Across the Obelisk News

Hey everybody! This is a hotfix with some changes and fixes for the bugs reported with the last patch.

- Due to change in the latest patch about how enchantments works, Phoenix was not destroyed when the character died. It should be destroyed now.

- Fixed the save/load deck functionality when you saved a deck with a hero starting card that is lower than the hero current starting card (because he gained some ranks). The starting card from the deck to load should now be upgraded to match its currrent value.

- Items that provide a shop discount should not appear when the Poverty madness option is selected. There were a few situations where these items were still available. It should be fixed now.

- Old Horseshoe should not keep influencing your event rolls when you replace it with another item.

- Fixed the size of the Block and Shield icons in the Tulah boss.

- Some minor fixes.

As always, thanks to all of you for your support, feedback and understanding.

Hello everyone!

In Across the Obelisk there has always been a debate as to whether or not the game required many runs (grinding) in order to have even the slightest chance of completing the game. In fact, some have gone so far as to argue that you need several runs just to have a chance of getting through the first act. In our efforts to make this progression less "grindy" we even included a change in the 0.8 patch, making all heroes gain the same amount of perks as the highest hero, so you would be able to include fresh unlocked heroes into your games without worrying about leveling them.

We have always considered the game as a "Roguelite", at least the Adventure mode, so making several runs means unlocking new cards, new heroes, upgrading your town and getting perks or other bonuses that will help you in the following games.

Even so, we have always firmly believed that the greatest asset to successfully complete a run is "knowledge of the game". This means understanding the game and its mechanics, understanding the concept that the four heroes are a team (and ideally need each other), and finally understanding what each enemy does.

So with the release of v.0.8.2 and the more balanced Act 4, we issued a challenge to our players in the Discord server.

Can you complete the game starting from 0 in your first run? that means a totally fresh game, with the initial game data, without hero ranks or perks and without anything to help you.

The answer, as we expected, was yes.
In the end, one of the biggest difficulties has been to record everything to be able to show it, since the games are long and more if you start from 0.

So, here we have the first 3 to complete the challenge.

Corydonn
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1454765584
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHJ6puAk244

Migeru & Icen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd5dAguJ-Ac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3_SdK5hISs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RMblUFdE7g

Sheep & Tallgesse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-RjMvpinFA

Congratulations to all! We know that there have been more who have completed it or have been close, but for one reason or another have not been able to record it well. Thank you all very much for participating.


Important

This game is a Roguelite and therefore we do not expect at any time that players play the game as shown in the videos and pass it at the first try. Completing the game on your first run is not an easy task, in fact, we could say that it is almost impossible as it requires extensive prior knowledge of the game and also some luck to obtain cards and items that make it possible. But that does not mean it can not be done, hence the challenge.

Moreover, we hope and wish that you all play at your own pace, experiencing the game, trying new paths, unlocking the new heroes and trying combinations between them, in short the game has many things to offer. And when you complete it for the first time there are more difficulty levels that open new options and challenges. In addition to the other game modes that we have and that we will keep improving.

That's all for now. Remember to leave a review on steam, if you like the game, it helps us a lot.

As always, thanks to all of you for your support, feedback and understanding.

Hey everybody! This is a hotfix with some changes and fixes for the bugs reported with the last patch.

From now on boon, injury and monster type cards on heroes will not get bonuses from auras/items/perks of the hero who casts them. This also applies to enchantments that monsters put on heroes.

This means that cards that are added into the hero deck, like Ash or Sad, will always have the same charge value no matter which hero casts them and what are their perks. Cards like Bomb / Amnessia / Deadly Chime that auto execute on draw will also not get bonus damage or charges based on hero perks/buffs.

Finally, monster enchants on heroes like Ylmer's "Regrowth" (madness) will always apply the correct number of charges, in this case, 1 Thorns no matter if there is a warrior that as a bonus to thorns.

- Archon Nihr, in normal and madness, we extended the fight by 3 rounds, the enrage warning will be at 16(from 13) and the apocalypse cards at round 19(from 16). Like most of our boss fights in the game are heavy scripted, they can't go on forever, and all of them reach an enrage point (Ylmer and Ignidoh too), but for Nihr we decided to add a few extra rounds. With Despair corruptor the enrage stays at round 16.
- With "Poverty" corruptor, items that reduce the crafting cost and item price will not be available in the shops or item drops.
- Fixed the description of the "Courage" with the resistances in the correct order.
- Fixed an issue that said you were in the demo version and locked the progress path.
- Ottis will no longer heal the twins with his pasive and Law of Shadow.
- Fixed the Reverberation trait. Now, it will only reduce Holy Spell cards as stated in the Trait description.
- Reverberation and scholar traits will not consume trait charges if there's no card available for reduction (because of its type or cost).
- Fixed a problem with the Altar collider in town overlapping the Zingarian Divination cart.

As always, thanks to all of you for your support, feedback and understanding.

Hello everyone!

Today marks one year since the release of Across the Obelisk on Steam Early Access.

We want to celebrate and thank you all! So, we'll do a little recap of this year and then we'll talk about what we're working on and what's to come!

The first days
We released the game on April 8 2021. The first few days were moderately quiet... but the next week, weekend and month, it was crazy for us.

Making and releasing a game by itself is not an easy task, but if the game has multiplayer... the problems multiply a thousand times. With only two of us (plus friends and family) testing the game online, it was difficult to find all the possible problems that could come up. So, as more and more players started to join the game, bugs started popping up all the time. We were practically releasing one patch a day for a few weeks (sometimes even two patches on the same day), as soon as people reported something to us on discord and we could reproduce/fix it we preferred to release a patch without waiting, so they could keep playing.

The truth is that it is something that we will always remember, for the bad, but also for the good. It was a pleasure to see you play and enjoy the game we had created.

Content added in one year.
During this year we have worked hard to improve all aspects of the game. We have recently added Act 4 and we are still in the process of balancing it. These are some of the things we have added during the year:
- As mentioned, Act 4 has been added with 2 floors, many new events, enemies, bosses and items.
- 2 New heroes, Wilbur and Nezglekt.
- 2 new game modes, Obelisk Challenge and Weekly challenge.
- Obelisk Challenge has been evolving and improving during the year, with content, features and more variety of events / enemies.
- Madness levels, expanding the game with 16 levels of difficulty.
- Redone nearly all the art of the game, including a pass on the first heroes, all backgrounds, UI, card design, etc.
- Improved and redone the Trait system.
- Different Skins and Cardbacks for each hero.
- Improved the Tome of Knowledge with lots of new features, f.e. run history and scoreboards.
- And we've added as many quality of life and player-requested features as possible.

The community
We have said it over and over again, and we will not be tired of repeating it. We are very grateful to our community, especially to all those who help us and give us feedback day after day in our Discord and forums.

This game wouldn't be the same without you, so again, thank you very much!

What's next?
Our goal is to continue working on the game and improve it even more. Specifically, we are starting to make a new biome/map (with all that it entails: nodes, paths, events, enemies, bosses, etc). This biome is cold based and will be one more option to choose after finishing Act 1 and 2 (with Velkarath and Aquarfall).

We have started designing and implementing the remaining four heroes. They are still works in progress, but here they are.

A big shout out to Juan José Nicolás, our magnificent artist. Just with the sketches alone we can't wait to have the final version of the heroes! These heroes are still a few months away from being live.

In the meantime here are some other things we want to work on:
- We want to implement a Heropedia in the Tome, with a small story unlock feature for each hero.
- The Monsterpedia is also on the way, although it's more complicated than it seems :)
- We have pending a rework to the Weekly Challenge, the idea is to make them different and have a couple of features that change the gameplay a bit (with some cosmetic rewards).
- Rework of the perks system. We want to try to improve it and not add more power than the heroes already have, but give them more options to specialize, even in damage types or curses that are uncommon in their class.
- As we said before, the game will be translated to some languages for 1.0, and that includes an english proof reading. As you may have noticed, English is not our main language, so forgive us for the usual spelling mistakes in the game (that we try to fix everyday thanks to the players that report those mistakes) that will soon be a thing from the past.
- And some more things that we will keep secret ;)

To conclude
It has been a very good year, and we are very excited to continue working on the game.

The basic idea is that we can release the game when we have the ice biome and the 4 remaining heroes ready. We hope it will be around late summer but you never know.

Of course, releasing the game doesn't mean that we will stop working on it, the idea is to continue as we have been doing and make many more biomes / cards / heroes / events / enemies and bosses!

Remember to leave a review on steam, if you like the game, it helps us a lot.

Who knows where we will be next year! We hope you will stay with us to find out.

Adam and Javier.

Hello everyone!
This patch continues with changes to improve the game balance and Act 4, as well as adding new QoL and new art for the towns.

New Features:

Each town in the game has new art and a specific background for each town. In addition, each building has three visual upgrade levels, which are displayed when you purchase upgrades in the Town Upgrades.



In our crusade to improve the usability and clarity of the game, we have implemented a pop-up on the health bar that will show you the pre-turn and post-turn damage received.
The health bar will now show 3 new states with 3 different colors.
- The dark red shows all damage received at the start of the turn. (bleed, burn, others)
- If you will gain life instead of suffer damage at the start of the turn, the bar will be yellow/cream. (due to regeneration or others)
- A dark green bar shows the damage you will receive at the end of the turn. (poison, others)
In addition to this pop-up, a skull icon will be displayed. This shows up in the center of the health bar when a hero/monster is predicted to die at the beginning or end of their turn due to curses.



Note: keep in mind that even if you see a skull on a hero/enemy, it does not assure that they will 100% die. Other heroes/monsters can influence and vary that result (with heals or dispels for example) before their turn.


Hero changes:

- Thuls: Veil of Shadows - Now you can use "Skill" or "Enchantment" cards without losing Stealth. (Twice per turn)
- Reginald/Ottis: Reverberation - Now reduces the highest cost "Holy Spell" in your hand by 3 until discarded. (Twice per turn)
- Malukah: Yin Ritual - Now grants Regeneration to all heroes when applying Dark.
- Cornelius: World in Flames (yellow) - Reduced uses to 3. (from 4)
- Heiner: Shield Expert - Changed to when you play an "Attack" instead of a "Melee Attack".
- Warriors: Tireless - Now makes them immune to Fatigue.

We have changed some cards to have both "Defense" and "Skill" tags to open more possibilities of builds and combos with talents and items (existing and future). This also means that these cards will be valid for events that require that kind of roll types.
- Warrior: Barbed Wire, Garden of Thorns, Push Forward(also changed to rare), Sharing is Caring.
- Scout: Caltrops, Deflect, Disengage, Feint, Parry, Stoneskin.
- Mage: Elemental Ward, Icy Veins, Mana Shield, Prismatic Shield.
- Healer: Anthem of Hope, Infuse Courage.
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- Bouncing Shield & Shield Throw - removed the "Melee Attack" tag.
- Throw Bolas & Torment of Thorns - changed to "Ranged Attack" and "Skill".
- Blood Feeding - changed to "Melee Attack" (from Skill).
- Fan of Knives - now is "Melee Attack" and "Ranged attack".
- Ice Barrier & Scroll of Defense - added "Defense" tag.
---------
- Reduced the damage of Torment of Thorns (blue) to x1(from 1.5) and (yellow) to x0.6(from 1).
- Changed Last Reward (Yellow & Corrupt) - now you can pick a card from your vanish pile.
- Plague Shot - base cost reduced to 2(from 3), tweaked some numbers on all versions.
- Whispering lies - now requires Stanza but does Mind/Shadow and applies Insane/Dark/Decay.
- Rain (Yellow) - reduced charges to 1, but now is global with no vanish.
- Celestial Brillance - reduced damage but added Purge.
- Divine Ire - changed to deal damage based on Sanctify and increased cost.
- Radiant Assault (yellow) - changed to cost 5, random target, but added damage sides.
- Omen of Peril - upgrades are better but epic rarity. yellow upgrade lets you pick a "Healing Spell" from your vanish pile.

Minor changes of +-1 charges on a few other card upgrades.


General balance changes:

- Revised and adjusted the speed of almost all enemies, especially those that had the same speed in normal mode than in madness. In general, the adjustment has been downwards. As a result, some monsters should be a little slower than before(especially in Act 1 and Act 3).
- Reduced the max speed bonus gain of monsters in high madness levels to +2 (from +3) in Act 3 & 4.
Note: In general, the speed of monsters should be a little slower than before, and players should feel less forced to always have a super fast hero in the party.

- Slightly adjusted downwards the damage and charges of some Act 1 enemies in madeness (also affects Obelisk 9-10 first floor).
- In Obelisk/Weekly Challenge, adjusted the overall mitigation (HP, Block, Shield, Regen, Heal, etc.) of monsters on the third floor.
- In the Obelisk Challenge, a starting Energy bonus of +1 has been added at Obelisk level 5. Making a total of +2 from Obelisk level 8 onwards.

Added the "Despair" versions for Act 1, Champions and Bosses. Some of them have only minor changes in the cards, but others have new Enchantments that will make them more interesting.
Note: The "Despair" corruptor is the most difficult optional corruptor in the game, turning the game into an extra hard mode. The intention is to make it difficult, but not impossible. It will have to be balanced over time and when new Champions or changes happen, it is normal that they can be OP/unfair at the beginning.


Monster changes:

Minor adjustments in damage, heal done and Regeneration charges of some monsters and champions.

Lancers:
Holy Lance & Shadow Lance - Piercing damage is now based on Vitality(from a previous fixed amount), they will do less damage if they didn't steal any Vitality from the heroes. Also, now Holy Lance & Shadow Lance will Purge their own Vitality after used.