Hey Shapers, It is with a lot of joy that we announce version 1.0 has officially arrived, just over a year after our early access release.
We hope you enjoy diving fist-first into everything Battle Shapers has to offer. Version 1.0 marks our 10th major update in 14 months, and with every update, we've added countless weapons, abilities, build upgrades and mechanics, enemies and bosses, environments, narrative chapters, cinematics, gameplay balances, performance optimizations, and much more.
If you're new here, welcome to Battle Shapers! We have a new trailer for you, as well as a demo for you to enjoy. You can read about our Demo features here. We also have a Community Discord where you can chat with fellow Shapers and reach our development team. The soundtrack's pretty tight, too.
Version 1.0 Launch Trailer:
Demo Link:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2450000/Battle_Shapers_Demo/
Soundtrack Link:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2632470/Battle_Shapers_Soundtrack/
Battle Shapers is currently available on Steam and is Deck Verified! We're also on NIVIDIA's GeForceNOW platform.
So what's in the 1.0 Phantom Code Update?
Quite a bit! We have a DevLog detailing all of 1.0 Phantom Code's features here.
Version 1.0 Overview:
- By popular demand, we introduced a new difficulty system called The Phantom Code.
- Players already deep in the end-game will get to discover new narrative content to the game capturing Battle Shapers's final chapter.
- Have excess Turinium? There's a new Reroll Token Dispenser, allowing players to exchange Turinium for Reroll Tokens and redraw certain types of rewards.
- If you have a favorite weapon or ability, then the new Shaper Requisitions is for you. Like the Reroll Token Dispenser, this feature consumes Turinium and allows players to increase the odds of discovering certain weapons or abilities, as well as suppressing undesired ones.
- We added more Corrupted Weapon Variants - there are now 24 in total!
- New foes have been introduced to New Elysium; some enemies can now appear with Cursed Corruption, and VerOs will also retaliate by calling on his enforcer, 'The Cursed One'.
- There's a new Trophy Room to show off your wins. Over 20 trophies can now be unlocked through regular gameplay, and upgraded through various challenges.
- Speaking of wins, we've added 51 Steam Achievements to capture key moments of your journey in New Elysium.
- We've made major strides in terms of Performance Optimizations for 1.0. So far we've eliminate game stuttering, addressed resource-heavy explosive effects, and improved frame rates by 20-30% depending on user hardware.
What a wild ride.
Battle Shapers, codenamed Protorogue at the time, began as a passion project by a team of two. This was August 2018.
And then we were eight, and we were Metric Empire. Then we were more. Then the game started to take shape. Then it was Battle Shapers. And now Metric Empire is about twenty members!
We've learned good things come with time and we're glad we were patient. Launching in early-access allowed us to not only gradually introduce narrative content, but more importantly focus on player feedback to iterate and revisit gameplay mechanics and features. Being able to take a step back to see the bigger picture was a big advantage.
Which brings us to our next topic..
Early-Access Shapers
We have to extend a heartfelt thank you to every single one of our early access Shapers!
The kindness, excitement, and support you have shown us in the last year has been incredibly moving.
We are so tremendously grateful for every one of you. Every gesture, from simply playing the game, to reporting bugs, participating in playtests and surveys, engaging with our content, leaving a Steam review, sharing gameplay and narrative suggestions - every single one is appreciated.
To make a game and have it received by our wonderfully supportive community is a privilege.
What's Next?
We're going to take a moment to celebrate this massive milestone!
Then, our team will regroup to set upcoming plans for Battle Shapers. Our biggest priorities right now will be to take the time to properly dive into our community's feedback & suggestions, continue improving the game, and provide regular hotfix patches for anything that might appear.
We also have a few ideas for community-facing initiatives that we'll share in due time!
We need to wrap this up.
We hope all past, present, and future Shapers enjoy this game as much as we did making it.
Thank you all so much.