We're happy to update the Near Mint demo to show what we've been working on for the last few months.
Great progress has been made on a third biome, with dangerous foes and a terrifying boss, and new cards for other heroes. These will be part of the game's release, so we won't take too much time on it here.
Your feedback has been of great help — we gathered it on the official Discord, on the Steam forums, and through DMs and forms from playtesters. We're delighted that the demo has been so well received, and impressed that some of you played over 5 or even 10 hours with only 2 heroes and 2 biomes. We wanted a game with high replayability and interesting synergies, and you've shown us we're on the right track.
That said, some players had difficulty grasping the complexity of torn cards, and the game lacked features to help you learn. One of our focuses was on User Experience — ways to teach features intuitively, feedback what's happening, and prevent player mistakes — and Quality of Life: a lot of small features to make the whole thing more enjoyable.
We also wanted to update how combat is presented visually. We want it to do justice to our Dark Fantasy universe and the characters that inhabit it, so the camera now has a more immersive view. We've also updated some colors, models, and UI.
UX & Quality of Life
Life loss and gain are now displayed on the unit that's been damaged or healed
New feedback when damage is blocked
Some relics and status triggers now display their source when affecting units (dealing damage, adding status)
New UI feedback for relics:
When they have active and inactive states
When they need a count of an event, or have a limited use per turn or combat
Cards now play automatically when in the center area
The default setting has a small delay before playing, but you can set it to instant
You can revert to the previous manual mode in the settings
You can now select all fragments of a card at once, in two ways:
Right-clicking a fragment places the entire card in the center area
Clicking the area beneath the card places the entire card in the center area
New settings to disable shaders and screen shake
Save file format entirely reworked
Saves will be created from scratch, even if you played the demo in May
Save files are lighter
The new format will be resilient to future updates
Added sub-windows to some descriptions that need context (defining a status or a game mechanic)
New feedback when you try to draw with a full hand
New feedback when the Grave Dweller shuffles your deck
New feedback for the Concentration mechanic
New feedback for the Parry status
New feedback when a card cannot be played
New feedback when a relic cannot be bought in the shop because of your current relic capacity
Multi-attacks now play a single, smoother animation
Added a "Take All" button after combat rewards
Added a feedback form link to the main menu
Features & Bugs
Changed the camera view, from side view to a shoulder perspective
Added camera movements when enemies play
New fragments and cards for both the Verdigris Paladin and the Forlorn Stalker
You can discover them by playing the game
Updated some relics
Reworked how rewards are distributed:
Some cards and relics are more likely to appear at the start of a biome
Cards and relics that need setup to shine are less likely to appear early in a run
Added a Reroll button to some reward selections
It costs Ossicles, a currency you gain by skipping rewards (unlocked after a few runs)
Available in "Pick a Card", "Pick a Relic", "Upgrade a Card", "Switch a Fragment", and "Remove a Card"
The first run with the Verdigris Paladin now uses a smaller pool of cards and relics, to give new players simpler synergies
The "discard synergy" package unlocks on the third run
"Remove a Card" reward no longer picks random cards — it now targets cards with the lowest overall tier. It should be a better choice to take, not a gamble
"Upgrade a Card" reward now tries to draw a card with the maximum number of upgradable fragments, so you always have a meaningful choice
Updated art assets:
The Verdigris Paladin has a new look
Both biomes have been updated with more contrasted colors
UI has been refreshed
Remaining effects on the stack are now played out when combat ends
If you find bugs or have feedback, you can share them on the discord: https://discord.com/invite/cUAk3g44Gr