Path of the Djinn News

Early May we'll be launching our first playtest, we're looking for feedback on the combat, and that's what the first playtest will be focused on.

It will have a limited time window and we'll follow up with more playtests as we adjust things. To apply visit our steam page and look for the "Request Access" button, it looks like this:

[h2]Skills have become cards[/h2]
Their availability during combat follows the classic card battler formula, with a deck and a discard pile. This comes after reflecting on all the feedback we got, from the original combat-only alpha up to now.



Yet another slay the spire clone you say? Stop right there! Here's the real deal of this post: runes! Runes allow you to power up skills during combat, enabling you to create powerful effects and execute crazy combos.

Let's take one step back and break down what a card looks like:



The top left area contains the card cost, its icon, name, and, just below the name, its tags, like "Attack" or "Skill". Certain runes require a card to have a specific tag to be applied. Below that, are the rune sockets, which show what runes are already applied and what capacity the card has.

At the center of the card is the combo: this effect is applied only if (at least) a certain amount of rune colors have been applied. Finally, at the bottom is the base effect of the card, e.g. doing some damage.



Runes follow a logic similar to cards: you start the game with a deck of runes and discard or acquire new runes by visiting points of interest or as a reward for battles.

[h2]New battle UI[/h2]
The battle UI went through a comprehensive rework to accommodate cards and runes. Moreover, characters aren't in a line anymore but are distributed across the battlefield for a more natural look.



[h2]Runes and Prayers[/h2]

Most prayers of the prayer system (link) have been realigned to (also) provide runes at the cost of some water, this will help in getting out of tricky situations when, if only you had that one rune, things would work out!



[h2]Dialogs[/h2]

Runes and prayers also tie in with dialogs. We wanted to get away from the (in our humble opinion)
stale "classic" formula for dialogs, and runes fit the purpose perfectly.

Dialog choices will now include rune sockets that can represent a requirement or a power-up, that is, fitting the right runes would increase the probability of a good outcome or its magnitude. Short of a rune? Perhaps a prayer can help.


The camping location has been reworked into a special dialog where the available activities depend on which characters are in the party! ⛺⛺⛺



What excites us the most about runes is the opportunity to plug in rare and tricky runes into the game, daily runs will be an excellent place for this.
We also hope that modders will enjoy the experience of creating new runes, something that we're making as simple as possible.

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Wishlist and follow us!

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/2730820/Path_of_the_Djinn/

We remade the UI from the ground up. We weren't convinced of the old UI, and kinda considered it temporary at best. As time passed we also received some feedback about its readability, especially the floating texts, this wasn't news to us, but it eventually made us realize that we really needed to pull the trigger on this.

We completely moved away from pixel art fonts, in favor of "Fontin", a battle-tested font that we were sure would not let us down. As you can see, the health bars, debuff stacks and floating damage are now much more readable. Yay! ːsteamthisː



In terms of style, we adopted a high-fidelity and dark UI, which doesn't shy away from glossiness and transparency. Of course, all UI components have been redesigned, see for example the resources panel and the dungeon map here.



We've to confess that we're especially happy about how cards turned out, tell us what you think about them! ːsteamhappyː



I've left the most important part for last: the battle UI! While "real" icons for skills and skill perks are still pending, the rest is pretty much final.



[h3]What's next[/h3]
As we mentioned in the Prayer System announcement, we'll now be focused on introducing the final component of Path of the Djinn, a combat sub-system which purpose is to introduce randomness and chain effects while tying everything together with skill perks. Over the next months we will send out some test versions to the subscribers of our newsletter, stay tuned!

Follow us for more exciting news from the desert of Samsara! ːsteamthisːːsteamthisːːsteamthisːːsteamthisː

As you fight your way through the desert, you'll need the help of the gods to tip the balance in your favor, that is, if you can spare the water, a rather precious thing in Samsara.


When starting your journey, you'll be prompted to pick a prayer, that is, a bundle of two or three skills that belong to the party rather than any individual character.
These skills can be used during any character's turn, but can also represent passive perks that affect the journey in different ways, like expanding dialog options or making particular locations more appealing than others.



Prayer skills require a sacrifice of water, a precious resource that you'll have to manage during your journey, continuously looking for a balance between the now and the later.




While some prayers can be seen as a simple crutch for the journey, others might be something you can build your party around or have penalties that will force you to rethink your playstyle.
Our aim for the Prayer System is for it to be a catalyst of replayability, with the long-term goal of having (at least some) daily runs offer extravagant and game-changing prayers for the day.

Last but not least: as you travel through the desert, you'll be able to upgrade your prayer by visiting a specific location, it will be up to you to decide when the time is right!





We'll be taking a hard look at the UI, which might be switched to a dark and minimalist style, along with changing the fonts of the game, due to the low readability they led to in some cases. We're also laying the groundwork for an additional system that integrates with the existing skill perk and prayer systems; stay tuned