Hello everyone,

I've got a great new update cooked up after a whole month of work!

Enter Glass Cannon v1.1. We have:

• 6 new cannons

• A brand new Plus (+) shaped arena

• Weapon PIcker instead of Weapon Wheel

• The Atom challenge

• Reworked difficulties for the Electron and Quark challenges

• New revive mechanic

• Quality of life improvements

6 New Unlockable Cannons

They introduce interesting twists to the game. Some just have different stats, while others force you to completely change your playstyle and discover new combos. Here are a few of them:

[img src="https://i.imgur.com/YyvvR82.png"][/img][img src="https://i.imgur.com/695KHOW.png"][/img][img src="https://i.imgur.com/CBx4IMC.png"][/img]

Plus (+) Shaped Arena

Unlocked after you complete the hexagon arena on the electron challenge.

[img src="https://i.imgur.com/M3XG6y5.png"][/img]

Don't forget, use ctrl/shift/mmb to zoom the camera across the screen!

Weapon Picker

After much testing, I've concluded that a simpler weapon picker is much more fun to play with than the weapon wheel, so here it is (bottom-right corner): [img src="https://i.imgur.com/MYKsvNY.png"][/img]With the weapon picker, you rely much less on RNG to get your weapons and upgrade them reliably. You will see a comeback of the weapon wheel for new unlockable cannons in the next update though, so if you liked the RNG, it will still be available for a select few cannons!

QoL stuff and Balancing

I've been playing the game a lot and finding small improvements in many areas. The Discord has also recommended a LOT of the QoL changes that I've added in this update. Namely, you can now move weapons up and down by clicking the little white triangle buttons in the weapons when you hover them.

[img src="https://i.imgur.com/jlJWODk.gif"][/img]

You can also see which other mods can be upgraded when hovering over a mod you already have:

[img src="https://i.imgur.com/ikkF1SM.gif"][/img]

Oh also, you now gain a revive after some rounds depending on the challenge level: [img src="https://i.imgur.com/MshilIX.png"][/img]

This is here because I realized that losing all your progress due to a dumb irreversible mistake was not fun, so now you get to have a do-over once per run (or more times if but I won't say how, haha). Let me know if more revives would be interesting; they let you sort of optimize your shots perfectly to execute killer combos. I'm thinking of adding a cannon that can revive many times, but I'll see if it makes sense based on playtesting and feedback from you.

Feedback & Future

As always, please let me know what you think in the reviews, steam forums or the official Discord channel! I plan to add around 10 more cannons, 2 more maps and 3 more challenge modes to the game, so expect those in the near future!

- Niko

===============

Changelog

• Bugfix: mirror image mod + laser sight mod would sometimes make the laser flicker for multi-pellet weapons (shotgun, crossbow etc)

• Bugfix: This time, really fixed the wonky cannon rotation. Sometimes it would snap back and forth when rotating, it is now smooth

• Bugfix: The rectangle arena electron challenge should automatically unlock on game launch it didn't in the previous version

• Bugfix: LVL 5 crossbow would screw up the tripleshot sometimes

• Bugfix: Hitting spike balls with the baseball bat would immediately destroy them instead of knocking them away

• Removed per diem from later rounds

• Increase default money drop amount from $2 to $3

• Added Free Shot Mod

• Disc bullets no longer lose bounce when passing through bouncer enemies

• Lots of small balancing adjustments to the mods and the shop

• The riot shield mod will now heal you when you hit spike balls in addition to blocking the damage. It also applies globally now, so no need to hold the weapon with that mod equipped

• Shop upgrade cost decreases by $1 after each round

• Shop level upgrades are a bit more expensive

• Added revives for different challenge levels

• Bugfix: unlock notifications sometimes didn't show up

• QOL improvement: Hovering over mod cards in the shop will highlight other mod sockets which can be upgraded or replaced. This used to only show up when you held the mod in hand

• Made the laser sight on the baseball bat more accurate (it was off by 5-6 pixels on some weapon sizes). It still won't be exact: because the bat moves you forward as you swing, you'll be able to reach enemies a bit beyond the range

• Slow Throw Mod now also increases bullet lifetime

• Spike Balls will now pick up drops they collide with, provided they were knocked away by your bullets or you directly

• Bugfix: Silencer Mod reduced recoil incorrectly

• Silencer Mod now gives extra damage based on how much recoil it removes

• Made enemies less bouncy, so knocking them around no longer flings them unpredictably and it is much easier to set up interesting plays

• Bayonet Mod now deals damage equal to the currently equipped weapon on collision (x2 and x3 after upgrading and more when stacking)

• Decreased amount of knockback from walls which would sometimes cause the player to bounce back too hard when simply rotating the aim

• Improved player spawn points - will no longer spawn too close to the edge of the map where you had to finagle your way out of the corner

[ 2025-06-21 23:16:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, Coming at you with another small patch: v1.0.2c. Thank you to everyone for reporting the crashes and bugs! - Niko

Changelog

• Hammer spell and Sickle spell will no longer crash the game when bought (old save files caused that).
• Fixed wonky rotation of the cannon when you'd cross a boundary.
• Various crash fixes relating to explosions (zealots, grenade arrows etc.)
• Crash that happened when a bat hit a grappling hook and it tried to clone it using the cloning collision mod.

[ 2025-05-20 09:26:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, I've got a small patch for you today: v1.0.2a. Just small fixes for now. Expect the large updates towards the end of the month and throughout the upcoming Summer months. - Niko

Changelog

• Hammer spell will now exclude max level items from its selection of weapons, which makes the perk more fair and predictable.
• Sickle spell, like the hammer spell won't level up max level weapons and instead will only work on weapons that aren't max lvl yet, so with smart inventory management, you can exploit both perks maximally.
• Rotating your cannon when standing near a wall no longer clips the cannon through the wall. Just rotating the cannon in general is smoother now.
• Crash fix: when lots of zealots (50+ of them) all explode at the same time, the game no longer crashes.
• Nerfed the radius increase of the grenade and gravity grenade weapons for high levels.
• Spikes thrown by spiker enemies will only deal 1 damage to you, but will deal full damage to the enemies.

[ 2025-05-19 00:02:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello folks, I've got some new stuff in today's update (v1.0.2), which I'm very excited to share! We have a new arena, a challenge level and some balancing. Here they are.

The Hexagon Arena

Can be unlocked by beating the rectangle arena on the base difficulty.

Electron Challenge

Can be unlocked for both arenas by beating their base challenge. This challenge is quite a bit harder, but the base quark challenge is now basically 99% winrate if you know what you're doing.

More updates soon!

I won't be able to do content updates in the next 2 weeks - I'll be at Digital Dragons in Krakow (Poles say hi!). I will just be doing small fixes here and there, but after that period, I'll be lock in in to deliver more content! - Niko

Changelog

• Made enemy health scaling exponential - easier at the start and harder at the end rounds (20-24).
• Added the Hexagon arena.
• Added the Electron challenge for hexagon and rectangle arenas.
• Bugfix: Money will now clump in higher amounts when dropped by bosses (instead of is splitting into $1 amounts).
• Bugfix: The tier 3 and 4 boss reward perks for money had invalid numbers.
• The 'Go Back' perk that turns back your rounds by 3 will no longer show up for 4 rounds after use.

[ 2025-05-16 05:54:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello folks, I've released yet another patch, but this time a meaty one. This one has a little bit of new content, namely the new boss rewards. Next week, we'll get a content update as I'm already almost done with it. Just playtesting right now to balance some stuff. Let's get into today's update.

Boss Rewards

After beating a boss round, you'll be able to pick one of 4 random perks:
These perks are for increasing your base stats: damage, max shots, max health or money. On higher level bosses, you get better chances for high tier perks. In the future, the 4th perk will serve as the utility or fast-track perk and will have perks which don't buff your stats but instead which increase risk and reward for the following rounds.

Minor Balancing

Although I intend to do major rebalancing soon, I've still adjusted things in this update. Namely, the kind of stuff that tends to instakill you without you realizing or just create an impenetrable wall to break in terms of difficulty. [h4]Wheel Spins[/h4] You now have 2 weapon wheel spins on each round finish at the start of the game. Makes weapons easier to obtain in the early game. [h4]Necromancer Rework[/h4] The purple necromancer enemies that resurrect all other enemies that die in their range will no longer ressurect them at full health, but rather at the remaining health they had when they died. It seemed kind of unfair to have them fully heal the enemies at resurrection. In addition, they now have a small 0.5 second cooldown on their resurrection. They can resurrect multiple enemies at once, but after each batch, they'll take some time to recast their spell. This makes it possible to kill groups of necromancers even with weak weapons, provided you time your shots right. This would've been harder to do without a debuff (like stun or necro block) or a big damage explosion that kills the entire group completely. Finally, I think I've solved the necromancer infinite cloning crashes. These would occur when you'd partially destroy a group of huddled necromancers. The remaining group would resurrect the other half multiple times (say if you kill 5 necros out of 10, the other 5 will resurrect the 5 that died, leaving you with 25 new necromancers to kil in addition to the 5 that stayed alive). That would easily cause crashes, but not anymore! From now on, resurrected necromancers will be weaker (with smaller range). This still keeps them fun, but no longer leads to infinite loops of cloning. Look at the video below to see the difference: [previewyoutube=IcI1TRU6lhw;full][/previewyoutube] [h4]Spiker Instakills[/h4] Spiker enemies will now only deal 1 damage to you, but still full damage to the enemies with their spikes. Should prevent frustrating instakills. Also, since you now start with 5 health, makes it even easier. [h4]Spike Balls[/h4] Spike balls used to inherit the damage of the last thing that hit them, so if you hit a spike ball with a powerful weapon and it hit you, you'd take your own damage! Dumb design decision. Now the spike balls only deal 1 damage to the player at all times and deal 1/4 of the enemy's remaining health when it hits them. This way they actually become useful so that you can chop off a large portion of a boss' health by placing a smart shot. This is all explained in the updated how to play section in the game.

Expanded 'How To Play'

Some enemies have weird ways of behaving, so instead of having to risk death multiple times to probe the enemies just to learn what they do, you can read their descriptions in the how to play screen. Should remove some frustration. I've also added details about other mechanics which were missing.

Better Mouse and Camera Controls

The mouse controls kept bugging me, they felt a bit janky, so I've reworked them. Now you'll be able to aim even from outside the arena, unless you're hovering an UI element. This also allows for better peeking and camera controls in bigger arenas. Here's a sneak peek at the hexagon arena I'm currently working on:
You can look around further by holding down shift or ctrl or middle mouse button while moving the mouse.

More to come!

That's it for now. I can't wait to get the new arenas and challenges into everyone's hands. Oh and new cannons too, hopefully all will be done by the end of this month. Cheers! - Niko ------------------------------------------------

Changelog for v1.0.1

• Clearing a boss round now grants you rewards. Pick a perk from one of 4.
• Spike balls only deal 1 damage to the player and deal 1/4 of remaining health to enemies.
• Enemy Spikers only deal 1 damage to you.
• Necromancers now resurrect enemies with the remaining health they had at death, not their full health.
• Necromancers also now have a small 0.5 second cooldown before they can resurrect another group of enemies. This makes them less frustrating to fight.
• You start with 5 health.
• You can no longer farm your own summons infinitely for money.
• Added a section on enemies in 'How To Play'.
• Added a separate shop section in 'How To Play' and expanded the general section with more details.
• Decreased enemy health a bit.
• Get 2 weapon wheel spins per arena clear.
• Some wording for a few mods/perks improved
• Game autosaves even when the window is closed manually..
• Fixed rendering glitches at non-standard window sizes. No more cutoff.
• Crash fix: final bout mod would crash the game when it activated. Thanks Tato for the report!.
• Bug fix: leaper enemies sometimes would ignore collisions with grenades and bouncy balls.
• Bug fix: exploders no longer deal only 1 damage when hit during explosion. Should deal the correct amount from now on.
• Fixed some bugs with counting money at the end of the round.

[ 2025-05-08 21:34:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Glass Cannon enjoyers, I'm coming at you with another small update.

Enemy Health Scaling

I'm reading your feedback - game's too difficult indeed. After I add the new areas and challenges, I'll definitely tone down the absolute difficulty of the base game. I'll also tune the enemy health scaling to be exponential as opposed to linear all across the board. Right now, the earlygame is hard and the lategame becomes easy. This is because the players' strength scales exponentially. Once you get a few combos going, they play off of each other combinatorically which scales it even faster and you start to outpace enemies really quickly, usually towards round 19 or so. Unless you get cocky, surviving round 19 basically means you'll win round 24 too, even though at round 24 the average enemy health is like 8 points higher than at round 19. When you have no combos, you're relying on the base weapons and stats, which scale slower than the enemies, so the early-mid game becomes hard to bypass. The healths here should be lower so you actually get a chance to get to the part of the game where even weak earlygame combos get a chance to start popping off.

Boss Rewards

Another thing I'll add is stat boosts after boss battles: pick between 4 stats when you beat a boss round. Health, damage, max shots or money. This will further make the first 10 rounds more engaging.

Changelog

• Increased the drop date of the max health perk by 5%. I'll turn it back once I add the flat stat boost on boss clears.
• Adjusted the enemy health a bit. Will be changed to the scaling described above in the next update once I test it well.
• Bug fix: unlocks showing they're available even though they're not added to the game yet.
• Crash fix: lots of summoned zealots exploding all together would sometimes crash the game. Same for other exploding entities.
• Crash fix: summoned brawlers getting cleaved by the cleaver mod and then them attacking enemies would crash the game.

Thanks to Edible Banana, NTripleOne and CageTheGnome for the bug reports. Keep the feedback and bug reports coming, helps make the game better for everyone. Cheers! - Niko

[ 2025-05-04 22:43:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello folks, Just a small patch with hotfixes. I'll probably push out many more of these as players come in and discover new bugs. Let's squash them all!

Changelog

- fixed a crash caused by a summoned brawler (which was resurrected by an enemy necromancer) attacking an enemy. Thank you Tato and CageTheGnome for the report! - fixed some more potential bugs around summoned brawlers. - fixed potential crashes around summoned zealots and wizards when resurrected by necromancers. - improved crash errors, which should make them easier to track down by me. Make sure to send any crashes or bugs to my email (nikaoto at gmail dot com) or on Discord.

Also...

I'm looking at everyone's feedback and reviews and I take all of them into consideration. I want Glass Cannon to be a challenging game, but not too difficult. I've gotten some feedback that the game may be a bit too hard, so if enough people think it's too frustrating in that regard, I'd be willing to bend the balancing so the game can be as engaging as possible. So, leave your feedback in our Discord, my email or in the reviews and I'll definitely read them all. Cheers! - Niko

[ 2025-05-03 18:27:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, I'm happy to announce that the full version of Glass Cannon is now available on Steam! After much work, the game is ready to play.

Future Plans

I have a few updates already planned for the game and you'll be able to see a few things in the game now that allude to the extra content. As discussed previously, the extra stuff will be new maps, different cannons and interesting challenges. All unlockable by progressing through the game. Even if only 50 people play the game like it happened with the beta, I'll still make the update because I believe it'll be a really exploration of mechanics - I think I can do something novel with what I already have. The extra content will give me a way to set guidelines for players who are not experimentative on their own. These unlocks will provide restrictions and force you to experiment and play with the game's systems, which should make the experience much more enjoyable. Also, I've not done as much playtesting with the new cannons, so I don't want to rush them out just for content's sake. All of the updates should come gradually in the next 3 months, including...

Achievements

Of course, no roguelike is complete without them. I don't want to rush them either, as I want them to all be meaningful. I've kind of put them on the sidelines in my previous games, so this time I'll really try to make them interesting. Expect them in the coming months as well.

Discord

In the meantime, enjoy the game and the hundreds of builds it has to offer! And join the discord to share those builds with the community: https://discord.gg/cJu4SVVtDx Cheers! - Niko

[ 2025-05-01 18:21:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello folks, As we're approaching the release date, May 1st, I'm pushing out the last beta update. Lots of small and big changes in preparation for Glass Cannon 1.0.

Arena, Cannon and Challenge Selection

I had planned to do the "arenas, challenges and cannons" one month after release, as it is extra content, but since I've had some extra time, I decided to sneak in a small update for it in time for release.
The full version will slowly introduce different ways to play the game through updates. You will start off each run by choosing 3 things: [olist]

Your Cannon Each one will have limitations and advantages. For example, the demolitionist, who can only deal damage through explosions or the jester, which has the 1st mod slot on each weapon permanently occupied by the wabbajack mod...

The Arena Differently shaped arenas like the hexagon or racetrack or the plus which you unlock by completing challenge runs or achievements.

The Challenge Level (for the arena) Each challenge level is like a difficulty for a given arena. Each is unlocked for an arena by beating its previous challenge. They are:

• quark: default
• electron: enemy health scales faster
• atom: no longer get money from killing enemies and per diem
• molecule: weapons parish in 5 rounds
• polymer: enemy health scales even faster
• cell: enemies are always homing and the shop has a 1 minute time limit

Each challenge also applies the effects of all other challenges before it. So, the molecule difficulty basically applies its own effect + atom + electron. [/olist] Please note that all of the above is subject to change as I haven't tested it thoroughly!

Linux!

Glass Cannon can now be played on Linux as well (natively!) I know proton works basically flawlessly for it, but I still decided to make a native build for Linux, as I intend to also port it for the Steam Deck if the game gets good sales, so a native Linux build was a given.

Other changes

• The win screen when finishing a run now shows more detailed stats
• Summoned brawlers now also inherit all of the player effects as well. For example, if the player has spoon mod equipped and summons a brawler, the brawler will heal 1 health each time it collides with an enemy. The brawler still inherits all the bullet effects as well, like last time.
• Crossbow knockback works correctly now
• Bat correctly works with wall and destructable hit effects
• Crash fixes around summoned zealots
• Crash fixes around shell in shell mod
• Update Damaging Strike Mod sprite and rename the mod to Collision Buff
• Update Steel Barrel Mod VFX
• Improved star particles for stun effects
• Cordyceps mod SFX and VFX. Infected enemies will emanate green particles
• Clicking GET on a rolled weapon when inventory was full no longer bugs out the button
• Increased the spawn distance of the enemies from the player. You should no longer see levels where enemies are spawned right next to the player.
• UI glitch fixes when clicking some buttons
• Minor bugfixes and balancing

Can't wait to see how the 1.0 release will be received by you all. Cheers! - Niko

[ 2025-04-28 23:42:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello folks, In the new Beta v2.3 we now have all the icons, so no more question marks in the shop! This patch also includes different VFX and new sounds for mods and perks that lacked them. Expect more visual and audio updates throughout the whole beta. Also balanced a few OP mods and fixed a few minor bugs. The beta will no longer get updates for new content (except visuals and audio which are missing from some mods and effects). At full release on May 1st, challenges, different maps and so on will be added, which won't make it in time for the beta as it ends the day before. I will showcase the challenge mode and new content in the next post (maybe new enemy types, different cannon types, arena shapes etc.) Hope you're all enjoying the game so far. Cheers! - Niko

[ 2025-04-19 18:46:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello folks, Glass Cannon is on MacOS now! Should work both on the old Intel CPUs and Apple Silicon. Also changed a few things for v2.2.

Changelog

• Enemies that get resurrected by necromancers multiple times in one go now have a 7% chance to merge with their clones. So, previously if a bouncer died when inside of 2 necro ranges, it would get resurrected twice, so you'd have 2 bouncers in its place. Now we have a 7% chance to have the two resurrected bouncers merge into a bigger bouncer with summed stats. This change will strike a good balance between enemy number and toughness when it comes to rounds with necromancers.
• Increased the knockback on the shotgun - it is a strong weapon, so it's only fair to make its use clumsy. The knockback will make it more balanced.
• "Go back" and "skip ahead" perks now work more consistently
• added a bunch of icons for weapon mods (previously they were question marks). Slowly I'll make icons for every single mod and for the final version, we'll have zero question mark icons in the shop.
• Remove confusing mod levelling mechanic where you could have gaps between LVL improvements, so, for example, you had to upgrade some mods 2 or 3 times before seeing any improvement in its stats. Now each mod upgrade gives a bonus.
• The change above prompted pricing changes for some strong mods - some mods are now more expensive to compensate for this buff.
• Major performance fixes when there are large amounts of particles
• Crash fixes when lots of enemies or bullets would get cloned (not related to the necromancer bug below)
• Crash fix for necromancer enemies where they'd keep cloning each other and eventually slow your computer down. This no longer happens. Most of the lag was due to some bug which duplicated the enemies for no reason but didn't actually put them in the play area - so you couldn't see them but they still took CPU time.

As always, don't forget to let me know what you think in the feedback form or on the Glass Cannon Discord server! And grab a key for your friends: Glass Cannon Free Beta Keys More to come! - Niko

[ 2025-04-07 21:06:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Going to be doing updates almost daily as people play the game and break it in many ways. Here is what I've changed:

• The plasma ball base stats were too high, so the BNC and its LVL 5 bonus have been reduced
• When you win the game, the final stats screen should now display the correct numbers
• Rerolling consecutively in the shop increases the reroll price by $1
• You no longer get 4 free spins for the weapon wheel at max level. Just 3.
• Performance fixes - when enemies can't fit in the arena, they just won't spawn anymore (this happened with necromancer enemies, who would recursively clone each other until they killed the player).
• Size mod price increase $2 -> $3. It was a bit too cheap.

Don't forget to let me know what you think in the feedback form or on the Glass Cannon Discord server! Also, grab a key for your friends: Glass Cannon Free Beta Keys More to come! - Niko

[ 2025-04-02 11:23:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello again folks, For real now, Glass Cannon is almost ready to release! On May 1st, the game will be out. Until then, I'm doing a Beta v2 test to balance the difficulty.

Beta v2

If you were part of the previous beta, you can go ahead and play the updated game right now, your key will still work! If you're new, then grab a key here: Glass Cannon Beta v2 Keys Please mark the key you take with "TAKEN" right next to it. You can send that link to your friends so they can also join in! Also, join the official Discord server. Just like before, you will find a "Leave Feedback" button at various places in the game. They all lead to the same form which has a few simple questions. Please fill the form after you're done playing the game! Especially if you participated in the previous beta, your feedback will be immensely useful for me to see if the game improved from last time.

What's new

After the previous open beta, I realized that the game lacked content, meat & potatoes, so I've added a LOT more stuff, namely:

• 100 new weapon mods and perks. Stuff that can summon brawlers and wizards who will fight for you, mods that combo with each other, make enemies friendly etc.
• Bosses like the Leader & Henchmen or the Triplets or the Duo...
• Unique enemy formations (they can huddle together now or form fortresses and other patterns).
• Better UX. For example, clicking outside the arena no longer misfires, you can select weapons with clicks...
• Weapon level bonuses - each weapon has a bonus that it gets when upgraded to LVL 5

Hopes

My goal with this game was to create a virtual world which you, the player, can observe and then use the resulting knowledge to theorize and create interesting new combinations. The game should reward you for thinking deeply and creatively about the abstract rules of this virtual world. I believe I've achieved that goal and the game has done a complete 180. I was able to come up with ~500 unique combinations for weapons and mods (actually useful ones!) and at some point I stopped counting. I keep discovering new builds every day and with your feedback, we can find even more of them and iron out some rough edges. Glass Cannon is easily the most well-designed game I've ever made in my life and I sincerely hope all the work that went into it serves to create a fun experience for you all. Hope you enjoy the game, Niko

[ 2025-03-31 23:41:33 CET ] [ Original post ]