🎨 New unit art 🎨
Some of you may have already noticed that 2 weeks ago the units received a major graphical overhaul. Over time new skins and colours will be added to the game and they will be unlockable in various ways! I know that a lot of you play on simple graphics mode and similar customisation features will also be supported there in time as well.
🔥 Full Animations! 🔥
The huge change released today are new animations (and additional sounds) for basically every effect in the game!
Previously only a small amount of effects had any visualisation at all, everything kind of just happened invisibly and it was very difficult to understand what was happening in the game. Now each effect is clearly visualised: what it does, where it came from, where it is going and when it happened.
Even veterans of the game will find this change incredibly helpful, I myself have been surprised many times how certain mechanics were working behind the scenes. Also: it’s more fun to see things move around!
At this point the limit of what can be achieved graphically with the game has been reached and there is no future graphics work planned. There will be improvements here and there, especially to the UI, but from here on the main focus is gameplay! With the animation system done this opens a lot of doors for effects that would have been impossible to have before!
📅 Timeline 📅
I also think we’re long overdue on a timeline of the future of the game. They are not in a specific order but they are all planned for the near future.
Game-related:
- Local engine evaluation for singleplayer modes (this will improve engine play by 100x)
- New gameplay content (redesign of reinforcements mechanic + new class)
- Balance changes (Assassin lance+rook combo, your days are numbered :P)
- Non-AFK mode (play the chess part yourself vs the AI/other player)
Community/Marketing-related:
- Steam page will receive a massive overhaul with new artwork and trailer to match the current state of the game.
- Goal to participate in various indie game festivals this year to build larger community.
- Host a multiplayer tournament with prizes, more details soon!
See you in the Arena ⚔️ 👋