Esoteric Ebb News

Esoteric Ebb seemed like a game tailor-made for me, and that left me nervous. An irreverent, dialogue-focused RPG proudly announcing its Disco Elysium inspirations⁠—my mind jumped to all those soulslike games I've gotten my hopes up for that just don't quite have the FromSoft magic...
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Hey, Christoffer Bodegård here!

I want to thank everyone who's played the demo since release last week. Especially thank you to all of you who've reported bugs! So far I've posted three hotfixes to deal with various errors, weird behaviors, unlootable entities, and respawning lootable entities. They should be taken care of now. If you find any additional esoteric errors, crashes, or weirdness, please report them to me, or post them on the official Discord. Thanks!

FIXES

• Snell no longer gets stuck on stairs.
  
• Items should now no longer be visible after pickup.
  
• Loading from in-game should now no longer break your inventory.
  
• The inventory-doesn't-show-up-sometimes-bug has been solved.
  
• The unclickable pots are now no longer highlighted.
  
• The sword's lootbox is now in the correct spot, instead of slightly off-center. No one reported this, but I found it really annoying.
  
• The Circle Square Conflict Take Root dialog should now no longer softlock the game.
  
• A ton of speling erors are corected. [sic]
  

It's been a while.

In February 2023 I released an early version of Esoteric Ebb here on Steam. I called it the First Draft Playtest, because it really, really was. Containing about 50k words of dialog, it was the first real attempt I made at putting together a sizable playable version of EBBRPG - a project I've tinkered with since 2018,

I had my doubts about making it a public playtest. Most dialogs were actually first drafts. The magic system was almost incomprehensible (I'm still shocked some people figured it out, well done!). The Questing Tree wasn't even close to finished.

But the response was amazing. Almost two thousand players joined the playtest, and over a hundred of you sent me extensive feedback. I hope it's clear how much of that feedback has gone into the work I've done over the last nine months.

• Reworked magic system
  
• Functional Questing Tree (with feats!)
  
• A new draft of all dialogs
  
• Redesign of turn-based encounters
  
• Updated character creation
  
• New areas
  
• New characters
  
• Controller support (and WASD!)
  

I officially invite you all to try out the new demo! Feel free to send any feedback you have to me, or post it here on the Steam Discussion, or join the Discord and ask me anything you want!

Thanks again for checking out Esoteric Ebb. I have a feeling the next nine months will be even more eventful.
-Christoffer Bodegård

Lots of things happening. Esoteric things.

[h2]Gamescom 2023[/h2]

Last month I went to Köln for Gamescom and got to meet with so many amazing industry people. It was actually mostly just a constant barrage of meetings, but luckily I ended up with a bit of time to check out the conference as well. I had a great time and received an amazing amount of feedback on the game - so I'd say it was probably worth the pain of leaving my writer's pit.



[h2]WASD Live 2023 - Curios Indie Game Showcase[/h2]

As I'm writing this, the second day of WASD Live - sponsored by IGN - is about to begin! The First Draft Playtest is available to play alongside the other games in the Curios Showcase. If you're there, see if you can find the EBB booth! I've already gotten a great response from the first day and it's so great to have people play it all over the world. Or in this case, a brewery in London.



[h2]Sweden Game Conference 2023[/h2]

On October 25-26 I'll be showing off Ebb at SGC2023 here in Skövde, Sweden, alongside other great games made by local developers. If you want to support some of my friends here in Skövde you can check out Odinfall, Fae & Fauna, as well as Beer and Plunder! Many more will be at the conference, so if you have the chance come check us out!



[h2]Development Update[/h2]

Over the past months I've listened intently to the feedback given from all of you playtesters. I am genuinely shocked at the amazing amount of interest, analysis, and care you have given in your responses directly to me, via the in-game survey, and on the official discord server. I'm incredibly grateful, and believe me when I say I've made sure to make some great changes.

I'll be doing a proper update in the future, but here's a list of some major design changes I've already implemented.

• Spellcasting hotbar, with a way more accessable spellbook/spellscroll-system.
  
• Controller support (and Steam Deck support!)
  
• Dialog Update (Full-body portraits, text log, better pacing)
  
• Questing Tree actually functional - Quest progression & Skill Tree integration
  

Beyond that, I've just been writing a lot. As you might imagine, that's the single most time-consuming part of the project, and I'm just chippin' away at it one dialog at a time. Trying to be funny, interesting, and maximally politicize every interaction is difficult - but it's also very fun. I always keep in mind when writing that if I'm not enjoying getting it out on paper, I can't expect anyone to enjoy reading the damn thing. But luckily I'm having a blast, so I hope you will too.

-Christoffer Bodegård

I'm extremely happy to announce that Esoteric Ebb is featured in Tiny Teams 2023! Big thanks to the Yogscast for including us!

From August 3rd to 10th you can check out EBB and a whole bunch of other great games RIGHT HERE!

The First Draft Playtest is up, but won't be for much longer after the event. So if EBB looks remotely interesting to you, now's the time to leave your mark on the development! Fill out the in-game survey, write on the forum, send me a DM with your feedback, or join the DISCORD and let us know directly what changes you'd like to be made.



To join the playtest, click the 'Request Access' button on the Store page.

If you want to support development, then please give Esoteric Ebb a wishlist as well! Every like, comment, wishlist and follow helps a ton, and gets the game one step closer to its final version.

Thanks again to the Yogscast, and I hope you all enjoy Tiny Teams 2023!
-Christoffer Bodegård