It's the November Neowsletter! Unsurprisingly, work continues on Slay the Spire 2. Though we're not quite ready to reveal gameplay footage yet, let's have a sneak peek at some quality of life and UI changes that come with StS2. Do keep in mind that the Early Access release is still a bit off (it's not going to be released January 1, 2025). Any screenshots and the contents within are a work in progress.

Shinier Shinies

Okay, so it sounds obvious, but rare things should be shiny! Working in a fancier game engine allows us to make effects easier so that's been fun. VFX work is behind as it's lower priority and rarely introduces bugs (we tend to work on scarier/buggier things first) but I felt inspired .
I warned you about work in progress; these two new cards have already been reworked...

Map Changes

One day, I tried playing Slay the Spire on my phone and it was hard to click on the little icons on the map. Differentiating some of the room types was also quite hard on these tiny screens. As I don't play video games on the phone, I wasn't aware of this... until now (or about 4 years ago, to be exact). So we slapped some color on there and bumped up the size of the icons. There's a Colored Map mod for Slay the Spire 1. Somebody showed me that you can also draw on maps and I said, That's a fun idea. Let's steal it. That's right modders, that's what you get for not filing Game Mechanic Patents (that is a joke, don't actually do that).

Top Bar Changes

Sure, this is in the screenshots of the game but there are some small changes here. The height of the bar has gone from 64px -> 80px. That's a 25% increase in hitbox size for things in the top bar, making it easier to select potions, open the map, etc. We also made it less wordy. Goodbye names, people were censoring their names in screenshots anyways. We like privacy too! There will be more things in this top area but for now, keeping it nice and roomy feels good. Oh oops, let's censor these relics for now
The icon next to the stair icon indicates what type of room you're in

Run Info Panel

A nice little pop-up to let you know what run you'll be continuing! Neato.

Enemy Preview Time

This month we show off a cute little gummy bear looking creature. How adorable :). We hope everyone will love this cutie. Definitely not an enemy that will upset you in the future.

Translators Update

We're starting to onboard some translators but it's been a bit slow as it's the season of sickness. Apologies for the lack of response to many of you. The amount of responses to the localization sign up form has been quite a lot more than expected. This has been great, but a lot of work. I'm trying my best! As some non-English speakers will noticethis Neowsletter is translated on Steam! Wahoo!! How do you translate "Wahoo"? Also, we're also getting some translations of our previous Neowsletter up as well :). If that's been helpful do let us know, even if we can't read your comments (lol).

So Much Merch

Ok, now Demis section begins! First things first, weve got some big merch drops to tell you all about!
This plushie of The Champ may be tiny, but he is also MIGHTY!! Hes also VERY limited edition; theres less than a week left on the campaign, so be sure to grab your own from Makeship here before November 12!
Also, The Yetee recently released a bunch of stickers, including sticker sheets of EVERY relic in the game and some very boss-looking boss stickers! And (as their namesake would imply) the drop also includes a t-shirt, featuring Neow and the Corrupt Heart in a metal concert tee style! Get your hands on these and lots of other items from our Yetee collection here.

StS Connections

Another Neowletter, another Slay the Spire Connections puzzle! Last months was on the easier side, so lets see if we can up the difficulty rating a little with this one

Community Roundup

If you tuned in last month, youd know that we just held our annual Mega Crit-or-Treat event! We got LOTS of spooky submissions via Discord and Twitter, and while we couldnt possibly show them all, here are just some of the highlights of what our community created last month!
Another resplendent rendition of The Ironclad in his fiery, spooky Demon Form by @JoQuerol
A very cute illustration of a Halloween costume party at the Spire by @chizifsd
A super detailed Ironclad cosplay, featuring a belt of homebrewed potions and glowing eyes by TheGuyFromThatThing Thats it for this Neowsletter, tune in next month for more details on this years Mega Critmas event and, as always, more behind-the-scenes looks at Slay the Spire 2s development!

Happy spooky month everybody :) As fall descends upon us and I'm eating strange mushrooms found in the forest, we're still hard at work on Slay the Spire 2. This month, let's touch on the art direction and how we're planning on changing things up when working on our sequel. But first, a brief progress update.

Slay the Spire 2 Dev Update

September was a festive month as some of us got together to meet in Seattle, WA during PAX West. However, this meant that everyone got COVID so I'm not sure if that was worth it. Three of us work out of an office and we're moving offices. Only a mile away, but a move is a move. Besides those drawbacks, we're still focused on getting core content into the game. Content like REDACTED and also REDACTED. There have also been significant changes to REDACTED. Interestingly enough, we implemented in-game patch notes so you'll be able to visit the archive of changes one day! All of our secrets and development pacing will be revealed. Now that a lot of the tools for our trailer editor is complete, there's clean up happening for our core VFX.

On Aesthetics Driving Game Design

Last month we discussed why we're working on a sequel instead of adding on to Slay the Spire 1 and this week we're diving into the visual changes we're bringing in! While we hinted at this topic briefly in the past Neowsletter, let's look into what the problems were with the visual style. The first and most important one was that I'm (Casey) bad at art. Now, being bad at art doesn't necessarily mean bad at drawing or having poor taste. It's that I haven't spent enough time in my life to cleanly translate what I'm imagining onto paper. It's a frustrating experience trying to capture a damned knight powered by demonic energy as a sprite in a video game. In the end, I gave up on the Ironclad. That's correctthe Ironclad you see today in Slay the Spire 1 is a character I gave up working on.
Various ideas, poses, concepts, etc. Plus a bonus resting Ironclad shot! After 3 - 4 weeks total of on and off ideating, drawing, redrawing, sketching, etc. I drew a character in a pose that I liked thinking it would give me better ideas. Those with a keen eye probably realized that the Ironclad has the same pose as Hakumen from the BlazBlue series. I found this character with a long thin blade with weighty attacks so cool (he's my main)! On top of this, the faceless nature of the character and this posture was really menacing. I sketched out a character that felt like it would fit in the world of Slay the Spire in this same pose. It was supposed to be a This is the feeling I want! Hopefully an artist redraws this later. but ended up being the final sprite so it felt a little unoriginal due to the pose :(. Still, I'm happy with the outfit and color scheme. After I had a character with the right feel, now I had to animate it as well? This was daunting, as there was a lot of other work to do (like programming). Already frustrated with how much time was spent on the Ironclad, I decided he can just elbow strike the enemy.
In the end I didn't use this sprite. The irony... The Silent's concept came to me much quicker. But it still took a long time to draw the sprites that exist for her and animating what I drew was also out of the question for my technical ability. A scary skeleton donning assassin. If you can see anything but her cape, it's probably because you've been assassinated. Very cool concept. Great job, Casey. Now give her a wobbly knife because wobbly knives are scary (Kris Dagger).
The little purple knife was a placeholder. Also, the pose makes no sense. A lot of the art for the Ironclad, Silent, and other humanoid enemies didn't read well to a lot of people due to the size of the sprites on screen and my lack of experience here. There were misunderstandings on what a character was doing. How they were standing. How they are holding something. Whether they were supposed to look happy or angry even. After all of this, I ended up drawing considerably less humanoid characters into the game. This in turn made me incorporate less narrative mechanics. A lot of intrigue and power struggles tend to occur between humanoid races for a reason; we're able to relate more to things that are human than the foreign or abstract. You can see remnants of this from the existence of other humanoid adventurers, slavers, thieves, and so forth! As the game's fun was found in the deckbuilding and core game loop, this felt like an opportunity to reduce the game's scope and rescind a lot of the narrative and story elements which were loosely planned. Today, I ask myself, But what if those limitations were gone? Hmm...

Marlowe Dobbe x Mega Crit

A visual representation of Mega Crit and Marlowe Dobbe coming together, featuring The Silent from Slay the Spire and The Thief from Dicey Dungeons, which Marlowe was the artist for. While a lot of my time post-release and during the pandemic was spent on improving my artistic abilities, learning bass guitar, and making various game prototypes in Unity, I also knew there would be too much work for me to be the primary on all things visual if we were to do a sequel. I wanted an Art Person who could draw small things that were clear and concise while also inviting playfulness, creativity, and expressiveness. I emailed a bunch of industry friends to see if they knew anybody interested in such a job and we talked a great deal (is this an interview?) and brought her onboard as Art Director. Welcome, Marlowe (3 years ago that is)! We've been working together for the majority of the project and we continue to hone the visual identity of Slay the Spire 2 based on what I think, what Marlowe thinks, what the rest of our team thinks, and what our internal playtesters think. There's a lot of thinking overall. Our style and philosophy is merging together and I'm always pushing for UX snappiness and speed while ensuring that the game's vibes don't stray from the original. On top of this, we've also hired a full-time animator, Chris Gortz, and Slay the Spire 1's card and event illustrator, Anailis Dorta (see our full team here: https://megacrit.com/about/). Working together for a long time allows us to mind meld and I think the harmony you'll see in the game is a sight to behold!

Changes

If I were forced to make a bulleted list of high level changes, it would look something like this:

• Playful:While we still retain some dark themes, the tone is more playful through its visual language and world.
• Crisp:Creatures, items, cards, backgrounds are all a bit more crisp, as the style is less painterly.
• Liveliness:Considerably more animations and transitions make the game feel livelier.
• Cinematic:More whole-screen art stuff. Compared to before, this makes the game feel more epic rather than intimate.
• Colorfuler:Everything is more colorful! This improves the legibility of various screens as well.

Some words from our Art Director

Working on developing the visual style for Slay the Spire 2 has been a really interesting and unique challenge that Im unsure Ill ever get to experience again as a game developer. Coming into work on a sequel of a very beloved game has a whole new set of rules from working on a new concept or property. While we want to update the visuals and make it feel new and fresh, we also want to ride that line of it being recognizable as the Slay the Spire world.
Some early explorations for The Silent for StS2. Perhaps there is a universe in which we ended up going in this more cartoony direction. Myself and the art team have done what I can only describe as visually dissecting what parts made up the vibe of Slay the Spire 1. What motifs, repeating visuals, creatures, races, architecture, etc. all add up to the unique, kind-of-creepy-but-kind-of-fun energy of the first game. Were all big fans of the first installment and I at least have spent an embarrassing amount of my time playing it. When Im approaching it as a fan and also someone in charge of steering the visuals of the sequel, you start to pick up on things like yeah theres not a lot of uncovered faces in Slay the Spire 1, this character were working on wouldnt fit cause you see too much of their face. or This is a cool monster, but is it WEIRD enough? (I have spent a lot of time iterating on enemy designs to make them weirder.) In the end, our goal is to make it feel bigger than the first game with new sets, new characters and enemies, more full-screen-art, way more animation, and a LOT of VFX (insert sparkles and fire and sparks here.) Of course itll look different and new, but I think its going to be a place that old and new StS players will feel comfortable and familiar in! And in the ~spirit~ of the season, heres a spooky StS2 sneak peek
oooOooOoo its a new, ghostly, knight-looking enemy

Translating the Neowsletter

As we've started posting the Neowsletter on Steam, our viewership has increased significantly. It may be time to start translating these announcements... If you have worked on Slay the Spire translations in the past and/or interested in translating announcements, please contact devs@megacrit.com or DM me on Discord @caseyyano. As an FYI: We're not yet starting on STS2 translations.

Mega Crit-or-Treat Returns!

Our art director Marlowes own beautiful Cultist-themed pumpkin carving from last Halloween. ........BOO!!! Hey, its Demi the Community Manager nowdid I scare ya?! In any case, it's spooky season again, and you (might) know what that means: Mega Crit-or-Treat is back from the dead! For those who don't know, last year we held the first annual Mega Crit-or-Treat event, where the community was encouraged to share any Halloween-themed Slay the Spire content, be it drawn, written, modded, cosplayed, cooked, carved, crocheted, interpretively danced, whatever! And this year we're doing it all again, this time with a new prize for participants! From now until Sunday, November 3, post your beautiful and/or terrifying creations in our Discord server and we will bestow upon you a treat: the limited time Creepy Cultist role! If you want to join in on the frightening festivities but don't know where to begin, check out these official StS pumpkin carving stencils made by our art director (and honorary Mayor of Halloween) Marlowe! Also, if you post any spooky Spire content on Twitter or Bluesky, be sure to spread the eerie cheer by tagging us @MegaCrit!

Slay the Spire Connections

Since so many of you enjoyed the last one, weve got another official unofficial Slay the Spire Connections puzzle this month! Having a regular puzzle section almost makes this feel like a real publication, huh? This one may be slightly easier but, hey, its also slightly spookier too so it balances out maybe.

Community Roundup

And, as always, lets close this out with some of our communitys wonderful creations from the past month:
A beautifully composed poster of the Spires many inhabitants by @h0lysarthole
A big, beautiful, beefy Demon Form Ironclad by @ultimatept0812 [previewyoutube=vZXxf5jXY7E;full][/previewyoutube] A hilariously animated and insanely catchy song by Finger Pickin Good Wow, you made it to the end of this months Neowsletter! See you in the next issue, Slayers!