Hey everyone!
Thought I’d jump in with a quick update, since normally we’d want to be putting out a beta today. v0.4 is taking a little longer than expected, for a couple reasons I’ll get into, so we’ve decided to push this update back a week to make sure we can get everything in.
You can expect the beta at the end of next week, and then v0.4 release in 2 weeks.
Firstly, the changes we’re making and content we’re adding is not insignificant. Some of it has been more difficult than anticipated, either because the changes have been hard to integrate into existing systems or because they are big and significant changes that we really need to think about.
Over the past few weeks we've also had to juggle some people being off the project for a little while, which has resulted in things generally taking longer than we'd hoped.
All in all, rather than trying to cut the scope of the update (and therefore the final game), or do a ton of overtime, we've decided to push things back just slightly.
The upside is that we've had a little more time to plan and design, so this update will be even chunkier than it was before when it does finally hit in September.
There's a couple of things we're keeping tight to our chests for now and will likely talk about next week when the beta goes up, but to tide you over, here are a few sneak previews.
As mentioned in Devlog 4, we're making updates to Demon Intent and Damage Display.
Damage display across the game, whether it be on cards or demon intent, will be accurate to what will actually happen wherever possible. This means it will calculate Wrath, Shackle, Vulnerable, and anything else that affects the final number.
Demon Intent will be a little more specific, showing targets (both actual and potential), and with extra information on the tooltip. At immediate glance you'll see information about the demon's Primary Intent, but you can also mouseover its intent for a more detailed breakdown and any information about secondary actions.
Gain additional information about a demon's upcoming action through updated tooltips
Targets and potential targets of the main action the demon will take are now much easier to see
Arguably the biggest part of this update will be to cards and card play!
Around 20 new cards at minimum, which should put the card total above 100
Card Rebalancing - updates to cost and/or value on a variety of cards
Significant reworks - we're changing a significant amount of cards (just under 20) that were a little too basic or boring, to create more opportunities for synergy and a bigger variety of playstyles. Some we've thrown out entirely and have redesigned from scratch, and some just have significant changes to make them more interesting.
Broadly, cards outside the starting set are going to be a little more powerful.
Another big update will be to Curios. In Malys, Curios are intended to help facilitate build strategies and synergy, but the current Curios have been pretty limited and general.
We'll be more than doubling the available Curios, with many new ones and some big reworks of several existing Curios
Curios should generally be a little more balanced
You’ll be getting more curios during play, thanks to...
Now that we’re getting a stronger idea of balance, part of the issue is you can get too many cards too quickly, and many cards are not interesting enough to take.
In this coming update, we’ll be testing lowering card reward amounts as well as the many card changes mentioned above to help address both issues. In a near future update, this will be paired with a mechanic which will allow you a limited amount of reward reshuffles per run that will increase as you progress, allowing you to hone in a little more on specific builds.
Individual cards, upgrades and curios are intended to be more impactful and powerful than games like Slay the Spire, which definitely makes some of this balancing more difficult!
In a future update we'll also be adding Curios into exorcism rewards - while we're still working out the details, it's likely that each Greater Demon will have a % chance of dropping a curio, and region bosses will guarantee you a curio.
These changes, paired with all of the card and Curio changes, should result in a significant change to the run experience - so we’ll be relying on your feedback to help guide balance and fun.
Sneak preview of one of our new cards, Fight, Damn You!
Finally, we hear you - we have more work to do on our favourite greedy Region Boss! Expel in particular continues to feel bad (and is frankly just boring), so we are thinking about how we can punch this exorcism up without losing the Greed attack and the gamble for Faith.
We're still working this one out, so if anyone has any thoughts, let us know!
To finish this update I have one question for you:
Do you ever use Light for damage, or almost exclusively to heal? Light has been an issue for balance, and we’ve broadly heard reports that it’s a little confusing. We’re considering changing it to solely heal, and renaming Glow (which would still heal and do damage depending on target). We’d love to hear your thoughts!
x
Liam and Summerfall