Welcome to devlog #10! Double digits! We're at a point where we have to be careful about what we reveal, but we've got a short character reveal and important details on the Arc 2 Alpha!
Character Reveal: Marlene Hammer
Before we start the overview, let's introduce one more character to the roster!
Marlene is a wild child coming from the slums of Harkford. Though others in the group are reluctant or even outright antagonistic about being drafted, she doesn't let anything get her down. The way she sees it — she's there to break something, anything. If she makes friends or helps the nation, that's an added bonus. Marlene knows where's she's from, she knows she's around people who look down on her, but she doesn't care.
Marlene is all about brawling with reckless abandon. Extreme aggression, high damage, less than stellar defenses. She solves her problems by hitting hard, and if that doesn't work? Simply hit harder. Many of her skills allow her to jump right into the action bypassing pesky things like terrain or distance. Her Inner Vision, Rush Hour, notably allows her to share the energy by enabling nearby allies to disregard the costs of terrain for the rest of the turn.
If you can believe it, the Arc 2 Alpha will actually contain 3 more characters than we've officially revealed for the roster. We've kept some reveals under wraps, but keep your eyes open for more surprises!
We're Coming Back to Turn-Based Thursday Fest!
The organizers of Turn-Based Thursday Fest have been gracious enough to include us again at Turn-Based Thursday Fest! For the uninitiated, this is a week long festival dedicated to turn-based indie games, with new reveals, demos, sales, etc!
You can view more about the event at: https://turnbasedfest.com/
If you're looking for more games like ours, we absolutely implore you to check out the festival starting on March 9th! The festival was a massive help to us last year and will most likely follow suit this year, so be sure to send love back to the the organizers!
Alpha Testing for Arc 2 Begins Soon!
We're happy to announce that we're starting alpha testing for the Arc 2 build next week! The rest of this post is mainly meant for those who pledged the Rocksolid Edition and above ($50 USD).
We intend to start alpha testing for Arc 2 starting on March 13th! Backers will be receiving additional information as we get closer to the date!
Our Priorities
Many aspects of the game have changed since the previous build. You can view a sneak peak of the documented changes here. There are quite a few changes, about 7 pages of them.
We're starting to really zero in on what makes Stratagem Lost fun. The previous testing builds gave people the opportunity to express what worked and what didn't, and we've adapted certain parts of the game's design and philosophies since then.
Arc 2 is a whole new chunk of the game, and one that starts to dive into Stratagem Lost's more unorthodox concepts, characters, and game design. Below are some important elements that we're looking out for at this stage of development.
This is the first build with bookmark saves. Players are encouraged to frequently use bookmark saves and report any complications that happen with them.
This is the first build with Color Palettes. Players are encouraged to use at least one Color Palette and to report any complications that arise from them.
Every character gets access to more Commands, Passives, and equipment the further that the game goes on. Players are encouraged to comment on which characters felt fun and balanced and which ones need some adjustments.
Players are encouraged to comment on map design, both for previous chapters and the new ones in Arc 2.
Like last time, note that save files from the alphas will NOT be compatible with beta builds. Furthermore, both alpha saves and beta saves will NOT be compatible with the eventual full release.
That should be everything that we wanted to cover before testing starts next week! Once again, we appreciate your help and support throughout all stages of development!
Thank you for your time,
-Smithy, Hybrid Fiction Games