While we finalize our preparations to release Duke of Defense on the Nintendo Switch we wanted to give love back to you wonderful people! We listened to your feedback and implemented a few quality of life changes as well as new content. There are new heads you can acquire and 6 new levels!
And in case you missed it we released the entire soundtrack as DLC here on Steam!
Check out the change log below!
Greg now has his own music
Removed a few unused game files
Player can no longer move during scene 5b
The Old Duke has something to tell you once you complete the story
New characters and levels! The new characters will appear throughout various hubs once the game is completed
Made intro images (publisher/game engine sprites) a lot less ugly
Made platform titles more visible
Fixed potential issue where if enemies are all defeated before more can spawn, a wave can be completed instantly
The grass shadows are no longer backwards (Thanks again to Yellow After Life for pointing it out)
The level won't start until you build the first tower (except for boss battles)
The wave bar UI now indicates how may waves there are, and how far along in the level they are
Player damage statistics would increment by 1 each level
Let us know what you would like to see in future updates!
Yours truly,
Topher and Sebastian
The Soundtrack Is Now Available!
Perhaps you are a fan of Duke of Defense and found yourself humming along to these knee slapping, head bobbing, finger snapping tunes. Well now you can get the entire soundtrack for $4.99! But wait!!! It's on sale for only $2.99 if you get it now!
Not only do you get the entire soundtrack but you get it in two formats, OGG and WAV. You also receive a warm fuzzy feeling inside because you're supporting two passionate game developers. It's a feeling that I can only really compare to cuddling with a raccoon or riding a motorized deer.
We decided why not add a bunch more the day after release! So we've implemented controller vibration, leaderboards, and a few other nice quality of life changes! Check out the changes below!
When the last wave in the level is reached, it will now show "Final Wave" instead of the current wave number
Gerald is now properly named Greg
"Show Interest" option is enabled by default
Implemented gamepad vibration
Implemented leaderboards
Fixed the "Duke In Training" achievement not being triggered correctly
Fixed grammatical issue in an NPCs dialogue
Let us know what you would like to see in future updates!
Yours truly,
Topher and Sebastian
Minor Improvements (Update 1.0.0.2)
Since the release yesterday we've heard a bit of feedback and put some time into cleaning up the game experience. Here's the short list of changes we made since then!
The application will remember your previous video and audio settings, these will be applied as soon as you open the application rather than when you reach the title screen.
Defeating the Fire Wizard on the level 2-4 will not trigger the post-battle cutscene more than once
Slasher is now spelled correctly in the skill tree (Thanks to YellowAfterLife pointing this out)
The achievement House of Heads was not originally implemented into the game. This has since been fixed.
The achievement Duke of Hearts could only be completed when finishing a level. It can now be acquired when looking at the Story Mode menu, completing a level, or when you acquire the tesla tower.
Let us know what you would like to see in future updates!
Yours truly,
Topher and Sebastian
The Full Release Is Here!
Thank you to everyone who has supported us through the development of Duke of Defense. It has been a long road and we've had a lot of great experiences along the way. At last the game is done and ready for you to enjoy!
Now to the most important question... Will there be post-release updates? We would like to and will be working on new content as soon as we finish sorting out console related releases.
Yours truly,
Topher & Sebastian
Early Access Full Release (Build 0.9.0.0)
The full release of the core content for Duke of Defense is here at last! There's currently a lot of time and effort being put into the Switch/Xbox One ports of the game.
We're looking to hear back about bugs and any other issues you hopefully don't experience with this version of the game so that we can get a nice stable build out for the console gamer audience.
New stuff!
New controller artwork
The desert hub is now available
Every level including boss levels show their completion via the platform sprites
Two new achievements
Thanks everyone!
Yours truly,
Seabass & Topher
Quality of Life! (Build 0.8.0.0)
Just a few more last minute (before the final build of the game) changes!
Some nice changes!
Framerate debug info now includes the percentage of frame time used
There is now a statistics menu that has stats from all over the place
Fixed gold required to build towers sometimes is rounded incorrectly, can show 250 but not have 250 to build a tower
Game Over defeat message and behavior should vary for bosses
Fixed game pausing, no longer causes crashes and it looks better
Non-required towers are now disabled during boss fights
Fixed the player moving slow with controller input
Thanks everyone!
Yours truly,
Seabass & Topher
The Perk Rework! (Build 0.7.5.0)
This update addresses a couple of known crashes and adds quite a bit of new flare to the game. You'll find that we've changed a few of the player skills and have found a way to pack in just a little more zesty polish.
Some important and some fun changes!
Grass and flowers can be cut with your sword now
Added light flash matching bar color when leveling up towers
Made changes to how diagonal inputs are handled, now axes and dpads have identical behavior
Butterflies have a cute little glow now
Changed Transmute skill to Long Sword skill, allows you to hit air enemies
Changed Blade of Greed skill, "Enemies damaged by the sword drop more gold"
Magnet perk has boosted pickup range (25% more range)
Tree recycling perk changed, default behavior is for sold towers to return trees
Recycler perk replaced by 2x Zoom
Morale Boost perk gives 33% longer speed bonus
Replaced Preservation perk with Interest perk, +1 gold every 10 seconds
Added gameplay option to disable the display of the "Interest" perk
Changing the game fps in the accessibility settings requires the game to restart now
Game logic is now based on the current target FPS instead of always being based on the default framerate
New visual effects for a few skills
Fixed enemy healthbars flashing in in the corner when they spawn
Fixed crash related to lights on platforms after the fire wizard boss battle
Fixed intro fade transition
Thanks everyone!
Yours truly,
Seabass & Topher
The Soft Lights (Build 0.7.0.0)
So this is more of an uh-oh-we-screwed-up bug fix but it looks like you're lucky enough to get an early glimpse at our new soft lights!
Lots of changes!
Implemented new soft light shader
Added fancy soft lights everywhere we could find an excuse to
Fixed crash that would occur when the tutorial start
Thanks everyone!
Yours truly,
Seabass & Topher
Ice Wizard Boss (Build 0.6.0.0)
We spent a LONG time on this update but we think it was worth it. We fixed every bug we could find and added a lot more content. We're way ahead on the story as well so you can expect the next update fairly soon.
This time around we focused a lot on polish and game feel. This version of the game feels drastically different from any of the previous builds which we are very excited about.
Lots of changes!
Implemented Discord Dissonance
New error message with directions for reporting issues
The soundtrack is now compressed and decoded on the fly (Game size was 516 MB, it's now 75 MB)
Implemented lightrays in the forest area
Implemented new bouncy grass
Implemented footprints in the snow/sand
Heart on UI gets darker as you lose more hearts
New healthbar chisel effect when enemies take damage
Towers have a new particle effect while being created
Optimized healthbar drawing for enemies
Coins and gems no longer decay during cutscenes
There's a talking rock
Hail now has a motion trail and improved artwork
Improved axis input for navigating menus
Added pre ice wizard mini boss cutscene
Reiterated design for skill point unlocks
Removed option to disable the background (pretty useless setting)
Fixed player 2 being invisible after scene 5b
Fixed skills not updating after being unlocked
Forest hub 2 wouldn't unlock after talking to the Old Duke
Addressed possible crash when unlocking new heads
Old Duke's text prompt would show during scene 2_4
Fixed pausing being disabled after pre fire wizard boss cutscene with the Old Duke
Item unlock prompt would appear during scene 4a while the fire wizard teleported away
Post fire boss cutscene had no music
Camera no longer moves up above Phil during his first cutscene
If pre boss music was playing, kingdom peace music would stop working in other hubs
The game would crash after beating the fire wizard boss
Player could pause during scenes 3a and 4a
Player could pause during dialogue with Phil
If scene 5c was played and then the ice wizard mini boss defeat cutscene played after, it would be bugged
If the game was closed during various scenes, the game would continue and the scene would never be viewable, instead the game will immediately put you into the cutscene if it wasn't finished before
Game would freeze when ran for the first time
Controller deadzone increased from 25% to 65%
Fixed fire wizard boss weather not working
The fire tower now does 35% less damage and each strength upgrade gives 25% less damage than before per level
Any feedback regarding the stability/balance of this build would be fantastic!