Dramatic title!
Hi there! Merry April to everyone. I'm glad to see you all! It's been a while since I wrote one of these.
I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed writing them!
It's going to be difficult to summarize what's changed, so I'm not going to do it! Here's what happened!
Shaders Begone
Some time ago, we got some help from an art director. They looked at the game and said: "Your stylized cards look fine, but there is no need to stylize the WHOLE world". I'm paraphrasing wildly, and that's what I probably would have said, but it got me. So we took the shaders out. Instead of having a "Realistic 3D game with stylized shaders", we now aim to have a "realistic 3D game". Which, to be fair, is way easier to achieve in a game engine, as modern art pipelines and processes are designed to do exactly that. Here is how it looks now!
I mean, it's a lot less heavy on the eyes, ain't it?
Game Rebalanced
I always like to distill card games into "what can I get for one resource". In our previous system, where each card dealt a single point of damage, we could get "1/2" damage per resource spent. I didn't like that. Cards now deal at least 1 damage on average per resource spent. And since at the Tavern, cards are resources… It's 1 damage per card. So a card that costs 1 to play is using two cards. So it should deal 2 damage or an equivalent. This meant buffing most of the player cards to get the math right. But we lagged in buffing enemy cards. So right now the game might feel a bit unbalanced... So let us know how that goes for you.
Cards got VFX & SFX
Some cards (not all yet) got some cool sound and visual effects added! They speak for themselves!
Go play a run with blue cards to hear that sweet thunder.
We are working on a new map.
The current map is fine. It captures some of the essence of the game. Tactical combat and some cool decisions on what to do with narrative event resources. But that's not everything we want the game to do. We want you to explore, discover, and try new paths and combinations of the rewards that you can get across the world. That's why we are working on a better map. One that's a little bit... bigger! This also meant reworking the narrative event system, because a bigger map requires more content, more variety, and the code wasn't ready for such versatility. While the map is not ready yet, we are working on the visuals and brought you a sneak peek of what's to come!
All narrative nodes will contain unique interactions with local and wandering NPCs!
The Innkeeper is getting a new look. (WIP!)
We've struggled with him for a while. Our current model has had some technical issues with the clothing, the mask, and the rigging. The 3D artist is redoing him. So it's not that he will get a COMPLETELY new look, but rather a reimagining of how they look now. I personally look forward to it. Sadly, there is no sneak peek for this one. THIS IS THEIR OLD LOOK:
We are definitely not priming you for when we reveal his new not-spectacular look (which will probably look mostly the same but will be easier to work with!)
What's on the horizon?
We see a demo somewhere in the future, a new trailer, and playtesting events. So if that's your cup of tea, make sure to join us on your platform of choice. Here is the link to our socials, so you can follow us wherever you feel most comfortable!
We are on Bluesky & X too!
We recently set up our socials and have been more active there! If these are your platforms of choice, feel free to follow us there!
And finally, if you know someone who might like our game, share it with them! Spread the word!