It's Only Money is packing its bags and moving out of the Early Access slums - straight into the full-price penthouse!
Starting September 11th, the price is getting a major upgrade (think luxury tax bracket). So, if you want to save some cash before our mayor hikes the rent, now’s your last chance!
Grab the Early Access deal while you can, or be prepared to pay up like everyone else in this fine, totally not corrupt city of ours!
Also, we have updated our release date to 21st October to allow for some final polish!
Thanks to everyone who has supported our journey so far - we hope to see you in Rockhaven soon!
It’s Only Money ‘Minimum Wage’ DEMO – Taste the Streets and Share the Flavour!
In celebration of taking our game to Gamescom, we released a new public demo and we'd love for you to check it out!
If you don't already know the score, it's a bite-sized single-player piece of our larger open-world multiplayer experience. After completing the tutorial - where you will get to do lots of weird and wonderful stuff - you'll have 15 mins to do what the hell you want! You’ll be offered up random odd jobs that aim to funnel you into experiencing one of the many things Rockhaven has to offer. For each job, you’ll be rewarded with cash that you can spend on clothes, weapons, car mods and more, but most importantly, you’ll be graded at the end of the 15 minutes based on how much money you make.
Based on your grade, you’ll unlock some sweet stuff in the full version of It’s Only Money if you decide to check it out!
We encourage you to play through the demo as many times as you like, engage with a bunch of random jobs to experience the various systems and features within the game, or just ignore them in general and go for a cruise. We’ve crafted a huge, unpredictable game and we hope you find something that gives you a few laughs.
Lastly, we appreciate ALL the feedback we get and we'd love to know what you think of the demo!
Good luck on the streets of Rockhaven - enjoy your life!
It’s Only Money Drops October 14th + Demo Out Now!
Hey Everyone,
The time has come! It’s Only Money is finally ditching Early Access and hitting full release on Steam this October 14th! We've also got a fresh new demo, It’s Only Money: Minimum Wage Edition, ready for you to dive into right now. Like...NOW!
The demo is packed with 45-60 minutes of gameplay, including a quick tutorial to get you prepped as Rockhaven’s top menace, which includes 15 minutes of free play. Earn some cash, take on odd jobs, or just drive through the city causing havoc - your earnings unlock sweet (and trashy) rewards in the full game, so make those minutes count!
Chapter 3 Content Overhaul - Now Available
If you're new to Rockhaven or not visited us in a while, let us recap. We started with Chapter Zero, introducing a ton of content and fine-tuning based on your feedback. In Chapter One, we dropped more missions, brought in the Maude Boss fight, and let you roll with your Homies around the city. Chapter Two introduced new Side Hustles, revamped vehicle systems, and Fast Travel.
Now, with Chapter Three (which launched a few weeks back), we’ve brought you the MOVR HQ mission. This is our biggest mission yet, featuring Memphis, an ex-wrestler who’s turned the MOVR base into a full-on wrestling spectacle. Expect drone scouting, sneaking, platforming, and yes, some serious wrestling action. Make sure your Homies are levelled up and ready to tackle our most challenging boss fight yet.
New Enemies
Get ready to face two new enemy types: MOVR LOSRs - the underdogs who’ll throw tantrums and fireworks, and MOVR BRUISRs - the muscle with a Ground Slam and Running Charge that’ll keep you alert.
Introducing Metro Dungeon
We’re also rolling out our third Side Hustle - Metro Dungeon. This roguelite experience puts all your combat skills to the test. Battle through Rockhaven’s Underground Metro System, collect Goorana Crystals, and choose from powerful Relics and Stat Upgrades to craft your perfect build. It’s a roguelite, so you start with nothing and leave with nothing - except the satisfaction of smashing through waves of enemies.
What’s Next?
We’re committed to squashing bugs and fine-tuning the new content based on your feedback. Plus, we’re heading to Gamescom next week to show off It’s Only Money. If you’re there, come check it out on the Indie Area Booth. We'd love to say hey!
Mark your calendars for October 14th and gear up to take back Rockhaven, one block at a time. We’ve got more coming, so stay tuned and keep that feedback coming. The feedback, support and general love shown for our game means a lot!
Hotfix #13 Now Available!
Hey everyone,
Hope you're enjoying the launch of Chapter Three. As promised we spent a couple of days to fix the most pressing issues, and improve other facets of the game.
- Players now have the ability to cancel Side Hustles and Minigames (Gorb Rush, Prop Hunt, Abduction) by pressing ESC and selecting "Cancel activity"
- Fixed a bug where owning the Metro Dungeon Side Hustle wasn't saving for some players
- Adjusted hints relating to Takeover 2. Players should now unlock these at the appropriate time
- Fixes to graffiti, landscapes and other visual elements in the Metro Dungeon
- The game now forces a save in most situations where players have spent money or engaged in quest steps.
- Some adjustments to the civilian spawning in La Gordo Valley. Hopefully you should see less people spawning and walking around an active runway, for example.
- Changed the unlock path for Takeover 2. It no longer requires the player to own the Drone Racing Side Hustle. The appropriate path is now completing Eternal Pastures, Beggar King's "New Whip" mission.
- And a bunch more smaller fixes to various facts of the game
As always, keep the reports coming and have a lovely weekend.
Chapter Three Launch Celebration: 20% Off and Dev Stream!
Hey everyone!
We are beyond excited (and honestly a bit relieved) to announce that Chapter Three of It’s Only Money is finally out the door! To celebrate, we’re offering a special 20% discount for the next two weeks. It's our little way of saying thanks for sticking with us!
We’ve also got a dev stream up on our Steam store page. Now, we’re not live because, well, we needed to collapse into pile of exhaustion. Just for one evening. But you can still watch us play and run through all the cool new features from the recording we did yesterday.
Jump in, enjoy the new content, and take advantage of the discount. Thank you all for your support!
Cheers, Usual Suspects and Firestoke
Chapter Three Arrives!
Hey everyone,
We're back with another huge Chapter milestone: Our recent updates and overhauls to our Combat system, Controller Support and Experience surrounding those have lead us to a really exciting spot where we can expand upon them with another huge Takeover mission and a Roguelite style Side Hustle!
Before we start, let's do a quick recap of where we've been, as well as where we are.
In Chapter Zero, we debuted the game with a huge offering of content, and spent weeks (and months) ironing out systems and overhauling them based on community feedback. From there, we were able to prioritise content based on the loudest feedback, which in turn lead to Chapter One
Chapter One came with more missions, the first strike at the Mayors inner circle via the Maude Boss fight, and systems to allow players to upgrade how much cash and items they can hold. We added new repeatable activities, as well as the ability to take your Homies with you throughout the city.
One of the more clear pieces of feedback was a frustration with the wait between these massive drops of content, and we agreed. Why sit on a tangible upgrade to a system while we're finishing the rest, if we can just put them out as we're happy. So we took that tact with Chapter Two.
Throughout Chapter Two's development we focused on improving the vehicle systems and how you engage with them, as well as dropping in content to other pre-existing mechanics. Along the way we added new systems such as Fast Travel, the Two Wheeled Vehicles and the new First Player Experience. Rounding it off with the new concept of Side Hustles, we introduced ShipPost the Courier Side Hustle, added the Mod Shop to garages so you could customise your vehicles, overhauled the Vehicle Damage system and Stealing methods, along with a ton of extra content.
So now, Chapter Three: On our lead up to Chapter Three we brought you the New Island: LaGordo Valley, a beautiful new spot in the north which featured more landscape and a different feeling compared to the big city life of Rockhaven. We overhauled the combat system introducing the ability to Block and Dash, allowing you to retaliate blocked damage and reset cooldowns on successfully dodged attacks, along with castbars to show you what the enemy is thinking. The second Side Hustle: WTF3K, a Drone Racing league, made its debut. Full Controller Support was added along with some big reworks on the UI screens that needed it the most. And of course a ton more improvements, missions and other content were added.
But enough of the old news, what's new today? Let's take a look:
Takeover 2: MOVR HQ
The long awaited follow up to the large Takeover Mission from Chapter One is here, Takeover 2: MOVR HQ. Meet Memphis, an ex-wrestler handpicked by the Mayor to lead the MOVR force. Memphis continues to live in kayfabe and has no idea his real responsibilities or goals, so he's converted the MOVR base into a giant wrestling promotion: one you'll get to take part in!
MOVR HQ is our largest mission yet, and one we're very proud of. You'll scope the place out using a drone, take part in some platforming, sneak through the base, and yes: take part in a wrestling show where between rounds you'll select abilities to make yourself overpowered.
As with the first Takeover, make sure you have at least 3 levelled up Homies (or co-op friends) willing to come for the ride, as you'll certainly need them to take on the combat challenges and Memphis himself in our most difficult boss fight yet.
Along with Memphis, you'll also be seeing a lot of two brand new enemy types:
MOVR LOSR
Meet the losers of the MOVR HQ, the MOVR LOSRs. These dorks are meek little punching bags not just for the MOVR team itself but for you as well! We're told it gets better once you leave school, maybe that's true for some but not for these guys. You'll get a sense of pent up rage when they start throwing their items at you or when they wanna get real nasty it's fireworks time, literally.
Their fireworks will light up the floor around you and your only option is to get out of the way. When they're not throwing a tantrum they can also benefit their colleagues by deploying a healing robot. So make sure you get to the LOSRs quick, they won't put up much of a fight. Also, be sure to use your dodge to close ground on them, as LOSR's love to run away when you get close.
MOVR BRUISR
On the opposite side of the spectrum are the big boys, the MOVR BRUISRs. This is what happens when you inject Goorana into your veins. An experiment gone right? Depends who you ask. Much bigger and scarier than the LOSRs or even the standard issue MOVRs, the BRUISRs have more health and a harder hit to boot. Don't make them mad or you're gonna witness them burst into a rage with a Ground Slam.
Marking the ground around you, you'll see where the BRUISR is going to smash down upon you. You'll want to dash out of the way to make it to safety.
A Running Charge is the other trick up their sleeve. Standing in the way will make sure you are the first to get ragdolled and set alight by the fire left on their trail. Sounds tough but with a bit of luck we're sure you'll manage.
With new Enemy Types being added, along with the last update's Combat Overhaul - it would make sense to create a new Side Hustle around this right?
Side Hustle: Metro Dungeon
Introducing our third Side Hustle: Metro Dungeon, a roguelite experience fit to show off all things combat in It's Only Money. We're fans of the genre and with all the systems we've already developed for and surrounding the combat - it's simply just a thing that made a lot of sense to highlight everything that's available. Let's dig in:
Getting into Rockhaven's Underground Metro System is no easy feat, and neither is leaving it (unscathed at least). With the help of Nana and a funny little portal you can get sent to the Metro Dungeon whenever you please.
The task is simple, defeat the Waves of enemies in the Dungeon and bring back as many Goorana Crystals as you can for an increased reward.
However, it is important to note that visiting through the portal doesn't come without its quirks.
Milestones and Relics
The first thing you are going to notice are the Milestone Relics. These are a strange fusion of a Trigger and an Effect that could potentially help you.
You'll have the choice of three Relics every second Milestone and a chance to reroll the selection pool if they don't suit your fighting style. The other two Milestones will grant you a choice of Milestone Moves.
Every Milestone the items hanging around the Dungeon will change around, keep that in mind.
Stat Upgrades
After completing a wave you will get a choice of three Stat Upgrades. These will come in a variety of potency, so choose wisely.
Stat Upgrades can help in a number of ways: fight enemies quicker by becoming stronger, navigate the dungeon faster with increased movement stats or just make it easier on yourself by choosing stats that let you take more damage and afford more mistakes.
The choice is yours but think about how they might interact with your chosen Relics and Moves.
Goorana Crystals
The whole reason anyone is even down there is to gather Goorana Crystals. This is the only place to gather this valuable resource and the Mayor has a monopoly on it.
The best way to get Goorana Crystals is to find the big crystals around the Dungeon and bash the heck out of them. However, enemies will tend to drop some when knocked out, and you can also recycle any Junk items at the Junk2Crystal Recycler if you can find it.
You can spend the Goorana Crystals in the Dungeon when Rerolling any selection pools for Relics, Moves or Upgrades between Waves. You can also use them to Respawn and escape out of the jail room incase things don't go your way, but the cost is hefty.
If you save them up and avoid using too many, then bringing them back after completing the dungeon run Nana will convert the Crystals into regular cash to use in Rockhaven.
Stuck Homies
You will also occasionally find Stuck Homies in the Dungeon. Get them before the current Milestone is over or they won't come back.
Standing in the area of the Stuck Homie for long enough will help bring them in to start fighting with you. Homies in houses will come through first, so make sure your strongest ones are housed!
If you don't have any homies then random undercivilians will spawn in to help you.
Coming Home
We haven't mentioned this yet, but you're not taking anything with you, to or from, this is a roguelite of course.
You will start with no Moves, no Buffs, no Items and you won't be bringing anything you grab back with you, Nana just wants the Goorana Crystals!
We can't wait to see what builds you create down in the Metro Dungeon, the highest damage amount from a single punch we've seen so far was just over 800... do you think can you beat that? Tell us how you get on in our Discord or in the Steam forums.
We've also gone through and fixed more bugs that were found along the way, and made tweaks that have had some good knock on effects.
If you're new, or you've been out of the loop for awhile feel free to check out some of the other updates we've done along the way to Chapter Three, including:
As always, we're going to spend the next bit of time cleaning up any unforeseen bugs and touching up anything that's quick from your feedback. Considering the breadth of new content that's been added, we'll also be curious to see any performance impacts across the community. As always, share these reports with us and we'll hone in on the culprits. Once we're in the clear, a couple of us will be strapped to a plane and heading to another hemisphere.
Gamescom
We had such a good time at PAX Australia in 2022, not only did we get to try Five Guys for the first time, we went back and ate there three more times! We also got to meet a ton of great people and show off the early development of the game. Now we're heading off to Germany in August for Gamescom and It's Only Money will be playable on the show floor. The amount of progress the game has made since PAX is something we're very proud of and we can't wait for more people to get their hands on it. We'll talk more about this closer to the date.
Of course more content is on the way, it never stops, we've got some great ideas we're really excited to get started on.
As always, thank you all for being on the ride of It's Only Money! In a lot of ways, we're just getting started, so buckle in for even more.
Content Update: Combat Overhaul, New Island, Full Controller Support AND MORE!
Hey, everyone!
It's time for another Chapter 3 update, and it's a heavy one! Let's get into the details.
NOTE: As we go forward, please check your controller/KBM bindings as new mechanics and button placements have been set as standard with the new combat pass. We've added Block to the button that would usually be "use item", and changed and added other features.
Combat Overhaul
From the early beginnings of It's Only Money, combat is something we've tinkered in the pursuit of a simple system that rewards players who spend the time to master a few basic concepts. Throughout Early Access, combat usually devolved into spamming one of two combat moves and hammering a ragdolled opponent with no thought behind it.
We don't want to lose the simplicity of our combat, but at the same time, having a fight with multiple enemies was usually an exercise in spamming and praying you didn't get hit. Today we're pleased to take a step forward in giving players the tools to mitigate damage, and have more of an idea what our AI are planning to do.
Blocking & Crushing
Blocking makes its debut in It's Only Money. It's a standard mechanic accessible at all times, meaning it's not a combat move. While holding block, you sacrifice stamina in the place of health, meaning, whatever damage you would have taken to health will eat out of your stamina bar instead. This is also true for AI opponents.
While you block damage, you'll also build up a "Retaliation" score. This represents the amount of damage you've taken. Your next punch, or combat move will add this damage as a bonus, encouraging quick counter attacks.
Getting damaged while at 0 stamina will force either the player or AI opponent to be "Crushed". While crushed, you can't sprint, jump or block for 5 seconds and you'll take increased damage. We find it's now incredibly fun to beat up on a MOVR, crush them, and send them flying with a well placed kick.
Dash
What's more, while blocking you can hold a movement direction and hit the jump button to Dash. This will give you some amount of invincibility frames to completely dodge an incoming attack. A perfect dodge will refill your stamina and reset the cooldown timer on your moves, so players who put in the effort to master this technique will be throwing out a TON of damage.
Reworked and Remade Animations
Punching will now drag your character toward your target, helping you hit your opponents more effectively. Additionally, the attacks have been reworked to make them feel more impactful, and the AI reactions and visual effects have had a huge amount of focus to make the fights super exciting.
Castbars
There's a lot of complexity to our AI opponents that we haven't done a great job of showcasing. With Castbars, you'll now see the thoughts and plans of your opponent as they fight.
A Blue Attack is something you can block. A Red Attack is something you need to dodge (Blocking these will crush you) A Grey Decision is the NPC deciding to use an item, deploy a machine, or loot something off the ground.
We find the castbars really interesting, and a player with a keen eye can now control a fight with a mob that would previously be very overwhelming.
We encourage feedback either here on Steam or on our Discord as it pertains to the new combat system, but we're very proud of where it's at. We think it's a more exciting, intelligent way to handle combat, however, less dexterous or younger players can still bop their way through a fight.
Full Controller Support
Great news! We finally spent the time to ensure full controller support over a range of devices. Hopefully no more pesky virtual cursors or unexpected behaviours when trying to play exclusively with a gamepad. Please try it out and let us know if we've missed anything, but we're really pleased with the result.
Overhauled Customisation Screens
Buying clothes, getting a haircut, opting into some plastic surgery and browsing your Wardrobe should now look a lot better and run a whole darn lot smoother as of this update. All customisation screens have had a rework, and we're hoping the information of what you own, or what you're going to buy is a lot more understandable and enjoyable to use. Let us know what you think!
Mini Bosses
Throughout Rockhaven you'll notice an unusual purple beam coming from the sky. In time, we'll learn more of what's causing this, but one thing's for certain: Anyone zapped with the beam suddenly grows in size and develops crazy mutations, like fire walking, or the ability to summon allies.
Mini Bosses are prowling the streets of Rockhaven, with a bunch of unusual abilities. If you want, feel free to test your might against them. If you leave victorious, you and your friends will be rewarded with a chest!
There's more to come down the road with the Mini Boss system, but we wanted to have them hit the streets ASAP and gather feedback from the community.
New Island: "La Gordo" "BETA"
Surprise! A whole new landmass just popped up out of nowhere. Welcome to LaGordo Valley, located north of Rockhaven, it's the polar opposite of the city. It's vast, full of nature, and it has a giant airfield located smack dab in the middle.
LaGordo isn't quite as dense or as polished as the city we've been working on for the past couple years, but we wanted to put this new landmass in players hands as soon as we could to gather feedback, and help us prepare to drop a whole bunch of content we're working on that take place in LaGordo.
That's not to say there's nothing in LaGordo yet, and curious players will find a bevy of properties to buy, garages to own, landmarks to discover, and of course, a new mission to introduce some of the weirder locals that live in the Valley. Expect LaGordo to keep getting updates to improve the set dressing, playability, lighting, spawning logic and content offerings going forward - this new island is definitely a work in progress!
New Mission: Open your Mind
Atop Mount Procrastination sits an interesting group dedicated to the art of doing nothing all day. Ingratiate yourself with this odd bunch and you might just learn a unique skill that'll truly pass the time away.
Improved Post Processing and Fog Before After
We've also touched up the post processing and fog around Rockhaven and LaGordo to help the city look its best, and with the new fog system there should be an appreciable performance benefit to lower end machines.
And as usual, a bunch of bug fixing and performance improvements!
Our continued thanks to those who thoroughly report their issues and help us identify the source of nasty bugs and unintended performance drops. We hope you'll continue helping us target these, and we hope you look forward to the next update very soon, which we're sure will be equally as dense as this one.
Much love, be safe!
Firestoke Publisher Sale - LIVE NOW!
Join us in celebrating Firestoke's very first Publisher Sale on Steam with some scorching (sorry, we couldn't resist) discounts of up to 67%! This event features our entire catalogue including newly released gems like Hauntii. Whether you're into beautiful adventures, strategic tower defense, or fast-paced platforming, we've got you covered.
In addition to the games themselves, we're offering discounts on DLCs and Soundtracks, so you can enhance your gaming experience even further! Joy Spark - Initiated!
Featured Games on Sale:
Hauntii A beguiling adventure where you uncover the secrets of an expansive and mysterious world, haunting both the environment and its denizens to craft ingenious solutions to the many challenges that await.
It's Only Money The mayor of Rockhaven threw you down a hole into the Undercity. Why? Net worth too low. In this 1-4 player low-life simulation, emerge to the surface to steal from the rich, fight tycoons and reclaim the city block by block. Buy houses, businesses and whatever your materialistic heart desires!
Bish Bash Bots Immerse yourself in a unique mix of casual tower defense strategy and all-out brawling action. Team up in couch co-op / online play or go it alone and fight to save the world by building upgradable turrets, unlocking gadgets, and bashing bots with giant hammers.
Falling Out Experience a light-hearted roguelite platformer where you take control of an oddball couple on a holiday from hell. Work together as you navigate randomly generated temples, dodging traps, slaying enemies, and crafting weapons in an attempt to escape before the temple floods.
Planet Cube: Edge Get ready for high-speed adventuring set in a hand-crafted pixel art world, filled with precision platforming and thrills. Planet Cube is being invaded, and it's up to you to run, gun, jump, and dash your way through an underwater science complex, collecting firepower to turn the tables on a mysterious aggressor.
Content Update: Drone Racing & Map Overhaul
Howdy everyone,
We're back with another update! We're really pleased with the new Side Hustle system which debuted in the Chapter 2 major update. We intend to overhaul some older content to fit this new system, but additionally, it's a great new way for us to create businesses to buy and play mini-games in for some repeatable cash.
Today we're adding another one:
Side Hustle: Drone Racing
After you've completed Beggar King's mission "New Whip", you'll have a mission sitting there from S1ONE, the proprietor of "WTF3K", or Way Too Fast 3000, Rockhaven's premier Drone Racing league. Settled atop the Palms Mall in the middle of the city, contestants launch their drones and battle for the fastest time among several racing tracks (with more to come!)
Buy your membership and you'll get to compete either alone against times set by fellow pilots, or if you bring friends you can have a head-to-head hotlap experience to see who can shave off precious seconds. Of course, like all Side Hustles, the more you play, the more rewards you'll earn including vehicle wraps, clothing, AsbestOS placeables, and more cash every time you play.
Some examples of the new unlockables from WTF3K, including a totally not creepy headset and polygonal hoodie and new car wrap...
New Mission: Towing Time
Once you purchase your membership, another mission awaits! Fellow racer BENJ1 needs energy drinks, and he's too lazy to walk outside. Using a jerry rigged drone, steal Goorana machines from the streets and bring them to the rooftop to satisfy his cravings.
Map Overhaul and in-game Compass
Destinations has had a huge overhaul to help players navigate the city much easier. Some key highlights include:
- The ability to set custom waypoint markers from the Destinations application - Category filters to help find specific types of shops or locations - City Districts are now viewable - A new birdseye angle when viewing the map from afar, pulling into isometric as you zoom in on a location - Improved navigation for both Keyboard+Mouse and Controller - A slew of new icons and usability reworks to help make information more readable.
Additionally, there's a new compass present in-game to help track down friends, custom waypoints, mission markers or even hint at undiscovered locations nearby.
Oh, and we added double jump
Some walls and ledges are just annoying, we get it. Now everyone has access to a double jump to help navigate around the streets and alleys, and inevitably let you access places we never intended - but hey, that's fun.
As we move forward, Doctor Powick will offer some upgrades to make your jump even crazier..
All this and some bug fixes, performance improvements and smaller quality of life changes are going out now!
Of course, we're still working on more updates on our road to Chapter Three, and we think some of the upcoming content will be some of the most exciting yet. Spoiler alert: The reworked map is sure going to be useful soon...
-. . .-- / .. ... .-.. .- -. -..
Have a great week, and thanks for continuing to support It's Only Money!
Chapter Two Begins!
Hey everyone,
The day's finally here: We've finally put a bow on the vehicle focused set of updates, culminating in the cleverly named "Chapter Two". Unlike previous updates, our road to Chapter Two had instead been focused on delivering larger, more meaningful updates and content instead of saving it for one massive patch, so a lot of veteran players will be familiar with the changes, however, that doesn't mean there's not some substantial changes at hand specifically in this update.
Before we kick in, let's take a quick recap at where we've been, as well as where we are.
In Chapter Zero, we debuted the game with a huge offering of content, and spent weeks (and months) ironing out systems and overhauling them based on community feedback. From there, we were able to prioritise content based on the loudest feedback, which in turn lead to Chapter One
Chapter One came with more missions, the first strike at the Mayors inner circle via the Maude Boss fight, and systems to allow players to upgrade how much cash and items they can hold. We added new repeatable activities, as well as the ability to take your homies with you throughout the city.
One of the more clear pieces of feedback was a frustration with the wait between these massive drops of content, and we agreed. Why sit on a tangible upgrade to a system while we're finishing the rest, if we can just put them out as we're happy. So we took that tact with Chapter Two.
Throughout Chapter Two's development we've focused on improving the vehicle systems and how you engage with them, as well as dropping in content to other pre-existing mechanics. Players keeping up with IOM will have already engaged with new systems such as Fast Travel, the Two Wheeled Vehicles and even the new First Player Experience, but todays update is an exciting one we've been waiting to share. Let's tuck into the details:
Side Hustle: Courier
Our first Side Hustle: Courier is available today. Open GetAJob and find Jason (Must have completed Beggar King's sixth mission to see this). He'll introduce you to "Ship Post", a renegade postal service that steals packages from the Mayors overpriced delivery fleet, and delivers the packages to the people at a more reasonable clip. This of course, aligns with the Undercity's goals, and Jason is more than happy to have you invest in the company.
Once invested, you can do shifts for the company! You'll spawn somewhere in world on a brand new vehicle, the "Feijoa Scooter". Once your shift begins, you'll need to drive and hop around gathering up packages, and bringing them back to the Ship Post van. All the while you'll need to avoid MOVX vans trying to run you down and topple your stack of packages. The more packages you deliver, the more money you'll have after your shift is done.
Do some sweet 360s if you like
We've internally found this a great way to quickly add some cash to your reserves, and further, the more you engage with the activity, the more REP you'll build (similar to the Slimeway). As you climb rep levels you'll earn rewards such as increased base pay, clothing, vehicle skins and once you hit the esteemed level 10, Ship Post will have a vault that fills up with cash once every day. Either talk to Jason to start a shift whenever you feel like it, or quickly access it from GetAJob!
And of course, this is all playable in co-op online!
The Side Hustle system is one we're particularly excited about, as we can come up with more minigames and give players a rewarding path to grind out. It'll also help us contextualise and improve rewards for previous minigames we've come up with along the way. Let us know what you think, and as always, give us feedback here on Steam or in the Discord channel.
Vehicle Customization
Finally, the ability to make the most messed up ride in all of Rockhaven exists! If you own a garage and a vehicle (or perhaps even a fleet), make a bee-line back to one of your garages. Assign a vehicle to a podium, and interact with the new mod bench next to your park. From here, you'll be able to see a huge list of parts you can apply to the ride of your choice.
Keen eyes might notice that a lot (perhaps even all) parts are greyed out. Undercitizen, it's on you to take back to the streets and start crushing cars! As you run past cars you'll now notice a wee UI Popup illustrating what upgrades said car has applied. If you spot something you like, jack the car and take it to your nearest wheelies crusher. When you crush it, you have a chance to unlock one of the parts. The more damage the car has, the lower the chance of receiving a part, so make sure you look after the whip on the way to Wheelies.
Customisation parts include:
- Headlight Color - Neons - Paintjobs - Different Radio Head Units (Including a scary bass boosted one that might ruin your hearing) - Utilities (Such as seatbelts to stop you flying, or NOS and Hydraulics for jumps) - Hood and rear ornaments - Engine Upgrades - Turbos - Tire compounds - Horn sounds
This is the part where we have a mathematically derived marketing point that says there's over 8 billion possible combinations between parts and vehicles, but in essence, it's just a cool system, and one we think you'll enjoy playing with. Like every other part of the game, expect there to be tons of parts and paints added over the course of updates going forward. Show us what kind of weird and cool cars you come up with!
Side Note: If you don't equip a seatbelt in the Utility slot, take care when crashing into things or you know, you'll go flying.
Overhauled Vehicle Stealing:
Previously to open up a locked vehicle and start it without earning bounty required having screwdrivers and pliers on hand, and then initiating in mini-games that a lot of our players felt weren't overly engaging. A new system makes its debut! Now, you don't need any tools to bust open a car and jack it. Just approach a car, hit E and mash your way to getting the car open and started. Doing it this way will increase your bounty and damage the car a little, so be careful if you're taking it to Wheelies to steal a modification.
However, if you have screwdrivers on hand, they'll be automatically consumed when attempting to unlock a car. This'll not only speed up the process of stealing the vehicle, but it won't damage it or cause a bounty increase.
Damage Overhaul:
New VFX, particles and visible damage that deforms the vehicles you're driving have also been touched on this update. No longer will cars bop around not showing any wear or tear, windows will break, doors will come lose, metal will crumple and grind against surfaces. This is a big one for general game feel.
New Welty Mission: Border Patrol
Welty and his gang, "NME" (No More Emus) want you to customize the lawnmower you've stolen for them and use it to spread propaganda throughout Green Island. Things take a turn when some of Welty's crazy ideas start to prove true..
Two new properties and a 4 Car Garage
Some more properties to buy up have been added to Rockhaven, including the Storeroom, an apartment located conveniently behind the Underpass Pawn. Directly opposite the Storeroom is the Underpass Garage, capable of storing up to 4 vehicles. Last but not least, the Container Compound, our first outside space you can customise and assign to a homie. We can't wait to see what kind of creations you come up with here.
There's also a whole ton of other additions and changes that've gone in this patch:
- New Powick Upgrades for wallet/carrying capacity size - New Bank Card Tiers - New Clothing and Chest Rewards - A new apartment and garage - Bug fixes - New Vehicles around the city (All of which will become purchasable in future updates)
If you're new, or you've been out of the loop for awhile feel free to check out some of the other updates we've done along the way in Chapter Two, including:
As always, we're going to spend a week cleaning up any unforseen bugs and finishing off a few bits of content that we'll tuck into the game. After we're in the clear, the journey to Chapter Three begins. While Chapter Two's main narrative addition touched on the opening of the game, with Three we intend to move the story forward once more.
If you've missed out on the recent news, we're now partnered with Firestoke. They're going to help us out to develop robust new content, but they're as committed as we are in acting on community feedback. We have an idea of where Chapter Three is going internally, but we'll be monitoring Steam Forums and Discord chat and working in suggestions that the community feels strongly about.
After our internal discussions, we'll start talking about our vision of Chapter Three, share it with everyone and immediately start hitting some content beats.
As always, thank you all for being on the ride of It's Only Money! In a lot of ways, we're just getting started, so buckle in for even more.
