Champions!
The wait is over, we are back and ready to start a new development journey with Death or Glory. During the past 3 months, we have been quietly developing the next iteration of Death or Glory that you will be seeing in this update. Lessons we have learned from launch has fuelled our inspirations towards the progression, the unlocks and the game direction we want to take Death or Glory in the upcoming road to the official launch. Admittedly we are aware of our shortcomings and the disappointment we have left our audience in our initial EA launch. This update is our first step into our response to the feedback and reflection that was left by our amazing community. Once again, we want to thank you all for your patience and support into our project and the game we love.
Major Directions
• Dueling Mode - A fast paced and thrilling arena for a variety of duels and battles
• Progression - a journey of champions and a challenge worthy of a master
• Gameplay - depth and variety from a kaleidoscope of decks
• Aspect Ratio and UI overhaul
Dueling Mode
This new mode will be the new main arena for quick fights in Death or Glory against both AI controlled opponents and other players across the world. Designed to be rapid and ever changing, Dueling Mode is over all quite simple in its structure but deep in how many decks can be built. We are introducing the inclusion of upgraded cards into a multiplayer setting with a twist from adventure mode, you are only allowed to bring 2 upgraded cards into battle.
Building a Regen deck with Strength X, or focusing on an explosive turn with Equality X will be two completely different takes on the win conditions for Tori. Or how about building a ramp deck for Redeye with Bloodboil X and combo it off with an early Ravenous Chomp X to leech and suck all the life out of your opponent. This is just the tip of the iceberg as to what can be explored with over 180 new cards available in multiplayer. Experiment, discover and most importantly enjoy all the crazy strategies and combos that can be born out of the new dueling experience. But this is not all that is new.
Dueling Mode takes place in the tower of duels, a tower built and erected by great alchemists from a bygone era. Every character will journey through the 8 floors in the tower to reach the top. Accumulate score from each battle won and earn bonuses by maintaining winstreaks to blitz through floors. Every character will start from the Beginner Floors and rank up into Expert and Veteran levels where more cards and different decks can be built. As we continue developing throughout the coming months, we will reveal more about the history and details about this monumental arena as the journey continues.
Check out the rules and some screenshots of Dueling mode down below!
Character Progression
A major focus of this update is an overhaul of each character’s journey in every player hands. We wanted to make every step of the experience with a new character pleasurable, whether it’s when you are new to them, or you struggle through challenging bosses or even when you are dominating game after game, your champion will grow along with your expertise. The new progression track for each champion will introduce 22 more cards to unlock with a variety of fun and interesting targets ranging from just levelling up or playing interesting combos to deal super high damage. Unlock cards, perks, and cosmetics just by dueling and going on adventures.
The current update will feature integrated progression throughout dueling and the next stage of development will focus on implementing that in adventure mode. Stay tuned for our updates in the second quarter of 2024!
Taj - the Witch Doctor
Born into servitude and tormented for his smaller stature, Taj sought vengeance when he failed to protect his beloved. Desperate, he bargained with the gods for strength. But their help came at a price. As his power grew, so did his formidable foes. With every step, blood and soul became his currency, paying the toll for his ascent. Taj's journey unfolds amidst sacrifices, as he battles to overcome his past and claim his rightful place.
Enter the duel as Taj, the next playable Evangelist in Death or Glory. Gain the blessings of the Malevolent Trinity and control the powers of the Spirits, the Serpents, and the Swarm to dominate the arena. With three unique Worship abilities, Taj has very distinct build around cards that can shift his battle style into multiple directions. Control with the Spirit, damage with the Snakes and Swarm with the Crows. The power of the trinity makes Taj nigh unstoppable if he can set up multiple worships in quick succession as he has a strong balance of both control and damage! Explore his decks and expanded possibilities with his upgraded cards in dueling mode today!
*Founders and Early Access Pass owners will automatically unlock Taj, the Witch Doctor as a playable character in both dueling and adventure mode.
Game Balancing
Health and Draw
A small but impactful change we are making in dueling is the initial draw size and health of every champion. Both players will now start with a Maximum of 40 health and draw 6 cards at the beginning of the game. This was changed after we were play testing and decided that this will benefit will balance both aggressive and late game characters by decreasing the luck of the draw on the first turn. We are eager to explore more deeply into this change will likely make adjustments as the season progresses. Please let us know what you think and how the battles feel after the change.
Cards
As we are now opening up Upgraded cards to the multiplayer environment, we have made balance changes to several cards we felt was way too strong and hard to deal with. This round of balancing focused on the clear overperformers and admittedly there could be more subtle combos within the game that we have not discovered yet. We will be balancing the game very frequently moving forward, where we expect to change overperforming and underperforming cards every or other week. Explore discover super combos and have fun!
Doom
We’ve adjusted Doom to be less frustrating to deal with when it is applied early in the game through the luck of the draw. To balance out the ability we adjusted the countdown value on cards.
Doom New Ability: A doom counter is reduced by 1 at the end of every turn. When it reaches 0, your opponent will suffer damage equal to their life total, if it is 15 or less. Lower doom value replaces higher one.
Future of Death or Glory
Client Upgrades
As you can tell from the new client, one huge difference we are making is to shift the aspect ratio of the game into 16:9. Yes, that was a mistake on our part as we started out development for tablets then transitioned into releasing on PC first. In the following months we will be transitioning the rest of the game into 16:9, most notably the Battle Page and Adventure mode.
Adventure Mode
Other than client improvements, there will be two big directions where we will be improving. The first being a redesign of Adventure mode, with our new technology and lessons learnt from the 1.0 version, we have been laying the groundworks to create a fun, progressive and at the same time challenging journey for players to go on when they head into PVE. Players can expect to see updates to PVE game modes and content soon around Q2 -3 of this year.
Dueling Mode Enhancements and Content
We are also aiming to enrich the experience of Dueling mode by adding in different features, card types as well as new champions. There will be a range of content scheduled for the coming months as well as close balancing updates that follows the meta. As an example for what we are eager to implement, is raid battles being part of dueling and events that any player can participate in.
Our love for game development is going strong. We hope all of you that have been with us since the beginning and those who have just started their journey in the arena will have as much fun as we are in the adventure called Death or Glory.
See you in the Arena!