Winter has arrived in Seattle❄️... in February!
While it's intermittently snowing, it is not sticking. Pft, typical Seattle weather (please don't actually snow too much, I don't have time to shovel the driveway). Did you hear the news that a Nintendo Switch 2 is coming?? Expect an email from us, Nintendo :)
Back to Work
We're back on the work wagon after our nice restful break. We're spending the early part of this year ensuring that a handful of major experimental features are good for Early Access. They won't be featured in this month's Neowsletter but let's take a look at another feature some of you may have already noticed.
Enchantments
In Slay the Spire 2, you may run into a new modifier to your cards called Enchantments. As probably surmised from the name, enchantments are modifiers to cards in your deck which are applied for the duration of that run! While the majority of common Enchantments will give you a slight edge here and there, the more meaningful and potentially run-defining Enchantments can be discovered in rare Events and things like REDACTEDs throughout the game.
Enchanted cards have a little icon and additional effects are added to the card in purple.
Merch Madness
You may have heard by now... but THE DEFECT AND THE WATCHER ARE BACK!! In figure form :) Last week the second part of the YouTooz x Slay the Spire collection dropped, meaning you can now complete your own collection with figures of all 4 heroes!! We don't recommend putting them in your mouth as some fans have expressed the desire to do, but hey, we don't judge.
In some newer news, you will soon be able to ascend to the status of True Gamer with some peripherals that Slay! Namely, these keyboards, keycaps, and deskmats by MKRO & Infinikey, each themed around a different hero of the Spire so you can rep your main AND have some StS swag right at the tip of your fingers. The collection launches this Friday, February 14th, so remember to check it out and grab the ultimate Valentine for yourself or that special Slayer in your life ❤️
Spire Spotting
Last month we tasked you, dear readers, with illustrating your hypotheses as to what this ~shadowy~ creature could be. So, Spireologists, let's see what you've come up with...
The award for funniest guess goes to Kodiak_Krew, who created a particularly defective-looking abomination charming creature :) We appreciate the wishful thinking!!
And the award for most accurate guess goes to ssorgatem, who imagined our mystery monster as a Jaw Worm-like creature! And it's... kind of scary how accurate it is actually. Either you are living in our walls or you're just particularly talented at clocking our tea.
Though we couldn't feature them all here, thank you for all of your (often cursed) contributions!! It seems we are finally able to lift the veil and see what our friend actually looks like:
Ah yes, why it's a Nibbit! A feisty little monster you'll see often in the Spire.
But what's this? Another wild shadow has appeared! What could it be?? Just like last time, post your artistic theories on Discord, Reddit, Twitter, Bluesky, etc, and we'll feature the most accurate--and most amusing--submissions in next month's Neowsletter!
Q&A with C&A
Hello everyone, yet another new section to the Neowsletter has been added (do we need to cut some sections?). This is 🥁... Questions & Answers with Casey & Anthony! Myself (Casey) and Anthony (other co-founder/designer) will be picking and answering a handful of your burning questions to answer each month, as well as the occasional guest. Let's get right into it.
Harribo asks: What did you learn from making Dancing Duelists and how did those lessons manifest in StS 2?
Casey: Excellent question! For those not in the know, we released Dancing Duelists, a deckbuilding autobattler game jam game in October 2023. Slay the Spire 2 wasn't yet announced, and we were considering an engine switch for a host of reasons. Made in 3 weeks in the Godot Engine, which none of us have developed in before, it was a technical exploration to assess the viability of switching from the Unity Engine to Godot. I guess we learned that Godot seems like a viable game engine! But for more details around the situation and learnings from that project I published a blog post on the topic around the time Dancing Duelists was completed.
oblivionsweet asks: Will Clash return in sts 2?
Anthony: No
Keystone asks: What does Enchant mean?
Casey: Oh right, we haven't explained this yet. Well now it's been answered above!
Will asks: Will there be a 'sell' feature at the Merchant in StS2?
Anthony: No
Cosmosis asks: Can we know more about the pumpkin looking guy? He sparks my branium
Casey: No, but soon
Mage Ferago asks: How is music design involved with the development of the game? For example, is a boss's design created first, and the music track made based on its vibe? Is it any different for making music for rooms/acts? Additionally, why does the Merchant's theme in the full OST have a huge portion that isn't used in game?
Clark, our composer: In my book, music is support and serves the gameplay, so I’m absolutely looking for ways to write the soundtrack based on the vibe of the boss, environment, etc… A good example of this’d be the Corrupt Heart boss fight from Slay the Spire, where the music had pulsating heart-beat motifs to echo the boss’s design. In Slay the Spire 2, I’m aiming to take that a step further with dynamic music to have the music adapt as the gameplay and situations you find yourself in change.
In the differences between the Acts music and Boss fight music, at its most broad, it’s a feeling of intensity and scale. I’ve definitely died enough to enemies while moving up the map, so the threat level needs to feel present as you’re climbing, but when you reach the Boss, that threat level needs feel amped up. That amping up can be found in the orchestration, harmonies, tempo, and restating motifs found in the main Act music in new ways.
As you'll have seen in the gameplay trailer, the Merchant is back with some lovely new digs, so you can expect new arrangements of that extended version on all your shopping sprees this time around.
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That's all for this month! We used to have this section in our Discord server but felt that choosing the top questions we receive and answering them here would be better. If you wish to submit questions for next month's Neowsletter, post it in the #ask-the-devs channel in our Discord or shoot us an email at [email protected] with the Subject: Question for Casey and Anthony or something similar. Be sure to include an alias!
Connections Section
And now, it's time for us to show our ~love~ for you all with this month's Slay the Spire Connections puzzle! ❤️
Community Roundup
A lovely illustration of the Slay the Spire 2 gang by MagusOfArc / @inanitasDei4
Some beautiful Year of the Snecko envelopes made by GM_Whitose
The latest (and coziest) ModTheSpire anniversary project by our incredible modding community, Spire Cafe
Needless to say we have a LOT of talented artists in our community--and we've got another way to showcase that! If you would like your own art featured as the Neowsletter's cover image next month, submit it to us either via our Discord or [email protected] by Friday, March 7. The image must contain no text (since we localize the covers) but should have room for the title & issue text to be added, and the dimensions must be 800x450px. We can only choose one submission of course, but if people like the idea we'll continue it for future issues going forward! The March Neowsletter cover image prompt is: "Neow admiring the cherry blossoms."
Localization Info
I've added a little section here to say that we're still slowly onboarding translators for the Neowsletter and eventually the game! The following languages currently have translators: French, German, Korean, Russian, and Simplified Chinese.
While positions for these languages have been filled, we might require more work or have other opportunities in the future. If that happens, we encourage you to apply again at that time.
For the languages that do not yet have translators, thank you for your patience- I'm very slow here and will hopefully be able to get more translators 🐌. But wanted to make sure that the filled positions are known publicly.
Again, thank you for all who have applied and I hope you enjoy Slay the Spire 2 when it's out!
Phew, that was our longest Neowsletter yet, hope it makes up for the last couple of shorter issues! See you in the next one!