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Rabbit and Steel News

100000 Rabbits!

Hey, rabbits!

...Wow, there are a lot more of you than the last time I wrote a blog post!

It's been a whirlwind of a week for myself, a number of amazing happenings set against a haze of hotfixing bug after bug after bug.

There's still more bugs, by the way. There were 5 more reported in the Discord just while I was writing this post. I guess a lot of things can go wrong when your game runs over the internet.

But I'm taking a short break from all of that to talk about things!




That's right, the game has sold over 100k copies in its very first week!
That's... a very very large number. Overwhelmingly so.

There were a lot of great games that came out the very same day as Rabbit & Steel... not to even mention some of the stuff that came out earlier in the week. And yet, you all have decided to give my weird little game your time and attention. For that, I'm humbled and thankful.

When I started making the game, one of my goals was to make something that did a bit better than my previous game, Maiden & Spell. Maiden & Spell about broke even in terms of the time and money I put into it.

This game has done... much better than that. I think I will be safe in my solo indie development endevours for the forseeable future.

So, thank you, everyone. Here's to the updates and new games yet to come.





Most of the really, really critical bugs should be patched out now. There are still a few lingering issues I'd like to tackle here and there, and I'll likely get to those soon.

My goals with the game going forward is as follows (subject to change).

[h3]Immediate future plans:[/h3]

1) A balance patch!

Everyone says Wizard Rabbit is too weak, and I kind of agree. Her Defensive is hard to use, a lot of her upgrades are terrible, her DPS is kind of middling for a lot of effort playing her, etc. etc.. I'd also like to touch up Sniper Rabbit a little bit, although her situation isn't quite as dire.

I'd also like to add more "movement speed up" effects to loot items that are currently in the game. There's a lot of stuff that slows you down, but few things that speed you up. Being extremely slow can be funny, but being extremely fast can be funny too.



2) A "toybox" mode!

Basically, a little extra room where you can try out any item combos you'd like against a training dummy. Currently, the plan is to make it so that only items you've won a run with are available; but that's still just a plan.

3) An art gallery!

I've got a lot of concept art that's currently just sitting in a Discord thread; I'd like to throw it in the game proper. Plus, it'd be a way to look back on some of the Story cutscene art, if you'd like to.

[h3]Further future plans:[/h3]

1) More classes, more bosses!

I can't really give a specific date to this, but... instead of a trickle of small updates that add a few new items here, another boss pattern there... I'd like to do a big DLC! Like a real one! New stages, new music, new bosses, the works. Probably for free!

Since the game is multiplayer, I feel like it will be easier to drag your friends back to the Moonlit Kingdom a few months down the line for a lot of new content releasing at once, instead of trying to get them to play to see one new class or boss at a time.

No idea when all of that will come together, but I'm in the process of writing it all down so I can at least give Hagane an idea of how much I'll be asking of him. It'll probably be a while.

2) More mod support!

I need to figure out how to make Steam Workshop work with Gamemaker. I have no idea how hard that is... seriously, I haven't looked into it at all.

But, with the way the game is programmed, I think custom loot items and bosses should be pretty achievable. Custom classes... are a bit more difficult; can't really promise anything there.


Anyway, those are the plans! I'll update you on progress periodically in blog posts similar to this one.





We had a World First Race last week! It was... quite eventful.

For those who weren't following the event closely, I'll summarize what happened.

On the first day... we got a Lunar Clear within 3 hours! A team found a way to cheese the whole game. That's a roguelike for you, I guess. Their strategy involved 3 Dancers and 1 Druid, all with the Garnet Defensive Special, keeping 100% Rabbitluck uptime while the Druid spammed their Defensive.

Everyone, including the team that won, felt that this was... a bit anticlimactic. So, we decided to add a new rule that everyone had to use a different class, and continued the race.

The first clear with that new rule in place came almost exactly 48 hours after the event began. Second and third place came in soon after.

So, here's all the winners, and the times that each boss was defeated!



Again, no real prizes other than the fun that everyone had. Thanks to everyone who participated and made it a truly special event. And extra special thanks to Saya, who helped me run the whole thing.




The OST is finally on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2984870


It's also available on Spotify and Bandcamp, if you'd prefer:
https://rns-ost.tumblr.com


It is set at 10USD; that's what Hagane wanted to price the album as, and I didn't want to undercut him here on Steam. So 10USD! Sorry if that's a bit pricey.

That's all for now!
Thank you all for playing.

1.0.0.7 Patch Notes

Even smaller hotfix. Perhaps this is one of things where they slowly halve in size until there isn't anymore hotfixes.

There was a crash that some players were encountering when they tried to kick players, and I wanted to fix that immediately.

1.0.0.7 Patch Notes


-Fixed issure where a crash could occur if you kicked a player, or if a player was disconnected

-Fixed issue where your window wouldn't center correctly when resized
-Fixed issue where if multiple lobbies in the lobby list couldn't be displayed, the error would pop up multiple times

-Fixed issue where Druid's Sapphire Defensive had a cooldown, even though it wasn't supposed to
-Fixed issue where Altair Dagger and Shinsoku Katana could have an unlucky result even when Rabbitluck was active
-Fixed issue where a cooldown wouldn't be displayed in the adjusted values if your items brought the cooldown down to 0

1.0.0.6 Patch Notes

Small one today, but probably the last of these hotfixes.

I'm fairly confident that I've now fixed most of the bugs with desyncing.
If you see a 1.0.0.7... that means my confidence was misplaced.

In the backend, the way rabbits move forward in their adventure has been refactored slightly.
Now, players will be unable to move more than one room ahead of their party members. The host will continuously send messages to party members left behind, telling them to move forward. If for some reason they don't (such as their internet dropping out), then they will be kicked from the lobby after 15 seconds.

This should also fix issues where, occasionally, loot and store items would fail to spawn for players that lagged.

Be sure to update your game, as you won't be able to play in lobbies with players on a different version.

1.0.0.6 Patch Notes


-Fixed issue where players would occasionally desync when moving forward
-Fixed issue where players would occasionally not have any store items
-Fixed issue where players would occasionally not be able to choose loot

-Fixed issue where one of Mav, the Seamstress Frog's single-player patterns was lacking warnings
-Fixed a number of typos

-Now, the "Proceed" area will be hidden while other people are selecting characters

1.0.0.5 Patch Notes


More bug fixes!
I'm starting to get out of the quick-and-easy fixes into the annoying-to-reproduce kind of bugs.
As such, some things in this patch are less "I fixed it" and more, "I think I fixed it".

If anything in these notes *isn't* fixed, feel free to inform me in whatever way you'd like. I'm most active in the Discord, but I try to check the Steam forums as well.

Again, update your game! If you aren't on the same patch as others, you won't see their lobbies!


1.0.0.5 Patch Notes


-Fixed issue where your stats wouldn't be correct after purchasing a level from the shop

-Fixed issue where Dragonhead Spear's 3 second cooldown would be added later in the calculations than it was supposed to, causing issues when combined with items like the Firescale Corset or Mermaid Scale
-Fixed issue where the Lullaby Harp wouldn't affect abililties that had multiple uses
-Fixed issue where Demon Horns, Firescale Corset, and Flamewalker Boots wouldn't update your stats correctly when first picked up

-Fixed issue where Heavyblade's Garnet Secondary's effect didn't match its description (To match the description, it now gives 1 use every 3 moves, and its GCD was shortened from 1.5 seconds to 1.4 seconds)
-Fixed issue where Defender's Garnet Defensive would reset the counter on your Special (it now leaves the counter as it is)

-Fixed issue where you would never fight Maxi the Crafter Frog or the two mice in the Outskirts while playing Normal Mode
-Fixed issue where setting your game to Cute Mode allowed you to enter the credits sequence while online
-Fixed issue where spectating a run would increment your win counter and count towards boss kill times
-Fixed issue where moves with multiple uses would show different uses remaining for different clients
-Fixed issue where filtering lobbies by destination would bug out the list, where you couldn't return to an unfiltered state without exiting the menu entirely
-Fixed issue where, when playing single player, you would occasionally crash when moving to a new area

-Fixed issue where the swear filter wasn't working for chat messages
-If you'd like to turn off the swear filter, it's a config setting in your save file. Go to C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\RabbitSteel\SaveFile , open onlinesettings.ini, and set "SwearFilter" to "0". Note that if you aren't hosting the lobby, messages will still be filtered if the host has their filter turned on.

-Changed the hallway map at the top of the screen to be unaffected by your HUD alpha settings
-Changed the "Clicks Only" mouse control setting to keep your mouse locked on screen while active

-Fixed a number of typos and misleading text across varying languages


[h3]Below are a number of things I've *tried* to fix. However, these bugs happen very infrequently, so I'm very unsure if I have. If any of these still happen to you, please let me know.[/h3]

-Attempted to fix issue where the character select would get into weird states where there were blank spots, and characters wouldn't spawn on all clients
-Attempted to fix issue where you would occasionally be "left behind", where the other members in the party would proceed without you

New co-op roguelike with almost perfect reviews is surging on Steam

On first appraisal, they seem like two games that are impossible to blend. Dead Cells meets Final Fantasy XIV - how would that work? One is a punishing, pixel-art roguelike where death and impermanence are central to the entire premise, not just mechanically, but in terms of atmosphere and tone. The other is a sweeping MMORPG, driven by experience points, leveling up, and playing together with friends. Just launched onto Steam, a new roguelike somehow unites these seemingly mutually exclusive experiences, and it's already pulled in glowing reviews as well as thousands of players.


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