Welcome to the 3rd dev blog for "The Gambit Lost to Time". William here, as always. I am the Chairman to WizDream Games, essentially leading up this project.
It has been 2 months since the last dev blog. Honestly, there are so many things to talk about, both inside and outside of the game itself. To say the least, what happened outside of the game has facilitated changes within the game. Therefore, let's start this dev blog with what happened outside!
Boothing Experiences and Feedback
We brought our game to two different conventions, with very different audiences. Those being:
ChibiCon (Jakarta, 2-3 August 2025)
TableCon (Singapore, 23-24 August 2025)
These are not dedicated game conventions, but they provide us game developers with the opportunity to booth in them. Our decision (or rather mine, mostly...) to enter this is fueled by curiosity - are the main audiences of these conventions open to trying our game?
The answer varies. Nonetheless, the three main feedback we received were:
The game overexplains (many information unnecessarily explained)
The game's UI is too small
The game's core loop (Missions) can be shorter, less than the average of 15 mins we have per Maps
Along with various important feedback that have been discussed with the team, and will be implemented accordingly. On some good news, I was glad to hear that the game's visuals are not a problem quality-wise - which was strongly criticized before. We are very thankful to everyone for trying out the game, and for providing your feedback!
New Feature - Blessings
Bringing the "Roguelite" in the "Time-Travelling Roguelite Tactical RPG", the three cards you see should be enough to signify what we meant. A common problem we see in Tactical RPGs is that you know which units to invest towards, and which ones you shouldn't. Hopefully, what we bring with the Blessings allows every unit to be investable.
Aside from making them better, there's also the possibility to make them play differently!
New Feature - Time Spells
Now to bring out the "Time-Travelling" part, we have an array of "Time Spells" for the player to use. Ranging from the simple but effective "Second Wind", which grants an additional action to units that have already moved, to the landscape-changing (literally!) Chronoforming.
Gameplay-wise, it hasn't been too difficult to tie in the Time-Travelling aspects so far. However, many of the feedback we receive has been in regards to how we will tie it up to the game's story... Especially considering that it's the game's main theming. It's certainly going to be a tough one, but we are up to the task.
Beyond these two main features, we are in the process of testing the game's tutorials and revising it based on the feedback we received.
Visual Adjustments and New Assets
There's a lot to unpack here, so I'll divide it up into 3 subsections. Most of it is in regards to making sure we have everything required for a single faction, and then making it a reference point for the other factions.
Tundra Terrain
This is very similar to the previous screenshot with Time Spells. But anyways, it's home to the Tsardom of Winterbrand (which has so far been the only one properly tested as playable).
There are... a lot of things to digest over here, isn't it? As has been discussed previously, you may be able to see why we have received feedback regarding information overload from this picture alone. That's our homework to resolve before the next dev blog, and we are actively identifying the problems and solving them.
As we completed this terrain, we had a discussion on whether these changes are primarily cosmetic, or whether they should also affect the gameplay. In the case of the latter, other gameplay elements must also be altered to make this feature more impactful, and perhaps - something we can consider part of our game's unique identity!
The more important thing over here is that the asset qualities are closer to what we want to achieve visually. It may have taken us longer than expected, but I believe we are on the right track and it's certainly something to be happy with.
New Buildings
We also have new building types to show off. One is the Granary, the other is the Armory. The idea behind making these buildings is to make the player play differently on certain Maps. To keep in line with the feedback that we overexplain... it's best to test them ourselves first and let you know what they do later on!
Revised Winterbrand Town
Lastly, we have completed the revised Town assets for Winterbrand. This is how it looks like in its full glory, which shouldn't be what you can see early on. Between Missions, you can upgrade the Town so that you can recruit more and better units in the Missions, make your heroes better, and certain things that are specific to each factions!
New Project Timeline
With everything said and done, I would like to present you a revised Timeline for our project.
As we can see, the Steam Playtest will be delayed to October, while the Public Demo will be delayed to this December or January 2026. Once again, we would like to apologize for the delays... What we can assure you, is that we'll use the additional time to bring the best game possible to you. With our team, and all those helping us along the way, I can see a path towards it.
Moving on to other news, we have...
Rhythm Game Collaborations
For those of you who play rhythm games, you may have been aware of what's going on recently. To keep it short, we are happy to collaborate with rhythm games to implement our game's songs - and 6 rhythm games have implemented our opening theme "Recollection"!
WizDream Games "Circle of Sparks" (that's our game too!)
Wiseye Studio "Lily Fantasia"
GLACIA Studio "AnXiens"
Sutajio Studio & UOW Malaysia "Cyberdive"
BTWorks "Orzmic"
Noxy Games "Lanota"
You can also wishlist one of the games "Lily Fantasia" over here!
There are more rhythm games in the future that will implement the song and you know what? Your own rhythm game can be one of it too! Simply contact us at contact[at]wizdreamgames[dot]com and let's see what we can work out together!
However, please note that I may reject your request to implement the song for any reason. Possible reasons may include the game's unsuitability (due to contents that are not to our liking), malicious intent, etc. To make it clear here at least: A written permission from us is required to implement the song.
The last 3 collabs (Cyberdive, Orzmic, Lanota) were out this month and supposed to be implemented alongside our public demo and failing that - at least a Steam Playtest. Sadly, we achieved neither at this point in time.
With major milestones (such as the aforementioned public demo, etc) still upcoming, we'll coordinate with you on the best time possible to implement the song in your game. Let's have the game's songs be heard in as many games possible, making it reach to all people around the world!
Closing Words
That's all we have for this dev blog. In regards to playtesting schedule, GDJ (GameDev Jakarta) should be having a playtest session in September, so I'll be sure to bring the game to fellow developers to test, validate, and work on all actionable feedbacks before bringing it to you.
We are committed to bringing the best game possible to you, and we thank you for your patience in waiting for our game. Please continue looking forward to it, as always!