Hey everyone,

Another week, another update... but this time it’s a really big one! There’s a lot of new stuff here: new units, items, indulgences, the addition of curses, and yet another update to the artwork by my new collaborator, Mr. Peckinczyk. As we mentioned before, many of these updates became possible because I had the chance to showcase the game at MIX and PAX West (two big gaming events in Seattle), where I got a ton of feedback and had the chance to hand out some pretty cool pins!

Back to the new demo: I feel like the core of the gameplay is really starting to take shape in the way I’ve imagined for a long time. I’ve been experimenting with balance, and I finally feel like there are different, viable team setups. I’m really happy with the pace at which indulgences are being distributed in this version. I also added a brand-new mechanic - curses, inspired by Shotgun King and Slice & Dice. Curses are essentially permanent upgrades you pick for the enemy team that are bad for you. I spent a lot of time balancing the gameplay in this version, and although it's not perfect yet, I’m happy with the results :)

Another thing I’m excited about is solving the issue of too much randomness. While auto-battlers generally have a high level of randomness, I agreed that it was a bit too high in previous versions. To fix this, I made a few changes: first, I changed the standard attack of units to always target the opposing unit in the lowest-numbered cell. Game dev is funny - I resisted this for a long time because I thought it would make the game too simple, but it really doesn’t. It adds a level of predictability that I think is very much needed. Secondly, I added two items that let you change the default attack targeting of your units. As a result, there are now a lot more ways to mitigate randomness. Sometimes, it even starts to feel more tactical than your usual auto-battler, which I think is a big win.

So, Order Automatica is moving forward. It's been a time of reflection, thinking about where I want the game to go. While the game definitely draws from tried-and-tested mechanics, I feel like it has its own identity that I’m trying to emphasize. What is that identity? I think the most important thing for me is how you can "break the rules." What I mean by this is that at first, you might think special abilities can only be triggered at very specific times, but soon you’ll discover there are multiple ways to trigger them. Triggering them during the preparation phase makes them permanent, and often that’s the key to very strong builds. Maybe you’ll even find out that you can attack during the preparation phase :) This kind of thing really excites me, and it’s hard to explain if you haven’t played the game, but it adds a depth that I think is especially exciting. On top of that, I think the ways to mitigate randomness I described earlier give the game a unique flavor that I really enjoy. In the end, I’m really aiming for that specific, intangible vibe that’s present in a lot of games I love. I hope I can continue moving in that direction!

Finally - watching people play the game live this weekend helped a lot. I’ve updated the demo three times already because of it. The biggest lesson:

REMEMBER, YOU CAN LEVEL UP UNITS BY ARRANGING THREE OF THE SAME UNITS IN A ROW OR COLUMN!

Hehe - I forgot to teach that properly, and it’s actually pretty hard to beat the demo without that knowledge 😅

The latest patch to the demo adds a "wiki" with that info and a few other answers to frequently asked questions. I’m not sure if it’s enough for first-time players, but it was the quickest thing I could do. I’ll consider adding something better in future versions.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you! I hope you enjoy the new demo, and I’d really appreciate any thoughts or feedback you have. I’m doing my best to create something cool and different, and player reactions—good or bad—are really helpful for me.

I just wanted to add that we originally planned for the demo to not be available after PAX, but since I’m participating in the Game Devs of Color Expo, which I consider one of the most important events, we’ve extended its availability until September 24. And of course, don’t forget about the demo on itch.io, where future updates will be posted.

Thanks again,
Mickey & Kuba (better. publishing)