Hello! A huge day for Scrabdackle! Here's what's going on!
The public demo has been refreshed! (AKA: Super-updated!)
What that means is basically that it's had a full quality-of-life pass, and all the improvements, minor changes, bugfixes, etc I've implemented over the past quarter-decade (a literally true phrase) are now publicly available to experience. Stuff like:
More readable fonts (larger sizes, better character differentiation),
A new "taskroll" quest menu replacing the one that, uh, no one knew was there or how to use (it was kind of hidden in the minimap),
Completion/collectible tracking per-region (via the taskroll),
Notifications for when quests are started and completed, and better tagging for when a quest will continue in the full game,
A huge performance/optimization pass that should be pretty clear to see the gains of for anyone who played the previous build,
Speaker tags indicating the name of who's speaking, and a conversation log in the pause menu,
Controller support (finally! - although, I do want to tune it more as feedback comes in),
A pretty substantial batch of misc QOL features,
Aaand a general fresh coat of polish on like, everything.
It's not really a change in content - technically there's a few more lore entries, rooms to see, and one new arena - but the focus is pretty thoroughly on bringing the public version of the game up to speed, rather than adding more content to a demo that I've already seen enough people take 6 hours to 100%, eheh.
BUT ALSO, A PRETTY IMPORTANT NOTE: This new demo forces a new save file. Sorry for any inconvenience here, especially if you just found the game - it won't be necessary to do again, and demo saves will update to Act 1 saves when you buy the game on release (please?), but the old demo build was 2.5 years out of parity with the modern game. I gave carrying old saves over a shot, but there was too much risk of a major issue. Cleaner this way! Alas.
"But what if I'd rather just keep playing my old save?" you hypothetically ask: No worries, that's still possible. In your Steam library, right click the Scrabdackle Demo, click Properties, then Betas - you'll be prompted to enter a password, and "LetMePlayTheOldWay" will unlock the archived build of previous version 0.4.03f. You can return to this window and go back to the 'default' branch to get new demo access again.
Hey, we're a feature game in the Six One Indie fall showcase today... with a NEW TRAILER!
The showcase premieres later today, showing 40 selected games over an hour. For our slot, we'll be premiering the new Act 1 trailer! I'm really REALLY happy with it, and all the feedback has been extremely positive so far.
About 10 of the selected games - including Scrabdackle! - were called on to get spotlighted in a sort of 'pop out' feature from the developer, so immediately after the trailer there's also a short video of me talking about the game a bit more as well!
Here's the premiere link (or just a video link, if you're watching this from the future):
The pre-show starts:
8:50am PT
11:50am ET
The main showcase starts:
9:00am PST
12:00pm ET
And Scrabdackle's feature is on starting:
9:52am PT
12:52pm ET
The event will also be showcasing on Steam from the 18th to the 22nd, if you want to check out all the other cool featured games (which - you really should, it's a really cool showcase!)
LINK: Six One Indie Steam Showcase!
Is that it? NO!
Scrabdackle's also in TWO other Steam showcases/features right now!
The Fellow Traveller Publisher Sale!
The sale is running until Sept 29th, and is a great source of story-rich and narrative-focused games to check out, if you've been hankering for something new!
(This sale's actually been live since the 15th, I've just been too busy with the demo update to write anything about it, aha - sorry gang!)
Wander Stars is also launching tomorrow, on Sept 19th! In its own words: "Unleash custom attacks by combining words in this Super! Anime! Turn-Based! RPG!" You'll find it front and center on the sale page; go check it out and wishlist it if it piques your interest!
LINK: Fellow Traveller Publisher Sale!
The Wonders of Wizardry Sale!
We're also part of the Wonders of Wizardry sale, running until Sept 26th! Although it's a 'sale' by name, it's also about showcasing upcoming games (like us!) that have a focus on wizards and spellcasting as a central theme/aesthetic/setting/vibe!
I haven't seen the other games it in yet actually (I'll be seeing the page for the first time when it goes live today!) so I'm pretty excited to see who else is doing what in the 'wizard game' space!
LINK: Wonders of Wizardry Sale
Whew, okay, that's actually it for right now! Release date announcement still to come, we're not there yet.
Really excited for you all to finally see this work I've been doing in the background all summer!
