Hello, defenders!

We have been working on how Rampartloom looks, sounds and feels in a match. Here is a roundup of our latest ten development updates, now brought together in the current Steam Playtest build.

The arena has a new dark-stone and gold citadel design, with revised lighting and scene details to bring the battlefield closer to the style of our menus.

• Updated tower forms and upgrade appearances across the kingdoms.
  
• Smoother shading on towers and assault units, while preserving distinct shapes and hard edges.
  
• More defined feet, toes, hooves, limbs and wings.
  
• Reworked walking and running animations to better match travel speed and ground contact.
  
• Sharper rendering in the Balanced graphics preset, with improved edge smoothing.

Tower attacks now bring together matching attack motions, projectiles, impact effects and sounds. Root attacks use stone and wood themes, while Thunder attacks use electrical arcs. The other kingdoms have their own weapon presentation too.

• Added faction voice lines and distinct tower firing sounds.
  
• Matched impact sounds more closely to each kingdom and weapon.
  
• Softened the sharper Brass firing sounds and limited overlapping shots during busy combat.

• Updated tower upgrades and corrected stun and slow behavior.
  
• Improved unit movement presentation during brief server stalls.
  
• Added ping and connection-status indicators so connection trouble is easier to recognize.
  
• Adjusted computer-controlled opponents to use a wider range of assault units and progress their upgrades.

These changes are part of the ongoing Playtest, and we are continuing to refine balance, performance and presentation. Tell us which kingdom you played, what felt better, and what still needs work. You can leave feedback in the Steam discussions or use SEND BETA FEEDBACK in the game settings.

Interested in joining? Visit the Rampartloom store page and request Playtest access. Updated September 30: Playtest sessions run every week from Saturday 12:00 noon to Monday 12:00 noon, UTC+3, equivalent to Saturday 09:00 through Monday 09:00 UTC. The first 48-hour session is October 3–5, 2026.

Thank you for helping us build Rampartloom!