First off, a big “thank you” to our viewers from yesterday’s stream, it’s always great to have you around and we even enjoyed hearing some cool feedback and ideas from you peeps.
Our first Content Update is lurking around the corner. For this update we have several fun additions as well as some more technical features. So check this out…
New Maps!
Our update will bring two new maps, each with a different theme and new traps.
The first one is an ice-themed arena, with a big bad dude lurking in the background. The Vikings will feel winter’s bite as sharp snowy peaks outline the edge of the battleground. When the Boss wills it, huge ice shards drop on the battlefield, crushing anybody caught beneath.
The second arena will be fire-themed, a lava-engulfed site of an old civilization, long forgotten, long untrodden, however not uninhabited. An odd species of insects, referred to by travelers as “Ruin Creepers”, have made these old stones their home.
Ruin Creeper - New Arena Minion
These creatures answer to the Boss’ call and when summoned will start hunting down Vikings, however their behaviour will be different from that of Valhalla’s Stone Guardian or Cute Arena’s Bunny. The Creeper performs melee attacks, trying to fill its Special Attack. When its Special Attack is ready, the Creeper turns into a large flamethrower. The Creeper is also able to defend itself, by guarding its front part of its body with its large front limbs. If attacked while defending, the Creeper fires an AOE attack, blasting nearby Vikings.
Boss Customization
Moving on we have a long-awaited feature, finally a part of Bossgard: Boss Customization!
Gone is the age of vanilla bosses, the time for pimping is now!
Bosses will get their own customization menu, similar to that of the Vikings and will feature several color schemes available for both Stage I and Stage II. Bosses with Minions, like Olaf and Fortress will find their small henchmen benefiting from these color schemes as well.
Players will be able to unlock these new Boss customization items in similar fashion to how Vikings earn their items. Bosses will earn experience through combat and unlock items at each tier.
Multiplayer Regions
Finally we have a technical update. Multiplayer regions. Previously all connections were being relayed through a server in Amsterdam, which resulted in good connections for Europe, but less smooth experiences for players outside Europe.
Thus we have added a new Regions menu, so you can now select the closest server to you. Word to the wise, players will have to share the same Region in order to see each other’s games OR you can invite your friends through Steam and the game will do the Region switch automatically.
This system should ensure less lag when joining public games.
Anywho, this has been it, this is what we’re working on right now, the update won’t be hitting you people Wednesday as we had hoped, but it should be live in 10 days tops.
Meanwhile keep the feedback coming, we make sure to adjust our course accordingly. Keep bossing and keep Vikinging!
Love,
Snail, on behalf of the Sand Sailors
Dev Strem Today! - Update reveal
Hey peeps,
today at
20:00 UTC+3
we're going to host our weekly Play with the Devs
BUT
we're also going to talk about our upcoming Content Update. So it's going to be a 2 for 1, development chitchat and live play sessions. Tune in!
First Update!
Here it is, the first Bossgard update since the release!
The biggest feature we have is the Steam Achievements system. We implemented 25 Steam achievements, with many more to come. So shout out to you completionists out there, Bossgard now has Steam Achievements!
There was there question of Trading Cards, unfortunately we still have to wait for Steam’s approval on this one, there are certain criteria we still have to meet. So Trading Cards are postponed for now, we’ll come back with more info as soon as.
And now for the chunky technical bits:
Bossgard Version 240419.2307
-Added Steam Achievements!
-Fixed a bug where Olaf of Bread’s ranged attack would not properly hit the target, to be more precise the shrapnel/flak damage the projectiles dealt was not hitting properly.
-Fixed the "Invite Friends" menu, now navigable with mouse.
-Skeletons and Tigers are buffed and can attack other minions. They won’t hunt other minions however, they’ll just attack any minion standing between them and the Boss.
-Shroom minions no longer stun vikings.
-Increased the HP for Vikings and Bosses.
-Having only one map in the Map list will no longer bring up the Map Vote screen (no choice given where there is none)
-Various visual and sound tweaks (mainly on Olaf’s minions)
-Added a new death animation for Olaf’s Small Bread Minions. They now crumble upon death, instead of their old, “deflating” animation.
-Fixed an issue where the Viking Bots would not attack the Fortress’ walls. Now Bots should be much more effective against the Fortress.
-Fixed game breaking bug that occurred when exiting the server list after a connection was established.
That’s it for today (actually yesterday), as promised we’ll return tomorrow with news on the upcoming content update.
Thank you everyone for the feedback, and we can't wait to see you on the fields of battle!
Lovingly,
The Sand Sailors
The First Monday Meetup! Conclusions
Hi and welcome to Monday Meetups!
These are short talks we do at the beginning of the week during which we highlight our focus for the upcoming days, discuss community suggestions, reported bugs and even choose a "Forum-boss of the Week".
Our first Monday Meetup was about Steam Achievements and Steam Trading Cards which we'll be doing and implementing this week.
Wednesday has been designated as our Update Day, during which we'll release a patch or content update. For this week we have a few bug fixes, so no new shiny content just yet, but rest assured, our Bug Bashing efforts are proving their worth.
We fixed a nasty bug Olaf was having, namely his ranged attack not hitting properly. We figured out something was wrong with Olaf since he was the most played but the biggest loser at the same time. Out of 300 games, Olaf won 50 (based on a batch of 1000 games).
Our Forum Boss of the Week is Marlile! His Partially-hatched Elder Dragon idea is very well fleshed out and we thought he deserved more attention. To be clear, we highlight these posts because we find them to be more in line with Bossgard's design philosophy. It doesn't mean we will immediately start designing this boss or that other ideas are less worthy, we just felt this particular post to be more close to our hearts.
We love our players very much and we do our best to listen (and respond) to each and every one of you :)
As a closing note, consider dropping a review for Bossgard, we could really use all the help we can get :)
That's it for today, thank you for tuning in and hope to hear from you guys over the course of the week. Meanwhile we're off working on those Achievements, Trading Cards and Bugs. See you!
This is it. The big day. The turning of the page. A new chapter. The...
WE ARE RELEASING.
We are SO pumped. We've poured a gorillion hours into this. It has always been our dream to empower people by allowing them to play as overpowered baked goods, evil toilet utensils and multi-ethnic Vikings. And we're finally here.
THE BIG STREAM
We're hosting a big stream to celebrate. Starting from 17:00 UTC + 3 we're pushing the big RELEASE button live, we're giving out keys, we're making a big deal out of it. We're going to have guests, surprises and overall a very, very good time.
We want you to join us, talk to us, share this big day with us because it's the first day of Early Access, a period that'll be defined by us being good listeners and hard workers.
RECAP: 17:00 UTC + 3 - Big stream, giveaways and good times! Be there!
Release Date Announced
The bread-battling, boss-fighting, Viking-hurting multiplayer game is coming to Steam on April 18.
It's Friday, it's streamday. 19:30 UTC + 2. Tune in. Or out. Whatever. We'll be there anyway. But do tune in!
Closed Beta ends today
The BOSSGARD dev team give a wholehearted "Thank you!"
Peeps, today is the day we're ending the closed beta. We're entering the very last part of Bossgard's development process and we have a looming release day (which we'll reveal in the very near future).
We would like to thank all of you for your tremendous help and support. Bossgard has improved tenfold thanks to your help alone and those who will enjoy the game will enjoy a much better experience thanks to you. We will start disabling the beta keys in the following hours, so don't get alarmed (and no, it's not an April 1st joke)
All details related to the release date, actual price and so on will be revealed reaaaally soon. What we can say is that the release will happen this month.
Review / Preview keys
If you're interested in BOSSGARD and curious to try out the game before launch, we are more than happy to provide keys for a feature-complete preview build to streamers and press.
Feel free to enquire at support@sandsailorstudio.com
New Beta-build available! New features!
First off, we're hosting a broadcast in about an hour, showcasing our brand new COUCH VERSUS COUCH mode. We're going to split into 2 teams at 2 different rigs and play together via Couch Vs Couch. Stick around!
EDIT: The game is in the middle of a closed-beta which started in December, but we aren't accepting new beta-testers (YET)
Going hard at it!
Hey peeps, here we are again, this time with a major update we're really excited about. We even released a new gameplay trailer to celebrate, make sure you check that out as well.
Anywho, here's what's new:
Couch versus couch You and your friends can play locally against or with online players! Hook up a few gamepads, and host or join an online game another other players!
Bot support You can now play with bots in any combination, any game from now on will be a 1 v 5 game, as we intended! They also come in 3 different levels of difficulty.
Boss Abilities The Bosses are now more powerful, gaining the ability to Heal themselves and Dispel negative effects, such as Slo-Mo and Sickness.
Boss-controlled Traps Bosses now have full control of the map traps, which can be toggled based on a cooldown timer.
New Arenas We have several new maps in the game, one of them being Cute Arena.
New UI Based on our testers' feedback we've done a lot of work to our UI. It's now prettier and friendlier.
Steam Invite Friends Support You can now invite friends from your Steam Friend List!
What's next?
We're very close to completion, but here's what's coming down the pipeline:
Integrated Twitch features We want to come to the aid of streamers with a friendly interface and feature set that will allow them to directly involve followers in a live game. Followers will be able to cast spells, heal and summon minions to fight for them! More on this in the weeks to come.
Custom game mode A special game mode with fully tweakable game parameters, allowing hosts to play around with the game's characters, bosses, mechanics and so on.
Stay tuned!
Join our Closed Beta now!
Yesss, it’s happening on the 14th of December! Bossgard Closed Beta is just around the corner. Five Vikings fight giant, evil toast.
Join the closed beta today: www.bossgard.com
WHAT'S NEW
• Online multiplayer
• Valhalla - that means new equipment, weapons and familiars
• New Arenas
• A new area to explore – SURPISE
OUR AIM WITH THIS CLOSED BETA:
• Test the online aspect of the game
• Listen to your feedback on the gameplay, including balance, feel and fun
• Be able to conduct “Play with devs sessions” where you can join the fray and kick some dev butt!
Ever wanted to play as the Boss? Now's your chance! Join our Closed beta now, a hectic 1 versus 5 bossfight multiplayer game in which you get to crush your friends as THE BOSS.
Three… Two… One… Battle!
Website: www.bossgard.com
