Players who encountered a bug in a previous version which kicked them out of the palace assault sequence will now be able to retry the sequence without encountering a game-breaking dialog sequence bug.\n

\n
• A curfew will no longer trigger during a mandatory event. This was previously able to make such events missable. \n
• Being kicked out of the Lich Dealers will now cause relevant quests to be failed. \n
• Bootlace strike reminder event will now open bootlace factory location, to strongly encourage players to take part. \n
• Large black boxes should now never remain on the map after an ink scene. \n

Hi everyone! Last month, after two years of intense work, I launched Duskpunk, my gritty dice-driven RPG.

If youve already played it, thank you! It would be amazing if you could https://store.steampowered.com/app/2610880/?utm_source=steamnews\"" style="color:#bb86fc;text-decoration:none;">leave a review on Steam; its the absolute best way to support the game right now.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44871607/24cbc563039b20d2b7238d608165df536b298d93.gif\"][/img]

If you havent heard: Duskpunk is a gritty dice-driven RPG in a steampunk city, where you survive, explore, find allies, try to remain sane, and spark a revolution!

Its https://store.steampowered.com/app/2610880/?utm_source=steamnews\"" style="color:#bb86fc;text-decoration:none;">on Steam now . Its also, probably, the best thing Ive ever made.

How did it go, and what have I learned? Is the Citizen Sleeper-like a viable genre?

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44871607/2e39dee059150e70f7e2341cb8b712ca14458400.jpg\"][/img]

The short version

You want numbers? Heres some numbers.

Twelve. Nine thousand. Pi. e

Okay, now here are some relevant numbers.

Duskpunk has sold about 1500 units since launch four weeks ago. It\'s got 17,000 wishlists and a 91% positive rating on Steam.

It cost about 100,000 to make, but I got a grant from the Vienna Business Agency for about 66,000. That means it needs to sell about 4500 units to break even.

I\'d feel better if it had reached 2000 by now, but these are still solid numbers for a narrative title. I think it\'ll break even in about 2 years: not ideal, but it\'ll be a decent financial foundation for me as solo dev.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44871607/d6e87ea1a088a80252a37c5c94b6d3c45ce832eb.jpg\"][/img]

Origins

To understand whether the game was a success, I need to briefly take you back to August 2023. I was broke, with about 8 months of runway and a tiny art budget.

So: am I in a better position after finishing the game? Right now I have about 8 months of runway, but I have some freelance work lined up and the game will continue selling in the meantime. I\'m definitely more secure. So by that measure, it\'s a win!

Response

Press have been very positive.

70percentcomplete: The story in Duskpunk is phenomenal.

Screen Hype: Duskpunk tells a gripping tale of war, death and distrust, 8/10

Jump Dash Roll: Duskpunks writing is second-to-none, and has a handful of genuinely engaging side stories., 8/10

GamesRadar+: there\'s so much to explore, and the writing is sharp enough to keep me going. I\'ll be back to cross that river yet. I smell a regime that needs toppling.

I was hoping for a review in PC gamer or RPS, which might have got it more exposure. But I\'m grateful for the coverage I did get from RPS, it was very nice of them!

Steam reviews have generally been very positive; it seems like people who connect with the game really, really get it. Obviously its not everyones cup of tea, so a few negative reviews have snuck in. Thats fine, but again, please https://store.steampowered.com/app/2610880/?utm_source=steamnews\"" style="color:#bb86fc;text-decoration:none;">write a review if you havent yet!

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44871607/a1d4679062fc8a70d0cb979a80fcfe7dc810c04e.jpg\"][/img]

What I did right

Most importantly: the game, as a package, hangs together. My world building intuition was bang on: a grimy steampunk world rent by war and inequality on the brink of revolution is a captivating idea. It\'s grungy and cool, but also resonates with the world today.

On that note, I think the writing was pretty strong and the characters came through well. There are a few scenes I\'m not totally happy with and might rework slightly, but overall it lands. Which is a relief, because most of it was written in a hurry!

Telling this story via a dice-driven RPG also worked well. I was able to reimagine the mechanics of Citizen Sleeper in a way that works for this world. It takes what works, and makes changes that feel appropriate to this world.

I also did a good job boiling the basics of Marxism down to a few key scenes, and smuggling them in. I wanted to portray a revolutionary workers movement that made sense, felt like an actual mass movement, and wasnt just a bunch of freedom fighters blowing stuff up.

I was also able to use prefabs and the unity interface to basically use Unity as my location editor. This was handy because I didn\'t need to build a whole separate editor like in Silicon Dreams! Saved a lot of time and effort.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44871607/5c609534792f4fb55fc1877d4fc1634efde8cbc0.png\"][/img]

The slums, as seen in the editor. Top left: all actions. The hierarchy dictates which are shown when. Right: details of the selected action (Beg).

I also think I was right to not localise (for now) and to focus on the English release. This was already a lot to handle on this timeline; dealing with localisation would have been very difficult without more funding.

Finally, going for the Vienna Business Agency grant was a lifesaver. Without that funding, the game would have been shorter and much less polished.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44871607/0010b7fb010be7a0a9f1213d0f8a2941cdb9e3a0.jpg\"][/img]

Mistakes were made

There were several things that could have gone smoother.

The codebase is messy. When I started this project, it was a desperate attempt to sell something to make rent. But that early sloppiness came back to haunt me in the months before release, and caused all sorts of unexpected technical problems. I should have just tried to keep the code clean and logical from the start.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44871607/a66277bace4a4860f98cbc4a92e28fb6f524b75f.png\"][/img]

This special scene has to contain every action in the entire game, because I made a choice in September 2023. A bad choice.

I also underestimated how much sheer writing this would take. The final game has 150,000 words of text: basically two novels. There was a solid 6 weeks where every day I just hit the keyboard and bashed out two full scenes. I wish I\'d realised that weaving the main quest into the sidequests this closely would require a ton more writing to account for various player choices.

Most importantly, it would have been seriously helpful to test game balance 3 or 4 months before release. My issue was that, since this is a narrative game, I couldn\'t test balance until all story branches were implemented. (I could have, but it would have meant using up my most promising testers early.) Maybe I still could have blocked out placeholder versions and asked passionate testers to run through them. As it was, the game was incredibly unbalanced just 10 days before release. I was able to correct in time, but that was pretty risky.

Oh, and I should\'ve realised sooner that the player gaining knowledge about item sources is a fundamental part of the game. I added icons to the map extremely late, because too many testers were bumbling around with no idea where to get finery and corpses.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44871607/d5ff542a452376bfcbf89b8d8398843ac23fb6a2.jpg\"][/img]

Are Dice-driven RPGs a good business venture?

Yes and no.

On the one hand, this is a modest success for me. Duskpunk hasn\'t sold quite as well as I hoped, but if 10% of its wishlists convert each year, it\'ll be a pretty good foundation.

But, that\'s largely true because a lot of the budget was covered by a grant.

This project didn\'t have much marketing budget: I spent about 1500 in Reddit ads and tried to shout about it on social media. I also worked with Future Friends, who handled PR: emails to press, streamers etc. I was a bit surprised that the visual quality didn\'t carry the game further: I always assumed Silicon Dreams didnt sell well because it had inconsistent art and a slightly complicated premise. But Duskpunks numbers are only slightly higher. Maybe both games are just in a niche that Steam doesn\'t know how to promote to its audience?

Clearly there is a market for these games: Citizen Sleeper reached an audience of hundreds of thousands. But it had a proven narrative publisher behind it: Fellow Traveller. They had the means to promote it properly.

So, this type of game is profitable, but you\'ll either need outside support (to provide funds or marketing), a short development cycle (to keep costs down) or a large audience on social media or your newsletter.

I still think press is a helpful way to spread the word about narrative games, but dont kid yourself: the gaming press is a difficult place to be right now. Kotaku was recently gutted, and all press sites are under intense pressure. Dont count on them to be your saviour.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44871607/d115bea729e30e24608f601490770bd191dd6981.jpg\"][/img]

Last thoughts

Im going to take a well-deserved break for some of December and January, but Im not finished with the game: Id like to implement a few features, and, if someone will fund it via a revenue share, do some localisation. If you know a publisher whod be interested, drop me a line!

Im proud of Duskpunk: as a game, as a project, as a statement, and as a call to action in difficult times. It feels right, to release this game about revolutionary hope while billionaires and their crony politicians are trying to break us apart piece by piece for profit. To quote the games opening:

I cannot know when dusk will set on this rotten empire. I only know that no matter how long the day, dusk will always come.

If youd like to know what I do next, the best way is to follow my newsletter . I dont spam people: I just pop up every so often to announce or launch a new project.

Until next time: break their laws. Break the city. Break free.

Added fallback event in case player misses Rejchek leaving you a note in early game. \n\nFixed error triggered by having an empty save in slot 1.

If the event where you meet the drug den owners is missed, it will now trigger after a few actions. \nPlayers who have the incorrect item \'parts\' (instead of \'part\') will now have this corrected on game load.\n

Watch the dev (me!) play the first 40 minutes of Duskpunk. GamingBible gave it 9/10, \"Exceptional\", and said:

\"You can almost feel how strongly the words come off the screen. ... characters are shown to have all shades of grey. ... Duskpunk is the kind of game that makes me feel hope.\"

This stream loop is to promote the game during launch, as part of AdventureX 2025, which I\'m very excited and honoured to be part of!

Watch the dev (me!) play the first 40 minutes of Duskpunk. GamingBible gave it 9/10, \"Exceptional\", and said:

\"You can almost feel how strongly the words come off the screen. ... characters are shown to have all shades of grey. ... Duskpunk is the kind of game that makes me feel hope.\"

This stream loop is to promote the game during launch, as part of AdventureX 2025, which I\'m very excited and honoured to be part of!

Failing to craft a device will no longer create a broken item type.

Filling both clocks in the basement fight will now lead to content that does NOT reset the player to go back to the basement after the palace is complete. \n\nTried to make action spamming not cause errors (action stutter issue)

\n\n
• Steam achievements should now trigger as expected. \n
• Made it clear in ink dialog that Bootlace Strike is 1 day only\n
• Speechmaker functions as described. \n
• Fixed bug that sometimes prevents all mandatory events triggering. \n
• Bug report can take multiple lines now. \n
• Game will check if main quest stalls at certain points (rejchek introduces plasmyards, during peace festival, before conspiracy meeting, once palace unlocked). \n

New Location Discovered window is clickable again. Prevented action box overlap in warehouses. Achievements should now be checked when the credits roll. Minor typos.

Fixed bug causing Intimidate ability to not fire. Raised effectiveness of Intimidate ability. Reworked steam achievement code to make it more likely achievement is correctly unlocked. Achievements should now be checked during wake cycle. You can now close the loc window when the close loc win tut comes up even if New Loc Discovered window is open. Added fallback clock in case main quest stalls during peace festival. Fixed ink running out of content during epilogue scene in ruins.

Added fallback event in case you somehow miss the flag that unlocks the sewers. Markov will no longer appear in the people\'s assembly if he is missing. Fixed layout of amphitheatre boxes in non-HD resolutions. Fixed doubled action box in drug den for buying solace. Fixed henry or zai allegiance achievement not triggering. Reduced money gained from selling plasm in exchange, preventing infinite groat loop.

Fixed firebrand clock error

\n
• If Dolores is arrested but the player completes the sabotage quest, Dolores will not now reappear, creating a narrative loop. \n
• Not sure why drug den was empty for one player, but I added some more flag checks which should make this even more impossible now? \n
• The \'recruiters hunting\' and \'the Watch\' clocks now have varying text depending on if you\'ve overcome the task posed by the clock, to help player orientation.\n

Watch the dev (me!) play the first 40 minutes of Duskpunk. GamingBible gave it 9/10, \"Exceptional\", and said:

\"You can almost feel how strongly the words come off the screen. ... characters are shown to have all shades of grey. ... Duskpunk is the kind of game that makes me feel hope.\"

This stream loop is to promote the game during launch, as part of AdventureX 2025, which I\'m very excited and honoured to be part of!

Watch the dev (me!) play the first 40 minutes of Duskpunk. GamingBible gave it 9/10, \"Exceptional\", and said:

\"You can almost feel how strongly the words come off the screen. ... characters are shown to have all shades of grey. ... Duskpunk is the kind of game that makes me feel hope.\"

This stream loop is to promote the game during launch, as part of AdventureX 2025, which I\'m very excited and honoured to be part of!

Watch the dev (me!) play the first 40 minutes of Duskpunk. GamingBible gave it 9/10, \"Exceptional\", and said:

\"You can almost feel how strongly the words come off the screen. ... characters are shown to have all shades of grey. ... Duskpunk is the kind of game that makes me feel hope.\"

This stream loop is to promote the game during launch, as part of AdventureX 2025, which I\'m very excited and honoured to be part of!

Watch the dev (me!) play the first 40 minutes of Duskpunk. GamingBible gave it 9/10, \"Exceptional\", and said:

\"You can almost feel how strongly the words come off the screen. ... characters are shown to have all shades of grey. ... Duskpunk is the kind of game that makes me feel hope.\"

This stream loop is to promote the game during launch, as part of AdventureX 2025, which I\'m very excited and honoured to be part of!

Watch the dev (me!) play the first 40 minutes of Duskpunk. GamingBible gave it 9/10, \"Exceptional\", and said:

\"You can almost feel how strongly the words come off the screen. ... characters are shown to have all shades of grey. ... Duskpunk is the kind of game that makes me feel hope.\"

This stream loop is to promote the game during launch, as part of AdventureX 2025, which I\'m very excited and honoured to be part of!

Hi everyone!!

At long last, Clockwork Bird (AKA me, Jamie here!) has officially announced my next project: gritty survival RPG Duskpunk.

Inspired by tabletop RPGs and narrative adventure games like Citizen Sleeper, Duskpunk is a game of hope, grit and survival. Explore the streets of a steampunk city, gather friends and allies, and spark revolution in a world consumed by war.

Its coming to PC later this year, so be sure to follow the page for updates! In the meantime you can try the free demo up on the Steam page.

Thank you friends, and stay safe out there.

Jamie