News – Transhuman Design

Maniac released on PC

28 March, 2024 MM

Gamers around the world are gearing up for an adrenaline-pumping experience as MANIAC, the highly anticipated action roguelite game, is set to launch on Steam on March 28, 2024. Developed by Transhuman Design, MANIAC combines the fun and lunacy of classic top-down Grand Theft Auto with the “just one more try” addictive nature of Vampire Survivors. And the best part? All of this insanity is only going to cost you as much as a fancy cup of coffee. MANIAC will retail for just $4.99 USD! “MANIAC is my dream game because you start by escaping a hospital, get chased by the police, FBI, and eventually end up with the entire military declaring war on you and launching a nuclear strike to stop you. How crazy can it get?” explains Transhuman’s Michal Marcinkowski. MANIAC will be available for purchase on Steam starting March 28, 2024 for the incredibly low price of $4.99 USD. For more information about the game, please visit the Steam Page.

WATCH THE TRAILER: MANIAC announcement trailer

Trench Run Build 15 Released!

11 April, 2016 Tags: Trench Run MM

Mandatory after-launch patch with some good bug fixes and quality of life improvements. Also lets celebrate the Steam launch with a -50% sale on the in-game items.
Have fun!
And invite friends!
crocball_confusing

Changes:

[added] lobby players in other games in scoreboard
[modified] a bit quicker team briefing in Run
[modified] improved medic bot AI
[modified] bots arent so afraid of remote bomb
[added] slightly better steam auth error handling
[removed] unranked servers button (temporarily)
[modifed] blinking healing icon
[modified] lobby music plays infinitely until someone makes it stop

PS. Please e-mail support@thd.vg if you bought TR earlier and you want a Steam key.

Weekly News – TR Preview Build Coming!

9 November, 2015 Geti

These last few weeks we’ve thought long and hard about the future of Trench Run.

We want to get a public build released as soon as possible. However, we want to stay away from the “open alpha” preview style that we used for KAG and the division in the community that that caused.

In effect, we want to dodge a messy fate.

Instead, we’re planning a free, time-limited preview build. The build will only work for set periods, but you can play as much as you like during those periods. During initial testing, we’d be opening it for a week at a time. After release, probably one weekend each month or fortnight.

We’re still hammering out the details and hitting implementation hurdles. The plan was to release it last Wednesday, but each release candidate has had too many issues upon entering testing. We’ll see how it goes this week and keep you posted.

There is no single player mode available in the preview build. The preview build is only able to connect to one “test” region. The test lobby is capable of both “skirmish” and “run” games. The preview build will replace the current demo build, and will patch over it. It will (hopefully!) form a much more PC-relevant, online look at how the game plays, and we’re looking forward to sharing it with you!

Stay tuned!

Max

Weekly News – KAG Update for Halloween

30 October, 2015 Geti

Hey guys, trying to keep up the rhythm of the weekly updates! Let’s get to it!

Trench Run News:

We’ve got some big news about the future of Trench Run, but we’ll save it for next week. This week has been huge for KAG, so I won’t steal their thunder!

King Arthur’s Gold News:

This next patch coming is a double-whammy of requested features and fixes and halloween spookiness. This is probably the biggest release largely handled by the interns, so please, give them your support!

We had a lot of laughs testing out the spooky event features!

Verra has merged in a plethora of modding and server hosting enhancements.

Fixed the infamous “infinite mod redownloading” bug
Render account avatars in-game
Lots of AngelScript error improvements (errors in #includes output correctly, lines matched to errors correctly)
Memory leaks and file handle leaks investigated + fixed where possible.
Limited the size of the backlog kept in console (very important for stability of long-running servers)
Removed the printout of blob creation (-> drastically reduced log size)

Other miscellaneous fixes and extensions to the engine include:

Sound volume getting set 100% all the time
Music “bursting” at the start of each track
primitive character name tab-complete in the chat box
extended TCPR functionality

Skinney and Verra have worked together on several gameplay changes as well:

Halloween content and a new “holiday” framework for recurring events.
Trampolines now cannot be folded, have a “reset time” before they can bounce something else, and work while held.
Mines do substantially more damage to tiles, ignore shields, and can be converted between teams if you pick them up before they deploy.
Arrows do not collide with other projectiles.
Spawning issues in CTF are mostly fixed, including spawn timers resetting and spawning at contested points.

As always, these changes are not final or inflexible, but we’d like you to give them a good thorough play before giving any feedback.

Full Changelog:

[modified] scoreboard name color
[modified] Holiday.as, increased holiday length of all holidays
			to 3 days (one day either side).
[added] gregs, and necromancer tricks.
[updated] madracoon head
[fixed] builder placing blocks will inventory open.
[added] spooky ghosts.
[fixed] another case for spawning on converting vehicles.
[added] Mine icon to kill feed
[modified] Arrow.as, arrows don't collide with other projectiles
[modified] mine; blob_damage(+0.5), map_radius(+8.0),
			damage ignores shields, can be picked up by
			enemies while not primed (changes team and owner)
[added] new common script, GenericDestruction.as
[updated] CTFShops to use new script, GenericDestruction.as
[fixed] spawning at old spawn if under raid.
[modified] repsawns menu closing after one click.
[modified] respawn menu locks with under 2 seconds to spawn.
[fixed] type missmatch in ctf gui
[modified] trampolines now setVelocity to a flat value
[fixed] path resolution for interactions icons on linux.
[added] server browser minimaps
[fixed] infinite redownloading bug.
[fixed] swapping to spectator messing with votekicks
[fixed] sound getting set 100% all the time
[added] primitive tab complete to chat console
			uses usernames of all connected players (as lowercase)
[fixed] music is too loud for a split second on starting
[fixed] interaction icon path resolution on linux.
[added] player avatar image access
[added] CDriver::hasShaders for testing if you should bother
			doing shader related stuff (or avoiding doing stuff
			that relys on them to look good)
[added] tcpr() function to print just to tcpr (with optional
			debug stuff to print it too) to control bandwidth
[script][added] bool GUI::hasIconName( string iconName )
[fixed] File lock causes assert if applog hasn't been initialized.
[modifed] added library linking to nolauncher/forceupdate/runlocalhost
			for linux clients.
[modified] filelock to have an option to turn off error reporting.
[script][modified] default scoreboard doesnt render if script scoreboard used
[fixed] file permissions issue.
[fixed] Mods folder path.

Have Fun!

Max

Weekly Update – Trench Run at PGA and General KAG Dev

23 October, 2015 Geti

Hey guys, sorry for the delay between posts – it’s been a hectic couple of weeks!

Trench Run News:

These last two weeks we’ve been very busy on expo versions of TR and on getting the new art finalised. Poznan Game Arena was great fun, with the THD booth heavily featuring Trench Run. This is the first event where we’ve shown the new graphics, and we’re happy with how they were received. People kept coming back to play more, but lots of people thought we should release it on a console. Maybe in the future we will 🙂 Butcher was also shown and lots of players had fun meating people!

The music also got stuck in everyone’s head, which is always a good sign!

PGA was a time for the polish branch of THD to touch base with friends, meet fans, host a TR tournament, wear flowers, and hit the dancefloor flying!

This week we’ll be getting back to finishing off some remaining unchanged graphics (stuff that isn’t used in skirmish) and refining the menus. We’ll get some more screenshots your way soon!

King Arthur’s Gold News:

Verra has been working on an attack/defense mod. You can see a longer video of a match here and discuss the mod here. Give it a look and get some feedback going his way!

New mode, same old chaos!

Skinney has been working more on the editor, as well as changes to trampolines. The trampoline changes allow more front-line use as they can be bounced on while carried, removes folding the trampolines, and prevents bouncing through the back of the trampoline. In particular, some of these changes will curb the effectiveness of trampoline cannons. Currently, trampoline cannons allow savvy builders to launch their team over the entire map in a way that’s very hard to counter.

Keep in mind that this is an experimental change, but we are fairly committed to changing this part of the meta-game. It’s a hard decision to make because we’re always happen when we see this kind of “KAG engineering”… However, when something like this settles as the winning dominant strategy, we feel something needs to be done.

That’s all for this week – looking forward to getting back to a normal news schedule over the next month. Stay tuned!

Play, experience, transcend

4 March, 2014 MM

What exactly is Transhuman Design? Let me explain what it means and what is our mission.

Transhumanism is the movement towards becoming a better human. Much like the philosophy of the Overman/Uberman. However transhumanism achieves this with the use of technology. I see computer games as an important tool that can aid us in evolution and the development of our consciousness.

Transhuman Design’s goal is to aid everybody in their evolution by providing experiences that make them better, faster, stronger and more conscious human beings.

By playing games you can become a better woman or man. You can have experiences you would never have had in your normal waking life. You can become faster by playing games – think faster and have better reflexes. You can become stronger in your will and your logic. You can learn the joy of competitiveness and the usefulness of collaboration.

Games are a gym for the mind. A gym that can be shared with people from around the world from all cultures. The ultimate lesson games provide is that all of humanity is sewed from the same cloth. We all like fun, we all have the same emotions when playing good games. This is what unites us all and what games can teach us.

The challenge is to create such experiences that provide emotions in an impactful way, whether it is joy, sadness, happiness, fear or love. Transhuman Design strives to spark these emotions by making better games everyday. This is what makes us and people that play our games better humans. This is how we become – Transhuman.

Enter King Arthur’s Gold

19 February, 2012 MM

There is a well established trend in creating computer games these days. This trend is to make a game NOT fun at all. This happened a while ago and we haven’t noticed it because it didn’t happen suddenly. It was a slow degradation.

How did it happen? I think because game developers forgot what games are meant for. Modern video games have in the essence become movies with rendered graphics. You only control how fast the movie progresses.

How many times have you bought a game thinking it delivered what it promised, only to experience the same repetitive gameplay over and over? These games are developed with a trailer in mind. Game companies try to blind you with flashy effects and trick you into buying the game – NOT fun.

The good news is that this trend is starting to reverse. The successes of indie games like Minecraft in the last year, tell us that millions of gamers are tired of mainstream games and are beginning to see what games should be like and what they themselves enjoy most. This is the beginning of a revolution. A revolution that will show you what video games were always meant to be…

This is where King Arthur’s Gold comes in.

This game is my dream come true. My name is Michal Marcinkowski and I am a single coder and game designer who used to draw simple war games on pieces of paper with friends at school. All my life I have been looking to experience that simple wonder and fun on a computer. So much freedom from something so simple. Few games come close. That’s why I decided to make them myself. The pencil doodles have come to life and you too can experience the sheer fun of it. This is the only point of my games. To have as much fun as possible.

King Arthur’s Gold – affectionately known as KAG – is a unique build’n’kill game. KAG lets you use siege engines and catapults to knock down castles in randomly generated medieval worlds. It lets you mine for gold and set traps. Cooperate with your friends and watch as the meticulously-built enemy fortress topples down on the tiny pixel heads of your foes. It’s bloody fun. It’s Free. And hey… King Arthur’s Gold has ZOMBIES! You haven’t seen anything if you haven’t played this game.

KAG is a perfect blend of the coolest aspects of the latest indie games. Mine, build and fight real people in real-time. Use castles, catapults, siege engines and traps to gain advantage. In KAG the environment is 100% interactive – everything can be built and everything can be destroyed.

KAG brings a new level of fun never-before-seen in a computer game. We all deserve to enjoy and have some REAL fun after years of being robbed of our time and money by shitty games.

As gamers..
We love to explore.
We love to build.
We love to fight.
We love to cooperate and compete with others.

Not with a scripted character that is being forced on us.

How many times have you been tricked into believing that a given next gen game will feature a revolutionary cooperative AI only to end being stuck in a corridor? A real person playing like you, interacting with you and striving to achieve a common goal is the only friend you will ever need. Playing with other people is fun. Destroying your enemies castle is fun. Watching them fall into your spike trap is fun. Dropping a rock on their head and seeing them make an angry face is FUN.

But that is not all. While most independent games focus on gameplay, they tend to forget about the graphics and do not appeal to the eye. That’s a mistake – the visuals are also important. And I’m not talking about bleeding-edge bloom effects that try to mimic reality here. We’re talking about special aesthetics, because that’s what counts. KAG is presented in beautiful hand-drawn pixel graphics. Every pixel is carefully picked and matched to create a unique visual experience and to paint a great story. A story of King Arthur and his knights trying to prevail over the evil enemy.

Experience a work of love that mixes mythological themes of grandiose battles and dreams of bravery and combines that with the best aspects of classic and future gaming trends that rock the very foundations of video game design.

This is King Arthur’s Gold. And you are invited to join the adventure.

Welcome to the new THD website

27 August, 2011 MM

Website updated with all the latest team member profiles and game projects we are working on.
If I forgot to mention you in the “people” section let me know! (mm [at] thd.vg)

Enjoy.