What have we done in 2022, and what are we planning to do in December?
Our team has had quite a year! It was very productive and eventful!
This year, our team had a major task: to get past the alpha stage, finish all three characters, prepare translations, improve the quality of animations, increase the number of events, work out the balance, classes, modes, and update the current build.
It’s no exaggeration to say that we’ve succeeded with most of the tasks. By the end of the year, we’ll have added a lot of new and cool things to the current game build, but first things first. So, sharpen your blades, feed your honey badgers, and off we go!
Updated mechanics and new characters
For several months, we worked on improving the combat mechanics and balance so that any player could comfortably play and explore events in story mode. We’ve introduced several classes for the starting character, Persival. Depending on class characteristics, new battle mechanics and various tactics are available.
Persival introduces players to the world of Knock On The Coffin Lid. Each of his runs through the map reveals the story from his point of view.
Bjorn has also gotten his classes, and it has become more interesting and more difficult to play him. Like Persival, he reveals game lore and tells his story, and the player need only lead him in the right direction. However, there’s always an opportunity to defy fate and accept your inner beast.
In the spring, we started vigorously working on Vanadis, the third character in the story. She now has her pets and a feisty character. We showed several video diaries in which we talked about the mechanics of Vanadis and her pets, added her classes and items, and also actively engaged in developing her deck. The deck is still being finalized, we plan to finish it this year, so there’s very little time left!
We’ve received positive feedback from you on Vanadis. She refreshed the game, becoming a favorite of most players. This encouraged our team and gave them the strength to complete the development of her character.
Nightmares and free play modes
This year we’ve updated the free play mode, added a colorful interface to it and completely overhauled the balance system to make playing in the free mode more fun.
We’ve also added Nightmares mode — it allows you to experience the game play in completely new and incredible variations. It will also play a big role in the plot, but we’ll leave some mystery for the future.
Nightmares mode is a telling name, which perfectly describes what players will have to go through in the story mode. But the reward will be proportionate to the effort invested. So if you’ve never reached the end yet — now is the time!
Visual effects, voice acting, and events
We spent hundreds of hours this year filling new game locations. Most of the events have been redesigned, with the finishing touches being put on right now. The first results can now be seen in the game.
The battle scenes have been populated with animations. The enemies have become more talkative, sociable, and impatient. Now, when players take too long to make a move, the enemies will egg them on with various phrases and show their irritation in every possible way. With the help of such phrases, we wanted to add some variability and fun to long battles. Sometimes you need to think carefully before playing cards from your sleeve.
The statuses for players and enemies have become more visible — now they have a visual display when they’re received, and their updated icons constantly appear under the health bar. Tracking statuses is now easy and convenient!
We made Mortis speak during battles. He gives important comments on what’s happening. So from now on you’ll have a sarcastic, but cheerful companion.
What’s with the sound?
Without sound improvement, the new mechanics, art, texts, and events would be incomplete. For several months, the sound designers, along with the entire team, filled the game with unique sounds, breathing life into every movement of the characters.
The game has gotten a stylish soundtrack. You spoke positively about that, too. In our Discord chat, players often told us that they added our tracks to their playlist. Thanks for letting us know that you like it so much!
Languages
This is a very expensive and thus painful point for our team. It so happened that our game has a lot of content to translate. It’s hundreds of thousands of characters — just imagine that! Translation is something that can’t be done by the team alone. We have to hire professionals, and their work doesn’t come cheap and takes a lot of time.
Right now our game is being translated into Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, and German. We see your comments, where Chinese is a priority. Thank you to the volunteers who help us with the translations! Regarding the completion of the translations: Chinese — 100%, Korean — 45%, Spanish — 61%, French — 53% and German — 77%. In the near future we plan on adding Chinese to the current game build.
This year we’ve done a lot and by the end of the year we’ll give you more updates and content. Not everything has turned out as we planned. Not all expenses have added up, so the year turned out to be somewhat difficult for us. But we continue to work and we’ll share new results with you.
Thank you for following our journey and staying with us!
We’re looking forward to seeing you on our social networks!