Shattered Pixel posts
Posts: 443
Files: 246
Early Encampment | Patreon Weekly #226
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to go over how the crystal caves quest has been doing so far, and share some early work on the second caves quest variant!Early Crystal Caves FeedbackThe crystal caves quest has been in beta for about 4 days now, with things being pretty stable after a quick BETA-1.1 release 3 days ago. On a technical front the only major things I want to address right now are some clarity issues with some of the text. In particular people seem to be mistaking ‘cash out’ as a reward that always costs 3,000 favor.In te...
v2.2.0 Patreon Alpha! (latest: BETA-1.0)
Hey Golden+ Patrons, here's a quick alpha for the first variant of the new quest!There is currently only one variant, but I expect to get more working over the next few weeks. The exact mechanics and visuals are still a bit of a work in progress, so please let me know what you think!If all goes well I expect to put this to beta in another couple of days.Please note that these builds may be unstable! I will do my best to fix issues ASAP, but you probably shouldn't update yet if you've got a great run in progress you don't want to...
Shattered Crystals | Patreon Weekly #225
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to share a bunch of progress on the Crystal caves quest! We’re just about ready for alpha!This weekly also includes an audio Q&A! Go and give it a listen if you’d like. You can find audio timestamps at the end of this weekly.Cave GenerationFirstly, I’ve made a bunch of critical improvements to levelgen for the quest. Some changes are obvious, and some are a bit more subtle. Here’s a comparison image showing the cave region from last week’s weekly(left), and this week(right):Firstly, I’ve added...
Crystal Caverns | Patreon Weekly #224
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to share some early implementation progress on the crystal region for the new caves quest!Firstly though, there’s a new Shattered Secrets this week! In it I share some early ideas for a possible demon halls quest!Also, next week’s weekly will have an audio Q&A segment! Feel free to ask questions either here or on the Patreon discord.And finally, here are the results from Patreon Poll #45:Crystal Caves: 59%Unstable Encampment: 44%Mushroom Forest: 41%There’s a clear preference for the Crystal environm...
Caves Quest Environment Priority | Patreon Poll #45
A quick note for users on the Patreon mobile apps: multiple-choice polls don’t seem to be working correctly right now. You may need to refresh this post multiples times to be able to vote for more than one option.Hey Patrons!Firstly, go read this week’s weekly if you haven’t yet! In this poll I’m asking for your interest in each of the upcoming caves quest environments! The weekly contains a bunch of details about them.The strength of support for each option will influence which environments I work on first when developing v2.2.0’s ne...
Caves Quest Details! | Patreon Weekly #223
Hey Patrons, apologies for the slight delay in the weekly this week. I just released an early beta for v2.2.0 and wanted to prioritize getting a bugfix update out first.This weekly is extra long, as it’s meant to combine with this month’s Patreon Poll! I’m finally sharing a bunch of more specific details for caves quest environments and would like you guys to vote on which one’s you’d like me to implement first!IntroA bit of structing before we get started. Each environment has four unique features that distinguish it from its cousins...
An Early Beta | Patreon Weekly #222
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to talk a bit about an upcoming beta for v2.2.0, and summarize where we are currently.What’s Done, and What’s Left?Currently v2.2.0 includes a bunch of miscellaneous content, in addition to the planned headline feature of the blacksmith quest rework: Almost 20 minutes of new music, including intense tracks, finale tracks, and extensions to the existing region tracks. A soft rework to the prison quests, with the goal of making their mechanics more engaging. A rebalance to the hostile champions challeng...
Intense Region Music! | Patreon Weekly #221
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to share some upcoming new music for the game that was previously shared in Shattered Secrets #26!This weekly also includes an audio Q&A! The formatting is a bit different this week thanks to also having audio in the regular weekly. The Q&A starts at 11:00, and you can find audio timestamps at the end of this weekly.More Music!Since he finished up some work on Black Reliquary a couple month ago, Kristjan and I have been talking about adding some more new music to Shattered!Since Kristjan’s original new ...
Huntress’ Backstory | Patreon Weekly #220
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to share some WIP backstory details for the Huntress, which were previously shared in Shattered Secrets #20! You can also look at some previous weeklies for the Warrior, Mage, and Rogue.If you’re hungry for more backstory, there’s also a new Shattered Secrets this week, which shares some info on the Duelist.Lastly, next week’s weekly will have an audio Q&A segment! Feel free to ask questions either here or on the Patreon discord.Huntress’ BackstoryAbove the dungeon there is a bustling city, the ca...
Reforging and More | Patreon Weekly #219
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to share a quick update on caves quest terrain and give some more info on blacksmith rewards!Firstly though, here are the results from Patreon Poll #44:Soften the Penalty: 77%Make Shopkeepers Invulnerable: 46%Change Nothing: 14%I’m quite happy with result, although I am a little surprised that softening the penalty got so much more support than outright removing it. I’ll consider a few options here and have some change to shopkeepers made in v2.2.0. They’ll either warn first before fleeing, or pen...
Sewers and Prison Quest Tweaks | Patreon Weekly #218
Hey Patrons! While work continues on the caves quest, I don’t really have anything to show off for it this week. So, in this weekly I’m going to show off some improvements I’m making to the sewers and prison quests!There also a new Patreon Poll running this week! This poll concerns potential changes to shopkeeper fleeing behaviour.Sewers QuestThe ghost’s quests are getting no changes directly, but I’m looking to make a few positioning based QoL adjustments. Firstly, the ghost now spawns and wanders within the exit room, rather than wa...
Shopkeeper Fleeing | Patreon Poll #44
A quick note for users on the Patreon mobile apps: multiple-choice polls don’t seem to be working correctly right now. You may need to refresh this post multiples times to be able to vote for more than one option.Hey Patrons!Lately I’ve noticed a bit of discussion both in the Patreon discord and more widely about shopkeeper fleeing behaviour. This is a design element of them that I’ve been hesitant to change before, but as shopkeepers were already adjusted recently, (and, to be honest, it also makes for a easy-to-implement poll) I thought...
Environment Concept Progress | Patreon Weekly #217
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going over my current plans for the three environments you might encounter during the blacksmith’s quest.This weekly also includes an audio Q&A! Go and give it a listen if you’d like. You can find audio timestamps at the end of this weekly.Environment ConceptsYou might remember that I was a little disappointed with the results from Poll #42 a bit over a month ago. At the time I was mainly concerned about how the lower voted environments were re-using assets, and so would be quicker to make. After some more ...
Early Blacksmith Levelgen | Patreon Weekly #216
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to share some early progress and experimentation on level generation for the blacksmith quest!Also, next week’s weekly will have an audio Q&A segment! Feel free to ask questions either here or on the Patreon discord.Placing Gold OreAs mentioned in a previous weekly, I plan for there to be ~40 gold ore to find in the blacksmith area, arranged into small and large clusters for the player to mine. The current gold generation algorithm is a fair bit more random than that though. It simply takes every camera...
Champions and Crystal Paths | Patreon Weekly #215
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to talk about two feedback-driven changes I’m making in v2.2.0!Firstly though, here are the results from Patreon Poll #43The Cleric: 62%New Item Type: 44%City Quest: 44%Shop Overhaul: 32%Hero-Focused Lore: 32%It's not surprising at all to me that the cleric tops the list here. I don’t want to jump into a new hero right away, but it’s undeniable that’s where most player excitement lies. I am a little surprised to see a new item type doing so well though! I think these new items should be relati...
Blacksmith Quest Scoring | Patreon Weekly #214
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to share my current plans for the specific objectives for the blacksmith’s quest.There’s also a new Patreon Poll! In this poll I’d like to gauge your excitement toward some of the larger content additions I have planned.Dark Gold!A major focus of the new blacksmith quest will be mining for gold, just as it is currently.Gold will appear semi-randomly in the quest environment in smaller and larger clusters/veins, instead of being scattered purely randomly as it is right now. I think concentrating the ...
Future Shattered Content, 2013 | Patreon Poll #43
Hey Patrons!Much like Poll #33, in this poll I’d like to gauge your excitement toward some of the larger content additions I have planned. These are all of the shorter and medium term items previously shared in ‘Shattered Pixel Dungeon in 2023’, minus the new region arts, as I don’t have direct control over how quickly they get done.The strength of support for each option will help my considerations when prioritizing them. Please let me know what you’re most excited to see!---Please vote for all the options that you like, not just for...
Region Splash Arts! | Patreon Weekly #213
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to share some more region splash art! These splashes were originally shared in Shattered Secrets #18 and #25.Splash ArtsAs a reminder, a while ago I got an email from Aleks asking if I was interested in doing more work with him. After some ideating back and forth, we settled on adding some environmental splash art! These splashes are planned to appear during the level transitions and will likely also appear when the player first enters a region and sees the usual lore text. Landscape users would see the e...
Baseline Mining | Patreon Weekly #212
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to go over my progress in implementing the new mining feature!This weekly also includes an audio Q&A! Go and give it a listen if you’d like. You can find audio timestamps at the end of this weekly.Strike the Earth!I’m getting fairly close to releasing v2.1.3, which will include a full baseline implementation of the new mining mechanic, plus a few other smaller fixes.You might remember, back in Weekly #174, I showed off these special wall tiles. They were an early concept meant to make it more clear wh...
Level Branches | Patreon Weekly #211
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to share some technical details on how exactly quest sub floors will work.Firstly though, there’s a new Shattered Secrets post, where I share some new WIP music for the regions of the dungeon!Also, next week’s weekly will have an audio Q&A segment! Feel free to ask questions either here or on the Patreon discord.Lastly, we also have results from Patreon Poll #42!Crystal Caves: 74%Mushroom Forest: 61%Collapsed Mine: 55%Gnoll Enchamnent: 42%Spinner’s Lair: 39%I feel like this poll ended up being more ...
Mining Environments | Patreon Poll #42
Hey Patrons!Firstly, please go read this week’s Weeklyif you haven’t already! This week the weekly and poll are meant to go hand in hand.As mentioned in this week’s weekly, I’ve got some ideas for potential environments to the blacksmith’s quest! Each of these is meant to provide some theming around hazards and enemies that encourage positional gameplay via mining. Please keep in mind that these are fairly early concepts; they will likely get refined a fair bit during development.Please vote for each environment idea that interests yo...
Major Miner | Patreon Weekly #210
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going to be going over more specific early design details for the blacksmith quest rework!There also a new Patreon Poll this week! I strongly suggest that you read this weekly before reading the poll though, as they go hand in hand. The poll will let me gauge interest in some of the specific environment ideas I currently have.The PickaxeAs mentioned last weekly, I am refocusing my design for the blacksmith quest to be more rooted in existing game mechanics. Each variant of the quest will put the player into a d...
Blacksmith Quest Overview | Patreon Weekly #209
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going over the general design direction for the Blacksmith’s quest!Sorry for the delay (again =S) by the way! I ended up having to make some changes to this weekly as I realized it makes the most sense to pace out the info on the Blacksmith quest instead of dumping it all at once.Design ChangesFirstly, if you want a bit of background, Weekly #164 is the most recent time that I talked generally about the state of the quest’s design.Since then, I’ve been having a bit of trouble with concepting out exactly h...
Back from Anime North | Patreon Weekly #208
Hey Patrons, sorry for the delay and another short weekly this week. I’m still quite tired from returning from anime north and need to get moving on finishing up v2.1.0. I do have some loose plans for v2.2.0 that I’d like to share though.This weekly also includes an audio Q&A! Go and give it a listen if you’d like. You can find audio timestamps at the end of this weekly.The Rough Plan for v2.2.0 and the Blacksmith QuestFirst things first, v2.1.0 needs to get released! I am planning to release an RC-1 beta for it shortly, fixing some more ...
V2.1.0 Beta! | Patreon Weekly #207
Hey Patrons! I’ve got a bite-sized weekly for you this week, as v2.1.0 just went to beta!I’m fairly pleased with the release pace of this update, hitting beta just a bit more than 2 months after v2.0, and about a month after I finished releasing patches for v2.0. You can read the beta announcement blog post here: https://shatteredpixel.com/blog/coming-soon-to-shattered-duelist-buffs-and-additions.htmlI’ve not got much to share on Patreon this week because of the beta. Next weekly will probably also be a bit sparse, and a day late, as this...
v2.1.0 Patreon Alpha! (latest: BETA)
Hey Golden+ Patrons, It's time for a surprise v2.1.0 alpha!v2.1.0 is already content-complete, aside from a few smaller tweaks I still have planned to do. I expect this alpha to be fairly quick as a result.Please let me know what you think, and if you run into any bugs!Please note that these builds may be unstable! I will do my best to fix issues ASAP, but you probably shouldn't update yet if you've got a great run in progress you don't want to lose. Please let me know if you run into any problems!---The latest alpha version is:...
Duelist Balance | Patreon Weekly #206
Hey Patrons! In this weekly I’m going to focus on the balance changes I have planned for the Duelist!Firstly though, there’s a new Shattered Secrets this week! I’m once again sharing some WIP splash art, this time for the demon halls!Also, here are the results from Patreon Poll #41:On-Upgrade Talents: 80%On-ID Talents: 62%Cached Rations: 50%Improvised Projectiles: 14%These results aren’t too surprising, as they largely mimic what you guys have been telling me more informally for a while in places like the Patreon discord. I am a bit sur...
Fourth Anniversary! | Patreon Weekly #205
Hey Patrons, this week is the Patreon’s 4th anniversary! I’ve also got a bit of info to share about shop interfaces.There’s also a Patreon Poll running this week! I'm interested to hear your thoughts on changes to the least popular T1 and T2 talents.Four Years!And just like that, somehow it’s been four years since this Patreon started (as of May 12th)! It’s a bit crazy to think that people who were just joining around the time when loyalty rewards were being voted on are now almost ready to receive their three year pins.Last year ...
Underused Talent Changes | Patreon Poll #41
Hey Patrons!With work on v2.1.0 coming together, and my focus turning largely towards Duelist balance and design tweaks (now that the analytics data has come in), I thought now would be a good time to ask you about some more specific tweaks to the other heroes. I’ve taken a look at some of the least popular T1 and T2 talents, and am interested to see what your sentiment is about whether they should be changed.Please vote for each talent that you would like to see changed or even replaced. The strength of support for each option will influence...
Tormented Spirits and Phantom Piranhas | Patreon Weekly #204
Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’ve got some progress to share with new exotic enemies in v2.1.0!This weekly also has an audio Q&A in it! Go and give it a listen if you’d like. You can find audio timestamps at the end of this weekly.New Exotic Enemies!Over the last week or so I’ve been busy with a bit of back and forth following Shattered’s release on GOG and Itch. The game now properly shows up on Itch search, the soundtrack is available on GOG, and the GOG release no longer whines when you try to launch it on macOS.In addition to that, I...
