Killsquad News

Hello, Bounty Hunters!

After a long pause, we're back to the Dev Diary! And we have a really good reason to do so: today, we launch the Beta of our next major Killsquad update, Skua. This new update will bring two huge features: the full Skua Campaign, and a much-desired Performance Upgrade.

Skua is the fifth game world in the Killsquad universe, after Wasteland 07, Kemmekh, the Palace of Pain and the Colosseum. Skua is a huge orbital space station owned by the Federation. They use it to store and test their newest weapons of destruction. And guess who is going in? Yes, correct: YOU. The Skua campaign brings a huge amount of content to KILLSQUAD: new locations, all new enemies, new contracts, new storylines... it's a whole new world for you guys to explore. To suffer. To conquer.

Now, our second major point today is performance. You guys care about performance. And so do we at Novarama. And now it's even more important: with our success in Asia (our friends in China and Korea, yes, this means you!) we've realized a lot of people play Killsquad in net cafés. So, we worked super hard to give you a super smooth experience, across *any* machine. So yes, all of you are getting higher frame-rates. More stability. A better experience for all our community. We hope you enjoy it.

I don't want to drag on for too long. Today is a day to play and celebrate. If you want a final experience, wait for a few more days while we sort out the remaining bugs. We feel we may be ready for a public release next week. But if you just want to go kill bugs here and now, join the Beta. It's free, it's open!

[h3]How do I join the Beta? What is a Beta? Where is the Beta FAQ?[/h3]
Instructions are here

[h3]Where are the patch notes for Skua?[/h3]
They are here

[h3]I see this is Beta 2. What got fixed since Beta 1?[/h3]
Full list here

[h3]Reviews[/h3]
Please write a review. This is THE single most important thing you can do. Reviews do magic to the Steam algorithm. Or, if you wrote a negative review back in the day, and feel we’ve done a good job, do you know you can update your review? Reviews are the blood that keeps us alive!

[h3]Social media follow[/h3]

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/killsquad
Twitter: https://twitter.com/killsquadgame
And on the Steam forums

[h3]Streaming[/h3]
Stream Killsquad, post videos on Youtube. Tell the world about it. If you have a significant following, contact us at [email protected], and we’ll try to support you in any way we can.

[h3]Media[/h3]
Are you a member of the media? We want to meet you! Contact us at [email protected]

That's it for today! Thank you for always being there, and thank you for helping us make Killsquad a great game together!

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the Ox, and for all the support we receive from Asia, we're doing a mini-event! The game is now on sale, so GO GET IT NOW!. Also, for you collectors, we have added a new, exclusive portrait to commemorate this festival! It is now available to unlock in the Portrait section.

[h3]General:[/h3]

· Added a new portrait: The Year of the Ox.
· Fixed the bug where Troy sometimes used its "Luck of the Draw" skill, instead of "Execution". (Thank you Dism, Rice-Cooker, DeathCall and tehgreg)
· Fixed the bug where players couldn't complete the quest "One Queen to rule them all".

[h3]What are we doing right now:[/h3]

· Working on the new planet, Skua.
· Optimization.
· Improving the UI navigation.
· If your game crashes, a Crash reporter will appear. Please add the details of what you were doing at the time of the crash and send it to us. If you want to, feel free to contact us directly here at [email protected], with your "Saved" folder (C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Killsquad) attached.

牛年快乐!

Happy Chinese New Year! It's the year of the Ox, and for all the support we receive from Asia, we've added a new portrait to commemorate this festival! It is now available to unlock in the Portrait section.

[h3]General:[/h3]

· Added a new portrait: The Year of the Ox.
· Fixed the bug where Troy sometimes used its "Luck of the Draw" skill, instead of "Execution". (Thank you Dism, Rice-Cooker, DeathCall and tehgreg)
· Fixed the bug where players couldn't complete the quest "One Queen to rule them all".

[h3]What are we doing right now:[/h3]

· Working on the new planet, Skua.
· Optimization.
· Improving the UI navigation.
· If your game crashes, a Crash reporter will appear. Please add the details of what you were doing at the time of the crash and send it to us. If you want to, feel free to contact us directly here at [email protected], with your "Saved" folder (C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Killsquad) attached.

Hello all!
After Christmas, we took some weeks off the Dev Diary routine to chart our roadmap for Killsquad. With that process now done, we’re ready to begin telling you what we are working on. Here we go!

[h3]Optimization & Asia[/h3]
We have received comments that Killsquad’s framerate is lower than it should: framerate drops, difficulty running the game in some hardware… this is especially true for our fans in Asia (Korea and China mostly). Many of you are playing Killsquad in Net-Cafés, which we love. But sometimes the framerate is low. So, we have one team optimizing the game for performance. You’ve seen some of this already on the recent Hotfix, but more is coming on the next major update. Expect a more fluid experience across all machines. This has the side benefit of helping a console version as well (more on this later!)

[h3]Crashes, bugs, stability[/h3]
In 2020, we had a game we needed to fix: there were systems still to be implemented or missing, so our focus was on the gameplay. Sales during Christimas 2020 have proven Killsquad is becoming a pretty good game. But that has introduced many bugs. We have a second team just focused on crashes, bugs, etc. Again, you saw some of their work on the Hotfix last week, but expect a push to polish the game so there’s no bugs at all.

[h3]Usability & UI[/h3]
Killsquad’s interface has been steadily growing as more systems were added: gadgets, talismans, portraits, cosmetics, quests… as a consequence of that, let’s say the interface is nowhere as logical or intuitive as it should be: some sections are out of place, some are hard to find. So, we are working on a full UI revision, to make sure things are as intuitive as possible. We’ll promote some sections, remove old ones, and make sure the interface works for you, not against you.

[h3]Skua[/h3]
The three points above are all about Quality of Life. And Quality of Life is super important. But so is content. So, we confirm on the next update you are getting Skua, a full new world with its own contracts, quests and enemies. Skua is the space station where the Feds build and train their army of robots, so it can move across the galaxy conquering rogue planets. Expect Skua to drop during spring, in a mega-update that will include also all of the other things mentioned above.

[h3]Playstation? Yes! Playstation[/h3]
We are working on Killsquad for Playstation. There, we said it. Expect it to drop summer this year, both on Ps4 and Ps5. We have always loved this kind of A-RPG on console, from Helldivers to Gauntlet to Alien Nation, and we wanted to be there. The port is almost done, we just need to optimize it and rework some network systems. But yes, Killsquad is coming to console. There’s no plans for other consoles outside of Playstation that we can confirm at this point.

[h3]And more![/h3]
And that’s not all. We’re working on an opening cinematic. We’re seriously thinking about progression changes to make the game more fun for longer. We’re working on new cosmetics. We have a lot of things we want to share with you all. 2021 is gonna be a great year!

Happy new year! The Xmas event is now over and we start this year with a hotfix update, addressing issues reported by the community.

[h2]Xmas Event:[/h2]

· Xmas event has now ended.
· Xmas event items will be available to unlock again in future updates.
· Removed Xmas decorations in the lobby.
· Added the previous lobby.

[h2]General:
[/h2]
· Updated the description in Italian of Zero's Skill upgrade "Addiction" due a mistranslation. (Thank you Nicola)
· Fixed a couple of random crashes gathered with the Crash Reporter. Thank you for sending us your crashes.
· Fixed some areas in the Spec Ops contract, "Trouble in Paradise", where the player could fall through the map. (Thank you The Swarmlord)
· Fixed the bug where the upgrade "Plague Extermination Buff", blocked Cass' "Dimensional Tear" and "Teleport Shuriken" skills. (Thank you regiss)
· Fixed the bug where in the Spec Ops Colosseum contract, some Bosses wouldn't appear after the cinematic and players would get stuck.
· Fixed the bug where the Veteran Quest "Crazy Taxi" could be completed only as the host of the contract. (Thank you Dism and MC)
· Fixed the bug where the Veteran Quest "One Queen to Rule Them All" could be completed only as the host of the contract. (Thank you Dism and MC)
· Fixed the bug where the Veteran Quest "One Queen to Rule Them All" wouldn't unlock its intended rewards and the next objective.
· Fixed the bug where the portrait "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse", wouldn't unlock after completing its objectives. (Thank you regiss and Dism)
· Fixed the bug where Zero's Laser Trap skill and its upgrades would significantly drop FPS. (Thank you Ian and MC)
· Fixed the bug where Troy's skill "Luck of the Draw" wouldn't trigger the Talismans "Idol of Future Conquerors" and "Pandora's Hysteria". (Thank you regiss)
· Fixed the bug where Cass' Skill upgrade "Decay", wouldn't interrupt its audio when canceling the ability.
· Fixed the bug where Cass' Skill upgrade "Decay" would appear without its particle effects for players who weren't the host. (Thank you The Swarmlord)
· Fixed the bug where the lighting appeared too dark when the Graphics Settings were set in "low" or "very low". (Thank everyone for your reports and MC for locating the issue)
· Fixed the bug where the lighting would appear too dark when players joined an ongoing contract. (Thank you Petrisis and MC)
· Fixed the bug where in some occasions, the Spec Ops Colosseum contract would skip some waves. (Thank you tehgreg)
· Fixed the bug where the Nightbringer wouldn't drop more than one eye to complete Bab's Quest. (Thank you MC)
· Fixed the bug where an equipped Talisman Fragment in the second slot wouldn't increase the odds of obtaining the next fragment. (Thank you regiss)
· Fixed the bug where the Talisman "Idol of future Conquerors" wouldn't reduce the CD of Zero's "Laser Trap" and "Photon Bolt" skills. (Thank you Rice-Cooker and regiss)
· Fixed the bug where Helldorren damage collision wouldn't disappear if killed during its spinning attack. (Thank you MC)
· Fixed the bug where a skill could start its CD as soon as the player enters an input after receiving a knockback. (Thank you MC)
· Fixed the bug where the weapon upgrade "Boom", wouldn't work if the user was playing as Zero. (Thank you MC)
· Fixed the bug where the enemy "Rhino Snail" could still knockback players after being stunned. (Thank you regiss)
· Fixed the bug where Troy's clones wouldn't attack the boss Ib'hu during one of its vulnerable phases. (Thank you Crownbear and tehgreg)

[h2]What are we doing right now:[/h2]

· Working on the new planet, Skua.
· Listing the performance issues to optimize the game.
· If your game crashes, a Crash reporter will appear. Please add the details of what you were doing at the time of the crash and send it to us. If you want to, feel free to contact us directly here at [email protected], with your "Saved" folder (C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Killsquad) attached.