Ok, so our game is released tomorrow. Or today, depending on where you're living. As you may have noticed, there are some changes around here, let's explain them.

Initially, project "X Caeli" was planned as a very hardcore roguelite/VN hybrid. With VN being ecchi and comedy based. However, over the course of EA we've understood that this genre mix just doesn't work at all. VN audience is not very interested in hardcore games and vice versa. And, even though we're not showing any nipples and stuff like that in the art (the shame, the shame!), the mere brand of ecchi makes streamers to be very, very much afraid of our content. Which is a no go for modern roguelite - it must be streamed to be successful.

So we've decided to split the games - GOD STARFIGHTER will be released right now as a pure roguelite and we'll do VN a bit later. It'll probably still be something more than just VN - I don't really like games without gameplay. But, whatever it'll be, it'll have clearer connection to the storyline - instead of abstract starships, our girls will be participating in the fights, one way or another. Besides, they are a crew of heroic space pirates so it'll fit them all right. GOD STARFIGHTER will act as a prequel to that game - we're still having some events with the characters and whatnot in the game. But, otherwise, it'll be mostly combat-focused.

Why the name change? Well, did you know that X Caeli is not just some pretty symbols - it's an actual binary star in the Caelum constellation. The game was supposed to take place there, the eyes of our protagonist are the reference to that binary star. And Caelum is also the name of the ancient roman god of the skies. Stuff is deep, man. Perhaps too deep and so now it's more obvious - it's called "GOD STARFIGHTER" and it features a starfighting god. We even have a foe type that is called "Star" so you will be literally star fighting. It's a neat & simple name.

Because we're cutting content, we're also lowering the price - from 15 to 8 bucks. Now, the early access gives us the full freedom of changing the product and its pricing in whatever fashion we desire, but we understand that it sucks to be buying something that's now cheaper and, being the nice guys that we are, we're offering a simple compensation to everyone who has bought our game before the price shift. Contact us in our Discord (we have a link in our game's main menu), PM me (nerdcommando) a screenshot of your steam purchase history (we're interested in Caeli only, you can censor everything else if you wish) and we'll give you a key to our upcoming Lovehammer 400k game. Which will be reaching EA in about two weeks or so.

Through all the summer, we've been diligently working. And now we're ready to present our biggest and most significant update - from this point on, our game is a puzzle, arcade, Visual Novel AND Roguelite.

The goal of this new mode is to journey through three randomly generated star systems, each with more dangerous foes and encounters. Each map gets finished as soon as you'll defeat its boss but whether to rush it or not is your choice - you can explore the nodes to get stronger but enemies will also be growing in power with each step you take. Exploration and battle also takes fuel that has to be managed - as long as you have spare fuel, you're virtually immortal. Your first death on zero fuel will be your last one, though.

To spice up the things a little, we've introduced the "weather" system. These are all kinds of anomalies that modify the flow of a particular battle. Fighting inside the Derelict Factory zone will mean that your enemies are somewhat scrappy, yet they receive constant reinforcements. Accelerated Time zone will give a mighty boost to your powers but will also fix you in the quick battle mode. Rogue nanites will make both you and your foes extremely hardly to kill.

Also, we're introducing events and personal items. Whereas the starship gear is randomly generated before each battle (and now that generation scales with fuel - you'll have to pay a hefty price to keep your armory full), personal items stay constant from battle to battle. They provide some global modifiers, often with a strong negative side to keep them balanced and interesting. Events are short text scenarios where, depending on your choices, you will be able to gain those nifty items. Or some other kinds of gains.

At the end of each playthrough, you'll be presented with your score. It's somewhat minimalistic right now but we'll work on expanding its description.

We've also added some new equipment to the game:

Lent Shield - provides you with colossal Energy pool but your Structure will never be more than 1. Ramming now takes Structure and only Structure, so keep your foes at distance with this shield.

Sermon Shield - slows all enemies' movement speed.

Assassination Engine - allows you to insta-kill solitary foes.

Epistle Spell - teleports foes of matching color randomly.

Damnation Spell - really expensive, destroys a whole row of foes.

GUI has also experienced lots of clarifications and improvements.


What's next on the agenda?

- More events and items for the roguelite map.
- More Tutorials.
- Fixing and restoration of Visual Novel mode - we're in the process of rewriting our VN engine and adding more emotes to the characters, and both these things made our extant chapters to be seriously broken. So, while we're fixing them, the VN mode is going through a temporary shutdown. Sorry for this.
- Completion of VN mode.

Expect full release to be somewhere around November.

The first major feature this patch has to offer is further revamps of ship building system now were sporting an easier to learn drag & drop system with bigger buttons and fancy highlighting. Learning to construct your ship well is a big but tricky part of our game and now it should be more convenient to use.

The second major feature is the revamp of Eternal Battle mode & addition of Warp Nine mode.

Eternal Battle now comes with a challenge defeat as many enemy waves as you only can while spending the least amount of attempts possible. Every next wave will be slightly stronger than the previous one but, to counterbalance that, youll get to increase one stat of your choice after every five victories. Weve also refused the limiters on the stats (it used to be 9 points max) so now they can grow as far as youll be able to push them.

Warp Nine is some casual fun for the veterans of the game. The good news is that in this mode youll have +1 to all your stats thats a lot! The bad news is that you dont get to configure your ship instead, youre getting a wholly random setup and youre sent straight into the hellish combat. If you win, this is repeated eight more times the task of this mode is to collect nine victories in a row. Its much more difficult than it sounds so dont be ashamed to use Story difficulty for this one.

Since the constructor remake allows for dual-wielding any kinds of equipment, weve added some new shields to the game. Yes, you can dual-wield shields now now thats an innovation all right. The new equipment is:

Rosary shield: launches colored projectiles at foes whenever youre being hit.

Remorse shield: survive through 100 enemy attacks under this shield to win automatically.

Indulgence shield: receive 2 seconds of invulnerability in every 8 seconds.

Enemy Number One engine: constantly summons random enemies onto the battlefield. Those enemies will be of premium purple color. Also provides basic Spirit and Energy bonuses.

Dogma spell: allows you to set up a mark and to teleport to that mark. Also spins color wheel.

Next on our list implementation of full roguelite mode and weather conditions.

This patch contains a small but very significant step to the final release - it contains 1/6th of the game's tutorial. As the game's mechanics are of great depth, so are the learning requirements - there will be lots of tutorial scenarios, slowly but surely going through all of the controls, stats, items and interactions. And, as we're trying to tell a comedic story here, all the explanations will be done in-character, making it pretty much yet another part of a visual novel.

This patch is quite extensive but there isn't a lot of notes to post here - mostly because it boils down to show, don't tell. Meaning that it's the patch with all the animations we've planned - now the game's screen is anything but static. Enjoy.

Next on our agenda is a vast, step-by-step tutorial mode which will gradually introduce a new player to all the myriad of possibilities that our game does offer. Showing some fanservice in the process too.

OK, so once again we're pushing release date a bit forward - now it's February 1st. Of 2019. That's a very important addition to make when you're delaying your game several times.

The reason is quite simple - perfectionism. We're just wanting to make animated ships instead of static ones and we're slowly saving the necessary budget for that. Ah, the joys of true indie development. And the woes of wanting to create a true masterpiece.

Outside of that, the game is almost done - the only other thing that demands some polish and reworks is the VN script. It's pretty much done (not in the game, though, as I'm not sure if I want to release it fully in EA) but our artist has recently made lots of additional emotions for all characters. No one really asked him but that's how we roll. They're all really cool only they need to be inserted in the already existing script and it's a simple but totally dull work. Which no one but me can do. Ah, the joys of true indie development. Can't wait for the time when we'll be rich and be able to hire kawaii lolis to perform this kind of work. "Developed by kawaii lolis" - now that's a tag that'll sell your game! Especially if you add a photoshoot of them hard at work in lots of skimpy clothing... Oh, hello, FBI, how are you doing?

Dreadful jokes aside, we're improving project further and further so stuff is good. More or less. Now to replace those emotions...

It's a minor update. Well, compared to the grand scale of pervious update anything would look small.

- Fixed lagging when the game was played for a long time.
- Fixed keyboard issues with swapped "ghost" weapons.
- Minor Balance Changes - more basic energy Regen for the player and many underused pieces of equipment have gotten a hefty discount.

And the biggest news are that yes, now X Caeli demo is refreshed with all new mechanics and, unlike the prevous one, it also features some Visual Novel elements.

This patch is the biggest one we've had to this date. The changes are so numerous that they're almost beyond any attempts to recount them. I'll try, though.

- New GUI: prettier, simpler and better organized. It should make a ship's assembly to be a much less complicated ordeal. It's also much easier to track your ship's combat status right now.

- Constructor Demo: clicking on the equipment pieces will now provide a brief demonstration of their abilities so you can easily understand what exactly they're doing. X Caeli is a very complex game and so we've tried to smoothen the entry barrier as much as possible.

- Gameplay Overhaul: I won't be listing the changes to the specific pieces of equipment as all of them has been changed. Yes, all of them. In many cases, rather dramatically. It's almost a new game. And much better at that (and keep in mind that the old one was not too shabby). So I'll describe the key points instead.

Extra build flexibility: now you have the option to swap your second Gun for an additional Tactic or Spell. Which increases the number of available strategies most profoundly.

- Color identity: now enemy colors are not mere indicators for the match-3 system, they also bear impact on the foes. Red foes explode better, green foes are slower, blue foes will give you more Spirit and yellow foes are not that good at attacking. Now you can manipulate your enemies' colors to shape their wave to your heart's content.

- Spirit resource: we've added an additional currency to the in-game economy which mostly governs the spells. Previously, they relied upon cooldowns but that system is not as flexible as the new one. You get some initial Spirit and then the only way you get extra is by killing the foes and devouring their souls in most horrifying manner – Spirit is not being sold in walmarts, y'know. Spirits are but, uh, nevermind. We've also added some options for “breeding” the foes so you can harvest additional Spirit that way. And, of course, it's income will heavily depend on your ship's build.

- Six additional Spells: Spirit would get rather boring without any fancy ways of burning through it so we've added them. From boss-killing to vampirism to invulnerability, our spells now cover a lot of ground.

- Two additional Tactics: so now there's a dirty dozen of them. Many of the older ones have been reworked for the better flexibility and the bigger combo potential.

- Better combo setup: X Caeli is a puzzle first and foremost and, previously, too much guns were focusing on sheer damage alone. Which is not what you need to solve stuff that can't be solved by brute force alone. Now, more guns are focusing on the various ways of enemy and environment manipulation. More ways to change their color, more options to reposition them and, as I've mentioned, even exotic stuff like breeding new foes. Which is much stronger than it actually sounds. As a result, there's much more interactions to discover.

That's that. I've tried to keep the game short but the resulting changes made game anything but shorter – you can easily play additional 10-20 hours thanks to them. Enjoy.

Next on the agenda – finishing the Visual Novel part (and applying some better editing to the English translation).

In this patch the foes are rebranded into a Tarot-thematic and 12 new foes are introduced, including 6 Elite (Size 2x2) ones:

- The Lovers: all Lovers but one are fully immune to incoming damage. Destroy that special one to make another one special. Love dies hard.
- The Justice: doesn’t attack naturally but unleashes a strong counter-attack if you dare to hurt it.
- The Temperance: is colorless which means it’s not being affected by any color effects.
- The Hanged Man: provides a damage doubling aura but slowly burns out to keep it up.
- The Hermit: doesn’t appear on the battlefield until all other foes are slain.
- The Star: pesters the player relentlessly with its wandering armor-ignoring charges.
- The Sun: Elite. Grabs the player with its blazing beam and never lets go, dealing constant damage.
- The Empress: Elite. Periodically spawns new foes onto the battlefield.
- The Emperor: Elite. Periodically changes other foes to match his color. If all foes are of his color, you automatically lose.
- The Judgment: Elite. The more you move, the more attack it gets.
- The Devil: Elite. Fully invincible. Destroy another foe to make it vulnerable for five seconds.
- The World: Elite. Periodically stops time, fully paralyzing the player in face of action.

Also, some of the previously existing foes got changed a bit:

- The Strength (ex-Cyclops): now does double match-3 damage to the foes.
- The Chariot (ex-Erinys): the more Chariots are on the battlefield, the more damage they do.
- The Magician (ex-Magi): prolongs all debuffs duration on the player.
- The Knave (ex-Wyrm): has 50% less Structure than normal but, when it dies, it immediately spawns another foe of a random non-elite type.
- The Moon (ex-Witch): it’s damage waxes and wanes depending on its screen position.
- The Fool (ex-Succubus): its attacks cause the player to unceasingly move for a second.

New enemy waves have been added to accommodate for these new foes, bringing the total number of encounters from 37 to 104. That’s about 10-15 hours of new gameplay, at the very least.

All foes have been redrawn – we’ve heard lots of complaints that they were too similar to each other so we’ve made them much more distinct this time. Also, in the future they’ll get animated.

One thing this patch will be lacking is the Balance. In the next one, we’ll be making profound changes to the game’s economy and mechanics so it’s a bit pointless to spend too much time on adjusting the present system. To accommodate for this, Reset Wave function have been added, allowing you to change your foes once per encounter.

What’s left to be done:
- The aforementioned major remake of economy etc.
- Ship constructor UI redesign as well as overall UI redesign.
- Animations.
- Visual Novel.

This patch introduces the fully reworked EX system – that is, the expanded abilities of ship's weaponry that became available as soon as you've had enough of certain stat to qualify for them.

That previous mode was too binary – you either have them or you don't. That didn't really reward for spreading your stats around and, at the same time, it gave nothing for maxing them out – everything above the entry requirement went to waste. Well, if you don't count the raw power that those maxed out stats provided to you, that is.

So we've chosen a better system – now, those expanded abilities are always online. But they do scale with their primary stats. So having 1 or 2 of those stats is not wasteful, having 5 is good and having 7+ is awesome.

List of new EX (and we'll probably need to make a better term for these in the future; the term of EX stems from my love for Guilty Gear series but that's just too obscure):

Rosary : -10% Cursed time per point of Transcendence. Stacks if doubled.

Apparition I: 20% that the victim becomes purple colored per point of Poise.

Apparition II: For each hit foe, restore 1% of Energy per point of Splendor.

Pilgrim: Grace Dominion recharges 0.25 second faster per point of Acumen. Stacks if double, but no less than 1 Second.

Genesis: +5% to Anathema damage per point of Poise.

Schism I: +10% to Crush damage per point of Ardor and Crush damage mode is now always online.

Schism II: +50% to foe movement distance per point of Splendor.

Gehenna I: 4% that the affected foe will become purple per point of Acumen.

Gehenna II: +25% fuel per point of Ardor.

Longinus I: +10 damage to blue foes per point of Splendor.

Longinus II: +25 damage to purple foes per point of Pride.

Thorns I: Red foes receive +20 Damage while under this curse per point of Pride.

ThornsII: 20% chance that the foe becomes red colored per point of Acumen.

Communion I: +5% overall damage per point of Transcendence.

Communion II: +2 seconds of this curse duration per point of Poise.

Penance I: When enemy enters this cloud, restore 4% of Energy per point of Splendor.

Penance II: +20% damage versus yellow per point of Pride.

Parable: -2 seconds soul cooldown per point of Acumen. Stacks when doubled.

Exodus I: Swapped foes will stop moving for 2 seconds per point of Pride.

Exodus II: 2% that the enemy will vanish forever per point of Transcendence.

- Another major rework is the stat system. Previously, the bigger part of your stat points came from equipment and the lesser was given in form of free distribution points. That second part wasn't as fun, however – generally, they went to max out your primary stat and that didn't offer for much variety.

So we've removed the free distribution stats and now the entirety of your parameters are provided by your equipment. To compensate for this loss, now Acts and Souls also provide 2 stat points each. And, in case of two special Acts, they provide 3 stat points each. Now our ship building menu is even more starry!

Also, to make the process more intricate, the second copy of the same weapon will now provide different stats from its original. Previously, too many builds were pushed into twin-linking their weaponry to achieve best results possible. Now, there's more flexibility. Also, many weapons can now give access to the stats that they didn't gave before, meaning that overall building potential is further increased.


- Gremlins are no longer returning thrice as much damage. Should make those bastards a bit more manageable as it's only a double now.

- A less visible change – we've done a major rework on the inner logic of combat. Reworked it from the scratch, actually. In near perspective, this may lead to some small bugs, but in longer term it'll make the game much more stable. The gremlins bug, for example, was ironed thanks to that.

- Our composer is having the time of his life while being conscripted to glorious russian army so we're adding a new person into our fold: welcome Alice Saturnova! Hope you'll enjoy listening the nine tracks that she composed specially for the VN part.
Two more VN chapters.


The future plans: rework of GUI, 42 more VN chapters, new ship sprites (now with animations!) and 12 more foes, including elite 2x2 ones. I can even spoil you those l33t names – The Sun, The Emperor, The Empress, The Judgment, The Devil and The World. Yeah, our tribute to Za Warudo incoming.

Two more VN chapters
- More stable savegame system (which is a change that, if it works, you won't notice)
- Lots of small bugs fixed
- Penance main can now pass through the foes.
- Anathema does damage that depends on both your Structure and Armor.
- Screamer Soul's damage now depends on your Armor.
- Testament and Conversion now scale with Armor. Yeah, Armor sucked so we'fe buffed it somewhat.

Two more VN chapters
- More stable savegame system (which is a change that, if it works, you won't notice)
- Lots of small bugs fixed
- Penance main can now pass through the foes.
- Anathema does damage that depends on both your Structure and Armor.
- Screamer Soul's damage now depends on your Armor.
- Testament and Conversion now scale with Armor. Yeah, Armor sucked so we'fe buffed it somewhat.

Eight fresh episodes of our Story (codenamed ghost in the jam, part-time legacy, medical sacrifice, dead can dance, high grade tech, burden of leadership, mushroom love, sometimes they do return).
- Sound loudness control added.
- EX requirements of Rosary, Apparition and Gehenna lowered.
- Genesis EX now shoots more frequently.
- Thorns ALT EX now requires Acumen.
- Pilgrim EX now requires Ardor.
- Penance ALT EX now provides double damage.
- Anathema is 20% stronger now.
- Power of Oppression increases the Blast of the green foes.
- Empty Walls are 50% sturdier.
- Total Terror regenerates 20% more Structure.
- Hydra Spawn & Total Terror interact correctly.
- Cheat codes got more convenient (but we're not telling them).

Eight fresh episodes of our Story (codenamed ghost in the jam, part-time legacy, medical sacrifice, dead can dance, high grade tech, burden of leadership, mushroom love, sometimes they do return).
- Sound loudness control added.
- EX requirements of Rosary, Apparition and Gehenna lowered.
- Genesis EX now shoots more frequently.
- Thorns ALT EX now requires Acumen.
- Pilgrim EX now requires Ardor.
- Penance ALT EX now provides double damage.
- Anathema is 20% stronger now.
- Power of Oppression increases the Blast of the green foes.
- Empty Walls are 50% sturdier.
- Total Terror regenerates 20% more Structure.
- Hydra Spawn & Total Terror interact correctly.
- Cheat codes got more convenient (but we're not telling them).

Windowed mode is now available (disabled by default).
- V-sync mode is now available.
- Control settings are now properly saved.
- Key bindings can now be swapped.
- There should be less issues with loading screen.
- Longinus & Cyclops interaction fixed.
- Small issues with Thorns, Gehenna & Beholder fixed.
- Screen refresh rate option is now available.

Windowed mode is now available (disabled by default).
- V-sync mode is now available.
- Control settings are now properly saved.
- Key bindings can now be swapped.
- There should be less issues with loading screen.
- Longinus & Cyclops interaction fixed.
- Small issues with Thorns, Gehenna & Beholder fixed.
- Screen refresh rate option is now available.

Now you can download combat demo from the store page - it lasts for five combats, featuring some very distinct and annoying enemy waves and some pregenerated sets of equipment to dispatch them. As it is always with our game, prepare to experiment & die a lot.

Now you can download combat demo from the store page - it lasts for five combats, featuring some very distinct and annoying enemy waves and some pregenerated sets of equipment to dispatch them. As it is always with our game, prepare to experiment & die a lot.

Star Field works correctly
- HP & Energy bars work on all resolutions
- Exodus main now works correctly
- Rosary alt & Cyclops interaction fixed
- Gallery no longer gives spoilers (so sad)
- Correct finishes of level with Beholder

Star Field works correctly
- HP & Energy bars work on all resolutions
- Exodus main now works correctly
- Rosary alt & Cyclops interaction fixed
- Gallery no longer gives spoilers (so sad)
- Correct finishes of level with Beholder