Labyrinth
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Holiday Cheer and Week 52 Progress Report
December Key Giveaway
The holidays are upon us, and we here at Free Range Games are getting into the spirit by giving away tons of keys for Labyrinth! That's right, you could win one (or more!) keys for Labyrinth this December. We will start by giving away 1 key today, December 1st, and each day we will give away one more until we are giving away 31 keys on December 31st. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
To participate and help your friends and friends of friends participate, please follow https://twitter.com/LabyrinthOracle and retweet the daily giveaway tweets, which will be posted every day around noon PST. Winners will be randomly selected from followers who retweet the previous day. Any clarification to the rules will be posted to the Labyrinth website forum.
Indie of the Year Awards
We started getting the word out last night and Labyrinth has climbed from rank 1600 to 161 already!
Calling all heroes of Labyrinth, we need your votes to win the best Indie of the Year award. Last year the Labyrinth demo we made for the Kickstarter campaign did so well in this competition that IndieDB extended the Top 5 Player's Choice awards to the Top 6 and Labyrinth squeaked in. Since then so much has improved and will continue to do so, so please help Labyrinth make it to #1 this year. We have 9 days, let's get the word out and vote!
Development
Over the course of this past week our team has been busy working to get the new build ready; here is a list of what we have accomplished. Some of these items may not be in the next build, but are for builds after it.
- The Engineering Team worked on iOS builds and integration of features for the upcoming major update.
- The Design Team Worked on Rewards Defense; Tutorial conversation and tips; Card fixes; Ancient Master defense tutorial; New Boss card pass.
- The Art Team worked on Boss Dialog Art; Pack Openings; Boss Display model; Flayed Hunter; Environments of Vailar and Inos; Death Blossom; Frozen Sentinel textured; Doomsday explosion.
Kickstarter Anniversary
Kickstarter Anniversary
Thank you very much for your support during the Kickstarter campaign and since then. Labyrinth ended its successful campaign on November 25, 2015, so it has been almost a year of hard work! Labyrinth has come a long way and has a bright future ahead.
The next major update will be released in December. More details forthcoming after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Backer rewards will start to be distributed when Labyrinth is closer to exiting Early Access in a few months, as we need to ensure that all the features and content meet our high standards before releasing.
Steam Autumn Sale
Labyrinth is on sale for 33% off for the Steam Autumn Sale.
The Autumn Sale 2016 runs from Nov 23, 2016 @ 9:50am Pacific to Nov 29, 2016 @ 10:10am Pacific. http://store.steampowered.com/app/412310
Please let your friends know that now is the time to get a good deal. Everyone who purchases the game before Early Access ends will get the original $10 worth of card packs offer.
The Steam Awards
"For the first time in human history, our Steam Community will decide the nominees for the prestigious Steam Awards." Find the button on the Steam store page.
Feel free to vote your conscience or if undecide on which category to pick, follow dedicated Labyrinth streamer, The_1ndiegamer, suggestion and nominate Labyrinth for the:
Most Promising Early Access game award.
Copy and paste for easy nomination. Ask your friends to do so as well.
Development
The team kept busy the last week integrating all the new systems we have been working on along with new content.
The Engineering Team worked on Quest Rewards; Client Side connection logic; 5 level flow; Defense Tutorial systems.
The Design Team worked on Doomsday Explosion; NEW BOSS CARD pass.
The Art Team worked on Flayed Hunter; Frozen Sentinel; Vailar and Inos Enviroments; FX canceling; Aether blast; Arc Node melee; Time warp; Intro loops; Banners; Venom Fang Queen; Mech introduction.
Happy Thanksgiving! Go get them turkeys!
Week 49 Progress
Dozens of people stopped by the Labyrinth table to learn about the game and give it a try. We were busy all night! In the photos below, Mike, one of our designers, is teaching new players how to play Labyrinth.
Development
During the past week our team has worked on many exciting items, below is a list of what they have done.
- The Engineering Team worked on check summing; resuming gameplay; raid reward UI hookup; Lobby Rewards. Lobby Room; Raid manager logic.
- The Design Team worked on Card balancing reviews; Card revising; Defense Tutorial.
- The Art Team worked on Mindless Golem; Summon Air; Mecha medium; Ghostly Gate; Moon concepts; Spider Queen; Skinning Stormcaller; Flayed Hunter concept; Moon concepts; Venom Fang Queen; Spirit Dissolve; Fire Dissolve.
- The Audio Team worked on Celestial summon and Faith FX; Summon Air; Oath of the Deathless.
New Concepts for Card Art
Week 46 Progress
Card Information Tutorial
We want to make it as easy as possible to get right into Labyrinth and start playing. Below we have included a simple tutorial of the more complex card types and the important information you should know.
Spell Cards
- 1. Tick Cost - This is the cost to play the card, the example above will move Rohin 2 places forward on the clock, so he will not be able to act again for 2 ticks.
- 2. Type - This area indicates the type of ability that will be used.
- 3. Art - Wonderful card art! Or placeholder.
- 4. Rarity - Card rarity can vary from common to legendary. The above example is a Rare card. The colors are: Gray = Basic, White = Common, Green = Rare, Purple = Epic, Yellow = Legendary.
- 5. Name - The name of the card.
- 6. Range - The range the attack is effective in; typically, melee or a range number. For limited Duration effects, the Duration is also shown here.
- 7. Rules Text - The information listed in our example describes what the ability does. Please also note #9 below for this particular card.
- 8. Sub-Type - This shows what category the card falls into.
- 9. Resource - Some cards rules that are modified when certain resource conditions are met. In this example, if a Skulduggery hero has 1 Amp it will cause a bleeding effect if it is used against a Boss.
Hero or Boss Cards
- 1. Type & Level - This lists what kind of card is being used and it also shows the character's level. The above example is of a level 1 boss.
- 2. Rarity - All Heroes and Bosses are Legendary.
- 3. Name - The name of the card.
- 4. Rules Text - Heroes or Bosses may have a special card rule that gives them a unique ability or flavor. The information listed in our example describes what the ability does.
- 5. Abilities - This is abilities that the Hero or Boss has.
- 6. Health - This number represents the current health of the Boss or Hero. Please note that this number does not reflect and perks that either may have.
- 7. Discipline / Traits - This shows what cards the character can use. They could be Discipline cards from Warfare or Skulduggery, or Trait cards from Beast or Caster, for example.
Minions
- 1. Type - This lists what kind of card is being used.
- 2. Star Cost - This is the cost it takes to place the card in one of your decks. You are limited on the number of Stars you can use per deck.
- 3. Art - Wonderful card art! Or placeholder.
- 4. Rarity - Card rarity can vary from common to legendary. The above example is a Rare card. The colors are: Gray = Basic, White = Common, Green = Rare, Purple = Epic, Yellow = Legendary.
- 5. Name - The name of the card.
- 6. Range - The range the attack is effective in; typically, melee or a range number. This example shows a Range of 5 with a Blast radius of 1.
- 7. Rules Text - The information listed in our example describes what the ability does.
- 8. Health - This number represents the current health of the Minion.
- 9. Sub-Type - This shows what category the card set falls into.
- 10. Attack Damage - This indicates the damage that the minion deals before armor is taken into account. The above example does 5 damage.
- 11. Action Timer - This is the number of ticks that a minion takes between actions. Minions take their first action in the tick after they are summoned.
Development
Over the past week our team has been working on various tasks throughout Labyrinth. Below is a list of what we have been doing.
- The Engineering Team worked on: Raid Room, rewards; Matchmaking to server; Card Store; Open Packs button; Available packs icon; iOS and OSx testing; delayed summons; buff expiration in timeline; map parenting; summon timing.
- The Design Team worked on: Quests and Quest Completion; Season and Daily rewards; Card design.
- The Art Team worked on: Mindless Golem; Spider Queen; Summoning; Anvil of the Elements; Arcane Protector; Skinning of Pale Rider; Storm Caller; Skinning Shield Runner; Portal Gate Structure; TickTickBoom completed; Skinning Charging Rhino; Card Art layout; Card Package 6 Complete.
- The Audio Team worked on: Summon Fire, Frost, and Earth FX; Equip weapon FX; fire footsteps; missing Roggix scene sounds; Ember Hound VO; Timeline mouse over; Cave Spider VO; Shield hits.
A New Caster Minion in Design
Week 45 Progress
Over the past week and a half our team has been hard at work getting features and content ready for the next major update. Below is a list of what the team has accomplished so far.
- The Engineering Team worked on bugs, bugs and more bugs; protobuf tweaks; Quests: tracking events.
- The Design Team worked on card revisions; Defense Tutorial Encounters; Raid Room: Rewards; Fireheart Defense Tutorial Encounter.
- The Art Team worked on card package 6; New Evil Thingy; Doomsday Device; Earth Spear; Mustered Might; Earth Spear; Mindless Golem; Storm Caller; Tick Tick Boom; Celestial Giant modeling; intergrated summon FX; prep card art packs.
- The Audio Team worked on Defense screen panel movement; UI reverb; scene reverb; Audio for new boss challenges; Object sounds tuned; Robot Welder; reduced attenuation; start of encounter fading.
Week 44 Progress and Game Update
- Spectral Escort triggering after first turn
- Speed Drag triggering every Tick after first Tick
- Speed Drag affecting Tenacity
- Force Push affecting Tenacity
- Force Pull affecting Tenacity
- Minotaur special ability affecting Tenacity
- Arm with Magicks affecting Structures
- Steely Resolve damage
- Typo on Stun text
- Walking Bomb text not matching damage
- Removed unreleased cards from pack opening
Development
Over the past week our team has been hard at work to get ready for new content to be introduced into Labyrinth, here is a quick glance at some of the items they have completed.
Week 43 Progress and Game Update
Today's patch mainly fixes card related bugs. (Thank you very much to all the people who have been submitting card bugs. It's really helping improve the quality of the game.) Below there is an explanation about what is going on with rewards and Casual mode matchmaking, as well as a guide for what cards are unlocked when you level your heroes and bosses.
Unless we find some other major bugs that we determine require patching, this will be the last patch until the next major update.
Bug Fixes
- Lava and scorching claws interaction with molten birth
- Rush of wind interaction with hovering hounds
- Spare parts trap summoning discount
- Spectral escort summoning ghostlings
- Anvil of elements tick reducing result
- Backstabber with no amps
- Unreleased boss cards showing up in packs/collections
- War chant and prayer of might stacking
- Draw out with tenacity
- Force pull with tenacity
- Ancestors tears from non-card kills
- Ghosbite summoning thralls on structure kills
- Text on incarnation of fire
- Text on ghostbite
- Text on balance of life
- Text on aim
- Text on magnetic shield buff on card inspection
- Text on furious style buff on card inspection
Design Revisions
- Shieldrunner model and card art
- Tutorial 2 boss nerfed to have fewer minion summons
Matchmaking & Rewards
As many of you have discovered, you may not get XP and Gold rewards after a Casual encounter and your bosses may not get XP and Stardust rewards even if you get a notification from Steam that it has been raided. It may seem like your boss is not getting raided at all. These are known problems that we are very concerned about and have spent quite a bit of time and effort examining. Now that we have a better understanding of the problems, we would like to take explain what is happening.
The new matchmaking algorithm we introduced on September 23 seems to be working as intended for the people who are getting matched. That is, heroes are being matched against bosses of a similar level. The chart for data collected over the last weekend, shown below, demonstrates this.
The size of the bubbles show the relative number of times players with those levels have been matched. The blue represents successful matches from the standard algorithm. The red represents successful matches where the standard algorithm failed to find a similar level matched player and fell back to matching with a Level 1 player. This happens because there are actually more 11-13 level players who want to raid a 10-14 level player than are available at the moment they requested a raid. (Falling back to a Level 1 player isn't necessarily a great match, but that is how this version of the algorithm was designed to work.) The algorithm also favors players who play a lot. So the more you raid with your heroes, the more your bosses get raided. The players who play a lot also tend to be high level, so that is why you see bigger blue bubbles at the higher levels.
If that is working so well, why am I not getting raided? The answer is below.
The graph above only shows the players who have been successfully matched over the weekend and does not show all the players who added bosses to the queue to be attacked since September 23. The graph below shows everyone's bosses in the queue and how many times they have been matched.
Each dot in the graph below represents one player's boss at a given level. There are hundreds of players in the dataset, so many of the dots overlap, particularly for Level 1 bosses.
Looking at the graph below, most bosses have indeed been attacked several times. The problem is that rewards are not getting through, so bosses are not getting XP. This is a particularly bad situation for low level bosses (circled in red). Since they do not get XP, they cannot level up, and cannot move up the matchmaking queue to be matched with other players who are playing a lot. They end up competing for limited raids and keep getting thrown to the back of the queue.
It is the lack of XP rewards that is blocking players from getting matched. This problem is keeping half the bosses at level 1. (There is no reason a level 1 boss should remain at level 1 after 6 raids!)
There are 4-6 bugs that we have identified that are keeping players from getting their rewards. The two most major bugs require extensive changes to how we handle encounter data and the interaction between client and server. For the next major update we are moving more of the functions that relate to encounters from the client to the server to improve security. This changes will naturally get rid of the bugs that are in the current live version. However, you will have to wait until the next major update which will be approximately a month away. We will try our best to fix this problem, but because the change in code is going to be so extensive, there is a chance that you may see new bugs that stop rewards from appearing at that time.
If you have a Level 15 heroes and bosses, please move them to Ranked play until the next update. This may relieve some pressure on the queue and give those below rank 15 priority, allowing them to level up faster. It remains to be seen if any improvement trickles down to Level 1 players.
Card Leveling Guide
Below is a helpful guide to let you know when your heroes and bosses get new cards!
Development
Over the last week our team has been hard at work creating new and amazing content for the future of Labyrinth.
- The Engineering Team worked on the Quest system; Matchmaking analytics; Ai vs AI testing; Defense Campaign.
- The Design Team worked on Design revisions.
- The Art Team worked on Giantess Hall Props; Defense Screen 3D scene; Frost summons second pass; Sorceress spellcast, ranged attack; Structure concepts; Celestial armor textures; Earth summons; Sorcerer death animation; Endurance textures; Charging Rhino; Embiggener modeled.
- The Audio Team worked on Thief VO tweaking; movement tuning; ambiance fading.
Week 42 Progress and Game Patch
We are smoothing out some of the issues in last weeks update. Thank you very much to everyone who has been playing. Record numbers of people are playing and everyone is playing more and longer than ever before! Unfortunately there are some bugs in the cards, as well as matchmaking and rewards having problems. This patch fixes some of those problems.
If and when we have a solution so some of the other problems blocking rewards and matchmaking, we will most likely patch again before the next major update.
New Cards
Added boss perk unlocks that allow players to fill all perk slots.
- At 2nd level, a perk that only costs 2 points
- At 6th level, a perk that costs 0 points
Roggix
- Level 2 - Scorching Claws
- Level 6 - Molten Birth
Queen of the Northern Wastes
- Level 2 - Awakened Force
- Level 6 - Built to Last
Adolphus
- Level 2 - Rapacious Scavenging
- Level 6 - Surplus Gear
Radaghar
- Level 2 - Spectral Escort
- Level 6 - Sweep of Battle
Oros
- Level 2 - Tempered Blades
- Level 6 - Patron's Boon
Card Fixes
- ice move debuff lingering
- bleed affecting structures
- boss tick attacks v hero tenacity
- recycler no effect
- absorption field healing on 0 dmg
- deflect attack unlimited uses
- ritual of dawn description
- last sunrise no effect
- full charger updating on damage
- blast shield repeating during channels
- pack mentality calculation
- monk's tale heal targeting
- frozen to the core breaking frost cantrip
- fixed damage on calculating strike
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a game server problem that was blocking rewards
- Fixed a matchmaking server problem that was blocking rewards
- Fixed a client problem that was blocking rewards
- Fixed Defense Rewards screen being blocked by Daily Rewards screen
Known Bugs
- Casual matchmaking algorithm does not distribute raids broadly enough among players. It seems to favor the players that play the most more than intended.
- Reflect attack damage is 0
- Blizzard golem doesn't debuff 0 attack heroes
- The timing of the 300 gold award for completion of the tutorial is before the actual award screen pops up.
- Packs may occasionally appear to only reward 3-4 cards when opened when there are duplicates in a pack. The newly acquired cards should be visible in the Deck Editor, but there is not special indication that they are new yet. Re-logging in might be necessary in some cases.
- The first craft/disenchant of a session is slow (4-7 seconds usually) due to server connection/initialization. Subsequent crafts/disenchants should be about 1-2 seconds.
- You will not get a Replay while you are actively playing, even if you receive the Steam notification that you were raided.
- Display All Unit Info may not show up in-game even though in Settings it is on. Press 'Tab' to toggle it on and off.
Development
During the last week our Development team as worked on the following items
The Engineering Team worked on new Raid rooms; touch controls; HUD resizing; Quest system; reward entries; ME refractors; projectiles; Multi-action display timing.
The Design Team worked on Card revisions; Card designs.
The Art Team worked on Shield Runner; Spirit of Magma re-texturing; Sorcerer attack and hit preps;Sorcerer melee attack; Rockshard cyclone; Card Crafting FX; Sunspawn minion; Starfall eye FX.
Tutorial Update
What’s New?!
It took longer than planned to release, but this update includes a lot of new features and a few major fixes to error plagued features like Replays.
Among the changes are: Tutorial, Partial Account Reset, Starting Gold & Daily Rewards, Ranked Play, Virtual Currency Store, Card Pack Opening, Crafting, New Cards, Defense Update, Deck Editor Update, Key Bugs Fixes, Known Bugs.
Tutorial
We are introducing a tutorial to help new players learn the ropes of Labyrinth. Head on in and check it out, you will unlock basic cards, may learn something new, and earn gold for 3 card packs from completing the tutorial!
This is the first stage in building a more comprehensive tutorial for the game. In the future we plan to add more gameplay clarification and how to navigate the store, crafting, and Defense.
Partial Account Reset
Due to technical changes between the previous build and this build of the game, we needed to reset XP and decks. So, your heroes and bosses are level 1 again. Your virtual currency is not affected.
It is likely that for the next major release will also reset XP and possibly decks. Since we opened the Store for virtual currency in this build, for the next update's wipe, we will reimburse players the gold and stardust value for each card pack and card, respectively, that they purchased.
Daily Rewards
Until we introduce the Quest system, we are giving a daily login reward. You obtain 100 gold and 5 stardust for each day you log in, this resets at 0:00 GMT, which is 5pm PST. If you login, you get them, if you don’t, you don’t. Additionally, we are giving every Early Access player 1000 gold to buy 10 packs in the Store. It is likely that we will reset accounts before exiting Early Access. If that happens, we will give you the equivalent value in gold for all card packs that you bought.
Ranked Mode
We are introducing Ranked mode play! After your Heroes and Bosses reach level 15 you can play in Ranked to see how far you can go. Rank 1 is the highest. Right now seasons will reset at the end of each month. Between now and the next major update, we will be watching to see how the Ranked matchmaking algorithm is performing and how the system is working in general, so that we can improve on it as necessary.
Store
The Card Pack Store has opened up for business! Currently you can use gold acquired from your daily reward and beating other players Labyrinth's to obtain new card packs to help build your decks. In the near future we will turn on purchasing with real money, but not at this time.
Card Pack Opening
You can open your card packs by dragging the key over from the left side of the screen and placing it into the chest to unlock it. You will obtain at least 1 rare or greater card per pack!
Crafting
Have too many of one card? You can now disenchant them to obtain Stardust. Stardust is then used to craft the new card that you want. Note: the process of crafting may take a few seconds in some cases; we are working on ways to speed up the response time with the server.
Notes on Crafting:
- Price is determined by rarity
- Basic starting cards are not craftable/disenchantable
- Cards which are "unlocked" by level are not craftable
New Cards
Some new Perk cards were added. If you go to Deck Editor -> View Collection -> Crafting, you can see all cards in the game, even the ones that you do not currently have unlocked. Hunt around there for gems.
Defense Update
We have made changes to Defense. Starting out you will only be able to have one Boss deck equipped until your boss Boss earns level 15, then a new slot will open up. Defense will allow a total of 4 level 15 Bosses equipped at a time. This change was made in order to concentrate raids on one boss at a time to level them up as quickly as possible.
Also you will receive a Steam notification the first time each day that you are raided.
Deck Editor Update
The Deck Editor has been updated. There are a handful of different views which show different sets of cards:
- While editing a specific deck: all owned or unlocked cards equippable to that hero are shown.
- While viewing collection: all cards which are either owned or unlocked are shown, but cards that are unlocked by level not yet attained by the user will not be visible in the collection window.
- Crafting while editing a deck: all non-unlockable, craftable cards available to that hero are shown.
Crafting while viewing collection: all craftable cards in the game are shown.
At the bottom of the Deck Editor are “filter buttons” that now match the main categories of Lair, Perk, and Spell cards. Custom filtering can be done with the search bar. Search terms can be separated by spaces or commas. Both are treated equally so: 3 damage, provoke will search for 3 AND damage AND provoke. Under the hood, all searches are converted to uppercase, so it doesn’t matter what case you use. Terms are searched in:
- Card names
- Card descriptions
- Card rarity-name
Card tags Operators like "=", ">", ">=", etc., followed by a value can also be used in searches.
Key Bug Fixes
- Replays: You should now see replays from opponents who attacked you, except as noted below in Known Bugs.
- Encounter Results: You should now see every win and loss reported when opponents raid you.
- Casual Mode Matchmaking: The algorithm matches by level now within a couple, and you should be matched against a wider variety of players and more appropriately matched with closer skill level opponents.
Known Bugs
If you find a bug not on this list, please post on Steam or email support from Help within the game settings. Thank you!
- The timing of the 300 gold award for completion of the tutorial is before the actual award screen pops up.
- Packs may occasionally appear to only reward 3-4 cards when opened when there are duplicates in a pack. The newly acquired cards should be visible in the Deck Editor, but there is not special indication that they are new yet. Re-logging in might be necessary in some cases.
- The first craft/disenchant of a session is slow (4-7 seconds usually) due to server connection/initialization. Subsequent crafts/disenchants should be about 1-2 seconds.
- You will not get a Replay while you are actively playing, even if you receive the Steam notification that you were raided.
- Display All Unit Info may not show up in-game even though in Settings it is on. Press 'Tab' to toggle it on and off.
Steam Review
Recently Valve changed the way it reports reviews for games on the Steam Store: they are no longer counting ratings for reviews written by people who used a key to unlock the game. This was done to thwart developers who gave away keys in exchange for fake reviews. Although Valve recognized that there are legitimate reasons why a person with a key would write a valid review, such as a Kickstarter backer, they decided to change the system for everyone. (Read more here.)
Labyrinth had many positive and very helpful reviews from our backers, which are no longer counted in the ratings. So the game went from 91 to 39 reviews, 91% to 87% positive, and from a Very Positive to a Positive rating, as a result. The 9 negative reviews typically point out the lack of content earlier this year and/or the lack of a tutorial. As you know we have been diligent in improving the game, adding both content and features, and we are rolling out the tutorial in this release, which we hope new and old players find helpful.
There was a recent change to elevate the visibility of helpful reviews even if you got a key from us. It doesn't affect the rating, but for people who read reviews, this is a big help.
Please update or write a review when you get a moment. Many thanks in advance!!
Development
- The Engineering Team worked on Steam notifications; Deck Editor UI; Crafting validation; Matchmaking; iOS controls; Tutorial support; Crafting layout changes; Deck validation.
- The Design Team worked on missing art; Tutorial polishing; rewards; Tutorial revisions; Daily Rewards; card balancing.
- The Art Team Worked on Ranked Play elements; New character models; New character animations; Trait icons; Tutorial dialog art and illustrations; dialog art; landing lighting; coloring dialog; card opening FX; Card Crafting FX; Badges; Store and Landing revisions; Eternal watcher completed; Pale Rider Completed; Sorcerer skinned; Spirit of Magma low poly model; Celestial Giant model.
- The Audio Team worked on master audio tweaks; reverse time tick; Tutorial VO spec; card pack scene audio; Hero quest button audio.
In addition and including all of the above, this last several week's progress includes working on the following items.