Update #12: Carrot invasion, daily challenges, and more!
After some weeks of work, here's the update we promised for your help on the Gamelab Public Awards :zcrystal:
On this update, the carrots have decided to take matters into their own hands, adding new troops to their army.
New students have also finished their studies and are ready for the final test.
New content:
Daily challenge: On this mode, you'll face a new challenge each day, with the same starting conditions and dungeons for everyone. You'll only get a single attempt each day, so be careful!
New boss: Brunilda, Carrot Princess, is a new boss that can appear on Floor 4.
New enemies: Yellow Chili and Green Pepper.
New playable characters: Carina (female Apprentice), Loki (Vagabond), Glyndor (Battlemage), Agnes (Witch), Leto (Cleric)
10 New perks
New combat modifiers and divine rewards.
New room layouts
New room goal: On Scavenge rooms you need to pick up magic crystals while avoiding incoming fire.
Added Brazilian Portuguese language
Improvements and fixes:
You can switch weapons when they reach half their cooldown time.
Fixed minor exploit with the sprint function
Fixed default FOV being too low
Fixed a minor weapon switch bug
Fixed damage source direction being wrong
Balancing: Nerfed Bone Summoners a bit.
4 new awards for Ziggurat, and more!
Greetings, fellow apprentices!
Past week we went to the Gamelab 2015 conference, where Ziggurat was finalist in 3 categories (Best PC Game, Best Console Game and Best Game).
In the end, Ziggurat got the Best Console game award! The other two awards went to Mind: Path to Thalamus, another Spanish game that we recommend checking out :)
You probably remember us asking you to vote for the game in the Public Choice award. Well, your votes did really help, because Ziggurat was awarded the Public choice Award as well!
After the Gamelab conference, we went to the Indie Developer Burger Awards 2015, a small indie event where prizes are given in a joyful and friendly manner. Ziggurat was awarded "Most addictive" and "Least Indie game" at the party!
So now that we're back, we'll start work on what we promised! We'll pause development of our next game Pharaonic (which, by the way got Greenlit past week as well) for some time, and work on a new update for Ziggurat!
We're not 100% sure of what will the new update feature, but at the very least we want to add new playable characters, and add a few of everything (weapons, perks, room layouts, enemy variations, etc). We'll also try to add new combat room goals (similar to the Obelisk variants), and a Daily Challenge feature.
We don't have a date for the update (it's going to take a few weeks), but we encourage you to post your suggestions for new weapons, enemies, perks, etc in the forums, as we will regularly read them while we're working on it.
Thank you again for your support, you're the best :)
Ziggurat finalist on Gamelab 2015 - Also, vote for Pharaonic on Greenlight
Ziggurat has been selected as finalist on 3 categories (Best Game, Best PC Game, Best Console Game) for the Gamelab Awards: http://gamelab.es/premios2015/finalists/
The winners will be chosen next week, wish us luck!
The Public award finalists aren't shown so while our deal can't be fulfilled yet, we'll probably work on the promised update anyway :)
Meanwhile, you can check the Greenlight page for our next game, Pharaonic: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=463643141
We've been working on Pharaonic for a few months now and it's still a long way until it's finished, but it's coming along nicely. Please let us know what you think of the game :)
Vote Ziggurat for Gamelab 2015 Public Award!
Hello guys,
Ziggurat is currently nominated to the Gamelab 2015 Public Award, so we'd love your help in getting that award!
To vote for the game, you need a Facebook account and open this link: https://apps.facebook.com/mis-encuestas/premiosgamelab2015
Let's do a deal, if you help us getting to the top 4 nominees, we'll pause work on our next game for some time and work on a new Ziggurat content update (for free, as usual). This update would probably add a new enemy, a new unlockable character and new room layouts.
Thank you for your help and sorry for the spam :zcrystal:
Update #11: New rooms
This small update adds new room layouts, increasing the total room variety by around 10%.
EDIT: Found a game breaking bug, reverting the update until we get it fixed, sorry!
Update #10: Save & Quit (almost) anywhere
After a few days in beta and a few issues fixed, this update is now available for everyone.
It's not a big update, but it has some important changes made to mantain code compatibility with the recent Xbox One release. That means we'll be able to keep pushing updates with ease in the future :)
Changes in this update:
New features
Now you can Save & Quit inside a level (except during a battle)
The bestiary shows a stats screen for each enemy
Balancing
Reduced difficulty and number of Imps a bit more. Also improved performance when several imps are on screen.
Changes
We've changed again some bits of the save system to make it compatible with the recent console release. Some settings will revert to defaults because of this. Saved progress shouldn't be affected at all.
Update #10 (Beta): Save & Quit (almost) anywhere
Hello, it's been a while since the last update!
Today we're releasing a update for the beta branch (password: zigguratbeta).
The main new feature is the ability to use Save & Quit inside a floor.
This is in beta just in case something breaks, but the feature should work properly. You won't be able to Save & Quit during a fight, but it's still way better than the previous limitation.
For now, we're leaving both options in the pause menu (Save & Quit, and renamed Abandon Game to Surrender to avoid confusion), as well as the old Save & Quit option between levels, but we want to listen to your opinion on this: Should we remove everything but the Save & Quit option in the pause menu? Better to leave both?
There are also a few changes in the storage management that we have done to mantain code compatibility between the console versions of the game (Ziggurat was just released on Xbox One, by the way!) and this one. It isn't a big change, but it means some settings (custom inputs and language/graphics) will be reverted to defaults... again (This should be the last time!).
There's also some balancing and performance changes in the Imps, so the game doesn't slowdown as much when fighting hordes of them. Also toned down their difficulty a bit more.
Update #9: Small update - Balancing and new rooms
This small update features the following changes:
Balancing for Imps: Lower fire rate, wider shots (easier to slip through), less damage.
Added 8 new room layouts
New "Retry" button on the game over screen.
Changed "Next-Gen" filter to be less painful to watch.
Update #8: Bugfixes, gamepad improvements, new enemy and weapons!
Note: This update will probably break key/gamepad bindings and revert them to default values. Please rebind your keys if you had a custom setup.
Past month we've been doing lots of work under the hood to accomodate the game for future releases (wink wink), so we've focused on things such as performance and bugfixes, instead of content.
Some of the core components of the game have been modified, and while we haven't had any issue during the small beta process, something might have slipped, so please report any problem you may find.
New content:
New Room Modifier: Next Gen (Tuned a bit to be more subtle than on beta)
3 New weapons: Archon staff, Acheron's Cube and The Lidless Eye.
New enemy: Imp
New features / Improvements:
Changed fullscreen mode on OSX, now resolution selector should work properly, and performance may vary (still on the look for feedback on this)
Added a "Press Enter/A to start" button before the main menu. This is used to discard unused gamepad inputs (should fix most gamepad related issues). Mouse / Keyboard will always be available even if you press A with a gamepad, but not the other way around.
Game content is preloaded. Should improve load times on larger floors, but the game uses more RAM now. Depending on user feedback, we may add an option to disable this. This change has increased build size so now the game takes more space than before.
Input mapping: Now input for gamepads can be cancelled by holding B in addition to pressing Escape.
Pathfinding isn't updated as frequently. Should help with stuttering on complex rooms full of enemies.
Sprint state is not lost when jumping (In other words, you can now jump while sprinting).
Removed the perk limit during a single play, now it always works as Endless mode did.
Removed minor speed nerf for Simon, it should help survivability a bit.
Increased threat value (reduces number of simultaneous enemies) of: Kobolds, Golems, Orcs, Shamans, Yellow Mini slimes, Ulmar Fish
Necromancers: Decreased health a bit.
Improved effects of some unpopular perks.
Boss - Poloko: Spawns one Kobold less and one Carrot more. Reduced shockwave attack damage.
Boss - Percival: Increased attack damage
Boss - King Blob: Reduced rotating attack damage.
Other changes:
Changed a bit the way saved data is processed. Shouldn't have any noticeable difference.
Auto Aim: Increased auto aim strength for nearby targets.
"Infinite mana until hit" divine gift is not awarded if the player already has that effect.
Alternate fire while sprinting now works the same way primary fire did.
Gamepad vibration is not triggered when playing with a mouse / keyboard
Master of the Arts: This perk can now be only selected once.
Amulets, Room modifiers and Shrine effects will not repeat on the same game if not necessary.
Fixes:
Fixed Skeleton attacks dealing damage twice.
Items dropped from treasure boxes in challenge rooms are properly pushed so they don't end up mixed together.
Fixed round breakable column pieces still hurting the player when they stopped moving.
Fixed "Mudblood" achievement triggering if the player used only alchemical weapons.
Fixed small bug related with character selection screen and using mouse/keyboard at the same time.
The currently selected button is always shown in the menu.
"Lights Out" modifier should now restore once you clear the room.
Update #8 (Beta): Bugfixes and gamepad improvements
We're back with a new update!
The update will be available only on the Beta branch. To join the Beta, go to the game Betas tab (right click on the game on the Steam library, Properties, Betas), and enter the "zigguratbeta" password. The beta branch will be available for download.
Note: This update will probably break key/gamepad bindings and revert them to default values. Please rebind your keys if you had a custom setup.
This month we've been doing lots of work under the hood to accomodate the game for future releases (wink wink), so we've focused on things such as performance and bugfixes, instead of content.
Some of the core components of the game have been modified, and while we've tested this to ensure the game still works properly on Windows, Mac and Linux builds, there might be some issues here and there, so we'll keep this in beta for a few days before releasing it.
Changes in this update:
New content:
New Room Modifier: Next Gen (Expecting negative feedback, we'll probably tune it a bit before final release)
New features / Improvements:
Added a "Press Enter/A to start" button before the main menu. This is used to discard unused gamepad inputs (should fix most gamepad related issues). Mouse / Keyboard will always be available even if you press A with a gamepad, but not the other way around.
Game content is preloaded. Should improve load times on larger floors, but the game uses more RAM now. Depending on user feedback, we may add an option to disable this. This change has increased build size so now the game takes more space than before.
Input mapping: Now input for gamepads can be cancelled by holding B in addition to pressing Escape.
Pathfinding isn't updated as frequently. Should help with stuttering on complex rooms full of enemies.
Changed a bit the way saved data is processed. Shouldn't have any noticeable difference, but just in case...
Changes:
Sprint state is not lost when jumping (In other words, you can now jump while sprinting).
Auto Aim: Increased auto aim strength for nearby targets.
"Infinite mana until hit" divine gift is not awarded if the player already has that effect.
Alternate fire while sprinting now works the same way primary fire did.
Gamepad vibration is not triggered when playing with a mouse / keyboard
Master of the Arts: This perk can now be only selected once.
Amulets, Room modifiers and Shrine effects will not repeat on the same game if not necessary.
Fixes:
Fixed Skeleton attacks dealing damage twice (They may need some balancing to compensate for this bug).
Items dropped from treasure boxes in challenge rooms are properly pushed so they don't end up mixed together.
Fixed round breakable column pieces still hurting the player when they stopped moving.
Fixed "Mudblood" achievement triggering if the player used only alchemical weapons
Fixed small bug related with character selection screen and using mouse/keyboard at the same time.
The currently selected button is always shown in the menu
