The demo for Two Dollar Suits is live now! Play the first chapter and tons of freeplay heists, with full gear and skill availability in this expanded set of demo missions. Download today: View game page
The demo for Two Dollar Suits is live now! Play the first chapter and tons of freeplay heists, with full gear and skill availability in this expanded set of demo missions.
Download today: View game page
Two Dollar Suits After a year of development, a long break, and much emotional turmoil, I am finally in a place where I feel ready to properly announce the long talked about remaster of A-Star Theft, first announced in 2023 . WISHLIST THE GAME TODAY View game page What does this
After a year of development, a long break, and much emotional turmoil, I am finally in a place where I feel ready to properly announce the long talked about remaster of A-Star Theft, first announced in 2023.
WISHLIST THE GAME TODAY
In short, a whole lot of things.
Writing the new story has been an incredible process. I have taken in feedback from years of play testing to construct a brand-new experience for Logan Huntborn and his daughter Vanessa. This time, my most important goal has been to make players connect more deeply to the characters. The structural story events are similar to the original, but told in a very different way. All dialog is rewritten, the characters are rethought, and Logan's connection with Vanessa is explored to the fullest it can be.
A new internal weapons system leading to better stability, more weapon stats, faster development of new weapons, and even allowing entirely new weapon concepts that do not fire bullets (eg. flame throwers). Various melee weapons are added too. This is usable within a completely new interface built from the ground up.
Get ready for more play style variation than ever before. With Two Dollar Suits, I introduce a skill system to complement equipment for delightfully creative synergies. These skills are designed to deeply modify your strategies instead of being simple stat changes.
Major graphical overhauls make the game feel more immersive. I have iterated intensively on creating a style that captures the brutal feelings of the world we play in, and at the same time improves clarity during stressful gameplay moments. Vibrance and dynamics have intensified, the world is more colorful now.
So much stuff is going to change now. Don't believe me? Take a look at this scientific table to compare:
A-Star Theft | Two Dollar Suits |
|---|---|
Old and ugly | New and fancy |
Bad story | Hopefully a good story this time lol |
Outdated level design | Redesigned heists |
Multiple inconsistent art styles | Consistent art style |
Clunky user interface | Overhauled user interface |
Fewer features | More and better features |
More buggy | Less buggy |
Worse | Better |
This is by far the biggest project I have completed, and I am honored to have your support.
Story
Rewritten story, including new characters, events and missions
Improved character depth and motivations
Improved conflicts
Multiple facial expressions in dialog
Dialog boxes now have controls to rewind text for convenience
Major level design improvements
Theme-appropriate safe house music
Art Style
Established a new art style
Lowered ambient lighting
Created new color filters to shift dark colors gray-blue
Added outlines to objects
Generally made the game more dynamic and colorful
Weapons System
Created a new internal weapons system and unified handling of different weapon types, leading to better stability, more weapon stats, faster development of new weapons, and even allow entirely new weapon concepts that do not fire bullets (eg. flame throwers)
Created a new melee system
Added a new store system
Added new weapon: Plastic Pistol
Added new weapon: Hand Cannon
Added new weapon: Precision Sniper
Added new weapon: Light Machine Gun
Added new weapon: Minigun
Added new weapon: Knife
Added new weapon: Baseball Bat
Added Katana as a purchasable weapon, defaulting to fists again (The purchasable katana is a lot stronger than the current default one)
Added new weapon stats: Recoil, Damage Falloff, Bullet Speed, Ammo Pickup, Noise, and Headshot Distance
Further reduced store prices
Slightly improved weapon icons in the store
Reduced credit cost of the Loot Bag to 1
Skill System
Added a skill system
Added 30 skills, organized into 5 tiers based on their power level
Skills are divided into the categories Action, Stealth, and Money
Skills are intended to significantly change playstyles in different ways than equipment
Like equipment, skills are purchased using money, then equipped using credits
Hard Mode
Added a setting to enable Hard Mode
Hard Mode affects many aspects of both action and stealth approaches, including the following:
Enemy reaction times
Enemy sight distance
Damage taken
Maximum police on the map
Police response times
Stealth detection speed
Body bag size
Police call speed
Ammo drops
Amount of healing stations
Amount of guards on some Freeplay maps
Amount of cameras on some Freeplay maps
Settings Menu
Redesigned the settings menu from scratch
Categories are now displayed in separate tabs
Keybind settings are now displayed like other settings
Added reset settings button
Greatly improved gamepad support
Added several new settings
Removed True Pixel Style setting, deciding to always leave it enabled due to graphical issues (All new graphics has been designed to look best with this setting enabled)
Removed Relative Movement mode due to quality issues and difficulties keeping both movement modes up to date
Help menu
Redesigned the help menu from scratch
Contents of the help menu has been updated to reflect the current version of the game
Interactions
Added ability for explosions to destroy nearby explosive barrels
Added ability for crew members to enter the van during escapes
Added ability to carry multiple keycards at the same time
Added ability to melee kill civilians
Added ability to step on rats to kill them
Added a rat infestation problem to the Freeplay safe house
Combat and AI
Improved NPC combat stability
Enemies are less prone to stay still for prolonged periods (Still happens sometimes)
Enemies take cover more consistently
Enemies are less prone to run in huge packs toward the player
Possibly fixed NPCs sometimes walking through walls
Improved smoothness of crew members finding a new path to the player while the player is moving
Improved decision making when enemies consider opening alarmed doors
Removed leaning mechanic due to animation issues, reliability issues, AI issues, game balance issues, usability issues, and production issues (probably also other issues)
Improved NPC pathing to make them less prone to moving very close to walls and have their shoulders clip inside
Improved guards escorting players
Fixed NPCs sometimes running through security bars
Tweaked gamefeel when kicking open doors
Reduced frequency of enemies dropped their weapons when punched
Removed SWAT bomb planting teams due to quality issues
Added a new gamepad aim assist system, active when not manually selecting targets using the cursor. The aim assist intensity can be modified in the settings
Improvements
Redesigned internal Freeplay heist management to be unified with the remastered story system, leading to faster development and ability to add story heists to Freeplay
15 new Freeplay heists added from the new story, giving a total of 30
Slightly increased EXP needed to level up in Freeplay for improved progression balancing, but reduced additional EXP needed per level
Added a new sound effect for the Improved Drill, so it sounds different to the normal drill
Added headlights to vehicles
Added siren audio to SWAT vans
Added red and blue lighting to SWAT vans
Added ability for SWAT to turn on power during combat
Added a timer to intimidated civilians to better show how long they will stay still
Added over 30 more environmental car designs (Thanks to PKPain!)
Added flies that fly around garbage bags
Driving into cash registers now destroy them and drop money like other loot objects
Changed so you have to release the shoot button before you can start melee attacks, to prevent accidental melee in close battles with many enemies
Improved visual effect when destroying military turrets
Improved unplanted bomb visual clarity
Tweaked camera shake to emphasize certain moments, but be more mild in others
Tweaked gamepad functionality to be more consistent (still struggles in some areas)
Removed zoom out effect on some camera shake events because it was annoying
Decreased ammo drop rate from killed enemies to better balance different weapon ammo amount and pickup rate
Reduced crew cuts for both stealth and loud
Improved light blurring at screen edges
Improved door kicking predictability on double doors
Improved clean up body parts: Players should no longer accidentally clean up body parts instead of stealing loot, if both items are nearby
Lowered shooting and explosion volume for more balanced audio
Improved explosion sound when destroying fuel tanks (no longer multiple explosion sounds on top of each other)
Improved spatial audio
Improved reliability of the Stuck In Wall button
Improved item wheel UI
Improved character appearance menu UI, especially for gamepads
Improved some minor UI elements
Fixed pause menu not working using a gamepad, if paused while overview mode is active
Fixed characters pushing Logan in the safe house
General improvements to gamepad support
Miscellaneous improvements
Bug fixes
Tweaked hospital penalties to be less expensive for revived crew members, but more expensive for those left behind
Fixed cameras triggering immediately if players had been hit by a bullet
Fixed inability to steal loot if police were called while cleaning body parts
Fixed ability to disable electrical objects while the power is down
Fixed stoves and kitchen grills not able be destroyed by driving the van into them
Fixed moving multiple nearby characters at the same time when dragging them to a new target location
Fixed a few keybinds showing in the wrong category in settings
Fixed the same keybinds not being reset when clicking the Reset Keybinds button
Potentially fixed dropped weapons getting stuck in walls
Other minor bugs fixed
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot! Update 1.4.10 This update presents an upgraded melee combat design for snappier and more visceral close-quarters takedowns. Logan is now equipped with a katana! Why? Because it's awesome, of course. Store prices ha
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot!
This update presents an upgraded melee combat design for snappier and more visceral close-quarters takedowns. Logan is now equipped with a katana! Why? Because it's awesome, of course.
Store prices have been decreased to encourage more experimentation with different builds and play styles. Some graphical elements have been tweaked, along with minor AI improvements.
Please leave feedback in the comments when you have tried the new melee combat system.
I hope you enjoy the new update!
Changelog:
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot! Update 1.4.9 This update brings an assortment of changes I have been working on over the last month. The keycard mechanic has been made more clear by now only opening regular keycard doors. They can no longer open
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot!
This update brings an assortment of changes I have been working on over the last month. The keycard mechanic has been made more clear by now only opening regular keycard doors. They can no longer open vault doors. Vault doors can instead be opened by using the keypad. Find code segments on the map and piece together the code to open the vault silently. Crew members are now rescued by finding them tied up on the map. This replaces the old system where you had to click on the user interface to make them respawn at your location, which was not properly communicated, not to mention a bit buggy. The lighting have been improved with a new sun bloom effect. This is affected by the time of day, and can make sunsets look very nice and warm. This is somewhat experimental, so please tell me if you like it or not!
I hope you enjoy the new update!
Changelog:
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot! Update 1.4.8 With this update, I want to put a greater focus on actively using equipment during combat, and have therefore increased the effectiveness of several tools. To further encourage experimentation, access
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot!
With this update, I want to put a greater focus on actively using equipment during combat, and have therefore increased the effectiveness of several tools. To further encourage experimentation, access to the equipment store directly from a heist has returned, after previously being removed for compatibility issues with the driving mechanic.
I hope you enjoy the new update!
Changelog:
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot! Story Remaster The Story Remaster version 2 brings tons of improvements based on player feedback. Thank you for answering the survey after completing the demo, it truly does help! The new demo has player choice at
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot!
The Story Remaster version 2 brings tons of improvements based on player feedback. Thank you for answering the survey after completing the demo, it truly does help!
The new demo has player choice at its core, and now allows the rescue segment to be completed with both stealth and action strategies. Both the rescue and arrest segments now encourage player exploration and allows weapons to be used from the very start, if you so choose to do so. Some of the dialog has also been looked at, to better emphasize a consistent tone. Thus, a lot of the more silly dialog has been dialed down and replaced with more appropriate dialog. Logan's narrations has also been tweaked in some places to feel less edgy. I am still looking for feedback on this, so feel free to answer the survey after completing the demo.
Remaster Demo changelog:
Along with the Remaster Demo improvements, this update also includes many improvements for overall gameplay. Combat game feel has been improved with better visual effects, and a long-standing bug fixed that prevented headshots from registring if hitting an enemy's shoulder first. This meant that headshots were impossible when flanking an enemy. I have also made some difficulty tweaks for larger shootouts.
I hope you enjoy the new update!
Changelog:
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
A-STAR THEFT STORY REMASTER It's finally time, the Story Remaster Demo is now available! I am looking for as much feedback as possible, so it would be very helpful if you want to answer the survey after trying out the demo. If you want to talk to me while playing, for an intervie
It's finally time, the Story Remaster Demo is now available!
I am looking for as much feedback as possible, so it would be very helpful if you want to answer the survey after trying out the demo.
If you want to talk to me while playing, for an interview-style testing session, you can contact me on Discord or fill out this form. This way, you can provide nuanced opinions and allow me to observe your play style for analysis.
If you are wondering what this is about, you can read this post for more information.
The Remaster Demo is available for both the full game and the free version, so you do not need to purchase the game to play. Please share your thoughts!
This update also has some smaller changes for the general game experience.
Changelog:
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot! Update 1.4.5 This update presents the latest new Freeplay heist: The Silver Spoon Casino! This expert difficulty heist brings some of the greatest challenges yet, and a giant open space to explore. I have also made
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot!
This update presents the latest new Freeplay heist: The Silver Spoon Casino! This expert difficulty heist brings some of the greatest challenges yet, and a giant open space to explore. I have also made some changes to difficulty balance between stealth and loud gameplay, and other improvements to several areas which you can read about below.
Please note that this heist is very large, and may perform poorly on some computers.
I hope you enjoy the new update!
Changelog:
I have detected a bug where guards may sometimes become aggressive to a player even in public areas after having done some unknown illegal act. This seems to be a very rare issue, as I have only experienced it once, but I hope to find a solution soon. If you experience this yourself, feel free to contact me and provide details about what you did before the guards became aggressive.
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
Hello everybody, I have some very interesting news to share about the remastered story! It's been a while since I wrote, back before Christmas when I released the Escape Update. It could seem from my silence that I have been passive in any further development, but I assure you th
Hello everybody, I have some very interesting news to share about the remastered story!
It's been a while since I wrote, back before Christmas when I released the Escape Update. It could seem from my silence that I have been passive in any further development, but I assure you that I have been anything but passive.
During the past year, I have been rewriting the entirety of the story in A-Star Theft, only keeping the general premise and characters, while completely rethinking how to tell it. As I have earlier explained, I was never happy with how the original story turned out. I have since then finished the script and worked on better character development, and it is looking promising so far.
- I am very happy to announce that all new missions have finished their level design phase. This means that every map is playable and functional as individual levels, somewhat like Freeplay mode. The next step is to connect them all through the story and dialog. This will work like the current story, with a safe house for preparing and conversing with your crew. One of the most exciting things for me is to get an opportunity to make actually identifiable characters. I think that the current characters all feel the same, like I took a set of traits and randomly assigned them to a character depending on what I felt like on any given day. A brown sludge of generic goons. The new dialog written so far will much better portray everyone as unique and interesting individuals, with mannerisms and opinions worth remembering.
The remastered story also has an added benefit of giving you much - MUCH - better designed maps to play. While the primary motivation for doing this is to create an emotional experience I think the game currently lacks, my experience as a level designer has drastically increased since 2020. There is no doubt you will see an increase in level design quality in the new story missions.
To get all of this working, I have had to redesign several major systems, including the Dialog, Objective, and Save file systems. The Dialog and Objective systems now operate with JSON files for maximum flexibility, and will support localization in the future. These changes also allow me to work faster and be more organized, as JSON code is more easy to read than my stinky ten year old self-made garbage.
So how is it going? Very well, I would say. Most of my current focus is on making a great first impression, with an enhanced introductory mission that involves more story, better set dressing, and dynamic help texts. I intend to release this map as an early showcase of the new story once it's ready for testing.
PLAY TESTERS ARE WELCOME
I will prepare for this in the coming weeks, and update you once it's time for beta testing.
Beyond the remaster, I am still creating new content for Freeplay as well. The Silver Spoon Casino will be the 15th Freeplay mission, and will join the 4 other expert maps in the next few days. This map is a colorful and luxurious Casino and Hotel with a lot of opportunities for strategizing and experimentation. It will feature one of the highest security vaults yet created for A-Star Theft - hopefully an exciting puzzle to solve for all stealth enjoyers.
I look forward to showing you more as the story gets developed further!
Thank you for reading.
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot! Update 1.4.4 This update introduces the new driving feature! Enter your escape van at any point and use it to further develop your strategic choices, with more freedom of approach (and escape!) than ever before. Lo
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot!
This update introduces the new driving feature! Enter your escape van at any point and use it to further develop your strategic choices, with more freedom of approach (and escape!) than ever before. Loot can now be secured in the van, to better balance the Combat vs Stealth difficulty and enhance player agency. I am also introducing an awesome new music track which you can take a sneak-peak at HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBCCEcZOvug
I hope you enjoy the new update!
Changelog:
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
A-Star Theft has been released for over three years now (oh boy how time flies) , and is still alive and kicking! Over 30 updates have been released, featuring new game modes, more equipment, overhauled graphics, added missions, and hundreds of quality of life improvements. Looki
A-Star Theft has been released for over three years now (oh boy how time flies), and is still alive and kicking!
Over 30 updates have been released, featuring new game modes, more equipment, overhauled graphics, added missions, and hundreds of quality of life improvements. Looking back on it today, it almost seems more like a sequel to what was first available on August 28, 2020.
My dedication to this game is evident, and I hope you will consider adding your vote for A-Star Theft - Labor of Love.
Thank you.
Hello everybody! Over the past month, I have been working on redesigning the escape system to add more excitement to a heist. The plan is to no longer simply press F to win, but instead actually have to flee the scene. This means that you have to reach the van and drive away! For
Hello everybody!
Over the past month, I have been working on redesigning the escape system to add more excitement to a heist. The plan is to no longer simply press F to win, but instead actually have to flee the scene.
This means that you have to reach the van and drive away!
For this system, I have added several new mechanics:
I want your help to verify that these changes are both good, and clear enough in gameplay.
If you want to test these changes, you can join the Public Beta branch on Steam!
TO JOIN - Right-click on the game -> Open 'Properties' -> Press 'Betas' -> Select 'public-beta' in the drop-down menu
These changes are also available in the demo by following the above instructions!
Please provide any feedback that you have, so that the system can become the best it can be. If you don't think it's fun, then I will not implement the system.
I hope you like it, though, as I believe that a proper escape system can greatly enhance the overall heisting experience!
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot! Update 1.4.3 This update revamps the user interface for a much cleaner design, with better colors, animations, and text placement. Heists are now also more dynamic based on time of day, with civilians leaving durin
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot!
This update revamps the user interface for a much cleaner design, with better colors, animations, and text placement. Heists are now also more dynamic based on time of day, with civilians leaving during nighttime and guards being more suspicious.
I hope you enjoy the new update!
Changelog:
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
Hello everyone, I hope you are having a lovely day! Due to the recent Steam Stealth Fest, this past week has been the most successful one in the game's history. I want to welcome all new players to the game, and say that I am very thankful that you have taken a chance on an indie
Hello everyone, I hope you are having a lovely day!
Due to the recent Steam Stealth Fest, this past week has been the most successful one in the game's history.
I want to welcome all new players to the game, and say that I am very thankful that you have taken a chance on an indie game like mine!
I aim to release many more updates, making the game experience even better with time. Since the game's release, I have published over 30 updates and see no reason to stop any time soon. If you want, you can even check the beta tab in the Steam UI, and try out the first ever version published on Steam - the differences are... quite large :)
I also want to talk about potential for a new story in the game.
The current story is one that I am not particularly happy with. A few months before release, I had to force something into the game due to tester feedback, but I had no time to truly write what I wanted to write. The story I wanted to tell simply has not manifested properly in the game. While it does have some compelling moments, it is overall weaker than I want it to be.
Since then, I have analyzed every aspect of the story to find its deficiencies. I now believe that I have managed to properly connect every component, character arc, and reveal in a compelling and logical way. At least in theory, as this remastered story still only exists on paper, almost like a screenplay. It's hard to know how it will look in a game format, but it is there, and I will now start working on making it real.
Implementing a new story does have some challenges though, beyond just writing it: How do I handle old save files which are already halfway through the game? Will I keep the original story for a while, and only show the improved story in new save files? Perhaps I can write some form of a save compatibility transfer. Or maybe the story will be included in a fully remastered version of the game, with a way for existing players to upgrade without charge. I simply do not know at this time.
I hope that you can forgive any shortcomings in the story, and know that I am right there with you :)
With all of that said, I hope that you enjoy the game, if not for the story, for all the gameplay and exploration it provides!
If you have any questions or feedback, you are welcome to contact me or post on the forums. You can also join the A-Star Theft discord server
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot! Update 1.4.2 This update introduces the first dynamic weather effects in A-Star Theft. As always, feedback on the effect is very welcome, as I want them to become the best they can be. I have also implemented some
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot!
This update introduces the first dynamic weather effects in A-Star Theft. As always, feedback on the effect is very welcome, as I want them to become the best they can be. I have also implemented some ideas I have had for a long time regarding world interaction, and you can expect more interactive objects in the future.
I hope you enjoy the new update!
Changelog:
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot! Update 1.4.1 This update further improves on many changes made in update 1.4, with many improvements and quality of life changes. I hope you have fun with this new update! Changelog: Added the new character designs
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot!
This update further improves on many changes made in update 1.4, with many improvements and quality of life changes. I hope you have fun with this new update!
Changelog:
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
A-Star Theft: Experience Enhanced A-Star Theft has been subject to many changes based on user feedback. This update is the culmination of months of playtesting and research. It brings vibrant new graphics, new mechanics, and heaps of usability improvements. Major Features Added a
A-Star Theft has been subject to many changes based on user feedback. This update is the culmination of months of playtesting and research. It brings vibrant new graphics, new mechanics, and heaps of usability improvements.
I hope you all enjoy these improvements!
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
Hello everyone! A heap of improvements will become available in A-Star Theft soon! These improvements include: - Graphical Overhauls - Door Kicking - Improved Usability - A New Music Track - Fixes For Unsual Issues More work has been done on remaking the story, but no timeline ca
Hello everyone!
A heap of improvements will become available in A-Star Theft soon!
These improvements include:
- Graphical Overhauls
- Door Kicking
- Improved Usability
- A New Music Track
- Fixes For Unsual Issues
More work has been done on remaking the story, but no timeline can be shared yet. It will take some time, but remastered writing will better tell the intended story of Logan Huntborn and the crew.
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot! Update 1.3.1 Changelog: Added a new mini game to replace vault cracking Added a better indicator for reloading Added thermite damage to turrets Added additional headshot effects Redesigned game start up animation I
If you enjoy the game, consider leaving a review! It helps a lot!
Changelog:
I am aware of an issue where the pause screen is temporarily unavailable after exiting the equipment store. Waiting a few seconds before attempting to pause again usually solves the issue, but a solution is being developed.
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]
A-Star Theft: Overhauls and Refinements A-Star Theft is getting improvements on many fronts, including revamped spritework and audio, a new tutorial, improved usability and tons of jank has been fixed! Audio and Visual Upgrades Improved furniture graphics Improved floor graphics
A-Star Theft is getting improvements on many fronts, including revamped spritework and audio, a new tutorial, improved usability and tons of jank has been fixed!
I hope you all enjoy these improvements!
For questions or feedback, you can join the A-Star Theft discord server, or mail me at: [email protected]