Gremlins, Inc. News

UPDATE 2025/02/28

Good morning, dear friends :

As you may know, throughout 2025 we have committed to releasing weekly updates for Gremlins, Inc. Such updates typically include a few quality of life improvements:

edits for card rules, to make them easier to understand;
fixing typos and missing values in some languages;
occasionally, balancing changes (thanks to the forum discussions);
sometimes, improvements in visual assets (contrast/colors);
sometimes, improvements in the UI (font sizes and other things);
from time to time, improvements in stability of servers;

If you have any suggestions for future updates in the categories above, please post them on Steam Forums. We are here for you, working to make your game experience better.

And if you report a ːhypnoheartː particularly good ːhypnoheartː bug which we then find, and fix, then we will happily mail you a little package from our studio –

[h2]UPDATE 2025/02/28[/h2]

[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]

Yet again, we harmonized the description of the rules on about 20 cards more. We currently work on shortening long descriptions to make them fit the character limit, plus on the way in which a few mechanics like "swapping" and "revealing hands" and "teleporting" and paying bribes with a multiplier, are described. Languages affected: English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian.

We also made the description of the Bribe spot more consistent with the actual mechanic (if you stop, you don't pay a bribe that's double the size, you pay 2 separate bribes). Languages affected: English, Japanese, Russian (thanks, ːmagic_sparklesː petya).

[h3]USER INTERFACE[/h3]

When playing with impending ːtelegramː Misfortune visible, there was a bug: when the Damned passes ːcursedskullː Misfortune spots, all the other players could momentarily see the second of the two choices. This bug has now been fixed (thanks for sending the video, ːmagic_sparklesː 4nsZei, ♥.Beautiful Witch.♥).

When a card was clicked while a dialog for choosing a card was open, a ːtelegramː Misfortune hidden in the dialog would be triggered, and its description would be displayed. This bug has now been fixed (thanks for the reminder, ːmagic_sparklesː KILLERxam, Alexandro_rb^).

In Gremlinopedia, displaying action cards after Chaos cards were viewed, would cause the description of ːcardsː A Sacrifice to appear as the description of every action card shown. This bug has now been fixed (thanks, ːmagic_sparklesː _Joker_).

For some time, we were hunting for a specific bug, which has now been confirmed and reproduced in Japanese and Chinese languages: the description of a discarded jail card sometimes appeared in the description of the next jail card (thanks, ːmagic_sparklesː Japanese Gremlin Community and ːmagic_sparklesː Chinese Gremlin Community!). Moreover, once we were able to reproduce it, we also managed to fix it in time for this update (thanks, our brilliant engineer ːmagic_sparklesː Alex).

[h3]SERVERS[/h3]

With this update, we improved the loading times on the EU server a little: another step towards a smoother, more enjoyable player experience.

[h2]ROADMAP[/h2]

[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]

If there are any misleading descriptions of the rules of the cards, we would love to receive your feedback – since we continue to edit the rules to make them clearer. Every rule that is made easier to grasp, increases the speed of the multiplayer sessions.

[h3]USER INTERFACE[/h3]

We started to work on a number of elements for what we call "the fast animation mode", based on the requests from the veteran players who want a faster-paced gameplay. We aim to create a number of options in the settings menu, which will allow things like a faster dice-roller, and so on.

NB: this will be offered as a service limited to our generous supporters who are willing to invest in the Clockwork Town... that is, only to the players who own both The Governor Edition and The Governor Edition 2. No specific date when we will ship this, but it's now in the pipeline and the first option is done and verified already.

[h3]OTHER[/h3]

Gremlins, Inc. will celebrate 9 years in full release on March 11, 2025. We commemorate the date by committing to weekly updates throughout this calendar year. You may commemorate it by leaving a review playing a particularly good four-player session for 30 rounds.

[h3]TOURNAMENTS[/h3]

The next tournament, celebrating the 9th anniversary of the full release of Gremlins, Inc., will be held in March in the format "victory condition = number of rounds", for the first time in a long while. Love it or hate it, but it's a different flavor.

[h3]RANKED SESSIONS[/h3]

As mentioned briefly in last week's announcement, we have decided to review the rating system. Our tentative draft of the rating system looks like this:

League

Rules

Beggars: 80.00

Players with no experience in ranked matches start here.
No matter how many times you lose, your rating will not drop.

Slackers: 80.01–90.00

No matter how many times you lose, your rating will not drop below 80.01.

Swindlers: 90.01–95.00

No matter how many times you lose, your rating will not drop below 90.01.

Bureaucrats: 95.01–100.00

No monthly reset.

Politicians: 100.01–105.00

The rate is reset to 100.00 once a month.

Deputies: 105.01–110.00

The rate is reset to 105.00 once a month.

Governors: 110.01–120.00

The rate is reset to 110.00 once a month.

Oligarchs: 120.00+

The rate is reset to 115.00 once a month.

An additional possible feature: when a player with a quit rate over 20% abandons a session, they will be automatically banned from the ranked sessions for 48 hours. We do not penalize players (we don't know the reasons: connection lost due to distance to servers, or an intentional quitting, it's impossible to objectively differentiate), but we need to make sure that the effects of someone repeatedly disconnecting do not disturb other players much.

What do you all think about this draft?

We welcome a wide range of opinions, from beginners to experienced veterans.

–––––

PS

ːmaliceːːmaliceːːmaliceː Shameless promotion time! ːmaliceːːmaliceːːmaliceː

Our new game has a Steam page now (we plan to release a demo in the summer):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2694810/Sister_of_a_Dragon/

There will be a closed beta between now and the summer, mostly focused on the battle system ("challenges"), as it's the part of the game that we are almost done with.

UPDATE 2025/02/21

Good morning, dear friends :

As you may know, throughout 2025 we have committed to releasing weekly updates for Gremlins, Inc. Such updates typically include a few quality of life improvements:

edits for card rules, to make them easier to understand;
fixing typos and missing values in some languages;
occasionally, balancing changes (thanks to the forum discussions);
sometimes, improvements in visual assets (contrast/colors);
sometimes, improvements in the UI (font sizes and other things);
from time to time, improvements in stability of servers;

[h2]UPDATE 2025/02/21[/h2]

[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]

We harmonized the description of the rules on about 20 cards. Languages affected: English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian. This is an on-going process, and the more we work on this, the more we see the potential to make the game easier to understand to new players – through the use of standard wording for each of the mechanics.

Several typos in the Spanish language version have been fixed (thanks, ːmagic_sparklesː Juka, for the original reports in 2022 and for the reminder in 2025).

The description of ːcardsː"The Excuse Generator" has been fixed to better reflect the actual effect. Actually, the excuses generated by this machine are only valid for incompetent police officers and bureaucrats. There is no avoiding bribes with action cards and misfortune cards. Languages affected: English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian.

The description of ːcardsː"The Automated Warden" has been fixed to better reflect the actual effect. Because this automaton is completely inflexible, it holds not only its opponents, but also the teammates of its owner in the Jail for one extra turn during a team match. Languages affected: English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian.

[h3]USER INTERFACE[/h3]

The illustration of the playing field in Gremlinopedia was outdated, created in the days when the Clockwork Town looked like in the distant past (not, indeed, when everything was spring-loaded). The construction near the exit from the Jail should have been completed during the high economic growth period of the Clockwork Town, but we left it as it was. This has now been fixed.

[h2]ROADMAP[/h2]

[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]

If there are any misleading descriptions on card rules, we would love to receive your feedback – since we continue to edit the rules to make them more clear.

[h3]USER INTERFACE[/h3]

We continue to work on improving visibility of the playing field, spots and locations. We received some nice feedback on the updated Police spots in the last patch (a few people loved it, many more loved the fact that we rolled the changes back after the negative feedback). No visual updates this week, but we keep thinking about another approach.

[h3]USER EXPERIENCE[/h3]

We have maintained the current rating system for a long time, but we have come to realize that it can be improved. In short, the rating system has two goals:

(1) to minimize waiting time in the lobby; but also,
(2) not to match players with greatly different skills.

Obviously, any system will lead some people to complain that the wait time is high – or that the match of skills is not perfect. Any such system is, indeed, a compromise between these two goals. In the future, we plan to review the rating system, and are considering a system of "ladders", and a special rate for all new players to prevent them from being steamrolled by a returning veteran.

[h3]OTHER[/h3]

Gremlins, Inc. will celebrate 9 years in full release on March 11, 2025. Consider buying the game as a gift to your friends on this special occasion – in this way, you will have some more people to enjoy the game with, including team sessions.

[h3]TOURNAMENTS[/h3]

What do you think about having ranked sessions, and maybe even the next tournament, with the number of rounds as the condition? Please share your opinions in the comments. We continue to collect feedback.

The results of the Lunar New Year tournament have been published, check the details here:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/369990/announcements/detail/596261024722583993

–––––

PS

ːmaliceːːmaliceːːmaliceː Shameless promotion time! ːmaliceːːmaliceːːmaliceː

Our new game has a Steam page now (we plan to release a demo in the summer):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2694810/Sister_of_a_Dragon/

There will be a closed beta between now and the summer, mostly focused on the battle system ("challenges"), as it's the part of the game that we are almost done with. No multiplayer mode as of now. Just single-player that will make you splash the tea over the keyboard, at times.

UPDATE 16/02/2025

With this patch, we rolled back the updated spot assets on the playing field (but kept the updated location assets). While some players liked the updated visuals, and some didn't, there are two main reasons for this roll-back:

* before we ship something as different visually, as the new Police spot visuals, we want to implement a "legacy mode ON/OFF" setting for those who prefer the classic look.

* while we updated the spot assets based on the static experience, dynamically – during player turn – the more contrasting spots clashed with the selection highlights, making the understanding more difficult, rather than easier.

Thanks for feedback, and we continue to work on other things, as well as a new take on this.

UPDATE 2025/02/14

Good morning, dear friends :

As you may know, throughout 2025 we have committed to releasing weekly updates for Gremlins, Inc. Such updates typically include a few quality of life improvements:

edits for card rules, to make them easier to understand;
fixing typos and missing values in some languages;
occasionally, balancing changes (thanks to the forum discussions);
sometimes, improvements in visual assets (contrast/colors);
sometimes, improvements in the UI (font sizes and other things);
from time to time, improvements in stability of servers;

If you have any suggestions for future updates in the categories above, please post them on Steam Forums. We are here for you, working to make your game experience better.

And if you report a :hypnoheart: particularly good :hypnoheart: bug which we then find, and fix, then we will happily mail you a little package from our studio –

[h2]UPDATE 2025/02/14[/h2]

[h3]GAME MECHANICS[/h3]

The mechanics of ːcardsː "Brand Recognition" has been changed. In addition, a bug related to this card has been fixed.

Previously

Now

Cost: $150

Cost: $120

Special rule: For each occasion where you have the highest $, ːscoreː, ːvotesː, ːmaliceː, income or bribe, you get 1ːscoreː and your income increases by 3.

Special rule: If your $ or ːscoreː or ːvotesː or ːmaliceː or income or bribe is the single highest among all the players, get +1ːscoreː, income +3 for each such case.

Reasons for change:

Until now, the card rewarded the player even when they were in a tie with another player for the value. When this card was played immediately at the start of the session, it provided too big of an advantage. Therefore, this has been changed. This card is for players who are willing to take risks and actively lead the session.

In addition, this card didn't always work properly: there were issues with how it processed the effects of the permanent cards; the banker's ability “money creates money” was triggered multiple times; and there were problems with how income was changed. And since some players mistook this card for a permanent card, we also made an additional effort to make the text of the rules clearer.

Thanks to the following players for their feedback :magic_sparkles:Starriver Fisher, :magic_sparkles:miz, :magic_sparkles:jack_was, :magic_sparkles:4nsZei, :magic_sparkles:发牌员不许过年, :magic_sparkles:SymphonyNo28CoTkin, :magic_sparkles:Kit, :magic_sparkles:Uncouth Ruffian.

[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]

We harmonized the description of the rules on about 10 cards, specifically – the description of choices that players make. Languages affected: English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian.

ːcardsː “A Deal with the Prosecution” had a description which lead some players to think that they can teleport another player to the Jail even when they, themselves, did not serve a jail term. We edited the rules. Languages affected: English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian (thanks, :magic_sparkles: VodemaRus).

[h3]USER INTERFACE[/h3]

We extended the timer for choosing cards at the beginning of the session by about 10 seconds (Thanks for bringing this issue to our attention, :magic_sparkles: Infernomance).
The color, contrast, and brightness of a few spots and locations has been improved:

[h3]TECH ISSUES[/h3]

Fixed bugs related to ːcardsː "Corporate Scam" (thanks, :magic_sparkles: Gremlins, Inc. Japan Branch).

Once again, we improved the server logic (a bit).

UPDATE 2025/02/08

Good morning, dear friends :

As you may know, throughout 2025 we have committed to releasing weekly updates for Gremlins, Inc. Such updates typically include a few quality of life improvements:

edits for card rules, to make them easier to understand;
fixing typos and missing values in some languages;
occasionally, balancing changes (thanks to the forum discussions);
sometimes, improvements in visual assets (contrast/colors);
sometimes, improvements in the UI (font sizes and other things);
from time to time, improvements in stability of servers;

[h2]UPDATE 2025/02/08[/h2]

[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]

Harmonized description of rules on ːcardsː multiple cards (more than 20), so that the same mechanic is explained in exactly the same way. This invisible work actually takes quite some time as we go back and forth to bring consistency. It may not be a big deal for the veterans, but it makes the game easier to grasp for every new player, and this is important! Languages affected: English, Simplified Chinese (ːmagic_sparklesː thanks, 炒鸡厨客), Japanese, Russian.
One of the jail cards had, in Ukrainian, a mistake in the description ("-0 days"). Last week's update fixed this issue in Russian, but not in Ukrainian. This is fixed now. (ːmagic_sparklesː thanks, Infernomance).

[h3]USER INTERFACE[/h3]

Changed the font size for Japanese and Simplified Chinese languages in Gremlinopedia.

[h2]ROADMAP[/h2]

[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]

We continue to edit the rules of the cards for clarity in the four major languages used by players, with an update of the texts every week.

[h3]USER INTERFACE[/h3]

We started to look at the icons of spots and locations used on the playing field. Some of them could use an update in color and contrast, to be easier to recognize. We will update the assets gradually, with future weekly updates.

[h3]TECH ISSUES[/h3]

There's a server upgrade in the plans, which will provide significant improvement in stability. Tentatively, it is scheduled for the next week's update. If you will be in the game at the moment of the update, you will see a notice asking you to re-join. Don't worry.

[h3]OTHER[/h3]

The update to ːcardsː “Brand recognition” is pushed to the next week or later, due to a larger than expected workload related to testing how it works.

Attention! Question time! Do you use the High Contrast mode in Settings, when playing the game? It dims down the background of the playing field, and visibility is greatly improved. All of us at the studio do this. But do other player use, or even know, of this feature?

Some good news: in January, over 10.000 new players joined Gremlins, Inc. – welcome to the Clockwork Town! if you have any questions, or need advise, don't be strangers, please post on Steam forums.

ːfirstplaceː Lunar New Year Tournament: we are now in the last stages of reviewing the protests filed during the event, and expect to publish the results in the middle of the coming week. if you find yourself among the winners entitled to enamel pins or t-shirts, don't forget to contact us to confirm your delivery address.

[Team CO]

–––––

PS

ːmaliceːːmaliceːːmaliceː Shameless promotion time! ːmaliceːːmaliceːːmaliceː

Our new game has a Steam page now (we plan to release a demo in the summer):

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2694810/Sister_of_a_Dragon/