Hi folks, Im Peter and today were shaking things up a bit and bringing you a behind-the-scenes, or in this case, a behind-the-speakers view of Fogpiercers music, which has recently been nominated for Best Audio at the prestigious gamedev conference Reboot Develop Blue in Dubrovnik.

However, before we have to read some more, lets listen first:

In a Nutshell

I could mention the obvious inspirations of industry titans, but a review summarized the music as being a combination of Ben Prunty, Chris Christodolou and Vivaldi, and I feel I couldnt describe it more concisely if I tried.

A Musical Duel

As far as the instruments go, I have tried placing a great deal of importance on sonic uniqueness of the individual characters and bosses. For example, Lojzo, the menace who uses his huge speakers to yell at you and disable your carriages, has a huge blaring synthetic foghorn that pierces through the 15/4 rhythm. On the other hand, while playing as Monica, each track has a chilly overdriven violin. This way, when youre fighting a boss, you can really feel the instruments going head to head as you plan your next step.

My Train is an Instrument

The music itself is made to sound like a train, whether its the delayed snare evoking a steam locomotive hurling forward or the clangs of a train crossing keeping a steady beat. While some of these rely on twisting and turning already existing musical instruments, a lot of them do not. That is when my field recording experience came in handy. Using a combination of the Slovak-made Geofon and Ui microphones, I took several trips by train, recording both the inside click-clacks, as well as the outside thundering of a train engine. These then made their way into the game not only as sound effects, but also as an integral part of the musical texture.

[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/45209608/c54cf5caf463e46f92bfd5e95f126aad40afd5a8.jpg"][/img]The wonderful Geofon by LOM similar microphones were originally made to pick up seismic vibration, they now lend their abilities to capturing the games sonic essence.

Sonic Feedback

If the player manages to draw a Malfunction card and it is still in your hand when you end your turn, your locomotive will receive damage, forcing the player to smartly play around it and make sure it is discarded. Holding a Malfunction card is a run-threatening event and the player is notified of its significance by the aforementioned steam-snare entering the musical environment, letting you know the pressure is ON.

Technical Solutions and Variability

Since the game focuses on repeated runs, I wanted the music to be something that does not get stale after a run or two and can accompany you on your entire adventure through the frozen wastes. This meant coming up with musical ideas that can slot into each other, while at the same time lead the player on a musical journey that makes sense from a compositional point of view.

[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/45209608/e68eb7aab35879e37591b6de9f6c64ee7dfa342f.png"][/img]When fighting Marauder our second boss and Monicas old enemy I wanted the player to truly feel the struggle. That meant the ebb and flow of tension had to be tightly controlled, while not getting repetitive. This screenshot illustrates the madness this required stems jumping around with cascading probabilities to switch to a different point in the track, which then again escalates the tension and puts either Monica or Marauder center-stage.

Ever Forward!

One of the core tenets of the game is that the train is an unstoppable machine, advancing ever forward through the icy planes. The music reflects that, requiring in-game tracks to seamlessly switch between the game stages from building a train, through throwing bandits off of cliffs, all the way to falling silent while you deliberate your upgrades at depots and chop shops.

[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/45209608/f6a21575863cd53bd49ec8fc9bf919e6b82887f8.png"][/img]The individual game states are organized horizontally, not unlike a train, where each stage is connected to the next one, eager to respond to the changing gameplay.

Powerful, yet 'Thinky'

However, this is, first and foremost, a game about masterful planning and execution, which is not always the easiest thing to do with electric guitars chugging along. That is why I introduced dynamic mixing that makes the music take a backseat when its your turn to crush the bandits, facilitating those wonderful tactical moments of genius that clear an entire lane of enemies. In addition to a small volume change, the music also responds by gently rolling off the highs, to allow you to get into the zone.

More to Come

While this already has us giddy with excitement whenever we see players tap their foot to the rhythm, a lot of work still remains. In the future, you can look forward to more drivers, each having their own instrument representing their powers and personality, new bosses challenging you on your way to your final destination and generally, just MORE music to hum along with while you outwit bandits on the grid.

If youre interested in chatting further, whether its about the music or the game itself, stop by our Discord, wed love to chat!

This time round, this is not an announcement for a new demo version, so it's a bit of a different format! We're now pretty busy with improving the game and adding content! Here's an overview of what we're working on: [olist]

new illustrations [/olist] I'll go over these in more depth but first of all let me mention that every change which relates to the general and overall quality will make its way into the demo eventually! We just want to make sure that the new features are stable and won't cause issues for existing players. All of the above mentioned are now deployed on our Playtest steam version of the game, there is a limited number of available slots and if you want to join the playtest, visit our discord, we've got instructions and commands ready for you there!

Save/Load Sytem

This one is just exciting. We've been working on this for a good while, and knew it was going to be an important feature for the game! The way the system works is very straight forward, whenever you finish an encounter, your progress is saved. Whenever you turn the game on, and the game finds a saved run, you get a confirmation dialogue:
Also when you're in the pause menu, we added this message that pops up, to ensure the save/load system is communicated:

Seeded runs

Infomation and an input box can be found next to the start button and in the pause menu, also at the end of the run, so that if the seed was good, it can be easily copied.
Having created the save/load system, meant we also had to link everything up with seeds, there is more work that needs to be done here, as the seed at the moment is only used for map generation itself, however fights and player options aren't yet. Wer're working on that next!

Harpoon Carriage

Alright, this is the first new carriage we've worked on since releasing the demo. There was a ton of balancing and reworks of cards as well as modules, so we wanted to hold off on implementing our designed new carriages, to best ensure that when a new carriage is indeed implemented, it's instantly fun and strategically deep!
The harpoon carriage currently has 9 cards, due to us testing out multiple ideas! They've all been illustrated and are now being heavily tested. The entire idea behind the carriage is that it, in one way or another, moves enemies toward the tracks or the carriage itself. There are a couple of surprise cards, my personal favourite is the one that deals damage to the enemy unit and pulls the train in the direction of said unit.

Improving UI

This is something we do all the time. We notice papercuts and small issues that could be made better or nicer, so here's a couple of standout things we've changed so far.

better info

Contextual infomation used to only show up in the top left corner, we've revamped this across the board, so that wherever possible, the information pops up right there!

Merged modules and cards screens

The screens for modules and cards in the starting screen have been merged into a single screen, meaning that you can now manage you run card and module options from a single screen.

Better cards overview

Before selecting a carriage, one of the most important pieces of information is the carriages card loadout, we've implemented a brand new screen that gives you exactly that (including smooth animations, super proud of those)

Better visuals for Save Slots

The game offers 3 slots, these allow you to play 3 different setups and have up to 3 different saved runs at any one time, we've improved the slot selection screen to better communicate the active one, as well as the game doesn't instantly go into the run start screen when a new slot is selected

Side notes

• We're visiting gamedev conferences with the game! (Digital Dragons (Krakow), GameAccess (Brno) and others, depending on which ones pop up and where)
• There's a massive amount of work that's gone into the audio of the game, stay tuned for a future Developer update!
• Our discord community is slowly growing and it's super exciting to see, join us!
• We've hit 12k wishlists! This is utterly surreal and we're just baffled, excited and motivated.
• The development continues, cheers!

If you haven't had, give the game a play! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3350900/Fogpiercer_Demo/ That's it for this quick developer udpate, have a good one peeps!

[ 2025-06-05 10:09:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a quick one! We found bugs, and fixed them. This update also fixes crashes related to sticky bomb usage. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3350900/Fogpiercer_Demo/

Changelog

Changed

• Civil Engineer
  • Give +2AP
  • Original effect stays the same
• Improved visualisation of the sticky bomb counter
• Deck resets right at the end of a fight
• Entry to the first station was made a little longer

Fixed

• Stations now properly remove props
• Modules now correctly load in shops
• Projectile cards now get correctly destroyed when leaving hand in any way
• Projectile cards are now correctly removed when a fight is escaped while a bomb is placed on grid
• Cards staying on hand now properly update their disabled status
• Held malfunction no longer stays disabled if it was drawn that way
  • This applies to all cards, a lovely bug fixed!

The new driver system introduced in the previous update, has overall been super welcome, and people have enjoyed using it as well. We then had the time to focus on further stabilisation of the game and improving its settings as well. (steam cloud saves should now finally work!) https://store.steampowered.com/app/3350900/Fogpiercer_Demo/
image shows the newly organized modules and a really fun new module

Changelog

Added

• Modules
  • Spiked Hull
  • Enemies ramming a carriage with 2 shield or more receive 1 damage
  • Civil Engineer
  • When a card is used and the hand is not empty, discard a random card from hand and draw a card
• Outline to card effects in UI to align with the 3D visuals in game
• Better visualisation for the cells being targeted

Changed

• Updated illustrations
• Panzer dome All blue cards
• Cards in UI now have more resolution. Staying crisp even when larger
• Updated some module illustrations
• Improved angles from which the outline shader works
• Map now generates smaller fights less often
• Improved code handling drawing and discarding cards, especially with bonuses
• Ground texture made lighter to resemble snow more
• Reorganized shop cards
• Reorganized modules
• New players now start with more modules and cards unlocked by default
• Refactored the world prop spawning system

Fixed

• Second wind now correctly gives 2 AP
• Shielded wheels now correctly visualises health results
• Card Syringe gives +1 card instead of +2
• Shielded wheels module now properly visualises in game
• Extra Valve
  • Counts all "intentional" discards (when a card is sent to the discard pile, as a result of using another card)
  • Issues related to it should be resolved! (tm)
• "Press anything" now works with any key or mouse button press
• World props (trees and such) no longer float in certain situations
• Managing default unlocked modules

For the second update we've focused on a number of things, there are a couple new modules, tweaks and balance updates, but most importantly we've completely revamped the driver system and improved the tutorial! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3350900/Fogpiercer_Demo/

The new driver system

Tutorial changes

Changelog

Added

• New modules
  • Piston Overdrive
  • reduce movement cost by 1AP every 4th train move in fight
  • Scrap King
  • tier 5
  • grant 1AP every 3 exhausted cards
  • Diamong Diamond Hands
  • tier 6
  • do not discard hand at the end of the turn. -1AP. cannot exceed maximum hand size
  • Extra valve
  • draw an extra card for 5 discarded cards
  • Vents
  • gain 1AP for every 10th enemy intent
  • Lookout
  • add 1 shield to the locomotive for every 15th enemy move
  • New module illustrations, updated some of the old ones!
  • Stranger
  • Random card gets randomized AP when drawing hand
  • Shielded Wheels
  • carriages take no damage from ramming if shielded
• New stats that contribute to making spikes, each adds 1 spike at the end of the run
• Redesigned the UI for end of run stats
  • Cliff throws
  • Cliff collisions
  • Ram kills
  • Env. hazard Kills
• initial stop !
  • gives a random selection of 3 bonuses
  • happens right after pressing the start button
  • counts as a "station mode" since the train is stationary, meaning you can sell / upgrade right there
  • subject to change
• New driver system
  • Fill gauge for every point of damage that happens in the game
  • When full, get a driver card in your hand.
  • If unused it disappears
  • Driver cards are 0AP
  • Driver screen UI
• deck button at the end of run screen
• "Extra overdrive card" boost card
• when the next overdrive triggers, you get an extra driver card
  • can be stacked
• label that mentions number of turns left for applied effects
  • i.e. burn will last 1 more turn
• Attack order button and panel
• When launching the game, you'll now be presented with running the game either with Vulkan (default) or D3D12
  • use the latter if you're experiencing crashes and let us know!
• warning message when the player doesn't have enough spikes to unlock a module or a card
• driver card activation SFX
• new fight encounter in tutorial

Changed

• start run bottom tab buttons are now hidden in tutorial as not to confuse new players primary button sound effect
• "Grant" to "Gain" rewording
• Improved audio for random encounters
• Pause menu "Restart" button now specifically mentions that it restarts the run, to avoid run/encounter confusion
• bigger ranges for all of Monica's cards
• redesigned driver screen to align with the new driver system (Overdrive)
• changed XP boost card to give +2 extra overdrive points next time the gauge ticks
• "Bandit Intel" module is changed to "Intel", gives +1 overdrive point every time the gauge ticks
  • effectively making overdrive gauge progress twice as fast
• improved mouse hover area for the overdrive gauge
• auto-accept loading screen by default
• train steam blow-off sounds in stations got tweaked
• Illustration for "Overdrive points" card
• Improved illustration of Extra valve
• pimped the visuals of in-game console
• removed "Driver cards" panel from the end of run screen
• deck is reset at the end of the fight instead of before the next one
• Shield siphon -> can be used on any unit. The unit doesn't need to have any shield
• makes it possible to steal shield from one carriage to another
• Overdrive boost card now gives 10 extra points instead of 2
  • can be stacked
• Improved the deckview pop up
• Effects
  • changed the logic of effects
  • they all last 1 turn by default now
  • their on unit effects are applied after attacking
  • effect lifetime is reduced at the end of enemy turn (and removed when it reaches 0)
• "Save slots" are now separated from the main play button.
• Default FPS limit is 144 instead of uncapped (Vsync is ON by default)
• module and card previews are now larger in the first screen
• Lookout illustration has been changed
  • The previous one will become a new module
• new Carriages are free in tutorial runs

Fixed

• correct loading of Module id 20, this hadn't been an issue till today, but the bug was there, FIXED!
• correct picking of modules for random encounters
• Golden Circuits no longer has an incorrect counter label
• deck view UI no longer has a moving return button for the module screen
• game crashing when an env hazard destroys an enemy with active intent while the game is on the fastest animation speed
• "carragies to buy" animation speed now also responds to animation speed setting
• improved code handling validity of carriage level meshes
• rewards panels no longer block mouse events when disappearing
• driver screen and the deck screen no longer allow the contextual information panel to pop up
• floating card info panel no longer jumps up and down randomly when looking for its own position
• driver cards no longer stay on hand when "diamond hands" module is active
• invisible station stop lights no longer make constant ticking sounds
• driver cards contain the "Driver card" effect even before they're added to the hand
• Repair button
  • uses the correct word for currency
  • updates instantly when the amount of scraps changes
• Better handling of max hand size for "Diamond hands"
• Card information panel will always close when a card / module were bought in the shop
• Cards with a single effect did not show it, they do now!
• bottom screen player message correctly recalculates its center point
• units flash white again when damaged or upgraded
• all discarded cards go away from the hand (data wise) hopefully fixing shadow cards!
• discarded cards correctly registered by Extra Valve
• driver cards are always destroyed at the end of the turn
• only driver cards are driver cards now
• price of card removal is now properly calculated not only shown
• driver cards are removed when deck is reset
• time tracking is stopped the moment the run is finished
  • pause screen no longer keep on tracking the time after a run's been ended
• most fullscreen UI Pop Ups no longer allow focusing grid elements with the mouse
• card details panel now properly disappears after buying a card
• overdrive instant boost cards can appear regardless of player XP (legacy driver system)
• card details panel correctly disappears after removing a card (edge case)
• shield siphon no longer unlocks free endless shielding on the available cells
• Shop UI can no longer be abused. It is cleared up once the train leaves a chop shop encounter
• AP sprite on cards no longer casts shadows
• Attack order no longer hidden behind other elements
• God mode (take no damage), is now correctly applied and saved when going in and out of tutorial
• Destabilized shows its visual again
• Extra Valve (fingers crossed)

Releasing the demo was wild! We have a playtest version of the game that you can get on our discord, that's a version of the game where we push updates first, and only then do they make it into the demo. We've been busy improving the game from the get go, at first pushing daily updates, and afterwards (once things stabilized, and critical issues were fixed) moved on to weekly updates. This update article looks at what's been happening behind the closed doors, although they're pretty open, our discord is a place where you can chat with us any time! Enough preface, let's dive right into it!

Youtube videos

Speedrunning

Changelog

Added

• different colour for enemy turn intent that has an effect
  • this also adds a colour setting under the accessibility tab
  • i.e. Lojzo's carriage disable attack
• unit side panel can now be turned off by pressing a grid cell that does not have a unit
• a couple of missing translation strings that were still hardcoded
• "Magenta" colour to accessibility settings
  • it was just purple, but then it started looking a little different
• "Speedrun Statistics" which appear in the pause menu
  • time of the run (excluding game pauses and initial screen)
  • number of turns taken
• loading screen
  • also a setting for auto accepting the end state of the loading screen
  • this implements asynchronous loading
• new shortcuts!
  • Z/C move the train back and forward
  • F to end turn / F to choose
  • M to toggle the map
• number of copies of a card in the Unit Side Panel
• number of player turns taken in the "Run Over" screen
• Weighted random when modules are being offered to the player
• Each boss will now have a station right after it
• Stronger buggies have burn resist
• Cannon heavy has stun resist
• top panel for train overview now also has buttons as shortcuts for moving the train
• top panel for train overview shows an icon when a carriage can be upgraded in a station
• steam wishlist and "Discussions" links to the top right corner in the main menu and pause menu
• returning back to a station from the map view is now possible
• warning label to the "main menu" return option in the pause menu that warns the player of losing run progress
• ability to change animation speed
• a lower default for 3D scaling on the steam deck
• overall number of activated modules in the modules screen
• overall number of activated cards in the cards screen
• chop shop cards now also show the number of copies that will be added to the deck
• Demo / Playtest windows now have their correct respective names
• Malfunction does not trigger if disabled
• animation speed also influences the slow-mo amount
• save slots!
• minigun to the main menu!
• "missions" system
  • at the moment only used in the tutorial, we'll expand on it in the future
  • enemy waves?
• setting to turn off shadows

Changed

• improved the settings popup
  • added a super quick animation when it's turned on and off
• further tweaks of fight progression for the first part of the map, mainly focusing on probabilities
  • weighted random of enemy kinds and support unit chances
• tweaked probabilities of enemies in the second map fights
• malfunction cards now wait for env hazards to resolve
• enemy turn now waits for malfunction cards to resolve
• Game Over screen uses the game scene loading as the rest of the game (the async loader)
• Player XP amounts got lowered, enjoy slightly faster levelling!
• Modules in Tier 1 are unlocked by default for new players
  • can be disabled
• Cards in Tier 1 are unlocked by default for new player
  • can be disabled
• Meta progression Modules and Cards got a face-lift
• Chop shop - shop UI got a face lift too!
  • station bonuses no longer overlay shop UI
• Animation speed has been changed to having 5 pre-set options
  • SLOWEST, SLOW, NORMAL, FAST, FASTEST
• Fight Back
  • the enemy that destroyed the carriage, is insta-killed
• Silver Tongue
  • 30% discount!
• Shield Carriage
  • Shield Trick
    • 1x in deck
  • Panzer Dome
    • Cost Up + AP Cost 1
  • Shield Revenge
    • new pattern and AP Cost 1
  • Sheild Siphon
    • the same but +1 shield
• Artillery Carriage
  • Iron Rain - Exhaust
• card text and effect position
• camera animation when leaving the map is faster
• shop items leave an empty border when bought
• unavailable shop items (no more modules/cards) are visualised
• revamped visual style
  • stronger colours, some may need tweaking, let us know!
  • lots of colours changes all around, we'll be iterating
• train travel speed is BACK!
  • though with saner limits
• "Money" -> "Scraps"
• reworded most cards and modules, to ensure a same style of writing
• Hand Throw
  • discard hand, draw as many cards as were discarded
• The title below the game's logo now aligns with the version of the game (Playtest, Demo)
• Loading screen has a game logo progress texture instead of Coal Pusher illustration
  • and it always reaches 100% now too!
• hide AP cost and number of copies of cards that are locked
• redesigned the enemy list panel on the right of the screen
• trees and rocks no longer float above the ground
• improved visuals of stations
• Tutorial redesigned
• Improved performance by selectively casting shadows only where necessary
• Changed the icon on negative module of Extra Move Cost
• The player gets free scraps in the tutorial to ensure that upgrades and a new carriage can be bought

Fixed

• Right Mouse Button (RMB) no longer shows intent details and it's also used to cancel an active card
• Station UI not appearing when it should if the player is in map preview when entering a station
• Underlying system for bonuses, this fixes the "Mirage Mystery" module and prevent similar issues in the future
• Final damage that destroys a carriage not being registered in run stats
• Choosing a module after a "Module Van" fight before all modules have initialised, no longer crashes the game
• multiples of the same module can no longer appear
• visual of the unit position didn't always correctly update
• pressing enter when choosing upgrade cards no longer breaks UI / crashes the game
  • a better fix is incoming! we need to add the ability for cards to be focused
• one cannot endlessly reroll modules anymore
• upgrading a carriage and picking a card no longer crashes the game
• map can only be toggled using the M shortcut when it's available, preventing a softlock
• hitting enter after choosing a reward no longer triggers it again
• card arrow line should no longer be "red"
• previously used malfunction cards are no longer hidden
• a missing card in the chop shop when the player no longer has any rare/epics available
• grid annotations render over cards no more!
• max health card wording
• default unit movement speed is back to its original value
• instant cards can no longer be spam activated
• brake and move forward sounds were flipped
• choppy particles have been tweaked, likely an engine error
• translations for new effects
• grid annotations only turn on when set so in the settings
• all default modules now turn on properly
• preview map no longer has a button to return to the station (broke things)
• audio low-health is now correctly reset even when Malfunction is in hand when the fight ends
• Station should now always be spawned at a correct location, so regardless of the train and animation speed the train will stop at the right place
• Malfunction can now be always removed
• Colours now get initialised properly
• correct info text for spikes
• pause menu now renders above everything else at all times
• stations no longer randomly spawn as props

Hey peeps!

• Diverse carriages with unique abilities and synergies
• Modules, cards and a driver that can be unlocked, used and strategized around
• Bosses, diverse enemy units each with a different set of attacks
• Post-apocalyptic world where train stations are the last safe havens