After intensive development following the Steam Next Fest in June, The Matchless Kungfu will be released on the Steam platform at 20:00 PDT on August 29th. This release will be in Early Access form, priced at 14.99 USD tier. ːsteamhappyː
Early Access remains a necessary step for independent game developers like us. We have conducted multiple online tests since January 2023, and the content and quality of the game have grown rapidly through these tests and communication with players. Therefore, meeting users earlier, engaging in more communication with them, and expanding and improving the game based on their feedback is the ideal approach for small teams like ours at HuanMos.
Of course, Early Access is an opportunity for us and inevitably involves some risks for players. So, if you are still hesitant about purchasing the Early Access version of The Matchless Kungfu, you can always follow our official announcements, update notes to make decision any time :-). After all, we still have a long way to go.
The Matchless Kungfu is not a traditional Wuxia game in any sense. It embodies our current understanding of "fun." Although we are filled with trepidation, we hope everyone can find joy in the world of The Matchless Kungfu! ːsteamhappyː
Compared to the previous version showcased during the Steam Next Fest, the Early Access version at its release day of The Matchless Kungfu includes updated contents:
Currently, player can create and switch between up to three characters. They can generate mini worlds that already has 20/40/60 land masses with different stats. The characters you created can dive into any of them. There will be no number limit on land masses this time. The number of battle and internal skills has doubled, more sects can be chosen from. There are also more adventures, special animals, as well as new mysterious challenges.
** For the English localization, considering the fast-paced updates of the game, we decide to use Machine Translation first for the updates and the early days of Early Access, and update the build with improved translation.
We will gradually expand and enrich the world of The Matchless Kungfu. Please stay tuned for our future announcements and developer logs after the release of the Early Access version!ːGiftingː
The Matchless Kungfu progress
Heroes, long time no see! ːGiftingː
After the Steam Next Fest in June, the development progress have received concern from heroes, so we wrote a developer diary in July to disclose our content development plan and Q3 release plan . For details, please refer to Developer Log 2 (←click me directly).
Driven by this goal and everyone's feedback, the team has entered an intensive development period that is more focused and directional than ever before.
During these two and a half months, the game has more than doubled the number of new unique skills and internal skills, added a batch of adventure events, and completed the development of main content such as multi-roles and automatic generation of mini worlds. In the EA version, you can choose to generate a mini map that already has 20, 40 or 60 land masses. But there are still some work need to be added. Due to the large number of changes and new additions in the new version, there will inevitably be many problems that are difficult to traverse in our usual development QA and places that need to be optimized. Therefore, on August 18, we invited some old players who participated in the previous confidential internal tests to start the internal test again. This internal test will last for more than a week.
Since there are still some content that we need to develop in the final sprint, the allocation of manpower is very tight, and this version involves some "spoilers", so it is not possible to release the demo publicly for more players to test like the last Steam Next Fest. For now, what we can do, is to fix the existing problems and adding events & animation resources into the build, so to make the EA release version richer in content than the Steam Next Fest.
Due to the laggy translation progress, we are not able to post the daily bugreport here in perfect English. And to be honest, most of them are just making our self embarrased... ːsteamfacepalmː If anyone is interested, we post buglist pictures every day and you can see them by switch the steam page into simplified Chinese.
Are we are worrying about the English translation of the Early Access release version too. Since there will be on-going updates and content adding, it will be hard to update qualified English translation along with the pace of the updates. Our plan is to use machine translation first to keep up with the updates, then update with a better translation when we got them from the translators.
We are likely to announce the release date soon, so stay tuned!!
DevLog vol.2 Thank you all for playing demo! Here's what we are doing now
Hello, every Daxia and Nvxia, our dear players! Steam Next Fest had come to an end. During the festival, "The Matchless Kungfu" released its first open demo, which garnered unexpected attention and feedback. We are extremely surprised and delighted by this.
In fact, The Matchless Kungfu has conducted 3 closed beta tests in the past six months. This public demo can get a good evaluation, largely thanks to the players who have participated in these 3 closed betas. It is because of their enthusiastic sharing of their gaming experience, complaints about the unreasonable spots in the game, and the confusing things in the novice stage, that we have always had a relatively clear answer on how to improve the game.
However, as an open world non-typical martial arts RPG game that emphasizes high degree of freedom and high interactivity, blosed beta tests with around 200 players in each round cannot fully reflect the strange situations that players can encounter in their own games. Fortunately, during the past Steam Next Fest, we met the most enthusiastic players and friends. Not only were you willing to help novice players find various ways to solve the problems encountered in the demo in the community, but also contributed more than 600 bug reports worldwide, and discussions in steam forum.
While we are honored and excited, we also hope that players also had fun time during the fest. After all, it is our greatest wish to make a fun game!
What are we doing now and after?
After the Steam Next Fest 2023, the developer team took a short break, and has now returned to the development work of The Matchless Kungfu. Due to the unexpected number of downloads during the event, it took a lot of effort for us to collect and review everyone's voice on various platforms. Many problems could not be fixed in time during the open period of the demo. We apologize for those issues. At present, we have re-digested and sorted out the suggestions and bug feedback, and arranged them on the development schedule.
For us, receiving these bug reports and suggestions is the most beneficial thing, while seeing the strange/awkward situation that some players have met during gameplay is the happiest thing in our busy work.
We were amazed every day by the complexity of the causes of bugs reported by players, and the variety of how players wanted to play the game.
We will continue to add content to the game in the next phase of developement. Since the follow-up To Do List is a bit long, here we will first preview a few content that players are generally concerned about:
● The generation of the mini world will be improved, the types of land masses will be more diverse, and the number of sects and forces will increase according to the increase of landscale.
● A Sandbox Mode that was not available in the demo: Players can set the environment bias of the mini world and directly generate a mini world that already has settled land masses. For example: if the player chooses a snowy environment, then 60% of the area of this mini world will be a continuous snowy environment, and special land masses will appear due to other mechanisms; in this mode, what the player experiences is a relatively completed big world and unique challenges.
● New special land resources: such as decorations, monsters, martial arts, inner kungfu, treasures, enlightenment stones, etc.
● More sects: Beggar Gang, Shaolin, Wudang and other sects will be added in subsequent versions. In addition, sect buildings will be more diverse, and there will be other land masses connecting between sects as intervals.
● More identities: We will provide players with more identities, such as lumberjack, fisherman, miner, farmer, etc. These identities will bring more adventures...
● In response to the fact that [NPC behavior] was not smart enough or even self-contradictory, we will quickly improve the basic rules of NPC behavior according to various problems encountered by players during the Steam Next Fest, and increase the trigger preconditions of adventures. As long as enough situations are considered and rules written clearly, NPCs will become smarter and behave more reasonably.
What we wish to tell the players…
Test Branch that will be accessible after game release.
As we listed in the "Development Plan" in the main menu of the demo version, The Matchless Kungfu will be released on the Steam in the form of Early Access. The reason for EA release is because we know that games like this need to meet players as soon as possible on the premise of a certain degree of integrity and gameplay, and gradually improve and progress. This is also the ideal release form that many indie game studios is using.
Our goal is to make the Early Access launch version greatly improved compared with the demo version, with more abundant and reasonable content, and more surprises and challenges in the later stage of gamplay. The Matchless Kungfu is a non-linear, highly interactive open world game. And after the game’s Early Access release, we will continue to add new content. This leads to more and more possible situations/conditions a player may meet during gameplay, and the demand for testing is growing huge. For such games, ordinary QA teams and processes cannot expect all act that may be done by the players. So we will start a long-term test branch after the EA version is released. This method of branch testing has been proved to work fine by many strategy game predecessors. Players who are willing to experience new systems, new functions, and new bugs that have not yet been implemented in the main version can directly enter the test branch and complain about new content 😊. When the content is stable, we will update to the main version.
A peaceful and enjoyable community
During the past Steam Next Fest 2023 in June, we got some attention from influencers very unexpectedly, which gave us the opportunity to appear in front of the public together with the names of many excellent works. While we were surprised and moved, we were also apprehensive.
We have always positioned ourselves as a indie game that everyone will play differently. In fact, many old games that have been developed for many years, or games that have been released soon, or even new games that will appear in the future, are designed and pursued towards this goal.
The DEMO version was to verify the core mechanism and the optimization scheme summarized in the previous internal test, and there are still many deficiencies in the content. Although there are players at home and abroad who want us to release right after the fest, but in order to live up to the support of players, and to make the EA version more interesting than the demo version, we still hope to calm down to develop and optimize the content for now, and plan to release it someday in Q3 of this year.
Whether it is before the game's release or after the release in the future, we hope or implore players to help us maintain a friendly and peaceful discussion atmosphere. For any news about The Matchless Kungfu and our own thoughts and situations, please refer to the posts published by our official social accounts.
Thanks again for your support and help!
from Huanmos Game and bilibili
Steam Next Fest Demo Closure Notice
Dear players, the Steam Next Fest Demo of The Matchless KungFu will officially close at 10 AM (PT), on June 26th. We are pleasantly surprised by the enthusiasm of all the players. Watching everyone in the community chat about various questions related to the game motivates us to update and optimize the game even more. We are aware that there are still long way to go for The Matchless KungFu, and hope that everyone can give us time to adjust the experience of the game to be even better!
During Steam Next Fest, we received a lot of feedback and suggestions from players. While looking at the bug list, we published 12 patches during these days and the patches mainly focused on:
For the issues that have been pointed out but have yet to be fixed, we will continue to optimize and fix them after the demo closure, and strive to bring you a better game as soon as possible.
Recent Development Plan
1. Sandbox mode It is straightforward to create a random large world with the base size and orientation of the world set by the player. The current mode in demo is more suitable for novices to get familiar with the game system and players who want to build their own world block by block, while Big World is suitable for players that are already familiar with the gameplay and want a unique experience. The big world will randomly generate special land masses, sects and related skills, inner kungfu, treasures and resources.
2. Multi-Heroes Multiple heroes can exist in one or more mini worlds. The hero a player is not controlling at the moment will be taken care by AI just like the NPCs. It allows players to interact with their own heroes.
3. More sects, skills, internal kungfu, weapons, land masses, AI behaviors, etc.
4.Filling and optimization for relationship, attitude, reputation, adventure, battle, construction, identity, building mode, etc.
We’ll share our progress on this project later via our official social accounts. If you like the demo, please add The Matchless Kungfu into your Steam wishlist, and follow our Twitter or join the Discord channel!
The Matchless Kungfu is an open-world sandbox Wuxia game that has unique battle gameplay and no-plot world building RPG content. Try out demo now!
Steam Next Fest Demo Patch Notes List
June 20th Patch Notes v0.7.13.0 Fixes: 1. Fixed issue where players would get stuck in buildings after transfered to another life 2. Fixed bug where the meridian connection would take a longer route Optimizations: 1. Refreshes task count display when abandoning a task on the main page 2. Added various ways to gain reputation for different sects 3. Minimum bid increment for auctions is now 1 4. The item "粑粑" is now worth 1 coin 5. Adjusted the reputation threshold for arrow tower attacks to below 500 6. Adjusted the universal use check for decorations 7. Added a button to prevent freezing in the settings page
June 20th Patch Notes v0.7.14.0 Fixes: 1. Fixed issue where the pet feeding interface would not close 2. Fixed bug where closing the adventure interface with the Esc key wouldn't exit the adventure event Optimizations: 1. Adjusted the conditions for using dummies and reputation value checks 2. Adjusted the meat output for animals.
June 21st Patch Notes v0.7.15.0 Fixes: 1. Fixed bug where hovering and interacting with mouse would disappear after leaving the auction house 2. Fixed bug where clicking on the map without selecting a plot would display an error message 3. Fixed bug where the "Exit Game" button in the system menu could not be selected 4. Fixed bug where NPCs and monsters would not respawn 5. Fixed issue with delayed NPC feedback 6. Fixed issue where newly placed items were not recognized by animals (unable to pick up) 7. Fixed issue where destroying a sect flag decoration would not properly destroy the corresponding building 8. Fixed animation issue when exiting construction mode Optimizations: 1. Removed limitation where other players' icons would not be displayed outside the main map 2. Added attributes to pet feeding 3. Added flying pigeon notifications for sect reputation gains 4. Added initial game tips pop-up 5. Added additional logic and prompts for arrow tower patrols 6. Increased "Monkey Wine" production 7. Added new adventure: "Become the Martial Arts Alliance Leader and Receive Congratulations from Other Players, Boss Plot Adventure" 8. Adjusted AI logic for closing shops 9. Added option to choose between building sect flags and houses when using the H shortcut key for construction 10. Lowered creation cost for sect and territory expansion from 5000 to 2000 11. Added "Contribute Supplies" button for container decorations (only visible within the same sect)
June 21st v0.7.16.0 Fixes: 1. Fixed a problem that chest can't be interacted
June 21st v0.7.17.0 Fixes: - Fixed dialogue button error - Fixed a rare meridian interface freezing issue - Fixed dialogue option refresh issue - Removed extra purchase button - Increased medical experience for treating hidden illnesses - Fixed interaction permission error - Fixed overlapping event trigger issue - Optimized generation of terrain to avoid covering the player - Fixed localization text - Optimized blessing rewards - Fixed copper coin prompt text error - Fixed interaction with farmhouse - Added auction acceleration feature - Fixed prestige retention after faction disappears - Optimized button logic - Fixed issue with deceased character entering auction - Added new adventures.
June 21st v0.7.18.0 - Reduced fish evasion speed - Accelerated gacha animation speed - Adjusted in-game guideline - Fixed issue with graphics settings not taking effect - Added the ability to claim as one's own - mini game block restraint guideline - Adjusted display logic and systems for stealth - Fixed issue with the business families - Optimized hovering descriptions for decorations - Optimized treasure map UI on the world map - Fixed issue with dialogue buttons sometimes turning into lines - Removed NPC log viewing.
June 22nd v0.7.19.1 Fixes: 1. Fixed D3D error issue. 2. Fixed issue where the owner entity was not releasing their own pet properly upon destruction. 3. Fixed issue with incorrect floating display of buildings. 4. Fixed issue where players with active tasks could not delegate tasks to others. Optimizations: 1. Optimized parts of adventure content.
June 22nd v0.7.20.0 1. Cutting trees, mining, and gathering can all increase novice technique 2. Fixed the issue where the Breathing Skill tutorial challenge could not be completed. 3. When you fave no sect faction, you can set up your own Sect by Press H and select setting up a Sect 4. Optimized the delete button in Exchange.
June 23rd 0.7.21.5 Optimization of early tutorials, such as novice guidance Optimized the pace of the Tutorial Scroll's appearing. Fixed the issue where the Brething Skill you learned from others can't complete related land mass task Adjusted the experience gained from collecting techniques. Fixed the issue where creating a sect did not display properly. Reduced the time duration requirement for Enlightenment Stone. Fixed the issue where receiving a system message during battle may cause the game to freeze. Optimized taming and training. Optimized the logic of the Take Post button. Fixed some attitude text issues. Fixed the issue where lesson quests could not be completed. Fixed the issue where stunning, using heavy attacks, and disabling martial arts did not have corresponding effects during battle. Fixed the issue where bubble dragging to the right side during battle may not work. Fixed the issue where some SVF may cause the game to crash. Now when you meet someone introducing you new sect, you can refuse it. Fixed the issue where power comparison was not accurate enough. Fixed the issue where blueprint arrow towers attacked themselves.
June 23rd v0.7.23.1 Fixes: 1. Fixed a bug where meridian connections in non-tutorial mode would bypass acupoint icons. 2. Fixed an issue where using relic A while having multiple relics in the inventory would remove relic B. 3. Fixed a bug where an error in NPC walking in BT_DesignEquipCraft would cause the camera to detach. 4. Fixed an issue where the source UID and name were not saved for relics. 5. Fixed an error caused by an empty field when querying the building owner's UID. 6. Fixed an issue with incorrect relic values. 7. Fixed an issue where arrow tower owners could not be set. Optimizations: 1. Optimized tutorials. 2. Adjusted the display of the list of skills to learn. 3. Improved the display of rarity for equipments found in relics. 4. Optimized interface switch steps when equiping Skills
Hello there, hero! Please take a seat, and let us tell you our story!
This devlog has actually been thought over for a long time. Over the past year or so, we 10 people have been in a state of buried development, with few opportunities to communicate with everyone. It is our neglect and regret.
In fact, at the beginning of the project, it was more like a professional aspiration of a group of middle-aged people - wielding the "fantastic imagination" in the oil drum to build a martial arts dream. In the process of development, we saw that our ideas seemed to have some response and gained the attention of many players. Even the emoticons began to be added to community after a long absence, and we learned various memes such as "Shut up and take my money!" and "Where is the Demo, start the test quickly". We have experienced everyone's urging and expectations.
With everyone's company, we held three closed tests within our own manageable range. Thank you very much for every young hero who participated in the registration and testing. Your feedback is very valuable to us, and it also made us realize the difference in understanding of the word "martial arts" among people of different ages. We are currently working hard to digest and deal with this. This is a great help to the development of The Matchless Kungfu and also made us realize the importance of opening the game's "door" earlier.
In fact, the quotas released in the past few tests have been relatively limited, and we are also very anxious to meet everyone, especially fans who have already joined the player group. So this time, we boldly launched the latest trial version of "Peerless Martial Arts" during the "Gods Fighting" Steam new product festival.
What are the new changes in the DEMO of the new product festival?
[About the trial version]
Compared with the "1-2 hour exquisite demo" released by the industry in the trial festival, this demo will not have too many restrictions, and it may take more than ten hours to experience it. To be honest, we think that the current demo is far from our goal, and it has not yet reached the point where we can say "trial tasting". More importantly, we hope to invite everyone to "test and share opinion". (Before writing to everyone, in fact, all the brainstorming we did internally for the expandable content may have reached about a year of development, but all design ideas need to be verified by you to better improve The Matchless Kungfu.)
If you are interested in the game, you can join our player community.
[About this open-test]
It is true that we have never discussed the version openly with everyone before, and we have not achieved full transparency of information (we are improving), which makes us hesitate for a moment when writing this part. It is difficult to make everyone understand the version in a short time. After careful consideration, we decided to list some of the changes compared to the previous version in this post, and also extract some core modules to give new friends who love the "sandbox" and "martial arts" a quick understanding.
Specifically - • The problem of weak guidance feedback from everyone before has been strengthened in this version: we have added mandatory guidance and instructions about the "combat" and "meridian" systems in the early stage of the game.
• An introduction to missing features such as "sect" has been added, allowing players to have a clearer understanding of the game's systems and mechanics when exploring the world for the first time.
• The AI logic of NPCs has been optimized. For example, NPCs with needs will consume within the player's profitable buildings and will not seek revenge from the player when they have low health. • The contribution level of sects has been replaced by a more understandable faction reputation system, allowing players to have clearer growth goals after joining a sect. • The UI has been redesigned, and the task and instruction interface has become more intuitive. Some pet interaction functions are also more user-friendly than before.
More importantly, in this DEMO, we have added even more new content: the land masses pool has been expanded to 75 blocks, and the upper limit for creating blocks has been increased to 35. We have also added new systems such as adventures, auctions, and the ability to create your own sect. Additionally, a stealth gameplay element has been added, providing players with more options when facing different events and tasks.
Of course, it's not advisable to always work behind closed doors. In the future, we will increase the frequency of our development logs and update everyone on our ideas and plans for the future of "The Matchless Kungfu". We hope that all players can communicate with us more.
About Future Plans
"The Matchless Kungfu" has actually been in development for a while, and this public trial is also an attempt to show everyone what we have done in this stage. This may not make everyone fully enjoy the game, but it can let everyone feel the more primitive state of the game. According to the original plan, the next version we provide should include: • Multi-heroes system: Multiple heroes can exist in one or more small worlds, and when we play one of the characters, the former main control character in the same world will have self-action logic like an NPC; • Sandbox mode: Similar to the creative mode, you can create a world with multiple data that can be customized, and characters can switch to the world they want to play in at will; • Overall performance optimization, addition of adventure events, more martial arts and internal power skills, etc.; Of course, these will also be adjusted based on everyone's feedback this time, and we will make certain priority adjustments. In the future, we will also keep the content development synchronized with everyone through some public methods such as [development documentation] [development logs].
In addition to everyone's concern about the game content, as mentioned at the beginning, we have also received a lot of attention from players about whether "The Matchless Kungfu" will be released in 2023. Although it is not yet clear when we will meet with everyone officially, what we can say is that we are working with a 120% energy to fill in the game. Everyone can follow our game and add it to your wishlist to get information about our future games.
If you encounter any bug in the demo, you can always submit it via bug submission link in the main menu or ESC menu ---
