Fairtravel Battle News

Hello everyone, how've you been?

First of all, I'd like to wish you all happy holidays and an amazing new year!

As the year is getting closer to ending, I'd like to take this time to talk about how Fairtravel Battle changed this year and where it's heading.

Fairtravel Battle had a bit of a turbulent two years, as the game was cancelled back at the end of 2021 but shortly afterwards was revived. That wasn't public until a massive remake update was released, because I didn't want to flop yet again.

In simple terms, game development is tough, and circumstances are a big factor in every gamedev's career.

I'm happy to say, I have been feeling much better working on FTB, I no longer feel extremely drained most of the time due to my sense of responsibility which made me do huge hours after my full-time job because I had this idea that I just had to keep making updates as fast as possible.

Now that my mental health is much better, I should be able to keep developing FTB for quite a while onwards!

The remake update was a reimagining of the game, returning it to its origins in a way yet improving every aspect quite a lot. I feel that as the FTB is now, is the best it's ever been, and it's very fun. I play it very regularly and I think I got something special here.

This year, a major event happened that means that FTB might actually have a chance to be truly special: The Pixel Buster and I agreed to work together to get proper art for the game, of which over 78 card arts have already been added to the game.

This has truly been a blessing, and in a situation like mine when there's barely any budget, it's not unlike winning the lottery: FTB now has a chance to both play and look amazingly!

I'm hopeful that FTB will be released in early access next year. Knowing how the past few years have gone though, there most likely will be a lot of obstacles. But, we're getting there! I want to release it only when it's ready. The Steam Playtest will be kept available until then, of course.

There have been quite a lot of smaller updates to the Playtest, and due to lack of visibility I'll be posting new update announcements here as well, since it might feel like FTB is barely changing otherwise.

I'm truly thankful for the support of each and every one of you. I'd like to request that you wishlist the game if you feel you enjoy it enough to be worthy of such a thing. It really helps, as due to the lack of budget there's also a lack of marketing.

Once more, I wish you all happy holidays and an amazing new year!

Hello everyone, how have you been?

As you may know, I had to cancel Fairtravel Battle back in 2021 due to personal issues, but in the end I couldn't accept the way it ended, so I put those in the past and I'm back with a massive update!

In fact, this update is coming out the same day as Fairtravel's 6th anniversary. I've previously posted announcements on each birthday but I was actually wrong about the date, as I've started working on Fairtravel on July 22nd rather than September 24th, which was when I posted my first devlog.

Finally, I'm again working alone on this game, with the exception of commissioning art every now and then. I think speaking in first person will work better from now on.



This update remakes a large portion of the game. Here's the condensed change list:

• Remade base set with 135 cards with an improved card frame design
  
• Removed classes and introduced brand new unique resource system
  
• Redesigned mechanics
  
• Added new 4-player Raid game mode, where you can play as a raider or a raid boss
  
• Steam P2P Networking alongside improved multiplayer
  
• Many UX improvements, bug fixes
  
• Much more!
  

[h2]Brand new 135-card base set and improved card frame design[/h2]

I was unhappy with the current state of the game (in fact, it was a major reason to return to it). Although the game was functional, it had a lot of bugs, the cards felt ugly and blurry to look at, and there were a lot of issues overall.

As a result, I decided to redesign the base set, but I also felt that I'd need too many cards to make it work (there used to be almost 300 cards in the latest version before this).

As part of the personal reasons that caused me to quit, I wanted the work on the new set to be doable for a single person.

As a result, I removed the classes/factions that were in the game, and I thought of making something with maximum deckbuilding potential: Don't get things stuck to a specific class or faction, so that players can do a lot with a small amount of cards.

I tried 60 cards, but it felt too limited in deckbuilding potential. I could have simplified the game by removing card types, but I thought it was going to impact the game negatively. Over time, the amount of cards grew to 135, and so far has stayed more or less that amount.

Here's some of the cards in the game:









Overall I think the cards feel and look much better now.

[h2]Classes are out, new resource system is in[/h2]

As I mentioned just now, due to development capacity I ended up deciding to cut out classes, but I needed a way to give meaningful deckbuilding to the game.

As a result, I designed a new unique resource system that is at the same time familiar, yet refreshing.

If you've ever played a certain trading card game, one of the most frustrating parts of that game is needing lands to have colored mana.

Lands usually use up ~40% of a deck, and drawing too much or too little is a problem that regularly happens. It can keep you from playing the game, which is quite unfun.

Fairtravel uses an essence system, which is similar to colors, but rather than using lands, any card can be returned to the bottom of the deck to increase your maximum mana and pick an essence to level up.

What this means is, you can use as many different essences as you want, but cards will require a specific set and amount of essences to be played, alongside mana to play those cards.

Unlike typical color-based systems though, there's no colored mana in Fairtravel: Instead, essences are never spent, you can only gain them and they're like a level requirement in an RPG.

In simpler terms, let's say you have 4 mana and 1 passion (red color) essence, and you have 4 cards that each cost 1 red mana.

In typical games, you'd only be able to play one of these, because you only have one passion, but in Fairtravel you could play all four, because that color isn't spent.

I think this significantly improves the game and reduces friction with each match, but Invite you all to give it a try and share feedback!

[h2]Redesigned Mechanics[/h2]

Several mechanics in Fairtravel have been changed considerably:

• Equipment are now generally called Artifacts since they might not be specifically character equipment
  
• Permanent Abilities are now called Enchantments, as I felt that the original name felt too clunky.
  
• Abilities are now called Spells, for the same reasons as Permanent Abilities.
  
• Standard Heroes no longer have effects, and are more or less just a skin.
  
• The Set and Quest zones now have a limit of 8 cards. If you want to play another (set zone), you can choose an existing card there to destroy to place the new one.
  
• Fields are limited to 6 follower cards, and if you need to play another you can choose an existing card there to destroy to place the new one.
  
• Soaring is now called Flying and has a different effect: A flying card can't be attacked or defended against by non-Flying cards.
  
• Tactician has been changed to be active while you control non-tactician followers. Meaning the best way to get rid of a tactician is getting rid of their underlings first.
  
• Drawing from an empty deck causes an instant defeat for that player. This was changed to make the matches more compact.
  
• Duel and Raid Decks are now 50 cards (down from 60) and Sealed/Draft decks are now 30 cards (down from 40).
  
• Weapons no longer have a swing cost.
  

I believe these changes improve the game experience overall, and I'd love to hear what you think!



Part of the future plans for Fairtravel is to have more ways of playing than just dueling, and one of the biggest steps is adding the new Raid mode.

This raid mode currently only has one scenario, the Red Dragon boss. This boss has three phases and a custom deck.

For modes such as raid mode, you can add CPU partners, so you don't have to have a big group just to try it!





Part of the work done in this update includes a new work-in-progress steam peer-to-peer networking system.

This means that, using Steam, you'll be able to connect to other players without needing the official game server.

So, if the game servers happen to be discontinued for some reason, you'll be able to keep playing together, be it on Steam, your own server hosting using the Lan multiplayer feature, or playing offline. That's something very important to me: I want to ensure this game outlasts its support.

Additionally, game performance and multiplayer networking has been vastly improved: You should have much less problems than before, with almost no desyncs if at all.



Seriously, so much has changed since 2021 it's crazy. According to my source control service (which is where I keep track of what changes in the game's code), the code for this version specifically had over 730 commits (sets of changes, usually multiple files), which is a huge amount of work for someone working solo.

Many, many bugs were fixed, user experiences were improved quite a lot, a lot of frustration points were also taken care of, and overall the game feels great! If you tried it before and weren't happy with it, please give it another chance, it might change your mind!



There's a lot of changes happening in the future.

For one thing, I've been getting a trickle of new card arts custom-made for Fairtravel, and over the coming months most of the card arts will be replaced as a result, making the game look so much better. (You can see some examples in the earlier sections of this post)

There's also a lack of polish, animations, sounds, effects, that I want to fix.

I want to add more content for players to enjoy as well, and I hope to bring something truly wonderful for you guys!

The game won't be released on Steam just yet, but you can still play it through the Steam Playtest in between. There's a lot of challenges ahead, but I'll do my best to make a great game for you!

I want to take this time to thank everyone who has supported me throughout this journey. I wouldn't be able to go this far without you. And I truly hope that the future stays bright for Fairtravel Battle!

Thank you for reading this lengthy post, I know it was a lot, and I hope you have fun above all else!

[h2]Development Builds[/h2]
Since the last progress report, development builds have become available in the Steam Playtest! You can now try out in-development features like team battles!

[h2]Printing Test[/h2]
As part of development, a goal is to have Fairtravel Battle as a physical game as well as digital. Recently, a new printing test has completed, with some positive results!







[h2]What else?[/h2]

I'm working hard on the new raid battle, Elemental Dragon Lair! About 20% of it has been completed so far, with new cards being added to the custom raid boss player's deck before I'm ready to prepare a proper playtest for it. I can't wait to show you more!

Thank you for your support and for following the game.

Another year goes by, and now Fairtravel Battle is 4 years old! At least, we've been developing it for 4 years now!
There's still a long way to go, but we're slowly getting there!
So what has changed in the past year?


[h3]Version 34[/h3]


Right at the start of the year, Version 34 was released, introducing a revamped UI, new field looks, more game modes, redesigned hero powers, and more! It was quite the large update, taking over 2 months to be released!

[h3]Version 35[/h3]
Version 35 came out with not much to show, since it was a tech release.

We introduced a new, better multiplayer system with support for reconnections and better stability, a new game zone browser which lets you browse your entire deck or other game zone directly when picking cards, more tutorials, alongside a few card changes.

This update took 5 months to be finished, in big part due to the new multiplayer, but we believe it was worth it!


Version 36 is under heavy development, and it is in part a tech release and a content release.

We're finishing up team battles and will be adding boss raid battles, where 3 raiding players can fight a boss player with overpowered cards. Each team mode can be played with CPUs as well, so you won't require other players to play with/against, although it's much more fun with friends!

After this we will be focusing on creating more co-op PVE/PVP modes, as well as more unique ways to play.

Once all the main features are in, we'll be redesigning the current main set in the game, in order to have a well refined experience.

We are aware that several players don't like the current state of the main set, and that is in big part because we were designing as we explored the features we were adding to the game. We will be improving this soon!

We missed the Steam Games Festival, but we believe that we should participate in it only after the game is in the best shape possible.

We can't wait to see how far we can go now, and we hope we'll be able to make an amazing experience for everyone! Thank you for your support, it means a lot to us!