Yesterday, we posted the news that the PC-only content — the new heroes, the Holiday DLC, and yes, even Nightmare Mode — will be staying PC-only. We’re really sorry that we can’t get this content to consoles, and you can read more about that decision in yesterday’s post.

Of course, I know you guys are hungry for console patch details, and while I don’t have the whole list yet, I do have one. It appears the issue with the Mistymire reward weapons disappearing has been fixed! Full patch details should be coming soon, and we’re still aiming at a January submission to quality assurance.

Console Event Details

Speaking of Mistymire, this week heralds the return of our console events. In this Trendy-versus-the-console-world-flavored event, it’s up to you to defend the crystal while our team of community griefers fling creeps over your well-placed blockades. Outlast the onslaught on Insane for five waves, and you’ll win the reward weapon, the Bound for Earth. (And yes, you need to survive for five waves to win the weapon. Dem’s the rules!)

To ensure the event would produce the right amount of succulent tears to fill my ego goblet, I’ve been subjecting the community team to tortuous testing. I think we’ve achieved the perfect ratio of winning to QQing.

Some of you have been curious about the little, insignificant details: dates, times, how to enter. The event takes place Jan. 26 and 27. (That’s tomorrow and Friday!) Thursday will be the PS3 event, and Friday will be the 360 event. Each day, we will be hosting the events from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST.

To clarify:

For your chance to enter, send a message to TrendyEnt1, TrendyEnt2 and TrendyEnt3. We’ll be pulling in people at random, and any messages sent before the designated start time will be deleted.

Countdown

We’ve talked at length about the Barbarian and the Assault Map Pack. We can finally announce that the Barbarian and the AMP will make their way to the Steam marketplace on — drumroll please — Jan. 30! That’s five days away. To help ease the pain of waiting for so long, here’s some more screenshots of the Etherian Mines.

The honeymoon suite.

Don’t go chasing waterfalls.

Just as a reminder, the Assault Map Pack will be free if you’ve purchased the Eternia Shards Complete on Steam. Otherwise, the AMP will be $.99 (on sale from $1.99), while the Barbarian will be $1.99 (on sale from $2.99).

I haven’t had too much of a chance to get my hands on the new goods yet, but I’m going to sneak into the office this weekend and give them a go. (And while I’m in the office, I might drop by Immortal-D’s PC giveaway.

Patch in Action

For our PC fans, it’s been more than a month since the last patch (7.15) hit Dungeon Defenders. Patch 7.15 brought the respawn-less Hardcore Mode and several much-needed tweaks to Nightmare Mode. Patch 7.16 will bring support for the aforementioned Barbarian class and the Assault Map Pack DLCs, as well the three new Steam achievements hinted at last week, and some additional functionality, such as:

Item folders for both your Item Box and Hero Shop! These can be sub-foldered (with viewable paths), and they support new item and folder mouse drag-&-drop interaction (as do the buttons).

Hardcore completion stat recording! You now get special icons indicating your hardcore mode completions (per-difficulty), and there’s a corresponding Achievement for beating all Nightmare Campaign missions in Hardcore. What future rewards will this unlock?

On-the-fly full-frontal viewing and no HUD display! You can activate this AT ANY TIME during gameplay for some action-packed shots! (Which means you guys better be sending some awesome screenshots to [email]contest@trendyent.com[/email] for future digests! No excuses!)

Patch 7.16 is set to hit Steam on Jan. 30. For the rest of the tentative patch notes for 7.16, head on over to the Upcoming Patch Notes thread.

To our console fans, we’ll see you tomorrow. To everyone else, see you next time.

Much love,
Hitmonchan

Discuss this Digest here!

The pieces are falling into place in our swank new office. Our misfit artists are laying the first brushstrokes on distant projects. Our testers are putting the new DLC through its paces. And our newly formed community supergroup, Trendy Entertainment Community Support (T.E.C.S.), has tapped into the power of the One Ring, backhanding hackers off the ranked servers like Sauron at the slopes of Mount Doom.

Sadly, the One Ring does not grant me additional wordsmith power, so you’ll just have to make do with these weak mortal sentences.

Enter the Barbarian

The Barbarian has no need for your rings of power. In fact, he has no need for towers. Wielding a weapon in each hand, he handles the mobs of Eternia with ease. But the Barbarian is no flailing fool. This rugged man has trained extensively for years to perfect various fighting styles.

Which stance will you choose: Siphon, Turtle, Lightning, Hawk or Tornado? You’ll have plenty of time to choose until the Barbarian drops into the PC battleground for $2.99. (On sale around launch for $1.99.)

Speak Friend and Enter

Do not fear to go into the Mines of Etheria, for it is here in the sacred realm of your heritage that you must assault the enemies that lurk within the shadows. By might, magic or mysticism, you must succeed, or all shall perish.

The Fellowship Loses a Member

Last week, we said farewell to a brave soul who has left the company for other adventures. Yesterday, our 360 console community gathered to give thanks to the man, the myth, the JDanford.

We’d like to give a very special thanks to Dredd and WarpedReality for making all of this possible.

Trendy vs. the Console World (Mistymire Console Event)

The overwhelming community response with console events has inspired us to make another of our own. But this time, there’s a twist.

It’s our ragtag team of community comrades against the console world in Homerun Derby. Your job will be to protect the crystals while we run around like mad people knocking creeps over your blockades and past your towers. Defensive units will be low, so place your defenses wisely. Survive the onslaught, and you’ll walk away with a rare weapon.

The event will be on Jan. 26 and 27. We’ll have more details next week.

12 for ‘12 PSN Sale

PSN fans, you can grab Dungeon Defenders for 30 percent off until next Monday. If you have PSN+, you’ll get an additional 20 percent off. (That’s 50 percent off the retail price!)

Head on over to Sony’s blog to read more about it. And while you’re there, be sure to check out the other discounted games.

Mac Dropping in February (for now)

In the spirit of keeping everyone up to date, the current ETA for the Mac release of Dungeon Defenders is sometime this February. We’re taking a little extra time to ensure everything’s up to par and that the PC and Mac versions play nice with each other. We’ll keep everyone updated as this date range narrows down (and possible shifts a bit).

Modder’s Paradise

As part of the new community focus of the website, we’re going to be looking for amazing maps and mods created by our fans to showcase. Here’s a few of the latest work-in-progress maps and mods that have caught our eye.

The Mouth of Trendy

Tonight at 10:30 p.m. EST/7:30 p.m. PST, our very own Philip Asher will be a guest on Moonhawk Studios Presents, a live podcast hosted by Michael “Mac Paladin” Prokop with Adam Dayton. Hear why all the ladies get hot and bothered by his sexy dulcet voice, and maybe get a drop or two of DunDef news.

Leave Your Website Suggestions Here

Have an awesome idea for our website update? Be sure to drop by the Suggestions forum and let us know!

And for you PC folk:
Want even more of a challenge?

Before we leave, we’d like to draw your attention to the SOPA and PIPA blackouts happening all over the web this week. The implications of these bills go beyond piracy. They threaten the vitality of indie game studios by snuffing out YouTube videos, fan art, mods, maps and other creations crafted by our fans, which help spread awareness throughout the gaming community.

If you’d like to learn more about these bills, head on over to Google’s landing page. And while you’re there, we urge you to sign the petition.

Take care, fellow freedom defenders,

Hitmonchan

Discuss this Digest here!

Hey, gang!

Before we get started, I’d like to take this moment to thank Trendy Entertainment for allowing me the opportunity to be your new community manager. If you haven’t already seen Danford’s farewell thread, head on over there and tell him goodbye. I know that all of us here at Trendy will miss him.

This year marks a renewed push to not only provide you with bigger and better in-game content, but we’re going to give you guys the best customer support and community experience yet.

Now settle in. It’s time for this week’s digest. (Which, for future reference, will release each Wednesday.)

Float Like a Butterfly

Earning Mythical Defender is no small task. One must brave the treacherous perils of Nightmare mode on every Campaign map — a feat only .2 percent of our defenders have completed so far. For some, the sweet taste of victory is reward enough, but we recognize others may require a slightly more tangible prize. Behold! The Outlander Hunter skin has landed (or should we say arose, *hint* *hint*)!

Assault Mission Pack

Of course, even if you are a Mythical Defender you still need more content to play, right? Well, if you’ve purchased the Eternia Shards Complete DLC, or are going to in the future, we’ll be throwing in some additional content (Edit: by the end of this month): the Assault Mission Pack. This pack will let your heroes break through the enemies’ defenses across Mistymire Forest, Tree of Life and one brand new map, The Etherian Mines. Of course, to do this, you may need some new brand new weapons… and maybe if you succeed you’ll find a new friend:

Those who just want the Assault Mission Pack will be able to purchase for $1.99 and grab it on sale for one dollar less at launch.

Website Facelift

Our forums are a marvelous place of whimsy and wonder. Within these walls, our fans show off their talents using videos, photos, mods and maps. Yet more often than not, their brilliance gets buried under the rising tide of topics and their hard work goes unnoticed. Well, I say no more!

In the next two months, the Dungeon Defenders website will be getting a facelift. Sure some of it will just be cosmetic (and some of it just be making it actually load), but the rest will be focused on better serving you; bringing your work and voice to the forefront of the site as well as making support from us more accessible and organized. It’s in the earliest of early stages now, but as we make progress on it, we’ll keep you updated right here.

Dungeon Defenders Winter Olympics Community-Held Event (360 only)

Hidden deep in that rising tide of posts is the Dungeon Defenders Winter Olympics, a set of events hosted and run entirely by the goodwill of our 360 community members Dredd and WarpedReality. These six events will challenge your brain and as well as your balance. I got the chance to try out the first event, the Hot Lava Obstacle Course, and I was blown away by the amount of planning, time and outside-the-box resourcefulness that Dredd and Warped put into this. It’s simply phenomenal.

They’re giving away some wicked beam swords named after famous Star Wars sith and jedis. And if you needed more incentive besides fun and beam weapons, we’ve given them a stack of Chi Blasts to give out. Now you can go all Gandalf on creeps while your buddies do the Obi-Wan/Darth Vader thing.

The first event started this morning, but it picks back up tonight from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. EST.

Here’s the schedule for the rest of their events:

1/17: Quicksand — Summit on insane. Towers will randomly disappear after the first wave

1/25: Man’s Best Friend — No Towers Allowed on Hard. Pets only

TBD: DXC “Defenders Xtreme Challenge” — PvP life stream, work in progress

TBD: Aura’s R Us — Aura towers only, work in progress

TBD: Last Man Standing — PvP, last challenge of the event and the winner will receive 1600 Microsoft points. Huntress and event weapons are excluded from this challenge

If you’d like to learn more, head on over to their forum thread.

Members of our PSN community, where are you??? We’d love to help get some community-run events on PSN as well!

Arcade Fire Sale

This week’s Xbox Deal of the Week is tower-defense flavored, which means you can pick up Dungeon Defenders for 800 MS Points! Head on over to the [URL="http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Promotion/dealoftheweek"]Xbox Marketplace[/URL] and pick up a copy. While you’re there, you should check out the other amazing tower defense games on sale as well.

Back on Mac

If you’ve paid attention to our Twitter feed this past week, you may have noticed our super-subtle hint about Dungeon Defenders on a certain platform.

It’s OK if you didn’t quite get what we were trying to say. Next time, we’ll be sure to use bright neon lights, sparkles, rainbows, and maybe a unicorn. Oh wait, we are in the Assault Mission Pack. Anyways…

Dungeon Defenders for the Mac is coming to you Soon®, and for a lucky few, the wait will be much shorter. We’re looking for beta testers to help iron out the kinks. If you’re interested in helping us out, shoot an email to betatesters[at]trendyent.com. Be sure to include your Steam username, location and the kind of Mac you have. (MacBook, iMac, etc.)

Tatt’d Up

Sometimes when we love something, we put the needle to our skin and ink an ever-lasting tribute. That’s what Jeremy Orley did. Check out this sweet Huntress tattoo adorning his body from Daniel Watkins at Art Bomb Tattoo.

Nice work! Seeing someone dedicate a part of their canvas to our game is both humbling and validating.

We end this week’s digest with an in-house bombshell: Our head honcho, Jeremy, got engaged in New York over the break! (Is that the reason we all had time off, Jeremy? Tell the truth!) Check out the Huntress cupcakes from his bride-to-be, Susan:

A quick sidenote: Susan owns this fantastic sweets shop downtown called Sarkara Sweets. It’s so good, if you’re local, check it out (but don’t ask for the Huntress Cupcake, that’s just for us).

Congratulations to Jeremy and Susan!

That’s it for this week. I can’t wait to really sink my teeth in. This is going to be a good year.

See you again this time next week.

Hitmonchan

Discuss this Digest here!

Edit 1/13/2012: Something urgent has arose, and a few members of our dev team have to take a trip next week. This means that the Assault Map Pack will no longer be ready for launch next week, however it will still be released before the end of the month.