itch.io

Hi ALL iN,

We recently discovered that a third party had obtained files from our game Guile & Glory: Firstborn, and attempted to re-upload it to Steam under the title Private Crusade.

In the course of investigating this, we also discovered that the same third party had stolen files from a game called Existence (https://store.steampowered.com/app/806550/Existence/) and re-uploaded it to Steam under the title Death Slave : You Need to Master Death.

Both Private Crusade and Death Slave have since been successfully removed from Steam.

That third party is associated with the following Reddit account: https://www.reddit.com/user/CoffeeInevitable7002/

It appears that the account is also claiming footage of your game Ersatz as their own, under the title Dynamic Dash, though we have not yet been able to locate a Steam page for any stolen files.

Example post: https://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGame/comments/10zp6ve/i_added_tutorial_level_to_my...

We just thought you might like to be aware of this account's activities in case the third party attempts to upload your game to Steam as well.

Please feel free to reach out if you would like any additional info, and best of luck!

-Elston Studios

I suspected as much. There are a lot of similarities between what happened to you and our own experience, which leads me to think that this may all be the work of the same person or group.

If the same 3rd party has tried to take both of our games, it is likely that we're not the only ones. My team is trying to track down and get in touch with any other affected studios. Hopefully we'll be able to put a stop to this.

The stolen version of our game has been removed from Steam, and we are taking steps to have the unauthorized content removed from other platforms as well.

Best of luck getting Death Slave taken off Steam! Happy to support your efforts if we can :)

Hi Sealab Games,

Are you familiar with a game called Death Slave: You Need To Master Death on Steam? Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2058610/Death_Slave__You_Need_to_Master_Death... 

It looks extremely similar to Existence, so I was wondering whether it is a re-release of your title?

If it isn't, you might want to look into where it came from. We recently had a game stolen and re-released by another company under another title. 

Cheers,
-Elston Studios

Hi TeenSasquatch!

Thank you so much for the kind words, and for supporting Guile & Glory! We're glad to hear that the Steam key came through without issues, and we really hope you enjoy the full game!

Oh my goodness! I had forgotten all about that! Yeah, you're right. I wonder if I still have it knocking around on a USB somewhere. I was so nervous (and clueless) when I first presented that prototype in class. I'm still pretty clueless, but the nerves have gotten a little better xD

Thank you, Gentleman Wolfe! It's great to be able to finally bring you all the finished product :)

Thank you, Muz!

What a journey to get here! I would never have managed it without you showing me the ropes back in the day :)

-Daniel

Thanks Muz! It's great to finally have the game out of Early Access :D

Thank you so much, Gentleman Wolfe! It's been a long journey to get here, and we're very happy to finally have the game close to a finished state.

Hi all! 

Update: You should now be able to request a Steam key if you have purchased the game here on itch. 

We believe this guide from the Clone Drone In The Danger Zone forum covers the correct method: https://itch.io/t/67604/how-to-get-a-steam-key-from-your-itchio-purchase

Let us know if you encounter any issues!

Hi Willsama,

Re-posting this here from Steam. The Steam keys are on their way, and should be available very soon!

We'll make a post with an updated guide as soon as they become available. In the meantime, this guide from the Clone Drone In The Danger Zone forum seems to cover the correct procedure to obtain a key once they become available: https://itch.io/t/67604/how-to-get-a-steam-key-from-your-itchio-purchase

You can, of course, also obtain the latest version of the game here on itch.io right now!

Edit: Your save file also carries across from here to Steam, it appears! Which is cool, and totally an intended feature that I was aware of before just now. ~ Daniel

Thank you, Tchey! We'll probably take you up on that for the Linux build once we've finished some basic internal testing :)

All good, Tchey! We're sorry it's taking so long!

Unfortunately, I have next to no experience with Linux, so it's been a bit of a learning curve. We're getting there, though!

~ Daniel, Project Lead

Hi Tchey!

Thank you for checking in! With the pandemic and the lockdown, some of our team members have had to adjust their schedules, and we've had to push things back a bit as a result. 

However, everyone is well and settling back into work on the project, so the the Steam and Linux versions should be ready soon!

We hope you are doing well in these trying times, and we look forward to getting your thoughts on the updates when they arrive!

Glad we could help, and thank you for the kind words, Skull666! 

We should have the Steam build up soon!

Hi Skull666,

Thank you for the report! We're looking into it now. 

We'll post an update when we have a fix!

Thank you for your patience, Skull666!

We've just released a fix for the crash with version 4.11. You can check out the patch notes here: https://elston-studios.itch.io/firstborn/devlog/133565/guile-glory-firstborn-411...

Be sure to download the latest version of Guile & Glory, and the bug should be gone (don't worry, your save file will carry over!)

If you run into any other issues, please don't hesitate to let us know!

Hi Skull666,

Thank you for the report. We think we've found the problem, and we should have a fix up in a few hours.

Hi Skull666,

Thank you for letting us know. We're on it, and a fix should be up in a few hours!

Hello Skull666!

We're glad you're enjoying the game, and we're very sorry for for the inconvenience! We'll have a fix up in a few hours. Thank you for bearing with us!

Fantastic!

That sounds like a great idea! We'll get in touch with him.

Hi Tchey!

Thank you so much for the kind words! We'd love to get your help testing the game on Steam.

We will aim to make a Linux beta available through Steam shortly after the Early Access release, so that you and any other interested players can help us test the Linux version before it goes live to the public.

Hi MUZBOZ! Thank you so much! It's been a long road, but we're finally getting there :)

Haha! You know us too well, Tchey. We'll look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new update!

Thank you so much for the feature!

We have lots more Guile & Glory coming very soon!

Hi Tchey,

Perfect timing to check in! We've just now released a massive new update, including the Delve system, which expands Free Mode into a full dungeon-crawling experience, and adds a bunch of new stuff to explore. Check out the patch notes here:  https://elston-studios.itch.io/firstborn/devlog/117056/guile-glory-firstborn-dun...

Hi Tchey! Linux is definitely still in the works! We don't have a final release date for Linux yet, but we'll aim to get a version up and running by the Steam release, at the latest.

Hi all! We are happy to report some good news. A major update, including Chapter 5 and the new Boon System, has just gone live! You can check out all the changes here: https://elston-studios.itch.io/firstborn/devlog/100167/guile-glory-firstborn-boo...

Thank you again for your patience, and we hope to see you in the Drowned Lands!

Hi all!

My sincere apologies for the radio silence.

We did indeed encounter some issues that really rattled the development pipeline. I will probably write a blog going into some detail about the issues, and how they have influenced development going forward, but I'll post the tl;dr here for now:

• Guile & Glory: Firstborn is still alive, and updates are coming soon! 
• We are still on track for the amount of content we initially promised (10 Chapters with + Free Mode + bonus missions)
• We are still planning on releasing the full range of features as promised
• Linux is still in the works

Reading that, you're probably wondering what's changed / taken a hit as a result of the issues we have encountered. The answer to that is the timeline for the project. We had hoped to hit a full release build this year. That will not be happening, unfortunately. Our full release is now scheduled for February 2020, but we will continue to release early access builds here at each step along the way.

On a personal note, I cannot express how much I appreciate the continued interest in the project, and the support we have received from our wonderful community. I really failed to keep the lines of communication open these last few months, and I can only apologise, and endeavour to do better going forward.

Thank you all for bearing with us, and I hope you will join us in the Drowned Lands once more as we move towards full release!

Kindest Regards,

Daniel Elston
Guile & Glory Firstborn Project Lead

Thanks Tchey!

We'll be back at it soon, have no fear :)

Hi Tchey,

Awesome! Thank you for taking the time to create a video! It's always really cool to see our community come up with strategies for a level that we hadn't even thought of. We'll update the level objectives accordingly!

Hi Tchey,

Thank you, as always, for the detailed feedback! It really helps us out! We'll address it point by point in  a Q&A format below:

Part 1:

First level, first try, i won in 7 tuns, perfect run, and i was surprised it should be in less than 14 turns ! It felt easier than some previous levels.

 - Seven turns!? That's extremely impressive! Clearly, we hadn't figured out the best path through the level. We'll update accordingly!

Second level is suddently very more difficult, i think.

 - You make a good point. The difficulty progression is a little off in some of the chapters. We'll be going through and tweaking everything in the polish and balancing pass over the next week or two!

I think the spear from the Impaler has a nice mecanism, and add evon more tactics than before. I'm curious to see what you will add in the future !

 - Thank you! We're very glad to hear you're enjoying the game so far! Rest assured, there's lots more to come!

I think Impaler should not damage the Slaver when pulling an Impaler into a hole.

 - That's an interesting point! We'll take another look at the Impaler spear mechanics.

Would be nice to be able to use as many as different skills we can, as long we have Action Points. A Grapple Bomb, then a Whip, should be possible, as they are two very different skills.

 - We totally agree that being able to use more skills would be awesome! We'll be taking a look at that as part of the character progression overhaul.

Sometimes when hovering over enemies, the game doesn't show info about its range, like in this .gif :

 - Hmmm. That's a weird one. We've added it to the bug list, and we should hopefully have a fix in the mid-week patch!

Part 2:

Level 3, the drudge bottom left is not moving far, for some reason it stays in its corner, even when teased... Actually i can't move there neither, the GUI is blocking the passway.

 - Oh, that is not working as intended. Added to the list of things to fix!

When pushing an enemy to the edge of the screen, it should do something. Damage or kill, not just nothing, it doesn't feel "right", in my opinion.

 - Good point! We'll look into it!

So far, i'm stuck at level 3, with the Giant. I manage to kill it, but i also lose one hero. More brain is needed !

 - The Giant fight is tough! You can just avoid it and move to the victory tiles, but where's the fun in that?

Part 3:

Alright, finished Chapter 4, not with perfect everywhere yet, but i'm out. I really like the game ! I want more ! More !.

 - Great to hear that you're enjoying the game so far! Fear not, more is coming soon!

A Prisoner to save, i hope it's a new hero for next chapter !

 - We like the way you think! Interesting things are coming in Chapter 5!

I was expecting to play at least one level with all 3 heroes, but i didn't see the Guardian.

 - We definitely agree that it's time for the heroes to all meet up!

I was expecting the Guardian to be in the Upgrade panel, but she is not.

 - The Guardian skill tree is coming in the character progression overhaul, which should be ready in the next week or two.

I was expecting to see more Upgrades but there are not (beside the bomb but it's not upgradable).

 - We are working on the character progression overhaul alongside the balance pass for Chapters 1- 4, and both will be ready soon!

A bug it seems, with an archer. I can't pull or push it.

- We've added it to the list! We're aiming for a fix in the mid-week patch.

Thank you again for putting so much work into providing us with feedback on the game! It really makes our jobs so much easier to hear firsthand from the community like this!

Let us know if you have any more thoughts. We should have another update soon!

Hi Tchey,

Apologies for the delayed reply! We didn't get a notification of there being a new post in this topic. We're glad to hear that the crash seems to be gone, although it's a little concerning that we don't know what caused it to begin with. We'll keep looking into it, and see if we can find the culprit!

In the meantime, we're working as fast as we can on a Linux build. It looks like GameMaker Studio 2 supports Ubuntu export, so we're hoping we can have that working in the next week or two. We'll also be pushing at least the start of Chapter 4 very soon!

Hi there!

Thank you so much for the kind words! The Game Developers World Championship sounds like a great opportunity! We'll bear it in mind, and hopefully be able to submit the project.

Hi Tchey!

Thank you for following up on this! We've run some more tests, and we haven't been able to reproduce the issue. It sounds like it might be caused by Wine, but we can't be sure at this stage.

We know it's a lot to ask, but is there any way you could please capture some video of the crash happening? We might be able to figure it out a lot faster if we can see the exact chain of events that leads up to the crash. It also gives us a better chance of reproducing the issue on one of our testing computers, which will be a huge help if we can manage it. We don't have any Linux machines with Wine at this stage, so testing a fix could be a little laborious if it does turn out to be a Wine issue, but we'll do our best!

Hi Tchey! 

As always, thank you for your feedback!

We weren't able to reproduce the crash you found, but we think we have located the issue all the same. We've released a small patch to address it. Let us know if it pops up again.

You make some good points about the Free Mode interface! It's still early in development, and we'll definitely be making some revisions in future updates.

With regard to Free Mode being broken, we haven't been able to find any issues. To place a character in Free Mode, left click on the character's portrait in the Free Mode window, then left click on one of the blue deployment tiles to place the character. Once placed, characters can be freely dragged around the deployment zone. To remove a character from your Free Mode party, simply right click that character in the deployment zone. Please also be sure to observe the party limit for the battle (shown in the bottom left of the Free Mode window). You will not be able to start the battle if you have too many characters in your party.

We will also aim to release a video guide for Free Mode soon. In the meantime, please feel free to hit us up with any questions you may have!

Hi Willsama,

We're very glad to hear that you've enjoyed the game so far! It's really encouraging for us to hear that players who don't normally play puzzle games can still have a great time with Guile & Glory!

You make a good point about the Guardian. The switch in playstyle from the Slaver can be a bit jarring. We're currently taking a look back over the first three chapters, especially chapter 3, and we're aiming  to fine tune the difficulty and pacing in a future update.

Thank you so much for the kind words!  We'll do our best to keep working alongside our fantastic community and build the best game we can!

Hi Tchey,

Thank you so much for the kind words! We're glad you're enjoying the game so far, and we'll do our best to keep making it better with our awesome community!

Edit: We're excited for Free Mode too! We've wanted to make something like that for ages, but it is quite a large time investment, so we didn't want to go ahead until we heard from the community. Hearing such a clear and positive response has allowed us to move forward with development on Free Mode, and we think it's going to be a whole lot of fun!

Hi Tchey,

Thank you for the detailed feedback! You raise some very good points about the early game balance.

Going back over it, we feel that the Guardian levels are probably too tough (especially the perfect run conditions). We don't want Guile & Glory: Firstborn to be so difficult that only puzzle game experts can succeed, especially early in the game.

As for what to change, you're quite right that it isn't entirely straightforward to re-balance a level. As you pointed out, changing a tile or moving an enemy can have radical and unintended effects on the flow of the level as a whole. That being said, we will aim to implement a balance pass on the first 3 chapters first thing after we release chapter 4!

Hi Tchey,

Thank you so much for the article! 

It really helps us get to the game out there and build an active community! The more feedback we get this early in development, the quicker we will be able to build Guile & Glory: Firstborn into the best game it can be!