Northwind News

[p]
Hello everyone!

Apologies for not updating for a while ːsteamfacepalmːbut here we are, and we're super excited to share what's coming! [/p]

• [p] The Tavern & New UI Update[/p]
• [p] Additionally, Localization will be moved to the Beta version[/p]
• [p] And lastly, our QA team is now onboard for final polishing![/p]

[p][/p][h2]🍖 The Tavern with Food Update![/h2][p]Remember this house right here? [/p][p][/p][p]We’d love to introduce you to our granny at the Tavern! [/p][p][/p][p]Now, reaching the outpost no longer heals you to 100% by default. Instead granny will make you those meals! It’s your choice how much 'YOU WANT TO HEAL'. Each food item offers unique effects, some can be helpful but comes with a price. More variety of food can be unlocked through progression. [/p][p][/p][p]Here are some samples of the food. Mmm! We absolutely love the designs, and we hope you do too![/p][p][/p][p]We got.. Frostfangs Steak Set, Bingsu Bird Ice Shaved, Thai Crispy Pork with Basil, Onigiri, Viper Vodka, Undead Tequila — you name it!ːsteamhappyː[/p][p][/p][p]Ps. We've received a lot of feedback about our UI feeling unpolished and in need of improvements. Thanks to your suggestions in the feedback surveys, we’ve made major changes!
[/p][p]Of course, the changes apply to the entire game. We hope you're excited to see Northwind looking better than ever. Once everything is complete, we'll share new screenshots and update our entire store page (again!).
[/p][h2]
🌍 Localization Update[/h2][p] Originally, we planned to include localization in the demo. However, we ran into several language-specific issues. Because of this, we’ve decided to shift our localization efforts to the Early Access version instead. This means updated tools and language support will be available in the Beta build.

If you're interested in helping us with localization, please let us know!
Reach out to us in Discord and Beta Test Registration[/p][p][/p][h2] 🔧 QA [/h2][p]Our QA team is finally in! 🎉 They were originally scheduled to begin in late June, but we needed a bit more time to build internal debugging tools and improve their workflow. Now that everything is ready, they’ll be helping us test while we continue developing. Once they give us the green light, we’ll be inviting you in![/p][p][/p][h2]Thanks so much for your patience.
We know it’s been a wait. ❤️ ːsteamsadː[/h2][p][/p][p]🚀 We're So Close to Early Access![/p][p]We’ve been pouring our hearts into Northwind, you know when the QA team get serious! You can feel that we are so close to launch! We're both incredibly excited and a little nervous xD We hope you look forwar to it! Thank you so, so much for your continued support, we couldn’t do this without you all![/p][p]
— The Northwind Team at Barking Kitten Interactive 🐾[/p]

Hello everyone! ːsteamhappyː

Northwind has been selected to be part of Turn-Based Thursday Fest & Southeastasia Games Showcase!

We’re incredibly humbled to be featured and would love to give you more updates about the game.

[h2]Here are 4 updates we’re excited to share:[/h2]

1. Neutral Card+ Version!
   
2. Challenge Node
   
3. Undead Thief
   
4. Localization
   

[h3]
Neutral cards can now be Merged/Smelt!
[/h3]

After careful consideration, we’ve decided that Neutral cards should have access to + versions of their own. This adds even more depth to the game! And yes, some relics will also support Neutral archetypes!

[h3]Introducing Challenge Event[/h3]
We know you enjoy those town Blacksmith and Alchemist upgrades! And what’s even better?
The chance to earn more of those currencies!
Challenge Events give you that opportunity, but you’ll have to face a penalty!
Each penalty comes in a different form, so think carefully before you pick one.
Risk it for the reward or play it safe? The choice is yours!

[h3]Beware of the Thief!
[/h3]Introducing the Skeleton Thief!

A sneaky new enemy who may appear during random encounters to steal your currency!
Monster bones? Monster scales?! You’ll be in trouble if you don't take it down!

[h3]Localization Update[/h3]
Thanks to our amazing volunteers, we're getting close to having localized versions of the demo ready!

• German – Translated by Robin Caspers
• French – Translated by Ehless
• Spanish – Translated by Orián "El Gato" Holguera
• Russian – Translated by Elstan Evallyo

The official date for the 100% localization update in the demo will be announced soon!

[h2]More updates are coming soon![/h2]
We’re proud to say that 100% of our Early Access content is now complete, including all the additional features unlocked through progression and hazard levels. 🎉
Though some can't be shown yet since it's ugly at the moment ːsteamfacepalmː

Right now, we’re fully focused on polishing and cleaning things up. There will definitely be a BETA test, and we’ll be sharing more details with you very soon — stay tuned! :D
If you haven’t registered yet, you can sign up here! 👇👇

Thank you so much for your support.
We can’t believe and are very excited that we’re closer than ever to launching Northwind in Early Access!
— The Northwind Team at Barking Kitten Interactive 🐾

Hello everyone!

We’re excited to be part of the Strategem Event, alongside our fellow deckbuilder devs. Into the Grid!

[h2]Here are some updates we're thrilled to share:[/h2]
[h3]🎯 Our reworked targeting system is fixed![/h3]
One click = one target — whether it’s your own Mercenary or an enemy!


[h3]🛠️ New and Reworked ICON in progress...[/h3]
Wait, what’s Death Rattle?
Of course, the Early Access version has to throw in even tougher monsters for you to fight. ːsteammockingː
[h3]🍗Food System?!? [/h3]
You voted! Options 3 and 4 got the most votes, so both will be in the game!
More details coming soon. 🎉



[h3]Once we have a confirmed playtest date for the BETA, we’ll let you know.[/h3]
It’s probably going to be sometime after May…

And don’t forget to check out the Into the Grid demo!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2576200/Into_The_Grid/

Thank you so much for your support and for being a part of making Northwind a better game.
— The Northwind Team at Barking Kitten Interactive 🐾

Hello everyone!

We're thrilled to share that Northwind, along with our fellow deckbuilder devs behind Into the Grid, are supporting each other as they take part in their upcoming events!

Right now, Into the Grid is featured in the Earth Celebration Fest—and they've absolutely nailed the cyberpunk hacker theme. Don't miss their demo!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2576200/Into_The_Grid/

By the way, localization is happening in the Northwind Discord right now!
If you're interested in helping out, please join our Discord server!

— The Northwind Team at Barking Kitten Interactive 🐾

Hello everyone! 👋

It's been a month since we launched our demo, and as always, we're back to share some exciting gameplay stats! But before that, let’s celebrate some awesome news about our game! 🎉

[h3]Northwind now has over 10,000 Wishlists
and more than 7,000 Demo Players! OMG! ːdazed_yetiː [/h3]

[h3]Not to mention, 27 reviews! 🎉[/h3]

This means so much to us as a small team! 💙 At first, we were a bit reluctant to share this data, but your incredible support has inspired us. We truly believe you’d enjoy celebrating this milestone with us!
Without you playing our game, joining the community, and providing us with valuable feedback, we wouldn’t have come this far. So, from the bottom of our hearts... Thank you! ❤️

[h3]Demo Gameplay Stats.[/h3]
This time, we see some similarities with the previous stats on the most-picked cards, but what really changed is the winning deck strategy! The meta has definitely shifted due to the boss this time around.
So, we'll focus on analyzing the winning decks.


We can really see how you all are now playing more basic card combos and synergies, which makes perfect sense! Feel free to try out some of these cards and combos if you want to defeat the boss or take on Hazard 2!

• An interesting stat we found: Basic Attack is the second most forged card while also being the most removed card using the Wandering Merchant’s service! ːsurprised_yetiː
  We're also noticing some fewer plays with Eager Punch cards!
  One of the dev.: Initiate with Focus+ looks super awesome! How did we miss that?! ːlaughing_yetiː

We are aware that some players feel restricted by this boss's strategy, while others feel encouraged to build decks they wouldn’t have considered before—especially using basic cards.
We'll definitely look into this more! We believe one of the charms of having multiple bosses in Northwind is that each one's unique characteristics can push you to build something you never imagined, while still being flexible enough for you to defeat them with your own crafted deck!

(By the way, The Warlord was intended to be among the easiest bosses..
What are your thoughts? Do you find the challenge exciting, or does it discourage you from playing?
Let us know!)

Link to our Previous Demo Gameplay Stats! (Back then, the boss was Silverfangs, not The Warlord!)
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1476400/view/4193491470659656247?l=english

[h3]🔎 More Feedback & Suggestions We've Received:[/h3]

• Fix the Controls! – Selecting our character for some card effects feels weird. Why not auto-select or allow clicking on equipment directly if needed?
  = We couldn't agree more! This is at the top of our fix list.
  
• More Juiciness, Animations, & Effects!
  = This is something we definitely want to improve! The level of "juiciness" depends on player expectations, but we'll do our best to enhance the experience as much as possible.
• More Languages!
  = Yes! We plan to add more localization in the future. We’ll announce the supported languages soon!
  
• Content Feedback: – Card archetypes, Legacy Points, and Hazard Level progression don’t feel impactful enough.
  = We hear you! Since this is just a demo, we haven’t revealed all of our content yet, but your feedback has given us new ideas on how to improve progression. We hope you look forward to our Early Access Version!

[h3]What’s Happening with the Demo and Early Access Version?[/h3]
Our current plan is to focus on the Early Access launch, which we’re aiming for in Q3 2025! 🎉
(We need to make it happen this year, seriously!) As for the demo, we plan to keep it live for a while—possibly until the Early Access release. However, we won’t be releasing any major updates, except for localization fixes and additional supported languages.

[h3]🔥 Pyrotech Playtesting[/h3]
We’ll probabyl need playtesters soon!
If you’re interested in helping us balance her out, CLICK THE BANNER TO REGISTER! 👇👇👇


[h3]Localization is about to start![/h3]It's been delayed, but we think it will be ready by the end of March. We've been working hard to improve the quality-of-life (QoL) features for our localizers, and now the system is ready! 🎉 If you’d like to help us out, join our Discord! 💬
CLICK THE BANNER TO JOIN! 👇👇👇
[h3]Thank you! Again, we truly appreciate your support. 🙏
[/h3]Slowly but surely, Northwind is becoming a game we never imagined we could create! The feedback we’ve received has been incredibly encouraging, pushing us to make it even better. 💙 Thank you!
— The Northwind Team at Barking Kitten Interactive 🐾

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