The final major update of Crawl Tactics, the Crawl Tactics Final version, has finally been released. What allowed this once barely playable, unfinished game to reach this point was your advice and encouragement. Thank you for loving and supporting Crawl Tactics for such a long time. While there will be no further large content updates, I will continue to work on bug fixes, balancing, and quality-of-life improvements.
If you enjoyed the game but have not yet left a review, please consider doing so, and help spread the word so that fans of turn-based tactics and rogue-likes can discover Crawl Tactics :D
Since this is the final major update for Crawl Tactics, I wanted to look back on the journey of making it.
Start
Development of Crawl Tactics began in 2018. Influenced by the combat of Tactics Ogre and the roguelite progression of FTL, the aim was to create a game where each new battlefield offered fresh interactions and strategic combat. It followed a similar direction to my first game, SFD, but was intended to address the limitations and regrets I had with SFD. In particular, I wanted to implement verticality like in Tactics Ogre and improve the rough graphics.
Next fest Demo and Beta
Looking back, the biggest mistake during development was implementing whatever I wanted without a clear direction. Because this was a solo project, development dragged on and the game grew overly complex. For example, verticality was difficult to implement in a 2D isometric view, leading to delays and bugs. Yet for players, verticality ended up interfering with trap usage and making maps feel inconvenient. It also obscured vision, causing confusion for many. During the first demo playtest, many said they found SFD more enjoyable.
I also participated in Steam Next Fest, but the game lacked polish and failed to draw attention. Since you can only participate once, I missed a major promotional opportunity.
One memorable improvement afterward was receiving help from a pixel artist named Raseya, who worked on character pixel art. The quality was far better than my programmer art, but due to my strong personal direction and interference, we gradually drifted apart after the initial work. I want to express my gratitude and apology to Raseya.
Official Release
The game officially launched at the end of 2022. Exhausted from the long development, I wanted to release it as soon as possible. However, the rushed release caused issues with quality, balance, and usability. Difficulty was also a problem; in trying to avoid making the game too easy, I made it overly difficult in ways that frustrated players. For example, since archers were too strong, I added an arrow-count mechanic to weaken them, but this only made archers hard to use and difficult to understand. Because of issues like these, the game’s reception was weaker than SFD, and sales were lower than expected. There was also friction with members of the Discord community, who disliked updates they felt were hostile to players. I even banned a user who ignored warnings, and my relationship with the person who had offered free German translation also deteriorated. Afterward, I realized the importance of feedback and made a genuine effort to listen and improve the game. I want to apologize again to Kampy.
v2
The launch results were disappointing, and although I improved issues step by step through player feedback, the constant small fixes made me want to create larger changes. I did not want to abandon the game in an unfinished state, and although not many, there were players who supported the game, so I planned a major update. I began in 2023, not intending for it to take long, but once again development went on as I kept implementing desired features, delaying v2. The v2 beta began in June 2024 and released on August 31.
The focus of v2 was removing unreasonable mechanics and inconvenient systems that caused unnecessary frustration. I removed the cumbersome arrow mechanic, allowed spells to ignore certain terrain restrictions, and replaced delayed-cast spells with a new ultimate-style system called Rage Magic. I also improved graphics and added new content, including endgame content. The biggest addition was Quest Mode. Dungeon Mode had overly long floors, so I wanted to shorten the flow and allow easier character growth, as leveling and progression are core SRPG fun. Early Quest Mode had too little resource gain (souls) and bosses were too hard, so I adjusted the difficulty. I also added Dungeon Mode events into Quest Mode. To encourage ongoing play, I added the Abyss Gate and multi-run Quest Mode. On the UI side, I added rotation animations so the camera wouldn’t feel confusing, and refined the pie menu previously used only for controller support so players could select functions without moving the mouse too much, keeping the UI centered.
Final
The last major update aimed to address balance issues such as thieves being too strong due to AGI and AP advantages, or Fireball wiping out enemies too easily, along with fixing cards that had little use. I also implemented modes I had long wanted to add and upgraded the battlefield generation algorithm to make battlefields feel more organic. Following player feedback, I added interactions such as pushing trees or statues to topple them onto enemies, and improved demi-human freedom of play. Near the end of the final beta, a player suggested a large-scale battle mode, and after considering it, I added Defense Mode, which allows deploying most Quest Mode units and freely constructing traps. Some players wanted Simplified Chinese translation, but I could not hire translators, so I added Simplified Chinese and Japanese using AI translation.
Update List
* Mod Support:
- You can now create and modify game content through mods. From the Mod menu at the bottom left you can generate and edit mod templates to create your own mods and each mod can be applied individually.
* Added siege/defense events
- In Dungeon Mode, new special events let you capture a well-defended enemy fortress or defend against waves of attackers.
- In Quest Mode, the Doomsday Counter is replaced with periodic invasions, where you place defensive weapons like cannons to fend off continuous enemy waves.
* Battle Diversification:
- When starting a new run, you can adjust various parameters such as battlefield size, total dungeon count, and trap density.
- Some enemies will now advance while taking advantage of terrain or defend strategic points. This is intended to move away from a purely camping-based strategy.
- Environmental hazards such as rockfalls and wildfires have been added. They occur with a certain probability during battles and attack random tiles each turn.
- Totems have been replaced by standard-bearers. Now enemy auras that enhance allies come from standard-bearers instead of totems. Their auras can grant traits like fear immunity magic immunity or magic reflection compensating for enemy weaknesses.
- Support-type enemies that inflict debuffs have been added.
- A wider variety of bosses has been introduced.
- Hawkman and robot enemies now appear on battlefields and in Quest Mode you can construct Hawkman Fel and robot mercenary camps as rewards and hire them.
- Added a race selection option in custom parties.
* Terrain / Trap Interaction:
- The algorithm for terrain generation has been modified to allow greater height differences and decorations have become more varied. Large structures such as tree stumps and statues have also been added.
- Previously indestructible obstacles like rocks and statues can now be destroyed. Statues and trees can be attacked and toppled to damage enemies and statues can be pushed off hills to cause damage.
- A new type of trap jar has been added which alters temperature or weather when destroyed. The generation algorithm for existing traps such as cannon traps has also been improved so they aim more effectively toward enemies.
- Now you can adjust battlefield generation parameters before starting the game.
* Card Enhancements:
- Cards have been made more useful. For example a trap that used to change the position of one obstacle can now move up to three.
* Balancing / Stats:
- The base movement range has been increased from 3 to 4 and jump value from 1 to 2.
- Passives that increased AP without any cost have been removed.
- The bonus movement distance gained from AGI has been reduced. The effects of stats have been revised: STR now increases critical chance DEX increases evasion and CON increases debuff resistance.
- The accuracy bonus gained from improving bow mastery has been increased.
- The range of certain ranged magic spells has been reduced.
* Quest Mode / Abyss Mode:
- After clearing Quest Mode once starting a second run now resets special events allowing new ones to occur.
- The blacksmith no longer simply upgrades weapon stats; instead you must dismantle an item to obtain its core then merge it with another weapon.
- When hiring undead units the AI will no longer control them—you can now command them directly.
- Before entering the Gate of the Abyss you must now increase one difficulty element to proceed.
- Upon defeating the final boss you can choose one of three items as a reward.
* Crawlpedia:
- Enemy information has been added.
* Game Settings:
- The game speed can now be adjusted not only between normal and fast but from 75% up to 300%.
- Font settings can now be changed without restarting the game.
* Unit Appearance:
- Some unit appearances have been changed.
- Customization is now available not only for humans but also for demi-human units.