Superstar Strategy News

Greetings, tacticians and strategists!

I'm excited to announce a major milestone in our journey – the release of the much-anticipated Steelbreakers demo on Steam! Dive into the heart of the action with a taste of our party fighting game!

Watch the Trailer

Get a sneak peek into the world of Steelbreakers with our demo trailer. Get ready to break some steel!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Key Features in the Demo

• Engage in fast-paced action combat.
  
• Enjoy 4-player local co-op and versus play.
  
• Try to stay alive alone or with your friends defeating waves of monsters in Survival!
  
• Race for the best time destroying all of the targets in Target Breaker.
  
• Dominate other players and be the last man standing in Stock Battle.
  
• Experiment with a selection of weapons available in the demo.
  

Download the Demo

Ready to cut loose? Head over to our Steam page here to download the Steelbreakers demo now!

Feedback

We value your input as we continue to refine and enhance Steelbreakers. Share your thoughts and feedback on our Steam Community forums – your opinions matter!

Join the Community

For updates on game development progress and to join the community, consider following me on Twitter and joining the Talberon Games Discord Server. Don’t forget to Wishlist the game on Steam if you haven’t already!


[h2]What does this mean for Superstar Strategy?[/h2]

Now that the Steelbreakers demo has been released, development will resume on Superstar Strategy effective immediately, so stay tuned for new updates going forward!

Raise the banner high!

Hey folks! Today's a major technical update to help the game play better on Steam Deck, as well as reduce a variety of visual clutter. There's also some gameplay updates for the Champion and Vampire. Check out the details below.

[h2]New Features[/h2]

• Added ability to skip most non-objective cutscenes by pressing the menu button and selecting the skip option.
  

[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]

• Vampire ATK reduced to 4 again from 5.
  
  
  • Vampire BLK increased to 1 from 0.
    
  
  
• Champion
  
  
  • Tackle and Drag skill now apply a new status effect
    
    
    • Engaged is a status that reduces a unit’s MV to 0 until the end of the current battle round. Engaged grants an action to the afflicted called “Disengage” that allows the unit to move as if it weren’t stunned and end its turn. This makes it a weaker stun than Paladin’s guaranteed MV reduction while allowing Champion’s displacement skills to have an impact on unexhausted enemies that could just walk away afterward.
      

[h2]Rework + Polish[/h2]

• Lighting shader has been updated to dynamically show light from lightsources instead of baking torches, etc. in manually in the map editor. This will speed up map development and keep lighting consistent.
  
  
  
  • Lights now have a dimmer edge and can be combined with other light sources to brighten areas.
    
  
  
• MAJOR - Resolution Change
  
  
  
  • Game Base Resolution reduced from 800x450 to 640x360
    
    
    
    • This is needed to keep the font sizes in game large enough to pass certification for Steam Deck verification status. It also has wide-reaching implications.
      
    • Various screen UIs/HUDs have been updated
      
      
      • In-game HUD compressed to show the most critical info and reduce verbosity
        
        
      • Action Menu Adjusted
        
        
      • Unit Codex reworked
        
        
      • Combat HUD Adjusted
        
        
      • Draft HUD Adjusted
        
        
      • Main Menu reworked
        
        
      • Level Select Adjusted
        

[h2]Quality of Life Changes[/h2]

• Added controller bindings for cheat codes to make testing on Steam Deck easier.
  
• Tutorial Verbosity reduced.
  
  
  • During tutorial, “Units will wait…” notification is skipped to reduce downtime.
    
  
  
• System prompts now show page numbers to indicate how many panes will appear in the cutscene (such as in the tutorial).
  
• New Round Banner time reduced to 2 seconds from 3.
  
• Skip Turn Start Banner for next Army if all units are going to wait that turn to reduce downtime churn.
  
• Added slight variability to voice sfx pitch to make it less monotonous.
  
• Adjusted rendering order of various HUD elements to prioritize description windows and menus over edge elements.
  

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

• Blue Champion’s Drag animation (east-facing) fixed.
  
• Control Point Capture notification does not play multiple times anymore
  
• Regenerating the Roster window (e.g. by recruiting) while units are defeated or exhausted no longer results in an erratic roster pane.
  
• Fixed bug where mission would not be lost in a None Shall Fall condition if you recruited a unit and then lost one.
  
• Action menu and HUD windows are no longer visible during Game Over screen.
  
• Fixed pathing behaviour for AI units that attempt to chase units or chests from a distance to avoid running into corners.
  

For updates on game development progress and to join the community, consider following me on Twitter and joining the Talberon Games Discord Server. Don’t forget to Wishlist the game on Steam if you haven’t already!

Superstar Strategy has gone through a lot this year; a new name, a new demo and tons of new polish. We will be participating in Steam Strategy Fest with our fresh new demo! Check out the improvements, remember to wishlist the game and try out the demo!





[h2]Go it Solo![/h2]

Try out the Solo missions to get a feel for the game. Each mission has a difficulty level listed on the level select screen. There's also a full tutorial, or a quick tutorial if you want to jump right into the meat of the game.



[h2]Conquest with a Comrade![/h2]

Superstar Strategy supports local multiplayer, including hotseat controller support where you can share a controller! Play against a friend, or together in co-operative missions. Mix and match units and defeat your opponents with superior strategy!



[h2]Cooperate with yourself?[/h2]

Since you can share a controller, you could also play co-operative missions by yourself by assigning both armies to the same controller!

[h2]What else is new?[/h2]

Check out the latest changes in the new demo launch post: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1756730/view/3675552774756285787



Still got a tactics itch to scratch? Check out these other indie strategy games during Strategy Fest, give them a wishlist and try out their demos!

[h3]Show these fellow indie strategy games some support![/h3]

Hey everybody, Talberon here! Big announcements today! A big patch with a whole bunch of new features! While I continue to work away on the Campaign, I wanted to share a bunch of quality of life changes, bugfixes and a new name! Super Sol Standard will henceforth be named Superstar Strategy! This name better conveys what kind of game Superstar Strategy is; it’s right on the tin, and it’s easier to say and spell, to boot! (Sol? Soul? Sole?)

To commemorate this new identity, check out the hot new trailer showing off all the new art and UI design, as well as the rebrand:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h2]New Features[/h2]

• New Unit Preview Screen
  
  
  • When selecting a unit and pressing the Unit Preview button, a new screen showing the unit’s skills (or NPC behaviours), status effects, inventory and tips now appears instead of opening the Unit Codex.
    
  • This is now universal for all units and also replaces the old preview pane for NPC units.
    
  
  
• Added new archery target sprites for the Academy Tutorial map.
  
• Added save file migrations that allow synchronizing changes made to save file structure, including adding new Achievements, etc.
  
• Added “Primary Skill” and “Command Skill” labels to default and command actions in the Action Menu
  
• New window border style added.
  
• Added unit tips to the Unit Codex in the Help menu.
  

[h2]Reworks + Polish[/h2]

• Game name changed to Superstar Strategy
  
  
  • Associated Art, application name and logos update to reflect the new name.
    
  
  
• Reworked Tutorial
  
  
  • Includes new screenshots that reflect the visual enhancements made to the game
    
  • Changed the characters to be more consistent with the new Campaign plot
    
  • Cleaned up many tutorial descriptions to be more succinct.
    
  • Added additional tutorials to cover missing concepts from the original, such as Status Effects and a detailed HUD breakdown.
    
  • Reduced Orc HP at the start to speed up the earlier part of the tutorial so it doesn’t drag on.
    
  • Reorganized the map to reflect the difference in mobility between the Champion and Cavalier for pacing’s sake.
    
  
  
• Main Menu redesigned to use rotary style menus and incorporates new logo
  
• Launchpad entities are now animated to draw more attention to them.
  
• The BLK icon and associated BLK-related skills have been updated to be more visually distinct from AMR. The old icon was a shade of silver and purple that could be mistaken for a different stat, so now they have more colour and shape divergence.
  
  
  • Paladin Stun Icon Updated to show a boot to invoke the MV debuff aspect of the skill
    
  
  
• Updated the Snooze and Wake HUD icons.
  
• Added icons to Game Over menu options
  
• Added/updated all status effect descriptions to use markup for icons and colour-coding
  
• Added icons for AI Routines
  
• Renamed “Natural Personality” to “Passive Personality”
  
• Renamed map Condition “Unacceptable Losses” to “None Shall Fall”
  
• Renamed Save File. Added save file migration so that data isn’t lost from the old save file.
  
• Dash Boots item no longer buffs MV like the other items, but instead provides a one-use Boost action.
  
• Updated Hill and Booster tiles
  
• Turn Start banner now colour-codes and shows icon for the active faction.
  
• Reduced size of weapon scrolling background on several screens.
  
• Map toasts have been removed and replaced with HUD-layer notifications for better legibility.
  
• In-Game Manual images updated.
  

[h2]Quality of Life Changes[/h2]

• When starting a player turn, the cursor will highlight the unit with the most missing combined health (AMR+HP) to encourage saving at-risk units.
  
• Startup time reduced on launch slightly by introducing multithreading for loading the Achievement Context which was a heavy processing piece.
  
• Removed the background pane in the Entity Context HUD element to provide more room for the actual map
  
• Recruitable units now have a new badge on their unit hover card and their preview screen.
  
• Universalized the text outlines so that they are consistent across the UI.
  
• Reworded the achievements for completing objectives. Added a save file migration to update existing save files.
  
• Moved Are You Sure menu for Main Menu option in Game Over screen to be in the same position as the original menu.
  
• Lower HUD elements are now hidden while the Unit Preview menu is open.
  
• Reduced duration of “Remaining Units Will Wait” notification pause.
  
• Sped up the hold-to-confirm duration.
  

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

• Fixed an issue where one of the Pugilist death animations was incorrect.
  
• Delegated AI turn processing to another thread to reduce visible frame hitching between AI turns.
  
• Fixed camera being “stuck” to the last combat’s position if a game was lost during combat on an NPC’s turn.
  
• Fixed left-side unit pane not changing to the hovered unit during the Map Survey in the post-game.
  
• Fixed a bug where if multiple factions had NPCs, one unit deciding to wait would show “Remaining Units will wait” even though other factions had units with viable actions.
  
• Fixed one of the generated names in the Cleric name pool that was two names stuck together.
  
• Added missing curse tile on the Castle PVP map to fix the map symmetry.
  
• Fixed Assassinate objective causing a player to win on the A Game of Crowns map if they defeated the Necromancer. Assassinate should not be achieved if defeating an NPC.
  
• Fixed the right side unit pane not appearing during the Action Menu and Targeting phases.
  
• Touched up Lancer Portraits
  
• Touched up Pugilist Portraits
  
• Fixed Siege of Salem objectives that were reverted accidentally.
  

[h2]Misc[/h2]

• Added game version number to log file on startup to make bug investigations easier.
  
• Updated EULA language.
  
  
  • Added email address to EULA.
    
  
  
• Added logging to NPC decision making to assist debugging.
  

For updates on game development progress and to join the community, consider following me on Twitter and joining the Talberon Games Discord Server. Don’t forget to Wishlist the game on Steam if you haven’t already!

Hey folks! This update is primarily an art update that updates most of the portraits for the units in the game. Not many functional changes, but this was a big art undertaking, so hope you enjoy the facelifts!

[h2]New Features[/h2]

• New Portraits for almost all unit classes (player units and NPCs)
  
• Some unit sprites have been adjusted to account for the change in their portraits.
  

[h2]Quality of Life Changes[/h2]

• When flipping a switch, the camera pans only to the entities affected by the switch instead of including the switch itself, so the camera zooms more towards the relevant changes.
  

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

• Fixed a visual bug where units on the map would play their active animation after they started combat and got stuck that way until they moved.
  

For updates on game development progress and to join the community, consider following me on Twitter and joining the Talberon Games Discord Server. Don’t forget to Wishlist the game on Steam if you haven’t already!