Keeper's Toll News

Hi Everyone,

The idea for Keeper’s Toll was born in May of 2022. Earlier that year, our core team had played Vampire Survivors, and we thought it would be fun to make a game inspired by VS, but focus on unique classes and progression, boss fights and deeper ARPG mechanics, and blend it all together with our love for the Dark Souls series. Fast forward nearly 2.5 years and we’re ready to release our finished game! Early Access has been a great experience, having players join our development process and provide seemingly endless amounts of feedback.

Keeper’s Toll will be releasing on Monday, October 28, 2024, on Steam (Worldwide) and Nintendo Switch (Americas/Europe). We have chosen this day because that’s when Steam’s Scream Fest starts, and KT will be featured in Scream Fest. Check out the full release trailer below:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Pricing and Availability[/h2]

KT will be priced at $6.99 USD on all platforms. Next Monday, 9/16, we will be offering a final 20% discount on Steam based on the current price ($4.99) before we raise the price to $6.99. So, if you want to pick it up at a lower rate, feel free as it’s unlikely the price will be that low again for quite some time. KT is also available for Pre-Order on the Nintendo eShop with a 20% off pre order discount, so if you wonder why the game is more expensive on Switch, it’s simply because the PC pricing has not caught up and we will be raising the price to $6.99 USD on September 23, when the upcoming weeklong sale has ended. Please understand if you buy and play the game now on Steam, what you are buying and playing is the Early Access version of the game, which lacks a big chunk of content as well as some fixes/polish that the upcoming 1.0 release will have. You will not be playing the 1.0 version until October 28.

[h2]Launch Day[/h2]

We will be updating the Steam Page on launch day with lots of new screenshots and the new trailer, and while we don’t have a specific time the release will go live, we are targeting early morning Pacific Standard Time.

[h2]Save Data[/h2]

Your save data should not have any issues transferring over from Early Access to the full release. More on this when the game is launched.

[h2]Post Launch[/h2]

Come launch day, we’ll remove our Early Access roadmap and discuss a bit of what’s to come for KT in the future. We are already working on new content while we continue to polish the 1.0 version of the game.

[h2]Media/Marketing[/h2]

If you are a streamer, blogger, journalist etc., or would like to contribute to helping promote KT in any way, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. We would love to chat.

[h2]DevLogs/Videos[/h2]

We are going to be uploading a few more videos to our YouTube channel from now until launch. We are going to cover various topics, all related to Keeper’s Toll, so stop on by or check in from time to time to see the new content we post.

https://www.youtube.com/@stingbotgames1315


As always, if anyone has any feedback, bugs to report, suggestions, etc. please don’t hestitate to reach out to us. We read everything and will do our best to respond as soon as possible.

Thank you again for your support, and we’ll see you soon at the full release on October 28!

Stingbot Games

Hi Everyone,

This past month has been a roller coaster. Between working on the Nintendo Switch port of the game and patching/polishing the upcoming 1.0 content, the days have been long but rewarding as seeing everything come together is amazing. We're very happy to share some details on what's to come.



[h2]The Full Release[/h2]

Our next major announcement will reveal the release date for the full version of the game. We're working on a lot right now and we're very happy with how the content is coming together. A big thanks to our beta testing team as countless revisions and tweaks later we're now very close to where we want to be. The Full Release of the game will contain the 4th and final world of the game as well as a hard mode for each world, some new tomes of knowledge, new achievements, new features and a lot of polish and fixes. Expect the reveal of the release date sometime within the next month.

Sometime soon, we will be raising the price of the game to $6.99 USD, though we will be offering a launch discount on full release. We understand the low price expectation of games in this genre, and we did not want to increase the price too much, but we feel justified in charging the increase based on the costs associated to develop the game, as well as content delivered, playable game time etc. We do not intend to raise the price again.

[h2]Post Release - New Content?[/h2]

A lot of players have asked us if we will continue to support the game after the full release. Of course we had always intended to maintain the game and provide fixes/improvements, but we are happy to announce that we are also working on some new content for a big 1.1 Update, and it will be free for all players who have purchased the game. It will not be a DLC. For now, it shall remain a secret as to what we're working on. More details to come post launch.

[h2]Localization[/h2]

German is now a supported language in the game. On full release, we will also add support for Japanese. It's possible we will add support for additional languages post launch, but as of now there is nothing else planned. If you want us to support an additional language, let us know and we'll be happy to consider it.

[h2]Build 0.9.20[/h2]

Finally, Build 0.9.20 went live today, which includes a lot of optimizations, fixes and changes. The 1.0 version of the game includes a lot of changes/fixes/improvements that are too complicated to add in the current version of the game, but at least that gives you something to look forward to. We're doing our best to continue supporting the existing version of the game as we simultaneously work on end game content.

[h2]Patch Notes (0.9.20)[/h2]

- Localization: German added
- Shadow Monk: Vortex performance has been slightly boosted
- Necromancer: Summon Golem improved targeting
- Ranger: accurate force is now being applied to arrows and burst shot arrows
- Ebon King: updated movement to be smoother and transition better between movement states
- Sporelord Rotwood: minefield now deactivates within 30 seconds during his introduction phase
- Treasure Snail: improved performance
- Armored Snail is now deactivated if not killed within a certain period of time
- Guided projectiles now move more smoothly based on accurate physics
- Enemy AI spawn logic has been refactored and performance boosted
- Enemy Groups/Flocks logic has been rewritten and performance boosted
- UI: World Select logic updated
- UI: Added a failsafe check to deactivate all unnecessary UI if the level up menu is active
- UI: Localized the Close Button text for the Quest UI
- UI: Updated text for Merchant Items to reference Attack instead of Strength
- Bug Fix: Elites that can strike the player will now face the proper direction while attacking and stay fixed in their rotation until the attack ends
- Bug Fix: fixed an issue where where the blood altar would sometimes not open, or would open on delay
- Bug Fix: Fixed a rare bug where shadow monk abilities were not deactivating after use

Thank you to everyone for following along as we continue to develop Keeper's Toll. If anyone has any feedback, don't hesitate to reach out. We read everything and we will do our best to respond as soon as possible. Thank you,

Stingbot Games

Hi all, another small patch build pushed live.

Patch Notes (0.9.18)
- Shadow Monk: 100 Fists Combo will no longer stop playing when leveling up
- Ranger: Increased Base HP and Defense by 12.5%
- Pyromancer: Increased Base HP and Defense by 4.5%
- Pyromancer: Cascade falling projectile speed increased by 100%
- Refactored code related to AI health management
- UI: Moved Boss Defeated Chain/Text animation higher on screen to increase screen visibility and reduce clutter
- UI: Raised the Invader defeated text and shrunk the text to increase screen visibility and reduce clutter
- Bug Fix: Talents notification on main menu now properly displays for Blood Maiden and Pyromancer
- Bug Fix: Hide ability lights toggle in the Accessibility menu now properly saves value when saved/toggled
- Localization: updated some text in Turkish
- Localization: Random bug fixes
- Coin powerup will no longer spin when activated
- Mysterious Animal in Linden Forest will now auto deactivate after 60 seconds

We are planning to post an announcement towards the end of this month with a little bit of details about what's to come in the full release of the game, and when you can expect it. We're working on a lot right now, and we will do our best to continue to push out patch builds as time goes on.

Thank you,

Stingbot Games

[h2]Patch Notes (0.9.17)[/h2]
- Curse: Sundance - controller vibration is now active when taking damage
- Bug Fix: While playing the Ranger class and loading into Ebon King's arena, kiting mode toggle is no longer disabled
- Updated various text for Turkish localization
- New Font used for Turkish localization
- Refactored code relating to the Skills Assignment logic on level up
- Revised the gold powerup structure. The code is now far more efficient and performance has been given a huge boost
- Bug Fix: Shadow Monk Combo abilities were not being properly displayed or assigned on level up
- Bug Fix: Shadow Monk Combo abilities will now display when available in other languages than English

Thanks to the community and our testers for reporting such issues. As always, we appreciate feedback and will do our best to respond/address things as soon as possible. Stay posted, more to come!

Stingbot Games

We are nearing the end of version 0.9.x of Keeper's Toll. It's been quite the ride getting here and we're excited to release the full game (1.0) in early Q4 of 2024. While we do not yet have a specific release date, we are planning to launch version 1.0 of Keeper's Toll on Steam and Nintendo Switch sometime in early Q4. We will post news announcements as we keep progressing with the end game content.

As for version 0.9 of Keeper's Toll, this is going to be our last content update. We will continue to push out updates with bug fixes or minor changes as needed, as well as potentially more localization updates, but the bulk of the new content/features will be released when 1.0 is out.

Over the coming months we'll be posting some previews of what's to come in the full release, as well as some other fun stuff. Stay posted!

[h2]Pixelated Festival[/h2]

Keeper's Toll is going to be in the upcoming Pixelated Festival, alongside dozens of other great pixel art games. Be sure to check out the fest when it goes live on July 29!



Check out the lineup here: Pixelated Fest

[h2]Patch Notes (0.9.16)[/h2]

- Localization: Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, and Turkish are now supported languages.
- Localization: On first startup, the game will now check the local system language. If a supported language is found, the game will apply the localized language settings
- NEW Tome of Knowledge - Uncover skull fragments to piece together a mystical artifact
- NEW Tome of Knowledge - Catch a mysterious animal in the rainy woods
- NEW Shared Passive Skill - Vital Surge >> Regain a small % of HP on level up
- Pyromancer - Cauterize Wounds Talent - revamped to be based off the number of critical attacks. when you've inflicted enough crits to meet a threshold, you will initialize a heal over time
- Ranger: Prey has been boosted to both decrease max cooldown and the rate of cooldown reduction by 20%
- Ranger: Added an indicator icon to the HUD when Kiting Mode is active/inactive
- Castle Usvit: Elite Knight - sword collision has been fixed and will now hit the player when performing the lunge attack
- UI: Necromancer Skeleton Count and Shadow Monk Lotus Flowers count will now properly anchor based on screen aspect ratio
- UI: Adjusted character select and world select menu button sizing to account for languages with a higher number of average characters per word
- UI: Health flask icon is now properly aligned based on camera aspect ratio
- UI: Adjusted various text and sprite positions/scaling on the level up UI to account for additional languages
- UI: When changing languages at runtime the current level and curses survived text is now immediately updated to reflect the active language
- Curse: Under Fire - reduced the hitbox size to be more accurate and forgiving
- Curse: Dead Reckoning - Reduced projectile speed by 20%
- Curse: Sundance will no longer slow the player when entering the darkness. Instead, the player will incur damage over time
- Cursed Altars will now fade out after activating a curse
- If no active skills are available on level up, the game will now present a passive skill for selection
- Major amount of code refactoring related to selecting skills, improving the performance and resolving issues with delays
- Usvit Depths: reduced damage from spike traps by 25%
- Usvit Depths: added a short delay upon inflicting damage from spike traps. A sound effect will sound off, warning the player right before the spike protrudes from the ground.
- Merchant Treasure Hunts: Treasure Chests now fade and disable after being opened
- Accessibility: Added a Toggle to hide merchant icons on level up to help reduce screen clutter
- Balanced enemy HP in all worlds
- Added a check when spawning altars that should prevent an altar from overlapping the merchant if the merchant is active
- Screen Shake is now force stopped whenever the game enters an idle or pause state
- Added a check to prevent black flame brazier from being hidden behind props when it's spawned on scene load
- Bug Fix: fixed a bug related to clamping the player's max movement speed

Thank you for your support. If anyone has any feedback, bugs to report, suggestions, etc. feel free to get in touch with us. We read everything and we will do our best to respond as soon as possible.

Stingbot Games