On October 19th, Dead Estate's Steam release had it's 2nd Anniversary! As has become tradition around here, the game instead goes on discount today as a part of the Steam Scream Halloween Fest.
At 45% off, this is the highest discount Dead Estate has run on Steam so far! AND if you pick the game up with Magenta Horizon while both games are on sale, you'll get an even heftier discount!
(Fighting Blutcher the Demon Train in Magenta Horizon)
Update #5
As you may have seen in our last news post, Update #5 is still in active development. It has ballooned well beyond what was originally planned, but we think it will be well worth it! While we aren't ready to assign a release date to this Update, we are ready to provide more details on what's to come, and to reaffirm that it will be 100% Free!!
Challenges
The namesake of this update, we will be adding 12 Challenges for you to conquer! These are custom ways of playing the game, crafted around each character, unlocking an additional Curse on completion to play around with in the main game.
Assignment Anya
"10 characters and 12 challenges? How does that work", we hear you ask. Well it couldn't be that straightforward, now could it? What are willing to spoil at this time, is the addition of the VERY special Challenge, Assignment Anya.
This is a FULL ON game-within-a-game. It is a more traditional-style survival horror game set shortly before the events of the main game. It will be accessible through the main menu, ready for you to pick up and play whenever you choose.
We expect this will take players 2-4 hours to playthrough on a first attempt, and closer to 30 minutes on a replay. While you salivate over these screenshots, I want to remind you of two important things: (1) this will be added to Dead Estate entirely for FREE, and (2) Update #6 is still intended to be the biggest Update of all...
THANK YOU once again from the bottom of all our hearts, from both the Milkbar Lads and 2 Left Thumbs. Dead Estate is a wild success story, and one we do not take for granted. Giving you MORE is the least we can do to express our endless gratitude. Here's to another year of Dead Estate! Happy Halloween!!
Clown Meat
2 Left Thumbs announced a new game this weekend, Clown Meat, from the developers of Brutal Orchestra and Swallow the Sea. It's a precision platformer unlike any you've seen before, with an emphasis on speedrunning and replayability. Fans of Dead Estate are sure to be drawn to it's high action gameplay, and freaky horror themes. Please be sure to give it a Wishlist!
New action roguelite RPG from Dead Estate's Publisher!
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.
Schism had similar inspirations as Dead Estate, 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.
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.
Where is update #5??
You might recall that on the update road map we shared a while ago it said that update #5 would be out in spring 2023 and #6 would be out in summer. Somewhere along the way, we changed #5 to have a summer release as well. Obviously, neither of these releases ended up happening. Don't worry though, we're still working on them.
The main reason for the delay is that update #5 ballooned in size significantly from our initial plans. Originally, update #5 was just going to add twelve special challenge modes to the game which would add some major twists to how you normally play the game. Completing each of these challenges would unlock something I don't wanna spoil here.
Around April or May, however, we had an idea for one of the twelve challenges which I pretty quickly went overboard with planning. This one particular challenge mode (and calling it that at this point isn't really doing it enough justice, it's closer to a side campaign) now pretty much dwarfs the other eleven challenges combined. I don't really want to reveal what all that entails, but if you follow the Milkbar Lads or my own account on Twitter you might be able to get a good idea of what we're going for. I'd prefer to keep it a surprise, though.
Update #6 has also always been planned to be the largest update in the series, so that will likely take a substantial amount of time as well. At this point in time, I would say that update #5 is between 60 and 70% done, but I don't want to attach a possible release date to it until I can say for certain when we can expect it to be totally complete. I will say that it's almost guaranteed that update #5 will be out before the end of the year, but beyond that, I can't say an exact date or time for certain.
In any case, I don't wanna end this post without a little teaser for update #5, so here's some art that I created specifically for the one particular challenge I mentioned earlier.
I think what we're adding in the next update is easily the coolest thing we've added to the game so far, so I'm really excited that we're gonna finally be able to share it with you guys soon.
-Jack
MORE ROGUELIKE UPDATES?
Another roguelike title from 2 Left Thumbs, WizardChess, recently had a massive update! This strategic, chess-based, deckbuilding roguelike now has high replayability than ever before. Don't forget to add it to your Wishlists - or claim a discount as a Dead Estate owner with the We Like Roguelikes Bundle!
🌟 Announcement: Midnight Brothers - Dead Estate x Mega City Police 🌟
We're thrilled to announce the collaboration between Dead Estate and Mega City Police! These two great action roguelikes are now together in one bundle, bringing you a white-knuckle, hardcore, stylish experience made with lots of love <3
🏚️ Dead Estate: Explore a haunted mansion infested with terrifying creatures in this fast-paced, bloody, and challenging shooter. Test your reflexes and survival instincts as you fight your way out of the spine-chilling horrors that await you.
🚨 Mega City Police: Step into the retrowave streets of the retro-future city, filled with crime and chaos. Take the role of tough cops, armed with an array of weapons and special abilities, and engage in fierce battles with criminals. Bring justice and order back to Mega City.
🎮 Bundle Up & Save: Introducing the ultimate duo: Dead Estate and Mega City Police! For a limited time, you can get both heart-pounding games at an additional 15% discount. Experience the action of supernatural horror and the adrenaline-pumping action of fighting crime, all in one bundle.
🛒 Get your hands on the Midnight Brothers bundle and embark on an unforgettable journey through chilling mansions and retrowave streets.
Coming in just 1 WEEK, Repella Fella, the spiritual successor to the popular 'Ray' Flash series, is a point n click choose your own adventure. This comedy-drama is set in a post-apocalyptic Australia, this game tells the story of a war-vet exterminator. Work through over 120 choices to discover the game's multiple endings!
Choices matter - Over 120 options to pick from, with multiple endings
An animated epic: 6+ hours of cinematic gameplay hand-crafted by 1 individual
Designed with Replayability in mind - with 3+ approaches & outcomes to every problem
A full voice cast, with over 75 talented actors
Authentically Australian - no overdone accents or dusty, barren wastelands
PLEASE do give the game a Wishlist. It helps SO much! Watch Krinkels (the creator Madness) play the game on his Twitch! He enjoyed the game, and is planning to play the rest soon <3
MAGENTA HORIZON
Magenta Horizon is OUT NOW! It is a fast-paced 2D action platformer game that is heavily inspired by the Spectacle Fighter genre. Playing as a Reaper of the twisted purgatorial afterlife, push your skills to the limit to destroy the hordes of demons and epic bosses to reach your destination.
Magenta Horizon is a fast-paced 2D action platformer game that is heavily inspired by the Spectacle Fighter genre. Playing as a Reaper of the twisted purgatorial afterlife, push your skills to the limit to destroy the hordes of demons and epic bosses to reach your destination.
You have 1 week to participate in a contest to win a free copy of Magenta Horizon! You need to complete and post a highscore, playing a specific Stage in the Demo. The full details on how to enter can be found here. Good luck!
Patch 1.5.2 change log
Small baby patch to address some of the most frequently reported issues from the new update!!!!!!1
- Added an input accessibility option under "game settings" which changes button-release inputs to button-hold inputs. This also rebinds Axel's hatchet charge to the special action button. - Added an option to reset all controls to their defaults - Added a full list of voice actors to the normal ending credits (which expands with details based on your unlocks) - Fixed a crash caused by purchasing an ammo refill while carrying the "Error" item - Fixed a crash related to double-clicking some options in the settings menu - Fixed a slowdown related to Chunks's shockwave attacks - Fixed a bug where Chunks's shockwave attacks would remain even after leaving a room - Fixed a bug where your movement speed would be reset back to default after loading a run - Made the character select screen load faster (it used to hang for a second or two when you first entered it, now it doesn't :] ) - Axel can now be unlocked after unlocking Cordelia (previously he could only be unlocked after getting the game's true ending)
Patch 1.5.1 change log
Quick little patch to make some small fixes and balance adjustments to the new update
- Slightly lowered Axel's base damage and charge multiplier - Fixed a crash that would occur if you entered Axel's hideout while carrying the boss key and the boss room is directly connected to the starting room - Fixed a bug where Fuji's air dash couldn't be controlled with the new special action button - Fixed a bug where Axel could super jump by releasing a charged axe throw mid-air - Slightly adjusted the phrasing used when trying to open the hatchet door on floor 2 - Forgot to add a unique piece of art for Cordelia to Axel's ending polaroids. It's in there now :) - Added a couple silly little paintings to the mix - Threw some new artwork into the gallery
Lemme preface by saying that Axel is gonna be the final main playable character in Dead Estate. Ten's a nice, round, even number to end on. You'll notice that Axel is the only bit of new content added in this update, also. That's because the main purpose of this update besides adding the game's last playable character is to improve the game's stability and address common complaints. I tried to resolve as many of the game's most frequently reported and severe issues as possible, and I also tried to pepper in as many new little quality-of-life features as possible. Stuff like a dedicated button for Fuji and BOSS's special abilities, a better control rebinding menu, etc.. Hopefully, the game will feel a lot more polished and better to play with this update.
Chunks also received a bit of an overhaul. I noticed that many players would quickly figure out that the best way to deal with Chunks is to either circle around him forever (and he would never be able to catch up to you or attack you) and spam attacks at him or just pop off some cheap shots on him and then quickly dive out of the room and repeat. Neither of these tactics involve any challenge at all, really, and they also weren't particularly hard to figure out or to pull off.
Chunks is supposed to be intimidating, not a punching bag. To help with this, Chunks now has two new abilities: 1. He'll heal a little whenever you leave a room while he's chasing you in order to discourage kiting him around rooms before he can attack you, and 2. He can jump up and create shockwaves on impact now, so that way you're not just circling around him while attacking. He actually has attacks now that you've gotta dodge, making running away a much more preferable option for players who don't have the skill or firepower to knock him out -- cheap shots with low damage and running in and out of rooms is less of a viable strategy now. In the spirit of fairness, I also made Chunks move slower. It's not much of a secret that Chunks's speed scales with your own, but he shouldn't be able to fly around rooms at Mach 3 and land unfair, unavoidable hits on you anymore. Basically, Chunks is more challenging now, but it should also be more obvious now that running away is the right choice if you're not at the right skill or power level to fight him. This'll probably require a lot of slight tweaks and adjustments to get it feeling just right, but bear with me.
I've got a final tomorrow morning and I'm writing this at 3:00 AM, so I should probably wrap it up here. Thanks for your continued support, here's the change log!
NEW STUFF, CHANGES, AND FIXES
Axel!
A hatchet-wielding hunk with some cool shades and a god complex. Axel's hatchets have a unique ability to get charged up before throwing them for extra damage and distance, plus he has special access to a secret hidey-hole on every floor stockpiled with health and ammo. He'll also quip after killing enemies. Get used to it.
Small additions, balance changes, and adjustments
- Cordelia now sells ammunition refills in weapon shops - Added a dedicated special action key used for Fuji's air dash and detonating BOSS's sticky bombs - Overhauled the control rebinding section - Added an option to toggle the low HP heartbeat sound effects on and off - The game now locks your mouse inside the window during gameplay - Completing runs now gives you an additional Chunks medallion (you'll now receive 3 for completing a normal ending run on standard difficulty as opposed to 2) - Nerfed Funky Syringe, it provides a slightly smaller damage+reload speed boost now - Picking up Toilet Paper no longer counts against the "Without a Hitch" medal (hitless run) - Blue Mutants (floor 4 hanging monsters) will not apply stun effects unless they're close to the ground - Infesters can now only be stunned while on the ground - Decreased the speed boost Chunks receives on harder difficulties - Chunks' speed now scales slightly less with the player's own speed - Lowered Chunks's maximum movement speed - Chunks now heals 200 HP upon leaving a room while being chased by him (he starts with 3,000 HP on normal mode, for comparison's sake) - Chunks has a little sleeping animation now when you knock him out :) awww little guy ZZZ aww :] - Reworked Chunks's punch attack to have a smaller trigger range, greater area of effect, and more visual feedback - Added a new jump/shockwave attack for Chunks which becomes active when few enemies are left in the room - Shortened the amount of time that Block of Ice freezes enemies - Adjusted the description of Jules's Curse of the Bloodhungry - Player characters now deal contact damage to enemies while firing weapons (to compensate for bullet spawn offsets and some characters moving slower than some enemies) - Added new decorations to Hellmart - ...Also added some new decorations to Heavenmart - Added a prompt to the Curse select menu to warn players that they cannot change curses mid-run - Put in some new sound effects for the Curse select menu :}
Fixes
- Fixed a bug where Fuji's B costume medal could not be unlocked - Fixed a bug where spamming the restart button on the game over screen would screw up level generation and spawn multiple player instances - Meltface (the floor 1 flame monsters), and Pot Ghosts now react to being stunned properly - Unlocking the different title screens out of order no longer results in the wrong art being displayed - Chunks should no longer appear immediately after leaving Hellmart and Heavenmart - Fixed a bug on floor 2 where, if the floor is burning, spike balls would sometimes be swapped with ropes - Diavola's second form should no longer display multiple health bars if you have the Stethoscope item - Fixed an itty bitty little bug where some passageways would display the wrong doorframes - Fixed a bug where the heal sound effect would play continuously during level transitions if the player is holding the Medkit item - Fixed a crash that would sometimes occur at the beginning of boss fights - Fixed a crash caused by killing stunned enemies with explosions - Maybe(???) fixed a crash related to explosions. This one has been a pain in the ass to figure out, I dunno honestly - Fixed a bug in the Curses menu that prevented some curses from being selected - Fixed a bug that would allow Chunks to sometimes spawn even while carrying the Dead Rat item - Fixed a bug allowing players to clip out of bounds using multiple Magic Carpets - Boxing gloves/gauntlet/hatchet type weapons should now appear invisible when the player disappears into a portal - Heavenmart no longer rerolls its items when you leave and re-enter - Fixed a bug where Chunks's front-facing punch sprites wouldn't display - Adjusted some bullshit with Chunks's sprites so he won't flip around rapidly while chasing you. This isn't even really a bug fix. Why is this here? - Fixed a bug where you would not start with the right weapon if you exited and continued a run while using Super Glue - Removed a graphical error with the ending polaroid for Jules's C costume - Fixed an error where the Huge Hammer had the same description as the Rad Shotgun in Cordelia's weapon shop - Fixed an oversight that would allow players to enable/disable Curses mid-run - Fixed a crash which would sometimes occur while playing as Lydia
WHAT'S NEXT?
Next up on the big list is update no. 5: Challenger. We're getting near the end here, but looking at the list of assets needed for update #5 and especially #6 makes it feel like we're just getting started. You can probably figure out what the big new feature of update #5 will be just based on the name, but let me assure you that it's gonna be a lot more than what you think it is.
We're getting really close to revealing some major content and plans that I've been holding back for a while, and I want these last two updates to blow away everyone's expectations. I can't put a solid release date on either of these updates yet, but I want update #5 to be out sometime in July. I know that Axe to Grind is a bit of a smaller update, so for those of you looking for something meatier, I think update #5 will satisfy.
Anyways, thanks again for all of your continued support on this project. It means a ton that so many of you are willing to see this thing through to the end with us -- although in this case I feel like the end is really just the beginning ;;;;;) - Jack
COMING SOON
Dead Estate's publisher, 2 Left Thumbs, has a brand new title launching June 5th.
Repella Fella is a passion project, made by a solo developer for nearly 7 years! It's a comedic, point n click, choose your own adventure set in a post apocalyptic Australia. You can play the first ~30 minutes in the FREE Prologue!
Dead Estate's success allowed me the resources needed to fund the final leg of Repella Fella's development! As a direct thank you, there will be a launch bundle offering a discount to Dead Estate owners! Please add Repella Fella to you WISHLIST so you don't miss out <3 - Graeme
Update #4 Announced - Coming April 28th!
Update 4: AXE TO GRIND
A release date has been set for the FOURTH of SIX major updates for Dead Estate. Axe to Grind is coming in 2 week, on April 28th. This adds a 10th character to the game, Axel, with his own unique mechanics, story, and costumes! It will also bring heaps of bugfixes in an effort to tighten up some of the screws that have started to come loose across these updates.
ROADMAP
We are not than half way through our roadmap! Let's just pretend those dates haven't changed at all over time. Really though, it became clear that we needed to slow things down a little and make sure the game was receiving some much needed care and support between major updates.
All your feedback and bug reports have been invaluable to our small team. Thank you ALL! Putting together these updates is the least we can do to show out gratitude <3
COMING SOON
Dead Estate's publisher, 2 Left Thumbs, has a brand new title launching at the end of May.
Magenta Horizon is a fast-paced, skill-based, 2d platformer spectacle fighter. Think of DMC, Ninja Gaiden, and Bayonetta - but in a 2D package! The game will sell for $10.99, with a launch discount, and an additional 25% OFF for owners of Dead Estate! Please add Magenta Horizon to your WISHLIST so you don't miss out (and it helps us out a lot. Thanks!!)
