As all of us at Mega Crit are hard at work on Slay the Spire 2, we figured we’d start shifting these posts towards news about the game.
Starting this issue, we're also posting on Steam! If you're reading this on Steam, know that on our new and updated website you can sign up to receive these monthly Neowsletters straight into your email inbox (if that's your preference).
Okay, on with it!
Slay the Spire 2 Dev Update
Most of the team is hard at work making the game better while I slack off and write this announcement. Speaking of announcements, we're working on something called a "Gameplay Trailer". Hopefully, we'll be able to show it off this year, but if not— I apologize! Trailer-making is not really our forte but we've enlisted some help to make sure that everyone gets to see a lot of exciting gameplay soon enough.
In the development department, we've been running private playtests for about 4 months now and the game has been ported to Godot and stabilized. Currently, our core focus is on adding more content so the game is packed full of interesting enemies, choices, and the silliest of situations.
In parallel, we've been improving performance and increasing compatibility on a wide range of devices (at least for our desktop release). We have high confidence that we'll be entering Early Access with a PC, MacOS, and Steam Deck(tm) compatible build. Yes, Linux is also likely. We see you! There are currently no plans for Slay the Spire 2 to run on VR/XR/AR or any other R-ending piece of hardware on Early Access launch. I'm sure nobody is surprised by this news but that's okay.
Why a Sequel?
This is a question we get often and I'm happy to answer! Why are you working on a sequel? Why not expand Slay the Spire instead? Let's get into it!
For those not in the know, the first Slay the Spire was developed over 2.5 years before we hit Early Access. Myself (Casey Yano) and Anthony were programming, designing, and arting (this is the official term for making art in video games). We enlisted the help from a handful of contractors to polish up the rough edges and hide some of our shortcomings. This was done by various illustrators, animators, trailer editors, and of course our composer, Clark Aboud who's been with us the whole way and now Slay the Spire 2!
It's difficult to fully explain how quickly and chaotically we scrapped together Slay the Spire. There's no guarantee that any indie game with no reputation will sell more than 10,000 copies. Spending time writing clean, editable, and maintainable code for such a project seemed foolish. Commented code was sparse, issues were hastily patched, systems were cut or completely redone often. This happens in games with exploratory game mechanics. Big shocker!
On top of this, only about half of my time was spent programming the game, with the rest spent in technical art, QA (my former job!), UX design, and writing things like this. Strangely, writing blogs comes the most naturally to me. It's not beautiful prose but I enjoy the process.
With this in mind, I'll fire off some quick bullet points to the "Why a Sequel?" question:
Undoing many of my sins in the codebase
Cleaner and more expandable architecture
Improving the game's performance so we can add more stuff
Migrated to a higher compatibility game engine
Forming and growing a team to avoid working 60+ hours for 5 years straight
Giving the game a visual refresh (Art and UI)
Experimenting with various mechanics we always wanted to
New Stuff
This last point, New Stuff is really important. Games aren't a list of game mechanics and features. The design of content, pacing, balance, story beats, unique characters, and various things come together to make a one of a kind experience! Otherwise, there would be no reason to play any sequel ever. I think we all know this intrinsically, yet a lot of players can't seem to accept this. I think skepticism is healthy, but I abhor the cynicism. It's too much. Get a hold of yourselves, cynics.
The visual refresh is also really important! We're still filling out the backgrounds and haven't incorporated ambient effects but... I would feel remiss not including something...
(Teaser of a silly fellow with an orby lookin’ head.)
Do note that I'm trying to compress 4 hours of ranting into a handful of paragraphs. For your burning non-spoiler inducing questions, you're always free to ask us questions at our Official Discord Server where we have an #ask-the-devs channel!
In case you missed it, answers to common questions can be found at our FAQ.
Board Game Updates
If you haven’t yet nabbed a copy of Slay the Spire: The Board Game, another round of pre-orders are open now and will ship in October!
Contention Games will also be at BGG.CON from November 13-17 where they’ll be running demos and selling Collector’s Editions–while supplies last!!
(A glimpse of the Slay-tastic action at Contention Games’ booth from last weekend at PAX West.)
The Office
Did you know? Mega Crit is currently around ~10 people and while the majority of us work remotely, half the team is in Seattle, WA.
After 3 years in our current office, we're moving... 1 mile away.
We'll be closer to a donut shop, so productivity should improve by 0%.
Activity Corner
We noticed that some of our community members have been making custom Slay the Spire Connections puzzles and our Community Manager, Demi (that’s me writing this section, hi), was inspired to make an official unofficial StS Connections puzzle for you all to try, too! Maybe this will become a regular thing??
Fan Art Roundup
And last but not least, here are some of the past month’s fan art highlights:
An incredible and slightly ominous pixel animation of The Silent by @DankShamwow
Even MORE pixel animation, this time featuring rare footage of Neow’s body off-screen by @ktwfc
That concludes the September 2024 issue of The Neowsletter. Tune in next month for more StS2 behind-the-scenes looks and community updates!
Limited Edition Time Eater Plush Available Now!
Looking to eat up the time until Slay the Spire 2 comes out? We have just the thing!
While away the hours with your very own limited edition Time Eater plush from Makeship by your side! Plus, the next time Time Eater ruins one of your runs you'll have a healthy, squeezable outlet for your frustration ^-^
It's time for us to reveal what we've been working on for the last 3+ years! Could it be!? A sequel to Slay the Spire? Yes, it is!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krDFltgjLtE
While it's not available until we figure out a good launch window in 2025, we can say for certain that it's coming to Steam, it will be launching with a ton of stuff, and it will be very very fun to play.
We'll be revealing more information on the Slay the Spire 2 store page as we near launch so be sure to Wishlist, Follow, or whatever to keep up-to-date if you want to know more.
You can also follow us on social media if that's your preference:
Limited Edition Deca & Donu Plushies Available Now!
Everybody's favorite geometric duo are here and softer than ever!
It's time for another merch drop: the limited edition Deca and Donu plush campaign from Makeship is now live!
If you've ever wanted to squeeze these iconic Slay the Spire bosses (whether out of love or frustration) now is your chance!! But don't wait, because the pre-order campaign ends in 21 days--and after that they're gone for good!
Disclaimer: DONU IS NOT EDIBLE... OFFICIALLY.
PS - The Mega Crit team knows you're all looking forward to news of our next game, and while we can't give you an ETA on that just yet... be sure to stay tuned!
Limited Edition Ironclad and Silent Figures Available Now!
You'll never have to Slay the Spire alone again once you have these adorable, limited edition figures of the Ironclad and the Silent by your side!
Our friends over at Youtooz are bringing you all the first ever official Slay the Spire vinyl figures!! They're available to pre-order NOW, so get yours here before they're gone for good!
And since this is our last announcement of 2023, we want to take this opportunity to wish you all a Mega Crit-mas and a happy new year! It's been a busy year for our team: working on our new game, learning a new engine, migrating said game to said engine, etc. We're happy we've been able to partner with other companies that can bring our fans cool merch like this in the meantime, and we're so excited for you all to see what we here at Mega Crit have been cooking when the time comes!
Until then: slay on, Slayers.
Limited Edition Glow-in-the-dark Corrupt Heart Plush Available for Pre-order!
tu-thump, tu-thump, tu-thump...
A deep glowing dread can be felt throughout the room...
It's the heart of the Spire! Looking considerably... squishier than usual?
That's right, we've teamed up with Makeship once again to bring you another exclusive, limited edition plushie: the glow-in-the-dark Corrupt Heart!!
And bonus--this plush doubles as a stress reliever that you can squeeze every time you fail to slay the Heart ^-^
As a reminder, Makeship plushies are limited run only, meaning once the pre-order campaign ends in 21 days they'll be gone for good! Be sure to nab yours soon so you don't miss out!
Dancing Duelists, a Jammin' Game Jam Game from Mega Crit is Available Now!
Get ready to rumble to the rhythm in Dancing Duelists, a deckbuilding autobattler dance off with a cast of fantastical characters and a BUMPIN' soundtrack!
Due to recent events, the Mega Crit team has been looking for an engine to migrate our next big game to from Unity, so we've been working on this little game for a few weeks now to acquaint ourselves with Godot, our new official engine of choice! It also just so happens to coincide with the Jump Ship Jam, an event that encourages game developers to branch out and create something with new engines & tools!
We're super proud of how this project turned out in such a small timeframe, and we'd love for you to check it out!
You can download Dancing Duelists now for free on itchi.io here!
A limited Neow Plushie appears!
Buckle up, a Neow plushie PRE-ORDER page is available right now! We teamed up with Makeship to do a limited plushie production. Once the campaign is over, you won't be able to get this plushie ever again 😱.
A plushie isn't simply a lifeless husk filled with cotton. For instance, you can ask Neow to give you advice and you can choose which one of three choices will impact the rest of your run day.
"Choose... wisely..."
Wow, very useful. Thanks Neow! You can get one of your own by simply clicking on any of these high quality drawings of Neow:
Help Neow explore social media!
We're uploading Neow with a transparent background to explore the world outside the Spire! "I... want... to be... free"
Just download the image and make your own!
Some High Quality Examples
Let us know via e-mail (devs@megacrit.com) or our Twitter (@MegaCrit) and we'll give you a shoutout even if you're evil!
That's all for now, have a nice day.
Oh, are you still scrolling? Well, here's Neow exploring the overgrowths.
Little known fact. Neow is also a ruthless mahjong shark.
Okay, we took all these pictures for you. Be sure to buy one!
V2.3.4: Crash on launch fix for Non-English PC users
Greetings!
We found a fix for a longstanding issue where the game didn't launch for non-English PC usernames without a workaround.
Patch Notes
BUG FIX: Fixed crash on start for Windows usernames with non-English characters
V2.3.3: Steamdeck Hotfix
Hello!
Hope everyone's enjoying the winter season. Here at Mega Crit we've been working on another game.
BUT... there's been reports of the Steam Deck controller inputs acting up if you touch the screen so here's a fix for that.
Happy Holidays!
Patch Notes
BUG FIX: Fixed skills/powers becoming unplayable if you enter/exit controller mode during combat
