WizardChess News

Welcome to WizardChess 0.8.5! We're entering the end-game now so it's time to start testing the last few ranks for each boss. We're slowly filling out the pool of quests and perks too... and fixing bugs slightly faster than we introduce them.

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NEW Cormag: Rank A, B and C can be unlocked
↳ We still have more to do on the boss fights, but we're getting there! NEW Hss: Rank C can be unlocked
NEW Arbalest Unit
↳ Advanced ranged unit that can hit multiple targets NEW Zealot Unit
↳ Earn permanent stat upgrades mid-combat NEW Knave Unit
↳ Spawn decoys to trick enemies and earn buffs NEW Fae Queen: new design for the boss fight
↳ Arabella changes elements and casts various spells
↳ Second phase in the works NEW New Quests
↳ UpgradeAUnitXTimes
↳ SacrificeXUnits
↳ PurchaseXUnitsFromShop
↳ CollectXDifferentUnitTypes
↳ SacrificeAUnitOfType
↳ SacrificeAUnitOfElement
↳ DefeatAnEnemyWithAnAugmentedUnit
↳ AllVimSpentInShop NEW New Perks
↳ BardDebuffsEnemyStat
↳ BuffRandomUnitOfElementOnSacrifice
↳ GetUnitRewardWhenSacrificingUnitOfElement
↳ BuffRandomUnitOfElementOnPurchase
↳ WhenEnemyOfTypeDefeatedGainRandomBuff
↳ MarkedUnitsAreAugmented
↳ TargetedUnitsAreAugmented NEW Softlock detection in case of AI bugs
NEW Additional unit names added to the pool

CHANGED Toggle quest log using TAB
CHANGED Claybeg buffs adjacent units
CHANGED Rebalance shop unit generation
CHANGED Unit scaling curve
CHANGED Decorated Cloaky's shop
CHANGED Boost stats for trade offer units
CHANGED Add more traits and stat upgrades to shops
CHANGED Henge Statues: Rebalanced unit count & updates
CHANGED Speed up Firis and Retinferno effects
CHANGED Cap Lion ATK buff to SKL points
CHANGED Refreshed appearance for the game boards on the map
CHANGED Cursed Deals have a new room model
CHANGED Cap on the maximum range a Honk can teleport

FIXED UI lagging behind units by one frame
FIXED Cat animations actually play, no more crazy blinking
FIXED Flash of Lootable Unit Card
FIXED Multiple AI soft-locks

Thanks for your continued support and feedback.
Ben & Ricky (TwoPM Studios)

Welcome to WizardChess 0.8! We're focusing on making the start of the game, and of each run, as interesting and varied as possible. We've implemented Quest which are offered in shops. The first Quest on a run is free, any additional active Quests cost VIM. If you complete the conditions of a Quest you will get a Perk, which is random for each Quest. There's a starting set of Quests and Perks but we'll be adding more.

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NEW Cloaky is now the Shopkeeper
NEW 3D Shopping experience
NEW Quests System
↳ Cloaky will offer quests in shops. The first one is free. NEW Cormag: Ghost Warriors
↳ Cormag will summon GhostSwords and GhostWarriors to assist him in battle at certain ranks. NEW Hss: Poison Bite
↳ Hss will poison a unit it attacks inflicting additional damage. NEW Cormag: multiple boss arenas
↳ In addition to gaining new abilities at higher ranks, Cormag now changes the arena you fight him in. NEW Hss: multiple boss arenas
↳ In addition to gaining new abilities at higher ranks, Hss now changes the arena you fight them in.

CHANGED Auto-set UI scale based on resolution on first-run
CHANGED Tidy up UI layout, fix overlapping elements on SteamDeck
CHANGED Shop unit generation
↳ The units offered in the shop and trade offers are better matched to your army. CHANGED Skip to the boss in the tutorial if you've faced it before
CHANGED UI Layout during combat
CHANGED New names for units
CHANGED Ratio of Cursed Deals to Combat against Arabella

FIXED Stale move highlight preview in Mazes
FIXED Crash when viewing empty codex
FIXED Desert map generation can spawn impossible encounters
FIXED Javelina codex entry
FIXED Rare issue where enemies could move through a locked door
FIXED Control labels could get stuck on Keyboard bindings when using controller
FIXED Double-purchase of units in the shop when using controller or keyboard
FIXED Hss was not gaining SKL at higher ranks

Thanks for reading to the end Ben & Ricky (TwoPM Studios)

Welcome to WizardChess 0.7.8! This is a minor update that addresses balance, progression, difficulty and bugs. TL;DR? The start of a run is more consistent, rewards and enemies scale up over the course of a run and (at high ranks) the late game is harder than ever.

PSA: I (Ben, programmer) will be on the road for a couple weeks so we'll only be doing bug fixes during that time. There's no devlog for this patch but I'll do a "round up" video once I'm back from this trip. As always, appreciate the support especially from those of you who've been following along for years. It's all starting to come together! If you missed the last video, now's a good time to catch up:

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NEW Enemy: Gorgon
↳ Spawns during the Hss boss fight on Rank F and above. NEW Dynamic shops
↳ Shops will spawn with 3 units of varying quality and price, determined by your party and the run difficulty. NEW Idle animations for:
↳ Bounty Hunter
↳ Deer
↳ Gorgon
↳ Grappler
↳ Tenggi NEW Crash detection
↳ If a fatal error is thrown the game SHOULD catch it and display a message.
↳ This makes it easier to get the game log and post it in Discord. NEW Music in the Fae Biome (WIP)

CHANGED Difficulty curve has been massively reworked
↳ Slower takeoff, tapers off towards higher ranks. CHANGED Cursed Deal encounters are animated
CHANGED "Jump into board" animation on title screen
CHANGED Target indicator is now colorized by Unit Allegiance
CHANGED New (WIP) Codex browser, displays all content in a grid
CHANGED Options menu has been rebuilt for controller support
↳ You can now reset the options to default at any time using ` + Backspace CHANGED Reworked wording on Unit and Element Type upgrades
CHANGED Introduce overhead augmentation notification for Dog & Cat effect
CHANGED More nuanced map generation for the overall game board
↳ Biases some kinds of encounter to appear later in the run
↳ Gates some encounter types behind a minimum rank CHANGED All attacks will be grouped by the attacking unit
↳ Previously attacks were ordered by board position, but this was confusing. CHANGED Boost Tourist base Defense
CHANGED You can now inspect units from the unlock popup
↳ And also the fallen units list CHANGED More robust error handling around Developer Analytics

FIXED Controller support for Cursed Deal
FIXED Input system rebindable controls
FIXED Mimic was spawning exclusively Pythems (wrong)
FIXED Ronin movement range
FIXED Cormag Rank D enemy config
FIXED Disappearing reward cards in trade offers
FIXED Soft-lock when Stormliege targets an Insulated unit

Thanks for reading to the end Ben & Ricky (TwoPM Studios)

Welcome to WizardChess 0.7.5! This update introduces the Fae Biome at Rank C. This is the most difficult and complex biome yet and we're rolling it out in stages to get the balance right.

Devlog video to follow shortly :)

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NEW Fae Biome Rank C
↳ Unlocked by beating Cormag or Hss at Rank D NEW Cursed Deals
↳ New encounter type in Fae Biome NEW Henge Rooms
↳ New encounter type in Fae Biome NEW Ronin Unit
↳ Like the Rogue, but slightly more honourable NEW Many enemies
NEW Cormag Rank F+ challenge increased
↳ Cormag has a new toy. NEW Shop layout + scaling of shops
↳ Shop content scales based on your party, we're still dialling this in.

CHANGED Improved shop keyboard support
CHANGED Tourist Unit
↳ Luggage now takes permanent damage but yields upgrades and buffs for allies when damaged by enemies.

CHANGED Hunter Unit
↳ Gain ATK when you have low Vim CHANGED Rewards for Decisive / Excellent changed to Vim
↳ Too powerful farming rewards this way, we're trying to make Vim more central CHANGED Desert board layout
↳ Introduce shops in corners CHANGED Extract all core game data to SQLite DB
↳ You can view (and edit this) in the game files if you want. No password.

FIXED Save file corruption bug
FIXED Go straight to victory screen after boss, no need to revisit the map
FIXED Units could die AND be saved in the maze
FIXED Some upgrade types had 0 price
FIXED Click target occlusion on title screen
FIXED Monk ability could trigger after death
↳ While thematic, this is wrong.

Thanks for reading to the end Ben & Ricky (TwoPM Studios)

[h2]THE TOURNAMENT BEGINS[/h2]
This update really solidifies an important path that has been rolling out in front of us. WizardChess has more "quickplay" appeal than ever! This update reworks the progression of the game focusing on replayability and tightening the core loop... plus we added a few new units and traits.

This new approach should allow the game to constantly challenge and reward you in equal measure. And we hope that you will feel encouraged to master the game on that journey, that you'll come to discover it's infinite replayability potential we are striving for!


We also got our hands on a Steam Deck, and are working to improve WizardChess' compatibility with that machine. There's a little ways to go, but the results have been fantastic! This is sure to become many player's preferred way to play.

[h2]DEVLOG[/h2]
If you wish to hear the motivations behind these changes, and the next steps for WizardChess, then check out the latest devlog from Ben!
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[h2]PATCH NOTES[/h2]
NEW Challenge System
↳ Opponents no longer "level up", you beat them at each rank to unlock the next.
↳ Each challenge rank has a set starting party and you'll unlock a unit and set of traits by beating it. NEW Extended Difficulty Curve
↳ Each challenge rank increases the difficulty of many aspects of the game. NEW Tourist Unit
↳ Plus, their companion, the Luggage Unit NEW Additional Traits
↳ Dextrous
↳ Heavy
↳ Serene
↳ Stiff
↳ Tense
↳ Agile
↳ GoldLust
↳ RedEye
↳ ShellStrike
↳ LongArm
↳ WetEyed
↳ SoftShell
↳ SixThumbs
↳ DreadFilled NEW Board Zoom option
NEW Suggested Challenge after victory

CHANGE Keyboard, Controller & Steamdeck Support
↳ We're still expanding the range of control schemes for the game but this update focuses on improving the keyboard-only & Steamdeck experience in particular.
↳ Controller also works well but the button labels are all for keyboard in-game still. CHANGE Reworked Shop, Trade, Reward room UI
CHANGE Reduce boot time, memory usage & bundle size
CHANGE Refined and simplified tutorial
↳ Teaches the basics clearly, one at a time CHANGE Traits and Units now unlocked by beating challenges
↳ Replaying the same challenge will unlock more traits, but only one unit. CHANGE Redesigned Title Screen

FIXED Various bugs and crashes

Thanks for reading to the end Ben & Ricky (TwoPM Studios)
Graeme (2 Left Thumbs)