Pack Your Backpacks!

Hi everyone, The time has finally come. Backpack Battles is available on Steam! We are so happy you can finally play what we have been working on all this time, now grab your bag and play! You can now choose between four classes: Ranger, Reaper, Pyromancer, and Berserker! All classes have five subclasses to choose from in the 8th round. There are tons of new content to explore! [previewyoutube=SJAbeIH1f_4;full][/previewyoutube]

Early Access Plans

Our work is not done here. There are plenty of features we want to add during Early Access. And here is our roadmap!
The points are roughly ordered, and multiple things will probably progress in parallel. But the first thing will be to work on the new classes - it is to be expected that there are bugs to fix and balancing to address. Lobbies are a feature that was frequently requested in the past. We have made progress behind the scenes and built a successful proof of concept, but it is a large feature and we dont know how much time it will take. Another feature we planned for so long is to give you guys more statistics about every item in the item library. We feel like it could be really cool to see how often you bought an item, how far you came with it, and for example, what your highest rank win was with that item. We also have been writing flavor texts that we plan to display there. The combat log has been a favorite since we added it, and we plan to work on it more until release. There are a few features that would be helpful, like a search function and a way to see precisely when an item activates. We also plan to touch the ranking system. We cant say too much yet, but it is very well possible that it will be seasonal. With the release, the rankings from the demo were already reset, and it is very possible that with large changes or seasons, there will be more resets. The unique item pool has grown substantially since we introduced it, often with seasonal items. We want to produce many additional Uniques, and we have lots of ideas already! And of course, we will be working on new outfits for the characters. Currently, the new classes have two outfits and two chibi-style outfits.

Full Release

The features that define the end of Early access and the start of full release are the 5th character and Steam achievements. We plan to add the Adventurer, a class that stands over typical class restrictions and starts each round with random items, similar to the Present unique. We received many requests to give the present a larger role, and we think this is the coolest way. This also means that according to plan, the adventurer would not have any (or very few) class-specific items. Also, keep in mind that this is in the concept phase, so its subject to change.

Patches & Demo

Also, we will shift our patch schedule. We are very proud of our streak of 39 consecutive content patches on Sundays, but for the Early Access, we will switch to less regular larger patches. This will give us time to work on the big features we have planned. About the demo: It will remain available both on Steam and itch.io! If youre not sure whether you want to buy the full game, definitely check the demo out!

Hot Bundles

We are excited to offer you two awesome bundles with a 10% discount! Both Slay the Spire and Brotato are incredible games you should not miss out on! https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39016 https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/39017

Thank You

It is important to us to thank you all. This game has far surpassed our wildest expectations already. As game developers, all we want is for people to enjoy our game. Having the game resonate with so many of you is a dream come true. We will continue to give our best and make Backpack Battles the best game we can. We want to give a shoutout to IndieArk who supported us a lot and even organized a localization into Traditional Chinese for release. If you like the game, the best way to support us is by writing a review on Steam. Reviews are extremely important for visibility on the store and for this game to succeed! We would appreciate it very much. Were looking forward to reading your opinions and discussing the games features on our Discord server. You can also share item ideas and your favorite builds there! Have fun!

[ 2024-03-08 10:00:14 CET ] [ Original post ]