PHAGEBORN online card game News

Dear Denizens of Issilith!

In case you haven’t got a chance yet to try out some of our battlegrounds during the testing, feel free to check out a showcase of our beloved Jungle Temple and Derelict Cave battlegrounds on our YouTube channel: YouTube.

Jungle Temple
Once a place of worship, today anyone who enters does so on their own responsibility. After the constant confrontations have driven the peaceful natives from these lands, some of the Tikiri saw the opportunity to make this place their new home. Structures such as this, enveloped in lush vegetation and full of animal life, make for both the perfect hideout and hunting grounds for these weak, rat-like creatures. Just watch your step! You never know what booby trap might be waiting just a few steps away.

Derelict Cave
A long time ago this place was full of life. The remnants of that time are still visible if you look more closely. Stones on the floor are worn out but still form the unnatural path throughout this network of caves. This cave was used as the heart of Zyxl's smuggling operation. Hundreds of them used to run along this path carrying crates of expensive goods and heavy chests filled with gold. Lots and lots of gold.
But now, no steps echo through these caves only the sound of dripping water and creaking old wood can be heard. For some reason, Zyxls left this place. There are still some stories about how they’ve left an ancient artefact stored somewhere deep in one of the grottos. Many creatures tried to find it. But not many lived to tell the tale.

What was your favourite part of these battlegrounds? Feel free to comment below or join our Discord channel (Discord) and share your favourite things with us!

Yours truly,
Games Revolted

Dear Denizens of Issilith!

This week we have finished with our test! While we are sad because that part is behind us, we are looking forward to going through all your feedback and suggestions so we can make needed tweaks and changes to create the best experience possible for all of us. We are very grateful for the time you spent with us during the last month. And what is the better way of showing all your effort than with some fun, quick stats and to see if Saffron is really as broken as it seems at first.

But let's start with some general numbers first. With a total number of 1349 matches you have managed to play more than 185 hours, and that is just time spent in matches! However, an average turn time was just a little over 32 seconds while the match was usually over around the 15th turn.

When talking about factions, it didn't come as a big shock that the most played faction are the newly added Ascended. With their 57% win rate, they are standing proud in the first place while the Drakkoriths are just behind them with a 55% win rate. Although if Drakkoriths knew that Ascended players are also most likely to surrender when things are not going their way, they just may come on top.

In favour of that may be that the mighty warrior king Tyberiuth is the most played Avatar and Basson really showed himself as an unstoppable force since he's the Avatar who ended the testing on the biggest win streak. Although, don't write off other factions just yet! Somehow, Theodora managed to weasel herself into the top place of Avatar's win rate without a lost game. Looks like that after finding your way back on top of Vestige politics from exile everything else is nothing more than a little thorn in your side. And Saffron, well, that smashing creature may have a skill that seems a bit overpowered, however, its win rate is no more than 23%. But we'll keep a close eye on it in the future. And speaking off eyes, with a low 20% win rate Yggron really feels a bit underpowered. We'll have to look a little more closely at him and see where his true potential lies.

We know that some of these statistics surprised us, but what about you? Feel free to comment below or join our Discord channel (Discord) to discuss your insights from the testing!

Yours truly,
Games Revolted

Dear Denizens of Issilith!

The last days of our testing are closing in. So to make sure you had a chance to fully experience this build of Phageborn we will go over some of the smaller features you might have missed up until now.

Flag icon on cards represent the Leadership threshold
There still seems to be some misunderstanding regarding what the Flag icon on some cards represents. While we will better explain it in-game in our next build, to ease potential confusion for the new players who are currently testing Phageborn we decided to touch upon that here as well. The Flag icon on the cards represents the Leadership threshold. That means that your Leadership (one of the three attributes you can level at the start of your turn) has to be leveled at least to the amount said on the card to activate that effect. If you have enough Leadership to activate the accompanying effect, the text next to the Flag will be blue. If you don't have enough Leadership the text will be white. One of the best examples where you can easily see that is Ascended's very own Spirit Matron. That card has two effects which can be activated if you have enough Leadership. If you have enough Leadership for both effects, both effects will activate.
In the case shown below, you can see that the player has only enough Leadership to activate the first effect (as it is written in blue), while the second effect is written in white indicating that the required Leadership threshold has not been met.



Card Styles
Perhaps you saw that some of your opponents have animated cards and you just can't find where you can get one yourself. During the testing you can try out our current Card Styles. Every card has one! You can activate and equip them in the Collection through a few simple steps.
After you right-click on the card you'll see two dots above it. The second dot represents the alternate card style. When you click on the second dot it will show you how it will look in its animated version (see the D’Dall Reaver below). Underneath the card you'll see the Purchase button. During the testing everything is FREE, including the card styles! So don't be afraid to click on the Purchase button as it will unlock the skin and the button will say Set Style instead of Purchase, giving you the option to instantly equip your new card skin.



How to see full art
Whether you're in a match or just browsing through the Collection, it is quite likely that some of the card art may catch your eye and you'd really like to see it better. This has been a request made in the past from our players so the build you are currently testing on has that feature already implemented. You just have to right-click on the card you wish to see better and click on the Eye icon in the upper right corner (you can see it in the picture above), right next to the card you're viewing. That will show you the art in its full size plus you'll be able to read a little bit of the fluff.

Avatar's voice lines
Did you know that every Avatar has its own unique voice lines you can activate at any time during the match? You just have to hold right-click on your Avatar while in the match and choose one of the six unique voice lines. It may help you or your opponent to recalibrate your nerves.

Camera Angles
Have you tried out different camera angles while in the match? With a simple press of your up and down arrow keys you can change the viewing perspective in your game. This may help you have a better overview of the battleground or simply to check out how does that new skin for your Avatar looks like up close. Camera angles are a work in progress so please keep that in mind when interacting with it.

If you haven’t already, you have until the 17th of May to join the test and try out Phageborn! For more information on testing and updates regarding Phageborn, feel free to join Residents of Issilith over at our Discord channel (Discord) and leave your feedback!

Yours truly,
Games Revolted

Dear Denizens of Issilith!

Thanks to the plethora of your feedback and reviews we had the pleasure to read over this last two weeks, we managed to get a better understanding of things we can improve in Phageborn. So today, we will have a little run down on some updates and changes we are doing.

TUTORIAL
Phageborn brings some innovations as to how a card game can be played. We understand that the current Tutorial may not be the most optimal way to start the learning curve of the Phageborn mechanics. With that in mind, we will improve the basic tutorial to be more comprehensive and immersive for new players but also add an Advanced Tutorial to introduce you to some more advanced mechanics and strategies. It is important for us that you feel battle ready once you complete the tutorial.

2v2
If you had the chance to play Phageborn on some of the tests we did before, there is a big chance you managed to try out the 2v2 game mode. While 2v2 was disabled for testing on G.Round (at least for this time), we just wish to update you that we haven't forgotten about our beloved game mode and are working on making the 2v2 co-op experience much better by removing some of the limitations that existed.

LOBBY IMPROVEMENTS
Whether you decide to play single-player or multiplayer game modes, it's important that the lobby screen is not just functional but also intuitive and visually appealing. With your feedback in mind, we will continue to polish lobbies, especially for the custom games, so that they are more intuitive and aesthetically pleasing. We are also working on improving the stability so that you won't have to worry about potential bugs and delays.

GRAPHIC IMPROVEMENTS
Often it's the little things that make the biggest difference, especially when talking about visual appeal. To make the game more immersive and aesthetically satisfying, we will continue to work on upgrading existing card VFX (especially for Legendary cards) and improving Avatars and their visuals. But we do not plan to stop on that! You can expect things like adding weight to the cards, which will impact the way cards fall down on the battleground. It just doesn't seem fair that only Unchained Megadon makes a big stomp when it falls. We have bigger creatures in Issilith than that.

POST-GAME REWARDS
After an exciting match of Phageborn, it's time for the well-deserved rewards!
Our current post-game screen doesn't leave that much room for the player to see clearly all they acquired after the match is over. So our post-game screen is going to get a revamp! We are planning to add more sounds and visual upgrades so that post-game rewards stand out more. Also, as a part of that rehaul, progress made in your active quests will be easier to see.

We will be testing until the 18th of May so it's still not too late to join if you haven't already! For more information on the testing and things that are happening with Phageborn feel free to join our Discord channel (Discord)!

Yours truly,
Games Revolted

Dear Denizens of Issilith!

It’s been a week since we started with our testing and we want to thank you for all your reviews. Today we are going to talk a bit about some of the feedback you left and what we are planning to do in the near future. As we have said before, your feedback is important to us and it is that feedback that has led us to look at some of these changes. Sadly, some of these won’t be implemented in the test build we have up, but they will (or something like them) be coming.

Game pop-up while minimized
It can be quite boring to just sit in the lobby while you’re waiting to find a match. And the last thing you need is to miss that Match found message. So in case you like to do other stuff while waiting, you won’t have to worry about that for long! We are working on making the game pop up when your match has been found. Also, we plan to implement the ability to browse over your Collection, Profile, and other features in Phageborn while you are waiting in the queue.

Bigger and cleaner turn timer
A lot of the feedback we got was about the turn timer and how it’s hard to see how much time you or your opponent have. So our turn timer is going to get a little makeover! We are going to make it bigger and more visible so players shouldn’t have any more trouble with finding it or assessing how much time they have left before the end of the turn.

Card fan-out
It would seem that it’s sometimes hard to see all the cards you have in your hand and hovering over them one by one can be a bit tedious at times. So we are going to implement a fan out option where you’ll be able to spread cards in your hand and look at all of them simultaneously with a simple click of the button. On this note, we want to make the game as accessible as possible, so if you have any troubles like this, please let us know.

Improving the action queue
Something that is really important to us is the game fluidity and while it is better than it was before, we will still work on making the game better paced. Having queued actions move smoothly and without delays is a goal we will continue to work on.

Better faction explanation and their lore
It can be hard to choose a starting faction before you even know what to expect, especially if you are a new player. To ease things up a bit we are planning to add more information about each faction and their specific mechanic, as well as implement more faction-related Lore in the game to make it more immersive.

Don’t forget that it’s still not too late to join and test Phageborn! For more information on the testing and things that are happening with Phageborn feel free to join our Discord channel if you haven’t already (Discord)!

Yours truly,
Games Revolted