In case you missed it, It's Only Money enters Early Access tomorrow with Chapter Zero: Welcome to Rockhaven, for $19.99 USD. The Testers who've joined us on our development journey will be familiar with a lot of the content on offer, and our sincere thanks to their reporting and suggestions. It's Only Money starts in a stronger position because of them. To those who signed up on Undercity club, your founders pack code will be emailed to you in the coming weeks.
Speaking of the founders pack, it'll be available to purchase for an additional $5 on release. It includes the Box Knight cosmetic pack equippable from any closet, a golden Hot Dog Man statue to place in your purchased homes and a verified blue tick in Crookbook UI elements. You know, so you look more important than people who don't have it. That's apparently where we're at these days.
So, onward to how we plan to approach Early Access. With Chapter Zero, you'll be introduced to various characters via narrative missions, our core crime concepts including pickpocketing, lockpicking and hotwiring. You'll buy your first business hub to upgrade and manage: The snail racing club, Slimeway. You'll also purchase and customise various homes, moving folks out of the Undercity into these spaces, slowly but surely building a force of supporters willing to strike back at the Mayor. There's also plenty of clothing shops to start putting together fits with the spare cash burning a hole in your pocket. All of the above can be played co-cooperatively with 3 other players online, and if you're feeling competitive, the first Crookbook game "Prop Hunt" is there to resolve disputes.
We've found the regular testing and engaging with the community in our Discord a productive, rewarding and fun way to build the game. We don't want to lose this process going forward. To this end, we'll be delivering content in two ways.
The first is our weekly "minor updates". We expect the first couple of weeks to focus solely on stability and bug fixing, as even with the help of our dedicated community, there's going to be hardware configurations and general open world madness we couldn't catch. The best place to report bugs or issues you're facing is joining our Discord community, but if you'd prefer a more old school approach, emailing us at help@usualsuspects.games will get your issues seen, and hopefully fixed in a timely fashion.
Beyond fixes, weekly Minor Updates will deliver smaller bits of content such as:
- New Weapons - New Vehicles - New Stores - Narrative Missions - Combat Abilities - New Clothing - New Property/Homes to buy - More items added to the chests/store rotations - New Accolades to earn in the Weiner application
We'll always be keeping an eye out for cool community suggestions and ideas, and the minor updates are a great place to quickly iterate and expand on the current state of Rockhaven. Again, we expect to get into a regular rhythm of new content once the first couple of weeks have passed and we're sure the game's in a decent spot for most players.
Major updates, or Chapters are our larger more concentrated content drops. These will revolve around one of the Mayors crooked subordinates and their business that you and your Undercity forces will aim to destroy and takeover. These chapters will be the point at which the narrative pushes forward. Chapters will add:
- A substantial amount of new Narrative missions and characters - A new business HUB to purchase and upgrade - A new Crookbook game - New and improved playable spaces with Rockhaven - More properties, weapons, clothing and items to use - A Mayor business to destroy and takeover for the Undercity - A "Sandbox" improvement, such as an appreciable new AI behaviour, or weather system
Some of the larger community suggestions will also be worked into these major chapters where it makes sense, and we truly encourage people to share ideas or "dream adds" for the game in Discord. We expect Chapters to take anywhere from 6-8 weeks to release, but with game development, these could arrive sooner or later than expected, and we'll do our best to communicate and show in-progress features to garner feedback.
A comparison of where we've been, and where we're at.
We'll also open a public JIRA board where we can more easily track bugs, community suggestions and ideas. Additionally, we'll handpick some community MVP's to get hands on early builds and make sure features and ideas are heading in the direction (and don't ultimately break the rest of the game). We ultimately want Rockhaven to be a place where you want to spend time, and it's more exciting for us if it encompasses ideas we didn't have ourselves.
Chapter Zero is an achievement for our team of 5 developers down here in New Zealand. We've done our best to get It's Only Money to this point, and will continue to give our all with the coming updates. Again, a massive thank you to everyone who's helped test, spread the word, or even taken a look at the game in any capacity.
See you in Rockhaven,
The Usual Suspects Team
Early Access Launch for It's Only Money
Early Access to the Undercity is here!
On the 15th of June, (16th NZST) It's Only Money will release into Early Access with Chapter Zero: Welcome to Rockhaven.
Testers will be largely familiar with the content here (and should check their email in the coming weeks for their complimentary Founders Pack code), but for those unaware, this early foray introduces your character and their place within a newly governed Rockhaven.
Almost immediately you'll be thrown to the sewers, where the Beggar King and the rest of the Undercity await. Emerge back into the streets and steal to your hearts content - making a tidy profit along the way. Buy businesses to manage, clothes to wear, weapons to wield and homes to customize. With your newly acquired homes, you can move people back to the surface and collectively wage war on the Mayor and his crooked conspirators.
It's Only Money Chapter Zero has full co-operative play with up to 3 other players online, and the first Crookbook competitive game "Prop Hunt" is available for play.
Pickpocket, Pop Australian Spy Balloons, Steal Cars, Buy Clothes, Collect Wild Snails: You're sure to find something surprising in the streets of Rockhaven. Chapter Zero marks the beginning of your journey in Rockhaven, with future chapters coming to expand and enhance the game well into the future. A full blog post detailing our approach to Early Access will go live later today.
In the meantime, check out the latest trailer below, tell you friends and cancel any plans you had this weekend!
Playtest 4: Housing
Another playtest is here! And it's happening very very soon. 24th-26th May NZT you'll have access once again and if you haven't already you can sign up on our store page by hitting Request Access.
We've added a ton this round but namely, full access to the map, tenancy and customisation of houses, Australian Spy Balloons and of course the reward chests that come with them. We've got new narrative missions to walk you through everything but if you do get stuck or encounter any bugs please come and yell at us in the Discord (discord.gg/suspectsocial)
This is also the last chance to secure a Founders Pack on release for Free! Do this by signing up to undercity.club, Rockhaven's own social media site powered by Crookbook.
As per usual we will be notifying everyone once the playtest drops on our usual socials - Twitter, Discord etc. so keep your eyes peeled.
Thank you and have fun! Usual Suspects Team
Playtest 3: Businesses
We're back and maybe sooner than y'all thought! We've got another playtest coming next week running 3rd-5th April NZT.
Playtest 3 features Business Management, Slimeway Betting, Equippable Moves, Accolades, a few more Missions, a Repeatable Dungeon and everything else from our other playtests. Inevitably, it will also feature bugs once again, so hang out on the Discord and we'll squash 'em as they're reported.
There's no NDA, you'll be free to take screenshots, videos, make content, but we do ask that you make a point that this is a project in active early development, and a ton of changes, improvements and updates are constantly underway.
You'll be able to find this button on the store page to gain access come Monday.
In the meantime, the in-game social media app CrookBook has launched a real platform for us at undercity.club. Signing up let's you create your own profile with a backstory but also secures a free Founders Pack for yourself once It's Only Money launches.
We'll be notifying everyone once it's live on our socials like usual, so give us a follow on Twitter or keep your eyes peeled to our Discord for this one to drop!
Thank you and have fun! Usual Suspects Team
Playtest 2: Multiplayer
Hello again! We've got another playtest coming next week running 6th-8th March NZT.
Playtest 2 features Multiplayer, Crookbook (Prop Hunt!) a few missions and shops to customize your character. Inevitably, it will also feature bugs, so hang out on the Discord and we'll squash 'em as they're reported.
There's no NDA, you'll be free to take screenshots, videos, make content, but we do ask that you make a point that this is a project in active early development, and a ton of changes, improvements and updates are constantly underway.
We will post here again with more details on how to join but if you want to be absolutely sure you don't miss out join our Discord and type /beta to sign up.
In the mean time, be sure to check out the wee preview trailer we made for this test and maybe share it with your mates, you're gonna want that crew sorted for this one!
"The Basics" Playtest #1
Hey everyone, the time has come - we're starting our rollout of It's Only Money Test #1. This'll be the first of many tests we're going to do, with each test focusing on a different portion and part of the city up until release - so don't worry if your name isn't called this time, again: There will be many tests going forward
This first test, entitled "The Basics" will offer you the chance to play around in a small portion of the city, pickpocketing, car jacking and meeting a handful of mission givers.
- This test takes place in Trenchtown and its surroundings, which is an estimated 4% of the total playspace of Rockhaven - This test is single player only, with following tests and the full release of the game allowing 4 player online co-op - 5 Missions can be accessed and finished in this build - Pickpocketing, Distracting, Car Jacking, Lockpicking and Hotwiring are all present in this build
Of course, this is a work in progress, you'll notice some unfinished systems, and are bound to run into a few bugs here and there, so those who are chosen to participate will also receive a questionnaire, and it'd be much appreciated if you could fill it out, as it'll help guide our development efforts going forward. If you do so, you'll receive a key for the "Box Knight" testers cosmetic pack at launch.
This is our first step in creating an open world sandbox in collaboration with players, we plan to take your feedback, act accordingly and quickly, and deliver those fixes and suggestions in successive tests with the ultimate goal of a well refined experience for launch.
There's no NDA, feel free to take screenshots, videos, make content, but we do ask that you make a point that this is a project in active early development, and a ton of changes, improvements and updates are constantly underway.
If you want to opt in for the chance to test, type /beta in the discord chat and fill out the box with information. There's no guarantee you'll be selected, but we'll be sending out keys in waves, so keep an eye out on your inbox. If you miss out, don't worry - again, we'll be running multiple tests frequently going forward.
We estimate the first wave of emails will be sent out Saturday morning (22/10/2022 NZST), at which point the build will go live. The test will end Monday afternoon (24/10/2022 NZST)
If you are chosen, you will be granted access to the "Testers Lounge" discord channel, where you can suggest ideas, report bugs, chat with devs and fellow testers.
Good luck, and see you in the city this weekend.
TLDR: Write /beta in our discord to register your interest in the test this weekend
It's Only Money will be at PAX Australia
It's Only Money will be playable at booth 1050 at PAX Australia. If you're attending the show, come say hi, play the game and grab some free goodies.
Following the show, members of the Usual Suspects discord (Join here) will have an opportunity to sign up for the first closed test. Get your hands on an early portion of the game where you'll pickpocket, jack cars, shoplift and meet a few of the characters going about their lives in Rockhaven.
Join the discord now and get involved with the community, and try out the game as we'll be running multiple tests focused on different aspects of the game going forward.
Hope to see some of you at the show!
Testers can expect to be rewarded with exclusive cosmetics to be delivered upon the Early Access release, here's a preview:
