Gladiator Guild Manager News

The beta of our biggest update ever is now ready! This is the same update that will push the game into full release on June 22nd. It's currently in English only, but our translators are working on it right now.


I’ll explain how to easily switch to the beta through a few clicks on Steam. We’d love to hear your feedback on the game as we’re doing the final balancing and polishing over the next two weeks. If you write us feedback, we can add you to the Beta Testers credits section. Just provide the name you want added.

[h2]Turning on Beta[/h2]
Select the game in your library. Then click on the gear icon and Properties.

In that window click on the Betas tab. Next, click on the dropdown that currently says "None" and select "Beta Pre Release."

Your game will update to the beta version.

Keep in mind that Save files in beta will not be kept. We'll do a full save game clean at release to avoid any issues with all the new content.

[h2]Beta Testing and Bug Reporting[/h2]
If you encounter any bugs or issues, you can help us a lot by opening the console by pressing Shift + F3, clicking on a bug (if there is any), and sending us screenshots of it’s details.
Also, let us know if you find any overpowered combinations. With the combination of items and traits, there might be variations we haven’t considered that are too strong. For example, you can teach gladiators a trait that lets them taunt enemies, but it is considered an AoE ability, so it can be combined with an item that sets enemies hit by AoE on fire.


Here’s a short video explaining the new features:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Major Features and Changes[/h2]
We talked about new features in the last update, so I’ll just briefly list them here. We’ll go into details in the release update.

• New Traits System: Traits can now be learned and upgraded to higher levels with the new guild building, Trait Crucible, and the new resource, Trait Blueprints.
  
• Item Upgrading: A workshop can be built in the guild, allowing you to upgrade universal items to a higher tier using the new resource, Crafting Tools.
  
• 30+ new traits as well as rework of many previous ones.
  
• Rework of items, rebalancing, and changing functionalities of some.
  
• Altar of Respec: A guild building that lets you reset the stats of gladiators.
  
• Improvements to item and trait systems to allow for synergies that were not possible before.
  
• Timeline and default battle speed can be adjusted in settings.
  
• Auto Pause-Play Timeline: A feature that can be enabled in settings, which will pause the game or even open quotes, ring of death battles, or any events you set it to open. (We personally prefer to play without this, but it’s there as an option so everyone can customize their experience as they want.)
  
• Reputation Rework: Now, gaining higher reputation with a faction will get you item and even gladiator rewards, while getting a negative reputation will lead to the faction trying to sabotage you.
  
• We moved all resolution, screen, and graphic options to the game, with the addition of frame rate options that we didn’t have before.
  
• All UI elements have been reworked to be cleaner, bigger, and more polished.
  
• The guild, especially, had a big rework.
  
• Countless bug fixes and improvements.
  

We’re super excited to hear your thoughts on the newest update! You can let us know what you think about Beta here or in our Discord server.
Thank you so much for hanging on during this long development!

After about two and a half years in Early Access, with many updates and changes, we are confident that with the next big update, the game will finally be ready to earn its 1.0 Full Release title. The date for Full Release is June 22, 2024.



We had already wanted to push the game into Full Release last year but felt that more features and changes needed to be done before we did that. We wanted to give ourselves 4-5 more months. However, as game development goes, ideas for new features popped up, and we ended up extending development by another 10 months. However, we are happy that we did because the game is going to be incomparably better than it would have been 10 months ago. The biggest update with the most changes so far is still in development and will be coming to beta soon.

We are soon going to set the price of the game to $15, which we feel is going to reflect the final quality of the game. But we’ll be offering a very heavy launch discount of 50%. So, if you haven’t gotten the game yet, you might want to wait until launch as the price will be only $7.50 with the discount.

[h2]Progress on the New Update[/h2]

The update we’re currently working on is going to be the biggest change in the game so far. Here is the summary of the new features and changes:

• Complete rework of the Quirks system where you can now teach and upgrade gladiators' quirks (finding good ones in the shop is still important).
• Guild building that will let you unlock more quirks.
  
• A new batch of 30+ more Quirks.
  
• Reward system moved from battle to map menu and is clearer on chances to gain items.
  
• A guild building that will let you upgrade Universal items from green to blue and purple.
  
• A guild building where you can reset gladiator stats.
  
• Options to set resolution, frame rate, and more from the game.
  
• Rework of all UI elements. They are bigger, cleaner, and overall more polished.
• Gladiator and Item shop refresh buttons now refresh the whole shop, not just the first row.
  
• Item system rework so now items can send buffs with any type of attack.
  
• We had items for each attack type that increased damage against burning or frozen targets. Now, one item fits all attack types.
  
• We added items that can set enemies frozen or on fire with all attack types, allowing for many different strategies. For example, units with taunt with this kind of item can also set enemies on fire or freeze them.
  
• The timeline now has a Play and Stop feature that will fast forward until any specific event triggers it to stop. Triggers are: Quests, Ring of Death, Shop Discounts, Championship. They will pause the game and open the panel. But you can choose your own triggers in settings as well as other options related to the timeline.
• Reputation now goes from -600 to 1200. It’s balanced so it takes longer to reach maximum reputation.
  
• Factions now react to you reaching a higher or lower reputation, giving you rewards or trying to sabotage you. Now, there will be a reason to think about quests that you’ll want to accept or decline.
  
• XP is now shared with gladiators that die in battle so they don’t lag behind the team in case they are vulnerable and die often.
  
• Various bug fixes and improvements like pushing units through colliders, random starting gladiator setting, necromancer issues, and many more.
  

Most of the features we’re planning in this update will be available first in beta mode that will be ready in about 2 weeks. It’s going to be easily accessible with a toggle in the main menu. But only in English as we’re waiting for translators to get all the text ready in all the languages.
Once the beta is ready, we’ll notify you guys here with an announcement as well as on our Discord server, where we’d love to have you as we talk about and tweak the game into the full release version.
We’ll share more details on all those changes once the beta is ready.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on all this here in the comments or on our Discord. After the 1.0 is out, that does not mean updates will stop. We still have plans to add more things to the game but we believe that after this update it will deserve to be called completed.

Thank you all so much for staying with us and supporting us all this time!


UPDATE: I just made a video showing how the new Trait System will work, and showing some of the new Traits and interesting ways of using them:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In the newest update v0.942, After Battle Stats and Enemy Team Items features are available by default. We thank you for all the feedback that made this feature possible. We’ve been told, and we agree, that this feature adds additional depth to the game as it allows us to really see what is happening in even the most hectic fights, allowing us to further plan and optimize gladiator teams. To understand which units are the highest damage dealers, to compare them with different items, compare and find the best results. To see which units are doing the most tanking, healing, and to determine how much importance each gladiator has in the team.

Now, After Battle Stats is localized in all languages and finalized for everybody to use.

Additionally, we have made it so that enemy teams carry items in championships (and Tournament Mode). Only a few of the enemy gladiators will have items, making considering them and planning how to deal with them an additional challenge. Balancing has been adjusted accordingly so that the difficulty remains the same. If an enemy team has items, their levels will be lower by the exact amount of power that the items give them, making them equally powerful as before. The only difference now is that it might be worth paying attention to gladiators with items and perhaps eliminating them first if they present a serious danger.





We are already knee-deep in changing the Quirk System and redesigning the Unit Info Panel look. We talked about it in detail in the previous announcement that you can find here.

I'll briefly describe the idea behind it here. We noticed that in our game, quirks are way more important than just some side random stats. And that there was a lot of frustration with finding gladiators with quirks we’d like in the shop. So we decided to give them the deserved attention.

We are working on systems that will let you learn new quirks as gladiators are leveling up and even upgrade them, allowing further customization of characters as well as nice additional progression. In the gladiator shop, you’ll still be able to find units with good quirks and buy them, but you’ll also be able to find units that have empty quirk slots on which you can spend mana crystals and teach new quirks. They will be separated into 4 tiers based on how powerful they are. And each tier will unlock after 6 levels, providing a steady progression of your gladiators with meaningful choices during the whole game.


We’ll also be adding a set of new quirks to expand possibilities. Some of the new quirks will be more specialized than current ones. For example, there will be several quirks that are only for gladiators with shields, or only for gladiators with projectile attacks.

I will write down the quirks that we are considering making, so you guys can tell us what you think about them. And if you have some ideas for new quirks, we’d love to hear them.



There are many new quirks that will affect gladiator abilities. As we’d have 4 tiers of quirks, each unlocked after 6 levels (Level 1 (tier 1), level 6 (tier 2), level 12 (tier 3), level 18 (tier 4). So we decided to put all ability affecting quirks in tier 2. Then players could choose only one ability altering quirk for each unit, keeping other quirks important as well.

[h2]Skill Quirks (Tier 2 only)[/h2]
[h3]Shield Block Defense Traits[/h3]
1. Healing Shieldbearer - 5% of the damage blocked heals allies within an area of 2.5 around this gladiator (Cooldown: 3 seconds).
2. Emberheart - Blocking a melee attack releases a heat blaze, damaging enemies within a 2.5 area around this gladiator for 5% of the blocked damage (Cooldown: 3 seconds).
3. Repulsor Spirit - Blocking a melee attack releases a force in an area of 3 around this gladiator, pushing enemies away and knocking them down for 0.5 seconds (cooldown: 15 seconds).
4. Defiant Retaliator - Blocking a melee attack knocks the attacking enemy down for 2 seconds (cooldown: 8 seconds).
5. Reflexive - Blocking a projectile reflects it back towards a random enemy with 50% of its damage (cooldown: 7 seconds).

[h3]Dodge Defense Traits[/h3]
1. Agile Vitality - Dodging an attack restores 5% health and 10% stamina.
2. Agile Empowerment - Dodging an attack increases the main stat by 50% for the next 3 seconds.

[h3]General Tank Traits[/h3]
1. Foul Mouth - Taunts enemies within a 3.5 area around this gladiator every 12 seconds.
2. Chillheart - Once this gladiator is hit by a melee attack, the enemy will be frozen, preventing them from moving for 3 seconds.

[h3]Projectile Traits[/h3]
1. Dual Focus - Each time the gladiator fires a projectile, they fire an additional projectile at a random enemy with 20% of the original projectile's damage.
2. Piercing Resolve - If a projectile kills an enemy, it will continue flying with the remaining damage points instead of being destroyed.

[h3]Offensive Traits[/h3]
1. Wound Specialist - Damaging an enemy causes them to bleed, inflicting [additionalStat_1] damage per this gladiator's level indefinitely. (20% effectiveness for AoE abilities).
2. Toxic Personality - Damaging an enemy poisons them, causing a loss of [additionalStat_1] stamina per this gladiator's level for 5 seconds. (20% effectiveness for AoE abilities).
3. Wildheart - The first time the gladiator attacks, the damage is increased by 150% (40% effectiveness for AoE abilities).
4. Critically Lucky - Each time the gladiator deals damage, there is a 20% chance to deal double the amount of damage (40% effectiveness for AoE abilities).
5. Knockout Artist - Each time the gladiator deals damage, there is a 10% chance to knock down the enemy.

[h3]Support[/h3]
1. Lifeforce Alchemist - Healing friendly units also restores 20% of the healed amount as stamina.
2. Vigor Alchemist - Restoring stamina to a friendly unit also heals the unit for 30% of the restored stamina.
3. Cleansing Alchemist - Casting a healing or stamina restoration spell on a friendly unit also removes one negative buff from them.

[h3]Summoner Traits[/h3]
1. Ascending Summoner - Each time this gladiator summons a unit, they gain a 10% increase in their main stat, (Max 40%)
2. Regenerative Summoner - Each time this gladiator summons a unit, they restore 20% of their own health.
3. Vigor Summoner - Each time this gladiator summons a unit, they restore 30% of their own stamina.
4. Lifebind Summoner - Each time this gladiator summons a unit, they lose 20% of their max health, but the summoned unit is 35% higher level.
5. Arcane Archer - Each time this gladiator summons a unit, they fire a projectile at a random enemy, dealing damage equal to 200% of this gladiator's main stat.

[h2]Universal Quirks[/h2]
1. Mighty Beastmaster - Gains a 10% main stat bonus for each friendly beast in the team 1 second after the battle starts (Max 80%).
2. Resilient Beastmaster - Increases max health by 5% for each friendly beast on the team 1 second after the battle starts (max 40%).
3. Mighty Awakening - The gladiator starts the battle stunned for the first 4 seconds but gains a 50% main stat increase and a 20% increase in max health.

[h3]Weather[/h3]
1. Raincaller Martyr - The gladiator changes the weather to Rain 1 second after the battle starts, then dies.
2. Windbringer Martyr - The gladiator changes the weather to Heavy Wind 1 second after the battle starts, then dies.
3. Mistweaver Martyr - The gladiator changes the weather to Crimson Mist 1 second after the battle starts, then dies.

We're still thinking about those 3 quirks. The idea is to add them to tier 4, which can only be learned at level 18. So, only if you have a team that leans towards one of the main stats (Strength, Agility, or Intelligence) and also has some quirks that give bonuses for one of the three main weathers. Then picking up one of the Martyr quirks and sacrificing one of the gladiators for each fight would work and give your team a huge boost. It could be somewhat OP, but the team would need to be very specific to take advantage of it, so it might be an interesting option to have. Otherwise, losing a gladiator to change weather is usually not a good idea.

[h3]General Quirks[/h3]
1. Beast - The gladiator regenerates health and stamina 10% faster.
2. Colossal - Max health increases by 30%, but movement speed decreases by 70%.
3. Mobile Marksman - Gladiator is able to move at 30% of the speed while shooting.
4. Adaptive Marksman - Able to shoot arrows even when the enemy is next to this unit.
5. Long Arms - Increases ability range by 1.

[h2]Conclusion About Quirks[/h2]
We are still working on the new Quirk system and haven’t started implementing new quirks yet. So they might change as we see what works or doesn’t. And some of them we might not be able to make due to technical limitations of our existing code. But those are the ideas we’re striving towards.

And we’d love to hear what you guys think of them. Would you change any of them? Are there any favorites? And do you have any ideas for new quirks? (Or Traits. I keep swapping those two terms now that they changed the name to Traits in the game lol)


[h2]Stay in Touch[/h2]
We will keep you updated on how this feature goes. You can join us on Discord to stay in touch. Once ready, it will again be released in Beta. Also, with this feature, we are getting pretty close to a Full Release that will happen in a several months.

Thank you all for all the amazing feedback and support!
-Entertainment Forge Team

We are working on redesigning the Unit Info panel and how Quirks work. We want to share our plans and ideas and to ask for your feedback. We thought of some ideas that we believe will improve the game for both more customization and overall more enjoyment, and to solve a few issues the current design has.

The thing about Quirks is that we designed them to be a passive thing on units, sometimes negative, sometimes positive. Just something to make units a little different and unique. But they ended up being essential to building a good team. They are so essential that players would rarely even bother buying units unless they had great Quirks. What led to countless refreshing of the shop in search for the right units. It often ended up in spending thousands of gold and sometimes not even finding a satisfying unit. We thought of some solutions, like hiring a scout that would find specific units with high-quality Quirks, but it all felt like patching up something that could be designed better from the start.

So, we thought of treating Quirks as upgrades on units. Almost like passive abilities. We’re thinking of renaming them to Traits as they would always be positive and serve to improve units. This is how it would work:

At the start, each unit would have one tier 1 Trait. All Traits would be separated into 4 tiers based on how powerful they are. Then, at levels 6, 12, and 18, each unit can learn another Trait until they have the maximum of 4 Traits. When you level up the unit to one of those levels (6, 12, 18), you can choose the Trait of that specific tier that you want to teach them. We’d also have a new guild building that is related to Traits. Upgrading this building would unlock new Traits to the list that can be learned. And each upgrade would require reaching a certain championship arena as well as resources (wood, iron, and stone). So, as you progress through the game, you’re getting more options.

In shop units would either already have some Traits on them, or they would have empty slots where you can select the Traits yourself. For example, level 12 units might have the first Trait already set, and two empty slots. Or maybe 2, or all 3 are already set. Units with empty slots would be more expensive. So, it will still be worth checking the shop and finding units with Traits that are a good fit for that unit, but if you can afford a unit with empty Trait slots you can craft the unit exactly to your liking.

We also redesigned the Unit Info Panel to be clearer and to fit the new design. This is how it looks at the moment:


In addition to this mechanic, we’d also introduce an option to upgrade Traits. Our current idea is that there are global Trait upgrade points that you can spend on any unit. And you would get those points by finishing arena championships or reaching new reputation levels.

Now, we have two ideas of doing the upgrades and would love to hear which one you like more. Since you have 4 tiers of Traits, upgrading a Tier 4 Trait like “Healthy and Powerful” is not the same as upgrading a Tier 1 Trait like “Glass Cannon”. We can either make upgrades of lower-level Traits have a bigger improvement effect, making those low-level Traits a lot more powerful after upgrading. Or we can have them all increase in power proportionally, but to upgrade a higher tier Trait it would cost more points. We are leaning towards the second design choice, as this way it would feel really good when you manage to upgrade a Tier 4 Trait into something amazing. And we don't have to make those upgrades less effective than lower tier upgrades. This way, it would also make sense to give more Trait upgrading points for completing higher-level arenas. For example, finishing the first arena (Graveyard) would give 2 Trait upgrading points, while finishing arena 6 (Iron Mountain) would give 5 or more points. But let us know what you think.


Upgraded Traits would increase the power of the Trait and, in some cases, even add functionality if needed. For example, a Trait like "Dragon Blood," which makes units immune to fire, has no way of becoming better unless we add another functionality. In this case, upgrading it once would also make the unit immune to frost, and upgrading it to the maximum level 3 would make the unit immune to poison as well. While other Traits that provide stats would usually just improve those stats. For instance, "Healthy and Powerful" would give more main stat points for each level of health simply making it better at what it already does.

For Tournament mode, we’d adapt this design so you get Trait points each time you finish a boss battle every 2 rounds instead of at the end of each championship.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
We feel that this design will allow more customization and make the game more fun. It will provide a nice additional thing to upgrade, making unit leveling feel more rewarding as you’re aiming to reach each new 6 levels and increase the power of that unit. It would solve the endless shop refreshing to search for units. It would solve the issue of the beginning units needing replacement as you go through the game because your beginner units usually don’t have as many great Traits. And it would make finishing each arena championship more rewarding as you know that after winning them, you get to make your units more powerful in an interesting way.

We’d love to hear your opinion and feedback about these changes. Write us here in comments or join us on Discord.

Also, we're thinking of adding another group of new Traits (Quirks) together with this update. If you have any ideas for new ones, we'd love to hear them.

Thank you!
-Entertainment Forge

Save game rollover panel now also shows the difficulty, permadeath, and its gold compensation setting.

[h3]Fixes:[/h3]

• Permadeath Gold Compensation issue fixed.
  
• Druid Roots ability damage dealing fixed.
  
• Druid Regenerate ability used to be activated at the start of the game; now fixed, and she will only cast the ability on units who miss at least 20% health.
  
• Rhino Taunt is now an Area of Effect attack so it can be combined with Area of Effect universal items.
  
• The same for the Drummer unit.
  
• Quirks tier 0 is removed, and the quirks in this tier are rebalanced to be more useful and moved to tier 1. Also, rebalance several other tier 1 or 2 quirks. We’re preparing them for the feature we’re excited about in the next big update. But we’ll talk more about that later.
  
• Edited a few priority settings where units like Druid, Invigorator, Banshee, and more were targeting strength and agility units over intelligence units.