Abalon News

[h2]Greetings D20 Fans![/h2]
We're back with another awesome update for Abalon! I hope you all enjoyed the extended Double XP winter event, and if you missed it - don't worry! I aim to have many more fun and rewarding events for you in the future.

Our latest version brings many great additions: Take on even greater challenges with Descent difficulty extending to level 15. Sort your cards by their gold cost. Find all the hidden keys and lore, and more! I'm also thrilled to announce support for Turkish language thanks to one of our wonderful players in the community, Exolion! Be sure to thank him in our Discord by challenging him to a battle in our PvP beta ;)

Alright, I've got some good news, some unfortunate news, and then onto the release notes and roadmap!


Abalon recently achieved #1 Top Free App on the Mac App Store. This was a very delightful surprise, and I'm very grateful and excited to hit this new milestone.
[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/XoY9dPYBx3M[/previewyoutube]


I'd hoped to have delivered this update weeks ago, but was delayed due to an unfortunate discovery. I'm both a little flattered and dismayed to share that we've reached enough popularity to attract hackers who have managed to distribute modified versions of my game.

Why is this so problematic? Aside from it being quite disheartening to me that folks are stealing from a solo dev when I've offered numerous ways to play the game free, these modified versions introduce a number of errors that are both a drain on my server resources (which operate at considerable personal expense) and are negatively impacting our organic discoverability on app stores. This is because app stores like Google Play reward visibility based on quality and performance metrics, and the changes introduced in modified versions aversely alter our game's rating and deny opportunities to have our game recommended to new players. Likewise, when cheats are used, it denies legitimate players from earning their rightful place on the leaderboards, discouraging fair competition and consequently hurting our community.

Abalon is not a one-off title that I have released and abandoned, but a living project that I continuously work to improve. It's been unfortunate to contend with this issue when I'd rather have been working on new features for you, but also necessary that I do what I can to protect my project, reputation and standing for the long term future of Abalon and our community. To my loyal fans and our wonderful community, thank you so much for your patience, understanding and support! Hearing your achievements, discoveries, and overall passion and enjoyment for the game keeps me going :)

[h3]NEW FEATURES[/h3]

1. New Language: Added support for Turkish localization. Huge thanks to Exolion for providing the translation!
   
2. Sort By Gold: Added functionality for sorting cards in the collection, shop, and deck building screens by their gold cost. When using this feature in the collection, cards will also display their gold price.
   
3. Descent: Increased the max descent level from 10 to 15.
   
4. New Challenge Modifier: Camp Shortage: One campfire in each world is replaced with a minion encounter.
   
5. New Challenge Modifier: Inflation: Merchant and mercenary prices increased by 20%
   
   [h3]QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
   
6. QoL: Lore scrolls, silver keys and boss keys dropped in the world now show on the world map. (Thanks VoxSilentii)
   
7. QoL: Virtual joystick is now disabled during prompts.
   
8. QoL: Greatly improved the functionality of combo boxes and list scrolling used in the game lobby.
   
9. QoL: Improved performance by reducing memory allocations on the animation clock.
   
10. QoL: Added portrait layout for game lobby.
    
11. QoL: Updated and improved German translations (Thanks HiImClueless)
    
12. QoL: Made an attempt to fix issue where Steam Deck gets stuck loading by changing the location where rasterized assets are stored on Linux to prevent the CacheError that could occur in conjunction with using Proton without compatibility options enabled. See this post for more details: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/0/597390757221893227/ (Thanks étoiles)
    
    [h3]TARGETING[/h3]
    
13. Targeting: Spells and attacks that directly target adjacent or surrounding tiles now count as requiring visibility. This fixes bug where units with Spin attack were able to directly target Stealth units. It also fixes bug where spells like Touch of Death or Vampire Bite were able to directly target Stealth units.
    
14. Targeting: Adjacent and surrounding targets that are "autoDesignated" (such as via an indirect hit from a spin attack) are no longer counted as requiring visibility. This means that units with Stealth can be hit indirectly by these attacks (they just can't be the primary target).
    
15. Targeting: The Veil ability states "May not be directly targeted by enemies at range". Many players were confused in prior versions why units with spears could not target veil units, so I've changed the mechanic as follows: Units surrounding a unit with Veil can now target them with attacks from spears or sprint shot. This is because "range" is defined in the tutorial as being at least one space between and not surrounding the target unit. (Also note, this was the preferred solution as voted by players on our Discord).
    
16. Targeting: Fixed bug where summon spells cast on diagonal spaces while blinded by a sandstorm were discarded without being cast because the action was technically illegal, but the warning prompt was never surfaced to prevent the action.
    
17. Targeting: While units with Stealth and Veil cannot be directly targeted by Chain Lightning, the secondary and tertiary lightning strikes will now target these units. (Lightning shouldn't need to see, but it does need a direct path to bounce from).
    
18. Targeting: Fixed bug where Samsung devices (such as the SM-G981W) would not allow player to "tap to confirm" movement for actions that offered a choice between move and attack (such as when moving adjacent to an enemy or when using the "Always Confirm Move"). This happened because the device was firing an extra MouseMove event after touching the screen. I solved it by adding a threshold so that it only clears the confirmed move after dragging to a new space. (Thanks @erkjhnsn)
    
    [h3]KEY RELATED[/h3]
    
19. Fixed Bug where no silver keys, boss key, or soul gems are hidden in the map. This likely occurred as a result of a cascade error where the game is closed during the population of a new world. The fix ensures that if no treasure was initially populated within the world, the population algorithm runs again when loading the save game.
    
20. Fixed Bug where Swamp treasure maps were not assigned keys, thus resulting in missing silver keys in the Harvest or fast adventure biome that included swap treasure rooms. Also added a locked treasure chest to the third swap treasure area. (Thanks mr.kitty)
    
21. Fixed Bug where the two tiny stair maps were spawning extra silver keys. (Thanks mr.kitty)
    
22. Fixed Bug where retreating from Cho'tuk the Wanderer while he is in bear form resulted in him being removed from the board and losing any soul gems or boss keys he was carrying.
    
23. Fixed Bug where elites carrying the boss key could be inaccessible due to procedural population creating a non-traversable path.
    
24. Fixed Bug where player could enter the boss room in the snow biome without using the boss key and then become trapped there if saving to title and reloading game.
    
    [h3]DESIGN FIXES[/h3]
    
25. Fixed Bug with Sir Cheezles Summoner IV ability so that he can target debuffed and adjacent allies for time travel.
    
26. Fixed Bug Removed the "small" tag from Withered dog that was causing an error to be thrown when Animal Growth was cast on it.
    
27. Fixed Bug where fast traveling to an explored area between two closed doors could truncate the party. Units being teleported between closed doors can now open them so that they have room to assemble. (Thanks gimmecoconut)
    
28. Fixed Bug where Randal's Fineries was selling equipment as spells instead of as satchel. (Thanks floaty)
    
29. Fixed Bug where equipping a Max Health item to a follower could result in permanent healing. (Thanks DaneSilverHawk)
    
30. Fixed Bug where temporary cards (such as those fetched by the hellhound puppy) would remain in the deck after battle if they were recycled.
    
31. Fixed Bug where, if player is transformed into an animal and discovers a mercenary for hire, the mercenary that spawns is selected by the animal's magic school instead of the original summoner magic schools. (Thanks Excolion)
    
32. Fixed Bug where infinite spiderlings could be generated by equipping and unequipping max life giving artifacts while transformed into a Wolf Spider Mother (Thanks Exolion).
    
33. Fixed Bug where Zenon's arcane draw ability triggered when playing satchel cards. Likewise fixed other "cast" related triggered abilities such as Lilith, Hellfire Candle, Sacred Sapling, Lightning Orb, Trinity Orb and Demon Lord so that they do not trigger when playing a satchel card.
    
34. Fixed Bug where players could exploit fate encounters without the intended score penalty by exiting to title and continuing adventure or logging out and logging back in (which could also generate bug prompts).
    
    [h3]VIEW BUGS[/h3]
    
35. Fixed Bug where button text in Chinese and APAC languages within the deck builder was misaligned (Thanks michelreno)
    
36. Fixed Bug where Nova, Sorceress's upgrade cards were reading "{DAMAGE0}" instead of the actual damage amount.
    
37. Fixed Bug where Summoner upgrade badge would incorrectly notify player that upgrades are available before they had reached Silver Tier and Gold Tier respectively. (Thanks digitalblacksmith)
    
38. Fixed Bug where an empty string variable name would still appear in the "Max Rank" prompt when using a XP tome.
    
39. Fixed Bug where the descent tower scroller could freeze when player reaches the last available level.
    
40. Fixed typos in Demon Lord 4 (Thanks Rhubarb314)
    
    [h3]OTHER BUGS[/h3]
    
41. Fixed Bug where a Void Necromancer's attack being blocked by a Celestial Barrier causes TypeError 1010 and crashes/locks the game.
    
42. Fixed Bug where exception could be thrown for resuming the music when returning to the app after being idle for awhile.
    
43. Fixed Bug where exception could be thrown when switching orientation and pressing buttons in the title screen due to an asset reference being removed.
    
44. Fixed Bug where exception could be thrown then clicking to exit the progression tower as a reward prompt is triggering.
    
45. Fixed Bug where exception could be thrown when viewing the Summoner XP prompt after completing a chapter or returning to the title screen.
    
46. Fixed Bug where Range Error 1125 was being thrown when switching out of and back into the game.
    

On the short-term horizon, I'm gunning to get Asynchronous Multiplayer added to Abalon Arena in time for Steam's Couch-Coop Fest. It's gonna be one heck of a sprint, and we'll find out soon enough if I can pull it off. After that, I'll be working on the Leaderboard System Revamp, feel to check out the post here (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/0/596262086078658592/) and share your thoughts. This update will also include some balance changes to the XP curve, gold costs, and other such items. In parallel, I've also got our next expansion in the works that will introduce the cave systems biome.


Many of our players have asked me for a way to help support the continued development of Abalon, so I setup a "Buy Me a Coffee" page where you can make one-time or recurring contributions.

More than anything though, I ask that you please write the game a review :)
Reviews do so much to improve our discoverability and bring new players to the game. They also provide me with a lot of insights on what I'm doing right with the design and where I can still improve.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration :)

~Ross

I am excited and delighted to share that Abalon is featured on the App Store today as Apple's "Game of the Day". It's a fantastic honor for an indie game to achieve and a huge win I absolutely want to share with our Steam community. Your thoughtful and insightful feedback has contributed considerable improvements to the game since our debut on Steam Early Access in 2022. Now, three years later, over 150K players and counting have ventured the lands of Abalon. Thank you so much for your support!

I remain committed to regularly updating Abalon with new features, fixes, and improvements based on your suggestions and I'm aiming to deliver a new build next week.

[h2]Cross-Play Support[/h2]
Abalon supports seamless cross-play between Steam and your favorite mobile devices. The game is fully verified for Steam deck, supports portrait and landscape modes on mobile, and can be fully played offline, too!

Note that while Abalon is free-to-download on mobile, it is supported by paid expansions separate from our premium purchase price on Steam. Please see our previous post here for more details on how to setup cross-play and my responses in the discussion section regarding our current pricing model.

Thanks for being a valued member of our community! See you again next week.

~Ross

Happy New Year from D20Studios!

I'm officially back from the holiday break and excited to get back to work on Abalon. I've decided to extend our Double XP Winter Event until our next game update, so please continue to enjoy it while I prepare the next round of features and fixes for you :)

Cheers!

~Ross Przybylski

From now till the New Year, earn Double XP in all adventure modes!

More details in our v2.30.0 update: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1681840/view/515196931452961683

[h2]Happy Holidays D20 Fans![/h2]

I'm so grateful for all of our Abalon players, so I wanted to release one more special update for you before the holidays kick into full gear.

[h2]Double XP Holiday Event[/h2]
Many of you have requested changes to the XP curve, and while I still have a lot of work to do to carefully consider all of the feedback and create the optimal balance, I decided I could directly address this in the short-term with a special event: From now until the the next update, you'll gain double XP in all adventure modes. Additionally, all players have access to the snow biome (regardless of player level) and can also take advantage of the "Choose Biome" perk in game.

[h2]Sell Cards at Shops[/h2]
This update introduces one of our top requested player features: the ability to sell spells and artifacts at shops! Any merchant (including the traveling salesman) can now be sold cards from your deck/satchel/discard pile for some bonus gold so you can clear unwanted inventory and get that piece of gear you've been wanting.

To work with this new feature, I've also changed the run-score system so you're no longer given points based on how much gold is your inventory, but rather, how much gold you find in the world from treasure chests and defeating enemies. Buying and selling cards for gold will not impact your run score.

[h2]Bonus Gift[/h2]
I gifted all of our current players a bonus Bronze XP tome that will appear in your rewards inventory so you can boost up your favorite summoner or try out a new character with the first set of character upgrades. Enjoy!

1. New Feature: Players can now sell their spells and artifacts at shops.
   
2. Fixed bug where ambient SFX were not respecting the volume controls for ambient upon deactivating and activating the app.
   
3. Fixed bug where resuming music after having the game idle for a while could throw an error.
   
4. Fixed bug where the Boss Key could spawn in an unreachable area in one of the world layouts where a treasure cache was adjacent to a bridge and coastline obstacles blocked an alternate path to get access to the final area where an elite guarded the key.
   
5. Fixed bug Fixed a bug where equipping the Botanical Sage with plant based artifacts triggered her special ability. Artifacts were not intended to count as spells for the purposes of her ability.

Many of our players have asked me for a way to help support the continued development of Abalon, so I setup a "Buy Me a Coffee" page where you can make one-time or recurring contributions.

Honestly, though, the biggest ask I have is simple and free: please write the game a review :)
Reviews do so much to improve our discoverability and bring new players to the game. They also provide me with a lot of insights on what I'm doing right with the design and where I can still improve.

If you're a native Polish or Ukrainian speaker, I would love your help with translating the game, and I'll even create a card in the game named in your honor. We have a really slick tool for translating that lets you see the translations in-engine in real-time, and our current volunteers have mentioned it's really fun to work with. We recently found a volunteer for Turkish and are excited to add this language to the game soon.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration :)



Developing this game and creating an experience that so many of you enjoy has been such an honor. I'm uplifted each day reading the wonderful stories, accomplishments, new friendships and overall fun and enjoyment you share in our Discord and Steam community. It's nice to see veteran players helping out our newcomers and creating a positive and welcoming place to be.

I have many plans for Abalon in the new year and will be continuing to add fixes, improvements and new features to the game based on your feedback. I'll be taking a short break for the holidays until the new year to spend with my family.

To each of you - have a wonderful holiday!

~Ross