The Wizard: WizHarder Edition
Update v1.1.3
This year I've closed down Hypnotic Owl UG, the company I co-founded 10 years ago. My former partner will continue his work under the name Hypnotic Owl, while I've created a new studio for myself, called Spell Loop.
So, all I did was switching out the company logo and links and fixing a couple of minor UI issues, that I noticed. There will be new updates in the future, I still plan to add a couple of features, but that will most likely be next year.
As always if you encounter any bugs, please use the Report Bug feature in the game menu! Thanks <3
Also if you want to be more involved with the development, or just to hang out, come have a chat on the Spell Loop Discord or follow Spell Loop on Mastodon!
Cheers,
Jan
Update v1.1.2
Anyway, here is what changed:
- Added tooltips for effects on enemies
- Rewrote spell descriptions
- Improved map scrolling when selecting a path
- Increased upgrade button click area
- Tweaked spellbook ribbon animations
This update hasn't been quite as thoroughly tested as I'd like to, but I didn't want to deprive you all of at least some new improvements. Also this is good for the Steam algorithm... Well, if you encounter any bugs, please use the Report Bug feature in the game menu! Thanks <3
Anyways, thanks for reading and as always, if you want to be more involved with the development, or just to hang out, come have a chat on Discord!
Cheers,
Jan
Update v1.1.1
This will conclude our efforts adding Achievements. So, if you were waiting to 100% Kevin's Path to Wizdom, you're good to go now! There were also a couple of minor fixes and improvements, but nothing worth mentioning.
Anyways, thanks for reading and as always, if you want to be more involved with the development, or just to hang out, come have a chat with us on our Discord server!
<3 Your Hypnotic Owl Team
Update v1.1!
Finally, you get a proper achievement for each spellbook you find in the game and for each boss you are able to defeat. Check out the achievements list to see if you found any of the hidden ones as well 😉
These will not be the last achievements we're going to add! Our talented artist Lucy is working on the next batch, which will award you for finishing the other game modes and doing some more obscure things within the game. So, keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming updates if you're an achievement hunter!
The rest are boring improvements, but here is the list anyway:
- Added 19 new achievements!
- Increased storybook size
- Updated setting slider handles
- Fixed stats mixup and reset user stats to make class averages in report cards more accurate
- Fixed bloom settings
- Fixed overblown lighting over the green water
- Fixed main menu button placement can be broken
- Fixed preset selection isn't updated correctly on slot change
- Fixed select slot button isn't disabled on click
Thanks for reading and as always, if you want to be more involved with the development, or just to hang out, come have a chat with us on our Discord server!
<3 Your Hypnotic Owl Team
Patch v1.0.7
- Cool new achievement icons!
- Added particle effect to spellbook pickup
- Added particle effect to opening chest
- Added option to abandon YOLO runs
- Added quit game dialog when pressing ESC in main menu
- Reduced volume of windling sound effects
- Reduced volume of trap sound effects
- Fixed reach of invisible enemies wasn't hidden
- Fixed tooltips weren't always closed correctly
- Fixed enemy sleep marker animations
- Fixed button highlighting gets stuck sometimes
- Fixed Null Pointer Exception when turn effects cancel each other
Thanks for reading and as always, if you want to be more involved with the development, or just to hang out, come have a chat with us on our Discord server!
Patch v1.0.6
- Stopped capturing cursor in splash
- Changed minor health potion into minor mana potion in the sewer
- Added preset name under continue button
- Fixed presets don't change on slot change
- Improved slot selection menu
- Limited "can't run" hint to once a level
- Added Website & Discord links
- Improved spellcasting reset tutorial
- Prevented hurt hint from showing up on death
- Fixed teleporter keys don't check for spot on load
- Fixed save isn't reset on death if you go back to menu
Thanks for reading and as always, if you want to be more involved with the development, or just to hang out, come have a chat with us on our Discord server!
Patch v1.0.5
- Added missing level intros
- Improved teleporter camera movement
- Fixed typo in story
- Fixed blocking of belt slots
- Fixed level manager crash
- Fixed main menu button double clickable
- Fixed sinking enemies don't play death sfx
- Fixed teleport to blocked space dilemma
Also, thanks a lot to everyone, who reported a bug. It's a big help!
Releasing v1.0!
Here is a quick overview over the biggest changes in v1.0:
- Spells now cost mana to cast
- Spell pages improve spell of your choice
- Chest+Key improves health or mana
- New belt to carry potions & keys
- Two additional spells (one hidden)
- Two additional levels
- Several new music tracks
- Remastered all music tracks
- Improved story
- A lot more secrets!
- Enemies are a little smarter
- Prettier menus
- Prettier spellcasting
- Prettier and improved levels
- and more!
We've been in Early Access for two years. Thanks to everyone who helped us in that time we were able to try various things and get valuable feedback. However much of that time was also spent doing contract work to keep on the lights here in the Hypnotic Owl headquarter. In that time we've noticed a understandable loss of motivation to try and retry the game. So instead of boring everyone with tedious little changes, we took a coupe of months to work on this update in secret to surprise everyone. Surprise!
Of course we did lots of internal playtests to make sure everything works, but nobody is perfect and I expect that some new bugs will emerge. Rest assured that we will try and squish them as soon as possible. For that reason we also added a new "Report Bug" button in the in-game menu. Please use it, if you find anything!
Thanks for reading and as always, if you want to be more involved with the development, or just to hang out, come have a chat with us on our Discord server!
<3 Your Hypnotic Owl Team
Update v0.5.1: Kevin Remarks & Usability Improvements
- Added remarks for Kevin to say
- Added ingame Tutorial toggle button
- Improved Tutorial: Clearer & less restrictive
- Improved Cinematics skip speed
- Improved walking path selection
- Improved camera to follow path selection
- Made exit sprites into arrows
- Made enemy infos visible on mouse over
- Fixed some settings getting reset on load
- Fixed ranged enemies don't act when they can't reach Kevin
- Fixed button overlap in Settings menus
- Fixed missiles can fly out of the level
Unfortunately, this update will nuke your saves. We're very sorry, but we had to fix something in the way saves are stored. If you come from a version pre 0.5.0 you can still use your old save on the v0.4.x branch.
To do that go to the game in your Steam client, right-click on the game, select "Properties..." then navigate to "BETAS" and select the v0.4.X branch in the dropdown menu. Then open your saves folder (e.g. C:\Users\[YOUR WINDOWS USER NAME]\AppData\LocalLow\Hypnotic Owl\The Wizard_ WizHarder Edition\Saves) and rename your last "Slot1Story.backup" to "Slot1Story.save" and you should be able to continue right where you left off!
Hotfix v0.5.0f6
- Fixed enemies registering for the score multiple times if you reload a level before taking a turn
- Fixed summoned enemies getting scored
- Fixed effect counter text alignment
- Fixed level 2 get's loaded if players try to get back to the main menu in level 1