GUARDS! — patch notes and updates
Stored observation / content update:
Dated developer announcements recorded from Steam. Open the source for the complete update.
| Update | Date | Excerpt / source |
|---|---|---|
| GUARDS! Update #4 - Combat Clarity | 2025-06-21 | Attention Recruits!As you may know from our previous update, we found ourselves in a situation where we couldn't actively work on GUARDS! as much as we'd like due to the ongoing console port. We are really happy that you all want more GUARDS!. We want more GUARDS! too, so over the last few months we have been hard at work trying to figure out a way we could make it happen. First, a little bit about what is in the update. One of the biggest bits of feedback we get from reviews and players is that the game is too hard. Punishingly hard. Hard games are ok, but when the players don't know what killed them or why the mission was failed, it can cau |
| GUARDS! Future Updates | 2025-04-29 | Hello Recruits! People frequently ask if there will be future updates for GUARDS! and we're really happy that the game has found enough of an audience that there is demand for more medieval justice! The short answer is: "We don't know!" but read on for more info! First, some context: GUARDS! was our first project as a team, and early on in development we decided to launch as a full release as opposed to early access. The reason being we had no idea how well the game would perform, and put simply, we didn't want to make promises for future improvements that we couldn't keep! If the game didn't sell we wouldn't be able to support it longer-term |
| UPDATE 8.2 - Removing Timers and more! | 2024-03-15 | ATTENTION GUARDS! Version 8.2 is now live and with it we have addressed the most common issue you had with the game - timers! New Features Reinforcement Waves Timers are gone! Originally we added a time limit to force players to go fast and generate more chaos, but in retrospect, it meant players having a good time in missions were unceremoniously booted back to the hub. As mentioned in our previous update post this one caught us by surprise (it didn't come up at all during our demo!), however, as it was one of the most common complaints about the game we wanted to address it ASAP! In it's place is the Reinforcement System. You can now spend |
| ADDRESSING YOUR FEEDBACK | 2024-03-07 | ATTENTION GUARDS! It has now been a little under 6 days since we pushed the big green button and released GUARDS!. In that time we have had nearly 10'000 players and over 1.5 years worth of playtime generated in less than a week. To say that we were not ready for the level of attention that GUARDS! received would be an understatement! With that level of activity comes a huge amount of feedback. Now that we have left "New and Trending" and things have calmed down, we have been able to review hundreds of individual feedback items across the Steam forums, Discord and reviews and look for patterns. Thank you to everyone who took the time to give |
| DIFFICULTY UPDATE | 2024-03-05 | ATTENTION GUARDS! Thank you to everyone who took the time to give us feedback on the forums, discord and in the reviews. Honestly, we were not prepared for the level of interest! Largely, the reception has been really positive but we did notice a few trends starting to appear that we have been working hard to address. First - a bit of context! Since our release on Friday we have had over 9000 players. Even if we assume each player has played for just 30 minutes, that still equates to over 2 years playtime for a single person playing 8 hours a day, Monday to Friday. That is alot of playtesting in a short period of time! And, without a doubt, t |
| // DAY 3 PATCH NOTES // | 2024-03-03 | // DAY 3 PATCH NOTES // Host can now set max player count Crossbow bolt removes after 10s in a players head Reduced objective counts for larger player counts (no more impossible arrest 80 perp missions!) |
| // DAY 2 PATCH NOTES // | 2024-03-02 | Solo to Max Player Count Objective Requirements edited to create a smoother ramp for Solo Players - fewer players means fewer objectives to complete, etc Solo to Max Player Reinforcement Count edited to create a smoother ramp for Solo Players - fewer players means fewer enemies on reinforce event Checked button localization (Join us on Discord to help with Localization efforts!) Fixed an issue where users could not equip unlockable capes |
| // DAY 1 PATCH NOTES // | 2024-03-02 | // DAY 1 PATCH NOTES // Updated server messages - no longer just "connection lost" - will now articulate reason ( kicked form session or host quit) Added a Lute - its a weapon and an instrument ! Fix an issue with 1million gold from extract missions - no more misappropriating evidence ! Fix Invert Y being default on first play Removed a definitely not a feature we left in soft lock when pressing L |
| GUARDS! is OUT NOW! | 2024-03-01 | The support and excitement in the final run up to release has been overwhelming. We've had fan art, deep lore discussions, pitches for future mechanics and seen so much more interest in the game than we had ever imagined. The GUARDS! team would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has wishlisted the game, played the demo, given us feedback, kicked down doors, hit perps with frying pans and generally been a part of this new community. THANK YOU! Finally, after a year of hard work GUARDS! is OUT NOW and it is time to unleash you all upon the wretched streets of New Alestead! Vanguard Supporter Pack and Bundle! At your request, we |
| GUARDS! PLAYABLE ON STEAM DECK | 2024-02-29 | Greetings GUARDS! Throughout development, we have always taken the time to assess how GUARDS! plays on Steam Deck. As big fans of the device we wanted to make sure that the experience was a cut above the usual minimal support, and we feel pretty confident that we've managed to achieve the coveted green tick. Here is what our programmer had to say about it: 'Most of my gaming time is on Steam Deck, I love the ability to pickup and play between level 20 life chores like work, and sleep. I browse the green ticks like a hawk searching for the next game to delve into and when making Guards I wished to make the game a smooth experience on Steam Dec |
| GUARDS! Releasing This Weekend + 20% Launch Discount! | 2024-02-27 | ATTENTION GUARDS! We are now only 3 days away from pressing the magical green button and releasing GUARDS! on to the unforgiving streets of the Steam market place. At it's core, GUARDS! is a co-op game, and we wanted to make it as easy as possible to jump in and dispense justice with your friends. So, to thank you for the overwhelming support we have received during the games development, we will be releasing the game with a 20% discount. You can look forward to "accidentally' hitting your team mates with a frying pan when the game launches on March 1st @ 9am PST / 5pm GMT. Thanks again, and we look forward to cleaning up the streets of New A |
| NEXTFEST REVIEW | 2024-02-14 | Greetings GUARDS!, First of all, the GUARDS! team want to thank you all for the overwhelming support and interest the game received during Nextfest. We didn't really know what to expect and the reception has been incredible! Game development is kind of weird. Often you are making decisions in a vacuum, using your experience and gut instinct as a player to guide you through. During development features are missing or half implemented and it can cloud your judgment. You start to wonder "Is this game actually any good?" or "Do people really *want* to play as a Guard?". So for us, Steam Nextfest was a massive validation that actually, yeah - peop |
| GUARDS! LIVE @ NEXTFEST | 2024-02-11 | Greetings GUARDS! Mark your calendars, because this weekend you can join Officers Grif, Brad, Jolly and Jeroen on a ride along as they work the beat in the Lower City Slums. You can watch them in action at the following times: Sunday February 11th @ 11AM PDT / 8PM CDT If you enjoy watching their particular brand of justice, be sure to follow their antics over on Twitch at: https://www.twitch.tv/grifcato https://www.twitch.tv/jollyghost https://www.twitch.tv/sr_bradmeister https://www.twitch.tv/jeroenismyname See you there! - The GUARDS! Team - |
| GUARDS! LIVE @ NEXTFEST | 2024-02-10 | Greetings GUARDS! Mark your calendars, because this weekend you can join Officers Deputy7, Krazykowboi, AlphaofCorgis and Epockreaver13 on a ride along as they work the beat in the Lower City Slums. You can watch them in action at the following times: Sunday February 11th @ 11AM PDT / 8PM CDT If you enjoy watching their particular brand of justice, be sure to follow their antics over on Twitch at: https://www.twitch.tv/deputy7 https://www.twitch.tv/krazykowboi https://www.twitch.tv/epockreaver13 https://www.twitch.tv/alphaofcorgis See you there! - The GUARDS! Team - |
| DEMO V6: NEXTFEST | 2024-02-06 | Greetings GUARDS! It's time for the annual city watch recruitment drive, and what better location that this years Steam Nextfest! For the last few months we have been able to fine tune and hone our demo in anticipation of this event, and a large part of that is as a result of your contributions! We want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us so far, whether that's from playtesting, leaving bug reports or just chatting about the game and giving feedback in our discord channel. So what have we been up to since the last update! Personal Weapons Guards will now be able to store the weapons they have bought (or "found" in the |
| DEMO V5: TOOLS OF THE TRADE | 2024-01-17 | Greetings Guards! The gnomes over at the GUARDS! Gadget Guild have been hard at work creating new tools to be used in the endless war on crime. You will now have access to the following equipment: Nailbomb Fire Whiskey Push Daggers Knuckle Dusters Fire Bombs Frying Pan We have also updated the store in GUARDS HQ with a wide variety of snazzy new uniform colors and shields. So now you can thwart crime and look fantastic doing it! FULL PATCH NOTES FOLLOW: ---- Changelist January 2024 New Features Added Nailbomb, Fire Whiskey, Push Daggers, Knuckle Dusters and Fire Bombs to crates Add frying pan 2000g coins earnt from completing a district Host |
| Dev Streams | 2024-01-06 | Live Dev Streams! Starting in January developers of GUARDS have been livestreaming on Youtube and Twitch New Enemies New Weapons and Equipment Quality of life and UX iterations New Environments Bug fixes Join us daily from 8-10am Central Time Jankuary Similar to Inktober and other month long daily events, I have coined 'JANKUARY' a daily stream where we hack together awesome content for the game and in some cases, remove jank (bug fixes, QOL). Join the discord to join in chat! GUARDS! DISCORD! Twitch Twitch/lowkeygamedev Youtube Youtube/lowkeygamedev |
| WAR FOR NEW ALESTEAD! | 2023-12-20 | The situation in New Alestead has escalated, the Mega City Slums are under constant gang occupation, Perps are roaming the streets, civilians are being held at ransom, and a new drug 'Miff' is taking over. Our orders are destabilize the gangs control of the districts and gather intel on the Kingpins location - then bring him in! Its your job to subdue the perps, rescue the hostages, and detain any Miff contraband on the Streets. We have limited time to pull this off, and if.. no WHEN we do you bring the son-of-a-gobbo back alive for interrogation... we'll make sure he talks! // MAJOR CHANGES // 🏙️ Procedurally Generated Maps In order to incr |
| CaRtOoNz & H2ODelirious Play GUARDS! | 2023-12-17 | Watch CaRtOoNz & H2ODelirious play GUARDS! If you've ever wanted to watch two inebriated city guards with questionable accents terrorize the inhabitants of the city and each other then this video has you covered. It was a nice surprise for us and awesome to see people indulging in the kind of goofy chaos we had in mind when we first started making this game. The demo they played was a little on the old side, but don't worry - we have a new one with lots of combat improvements, a new procedurally generated levels and new XCOM style crime fighting meta game - so watch this space! |
| DEMO UPDATE V2 | 2023-10-26 | GUARDS! LISTEN UP! The results from the first weeks training initiative are in, and you knuckleheads have smashed, kicked and thrown your way through every obstacle in your path - but we have work to do... lets cut to it. You, our hardy GUARDS! have raised some important questions, and found some questionable issues during our field exercise! Confusion in combat?! We hear you! Frustration in the face of our adversaries! WE hear you! Overseas Foreign Exchange GUARDS!?? WE HEAR YOU! ---- We at BASTION HQ have hit the roundtable to workshop some changes to our rules of engagement for future training, buckle up lads and lassies, this is the first |
| UPCOMING DEMO TEST | 2023-10-12 | Hi ! Thanks for showing your interest in GUARDS! We have been hard at work on our first demo and it is ready to go live next week. We have 100 slots available for playtesters, and we would love to get your thoughts and feedback on the game. To get access to the demo, simply head on over to our DISCORD SERVER to receive instructions on how to redeem your key. There is no embargo or NDA, feel free to share this with your friend, stream, make YT videos etc. In fact, we're actively looking for groups that like to play COOP games together and would see you play the game. We look forward to sharing the game with you next week! |