ZpellCatz News

Hey there, fellow Catz! A new version of the ZpellCatz closed beta is ready to be played. 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

Having trouble to adjust the audio volumes to match your system in ZpellCatz 0.97.0? Audio volumes can now be controlled via slider to allow finer adjustments.



Cats shouldn't die with health potions left in their belt. A new "low on health" indicator helps players to notice that their cat hero is heavily injured. The indicator starts showing up at 50% HP and is getting more and more intense the lower the health percentage left.



It's sometimes easy to miss that your cat hero has skill points left or that you've just found a new gem. This version introduces pause menu notifiers for all kinds of stuff. Please give feedback which notifiers are helpful and which are annoying.
:-D



Requesting Beta Access

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



"Your Voice" Update (0.98.0) September '23

*** Audio ***
- Audio volumes can now be controlled via slider to allow finer adjustments
- NOTE: If you adjusted the audio volumes previously, you have to increase your volumes in this version

*** General ***
- Increased movement animation speed
- Dungeon clear quests: dungeon clear accomplishment is now also saved for non-active quests
- Renamed "Talent to select" notification to "Familiar talent"
- Added a "low on health" indicator (red screen border) starting at 50% HP

*** Spells ***
- "Frailty" now deals damage within the whole circle, not with the pentagram shots only

*** Pause Menu UI ***
- Added notifiers to the pause menu for all kinds of stuff (points available, new item, ...)
- Added a "sort inventory" button to the pause menu
- Opening the quest menu now displays a recently updated quest by default
- Skill entries now have colored text whenever you have bonus points

** Bug Fixes ***
- Potion hover now shows the correct amount of charges
- Fixed multiple overlay issues when teleporting to town or returning to main menu

*** Special Thanks ***
- Thanks for your feedback / bug reports: Chamosmile, Denzi, Dysman, Godspeed, Quinque, ZoneMaster,

Full Changelog

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! The ZpellCatz closed beta has started, a new Familiar joins the game and epic item web documentation is ready to browse.

Closed Beta Start

The closed beta has started! So, check your e-mails / discord messages / Steam client if you've registered for access. Did you receive a key / access? Have fun playing and please give feedback!

Ways to give feedback:

- Join my Discord server: https://discord.gg/D6CkrUu
- ZpellCatz playtest Steam discussions: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2423250/discussions/
- There's a "Feedback" button ingame (main menu & pause menu beneath "System")



You didn't receive a key / access? Do net fret. Chances are good that you'll be able to join the beta with the next version.

New Familiar: Bemoth

Bemoth gladly leaves his dark and cold crypt to wreck cursed enemies with you.



Bemoth will hatch after finishing (main quest) dungeon 2. His active skills and passive talents focus on curses. A great fit for heroes with the Twilight path.



Want to know more about Familiars? Check out this info post about Familiars (Oct '22). Note: Familiars can't be controlled by players yet (coming soon).

Web Docs: Epic Items

Not sure which epic item you should craft with your hard-earned fish sticks? Want to get an idea of what kind of items could be waiting inside of the next treasure room? Check out the freshly published web documentation featuring all tier 1 and tier 2 epic items.

- Tier 1 Epic Items (Guide)
- Tier 2 Epic Items (Guide)



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 demo / prologue is ready to be played and the ZpellCatz closed beta starts soon.

"Ready for Beta" Update (0.97.0) August '23

*** General ***
- Fixed a "Load Game" menu selection issue
- Adjusted class combination names
- Minor dialogue adjustments
- Added clouds to the main menu screen

*** Gameplay Changes ***
- Equipment can no longer be changed while there are enemies nearby

*** Input ***
- Mouse buttons (middle, right, mb4, mb5, scroll up, scroll down) can now be used to cast skills (and other input if you want to)
- Gamepad button "B" now also closes ingame menus

*** UI ***
- Replaced the "requirements too high" graphic with a simple X
- Quest menu texts now show important words in yellow color
- Adjusted shop NPC UIs (merchant, blacksmith)
- Notifications are now hidden when the desired action is taken

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

Full Changelog

Closed Beta Start

The closed beta starts on September 1, 2023 at 16:00 CEST.

More info about the upcoming beta can be found in the previous news post.

Hey there, fellow Catz! Today I want to announce the start of ZpellCatz' closed beta. Want to know more about the beta or join the playtest yourself? Read on.

Closed Beta Start

The closed beta starts on September 1, 2023 at 16:00 CEST.

Living in another time zone? This might help: http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/event?lid=12%2C8%2C4673353&h=12&sts=28225320&sln=16-17&a=show (I'm not affiliated with worldtimebuddy).



How to Join?

It's important to request beta access before September if you want to have a chance to play on Sept 1. Visit ZpellCatz' Steam page and click "Request Access". Feeling lost? Check out this screenshot:



Note: About 50% of the requesters will get access right away, the rest has to wait for the next beta patch.
Why? Because playtesters are a very, very valuable resource. The beta will grow over the next few months and I would be really glad to receive feedback from fresh players every patch. Always grating access to about 50% of the requesters should result in a constant stream of new players (and hopefully new feedback ^^ ). Let's see if the plan works. So, if you weren't lucky on Sept 1, chances are good that you'll be able to join the beta with the next version.

What to Expect?

ZpellCatz isn't 100% finished yet, but there's enough content to play for some hours. Overview:

Available content:

• All hero classes (Mage, Druid, Shaman)
  
• All path classes (Fury, Tranquility, Twilight)
  
• Acts 1 - 3 (main quests, side quests, story, NPC dialogues)
  
• All craftable tier 1 and tier 2 epic items (about 120)
  
• 2 Familiars (Bashu & Loki - AI controlled only at the moment)
  

Currently missing (or locked) content:

• Acts 4 - 6 (story, NPC dialogues)
  
• A special dungeon + boss for the final main quest
  
• "End Game" system implementation (after the story / main quests)
  
• 3 Familiars (unlocked in later acts)
  
• Two player coop (Familiars can't be controlled by players yet)
  
• "Hardcore" (perma death) mode
  
• Stash / shared stash
  
• Digital Deluxe version content
  

Please Give Feedback!

I spend quite a bit of time playing ARPGs and I'm trying to add some of the interesting ideas to ZpellCatz. However, I'm just a solo game developer with a single perception and a single set of opinions. To be able to make ZpellCatz a great game, I need your perceptions of things and your opinions.
So, please give feedback!
:-)

Ways to give feedback:

• Join my Discord server: https://discord.gg/D6CkrUu
• ZpellCatz playtest Steam discussions: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2423250/discussions/
• There's a "Feedback" button ingame (main menu & pause menu beneath "System")
  

Thanks in advance!

Hey there, fellow Catz! Today I want to talk about the progress of the last months and the changes of the new version (prologue / demo).

AI Upgrade

Last time, I talked about Familiars in ZpellCatz. Familiars can be controlled by a friend in local multiplayer or by an AI for moments when there are no friends sitting next to you. ^^
In order to be able to switch back and forth between those two control schemes, I had to upgrade the AI systems for better pathfinding.

The cool bonus: The enemy controlling AI also benefited from it! Enemies get stuck in corners less often and multiple melee enemies that hunt your cat hero do a better job at cooperating as a group.



Kudos to Cory Koseck (7ark) for their Unity-Passfinding repo. I used that one as a starting point and adjusted it to my needs. The red nodes on the image above show blocked paths, the blue nodes with green connections show possible paths.

Floor Visuals

One of the reasons that I started a crowdfunding campaign for ZpellCatz last October was to collect money in order to be able to polish the art a little bit. Thanks to the support it was possible to add some assets from matching "low poly / polygon" asset packs. One of these new additions are floor visuals!





The floor tiles are intentionally kept plain and monochromatic so as not to take the focus away from the combat action. But they look a lot better than the simple flat ground before.

Familiar Skill Trees

Next to the AI update mentioned before, I've also continued to work on the Familiars themselves. Today, lets have a look at the skill tree of them.

Each Familiar has a set of 4 active skills that unlock one by one over the first few levels. In addition to this, Familiars have passive skills called talents. Most talents affect the Familiar as well as your cat hero. Talents come in a "select A or B" fashion and can be respected for free in the village.

The first two available Familiars are Loki and Bashu. Loki uses high damage ranged spells (fire and nature element). The active skill "Heat Nova" also reduces the resistances of all enemies hit.



Loki's talents provide offensive stats like critical chance, spell power or faster cast.



In contrast, Bashu uses melee spells (lux and storm) and it is able to take a lot more damage than Loki. Two of Bashu's four active skills scale with max HP as well as spell power, so it's able to deal some damage even if you build it very defensively.



Bashu's talents provide defensive stats like block chance, life on hit or hit points.



Note: All info here is in development content and subject to change.

"Down to Earth" Update (0.96.0) February '23

*** General ***
- Fixed ingame texts
- Adjusted AI pathfinding to get stuck less often
- Minor pause menu UI adjustments
- Fixed strange tooltip positions near screen edges
- Added floor visuals

*** Quality of Life ***
- Double clicking a cat's save file now starts the game with that cat

*** Balance ***
- Fixed wolf and fox AI to feel more like "hit & run"
- Flathead enemies (zombies) now have increased defense / HP
- Early enemy types (stars, ducks, urchins) now use more interesting spells

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

Full Changelog