ZpellCatz News

Hey there, fellow Catz! One year ago, ZpellCatz was released - happy birthday! Let's celebrate together with version 1.5 and the start of a new season.

Experimental: Time Distortion

Compared to other (modern) ARPGs, it's noticeable that ZpellCatz plays a bit slower. That's generally okay, but I want to start a test in version 1.5 to see if a speed boost would benefit the game. Therefore, the general pace has been increased quite significantly for this version (and this season). Feel free to try it out and please let me know what you think of the change. Should we keep the new game speed or revert back to the original after the season?

Less Grind, More Variety

I enjoy unlocking new dungeons and bonuses in the Intermediate Realm. However, it sometimes feels very grindy to fight the same enemies and bosses over and over again before you're "allowed" to move on to the next dungeon. For this reason, there are several small adjustments intended to further improve the end game of ZpellCatz.

First, enemies, their mods, and bosses are rerolled after each successful Intermediate Realm dungeon (so after each boss kill). This makes each new run feel fresh.

Additionally, the size of the Intermediate Realm dungeons has been reduced, and the required clears for the third bonus have been reduced from 7 to 5. These changes allow you to move from one dungeon to the next much more smoothly. The experience curve has been adjusted so that even with the new values, you'll always have the appropriate level for the corresponding dungeons.

"Time Distortion" Update (1.5.0) June '25

*** Experimental ***
- Greatly increases movement speed of players (+35%)
- Increased movement speed of enemies (+20%)
- Increased shot speed (+20%)
- Reduced cooldown of offensive skills for heroes and Familiars (15% faster)
- Flat cooldown reductions (e.g. Coropuna) have been adjusted accordingly

*** Intermediate Realm ***
- Enemies, enemy room bonuses and bosses are now randomized after every IR dungeon clear
- Generally reduced dungeon size (about -25%)
- Third reward for clearing Intermediate Realm dungeons has been reduced from 7 clears to 5 clears
- Adjusted late game exp curve for a good leveling flow when clearing IR dungeons only 5 times

*** Epic Items ***
- 'Stake of Wounds': Increased 'Storm Totem' points gained
- 'Master's Shield': Increased block chance
- 'Wooden Scourge': Increased nature damage bonus
- 'Greedy Roots': Increased minimum all damage bonus
- 'Shield Enhancer': Added 'Radiance' and 'Fear' bonus points
- 'Reflector': Increased storm res and lux res
- 'Chilled Pages': Buffed with a focus on cold dmg and cold res to 'Leaf Shield'

*** Balance ***
- Increased rare gem drop chance from 7% to 9%
- Level 8 enemies (Mushroom Cavern) deal 10% less damage
- 'Burning Pyramid' boss: Summons deal 10% less damage
- 'Skull Cave' bosses deal 10% less damage
- 'Ancient Bloom' season tree skill: Reduced required rooms by 1

*** Bug Fixes ***
- 'Frailty': Fixed a bug with curse resistance level scaling

Full Changelog

Stay up to Date

Never miss an update? Follow SimaGames here on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/simagames

Hey there, fellow Catz. I really enjoyed playing the first season of ZpellCatz. But every season comes to an end and the end of season 1 is just around the corner.

Season Dates

• Season 1 end: May 18, 2025
• Season 2 start: June 6, 2025 (a day after ZpellCatz' first birthday!)
  

All info about the changes that come with season 2 and version 1.5 will be dropped at the start of the season.

Season End Routine

What happens at the end of a season?

• Seasonal heroes move to the non-seasonal realm. This also removes their seasonal tree and associated bonuses.
  
• Each season has its own shared stash. At the end of a season, the content of the seasonal shared stash will be moved to the regular shared stash.
  
• If the regular shared stash doesn't have enough space, excess seasonal items will expire. You may want to clean up your shared stashes before the end of a season (if you care about non-seasonal items).
  

Stay up to Date

Never miss an update? Follow SimaGames here on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/simagames

Hey there, fellow Catz! Season 1 has started and with version 1.4 it brings a significantly better leveling experience in the Intermediate Realm.

Seasons

You can find everything about Seasons in ZpellCatz in the announcement from January. If you missed it, you can read it all here:

Seasons are coming to ZpellCatz

"Seasons" Update (1.4.0) February '25

*** New Features ***
- Added a seer skill tree (level 45+)
- Changed max level to 100, adjusted exp curve
- Added seasons with seasonal tasks, a season skill tree and a leaderboard

*** General ***
- Slightly adjusted the position of some dungeon entrances

*** Epic Items ***
- 'Bite of the Hydra': Added dark to fire conversion
- 'Storming Club': Now grants increased 'Shock Nova' range
- 'Light': Increased all res
- 'Mithril Garb': Increased defense
- 'Leather of Havoc': Increased pierce all

*** Intermediate Realm ***
- Map: Moved 2 uber bosses to earlier locations
- Adjusted uber boss clear rewards
- Changed required level for top tier gems from 55 to 80
- Reduced enemy bonus 'Pierce All' from 25% to 20%
- Slightly adjusted dungeon score calculation to match the new level cap

*** Text ***
- Renamed 'All Skills: +X' to 'Class and Path Skills: +X'

*** Balance ***
- Increased rare gem drop chance from 5% to 7%
- Dungeon level 45 to 47: Enemies deal 10% less damage
- Druid skill 'Healing Light': Increased HP gained
- Druid skill 'Photosynthesis': Added HP%
- Tranquility skill 'Adaption': Added defense%
- Enemies now gain 0.1% pierce all per enemy level
- Respec is now cheaper and available sooner

*** UI ***
- Software cursor now correctly scales with resolution
- Replaced flag images for language selection with a neutral icon

*** Bug Fixes ***
- 'Fist of Embers': Epic bonus is now grey for non-Fury
- 'Shadow End': Epic bonus no longer requires path Twilight
- NPC interaction markers are now correctly reset when leaving a room
- Fixed a bug where ingame skill hover didn't show skill info

*** Engine ***
- Game engine update
- Library updates

Full Changelog

Stay up to Date

Never miss an update? Follow SimaGames here on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/simagames

Happy new year, fellow Catz! 2024 was a big year for SimaGames, especially with the release of ZpellCatz. Let's start 2025 right with an announcement: Seasons are coming to ZpellCatz.

Seasons

If you already play other ARPGs, you should be familiar with the concept of seasons (some games also call it ladder or cycle). Otherwise, here's a rough introduction: There's a new season every few months. Heroes that are created during a season usually receive some sort of temporary bonus and are allowed to compete for spots on a seasonal leaderboard. Some games also have thematic features that are only active during one season.

In ZpellCatz we will have seasonal tasks, a season tree and a leaderboard.

Newly created seasonal heroes can complete seasonal tasks. As a reward, they receive points for their season tree.



The points can be used to unlock bonuses. There are three branches: More loot, additional stats and minimap compass.



Seasonal heroes also take part in the competition for the leaderboard. The score for this increases through all kind of activities, for example by completing seasonal tasks. Roughly speaking, the more you play your seasonal hero, the higher your score.



Late Game Changes

Season 1 will be released together with version 1.4. In addition to the usual bug fixes and balance changes, the new version also offers major changes to the late game (only affects heroes with level 45 and above).

My feeling, which has been reinforced by player feedback, is that leveling feels a bit tough from the Intermediate Realm onwards. Leveling up from level 45 takes a long time, which is a shame because it's fun to further expand your skill tree(s). For this reason, the maximum level was increased from 60 to 100. The enemy levels of Intermediate Realm dungeons and the experience curve has been adjusted accordingly. You will now level up much more frequently on your journey through the Intermediate Realm.

Also, a new Seer skill tree will be introduced in the upcoming version. This tree is available to every class combination and is unlocked at level 45. The Seer tree offers very strong bonuses and always has new skills for heroes on their way to the outer edges of the Intermediate Realm.



Furthermore, the position of two Uber Bosses has been moved to earlier areas in the Intermediate Realm. This change allows players to enjoy an interesting challenge sooner, even if they haven't revealed the entire intermediate realm map. The level and difficulty have been adjusted accordingly.



Note: The late game changes in version 1.4 are available to all heroes. For non-seasonal heroes of level 50 and above, the transition may not be entirely smooth, as enemies in the middle to later areas of the Intermediate Realm will be much higher level than your version 1.3 heroes. One idea would be to respec your skills (this will be cheaper in 1.4) and invest heavily in the Seer tree to increase your chances against high-level opponents. In general, my recommendation is a new start with a seasonal hero.

When?

ETA for season 1 and version 1.4: February 7, 2025 at 18:00 CET

Stay up to Date

Never miss an update? Follow SimaGames here on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/simagames

Hey there, fellow Catz! A new version of ZpellCatz is available now that brings smooth collisions and many small improvements.

Collision System Rework

The old collision system had obvious weaknesses. Players were stuck on walls, bosses were blocked by Familiars, and melee enemies had difficulty attacking together without getting stuck.

For the current version 1.3.0, I took the time to completely rework the collision system. This benefits both CPU-controlled enemies and familiars, who can now reach their goal more easily, as well as players, who can now slide smoothly past walls and objects instead of getting stuck.

I tested the changes extensively. If you still notice any errors (especially related to collisions), please let me know via Discord or the ZpellCatz Steam Community.

Quality of Life

In addition, the new version brings many smaller adjustments that make playing more pleasant. Feel free to take a look at the changelog.

"Smooth Operator" Update (1.3.0) November '24

*** General ***
- Reworked the collision system to avoid being stuck
- Slightly increased Familiar collision size

*** Quality of Life ***
- Added an option to hide already known info signs
- Increased item pickup radius

*** UI ***
- Added a custom cursor image
- Added a warning text on new game screen when name already used

*** Input ***
- Gamepad: Right analogue stick is now mapped to the same actions as the left one

Full Changelog

Stay up to Date

Never miss an update? Follow SimaGames here on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/simagames