9 Kings News

The big day is here! And with no further ado: you can now play 9 Kings Early Access with a 35% launch discount! Right down below, you can check out our brand new release day trailer and a list of what's included in today's launch.

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[h3]Steam reviews: your thoughts matter[/h3][hr][/hr] We read ALL Steam reviews. If you've been playing 9 Kings and feel like sharing your experience, Steam reviews are especially helpful right now. They don't need to be long or detailed. A few words about what's working, what's bumpy, or what stood out is more than enough. Your feedback is always helpful in shaping future updates.

As we start the EA journey together, here's what you can expect:

[h3]Huge content update[/h3][hr][/hr] In EA, you'll experience a full game revamp, including:

7 out of 9 playable kings
Meta-progression
Special cards
Dozens of new decrees
New difficulty levels
Improved Endless Mode
New events
Dozens of community-requested improvements
And that's just the start
[h3]Constant patches[/h3][hr][/hr] You can expect new content updates constantly. We'll be adding new cards, decrees, new game modes, and kings in the following months as we progress toward 1.0. We can't wait to build the ultimate version of 9 Kings with you!

[h3]24/7 bug fixing[/h3][hr][/hr] We decided to release the game in EA so that we could build it together. Your help is huge for an indie team like ours. So please bear in mind that some issues still might happen. We're on the lookout, and we'll work day and night to fix all of them. Every week, 9 Kings will get more fun, more polished, and more powerful!

We can't wait to see you play 9 Kings. Starting... NOW!

[h3]Join the 9 Kings Community[/h3][hr][/hr]Also make sure to come join us on Discord and Reddit. You can also find the 9 Kings wiki page here for information on the game!

Love,
Sad Socket team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2784470/9_Kings/

We're getting close, everyone! You've been patient and kind. Now, we're only a few weeks away, and we really want to share with you what to expect from the EA release of 9 Kings.


[h2]New kings[/h2][hr][/hr]Play as the King of Stone! Play as the King Of Nature! Play as the King of Progress! Seven out of the nine main kings in the game will be available at launch. Each has a unique archetype and adds a completely new layer to the entire game. What do they do, you ask? You'll find out very, very soon.

[h2]Meta-progression[/h2][hr][/hr]Perks are available at last. And you can now make your kingdom's glory be remembered for generations!


[h2]All difficulty levels[/h2][hr][/hr]Experience the pure 9 Kings design by trying to beat the core game in all the full-game difficulties! Endless mode is fun, but we find this to be even more fun. Be strategic, smart, and lucky: We can't wait to see the highest difficulty the community can reach.

[h2]Longer core game[/h2]By the way, the great war now lasts 33 years! This will drastically change the strategies you will need to employ to beat each run.

[h2]Special cards[/h2][hr][/hr]The Merchant might hold some surprises for you. And they're kinda crazy. Like, game-breaking crazy.


[h2]Blessing events[/h2][hr][/hr]Every run now has a mini side-quest that will grant you bonuses! Fulfill the prophecy with your kingdom-building skills during your run, and you shall be rewarded. The blessing system is here to make your runs even more dynamic, unique and strategic.

[h2]Twice as many decrees[/h2][hr][/hr]That's right. We hope you'll find hundreds of new ways to break the game and make us go nuts.

[h2]Community Input[/h2][hr][/hr]You can finally save/load your current run, attack buildings now get buffs from other buildings, bosses have HP bars, perks were improved, cards were buffed, UI info was improved. All thanks to your inputs. Please keep your notes coming. QoL and performance improvements are ongoing tasks in 9 Kings, and the reason we're releasing an EA version is YOU and your inputs.


[h2]Release on May 23rd[/h2][hr][/hr]We know—the store said May 19th. And we’re really sorry for the minor delay! Due to some logistical issues, we had to push things back a few days. But the good news is: ultimately, we’re doing this so we can deliver everything listed above, which is much more than originally planned. We truly want you to have as much content as possible and hope you understand—we’ll keep working hard not to let you down!

[h2]Ongoing, unconditional support[/h2][hr][/hr]We'll be working day and night on 9 Kings upon release. Expect constant improvements and big content patches very frequently as we progress towards 1.0.

We can't wait for you to get your hands on the game. Thanks for sticking around and for all the support. It means the world to us. See you on May 23rd!

Love,
Sad Socket team

It's been a wild ride. And thanks to you, 9 Kings has become bigger than we could've ever imagined. We couldn't be happier about where we're headed, but as we grow, we've been needing more and more help.

So today, we're bringing in the cavalry.

[h2]Hooded Horse is now the global publisher of 9 Kings! [/h2]
If you know Hooded Horse, then you probably know why we're stoked. If you don't, let's just say they're one of the coolest indie publishers in the world with some of the titles we admire most in the industry. We're thrilled to now be a part of their roster. With their help, alongside INSTINCT3 in Germany, we're sure we're gonna make the best version of 9 Kings possible.

[h2]What does that mean for you?[/h2]
This means 9 Kings will now have two of the things we need most: TIME and REACH. Some of you might be curious, so let's break it down. With their resources, we'll be able to:

Localize the game into more languages
Have a more thorough QA pipeline
Reach a wider audience
Bring the game to more platforms (TBA)
Have more time to actually develop the game!!!
Give our community the attention it deserves (on Discord, Reddit, and Twitter)
And much more we can't share just yet
[h2]Join our new Discord and Subreddit![/h2]
As Hooded Horse's first royal decree, 9 Kings now has its own Discord server and Subreddit! You can finally engage with the community anywhere you like. They will be handling moderation, but we'll jump in every now and then to say hi (and obviously read all the feedback).

[h2]Official EA release date: May 19th[/h2]
We know, the store said April. But so much happened this month, and we want to make sure that we deliver the best EA launch possible. We hope you understand! There's still a long way to go during EA, but we're confident that by May 19th we'll have a very fun 9 Kings experience for you.

Stay tuned: next week we'll be sharing what you can expect from the EA release!

Shout out to everyone involved in making this happen. We can't wait for May 19th.

Love,
Sad Socket team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2784470/9_Kings/

Surprise super-cool flash patch COMING TOMORROW:

- Improved projectile performance drastically
- Troops now take over a wider battlefield space! (improving visibility and unit behavior)
- Buffed Demon's Altar FOR REAL now.
- Endless progression is yet a biiit milder
- Cemetery now shows the damage caused by its imps.
- Fixed a rare bug where troops would stop attacking unexpectedly (no more coward warriors!)
- Improved Scout Tower stat calculations
- Fixed Thief teleporting performance issue
- Projectiles no longer randomly stay on the ground
- Minor localization fixes

TEMPORARY NOTE: we identified a gamebreaking bug that caused some units to not attack on certain occasions. We are rolling-back to the previous stable patch and will bring this patch back tomorrow. We really hate doing this, but we hope you understand we're sprinting to drastically revamp Endless Mode performance before EA, and sometimes these moves mess with some core (otherwise stable) parts of the game. We're focused on very aggressive measures to improve performance, and with it, there are some risks. Bear in mind that we're taking those risks now so we won't have to during EA. New patch is coming soon. Please hang in there!

Love,
Sad Socket team

This one is a smaller patch with balancing and performance tweaks. We'll keep listening closely to your inputs in the forums!

- Demon's Altar was buffed
- Endless Mode progression is now milder (fibonacci multiplier now has 1/2 its intensity)
- Improved performance to prevent occasional game freezing after card placement.
- Fixed a bug that caused the game to lag heavily in Chinese due to a font issue (对不起!)
- Overall performance improved
- Minor localization/text tweaks

Please share your experience on Endless Mode with us after this update. As we mentioned in the forums, we're looking for a sweet spot here. A run can't last forever, but we want it to last for as long as it is fun.

We'll share the official EA release date with you soon. But we're working hard to make sure the launch is as polished as it deserves to be, no stones left unturned. Hope y'all understand. We can't wait to share more news with you!

Love,
Sad Socket team