Hey, a new logo!

I tried tackling more of the remaining Next Fest feedback in this update.

The camera has been overhauled with free rotation and a tactical overhead view. Visuals have been polished. The enemy roster has been expanded and tweaked for greater variety.

One thing that came up in playtesting was players always choosing upgrades, since they felt the safest.

Repeated upgrades are less interesting than drafting new cards and synergizing with new memories, so let's try swapping the rarity of upgrades and memories.

In addition, very few people were using items regularly, so I've removed the one-per-turn limitation on them.

Per community feedback, Dodge is also now only consumed on success, to make Dodge builds more viable.

Many other changes are detailed below!

CHANGELOG

v0.6.5 -> v0.7.0

BUG FIXES

• Fixed a number of card effects still triggering when a card was dodged.

• Fixed certain cards not being affected by hit chance as intended.

• Keybind menu buttons no longer stop the scroll wheel when moused over.

• Nimble and Bound no longer compound after save and load.

• Camera now resets properly when starting a run after abandoning a run.

• Enemies no longer skip their turn if Rally would heal them to the point where DoTs don't destroy them before they act.

• Fixed draw pile and discard icons overlapping your cards at higher UI scales.

STORY

• Cutscenes can now be skipped before you've watched them once.

VISUALS

• Units now cast shadows on the world.

• Shadows from clouds have been intensified.

• Decorative tiles now appear underneath levels.

• Menu buttons like reroll/skip/confirm upgrade are now higher contrast with the background.

• Damage/healing numbers have a new font and tweaked animations.

• AP and GP gain/losses outside of turn start are now announced above a unit.

• Some shiny surfaces have been tweaked so they don't blast you with overwhelming glow under certain lighting conditions.

• Changed damage AOE indicators.

• Locked AOE indicators are now different from regular AOE indicators.

• Enemy AOE indicators are now hidden when an enemy-targeting card is selected, and when previewing an enemy's attack range.

• Remade the title logo.

• The card fan has slightly increased maximum width.

AUDIO

• Added sounds for camera movement.

• Updated battle theme.

GAMEPLAY

• End Turn now requires a double click when not all party members have acted.

• Increased frequency of Memory choices and decreased frequency of Upgrade choices.

• Added a golden Memory path choice.

• Character-specific card draft choices are no longer limited per run.

• The standard upgrade reward can now only be chosen 3 times per run.

• Character-specific upgrade rewards can now only be chosen 2 times each per run.

• Stacks of Dodge are now only consumed on successfully dodging an attack.

• Rally now heals a fifth of missing HP rather than a tenth.

• Enemy generation parameters have been adjusted to increase encounter variety.

• Ironically, also reduced enemy variety for the very first post-tutorial run to prevent information overload.

• Items are no longer limited to one per turn during battle.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• You can now press T (rebindable) to toggle an overhead tactical view.

• You can now press R (rebindable) to reset the camera.

• You can now remove keybinds by right-clicking them.

• You can now freely rotate the camera by dragging right-click.

• Game speed buttons in the top right have been condensed to a single toggle.

• All "increase by half" status tooltips have been rephrased into "1.5x potency";

• Rephrased tutorial bubbles to be more concise.

• Several tutorial bubbles now trigger under more intuitive conditions.

• Unplayable card explanations are more informative.

• "OK" buttons are now "ACKNOWLEDGE" buttons (easier to click).

• Intent descriptions on examine tooltips are more concise.

CARDS

• Seagull can now use Duality to invert their own statuses.

ENEMIES

• Fire: Added Hot Coal.

• Water: Added Aquifer.

  • Mirrorscale now has an additional defensive card.

• Wood: Added Splinter.

• Metal: Added Cold Iron.

• Earth: Added Monument.

• Universal: Added Resonator.

  • Wisp now does 10 damage rather than 5.

• Stray Threats are now more likely to be swarm encounters rather than single enemies.

• Many swarm enemies have less movement, to allow for easier tactical positioning.

• Many swarm enemies' max HP and challenge rating have been reduced.

• Slightly increased some early enemies' attack damage to compensate for the above.

[ 2025-07-03 22:05:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks for all your feedback during Next Fest!

I've got a lot to consider, but for now I've prioritized improving the new-player experience.

The tutorial now better represents normal gameplay, and should convey more information in fewer interruptions.

Cricket can now also be unlocked from the very first real run, and by popular demand, realm intro poems now stay on screen until dismissed (the first time they appear).

CHANGELOG

v0.6.4 -> v0.6.5

BUG FIXES

• The hand capacity warning no longer appears for upgrades.

STORY

• Made some script edits for clarity.

• Realm intro poems now wait for your click the first time they're displayed.

VISUALS

• Adjusted vignette effect.

• Card/memory list menus now unfurl their contents over multiple frames to reduce lag when opening them.

AUDIO

• Added pitch bending for worldspace sounds.

GAMEPLAY

• The intro/tutorial has been adjusted.

  • Enabled card drafting to be more representative of real gameplay.

  • Gave Hornet and Hawk more interesting cards.

  • Tutorial enemies are now consistent each time.

• Tutorial checkboxes no longer block popups from appearing.

• Sequential tutorial popups have been condensed together to reduce the number of interruptions.

• Sequential tutorial popups no longer briefly blur the world back in and out.

• In-world tutorial popups no longer block out the battlefield.

• Tutorials are no longer marked complete if they are removed due to the battle ending.

• Cricket is now unlockable from the very first post-tutorial run.

• Swarm enemies are more likely to spawn as groups of the same enemy, rather than as many different enemies.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Moved UI scale setting to the top of the Visuals section.

• Added toggle for anti-aliasing type.

• Added setting to show number buttons near the cards they'd select.

• Added keyboard equivalents for some clickable buttons (all rebindable).

  • You can now open the journey log and battle log with F1 and F2.

  • You can now open your draw and discard piles with "," and ".".

  • You can now end turn or reopen the reward menu with Enter.

• Menu parallax has been removed (menu motion setting still affects menu pull-in animations).

• Menu Motion setting now also disables the expedition summary menu pull-in animation.

CARDS

• Rephrased some of Seagull's healing cards to make it more clear they can only target allies.

• "1 tile long, X tile wide" descriptions have been simplified into just "X tile wide".

MEMORIES

• Black Tea now inflicts 10 Fear to your attacker rather than 3.

ITEMS

• Added Awareness: Turns an Action into a Gambit, removes 2 cooldown, and doubles its charges.

• Mote of Forgiveness no longer removes Fray.

[ 2025-06-19 07:19:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, NOMIA will be participating in Steam Next Fest's June 2025 edition. The demo can be found right here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/3610980/NOMIA_Demo/

What is this?

NOMIA is an isometric tactics roguelike that joins grid-based strategy with deep deckbuilding mechanics, expressed through a fantasy tale of purpose and perseverance.
It features a twin-deck system that enables tactical flexibility and wild synergies, as well as a turn preview that shows enemy intent and incoming damage before you commit any movement.
Design, art, writing, and programming are by me, Tangleworm. Music is by classically trained composer Will Goss!

What's in the demo?

The demo features:

• All 4 unlockable characters
• 200+ cards
• 100+ items
• 50+ enemies
• 20+ story scenes
• Save file compatibility with the full version

It'll also remain up indefinitely after the festival, so you can play it at your own pace. I eagerly await your thoughts! Any feedback is welcome as I continue to build the game into the best tactics roguelike I can. Make sure to wishlist the game, it really helps! Cheers, T

[ 2025-06-05 04:36:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

I lied in the last changelog; this is the Next Fest version. Perfect time to overhaul almost all the combat sound design, right? There were a few bugs I wanted to fix for the festival as well, particularly how the UI looks on 4K and ultrawide monitors. Please enjoy!

CHANGELOG

v0.6.3 -> v0.6.4

BUG FIXES

• Fixed hand capacity warning always appearing on the second pick of a standard draft.
• Behemoth Soul now has the correct item icon and card art.
• Fixed critical hit sound not playing.
• "No line of sight" icon now takes into account when certain cards are empty or on cooldown.
• Numerous UI elements are no longer positioned strangely for 4K monitors at high UI scale.
• Click-and-drag camera panning speed now adjusts for monitor size.
• Fixed target preview showing nonexistent self-damage when units had stacks of Fragile.
• Fixed knockback preview on allies showing nonexistent damage.

STORY

• Cutscene tarot cards are slightly closer together so the previous one remains in context.
• Edited post-tutorial conversation to be more show, less tell.
• Edited a few other bits of the script.
• Moved character portraits further apart by default.
• Dialogue text is now coloured like name tag text.

VISUALS

• Adjusted timing of status effect announcements.
• Made units wobble for longer when hit.
• Units also wobble when receiving debuffs.

AUDIO

• Implemented spatial audio for in-world sounds.
• Updated battle theme version.
• Overhauled a lot of battle sound design.
• Added sound for mousing over targetable tiles.
• Used card-handling sounds in more contexts.
• Added sound for beginning a dive.

GAMEPLAY

• Retreat 1 can now move you diagonally.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• UI scale now defaults based on monitor resolution.
• Made tutorial checkboxes harder to miss.
• The "ignores line of sight" tutorial no longer appears for teleport cards because those are self-explanatory.
• Added highlight particles to the player's first character selection.
• Added a conversation log control reminder.
• Added a conversation skip control reminder.

CARDS

• Cricket's Experience now costs 1 rather than 2, but starts weaker.
• Crow's Nest Egg now starts at 8 damage gain per turn rather than 15.

MEMORIES

• Spinning Top and Jianzi now give 1 Focus/Grit rather than 2.
• Keen Retribution and Steeled Retribution now give 1 Focus/Grit when you're attacked, rather than 2.

ENEMIES

• Added a new enemy for each realm.
  • Fire: Added Kindling.
  • Water: Added Fogdweller.
  • Wood: Added Bystander.
  • Metal: Added Lightning Rod.
  • Earth: Added Chronicler.

[ 2025-06-03 13:04:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

A few big changes this week: standard drafts now let you pick two of four cards rather than one of three, and enemies should now always spawn in the newly generated room rather than having a chance to spawn in from behind you. The former was because player decks hadn't changed as much as I would've liked by the time they reached the first boss, and the latter was because the newly generated room felt pointless if all enemies spawned outside it. This also means the party is surrounded much less often, which should hopefully open up tactical options. On the art side, everyone's battle outfit portraits are done, and conversations are a little more fleshed out with backgrounds and cut-ins. This version will likely be the one participating in Steam Next Fest! Wish me luck.

Changelog

v0.6.2 -> v0.6.3

BUG FIXES

• Fixed enemy-added cards not playing the card creation sound.
• Fixed new unlocks not being highlighted at run end if you saved and loaded midway through.
• Fixed library highlight particle appearing when examining a character's cards.
• Fixed chosen path icon being incorrect after save and load.
• Fixed one of the two boss rewards being skipped after save and load.
• Fixed battle not progressing if a player retreated due to DoT damage on turn end with certain memories attuned.

STORY

• Cricket and Crow's battle outfit conversation portraits now have different art than their in-world sprites.
• Added detail pop-ups to conversations.
• Added background to certain conversations.

GAMEPLAY

• Standard Recollections now let you pick 2 of 4 cards, rather than 1 of 3.
• Players no longer always start right next to each other when moving rooms.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Moved game startup greeting to the side.
• Added links to store page and feedback form on the main menu.
• Adjusted timing of some notifications and events to reduce overwhelm.
• Highlighted character examine button if the selected character is at level 0.
• Shortened "New Conversations Available" notification time.
• ESC now opens the pause menu on the character select screen rather than doing nothing.
• Keybind conflicts are now prevented.
• Moved tab-switch tutorial to after card play/intent tutorials.

ENEMIES

• Enemies are now much more likely to spawn "ahead" of the party rather than in from behind them.
• Metal: Titan Walker's Recalibrate now removes 5 Weakened instead of 20.

ITEMS

• Added Creased Space, which turns a movement card into a teleport this turn.
• Added Loose Shackle, which turns a movement card into a teleport this battle at the cost of 3 Fray.
• Added Astral Flicker, which turns a movement card into a teleport permanently at the cost of 10 max HP.
• Added Muscle Memory, which permanently turns a non-exhausting Gambit into an Action with a cooldown of 2.
• Added Chirography, which permanently turns a non-exhausting Gambit into an Action with 2 charges.

[ 2025-05-27 23:50:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Your paths are now always distinct options! Previously, the game secretly limited the number of picks for certain options (such as only being able to Purge twice) in order to curate the run. This is now no longer hidden information; I overestimated how much complexity this would add to the decision, so it's now in the player's hands when they want to consume limited path choices. This update also contains many bug fixes, though a lot of these actually made it into the hotfix halfway through the week.

Changelog

v0.6.1 -> v0.6.2

BUG FIXES

• Fixed rare bug where path selection would repeat forever without starting the battle if an encounter was rolled while certain memories were attuned.
• The saved run no longer gets into an invalid state if you force-quit the game in between your characters retreating and the "EXPEDITION CONCLUDED" message appearing.
• Fixed only neutral bosses appearing before enough story progress was made.
• Fixed Hawk's unit persisting between runs.
• Fixed edge case with generating special terrain in certain scenarios.
• Fixed unit sprites sometimes dipping into the ground on battle start.
• Removed duplicate "Gained/Spent X stars" logs.
• Fixed a typo in Butterfly and Crow's intro conversation.
• Fixed card hover flickering when the cursor is at the very bottom of the screen.
• Re-enabled GP cost icon when examining cards added to your deck by enemy cards.
• Fixed Stars indicator not updating right after restarting a run.
• Fixed path choices losing direction after saving and loading.

STORY

• Butterfly and Seagull's battle outfit conversation portraits now have different art than their in-world sprites.

VISUALS

• The title screen has been updated with a new background.
• Redrew one card each in Cricket and Crow's unlock cutscenes.
• Replaced Stress card art so it looks less like an error.

GAMEPLAY

• You can now select a target with the arrow keys and click with Right Ctrl (both rebindable).
• Generated path choices no longer change after saving and loading.
• Added more realm-specific rooms to the map generation pool.
• Path choices now only present unique options.
• Path choices now show when a choice has a limited quantity during a run.
• Path choice quantities have been adjusted from how they were before, now that they are not hidden information.
• Memory draft choices are even more likely to skew towards the unit with fewer memories.
• Construction Sign is now alone again. It didn't need the help.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Added font assets to credits as well.

ENEMIES

• Wood: Strand Eater's self-buff now gives 2 Focus rather than 5.

CARDS

• Seagull: Inquiry now costs 1 rather than 0, and loses cost on upgrade rather than gaining range.
• Cricket: Some cards have been changed to be more interesting on upgrade.
  • Tackle now gains range rather than potency on upgrade.
  • Anchor is gains Persist on upgrade rather than potency.
  • Blinding Speed now gains 4 range on upgrade rather than 1.
  • Grasping Wind now gains Draw 1 on upgrade rather than 2 more pull.
  • Hyperfocus now costs 1 less on upgrade rather than gaining range.
  • Marquetry now gains 2 range on upgrade rather than 1.
  • Perseverance now costs 2 rather than 1, but starts at 10 potency rather than 4. It also scales faster on upgrade rather than becoming Innate.
  • Sneaking now costs 1 rather than 0, and loses Exhaust on upgrade rather than gaining range.
  • Wedge now gains width rather than range on upgrade.
• Crow: Some cards have been changed to be more interesting on upgrade.
  • Eclipse now also gives you 3 Fray, but completely removes Overheat when upgraded.
  • Rend no longer has minimum range on upgrade, rather than gaining flat damage.
  • New Moon no longer has minimum range on upgrade, rather than gaining flat damage.

[ 2025-05-21 12:00:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

v0.6.1 introduced a rare bug where starting a battle with certain memories on a character would fail to start the encounter, then cause the path choice menu to stay on the screen forever. This should now be fixed. Once again, this change loops in some (Cricket and Crow) card tweaks and some QOL changes, since there was no reason for me to rip those out from under the patch. Those shall be described in next update's notes.

[ 2025-05-17 09:43:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Mid-run save/load is a little bit more complete, a new battle theme by Will Goss is in, and I've added lots of finished artwork. Check out the expanded post-tutorial cutscene in particular! At Full Indie, I saw something interesting: The "tab to switch" tutorial checkbox appeared at the same time as the cards and got lost in the visual noise, so it was sometimes not completed. Since the card tutorials happened after that, they never showed, and players were reading cards with no context as to how they worked. To mitigate this, I've moved card tutorials up so they happen immediately after selecting your first unit, and made tutorial boxes contrast a bit more with the world. While I've added as much content as I can to the demo (the first 2 unlocks for everything), I'm continuing to work on the rest of the story behind the scenes for early access. I plan to continue adding features to the demo as I finish implementing them.

Changelog

v0.6.0 -> v0.6.1

BUG FIXES

• Due to numerous changes to the save system, runs in progress (but not experience or unlocks) have been invalidated. Apologies for the inconvenience.
• Saving and loading with a reward menu open no longer restores your rerolls.
• Saving and loading with an upgrade open no longer restores the number of upgrades available.
• Fast-forward/slow motion is now reset when returning to the character selection screen.
• Fixed card text sometimes disappearing in the exhaust pile.
• Clarified text for cards that apply statuses to both yourself and enemies.
• Enemies can no longer get multiple additional special behaviours in extremely rare cases.
• Additional special behaviour icons now render properly upon save and load.
• Broadcast can now spread debuffs from Kaleidoscope and Infinity Mirror.
• The debuff preview icon will now also appear for Kaleidoscope and Infinity Mirror.
• Fixed target Block preview for Block-stealing cards.
• Enemy cards no longer sometimes have gray borders when examining them.
• Fixed damage preview for knockbacks that deal multiple hits of direct damage.

STORY

• Expanded and redrew some cards in the second story cutscene.
• The intro Sage now has non-placeholder artwork.

AUDIO

• Added a non-boss battle theme.
• Updated title theme.
• Music now crossfades rather than fading fully out, then fully in.

GAMEPLAY

• Memory drafts with multiple options no longer give duplicate choices.
• Made higher rarity cards even more likely to appear in upgrades, and lower rarity cards even more likely to appear in purges.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Reward menus now also blur the field behind them, to reduce visual noise.
• Increased contrast and visibility of tutorial popups.
• The Action/Gambit tutorial has been moved to before the tab-switch tutorial.
• Damage preview now accounts for backlash behaviours.
• Reduced delay when restoring various status effects on load or removing them all on battle end.

ENEMIES

• Added Spore Tower.
• Added Hedgehog.
• Added Behemoth.
• At a certain point in the story, neutral bosses may appear in place of the realm bosses.
• Full encounters can no longer generate a battle with only one enemy.
• Buffed Horde Foundry so it's less trivial to just move out of the way of its minions' self-destruct attacks.
• Clarified Mirrorscale's behaviour text.

CARDS

• Some of Seagull's cards have been reworked to enable more synergies:
  • Wand of Blinding has been replaced with Wand of Cladding, which grants 3 Grit to self or ally.
  • Observe can now give Vigor to self or ally, rather than just yourself.
  • Keenness now has a cooldown of 2 rather than 3.
  • Lever now gives your ally Flow.
  • Thesis now gives Grit rather than Block directly.
  • Optimism now gives 2 Rally rather than 3 Grit.
  • Recall and Impulse now also grant 1 Initiative.
  • Alacrity now costs 0 rather than 1.
  • Foresight now also gives 1 Vigor and 1 Flow, but only has 1 charge before upgrades.

[ 2025-05-13 20:58:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

v0.6.0 introduced a bug where cards would sometimes become blank if they were Exhausted, then examined in the discard pile menu. This has now been fixed. This change loops in some Seagull card tweaks as well since there was no reason for me to rip those out from under the patch, but those shall be described in next update's notes.

[ 2025-05-07 08:29:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

You can now save and load a run in progress. This was quite a complex feature to implement, so please let me know if anything behaves strangely! Many other feedback-driven changes have been made: While choosing a path, you can also now see the probability of an encounter happening. Card removal and upgrade events no longer have duplicate choices for the same character. Lots of card upgrades have been made more interesting than straight potency increases, and many enemies have been rebalanced.

Changelog

v0.5.5 -> v0.6.0

BUG FIXES

• Fixed "Ignores line of sight" always appearing in green on cards that gain this on upgrade.
• Fixed self-damage preview when playing Butterfly's Evaporate while having Vulnerable/Parry with an enemy currently intending to attack.
• Fixed player knockback previews appearing for both party members when catching aggro.
• Fixed edge cases where enemy intents would resolve non-deterministically when several enemies were at the same range to the party.
• Fixed some tiles not getting deleted when clearing old rooms.
• Fixed dialogue playing unintentionally if the tutorial was restarted due one party member being defeated.

VISUALS

• Added more lighting effects to card plays.
• Self-damage from enemy-targeting cards (e.g. Stonepiercer, Waterfall) is now also previewed.
• Removed the AP cost indicator on enemy cards to prevent confusion, as their AP doesn't work how the player's does.
• Special behaviour potency numbers are now purple to prevent confusing them with status stacks.
• Adjusted tile create/destroy particle timing and density.

GAMEPLAY

• You can now save and load a run in progress.
• Mid-run save files display your current realm and depth.
• Abandoning a run now goes through the run-end summary and saves experience.
• Purge and Improvement events can no longer have duplicate card choices for the same character.
• Enemies are more likely to gain special behaviours, and a greater variety thereof.
• Path choices now show the chance of an encounter occurring.
• Full encounters and minor battles are now distinguished by the battle start text.
• Changed encounter tuning to prevent a challenging battle just before the boss battle.
• Moved the guaranteed rest encounter to 2 steps before the boss (was 3 steps).
• Tweaked overall encounter generation parameters.
• Tweaked room generation to more closely follow the chosen path's direction.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• The "Skip" button no longer expands to cover the bottom row after you run out of rerolls, to avoid skipping by accidentally double-clicking.
• Added a tutorial for cards with minimum range.

ENEMIES

• Many Fire enemies have had their Burn application reduced or replaced with direct damage.
• Many swarm enemies have had their HP reduced.
• Skipper's Pressurize now grants 2 Block and Focus rather than 3, and its Geyser now gives it 6 Exposed rather than 5.
• Serration now has 25 Sturdy rather than 30.
• Horde Foundry's Heart Seekers now spawn with 2 Unstable.
• Wayfarer's innate Resist has been nerfed from 5 to 3, and its self-empowerment has been reduced.

CARDS

• Butterfly:
  • Quarterstaff now gains knockback and range on upgrade rather than damage.
  • Halberd can now be upgraded 3 times.
  • Evaporate now clears all debuffs, but deals as much self-damage as twice your stacks of debuffs. It also Exhausts.
  • Final Blow now gains massive range rather than damage on upgrade.
  • Arcane Grapple now has 10 range by default and gains Persist on upgrade.
  • Surging Tide now gains width rather than range on upgrade.
  • Ebbing Tide now gains length rather than draw on upgrade.
  • Erosion now gains Persist rather than potency on upgrade.
  • Spear Dance now gains Persist rather than distance on upgrade.
  • Patience now draws 1 on upgrade rather than increasing in potency.
  • Laminar Flow gains Persist on upgrade rather than increasing in potency.
  • Turbulent Flow gains Innate on upgrade rather than increasing in potency.
  • Reservoir now grants Hesitation rather than Form, and gains Persist on upgrade rather than no longer Exhausting.
  • Impatience now starts at 5 damage rather than 10, and its scaling has been adjusted.
• Seagull:
  • Barrier Band now ignores line of sight on upgrade rather than gaining potency.
  • Wand of Slashing now gains 5 range rather than 2 when upgraded, and has only 1 upgrade level.
  • Bolt now ignores line of sight on upgrade rather than gaining damage.
  • Close Wounds now only ignores line of sight on upgrade rather than gaining potency.
  • Radiance becomes Innate on upgrade rather than inflicting more Vulnerable.
  • Protectiveness now ignores line of sight on upgrade rather than gaining range.
• Cricket:
  • Sprint now starts with 1 charge rather than 3, but can be upgraded 4 times.
  • Anchor now boosts Block by 8 rather than 9.
• Crow:
  • High Perch now starts with 3 potency and gains Persist on upgrade.
• Cards that create terrain now have the terrain name written in gold.

[ 2025-05-05 12:55:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

You can now preview enemy intents before committing a movement. The lack of this information was leading to slower and more careful play, so I hope this enables more curiosity and experimentation! In addition, any enemy that you've defeated at least once is now added to the monster library, which enables you to look directly at their cards by selecting them. Various feedback has been implemented, such as having your party fully heal after a boss battle (rather than just 90%), adding a setting to choose between the old tile-only cursor and the new unit-sensitive cursor, and having the option to make camera rotation snap instantly to reduce motion sickness.

Changelog

v0.5.4 -> v0.5.5

BUG FIXES

• Damage preview now takes into account special reactions such as physical/magical weakness.
• Switching units while dragging a card now cancels the drag.
• Item tooltips no longer disappear when mousing between the item and the discard button.
• The "?" button to examine a specific character on the selection screen should no longer be pushed offscreen when the window is especially small.
• Prevented checkboxes from repeating when the battle ends before they've been checked.
• Fixed knockback not previewing when Paper Hydra copied knockback cards that did no direct damage.
• When Paper Hydra copies knockback cards that do no direct damage, these are now displayed as Attack intents.

STORY

• Home base conversation portraits now have different character outfits to reflect the setting.
• Shortened tutorial to 2 fights instead of 3.

VISUALS

• Made difficult terrain tile highlight more distinct.
• Made enemy attack range highlight more distinct.

AUDIO

• Replaced healing sound.

GAMEPLAY

• The monster library has been implemented. Defeating an enemy adds it to the library.
• Any foe added to the library can be selected in battle to examine its abilities.
• Added more enemy special behaviours.
  • Swift: Movement speed is increased by 2.
  • Purifying: Purges 1 stack of all debuffs each turn.
  • Spacefolding: This unit can teleport anywhere.
  • All-Seeing: This unit bypasses line of sight.
  • Rheopectic: Gains 2 Resist when attacked.
• Changed map generation to prevent players being boxed in at the start of a battle.
• Party members now recover all of their HP after a boss battle, rather than 90% of their missing HP.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• You can now preview which enemies will attack you before you commit a movement.
• Paced and refined tutorial messages to avoid information overload.
• Added tutorials for the enemy library and examining enemies.
• Added a tutorial for the line-of-sight icon.
• Added a setting to only consider tiles (not units) with the cursor.
• Added a setting to have camera rotation snap instantly rather than gradually.
• Added a toggle for click-and-hold item use.
• Added a toggle for showing status tooltips when examining a unit.
• Reworded knockback tooltips to make them more clear.
• Highlighted certain codex entry snippets in gold.

CARDS

• Seagull: Light From Within now gains range on upgrade rather than dealing 5 less damage.
• Cricket: Hardened Fist now gains 1 range on upgrade rather than 2 more charges.
• Scaling factors on cards are no longer written in all gold.
• Scaling factors now say "Potency scales by..." rather than "Potency increases by..." to more clearly link them with items that affect scaling.

[ 2025-04-27 15:00:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

The story continues! You can now play lunge cards in all directions, not just orthogonal and diagonal. Unfortunately, this makes past-me a liar because he wrote about his reasons for restricting lunge cards to those directions, but I found a way to make your final lunged position intuitive. Hopefully this makes longer-range lunge cards like Surging Tide more fun to play! In response to feedback, enemies that are about to push or pull you now show a knockback preview on the target party member. Currently only Paper Hydra can ever do this (after it witnesses one of your push/pull cards), but this opens up the design space to future enemies that incorporate knockback into their standard kit. In addition, you can now hover over a specific status icon to get a description of just that icon. No more being overwhelmed by the list of every status a unit has.

Changelog

v0.5.3 -> v0.5.4

BUG FIXES

• You can no longer push your ally off a ledge.
• Fixed rare cases where Paper Hydra would copy a lunge card and then appear to lunge to the edge of the universe.
• Fixed rare cases where bridges would draw mid-air.
• Fixed rare cases where special terrain effects would fail to draw.
• Playing cards too fast no longer causes incoming damage previews to be incorrect.
• Fixed issue where damage preview for knockbacks would be incorrect on enemies with exactly 1 stack of Vulnerable/Parry if the knockback card does no direct damage.
• Items for locked memories no longer appear in the Cauldron.

STORY

• Added a new main story conversation.
• Redid a few art assets to illustrate what the Scourge actually looks like.

VISUALS

• Special behaviour status icons now show potency if applicable.
• Buffer stacks being consumed now shows text above the unit.
• The time dilation effect no longer applies when defeating the split copies of the Wildfire Exemplar.
• Items that deal with Overheat/Discard now have tooltips for these effects.

AUDIO

• Made hit sounds punchier.
• Added sound for defeating bosses.
• Updated conversation theme.

GAMEPLAY

• Lunge/Retreat cards are no longer restricted to cardinal and intercardinal directions.
• Lunge/Retreat cards no longer trigger "on move" effects if they didn't actually move you.
• The incoming damage preview now shows when an enemy is about to push/pull a party member.
• Some enemies now prefer to move even when they're already at their ideal range.
• Added more enemy special behaviours.
  • Metallic: Gains 1 Parry when targeted by a Skill.
  • Fibrous: Gains 1 Parry when targeted by a Spell.
  • Noxious: Inflicts 1 Poison when attacked.
  • Spiked: Deals 3 damage when attacked.
  • Abrasive: Inflicts 2 Exposed when attacked.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• You can now hover over a status/behaviour icon above a unit to get an explanation of just that status/behaviour.
• You no longer have to wait for the camera to finish rotating before you can pan again.
• More tutorial messages now highlight the thing they are focusing on.
• Special behaviour tooltips now also explain any status effects mentioned.
• Settings can now be changed by dragging the fill bar.
• Vsync can now be set from 0 to 4 times (formerly just 0 or 1).
• Save files now show story progress.
• There is now a small greeting describing the game on startup.

CARDS

• Butterfly's Joust now has a cooldown of 2 instead of 0, to balance out its direction no longer being restricted.
• Cricket's Dropkick now Exhausts, to balance out its direction no longer being restricted.

ITEMS

• Reworded many item descriptions for clarity.
• Metal: Roborant now only heals for 15 rather than also giving 15 max HP.

[ 2025-04-19 15:00:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome to the first post-demo update! As per feedback, tutorials should now never repeat, and a number of them have been reworded for clarity. Five new enemies have been added to the game. They show up rarely, but they have peculiar mechanics that should add an interesting twist to the encounter. Also, I've been meaning to redraw the pixel-style status icons for some time now, and it's finally been done. In addition, Jing and Florian have their final portraits. Next update, I plan to continue the story and update the adventurers' conversation portraits as well.

Changelog

v0.5.2 -> v0.5.3

BUG FIXES

• Fixed minor text spacing issue on cards that apply statuses in an area.
• Fixed edge case where a tutorial would repeat when you selected and deselected a push/pull card multiple times.

STORY

• Librarian Jing and Searcher Florian now have their final portraits.

VISUALS

• Redrew status and intent icons at much higher resolution.
• The cursor now takes on a different look when dragging a card.
• Unlocks are now always listed cards-first.
• Status icons above unit sprites now max out at 5 across rather than 7, and stack upwards rather than reflowing downwards.
• Reduced intensity of menu motion.

AUDIO

• Added different ambient audio per realm.
• Added a theme for story conversations.

GAMEPLAY

• Terrain effects can appear in more diverse patterns.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Selecting a card with only one valid target will now automatically preview what would happen if you played it on that target.
• Tutorial checkboxes are now pointed to with a shrinking diamond.
• The codex now describes double-click to play and drag to play.
• Tutorials never repeat after they've been acknowledged (previously they'd repeat if the battle was ended before the "chapter" of tutorials was done).
• Reworded enemy intent tutorial for clarity.
• Added line-of-sight tutorial.
• Added line-of-sight codex entry.
• The line-of-sight eye icon now takes into account the ranges and targets of cards in your hand.
• The item discard "X" now notes that you should click and hold on its tooltip.

ENEMIES

• Fire: Added Enkindler.
• Water: Added Skipper.
• Wood: Added Dampener.
• Metal: Added Serration.
• Earth: Added Fossil.
• Bosses now have different bases on their sprites.
• Added a notification that the second boss has appeared early because the game is unfinished.

[ 2025-04-11 19:55:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Steam! The demo for NOMIA is now available. In it, you can do the first leg of a run, and experience the first little bit of the story and all character relationships. All four characters are unlockable. This represents a little over a year and a half of work by me, so I'm very excited to present it to you! Any feedback or comments are welcome. If you've been following this journey from earlier, here's detailed patch notes as well!

Changelog

v0.5.1 -> v0.5.2 Welcome to the demo build! This update greatly speeds up game flow by letting you play cards by double-clicking, or clicking and dragging. The first proper "main quest" conversation (after the prologue) is also now in the game. I look forward to presenting the full story in time!

BUG FIXES

- Fixed character select screen pause button peeking out from the bottom of the screen when examining a character. - Fixed Butterfly's Spear Plume not showing the tooltip for Distracted. - Memories that activate upon defeating enemies now trigger multiple times if you defeated multiple enemies with a single card.

STORY

- Added a new main story conversation.

VISUALS

- Enemies with an additional special behaviour now have a subtle trim on their sprite. - Knockback that isn't sufficient to kick an enemy off a ledge is now indicated by a unique animation. - Made various notifications point to places on the screen with a shrinking diamond effect.

GAMEPLAY

- Playing a Lunge card on an empty tile now moves you to that tile rather than adjacent to it. - You now have multiple save files.

QUALITY OF LIFE

- You can now click and drag to play cards. - Cards that only have one valid target can now be played with a double click. - Added more tutorial messages when certain mechanics are encountered for the first time. - Push/pull - Opposing statuses - Codex in pause menu - You can now use the scroll wheel to view cutscene/conversation history. - "On attunement" for memories is now worded as "When equipped".

CARDS

- Butterfly's Spear/Halberd/Quarterstaff is now a Targeted Lunge. - Cricket's Steal is now a non-targeted Lunge.

MEMORIES

- Butterfly: - Added Arming Belt, which grants 1 Nimble upon playing a lunge/retreat card. - Added Armour-Piercing Thrust, which has a 1 in 2 chance to remove 2 stacks of a random defensive buff when you attack. - Added Tricky Tempo, which applies 1 Blinded to surrounding enemies on turn end for the first 2 turns of each battle. - Effortless Grace now gives 2 Focus rather than 3. - Seagull: - Added Sharpened Wand, which grants 1 Focus when playing a zero-cost card. - Added Back to Back, which grants 1 Grit to both you and your ally if your ally is in the surrounding tiles on turn end. - Added Geometric Instinct, which has a 1 in 8 chance to make a card ignore line of sight for this turn when it is drawn. - Cricket: - Added Gambeson, which grants 1 Buffer every fifth turn. - Added Blueprint, which grants 2 Grit if you have leftover Block from last turn. - Added Wandering Heart, which causes your first attack each battle to inflict 10 Fragile. - Crow: - Added Ice-Blue Contacts, which heals you for the number of units hit when you hit more than 1 unit. - Added Corvid Gaze, which grants 2 Grit if you end your turn with no surrounding units. - Added Painted Talons, which grants 2 Critical upon defeating an enemy.

[ 2025-04-05 03:32:58 CET ] [ Original post ]