Death Road to Canada came out on consoles about a week ago: Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. It's doing well, and is currently one of the top sellers on the Nintendo Switch! We're still waiting for our phone call to ask us if we want an Amiibo made for The Last Bodybuilder or Toilet Genie.
In about a week we're going to put the new GIZZARD update up on the Testing Branch. I'd like to test that for a week and then get that out on June 4th.
EDIT: Changed below to the final launch date.
Also on July 16th, we're launching Wayward Souls into Early Access. Wayward Souls is a randomly generated action RPG we made awhile ago, featuring 6 different character classes with their own stories, abilities, and playstyles. The PC version adds a lot of content, including a 7th character. More news on this next post!
4/30 Testing Branch (Windows)
Testing out a fix for a map generation crash, that should hopefully tone down the Danger Rangers/Bruce Li crashes among other ones from generating a lot of rooms. This also contains some changes to the end fight, now featuring snow plows.
5/5 EDIT: This is now up for the release version of the game.
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INSTRUCTIONS
IMPORTANT NOTE: The testing branch and the retail version usually use different save files! Testing Branch saves also get cleared out on occasion.
HOW TO INSTALL: Right click Death Road to Canada on Steam. Go to Properties. Go to Betas. Select Testbranch, no password necessary.
CHANGES
- Crash fix for a crash that could happen when an empty room was generated.
- Snow plows added as border gates.
- The former back line of Mounties that didn't attack/blocked your way are now above the snow plows.
- If the game detects you've never won, a Mountie now gives you a message of hope as you're running to the border gate. This text event stops showing once you beat the game in any mode.
- If you're playing on one of the "Easier Bandit" difficulties (Normal, Rare, Familiar, Long Road, Short Road), the ending zombies will stop attacking you right before THE BIG REINFORCEMENT arrives. This is mostly to stop beginning players from dying in a hilarious way.
3/27 FEMUR Bonus Update!
A second FEMUR! This adds 5 new common trading camps to the original list, for 15 total camps. Each one has a new quirk that sets it apart from the original 10 trading camps.
The original FEMUR update post will also be edited to have the below notes.
- Fence of Values, with 4 traders and also a fence of some sort
- Ruined Camp, but not so ruined that it's not having a FIRE SALE!!!
- Farmhouse Camp, with a barn and dogs and hay
- Big Trading House, with a chance for bathroom reading
- Bazaar, it's the largest one now with 5 traders, gas and weapon buyer, and a campsite for getting a recruit. Its got it all
- Farm dogs that are well behaved but very aggressive against zombies
- Tsundere chicken
- Random egg chance
- Big Trading House has a 20% chance to spawn a magazine
- Ruined Trader/FIRE SALE guy is a special trader with a random inventory, some of which isn't for sale anywhere else
- Tier 1 item costs 3 food, Tier 2 is 6 food, Tier 3 is 10
- 5 tier 1 items, all supplies for about half the usual price
- 6 tier 2 items: 3 Grenades, Sturdy Machete, 5 Pipebombs, Aluminum Bat, Double Barrel Shotgun, Bow + 50 Arrows
- 7 tier 3 items: Uzi, Chainsaw, 9 Molotovs, Mega Maul, Scythe, Ultimate Log, Blowtorch XL
- Blowtorch XL is a blowtorch with extra charges
Misc Changes
- Burning Car Wrecks now have enough hitpoints to survive burning for 3 minutes instead of destroying itself instantly
- Double Barrel Shotgun can now be sold to weapon buyer for 3 food
- The Whammer now sells for 3 food instead of 2 (still a rip off)
- Plasma Rifle name change
- Various developer notes added and a TEMPROOM scratchpad
- Moved strength trainer's dumbrack down by 1 movey, as it was getting in the way sometimes
Feedback and Coming Up Next
As always, if you like what we're doing leave comments, tell your friends, and write Steam reviews. To follow us for news:
GIZZARD update should be coming in May, along with the Early Access launch of our next game, Wayward Souls! Console launch of Death Road to Canada should be some time in April.
This last but of the FEMUR update will add 5 extra common trading camps, all with some new quirks that weren't in the older camps. Read below for details!
As soon as I get some feedback on each camp, I'll release the update. Completing FEMUR will also let us launch the mobile versions and get the content on other/upcoming platforms!
EDIT 3/25 1:10 PM PST: Added the 5th trading camp, an outdoor market with 5 traders!
INSTRUCTIONS
IMPORTANT NOTE: The testing branch and the retail version use different save files! Testing Branch saves also get cleared out on occasion.
HOW TO INSTALL: Right click Death Road to Canada on Steam. Go to Properties. Go to Betas. Select Testbranch, no password necessary.
CHANGES
Added 3/25 1:10 PM PST:
- 5th new trading camp added, it's the largest one now with 5 traders, gas and weapon buyer, and a campsite for getting a recruit
- Moved strength trainer's dumbrack down by 1 movey, as it was getting in the way sometimes
Added 3/24:
Trading Camps
- Fence of Values, with 4 traders and also a fence of some sort
- Ruined Camp, but not so ruined that it's not having a FIRE SALE!!!
- Farmhouse Camp, with a barn and dogs and hay
- Big Trading House, with a chance for bathroom reading
- Farm dogs that are well behaved but very aggressive against zombies
- Tsundere chicken
- Random egg chance
- Big Trading House has a 20% chance to spawn a magazine
- Ruined Trader/FIRE SALE guy is a special trader with a random inventory, some of which isn't for sale anywhere else
- Tier 1 item costs 3 food, Tier 2 is 6 food, Tier 3 is 10
- 5 tier 1 items, all supplies for about half the usual price
- 6 tier 2 items: 3 Grenades, Sturdy Machete, 5 Pipebombs, Aluminum Bat, Double Barrel Shotgun, Bow + 50 Arrows
- 7 tier 3 items: Uzi, Chainsaw, 9 Molotovs, Mega Maul, Scythe, Ultimate Log, Blowtorch XL
- Blowtorch XL is a blowtorch with extra charges
Misc Changes
- Burning Car Wrecks now have enough hitpoints to survive burning for 3 minutes instead of destroying itself instantly
- Double Barrel Shotgun can now be sold to weapon buyer for 3 food
- The Whammer now sells for 3 food instead of 2 (still a rip off)
- Plasma Rifle name change
- Various developer notes added and a TEMPROOM scratchpad
3/12 FEMUR Update
The FEMUR Update adds the strongest zombie destroying weapon, a weapon that the government does NOT want you to know about.
TOILETS
Very strong characters that are over the usual strength maximums can now rip up previously immobile objects, with bolts flying out everywhere. TSTC and TLB fans now have more reasons to be swole.
In addition to the devastating power of newly throw-able sinks, bathtubs, and toilets, this update also adds bonesaws and a new bow and arrows weapon type. You can unlock a new perk that grants a starting bow with regenerating arrows. A fully drawn bow can sometimes send an arrow through an entire line of zombie heads!
The FEMUR Update adds a new special character that gets a bow in one weapon slot, and then a random melee weapon. This melee weapon changes every location, and can include some of the strongest weapons in the game. Or it can be a nice shovel. We've also added fixes, a new holiday event, and the ability to access the options menu through the pause screen.
EDIT 3/27: We've also done a small bonus update to add 5 new common trading camps, for 15 total! They all have new things to set them apart from the original 10 camps. The bonus update notes have been added to the update changes below.
Future Update Plans
We're planning an update some time in May, with some new content. New special character, a new location type, some new rare trading camps. This will include some new weapons and possibly common traders. By the time the May update hits, Death Road to Canada should also be out on consoles!
Then we're gearing up for the 2nd Anniversary Update in July! We're hoping to have one or two big new additions to the game ready for the Anniversary. We took a poll recently, and it looks like the two biggest requests were 4 Players in co-op and new Gameplay Modes. My top idea for a new mode is the Endless Mode idea we wanted to do before.
If we add 4 Player co-op, it would also include some features we were holding off on in hopes of doing 2 players with splitscreen first. This includes player 2 not losing control immediately if player 1 dies. We would also like to look into more co-op requests, such as making room transitions more smooth for player 2 and onward.
Update Changes
3/27 Bonus Update
- Fence of Values, with 4 traders and also a fence of some sort
- Ruined Camp, but not so ruined that it's not having a FIRE SALE!!!
- Farmhouse Camp, with a barn and dogs and hay
- Big Trading House, with a chance for bathroom reading
- Bazaar, it's the largest one now with 5 traders, gas and weapon buyer, and a campsite for getting a recruit. Its got it all
- Farm dogs that are well behaved but very aggressive against zombies
- Tsundere chicken
- Random egg chance
- Big Trading House has a 20% chance to spawn a magazine
- Ruined Trader/FIRE SALE guy is a special trader with a random inventory, some of which isn't for sale anywhere else
- Tier 1 item costs 3 food, Tier 2 is 6 food, Tier 3 is 10
- 5 tier 1 items, all supplies for about half the usual price
- 6 tier 2 items: 3 Grenades, Sturdy Machete, 5 Pipebombs, Aluminum Bat, Double Barrel Shotgun, Bow + 50 Arrows
- 7 tier 3 items: Uzi, Chainsaw, 9 Molotovs, Mega Maul, Scythe, Ultimate Log, Blowtorch XL
- Blowtorch XL is a blowtorch with extra charges
- Burning Car Wrecks now have enough hitpoints to survive burning for 3 minutes instead of destroying itself instantly
- Double Barrel Shotgun can now be sold to weapon buyer for 3 food
- The Whammer now sells for 3 food instead of 2 (still a rip off)
- Plasma Rifle name change
- Various developer notes added and a TEMPROOM scratchpad
- Moved strength trainer's dumbrack down by 1 movey, as it was getting in the way sometimes
3/12 Update
- Bow and Arrows Perk added! This will give a character a no-drop bow, which will regenerate 4/7/10 arrows when going back to the road screen, depending on level
- Special bonuses for Bow and Arrows + Specialist Trait, you get more max arrows and regenerate them twice as fast
- Special Character: Barbarian added, rare chance in trading camps
- Barbarian has a bow and arrow with 60 arrows maximum, and gets 20 arrows back per mission
- Every mission, she gets out a new weapon, with a pool of 17 different weapons for 18 total when you include her bow
- She either has +1 max strength or +1 max fitness, when recruited
- Bonesaw added, it can rarely be found in hospitals and clinics. Similar to a fireaxe, but with almost no knockdown capabilities and always cleaves an extra zombie
- Bow values tweaked. Strength and fitness make more of a difference for fatigue, fatigue is less harsh, and bows take 33% longer to draw to full power
- You can now rarely find bow and arrow sets in places with sporting and/or camping goods
- Special trading camp failure rate without City Seeker reduced from 60% to 50%
- Zombotown Rambeux has a new Haiku
- Free ZP Robot AKA the ZP Dingus now will automatically show up in Zombotown, in both Testing Branch and Debug Mode builds
- Mad Doctor Rare Trader now lets you "pick someone else" if you have 4 choices
- Some perks/traits will no longer give you a free "total heal" stat increment
Earlier February Update
- Spraying pipes added! Toilets, sinks, and bathtubs now spray water if picked up or destroyed
- Bolted furniture added! This mostly benefits T*S*T*C characters and T*L*B, giving them more stuff to pick up
- HP reduction to toilets, sinks, bathtubs
- Options Menu is now available from road and mission pause screens, replacing the old quit menu
- Quit menu is now in the in-game options menu
- Cupid event that shows up on Valentine's Day
- Cupid's arrows recharge at a rate of 10 every time you go to the road, max of 60
- Cupid Bow added! Silent and has a big piercing value at maximum draw
- Fix for the chainsaw hand event bug that would happen if you were a solo character
- Thanksgiving change to be 4th Thursday of November
- America and Canada Day both now let you skip the special character
- Grammar tweak for trade-firearms
- Phoenix trait no longer sets loyalty to max
Feedback
Let us know what you think in comments, in discussions, or on my Twitter or Facebook:
http://www.twitter.com/rocketcatgames - News on updates
http://www.facebook.com/rocketcatgames - New on future games
If you like what we're doing, review Death Road to Canada on Steam and tell your friends about the updates!
3/7 Testing Branch (Win/Mac/Linux): FEMUR Update
Testing out another update. We want to launch this soon. It finishes the early half-update from a month ago, and includes a new perk, two new weapons, and a new special character!
ALSO: We're doing a poll for next big Death Road features. Vote here: https://twitter.com/rocketcatgames/status/970737091247091712
EDIT: We had some problems with the new regular trading camps in testing. We will either delay this until next update, or just sneak it into a mini-update.
INSTRUCTIONS
IMPORTANT NOTE: The testing branch and the retail version use different save files! Testing Branch saves also get cleared out on occasion.
HOW TO INSTALL: Right click Death Road to Canada on Steam. Go to Properties. Go to Betas. Select Testbranch, no password necessary.
CHANGES
3/11 3 PM PST
- Windows release build
3/9 10:42 AM PST
- Linux and Mac builds up
3/8 9:02 PM PST
- Toilet and bathroom adjustments. Let me know if you see more misbehaving toilets, this should fix many of the toilet bugs
- Bathtub hitboxes fixed. Now they will have a harder time entering walls, and you also won't be able to walk partially through big bathtubs so much
- Free ZP Robot AKA the ZP Dingus now will automatically show up in Zombotown, in both Testing Branch and Debug Mode builds
- Build name changed to FEMUR
3/7
- Bow and Arrows Perk added! This will give a character a no-drop bow, which will regenerate 4/7/10 arrows when going back to the road screen, depending on level
- Special bonuses for Bow and Arrows + Specialist Trait, you get more max arrows and regenerate them twice as fast
- Special Character: Barbarian added, rare chance in trading camps
- Barbarian has a bow and arrow with 60 arrows maximum, and gets 20 arrows back per mission
- Every mission, she gets out a new weapon, with a pool of 17 different weapons for 18 total when you include her bow
- She either has +1 max strength or +1 max fitness, when recruited
- Bonesaw added, it can rarely be found in hospitals and clinics. Similar to a fireaxe, but with almost no knockdown capabilities and always cleaves an extra zombie
- Bow values tweaked. Strength and fitness make more of a difference for fatigue, fatigue is less harsh, and bows take 33% longer to draw to full power
- You can now rarely find bow and arrow sets in places with sporting and/or camping goods
- Special trading camp failure rate without City Seeker reduced from 60% to 50%
- Zombotown Rambeux has a new Haiku
- Mad Doctor Rare Trader now lets you "pick someone else" if you have 4 choices
- Some perks/traits will no longer give you a free "total heal" stat increment
2/14 Valentine's Day Update
This update adds a Valentine's Day timed event, tweaks and fixes, options accessible via pause menu, and the ability for very strong characters to pick up bolted down objects such as toilets!
Another big update should be coming in late February or March.
EDIT 2/14 1:20 PM PST
- Fixed the bug where perk/trait info would pop up as you left the character creation menu
- Fixed the heart graphics bug
Changes:
- Cupid event that shows up on Valentine's Day
- Cupid's arrows recharge at a rate of 10 every time you go to the road, max of 60
- Cupid Bow added! Silent and has a big piercing value at maximum draw
- Options Menu is now available from road and mission pause screens, replacing the old quit menu
- Quit menu is now in the in-game options menu
- Spraying pipes added! Toilets, sinks, and bathtubs now spray water if picked up or destroyed
- Bolted furniture added! This mostly benefits T*S*T*C characters and T*L*B, giving them more stuff to pick up
- HP reduction to toilets, sinks, bathtubs
- Fix for the chainsaw hand event bug that would happen if you were a solo character
- Thanksgiving change to be 4th Thursday of November
- America and Canada Day both now let you skip the special character
- Grammar tweak for trade-firearms
- Phoenix trait no longer sets loyalty to max
2/8 Testing Branch (Win/Mac/Linux): VALENTINE'S DAY
Testing some new content we hope to get out before Valentine's Day! Around the end of the month, we're also releasing another big update.
2/13 11:00 AM: New update that removes the splash screens and Cupid debug option, while switching it to the release version saves. Close to launching!
2/8 5:10 PM: New update with some requests, and Mac and Linux builds! We need to look over a few bugs, but this is all of the content coming to the Valentine's mini-update.
INSTRUCTIONS
IMPORTANT NOTE: The testing branch and the retail version use different save files! Testing Branch saves also get cleared out on occasion.
HOW TO INSTALL: Right click Death Road to Canada on Steam. Go to Properties. Go to Betas. Select Testbranch, no password necessary.
2/13 CHANGES
- Splash screens removed
- Cupid debug option removed from the game start
- Switching over to retail saves
2/8 CHANGES
- Mac and Linux builds
- You can skip the splash intro screen by pressing a button
- Options menu no longer changes the music!
- Options menu will still reset the song if you mute and unmute
- Cupid sayings
- Cupid event that shows up on Valentine's Day (change your system clock to Feb 14!)
- America and Canada Day both now let you skip the special character
2/7 CHANGES
- Options Menu is now available from road and mission pause screens, replacing the old quit menu
- Quit menu is now in the in-game options menu
- Bow added! Silent and has a big piercing value at maximum draw
- Cupid character added and available for testing at game start
- Cupid's arrows recharge at a rate of 10 every time you go to the road, max of 60
- Spraying pipes added! Toilets, sinks, and bathtubs now spray water.
- Bolted furniture added! This mostly benefits T*S*T*C characters and T*L*B, giving them more stuff to pick up
- HP reduction to toilets, sinks, bathtubs
- Fix for the chainsaw hand event bug that would happen if you were a solo character
- Thanksgiving change to be 4th Thursday of November
- Grammar tweak for trade-firearms
- Phoenix trait no longer sets loyalty to max
- Trying out a game intro screen (may remove this for PC)
11/30 EYEBALL Update - Part Two
Here is the second part of the EYEBALL Update! This adds new events, encounters, characters, weapons, and one new system: Golden Skulls. Read below for more details, and if you like what we're doing leave reviews and tell your friends. We completely depend on word of mouth!
These changes will also come to mobile, though iOS may take a little longer as we're also looking into sneaking some mobile specific control updates in.
If you like dogs and Death Road to Canada check out our official dog shirt: https://www.levelupstudios.com/products/dang-it
Next Update: FEMUR
The next update should be coming early next year, probably in either January or February.
For FEMUR, I'm going to focus on adding a lot of new trading camps, both rare and normal. The number will either double or triple. In addition, I'm planning to add 4-5 new regular trading camps. Some of them will contain some special or unique attributes. That will make them somewhere in between rare and normal trading camps. We will also get in new characters and weapons.
I also want to do a bunch of new weapons to go with the trading camps, and some new characters. I'd like to start making the updates more focused on one area of content, especially after FEMUR. This will free us up to working more on prototypes and big features. I will probably start doing online polls for what people want to see next for content. More news on this later!
Changes this Update
Golden Skulls
- ZP skulls added! Touch them to get them to stop laughing at you for a moment and also give you a Zombo Point.
- ZP skulls can randomly be added to loot generated in most building types.
Rare Events and Encounters
- Road Event: Cursed Treasure. Permanently screw up a character in exchange for getting a pirate cutlass or other melee weapons. Or just accept a Goblin Gift Basket or the Dingusnomicon.
- Road Event: Chainsaw Hand Replacement. Also includes complimentary Double Barrel Shotgun!
- New rank of Rare Finder added. This will let you get up to 4 rare events per game and very slightly increases their chance (currently to 4/55 or so)
- City Encounter: Sewer Rodent
- City Encounter: Department of Motor Vehicles
- DMV Event: Completely Legally Binding Name Change
New Characters
- Rare Camp Recruit: Earnestine. Wielder of the Farmer's Shotgun.
- Rare Encounter Recruit: Tortuga. Some kind of green rodent?
New Weapons
- Sai: Like the ninja's kunai, except normal characters can actually use it.
- Chainsaw Hand: The tiniest chainsaw. Very efficient, slightly less damage output, stuck to your arm forever.
- Double Barrel Shotgun: Zombie obliteration for players with a big pile of shotgun shells saved up. Double the piercing of most shotguns!
- Farmer's Shotgun: Unique double barrel shotgun with +33% damage and faster reload times.
Tweaks and Fixes
- H*td*g Car and H*td*g Heaven now censored.
- H*td*g alternatives added.
- DON'T ASK, though I may write an explanation article for the above later.
- Text skip for mobile on touch
- Mobile adjustments for some narrow screen sizes
- Grim Reaper no longer drops his Scythe
- Removed the break chances when using the shotguns as melee weapons
- Big Dawg: Trader cost set to 35, down from 40
- Big Dawg: Piercing increased to 15%, up from 10%
- Typo fix: "the less busy side road"
Thanks for Reading
Another update on the way! More news coming.
For constant news, follow me on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/rocketcatgames/
To see upcoming games, check out my weekly Facebook posts:
http://www.facebook.com/rocketcatgames/
11/27 Testing Branch (Windows/Linux/Mac)
This is it for all the big changes in the coming update. Let me know if there's any problems in the comments.
I was going to try to get one special trading camp in, but I'm going to wait on that and just do a big batch of them in the next update. I may try to sneak in a bunch of regular trading camps tomorrow, as they're easy to test. If I do this, I'm going to edit this announcement instead of making a new one, just so all the comments are in one place.
EDIT: NEVERMIND, some HDD corruption issues popped up last night. The above trading camp stuff is going to have to be moved to FEMUR.
INSTRUCTIONS
IMPORTANT NOTE: The testing branch and the retail version use different save files! Testing Branch saves also get cleared out on occasion.
HOW TO INSTALL: Right click Death Road to Canada on Steam. Go to Properties. Go to Betas. Select Testbranch, no password necessary.
CHANGES
- New Rare Camp Recruit: Earnestine
- New Weapon: Farmer's Shotgun, for the above character. 33% more damage per pellet than a normal double barrel, and fires 33% faster!
- New sprite added for Chainsaw Hand
- Chainsaw hand now does 0.8 damage per tick instead of 1 damage. This is mostly for flavor, as it's 20% smaller than a normal chainsaw.
- Double Barrel Shotgun now has 20% piercing instead of 10%
- Big Dawg: Trader cost set to 35, down from 40
- Big Dawg: Piercing increased to 15%, up from 10%
