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[bigosaur]

Version 3.0.9 is up with the final, 7th level of the story, the end-game boss and the final cut-scene:

- a new desert level with a new status effect (thirst)
- completed the game story w/ the final boss fight
- some enemies have petrify attacks. Drink the dragonfire potion quickly to remove or use the Life Staff
- 3 new enemy types
- 1 new boss
- 2 new weapons
- 2 new items (both were present in the game, but didn't drop before)
- fixed the drop algorithm for the Magnet item
- bugfixes for ranged AI
- fixed "on sale" name translations for the potion shop
- blood runestones now give you 20 HP on top of +20 health increase
- balanced archery weapons and items drop rate
- allowed special / quest rooms to spawn in casual mode
- fixed a netcode bug where the Book of Ice would freeze enemies who are immune to freezing
- added more detailed decorations to the forest area

The game can now be played from start to end, but this is not the final game and there's still a lot more content to add before we exit early access. The most important ones are the Barbarian hero and 12 quests that you will have to beat to unlock him. And after that, 2-3 more bosses for some variety in the desert level, a bunch of new items and Hard mode. Also, about 30 more achievements are planned now that the game is completely playable from start to finish.

[bigosaur]

Version 3.1.4 is online with the 4th desert boss: The War Elephant. This is an important milestone, because all the bosses I planned for the first full game release are now in the game.

The initial plan was actually 20 or 21 boss, but as the game has been developed many new ideas came and now we have 24. I do have some ideas for 4-5 more bosses, but those will come after Early Access.

Here's a short roadmap for the rest of Early Access development:

- Barbarian Hero with some special mechanics (shh, it's a secret)
- 12 special challenge modes to unlock the barbarian
- Hard mode
- 45 more achievements already planned "on paper", maybe more
- there might be some additional pets and items/weapons along the way
- a new trailer for the game

I plan to exit Early Access in May this year if all goes as planned.

There are also some ideas that might be implemented before we exit EA, but most probably afterwards:

- more mounts: baby elephant, horse, deer, green baby dragon (spit poison)
- additional quests and special rooms
- more weapons and items

[bigosaur]

The Barbarian Challenges are in beta



It's on Steam now. Version 3.1.5.

The Steam achievements are uploaded, so if you manage to beat some of the challenges it will be unlocked. Once I add the barbarian character, he should be playable immediately, you won't have to unlock the challenges again.

I have played a bit today with varying success. No surprise as these are meant to be the most difficult part of the game (so far).

I managed to beat "One shot", "Drink all potions", and "No backtracking". I feel like those are pretty well balanced. "One shot" gets really easy if you manage to get some Blood Runestones early on. It took me least tries to beat it.

I managed to get to the Dragon Master boss fight while playing "Poison". And IIRC I reached the Ice Level boss fights with the "King" and "Compendium" challenge.

On others, I would usually die on the Dungeon boss fight or somewhere in the catacombs. Maybe it's the problem that I played too many different challenges today, so I sometimes got mixed up on the rules and made tactical mistakes like drinking wrong potions or using wrong items.

This version will be in beta for a week or two until I finish the animations and programming for the Barbarian character.

[bigosaur]

Version 3.3.8. is online:

- 28 new achievements ranging from easy to very tricky ones
- tremor status effect now affects orbs, arrows, bombs and throw weapons
- increased the starting hero skills in casual mode
- fixed bug when releasing the attack button with a bow in hand would initiate the backup knife attack
- fixed bug when typing in chat would activate the backup knife attack
- updated some of the translations

This version concludes the content I planned for the Early Access. I will dedicate the next month or so to extensively playtest the game for the final release, so only expect bugfixes and translation updates in this period. I have a bunch of new features I plan to add in the future, but I want the exiting Early Access release to be well tested and bug free.

[bigosaur]

We're leaving Early Access soon. Here's the release trailer:

[bigosaur]

The game is released!

https://steamcommunity.com/games/539400/announcements/detail/1656641115369264946

I want to thank you for all the playtesting, suggestions and help.

BTW, I just got confirmation from Nintendo, so the game will be available on Nintendo Switch console later this year.

[bigosaur]

After a successful Nintendo Switch launch, I started to add new content to the game again:



Version 3.7.3 is online:

- new hero class: Rogue. Special ability is to use the sneak attack as the special attack with any melee weapon. You can still use the weapon's regular rage attack if you use it in the off-hand slot. He also has a special item that can unlock any door (except boss room doors), so you can unlock treasure rooms and escape tough battles
- Added a bunch of new achievements
- New potion: Vampire blood (get HP from kills. Multiple potions stack)
- New potion: Pickpocket (earn extra gold until you get hit. Stacks)
- New potion: Confidence (deal extra damage when full HP. Stacks)
- Added a new combat item: Sticky bombs. You can plant these as traps. When an enemy walks into one, it activates.
- Added a new pet: Racoon, who randomly drops sticky bombs across the room
- Added a new special room in the castle: the Gallery Room. This room is filled with enemy portraits and you can pick your favorite enemy to do double damage to them.

New NPCs:

- Join the Vampire Slayer NPC in the catacombs and help her kill a vampiress or the vampire boss for reward
- Dwarfs now sell stuff in the ice level
- Dwarven Blacksmith shows up sometimes and gives you ability to smelt weapons into runestones which are used to upgrade other weapons
- Mercenary NPC in the castle tavern gives you an item which can be used to hire mercenaries for fixed amount of gold. DON'T TOUCH HIS BEER!
- Vampire Sword now gives HP while hitting enemies (instead of on-kill)
- A Redhead Warrior NPC might challenge you for a duel on the battlements

Tweaks and improvements:

- Redhead Warriors in the desert now buff their swords before doing the petrify attack
- Disabled invulnerability frames for revival in dungeon shops
- Reviving in regular game now gives 41HP instead of 61HP
- Celestial Hammer rage attack now strikes all enemies in the room
- Darkness, Confidence, Money is Power, Mega Boost effects scale the skill percentage instead of adding to it. For example, if you have 50% melee and 100% darkness, it results in 100% melee skill (not 150%).
- fixed bug when the remote player could join the game twice (i.e. two heroes would show up) if (s)he pressed the button twice too quickly
- fixed bug then Steam library is installed in a path with non-ASCII characters
- minor fixes and tweaks to UI
- updated some of the translations
- dialogue in the intro story now supports translations

[bigosaur]

The Paladin update is now in beta testing branch on Steam. The full release is scheduled for March 21st.



New features:

• new RPG game mode where you keep all gear and restart the current level when you die
• new Endless Arena mode where you fight waves of enemies
• new hero: Paladin, who has divine shield and does double damage to undead
• new hero: Alchemist, who has a Golem companion, and prepares potions
• 8 pets with new effects (details below)
• 3 new random potion effects (details below)
• 6 new special effect items (details below)
• 10 new weapons (details below)
• 6 new achievements
• 2 new allied troop summons: Baby Yeti, Stone Golem
• added a new blocked challenge room in the forest
• added a new challenge room with baby dragons
• added a new challenge room in the ice level (it’s a surprise)
• added a quest room in the ice level to unlock the Alchemist hero

New pets:

• Crocodile - creates slime puddles that slow down enemies
• Mouse - drastically increases your poison damage
• Ladybug - buzzes around one enemy giving it a confusion effect
• Monkey - disables floor traps
• Whale - extinguished campfires
• Cow - increases rage attack damage
• Bee - gives you max rage when you get hit
• Cat - saves you from sudden death blows: a hit that would kill you when you have more than 1HP just lowers your HP to one.

New potion effects:

• Cold blood - enemies get frozen when they hit you
• Veteran Elixir - every potion you drink increases you melee skill
• Astral Projection - separates your soul and body so you can walk through obstacles as a ghost. The effect lasts for a short time and when it expires you are returned to the body. While in ghost form you can still attack and take damage. The only difference is ability to walk through walls, rocks, trees, etc.

New items:

• Ghost orb - lowers your damage but you can shoot through obstacles. It applies to orbs, arrows and thrown weapons
• Critic’s Shield - get 100% critical hit chance until the end of battle if you get hit (does not stack)
• Paladin Shield - immunity to muscle spasmsl
• Alchemist’s Visor - immunity to explosions
• Halo -  removes all negative effects and increases co-op death timer in hard mode
• Ancient Voodoo Doll - mark all enemies in the room (4 mana cost)

New weapons:

• General Sword - rage attack gives 100% critical chance to all allies until the end of battle
• Cripling Katana - hits slow down enemies
• Executioner’s Sword - adds 300 damage to stomp and smash attacks. For melee heroes, every time the enemies are on the ground the smash attack would be used (usually it's only done for the last enemy on the screen)
• Dark Slayer - triple damage vs bosses
• Splitting Axe - rage attack halves enemy's HP
• Paladin Sword - rage buff gives you Divine Shield - a short term invulnerability to hits and 30% damage increase. Does not protect feet, so you can get hurt by floor spikes and burned by walking on campfires
• Alchemist Sword - rage attack summons and heals the Golem companion. Only one Golem per hero is allowed at a time. Only usable by Alchemist class.
• King Cobra Staff - poison weapons of all allies
• Snow Tiger’s Paw - summon a baby yeti familiar for 4 mana. One yeti per hero allowed at a time
• Steady Shot Bow - slower arrow shooting time (like archers use to work before) but increased damage (95 bow damage)

Gameplay balancing:
   

• allowed summoning mercenaries into boss fights (except the final boss)
• removed slowdown effect from Heavy Boots
• Retort no longer creates mana potions
• only one Retort shows for sale in shops
• removed poison immunity for the final boss
• significantly increased Poison Cloud spell damage
• Poison Cloud effect scales with enemy size
• using teleport staff twice returns you to the starting point
• fixed runestone drops in various barbarian challenges

Bugfixes:
   

• Ethereal bow now shoots through barrels and boxes
• Dog pet doesn’t take mercenary’s beer in the tavern
• Foundry doesn’t melt mercenary’s beer anynore
• Thief and Ringleader don’t jump on allies when confused
• fixed drawing position when Barbarian is mounted
• fixed rare sound effect bug with Yeti babies
• fixed position for some of the teleportation animations
• fixed text showing last level seed instead of control hint after player dies
• fixed occasional crash on MacOSX