Hey everyone!
The Dark Bazaar demo is heading to Tokyo Game Show, and we’ve put together an update to get it ready.
That means Japanese localization, a new way to listen to the game’s music, new buyer portraits from our artist Marcus, and some pretty substantial changes to progression and balancing.
A lot of this comes directly from your feedback. So thank you to everyone who has been sharing suggestions, reporting bugs, and showing us where things could work better.
Let’s get into it.
DarkBazaar in Japanese
The demo now has a Japanese language option!
We’re excited to bring DarkBazaar to more players for Tokyo Game Show, and we’re looking forward to hearing what you think.
Listen to the music of DarkBazaar, just like in the good old days
Until now, the music in DarkBazaar has sounded like it’s coming from the room above you. A little muffled, drifting down through the ceiling while you run your business.
We love the atmosphere that creates, but a lot of you have asked for a way to properly listen to the songs.
So we built one.
The in-game PC now has a retro media player that pays tribute to the classic media players from back in the day like Winamp. To us it's pure nostalgia, we can't wait to hear what you think!
You can now listen to the tracks directly, without the ceiling getting in the way.
And these songs deserve to be heard.
The player features more than 30 tracks from up-and-coming indie artists, including brand-new songs written specifically for DarkBazaar. We’re really happy to give their music a proper home inside the game.
Please give it a listen and tell us which tracks are your favorites!
We’re also continuing to talk to artists about adding more music. If you’re an artist, or know someone whose music might fit DarkBazaar, we’d love to hear from you.
New Faces in the Bazaar
We’ve taken another big step in our ongoing work to remove all AI-generated content from Dark Bazaar.
All of the demo’s buyer portraits have now been replaced with artwork by our artist, Marcus.
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We’re really happy with how they’ve turned out. It’s exciting to see these characters take shape through his work, and we’d love to hear what you think of their new looks.
To make this possible now, we’ve reduced the number of factions in the demo from 14 to 7.
The remaining seven factions will return in the full game with their finished portraits. We’re still working on that artwork, but we wanted to get the old portraits out of the demo and the new ones into your hands.
A More Natural Crate Progression
Previously, every crate was available from day one.
That gave you plenty of choice, but it also made switching crates awkward. By the time you wanted to move from a small crate to a bigger one, you’d already invested so much in the small crate that the bigger one felt like starting over.
You had to buy a lot of crates just to catch up.
We’ve reworked that progression and redistributed weapons across the crates:
Getting a small crate to level 4 now unlocks its bigger version.
The bigger crate starts at a higher rarity level, so you don’t have to level it up from scratch to make the switch worthwhile.
You can also unlock a bigger crate directly by paying a substantial amount of money.
The Smuggler’s Courier case unlocks once you’ve unlocked all of the big crates.
The idea is to make moving from small to big crates feel like a natural next step.
We think this helps, but we’re not finished working on crate progression. It’s still possible to feel locked into certain crates, and there’s more we want to do about that.
Let us know how this version feels, especially when you start moving into the bigger crates.
Contracts That Keep Up With Your Crates
Another common complaint was that contracts could get ahead of what your crates could realistically provide.
You’d suddenly be asked for several epic or legendary weapons while still struggling to get even one.
We’ve completely reworked how contracts progress. Contract generation now takes your crates and their levels into account, so the requirements should make much more sense for where you actually are in the game.
We’ve also made the transition between rarities more gradual.
Instead of jumping straight from rare contracts to epic contracts, you’ll see more contracts with mixed rarity requirements. A contract might ask for a mix of uncommon and rare weapons, then gradually introduce epic requirements as you progress.
Together, the crate and contract changes should make progression feel much smoother. We’re especially interested in hearing how these changes work across your different builds.
Magazines: Pick Your Strategy
Magazines have had a fairly big balance pass, too.
There are still two main types: magazines that increase a weapon type’s value, and magazines that increase its drop chance. But both now come with a tradeoff.
Value magazines
These still give 2× value when selling the matching weapon type outside contracts.
They now also apply a penalty to that weapon type’s value when used in contracts.
So if you pick up the pistol 2x value magazine, you’re building toward selling your pistols directly.
Drop chance magazines
These increase the chance of finding a particular weapon type in crates, and we’ve made their bonuses stronger.
That should especially help sniper and heavy weapon builds, which had become too difficult to get going.
The tradeoff is that they now apply a penalty when selling that weapon type outside contracts.
These magazines push you toward finding the weapons you need to fulfill contracts.
Previously, taking both magazines for the same weapon type was a straightforward combination: get more of those weapons and make them worth more.
Now, their benefits and penalties pull in different directions.
Maybe you want to fulfill contracts with SMGs and shotguns while selling every melee weapon you find. You can choose magazines that support each part of that plan.
We think that makes for more interesting build choices. It’s also a direction we’d like to explore with more upgrades: choosing a benefit that strengthens one strategy while making another less effective.
The exact bonuses and penalties may still need adjusting, so please tell us how they feel.
A Few Nerfs Walked Back
Some of our earlier nerfs went too far. You told us, and after taking another look, we agree.
We’ve buffed a few weapon effects:
Nail Plank: Maximum bonus increased from 25% to 100%.
Bowie Knife: Maximum bonus increased from 25% to 100%.
Val-9 assault rifle: Bonus per stack increased from 1% to 10%. Completing five contracts with the Val-9 now gives a 50% payout bonus.
Bonuses like these matter in the late game, and we’d taken a little too much away from these weapons.
Controller Improvements and Bug Fixes
For those playing on Steam Deck or with a controller, you can now use the trigger buttons for left-click and right-click actions.
This was a requested improvement, and it should make navigating the game more comfortable.
We’ve also fixed a bunch of bugs reported in Discord, alongside other balancing and quality-of-life changes. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to report things. It really helps.
Follow Along - and Find Your Favorite Track
If you try one thing in this update, go open the media player.
Explore the songs, find a favorite, and give the artists a listen. We’re excited to have their music in DarkBazaar, and we can’t wait to keep adding more.
We’ve also been sharing more on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook. If you’d like to see funny clips, player success stories, and updates from development, you can follow us here:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keyqueststudio/
YouTube: View game page
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61560908870217
We also have an email newsletter! At launch, we’ll draw one lucky newsletter subscriber to win a free copy of Dark Bazaar.
Sign up for the newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/ef7a9eef6a69/keyquest-studio-newsletter-signup-page
Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/QJ9GC8XEPm
As always, let us know what you think of the update. We’d love to hear about your builds, the new progression, Marcus’s portraits, and the songs you’ve had on repeat.
See you in the bazaar!