Dark Cards of Candlewood News

[p]I'm very excited to announce an update to the demo that adds support for several new languages:[/p]

• [p]Spanish[/p]
• [p]French[/p]
• [p]German[/p]
• [p]Brazilian Portuguese[/p]
• [p]Japanese[/p]
• [p]Chinese (simplified)[/p]

[p][/p][p]There's a lot of text and UI in the game, so it took serious effort to make sure each new language looks and feels just as good as the English version. [/p][p][/p][p]Please let me know in the Community Hub or on Discord if you find any problems![/p][p] Such a uniquely nerdy moment seeing your game's title screen in Japanese![/p][p][/p][p]In addition to the new languages, this update also adds:[/p]

• [p]Beautiful new high-res fonts and styles for all languages![/p]
• [p]A new optional dark mode for cards (this should be the default for Japanese and Chinese).[/p]
• [p]Balance changes that should hopefully ease the grind in the early game![/p]
• [p]Various bug fixes, including a common bug with the achievement/reward for completing the entire demo.[/p]

[p][/p][p]The new optional dark mode theme for cards allows the text to be a lot more colorful! Perfect for languages where bold styles are hard to read at small sizes.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This update also introduces a fully styled high-res font option. This feature was experimental in previous builds, but now the high res text has been updated to perfectly match the pixel graphics! Of course, all languages still have a carefully selected and styled pixel option as well (the latin font is hand-drawn by me!)[/p][p][/p][p]With this update, I've put just as much love and attention into the high-res fonts as the pixel ones![/p][p][/p][p]Finally, this update also fixes an annoying issue where some players did not receive a reward for finishing the demo. [/p][p][/p][p]Everything should work perfectly on a new save now (fingers crossed), but if you already finished the demo on an old save but never saw a summary screen at the end and want the achievement contact me on Discord or the community hub![/p][p][/p][p]If you never saw this screen after beating the full demo, hit me up on Discord for a fix. Shout out to community member Sibley for posting this score!!

That's all for now, I'll be focusing on card design next so stay tuned for more updates or join our community to help shape the design of the game.

- Luno[/p]

[h2]Welcome to Candlewood![/h2][p]Hey, so glad you've finally made it to town. I'm pumped to show you the new build, talk about some upcoming features, and get your feedback to make the game even better. Pull up a seat near the uh, smoldering remains of the old tavern and let's get to it.[/p][p][/p][p]The ruined tavern sprite! Surprisingly fun to draw. After you rebuild it, you'll unlock quests and challenges (read on for details).[/p][p][/p][p]If you played the old browser demo but missed the last beta test in our Discord, a lot has changed since then. Some major highlights include:[/p]

• [p]Over 150 cards, items, and enchantments to try[/p]
• [p]Draft enchantments (persistent modifiers) throughout each adventure.[/p]
• [p]Adventures have multiple levels and scaling difficulty[/p]
• [p]Branching path choice between levels[/p]
• [p]Music and sound effects (finally)[/p]
• [p]4 demo achievements (note: these are completely separate from the main game)[/p]
• [p]An exclusive Discord role to earn![/p]

[p][/p][p]My goal for the game has always been to create a fresh-feeling deckbuilder with a familiar setting and incremental progression that's more like a collectible card game or RPG. I've also been trying to retain some of the randomized drafting elements from roguelites, and this demo feels closer to that vision than ever. I think this weird RPG/roguelite hybrid thing is finally coming together and I'm excited to push it even further with your help.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Up Next[/h2][p]I'll be updating the demo to sneak in some quality of life and balance adjustments. Keep the feedback coming in the meantime please![/p][p][/p][p]I'll also be adding support for German, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, and simplified Chinese as soon as humanly possible. Stay tuned for the next update. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Up...Later?[/h2][p]After those immediate fixes and updates I mentioned, I'll be focusing on new content. I run occasional beta tests in our Discord server if you ever wanna try things out early.

Quests and Challenges[/p][p]Once you repair the Tavern, you can unlock quests and challenges. The quests are repeatable deck-building prompts (e.g. "apply 20 poison") that you can complete to earn even more currency. Challenges are special achievements that unlock a powerful card for you as a reward.[/p][p]
Re-usable Items[/p][p]Ah yes, the classic problem with consumables: it feels bad to use them because you have to use them up! I'm changing Items to be re-usable once per fight just like cards with the Consume keyword. The Items you get in the new system should feel like a more reliable part of the build you're drafting during an adventure. [/p][p][/p][p]More classes and decks[/p][p]I'm working on pushing the synergies and combos even further and adding more distinctive builds that develop the mid and late game mechanics. I've designed 3 major archetypes for each class like a Bard stage performer build that generates treasure and can mind control enemies, or a Ranger beastmaster build that shuffles animal companion cards into your deck. Expect send ups to classic JRPG tropes filtered through new funky mechanical interpretations![/p][p][/p][h2]
Support the Game[/h2][p]I'm just one dude in charge of all the art, design, and programming at the moment so I'll take all the help I can get.

The most important thing is your feedback and the best place to share that is the Discord or the Community Hub. I take every suggestion into consideration!

Next, we live to serve our dark master The Algorithm. It seriously helps out a ton to wishlist and follow, and leave a demo review.

Last, you can check out socials for even more updates. I post these dev diary videos that you might be into and I'm gonna put out another batch of 'em real soon.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]That's it for now. Thanks for playing!!![/p][p]-Luno[/p]