Rack and Slay - The Billiard Roguelike

[rapid horizon]

Hi there! For the past 14 months Rack and Slay has been my game dev labor of love and I’m super grateful localthunk is giving me the opportunity to present it here. ❤️

WHAT IS RACK AND SLAY?
It’s a roguelike dungeon crawler where you’re a billiard ball! This means combat is rather unusual, not based on stats or “dealing damage” but on cleverly positioning yourself to push monster balls into holes, spikes or other traps in randomly generated levels. Between levels you draft from 100+ items that can have wild passive effects on gameplay (like telekinetically duplicating your shots, making all enemies explode on death etc.) or improve your “economy” by various means to stock up big in later levels. It’s all about emergence, combinations and synergies!

CAN I PLAY IT RIGHT NOW?
There is a demo available on Steam right now that has been receiving regular updates. The latest one dropped today!
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2311990/Rack_and_Slay/

Also, as you know, every wishlist helps for a tiny indie dev project like this! ❤️

RELEASE WHEN?
The game will participate in the upcoming Steam Next Fest in February and is planned to be released not too long after that depending on feedback and the usual "release timing" considerations. Keep an eye on the Steam announcements!

WHO IS WORKING ON THE GAME?
I’m Fabian Fischer (aka Ludokultur) and do all the programming and game design. Half a year into the project, 2 Left Thumbs (aka Graeme) joined as a publisher to help out in terms of marketing, networking etc. Shortly after we brought Victor Negreiro (aka Estivador) on board as artist and animator to redo the (until then mostly programmer-style) visuals of the game.

THANKS!
Thank you so much for taking the time to have a peek at my game! It means the world! ❤️
And once again of course to localthunk (who is, fun fact, also mentioned in the credits as an early tester by the way)!

Happy pocketing! 🎱

RELEVANT LINKS
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2311990/Rack_and_Slay/
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/jbCvcsUA82
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ludokultur
Dev website: https://www.fischergamedesign.com/

Also, you can watch Olexa give the game a go here (not the latest build and item art was still placeholder, but you’ll get the gist): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX4qb_aHT1I

[eager marlin]

I can confirm Rack and Slay is a wonderful time ❤️

[rapid horizon]

Thank you! @eager marlin also has a few videos on the game btw (from an even older build, but still a very fun time): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWZTiuR62oY

[visual ridge]

this looks awesome - definitely giving it a try later! it looks like it’s deck compatible so can’t wait to try it out!

[rapid horizon]

Thank you so much! I've been testing it quite a bit on Steam Deck myself actually. It has full controller support. 🙂

[quiet jackal]

Will try later, this seems very fun!

[latent garnet]

looks great, I'll definitely try this later

[stone fog]

definitely going to check this out!

[quiet stream]

Same

[rapid horizon]

Thanks taking a peek folks! 🙏

[thorny turret]

Im just gonna say, trinity is goofy

[storm kite]

Another roguelike about a casino game lol

[zinc jay]

oh cool billiard balls

[thorny turret]

I think putting a limit on trinity is needed(i got 512 trinities)

[rapid horizon]

On the latest version where it doesn't triple itself anymore?

[thorny turret]

oh idk about the latest version, but I have done it at some point lol

I reset my file so I could try different things

spike was nightmare fuel

[rapid horizon]

Yeah there was a change last patch. It only triples other items now 😅

[thorny turret]

does dupe interact with it

[rapid horizon]

Yeah if you roll duplicator on it, you still get 2 Trinities

[thorny turret]

cause i think given enough time it can happen(just takes a VERY long time)

i don't even think you can do it demo tho so thats good

[rapid horizon]

I don't want to remove all craziness, just the game-shattering top end maybe 😛

[thorny turret]

I mean ig another thing i remember was how easy it was to get POWERFUL

ok ima start playing again

[rapid horizon]

There were tons of balancing changes since the early demo version, bosses were introduced, difficulty ramps up a little more. Early levels are still (intentionally) quite easy probably, but (at least) D15+ should be a good challenge.

[storm kite]

This game is very fun

[thorny turret]

just played for a couple minutes, W new art and game

[rapid horizon]

So glad! ❤️

[quiet jackal]

Just tried it, it's amazing!

[rapid horizon]

Oh wow thank you sir!

[next oracle]

we have a billiard roguelike now? what next? slot machines?

[zinc jay]

LBAL:

[next oracle]

huh

whats that

[zinc jay]

luck be a landlord...

[thorny turret]

oh yea i found a bug where if the last enemy died by you respawning on it you just stay there till you run out of shots

[rapid horizon]

Oh good catch, will fix! It should re-check whether there are enemies left after each shot though.

[thorny turret]

Ok time to do no healing run

[thorny turret]

Ok this might be a little difficult

[thorny turret]

I just got to the first boss 😭

[storm kite]

I hit this guy into a wall to bounce him and...

[thorny turret]

no heal run is actual nightmare fuel

im gonna try no reroll run for the meantime

[rapid horizon]

Any idea how you managed that? Excessively high shot power maybe?

[storm kite]

Didnt have much power

iirc

Ive also had some enemies and the player ball just stop when hitting a wall

first time it just phased through it

[rapid horizon]

That is super weird 🤔

[storm kite]

My Hypothesis: Game collision code thinks its already in the wall, and doesnt update till a frame after hitting

I have no evidence besides he was right against the wall

[thorny turret]

while trying X512 trinity, if you got any power related item, it would basically clip you out of reality

[rapid horizon]

Yeah but that's probably not possible anymore

[thorny turret]

it is just you would need a lot of luck(dupe duping) and keys

Ankh seems very broken in that you don't really need to exchange an item or 2 just some gold

[rapid horizon]

Yup, got nerfed a while ago, but probably still very strong

[storm kite]

I clipped out of bounds with 12% power

rn

[rapid horizon]

Can you tell me what you did? Like what did you hit first? Did any item activate? Did you pick up something in the level? Haven't seen this happen in forever.

[storm kite]

Sorry, discord didnt make the ping sound
Ive had the enemy phase through walls 3 more times, and something similar is they all were basically on the wall with how close they were and then I slammed them with full circle power

I think same thing happened with me clipping where I tried to bounce off of the wall and just phased through

[rapid horizon]

So you started super close to the wall and then aimed at it?

[storm kite]

lets see what happens if I just max power him into the wall

[storm kite]

yeah, thats what it seems like

enemy phased through wall and I won

[rapid horizon]

lol ok

I somehow never managed to make that happen

[storm kite]

this is version Im on

installed yesterday so Im assuming its the latest version

[rapid horizon]

Yep! Will try to reproduce this.

Windows BTW?

[storm kite]

yeah windows

that way can discord and play easily

[rapid horizon]

Thank you for hunting the glitches 😂

[storm kite]

yw

I have experience

shot at wall and momentum stopped so tried to phase through it and nothing happened

though mightve been to far from wall? idk though

[rapid horizon]

Momentum stopped cause it was really low before you touched the wall or did it stop abruptly? Cause that shouldn't happen.

[storm kite]

tried again and

[storm kite]

maybe thats part of it then, Id record but my obs sucks

[rapid horizon]

That's something I've literally never seen happen, that a wall reduces high speed to 0 instantly.

[storm kite]

Ive had it happen like 10 times

I though because I was getting it so much it must be a well known bug that was getting patched

and forgot to think otherwise

[rapid horizon]

Nope, never seen or reported 😂

[storm kite]

make that like 11

[rapid horizon]

Very strange!

[thorny turret]

idk if it was what I was seeing, but basically I touched the toxic ball(we were both close to a corner) and it died, but when I shot again, I lost more hp and didn't move, but my mind didn't register so I tried again, and I died

[storm kite]

I was aiming here and hit an enemy and the wall at roughly the same time and phased through wall

So maybe thats why enemys phase through walls, but I cant

[thorny turret]

@rapid horizon just for fun could you make dupes of telekinesis/mirror, say 5 give the chance to 5 enemies

[storm kite]

Basically through all my testing I figured out that when 2 balls colide, they wont collide with any other objects for a short amonut of time

allowing you to knock enemies inside objects, outside the map (where they die) and yourself to go outside the map and phase through walls

I dont know if you can be INSIDE walls but you can definitelly go through them

[rapid horizon]

So you're saying you hit the enemy even though the prediction said you wouldn't?

[rapid horizon]

Alright, still very strange to me that you would encounter this so frequently @storm kite. I just tried to deliberately reproduce it for a few hours, hundreds of shots and could get it to happen once and only by shoving an enemy a little bit into the obstacle by hand in the Unity editor before hitting it. 🙈

Anyways, I just pushed a new version (0.76) that should have more accurate ball collisions, especially when starting/ending a turn close to walls or obstacles. So let me know if (and how) you still notice something similar.

[thorny turret]

@storm kite I think you should change it to Glitch Finder

[storm kite]

Sorry just woke up

Maybe the enemy does have to be in the wall then, cause how I hit enemies through walls, I first slam them into a wall and they just... stop

and then full speeding them again makes them go through

Ill test later but I gtg to school

[paper dagger]

I had thought to leave the last difficulty for the full release, have there been any updates past 20?

[rapid horizon]

20 is still max currently, but the game got a bit harder throughout all difficulties via bosses and some other tweaks 🙂

[thorny turret]

can new difficulties be unlocked after completing challenges

[thorny turret]

wait it's school for you

it's 3 am for me

[rapid horizon]

Right now you unlock more (in packs, not one by one) by beating the highest unlocked one. If there's demand I'm not against adding more, but people tell me 20 is already pretty hard. 😄

[thorny turret]

Maybe something like disabling certain items that grant enough "points" to unlock new difficulties, easter eggs, etc

[thorny turret]

I just won lvl 9 item only(no reroll health etc option) and i saw theres now lvl 12

Almost beat the boss 😭

[thorny turret]

just did lvl 12 onto 15

[thorny turret]

what are the shop things at the bottom called

[rapid horizon]

Uh good question... shop options? 😛

[thorny turret]

then i just beat 12 with no shop options

15 is definitely making me reset more

best part about it is that gold doesn't mean anything

[thorny turret]

So I was messing around and i pause at the perfect time i hit a spike, then i wrapped around the screen

i had 6x auto fast forward btw

and 3x spike swallower

lol

[rapid horizon]

What exactly do you mean by "wrapped around"?

[thorny turret]

like pac man

went from bottom to top

then died cause i ended on a hole

[rapid horizon]

So you ate the spike and bounced back from the wall behind it?

[thorny turret]

I hit the spike at the bottom left, then i saw my ball die to the top middle hole

i also did some pausing shenanigans

wait lemme record this on obs

idk how to make it seeable from discord

[rapid horizon]

I see a clip of you shooting yourself into the bottom left hole via the reverse teleporter 😄

[thorny turret]

from what i see i look like im spazzing out

also its funny

[storm kite]

est, Im 3 hours ahead ig, maybe 4

Nyways Im back

[thorny turret]

im pst

lol you typed at 12:25 and me at 12:52

[storm kite]

lol

so yeah you are 3 hours back then

[storm kite]

still having same problem with hitting an object and losing collision for a short time

Oh I figured out another bug so I can die!

clicking setting and continue makes you lose a shot if you are in the middle of another shot

dang doesnt work with training

[rapid horizon]

How do you do it 🙈

[storm kite]

I dont even know at this point lol

[rapid horizon]

Alright, I know you guys have another demo to play right now (me too btw lol), but thanks to all your reports I pushed another update today with fixes for several glitches, improved obstacle collision and some fail-safes for the rare game breakers (I refuse to outright remove most of them, would rather they exist as a bit of rare fun craziness, without soft-locking the game of course :D)!

Thank you! 💪

[dusky smelt]

fun game! I did about 3 runs so far and I am having a good time. I am pretty bad at it (I somehow always manage to bump all the balls then sink only myself 😄 )
I do feel like the game is a bit hard to control where the balls go for everything, it's mostly just me being bad, but I think it would be cool to have for example an item that shows the path of the enemy you hit (and maybe even your path after a hit) -- it's possible that there is an item that does exactly that already too 😄 or maybe something like an item that would allow you to stop your ball at any point instantly once per map, just so you could reposition better and also save yourself from killing yourself 😄
also I had "the gang" get me in the hole multiple times, maybe it could like "phase" you out until it finishes doing its thing
the game feels the best whenever I managed to sink multiple balls in one shot

have you seen "subpar pool"? your game kind of reminds me of it, playing it might give you some cool ideas
(also, off topic, but I recognize your username -- are you per chance one of the about 10 people who played my game? if you are, thank you!)

oooh and I won just now 😄

[rapid horizon]

Hey thank you for playing! There's currently no item that gives you exact predictions, but one that increases the trajectory length you see. You will get better over time though I'm sure! 😄
I'm toying around with some ideas for "consumables" or "instant abilities" right now. We'll see if they make it into the game. Don't want to add more complexity than the game needs (also controls-wise, want it to be as accessible as possible really).

When Subpar Pool was announced I was afraid it was going to be the same game for a second, but it turned out very differently. It's pretty cool and inspiring for sure. 🙂

Oh you made Spellswapper, right? Awesome! I tweeted about that game. Really creative concept. 😄

[dusky smelt]

yep I did! thank you for playing it! it means a lot 🙂

what are you using for some of the sound effects (for example for the clicks)? some of them feel super familiar so I am wondering if it's from an asset pack that something like super auto pets also uses or something 😄

oh I got the telescope -- yep that is pretty much exactly what I like to see!

the spyglass I mean

[rapid horizon]

Most sounds are from "Potion Audio" asset packs, some from Kenney too.

[rapid horizon]

🕵️

[dusky smelt]

very cool!

[storm kite]

since new balatro will play that first but Ill keep my eye out for this

[rapid horizon]

Couldn't ask for more!
Btw currently reworking some of the additional full-version items. Exclusive sneak peek! 😂

[paper dagger]

I assume you added the game to your discord to grow your community further (?) But i do kind of wish the game had a server to itself

[rapid horizon]

I don' think the player base is big enough (yet???) for a full one-game server to make sense, so that's why it's "just" a channel on my Discord currently. But feel free to mute everything but the game's channel over there if you want to avoid the daily game design rants and discussions. 😄

[storm kite]

ooooo

[storm kite]

Done all I want to in balatro rn, time for some rack and slay

[storm kite]

already phased through a wall lol

[rapid horizon]

At this point I'll consider it your special ability lol. At least after the recent updates balls should never get stuck permanently and the game will try to move them out or kill (enemies) / reset (player) if it can't.

[storm kite]

lol

at this rate Im starting to believe something with my computer or window size is making the polygons clip into my character when Im close enough to objects

but that sounds to crazy to be true

[dusky smelt]

could be framerate related

[rapid horizon]

I wonder if setting a fixed framrate in the advaced settings would have an effect. 🤔

Maybe you could give that a try at some point @storm kite, but I'm sure you'll find your way to the glitch anyways. 😂

[dusky smelt]

you could try if you can reproduce it if you set it to a low framerate

you are using unity right, I think there are some other modes of physics that are more expensive but should not have things like that happen that often

[rapid horizon]

Not sure there's too much more for 2D physics. I'm already using continuous collision detection on everything related to moving objects.

[dusky smelt]

Hmm, well if you are already using that its possible that its something else

[storm kite]

Ill try in a bit

Im trying to juggle rack and slay, a youtube series, school work, and balatro atm

still launched an enemy through a wall at 60fps

[rapid horizon]

Hey folks, Next Fest starts today! Maybe let your friends know Rack and Slay is participating. We need all the eyes - I mean eye balls - we can get! 👀

Also: Ballin' new Olexa video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOdtnnoIls8

[stone fog]

Played this today and absolutely loved it. Will definitely be keeping an eye on it. Was a bunch of fun. Took me back to my Yahoo pool days lol

[rapid horizon]

Thank you so much! 🙏

[storm kite]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1153815324643299458/1204661562032529408/Media_240207_123413.gif

[rapid horizon]

What am I supposed to see here? A gif link and a black bar, is that right? 😄

[zinc jay]

this is what i see on my end

[rapid horizon]

Ok yeah, I just had to click the link to see it

[zinc jay]

oh, that made sense
discord being weird moment

[rapid horizon]

Anyways, I'll take it as a hype gif 🎉

In case anyone here missed it: Released a cool new update right in the middle of Next Fest 😄
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2311990/view/4014465139624798385

[storm kite]

Ive been to busy to play

Ill try to find a time toeay

[storm kite]

nice QoL changes

I always hated losing money to an enemy picking it up and dying

the enemies picking up keys was fun but so is more "relics" so it evens out

[rapid horizon]

Just revealed: Rack and Slay will release on May 27th! Can't wait! 🥳
Also, brand-new cover art!

Full announcement: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2311990/view/4166466062430129819

[thorny turret]

ill def grind this game along with balatro

[rapid horizon]

That's great company! 🙏

[storm kite]

YOOO!

[fossil portal]

Fabian, I noticed that your other games were also available for Mac. Will Rack and Slay eventually have a Mac version as well? If so, instant purchase for me!

[rapid horizon]

I'll definitely try. Don't have a Mac available myself but I'll see if I can find a few folks for testing.

[storm kite]

neither do I so I cant test

[fossil portal]

I would be more then happy to test for you if you need folks to help out in this way!

[gilded oak]

This looks great, can't wait to play the launch!

[rapid horizon]

23 hours until release 👀

[rapid horizon]

WE ARE LIVE! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2311990/Rack_and_Slay/

Steam

Rack and Slay

THE BILLIARD ROGUELIKE A pure-fun roguelike dungeon crawler where you're a billiard ball making your way through randomly generated levels full of monster balls, traps, collectible power-ups and more!DRAFT YOUR BUILDBetween levels, draft from a wide variety of 100+ items with game-changing effects (all of which are stackable) to find combos, bui...

Price

$5.39

▶ Play video

[zinc jay]

Aliensrock posted a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVaexHN3UI4

[rapid horizon]

Yep love it 🤩

[merry tulip]

Just got this game yesterday, and proceeded to play for over an hour past when I should have been asleep 😂 good stuff!

[rapid horizon]

Sorry, and thank you 🙏

[fast fog]

Big congrats on the release! This is right up my alley, just grabbed a copy :D

[rapid horizon]

Heyo, thank you so much 🙂

[eager marlin]

https://youtu.be/pPayt6lfaks if you haven't played yet, checkout Rack and Slay then pick it up for yourself!

[merry tulip]

Finally won my first run last night! And then I learned the difficulty can get higher than it already is (I was playing at max at the start)… uh oh…

[storm kite]

Congratz

[rapid horizon]

Awesome! Yeah the idea was to have a broad range initially for people of different experience levels with other roguelike or billiards games and then unlock a few more steps when you win on the highest.

In general I treat difficulty more like "find what you're comfortable with". You don't have to go up to 20 (and no content or achievements will be locked behind a certain level) but you can if you want to push it. 🙂

[merry tulip]

I really do love how you went about the difficulty- I strongly believe the game is really accessible to anyone, however they want to play. I’m glad to see games get custom difficulties like this nowadays, it really breathes a lot of life into games, and allows them to be enjoyed by anyone

I do also love the way you explain how each difficulty works- like what all changes in the game. So someone can look and say, “okay, that’s doable” and then maybe look a little farther down and say “hm, that might be a little too hard for me, I’ll stick to this”

[rapid horizon]

Big 1.1 update is out!

♾️ New mode: Endless
🛑 New item: Stop Shot
🎈 New enemy: Floaty
⚙️ New run modifiers
⚖️ Balancing & reworks
🛠️ Fixes & improvements

Full patch notes that I had way too much fun writing: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2311990/view/4192369369666376737

[rapid horizon]

NEWS: Update 1.2 (which will be significantly bigger than 1.1) drops in 10 days! 😮
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2311990/view/4352251596693480521