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Punch and Dance

Hello rabbits, happy new year!

Since the last blog post, I've been chipping away at making content for the game. The playable classes are 100% done, the items are 100% done, the trinkets are 100% done, and the game is feeling more complete by the day!

What remains is the story dialog and the actual battles you'll fight along the way. Those have been coming along more or less at the pace I expected. Of the work I had remaining at the beginning of the year, I've finished a little under half of it, which puts me on pace for my target of mid-March.

...That doesn't mean the game is coming out mid-March though! Far from it; after all that's done I still need to have the game translated, make a trailer, do some more marketing things, bug test the game thoroughly, and make a lot of smaller adjustments. In fact, I've got a two page list of random things I'd like to do to improve the game (many based off the demo's feedback).

Anyway, please enjoy a random selection of some stuff I've been working on!




For those who like fighting up-close and dealing big damage, introducing the Bruiser Rabbit!



The Bruiser Rabbit has higher base damage than every other class in the game, but she's limited by her short range, horizontal hitboxes, and restrictive Defensive. The balance of where her damage comes from is also weird compared to other characters, making her item choices somewhat interesting.

Her Primary is the core of her entire moveset. A powerful blow in a horizontal line in front of her, with a very, very long GCD. Her other moves Charge this move in one way or another (up to 4 times), making her strikes even more powerful.

Her Secondary is a short-range jab that has a chance to Charge your Primary. It's generally what you'll be using as filler, since its DPS is higher than an uncharged Primary on average. The problem is that its range is VERY short; so be sure to get close to use it!



Then comes her Special... which is a unique one. It does a pitiful 100 damage to all enemies, Charges your Primary twice, and gives you an extremely powerful buff: Berserk. Berserk boosts your movement speed and reduces all your GCDs to 0.8 seconds, including your Primary. So time to take all those Charged Primaries, and unleash some RAGE.

Your buff lasts slightly longer than 4 Primaries though... we need more Charge! More RAGE. Luckily, your Defensive also gives you one Charge to your Primary each use, so you can use that during Berserk to eek out more damage.

However, her Defensive is a bit awkward to use compared to some other characters, as it shifts her position horizontally in the direction of her target. So, don't get too distracted while wailing on your opponent, or you might jump right into an enemy attack!



And that's the punchy-angry rabbit in a nutshell! While straightforward to play, her close-range limitaitons means she has a pretty high skill ceiling.




Let's take a quick look at some two-target fights! The only one in the demo is against the two mice in the outskirts, but there are far more in the full game.



These two dragons are Pi and Kuu! They have a calm demeanor, but explosive attacks.



In Lunar Mode, their fight might turn into a frantic runaround, dodging non-stop explosions. Make sure to stick together and run as fast as you can!




Lette and Jay are a singing frog duet. Jay's beats will keep you moving, and Lette will make you stand still for her melody!



They'll politely take turns in Normal Mode, but in Lunar you'll have to carefully dance to both their songs. Look carefully, and deal with things in order from top to bottom.




Hopefully you've enjoyed this little preview! I mostly wrote it as proof I am still, in fact, alive. I've been hard at work making enemy attacks, and my social media went quiet for a bit. I'll continue to be a bit sparse with updates for the next month or so, but after that I'll be putting more effort into showing the game around as it gets closer to release.

When is rabbit game releasing? Uh... before... other games. Preferably well before other games; so that people who plan on playing other games when they come out have time to play Rabbit & Steel first.

That's the goal, and a pretty ambitious one considering what's left. So, I need to get back to work!

See you next time!

Taking Aim!

Hello Rabbits!

The Year of the Rabbit is coming to a close. When I started on Rabbit & Steel, my goal was to get it within this year... but game development always takes longer than you think it will.

Though, as I'll talk about later, the finish line isn't too far off. I'm not ready to commit to a specific release date quite yet, but I'm trying to get it out in the Spring.

Anyway, since the last blog post I've been working on items, characters, and some other random things. So I'll show you a few!




For all the bow-wielding sharpshooters out there, introducing the Sniper Rabbit!



The Sniper Rabbit has slightly higher base damage than most of the other classes (about in line with Assassin), and plays well at a range. Her AoE and defensive capabilities, however, are somewhat lacking.

First, her Primary. While fairly strong on its own, it has a somewhat unique property that it goes on a short cooldown if you miss. So don't spam it if you don't think your shot will land!

Her Special (we'll get back to the Secondary) fires homing shots that hit her target from anywhere on the battlefield. It can hold up to 3 uses at once, so it's good to keep some spare for when you might not be able to aim your primary. Its cooldown is a long 10 seconds... but that's a bit deceptive.




The Secondary gives her targets a "Snare" debuff. Snare will give you back one charge of your Special when it wears off, in addition to dealing some damage. The ability even has a little bit of AoE range, and if you hit two enemies with it, you'll get two charges of your Special back!

Lastly, the Defensive supercharges your Primary, and gives you a (very) brief boost to movement speed and invulnerability. Use it to position yourself for the perfect shot!



All in all, she's a very fun class to play, and has a lot of really interesting item combos. Starting with a debuff makes a lot of items useful right out of the gate, and the frequency with which she can use her Special makes a few items really good in her hands!



I've reworked the "Spark" status effect!

The Bluebolt Set is a grouping of items that add Spark to your attacks, or have effects that activate when you've dealt damage a certain number of times. Once unlocked, they'll appear in both blue and yellow chests.

This isn't all of them, but it's a few of my favorites!



The Timegem Set, by contrast, is a group of items that works well with items and abilities that hit slow, hard and heavy. They'll appear in both red and purple chests after you unlock them.

Again, this isn't all of them, just a few.



Finally, here's some items from Ruins Set. It's focused on some items with defensive buffs, as well as a few things that will make you very powerful... but also very slow.



(Please note that the numbers or effects on the above items might change in the final game, depending on how broken or useless they end up being in final testing).



I'm only showing off a little bit this time around, but I've got a lot more done behind the scenes.

So how far along is the game? Let me check the to-do list really quick...

New items: 100% done! (Though I do have ideas for even more if I have time...)
New trinkets: 100% done!
New playable classes: Just need to finish their store upgrades!
New stage backgrounds: 100% done!
New foes and raids to battle: That's a work in progress...
Story Cutscenes: Basically not written at all lol

So the remaining work is a little bit lopsided in terms of what's complete and what isn't. I'm hoping to have the above done by mid-March or so, and then spend however much time I need after that to polish, adjust and improve the game however I can.

That's all for today. Happy holidays, and see you in the new year!

Choosing a direction

Hello Rabbits!

Thanks everyone for a very fun and eventful Steam Nextfest! I hope you've all enjoyed the demo; I certainly got a lot of good feedback.

I've finally wound down fixing all the bugs that the demo had. There are still a few things I need to do for it (primarily translating the Story cutscenes and adding support for chatting in other languages), but I'm putting those on the backburner until I actually get the translations. For now, it's back to developing the full game.


One question I've been seeing around is, how will the full game... work?

If you've been trying to clear the Hard or Lunar difficulties, you might have noticed that the bosses are really really hard! As to be expected of a raid.



But this hatted crow is only the first boss, right? Are you going to have to defeat her every single run to fight the other bosses...?

Uh, no! That'd be obnoxious.



Within Rabbit & Steel, there are 5 possible stages you can go to, each with their own set of enemies and a unique boss at the end.



Each run, the order of the stages are different. So, the Scholar's Nest isn't the "first" stage, it's just one of 5 possible stages you could go to first (and the only option included in the demo). Thus, in a full run, you might have to fight through any of the possible stages first!

...Wait, that's even worse! You'd have to *luck into* the stage you want to progress on!

Not to fear, my long-earred companion! I've included the tools you need to practice the stage you want.





If you've clicked around the things in the lobby, you might have noticed the large piece of paper labeled "coming soon" above the option to change the difficulty setting.

Well this is its identy! The map!



The map lets you choose which stage you go to first. Simple as that. You do have to visit a stage at least once for it to be visible, but after that you'll have free reign of the Moonlit Kingdom!

The choice you've picked will also show up in your lobby listing! So say you want to practice the Scholar's Nest on Hard mode...



Then you make a listing like this, and people will know where you're going.

The map also tracks which stages you've cleared on any given difficulty.



Of course, you can also choose to tread a random path by clicking on the white tower. You'll get some kind of bonus for this... but I haven't exactly decided what yet. It will likely be something like starting at level 3 or 5, or maybe a bit of extra gold. Once the game is closer to being finished I'll do some testing and see what's fair!

And one more thing... I'll probably be changing the Outskirts a little bit for the full release. Instead of fighting all 5 enemies, you'll fight 3 at random. Or, at least, that's the plan right now. Subject to change. I will probably leave the demo as-is (it's a nice little challenge for now), but runbacks in the full game will be a bit shorter.

So that's the plan! Gather your friends, learn each stage, then apply that to a full run and get your clear!

That's all for today, see you next time!

The Free Demo Is Out!



It's out! Yep! Check the store page!

  • Two Stages: The Kingdom Outskirts + The Scholar's Nest
  • Five Classes: Wizard, Assassin, Heavyblade, Dancer, and Druid
  • 80+ Random Items to find
  • Normal, Hard, and Lunar Difficulties
  • Online and Offline Co-op (up to 4 players)
  • Single player as well!
  • Support for English, Japanese and Simplified Chinese
  • Some other random baubles to find


The demo will (likely) stay up indefinitely, including after the game's launch, so play it as much as you'd like.
However, I will (likely) remove the online functionalities when the actual game launches.
That won't be for a little while though, I've still got a ways to go before the full game is out!

I hope that's okay!

Feedback thread in the forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2132850/discussions/0/3878219197533645648/


Join the Discord to find party members and bother me directly:
https://discord.gg/mns


Enjoy!

Demo soon!

Hello rabbits! Another short update today.

First... the demo is coming very soon! ...As soon as I get back from Tokyo Game Show!
Currently I think the date is set for the 29th, but I'll adjust that as needed. Maybe I'll be able to release it slightly earlier if there aren't any issues!
Almost all of the bugs that the beta testers have found have been worked out, and there's just a few more small adjustments I want to make.

  • Two Stages: The Kingdom Outskirts + The Scholar's Nest
  • Five Classes: Wizard, Assassin, Heavyblade, Dancer, and Druid
  • 80+ Random Items to find
  • Normal, Hard, and Lunar Difficulties
  • Online and Offline Co-op (up to 4 players)
  • Single player as well!
  • Support for English, Japanese and Simplified Chinese
  • Some other random baubles to find




Please look forward to it!



Second, Rabbit & Steel will be at Tokyo Game Show this weekend!





If you're coming by, hope to see you there!