Well, I don’t think I can go one more day without talking about it, so here it is: Siralim 3 is in active development! So active, in fact, that it’s only a few months away from being ready for Steam Early Access. Yes, our next so-called “small game” turned out to be the massive Siralim 3.

I am only posting about Siralim 3 on this blog, our forums, and on Discord for now (Edit: changed my mind!), because I don’t have a lot of screenshots or even title screen art to show off yet. I’ll probably make an official announcement on social media at the end of the year. For now, I really want to start talking about the game with our most dedicated players to get feedback on how to make it the best game it can be. I’ll be posting frequent development updates on the blog and on these forums, and creating several posts to try to gather focused feedback from you.

At the beginning of this year, I announced that there would probably not be a Siralim 3, simply because Siralim 2 was the best Siralim game I could make. I had no more ideas to make it better. I didn’t think it needed anything else to be what it was intended to be. After taking a few months off and focusing on other projects (mostly Learn Kana The Fun Way, and especially The Negative), I’ve realized how much can be improved upon. Words cannot express how excited I am about this game.

Here’s a list of just some of the things you can expect in Siralim 3 when compared to its predecessors. It’s not in a very organized order, but hopefully, you’ll enjoy reading it anyway:

– A new story with all new quests. The story is a lot more light-hearted than it was in Siralim 2, but also more well-written and detailed. It’s not intended to blow your mind as if it was Game of Thrones or something like that, but it should make you laugh quite a bit and at least keep a smile on your face. I’ll discuss the story in more depth later. There are 16 story bosses planned, and tons of secret bosses for you to find later on.

– A new user interface. The main menu is now a lot easier to navigate and has tons of new quality of life improvements. On average, it’ll take 2-3 fewer “E” presses before you get to where you want to be. There are also tons of other small improvements, such as the ability to scroll the map in all directions while you’re in a realm. Oh, and a big one… you can now view information about any creature in battle now, including their stats, artifact, and spell gems.

– All new NPC and player graphics. 24 new songs to replace the old ones. Over 80 new sound effects for the user interface. Revamped graphics for some of the uglier creatures in the game (I’m looking at you, Mr. Vortex). The music and sound effects are composed by Josh instead of Tim this time.

– A lot of the bloat was cut from the game. Rituals are gone. They weren’t fun and didn’t add anything to the game. Power Balance is gone. What was I thinking when I designed that, anyway? Castle upgrades are now handled differently. They were merely an illusion of choice before. The Altar of Blood is gone. The most interesting punishments are now part of the base game (such as Strife and Gloom), while most others are no longer necessary because other aspects of the game take care of these features already. The Chef is now found in realms, so you don’t have to worry about going back to your castle every time you want a buff.

– Breeding has been revamped, and Gene Strength is gone.

– Post-story content is absolutely insane. There’s so much to do and so many things to unlock, and the content is both rich and diverse. I’m particularly excited about the new Sigils system – it’s definitely the best thing that has ever happened to this game series. Nether Creatures and especially Avatars now work a lot differently than in Siralim 2.

– Artifacts are revamped. They don’t have levels anymore and have fewer property slots, but each property is now more powerful. You can also unlock powerful new enchantments for them by participating in post-game content.

– Auto-cast properties on Spell Gems are gone. In their place, I’ve added 11 new Spell Gem properties.

– Runes have been overhauled. There are more of them to collect, and they stack. If you equip the correct runes, you can form a “runeword” which unlocks powerful new effects. The Runemaster will help you figure out which runes create certain runewords, and allows you to quickly swap out your runes with others in your inventory to create the runeword you want.

– There aren’t any new creatures. The skins that were added to Siralim 2 are now obtainable creatures called “Itherian Creatures”, and are extremely rare. Think of them as “shiny Pokemon”, except they have unique traits which makes them a lot more valuable and interesting. This decision wasn’t made out of laziness; I just think that 700 creatures are already too many so I’d rather focus on making each one more viable and interesting instead.

– New perks for each class. Each class will feel much more distinguished from each other in Siralim 3.

– Lots of battle changes. Traits and spells that modify stats now do so based on the creature’s original stats at the start of battle, so your creatures won’t gain stats exponentially anymore. I’ve also tried to reduce the number of times your creatures can attack or cast spells in one turn by rebalancing spells and traits accordingly.

– Tons of polish and quality of life improvements. Faster movement speed is now unlocked before you even leave your castle for the first time. The mobile version has new touch controls that allow you to tap and swipe instead of using the on-screen controls (but you can always go back to using the classic controls if you want). There are now some new visual effects when you do things like summon a creature or when a god speaks to you. The gambling dwarves now have custom-drawn interfaces for their games. There are now tutorial windows that appear to explain new features as you unlock them. I’m also adding over 80 new sound effects to the user interface to make the game feel more satisfying. For example, forging an artifact now has a custom sound effect. It’s little things like that which will make the game feel much better. I’m also optimizing the game quite a lot – I expect Siralim 3 to run very well on mobile devices compared to Siralim 2.

Excited? Let’s talk about it! I’m open to any suggestions or feedback. Take a look at our forums and let’s make Siralim 3 the best game it can be!

FAQ

Q: When will Siralim 3 be released?

A: I’m targeting late March for a Steam Early Access release on Windows.

Q: What platforms will the game be released on?

A: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and PlayStation 4. I really want to try getting it on Xbox One, but it all depends on how much time I have because I’m also working on The Negative.

Q: FAJSFAOWEIRW WHY NOT VITA, I HATE YOU

A: Siralim 3 is made in GameMaker Studio 2, which does not support PlayStation Vita.

Q: How about Nintendo Switch?

A: Siralim 3 is made in GameMaker Studio 2, which does not support Switch either. That’s Nintendo’s fault, though. Maybe someday!

Q: How much will it cost?

A: Same as Siralim 2. $4.99 for mobile devices, and $14.99 everywhere else. There will be no paid DLC this time aside from the soundtrack.

Q: Is The Negative still in development?

A: Of course! However, it looks like it won’t reach Early Access until the end of 2018 at this point.