Picayune Dreams News

I liked Vampire Survivors, a lot. Indeed, we all liked it so much that it inspired a wave of imitators, some with genuinely bright ideas and clever twists. Picayune Dreams, though, which recently got a beefy free demo on Steam, is the first one to take that horde mode, bullet hell gameplay in a new direction, to repurpose it instead of just following the leader (credit to Alpha Beta Gamer for the spot)...
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[h2]DEMO DEBUT[/h2]
Thank you for all the support, it was an outstanding first week! We're all a bunch of Newgrounds geeks, so our sweep of the Weekly awards feels really special!



[h2]ART CONTEST[/h2]
To celebrate the launch of this demo, and to pay it back to the Newgrounds community, we are hosting a Picayune Dreams Art Contest! There are $400+ worth of prizes to be won.

Full contest details, rules, and submission requirements can be found in this thread. Yes, contest participation requires a Newgrounds account. But if you're an artist, it's our firm belief that you should be building a Newgrounds portfolio anyways! I promise you'll meet some amazing people there :)



[h2]HOTFIXES[/h2]
Plus Stepford has been hard at work squashing bugs and balancing the demo. All of your feedback has been outstanding! Posts made in the Discord, Subreddit, and Wiki have all contributed to refining and improving the game, bit-by-bit. Thank you for that!

[h3]CHANGES[/h3]
- Eye2 Description Fixed
- Fixed a spelling mistake on the Death Screen.
- Added Mortality to Death Screen.
- Adjusted XP portion of Death Screen.
- Unique Pickups (grenades, magnets, usb, etc) now have 10 frames where they can't be picked up to properly initialize and also make it more visually clear when you acquire something point-blank range.
- When enemy bullets expire, they fade faster.
- Explosive Enemy Modifier explosions are now red instead of orange, to signify they are 'your' damage. The damaging "enemy" bullets remain orange however.
- Moved Firework Explosion Weapon onto the layer beneath players and enemies.
- Enemy bullets have had several optimization changes.

[h3]BALANCING[/h3]
- Eye2 Damage Nerf: (1 + version) > (version)
- Demon Horns chomp hitbox increased by 'a LOT'.
- Demon Horns damage buff: 200 > 350
- C4 Damage Nerf: (5 + (5 x version)) > (5 x version)
- Halo Shield nerf: upon blocking an attack, it will now instead do 1 damage to you instead of 0; reducing the damage by 90% instead of blocking it ENTIRELY.
- Unique pickups currently delete after 60 seconds of being untouched, but now they also require the player to be over 2000 pixels away as well.



[h3]POWER[/h3]
Added a new difficulty adjusting system called 'POWER'. It will only show on the HUD after 30 Mortality (6 bosses), where each mortality level after that reduces your "power" by 1%. It starts at 100% and can go down to a minimum of 25%, reducing your overall damage in the process.

This won't effect anything for the majority of players but for those of you going for 'mega runs' hopefully this will fix the issue of you being too strong for your own good, having to manually close the game because it's become an endurance test - because that never feels good! This is more experimental so if you hate it, tell me.

You might need to restart Steam and validate Picayune files to force the update to download ASAP.

THANKS AGAIN!!
-Graeme

Our new surrealist action roguelike has it's first public demo! This game is made by some of the top talent on Newgrounds. You can also play a web build over there to celebrate Pixel Day! And consider entering the Picayune Dreams ART CONTEST to win cash prizes!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2088840/Picayune_Dreams/
[h2]Picayune Dreams Presskit[/h2]

INFLUENCES:

• Bullet heaven gameplay (Vampire Survivors)
  
• Bullet hell bosses (Touhou)
  
• Gear + power scaling (Diablo)
  
• Surrealist interdimensional aesthetics (Yume Nikki)
  
• Hard-hitting breakcore soundtrack (Milkypossum is incomparable. This is ALL her!)
  
• secrets...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Please give the Demo a try. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Be sure to add it to your Steam Wishlist if you enjoyed it!

Join the Official Discord
Or hang out in our Subreddit

[h2]2500 WISHLISTS[/h2]
As a HUGE thank you, Milkypossum has shared a video preview of the first boss, as well as the incredible original track she composed for that fight. Milkpossum is composing the entire OST for Picayune Dreams, so be sure to give her a follow!




[h2]WISHLIST TRACKER?[/h2]
We couldn't be happier with the response our teases have had so far!
Moving forward, we will be doing away with the "Wishlist Tracker" shared in prior posts. That made a lot more sense when Wishlists were only trickling in...



All at once, we blew through 3 milestones!! It was a cute idea, but we won't be adhering to that original plan anymore, and will instead share teasers and previews whenever feels most appropriate.

[h2]MIGW[/h2]
Melborne International Games Week is LIVE NOW, celebrating developers based out of Australia, and the games they make!

Tune into this specific event later today to see a first look at Picayune Dreams in action!



Prior to this, we've only shared screenshots, teases, and a few short clips. Here you'll get to see our lead programmer (Stepford) play through a small slice of the game, and describe the planned gameplay loop. Trust me, we'll still only be scratching the surface!

That's all for now. We're bursting at the seams to share more about this game! Being able to do so as a part of MIGW is a huge honor. Thank you all for your support and encouragement!
-Graeme