Relic Hunters Legend News

Hey Hunters,

Thank you for your patience with us for the past month. We've been keeping our heads down and working hard on the next steps of Relic Hunters Legend, but we haven't dedicated enough time to interact with you on Discord or on these development updates.

So now I have a huge list of things to talk about, so let's jump right in!



If you've been following us closely on social media, you will notice we have hired more people! We have two new coders who will be joining us officially very soon, and help us bring more Relic Hunters to you, faster!

We have also split into teams - you are probably already familiar if you read our previous development update. One new coder is going to Team Artemis, and another to Team Voyager!

This week will be about Team Artemis - my team - which has been working on Raff. We'll talk more about Team Voyager (who are doing Story stuff and the Secret Market) and Team Juno (and their cute Relic Hunters Blitz) in the next update.



We have a name and a release date for Raff: The Full Party Update is coming to Steam on September 3rd! If you haven't already, you can become a Founder to access our Alpha and play it!

Play our intro, Raff!

I'll be honest, it's been a whole lot more work than we expected. Here's a list of things we got done in order to bring this update to you:

• We implemented healing feedback (numbers, visual effects) and optimized multiplayer code to handle healing other players and avoid synchronization issues.
  
• We implemented the concept of "Special Weapons" that replace the weapons on your Loadout. This was used for the Keytar, but will be useful for Pinkyy's gloves and Panzer's flamethrower, as well as future dungeon mechanics and quests.
  
• We finished implementing our Status Effects system, that is now super powerful, works well online, and can easily be extended.
  
• We implemented Skill Cancelling to allow for some buffs or debuffs to finish early or to be removed by skills.
  
• We created a whole new system called "Skill Proxy" that allows guns to effectively shoot Skills. This allowed us to create the Keytar, but will also be used to create all kinds of crazy weapons in the future.
  
• Guns can now shoot multiple different projectiles on the same shot, with different effects and gameplay. This was also to allow the Keytar to work.
  
• Our aiming system now understands when you have a weapon that can target allies and helps with aim assist / auto aim.
  
• There are dozens of new skill effects and sounds.
  
• Our Skill Tool that we use to create skills is 90% complete and will soon be used to make: Skill Trees, Ultimate skills, new enemies, new crazy item affixes, and Relics!
  

The reason why I'm mentioning all of this behind-the-scenes work is that most will be invisible in the short term. The only new content on the Full Party Update will be Raff with her full set of skills. That's pretty cool and we're proud of it, but it's admittedly a lot less than we expected - we wanted Ultimates, Skill Combos, and at least one Skill Tree, but they will have to wait a bit. We are hopeful that these things will come fast now that all of this base work has been laid out.



Raff is the most complicated/technical character in the game to date, and since we don't have tutorials I think it's a good idea to give some general guidance as to how she works.

Raff is a Support character first and foremost, so we tried to design her to be viable solo but really shine when playing with other people. The design themes that we went for were duality, music and engineering.

By engineering we mean, uh, hitting stuff with a giant Wrench.

They don't teach that at MIT

The Wrench is Raff's Melee skill. It deals a lot of area damage, but can also hit allies to recover their Shields (blue lifebar) or Armor (yellow lifebar). Pretty handy!

Raff is always using her Utility skill Soundscape. It projects a constant aura of music around Raff that can buff her and nearby allies. By actively using the skill, you can switch between two songs: Soothing Song, which regenerates Life over time, and Battle Song, which grants +20% Weapon Damage.

Her Passive skill is called Shifting Moods. Raff's humor is constantly changing, which affects her skills: every 7 seconds she switches between two stances: Good Vibes and Bad Vibes. Our plan is for these stances to affect multiple Skill effects when the Skill Trees are in the game, but for now they only interact with Soundscape.

If you switch to Battle Song while in Bad Vibes, you deal Magnetic damage in an area around Raff. On the other hand, if you switch to Soothing Song while in Good Vibes, you will instantly heal Raff and nearby allies for a good amount.

That's not all - Raff's signature skill is definitely her Keytar Blast! By holding down the Charge skill, you can wind up a devastating attack with the Keytar that will hit everything in a large cone in front of Raff! Enemies will take a lot of Magnetic damage (which is effective against Shields in particular), and allies will be healed instantly!

Last but certainly not least, if your party wants to slip away in style, Raff has a super cool Mobility skill called Up The Tempo. It gives a huge speed buff to Raff and all nearby allies, allowing you to sprint and zip around the battlefield!

We are cooking up a brand new Raff trailer voiced by the talented Kimlihn Tran to celebrate the release of the Full Party Update! Can't wait to see what you think of Raff and her new kit in September 3rd!

And don't forget to follow us on our media and stay updated about everything we’re doing for Relic Hunters Legend.

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Cheers!

~Lucy, Mark and all the Rogue Snail Team!


P.S. Oh and by the way, Jimmy can kick now! Watch out, Ducans!

Hey Hunters,

We hope you've been enjoying the Alpha of Relic Hunters Legend! We feel like the game is finally starting to take shape for the Early Access release next year, but there is still much to do.



After we released the Alpha, we made a change to our development process that was a long time coming. Our vision has always been to work in multiple small, independent teams. These teams will have full autonomy to work on what they think is important, and will communicate directly with the community to figure out what that is, instead of funneling everything through an internal leadership.

This is also how we plan to keep the game updated very frequently after launch!

Just imagine this: a big update comes out in, say, January. Three months later, in April, we have another big one. Then in July we have another one. That's a healthy rhythm for an online RPG, but having your team scramble to make stuff in under 3 months is very demanding and a lot of things can go wrong. We also have to fix bugs, run events, and do minor content drops in-between these updates, otherwise the game will feel dead and abandoned.

With multiple teams, we can achieve all of that! On the scenario described above, Team A delivers the January update, Team B delivers the April update, Team C delivers the July one, and then we're back to Team A - all while Team D is hotfixing the game, and doing small and fast content drops and events.

Working in such a way, each team has 9 months instead of 3 to really polish their updates and try out new and innovative things.

We have now started to prepare our studio for this live support! Next year we will have four teams, but for now we are still three. Let's meet them!



This "old school" team has all the OG Relic Hunters members: me (Mark), Betu, Müller, Caio and Roni.

Artemis is the "frontline" team that is currently responsible for fixing bugs and issues with the Alpha build, and we just deployed a hotfix on Steam.

We are next in line for a content update: the "Raff Update" coming in August (read more about it below).

Ace charging his Holo-Sandwich skill

We are now working on the Skill System, specifically on the Status effects, and you can see some of Betu's new animations for Ace and Raff's skills on our Twitter account.



Voyager is our "story" team, and they are our sweethearts Gabriel, Eli, Mari, Rayk and Pedro.

They are working on two big, big things. The first one is the Secret Market, our city hub where you will be able to meet other Hunters, talk to NPCs, and just chill.

Layout sketch of the Secret Market

We'll be posting a lot of concept art and some preview models and textures for the Secret Market on our social media, it's starting to look super cool :)

The second big thing they're working on is the story tools and content! We have wrapped up the the script for the first Act of the story, and Gabriel and Pedro are working on implementing all of it. We are very proud of the story and we hope it will surprise and delight all of you Hunters out there when it comes out!



Our newest team has been with us for only about 6 months now, but it already feels like they have always been here. Maíra, Chu, Gus and Eli* are working on a different project for now.

(*yes, she is doubling as producer on both Juno and Voyager)

Funded by the Brazilian government, the mobile-exclusive "Relic Hunters Blitz" is coming out next year for iOS and Android and it is already looking and playing the part.

Pew! Take that, pixel Ducans!

As soon as Team Juno is done with Blitz, they will come over to help on Legend! What will they work on? You decide ;)

Hopefully we will soon have a playable Alpha build of Blitz for all our Kickstarter backers and Founders to play on their phones!



Team Artemis is hard at work on the next update for you! the Raff Update will bring:

• Our robust Skill system, with revamps of existing Skills;
  
• New visual effects;
  
• New animations;
  
• New Skills for Ace: Holo-Sadwich and Improvised Plan
  
• And, most importantly, Raff will have all of her skills!
  

This update will drop in August! On the next development update we will talk at length about Raff's skills and how they'll work in the game, so keep following us ;)

See you soon!

Cheers,

~Mark

After a couple of months of a LOT of hard work, we launched today the Alpha Phase of Relic Hunters Legend with tons of new content, bug fixes, improved systems and many things for you to discover on our galaxy!

You can check the details about the features that we implement on this build on the previous update here on Steam!

All hunters aboard!

Now everybody who supported the development of Relic Hunters Legend with our founder's packs or purchased our Kickstarter on the sub-$40 will receive their Alpha Keys. More people to play, more fun for everyone!

For our Founders, please check your Humble Bundle account to grab your key.

If you purchase one of these packs and didn’t receive your key, please contact us at this email: [email protected]

What is next? You decide!

There will have another poll with all of our Founders on our Discord Channel! We want to know where do you want us to focus next. More enemies and places? Finish the skills of all Hunters? More game modes? More progression systems? We'll see what you have to say!

And there are much more things to come! Follow us on our media and stay updated about everything we’re doing for Relic Hunters Legend.

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Cheers,
Lucy, Mark and all the Rogue Snail Team.

Hey Hunters,

Long time no see, uh? Sorry for the silence during the last couple of months.

A lot of things happened, and production has been moving at a solid pace, but I (Mark) am the sole person responsible for these updates.

I had a family tragedy in May that took a heavy toll not only on my time, but also on my energy to come out and do social things like hanging out on Discord with you, or writing these development updates.

There's also something I usually call "mid-development blues" that happens on every single big project like this (I swear, it happens every time, with every team). You start feeling like you've been wasting too much time to get things done, you start to doubt your ability to actually get the game to the finish line, and you start to doubt if anyone is actually going to like it and what the heck was I thinking when I thought this was good helpmeI'mafraud.

At the end of the day, I am very grateful for having a wonderful, wonderful team at Rogue that is sharing this dream with me, and the support and trust of you, our Founders, who are giving us this opportunity. We will not squander it.

Whew.

Deep breath.

It's ok now.

Let's talk about happy stuff!




Our Alpha build for Relic Hunters Legend has a confirmed release date of June 22nd. We will let in everybody who has ever supported us. If you purchased our Kickstarter on the sub-$40 tier, or if you purchased our $20 Founders pack, this is your entry point!

Originally we planned to let more people in during the Beta, but it's taking way longer than we had predicted. At this point, the Alpha backers have been playing the game for a year already. They want more people to play together with, so it's a win-win for everyone!




There are many new things on the Alpha build!

• The main new feature (that you voted for!) is... guns! There are now over 50 base guns with cool models, animations, sound effects, visual effects, everything. They also come with randomized item affixes and damage types.
  
• Hunter Screen (inventory) is improved, with better and new feedback, shiny visuals and that cool reflection that we always wanted to do!
  
• Materials now drop from enemies all around Galyno Canyons. There are many different Materials to collect, with different uses and rarities.
  
• Recycling items now award you with Materials depending on the item that was recycled.
  
• You can use materials to Enhance your items, increasing their power and Gear Score. You can keep the ones with good rolls instead of just using whatever was higher item level!
  
• The item drop system has been reworked and we have Item Labels and new effects to make loot more clear.
  
• The item drop system can now drop our new Unique items, Set items, Augmented items and Exotic items.
  

• We currently have only one implemented Unique Weapon: the Blade Knight.
  
• The Help Others system allows you to join games to help other players. In the future this will award you with a social currency called "Karma" that you can trade for cool rewards!
  
• The Map Screen has been improved and is now closer to our vision for the final game.
  
• All Menus are now closely resembling the final vision, and the ones that are not done have little descriptions to explain how the game is going to grow and evolve.
  

Sadly, we still haven't reached the full scope of what we had planned for the Alpha last year.

• Raff still has no skills in-game.
  
• Ace is still missing his Utility skill (Improvised Plan) and his Charge skill (Holo-Sandwich).
  
• We have yet to implement the additional Game Modes: Defense, Payload and Distraction.
  
• We have yet to implement Special Missions.
  

You decide! No, really. We are going to have another poll with all of our Founders after the Alpha build is deployed. I'm sure you will all have a lot of feedback for us, and we want to know where do you want us to focus next. More enemies and places? Finish the skills of all Hunters (especially Raff)? More gamemodes? More progression systems? We'll see what you have to say!

Join us on our Discord to participate in this when the time comes!



Want to take an early look at the Alpha in-development? I will be live on our Twitch channel showing it and talking about game design and what's planned for Relic Hunters.

Don't miss it this Friday 14th at Noon PT / 1 PM ET / 4 PM BRT

And don't forget to follow our media!
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See you soon!

Cheers,

~Mark

Hey Hunters,

We are finally back to our normal routine after quite a bit of travelling around and showing the game!

We had a wonderful time in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference (GDC). We met some of you Kickstarter backers, we showed the game to players, fellow devs, media and business partners, and we ate a lot of cheesecake!

Caio, Me, Maira and Lucy arriving at GDC 2019!

After we came back we had a big all-hands meeting to discuss what was next for Relic Hunters Legend. We know we will let all backers play the game in June, so what are the most urgent things that we need to do to make the experience great for all those new Hunters that will soon be joining us?

We polled our Founders at our Discord channel to figure out what you want. Was it more in-depth loot? Better matchmaking and social systems? More skills and the promised Ultimate Skills and Skill Combos?

(Spoilers: the answer is in the next paragraph)


Since the beginning of Relic Hunters we had a vision for how we wanted to connect people.

We grew up playing online games such as Ragnarok Online and World of Warcraft, where people would log in just to hang out with their "virtual" friends. You would sit on city hubs or in front of dungeons and just chat while you are waiting for a healer or for your guildies to log in. You could make new friends, and there was many of opportunities to be kind to strangers.

Friends 4 Ever

Online games have become more and more anti-social over the last few years, with communities that are at worst hostile and at best detached and silent. This is the indirect product of game design that has prioritized convenience and ease-of-use, but slowly lost human connection and kindness as an unforeseen side-effect.

With Legend we want to create systems that allow people to make friends, game modes that give space to social interaction, and reward systems that incentive people to be nice to each other.

We have several of these systems planned: Help Others, Emotes/Emojis, Kindness, Hearts/Super Hearts, The Secret Market, Dropship Customization, Cooking, Gifts... but we had to choose one to start, and that was an easy choice.

How does it work?

"Help Others" is a feature designed to increase the odds of matchmaking with random players regardless of activity.

When you next login to Relic Hunters, you will have a new menu on the top-left of the Map screen where you'll be able to select whether you want to play a Solo, Public or Friends Only game, as well as your Region of preference.

You will also find a big new button on the bottom part of the screen called "Help Others". By clicking this button, we will try to matchmake you into the Public game where we think you'll be most helpful.

• It will always try to find content that you already completed yourself;
  
• It will not matchmake you to help someone if your Gear Score is too low for the activity;
  
• It will not matchmake you to help someone if their Gear Score is too low for the activity;
  
• It will prioritize games that have fewer people in them, especially someone who is alone;
  
• It will try to put you with players that are close to your Gear Score, if possible;
  
• It will not put you into a game that is on a boss fight or final section of the activity;
  

Why should you use this?

Right now, because you want to be nice, play with other people and make new friends. We are not naive, though - we know we need more incentive to make sure this feature gets used a lot in the final game.

In the near future we will implement the "Kindness" system - a special social currency that you win by completing activities on Help Others. We will talk more in-depth about it when we're closer to implementing it, but it will be a way to purchase cosmetics and other premium items without having to use premium currency.

This means you can either contribute to this game and this community by purchasing premium currency or by being really nice and helpful to everyone and earning a lot of Kindness!

Special Game Design Livestream Today!

Wanna talk more about Help Others, social features and anything else with me? I'll be live at our Twitch channel later today at our new time that the community voted for: Noon Pacific Time on Fridays!

For all of you around the world, that's 12PM PDT, 3PM EDT, 4PM BRT and 9PM CEST!

And don't forget to follow our media!

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See you soon!

Cheers,

~Mark