I'm quickly getting the bad news out of the way, we sadly won't be able to hit our Q2 release date goal, so I've delayed it to Q3. But fear not, we are on track with the game itself to be feature complete by the end of the month.
One of the reasons for the delay is to give ourselves a bit of time to test/fine-tune the full game with all of its features together, (plus to implement Steam achievements and support cloud saves). The other is that I want to give enough time for reviewers to try out the game, to try and build a bit of momentum ahead of our release.
Now with this out of the way, I can show you our progress since our Steam Next Fest demo:
Magic system is fully implemented
All of the spells in the game have been implemented. Check out some of the flashier ones:
To combat the strength of these spells, we introduced a magic resistance statistic that gives damage reduction against damaging spells and a percentage chance to miss against debuffs. Higher-tier lighter armors will be better in this regard than their heavier counterparts.
Of course, the resistance will be able to learn these spells as well, for a considerable amount of etherglow and research time investment! The order in which the resistance can research the 3 magic schools is randomized per campaign, increasing variety.
New rogue school
Speaking of variety, we have implemented a new regular school called rogue that focuses on a new condition called concealed.
Concealed units are only targetable by enemy units that started their turn next to them, making this a very strong defensive condition, especially against ranged foes. But it doesn't help against area of effect skills, plus the unit automatically loses it at the start of the round if inside an enemy line of sight.
This of course, means the Dark Elves have been reworked to incorporate this school, making them able to properly sneak around the battlefield! Plus, we now have enough school types to give every region on the campaign map two schools instead of one.
Invader base assault
Invader bases are no longer immune to the resistance. It is now possible to learn how to assault these bases and take the fight to the enemy's turf. The resistance's goal in these missions is to quickly find and turn off the defense systems, then assassinate the "pilot" of these structures. Not to mention, exploring these strange structures from the inside could give a glimpse of what is happening behind the scenes.
Closing thoughts
So that's it for today's devlog! We are getting very close to finishing this project, we just need a little bit of extra time to be able to deliver in a way we intended. Hopefully, the next time you hear from us will be the announcement of our exact release date, with a new final trailer! If you have any questions, feel free to join our Discord here.
Demo 1.5.4 patch note
This is a small patch, addressing the feedback we have received so far on the demo.
Highlighted the supply chests for better visibility.
Fixed a bug that prevented the retrieval of a supply chest at the start of the round if there was a successful retrieval in the previous round.
Units now correctly face the supply chest when they start the chest retrieving process.
Gave a hint where the player can find the rebel base in the objective description.
Slightly changed the font to make + and - more distinct.
Demo 1.5.3 patch note
This small update fixes bugs that have been found since the previous patch.
Fixed displaced animation for raising redeemed.
Fixed a visual bug that if a character ends their turn when they have remaining action points but no skill to use, they still had outlines like an unactivated character.
Fixed that constrained units couldn't be helped by allies that moved next to them after being constrained (for example by web).
Fixed passive AI enemies for 1 turn when the player is the one that moves into their sight range while they were not active.
Corrected the colors of the sand on the desert map to properly blend together.
No longer automatically ending turn when a character has zero stamina, rather only if the unit has no skills to activate. This fixes the Ork Shaman who couldn't use their tireless rage skill with 0 stamina.
The race of the recruits generated now only depends on which regions the player has bases in rather than requiring training centers. This should increase the different types of portaits used in general.
Demo 1.5.2 patch note
New features:
Finished acid rain animation:
Finished adding dynamic lighting for all spells.
Spells no longer cause blood on target where it does not make sense.
Added wall ruins for destroyed walls.
As the temperate map was the first map created, it has received a bit of a visual rework to be more on par with the rest of the maps.
Made the last base attack mission slightly easier as only the rank 4 army will conduct it instead of the hardest rank 5.
Bugfixes:
Fixed the bug that caused the player's last unit to not be able to use its second action in specific situations.
Fixed missing hammer for dwarf soldiers.
Fixed that the acid rain skill could destroy cave walls in the rebel base.
Rephrased a few descriptions for clarity.
Demo 1.5.1 hotfix
Hello everyone!
This is a small patch mainly about fixing a few bugs:
Fixed a crash that happened if the player started the game by loading a save file and then winning a mission.
Fixed a movement bug, in that some player unit couldn't move even though it still had an action point to do so.
Added more wear and tear to the temperate map in general, as it felt a bit too clean.
Demo 1.5.0 patch note, preparation for Steam Next Fest
Hello everyone!
I'm happy to announce a very big update for the demo, in preparation for Steam Next Fest! This is a preliminary version, to iron out the bugs and to listen to your feedback about it before the fest begins.
The general thought process behind the changes is to accelerate the player's progress toward fun things and to provide more interesting decisions for the player. Some fundamental systems have been changed as well, so sadly saves from the older demo's will not be fully compatible with the version.
Major changes:
Official support for 2k resolutions. While the game was made aimed at a maximum 1080p resolution, over time more and more people have transitioned to 2k and 4k monitors, since the inception of this project. We don't have access to a 2k monitor so would love to hear some feedback if everything is working correctly or not. For 4k monitors, the 1080p is perfect for upscaling to 4k, so the game defaults to that resolution instead.
Expanded magic system with new enemies. All 3 enemy race got their spellcasters.
Reworked initiative system. In the new system, every turn the player will receive 6 command points, that can be spent to activate units. The unit's initiative is the cost of its activation. In layman's terms, the player can activate more faster units or fewer slower ones. This system is a lot more intuitive for players coming from games like X-COM, while still retaining the importance of the speed of the units.
Added a new marksman school, dedicated to improving ranged attacks.
Reworked escort missions to give higher emphasis on scrying before starting the mission. Now there will be 2 valid escape tiles for the VIP and the player will need to decide which one he/she will use.
Expanded the lighting system to add dynamic lights to various skill effects like teleport.
Weapons are no longer locked to regions, the starting region only defines the starting equipment. This has enabled me to rebalance the weapons to be more unique, as they will always be available for the player to buy.
Injury times have been rebalanced. Melee units without a shield were overly penalized with a long recovery timer for small injuries. Now, only if a unit takes more than half of its health in damage will it have longer recovery times than the default teleport sickness.
Every unit will get a starter school in their first level up, and the player can only choose a new skill from that school. Further level-ups are not affected. This makes it easier for newer players to learn about the available schools in smaller increments. Plus makes players try out skills they would otherwise not have.
The final mission arrives a month earlier than previously, in correspondence that we have made progress faster in general.
Of course, a lot of bug fixes have happened as well, and I'm planning to do another pass on the AI of the enemies till the start of the festival.
So that's it for today! As always, looking forward to hearing your feedback, which you can share in the forums or our Discord here!
Devlog #28 New enemies and the plan for next year
Hello everyone!
I know that we have been a bit quiet in the past few months, but fear not, the reason was that we were climbing the content mountain that we want to be included in the full game! And I'm happy to say that we started to see the top of the mountain, so we are generally on track for a release in the first half of next year! Check out a few of the new enemy types that will be included in the full game:
At the start of the next year, we plan to enter the next Steam Next Fest, with an updated demo. Some of the bigger changes that are coming for it:
Placeholder leader enemies have been replaced by their spellcasting variant.
Added a new Marksman school, dedicated to skills that improve the ranged capabilities of the unit.
Reworked headquarter chooser screen. Now regional equipment only affects the starting equipment of the units.
Completely rebalanced progression, generally speeding up the player's progress.
Reworked escort missions to give higher emphasis on scrying before starting the mission. Now there will be 2 valid escape tiles for the VIP and the player will need to decide which one he/she will use.
Taking into account our preparation for the Steam Next Fest, I have modified our planned release date to Q2 2025. This will give us some time to integrate the feedback we receive from it into the full game.
So that's it for today's devlog! The next year is going to be a very exciting one for sure! If you have any questions, feel free to join our Discord channel here.
Demo 1.4.14 patch note
Hello everyone!
Another small patch that fixes a few bugs that have been found in the demo:
- Conditions visuals now correctly move with the unit rather than teleporting after it. - Bloodrage visuals get properly updated when counters are gained or lost. - Tireless rage now correctly removes 1 counter when used.
Demo 1.4.13 patch note
Hello everyone!
This is a very small patch that includes the fix for the occasional hangup that could happen when the map generator is generating the reworked Assassinate mission type, plus updated the poisoned condition text to reflect how it works correctly.
Demo 1.4.12 patch note
Hello everyone!
Another small patch to fix another crash that has been found, and to slightly tweak the early game balance of the game:
Fixed a crash in the campaign map if clicked on a city or army while being fully zoomed in.
Increased the dust gains across the board to make it easier to research and use the advanced weapons and armor.
Readded the shielded redeemed to the enemy roster to push the harder enemies up in the line. This should delay the more challenging enemies a bit, to give the player more time to prepare.
Modified the mission location algorithm so the enemy does not focus on territories that are the hardest for them (thus not starting to attack the player's starting region in the first month).
Reduced the enemy count by 1 across the board, to compensate for the above changes that led to the first mission being a bit harder most of the time than before.
