You can play them right now! But before that, let's take a look back at the history of Backpack Battles...
I can’t believe it’s finally time to write this post.
It really has been a crazy ride from the very first demo until here.
I know some of you have been with us from the very start, back when there were like two recipes in the game.
We had a 9-month-long phase where we worked on the demo, adding content every week and just checking out how y’all reacted to it, and what it did to the game.
This is an unconventional way of making games.
Almost everything in Backpack Battles was developed entirely in the open, most of the time there was less than a week between us having an idea and actually adding it to the game.
You know, we did plan to do this as a small side project - it becoming a years long project instead of a few months long is entirely because of your continued interest in this game.
Most of the features we now can’t imagine the game without were the results of coming up with a crazy idea, putting it in, seeing how you guys react, often doing a poll, and then reevaluating where to go from here.
These are just some things we only came up with along the way:
Moving bags, subclasses, unique treasures, class badges, alternative loadouts, the build history, the item library, skills, lobbies and so many more. And there are many more things we could and would like to add.
We went from a game where the lategame could only be Bloodthorne or Lightsabers (because those were the only lategame weapons in the game at the time), to a game where I still have things happen in my runs that I have never had before.
It really wasn’t inevitable to have all those things. But I’m so glad we did not end at 50 items and 2 classes. We added classes #3 and #4 (Berserker and Pyromancer) with the start of the early access.
Now you can finally play classes #5 and #6 (Mage and Adventurer). We added 161 items during the demo phase, 183 during the early access, and another 95 now.
In total, there are now 439 items in the game. That’s a lot of stuff, it really became more than we ever imagined it would be. But of course, there are tons of things we want to add in the future.
We hope you enjoy the Mage and the Adventurer, and all the other small things we put in Backpack Battles for your amusement.
We also want to thank our partners at IndieArk, who have supported us since the early demo days and brought this game to so many players all around the world. Also, our thanks go out to our playtesters - we wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.
I’m sure you will hear from us soon, with the usual fixes and adjustments.
- Doro and Mario ❤
We just launched a bundle with a super cute game: Tiny Pasture! It's a cozy simulation game that sits at the bottom of your desktop where you build a farm with critters.
You can even bring a Rainbow Goobert into your little farm now! Isn't it adorable?
Check out the bundle:
Here’s the changelog for you (I'm not listing all the items, you will have to check them out ingame):
NEW CLASS Mage
NEW CLASS Adventurer
New class items for all existing classes
New outfit for all existing classes
Added Steam achievements and trading cards!
Added status displaying character-wide buffs like healing amplification or damage resistance (optional)
Added icons to weapon tooltips
You can now fixate build-into-recipe tooltips by double-tapping Alt so you can hover the items
Pressing Alt when not hovering an item now shows which items affect which
Pressing Alt when hovering an item now highlights items it could affect
Hovering an item with an inventory-wide effect now shows an indicator on items it affects
Improved crafting animation
Pressing Tab now opens the item library
Added damage/heal numbers on the items (optional)
Added option to turn off damage numbers and buff popups
Undo/redo can now be used on controller
Added keybind for undo/redo (keyboard and controller)
Expanded the pool of shopkeeper texts
The item library can now be grouped by class
New ranking season has started
Lots of polish!
Neutral
As a fifth Skill option, you can now pick the Unidentified Skill that is replaced by a random available Skill
If you have a Battle Rage synergy item but no way to start it, a default Battle Rage is now triggered after 5s
Round 1-3 Treasure chance 15% -> 20%
Round 2 gold 10 -> 13 (same as round 1, experimental)
Customer Card: Now gives +10% Trade chance
Platinum Customer Card: No longer protects buffs. Now gives +20% Trade chance
Sir Sand: Blind inflicted 2 -> 3
Pan: Maximum damage +1
Spectral Dagger: Cooldown 3s -> 2.7s
Prismatic Sword: Damage +2
Holy Armor: Cost 13g -> 12g
Katana: Stamina Cost 1.4 -> 1.3
Corrupted Crystal (Inventory): Cooldown 4.7s -> 4.5s
Spiked Shield: Damage prevented 7 -> 9
Ruby (Inventory): Lifesteal 100% -> 150%
Sapphire (Inventory): increased Cold amount, increased delay
Topaz (Armor): Increased crit resistance
Amethyst (Armor): Slightly reduced healing reduction of low-rarity gems
Perfect gems: Increased power level
Smelly Wall: Now only inflicts Poison when Block is generated by * tiles. Block threshold 18 -> 15
Echoing Battlecry: Cooldown 15s -> 14s
Girl Power: Base cooldown 6.7s -> 7.0s, speed bonus 20% -> 25%
Double Rainbow: Holy item speed bonus 15% -> 20%
Wolf Badge: Speed bonus 25% -> 30%
Cthulhu: Cooldown 3.3s -> 3.1s
Cubert: Chances 60% -> 65%
Villain Sword: Now can only be found in rounds 4 - 10
Present / Stable Recombobulator: Can now be found in rounds 4 - 17
Pyromancer
Obsidian Dragon: Heat threshold 6 -> 5
Ranger
Big Bowl of Treats: Cooldown 3.7s -> 4.0s
Reaper
Relic Case: Cooldown 3.0s -> 2.8s
Fly Agaric: Cooldown 3.8s -> 3.6s
Staff of Unhealing: Stamina cost 1.5 -> 1.3
Cursed Dagger: Cooldown 2.3s -> 2.6s
Nocturnal Lock Lifter: Vampirism 4 -> 5