Hey everyone!
A few things to cover this time around, so let me just get into it.
The game has a new name
Match Morphosis is now Match Morphosis: Match-3 Roguelike.
Not a dramatic change, but an intentional one. The old name told you nothing about what kind of game this is before you clicked on it. Someone browsing Steam who has never heard of it would have no idea if it was a puzzle game, a narrative game, or something else entirely. Adding the subtitle means the moment it shows up in a search or a list, people already know what they are getting into. It should help the right players find it more easily, which is the whole point.
Matching has been reworked
This is the bigger one.
Previously, matching was limited to pieces of the same type. That put a hard ceiling on how many different pieces you could realistically run in a single build before things started working against each other. Ideally a 8x8 board of match-3 has a maximum of 5 different type to match in order to make the match still satisfying and juicy, previously with 7 maximum types, every time player add a new piece it almost feels like making the game harder.
That ceiling is gone now. Matching is now based on category, differentiate by color and shape (5 in total, which "accidentally" coincides with the amount of forms you could use :D), which means you can match across types!
A lot more combinations become valid, and more importantly, there is no longer a limit on how many different pieces you can bring into a run. If you want to run a wide board with a ton of variety, the game will not punish you for it the way it used to, and making the match still feels satisfying.
This one change opens up a lot of build space. I am genuinely curious what you all come up with.
New pieces
Alongside the matching rework, there are a ton of new pieces added to the pool. More options to play around with, more things to discover, more ways to find a combo that feels completely broken until the game reminds you it is not.
New enemy intents
Four new intents for enemies: Meltdown, Hazard, Scorch, and Obliterate. Each one changes how you have to think about your turn order and what you prioritize, and punish a certain type of build. Some of these will hurt if you ignore them. You will figure out which ones quickly.
Chronicles
This one has been sitting in the back of my mind for a while. After each run, you now unlock a chronicle. This is where the actual story of the game lives. I did not want to front-load narrative in a way that interrupts the gameplay loop, so chronicles are the way I chose to handle it. Play, unlock, read at your own pace. The more you play, the more you uncover.
Events
Classic roguelike events are in. You walk into a room, something happens that is not a fight, and you have to make a choice. Simple as that. If you have played Slay the Spire or anything in that vein, you know the format. These add a bit of texture and decision-making outside of combat, and some of them will matter more than they first appear. A new spin to this take is different events are "connected" on the run that you take, some events are episodic rather than one off.
About Perks
Sorry, perks are not in this update. I know I mentioned them last time. They are still being worked on, along with run modifiers, and I want to make sure they are integrated properly before they go in. I would rather take the time to do it right than ship something that does not hold up. More on that in the next update.
That is everything for this one. As always, feedback is welcome here or in the Discord. If you have been waiting to try the game, the public demo is still live on Steam. And psst there is another web playable demo that you could play directly available somewhere, not sure if it's ok to advertise it here in steam, but it's somewhere on the internet with a quick google search.
As always, join us on discord https://discord.gg/PXDWcuPtWx
See you in the next one.
~ Ernes