Once again, the Stars are Right over homa and unun. Trawel is changing.

The new major beta version, v0.8.X, (the X is expected to change as the update is iterated on) will be open for public testing during August. If interested, please submit feedback on the steam forums here or in the Github Issue tracker.

If you are unsure how to opt-into a Steam beta, follow this community guide.

This Trawel update will focus on modernizing and re-'gutting' the entire game. Trawel was designed to be a lot simpler than it ended up being, and internal growing pains were starting to become apparent.

Here at realDragon (or rather, dragon and friends), we decided to take this as an opportunity to replace core systems, such as attacks, equipment, skills, and the like.
Most of these systems have similar outward expressions at first, but the allowed depth has been vastly increased, so you should find that their mechanics have become a lot more meaningful.

More concisely put, these things will look similar but be more impactful, in both the short and long run.

Other systems are receiving more total reworks, such as the skill system and the 'Exotic Art' implementation, which are being fleshed out as an 'archetype' system, combining both the multiclass concepts into a more classless-oriented outcome.

The graphical is also planned to switch engines for a variety of reasons, which should help the ability to update it and the art in the future. The art style is also expected to change.

Here are some WIPs of a potential style.



Have you ever really looked at your sword? Like, really looked at your sword.

Note that this will likely be revised as the 'cuts' for 'paper dolling' (layering the images on top of each other) are settled under the new swapping and layering methods.

The art/graphical update is not expected to be completed by the time the mechanics of this beta hit stable. Due to the unique data format of Trawel, the old graphical will likely have partial support even after the new one releases.

The Beta will be able to be found on the standard beta branch, which you can access from the game properties menu in Steam. The current version of Trawel has been added as a 'legacy archive' branch, as it is expected there will be at least some breaking changes in how the Graphical and Text portions of the game interact. Most versions of the game can somewhat handle mismatches between the two, and it is possible that the old Graphical won't be updated, but will still work, in which case that branch might receive gameplay updates.

HOWEVER, go forward with the expectation that the old graphical will no longer work past late August, as that is the earliest time the new graphical might release.

Regional prices have also been updated to match platform guidelines shortly prior to this announcement, as stated in the previous news post.
In some regions, the price increases were substantial.
These prices were set automatically back when the price of the game was halved, and have been set automatically once more.

You can view the last committed changed on the source-available github, which has 'nightly' progress, but not stable builds. The github also has an experimental project roadmap.
The Beta is expected to receive an update 1-2 times per week, or more if major errors occur.

Patch notes are also here.