Merry early Christmas and Happy New Year! Quick patch notes:

Added art to the Dragon fight\nAdded art to Trevor\nAdded art to multiple events node in arcade mode

Added new card level ups

Many normal cards got a change at level 4, where they are enhanced in some way. This round was all attack cards, and I got about half of them. The next batch will be the magic cards.

What\'s Next:

The next Update will be on 1/14/2026. It will be a big one!

Happy Thanksgiving!\n

This build finishes The Dragon story line with a boss fight. The art for the bosses cards didn\'t make it because of the holidays, but the fight is playable without them.

\nThis build added art to:\nConfrontation\nTower Foyer

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/1e4e62ca16bfb7495f312239a269f45a11753315.png\"][/img]

(Either of them could easily lift the wagon, but it\'s awkward to balance)

The combat rework continues, with more cards getting improved. My goal is for all basic cards to have a special upgrade at the III level. I also want to totally rework the boot items, so that they change what movement card is generated for the character or something equivalent. Lots of work to do!

What changed:

Added the Treasure Hunter story

Modified Heart to Hearts

Reworked combat

Added art to Fixed Wagon

Fixed several broken scenes

\n[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/58c484687386691fecc3f0093cc0b317cc8126a6.png\"][/img]

What happened:

Several scenes were broken and unplayable. They have been corrected. Thanks for the bug reports.

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Treasure Hunt was supposed to have a follow up story about the actual treasure hunt. That was forgotten and the story just moved on. It was very jarring how the story was left incomplete. Treasure Hunters adds the conclusion to that little tale.

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The theme and vibe of Heart to Hearts was inappropriate for this game. Its been corrected to be more in line with the rest of the game.

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Combat got a large rework. HP on characters was largely increased. Base damage was largely increased. Scaling damage on cards was reduced. As an example, Smite deals 6 damage, up from 4 damage. Smite IX now does 14 damage, down from a staggering 20 damage.

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What does this mean? Low level combat is basically unchanged. Characters take about the same same number of cards to kill as they used to. High level combat is no longer have armor or die instantly.

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Speaking of armor, armor was changed in this as well. Light armor now blocks more damage over all than heavy armor, but blocks a small amount each hit. Heavy armor blocks less overall, but can block entire hits. Super heavy armors gained the fleeting keyword, but block a lot.

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Whats next:

The card rebalancing is not yet complete. Armor needs more work. Traits like Tactical dont scale yet. Trainings dont scale yet.

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Upgraded cards are boring. We want to make them more exciting.

Here\'s what changed!\nAdded the Enter The Lair story\nAdded combat background\nAdded art to the The Third World story\nIncreased arcade mode difficulty\nLots of bug fixes, including the max level bug in arcade mode.\n\n

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/3a195716905f41a0f0d439d925cf32c304aefb86.png\"][/img]\nOur trust gray combat background has served us well, but it\'s time to add more color to the levels. We have a forest background and a sky background for world 4.\n\nArcade mode world 2 and 3 are harder than they used to be. Not too much, but it\'s possible to lose fights in them now.\n\nThe next update is going to be a huge one. Damage scaling is out of control in arcade mode. You should always take the max token weapons you can, and then melt your enemy. A gold token weapon card is literally 6 times more valuable then a normal weapon card. It\'s impossible to balance the game around this. I am going to flatten how attack cards gain damage.\n\nI\'m also going to change armor. Monsters will gain much better armor, but will also have the once keyword on their armor to prevent a stalemate. In general, armor will last as long as it used too, but will protect less per hit.

This update brought two big things.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/4b74fb34bd54cbb608d2ce814ff1fd8e099e51b4.png\"][/img]\n

The first is that the upper route of arcade mode world 3 got its final route. The player can now trek across the world. The nodes shouldnt be considered done. They need a lot of balance, but we have something on screen now. The worlds take a lot of effort to make. Making 25ish unique nodes, each with an alternate version takes around a hundred hours, and we have three world sets of that.

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We still have so much work to do in arcade mode, but its great to finally have the route in.

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The second is that Fallen Down has a problem. Lenette explains it best.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/b63eed9b940565608055da5a9be14637bada1643.png\"][/img]

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Cards explain their own rules well enough, but the final result of playing a card is very difficult to know. If a target has vulnerability, block, & armor with 3 durability, and stagger, how much damage will smite do? To fix this, Ive added damage predictions. Its a little UI piece over the heads of enemies before you attack. How does it work?

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/ae06e06bc88514c28f14394bb2b9189f80b95ed0.png\"][/img]\n[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/5ba8d3dbd980ca971c8b110980b0841b3d0d4ab6.png\"][/img]

Technically, Fallen Down is very complex. The card engine code to resolve attacks is thousands of lines of code, with callbacks leading to and fro across the code. The concept of unresistable armor damage like Wreck does is around 200 lines of code by itself\n

Attacks start and go across stages. During any stage, events will be raised and resolved.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/59dbe461612d06c07b7388e62010106020b8eaae.png\"][/img]\n

Pretty easy to understand and follow, right?

Many effects have a limited number of times they can be used. To see how much damage something is going to do without using up the effects or damaging armor, we need to be able to simulate an attack. There are many status effects, traits, and card effects that need to be able to look at a given situation and make a prediction about how much damage they will add or remove.

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Luckily, most things that need to make a prediction fall into a pattern. They need to know who is attacking, who is being attacked, and they can resolve the internal logic from there. Better yet, the really complicated things like Rosegas Guardian trait dont need this, because AI doesnt show predictions. As a result, I only had to change about 30ish classes instead of the possible 90ish.

0.0.50 is now live!\n\nFleshed out notes will be available in a few days. \n\nWhat\'s new in this build:\n\nAdded the \'Giant Skeleton\' plotline\nAdded combat damage predictions\nFinished upper route of world 3\n\n

Thanks to everyone who purchased Fallen Down when it launched into Early Access August 17. We couldn\'t be more proud of our latest game. \n\nWe\'ve already pushed the first of our content updates on September 4th. You can see the patch notes below:\n

• Added the \'Poetry Jam\' plotline

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• Added the \'Portal\' plotline

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• Added the \'Skeleton Way\' plotline

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[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/d4ff042849d2011787fd8cff757ddf6556c900b6.png\"][/img]

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/c08d8f35120842eb252a66935b511f1a9660392d.png\"][/img]

Beyond this, you can continue to expect content and storyline updates for Fallen Down every three weeks. Fallen Down is a growing and sprawling story adventure, and now\'s the best time to get started on the path. \n\nOur next update is planned for September 25th.

-Added Skeleton Way story\n-Added Portal story\n-Added Poetry Jam story\n-Fixed many minor bugs

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Early Access Is Almost Here Heres Whats Inside\\

Youve been waiting, and were almost ready to open the gates. Heres what you can dive into on day one of Early Access:

• Arcade Mode Fully playable, with new nodes and encounters being added regularly.

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• Story Mode Over 300k words of content to explore - a huge and continuing to expand story.

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While youre playing, well be working on:

• Furthering the story every 3 weeks

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• More art, polish, and new visual flourishes

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• Additional branching paths for Arcade Mode

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Your feedback will shape the final stretch. Tell us what works, what doesnt, and what you want more of.

\\Thanks for sticking with us.\\

Mercenary Mage Games

The wait is almost over. Were excited to announce that Fallen Down launches into Early Access August 17th.\n\nWhy Early Access?\n\nThe game is nearly feature complete, and will have a story spanning 300,000 words at the time of its Early Access debut, but thats just the beginning.\n\nEvery 3 weeks after Early Access - the story will continue to grow towards its conclusion. And as development progresses further, you can expect new encounters, CG art, enemy types, items, and so much more. \n\nWishlist Fallen Down now, and see you on the road August 17th.

[img src=\"https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/44677901/5924ffd228a4868bd1ab2265a2ef2f8c2b1df3e3.png\"][/img]

The biggest demo update has arrived. Many, many bug fixes. Many combat effects. Death effects. Many new art pieces in story mode.

The goal at this point is to pump advertising to reach a desired about of wishlists. As soon as that number is hit, we'll enter early access. We have a long way to go, but we are picking up speed as my entire efforts turn to marketing. Let's get this game seen by folks, so I can finally hit that enter early access button safely!

Demo update 2!

Highlights
New story system
Saving and loading during arcade
Point system for arcade progression
Battle effects
Battle quips
Minigames in arcade mode
Character ear system

Come hangout and see Fallen Down.

The Fallen Down Demo livestream! Come hang out and see the game live!