Northwind News

Hey everyone,

Finally, after fixing tons of bugs and testing, we are now working on balancing! ːsteamhappyː
Our team loves challenges, so we will be leaning towards designing a hardcore/difficult game. ːsteammockingː
But don't worry! We'll make sure people who are new to deckbuilding can still enjoy the experience. :heart_eyes_yeti:

[h2]Introducing Sword Mastery and your Starting Deck[/h2]
Let's just call him "Swordman" for the time being.
He will be your first mercenary, and this is his starting deck.

• 5 Sword Mastery - Mainly provides you sufficient AP to play cards.
  
• 5 Slash - Main source of attack power.
  
• 1 Leather Glove - Provide you buff for the rest of the battle.
  
• 1 Suckerpunch - Hmm.. let's say your first powerful card, a small taste of synergy. :laughing_yeti:

Every time you win a battle of course you'll get to...
Pick 1/3 cards AND You can choose whether you want to add 1 Sword Mastery into your deck.

Why? Sword Mastery card has the keyword, Source. Source: When put in your hand, give you AP.

With this system, you'll get to personalize the amount of AP you'll get from your deck.
There's more to it. You could even merge, transform it, and so on!? :surprised_yeti:

[h2]Monster Update[/h2]
[h3]That annoying monster in the game...[/h3]
Seem like we need some annoying monster that irritates you, yet without it, you'll find the game losing its charm. :happy_yeti: We also started looking into each monster attack effect, and we asked our Twitter followers to see what they thought, and it turns out that A2 and A4 are the most loved!


[h3]How Gore?[/h3]
We have undead so... how gore will our game be? :laughing_yeti:
Not much but enough to creep you out when you meet these elites!



[h2]Thank you for your support![/h2]
We'll do everything we can to make our game as fun and unique as possible.
We believe it will take a long time to develop, we only have three people working on this game full-time. Despite that, we are determined to pull it off!
Thank you for reading, and as always have a wonderful weekend! ːsteamthumbsupː

Hey everyone,

We think our game trailer, playtest build, and Early access launch date will be later than expected. ːcrying_yetiː

[h2]Reschedule[/h2]
We will be honest with you! We planned to have our Trailer and playtest build this February.
However, it seems like it would be around April - June instead.
As for our Early Access launch date, we think it might be around Q4 2022 - Q1 2023 ːsteamfacepalmː

[h2]UX/UI[/h2]
Sharing one of our struggles the UX/UI...
Well, there's a lot of work we need to put in here.
(This is definitely not the final version.)


Our card game doesn't play like Slay the Spire.
Cards generate attack points, attack points are accumulated and will be resolved when you press End Turn.

[h3]For example[/h3]
You play 5 cards, the total attack points you get is 39.
Monster defend at 22. You'll deal 17 damage points to the monster.
Don't worry about calculating the outcome, the game prediction system will do the work for you.

We also have a lot of keywords to play with this system. ːsteamboredː
We can't release the playtest build and the game trailer until we polish this up, we need to make sure you can quickly grasp the gameplay and enjoy the game.

[h2]Town Design[/h2]
We want/plan to add our town feature to this playtest build, but we'll update you again if it's ready. ːlaughing_yetiː
For the time being, here's the concept art for our town.



[h2]Original sound track![/h2]
Yep, we start working on our OST as well as our game sound effect in February. ːsteamhappyː
We won't share it here, but we want to let you know we have it done and you'll hear it in our trailer!

[h3]We'll be returning on Twitter and Facebook this month![/h3]
We've been working on one of the most difficult aspects of game production for the past few months, so we are ready to come back with some updates on our social media! We appreciate all of the support and patience you've shown us so far. We will give the best shot in our playtest build and the gameplay trailer. ːhappy_yetiː ːheart_eyes_yetiː

Hey everyone,

Happy Chinese New Year!
This month we developed a new monster type and worked on a new build, and it comes with many bugs!

[h2]New Monster Type[/h2]
Say hello to our Insect types monster. We figured it deserved its faction and, of course, its own boss, because we've been working on so many of them! ːlaughing_yetiː

Here are some designs we've been working on...

Finalizing some designs and animate these cuties ːsteamhappyː

[h2]About Playtest Build[/h2]
In January we put a lot of resources into developing a new system and debugging tools. We won't go into much technical, to put it simply, things that help us with bug reporting, capturing game footage (for our trailer), and so on.

We expect to be busy with bug fixing and game balancing this February. ːsteamfacepalmː
So... we can probably show you something around March. (Hopefully) ːsteamsadː

[h3]Thank you for your looking forward to our game ːheart_eyes_yetiː [/h3]
We'll make sure to have another devlog this February.
We hope we can provide more updates in the future.
Thank you for reading have a wonderful day. ːsteamthumbsupː

Hey everyone,

[h2]Theme/Setting[/h2]
We expect to have five themes/settings in our game.
Sample locations are poisonous forest, glacial valley, and rotten cave. (Not official name)

Poisonous Forest (and no map/environment won't affect you directly) ːsurprised_yetiː


As of our current design, you will choose/receive a quest to hunt, that monster will be the final boss, and the boss determines the map/setting where your campaigns locate. The other monsters you face will be determined by the location you were given. For example, you might encounter many bugs/insects in a poisonous forest map.

Glimps of other locations (work in progress).

[h2]Character Design[/h2]
We've been sharing our character design with the Reddit community and our own social media channel. Glad to know you guys love the design.

Our first playable character, Mercenary of Northwind. ːsteammockingː



Exploring his movement.



We want to add some connections between each pose to align with card combos.
Nothing is certain, still testing. ːlaughing_yetiː

If you haven't followed, check out our Twitter and Facebook!

[h2]Happy holiday and Merry Christmas![/h2]



Thank you for your support for the past two months since we launched our store page.
Please look forward to our gameplay. May you have a great holiday, see you guys next year! ːsteamhappyː

Honestly probably February or March. ːsteamfacepalmː

Hey everyone,

This month we would love to cover one-two features that make us unique as a roguelite deckbuilding card game.

[h2]Combat System[/h2]


To kill or damage an enemy in our game, you will need to overpower your enemy attack point.

In this scenario, this bird has 12 attack points. Case 1 = After you play all your cards this turn, you have a total of “19” attack points.
When battle the bird will take 7 damage points. (19-12 = 7)
Case 2 = After playing all your cards, you end up with “2” attack points.
When battle you will take 10 damage points. (2-12 = -10)

Yep! In this game, we count all of your attack points and compare them to your enemy's.
Whoever has fewer attack points will take that damage.
So it'll either be you or your opponent who will take the damage. You can even beat the game unscratched if you can. ːsteammockingː

[h2]Cards[/h2]
Last time we talked about the "Move" card, mainly used for generating high damage points, now let's talk about "Skill" and "Equipment" cards.

Skill Cards
It doesn't generate attack points but instead provides you utility in combat.
Picking the right card will strengthen your overall combos and synergy.ːsteamhappyː

Equipment Cards
You can play equipment cards when your character level meets its costs. You will gain the card's ability until the battle ends unless you encounter the "Destroy" keyword and when destroyed your card will return to your discard pile. You can still play it again when drawn.

Do not worry about leveling up your character. It is worthwhile and easier than you think.

FAQ about our Level and Action points.

What benefits do you get when leveling up?
- Your "Move" card generates more attack points.
- You can play the "Equipment" card.
- Some card abilities will also be upgraded after you reach a specific level

Will the level up last forever?
- Nope! Each time you encounter a new monster your level will reset to level 1.

How to level up your character?
- It costs 5 Action points to level up.

How do you gain action points?
- Relics or cards. You earn your action points from cards you draw or relics you own. You may earn 0-100 action points in one turn, wholly depending on how you build your deck and the relics you pick.
- You get to keep all your action points, it won't disappear at the end of the turn.

[h2]This cover some concept/ideas of our game design.
[/h2]Hopefully, you will look forward to our gameplay and our trailer.
Next time we'll cover our world Setting and theme.
Thank you for reading, and as always have a wonderful day. ːsteamthumbsupː