Hey guys!

Finally, after 4 months of development, 0.36.0 is here! I'm sorry for not finishing it sooner, but while I didn't have a dayjob, I started putting lots of new features into the game. Once I had one again, my free time shrank and polishing and testing all these new features took a looong time. Before I would begin: if you'd like to get instant access to the playtest then all you have to do is join my Discord server! Just hit me up and I'll grant you access. I'd love to hear you feedback! :) Here's a quick summary: Now you can end your turn, which works just as it does in other deckbuilders, and there is also a health system called "reputation". Quests appear every few turns, offering rewards or punishing unmet demands. Between levels, you can trim your deck or recover reputation. The update also improves tutorials, settings, and visual clarity. Hope you like the changes, let me know what you think. :) Anyway, here are the changes in detail:

Reworked Turn System

• Like in other roguelikes, now there is an end turn button which discards all cards in your hand and draw you 5 new ones. This gives me more opportunities game design wise and players will have one less thing to learn due to being already familiar with this system.
• Due to this change, card selling is now removed and drawing card is only possible once per turn. (but it became much cheaper)

Reputation System

• Functions similarly to a health system: you have 3 "health", lose it all, and you lose!

Quest System

• Every third turn, your people have a task for you. Sometimes they instantly tell you their wishes, sometimes you have to claim the tile first on which a golden exclamation mark appeared.
• Completing a task gives you various rewards, though right now it's either resources or a card into your hand. But a task is only available for a given duration.
• Every second task is a demand. It gives you no reward, instead you lose reputation if you not complete it in time.

Removing cards from your deck

• After every level, now you have the option to remove a card from your deck.
• Before every level, now you have the option to either remove a card from your deck or restore a reputation.
• I know this feels a bit clunky right now, but these were needed features and it couldn't wait till I implement a proper, branching node selection screen, like in Slay the Spire or other roguelikes.

Tutorial System Rework

• When you run the game for the first time, instead of going through a series of "lecturing" levels, now you immediately jump into a normal run/session and these helpful tutorial texts appear as you play and discover the features.

New Settings

• Basic graphics settings! No quality settings yet, but you can already change resolution, window mode, refresh rate, VSync, etc.
• Mouse and scroll sensitivity settings! Sorry guys for taking this long...
• Now that settings became quite big, it was necessary to implement tabs. So all new and previous settings are now grouped neatly into tabs like Controls, Gameplay, Graphics or Audio.

Improved Card Adding Screen

• All offered cards are lame? If that's the case now you can grab a pile of resources instead!
• Can't remember what cards are in your deck? Now you can inspect it while choosing, so you can make the best decision. (Map inspect is coming too!)

Improved Highlighting

• Unusable cards are now desaturated for better distinction. Now it's clear which cards are usable right now.
• Tile highlighting has now a better color palette, because previously e.g. the green tile highlights were hard to see over plains or forests.
• Highlighting now also includes outlines! Some tiles' highlight were hard to see with all the trees or buildings on it, so now they are outlined.
• Also, tiles no longer rise from the ground: I think highlighting is good enough now and this immersion breaking feature became a bit redundant.

Other changes

• Discord Rich Presence: now your friends can see which level are you right now.
• Some other systems have also been in development, but they are not yet visible to the players. This is because they are kind of "empty" as of now. But they are working for sure, for example the game now has localization, statistics and achievement system! Before the Steam Demo I'll add extra languages, all kind of stats and achievements, so stay tuned!
• And obviously lots of smaller fixes and polishes, algorithm fine tuning, etc, you know how it goes.

Next, I'll be working on adding some goals and meta progression so players will feel the urge to start a new run! :) Once again, thanks for sticking around, and let me know what do you think about these new, big changes, I would really appreciate it. As always, join my Discord server, just hit me up and I'll grant you instant access to the playtest! I'd love to hear you feedback! Thanks for reading, and have a nice week! :) Tudvari a.k.a. Portgate Studios

[ 2025-04-20 08:06:55 CET ] [ Original post ]