ZpellCatz News

Hey there, fellow Catz! A new version of ZpellCatz is available now.

Aim Assistant

It's sometimes hard to hit enemies with skills like 'Ice Missiles' or 'Fire Ball' in the recently released version 1.0.0. This update simplifies the aim assistant options menu. Also, skills that had trouble hitting enemies now have a minor shot pursuit effect when the aim assistant is activated. Finally, there was a bug that the aim assistant wasn't working for Familiars controlled by a player. This issue has been fixed!

Shrine of Revival

ZpellCatz was never designed to be a super hard souls-like game. I got feedback that the difficulty on normal / normal was way too high and that it's frustrating to re-run the whole dungeon when you die during a boss fight. That's why I developed a cool new feature: Shrines of Revival!



The room directly in front of a boss now always contains a Shrine of Revival. If you die in a dungeon and have already discovered the shrine room, you will be revived there once (including Familiars and potion refill). Note that shrines are only activated on normal / normal. No shrines for you in 'Challenging' difficulty, 'Hardcore' or 'Cat-core'.

Familiars and Local Multiplayer

The changes to the aim assistant and some small bonuses for Familiars help to make you feel less like a sitekick as a second player. Feel free to try it out. As a release party event, I spent several hours in local multiplayer mode with my friends and we tweaked the values ​​until it felt good. Personal tip: Choose Loki if the Familiar is played by another player.

"Aim and Revival" Update (1.1.0) June '24

*** New Features ***
- Added a 'Shrine of Revival' to the room next to a boss room (normal difficulty only)
- The shrine offers one full revival (including Familiar and potions) for non-uber dungeons with a boss

*** Input ***
- Reduced aim assistant types to activated / deactivated (options menu)
- Aim assistant now adds a minor shot pursuit effect to various skills ('Ice Missiles', 'Fire Ball', Loki's A1, etc)
- Aim assistant is now enabled by default (it's a lot more fun when your spells actually hit enemies... :-D )

*** Familiars ***
- Aim assistent is now working for Familiars in local multiplayer
- Increased Familiar base movement speed by 5.6%
- Added +5% 'Faster Movement' native stat to Familiars
- Added +10% 'Faster Cast' native stat to Familiars

*** Balance ***
- Dungeon level 6: Enemies deal 5% less damage
- Dungeon level 45: Enemies deal 3% less damage
- Dungeon level 46: Enemies deal 5% less damage
- Flame Palace boss now deals 5% less damage
- Forgotten Mine boss, spiral skill now deals 10% less damage
- Library of Lies boss, totem skill now has a longer delay before shooting
- Inner Sanctum boss and their summons now deal 5% less damage

*** General ***
- Totems now have a spawn visual effect
- Totems are now easier to spot in dungeons with red ground
- Changed the 'Life on Hit' info to make clear that this is a great stat
- Cat hero and Familiar are now fully refreshed in overworld camps

Full Changelog

Stay up to Date

Never miss an update? Buy & Follow ZpellCatz here on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1447700/ZpellCatz/

Hey there, fellow Catz. I'm super happy to announce that ZpellCatz is now available here on Steam!



Guides & Info
Probably the best idea is to play the game right now. But if you would like more information or are stuck somewhere, here are a few good sites:

• A guide for new players can be found on Steam (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3248995139) or on the SimaGames homepage (https://www.simagames.com/games/zpellcatz-assets/guide-for-new-players.html)
  
• Don't know which epic items to craft / hunt for? Info on all epic items can be found here, sorted by tier: https://www.simagames.com/games/zpellcatz-assets/epics-t1.html, https://www.simagames.com/games/zpellcatz-assets/epics-t2.html, https://www.simagames.com/games/zpellcatz-assets/epics-t3.html
• Want to chat with other players, give feedback or report a bug? Discord (https://discord.gg/D6CkrUu) and the Steam community (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1447700/discussions/) are good places for that.
  
• Want to compare your dungeon score with others? The highscore for every dungeon (with a boss) is available here: https://www.simagames.com/games/zpellcatz-assets/highscore.html
• You are a content creator / press member and your need further info or assets? Here's the presskit: https://www.simagames.com/games/zpellcatz-assets/presskit.html

Next Steps
The development of ZpellCatz was a long and exciting journey for me and I am very happy that there is now a feature complete version. I plan to release small patches and bug fixes every now and then over the next months. So, please let me know if you find any bugs or balance issues.

Finally, I would like to say thank you. ZpellCatz would never have been finished without the support of the community, Kickstarter backers, beta testers, friends and my wife and family. You are great!
:-)



Play ZpellCatz now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1447700/ZpellCatz/

Hey there, fellow Catz! Exciting news today. ZpellCatz now has a release date and we're transitioning from closed beta to open beta.



Release Date Announcement

ZpellCatz will be released on June 5, 2024 here on Steam.




Join the Open Beta

The closed beta of ZpellCatz ends today, but we are smoothly transitioning into open beta. A big thank you to everyone who participated in the closed beta and provided feedback. You have helped ZpellCatz become a lot better.

The open beta starts today and will end a few days before release. Everyone is invited to take part in the beta test via Steam Playtest, so check it out and please give feedback.

Want to join the open beta? Visit ZpellCatz' Steam page and click "Request Access". Check out this screenshot:



Stay up to Date

Never miss an update? Follow & wishlist ZpellCatz here on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1447700/ZpellCatz/

Hey there, fellow Catz! A new version of the ZpellCatz closed beta is available now. This version features a UI overhaul, a new tailor NPC and lots of balance changes. As with any new beta version, more players are invited. So, check your e-mails / Steam client if you've registered for access.

Also, there'll be an exciting announcement regarding ZpellCatz next week. Stay tuned!

New Features

The UI and especially the menus needed some polish. Nearly every UI screen has been updated in the version and I really like the new style. Have a look at the updated skill and inventory screens:





A new NPC joined the Greencat Village: Halge, the tailor. Halge offers a service to change the appearance of cat heroes. And the best part? The service is free of charge! So change your look as often as you want to.



This version also feature a ton of balance changes. As I've added more and more late game content over the last few weeks, it's become increasingly clear which classes were significantly stronger than others. After this round of balance changes, the power levels of each class should be in the same ball park.

"The Look" Update (0.101.3) April '24

*** New Features ***
- Added a tailor NPC to be able to change the visual appearance
- UI overhoal

*** General ***
- Quest items and essence no longer have notifiers
- Dungeon generation: added more shortcuts (bonus room connections)
- Dungeon generation: adjusted shape algorithm of "cave" and "tunnel" dungeons
- Adjusted item spawn animation for rooms
- Loca text adjustments

*** Audio ***
- Changed collect gem sound

*** Skills ***
- Rebalanced nearly all class skills and path skills to be viable in late game content

*** Epic Items ***
- 'Iron Forehead': +8-12% nature damage
- 'Skull of the Titan': +8-12% lux damage
- 'Shield Enhancer': +8-12% all damage
- 'Protective Branch': +1-2 to 'Gaia Rush'
- 'Tough Leather': +5-10% fire damage
- 'The Blocker': +5-10% lux damage
- 'Safeguard': +5-10% nature damage
- 'Stroll': +4-8% nature damage
- 'Rushing Spur': +4-8% storm damage
- 'Progress': +4-8% fire damage
- 'Hand of the Guardian': increased stats
- 'Permafrost': Removed fire res, added storm to cold conversion, increased stats
- 'Storm Runners': Added storm pierce to buff effect
- Added bonus damage as cold to 'Frost Burn'
- Added bonus damage as cold to 'Eternal Snow'
- Added bonus damage as fire to 'Eternal Flame'
- Added bonus damage as lux to 'Eternal Light'
- Added bonus damage as storm to 'Eternal Storm'
- Added bonus damage as nature to 'Eternal Grassland'
- Added bonus damage as dark to 'Eternal Darkness'

*** Enemies ***
- Early enemies are more dangerous / interesting now

*** Balance ***
- Increased the soft cap / cap of various stats (this is a buff)
- Trippled EXP gained from bosses
- Slightly increased EXP gained from enemies (level 15+)
- Increased sell value for items
- Adjusted merchant offer costs
- Reduced duration of enemy 'Root' buff
- Enemy mod 'Totem' now summons 2 totems near the center of the screen
- Rebalanced defense for players and enemies, defense now slightly increases blocked damage
- Reduced gem upgrade costs of rare gems (still higher than normal gems' costs)
- Rebalanced all gems
- Rebalanced blacksmith's "polish" and "blue chaos" values

*** Bug Fixes ***
- Fixed stat sorting issues in craft epic item tooltip (blacksmith)
- Fixed a bug where arena room drops were too low
- Fixed a bug where slowing curses could cause a complete cooldown time stop
- Fixed a bug that sometimes generated 'Palace' shaped dungeons with not enough rooms

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

Full Changelog

Stay up to Date

Never miss an update? Follow & wishlist ZpellCatz here on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1447700/ZpellCatz/

Happy new year, fellow Catz! 2024 starts with a lot of new features for ZpellCatz: Highscore, (shared) stash, new game modes and lots of minor changes. In addition, the demo / prologue has been updated so that Familiars and local multiplayer are now available there. As with any new beta version, more players are invited. So, check your e-mails / Steam client if you've registered for access.

New Features

A stash has been added to the Market Hall. It has 6 pages, 2 personal ones (per cat hero) and 4 shared ones. The shared pages are, well, shared amongst all heroes, allowing you to give items from one cat to another. Each page has 30 item slots, so you now have enough space to store every tier 1 and tier 2 epic item (if you want to do that for whatever reason :-D ).



One of the features that I always enjoyed while playing Legends of Pixelia is now also available in ZpellCatz: Highscores! The score is calculated the moment you defeat a boss and there is a distinct highscore table per dungeon. Only dungeons with a boss room have a highscore table.

There's also a web version of the highscore table available if you want to share your excellent score with others.



Up for a challenge? There are new game modes available that increase the difficulty of ZpellCatz. Game modes can be selected when creating a cat hero and they are permanent. You get a small bonus to your dungeon score for beating a boss with active game modes selected.

- Hardcore: Your typical permadeath option as you know it from every other ARPG
- Cat-core: Similar to hardcore, but you have 7 lives instead of 1
- Challenging: Enemies have greatly increased stats, designed for players that love to grind

Do cats have 7 lives or 9 lives? This varies from country to country. In the culture I grew up in, cats have 7 lives. And since 7 is a wonderful number, we'll take that. :-)



Familiars and local multiplayer are coming to the demo / prologue. So if you don't have beta access (yet), feel free to toy around with Familiars in Autuna.



Requesting Beta Access

Want to join the closed beta? Visit ZpellCatz' Steam page and click "Request Access". Check out this screenshot:



"Sharing is Caring" Update (0.100.0) January '24

*** New Features ***
- Added a (shared) stash to the market hall
- Added a highscore system for dungeons with bosses
- Added new game modes 'Challenging', 'Hardcore' and 'Cat-core'

*** General ***
- Decreased 'Dark Wave' damage by 5%
- Decreased 'Frailty' damage by 5%
- Increased soft cap of elemental resistances from 35% to 40% (this is a buff)
- Renamed Bashu's 'Inner Light' to 'Inner Glow' to reduce confusion with a Twilight tree skill of the same name
- Minor loca text adjustments

*** Items ***
- Increased rare and epic item drop chance for lower levels
- Slightly buffed stats for 'Hunting Call'
- Buffed all items of merchant offer page 2

*** Gems ***
- Buffed rare gems
- Buffed low performing gems
- Reduced the level requirement for some gems sold by the merchant

*** Dungeons ***
- Main quest dungeons 2 - 6 now drop more fishsticks / dust
- 'Temple Ruins' boss now always drops a normal quality jewelry (ring or necklace)
- 'Mushroom Cavern': Minor wall design adjustments

*** Enemies ***
- Reduced defense and healing of zombie type enemies, increased their HP to compensate
- 'Flame Temple' boss: -20% fire totem damage, -40% full screen totem damage
- 'Temple Ruins' zombie miniboss: +25% HP / healing, increased spell aoe
- 'Temple Ruins' heron miniboss: +25% damage, +20% faster cast, increased spell aoe
- 'Dark Sanctuary' boss: +27% magic circle damage

*** Pumpkin Prologue ***
- Added Familiars and local multiplayer
- Adjusted exp curve to easier reach level 7 and level 8
- Increased enemy levels for prologue dungeons by 1 (each)
- Increased enemy HP and damage due to Familiars being available now
- 'Pumpkin Ruins' boss: +14% HP

Full Changelog

Stay up to Date

Never miss an update? Follow & wishlist ZpellCatz here on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1447700/ZpellCatz/