Fast Adventures

Happy spring, my D20 Fans!

I’m thrilled to announce the release of Fast Adventures, our 9th major update for Abalon. Fast Adventures delivers shorter runs with more diverse encounters. Instead of starting with a single character, you choose your party and spells right from the start and explore a biome-diverse open world to hunt the bosses and fulfill your cosmic destiny!

This update was inspired by content creators Retromation and Wanderbot, experts in the roguelike genre who have suggested shorter runtimes are a key factor to engagement and having an enjoyable experience. Why? A 50-60 minute run is a sweet spot of attention span - enough to sample and witness the possibilities, culminating in a meaningful end goal where the building blocks of whatever strategy you’re going for pays off in a rewarding fashion.

At its heart, Abalon is a game that strives to encourage player creativity through the exploration of different character and spell combinations. I hadn’t realized until we took the time to implement this feature, but I have to agree that they were right! Shorter runs offer a very gratifying experience, after which you feel revved up to try another run with a new team. Thank you Retromation and Wanderbot for your feedback and your let’s play series that have helped so many players discover the awesomeness of roguelikes. We dedicate this build to you.

About Abalon's new "Fast Adventure" Mode:

1. Complete a full adventure run within 60 minutes
2. Instead of starting with only a few cards and a single character, start with a complete deck and party of your choosing.
3. No lore or boss key drops. Boss locations are indicated on your map.
4. Start with gold so you can purchase artifacts and consumables from shops.
5. Instead of limiting consumables to battle prep only, you can now use them anytime during combat.
6. Soul gems acquired by defeating elites can be saved in inventory and selectively used on bosses you choose.
7. Do more in less time: Explore an open world filled with multiple environments and dungeons and a greater variety of monsters and encounters to experience.

And that’s not all… I'm also addressing other player feedback and suggestions in this build as well!

Choose Your Playstyle

One of Abalon’s signature mechanics, called by some players the “cards as stamina" mechanic, is that cards do not reshuffle into your deck until resting at a campsite. It's intended to provide an element of resource management and put focus on maximizing the tactical position and abilities of your units. A lot of players love it and some do not.

To address this feedback, I’ve added another new feature called “Choose Your Playstyle” where you can customize your game experience after choosing difficulty.

Signature Style

1. Cards do not reshuffle into your deck until resting at camp.
2. Maximize your run score multiplier by activating unlocked challenge modifiers.

Traditional Style

1. Cards reshuffle into your deck after battle.
2. View cards in your enemy’s hand to anticipate (not predict) their intent.
3. Summoners and Guardians have permadeath regardless of game difficulty.

And for those players who’ve been asking for a more purist version of our original release, I’ve added a new challenge modifier you can tack onto the Signature Style:

Forbidden Relics: You may not use artifacts.

This challenge echoes back to our initial launch before artifacts were included and makes the game a lot harder. As such, this challenge grants a 20% score bonus at the completion of your run.

Card Cycling

Additionally, for those who have expressed desire for more control over your cards (particularly the cycling of cards) I’ve implemented a new set of actions you can use on cards in your hand to manipulate your deck and gain the advantage:

1. Replace: Draw a new card and reshuffle this card back into your deck. (Use only on your first turn)
2. Recycle: Place card at the bottom of your deck.
3. Discard for Mana: Place card in discard pile. Discard two cards in the same turn to gain 1 mana.

Joker’s Last Stand

This past November, I was a guest of Twitch streamer AlchemistJoker. The two of us had met in person at the Seattle Indies Expo where I’d showcased Abalon. He’s got a great charism and natural upbeat energy that really reignites your passion for games. During the stream, the hazards and enemies of Abalon put his gamer skills to the test. His run culminated in an epic battle in the Sandpit Arena. Low on resources as the last surviving member of his party, wave after wave of marauders and a monstrous cyclops set the stage for what was sure to be his defeat. It was here Joker and I agreed if he could someone manage to survive, I’d commemorate his achievement with something special: a card made in his honor.

Never doubt the resolve of a determined gamer - because despite the odds stacked against him, Joker made his last stand and defeated the hordes of the arena in an epic showdown. Today I make good on my commitment to Joker, with the addition of the following new card created in his honor:

May you, too, make a lasting impression in your next run!

Content Creator Spotlight: Yukmouth

We're thrilled to have positivity focused streamer, Yukmouth, kicking off the launch of Abalon Fast Adventures with a stream Monday morning starting at 7:30AM PT. Yukmouth is well known for streaming CCGs including Hearthstone, Storybook Brawl and Fairy Tail Fables.

Tune in to watch the broadcast on his Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/yukmouth

v1.34.0 Release Notes

1. New Game Mode: Fast Adventures is a new game mode where you choose your team and hunt bosses in a large multi-biome world. Complete an entire run in 60 minutes or less!
2. Choose your Playstyle: We’ve introduced play styles as a way to customize your experience in Abalon. You’ll choose your playstyle after picking difficulty to gain different abilities and challenges.
3. QoL: Player Panels - The new player panels indicate which player is currently taking turn as well as display their current deck count, mana, and number of cards in hand. If an opponent plays a surprise, the mana count is hidden and instead you’ll see a question mark indicating the number of active surprises that player has on the board.
4. QoL: Map Tabs - The world map now includes tabs that let you quickly view different dungeon floors and fast travel to them without having to navigate to a staircase, cave or portal first.
5. QoL: Satchel Cards - All satchel cards can now be played at anytime during exploration or battle. Save your potions and drink them on demand when needed! As such, the “Flexible” keyword has been removed.
6. QoL: Card Cycling - Gain more control over your deck with the ability to replace cards in your hand at the start of your turn, recycle cards to the bottom of your deck, or discard two cards for an additional mana.
7. New Challenge Modifier: Forbidden Relics: You may not use artifacts.
8. New Challenge Modifier: No Second Chances: You may not replace or recycle cards.
9. New Artifact: Chrono Spectacles: View the cards in enemy’s hand.
10. New Artifact: Incinerator: You may discard unlimited cards each turn for mana. Gain 1 mana for each card.
11. New Consumable: Joker’s Last Stand: Downfall: Deal 10 damage to visible enemies. Revive with 5 life.
12. Balance: All Artifacts are now unique (there can only be one instance acquired for an entire adventure). Removed the “Unique” keyword from all artifacts since they are all unique now.
13. Balance: Removed the “Satchel Card” keyword. Satchel cards are now either “Artifacts” (permanent abilities) or “Consumable” (one-time use abilities). All consumable cards can be stacked. Artifacts cannot be stacked.
14. Balance: Collar of Devotion changes from “The next animal you summon gains Loyal until resting at camp” to “Change an animal guardian into a loyal unit.” Its gold price increased from 1350 to 1500.
15. Balance: Iron Oath changes from “Transform a Guardian into a loyal unit” to “Change a non-animal Guardian into a loyal unit”.
16. Balance: Pyramid Vault’s ability changed from “You may play satchel cards during battle.” to “Choose 1 of the next 3 cards in your deck and add it to your hand. It costs 5 less.” Its gold price was reduced from 1575 to 1000.
17. Balance: Dreamcatcher’s ability changed from “You may recycle cards to the bottom of your deck instead of discarding them for mana.” to “Once per battle, you may cast a discarded card as you would from your hand.”
18. Balance: Strength Potion can now stack. Gold price increased from 300 to 450.
19. Balance: Imperial Dragon gains Immune (Freeze)
20. Balance: Increased cost of Raise Dead spell from 2 to 3 mana.
21. Balance: Mana potions can now be found in survival mode.
22. Balance: Time Traveler effects now return ally teammates to the board at the start of their next turn instead of the player who cast the time travel effect’s turn.
23. Fixed Bug where changing orientation while world map is open results in world map tiles being unpopulated.
24. Fixed Bug where after viewing Progression, then attempting to inspect a deck, it shows the stats panel instead of that deck.
25. Fixed Bug where Mad Metal Max was not appearing as a potential boss type in the desert.
26. Fixed Bug where player gets a null exception if they try to open their satchel after entering a portal to the next world just after the units vanish from the screen.
27. Fixed Bug where using the “Reset Stats” option in progression was not clearing the player’s prior run history.
28. Fixed Bug Where player’s snow biome world could spawn with one less campsite than expected (there should be at least 4 campsites per world)
29. Fixed Bug where an AI Sync Issue could occur due to the use of equipment (ex: bow and arrows) which caused status effects (the new melee attack) to be removed when the bow and arrow is removed as a result of removing units. (Thanks YuraConst)
30. Fixed Bug where unique artifacts could be discovered again in subsequent chapters of a run.
31. Fixed Bug where a cardView being animated (i.e. doobered to the deck/discard) could suddenly vanish if another instance of it is drawn to hand before the doober animation completes.
32. Fixed Bug with Chinese localization: "Arch Angel" should be translated into "大天使" instead of "天使弓手"
33. Fixed Bug where players could lose buffs or debuffs earned from fate encounters from retreating instead of winning the battle.
34. Localization updated and improved translations for all supported languages.

Abalon’s Major Updates:

For those new to our community, we pride ourselves on responding to player feedback to continuously improve the game. Here’s our past major updates to the game (not including many more regular updates that also addressed player feedback):

1. Masters and Minions Aug 15 2022
2. Harvest World Oct 25 2022
3. Croakus Lord of the Swamp Nov 21 2022
4. Demon Realm Dec 16 2022
5. Land of Ice and Snow Feb 16, 2023
6. Cyber Lizard Wizards May 11 2023
7. Treasure Trove Jul 19 2023
8. Horde Survival Oct 12 2023
9. Fast Adventures March 25 2024

On the Horizon

1. Improving artifacts with a new interface that allows you to see the original card icon, view the artifact cards, and equip/remove items from your characters so you can safely invest in upgrading guardians without fear of losing your artifacts upon their death or removal from the party.
2. Upgrading the leaderboard with more categories (ex: top fast adventure player, top traditional player, top hardcore player, highest challenge completions, etc.)
3. Improved AI (3.0 Engine)
4. Multiplayer with Abalon Arena

Support Our Community

Love what we’re doing here? Help support Abalon’s development by writing/updating a Steam review, sharing Abalon with a friend, and wishlisting our upcoming title, Abalon Arena.

Thanks for reading and being a valued player in our community!

~Ross