The demo-version of Spire of Sorcery got updated to version 196.
Changes:
Protection spell (levels 1-2-3) updated
Damage spell (levels 2-3) updated
Fire, Frost spells updated (levels 2-3)
Drag and drop, as well as click and click, now both work in Character Profile/Inventory and during encounters for moving elements to spell formulas
events with Gigglers (seasoned, offspring, adult) are now updated: all actions are now multi-turn, as we get ready to add indication of intended target; all creatures are now easier to destroy, as we're looking at less grind and more impact; Giggler Offspring now use new "power" tokens (see below)
the "Victory!" notification now has a new visual, thanks to our concept artist
"Spell boost" mood trait changed, and now uses new "power" tokens
There's a new token in the game: "power", it duplicates the next token issued by its owner; it started as a way to better expose "Spell boost" trait and in the end we used it with the opponents, too
the game now starts faster as we optimised loading
the game had a bug with windowed mode, this is now fixed
when the game crashes ("NullRef"), it now shows a notification window recommending a restart
when opening a Spellbook, the character who opens it is now highlighted, as we prepare to transition to individual Spellbooks which will differ from mage to mage
you can now scroll map by moving the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen (hurray!)
all new maps are now validated for completion, i.e. you should not experience any maps when important quest locations are inaccessible due to mountains
Due to significant changes, saved games from the earlier versions are not compatible with version 196. Sorry about that!
Have a great week, everyone, and thanks for all the feedback! The summary of the results from the Steam Next Fest lads on Wednesday this week.
/ Team CO
Spire of Sorcery is a part of Steam Next Fest!
The playable demo of Spire of Sorcery is available for everyone to try during Steam Next Fest, starting on June 16, 2021. To us and to many other development teams, participation in the Fest feels like preparing for E3 and Gamescom at the same time – with the excitement of PAX and EGX thrown on top.
We hope that everyone gets to discover a whole bunch of great new games!
Spire of Sorcery is a party RPG with turn-based exploration and battles that we develop for a few years, and will release into Early Access in just a few months, this autumn.
You can eat mushrooms that change your character's hair color!
You can cook and concoct, mixing resources and discovering recipes!
You can set forests on fire, blind opponents with lightnings, dissolve locks with acid and capture demons to turn them into a useful alchemic substance.
And all throughout the game, you will cast spells, as you play for a party of runaway mages.
When the time came to write the official description of the game, we of course gave some official definitions: it’s turn-based and hex-based; characters have personal stats and traits; the process mixes encounters and exploration, plus some deck-building.
But we don’t really see the game through this lens when we create it. Instead, we focus on the fun stuff that’s in the game: the fears and dreams of every character, their eating habits and their moral traits; what happens when someone consumes giggler eggs, or locust buds; how you can lure shadows under the raincloud and then paralyse them; and how you can get clothing from the corpses and deck-building books from abandoned palaces
Below you will find the FAQ that we complied to explain the basics of the game. On one hand, we urge you to read it at some point. On another, maybe just press PLAY DEMO and see how it feels! =)
Enjoy the festival – play as much as you can!
Spire of Sorcery – FAQ
What is Spire of Sorcery?
Spire of Sorcery is a game about a party of runaway mages. The game is set in the fantasy post-apocalyptic world of Rund, where possessing the magic talent is a crime.
What genre is Spire of Sorcery?
Spire of Sorcery is a party RPG with turn-based exploration and battles.
When is Spire of Sorcery going to be released?
We plan to enter Early Access on Steam in the autumn of 2021. We’re currently in beta, with weekly build updates for those who play the beta.
Spire of Sorcery was first announced in 2017. What happened?
Once we created the word of Rund, we tried a different kind of gameplay – but then decided not to pursue it, as it wasn't as fun as we hoped it would be. We’ve spent the last year developing the current version of the game – turned-based party RPG – which represents our best effort and which we ourselves play every day. You can read this Steam announcement for more details about the transition and the story of the project.
How replayable is Spire of Sorcery?
We have the modding at the heart of our philosophy, so be assured that the game will have accessible editing tools once it’s finished. But even ahead of that, we’ve built in enough flexibility in the world-generation algorithms to make each campaign different from another. Sometimes this means you’ll have a very easy time completing the chapter, and sometimes this means you’ll have a real challenge.
Are you planning to translate Spire of Sorcery into a specific language?
We currently support English, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, French and German languages. Outside of the first two, all the languages experience about 2-3 weeks of delay between when new content shows up in the build, and when it becomes available in a specific language – our translators do their best to keep the pace, but such delays are unavoidable if you want to have a high-quality translation and not a “rush job”. We currently do not have plans to support other languages, but this may change due to sales into specific regions. We also plan to allow any localisations that the community wants to make, via Steam Workshop.
How will the final version differ from the demo?
The Early Access version of the game, when it releases, will have a few more challenging chapters. The full version of the game, when it becomes available, will feature the complete story of the mages – from their escape from the Sanctuary to their arrival in the Distorted Lands. More content and more features – for sure. We try not to get ahead of ourselves, and we design the game step by step. While the Early Access version of the game is expected to ship in the autumn of 2021, the full version is going to ship not earlier than the end of 2022, as we plan to add a bunch of fun content, and it takes time to create.
How long does it take to complete the game?
Spire of Sorcery is based on a campaign, which consists of chapters. Each chapter (outside of the tutorial) takes about 1 hour to complete. The Early Access version of the game will have between 2 and 4 such chapters, and the full version of the game will have between 10 and 15 such chapters – plus whatever side chapters we’ll add, along the way.
In our previous game, we have quite a lot of players who spent 1,000+ hours in the game, and we’re really happy for them – it is also a proof that we can make engaging games. But in general, we think that any game should take no more than 10-12 hours to play through, and then if you like, you can replay it in a different fashion. But as parents with children, we don’t really support the idea of “you must spend 40-60 hours in the game to see the end of it” concept.
Multiplayer?
Our previous game is an online digital board game, so naturally we’re tempted to try adding a sever mode to Spire of Sorcery, too. But for now, we have no plans that would be set in stone. Most likely, we’ll try to create some sort of an “online challenge” mode, where players can compete in finishing a custom chapter that we’ll create just for this purpose. But we have to first enter the Early Access mode, and finish the backbone of the game, before we can start with such experiments. Much also depends on how the community evolves.
I don’t understand how the game works. Where can I find the explanation?
Watch this tutorial video –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2pQK27o8e8
– or complete the first 4 tutorial chapters in the campaign.
We’re always happy to get feedback! The Discord server and the Steam forums are the best places to share it with us.
What is NOT in the current demo, but will be a part of the game?
We’ve got a few things in development that are going to happen, because we’ve tested them and they seem to produce fun effects:
travel magic
lots of moral choice stories
adventures (simplified on-the-spot quests)
personal relationships between party members
non-human party companions
the Spire, and its many upgrades
a system of curses to compliment the system of injuries and diseases
more creatures, more biomes, more weather effects, and more mechanics in general
I don’t like this game. I think you should develop something else!
Just let it go, dude! We’re not going to be able to develop a game that pleases everyone (and their mother). Our small team is doing the best that we can to deliver an original, fun game with lots of content. It’s unavoidable that some players won’t like what we do. Please don’t hate it, just find a game that you like more – and support it and its creators! Let peace, love and cool games prevail.
I like this game! How can I help?
The most important thing for us is your feedback, and your comments. What drives us is the understanding that we make our players happy. Please wishlist the game, tell us about the parts that you love – and the parts that you find confusing – and we’ll do our damnedest best to improve the experience! We’re a team of 7, which is not a lot, and we’re only human, but with the motivation, and the goodwill of the community, we can move mountains!
Demo arrives on June 16
[previewyoutube="h2pQK27o8e8;full"]
We're very excited to report that a demo of Spire of Sorcery – including the campaign mode! – will be available for your playing pleasure from June 16, as a part of Steam Next Fest.
The demo supports English, Japanese, Russian, Korean, German, French and Simplified Chinese languages. To prepare for it, we recorded a new tutorial that explains the basics of the most up-to-date version (link above).
See you very, very soon!
V193: Driving forces, Engage/Examine options and new looks for two gigglers!
21ST CONSECUTIVE WEEKLY UPDATE!
This week's update to version 193 is the 21st consecutive weekly update that we shipped since we got back to regular updates back in December. Sometimes we're late with recording the video, or typing up the notes, but we've never skipped a week over the last 5 months – and that's saying something about our commitment to this game!
MULTIPLE MAPS
With Steam Next Fest around the corner now, we spent the week on implementing the campaign mode (which features multiple maps; the demo should ship with a few introductory, simple chapters ahead of the current Prologue). The campaign mode is not finished yet, we'll continue with it next week.
STEAM NEXT FEST
From June 16 through June 22, Spire of Sorcery's playable demo will be available as a part of Steam Next Fest. This means that everyone will be able to try the current version out, and praise or blame us accordingly. Exciting times!
GIGGLERS GOT FINAL VISUALS!
We used to have 3 different types of gigglers, but only 1 of them – the adult creature – had a proper visual, the other 2 were sketches. Now we've finished the whole set, and the new visuals are in the game. Here's the seasoned giggler and the giggler offspring in their full glory –
INTRODUCING: "DRIVING FORCE"
The campaign of the game is structured around score points and we have 3 different types of scores:
Revenge
Justice and mercy
Power and knowledge
Score points are received during events, and are then spent on the upgrades at the Spire.
Each character now received a corresponding "driving force" which determines the path that they pursue in life. If your party makes decisions that align with the character's driving force... they will be happier to be with you.
In this version, you can spot the driving forces in the initial character mulligan as well as in character sheets. More exposure is coming with the moral choice stories, which we'll work on next week.
This character's driving force is "Power and knowledge" (check the banner in the top left corner) –
His life path is "Justice and mercy" –
And this guy's hell-bent on revenge –
"EXAMINE" FEATURE FOR PASSIVE OBJECTS
You can now "examine" passive objects (e.g. emptied barrows, deactivated nodes, etc.) and get a bit more information about what they are. This is us getting ready to introduce into the game signposts, artefacts and other objects that you cannot engage with, but which carry lore or quest information.
"EXPLORE" FEATURE FOR ENCOUNTERS THAT ARE NOT AGGRESSIVE
Earlier, when you stepped into a hex that contained a non-aggressive encounter such as locked chest or a dead body, the event would auto-start. Now we display a menu that allows to skip the event and just remain in the hex (for example, maybe you're in a bad shape and don't want to jump into another challenge right now). A small thing, but a big improvement in user experience!
UPDATED CHARACTER CARD FOR CONCOCTING AND COOKING
Another small quality of life improvement is the updated card of the appointed alchemist or cook, which now displays Endurance/Fatigue as well as puts number of items to be produced and the expected cost in Fatigue right next to each other. Coming up next: a better way to choose the alchemist or cook. We know there's the potential to make it more convenient, and we'll improve this.
UPDATED DISCOVERY RULES
We haven't gotten around updating the Encyclopaedia properly, but we fixed something else: now, whenever you own an item, you immediately know its effects! Earlier, you had to try to consume or use it once, to uncover these. We thought it wasn't too fun with rare items – to craft, say, a valuable bomb only to consume it in order to discover its cosmetic effect. And it was even more of a case with the stat-improving substances!
HUNGER NOTIFICATIONS ARE IN!
Earlier, we issued no notifications when the party began to experience hunger (or starve). Now there's 3 notifications: 1 day prior to hunger, on the day when the party goes hungry and on the day when the party becomes to starve.
CHANGE IN DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
Earlier, when characters consumed items whose toxicity exceeded their digestive system, the characters would get 1 token of poisoning. We changed this to getting 1 token of Infection, which is a more versatile penalty.
WHAT'S NEXT?
We've got barely 3 weeks until Steam Next Fest, so we're going to prioritise the most essential features for the next few builds.
There's over 60.000 players who currently have Spire of Sorcery on their wishlists and we'll try our best not to disappoint them!
Campaign map with several maps, easier introductory chapters and an updated Rulebook are high on our list. Also, next week you will see 2 more final visuals for the creatures: the Rageful shadow and the Sorrowful shadow are nearly done.
See you next Friday!
V192: Updated core mechanics, new VFX/SFX – 4 weeks to Steam Next Fest!
With a month left until Steam Next Fest, we started working on the campaign and the first introductory chapters. We currently aim to have 5 chapters in the demo, with the first 4 introducing the basics and the 5th being an updated version of the current Prologue. In this week's update, as well as with the next week's, you'll see a bunch of design adjustments happening all at once as we dust off design notes taken during the last few weeks and roll them into the build. There's also a steady stream of new visuals and sound effects. Buckle up!
STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN CORE MECHANICS
The biggest changes from this week's update:
Damage tokens are no longer removed at the end of the encounter, but remain with the characters.
When Damage tokens exceed character's Health stat, the character doesn't die but rather gets a new injury; injuries are now all permanent, and can only be treated at the Spire.
When Fatigue tokens exceed character's Endurance stat, the stat is reset while 3 Damage tokens are issued at once.
Fear tokens are no longer removed at the end of the encounter, but remain with the characters.
When Fear tokens exceed character's Courage stat, the character gets -20 mood (and retreats if this is in encounter).
SMALLER CHANGES IN MECHANICS
Damage token used to issue extra Fear if owner already had Fear, this is now removed.
Accumulated acid no longer rolls dice to issue "Acid burns" at the end of encounter.
1 Damage token that comes through, will remove 1 Restoration token if the target had any.
Restoration tokens no longer remove Damage at the end of the encounter, but rather 3 Restoration tokens at the start of the turn remove 1 Damage token.
CHANGES IN SUBSTANCES, COOKING & CONCOCTING
Bloodplaster, which used to remove one injury, now removes 3 Damage tokens
Throatburner now removes 3 fear tokens, in addition to the other effects
The base cost of cooking and concocting is now 2 Fatigue (was: 3)
CHANGES IN THE MAP OF PROLOGUE
The map changed size, it is now more narrow
There are fewer aggressive creatures seeded in the initial opponent parties
There are no aggressive parties seeded in the immediate area at the start of the chapter
The chapter starts with 3 characters (was: 5)
2 additional characters are now available through activating the Anomaly objects
VISUAL UPDATES
Reflection, Protection, Blindness and a few other tokens got their own dedicated animations that play when a target receives the token.
There's a good dozen of new sound effects, mostly for consuming specific items
Several locations that can be destroyed during encounter (e.g. Giggler Haunt, Abandoned Palace, Anomaly) now have their "destroyed" versions which are shown on the map after the successful encounter (was: we showed the same object, whether it was active or no longer active)
WHAT'S NEXT?
Next week, we'll ship updated visual assets for a few creatures (our artists worked on them this week). We also did preparatory work on the upcoming updates to Rule book, Lore book and Discovery book (we're splitting the Encyclopaedia into these three, for better focus). And we have a number of event changes that we'll roll in, as one package – from what you can do with specific objects and creatures to how much loot (and what sort of loot) do you get from each type of encounter. All eyes are on the Steam Next Fest now – we're doing our best to prepare the game for new players to try!
V191: Token animations, full set of cooked food visuals and portrait changes
We had a really productive week and managed to ship a whole lot of improvements across every part of the game: from updated mechanics to new illustrations and new sound effects, and to changes in core user interface.
[previewyoutube="BJdmphKD6EM;full"]
PREVIEW KEY INFORMATION ABOUT TARGET IN A TOOLTIP
Earlier, to understand what you can do with an object (e.g. Abandoned Palace) or an opponent (e.g. Sorrowful shadow), you had to click with the right mouse button to access Encyclopaedia – while the object/opponent themselves had no tooltips. Now, every object in encounter has a tooltip that details what can be done with it and what are the expected consequences:
In the example above, you can see that 3 Dispell tokens will lead to destruction of the spitting demon, as well as loot; while 6 Frost or 2 Damage will result in destruction only (the option to see full details by clicking right mouse button still remains).
MORE TOKENS NOW HAVE ANIMATIONS IN THE ENCOUNTER
A few versions ago, we started to introduce token-specific animations, to make it easier to understand when a token comes through to the target. By now, we already have draft or finished animations for nearly ten tokens. Here's how Fire, Flash and Damage look in 191:
TOKEN MECHANICS NOW SHOWN AS LINES ABOVE TARGETS
A major transition that we did in this week's version is replacing token mechanics shown as animations (e.g. two tokens clash, a new token flies out) with token mechanics shown as lines above the target. It speeds up the process, and mirrors the game log (which remains accessible for anyone who wants to check "what happened" step by step):
In the example above, you can see Fire converting Acid into additional Fire. Earlier, we would display the conversion as animation over the target, and only then issue the resulting Fire. Now we immediately issue Fire, while logging the conversion in the line above the target.
ALL COOKED FOOD ITEMS NOW HAVE THEIR OWN VISUALS
Whether you're cooking skewers of slugs with wild berries or locust balls with a coating of slime, we now have the visuals to match your recipe:
CHANGES IN VISUAL EFFECTS FROM CONSUMPTION
We re-worked most of the visual effects from consuming items. As before, when you consume something which is meant to be consumed – such as "Refreshing brew" – you get just the desired effect, but when you consume something which is not meant to be consumed as its main purpose – such as natural resources, or raw food resources – your characters will experience a visual change in their portrait.
See if you can find a way to turn your character's hair orange, or green; give them an eye patch; or grow a truly commander's moustache!
MINOR (OR NOT?) CHANGES IN MECHANICS
Earlier, default cost of concocting and cooking was 4 Fatigue. Now it is 3 Fatigue.
Also, at the start of each new day, every character now loses 1 Fatigue – this is a temporary solution while we prepare to roll a new feature, called "Campfire" (it's coming once we finish with Steam Next Fest).
WHAT'S NEXT?
Our plan for version 192 revolves around the changes in map, and in events: as we're nearing the public demo date, we want to make the chapter that will be available in the demo a bit less punishing, and a bit easier to understand. This will involve a number of experiments that we'll run during the coming week.
Have fun, and see you next Friday!
V190: Cooking pot, personal traits, food resources
Last week, we worked on version 189 and shipped it on Friday night – too late to record a feature review or post a Steam update. Sorry about that! Things happen. In today's update, we cover both version 189 and version 190 (released today).
CONCEPT
Following up on the features that we introduced in the last week's version (sustenance reserve, hunger and starvation; and cooked food items), we bring in a number of awesome things: food resources, cooking pot, ten recipes for cooked food and – finally! – a whole bunch of fully functional personal traits. Let's jump into the details –>
SUSTENANCE POINTS, PARTY PANEL & COOKED FOOD
As a recap from the last week, the party now has a sustenance level that is replenished by consuming cooked food. The current state is displayed in the travel mode, with a detailed tooltip:
At the start of each day, every party member consumes 2 sustenance points (by default – traits and diseases may affect this). When the reserve goes below zero, the party enters the hunger zone (-5 to mood of every character, every day), and when the reserve gets below 50, the party begins to starve (-10 to mood of every character, every day).
To replenish sustenance points, the party needs to consume cooked food, which can be done via party profile:
There are 3 cooked food items which cannot be produced, but can only be found as a part of the event loot:
Hardtack (horrible taste, but good sustenance);
Soldier's ration (the taste is pretty crappy, but not as bad as that of the hardtack);
Traveller's ration (the taste is neither good nor bad; it's the best that one can have, of the long-lasting food items)
FOOD RESOURCES
A new feature that we shipped today: food resources.
They are like natural resources –
seeded across the maps
re-spawned according to their own rules
collected simply by stepping on them
Food resources are used in cooking, and result in cooked food.
Currently, we have 4 different food resources, related to biomes:
Wetlands: slugs and locust buds
Forest: gifts of nature and gnawed carcasses
As you can see, a party of mages is not really great at hunting or fishing. As any library-dwelling folk, they can barely pick up what's left by others 😜.
CHANGES IN HOW CONCOCTING WORKS
Before we get to cooking, let's first talk about the changes we've done with concocting:
now you need to appoint an alchemist to concoct anything
every action of concocting costs 4 fatigue to the alchemist (default, traits may change this)
every action of concocting results in 1 substance, but some traits may change this to 2
depending on the personal traits, concocting may improve or worsen the alchemist's mood
INTRODUCING: COOKING!
Finally, finally, finally: the cooking is in the game!
To cook, you need 2 ingredients, both of which must be food resources. But unlike concocting, they can be the same thing.
there's currently 10 recipes for cooking food in the game
generally, taste depends on ingredients
generally, using ingredients from different biomes results in cooked food that has higher sustenance
than the food cooked from ingredients belonging to the same biome
PERSONAL TRAITS
This is by far the most important feature that we ship today: now, different characters respond differently to the same situations –>
some are spooked by ghosts
some are curious about the dead
some enjoy cooking, and get a mood boost from it
some hate concocting, or earn extra fatigue when engaged in it
some won't mind retreating from any encounter
some take pleasure in the destruction of their opponent
some hate to see others die
etc etc etc
Back in 2020, we agreed that making different characters respond differently to the same situation was at the heart of the game – and finally it's here!
WHAT'S NEXT?
With a bit over a month left until Steam Next Fest, we've got 2 big issues to chase: the encounter flow – making it faster, but also logging everything in the chronicle – and the campaign screen, which places the specific map (e.g. Prologue) in the context of the whole campaign. We're going to start working on those next week.
Have a great weekend!
V188: Mood, mood traits, taste, new tokens & memory rings!
Last week, very late on Friday, we shipped the update to version 187 – but had no time to post the proper release notes; this announcement covers both what changed then, and what changes with today's update to version 188.
And today's update brings some big changes: the mood mechanics is in, including all the mood traits; all resources and substances items received their "tastiness" values, which affects the mood of those who consuming them; Memory is now reflected with precise number of rings on the hands of the caster, spellcasting got its first animated effect, and there's a number of new sound effects.
Last but not least, nearly every alchemic substance had its effects revised, and the game received 4 new types of tokens as well as the first alchemic items that produce results immediately when used during encounters. Have fun exploring the new version!
[previewyoutube="zKWOCBJUiCY;full"]
MOOD MECHANIC IS IN!
The mood mechanic is in, replacing earlier constructs of "euphoria" and "stress" that we classified as "lasting effects".
How does the mood work?
every character has their current mood, which is static
certain events (retreat or consumption of substances) changes the mood
the neutral mood is between -15 and 15, while the overall limits are set at -100 and 100
each character has their own unique set of mood traits, positive and negative, which kick in in different mood states
The current mood of each party member is reflected on their portraits, top-left corners –
With the tooltips reflecting the name of the current state of mood, and the resulting mood trait –
The description of how the specific mood trait works in all the different states of mood is shown as a tooltip in the character's profile –
While the range of each mood state is displayed as a tooltip over that state's icon, including the mood trait effect that kicks in:
This mechanics is a big thing for us, because it opens up a whole range of connections with cooked food (coming), personal traits (coming) and relationships (also coming!).
EVERY ITEM THAT CAN BE CONSUMED, RECEIVED A TASTINESS VALUE
You might remember that characters complain about certain items having a good or a bad taste – and this is also reflected in the corresponding sound effects. Well, we gave the taste a mechanic of its own now!
You will see the values next to the values of toxicity of each item:
How does it work: whenever a character consumes something with the value of N, their mood changes by N. So drinking a bottle of Throatburner (tastiness: 15) will give you +15 on the mood scale, while eating a giggler egg (tastiness: -5) will result in -5 on the mood scale.
STRESS AND EUPHORIA AS LASTING EFFECTS ARE NOW REPLACED WITH MOOD CHANGES
In all the cases where we used "stress" and "euphoria" as lasting effects (such as retreat, victory over a stronger opponent or conversion of fear tokens at the end of the encounter), we now use changes in character's mood. Here, for example, you can see that forced retreat now results in -5 to the mood of everyone who retreats –
CHARACTER'S MEMORY IS NOW REFLECTED IN THEIR HAND RINGS
For a while now, we wanted to add this cool little feature: now, character's memory stat (which determines the spells that are accessible) is additionally reflected in the hand rings that the character wears. Here, you can see that one character has memory 4, matched by 4 rings, while another has 6 and therefore wears 2 extra rings.
ANIMATED SPELLCASTING
Finally, we found some time to add a bit of "wow" to the process of spellcasting: now there's a ball of magic leaving the hands of the spellcaster, as the casting begins –
And a bolt of magic that hits the target before the tokens are dealt –
UPDATED SELECTION OF HEX
We're getting ready to update the window that shows what's in a hex (you can call it up with right-mouse button), and the first step was getting rid of the annoying yellow sci-fi selection style :). Now, when you select a hex to look up its info, it's highlighted in blue, with a bit of animation around it –
NEW TOKENS AND CHANGES IN ALCHEMIC SUBSTANCES
We're overhauled the whole range of alchemic substances. The main changes are as follows:
there are no longer any substances that have different effects in encounter (e.g. starting a fire) and in travel mode (e.g. giving immunity from fire); we did not like the complications in user interface and discovery that resulted from this approach.
we removed "immunity" as an effect, because it was connected to a timer (10 days, 15 days, etc.) and managing time in this sense – "I should attack spitters while I'm immune to their tokens" – wasn't really fun.
in general, we removed the timer-based effects from all substances (such as "euphoria for X days"). there is now a new group of substances that provide protection during encounter, by issuing specific tokens – and there are new tokens: protection from frost, protection from fire, protection from fear and protection from blindness. We find this to be a better solution than timer-based immunity.
we changed the effects of items which created short-lasting environmental effects, and now allow certain alchemic substances to have the immediate effect; for example, when you use "Captive spitters", it will no longe create an environmental effect, but rather it now immediately deals damage to the opponents.
Some of these changes still require an update to the user interface, which we'll look at in version 189.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Personal traits and cooking are up next, while we continue to fine-tune the interface. And then we're on to building a real campaign – with the map of the world, and a sequence of chapters. But first, some rest and sleep over the weekend =D.
Have fun, peoples!
V186: New mechanics, better-looking Spellbook, updated main theme
Dear community:
We shipped version 186 last week, on Friday, but it was already too late to post the release notes here. And over the weekend we spotted a few bugs in the new features, thus instead of posting the notes for version 186, we've spent the whole of Monday working on the hotfix – and deployed it late last night (again missing the timeframe to post the update here!).
Such is the reality of the dev style that we practice since December: having committed to weekly builds, we only have 5 days in total for each of the updates.
One of these days is spent on communication – synchronising with others what each of us should personally focus on.
Another day is spent reviewing concepts and iterating designs, which doesn't produce shippable results but is crucial in helping us think all the new features and content through before placing it into the game.
The third day is consumed by the releasing itself: assembling candidate versions, testing, then going back to do more changes and assemble another candidate version.
This leaves "just" 2 days of more or less quiet time when we can hammer away on things. And the truth is that we all like shipping stuff to let the players play with updated mechanics, so every second week we push the limits of when we should stop adding and begin testing – such as what happened with versions 186 and 184. Anyways, here's what we managed to ship with the most recent update:
[previewyoutube="z7oB1en9ZAM;full"]
CONCEPT
This week we improved the flow of encounters, added new encounter visuals and introduced new user interface solutions that make the game better looking as well as easier to understand. We also updated design of injuries and a number of events, and deployed one new feature: environmental conditions, which are a more refined tool that replaces the mechanic of biome effects. Finally, we updated the music track that's playing in the main menu, which scratches the itch that we had for a while by now.
THE MAIN MUSIC THEME IS UPDATED
As some of you may know, music and sound effects of Spire of Sorcery are created by A.Fruit, a musician with whom we collaborate since 2015. This week, Anna updated the main music theme of the game that plays in the main menu. We hope that you enjoy this new, deeper version that now rings truer to what Spire of Sorcery delivers in its campaigns.
TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT CHARACTER EFFECTS
Earlier, we classified all character effects according to thematic groups: diseases, injuries and lasting effects. As the mechanics evolved, we realised that this is not the most optimal classification, and decided to now group all effects by their temporal nature. You will see new tabs in Character Profile that reflect this.
The same change is also reflected with the icons underneath character portraits in encounters and in the travel mode. From left to right under each portrait, the icons correspond to temporary effects, permanent effects and equipment.
UPDATED RECIPE BOOK AND ALCHEMIC CAULDRON
This is not the end of the updates for Recipe book and Alchemic cauldron, but we're getting there. What is deployed with this week's build: a more coherent way of concocting (you can only concoct based on recipes), and filtering based on selected substance (if you know the recipe, it will become selected) and on selected resources (the recipe book will then only display the relevant recipes).
UPDATED SPELLCASTING USER INTERFACE
Spellcasting part of the UI now has a new button for casting spells, that changes as the spell becomes available. We also improved animation and colouring of the "astral hands".
UPDATED SPELLBOOK
Finally, finally! We upgraded the Spellbook that's used during encounters. We hope that you like the new look.
Coming with one of the next updates: the ability to filter spells by element used, that's what the extra space on the right margin of the book is reserved for.
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS ARE NOW CLEARLY ATTRIBUTED
When environmental effect kicks in, we now properly display it, and then attribute its actions.
BIOME EFFECTS ARE OUT, ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ARE IN
The biggest change of this version is the removal of biome effects and the introduction of environmental conditions.
Earlier, biome effects were structured like this –
Forest
using Fire tokens here a risk of triggering "Burning ground" environment effect
when "Missed!" happens in this biome, there is a chance to kick in "Falling debris" effect
We did not like the randomness of this mechanic, as sometimes 6 Fire would result in nothing, and sometimes even the first Fire would initiate the "Burning ground" effect. We also didn't like the fact that you have to look up each biome's tooltip individually, to understand what is happening where.
Now such conditions are separated their own category, and can be related not only to biomes, but also to objects and specific events:
Forest
EC Ignition (4 Damage) – once 4 Damage tokens are issued in the encounter, "Burning ground" begins
EC Debris (9 Damage) – once 9 Damage tokens are issued in the encounter, "Falling debris" begins
EC Brittle environment – once "Missed" mechanic happens, "Falling debris" begins and lasts for 2 rounds
We will keep balancing and fine-tuning these environmental conditions with updates to versions 187-190, and what you'll find in version 186 is just the start of the journey. But we feel that this change is important as it gives both more control to players, and more variety to events – as well as making the user interface more transparent.
WHAT'S NEXT?
In the time that remains of this week, we'll do our best to further improve the encounter flow and the alchemic cauldron screen. Meanwhile, one of us is already working hard on introducing mood and mood traits into the game with version 187.
Have a great rest of the week, people!
V185: Hands, mugshots and prep work for a few big features
This week we've been busy with further improvements of how we display token mechanics during encounters. We also rolled in a completely new concept of how we show spell formulas that features hands of mages that move in the astral space! Additionally, we have a new music track for Prologue, and a number of interface additions that prepare the game for a few new big features – mood states and personal traits.
If you already own the game under Limited Early Access, we hope that you love the progress! =) And everyone else will soon be able to try Spire of Sorcery's playable demo that will be a part of Steam's Next Fest in June.
Detailed release notes for version 185: on the game's forum, as well as below.
[previewyoutube="6FZXkl2piLY;full"]
CONCEPT
This week we continued doing our "house cleaning" and "homework", which stands for "improving UX for existing content and features" and "preparing the game for new features to come". When people think about the best parts of making games, it comes down to "new" things: new mechanics, new content, new experiences that click together. But a larger part of games development is actually seeing things through – making sure the buttons are where they should be, the tooltips reflect the actual rules of the game, and nothing of what happens on the inside is confusing or invisible to the player. Which is where we're at, this week and this month in general.
STEAM NEXT FEST
Before we dive into what's new in version 185, we wanted to share with you a bit of good news: we decided to showcase the payable demo of Spire of Sorcery during the upcoming Steam Next Fest, which starts in about 10 weeks. We see it as a unique opportunity to let everyone who's interested in the game, but is currently not a part of the Limited Early Access community, to try the game first-hand. Aside from this being a hard deadline for us to finish a number of key features, it's also a convenient deadline for our dev team to finalise the translation of the game into the 7 key languages that we plan to launch in.
UPDATES ON CHARACTER MULLIGAN SCREEN
Character Mulligan screen, which is currently a part of starting every new game – but will in the future move to its own place in the campaign structure – got updated:
in addition to seeing character's strongest and weakest stats, you will now see one of the personal traits that they possess
every character got their own inventory, which you can fully preview when choosing party members
we also preview the resulting collective inventory of the chosen initial party
WHEN EQUIPMENT ISSUES TOKENS, THIS IS NOW REFLECTED WITH ANIMATIONS
When characters have active equipment, such equipment issues tokens at the start of the encounter. Earlier, we were unable to connect for players such tokens and their origin. Now, we display the specific equipment and the token that is issued, as well as name the activated mechanics (in this case, "Added") – see below:
UPDATED CREATURE MUGSHOTS
When creatures attack your party, the attacker first indicates the indented target and the token that it's about to deal. Earlier, we used a downscaled version of the whole creature to identify the attacker. Now all creatures have their own specific mugshots, like on the screenshot below.
Another place where mugshots got an update is on the list of extra creatures waiting to join the encounter on the left panel:
WHEN ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT DEALS TOKENS, IT IS NOW SHOWN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SCREEN
Earlier, we would increase the size of the effect's icon, but this was not enough to draw player's attention there. Now, whenever an environmental effect begins to act, we first introduce it by displaying its large icon in the middle of the screen.
CONCENTRATION GOT ITS OWN ICON
Concentration is a mechanic that allows characters to perform more than one action per turn, during encounters. Because we already have diseases (and soon will have injuries and mood traits) that affect the cost of concentration, it was about time that the mechanic received its own icon. Here's how it looks in Character Profile (the tooltip is not implemented yet):
And here's how it looks in the encounter mode, on the button to the left of the elements on hand:
WE'RE GETTING READY TO ADD MOOD TO THE GAME
With one of the upcoming versions, the game will receive the Mood mechanic that will replace Euphoria and Stress lasting effects. There are 7 mood states, and each character receives (randomly) 2 mood traits that define how different mood effects them personally.
While the feature is not hooked up in the game logic yet, we already added it to the user interface. You can see the mood scale shown below the portrait of each character, in their character profiles.
WE'RE GETTING READY TO ADD TRAITS TO THE GAME
Similarly to mood, personal traits are one of the bigger features that we "ship by parts". With this week's update, we bring them into user interface and with one of the upcoming builds we'll also enable the effects. You can currently find the list of personal traits on character profile. The list will expand as we expand the pool.
WE'RE GETTING READY TO ADD PERSONAL PASSION TO THE GAME
"Passions" is a new mechanic that is related to character's dream: it is something that improves the mood of a particular character, such as "casting combo spells" or "casting really long spells". While we cannot turn this mechanic on before we implement the mood, we already found a place for it in the character profile.
ANIMATED SPELLCASTING AREA
This change has been a while in the making, and we debated whether we should introduce it in this week's build – or wait until a more refined version. In the end, we decided to show what we currently have, as we like keeping the dev process transparent. In a nutshell: spellcasting area now shows 'hands' of the mages, which reflect the progress of spellcasting (idle, in process, completed). This will continue evolving as we'll fine-tune the animation as well as add a pretty cool solution we thought of, in terms of reflecting the memory stat.
NEW MUSIC FOR TRAVEL MODE, CHAPTER: PROLOGUE
We finally got around to creating the custom music track for the current chapter, Prologue. You will now hear it playing in the travel mode. It's meant to reflect the mood of the chapter.
WHAT'S NEXT?
In general, we still have quite a lot of homework and house cleaning to wrap up: getting better at displaying encounter outcomes, improving animation of environmental effects, and so on. At the same time, we're going to move forward with a few new features: mood, mood traits and personal traits, so that we can finally get around to implementing hunger, foraging and cooking. It's hard to say what exactly we will ship next Friday as time flies so fast! We wish you all a very nice spring weekend, and look forward to your feedback on the recent version.
