https://www.twitch.tv/stepf0rd

This update PICAYUNE DREAMS DEV STREAM first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

Hello, Stepford again! ːNekoː Hope your week has been well. Here is a small patch to fix some of the issues the previous patch caused. This isn’t the patch I was talking about prior to Christmas in the last patchnotes, but it is a little somethingsomething.

• Added: You can now see how many hours until the Daily is refreshed.
• Added: 100th achievement, for reaching level 25. (Since 20 was the maximum level on release.) All you need to do is go to the Main Menu, and it should unlock if you’re already 25.
• Added: You can go to the Credits and click a button to rebuild your save using your Steam achievements, in case it ever gets lost or broken.
• Fix: Updated some Collection descriptions to reflect recent changes.
• Fix: USBs in the collection would show up before killing the associated bosses.
• Fix: Worm spawns two of the same brain hemispheres, instead of opposing sides.
• Fix: There was a few issues brought on by the sound priority system of the last patch. I THINK I have fixed them all! Please tell me if any other *important* sounds have been drowned out/cut off for other less important sounds since the last patch.
• Fix: Some spelling mistakes were cleaned up.
• Fix: Holding down tab to slow down the game was only meant to happen when enemies were being actively spawned.

While I’ve got you looking here, we’re (Andyl4nd, Milkypossum, I and Graeme (our publisher) if he can make it) gonna be doing a Twitch stream on Sunday 8 PM EST (thats Monday 11 AM for AEST auzzies like me). We’re gonna be playing the game live, talking about development, answer questions and stuff. Hope to see some of you there! And thank you so much for all the kind words, bug reports and feedback so far. I can’t wait to get some new juicy stuff in your hands.

This update Update 1.0.0.4 first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

Hello! ːNekoː Stepford here again. This is the third update to the game I’m putting out, aimed at adding a few suggestions and fixing a few bugs in the game! Please keep leaving suggestions and bugs in the the Community forums, they have been really helpful and I read them all. ːGunfireRebornloveː

• Added: X and Y coordinates to the HUD.
• Added: You can now toggle XP combining into Canisters, if you preferred the XP Text growing enormous and filling the screen.
• Added: If you want to play with both a controller AND a mouse at the same time, there is now an option in the Gamepad section to help with that.
• Added: A unique sound to the XP Canister pickup.
• Added: You now revisit memories from the Loadout menu directly, instead of having to kill the boss again. This does make the skill a bit redundant, I might have to make it do something else instead.
• Added: You can now instantly pick one of the three upgrades with the directional pad. (Turn this off in the Gamepad settings if you don’t like it.)
• Added: You can now play with Autoaim Deadzone, a setting in the Gamepad settings, to toggle autoaim if you’re moving the analog stick or not.
• Change: Made levelling up your profile slightly faster.
• Change: XP Cans are now influenced by Late Game Auto XP, instantly adding their stored XP to your XP pool the moment it starts getting sucked.
• Change: Recolored XP Cannisters.
• Change: Made it more obvious when your Curse has raised.
• Change: Made it more obvious which statues will raise your Curse.
• Change: Biker has stun/slow immunity during some attacks.
• Change: Reverted Ghost Boss’ blue bullets back to being red, like in the demo.
• Change: Ghost Boss now forcibly lowers weapon alpha, just like the Final Boss.
• Change: Holding Tab to see your current upgrades now slows down the game.
• Change: Made explosive modifier less intensive.
• Change: Modified Areas now have updated descriptions, to better inform the player that they also boost their stats.
• Change: Increased how long destination text stays on the screen, so people have more time to read said descriptions.
• Change: Dark Matter Overload will no longer trigger if you are immortal.
• Change: Made it a lot more obvious when you are immortal/can’t take damage.
• Change: Made some more HUD elements have black outlines.
• Change: Debris that spawn during the final Boss will have an outline, making them easier to find.
• Change: Final Boss, Phase 1 teleports half as often.
• Change: Several performance changes.
• Change: Rainbowsplosion skill can no longer cause Statues to explode.
• Change: Adjusted Yuki fight to be more like Gimmiko.
• Fix: Banned items would draw over your selected upgrade stats, now it draws behind them.
• Fix: Fixed a bug where the Biker would get stuck in place if the game paused/slowed down during their leaping phase.
• Fix: Telecom would damage the enemy that spawned the AoE, basically making it a 50% damage buff on everything that spawned it. The initial hit enemy is excluded now from the AoE damage.
• Fix: Some weapons didn’t have hitsounds assigned.
• Fix: Wibbler enemies were not having Peril speed applied to them properly.
• Nerf: Statue of Gamble asks for +1 Reroll each time you use it. (1,2,3,4,etc.)
• Nerf: Sentry damage adjusted, (10+VERSION) > (15).
• Nerf: Missile Pack damage adjusted, (10 impact, 50 explosion) > (15 impact, 45 explosion).
• Nerf: XP Cannisters no longer gain the benefits of Unstable Enhancement skill.
• Nerf: Stack Overflow now has a cooldown of 2.147 seconds.
• Buff: Stack Overflow now does 10,000 damage instead of 999.
• Buff: Snow Globe knockback increased, 0 > 0.75.
• Buff: Soul Spear damage increased, (40+VERSION) > (45+VERSION).
• Buff: Demon Wings damage increased, (3+VERSION) > (5+(VERSION*2)).
• Buff: Demon Horns radius increased, (48+VERSION) > (48+(VERSION*2)).
• Buff: Demon Horns activate radius is now visible on the player.
• Rework: Hunter’s Bow no longer splits on contact, instead piercing through, homing to enemies near the cursor, able to hit the same enemy multiple times. Upgrading it now increases how long it stays around, instead of split count. This should help it stay relevant during bosses and late game.

Quite a lot of changes here. I will say, with this many changes, there is bound to be a few new bugs that flew under my radar while making this patch. Even after just releasing it, I had to fix and issue relating to the music stopping because I tried changing some of the sound priorities to make late game’s audiospace feel more “balanced” so you hear the stuff you need to, and the pointless stuff gets drowned out, but some stuff slipped through the cracks so if there is any important audio that doesn’t play or gets cut off, please tell me.

And then after I uploaded that build, I accidentally set the pitch to 10 making everything sound like chipmunks. So then I had to upload a new build. ːsteamhappyː fml this video game crap is hard.

I will probably end up taking some time to make a public beta branch so everyone can playtest the next patch. If you have any immediate issues or suggestions, you can also come join the Discord as well. Sorry for all the fuffing about, it’s my fault.

There will probably be one more patch focused around fixes/balancing before Christmas, and then I’ll basically be full steam ahead on the first actual meaty content update.

This update Update 1.0.0.3 first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

Hello! Stepford here again! I’m still crunching on some performance and game fixes. Be sure to tell me any of your thoughts on the balance or any glitches you find. I’ve also been toying with some stuff for future updates which I’m excited to get started on. ːSpRad_Rockː
• Added: An option to enable “Late Game Auto XP”, which instantly teleports XP to you once it’s started to be sucked in (only past 25 Mortality.)
• Added: The game will submit Daily and Friend highscores after killing a boss, so even if you push your game to the limit – Steam servers will remember your sacrifice.
• Added: Steam Rich Presence (?) Hard to test until it’s on live servers. We’ll see.
• Change: XP will now combine into an XP Cannister when more than 1500 is accumulated into a single spot.
• Change: AUTO UPGRADE AT FULL BUILD option raised up in the menu, to avoid having to scroll every time to toggle.
• Change: Extended XP culling radius further than the border of the screen by a smidge.
• Change: Lowspec Mode now disables more effects.
• Change: Other assorted adjustments in hopes of making the game take up less performance.
• Change: Updated the description on “Dark Matter Overload” to explain things a little better.
• Change: Peril will increase the amount of XP required to level up, in addition to raising Enemy Speed and Enemy Count.
• Fix: More spelling mistakes have been corrected.
• Fix: The ending screen would show negative skillpoints if you had spent the points earned from beating Overdrive levels, fixed now.
• Fix: Some weapons would go over the bottom of their lifetime and then stay around in memory. This has been fixed.
• Fix: A Gamemaker update has fixed the issue where unplugging an audio device would render the game silent until restart. I can’t test this because I couldn’t get it to happen before, but hopefully its fixed for everyone who was having the issue.
• * Nerf: Spawned C4 Explosion will get 10% smaller if the enemy was killed by another C4 Explosion,
• reoccurring.
• * Nerf: Spawned Shrapnel Shells will last 10% less time if the enemy was killed by another piece of Shrapnel, reoccurring.

* //These two items are being nerfed because of their ability to scale up simply as more enemies spawn. This is mainly to stop infinitely reoccurring instant wins with the items. I will be keeping a close eye on their performance after this update, and I might need to buff them in other ways if they fall behind!//

Hope you’re all enjoying your Friday arvo! ːGunfireRebornloveː

This update 1.0.0.2 first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

Hey, it’s me Stepford! Thank you so much for the awesome reception to the game so far. Right now I’m looking to squash any bugs or glaring gameplay issues that pop up! I am looking to work on one or two ‘content updates’ so if there’s something you’d specifically like to see added to the game, please tell me your ideas!

• Added: Always show XP Radius option.
• Fix: Steam Overlay Screenshot functionality.
• Fix: Fixed a crash when using a Statue of Distribution.
• Fix: Distant enemies will only be cycled out if the game isn’t paused/levelling up.
• Fix: A bunch of spelling mistakes have been corrected.
• Change: Increased Level Cap to 25, up from 20.
• Change: Everyone will start with 1 free skillpoint, meaning you have as many skillpoints as your actual Profile Level now.
• Change: Beating an Overdrive level rewards you with an extra bonus skillpoint to spend.
• Change: Statue of Distribution can no longer spawn before Bunny boss, as its effects are negligible at that stage of the game.
• Change: You can now scroll menus using the right analog stick.
• Change: While Looping, enemy spawns should increase more as Peril increases.
• Change: Enemies have slightly longer spawn immunity, as to not be killed offscreen immediately.
• Change: The size at which XP combines together now scales bigger with Mortality.
• Change: Various Performance fixes.
• Nerf: Turret Firerate interval increased, (10 > 15).
• Nerf: Shrapnel Shells now makes 3 shards instead of 4.
• Buff: Chainbelt damage increased, (2*version) > (1 + (3*version).
• Buff: Soul Spear knockback increased, (1.5 > 2).

• Outstanding Issues:
• – The background on the final boss can cause some slowdown on some PCs. Try toggling the “Disable 3D Backgrounds” setting to see if things normalize! I’m still looking into this.
• – Sometimes the game doesn’t say it’s closed, even after closing? I probably messed up the Steam API somewhere hehe :))

This update Update 1.0.0.1 first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

I think I speak for all of us when I say, we are immensely grateful to all of you! Old followers and new. Striking out in a more avant garde direction in this action roguelike subgenre may turn some players away. But that was a trade off we were willing to make to create something we hoped would truly stand out in the mix!

We certainly didn’t expect it to take 1.5 years!! But I couldn’t be more proud of the final game

While we’ve launched into v1.0, we are entirely open to continued support of this game! Beyond bug fixing and listening to feedback – if the game sells well, we’d love to expand Picayune Dreams in a variety of ways!

Until then, we hope you love picking apart the story, maxing out a wild pool of weapons, playing around with unique loadouts, banging your head to milkypossum’s breakcore OST, challenging your friends in Daily Runs, earning all 99 Achievements (some of them are BRUTALLY hard), and discovering all the game’s secrets

Enjoying the soundtrack? Please consider supporting the game further by purchasing the Game + OST Bundle. The bundle is set up so you can “complete” it at a later date, if you want to only buy the game to start.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/37061/

Want to support more niche indie titles? Schism is a challenging roguelite action RPG with guns, gods, leveling, and frequency-switching action. The combination of deep leveling and stat systems, full gun customization, deity worship, intense bullet hell combat, and difficult bosses make for a unique and highly replayable experience.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2084300/Schism/

It has a VERY extensive Demo, and is coming to Early Access in December 11th!
Be sure to add it to your Wishlists. Thank you for all the support!

-Graeme (2 Left Thumbs)

This update Picayune Dreams is Available NOW! first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

Picayune Dreams will officially be releasing on December 4th, 2023!

We are following the lead of other titles in this sub-genre, charging only $4.99 USD for the game, with a special launch discount!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2088840/Picayune_Dreams/

However, we are launching straight into v1.0 rather than doing Early Access. While that’s worked wonders for other Vampire Survivor-likes, our game has a distinct difference that motivated that release plan: Picayune Dreams has a proper story that will play out across your runs.

Launching at v1.0 is our way of communicating that there is a complete experience waiting to be played, We hope you’ll continue to mess around with game-breaking runs after completing the story. And we reserve the right to continue expanding the game post-release! But it didn’t feel right to call the game “Early Access” with that story in place.

This is the game’s publisher, Graeme! I wanted to speak about the inception of Picayune Dreams, as it differs from any other 2 Left Thumbs Published title! It remains the only title in that catalog that I was involved with from the ground floor, reaching out to a developer I admire, and offering up funding to start a new game from scratch.

I first spoke with Stepford back in April 2022. The conversation started out simply enough:

Vampire Survivors is really popular now.
I’d like to see what a Stepford-spin on that style of game might be.
You down?

(I’m paraphrasing. But that’s the gist of it!)

Stepford immediately suggested bringing Andyland and Milkypossum on board, who had previously worked on Olive’s Art-Venture together (and later Underlevel). Shortly after, this mockup was the first thing I was ever shown.

The elevator pitch was, “Yume Nikki Touhou Vampire Slayers (with bullet hell bosses and roguelike items)”. After laughing over Andy accidentally drawing Space-Hitler, the idea was fleshed out, and proper development kicked off in July 2022!

The game has evolved in wild and weird ways over the last 1.5 years! Frankly, none of us expected to work on this game longer than ~6 months. And there was a lot of fear that the Bullet Heaven / Horde Survival roguelike sub-genre crazy would fade out if we waited too long.

On some level, that may still be true? But time and time again, it’s been shown that there is always room for someone doing something new and different. And that gives us a lot of hope about Picayune Dreams‘ potential, because it’s combat, style, music, progression, and storytelling all feel distinctly different from what others have done!

Want to support more niche indie titles? Schism is a challenging roguelite action RPG with guns, gods, leveling, and frequency-switching action. The combination of deep leveling and stat systems, full gun customization, deity worship, intense bullet hell combat, and difficult bosses make for a unique and highly replayable experience.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2084300/Schism/

It has a VERY extensive Demo, and is coming to Early Access in December 2023!
Be sure to add it to your Wishlists. Thank you for all the support!

-Graeme (2 Left Thumbs

This update Picayune Dreams 🔴 Launches December 4th first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

Schism had similar inspirations as Picayune Dreams, following the RNG chaos and twitch action roguelike gameplay of The Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne. Then adding in the complexity and depth of traditional roguelikes, and the bullet hell switching of Ikaruga.

Be sure to check out the FREE Demo NOW! Your feedback at this time is invaluable! You can also join the Official Discord to have your thoughts heard.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2084300/Schism/

And of course, be sure to add it to your Wishlist so you don’t miss any updates or the upcoming release in Q4 2023. We are planning to launch in Early Access, starting at $8.99 and scaling up from there.

This update New action roguelite RPG from Picayune Dream’s Publisher! first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

– The amount of Peril earned per Mortality level now increases by Mortality itself, so it will start out buffing enemy HP at the same rate but slowly increase more and more.
– While Peril is active, the XP dropped is now divided by the Peril percentage.
– Removed several C4 explosion frames.
– Stopped infinitely repeating off-screen C4 explosions.
– Optimized when killing huge groups enemies with blackholes.
– Optimized several weapon hitboxes.
– Slightly increased gamepad axis deadzones to stop random ‘drift’.
– HP is now drawn on the GUI layer, so it will be above everything.
– Telecom was missing a closing curly brace in its description, so I added it back.
– Warpers now teleport 128 pixels away from your current position, rather than directly at your X/Y. The direction is randomized, however.
– Warper movement speed nerfed: 0.75 > 0.5.
– Warper charge cooldown nerfed: 5 > 6 seconds
– Sawblade Damage buff: 40 > 50
– Dagger Glove Damage nerf: 50 > 40
– Dagger Glove “directional degrees” nerf: 10 per whip > 15 per whip
– Scale Module Driller nerf: 25% weapon size > 20% weapon size
– Cooldown Module Driller change: (debuff: -5% move spd) > (debuff: -10% weapon size)
– Cooldown Module Driller nerf: 15% CD > 10% CD
– Movement Module Driller change: (debuff: -15 hp) > (debuff: -25% pickup radius)
– Movement Module Driller nerf: 15% move spd > 10% move spd
– Absorb Module Driller change: (debuff: -10% weapon size) > (debuff: -5% move spd)
– Absorb Module Driller buff: 30% pickup radius > 40% pickup radius

– Peril HP scaling no longer applies to bosses, because it made fights go for too long.
– Dagger Glove’s internal cooldown wasn’t dependant on gamespeed, but now is.
– Micro Blackhole (skill) projectile movement speed wasn’t dependant on gamespeed, but now is.
– Enemy spawning will now check if gamespeed is >= 0.01 to avoid enemies popping in while the game is paused.
– Blackhole now scales with Weapon Size.

This update v0.3.0.5 first appeared on Survivors-likes List.

– Power system has been changed into the new Peril system.
– Power used to lower your damage down to 25%, however it had little effect on fast hitting weaponry, could hit a cap and was too slow scaling. The Peril system works entirely opposite, where enemies get MORE health (about 5% every mortality level) after 25 mortality. This means all of the weapons keep their balance relevance as well as rewarding the player with more XP for playing that far.
– Fixed an issue where the weapons in the end screen would be printed twice.
– Halo is now drawn on one of the lowest layers. Please tell me if this creates visual bugs anywhere!
– Slime Spike Damage Nerf: 25 > 20
– Slime Spike Cleansehit Nerf: 30 > 45
– Slime Spike Knockback Nerf: 2 > 1.5
– Missile Onhit Damage Nerf: 15 > 10
– Chainbelt Size Scale Nerf: (0.025 x version) > (0.01 x version)
– Eye2 Cleansehit Buff: 8 > 5
– Crown Pickup Radius Buff: 10% > 15%

– Made Peril’s enemy health boost even faster, around 15% HP per Mortality.
– While in Peril, all multilevel generic enemies (skulls, souls, fish, gloves) will spawn at tier 3 every time.
– Enemies that are not selected during the first 6 destinations are added to a big pool that the game will present you to choose from while Peril is active, so enemies that you didn’t initialize choose will join the enemy army eventually while doing mega long looping runs.
– Tiptoe-ing while you have a shield recharging will also show your shield CD.
– Tiptoe-ing will also put a yellow glimmer underneath your cursor to make it easier to find.
– Warper Enemy HP buffed: 150 > 250
– Warper fade out speed increased, but fading in is the same.
– Exploder Enemy HP Buffed: 150 > 250
– Spider Enemy HP Buffed: 125 > 150
– Wisp HP Buffed 75 > 150
– Wisp enemies that spawn on their own (through the modifier) have their HP halved.
– Wisp chains follow each other from 6 pixels further apart.
– Exploding Enemy modifier now shoots out 4 bullets instead of 6.
– The lowest any of the passive skills can go is now 20% and the highest is 10,000%.

This update v0.3.0.3 first appeared on Survivors-likes List.