Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure, Indie
Fabular: Once upon a Spacetime
The Big Boss Recalibration
Hello to our community,
As 2022 comes to a close, we wanted to squeeze in one more update to help make the game a little easier for new players.
The so-called Big Boss Recalibration makes a number of changes to our current in-game bosses to make them easier for new players and also (possibly) a little more challenging for current players.
We hope you enjoy the update and we will see you in the new year!
Patch Notes:
General:
Camera zoom in boss fights has been tweaked, so it does not excessively favour looking at the bosses, limiting the visibility of the player.
Players can not be damaged anymore after landing a killing blow on a boss.
Both player ships now have a slightly faster recovery after force effects, especially the Manticore.
An active grappling hook is now always retracted when the player gets stunned.
Dealing a killing blow to a boss now properly destroys enemies that were in the process of teleporting in.
All UI interactions are now disabled until the screen has completely finished a transition-in effect (fade). This should alleviate any unintended button presses on the UI.
Player interactions are now disabled until the battle screen has completely finished its transition-in effect. This should alleviate any unintended skill uses at the beginning of combat.
The ‘meanwhile’ screen (Some time later…) present in certain events is now skippable by pressing a button.
Malfunction’s damage over time now ticks at the end of every second instead of at the beginning.
The Shooting Star’s item tooltip now correctly displays its energy cost.
Difficulty:
Realm difficulty levels were sometimes raised for the wrong reasons which made life more difficult for some players. We’ve reviewed the triggers for increasing realm difficulty levels (indicated by stars on the galactic chart). This should automatically lower the difficulty of a realm (when you start a new run) if you haven’t been able to consistently clear the subsequent realm.
Note: We’ll keep an eye out for your feedback on this one and adjust in the future if needed.
Dax the Deserter:
Dax is now less agile (turning speed has been decreased).
Dax now lunges forward during attacks. This increases his overall attack range, but can potentially be sidestepped more easily.
All cooldowns on Dax’s abilities have been increased.
Quick and perfect attack animations are more telegraphed and have longer windup.
Dax’s base damage has been increased to 7 (from 5).
Perfect attack now deals less up-front damage (10), but applies a malfunction that deals 5 damage over 5 seconds.
Dax is now more resistant to disorient effects and regains control faster when disoriented.
Dax’s hitpoints per armour have been increased to 60 (up from 50).
Note: overall these changes should hopefully make the encounter easier for beginners (it’s our first boss fight after all) due to the more telegraphed and dodgeable attacks. Also, coupled with a few other general changes, it should make the fight last a bit longer for the more experienced players as well.
Due to these changes, we hope that this fight would feel much more like a proper space duel now.
Warchief M’urdu:
The Warchief now keeps his horses on a shorter leash (number of chains reduced).
Warriors spawned-in by M’urdu now include only one elite instead of two.
The Warchief now has a restraining order against you (surprise addition to enemy spawns).
The Chariot’s harness no longer has a visible health-bar, only an energy barrier bar. When you destroy the energy barrier, a timer ring is displayed instead of the health-bar that fills up until the barrier is recharged again.
The Chariot’s Harness now tries to actively avoid situations when it can not reach the player, but the player can damage the Chariot.
Malfunction can now be properly applied to the harness of M’urdu’s chariot.
M’urdu’s Blast-O-Mats now can be taunted by the Manticore’s Holo-Decoys.
The Chariot’s visual appearance got a facelift.
Added sound effects to the sawblades of the Harness and the Chariot.
Fixed Murdu’s ballista aiming at seemingly random locations instead of the player.
Fixed Murdu’s ballista not acting while being stuck in an animation-loop.
Fixed some visual inconsistencies with Murdu’s purple projectiles.
Fixed an issue where the Chariot wouldn't change phases while being taunted by the Manticore’s Holo-decoy.
Note: we hope that by giving the Warchief’s harness better visual clues on how it behaves, conveys a clearer idea for players on how to approach this fight more successfully. We’ve also ironed out a few wrinkles in the behaviour of both M’urdu and his allies, which will hopefully result in an encounter that feels less unfair for beginners and more challenging for the experienced players.
The Endkeep:
Animations are now significantly faster when the Keep changes from one phase to another.
The Endkeep will always spend a minimum time in each of its phases.
When the Endkeep changes phases, it prefers some privacy. Prepare to be pushed if you don’t respect it.
Reinforcement bastions now spawn more Warriors and Archers, less Acolytes and no Dischargers.
Enemies now navigate much more fluently around the Endkeep and follow the player ship more effectively.
Gaps between Keep bastions have been closed, so enemies are less likely to be stuck there.
Enemies are now more effective at avoiding the Endkeep’s bastions when aiming long-range abilities, or charging attacks.
Endkeep bastions can now properly receive malfunction.
Endkeep bastions can now always be properly stunned by area effect skills, such as the Shock Thumper.
The damage of the Endkeep’s catapult explosions have been drastically reduced (from 20 to 5), speed of projectiles slightly increased and their stun time slightly reduced.
Enhanced the quality of some of the visual and sound effects associated with the Endkeep. As a result it’s hopefully more clear now which parts of the keep are destructible.
Fixed animation issues with the Reinforcement bastion being stunned while spawning an enemy.
Fixed an issue with the tooltip display very quickly switching between targets, when the Reinforcement Bastion was spawning an enemy.
Notes: the Endkeep is by far our most complex enemy/scenery in the game thus far, and our other enemy ships had to ‘learn’ their way around it. Hopefully, we’ve been good teachers and they will provide a greater and more consistent enemy force. The keep is currently the final boss of the current content in the game, so our goal here was to make it challenging while keeping the fight as clear and fair as possible. We hope that partially denying phase-skips is a step in the right direction. Let us know what you think!
All about Journey Mode
Hello everyone!
It’s incredible to think that Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime has now been out for over a month! Thank you to everyone who has picked up their copy and tried it out.
This week we’re delving into Journey Mode and what you can expect playing this version of Fabular.
Journey Mode is the main mode in Fabular, where you'll get to explore the game's deep lore, while also exploring the galaxy!
What is Journey Mode?
In Journey Mode, you begin in Realm 1 and journey through the different realms, fighting increasingly difficult enemies, while managing your resources, and upgrading your ship in order to survive.
The first step is selecting your ship and then you’ll find yourself on the starmap.
The Starmap
Although the starmap may appear easy at first glance, it requires careful planning, as well as a smidgen of luck, to safely navigate all its nodes.
Navigating the realms can be deadly. Without knowing which planet is connected with others, it can be difficult to plan your route. Make good use of all the gadgets at your disposal to safely explore the realm:
Scouts reveal nearby nodes to help you identify dead ends.
The all-seeing eye reveals the entire starmap.
Teleport beacons let you create a teleport point to return to in the future without expending any fuel.
Don’t forget about your resources! Exploring every node on the starmap is dangerous, unless you have a good supply of moonchill to fuel your ship. Flying without moonchill could cause irreparable damage to your spacecraft, as the infant sun powering your ship won’t be cooled after every jump.
Watch out for bandits. You’re a high profile figure exploring the realms alone, which makes you a large target for bandits. The more nodes you explore on the starmap, the more aware of your enemies will become, raising your alert level. The higher your alert level, the more difficult battles will be, but you’ll also get more/better loot!
Events
Every node on the starmap contains a random event for you to encounter.
Some events will result in a battle, while others will require quick-thinking to resolve. Occasionally an event will send you on a quest, requiring you to navigate to a certain node or carry a passenger for some time.
During events you’ll also be given choices that will result in different outcomes. Selecting the moral choice in a situation is rewarded with tokens, which can be used to purchase meta upgrades. But these may not always be the best choices for you, depending on your playstyle.
Battles & Bosses
The main goal of Fabular’s journey mode is to successfully navigate all five realms and defeat the Void Lords.
Every realm has its own enemy types and end bosses for you to face and, as you progress through the realms, the difficulty of these enemies will increase. This is represented by stars on your Cosmic Chart.
As 2022 comes to a close, we’re getting prepared for 2023 when we have some big updates coming for Fabular. We can’t wait to share them with you.
Until next time,
- Spiritus Games
Introducing: Survival Mode
Hello Steam users 👋
As we journey through Early Access, we want to share more regular updates with you about how development is progressing. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to learn more about, please let us know in the replies!
For our first update, we wanted to talk about the brand new survival mode!
This is a new mode we’ve added to the game, based on the feedback from our prologue and demo players. It was highly requested, so we squeezed in time to create and include this prototype in the Early Access release of Fabular.
Please bear in mind that this is just a prototype. If there’s a lot of interest in it, we’re hoping to expand on it and add further difficulties and perhaps even bosses as well.
What is Survival Mode?
Survival mode is intended for players who have completed the journey mode and want an additional challenge.
You can choose between the different classes available to you, before launching straight into the first battle. Survival mode is set up as an “arena” of sorts, where you can battle 10 waves of enemy ships. In between each wave, there’ll be a small break to heal, upgrade your ship, switch out gadgets and weapons, and visit the store.
After completing all 10 waves (or as far as you can get), you’ll receive an overall score ranking your performance.
The Leader board
Each level of survival mode has its own Survival Hall of Fame leader board.
The scores for the leader board are calculated using a few different values:
How many waves you completed.
How much damage you took during a wave.
How quickly you completed each wave.
The results for each wave is summed up at the end to generate an overall score, which goes on the leader board.
The Future of Survival Mode
At the moment, there are two different difficulty levels available in survival mode - The Kingdom Heart and No Man’s Land.
We’re hoping to expand on this in the future, if there’s significant interest in survival mode. A few ideas we have are introducing bosses to some of the waves, as well as adding additional difficulty levels.
If you have any suggestions for further ways to improve survival mode, please let us know in the replies.
Otherwise, good luck beating your friends (and the devs!).
- Spiritus Games
Nominate Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime in the Steam Awards!
Hello everyone!
It's that time of year again! The Steam Awards 2022 have just opened up their nominations, and we’d love your support.
Please nominate Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime for the “Best Game you Suck At” award using the button above or by clicking this link.
Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime hasn't been out in Early Access long, but if you've enjoyed the game so far, we're asking you to please consider nominating us for an award. We would suggest voting for Fabular in the "Best Game you Suck At" category, but you can select your own category as well
The "Best Game you Suck At" category is for games that reward persistence and we definitely think this is the case with Fabular. Learning enemy cues and getting your timing down is so integral to the gameplay. It's the toughest game we've ever loved.
If you've not already left a review for Fabular, now's the perfect opportunity! Steam is giving away badges, which can be levelled up by completing tasks, one of which is to leave a review for a game you've nominated.
All the best, - Spiritus Games
Week 1 Patch - 5652
Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime has been out for a week already, and what a week it's been! We've received so much feedback from all of our players across reviews, discussions, Discord, and socials.
Our understanding from the feedback so far is that combat in general has been received well by our players and most issues were regarding the Starmap and the general flow of the game, so that's what we've been focusing on in this update. We are going to look into overhauling the Starmap experience on the long run, but these fixes should improve it in the meantime. We've also made the screen-to-screen transitions a bit more streamlined, let us know how you find the changes!
There's a full list of patch notes below, but please keep all your feedback coming! It's so valuable and we're reading every message.
Thank you, - Spiritus Games
Patch notes:
General
Control mode options (Absolute/Relative) moved to a more apparent place in the Settings menu.
The first tutorial screen now displays a hint that you can change your control mode in settings.
Starmap:
Starmap generation algorithm has been overhauled, resulting in less punishing dead-ends. Dead-ends still exist, but they don’t limit access to the boss-node, which can be approached in a more intuitive way now. Decision is now more in the players’ hands if they want to beeline for the boss, or go explore potential dead-ends.
Players now start a new run with 6 fuel instead of 5. Fuel gained from loot has been slightly reduced on realms 2 and 3.
Overall travel speed on the starmap has been made snappier.
Travel speed between visited nodes on the starmap is significantly faster now.
Teleportation on the minimap is significantly faster now.
Most screen transitions have been made quicker.
Events:
Some particularly punishing events have been removed or made more forgiving in Realm 1.
The ‘Hitchhikers’ event now gives tokens as well as a reward for delivering the Merchants to their home planet.
‘Deserter Brothers’ event (Little and Big Brother fight) can now only spawn during medium or high alert levels.
You can no longer ask for repairs AND ask for a location of a starsmithy in the ‘Stellar Farrier’ event. You have to choose one or the other.
Items:
Fixed a bug when using a Beacon-O-Mat given by the Navigator boon resulted in 0 Beacon-O-Mats in subsequent runs, until the game was restarted.
Explosive missiles are now less damaging at the edge of their area of effect.
Swarm missiles now deal equally high damage (15) in their entire area of effect. Used to deal less damage further out.
Rail Gun’s damage has been reduced to 35 (from 40) and its cooldown has been increased to 8 sec (from 4).
Malevolent Beam now does 2 damage per second for 5 seconds (from 1 dps for 6 secs)
Explosive Holo-decoy now does 20 damage (from 25) and deals equally high damage in its entire area of effect. It does not taunt enemies anymore, as stated by the item description.
Vendetta shield’s stun now lasts for 1.5 seconds (down from 3) and it does not knock back enemies anymore.
Shuriken heavy and perfect attack damage lowered to 18 and 20 respectively (from 20 and 28).
Plasma Blaster heavy damage lowered to 2x(8-10) damage down from 2x(8-17).
Shops:
Shops now can’t sell items that are unusable for the current ship class.
Shop prices have been re-balanced. Shop discounts have been removed, each item costs the same in every shop type now.
Consumables can be sold to shops at a very low price only.
Fixed bug where Guard-O-mats could be bought in shops for free. Guard-O-Mats are not purchasable now.
Fixed bug where potions sometimes cost 1 Stardust in shops.
Patch notes 0.9.5629 (hotfix)
Fixed controls switching between mouse and gamepad mode on Steam Deck. This should fix any issues with erratic aiming/turning in combat.
Fixed button position on startup screen on Steam Deck.
Fixed some typos.
Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime rockets onto Steam!
Hello everyone,
Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime is a sci-fi-infused medieval roguelite that challenges you to save your kingdom or die trying… Again… And again…
Play the single-player story mode to embark on a perilous quest to reclaim the sun from the evil Void Lords. Travel across a procedurally generated universe where friends and resources are both scarce.
OR challenge your friends in our all-new survival mode! Face up to 10 waves of dangerous enemies across 2 difficulty levels and claim your space at the top of the leaderboard.
To celebrate the Early Access launch of Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime, we’re releasing with a 10% launch discount.
Our journey is only beginning and we hope you all will join us on the next leg to 1.0 release.
– Spiritus Games
Fabular Early Access Q&As & Roadmap
When will Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime release into Early Access? Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime will be releasing into Early Access on Steam on November 10th, 2022!
How much will the game cost at Early Access release? At Early Access release, Fabular will be priced at $14.99 with a 10% launch week discount.
Will the price of the game increase after Early Access? Due to the additional content we will be adding to the game, we expect the full price of the game to increase either during EA or at 1.0 launch. However we have not determined the final full price for the game.
How long will Fabular be in Early Access? Our plan is to keep Fabular in Early access for at least a year, but this time frame may be extended depending on additional features and modes that we may want to add to the game.
Ultimately, we want to ensure that the game launches in a state we are happy with.
What additional content will there be at EA launch? The Early Access version of Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime will significantly expand on the content available in the demo and prologue. Notably:
Access to the second and third realm, in addition to the first, each with its own unique end boss.
70 illustrated text-based events to discover, with multiple outcomes.
30 unique enemy types to face across the three realms.
50 different pieces of equipment and quest items to make each run unique
New meta upgrades.
Increasing realm difficulties for top players.
A survival mode with a leaderboard to challenge yourself and your friends.
Will I be able to tell when I’ve completed all the EA content? After completing the first three realms and their bosses, players will encounter a screen that lets them know they’re at the end of the EA content. We’re still actively developing the final two realms so players won’t be able to advance past this point.
However, with survival mode, a second class, and multiple weapons there’s still lots for players to experience in Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime after their first win!
How do I report bugs or give feedback? Our community is very important to us, as such there are a number of ways to get in touch with us for reporting bugs, suggestions or feedback. Those channels are:
Players can also keep up with our latest developments or reach out with any feedback or suggestions to our social media accounts: Twitter, Facebook, TikTok.
What updates can I expect during Early Access? We will be releasing a number of updates during Early Access, including new realms to explore, the full storyline to experience, more classes to master, new enemies to battle, new items and weapons to experiment with, more events to discover, and even more!
We’ve created a rough starmap of what updates you can expect and what will be included in them!
Where can I keep up with any new development updates? The best place to keep up to date with Fabular news is in our Discord server, but we also share regular updates on our social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, TikTok), and the Steam news section.
Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime release date! 🚀
Surprise! We’re thrilled to announce that Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime will be releasing into Early Access on PC on November 10th 2022!
Our little team has been working on Fabular since 2016 and we’re so excited to get Fabular into your hands.
Thank you to everyone who backed our Kickstarter, played the Prologue and demo, submitted bug reports, provided feedback, and interacted with us on our socials. We can’t wait to continue this journey with you.
Check out the official announcement trailer below:
https://youtu.be/pAZGnjRl4M4
Less than 1 month to go!
If you haven’t already, please add Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime to your wishlist and join us on Discord for all of the latest news.
We have some news to share regarding the Early Access release date for Fabular: Once Upon a Spacetime.
Earlier this year we announced that we would be releasing Fabular into Early Access during Q3, 2022, but we’ve made the decision to push the release date a little later until Q4.
From the beginning we’ve wanted to ensure that we deliver a top-quality game, so we’re going to take a few more months to work on new content and additional polish. We really want the launch of Fabular to be overwhelmingly positive.
We will be revealing the exact release date soon.
Thank you for your continued support. We can’t wait to share more of Fabular with you.
