ChainStaff DLC Reveal

I have awesome news! We are putting the finishing touches on some big DLC for ChainStaff. 

It's called the "ChainStaff Time Trials".  

Fifty super-fast challenge levels complete with online leaderboards.

 

In the main game, you get 10 HUGE levels to take your time to explore. I thought a great complement to this action would be a set of challenge levels. 

 

The Floor is Lava!

Personally I loved the old game "Bionic Commando Rearmed" on the Xbox 360 (the sequel kinda stunk, don't get me started). In Bionic Commando Rearmed you got the single-player campaign to take your time to explore, get upgrades, and complete the story. But along the way you also unlocked dozens of really tricky challenge levels. And what I liked about those levels is how they each were a tiny gameplay challenge. Each level had a focus on how to do a new, tricky swing or platforming move.

And I'm doing something similar here! Each of the 50 levels in the Time Trials focuses on a bit of gameplay using the ChainStaff and platforming. Every level is designed by my hand, and is unlocked from the start so you can pick and play as you like. Get ready to zip and swing like never before! It's all about speed and flow in the DLC.

The levels all have Bronze, Silver, and Gold medal ratings for how fast you can complete them. The Bronze are very doable (easy mode) for most players, so don't be scared away by the difficulty. Once you get your head around the levels though, the Gold medal times will take some effort to reach. And you'll be blown away when you start figuring out tiny tricks to shave 1, 2 or even 5 seconds off what you thought was your best time!

Each time you get a new "best time" your score is uploaded to the global leaderboards. Did you already get Gold on a level? There is no "S rank" in levels...my idea is you all get to prove on the leaderboards how fast you can complete some levels--and to show off your own "S rank" time.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4900800/ChainStaff__Time_Trials/ 

There's dozens of new environmental hazards to figure out.

So that's the Time Trials! 

There's loads of new, interesting, environmental hazards, and lots of ways to figure out new, even better paths to fly through these levels. They are super short, super easy to retry--and all hand-made. Make sure to check out the reveal trailer, and to wishlist it on Steam! 

This DLC is coming out soon on Steam and then on consoles.

If you wanna chat, comment down below, or hop on over to Discord. I'd love to hear from you. https://discord.gg/8PYEmJWxAT



Soundtrack, Theme Song, Launch Party

The official soundtrack to ChainStaff has all its volume 1 songs released today on Steam!

You can get it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4573800/ChainStaff_Soundtrack/

And to celebrate, the composer, Deon van Heerden created a full-on music video for the theme song "The Ultimate Weapon". Careful: it will get stuck in your head!

This past week I had a real treat. The dev team and friends and family threw me a surprise launch party for the game! They brought in the show props like the ChainStaff backdrop and the foam ChainStaff itself and even got me an awesome cake. 
Here are some pictures from it. It was a great surprise.

 

 

 

  

 

   

 

Thanks again to everyone that's played the game! 

ChainStaff is Out Now!

It's out on Switch 1 and 2, Xbox One/Series, Playstation 4/5, and Steam! 

Yup, the game I've been working diligently on for 7 years, starting back in 2019, is ready to play! 

If you enjoyed the demo on Steam for ChainStaff there's 9 more giant levels, weird parasite upgrades, and over a dozen giant bosses some of which are hard to figure out! And plenty of weapons too shoot at bunches of completely bonkers monsters while you go for the 6 different endings. 

 

If you didn't play the demo, check out this review: https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/75127/chainstaff-... 

Who am kidding, stop reading, go get the game!:D 

My publisher went out of business and I did not have marketing support from a big company. Instead of waiting to get the game 2 years from now, if you get the game at launch and leave a review, it helps sooooooo much more than getting it in the future. 

Plus you get to join in talking to other people on the discord about it while everyone's playing it together https://discord.gg/8PYEmJWxAT

This will help ensure I get to make extra content for it too. (I hope to release some free updates.) 

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2976260/ChainStaff

Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/chainstaff-switch/

Playstation: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10014011

Thank you! -Nathan  

Added New Ability to ChainStaff - Launch Getting Closer

Vault Ability 

As we continue to polish ChainStaff for the April 8th release date, I've got cool news. 

After loads of playtesting I realized we needed just a little bit of extra polish in the game. 

Behold--the "Vault Ability"!

This is a new, automatic move that happens to the player in the game. 

Any time you are next to a ledge, and you press towards it (left/right), you will automatically try to climb it just a little bit.

You don't climb all the way up walls.But you do kick off of them twice, giving you a tiny boost. 

You do not do a full ledge grab. That I feel would slow down the pace of the game. But you quickly do a small wall-hop and it lets you over loads of tiny spots you'd fall normally. 

Want to try it out? It's in the free demo on Steam right now! Is it better than a ledge-grab? Let me know what you think. 

Final Playtesting

If you are interested in playtesting the game before its release this April 8th, join my discord and ask around and I'll hook you up. 

The game is 90-95% complete and I am now smoothing out rough edges and looking for more bugs. 

We are getting close and I could use all the help I can get to find bugs in the game. Thanks! 

 

ChainStaff Launch Date, Pre-Order, Price, and Cheats Menu

Launch Date Revealed

 

I have cool news! We finally have a release date for ChainStaff. Steam, Switch, Playstation, Xbox, everything...the game is coming out April 8th. Check out the trailer for new monsters, weapons, and levels. 

Pre-Order Open 

Also big news--we have a price now: $14.99. And pre-order options are available! We worked really hard to get the game through all the annoying systems for Nintendo and Microsoft. (Sadly Sony doesn't let smaller games like mine get a pre-order. I did try though! ) Please wishlist it or pre-order it. It's a big help! This page has all the store links: https://chainstaffgame.com/ 

Cheat Codes Now in the Demo 

I just updated the demo on Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2976260/ChainStaff It is still the tutorial training level and level 1, but there is now also a Cheat Menu. 

How's it work? Well it takes simple words. But you have to *know* the words. And I put all kinds of wacky, helpful, powerful cheats in there. Letter-case does not matter. Spaces do matter in between words. 

Just go to Options->Cheats in the demo to add them. How do you find out the Cheats? You should join the Discord server. Also I will reveal a few sometimes in the newsletter.

I add some cheats on the Discord server. https://discord.gg/8PYEmJWxAT 

Enjoy!