29 Mar 2025Developer post

Ophioc Ship Patch

This patch is primarily adding a tile set called Ophioc Ship, it houses a few new enemies and a few old ones from the Ophioc faction. There are some new hidden mechanics on the level as well that I won't list here! Here is a screenshot of the new level alongside a few of the new

This patch is primarily adding a tile set called Ophioc Ship, it houses a few new enemies and a few old ones from the Ophioc faction. There are some new hidden mechanics on the level as well that I won't list here!

Here is a screenshot of the new level alongside a few of the new enemies.

On another note, this patch took a lot longer than I expected it to. I am also starting a new job next week which I'm very excited for but will most likely reduce the time I have to spend working on Dead Metal. But don't worry I'm hardly done working, just trying to set low expectations for the timing of the next patch.

Speaking of the next patch, finally finally finally getting the new wave defense mode into the game. It would have made it into this patch but I keep finding bugs with it. I think it would be best to focus on it for its own patch as opposed to releasing it alongside the tile set. I am hoping to have that patch out by the end of April as the content is mostly done and its mainly bugfixes remaining.

Post that is going to be some of the largest patches the game will see and there will be months between them. These patches are aiming for a few things, the first of which is making the gameplay loop feel cleaner and more eventful. I will be reducing the size of the explorable galaxy while increasing the variety of things that can spawn within it which should cause players to find cool parts of the universe way faster. I've loosely scheduled this patch for August as it will be completely redoing a lot of random universe generation and adding a ton of random events for players to encounter both in levels and while using the new space travel system... also there will be a new space travel system.

The next major patch I'm aiming for late November and it will be the revamped level generation patch. Making more interesting levels that make some contextual sense as to what they are will be the goal here. So if you raid a space pirate ship that ship will reasonably have a bridge, an engine room, cafeteria, ect ect. I also want missions to reflect this new more intelligent level design, missions to steal data for the server room of a building, or sabotage various parts of a massive ship. A lot of the ideas for this patch are not concrete but I do know that the current level generation isn't meeting what I want for the game.

That's all for now, as always thanks for playing!

Original post

29 Nov 2024Developer post

New Skirmish level type and new boss

The patch todays main feature is a new gamemode called skirmish, this plays out much more like a standard turned based strategy game level where there are a set amount of enemies in a room and you have to kill them all to get out. These levels can currently spawn on most any plan

31 Aug 2024Developer post

Graphics Update Finally Arrived!

Hello everyone, its finally here. After a solid 4 months of work basically every single piece of art has been redone and it looks a lot better. A lot of bugs have been fixed as well but I was so focused on art that I don't have a great change log for that. Instead I will just pos

25 Jul 2024Developer post

Update on graphics improvement patch

Hello, I know I said there would be an intermediate patch with about half the new graphics but the new graphics combined with the old ones look.... silly. So I'm burning through all of it and hoping to be done by August 20th. Progress is still going well and part of the delay is

05 Apr 2024Developer post

Snow Patch Live!

Snow patch is live! A new tile set with new enemies and a new mechanic to get ore faster for upgrades. Ill be fast and go right ahead with the changes below: -Ice planets added to planet list -Ice planets can now spawn 'Snow Mine' levels which have a new mechanic to get ore faste

26 Mar 2024Developer post

Pre Snow Patch Bug Fixes

Fixing a good number of bugs unrelated to the actual snow patch Bug Fixes - Space Pirates with shotguns' blast sometimes would go through walls - Enemies no longer moonwalk occasionally - Bug causing med kits to become unusable until you hit escape fixed - Yellow targeting frames

17 Mar 2024Developer post

Snow Patch Coming Soon!

The next and first major patch of Dead Metal is coming up around the corner, its taken a little longer than expected as last I posted I said it would be ready in mid March at the latest. Now I'm thinking end of March or at worst early early April. This patch will include a bunch

20 Jan 2024Developer post

Added Tech Items

Patch Notes -Tech items now added and can drop from appropriate mobs -When you equip a tech item you gain a 5th ability on your equipped suit -Currently 10 tech items in the game though more will be added over time -Tech items only drop on lv 3 or higher maps (with a few exceptio

16 Dec 2023Developer post

Multiplayer Stability Patch

As you may or not have noticed there have been a multitude of small patches going out this month and that will continue until the new year when I go back to working on new features. These patches are improving the multiplayer experience in terms of bug fixes and general stability

09 Dec 2023Developer post

Small Bugfix Patch

PATCH NOTES -bug that would leave the game in a null state if you quit the tutorial at a specific time then re logged into that save fixed -various small MP desync bugs fixed Just a small patch with some bug fixes, nothing to see here. Thanks for playing!

05 Dec 2023Developer post

Star System/Galaxy screen overhaul

As I said in the last patch notes my least favorite piece of the UI was the map enter screen better known as the navigation tab. The UI art for it was lacking and it didn't add any depth of gameplay other than to try to convince the user that at some point real and meaningful uni

As I said in the last patch notes my least favorite piece of the UI was the map enter screen better known as the navigation tab. The UI art for it was lacking and it didn't add any depth of gameplay other than to try to convince the user that at some point real and meaningful universe generation might be on its way. And while I can't yet say that the universe generation is anywhere close to what I want yet, this is the start of bringing it towards that point.

This is what I've been working on for the last few weeks since the last patch and while I don't think its a final version of how it will work I do much prefer the art and now the universe generation will name star systems and will generate permanent planets. These planets will eventually matter a lot more (and there are only 3 types of planets at the moment) as only certain levels will spawn on certain planets, I just don't feel the variety of level is quite in to meaningfully have 10-15 different kinds of planets though that is the eventual goal. I intend to add planets into the game as I make levels that can only spawn on those types, this will include special levels with different styles of maps like wave defense maps and resource gathering maps.

The galaxy overview map as seen above will be seeing some changes in the future as well, eventually the type of star in the system center (or black hole/ other large mass) will be part of determining bonus effects in levels ran in that system. But this is still a far away addition unfortunately as going forward its finally time to focus on making new tile sets and enemies to start to populate the galaxy and give purpose to the new planets.

------PATCH NOTES------
-Planets now permanently spawn in solar systems
-New art for solar system map
-New art for galaxy map
-Ophioc cave levels can only spawn on planets
-New UI for level selection

I'm hoping to get one more patch out before December ends and it will largely be a multiplayer stability patch as I will be busy with holiday stuff until the new year so I don't want to commit to a huge new tile set just yet. I'm hoping for the first of many new tile sets (level type) to be available early February.

As always thanks for playing!

Original post

20 Nov 2023Developer post

Quests and Bug Fixes

Quests are finally in the game and they seem to be working well from the testing Ive done, you will now have a main quest that will generally tell you how to progress in the game as well as 2 side quest slots you can obtain from talking to NPCs in the station. The screenshot abov

Quests are finally in the game and they seem to be working well from the testing Ive done, you will now have a main quest that will generally tell you how to progress in the game as well as 2 side quest slots you can obtain from talking to NPCs in the station.

The screenshot above is an example of one of said NPCs. More of these will be added over time of course along with more quests and content. These quests will also aid players in finding hidden side bosses that have yet to be found by anyone.

Right now there are three new NPCs to talk to as well as the Kale the merchant on this NPC page, you will have to come through this screen to buy and sell items. There are plans for more merchants with different kind of items for sale in the future as well.

PATCH NOTES
-3 new NPC quest givers have been added to the game
-Main quest has been added to the game
-A total of 10 side quests and 3 main quests in game
-Quest log has been added to the game
-Bug with tutorial highlights being frozen fixed
-Bug with items overwriting each others icons (not effecting the items themselves) fixed
-Tutorial screen placement wont get in the way anymore
-Many other small bug fixes not worth mentioning

Next on the docket is a complete redo of the universe map screen:

1) It looks terrible compared to other parts of the UI
2) I no longer like the way exploration works and the size of the universe will be scaled down a fair bit to allow for more obvious progression
3) Finding hidden stuff in the game as meant to be hard but not as hard as it is currently, steps will be taken to remedy that (though I still will keep some things as hard to find as they are now)

After that screen is done being reworked I will move on to making more tile sets for new levels which is something I've been looking forward to doing for quite some time now. I may decide to add trinkets/tech items (not sure what exactly they will be called) that will be used to add trinket/tech item specific abilities onto your bar increasing the max number of abilities to 5 or 6 per character. This will include the 4 decided by weapon and then 1 or 2 added from different tech items.

That's all for now! You can expect the rework of the Universe Map to be done by mid December and either tech items or a new tile set by mid January. I've decided to do patches on a monthly(ish) cycle as thats about how long it takes me to add a major feature, though things like a new tile set will probably be a 2 month project as it will come with all new mobs and at least 1 story boss and 1 hidden extra boss.

Original post

23 Oct 2023Developer post

Level Generation and Party Follow

Ive been spending some time trying to figure out how to reduce movement woes between rooms when you have to control all 4 party members in single player. I have two solutions that will hopefully work together to resolve this issue. -A large portion of level generation was rewritt

15 Sep 2023Developer post

UI Redo

So the majority of the negative feedback I've gotten has to do with the UI... And I agree, it needed work. This update fixes a lot of those issues but not all of them quite yet. The multiplayer lobby host/join system is still in need of an update but the in game UI and starting t

So the majority of the negative feedback I've gotten has to do with the UI...

And I agree, it needed work. This update fixes a lot of those issues but not all of them quite yet. The multiplayer lobby host/join system is still in need of an update but the in game UI and starting tutorial is far easier to use/navigate with this update. The Inventory / Stat screen got a 100% rework as well as the days of walking around the station to reach different UI pages is gone. Its all navigated from a (hopefully) easy to use computer monitor that both looks nicer and feels much more intuitive.

This is the a look at the new stat screen, all the other UI menus will be updated to this quality over the next week though they already have the same general layout with the different menu options on the bottom of the screen.

Coming up next:

1) First off as stated above my next project is the host/join in multiplayer. Its going to get a full overhaul and be brought up to the easy to use standard which I'm modeling after other very popular multiplayer roguelike/lites.

2) New art for planets/stations/systems on the universe map.

3) Some old art pieces in game that were made very early in development are being replaced.

4) Quest givers will be added to the station to give players more direction on what to do and even how to find hidden bosses if you do enough quests for them.

5) Weapon skill is going out the window as a way to unlock abilities, it will just be based on your stats (including armor additions) and the level of the suit.

6) Trait system in which different events in missions can give semi permanent buffs/debuffs to your suits, these will be able to be fixed in the repair shop along with an all new repair shop NPC to both provide quests and a little bit more lore while you repair your suits.

7) Much much more but the above is what Im hoping to have done by mid/late October.

As always let me know if you experience and difficulty in game with bugs or otherwise.

Thanks for playing!

Original post

Dead Metal

Updates & announcements

Universe Exploration patch soon

Bug Fix Patch

Ophioc Ship Patch

New Skirmish level type and new boss

4k Resolution issue fix

QOL Patch

Graphics Update Finally Arrived!

Update on graphics improvement patch

Graphics Overhaul

Snow Patch Live!

Pre Snow Patch Bug Fixes

Snow Patch Coming Soon!

Added Tech Items

Multiplayer Stability Patch

Small Bugfix Patch

Star System/Galaxy screen overhaul

Quests and Bug Fixes

Level Generation and Party Follow

MP Usability Update 1

UI Redo