Abalon Arena's First Public Demo Now Live for Steam Next Fest!

Greetings D20Studios fans and to our new community members!

I'm Ross Przybylski, the founder of D20Studios and the developer of the Abalon series of fantasy strategy games. Today, I'm super excited to announce the release of our first public demo for Abalon Arena that will run for the duration of the Steam Next Fest and through the following week for Steam's Remote Play Festival.

You're in for something special

Abalon has been in development since 2016 and has been driven and supported by player feedback since its inception. Prior to that, I launched our first multiplayer game, Hero Mages, back in 2009. My career long goal has been to capture the essence of what makes playing table RPGs, miniature tactics games and card strategy games so much fun and streamline it into an accessible experience that you can jump into with your friends quick and share epic moments together! I hope our demo brings you this enjoyment and leaves you feeling excited for the great potential of what's still to come. I want to hear from you and learn how I can make this game the best it can be.

About the Demo

Our Next Fest demo focuses on our custom game lobby feature:[olist]

Any player can create or join game rooms on our multiplayer server.

Up to 4 players can play at a time, in 1v1, 2v2, FFA in both PvP and coop against the bots.

Your room "vibe" is your way of signaling the kind of experience you want, whether you're a beginner looking to play other newbies or a pro looking for competitive matches. Or maybe you just want to try out some custom, player made maps.

Each room generates a unique 5 letter code. Invite your friends to play by sending them this code. Join a friend's game using the "Join with Code" option.

Up to 40 players can join a game room as a spectator. The game host can swap in/swap out spectators to join the next battle in the lobby screen.

If you want a private, friends-only experience, you can provide a password when creating your game room.[/olist]

All Cards Unlocked

We're aiming for a premium experience with Abalon Arena - no F2P gimmicks like loot boxes or randomized boosters. I want players focused on being creative and theory crafting the best strategies -not stressing about with FOMA for limited events or having to get that one rare card to complete their perfect deck. I do think players will enjoy a progression / card unlock experience for the full the game (i.e. you unlock cards as you play matches) because it adds that nice sense of advancing and reward. However, I didn't have time to implement such a system for the demo, so you'll get to play upfront with all the cards unlocked, which is just all the better for helping us get some initial balancing insights before we officially launch.

Custom Deck Creation

We've provided a set of All-star teams ready to play out the box with some great synergies. But, you're welcome and encouraged to get creative and think outside the box by building your own teams.

To the battlefield!

Four player 2v2 matches are epic! Come join in on the fun. You have your choice of turn timer (unlimited, 2 min, 1 min) but I highly recommend 30 seconds for these larger games to keep the flow going.

What's Not in the Demo

Abalon Arena is pretty feature packed for the launch, but I didn't have a chance to get every feature included. Here's what not's not in the demo:[olist]

AI 3.0 Engine - Our Next Fest demo is running our 2.0 AI engine - so you're likely to see some weird AI behavior and maybe some sync errors, too. Rest-assured, MAJOR improvements are coming to the AI engine. In the meantime, let us know what kind of whacky things you see it do by reporting in game -> Menu -> Share Feedback. This will build test cases I can use to improve.

Async Multiplayer - This is a pretty big one that I think will be key to ensuring you can always reach a fellow player, online or off, and is coming soon but not in the demo yet.

Cooperative Ladders - The ladders are Arena's singleplayer/co-op campaign experience. Effectively, these are chains of fights (i.e. gladiatorial tournaments) in which you battle together, carrying over health and artifacts earned between fights to defeat an ultimate boss. Not in the demo yet, sorry!

Battle Log - This will eventually be a panel on the right side HUD that shows a list of all the actions/cards played.

Ranked PvP

Leaderboards

Achievements[/olist]

Join Our Community

Thanks for reading - and I'd like to close with an invitation to join our community and become an active player in shaping the future of Abalon Arena. Join our Discord, share in game feedback, and post on our Steam community page. Here's a link to our Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios It's a great place to find fellow players and use our voice channel to get some big community games and tournaments going. Thanks for checking out our game. I'll see you on the battlefield! ~Ross

[ 2024-02-05 18:26:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Abalon Arena
D20Studios, LLC

Developer

D20Studios, LLC

Publisher

1970-01-01

Release

Action Indie Strategy Casual RPG Adventure Simulation F2P Sports MMO Racing Singleplayer Multiplayer Coop EA

Combine Cards to Unleash Cascading Chaos!

We've spent the past decade collaborating with players to create the most outlandish and compelling interactions, guaranteed to leave a lasting impression long after the battle is over. Win or lose, you'll discover something new each time and have a few good laughs as well.

Hurl a squirrel at your opponent. Transform it into a super human hulk squirrel. Breed an army of super human hulk squirrels!

Just a handful of possible synergies from the Nature spell school.

With over 400 tactically distinct cards, there's a wild, original combination to be had to suit any play style.

Combine any two of 5 Magic Schools

Unleash unspeakable evils and raise an army of the dead with Void magic.
Destroy your enemies and burn the entire forest down with Chaos magic.
Buff up the ultimate warrior and even manipulate time itself with Celestial magic.
Control the battlefield with counter spells, redirects, and mind-altering Arcane magic.
Evolve creatures into monsters, plant traps and create insect swarms with Nature magic.

Tactics Matter Like Never Before!

Abalon Arena takes you to a world beyond the cards to a tactical battle grid where your position, facing and environment will make the difference between victory and bitter defeat.

Wield shields to block attacks from the front.
Backstab with assassins to deal massive amounts of damage.
Knockback enemies into your allies to trigger devastating combo attacks.
Use terrain to your advantage: take cover behind boulders, push enemies into a poisonous spore pod, and even transform trees into Treants to fight for you!

Beefy characters can knock enemies into your allies to trigger bonus combo attacks.

Features

Characters and Cards

20 Heroes to choose from including a squirrel hurling druid, a life sucking liche king, a time-traveling steampunk rat, and a psychic lizard wizard! Each hero has unique abilities and can command two of the five magic schools.
48 Guardians that you can mix and match to create powerful synergies with your hero, spells, and summoned units. Each party has two guardians.
Over 400 cards from which to build your dream team! No commons to dust or gacha mechanics. Each card is tactically distinct and offers unique play-style advantages.

Multiplayer

PvP Ranked Matches where the most skilled players shall inevitably climb to the top of the leaderboards for fame and glory!
2v2 Team Ranked Battles where you and a friend work together, till death or victory!
Casual Battle Mode to test out your wildest deck creations and have a good laugh with fellow players.
Real-time turn-based multiplayer battles are fast, fluid and fun! We've clocked them at seven minutes on average, densely packed with jaw dropping plays, sudden twists, and nail biting cliffhangers.
Asynchronous turn-based multiplayer guarantees you'll always have a real human opponent waiting to play. Take your time to plan your perfect turn, then sit back and wait for the notification to get your daily dose of battle action on your time.
Custom Lobbies grant the freedom to set up your own game modes, invite friends, and engage in friendly rivalries.
Spectator Mode allows you to watch competitive matches in real-time and learn techniques from the top players.
Instant Replay lets you save and share your greatest gaming moments.

Single Player

Endless Arena offers increasingly difficult challenges where you play solo or cooperatively to defeat onslaughts of enemies and powerful bosses to climb the arena leaderboard.
Artificial Intelligence that fights and flees for its life like any human player! Our third generation AI aims to put your skills to the test, whether you're teaming up with or fighting against your silicon friend.
Undo that accidental mis-click and test out how your combos play out with confidence thanks to our handy Undo button. This is a battle of wits, not a test of your reflexes.

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Ubuntu 20.04
Processor: 64-bit
Graphics: 512 MB

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