Pipfiend: October Demo Update and a Big Announcement™

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The Demo

Hi folks! It’s been a bit, but it’s time for a juicy demo update! Freshly-baked, it includes all of the newest features from the in-dev version of the full game (but still capped to Floor 1, sorry!).

You can experience such new features as:

  • Reworked atmospheric visuals
  • Reworked visual effects for player and enemy actions
  • The all-new Upgrades system, a meta-progression that allows you grow more powerful over time.
  • Access to Curses (more difficult starting conditions and rulesets)
  • Updated enemy artwork for multiple enemies
  • New Enemies!
  • and so much more…

This has been an all-out labor of love for the last few months, and I’m excited to finally get to share some of the fruits of that labor with a wide audience! The internal testers have LOVED it, and I know you will too.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4554950/Pipfiend_The_Demonic_Domino_Deckbuilder

But, on to that other announcement…

The Road to Early Access

Pipfiend is heading to Early Access.

The game is now fully playable from beginning to end, and over the last several months it has grown substantially beyond the version many of you may have played during the initial demo period.

There are more enemies, more bosses, more charms, more ways to build a run, and a lot more weirdness packed into the game than there was before.

My current goal is to launch Pipfiend into Early Access sometime this winter.

What Early Access Means for Pipfiend

The full core run is already playable, including the complete progression from the beginning of a run through to the final boss (or is it the final boss….?)

Early Access will be focused on expanding and improving what is already there.

That means things like:

  • More charms, domino effects, events, and encounters
  • Additional challenge modes and alternate ways to play
  • Balance changes based on player feedback
  • Quality-of-life improvements
  • UI and presentation improvements
  • More secrets, unlocks, and strange things to discover
  • Features that make the game easier to revisit, compare runs, and experiment with
  • Multiplayer (more on that in a bit!)

There are also several “nice to have” systems I already want to build, but I do not want to delay the entire game waiting for every possible feature to be finished.

What Happens Between Now and Launch

Over the next several weeks, I’ll be polishing the Early Access build, fixing bugs, improving presentation, and preparing a new trailer that better reflects what Pipfiend has become.

I’ll also be showing off more of the current game here, including enemies, bosses, mechanics, builds, and some of the systems that have changed since the earlier demo.

If you played Pipfiend before, quite a lot has changed.

If you haven’t played it yet, the demo is still available, and now is a very good time to see what the game is about.

Why Early Access?

Pipfiend is the kind of game where adding one new mechanic can interact with dozens of existing ones.

That makes player feedback especially useful.

I want Early Access to give me room to expand the game, improve balance, find combinations I never anticipated, and build on the parts players find most interesting.

The goal is not to radically replace the game during Early Access. Rather, the goal is to make a finished core game much deeper.

Multiplayer

Yes, multiplayer. Soon, you and your friends (or your enemies, or random opponents!) will be able to sling the ivories in head-to-head matches. Multiplayer will work very similarly to single-player battles, with some notable changes:

  • A different selection of charms and spells!
  • New PVP-centric Blessings!
  • New PVP-centric Domino materials and Suits!
  • Ranked matchmaking!
  • Friendly battles!
  • Cosmetics!

The work on multiplayer has already begun, but it will be a long process and will not be available at the beginning of Early Access, but we’re so excited about that we couldn’t wait to share!

Discord

We have also launched a discord! Truthfully, it was actually launched a couple of months ago but we didn’t tell anyone.

But we’re open for business now! It’ll be a good place to connect with Neon Export and get previews, updates, and report bugs and make suggestions.

https://discord.gg/tagbtpWUx

Ko-fi!

Game development ain’t cheap. Or easy. Or fast…

But you can help with at least one of those things! Check out our Ko-Fi to see how you can support development of this (and future 👀) Neon Export games!

More Soon

There will be more updates as launch gets closer, including a new trailer and a firm Early Access release date.

For now, thank you to everyone who has played the demo, sent feedback, wishlisted the game, or simply kept an eye on the project.

Pipfiend is getting close.

Serve the Ember. Do not give in to the Hush.

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