Hey folks! Another week, another Steam sale! Yes, this time Spring has sprung a week early to give you glorious gamers the opportunity to grab some of our titles at deep, or even their DEEPEST discounts yet! Check out everything in the Playtonic library that's in the Steam Spring Sale below!

A Little Golf Journey - 70% OFF!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1232150/A_Little_Golf_Journey/

Blossom Tales 2 - 45% OFF!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1747830/Blossom_Tales_II_The_Minotaur_Prince/

CorpoNation - 40% OFF!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2159960/CorpoNation_The_Sorting_Process/

Demon Turf: Neon Splash - 35% OFF!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1747890/Demon_Turf_Neon_Splash/

Demon Turf: Queens Edition - 55% OFF!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1325900/Demon_Turf_Queens_Edition/

Elsie - 40% OFF!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

Lil Gator Game - 45% OFF! (New DLC announced!)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1586800/Lil_Gator_Game/

Victory Heat Rally - 25% OFF!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1594060/Victory_Heat_Rally/

Yooka-Laylee 80% OFF!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/360830/YookaLaylee/

[ 2025-03-13 18:00:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

SUP folks! A quick, small update has come to Elsie that brings big news! Due to community support, and thanks to our partners at H2 Interactive, Elsie is now also playable in Korean, and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)! If this is your first time hearing about Elsie, check out this rockin' launch trailer: [previewyoutube=_V5hx55SR9c;full][/previewyoutube] Thank you all once again for your support of Elsie so far! We'll see you soooon.

[ 2025-02-13 10:06:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

SUP folks! The holidays are rapidly approached, but before we all sign off for the year, I just wanted to share an extended "THANK YOU" from everyone here at Playtonic and the folks at Knight Shift. The support and feedback we've received on Elsie has been so, so appreciated by all of us here! We're ending 2024 with Elsie being the winner or runner-up in a number of awards, and for that we're very proud!
We'll see you in 2025!

[ 2024-12-19 15:39:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sup folks! It's the time of year where all the awards are happening and we've got one big favour we'd like to ask! If you enjoyed your time with Elsie, would you be so kind as to consider voting for it in the "Best Game You Suck At" category at the Steam Awards? By design, Elsie rewards you for learning the ropes and upgrading as you go along, getting better on each run! It's certainly the best game of ours that I suck at, so maybe that's worth something, eh? Thank you so much in advance <3

[ 2024-12-03 09:39:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Knight Shift Games team and Playtonic Friends are thrilled to announce Elsie just took home Best Arcade Game at the TIGA Game Awards! A massive thank you to everyone who has supported Elsie and made this possible! We are also delighted to announce that, Playtonic was also nominated for Best Small Studio and Commitment to Workplace Wellbeing. Elsie also recently received a substantial patch (Elsie v1.1.2), so now in the perfect time to jump back in on the action! Thank you again, Knight Shift Games and the Playtonic Friends Team!

[ 2024-11-29 15:38:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sup folks! First of all, thank you for bearing with us while the Knight Shift team ensured their safety last month during hurricane Milton, they've since been hard at work taking on a bunch of your feedback and making tweaks to improve the Elsie experience! A patch is rolling out now to address a number of issues and bring about some balance changes, please take a look at the patch notes below! Elsie v1.1.2 Gameplay Changes - Changed the pacing of how some lines of dialogue appear during the final boss cutscene to make more sense - Fixing a run on act 3 will no longer auto-teleport you into the Wharf. You'll get a chance to collect all the items and take the teleporter back home - Speedrun achievement now requires the true victory - Credits are now skippable - Heart Fragments can now drop from normal chests and rarely on enemy kills - Andru is at the Wharf from the start of the game - Jacky's vault is unlockable and viewable stats at the Wharf - Should be able to gain enough XP to reach level 10 by killing enough enemies by end of game Balance changes - Chalice nerfed from 10% to 5% bit gain - Deep Pockets nerfed from 50% to 35% bit gain - Collector nerfed from 10% to 5% of bits converted into damage - Pickpocket nerfed from gaining 50 bits to 15 bits - Celestia's base health decreased by 20% - Removed ability for normal chests from dropping bits - XP Gain now increased by 5% per Heat Level - Chain Lightning Dmg Scaling increased from 35% to 85% (of your combined damage + spell damage) - Burning Scaling increased from 25% to 65% (of your combined damage + spell damage) - Firefly Damage increased from 22.5 to 30 - Drone Damage scaling increased from 25% of weapon damage to 50% of weapon damage - Starting max drone count increased from 3 to 4 - Scattershot damage reduction reduced from 45% to 40% - Dubious Pen to destroy a chest reward from 50% to 25% - Lightning Walls should no longer deal damage to you if you have Gaia Armament - Guardian Trigger no longer causes Elsie to take more damage - Guardian Trigger charge up on enemy kill reduced from 8% to 5% - Counterattack Damage increased from 50 to 80 Bug Fixes - Boomerang bullets should deal damage on return - Chests will no longer drop "nothing" or small amounts of bits - Fixed text on many items - Fixed soft-locks on boss fights - NPC chatter is gone after unlocking in the stage - Fixed issue where normal chests were not dropping spell damage increases - Fixed issues with parry and meal ticket achievements unlocking all at once And that's not all! Elsie is also up for THREE awards over the next few weeks, Elsie has been shortlisted for a GWB Award on the 22nd of November, Best Arcade Game at the TIGA Awards on November 28th and for commitments to Accessibility at The Indie Game Awards on December 19th! We're so honoured to see the game nominated among so many incredible games that came out this year! Thank you once again to everyone who has played Elsie and provided feedback! Keep it coming as the Knight Shift team continue to tweak and look to the future of the game! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-11-22 15:05:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sup folks! As it's been a few weeks since the first Elsie patch, I wanted to give you guys a quick update on where the dev team are at with the next patch! The Knight Shift team have been working on what's coming next for Elsie, however, as they're based in Florida, they're currently taking precautions to protect themselves in the face of Hurricane Milton. With this in mind, the next patch for Elsie may be affected by internet or power outages, or just generally by the team taking the time to ensure their safety. Naturally this is our priority and we'll provide more details on the next patch as soon as we're sure everyone can work safely and securely! For anyone else within the community that's in the Florida area/path of Hurricane Milton, we extend our well wishes. Please be safe! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-10-09 11:01:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sup folks, A big thank you to everyone who has picked up Elsie over the last week, and also to everyone who has been leaving constructive feedback in the forums since launch! Your feedback has helped give the devs a good idea of what to look at, while they're investigating some other things, here's a quick rundown on what to expect from the first patch dropping today! Currently this update is only applies to Steam, we'll share more details for other platforms when applicable! Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where bouncy bullets and piercing bullets would hit more times than intended
• Stopped Saws and Dodders enemies spawning an audio event per frame
• Fixed issue with Drones attacking at the same rate as Elsie
• Charge weapons no longer keep spawning infinite charging VFX
• Camera transitions between rooms should no longer lag behind
• Jacky's chatter no longer persists after unlocking her
• Tuxedo item description fixed to show correct values
• Spellmaster item description updated
• Helix augment description updated
• Fixed soft-lock when attempting to level up when leaving a challenge room
• Fixed soft-lock when opening menu during boss transitions

Gameplay:

• After defeating a boss, they will no longer appear until after you've defeated the Guardian of that world
• Reduced bonus damage gained from Damage Up drops
• Armor Plating reduced from 5 to 3
• Reduced Unload's attack speed increase per bullet from 5% to 3%
• Enemies now scale harder over multiple runs

Once again, thanks to everyone for trying Elsie and taking the time to share feedback! This isn't all the team are working on, and we'll have more news for you soon! Jump in the Knight Shift Games Discord to provide your feedback directly to the devs or pop it in the Steam forums!

[ 2024-09-20 13:07:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! It's been just over a week since Elsie launched on PC, PS5 and Switch! The dev team have been hard at work, reading and taking on board all of your feedback as we look to investigate reported bugs and look towards a first update. We'll have more news on that soon! In the meantime, we wanted to share that Elsie is currently featuring in the Games Dev of Colour Expo event! The Knight Shift Team are incredibly proud of their heritage and Elsie is packed with references to that pride! Check out the GDOC Expo Steam Event here and help support devs of colour! We're also super pleased to announce that Elsie has been nominated for an award in the TIGA Games Industry Awards for Best Game in the Arcade category!
If you haven't tried Elsie yet, it's still available with a 20% introductory discount, go onnnnn! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-09-19 11:37:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

'Sup folks! It's robot blastin' time! Elsie has released across PC, PS5 and Switch! The Knight Shift Games team have been working so hard to bring this game to life over the years and we're all so HYPED for you to get your hands on the final game! Get ready to dive in and dash, shoot and parry your way through a whole bunch of beautiful biomes, bots AND bosses in this gorgeous, technicolour love letter to retro action-platformers. [previewyoutube=_V5hx55SR9c;full][/previewyoutube] Ekis is in chaos as Dr. Grey's Guardians are missing. She's formed one final chance in Elsie, an android ready to kick bot butt and find the missing Guardians to restore order to Ekis! With a whole bunch of abilities across procedural levels, no run will ever be the same, with different bots and varied builds to... build? before you face the Guardians! Are you ready to embrace the chaos? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-09-10 13:00:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

'Sup folks! As Elsie gets ready to rock her way onto Steam, PS5 and Switch in less than two weeks on September 10th, we've put together one last voice actor trailer to showcase all of the incredible talent behind the larger-than-life Guardians, NPCs and main characters! [previewyoutube=lcnr2B8AM7E;full][/previewyoutube] And that's not all! You still have around one day left to enter our Steam Deck OLED giveaway! You could win a beautiful Steam Deck AND a code for Elsie to play on the day it releases!
All you have to do is click HERE and enter as many ways as you want! And as ever, if you've come this far and Elsie isn't on your Wishlist yet, please consider hitting that button below. You'll be helping an indie developer get their game in front of more people, which is always super lovely! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-08-28 13:00:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sup folks! In case you missed our rockin' release date announcement last week, Elsie is coming September 10th to blast some bot butt! We shared a sweet animated release trailer that honestly just makes me want to watch an entire Elsie anime... check it out! [previewyoutube=qHuNkxBqx9s;full][/previewyoutube] I know why you're really here though, you wanna get your hands on this shiny Steam Deck OLED we're giving away, and I can't say I blame you!
Click this lovely link and enter as many ways as you like! And don't forget to Wishlist Elsie! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-08-20 11:01:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sup folks! It's all come down to this! Elsie is ready to jump and dash onto a screen near you! (preferably not TOO near, Tera insists that all this screen time can't be good for Elsie, even though she's an android) Elsie will be BLASTING on to Steam on September 10th! To mark this extremely special occasion, we have a BEAUTIFUL animated trailer that you should watch RIGHT NOW! It's been placed handily just below this sentence, get to it! [previewyoutube=qHuNkxBqx9s;full][/previewyoutube] Pretty sick, right? And to go ONE STEP FURTHER we've giving away a Steam Deck OLED to play the game on!
All you have to do is click here and enter as many times as you like! Right then... the time has come. If you've gotten this far on the journey and haven't yet wishlisted Elsie, now's the time! See you on September 10th! o7 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-08-14 13:00:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sup folks! As we draw closer to our next exciting announcement for Elsie, we wanted to throw some questions at the Knight Shift team about game development and how Elsie came running and gunning into the world! Check it out!

What inspired you to create Elsie?

Alex: When I started my journey to become an indie game dev, it was a daunting and challenging path. The initial steps were pretty difficult, filled with lots of uncertainty. To make the journey more enjoyable and sustainable, I decided to create a game inspired by some of my all-time favorites from my childhood, such as Super Metroid and the Mega Man X series!

So Elsie has a bunch of procedurally-generated levels. Walk us through the process for procedural generation?

Alex: Procedural generation is pretty simple, it's just generating an output based on some rules. The hard part is learning and iterating through those rules. I spent many months testing different variations for our levels until I found a good fit. I went for overly complex generation to simple rules and over time I landed on keeping it rather simple and focusing on the more hand-crafted experiences. At the start, when I tried to generate a whole stage, it took so much effort to make platforming challenges that felt natural and placing enemies in places to give players appropriate obstacles. It was challenging to generate something that always felt right to the player so I had to get another solution. I landed on a hybrid solution of hand-crafted the rooms themselves with some randomness inside the rooms then procedurally stitching rooms together to create the whole stage. This approach gave me enough control for the moment to moment while giving players a little bit of a refresh after each death.

What were some of the big challenges during development?

Pedro: Like most indie teams, we have been faced with, what's probably the most common challenge, funding! For around 6 years, we have worked on Elsie part-time completely self-funded. We also had to deal with a revolving door of team members, making it difficult to keep the same style and quality throughout the project, particularly in the art. We are extremely grateful to Playtonic for publishing the game, and assisting with development funds to get the game out the door, and helping us maintain the same team 'til the end of production.

What inspired the cyberpunk setting?

Pedro: Elsie was always somewhat cyberpunk-ish since its inception, but we took a hard shift into the current cyberpunk style when I came onto the project around 2018. The project received a major overhaul, which included this new vibrant, neon, flashy aesthetic. We wanted something that caught the eye at a glance and intrigued folks to check it out further!

What was the design process for the various world biomes?

Pedro: Being old-school game lovers, we definitely stayed in the traditional "elemental" biomes, but wanted to give them some flare artistically. The first environment we designed was the Eclipse Skyport. It was meant to be the "wind" biome, but we shifted away from "wind" or "air" and just more towards a "sky" vibe, where there was a machine that lifted the city underneath into the sky. We've got the usual suspects of fire, nature, ice, and lightning as well, but each with their own distinct feel, style, enemies, and music to really immerse you into the level!

Eric, how did you decide what music would fit the game's aesthetic?

Eric: For Elsie, I started by having conversations with Alex, our lead programmer and project manager, and discussing what we wanted the game to feel and sound like. We had many conversations that resulted in the desire to primarily use modern instruments with an inclusion of retro sound chip sources. After, I explored different sound sources and processing chains to create a general set of sounds that I thought could accomplish what we had in mind. We decided the game's soundtrack would feature influences from musical genres we all enjoy, along with our Latin and European heritage. As an example, I decided to blend in bit of Afro-Cuban rhythms in our Nature biome, as well as Venezuelan joropo in our Ice biome.

What roles do you think music plays in enhancing the player experience?

Eric: The music serves as one of the driving engines that feeds the player with energy. It's primarily role is to add intesity and emotions to the different levels and encounters. I tried my best to match the high-octane gameplay while offering a bit of breathing room. The other role of the music soundtrack to help bring the biomes to life by introducing distinct biome-specific sounds and having thematic materials that are recurrent in other music tracks of the same family. After a bit of listening, the player is bound to associate certain melodies, grooves, and sounds with specific biomes.

What made you want to make a roguelike?

Alex: It's my favorite genre of game so naturally it's what I'd really enjoy making. I love games with high risk to them. Gives every moment you play weight to it that you don't feel in others.

How does Andru's melee combat differ from Elsie's gameplay style, and what was the process of balancing these two characters?

Alex: Wait we were supposed to balance the two characters? In all seriousness, Andru has a whole slew of weapons and his combat really gets you into the heat of battle and tests how good you are with the game's core mechanic of the parry. Elsie's focus is just to blow up stuff and fill the screen with bullets. Andru is more like a scalpel. Very precise and meticulous. He does some builds that allow you to play like a bullet hell boss too.

Who would win a fight between Elsie and Andru?

Alex: Hmmm... probably Elsie or the game would be called Andru, wouldn't it? __________________________________________________________________ Elsie is coming soooon to a PC (and PS5 and Switch!) near you, hopefully the one in your house, actually! So take one step closer to that happening by Wishlisting it below! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-08-07 15:00:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sup folks! We've already shown that Elsie isn't just packed with hyper-kinetic platforming, but incredible voice talent too with not just the main characters but also the powerful missing Guardians too! The survivors of the attack on Neotoo will be dotted around the various worlds when you explore, bring them back to Sapir Wharf and they'll help you on your journey! So let's check out what awesome voice talent is behind the citizens of the Wharf! [previewyoutube=hj-B2qE--FE;full][/previewyoutube] If you like what you see and hear, don't forget to smash that Wishlist button to smithereens! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-07-18 13:00:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! The music of Elsie, quite frankly, absolutely slaps. A fast-paced, colourful, action-packed game like Elsie needs a soundtrack to match and that challenge was taken on by Eric Benaim, music composer and sound designer at Knight Shift Games. We sat down with Eric to discuss his life as a composer and inspiration for the banging beats that back Elsie's bot butt kicking! Take a read below: How did you get into making music for video games? I first experimented with game music back when I was in high school. I remember having projects for computer class where Id create my own games in Macromedia Flash (later bought by Adobe). Id create the art, animations, music, sound effects and program the games logic in ActionScript. This was the first time I was able to compose music for video games. After this, I quit making games and dedicated myself to playing the electric guitar as well as the piano. After going to music school in Venezuela and eventually moving to the United States, I decided to return to the world of composing. Dedicating my life to writing music for video games felt like a very natural decision, as it allowed me to combine two of my greatest passions. What drew you to want to work on Elsie? After connecting and becoming good friends with Alendro (lead programmer for Elsie), we began working together on a slew of indie games. What drew me to Elsie is that it represented a project that involved a couple friends wanting to have fun and create a game theyd themselves love to play. It's a passion project inspired by the games that shaped our childhood, as well as other influential games that have been released in the last couple years. What inspires you when composing the soundtrack for Elsie? My main inspiration is drawn from the colorful artstyle, particle effects, and other visual elements. However, the gameplay, pacing, and story have helped conjure additional imagery when sketching music. Within Elsie there are a variety of worlds, how did you hone the vibe of each of them? Initially, we had discussions regarding each worlds sound world. This helped add some separation between the music of the different biomes. The main elements helping contribute to this separation are the instruments and rhythms chosen for each piece. However, a lot of cohesiveness is gained by introducing level-specific thematic material (during the exploration phase of the levels) that is later developed during the boss music tracks. Can you let us into your secrets of how you make sounds (e.g. lasers, blasts etc)? The technique I used to design most of Elsies sound effects involves layering multiple sources (synthesizers and recordings) and processing each layer to add character, or help the parts feel cohesive. For example, the vocal portion of the robotic animal enemy sound effects all originated from animal sound recordings that were processed and transformed. These were often times layered with recordings of small motors and other machinery What has been your biggest challenge when creating the music so far? The biggest challenge so far has been to maintain a similar music style to the one we had when I first joined the project nine years ago. Ive grown a lot as a composer and my creative decisions take me in different directions at times! Do you have a favourite track (if you can talk about it)? My favorite track so far is probably the boss theme from Trishulas Tundra. It gave me an opportunity to incorporate the themes and other musical material from the levels exploration music into a more active and intense composition. I was also able to include a bit of traditional folkloric Venezuelan music for the final section of the track, which was a lot of fun! Whos your favourite character in Elsie? Tera! She has been modeled after the older ladies that work at Cuban coffee shops. They are lightning fast, strong, colorful and often packed with a wealth of wisdom. Thanks for sharing, Eric! If you're ready to go out into the world of Ekis and find the missing Guardians, Wishlist Elsie now for more very soon! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-06-14 15:16:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! If it wasn't already obvious, Elsie is a pretty fast-paced, colourful game! The Knight Shift team have been hard at work to provide a host of accessibility features to make Elsie as accessible as possible to anyone who wants to play. Elsie is part of the Access-Ability Summer Showcase on Steam! Check out the video below or read on! [previewyoutube=WpFdmOJ88z0;full][/previewyoutube] If you just want to absorb the gorgeous style and play through the story, theres an Invincibility mode! Which might also come in handy if youre struggling against a particularly tricky boss fight. To help you focus on the hyper-kinetic on-screen action, there are modifiers to allow you to blur, desaturate or even turn off the background entirely. There are options for adjusting the amount of screen shake you experience too to help with this even further. Elsie is an incredibly colourful game, so it has options to assist those with colour vision deficiency too. Options for player outline and enemy outline also allow you to adjust the hue to your liking, to make sure the technicolour action is as visible as possible. If you need assistance with reflex mechanics, there will also be an option to adjust the timing required to correctly hit a parry, as well as following up with those all-important counter-attacks. So to recap, theres:

• An invincibility mode
• Parry and counter-attack timing adjustments
• Font size modifier
• Colourblind assist
• Player and enemy outline options
• Rumble strength and screen shake modifiers
• Options to blur, desaturate or remove backgrounds

Elsie is a love letter to retro-action platformers of old while packing in plenty of new elements to give the genre a modern twist and we want as many people as possible to be able to enjoy the experience.

[ 2024-06-07 15:00:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sup folks! We're excited to reveal, as part of the Guerrilla Collective online showcase that we announced that as well as a PC release, Elsie is officially coming to PS5 and Switch! Check out the announcement trailer below: [previewyoutube=_IxL7s33mB0;full][/previewyoutube] And if you're hyped for the PC release, make sure you Wishlist the game on Steam! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1515570/Elsie/

[ 2024-06-06 19:00:55 CET ] [ Original post ]