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Rack and Slay joins the Steam Summer Sale!



Hey there! The time since Rack and Slay launched has been a blast! The game received more than 230 reviews, has had countless awesome creators making videos and streams and so many invested players providing feedback, suggestions, creating guides etc. I'm super happy with the reception so far!



Just this week I released the first big content update introducing a new endless mode (that goes pretty wild sometimes), a new enemy, a new item, new run modifiers, a big round of balancing and more. I'm still very much in love with the game and dedicated to improving it!

So if you've been on the fence about it so far, Summer Sale is a chance to jump in at a discount!

As a reminder, here's what you get in the full version:
  • 112 game-changing items, with 50+ of them unlockable through playing any mode.
  • 20 difficulty levels to unlock in packs (no need to go 1-by-1 if you're that good).
  • The full 10-level Crawl Mode for your good old ~30-minute roguelike runs.
  • The shorter Delve Mode with half the levels, but double the item drafts.
  • The one-level Raid Mode with random items for a quick burst of fun.
  • Daily Mode featuring a unique set of game-changing run modifiers every day.
  • Wild Mode for random (and sometimes extra crazy) sets of modifiers.
  • The option to take victorious runs to Endless Mode and break the game.
  • A set of Challenge Runs featuring drastically different gameplay variants.
  • A full Item Compendium to track unlocks and collect badges.


Thank you so much for the amazing support! It means the world! ❤️

P.S. It's an entirely different beast but my previous game WikiArena where Wikipedia articles battle it out over which one's longer or more popular is also on sale! Maybe take a peek! :)

Patch 1.11

Managed to squeeze in a couple small features while dealing with endless mode shenanigans! :)

[h2]Patch notes (v1.11)[/h2]
  • Added a counter for how many Daily Runs you won.
  • Added advanced option to show an overlay "shoot" button. This should be especially useful for touchscreen players since the game is now playble by using "left click", i.e. tap, only (if you also activate the "swap mouse buttons" option).
  • Capped the gold gain of a few items (Balatro style? 🃏).
    • This applies to It’s Over Nineteen (on the plus side it now grants 5% shot power before the gold bonus though), Rich Collector and Banker. In the right situations they still provide by far the best “gold per trigger” value and especially multiple copies can still go crazy, but they don’t completely spin out of control quite as easily in endless mode anymore.
  • Fixed Magnet collecting pick-ups during the shop phase.
  • Minor fixes and UI adjustments to better handle large numbers.
  • Capped some visual effects for better performance (especially in endless mode).

Hotfixes 1.1a + 1.1b

As expected, endless mode brought with it a whole bunch of crazy shenanigans, most of which I don't want to get in the way of cause that's where the mode's fun is. Some would however literally break (as in crash) the game a little too frequently and easily. One of the major culprits is the ability to effectively buy an infinite number of random items in the shop. Therefore the price for random items will now scale a little faster and become actually ∞ when it goes above 999 gold. (Of course it will still reset at the start of each level so you won't be locked out forever.) Let me know if it feels off!

[h2]Patch notes (1.1a + 1.1b)[/h2]
  • Random item price scales faster and becomes ∞ ("infinite") when above 999 to make crashing in endless due to too many items less likely. (As mentioned I'll monitor if this needs further tweaking.)
  • Endless mode now saves your best level reached when entering a level instead of on dying, so your highscore is recorded even if you should get into a "crash on load" situation with your run.
  • Fixed bombs sometimes spawning on top of enemies and immediately exploding. (Random level generation makes this is hard to test for 100% certainty, so let me know if you still encounter this.)
  • Fixed explosion size indicators sometimes being too large.
  • Fixed explosion visuals overlaying the pause menu.
  • Fixed Rack's enemy spawn chance being too low.
  • Fixed Drunken Master challenge backwards shot chance being too high.

Update 1.1 - Endless Mode + New Content

Hey everyone, the first bigger update is here! Let's dive right in! :)

[h2]ENDLESS MODE[/h2]

If you beat a Crawl or Delve run, you can now choose to keep going on the game end screen. Each level into endless will raise the stakes by adding additional enemies and generating harder layouts, but on top of it an ever-increasing enemy damage multiplier is introduced, making it especially tricky to survive not clearing all enemies with your initial set of shots.

Let me know if you find issues or have feedback on this big new addition! How far can you go? How many items does it take for the game to break? (Probably quite literally, but that's part of the fun... right? :D)

[h2]NEW ITEM: STOP SHOT[/h2]

Some players found themselves wishing for more post-shot control, and Stop Shot is here to help. With this item, if you aim at an enemy straight on you will stop in place after hitting it. The maximum angle is 5° with one copy of the item but can be multiplied by stacking it.

The collision prediction will also show a stop sign if your angle is in range to make sure you can reliably plan around the stopping effect.

[h2]NEW ENEMY: FLOATY[/h2]

This balloon-carrying enemy slows down a little quicker than your typical monster ball, but also introduces a new kind of “defeat method prioritization” gameplay. If you try to send it into a hole, it will spend its balloons to return as a Normy enemy. Other methods of defeat will take care of it immediately though, so you better plan carefully where you send it!

[h2]NEW RUN MODIFIERS[/h2]
These new modifiers will now be able to show up in Daily and Wild runs!
  • Positive: There is a 10% chance for a gem to spawn each turn.
  • Negative: Take 1 damage when you pick up the first coin or gem in a level.
  • Neutral: Mini balls are bigger.
The Gang just got scary... 👀

[h2]BALANCING[/h2]
With one exception, the item changes are all buffs of weaker or very random and/or situational items to hopefully make them more generally useful and pickable.
  • Beanstalk now gives 10 gold (instead of 5).
    Reasoning: Rocky enemies add quite a bit of risk and usually mean you have to at least take a couple shots and / or hits more which almost negated the gold gain already.
  • Clumsy Trade now gives 3 (instead of 2) random items.
    Reasoning: Random items are random and therefore not worth as much as deliberate picks, especially if you’re lacking “mass item” synergy. Plus, losing a random item that might be more important after the level is a considerable downside (unless you’re in the last level, which previously was arguably the only decent spot to pick this item, now there should be a few more, especially “Hail Mary”, situations where it could make sense).
  • Make ‘Em Count now increases the price of buying shots by 20 per copy you own.
    Reasoning: Since the price of an additional shot is based on how many max shots you have, it was too easy to counter the downside of the item (buy just cheaply buying back 1-2 shots) while making full use of the huge power potential gained through its upside in the long run. Sometimes this could even render higher difficulty runs mostly no-brainers. Now playing around the downside (by e.g. buying shots first and then picking up the item after) should lead to more interesting decisions.
  • Money Is Power now triggers per 8 gold spent (instead of 10).
    Reasoning: The power level of this item was just a bit underwhelming in general and it required too much spending to really be worth it, especially on higher difficulties where gold is usually pretty tight.
  • Parasite now makes an enemy shoot at the closest other enemy (instead of in a random direction).
    Reasoning: Fully random mini ball shots can be kind of fun and chaotic but didn’t really help the reliability of the item. Now it’s much more likely to result in enemies dunking one another. Fun? :D
  • Patience now grants you 10 gold on top of its other effects.
    Reasoning: This should make it a little more attractive to pick (or randomly receive) the item earlier in a run, while it previously was really mostly just viable when already in the last level.
  • Rack now grants 2 gold (instead of 1) per defeated Normy enemy.
    Reasoning: The risk the item introduces of adding additional enemies is quite scary to take on, and high risk should come with high reward.
  • Raging Bull now also gives 5% shot power.
    Reasoning: Just making the item more of a certain net positive (and a little more flavorful). Its effect, while generally useful on its own, can be tricky to assign value to as a player.
  • Spike Shield now works 2 times each level per copy you own.
    Reasoning: While it could very situationally be more useful than Impaler (that just grants you the rotating spikes on level start), those moments were so rare that it was usually just a flat-out worse pick. Therefore, more rotating spikes!
  • Wild Ball now shoots a mini ball with triple speed.
    Reasoning: This gives the item more identity (when compared with other mini ball items), makes it more flavorful (it’s “wild” indeed now), and also makes up for the randomness of its targeting with more potential. If you’re afraid of dunking yourself by the way, make sure to grab those Guard Balls!
  • Toxy enemies are now defeated when hit by mini balls.
    Reasoning: Toxy is a pretty feared enemy, but it's really fun to figure out ways to get rid of it without taking damage, such as hitting other enemies into it to push it into a hole or timing your rotating spikes right. This adds another option in the form of mini ball assassins!

[h2]MISC[/h2]
  • Added option to swap left/right mouse buttons to aim and shoot.
  • Small Steam Deck improvements (game is "verified" now, yay).
  • Improved wording of a few items.
  • Lots of minor fixes.


Phew, that was quite a bit! I hope you find something to enjoy about this new update. Once again, thank you so much for the continued support, feedback and reviews that allow me to work on this game more, I love every minute! ❤️

Finally, as always, if you'd like to get in touch about bugs, feedback or suggestions please do so via the comments below, the Steam forums or the Discord! Rest assured I read every post!

All the best and have fun,
Fabian

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[h3]P.S. Speedrunning Tutorial![/h3]
I have to add one final shoutout! Just as I was working on these patch notes, speedrunner extraordinaire SatanHerself dropped a super comprehensive speedrunning tutorial on YouTube including a detailed companion guide document! I'm amazed and honored to see this kind of dedication (and also the runs are super fun to watch)! ːsteamhappyː

Steam Deck Verified + Update in 3 days!

Hi again!


Super happy to report that Rack and Slay has just been granted the Verified Steam Deck status by Valve, so you don't just have to take my word for it anymore! :D

[h2]Update next Tuesday![/h2]
In other news, the recently teased 1.1 update (including a new mode, item, enemy, lots of item buffs and more cool stuff) is coming together nicely and will be out just 3 days from now (Tuesday, June 25th)!

Here's another teaser:
Mini ball grew up? 🤔