Have a Nice Death News

Hello Everyone,

It was quite a long road! For those who haven't heard about it, we just released HAVE A NICE DEATH out of early access not too long ago. Everyone here at Magic Design Studios is very happy about finally being able to show you our game we have been working on for several years.

Thank you to everyone who has been with us for a long time. Your support was a great motivation to our team and your feedbacks were an integral part of what the game is now. To those who are just arriving, welcome. We hope everyone is having a great time with our game. :)

So now that the game is released, what is in the future for HAND?
To start, we are gonna release a big patch with a lot of improvement and fixes in the coming weeks. This will be our first post-launch update! But we're also working on another one that will come later. Some could even be considered big changes but the whole team has been listening to the various feedbacks toward the game (both internal and from you), and I want to maybe explain them in detail here.

One of the big change that we are have made is change to the Natural Disaster Department. Previously it served as the final world but with the addition of the new Department we now have runs that might a bit too long, so we are moving the world to be an alternate world to the War Department. But don't worry, of course we have adapted the difficulty of the world to be the same of the War Department. So now, except with the first Department and the last one, you will always have a sideworld to choose.

Secondly, we have decided to give more buffs to the Easy Mode. A lot of our players are not that experienced with difficult games but we want them to at least have a chance to finish the game if they want to. This means some new modifiers to it like Decreased Boss HP, Decrease Enemy damages and so on. It isn't that big but it might make a difference.

Thirdly, there are several new improvement for comprehension / UX. We have added some indicators to Jocelyn contract for instance, so that the player can at least how far along they are until completion.

Finally, a lot of balancing as usual! The various weapon buff / Curse buff but some bigger changes such as decreasing enemy permanent damage to the player in order to make blue Anima a bit more useful. We also have fixed some bugs that made some items not drop during Arena or Floor rewards, so runs should appear a bit more varied / lenient.

And to conclude, thank you everyone. I don't have a lot of word left to express what everyone at Magic Design is feeling. We are glad you were there and we hope you enjoy our game.

Simon
Lead Game Designer

Have A Nice Death's dark art and quick-slashing combat bring Hollow Knight to mind, but it has more in common with Hades and Dead Cells. One of the things it has in common with those games is that it was released in early access. After a little more than a year, version 1.0 arrived this week, bringing a final area, a new boss, and the end of its storyline.

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[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Have a Nice Death is a hand-drawn 2D Action Rogue-Lite where you play as Death, Founder and CEO of Death Incorporated—a sprawling corporate empire that processes souls for the afterlife—who currently finds himself teetering on the edge of burnout. His top executives, the Sorrows, have been running rampant on Earth’s surface, blatantly ignoring company protocols, leaving him buried in an underworld-sized mountain of paperwork. Now, in order to regain control of his company and soul-ply chain, as well as secure a much-needed vacation, he will need to traverse the various departments of Death Incorporated and remind his unruly subordinates who’s boss.

Welcome to Death Incorporated – Discover and explore the darkly-charming, procedurally-generated departments of Death Inc., where you’ll meet a diverse cast of memorable characters—like your affable pumpkin-headed assistant, Pump Quinn—who are always willing to share the latest office gossip

Reap What You Sow – Sharpen your skills (and scythe) through fast-paced hack n’ slash combat, utilizing over 30 unique weapons and spells you can find and upgrade to create devastating combinations

Death Never Sleeps – Since Death can’t die, use what you’ve learned and earned to overcome the numerous minions and bosses in each department of Death Incorporated... over and over. A performance review after every run guarantees that you’ll unlock interesting items and upgrades that will help you progress on your journey

When Life Gives You Curses – Taking more power for yourself is a controversial move in Death Incorporated’s company culture. For instance, adopting a Curse upgrade for yourself might result in the Labor Inspector granting your subordinates enhanced powers, or worse, raising the cost of koffee and other items that are vital to your work output

Like: https://www.facebook.com/JoinDeathInc/

Follow: https://twitter.com/JoinDeathInc

Watch: https://www.twitch.tv/JoinDeathInc

All of us at Magic Design Studios and Gearbox Publishing are beyond ecstatic for all mortals to finally jump into the full game and join Death Inc.! Development on Have a Nice Death has been incredible - from our big announcement at the Game Awards to releasing the game into Early Access - the support we’ve received means so much to us. We’d like to especially thank our Early Access players who have given us such valuable feedback – which helped us not only make the hack’n’scythe adventure we wanted, but what roguelike fans wanted as well. Whether you’re new to Have a Nice Death or you’ve been playing it since it launched in Early Access, we hope you enjoy your time at Death Incorporated!



Thanks to the Launch Update that brings new content available for the first time tomorrow, you’ll find the eighth department of Death Inc., the Inevitable Time Department. This new department is packed with deadly goodies, including new bosses, mini-bosses and enemies, the ending of the game’s main storyline, “quality-of-death" gameplay improvements and much more. At Death Inc., rumor has it that there are several secrets to uncover in this department as well...

Below is a detailed list of game features for the 1.0 launch version of Have a Nice Death, available March 22nd at 9:00am PT:



New World: Inevitable Time Department (after Natural Disasters Department)

• 5 new enemies: Destinatus, Pendulus, Tempus, Dustin, Kookoo.
  
• 1 Miniboss: The Bridgets
  
• 1 Boss: Time
  

Boss secret & endings

• When a player defeats the Inevitable Time Department boss, 3 lockers appear in the next run: One in the shop, one in the breakroom, and one before entering a mini boss room.
  
• Opening these lockers will give an artefact.
  
• The player has to collect the 3 artefacts and kill Time to reach the new secret boss.
  

New intriguing floor to several worlds

New weapons

• 3 new spells: Nihillaser, AnvilLauch, Void rift
  
• 3 new cloaks: Vampire battery, Beaststell, Excavore
  

More than 30 new curses

• Some new curses make your INFUSE evolves, for instance: Burn will now trigger an explosion at the end of the duration
  

New option in the menu: Hide damage number

New UI feature: Contracts’ progression.

• After selecting a contract with Joe, the player can see the progress of this ongoing contract during the run: a message insight will pop up while entering the breakroom or Death office (lobby).
  

New Gameplay Elements (GPEs) & Pickups

• Temporal platforms in World 8 (Inevitable Time Department)
  
• Spectral Coverage: Negate the next attack the player receives.
  
• Remove Ibuprofane pick-up: We felt the intent of the pickup wasnt interesting enough and preferred to remove it
  
• Quantum Soulary: Gives the player Soulary if he manages to reach the elevator without getting hit
  
• New food items: Artichoke - Raspberry Jello - Collecting soulary have a chance to heal the player
  
• Added mysterious lockers to open
  

More than 600 new lines of dialogs

New storyline quests: The strike, Air conditioning conflict, It’s pretzel day and more.

New worker guide entries

Finally: Achievements



Re-balancing the overall economy, Weapons, Curses

Forge

• Change price of forge upgrade
  
• 50 / 100 / 150 to 50 -> 125 -> 250
  
• We felt like it was way too quick to completely upgrade a weapon
  

Shop

• Increase price of Legendary Weapon from 30 soulary to 50 soulary
  
• Increase price of Curse in shop from 50 to 75 soulary
  

Enemies

• Change the health value & attack damage of several enemies:
  
• Natural Disasters department:
  
• Rockster: 230 -> 175 HP / Damage from 20 -> 15
  
• Magmaboy–X8: 1500 -> 1200 HP
  
• Flambush: 800 -> 600 HP / Damage from 30 -> 20
  
• Sparky: 150 -> 120 HP / Damage from 25 -> 20
  
• Drowned: 275 -> 250 HP
  
• Tempestilent: 325 -> 250 HP
  

Bosses

• Mr Hector Krank: 4000 -> 5000 HP
  
• Maxx: 3900 -> 4500 HP
  
• Waldo: 3000 -> 3400 HP / Damage raised (deal either 15 or 20 damage depending attacks)
  
• Ms Catherine Imamura: 12500 -> 11000 HP (rebalance damage, some attacks deal more, some less)
  

Miniboss

• Camille Flage: 4700 -> 6100 HP
  

Base Scythe

• Buff Charge attacks - Damage from 35 -> 45 & 50 -> 85
  
• Buff charge dash - Damage from 15 -> 35 & 35 -> 70
  
• Forge Lvl1 Damage from +2 to +5
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +5 to +8
  
• Forge Lvl3 damage from +10 to +15
  

Diss Scythe

• Forge Lvl3 damage from +8 to +10
  
• Cotation damage per cent reduced
  

Parasol 1.0

• Finisher damage from 15 -> 30
  
• Forge Lvl1 defense from +3 to +2
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +10 to 15 / Defense from +3 to +5
  
• Forge Lvl3 damage from +25 to +20 / Defense from +5 to +8
  

Sickles

• Tweak the movement during 4 & 5th attack
  
• Forge Dash cooldown from 0.1 to 0.15
  
• Forge Lvl3 damage from +8 to +10
  

Twinsie

• Added one hit during 3 attack
  
• Forge Lvl1 damage from +5 to +10
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +10 to +15
  
• Forge Lvl3 damage from +20 to +25
  

Selenite

• Forge Legendary damage from +75% to +50%
  
• Forge Lvl1 damage from +5 to +10
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +8 to +15
  

Behammorth

• Forge Lvl1 damage from +50 to +75
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +100 to +125
  
• Forge Lvl3 damage to +150 to +200
  

Brutumhammer

• Forge Lvl2 damage from +10 to +20
  

Arashi-kunai

• Increase base damage by 1
  

Slaymore

• Increase base damage to 85
  

Death Star

• Increase base damage to 65
  
• Increase Frenzy damage to base 50
  
• Forge Scythe damage from +8 to + 15 & +10 to +20
  

Shake Spear

• Shorten the windup of the frenzy by 0.6s
  

Jabelin

• Shorten the windup of the frenzy by 0.6s
  
• Forge damage from +15 to 25 & +35 to +55
  

Murray of Crows

• Increase base damage to 30
  

Whirl Dagger

• Increase base damage to 30
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +10 to +20
  

Raparrier

• Increase base damage to 35
  
• Forge Lvl1 damage from +5 to +10
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +15 to +20
  
• Forge Lvl3 damage from +25 to +30
  

Fire Arrow

• Forge damage from +10 to +15
  

Dark Talons

• Forge Lvl1 damage from +5 to +10
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +10 to +25
  

Explosion

• Bonus damage on upgrade now in % ( scale better on frenzy)
  
• Forge mana cost from -15 to -10 & -30 to -25
  

Poisoned Gift

• Reduce number of projectile during the frenzy
  
• Forge bonus now apply to frenzy
  
• Forge Lvl3 damage from +8 to +10
  
• Forge Poison bonus stack from +2 to +3
  

Shockwave

• Forge mana cost from -15 to -25
  

Spitfire

• Forge Lvl1 damage from +5 to +10
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +7 to +20
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +8 to +35
  
• Forge Burn bonus duration from +2 to 3 & +3 to +5
  

Poison Mist

• Forge Manacost from -5 to -15
  

Boulderain

• Forge Lvl1 damage from +5 to +10
  
• Forge Lvl1 damage from +10 to +20
  
• Forge Lvl1 damage from +15 to +35
  

Bees

• Forge Lvl2 damage from +10 to +7
  
• Forge Lvl3 damage from +15 to +10
  

Spiteful Chomper

• Modify the movement of the projectile
  
• Increase base damage to 10
  
• Forge Damage from +7 to +10 and +15 to +20
  

Voracious Burst

• Increase base damage to 45
  
• Forge damage from +5 to +25 and +15 to +50
  
• Forge bonus lifesteal reduced ( to accompany the upgrade in damage)
  

Ganglion–X4

• Increase base damage to 25
  

Frostoxic

• Add bonus damage when upgrading the weapon (+5 & +10)
  

Frostbreeze

• Increase base damage to 15
  

Sepulchral Ray

• Increase base damage to 20
  

Troublecross

• Forge Lvl3 damage from +20 to +15
  

Lyberis Skulls

• Increase base damage to 30
  
• Forge Lvl2 damage from +10 to +15
  
• Forge Lvl3 damage from +25 to +30
  

Tornadmin

• Decrease damage to 15
  
• Rework movement of the spell, now capture enemy
  

Many curses have been tweaked: We have buff base stats curses offering HP or Mana for instance. Many infuse builds have also been buffed such as BURN damage curses taking a big UP.

• We are aware that crashes occurred on specific integrated graphics cards and our devs are working to find a proper fix. The problem seems to be an issue with Intel's GPU drivers and DirectX11. Please, before playing, check if your drivers are up to date. And if you still have the issue, we added compatibility with DirectX12 which seems to fix the problem on some GPUs. This option can be activated by adding the following command in the "Game Launch Options" of the game on Steam: -force-d3d12
• Under certain conditions, some enemies can spawn in double in the arenas.
  
• The timer of the pickable items with status doesn’t stop during loading between floors.
  
• Some animation issues may occur on Sorrows if the player has the curse “Short Fuse“.
  
• In the elevator of the lobby (Jocelyn), if the player chooses a contract and cancels it, the visual icons of the contracts are duplicated in the menu.
  
• The VFX of GPE lockers in Break room are activated even if the player has no anima.
  
• SFX or animation issues can occur during cutscenes when speeded up.
  
• Narrative items from storyline quests are not visible when spawned.
  
• If the player gets a food item from the break room, then runs through a department and gets the same food a second time before the end of the 1st one, the timer of the status is not reset.
  

• Floplexil codex entry shows only after killing a flying Pill
  
• When the player triggers the temporary effect of a weapon, the timer never reappears after the first time it disappeared.
  
• NPC Hariet is in the foreground in relation to Spookman enemy during the combat tutorial.
  
• Player’s dash is reduced when the player is against a wall and the avatar flips and the player is pressing the dash button rapidly.
  
• NPC Pump Quinn may be spawned in the air in the Physical Diseases Department.
  
• The UI of the upgraded Selenite displays the raw damages added to the bonus damages.
  
• Leaving the Upgrade Tree GPE's Menu causes the Esc/B button to play a sound on each press.
  
• Bubble dialog does not spawn after getting a curse with NPC Mr O’Shah.
  
• Thanager X4-H’s “bounce attack” locked against the wall.
  
• Upgrading the Shop plays "failure" animation and SFX if the player has one Prismium.
  
• Focus spell’s basic effect doesn’t work.
  
• Description of the Lvl3 upgrade of the Mordicine does not match with the in-game effect .
  
• Description of Mordicine spell does not match with the real effects
  
• The 'Tineidagogue' curse launches crows instead of Butterflies. Now the curse is named “Covus Nefas”
  
• The Infuse status does not work on some weapons which have Infuse statuts in their kit.
  
• FPS Performance decrease occurs when a few factors are mixed together: spells with several VFX, numbers of enemies etc.
  
• Jerry’s idle animation is missing on frame and is invisible.
  
• Some visual and text elements are missing in the worker guide menu.
  
• An entry in the Codex is written in Spanish in the Portuguese version of the game
  
• The dialogue window during the conversation with Waldo shows the wrong name speaker (“Major Warren Pliskan”) in the last quote.
  
• Dialogues are missing during the fight with B. Proudfoot) starting with the third attempt and onwards.
  
• The curses “Power Nap” and “What Do You Mean,Running Late?” don’t work.
  
• Breakdown XIII is written as Breakdown XII in the Run History.
  
• Food items (Sticky Pineapple, Death Burger,Club Sandwichazord) are missing the bubble art in the Lobby Gallery.
  
• Josianne’s gift does not directly offer certain weapons after purchasing them.
  
• The player could lose the multiple stacks earned in a floor if he goes to another floor.
  
• The Imposter enemy stays in the air for a short period of time before falling down.
  
• Upgraded Cloaks show base statistics after being dropped, instead of the upgraded ones.
  
• Multiple entries in the worker guide seem to be impossible to unlock.
  
• The Dirty Dagger’s frenzy attack cooldown does not reset properly if a second frenzy attack is launched.
  
• Inconsistent dot placements in the descriptions of Curses in the Curse Manager menu.
  
• When the Waldo Box enemy grabs the player, the distance of the player movement will be the same.
  
• Dengue King Dengue's fast attack does not follow the direction of the FX.
  
• Buying 5 item slots upgrade to Joe without unlocking the previous only gives +1 slot.
  
• Fire Arrow and Revelation Bow are blocked by skeleton hands obstacles, even if they have been eliminated.
  
• Some texts are untranslated.
  
• Some enemies inflict a knockback effect in the opposite direction of the attack.
  
• “Profit Sharing” Curse has no effect on the Arena Reward.
  
• Frenzy attack has no effect when the player Swaps weapons.
  
• Curse reroll does not retain after re-open the menu of Mr O’Shah.
  
• The longer worker guide entries cannot be rewound by any input from the keyboard and mouse.
  
• Dirty Dagger didn't work properly.
  
• Some curses are incorrectly placed in the encyclopedia according to the rank order.
  
• A visible gap may be found in the floor in the Lobby.
  
• Some weapons who apply status lose it when they are upgraded.
  
• "Self-Fulfillment" promotion system level does not have a little arrow in the UI.
  
• Harriet may not appear next to the Scythe Selection gpe.
  
• Multiple issues with art and UI present in the Credits.
  
• Death's HP stays the same after defeating a Boss on easy mode.
  
• Curse "Anima Lambic" has a confusing description.
  
• The UI lines for level 7 and level 10 of the permanent upgrade are written twice.
  
• The Bridgets weaver didn't have the lowlife feedback.
  
• White square offset in boss health bar.
  
• The curse “Daredevil” is refreshed whenever the player enters a new floor. This allows the player to trigger the curse multiple times per run.
  
• Breakdown 15 modifier suggests that the HP will be set to a negative value.
  
• Short Koffee item description is inconsistent with other injury heals.
  
• ManaPower item description is incomplete and might confuse new players.
  
• Hypothermia has an incorrect description.
  
• The timer of a food item is not reset when the second time this same item has been picked up.
  
• In the Industrial Pollution Department starting rooms, a “line” that “split” the art is visible.
  
• The pure healing provides but the easy Mode only works in the Hall of Eternity world.
  
• When the curse “Short Fuse” is applied with the Infuse, the animation of the Sorrow has some issues.
  
• If players buy a curse with a danger in the shop just before a boss fight, they can get a danger related to the current world. The danger becomes ineffective.
  
• Player game over screen animation does not play properly.
  
• When skipping the miniboss and boss cutscenes, some sound issues appeared.
  

As you can add your feedback/bugs on the Steam forum of the game, you can also join The official Have a Nice Death Discord. You will meet a bunch of nice people who can help you with the game and who are more than ready to discuss ideas and critiques about Have a Nice Death with you.

We were amazed by the quantity AND the quality of your chef-d’oeuvre during all Early Access and this the last major update. In total, we count about +500 fanart from our community (Discord, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit etc.). That’s insane! Of course, we can’t share all of them, but here’s a glimpse of talent:


https://twitter.com/oraii_/status/1603341597948538880


https://twitter.com/slapjak1/status/1630288209312612352


https://twitter.com/peanutbou/status/1603787421425999875


https://twitter.com/gelatin_draw/status/1606666030977515521


https://twitter.com/gelatin_draw/status/1607405657246027776


https://twitter.com/ThePvZArtist/status/1636195580472086536


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FrTvNYeaEAAowsC?format=jpg&name=large


https://twitter.com/yaoyouguoji11/status/1607043415845502982


https://twitter.com/dom_do0m/status/1604842425700098049


https://twitter.com/SmilyCupcake_/status/1610740521559011328


https://twitter.com/mchwnzichun1/status/1616827877181517824


https://twitter.com/Lars_lattery/status/1610930657617915905

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! (Never too late to say that.)

A new chapter starts for everyone, including at Death, INC. Let's dive right back to work then.

Last December, we have released our last content patch which had a lot of various changes that the community and our team asked for. So far so good. Thanks to everyone that has played it since. It was a pretty major patch.

The next one will be the end of the early access for HAVE A NICE DEATH. Finally 1.0 version! it was a nice trip with all of you and we are proud of everything that has been accomplished. From new Thanagers, rework of some systems, to finally DESTROYING the infuse mana curses... lot of changes. We hope you all are very excited for March 22.

Since it is the 1.0 version, we have taken some step back and looked to polish everything that felt a bit wobbly. This includes some balancing changes, from tiny changes like enemy behavior to make them more reactive, reworked some pickups... quite a lot of things than can go unnoticed but should amount to a better final experience.
Then, the best part of the patch will be geared toward the END. Yes, finally you will be able to discover who is behind all of the trouble at DEATH INC and doesn't want Death to go on vacations?

Maybe you have already figured it out, as there have some clues in the game. The discord was very active and shared some ideas. But, do you think you're right?
In any case, you will discover a brand new world: New Sorrow, new Thanagers, new enemies and surprises. We are also adding as expected new cloak weapons, new spells and much more! Another thing we have been working on (you can stop asking for them now) are Achievements!

There are many more stuff being worked on, but we will let you discover them by yourself :)

To finish, and not wanting to sound like a broken record, Thank you for your support during this Early Access. The team is really thankful to the players and we are glad we could make this game together.

See you on March 22!

Simon