Happy Halloween Everyone!

First, let’s see the current state of progress of the game. There still is a chance to release the game before the winter holiday with some luck and by tapping all the energy reserves for a final push. Some features will be almost surely left to be added after release, for example, a new game+ like thing similar to the iron wizard mode in GCCS.

I plan to have two more posts before release, the next one showing the trailer for sure, and the final one telling about release details and last minute info morsels. (the game is already in a trailer-ready state, so it should arrive before December, I just try to cover the development time more or less evenly with blog posts.)

So this time, I raked together some of the new creatures and buildings which still haven’t been revealed, without spoiling the game.

In addition to the already shown wizard stashes, lanterns, pylons, 3 looks of walls, barricades, wraiths, and reworked shrines, here are a few more to be encountered in the game:

The jar of wasps is a building that can be destroyed to unleash gem wasps, those tiny lit creatures also created by gem bomb explosions, attacking foes on their own. Gem wasps became more useful as they deal their gem’s specials when they sting, and they also follow your mouse pointer so you can lure them where they are needed.

Monster eggs can be found lying around in many places, they contain swarmlings that can be unleashed by cracking the egg with a gem bomb, or the egg can hatch on its own after a while.

The watchtower is a new building that attacks everything, including your towers. If it launches its spinning projectile, you’d better hit tab to pull the targeted gem to the safety of your inventory. The good news is that it can be brought down eventually, just keep firing and stay vigilant. 🙂

And finally, a foe that the corrupted wizards of the Spiritforge sent to hunt down rogue wizards like you, the wizard hunter is obsessed to get to your orb, and can launch shades of itself to tear down your buildings, along with the gems inside if you don’t act fast.

I’ve probably mentioned before that I’m an avid achievement hunter, it’s such a blast unlocking one achievement after another and finally facing the really tough ones. Achievements are not as dumb as some players say, they can teach the basics like a tutorial, or show other ways to play a game, leading the player to unfold the game and discover hidden paths. Achievements can give another layer of completing the game, or comparing your standing against other players (thanks to the public achievement stats for each game on Steam). So I didn’t want to aim low this time, there are more than 900 achievements planned (Steam has a technical limit of 1.000 achievements to prevent achi-scam games that once flooded the store, but if that can be bypassed somehow, I’ll be happy to add even more achievements after release).

Drawing all the 64×64 pixel images (official Steam achievement icon size) for the achievements would have been a tedious task though, so as a compromise, I tried a pixelated retro feeling approach. I made tiny 20×20 pixel icons that the game uses to generate the 64×64 px icons, along with an 86×86 px version used in the outcome panel.

This is how it looks like with 3x zoom:

Last time, in Chasing Shadows, achievements were only unlocked when winning a battle’s regular phase, in endurance, achievements were locked. This time endurance is a separate battle mode, and all achievements (unless specified in the achievement’s description) can be unlocked in journey (regular), endurance (lots of waves), and trial (fixed challenge) mode, even if the battle outcome is defeat. Once the “achievement unlocked” panel pops up, it’s a granted loot in the outcome panel. This change makes many achievements easier to get in the long run (waiting to get to long enough endurance runs can make achievements like “create a grade 16 gem” unlock naturally), so there will be more achievements added into the pile that will require a really high wizard level or a high player skill to unlock.

Some of what’s still waiting to be revealed might be shown in the trailer arriving next time, and the rest is waiting for you to explore in the game itself. See you again with the trailer by the end of this month!