Escape The Mad Empire News

[h2]Greetings, fellow adventurers![/h2]

Sorry for being quiet for a while. We've been cooking (working) on new classes, class skills and, of course there are a lot more than these three, biomes, armors, weapons, and MUCH more!!! We just felt like these skills had a certain... je ne sais quoi... as they say. (The assassin is not french)

However, for now we're thrilled to give you a sneak peek at some of the new visuals for the Assassin class, along with how these powerful abilities can be used in the heat of battle!



[h3]Hide[/h3]
Need to scope out the upcoming rooms or slip past enemies unnoticed? The Assassin’s Hide ability has you covered. When activated, it grants Stealth for 16 seconds, making you completely invisible to enemies. Plus, your first attack after breaking Stealth has an increased crit chance - perfect for that devastating first strike (which, of course, reveals your location upon attack... so be careful!)



Hide is the perfect tool for sneaky scouting, setting up an ambush, or simply getting the drop on your enemies when the time is right.

[h3]Decoy[/h3]
Things aren’t looking great—your entire party’s been overwhelmed by that horrible insect. But don’t panic—Decoy is here to save the day! This ability creates a false target that draws enemy attention, giving you another target for enemies to focus on!



Decoy can be a game-changer when your team is in a tight spot, giving you the breathing room you need to turn the tide of battle.
[h3]Death Blink[/h3]
This attack is very powerful! It blinks (teleports) you close to your target and unleashes a strike with increased damage! The range is larger than shown in this image, just keep that in mind. Can be used to initiate a fight or finish it... Your choice.



Take that, beetle!

Moving forward, we’ll be spotlighting more things every week, maybe even more tips for battle! (Although, you might not be battling only beetles... Can't help you there) There’s a lot to look forward to, but I can’t give away too much just yet... Let’s just say something big is on the horizon, and you won’t want to miss it.

Until then, sharpen those blades and prepare for what’s to come!

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Greetings, Adventurers!

We've got a treat for you today—it's a new and updated demo!

Dive into our updated Campaign mode and recruit, train, and manage a team of adventurers! Take them out on runs through randomly-generated maps and bring back a variety of loot and resources that can be used to gear up your team or improve the facilities and features in your base... and perhaps unlock new classes to take on your forays!

As always, we look forward to hearing your feedback on all the new and updated features... including the classes that are new since the last demo! Come let us know what you think on our community Discord or here on Steam's discussion forums!

So, what are you waiting for? Those dungeons won't loot themselves!

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Greetings, Adventurers!

We've been hard at work since you last heard from us, and we're happy to announce that another round of playtesting is underway! If you signed up for one of our earlier playtests, make sure to check your email inboxes; we've been rolling out invites over the last few days! Those who already participated in prior playtests will already have access to the new playtest, as well! And if you haven't signed up yet... what are you waiting for? There's always a chance we'll send out even more invites!

The current playtest focuses on the Campaign mode, where you can recruit, train, and manage your adventurers. It's recently been revamped with a new structure and content, and is now centered around a 'run'-based approach on randomly-generated maps. You'll be rewarded with various resources regardless of your success or failure (though exactly what you get will depend upon that!) that can be used to purchase various things—including, perhaps, rare classes—so that win or lose, you'll still be able to progress through the meta-game and unlock new features at your base.

In addition, we've added a total of four new classes for you to try: the Assassin and Cultist, as well as the two hybrid classes, General and Centurion!

We look forward to hearing your feedback on the adjustments to the campaign mode, as well as the new classes!

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Greetings, adventurers!

It's been a little bit since our last update, but we've got some good news for you: a new demo of Escape the Mad Empire is on the way!

Our first demo focused on the game's prologue, and was based on the curse of the Undead King. In addition to a tutorial, it contained three dungeons, each with their own variation on the Undead King boss fight!

This new demo centers around a new Escape Run game mode, which focuses on an intense, survival-run style of play. Your goal is to explore and survive a set of three dungeons; your success will unlock the next difficulty level for you to continue challenging yourself!

• This new mode does not have boss fights or an embedded story. It also contains no meta-game or campaign mode content; these will be introduced in future iterations on the demo!
  
• Each dungeon has a challenge room at the end, offering a bigger 'final battle' rather than a boss fight.
  
• The Escape Run mode has 5 unlockable levels of difficulty, ranging from 'Easy' to 'Hellish.'
• Characters will have a maximum level of about 3 on the lowest difficulty level. This will increase to a maximum of 4 on the second difficulty level, and up to 5 (for the first time!) on the third, which is where we feel the game mode really starts to open up!
  
• Players should start to encounter the hardest types of monsters currently available in the game during this third difficulty level, and even maybe discover some that have never been shown to the public before!
  

The new Escape Run game mode also introduces two new features for your adventuring!

• Party Composition: Rather than being locked into a pre-set party, players can now select which classes they'd like to take along for the adventure. Want to have a more rounded party? Great! Want to challenge yourself by filling every slot with one class in particular? Go for it!
• Skill Selection: Rather than be assigned a skill at random upon leveling up, players will now be able to select from a list of three skills or spells when a member of their party reaches the next level!

The new demo will be available for download tomorrow, May 8th around 1PM Eastern (10AM Pacific, and 7PM CEST)! We look forward to hearing your feedback—come join us on our community Discord or post here on the Steam discussion boards if you prefer!

You may have done it before... but can you Escape the Mad Empire this time?

Hello, everyone!

We'd like to thank all of you again for playing our demo; as mentioned in our last post, the feedback that you gave us was very helpful, and we've been hard at work putting it to good use and making changes!

In addition, some of you have been asking whether there would be any further playtests and when they might be happening... and we're excited to let you know that the answer is very soon—right now, in fact! If you're interested in taking a look and helping us gather some more feedback, press that big green "Request Access" button over on our store page to get started!

Once you're all set up and ready for adventure, make sure you're selecting the "Escape the Mad Empire Playtest" entry in your Steam Library—if our demo is still in your library, you'll have two copies of the game listed!

How long is the playtest running for?
We don't have a specific length in mind right now, but we are expecting this one to last for at least a couple weeks. We are also planning to host additional playtest periods, so if you can’t participate this time around, don’t fret!

Where should we post feedback?
You can post on our community Discord or here on Steam's discussion forums as suits your preference—we'll see it regardless!

Is there anything specific that you're looking for feedback on for this playtest?
We've made some changes to the game's difficulty curve and the length and pacing of the tutorial, and of course continued feedback on the game's UI and general quality-of-life matters is always welcome! There have been some other changes as well, so anything goes—we're hoping to hear that your experience has improved!

I wasn’t finished with the demo yet—will I have to start over with this build?
No! If you still have save data from playing the demo, you’ll be able to pick up right where you left off. That said, you should start a fresh game at some point to make sure you see some of the changes that were made to the earliest parts of the game!

We hope to hear back from you all! Get to adventuring!