The new update for Heroes of Loot: Gauntlet of Power is now live!

New Content:

Hidden realm: The Temple New unlockable character: The Rogue New friendlies New enemies Grab the update now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2374320/Heroes_Of__Loot_Gauntlet_Of_Power/

More info:

Besides adding the new realm and characters, I made some small changes to balancing things out (especially for the easy mode). I also made the realms more of a choice to go into or not, as it will mean you now skip one or two levels. So if you are in a hurry and want to speedrun the game, knowing where to find the entries to these realms is certainly key.. but I can imagine it might sometimes be more interesting to NOT take the realm-route and grab some extra loot in the levels you would otherwise skip. If you need a little spoiler on how/where to find the Rogue unlock tokens, make sure to check the Orangepixel website for the Games Wiki.

[ 2024-10-16 07:30:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Adventurers! Just wanted to make sure you didn't miss the release of the new Orangepixel game. It's another episode in the Heroes of Loot Saga: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2374320/Heroes_Of__Loot_Gauntlet_Of_Power/ A dungeon crawler with some bullet-heaven like properties and a kick-ass weapon system. Various content updates are already planned and will be hitting in the next few weeks, but NOW is the time to grab the game at the launch discount! Don't forget to drop a review after you gave it some play time, and I'll see you in the dungeons! Come talk about the game over on The Orangepixel Discord

[ 2024-06-18 14:27:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Grunts! Short version: There's a beta version available that you can opt in to try and play, right click on Space Grunts 2 in Steam > Properties > Beta's > Beta_v200! - Would love feedback on any weird issues or other problems!

Longer version

Welcome to all the new Grunts! For the influx of new players: this game feels new to a lot of you, but for me as the developer this game is almost turning 5 years old!
I always thought that Space Grunts 2 was "done", I had added everything I wanted, it plays nice, feels nice, and every now and then I still boot it up for a round or two. There was however always some tiny things that I felt like could be improved.. a lot of that was visual, some of it was gameplay wise, and a bunch of things were just technical issues that have to do with PC's and operating systems all evolving! So in between my new game projects, I have been tinkering on Space Grunts 2.. and especially now that I'm prototyping a Space Grunts 3, and we are about to do a Switch version of SG2 - I decided this was THE time to actually try and push a Quality of Life update to my old friend SG2. This update comes with tweaks and changes which should make it a smoother experience on PC with mouse/keyboard or gamepad play. Better fonts, bigger dialogs, better resolution support, etc. Visuals have been "cleaned" here and there as they could look a bit messy especially in early levels, and some changes are pushed like having a Fist card in your deck when you run low on weapons. So please check out the Beta version, give it some playthroughs, and let me know what you think - or if you have more requests.. there's room for some tiny improvements and additions! You can find me on Discord: Discord.gg/Orangepixel And don't forget to drop a little review on the game, that will certainly help the game keep traction going! (allowing me to put some more time into future updates after all these years!)

[ 2024-03-28 09:34:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Dungeoneers and Adventurers! Heroes of Loot: Gauntlet of Power just received a brand new demo for you to come and play for free! This demo is one of the last ones before we release the actual game, so a perfect time to check it out and wishlist Gauntlet of Power: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2374320/Heroes_Of__Loot_Gauntlet_Of_Power/ PS: There is also a "closed" beta coming soon, for which you can sign-up over on the discord right now!

[ 2024-03-22 14:58:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys, it's Pascal from Orangepixel, and I wanted to give you a quick message to let you know that I uploaded a fresh, brand new, demo for both Regulator City and Heroes of Loot: Gauntlet of Power! Grab the demos (and Wishlist!) here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1892750/Regulator_City/ Squad based top-down arcade shooter, with some stealthy/sneaking moments and a lot of cool vibes! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2374320/Heroes_Of__Loot_Gauntlet_Of_Power/ A quick mix of bullet-heaven shooters and dungeon crawlers like Binding of Isaac. It's early in development stage, but many gamers seem to really love it so far! These games are still in development, but your feedback on the demo's are VERY welcome! Drop by on https://discord.gg/orangepixel to find out more about the games and have a nice chat about features you'd love to see before they get released!

[ 2023-08-04 12:15:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! Just a short update to let you know that there is NOW a new Regulator City DEMO available ! Still in heavy development, but I'm very pleased with where the game currently is. There's a smoother game-flow experience (mission structure, city progress, all make more sense as you play) and there is even some on-boarding for new players in a short little "tutorial" level. You'll also experience a much better stealthy and sneaking-around experience to complete your missions!
This demo also brings you a new playable character: Wrecking-ball ! His dash is VERY nice to use, and his Special ability certainly packs a punch ;) So please come and check it out, and if you haven't yet, wishlist the game! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1892750/Regulator_City/

[ 2023-03-30 19:34:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi guys! Just wanted to let you know that I just pushed the release button on a new Orangepixel Steam release: Sir Questionnaire! It's a quirky game at a bargain price, it provides hours of gameplay in a VERY small package: The game is played in single dungeon rooms, where you are given the choice to either "interact" or "get outta there!".
Do you attack the skulls? got enough health? got the right weapon for the lobsters? Got some magic left to hit the huge Wolf on his head? Dare to drink the milk before the next encounter? A game of choices - how far can you venture into the dungeon? Come play Sir Questionnaire, and make sure to drop by on discord if you need tips & tricks! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2124790/Sir_Questionnaire

[ 2022-12-08 12:48:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey guys! It's Pascal from Orangepixel with a little update! I wanted to let you know that there's a fresh new demo of Regulator City, the upcoming game I've been working on for a year now, and this demo gives a very nice feeling of where the game is heading! So check it out over on the Regulator City page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1892750/Regulator_City/ And don't forget to wishlist and perhaps come have a chat about it over on discord.gg/orangepixel:
And please! tell your friends about it, I could use all the help to get more people interested in the game in the coming months!

[ 2022-11-09 13:54:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Regulator City is the next Orangepixel game, and you can try it out for FREE right now in the form of an early demo! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1892750/Regulator_City/ You play the leader of a team, taking out various gangs setting up base in Regulator City. I was inspired by the cool team-action you see in movies or tv-shows with special forces.. and in this game I want the player to feel part of such a team as you make your way through various apartments, industrial buildings, offices, etc. Completing a range of interesting missions and slowly taking control of the city! Anyway, come check out the demo, follow + wishlist the game, and hang out on Discord to talk ! (discord.gg/orangepixel)

[ 2022-06-09 08:24:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

With 4 days left, Residual reaches the 100% funding goal on Kickstarter! This means you still have a few days to get in on the EXCLUSIVE Kickstarter rewards! Name your planet or a cluster of planets? It's still available! Get the exclusive digital Instruction Manual on release? Still available! Check the Kickstarter if you want to get in on these, final days to get them! - Residual Kickstarter AND make sure to wishlist the game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1290780/Residual/

[ 2020-08-16 14:53:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

A new Orangepixel game is coming: Residual - and it is NOW on Kickstarter with a playable demo available! Check all the details here: Residual Kickstarter. RESIDUAL is a survival platformer offering a combination of crafting and exploration. There are no weapons, it's just you, the planet, and an adventure for survival that's different every time you hit the "New Game" option. RESIDUAL throws you onto a procedurally generated planet with no humanoid lifeforms. Your task? Survive! Explore the planet both above and below ground, scavenge, mine, craft, fish, pluck, chop, climb, jump, push, pull, and solve puzzles along the way. Discover remnants of an ancient civilization and their advanced technology. It's not known why this civilization failed, but their technology is sure to come in handy when fixing your ship once you figure out how to use it. http://store.steampowered.com/app/1290780

[ 2020-07-22 13:37:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

First big announcement: Space Grunts 2 is going to leave Steam Early Access in May 2020! I think we reached the point where the game is full of content, more than doubled in size since the first Early Access version, and it's ready for a full release! So Yay! Now for this week's update, not a lot of new things added because I think we have all bugs squashed pretty well, since last week, and nothing showed up that needed fixing. So time to introduce a new event and a new "hazard": Electricity surges! They are comparable to burning floors, but can spawn from plasma bombs, and sometimes at random points near lights on a level. I also included a random event which will spawn electricity surges randomly on all levels. Positive thing is that they also damage aliens and such.. so as long as you can stay away from it, they might actually help you out! Full changes list:

• added: Electricity surge - can spawn from plasmabombs + lights
• added: Electricity surge event - electricity world 2+

[ 2020-05-15 07:12:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alrighty! This weeks update is a bit sooner, because there was a game-breaking bug that pretty much dumbed a big un-destroyable scenery object in front of a hallway (oops!). Problem had to do with the level generator rotating designed level blocks, and at a certain angle, a certain room would generate items in your path.. Fixed it now by checking if all of those big scenery obstacles have full movement around them, if not, they are removed from the level without players ever knowing they were there! I also fixed a bunch of tiny bugs with the NPC's and a weird card combination causing a crash (using a tactical card near a crate.. which doesn't really make sense, but shouldn't crash the game either!). So a good solid maintenance update this week, to make sure we can all keep moving around in a stable game before I break it again with new stuff next week ;p - just kidding, my plan is to not break things! Full changes list:

• fixed: big-scenery blocking corridors/areas
• fixed: crash using the tactics card near a crate/non-creature
• fixed: NPC vanishing but area remains blocked
• fixed: NPC-dialog not closing correctly near special teleporter
• fixed: bio-dome exit not working unless power is restored (even tho door still opened up)
• fixed: terminal placed inside walls

[ 2020-05-06 07:17:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

This week I found some time to "flesh out" the environment we're walking in. For now it's mostly static / dumb scenery that looks pretty, but some of these things might get more of a function later on. I also added a collection of new level-blocks, with more "open" area's, just to give you some room to breath now and then. I also fixed a collection of tiny bugs and in some cases extremely RARE bugs.. which is also a warning: they are extremely hard to test, so I'm pretty sure they are fixed, but I'm not 100% sure! So let me know if you still find yourself flung into a room behind a locked door because of a tornado, with no key to open it or escape from ! Full changes list:

• added: new level templates (making new layouts)
• added: big scenery pieces (no function.. for now)
• fixed: Scavenge boxes always gave copies of a single random card. Now they give proper random cards
• fixed: keycards could be placed in "hidden-rooms" and without a bomb, you couldn't access those
• fixed: power datacard could be placed in "hidden-rooms" (and without a bomb, couldn't access those)
• fixed: tiny chance a tornado flings you in a locked or secret room without a key to get out.
• fixed: few info dialogs not popping up

[ 2020-05-01 06:53:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Some new rooms are added to the "blue-door" rotation. So far blue-doors housed an armory/item-pickup room OR a fruit-room, but from now on you can also find a MediLab room (contains bunch of med-kits and a medi-station) and in a very rare case a special-teleporter room which will INSTANTLY bring you to the lowest level of the space base (as-in: boss floor). I also changed the fruit-room slightly, because I think the amount of fruit was a bit overkill and the current layout is just a bit more interesting. Full changes list:

• added: MedLab rooms
• added: Teleporter room - optionally brings you to lowest floor (very rare spawn)
• changed: fruit-room now less fruit (was bit overkill)

[ 2020-04-24 07:01:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Some weeks time just flies by, and sadly somethings get a little less time allotted to it. In this case the weekly Space Grunts 2 update is a bit on the short end of things. This week I was busy setting up a Steam page for the new game I'm working on, preparing a Steam build for Snake Core, rebuilding almost all the android versions of my games for a special project I can't mention just yet... and all that stuffed in just a bit over a day, so that the rest of the week I had time to work on the new project! - just follow me on twitter or youtube for more details on that new project! ;) BUT .. I did manage to add a few new cards to the mix, and changed the function of one of the existing ones. So there is still some new content here, and I still have a few bigger updates on my list, so let's hope I find some time to tackle those very soon! Full changes list:

• added: new card - Cover
• added: new card - Shotgun
• added: Tiny Scavenge box - adds 3 cards
• changed: Scavenge box now adds 5 cards

[ 2020-04-17 08:21:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Those pesky little aliens are getting more and more bold. You might find that they are now stealing red key-cards ! Luckily the local humanoids can help point you in the direction of the alien species that has it.. so brush up on your alien codex, because you'll need to find the right species in some of those levels! :) To make NPC's stick out more, they now also have a nice interaction sign twirling above their heads, and I managed to fix a few small bugs along the way.. grab the update! Full changes list:

• added: "interactive-sign" above NPC's head
• added: Red-keys can now be stolen by Aliens ! (NPC at start of level will let you know)
• fixed: incinerator still did harm even with "Fireman datacard" activated
• fixed: shortened dialog-close button pop-up delay
• fixed: Blindness is now properly reset on a new game

[ 2020-04-09 18:39:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update comes with a new random event that I had written down in my ideas list for a while, but the idea was lacking something, and suddenly I figured it out: it needed a little kryptonite! Okay, let's back up a bit.. So, the new event I added is "Superman" and the idea is that the planet's sun gives your character super-human powers, so your attack and defense starting stats will gain +10 - and you can combine that with a Crank buff card once unlocked ;) Now to balance this somewhat, your kryptonite will be acid, in any shape or form. So if you get hurt by acid it will do a lot more damage than normal to your health! It should be an interesting little twist to tackle in your runs ! There is more tho! I also added a new alternate-route in the form of a crawl-space. This route can pop-up in world 2+ and you can find a new rare card in the crawlspace: Card printer. Which will generate 10 new cards when you play it, nice boost when you are running low on cards in the later levels! See if you can find the crawl-space or bump into the Superman event and enjoy! :) Full changes list:

• added: Superman event - extra boost to attack+defense stats.. Acid is your kryptonite!
• added: Alternate route - Crawlspace
• added: new card: Card Printer (found in Crawlspace)

[ 2020-04-03 07:08:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

A short but sweet update this week: NPC's! I was planning on adding NPCs for a while now, but I had to figure out their usefulness first.. which I did! You'll now find that NPC's can be holding red-keys, power-data cards or just random items. I hope to add more functionality to them in later stages, maybe small quest/assignments they want you to do before they can help you out, but for now, it's fun seeing other faces around the space station ;) Based on feedback, I also added the Modifier cards and Perma-buff cards to the pause screen (this actually took up most of the work for this update!). So if you forgot what your active modifier cards do (those you gain in-between levels after leveling-up) just pause the game, and select it for a reminder! While working on that part, I also came to the funny conclusion, that perma-buff cards (unlocked by completing a full run and defeating the boss) didn't.. uhm... actually.. activate! :D oopsy! Fixed now ;) Don't forget to leave a little review if you enjoy the game! It helps me a LOT getting the game more attention and that in turn allows me to keep working on it for a bit longer. Full changes list:

• added: can now also check on your Active modifier cards
• added: NPC's with various items (random, red-card, power-card)
• added: Modifier cards now also added to pause screen
• fixed: oops! perma-buff cards were never actually activated :D - fixed!

[ 2020-03-27 09:19:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

A couple of tiny little aliens are added to the mix this week, and the black Ooze one comes with a new opponent-card: Ooze spit. Which will blind you for an X amount of turns! And when you're blind, your attack damage will not be a 100% certain! So watch out for that one. Acido is another Acid based creature, but with a fast 2-turns movement speed. We just didn't have enough of those going around yet ;) While adding blindness to the game, I also noticed the your sickness state isn't actually saved! not a big problem, and hardly noticeable (since nobody mentioned it) but it's fixed now ! Full changes list:

• added: new creature: Ooze
• added: new creature attack - Ooze spit
• added: new creature Acido (fast acid spitting creature)
• added: player can now become blind(ed) (by ooze spit)
• fixed: saving Sickness state of player

[ 2020-03-20 07:57:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Simple update this week, a small set of new cards. I included a couple of passive cards (those you get when you grow a level in between levels) and the rest is a couple of weapons and two other interesting ideas I had. I especially love the "Bag of Sand" and the "Random" cards as they spice up things nicely! Let me know what you think, and if you have great ideas for cards, don't be shy and let me know! While I have your attention, I made a fun little arcade game called Snake Core, and you can wishlist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1262770 which would really help me by the time it releases (more wishlists, often help boost visibility) so thanks in advance! Full changes list:

• added: new item - Super-shocker - like shockwave but wider range
• added: new item - "Overheated" gun card - will do good damage, but you'll drop some cards from your deck (due to hotness)
• added: new item - "Sandbag" the sand will blind your opponent. Turning their attacks into random hit and mostly miss.
• added: new item - "Random" when played turns into a random other card.
• added: new passive card: Fruity - all fruit will be healthy
• added: new passive card: Pillpop - sickness will not befall you!
• fixed: Updated the wiki with new aliens+cards info

[ 2020-03-13 07:32:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Wall-terminals are here! and to operate them, I also included a couple of Data cards you need to find to operate them. The terminals will show up from level 3+. On some floors you'll now find that the exit has no power, so in order to activate it, you'll need to find a Power data card, and use it on one of the wall-terminals. This is one of the first little changes to make "roaming around" a bit more interesting, and less "find-the-exit-and-do-it-again". You'll also notice there's always a teleporter near the exit, so if you use them correctly it hopefully means you don't have to do too much grinding/back-tracking ... see.. it's all coming together now! Not a lot of big changes this week besides these terminals, because I'm in the middle of wrapping up a new game: Snake Core.. so it's a lot of juggling with these projects currently! One small thing, if you're enjoying the game, PLEASE leave a review! It will help me a lot getting this game into a wider audience, and that again helps in me keeping up these updates and supporting the game! so if possible, drop a little review on the Steam page? :) thanks! Full changes list:

• added: Wall terminals
• added: new item: Power data card
• added: new item: Fireman data card
• added: Exit-consoles can now have no-power
• added: Junk can now be punched (fists)
• fixed: crashed space ship / big-statue aren't correctly solid/blocking player

[ 2020-03-06 07:47:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Captain, we discovered new life forms! I figured it was about time to add some fresh meat to the game, so you'll be able to encounter three new creatures, one of which is very fast: it can take 2 turns so might be harder to escape from! The tornado's were still causing some issues here and there, so I added more code to (hopefully) avoid all issues where a tornado somehow seems to fling you into the big unknown: Space. Let me know if you still run into those issues (and preferably with a screenshot and through discord.gg/orangepixel .. thanks!) Transporters now have gotten even more functionality, as mentioned last week, so now stepping onto a transportation spot pops-up a little choice. Either set it as a new safe-spot, use it to teleport to the last set safe-spot, or just ignore it (if you stepped on it by accident). The last safe-spot teleport is also shown on the radar in Blue.. and I think it's about time to add some sort of legend to the map-screen in an update soon! For now, enjoy the life-forms and teleportation functionality captain! Full changes list:

• added: Transporters now give the option to use them (beam out) set as safe spot, or leave them
• added: latest transport spot is highlighted on the radar
• added: new creature: Nilo
• added: new creature: Brocko
• added: killed aliens will sometimes lave a smelly corpse attracting other creatures
• added: some creature can now have faster movement (2 tiles instead of 1)
• added: "speed" info to alien-codex
• fixed: tornado's flinging you around the map will check wider surroundings
• fixed: multi-turn locks up player if alien dies with turns left
• fixed: tornado-fling will also show your surroundings (calculate FOV)

[ 2020-02-28 07:46:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's a big one this week! Version 1.10.0 comes with a host of new goodies, big changes, and some planning for future updates. So let's dive into the juicy stuff. And IT IS juicy this week, you'll now find the planet has a host of different fruits and these are a little different from your normal items. Fruit is "instant" so if you pickup a fruit, it's effects will be instant and not card-based. In most cases the fruit will increase your health with +1 or +3 (depending on the size of the fruit).. but every now and then, the fruit can be rotten.. and there is always one type that's poison. So figure out which is poison, and avoid it as much as possible. My idea behind this feature is that it is an alternate way to increase your HP, and it should help getting deeper into the game. Because it helps.. I of course had to add an opposing effect. So you might find that some of the aliens are now more aggressive. I've been rebalancing some stuff, and also made aliens more likely to attack you (to avoid being able to breeze through a group of aliens without ever getting attacked). More balancing is done in the shape of increasing your XP, which should now be slightly faster, so it also makes it possible to level-up faster. Still tinkering with it! Besides the fruit, there are some new level layouts, there is now a fruit-room, and a bunch of graphical changes left and right. Another BIG change is the function of teleporters/safe-spots. I always found them a little underwhelming and function-less. SO let's improve it. The "Retreat" card in battles is now replaced with a "Beam out" card, which will instantly bring you to the last safe-spot (and end the battle). This makes the teleporters suddenly more interesting, because you can now trigger them near the exit, or near a fruit-room, or at least in a safe spot somewhere in the level. I will be expanding on this idea for a future update, as one of my plans is to start adding some more "tasks" to the levels. Right now the only task is finding a red key, to open a red-door, and use the exit. But I want to add a few things like: the exit might not work, unless you activate/hack a few consoles somewhere in the level. Or the red-key isn't available in the level, but taken by a monster or a specific NPC has it (and yes, there will be NPC's coming to the game). I got plans! For now, boot up the new version, give it a few goes, and let me know if I broke anything else while doing all these improvements ;) Full changes list:

• added: Fruit - instantly heals, but can be rotten (lowers HP) or poisonous (sickness)
• added: Fruit-room
• added: few new level building blocks
• added: seeding number to pause screen (for bug fixing)
• added: graphical destruction to walls near explosions
• added: increased enemy spawns in later levels
• added: replaced (fairly useless) "Retreat" card with "Beam out" card - taking you to last safe spot
• added: Trinket info now shown every game on first pickup
• added: visibility (field-of-view) now smaller when in darkness
• added: Card stats now show passive/buff card info (and correctly sorts them)
• added: teleporter spots near exits
• fixed: minor background graphic improvements
• fixed: in-teleporting aliens should never be sleeping
• fixed: slight increase on alien attack-chance in later levels
• fixed: phantom red-keys (when alternate routes are available)
• fixed: level-generator bug in 4-direction rooms
• fixed: small bug in random drops (items, cards, fruit, etc)
• fixed: VERY rare bug where tornado could put you inside an unescapable small area
• fixed: "Exit" button on "game completed" screen not working (because of all buff cards unlocked)
• fixed: lowered "XP" steps required to unlock later XP levels
• fixed: power-shield card ended turn (for no apparent reason)
• fixed: monsters now more likely to avoid hazards when moving (like acid)
• fixed: using medikit at HP station - doesn't cure sickness

[ 2020-02-21 09:37:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

This weeks big new feature comes in the shape of new environment graphics. I decided it was time to spice up the variation a bit, so there are now alternate versions of graphics for each region, and the game will alternate between those for the various levels. It's a tiny thing gameplay wise, but it does make the game feel fresh again! While doing new graphics I also added a tiny amount of new level-layouts, so you might find yourself wandering in new areas now and then! Most of this weeks code was preparing some under-the-hood stuff for future updates. I haven't been adding new cards because I made a thinking error in my code/design, making it hard to add new cards without messing up a bunch of things like statistics and unlocked buff cards, etc. The code to fix all that is now running in this version, which makes it possible again to start adding new cards in future updates.. I have some ideas already! Finally I fixed a few bugs and small annoyances.. game on Captain! Full changes list:

• added: alternate graphics for every region (randomized for more variation)
• added: new level building blocks
• fixed: re-organized skills and buff card code handling for future updates
• fixed: split tornado-event and single-tornado dialog text
• fixed: healing (sickness) now only works when using a medi-kit or enhancer card
• fixed: player energy wasn't correctly saved in saved-game

for support, questions, or just Space chit-chat, make sure to check discord.gg/orangepixel #spacegrunts !

[ 2020-02-14 07:56:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

A much requested feature is some sort of character customization, so guess what! We now have character customization! It's not over extensive because the game doesn't really have a huge amount of statistics that change the game's progress. There is strength, defense, and tech and of course your health. I might expand on this in future updates, but such an update will require a lot more work because any extra properties are required to drill down to every system that makes up the game ! So adding properties is easy, but having them connect with all the other game stuff takes some thought. For now, I think this is a pretty cool step towards modifying the challenge of a single run! I also made mechanical-walls show up more visibly on your radar, as I noticed some players weren't aware enough and at times missed the fact that some walls had walls that only open up when you are near them. This should remedy those problems. There was also, still, some occasional problems with the boss-level not generating an exit/boss/ending. I added a few more checks for when such a thing might happen and then fix those cases. Full changes list:

• added: Character customization
• added: mechanical walls are now visible on the radar
• added: double check for levels creating an exit
• added: transparency to walls blocking your view
• fixed: Tornado's now vanish after tossing player 3 times
• fixed: progress-menu items design

[ 2020-02-07 07:58:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another week, another update! This one is a bit fun, I had this silly idea for a Tornado entity. You can't fight with it, or interact with it.. you can only try to avoid it .. OR NOT! Because bumping into it isn't pure good or bad. When you hit the tornado it will reshuffle your full deck (always) and there's a fairly big chance that it will fling you around the map a bit; placing you on a nearby tile. Both the reshuffle and the flinging might actually turn out pretty well if you are in a crowded area! There is now also a Tornado-Event added to the random event-pool, in which case those tornado's will be all over and in much bigger numbers than in a normal round. So enjoy! :) Full changes list:

• added: Tornado entities - they shuffle your deck, and teleport you to last safe spot
• added: Tornado season event (many tornado's)
• added: new hints (on character select screen)

Fixes:

• fixed: improved settings menu items

[ 2020-01-31 08:07:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Let's change up the level layouts a bit for this update. The game now comes with a couple of new level-design blocks, and also a new "Mechanical wall". These are walls that slide up and down either automatically, or when you get near them. This makes for some interesting level designs and requires a bit more exploration to discover some hidden hallways. I also rebalanced the end-boss. He was often found a bit overpowering and too strong to take out, even if you had a huge amount of energy. There's now some capping on his skills, and I think this makes him slightly easier to beat... of course, you first need to reach him! Full changes list:

• added: update info dialog at start
• added: mechanical-walls
• added: variation of new level design-blocks

Fixes:

• fixed: better balancing on the strength of The Blob (end boss)
• fixed: possible cause for rare crashing when using Vial card
• fixed: Bio-dome showing up multiple times in a game

[ 2020-01-24 08:43:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Captains! Guess I'm still not done pushing new stuff to this game.. I just enjoy it so much myself, so that does make it a lot easier to keep working on it! What also helps is the good feedback I'm getting from players and also see new players really getting into the game and talking about it on Discord - So nice to see! So this update comes with a few small improvements. I found a weird bug in the level-generator, which mostly popped-up during challenges where you would enter the boss-level and find yourself inside a dark void of nothings ness.. it looked cool, but wasn't very practical ! Found the cause of it, and hopefully it was the only cause, so that it's now fixed. I also added all the Patrons, who were a Patron during the development of the game, to the credits of the game, thanks again people! And if you want your name in the credits AND support me AND get alpha/beta access to new games I'm working on, then check out the Patreon ;) Finally, I added some more Captain log voice samples, now every area has it's own samples. On the other end, I also had people requesting the option to turn off the voice sample (mostly due to restarting the game so often, that they got sick of it) ... no hard feelings.. it's just my voice .. BUT the option is added in the sound menu. Altho I also added a little code that will simply not re-trigger the first level's voice on every game session.. so that probably fixes without having to turn it off. So the updates are still coming, altho a bit smaller than in the early development stages. Next weeks update is already in development, I just have to do some level designing around the new feature... stay tuned for that ;) Full changes list:

• added: option to Mute captains voice (see sound in setup menu)
• added: Patron-names to the credits screen
• added: More information through Captain logs at start of new areas

Fixes and changes:

• fixed: Cap-log triggers less often (to not annoy players who don't get far in the game yet)
• fixed: bug in level generator causing player to end up in "the void" without a level
• fixed: Flamer entity image in Codex

[ 2020-01-17 09:32:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ho ho ho! I managed to squeeze out one more tiny update this year! When I added the challenges last week I didn't have a good idea on what type of reward the challenges should unlock... and now I do! In this update you'll find Trinkets, every challenge will unlock a new type of trinket, and once they are unlocked they will start appearing in your game. You can only carry one trinket at a time, and they will have some cool effects. Currently there are 8 trinkets in the game:

• Flashlight - more visibility in dark-areas
• Spider - spiderwebs won't slow you down
• Metal-plate - randomly defends against hits
• Controller - Disables nearby level hazards (flamers, rockets, fires)
• Paperclip - Don't need keycards to open doors
• Poker chip - +1 on deck when inventory is full during pickup
• Lucky card - your deck gets refilled when empty
• Bandaid - using level transport completely refills your HP

That should give you some good incentive to complete those challenges! But.. that's not all! I designed a few new level blocks / rooms / areas, so you'll might find yourself wondering around some fresh level designs.. enjoy the holidays! :) Full changes list:

• added: collection of new level-layouts for your adventures!
• added: Trinket rewards to challenges
• fixed: alien-codex information showed wrong names/data
• fixed: rare game crash when using idle card on small deck

[ 2019-12-24 08:07:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

This week I've put some time into adding more content in the shape of a new game-mode: Challenges. The challenge mode allows you to experience the game in a shorter and different way. There are currently 8 challenges added, the first one being "The Dark" where your visibility is a lot less than normal play, another challenge will have all the Tech cards removed from the deck, and a few other challenges. Besides these challenges I also added a new alternate-route: Biodome, which will contain a new rare card: the Black rose. And finally, for those good enough to actually beat the game, there are now perma-unlockable Buff cards. For every victory you get to unlock one of the 5 cards, and in all your next games you will be able to pick a single buff-card which will change your characters skills. It will also be possible to play Pure without any of the buffs active. So that's a lot of extra game this week! Which is great, because it's the last update before the holidays! :) I'm also close to having a complete WIKI up for the game, so if you need any information on the cards, events, challenges or area's then check it out here! No new Space Grunts devlog, BUT I found it interesting to see where this whole project started and what I originally set out to create in the first part of the series: [previewyoutube=Z9ie0De5KjI;full][/previewyoutube] Full changes list:

• added: Challenge game mode (8 challenges)
• added: perma-unlockable Buff cards
• added: first 5 perma Buff cards: Adrenaline, Cardshark, Powercore, XP Chip, Crank
• added: new alternate route: Biodome
• added: new card: Black rose

Fixes:

• fixed: some aliens can't be killed (cybergon in most cases)
• fixed: continue game doesn't grab correct character name
• fixed: red/blue keys not working/showing up when at a door

[ 2019-12-17 17:03:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

I heard you loud and clear! So here you go: overview of all the cards in your deck!!... sort of! So most requested feature I had both on PC but especially after releasing on iOS is a way to see which cards are in your deck. The problem I had with this is that part of the design is that you are blindly pulling cards from the top of your deck and not really know what's gonna happen! BUT I can't ignore the fact that most people wanted a bit more insight into what's available, so I decided to meet you guys halfway. The pause screen now shows the last 3 picked up cards (especially interesting for new players or when you bump into a card you never seen before), and below that there's a list of all the variations of cards in your deck and how many of each you have. So it should help you keep track of what to pick up (am I low on defensive cards? or am I low on attack cards?). You can also tap, hover or select the card for a bigger view of what it does... early responses to this have been positive, so I hope this is a good solution? - Let me know what you think! Besides that a bunch of small bugs and fixes, didn't get around to add any big features due to the launch to iOS! I did do this weeks video on the creation/decisions behind the Space Grunts 2 trailer, check it here: [previewyoutube=xsqTRPM20eU;full][/previewyoutube] Full changes list:

• added: (mobile) hud now detects screen-notch and moves the hud accordingly
• added: pause screen now shows info on last cards collected and current deck
• added: (mobile) swipe-to-move controls (see touch in options)
• added: "line of sight" now uses gray-scaling instead of blackness for unseen areas

Fixes and tweaks:

• fixed: "Inventory full" message spamming is now fixed
• fixed: daily-run scores test sometimes overlapping
• fixed: high-scores table rendering bugs
• fixed: bombs dropped by cybergon now highlight their damage radius
• fixed: (mobile) phantom touch-button in setup

[ 2019-12-10 21:07:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

A smaller updates this week, but that doesn't make it less important. This is version 1.0.0 which signals two things: the game is now pretty much feature complete (in regards to the features I had planned to be in the full game) AND it also means today (as this version goes live on Steam Early Access) the game launches on iOS! I'm not done with the game yet tho! There are a still a few alternate area's I want to add to the game, and I have a list of card ideas that I need to go over and check out some of the better ideas for implementing into the game. The plan is to keep the Steam version in Early Access until 2nd or 3rd week of January, this should also be after the various Steam sales and holidays are done. With this version also comes a nice "launch" trailer which gives a quick overview of the key elements of the game. This Thursday's vlog will be about the creation of the trailer, giving a little insight on the process behind it, so make sure to check out both videos! [previewyoutube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?7GvhawmQ1ZI;full][/previewyoutube] As bonus video, you might want to check out my 15-years-Orangepixel video telling you a little more about the history of me and my games: [previewyoutube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?bm8RRRWVpeE;full][/previewyoutube] Full changes list:

• added: some cards are now limited to character class
• added: new card - Redorang
• added: new card - Chip
• added: new card - Omega
• added: good portion of new level layouts
• added: new card - Booster

Fixes and tweaks:

• fixed: rare bug teleporting into a small side-chamber
• fixed: hours not included in leaderboard scores
• fixed: invisibility ignored at exitconsole, stations and non-alien entities
• fixed: rare chance of not having a red/blue key available
• tweak: Metal crates now more likely to have rare/higher-skill items
• tweak: Metal crates now spawn bunch more goodies (makes more interesting to waste attack on them)
• tweak: Metal crates now have a small random difference in their energy / hit-count
• tweak: Fists now have strength depending on characters attack-skill
• tweak: invisible card should end current battle
• tweak: Tinybombs (dropped by cybergon) now do more surrounding damage (more dangerous)

[ 2019-12-03 09:00:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

I decided to implement Daily challenges into this version. Originally planned to be part of an update, but I was comfortable enough in my planning that this seemed like a good idea! There's also a new region added where you get to visit the Heroes of Loot Dungeons and find a very unique item to help you in the rest of the game. These special items are now placed in special, and more easily identified, crates with a little Orange logo on them.. just to make sure the player is more likely to actually find those. The rest of this update is a huge list of fixes and changes. I've still noticed that some crates/barrels remain after being blown-up.. so that's one of the few bugs I know are still in the game.. but getting close to a very solid version! Which is great, cause this game will be released on iOS on December 3rd for the first time! even tho PC remains in Early Access for a few more weeks, and I might put out an Early Access for Android soonish. I'm very happy that the bug I was hunting last week hasn't shown it's ugly head anymore, so I guess my big bug-hunt was worth the time! Check my vlog on that one here: [previewyoutube=Xg9rZ9Mk218;full][/previewyoutube] Full changes list:

• added: inventory flashes when new items are added to it
• added: items in "alternate" worlds are now in special crates (more noticeable)
• added: Dungeons world (alternate route)
• added: improved gameover screen
• added: actual ending after defeating the Blob
• added: Daily Challenges
• added: item Powerglove (VERY rare)
• added: "dialog" for super rare items (powerglove, weboftime, genocidedevice)

Fixes and changes:

• fixed: Drill card could make fist card go missing
• fixed: double tutorial dialog popping up at once
• fixed: player-icon on mapview now correctly on top
• fixed: map-view now centers player on screen
• fixed: skip "spam" messages in hud (i.e: inventory full)
• fixed: empty crates didn't make a noise
• fixed: special-crates wouldn't always spawn special item
• fixed: web of time card doesn't function correctly
• fixed: crash bug with drill-card on small deck (<5 cards)
• fixed: some entities not being killed/exploding when low on energy
• fixed: minutes played counter didn't reset between games
• fixed: End-boss level had two exits
• fixed: optimized save-game files
• fixed: The Blob has graphics mess when hit
• fixed: cards still fly to deck even if inventory full
• fixed: touch-controls don't set to correct transparency
• fixed: game auto-plays when using Invisibility card
• fixed: reset "tapcount" on non-selected cards
• fixed: show "X in deck" when card is selected by touch (uideck + uiplaycards)
• fixed: uidailygame doesn't show back button on mobile. Does work
• tweak: move "deck-count" up a little bit
• tweak: Modifier cards are now moved to Pause screen (free some screen space)
• tweak: make player dot on "on-screen radar" bigger

[ 2019-11-26 17:01:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

If you take a quick little look to the changes list at the bottom of this post, you might notice the amount of fixes and tweaks easily outweigh the amount of new additions in this weeks update.. for good reason! My main goal this week was to squash any bug I ran into, and also rebalance a bunch of things to make the game a bit easier. With the original Space Grunts game I think I hit the right sweet spot between "difficult but possible" and my aim is to get as close to that with this game. A few things I did in this update to accomplish that is tweak the settings on a bunch of aliens, from attach chance to hp and more. But I also tweaked a bunch of cards and gave the characters more HP from the start. I noticed that right now, altho I haven't complete the game, I do have that feeling that I could do it if I don't make too much mistakes.. it might still need a few changes left and right, but it's getting close! A lot of time was also put in squashing a crash-bug that happened way too often between two levels, and I'm now 99.9% sure I fixed the cause of the crash! In the latest devlog I also talk a bit about all the polish that goes into getting a game ready for release, so check that out here: [previewyoutube=fTdZaoeMGr4;full][/previewyoutube] Full changes list:

• added: new card Drill
• added: new card Block
• added: new skill card - Cautious
• added: Touch controls don't have icons on them
• added: double-click / tap cards to play (alternative to dragging)
• added: aliens can now run away from things like fire
• added: dialogs for player getting sick + better
• added: Event - Hunter/Predator
• added: map-view now shows player's head instead of a small orange dot
• added: inventory + skill cards to continue-game screen

Fixes and tweaks:

• fixed: reactivated tutorials (oops!)
• fixed: hud shows +4 on first level entry
• fixed: wall-shades still visible in darkness
• fixed: some aliens leave invisible blockade on the map (hopefully)
• fixed: crash at new level loading (hopefully)
• fixed: inventory cards now fly properly from A to B
• fixed: using Boring skill made aliens go into 0hp mode and sometimes unbeatable
• fixed: tricorder fails if creature dies that turn
• fixed: increase pause-button touch area (mobile)
• fixed: fire now damages plasmabombs
• fixed: "phantom death sounds"
• fixed: some attack-points on "non-attack" cards didn't register
• fixed: dialogs/tutorials/info not correctly showing up
• fixed: added "modifier" cards to the savegame
• fixed: bibot doesn't show up in level-progress (head-icon)
• fixed: if player is sick, fists don't do any damage at all (feels weird)
• fixed: when playing EMP card, opponent doesn't respond to it until ending card-battle
• fixed: pressing button on character-select screen (without selecting) crashes game
• fixed: teleport card during uiplaycard does work, but doesn't exit "battle"
• fixed: Random crashes between level
• fixed: various moments where a hit isn't doing damage to an alien
• tweak: added deck-card animation
• tweak: player being sick isn't apparent (effect is, but what it means isn't)
• tweak: alien-spawn count now corrected for "alternate routes"
• tweak: special inventory items aren't shown at entities if already "mounted" (ie.: grunt-boots at acid barrel)
• tweak: huge amount of stat tweaks on items and aliens (balancing)
• tweak: flamethrower now ends round
• tweak: gave characters more HP (balancing)

[ 2019-11-19 17:13:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Polish till it shines! This week's update comes with a lot of polish, from simple things like centering text on the screen, to complete new screens like the "Continue game" screen or the Statistics screen. I've also started on some big re-balancing sessions, as I'm pretty sure the game is TOO challenging at this point, so you'll find that with this update the game has gotten slightly easier and you should be able to get deeper into the space base. Finally a big feature this week are the Leaderboards! It will now track your best time/level combo and place you in the various boards based on your Character and in the Overall boards. You'll also notice there is a 4th character leaderboard, and I will write up a newsletter soon with the information on unlocking that character, so sign-up if you want it! In this weeks vlog I talked a little bit about the code that goes into making the aliens move and run around the levels, so if you're interested in that, check out last Thursdays video: [previewyoutube=ykN7mDr9JT8;full][/previewyoutube] Full changes list:

• added: Bonus character (subscribe to Newsletter for info coming in next mail!)
• added: Statistics screen
• added: Leaderboards
• added: entity codex
• added: Credits screen
• added: improved interface and restructured menu systems
• added: improved UI
• added: continue game has proper own screen with info on the game
• added: new card Knife
• added: new card Vial

Fixes and tweaks:

• fixed: skill-icons flashing rendering bugs
• fixed: text-wrap bug in speech (hud)
• fixed: limit/slow-down messages shown in HUD
• fixed: using mouse/touch in card-codex caused crash (at last card)
• fixed: leaderboard bibot shows scores of class Grimm
• fixed: most stars in backdrop starfield stood still
• fixed: pause menu opens codex instead of options
• fixed: Dialogs are tapped too quickly and disappear directly. Same with game over screen
• fixed: wall-mounted rockets should show "range" on the floor (like flamers)
• tweak: various card drop-rates and usage stats
• tweak: made avatars more colorful / stand out
• tweak: Gadget can now level-up slightly faster
• tweak: made less tutorials pop-up in a new game session by delaying events/situations
• tweak: made important card info more clear with highlighting
• tweak: few improved sound effects

[ 2019-11-12 19:05:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

This week my main focus has been on fixing tiny bugs and making various little improvements to different parts of the game and interface. I did manage to sneak in a couple of new items/cards to use in the battles, so there is of course a great reason to give the new version a proper play through! I really love the Flamethrower, it has a very destructive strength, but a lot of that destruction can really turn on you and isn't the safest weapon to use. But effective in almost all cases! And if the new cards aren't enough reason, then maybe the first batch of Achievements I introduced to the game might make you want to play. There are 18 achievements added and I probably will add a few more, but these ones are already a nice variation of "easy" "medium" and "hard" achievements.. so there's something there for everyone! My next focus will be on adding that actual ending when you slay The Blob, add a proper credit screen, complete work on the codex, and work on a statistics screen to keep track of your victories, biggest enemy, and other such silly but fun stats to look at! There will also be a special item added to the game which can only be unlocked through instructions in one of the upcoming Newsletters, so make sure to sign-up for that one! And of course there was also another vlog on the games' development, this time showing the creation of a new tentacle obstacle: [previewyoutube=9ze6qbStg_o;full][/previewyoutube] Full changes list:

• added: skill icons light up when leveling up/grunt-manual card
• added: station info pops up as speech bubble
• added: new Alien card - Scratch (lesser version of claw)
• added: first batch of Achievements
• added: new card Flamethrower
• added: new skill-card Web of Time
• added: Tentacle creature now attacks when woken up/appearing
• added: touch/mobile specific interface
• added: backdrop to menus
• added: zoom-in on cards for touch-screens (when long-pressed)
• added: character select now uses proper card-interface

Fixes and changes:

• fixed: don't show spore-info dialog when spore are killed off screen (by fire)
• fixed: walking through heal spores doesn't heal correctly (crystal)
• fixed: more satisfying explosion for bigger creatures
• fixed: robots sometimes run backwards (visually)
• fixed: syringe effect and other pop-up messages are now visible
• fixed: can now open map-view on touchscreens
• fixed: projectile effects (like railgun) have rendering artifacts
• tweak: wall-spider-cracks now only crack if player is near them (not at 2-3 tiles anymore)

[ 2019-11-05 17:25:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Where last weeks update was a lot of fixing and tweaking, this weeks update comes in with a lot of new stuff. New aliens are added, new alternate-levels to be found, a new event or two and a bunch of new cards being sorted into your deck! I'm not going into any details on these alternate-levels, as it's part of discovering it yourself as a player, but I might eventually do some work on some sort of Wiki pages (cause I usually forget about these secrets myself over time!) I've been adding a bunch of alien-specific cards to the game, so that aliens now have a bit more choice during battles without having to resort to weird human like weapons. Make sure to check out last Thursday's vlog showing the creation of the boss: [previewyoutube=j9ag1ZUzWWg;full][/previewyoutube] and let me know if you already encountered him! ;) Full changes list:

• added: Alternate area: Ancient ship
• added: Alternate area: Spidernest
• added: better highlighting of selected cards (especially for mouse/touch controls)
• added: new card Scavenge Box
• added: new card Forcecon
• added: specific cards for Blob-boss
• added: HP point changes now also visible in herocards (HUD)
• added: new cards for the Aliens
• added: Mimic alien
• added: Tentacle alien
• added: Spider-om alien
• added: "Game Saved" dialog/tutorial
• added: loading/new-game hints prompts
• added: Event - Infestation - wall-creepers all over!
• added: new card - Genocide Device
• added: Wall-creepers
• added: Spiderwebs - halt you for 3 turns
• added: Critero alien

Fixes and tweaks:

• fixed: cards floating off when interacting with doors/walls/non-violent-entities
• fixed: improvements to card drag-drop systems
• fixed: starfield rendering
• fixed: save games didn't restore the correct level (always 1 too soon)
• fixed: description of Survivor card now says "last safe spot" instead of "Random spot"
• fixed: hidden wall has no card/codex-image
• fixed: rescue-pod has no card/codex image
• tweak: balancing of mimic-spawns
• tweak: made stronger aliens slightly weaker when they appear as rare-alien in the levels (before their normal level)

[ 2019-10-29 17:11:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sooo, not a very big list of new stuff this week, but there is one HUGE addition to the game and that's an end-boss! Defeating the boss doesn't really do anything yet, so that's something I'll be working on for next update ( an actual ending ) and I'll also start working on more alien-specific cards, especially for the boss battle. Besides adding a boss to the game, there's also a collection of new cards and effects and a few big changes in balancing the whole game, I've personally been enjoying this version more than the previous ones due to the balancing in card-drops and alien encounters.. so let me know what you think! There are now just a few big things left on my to-do list, first one is making an actual ending to the boss-battle , second is adding more cards but also alien-specific cards. Still a few events I want to add, and a couple of hidden/alternate area's for players to encounter and venture into. And finally get some daily-challenges up and running. Of course I'll also keep balancing and tweaking all the other stuff based on feedback and my own play-throughs! Now go check out v0.4.0 captains! - Next week the price of the Early Access will also increase ! PS: check last Thursday's dev-vlog on the game's development. It talks about getting the game playable on the move, but also some of the new events in the current version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yR1y87YbQw Next Thursday will show the creation of the boss which you can encounter in the game starting now! Full changes list:

• added: new card - Scope
• added: new card - Infection
• added: new card - Berserker
• added: new card - Freezeray
• added: new card: Invisibility
• added: new passive card - Fighter
• added: light to flames and burners (especially in dark-zone)
• added: little jingle when finding a secret area
• added: small plants now leave just a small spore area
• added: End-boss: The Blob

Fixes and tweaks:

• fixed: explosion sound triggered too often on cards that didn't need it
• fixed: invisible aliens still show the "anger/sick/confused" twirls
• fixed: babygon now also shuts-down when near EMP
• fixed: if killed at idle entity, cards stay in view
• fixed: invisible blockades popping up after fire or explosions
• tweak: small improved mouse controls
• tweak: soften/smoother lights
• tweak: slight increase in harder opponent spawning earlier in the game
• tweak: slight increase in higher-skilled weapons dropping earlier
• tweak: balancing on drop-rates for all items

[ 2019-10-22 18:11:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Another week, another big update coming in the form of v0.3.0. With this update I added a whole new control method for mouse-players. The click on a card is replaced with a little drag+drop action, you don't have to drag them a lot, but you do need to drag them a bit towards the played card area. The main advantage is that there will be less "wrong-card" moments which happened a lot when having to just click to play the cards. Now you can always drag the card back down and it won't be played. I also hustled the order of the special "infinity" cards a bit, so that the "Skip" turn card is placed at the end of your hand and not at the start. This gives your actual deck more a focus, and hopefully also makes the player more aware of these cards being special in a way. Besides that there's a bunch of new game-events, and I lowered the amount of Comets in the Comet event (was a bit much). Damage area's of everything are also now much more visual, so Comest, bombs, plasma-bombs, they all clearly show their danger area, making it easier to navigate out of the way. Check the full list below on all the many changes and improvements made in the last week. For next week I'll be focussing mostly on the important tasks of adding a bunch of new cards, more special cards, and possibly start working on adding an actual end-goal (boss battle). Full changes list:

• added: Event - Blazing - Sun is dying, causing open fires across the planet surface
• added: event Darkness - first space-station area is covered in darkness
• added: flame-exhaust obstacles
• added: card-effects (like burning cards from incinerator)
• added: Drag-drop cards instead of clicking (mouse and touch controls). Makes it less likely to play/use the wrong card.
• added: item Screw Driver - fixes damaged cards in your whole deck
• added: item Syringe - selection of random effects when used
• added: tutorial for first "inventory-card" being added
• added: tutorial for "Infinite" cards like Fist, Skip, Exit, etc
• added: safe-spots now also add message in HUD
• added: tutorial for "Angry" creatures
• added: deck-size now also shows max

Fixes and tweaks:

• fixed: added more animation to start of a card-screen
• fixed: special cards aren't unlocked yet for codex
• fixed: damaged-cards now actually do self-damage when used
• fixed: damaged-item tutorial shows wrong avatar
• fixed: teleport-card played by aliens doesn't work (Scavenger)
• fixed: when player is walking a path (mouse-controls) and mouse-clicks, player should stop/halt
• fixed: idle card seems to ignore first card in hand
• fixed: corrected Comet-impact location and added highlighted damage map
• fixed: when inventory is full, red-key card still shows up in HUD but isn't added to inventory
• fixed: some tutorials would be missed due to multiple tutorials triggering
• tweak: both cards in a battle are now properly played at same time.
• tweak: acid on floors will vanish over time (48+ turns)
• tweak: eased up on the comets in Comet event
• tweak: unified the look of "infinite" cards like Fists, Tricorder, Skip and Exit
• tweak: moved "Idle/Swap" card to end of hand
• tweak: movement is now instant (when looking left, you can move right without first having to "turn")
• tweak: metal-crates now don't have a minimum-damage-at value (less confusing)
• tweak: "Angry" aliens now less stronger (depending on their initial strength and species)
• tweak: increased spore-spawn chance on plants

[ 2019-10-15 16:45:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Version 0.2.0 comes in HOT! With a bunch of great new features, one of which is the Comets Event! Right now the comet event has a fairly big chance of happening in a game, this will be more balanced over time as there will be more events added, and I'm still finding the right balance between having events and no-events at all. I've also added a dialog-system to the game, which comes with a bunch of tutorial like instructions and information text left and right. And the game now has a continue/save game feature! It auto-saves between levels, but when you die, the save-game will be deleted (permadeath!) I might make it an option later on to toggle perma-death on and off, but for now you at least get to take a break on longer runs! Besides those main things there's a bunch of other stuff added, fixed and tweaked, so for the full list check below. This also marks the first price-increase for Early Access. Full changes list:

• added: dialogs + tutorial instructions/explaining things that happen, with avatar (doc)
• added: first "Event" - Comets - has comets randomly dropping around the planet region
• added: a map screen
• added: continue/save game
• added: bigger hero avatars (used in hero-card and dialogs)
• added: changed XP-bar rendering (replaced text with visual bar)
• added: skill-levels to the players status-bar
• added: safe teleportation spots (require a "beam me up" card)
• added: new card: Teleporter

Fixes and tweaks:

• fixed: quick-teleport won't teleport if danger is gone (opponent died)
• fixed: some light/visible-area issues after doing a quick-teleport
• fixed: speed improvement on FOV calculations
• fixed: radar rendered slightly lower (not to overlap with card-deck counter)
• fixed: metal crate debris looks like acid
• fixed: improved burning-floor effects
• fixed: Cybergon now uneffected by it's own bombs
• fixed: door near bomb was still visible but not solid
• fixed: player-avatar in dialogs is the wrong one
• fixed: FIST disappeared at reshaper
• fixed: improvements to card-selection with mouse
• tweak: Martian was too strong for early levels, now shows up later in the game
• tweak: item-drop rate now includes specific-skills of player
• tweak: HP given by transporting to next level now depends on class (tech get's more, grimm get's less)

[ 2019-10-08 18:53:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Z8x947d-w Wooaah! I forgot to do a written post for Devlog #11 ! Luckily there was a video talking about the A.I. and how I made them slightly smarter (still needs work). This weeks video talks about the "big features" that still need to be done before I can call this game "complete". Which doesn't mean I won't be adding new stuff after that, but these are the minimum features I want to add, and after that it fully depends on how many people keep playing the game and if I can come up with interesting extra's. Most of the big features mentioned in the video are fairly easy things to implement, with the exception of "The Ending" but the hard part there is mostly coming up with the idea, not so much the code behind it. With the codex/stats screen I mentioned in the video, I might also try and create a little "wiki-extractor" which pulls out all that informations and dumps it into a HTML format that I can use to create a wiki-page on the Orangepixel website. I did the same thing with the Sir Questionnaire Wiki and basically it generates all that informations from a little function I added to the game. It then also generates all the .png images required and correctly links to those, leaving me with just a silly FTP upload to get it all up on the server. The reason I put this work in wiki's and codex systems is mostly that I often forget a lot of the things I've put in a game, so when players ask for support or help in X amount of months from now, I'll need some sort of reference myself because I probably forget about all of it before then ! Anyway, based on these final "big features" I expect the deadline of end-November is very do-able, I'll be pushing out updates once a week (on Tuesday's) to Steam Early Access, with probably the exception of a one or two weeks where I'll be working on getting the mobile ports up and running and won't have as many new features/changes every week. Exciting to see the game come to life in such a VERY short time, and still have such a completely different game as the original Grunts was.. I might try my hands on a card-battle Heroes of Loot after this !

[ 2019-10-03 18:27:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Here's the first big update for Early Access, and it comes with a long list of tweaks, changes, improvement and a few big new features. The big features are the passive-skills, which are extra cards you can acquire when you level-up in experience (XP). Then before you teleport into the next level, you'll get the choice to pick one out of three randomly chosen cards. The second big change is the Tricorder card, which is now shown on "first-encounters" with new aliens, items, objects, etc. This will show you a dialog with info on the items and aliens. Still fleshing out the information to show there, but it's a good start. It's also the start of the whole Codex feature that's coming! So there you have it, check below's full-changes list if you want, and keep in mind that this also means the game will have it's first price-increase next Tuesday (October 8th) so this is the last week you can get the game at this deep discount. Newly added stuff:

• add: Tricorder card now replaces "Skip" card on first encounters, throws up a dialog with stats+info on entity being scanned
• added: passive-skills - between levels (available with every level-up skill point)
• added: Passive-skill: Quick-teleport
• added: Passive skill: Heavyarmor - halves damage and discards self-inflicted damage
• added: Passive skill: Rager - increase HP with 1 after every alien kill (in battle)
• added: Passive skill: Boring - big chance your opponent falls a sleep when entering the battle
• added: Passive skill: Calming - angry creatures will calm down near you
• added: Passive skill: Dispenser - dispenses spores making creatures lose your smell (harder to track you)
• added: sickness status to player (when bitten or near sick creatures)
• added: passive/skip cards now have their own color
• added: pathfinding (mouse) now avoids hazardous floors if possible (acid, burns)
• added: Powertool - +1 attack on full deck of cards
• added: renamed "Leave" to "Retreat" and gave new icon

Fixed and changes:

• fixed: alien-attack card images now show "attack" state
• fixed: got too many skillpoints (or not deleted after using one?)
• fixed: skip-card now properly reshuffles the cards to the end of your deck
• fixed: various bugs with card-deck count not being correct and cards missing
• fixed: "quick-teleport" special card shouldn't kick in when energy == 0
• tweak: wrench-item now available more often
• tweak: enemies don't level up fast enough now (low hp and low attackskills)

[ 2019-10-01 11:01:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=4UIqozRXqKI;leftthumb][/previewyoutube] A little Let's play session of me playing the game and giving some comments and info on certain decisions made and things that need changing over the coming version. This was with build v0.0.14 so things might have changed since! :)

[ 2019-09-27 08:15:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQl7LvCM3qw So the video basically covers where I am with the project, how much I have done so far and if Ill make the deadline.. BUT .. whats the big stuff still left? One of the major things that I still need to do is get some intelligence into the enemies. The way Ive written the card-battle code right now the opponent really just does two things: are we being attacked? check our defense-percentage and based on that either defend or just attack OR idle. are we playing the first card? check our attack-percentage, and attack or be idle based on that! So yeah, thats not very intelligent, and altho it all works for the easier and early alien encounters, in the later levels and for more harder opponents we need something much better. My plan is to give the aliens a set of defend, attack and special item cards (like healing) in their arsenal based on their type (alien, humanoid, robotic). Im not giving them a full deck of cards, which would of course be the most fair and realistic way to do the card-battling, but instead we are cheating a bit on this, since the opponent will be more free to choose which card it will be playing from its (very) limited set of cards and based on percentages.. but as with all games, you dont want realistic enemies, you want capable and interesting enemies, and this should accomplish that! So thats one of the big things Ill be working on after Im back from my little vacation in a week or so, and I hope to have it up and running before I push out the early-access version!

[ 2019-09-11 17:29:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N48bSzXfgMY Riiiiight, another week filled with changes and improvements.. but I also kinda covered it all in this weeks video! So it doesnt leave much to talk about in this blog post. Something that wasnt on the list was a bit of bug-fixing with the card system. At some point during my play-test session I noticed that the attack/defends stats that were mentioned werent getting played and that I either did much more attack points towards the aliens, or that they maybe didnt defend enough. Due to me having re-done the card system a few times, I guess some bugs got in there and altho obvious if you really look at it, these bugs werent as obvious when I just did a play session and not checked the card-stats and alien-stats on every turn because I kinda figured it was all working correctly! I also talked about the plant and spore problem in the video, but even tho I sort-of fixed the issue, Im still not really happy with how the plants work. In Space Grunts one there was just the one type, and it could go either way.. which was much more tactical to base your decision on. How the plants work now, youll basically make a mistake once (hit a poison-spore plant) and from that moment on youll simply try to avoid those plants. A few solutions Im pondering now are: 1) Have more plant variation, so not just 3 types but maybe 12 types, some good, some bad. 2) Have plants be much more rare than they are now, and maybe limit every world (area) to just one plant-type. Down-side is that youre screwed if that plant is the poison one. 3) Have much more spore-effects so that its possible that multiple, or even all, plant types have semi-positive effects. A combination of 1 and 3 might be the best way to go, but thats something Ill just have to try and see how it plays. Anyway! Thats it for this weeks blog!

[ 2019-08-30 12:28:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_Qma7a1IWk Never, ever, give somebody a green-screen to play around with.. in all honesty: I have wasted a bit too much time playing with that green-screen for the video! BUT I still had a decently productive week, besides creating all the plant life I showed in the video, theres a few more interesting changes made to the game this week. First of those is damaged-items! Its now possible for items to be damaged, right now that means they will deal 1 damage to you if you use them in a battle. But its very likely Ill put some more variation in the effects that damaged items have. Code wise it was pretty easy to implement, since all tiles in the game map already track damage values, I just made the pickup-item entity test for a high enough damage value, and if true, then item is damaged. So pretty much all items that get caught in a bomb-explosion or fire will be damaged. Ive also been trying to streamline the use of items/cards a bit more. There were still a lot of cards that you could use freely at any tile on the map. But most of those cards had some sort of effect on your battles with aliens. So I now moved them around a bit and changed the usage of some of the cards slightly so that all these cards are now required to use in a battle meaning the player has to make more tactical decisions on when to use those items (because you will be in a fight!). Besides the plant life I drew a bunch of new enemies to encounter, most of those are of the humanoid type which means they will be using the same type of weapons as you! joy!

[ 2019-08-30 12:23:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JggWYxIozTE Alrighty, well most of the stuff is covered in this weeks vlog. And Im not going into the whole card-rendering problem I mentioned :D It was a silly solution I had, and its now a much better one, lets keep it at that! One thing is that I might actually do another big update to the system, and pre-render the card graphics into a card-texture.. that way I can also rotate the cards around an angle.. something I cant do now, because the card is build out of various elements including text, which will all look messy if I rotate and position each element by itself. On the topic of drawing! spending time drawing a bunch of new environments also gave me a better feel for the looks Im going after. I noticed that 50s-70s style sci-fi is mostly: shiny, colorful, and round.. for some weird reason. So I started putting more rounded corners on my walls and also tried some uncomfortably brightly colored surroundings. Not really my usual style, but the end result does work. So we now have bright orange floors, neon green walls.. it all makes the game have a certain look and feel that I was after. I might go in and re-do the first areas graphics, which were mostly a base to build upon anyway! With game-progression slowly showing its face in the current build of the game, theres all sorts of things to start thinking about. How does the player progress? how does the player get new cards in his deck? are these cards permanent unlocks? or just for the current game? How many new cards do you get? how many cards do I need to add?! A lot of stuff that I havent really figured out or thought about before this point, as I was simply testing the whole card-battle stuff in combination with the classic Space Grunts turn-based action. But now that Im fairly confident it all works, its time to put some thinking into all the details!

[ 2019-08-19 12:24:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPwsRxppZ8Q This week I worked on getting some sort of progression going in the game. This mostly means that I start moving things around so that you don't get all the variations of enemies at the start, and not all the cards are available to you all the time. I also started looking around for the type of music required for the game, and surprisingly the 50's - early 70's sci-fi movie theme songs go very nicely with the visuals.. there might be something there! And finally, working on some new high-res art work.. so you might start seeing some new banners on this Steam page over the coming week!

[ 2019-08-10 11:40:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alright, quick little catching up to do on this steam-page! Now that it's available and fully up and running, I plan to post my weekly vlogs+blogs and dev update notes here, so you can stay up to date on where this game IS and is going to! This week I worked mostly on graphics and a little tool called the Creature Creator, so check it out on this weeks vlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4mNbXBqmWw If you're new to this game, you can watch AND read back on the first 4 parts of the weekly updates right here: which should bring you fully up to speed on the game!

[ 2019-08-01 14:09:15 CET ] [ Original post ]