As you might remember from the previous devlog episode our initial idea to shake the canon of the genre was Threat Counter. In a nutshell, it was mana in reverse: you could spend as many points as you want, but the more you spent, the more powerful attack or skill the enemy will launch in response.
It sounded both a simple enough alternative for the mana and something that would give the player interesting control over the game situation. As we were struggling with the multiple characters idea, the Threat Counter seemed to work well enough albeit a bit clumsy, so we thought all it needs is a bit of good old polish.
Iteration hell
Oh boy, it was no polish. It was a mayhem of crunching prototypes.
The idea was simple: the harder you hit, the more Threat points the enemy gathers to hit you back.
Every iteration sounded better than it worked. The problem was always the same: when provided with a shining choice of biting a little for a measured response or hitting big for horrible backlash, the player always goes with the latter. It just makes more sense: you want the game to be dynamic and epic, for one.
Second, even if you try to count your points carefully, the result of the equation still encourages you to play the most powerful combo and hope for the best, while limiting your actions just sounds like an unnecessary prolongation of the fight. Even if it wasn’t the case, we couldn't crack out how to signal when the level of point spending is enough without the feeling of punishing the players for doing what they're supposed to do: playing the best from their hand. Even on the UX level, it was clumsy: a connection between what the enemy does and why is it a consequence of what the player previously did wasn’t always clear nor immediate.
Fun first
Most of all, it wasn’t that we couldn't mitigate this issue, it was that we couldn’t do it while preserving what’s the most fun in the core of any card game: smashing combos and maximizing your output from each card played.
We had around four different approaches to the Threat Counter iterated in a course of around two months. I won’t bore you with explaining the details, but ultimately none of them worked.
Finally, we scratched the whole idea and went back to square one, with very fruitful and surprising results!
But that’s a story for the next devlog episode. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, if you haven't had a chance – you can already check what we came up with in free to play Demo of Nadir!
As you might remember from the previous devlog episode our initial idea to shake the canon of the genre was Threat Counter. In a nutshell, it was mana in reverse: you could spend as many points as you want, but the more you spent, the more powerful attack or skill the enemy will launch in response.
It sounded both a simple enough alternative for the mana and something that would give the player interesting control over the game situation. As we were struggling with the multiple characters idea, the Threat Counter seemed to work well enough albeit a bit clumsy, so we thought all it needs is a bit of good old polish.
Iteration hell
Oh boy, it was no polish. It was a mayhem of crunching prototypes.
The idea was simple: the harder you hit, the more Threat points the enemy gathers to hit you back.
Every iteration sounded better than it worked. The problem was always the same: when provided with a shining choice of biting a little for a measured response or hitting big for horrible backlash, the player always goes with the latter. It just makes more sense: you want the game to be dynamic and epic, for one.
Second, even if you try to count your points carefully, the result of the equation still encourages you to play the most powerful combo and hope for the best, while limiting your actions just sounds like an unnecessary prolongation of the fight. Even if it wasn’t the case, we couldn't crack out how to signal when the level of point spending is enough without the feeling of punishing the players for doing what they're supposed to do: playing the best from their hand. Even on the UX level, it was clumsy: a connection between what the enemy does and why is it a consequence of what the player previously did wasn’t always clear nor immediate.
Fun first
Most of all, it wasn’t that we couldn't mitigate this issue, it was that we couldn’t do it while preserving what’s the most fun in the core of any card game: smashing combos and maximizing your output from each card played.
We had around four different approaches to the Threat Counter iterated in a course of around two months. I won’t bore you with explaining the details, but ultimately none of them worked.
Finally, we scratched the whole idea and went back to square one, with very fruitful and surprising results!
But that’s a story for the next devlog episode. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, if you haven't had a chance – you can already check what we came up with in free to play Demo of Nadir!
Prologue Updated with New Enemies’ Abilities, WIP Sneak Peek & New Keyart!
Fellow Sinners!
Following your feedback, we have updated the Prologue. We focused on improving the variability of the enemies' abilities to bring even more variety into the condensed experience of your journey through Hell. We also made a bunch of Quality of Life improvements, as listed below.
And we hope you'll love our new keyart as much as we do!
Gameplay improvements:
The enemies got a number of new abilities:
Panic: All buffs on the character’s cards are reduced to 0 until the next Redraw
Intimidation: All debuffs on the character’s cards are reduced to 0 until the next Redraw
Encircle: All Armor on the character’s cards are reduced to 0 until the next Redraw
Anathema: Eliminate the character’s highest buff
Grace: Eliminate the enemy's highest debuff
Quality of life:
Tutorials have been updated and expanded with additional information boxes
Battle scene was beautified once again
Enemy redraw skill tooltip was moved to the redraw button for better clarity
UI render on camera fixes
But our main focus now is to progress the game swiftly into the Beta state. There are dozens of new enemies in the making. Here’s a sneak peek:
There will be a different set of enemies for each of the circles of Hell. The Prologue serves as a cross-section of them from multiple different circles, but in the final game, every circle will be heavily thematic visually, backstory-wise and gameplay-wise.
Another important step is tons and tons of new player abilities, cards, and souls to obtain. And of course, more playable characters to conquer the deeps of Hell.
We will reveal more about all the aforementioned features in the upcoming updates.
Stay tuned!
And in the meantime, join our Discord and give us your feedback!
Devlog #6 – Multiple characters
Greetings, fellow Sinners!
When we sat down with Nadir, we wanted to shake the genre a little. We thought single-player deck-builders are a bit stiff genre, especially when it comes to battles: you have mana, you play cards until you run out of mana and/or cards, then the enemy punches back, repeat. We asked ourselves: how can we make that fresh and different?
We decided: no mana. What if the cost of your actions would be paid by the size of the enemy's reaction? As in a duel, the ground you take or leave gives the enemy his space to act upon. Every blow and cover blocks the opponent somewhere but opens your defense elsewhere. A very neat idea! A completely new approach to the very core loop of a card battle.
Well, easier said than done. By the time we saw the finish line on the horizon, the studio’s bucket of designers' tears and sweat was beginning to overflow. And it still looked quite tiny next to the coders’ bathtub.
Our initial idea was something we called Threat Counter. In a nutshell, it was mana in reverse: you could spend as many points as you want, but the more you spent, the more powerful attack or skill the enemy will launch in response. It sounded both a simple enough alternative for the mana and something that would give the player interesting control over the game situation, as per our initial assumptions.
Before we realized it wasn’t the way to go, we first stumbled upon another dead-end design choice: multiple characters. It was, too, a reversal of standard card game or even any battler practice: usually, the number of enemies was greater than the number of player characters. We thought: what if we scrap all numb minion fights and focus on the big guys?
You know, the game is a series of battles against demons, you expect demons to be more powerful and dangerous than one, nay, a dozen poor souls trapped in Hell. So if we had, say, three characters on our side, each with their own mini-deck shuffled into the main player deck. The character dies – his/her deck goes away as well. All of them surround the big fat hellish guy, trying to match him in an uneven fight.
That sounded cool, but… just didn’t work. Like all ambitious developers, we wanted to leave some added value to the genre, sometimes way too much. Multiple decks caused a lack of focus in our deck-building and a single enemy dumbed down the size of choices during a battle: since you can’t decide what enemy to punch – there is just a single one in the picture – a lot of tactical choices present in many other games went away.
The first issue was very easy to solve: we removed multiple characters. One turned out to be more than enough and the deck structure became much sharper when it wasn’t divided into subparts. Another easy solution wasn’t as easy as it sounded: adding more enemies would be costly from the backend perspective at the time. So we decided to focus on polishing our main feature: the Threat Counter.
Not really surprising at all, when I think about it now, our work on a game that takes place in the hell took us to the actual development hell: reinventing the core gameplay mid-work by the mayhem of rapid prototypes. It turned out, however, to be simply the best that could’ve happened to Nadir.
But we’ll get to it next Monday in Nadir Devlog #7!
If you have questions or want to share your opinion and suggestions about the game and Prologue – join our Discord channel!
Devlog #6 – Multiple characters
Greetings, fellow Sinners!
When we sat down with Nadir, we wanted to shake the genre a little. We thought single-player deck-builders are a bit stiff genre, especially when it comes to battles: you have mana, you play cards until you run out of mana and/or cards, then the enemy punches back, repeat. We asked ourselves: how can we make that fresh and different?
We decided: no mana. What if the cost of your actions would be paid by the size of the enemy's reaction? As in a duel, the ground you take or leave gives the enemy his space to act upon. Every blow and cover blocks the opponent somewhere but opens your defense elsewhere. A very neat idea! A completely new approach to the very core loop of a card battle.
Well, easier said than done. By the time we saw the finish line on the horizon, the studio’s bucket of designers' tears and sweat was beginning to overflow. And it still looked quite tiny next to the coders’ bathtub.
Our initial idea was something we called Threat Counter. In a nutshell, it was mana in reverse: you could spend as many points as you want, but the more you spent, the more powerful attack or skill the enemy will launch in response. It sounded both a simple enough alternative for the mana and something that would give the player interesting control over the game situation, as per our initial assumptions.
Before we realized it wasn’t the way to go, we first stumbled upon another dead-end design choice: multiple characters. It was, too, a reversal of standard card game or even any battler practice: usually, the number of enemies was greater than the number of player characters. We thought: what if we scrap all numb minion fights and focus on the big guys?
You know, the game is a series of battles against demons, you expect demons to be more powerful and dangerous than one, nay, a dozen poor souls trapped in Hell. So if we had, say, three characters on our side, each with their own mini-deck shuffled into the main player deck. The character dies – his/her deck goes away as well. All of them surround the big fat hellish guy, trying to match him in an uneven fight.
That sounded cool, but… just didn’t work. Like all ambitious developers, we wanted to leave some added value to the genre, sometimes way too much. Multiple decks caused a lack of focus in our deck-building and a single enemy dumbed down the size of choices during a battle: since you can’t decide what enemy to punch – there is just a single one in the picture – a lot of tactical choices present in many other games went away.
The first issue was very easy to solve: we removed multiple characters. One turned out to be more than enough and the deck structure became much sharper when it wasn’t divided into subparts. Another easy solution wasn’t as easy as it sounded: adding more enemies would be costly from the backend perspective at the time. So we decided to focus on polishing our main feature: the Threat Counter.
Not really surprising at all, when I think about it now, our work on a game that takes place in the hell took us to the actual development hell: reinventing the core gameplay mid-work by the mayhem of rapid prototypes. It turned out, however, to be simply the best that could’ve happened to Nadir.
But we’ll get to it next Monday in Nadir Devlog #7!
If you have questions or want to share your opinion and suggestions about the game and Prologue – join our Discord channel!
Devlog #5 – Deck-builder with a twist
Hello Sinners!
Nadir is a rogue-like deck builder where you journey through the underworld city of Nadir as a Sinner who serves one of the Deadly Sins, in your quest to rule over the halls of Hell…or simply work as an amusement for the everlasting Sins. These guys are like gods, so, naturally, they’re pretty bored after spending eternity in Hell and a bit of fun is always welcome.
You’ll find yourself playing as some of the legendary figures from our history, like Jeanne d’Arc, Hernán Cortés, or Rasputin, each serving a different Sin.
That is all great, you might say, but what really makes Nadir different from a vastly populated deck-builder genre, besides the visual style and mood? Great question!
In Nadir, we replaced the classic mana with the Deck Binding mechanic: a unique risk-management system we’re really proud of! Once the battle starts, you must plan both your and the enemy's moves, as every action triggers a reaction.
Sounds interesting? You can try the Nadir: Slay the Six Prologue right now on Steam!
Okay, but how exactly do you play? Each of your cards has one of two colors representing the energies flowing through Nadir: blue Sacrum and red Profanum. You can play them on one of the three stones above you if the colors are matching.
But here’s where things get interesting. EVERY action costs. The stones do bite. They trigger an immediate enemy reaction as written on each stela. Playing a card? Reaction. Redrawing your hand? Reaction.
Everything has a cost, but everything is under your control: YOU DECIDE which stela to activate, you choose what move the enemy will respond with. And the dynamic changes with every card played, as the stones move around, switching colors and reactions when activated.
It’s a riddle that’s both an intense exchange of punches and a careful tactical match, where every move has to be carefully weighed.
As in every decent roguelike, the basics expand every minute, as game progression throws at you new cards, skills, and enemies. There are tons of special statuses and effects that can bend the core game loop to your advantage, but it would bloat an already long post.
This system required a LOT of work, a long line of iterations, and changing our perspective on how to approach the card battler. In the upcoming devlog series, we will get more into our design journey – how we get here, what ideas we tried and gave up, what mistakes were made and how we reforge them into gameplay strength!
If you have questions or want to share your opinion and suggestions about the game and Prologue – join our Discord channel!
https://discord.com/invite/SuDjyj5C6w
We can’t wait for your input!
Stay tuned and see you on Monday for Nadir Devlog: chapter #6!
Devlog #5 – Deck-builder with a twist
Hello Sinners!
Nadir is a rogue-like deck builder where you journey through the underworld city of Nadir as a Sinner who serves one of the Deadly Sins, in your quest to rule over the halls of Hell…or simply work as an amusement for the everlasting Sins. These guys are like gods, so, naturally, they’re pretty bored after spending eternity in Hell and a bit of fun is always welcome.
You’ll find yourself playing as some of the legendary figures from our history, like Jeanne d’Arc, Hernán Cortés, or Rasputin, each serving a different Sin.
That is all great, you might say, but what really makes Nadir different from a vastly populated deck-builder genre, besides the visual style and mood? Great question!
In Nadir, we replaced the classic mana with the Deck Binding mechanic: a unique risk-management system we’re really proud of! Once the battle starts, you must plan both your and the enemy's moves, as every action triggers a reaction.
Sounds interesting? You can try the Nadir: Slay the Six Prologue right now on Steam!
Okay, but how exactly do you play? Each of your cards has one of two colors representing the energies flowing through Nadir: blue Sacrum and red Profanum. You can play them on one of the three stones above you if the colors are matching.
But here’s where things get interesting. EVERY action costs. The stones do bite. They trigger an immediate enemy reaction as written on each stela. Playing a card? Reaction. Redrawing your hand? Reaction.
Everything has a cost, but everything is under your control: YOU DECIDE which stela to activate, you choose what move the enemy will respond with. And the dynamic changes with every card played, as the stones move around, switching colors and reactions when activated.
It’s a riddle that’s both an intense exchange of punches and a careful tactical match, where every move has to be carefully weighed.
As in every decent roguelike, the basics expand every minute, as game progression throws at you new cards, skills, and enemies. There are tons of special statuses and effects that can bend the core game loop to your advantage, but it would bloat an already long post.
This system required a LOT of work, a long line of iterations, and changing our perspective on how to approach the card battler. In the upcoming devlog series, we will get more into our design journey – how we get here, what ideas we tried and gave up, what mistakes were made and how we reforge them into gameplay strength!
If you have questions or want to share your opinion and suggestions about the game and Prologue – join our Discord channel!
We can’t wait for your input!
Stay tuned and see you on Monday for Nadir Devlog: chapter #6!
Nadir Prologue: Slay the Six - Available now!
Hello, Sinners!
We’re proud to present the Prologue version of Nadir - it's finally available for free on Steam!
Nadir, the city of the damned, stretches deep into the abyss of Hell. This is where all manner of wretched creatures atones for their sins. The cursed souls spend eternity fighting for influence and rules over Nadir. Some of those powers will try to take over this hellish piece of land, as no one can escape it… at least no one succeeded yet.
The city’s numerous layers go deep into the abyss, each a home to a different kind of twisted soul. At the lowest level, in the deepest darkness, the power resides, waiting to be claimed by those brave or foolish enough to try.
That’s where your avatar, a manifestation of one of the Seven Deadly Sins, is heading: to the very bottom. In Nadir: Slay the Six you are taking control over Jeanne - Sin of Pride, to reach the gates of hell in the first part of the journey, and fight against powerful enemies.
What have we already improved since releasing a Demo?
There’s been a lot happening recently in the development of Nadir over the last few weeks. During the Steam Fest Next festival, players played the Demo of Nadir and shared their opinions with us. Thanks to our community feedback, we introduced a lot of improvements and fixes.
Turns system
We overhauled the core of the turns system. From now on, each played card triggers the reaction of the enemy. This introduces much more dynamics and reactivity into the game, encouraging players to think about every move they make. We also changed the turns system, introducing the redraw option. Redrawing your hand can open new possibilities and tactics for you, but has its price - the enemies will use their special abilities if you decide to do so.
Visual improvements
We received a lot of feedback about the map and its UX. As we would like to keep the unique circles' system, we addressed the feedback sent by the Demo players and worked on improving the map visibility and clarity. The new camera movement system will be much more convenient in use.
The combat scene received a slight rework, giving the player more of a 3D feeling. Additionally, we updated a lot of User Interface parts, for example, the rewards screen and deck preview screen.
One of the most requested features of game UX was the possibility to check what is on the other side of the Sacrum and Profanum stones. So we delivered, along with much more quality of life improvements, including adding missing SFX and VFX'es, updated tutorials, and polished controller and Steam Deck support.
What will the future bring?
We’ve been focusing mostly on improving the core gameplay and iterating it upon our feedback from our community. Now that we have a solid base, we are already working on:
Further levels, more enemies, more variety
The boss at the end of the demo is only one of the guardians of Nadir. The full game will guide the player through further levels, make them face new enemies, and challenge a variety of bosses with unique mechanics. Also, the player will face more types of encounters, including dynamic events and special deck-management locations.
More playable characters
Each of the playable characters will have a unique set of cards and abilities. On their way, they’ll collect a number of artifacts and consumables, enhancing their natural strengths when used smartly.
Character development and extended Solus system
The player will be able to adjust and shape their characters to fit their playstyle and strategy. Becoming more powerful – and learning how to make proper use of this power – will be crucial when exploring the depths of hell. On the other hand, Souls of the damned collected along their journey will have a significant impact on various strategies and modify the gameplay.
We hope you'll love this game as much as we do! Also, we'd like to invite every player to join our official Discord where you can talk about the game with the developers, discuss the gameplay and share your thoughts, and learn the developers' plans for the full game.
And if you'll like the game, be sure to add the full game to your Steam Wishlist too!
We’re proud to present you the updated Demo of Nadir!
What have we already improved since releasing a Demo?
There’s been a lot happening recently in the development of Nadir over the last few weeks. During the Steam Next fest festival, players played the Demo of Nadir and shared their opinions with us. Thanks to our community feedback, we introduced a lot of improvements and fixes.
Turns system
We overhauled the core of the turns system. From now on, each played card triggers the reaction of the enemy. This introduces much more dynamics and reactivity into the game, encouraging players to think about every move they make. We also changed the turns system, introducing the redraw option. Redrawing your hand can open new possibilities and tactics for you, but has its price - the enemies will use their special abilities if you decide to do so.
Visual improvements
We received a lot of feedback about the map and its UX. As we would like to keep the unique circles' system, we addressed the feedback sent by the Demo players and worked on improving the map visibility and clarity. The new camera movement system will be much more convenient in use.
The combat scene received a slight rework, giving the player more of a 3D feeling. Additionally, we updated a lot of User Interface parts, for example, the rewards screen and deck preview screen.
One of the most requested features of game UX was the possibility to check what is on the other side of the Sacrum and Profanum stones. So we delivered, along with much more quality of life improvements, including adding missing SFX and VFX'es, updated tutorials, and polished controller and Steam Deck support.
What will the future bring?
We’ve been focusing mostly on improving the core gameplay and iterating it upon our feedback from our community. Now that we have a solid base, we are already working on:
Further levels, more enemies, more variety
The boss at the end of the demo is only one of the guardians of Nadir. The full game will guide the player through further levels, make them face new enemies, and challenge a variety of bosses with unique mechanics. Also, the player will face more types of encounters, including dynamic events and special deck-management locations.
More playable characters
Each of the playable characters will have a unique set of cards and abilities. On their way, they’ll collect a number of artifacts and consumables, enhancing their natural strengths when used smartly.
Character development and extended Solus system
The player will be able to adjust and shape their characters to fit their playstyle and strategy. Becoming more powerful – and learning how to make proper use of this power – will be crucial when exploring the depths of hell. On the other hand, Souls of the damned collected along their journey will have a significant impact on various strategies and modify the gameplay.
We hope you'll love this game as much as we do! Also, we'd like to invite every player to join our official Discord where you can talk about the game with the developers, discuss the gameplay and share your thoughts, and learn the developers' plans for the full game.
And if you'll like the game, be sure to add the full game to your Steam Wishlist too!
Devlog #4 Addressing your feedback after Steam Next Fest!
Hello!
We're hoping you are safe and well! Spring is around the corner, and we are looking into the future with a lot of positivity! We are closing up to the next milestone in development, which will be releasing a standalone Prologue of Nadir, and we're extremely happy that we had a chance to meet some of you and hear your thoughts about our project already.
We took some time to analyze the feedback and analytics of the available Demo build so, we'd like to present you with a further update on the development of Nadir.
Steam Next Fest Festival
It was a great opportunity to show our game to people, get some visibility, and also verify if our project is hot like hell flames, during the Demo festival. We ended up a little overwhelmed, yet equally happy to see that a lot of people tried our game, enjoyed the stream, and added Nadir to their Wishlist! Thank you for that! And also we cannot stress enough our gratitude for sharing your opinions and insight with us on our forum and official Discord.
Our team gathered a lot of constructive feedback during Steam Next Fest Demo Festival, and we are working hard on addressing it. We are also already working on extending the features that we hid from you, for example, the character progression system!
Core of the game
We have found out that the game requires to be a little more dynamic, that is why we decided to touch the core of the game and introduce more reactivity in playing cards. We will not spoil the details now, but after playing the test version internally, we can already say, that the game feels much faster and reactive, at the same time introducing much more interesting strategies. Stay tuned!
User Experience
We are also reacting to your feedback regarding the intuitiveness and convenience of various systems. We are implementing countless UX experience improvements, and polishing the game to have the core ready before we will fill it up with even more content.
The graphics and setting, warmly welcomed by you are being enhanced too. Our artists are out of their minds with their creations, and we are adding a lot of neat visual upgrades, for animations, effects, and the world itself. Just look like the death animation look now for Jeanne:
Isn't that much better than a simple fade-out? :)
The circles of hell
For now, we decided to keep the top-down look on the map, but we would like to upgrade it and check again how it will be received after some improvements.
Interface
We have added a proper deck preview, with many convenient additions, so you will be able to check your deck much faster and find requested information much easier than with the version we had.
We also reworked the rewards panel, and a few other parts of the interface, adding new, easily accessible, and much more understandable icons and indicators.
Prologue is near!
We need just a few more days to finish ongoing tasks and some more time to test them properly before we will be able to show you the next version of Nadir. We are planning to update the Demo build too, as we really appreciate your help and support during the game development, and your opinion matters for us greatly.
Stay tuned for upcoming updates, and be sure to follow us and add the game to your wishlist!
