Rack and Slay News

Hey everyone, it's time to bring roguelike billiards to new audiences!
Today's update adds 5 new languages to the game: German, French, Portuguese (BR), Chinese (simplified) and Japanese. Additionally, macOS support and a few general fixes and optimizations!

As usual here's a reminder that if you enjoy the game consider leaving a review. It means the world, helps a lot with Steam visibility and ultimately allows me to put more hours into this game that I love so much. So here's a big thank you to anyone who chipped in! ❤️

To celebrate, Rack and Slay is on sale on Steam (and Nintendo Switch) right now, and is participating in the amazing Roguelike Celebration 2024!

[h2]Patch notes (v1.25)[/h2]

• Implemented localization system and added translations for new languages:
  
  • German
    
  • French
    
  • Portuguese (BR)
    
  • Chinese (simplified)
    
  • Japanese
• Added support for macOS.
  
• Improved performance (endless mode is now enabled on Nintendo Switch btw).
  
• Fixed a few minor bugs.

[h2]New Bundles[/h2]
In other news, I'm collaborating with a few awesome indie devs in Steam bundles (besides the previously existing cooperations with Luck be a Landlord and the 2 Left Thumbs roguelike bundle)!

If you like your roguelikes featuring bouncy ball physics, check out Roundguard:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/44868/Roundguard__Rack_and_Slay/

And to keep the balls rolling, the roulette roguelike Bingle Bingle has got you covered:
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/45957/Bingle_Bingle__Rack_and_Slay/


As with all previous updates, I'll be keeping a close eye on the Steam forums and the Discord for your feedback, especially on the new translations (or languages you'd like to see in the future).

All the best and have fun,
Fabian

There were a couple hotfixes over the past couple of days that I'm summarizing below in addition to a few smaller tweaks that I just patched. Thanks for the continued feedback and reviews everyone!
[h2]Patch notes (v1.23)[/h2]

• In the Boom Town challenge, you can now only be damaged once per TNT crate (even if you're caught in multiple of its explosions at the same time).
  
• Added option to turn off (un-)fast-forwarding via mouse aim button (speedrunners rejoice).
  
• Added options to specify the mouse-wheel aim adjust sensitivity.
  
• Fixed Boss Rush challenge starting with one more shot than it should.
  
• Fixed last TNT crate in a turn sometimes not exploding due to a race condition.

Another small one featuring a couple challenge balancing improvements and a little quality-of-life feature that has been requested by the mouse-only crowd for a while. :)

[h2]Patch notes (v1.22)[/h2]

• Boss Rush challenge now starts with +2 shots to account for the higher number of enemies per level and give you a better chance to actually get through them all.
  
• Drunken Master backwards shot now never happens the first turn of a level to give you a bit more agency (and not ruin your first-shot abilities).
  
• Added option to the advanced settings that allows you to use your mouse scroll wheel to micro-adjust your aim.
  
• Fixed environment (mud/ice) tooltips repeatedly triggering in some cases.

Hey everyone! It's been a great week! I'm super happy with the reception of the big update. Thank you so much for the heartwarming comments and feedback in reviews, forum posts and the Discord! ❤️

Today's patch will clean up a bit by improving challenge balancing (a couple of them were a little rough at times, especially on higher difficulties) and making TNT Crates as well as the Culty enemy a little more interesting. There are also a few minor fixes, but nothing major seems broken so far, fingers crossed!

[h2]Patch notes (v1.21)[/h2]

• The Lost challenge now makes healing collectibles heal for 2 instead of 1 to give you a bit more leeway, and you start with Mad Doctor (gain gold for healing) to help you get off the ground.
  
• Golden Power challenge now guarantees 2 extra shot-power-providing collectibles every level to help with gold generation.
  
• TNT Crates now cause quadruple explosions to make them more unique, impactful and fit player expectations when seeing tons of dynamite better. This makes the Boom Town challenge slightly harder, but it was relatively easy anyways due to the self-removing obstacles.
  
• Culty enemy now has a 50% to become a Mimicry (that transforms every turn) at the end of each turn. This goes well with its "dark magic" vibe, makes it more unique and gives you a way to play around its extra spawn by waiting for it to turn into a more favorable enemy type before defeating it (although this can also be kind of risky depending on the situation).
  
• Fixed rare occasion of turn not ending due to out-of-bounds spike cannon projectiles.
  
• Small fixes and wording improvements.

I hope you continue to enjoy the update!

All the best,
Fabian

Hey everyone, it's major update day!

If you enjoy the game and the updates, maybe consider leaving a review. It really makes a big difference! Maybe we can break the 300 reviews milestone soon? 👀

Anyways, as promised this is a big one expanding on all areas of the game so let's get into it!

[h2]NEW ITEMS[/h2]

Three new items join the compendium!

• Earthshaker has quite a bit of multi-kill potential and can help move enemies even when they're in tricky-to-reach spots.
  
• Bulldozer gives you a new tool to defeat enemies by smashing them head-on into obstacles.
  
• Recycler can snowball your collectibles generation and opens up new synergies revolving around picking up lots of stuff.

[h2]NEW ENEMIES[/h2]

Two new enemies and brand-new enemy modifier!

• Gobbly eats the first other enemy it touches, which you can use to your advantage, but then you have to deal with a giant, satiated new "friend"...
  
• Charmy is such an attractive monster ball, that it makes you shoot towards itself at the end of the turn. Another ability you may be able to make good use of, but that can also be dangerous, so watch out and plan around it!
  
• The Mimicry modifier can apply to any enemy and causes it to randomly transform at the start of each turn, forcing you to re-evaluate your plans and think on your feet.

[h2]NEW COLLECTIBLES[/h2]

Three funky new pick-ups can spawn in the arena!

• Speaking of the new Mimicry modifier, the Voodoo Doll applies it to enemies who collect it. When you pick it up, you can use its terrifying voodoo powers to make the closest enemy flee in terror!
  
• Picking up a Banana makes you (or an enemy) stronger, but also randomly changes the collecting ball's trajectory. Oops!
  
• The Rune Stone adds a new tool to your movement repertoire by teleporting you back towards the spot where you collected it after the turn. Enemies can use it to locate you and move straight at you (which can put you in a pickle, but also enables some new around-the-corner kills).

[h2]NEW OBSTACLES[/h2]

Three new obstacles to play around!

• The Spike Cannon fires a deadly spike on touch. Line up multiple enemies if you can, but make sure you're not caught in the cross-fire!
  
• TNT Crates will light up on touch and explode at the end of the turn, cause more explosions are always fun!
  
• And finally the Semicircle obstacle adds another beloved shape for more spatial variety.

[h2]NEW CHALLENGES[/h2]

Many of you really enjoyed the existing Challenge Runs as crazy, pre-defined but still very replayable gameplay variants, so you asked for more. Well, this update DOUBLES the number of challenges!

Some of them reward risky plays, some flip the economy on its head, some revolve around the new enemies and obstacles, and one asks you to beat the game without items (say what?). I hope you'll have at least as much fun discovering new strategies as I had designing these new challenges! Of course these new ways to play the game are naturally open to balance tweaks, so if you have any feedback or suggestions, definitely let me know via the Steam forums or the Discord!

[h2]NEW RUN MODIFIERS[/h2]

Six new run modifiers will make your Daily / Wild mode runs even more diverse! I'll leave those for you to discover, but there's some brand-new stuff in it like a chance to dodge damage, enemies eating gems and coins, and a wacky "all-mimicry" mod.

[h2]MISC[/h2]

• Magnet radius doesn’t “collect” enemy swords anymore.
  
• Raging Bull now correctly pushes enemies away from a collision.
  
• Fixed Mimic giving less gold than it should per level.
  
• Fixed Boomy explosions not triggering nearby bombs.
  
• Fixed run modifiers sometimes not being sorted by type.
  
• Fixed run modifier icon not showing in “Berserk” challenge.
  
• Fixed coin and gem scaling in rare “big bridge” level type.
  
• Tentative method to unstuck enemies from walls.
  
• Lots of minor fixes and tweaks all around.

And that's it! I sincerely hope you have lots of fun discovering how the new stuff integrates into the game and boosts variety all around! Once again, thank you so much for the support, feedback and reviews that allow me to pour even more of my game-making heart into this game! ❤️

[h3]BUT WAIT... there's more?! 😲[/h3]

[h2]DISCOUNT + DAILY DEAL[/h2]

Today marks the start of a week-long 20% discount and, thanks to Valve, the game is actually getting featured on Steam's front page! Let's hope this will draw a few more eyes to the game!

[h2]NINTENDO SWITCH RELEASE[/h2]

And finally, the game is OUT NOW on Nintendo Switch (also with a launch discount), which still seems unreal to me! You can find it in the EU/AUS and Americas stores. (FYI: The release version is v1.13, but this new update will come to the console in all its glory soon!)

Okay, that's it for real this time! 😅

All the best and have fun,
Fabian