- Realm Of The Ghost King: the good roguelike - 11 June 2020
You could fill a stadium with games that deserve a bigger audience. This marks the third time I’ve written about Realm Of The Ghost King (including calling it one of the best unknown games of 2018 , out of thousands). It’s now part of the Itch Bundle For Racial Justice And Equality , and I hope it finally catches on. It is terrific. Even though it’s a roguelike. You are a ghostie. You want a shot at the king, and standing in between him and you is a legion of monsters. But you have bombs. Oh, that age-old tale. (more…)
- GOTY Update: 1.2.2 - 10 January 2019
A quick update to the game: Damage taken was not properly tracked (as in not tracked at all) when playing as Swamp or Marsh. This is fixed now! Sadly all the damage you've taken as them in the past is gone forever.Similarly, damage taken in general was off by one for all characters. This is because no stats are tracked after you die aside from "Deaths", so the last damage you took just wasn't counted since the stat was counted after you died. That bug has been in place since the game launched, so that's neat. Fixed now, finally! Also next week is Realm of the Ghost King's first birthday. Hooray!
- Realm of the Ghost King Game of the Year Edition, Out Now! - 3 January 2019
https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31457465%2F165f88b94953136c44eb3a5bc75c9789506cd280.png Also known as 1.2.0, since winning a prestigious GOTY award I've put together a Game Of The Year Edition, as is tradition in gaming. 1.2.0 adds two new gameplay modes: Tourism and Endless. Tourism allows you to just play through the game without any enemies and Endless is played on a single map where you try for a high score. Both modes were fun to add and are hopefully enjoyable to play as well! The game should update on Steam and itch (via the itch app) when you start the launchers. The game will also run in "Game Of The Year" mode for the month of January, which is entirely cosmetic, displaying a fancy GOTY logo on the title screen (pictured above). You can also play as GhOsTY, who is exactly Ghost except purple (the official GOTY color). If you play the Steam vers…
- The best of Unknown Pleasures 2018 - 21 December 2018
The end of the bizarre and troubling year 2018 is close, and with it comes a time of reflection. I hope you’re enjoying the RPS Advent Calendar , but even that cannot hope to contain the bounty this year provided. When I joined Unknown Pleasures a year ago, I was a little fatigued with games. There were both too many to see and none that were grabbing me. This isn’t the critic speaking – I’d written only one article in a year – but the player. 2016-17 were by no means bad years for the PC, but despite all the industry drama (not to mention wider sociopolitical troubles) I think this is the best year we’ve had for PC games for absolutely ages. The games are out there. The weird, the funny, the clever, the silly, the exciting, the touching, the unambitious-but-plain- good games are positively sloshing about the place. But which ones were the best? So he…
- A Sale! And Presenting: Pumpkin Nights - 22 October 2018
Realm of the Ghost King is now on sale for 40% off! It will be on sale at this discount for the rest of October and probably for a day in November. It's a game with ghosts and monsters, so it's certainly a good October type of game in that regard. https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31457465%2Fd0ef09164570db5887c8d31f477c0d6173bf8213.png If you need more enticing, I added something strange and weird to the game as well. If you play it at night (specifically after 7pm) for the last ten days of October you'll get a slightly modified version of the game with more pumpkins than the original. The main change is all the Spirit Bombs have been changed from skulls to pumpkins, which is kind of weird but silly. The second change is, if you manage to make it to the Ghost King he will be a pumpkin instead of a ghost. I don't know why I did this, but it's there. The cha…
- 1.1.0, A Free Update, Is Out! - 21 June 2018
Log into Steam to grab the latest version of Realm of the Ghost King. 1.1.0 is a totally free update with new features, general improvements and bug fixes! Read on for the full set of changes in 1.1.0! NEW FEATURES UPDATED LEVEL RENDERING. Added a background fade effect. NOW PLAYABLE: The Ghost King To Unlock: Defeat The Ghost King Will be unlocked if you've already done so Special Attack: Teleport to safety and leave a bomb Passive Ability: The Crown Protects NEW MONSTER: Swamp Unlocked by doing 80+ damage in one run Will be unlocked if you've already done so Special Attack: Clone yourself (up to three at once) Passive Ability: Enemies attacking you will take damage NEW MONSTER: Phantom To Unlock: Freeze (Icecap), slime (Glob) or turn (Vlad) 40 total enemies These are newly tracked stats, so you'll need to accomplish it! Special Attack: Possess closest enemy for 10 turns (costs 3 souls…
- A Free Update, 1.1.0, Coming Soon! - 10 April 2018
For immediate release, Mantis-Eye Labs, LLC is pleased to announce: https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31457465%2Fd3db451b2c60d82eedda2413f794c665adad89ad.png After dozens of sales and a little time away I'm happy to announce the future of Realm of the Ghost King! In the near future an update with new content, bug fixes and other fun stuff will be released totally free of charge to current owners of the game! https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31457465%2Ff2efe97abf5837d0326d2640cd703e4ecb9bc6eb.png So what content is in ROTGK 1.1.0, you ask? Well, here's how game development works: you think of all the cool shit you want to put in a game and then you completely cut like 80% of those things because otherwise you'd never release anything. 1.1.0 is my chance to add back in some of those things! But Why? Because I can! The game did…
- A Free Update, 1.1.0, Coming Soon! - 10 April 2018
For immediate release, Mantis-Eye Labs, LLC is pleased to announce: https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31457465%2Fd3db451b2c60d82eedda2413f794c665adad89ad.png After dozens of sales and a little time away I'm happy to announce the future of Realm of the Ghost King! In the near future an update with new content, bug fixes and other fun stuff will be released totally free of charge to current owners of the game! https://cdn.steampulse.org/steam/asset?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsteamcdn-a.akamaihd.net%2Fsteamcommunity%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fclans%2F31457465%2Ff2efe97abf5837d0326d2640cd703e4ecb9bc6eb.png So what content is in ROTGK 1.1.0, you ask? Well, here's how game development works: you think of all the cool shit you want to put in a game and then you completely cut like 80% of those things because otherwise you'd never release anything. 1.1.0 is my chance to add back in some of those things! But Why? Because I can! The game did…
- ROTGK 1.0.5 - 10 February 2018
This is a fairly minor update with some fixes for bugs that have been reported but I'm sadly unable to replicate. Hopefully more reliable trigger of "I Hate The Ghost King" achievement for those who have 3+ regicides. I was able to activate the achievement myself while testing but I put the code that executes it in a slightly different place. Hopefully this will be more reliable, but I can't promise it will work for everyone, obviously. Less cleverness with GPU detection that will hopefully make the game more stable on Linux? Again, the game runs for me on Ubuntu Trusty (in a VM) but it's using Electron so I can't make any promises. If the game is crashing for you, you could try running it with the --disable-gpu command line option. Many apologies if it doesn't run for you! More updates/fixes for the blocked exit bug which is one of the most frustrating bugs since I haven't seen it myse…
- ROTGK 1.0.5 - 10 February 2018
This is a fairly minor update with some fixes for bugs that have been reported but I'm sadly unable to replicate. Hopefully more reliable trigger of "I Hate The Ghost King" achievement for those who have 3+ regicides. I was able to activate the achievement myself while testing but I put the code that executes it in a slightly different place. Hopefully this will be more reliable, but I can't promise it will work for everyone, obviously. Less cleverness with GPU detection that will hopefully make the game more stable on Linux? Again, the game runs for me on Ubuntu Trusty (in a VM) but it's using Electron so I can't make any promises. If the game is crashing for you, you could try running it with the --disable-gpu command line option. Many apologies if it doesn't run for you! More updates/fixes for the blocked exit bug which is one of the most frustrating bugs since I haven't seen it myse…
- ROTGK 1.0.4, Whoops - 1 February 2018
Naturally 1.0.3 attempted to fix and improve things so it ended up creating some bugs. Spawn Indicator Issues The main issue that arose was from the new spawn indicators. Since I had to (slightly) change how enemy spawns worked for that change it ended up that you (or another enemy) could walk into a space an enemy was going to spawn on and they would still spawn there as if everything was normal. Overlapping monsters didn't break anything (though monsters generally have no idea what to do when they're on top of a target) but it was a tad weird. So that's fixed. You can still walk into a spawn spot if you happen to be standing next to one, but now you'll prevent that enemy from spawning (which could be either good or bad depending on your situation). Other monsters in the level should also avoid spawn spots entirely as well. Achievement Issues Someone also noticed that the "I Hate The G…
- ROTGK 1.0.4, Whoops - 1 February 2018
Naturally 1.0.3 attempted to fix and improve things so it ended up creating some bugs. Spawn Indicator Issues The main issue that arose was from the new spawn indicators. Since I had to (slightly) change how enemy spawns worked for that change it ended up that you (or another enemy) could walk into a space an enemy was going to spawn on and they would still spawn there as if everything was normal. Overlapping monsters didn't break anything (though monsters generally have no idea what to do when they're on top of a target) but it was a tad weird. So that's fixed. You can still walk into a spawn spot if you happen to be standing next to one, but now you'll prevent that enemy from spawning (which could be either good or bad depending on your situation). Other monsters in the level should also avoid spawn spots entirely as well. Achievement Issues Someone also noticed that the "I Hate The G…
- Linux Version! Plus, Realm of the Ghost King 1.0.3 - 30 January 2018
The second post-launch patch. There's one quality of life change to the game itself but the major point of this release is... Linux Version! After a bit more of a struggle than I care to admit, the Linux version is launched. Mind you I only tested/built it in a VM, but it's all ready nonetheless. It should work normally otherwise, though I can't guarantee things like the Steam Overlay will work (it also doesn't seem to work on my Mac), but the game itself will run and if you achieve an achievement that will unlock all the same. Let me know what you think! Gameplay Changes The only change to the game itself was to add spawn locations for enemies one turn before they spawn. You can see it in this screenshot (the green square): Nobody ever actually brought this up with me as an issue, it's just something I've run into myself over the years. So I don't know if it's even required or desired…
- Linux Version! Plus, Realm of the Ghost King 1.0.3 - 30 January 2018
The second post-launch patch. There's one quality of life change to the game itself but the major point of this release is... Linux Version! After a bit more of a struggle than I care to admit, the Linux version is launched. Mind you I only tested/built it in a VM, but it's all ready nonetheless. It should work normally otherwise, though I can't guarantee things like the Steam Overlay will work (it also doesn't seem to work on my Mac), but the game itself will run and if you achieve an achievement that will unlock all the same. Let me know what you think! Gameplay Changes The only change to the game itself was to add spawn locations for enemies one turn before they spawn. You can see it in this screenshot (the green square): Nobody ever actually brought this up with me as an issue, it's just something I've run into myself over the years. So I don't know if it's even required or desired…
- Realm of the Ghost King 1.0.2 - 20 January 2018
The first post-launch patch! This is a fairly minor release with some housekeeping and typos (sorry, Devon!) but contains a few good things. New Gameplay Options Menu In the menus if you go to Help & Options > Game Setup & Info there's a new menu called Gameplay Options which contains the game mutators (which have to be unlocked) as well as two new options. The first is HUD Type which will allow you to select from the original HUD and a new compact HUD. The other option is the ability to show or hide enemy health bars. For the majority of development enemies had no health bars but during testing it was often suggested to me so I implemented it. However if you want to give yourself an extra challenge you can turn them off. Achievements! These were pretty low impact to add to the game and a couple people mentioned wanting them so here they are! There are eight (seven regular, one hidden)…
- Realm of the Ghost King 1.0.2 - 20 January 2018
The first post-launch patch! This is a fairly minor release with some housekeeping and typos (sorry, Devon!) but contains a few good things. New Gameplay Options Menu In the menus if you go to Help & Options > Game Setup & Info there's a new menu called Gameplay Options which contains the game mutators (which have to be unlocked) as well as two new options. The first is HUD Type which will allow you to select from the original HUD and a new compact HUD. The other option is the ability to show or hide enemy health bars. For the majority of development enemies had no health bars but during testing it was often suggested to me so I implemented it. However if you want to give yourself an extra challenge you can turn them off. Achievements! These were pretty low impact to add to the game and a couple people mentioned wanting them so here they are! There are eight (seven regular, one hidden)…
