We’ve had a busy month leading up to the very first release of our demo on Steam.
On the development side, we’ve focused on enhancing the Spine animations for our protagonist, Squirrel, and a variety of unique enemies, while also improving UI and UX.
On the game design side, our team shamelessly shared the previously released itch.io page with all of friends, acquaintances, and Elementail fans, begging for feedback.
As a result, we’ve gained incredible insights into monster tactics, coatings, relic-based deckbuilding, and birth traits!
Although these changes won’t be reflected in the very first demo version, the birth trait selection will undergo major changes in the future.
However, we still need more feedback and ideas.
Please be sure to share your thoughts!
If you knew just how much we care about player feedback, you’d probably be surprised.
Surprisingly, many people say, “I’ll give it a try,” and then forget — which makes the few precious feedback submissions stand out all the more.
We’d love to hear your opinions and feedback through Steam, Discord, and other channels!
While playing the demo, you’ll also find in-game channels where you can submit feedback — please make use of them!
-
In today’s DEVLOG, following up on our previous DEVLOG,
we’d like to introduce two more coatings: Glass Coating and Credit Coating!
Glass cards in Elementail function similarly to those in Balatro, the new king of deckbuilding roguelikes.
The key difference is that while Balatro’s Glass cards center around the thrill of a razor’s-edge high-risk, high-reward mechanic, Elementail’s take focuses more on the physical properties of glass itself.
In Elementail, a Glass-coated card has a 50% chance to be permanently destroyed when used for an attack — and when that happens, it deals 10 damage to the enemy!
Think of it as shards embedding themselves into the target (ouch).
This mechanic alone has created an interesting dynamic in the Elementail level design process.
In Elementail, card removal has extremely high value. Since it’s very difficult to remove cards through normal means, players often Glass-coat cards they don’t use as an indirect way to thin their deck (praying, “Please break!”).
Ironically, the resources or opportunity cost spent here is partially compensated by the flat 10 damage it deals.
This effect is especially powerful in the early game, essentially forcing players to pay attention to deck refinement and strategic planning right from the start.
And here’s something cool!
Remember when we mentioned that we wanted to focus on the physical properties of glass itself?
If the material is literally glass, then of course you’d be able to see through it even if it’s face down.
When a Glass card is on top of your deck, you can see what the next card will be — without even drawing it!
This gives players a big advantage in deck building strategies that actively include a certain number of Glass cards, or in combining artifacts that synergize with them, even well into the mid-to-late game.
It’s the only coating that so clearly shows you exactly when to draw and when to stop.
As an Elementail player, our team personally loves Sticky Coating the most — but as a game designer, Glass Coating was the most fun to create and the one we’re most satisfied with.
We can't forget the shocked expression on our developer’s face when we first added the concept of “sometimes there are cards in the deck whose backs you can see.” (thanks a lot)
-
“Credit Coating” started out as a Korean wordplay.
While brainstorming a coating concept that could take on the role of resource management during battles — an essential element in any deckbuilding roguelike — the idea suddenly struck us.
OO card, XX card… credit card?
We’re not entirely sure how best to translate the joke for other languages, but hey, we’re developers who decided to make something fun first. We’ll leave that kind of worry to the publisher. (They’re probably working on the translation now..)
A Credit-coated card generates currency equal to its own bonus value whenever it’s used in an attack.
If you ever find yourself refining cards at a meditation, this is probably the one you’ll want to refine first. And for the sake of the late game, you might want to make sure your attacks in each battle include a Credit card whenever possible.
The idea of receipts fluttering through the air when a monster gets hit by a Credit card came from our art designer.
In the current version, the currency generated simply pops up in the center of the battle screen, but in the future, it will pop up together with those receipts.
It’s not exactly “story design” in the strictest sense — but, it’s fun! right?
-
The Elementail demo will soon be available right here on this page!
If you’ve already played the game released on itch.io, you might not notice huge differences — but we have a big surprise not yet open.
It’s about the “Infinite Mode Rankings”… and you’ll find out soon.
Through the Banjihagames Discord, we’ve already been seeing skilled players cracking our Infinite Mode with all sorts of creative decks.
Please keep breaking the game — and share your discoveries with us while you’re at it.
It’s a huge help.
As always, thank you!