Abalon News

On the outskirts of the scenic autumn landscape of harvest world, a murky swamp is home to a variety of aquatic creatures. Crocodiles, water drakes, and trolls all call this landscape home. But none is more feared than the dreaded frog demons and their overseer, Croakus, a powerful reverse empath. Empaths feel the emotions of others. A reverse empath makes others feel what it feels - and what Croakus feels is a LOT of pain!

So get ready to plop and splish'splash around the new turf, pay close attention to lore for strategy tips, and be on your guard as you traverse the swamps and take on your next challenge...



The first harvest world update brought a lot of new players to our community, many of whom have shared their excitement, ideas, and feature requests with me here on Steam and our Discord. I'm particularly excited about this update as it involved a great deal of direct player collaboration to hone the balancing and abilities of the boss. I know you particularly enjoy a good challenge... to a punishing degree in some cases... and I think the fight against Croakus won't disappoint.

Additionally, this update also features another player-driven collaboration: Rival Adventurers. These are player-created adventurer parties that I have injected into the RNG procedural population and will surface as Elite Summoners you can defeat to earn soul gems to help bring down the boss. Special thanks to Kaaz for sharing custom deck designs that were used for these characters. If you have a killer battle team you've constructed and would like to see as a rival in our next update, please share a screenshot of your team build with me.



Here's everything that's new and improved in v0.79.1:

• NEW SUMMONER: Quinn, the Rugged Mage embraces the raw fury of nature whilst remaining assuredly calm and in control as he boldly orchestrates combat from just behind the front line. Commands Nature and Arcane magics.
  
• NEW CARD: Arcane magic receives its first playable dragon, Stormbringer, who wields an electrifying chain lightning breath attack.
  
• NEW BIOME: Harvest world now includes a swamp region with new elite and aquatic minion encounters. All characters can wade through the new shallow water terrain, which provides protection against fire damage, but adds vulnerability to shock. Aquatic units can move faster through this terrain than other units.
  
• Deep Water: Deep water, found in rivers, is not traversable, but units can now be knocked into the water. The impact into deep water deals 3 unpreventable damage. Defeated units cannot Downfall. Surviving units are removed from the board for 3 turns.
  
• Shock Damage: All lightning spells now have "Shock" tag applied. Shock deals extra damage to units in the water.
  
• New Fate Encounters: The Dice Mistress offers the opportunity for high stakes dice rolling, including a chance to finally acquire those cards you haven't unlocked yet. Roy Blanchard will give you a tour of the bayou. And what swamp would be complete without gator wrestling?
  
• Rival Adventurers: Various rival adventurer parties will now randomly surface as elite enemies in Harvest world, and, soon, to invade the other biomes as well!
  
• New Boss: Croakus is a giant frog demon with powerful reverse empathic abilities. Any attacks to the front of this demon will result in it "sharing its pain" with everyone on your team it can see. Bring healing...bring lots of healing.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Performance Improvement: Fixed the memory leak that was causing lag to build up when playing the game for long sessions and adversely affecting frame rate.
  
• Performance Improvement: Vastly improved the texture packing algorithm which should result in smaller file size cache, less texture memory, and overall better performance.
  
• AI Improvement: Taught the AI to use the Abysmal End card
  
• AI Improvement: Fixed bug where AI would not attack with temporarily mind controlled units possessed by Vampires or Psionists
  
• Balance: Increased the health of the Bear from 12 to 13 and increased the size of its model to make it more...ummm..bear-like!
  
• Balance: Detonate spell is now stackable. Two copies of Detonate on the same unit will make an 8 damage explosion instead of a 4 damage explosion.
  
• Fixed bug with Withered Transmogrification - where, when mind controlling a withered, then attacking, you wouldn’t get ownership of the new withered unless you defeated it on that same attack.
  
• Changed the Walk 500 Miles achievement to "Walk 500 Miles...OK 100" and reduced the walking distance requirement to the equivalent tile distance of 100 miles.
  
• Fixed bug with using fast travel on the Fortune Teller map.
  
• Fixed bug where non-destructible barrels, crates and brambles could spawn in the non-playable border on the edge of the world map. (Thanks one of many)
  
• Improved the procedural population algorithm to prevent encounters (ex: Dinner A-Fowl) from appearing outside the harvest world and support encounters distributed across multiple biome regions in the same world.
  

I'd like to highlight awesome content creators who've shown a lot of love to Summoners Fate recently:

Kormaktv, who you may remember from our developer interview during the Tacticon Event in September, was the first debut our Harvest World update, which you can see the VOD for here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls73cAwzkFI&ab_channel=kormakrtv

The results were bloody and devastating - apparently Vikings love a good fight, even if it ends in their annihilation ;)

Streamer Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/kormakrtv

Tudututu is a very passionate and enthusiastic gamer and the first to create an entire video series of Summoners Fate. Here's the first episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfCuQqcZQJM&ab_channel=Tudututu

And he's got a second series already in the works for Harvest World.

Streamer Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/tudututu



Just another friendly reminder how much I value and appreciate your Steam store reviews of Summoners Fate. You can submit a review directly from our store page or directly from your Steam library if you prefer. These really help a bunch to get additional visibility and grow our player community, and of course let me know what I'm doing well and how I can further improve the game experience for you.

Join the Discussion:
- Steam discussion board: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/
- Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios (RossD20Studios#2359)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

We're proud to have Summoners Fate featured in the WePlay Expo, and to celebrate, we're offering a 10% discount through November 14th.

Summoners Fate blends turn-based combat and card strategy into a thrilling top-down RPG adventure that our players describe as a combination of Magic the Gathering and Final Fantasy Tactics. Now is your chance to pick up this amazing game and join our wonderful player community in shaping its future development.

Also stay tuned for more exciting content for Summoners Fate dropping soon in our next update for the ongoing Harvest World event.

Hi everyone -

Just in time for Halloween and the Steam Scream Fest, we've just launched our second major update: Harvest World!

As I mentioned last week, Harvest World will be a continuous live update - adding regular new content through the duration of the event which will run through till the end of November. Here's what's included this week:



In the first week of the Harvest Event, you'll explore an all-new biome populated for the autumn season with a haunted harm, investigate the mystery of the missing villagers and unlock a powerful new playable Summoner!

• NEW SUMMONER: Clik'Clik, the Impaler is an insectoid (praying mantis) with a mastery of speed and mobility. Clik’Clik can fly around the enemy, summoning swarms and giving time for poison to take hold before delivering the killing blow. His harpoon ability allows him to pull enemies towards allies to trigger devastating combos.
  
• NEW CARDS: Not only will you get the chance to fight against the evils of the Harvest World, you can learn these dark spells and unleash their horrors upon your enemies. Our new faction, the Withereds, has an entirely unique play style and feel allowing for all new kinds of creative synergies.
  
• NEW BIOME: The new Harvest World biome contains various regions of differing terrain that will evolve over the course of this event. Currently, you can explore an autumn season forest and a haunted farm. During the event, you can choose to play the Harvest World on any chapter of your adventure. You'll be prompted to make your selection when you start a new adventure. After the event, we'll integrate the Harvest World content into the full game as a potential world that can surface by the procedural curation algorithm.
  
• HIGH GROUND TERRAIN: Harvest World is the first biome to feature combat maps with tactical "high grounds", adding a new dimension to battle. Take cover behind a hill, knock enemies off, control the choke points, etc.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed a bug that had broken regional population within biomes. Special thanks to Chumsie the Trustworthy for the detailed feedback that helped us uncover this issue. As a result the desert biome now has an entirely new section "Desert Ruins" that was originally intended for this world to accompany the boss area. Includes more maps with traps and obstacles.
  
• Also wanted to acknowledge Irvine for bug with with the Combos Triggered Stat which was actually fixed in the previous release.
  
• Fixed bug where replay button wouldn't function if trying to use after the defeat animation had played.
  
• Fixed bug where environment objects (ex: chests) weren’t scaling to the proper size.

The grumbling croak of a woeful frog creature echoes from the marshlands. Was this another failed experiment by the creator of Rabbitus or is something more sinister afoort? A new hero emerges to to lead the investigation, familiar in both the arcane arts and attuned to nature. Who could it be?


I can't stress enough how important your Steam reviews our to the continuing success of our project. If you're enjoying Summoners Fate and would like to help support us grow to the become the game of your dreams, please take a moment to write me a Steam review and let me know what aspects you're most enjoying and anything I can do to further add to your enjoyment :)

Join the Discussion:
- Steam discussion board: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/
- Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios (RossD20Studios#2359)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

Your Summoner and hero party gather close to the Cosmic Tortoise - in a crackle of purple energy you find yourself transported to a new world... A brisk chill cools your skin. Dry, colorful leaves crunch beneath your feet. The musk of pumpkins and squash fill your nostrils. It is harvest season here, but something isn't right. An eerie calm unsettles you. It's too quiet. And what's happened to the villagers who should be reaping the crops?



We're excited to announce "Harvest World", our next major update and first seasonal event for Summoners Fate will be releasing next week on October 25 at 10:00AM PDT (UTC-7) to coincide with Steam Scream Fest.

The "Harvest World" update will add an entirely new biome to Summoners Fate packed with Halloween and Autumn themed content. Beginning October 25th and concluding at the end of November, we'll be incrementally adding new content to the game each week as you explore the mysteries of the Harvest World, including:

1. New tilesets with autumn trees, crops, swamps and more
   
2. Three new bosses including a tormented frog demon and the dreaded Demon Lord
   
3. New fate encounters with guaranteed more "goblin mischief"
   
4. Three new playable Summoners with unique play styles to learn and all-star decks to unlock
   
5. New enemies including the shambling, potato-sack-like husks known as the Withereds
   
6. New artifacts to further expand player agency and allow even greater synergy exploits
   
7. Open a portal to the demonic realms - there, within the dungeons of the Demon Lord may the fortunate discover the fabled hellhound kennels and recover a most rare and coveted prize: a hellhound puppy to call your own!
   

During the event, there will be a special "in-game" shortcut to teleport you directly to Harvest world so you can play the new content. After the event, Harvest World will be integrated into the full content of Summoners Fate as one of the random worlds you may encounter in your adventures.



Join our community discussions on Steam and Discord (links below) - and ask away. You may just convince me to reveal some hints about the specifics of what I have in store for you. Or perhaps you have an idea for a special Halloween themed encounter you'd really like to see?

Join the Discussion:
- Steam discussion board: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/
- Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios (RossD20Studios#2359)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

Dreamhack Beyond is back, and Summoners Fate is proud to once again be included in their Indie Showcase. Come check out Summoners Fate and many other great indie games on the event page at: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40157993/sale/DreamhackBeyondIndieShowcase

Event Starts: Oct. 14, 2022 at 12:01 AM EDT
Event Ends: Oct. 23, 2022 at 11:59 PM EDT

We've recently updated our Summoners Fate Early Access build and free demo version with full controller support and many other player-requested updates. During the event, I'll also be streaming a developer "Let's Play" and answering any questions about the game via Steam broadcast chat and our Steam discussion board.



Summoners Fate brings together the best elements of tabletop gaming - including turn-based tactical combat, MtG inspired card strategy, and D&D inspired dice rolling events and adventures. What are you waiting for? Come check us out!