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The Age of Vaporum is Over (for now at least)Apr 22, 2021 - Community AnnouncementsWhat's next for Fatbot Games? Dear fans! On behalf of the whole team, let me wish you all good health and stability in this unstable and dangerous time. We highly appreciate the effort and sacrifice of the people fighting the virus, and we also feel for those whose health and/or living have been compromised by the pandemic. The situation in the last few months has been very serious, including in our own country which is in the top 10 most deaths per capita in the world among countries with a population of over a million people, and so we are very grateful that no one in the team nor any close relative of ours has fallen ill. Thanks to that, we could work more or less undisturbed and release our second game in September of last year (2020). Our Second Game is Out! Vaporum: Lockdown, released on September 15, 2020 on Steam, GOG, and Humble (Windows, Mac, Linux), is the second game of our small indie studio. Much like the first Vaporum, Lockdown is also enjoying positive reception in the community. We have received a great response in the form of forum feedback, reviews, and also direct personal correspondence. We are very humbled and thankful for all that! https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33018907/121b2bb400a3b4212450dd7a65f48379bd845529.jpg Matej and I, trying to come up with cool RPG mechanics. Both games are a labor of love and so we really appreciate any kind of feedback — be it praise or constructive critique. We have learned a lot in making both games, and apart from being able to make ends meet doing what you love, the experience itself is the most valuable thing we have gained. Lockdown also released on Switch on March 22, 2021, and we are happy to say that the port has turned out well! Our decision to port the game ourselves proved to be correct. We had to overcome heaps of issues in the obstacle-ridden publishing process of Nintendo, but it paid off! https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/33018907/e20c897a218b58ea209fa1199d5573c99004258c.png When designing levels for Vaporum: Lockdown, we built upon what we had learned in Vaporum, using the best parts and avoiding the mistakes. At least that was the plan. We had full control over every aspect of the port the whole time and were able to pack in more quality than before (when previously using a 3rd party to do the job). Apart from the obvious font size increase, there are plenty of quality-of-life improvements in the port, most notably a heavily streamlined control scheme. The game is a breeze to play on Switch now, and we all enjoy it even more than on PC, which is a big claim for us “PC dinosaurs”. (Well, one member still prefers playing on PC, but he's a “PC protomolecule”, so that doesn't really count.) We were able to improve the performance significantly, which allowed us to get more high-end effects & visuals into the port for those eye-candy treats. We are thankful for any feedback you give us on Vaporum: Lockdown, ...Vaporum: Lockdown out NOW!Sep 15, 2020 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/53c47ffa871a2041722901c0d6fa7e5f6e623d05.png Vaporum: Lockdown, prequel to critically acclaimed Vaporum, is out now! Get it here on Steam and also be sure to check out the Vaporum Loyalty Bundle! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1161880/Vaporum_Lockdown/ For a tiny indie team such as ours, it’s a great privilege to be able to release our second game. We’re super grateful for all of you, the fans who supported us throughout the development of this game. We hope you will enjoy this labor of sweat & tears, but also much love! What started as an idea for a datadisk that would bring a few new levels and maybe 1 or 2 new minor features, has grown into a fully fledged standalone game that is as big as the original game, if not bigger. Lockdown brings many improvements on almost everything that made Vaporum good, plus a host of new features and quality of life upgrades. Just to name a few: New storyline following a female protagonist, Ellie Teller. Brand new levels. New enemy types with unconvential attack patterns that will challenge your wits & reflexes. New weapon & armor types for even more build options. Lots of synergies to find. We created many new unique weapons & armor pieces and a few new circuits, all with synergy-building in mind. A host of new puzzles and a special optional level with extra-tough puzzles to challenge your brainpower. More voice-overs and a deeper look into the lore and story of the world of Vaporum. Much streamlined controls (including much improved controller support). Even though the game takes place in the same tower, the storyline is completely new. Follow a new protagonist and find out what happened before the events in Vaporum. Ellie Teller, a teleporter scientist, must face her own past and find a way to escape the place. As a side note, we came up with the final name of the game mere weeks before the global pandemic broke out. It also hit us hard, where we had to work from home for several weeks, so you can say that Lockdown was being made during a lockdown. 🙂 Thankfully, none of us got infected. We would also like to thank all the people on the frontline who have been working to keep us safe! Share, comment, and enjoy the game!Feature Preview: Supreme Puzzles FloorApr 28, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsHey, fellow dungeoneers! I hope you’re healthy and safe, following the instructions to protect yourself and the others in these troubled times. A big shout-out to everyone who’s fighting the disease or helping to overcome the whole situation! Each member of our little studio works from home now, and despite it being a lot less effective and slower, we still tirelessly work for Vaporum: Lockdown to be the title that you’ll love. Today, I’d like to talk about how we want to tackle the difficulty and categorization of puzzles, based on your feedback from the original game. Some of you welcomed the hardcore challenge of the tougher puzzles, but the rest mostly preferred and enjoyed the other mechanics so typical for the genre, not so much puzzles. It’s a big challenge to please both crowds without making it all just “meh”, while still keeping the game balanced and consistent. Thanks to some new puzzle-making mechanics we added to Lockdown, we came up with quite some elaborate, tough, and varied puzzles over time. We sorted these puzzles according to the feedback gathered in a few rounds of internal playtesting, giving us a good idea on the order in which they should appear in the game, graduating in difficulty. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/719fd58a2649b3027fc195bf35a5d166319c0333.png (A partial view of our puzzle prototyping scene. Puzzles … Puzzles everywhere!) But, a few questions popped up right here. What would be the difficulty ceiling for the puzzles? How many should we put in the whole game? If hard optional puzzles provide hefty rewards for beating them, how do we prevent casual players feeling left out and weaker for skipping them? And at the same time, how do we keep it challenging and rewarding enough for the so-called “puzzle heads :)” among you? We came up with a solution. Enter the Supreme Puzzles Floor! The toughest, most hardcore puzzles will reside in a special, separate floor in the tower, having a bit of lore tied to them to make it interesting. Each puzzle will be locked by a special key. You will need to find these keys, scattered across the game (mostly in secrets), to gain access to the supreme puzzles. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/044aaa7e45baffe16e264ac2f96d000a09074a85.png (An excerpt from the floors cross section map that is being implemented in the game.) Although we decided to make all these puzzles 100% optional, there still was a problem. How would these tough puzzles reward players who make the effort to crack them? Maybe put in some of the best unique items? But if we do that, will it be fair to casual players who will likely not even want to touch the supreme floor at all? Because that’s a sure-fire way to force them to tackle the puzzles anyway; it’s something that they really don’t want to do, but probably will — out of “fear of missing out”! And that was against our original intention. After some thought, we came up with a solution. We will not separate players by rewarding them with different loot, but by rewarding...Check out a small story snippet from the history of the Arx VaporumMar 23, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsCheck out our new short webcomic! A small story snippet from the history of the Arx Vaporum, its universe and protagonists! Be sure to leave some feedback and don't forget to wishlist Vaporum: Lockdown on Steam! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/110a2b195b4602b9571fd783c85adfd213978745.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/165f0d73a208c89dfaa813eb5f854e4c80e4823d.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/68f49e8ca4d698924443c6a66199494ac1350a96.png Vaporum: Lockdown Postponed to Q2 2020Mar 16, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsFirst of all, we'd like to thank you all for your continuous support! We really appreciate every bit of it! The first reason for postponing the release is quite typical for gamedev. Even though we originally planned to make something smaller, we think that you, our community, deserve a little more than just a short "level pack". The project has grown into a fully fledged, standalone game that expands on everything that made Vaporum good, and also brings a lot of new, fresh ideas. Since we're a small team of enthusiasts, the desire to enrich and "fatten" the experience has won over releasing it too early without a lot of "meat". On the other hand, of course, such a decision costs time. You can be certain of one thing though -- we will use all this added time to make sure the game is as fun and enjoyable to play as we can make it! The second, more sinister reason is obvious, currently affecting the lives of all people around the world. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, causing an infectious disease, has already hit our country as well. Since Friday 13, our game studio has been on "lockdown". Yes, we're well aware of the irony in the game's name and the date, and we also feel quite cringy about what takes place in the planned storyline of Vaporum: Lockdown and what is taking place in the world right now. It's quite eerie. By lockdown, we mean that all team members now work from home. This is quite ineffective and slow compared to being together in the studio and being able to discuss things live, face to face. We also want to express a great deal of respect and gratitude to people who make extra selfless effort to help the infected and prevent the spread of the disease, every day. We'd also like to appeal to you to be responsible and follow the directions of your local health organizations. Don’t forget to wishlist Vaporum: Lockdown and share the information we post. That's the best you can do to help us. Thank you for your support! On behalf of the whole team: Tibor Repta (Co-founder) & Matej Zajačik (Co-founder) Explore the ominous hallways of Arx Vaporum!Feb 27, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsWishlist Vaporum: Lockdown on Steam {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/2a2178617278a0814075bcc749dc3a006cb4fe4b.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/ed5ccc1434ec2633f210062e510a85022d005ffc.jpg https://steamcommunity.com/app/1161880 Another batch of new screenshots!Feb 20, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsVisit the damp pits and gloomy tunnels of the sewage system of the Arx Vaporum in a new batch of screenshots from Vaporum: Lockdown. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/141e74819207a70a905e4de77030d62bec6dc83f.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/01ad9007e804b3a03008b5b458009a56fd3acf65.jpg https://store.steampowered.com/app/1161880/Greetings from the dark corridors of Vaporum: LockdownFeb 13, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsHere are some new visuals from the new levels in Vaporum: Lockdown. Gaze upon the dark technical corridors of Arx Vaporum and don’t forget to wishlist it on Steam now! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/3d9a9342bbcb598dfec0a5eaf5e43992d8733c51.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/d00ec12379dc575d3196c3608ea136d44a96e7d0.png https://store.steampowered.com/app/1161880/Vaporum_Lockdown/Level Design Contest results are in!Feb 11, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsHey there, everyone! By the end of last year, we announced a level design contest, giving you guys a chance for your ideas to get into our upcoming game Vaporum: Lockdown, a prequel to Vaporum. The author of the winning submission is Lukáš Kušnier. Congratulations! From all the submissions we’ve received, his design clearly stands out, in both visual & textual presentation and the core idea it revolves around. The clever combination of existing mechanics and interactive elements makes it an ideal candidate as a part of our special level in Lockdown. You will find a special floor filled with the toughest puzzles and unique rewards. All these will be purely optional, so if you don’t feel like it, you can skip them altogether. Lukáš will: - Have his puzzle included in Vaporum: Lockdown. - Be credited in Vaporum: Lockdown. - Receive a signed Vaporum Signature Edition for the Nintendo Switch. - Receive a key for Vaporum: Lockdown for the platform of his choice. We are very happy to be able to include at least some of the community’s ideas directly into our upcoming game! We’re also happy to continually receive support and feedback from you guys. Thank you! 🙂 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1161880/Lockdown - New Area, New Enemy, New Screenshots!Dec 23, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsHey there, fellow crawlers! We have a small Christmas present for you, a glimpse into an area you will get to explore in Vaporum: Lockdown. We know we’re a little quiet, but that’s because we are tirelessly working on the prequel. More specifically, building individual levels, iterating on puzzles, and tuning combat zones for the best possible fun experience. Take a look at one of the levels (and their inhabitants) that was supposed to serve the whole tower with food, the Hydroponics Lab. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/f46cf826837f249cec9c6a7e70875e9d158b6a30.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/a626aa24f97b28f8b9f4133f0f712637da94701d.jpg One of the very first endeavors of the Arx should be to establish permanent food independence. Based on the Supreme Bureau’s Security Regulation for Scientific Research in Long-Term Isolation, commissary Rowan Rogers (#241191) has issued an order to build a hydroponic bay in one of the first finished parts of the tower. Representatives of the Research Board hope that the installation will not only secure basic food supply for the scientists, but also allow to observe and research the interaction between the new substance and known flora. Memo – Scientific Research Board (21. 4. 116 SBR)Lockdown Level Design Contest 2019Nov 29, 2019 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36095331/b9d708e9f1dbd3ae4cdf2044027abea4d6743e35.png As you know from our annoucement, we're working on Vaporum: Lockdown (a prequel to Vaporum), due to release in 2020. The community has received Vaporum very well, but has also given us a lot of suggestions on how to improve the game, or even add original situations and gameplay elements. Based on that, we decided to call upon you, Vaporum and dungeon crawler fans, to join forces in the creative process in making Vaporum: Lockdown! We're announcing the Lockdown Level Design Contest! The goal: Design a single, self-contained level for Vaporum: Lockdown. Maximum size: 20x20 squares. Reward for the winner: A physical Vaporum Signature Edition for Nintendo Switch, signed by Vaporum's devs (if the author wishes so). A free Vaporum: Lockdown key for any platform. An exceptionally well-made design may make it into the final game. If it does: The author will be credited in the game's Credits screen (by their real name, nickname, or anonymously). Backstory lore using the author's (nick)name and story is also possible. Read more here! Also follow our contest channels: Fatbot Discord Server - Contest Channel Contest coordinator e-mail: [email protected] Constantly updated contest FAQ One of the great designing tools that might help you, and which we used throughout the development of Vaporum, is Grid Cartographer, currently at 40% off on Steam! We can't wait to see what kind of ingenious ideas the community harbors, and to lay our hands on your submissions! So, let your creative juices flow and, above all, have fun! :) P. S.: By the way, if you don't already own it, now is a great time to get Vaporum at 50% off on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1161880Daily Deal - Vaporum, 50% OffNov 12, 2019 - AnnouncementToday's Deal: Save 50% on Vaporum!* Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are! *Offer ends Monday 11/18 at 10AM Pacific Time Vaporum: Lockdown is coming!Oct 30, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsHey, guys! We are excited and proud to announce our new game in the making! Vaporum: Lockdown is a prequel to our first game Vaporum and it's coming out in early 2020, and will be available on Windows, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1161880/Vaporum_Lockdown/ The game expands on everything that made the first game good, including more menacing enemy types, broadened skill trees, new gadgets, plenty of new unique items, and original puzzles and mechanics. Vaporum: Lockdown follows the story of Lisa Teller, a teleport operator & scientist, who struggles to survive the aftermath of a terrible event. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/30583326/9457f1f55ae154a4dbf5cb1f0a1ce00389de21ac.png You will encounter even nastier enemies with unique strengths and attack patterns. To beat them, you will have to employ a broad array of weapons, gadgets, upgrades, and smart tactics. Fortunately, there’s plenty of new powerful toys to play with. Brand new weapon types, each with a specific use, many new unique weapons, synergistic armor pieces, gadgets that allow you to raise your own army of underlings or to manipulate the battlefield, boosters, and more. Prepare to solve new kinds of puzzles and hazards, using new interactive elements, which will test both your wits and reflexes. The overall storyline will have you piecing together a solution to the main obstacle, where the individual pieces are spread over several levels. You will learn a lot more about the world and its inhabitants through voiced dialogs, phonodiaries, and written notes. Don’t forget to add the game to your Wishlist and SIGN UP for our newsletter to follow the development and all the news! Stay tuned for more info!New Fatbot Games Website!Sep 4, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30583326/ae32e10a7fbda7d082fddfa87d872a2912604404.png Hey, guys! Our company has a brand new official website! Check out what's going on in our studio and what you can expect from us in the near future. Including our next project from the Vaporum universe! Thank you for your support!Lore of Vaporum #3Jun 11, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsHey, guys! We picked another bit of lore from the world of Vaporum, a piece of newspapers that dates 95 years after the last entry. In the article, the Supreme Bureau celebrates a hundred years of existence and iron rule over most of the known world. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30583326/d47c52f7de40e7017534d78bf44f1f2a77c6d6fd.pngWin Signature Edition and Steampunk Nintendo SwitchApr 10, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30583326/f8d2f0991761f432cd7da0069e334efd57928f2a.png Hey, guys! Win a Signature Edition copy of Vaporum and a fantastic steampunk customised Nintendo Switch to play it on HERE! Enjoy! :)Pre-Order Vaporum on Consoles Now!Mar 30, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsVaporum is on a pre-order sale right now on Nintendo Switch and Xbox One (20% discount)! For those of you who want to play Vaporum on the consoles, or maybe tell your console-only friends about it, now is the time! https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30583326/51f8111820a1509e6d7623083b4020642533bcc9.png You can pre-order the XB1 version here. https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30583326/c14cc05e613fce4fa6e122c76654e6c18e6e0fbe.png You can pre-order the Switch version here. Physical, boxed versions are also available now for Nintendo Switch: https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30583326/f1f81e556c3010b84023fe4af1190bf7af18299f.png Standard Edition for €34.99 https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30583326/2369f23def9759e1881212c9dddc29d52aa231de.png Signature Edition for €49.99 Here's the official release timeline for Vaporum on each console: Nintendo Switch: April 11th, 2019 ($24.99 / €24.99 / £19.99) Xbox One: April 10th, 2019 ($24.99 / €24.99 / £19.99) PlayStation 4 EU: April 10th, 2019 (€24.99 / £19.99) PlayStation 4 NA: April 9th, 2019 ($24.99) Enjoy! :)Fatbot Games Newsletter!Mar 21, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30583326/a553c5511794d69aab9fd32971e38eb7b59dc443.png Hey, guys! It's hard these days to get through to our existing and potential future fans. Let's build a closer relationship! SIGN UP for our newsletter to receive direct exclusive content and news about our company right in your inbox! We'll send you first-hand information on our upcoming dungeon crawler in development and even some exclusive content (soundtracks, concept art, screenshots, etc.) before the official channels. Thank you!Loremaster Achievement Bug FixedMar 1, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30583326/26c956bb882375f83e45ad2315d21f53ce57f2f1.png Hey, guys! We finally smashed the bug that caused some of you not to get the Loremaster achievement even when you found every single note and phonodiary in the game. It can only happen in pretty rare circumstances, so that's why most people who found all notes got the achievement, and why we were unable to find the culprit for so long. It's a Steam-only fix, so there is no patch. To unlock the achievement, you need to read (or re-read) these two notes: - Agatha Chertsey, Sophie's Big Friend. - Unknown, Teleportation Test Subject #42. If you already read them in your playthrough, you will have to play again and re-read them, unfortunately. Loading an autosave from the beginning of level 10 (Arx Vaporum) should suffice though. Enjoy! :)Patch #14 (19-02-2019)Feb 19, 2019 - Community Announcementshttps://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/30583326/cae90be77a1dc64c40cab0f7332533d185d10551.png Hey, guys! Patch time! A big one this time! We've been silent for a long time now because we've been hard at work on porting Vaporum to Xbox One, PS4, and Switch. As that work is mostly done, we were able to put our attention back to the desktop version again. Apart from smaller bugfixes that we found ourselves or that you guys reported to us, there is a whole host of optimizations and improvements going in with this patch. For the game to work on the consoles at our expected standards, we had to dive deep under the hood and optimize lots of stuff. While some of these changes are specific to specific console targets, most are universal and will bring performance benefits to desktop targets as well. As a result, the game should perform better on any hardware, on any OS, and takes about 40% less space on your disk. As always, we've been listening to all the feedback on our forums, and so we added new game options you guys asked for, and fixed issues you reported to us. Here's the full list of changes: Added an option to toggle head bobbing while moving. Motion sickness no more! Added an option to toggle Stop Time Mode sounds. Added options to toggle audiovisual indicators when you're low on health. Added an option to set the type of your controller. This should fix, hopefully, all issues with controllers. If your controller doesn't work the way you'd expect, this setting will force the game to make the controller behave. :) Improved the performance when reapplying the same skill to the player over and over (acid pool and such effects). Improved the performance of the auto-map and the GUI overall. Improved the performance of animations, some visual effects, and post-processes. Improved culling to increase performance. Improved overall rendering performance. Reduced the disk space the game takes by about 40%. Fixed: Tooltips hide when you move items between containers and your inventory. Fixed the cursor misbehavior when the supersampling setting is not set to 1.0. Fixed a few issues in localization. Fixed: The button after the flame turret in L05 (The Riddle of Steel) can sometimes get you stuck, closing the door behind you, with no way to open the door again. Fixed: Some controllers may crash the game. Fixed: When you move into a hole in the Stop Time Mode, you don't fall. :D Fixed: Some "bloody" effects still show up when the Gore setting is set to off. Fixed: Shock Spider's light shines through walls. Enjoy! :)
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