With Hitmonchan away, Laura gets to play. That’s what I thought until I realized that I would have to take over his duties. So I put down my Nerf gun and stole Hitmonchan’s thinking chair in an attempt to not let you guys down.

The Tavernkeep Chronicles III
Did the Taverkeep’s imagination get the best of him? Where was he planning on selling his new loot? Did he crack another joke? These are all questions I wanted to know. As I searched Hitmon’s computer for answers I found pages of the diary missing. I frantically tried to reach him in his mountain retreat only to find out that he took them. Those pages were much too sensitive to leave behind. He couldn’t risk someone...or something, getting their hands on it. His isolated location has prevented him from mailing it to me so I guess I’ll have to wait with you guys to see what the missing pages have in store for us.

The Jester
Finally, the moment you’ve been waiting for!


This trickster has a few special abilities up her sleeve which include... wait... are you ready for it... the ability to move towers. She also has the “Wheel of Fortune” ability, which places a random buff (or debuff) to the environment. So maybe it will repair all of the towers on the map... or maybe your enemies will grow twice as strong. You’ll have to spin the wheel to find out! But what about her towers and weapons you ask? Well that will have to wait till a future digest. But we’ll give you a hint:


Quest for the Lost Eternia Shards: Part 4

Hey, it’s pmasher here. Taking over this section for Laura while she’s getting everything else done (thanks!). Obviously this release is going to be huge, and we think there’s a lot of extra stuff in here that you’ll all dig. The beta (and our QA) team have been working extra hard on this content for the last few weeks, and there’s plenty of clues hidden throughout this digest at some of the new stuff. In any case, here’s some more pretty pictures for you before release:







Map Contest
Congratulations to our Map Contest Winners! We tallied the votes and they were super close. We were blown away by the quality of each and every map that was submitted but alas, there can only be one winner!

The map that will not only be included in the Dungeon Defenders Ranked and Open mode, but also receive a $1,000 prize and a DunDef prize pack for being in first place is...


Palantir



But of course, everyone had different favorites! The runners up were:
Second Place: The Siege


Third Place: Tomb of Etheria


Forth Place: Forsaken Undercroft


We had an amazing time going through every one of these fantastic maps. You can download them here: Maps from the Contest!

And soon, starting July 10, you’ll be able to grab them off of Steam Workshop! Which one is your favorite of the four? Let us know in the discussion below!

Beta Team Update: 7/4/12
Hey there everyone, it's the beta team!

You know, one of the most enjoyable aspects of trying out new content, is the things you end up not expecting, rather than the things you're told to expect.

The last half (Or, 70 percent-ish) of the Shard 4 content is beautiful-- it's beautiful, it's challenging, and it's been a ton of fun to balance and test. There is an interesting surprise that waits during each (did I said each?) of the new levels, which was unexpected and a lot of fun, as we'd not been told about it.

The new enemy has been a big deal for us over here, we really like it a lot, and want to make sure that the challenge it presents isn't disproportionate, especially on the newer levels where the difficulty is even higher than it's ever been, but also back on old maps where it's a little harder to predict. Its mechanic, we think, is really solid at this point. It, as the others before it have, makes you really take a few tries to re-think your strategy before facing it.

There's a new challenge map that'll be sure to give even the best players a run for their money, I won’t say too much about it, because honestly, our bosses would have our heads, but it's very unique and it’s the toughest thing we’ve probably played to this point. Don't play it on Hardcore mode!

There's more, ooh there's so much more to talk about, but that'll be it for us, we've got to get back to testing!

Community Calendar

PC:

360:

PS3:


Creations of the Week

Have a cool photo you'd like to share? Send it cool to contest[at]trendyent.com with the subject "DunDef Screenshot"! Be sure to include your forum username or Steam username in the email. Our favorites will appear in future Digests!


Courtesy of Kothpik


Courtesy of The PaiZ


That’s all for this week! I hope you nice folks enjoyed it. Now I get to take a deep breath and possibly relax a bit now. Either that or I can cover Hitmonchan’s desk in plastic wrap and aluminum foil. In in the spirit of the Jester, I think I’ll go with option 2 and post the pictures as soon as I do it. Also, to our fans in the USA, Happy 4th of July!

Until next time,

Laura, Phil and Matt

Discuss this Digest here!