Novus Orbis News

Hi everyone!

I've been silently updating the demo to address a few issues, but I'm going to announce this 2.5.0 version just in time for Next Fest next week!

Aside from a lot of bug fixes (and bug additions, and fixes, and additions...), a few changes, mostly visual:

• Reworked start menu. Looks cleaner and should be easier to navigate.
  
• Portals and interactables now give a visual feedback when the cursor is on them.
  
• Enemies' Countdown value will now pulsate when at 2, to help you focus on the fact that they're close to act.
  
• Changed Defense and Great Defense's icon, since it was too similar to Block's. I used the icon that was used for Physical Resistance (the Slime's status that I removed a while back).
  
• A reward system, similar to StS, where you'll get a reward at the start of a run if you've reached at least the first boss.
  
• Italian localization.
  

Now, to the actual game's release.
If you check the Store Page, you may notice that I have updated it with screenshots that are not from the demo.
I am pleased to say that, regarding content, the game is basically ready to be shipped!

The first Early Access release will contain:

• The two classes that are in the demo, with some new cards and mechanics for both classes.
  
• New blessings.
  
• Four different levels.
  
• Many new enemies, mini bosses and bosses.
  
• 65 Achievements, all linked to unlocking something in the game (cards, blessings, pets and more)
  
• A Challenges system: each class will be able to unlock five Challenges to make the game more difficult and unlock even more things.
  
• An Easy Mode where enemies will be weaker. Getting Achievements will be locked in this mode.
  

For an experienced player this should keep you entertained for more than 30 hours.

The plan after the first release is to gradually update the game at least monthly, but likely more often. There will be two big updates that will add a new class and two more sets of levels, bringing the game to a total of 9 different levels when everything is ready. I will post a more in-depth roadmap in the future.

Now to some not great news, my plan was to release by the end of the year, but I'm discussing with the publisher, and it may be a better logistic choice to wait for the beginning of next year. Nothing has been decided yet.

Finally, together with Next Fest I will soon launch a second try for a Kickstarter campaign. I hope that the two events will bring interest to each other!
I've recently reached 3000 wishlists, and I really hope this Fest will bring me closer to the magic 7000.
In case you're not following it yet, here is the Kickstarter Campaign Page.
Whoever backs to buy the game will gain access to the Beta for the Early Access release. Basically you'll be able to start enjoying the game a few months in advance, and you'll be able to see it grow and change with your help.

As always, thank you everyone for following the project and the support!

It was brought to my attention that there was a pretty bad bug, where the game wasn't "forgetting" the blessings you've seen during a run, when restarting a run. Which meant that at some point you'd run out of blessings.
This was bad enough to require an update.

Together with that, I have been fixing other issues for the game release.
For the few people who may care, I have finally managed to finalize how I handle localization (for now I have Japanese, French and Polish, and Italian should come soon). Now special characters will properly display, and the original English version should appear in case a localized entry is missing.

I also introduced two new portal modifiers: one will make enemies weaker (and smaller), and one that will steal some monster blood.

Thank you to whoever is still playing the demo, I can't wait to finally release!

[h3]KICKSTARTER[/h3]
We will be running a Kickstarter campaign for Novus Orbis later this year. Please be sure to give that a Follow so you don't miss out on your chance to support the game and earn cool rewards!



[h3]STAY UPDATED[/h3]

[h3]NEW UPDATE[/h3]
I wasn't planning to make any more big changes to the game's visual, at least not before release, but while making the final boss for the Early Access version...one thing led to another, and pushed me to go for it.

I added a bloom effect to many aspects of the game!
I hope you'll like it as much as I do :D

I took the chance to also update a few sprites and lights here and there. Some things were starting to feel outdated compared to the more recent stuff I've been making.

This update will also include a few bug fixes.

Finally (while this actually came with a previous unannounced update), I've also added localization for the Polish language, thanks to the amazing help of aruemaremateu, who graciously offered his help for free.
The language is not 100% implemented, and I still need to find a fix for special characters I'm having for the French language too.

Thank you as always for the support!

[h3]KICKSTARTER[/h3]
We will be running a Kickstarter campaign for Novus Orbis later this year. Please be sure to give that a Follow so you don't miss out on your chance to support the game and earn cool rewards!



[h3]STAY UPDATED[/h3]

I love pixel art games, and I know you do too. So, let’s celebrate together 🎉 I'm super excited to share that Novus Orbis joins PixElated Festival next week! This festival is featuring some of the best pixel art games on Steam. From retro-style classics to contemporary indie gems all in one place!
There will be ✨ discounts ✨ live streams ✨ art contest ✨ demos✨ developer chats ✨ all centered around your favorite games.
Check out the official line-up and more information about the event here: http://pixelatedfest.com/

Hi everyone!
It's been a while since my last update.

I've been hard at work on the Early Access release, and I felt I couldn't keep updating the demo or I'd never get things done. This is also because I was keeping them as two different project files.

I realized this wasn't sustainable tho, and considering that I've added and changed MANY things in the past months, I felt the need to merge everything together into the same project file.

Now I'll be able to bug fix and push important updates to the demo too, in case it will be needed.

Here are the changes that I made to the game, that will now also be present in the demo:

• Added portal modifiers. You will sometimes see little "ghosts" over the portals, that will have an effect once you enter that portal. I decided to make this addition to spice things up, and make the portal choice less obvious. Portals now also look prettier than before.
  
• The firepit now has its own room, instead of being treated as an event.
  
• Most events now will require you to interact with them before you can access portals.
  
• Reworked the shop. I felt that it was one of the weakest elements of the gameplay loop, so I opted to go for a more classical solution. Interacting with the shop will now give you 4 things to buy (with variable prices depending on type and rarity), and you'll be able to reroll the goods a few times (before it gets angry). Together with this I also re balanced the amount of Monster Blood you get from enemies.
  
• The Map icon will now show an overview of the current level when interacted with. No more guessing when the boss or shop are going to come.
  
• There is now a map between levels (instead of automatically going to the next level). In Early Access I have planned one path with four levels, but the full game will have a total of 9 levels and branching paths. For the demo, you'll only be able to choose the 4 different "Lands" versions.
  
• Added a trail behind the cursor. I think it looks pretty, I hope it won't be too distracting. I added it mostly to help visualize the game when playing with a pad.
  

I made some changes to the overall game balance, including changes to some statuses. The 4 levels in the demo now also have a different structure between each other. The game may now be a little more difficult than before, especially during normal fights. It should be less forgiving, both in and out of fight. I haven't played this new version too many times, but the demo is still beatable.
To elaborate on the most important changes:

• The statuses "great strength" and "great defense" now cannot stack anymore. I felt it was too easy in some cases to simply become too powerful. Instead, the statuses will now only consider the highest (or lowest) value they receive. For example, if you have "great strength" x3 and then use a card that would give you x2, you will stay at x3. On the other hand, if you have x2 and next get x3, the result will be x3. Positive and negative values will cancel out.
  
• I added a new "Fragile" status. With this status, the entity will get double damage. This status doesn't stack.
  
• To account for these changes, I changed how the "Fire" status for the mage behaves when charged up. I will probably need to re balance this in the future.
  

Considering the many changes, and limited ability to test everything, please report if you find any bug!