Journey to the West News

This week, we finished up a new plot editor, which is a significant upgrade to our infrastructure, and continue working on chapter 4 development.

Chapter 4 updates:

• New seal mechanism WIP. You can’t beat the Omen but can only seal it. Here is how it works: Goddess of Mercy will enchant all cards randomly with 5 elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, and you need to follow the seal sequence each round carefully to finish the seal.
  

New battle Backgrounds!





Plot editor:

• We deployed a brand-new plot editor which supports modularized story blocks and storyline visualization. This is a significant improvement to our current infrastructure and makes the implementation of storylines cleaner, more efficient, and easier to debug
  

One storyline in chapter 4



Mod support:

• Per feedback from our player community, we started to look into the requirements and plans to support mods on Steam. While we are still at a very early stage, we will dedicate part of our capacity to mod support after chapter 4 is released
  

Bonus: Sneak peek at our next character, Swine King!



[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
Localization and text bug fixes:

• Fixed description of mold rat bite
  

Other Bug Fixes

This week, we are focusing on polishing endless mode, and bug fixes, and also keep working on developing the final chapter.

Endless mode:

• Now you can choose 1 out of 3 random reward options after each playthrough. Choose the reward strategically!
  

Chapter 4 updates:

• We are wrapping up character design for chapter 4: a total of 15 brand-new characters will be added to the final chapter
  
• We are finishing the implementation of 1 storyline - there will be 3 storylines in chapter 4
  
• We are working on testing, adjusting, and polishing NPC skills and battle logic
  

Left: The High Buddha Middle:? (Guess who this is!) Right: Goddess of Mercy


[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
Game logic bug fixes:

• Fixed card never give up
  
• Do not allow inheriting permanent strength in endless mode
  

Localization and text bug fixes:

• Fixed some expressions in event and dialog
  
• Localized endless mode abandon game dialog
  

Other Bug Fixes

This week, we are focusing on polishing endless mode, and bug fixes, and also keep working on developing the final chapter.

1. Game version description
   
   • Due to frequent version changes, game save files are easily expired. In order to solve this problem, the old version will be retained in the form of a test branch, so that if there are some game saves corrupted by game updates, you can always switch to the old version branch to continue playing
     
   
2. Largely improve the user experience of picking combat objects
   
   • You can hover the NPCs’ HP bar to pick them when it’s hard to pick NPC from its character model
     
   
3. Endless mode
   
   • Fixed the issue that multiple hostages appear in one combat
     

Design updates: Chapter 4
Left: General of East | Right: General of South


Left: General of West | Right: General of North


[h2]Optimization[/h2]

• Lions Pride and Lion's Blood now guarantee minimum Attack damage.
  
• Do not show duplicated card effects if they are created in the same frame in order to reuse card effect
  
• Increased character distance in combat
  
• Blood Thirsty Blade is AOE and deals double damage instead of double base damage
  
• Blessing Potion gives 3 Blessed
  
• A blocked attack now also triggers Reposite
  
• Phantom Candle now gives 1 Apparition instead of 1 Cursed
  
• Never ask you to retain cards when you have a bottle of light and shadow
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

Game logic bug fixes

• Fixed the bug where Vanquishing Spell will cause the player to lose 10 HP
  
• Fixed the issue that the prices of the goods were changed whenever you bought a relic after you purchased the Travel Permit from Merchant UI
  
• Fixed the bug that encountered event will not show up again in endless mode
  
• Fixed the bug that Jade Lute will trigger Rhino King's thick skin and lose Strength
  
• Fixed audio won't play when reusing the effect
  
  

Localization and text bug fixes

• Refined English version of the description
  
• Fixed some expressions in event and dialog
  
• Added description of High Initiative card in Wukong's talent
  

Other Bug Fixes

This week, we are focusing on polishing endless mode, and bug fixes, and also keep working on developing the final chapter. We will have to push the timeline of the release of Chapter 4 for 3 weeks to Mid July, we apologize for the inconvenience.
There are 3 main factors that contributed to the delay:

1. We are adding more content to this chapter than what we’ve planned;
   
2. Two of our artists left the team due to personal reasons and we spent a significant amount to time searching for and initiating collaboration with new partners;
   
3. We spent more time testing, adjusting, and fixing bugs for endless mode than we planned
   

Thank you for your support and understanding! We will keep the progress updated every week and work continuously towards our milestones.

Design updates: Chapter 4

• Adding more character design, battle backgrounds, effects, actions, and music.
  
• Final Battle Backgrounds
  
  
• Left: Princess White Lotus | Right: Goddess of Cruelty

[h2]Optimization[/h2]

• Made relic picker scrollable
  
• Added endless save for each player
  
• Added a trial level indicator for endless mode
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

Game logic bug fixes

• Fixed reward gold issue in endless mode
  
• Fixed Holy Monk talent won't trigger when playing Imp of Plague's curse card
  
• Fixed a few potential energy cost issues when the card is unplayable.
  
• Fixed a crash when Princess Iron Fan dies too early in Bull King fight in endless mode
  
• Fixed a bug when reusing full-screen effects
  
• Fixed a bug that Lion Roar removes a debuff instead of buff
  
• Fixed a potential bug of always jumping to the boss location after chapter 3 boss event choice
  
  

Localization and text bug fixes

• Refined English version of the description
  
• Fixed some expressions in event and dialog
  

Other Bug Fixes

• Fixed Steam Endless leaderboard
  

Major updates this week are:

• Endless Mode is out!
  • In the Endless mode, you will start your journey on the same map going through chapter 1 to 3, but very different combinations of NPCs - endless new combinations generated to meet you at different difficulty levels
    
  • After each playthrough, you will randomly and permanently inherit 1 out of 5 features from the playthrough (choose to keep 1 relic, decide to keep 1 card, keep 100 gold, keep 1 talent point, keep 1 backpack slot) and continue the game from the beginning
    
  • These inherited features will be applied to all the playthroughs cumulatively so that you will get stronger and stronger after each playthrough. Of course, your enemies will get much stronger after each playthrough as well.
    
  
  [Screenshot] Endless mode Achievement: 11 playthrough and 528 combats
  
  
  
• Chapter 4: we are making significant progress in character and background design, effects, actions, and music
  

Left: The Listener, Right: Princess White Lotus


Left: Buddha of Joy, Right: Buddha of Light


Furnace of Heaven


One of the ending scenes


Battle background of the Spiritual Land


[h2]Optimization[/h2]

• Modified damage text style
  
• Added paste button for inputting map seed
  
• Adjusted stealing amount
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

Game logic bug fixes

• Fixed an effect reuse issue in projectiles
  
• Fixed BGM and combat background
  
• Fixed an issue where the game will ask the player again even after the tutorial is played
  

Localization and text bug fixes

• Fixed description Hell Judge Silence
  
• Refined English version of the description
  

Other Bug Fixes

• Other small adjustments