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[iMaple]

Coming back from a little hiatus! Our very first playable prototype was downloaded a little over a thousand times, and we've gotten a decent amount of feedback from it. TL;DR - way too complex for what we're trying to do.

So what are we changing? First, we're streamlining stats across the board and never make the UI go deeper than 2 layers. We're also lowering the amount of abilities per character to 1.



We're also swapping out the unit charge mechanic for a merge system, similar to autochess. We still need players to cycle through their deck as they play, but this feels more rewarding rather than punishing.



Lastly, we're changing the progression from being unit based to deck based. This will allow us to retain the unit balance while tying the increasing difficulty of the game directly to player progression.



Just a couple of designs for now, but I think we're on to something with these changes. Fingers crossed, playable build coming soonish.

[Copywright]

This looks pretty cool!

Almost like hex-based Radiant Historia with Fire Emblem-like visual novel cutscenes.

Keeping an eye on this one!

[iMaple]

This looks pretty cool!

Almost like hex-based Radiant Historia with Fire Emblem-like visual novel cutscenes.

Keeping an eye on this one!

Hey, someone who played Radiant Historia! That game, among a list of many, was a big influence on this.

In other news, we're finally able to catch a breather after attending GDC 2022 through a SwissGames program. It was super fun to do an in-person event again after 2 years of Zoom calls.





The pitches went really well even though we're still at the prototype stage, so I'm curious to see what's going to happen with the follow ups. I'll share our deck if things work out, maybe you can take some pointers for your own game if you're also looking for a publisher.

Lastly, we got some good live reactions from people who just came by to try out the prototype. The new battle system seems to click, but I think we'll need to make it a bit snappier and maybe add an intervention feature just so you're not looking at the screen doing nothing for over 30 seconds.

[iMaple]

The new gameplay prototype is live! Here's a walkthrough video here of me talking over elevator music to explain the combat mechanics and autochess elements.





If you'd like to play it yourself, you can grab it on our play page. Excited to look at all the feedback we get - if the combat system fits, we'll move on to fleshing out the other parts of the core loop, like the progression systems.