Northwind News

Hello everyone! 🎮

As we continue working on our Demo 1.0, we've realized that the current demo no longer reflects the true quality of the game.

Not reflecting the true quality of the game includes:

• Gameplay
  
• Visuals and UX
  
• Both progression and metaprogression
  
• Balancing
  
• And so on...
  

[h3]Therefore, we want to make a short announcement: we'll be removing the demo from our Steam page, and you'll have the opportunity to play it only until the end of June.[/h3]

[h2]The demo will be removed on July 1st.[/h2]

We expect to provide you with an update again around August-September. 📅 We hope you look forward to our new Demo 1.0! Thank you so much for your patience and support along the way. Some of you have just joined us, and some have been with us for years—this means so much to us! 🌟

Thank you! Have a nice day, and feel free to revisit the game until we remove it from Steam! 💬
The Northwind Team at Barking Kitten Interactive. 🐾

Hello everyone!

[h2]🌟 A little update this June! 🌟[/h2]
- Community Localization
- Spoilers!
- We are in Best Indie Games: Summer Showcase 2024! 🌞

[h3]Community Localization[/h3]We're about to implement a system where the community can lend us a hand with localization. Since this is our first time, we'll be testing it along the way with the new demo version. Once we have all the systems settled, we'll make another official announcement. For anyone interested, please join us!

Also, a huge thank you to our community for assisting with the translation of our store page!
- Thank you, Huang "Shuyuan" Teng, for the Simplified Chinese localization ❤️

[h3]Spoilers!🤫[/h3]When we talk about monster hunting, you can't forget about those tails!
We won't tell you the ability though, but just look at those tails!!

New Keywords for our second character:
(There are actually a lot more, but we'll be spoiling you with one for now)


Beneath: Triggers when the number of cards in your hand is equal to or less than required.
You can see we're now playing with hand sizes combos. That's all I'm going to say; there's so much more, with over 70 cards, that's a lot of testing! We'll let you know when you can step in to help us out!

[h3]Lastly, we're in Best Indie Games: Summer Showcase 2024! 🌞[/h3][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]We're honored to be a part of this showcase! Make sure to check out other amazing fellow indie games!

That's it for now. Thank you for your support!
The Northwind Team at Barking Kitten Interactive. 🐾

Hello everyone! 👋

After launching our demo, we have been collecting a lot of feedback, both through in-game data and feedback surveys. Some of you have also messaged us directly, and we really appreciate all the feedback we've received. We received over 100+ pieces of feedback from all channels, so it took us a while to bring everything together. We value your opinion, and since you took the time to write it, we should also take our time to read it! 📖

Before I share the insights we've received, a little shoutout:
[h2]Northwind will also be featured in:
The Steam Endless Replayability Fest! (Demo is still up!) [/h2]


[h2]Alright, here are some stats for our demo. 📊 [/h2]


This time around, Preparation has won 1st place. However, Eager Punch still holds a very good position and will always be the go-to card when it comes to winning the game! If you haven't won the game yet, try giving these cards and relics a shot!

It's interesting to note that we've seen people picking a lot of Shadow Blade?? We launched our demo at the time when the Solo Leveling Sung-Jinwoo anime was released; could it be the effect of the anime?!
So far, compared to our pre-demo stats, we've improved in terms of difficulty level.
It seems like you guys enjoy it more than before. Yay! ːsteamhappyː

[h3]Additional Comments from Feedback:[/h3]

• We have noticed issues regarding gameplay speed settings.
  
• The impact of roguelite progression is not strong enough.
  
• Events are boring.
  
• Many other notes mentioned performance issues and varying difficulty levels; some players are seeking more challenges!
  
• Improvements can still be made in some UX areas, like card smelting where recipes aren't clear.
  
• And many more...

[h3]Opt-Out from Analytics:[/h3]
We've also heard some might feel uncomfortable sharing information, so in the future, we'll now have an option for players to opt-out. Sorry if this causes you inconvenience and stops you from playing the game. ːcrying_yetiː

[h3]There is still so much to do![/h3]
With our small team, instead of fixing the current demo, we've decided to put our resources into early access, doing the fixes from the demo in a potentially beta testing branch in the future. There will definitely be a playtest before launching, so if you want to join our playtest, don't forget to join our Discord!



[h3]Please don't forget to help us by adding Norhwind to your wishlist! [/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1476400/Northwind/

[h3]💌 Message from the Developers:[/h3]
Thank you so much for playing our demo and for all your feedback. 💖
With your voice, we know where we should be heading, what will make an impact, and what makes you want to see more in the game.
We hope you had a good time playing Northwind, and we aim to deliver an even better version in Demo 1.0 and Early Access! So please look forward to it! 😤🔥🔥
The Northwind team at Barking Kitten Interactive. 🐾

Hello everyone!

The TurnbasedThursday Fest has now concluded. We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who played our demo and left valuable feedback. We've received over a hundred pieces of feedback from all channels—thank you! :heart_eyes_yeti:

[h2]So, what's next? [/h2]
Our focus is now on the Early Access version and the upcoming Demo 1.0!
Although we haven't fully processed all the feedback, we've already identified numerous improvements we want to make, covering various aspects of the game such as controls, speed, visual effects, game progression, and the user experience.

[h3]We've decided to keep our DEMO available!
But rest assured, the new DEMO 1.0 will be even better.
[/h3]

We hope you're looking forward to it. And like always, we'll continue to share the statistics and insights from this demo version with you.
Thank you for your support!
The Northwind Team at Barking Kitten Interactive. 🐾

Hello everyone!

It's been 2 weeks since we launched our Demo, and we have thousands of people playing our game and it's not stopping! Thank you so much for all your support.

[h2]First of all, you can cross-smelt basic card types.[/h2]
Try smelting Basic Attack + Focus = You'll get a Focused Attack card.
It breaks our hearts to see many (or the majority) of our players missing this feature. (It's our fault for not making it obvious for players) We will definitely improve our UX next time to make it much more obvious that you can cross-smelt basic card types. So, here's the spoiler for now! We hope you will explore this feature in the demo. ːcrying_yetiː

[h2]It’s time to collect all those feedback.[/h2]
We'll be gathering it from the Feedback Surveys, places we posted on Reddit, DMs, Discord chats, and so on. We kindly ask that if you've played the Demo, please help us make a better game by filling out this feedback form. The feedback survey closes on the 8th of April.

[h3]📝Click here to take the Feedback Survey[/h3]

Please do not forget to add the game to your wishlist! As a small team, your support through wishlisting means so much to us! ːheart_eyes_yetiː

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1476400/Northwind/


[h3]Northwind has been selected to be in TurnbasedThursdayFest!
So, our demo will be extended until the 8th of April![/h3]

We've noticed our community is growing, and we are thankful to every one of you!
Our team will try our best to fix the Demo bugs as well as working on the Early Access version!
Thank you for your kind support.
The Northwind team at Barking Kitten Interactive. 🐾