Hello,
The Closed Beta has started and we have seen more than 5K Soul Shards matches happen since the 27th. The participation of the community has been awesome since it started, and we want to thank you all for playing our still very bugged and incomplete game! If you are having problems with the game or have some feedback, please don't hesitate to reach to us.
If you want to join the beta you can grab a key here: https://www.alienwarearena.com/ucf/show/1894359/boards/contest-and-giveaways-global/Giveaway/soul-shards-exclusive-closed-beta-key-giveaway
As usual, We've been gradually patching the game, and we thought this a good time to share what we have been working on since the last update!
Help us with the testing!
We would love to have your help in testing some key features. For each feature you test, we would love to have your specific feedback about that feature:
- Participate in the Home Defense Tournament: Create the toughest Home Defense you can come up with and share it with the community. Several players have taken the lead and their home defenses are looking awesome!
- Nightmare Game Mode: Players have been doing great progress in advancing through the depths of the Nightmare game mode! Show us who can get farthest!
- Multiplayer: Join us on Discord (https://discord.gg/M3q3Zbb) and play with matches with us! Multiplayer is a lot of fun!
New Features and Content Updates
- Multiplayer services are enabled: We have decided to make our multiplayer services available at all times.
- Matchmaking Discord Bot: We have configured a match making bot that notifies the Discord community if a player is queued for multiplayer.
- Leaderboards: We have introduced Leaderboards for the 3 main game modes: Nightmare, Home Defense and PvP.
- New Card Design: We have introduced a new card design. This is still work in progress, but we thought even if not completely finished the new one already surpasses the old one, so we decided to make it available.
- Mirage/Unstable balance tweaks: Mirage cards with the unstable ability have been adjusted. Before the patch, cards with the unstable ability were able to bring back mirages at a disproportionate rate. Also there's now an upper limit of 500 Unstable counters per player.
- Second Wind no longer deals damage in nightmare: Nightmare matches will get more difficult as level progresses and it makes no sense to penalize players with this damage over time.
User Interface Changes
- Improvements to the Deck Selection Menu: There are multiple improvements to the deck selection menu, where the user can select difficulty, select a deck and start a match. This menu contains now tons of information about the game mode, leaderboards, ranking, progression, quests, rewards and power ups depending on the game mode.
- Score Widgets: For the single player modes you can now check how each match contributes to your global score in the leaderboards. The score widget is automatically shown after a game finishes.
- Tooltips: We want to continue improving on how easy it is to understand the game. We keep adding tooltips to as many UI elements as possible to explain their functionality.
- Multiplayer lobby abandon button: Players no longer have to wait until a multiplayer match is available or until they enter the queue. An abandon button is now available to leave the multiplayer lobby at any time.
- Added new control settings: Added two new settings to control Look Sensitivity and to Invert Y Axis.
- Added card selection shortcuts: 1,2,3 and 4 keys now work as shortcuts to select the corresponding deck slots in the battle deck.
- Added rewards menu item to main menu.
- Removed play button from quests screen: In the previous version we allowed to play the game directly from the quests screen. This has been removed because it was not very accurate (i.e. the player might not be completing the intended quest). This feature might return in a future with a slightly different form.
- Added status to quests screen: Added status text (failed, completed, in progress) to quests in the quests screen.
- Intro Video: The story teaser has been added when the game starts to give the users more context on the game lore.
Bug Fixes
- Multiplayer queue bug fix: Fixed multiplayer queue that prevented starting any multiplayer match.
- Tutorial typo fixes: Community members kindly provided pointers to several typos and text errors through the application.
- Player Provisioning fixes: We had several players that were unable to play the game because of user provisioning issues. The issues have been fixed and we welcome the players in this situation to try again.
Thanks for joining the community in this early phase. Your contribution (testing and feedback) is what will make this a great game! And remember, you can join us on Discord (https://discord.gg/M3q3Zbb) to get more information and updates!
Soul Shards Dev Team.