Drifter's Tales
After the recast
After the release of the recasted version of Drifter’s Tales, it’s time for us to talk more about what’s next.
What’s next for Drifter’s Tales
We are currently working on porting the game on a console (the platform is yet to announce) and on mobile. Those versions should be launched during the first half of 2025.
In the meantime, we are also working on a DLC that will be offered to our players prior to the release of it. This DLC will take place at the same location of the initial version with all the new mechanics we introduced in the recast. The DLC is dated to mid-2025.
What’s next for The First Spine
Drifter’s Tales is a game finding its roots from The First Spine, a cards game we presented in various festivals and conferences in Europe. You can play online to this game on your browser.
We decided to rework this version too, with a client developed as the same way as Drifter’s Tales. We will share more details soon, but know that this game will also be available on Steam.
The recasted version is live
How to play?
You should be able to see an update for your game starting now. Everything should be automatic on Steam, you just have to play!
What’s next?
As mentioned before, we are already working on a DLC and porting the game on other platforms. The DLC will be free for those who bought the game before the update.
The recast lands on Steam on September 18th
On September 18th, be prepare to join a new adventure with a non-linear story, 30+ new cards, new random encounters, new customization features, and a new battle system.
We took patiently all your valuable feedbacks and we integrated them in this recasted version.
We can't wait to deliver it to you!
Cheers,
Teddy
Discover the new features of the recasted version
As a reminder, here's a list of those changes:
A brand-new story
You will be able to try a brand-new story, which will take you to the continent of Carmina, full of legends and threats. During your playthrough, you will have to choose your own path to your main objective. We are not sharing many details about the story, but we are excited about this one!
Know that one playthrough won't be enough to discover all the stories - some will be available according your choices, and all of them will change on the NG+. Ah yes, a NG+ mode is fully integrated in the recasted version.
New gameplay
In the initial version, you must pick from a card to another to move around. In the recasted version, you will be able to move a pawn on a map and pick the card you want to. It will allow you to move around quickly and not waste time on cards you already have read.
The battles were also fully rebranded. We increased the readability of them, allowing you to move the point of view on the game board. Plus, some enemy moves require you to avoid projectiles and draw rune to test your reflexes and dexterity.
New cards, new ways to obtain them
30+ new cards. Not less! You character will be able to create new cards at the end of each story and will have to remember some lost memories to unlock more cards.
We have added more cards in the chests and more random encounters and each story has a secret card you will have to discover.
Finally, some cards will be hidden behind legends to read on the story selection screen. These cards are powerful and will change your build if you find them!
New customization features
We are also proposing you to customize your player cards by increasing their stats. Those customizations will be available with a new character, the "Alchemist". He will help you to create potions from some ingredients you could loot around.
Economy balancing
Finally, we have balanced the economy. Thanks to this balancing, you can buy more cards and build a real deck for breaking your enemies. And if you run out of gems... you can destroy some cards to earn some more.
Quality of life improvements
We integrated too some QOL improvements in the recasted version:
- full mouse / keyboard / gamepad support without choosing a mode
- battles / exploration / return to checkpoints without any loading
- file-based save system for the masters who want to edit their saves
- mods support
- performances improvements
Our demo is now available
In this demo, you will have access to 40% of the complete game. We are still polishing the game, and will continue to update the demo according to your feedback & our tests.
We are so happy to share it with you!
How to obtain the demo?
Unfortunately, Steam does not allow us to put the demo officially in the tab demo of the game page as it is not reflecting yet the game we are selling.
You can request a key here https://www.thefirstspine.fr/drifters-tales#demo and add it to your Steam account.
Our demo is coming soon
What will you find on the demo?
All the features we planned to include in the final game will be implemented. Compared to the prologue, you will find:
- The tutorial, 5 stories to play, along with the choice of the stories
- Random origins (Architect, Healer, Priest, and Blacksmith) at the start of the game with their own storylines
- The alchemy, allowing you to modify your player card stats
- The storyteller, to unlock more rares and powerful cards
- The Doubt, which change how the battles will occur with random events
- The options, save system, collection in the title screen
Please note that your progress in the demo will still be available in the final game.
How to play to this demo?
The demo will be available on Steam. Steam does not allow us to release the demo officially (as the demo won’t reflect the game we are selling - it can be taken as a false advertising), so you will be able to grab some keys on our website.
What’s next?
The final game date is still set later this year. We are polishing now the overall game, and will take all your feedbacks from the demo. Though, the demo will still be updated until the final release.
The prologue is now available
How to play the prologue
Simply update your game like you always do. Once updated you should see a button in the title screen labelled “Play to recasted: Prologue”. Clicking this will launch the standelone prologue’s executable and close the legacy game.
If the standalone is not launching, you can launch it manually under “[your-game-directory]/prologue/drifters_tales.exe”. The game directory is usually located under “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common”.
Limits
Due to the standelone nature of the prologue, some features are not available. We tred to include most of our work, but you won't find:
- The options (they will be present in the title screen)
- 28 cards (mostly the cards available in others stories) - please note that we already decided to add some more in the polish phase to increase the synergies
- The alchemist (this character will allow you to increase the stats of your player card)
- 6 end-game mods
What now?
We are still continuing to polish the demo that will be released on June 5th - comparatively to the demo we had to present during the Steam Next Fest, you should have more content and improvements.
Production is still ongoing as expected and we still enter to the final polish phase on early May.
We are so happy yo finally present you what we did for the last two years on this small prologue, more is coming with the demo on June!
Cheers!
Teddy
A short playable preview will come in an update on 27th March
Explore the very first level of the game - which won’t be the first to play
The prologue will take you in an area you already saw on other marketing materials and trailers. In this prologue, you will be able to do all the things you will normally do in a playthrough of the recasted version, such as trading, exploring, opening chests, finding encounters, etc. We also integrated a battle that will allow you to test the fresh-looted cards you had.
Your character will have more gems to allow you to buy more cards and try some deck builds.
The documentary
Because this is more than “a story” you can try, we integrated in the prologue some developers' comments about how & why we made the recasted version. People interested in how indie developers are making games would be interested in that documentary, full of archives from our Game Design Document and early prototypes.
How to launch the prologue & limitations
After updating your game on Steam through the usual process, you will see a new button in the game title screen labelled “Play to Recasted: Prologue”. Choosing this action will launch the standalone prologue level through a new process and close the legacy game automatically.
If the prologue cannot be launched (some configurations can prevent a game to launch another .exe file), you can find it under [your-game-directory]/prologue/drifters_tales.exe
You will also have some limitations due to the standalone nature of the prologue:
- No options (language, sound, graphics)
- The language will be selected automatically according to your system configuration
- No save data
- You won’t have access to 29 cards: the ones given at the end of a level, the enhanced versions of the starting cards, the cards obtained with The Storyteller and the advanced cards of the origins.
What’s next?
After the prologue, we will continue the development of the recasted version as we had to before Steam decided to delete our game page. We will also continue to polish the demo we had to release during the Steam Next Fest and release it on early June as announced previously.
We are so closed to the end of the development of the recasted version! As we are writing those lines, we finished 3/4 of the production of the game, and we will go to the post-production polish end of May.
We will continue to post updates to keep you informed about our progresses.
Cheers!
Teddy
Drifter's Tales: details about our recast
We are now ready to share with you the timeline of the casted version of Drifter's Tales and what will happen in the following months.
A prologue will appear in your game
Steam won't let us push the demo for the recasted version to the "demo" section of the game page. So, end of March, you will see an update on our game. We will add a prologue for all our players to try the new gameplay on the recasted version.
This prologue will be a way for us to share with you the massive amount of work we have put in the recasted version.
More details will come soon about the prologue, stay tuned!
How to play the demo outside of Steam
You will be able to try the demo we wanted to release during the Next Fest that Steam cancelled. We will generate thousands of Steam keys and we will deliver them on our website. You will just have to click on "ask demo key" to have one.
We will release the demo in June 2024.
Price change
Once the recasted version out, we will change the price to 10$. We think to put back the initial price is fair since this game is a completely new one. If you already bought the initial version, you will have the recasted version automatically through an update on end 2024. If you participated to the free early access, you will have the recasted version too.
Free DLC for our community
Our plan to release a DLC with the story of the first version with the mechanics & features of the recasted version is still on the agenda. If you already joined the community on The First Spine, you will receive it for free by email.
We do not have any details to share about the pricing for now. The date is set on second half of 2025.
-----
Recasted version details
As a reminder, here's the details about our recasted version of Drifter's Tales.
A brand-new story
You will be able to try a brand-new story, which will take you to the continent of Carmina, full of legends and threats. During your playthrough, you will have to choose your own path to your main objective. We are not sharing many details about the story, but we are excited about this one!
Know that one playthrough won't be enough to discover all the stories - some will be available according your choices, and all of them will change on the NG+. Ah yes, a NG+ mode is fully integrated in the recasted version.
New gameplay
In the initial version, you must pick from a card to another to move around. In the recasted version, you will be able to move a pawn on a map and pick the card you want to. It will allow you to move around quickly and not waste time on cards you already have read.
The battles were also fully rebranded. We increased the readability of them, allowing you to move the point of view on the game board. Plus, some enemy moves require you to avoid projectiles and draw rune to test your reflexes and dexterity.
New cards, new ways to obtain them
30+ new cards. Not less! You character will be able to create new cards at the end of each story and will have to remember some lost memories to unlock more cards.
We have added more cards in the chests and more random encounters and each story has a secret card you will have to discover.
Finally, some cards will be hidden behind legends to read on the story selection screen. These cards are powerful and will change your build if you find them!
New customization features
We are also proposing you to customize your player cards by increasing their stats. Those customizations will be available with a new character, the "Alchemist". He will help you to create potions from some ingredients you could loot around.
Economy balancing
Finally, we have balanced the economy. Thanks to this balancing, you can buy more cards and build a real deck for breaking your enemies. And if you run out of gems... you can destroy some cards to earn some more.
Quality of life improvements
We integrated too some QOL improvements in the recasted version:
- full mouse / keyboard / gamepad support without choosing a mode
- battles / exploration / return to checkpoints without any loading
- file-based save system for the masters who want to edit their saves
- mods support
- performances improvements
Drifter's Tales won't participate in the Next Fest and will not have a relaunch
A few hours ago, Steam informed us of their cancellation of our relaunch. It is with a broken heart that we write these lines, because their simple decision has big consequences on the last year of work we have done to give you the update you deserve.
We initially had to release this relaunch under a new page to have a fresh start and take advantage of the features that Steam offers to new games:
- The possibility of launching a demo before the release of the game
- Participation in the Steam Next Fest
- A boost in visibility at launch
The relaunch page was validated by Steam on June 24th, 2023 and we began marketing operations to ensure enough wishlists for the launch.
We informed on December 2nd of our desire to upload a new game while sending Steam keys to the buyers of the initial version. Steam told us that we cannot send keys to people who have already purchased the original game. In the interest of fairness, we decided to send keys to our entire community as well as to people who contacted us on our support channels, while offering free DLC covering the story of the original game with reworked mechanics.
On January 10th, a few minutes after completing our demo, Steam without explanation placed the relaunch page back in “rewiew”. This is not supposed to happen - once the page is validated, the concept itself is validated by Steam. A few days later, Steam informed us that we no longer had authorization to release the relaunch.
This has serious consequences for us, as well as our community:
- Despite our efforts to address all community comments during the relaunch, we will keep the - justified - comments from players from the initial version forever
- The relaunch will not be able to take advantage of events such as Steam Next Fest, as well as the press coverage associated with it
- We will not be able to take advantage of the launch boost offered by Steam for new games
- The release plan as well as the marketing plan that we have put in place must be completely redone, and we are losing all our efforts on the new page – along with the wishlists on it
We are currently working on a solution to provide you with this new version – because you deserve it. Our players are the reason for our game, and it is our mission to deliver the results of this past year.
We will come back to you in a few days with a solution and an update plan that will be done on the game you already own. Because even if we are the losers in Steam's unilateral decision, there is no reason that our players should be losers too.
Regards,
Teddy