Hey everyone! A little dev update: We've been back at it for the past couple of weeks. We've taken your feedback into account, squashed a lot of bugs, polishing as much as we could, and are getting everything ready for Nick's initial full release. We're still not sure when that will be exactly, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Also, we finally figured out why the online leaderboards weren't displaying on Steam. You should now be able to see and compare your elf killing abilities with each other!

Update 2 is here!

Sorry for the wait! Took us a little while to make time for the game after the tinsel of the holidays had faded. Please read the Known Issues section for answers on a few common bugs that we've been seeing.

• Tutorial Level Added
  
  • We've made a quick tutorial level that should hopefully answer any questions about what you're suppose to do and how to do it. It's kinda buggy, at the moment, but we wanted to get initial feedback on the flow and content of it.
• New FX
  
  • Lots of new particle FX to add some boom to your bangs
• Online Leaderboards
  
  • Online leaderboards have been set up and are enabled!
    
  • They're not visible at the moment, but they're definitely taking score.
    
  • The current high score is 542 by a user named long!

• Fixed a bunch o' bugs.

• Known Issues discussion will contain issues and their fixes (if they're available)
  
• Bug Reports discussion will be a place for people to post any bugs they find.

This is just a section filled with ideas that we've passed around and would like to put into the game.
• Address controls - We're still looking into how to adjust the controls. You should see an improvement by the next update. Feel free to keep giving feedback about them though!
  
• Proper splash screen with UE4 + Firstborn branding.

That's it! Hate us? Love us? Lonely? Contact us at:
fb.games@firstborn.com.

It's here! Our aptly named first update: Update 1!

• New Mechanic - Generator, Power Cells, and Electronics
  
  • The previously inactive power switch in the corner over the presents has been removed and replaced by a generator.
    
  • This generator uses power cells, dropped by the elves, to sustain energy to Nick's equipment.
    
  • While active, the generator will brighten up the room, signal where incoming waves are coming from (lights over the windows), and display wave information on the new screens on top of the work bench.
    
  • In future updates these power cells will be used to boost Nick's other electronics- maybe overcharge the boomstick for more damage, electrify the windows, or used in a recipe to make an EMP... who knows! But we have some things in mind, let us know what you think!
• Electronics - As mentioned before, Nick has a few new toys. He's hacked into P.A.L.'s mainframe and is now able to extract sensitive data such as wave length, time until next wave, and current wave number.
  
• Unique Elf Stats - The elves are getting smarter! They've now fine tuned their abilities to best suit their Nick-given weapons.
  
  • Smshd the Packing Elf Model is the most nimble and numerous. What they lack in damage and health they'll more than make up for it with their sheer desire for rending flesh!
    
  • Hammrd the Hammering Elf Model might not be the quickest, but they sure do pack a punch. All those years on the assembly line have hardened their steel and their battery reserves. Bring them down quick or pay the price!
    
  • Sawzy the Sawing Elf Model is the slowest and hardiest of the bunch. If allowed to reach the front door they'll immediately break any barriers, allowing the other bots to flood in. Kill them as early as you can to prolong Nick's inevitable demise.
• Elves now look at you properly
  
• Added physical animation to Sawzy
  
• Elves disintegrate when they die
  
• Enabled trading cards! But we're not 100% sure if they're attainable yet, we'll get back to you on that

• Nick's death DOES happen.
  
• ALL elves drop into their ragdoll state when they die.
  
• Highlighting letters on the game over screen is a bit buggy has been improved!. But there's more room for improvement.
  
• Teleportation clipping shouldn't be happening.
  
• Hammer will ALWAYS returns to the house at the end of the round if you throw it outside of the shack.
  
• Fixed a bunch o' bugs

• Hammrd's animations need a bit more polish
  
• Particle FX need some polish
  
• Sometimes elves have trouble getting into the window - not sure if this is a welcomed bug or not, but we're trying to fix it so they can come in 100% of the time IF they're not hit midair.
  
• The high score name entry isn't perfect.. and neither are we! We'll get around to fine tuning it, but it's in a better state than before.

This is just a section filled with ideas that we've passed around and would like to put into the game.

• Address controls - We're still looking into how to adjust the controls. You should see an improvement by the next update. Feel free to keep giving feedback about them though!
  
• New weapons - While we love the versatility of the blunderbuss and hammer, we want more ways to cause robo carnage. We're discussing new offensive weapons and defensive electronics at this moment.
  
• Elf entry points - Ever thought that Smshd looked like a great climber? We did too! We just need to find the time to give him some animations for jumping around in the rafters and implementing that inside the engine.
  
• Proper splash screen with UE4 + Firstborn branding.

That's it! Hate us? Love us? Lonely? Contact us at:
fb.games@firstborn.com.

First, we'd like to say thank you for all of your feedback and patience during our initial early access release!

We're getting ready to release our first update today, and because we're totally new at this, we might break a few things here and there during the upload process:O please bear with us and take a look at the changes. As always, keep the feedback coming and enjoy!

We've just published an intro guide here: http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=828737296

Hopefully this does the trick and answers any basic questions you guys might have until we're able to implement something in-game in the near future.

Thanks for all of the support so far!

Hello! In anticipation of our initial early access release, we'd like to put out a small list of known issues that we didn't get around to fixing before the holiday break. We'll be fixing them first thing in the new year:

• Nick's death doesn't happen. Nick does die, but the transition to the game over screen prevents the game from ending. When you hear him scream, he's dead. Use the menu to quit/restart.
  
• Some elves don't drop into their ragdoll state when they die. If they're just standing there in their idle animation, they're dead and should be ignored.
  
• Highlighting letters on the game over screen is a bit buggy. If you think you're on a letter and it's not highlighted, it's probably just a display bug and you can safely select that letter.
  
• Teleportation clipping. Nick goes through the floor and is lower than he should be after teleporting.
  
• Hammer sometimes doesn't return to house at the end of the round if you throw it out of the house.

That's it! Everything else should be working well, please send any errors/bug reports to:
fb.games@firstborn.com.