news, game design tidbits and indie / roguelike recommendations, or check out my website featuring my games, writing and more!

Hope you enjoy the game! Looking forward to your feedback and suggestions! All the best, Fabian

GORGON SHIELD

Your friendly neighbourhood Publisher here, Graeme! Looking for my creative, genre-blending roguelikes? Check out the upcoming Gorgon Shield, from the creator of Swords and Sandals. It's a party-based RPG, arcade, roguelike. And I can guarantee you haven't played another quite like it! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2446920/Gorgon_Shield/ There is large demo for you to play around in. And please be sure to add it to your Wishlist!

[ 2024-05-27 15:05:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Reminder: Rack and Slay will release on MAY 27, 2024 (1 week from today)! I wrote about everything the full version will entail in a previous post. Today I'm excited to report the first release candidate for version 1.0 is now in testing. As usual, improvements to existing content are live on the demo version as well.

Patch notes (v1.0 RC)

• Added the initial set of achievements (only active in the full version).
• Most explosion-buffing items now spawn a guaranteed bomb, so theyre more useful on their own.
• The on-defeat explosion of Boomy enemies now scales in radius if the enemy size increases (via healing or power pick-ups).
• The Demolisher item (obstacles explode on touch) now shows a little bomb indicator as a reminder in your collision prediction while its active.
• Lots of wording improvements all around.
• Countless minor tweaks and fixes.

Shoutout to the awesome Discord folks who suggested many of these improvements! Also big thanks to everyone who has been checking out the demo for the first time during Endless Replayability Fest last week. As usual, please consider wishlisting the game so we can really get this ball rolling next week!

[ 2024-05-20 07:20:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Reminder: Rack and Slay will release on MAY 27, 2024 (that is exactly 3 weeks from today)! I wrote about everything the full version will entail in a previous post. Today marks the last content update before release. The rest will all be polish, tweaks and finalizing the achievement system for launch. The highlight of this patch are new boss enemy variants:

Patch notes (v0.99)

• Doubled the number of boss enemy variants. Enjoy! (Yes, they're also in the demo.)
• Added subtle shaders to many more objects, including most collectibles.
• Added low-health warning overlay to the edges of the screen when at 1 health.
• Decoupled some visual-only animations from fast-forwarding, so they always play at the same speed (e.g. opening treasure chests).
• Tweaked the wording of several menus and info screens.
• Various minor fixes.

By the way, if you'd like to help out a tiny indie endeavor and haven't wishlisted the game yet, know that every single click helps a lot! Thank you! <3

[ 2024-05-06 11:01:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mostly optimizations and fixes in this one, but in case you missed it we just announced the official release date for the full version: Rack and Slay will release on MAY 27, 2024! Also we have a brand-new cover and main menu art that represents the game much better!

Patch notes (v0.91)

• Updated main menu background art and client icon.
• Added surrender option to the pause menu. This will instantly end your run as if you had died, and (in the full version) grant you the XP for all cleared levels up until this point.
• Bounce speed of bouncy obstacles will slow down after 500 bounces in the same turn to prevent getting stuck in infinite bounces between obstacles.
• Reworked UI selector logic to make it more performant and robust.
• Heavily optimized player and enemy ball animation controller.
• Lots of minor fixes.

Remember to mark your calendars: May 27, 2024!

[ 2024-03-28 13:41:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mark your calendars!

I'm thrilled today to reveal that Rack and Slay will release May 27th! I'll be working on the game basically every day until then to add even more polish on all fronts, plus the last bits of additional content for maximum variety on release day! So looking forward to when you will finally be able to get your hands on the full version! steamhappy In other no less exciting news, here's a brand-new key artwork for the game (you can also find it and many more assets in the press kit). Same as all the new in-game art and animations, it was created by Estivador, so this should make for a much more coherent overall style to the game's online presence and also gives a better impression of how the game actually plays when you look at it. I personally absolutely love it!
But speaking of full version, here's what to expect in terms of content and game modes:

• 111 game-changing items, with 50+ of them being unlockable through playing any mode you like (and yes, in good Slice & Dice tradition there will be an "unlock all" option).
• 20 difficulty levels to unlock in packs (no need to go 1-by-1 if you're that good).
• The full 10-level Crawl Mode for your good old ~30-minute roguelike runs.
• The shorter Delve Mode with half the levels, but double the item drafts.
• The one-level Raid Mode with random items for a quick burst of mayhem.
• Daily Mode featuring a unique set of game-changing run modifiers every day.
• Wild Mode for random (and sometimes extra crazy) sets of modifiers.
• A set of Challenge Runs featuring pre-defined gameplay variants that will often drastically change the way you play the game.
• A full Item Compendium to track your unlocks and collect badges for the highest difficulty you beat using each item.
• (For the nerds like myself who love reading patch notes:) Full in-game patch notes.

So, a final reminder to (if you haven't yet) please wishlist the game. For a tiny project like this every single click is a huge deal. Plus you'll also be reminded right when May 27th hits to grab your launch-discounted copy! See you then!

[ 2024-03-28 13:40:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Things are rapidly moving forward with patches 0.85 through 0.9 all in one (cause the former primarily had full-version improvements)! Watch out for an exciting announcement soon! :)

Patch notes (v0.9)

• (Full version) Added challenge runs (unique pre-defined gameplay variants). For example, start with only a few shots but gain 1 shot per kill; or tons of huge explosions that insta-kill enemies but lots of extra enemies; or extra shots but sometimes they go backwards. :D
• (Full version) New item Black Hole: Pulls the closest enemy towards you when you fall into a hole. This brings the total to 111 items!
• Changed Demolisher to work on the first X obstacles you touch (X being the number of Demolisher items you have) and not just during the first turn to give you more freedom to use the item in a planful way.
• Changed Double Shot to trigger every other turn instead of only on the first turn since with the recent rework into a mini ball item it has lower immediate potential.
• (Full version) Made it possible to switch between unlocks in run-end screen when multiple items were unlocked in a run.
• Added tooltip to difficulty settings that shows all active difficulty effects.
• Prevented direct repetitions in item re-rolls from occuring.
• Excluded a few initially not very useful items from the random starting items pool for difficulty 15 and above.
• Added a few new sound effects.
• Added a few new icons and item graphics.
• Updated Unity engine to the latest LTS version. Primarily to ensure long-term compatibility, maintainability and (potentially) portability. You shouldnt notice any difference except for maybe some performance improvements here or there.
• Optimized in-game lighting and added a third light quality setting.
• A bunch of general performance improvements and code cleanup.
• Several wording adjustments (shoutout to axerity).
• Countless smaller fixes and tweaks.

I hope you continue to enjoy the demo, and as always if you have any feedback please let me know via Discord or Twitter or leave a post in the Steam discussions!

[ 2024-03-09 12:46:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

NEXT FEST

Join me (Graeme) for a Steam Next Fest livestream to show off more of the Rack and Slay demo. An up to date demo is live now for you to play for yourself. Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and if you like the game please be sure to add it to your Wishlist!

PRE-RECORDED VIDEOS

You can also watch several pre-recorded videos of me playing around in Rack and Slay over on Graeme Games. [previewyoutube=pduLRdxhPLY;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-02-11 08:54:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

NEXT FEST

Join me (Graeme) for a Steam Next Fest livestream to show off more of the Rack and Slay demo. An up to date demo is live now for you to play for yourself. Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and if you like the game please be sure to add it to your Wishlist!

PRE-RECORDED VIDEOS

You can also watch several pre-recorded videos of me playing around in Rack and Slay over on Graeme Games. [previewyoutube=pduLRdxhPLY;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-02-10 08:05:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! Huge thanks to everyone who checked out the demo during Steam Next Fest! Please leave your feedback on the forums or the Discord. Much appreciated! <3

Patch notes (v0.81)

The new demo update focuses on making things "more fun" by changing how some things in the game interact and introducing a few quality-of-life improvements.

• Keys are now carried around by enemies (like coins or gems) instead of getting consumed. Fewer missed keys, more item picks, more options to pick up a key indirectly FUN!
• When you defeat an enemy that is carrying a coin, gem or key, you now collect the item as if you had touched it.
  More coins and gems, plus sometimes enemies hand gems around between each other until one dies and you get all the goods FUN!
• Mini balls do not collide with spikes rotating around the player anymore. Combine Impaler and The Gang for ultimate self-surrounding mayhem FUN!
• Mini balls now collide with swords rotating around enemies, i.e. can be used as protection from those (if youre cruel enough). More counterplay against sword enemies and bosses, secret buff to The Gang too FUN!
• Theres now a small indicator above the player ball when you have 3 or fewer shots remaining at the start of your turn. No more confusion about being out of shots, enter focus mode and really try to make those last few shots count FUN!
• Added light quality setting to the advanced options. Setting it to low will disable a few shaders, particles and the pulse effect on circular lights in the game. Better performance on low-end devices FUN?!
• Various minor fixes (always FUN!)

[ 2024-02-08 12:58:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

NEXT FEST

Join me (Graeme) for a Steam Next Fest livestream to show off more of the Rack and Slay demo. An up to date demo is live now for you to play for yourself. Your feedback is greatly appreciated, and if you like the game please be sure to add it to your Wishlist!

PRE-RECORDED VIDEOS

You can also watch several pre-recorded videos of me playing around in Rack and Slay over on Graeme Games. [previewyoutube=pduLRdxhPLY;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-02-05 18:00:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Its Steam Next Fest and Rack and Slay is participating to bring billiard roguelike wackiness to the event! The demo comes with 60 items featuring all kinds of fun combinations to explore, and full access to the 10-levels Crawl Mode through 20 difficulty levels.
As a reminder, here's what's coming to the full version on top:

• Many additional items to unlock for more complex effects and synergies.
• The shorter Delve Mode with double the item rewards.
• The one-level Raid Mode with random items for a quick burst of mayhem.
• Daily Mode featuring a unique set of game-changing run modifiers every day.
• Wild Mode for random (and sometimes pretty crazy) sets modifiers.
• Plus, obviously, all kinds of tweaks, fixes and polish all around.

If you like what the demo has to offer, please consider wishlisting the game. You probably have heard it quite a bit already, but its true that for a tiny indie dev project like this every single wishlist makes a big difference! So seriously, thank you so much for checking out the game! Finally, if you have suggestions for what could be added to the game, want to provide feedback, or you found a bug, please drop by the Steam forums, the Discord or let me know via Twitter! Your feedback has played a critical role in shaping the game the ever since the first version of the demo was released. Just some of the things that happened the past couple months:

• Replaced all item art in the game with shiny new graphics.
• Added a variety of 8-ball boss enemies to shake up your runs.
• Added many new objects, obstacles and collectibles for more variety.
• Lots of item reworks, balancing and new items for the full version.
• Improved difficulty scaling and more transparent difficulty selection.
• Quality-of-life improvements such as effect indicators and a new shot gauge.
• A new run-progression map so you can plan ahead for upcoming bosses.
• UI and look-and-feel improvements, including new sounds and visual effects
• Improved physics and stability even in extremely crazy combo situations.
• Hugely improved gamepad / Steam Deck controls.
• Countless bugfixes.

All this wouldnt have been possible without your feedback, so THANK YOU! All the best everyone and I hope you have an awesome Next Fest! P.S. You can catch a live stream showcase of the game by Graeme of 2 Left Thumbs this Tuesday and Thursday (both 8 PM UTC).

[ 2024-02-05 16:27:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes (v0.8)

• Added a level map to the shop screen displaying your current progress throughout a run and reminding you of when boss levels come up.
  
• Additionally, boss variants are now rolled when you start a new run, so you will be able to see a preview of which type of boss youll be facing in levels 5 and 10.
• Made some performance optimizations regarding physics, shot predictions and level generation.
• Fixed restart button to restart the same mode youre in instead of a default run.
• Other minor fixes and tweaks.

With this patch I consider the demo ready for Next Fest (Feb 5 - Feb 12)! Looking forward to receiving your feedback via the Steam forums or Discord! And please consider leaving a wishlist if you like what you see so far. Every bit helps!

[ 2024-02-02 11:21:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes (v0.79)

• Added many additional item-specific effect indicators and sound effects.
• Added a few safer bridged hole variants with multiple planks.
• Gave keys a small point light so theyre not as easy to miss.
• Fixed active teleporters sometimes looking as if they were inactive.
• Fixed temporary power bonus not being considered for the shot gauge and a couple items if you had a 0% permanent power bonus.
• A few other minor fixes and tweaks.

[ 2024-01-30 10:14:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Patch notes (v0.78)

Quality-of-life improvement: Items that have a percent chance to activate are now briefly displayed above the player character when they activate, so its not as easy to get confused by their effects or miss taking them into account. For example:
Additionally:

• Added a "bridged hole" variant that has a gem in the center of the bridge instead of a coin. Whos going for the risky shots?
• Chests now have a chance to spawn a gem instead of a coin on touch.
• Added a few new item-specific sound effects.
• Miscellaneous item tweaks, fixes and wording improvements.
• (Full Version) Added yet more run modifiers for daily / wild mode (e.g. "all spikes are volatile").

Patch notes (v0.76 & v0.77)

Two smaller patches from the last couple days. They mostly contained some important fixes and full-version content, but I'll be listing their combined patch notes here for completeness.

• Improved collision accuracy, especially involving complex (e.g. star-shaped) obstacles.
• Fixed several bugs related to pausing the game in certain game states.
• Fixed a bug on high game speed where multiple bosses could spawn in the same frame.
• Implemented fail-safe for balls getting stuck on very high speed / power to prevent soft-lock situations.
• Fixed an issue where if the last enemy was defeated from you re-spawning on top of it, the level would take one additional turn (without enemies) to finish.
• (Full Version) New unlockable items: Phantom Spikes (volatile spike synergy) and Golden Balls (mini ball synergy).
• (Full Version) Added additional run modifiers for daily / wild mode.

[ 2024-01-27 11:10:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gearing up for the upcoming Steam Next Fest with pretty hefty demo update today! steamhappy

Patch notes (v0.75)

New Content

NEW: Collectible Ball Pile that shoots out 3 mini balls as soon as it is collected by you or an enemy.
NEW: Boosting variant of the Redirector that not only changes a balls direction but gives it a hefty speed-up as well. NEW: Wall spikes now have a chance to spawn as volatile. Volatile spikes shoot across the arena as soon as any ball gets spiked on them, potentially killing multiple enemies on their path until they hit an obstacle. (In the last level of a run all spikes become volatile when youre out of shots and havent defeated all enemies yet.)
If you pick up the "Spike Swallower" item you can also use them to bring the healing to you! :D
NEW (Not in the demo, but take it as a full-version teaser :D): Added a bunch of additional run modifiers for daily / wild mode runs, one of my favorites being mini balls explode on impact. Fun in combination with the new "Ball Pile" collectible!

Item Reworks

A bunch of rather situational items were buffed or changed to make them more generally useful, so that even when you dont fulfill their full effects requirements (yet) they can help you out in a pinch:

• Double Shot could get you into trouble too easily, so now it shoots a mini ball in the direction of your shot instead of shooting yourself again. Tip: Use it to e.g. get rid of those Toxy enemies that would damage you on direct touch.
• Rich Collector and Healthy Collector now have a (small) baseline of gold and healing they provide, so theyre not totally useless early in a run.
• Whoops now has a small chance to spawn a gem instead of a coin.
• Loot Box now gives you 1 gold each level in case you dont have enough gold to receive a random item yet.
• It's Over Nineteen now grants you some shot power in case you dont have more than 19% yet.

Miscellaneous Improvements

• The tutorial and controls overlay now includes Q/E keys for slow aim rotation when using keyboard and mouse (previously a pretty hidden feature but depending on your mouse accuracy it can be useful for some players in certain situations).
• Defeating a boss now only counts as an enemy defeat (e.g. for certain item triggers) if it was the last enemy in the level (i.e. it was actually defeated and doesnt immediately respawn).
• When youre out of shots in the final level, the game now displays a reminder message on screen that you need to clear all enemies to finish the level.
• Minor tooltip improvements and bug fixes.

Hope you enjoy these updates and the new toys to play with! If have suggestions for what else could be added, want to provide feedback, or you found a bug, please drop by the Steam forums, the Discord or let me know via Twitter!

[ 2024-01-22 13:50:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Smaller demo update today, but some important tech improvements to ensure level generation can much more easily be maintained and expanded further in the future! Thanks to everyone who keeps enjoying the demo (and left their feedback on the Discord), good to see the increase in player numbers wasn't just a flash in the pan! <3

Patch notes (v0.71)

• Balancing
  • Trinity now doesnt triple itself, i.e. only works on (and will only be consumed by) other items. (Sorry about that, it's often fun to see things get out of hand on lower difficulties and there are still plenty of ways for the game to go crazy, but Trinity stacking could render even higher difficulties trivial sometimes, which was a bit much.)
  • Small tweaks to make difficulties 5-9 a little more intense on average.
• Improvements & fixes:
  • Added option to change target FPS in the advanced settings (default is uncapped as before). Should not affect most players, but potentially help performance on some lower-end devices.
  • Refactored level generation code to be much more robust in edge cases and be way easier to maintain or expand in the future. (You should not notice this for now unless you ran into a rare level-gen crash before.)
  • Fixed a few typos in tooltips and item descriptions.
  • Fixed a few minor visual bugs.

[ 2024-01-12 10:42:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today I'm excited to bring you the biggest demo update so far! All items in the game received brand-new artwork. You will face a variety of mid- and end-boss enemy balls in your runs, that spice things up by asking you to defeat them last in a level. Additionally all difficulties have been rebalanced, more art assets have been added, and all kinds of tweaks and fixes made their way into the game.

Patch notes (v0.7)

• Bosses: Added 8-ball boss enemy variants. Meet them in levels 5 and 10 of a run.
• New item art: Added brand-new art for all items in the demo.
• Other art updates:
  • New look for the shot power gauge.
  • New open animation for treasure chests.
  • New art for hole bridges.
  • New mouse cursor.
• General:
  • Rebalanced all difficulty levels. Game is slightly harder on average, lower difficulties got a little extra spice, and difficulty scaling per level throughout runs was adjusted accordingly.
  • Added option to hide blood / skulls.
  • General wording pass on items and tooltips.
  • Lots of miscellaneous fixes and tweaks.

Also a big heartfelt thank you to everyone who checked out the demo recently (and to Olexa, Skoottie, CDNThe3rd, vampirechicken, wolvesatmydoor and Wallacetaa for showcasing it). Every bit of visibility and every wishlist helps a tiny indie operation like this one a ton. I hope you continue to enjoy the demo, and as always if you have any feedback please let me know via Discord or Twitter or leave a post in the Steam discussions!

[ 2024-01-04 12:59:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

There's a new teleporter variant in the game that reverses the movement direction of any ball using it and opens up new room for tricky plays. Ball and bomb cannons have also been spiced up a little and now rotate a random amount after each shot meaning you may have to adapt your plans. If you want to show off your latest trick shot, have suggestions for what else could be added, want to provide feedback, or you found a bug, please drop by the Discord or let me know via Twitter!

Patch notes (v0.61)

• NEW:
  • Added "reverse" teleporter variant that flips movement direction.
  • Ball and bomb cannons now rotate after taking a shot.
• BALANCE: Nerfed a few items granting healing or max health cause they were able to make playing even on higher difficulties feel too safe.
• POLISH:
  • Made hole attraction radius a bit smaller.
  • Tutorial now only shows controls for your currently used input method.
  • Various minor fixes.

[ 2023-12-08 13:21:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

A more sizeable update before the weekend. I added new fonts in pretty much all places throughout the game (menus, shop, tooltips etc.). This is a first big step towards the improved look-and-feel we're aiming to have ready when Steam Next Fest arrives early next year.

Coming Soon: New Item Graphics (WIP)

Another super important part of the improved visuals will be brand-new, hand-drawn item graphics. They're not all ready yet, but here's a first teaser:

Out Now: New Demo Patch

With future plans touched on, let's get into what the latest demo patch brings right now!

Patch notes (v0.6)

• New shiny fonts everywhere!
• Improved how bonus shot power is displayed on the power gauge by adding a small red danger zone overlay to it.
• Bombs within the range of an explosion now have a short ignition time so follow-up explosions dont all happen at the same time.
• Small improvements to the look of particles.
• Hidden feature: When using the keyboard, you can now rotate your aim more quickly via the A/D keys (in addition to Q/E for slow rotation) if you prefer to adjust your aim via keyboard-only means.
• Notable fixes:
  • Mouse movement detection to switch back to mouse controls is more robust.
  • You can now properly aim even when ending your turn at the edge of a hole.
  • Turn wont end prematurely if a ball is still being slowly dragged into a hole.
• Various balancing tweaks and minor fixes.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the latest changes and thank you so much for checking out the demo. If you have any feedback, would like to discuss games and their design, or just want to say hi, please swing by via Discord or Twitter!

[ 2023-12-01 15:15:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Small update, but those difficulty tweaks are quite delicate. If you have feedback on the difficulty curve during a run or when going up difficulties (especially 15+), please let me know via Discord or Twitter!

Patch notes (v0.58)

• Slightly increased difficulty scaling throughout a run (i.e. later levels are a bit harder).
• On difficulties 15+ you now get a random starting item (to help deal with early levels on lower health, and also increase long-term variety when starting a run).
• Super minimal mouse movements do not disable controller mode anymore.
• Various balancing tweaks and bugfixes.

[ 2023-11-27 15:00:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Wanted to push out another small update before the weekend. Mostly minor quality-of-life changes this time around but getting those bugfixes in as soon as possible is always a good idea. Thank you for playing the demo, hope you continue having fun! <3

Patch notes (v0.57)

• Adjusted bridges to make them easier to survive when crossing.
• Bombs dont explode in your face due to colliding with each other anymore, but explosions now trigger other bombs inside their radius.
• Improved controller menu navigation (e.g. B usually closes menus now).
• Added shop hotkeys for reroll (L1 / R) and confirmation (R1 / Space).
• Updated some main menu UI components (e.g. scroll bars and compendium).
• Lots of minor bugfixes.

As usual, if you have any feedback or suggestions join the Discord (and meet lots of other cool indie devs and roguelike fans as a bonus) or shoot me a DM on Twitter!

[ 2023-11-24 12:53:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks to some awesome demo tester feedback, I was able to put together another small but hopefully meaningful update. Especially playing with controllers or on the Steam Deck should feel much better now! If you have additional feedback or suggestions, join the Discord and let me know!

Patch notes (v0.56)

Controller improvements:

• Big improvement to thumbstick aiming for controllers.
• Reduced speed of precise aim (L2/R2) rotation on controllers (cause now you need it less often).
• B (cancel) button on controllers now hides tooltips.

UI improvements:

• Added "default shot power" indicator to power circle.
• Added +1 item pick popup when collecting a key.
• Slightly reduced size of item cards for large displays.

Plus lots of fixes and balancing tweaks all around. Most notably, when you buy multiple random items in the same level their cost now increases.

[ 2023-11-22 13:16:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

Many thanks to everyone who played the demo so far and gave feedback via DM, Discord or Twitter. This is the first time the game is exposed to a public audience and your feedback is invaluable when it comes to polishing the game on its path towards full release!

Patch notes (v0.55)

• Balls now lose less speed when bouncing off of obstacles at obtuse angles.
• Changed Mirror, Parting Present and Telekinesis items to roll their activity at the start of your turn, so you can plan your shot around them.
• Improved controller aim smoothing.
• Added initial difficulty selection for new players. Also, difficulties up to level 9 are unlocked from the start, but the difficulty unlock curve beyond that is a little more flat.
• Added main menu particles.
• Added combo kill counter.
• Various UI fixes and improvements.
• Several balancing changes and bugfixes.

We've also had the first creators pick up (and thankfully really enjoy) the game, such as Retromation, GothicLordUK, RogueArena, The Indie Buffet, Rogueliker and German "friend of the house" Wildfremd. This means the world for a tiny indie operation like this in terms of visibility, so big shoutout to them!

[ 2023-11-20 15:13:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Early demo out now!

Head to the Steam page right now to download an early demo version of the game featuring 60 wacky items and full access to the 10-levels Crawl mode through its 20 difficulty levels.
I'm Fabian and run my solo indie dev endeavors under the "Ludokultur" label. For Rack and Slay I teamed up with the amazing artist and animator Victor Negreiro to bring my vision of a "billiard roguelike" to life! Here's what's coming to the full version on top (planned release Q1 2024):

• Many additional items to unlock with wild, often more complex effects
• The shorter Delve mode with double the item rewards
• The one-level Raid mode with random items for a quick burst of mayhem
• Daily mode featuring a unique set of game-changing run modifiers every day
• Plus, obviously, all kinds of tweaks, fixes and polish all around

Additionally, as if releasing a first public demo wasn't thrilling enough, I'm especially excited today to officially announce a publishing partnership with 2 Left Thumbs! Take it away, Graeme!
Hello everyone! For those unfamiliar, 2 Left Thumbs is a "micro-publisher", meaning the whole operation is just me! My mandate as a publisher is in working with small teams whose interests and preferences in video games overlap my own. Fabian and I got to talking over Rack and Slay, and our shared appreciation for affordable and highly replayable roguelikes combined with my history in publishing roguelike titles made for a perfect fit to join forces! I hope you find the short and simple runs of Rack and Slay as addictive as I have! Im thrilled to unveil this partnership, and to finally see this delightful little game in the publics hands. Please share your feedback either in the Steam discussions, or over on the Ludokultur Discord. Cheers!

[ 2023-11-16 12:28:35 CET ] [ Original post ]