Knock, knock, travelers! Today we’re finishing our journey across Midian, and not in any old blind alley, but in the majestic Sunny City, the capital of the elves. Calling it the capital of the elven state would me a misnomer, as the Sunny City is the elven state. (Naturally, you’ll ask: what is the Frontier, then? And I’ll make sure to talk about it later.) Sunny City: Big City Imagine Ancient…
You wanted a game with Russian language support in the bundle — here it is. As always: dark, atmospheric, roguelike, and deck-building — we don’t keep any others, we’re like that ourselves. And it’s original, too. Ever wanted to play as a haunted house? Interesting how you’re going to associate yourself with the main character when the main character is… a house. Ha-ha, pretty funny, right? It…
NEWS ? We’re working on three projects at the same time: 1) the director’s cut of KOTCL 2) a script for the new game set in Midian. This second one is only my job for now because I’m your script-writer and because I have time left for it. The script is very intricate and complicated; I’ve never taken on such a task before. 3) a project I’m not allowed to talk about, but it’s about Midian as wel…
Another dose of chthonic weirdness. Our new bundle is somewhat similar to the previous ones — once again, it’s all about cards and atmosphere — but we’re trying to collaborate with more original projects. If you don’t like deckbuilders and roguelikes, then why are you reading this? And if you do, take a look at Decktamer and this bundle.
Knock, knock, travellers! As I promised, today we’ll be venturing into the tangled jungle of game development. Last time, I talked about the exotic and rarely understood profession of the narrative game designer—myself being a scriptwriter, ha-ha! Yes, I’m not a narrative designer but a humble scriptwriter, although after spending half my life in the game industry, I’ve learned so much about th…
Check out the stylish bundle with Roots Devour If I were making a game about a divine mite, it would probably look a lot like Roots Devour: an incredibly dense atmosphere, a deliberately muted color palette (as if you’re seeing the world through non-human eyes), chthonic artwork, and meditative music. Gameplay from another reality, absolute gloom everywhere. And of course—cards. And we’ll do ou…
Knock, knock! Today I’d like to take a little break from KOTCL and from Midian to talk about game development in general and game design in particular. But not just game design— narrative game design . So What Kind of Beast Is It? Don’t change the channel—it’s going to get interesting here! A narrative game designer is the most exotic profession in the gaming industry. Sometimes even those who…
Knock-knock, travelers! You read the previous diary log, right? Last time I talked about the above-ground part of New Agreement. Today it’s the under-ground part’s turn. It’s going to be fun and dark. A City Under a City Just to remind you—New Agreement is a huge city built by the gods. There’s another city, built by the demons, under that one. Which one of them would you choose to live? If you…
Knock-knock, travelers! Today’s diary is a themed one, dedicated entirely to the New Agreement. I’d like to tell you more about this most epic and significant location of Midian. But first, a small poll. Some of our users had their DLC disappear, and we fixed that bug, or so we thought, but isolated complaints keep coming in. We have to assess the scale of the problem. For that, we’ll need as m…
Knock, knock, travelers! Today, for a change, we’ll have an absolutely ordinary journal entry. Let’s start with feedback. Feedback Apparently you want to learn more about what we’re up to right now. I’ll tell you everything I can, which is not much, for reasons you’ll see below. But all in due course. First, let’s see what we’ve got on Bjorn’s re-balance—things that are finished and not yet fin…
Happy New Year, travelers! Did you miss us? How did you spend your holidays? As for me, I met with my friends and relatives, had guests over and was a guest myself, went to a theater, etc. I had a very busy schedule, even too busy—as per usual. The start of a new year is a time for new beginnings. I, for example, started writing a script for a new game set in the Midian universe. This is a caus…
Knock, Knock, It’s the 2025 Wrap-Up! Have you ever done this?—I mean, wrapping up the year isn’t simply an excuse for another post—it’s a good opportunity to reflect on everything you’ve done, and commit all of it to memory. We’re all great at making plans, but really bad at taking stock. At least, I definitely am. Console Release Personally, I played our game on a PlayStation with a huge TV an…
Have you already figured out how you’ll be celebrating New Year and Christmas? Personally, I’m going to a rock concert. Just kidding. I traditionally celebrate New Year at home with my family, and on Christmas I go visit my cousin. By the way, he has such powerful audio equipment at home that the sound is better than at a rock concert. This time we decided not to hold back on discounts and went…
At the last meeting Misha announced that he’d be reducing Bjorn’s eight basic mechanics to three. I got very curious and thought you might be interested too, so I decided to grill Misha a bit. Misha Explains Misha: Hi! So see for yourself. To describe Bjorn’s current gameplay, you need to consider the following: · In the elf form, card costs are doubled · In the elf form, playing cards uses hea…
Knock, knock! First off, thank you for your kind words in the comments. That’s quite a rare sight. The way human psyches work, when we like content, we simply press “Like” and leave; but when we’re dissatisfied with something, we’ll write a negative comment about that (by the way, we’re always open to constructive criticism). So seeing friendly commentaries is always unexpected and pleasant. No…
Pay attention to the “glossary note acquisition” items. We are currently double-checking how event notes are added to the Knowledge Book, and if anything doesn’t behave the way it should, we fix it. · Reworked character SFX and music. · Added more variation to character sound effects. · Fixed glossary note acquisition for Persival in the Keeper of the Cult event. · Fixed glossary note acquisiti…
Bjorn's Rebalance Will Be Happening! It’s official! Unofficially, we started working on Bjorn’s rebalance quite a while ago, but it’s still in the documentation stage. Want me to tell you what “documentation” means? The Bjorn Documentation On a separate sheet, we write out all of Bjorn’s mechanics, his cards, his items, event rewards, and so on and so on. All of this is done so we can overhaul…
We’ve pushed the first polishing update for the recent rebalance — based directly on player feedback. This patch is available only on the public_beta branch, but don’t worry: the main branch isn’t being neglected. A fresh update for the live version is also on the way and will arrive next week. Class & Inventory Cards Draining Lunge – Removed Ethereal from level 1. Pay cost reduced to 1. Pickpo…
Work is humming along In the near future only rebalance news and patch-notes await us, and that’s not a lot. Since there’s really not much to talk about or show you, it would be good to put the diaries on hold. On the other hand, work is really humming along, so if we stop getting in touch every Friday, people might think that the project has been abandoned and will lose interest in it. It’s wh…
Hi. There aren’t that many fixes this time, which means our game is getting close to perfection. We’ve finally added visually distinct versions of the automatons — wow! But if you don’t know who the automatons are, that means you haven’t played the DLC yet. This one’s only for the expansion. I’ve picked the ones that I personally like the most. As for the rest — the usual stuff: small tweaks, b…
Knock-knock Thank you to everyone who shared their impressions of the final rebalance. I’d like to share mine too. I started a new game twice on the public_beta branch—once from my home account and once from the office one. I played for renewed Persival and realised that I have even more new impressions of the game as a whole, than of the new balance itself. To tell the truth, I rarely notice b…
Knock, knock! It happened! So, we’ve done it. The build with the final rebalance is ready. This is the moment where fanfare should probably play, because this event is very important for us. Version: R_1.3.14.1. Uploaded to Steam only, for both Mac and Windows. Branch: public_beta Password: no password Welcome aboard. I remind you that only Persival has been subjected to a complete rebalance. T…
Knock, knock, travellers! I hope you liked our holiday story about the Mistress. By the way, how do you see her appearance? Surely not as an old crone with a scythe? No, she’s actually quite charming. If it seemed to you that, in describing Death, I was playing with the BDSM theme, you weren’t mistaken. The Mistress’ servants, ready to fulfil her any desire—I think that’s a hilarious image. Mid…
In honor of Halloween, a bright and joyful event, I suggest we talk about death—not about our death, but about the Mistress who embodies one of the fundamental forces of Midian. But first, let’s start with something more grounded. Localization The final re-balance we’re working on is causing changes in the text—and significant ones at that, especially in card and item descriptions. Just imagine…
Knock-knock — have you figured out how you’re celebrating Halloween yet? Personally, I’m heading to a rock concert. Haven’t picked which one yet, but Halloween definitely calls for rock. Meanwhile, the Steam Scream Fest is kicking off — and we’re offering 35% off the game and 20% off the DLC. Plus, a bundle with Monster Train 2 for an extra 10% off! We’re excited to team up with Monster Train 2…
Knock-Knock! As I promised, today I’ll talk about half-bloods, but first let’s briefly return to the subject of the previous entry to clarify certain things and answer some questions. Where did all brotherhoods, cults and other hobby groups of Midian that you encounter (or don’t) in the game come from? The Mite Cult The Divine Mite is older than Midian itself, but it was sealed away in its den…
Knock-Knock! You don’t know this, but I’ve been counting how many diary entries have been posted since I wrote “Please introduce yourself” here. Few will get it, even fewer will remember, but this is the 17th entry since then. Not exactly an anniversary, but still impressive. In that time, I’ve managed to tell you quite a lot about the universe of our game, and it’s still going on and on. I’ve…
Knock, knock! The patch we promised has been released, all technical issues with the patch have been resolved, and the patch notes can be found in the post below. This is the main news of the week — the one you already know. For the next patch we’ll work on fixes for both notes in the book of knowledge, and achievements that are now impossible to open, or can’t be opened under certain circumsta…
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Announcements are the developer’s own posts to the game’s Steam news feed: updates and their patch notes, in-game events, releases and sales. The important ones are marked on the players chart.