Aliosso News

First of all, thank you for trying out the game during the festival! ːsteamthumbsupː

Since this train has no brakes, we decided to follow up by patching in Kagu, to allow players to experience how different character tiles will affect the run.

The starter tiles of Kagu are the following

• Conjure Air: While in hand, your attack strikes one additional time.
  
• Stone Skin: If discarded without others, grants 6 armor.
  
• Rocklings: On trigger, all played tiles gain 2 Tak value.
  

An important archetype among the tiles of Kagu is Mantras. Mantra tiles can be discarded in pairs to destroy them and give an edition to a random card. For example:

• Sunborn Mantra: when discarding exactly 2 tiles of this type, destroy them and make a random base edition card Sunborn
  

Aside from mantras, we're trying to give Kagu a more RPG-y feeling that differentiates him from Balthaz (which is a sort of baseline closer to the game that inspired us).
For example, the demo will also contain the Mud Golem tile:

• Mud Golem: While in hand, triggers. If in hand at the end of the battle, increases its Tak value by 15.
  

[carousel][/carousel]Other changes of interest:

• The Ascension sphinx rune has been renamed Kri Rune, since there was already a card named like that. And today I was reminded of "The Mark of Kri", a game which I played years ago.
  
• The starter blue tiles won't be found in red vases anymore, due to them cluttering vases too much.
  
• The Armor prayer will not reduce max water by 1 anymore. Instead, we made it so that buying a water rune from the merchant will permanently increase its cost by 1.
  
• Broken Mirror has been reworked: At the start of the battle, fills your card slots with random cards (Charges: 2).
  
• Plain Armbrace has been reworked: Played tiles with Tak value lower than 10 are set to 10.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed pressing play without having any card selected.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed discarding cards after passing the turn.
  

Looking forward to seeing how you guys play with Kagu!

[p]TLDR: at the bottom :).

Our last post (two months ago!) promised some news about the future of the release. We lied! [/p][p]For a long while, we weren't satisfied with dice as the engine of the gameplay. While on the surface things felt okay, on a closer look, dice had a number of issues that were either too difficult to solve or made the learning curve significantly worse.[/p][p][/p][p]Here's a brief summary of the problems:[/p]

• [p]The split between symbol and numeric faces made some mechanics awkward.[/p]
• [p]The split between character and support dice also made some mechanics awkward, especially regarding runes..[/p]
• [p]Playing with 5 dice meant a lack of "breadth" in terms of interactions with cards or situational dice faces.[/p]
• [p]Having 5 dice also led to the "one-way door" issue of dice vases. Changing the type of a die or finding the right one was difficult or led to always skipping the vase's content.[/p]
• [p]Not all faces provided Tak. This meant that a player could trap themselves by building dice/faces with too many non-Tak providing faces.[/p]

[p][/p][p]We realized this was a fault in the gameplay that couldn't be fixed with incremental changes; we needed a drastic one. This is when we decided to move towards a gameplay that's more similar to a poker-inspired one that we (and so many others!) love so much, with our own twist and flavor.[/p][p][/p][p]Lots of words to say we removed dice and went for a cards/tiles-based gameplay. The gist of it:[/p]

• [p]Just like before, the power of your attacks is the product of Tak and Ni.[/p]
• [p]To attack, you make a combo of tiles (one of a kind, 2 of a kind, 3 of a kind... etc.). The harder the combo, the more Tak and Ni it will provide.[/p]
• [p]Cards work just like before, with run-altering effects, interactions with tiles, etc[/p]

[carousel][/carousel][p]Needless to say, different tiles have different trigger/discard/in-hand effects, with characters bringing their own set of tiles to spice up the gameplay. We went for tiles instead of cards not only because we already have cards, but because the two-halves nature of tiles allows us to[/p]

• [p]Explicitly show the Tak value of a tile by default.[/p]
• [p]Allow for mechanics that duplicate a tile face onto the bottom part, or merge two tiles into one, with the top part and the bottom part having the symbols of the merged tiles.[/p]
• [p]There is room to apply more than one rune per tile.[/p][p][/p]

[p]We have reworked lots of existing cards and introduced a whole set of tiles for the demo. For this reason, you'll find that all unlocked entries have been reset.[/p][p]For the time being, the demo will only include Balthaz; we are planning to introduce Kagu back into the demo once we have worked on his tile set. Try out the demo and make sure to play the tutorial! [/p][p]Make sure to check out other games at the Ukrainian Games Festival :P[/p][p][/p][p]TLDR: reworked the game from dice to tiles, with a combo-based system that will surely remind you of Balatro.[/p][p][/p]

[p]We'll be releasing some major news (and a BIG demo update) for the Ukrainian Games Festival, which starts next week on the 14th of August.
[/p][p]We're excited to show you what we have been working on, but I won't say more for now. We like to keep an aura of mystery around here.[/p][p]Expect a longer post, and, more importantly, a big reason to play the demo again and again and again! See you next week![/p]

[p]Hi there! Today, we're releasing a new demo update along with some development news.[/p][p][/p][p]TLDR: save system, seeded runs, reworked character selection screen, new biome and balance & bug fixes.[/p][p][/p][p]We finally found the time to implement a proper save system for the game; unsurprisingly, this means you'll be able to quit and reload from where you left off. Along with saving, this release also brings seeded runs, you'll be able to find, share, and play fun and/or interesting seeds![/p][p]Seeds can be set in the character select screen, which has been touched up!
[/p][p][/p][p]Regarding balance and bugs, we've gone through a simplification effort for dice and masteries, along with the usual tweaks. By popular demand, we've added the "play again with a bonus card" button to the win screen, rather than keeping it only for the loss one.
[/p][p]When it comes to non-demo related news, we've added the Ruins biome, here's a couple of screens.[/p][p][/p][carousel][/carousel][p]We've also added endless mode, and while we and "internal" testers find it lots of fun, we'll keep this feature for the full game.[/p][p]That's it, our plan is to - soon - keep you posted about some full release info, stay tuned![/p][p][/p]

This update is a mix of demo content and progress on the game's full version. Take a peek at what's coming in the full release—or find out why it's worth revisiting the demo.
[h2]Card Unlocks (part of the demo)[/h2]
Some familiar cards are now part of a new unlock system — giving seasoned players something fresh to chase, and newcomers a smoother learning curve. Each locked card has its own unique requirement, turning unlocking them into a game of its own. Head to the Collections menu to track your progress and see what it takes to unlock them all.


[h2]New Yellow Runes (part of the demo)[/h2]

• Savagery: Sets the selected Support die face to a random symbol face from its die type (if any).
  

[h2]New Sphinx Runes (part of the demo)[/h2]

• Perch: Makes a random card Windborn, destroys all other cards.
  
• Magnificence: Sets the selected Support die face to the highest numeric face among your dice.
  
• Reactivity: When the die rolls on this face, trigger it.
  
• Ascension: All your Attacks and Abilities gain 1 level.
  
• Pandemonium: Applies Random Roll to all faces of the selected Support die.
  
• Recast: Select 2 dice, the left die becomes a copy of the right die, -5 Max HP.
  

[h2]New Character: Yohlon (not part of the demo)[/h2]
We're done implementing Yohlon, the Turtle Clan's master ranger, a hardened scout who thrives in exploring the ever-shifting desert.


Yohlon won't be part of the demo, but here's a look at his attacks and skills.

• Quick Shot: Strikes 2 random enemies.
  
• Barrage: Strikes 2 random enemies (Level up: Strikes 1 more enemy every 2 levels).
  
• Opening Shot: Strikes 2 random enemies. On the first turn, grants double Tak and Ni.
  
• Poisonous Arrow: Strikes 2 random enemies. If available, consumes all Rerolls and applies Poison stacks equal to Power with the first strike.
  
• Speed Runner: +10 Tak for each visited scenario.
  
• Dodge: Gain 1 stack of Dodge, set this face to Smooth Landing.
  
• Smooth Landing: Set this face to Dodge.
  
• Snake's Pact: If available, consumes 1 Reroll and applies Snake's Shedding to the Support die on the left.
  
• Dice Dance: Triggers a random Support die.
  
• Ranger Bounty: Applies n (level) stacks of Ranger Bounty to a random enemy.
  
• Aim: Applies Aimed to the target enemy. Unlockable Content and a Peek Behind the Curtain
  
• Aimed: Your attacks will prioritize this target for this turn.
  
• Wanderer's Quiver Mastery: Find Canyons, Caverns, Ruins more often.
  
• Pathfinding: Shadow King: When set, the next scenarios will include a Shadow King.
  
• Finders Keepers: If in Desert: +10 Tak. If in Canyons: add 4 gold. If in Caverns: add a random yellow rune.
  
• Pathfinding: Lost Sphinx Vase: When set, the next scenarios will include a Lost Sphinx Vase.
  
• Pathfinding: Lost Signet: When set, the next scenarios will include a Lost Signet.
  

[h2]New Biome: Caverns (not part of the demo)[/h2]
We have been working on a new biome, the caverns. Like the canyons, it's a 3-battles-in-a-row area with a special reward on completion. As expected, it has its own mobs and bosses! This will not be included in the demo for the foreseeable future.


[h2]Miscellaneous Changes[/h2]

• Enemies that inflict bleeding or poison on attack will now display so next to their damage intent.
  
• Cards and dice that were previously emitting a "!" on trigger now emit the specific amount of Tak or Ni they provide.
  
• The order of triggering of dice in some complex cases has been adjusted.
  
• As usual, some work has gone into better balancing cards and ice.