Death Trash will be released late 2025:

Roadmap

Welcome.

This is the roadmap for the final phase of the Death Trash Early Access.

We have avoided communicating concrete dates in the past. Working as a small team on a complicated game has been notoriously difficult, especially in regards to timely estimations. The Early Access took longer than we initially anticipated. For that we are sorry.

But during the Early Access we have improved the game and, equally important, our tools, workflows and knowledge. We are more confident now about handling the rest of the game and what time we’ll need for that.

Note: These dates might still change. If one of the milestones takes longer than anticipated, all the later dates will be influenced by that, too, of course. And at the end of the day we won't call it final (1.0) if we are not happy with the state of the game and will instead put more work in. But the important thing here is, I hope, to see and to know that the end is actually in sight.

Milestones

Steam Input implementation
Current target: soon on the beta branch

The Perished City
Current target: mid-2024 on the beta branch
New locations and quests.

Improving item economy
Current target: fall 2024
This is about the range of items available in the game, inventory size, item balancing etc.

Northern Wasteland
Current target: end of 2024
New locations and quests.

Improving existing locations and gameplay
Current target: spring to mid 2025
This is in general about adding more depth to the game, both to the narrative parts as well as to the gameplay.

The Machine and the Watcher
Current target: mid- to late 2025
Final locations and quests.

Full release
Current target: mid- to late 2025

Post release
We will continue to support the game, of course. And as this game is very dear to us, this will probably happen for a long time. We haven’t decided yet if the next project after this will be more directly connected to Death Trash or be a different take.

Console versions
Current target: end of 2025
We have no final decision on whether we follow through with publishing these ourselves or partnering up for that. Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo Switch versions are playable already but need more work.

Localization
Current target: unknown
We still don't know how much budget we'll have for additional languages. Production-wise it might make sense to have the localization added later than the 1.0 release so they can be done from a finished game instead of a still changing one. (If we had more experience we might try to have it all ready at once for the 1.0 release, but since our experience and resources are limited, we might rather approach this step by step.)

Level Editor
Current target: unknown
Mainly intended for users to create their own standalone adventures with the Death Trash gameplay and art assets. We might extend the functionality later on.

Extended mind item gameplay
Current target: might not happen
We have more gameplay ideas for Death Trash. But, realistically, we can’t tackle all of them and have to shelve some of them for later. Enhancing the gameplay around the mind items might be one of these cases. We will revisit these ideas in the future.

Thank you

Thank you so much for your feedback and support so far. Death Trash has already become a much better game during Early Access and we couldn’t have done that without you.

- Stephan

Thanks Couchpotato!

SplatterCatGaming checked out the Early Access title Death Trash:

Death Trash - Post Apocalyptic Open World RPG

Death Trash got an update:

Update 0.7.33

Update Notes

• added more player character portraits
• updated some dialogue
• fixed effects from infection potentially permanently stuck on player character
• added some props for the target practicing bots in Godhunters Prison and fixed some visual issues with the bots
• fixed a few situations of logic triggers potentially not getting executed, and specifically for unlocking world map progress on Crossroads and The Maw
• fixed a few bugs when switching UI while equip or unequip of implants is in progress
• fixed not naming specific inventory on being full when looting from container
• updated UI for player messages
• fixed a few UI actions (e.g. looting) triggering multiple sounds

What we're working on...

Partial victory this week: I still had to take care of lots of technical issues, but I began working on the dialogue of the game. I think I made progress in understanding where some of the current dialogue falls short and how it can be improved.

Chris is working on new enemy types. They'll need some testing, visuals and audio, too, so not sure yet when they will make it into the current game.

As usual, a few bug fixes. Specifically switching to another inventory window in the short timeframe when an implant is equipped seems to have caused a few problems in the past that were reported but where I couldn't identify the root cause. This is one of those bugs that feels really good to fix.

Happy Holidays! (if that applies to you)

Death Trash is on sale, by the way, until January 5th:

And if you played the game already, consider sharing your opinion by writing a Steam review. It's helpful for us, reading them, but it also helps a lot in giving this game more visibility towards other people on Steam.

Have a nice weekend!
And if you're celebrating seasonal holidays: Happy Holidays! :)

I'll have some days off, but I'll probably here again with a new update next week.

- Stephan 

Jay Krishnan aka Yemeth checked out the Early Access title Death Trash:

Death Trash Early Access Preview :: Enthusiastically Gross

Making it big as an indie developer on Steam is like tossing a coin these days, despite Valve’s best “efforts” to improve the lives of independent developers. If the algorithm gods aren’t with you and you’re unable to invest heavily in marketing, chances are that your game will sit in a dark corner of the storefront- only to be discovered by YouTubers or streamers years later and be deemed “underrated.” The fact that dozens of indie games get released on Steam on a daily basis complicates the matter further. Thus, it’s crucial for an indie game to have a unique theme, clever social media marketing, and a bit of RNG on the side to make any sort of sustainable revenue in 2021. I’ve run into two games matching these criteria recently. The first one is Cruelty Squad (more on that in a later article) and the second one is our topic of discussion for today- Death Trash.

[...]

Much like the average Indian after the 1960s, I’ve been heavily disillusioned, not by politics but by the offerings of Steam Early Access. I usually don’t tell my readers to pick up an Early Access title unless it’s that good. I’m making an exception for Death Trash as well. Even with the roughly 10 hours of average playtime, the game easily pulls you into its macabre and gross wasteland and offers a tasteful slice of what’s to come. So, if you’re ok with having a small appetizer of potentially good things to come, give Death Trash a try. The game is available for purchase on Steam and GOG.

Bitter Bits checked out the postapocalyptic RPG Death Trash:

Death Trash Review | Trash Only In Name

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This is a review of Death Trash in it's current early access state. Opinions of the game may change as development continues, but so far Death Trash has a really solid foundation and is super fun to play.

Photography Gamer checked out the Early Access title Death Trash:

Death Trash - Review

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A new update for Death Trash announces that the demo will stay up and talks about what to expect from Early Access which arrives August 5th.

Demo is permanent now. Progress from current save games will not carry over.

Happy to announce that the Demo on Steam is permanent now.

Progress from current save games will not carry over (to prevent bugs), but after Early Access release you can start in the demo and then continue in the Early Access version.

Please use the demo to check out the game.

Early Access Infos

This is all the info you need:

August 5th -> Early Access here on Steam.
One third of final game. Unfinished.

Buy if:
1. You're happy with demo, want a few more hours of that.
2. You want to support us, including ongoing feedback.

Otherwise, just wait for the final version that is coming in 2022 or whenever it's done.

You can use the demo to check if it runs on your computer. The demo version will be updated alongside the Early Access version and will have the same technological base, minus the extra content.

Why we do Early Access...

We have a strong grasp on the world of Death Trash and its personality. Don't need additional ideas there.

But gameplay needs a lot of feedback still. Genre is fixed, but game feel, usability, variety, progression etc. will improve a lot by this process.

Consider supporting us through Early Access already, but decide on your own if you like playing unfinished games or not.

[...]

The demo for Death Trash is available at Steam Next Fest which runs from June 16th to 22nd.

Six years ago, on this exact day, Death Trash was born.

This month, finally, you'll be able to play it for the first time at Steam Next Fest from June 16th to June 22nd.

The demo will feature the start of the game and will be 1-2 hours long, depending on your progress.

It will run on Windows, Mac and Linux, it will support mouse / keyboard as well as controller, and it will support singleplayer as well as local co-op.

Short Teaser:

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Make sure to wishlist the game and follow the game hub to get all the news:

Thanks Farflame!

An update from late January for Death Trash asks for testers and patch notes show recent progress.

Testers wanted

Hey, everyone!

Hope you're doing well. Death Trash development slowed a bit down at the end of last year, but we're back to full development speed again.

Apply for testing

We're approaching the Death Trash Early Access release and need a few additional testers regarding

a) feedback if the current version is good enough already and
b) finding major bugs.

If you would like to help us, fill out this form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fmr5-biTbCHMcSw3Amc0KSqvRAXgk9UboMsACfVCHOw

(Be aware that we're not getting back to everyone, we pick a few entries according to our needs.)

Latest Internal Patch Notes

To continue being transparent about the development of Death Trash, attached here are the actual patch notes for our internal builds that happened since the last development update.

These notes are not spoiler-heavy, but if you want to experience the game fresh, you might want to skip reading them.

[...]

An interview with the creator of Death Trash from Gaming Bolt.

Is it possible to complete a playthrough of the game without killing a single character?

Yes, we’re aiming for that. It’s a big development task, but it was one of the design goals right from the start. It might be necessary to rely on stealth for a lot of situations, but we want to include more tools for the player, too.

Similarly, is it possible to, through your actions, get every NPC in the game killed, regardless of their importance to the story?

Yes, that will be possible, too. I’m not sure at this point if we can guarantee the world will still give enough hints and clues to pick up the story after killing a very important NPC, but at the very least it will still be possible to mechanically reach the end.

How hard is it to balance that feeling of freedom against making sure it doesn’t totally ruin the game’s balance?

I’m still figuring this out. It’s my first game in this genre so there’s not much personal experience I can reuse apart from my knowledge as a player and my research. It looks like it’s indeed a lot of work and also more about finding good compromises instead of looking for perfect solutions. I would always favour freedom over balance though and then give tools to the player so she/he can customize that balance again so the game has a good flow but also doesn’t get too easy.

[...]

Thanks Farflame!

PC Gamer checked out the upcoming RPG Death Thrash:

Intriguing indie RPG Death Trash hits Steam Early Access next year

I've been following the progress of Death Thrash ever since I came across its post-apocalyptic cyberpunk world early last year: it promises gore, profanity, disgusting monsters, the ability to puke on demand and multiple-choice dialogue, all within a detailed pixel art world. This week, after more than four years of development, it finally has a release window, albeit for Steam Early Access, where it will arrive early next year.

Humankind has settled on an ancient planet called Nexus, and are at war with machines that were once their protectors. You'll meet tentacled, cosmic horrors that want to befriend you, as well as various human factions that don't get on with one another. Dialogue happens in real-time, so you can step away from conversations if you don't like where they're headed, and you can slip in and out of combat whenever you want. That, too, is real-time, with both gunplay and melee weapons as well as psi powers to give you the upper hand. 

[...]

Thanks henriquejr!

Death Trash will be released early 2020:

Announcements!

We're gonna self-publish Death Trash.

It's coming to Steam Early Access in early 2020 and when it's done also to Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch and other PC stores.

Gameplay

Death Trash is a semi open world role-playing game with handcrafted levels and a grotesque story campaign.

The game features realtime gameplay with ranged and melee combat, stealth, multiple choice dialogue, an inventory full of items and Fleshworms, a crafting system and social skills like pickpocketing and puking.

Travel through the gritty post-apocalyptic wasteland by world map and explore hand-painted organic locations. Meet exciting characters: Talk to the Fleshkraken, visit the Puke Bar or pickpocket stuff from that old naked guy.

Customize your own character through stats and making choices. Experience the story and discover side quests. Fight against machines and larger-than-life monsters - or become their friend.

• The game contains many features supporting player freedom:
• manual save games
• dialogue can be left anytime
• kill everyone or...
• hardly kill anyone!

Story

Humankind traveled to the stars and settled on the planet Nexus with its ancient secrets of stone and flesh. The machines were installed as protectors, but they were corrupted and brought terror.

You are a raider among the ruins of the past.
But fate might lead you to the Bleeding Head Oracle, the Evergrowing Heart and towards a war with the machines, giving you the power to mend or destroy. 

PC Gamer checked out the post-apocalyptic pixel art RPG Death Trash:

Death Trash is a post-apocalyptic RPG filled with profanity, gore, and puke

The pixel art is seriously impressive.

Death Trash promises to be a lot of things, most of them unpleasant. It's a post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk RPG filled with, in its own words, "large flesh beasts, grotesque, sexual references and trash-talking unlike anything seen before". Your character can even puke on demand, if you give them the right ability. But despite all that, it's the art that's really caught my eye.

[...]

Stephan, the dev of Death Trash shared some info about his post-apocalyptic RPG on the Codex:

Hello. I'm Stephan, the creator of this game. Obviously you have some parts already figured out, but it's also a bit messy in here. And I might be responsible for some of that too.

So if you have some questions, I'm happy to answer them. Here are some of my thoughts:

• No, this game is not designed for 12 year olds. Nor am I 12 years old. Being a bit older, the high era of my gaming was in the nineties, and I intend to make a game in the spirit of the roleplaying games of that era. Not exactly like them though.
• Of course you can play a male character. There should be a wide range of characters and visual customization to choose from, but while gameplay and animations count are not finalized I don't want to spend too much time yet making multiple characters.
• This is no political game, but part of my belief is that people should be friendly to each other and tolerance is very important, so some of that might of course make it into the game. Personally I find it a bit sad that in a genre that is so much about giving options that the addition of a further option (playing a trans-gender character) is a point of discussion.
• The game will have stats. But light-weight, more Ultima 7 than a Fallout 1/2 / Daggerfall. So almost non-existent for purists out there. If you think that stats are the most/only defining characteristics of making it a roleplaying game then we'll have different opinions anyway. Here is a screenshot of the simple stats screen,  but the plan is anyway to model the actual gameplay first and then the stats on top.
• I agree the combat looks boring still. Two things about that.
• One: Choosing realtime was a deliberate choice because part of my interest in this is (like Ultima 7) world simulation, and I find turn-based very tedious for that. Turn-based tends to lock games into two modes, where with simulation it should be an ongoing play. What happens if you shoot an NPC in a bar? Having to wait until 23 NPCs made their turn? Not what I want.
• Two: As the game is centered around one character and realtime a natural iteration now is to make it more action-like (think Dark Souls, not Diablo). In the process of that, but with dashing/rolling added it feels a lot better now. (Part of the reason I didn't try this earlier was probably because I was not confident enough as an animator. That's also improving.)
• The dialogue and the setting. I know it's a matter of taste, and it will certainly not meet everyone's. Just want to say here that this project probably differs much from others in the regard that it was online from day one, and what other people might muck around with or make their jokes with behind closed doors during that multiple years of development or especially in the beginning: here it was part of the "posting daily on Twitter about it". And that will always lean more towards light-weight humor. There it's natural to post non-working or non-serious stuff. So while parts of the final game will be like that, the perception of the whole thing is too much skewed towards that yet.
• The art. It's not about retro for me. The pixelart fits the right spot between abstracted and handmade so imagination can fill places. But it's a matter of taste, too, of course.

I'm happy that some people are interested in this game. And while I might not always have done the best job communicating this game, I'm learning. Hopefully improving.
Thank you for reading this.

James Dean is working on the audio part of Death Trash now:

Audio announcement

Today I’m happy to reveal that James Dean is working with me on Death Trash. He already created some atmospheric pieces and effects for the current prototype and I’m glad how it comes together. Along with the improvements in animation made currently  I am confident now the atmospheric presentation of the game will be spot on.
I know James from before when I used some of his freely available soundscapes for one of my short weekly games, which incidentally was a moody pixelart game with flesh and dialogue. And it was this one soundscape I couldn’t get out of my head while working on the first images of Death Trash. You can see that early pixelart game including the audio here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIn1roSvKos

The general direction of the audio is still to be determined though, will be a process like so many other areas on this project. This just comes with the fact that this is not a cookie-cutter game and has a world that still has to be explored and invented in parts.

You can find sound samples from James on his website www.whatisvalis.com which should give you an overview of his technical interests and proficiency.

There have been many people who were interested in making the audio for Death Trash. I was deeply honored by all the offers, and people working in the audio department seem to be very friendly and enthusiastic persons in general.
I really wish you all the best with your work and projects and am very thankful for all the messages I got. And I am sorry if I was a bit too silent on this front for a good while but there were a lot of distractions on my end.

- Stephan

Thanks Eye!

In a development update for Death Trash an overview of the work performed in the last months is given.

A summary of the work done in the last two months. A custom editor for behaviour patterns, characters comment now on different events like entering combat and picking up things, a custom skin/hair color shader was added, dialogue gets interrupted by nearby enemies and can be resumed afterwards. Refactoring and a lot of other small things. World building through images continues at a steady pace.

...

There was a lot of positive feedback from many people about the project. The concept and the artwork in general gets love and encouraging comments. What some of those people interested in the project wrote to me is that they would rather have a great experience, a full game, than a rushed one. I agree there. I would rather create a quality experience than getting a premature game out sooner. So while the possible release date of 2016 still stands for now, there's a good chance it will be changed to a later date when the scope of the project unfolds.

The next weeks I will continue with world design and more coding. This time hopefully a bit more on the gameplay side than 'just' framework and tools.

Thanks Eye.

Eye spotted a progress update for Death Trash, a modern post-apocalyptic roleplaying game with influences of cyberpunk, science fiction, horror and trash talking:

Progress, the friction of concept and reality, and a new tool.

The first Death Trash prototype becomes more playable from week to week, but as this game consists of many subsystems and I am only one person working on this, it might still take some time until they interlock and the real fun emerges. But it's time that I tell you a bit about the current state and progress.

In the last weeks I added a basic merchant, a crafting system, equipping and using abilities, a rudimentary quest system and many other small features. The visual aspect of combat got improved quite a bit, although the gameplay part of that is still lacking some "fun". The local co-op still works great, meaning a second player can join and leave anytime, controls can be Mouse/Gamepad or Gamepad/Gamepad and sides/characters can also be switched as long as both characters are alive.

An example of a small feature that takes some time to implement but is not special enough to show: Dialogue could be cancelled since early in the project. But now dialogue gets resumed from the last state, in case the player accidently left the dialogue and returns to the same NPC. And of course there is an internal check if the state of conversation is still valid. Coding this takes time, and there is even the chance that this "resume" feature gets kicked out again if it does not feel right, but still, it's not time wasted, because how dialogue is handled is integral to this project.

I continue to work on the concept of the world, but as the other development work is so intense at the moment, I keep this loose and not very concrete. Fleshing out areas (gets another meaning with this game) is postponed until the gameplay state of the prototype is more advanced and I know with more surety what type of areas are possible and make sense. There's of course something to be said for designing first and then implementing, but for now it helps me keeping focus by working on the programming itself, so that the gamplay can be "felt and touched" instead of only thought about.

[...]

Adam Smith (Rock, Paper, Shotgun) followed the development of Death Trash:

Death Trash Is A Grimier, Scarier, Nastier Fallout

Death Trash [official site] might be the Fallout game for people who wish Bethesda’s post-nuclear world were a whole lot grimier, scarier, and swearier. I’ve been following development for a while but a couple of nights ago I had a nightmare featuring images from the devblog and that means it’s probably time to bring the post-apocalyptic RPG to your attention. It’s a game in which giant bleeding heads make dire predictions, Lovecraftian entities lurk beneath the surface and in which “Fuck off” seems to be a common dialogue option.

Just about all of the images – several of which are animated – at the blog are good enough to maintain my interest in the game. It’s a grotesque setting, packed with radioactive body horror and conversations about shit and blood. Whether that’ll translate into gross-out sniggers and a grubbily believable pisspunk fantasy isn’t clear – the whole thing could still be charmless and grating – but I’m happy to see something that deviates from the too-clean aftermaths that I’m becoming accustomed to.

Death Trash is appealingly nasty and anxious, like Barry Godber’s artwork for the Court of the Crimson King, but with extra snot and the sort of bad attitude punk bands used to crave. It’s the work of solo developer Stephan Hövelbrinks and the art and world-building aren’t the only interesting things about it. Inspiration for the ‘living world’ and narrative comes from lofty sources:

“Death Trash is a modern post-apocalyptic roleplaying game with influences of cyberpunk, science fiction, horror, the grotesque, sex and trash-talk humor. It features a world full of dialogue and unique characters. Use shotguns, psi powers and eloquent talking to survive in this hostile wasteland. Death Trash is still at an early stage of development and the next step will be a playable prototype.

“Inspired by the roleplaying classic Ultima 7 with it’s focus on a living world as well as the narrative heavy Planescape: Torment, he knew this world had to be created as a mixture of both.”

Yes. I want to see more.

Oh, and this guy reminds me of that hitch-hiking robot that people were sad about recently.

Bare Knuckle Development interviewed the creator of the post-apocalyptic RPG Death Trash, Stephan Hövelbrinks:

This week we’ve been grafting and steadily making our way along this journey towards The Flawless: Art’s Tale but we always make time for our indie dev comrades. You might have already seen our post about Death Trash so you should know how cool it is. I had the chance to speak with its creator and here’s what he had to say… Read the full interview below. enjoy everyone!

Welcome to the Bare Knuckle Development blog!! Can you introduce yourself and your company?

Hello. I am Stephan Hövelbrinks, and I work on my own. I made a bunch of small free games. Several months ago, while making daily paintings, I stumbled upon this project and world Death Trash, which has now totally sucked me in.

For people who are new to Death Trash can you give us a quick introduction?

Death Trash is a modern post-apocalyptic roleplaying game with influences of cyberpunk, science fiction, horror, the grotesque and trash-talk humor. It will have many dialogues, unique characters, realtime combat, crafting and local co-op. Player freedom is emphasized and he/she should always find multiple paths to the goals. Survival in this unfriendly wasteland being one of the goals.

What has inspired you to make this game?

On the one hand is the first spark, the idea, of course. That happened while partaking in the Daily Art Streak on www.streak.club, trying myself in pixel art and isometric perspective. Then happened the Fallout 4 announcement and I made my own pixel version of a Fallout that could be. Making more pictures in the following weeks, the world manifested. On the other hand are all the influences. For the gameplay old roleplaying classics like Ultima 7, Planescape: Torment and Fallout. But also modern indie games and how they control and feel.

For the world movies like The Blood of Heroes (which almost no one knows anymore), Mad Max, Alien, Blade Runner, Terminator. The punk movement. The brutal worlds depicted in Death and Black Metal. The Doom and Quake games. My own love of diversity in people. The multitude in sexual preferences. The humor of classic point and click adventure games like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle. The writings of Robert E. Howard, Kafka, Dostoyevsky and even Hermann Hesse. If anyone would have said to me beforehand that there’s too much thrown together here, I would have agreed, but now, seeing the world of Death Trash unfold before my own eyes, it all makes sense to me. [...]

Eye spotted these Death Trash and Sunken previews. Death Trash is a post-apocalyptic RPG by Stephan Hövelbrinks and Sunken a dungeon crawling action-RPG with rogue-like elements.

Post apocalyptic debauchery and hardcore dungeon madness, we’re taking no prisoners in this week’s Indie Games to be Excited about. Boom!

Busy, busy, busy with The Flawless: Art’s Tale but just when you think you’re ready to get stuck-in, something bad happens and ruins your week. We’ve had broken laptops, busted up motorbikes and family scares (don’t worry everything is fine). In the past few days everything seems to have settled down a bit so we’ve been cracking on with the indie development for our epic game again… Whilst Ste’s been wrestling with the code I’ve been figuring out the plot some more and checking out other amazing looking indie games. This week I’ve found two really awesome looking games that you just have to have a look at. Are you ready for Death Trash, a post-apocalyptic RPG by Stephan Hövelbrinks, and Sunken, story driven action-RPG by Stevan Jevtić and Vladislav Mihailovic! Watch out people these tricks aren’t for kids so get ready!

Death Trash:

Stephan Hövelbrinks has been making a splash on the indiedev scene recently with his new game DeathTrash. I can completely understand why, the images on the web are undeniably exciting and make you want to see more of the game. Stephan has taken part in a number of game jams but this is his first ‘big’ game. Death Trash is a post-apocalyptic role playing game. It features a world full of interesting characters and strong personalities to match. I like the gritty cyberpunk art style, it really sets itself apart from other games out there at the moment. The strange and grotesque scenes really draw you into the post-apocalyptic world of Death Trash. Images such as the oracle bleeding from his eyes into a pool of old blood, or a guy called ‘Fleshface’ who seems to have lost all his limbs really hint at the depth of the lore in this world. The variety of characters is also impressive with scenes of debauchery and mayhem as if Mad Max and the Sex Pistols had had sordid one night stand. The scenes in Death Trash are so vivid you forget it’s pixelart, it’s a world that is begging to be explored. [...]

Sunken:

I came across Sunken whilst I was voting on Greenlight. Its art work instantly caught my eye as it reminded me of Baulder’s Gate: Dark Alliance on the PlayStation 2, which was one of my favourite games back in the day. Sunken is being developed by Stevan Jevtić and Vladislav Mihailovic. They started this project around 6 months ago and are in the middle of their Greenlight and Indiegogo campaigns. Sunken is an action-RPG with elements of the roguelike genre and promises to keep you addicted with unforgiving gameplay. [...]