Nowhere Prophet News

[p]Hi friends![/p][p]It's a real whirlwind over here! After the surprise mobile launch last week, this week follows up with another banger:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]If you've enjoyed Nowhere Prophet you should give it a go! And if you did NOT enjoy Nowhere Prophet (what are you doing here?) you NEED to give it a go! It's building on many of the lessons I learned making Nowhere Prophet and I think it's so much better for it. [/p][p]So if you give the game a spin, let me know what you think! There's a handy feedback form available in the demo itself, but of course you can also leave a review or post in the discussions on Steam. There's a subreddit for you or you can jump on the Sharkbomb Studios discord and share your feedback![/p][p]Whichever option you chose, I'm most likely going to read it. Sharing your experience with and thoughts is one of the best ways to help me make a better game. Also hearing nice things is always such a motivation boost for me. People having fun playing the game is why I am making it, after all![/p][p]Now what are you waiting for? Crash some Tyrants![/p][p][/p][p]The Crownbreakers demo launches as part of Turn-based Fest on Steam! A celebration of turn-based games that lasts this week! And as part of that event I will be streaming while I play the Crownbreakers demo and talk about its development this Thursday! [/p][p]I'd love to use that opportunity to answer some questions you folks might have about my games, or game development in general. I'll bring a bunch of questions into the stream so I am prepared to have some useful things to talk about but for that I need your help:[/p][p]So if there's anything you ever wanted to ask me, let me know![/p][p][/p][p]Ever since I started working on Crownbreakers, I had an idea: It would be a ton of fun to bring one of the characters from my new game into Nowhere Prophet as a playable class! And while I'm currently laser focused on building the new game I thought that it might make for a great community challenge in the wake of the demo release! So here goes:[/p][h3]Let's bring Ten Winds from Crownbreakers into Nowhere Prophet![/h3][p][/p][p]Who's Ten Winds?[/p][p]The best way to find out about her is to play the demo. But to sum it up: She is a hard-hitting brawler with lightning powers. There's a lot more to her but that's the gist. Her class name in Nowhere Prophet would be The Hammer. [/p][p]What's the challenge?[/p][p]You can make suggestions for class-specific content! If we get enough good ideas I'll put them all in a blender and into the game as a new playable class! So, what are the things we need to create a new prophet?[/p][p]Each prophet comes with a starting deck of 12 cards (2 of which are rare), a set of 18 learnable leader cards (5 common, 5 rare, 5 legendary and 3 mythic) and an unlock condition that makes them available as an option. These are the questions we need to answer, so now you can:[/p]

• [p]Suggest a starting deck (or just cards you think would be a good fit)[/p]
• [p]Suggest new leader cards (individual ones or even an entire set)[/p]
• [p]Suggest a set of learnable cards (including new and/or existing cards!)[/p]
• [p]Suggest an unlock condition[/p]

[p]I have also created a new mechanic inspired by the Knockback feature in Crownbreakers: Push / Pull with Crash X. When pushing or pulling a unit, if the last / first slot is already occupied, both targets are moved as usual but take X damage![/p][p]So, what ideas can you come up with?[/p][p]If you want to contribute, the best way is to join the Discord Server to discuss your ideas with others. But I have also created a Steam discussion topic and a post on the Nowhere Prophet subreddit if that's easier! [/p][p]I'm excited to see what we can build together![/p][p]As part of the work we've done for the mobile version, we created an easier difficulty than "Chosen". As mentioned in the past, the comparably high difficulty floor is one of Nowhere Prophet's biggest hurdles for new players. So making that easier difficulty available on PC is something I really want to do to help more people enjoy the game.[/p][p]Ideally that update to the game also contains a Crownbreakers crossover class to tie it together into a nice, chunky update! But for now I've uploaded a beta version including the mobile difficulty changes to Steam. If you are curious and want to give them a go, you can use the BETA feature and enter the password [c]newmobiletimes[/c] to access that version. [/p][p]If you give it a go, let me know what you think![/p][p][/p][p]And here's the last bit: I've been working on a crowdfunding campaign for Crownbreakers that will launch later this year. It will feature some exclusive rewards that will only be available there! If you remember the "First Access" days of Nowhere Prophet, you might know what I'm talking about.[/p][p]So if that sounds like something you would want to join in, then subscribe to the pre-launch page on Kickstarter to get notified immediately once the campaign goes live! A great way to stay in the loop and to signal to others that this is going to be a cool campaign![/p][p][/p][p]And that's it for today! I'm excited to see what this week brings with the release of the demo to all the players on Steam![/p][p]Much love,[/p][p]Martin[/p]

[p]Hi everyone![/p][p][/p][p]We have some exciting news - Nowhere Prophet is OUT NOW on iOS & Android![/p][p][/p][p]As a special thanks for all of you OG Nowhere Prophet players, you can click here on your Apple device to grab a limited time 20% launch discount for the game on iOS! You can try a bit of the game for free on both platforms, and if you decide you want the whole thing, then you can purchase to unlock the full game![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Not only that, you can also grab Nowhere Prophet for 75% OFF on Steam right now![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]We've been working on making the mobile version perfect, and now we're super happy to finally launch! Now, you can conquer the wasteland & lead your caravan wherever you go![/p][p][/p][p]Thank you again for all of the support you've given Nowhere Prophet over the years - we'll see you out there![/p]

[p]Hi everyone! [/p][p]I hope everyone had a good start into 2026. I've been chugging along working on and polishing the Crownbreakers Demo and it's finally ready! It took a bit until I felt it was good enough to see the light of day but starting today you can grab the Demo on itch.io.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The demo offers around 30 to 60 minutes of playtime. It contains the initial tutorial level and a brief taste of the city meta gameplay. From there you can start a run against the tyrant of Downfalls. Win or lose that run you can then take a look at a late game experience in a bigger level with a more complex deck and tougher enemies.[/p][p]I"m eager for you to give it a go and share your feedback with me! You can either do so through the special feedback form in the demo's main menu, you can post here or join the Sharkbomb Studios discord. And of course, you can wishlist Crownbreakers here on Steam.[/p][p][/p][h3]Why itch.io and not Steam?[/h3][p]I decided to launch the demo on itch.io first because it is a much smaller audience and lets me see how people respond to the demo before I publish it on Steam. I want the demo to be in its best shape before launching it here. [/p][p]But don't worry! The demo will come to Steam too in the near future. So if you don't want to hop over to itch.io you can simply wait a bit. I'm sure to make enough noise once the Steam demo goes live so you won't miss it.[/p][p]Have fun,[/p][p]Martin[/p]

[p]Happy holidays, my friends![/p][p]It's the tail end of the year and that's a good opportunity to look back at the year and to see how far you've come. I know I have the tendency to always look at all the work I have left to do, which makes me forget to celebrate and appreciate all the work I have already done.[/p][p]So in the interest of my mental health, I've put together a little video showing the progress on Crownbreakers from the very first pre-prototypes I put together at the end of 2022, all the way to now, three years later in 2025 with the game being almost demo ready:[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]A video showing the development of Crownbreakers over the years[/p][p][/p][p]I've been sharing this video (and other things about Crownbreakers) around social media (okay, mostly Reddit) a bit and I have to say, I was really positively surprised by the many people that piped up to say that they really enjoyed Nowhere Prophet and conversely are looking forward to Crownbreakers. At this point Nowhere Prophet is over 5 years old and while it was quite successful it wasn't really a big hit. So it's really nice to hear that it has found its place among you lovely folks! Warms my heart, I tells ya.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Different screenshots from lovely Reddit comments about Nowhere Prophet[/p][p][/p][p]Still, it is a little strange to me because as mentioned, I always have my eye towards what is missing. This means I always look at Nowhere Prophet through the eyes of its creator, thinking about all the things I'd change, improve or just simply do different, if I would make it again. So, why not take a moment to talk about these things, and how I'm addressing them in Crownbreakers.[/p][p]To my mind there's three main shortcomings in Nowhere Prophet:[/p]

• [p]Difficulty: It's punishingly high even on the lowest levels, making people bounce off of the game.[/p]
• [p]Run length: At well north of 1 hour, a proper Nowhere Prophet run is quite a time commitment.[/p]
• [p]Story voice: It uses a lot of words and prose to tell its story but I don't think it connects well.[/p]

[p]So, let's dive into these in a little more depth:[/p][p][/p][p] Three difficulties, but even the lowest is tough![/p][p][/p][p]The problem: Nowhere Prophet is frustratingly difficult and so people stop playing early on.[/p][p]There's actually two different components to this: [/p][p]One one hand it's the overall difficulty of the game: How tough enemies are to beat, how punishing the events are etc. As a game developer this is really hard to gauge since you know your game so well what seems "normal" to you is probably quite hard for people not as familiar with the game. [/p][p]I think the lowest difficulty on Nowhere Prophet is still too high. The game should be a chunk easier, with more plentiful resources and easier healing on the map. My position is that, on the lowest difficulty, it should be possible for the absolute majority of players to finish the game. In fact, I think that's the purpose of the lowest difficulty: Make the game accessible to as many people as possible[/p][p]And I don't think Nowhere Prophet quite meets that. Though, I am curious: What would YOU change to make Nowhere Prophet easier?[/p][p]And the second component? Well, that's the sense of frustration. That's partly triggered by the difficulty but a big factor is also the fact that the enemy's hand cards are hidden. You don't know what's coming, and if the enemy has the perfect card to counter you, it might just feel like they've cheated. This lack of information generally create unpleasant surprises and is not something you can play around, unless you memorized the enemy decks.[/p][p]As a player of traditional collectible card games (like Magic: The Gathering), not knowing what the opponent has in hand is a part of the game. I wanted to translate that to the digital realm, but of course it feels vastly different when playing against a human on even footing, than against enemies that have very different resources (and don't need to worry about wounds either!).[/p][p]I think these two things combined can trigger a lot of frustrating moments.[/p][p][/p][p] User-selectable difficulty levels (interface still WIP)[/p][p][/p][p]The solution: More player choice in difficulty[/p][p]In Crownbreakers there are a lot more knobs to tweak difficulty with, allowing you to move it up to the level of challenge you prefer. [/p][p]I took a page from Balatro here, where the increasing stakes are unlocked as you complete runs with a deck. I like the sense of progression and mastery this creates, as you replay the same part with ever more challenging modifiers that make the run interesting in its own way.[/p][p]Crownbreakers is doing something similar. But instead of difficulty being linked to a deck, it's linked to a district. The first time you fully clear a district you unlock the next difficulty level for that district. Each further full clear on the highest available difficulty gives you access to the next higher difficulty. [/p][p]Whether the lowest difficulty is hard enough to be interesting, while being easy enough to beat is something we'll just have to find out once the game's released...[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So many maps to travel through![/p][p][/p][p]The problem: Nowhere Prophet runs generally take too long, making them feel like a big commitment[/p][p]This kind of just shook out that way. I wanted the game to have multiple maps. I wanted the journey to feel like a long pilgrimage. I wanted players to get a lot of value for their money. But in the end the runs just need more time than I think is good. Shorter runs make it easier to just jump into one quickly.[/p][p]Not only that, a long run in a roguelike also incurs a lot of frustration if you die close to the end. Because getting there took such a long time, losing after 100 minutes is much more painful, than after 20.[/p][p] [/p][p]Breaking open a treasure for a card mid-battle[/p][p][/p][p]The solution: Shorter runs[/p][p]I guess this one is kind of obvious, right? Shorter runs are the solution to runs that are too long. But that opens a whole new can of worms: The general approach of many deck builders (Nowhere Prophet included) is an overworld with its travel rules and deckbuilding options, and different fights to play your deck. [/p][p]This deck building paradigm means that a certain amount of "map action" is needed to give you enough opportunities to edit and adjust your deck. Cutting that to make the runs shorter also cuts out the deck-building. So how did I approach this in Crownbreakers?[/p][p]Firstly, Crownbreakers runs are short. Approximately 20-30 minutes only! That's very short for a deck-builder. Obviously it's a turn-based game so you can take however long you want to take, but that's the goal I'm aiming for. Short, snappy runs. Without a map to navigate mid-run. Instead multiple come together to make a bigger thing: Freeing the districts from their tyrants is broken down into individual routes, each their own little run. All need to be cleared to make progress on that district. [/p][p]But if there's no map, where do you build the deck? Well, you do it while you fight! There are treasures to break to add new cards to your deck, and there are ways to remove cards from your deck during the battle. This makes the entire fight much more dynamic![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]So much text, just to click "Fight."[/p][p][/p][p]The problem: The Nowhere Prophet world is interesting but the story doesn't grab people[/p][p]This probably the most disappointing one to me. I've poured a lot of love into the world of Soma but I don't think people connect with it as much as I would have liked them to. How can I tell? Well I think there's a simple metric for this: Fanart.[/p][p]I believe fanart is a great indicator of people connecting to a story or a world. In fact they connect so strongly that they want to create their own stuff within it! I think as a creative, making a piece that inspires fanart is a sign of success. Inspiring others with your work is an honor. Unfortunately Nowhere Prophet hasn't really inspired any fanart I have seen. Why?[/p][p]I think a big reason is that due to the procedurally generated nature of the game, I kept the narrative kind of interchangeable and replaceable. That means there's no recurring characters you get to meet, to love or to hate. I think that's the biggest failing.[/p][p]There's also another problem with the storytelling in Nowhere Prophet: It wastes a lot of words on prose that, while setting the mood and communicating the world, isn't really read by a lot of people. It's large chunks of text that most people skip through. It is a little better if there's an interesting decision to be had - then players read to get the context for their decision. But there's plenty of text that is just fluff, like the image above. And considering that every word needs to be translated, that is also a big extra cost for something people don't need.[/p][p][/p][p] A character has got something to share with you[/p][p][/p][p]The solution: Character-driven dialog-first storytelling.[/p][p]In Crownbreakers everything revolves around the characters. Your heroes and champions, your friends and connections, and your tyrants and enemies. These are people you will meet over and over, get to know them, and their world. And over time your relationships will change and adjust.[/p][p]This also means that 99% of the storytelling text is dialog, not prose. It's much more efficient and that means every word expresses the characters. Granted, writing dialog well is its own challenge but I think I can get there.[/p][p]Actually Hades was a big influence on that. I think the writing team does such a good job at portraying and communicating characters and the reactive nature of the dialog to your playthroughs works so well for a roguelike, so I am taking a page out of their book :)[/p][p]I can't wait for you to meet the people of Cascade![/p][p][/p][p]Anyway, that's it with this deep dive! Ah, see?! Now my "critical eye" has won out again and I spent all these words talking about the failings of Nowhere Prophet. Maybe next time I'll talk about the things Nowhere Prophet did right and how I'm carrying these over into Crownbreakers. Would that be interesting for you?[/p][p][/p][p]So, what's next for Crownbreakers? I'm still working on the demo. It's going to be ready very shortly!So, if you're interested in that, you might want to join the Sharkbomb Studios Discord to stay up to date![/p][p]Other things you might want to check out are:[/p][p][/p][h3]Sharkbomb Studios on TikTok[/h3][p]I've started uploading some short form videos and I've been having fun with them. There are more to come! For example, I'm planning to upload some insights into my time at the Rabbit and Comic Con! So make sure to follow![/p][p][/p][h3]Crownbreakers Crowdfunding Campaign[/h3][p]It's still a bit away but I am planning a crowdfunding campaign for Crownbreakers in the beginning of next year. Subscribe to the pre-launch page on Kickstarter to get notified immediately once the campaign goes live! The best way to not miss anything![/p][p][/p][h3]Ex Umbra Crowdfunding Campaign[/h3][p]This one is even further away but I am also planning a printed edition of my (solo) tabletop game Ex Umbra that has you build dungeons as you play. As above, if that sounds interesting follow along on Kickstarter![/p][p][/p][p]And that's it for today![/p][p][/p][p]Talk to you soon,[/p][p]Martin[/p][p][/p][p]I know you're probably sick of it by now, but if you made it this far, you might have forgot to WISHLIST CROWNBREAKERS![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[p]Hello Friends,[/p][p]November was a busy month for me! Here's all the cool stuff I added to my new deck-builder Crownbreakers. If you haven't head of it yet: It's a brand new world of magic and modernity with a dynamic card battle system that has you free a city from tyranny! If any of that sounds good, you should stop reading and WISHLIST the game, right now! Then you can come back and read on :)[/p][p][/p][h2]NEW CITY VISUALS[/h2][p]Up until November the visuals for the city were still a rough placeholder. Now this part of the game has been dramatically improved![/p][p][/p][p]The old placeholder interface for the city[/p][p][/p][p]The new city screen[/p][p]It took a while to really figure out how to present the city. We could have skipped the 3d environment and just made an abstract menu but it's important to me for Cascade to feel like a place. A big part of that was figuring out the scale and level of abstraction. I've started with actual geographic data from cities to try things but it quickly turned out that showing individual buildings is too much. It also requires a camera that's close enough for those to matter, but that would either lead to a tiny city or a lot of scrolling.[/p][p]I eventually decided on a scale that's far enough away that we can see larger simplified city blocks and the larger streets without seeing individual houses or details. It's more like a model of the city than an actual, real city.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The city itself is put together in the Blender 3d software by using 2d outlines of the different blocks. These are then projected onto the terrain, and then given depth to turn them into city blocks.[/p][p][/p][p]To do that I'm using so-called Geometry Nodes. This is a simple but powerful system that lets me transform them dynamically, so that I can re-import the outlines to update the 3d easily. It also gives me control over the height of the blocks in different areas, the variation in height etc. [/p][p]And to make it shine, the camera also needed some work. With a key feature of the city being a giant magical rock, using that as the center of an orbiting camera just felt natural. It took a while to get the movement to work right but now it's a lot of fun to explore the city.[/p][p][/p][p]With all that said, I want to note that I am still working on the final style of the city itself. There's still a lot to pin down in terms of color, textures, and lighting but the general setup works pretty well.[/p][p]I'm super curious to hear your ideas: What would you add to make the city more alive? [/p][p] [/p][h2]ROUTE CONCEPT[/h2][p]Aside from working on the city visuals, I also delved deeper into the structure of the districts: The places controlled by the tyrants that you go to to try and break their hold on the city. So far each district had a sequence of stages, each one capped by a boss. This was solid but felt like it lacked player choice a little.[/p][p]The current placeholder interface with some placeholder text and images.[/p][p]Now each district has one tyrant and multiple lieutenants. Each of these has their own "Route", with slightly different mechanics and configurations. This gives each of these places a bit of a different texture within the larger district. And each of these routes is capped by its own boss, letting you choose which boss to go up against![/p][p] [/p][h2]TUTORIAL IMPROVEMENTS[/h2][p]A big part of my stay at the Rabbit were the weekly playtests: A great opportunity to refine and improve the tutorial. The residency directly segued into Crownbreakers' presence at the Comic Con in Stuttgart last weekend. So to make sure the game is as smooth as possible to learn, I put a lot of time into lowering the difficulty and complexity in the beginning:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]For example I added custom highlights that can point to specific things in the UI or the battlefield so the player has an easier time understanding what is what. They are animated to catch the player's attention so elements of the UI that are on the edges don't get lost.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]I've also added more tutorial pages that are more responsive to explain things as the battlefield changes. For example, the first time a hazardous, explosive barrel is on the battlfield, the game explains now the concept of hazards to you. There are multiple such moments that help you understand how things function.[/p][p] [/p][h2]NEXT STEPS[/h2][p]So, what's next for Crownbreakers? I'm working hard on a demo so December will focus on giving that more polish and possibly even releasing it. If you're interested in that, you might want to join the Sharkbomb Studios Discord because the demo will definitely first launch there![/p][p]Other things you might want to check out are:[/p][h3]Sharkbomb Studios on TikTok[/h3][p]I've started uploading some short form videos and I've been having fun with them. There are more to come! For example, I'm planning to upload some insights into my time at the Rabbit and Comic Con! So make sure to follow![/p][h3]Crownbreakers Crowdfunding Campaign[/h3][p]It's still a bit away but I am planning a crowdfunding campaign for Crownbreakers in the beginning of next year. Subscribe to the pre-launch page on Kickstarter to get notified immediately once the campaign goes live! The best way to not miss anything![/p][h3]Ex Umbra Crowdfunding Campaign[/h3][p]This one is even further away but I am also planning a printed edition of my (solo) tabletop game Ex Umbra that has you build dungeons as you play. As above, if that sounds interesting follow along on Kickstarter![/p][p]And that's it for today![/p][p][/p][p]Talk to you soon,[/p][p]Martin[/p][p][/p][p]I know you're probably sick of it by now, but if you made it this far, you might have forgot to WISHLIST CROWNBREAKERS![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]