Novus Orbis News

Hello!
This will be the last content update for a while.
I need to make sure the demo is as polished as possible for the upcoming Deckbuilder Fest and Kickstarter Campaign.
I will keep updating with bug and balance fixes in the next few weeks!

This update brings two big things:

New Mage Cards:
The Mage was suffering at this point from a lack of attack cards. It had roughly half the number of attack cards compared to skill cards.
With this update I bring 1 Skill card, 1 Special card, 1 Equipment card and 7 Attack cards:

• Center Of Gravity
  
• Synesthesia
  
• Hydro Gauntlet
  
• Icicle
  
• Foam
  
• Meteor
  
• Stacking Rocks
  
• Sharp Clay
  
• Zap
  
• Nuclear Blast
  

This should hopefully bring a more interesting, varied and fair challenge when playing the Mage.

New Feature:
This has been a request forever, and I also personally thought it was important, but I couldn't find a way to nicely implement it. I think I found it!
Now, if you press either Shift or Control (or the two triggers on a game pad) you will be shown your hand cards' stats when in combo and out of combo. This way you can always assess what your best play is.
It's not something you'll use every turn, but it will be helpful for sure!

Lastly, other tweaks to balance for various cards and enemies.

Getting closer to the Deckbuilder Fest I decided it's worth it to work a little more on some things that may make the game more appealing.

That's why I'm introducing a score screen you'll see when winning or losing.
The actual numbers and values, and how they're calculated may change in the future.
As always, let me know if you find anything weird!

On top of that, I decided that I needed to change/expand the Mage class a little.
I realized that having access to all elements at any time would make players focus only on some specific cards and completely ignore others.

So, I'm introducing the Grimoire (equipment) set:

• Inferno Grimoire
  
• Magma Grimoire
  
• Oasis Grimoire
  
• Tempest Grimoire
  
• Whirlpool Grimoire
  
• Quintessence Grimoire
  

The first 5 are dual elements, while the last one has all elements.
Now, you will find cards of a certain element ONLY if you own a Grimoire that contains that element.
This new mechanic may need some reworking and balance, but so far I like it!

Together with that, I also changed the starting deck for the Mage.

I feel like the game is extremely imbalanced right now, when it comes to comparing the two classes.
Not much a matter of being easy or difficult, but I feel that the Mage requires way more planning and thought, and in general fights last way longer.
Which is not 100% a bad thing, but I think I want the Warrior to get a little closer to the mage, at least when it comes to the first 2 levels.

As a final addition for this update, now the achievement for winning the 4th level, as well as the one for The Maker, are split between the Warrior and Mage.

Novus Orbis already had pad controls before, but I decided to temporarily disable them because it was getting hard keeping up with bugs (I test with a mouse and I couldn't track issues efficiently by myself).

With my Kickstarter and the Deckbuilder Fest getting closer I decided it was time to work on putting them back into the game.
It may still not be perfect, so if you plan on playing with a pad let me know if you find any issues!

Together with that, I also thought it would be nice to try adding Achievements to the demo!
This wasn't planned, but I guessed it may give one more reason to play it, and to give an idea of its depth and length.
So far I put 16, nothing extreme, they should be easily unlockable if you know the game already.

Finally, a few more small changes:

• Removed the newly introduced blessing, Pleasant Breeze. I didn't realize it was basically a duplicate of another blessing already in the game.
  
• Removed Pets' abilities descriptions. They looked ugly, and I need to think about how to display them when using a pad.
  
• Added a "news" text box in the main menu, as well as a button that brings you to the Kickstarter page.
  
• The Maker's "card not found" attack is now a multiple attack.
  

I've been working on Novus Orbis for a year and a half now.
I believe I improved a lot, and that the game has potential!



I'm at the point where the Early Access release is getting closer (planned for late summer), and I would need all the possible help leading to that.

Kickstarter is a great opportunity for players to get exclusive rewards for their support, and for developers to bring their vision to life.

Since I'm working on this solo, I won't be able to offer any physical reward or anything external to the game itself, but you'll be able to secure a game copy together with some juicy additions, like the chance to design game elements with me, and you'll get my gratitude forever!
Each reward will include having your name in the credits!



The game will be released regardless of the Kickstarter Campaign going well, but it will be one of the factors that will shape how fast I can make the game, and how much additional content and flair I can add to it.

If you like what I've been making so far and you want to see more, follow the campaign here:

Kickstarter Campaign

Long time no update!

In the past few weeks, aside from a few bug fixes, I've been working on new promotional material (new trailer and screenshots), as well as preparing for a Kickstarter campaign.
I still don't have a date for it, but it will be sometime in March. There will also be the Deckbuilder Fest on Steam, so I think it will be a good opportunity to make the two things overlap.

But for too long a time without making anything IN the game was starting to feel odd, so I decided to make a bunch of new blessings.
Aside from the innate ones, I haven't made new blessings in a VERY long time. And I was starting to feel that they weren't enough for the demo, especially the uncommon ones.

Speaking of which, do you know blessings are in four different pools?

• Common: You find these in Blessing rooms, as well as drops from Mini-Bosses.
  
• Great: These are the ones you can buy at the shop, and they also drop from the optional bosses. This pool is also used by The Enigma.
  
• Boss: These drop from bosses at the end of each level. Right now that's the only instance where you need to choose one out of two. This pool of Blessings is designed to have a very good effect as well as a negative one.
  
• Flame: A small pool of blessings that you can only obtain from the firepit. Extremely strong, with the downside that you have to give five cards to the firepit (and be damaged in the process).
  

Here is a list of the newly added blessings:

Common:

• Pleasant Breeze
  
• Renunciation
  
• Guardian
  
• Lethargy
  

Great:

• Hard Bones
  
• Nothingness
  

Boss:

• Risk Of Pain
  

Flame:

• Yellow Flame
  

With this, we go up to 59 Blessings in the demo!

One more thing I've been working on these past weeks is, mostly on paper, a plan for how the world map will work. I think I've managed to make something nice!
I'll be working on a visual representation of the map in the next few days.