v.0.3: Memories, Towers and tons of QoL!

Sup! Kept you waiting, huh? We're back with some more more changes, this time again with a bigger rework.

Before we get into the specifics, here's a little something regarding planning: On the Steam page, we've set Winter 25/26 as out goal for the full release. What we kinda forgot after three years of higher education is that having a job or looking for a job is time-consuming! So, our timeline has been pushed back somewhat. Which is fine, since we're still planning on finishing the project this year and the current version of the game keeps getting updates, which we're making good progress on. But y'know, just so you know.

Onto the update itself! We've rearranged the guts of our beloved creation once more. It was necessary, though: Something that really screwed with pacing was having to choose the same engravings twice, once during tile selection and once during level up. This, combined with the fact that half the players didn't understand how the system worked even after playing for a while, meant that we had to rethink the way we distributed upgrades.

The answer was an abstraction

Instead of giving adding engravings to tiles directly, we've changed it to a point based system.

It's simple

You get colored points on each tile. (We call them memories, for flavor.) Count all the memories of each color on all connected tiles. The higher the total, the higher the possible tier of randomly chosen engravings on levelups. Memories fade after an engraving has been chosen.

Now, this went through a bunch of iterations in and of itself. Something we've had to tweak is the resulting tiers of the engravings: Go too low, and your build feels underpowered & your choice feels meaningless. Go too high, and you end up with kneecapped build variety and having nothing to do all run because everything has been looted already. We ended up retooling the weights a bunch of times until we felt we reached something that felt satisfying.

Also added in this update: Towers! These pillars will try to take out anything that steps close to them. They'll appear on every crystal tile once they've been unlocked, and generally make your life harder. Although, if you're clever about it, you can kite enemies into their radius for some extra fire power. (Gonna be honest, I am not 100% happy about the towers yet, but I think we got something planned that'll make them a whole lot more interesting.)

In addition, there's a lot of small things bundled into this update to address some common criticisms. Struggling with the terrain? Outlines show you where you can pass and where you can't. Confused on where the next unlock is on the machine screen? Color-coded locks and clearer descriptions should help out. Grinded out the map too fast? A new pickup helps the time pass.

Also, here's a screenshot from a real run at what's possible with the Orb of Pure Arcana now after a few changes (even if the framerate didn't like it):

And here's what's possible using one of the four new unique engravings mixed with some dedicated choices on the machine tree:

That's the most important bits! As always, check the changelog below the yapping if you want more details. We've already started work on more content, but we decided that we'd been keeping you waiting long enough. Also, with a changes as fundamental as these, as always, we're in need of feedback. So tell us what you think below! Or on our new instagram account.

With that, and the next update towering in the distance, we'll leave you be for now...

Have a good one! Jonas Wiesli Team Quintuple-A

Patch Notes

Changes

• Reworked how engravings are collectable on tiles, added memory system

  • Reworked engraving system when on map

  • Adjusted HUD & positioning of menus, added more tooltips

  • Adjusted drop weights for said memories

  • Reworked unlocks & achievements related to this system

• Added Towers & corresponding unlock

• Improved general game feel

  • Added outlines for collision objects

  • Improved main character animations

  • Tweaked main character hurtbox

• AddedAdded new pickupClock Rock (drops when leveling up where no new engravings can be collected, makes time pass faster)

• Pickup Rewards now open a menu instead of dropping to the ground

  • Added options for how to handle items getting added to the inventory this way

• Added more environment objects for crystal & lava biome

• Added more colors for the locks on the machine screen & adjusted tooltips

• Tile Timer is now a clock-like display instead of a bar

• Added weapon descriptions (& corresponding stat descriptions) when hovering over weapons in your inventory

• Changes for "Orb of Pure Arcana":

  • When it's outside of its range, it now returns faster back to player

  • Penetration now adds additional rows for small bonus orbs

• Added 4 new unique engravings (one for each type!)

• Added 4 new achievements, adjusted previous ones for new system

• Buff for "Expertise"-Engraving: "Equipping non-unique Engravings with the ▲ Finesse type to this weapon levels them up by one tier" ↪ "Equipping any non-unique Engravings to this weapon levels them up by one tier"

• "Alchemy" no longer lowers Attacks, reduces damade & fire rate instead

• Shift key now also opens map

• Added more sounds for smithy

• Adjusted order of tooltip text on unique engravings

Fixes

• Unique engravings can no longer be "enhanced" using the smithy (enhanced in quotes cause it doesn't do anything to them)

• Fixed error in logic that prevented the player from collecting more than one weapon

• Fixed an issue with "Emblem of Chaos" where it couldn't reroll other instances of itself

• Changed attack count so it can never fall into the negatives

• Fixed a bug where the settings menu couldn't be opened while looting

• Renamed one of the achievements due to there being two called "Farmer"

• Fixed coconut tree sometimes spawning somewhere where coconuts are unreachable