Steam news10 Sep 2026Effulgence RPG 1.0 is out now!Effulgence RPG has officially left Early Access and reached version 1.0! Thank you to everyone who played, tested, reported bugs, and helped shape the game during Early Access. The full adventure is now complete, including all locations, bosses, mini-games, achievements, and 1.0 improvements. See you in the game!
Effulgence RPG 1.0 is almost here - the official release is on September 10. But Early Access owners can start playing the 1.0 Release Candidate right now and help me with the final testing before release. Important information about saves. Saves from older Early Access versions are not supported and will not be compatible with version 1.0. You will need to start a new game in the Release Candi…
Effulgence RPG will leave Early Access and launch its 1.0 version on September 10! The game has grown a lot during Early Access. The first Early Access release was around 1–1.5 hours long. Version 1.0 is around 5–7 hours long, with many new locations, enemies, bosses, story content and tactical options. Version 1.0 will launch with a 25% discount. Thank you to everyone who played the game, repo…
▓▒░ This update fixes a major mix-up between the Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese translations. Going through all affected text was a large and painstaking task, but the localization should now be much more consistent. ▓▒░ I have also finished all game locations. My current goal is to complete all remaining content by my birthday on August 26. After that, I will move on to testing, ba…
New feature: HACK mode When bosses die and fall apart into symbols, hidden code words can appear in the battle background. Open HACK mode, find a code word, decode it with the current filter, and run a patch. Patches are useful combat effects: they can delay enemies, restore resources, reduce PING, aim all heroes, or bend the battle rules in unexpected ways. The battlefield is made of symbols.…
Made a fun sketch of the lower half of the final boss for my ASCII game. The motion is fully procedural. Everything is calculated in real time. Does the movement look interesting? Now I need to make the front half really weird and cool. What kind of front part would fit this boss best? P.S. Also working on a fix for the hieroglyph bug. Thanks for supporting the project!
If you checked Effulgence RPG during the previous sale but decided to wait, now is a good time to look again. The game is now more polished, with major performance improvements, a new custom font, and new visual modes. It is also still available at its Early Access price, with a price increase planned closer to 1.0. Effulgence RPG is now 20% off during the sale.
Over the last month I've been working on a serious low-level refactor of the Effulgence RPG engine. The game might look almost the same at first glance but under the hood, a lot has changed. The goal was simple: push performance and remove technical limits so I can keep shipping new graphical ideas without fighting the engine. What's new · 50–100% performance improvement in many scenarios (depe…
Effulgence RPG Big Update 9600 (Milestone #1) Important: this update touches a lot of systems, so old saves won’t carry over — you’ll need to start a new game. Sorry for the inconvenience. · New combat location "Old Station" . Tentacle-like grass tries to strangle your heroes. The finale is a huge, very strong, but slow boss. · Resource Bag. Resources earned in combat can now be taken with you…
I'm rolling out the major update a bit early so I can calmly catch issues and ship hotfixes before January 2. Important: This update includes many changes, so old saves are not compatible - you'll need to start a new run. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you notice bugs, odd balance, or rough UI edges, please report them in the Steam Discussions or in Discord (if you're in it). The more precise…
Happy holidays! The Animated Profile Frame for Effulgence RPG is now available in the Steam Points Shop. I'm also pushing toward a major update on January 2. The highlights: · 10+ weapon twists: I'm making sure every weapon has a gameplay hook, not just different numbers. Designed the old-school way - in my notebook (image below). · New location: a fresh battlefield to fight through. · Rebalanc…
Hello everyone! I've just pushed a small "systems" update focused on infrastructure features that will keep getting expanded on the road to 1.0. What's new: ⚙ Steam Cloud Save is now enabled. This is the first release of it, so I'd really appreciate testing: if you play on multiple PCs or Steam Deck, please let me know whether your save synced correctly. ⚙ Steam User Stats are now tracked and s…
I'm happy to share a small update for Effulgence RPG (301): · Hero position swapping in combat. You can now swap the active hero's position with another hero during battle. Swapping adds PING (delay until the next turn). The PING cost for swapping is one third of the PING cost for skipping a turn. · Lower PING for unique abilities and injectors. Unique skills and injectors now cost less PING. Y…
You can now collect Steam Trading Cards for Effulgence RPG and craft a badge with ASCII-themed profile rewards. Playing the game will drop cards that you can turn into a badge, emoticons, and profile backgrounds. It's a small extra for everyone who decided to support the game in Early Access. I've also added an animated profile background to the Steam Points Shop, built entirely from in-game AS…
I'm working on the first update for Effulgence RPG and I'd love your input on one potential feature: letting you swap heroes between positions on the battlefield. It could make controls a bit more complex, but also open up new tactical options. Please share your opinion in the poll here: Link to the poll
I'd like to share a small update - Steam has enabled trading cards for Effulgence RPG, and I'm working on them right now. So far I've already: · drawn the first set of cards, · prepared profile backgrounds and emoticons, · sent everything to Steam for review. For now, the cards don't drop yet and aren't visible in your inventory - they'll only appear in the game after Steam approves and enables…
Hi! I started a new player poll about an important gameplay question: what should happen after you lose a battle? Right now, if you lose, you go back to the planet map, but lost weapons stay lost. I am also thinking about another option: after defeat, restore your state from before the fight (like an auto-save). I made a pinned discussion where you can read more and vote for your preferred opti…
Effulgence RPG has just passed 1,000 copies sold in its first days of Early Access, and I wanted to say a huge thank you. For a niche ASCII tactical RPG made by one person, this means a lot and literally keeps the project going. I launched into Early Access with a compact, focused slice of the game so we can shape the future together. I'm already reading your feedback and planning the first upd…
I'm incredibly excited to launch Effulgence RPG into Early Access today. My goal with Early Access is simple: ship a focused slice of the game, then grow it together with you. This version already has the core combat, exploration and systems in place, and I'll be expanding content and polishing features based on your feedback. The roadmap is available both in game and on the Steam page. As a sm…
Effulgence RPG has passed the milestone of 50,000 wishlists on Steam. For a solo ASCII RPG that's insanely cool – thank you for your interest, support, playtests, ideas, and memes. Without all this, the game simply wouldn’t exist. What to expect at the start of Early Access On December 2 you'll get the first public version of Effulgence RPG – a compact "slice" of the game you can comfortably ex…
★★★ I'm planning to put them in a new intro/tutorial location. The learning curve is a bit steep right now, so I'm adding a dedicated area to teach the core combat mechanics. ★★★
Hi everyone! 1) New demo build with updated controls: v80386 I've just pushed a new demo featuring the refreshed controls and a few quality-of-life tweaks. Versioning follows my retro-CPU theme: 8080 → 8088 → 8086 → 80286 → 80386. If you try it, I'd love your feedback on feel, responsiveness, and key/gamepad mapping. 2) Dec 2 launch will be Early Access I'm a solo developer, and with your help…
I opened my localization sheet. You can suggest better wording in your language. ★★★ This is 100% optional. I'm a solo dev and I use comments to catch awkward phrasing. Play and enjoy is already enough - suggestions are a bonus. ★★★ How to help · Open the sheet: · Pick the right tab: UI, Locations, Dialogs + Hints, or Items. · Find your language column. Each column is one language. Each row is…
I'm opening a short 5-day playtest to stress-test the new planet/map controls. I'd love your feedback on how it feels with mouse, keyboard, and gamepad.
New release date: December 2. Based on your feedback, I'm reworking the controls - taking ~two more weeks for polish. ★ Next week: a micro playtest (sign up on the store page). ★ Bonus: a hi-res poster. Video: Download hi-res (5010 x 7200, PNG, 20MB): Thank you for the feedback! Please add to your wishlist and drop by the playtest next week.
I've wanted to make a dragon out of text symbols for the game for ages and I finally did! I planned a mean dragon, but he turned out kind of adorable. He's even got a Peace Sign tattoo on his wing. He loves pacifists. They're delicious.
Also, I made a new background for battle locations: dynamic water reflections built entirely from ASCII symbols. I'm planning to use this visual feature across several areas. As always, nothing but text symbols (the ones on any keyboard) are used. No scaling, no rotation. Almost like pure text mode. The wave algorithm is a simplified Gerstner approach with two trochoidal waves - optimized to ru…
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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.