Oraxum Trials cover
Oraxum Trials screenshot
Steam
Genre: Strategy, Indie

Oraxum Trials

Winding Down Development on Oraxum Trials
Hey players,

I’m coming up on three years in my journey of making Oraxum Trials. I’ve been doing gamedev as a hobby for around a decade now but this was my first “real” game that I actually released and followed though all the way.

In developing this game I’ve learned so much and grown as a game designer and programmer, but have also made every mistake possible regarding scope creep, marketing, balance, outsourcing, releasing game-breaking production bugs, etc, and at this point the code is kind of a mess of technical debt and bad architecture decisions I made 2 years ago.

Since starting Oraxum Trials I’ve had a baby, bought a house, changed jobs, survived a global pandemic (so far), and have come to a place where it’s time for me to refocus my priorities. The mental load of working in software engineering during the day and maintaining a game in the evenings takes its toll and I end up taking weeks off of the game to avoid burnout.

I’m not quitting completely and will continue to release bug/balance updates as necessary, but am going to take a long break before starting on my next project. I’ve been toying with getting back into music production or writing but I’m not totally sure what’s next.

Thanks to everyone who has spent their time playing Oraxum Trials, and I hope to see you again in the future.

Prajna

Version 0.11.2

Fixed



  • Exchange synergy multiplier wasn't applying to inlet/outlet tiles
  • Made command line arguments case-insensitive

Version 0.11.1

Added



  • Re-added "Crystal Instability" (now only boosts corruption)

Changed



  • Nerfed multiplier for "Corruption Value" talent

Fixed



  • Sliding buttons moving out of place when switching resolutions

Version 0.11
Hello, this update represents the most significant changes in Oraxum Trials since going onto Steam. I have been dissatisfied with the amount of active play required to manage selling energy and buffing auto-sell mechanics several times didn’t solve the problem. Instead, I decided to go in a different direction and have crystals generate money directly, and also reworked energy to be used for an entirely new game mechanic of casting spells. You no longer have to worry about “wasting” energy because all crystal capacity is converted directly into money, and the addition of spells gives new options for active players. For idle players there is a new talent which boosts your board production based on how long your energy bar has been full.

Due to the extensive changes in mechanics and balance I would highly recommend doing a hard reset to start a new game (check the Steam forum for instructions). The next minor updates will be focused on more balance and progression adjustments, and I have plans to add more Spell stuff.

Added



  • Crystals now generate Almedite (money) directly
  • Spell casting (3 spells currently, more coming)
  • "Idle Boost" talent
  • "Infinity" talents
  • "Disable menu animation" setting
  • "Disable Autobuys on prestige" setting (on by default)
  • "?" button on most panels which opens the relevant help entry

Changed



  • Energy is now used to cast spells instead of being sold
  • Energy bar shows gain amount while full
  • Increased Energy Reservoir base stats
  • Pneuma is now based on money+corruption instead of energy+corruption
  • Acclimation base bonus is now 1%
  • Sell all tiles is now Control + Right Click
  • Redid/added some tutorials
  • Cost/formula balancing
  • SFX/Music options are now sliders
  • Misc UI tweaks

Removed



  • Energy selling/auto-selling and related upgrades & talents
  • "Crystal Instability" talent
  • "Auto Refreshment" talents (replaced by "Infinity" talents)

Fixed



  • Disable particles option wasn't disabling all particles
  • Super Boost display amount
  • Crystal triggers/tooltips being out of position when changing between regular/widescreen resolutions
  • An issue where mission/story state was going out of sync when loading/importing game
  • Misc small bugs

Versions 0.10.10-0.10.11

Added



  • Shift+Right click to sell all tiles
  • "Unplayed Missions" prompt when story content remaining

Changed



  • Time Warp now only multiplies crystal energy production (& auto-sell amount)

Fixed



  • Blueprint slots talent reset bug
  • Adjustments to help prevent board explosions from lag spikes
  • Remove test/unfinished talent

Version 0.10.9

Fixed



  • Prestige/tile cache bug

Version 0.10.8
Hello, this is just a small performance/bugfix update but more late game balancing and quality-of-life features are coming! Thanks for your patience.

Fixed



  • Super tile money exploit
  • Auto replace not working when Corruption over 100%
  • Main menu was broken when importing after hard reset
  • More performance tweaks

Version 0.10.7

Added


Changed



  • Enable Casual Mode by default (doesn't affect existing games)
  • Don't show cracked tiles until close to overload

Fixed



  • Blueprints weren't scaling super tile costs
  • Disable vibration for trap tiles
  • Board updates canceling input/breaking hotkeys

Version 0.10.6

Added



  • Export/Import buttons in main menu
  • Select/Clear all buttons for blueprint create

Changed



  • Export/Import blueprint now uses files instead of clipboard

Fixed



  • Performance tweaking
  • Made mission 1.4 use total upgrade count

Version 0.10.2

Fixed



  • Pause was broken
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