As today is officially the last day of March, we figured it was about time to let you know how Rook City is progressing. The development and content production work is nearing completion and we are well into beta testing. That means we’re slightly behind our original estimates, but not too far off! We’re expecting to submit the 1.3 update (including Rook City) by next week. Then it’s just a matter of waiting on the iTunes App review process (currently averaging around 8 days).
If all goes well, we expect you should be poisoning Plague Rat, overdosing Spite, rubber-stamping The Chairman, and clipping the Matriarch’s wings by mid-April. Once we submit the update we’ll announce a more solid release date. As always, stay tuned to our Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or mailing list to hear the news first.
Fun to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there
The Rook City Expansion contains the following new content:
Expatriette
- Amanda Cohen lets her guns do most of the talking for her, especially when facing up against her mother, Citizen Dawn.
- Dark Watch Expatriette is an unlockable Variant!
Mr. Fixer
- Rook City’s blind, martial arts-mechanic, H. R. Walker holds a special grudge against The Chairman… and his Operative.
- Dark Watch Mr. Fixer is an unlockable Variant!
Plague Rat
- A mutated urban legend come to life, this is one rat you really don’t want to tangle with.
Spite
- Pike Laboratories’ secret Barzakh wing had very few successes to its name. Whether Spite is counted among them is open to interpretation.
The Matriarch
- Darkness and angst power the rage Lillian Corvus feels (well, in addition to her mask).
- The Chairman
- The man behind “the Man,” The Chairman acts primarily through his Operative and Underbosses. Beware the time when he comes out of the shadows.
- Rook City
- The titular city itself, the metropolis formerly known as “Overbrook” is home to thugs, scum and hazards brought about by Pike Industries.
- Pike Industrial Complex
- When the city is too challenging, head inside Pike industries and dodge the thousands of rats and overflowing vats of chemicals.
Modular Workbench
So what else can you expect in the 1.3 update aside from Rook City? If you’ve been keeping up with our weekly LiveStreams, you’ve seen the new damage dealing animations which also tally up all damage modifiers on screen. On Steam you’ll have more keyboard shortcuts to access everything at your fingertips.
In addition to the Dark Watch Variants mentioned above, you will also be able to unlock America’s Greatest Legacy. Plus, you’ll be able to unlock older ones instantly if you wish!
A significant bug fix in the update prevents Baron Blade’s Backlash Field from reacting after he was destroyed. We’ve also fixed many smaller bugs and made lots of subtle improvements throughout the game.
And finally, at GDC (the Game Developers Conference) in very early March, Unity Technologies finally released the big Unity 5 update that’s been in beta for a year. We’ve been awaiting this update for some time, but have held off on using it for SotM. Shipping a product on a beta game engine isn’t usually a great idea! Once we had a chance to check out the final version of Unity 5, there were enough compelling reasons to update to it for ongoing development. Unity 5 brings performance and stability improvements to the game, along with a shiny new coat of paint for many of the environment backdrops. On Android the game will now support KitKat Immersive Mode for a true full screen experience. Down the road we’ll be taking advantage of more Unity 5 improvements, like updating the iOS version to support 64-bit CPUs.
So get ready Handelabranauts, Rook City is almost here! Be sure to catch our live stream tonight for a preview of The Matriarch, with special guests!
