Hey, Duelists!
Yesterday, our brand-new guest fighter Globule was finally released into the world! We're super happy to finally have her out for everyone to play, but we're also sure many of you have questions for us. It's been 7 months since Master Locks released, and new characters don't normally take us nearly that long. So why the heck did this one? We wanna take some time to catch you all up on where we've been, what's happened behind the scenes, and of course, give you some more insight into our latest crossover.
Duels of Fortune × Decline's Drops: Globule Joins the Fight!
Yep, in case you somehow haven't heard yet, our newest fighter is Globule, the protagonist of the punchy action-platformer Decline's Drops!!
We designed every aspect of Globule to feel like she was plucked straight out of her home game, with hard-hitting attacks, tons of movement options, delightfully stretchy animation, and even her own personalized meter system! Decline's Drops is essentially a singleplayer platform fighter, so it was a fun challenge translating her gameplay into a completely different kind of fighting game. She ended up as a highly mobile bruiser who can really put the pressure on her opponents, thanks to her unique meter mechanics and access to invincible dodges she can use to quickly reposition herself at the cost of a small amount of meter.
Believe it or not, this collaboration has been planned for years, since long before Decline's Drops was even released! In fact, talks of it date all the way back to 2020 (!!!), so we're beyond excited to be able to finally welcome Globule into Duels of Fortune! Whether you're a fan of Decline's Drops, or just happy that the wait for a new character is over, you can get your gloves on and go play Globule right now, if you haven't already!
Speaking of the wait, though...
Where Have We Been?
Let's take some time to level with you guys a bit. We wanna be as transparent with you all as we can.
After the release of Master Locks, we stepped into 2025 with very high hopes. We knew that we were going to have more time than ever to work on the game this year, and we thought we knew how we were going to spend it. But, you know what they say about the best laid plans, right? Let's talk about what's happened, and why there's been such a long wait between new characters.
First, Ben's knee surgery, which we briefly mentioned in our last status update. First of all, the surgery went well, and he's been making a great recovery! Nothing to worry about there. However, the surgery also impacted Duels of Fortune's development a lot more than we expected. Since we knew that it was upcoming and that there would be a lengthy period afterward where development would be stalled, we didn't want to start any big, important things (like working on Globule) until after the surgery, so that they wouldn't be interrupted. It was a sound idea... while we still thought the surgery was in February. But of course, as our luck would have it, it kept on getting delayed. We were completely in the dark about exactly when it would happen until it finally took place at the start of April. So yeah, there was unfortunately just a long period where we didn't really feel like we could commit to anything important, which is why we instead spent a lot of that time working on the Fractured Fighters mode that was released in April. It was a fun distraction for us, but that's ultimately all it really was.
After that, though, we could actually start on the crossover content. Development on Globule properly began around mid-April, and we've been working on the update ever since. Characters don't normally take us over 3 months to finish, though -- and indeed, Globule has already been feature-complete since June, actually. Drazglb., the lead developer of Decline's Drops, wanted to have Globule's reveal be a part of the Decline's Drops Direct he was holding, and we had no reason not to accept. We knew we would love if something related to our game was became a big announcement for the Decline's Drops community as well! For any of you who may be coming to our game from the DD community because of that: Hello and welcome! Unfortunately, this plan required us to wait all the way until late July to finally release the character, even when she was already done for a while. We can only hope that she's been worth the wait for you guys!
As you can imagine, the long wait for the Decline's Drops Direct means we had a lot of downtime during this update cycle. So alongside the crossover content, we also took the time to tweak and refine a bunch of characters and system mechanics to improve the balance and feel of the game! It was some things we'd been wanting to address for a long time but never had a good opportunity to, like rethinking Callowman's overall design and toning down the maximum length and damage of combos. Overall, we feel the changes have been really healthy, and the flow of matches is better than ever before!
The update also features lots of new costumes, as well as new Missions and stages! It's an update so packed, we had to make a whole overview trailer just to show off everything we made! You can check that trailer out below if you missed it.
Also, if you want to keep up to date with future announcements, be sure to check out our Bluesky or Twitter (X) account. And if you wanna keep up with development AND hang out with the community, consider joining our official Discord as well!
So yeah, in case you were worried that something serious was going on, we're all good -- we just had several back-to-back cases of unfortunate timing! Now that Globule is released, though, we're hoping to get right back on track and return to our usual character-making schedule!
And on that note, let's take another look at that fighter roadmap!
Future Plans
The Next Fighter
Next up is a character (or rather, a pair of characters) that has been on the backburner for nearly 5 years now: the cosmic power couple Miko & Mira! These two will feature a setplay-based moveset that highlights their teamwork-oriented fighting style, so we're expecting them to be pretty technical! You'll be frequently calling Mira to attack, so you'll have to manage both Miko's position and the position of the floating star that Mira appears from!
While we don't have much to show for these soulbound lovers, as we haven't made a start on them in-game yet, here's some early concept sketches for some of Miko's attacks! He'll be making good use of his massive signature weapon to boast some serious range!
All of this is subject to change, of course, but hopefully this little teaser gets you excited for these two to make their debut! We're certainly very excited to get working on them!
Story Mode
Aside from that, there's the matter of Story Mode. While we don't have much to directly say about it just yet, we just wanted to let you all know that we're still making steady progress on it! We estimate the writing is about 75% done now, and we've also recently begun working on the cutscene system again.
While we're no longer 100% confident that the first handful of chapters will be playable in-game by the end of this year, mainly thanks to the multiple delays we've faced, we're hopeful that at most the wait won't be much longer beyond that! Because trust me, the amount of time it's taken pains the two of us just as much as it probably does you -- if not more!
And that brings us to our last point on future content, and it's perhaps a less happy one...
Scaling Back
Our desire to get Story Mode done and the game into a finished state is stronger than ever before. We want to focus all our energy on the important content from now on, and as a result, we've had to make some unfortunate sacrifices to our existing plans.
Most of the content we're scrapping is stuff that we hadn't revealed publicly anyway. Mainly some stages, bosses, and ideas for new singleplayer content. But, unfortunately, because of this we do have one piece of news that may be disappointing to hear: we have made the decision to delay Punching Bag until post-launch.
We understand this is probably a bit upsetting for some of you, as we know from our popularity poll last year that Punching Bag's playable debut was pretty highly anticipated. But truth be told, we've hit a bit of a roadblock with designing the little guy's moveset, and instead of scratching our heads over it, we'd currently rather put that energy into designing other fighters that are actually important to Story Mode.
Don't worry, this doesn't mean Punching Bag is gone forever! Like I said, he's just been delayed, not cut outright. While we can't promise anything, we can tell you that once the full game is released and Story Mode is complete, we'll do everything in our power to get him into the game in a playable form! Stay strong, Punching Bag fans! Your day will come!
Wrapping Up
With that, we've shared everything we can for now! If Globule looks like a fun character to you, then... well, what are you waiting for?! She's out right now! She's BEEN out, even! Go play her, and show us what kinds of crazy things you can do with her!
Thanks for reading and for being patient with us for all this time. Have a great day, and we'll talk to you again once the next major update is on the horizon! Hopefully it won't take 7 months this time!
- Ben and Kaleb