Hey again, dear readers. As promised, in this update we will be going over more about the romance options available during the Freeborn story campaign. Introducing this new social mechanic into the game was something weve wanted to do for a long time, and we feel it will greatly enhance the narrative experience as you navigate deeper relationships with your party and other recurring characters you meet across your adventures.
Caption: Mark stands among surreal, blue trees and floating crystals. Last time, we teased two brand new characters that will have the potential to become romantic partners as you progress through the game. But what about some of the old faces in the Freeborn crew? Mark will be spending a significant amount of time with his traveling companions. Could the spark occur with any of them?
Caption: The new Ekosi board shows Krista and Maria facing off. A sign of things to come? Today, we are here to tell you that the answer is yes! As you might have guessed, some of the original party members were actually the first ones we considered when we decided to add dating mechanics.

Many of the quests in Freeborn are centered around your traveling companions and what theyve done, either in the past or during your travels. Krista and Maria will hold particular importance to the story given the complex relationship they have with each other and their personal goals in life. The opening sections of prior demo builds only scratched the surface of their personalities. While both of them are normally not prone to starting conflict within the party, part of their past will turn into consequences that Mark will have to navigate in the present. Krista and Maria are different from the other romance options in that they already have a history with Mark. The mindscape sections will also dive into the past of both Mark and your party, and it is here where you will find out about their past histories and their connection with other party members. Mark will reflect on his prior actions with his party members, and these decisions may influence certain conversations and actions that take place in the real world. How players navigate the mindscape will be integral in achieving their intended outcome with relationships with their companions. Well have more to share on that in the future. Until then, take care and we hope to see you again soon.

Howdy folks, Today I wanted to talk about a feature that has become a staple in many story-driven RPGs. It is something we get asked about during every convention we attend and has been, by far, our most requested addition to the game. I am, of course, referring to having romanceable companions throughout the story campaign. We have mentioned in the last few posts the great amount of time spent restructuring the opening sequences of the campaign to reflect some of the darker tone that was initially seen in the mindscape sections while Mark is dreaming.
Caption: Surreal environments like this show off the escalated nature of Mark's journey.
Caption: Floating platforms welcome Mark into another realm entirely. Well, I am pleased to announce that Marks adventures are not only taking a darker turn, they are taking a romantic turn as well. This is something that has been a long time in the works, and we are finally ready to reveal what weve been cooking so far. As you may know, Marks journey throughout the campaign is inextricably tied to his traveling companions. They drive most of the story elements and provide a greater insight into Marks past and the world around him. Freeborn has always had a strong social component, and this is reflected in the games quests and dialogue system. Weve had approximately 1000 individual people asking us to add a romance component to the game. This came from in-person interactions, surveys, forum feedback and direct messages. This is something weve also wanted to add for a long time - unfortunately, medical issues both within the team and with some of our family members disrupted the cadence of our workflow and required us to prioritize other focuses.
Caption: Recent work has included an overhaul to the Ekosi UI. We love it. So with that said, wed like to introduce 2 new characters that will be potential romances during your journey. This wont represent everyone you can romance, but well be keeping the rest a secret for now. The first character is someone Mark will meet early in the story near his first Ekosi tournament. She will not necessarily be part of your normal traveling party like Jacob and Krista, but you will continue to encounter her as you progress through the tournament and travel the country.
Caption: The first of Mark's potential companions is dark in dress, and extremely confident. There will also be other characters that are participating in the tournament who will be regularly encountered throughout the story. The other romance option is one such character who is also trying to progress through the tournament.
Caption: The second of Mark's potential companions is quieter, but more than a handful in Ekosi. We cant wait to show these characters to you in-game. Well have more to say about them and other companions in an upcoming post. Until then, stay safe out there!

Hey folks, Hope everyone is having a fantastic start to their New Year. As with most of you, the holiday season has been extremely busy for us. In the spirit of sharing, we have a preview of the new UI and visual effects we have created for the Ekosi battle board. As part of our complete overhaul of the game during our engine update, most of the focus initially was on fixing core systems that got broken (or completely replacing them) and working on the overworld environments. However, its been a while since weve done a full upgrade of the Ekosi board. Weve recently completed rework on every element of the board and updated the visual effects that occur at the conclusion of rounds.
The rough paint-stroke aesthetic is combined with electric particle effects in the new set outcome messages.
In this screenshot, the set is tied. Wins, losses, and ties have unique brush stroke and particle effects. As you can see, weve completely changed the main dividers separating the different elements of the board. We felt that the white boards offered a much cleaner separation between sections. Besides making the board look more visually attractive, we looked at ways to make each part of it easier to distinguish. A wavy effect was added to the bottom of the board to make the player hand area more visually distinct from the main battle field. If you are a veteran player of Ekosi, you may notice that weve also replaced the font we were using for all our text, created in-house by our very own Tyler! Weve also added completely new particle effects for when the player wins, ties, or loses a round.
In this screenshot, the set is won via a Stacked Field. A unique brush and particle effect is rendered.
In this GIF, the set is tied. Tying never felt so good! This update to the UI was a long time coming because our previous UI did not support 4k resolution or ultra wide screens. With our update almost complete, Ekosi will be ready to shine on all modern setups!
In this screenshot, Mark runs across blood-red waters. To where?
In this screenshot, Mark stands amongst strangely colored trees and floating crystals. Our next demo release should have these new UI features implemented, though there are a couple additional reworks that need to be completed first. We will preview those changes in the next update. We also have a completely new gameplay component that will change the nature of the players journey. We cant wait to show you it, but we cant spoil it yet. For now, lets just say it will drastically spice up the social dynamic of the game. Until next time! Jonathan

Howdy folks, In our last update, we briefly mentioned the massive update we made to convert the game into Unity 2022. Freeborn has spent the last several years in Unity 5. As you can imagine, suddenly switching to a new version of an engine after 6 years of updates can cause many existing parts of the game to break. There were also many systems that we ultimately decided needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Fortunately, most of that process has already been completed. All of the environments that people saw in prior conventions and screenshots are already playable in the new engine. We wanted to show you some previews of this monstrous undertaking and the visual results of converting to the new engine. This process required the updating of over 100,000 lines of code. The reason so many lines needed to be updated is because the original project was written in Javascript. When updating to Unity 2022, every single line of code had to be converted into C#. The results are better lightmapping and better performance across all previously constructed environments.
The new realm Mark visits is alive with floating crystals, migrating orbs, and waving grasses.
Wisps of energy glide between platforms, drawing player attention towards new pick-ups and dialogues. Weve also completed brand new environments for the revised opening sequence of the story campaign. The original iteration of the mind lounge area has always been one of the most intriguing aspects of Freeborn, both for the players and the team. We wanted to expand on this environment and make it a larger component of the story. Marks adventures are taking a darker turn, and the expanded mindscape area will showcase some truly supernatural environments. The improved lighting features come into big play with the new mindscape areas which sometimes feature otherworldly lighting sources.
Mark moves between portals separating the new realm from his familiar world.
The update from Unity 5 to Unity 2022 allows for significant improvements to lighting, as shown in the reflections and light rays here. The visual improvements arent restricted to the in-game environments. Significant updates were also made to the UI in the card battle screen. New visual effects have been added to the base UI and the particle effects that occur at the conclusion of a round.
The Ekosi UI update comes with some slick, colorful, round-finishing animations. Weve also been hard at work adding new character portraits. To complement Marks adventures taking a darker turn, some dark and mysterious characters will be encountered during his repeated escapades into the mindscape. We dont want to spoil the nature and motivations of these characters just yet, but rest assured you will be encountering them a lot more in the near future.

The Psychologist and the Gentle Madwoman inhabit the new realm Mark visits, and both offer Mark guidance in exchange for a piece of him. Thats all for now. Stay safe out there! Jonathan

Howdy everyone! Sorry that its been a while since the last update. Before we get into the latest Freeborn updates, we wanted to go over why weve been gone for so long.
Narrative updates are bringing Mark to some surprising new places.
Ekosi, the heart of our game, has gotten a UI refresh. To be frank, 2023 has been a pretty terrible year for us health-wise. From multiple hospitalizations for family members, many urgent care visits, and significant eye issues, work on the game has been sporadic ever since Ohayocon. The convention itself was a highlight this year though, and definitely one of the best conventions weve attended. Thank you to everyone who voted and helped us secure 3rd place in the Peoples Choice Award (for Digital Games!)

Ohayocon 2023 gave us a chance to show off new art. 2024 excites us even more. The most significant issue was an injury that occurred to Jesses eyes which almost caused him to go blind. Thankfully, Jesse is doing better now, but it has been a long road to recovery. His eye is improving every week, and we are hopeful it will be at 100% in the near future. Were still dealing with some medical issues among other family members, but we feel the worst for all of us is over. Now with the sad stuff out of the way, how about we dig into something a bit more positive. Despite the reduced pace we had to undergo this year, we were still able to make an immense update to the structure of the game. Lets talk about game engines. Todays game engines evolve rapidly, and the difference in visual capability, performance, and basic quality of life can improve drastically between different versions of the same engine. For the last several years, Freeborn has been using Unity 5.6 which was released in 2016. Although Unity frequently updates the engine, there were a number of reasons why we didnt update past 5.6. Updating a game to a new engine version can be time consuming due to the capacity for it to break some of the systems you have set up. There were core parts of our dialogue, questing, and inventory systems that would have required significant time to transition. As long time followers are surely aware, we had initially thought we would be able to finish the game much earlier, but feature creep, level reworks, and longer-than-anticipated development times have pushed the release date (the troublesome drawback to having just one dev).
Waving grasses and mysterious ruins surround Mark.
Old areas like Krista's home have become new with graphic updates. Today, we are pleased to announce that we have completed a full transition from Unity 5.6 to Unity 2022. There are many reasons we decided to bite the bullet and go through with the update. One of the primary reasons is simply that we think we can vastly improve the quality of the opening of the game in both graphics and performance. The new engine allows us to make significant visual and performance upgrades and allows us to add content easier and faster. Attending conventions, weve had plenty of time to watch attendees play through Day 1 of the story campaign and ideas on how to improve the starting experience. At conventions, you have a lot of people just quickly browsing through the different games being showcased and they will often spend only 3-5 minutes looking at any particular one. For this most recent Ohayocon, we actually saw the highest engagement with the demo weve ever seen. Many people played between 20-40 minutes, and we had far fewer people get stuck and need to ask questions to progress the game. While this is very good news, seeing the early parts of the game remind us of how much the quality has improved over the years. Even with the reworks we have done to the beginning levels, we still think that Day 1 is in need of a full rework to match the quality of the other days as well as the quality we expect for the overall game.
The Emerald Casino also benefited from graphic enhancements.
Maria and Krista face off in the updated Ekosi UI. The engine update was the first big step towards this direction, and we are already seeing huge improvements in visual fidelity and performance. We will share more on what we have planned for Day 1 in the future, but I can say we have never been more excited about how the story campaign is looking. As always, keep an eye on our socials to get the first look at everything we have cooking. Stay safe out there, Jonathan

Hey, friends! The Deckpoint Studio team checking in with another update on Freeborn. As you can tell by the title, this update will be focused on our ongoing UI updates. As with so many things, inspiration for our UI update struck when we stepped outside of Unity. The rebrand to Freeborn, and the rough, painted logo design has inspired and played into a long desired goal to make the UI more cohesive and minimal. The UI has historically had a very metallic, sci-fi look which came from our roots as we expanded upon Knights of the Old Republics minigame Pazaak. Of course, Freeborn came to be much more than a card game, which meant so many new systems for the minimap, dialogues, and inventory and menus to organize them all!
Caption: A look at the classic Ekosi interface: metallic, sci-fi, physical. Weve long known we wanted to bring these systems under one cohesive theme, and one that matched the broader feelings of the game and story. And now its time! But, to no ones surprise, weve started with the Ekosi card match UI.

The sneak peek

Ever onward

Caption: the devlog we've all been waiting for: number 69. Hello, dear reader! Its finally here. People come to game development from every imaginable direction, and with all kinds of genres, platforms, and stories as their vision. But what unites us all is the dream that one day, well be able to publish a silly blog based on a 69 joke. After all these years, after a facelift for our protagonist, after changes to the dialogue system and several in-person events, the special day has come for us too! https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Freeborn/
Caption: Our hero Mark, head lovingly photoshopped onto a tuxedo model. It's a special occasion! Mark has even swapped out his trademark Protagonist jacket for a more appropriate tux!

What weve been up to.

Whats next? UI and Next Fest Demo soon.

Giving and receiving.

• Say hello over in the Discord!
• Follow us on Twitter and Instagram!
• Join the mailing list for updates right to your inbox.

Some of our newest art is created by Emma @MizukoArt! This will be used in promotional contexts and as a loading screen between Ekosi matches and the game's isometric overworld. Hey friends, Its been an unbelievably busy couple of months for the team. Who knew that updating your games name and assets on all platforms would be so much work? Okay, so we knew it was going to be a pain, but still. Updating all our information reminded us of the sheer number of platforms developers need to be on these days. Sheesh. Thankfully, most of the admin is done and we can get back to more updates on development. https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Freeborn/

Level design is done!

New platforms

Next up: a UI refresh

The Amethyst Casino has grown up a lot over the years. Howdy, long-time pals and new friends alike! We hope springtime is treating you well! Spring is a time of renewal. We just reintroduced the game as Freeborn. Tulips are popping up in our gardens. Things are heating up! https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Freeborn/ While theres a lot of excitement about what the warm months will bring us, Aprils relaunch put us in a reflective mood. The support of longtime followers was a cause to look back at how far weve come in the nearly 10 years of development. And theres no better example than the Amethyst Casino.
You'll first reach the Amethyst Casino on Day 2 of the Freeborn journey. This is the first big competitive Ekosi venue players arrive at in the game, and it was one of the first, largest levels we built. (Weve done most of our writing and story development in chronological order, since that just felt natural. Thats normal, right?) The origins of the Amethyst Casino stretch all the way back to 2015! We introduced it in a dev log titled Casino Royale, back in October 2015. At the time, we simply referred to it as the casino, or Casino 1 internally. Along the way, weve learned a lot, and completely overhauled this level and many others.
Amethyst Casino seven years ago, before it got its name! What was wrong with the original?

• It was just too large. We kept pouring NPCs, optional dialogue, and optional Ekosi battles in, and it still felt empty.
• It didnt feel like there were discrete, obvious, interesting areas. It was just the casino, and it was quite easy to miss the card shop.
• It didnt have a name, identity, or visual theme which was even more important on the interior.
• And last, but not least, there werent nearly enough gemstones.

Dev progress

• Swapping out old Mark portraits
• Fixing various bugs discovered when refreshing our suite of promo screenshots
• Putting finishing touches on the very last levels in the game

Re-launch enthusiasm

Stay tuned

Hey, friends! Happy spring (to our northern hemisphere followers) from the Deckpoint Studio team. Today, were bringing you the last-ever update on Luckless Seven. (Record scratch.) Because Luckless Seven is now Freeborn. https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Freeborn/

Why we're changing the name

• Something with two or three syllables max, and preferably one word.
• Something that captured a key theme of Marks journey and the story broadly.
• Something with a less crowded namespace.

Dev progress

Hey everyone, your boys at Deckpoint Studio are here to deliver a cool update as we enjoy our last days of Summer and head into the Fall. Weve been working hard on finishing some of the final environments of the game, and we have some new areas to show off!
Caption: New concept art of Mark's bedroom at home. As you may know, the cruise ship is one of the final areas the player will be exploring. Not to give too many spoilers, but Mark isnt exactly here for pleasure. The main antagonist of the game, the Mint family, has a big presence here. Some of the toughest opponents you will face will be encountered on the ship. https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ Most of the work weve shown before in our previous Dev Diary #64: Clear Skies Ahead was showcasing the outer areas of the ship. Below you can see some of the interior rooms
Caption: Mark's cabin room for his stay on this luxury cruise ship.
Caption: Cruise ship hallway and rooms.
Caption: The tournament card game Ekosi will take place on the floors above. As with most things where the Mint family is concerned, we wanted to convey the grand and decadent aesthetic that has been a core part of their buildings and other property. I mean, just look at how spacious those cabin rooms are!
Caption: Someone left the shower on!
Caption: Each cabin room on this cruise ship has its own private deck for those wanting to soak up the sun. Once all the areas for the ship are complete, we just have a couple of minor environmental pieces to complete. Thank you for continuing to follow us as we march slowly but surely towards finishing the major parts of Luckless Seven.. One thing that we HAVE crossed the finish line already is the soundtrack. If you havent been keeping up to date, you can listen to almost all the tracks for Luckless Seven on our composers SoundCloud! Thatll be all for now - thanks for reading and stay safe out there! Jonathan https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/

Hello everyone, and welcome to another hot update for all things Luckless Seven. Continuing our efforts to expand the artwork showcasing the world of Luckless Seven, we have a new scene in development showcasing our favorite party members Bertrand and Jamie standing in front of the Amethyst Casino. It's been a couple of months since we released our previous Dev Log #63.
Caption: New wallpaper for Luckless Seven featuring Jamie and Bertrand at Amethyst Casino. https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ We really feel that the Amethyst area is one of our showcase environments, and were really excited to see it brought to life outside of the game. We are also working on showcasing some more slice-of-life scenes with close-ups of some of the characters going about their lives. We hope to have more to share soon. On the game development side, things are proceeding nicely on some of the last remaining areas the player will visit. One of these areas will be a grand cruise ship!
Caption: New cruise ship for the next part of the tournament! TO THE SEA!
Caption: Palm trees on a boat? Oh yes! Although everything looks bright and sunny on this ship, lets just say Mark isnt here to soak in the pool. Some of the most difficult opponents in the game will be encountered here, and the main story will be at one of its most tense points here.
Caption: Come relax on the Mint Cruise Liner. While we are on the topic of finishing certain parts of the game, our soundtrack is also nearing its completion. Our talented composer Brandon has released what has already become one of our favorite additions to the soundtrack. You can probably guess where this piece will play during the game - lets just say it contains elements of many of our previous tracks.
Caption: Updated version of the concept art and wallpaper from the previous devlog.
Caption: Come visit the Amethyst Casino and check out the Pure Ekosi card shop. https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ Be sure to check some of the other Luckless Seven tracks (of which there are many) while you are on his SoundCloud! Thats a wrap for now. Thanks for reading and stay safe out there! Jonathan

Dev Diary #63: Warming Up Hello everyone, your friends from Deckpoint Studio are back and here to warm you up with some hot updates for Luckless Seven.
Caption: New wallpaper and concept art for Luckless Seven. Its been a busy winter for everyone on the team. In spite of the intense cold, mounds of snow, and trying to keep friends and family healthy, progress has been made on many of the goals we had set for the past year. Besides continuing work on finishing the soundtrack (which has grown to a monumental size now), weve wanted to make revamps to the UI and have more artwork to provide another view of our environments. Lastly, it's been a hot second since we released Dev Diary #62: Looking Fresh. https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/
Caption: So many many dialogues to investigate and so many choices. As you may have remembered from one of last years posts, we wanted to add some environmental art to help immerse the player into the world of Luckless Seven. Although we have not managed to complete all the pieces we want, the blueprints are ready for some additional scenes to add to our existing wallpaper art. These pieces are meant to add another perspective to the environments and people you will come across on your journey.
Caption: Dialogue system in Luckless Seven with new Mark portraits. Weve also been making progress on finishing up all the character portraits we need to finish the story. Almost every major character so far has their portrait set completed. The latest addition to our arsenal of character portraits is Captain Ron and Tyler, two of our favorite new characters being introduced in the game.
Caption: Say hello to new characters Captain Ron and Mini Tyler. Our next goals are to finish the soundtrack (which will most likely be completed after another couple of tracks), wrap up some additional character portraits, and continue to add more environmental art.
Caption: Dialogue system in Luckless Seven. Thank you everyone for the support youve given over the years. We know that due to the pandemic and severe winter were having, things are pretty tough all around. Everyone here hopes that you are staying warm and healthy. Until next time, Jonathan https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/

Hello friends! We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy as we head into the heart of winter. It's been a moment since we last released Dev Diary #61: Old is New. The team is still working hard to finish the prologue version of the game ready for Steam. This has involved going back through the game and brushing up some spots, adding updated music tracks to certain areas, and including new art assets such as Marks new portraits. It's not released yet, but weve made many changes to improve the opening segments of the game, so the prologue should still provide a fresh experience to those that have already spent time with our previous demos.
Caption: New wallpaper and concept art for Luckless Seven.
Caption: Mark's new portraits in the dialogue system. https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ For veterans of the game, one of the constant elements in every build of the game has been the soundtrack. While almost every aspect of the first few days of the story campaign has undergone significant revisions, players still listened to the same tracks that are now almost half a decade old. We are continuing to replace some of our very old music tracks with some of Brandons more modern works. Check out some of his latest creations on his SoundCloud.
Caption: Portraits from sketch to fully painted. Work continues on the daunting task of updating Marks entire painted portrait set. We have roughly 100% of all his expressions updated to his new look.
Caption: Mark is much more animated in his expressions. Using more arm/body movement and a more expressive face. Marks new portraits are not the only art we are adding. As we mentioned in a previous post, the team has wanted to add more wallpaper/splash screen artwork to the game for a long time. This has been something we had to postpone due to the number of portraits and other art assets that were desperately needed at the time. Today, I am happy to say we have our first new wallpaper art for Luckless Seven:
Caption: Are those new UI elements?! We'll talk about that more next time. We want to continue to expand the number of art assets we have to showcase the world of Luckless Seven. We hope to have more environmental art like this in the near future. As always, feel free to comment or ask questions on our Steam page or Discord. Thanks for reading! https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ Previous Devlog: Dev Diary #61: Old is New.

Caption - Mark's not the only one getting a new face. Here are some new faces that you will battle in the upcoming Neropolis City! Hello friends, Welcome to another hot Luckless Seven dev diary! Today we wanted to go over some of the final updates we are making to the introductory experience. While most of the work weve done recently has been focused on the later portions of the game, there have been some additions we have made to the beginning sequences to improve the quality. These changes will all lead up to what we hope will be the final pre-release demo. Previous Dev Diary #60 - Inner Workings https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ On the art side of things, we are continuing to update Marks look via new character portraits for him. Not only will he have almost every expression redesigned to his new look - we are adding additional expressions to his already expansive set. By the end of Marks portrait redesign, he should have around 25 unique portrait expressions. We are also in the stages of creating more wallpaper/loading screen art. These pieces will showcase some of the environments of Arithia as well as many of the core characters in the story. A lot of work is going into these, and we cant wait to show you the final products.
Caption - The Emerald Casino - The next stage of the tournament and story. Very large area with over 50 NPCs and many optional battles! On the music side, our composer Brandon is continuing to pump out new tracks. Some of these new tracks will be replacing the music that plays during the starting areas. Many of those tracks are now several years old, and the style of our soundtrack has advanced greatly since our earlier years. We felt it would only be proper to update the tracks to areas such as Kristas home. This should help freshen up the experience a bit for those who have played through the demo multiple times. New Track #1 - New Nostalgia
Caption - The city of water! New Track #2 - A Helpful Demeanor As we talked about before, the biggest change to the introductory experience is the inclusion of a new area called the Mind Lounge. This dream sequence area gives players a chance to run around, explore, and talk to people before their first Ekosi battle. This helps break the player into the game and also gives us a chance to better set up the story. It also gives us an opportunity to break out the werewolf into the game world!
Caption - The Mind Lounge contains our werewolf friend. Ill be honest - when we go to conventions, we get a lot of questions about the werewolf. You see him in the introductory nightmare battle, and then hes gone for the rest of the demo. When we first designed the werewolf encounter, we wanted something that represented Marks anxieties and how he views himself. A manifestation of his self-doubt. The purpose of this is to paint a picture of how Mark sees himself and how he believes other people perceive him.
Caption - Over 40 new skybox backgrounds for Ekosi! While the sequence is meant to evoke an otherworldly feel, the people that you will meet in the Mind Lounge are all people that exist in the real game world. While some characters may act or talk in an odd way, almost all of what they say is grounded in truth. In fact, much of what happens in the Mind Lounge is based on events that actually occurred in Marks life (some of them being directly related to actions the player performed during the campaign).
Caption - New skybox backgrounds include sunset, night, sunny, cloudy, and stormy! We hope the Mind Lounge sequences, especially the introductory one, will give the player an idea of Marks backstory and help inform his relationship with the rest of his party members. All these changes will be included in the final demo build we are releasing. Over the years, the demo has gotten rather big in size. Due to the changes we are adding to the beginning day, the final demo build will most likely be focused on just day 1 of the campaign.
Caption - Luckless Seven dialogue system with the group's ringleader Krista. Well have more news about the final demo release and new art assets in the coming weeks. Feel free to reach out to us on our Discord if you have any questions. Thanks for reading! Previous Dev Diary #60 - Inner Workings https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/

Hello super friends, We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy out there. We here at Deckpoint are currently in the midst of a statewide lockdown and are pretty much confined to our comfy (mostly) quarters. Previous Devlog #59: New Beginnings
Caption: Luckless Seven is the story of Mark Vescos journey from a listless existence to competitive glory. Blending a fast-paced card battle system with conversations and stories that respond to your choices, we offer one of the first card games with a story exciting enough to match it. Ready to play? https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ Check out the Demo and Wishlist Today! Trying to make the best of a global pandemic, these last couple weeks gave us some time to reflect on our workflow and the road ahead. We are quite a ways from the initial target date we set for Luckless Seven, but we are still absolutely committed to seeing this through.
Caption: New Mark Portraits in development!
Caption: Old portraits for Mark that will be phased out in time. One drawback to the long development is that earlier parts of the game tend to not reflect the level of quality of the parts we work on today. During playtesting feedback, this gets pointed out. Oftentimes, we end up going back to those sections and bring them up to snuff.
Caption: Help people find their path. Today I wanted to take a quick dive into the inner workings of Deckpoint Studio. Specifically, I wanted to talk about the main person handling the ropes. That person is the developer and lead of Luckless Seven, Jesse Kooner. Given the very long span of Luckless Sevens development, Jesse has been the only person who has continued to work on the game full time since its inception. Weve gotten some questions from people over the years on how weve managed to keep up game development for so long. The answer is that most of us on the teamwork other jobs that help keep us alive.
Caption: Emerald Casino is the next stage of the card-game Ekosi tournament! Containing over 50 NPCs and every inch is full of detail! This means, of course, that Luckless Seven has experienced all the great positives and stifling negatives of a project with one sole coder. Jesse being the only programmer means that there is always cohesiveness with all the technical aspects of the game. However, this also means that when he gets extremely sick (please stay away coronavirus), it almost always means the personal deadlines we had for that time period have to be moved back. While we can continue to produce music, art, or story, those are frequently not the bottleneck for releasing a new major game build.
Caption: Jesse Kooner, Lead Developer on Luckless Seven. Programmer, Environmental Artist, and Implementer of everything in the game engine. The ultimate result of this is that Jesse has had a hand in every aspect of Luckless Seven, from marketing, website design, game development, and business management. Fortunately for the rest of us, Jesse had developed many of those skills already from previous work experience. Jesses time studying business for his MBA program also helped with managing the finances and tax work for the studio.
Caption: Your "friends" just got even more interesting. This wide range of experience has helped him manage the work done by the rest of the team and bring everything together in Unity3D. With him being the only one working in the engine, hes managed to rack up some impressive stats: hes written almost 100,000 lines of code, built dozens of unique environments, and created the models for hundreds of characters. But wait, thats not all! Every piece of art, music, or dialogue from each member of the team has to be worked into the game by him as well. Given how large the project has become, its been very handy to have someone who has physically put each asset into the game.
Caption: Notice that this is line 2600 and where the slider bar is on the right (20% down). Jesse has written nearly 100,000 lines of code for Luckless Seven in Javascript/ Unityscript and C#.
Caption: Talk with your party members and learn more about them! Although the road has been long, Deckpoint continues to receive support from Tyler, Emma, Brandon, Jonathan, and Jesse. Together, we Captain Planet our way through the project and help keep each other sane. This year will be big for Luckless Seven, and we hope you will continue to stay tuned to the final leg of this long journey. https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ Previous Devlog #59: New Beginnings Thanks for reading! Until next time, Jonathan

GIF: Beautiful ambient backgrounds. Watch dancing shadows turn to conversation. Hello again everyone! 2019 was a busy year for us, but 2020 will be the biggest year yet for Luckless Seven. Each of us at Deckpoint hope all of you have had a great start to the new year. It's been a while since we last posted a devlog but we started off 2020 with a bang with Ohayocon! A big thank you to everyone that stopped by our booth to check out our game or just to chat. Ohayocon remains one of the most popular conventions we attend, and we love every minute of the crowded chaos. Over the next couple months, well be going over the great feedback we received from everyone that tried the game.
Photo: Ohayocon 2020! Front center in the dark blue collar is Jesse Kooner (Lead Developer), back right with the beard, glasses, and white shirt is Brandon Ledbetter (Composer), and behind him is his brother Casey Ledbetter (supportive friend). https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ WISHLIST and follow Luckless Seven on Steam! and play the demo! Last year saw some of the biggest quality of life improvements to the game so far. We are also closing out on some massive changes for the beginning sections of the game. These changes include a completely new opening section for the story campaign, additional story quests scattered throughout the first few days, and a redesigned movement system. With these changes, we feel the game will be in a great state going into Early Access in Q1 2020.
GIF: Explore the beautiful island of Arithia! Cross bridges and make some of your own with the people you meet!
GIF: Ekosi cards! Battle your way to the top. Winning, stealing, finding and buying cards!
Screenshot: New primary dialogue system! Much bigger and feels much better. A frequent suggestion we receive at conventions is that players want to have control of the character immediately, even if its just a short segment where they can run around and interact with things. The opening of the game now starts at The Mind Lounge, an eerie dreamscape room that the player will visit occasionally throughout their story. The Mind Lounge will contain shadowy reflections of the people and things Mark will encounter during the journey.
GIF: New Secondary Dialogue System. This doesn't stop the player from moving around! Easier than ever to chat with more people! The area will serve as a way for Mark to reflect on his choices and actions: items he stole may appear in the lounge, and an NPC may confront him about this. Story-centric conversations may play out between his party members reflections that reveal some of his backstory.
GIF: The MindLounge. Spooky nightclub/bar with even stranger patrons. This new story area helps introduce Mark and will be a place that is revisited several times.
Screenshot: Talk with your friends around the campfire!
GIF: Sunsets await these weary travelers. Also, we wanted to give a shoutout to another Ohio game developer, Shawn Tanner (another Ohio game dev?! (yes, we will do this every time))! Shawn is the man behind the 1-man studio ANProductions. Shawn has over a decade of experience making easy-to-pick-up games, from popular flash games to the Soda Dungeon series. He also posts videos on his YouTube showcasing his game dev journey. Shawn is currently hard at work on Soda Dungeon 2. If you are interested in fantastic turn-based RPGs and dungeon crawlers, go check it out on Steam and give it a wishlist!
Photo: A good friend of ours is Shawn Tanner! Indiedev working on Soda Dungeon 2 and is the creator behind Soda Dungeon 1!
Screenshot: Soda Dungeon 2 is a laid-back dungeon crawler. Featuring adventure, a whole town to upgrade, crafting, new classes, alternate dimensions, and beautiful pixel art!
GIF: Entering a new dimension changes the background and setting of your town! https://store.steampowered.com/app/564710/Soda_Dungeon/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/946050/Soda_Dungeon_2/ Getting back to Luckless Seven, weve also made some major quality of life changes such as a completely redesigned movement system. One of the flaws of the previous movement system was that Mark did a little circling maneuver sometimes he tried to turn a sharp corner. This new system makes his turns more snappy and feels smoother in general. The camera is also now locked to his position rather than slowly following behind him.
GIF: Ambient backgrounds in Neropolis City!
Screenshot: So many paths to take in Luckless Seven. Will you maintain an open mind or focus on Friendship, Glory, or Fortune? We cant wait to showcase the Mind Lounge in our new demo. In our next dev log, we will have a comprehensive look at 2019 and give a proper reflection at the new additions to Luckless Seven. The Early Access version of the game is so close to being complete. Once we hit Early Access, it will be a sprint to the finish line. We dont plan on lingering in Early Access for an extended period of time. Thats the plan, anyway! All of us at Deckpoint hope everyone had a pleasant holiday time and a happy New Year! Until next time, Jonathan https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ Wishlist and follow Luckless Seven on Steam! and play the demo!

GIF: More good gifs and screenshots and even dabbing below! NEW Dialogue Window and Response Menu. Also, NEW Mini-Dialogue System! Lots of sneak previews! NEW TRAILER?!? Previous Devlog #57: Party on the Beach (ft Skookum Arts and The Pedestrian) Hello everyone, This year we had the opportunity to attend one of the largest events in Ohio, the Columbus Arts Festival. Deckpoint Studio along with a few other Ohio indie game teams joined to form the Virtual Reality Booth. White Castle was kind enough to sponsor the big tent area we were set up in (ironically, only 2 of the presenters in the booth were actually showing off VR products but it was still awesome)! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnYf0KWcdAA VIDEO: New trailer showing off many beautiful locations, Ekosi battles, hanging out with friends, and more! Please note that it is showing off an intermediary version of the dialogue system. We have an even newer one down below!
GIF: Explore the beautiful island of Arithia with your friends! Read on our website for the best formatting experience. (Larger Pictures/Gifs on our website because Steam images are limited to 3mb). https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/
IMAGE: Columbus Arts Festival VR Tent (Virtual Reality).
Stay up-to-date Join the Luckless Seven Mailing List! We send out emails once a month with a recap of our latest dev diaries! Though it was hot and humid, we were very happy with the location and booth itself. Weather forecasts going into the weekend were gloomy, but we lucked out and didnt get much rain while we were open.
GIF: Tyler Clementi (Storywriter) dabbing at Columbus Arts Festival The festival was a good experience for us since it provided us with a very different demographic of people compared to the other conventions we typically attend. At an event like GDEX or Ohayocon for example, most of the people that would play our game seemed to be in their 20s. This time around most of the people that wanted to try our game were young children.
IMAGE: The Luckless Seven Booth at Columbus Arts Festival VR Tent We were very surprised at how quickly some kids were able to pick up the game. Ekosi aint exactly rocket science, but it was still surprising to see sub-8-year-old kids get a hang of the game after playing one match without reading the tutorial.
Image: Make meaningful and impactful dialogue decisions that change the story. New response menu and dialogue window! Gif version on our website, it is too large for Steam (3mb limit). Since the festival, weve continued to work on updating the dialogue system for the game. This new system is a vast improvement in almost every way: its more presentable, easier to work with, and is much less resource-intensive on the CPU. Weve always felt our artwork was one of the stronger aspects of our game, and this new system will help show off the character art more. Itll also give us new formatting options for how we present conversation text.
Image: New mini-dialog system to have small chats with different characters. The player can move around and talk to different characters. Gif version on our website, it is too large for Steam (3mb limit). We cant wait for this new system to be available in the public demo build. Since there is a great deal of dialogue that would need to be inputted into the new system, it will, unfortunately, be a few more weeks before this happens. Well definitely show more screenshots and gifs of the new system over the coming months. Hopefully, well have the new system running for the demo build well be presenting at GDEX later in October (11th-13th). Be sure to stop by our booth if youre attending!
Join the Luckless Seven Discord Community! Come on in! The water's fine! If you have questions or just want to chat, leave us a comment or join the conversation in our L7 Discord! We love questions and feedback. Until next time, Jonathan Previous Devlog #57: Party on the Beach (ft Skookum Arts and The Pedestrian) https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/

Previous Devlog #56: Time For Change
Progress update with new songs! and new gifs! and subtle hints at the future! and featuring our friends over at Skookum Arts! Hello again everyone! If the summer weather is hitting you hard, Im sure youd love nothing more than to visit a tropical paradise. One with pristine beaches, plenty of attractions, and an army of card game enthusiasts. Unfortunately, a place like that may be hard to find. Lucky for you, that perfect place is within reach in Luckless Seven!
Join the mailing list! We send out emails approximately once a month with the latest happenings and dev diaries! Work continues to progress well for Neropolis. Were continuing to make changes to the city based on feedback weve received over the past couple weeks.
The dialogue system continues to advance! In the next couple of updates we will show off the even newer-UI look for the dialogue system and the choice/response menu. https://store.steampowered.com/app/433370/Luckless_Seven/ Besides work on the environment, weve also been busy populating the city and making it the most NPC-filled place weve made yet! Neropolis will feature tons of people you can battle for practice, money, or cards. The most challenging opponents can, of course, be found in and around the casino.
The journey to Neropolis will have you see the sites, meet interesting locals, and then CRUSH THEM IN BATTLE. Read on our website for the best formatting experience. (Larger Pictures/Gifs on our website because Steam images are limited to 2mb). On the music side, weve also whipped up a new victory and defeat theme to play at the conclusion of battles. Our composer Brandon has been cranking tracks out like crazy, so if you havent checked out his SoundCloud in a while, be sure to catch up on his newest masterpieces!
Just non-stop victory! All the Ekosi Cards! All the Monies! And All the Stars!
Join the L7 Discord! Get in here! The water's fine! Outside of our game, we wanted to do a shoutout to our good friends over at Skookum Arts. This small team of talented developers are working on an amazing game called The Pedestrian. The game is a 2.5D side-scrolling platformer where you solve puzzles in an environment where you move through signs (youll get the gist of the game after looking at one picture).
GIF: The Pedestrian by Skookum Arts. Fantastic game with many beautiful environments. Jesse had the recent pleasure of making a trip to their studio in Waldo (wheres Waldo? Its near the center of...), Ohio (another Ohio game dev???). The fine folks at Skookum have a small, cozy area in the woods where they are making the finishing touches to their game.
Jed Lackey (left, Programmer) and Daniel Lackey (right, Artist) at Skookum Arts.
Joel Hornsby (Designer) with his beautifully decorated desk at Skookum Arts.
Joel Hornsby suited up and ready to design.
Daniel Lackey working on one of The Pedestrian environments. Weve been watching The Pedestrian over the years and its definitely one of our most anticipated upcoming games! If you like puzzles or side-scrollers, be sure to check them out. They also have a short demo (20-35 minutes) on their website and it's a fun play! Twitter - https://twitter.com/SkookumArts Steam - (Go wishlist them!) - https://store.steampowered.com/app/466630/The_Pedestrian/ Website - https://www.skookum-arts.com/ Demo - https://the-pedestrian.itch.io/the-pedestrian
GIF: Travel and platform through beautiful environments and signs while solving mind-bending puzzles. As always, thanks for reading and well see you next time! Jonathan
Download the latest Luckless Seven demo on Steam | Itch.io Game Site | GameJolt | IndieDB Also, join our Discord and Mailing List! Read on our website for the best formatting experience. (Larger Pictures/Gifs on our website because Steam images are limited to 3mb).
Written by Jonathan Lee, Edited by Tyler Clementi, Pictures by Jesse Kooner Previous Devlog #56: Time For Change

I think its time for a change. More specifically, I mean a change in the time of day. For Neropolis City, we have been working on a small day/night cycle for the new environments in the area. Since players will be spending a much longer time in Neropolis compared to the last city, we wanted to explicitly show the passage of time.
More about Sunset Environments and Dialogue UI Prototypes Below!
If you haven't already, please Follow and Wishlist Luckless Seven on Steam!
Demo recently updated ~25 days ago with many many bug fixes and a giant UI upgrade to the dialogue system. This approximately 2.5-8 hour demo can be downloaded and played on Steam, IndieDB, GameJolt, and Itch.io Game Site! For Windows 32-bit and 64-bit, MacOSX (Universal), and Linux (Universal). We now have a sunset version for every outdoor area in Neropolis. Water is very abundant around Neropolis, and the changing reflections make for a very different vibe!
Version 1: Accidental Kool-Aid River.
Version 2: Accidental Fanta Sea. Thank you so much to r/indiegames for the detailed, constructive feedback on our sunset environments.
Version 3: Might need a bit more color. What do you think? (The water and foam are more transparent and water reflections are pink)
Join the Luckless Seven Discord! Overall, were really happy with how the water is looking in the sunset scenes. The design of the city provides us with a good opportunity to show off the games lighting and water effects. Well be taking another pass at the reflections to make the water look a bit less uniformly orange.
In our last update "Dev Diary #55: The Write Stuff" we showed off this very work-in-progress animation. For those who guessed, it is a new walking animation! This new walking animation is only used in certain story segments.
What happens in the story to use this new walking animation?! Well, you'll just have to play to find out! ;] But the tides arent the only thing changing. In the near future, we have plans to do a revamp on our UI. The graphics for our environments have improved over the years, but we still have some legacy UI that was created back in 2014/2015 (wow, its been a long time!). We want an interface as polished as the world. But its not just appearances: these changes will also lead to better performance. We should have a lot more to share with you in the coming devlogs.
Join our mailing list to stay up-to-date! We will send out emails once a month with a summary of our weekly devlogs.
New dialog UI Prototype that we're working on. This will enlarge/fullscreen the talking character. We are very likely to move the smaller portraits around and also shift the response/choice menu so there is no overlap. As always, if you have any questions about how we tell the story, leave us a comment or join the conversation in our L7 Discord! We love questions and feedback. Until next time, Jonathan
Download the latest demo on Steam | Itch.io Game Site | GameJolt | IndieDB Also, join our Discord and Mailing List! Read on our website for the best formatting experience. (Larger Pictures/Gifs on our website because Steam images are limited to 3mb).
Written by Jonathan Lee, Edited by Tyler Clementi, Pictures by Jesse Kooner

Giant new dialogue overlay idea we're thinking about. More below! Hi there! Tyler here. Hope your week is going well. Just checking in to share an update on Luckless Sevens development. This week well focus on my contribution, the games storyline!
New dialogue and characters in Neropolis City! Your choices can make all the difference in the world. The big news this week is that weve fully outlined the final three Days of the story. If youve been following the development for, lets say 3+ years, you might be asking yourself, Wait a minute. These guys didnt know where the story was headed?! Hang on! I can explain. Yeah, we knew roughly where things would end and which notes we wanted to hit, etc. But over several years of writing, resources and timelines can shift, requiring some flexibility. So the story shifts too!
BEFORE: Accidental Kool-Aid River.
AFTER: Sunset Waters. What do you think?
Stay up-to-date Join the Luckless Seven Mailing List! We send out emails once a month with a recap of our latest dev diaries!

Heres how we write Luckless Seven:

• Overarching Narrative: At the highest level, we have a massive text document outlining the whole story in broad strokes from the moment Mark wakes up on Independence Day until the end credits.
• Quest Structure: A level down from that, we have individual documents going into more detail with quest structure: what the player can do, where theyll do it, what actions will advance the quest, etc.
• Dialogue List: In the same document, we typically include a comprehensive list of all dialogues for that story segment. Here we include detailed notes on ideas we want each dialogue to include: narrative exposition, plot advancement, choices, and fun character interactions.
• Dialogue Scenes: At the most detailed level, we have the dialogue scenes themselves: written using Twine then imported into Unity. This is where the characters voices come in and bring the story to life.

Hello everyone!

Last time on Luckless Seven

Itch.io and GameJolt Releases and New Demo!

Jesse with Giant Dialogue UI Improvement

Fantastic Feedback

Brandon Creates New Victory Theme

Future Blog Posts

Hi everyone, Tyler here from the Deckpoint Studio team. Again, its been a while! If you arent following us on Twitter, you might have thought we were dead. But Im happy to report that not only are we alive, we are THRIVING -- by which I mean were still working hard to deliver you a great game called Luckless Seven. Last time I wrote about everything under the Arithian sun, but this time No, this will be the exact same. Buckle up!
Neropolis got populated! With over 200 characters!
This update is another big one! With way too many screenshots and gifs.
This Luckless Seven indiegame devlog update will show off NEW Sunset areas! New dialogues! New NPCs! New Story! New Demo available! New website launches on both Itch.io site and Gamejolt! Additionally, we talk about the exciting next step for Luckless Seven! Also, we launched a Discord Server! Get in here!
BRAND NEW DEMO! Beta Candidate 0.830! This latest update is for all operating systems: Windows in 32-bit and 64-bit! and Mac OSX and Linux! Download on Steam!
Join us on our journey as we develop Luckless Seven! Help shape the game and get access to exclusive content!
If you haven't done so already, follow and wishlist Luckless Seven on Steam!

Where weve been

Join us on Discord!

Whats ahead

• New side quests: We are planning to add new side quests to Days 1, 2, and 4, so there will be new content for those who have played the demo before!
• Quality over quantity: We havent yet, but we will soon be shortening the public demo to Day 1 while rounding it out with some sweet side quests at the very beginning of Marks adventure. (If you want to play the full demo in all its current, free glory, get your fill today!)
• Already backing? Newer content (including upcoming releases of Days 5, 6, and 7) will be available to Early Access buyers and Kickstarter backers. Kickstarter backers will receive both a Steam key and Itchi.io key when the game enters Early Access.
• Launch: When? Luckless Seven will enter Early Access in 3-5 months!

Tyler writes the story, makes a trailer

Brandon makes the songs

Jesse puts it all together in Neropolis

Other great improvements

Hi everyone, Tyler here from the Deckpoint Studio team. Its been a while! The last time I wrote, we were announcing a big change to our art style. Since then, weve been working on lots of CONTENT. In this update, Im happy to provide a preview of whats cooking.
Brand new start menu! With many ambient effects and fish! With A D V A N C E D F I S H A I. Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Please note this article is posted late on Steam. We will have a brand new article posted everywhere within two weeks! (Sorry about the delay).
MASSIVE DEVLOG with so many new shiny things! New areas completed: Neropolis Canals, Emerald Casino Exterior, and Emerald Casino Interior. New start menu, new versus screens, new inventory/store UI, new journal UI, updated dialog UI, new songs, small graphics update to many areas, many quality of life improvements, many bugs fixed, etc. etc. More pics down below!
BRAND NEW DEMO! B E T A Candidate! This latest update is for all operating systems: Windows in 32-bit and 64-bit! and Mac OSX and Linux! Download on Steam!
Join us on our journey as we develop Luckless Seven! Help shape the game and get access to exclusive content!

Jesse and the levels

Jesse and the various UI improvements

• New! Versus Screen: Now, before each Ekosi match, a VS. overlay will appear over the 3D world, posing Mark and his opponent opposite one another. We think its a pretty cool way to excite players right before the match, but this feature is very young. If you have any suggestions to make it great, let us know!
• New! Start Menu: Okay, so this one is a little bit of level design. And weve been down this road before. When designing the Emerald Casino, we thought there was a lot of potential in the observation deck overlooking the water. With a little bit of work, we think it makes an even better home for our intrepid cast of characters to introduce the game!
• Updated - Menu UI: Both the Journal (quest) and Inventory/Store interfaces were previously a bit restrictive. Weve made changes to expand the screen area available for reviewing your quest progress and customizing your deck. Check it out and let us know your thoughts!
• Updated - Dialogue UI: Now, youll notice a glow behind the character portraits during dialogue. We think this looks nice everywhere, but its especially helpful in darker levels.
• Updated - Day 4 Krista tracking: if youve played through Day 4, you know theres a lot of ground to cover. And, as fast as Krista is, it can be hard to keep track of her. To help, weve added quest markers to the minimap and the overworld -- just in case you get lost in the grass!

Brandon and three new tunes -- including a vocal track!

Tyler writes dialogue

Interview with NerdStash

Matsuricon: August 2018

Day 4: The beach received a huge graphics update! New water + Added many new trees, rocks, sandbars, and more! And a massive update to the overall graphics of the game! Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Hi everyone, Tyler again from the Deckpoint Studio team. In our last post, we took the opportunity to reflect on how far we’ve come in the last few years. Since then, we’ve been working our butts off, and I’m happy to share some of that work today.
Big graphics update to the dialog system!
A radical new perspective. A huge change to how the world is viewed! More details about everything further in the dev blog.
BRAND NEW DEMO! Available on Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux! Play on Steam!
Join us on our journey as we develop Luckless Seven! Help shape the game and get access to exclusive content! But first, a quick word about Ohayocon! In January, we had the opportunity to show off Luckless Seven at the biggest anime convention in Central Ohio. Ohayocon held their first Indie Videogame Showcase, and it was a huge success. We got to meet tons of local gamers and non-gamers alike, and the feedback was really positive.
The beautiful Luckless Seven booth at Ohayocon!
A cosplayer dressed as Rick from the Rick and Morty tv show plays Luckless Seven!
Several IRL Ekosi battles took place throughout Ohayocon. Pictured is Brandon Ledbetter (Deckpoint Studio's composer) who is cosplaying as the protagonist from Persona 5. (He is located on the right with the black suit and black hair.) Also in the picture is Griffin Voyls in the red cape on the left and he created the Ohayocon Indie Videogame Showcase!
Jesse Kooner (Deckpoint Studio's lead developer) joking with attendees. (Located center with the gray colored sweater.)
Attendees crowded around the monitors.
Brandon Ledbetter (Deckpoint Studio's composer) explaining the game to other attendees. (He is located in the center with the black suit and black hair.)
Attendees playing Luckless Seven.
Many great cosplayers at Ohayocon 2018! (This picture was taken in the hallway.) If you met us at Ohayocon and are sticking around, thanks! It’s always a pleasure for us to talk about the game with enthusiastic local players, which is why we teamed up with our friends at Multivarious Games to do it again last week! We took part in another showcase, this time in conjunction with the release of Ready Player One at the Gateway near OSU’s campus. Good times! But enough about that! You’re probably on the edge of your seat wondering about the title!
Before: Orthographic - pure isometric. Distance can be difficult to convey because the orthographic camera flattens the image.
After: Perspective - perspective isometric. Distance is much easier to convey. Items that are far away will now look more distant.
Before: Orthographic - pure isometric. This camera has no field of view.
After: Perspective - perspective isometric. This camera uses a very slight field of view. Surely by now, you’ve noticed that our graphic style is overhead isometric. That’s accomplished using an “orthographic” camera in Unity, But guess what? Those days are gone. We’re switching from what you might call a “pure isometric” style to a “perspective isometric” style. Here’s what that means:

• Pure isometric - No matter where Mark is located, the scene will look the same. Essentially, there is no field of view.
• Perspective isometric - The scene will look different based on where Mark is located. You can see additional walls or sides of objects by moving around them.

• Dialogue UI improved -- The dialogue interface is a pretty important element to our visual experience, so we’ve made some tweaks to color, transparency, and more to pretty it up.
• Pathing improvements -- In a few key areas (the Amethyst Casino Ext, Krista’s house, Day 4 bridges), we’ve broadened clickable/pathfinding areas to make navigating those tight spaces a little easier.
• Filippelli House Exterior additions -- In addition to those pathfinding tweaks, we’ve also thrown some pool floaties in your way by the pool. This should prevent players from getting lost behind the mansion, plus you get to meet some of Krista’s charming siblings!
• Amethyst Casino Interior additions -- We’ve added strobe lights and pulsing lights to the Amethyst Casino in Patrida to make it feel more alive. We sure do like moving things!
• Amethyst Casino Exterior additions -- You’ll now find that signs for the Amethyst Casino and nearby Ekosi shop feature glowing signs. Again, if it moves, we will add it to our game.
• Day 4 Beach Area improvements -- The switch to perspective camera allowed us to play with new water, and we’ve made a ton of additions to the aquatic Day 4 terrain. You’ll find the beach populated with a lot more rocks and palm trees, plus a few sandbars. We think it looks even better than before!
• Also, there are curtains now. They move. We like that.

NEW: Several remade areas! The Patrida Casino now called Amethyst Casino with a whole new exterior. The card shop and interior of Amethyst Casino have been remade! Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Hi everyone, Tyler here from the Deckpoint Studio team. In our last update, a flood of new levels and features wiped out December’s natural opportunity for reflection on Luckless Seven’s development in 2017. But a promise is a promise, and we’re here to look back.
BRAND NEW DEMO! Available on Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux! Play on Steam! I know in my heart that 2017 was a big year for Luckless Seven, probably the biggest so far. As it happened, it felt like more was happening faster than the year prior. We’re getting better at this as we go, I know it. But when I looked back at last year’s eight blog posts, I found that our last new story content was released in late March 2017. Has it been so long? The thought was discouraging. Any artistic venture can feel discouraging, and goodness knows that indie game development is no exception. If anything, it can be exceptionally difficult! Indie game development, and Jesse probably knows this a heck of a lot better than I do, often reminds me of a Carl Sagan quote: “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” Looking back, it felt like we hadn’t served up any pie in some time. So, I looked a bit closer at those blog posts we’ve released, and I found that we’ve instead been inventing the universe.
Join us on our journey as we develop Luckless Seven! Help shape the game and get access to exclusive content! Last year kicked off with the release of our most time-intensive content releases to date. In terms of level design Day 4 was a massive, massive undertaking. Day 4’s conclusion, the reflective campfire dialogue (released separately) was a similarly enormous challenge. Getting those portions of the game and story done were big accomplishments that prompted some reflection of their own!
Day 4 release in early 2017. The largest level containing over 2 dozen battlable NPCs and the largest area to explore in the game!
Campfire scene following Day 4's excitement. Relax with your friends and let dancing shadows turn into conversation. At the time, we’d spent a lot of resources on developing that new content, that delicious, made-with-love-and-Unity apple pie. We took a moment to look at the game, and we found that there were a lot of areas where we wanted to make improvements. Big, fundamental areas that affect the whole gameplay experience rather than just one “day.” So, at the risk of being too verbose in yet another blog post, here are some of our universe-inventing accomplishments in the last year:

• Save/Load feature: Jesse made this, and we think it’s pretty handy.
• Card rewards: Money’s cool, but aren’t things just a little bit cooler? What’s that? You want both? Fine. Now, Ekosi victories will reward players with an influx of currency and a nice new addition to their deck.
• Card pickups: Ekosi is a pretty big deal in Arithia, but, until this last year, players couldn’t pick up a card off the table. Now you can! Whatever trouble you choose to get into with those sticky fingers is your business, but we think this feature makes the overworld and Ekosi feel a lot more connected.
• Expanded overworld dialogues: Along with the card pickups, we wanted to leave some character behind. (Maybe if Dory has some character, you won’t be so likely to swipe her belongings, ya thief.) In that spirit, you’ll find more in the way of perusable bookcases, notebooks, and chat histories. More character is good, so we plan to continue this trend across all of Arithia in 2018.
• Various UI improvements: There’s a lot here including the dialogue system, the inventory system, the phone, and on-screen quest/currency updates. We feel better than ever about the game’s UI.

• As I hinted above, we’ve revamped the Casino area in Patrida. We think it’s a bit more compact and fun, and we hope you will too!
• We recently released LucklessSeven.com as a landing page to inform newcomers to the game about what we’re doing. If you think your friend would be interested, send them there! And tell them to sign up for updates. And follow them on that path.
• We recently updated our pictures on Steam. We think Luckless Seven looks better than ever, so we wanted to reflect a more up-to-date image of the game.

NEW: Several remade areas! The Patrida Casino now called Amethyst Casino with a whole new exterior. The card shop and interior of Amethyst Casino have been remade! Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Hi everyone, Tyler here from the Deckpoint Studio team. In our last update, a flood of new levels and features wiped out Decembers natural opportunity for reflection on Luckless Sevens development in 2017. But a promise is a promise, and were here to look back.
BRAND NEW DEMO! Available on Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux! Play on Steam! I know in my heart that 2017 was a big year for Luckless Seven, probably the biggest so far. As it happened, it felt like more was happening faster than the year prior. Were getting better at this as we go, I know it. But when I looked back at last years eight blog posts, I found that our last new story content was released in late March 2017. Has it been so long? The thought was discouraging. Any artistic venture can feel discouraging, and goodness knows that indie game development is no exception. If anything, it can be exceptionally difficult! Indie game development, and Jesse probably knows this a heck of a lot better than I do, often reminds me of a Carl Sagan quote: If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. Looking back, it felt like we hadnt served up any pie in some time. So, I looked a bit closer at those blog posts weve released, and I found that weve instead been inventing the universe.
Join us on our journey as we develop Luckless Seven! Help shape the game and get access to exclusive content! Last year kicked off with the release of our most time-intensive content releases to date. In terms of level design Day 4 was a massive, massive undertaking. Day 4s conclusion, the reflective campfire dialogue (released separately) was a similarly enormous challenge. Getting those portions of the game and story done were big accomplishments that prompted some reflection of their own!
Day 4 release in early 2017. The largest level containing over 2 dozen battlable NPCs and the largest area to explore in the game!
Campfire scene following Day 4's excitement. Relax with your friends and let dancing shadows turn into conversation. At the time, wed spent a lot of resources on developing that new content, that delicious, made-with-love-and-Unity apple pie. We took a moment to look at the game, and we found that there were a lot of areas where we wanted to make improvements. Big, fundamental areas that affect the whole gameplay experience rather than just one day. So, at the risk of being too verbose in yet another blog post, here are some of our universe-inventing accomplishments in the last year:

• Save/Load feature: Jesse made this, and we think its pretty handy.
• Card rewards: Moneys cool, but arent things just a little bit cooler? Whats that? You want both? Fine. Now, Ekosi victories will reward players with an influx of currency and a nice new addition to their deck.
• Card pickups: Ekosi is a pretty big deal in Arithia, but, until this last year, players couldnt pick up a card off the table. Now you can! Whatever trouble you choose to get into with those sticky fingers is your business, but we think this feature makes the overworld and Ekosi feel a lot more connected.
• Expanded overworld dialogues: Along with the card pickups, we wanted to leave some character behind. (Maybe if Dory has some character, you wont be so likely to swipe her belongings, ya thief.) In that spirit, youll find more in the way of perusable bookcases, notebooks, and chat histories. More character is good, so we plan to continue this trend across all of Arithia in 2018.
• Various UI improvements: Theres a lot here including the dialogue system, the inventory system, the phone, and on-screen quest/currency updates. We feel better than ever about the games UI.

• As I hinted above, weve revamped the Casino area in Patrida. We think its a bit more compact and fun, and we hope you will too!
• We recently released LucklessSeven.com as a landing page to inform newcomers to the game about what were doing. If you think your friend would be interested, send them there! And tell them to sign up for updates. And follow them on that path.
• We recently updated our pictures on Steam. We think Luckless Seven looks better than ever, so we wanted to reflect a more up-to-date image of the game.

Caption: Multiple new areas! We have large screenshots further down! Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Hi everyone, Tyler again from the Deckpoint Studio team. As we roll ahead into the winter and new year, the holiday season offers an opportunity for reflection. Where have we been? Where are we going? These questions help us measure our success against stated goals and revisit lessons learned along the way. At Deckpoint Studio, we value reflection. But that will have to wait for next time, because have way too much new stuff to show you!
New: The battle icon in the dialog menu is now animated!
Download the demo on Steam or IndieDB. There is Windows and Mac OSX available! We will have Linux in the next update! Where to begin? Well, I’m the story guy, so we’ll start there. In the newest demo version, you’ll find familiar areas filled with additional dialogues. They’re in Mark’s apartment, in the Filippelli home, in the library, and more. We created these dialogues as a means of fleshing out the land of Arithia and the history of Mark’s companions, but also to just have a bit of fun. Give them a read and let us know what you think!
New Environment Interaction: Pickup Icon. Located on the window sill. These new icons will allow Mark to scavenge items or money from the environment!
New Environment Interaction: Investigation Icon. These new icons will allow the player to discover more about Arithia and its inhabitants.
This investigation icon opens allows the player to read excerpts from different books that the Fillipelli family owns. Giving insight into the characters and their backgrounds.
The Ox in the Box! A fun storybook excerpt. Thanks, investigation icon! Giving the start of Mark’s journey a bit more character hasn’t been a strictly literary effort, however. We’ve also done some remodeling. In the newest version of the demo, and going forward, you’ll notice some modest stylistic shifts to the way we handle walls. Walls facing the camera have gone from semi-transparent to invisible, and our walls are now a little thicker. We think this looks a bit nicer, and it will hopefully cut down on the neighbors complaining about the noise. Take a look at the before-and-after shots below!
Before: Mark's apartment daytime.
After: Mark's apartment daytime. The walls in front of the camera were removed. The walls were made thinner. Added floor thickness. New furniture and textures!
Before: Mark's apartment night time.
After: Mark's apartment night time. The level is significantly easier to see and navigate.
Before: Card shop in Patrida.
After: Card shop in Patrida. Added windows and improved the lighting.
Before: Casino in Patrida.
Patrida's Casino. The outside has massive windows and we added the light from these windows in the updated casino interior.
After: Casino in Patrida. New light from windows. VIP area was redone and new lighting from the slot machines. This area will undergo more changes in the next update.
Before: Fillipelli home interior.
After: Fillipelli home interior. Wall thickness reduced. Floor thickness added. More realistic lighting.
Before: Patrida library.
After: Patrida Library. Wall thickness added. For a less modest change, look no further than the hospital in Patrida. For a long time, we have been content with but not thrilled by the hospital’s appearance. While it made an appropriately bleak setting for Mark’s listless position at the beginning of our story, we thought it was a little too barren for the patients. And so, last week, Jesse surprised us with a complete overhaul: artwork, several recolorings, and more. It’s better shown than told, so see below.
Before: Patrida Children's Hospital - Lobby.
After: Patrida Children's Hospital - Lobby. Added new furniture, signs, textures, characters and more! Removed the old fountain.
Before: Office Area.
After: Office area. Added new cubicles, furniture, signs, textures, and more!
Before: Cafeteria.
After: Cafeteria. Added signs "Sweetspot" meat and "Blackbelt fruit"
Before: Hallyway.
After: Hallway. Added over 40 new paintings in the hospital!
Before: Lobby.
After: Lobby. The new TVs have observation icons when the player gets close enough.
Before: Office area.
After: Office area. Close up of the new cubicles! Reduced how far away the cubicles were from each other.
Before: Breakroom. This picture is zoomed out very far.
After: Breakroom. New paintings and recoloring of the area.
Before: Clinic
After: Clinic. Added new characters and wall siding! But that hasn’t been all the level design we’ve been working on. No, Jesse’s also done a lot of work preparing for the continuation of the Luckless Seven journey in Neropolis. There are a few more key areas left to create, but many have already been completed or nearly completed: an outdoor hub area, card shop, local restaurant, hotel lobby, and hotel room. You can see the images below! We’ll be turning our attention to designing Neropolis’ casino exterior/interior next!
New: Neropolis Card shop!
New: Neropolis Mint Hotel Lobby!
New: Neropolis Mint Hotel Room!
New: Neropolis Restaurant! The newest version of the demo will also reveal some significant UI updates. You’ll notice improvements to the quest notification boxes and currency update boxes at the top and bottom of the screen respectively. You’ll also notice changes to the phone/menu icon. The phone now shows a screen rather than the back of a phone, and it has a cool dimming/illuminating effect. You’ll find some helpful new icons as you explore the world as Mark. Blue question marks now denote sidequests, and circular “i” icons indicate particularly knowledgeable or talkative NPCs. You’ll also notice “investigate” (magnifying glass) and “scavenger” (grabbing hand) icons indicating potential card, currency, or other item pickups. We think these improvements will help you navigate the world even more effectively!
New: Blue question mark designates side quests. These are extra quests that help expand the game's world and provide the player with more opportunities to win money and cards!
New: Circular “i” icons indicate particularly knowledgeable or talkative NPCs.
New: UI improvements. The quest and money notifier are now much easier to read. The new menu button (phone button).
Before: Quest notifier. This updates whenever the player unlocks the next part of a quest.
After: Quest notifier. More noticeable and easier to read.
Before: Money notifier. Money is gained from battles, dialogs, or from the environment.
After: Money notifier.
Before: The old menu button. This opens the phone menu where the player can check their quest log, inventory, map, change options, save / load, and more!
After: The new phone menu button. The screen illuminates when hovered over! And lastly, we wanted to call out some important updates that went live with the previous demo release. You may have noticed that won Ekosi matches will now result in Ekosi card rewards. And to manage your new abundance of cards, we’ve made some significant improvements to the deck/inventory system. The visual interface has been simplified, and you’ll find the tooltips to be a lot more concise and clear. (Color-coded text has been a big help here.) Happy deck-building!
Before: Inventory system and side deck builder.
After: Inventory system and deck builder. The new tooltips are smaller, colored, and point to the card the player is hovering over.
Win cards from nearly every Ekosi match! Money is also displayed on the reward screen. A new button was added to flip between the score breakdown and reward screen. So, we’ve been busy. We’ll have to wait until next time to reflect. ;) If you haven’t done so in a while, visit us on Steam and give the game a spin. We’re excited about our progress; it’s the best it’s ever been! If you have any thoughts or feedback on the new additions, let us know! Thanks as always, and happy holidays! Tyler Download the demo on Steam or IndieDB. Read on our website for the best formatting experience.

Caption: Multiple new areas! We have large screenshots further down! Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Hi everyone, Tyler again from the Deckpoint Studio team. As we roll ahead into the winter and new year, the holiday season offers an opportunity for reflection. Where have we been? Where are we going? These questions help us measure our success against stated goals and revisit lessons learned along the way. At Deckpoint Studio, we value reflection. But that will have to wait for next time, because have way too much new stuff to show you!
New: The battle icon in the dialog menu is now animated!
Download the demo on Steam or IndieDB. There is Windows and Mac OSX available! We will have Linux in the next update! Where to begin? Well, Im the story guy, so well start there. In the newest demo version, youll find familiar areas filled with additional dialogues. Theyre in Marks apartment, in the Filippelli home, in the library, and more. We created these dialogues as a means of fleshing out the land of Arithia and the history of Marks companions, but also to just have a bit of fun. Give them a read and let us know what you think!
New Environment Interaction: Pickup Icon. Located on the window sill. These new icons will allow Mark to scavenge items or money from the environment!
New Environment Interaction: Investigation Icon. These new icons will allow the player to discover more about Arithia and its inhabitants.
This investigation icon opens allows the player to read excerpts from different books that the Fillipelli family owns. Giving insight into the characters and their backgrounds.
The Ox in the Box! A fun storybook excerpt. Thanks, investigation icon! Giving the start of Marks journey a bit more character hasnt been a strictly literary effort, however. Weve also done some remodeling. In the newest version of the demo, and going forward, youll notice some modest stylistic shifts to the way we handle walls. Walls facing the camera have gone from semi-transparent to invisible, and our walls are now a little thicker. We think this looks a bit nicer, and it will hopefully cut down on the neighbors complaining about the noise. Take a look at the before-and-after shots below!
Before: Mark's apartment daytime.
After: Mark's apartment daytime. The walls in front of the camera were removed. The walls were made thinner. Added floor thickness. New furniture and textures!
Before: Mark's apartment night time.
After: Mark's apartment night time. The level is significantly easier to see and navigate.
Before: Card shop in Patrida.
After: Card shop in Patrida. Added windows and improved the lighting.
Before: Casino in Patrida.
Patrida's Casino. The outside has massive windows and we added the light from these windows in the updated casino interior.
After: Casino in Patrida. New light from windows. VIP area was redone and new lighting from the slot machines. This area will undergo more changes in the next update.
Before: Fillipelli home interior.
After: Fillipelli home interior. Wall thickness reduced. Floor thickness added. More realistic lighting.
Before: Patrida library.
After: Patrida Library. Wall thickness added. For a less modest change, look no further than the hospital in Patrida. For a long time, we have been content with but not thrilled by the hospitals appearance. While it made an appropriately bleak setting for Marks listless position at the beginning of our story, we thought it was a little too barren for the patients. And so, last week, Jesse surprised us with a complete overhaul: artwork, several recolorings, and more. Its better shown than told, so see below.
Before: Patrida Children's Hospital - Lobby.
After: Patrida Children's Hospital - Lobby. Added new furniture, signs, textures, characters and more! Removed the old fountain.
Before: Office Area.
After: Office area. Added new cubicles, furniture, signs, textures, and more!
Before: Cafeteria.
After: Cafeteria. Added signs "Sweetspot" meat and "Blackbelt fruit"
Before: Hallyway.
After: Hallway. Added over 40 new paintings in the hospital!
Before: Lobby.
After: Lobby. The new TVs have observation icons when the player gets close enough.
Before: Office area.
After: Office area. Close up of the new cubicles! Reduced how far away the cubicles were from each other.
Before: Breakroom. This picture is zoomed out very far.
After: Breakroom. New paintings and recoloring of the area.
Before: Clinic
After: Clinic. Added new characters and wall siding! But that hasnt been all the level design weve been working on. No, Jesses also done a lot of work preparing for the continuation of the Luckless Seven journey in Neropolis. There are a few more key areas left to create, but many have already been completed or nearly completed: an outdoor hub area, card shop, local restaurant, hotel lobby, and hotel room. You can see the images below! Well be turning our attention to designing Neropolis casino exterior/interior next!
New: Neropolis Card shop!
New: Neropolis Mint Hotel Lobby!
New: Neropolis Mint Hotel Room!
New: Neropolis Restaurant! The newest version of the demo will also reveal some significant UI updates. Youll notice improvements to the quest notification boxes and currency update boxes at the top and bottom of the screen respectively. Youll also notice changes to the phone/menu icon. The phone now shows a screen rather than the back of a phone, and it has a cool dimming/illuminating effect. Youll find some helpful new icons as you explore the world as Mark. Blue question marks now denote sidequests, and circular i icons indicate particularly knowledgeable or talkative NPCs. Youll also notice investigate (magnifying glass) and scavenger (grabbing hand) icons indicating potential card, currency, or other item pickups. We think these improvements will help you navigate the world even more effectively!
New: Blue question mark designates side quests. These are extra quests that help expand the game's world and provide the player with more opportunities to win money and cards!
New: Circular i icons indicate particularly knowledgeable or talkative NPCs.
New: UI improvements. The quest and money notifier are now much easier to read. The new menu button (phone button).
Before: Quest notifier. This updates whenever the player unlocks the next part of a quest.
After: Quest notifier. More noticeable and easier to read.
Before: Money notifier. Money is gained from battles, dialogs, or from the environment.
After: Money notifier.
Before: The old menu button. This opens the phone menu where the player can check their quest log, inventory, map, change options, save / load, and more!
After: The new phone menu button. The screen illuminates when hovered over! And lastly, we wanted to call out some important updates that went live with the previous demo release. You may have noticed that won Ekosi matches will now result in Ekosi card rewards. And to manage your new abundance of cards, weve made some significant improvements to the deck/inventory system. The visual interface has been simplified, and youll find the tooltips to be a lot more concise and clear. (Color-coded text has been a big help here.) Happy deck-building!
Before: Inventory system and side deck builder.
After: Inventory system and deck builder. The new tooltips are smaller, colored, and point to the card the player is hovering over.
Win cards from nearly every Ekosi match! Money is also displayed on the reward screen. A new button was added to flip between the score breakdown and reward screen. So, weve been busy. Well have to wait until next time to reflect. ;) If you havent done so in a while, visit us on Steam and give the game a spin. Were excited about our progress; its the best its ever been! If you have any thoughts or feedback on the new additions, let us know! Thanks as always, and happy holidays! Tyler Download the demo on Steam or IndieDB. Read on our website for the best formatting experience.

Hi everyone, Tyler again from the Deckpoint Studio team. I’m writing today to provide an update on a couple of action-packed months for Luckless Seven. We’re well into what has unofficially become expo season for Luckless Seven. Late in August, we attended our first Matsuricon, a Columbus, OH anime convention. Then, last weekend, we attended GDEX, a regional game development expo, for the third consecutive year. Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Our website will have a gif-ified version of this update!
The approaching expos made a good occasion to review feedback from last year’s GDEX and measure today’s game against the Luckless Seven of a year ago. We’re thrilled about our progress over the last year, but we still wanted to make sure we’d adequately responded to the player feedback. A common theme amongst players was a desire for context and clarity in the game’s introduction. Who’s this werewolf? Who are these characters? And, even more generally, what kind of game is this?
These concerns melded with our team’s recent desire to make the start menu more representative of the in-game world. So, we’ve taken the first-person, moving/rotating camera, and replaced it with a perspective just like that of the overworld. Throw in a few particle effects, and we think it looks pretty nice! With the start menu adjusted to look just like a scene from gameplay, we got the idea to make it act like a scene from gameplay. Now, when you click to start the story, a short dialogue scene between Krista and Mark plays. We showcase some of the characters and foreshadow some of the story as a way of lending context to new players. And then, after this scene, the werewolf Ekosi battle ensues as normal.

Between Matsuricon and GDEX, we had plenty of player help to identify areas for improvement. A number of players experienced difficulty navigating Krista’s house on Day 1. The Mystery Girl at the Library presented a number of Ekosi AI issues. Then, a number of players expressed confusion or disinterest in the post-battle report. Additionally, many players reported a lack of connection between Ekosi matches and the overworld. From this feedback, we’ve worked (and are currently working!) on some changes:

• Added collectible items to the overworld.
• Clarifying route to the back of Krista’s house
• Closed garage door (a common player misstep).
• Added signage and observation icon to guide the player.
• Made a wall transparent to better reveal the walkway.
• Retooling Mystery Girl with a better-behaving deck
• Changing post-battle report to de-emphasize Ekosi scoring and focus on player rewards.
• Report now shows currency reward.
• Players can now receive Ekosi cards upon victory.
• Adding additional story details to the overworld. [Ongoing]

Hi everyone, Tyler again from the Deckpoint Studio team. Im writing today to provide an update on a couple of action-packed months for Luckless Seven. Were well into what has unofficially become expo season for Luckless Seven. Late in August, we attended our first Matsuricon, a Columbus, OH anime convention. Then, last weekend, we attended GDEX, a regional game development expo, for the third consecutive year. Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Our website will have a gif-ified version of this update!
The approaching expos made a good occasion to review feedback from last years GDEX and measure todays game against the Luckless Seven of a year ago. Were thrilled about our progress over the last year, but we still wanted to make sure wed adequately responded to the player feedback. A common theme amongst players was a desire for context and clarity in the games introduction. Whos this werewolf? Who are these characters? And, even more generally, what kind of game is this?
These concerns melded with our teams recent desire to make the start menu more representative of the in-game world. So, weve taken the first-person, moving/rotating camera, and replaced it with a perspective just like that of the overworld. Throw in a few particle effects, and we think it looks pretty nice! With the start menu adjusted to look just like a scene from gameplay, we got the idea to make it act like a scene from gameplay. Now, when you click to start the story, a short dialogue scene between Krista and Mark plays. We showcase some of the characters and foreshadow some of the story as a way of lending context to new players. And then, after this scene, the werewolf Ekosi battle ensues as normal.

Between Matsuricon and GDEX, we had plenty of player help to identify areas for improvement. A number of players experienced difficulty navigating Kristas house on Day 1. The Mystery Girl at the Library presented a number of Ekosi AI issues. Then, a number of players expressed confusion or disinterest in the post-battle report. Additionally, many players reported a lack of connection between Ekosi matches and the overworld. From this feedback, weve worked (and are currently working!) on some changes:

• Added collectible items to the overworld.
• Clarifying route to the back of Kristas house
• Closed garage door (a common player misstep).
• Added signage and observation icon to guide the player.
• Made a wall transparent to better reveal the walkway.
• Retooling Mystery Girl with a better-behaving deck
• Changing post-battle report to de-emphasize Ekosi scoring and focus on player rewards.
• Report now shows currency reward.
• Players can now receive Ekosi cards upon victory.
• Adding additional story details to the overworld. [Ongoing]

Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Steam announcements do not support gifs, go to our website for the gif-ified version of this update! Hi everyone, Tyler here from the Deckpoint Studio team. I’m writing today to provide our regular update on the development of Luckless Seven.
The last time I wrote was to announce the work on and release of the game’s manual save/load system. In June, the framework was established, and Jesse has spent the last month refining the feature. We’ve resolved an issue with player currency not saving, so now all data is being recorded and displaying successfully. Some upcoming cosmetic changes will also improve the interface so you can quickly distinguish one file from another.
In addition to the save/load system changes, we’ve also fixed some bugs with the Ekosi inventory system and the arcade mode. Card sales are now crediting the player appropriately, and the arcade mode is playable again, so all is right in Ekosi land!
Perhaps the most exciting news is the development of a new city to explore. In the previous “Making Arithia” update, I discussed the working relationships on the Deckpoint Studio team and our upcoming goals. I alluded to the Mediterranean inspirations behind our plans for the second city in the Luckless Seven journey. And after a lot of hard work, we’re happy to share a preview of what Neropolis will look like.

Finally, I would be remiss to neglect my end of development: the story! Without saying too much, Day 5 has quickly become one of my favorite segments of the story to write. It’s a narratively important moment as the gang checks in for the next stage in the tournament and receives their opponent assignments. Further, I’ve found that the backdrop of the new city is perfect for the unveiling of age-old conflicts. In Neropolis, the battles won’t involve just cards. As I always say, we never would’ve gotten this far without your support. Our most recent demo is always available via Steam. Play a few matches, engage in the dialogue, and let us know what you’re looking forward to! Thanks as always, Tyler Download the demo on Steam or IndieDB. Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Steam announcements do not support gifs, go to our website for the gif-ified version of this update!

Hi everyone, Tyler here from the Deckpoint Studio team. Im writing today to provide our regular update on the development of Luckless Seven. Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Our website will have a gif-ified version of this update!
The last time I wrote was to announce the work on and release of the games manual save/load system. In June, the framework was established, and Jesse has spent the last month refining the feature. Weve resolved an issue with player currency not saving, so now all data is being recorded and displaying successfully. Some upcoming cosmetic changes will also improve the interface so you can quickly distinguish one file from another.
In addition to the save/load system changes, weve also fixed some bugs with the Ekosi inventory system and the arcade mode. Card sales are now crediting the player appropriately, and the arcade mode is playable again, so all is right in Ekosi land!
Perhaps the most exciting news is the development of a new city to explore. In the previous Making Arithia update, I discussed the working relationships on the Deckpoint Studio team and our upcoming goals. I alluded to the Mediterranean inspirations behind our plans for the second city in the Luckless Seven journey. And after a lot of hard work, were happy to share a preview of what Neropolis will look like.

Finally, I would be remiss to neglect my end of development: the story! Without saying too much, Day 5 has quickly become one of my favorite segments of the story to write. Its a narratively important moment as the gang checks in for the next stage in the tournament and receives their opponent assignments. Further, Ive found that the backdrop of the new city is perfect for the unveiling of age-old conflicts. In Neropolis, the battles wont involve just cards. As I always say, we never wouldve gotten this far without your support. Our most recent demo is always available via Steam. Play a few matches, engage in the dialogue, and let us know what youre looking forward to! Thanks as always, Tyler Download the demo on Steam or IndieDB. Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Our website will have a gif-ified version of this update!

Hi everyone, Tyler here again from the Deckpoint Studio team. This week, I’m writing to give the good news about the release of a very important game feature: manual saves! Now, I don’t have to sell anyone on the virtues of a medium standard. But if I did, it would go something like this:

• Uncertain about the next story decision and want to secure a place you can jump back to if things go awry? Now you can!
• Want to go wild with a deck with only negative-7 cards while also being able to jump back to your more traditional strategy? Now you can!

Originally posted: 4/30/2017 on our website Hi everyone, Tyler here from the Deckpoint Studio team! I’m writing this week to give a nod to what’s ahead for Mark and the rest of the Luckless Seven. As the writer, I’m usually focused on the next narrative frontier for our band of misfits, but this time I’m looking forward to what’s next physically: the levels players will traverse in the next segment of the game! As a teaser, here’s what to expect for the next tournament venue:
Design document for the next casino along the way in Arithia's Ekosi tournament. When I came aboard the project during our Summer ‘15 Kickstarter, a few, important spaces were already designed: Mark’s apartment, Krista’s house, the hospital and library. Jesse invited me to partake in the level design process, and I eagerly did so with the least impressive Photoshop work in history.
An early design document for the first casino in Mark's hometown of Patrida. Note my uncertainty regarding the Look familiar?
Obviously, a lot of work takes place between my brainstorming and your playing. When reviewing my plans for the story, Jesse and I discuss the levels required to accommodate every event. I prepare a list of desired areas & design documents. Jesse makes suggestions from his perspective as developer before undergoing the Herculean work of bringing our ideas to fruition. In anywhere between a few days and two weeks, Jesse has a functional model for us to improve as we go. Our design priorities are efficiency, story fit, and style fit.

• Efficiency: There are no superfluous levels.
• Story fit: All levels are made to fit their definitions and roles in the story. Our spaces are built with realism and important thematic/story information in mind.
• Style fit: All levels should complement the isometric art style. We avoid placing surfaces perpendicular with the camera, and we always avoid obstructing the camera’s view of traversable terrain.

Hello everyone! Tyler here from the Luckless Seven crew. I’m writing today to announce another playable release: a campfire conversation on the trail between Mark’s hometown of Patrida and his tournament destination of Neropolis.
Not every day in Luckless Seven has a night, but Day 4 long has; since outlining the game’s narrative, we have planned to include this reflective conversation between Mark and his companions. Our team has internally referred to it as Day 4.5, and it’s the first of two campfire conversations that the Luckless Seven cast will partake in on their competitive journey across Arithia.
A lot has happened at this point in the game. Mark has been surprised with the opportunity to forego his obligations at home and reclaim his repressed passion for Ekosi. He’s connected with friends old and new. Importantly, he’s already made a number of choices along the way. For our team, the campfire dialogues present an important opportunity to reap what the player has sown. Dialogue with the cast of Luckless Seven will provide alternate perspectives on Mark’s choices both within and outside the group.
After Day 4, a relatively grand and Ekosi-filled segment of the game, we think the campfire dialogue will present players with an opportunity to pause and reflect. Although we’re emphasizing reflection and calm, don’t think that this dialogue will be without new choices or variety. Having written it, I can assure you: it’s a complex beast.
As always, the new gameplay experience is not alone. Jesse has reliably improved and updated many of the technical aspects of the game since the initial release of Day 4. Here are some of the changes:

• Improved animations for most characters.
• Improved pathfinding and increased Krista run speed along Day 4’s trail.
• Removed a game fail state that could occur if the player exited the game mid-dialogue after an Ekosi battle.
• Major fixes to the mini-map. Removed false quest arrows that wouldn’t disappear.
• Made loading screens smoother and added a fade-in effect to Day 4.
• Added environmental, ambient sound effects to Day 4.

Hello everyone! Tyler here from the Luckless Seven crew. I’m writing today to announce that today is the day we’ve been awaiting for a long time. It’s Day 4.
We’ve had our eyes set on Day 4 of the Luckless Seven journey since finishing Day 3 last year. We took some detours to improve various other areas of the game, including an overhaul of the game’s opening and significant enhancements to the Ekosi experience. Finally, in the last few months, we’ve returned our attention to creating the next little step of the way on Mark and the gang’s journey for competitive glory. And it’s anything but little.
Day 4 is, without doubt, big. The trail that takes the Luckless Seven crew from their hometown of Patrida to the next tournament city, Neropolis, is by far the largest level that we’ve designed for the game to date. Our first foray into the great outdoors offers a whole new environment: tall grasses and taller trees, man-made bridges over beautiful waterways, and sandy shores that give way to ocean vistas. On a narrative level, Day 4 will offer players a chance to declare their goals for the tournament, spend a lot of one-on-one time with Krista, and meet the diverse passersby on the trail. Not all, but many of the characters on the trail have a background with Ekosi, and there’s no shortage of matches to be played.

In addition to the all-new environment, story, and gameplay offerings, this update includes several enhancements to existing game systems. Here are some of the changes: Fixed problems with the Journal (quest log), adjusted the Inventory to no longer punish card reselling, and improved pathfinding to help Krista and other characters along their way.

• Tweaked Ekosi interface colors, added “Tiebreaker” icon, and made visual enhancements to the start menu.
• Added trophy and question mark icons above character heads to more clearly identify interesting opportunities and added a system for altering lighting over time to create gradual time shifts in levels.
• We could say plenty more about all the new experiences packed into Day 4, but we’d rather let you find out for yourself. After all, we’ve had it for long enough; it’s yours now!

Hello everyone! Tyler here from the Luckless Seven crew. We’ve been working through the holidays on the newest gameplay release, and it’s coming soon. We couldn’t wait to touch base with our backers, however, so we’re christening the new year with a bit of a different post. Instead of an update on tweaks to the game and new content, we wanted to take you into the studio to learn about the music of Luckless Seven. To do so, I sat down with composer Brandon Ledbetter to discuss his background as an artist, the game at large, and his process in creating its music.
Our composer, Brandon, speaks with players at GDEX 2016. The process doesn’t start with Brandon. It starts with Jesse and I reviewing our plans for new environments in the game or new moments in the story and contemplating the rough ideas or moods that we’d like to communicate to the player. We’ll then take those ideas and share them with Brandon. For example, when we changed Day 1 to open with an Ekosi battle taking place within a nightmare, we simply told Brandon that we were looking for a “spooky battle theme.” He did the rest.
A visitor plays through the Ekosi nightmare sequence at GDEX 2016. “For me, it’s always really important to start with the sound of the track,” Brandon says. He’s been producing music of all kinds for six years, and his roots in music production are appropriately enmeshed in his history with games: “Back in high school, I got really into the chiptune music scene. I really liked the whole DIY thing of taking your old toys and breaking them to make stuff. I started with music [from] the Gameboy, the original Gameboy.” The discombobulated Gameboy that gave Brandon his start in music production still rests in pieces on his shelf at home. With the “spooky battle theme” and other requests, Brandon will identify existing songs that have some attractive attributes. “Really, when you’re doing horror, you just want dark. You want low, sub-heavy kind of stuff.” Recognizing that key feature, Brandon set to work building instruments to use on the track. “For what became ‘In The Dark’ … I actually built every single instrument in there from scratch. … I started with the bass line. I brought in my Monark synth, the minimoog [emulator], because that thing does really smooth baselines. And I just lowered everything down, got a really heavy sub, and put an LFO [low-frequency oscillation] tool on it to give it that wobble.” Song: In The Dark For me, the final product perfectly captures both a wistfulness that defines Mark’s attitude at the story’s outset and the psychological terror of a wolfman taunting him with all of his innermost worries. Of course, “In The Dark” isn’t the first nor the last piece that Brandon has composed or will compose for the Luckless Seven soundtrack. He’s been involved in the project for about three years now, and there are several more environments, dialogue scenes, and battles to score before his work is done. When I asked him what he was looking forward to for the project, he mentioned two things. First, work. “I know we’re going to be working on the [unreleased] third zone, which is going to mean another shift in the music,” Brandon says, looking ahead to Mark and the Luckless Seven cast advancing from Patrida to Neropolis to Antipolis. (His songs for the second city, “What Kind Of Beach Resort Doesn't Have A Palm Tree” and “Beachfront” show off a tropical flare, a departure from the sounds that define life in Mark’s hometown.) Song: Beachfront The second thing? Conclusion. “I’m looking forward to finishing [Luckless Seven] and then it being released to the public. … I’m really ready to see what everyone else thinks of it.” I and the rest of the team agree, and we know you do too. With that in mind, stay tuned to the Kickstarter, website, or Steam community hub for updates on development. I highly encourage you listen to Brandon’s music on his SoundCloud. There you’ll find his music for the Luckless Seven soundtrack as well as his other projects and the appropriately-labeled Beat of the Week. Thanks for reading! Read the article on our website!

Hello everyone! Last year around this time, my colleague Jonathan delivered an update titled “Thank you for a great OGDE!” OGDE, the Ohio Game Developer Expo, was reloaded and rebranded this year as GDEX. The event brings together regional game developers, players, and the general public to show off works-in-progress, discuss game design, and celebrate the medium we love. As developers, this event is particularly good for a couple of reasons. First, the event’s popularity means that we have the rare pleasure of watching hundreds of players experience Luckless Seven right in front of us. The second, connected virtue is that these players offer awesome feedback: both generous compliments and insightful recommendations. As I often say in these posts, that feedback is invaluable.
At last year’s event, we demonstrated a very different-looking version of the game. The start menu looked different. The opening to the game distinctly lacked any supernatural beasts. The Ekosi tutorial was only recently designed, and it was a wordy beast that ultimately missed a few spots. Players recognized this, and they gave us diverse recommendations: some requested clarification on the card game’s finer details, and others rightly pointed out that our explanatory wall of text was overwhelming.
If you’ve been following development in the last year, you’ll know we’ve put a lot of attention into that opening segment of gameplay. It’s important to teach players how to play the card game clearly and concisely, and we’ve taken as much time as needed in pursuit of that goal. Exhibiting the game at GDEX 2016 was an exciting opportunity to measure our success in making the game both accessible and fun.
The results were encouraging. Like last year, we got to watch hundreds of people partake in the game we’ve invested so much care into. This time, however, we got to see these curious new players learning Ekosi much more quickly and easily than ever before. But it wasn’t just the anecdotal experience of watching players thriving: our player surveys were also overwhelmingly more positive than those from last year.
We collected roughly fifty survey responses this year. All of the questions were optional, but a strong majority of respondents answered all questions. On average, players this year played for longer before hanging up their headphones, and more players elected to fill out the survey. Here are some of our favorite results:

• Survey respondents ranked the game’s easiness to learn much more highly than last year.
• Players indicated that there were far fewer points of confusion throughout the game’s tutorial.
• The majority of respondents indicated that the game was visually impressive, fun to play, and original.

Hello everyone! It’s been awhile since our last update, but I think we have something worth the wait.
Caption: A long time coming If the picture doesn’t say it all, I will. Today, we launched the Luckless Seven Steam store page. Most PC gamers will be familiar with Steam, the largest digital game distributor there is. If you aren’t, well, that’s what it is! For many players, myself included, it is the place to buy and download games. I hope it goes without saying that our launch on Steam is a day that everyone on the team has looked forward to for a long time. Steam Store Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/433370 Launching on Steam means reaching a much larger audience than we’ve met before, and we wanted to make a good impression on the community of players that will join us for the next stages of development. So, for the past couple of months, we’ve been devoted to creating and improving promotional materials: the trailer, captioned screenshots, game descriptions, and more. Of utmost importance was refining our existing demo.
Caption: Screenshot featured prominently on our Steam store page When working on the demo, we continued to emphasize teaching Ekosi. It’s at the core of Luckless Seven’s gameplay, and a proper education in it is essential to us. To that end, we’ve created a branching path in the AI Ekosi Tutorial. For players that elect it, the tutorial now provides more information than ever. For experienced players and those who prefer to learn by doing, we’ve added an option to disable the tutorial entirely.
Caption: Our handsome Ekosi instructor will now hold your hand through the basics of Ekosi--if you choose, of course. Of course, there are other changes. Taking screenshots and re-recording gameplay for the trailer inspired us to revisit our graphics and make improvements to Luckless Seven’s visual world by recoloring objects, creating new ones, adjusting saturation, contrast, lighting, etc. Additionally, we’ve made changes to correct a few problems with pathfinding. Finally, a few permanent changes to the Ekosi interface have made it more intuitive than ever before.
Caption: The Casino interior looks better now! But it's not the only location to receive some extra attention.
Caption: Ekosi battle board featuring Status text, new Replenishment Card icons, and Stacked Field coloring. You’ll be able to find all of these changes and more by downloading the current version of the game (0.664) directly from Steam. We’ll be hosting stable versions of the game on Steam, but newer versions will be downloadable at IndieDB as always. If you have any thoughts to share about the current and new versions of the Luckless Seven demo, we encourage you to share them at our new Steam Forum. The Forum will provide a fantastic space to discuss your experiences with the game, any bugs you encounter, and your suggestions for the team. We’re super excited about the launch on Steam, and we couldn’t have gotten this far without the generous support of our Kickstarter backers. Thank you! We look forward to continuing work on the game, and we’ll see you on Steam!
Until next time! Tyler Website Blog Post: http://www.deckpointstudio.com/2016/09/its-happening.html