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Turnbound News

Do you like cat? Do you like hat?

[p]Hello Spirits, new and old, as well as any cats that have made their way over here![/p][p][/p][p]We’re happy to announce a small collaboration between ourselves and Bongo Cat, where you can get our delightful (and mischievous) cat in Bongo Cat as a skin to unlock. 🙀[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This is really, really cool for us, not just because we love cats, but because we love Bongo Cat! You can often find the 1TK team hanging out in meowtiplayer throughout our workday. And we just think it is amazing to have a skin for our cat in a game we love, and now we get to decorate with many hats 😭[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So how do you unlock this lil guy? You simply need to play the Turnbound demo for 5 minutes, that’s it.
[/p][p]If you are new to our game, welcome!

In Turnbound your soul is trapped within a board game and in order to escape, you fight against other spirits (players) in asynchronous autobattles. You do this by managing your inventory of tiles to create combinations and builds that beat your opponents. It’s inventory management with mahjong tiles, players have said it’s kind of like inventory Tetris meets Hearthstone Battlegrounds.  [/p][p][/p][p]If that sounds like something you might be interested in, we would love for you to play the game and share your honest feedback via Discord or the community hub, as we know community feedback is essential to making this game the best it can be![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]—[/p][p]Thank you as always for your support! Be sure to follow us in any of these places to stay up-to-date with the latest news:[/p][p]Stay spooky and safe[/p]
  • [p]The 1TK team.[/p]

Explain the Build: BeefyKong.

[p]Hello spirits, new and old, to another Explain The Build article where we highlight a variety of potential combinations and builds that you can achieve within our game! Hopefully, this will give you some inspiration for what you could achieve in creating your own builds going forward.[/p][p][/p][p]The main element of this build involves the Cinnabar Pills upgraded to level 3 which provide health, though it still works, but not as strongly, if at level 1 or 2, but also a trinket that revives the first destroyed accessory to full health, which is likely going to be the Cinnabar Pills, and then finally the dragon whiskers which improves the power of any weapon that attacks.[/p][p][/p][p]Prefer to watch?[/p][p]Head on over to our YouTube channel, where we have put together a quick video with Donald explaining the BeefyKong build.
[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]At this moment in the run, the build is at 8 wins with 5 lives left, which means things are going very well for us in our run! [/p][p][/p][p]The first element, which I mentioned before, is the Cinnabar Pills, these provide health to adjacent attack tiles by damaging themselves whenever something next to them takes damage. This obviously has a limit, as it will eventually destroy itself, but thanks to our trinket, we have a high chance of keeping this going, as the trinket revives the first destroyed accessory to full health.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]From there, we ensured that we got some value from the pills by placing multiple taunts adjacent to them to guarantee some triggers, even if it's only a couple of hits in the case of de-taunt. Finally, the last main component of the build is the Dragon Whiskers, which increases the attack of adjacent attack tiles by two each time they attack, meaning we can keep up to some degree against any build that might be trying to do the same thing as us and build for health.[/p][p]
In practice, there are many additional ways to further augment health gains, especially with the Cinnabar Pills. You could, as an example, use the Pilgrim’s Plume Cap. This also gives adjacent attack tiles health whenever something is damaged next to it, which does proc off the cinnabar pills, damaging themselves as well.[/p][p]— [/p][p]That's all for now![/p][p]Thank you as always for your support! Be sure to follow us in any of these places to stay up-to-date with the latest news:[/p][p]Stay spooky and safe.[/p]
  • [p]The 1TK team.[/p]

Dev Log #2: Introducing Alice

[p]Welcome, spirits, new and old, to the second of our dev logs, this time diving into Alice and the choices that we made surrounding the character.[/p][p][/p][h3]Prefer to watch?[/h3][p]Join Anisa and Matthew from the team as they talk about Alice and her character design in the video below:[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][h2]Why Alice?[/h2][p]We realised early on that we wanted characters with Eastern and Western influences who could complement each other, and Alice turned out to be a perfect fit for us. Alice as a character has existed through a multitude of different interpretations, ranging from literature, to film and other media, which meant we had a rich selection of inspirational source material.[/p][p][/p][p]Because her character is so well-known and recognisable, we knew that she could stand on her own next to Monkey King. Her lore and visual identifiers, such as her blonde hair and her blue, puffed sleeve dress, make her instantly recognisable as Alice.[/p][p][/p][h2]The Design of Alice.[/h2][p]Knowing that Alice would be recognisable, we wanted to balance that familiarity while making sure her character design would be our own. Once again, we worked with Agnieszka Szajewska, an amazing artist based in Poland, who was very excited with our direction of Alice. We already had a concept to work with: long blonde hair, blue dress, and a little apron, which is very Disney-esque so we wanted to make sure that we had our own spin on it.[/p][p][/p][p]In Turnbound, Alice’s abilities are centred around using consumables and potions, so we designed her to look smart and strategic. Traditionally her looks are feminine and Victorian, so we looked to other sources of inspiration to influence her design. Japanese fashion, particularly the Gothic Lolita style with its frills, hearts, flowers, and oversized bows, stood out as a way to diversify her aesthetic while keeping her instantly recognisable.[/p][p][/p][p]Another consideration was our game’s setting: it’s a rough environment, yet we’re featuring timeless characters, so it was especially important to reinterpret our heroes in our own style by moving toward a more contemporary fashion aesthetic.[/p][p][/p][p]One of the themes of our game is that the player’s soul is sucked into the board game. Because of that, we wanted to explore supernatural ideas. When you choose a character, you literally inhabit that character during battles, so we gave Alice a ghostly spirit which results in an experience that feels like “cozy horror”.[/p][p][/p][p]This led to a conversation about what kind of spirit, or essence surrounds a character. We wondered what a ghostly presence would look like for someone like Alice, whether it’s the Cheshire Cat or something else? We did humour the idea of keeping her original age, but the themes of the game pushed us towards an older Alice. An older Alice meant a more experienced Alice, possibly changed from her Wonderland adventures, and one that could confront an opponent in front of her.

This meant that we ended up having an alternate skin done by Spain based artist Sergi Brosa. This version is more bold, almost as if she were a cyberpunk survivalist lost in Wonderland. It made us excited about the possibilities of an iconic character in a completely different universe. The smallest details could hint at other stories; for example, Sergi’s Alice looks like she’s been scrounging for resources, getting her hands dirty and getting flowers stuck in her clothes, whereas Agnieszka’s version is cleaner and more fashionable.[/p][p][/p][p]Being able to tell different stories through alternate designs of our characters is extremely exciting!  Each artist has their own style, and through this they can take our brief and come up with designs that make us say, “That’s awesome, we wouldn’t have thought about that!” This collaborative workflow inspires us with ideas that we wouldn’t have discovered on our own.[/p][p][/p][h2]That’s all for now[/h2][p]Thank you once again for your support and patience! Be sure to follow us in any of these places to stay up-to-date with the latest news: [/p][p]Stay spooky and safe[/p]
  • [p]The 1TK team.
    [/p]

Delay Announcement + Patch Notes/Maintenance

[h3]Delay Announcement + Patch Notes[/h3][p][/p][p]Well, this is awkward… have you ever announced a release date but then a cat holds your soul hostage unless you delay your game because he likes to make you question your sanity? [/p][p][/p][p]In all seriousness, we are very sorry to announce that we will be delaying the Early Access release of Turnbound.[/p][p][/p][p]We know that this news is frustrating, and we are sincerely sorry. We want to be as transparent with our community as possible on the reason for the delay, and it is simply because we need more time to cook. Whilst Early Access games get given a bit more grace, we believe that if you are paying for something, you should get value for your money. We’re no longer confident we can guarantee that if we ship on the 13th of November 2025.[/p][p][/p][p]When we planned our announcement at Galaxies, we thought the timeline was tight but manageable, given the amount of work that was left to do. After further investigating the current bugs and remaining work we now know it would be unrealistic to ship on the 13th. We’re saddened to have to make this call, but we know it’s the right choice in order to give you the version of Turnbound that you deserve.[/p][p][/p][p]So when will Turnbound ship? [/p][p]We don’t want to promise a date only to delay it again. What we can promise you is that as soon as we have a date we feel 100% confident in, you’ll be the first to know! [/p][p][/p][p]To help make this happen, we may even open up Steam Playtests or have an Open Beta for players to enjoy new features and heroes! 😊 We’re also committed to keeping the Demo available for you to continue to enjoy until we ship.[/p][p]
As an extra thank you for your patience and understanding, our overlord The Cat has deemed you worthy enough to give him scritches in the Early Access release. 🐈‍⬛ (Please note the “Pet the Cat” Feature will not loosen his grip on your soul).[/p][p][/p][p]On to the patch notes: [/p][p]NOTE: The servers will go down at 1pm GMT for approximately 15-30 minutes to apply the patch.[/p][p]Patch Notes 0.31.0:
[/p]
  • [p]Fixed Red Silk Sash to trigger when damaged, not when destroyed[/p]
  • [p]Added a warning message when trying to launch the game on incompatible hardware[/p]
  • [p]Adding German Localization[/p]
[p]— [/p][p]Thank you once again for your support and patience! Be sure to follow us in any of these places to stay up-to-date with the latest news: [/p][p]Stay spooky and safe[/p]
  • [p]The 1TK team.[/p]

Explain the Build - Vulture PearlCracker

[p]Hello Spirits, welcome and happy Halloween![/p][p][/p][p]Alongside our Dev Logs, we also wanted to highlight the variety of potential combinations and builds you can achieve in our game, which, in turn, will hopefully give you all some inspiration for combinations to try out![/p][p][/p][p]In this short article, we will go over a vulture, PearlCracker build that primarily revolves around self-tile destruction, buffing up our weapons to get that power high enough to push through to victory.[/p][p][/p][p]Prefer to watch?[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Head on over to our YouTube channel, where we have put together a quick short with Donald explaining the Vulture PearlCracker build.[/p][p] In this moment in time, we are nearing the end of a run, with 8 wins and 2 lives left. Our build consists of several parts that combine to create the build that we have. Firstly, the economic aspect is several Madcoin Mice, which are low-health accessories that, when they die, generate more coins. This has helped us throughout the run to get the coins needed to get the build together in the first place.[/p][p]However, they are also low health items that when they die, synergize with the Vulture 9000, which reads: “When an adjacent tile is destroyed, give adjacent attack tiles +6 power and +6 health.” and the Alice Doll, which reads “When an adjacent Tile is destroyed, give Hero Tile +4 health and +4 power”[/p][p][/p][p]From there, we have two separate PearlCrackers that deal damage to everyone in combat, taunted by a neighbouring tea set that taunts adjacent accessories, which in turn are placed next to the aforementioned Vulture 9000. [/p][p][/p][p]These Pearl Crackers may, if we’re lucky, due to their low damage, destroy some consumables before any harder hits trigger them. They also, due to the damage it does on our board, synergise with the Wrath Rose, which further increases the hero tile damage ( what it is pointed to) by two whenever an adjacent tile is damaged.[/p][p][/p][p]In practice, on average, the hero tile will end up with roughly 60 health and attack, and other weapons will have around 30-40 health and attack, which, if you go and watch the short, you will see an example of the build in combat as well.[/p][p]– [/p][p]That’s all for now[/p][p]Thank you again for following us on this journey so far! Be sure to follow and join our social channels for more info:[/p][p]Stay spooky and safe.[/p][p]
~ The 1TK Team.[/p][p][/p]