Death Trash News

Hey.

We put the content update “The Perished City” on the beta branch and would appreciate some feedback.

Our design goals for this and the further content updates are to improve the writing, especially the variety in how NPCs talk, add more depth to the narrative elements, add more player decisions, and have more visual variety among the locations.
It would be good to know if we’re on track with that.

The update needs more work in some areas, including balancing and itemization, and it’s currently separated from the main game still. There’s a separate entry for it in the “New Game” menu.
So I wouldn’t recommend it for a regular playthrough just yet, but if you want to help out with some feedback while it’s especially useful for us to see if we are meeting our design goals, then this is a good moment.

Here’s how to switch to the beta branch: https://steamcommunity.com/app/941460/discussions/0/3427823001996731965/


You can give feedback anytime in the game via F1 or via replying to this post or via writing us at [noparse][email protected][/noparse].


- Stephan

If you're looking for the content update: This isn't it. See "Current state of things" -> "1. Content update" down below.

[h2]Patch notes[/h2]

[h3]New Features[/h3]

- map overview has multiple tabs now if level hub has multiple sub areas, including walk commands between areas (mouse only)
- inventory: moved gold to fixed slot
- inventory: moved a few passive items like ammo from main to resources inventory
- inventory: resources inventory is infinite now
- inventory: mind inventory is infinite now
- merchant UI: highlight "trash" items on selling screen
- added toggle for headwear visuals via item slot context menu
- implemented thorough check for displaying multiple choice option as new/fresh or old/obsolete

[h3]Gameplay and content changes[/h3]

- split extra crit damage by amount of bullets
- trigger puking when trying to eat at full infection
- updated hitting multiple targets in combat and backstabbing: increased damage on secondary target(s)
- fixed inconsistency with exhausted melee attacks
- update values of some machine enemies and dogs
- make spiders react to blips
- updated inventory items sorting order
- minor merchant item availability changes
- enable looting Godhunters Prison key from high priest
- minor level design improvements

[h3]Usability[/h3]

- sped up some scene interactions
- removed some forced cutscene triggers
- made a few scene fadings and interactions more convenient
- improved action wheel usability for controller
- weapon tooltip: added ammo count
- allow cancelling consume item action via roll button
- fixed some situations preventing cancelling action
- allow toggling stealth mode while having map overview open
- show map overview for non-physical worlds
- Burning Blood ability: improved radius display
- accessibility: added option for high contrast stealth cones
- Steam Deck: increased UI size for some content windows

[h3]Bug fixes[/h3]

- fixed game getting stuck when controller disconnects during loading screen
- fixed potential issue of local character not spawning
- fixed sometimes not being able to pick up items lying in door frames
- fixed a few things affected by Burning Blood when they should not
- fixed characters not being able to return to the pathfinding grid when pushed out
- fixed a few issues with throwable items, especially blips
- fixed input issues with charging weapons
- random encounters: fixed some visual issues with procedural generation
- fixed not being able to deconstruct some items
- fixed some procedural levels not being traversable
- fixed lots of minor UI, input and usability issues
- fixed issues with timer based challenges
- fixed issue with tower quest
- fixed some NPC behaviors regarding threat detection and combat mode
- fixed some issues with projectiles
- fixed potentially getting stuck on world map
- fixed some rare pathfinding issues
- fixed some NPCs carrying wrong ammo
- fixed issues with currently used weapon when equipping block item
- fixed a few rare issues with stats, e.g. not being able to assign points after death in perma-death mode
- fixed issues with weapon max range calculations in some situations, especially indoor
- fixed issues on equipment selection screen ('C') with large amount of equipment
- fixed manual mouse movement controls interfering with rolling
- fixed issue due to behavior tree execution on frame of death
- fixed some scene events affecting characters when they should ignore it due to being part of a conversation
- fixed equipment slot issues in non-physical worlds
- fixed NPC in player dialogue occasionally reacting to some world events
- fixed NPCs unlocking doors when investigating
- fixed some issues with NPC reactions
- fixed being able to drop quest items for Little Pests quest without quest getting updated
- fixed a potential crash at the Philosopher
- fixed pathfinding issues with targeting locked doors
- fixed some issues with quest messages
- fixed issue in visual character creation
- fixed weapon tooltip showing wrong numbers for enhanced weapons
- fixed a few UI issues
- fixed some missing debug console entries
- fixed rare crash due to pathfinding
- fixed a few other rare crashes
- lots of additional minor bug fixes, improvements and framework additions
- fixed some text
- minor content fixes

[h3]Performance and Framework changes[/h3]

- improved world map performance
- fixed some memory leaks
- minor performance improvements
- added handler for potentially sending crash report from last hard crash

[h3]0.13.1 Bugfix Update[/h3]
- fixed a crash when dying while being followed by tamed Fleshworm
- fixed missing display names for shortcut travel in some areas

[h2]Current state of things[/h2]

[h3]1. Content update[/h3]

The content update "The Perished City" will be on the Beta branch soon.

This took us longer than anticipated. More about that over here in this roadmap update: https://steamcommunity.com/games/941460/partnerevents/edit/523078230806102912


The main elements for the update are in place now, but there's still a bunch of improvements to be made.

[h3]2. Beta branch[/h3]

We have a beta branch where we update the game more frequently.

You'll find more info about the beta branch and about testing in general over here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/941460/discussions/0/3427823001996731965/


[h3]3. Devlog[/h3]

I have started a simple development diary over here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/941460/discussions/0/600767185374168697/


[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

Thank you for your continued support. I appreciate your interest in Death Trash as well as your patience.

- Stephan

I am sorry. We made progress this year, but not as much as I had hoped. The projected dates for the next updates did not work out as planned.

We are focusing on the content of the game at the moment. That is slow work, as we are still somewhat inexperienced in this. (And it seems to me that working on story-based content will never be a straightforward process to begin with.)

I appeal here to your understanding of the situation, and therefore will lay out what this current situation consists of.



We are a small team. Two core members at the moment, working full-time on Death Trash. We will look at potentially getting additional help after the city content update is done.

This is our first game. We are still learning and mistakes will be made along the way, but we are willing to learn from them.

Our main goals with this project are the following:
1. To create a game with soul and personality. Reminiscent of the role-playing classics, but a thing of its own.
2. To stay independent. To keep control over all parts of the game and to fully understand all the bits that go into making a game like this. Which means working on most parts of it ourselves.
Or, to put it another way: working on something idiosyncratic in a personal way, staying close to the full process of creation.

We have sufficient funds to finish the development. We have enough motivation. This game will get done, no matter what.

Our communication this year was flawed. I think I responded often enough and in a transparent way, but I failed at showing where we are, at showing the progress, and at explaining the challenges of the project and its bottlenecks. I talk of helpful tools but I don't show what they are. I talk of the complexity of the project but I don't talk about the details. I get frustrated when pixelart games are lumped into some 'easy-to-make' category, but I don't outline the flaws in that argument. We need to do better.



[h3]Removing the dates from the roadmap.[/h3]
To avoid confusion and unfulfilled promises, we have decided to remove dates from the roadmap for now. More concrete timeframes will return once we make more progress on the content and can better estimate the remaining effort.

[h3]Regular update with improvements[/h3]
We’ll publish a regular update in January that will contain improvements made over the last year which were originally to go alongside the next content update. These improvements include better inventory handling, which in our own test-playing fixes the recurring issue of the limited space inventory filling up too quickly.

[h3]City content on beta branch[/h3]
Around that same time, we will publish the work-in-progress city content on the beta branch. (This will be unfinished and will be separated from the main game still, accessible only through a jump start from the main menu into the city. It's rough in parts and contains placeholders, but we could already use some feedback on dialogue, aesthetics, level design etc.)

[h3]Development Insight[/h3]
From January on, after a short vacation, we will give continuous insight to the development process.
I am not sure yet in what form this will end up eventually, but I would like to start out by making some short non-spoiler notes every day I am at work, probably in its own forum thread, and this journaling then might lead to questions which I could tackle in more long-form. Let me know what you would be interested in.



I hope you'll have a great 2025, and I hope that Death Trash has a great year, too.
Thank you to everyone who supported us, and that includes all the small moments of friendly words and gestures.

- Stephan

A small peek at our upcoming content update, which covers the Perished City, located at the center of the game's world map.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We expect this to be on the beta branch in the next months.

For more info and tentative dates about our future updates, take a look at our roadmap:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/941460/view/4186732260752603133

- Stephan