Abalon News

[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

Thanks everyone for your feedback!

Here's another round of fixes:

1. Fixed bug where completing a battle with challenge modifiers applied and then exiting the game before acknowledging the victory resulted in the adventure progress being cleared and generating bugs at start of the game when returning. (Thanks Xavius)
   
2. Fixed bug where copying a deck in the deck selector screen would throw an error (Thanks Snoopy13)
   
3. Fixed bug where selecting a unit that is running away in explore mode generates an error (Thanks blackdove2).
   
4. Fixed bug where rescuing a character from Bleet the Beastmaster or Inkadoo with a full party could result in an error after changing the active guardians. (Thanks MrCamon)
   
5. Fixed bug where selecting the deck or satchel while enemies are rushing the screen into battle could cause the player's party to run away and delay the start of the battle until restarting the game.
   
6. Fixed bug where returning from the guardian screen to a battle where enemies are rushing the battlefield, the player might see enemies already placed on grid pop away and then run back to their starting position.
   
7. Fixed bug where returning back to the game after it's been idle for a while could result in an error occurring when it attempts resume the music.
   
8. Fixed bug where Russian Cyrillic characters appeared missing from the leaderboard and run summary screen.
   
9. Fixed bug where Russian Cyrillic characters appears in alternating combinations of regular and bold face on cad titles and menu buttons. (Thanks Coolstory).
   
10. Updated Russian translations with improved vocabulary and descriptions (Thanks Coolstory).
    
11. Updated German translations with improved vocabulary and flavor text (Thanks HiImClueless)
    
12. Italian: added automatic language detection when first booting up the game on a device with Italian set as the default language.

[h2]Greetings D20Studios Fans![/h2]

Thank you everyone for your feedback on the game! I've been focused on fixing critical bugs and other improvements to the game before I dive back into feature development and balance tuning. Here's what's new:

1. Fixed a critical bug where fast traveling to a different floor on the map during an animation could result in summoner or followers being duplicated and locking the game in an unrecoverable save state. This fix recovers all affected player game saves.
   
2. Added fix to ensure heroes and player units are not mapped to the world cell states (preventing future duplication errors) and removing existing duplicates from world saves.
   
3. Fixed bug with fast travel where switching to view different floors could alter the behavior of animations for the player's current floor and cause animation and cascade bugs.
   
4. Fixed hot keys for the subWorld buttons so players can now use keys and gamepad buttons mapped to the next/prev screen actions to switch the active floor of the world map.
   
5. Fixed bug where some registered Steam accounts weren't syncing progress bi-directionally with the mobile version of the game. (Thanks Jedrak)
   
6. Fixed bug where chat and multiplayer beta functionality wasn't working for players with registered Steam accounts linked to mobile version of the game. (Thanks Excolion)
   
7. Fixed bug where guardians and/or cards appeared as grayed out/new/locked in game modes such as Fast Travel where the player starts with a pre-constructed All-star team.
   
8. Fixed bug where an exception could be thrown when attempting to swap out an existing guardian (particularly one that hadn't been unlocked yet) with another when recruiting a new team member.
   
9. Fixed bug where player's guardians would be invisible within the guardian selector at camp if they had another guardian within their deck.
   
10. Fixed bug where guardian/cards could appear as invisible within the tortoise deck selector at camp until being moused over or tapped on.
    
11. Fixed bug where guardians and cards the player had not yet unlocked could be permanently removed when swapped out of the party/deck. This could occur when playing a Fast Adventure and choosing an all-star deck that includes cards not yet unlocked. Note: This fix takes effect upon starting new adventure after updating.
    
12. Fixed bug where player might see a Mercenary for Hire or Caged Animal on the world map without a guardian being spawned.
    
13. Fixed bugwhere targeting on mobile devices using the "tap" to select and "tap" to command method on an adjacent target resulted in the unit not changing their facing towards the target until after the animation had completed.
    
14. Changed Cora's Frost Nova ability to right hand equip context so that changing her weapon allows her ability to be replaced by the equipped item (Thanks Константин (Nagibashka))
    
15. Fixed Serpenta's Diamond tier mass hypnosis ability so that units with 5 or less are commanded as stated on the card (instead of 3 or less as was occurring in previous version). (Thanks skywalkershen)
    
16. Fixed bug where multiple spaces lit up when targeting with the Revive spell (one for the target space and one for where the revived unit was defeated on the board).
    
17. Updated German translations with improved vocabulary and flavor text (Thanks HiImClueless)
    

I've setup a franchise page where you can follow updates on our games. Check it out and hit the "Follow" button to stay up-to-date with our latest: https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/d20studios




As always, thanks for being a valued player in the D20Studios community! Please feel welcome to reach out to me (comments, Steam friend request, in-game Menu -> Share Feedback, and on Discord https://discord.gg/d20studios) and let me know how I can make the game even better for you! And of course, I greatly appreciate your Steam reviews!

~Ross

1. Fixed threshold for the Golden Greed trigger intended to prevent fraudulent leaderboard entries from diluting the achievements of legitimate player runs (Thanks Dusty)
   
2. Fixed bug where game could freeze up after collecting gold/marshmallows/dice.
   
3. Fixed bug where equipping a unit, such as the Chronomancer, with a weapon that added new abilities and removed other abilities resulted in the unit's card text displaying formatting code. Note: It is intended that equipping certain characters with a new weapon will remove existing abilities. For example, equipping a Chronomancer with a new weapon removes his time staff and his abilities to send units to the future. You can see the abilities that will be removed as you drag/hover over the target (new abilities appear in green, removed abilities appear in red). Removed abilities will remain on the card with grayed out text. (Thanks lyb555)
   
4. Fixed bug where using a scroll of resurrection or bonfire potion to revive a defeated guardian while the "Lost Guardians" challenge modifier is active was not flagging the character as having been found (even though the revive worked). This resulted in an issue where after removing the character from your party, they would not return to the cosmic tortoise so that they could be added to the party or deck again later. (Thanks Saltiest Knight)
   
5. Fixed bug where game could become locked up after winning a battle with a fire sword equipped Barbarian.
   
6. Balance: Barbarian now gets -1/-0 until end of turn each time his Wreck ability triggers. This directly addresses player feedback that the Barbarian was too powerful at clearing the board of weaker units while still enabling great synergies with his ability (Discord community approved!)
   
7. Updated Italian language with some translation fixes (Thanks Takis)

[h2]Greetings D20Studios Fans![/h2]

I'm thrilled to welcome 50,000 new players to Abalon just one week following our WW mobile launch. What an intense and thrilling week it's been! I am so excited and grateful to see our community grow and for all the wonderful and positive moments we've shared and will continue to experience together!

Sure, there were some stressful moments and things I couldn't anticipate, like unverified developer warnings blocking access to the game, thousands of new bug reports to address, and some disappointment from players because we don't yet support their native language... but all that was equally matched and then some by the awesome kindness of so many folks who jumped in to support me and our players whose patience, understanding and enjoyment of the game have kept me going!



[h2]Bugs Be Gettin' Fixed[/h2]
While there's still a lot I need to individually address, I'm pleased to share I'm making good progress stabilizing the build and resolving the remaining bulk issues affecting the majority of players. Special shout out and thanks to Andrew Frost, engineering manager at Harman in charge of the AIR SDK. He's a passionate, dedicated, and responsive professional and his support and insights were paramount in solving the many technical issues I've faced developing Abalon.

[h2]Italian Language Now Supported![/h2]
Our first 1 star reviews came from players upset I didn't support Italian. The very next day, Takis Proietti Rocchi answered my call for help by volunteering to translate the game. Grazie, Takis, for your hard work providing Italian language support for our community! A new card, named in your honor, will soon be added to the game for all players to enjoy!

I'm still seeking support from our community to help translate. Polish, Ukrainian and Turkish have been requested, would anyone like to help? I have a first-class translation tool that allows you to review translations in the live game engine, making it fast and fun! You, too, can be immortalized in Abalon. Please email me at [email protected] or message me on our Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios


[h2]Best New Game of the week on App Store[/h2]
Super honored and excited to share Abalon was featured on the App Store in "New Games We Love" and picked as "Best New Game" in Apple's "The Best in Games This Week".



Abalon also attained the #1 Game ranking on App Raven. This passionate player review explains why.



Congratulations to Dustbunney for clearing Descent 10 and attaining the new #1 high score on our global leaderboard! I have another 10 levels of Descent planned and look forward to adding these soon so you can delve deeper in your adventures and ascend ever higher as a legend of Abalon!


Abalon is included in two game bundles featured in Turn Based Carnival, alongside the amazing developers of Hellcard, Terra Randoma, and Fabled Lands. Check out the deals and complete your collection:

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/46861/Deckbuilders_Paradise/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/46796/Infinite_Realms__Roguelike_Tactics/

1. Added Italian Language Special thanks to our player, Takis Proietti Rocchi, for providing the translations! A new card will soon be added to the game for all players, named in your honor!
   
2. Fixed Unverified Developer Warning (Android) Abalon is now a fully verified Google app!
   
3. Fixed App Minimize Issues (iOS) where the game threw error exceptions for attempting to make GPU updates to the game while the app was minimized.
   
4. Fixed bug where the hellhound puppy, adorable as he is, would generate AI Sync errors whenever entering a battle (bad dog!)
   
5. Fixed hellhound puppy so he now fetches a unique card each time his ability is used (good dog!)
   
6. Fixed bug where the below par bonus and xp were showing for battle end prompt for PvP multiplayer beta
   
7. Fixed bug where it was possible to generate extra mana after first discarding two cards and then losing a unit.
   
8. Fixed another exploit to prevent errant/impossible scores from being posted to the leaderboard

[h2]Abalon Soundtrack Now Available![/h2]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3330660/Abalon_Soundtrack/



As always, thanks for being a valued player in the D20Studios community! Please feel welcome to reach out to me (comments, Steam friend request, in-game Menu -> Share Feedback, and on Discord https://discord.gg/d20studios) and let me know how I can make the game even better for you! And of course, I greatly appreciate your Steam reviews!

~Ross