Death Trash News

Hello, friends and interested people!

Time for another update on the Death Trash development.

The last few weeks have been a bit rough, not as much actual-content-progress as we hoped.
But the quality of the game is constantly improving, step by step.



Our situation looks like this:

The game has a lot of personality, but it needs more main story content.
The combat and controls feel kind of good already, but there's room for improvements.
The local co-op mode is fun, but needs a lot of polishing and bug-fixing still.
Player abilities and stats look promising, but they need more depth and actual usage in the current build.

Even If it's set in stone that the Early Access version should have one third of the final content, with all main systems in place at least, the actual range of quality in what it could be released as is still up to debate, and gets reassessed over time.

Therefore we hope you will continue having patience with us while we improve the current version and figure out a release date.

[h2]Gameplay footage[/h2]

There's some Death Trash footage to be seen over here on the Youtube channel of SplattrCatGaming, about half an hour long right from the beginning of the game.

[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5me-cs5P3bQ[/previewyoutube]

We'll be showing more gameplay soon ourselves on our own Youtube channel like we did in the past, and possibly also on other channels, but for now we wanted to give the game a bit exposure from an outside perspective while not spoiling too much.

And to get back to the state of development: We're actually kind of happy with the first half hour of the current version, the later parts of the current version are the target of our quality concerns outlined above.

[h2]Latest Internal Patch Notes[/h2]

To continue being transparent about the development of Death Trash, attached here are the actual patch notes for our internal builds that happened since the last development update.

These notes are not spoiler-heavy, but if you want to experience the game fresh, you might want to skip reading them.

0.6.82
- added tutorial message for action selection / wheels
- fixed drag and drop target displays
- fixed screenshake at level borders showing visual artifacts
- fixed not being able to click actions in house from outside
- fixed anomaly sizes on world map

0.6.81
- updated world map
- added NPC to end of tutorial hub
- updated dialogue in Tauris
- splitting [redacted] inventory tab into body and [redacted]
- fixed ammo display not getting updated sometimes
- fixed some issues with MindFuck
- improved input binding window
- removed some old input bindings
- fixed mouse scene object selection in split screen
- added leave dialogue tutorial message
- "Gold" is "Squirms" now
- more bug fixes and small improvements

0.6.80
- improved loading times
- fixed some local co-op UI
- restructured UI internally

0.6.79
- improved loading times
- smoothed intro scrolling by decoupling sprites from pixelgrid
- updated equipment UI and fixed a few selection issues
- updated Flamethrower
- added destruction sounds for barrels, bottles, metal door
- now possible to use mouse wheel forward and backward in key bindings
- fixed navigation use key hardcoded as E
- fixed health item tutorial
- more bug fixes and minor changes

0.6.78
- fixed a few issues with new equipment UI and selection
- fixed scripting crash in Bunker 17 A
- fixed character stopping movement when entering stealth during walk command
- fixed some audio events

0.6.77
- updated equipment and ammo UI
- added new action selection with middle mouse button
- controller has three context action wheels now
- rearranged some input bindings
- improved NPC life in New Delphi
- added more weapon sounds, adjusted a few other sounds
- improved mouse / keyboard switch on world map
- fixed a few other input bugs
- allow deconstructing through inventory
- titans become loot container after death
- lots of bug fixing (and probably adding new ones)

0.6.76
- added comments and interaction to many world elements
- fixed "Sell All" selling equipped items
- updated the feedback tool
- updated Aksa's lair
- more small bugfixes & improvements

0.6.75
- allow continue crafting by holding input pressed
- updated exits to world map
- fixed no background audio in procedural encounters
- minor bug fixes

0.6.74
- fixed backstabbing issues with controller
- fixed a few small things in tutorial hub

0.6.73
- fixed selling all items also selling equipped items
- fixed issues with drag and drop in loot scenarios
- fixed Fleshworm vanishing when dropping it
- fixed hitboxes of animal characters
- added controller info and user settings to feedback data
- minor asset fixes

0.6.72
- new mouse control scheme with active ranged targeting
- improved switching between keyboard movement and point and click
- increased melee weapon ranges
- enabled automatic reloading
- updated equipment UI
- show stamina bar when empty by excessive rolling
- added flamethrower audio
- decreased Flesh Vermin sweep damage radius
- additional bug fixes and improvements

0.6.71
- enemies might loot or mock player corpse
- added some info to debug console and feedback form
- changed opening and closing map and added user setting for it
- fixed some quest descriptions
- fixed Custer not moving to Puke Bar
- more small bug fixes and improvements

0.6.70
- fixed a few issues on the world map
- updated minimap UI
- added user option for disabling automatic inventory sorting for mouse controls
- small content fixes and user experience improvements

0.6.69
- updated UI for some actor effects
- improved reabable item view
- reduced fire duration
- rolling on the ground helps against fire
- fixed an issue in [REDACTED] worlds
- fixed hitbox issues on small enemies
- additional small fixes and improvements

0.6.68
- added memorizing text items and knowledge tab to Codex
- using procedural generation for wandering encounters
- fixed a few issues with procedural generation
- updated exploding mutant
- added loading screen and visual effect to [REDACTED] worlds
- added possibility to have narrator / info text in dialogue
- minor art updates
- fixed world map audio
- small bug fixes and content updates



[h2]Wishlist Death Trash![/h2]

Please wishlist Death Trash, follow the game, and tell other people about it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/941460/Death_Trash/

For more granular development updates you can also follow us on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/DeathTrash

Stay safe and keep being friendly to other people.

- Stephan

Hello!

There's no release date yet, but we wanted to update you about the great progress we're currently making.

[h2]Development Progress[/h2]

During the last month we've added a couple of new locations and quests, lots of new art, new enemies, two boss fights, and a solid amount of gameplay and framework improvements. It feels like we're on a roll. It's not quite enough to confidently announce an exact release date yet, but the game is coming together nicely and feedback from testers is very positive.



[h2]What's left to do[/h2]

Our task board is bursting with things to do, but looking at the Early Access release the priorities can be summarized as:

- continuing the implementation of the main story
- adding a few more quests
- revamping the skill system
- improving existing content
- further improvements to the controls
- creating a trailer

And finding a date that doesn't overlap too much with other major releases in the genre.

Here's hope that all of this will happen soon.

Puke Bar - Main Area (WIP)

[h2]Latest Patch Notes[/h2]

To continue being transparent about the development of Death Trash, attached here are the actual patch notes since the last development update.

They're not spoiler-heavy, but if you want to experience the game fresh, you might want to skip reading them.

0.6.67
- added new boss fight at a south-east location
- small updates to very first area
- updated Flesh Vermin with audio and some animation
- fixed camera and pixelart resolution issues for menu, intro etc.
- blocked "self" inventory category (will get story unlock soon)
- updated skill checks to show percentages
- more bug fixes and small content fixes

0.6.66
- fixed puke competition quest
- fixed some melee effects having wrong vertical offset
- added another (similar) player body variant and more hair colors
- updated tracking of gameplay time in statistics
- added some debug tools
- lots of small fixes and improvements

0.6.65
- more fixes

0.6.64
- fixed a few content issues
- improved UI for getting new items

0.6.63
- updated Puke Bar
- updated mine level with art and more storytelling (WIP)
- updated Butcher's Den (WIP)
- added Aksa's Lair (empty content for now)
- updated Fleshkraken temple entrance
- added more art assets, including some furniture
- improved procedural generated areas
- fixed enemies getting checked for stats requirements on weapons
- fixed a few camera bugs
- updated workflow, new framework features, and more bug fixes

0.6.62
- added more quests
- updated Puke Bar
- fixed characters in procedurally generated areas not having weapons
- updated fast mutant runner
- Custer moves to Puke Bar now after quest
- lots of framework additions and bug fixes

0.6.61
- updated boss in workshop
- updated a few enemies
- added exploding mutant
- toned down flesh and blood explosions
- updated procedurally generated areas
- updated world map so location visuals fit to world map area
- more bug fixes

0.6.60
- toned down duration of blood trails
- fixed kinetic abilities
- allow cancelling reloading by rolling
- removed active reload for now
- make NPCs path around Spikes usually
- fixed melee attack getting queued too fast
- fixed a few sprite and content issues

0.6.59
- added new location plus boss fight
- added new location plus spiders
- updated mutant runner enemy
- added new art assets
- updated a few existing locations
- new iteration of world map area obfuscation
- make ranged hits show damage visuals on hit location instead of actor center
- updated equipment slot visuals
- lots of small additions and bug fixes

0.6.58
- added New Delphi location alongside new art assets
- updated Puke Bar front
- updated ghost enemies
- boosted Nano Health usage
- fixed some UI issues with Nano Health
- added features for actor effects; e.g. freezing happening in different stages
- action text like *click* has standard color now
- added possibility for NPCs to have resistances
- updated spikes
- lots of framework changes and bug fixes

0.6.57
- small content fixes



[h2]Wishlist Death Trash![/h2]

Please wishlist Death Trash, follow the Community Hub, and tell other people about it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/941460/Death_Trash/

Stay safe. Keep being humanistic.

- Stephan

Hey!

Most important info first: We haven't decided on a release date yet.

But we made a lot of progress in the last weeks and wanted to give you an update on the general state of things.

Puke Bar - Outdoor area (WIP)

[h2]Development Progress[/h2]

A game like Death Trash with its genre-mix of action and classic role-playing needed a lot of systems to be programmed over the years. The biggest shift in the last weeks was moving from programming all these systems over to continously work with them on the gameplay and content. Finally using all those tools.
There was also some content work in the previous years, of course, and there will be more systems programming in the future, but it feels like a major change in focus: The game itself is getting all the attention now.

For the first time ever we also have another developer on board: Christian, a game designer / developer, joined the project a few weeks ago for an internship, has contributed a lot already and will continue to do so for a few weeks at least.

We're iterating on gameplay, adding more enemy behaviours, adding new areas and updating the existing ones, improving input, stabilizing the framework and fixing bugs.



[h2]Latest Patch Notes[/h2]

To be a bit more transparent about our progress, and because we know some people like reading them, we're showing you the latest patch notes from all game updates since the last blog entry here, which was about five weeks ago.

They don't contain anything that I would consider a spoiler, but if you want to experience the game as fresh as possible, just skip reading them.

And take everything as work in progress, of course. Patch notes might say we added some active reload feature, but it might also just get removed again next week. We're going through a lot of gameplay iterations still.

0.6.56
- added active reload
- weapons can have different reload durations now
- increased enemy & NPC view distances
- updated standard enemy humanoid behaviors
- added turrets
- increased some weapon ranges
- updated shotgun
- added specific NPC text colors
- updated Puke Bar, Mine level and Snowland level, all work in progress
- updated some NPC behaviors in Tauris
- updated merchant price calculation
- updated controller button layout
- fixed being able to level up attributes and skills beyond max value
- fixed NPCs leaving a door open once it was opened once
- fixed another pathfinding issue
- updated visuals of water assets
- adjusted timings of messages for quests, locations, level up
- fixed player body sometimes getting randomized after reload
- lots more framework improvements and small bug fixes

0.6.55
- improved savegame profile selection screen
- fixed a few minor content problems

0.6.54
- updated start of the game
- updated Puke Bar level and added [REDACTED]
- added possibility to have [REDACTED] worlds
- updated mine level (WIP)
- added more color customization on character creation
- updated fast melee mutant behavior
- added a few water assets
- add possibility to have merchant services, starting with doctor in Tauris
- improved a few physical mass issues
- fixed a few items and inventory related bugs
- disallow focusing area exits while still fighting next to them
- skip showing location name on quickload etc.
- updated pathfinding and rooms logic
- lots of framework additions and more bug fixes

0.6.53
- fixed double muzzle flash
- added "Template" line to visual character creation

0.6.52
- improved rolling
- updated melee visuals
- updated character kill effects
- added new player body variant
- made barrel a physical object
- nerfed backstabbing
- decoupled muzzle flash from weapon sprite
- refactored some loading and background calculations
- refactored handling of static characters like Kraken
- lots of framework improvements and small bug fixes

0.6.51
- updated UI for assignable points
- fixed mouse commands for pickpocketing becoming backstabbing
- updated world map enter UI
- triggered tutorials get saved
- removed visual trail on strong melee
- fixed standard mouse cursor being visible for 1 frame on commands
- removed vignette from player options
- smaller character collider now also on first roll
- more small bug fixes

0.6.50
- updated mouse controls
- disabled automatic reload
- updated a few player sprites
- allow all possible head and body combinations for player now
- small update to random encounters
- added mouse cursor for container
- updated framework, lots of small bug fixes

0.6.49
- added world map audio
- improved camera on Fleshkraken
- framework additions for future character customization
- fixed hit receiver on disabled character not getting disabled
- lots of small fixes and user experience improvements



[h2]Wishlist Death Trash![/h2]

Please wishlist Death Trash, follow the Community Hub, and tell other people about it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/941460/Death_Trash/

Stay safe. Keep being human.

- Stephan

Hi there!

The technical groundwork is all done, but content-wise the game needs more of everything until it's ready for a good first impression.

I'm truly sorry I misjudged the time needed for finishing the Early Access version of Death Trash and mentioned, prematurely, "Early 2020". This was a mistake.

But I haven't been idle, and got a lot of work done in the last months.



[h3]Technical foundation[/h3]

Most importantly, the game is running good on all target platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux) with all base features in place.
(Also on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch, by the way.)

[h3]More changes and improvements[/h3]

• world map got random encounters and other improvements
  
• improved mouse and keyboard controls; dynamic switching between combat controls and point and click; finally added some context specific mouse cursors
  
• character ability changes, e.g. every character can use stealth now
  
• added local co-op shared screen mode
  
• the game got a real audio personality
  
• vastly improved user experience through lots of small stuff in the UI, new font, more juice, input changes etc.
  
• added obfuscation to area overview maps
  
• expanded options menu, including rebindable keys, changing controller button prompts etc.
  

These all add up and the game feels much better than a few months ago.



I fixed most of the bugs staring at me!

This does not mean the Early Access version will ship without any bugs, but the technical foundation for this game will be robust considering the genre and the budget and the Early Access label.

The improvements mentioned above were made alongside the ongoing work on the content of the game.

[h3]Current Focus[/h3]

Which brings us to my final point: The current version needs more story sequences, more areas, more characters, more quests, more items, and so on.

This is my focus now, and I don't want to give it a date yet, but your first contact with Death Trash should happen soon. And after more than five years of development I'm looking forward to that more than I have anticipated anything else in my life.

- Stephan

PS: If you haven't wishlisted the game, please do:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/941460/Death_Trash/

These are the design goals I came up with at the beginning of the project and they're still active, just updated along the way for more clarity.




Let the player be part of creating this fictional world. Give him/her food for his/her imagination. Show things and explain some of them, but only hint at many other things. Art, narrative, dialogue, descriptions and audio should all be part of this.


Let the player keep his/her freedom. Most important in the controls: Don't take them away unless absolutely needed. Make key moments in the story interactable / walkable. No cutscenes. The game should work with multiple control schemes and screen situations. Go to great lengths to give the player comfort options like pausing anywhere and changing of controls anytime.


Give the player things to do. Prepare a world, a setting, and then let him/her loose on that. Present different possibilities for handling problems. Let the world react on player actions. This does not mean total lack of hints: Show the player what he/she can do.


With all of the above in mind, make sure the game has characters, moments and art that stand out from the rest. Give contrast to this world by funneling attention and highlighting. The noise should be backdrop, not center.



Thank you for following the progress of the game and for all your support!

If you haven't already, make sure to wishlist the game:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/941460/Death_Trash/

- Stephan (@talecrafter)