Patch 0.2.0 is now live and available for testing. The core highlight of this set is the release of twenty (20) new pieces, five per element set, now available for play. In addition to new normal and ultimate pieces, players will now have the ability to test the new Signature pieces in the Full game mode.

Before getting into the long list of changes for this update, a few notes regarding current versus future plans for some systems and changes to the development cycle and process.

Development Cycle / Update Cadence

The exhaustive and overwhelming heft of the Set Completion Update has been significant and it has delayed updates for an entirely unreasonable amount of time. This kind of delay is not something that was intended but it became a constant "kick the can" situation while pursuing feature releases.

To correct this and ensure that some update gets out on a timely basis, updates are scheduled to be released on the 15th of the month every other month, with intermittent hotfix patches in-between.

This update was slightly delayed for 2 reasons:

[olist]

A bug which was preventing signature pieces from being spawned in PvP matches.

The main game server needed to be entirely refreshed and reconfigured. This was a one-time process and should mean future updates are significantly faster.

[/olist]

A "back-burner" task is to finalize the automation process for the deployment of the client and server. Currently client building is fairly well automated with only minimal manual intervention needed for pushing to the default branch. Server deployment is in need of some work but is continuing to improve now that a private test environment has been established.

Moving forward, expect some form of update on a bi-monthly basis, roughly on the 15th of:

• June -> August -> October -> December -> February -> April

Matchmaking

The current release includes a breakout by piece availability (Core, Extended, Full play sets). Players who are in one tier are ineligible to queue into players in other tiers. The reason for the separated queues was to isolate pieces, namely signature, such that players without a signature piece would not be facing a player with one. My intention is that new systems will replace this temporary restriction when/if signature pieces are made baseline. Previously it was intended to be a progression towards unlocking signature pieces however this idea has been set aside for the time being. There are a few alternative routes I want to consider exploring before committing to.

As of the release of this update, matchmaking set records and ELO calculations are disabled. These features are expected to be turned back on prior to the August update.

Feedback

One (slightly undocumented) feature in the update is the addition of a Feedback menu. By pressing (F1) in game, a feedback form will be submitted which includes a variety of categories. The only requirement is a minimum of 15 characters. Feedback collected this way is stored anonymously and not shared.

Patch Notes

With that out of the way, below is a list of changes in the game. Many of the updates were excluded as they are exclusively server runtime related and focus more on how matches and game logic are handled.

General Updates

• Added 5 new pieces per element:

  • Fire: Everburning Sapling; Unstable Spark; Magmasage Vathyra; Ot, the Everburning

  • Water: Drop of Living Water; Primal Spirit: Hswartaai; Tidesage Oseptes; Cyy, Water Incarnate

  • Wind: Zephy Zontanemos; Polarized Twister; Kumogolem; Samal, the Sky's Rage

  • Earth: Eye of Abjar; Guardian of Raktaluka; Sandsage Muki; Kir of the Red Sand

• Piece selection is now performed on the Play menu screen.

• Piece selection is now locked while queued for match.

• Piece selection process has been streamlined. Instead of selecting a piece and clicking a button to select / deselect it, simply left or right click on a piece to select or deselect it respectively.

• The Computer opponent has been lobotomized. Currently, it is making entirely random moves. Once set records and ELO tracking is implemented, computer matches will operate on independent values. There are plans to introduce player-influenced difficulty scaling to a newly redesigned AI opponent in an upcoming game mode for PvE.

• Replays have been temporarily disabled.

• There is a known issue with trying to reconnect to a PvP match after disconnecting. This will be addressed in an update either with or before the August update.

Matchmaking

• Matchmaking is now split into tiers:

  • Core - The original 5 pieces which constitutes the minimum pieces for play.

  • Extended - An additional set of 5 pieces to be used with the core set.

  • Full - Adds the new Signature piece type.

• Matchmaking ELO ranges are now available. These limit the skill range gap between you and your opponents.

• Matchmaking brackets are baseline implemented but not fully enabled. These brackets will, in the future, be tied to specific competitive leagues for PvP matches.

Gameplay

• Added a Piece Status menu to show statuses of selected pieces on the board.

• The Player Status menu is under work and should be released with or before the August update.

• Pieces which fortify are now affected by the status Fatigue_Fortify, preventing them from using their fortify effect again.

• Fire

  • Wildfire

    • Capture: Spawn a Kindling 2-3 tiles away randomly. This effect can capture enemy pieces.

• Water

  • The "Flow" effect has been reworked. The new effect activation criteria is dependent on the type of flow effect:

    • Full: The player spends mana while at max mana.

    • New: The player spends all their remaining mana.

    • Eclipse: The player takes a piece action which costs no mana.

  • Surge

    • [strike]Advance[/strike] Flow: Nearby friendly pieces go dormant for 2 turns. For each, claim two tiles nearby randomly.

  • Undertow

    • Flow (Full): If this piece is near an enemy piece and a non-exhausted friendly piece, destroy the enemy piece and claim 2 nearby tiles. Exhaust the allied piece for 1 turn. This piece goes dormant for 2 turns.

  • Wrath of the Drowned

    • Fortify: Awaken all nearby friendly pieces. [strike]Consumes 1 effect counter to refund 1 mana.[/strike] This piece can fortify for the cost of 1 counter instead of mana.

  • Shimmering Tide

    • [strike]Advance: If this piece claims a tile, refund the mana cost of moving.[/strike]

    • OnPlay: This piece costs no mana to move if it will claim a tile only if it can move otherwise.

    • [strike]Hold[/strike] Flow: This piece's move size is increased by 1 [strike]next turn[/strike] for its next move.

• Wind

  • Previously, Upending Torrent and Supercell were not working as intended. Instead of the previous behavior of claiming only tiles near the pieces, they now correctly claim tiles inside their respective ranges.

• Earth

  • Reworded the text for Living Stone for clarity.

Moving forward, patch notes will likely be more detailed as the majority of work done in this update was back-end server runtime changes. These changes were extremely time consuming however with the foundation set, a number of game play, reward and progression, and personalization updates are ready to be developed on.

Please feel free to provide any and all feedback in order to help improve the next release on August 15th.

[ 2025-06-17 19:02:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

As the New Year is starting, a few quality of life changes are getting pushed into the production environment as work on the Set Completion Update continues. Changes

• Updated the mana crystal assets with a much better version (thanks to bwakattac_).
• Fixed a bug with the Linux build where the piece data was not being exported with the build.
• Reduced computer opponent move list evaluation cap from 10,000 to 5,000.
  • This change is to speed up the play time of the computer opponent for the time being. During the Set Completion Update a much more thorough rework will hopefully bring average turn time for the opponent to ~5 seconds.

This year will also begin a major face-lift for Elementyle as gameplay updates are wrapped up in a large update, followed by Player Progression and Community features. Along the way, various parts of the UI and graphics will be enhanced or replaced. There are big changes coming but for now, the core development focus is on game stability and resilience.

[ 2025-01-05 10:28:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

A few small changes being made as the Set Completion Update is being finalized.

• Enabled VSync by Default. An option will be added to the settings menu in the future.
• Fixed an issue where the match forfeit screen would not disappear during the next match after forfeiting.

[ 2024-12-14 05:05:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes

• Move size increase piece status now calculating correctly.
• Fixed an issue where a flag was not being reset at the end of the match preventing pieces from being played in the next match.

[ 2024-09-03 02:54:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Introduction

After an accelerated development timeframe, the Earth set has now been released for testing. Below is an expansion on this final element set, as well as some of the upcoming pieces that will augment this set's playstyle. Additionally, a little info about the final large update that is currently being slated via a look at the current development pipeline.

Earth Set

The final element to be released (purely by chance), Earth offers a unique and dynamic playstyle that depends on positioning and controlling and area. Much like the Wind set, piece placement and move ordering are key to success.

Set Effect Activation: Formation

Formation effects activate when three or more pieces are diagonal from each other. Formation effects trigger in the order they appear in the chain from the start, where the start of the chain is the piece which moved / was placed to form / extend the chain.

Upcoming Pieces / Playstyle and Changes

The Earth set embodies the core design principle: Every set should feel unique. One way this is accomplished is by targeting thematic impact of effects and strategy. With the starter pieces for Earth, a focus is placed on the impact of creating formations causing some pieces to require a different approach to place in formation again. New pieces in the Earth set will add new layers to the positioning requirements for different effects.

Feedback Menu

New in this update is the Feedback Form. At any time in game, press F1 to open the feedback menu. Select a feedback category and type at least 15 characters to hit submit and have your feedback recorded.

Upcoming Updates / Development Pipeline

Now that all four sets are released, there are a few small updates being planned and worked on while the final major update for 2024 is planned, prepped, and in the coming months tested. The next month or two will consist of small updates that add scattered functionality and quality-of-life as well as any hotfixes and error corrections. Releasing new mechanics almost always results in a few bugs here or there. While there will be client updates, UI changes, etc. the gameplay should remain mostly unchanged unless a significant balance issue is identified. The rest of this year will be effectively preparing for a large set of changes aptly named Community Update 1. This update will be preceded by a set of smaller changes aimed at smoothing the release process and ensuring functionality of underlying systems.

Development Pipeline

Below is a ordered list of the planned updates following this update along the way to the release of Community Update 1. The larger updates in bold will have their own sections below going into more detail. The other updates will also have their own posts as they get closer to release.

• Client Replays and Turn Action Review
• Stats and Achievements 1
• Set Completion Update
• User Profiles and Social Pass 1
• Community Update 1

Set Completion Update

Releasing the Earth set was the biggest gameplay change since the Wind set released and the Set Completion Update will be bigger than both of those changes combined. Featuring a total of 16 pieces being added, 4 per set (2 basic, 1 ultimate, and 1 new piece type, Signature). This update will be released with all pieces available for testing. A number of new effects and statuses are included with these pieces so more stability issues are expected. As this update gets closer, more information regarding these pieces will be released.

Community Update 1

This update will bring sweeping changes to the core of the game, creating a cosmetic system, progress systems, along with a slew of updates affecting player experience and match quality. Changes and systems within this update are long and winding. There's a lot to this update but here's the short of it:

• Nothing affects player power. Community Update systems will focus on progression, cosmetics, and building community features.
• Pieces which are currently available now / coming in the Set Completion Update will be placed into 4 groups: Starter, Extension 1, Extension 2, and Full Core. More info below in the Set Completion Update section.
• Set Progression tied to rewards.
• Everything in the community is generated by the community. No "infinite" purchases for any items. The only items that exist are the ones generated by playing the game.

Conclusion

There is still a lot of work to do for Elementyle. A lot of testing and work is going into ensuring the stability of games and efficient server resource utilization. There are a lot of back-end updates and changes being added to avoid future issues and as a result, there has been a slow-down in actual game content. This release should hopefully change that and add even more variety to the gameplay. A rework of the server logic was previously under way prior to Steam release. This was delayed and still is being worked on but likely will not be returning until after Community Update 1. Additionally, social accounts are going to be utilized more effectively and consistently. An official Discord server is currently being set up, and the official Twitch streams are still mostly on schedule (weather permitting). The launch of the Discord server will also include integration with Ko-Fi. A new blog schedule is coming with a pending schedule of 3 posts / week on Mon., Wed., and Fri.

[ 2024-09-02 01:10:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

With the Steam release now in full swing and over 4,500 lifetime licenses issued, the email login option is being, at the very least temporarily disabled. The hope is that the automatic Steam login will just bring you into the game when launched. If not, please click the Steam button to initiate the login. If you're having issues with the login please feel free to get in touch in whatever way is most convenient. Thank you all for the support and I look forward to continuing to improve Elementyle over the coming months as we near the end of Alpha testing.

[ 2024-08-10 15:08:51 CET ] [ Original post ]