3/14/12

Last week was like a book I couldn’t put down. Each chapter contained some new truth or revelation that clenched me like an iron fist and wouldn’t let go.

Around every corner in San Francisco stood a new face to meet or a new place to be. It’s exactly as Jack described in “On the Road” -- thick plumes of fog, giant hills and a ceaseless, pulsing desire to be everything to everyone. From the spring scent of the Golden Gate Park to the smoke and bass of the nightlife, even the most reserved person would succumb to the city’s advances.

As the company booths packed up and headed home one by one, so did we. But back in the office, we haven’t missed a beat. Everyone is prepping for the incoming content drop.

So gear up, soldier. We’re dropping in hot.

Dungeon Defenders Steam Free Weekend (Mac & PC!)

Play Dungeon Defenders for free from Thursday (3/15) at 10 a.m. PST to Sunday (3/18) 1 p.m. PST! And you can save 50% on the game and all DLC except the Quest for the Lost Eternia Shards DLCs.

Grab your friends and spread the word!

Welcome to Moraggo








The Quest for the Lost Eternia Shards Part II will be available tomorrow on the Steam marketplace (console fans, look below). For $3.99 (or free if you’ve purchased the Shards Complete Pack), you’ll gain access to a new boss, missions, weapons, pets, skins (PC only), music, cut-scenes, and more. Our beta team has put its nose to the grindstone to ensure that this will be the strongest and most polished DLC release yet. (Great work, gang!)






Of course, we might be biased there. You’ll be able to see for yourself sometime tomorrow. (If you have the Shards Complete DLC, you can get it right now!) We’ll post about it on our forums, Facebook and Twitter when it goes live.

Mac Fans, Are you Ready?

Of course, also hitting the Steam marketplace tomorrow is Dungeon Defenders Mac. If you own the game on PC, you can pick up the Mac version for free. Any DLC you previously own on the PC version will transfer over, too! Otherwise, you can grab a copy for $14.99. Of course, from tomorrow until Sunday you’ll be able to try the game for free or grab a copy (and all the DLC) for 50% off as part of our Steam Free Weekend! Hopefully this will help somewhat for the long wait! Our upcoming PC patch (which we’ll get to later) contains some pretty major technical revisions to allow PC/Mac cross-platform play. We’ve tested it internally and with the beta team, but we haven’t been able to properly test it with a large population. So tonight, we’re going to open up the Mac beta to everyone who owns DunDef PC so you can help test it before its big debut tomorrow.

That said, as with any major release, be prepared for some technical issues tomorrow. Or not. Everything could go all roses and unicorns, and I’ll get to sit back and sip top-shelf margs and everyone’s happy. A man can dream.

Console Patch/DLC Release Date

From social media to the forums, our console fans have begged for updates on the console patch and the Shards DLC. We’re pleased to announce that you will be able to rip through the new content on April 10 for PS3 and April 11 for XBLA.

Why will you have to wait until April? We’ve been very open about the console patch and DLC submission process -- more so than most companies. There’s more to being released on the store besides passing quality assurance. The console companies also dictate the timing and release of DLC (and, since the patch contains delicate DLC matters, the patch, too).

Lucky Community Costume Pack

Last week, we revealed the first concept pieces for our community DLC skins. From what little I understand of game development, our art team made blood sacrifices to the development gods to transform concept into content. (If that’s not true, someone needs to explain the blood-stained carpets in the art room.) Here’s your first look at both the 3D concept models and the in-game models!






Note: We’ll update this post when we finish the Barbarian.

As luck would have it (yeah, I went there), the Lucky Community Costume Pack will be available this Friday for free for a limited time (2 weeks).

PC Patch 7.20 (It’s Beefy!)

Patch 7.20 just went live! As we mentioned before, there’s some heavy technical changes included in this patch, so if you see any issues please let us know in our Tech Support or Patch forums. Check out the notes:

* Added a super-secret awesome reward for those who earn "Transcendent Challenge Champion"
* Buffed Apprentice Exponential Damage Ramps on Lightning Tower and Magic Missile Tower by ~20%
* Editbox for specifying the Item Costs in the Player Shop now displays numerical commas
* Binding chat key to alphanumeric button no longer interferes with EditBox inputs
* You can now browse into and out-of Item Box/Player Shop folders properly with Gamepad control (though you can not create them with Gamepad control, yet)
* "Hardcore" mode now yields a 50% XP wave-completion earnings boost, regardless of difficulty setting
* Added "Pro" Item Upgrade Mode, where you can simply click an item stat directly to immediately invest all needed funds and upgrade the item rapidly.
* Hardcore Mode is now accessible on all Challenges, and gives better reward items (on Campaign and Challenges) than non-Hardcore
* Nightmare Challenges now also give Insane Achievements
* Spike Blockade width increased by 15%
* Level cap raised to 78, along with new Items and Item Qualities
* Controller users can now press "Y" to export data to Local/Open mode
* Eternia Shards 2 Pack + Hero Outfit
* 5 new Achievements + Trophies
* Cross-platform SteamPlay with Mac
* Fixed issue where Traps would become weaker in various ways if you died in Hardcore mode and your player character disappeared. Also fixes Upgrade Detonation Count decreasing issue with Traps after the player was destroyed (where Upgrading could result in a Det Count decrease).
* Fixed issue where alphabetical keybinding for Chat would result in inability to use that key in edit boxes
* Increased NM Crystal HP by 40%
* Clients can now see the Host's selected mission name of a mission they don't own
* Harpoon Turrets now incorporate target leading into their aiming, making them MUCH more effective against Wyverns and also fast-moving enemies
* Buffed Nightmare Damage Pets by 12%

Beta Update: 3/14/12

OMG, it’s here! The team has been anxiously awaiting the day everyone gets to see what
Trendy and the Beta Team have been working on. Fueled by a steady supply of mountain dew and pizza, the team has polished and combed over one of the largest updates to the game so far!

Some comments from the team about the update:

1. “Pro Upgrade mode is way faster than the old upgrade system!”

2. “Djinn add a lot of variety to Nightmare mode. Expect to rethink your layouts!”

3. "When I first made it to wave 30 on Mistymire I thought I was hot stuff, with Moraggo I now retract that statement."

4. “The super-secret awesome reward for those who earn ‘Transcendent Challenge Champion’ is in fact awesome. Please, only request tips after launch.”


Not your typical pizza delivery service.

On a more serious note, as this is a release week, our testers are in overdrive and so we will not be posting a suggestion for this week. We like to take the time to read and respond to each suggestion that comes across our table, and it wouldn’t be right for us to ask you to submit your thoughts if we couldn’t respond to them in a reasonable amount of time. Expect us to open up suggestions again next week. We apologize for the disappointment and hope you understand. Enjoy the release!

Dungeon Defenders in Soul Caliber (Fan Creation)
Hellcarver posted these fantastic Soul Caliber DunDef creations on our forums earlier in the week. I think everyone in the office had a collective nerdgasm.

Screenshots of the Week

We’re starting to see more creative entries each week. Keep it up!


Courtesy of [G33K] Regnak


Courtesy of Zimmies


Courtesy of Dyles

Until next time,
Hitmonchan

P.S. I’ll just leave this here:


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