This hot fix addresses a crash which could occur on stage 4-1 when playing with the Geometry Detail setting in Video Options set to 'Low'.

A new post-game SovKhan fight, even more brutal than the one in the story campaign, has been added to Slave Zero X as a free update to the game! April 11 is also the official release date of Slave Zero X in Asia, so Asian languages are now available in the Steam version of the game.

The patch to version S1.04 is now live! The Steam build ID for this patch is 13988182. Included in this patch are the following updates and changes:

New Content!

• SovKhan 300% boss fight is now included in the game. This bonus fight is unlocked in Level Select by a successful completion of Crimson Citadel.
  
• The game now includes localized text for menus in subtitles in these languages: Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Thai.

Stability improvements

• Fixed crashes and softlocks which could occur in Crimson Citadel.
  
• By popular demand, a bug allowing the player to teleport enemies into grabbed enemies with the kunai has NOT been fixed. The occasional accompanying crash has been fixed though.

Visual fixes and improvements

• Fixed an issue with the “PVM Scanlines” shader on stage 4-1.
  
• Jarring camera movements have been smoothed out in 5-4.
  
• Updated all levels to look better with the low detail lighting mode enabled.

Quality of life Improvements

• Fixed an issue where the selected ordnance cycles when leaving a menu.

Game balance changes

• Fixed an exploit where shop-based achievements could be unlocked in Crimson Citadel.

Other fixes

• The boss in 6-4 now properly counts as an encounter.
  
• Fixed an issue with the language reading as “English” when reentering the language menu while it is set to Hindi.
  
• Fixed issues with incorrect naming when unlocking certain palettes and shaders.
  
• Fixed a number of localization errors.
  
• Fixed an issue where rebinding the cancel key leaves the menu.
  
• Fixed an issue where the game could not be paused at the end of 5-3 under certain conditions.
  
• Fixed an issue where certain chronicle entries would not scroll.
  
• Fixed an issue where the golden trooper’s escape timer would run while the game is paused.
  
• Fixed numerous instances of errors with low detail geometry.
  
• Fixed a bug where the voice language would revert to English in level 4-5 if set to Japanese.
  
• Fixed a bug where taunt rebinding didn’t save
  
• Fixed a bug where directional recovery didn’t work after rebinding the movement keys
  
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to unpause while rewatching the tutorial.

We hope you enjoy these updates! For any questions or feedback, find us in the Community Hub main forum. For reporting or troubleshooting any issues you encounter in the game, please visit the Bug Reporting forum.

Poppy Works and Team Ziggurat

The patch to version S1.03 is now live! The Steam build ID for this patch is 13717025. Included in this patch are the following updates and changes:

Stability improvements

• A fix has been added to address a crash which could occur when pressing certain buttons simultaneously.
  
• A crash which could occur when using certain EX attacks in rapid succession has been fixed.
  
• A crash which could occur on stage 4-5 has been fixed.

Visual fixes and improvements

• Sprites which could occasionally render incorrectly have been fixed to render correctly.
  
• Grabbing an enemy in the air will now flip their sprite!

Game balance changes

• The parry window has been increased by 1 frame.
  
• The number of invulnerable frames while dodging has been increased by 1 frame.
  
• The hitbox of the Superheavy’s charging grab has been reduced in size; players will now be able to jump over it more consistently
  
• The total health of the final boss of stage 6-4 has been reduced by 15%.

Quality of life Improvements

• Menus can now be exited with the ‘Cancel’ button.
  
• The Tutorial can now be accessed from the game’s Options menu, as well as from the pause menu in Training mode.
  
• The Customization menu now displays a preview of the Palette or Shader you’re buying before you buy.
  
• Empty grenade slots are now skipped over when changing ordnance during gameplay.

Other fixes

• The ‘Taunt’ button can now be rebound from the Keyboard controls menu.
  
• Fixed an issue where Directional attacks would not work when rebinding the movement keys.
  
• Fixed the ‘Max Framerate’ setting in Video Options not saving between sessions.
  
• Fixes were made to issues which could cause loss of unlocked upgrades or other save data.
  
• A new menu option was added allowing the player to rebind a single gamepad input from the Controller Binds menu. The option to rebind all controls at once is still present.
  
• Fixed issue where Chronicle entries would not scroll properly.
  
• Issues with the Dark Historian achievement have been fixed.
  
• Fixed a bug where the achievement Getting Into Knives wouldn’t trigger. For players missing the achievement who have already purchased all ordnance upgrades, making any shop purchase will unlock the achievement.

This is just the beginning of our ongoing support and improvements in the works for the game. We welcome any feedback or reports you'd like to share with us in the forums, and we appreciate your support!

Enjoy!

Poppy Works and Team Ziggurat

Tell us about yourself!
Hi, I am James Greenwood and I'm from Tampa, Florida. My background is in commercial art and higher education, being a graphic design instructor/department chair for many years, as well as working in the advertising industry. My industry medium of choice is Trenchbroom, a cross platform level editor for Quake-engine based games; however, my earlier artistic focus was in drawing & stone lithography. I am the lead level designer on Slave Zero X.
How did you get started working on Slave Zero X or for Poppy Works?

I noticed a recruitment post in the Quake Mapping Discord & applied. At the time, I was employed with another company in a part-time, paid-upon-completion, basis & it seemed like an exciting opportunity. Luckily, the company where I was employed was extremely understanding and supported my decision to venture elsewhere. My experience in the industry has been very positive, with folks that I have been quite professional.
What sparked your interest to work on Slave Zero X?

Probably the thing that sparked my interest was the project itself, which was extremely intriguing: using the tools of a 3-D first person shooter (FPS) to create a hack-and-slash, traditional 2-D side-scrolling type of game (albeit with real depth of field, instead of employing normal, old-school parallax scrolling) and then porting those 3-D maps into a very established, typically 2-D, cross-platform game engine. I mean, who the heck thinks of doing that in the first place? Talk about venturing into "undiscovered territory" :)

Seriously, the challenge of mapping "in profile," rather than "in the eyes of the protagonist," sounded like a fun challenge & something new and interesting (and it was).
What do you enjoy most about working on Slave Zero X?

Probably the support and camaraderie is what I enjoyed most about working on Slave Zero X. Everyone on the team was quite enthusiastic to contribute to the cohesive vision that was established at the very beginning, to create an interesting prequel to the 1999 fan favorite.

How would you describe the world of Slave Zero X? How did that World influence the art style?

Slave Zero X is a world of grimy, cyberpunk goodness & "bioengineered meat circuitry." The result of which creates the environment of a dystopian futuristic setting coupled with creepy, high-tech viscera. It's kind of like an unholy marriage between Syd Mead & H.R. Giger.

What has been a challenge you over came working on Slave Zero X? An art piece you wrestled with? The pipeline? Or whatever comes to mind.

Probably the biggest challenge has been purely technical. Quake, being the first true 3-D FPS game, was never really known for incorporating a glut of intricate external models. The bulk of its environment was built via lovely, chunky geometry in the editor. However, trying to incorporate lots of visceral imagery & complex curves is not really something that is easily accomplished in Quake without said external models. Luckily, the coding geniuses at Poppy Works were able to tackle it without issue!

What skill has helped you most on this project?

Undoubtedly, the years of working in custom Quake content has helped me understand the advantages and limitations when it comes to brush-based world building. Of course, Slave Zero X isn't exactly Quake, since it uses an entirely different engine; however, having a prior knowledge of "what works & works well" helps immensely in this scenario too!

Poppy Works has been completely work-from-home since 2012. They are a global company in the sense that they hire any one qualified from all over the world. What has it been like working with such a diverse group of people?

Working with a very eclectic staff, with folks from the all over the globe, is wonderful. You get a really robust mixture of input, due to people's varied background and culture, while still keeping the unified vision of the project, due to the influence of western entertainment.
Tell us something fun about working with the Slave Zero X team, a funny moment, something special that stands out to you about the team, or something you would like the world to know about this experience.

Probably what I thought was brilliant about working with the Slave Zero X team was how the management quickly spotted an individual's strength and maneuvered them into positions where they flourished. For example, if someone might be more particularly skilled in detailing or texturing, then they could have a focus in a that, where they could excel.

What has been your favorite piece to work on?

That's a tough one, since it all has been rather interesting. Maybe the concept of the "Bloody Palace" levels, since they are loosely based on some of my favorite action movies of the 80s. I was given a bit more freedom on those.
Was anything cut from the project you wish had stayed in?

No, I cannot recall anything that was cut that was cool. However, I might have been focused on the maps & might've missed something :)

How did you get started in this industry? Any suggestions for up and coming artists who would like your job?

I got started in the industry from the result of being a prolific custom Quake mapper. I always wanted to create my very own FPS environments & it was simply a decision of going the route of Doom Builder (for custom Doom maps) or Trenchbroom (for custom Quake maps). A fellow custom Quake mapper, who happened to work in the industry, noticed how active I was in the Quake mapping community. They reached out & informed of an opportunity over at the company where they were employed and the rest is history.

My suggestion for up and coming artists is to simply produce content, gather feedback from as many fellow enthusiasts as possible, and continue to refine your efforts. I think that one of the biggest hurdles that mappers face is that they hardly release any content, in fear of public scrutiny. Like most things in life, practice makes perfect!

Final thoughts?

I enjoyed my experience with Poppy Works & Slave Zero X. The folks working there were supportive and enthusiastic, things were efficiently ran & organized, and the overall vision of the project was quite cohesive and never was compromised.

The Digital Deluxe Edition includes:

• PC-themed Shou skin
  
• Digital Soundtrack
  
• Digital Comic and Artbook

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/36330/Slave_Zero_X_Digital_Deluxe_Edition/


Already own the game? Complete the set as DLC - found on the Slave Zero X gamepage.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903910/Slave_Zero_X/


Comic & Artbook

Enjoy dozens of previously unreleased art pieces by Art Director Francine Bridge including concept art, in-game versions, and promotional art.

PC-themed Shou Skin

'Blacksite' Color Palette for Shou

Digital Soundtrack

Features 21 songs from the original score composed by PROTODOME.

Tell us about yourself!
Hello, I'm Kebby from the United States and the 3D technical artist for Slave Zero X. I've always enjoyed drawing detailed schematics on paper and eventually got into computer technologies. I can create 2D and 3D animations, high or low poly models in Blender, paint textures, make maps and even some programming. I've been combining these interests to create mods for Quake and discovering it's unique engine limitations. It can be a challenging process to design new weapons or enemies, but it's very rewarding once it all works!
How did you get started working on Slave Zero X or for Poppy Works?
I was hired by Poppy Works thanks to Greenwood, he recommended me based on my work within the Quake community. When I first played Quake I really enjoyed it's moody atmosphere and fast gameplay. I tried out some overhaul mods like Alkaline and Arcane Dimensions, then wanted to try making something myself.

I had some previous mapping experience thanks to Doom and Source Engine games. Quake's welcoming community made it easy for me find tutorials and get started. I began figuring game limits, how models are animated, palettizing textures and eventually began writing code to make my own mods. I posted my work to the Quake Mapping Discord and got the attention of some fantastic people that had their own big projects.

That's how I met Greenwood and bmFbr, the leaders of the Alkaline mod. I did some work cleaning up older models, animation fixes, texturing alternate skins and made brand new enemies. Eventually Greenwood approached me about Poppy Works, and this cool new game him and bmFbr had been working on. The levels and assets were made using familiar Quake tools, and was a big opportunity for me to get into making games. I took the interview, showcased my work, and I got the job!

What sparked your interest to work on Slave Zero X?
I've always been interested in game development my whole life, planning out concepts and testing new ideas. Finally working on a game like Slave Zero X has given me the chance to vastly improve my Blender knowledge. I've discovered so many new useful programs since getting the job, it's great being able to work with artists like this and learn from them!

What do you enjoy most about working on Slave Zero X?
My favorite part of Slave Zero X, and what I'll miss most, is being part of a team. Everyone here is a passionate creator, we have incredible artists, animators, mappers, modelers, programmers, writers and musicians all working together. It's very refreshing after working alone for so long. Sharing new ideas, helping someone find a solution or having meetings where we discuss topics as a group.

The best part is when you get assigned a really awesome task by one of our concept artists. The challenge is turning that idea into a finished textured 3D model, but after it's done you get to hear their reactions. It's always a positive surprise during the big reveal when their vision becomes part of the game. It makes all the time spent worth it, and is a joy that never got old while working!


How would you describe the world of Slave Zero X? How did that World influence the art style?
Slave Zero X is a combination of my favorite science fiction stories like Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Deus Ex or Half Life 2. It's a dark and twisted mega city ruled by an all powerful, seemingly omnipotent, techno wizard who controls everything and everyone around him. Francine's incredible art direction has always motivated me to go above and beyond in everything I create to match that level of detail. Capturing the gritty decaying structures, wires crawling across buildings like veins, bio-growth masses of who know what, intricate metal workings and fantastical dark machinery with tubes everywhere!

What has been a challenge you over came working on Slave Zero X? An art piece you wrestled with? The pipeline? Or whatever comes to mind.
One of our biggest hurdles was at the start of development, we needed to decide on the texel density for the entire game. It dictated what resolution the environment textures would need to be and impacted every asset in the game. We also needed to be consistent with how our art style was presented for both 2D sprites and 3D models.

Since I already had experience with Quake's workflow and limitations, I was able to work with the mappers and programmers to provide some processing solutions. They were able to engineer custom tools to aid us in asset production and I ended up writing a massive design document for our final pipeline. This led to me getting a promotion from part-time 3D artist to full-time 3D technical artist!

What skill has helped you most on this project?
Blender's texture baking tools were a must have for this project. It allowed me to use Francine's concept art directly as a material texture while 3D modeling. I could then go back and add any necessary texture details, lighting and shading as needed to stay faithful to the original idea. This sped up development significantly since I could reuse smaller model pieces to create larger complex structures. I then spent the saved time iterating new designs to create a wider variety of similar themed assets. Francine really enjoyed seeing her work shine through the new models when they were complete!

Poppy Works has been completely work-from-home since 2012. They are a global company in the sense that they hire any one qualified from all over the world. What has it been like working with such a diverse group of people?
It's been a wonderful experience working exclusively online, it's easy to forget that the people we talk with online can be halfway around the world. Usually the only problems we have are time zones and someone might miss a meeting because they're sleeping. I've been very grateful for the opportunity to work from home and it's definitely saved me time, money and stress from driving around each day!

Tell us something fun about working with the Slave Zero X team, a funny moment, something special that stands out to you about the team, or something you would like the world to know about this experience.
The occasional memes were a personal highlight for me. We'd have our meetings or discussions and someone would mention a silly idea or make a joke, but I'd turn it into a picture and post it as fast as I could. Always really funny to hear the reactions in real time, not sure how many of those made it in as easter eggs. Lots of the in-jokes won't make sense out of context, but sometimes without warning, the three little dots appear!

What has been your favorite piece to work on?
My favorite assignment by far is the Zone 5 military assets. This was late in the project so I had gotten more experienced with the modeling process. Using projection mapping and symmetrical designs I was able to create over 100 modular pieces very quicky for our mappers to decorate the environment. It was really fun to play around with all the parts like Lego, I eventually ended up making a mini-mega-city mockup in Blender. The same city construction was reused for a 3D skybox in Episode Enyo.

Another favorite is the huge enclosed boss arena, I was in charge of the design, modeling and textures for the entire chamber. I didn't have much concept reference to go off of, but Francine was able to guide the art direction for how it should look. It took almost two weeks to finish and lots of scraped attempts, but the final result was worth the extra effort!

Was anything cut from the project you wish had stayed in?
We really wanted to include a section where you pilot a giant mech, if only for a single level. I understand why it was cut, we'd need a lot of programming work for a whole new movement system, engine rewrites and camera systems. Not to mention all the new 3D art assets, animations for enemies, gameplay encounters and larger environment textures. It'd be like trying to create a whole new game from scratch. There were also a bunch of enemies that we didn't have time to finalize, hopefully they make it into the art book so curious fans can see!

How did you get started in this industry? Any suggestions for up and coming artists who would like your job?
I've always wanted to work on video games and it's hard to believe it's actually happened. To be honest, this has been my first real job as a 3D artist. I had tried doing freelance work after college but that ended up not being finacially viable. I ended up working retail for a couple years, but never gave up learning new tools and programs to improve my Blender skills. My suggestion for new artists is to keep the creative dream alive, always try to teach yourself something new that challenges your abilities. It can take a long time, but you never know when you'll finally be able to do all the things you really enjoy!

Final thoughts?
Poppy Works has been a dream come true, I am incredibly thankful for everyone here! Thank you so very much, from Kebby : )

This patch fixes a crash which could occur on stage 4-1 when dying in a particular way. The Steam build ID for the new version with this fix is 13522645.

Play the game that inspired Slave Zero X.

From now until February 28th, receive a free copy of the original Slave Zero with purchase of Slave Zero X.


Slave Zero

Originally published in 1999 by Infogrames and salvaged from the depths in partnership with Nightdive Studios, Slave Zero is a cyberpunk, 3rd-person mech shooter from the Dreamcast era. Stomp your way through a sprawling Megacity, ruled by the evil Sovkhan as you unleash bullets upon his mechanical minions.

"It's 500 years in the future. Man and machine are virtually one, and the greatest megacity in the world is locked in a brutal war. Your mission: steal the largest, most sophisticated bio-mechanical attack weapon ever designed...and kick some serious ass!"


Slave Zero X

Slave Zero X is a stylish 2.5D character action game set in the biopunk world of Slave Zero (1999). Run & Slash your way through a dystopian future in this character action game which will resonate with fans of Devil May Cry, Strider, and Guilty Gear.

"From the top of Megacity S1-9, the Sovereign Khan rules with fists of iron and flesh. Beneath the city’s rotting foundations, a vengeful warrior embarks on a journey to murder him. 4 years prior to the events of Slave Zero, Slave Zero X brings new life to a world where horrific, living machines known as Slaves are primed to become the latest tools of war in humanity’s long and bloody history. A secret band of warriors known as The Guardians hope to stop these biomecha from being unleashed upon the world, but one swordsman among their ranks has a different idea: use the enemy’s own weapon against them. By merging with a stolen Slave Unit Prototype, Shou will become a furious Devil in pursuit of killing a false God."

Check out gameplay from Slave Zero X - launching in full on February 21st! Streaming daily through launch, right here on Steam.

https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561198136036271


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1903910/Slave_Zero_X/?beta=1