About Update 0.8 (Renovatio)

Hello everyone! We've put a huge amount of work into getting this update out on time!

Today version 0.8 (Renovatio) enters alpha access for our Professors - and it will most likely stay there a bit longer than usual. In this update we have practically rebuilt the balance and the entire card part of Journey.

So much has changed that it's hard to even list everything, and we're fully aware that not all of it may work correctly or feel comfortable enough yet. But we've reached the point where we can't verify all the concepts we've built without our players' help. So we'll be glad to get any feedback on the rework.

Quests & Scenes

• The new quest "Behind Enemy Lines" brings us closer to the story's finale and shows Camilla from an unexpected angle.

• The new quest "Wonderland?" is the finale of Rose's Personal Conflict.

• Shark inquisitor: comics and CG

Shops & Outfits

• Olivia has finally received new stock for her shop. Going forward, we plan to give every character their own clothing line (including Tom).

• New outfits for Rose, Victoria, and Lillian; the nude version unlocks after buying all the other outfits.

• The phrase that opens a shop no longer fades out after your first visit, and it now has its own unique icon.

Card System

• All cards, effects, enemies, and their actions from the previous iteration have been completely reworked.

• On top of the basic shared card collection, we've added 5 themed collections, each supporting its own playstyle:

• "Resonance": enemy attacks charge your spells.

• "Rage": manage your rage build-up, deciding when to take risks and when to calm down.

• "Elements": use poison and fire to make your enemies suffer while you stay safe.

• "Runes": gain and spend runic symbols to empower your spells.

• "Chain": play lots of cheap spells and manage your deck to give the enemy no room to breathe.

• Reworked the card reward logic after battles: a dedicated algorithm now helps you build your deck, offering "starters" for collections you don't have yet and "boosters" for the ones you've already started. Putting together the build you want should be much easier now.

• Added rerolls that let you replace the dropped rewards several times per run.

• All item effects have been completely redone.

• Changed the order of enemy actions: attacks first, then defense, then buffs. This helps avoid situations where a caster buffs an enemy that immediately hits you harder than you expected.

• All cards received new unique themed artwork.

• All buffs received new icons.

• All cards now have matching visual effects.

• Health now depends on difficulty: Easy - 150, Normal - 100, Hard - 50.

Deck

• Deck restrictions have changed: you now need exactly 12 cards to start a run.

• A deck can no longer contain more than a certain number of copies of the same card - the limit depends on its rarity.

• Penelope is back at the tavern, and you can now buy basic and rare cards from her.

Journey Map

• Enemy difficulty now scales with the distance from your starting point. No more running around the map hunting for a "pawn" to start building your deck.

• Added multi-tile movement: you can walk to any revealed tile as long as the route isn't blocked by an event or a battle. On phones, the first tap builds the route and the second one starts it.

Battle Interface

• Added "terms" that shorten card descriptions.

• To learn more about a term, hover over it with the cursor or press and hold the card.

• Enemy intents now have their own tooltips. You can read them by hovering over an enemy's intent.

• A moment after hovering, the tooltip pins itself (on phones, tap the intent), letting you hover over the terms inside it.

• Hovering over an enemy's intent now highlights the target of their action.

• Some buffs can now be "interrupted" by killing the enemy they are aimed at. The caster's intent then changes to "confusion".

• The numbers in enemy intents now account for the buffs and debuffs on both the target and the caster.

• Characters now flinch when taking damage.

Worlds & Enemies

• New shark world: opening, cutscene, comic, its own mobs, loot, and a unique mechanic.

• Fully reworked worlds: pixie, elf, dragonkin, goblin, vampire, succubus, cat, aasimar, wolf paladin.

• All enemies are now split into groups: some are "common" and appear everywhere, while others appear only in a specific world and support its unique mechanic.

• Added new animated characters: fire golem, bat, skeleton warrior, dire wolf, werewolf warrior, werewolf shieldbearer, wolf priestess, shark inquisitor, shark assassin, jellyfish, evil jellyfish, shadow cat, demonic totem, holy golem, weapon crate, slime, evil slime, and mimic.

• There should be no static characters left in the game.

• All mob actions now have matching visual effects.

Audio

• Added new sounds for various UI actions.

• Added new sounds for all minigames.

• Added many new sounds to the Journey mode.

• Added unique music and sounds to the Match3 locations.

• Replaced the ambient sounds in some locations (for example, the Office).

• Added audio to the prologue scenes.

• Added audio to the cave scene with Louise.

• Added audio to the first scene with Joyce.

• Added audio to Lillian's first scene.

• Added audio to the scene with Lillian after the party.

• Added audio to the plug-testing scene with Lillian.

• Added audio to the dragonkin attack scene.

• Added audio to Audrey's comics.

• Added shared sounds to the Journey scenes for: the rogue cat, the aasimar, the dragonkin, and the ice elf.

Fixes

• Fixed the randomization of short sound parameters - sounds should no longer "break".

• Fixed the sound selection algorithm for scene audio - sounds are now more varied.

• Fixed a possible cause of the map minigame breaking.

• Fixed a chance for a mob token to overwrite the player token on the map, which broke the adventure launch.

• Fixed a chance for a mob token to overwrite the boss, which broke the run's objective.

• Added text effect support to letters, so they no longer display as plain text.

• Changed the color of the "memory" effect so it no longer blends into the background.

• Fixed being able to play a card with no available targets, which simply sent it to the discard pile.

• Fixed being able to save/load the game during minigames, which broke the save.

Cheat Panel

• Added a cheat panel that can be activated with a code word from the post with the build links. Each version will have its own code word.

• The code word for version 0.8 in post with links

• The cheat panel can grant resources, restore health, and unlock all scenes in the Gallery.

• If you need any other functions - tell us in the comments.

A significant part of the work is already done. Going forward, we want to give each world more visual identity by expanding the surface hex variants, and to revisit the current map event system, adding tooltips and hints so you can predict in advance what exactly awaits you on a tile.

We can't wait to hear the first impressions from everyone who tries the build, along with your suggestions on how to make the gameplay more comfortable and more interesting.

Thank you for supporting us, and enjoy the game!