First of all, we want to left you know that we are getting closer and closer to the Early Access release date, it's no longer a matter of years or months but it's a matter of weeks! Yes, we are that close and we will keep you updated about it.
New Playtest version! ♉
This month update makes no exception, we have made many new changes into the game but the good news is that you can play right now with the Playtest version (dedicated patch-note of this version here) ! Do not hesitate to share your feedback about the game either here or on our Discord Server, this is truly helping us making the best possible game as we are currently looking for bugs, balancing and polish in order to be ready for the Early Access release.
Extra NPCs Animations
You might remember our last Stretch Goal from the Kickstarter campaign, we were so close to get it that we decided we would work on it anyway in order to thank you for the great success of this campaign.
We have already added a lot of new animations for the Garden folks, Papa Yalee even has new visuals.
Papa Yalee likes his new cat basket
Little Yalees studying potions
The peddler is working on some poetry
These new animations make the Garden even more lively!
Spell level up! 🔮
We added a new progression system: the spell level system!
Spells will now have a level going from 0 to 10. Each level will give the spell a bonus % damage, giving you the opportunity to make your favorite spells even stronger and also to make it interesting to change your builds more regularly as the loot rarity increases with your run worlds progression.
We had this idea to solve the lack of incentives to change spells once you had 4 different spells, it makes things much more dynamic and interesting in the long run.
Leveling up a spell.
This system introduces a new kind of loot: the peacock feather! This is used to gain spell levels and make them more powerful, it is a new room reward with gambits/spells and crystals.
They come in several rarities giving from +1 or +2 levels to a whooping +5 for the legendary gold feather!
2 New Constellations NPCs and rooms: Cetus 🐋 and Pavo 🦚
In our research of more runs variety and adding more unique Constellations NPCs (as we did with Andromeda before) we worked on 2 Constellations NPCs that come with two new rooms with unique mechanics:
1 - the Cetus room: A mysterious cave containing lots of treasures and baubles and waiting inside is not a fierce dragon but a giant whale, Cetus! This friendly creature will give you a choice between several categories of gambits and will give you 2 (or sometime 3) gambits of the specified kind. Don't forget to thank the creature on your way out!
Cetus in the cave.
2 - the Pavo room: A gorgeous sky structure that seems to be located in an entirely different world. Here, Pavo the peacock will granting you a feather to gain power from (increase spell level). If you feel greedy, you can also ask Pavo for more feather but everytime, you will need to sacrifice healthpoints to do so.
Pavo in his ruins.
We hope you'll have fun discovering them in your next escape attempts!
Context dialog system! 🗨️
We worked on a new system merging narration and gameplay and come up with what we call the context dialog system!
This system is simple, in certain contexts when you go through the game, characters will start talking giving you sometimes advices on what's happening or simply greeting you!
The heroes also react dynamically in a lot of situations making the global experience more dynamic.
context dialogs
For now the voices are made with an AI but we are actively working on making quality voice-overs with great actors for the game.
Overall bosses rework! 💪
We spent time to rework every bosses in the game, we've made the decision to make them faster and thus harder but we reworked visual feedbacks a lot to make them more readable and also changed some of their attacks. Also, even if they are harder now, you will always have an healing room option before bosses so you do not start a boss fight with no chances or no possibility to better understand the patterns. Zodiacs want fair fights and so do we but prepare for intense fights against those mighty warriors!
Be ready!
We really hope you will appreciate all this new content we added, do not hesitate to send us feedback about it. Also, unlisted youtube videos with commented gameplay are extremely appreciated to help us understand better your reactions to the different situations. (the team speaks english, french & portuguese)
Don't forget our Backerkit shop and our Discord Server to speak with the community and give us feedbacks on the game!
Hard working team
Have a wonderful day,
-The Hibernian Workshop Team