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[Jesse Ko]

Today, we’re happy to announce the release of a new demo that allows you to take control of Day 3 in the Luckless Seven adventure!

The drama begins early on Day 3.

Managing relationships is tricky.

In Day 3, the story continues with the first tournament matches for Jamie, Jacob, Bertrand, and Mark. Upon arriving at the casino, Mark learns it will be a long day of balancing his own competitive goals with the constant drama of his friends’ reunion.

Day 3 offers upwards of 45 minutes of new gameplay--unless you rush past all of my dialogue, of course! New quests will introduce you to both the seedier and goofier characters orbiting around Arithia’s competitive gambling scene, but that’s not all you can expect.

Not everyone plays by the rules.

Musical rearrangements have been made to strike the exact moods we’re looking for in each area. As always, we’ve got new characters and portraits to flesh out the social world of Arithia. And, beyond that, we’ve added additional portraits of some of the Luckless Seven crew to better reflect their diverse personalities and moods.



Expect new opponents on Day 3.



This dawdling dad takes part in one of Day 3’s lighthearted side quests.



Bertrand’s wide array of negative emotions shines through in his new portraits.

Additionally, a number of user interface changes have been introduced to improve your experience in play. We’ve added a typewriter effect to text to make our dialogue system as smooth as possible. We’ve made small improvements to Mark’s pathfinding. There were also many bug fixes to make the world more coherent and the gameplay more refined.

You can download Demo 0.653 at our IndieDB page.

As always, we welcome your feedback. We’ll continue to refine Day 3 as we begin work on revisions to Day 1 and we turn our attention to Day 4. Keep an eye on our IndieDB page for updated demos, as we’ll only be announcing major releases (new days) in our Kickstarter posts.

Until next time.

[Jesse Ko]

Hello everyone!

Today, I’m writing to share the news about a lot of positive changes we’re making to the every-session and early-game experience of playing Luckless Seven.

Let’s talk about the every-session experience of playing Luckless Seven. There are certain things that you’ll encounter every time you boot up the game. Interactive dialogue. Open world movement. Ekosi.

Ekosi’s a big one. It’s at the center of gameplay, so we want incorporate player feedback as much as possible in improving it. We learned two contrasting things from demoing the game at OGDE. On one hand, several players felt that the Ekosi tutorials at the beginning of the game were overbearing and too text-heavy. On the other hand, some players had trouble understanding the game and had questions after the tutorial was finished.

To address the concerns of both player groups, we’ve decided to make information--a lot of it--optional. We’re planning to reduce the Instructor’s dialogue in Day 1’s mandatory tutorials, so we've embedded a permanent guide in the Ekosi interface. We think this change will positively affect players who don’t need a wordy tutorial and those who can use a refresher now and then.

Several subtopics in our new Ekosi guide.

The "Card Types" topic, color coded for comprehension.

Another segment of the game you’ll encounter every time you play Luckless Seven is the start menu. It’s easy to overlook, but this is both your introduction to the game and every play session. So, we want to get it right! Functionally, the menu should allow players to start or resume a playthrough of Story Mode, jump into Arcade Mode for instant Ekosi action, or modify game settings.

The cinematic new start menu complete with all of its options.

Visually, we wanted to move towards something even more cinematic than our old start menu. We wanted something that was visually engaging, but more importantly something that communicated the characters and relationships within Luckless Seven’s ensemble cast. So, we’ve taken the time to give extra attention to and update the 3D models of all the main characters. With higher quality models and a new scene to survey, we think we’re pretty close to our vision.

Enjoy the view of the city with Jamie and Bertrand in our new start menu.

Since we’re on the subject of character, it wouldn’t be a Luckless Seven update without discussing new portraits. My job as the game’s writer is to create characters through story design and dialogue. And dialogue can do a lot, but the right portrait can do so much to express the emotions and thoughts of our characters. So it’s important that we have the right portraits for every moment. Accordingly, our amazing artist Emma is currently working to expand the range of portraits for our main cast members.


With Emma's exceptional talent, Maria can be upset in so many unique ways.

But she’s not just treading over old territory. In addition to creating main cast portraits, she’s working on entirely new portraits like the exciting one below.


An important new face or a far-too-late April Fool's Day prank? Find out when Day 1 is re-released!

You’ll get to see this character come to life when we’re finished revising Day 1 of gameplay. For now, you can look forward to the new start menu, the Ekosi guide, more portraits, and a handful of improvements to user experience. We’ve added two new cursors: a semi-transparent magnifying glass and a chat bubble mouse cursors that show if Mark is too far away to talk to a person or activate a door. Along with that change, we’ve introduced a feature that will initiate auto run when players click on door buttons that are too far away to enter.

To try these changes out for yourself, you can download Demo 0.654 at our IndieDB page: http://www.indiedb.com/games/luckless-seven/downloads.

As always, we welcome your feedback, fresh ideas, and general enthusiasm. They’ve brought the project this far, and we have no intention of stopping now. Keep an eye on our IndieDB page for updated demos, as we’ll only be announcing major releases in our Kickstarter posts.

Until next time!

[Jesse Ko]

Today, I’m writing to share the news about changes we’re making to the beginning of Luckless Seven’s story and improvements to how we teach Ekosi.

If you’ve played any of the demos since the beginning of our Kickstarter campaign, you’ll know that Luckless Seven’s story mode sets in on our hero, Mark, sleeping well into the afternoon. Upon receiving a phone call from his old friend Krista, Mark wakes up and attends to his everyday life: a mandatory family outing and a work obligation.

Even Mark can't resist a few Ekosi matches.

Over the course of the Day 1, we become familiar with Mark and the friends and family that define his social life. We see Mark’s frustration with the obligations of his daily life. We see his rusty, somewhat uncomfortable relationships with old friends. We see a potentially contentious relationship between Mark and his parents. The scenes from Day 1 sow the seeds of character development for Mark and the whole cast of characters over the course of the game.

The library scene has gone through several different designs, but it's purpose was always to serve as an introduction to some of the main characters.

I think there’s a lot to be said for patience when it comes to character development, but after writing the opening of the game, I was eager for something catchier. I wanted something that could provide a snapshot of Mark and his relationships in the first ten minutes of gameplay. And we wanted it to be fun. To meet this ambitious goal, we went back to the drawing board.

We considered several options, but we ultimately arrived at the idea of a dream sequence. While it would only necessitate minor narrative changes, such a scene had the potential to give insight into Mark’s subconscious feelings about the people in his life. And unlike some of the other ideas we bounced around, it could really be fun.

So, I got to writing. We wanted the dream to include several of Mark’s friends and family members, but what was the context? We knew when we had the answer: a dream-state Ekosi match!

If you die in the dream, do you die in real life?

Narratively, we adored the idea that Mark would dream about Ekosi--it’s just so in line with his passions. And, of course, we were excited to see what Mark’s unconscious ideas about his friends were. But then we considered the potential that this scene had for improving the Ekosi learning experience, and we think that’s pretty great too.

As mentioned in the previous update, player feedback since the Kickstarter has indicated two primary feelings towards the Ekosi learning experience. Players either felt overly coddled, or they felt like they had less information than they needed. So, we decided to loosen the reins on early-game Ekosi matches and provided a permanent guide for players to review rules and strategies.

We're always refining the guide to deliver quicker and easier ways for players to learn the game.

The dream battle presented some interesting challenges and opportunities. We really wanted to drop the player into the game and let them learn on their own. However, we also knew that players weren’t  going to have much success or fun without being given some minimal information to guide them. To satisfy both needs, we decided on tooltips.

Our new tooltip system should help players more intuitively learn basic game mechanics.

For the dream sequence, we wrote them in Mark’s groggy, uncertain voice. But then we realized the powerful tool we had, and wrote a second, full set of tooltips written in coherent English. Now we have both: a funny, stripped-down set with the absolute basics, and a serious, full set of on-screen descriptions for developing players.

One of the most important changes we wanted to focus on after OGDE was refining the learning experience for Ekosi.

Those “standard” tooltips are toggleable after the first round of formal tutorials with the handsome, curiously familiar Ekosi instructor.

To try these changes out for yourself, you can download Demo 0.655 at our Indiedb page: http://www.indiedb.com/games/luckless-seven/downloads

As always, we’re excited to share the development of the game. And it’s only better when you’re involved, so we welcome your feedback. Keep an eye on our IndieDB page for updated demos, as we’ll only be announcing major releases in our Kickstarter posts.

[Jesse Ko]

Hello everyone!

We've said it before, and we say it again today: Day 1 of Luckless Seven is finished. I’m writing today to provide a recap of what we’ve been working towards, our accomplishments, and what’s next in the development of the game!

So, what do we mean when we say that Day 1 is done? If you’ve been following our progress over the last months, you’re largely privy to the changes taking place to Luckless Seven’s opening sequence, the Ekosi tutorials, the writing, the start menu, and more. If you haven’t been tuned in, however, you’ve come back at a great time. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

Opening sequence. Feedback from our own playtesting and last year’s Ohio Game Developer Expo (OGDE) suggested that we work on the very opening of the game. Some players felt confused about Mark, who he is, and what his goals are. Upon review, we agreed that the story’s introduction may have been too cryptic, so establishing more narrative context in the opening scene became an important mission for us.

So, one of the desires shared by players was to gain more narrative context early in the game. Another group of players, however, expressed interest in experiencing Ekosi as quickly as possible. We saw the merit in both ideas, so we decided to launch the game with a battle that would communicate quickly and strongly who Mark was. But who would this first match be against? We didn’t want to overhaul the story and quest design that we were largely pleased with, so that meant finding an Ekosi opponent for Mark that was in his apartment. While Mark’s father and the Ekosi tutorial instructor were compelling options, we wanted something more exciting.

We decided on a dream sequence, and the doors of opportunity swung open. As the game’s writer, I was eager to seize a great opportunity to investigate Mark’s unconscious feelings about his friends and family. How does Mark interpret his relationship with his parents? Who are his friends? What are his insecurities? And what better nightmare companion to embody Mark’s worries than this supernatural beast?

Has the supernatural invaded the world of Luckless Seven?

Teaching Ekosi. OGDE taught us a lot about the game and where we had to go with it, but the primary feedback we received was about Ekosi and our tutorials. In the expo setting, we found a wide sampling of video game players with different ages, backgrounds, and preferences. Feedback about Ekosi was diverse, but largely fell into two categories: some players felt lost and needed more information, while others felt burdened with text and handholding.

Solving the binary conundrum stumped us for a while. How do you take care of two player groups on seemingly opposite sides of the spectrum? Ultimately, the Werewolf/Nightmare battle led the way to an answer. While we wanted the player to be thrust into the turn-based action immediately, we had to concede that the player needs some information before asking them to make decisions in Ekosi. To offer the absolute minimal information necessary in the least visually obstructive manner, we identified tooltips (written in Mark’s dream state) as a great solution.

When we finished writing those, we thought, “Hey, these are pretty handy,” and we created a coherent set of tooltips for early gameplay. For those who didn’t need the tooltips, we made them toggleable. For those who needed more information, we drafted an Ekosi guide complete with basic rules and strategic advice.

Much of the original tutorial information has also been distilled into small tooltips that you can refer to during battle.

Writing. Ahh, writing: my subject. I’ll try to be brief! A year ago, we had virtually no story for Day 1. Then we made it, and we were happy with it. And then we stared at it for a year as we worked on the next two “days” of gameplay. No matter how much you like something, if you spend too much time with it, you start to see its flaws. While this can be a difficult lesson for friends that become roommates, it was a very important experience for us as we work to cultivate an interesting story.

Looking back on the plot of Day 1, I found it hard to answer a lot of important questions about my writing. Why should we care about Mark? How does Mark feel about his family? If Mark is unhappy, why? My inability to answer was the result of multiple problems, but perhaps none greater than shallow characterization.

And so resolving that problem has been my emphasis for the last months. In the new demo of the game, you’ll find a more passionate Mark burdened by a harshly critical mother. You’ll find a father looking to live vicariously through his son. You’ll find the seeds of sibling conflict and friendship jealousy. All of Luckless Seven’s story can’t be told on Day 1, but we’re glad we’ve made the effort to launch the game with more interesting characters and conflicts.

Wisdom or vanity?

Start Menu. When I came onboard the project last year, our start menu’s camera held a distant shot of Mark standing alone outside. Since that time, however, the characters have grown in depth a lot. Rather than just being Mark’s coming of age story, we wanted to emphasize the importance of every Luckless Seven character, even in the start menu. So we did! The new menu shows all of the seven main characters, their personalities, and their relationships. We also think it’s just plain prettier.

A world of card games and adventure awaits!

Little Things. Finally, it wouldn’t be a blogpost without mentioning the little things that our team has been laboring away on to refine and perfect the user experience in Luckless Seven. Among them are the recent inclusion of new “talking” portraits which have immensely improved visual diversity during dialogue, a new fade-in effect that’s been applied to the Ekosi interface, and other quality-of-life improvements like zoom and autorun features. These changes may be small, but we think the constant little improvements add up to create a massively improved player experience.

It's only a dream... or is it?

With our latest alpha build, we've added many new portrait expressions for the main characters.

Needless to say, it’s been a productive time at Deckpoint Studio! But to what end? I’m sure it’s obvious, but all of these changes have been in service of polishing the game’s opening. We think we have a great game and story to share, and we think that the changes to Day 1 have brought it to match the quality of writing and design for Days 2 and 3. We’re extremely happy about what we’ve accomplished during this period in development, and we’re looking forward to beginning a new one as we turn our attention to Day 4 and beyond. Up next are new locations, characters, and quests in the Luckless Seven adventure.

If you haven’t played in a while, give the new demo a download and let us know what you think. You can download Demo 0.660 at our IndieDB page: http://www.indiedb.com/games/luckless-seven/downloads

The improvements we’ve been working on are a direct result of comments and suggestions from backers and generous playtesters like you. Your contribution is more than just welcome: it’s an essential part of development!

As always, keep an eye on our IndieDB page for updated demos, as we’ll only be announcing major releases in our Kickstarter/blog posts.

Until next time!

[Jesse Ko]

Hello everyone!

I’m writing today to provide an update on our progress with Luckless Seven. This time, the theme is approaching new frontiers. As Mark and the gang set off to participate in Arithia’s Ekosi tournament, he’ll be departing his hometown of Patrida for the first time. For our team, that means getting out of our comfort zone and designing new, non-urban environments. For Mark, that means getting out of his comfort zone to meet new people from all walks of life.

If you’ve played through the demos so far, you know that our level design so far has established the urban/suburban (and largely interior) surroundings of Mark’s hometown: his home, Krista’s home, the hospital, casino, etc. As they set off for Neropolis, though, the Luckless Seven will be traversing Arithia’s grasslands.

Routes between cities showcase big changes in scenery

This environment is different in a lot of ways, starting with size. The trail that Mark and the gang will traverse on Day 4 and Day 5 is a much larger level than any we’ve designed yet. That poses a visual challenge. With so much space, how do you maintain visual interest? Grass is great--no, we really like our grass--but you need more than that. Jesse has done a great job thus far in populating the level with natural and manmade formations: large rocks, waving trees, bridges, and rest areas. The level looks great.

Outdoor environments and wider spaces are the environmental focus of game's next chapter.

Still, other challenges lie ahead, including directing player attention. How do you direct the player to the places and people we want them to interact with? It’s a challenge we’ll have to meet before releasing the demo for testing.

Just because you're out on the road doesn't mean you won't find some opponents to battle!

On a narrative level, Mark is getting into new territory of his own. Having spent all of his life at home in Patrida, Mark’s travels to Neropolis will be a real adventure. On the trail, Mark will meet people who are different from him and his friends, characters of all ages, backgrounds, and dispositions towards Ekosi. In a story that will center on Mark’s open-ended coming of age, a diverse set of characters and opinions is important. It will help the player decide who Mark is and who he should be in relation to his favorite pastime and the world at large.


Some of your toughest opponents may be found out in the wilderness.

To that end, we’ve laid plans for some of the diverse characters who will populate the trail: older characters who only know Ekosi as parents or complete outsiders, Mark’s peers who will compete in the tournament, and youngsters who have only just encountered the game. We’re excited for these dialogues that will flesh out the player’s understanding of the social world of Arithia.


Veteran Ekosi players may provide unique challenges and rewards for Mark.

As we face new frontiers in design and storytelling, it’s important for you to let us know what you think! The feedback provided by our generous backers and playtesters is what guides us on the path ahead.

Until next time!

[Jesse Ko]

Hello everyone!

It’s been awhile since our last update, but I think we have something worth the wait.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Casino interior looks better now! But it's not the only location to receive some extra attention.

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.

http://www.indiedb.com/games/luckless-seven/downloads
 
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!

[etodd]

I know it's been up for a while, but congrats on the Steam page and the demo. It's been a long time coming. Must be a great feeling!

[Jesse Ko]

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. 

A student game developer stops by to check out Luckless Seven.

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.

A GDEX attendee waits for our protagonist to wake up following the intro match. Wake up, Mark!

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.

A player faces off with Krista in the game's opening match.

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.

An attendee fills out the player survey after spending some time with the game.

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.

For much of the day, our booth was surrounded by play and conversation.

It’s important in any feedback context to be aware of potential biases, and that’s especially true at a big, public exhibition like GDEX. While the general public is invited to enter, a large portion of players are video game enthusiasts or developers themselves. In short, they’re people that support games. Not just that, but people can be overly polite when offering feedback about a project with the creators present. (People are nice like that.) All of this amounts to a potential positivity bias in survey results.

Even with that positivity bias in mind, we were very happy about the results of our survey. In comparing this year’s results to last’s, we see that attendees played longer, learned more easily, and enjoyed the game more overall. These results offer our team positive reinforcement for our time and energy spent to revamp the game’s opening. We feel that we’re on the right track to making Luckless Seven the game we want it to be.

Our composer, Brandon, explains the action to a spectator.

That confidence doesn’t mean that we’re content, though. If anything, just the opposite. The positive reception we received at GDEX 2016 is a direct result of player criticism and feedback, and we intend to continue implementing changes. Survey results, observations, and conversations with the players have indicated a few more areas for improvement. Some points of confusion included how replenishment cards work and how to navigate the opening areas. In the coming months, we’ll look to follow through on your constructive feedback!

That’s all from us for now! As always, you can find our public demos on Steam and IndieDB. We have some exciting news ahead as we continue production on Day 4 of gameplay. Thanks again for your support and your feedback.

Until next time,

Tyler

[Jesse Ko]

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.”

https://soundcloud.com/npc-23/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.)

https://soundcloud.com/npc-23/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!

[Jasmine]

I've been a huge fan of this game from very early on! Love the quick behind the scenes take on the music. This game is shaping up wonderfully!

[Jesse Ko]

Hey, it’s good to see you here! Thank you for the kind words. Brandon’s music is an important part of the game, and we’re lucky to have him!

[Jesse Ko]

Day 4 Released!

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!

We wouldn’t have gotten this far without your help, so please feel encouraged to give the new demo a spin and give us your thoughts! Have really bad luck in Ekosi? Fall in the river? Collapse from a heap of driftwood on your back? We want to know! The new demo is available live on Steam or IndieDB , and you can give us your feedback on the Steam forums, the comments here, or via email at deckpointstudio (at) gmail.com.

Thanks for reading, and have fun!

[Jesse Ko]

Campfire

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.

This update provides our most ambitious dialogue scene to date, so we’re excited to hear your thoughts. Day 4.5 marks the end of the open/public alpha. We’ll still update the public demo, but Day 5 and future gameplay segments will be released via Steam only to our Kickstarter backers. Thanks for reading, and let us know your thoughts!

Download the demo on IndieDB or Steam

Read article on the Deckpoint Studio website

[etodd]

Looks great! I especially dig the long campfire shadows.

[Jesse Ko]

@etodd Thank you! We're really happy the way they turned out :]

Originally posted: 4/30/2017 on our website

Making Arithia

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.

Take Day 4 for example. We’ve long known we needed just two levels: one large, mostly-open trail level between the cities, and one level dedicated to the reflective campfire dialogue. I knew I wanted Mark and Krista to encounter diverse personalities along a sprawling route that really made Mark feel his size. Here’s the first design document I presented and the finished level below:





Big, just like I’d hoped. We eagerly wanted to communicate that Mark and company were traveling a huge distance across Arithia, and I think were successful in delivering that message.

For Mark’s next steps, we have functionally similar spaces in mind: a casino interior and exterior, a living area, card shops, etc. However, they’ll all come with Neropolis’s new visual theme. Neropolis, host to the next stage in the Ekosi tournament, is a quaint coastal city set upon by new development. To build it, we’re drawing inspiration from the Mediterranean peninsulas and islands. Here’s a peek at what’s to come:



We’re working to bring you a fully-realized coastal paradise that will meet all of your Ekosi and vacation needs. In our next update, we also look forward to bringing you the long-awaited and much-requested save/load system.

We couldn’t have gotten this far without your support. Thank you as always, and we look forward to your thoughts!

Download the demo on IndieDB .
Download the demo on Steam .

[Jesse Ko]

Read on our website for the best formatting experience.

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!

But again, you already know the benefits of manual saving and loading! Of course, autosaving will carry on in the background when you load a new area. But now you can set your own anchors in the past. Players will be able to interact with all their manual saves and, by default, the three most recent autosaves. For players that want to reach further back, all autosaves are available with the check of a box.



Here’s how it works. Click on the phone icon in the bottom right of the screen to bring up Mark’s phone (the menu). In the bottom-left corner, select the “Save & Load” option. This brings up a screen with two tabs, predictably “Save” and “Load.” From the Save tab, you can create new save files and overwrite others. From the Load tab, you can load from your previous saves.





Saves are labelled with the current “Day,” a timestamp from the last save, Mark’s location, and Mark’s current currency. Of course, all Ekosi deck and story data is included in your save file too. Who says you can’t repeat the past?

In addition to preparing this important feature, we’ve made some fixes to Day 4’s Campfire dialogue, eliminated some bugs along the Day 4 trail, and upgraded and added more dialogue to Day 1.





Going forward, the release of the manual save feature allows us to transfer focus to developing the new areas and storylines for Neropolis, the second of three main hubs in Luckless Seven. For more details on what we’ll be building, you can review our last update on Making Arithia .

The updated demo with our new manual save feature is now available via Steam. Give it a spin, and let us know how you’ve used it -- and especially if you encounter any bugs!

Thanks as always,

Tyler

Download the demo on Steam or IndieDB.

Read on our website for the best formatting experience.

[Jesse Ko]

Hi everyone,

Tyler here from the Deckpoint Studio team. I’m writing today to provide our regular update on the development of Luckless Seven.



Read on our website for the best formatting experience.



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.

[Jesse Ko]

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’ve had a busier expo season for Luckless Seven over the past several months. Late in August, we attended our first Matsuricon, a local anime convention that recently added an indie game showcase.Then in October, we attended GDEX, a regional game development expo, for the third consecutive year. Finally, we recently attended Ohayocon, our biggest con yet.

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]

We were even able to get some feedback on the new opening dialogue. Accordingly, we have plans to make the dialogue more robust to provide additional narrative context. This time of year is a pleasant reminder of the value of playtesting.

If you haven’t played the game in a while, now is a great time to revisit Luckless Seven. We’d love to hear what you think! We’re continuing to work on enhancements to the game, and we’re eager to show it off at other opportunities in the coming months.

Download the demo on IndieDB .
Download the demo on Steam .






Thanks as always,

Tyler

Read on our website for the best formatting experience. Our website will have a gif-ified version of this update!

[Jesse Ko]

Multiple new areas! We have large screenshots further dow

Read on our website for the best formatting experience.

Hi everyone,

Tyler again from the Deckpoint Studio team. As we roll ahead well into the new year, we took some time during the winter 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: Hallway.


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!

Tyler

Download the demo on Steam or IndieDB .

Read on our website for the best formatting experience.

[Jesse Ko]

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 [www.lucklessseven.com] 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.

Save/Load feature. This made testing so much easier!


Earn cards and monies from Ekosi matches!


Environment interaction! Steal cards, read someone's personal messages, and learn more about the country of Arithia!


Significant UI improvements on the quest notifier, mini-map, phone menu, inventory system, dialog system, and more!

Outside of those changes/additions to our core game systems, there was plenty of work, particularly in the level design area. In 2017, we revamped several levels, including the start menu, Day 1’s Hospital and Day 2/3's Casino exterior, interior, and nearby card shop. (Oh, you haven’t seen those yet? Well, we did those too.)


Amethyst Casino exterior was completely remade to be more interesting and compact!


Before: Patrida Casino. It had too much open space.


After: Amethyst Casino. More beautiful and still quite large. 12 more NPCs have been added for a total of 30ish NPCs in this area.


The center of the area is filled with Ekosi players having fun and battling.


This is the starting position for the Amethyst Casino.


Explore the area and admire the beautiful amethyst rocks!


The front entrance to glory! Amethyst Casino!


Card shop near the Amethyst Casino has been renamed to Pure Ekosi!


Before Before: Patrida Card shop in 2016.


Before: Patrida Cardshop with better lighting.


After: Pure Ekosi card shop right outside Amethyst Casino! New models, textures, environment icons, and more!


Added some new environment interactions to the Pure Ekosi card shop. Such as the Ekosi Monthly magazine, where you can learn about the latest happenings in the pro scene and for the card game overall.


Before Before: Patrida Casino in 2016.


Before: Patrida Casino with better lighting and new textures.


After: Amethyst Casino with a whole new look! New models, textures, lighting, and more!


The lighting is much more exciting!


The VIP section where pro players are waiting to be battled.


The restaurant area. Grab a bite and chat with Krista and the gang!


Front Entrance.


Before: Tournament area.


After: Tournament area.


Hospital remake.


Mark home remake.


Significantly easier to see and navigate.


Krista's interior home received new lighting and small adjustments to floor and wall thickness.

On the “new level” front, Jesse has cooked up darn near everything we need for the next chapter of the journey in Neropolis: a gorgeous seaside landing area, an accompanying card shop and restaurant, and a hotel lobby/suite for the gang. Those finished areas have us well poised to dive into 2018 and start cranking out the pie.


The tropical city of Neropolis!


Neropolis Card Shop.


Mint Hotel Lobby.


Mint Hotel Room.


Neropolis Restaurant.

So, yeah. A pretty good year after all!

I’ll leave you with a few quick notes on recent developments and what to expect in the next year.

• 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.

Join us on our journey at www.lucklessseven.com 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 !

The Luckless Seven website and Steam updates are part of a concerted effort to let people know about the game, and you’ll see more of that this year. We want people to know about Luckless Seven, because it’s coming!

On the subject of letting people know about the game, we spent last weekend expo’ing at Ohayocon, a Columbus, OH anime and culture convention! This was our first Ohayocon , and we had an absolute blast showing off the game and engaging in some IRL Ekosi! We’ll share pics and our takeaways in our next dev update. For those who stopped by, thanks! It was great to meet you! For those who couldn’t make it out, please feel free to say hello below!

Thanks as always,

Tyler

Download the demo on Steam or IndieDB .

Read on our website   for the best formatting experience.