Greetings adventurers!
It's already been more than a month since Across the Obelisk left Early Access, and so much has happened since then! Between bug fixes, feature updates, hotfixes, and patches, there are almost too many things for us to cover. So, we will go over some of the changes in Patch 1.0.2 and give you some juicy info on some things planned for the future.
Today we'd like to present to you the first of what we hope will become a regular part of how we communicate our progress and upcoming plans with you, our players – our very first official Dev Diary! There has been a lot of work between balancing the current game with tweaks for our cards and heroes, while also trying to add in nice little quality of life changes to make the game just that little bit better for you.
After a short break since Patch 1.0.1 and our very short stay in Stockholm, Sweden to meet the team at Paradox Arc and attend PDXCON, it is now September and we are back in full swing squashing bugs, tweaking some of the cards and heroes, and poking at the code to make it all silky smooth. That means making improvements to make it more user-friendly, improving stability, and giving the game a general balance pass across the board.
Quality of Life
We have now implemented a system that allows the game to save with each round of combat so you can exit at any time and come back even closer to where you ended previously. Along with that, we’ve added quality of life features to make the game more user-friendly to everyone, such as tracking active quests when selecting the next zone for your adventure (see image below,) or highlighting auras and curses that are already active on characters when hovering the cursor over a card; for example, hovering over Poison Dart will highlight all poison stacks on heroes and enemies.
Furthermore, we have improved the stability of online connectivity and gameplay while also implementing features to make getting back into the game after suffering a disconnect to be as fast as possible. When a user that is not the host disconnects from the game, the host is taken back to the lobby with the game already set up and ready to go for that user to rejoin, or to reassign hero control. Coupled with saving the game between each round of combat, it will be very quick to get back into it.
Balancing Act
As always in each patch, we try to give a balance pass based on feedback from our incredibly dedicated community. Balancing a game with the level of complexity we have across all of the game modes is no easy task, but little by little we hope to achieve it and reach a point where we are all happy (you included!) You can read the full list of balancing changes in the Patch 1.0.2 notes we published yesterday.
So, What’s Next?
After Patch 1.0.2, our intention is to finish the combat log and get you up to speed with the revamp of the Obelisk Challenge draft system.
What we want to improve with the draft system is that our heroes are currently quite different from each other and each has a different quirks and features, so when you select a hero you have a general idea of how you want to play them. With the current draft system, it is possible that you don't get any of the card packs you wanted for that hero, often leading to frustration or even redoing the game and draft phase.
What we intend with the new system is that each hero will have a set of card packs assigned to them – which will always appear and be available to choose from. These packs will contain a variety of cards that means whether to choose a pack and which ones to choose will add a strategic element to the drafting. The idea is to avoid the previously mentioned situation where none of the packs you want appear.
We also want to improve the weekly challenges and add a cosmetic reward – a card back – to encourage you to come and compete each week.
Rats to That!
Finally, we have started working on the Frozen Sewers – which as many of you will know was Zek's home before he was exiled. Now the sewers are frozen and, just like up in the city, almost all the remaining rats are frozen or turned into the frozen walking dead.
Here you have the sketches of the new enemies of this sub-zone and one of the backdrops for the combat!
We are also working on the Black Forge and other surprises that we will reveal a little at a time as we continue our development!
Before You Leave
If you’ve been on the sidelines watching the development of the game but haven’t made the dive into adventuring Across the Obelisk, now is the perfect time to do so because the game is 20% OFF until September 26!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1385380/Across_the_Obelisk/
As always, we would really appreciate it if you enjoy the game to write a review and give it a recommendation on Steam. It is something we really appreciate from our wonderful community.
Until the next Dev Diary which will be aimed for roughly every month or so (no promises,) we bid you adiós, hej då, and see you on Discord.
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