Rabbit and Steel News

Hello Rabbits!

No proper dev blog this month; sorry!
I've been doing lots of fun things; like going to Magfest, getting very sick from going to Magfest, and also moving house IRL.

I have been making some progress on the DLC though!
All of the background stages are now complete, and all of the design sketches for new enemies and classes are done.

After this post I will enter "art hell"; doing nothing but animating characters for the next month.
It's not quite as hot as the real hell, but it's about as much toil and suffering.

In the meantime, look at this mysterious location!



And these cute enemy sketches!



I'll have a real dev blog showing some of them in action... in a few months, when they have animations and fights and stuff.


With that out of the way, the patch!

This patch is primarily a bug fixing patch, but also focuses on add a few requests from modders. New functions have been added so that achieving certain item effects is a bit easier, and some things are now possible that weren't before.
These additions shouldn't break any existing mods, since it's only adding and fixing things.
But if it did break your mod somehow, please let me know via email or Discord DM!

Hope to get back with a real dev blog in the near future!



- Adjusted the hitbox of "donuts", including Enrage and Color Match
Previously, there was an exploit where, by having items that decreased your hitbox size, you could stand directly in the center of Enrage donuts and not get hit, or move quickly through the expanding donut and dodge it if you had a low framerate
Donut ring hitboxes are now slightly larger, and no longer take buffs from items like Evasive Potion into account

- Adjusted the check for the unlock for the King's Arsenal Soundtrack to be slightly more lenient
Previously, because of the time slow, if you defeated Merran just as it was about to end, it wouldn't count for the unlock; it now gives you more leeway

- Add a new icon to "Mods" in the options menu

- If you try to close the game just after an auto-save, it will wait about a second before closing.
Hopefully this will minimize issues where closing the game during saving sometimes corrupts your save data.



- Added "distance" variable on "ipat_bruiser_3" and "ipat_bruiser_3_emerald"
- Added "s_changeAmount", "s_newAmount", "s_sourceType", "s_sourceHb" to the "onGoldChange" trigger
- Added "s_teamId" and "s_playerId" to the "onSquarePickup" trigger

- Fixed issue where, when editing existing items using Mods, it wouldn't let you add new triggers unless other items were also added in the same mod
- Fixed issue where tset_uservar_darkflame and tset_strmult_backstab would crash the game
- Fixed issue where squareVars other than squareVar0 were unaccessable
- Fixed issue where the following functions didn't accept variables, only numbers (they now correctly accept variable names as well):

• tset_uservar_cond_squarevar_equal
  
• tset_uservar_random
  
• tset_uservar_random_range
  
• tset_uservar_sqvar
  
• tset_uservar_blackhole_charm_calc
  
• tset_strmult_backstab
  

- Added the following new "set" functions:

• tset_userver_random_range_int
  
• tset_uservar_switch
  
  
• tset_uservar_difficulty
  
• tset_uservar_hallwaycount
  
• tset_uservar_stage
  
  
• tset_uservar_hb_cooldownvar
  
• tset_uservar_hb_hitboxvar
  
• tset_uservar_hb_itemvar
  
• tset_uservar_hb_stat
  
• tset_uservar_player_stat
  

- The following enums have been added for use with "tset_uservar_difficulty", "tset_uservar_stage" and the "onGoldChange" trigger respectively:

• difficulty.cute
  
• difficulty.normal
  
• difficulty.hard
  
• difficulty.lunar
  
  
• stage.test
  
• stage.outskirts
  
• stage.nest
  
• stage.arsenal
  
• stage.lighthouse
  
• stage.streets
  
• stage.lakeside
  
• stage.keep
  
• stage.pinnacle
  
  
• goldSource.battleRewards
  
• goldSource.store
  
• goldSource.loot
  
• goldSource.debug
  

- Added new "quickPatterns":

• tpat_player_add_hp
  
• tpat_player_set_hp
  
• tpat_player_add_gold
  
• tpat_player_set_gold
  
• tpat_player_add_level
  
• tpat_player_set_level
  

- Added new boss patterns:

• bp_erase_bullets
  
• bp_erase_bullets_small
  

- You can now set items to spawn in with using Mods.
To set an item as something to spawn in with, a flag needs to be set on that item.
Check the API for additional info!

- Shop options will now sync correctly between players, even when using modded items
- Now, if you mod "loot" into stores, it will function like potions do; where each player can buy one (instead of only one player being able to buy it)



- Fixed issue where spectating a game would allow you to unlock stages
- Fixed issues where certain abilities and items (such as Assassin's Opal Secondary) could continuously activate over and over between battles
- Fixed issues where certain loot that required standing still (such as Iron Grieves) could activate even when you were KO'd
- Fixed issue where Diamond Shield wouldn't give allies invulnerability
- Fixed issues where Blackstrike, Counter, Tranquility, Flash-STR, Flash-DEX, and Flash-INT wouldn't wear off properly when applied by an ally
- Fixed issue where, if you defeated Tassha just as her clones disappeared, it could result in a softlock
- Fixed issue where, if you were not the lobby host and revived just as the host saw a party wipe, your character would appear alive in the background of the defeat screen (it now just KO's you; if the host says you've lost then you've lost!)

- Fixed a number of typos and text issues in various languages

[h2]1.0.4.6 Hotfix[/h2]

- You can now set hbColor0 and hbColor1 to "-1" to make an item/ability match the current character's color palette
- Added new pattern functions from October's balance update to the modding API

- Fixed issue where, if you had a mod that changed the effect of an item that already exists in the game, and then joined a lobby without any mods enabled; the item would still function as if it were modded while in that lobby
- Fixed Tassha softlock for real this time
- Fixed issue where trying to make new copies of base game status effects within mods would cause the game to crash

- Fixed typo in Wizard Rabbit's Sapphire Secondary (the description said it was a 30% damage increase, but it's actually 40%)

- Fixed a number of other typos


[h2]1.0.4.7 Hotfix[/h2]

- Fixed issue where mods that copy status effects wouldn't correctly copy over certain parameters

Hello Rabbits!

The seasons continue to turn, and it is now almost winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
What that means for you depends on where you live. Maybe you're somewhere where all the normal monsters are replaced with slightly stronger ice variants.

As for me, I'm hard at work at Rabbit & Steel's DLC!

For those who've missed me talking about it before; I am, infact, working on a content update to the game.

However, unlike a lot of roguelikes that do a number of small patches that add items, bosses, whatever here and there, I am packing it all into one update! One chunky DLC. I figure it will be easier to convince your friends to come back and play for a large content update, rather than just one new boss or something.

I originally wanted to aim for the game's release anniversary of May, but at current pace that is definitely, definitely not happening. Late Summer 2025 to Fall 2025-ish might be a more accurate estimate. Hopefully not too much later (but who knows, life happens).

Today, a small preview! But first....




Following Heavyblade Rabbit, Tassha the Snowfur Wolf is now also a plushie!



https://www.makeship.com/products/tassha-plush

The perfect Christmas Gift! ....Though, she won't actually arrive at your door until a few months after you order.

She'll be available for the next 3 weeks, so pick her up while you can! It probably wouldn't be a good financial decision to buy 4 of them... but you could.

When I asked around what other characters people wanted turned into plushies, the answers were pretty scattered; but Tassha came up a lot! There seem to be a lot of other ones people would like though... so I'm sure Makeship and I can cook some more up as well. So pick up Tassha while you can, and comment below if there's a Rabbit or other character you want to see a plushie of next!!





If you're one of those who actually played through the base game's story, you know that there were a few unanswered questions.

It's time to find some answers... far below the Moonlit Kingdom.



New areas! The right half of the map is blurred for spoilers.

When you set your destination to a DLC area, you start in "The Crack in the Geode". This place functions like the Kingdom Outskirts, with a few easy enemies and chests to get your run going before reaching the harder areas.



Definitely something odd going on here.

The structure of the game is mostly unchanged; each DLC area will have a shop, enemies, a chest and a boss at the end. Like here, we see the shop....



Oh! Uh, hi Tassha.
I guess Tassha's running the shop now.



Hm, I wonder where Asha is then.
Hopefully she's not somewhere slightly off to the right, preparing for that all-too-tired "fight the shopkeeper" roguelike trope.

When playing through the DLC for the first time, you will be limited to the DLC areas. However, I do plan to add a setting to completely randomize the all the game's areas (base+DLC) once you beat the DLC. This setting won't make any canonical sense (as the DLC takes place after the events of the base game), but it'll be something you can do.

And again, aiming for late Summer 2025-ish for the DLC! Hopefully!

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

Hello Rabbits!

Steam Award nominations are underway....
Wouldn't it be cool if some game about rabbit girls got one?

..."Game of the Year" might be a bit of a longshot (although people have told me Rabbit & Steel is their GOTY, thank you!)

But, maybe we can nab the "Better With Friends" Award!
If you've had fun with friends playing Rabbit & Steel, maybe consider it!

Hello Rabbits,

Back from vacation with a small update full of fixes.
If your mods aren't perfectly aligned with the lobby you join, you should crash less.
I'm not sure I've fixed every possible issue, but that's hard to know with something as flexible as mods.



- Character skins now have a per-class icon that replaces the palette's face. In addition, instead of showing the replaced palette in character select, a message appears saying that a preview isn't available.
Obviously the ideal solution would be that you could actually see your skin in the character select, but doing that would mean loading in all your skin sprites when you go to the character select, which would make the run start/reset loading screen extremely long for people with a lot of skin mods (or even crash laptops etc.)

- Added "&" "|" "%" to the parser (so you can do stuff like orderBin0 | orderBin1 to add binaries together, or do var0%5 and stuff)
- Added an icon to the top left difficulty display when you are using mods that affect gameplay
- Added a number of pattern variables that you can use for custom patterns (that I'll list separately, I need to make an API page for custom variables anyway)
- Added "Enable All" and "Disable All" buttons to the "Mods" page



- Fixed issue where the color-matching circles in one of Mav, the Seamstress Frog's patterns were the wrong sizes

- Fixed issue where, when the displayed number on loot went over 99, the display would bug out
With this fix, that display number will display correctly up to 999. If you are modding in items, the number itself can go over 999 internally; but the display for the number will cap out at 999.

- Fixed issue where, if a person who planned to roll on loot skipped, the rolling animation would still play
- Fixed issue where, if the only person who chose a character left, everyone in the middle of choosing a character would have their character selection reset

- Fixed issue where, when making a custom animation, the game would crash if you didn't fill in headOffset values for all frames
- Fixed issue where, if you had empty lines in an "AnimationSheetSimple", the game would throw errors
- Fixed issue where the parser would incorrectly count parenthesis when you used them in conjunction with a function call

- Fixed issue where disabling an encounter mod and proceeding in Toybox mode could crash your game
- Fixed issue where, if your game was unmodded, but you joined a lobby with modded items, you would still gain achivements and unlocks

- Fixed issue where tags aren't properly reflected when you refresh info on a downloaded mod (and at times, doing this would crash your game)


[h2]1.0.4.3 Hotfix[/h2]

- There are now pages on the Toybox encounter menu for when you have enough mods for it to overflow out of the UI
- Fixed issue where moving forward too quickly after a certain cutscene caused the game to crash
- Fixed issue that caused modded patterns with "transformSmall" in them to crash

[h2]1.0.4.4 Hotfix[/h2]

- ACTUALLY fixed issue that caused modded patterns with "transformSmall" in them to crash

Hello Rabbits!

It's been a hot minute, but it's here! The Steam Workshop Update is now live to all players.
You can make...

[h2]Custom Items!![/h2]


[h2]Character Skins!![/h2]

(You could technically do this before, but now it's on Steam Workshop!)

[h2]Custom Boss Fights!![/h2]


[h2]...And share them with the world!![/h2]

To be honest, this took me a lot longer than I thought it would.
Within the game, all of these are just data in spreadsheets, so I thought it would be as easy as letting you add your own spreadsheets.
So I thought I could get it out by mid-September or so...

...But, I have been reminded that nothing is ever as easy as it seems when it comes to game development!

Another note, people have also asked for a way to add custom character classes in the game.
Unfortunately, the way the game is programmed, that would likely be significantly more difficult than Items, Skins and Bosses.
Not impossible! But difficult and time-consuming. So it's not in.
Perhaps I'll see how the game is doing post-DLC, and take it into consideration.

In addition to Steam Workshop support, this patch also comes with some balance changes!
The goal of these was mostly to make the "useless" gems a bit more pick-able.

Without further ado, the patch notes!




- There is now Steam Workshop support! I said that already!

- The game is now available in French! Thank you to Longfr for their translation!


- Toybox now additionally includes "Fight Settings", where you can play modded fights freely, as well as change other settings about Toybox fights

- To have an item available in the Toybox, you now only need to have picked it from a treasure once, instead of winning a run with it.
Especially since people are trying to test their mods out, it's probably time to relax the Toybox requirements.
Note: Modded items will always be unlocked in the Toybox from the start; you don't have to find them in a run first.




- Fairy Spear's damage bonus has been increased from 30% > 40%, and the time it stops you in place has been slightly reduced
- Moon Pendant no longer starts battles on cooldown
- Smoke Shield now starts battles on a 5 second cooldown (previous was a full 24 second cooldown)
- Altair Dagger now only runs your GCD for 3 seconds on failure (previously was 4 seconds)
- Rockdragon Mail now starts battles on a 5 second cooldown (previous was 15 seconds), now has a 45 second cooldown (previous was 60 seconds) and invulnerability duration was reduced to 2 seconds
- Diamond Shield now has a new effect; it will lay down a field of invulnerability that lasts for 3 seconds. It now starts battle on a 5 second cooldown
- Blue Rose will now, in addition to its healing effect, give you 100xp when it procs.
- Lost Pendant's Decay damage has been buffed 20>30, and its duration has been increased 60s>99s
- Blood Vial's Sap duration has been increased 60s>99s
- Tiny Hourglass now has a new effect; it will deal 120 damage to all enemies every 12 seconds, with the amount increasing by 120 every activation. It cannot crit, and doesn't deal random damage.

- Fire Potion's damage increased 800>1000
- Darkness Potion's damage increased 1500>2500, and now hits all enemies.
- Both of those potions can now hit for criitcal damage




- Ruby Secondary > Radius increased 280 > 400; Cooldown decreased 5s > 4s
- Ruby Special > Effect changed; now no longer randomly resets when you use your Primary; resets when you use your Defensive instead




- Garnet Primary > Now gives you 10% boost to luck in general; rather than just boosting Defensive reset chance
- Emerald Primary > Now gains Charge whenever you get a buff (in addition to not breaking Vanish)
- Opal Secondary > Effect changed; now additionally activates whenever you use a cooldown/loot with a cooldown activates (it's previous effect of resetting Defensive at 7 seconds or less has been removed)
- Emerald Secondary > Now hits as quickly as normal knives, instead of slowly

- Base Special and all Special upgrades > Movement slow 0.2x > 0.8x (meaning you are a lot more mobile while using Special now)
- Ruby Special > Has a countdown timer on your ability icon now, damage increased 250 > 300
- Opal Special > Damage increased 300 > 340
- Emerald Special > Backstab bonus increased 1.5x > 1.6x




- Garnet Secondary > Now additionally erases bullets in a small radius and gives you *very* brief invulnerability
- Opal Defensive > No longer slows down your movement on use (which was a bug), cooldown reduced 15s > 10s
- Garnet Defensive > Now makes a visual effect when your character gains Super




- Ruby Primary > Effect changed, now is an oGCD with a cooldown of 4s
- Opal Secondary > Effect changed; now will ALWAYS reset Special if it's Charged
- Garnet Secondary > Now only has a chance to reset Defensive if it's Charged
- Opal Special > Cooldown reduced 4s > 3s, damage increased 350 > 400
- Garnet Special > Damage increased 350 > 400
- Ruby Defensive > Now additionally makes Warcry last longer (5s > 10s)




- Garnet Primary > Effect changed; now has a 50% chance to deal damage to all enemies, and a 25% chance to deal damage to all enemies again (no longer gives Flash-Dex)
- Emerald Primary > Damage increased 180 > 220
- Garnet Special > Now hits ALL enemies, instead of exploding in a radius




- Opal Secondary > Effect changed; Now will deal 80 damage and absorb Darkspell from any enemy you place any debuff on
- Ruby Secondary > Effect changed; now deals 160 damage once, but deals 640 damage if you have 0 Darkspell (and restores 9 Darkspell)
- Sapphire Secondary > Now will hit 4 additional times if you have less than 3 Darkspell, restores 7 Darkspell
- Garnet Secondary > Damage buffed 100x2 > 140x2, Darkspell threshold for resetting Defensive is only 3 now (was previously 2), restores 7 Darkspell
- Emerald Secondary > Cooldown increased 3s > 4s, now restores 9 Darkspell




- Emerald Primary > Damage increased 600 > 750
- Opal Secondary > Debuff damage increased 350 > 400
- Garnet Secondary > Now has a 50% chance of instantly resetting itself
- Ruby Special > Now has a *much* larger radius (now an explosive arrow that explodes like Druid Ruby Special), damage increased 200x2 > 280x2, cooldown increased 10s > 20s
- Emerald Special > Now doesn't slow you down as much, or as for long
- Opal Defensive > Now makes you move faster on use (previously slowed you down), has 2 uses per cooldown, damage increase reduced 30% > 20%
- Emerald Defensive > "Tranquility" has been buffed; see below in "Other Adjustments"




- Emerald Secondary > Effect changed; Is now an auto-activating ability with no GCD and a cooldown; can no longer be Charged, and permanently increases movement speed
- Opal Special > Cooldown reduced 4s > 2s




- Garnet Defensive > Now has a 30% chance to reset itself, damage decreased 250>200
- Opal Defensive > Effect changed; now reduces all other cooldowns (including loot) by 3 seconds when used; can no longer be reset by loot effects




- The amount of HP recovered by Matti when transitioning to Phase 2 of her fight has been decreased from 70% to 65%.




- The "Tranquility" status effect no longer has a duration, and will stay on until you move too far. The amount you're able to move has also increased threefold.




- Fire Potions and Darkness Potions no longer slow you down slightly when thrown.
- A number of translation errors have been fixed across different languages.

- Fixed issue where, if you had an ability or loot item that activated automatically, you could stop it from activating by pausing your game while playing online

- Fixed issue where Heavyblade's Opal Special could randomly reset your Defensive if you had luck items
- Fixed issue where Darkstorm Knife flashed twice every time it proc'd
- Fixed issue where Shinsoku Katana could still run your GCD and make a lucky proc when used with an ability with no GCD

- Fixed issue where AoEs could seem to disappear then re-appear for a moment when bosses like Twili transitioned to their second phase

- Fixed issue where the visual effect for Line Spreads seemed incomplete if you moved all the way to one side of the arena

- Fixed issue where the visual effect for Thorns wouldn't line up correctly between attached characters
- Fixed issue where Thorns could turn red after they resolved if players immediately moved back to being close together

- Fixed issue where, when playing for the first time, your default language wouldn't be properly set for certain languages

[h3]1.0.4.1 Hotfix[/h3]

- Fixed crash when a custom encounter has enemies spawning at negative coordinates
- Fixed issue where the "ending" hallway option could crash the game
- Fixed issue where Diamond Shield's description was incorrect
- Fixed issue where French item names were incorrect
- Fixed some typos in Chinese




Another few pieces of news to close out the post!

First, Rabbit & Steel will be at MagFest 2025!!



If I have the first stage of the DLC done by the event, I'll have it available to play.
If I don't, then you'll just be able to play the base game with other congoers!
Hope to see you there!

Speaking of the DLC... uh, I still haven't really done much! My hands have been full with the Steam Workshop stuff.
I do have a good idea of everything that will be in it, though.
I'll take a small break after this update, and then get right to work on it. This update has been very programming-heavy, so I'm really looking forward to drawing up new rabbits and bosses.

I'll have another dev blog about it when I have more to show! See you then!