UPDATE 02/06/2025
Good morning, dear friends :
Throughout 2025 we release weekly updates for Gremlins, Inc., with quality of life improvements:
edits for card rules, to make them easier to understand;
balancing changes (thanks to the forum discussions);
sometimes, improvements in the UI.
If you have any suggestions 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 can find and fix, then we will happily mail you a little package from our studio, with these enamel pins (we can ship anywhere in the world, but delivery times vary) –
[h2]UPDATE 02/06/2025[/h2]
The updated version 1.244.11.0 is released on June 2.
[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]
The last week (as well as the whole weekend) we burned a lot of midnight oil, and edited over 100 cards, descriptions of spots and locations.
To give you an idea of what we're doing, here's a few examples from the hundred+ of fixes that we've made:
:bh2coin: The first case was typical for a lot of descriptions: you needed to read the whole sentence to understand what it means. "You can re-roll" – wait, what? Why can I re-roll? We fix this by putting the action first, in this case – 'search for Treasure'.
We also standardize the common terms: not "you can re-roll the dice", but "you can re-roll the dice once", since there are a few cards where you can re-roll twice; just "re-roll" is not good enough. And, we add the clarification that only the results of the last roll count, since in a few board games you would be able to choose "the best of all rolls". Here, we want to be clear upfront.
:bh2coin: The second example is a deeper rabbit hole. The legacy description does not explain, that you lose malice and look at the new cards only during the skipped turn; i.e. if you stop to rest in the Astral Plane, but someone teleports you from there before you have skipped your turn... these things won't happen.
Moreover, the legacy description says "you may choose one out of N new cards". We split this into the specific actions: you draw N cards from the deck, and you may choose to keep 1 – or not to keep anything at all.
:bh2coin: The third example is typical for harmonizing the terms, and making card rules concise. When you drop all of your cards into the discard pile, we call this "your hand". Maybe someone will think that "discard all. your cards" also includes active permanent cards? It makes more sense to use the term "hand". And, we used to have a lot of verbs like "get", "gain", "lose", as well as "and" connecting the values. We transition to using just + and –, which helps even more significantly in the languages where "get" is not 3 characters, but, say, 8 like in Russian ("получите").
All in all, we look at these edits as preparing the game for being moddable, as well as getting it ready for the possible real-life board game edition.
All of these edits happen in English, Japanese and Russian for now, with Simplified Chinese following with a week's delay. All other languages will get their edits in the autumn, during a big localization review project.
[h2]ROADMAP[/h2]
[h3]NEW CARD[/h3]
The new card is coming with the next update. It will be playable at the Dump.
[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]
In the coming week, we will focus on the edits of special abilities. For example, this is coming among other edits:
It's the usual harmonization and clarification: "rises by" –> +, "every time" –> "when"; we add "dice" to the verb "to roll" because in some languages, it's required to deliver the specific meaning; and we add the details about only the last result being taken into account, to prevent any possible confusion that you could re-roll and get the results of this ability with every 1 that shows up, during any of the attempts.
It may not be the most exciting work in the world... to the veteran players, these changes are all but invisible... but we think it makes the game more accessible, easier to understand, and thus we will see more people playing with confidence.
[Team CO]
PS
The big day has come: the demo of our new game, Sister of a Dragon, is now available:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3723490/Sister_of_a_Dragon__DEMO/
This demo showcases the basics of the combat system. We now continue to work on the story mode, which introduces the characters, their adventures in the world, and the first elements of crafting. Once that part is ready, it will be added to the demo.
Throughout 2025 we release weekly updates for Gremlins, Inc., with quality of life improvements:
edits for card rules, to make them easier to understand;
balancing changes (thanks to the forum discussions);
sometimes, improvements in the UI.
If you have any suggestions 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 can find and fix, then we will happily mail you a little package from our studio, with these enamel pins (we can ship anywhere in the world, but delivery times vary) –
[h2]UPDATE 02/06/2025[/h2]
The updated version 1.244.11.0 is released on June 2.
[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]
The last week (as well as the whole weekend) we burned a lot of midnight oil, and edited over 100 cards, descriptions of spots and locations.
To give you an idea of what we're doing, here's a few examples from the hundred+ of fixes that we've made:
Before
After
You can re-roll the dice while searching for treasure.
Search for treasure. You can re-roll the dice once. Only the result of the last roll counts.
If you want, you may skip a turn here to lose ːmaliceː {2} and choose one out of {1} new cards.
If you want: rest by skipping 1 turn; when you rest: -{2}ːmaliceː, draw {1} cards from the deck – you may choose 1 card to keep.
Discard all your cards. Get ${1} and ːmaliceː{2}.
Discard your hand. +{1}$, +{2}ːmaliceː.
:bh2coin: The first case was typical for a lot of descriptions: you needed to read the whole sentence to understand what it means. "You can re-roll" – wait, what? Why can I re-roll? We fix this by putting the action first, in this case – 'search for Treasure'.
We also standardize the common terms: not "you can re-roll the dice", but "you can re-roll the dice once", since there are a few cards where you can re-roll twice; just "re-roll" is not good enough. And, we add the clarification that only the results of the last roll count, since in a few board games you would be able to choose "the best of all rolls". Here, we want to be clear upfront.
:bh2coin: The second example is a deeper rabbit hole. The legacy description does not explain, that you lose malice and look at the new cards only during the skipped turn; i.e. if you stop to rest in the Astral Plane, but someone teleports you from there before you have skipped your turn... these things won't happen.
Moreover, the legacy description says "you may choose one out of N new cards". We split this into the specific actions: you draw N cards from the deck, and you may choose to keep 1 – or not to keep anything at all.
:bh2coin: The third example is typical for harmonizing the terms, and making card rules concise. When you drop all of your cards into the discard pile, we call this "your hand". Maybe someone will think that "discard all. your cards" also includes active permanent cards? It makes more sense to use the term "hand". And, we used to have a lot of verbs like "get", "gain", "lose", as well as "and" connecting the values. We transition to using just + and –, which helps even more significantly in the languages where "get" is not 3 characters, but, say, 8 like in Russian ("получите").
All in all, we look at these edits as preparing the game for being moddable, as well as getting it ready for the possible real-life board game edition.
All of these edits happen in English, Japanese and Russian for now, with Simplified Chinese following with a week's delay. All other languages will get their edits in the autumn, during a big localization review project.
[h2]ROADMAP[/h2]
[h3]NEW CARD[/h3]
The new card is coming with the next update. It will be playable at the Dump.
[h3]LANGUAGE EDITS[/h3]
In the coming week, we will focus on the edits of special abilities. For example, this is coming among other edits:
Before
After
Every time you roll "1", your {income} rises by {1}.
When you roll 1 on the dice: {income}|+{1}. When re-rolling, only the result of the last roll counts.
It's the usual harmonization and clarification: "rises by" –> +, "every time" –> "when"; we add "dice" to the verb "to roll" because in some languages, it's required to deliver the specific meaning; and we add the details about only the last result being taken into account, to prevent any possible confusion that you could re-roll and get the results of this ability with every 1 that shows up, during any of the attempts.
It may not be the most exciting work in the world... to the veteran players, these changes are all but invisible... but we think it makes the game more accessible, easier to understand, and thus we will see more people playing with confidence.
[Team CO]
PS
The big day has come: the demo of our new game, Sister of a Dragon, is now available:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3723490/Sister_of_a_Dragon__DEMO/
This demo showcases the basics of the combat system. We now continue to work on the story mode, which introduces the characters, their adventures in the world, and the first elements of crafting. Once that part is ready, it will be added to the demo.
