Genre: Strategy, Quiz/Trivia, Indie, Card & Board Game
Sumer
Online Multiplayer enters public testing!
Hello Sumerians!
It’s taken a whole heck of a lot longer than we anticipated, but the promised day is drawing near: online multiplayer for Steam is nearly complete. We will, barring the unforeseen, release it at the end of the summer. That will let us mark the end of our time in Early Access and launch the full game.
Before that, though, we want to get some public testing in, so we’re opening the game up to online play. It isn't on the main branch as it’s not quite stable enough yet, but anybody who owns a copy of Sumer can enable it by right clicking on Sumer in their Steam library, selecting Properties, moving to the Betas tab, and selecting “multiplayer” in the drop down menu.
Get some internet friends together for a game and let us know how it goes! If you find any bugs, let us know! If any part of the game isn’t fun to play or feels unfair due to latency, let us know! If there’s a feature you feel is missing, let us know that, too! We’ve set up a bug report page for you to submit any errors you find to. We’ll also be keeping an eye on our Steam Discussion page.
Dev Playtest - Thursday August 15th 7PM EST We are setting a time and date to be playing online ourselves. If you want to test your skills against Sumer’s creators, come online next Thursday (August 15th) around 7PM EST and throw down the gauntlet!
"New Blood" Update Live!
NEW BLOOD Update
Patch 0.34.1
Introducing Dipid (Pink) and Kir (Yellow) , the newest additions to the Nobles of Sumer!
Audio
Six new Harvest tracks have been added to the game, replacing the music during the main phase. As you build up the board the music will now change to reflect the growth of your civilization!
Added player specific sounds effects that play when goats hit the score UI.
Increased the volume of some of Gugalanna's voice lines.
Balance
Golden Ram Update: The Golden Ram now doubles the points you would get from goats at the end of the game: 2 points for every three goats.
Staff of Anu Update: The Staff of Anu now grants you an additional resource in each ritual at the start of the year. This adds a dummy resource to both rituals (currently displayed by a clay) that counts only for majority.
The Staff of Anu and Golden Ram are now slightly more common in Four and Six year games.
Removed the chance for extra clay pits to appear in the Two year game auctions.
Breeding Pens may now appear in the 2nd auction of Four year games.
Goat Farms now cap out at 99 goats.
Controls
Sumer now recognizes Nintendo Switch controllers!
Taking over an AI will now show your control type.
Tapping the fallthrough input very quickly now lets you fall through the floor.
Slightly increased fallthrough input buffer time.
Improved precision of landing while falling quickly.
Can now control Credits using UP and DOWN.
General
Various performance improvements.
Menu
Added “Unjoin” control instructions to player homes on character select menu.
Removed ability to pause while sun is setting at end of the day.
Fixed a typo in the credits.
Visual
Favor tablets now explode when Favor hits the score UI.
UI discs for sleeping were remastered and are more noticeable and smooth.
Favor tablets now scale correctly when hitting Year Update .
Auction heads now jiggle when at max overbid.
Improved fonts for character names.
Widened background and added border to fix screen resolution issues.
Fixed borders on bread icons to match others.
Fixed font for “return to main menu” text on stats screen.
Replaced down joystick icon with a clearer version.
Added fix to screen resolution issue that could lead to a black screen under certain fullscreen conditions.
Added a “saving” icon.
Goat growth will no longer display when pausing.
PAX Unplugged Attendance!
Hello Sumerians,
We’re excited to announce that next week Studio Wumpus will exhibiting Sumer at a board game convention! We’ll be at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, PA from November 16th to 19th.
PAX Unplugged is brand new this year! The convention features the best of non-digital design and we’re honored to be sharing the next evolution of board game design with attendees.
PAX Unplugged Giveaway
To celebrate PAX Unplugged we’ll have a little prize for anyone who wins at a game of Sumer while at the convention. Play Sumer at Booth 653 and in the demo area for your chance to win a sticker to commemorate your victory!
New Characters!
You might notice that there are two unfamiliar faces in that image. Say hello to our new contenders for the throne of Sumer!
Stay Tuned!
Even if you’re not making it out to Philadelphia, keep your ear to the ground in the coming week. We have an exciting announcement to share at PAX Unplugged!
Sumer: Early Access will also be getting an update with the newest additions to the roster of nobles so you can join the fun from your living room.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Geoff, Studio Wumpus
Beta build updated
Hey there, Sumerians!
In order to fix a rare issue caused when trying to adjust the resolution of your game (discussed here:
Textures not rendering?) we've added a new build to the beta channel. This build also features a few things we're experimenting with, as well as a few fixes. While none of this is official as of yet, we wanted to share them as if they were patch notes:
Audio
Added player specific sounds effects that play when goats hit the score UI
Increased the volume of some of Gugalanna's voice lines
Balance
The Staff of Anu and Golden Ram are now slightly more common in Four and Six year games.
Removed the chance for extra clay pits to appear in the Two year game auctions.
Breeding Pens may now appear in the 2nd auction of Four year games.
Menu
Fixed a typo in the credits
You can access the Beta by Right clicking on Sumer in your Library and selecting Properties. Under the "Betas" tab use the drop down menu for Select the beta and choose 'beta - not stable'.
"Her Divine Voice" Update now Live!
Greetings Sumerians!
We’re pleased to report that Update 0.30.01, “Her Divine Voice”, is now live on the main channel. Patch Notes below:
Audio
Added new voice over lines for Inanna.
This is a complete replacement of temporary VO. Huge thanks go out to Auður for being the voice of Inanna for so long. We’re proud to have Nanna Gunnars joining the team and demanding sacrifice!
Added a track that will play while two or more players are overbidding.
A pause menu track will now play while the game is paused!
Balance
Added an “instant statue scoring” variant to the variants menu.
We felt like there wasn't enough incentive to fight statue heavy players in the auction late game and we hope this encourages all players to statues valuable at all points in the game.
Updated ritual pairings
We want rituals drawn during any given year to vary from each other, giving players the option to choose how they want to invest their actions and resources. We are also working on fine tuning year pacing. Some rituals will no longer be able to appear if there are only 2 potteries or 2 breweries. This is to prevent rituals that require a ton of one resource from clogging up the progress of the year.
Bid rushing from the onset will now extend an auction round: If two or more players begin bidding at the start of the auction and have not stopped increasing their bid since the auction will continue, even after the timer has finished, until one player stops bidding.
Controls
If an input device is connected and is not paired with a player then a “Press [INPUT] to join” message will prompt players to take over AI.
Improved mouse controls for profile selection menu
Menus
Graphics now gives the option to pick an aspect ratio and screen resolution
Reshuffled some menu options’ placements (eg-moved Subtitles to Audio)
Improved legibility of menu text font
Top level menu has been aligned to the Ziggurat floors
Simplified some text and option formatting
Menu carrots now display in the color of the player that paused
The “Interact” room on Ziggurat Menu now has character highlight
Player homes on Ziggurat menu now prompt to select player. Standing in front of a home will also prompt you to pick a name
We’ve updated our credits with some amazing people!
Hint thought bubbles are now on by default and can be turned off in
Gameplay menu under Options
Text on several auction cards have received improvements
Tutorial
Fixed rare issues with minimizing the game during tutorial select menu
Visual
Big Head mode has received some visual improvements
Changed the victory pose to be more exalted
Minor fixes to background goat behavior
Resource icons on workshops now darken when the shop is used.
Watermarks matching the pentagon and circle tokens have been added to rooms during room placement
Online Multiplayer
Did a whole bunch of invisible work getting this closer to being ready for public release.
PLAY NYC this weekend, Patch 0.28.1 to follow
Happy Friday, Sumerians!
It’s been a long while since we last posted but we finally have a chain of announcements on the way. The first of which is that this weekend we’ll be showing at Play NYC, New York City’s first video game convention! Tickets are still available and can be purchased here .
We’ll be demoing Patch 0.28.1 of Sumer over the weekend. This patch includes an experimental statue scoring variant that scores statues immediately and a new voice over for Inanna featuring our new voice actress, Nanna Gunnarsdóttir! We’d love to hear your feedback on those additions as well as the various changes we’ve made across menus and the rest of the game. After our final pass of testing next week we’ll push the build to the main channel. Whether you’re joining us at Play NYC or are playing from home, you can play 0.28.1 on the beta channel right now.
Enjoy your weekend!
Studio Wumpus
Indie Picnic E3 Announcement!
Hello Sumerians!
We’re ramping up for a Sumerian summer of development and shows!
Sumer goes to Japan!
We’re excited to share that last week we showed Sumer at BitSummit in Kyoto, Japan. Kickstarter just announced its expansion to Japan and selected Sumer as one of four games to represent them.
We love showing the game to new audiences and Japan was no exception. We had a great time and you should definitely check out the other games that were being shown:
We’re also thrilled to announce that we’ll be in Los Angeles in just a few weeks to show Sumer as part of Devolver’s E3 Indie Picnic. If you are at E3 you can join us in the Public Lot across from the Los Angeles Convention Center where the expo is being held. We'll be showing all three days (June 13 - 15) from 11 AM - 7 PM. It’ll be free to anyone with an E3 badge :D
With love,
Your friends at Studio Wumpus
Hotfix - Patch 0.27.1
Hey Sumerians!
We pushed a hotfix to the build last night and just want to share what's new. In addition to fixing a bug that prevented some players from getting into games we have added music to the room placement mode and final judgment at the end of the game. This music is still in an early form and updates are already under way, so you can expect them to change a little down the line.
Thanks!
Studio Wumpus
Gaming for Pixels Stream Today!
Hey Sumerians!
We’re helping out with the pilot run of a gaming marathon called Gaming for Pixels, a fundraising initiative to help stop violence against women. As part of our support we’ll be streaming today, Sunday, April 9th!
We’ve selected a handful of games that are either board game-likes or local multiplayer, including some of our recent favorites like Loot Rascals, Overcooked and Offworld Trading Company.
A few NYC indies have also volunteered to show local multiplayer games that they’re working on now! Stop by a for a sneak peek at some upcoming gems.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Geoff, Studio Wumpus
Patch 0.25.1 Notes
Hey Sumerians!
We just pushed some fixes to our launch build including a few balance tweaks to the new rituals and improvements to the full screen mode. You can also now change the graphics quality in the options menu. We'll be keeping up with your feedback as we continue to work on online play and will be putting out periodic patches as the game continues to evolve.
Good worship!
Studio Wumpus
Patch 0.25.1 Notes
AI
Minor tweaks to the lowest level of AI to make it more friendly to new players.
Audio
Added improved Gugalanna lines.
Balance
Prevented some rituals from pairing.
Controls
Fixed bug preventing mouse players from picking a profile.
Fixed bug preventing mouse players from picking up placed buildings.
Menu Options
Full screen will now set your resolution to your monitor size.
You can now change graphics quality in the Graphics menu.
Tutorial
Fixed a bug that causes the slumber reward tracker to glitch.
Visual
Loading Screens only show controls for now.
Clarified controls of post-game menu.
Small visual tweaks to character select screen.
Corrected error in mouse control cheat sheet.
Added a visual safety precaution to prevent especially wide screens from showing outside the game.
