Desktopia: A Desktop Village Simulator news & patch notes

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2390060/dEscape/ We, The Evergloom Team, are super pleased to show off the new trailer and Store Page for Desktopia's sister game 'dEskape' - Can you escape the deadly and dank planet from which you've crashed into? {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/7e750dfe29cb057d97d9ba9eb2b8a82114c065e3.gif From the team that made Desktopia comes 'dEscape': a new world to build, manage, and defend at the bottom of your desktop! At its core, 'dEscape' is a base-building game which sits across the bottom of your desktop allowing you to work, browse, or watch something else while you play. It's idle when you like and active when you want. Like any base-builder, you get to make the big decisions while taking control of your own laser shooting, resource-collecting character whose only objective is repairing their broken ship and getting off the dark and dreary rock onto which they've crashed. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/e88ca5f99ca7a9168ed10c8824144c74baf94692.gif THE GAME

• From nothing but the ruins of your ship: construct the infrastructure to escape the planet and build a truly massive base.
• Construct a range of facilities (factories, research labs, alien technology, mystical crops) and watch as storage creatures and aliens take up residence around your base.
• Wander away from the safety of your base to find resources and crashed resource pods.
• Research strange creatures and use them to create new and powerful resources.
• Construct droids, level them up, give them new skills, and take them out into the dark to collect resources, and destroy the dangerous blood hives that are attracted to your industry.
• Research new weapon types, and wield them against the dark creatures which try to steal your light.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2390060/dEscape/

A simple update to add interesting and varied weather to the game for a more immersive experience. Don't forget to wishlist our upcoming game 'dEskape' a new Desktopia-style experience! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2390060/dEscape/

To gain access to all the new content, you're going to want to download the free DLC https://store.steampowered.com/app/2280100/DESKTOPIA_End_of_the_Road/ ‘End of the Road’ offers a new game mode separate from the existing level-based system. It is designed with a host of new features, and with an absolutely massive map along which you can now grow a truly bustling metropolis.

FEATURES:

• A huge, 122,880-pixel road compared to the average 27,000 of the base game.
• A corrupted village, with lizard overlords that need to be obliterated.
• Twelve strongholds positioned along the road at intervals, each with their own stronghold boss and troops.
• All three groves on a single map.
• The ability to build up to 195 buildings, compared to the 55 average of base game maps.
• New enemies and a new boss to deal with.
• New, ruined portions of the road which cannot be built on.

BASE GAME IMPROVEMENTS:

• A new autosave feature that can be toggled on and off.
• A system for levelling up your character, and new bonus effects from building to make you stronger.
• A new, personal stats menu.
• More control over the way your soldiers and heroes act.
• New buildings, new troops and a new hero.
• Better A.I and smoother gameplay on larger maps.
• More use for redundant buildings.

WHY A FREE DLC?

Instead of a direct update? Well, for a few reasons and not least because updating to this DLC will invalidate your current saves. This is because we’ve had to completely rewrite the eventing system to handle such a massive map. On the plus side, this will make the base game more stable once you’ve updated. We’ve also done some pretty drastic restructuring of the base game, and having this update as a DLC will mean that if you don’t like the changes you can roll back easily by uninstalling the DLC.

WHY THIS DLC?

Originally we were working on a separate update, ‘Tyranny’, but our artist (part of our very small 3-person team) has had to step down due to a long-term medical condition, so we pivoted to ‘End of the Road,’ Interestingly, when we first sketched out the idea of Desktopia, we envisioned a single, massive road, along which the town would grow to completion. This turned out to be unworkable, due to limitations in our engine… limitations which we have since overcome. Although EotR is not true to that original vision it does offer a glimpse of what might have been. WARNING: this new version is incompatible with your current saves, but don't worry if you want to try the new version, your saves will be safe, just uninstall the DLC and you can continue from where you left off.

On top of the new ‘End of the Road’ game mode, we’ve overhauled large portions of the basegame to bring you a more fun and streamlined experience. Before we release a full list of changs, I’d like to show you some of the more interesting things that will have a visual impact on how you play the game.

Soldier Command

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/3705ae42ece27aee259ce7ddc27c037cc779fcaf.png With this update you now have more options in controlling your soldiers. While you could already make them run to you, by spending gratitude and using WarCry, you can now toggle your soldiers between two separate states: advance and surveil. Advance is their default setting from the original game, and allows them to move down the road at their own pace, while surveil, puts them on patrol at the edge of your village. Like everything to do with villagers in Desktopia, there is a chance that heroes (bored of surveiling) will override your orders locking you out for a short period… although they are less likely to do this if they are happy.

Character Menu

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/42ed6f7dd2e668050b9df04f61f7de2578af459b.png A new character menu not only allows you to view your current statistics on the fly, but also allows you to change your character avatar between six different skins, three male and three female.

Levelling Up

The Castle was always a difficult building to justify, taking up two slots and providing warriors that were mostly outdated with the onset of rifles… but not any more. Building the castle now allows you to spend Gratitude to increase your level: increasing your attack and health, and making you more effective when supporting your troops. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/26ae4f71b64ca7d53f110c9831eb97d5648537b4.png The alchemist, hospital, and geneticist all now improve your healing rate, along with your soldiers so that you can stay in battle longer with your new increased health, and alongside this, there’s now a numeric health indicator on the main screen, so you can get a more accurate overview of your current health. In the base game, you also level up, each time you finish a village. And in EotR, you level up each time you defeat a mini-boss and stronghold.

Autosave

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/d5c3c44e98edb6d5a71e9875a567c67eaf8e6ab3.png As requested: a toggleable autosave feature that can be turned on from the main menu.

Your current saves:

Are safe, but incompatible with the new version. In order to make all the changes we have, we’ve had to rewrite huge portions of the base code, and make fundamental changes that make old saves incompatible. This is one of the reasons we are releasing this as a DLC. That way you can try the new version but can easily roll back by uninstalling it. Save files from different versions are stored separately in your installation so won’t be overwritten. We’re sorry that old saves are not compatible, it sucks, but hopefully releasing the update as a DLC is a reasonable compromise. Thanks, as always for the support. I passed on all the well wishes to Angels, and she was most thankful. Speak soon, Mike

Thanks for watching/playing. If you've enjoyed Desktopia, consider voting for us in the 'Game Dev World Championships' by liking our page!

With the New Year upon us, I thought it was time to update you on what was going on with Desktopia, and some of the plans we have for the future. Firstly, some sad news: our artist, Angela, has had to take a permanent break from game development. She's been in and out of hospital throughout the design process but is no longer able to continue, despite how much she wanted to. She has poured a lot of love into this game, and we love her for it, but her health must always come first! Her continued ill health has been upsetting, to say the least. She has insisted that we try to move on with updates without her, and so we plan to do this in the best way possible: by using her beautiful assets to bring a free, large update to Desktopia. The 'End of the Road Update' is planned for an early February release, and will include the following. - A new game mode (The End of the Road) with a map three times longer than any you've seen so far, with new ruins, multiple strongholds, mini-bosses, objectives, building requirements and other surprises. Thank you to all those who've sent well wishes to Angela, and to all those who've bought and played Desktopia.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/683ed4a03bfff77869334c517facf49a28024b80.png Firstly, upon request, we've added trading badges, emoticons, and backgrounds for you collectors out there. Enjoy ːthebakerː It's been a crazy few weeks here with us. ːbeholdthisː If you've read any of our posts you may know that our lead artist has been in hospital undergoing long term treatment, and on top of that the remaining two of us have been suffering with a nasty Covid variant over the last few weeks which left me in bed unable to move for some of it. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/1c195107e2a64b78dce4f8fe3482f41fb2fde586.png This has put us behind on our development of Tyranny!, but we're still here and plugging away and are still hoping for a November release (barring any other acts of fate!) ːTheTRexː One thing I have been working on, is the new character stats menu. Once Tyranny! releases, you will be able to upgrade your character using either Gratitude points or Tyranny points, making them far more useful on later levels. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/7ea6447330a759d18705f78936c0e549f0b56a5f.png Anyway, thanks for playing, and for being patient as we recover. ːitsallbusinessː

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/22b0079d6eda81314d1d0a5adf336cf07b65e386.png Firstly, thank you to everyone who's offered feedback, left reviews, and supported Desktopia so far. As you probably know, there are only three of us working on Desktopia so we're sorry if updates and responses take a little time. We always want to make sure we're doing our best and taking the game in the right direction. We're here for the long haul and we have plenty of ideas on how we can add content, and a bunch of updates already planned. With that, I'd like to talk a little about 'Tyranny!' , and show you some of the new -(still under construction)- assets! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/14c52a5a2287f7ce10f5cdd4a20501a22c95f92e.png These are just a few of the new buildings which will be included in the Tyranny! update. Alongside these, many of the existing building's uses will be overhauled or given new functions (the woodcutter for example will improve your character's axe haft, making it more deadly). The green portals you see are the base requirement for playing as a tyrannical overlord. Choose to build them instead of a barracks and outposts, and the Piglizards will pour through. Rather than helping you defeat the boss, like soldiers do, these Piglizards will go around collecting taxes and creating the new resource 'Tyranny!', which, with the construct of new buildings, you can spend on upgrading your character so you can play a major role in taking on the bosses yourself. Imagine yourself with the laser of Red the Plastic Trooper, with spells to summon ferocious monsters or rain down fire, and placeable turrets to help defend your town from attacks!

Other features:

- New ways to spend gratitude, for those who still want to play as a god guy: new prayers, festivals, and player upgrades. - Villagers who can turn unfriendly and attack their guards or you! - A new character screen where you can see your stats and buy upgrades using resources. - 3 new levels, including a new 80+ building level. - A range of new enemies. - Giant monsters attracted to Tyranny who will challenge you for your towns. - Disasters and new building's to mitigate them. - New ways to control your troops. - Menu overhauls to reflect the new stats and resources, and to tidy things up! Thanks again for all the support, and (as always) let us know what you like and dislike. We take feedback very seriously, and have already added a host of suggestions from the community. The Evergloom Team

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/a73ace021e3064c6040eed8dbadc8c9f15b2bc48.png ACHIEVEMENT UPDATE: - Added twelve level-complete achievements to the game. - Added 2 secret achievements! - Achievements should work with existing saves, just wait for the following, in-game, day! FIXED: - A small error that miscalculated chance to hit of lasers. - A small chance that the player would get stuck in the dog and be unable to move.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/837340b7e20bae3f5b01e6da9e3154d8e2bd4a2c.gif Creating art assets, for the current state of this game, is the most time consuming job. Despite their pixel simplicity, every character needs to be animated and every new asset has to match the others. So while we wait for the Tyranny assets to be created we have created a new female character who you can play, with three colour options, and two new colour options for the male character. We haven't been able to put them into the game yet, but if you're after a old-school reskin, and don't mind copying some files, you can get your hands on them early!

HOW TO:

1. From the images at the end of this post, choose your favourite, right click and 'save to desktop'. 2. Rename the file to %player-1 3. In Steam right click Desktopia and 'browse local files' 4. Navigate from the Desktopia folder to Desktopia/www/img/characters. 5. Copy your renamed file into this folder, making sure to overwrite when asked. That's it, you should now have a new skin for your character! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/fb49a7e379db7fdd0ff1af506e08c172ac6be478.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/dc7fa1443469ca9e714568c702eae206e050a4be.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/126b0dd3752fe09d60ca5fb73b368f6aa37af8f4.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/bf6d67c316d267fe351f55889f436f745f25d985.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/cf79d449ea057dfcb7206613eaff3d1e885d27e6.png

CHANGES: - AI 'HOLD' rates have been adjusted for more responsive soldiers. - Various changes to AI sight ranges that make long ranged combat smoother. (including lower the sight ranges of some enemies) FIXES: - Troopers now gain a bonus from the rifle range. - Fixed a bug with enemies getting 'confused' after a kill. -

FIXES: - Fixed an issue where the Serfs menu wasn't showing on Linux. - Fixed an issue where Pete's or Lady D's expansion would cause a crash.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/c988a5250108b1fdba26127395581d1bc03946a3.png Continuing the theme of adding more information to the game. You are now able to check the exact health of your villagers by hovering over the HP bar. You can also now see their attack strength. The Coop, Smith, and Powdersmith and Rifle Range now state exactly how much they increase the attacks of Specific people, and you can now see this reflected in the villager's stats. Adding this update, may break your Serfs menu for your current level as it will be trying to display stats that don't exist. Next level or restart will fix the issue.

BALANCES

- Tunnelers are now very unlikely to spawn on Idle Mode. - Lowered the chance of tunnelers spawning on later levels. - Increased the music effect of your pipe. - Heroes attack now increases by 5 per level (previously 3)

IMPROVEMENTS

- The hover feature on graphs now shows both (empty and full) stats at the same time.

FIXES

- Fixed a counting error where hovering over Pete's expansion would increase it's build number.

Our original design philosophy was to create a numberless game, which was accessible to everyone: and for the most part we succeeded. Understandably however, many of you wanted more details. How much food does a Bakery provide? How much Fun does Stan the Serf actually need? And why do some buildings seem to add things not mentioned in the text? To help you answer these questions we have added numbers back into the game, although you can still ignore them if you want to! We've created a whole bunch of changes to the games graphs and menus:

The Build Menu

Now shows exactly how much of each resource a building supplies. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/b8ebd7d96e3f0f57940ed5bf8e8711feed08bbde.png

The Stats Menu

We added a second Needs chart based on actual numbers and not percentages, and added hoverable tooltips so you can see exactly how much of a resource your villager's need, and see how much surplus you have. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/e4baef9acdba8295f3304c6dd2bbdf0c061366fe.png

The Villager Menu

Here we added more hoverable tooltips so you can see exactly how much of a resource an individula villager needs {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/5e57a2c2adc5d7023224b8c8faac61f1676b2dad.png FIXES: -- increased the collecting range of the postman for when orbs are difficult to get. (this should stop him getting stuck) -- Children now back away from enemies, causing a dramatic decrease in their deaths.

- Clicking either of the volume buttons will now raise or lower the volume by increments instead of a simple on off. The button should gain/lose contrast with the volume.

You still use 'F1' to unlock resize, but now the scaling is dynamic, allowing you to move the window to a second monitor, or just make it tiny for fun. The Window should also no longer reverts to original size on save. Linux and Windows builds updated!

IDLE MODE - Fires should no longer be a problem on Idle Mode - Enemies should no longer attack in groups on Idle Mode - Tunneller Spawn rates adjusted ALL MODES - Fire is now 50% less likely to spawn!

- Increased controller support - Bound water pistol to ALT as well as M2 (May require new game)

NEW: Prayers: A new way to spend gratitude: (accessible through Festival Menu) - Pray for magical shields for you and your soldiers - Summon a mighty elemental to help in battles. - Call forth Divine Light to cheer your villagers and banish dark weather. Added a reset button to the main menu which will delete all your saves and reset the game. FIXED: - A bug causing fires very occasionally not removing from map after being put out. - A small error in ranged combat causing some hits not to register. BALANCES: - Fixed inconsistencies in the Stronghold Bosses Health - Increased damage of Plastic troopers by 5% - On later levels: increased the minimum number of buildings required to trigger attacks from the Stronghold. - Mega-Nerf on end-level clones - health decreased by 50% and lowered fire rate by 33% ENGINE: - Upgraded NW.JS to 0.67

FIXES: - Mismatch in capitalisation caused crashes on some systems, fixed: EDITS: - Changes to the FESTIVAL MENU in preparation for Prayers to be added.

Now that the game is launched we’d like to talk a little about our future development pipeline. We should start by saying that ALL future updates and DLC will be included with the base game. There will be NO PAID ADDONS and NO MICROTRANSACTIONS. If you own the base game then all future DLC will be included. We may, however, increase the price of the base game as more content is added. This way, we can thank you early adopters while still funding the expansion. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/22b0079d6eda81314d1d0a5adf336cf07b65e386.png ‘Tyranny!’, our first large update is already in production. This update will add an entirely new way of playing Desktopia: as a tyrant! It will be a more active way to play, requiring more of your focus. It is also entirely optional. Tyranny! will give you the chance to ‘level up’ your personal character with new skills and powers, enabling you to take on the game’s bosses and new enemies without the help of soldiers. What it will include: New Buildings: - The Dark Guards : To start the Tyranny tree, you build this instead of the Barracks, and rather than soldiers, you will get guards, who prowl your village: taxing your villagers and keeping them in line. This means that you won’t have soldiers to fight the boss (though you can still build heroes) Instead, the rest of the buildings in the Tyranny! Tree will allow you to upgrade your character, so you can take on the boss yourself. New Resource: - Tyranny: like gratitude, you will be able to spend your tyranny orbs on game bonuses. New Skills: - Swap your pistol for a rifle, your axe for a mega axe, and learn spells like the Stronghold bosses. Kaiju: - Tyranny attracts monsters! The more tyrannical you become, the more frightening things will try to come and take your villages from you: including massive Kaiju which you can fight off with your new skills. New Levels: - 2 new, longer levels! New Heroes: - Some new, dark heroes! When will it release? We'd like to launch as early as November, but we won't launch until it's ready. What else is planned? Beyond this in another free DLC, which we are temporarily calling ‘MoreTopia’ we are looking at introducing a new game mode, beyond the progressive level mode, which will allow for the creation of, random maps with various modifiers (such as locked buildings, random enemies, new bosses, mid level bosses, and other features). This new mode should extend dramatically the playability of the game and offer new and interesting challenges. Thanks for reading this, and for playing Desktopia! If you’ve enjoyed the game so far, please leave a review: they really help motivate us to work faster!! The Evergloom Team

BALANCES: - Further balanced fire on later levels. - Lessened the chance of strikes on easier difficulties. FIXES: - Fixed a bug where Tunnellers would spawn with 5* health - Fixed an issue where the dog could get stuck in a bush. NEW: - Added a overall building counter and max building number to the build menu so you can see how full your village is.

FIXES: - Fixed an error where bush collider refresh caused a crash moving between levels (thanks Max). - Addressed small balancing issue with water pistol and demons ADDED: - Functionality for AZERTY Keyboards

FIXES: - Minor issues with the help text. - Fixed a bug where arson was less likely on higher difficulties. NEW: - You asked for a counter to keep track of your buildings. Here it is, added to the building menu :) - Note: this will only start counting from your current point, and will not include already built buildings on our current level.

- Fixed an error with enemies not spawning when the boss has been overly assaulted with a water pistol. - Increased the width of the draggable area for issues with the window hiding on Ubuntu. - Fixed an issue where Demon Dogs were getting caught behind the demon portal. - Fixed an issue where taxes were not being collected when nobles visited the church. - Advanced: 'F1' will now unlock the window, so it can be resized. This is a temporary fix for certain Linux builds, mismatched monitor sizes, and interesting screen configurations. The window will revert to default on save/load (to avoid crashes) - a more permanent fix for these fringe cases in in the works.

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/6537eac38e458f5c02237aefd348efaa3c749f94.png Our release date had to be put back to the 11th because we weren't sure we could finish all the graphical assets in time due to our artist having to make an extended stay in hospital. Like a trooper, however, she continued to pixel art from her hospital bed and we are ready to launch back on our original date of August 5th! With the game ready, our team excited, and people waiting, we are now fully engaged in preparing for a today's launch! Thanks for all the support during the creation process, and we look forward to your feedback! Mike, Catherine, and Angela, The Evergloom Team

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/8503987912ccbc7e0c9dab67ce7d16342c64a3de.gif You've seen the cute industrialists in their little top hats, fancy dresses, and stern concrete houses... but what comes next? Cyberists... cyberpunkers... cyberfolk... whatever you want to call them, these colourful villagers are more at home with neon signs and electronic tech. While they may be needy little villagers, the bonuses of having a hightech village is all too obvious, especially when the aliens begin to invade and only your Robo-Hero can stop them! We've had a lot of requests asking to see some footage or screen-shots from these later stages, so here are a few. Don't look too closely if you don't want any spoilers! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/4f435d90ce41c8b4a6c2afe4bbcf953c3b931ace.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/c341d2b4e530b6724084207d442ea3b60d9aefff.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/c611f1527fac6244cd4fc9af600de2ea94d4164c.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/afcc32d90df51843c275668290856e94e4f13362.png

If you can't watch right now: here is a page, detailing these interactions, from the Help Menu. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/42486639/49fb508bd6906c159816a9bb976ad3d46505bf21.png

All the coding, and eventing is now completely finished, and all we have left to do is finish off and insert the artwork. A big job but one that the remaining two of us can certainly handle. Today I played through level one and most of level two. Here is a few minutes of a 2/3rds complete level two. Obviously there are spoilers. If you don't want to see the furious Blood King, then watch no further!