If you enjoyed the challenge of Slave Zero X please nominate us for 'Best Game You Suck At' in the Steam Awards! :SZXlol:

The patch to version S1.06 is now live! This patch fixes a performance issue observed on some PC systems. Affected systems were displaying very low framerates when the game was paused, idle, or in a menu for 35 to 75 seconds. The build ID for patch 1.06 on Steam is 15669028.

We welcome any feedback or reports you'd like to share with us on this version in the forums, and we appreciate your support of Slave Zero X!

Enjoy!

Poppy Works and Team Ziggurat

We’ve added Steam Trading Cards and more goodies to Slave Zero X, and we’re celebrating with a first-ever 20% discount on Steam for a limited time!

Steam Trading Cards – how do they work? We’re glad you asked!

• Play Slave Zero X on Steam to get Steam Trading Cards in your Steam Inventory.
  
• Each trading card comes with a wallpaper-ready 1920x1080 version of its art.
  
• When you’ve collected a full set of Trading Cards, craft it into a Badge.
  
• Craft all five badges, and the foil badge, to work your way up the ranks of the SVK-DF – from the lowly Trooper to the godlike SovKhan.
  
• To help complete sets of Trading Cards, individual cards and booster packs can be bought and sold in the Steam Community Market.

And it’s not just Steam Trading Cards – new Profile Backgrounds are also available, featuring art from Slave Zero X and concept art from the game’s development!

• Crafting Badges from Trading Cards gives a chance to unlock Profile Backgrounds.
  
• Profile Backgrounds can also be purchased from the Steam Points Shop with Steam Points.

Last but not least, new Slave Zero X Steam Emoticons, featuring art and characters from the game, are also available!

• Some of these Emoticons were created during the game’s development for use by the development and publishing teams in their Discord and Slack channels.
  
• Crafting Badges from Trading Cards gives a chance to unlock Steam Emoticons.
  
• Steam Emoticons can also be purchased from the Steam Points Shop with Steam Points.

The 20% discount on the game and its deluxe edition will last until August 30, 2024. The Trading Cards, Profile Backgrounds, and Emoticons will continue to be available after the end of the discount.

The SovKhan's Five Calamities are ruthless generals who answer only to the SovKhan.

Whether in combat or purely based on their aesthetics, they demand respect...who do you respect...or fear...

Hercules J. Thorman, known for his boundless capacity for brutality and a complete detachment from any sense of guilt, Thorman has relied solely on the superior technology and resources he's had at his disposal since birth. Outfitted with the MDHF-era exo-suit, Thorman’s commanding silhouette is internally outfitted with a custom biotechnical harness that prolongs life and infuses him with vigor so long as he never leaves the confines of the suit.

Enyo, Beloved by the Bullet, She is cunning, sadistic, and takes pride in collecting Old World firearms and ammunition. Her loyalty to the SovKhan is temporary, as the only person she trusts is herself.

Uriel, the Fire from Heaven, is the third member of the Five Calamities, the innermost circle of generals who answer only to the Sovereign Khan. His earnest, heroic, and dangerously naïve nature makes him the perfect pawn, viewing the SovKhan as his father and God. His belief is both devout and ferociously misguided, believing the SovKhan is a force of good in the world – and will do anything to stop those who would stand in his way.

The Regent, also known by the pseudonym “Wuguan”, is in the innermost circle of generals who answer only to the Sovereign Khan. Having discarded his human form long ago, The Regent now exists as a mind within an artificial body, acting as a quintessential fascist that views human beings as livestock to be exploited. Lacking the fearsome combat prowess of the other generals in SovKhan’s service, The Regent’s primary assets are an unparalleled ability to manipulate the course of events in society, with a fierce willingness to devote himself wholeheartedly to this task in the service of a higher power.

Atavaka, A masked and armored swordsman with a skin of polished alloys – Atavaka is the quintessential assassin. Razor sharpened to the very edge of possibility, he shears effortlessly through whatever SovKhan turns him against.

This cast really brought the world of Slave Zero X to life. Thank you again to the cast and to all of you who've played. :)

Thank you to...
Shou = Griffin Burns
Atavaka = Jordan Reynolds
Enyo = Mara Junot
Ayesha = Anjali Kunapaneni
General Thorman = SungWon Cho
Kurikara = Ian Russell
Regent(Male) = Michael Schwalbe
Regent(Female) = Shelby Young
Uriel = Kyle McCarley
SovKhan = Jamieson Price
X = Elizabeth Maxwell

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.