Tainted Grail News

A lot of players asked us for some kind of a magic based class, and so here’s our first take on this kind of gameplay. We just want to warn you that the Druid is a totally different thing than our Warrior – it plays differently, requires different strategies, and a different approach!

We’re adding one rune right now: a Summoner based on summoning monsters through dark, dangerous blood magic.

With the Summoner you’re able to summon up to four monsters to your side – they will fight for you, take damage for you, buff you or debuff enemies. Once summoned, they can be levelled (through your rune) so that they become even stronger… or sacrificed, for various benefits you’d need to check out for yourselves!

It’s a very powerful class and we decided to leave it a little bit overpowered so that you can easily check out how it plays and have some fun with it!

We’re going to be looking very closely at everything you write about the Summoner! We hope you’re going to like the class even though some of you might find it a bit too easy (expect nerfs!). Also: remember that if something feels too easy... then try your luck in Corruption ;)

And congratulations to Disiesel and Neyl at our Discord for reaching the highest available levels of Corruption in our last build!



ALSO!

Summoning monsters means that currently we can have up to 10 characters on the battlefield. We’ve implemented a first iteration of the “attack queue”, so that you’re always able to track who-moves-when during combat.

This means that runes were moved to the right and now sit above the End Turn button ;)

So, we’re giving you the first look at the Summoner – let us know what you think. Next week we’re going to add some additional effects to this class and tweak A LOT of things that still don’t work properly.



Especially for our Discord bunker: 5 new Corruption levels (total 0-15).

And while we’re at it: Scars & Tattoos were added to the character creator!



Right now we have 8 tattoos for female characters and 2 tattoos for male characters. We’ve also added 2 new hairstyles for both.

Next week we’re going to add more tattoos for male characters and we’re working on making the hair move! :D



In terms of bugfixes, various improvements, and small changes, here’s what happened:

• Fixed the “can’t-kill-wyrm” bug in the game’s campaign
  
• Added option in graphic settings to choose another display
  
• Added warning when trying to leave settings with unapplied changes
  
• Fixed bad lighting in character creation on low quality settings.
  
• Added post process effects to character creation.
  
• Changes in post processes on the map to increase readability.
  
• Shaman now spawns proper totems instead of placeholders
  
• Fixed a bug with permanent Emissary of the Deep status
  
• Also, wounds received from the Hangman's Tree should no longer leave persistent status on your character.
  
• Cleave passive now works on random enemy and all enemy targeting cards
  
• Warding Lore consumable item no longer has any duration (Barrier lasts until end of combat)
  
• Fixed broken Corruption progression after C8
  
• Camera in combat shouldn’t move when you’re using scrollwheel in the battlelog and other screens
  
• Bossfights should always start without Wyrdness debuff.
  

We’ve made plenty of tweaks this week!

Warrior class:

• Fixed Advanced Attack card to properly have and display 150% Damage (instead of 100%).
  
• Counter-strike has had its Energy cost decreased from 2 to 1.
  
• Double Edge has had its Energy cost decreased from 2 to 1.
  
• Double Pain has had its Energy cost decreased from 2 to 1.
  
• Final Strike has had its Energy cost decreased from 3 to 2.
  
• Finishing Blow has had its Damage buff on Enemy kill increased from 50% to 100%.
  
• Perfect Defense has had its Energy cost decreased from 2 to 1.
  

Erratic Seamstress:

• It takes a 1000 wyrdstone to unlock her services now
  
• 100 wealth (multiplied x2 after every use) to heal for 50% Max HP
  
• 500 wealth (multiplied x2 after every use) to discard 1 card
  
• 750 wealth -> curse removal service (and additional 100 wyrdstone for every curse removal after doing this once)
  

Tier 2 boss - Emissary of the Deep fight changes:

• Now leaves a powerful Poison each time it touches the player. The Poison grows stronger with each hit received and can only be cured via cracking the eggs.
  
• Damage increased to 32 - 39 (from 25 - 30).
  
• Armor increased from 0 to 30.
  
• Eggs no longer heal themselves, only the boss and the player.
  
• Cracking eggs adds an Incoming Healing buff to the player, to encourage cracking eggs to receive healing during the encounter (+10% per egg cracked).
  

Tier 2 boss - Derenheim Winterbane fight changes:

• Damage increased to 40 - 45 (from 30 - 35).
  
• Occasionally, he will now drain one of the trees from its Health and perform a devastating attack that ignores player’s Armor. Stun him to prevent the countdown of it.
  
• ...and there’s also a little surprise regarding this fight.
  

Mirrorblade

• Damage increased to 16 - 22 (from 12 - 16).
  
• Price increased from 800 to 1100.
  
• Now it has a 25% chance to Duplicate each Attack (instead of 100%)
  

Acid Flask

• No longer permanently damages enemy’s Armor (Armor Damage). Instead, the Armor debuff applied (-75) lasts for 3 Turns and does not stack with self.
  

Acid Bomb

• Armor Damage reduced to -15 (from -20).
  

Hello everyone! It's been a week since we've launched, and once again, we'd like to thank you for all your kind words, feedback, and for your willingness to share this crazy journey through early access with us!

We're at over 200 reviews, and our rating so far is 91% positive. This is honestly AMAZING.

Your support and your trust mean the world to us and we're trying to do our best to read everything, answer your questions as fast as possible, and fix things that you find annoying in the game. We also understand very well that you guys took the leap of faith with us - its not easy to be with Early Acces from the first week since after a few months, you would get a much more developed and polished product… So we will want to make sure to make it worthwhile for you all ;)

We are new to digital games, but in all our Kickstarter campaigns, we want to make our supporters a part of the process - show the whole backstage, meet the team, share the ideas and feedback and work together on creating a fantastic game. It feels amazing for us to be a part of such a community, and we also hope it's going to be really cool for you to be an active member!

In addition, we will make sure to prepare something special for everyone who supported us in this first few weeks early access - we are not yet sure what exactly it will be, so if you have any cool ideas, let us know! ;)

And since we've promised an update for the end of the week - here it is, and we'd like to warn you that... it's a pretty big one.

Make yourself a cup of coffee/tea, and, well, let's begin! :D



This week we're introducing the first version, first iteration, of our new system: CORRUPTION.

It's only our first take on this concept - right now, it's really unbalanced, and we'd recommend even trying it out only to the most hardcore players.

After you've beaten the last boss of Conquest, you'll get an option to sacrifice yourself. On your new run, you'll notice a counter in the lower right corner of the screen showing you Corruption: 1. This will make your wyrdstone rewards higher... but also make all enemies deadlier.

After you die: Corruption will reset to zero. If you win against the last boss again, you'll be able to go further. Up to level 10 right now.

We're pretty sure no one is going to make it to level 3 so far (but it's because it's a very new concept and it's totally unbalanced for now).

We're implementing this for several reasons.

One is that we want to make sure that our most hardcore players have something to do after they've won so that the game will stay challenging, and maybe even - to some extent - unbeatable.

Two is that we needed to create a system that allows us to change global variables - and even though right now we're using it to make the game harder, in the future, we might use it to create difficulty levels!

Three is that this will give us additional space to create exciting encounters: things you'll be able to find only on certain levels of the world's Corruption or storylines that have surprising interactions after you've beaten a certain level (even once).

It's only our first take, but - well - it's in the game! Let us know what you think!

[h2]NEW! IN-GAME BUG REPORTS[/h2]



We've fixed A LOT of bugs this week. But since we'd like to be even more effective, and some bugs require more data, we'd like to ask you to report critical bugs through our in-game bug report tool.

Feel free to use our google form or forums to report typos or general questions, but if you find a crash or a critical bug that prevents you from enjoying the game - please use the in-game bug report form. You'll find it in the game's options. It's important because this will automatically send us your save file, and we'll be more effective in fixing these.

[h3]FREQUENT PROBLEMS[/h3]

1. White squares instead of images after loading the game.
   
2. Hero’s spawning in the grass/tress or stuff-is-wrong on the map after loading the game.
   

We don’t want to go into details why these things happen (#1 is because of “Addressables” in Unity, #2 is because our map generation tends to be a bit overprotective) but if these things happen, try to:

• Verify The Game’s Files through Steam
  
• Start a new run on the same save game (you won’t lose your wyrdstone and village’s progress)
  

If these don’t work: let us know through in-game bug report form and post your PCs specification!

[h3]A BIT OF BALANCING[/h3]

• Breath Control can now be played only once per Turn.
  
• Catch a Breath now has Chain-keyword and can be played only once per Turn. Its Cost has been increased from 0 to 2.
  
• Draw no longer has Chain-keyword and can be played only once per Turn. Its Cost has been reduced from 1 to 0.
  

Changes to Brawler's level 10 Rune Reforges

• Explosive Force has been buffed: now heals for 15% max HP on kill instead of 5%.
  
• Manifested Ire has been buffed: now requires at least 10 Charges to Stun the target instead of 20.
  
• Staggering Strength has been buffed greatly: now requires at least 15 Charges to activate instead of 20 and reduces target’s Armor by 100, instead of 40.
  

[h2]Also, be sure to check out our NEW BOSS! [/h2]
You’ll find it sometimes on the 2nd Path.





- Crippling attack shouldn't stun countdowning enemies
- End turn now stops all animations
- Abominations intents are now correctly displaying dmg
- There’s a warning for greedy humans who are looting chests in wyrdness
- Guardian's reforge - Ambush fix
- Guardian's passive - Wisdom fix
- Removed "use" option from Crafting Components
- Crafting components are now saved between runs in your inventory
- Ornate Vampiric Dagger should be properly Vampiric again
- Excessive damage on barrier now transfers to HP
- Barrier doesn't get used if any block is active
- Barrier dmg calculations now include Armor and statuses
- IMPORTANT: Hero can now be rotated during character creation
- Status: Drunk now lasts for 5 turns instead of 10
- You can no longer load the game in Conquest, you can only continue (in order to eliminate confusion). Your game is automatically saved when you quit your session.
- Wind-up Brawler Reforge gives you 3 Energy only when you're using Brawler Rune at 20 or more charges like it should do.
- Using one Blood Altar shouldn't prevent you from using others (+ more candles as a reward)
- Fixed a bug when drinking from one Fountain of Health made you magically drink from all of them
- A small benefit from being cursed added who-knows-where.
- Post-process effect of wyrdness has changed in battle. Now it is close to the one on the map and solves technical problems.
- Small improvements in pathfinding
- Fights can now contain up to 5 enemies…
- ...And because of that Rabid Rats had their Damage decreased from 15 - 17 to 11 - 13
- Probably fixed a block in the campaign when you went to the witch's hut after talking with the Druid
- Fat Knight combat encounter has been slightly altered - the overal Difficulty and rewards of it went up (combat part only)
- Flute protecting the caster with a barrier cannot be spammed anymore.
- Item Infuriating Incense correctly targets all enemies.
- Cost of discard at the Seamstress raised to 400 wyrdstone

Last but not least:



We finally fixed Brawler's rune sound effect not being affected by sound settings!



Let Marcin explain our new, huge addition, that we have planned for next week :)

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hello! We'd like to thank you once again for your support.

It's been so heartwarming to see your comments and reviews, and we're really grateful for your support. It's honestly AMAZING for us to see that we're at a "very positive" rank and at over 155 reviews so far!

Oh, and we just found out that we also got a positive review on TPB xD



But, seriously, we’re really grateful for your support so far and we hope we’re not going to let you down with our future updates.

And it seems that y'all are doing great at the game! :D

Take a look for yourselves:



So! Getting back to what’s happening – we’ve uploaded a small patch today. But before we get to that: we think we need to address a certain issue and be open with you about the translations of the game:

[h3]Note On Translations
[/h3]Folks, we're Polish, and you can trust us when we say that we know how it feels to be left out when it comes to translations of games (hello Nintendo, cheers from Poland, we do exist!).

Indeed, Tainted Grail is currently not available in other languages than English. It's like that NOT because we don't want it to be. It's because translating this game would be just a tremendous amount of work... and money.

We're grateful to everyone who offered their help with translations - we're collecting your contact info for the future :)

We'd like to explain a couple of crucial issues we’re facing with translations:

This game is really text-heavy. There's A LOT of words inside already, and we're not nearly done.

Also, we've just launched in Early Access. This means that the game isn't finished yet.

This means that we're constantly changing stuff: we're moving interactions around, rewriting encounters, polishing what we have. Just today, we've added a small interaction to one of our locations, and we plan to add at least 3-5 big encounters in our next update by the end of the week.

We wouldn't be able to add or change content fast if the game was already translated. Adding a single interaction would mean scheduling translations, implementing them, and testing if they make sense. This takes time – and money.

So we'd like to be honest and transparent on how our workflow with text is going to look like in the coming months:

• We're going to implement a lot of interactions. Some will be unpolished in terms of language/style, and some will be pretty much completed (depending on who on our team is going to write them: a quest designer or a writer)
  
• After we're happy with how our interactions/locations/encounters work and play, we're going to run them by editors/writers so that they’re even better when it comes to style.
  
• After we collect a big batch of new stuff, we're going to send it over to the voice actors.
  

When the game's nearing launch, we're going to sit down, look at the numbers, and decide what can - and what should be done - about translations. So once again, please understand that it’s not that we don’t want to – it’s that it isn’t really possible/viable to translate an RPG while it’s still a work in progress!

[h3]Today's Patch:[/h3]
We've pushed a quick patch today which contains the following fixes:

1. You shouldn't be able to skip picking Legendary cards anymore
   
2. Fixed a weird bug that was making the environment sounds disappear after loading the game and clicking your mouse (I honestly don't know what to say about that :D)
   
3. Proper curse removal service at the Seamstress. It works now!
   
4. Prevented farming the last boss for wyrdstone ;)
   
5. This time the encounter with the Fat Knight is really fixed (and he wants 5 food).
   
6. Fixed wrong food drop from Insane Worshipers (when we're at that, fixed wrong "drunk" description at the Tavern).
   
7. Prevented wyrdstone farming from Manasse
   
8. Hunter's Grove in Conquest has more foreshadowing... but is a little bit more dangerous.
   
9. Both Mantle of Despair and Emperor's Robes have a secret purpose now (first iterations)
   
10. Old Merchant's stuff is usable now. But still mostly useless.
    
11. Fixed a lot of typos and incorrect text/voices.
    

Expect a new update with a lot of new fixes by the end of the week!

We'll let you know soon - our schedule is a bit off because currently we're swamped with feedback and bug reports, and we're trying to categorize everything, make sure we're aware of everything, and schedule accordingly :)

Okay! Gotta get back to work :)

Hey everyone!

Woah, so we are live in Early Access! Hell, this is so exciting for us, as this is our very first digital game - everything is new for us!

First of all, we would like to thank you all who are here with us from day one of Early Access! You're giving us a credit of trust, and we hope we won't disappoint you! Your support means really A LOT for the whole team!

We just wanted to let you know that we are planning to do a lot of cool stuff for the Conquest mode in regular updates and obviously work on the story campaign. Overall, we hope that the journey of turning Tainted Grail into the best game it can possibly be will be worthwhile for you!

Make sure to share your feedback – what things seem not balanced? What would you like to see more of in the game? What extra content would you like to see? What quality of life features would you love to see? We will be here listening and interacting with you, making sure that together, we can make a fantastic game!
Right now, this week, we will be looking at bugs, balancing, and adding a little bit of content here and there. But most importantly – we will be listening to y'all and creating a roadmap of updates!

There are so many cool ideas that we want to implement soon! For example:

• Second profession with a whole new deck of cards and 3 runes, each with unique passive skills
  
• More enemies and bosses
  
• Weekly events with some special rules of engagement and achievements for completing those
  

All in all – we are REALLY excited to start working with you on this Early Access, and we hope this will be an epic journey for all of us!



Also, a changelog for the newest patch:

• Fixed a bug that blocked your campaign progress if you took the wrong relic from the graves.
  
• Fixed a bug opening up the story UI in combat/fast travel
  
• Fixed a bug preventing you from accessing the Seamstress in Conquest
  
• Also, you can use the Seamstress to remove a curse now. You know which curse ;)
  
• Fixed a bug preventing you from accessing The Ghost Shop after upgrading it in Conquest
  
• The Fat Knight won't kill you after you kindly refuse to be eaten and his hunger is a little less tough to satiate (5 food instead of 10)
  
• You should now be rewarded after you find "something interesting" on rotting corpses at the hangman's tree in Conquest (my goodness, this game is DARK)
  
• The last boss in Conquest should give you a summary of your run now :)
  

Best,
Awaken Realms Digital

Today is the big day! Today we finally share with you the Early Access version of Tainted Grail, and we couldn't be more excited about it. We probably couldn't be more stressed about it, too :D

This was an extremely long journey for us… We've spent almost 2 years of our lives on this game, learning as we went. The project kept evolving, the team kept growing, and we've all learned so much from working on this title that it's almost unbelievable.

And when we think back on how it all started - we're really proud and honestly amazed that our company actually got to this point.



You see, the journey of Awaken Realms was much, much longer than our two years. The company was formed about six years ago in the basement of an old house located in a small village near Wrocław, Poland. At first, it was run by two guys (they say they were "extremely passionate about games and stories," but they are just geeks, like all of us! :D) with zero capital and no experience whatsoever. But they decided to start a miniature-painting studio... and we're pretty sure they never would've thought that, in time, their company will be able to break Kickstarter with its board games and start working on ambitious digital games!

A lot happened on this 6-year-long journey from painting miniatures, and most importantly, a lot of talented people joined the company and managed to create some great games… or even open up a board game pub in our city :D

And so, we at Awaken Realms Digital, are incredibly proud to share with you an early access version of Tainted Grail. The first video game Awaken Realms ever started working on - and the first one we're publicly launching!

You can imagine why this feels exciting and stressful at the same time. We've worked days and nights, we've put our hearts into this game, and we are incredibly proud of what we've been able to achieve.

We REALLY hope you're going to enjoy Tainted Grail!

But OK, we probably got a little carried away with this intro… Let's write a little bit more about what is waiting for you inside this Early Access!





As we announced before - our main focus during early access is going to be Conquest, our narrative-driven rogue-lite/RPG hybrid. An endless game mode, we're going to support with regular updates all the way until our proper launch.

Here's the introduction to Conquest's storyline!

[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7An7uTVeuF8&feature=youtu.be[/previewyoutube]

[h2]What's Conquest?[/h2]
This is a whole, new roguelike mode that we announced in our last update. We've been working on it for the past months, and we've been actively iterating it with our discord community, and while there is still a lot of work ahead of us... It already feels really satisfying to play!

Also, we have our first community-made guide to playing one of the classes! Thank you, Disiesel!!! :D

[h3]Main highlights:[/h3]

• Tons of story locations/interactions with different lore and choices
  
• Procedurally generated world – every time you start a new run, you will find different things on your way!
  
• Possibility to create unique combos between cards, passive skills, items, and consumables
  
• An option to build and upgrade your village in between the runs
  
• High-scores! Defeat the final boss and beat your high score!
  
• Learn extra lore about the world of Tainted Grail.
  

To stress it out: this mode will be the focus of our early access and will be developed over time with your help, folks! We will be adding much more content, new classes, new runes, new monsters, new bosses, and various challenges!

And we're going to share a roadmap with you really soon! :)



[h2]Campaign[/h2]
On top of that, we have a re-mastered teaser of the game's single-player campaign for you. This is still a teaser which lasts for around 3 hours, but it comes with quite a lot of changes!

• Huge visual upgrade
  
• Polished storyline
  
• More content to find and more story interactions
  
• More voice overs!
  
• The game's world was built from scratch!
  
• ...And much more!
  

We hope this will give you a good taste of what is coming in the full release. (But please remember if the story campaign is what you are mostly looking for, we are recommending waiting for the full version!)

[h2]Visuals[/h2]
First of all, we were able to really enhance everything in the game visually and bring everything into 3D! Animations are better, visual effects are better, the scale of heroes and the environment is right, and the terrain is much better looking, too! But well, screenshots and videos speak for themselves!

Hopefully, our visuals will immerse you in the dark Arthurian world! ;)



[h2]Voices, sounds, music![/h2]
We have also enhanced our soundtrack and audio, and we are so happy with the final effect! Not only did we got the AMAZING Danheim (definitely check out their Bandcamp page!) on board and they allowed us to use their songs on the game's soundtrack, we were also able to get a lot of great voice over actors. Huge thanks to Emma Powell for being THE voice of Tainted Grail!

So...

We really hope that you will get a great experience out of the game – but please remember this is still Early Access. We expect some bugs, small problems, issues, and a general lack of polish in various places. We will be reading all of your feedback, and we'll try to fix everything as soon as it's possible!

This is it! On behalf of the whole Awaken Realms Digital team, who worked as crazy on this game, we would like to invite you to take a look!

Meet the hungry knight, sleep in the skull of the Great Stagfather, and curse those damned rats again and again! See you on the trail and let the All-mother protect you from wyrdness!

And last, but not least: