The Steam front page feautiring of Fabled Lands was a big success! 5000 units were sold over the last couple of days which is a record all time high! It helped the game to reach 25000 all time units sold. This has revitalized the gamebook cult classic for the modern days where Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson's monumental work deserves to be!
Looking forward to deliver the next chapters of this amazing world.
Living the dream as a full time indie game dev! I am excited for what's to come but one thing is for sure, leaving a full time job behind, taking control over your profession and turning it into something you consider a craft, is quite, quite tough but also so very liberating.
A huge thank you!
It took me some extra days with the first patch after the release because I was sick, but now I feel much better and was happy to sit behind "the wheel" again so to speak.
I decided to do something experimental this time around. People have complained about blurry fonts here and there so I have enabled to use the option of the much bigger UI for Steam Deck for desktop as well. Let me know if any issues arise from that! Oh, and don't turn off your cursor if you are on a PC, I'll tackle that option asap :D
Incremented version to 1.1.2
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Implemented a toggle option in Settings for players to utilize Large UI (experimental).
Toggle cursor on/off for Steam deck is now visible on desktops (pending additional work).
Buffed Warrior Maid enemy. Increased Chance to Block to 50%, Damage from 4-8 to 6-8.
Fixed Stairway to Heaven achievement not unlocking, broken with patch 1.1.0n
Fixed Tsuchigumo spider having negative Stamina when using Crimson Arrow on it.
Fixed text when you didn't give your weapon to the Warrior Maid to not state it's later thrown in the water.
Fixed meta text left-over from the books when you are faceless.
Fixed changing profession in an Akatsurai shrine not changing your model immediately.
Fixed text options not altering story text size and line spacing.
Fixed camera not accepting input when mouse is over disabled map locations.
Fixed camera sometimes detecting input touch drivers on desktop devices causing it to disable Pan and Zoom.
Lords of the Rising Sun DLC released!
Fabled Lands - Lords of the Rising Sun content update is out now!
I am very happy and proud to deliver the first major content update, the exotic empire of Akatsurai!
To celebrate its release, the Steam team has been so kind in providing me a Daily Deal so you could get the base game with an all time deepest discount to date of 50% off, only for the duration of this special sale!
I am so thankful for all the positive emotion and wonderful words from the community. The game just hit 8.2/10 Very Positive score from 300 reviews! It's a feat on its own to release a self-published indie game in today's market but to be so positively received by folks from around the globe is a blast! Watching people play on Twitch and YouTube, seeing their reaction, reading all the wonderful comments is simply amazing. People hopping on the Discord server just to say "Thank you, I am a fan" puts a big smile on my face.
A HUGE THANK YOU to the amazing community members who helped play-test the DLC during the beta! You, folks, are amazing and your input has helped shape up the experience for others.
I was worried initially if the lands of Akatsurai will fit well into the existing game and meta, but British authors Dave Morris and Jamie Thomson have absolutely done an amazing work and through their methodical world building, the game only benefits from adding the mysterious shores of the far-east empire. As an old-school RPG and tabletop addict, I am well satisfied beyond measure :)
I am glad I was joined once again by Bernar Aganchyan into this endeavour. I think he has done it again in delivering a vibrant representation of the world of Fabled Lands through his art.
Now, roll the dice and beat the odds with all the new goodies in the full changelog:
New area on the world map is unlocked!
Incremented version to 1.1.0n
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Added the eastern empire of Akatsurai content update (46 000 words).
Added 7 new Quests.
Added 6 new Titles.
Added 16 new Achievements.
Added 27 new Encounters.
Added 24 new Enemies.
Added 36 new Items.
Added 3 new tracks to the soundtrack.
Skills
Added Blood for Blood passive skill. The more the merrier. Whenever you apply Bleed to an enemy, increase the applied Bleed factor by 1.
Updated Mage Blizzard's Bite passive skill: increased damage from all sources from +1 to +2.
Updated Mage Ice Bolt skill: reduced required Action Points from 6 to 5.
Updated Priest Cleansing Flame skill: reduced required Action Points from 5 to 4.
Updated Priest Curse skill: reduced required Action Points from 4 to 3.
Updated Resilient Companion: increased damage bonus to from +2 to +4.
Updated Water Spirit ally: increased stats from 6 Combat, 6 Defence, 6 Stamina, 2-6 Damage to 10 Combat, 10 Defence, 8 Stamina, 1-7 Damage.
Updated Fallen Warrior ally: increased stats from 6 Combat, 7 Defence, 8 Stamina, 2-3 Damage, to 10 Combat, 11 Defence, 3 Damage, 12 Stamina, 5% Chance to block.
Economy & Weaponry
Added new Ports.
Added new Markets.
Added new Weapons.
Rebalanced various items.
Fast Travel
Added new tickets to ports.
Added new locations to trap doors accessible via the verdigris keys.
Added new location to the Vade Mecum.
Added new location accessible via the Trau tunnels.
General
Added ways to switch profession in the story.
Added a hard cap of 12 for Ranks.
Added new blessing "Safety from Travel".
Added new blessing "Divine Wrath".
Added new blessing "Imperviousness to Storms".
Added different prices in Akatsurai ports whether you're a merchant or not.
Fixes and improvements
Added DLC achievements to Steam.
Added Lords of the Rising Sun DLC announcement to news box.
Added Lords of the Rising Sun DLC installed indicator on Main Menu that links to the store page.
Added backwards compatibility support for Lords of the Rising Sun DLC saves.
Reworked achievements in order to better handle existing character save files and have the functionality ready for separation of achievements unlocked per character.
Increased the amount of item slots and added a scrollbar to loot chests when you can loot more than 12 items to avoid vanishing gear.
Changed how Items are removed from Inventory/Backpack when removed from Story text to fix old saves sometimes not removing items.
Implemented resolutions support for larger than 1280x720 for Steam Decks that are plugged in external monitors or resolution settings are adjusted.
Added new quest A Pearl Like No Other that is accepted upon meeting the Faceless King (only for new characters). Gaining rank is now a quest reward upon bringing a Tatsu Pearl to the Faceless King (as is in the books).
Added Tatsu Pearl item to two locations in Harkuna.
Updated required Court Status to visit the Faceless King from 7 to 8.
Added a Hydra Tooth as a trophy reward from killing the Hydra in Golnir.
Added Heal vfx to Potion of Restoration.
Updated Black Axe, increased from +1 Combat, 4 Damage to +5 Combat, 6 Damage.
Updated Marlock City ammunition buy and sell price from 5/4 to 4/1.
Updated Max Stamina to behave as a Stats so that it has modifiers. You no longer automatically heal when you gain Max Stamina in the story (except on rank rolls).
Removed Yarimura palace text telling you about Lochos Vehtu's quest in case you already have the Nightstalker title.
Removed Duration from Cleansing Flame tooltip.
Fixed loss of Max Stamina in several places not triggering Stamina loss if above new value.
Fixed critical story error when trying to fight thorns with thorns in the Magic Arena.
Fixed Sunken City of Ziusindra quest sometimes failing when already completed.
Fixed not sinking your ship when you use the Recall Spell.
Fixed losing item at random not working properly for existing character saves.
Fixed Context menu showing on right click when no action is available.
Fixed enemy afliction not being properly counted for the first time on older saves.
Fixed Shadowfall enemy ability sometimes not triggering.
Default button is now removed from Display settings.
Important Note: Considering the magnitude of these improvements and changes even with the extensive beta, there is little chance that I haven't broken something in the process. If you see something wrong, please flag it to me using the usual channels, like the Steam community forums and the official Discord.
On Feb 16 10:00 AM Pacific Time the first DLC for Fabled Lands will release! 3 days prior to the launch I am updating the base game to prepare for the release.
By a community vote I decided to update the achievements of the base game to include the new achievements for the upcoming DLC. Steam doesn't provide the functionality to separate those so I was a bit perplexed what is the correct way to do this. It was, however, pointed to me that this is no precedent and was already done this way in popular indie titles such as Darkest Dungeon and Battle Brothers, so after the vote I decided to adapt the same approach for Fabled Lands as well.
Here are the patch notes for the changes in the base game:
Incremented version to 1.1.0n
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Added DLC achievements to Steam.
Added Lords of the Rising Sun DLC announcement to news box.
Added Lords of the Rising Sun DLC installed indicator on Main Menu that links to the store page.
Added backwards compatibility support for Lords of the Rising Sun DLC saves.
Reworked achievements in order to better handle existing character save files and have the functionality ready for separation of achievements unlocked per character.
Increased the amount of item slots and added a scrollbar to loot chests when you can loot more than 12 items to avoid vanishing gear.
Changed how Items are removed from Inventory/Backpack when removed from Story text to fix old saves not removing items.
Implemented resolutions support for larger than 1280x720 for Steam Decks that are plugged in external monitors or resolution settings are adjusted.
Added new quest A Pearl Like No Other that is accepted upon meeting the Faceless King (only for new characters). Gaining rank is now a quest reward upon bringing a Tatsu Pearl to the Faceless King (as is in the books).
Added Tatsu Pearl item to two locations in Harkuna.
Updated required Court Status to visit the Faceless King from 7 to 8.
Added a Hydra Tooth as a trophy reward from killing the Hydra in Golnir.
Added Heal vfx to Potion of Restoration.
Updated Mage Blizzard's Bite passive skill, increased damage from all sources from +1 to +2.
Updated Mage Ice Bolt skill, reduced required Action Points from 6 to 5.
Updated Priest Cleansing Flame skill, reduced required Action Points from 5 to 4.
Updated Priest Curse skill, reduced required Action Points from 4 to 3.
Updated Resilient Companion, increased damage bonus to from +2 to +4.
Updated Water Spirit ally, increased stats from 6 Combat, 6 Defence, 6 Stamina, 2-6 Damage to 10 Combat, 10 Defence, 8 Stamina, 1-7 Damage.
Updated Fallen Warrior ally, increased stats from 6 Combat, 7 Defence, 8 Stamina, 2-3 Damage, to 10 Combat, 11 Defence, 3 Damage, 12 Stamina, 5% Chance to block.
Updated Black Axe, increased from +1 Combat, 4 Damage to +5 Combat, 6 Damage.
Updated Marlock City ammunition buy and sell price from 5/4 to 4/1.
Updated Max Stamina to behave as a Stats so that it has modifiers. You no longer automatically heal when you gain Max Stamina in the story (except on rank rolls).
Removed Yarimura palace text telling you about Lochos Vehtu's quest in case you already have the Nightstalker title.
Removed Duration from Cleansing Flame tooltip.
Fixed loss of Max Stamina in several places not triggering Stamina loss if above new value.
Fixed critical story error when trying to fight thorns with thorns in the Magic Arena.
Fixed Sunken City of Ziusindra quest sometimes failing when already completed.
Fixed not sinking your ship when you use the Recall Spell.
Fixed losing item at random not working properly for existing character saves.
Fixed Context menu showing on right click when no action is available.
Fixed enemy afliction not being properly counted for the first time on older saves.
Fixed Shadowfall enemy ability sometimes not triggering.
Default button is now removed from Display settings.
As always, don't forget to wishlist the game and stay notified when the big update is live!
I'm incredibly excited to announce that Fabled Lands will have its first DLC on Feb 16th, 2023!
What an incredible journey it has been folks! A lot more months than I initially anticipated but I can proudly say that the time is nigh for the BIG content update, Lords of the Rising Sun!
The Lords of the Rising Sun DLC adds a new continent as well as variety of changes - new quests to find, new lands to explore, new layers of lore and world building to unravel! Defeat challenging enemies in exotic places and obtain new legendary loot that awaits you in places long forgotten by the living...
The game’s final release wouldn’t have been possible without the incredible help of Fabled Lands’ dedicated community. The current closed beta has proven the content is as exciting as I have hoped for, bringing a smooth experience and adding lots of depth to previous choices and strategies.
I am immensely thankful for the opportunity to continue flying on the wings of my indie game dev dreams! It’s both a privilege and honor to bring these fantastic series by fantastic authors Jamie Thomson and Dave Morris as a full-fledged PC game.
Cost and Discounts
The DLC will cost $3.99 USD and the Steam team has been so kind in providing a Daily Deal to celebrate the launch! The base game will have its deepest discount to date, and for the upcoming months, so make sure to wishlist the game, book this date and not miss on the news!
Folks, I am happy to announce the sign-up for the closed BETA of Fabled Lands' first DLC release, Lords of the Rising Sun!
The DLC will include the entirety of the Akatsurai empire which comprises three islands, 14 new objectives, 28 new encounters, 34 new items, approximately 44 000 words, and more!
Akatsurai is a Rank 6 area that can prove challenging even for the seasoned adventurer.
Direct message me (@ringlas) on Discord for short instructions.
Access will be given when the BETA build goes live.
If you don't own the game but you still want in, don't worry! Several keys of the full game will be awarded at random through a raffle towards the end of the week. Just don't forget to do steps 2 and 3.
The DLC drops on Feb 16th so don't forget to wishlist the game so you don't miss the launch party!
Hey everybody! I am giving you my last dev-log and progress update for 2022 and what better occasion to do a wrap up of the year than to do it on my birthday with a cup of tasy afternoon coffee :)
The Fabled Lands theme has been vibrating in my being after a fantastic culmination of a 3-year journey.
The game released on May 26th and I am truly humbled by the faith you put in it and by the amazing results it achieved. It not only fulfilled my forecasts but also surpassed them, hence one of the greatest gifts for me is the ability to continue to practice game development as a full time independant, self-published developer.
Thank you!
Lords of the Rising Sun DLC
If you have missed the announcement of the upcoming DLC, pause for a moment, go read about it in the last dev-log and make sure to come back afterwards :)
The DLC update is in its final phase. The artist is currently rendering all the concept art and sketches and I am mostly waiting on several important updates from him to transition into alpha/beta testing.
Release Date
Things are moving rapidly with daily beats but we're already approaching Christmas so realistically, we'll wrap it up in January.
Afterwards there will be Discord community mayhem of testers and bug fixing. All must be in perfect condition for the release date, which is going to be 16th of February!
The Steam team have prepared something special for the occasion and I cannot wait to share it with all of you when the time comes! So there's no delaying beyond this date. Be sure not to miss it by wishlisting the game:
I have updated the demo across all devices and platforms after the latest feedback round. I decided to keep it up permanently available to anyone who wishes to try out the experience first hand, and it's been up for couple of months now. Turned out it was a great decision as it didn't hurt sales but also helped positive reviews to flow more from people who know exactly what to expect.
Happy Holidays to all of you and stay safe!
Fabled Lands releases on GOG!
I am happy to announce that Fabled Lands is now available on the Good Old Games storefront and quite frankly... Hell, it was about time!
Took me more than 7 months to make it happen. GOG were initially quite excited and happy about the game but then all of a sudden went silent. Poking them on the matter and they informed me they've rejected it. I knew very few succeed there so I wasn't that put off. However, after talking with fellow indie dev and friend from Inkle - Joseph Humfrey, on the subject, I decided to keep pushing. Eventually I had a breakthrough and the release is now a fact!
I take pride in that small victory not only as an indie developer but for the recognition of the game and genre. Fabled Lands is a faithful adaptation of a classic gamebook series from the 90s and GOG suits it perfectly. Even if it's prestige only, I am excited to be on the biggest hand-curated store for DRM-free games.
To celebrate, the game is 40% off to match the Steam's recent Autumn Sale Discount!
You can get it here: https://www.gog.com/en/game/fabled_lands
Version 1.0.13c is live
Incremented version to 1.0.13c
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Reworked Net weapon (still needs rebalancing). Net is now a Throwable weapon equipped in Ranged slot. Net is now a stackable item (4 stacks). The net gives you a 50% chance to entangle (stun) a targeted enemy on a successful hit for 1 turn. Damage and combat bonuses are the same.
Nerfed Troubadour bonus when dealing with the Ice Queen from +3 to +1 (as is in the books).
Fixed inverted pricing for Amanushi's different blessing costs at Yarimura.
Added Go Back choice to Baroness quest list to avoid locking you of all choices if all quests are completed and you have no money on you.
Added support for multiple secret shops from story choices (In preparation for The Lords of the Rising Sun).
Added hidden Lord Kumonosu meeting in Yarimura (In preparation for The Lords of the Rising Sun).
Added hidden Baroness of Ravayne Diplomatic quest (In preparation for The Lords of the Rising Sun).
Added hidden Safe Travel blessing option when travelling to new locations (In preparation for The Lords of the Rising Sun).
Fixed minor typos.
Mini-devlog Update #30
Hey, folks! It is with great pleasure to return to the dev-log updates with the anniversary post #30 and what better way to celebrate than to unveil the curtain on the upcoming BIG content update - Akatsurai, the lands of the Lords of the Rising Sun!
The Lords of the Rising Sun hold absolute power over the exotic kingdom of Akatsurai. But proud warrior clans constantly seek to overthrow them. In the turmoil of war there are countless opportunities for a quick-witted adventurer. Will you spy for the Shogun? Will you pledge your life to the Sovereign as one of his chivalrous knights? Or just play one side against the other in your pursuit of riches and power?
Track down the elusive, raven-winged Tengu to learn the secret arts of sorcery and swordplay. Defeat the vampires, skilled in martial arts, who guard the Lost Tomb of the Necromancer. Enter the dreadful cloisters of the Noboro Monastery, where you will fight the most dangerous opponent of all - yourself...
There are new powerful enemies in town. Their unique special abilities might make the Dragon fight look like a child's play. But what more than the joy to defeat them? Well, the spoils of war, of course. New loot like nothing the lands of Harkuna have seen.
There will be some new mechanics such as Bleed with several weapons such as the throwable Shuriken, a legendary dagger and a new passive skill embracing it.
In Akatsurai you can get special deals on cargo trades if you make the right friends. You can try and impress swordsmiths in order to gain access to local gear.
But the best is collecting the myths, lore and world building pieces together, discover the true wonders of these isles and change your characters' story forever.
For the patient explorers there will be new achievements to hunt!
What's the current progress on all that?
The contents of the entire book 6 (the gamebook the update is based on) are all scripted and ready. All new items are in the build. Just coded some of the most powerful artefacts in the game and compiling new quests while the artist is rendering the world map in detail.
Backgrounds and enemies still need final touches but I will be implementing the sketches that I have starting from next week in order to test combat and start coding their abilities.
Alright, alright, but when exactly?
I'll test some more myself and will prepare the DLC for closed beta testing within the Discord community towards the end of November.
Unforunately I cannot predict when exactly will be the release date but I am aiming to do it early December before the Winter Sale. This will be just in time for the Turn-based Fest which Fabled Lands will participate in, but more on that in a new post.
The best indicator will be how the beta testing will wrap up. If all is in good state, I can replace the art assets when they are done quickly and verify these areas. If things go south, I'll have to postpone for next year.
A honorary mention
I was taken aback this week when a member from the communty posted this magnificent walk-through on how to get every achievement in the game on Ironman mode WITHOUT DYING. Without even using a resurrection deal.
Yes, it is possible to do it, so never give up beating the dice, never surrender! As always, make sure to smash that wishlist button to make sure you DON'T MISS on all the action!
Fabled Lands is 33% off for a week, starting today, taking part in the Dev.Play event which celebrates Eastern European games. The event is both online and on site, having a good roster of speakers! I will personally anticipate the talk from Valve answering dev questions.
You can check the agenda here: https://dev-play.ro/agenda-2022/
Watch the developers talk to streamers during the Indie Festival here: https://store.steampowered.com/sale/devplay
The Fabled Lands panel will be live at 4 PM CET/10 AM EST.
As always, don't forget to wishlist or try the demo of the game if you haven't yet!
