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Abalon (formerly Summoners Fate) is a roguelike adventure that fuses tactical turn-based combat and card strategy. You're tasked with the challenge of guiding your heroes through perilous quests in search of hidden secrets, powerful cards, titanious team members, and mutated rabbits.
The world of Abalon is inspired by traditional tabletop environments, stretching from its frozen peaks to barren deserts and colorful woodland to dingy dungeons. Each world offers its own characters to find, mysteries to unravel and bosses to slay.

Abalon draws its inspiration from classic tabletop games like Hero Quest, Dungeons and Dragons, and Magic: The Gathering, combining tactical combat with thoughtful events decided with the trusty roll of a D20. Exploring Abalon is done in real-time, allowing you to uncover lore scrolls, shop for powerful cards and even attend a goblin's birthday party (don't forget your gold).
Combat brings Abalon into a turn-based game where unit positioning is as important as your spell casting. These tense encounters play out in arena-style maps where the environment isn't just for show, it's a key part of the battlefield. Equip powerful armor from a statue mid-fight. Slam your foes into a wall of spikes. Transform a tree behind enemy lines into an allied fighter. How you control the battlefield is your choice.

In between the DnD style events and slaying of enemies you'll be collecting cards, lots of cards. Every Summoner is linked to two classes, including Arcane, Celestial, Nature, Void, and Chaos. These classes offer different playstyles: Chaos contains a lot of fire AOE spells for big damage whereas Arcane provides the ability to mind-control your enemies.
Your deck in Abalon is capped at 20 cards, so you can collect all the cards you like knowing they won't hinder your current build. If you wish to change your playstyle halfway through your adventure then simply roast some marshmallows on the campfire and chat with the Cosmic Tortoise.
Abalon offers an ever-changing adventure so it's important to adapt to the situation. The Battle Mode allows you to build a constructed deck from the cards you have discovered during your adventures. Bringing this deck, along with two allied units you can test your might against the toughest of foes!

5 Worlds to explore, each with its own events, characters, and bosses
20 Summoners to guide through an adventure, each offering unique abilities for you to master
Over 50 characters to meet through world events, all of which can join your adventure
Over 400 cards you can collect on your quest to build the perfect deck
PvE Battle mode, the perfect arena to master your favorite Summoner

v2.59.0 - Continuous Player Driven Development

Game Description Image

Greetings D20 Fans!

Our recent Discord integration with in-game feedback has been quite the hit! It has been such a pleasure conversing directly with so many of you directly within the game, and I'm absolutely loving your reactions!

I've now addressed almost all of the feedback on our recent v2.50 major update , so I will be shifting my development efforts now to our next major update that will add an additional 5 Descent levels, additional fate encounters, improved leaderboard system, and more! Plus, we're nearing completion of our first Steam DLC, which will feature the highly requested Animal Gear cards. We're also working on another expansion for later this year that will add Caves as a new biome.

As always, I will also continue updating the base game. My goal is to create the best experience I can for you. So, if you're not satisfied in some way or you're really craving a new addition, fix, or quality of life improvement, please share it with me in your review, on Steam discussion , our Discord , or for extra fun, in-game via Menu -> Share Feedback. I try to respond as fast as I can, typically within the hour, and generally no later than a day.

Community Enhancements

Game Description Image Wesley has been hard at work further improving our Abalon Discord bot to better serve you. Some cool new additions include:

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New Discord members are now welcomed by a random Abalon character.

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Discord members can now summon any playable card in the game with command: !card followed by the name of the card. For example "!card meteor shower" will display an image of the Meteor Shower spell.

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Typing !card without a card name will summon a random card.

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Typing !card with multiple matches, such as !card skeleton, will return a random card (in this case, a random skeleton card).

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Typing !card with a misspelled card name will even try to correct the spelling and return the closest match.

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You can also summon characters, without cards, using !character followed by the character name.

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It's super fun and greatly enhances your deckbuilding discussions, some join our Discord and give these new features a try for yourself!

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Additionally, Abalon's Feedback bot now automatically translates your native language to English (so I can read and response even faster), and my response back to you is automatically translated back to your native language when it appears in game. So, expect even faster responses if they weren't fast enough already :)

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If you have more suggestions for community enhancements like this, please let @WesleyPski know on our Discord.

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v2.59.0 Release Notes

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Localization: Updated translations for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean. All content from last major update (v2.50) is now fully translated for these languages. (Thanks Whisper Games)

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Balance: Counterspell effects no longer affect satchel cards as these are not considered spells. (Thanks Drylord)

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Balance: Replace Card ability no longer shuffles the deck. Instead, the replaced card is always placed on the bottom of the deck.

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Balance: Abysmal End no longer targets neutral units. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

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Procedural Population: Added a fix so that riverOverlays will no longer bulldoze terrain on maps containing a battle. This fixes bug where the bulldozing of terrain along river coastlines could create small pockets where enemy units could spawn and be unreachable to the player. (Thanks Kairin, HiddenHearth and Guest_242848) See bug #78968 and bug #79034 for repro.

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Fixed Bug where player could still issue commands after failing to rescue a captured guardian during fate encounters and when enemies were entering the screen, potentially causing a sync error. (Thanks Guest_16500, Guest_179143 and Guest_248551)

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Fixed Bug where the Necronomicon or Liche King could potentially produce skeletons after battle if units damaged by their effects were not defeated but ran away or collapsed after the battle ended. These skeletons would then remain until after the next battle. (Thanks Rhubarb314, mr.kitty, and ThoughtfulToffee)

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Fixed Bug where hurling a squirrel could result in double lore being found (but not collected) and then result in missing lore when completing exploration of the biome. (Thanks xxPrince, Guest_130529, Guest_130529, Guest_87700)

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Fixed Bug where hurling squirrels into a previously explored but now misted area could result in enemies from that encounter being removed. In some cases, it was even possible to remove the boss, resulting in a stuck adventure where the final portal to leave the biome never opened. (Thanks ickkck)

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Fixed Bug that would trigger Error 1009 hideResources() when completing a Fast Adventure and traveling to the Prismatic Realm. This occurred because the chapter was not being set to 4, so it was attempting to hide treasure on world where it could not hide treasure.

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QoL: For Fast Adventure mode, the Run Summary prompt now indicates Fast Adventure instead of a chapter number.

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Fixed Bug where Lightning Elemental wasn't dealing shock damage after being equipped with another weapon. (All elementals that deal elemental damage are supposed to deal their elemental damage when attacking, regardless of equipped weapon). (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)

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Fixed Bug where Ice Golem and Ice Giant weren't dealing Ice damage. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)

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Fixed Bug where Reiga's Bonfire Elixir could remove equipment. (Thanks GimliLeNainRoux)

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Fixed Bug where Flesh Golem could absorb damage received to a Summoner on its armor instead of its Flesh (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3)

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Fixed Bug where a Breed spell cast as a stolen spell after having destroyed units in an attack could result in AI sync error whereby the copy unit effect attempted to place units on the same space occupied by destroyed units. (Thanks Guest_255943)

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Fixed Bug where a unit with a harpoon pull (such as Gladiator, Ninja, or Mantis summoner) could trigger a combo attack after already having exhausted a combo if a unit was gravity pushed/pulled next to them. The harpoon now has its own custom condition to ensure the harpoon combo only triggers from the harpoon attack. (Thanks Guest_245765)

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Fixed Bug where the Cleanse spell being cast by enemy was not removing Samurai Helm and Dark Elf Armor (or other equipment that increased max life). Core underlying issue was equipment being set to team zero if it had a base item attribute defined. Equipment will now always load as the team of player it was equipped on at start of battle. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

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Fixed Bug where unit stances are kept in the previous equipment stance after equipment is removed with Cleanse.

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Fixed Bug where Krox could trigger multiple combos on the same command when gravity pulling enemies into a box surrounded by knock back units. Units should only be able to trigger gravity combos once per command/interaction (even if they have Vigil). Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3

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Fixed Bug where an extra life fruit could drop in the first chapter during the Play Nice with Ice encounter (or other encounters where the goblins retreat without fighting) if the player has completed enough battles to earn the next heart drop. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

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Showing Your Support

Game Description Image Many of our players have asked me for a way to help support the continued development of Abalon, so I setup a "Buy Me a Coffee" page where you can make one-time or recurring contributions.

Reviews

Thanks so much for the additional reviews! We're now up to 469 out of 500 to hit my year-end goal, only 31 reviews to go! Your reviews do so much to help the continuous development of the game.

If you haven't left a review yet, I would greatly appreciate your support. Please share what you like about Abalon and where I can continue to improve and do better.

Also very important: [u]If I've addressed your feedback, please do update your review as well![/u]

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration :) ~Ross

[ 2025-06-26 18:18:52 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.58.0 - Faster Developer Responses Make Abalon Even Better!

Game Description Image

Greetings D20 Fans!

I am continuously grateful for all of your support including your reviews, feedback, and commentary on our recent v2.50 major update !

I aim to keep making Abalon better and better for you, so hear we are with another big set of your feedback addressed.

Even Faster Dev Response Time

If it isn't totally obvious by now, I care a lot about our players and your suggestions to improve the game. I do my best to respond timely here on Steam, Discord, and in-game. But, while I have always read all of your in-game feedback (and typically address within the patch notes of future builds), I haven't always responded directly to it in-game due to the overhead involved in adding new messages to our database. But, all that's about to change!

In effort to be even more responsive to players, we've created a Discord bot that automatically fetches the feedback you leave in game and alerts me in a private Discord channel. I can now reply these to these messages directly on my phone via Discord and the response will be automatically surfaced in the game. Abalon will now check for new developer messages after each battle and display my replies to you directly in-game, even if you don't have a Discord account.
Game Description Image I will deliver your feedback to Ross and buzz saw him in the butt if he doesn't respond to you...

This means you can now have a direct dialog with me, Abalon's developer, whenever you share your feedback in-game. Give it a try using Menu -> Share Feedback. Using this method to report bugs also captures a snapshot of the current game state, enabling me to quickly reproduce issues and provider faster fixes.

Fun Fact: The Discord in-game-feedback bot was programmed by my son, Wesley, who's working together with me full-time over the summer :)

v2.58.0 Release Notes

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Updated Translations: Russian translations updated now complete for the new content added in v2.50. (Thanks Kairin)

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QoL: Made recycle and replace card into two distinct actions so that the recycle card action can be undone if it was a misclick. Previously, replace/recycle was combined a single action that could not be undone since it revealed new card information. Now, only replace card cannot be undone. (Thanks mr.kitty)
QoL: Improved the game's undo logic to make better use of memory and avoid potential sync errors with the AI.

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Balance: Players can no longer undo summoning or reviving a Gnome Scholar as his Warcry ability reveals hidden card information. (Thanks audarka)

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Balance: Quinn's extra missile attacks will no longer target neutral units, such as those captured by enemies. (Thanks Rhubarb314, Guest_246440)

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Fixed Bug where player's were experiencing unusual gaps in Mist of Mayhem (fog of war) due to the recent changes to camera zooming and not properly updating the surrounding tiles when zooming out. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

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Fixed Bug where the equipment of Goblin Warriors in the forest could appear missing from their character model after encountering Gordo the goblin shopkeeper. I guess he was robbing their gear :P (Thanks Kairin)

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Fixed Bug where an equipped character might not show their equipped armor/weapon after entering a new battle or loading game state. This occurred because the atlas containing the textures for the equipment finished loading before the atlas containing the textures before the character. The character will now attempt to add its equipment textures after its own atlas is loaded to ensure its gear is shown on its model. (Thanks to many)

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Fixed Bug where a unit changing equipment could linger with the attack stance animation for the prior weapon.

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Fixed Bug where Dispel Magic could remove artifacts bestowing a buff such as the Void Heart and Crystal Heart. (Thanks Guest_245765)

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Fixed Bug where casting Cleanse could remove the Samurai Helmet if it was equipped just before entering battle. (Thanks 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3, Guest_245765, nnovich-OK)

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Fixed Bug where Turn Back Time could remove buffs such as the Forcefield created by satchel cards. (Thanks Guest_245765)

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Fixed Bug where Necromancer Staff wouldn't summon a skeleton again until making an explicit command with it. This might have occurred in instances where Mind Controlling a necromancer that had already used it's ability, using a combo attack with a Necromancer, or other edge cases where the "once per command" use of the staff wasn't being reset. (Thanks scribe, 1080, and mr.kitty)

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Fixed Bug where a shopkeeper selling caged heroes could attack the player just for talking with them if they had previously rescued a captured hero elsewhere in the world during the same session. (Thanks Jear9682, Noah, Guest_259777, ThoughtfulToffee)

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Fixed Bug where Inkadoo would cast his sinister spell before the player completed the "Choose Guardian" prompt when they rescued a caged hero with two or more guardians already in the party.

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Fixed Bug where teleporting to an ambush zone previously cleared after having retreated from the Skeletal Siphon encounter asked player to roll for initiative. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

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Fixed Bug where the map marker for Elites and Minions wasn't being cleared if player had recently retreated from the Skeletal Siphon encounter (Thanks WesleyPrzybylski, Rhubarb314, and HiddenHearth)

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Fixed Bug where Frozen enemy Necromancer performed melee attack against captured neutral unit during this battle.(Thanks Rhubarb314)

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Fixed Bug where allies could enter the battle starting on a trap (Thanks Rhubarb314, mr.kitty, and Kairin)

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Fixed Bug where a sync error can occur if initiating a combo attack with Clik'Clik' while exploring the overworld and then entering a battle where the AI gets the first turn. (Thanks Bradleyman and Wesley)

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Fixed Bug where sync error could occur when rescuing a captured unit with the Vigil ability and failing to loosen the net, resulting in additional enemies entering the board. (Thanks Katja, Guest_249111, bct116, Guest_189730, Guest_247494 and Wesley)

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Fixed Bug where a sync error could occur when a transformed unit that was previously wearing gear was defeated and the player skipped the AI's turn animation. (Thanks Crowther, SonofVenus, boonatic0, Guest_257529, 1_r3gr3t_cr32ting_th1s_us3rn2m3, Armasword, Korken and Wesley)

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Fixed Bug where a sync error could occur when using a Dreamstealer or Glyph of Nitsroth, then performing a non-undoable action (such as a card reveal or card recycle), then ending turn. (Thanks yokeee, Guest_258906, Guest_207144 and Wesley)

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Fixed Bug where units could spawn on trap tiles and create a softlock if retreat results in the unit taking damage as player is leaving. (Thanks Kairin)

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Fixed Bug where units could enter the map standing on an ice trap. (Thanks Rhubarb314 and mr.kitty)

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Fixed Bug where pressing the enter key to open chat wasn't giving focus to the chat input field. This resulted in various hotkeys being called and opening different menus when a player used enter to chat and started typing their message. (Thanks mr.kitty)

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Fixed Bug where a card being played by the opponent or within a replay might jump to the upper left corner of the screen and appear extra large. This was due to the cardHandView repositioning the card item out of sync with the timing of the show card animation.

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Fixed Bug where lightning bolt animations were not correctly connecting from the blast point of the caster to the impact area of their respective targets.

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Fixed Bug where XP Bonus multiplier could show several decimals worth of percentage due to the rounding up of XP earned based on multiplier. The multiplier/percentage will now always so the correct increment in multiplies of 5% while still awarding the rounded up amount of XP. (Thanks Sinzar)

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Fixed Bug where game would throw an exception when unable to write local save file. Abalon will now prompt the player whenever it's unable to write local save file, providing player option to check their device's available storage and to try again or dismiss and continue with cloud save only option.

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Fixed Bug where two guardians and a treant disappeared after last battle, despite not having died, because summoner was standing in the middle of fire traps that blocked follower pathing. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

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Showing Your Support

Reviews

Thanks so much for the additional reviews! We're now up to 467 out of 500 to hit my year-end goal. If you haven't left a review yet, I would greatly appreciate your support. Please share what you like about Abalon and where I can continue to improve and do better. And if I've addressed your feedback, please do update your review as well. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration :) ~Ross

[ 2025-06-16 12:35:20 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.57.0

v2.57.0 Release Notes

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Fixed bug where "Error: Cache does not exist for [cardAtlas]" was preventing sessions from loading correctly on the Native Linux version of Abalon on SteamDeck for players with an APAC language set as their Steam/game default for Abalon. This could result in an infinite loading screen or an unresponsive game title screen. (Thanks 52588024)

Added change to load the SWF embedded APAC fonts for the Windows version of Steam as well. This will cover us for both installation types on SteamDeck (Native Linux and Proton) (Thanks duke6578)

Fixed bug where players playing adventures in Descent or Custom Mode were having their adventure progress reset if ending their session (such as quitting the game and returning to finish the adventure later) after having completed multi-battle events (such as the Sandpit Arena or Demon Dance) at some point during their run. (Thanks to many!)

Fixed bug where "Error: Cache does not exist for p72." could occurs if the parentDefId attribute doesn't get assigned to the debris of status effect placed on tile and we attempt to load the atlas for the base placable class (which doesn't have an atlas). (Thanks Guest_236622)

Fixed bug where failing to free a captured hero from a net during fate encounters like Skeletal Siphon could trigger a backworker error. (Thanks ThoughtfulToffee, Guest_254699 and BigOlD20s)

Balance: Additional enemies rushing to the battlefield after failing to free a hero captured in the net will no longer run onto revealed trap tiles.

Balance: Psychic Screamer will no longer injure neutral units when using its Warcry ability. (Thanks Wesley)

Fixed bug where the "XP Bonus" field in battle summary wasn't being localized. (Thanks Excolion)
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[ 2025-06-03 00:43:29 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.56.0

v2.56.0 Release Notes

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Fixed bug Added missing language fonts for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean to both Native Linux and Windows depots to fix bug where fonts were not rendering on SteamDeck. (Thanks 52588024 and duke6578)

Fixed bug where the Demon Dance encounter could be swapped to a different map that didn't have the portal, resulting in a stuck adventure. (Thanks Jear)[/olist]

[ 2025-05-30 19:30:59 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.55.1

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Fixed bug where rasterizer might fail to add asset to rasterization list and throw exception.

Turkish: Updated the Turkish translations. Abalon v2.50 content update now fully supported in Turkish. (Thanks Excolion)

Spanish: Updated the Spanish translations. Abalon v2.50 content update now fully supported in Spanish. (Thanks Semaniel)
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[ 2025-05-28 19:33:20 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.54.2

v2.54.2 Release Notes

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Fixed bug where the OS was closing message channels to the AI back worker causing error #3738 and various cascade issues by rebuilding the AI worker in the event of OS channel closure. This issue predominantly affected Android devices.

Fixed bug where artifacts (such as Big Beard's Helmet) that were attached to bosses (such as Mad Metal Max) were causing the artifact to be unintentionally salvaged by the when the boss was defeated. (Thanks Arianna)

Fixed bug where Big Beard's Helmet was counting as a Satchel card found instead of as a Bonus satchel card found. (Thanks Wesley and Arianna)

Adjusted desert ruins treasure map to avoid blockading pathway into adjacent boss room (Thanks Sinzar)

Balance: Added "Flee Immediately" option for all captured guardian encounters (such as Catch of the Day) so that players can avoid the AI's first turn attack in chapters 2+ if they are caught off guard. These encounters will count as "ambushes" for purposes of a new, upcoming challenge modifier, Unsuspecting Ambush, which will prevent retreat from ambushes.

Balance: Added clarification to the Gargantuant and Devourer that their bonus attack is a "bite attack" so as not to confuse players when they don't trigger another attack after firing a bow and arrow. (Thanks Heartwarden)

Fixed bug where casting Transfer Consciousness on a Metamorph and then using the Metamorph to morph into another unit resulted in the isHero status being lost and not be able to play cards. (Thanks BenLagging)

Balance: Transforming a unit via Polymorph, Savage Transformation or Tribal Transmutor will no longer remove equipped items on the original unit being transformed. Instead, their gear will remain such that if/when they transform back into original form or are defeated while transformed, the gear will be returned to satchel. (Thanks BenLagging)

Fixed bug where units with flying weren't flying over wall of fire unless there was another obstacle in the same movement path. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed bug where traps were no longer persisting in survival mode. (Thanks Spruce)
[/olist]

[ 2025-05-24 18:03:46 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.53.3 - More Fixes and QoL for Major Update 2.50

Game Description Image

Greetings D20 Fans!

Wow, I am so grateful for all of your reviews, feedback, and commentary on our recent v2.50 major update ! In case you missed it, be sure to check out all the awesome stuff that was recently added.

Our Discord is booming and I am so happy that you're happy, supportive and patient while I continue to add more fixes and improvements for you. Here's another round, keep your feedback and wishlists for the game coming, and I'll keep on updating ;)

v2.53.3 Release Notes

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Fixed bug where casting Wall of Ice with your summoner or guardians within the area of effect resulted in those units being removed at the end of battle along with the ice blocks. If the summoner was affected, this resulted in a getPlayerMapEdgePoint() error that could soft lock the game or break the adventure. (Thanks daved3015 and Guest_225277 and Kairin)

Fixed bug where lore could drop multiple times on the same map if destroying multiple objects at the same time with an AOE on a map that has lore hidden. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed bug where lore could drop multiple times on the same map if destroying an object with Nova's upgraded chain lightning ability. (Thanks vinck04)

Fixed bug where lore could drop multiple times at the same time, resulting in the lore collection complete triggering multiple times if the multiple lore completed the lore collection.

Fixed bug where lore cache was assigned to tree instead of barrel on one of the harvest maps so it was possible the lore might be unrecoverable if a road caused the barrel to be removed. (Thanks Kairin)

Fixed bug where lore/gold/other items hidden in a barrel failed to drop if the barrel was smashed outside the playable bounds of the map. (Thanks callmedingo_)

Fixed bug where quitting a game mid-battle and resuming the battle in a later session would remove the lore in that level because the lore hidden attribute stored in the map states wasn't being repopulated during battle state loading (so the game thought you already found all of the lore). (Thanks Kairin, Rhubarb314)

Fixed bug where autoLoot would fail to trigger if the item dropped outside the playable bounds of the map.

Fixed bug where Yeti King's ability to gain a bonus action on the closest enemy unit was listed after his Wreck ability, implying that it was triggered by Wreck and not an extra ability in addition to it. I've changed the ability's listing order on the card to clarify this. (Thanks The Bossman40k)

Balance: Recruiting a loyal unit will no longer trigger the Find Card effect that adds the card to your Tortoise/Guardian pool. This effect was never intended, and it became apparent it was creating balance issues when creatures like the Griffon from the Dinner-A-Fowl encounter was now spawning both a loyal unit and a free Guardian at camp, giving Celestial mages a considerable advantage over other classes. This also fixes bug where it was possible to attain more than 2 instances of certain cards when only a max of 2 copies can be played in the deck.

Fixed bug with Russian translation of Orc Battlehorn where it didn't specify the effect only lasts until start of their turn. (Thanks Kairin)

Smart Deployment: Added additional mechanism to the advanced deployment so that any spawn points adjacent to a trap or obstacle that cannot be attacked blocking your path to the opposing side of the board are deprioritized. This should considerably improve deployment and further reduce the need to retreat and re-enter the map for optimal battle positioning. (Thanks Heartwarden)

Smart Deployment: Adjusted the positioning of obstacles on several maps to prevent LOS to the boss/elite which will generally spawn in the center tile of the opposing board side. I didn't revisit all maps (and some maps, like forests, are intentionally more obstacle dense than others) so please continue to report any further concerns about smart deployment via Menu -> Share Feedback at the point when battle starts so I can make any further adjustments needed.

Smart Deployment: Unique units are now prioritized before combinedStats when choosing units from the player's army to deploy, fixing player request where the Hellhound puppy was not being deployed to battle in favor of units with stronger stats. (Thanks Jear)

Fixed bug where Orb of Entanglement was able to affix the Immobilized status effect if the attack was a combo attack. Per Inflict rules, combo attacks should not trigger inflictions. (Thanks BenLagging)

Balance: The Necromancer staff should only summon 1 skeleton per attack, not one for each attack target (ex: spin attacks, frost nova, etc.) (Thanks BenLagging)

Fixed bug where units with a native Sprint Shot ability (such as a dragon) equipped with a Farshot weapon (such as a bow and arrow) could move and shoot with a Farshot weapon. (Thanks Guest_246440 and BenLagging)

Fixed bug where Blue Dragon would lose life each time an ally was defeated. He should have been following the overall rules for buffs, where a lost life container that's empty does not result in health being lost. His remaining life will now only drop when an ally dies when he's at full health, thus a losing a filled life container.

Fixed bug where Dwarf Warrior could be injured by traps in cases where the trap was placed before the Dwarf Warrior had entered the board.

Balance Dwarf Warrior no longer disarms your own traps.

Fixed bug where enemy Viking Warlords banded together with other Vikings and Dwarf Warriors were able to apply +2/+2 buff instead of +1/+1 to select units, and after defeating the Viking Warlord, the extra +1/+1 was not being removed. It turns out the Dwarf Warriors "Detect traps on Gain Control" was causing the issue, as was any combination of "Gain on Control" effect at start of battle that wasn't flagged to execute on trigger. (Thanks Rhubarb)

Fixed bug where defeating a mind controlled bandit leader (or any other unit with an aura buff ability) heals whatever the aura buffed units were due to the original owner temporarily regaining then losing control of the unit with aura buff. (Thanks CyperAleksi)

Fixed bug where defeating a polymorphed bandit leader (or any other unit with an aura buff ability) heals whatever the aura buffed units were due to the owner temporarily regaining then losing control of the unit with aura buff. (Thanks Sinzar)

Fixed bug where the camera was "snapping" to characters at the end of encounters like Finding the Perfect Tree and Dinner A Fowl instead of panning to them.

Fixed bug where loyal units recruited through fate encounters didn't assemble with the player's party immediately after acknowledging the prompt and instead might wait until their party started moving.

Balance: Adjusted the Dinner A' Fowl encounter so that the Baby Griffon unit is now an NPC. Additionally, only 2 of the adjacent goblins will attack the Griffon on the first turn of combat if the player opts to defend the Griffon to help make it easier to rescue the Griffon if the dice roll isn't high enough to scare off the goblins.

Balance: Cora's frost nova no longer destroys surrounding trees. (Thanks Kairin)

Fixed bug where transformed units were having their small and mutant traits affected, resulting in situations where you could breed summoners transformed into sabertooth tigers and where polymorphed squirrels were not being treated as small animals. (Thanks Jear)

Fixed bug where a Metamorph transforming back into his native form from a buffed Gruar would appear as a tiny little Metamorph - and while funny and kind of cute, was not intended. (Thanks BenLagging)

Fixed bug where a Metamorph who transformed into a Blue Dragon would permanently keep the stat buff acquired while assuming the Blue Dragon's form. (Thanks BenLagging)

Fixed bug where Back to the Future status was being reapplied to the Metamorph after time traveling, changing back into his original form, and then beginning another turn. (Thanks Jear and Heartwarden)

Fixed bug where Sir Cheezle's upgrade abilities had some inconsistencies in the programming that were conflicting the debuff removal and mass time travel capability for allies at Summoner IV.

Fixed bug where a Gate of Fate placed by the enemy is left on the board after retreating from ambush encounter and causes the game to freeze when attempting to re-enter that battle. The fix ensures Gate of Fates are removed on retreat for future runs. (Thanks Guest_240457)

Fixed bug where looting a spell tome didn't produce a card because the Mercenary for Hire encounter wasn't flagged as exempt from no hide on shop. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

QoL: Added a Max Wave and Waves Left counter to the Yellowjacket Nest fate encounter so it's clear the encounter has an end even if the player doesn't roll high enough to force the yellowjackets to withdraw. (Thanks ThoughtfulToffee)

QoL: Improved the camera zoom for ambush encounters so the player can see more of the battlefield and the positioning of their units relative to ambushers. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed bug where the neutral unit spawn safe space could potentially be reused by other units in the same encounter, resulting in a key figure to the encounter (like a Bandit Leader) not spawning and breaking the prompt sequence. This could result in encounters where the units are placed on the board and can be freely attacked without a battle engaging. (Thanks Arianna)

Fixed bug where Golden Dragon (and other select encounters) might not spawn with their dependent map, resulting in special properties of the encounter (like statues turning into Earth Drakes or Stone Giants) not occurring. (Thanks Wesley)
[/olist]

Showing Your Support

Many of our players have asked me for a way to help support the continued development of Abalon, so I setup a "Buy Me a Coffee" page where you can make one-time or recurring contributions.

Reviews

Thanks so much for the additional reviews! We're now up to 450 out of 500 to hit my year-end goal. If you haven't left a review yet, I would greatly appreciate your support. Please share what you like about Abalon and where I can continue to improve and do better. And if I've addressed your feedback, please do update your review as well.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration :)

~Ross

[ 2025-05-17 05:53:02 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.52.0

v2.52.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where completing the lore collection was not rewarding the player with their choice of card if they completed the lore collection across multiple play sessions or after loading a save. (Thanks to many!)

Fixed bug where lore scrolls weren't being re-hidden correctly (if needed due to bug) across different subWorlds (ex: overworld/dungeon).

Fixed bug where a certain treasure room in the desert could only be accessed via fast travel. (Thanks Drok Bonechewer)

Fixed bug where the Wizard Hat was still requiring the "Mage" attribute. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Balance Pedestal statues can now be attacked and destroyed in explore mode just in case one blocks your path. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed Russian translation where Psychic Blast read as 1 damage instead of 2. (Thanks Kairin)

Fixed Russian translation where Occuloid's beam read as damaging all units in path instead of all enemies in path. (Thanks Kairin)

Fixed Russian translation of Demonic Strength, specifying that the buff is given to another ally (not just ally, which implies it could be used on caster). (Thanks Kairin)
[/olist]

[ 2025-05-07 22:08:12 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.51.0 - Rapid Response Feedback

Greetings D20 Fans!

Thanks so much for all your feedback so far on our v2.50 update. I've addressed most of the issues you reported over the weekend and will continue reading feedback and making adjustments.

v2.51.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where Traditional Mode wasn't working for Novice, Advanced and Hardcore difficulties (only on Descent).

Fixed bug where Traveling Salesman did not start with 1000 shop gold as he was supposed to.

Fixed bug where entering map areas containing Alchemy Tables was throwing a continuous exception because the Alchemy Table necessary for the encounter was being bulldozed by the dirt road running through the map. These spaces are now flagged as protected so that the Alchemy Table is no longer removed.

Fixed bug where the demo version of Abalon was still using the old procedural curation algorithm and thus populating the dungeon with encounters that are incompatible with the dungeon and resulted in exceptions being thrown.

Fixed bug where Spider Capture encounter in the Steam Demo threw exception when attempting to enter. This encounter was not intended to spawn, but if has already, it will now work correctly.

Fixed bug where the prompt header for shop was overlapping with the shopkeeper gold in desktop layout. Moved the shopkeeper gold UI to the bottom of screen to prevent overlap.

Fixed bug where shop header was not displaying correctly for Turkish (again) - thanks Excolion!

Fixed bug with translation on the Cursed Coin. This ability changed from previous versions: "The last enemy defeated drops 60 gold" to "Defeated Elites drop 180 gold. Excludes Nemesis".

Fixed bug where players returning to Abalon from older saved world versions could trigger errors when attempting to spawn an encounter that included a guardian.

Fixed bug where fast traveling to certain rooms resulted in exception being thrown.

Fixed bug where lore scrolls could be lost when the early level encounter protection system swaps a fate encounter with a minion encounter that has lore because the lore wasn't be transferred to the new map. (Thanks SpoopyLog)

Fixed bug where lore scrolls could be hidden on minion or elite encounters that are truncated due to other minion/elite encounters being available in other worlds and/or because the Sandpit Arena replaces one of the minion encounters. Additionally, any scrolls that were missing (due to a bug) will now be re-hidden at a new location inside a barrel or crate that is regenerated if necessary. (Thanks Sinzar)

Balance Dreadnought armor no longer applies the "Dreadnought" and "Demon" unit types to the character wearing it.

Balance Wizard Hat no longer has the "Mage" attribute required so that any character can use it.

Fixed bug where AI sync error resulted from ambush encounters not being cleared and the AI therefore not having access to the ambush encounter traits.

Balance Ambush status on ambush encounters will no longer be cleared from the map when retreating. Instead, enemies of ambush maps will convert back into neutral so that the map can be setup as an ambush once again when the player returns to it.

Fixed bug where disposed unitViews could still attempt to updateStatusEffects throwing an exception.

Fixed bug where a status bug could occur specifically for players with a numerical based username. (Thanks 552760268)

Fixed bug where Yellowjackets in Yellowjacket Nest encounter could spawn outside of the playable map area.

Fixed bug where attacking a barrel on the outskirts of a Yellowjacket Nest encounter, then entering the map, could result in the playable map area being reduced to a 5x5 grid around the player's hero, guardians running away, and numerous sync errors occurring. (Thanks KagitarShadowscale)

Balance Adjusted the new Yellowjacket Nest encounter so that it now spawns a maximum number of waves (3-5) based on the current chapter (1-3). The number of waves defeated is preserved even if you retreat. (Thanks sugabuns and ink)

Fixed bug where AI sync error could occur when attempting to free a captured unit during a guardian rescue event. (Thanks Sinzar)

Balance Adjusted the "No equipment removal" during battle so that weapons are excluded. You can now unequip weapons without having to swap. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

Fixed bug where Hellhound puppy was always fetching the same card instead of different cards. (Thanks ThoughtfulToffee and BenLagging)

Fixed bug where chapter stat tracking error was preventing some players from being able to login to their accounts. (Thanks GladiusMortis)
[/olist]

Showing Your Support

Many of our players have asked me for a way to help support the continued development of Abalon, so I setup a "Buy Me a Coffee" page where you can make one-time or recurring contributions.

Reviews

Thanks so much for the additional reviews! We're now up to 442 out of 500 to hit my year-end goal. If you haven't left a review yet, I would greatly appreciate your support. Please share what you like about Abalon and where I can continue to improve and do better. And if I've addressed your feedback, please do update your review as well.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration :)

~Ross

[ 2025-05-06 04:47:43 CET ] [Original Post]

Abalon 2.50 - Bigger, Better, Balanced Biomes!

Game Description Image

Greetings D20 Fans!

Help romance a Flesh Golem and fall in love with Abalon all over again in our latest update, so mega packed with goodies it's nearly a 3.0 release! Available free for all of our existing players and on sale for Steam Deal of the Day!

Abalon v2.50 Release Notes

I've been busy since our last update carefully reading everyone's feedback and doing my best to improve on all the areas you've requested such as gameplay balance, quality of life, play styles and leaderboard system, plus provide a ton more content content I think you'll enjoy to further enhance your adventures.

TLDR: I started off trying to make a new leaderboard system but realized the game first needed better balanced biomes to create the best experience. So, I did that and also made you the better XP system you wanted plus added a whole bunch more fate encounters and loyal characters.

Balanced Biomes

When I started this update, my aspiration was to improve the basis of our scoring system so I could resolve the player feedback I received here and ultimately build a variety of different leaderboard tiers to support a wider audience. How can an RNG heavy roguelike with a wide variance of difficulty and scoring opportunities have meaningful competition? Like all things game design, this turned out to be a much greater challenge than I anticipated and ultimately revealed I needed to first balance the biomes.

Biomes previously varied widely in terms of difficulty, resources, and scoring opportunity. For example, the forest had a higher frequency of beneficial fate encounters, while the desert had a disproportionate number of hazardous encounters and fewer resources relative to other environments. Others, like the dungeon, had higher amounts of weapons and amor, while specific random combinations (such as a Demon Harvest world or a Yeti cave winter biome) had far more battles with harder enemies, resulting in wide variations of difficulty, scoring potential, and chances to recruit everyone's favorite loyal characters.

I wanted to create a way to incentivize each biome so they would have balanced difficulty, equal scoring potential, and still maintain a unique thematic feel so that you're incentivized to explore and enjoy everything. So here's how it breaks down in v2.50:

Difficulty Rating, No More! Welcome Biome Themes!

I read your direct feedback, ran statistical analysis on the win/loss data from each of the 200+ encounter types in the game, and balanced-tuned this baby to the nines! Hahah, right. Balance is never quite so easy, but I did discover a few interesting findings. For instance, the hardest boss in the game (by far) is Croakus, the frog demon of the harvest world swamps. Tityus Everlasting and Ninjitsu Master tied for top elites (more powerful than some bosses), and the Viking hordes of the snow biome took the cake over all the other minions. If you want to talk nerdy with me, I'd be more than happy to share my spreadsheets and discuss all the details with you on Discord . But the long story short is I made a substantial number of changes to the encounters, adjusting the difficulty and distribution for a better curve on novice and amped up the modifiers for more challenging bosses in advanced and hardcore modes. The end result is that biomes are no longer difficulty rated - they differ in theme only! Instead, difficulty will ramp up entirely based on the chapter you're playing.

Fate Encounters

Each biome now has 6 scored fate encounters:[olist]

1x Biome-themed guardian rescue

1x Biome-themed hazard

2x Biome-themed beneficial (loyal units, chance for more resources or other special abilities)

1x Universal-themed beneficial

1x Scored Shop Encounter (Ex: Mercenary for Hire (single), Inkadoo, or Bleet)[/olist]
Epic encounters, such as the Sand Pit Arena or the Demon Dance, now replace one of the biome's harder Minion battles so that each biome has an even scoring potential. Speaking of encounters, I've added 12 new encounters to the game to grow each biomes thematic feel of hazards helpful friends. My personal favorite is a chance to help a Flesh Golem find romance within the lonely depths of the dungeons...

New Encounters

[olist]

Beetle's Burden

Cursed Tomb

Cursed to Crumble

Frozen Viking

Horse with No Name

Noxious Gas

Scavenger Hunt

Skeletal Siphon

Stitched With Love

Viking Vanguard

Yellowjacket Nest

Goblin Army (Minion Encounter)[/olist]

Biome Themed Shops

[olist]

Each of the 20 distinct shopkeepers now spawn only in specific biomes to create different incentives to visit each world depending on your desired strategy or thematic mood.

Each shopkeeper now has a limited amount of gold (500) to ensure balanced opportunity on earned gold. Buying items from a shopkeeper increases their gold pool so that you can trade and sell larger items.

Traveling Salesman carries 1000 gold for the entire adventure rather than refreshing for each camp.[/olist]

Balanced Resource Distribution

[olist]

I've replaced my previous individual object based RNG drops in favor of a world resource pool. Each world now has a fixed set of resources created for it and the procedural algorithm will randomly hide those items based on the world seed. Items will be hidden appropriate to their context (i.e. weapons in weapon racks, gold in chests, dice in crates and barrels), and also distributed evenly amongst defeated enemies. This will guarantee a consistent drop rate and max resource score potential for all biomes and adventure runs.

As an added bonus, the run summary will now indicate the total number of resources you have found per each category (gold/dice/cards/etc.) and the number that remains so that you can be certain you collected everything before you portal to the next world. Any map cells with resources left dropped or still hidden in crates/barrels will now show an icon (gold with a dice) so you know where to go to find the goodies. Note: You will need to explore the map first or use the Insatiable Coffer before this icon appears.

Since the dungeon biome naturally has a higher frequency of weapon and armor racks and bookcases, this biome will generate extra weapons/armor/spells. Likewise, overworld biomes will each spawn extra gold, locked chests, potions and marshmallows to even things out. The total point value of all resources remains equal across all biomes, but will vary by chapter, with higher chapters producing more resources.

After all sub worlds (such as caves, portals, dungeons) for a biome have been populated, the procedural generator will remove Minion and Elite encounters from the overworld that exceed the per-chapter maximum of 9 minion battles and 5 elite battles. This is to ensure a consistent adventure duration and scoring potential for all biomes and boss combinations (such as when the Demon Lord or Yeti King generates additional dungeons).

Additional fate encounters added for thematics of the biome RNG will replace encounters of equal score value to ensure consistent adventure duration and score potential.

Minion difficulty for non-fast adventures now use the difficulty distribution for the entire world rather than resetting the difficulty distribution each time a new subWorld is populated. This results in the hardest minion encounters being found in the deepest subWorlds.

Elites, soul gems and boss keys can now be hidden in any of the sub worlds generated for a biome.

Skeleton keys will now always spawn in the floor for which their locks chests and doors are located.

Lore is now only hidden in the native sub worlds and not the additional sub worlds generated by encounters (such as demonic realm or yeti cave). This is intended to provide incentive to fully explore the overworld.

Nonscored battles (such as minions on the Path of Pain in Demon world) can no longer be assigned keys, lore, or other kinds of drops as these encounters are meant purely as obstacles that can be fought through or avoided using alternative routes.

Completed fate encounters are no longer repeated twice in the same adventure across different chapters.[/olist]

Quality of Life

[olist]

Visible Icons: Resource icons on the world map (such as skeleton keys, lore, drops, and boss key) are now displayed above the folds in the map so it's clear which areas have items to collect.

Resource Tracker: The world map will now display an icon consisting of a dice combined with gold coins on areas that contain resources such as gold, dice, soul gems, or card pickups that have been left on the map or are hidden within crates, barrels or other objects. Resources are detected once the map has been explored or if you have equipped the Insatiable Coffer artifact. You can also use your run summary to get a more specific breakdown of the total gold, dice, cards, and satchels you've found out of the total left to find.

World Map: Buttons indicating the number of subWorlds will no longer show until you have visited a map on that subWorld. This is to prevent revealing information about the nature of the boss by simply looking at the number of floors a map contains. If you have equipped the world map artifact, compass, treasure coffer, or are playing on fast adventure, the subWorld floor buttons will display without having to explore first. The first time a player explores a new subworld, the total number of subwords is revealed on the world map.

Achievement Unlocking: Players who have beaten an adventure on Hardcore now receive the achievement for completing an adventure on Advanced. Likewise, players who have beaten an adventure on Advanced or Hardcore now receive the achievement for completing an adventure on Novice.

Final Run Summary: Added the UI HUD display on the Prismatic Realm so players can view their final score and run summary.[/olist]

XP Earn Rate Improvements

While my initial XP system introduced in 2.0 was quite a hit, it also stirred a lot of discussion. I have received regular feedback since its release, including daily reminders from players to continue to improve the XP system. I love that player passion, and I'm very pleased to finally roll this one out.
[olist]

I've modified the XP Variance table by removing all negative modifiers (decay) on XP gain and continuing to reward bonuses for playing at higher descent levels. While the decay rate was intended to keep the challenge level up and avoid what I thought might feel like grinding, I neglected to consider that many casual players prefer the "power fantasy" of leveling up their characters this way and greatly exceeding the strength of their enemies while unlocking their characters ultimate abilities. If you want to grind to level up by crushing enemies on Novice level with your most powerful heroes, you now can. If you want to challenge yourself by playing harder difficulties, you'll get an XP bonus for doing so.

Your XP difficulty bonus now always uses your summoner's max earned rank (not your selected rank) to remove the bad feeling of not using your upgrades to get XP faster. This means you're now always incentivized to use your highest rank. You still have the option to downgrade your rank if you want the extra challenge, but this will no longer affect your XP or score.

You'll earn a 5% XP bonus for every difficulty level you play above your summoner's max achieved rank until reaching Rank 20. This is intended to support hardcore players who prefer overcoming brutal challenges over the power fantasy and to reward skillful play to reach the higher scoring tiers faster.

Descent difficulty tiers can now be globally unlocked for all characters without having to beat early descent levels with each character via a series of new achievements:[olist]

Descent Explorer: Beat Descent 5 with any character. Unlock Descent 1 for all characters.

Descent Journeyman: Beat Descent 10 with at least two characters. Unlock Descent 6 for all characters.

Descent Master: Beat Descent 15 with at least three characters. Unlock Descent 11 for all characters.[/olist]

I want to encourage faster XP gain by playing a variety of different summoners. So, you can now maximize your player XP gain by playing your lowest ranked summoners at the highest difficulties you can. This is because bonus XP contributes to both the summoner being played and your global player XP. This intended to incentivize and reward players who play with a range of different characters and you catch up to your highest rank summoners.

My goal for Abalon has always been to encourage exploration of a diverse range of characters so players can discover and master an arsenal of creative strategies. To this end, I've added further incentive to playing with different characters with a new set of achievements that will unlock permanent XP bonuses once you've completed adventures with multiple characters:[olist]

Master of Many I: Complete an adventure with 3 different summoners. Unlock a 5% XP bonus for all characters.

Master of Many II: Complete an adventure with 5 different summoners. Upgrade your XP bonus to 10%.

Master of Many III: Complete an adventure with 10 different summoners. Upgrade your XP bonus to 20%.

Master of Many IV: Complete an adventure with 20 summoners. Upgrade your XP bonus to 50%.

Master of Many V: Complete a hardcore adventure with 20 summoners. Upgrade your XP bonus to 100%.[/olist]

Your combined XP bonus (for playing harder difficulties, earning XP upgrades via achievements, and double XP events) is now shown as a bonus percentage of the base score in the battle summary. For example, if the battle shows you earned 100 XP and you have a 50% Bonus, you will earn a total of 150XP. Your XP bonuses for difficulty variance, achievement upgrades and events additively stack together, and bonuses beyond 100% will show as 2X, 3X, 4X multipliers instead (meaning your XP is multiplied by the bonus).
[/olist]

Smarter Battle Deployment

Raising a larger army of followers is a lot of fun, but many players have astutely called out that this can often lead to overcrowded maps and blocking in your summoner on the backlines. To address this, I've optimized the player's unit deployment algorithm as follows:[olist]

The size of the map now determines the max number of units that can be deployed from your party. 5x8 maps deploy a max of 8, 6x9, a max of 9, and 7x13 a max of 13. Boss battles will always deploy a max of 8 units to maintain a consistent challenge across variable map sizes.

The space directly in front of your summoner is reserved (no allies will deploy there) so that you're free to move about on your first turn. (Thanks EvilMustDie)

Units to deploy are selected automatically based on their combined power/life/armor remaining, then whether or not they are ranged or have support abilities. Guardians are always deployed.

Units are automatically deployed in optimal positions, with ranged units in the back and strongest melee fighters in the front. Injured units will even take a position in the backline behind units with more combined power and life.[/olist]
So, you can still build a massive army reserve, no more map overcrowding, and your best and healthiest units will always be selected in optimal formation without having to tinker with a separate deploy step. To fine tune your army, you can use your gear to power up/down your preferred fighters to change how they are deployed.

Leaderboard Reset and Scoring Changes

Once again, I've reset the global leaderboard so we can start fresh with our new scoring system. While I didn't get a chance to finish the new category and tiered leaderboards this update (they'll be coming next), I did revamp the scoring mechanisms to move us closer towards the ideal end game:
[olist]

Below Par Bonus: I've recalculated all of the par values (average turns to win battles) based on the latest 2.0+ battle data and changed these from a flat score to a simple 10% bonus of the base score for each battle type. Difficulty level is no longer a factor in determining par. The par value for each type of encounter is now based purely on the statistical average for all players' performance from the previous game versions' statistics.

No Retreat Bonus: I've added a new score differentiator that adds a 10% bonus to your battle's base score if you win the battle without ever having retreated. This aims to add a nice risk/reward factor and address the free scouting ability in Abalon that some of our min/max players called out for being a bit too tedious. (Thanks CyperAleksi)

Run Completion Bonus: Increases from 10% to 20%. Additionally, the bonus is now calculated after adding challenge modifier scores and is multiplied with other multipliers so that completing a run now has a much higher impact on score than partially finishing a run at a higher difficulty level.

Score Multipliers: All difficulties now share the same base scoring system so it's easy to track individual battle/fate/resource score performance relative to other difficulties and game modes. Scores for higher difficulties are now differentiated by an increasing score multiplier that doubles every four levels of difficulty. For instance, Novice is 1x, Advances is 1.25x, Hardcore is 1.75x and Descent 1 (or difficulty level 4) has a multiplier of 2x.

Adventure Scores: Playing the standard Adventure in signature mode with Descent difficulties offers the highest scoring potential as this is the hardest standard mode. The multipliers range from 2x (starting at Descent 1) and go up to 20x at Descent 15. I'll be adding Descent 16-20 and Descent 20+ in the next update for further challenge.

Traditional Mode: Traditional Mode now supports Descent difficulty. Since so many players prefer this style of play, I decided to remove the forced permadeath for summoner and guardians and instead allow you the option to increase the challenge by playing and unlocking the descent levels. Since Traditional Mode is much easier mode (due to the automatic recovery of cards and ability to see enemy hand), it earns points at half the multiplier rate of standard adventure.

Custom Mode Scoring: Custom mode allows you to pick individual modifiers to customize difficulty to your liking in the signature play style, so the standard multiplier is only used for the base difficulty (Novice, Advanced, Hardcore) and each bonus now has a challenge rating (1, 2 or 3) each corresponding to a 5%, 10%, or 15% bonus. All challenge modifiers, regardless of their effect, now award bonus points as a percentage of your battle score rather than individual categories (such as summoner battle, minion battle, fate encounter, run completion, etc.). I felt this change makes score tracking a lot easier to understand and helps emphasize the challenge effect of encounters like Ill-Fated better. As such, the scoring percentage value for affected encounters has been adjusted accordingly.

Nemesis Battles: Nemesis Battles no longer award points or XP since these are attached to challenges and/or fate encounters that already award their points.

Nonscored Encounters: Likewise, encounters that attached to specific dungeons or events, such as the "Friend or Foe" or "Path of Pain" that offer differing routes through the demon dungeon are now flagged as non-scored as these are intended as unique obstacles and an alternative paths to navigation rather than bonus scoring opportunities for the biome.

Buying out Shops: Buying out all cards within a shop no longer generates a fate encounter score, except in the case of a single mercenary for hire (not the mercenary den) and purchasing or freeing a hero from shops containing caged heroes that can be rescued (ex: Inkadoo and Bleet). I felt awarding points for this didn't make sense after the advent of shops containing loyal units increased the inventory of shops beyond most gold distributions. Each chapter includes exactly 1 scored shop encounter.[/olist]

Balance Changes

[olist]

Encounter Difficulty: Fine tuned the games 200+ encounters for better difficulty distribution (normalized curve for novice, harder elite and boss challenges for advanced and hardcore players). Full disclosure: I took my best guesses, and I'll continue to improve upon this with future releases.

Early Level Protection: Changed the mechanism that protects the player from early level encounters in the first chapter being too difficult. Previously, this would allow distributions of encounters rated difficulty 1-3 (after having spawned at least one elite for purposes of teaching retreat mechanic). Now, the curve advances in a linear fashion for the first 6 battles before letting the random map distribution take over. Additionally, the algorithm now protects early chapter characters from difficult fate encounters (not just battles), such as the Arena Ambush or Catch of the Day. The retreat prompt will now surface afterwards, if the player attempts to engage with a difficulty 8 or higher encounter before they have won 8 or more battles and have not recruited any allies yet.

Drop RNG: Instead of using the action id as the RNG salt (which can vary between sessions), I now use coordinates (which are fixed). This should result in more normalized card drops and will eventually help with consistency as we move towards more seeded RNG systems in the future.

Unequip: Made it so that player can no longer unequip items during battle. This is to prevent exploiting artifacts (such as Horn of Haste) where the benefit is applied at the start of the battle by removing them to circumvent the max item limits. This also fixes bug where it was possible to unequip allies who have been mind controlled by the enemy. Players can still swap equipment during battle (i.e. replace a weapon by equipping a different one).

Traditional Mode no longer includes the permadeath challenges enabled by default. Many players (casual and hardcore) enjoy this style of play over Abalon's signature style, so now you can play on any difficulty (including Descent) with permadeath optional via the difficulty setting.

Fast Adventure: Increased the number of shops in Fast Adventure Dungeon from 1 to 2 and increased the number of shops in Fast Adventure Overworld from 3 to 4 so that Fast Adventure now includes exactly 2x scored shops (1 in overworld and 1 in dungeon).

Ranged Unit Encounter Spawns: I changed the algorithm for rangedUnitSpawn so that these spaces are now only and always reserved if the enemy has farshot units. This should greatly improve the challenge of the encounter by ensuring the AI's melee troops aren't blocked by ranged units being positioned in front of them.

Elixir of Eternal Life: Instead of dealing 20 damage (and probably killing you if you fail the dice roll), choosing poorly and drinking from the wrong grail will now transform you into a long, white haired skeleton warrior. (Thanks Lex)

Dinner-A-Fowl now spawns a miniature version of the Griffon guardian so that all character classes can receive it as a loyal unit.

Increased the life of Goblin Birthday boy from 3 to 5.

Removed some traps and furniture in some of the dungeon rooms so there is more room for guardians to enter.

Updated the biome description prompt so that it no longer displays a difficulty rating to coincide with my balance update where all biomes should be of equal difficulty.

Chronomancer Top Hat: Will now be uniquely found in the Snow biome via Play Nice with Ice encounter. Expanded the range of creatures that can be created by four (you're welcome Kaaz). The full list creatures that can be animated includes:[olist]

Treant by placing on a Tree

Earth Elemental by placing on a Rock

Crystal Golem by placing on a Crystal (I wonder where you find those?)

Ice Golem by placing on an Ice Block

Fire Elemental by placing on Fire Pit

1/5 Bramble Elemental by placing on Brambles, Cactus, or Spiked Blocked

3/6 Carniflower by placing on a Bush

Magma Golem by placing on Powder Keg[/olist]

Reduced Demon World size from 4x4 to 3x3.

Cursed Coin changed from "The last enemy defeated drops 60 gold" to "Defeated Elites drop 180 gold. Excludes Nemesis".

Create an alchemy fate map for each biome so they can each support the many different alchemy encounter types.

Paying off bandits will now count as a successful encounter completion and award points.

Bigger Bosses challenge now increases boss life by +20 rather than +10.

Overcharged challenge now increases the starting mana of Bosses and Elites (not just bosses) to 5.

Camp Shortage challenge modifier is now unlocked in Challenge Mod Set 4 on the progression tower

Inflation challenge modifier is now unlocked in Challenge Mod Set 5 on the progression tower[/olist]

Bug Fixes

[olist]

Fixed Bug where multiplayer co-op games involving AI controlled withereds could become desynced because both clients auto-processed mindless actions and the host also sent the mindless actions, resulting in an exception that didn't manifest until much later in the game. (Thanks Excolion and yokeee)

Fixed Bug where it was possible to loot the Mercenary Den before recruiting all Mercenaries. Removed gold chests from Mercenary den. As a side note, Mercenary Den and other shop items no longer contain loot :P

Fixed Bug where player can unequip items on units they no longer control.

Fixed Bug where Demon Dance fate encounter was scoring twice (once as a Fate Encounter and again as a Boss Encounter). It now scores as a Battle encounter.

Fixed Bug where switching to a new page and selecting a card to sell would not initially show the "Sell" button until the card was selected a second time.

Fixed Bug where using the keyboard or controller to select two cards of the same type in a row while in the Deck Summary screen would not select the second duplicate card.

Fixed Bug where casting exactly 3 spells while equipped with the Trinity Orb, you could then play any number of satchel cards to continuously trigger the Trinity Orb's effect. The Trinity Orb is not intended to trigger when playing artifacts. (Thanks Elwood)

Fixed Bug where Goblin Backstab works with Ranged Attacks (ex: Warlock Staff). Backstab is not intended to work against multiple targets, so I've fixed this so that Backstab abilities only trigger when there are no secondary targets. (Thanks Excision)

Fixed Bug where restocking a campfire with marshmallows to light the bonfire wasn't incrementing the marshmallows eaten statistic.

Fixed Bug where AI wasn't attacking the hellhound puppy or cat of nine as it saw their constant resurrection as nonsensical.

Fixed Bug where shop name was not appearing correctly and other bugs in the Turkish translations. (Thanks Excolion)

Fixed Bug where Metamorph in Sandpit arena cannot transform into another unit without transforming back. (Thanks Wesley)

Fixed Bug where leaving the Harvest world through the portal while transformed into an animal to enter a new biome would result in being transformed back into your summoner and having a copy of the animal you were transformed into temporarily in your party until completing a battle. Your animal transformation status will now carry over to the next adventure. (Thanks Excolion)

Fixed Bug where some statuses affixed from fate events could become removed by retreating from battle instead of winning battle or resting at camp.
[/olist]

New Language Support

I am continuously impressed and thrilled by the support of our player community in helping to translate and add new language support to Abalon. Recently, we had volunteers for Indonesian and Polish, so these languages will be coming soon (hopefully in the next major update). I've also had several requests for Ukrainian and Arabic language support. If you're a native speaker and would like to help translate Ukrainian, Arabic or another language, I'd love your support! I've got a first-class custom localization tool that makes the process quite fun, and I also honor all of our volunteers by creating and naming a card in the game in your honor. Reach out to me on Discord (@RossD20Studios).

Coming Soon

I aimed to finish the leaderboard system this update: instead we got balancing, XP overhaul and new fate encounters - necessary steps on a long road. I do have the designs for the new leaderboards done (which is actually the harder part), so I'll make that the priority to finish for our next big update. After that, it's back to working on multiplayer and our Caves Expansion.

Showing Your Support

Many of our players have asked me for a way to help support the continued development of Abalon, so I setup a "Buy Me a Coffee" page where you can make one-time or recurring contributions.

Reviews

My year-end goal for 2025 is for Abalon to achieve "Overwhelming Positive" rating which requires a total of 500 or more reviews an overall rating of 95% or more. As of today, we're at 432, 94%. That's 68 more to go, will you help me by writing a Steam review? I want to make the best experience I can for you - let me know in your review what you like about Abalon and also where I can continue to improve and do better.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration :)

~Ross

[ 2025-05-02 07:35:46 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.42.0

Fixed a bug where selecting through difficulties or cards using the controller or keyboard wasn't providing any kind of feedback to indicate which choice you had selected. Now, the cards will properly enlarge and expand, as well as show the keywords panel with additional information. (Thanks Fancy2209 and grandal)

[ 2025-03-17 23:51:05 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.41.0 - More Fixes and Improvements

Game Description Image

Greetings D20 Fans!

Thanks so much for your feedback! Here's another round of fixed and improvements for Abalon :)

v2.41.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where it was possible to equip more than the max items on a character if the equipped item removed one of their native abilities. (Thanks Swaglord)

Updated to SteamWorks v1.61 to use the latest Steam integration.

Improved gamepad controller polling to reduce stuttering on SteamDeck.

Improved gamepad controller by adding rumble support to accompany explosions that use the screen shake VFX.

Fixed bug where the Weighted Dice is used to free captured hero from the Marauders, but was not sent to the AI worker, and thus, a sync error was triggered.

Fixed bug where player could trigger a ListDataView BadData by sorting their cards after selling to show all the cards previously in their deck/tortoise.

Fixed bug where you could add more than 20 cards to your deck by selling cards in your deck to the Traveling Salesman at camp, then, going to tortoise to add cards in your deck back up to 20, then, returning to traveling salesman to buy the sold cards back and returning to the tortoise a final time.

Fixed bug where clicking sell at the same time as space key on card in deck at a shop throws exception.

Fixed bug where using Antarus with exploding fireball to knock character in the water, his special ability triggers a second knockback that was causing the Deep Water effect to trigger a second time (potentially killing the unit) and resulted in the unit being returned to the board after battle, causing various sync errors. (Thanks Guest_200637)

Fixed bug where using polymorph to transform unit into a squirrel and then knocking them in the water resulted in the original unit getting a marker to emerge from the water even though they were defeated. This could result in desync error and/or softlock.(Thanks Guest_176348)[/olist]

Back-End Development

While these features aren't directly player facing, I wanted to share them with you here for 1) for transparency so you know where some of my time was spent this update and 2) to show how I'm supporting my goal of responding faster to player feedback by enabling more frequent small updates between major release:
[olist]

Created a pipeline that automates the process of building and deploying the game to all platforms. Prior to the pipeline, new builds required multiple manual steps that took hours and diverted time and focus from other tasks.

Created a bug analyzer script to help automate cataloging of reported issues so I can better understand patterns and prioritize fixes.[/olist]
Some other ideas I have for the future on the back-end include:
[olist]

Creation of a Discord integration that would allow me to receive and respond to in-game feedback communications directly from my phone. While I currently read all in-game feedback, I don't always respond directly or as timely as I would like due to the overhead involved in the current setup.

Scripts to automate database and server maintenance

Scripts to detect and mitigate abuse of the leaderboard[/olist]

Coming Soon

Major updates in the works along with our regular updates include:

Asynchronous Multiplayer
Leaderboard System Revamp, feel to check out the post here and share your thoughts. This update will also include some balance changes to the XP curve, gold costs, and other such items.
Caves Expansion

Showing Your Support

Many of our players have asked me for a way to help support the continued development of Abalon, so I setup a "Buy Me a Coffee" page where you can make one-time or recurring contributions.

Reviews

My year-end goal for 2025 is for Abalon to achieve "Overwhelming Positive" rating which requires a total of 500 or more reviews an overall rating of 95% or more. As of today, we're at 421, 94%, so while this is highly ambitious, I believe this is something we can achieve together. I care a great deal about providing you the best experience I can, so please share in your review what you like about Abalon and also where I can continue to improve and do better.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration :)

~Ross

[ 2025-03-12 16:29:06 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.38.0

Release Notes:

[olist]

Created a fix for the sync errors caused by the equipment system change released in v2.37.0 intended to allow players to automatically swap equipment when at max item count without having to first unequip items.

The sync error was caused by the simulation engine actually performing the action, but the undo command for this simulation was not being passed to the AI, resulting in a desync between the player and AI board states.

The change uses the EquipmentChangeGetter, which doesn't actually perform an action, but instead simulates by applying the new equipment on the player board state only, then undoing it. We check to see if statuses were removed in response to adding the equipment to determine whether or not a gear can be equipped while at max item count.
[/olist]

[ 2025-02-20 00:50:11 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.37.0 - Player Requested Features and Bug Fixes

Game Description Image

Greetings D20 Fans!

Thanks to your feedback, the latest version of Abalon improves the equipment and card selling features of the game plus many other fixes.

v2.37.0 Release Notes

[olist]

QoL: Automatic Re-Equip: By popular demand, I've added a memory system to the gear you equip to your guardians. When a defeated guardian is removed from your party, a snapshot of that guardian's equipment is stored before the gear is returned to your satchel. When that guardian is returned to the board under your control, they will automatically re-equip any of their previous gear still in your satchel. Note: The re-equip action is not tied to the command system, so if you revive a guardian with equipped gear, then undo that action, then revive them again they will not re-equip their gear again as their gear map is cleared once they return to your party.

QoL: Equipping Units: Abalon now allows equipping units at max inventory if the new equipment would replace an existing equipment.

QoL: Sell Tortoise Cards: Added the ability to sell cards carried by your tortoise at shops.

Fixed bug where removing a Bow and Arrow from a ranged unit was not removing the bonus damage. (Thanks KittyMeow)

Fixed bug where entering an ambush encounter would count as having explored the map, even if the player decides to flee, potentially breaking ongoing Blizzard or Sandstorm weather effects. Prompted encounters will no longer count as having explored the map until the encounter is cleared. (Thanks KittyMeow)

Fixed bug where multiple artifact hearts (Void Heart, Arcane Heart, Celestial Heart) couldn't be stacked on the same unit.

Fixed bug with Exhaustion challenge modifier where the damage from Exhaustion could be absorbed by your armor before the battle starts. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

Improved Turkish translations and fixed bug related to non-functional cancel options within certain prompts. (Thanks Exolion)

Fixed bug where Boss map within the Forest biome near a river could be missing a blockading pillar. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

Fixed bug where splash damage hitting an enemy shrouded in the mist of mayhem soft locks the game if they are carrying a lore scroll. Enemies can no longer be secondary targets of attacks in explore mode. (Thanks Rhubarb314)

Fixed bug where, after having retreated from a dungeon room, player could not reenter the room as enemies had positioned themselves in front of the door, blocking entry. (Thanks yaroslav)

Fixed bug where, upon entering a bandit blockade within a dungeon and initiating a battle, guardians may get stuck in the previous room and unable to join the battle. (Thanks Rhubarb314 and NetManDeer)

Procedural Spawning: Fixed unusual spawning in the dungeon, where, after you retreat and return, the enemies are oftentimes surrounding you instead of repositioning in the opposite side of the map like they should.

Procedural Spawning: I also fixed the encounter spawning to ensure that if the number of enemy units intended to spawn does not fit within their designated spawn area, we'll now use the neutral zone as an extra set of spaces they can spawn after their regular deployment zone is used up.

Procedural Spawning: Added logic to prevent player units from raiding into the neutral spawn area of the map if their party is too large. This is to ensure at least some separation from the enemy and some room to move.

Procedural Spawning (Large Armies): Added a system to ensure that player units that do not fit within the battle are no longer truncated after saving the battle, leaving the game, returning, and ending the battle.

Fixed bug where Shatter spell was not destroying obstacles such as Spike blocks or units that had been petrified as indicated on the card. (Thanks Wesley)

Fixed bug where Choose button does not appear when using the Orb of Insight on touch screens with desktop UI enabled. (Thanks Arianna)

Balance: I changed Frost Nova for Cora so instead of doing a fixed 4 damage (which was also a bug, should have been 2) she now deals attack damage equal to her power. I also removed the equipment constraint that was attaching her frost nova to her right hand weapon. This change allows her to now work with Glyph of Nithsrot and also combine the effects of melee weapons with her ability. For example, using an Orc Warhammer, her stomp will now deal Knockback (3). Melee weapons that change her attack pattern (such as Firesword, which gives Swipe) will still replace her Frost Nova attack as before.[/olist]

Next on the Roadmap

Major updates in the works along with our regular updates include:

Asynchronous Multiplayer
Leaderboard System Revamp, feel to check out the post here (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/0/596262086078658592/) and share your thoughts. This update will also include some balance changes to the XP curve, gold costs, and other such items.
Caves Expansion

Showing Your Support

[ 2025-02-18 15:16:48 CET ] [Original Post]

Steam Deck / Linux APAC Font Fix

Fixed issue where APAC fonts were missing for the Native Linux / SteamDeck branch

[ 2025-02-08 18:42:10 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.34.0

Release Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where Psychic Blast allowed Mind Control to occur without respecting the life remaining limit indicated on its ability.

Fixed bug where selecting an expansion locked Summoner in the mobile version would throw an exception.

Fixed bug where turning off the screen on iOS, changing the device orientation, then turning back on the screen would throw an exception.
[/olist]

[ 2025-02-07 06:01:19 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.33.0 - #1 on Mac, Quality of Life, Bug Fixes and Turkish Language Support!

Greetings D20 Fans!

We're back with another awesome update for Abalon! I hope you all enjoyed the extended Double XP winter event, and if you missed it - don't worry! I aim to have many more fun and rewarding events for you in the future.

Our latest version brings many great additions: Take on even greater challenges with Descent difficulty extending to level 15. Sort your cards by their gold cost. Find all the hidden keys and lore, and more! I'm also thrilled to announce support for Turkish language thanks to one of our wonderful players in the community, Exolion! Be sure to thank him in our Discord by challenging him to a battle in our PvP beta ;)

Alright, I've got some good news, some unfortunate news, and then onto the release notes and roadmap!

Some Good News

Abalon recently achieved #1 Top Free App on the Mac App Store. This was a very delightful surprise, and I'm very grateful and excited to hit this new milestone.https://youtu.be/XoY9dPYBx3M[/previewyoutube]

Some Unfortunate News

I'd hoped to have delivered this update weeks ago, but was delayed due to an unfortunate discovery. I'm both a little flattered and dismayed to share that we've reached enough popularity to attract hackers who have managed to distribute modified versions of my game.

Why is this so problematic? Aside from it being quite disheartening to me that folks are stealing from a solo dev when I've offered numerous ways to play the game free, these modified versions introduce a number of errors that are both a drain on my server resources (which operate at considerable personal expense) and are negatively impacting our organic discoverability on app stores. This is because app stores like Google Play reward visibility based on quality and performance metrics, and the changes introduced in modified versions aversely alter our game's rating and deny opportunities to have our game recommended to new players. Likewise, when cheats are used, it denies legitimate players from earning their rightful place on the leaderboards, discouraging fair competition and consequently hurting our community.

Abalon is not a one-off title that I have released and abandoned, but a living project that I continuously work to improve. It's been unfortunate to contend with this issue when I'd rather have been working on new features for you, but also necessary that I do what I can to protect my project, reputation and standing for the long term future of Abalon and our community. To my loyal fans and our wonderful community, thank you so much for your patience, understanding and support! Hearing your achievements, discoveries, and overall passion and enjoyment for the game keeps me going :)

v2.33.0 Release Notes

[olist]

NEW FEATURES

New Language: Added support for Turkish localization. Huge thanks to Exolion for providing the translation!

Sort By Gold: Added functionality for sorting cards in the collection, shop, and deck building screens by their gold cost. When using this feature in the collection, cards will also display their gold price.

Descent: Increased the max descent level from 10 to 15.

New Challenge Modifier: Camp Shortage: One campfire in each world is replaced with a minion encounter.

New Challenge Modifier: Inflation: Merchant and mercenary prices increased by 20%

QUALITY OF LIFE IMPROVEMENTS

QoL: Lore scrolls, silver keys and boss keys dropped in the world now show on the world map. (Thanks VoxSilentii)

QoL: Virtual joystick is now disabled during prompts.

QoL: Greatly improved the functionality of combo boxes and list scrolling used in the game lobby.

QoL: Improved performance by reducing memory allocations on the animation clock.

QoL: Added portrait layout for game lobby.

QoL: Updated and improved German translations (Thanks HiImClueless)

QoL: Made an attempt to fix issue where Steam Deck gets stuck loading by changing the location where rasterized assets are stored on Linux to prevent the CacheError that could occur in conjunction with using Proton without compatibility options enabled. See this post for more details: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/0/597390757221893227/ (Thanks toiles)

TARGETING

Targeting: Spells and attacks that directly target adjacent or surrounding tiles now count as requiring visibility. This fixes bug where units with Spin attack were able to directly target Stealth units. It also fixes bug where spells like Touch of Death or Vampire Bite were able to directly target Stealth units.

Targeting: Adjacent and surrounding targets that are "autoDesignated" (such as via an indirect hit from a spin attack) are no longer counted as requiring visibility. This means that units with Stealth can be hit indirectly by these attacks (they just can't be the primary target).

Targeting: The Veil ability states "May not be directly targeted by enemies at range". Many players were confused in prior versions why units with spears could not target veil units, so I've changed the mechanic as follows: Units surrounding a unit with Veil can now target them with attacks from spears or sprint shot. This is because "range" is defined in the tutorial as being at least one space between and not surrounding the target unit. (Also note, this was the preferred solution as voted by players on our Discord).

Targeting: Fixed bug where summon spells cast on diagonal spaces while blinded by a sandstorm were discarded without being cast because the action was technically illegal, but the warning prompt was never surfaced to prevent the action.

Targeting: While units with Stealth and Veil cannot be directly targeted by Chain Lightning, the secondary and tertiary lightning strikes will now target these units. (Lightning shouldn't need to see, but it does need a direct path to bounce from).

Targeting: Fixed bug where Samsung devices (such as the SM-G981W) would not allow player to "tap to confirm" movement for actions that offered a choice between move and attack (such as when moving adjacent to an enemy or when using the "Always Confirm Move"). This happened because the device was firing an extra MouseMove event after touching the screen. I solved it by adding a threshold so that it only clears the confirmed move after dragging to a new space. (Thanks @erkjhnsn)

KEY RELATED

Fixed Bug where no silver keys, boss key, or soul gems are hidden in the map. This likely occurred as a result of a cascade error where the game is closed during the population of a new world. The fix ensures that if no treasure was initially populated within the world, the population algorithm runs again when loading the save game.

Fixed Bug where Swamp treasure maps were not assigned keys, thus resulting in missing silver keys in the Harvest or fast adventure biome that included swap treasure rooms. Also added a locked treasure chest to the third swap treasure area. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed Bug where the two tiny stair maps were spawning extra silver keys. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed Bug where retreating from Cho'tuk the Wanderer while he is in bear form resulted in him being removed from the board and losing any soul gems or boss keys he was carrying.

Fixed Bug where elites carrying the boss key could be inaccessible due to procedural population creating a non-traversable path.

Fixed Bug where player could enter the boss room in the snow biome without using the boss key and then become trapped there if saving to title and reloading game.

DESIGN FIXES

Fixed Bug with Sir Cheezles Summoner IV ability so that he can target debuffed and adjacent allies for time travel.

Fixed Bug Removed the "small" tag from Withered dog that was causing an error to be thrown when Animal Growth was cast on it.

Fixed Bug where fast traveling to an explored area between two closed doors could truncate the party. Units being teleported between closed doors can now open them so that they have room to assemble. (Thanks gimmecoconut)

Fixed Bug where Randal's Fineries was selling equipment as spells instead of as satchel. (Thanks floaty)

Fixed Bug where equipping a Max Health item to a follower could result in permanent healing. (Thanks DaneSilverHawk)

Fixed Bug where temporary cards (such as those fetched by the hellhound puppy) would remain in the deck after battle if they were recycled.

Fixed Bug where, if player is transformed into an animal and discovers a mercenary for hire, the mercenary that spawns is selected by the animal's magic school instead of the original summoner magic schools. (Thanks Excolion)

Fixed Bug where infinite spiderlings could be generated by equipping and unequipping max life giving artifacts while transformed into a Wolf Spider Mother (Thanks Exolion).

Fixed Bug where Zenon's arcane draw ability triggered when playing satchel cards. Likewise fixed other "cast" related triggered abilities such as Lilith, Hellfire Candle, Sacred Sapling, Lightning Orb, Trinity Orb and Demon Lord so that they do not trigger when playing a satchel card.

Fixed Bug where players could exploit fate encounters without the intended score penalty by exiting to title and continuing adventure or logging out and logging back in (which could also generate bug prompts).

VIEW BUGS

Fixed Bug where button text in Chinese and APAC languages within the deck builder was misaligned (Thanks michelreno)

Fixed Bug where Nova, Sorceress's upgrade cards were reading "{DAMAGE0}" instead of the actual damage amount.

Fixed Bug where Summoner upgrade badge would incorrectly notify player that upgrades are available before they had reached Silver Tier and Gold Tier respectively. (Thanks digitalblacksmith)

Fixed Bug where an empty string variable name would still appear in the "Max Rank" prompt when using a XP tome.

Fixed Bug where the descent tower scroller could freeze when player reaches the last available level.

Fixed typos in Demon Lord 4 (Thanks Rhubarb314)

OTHER BUGS

Fixed Bug where a Void Necromancer's attack being blocked by a Celestial Barrier causes TypeError 1010 and crashes/locks the game.

Fixed Bug where exception could be thrown for resuming the music when returning to the app after being idle for awhile.

Fixed Bug where exception could be thrown when switching orientation and pressing buttons in the title screen due to an asset reference being removed.

Fixed Bug where exception could be thrown then clicking to exit the progression tower as a reward prompt is triggering.

Fixed Bug where exception could be thrown when viewing the Summoner XP prompt after completing a chapter or returning to the title screen.

Fixed Bug where Range Error 1125 was being thrown when switching out of and back into the game.
[/olist]

Next on the Roadmap

On the short-term horizon, I'm gunning to get Asynchronous Multiplayer added to Abalon Arena in time for Steam's Couch-Coop Fest. It's gonna be one heck of a sprint, and we'll find out soon enough if I can pull it off. After that, I'll be working on the Leaderboard System Revamp, feel to check out the post here (https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/0/596262086078658592/) and share your thoughts. This update will also include some balance changes to the XP curve, gold costs, and other such items. In parallel, I've also got our next expansion in the works that will introduce the cave systems biome.

Showing Your Support

[ 2025-02-05 16:11:32 CET ] [Original Post]

Abalon is Game of the Day on the App Store

Game Description Image

Abalon is Game of the Day on the App Store

I am excited and delighted to share that Abalon is featured on the App Store today as Apple's "Game of the Day" . It's a fantastic honor for an indie game to achieve and a huge win I absolutely want to share with our Steam community. Your thoughtful and insightful feedback has contributed considerable improvements to the game since our debut on Steam Early Access in 2022. Now, three years later, over 150K players and counting have ventured the lands of Abalon. Thank you so much for your support!

I remain committed to regularly updating Abalon with new features, fixes, and improvements based on your suggestions and I'm aiming to deliver a new build next week.

Cross-Play Support

Abalon supports seamless cross-play between Steam and your favorite mobile devices. The game is fully verified for Steam deck, supports portrait and landscape modes on mobile, and can be fully played offline, too!

Note that while Abalon is free-to-download on mobile, it is supported by paid expansions separate from our premium purchase price on Steam. Please see our previous post here for more details on how to setup cross-play and my responses in the discussion section regarding our current pricing model.

Thanks for being a valued member of our community! See you again next week.

~Ross

[ 2025-01-14 23:23:43 CET ] [Original Post]

Happy New Year from D20Studios!

Game Description Image

Happy New Year from D20Studios!

I'm officially back from the holiday break and excited to get back to work on Abalon. I've decided to extend our Double XP Winter Event until our next game update, so please continue to enjoy it while I prepare the next round of features and fixes for you :)

Cheers!

~Ross Przybylski

[ 2025-01-06 17:28:55 CET ] [Original Post]

Double XP Holiday Event

Game Description Image

Double XP Holiday Event

From now till the New Year, earn Double XP in all adventure modes!

More details in our v2.30.0 update: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1681840/view/515196931452961683

[ 2024-12-22 18:13:03 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.30.0 - Happy Holidays Winter Event

Game Description Image

Happy Holidays D20 Fans!

I'm so grateful for all of our Abalon players, so I wanted to release one more special update for you before the holidays kick into full gear.

Double XP Holiday Event

Many of you have requested changes to the XP curve, and while I still have a lot of work to do to carefully consider all of the feedback and create the optimal balance, I decided I could directly address this in the short-term with a special event: From now until the the next update, you'll gain double XP in all adventure modes. Additionally, all players have access to the snow biome (regardless of player level) and can also take advantage of the "Choose Biome" perk in game.

Sell Cards at Shops

This update introduces one of our top requested player features: the ability to sell spells and artifacts at shops! Any merchant (including the traveling salesman) can now be sold cards from your deck/satchel/discard pile for some bonus gold so you can clear unwanted inventory and get that piece of gear you've been wanting.

To work with this new feature, I've also changed the run-score system so you're no longer given points based on how much gold is your inventory, but rather, how much gold you find in the world from treasure chests and defeating enemies. Buying and selling cards for gold will not impact your run score.

Bonus Gift

I gifted all of our current players a bonus Bronze XP tome that will appear in your rewards inventory so you can boost up your favorite summoner or try out a new character with the first set of character upgrades. Enjoy!

v2.30.0 Release Notes

[olist]

New Feature: Players can now sell their spells and artifacts at shops.

Fixed bug where ambient SFX were not respecting the volume controls for ambient upon deactivating and activating the app.

Fixed bug where resuming music after having the game idle for a while could throw an error.

Fixed bug where the Boss Key could spawn in an unreachable area in one of the world layouts where a treasure cache was adjacent to a bridge and coastline obstacles blocked an alternate path to get access to the final area where an elite guarded the key.

Fixed bug Fixed a bug where equipping the Botanical Sage with plant based artifacts triggered her special ability. Artifacts were not intended to count as spells for the purposes of her ability.[/olist]

Showing Your Support

Many of our players have asked me for a way to help support the continued development of Abalon, so I setup a "Buy Me a Coffee" page where you can make one-time or recurring contributions.

Honestly, though, the biggest ask I have is simple and free: please write the game a review :)
Reviews do so much to improve our discoverability and bring new players to the game. They also provide me with a lot of insights on what I'm doing right with the design and where I can still improve.

If you're a native Polish or Ukrainian speaker, I would love your help with translating the game, and I'll even create a card in the game named in your honor. We have a really slick tool for translating that lets you see the translations in-engine in real-time, and our current volunteers have mentioned it's really fun to work with. We recently found a volunteer for Turkish and are excited to add this language to the game soon.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and consideration :)

Thanks and Happy Holidays

Developing this game and creating an experience that so many of you enjoy has been such an honor. I'm uplifted each day reading the wonderful stories, accomplishments, new friendships and overall fun and enjoyment you share in our Discord and Steam community. It's nice to see veteran players helping out our newcomers and creating a positive and welcoming place to be.

I have many plans for Abalon in the new year and will be continuing to add fixes, improvements and new features to the game based on your feedback. I'll be taking a short break for the holidays until the new year to spend with my family.

To each of you - have a wonderful holiday!

~Ross

[ 2024-12-22 17:48:47 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.29.0

Thanks everyone for your feedback!

Here's another round of fixes:
[olist]

Fixed bug where completing a battle with challenge modifiers applied and then exiting the game before acknowledging the victory resulted in the adventure progress being cleared and generating bugs at start of the game when returning. (Thanks Xavius)

Fixed bug where copying a deck in the deck selector screen would throw an error (Thanks Snoopy13)

Fixed bug where selecting a unit that is running away in explore mode generates an error (Thanks blackdove2).

Fixed bug where rescuing a character from Bleet the Beastmaster or Inkadoo with a full party could result in an error after changing the active guardians. (Thanks MrCamon)

Fixed bug where selecting the deck or satchel while enemies are rushing the screen into battle could cause the player's party to run away and delay the start of the battle until restarting the game.

Fixed bug where returning from the guardian screen to a battle where enemies are rushing the battlefield, the player might see enemies already placed on grid pop away and then run back to their starting position.

Fixed bug where returning back to the game after it's been idle for a while could result in an error occurring when it attempts resume the music.

Fixed bug where Russian Cyrillic characters appeared missing from the leaderboard and run summary screen.

Fixed bug where Russian Cyrillic characters appears in alternating combinations of regular and bold face on cad titles and menu buttons. (Thanks Coolstory).

Updated Russiantranslations with improved vocabulary and descriptions (Thanks Coolstory).

Updated Germantranslations with improved vocabulary and flavor text (Thanks HiImClueless)

Italian: added automatic language detection when first booting up the game on a device with Italian set as the default language.[/olist]

[ 2024-12-16 15:28:07 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.28.0 - More Fixes and Improvements!

Game Description Image

Greetings D20Studios Fans!

Thank you everyone for your feedback on the game! I've been focused on fixing critical bugs and other improvements to the game before I dive back into feature development and balance tuning. Here's what's new:

v2.28.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Fixed a critical bug where fast traveling to a different floor on the map during an animation could result in summoner or followers being duplicated and locking the game in an unrecoverable save state. This fix recovers all affected player game saves.

Added fix to ensure heroes and player units are not mapped to the world cell states (preventing future duplication errors) and removing existing duplicates from world saves.

Fixed bug with fast travel where switching to view different floors could alter the behavior of animations for the player's current floor and cause animation and cascade bugs.

Fixed hot keys for the subWorld buttons so players can now use keys and gamepad buttons mapped to the next/prev screen actions to switch the active floor of the world map.

Fixed bug where some registered Steam accounts weren't syncing progress bi-directionally with the mobile version of the game. (Thanks Jedrak)

Fixed bug where chat and multiplayer beta functionality wasn't working for players with registered Steam accounts linked to mobile version of the game. (Thanks Excolion)

Fixed bug where guardians and/or cards appeared as grayed out/new/locked in game modes such as Fast Travel where the player starts with a pre-constructed All-star team.

Fixed bug where an exception could be thrown when attempting to swap out an existing guardian (particularly one that hadn't been unlocked yet) with another when recruiting a new team member.

Fixed bug where player's guardians would be invisible within the guardian selector at camp if they had another guardian within their deck.

Fixed bug where guardian/cards could appear as invisible within the tortoise deck selector at camp until being moused over or tapped on.

Fixed bug where guardians and cards the player had not yet unlocked could be permanently removed when swapped out of the party/deck. This could occur when playing a Fast Adventure and choosing an all-star deck that includes cards not yet unlocked. Note: This fix takes effect upon starting new adventure after updating.

Fixed bug where player might see a Mercenary for Hire or Caged Animal on the world map without a guardian being spawned.

Fixed bugwhere targeting on mobile devices using the "tap" to select and "tap" to command method on an adjacent target resulted in the unit not changing their facing towards the target until after the animation had completed.

Changed Cora's Frost Nova ability to right hand equip context so that changing her weapon allows her ability to be replaced by the equipped item (Thanks (Nagibashka))

Fixed Serpenta's Diamond tier mass hypnosis ability so that units with 5 or less are commanded as stated on the card (instead of 3 or less as was occurring in previous version). (Thanks skywalkershen)

Fixed bug where multiple spaces lit up when targeting with the Revive spell (one for the target space and one for where the revived unit was defeated on the board).

Updated German translations with improved vocabulary and flavor text (Thanks HiImClueless)
[/olist]

Follow D20Studios on Steam

I've setup a franchise page where you can follow updates on our games. Check it out and hit the "Follow" button to stay up-to-date with our latest: https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/d20studios

Thanks for Your Support

As always, thanks for being a valued player in the D20Studios community! Please feel welcome to reach out to me (comments, Steam friend request, in-game Menu -> Share Feedback, and on Discord https://discord.gg/d20studios) and let me know how I can make the game even better for you! And of course, I greatly appreciate your Steam reviews!

~Ross

[ 2024-12-09 18:23:21 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.22.0

[olist]

Fixed threshold for the Golden Greed trigger intended to prevent fraudulent leaderboard entries from diluting the achievements of legitimate player runs (Thanks Dusty)

Fixed bug where game could freeze up after collecting gold/marshmallows/dice.

Fixed bug where equipping a unit, such as the Chronomancer, with a weapon that added new abilities and removed other abilities resulted in the unit's card text displaying formatting code. Note: It is intended that equipping certain characters with a new weapon will remove existing abilities. For example, equipping a Chronomancer with a new weapon removes his time staff and his abilities to send units to the future. You can see the abilities that will be removed as you drag/hover over the target (new abilities appear in green, removed abilities appear in red). Removed abilities will remain on the card with grayed out text. (Thanks lyb555)

Fixed bug where using a scroll of resurrection or bonfire potion to revive a defeated guardian while the "Lost Guardians" challenge modifier is active was not flagging the character as having been found (even though the revive worked). This resulted in an issue where after removing the character from your party, they would not return to the cosmic tortoise so that they could be added to the party or deck again later. (Thanks Saltiest Knight)

Fixed bug where game could become locked up after winning a battle with a fire sword equipped Barbarian.

Balance: Barbarian now gets -1/-0 until end of turn each time his Wreck ability triggers. This directly addresses player feedback that the Barbarian was too powerful at clearing the board of weaker units while still enabling great synergies with his ability (Discord community approved!)

Updated Italian language with some translation fixes (Thanks Takis)[/olist]

[ 2024-11-19 01:39:35 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.21.0 - Welcome to Abalon!

Game Description Image

Greetings D20Studios Fans!

I'm thrilled to welcome 50,000 new players to Abalon just one week following our WW mobile launch. What an intense and thrilling week it's been! I am so excited and grateful to see our community grow and for all the wonderful and positive moments we've shared and will continue to experience together!

Sure, there were some stressful moments and things I couldn't anticipate, like unverified developer warnings blocking access to the game, thousands of new bug reports to address, and some disappointment from players because we don't yet support their native language... but all that was equally matched and then some by the awesome kindness of so many folks who jumped in to support me and our players whose patience, understanding and enjoyment of the game have kept me going!

Big Wins

Bugs Be Gettin' Fixed

While there's still a lot I need to individually address, I'm pleased to share I'm making good progress stabilizing the build and resolving the remaining bulk issues affecting the majority of players. Special shout out and thanks to Andrew Frost, engineering manager at Harman in charge of the AIR SDK. He's a passionate, dedicated, and responsive professional and his support and insights were paramount in solving the many technical issues I've faced developing Abalon.

Italian Language Now Supported!

Our first 1 star reviews came from players upset I didn't support Italian. The very next day, Takis Proietti Rocchi answered my call for help by volunteering to translate the game. Grazie, Takis, for your hard work providing Italian language support for our community! A new card, named in your honor, will soon be added to the game for all players to enjoy!

I'm still seeking support from our community to help translate. Polish, Ukrainian and Turkish have been requested, would anyone like to help? I have a first-class translation tool that allows you to review translations in the live game engine, making it fast and fun! You, too, can be immortalized in Abalon. Please email me at ross@20studios.com or message me on our Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios

Best New Game of the week on App Store

Super honored and excited to share Abalon was featured on the App Store in "New Games We Love" and picked as "Best New Game" in Apple's "The Best in Games This Week".
Game Description Image

Abalon also attained the #1 Game ranking on App Raven. This passionate player review explains why. Game Description Image

New High Score!

Congratulations to Dustbunney for clearing Descent 10 and attaining the new #1 high score on our global leaderboard! I have another 10 levels of Descent planned and look forward to adding these soon so you can delve deeper in your adventures and ascend ever higher as a legend of Abalon!

Turn Based Carnival Event

Abalon is included in two game bundles featured in Turn Based Carnival, alongside the amazing developers of Hellcard, Terra Randoma, and Fabled Lands. Check out the deals and complete your collection:

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/46861/Deckbuilders_Paradise/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/46796/Infinite_Realms__Roguelike_Tactics/

v2.21.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Added Italian Language Special thanks to our player, Takis Proietti Rocchi, for providing the translations! A new card will soon be added to the game for all players, named in your honor!

Fixed Unverified Developer Warning (Android) Abalon is now a fully verified Google app!

Fixed App Minimize Issues (iOS) where the game threw error exceptions for attempting to make GPU updates to the game while the app was minimized.

Fixed bug where the hellhound puppy, adorable as he is, would generate AI Sync errors whenever entering a battle (bad dog!)

Fixed hellhound puppy so he now fetches a unique card each time his ability is used (good dog!)

Fixed bug where the below par bonus and xp were showing for battle end prompt for PvP multiplayer beta

Fixed bug where it was possible to generate extra mana after first discarding two cards and then losing a unit.

Fixed another exploit to prevent errant/impossible scores from being posted to the leaderboard[/olist]

Abalon Soundtrack Now Available!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3330660/Abalon_Soundtrack/

Thanks for Your Support

[ 2024-11-14 11:05:29 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.16.0

[olist]

Fixed bug where starting cards removed from deck during camp would not return to the Cosmic Tortoise (Thanks )

Fixed bug where starting guardians defeated during battle were not being revived when resting at camp (Thanks kenny9999k)

Fixed exploit that was allowing impossible leaderboard scores and cleared the invalid scores (Thanks Miu and Lykurgos)

Change Lilith's third unlock condition from Void Master to Boss Defeator achievement. (Thanks Hunter762)

Added fix to improve the ANR rating on Android
[/olist]

Abalon Soundtrack Now Available!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3330660/Abalon_Soundtrack/

[ 2024-11-09 07:19:21 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.15.0

[olist]

Fixed several bugs produced as a result of minimizing and returning to the game or turning off the screen on iOS.

Fixed bug where attempting to select equipment on your character could result in the equipment card being stuck on screen until the game was restarted.

UI Improvement: Added a "Play" button when selecting a satchel card so it's more intuitive to understand how to use it. You can also still drag the card up to play it.

Known Issue (Android): When attempting to sign-in with Google Play, player receives an error saying Google hasn't verified the app. We're working with Google to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. If you are experiencing this issue, please reach out to me via Discord @rossd20studios or send an email contact@d20studios.com with a screenshot. The more I understand how this is affecting some users and not others, the faster I can respond.

Known Issue (Android): Some players have reported the game gets stuck in the loading screen. I'm working on a fix (it's possibly related to the sign-in issue above), but there are two workaround solutions: 1) Disable battery safe mode, start the game. After it loads, re-enable battery safe mode if desired. 2) Hold app icon -> App Info -> Store and cache -> Clear Storage, Clear cache. Then, restart the app.

Known Issue (Itallian, Polish, Turkish and Other Language Support): As a solo dev, I rely on the generosity and support of our player community to help with translations. If you would be interested in volunteering, please contact me via Discord @rossd20studios. I create custom game cards named after you as a special thank you for all of our translators.[/olist]

[ 2024-11-08 06:39:13 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.14.0 Mobile Release, Soundtrack and Leaderboard Reset

Game Description Image

Greetings D20 Fans!

Here we are on the eve of our mobile launch for Abalon, officially launching tomorrow (though potentially available in your region now), and I'm excited to deliver another round of changes and some updates on the future of the game and where we're heading next.

Abalon Mobile Release

Abalon mobile is officially available on App Store and Google Play as of Thursday, November 7th! Register or link a D20Studios account to your Steam account to continue your Steam game's progress on your mobile devices and back to Steam again seamlessly!

Abalon Mobile Features:

[olist]

Playable on phones and tablets

True cross-platform experience: Play seamlessly between Steam and mobile!

Portrait and landscape orientations

Supports fully offline play

Free-to-download

Optional paid expansions include full card sets*

No RNG booster packs, cards to dust, or loot boxes[/olist]
* Steam purchases are separate from the mobile version, similar to how a Nintendo Switch purchase is separate from Steam. While save games and progress sync, cards in premium sets require a separate purchase to use on the mobile version. This was the most fair for me to sell the game for all players and support the continued development of Abalon :)

**Content purchased in the mobile version does work between mobile platforms (i.e. content purchased on Apple works in Google Play and vice versa).
Game Description Image

To sync your mobile device with your Steam progress, launch the game on Steam -> Menu -> Settings -> Account -> Register / Link -> Register. If you've already registered an account on mobile, you can choose Link Account instead and login. Your save with the most activity will be used on for all devices.

Abalon Soundtrack

Per player request, I've released the official soundtrack for Abalon for purchase on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3330660/Abalon_Soundtrack/
Passionately composed by Albert Ventura, the music of Abalon is a stunning combination of whimsical exploration, atmospheric ambience, intense battle tracks, and charming encounters - much like the game itself! These scores are the perfect companion for your tabletop RPG get togethers, inspiring your next big D&D campaign, or just relaxing and regaling on your past adventures in the world of Abalon.
Sit back and enjoy!

Leaderboard Reset

Also per player request, I've officially reset our leaderboards. As with our last reset, the previous scores shall be immortalized in our hall of fame, an enhanced leaderboard feature coming soon. This aims to give a fair competitive advantage to all of our players with the game's current balance and known exploits fix (see our change list below).
Game Description Image

Congrats to our skilled players that attain the highest scores in the previous version!
Game Description Image

Congrats to the lead summoners of the previous version!

v2.14.0 Change List

[olist]

Fixed exploit where it was possible to unlock all of the cards in an All-star deck by starting a Fast Adventure

Fixed exploit where it was possible to change the cards found in a card in a card or satchel pickup on the board by immediately exiting the game after revealing the choices.

Fixed exploit where it was possible to undo card replacements as this revealed deck information.

Fixed exploit where equipping and unequipping certain artifacts (or having an equipped unit die) does not remove the item's ability (Ex: World Map, Compass, White Flag, Chrono Spectacles).

Added the "Fire" tag to Red Dragon and Dragon Whelp as these cards are discounted by the Hellfire candle (Thanks Kanstume)

Fixed bug with Traditional Chinese translation for Orc Battle Horn (Thanks Kantsume)

Fixed bug where selecting "Replay Tutorial" while within the tutorial didn't reset the progress to the beginning of the tutorial.

Fixed bug where the Summoner leaderboard wasn't loading

Fixed bug where resetting account progress did not delete entries from the global and summoner leaderboard.

Fixed bug where selecting a custom deck, exiting the game and returning would temporarily change the selected deck to null until entering the deck selector.

Fixed bug where the "Choose"/"OK" button was hidden underneath the card when the largeUI option is enabled.

Fixed bug where rasterizer did not always detect necessary rasterization changes for changing to/from the largeUI setting
[/olist]

2.0 Feature Requests Coming Soon

I've compiled a list of the top player requested changes and new new planned features below. I'll be working on these next along with addressing any other bugs/concerns along the way. Let me know what you think of this list: What are you most excited about? What's missing?
[olist]

Ability to filter leaderboards by different versions or competitive seasons so that we can maintain Hall of Fame records and promote new competition as the game evolves.

Ability to click on a leaderboard row to bring up that player's run summary so you can see how the score was derived.

End of Run Summary Screen (Showcase your final scores after completing/ending run)

Ability to sort cards by gold cost

New Exit Game option: Abandon Run

Option to choose a Random Starting Summoner

Revised card cost and balancing for artifacts

Ability to sell cards at merchant shops

10 New Descent Levels

10 New Achievements
[/olist]

Thank You for Your Support!

I'm both overwhelmed and delighted to reach this milestone. It's been over 8 years since I started the development Abalon, with an even longer prior history dating back to the release of Hero Mages in 2009 and the creation of the physical board game that started this crazy journey in 2006.

It's my passion, my mission and now my career to create this game so that players around the world can enjoy it. It's a wonderful thing to bring people from all over the world together to share an experience, to inspire your creativity, and to challenge you.

I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has made this dream a reality: my incredibly supportive wife, my kids, my team, and each and everyone of our players that dared to seek adventure with a cosmic tortoise!

[u]Thank you for your support![/u]

[ 2024-11-06 22:11:51 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.13.0 - Language Support

Our spooky event has ended, but development continues with another round of fixes! This build adds full translations for v2.0 for all other languages we support. Huge thanks to all of our translators for your support. If Abalon doesn't support your language yet and you're interested in helping to translate, we'd love your support and we show our appreciation by creating a new in-game card in your honor.

v2.13.0 Change List

[olist]

Updated French translations (Thanks Scribe!)

Updated German translations (Thanks Marvin!)

Updated Portuguese translations (Thanks Marvin!)

Updated Simplified Chinese translations (Thanks Whisper Games!)

Updated Traditional Chinese translations (Thanks Whisper Games!)

Updated Japanese and Korean translations (Thanks Whisper Games!)

Updated Korean translations (Thanks Whisper Games!)

Fixed the Chinese/APAC font clipping issue on SteamDeck and Linux (Thanks kfm20102)

Fixed bug where playing the Abalon Arena multiplayer demo would clear your tower progress (Thanks Saltiest Knight and mr.kitty) Note: If you were affected by this bug and need your backup data restored, feel free to ping me here on Steam or on our Discord .
[/olist]

Abalon Mobile Release on November 7th

In case you haven't heard yet, Abalon is coming to the App Store and Google Play on Thursday, November 7th! The mobile version will fully sync with your Steam progress so you can pick up where you left on Steam, resume on mobile, then return back to your Steam machine seamlessly!

The mobile version of Abalon is free to download and play with optional paid expansions. Keep in mind that while save games and progress sync between platforms, Steam entitlements do not carry over, so using characters not included in the Core set requires a DLC purchase on the mobile version (a bit similar to if you had bought the Steam version and wanted to play on Nintendo Switch would require a separate purchase). Expansions purchased on mobile will work on any of the platforms where Abalon is available free (currently Google Play and Apple) so you don't have to purchase again if you're just moving to a different mobile platform. Just wanted to make sure I was upfront about this so everyone's aware. This was the most fair for me to sell the game for all players and support the continued development of Abalon :)

Pre-Order Abalon Mobile

You can pre-order the mobile version of Abalon now to have it automatically install once it's available in your territory.

Pre-Order Abalon on the App Store
Pre-Register Abalon on Google Play

Abalon 2.0 Steam Reviews

Finally, I want to take a moment to thank everyone for your new and updated Steam reviews! I am so grateful we're meeting your expectations in 2.0 and I aim to continue improving the game even more.

To give some context to just how much impact the 2.0 release has had, we've seen our average concurrent player base increase by 8X - this is HUGE! We've also increased our Steam rating from 91% Very Positive to 93% Very Positive - and we're just one more positive review away from achieving 94%! Who'll be the awesome player in our community to help make that next milestone happen?

See everyone again soon!

~Ross

[ 2024-11-01 23:08:12 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.1.0 Patch 1

Another round of fixes! And more changes coming down the pipe soon :)

[olist]

Updated all of the Russian translations. Huge thanks to Neuk for his support!

Fixed bug where lore scroll text was getting cut off for APAC languages (Thanks Kanstume)

Fixed broken dice roll option on the Blizzard encounter in Traditional Chinese (Thanks Kantsume)

Enhanced our cloud save system to create additional backups and further prevent player data resets. (Thanks dienekes00)[/olist]

[ 2024-10-29 18:58:46 CET ] [Original Post]

Harvest 2x XP and Survive the Horde

Game Description Image

Harvest 2x XP and Survive the Horde

From now till November 1st, earn 2X XP when adventuring in the Harvest biome. Abalon's horde survival mode is also unlocked for all players for the duration of the event.

[ 2024-10-28 19:35:20 CET ] [Original Post]

2.1.0 - Spooky Event

Greetings D20 Fans -

Thank you all so much for your continued feedback and support! Version 2.0 is proving to be our most successful update yet. I am thrilled you're enjoying the new changes!

Scream Fest Event

Double XP for Harvest World and Survival Mode Access

I'm still working through a lot of your feedback, but I wanted to get this patch out to address some immediate issues and provide a fun little surprise for Halloween. From now until November 1st, I'm running a special event for Halloween where you'll earn double XP for battles and encounters in the Harvest biome to give you some extra incentive to explore this spooky world. Additionally, I've temporarily removed the level restriction for Survival Mode so you can try and survive against the withered horde.

Here's a list of the other build changes:
[olist]

Fixed bug with Plague (which was ignoring undead targets as its text changed to "All enemies get -1/-1 until end of their turn." (Thanks CoolStory, Mittens the Maleficent, Sinzar and Sigvuld)

Fixed bug where the Joker's Last Stand potion returned to the inventory after being consumed. (Thanks Dusty)

Fixed bug where Native Linux version (SteamDeck) was incompatible with AIR51.1 (Thanks Goose, dienekes00 and Tequila007 for verifying the fix)

Balance: When a unit is removed but pending revival from a Spirit Recall or Joker's potion, your equipped items are no longer removed.

Balance: Per player request, spin attacks can now target units diagonally.

Balance: Adjusted the upgrade tiers, allowing an additional artifact slot in silver tier (moved equipment slot 7 to gold tier).

Language Support: Updated the Spanish localization (huge thanks to Semaniel for providing the translations). We're expecting updates for other language translations are expected

Language Support: Corrected issues with Traditional Chinese translations on several cards. (Thanks Kantsume)

Font Change for Asian Languages: To conserve file space and fix issues with some missing characters, I've changed the fonts used for SC, TC, JP, and KO from embedded to system fonts. This means the fonts will now render based on the versions supplied by your OS system. I'd love to get your feedback on this change so that I can improve it, so please let me know how the new fonts impact your experience.
[/olist]

[ 2024-10-28 18:08:11 CET ] [Original Post]

2.0 Patch 2

Hey everyone! Thanks for the reports this morning. It seems a few players were affected by a bug introduced after my patch yesterday (to unlock the Custom Adventure) that resulted in their tower level being reset back to 0. I have fixed this issue and, to remedy any lost playtime, any players who were potentially affected will be automatically promoted up to level 9.

I take data/progress loss very seriously, so please do reach via the in-game "Share Feedback" mechanism if you weren't able to recover your progress with this fix and I'll be happy to support you.

Much appreciated,

~Ross

[ 2024-10-20 19:15:15 CET ] [Original Post]

2.0 Reception and Fixes

Patch 1

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your feedback on Abalon 2.0 so far. I'm very happy that most of the new changes were very positively received. I'm also grateful to hear your concerns where I may have over-indexed the balance a bit. But that's the great thing about being a player-driven developer - nothing is set in stone, I'm eager to improve the quality of the game, and I want to hear your thoughts.

I also want to express that my intent for 2.0 was not to take away or remove anything from the game that you liked, but rather, create a path going forward that helps new players get best introduced to the many features and mechanics we've added to Abalon over the past few years. This is important for growing our community and so that I can continue developing Abalon longterm. I can't speak for other experiences you many have had on Steam, but I am sincere in my desire to create the best experience I can for you.

On that note, here's a few changes I've made in our latest patch:
[olist]

Custom Adventure Mode (which enables you to choose between Abalon's signature play mechanic of cards as resource and Traditional Deckbuilder playstyle where cards always reshuffle after battle) - has been changed from "Unlocks at Level 10" to "Play an adventure". I recognize that many players simply prefer this playstyle, so there's no reason to force you to play our signature mode if it's not your thing. I think this is a good solution that still provides the new player curation (i.e. the opportunity to at least try the signature mode once) - and if they then decide it's not for them, you can move right on to custom mode. This change will also automatically unlock Custom Mode for anyone who has already played an adventure.

Fast Adventure Mode changes from "Unlocks at Level 15" to "Unlocks at Level 10".

Max Equipment Count - The initial 2.0 update saw the max item count for all characters change from 8 to 3, with optional upgrades to bring the Summoner back up to 8. To clarify, the reason for this change was to correct an over-step I made to the balance in our previous release (Gear Up!) where the overabundance of items diminished the importance of skillful deck building synergy and key decision making (i.e. which items to take best compliment my team) because you could simply equip everything you found. At the same time, I'm willing to recognize the change may have been a bit too dramatic, so I've changed it as follows: Summoners start with max item count of 5 and can upgrade up to 8 (which is only intended really for playing descent level difficulties). Other characters will still have a max of 3. Certainly, I'm willing to revisit these values again, but do please try it out and let me know if the limitation helps the spirit of what I'm trying to do with the design and the gameplay.

Upgrade order has been changed to provide earlier access to artifact selection (by shifting the max equipment upgrades down a bit since you can now start with 5). My aim is that you'll have the same effective experience you had before with choosing cards, but even better balanced since you can now choose 3 spells, plus items, plus artifacts. Also note that the Bronze upgrades are very easy to achieve for any summoner in that a single XP tome will fully unlock all of these upgrades.

Fixed the Sprintshot targeting for Darakai (Thanks Plykiya)

Anchored the Staircase so Cora can no longer stomp it away (Thanks Plykiya)

Our fix is confirmed for SteamDeck: Native Linux is now working again!
[/olist]
I also want to thank everyone in our community who has responded with in-game feedback, Discord feedback, and contributed to the 2.0 comments on Steam in this post here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/eventcomments/4692279782567165753/

Special shout out to folks with very detailed feedback and suggestions to improve: Lord Cameron, DramaLama, Himmelblauer Panther, Snoob, and 1075185437

And thanks again to the many SteamDeck players who reported the AIR SDK issue and helped verify the fix: DramaLama, Shadow Lord, Tequila007 to name a few :)

More fixes and changes to come, so be sure to tell me what you like/didn't like. Your Steam reviews are also very appreciated!

~Ross

[ 2024-10-20 01:01:25 CET ] [Original Post]

Native Linux Fix v6

Attempting another rollback on the AIR SDK to correct the error prompt occurring OLED Steam Decks. Let me know if I got it this time.

[ 2024-10-19 17:19:23 CET ] [Original Post]

Native Linux Fix v5

Thanks for the reports from my Steam Deck players. I understand the last fix didn't correct the OLED version, so here's another attempt to solve that problem. Let me know if this one works. Again, I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience here, and I really appreciate your patience and support as I work to fix this for you.

[ 2024-10-19 15:57:20 CET ] [Original Post]

Native Linux 4

Thanks again for your reports! I apologize again to our Steam Deck users, apparently the latest AIR SDK 51.1 is incompatible with Steam Deck OLED. I've rolled it back to AIR 50.2 (the last version I used for the previous working build), so this should finally resolve that error. Please let me know in the comments if this update worked for you.

[ 2024-10-19 02:54:13 CET ] [Original Post]

Native Linux Fix v3

Shout out and thanks to my Steam Deck players for helping me out with this one. I believe this update should now fix the game so it runs on Native Linux again on Steam Deck. Let me know in the comments.

~Ross

[ 2024-10-18 23:38:42 CET ] [Original Post]

Native Linux Update v2

I updated the ANE (AIR Native Extension) for SteamSDK to see if this would resolve the issue users playing on the newer OLED Steam Deck reported where the game wouldn't run in Native Linux (only Proton v9.03).

Let me know if this works, if not, I will rebuild again with the older AIR SDK to get it working.

[ 2024-10-18 22:37:06 CET ] [Original Post]

v2.0.0 SteamDeck/Linux Fix

This fixes the Linux/SteamDeck version of the build that was missing some images, resulting in a black screen and/or bug error. Thanks for reporting so I could get it fixed asap!

[ 2024-10-18 18:56:09 CET ] [Original Post]

Abalon 2.0

Game Description Image

Abalon 2.0 is Out Now!

This update is available free for all of our existing players and on sale for the Roguelike Celebration and Steam Scream Fest.

About Abalon 2.0

Following in the spirit of our previous large update, "Gear Up!", I've taken player feedback to heart to provide a rewarding structure to Abalon's massive amount of content and deliver on some of our most requested features. Let's dive into the changes!

Progression Tower

We've added a new player leveling system, depicted by our signature "Progression Tower" that will have you ascending further into the clouds and unlocking new characters, game modes, upgrades and challenges. Since Abalon was designed to encourage the exploration of many different characters and deck synergies, the tower stands tall to unify your excursions and provide some extra incentive for that "just one more run..." feeling.

You earn player XP for playing adventures with any character and the rewards here are universally available and unlocked for all of your characters.

Summoner Ranks

Player Level works in tandem with Summoner Ranks through a tiered upgrade system that's designed to see players jumping from character-to-character to make the most efficient progress. The greater the challenge (game difficulty to summoner rank), the greater the XP earned per run. The summoner upgrades are unlocked per character, but each upgrade tier requires a universal unlock so that all summoners can reach their highest potential. Among those rewards are tomes of XP that you can use to help your favorite characters boost ahead.
Game Description Image

Each upgrade opens up more opportunities for customizing the start of your adventure run.
Game Description Image

For instance, you'll be able to unlock more starting spells, carry items and artifacts (in separate categories from your spells) and eventually take guardians as starting units. To incentivize exploring a variety of different cards, we've added a "points system" in the form of gold cost for each category. This way, you might decide to take a few potions or invest your entire budget in one really powerful artifact. And yes, your customized starting decks are now saved so you're all set for your next run!

Summoner Upgrades

Each summoner also has 3 character specific upgrades that enhance their natural abilities (2 ability upgrades and 1 stat boost). You'll earn your first upgrade in the bronze tier after a run or two, with slick bonuses like spin attacks for melee characters and extra projectiles for ranged.

The diamond tier was specifically created to reward our most hardcore players with some outrageous new abilities: Sylvia can hurl a barrage of squirrels, Sir Cheezles can mass time travel, Serpenta can mind control small armies, and so much more!

There's nothing subtle about the Summoner upgrades that unlock at Diamond Tier. Hurling a barrage of squirrels is by far the most satisfying way to collect loot.

Descent

You're going to need those upgrades to take on the new ascension difficulty mode that we've lovingly called "The Descent" as you're not climbing a spire so much as descending into the underworld. This was a fun way to curate some of our existing challenges and create a streamlined experience that you'll be able to compete and compare scores of other players with.
Game Description Image

Each level of Descent introduces a new challenge that's added cumulatively to the previous challenges and provides a distinct score bonus (for either battles, summoner fights, run completion, etc.)

Completing runs will earn your summoner stars - which now show on their run start card so you can try and collect them all for each character.

Abalon Mobile Release Update

All of these great new features also culminate in the imminent release of Abalon for Apple iOS and Google Play! Abalon is carefully designed to play comfortably from anywhere - on any device, in any orientation, and sync your progress seamlessly amongst all the platforms in which you play.

To that end, you'll find a new "Account" setting in the menu where you can (entirely optionally of course) register an account with us so you're ready to sync your Steam game data and play on your mobile devices when the game launches in three weeks on

Thursday, November 7th!

You can pre-register now (it's free) on both Apple and Google Play .

Balance Changes

[olist]

The big one: Ranged units no longer counter attack ranged attacks. We pondered this one quite a bit, and decided it didn't create the best experience, especially when you'd have a carefully placed fireball or dragon breath returned with a barrage of arrows.

Plague changed from Non-undead units get -1/-1 to All enemies get -1-1 until end of their turn.

Forbidden Library cost reduced from 2 to 1

Withered Dog - Life Increased 2 to 3, Gains Small

Weaken - In addition to -2/-2 cant counter or combo, weakened targets cannot block.
[/olist]

Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

There were a lot of fixes in this build too, and I thank everyone for using the in-game/forum/and Discord reports for contributing. Honestly, there's quite a long list and I decided I'd best be launching this update so you can play it rather than reading a hundred little bullet points :P

Let me know what you think!

I care a lot about this game and our community here, so please let me know what you think of the changes and where you'd like to see Abalon go next. Your Steam reviews are also greatly appreciated!

~Ross

[ 2024-10-17 18:20:55 CET ] [Original Post]

Heading to PAX West? Let's Meet Up!

Greetings D20 Fans!

For those of you heading to PAX West this weekend, I have some exciting opportunities for us to meet up, read on!

Interested in the game industry?

Check out the Be Brave panel tonight at 6:30 and learn how to network with the pro's. I'll be speaking alongside several industry vets including folks from Microsoft, Bungie, Niantic and Nerd Ninjas.

Details: https://west.paxsite.com/en-us/schedule/panel-information.html?gtID=866604&panel-name=Be-Brave-Networking-and-amp-Navigating-the-Industry-with-Boldness-13-and-

Abalon Arena at Seattle Indies Expo

On Sunday from 12:00PM-9:00PM I'll be demoing Abalon Arena alongside a collection of the best upcoming indie games in the Pacific Northwest at the Seattle Indies Expo, also known as SIX.

Stop by and challenge me to a PvP match, or bring a friend along and play coop vs the bots, or bring 3 friends and battle each other in FFA or 2v2!

Details: https://six.seattleindies.org/

Abalon Mobile Release

Abalon is coming to mobile and you can pre-register now on Apple and Google Play at the links below:

Pre-Order Abalon on Apple:

https://apps.apple.com/app/abalon/id1235934798

Pre-Register for Abalon on Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.d20studios.summonersfate

I aim to have details for joining the prerelease beta along with a Steam update later next week when I'm back.

I look forward to seeing you there!

~Ross Przybylski, Founder & Game Developer
D20Studios, LLC

[ 2024-08-30 16:16:29 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #34 v1.37.0 More Fixes!

Greetings Players!

Todays update is a large set of fixes for player reported issues. Im still working to respond to all of the feedback from our latest major update (Gear Up!) so if you havent seen your feedback addressed below, rest-assured, Ill have another update coming soon.

v1.37.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where a corrupted save file caused by a Summoner being removed from play during a battle in Horde Survival mode could result in an endless error loop even after closing and restarting the game. (Thanks PhiatJustitia)

Fixed bug where a Summoner equipped with Joker potion defeated by a Toxic Spore resulted in that Summoner being removed from play (causing the error above) (Thanks PhiatJustitia) (As a special note, I was able to both fix your bug and correct your corrupted save file so youll be able to continue your game next time you login)

Fixed bug where transforming a Summoner into another unit twice in a row (for example, into a bear and then into a tiger) would result in its Summoner status being lost. This resulted in several problems, like being unable to Use, Recycle or Discard cards or retreat from battle. It also caused your Summoner to run away from combat at the end of the fight. (Thanks Kowalth and Andy Mickey)

Fixed bug where monitors running with 1365x720 (300% scale) and 1470x920 (200%) scale resolution in full screen would throw an exception. (Thanks stottinator for providing a reproducible edge case that helped me finally fix this bug)

Fixed bug where the game would appear to infinitely display the loading screen when a new required game version update is available instead of displaying the message directing the player to update their game client. This occurred if the server responded before the client finished loading.

Fixed bug where equipment cards given by high-roller npc could go to deck and cost mana instead of the satchel (Thanks ink and Fareley)

Fixed bug where equipment cards given by the fairy could go to deck and cost mana instead of the satchel (Thanks HarrMegiddon and Kowalth)

Fixed bug where Orb of Insight was surfacing equipment cards as non-satchel. The orb will no longer surface equipment cards as spell card choices to adhere to the Gear Up rules logic that all equipment is now satchel cards, not deck cards (Thanks HarrMegiddon)

Fixed bug where damage from the Mana Stone artifact was getting absorbed by armor.

Fixed bug where unequipping/re-equipping armor could regenerate damaged armor, allowing players to bypass damage caused by Heatwave. Damage caused from Heatwave now ignores armor as it should thematically. (Thanks Lord Cameron).

Fixed bug where equippable consumable items (Weighted Die of Theron, Four Leaf Clover, Ghost in a Jar, Jokers Last Stand, Pylactery Potion) were returning to the satchel after being used. (Thanks Lord Cameron, ink and )

Fixed bug where Trinity Orb would trigger its ability when playing cards from the satchel outside of combat. The orb will now only trigger during battle as intended. (Thanks ink and Fareley)

Fixed bug where cards added to discard pile via a summoned creature being defeated would trigger the Incinerators ability to generate extra mana. The Incinerator will now only trigger mana when cards are discarded from the players hand via the discard action. (Thanks ink)

Fixed bug where a Wizard Hat added to the spell deck could produce a satchel card version of the hat whenever it was unequipped. (Thanks ink and xacegod)

Fixed bug where Metamorph exhibited strange behavior when equipped with items and morphing into another unit including life not being reflected correctly for equipped buffs (ex: celestial hearth) and creating duplicates of equipped items (Thanks ckdee, Jear and NMP). The Metamorph will no longer transfer equipped items to the unit is morphing into. Instead, items equipped to the Metamorph will be removed while transformed, and then, after being transformed back, the Metamorph will have kept its equipped items.

Fixed bug where an AI ranged unit equipped with a melee weapon could still fire (in a hilarious fashion) its new melee weapon as if it were a bow and arrow. (Thanks ellaris)

Fixed bug where Glyph of Nithsrot doesnt work with ranged attacks. I decided to change this ability and the wording to be such that unit must be melee attacked for the ability to trigger. (Thanks xacegod)

Fixed bug where weapons with Pierce couldnt be equipped if the Summoners power was below 1 (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed bug where player was stuck in an endless loop after battle due to a mutated and mind controlled snake returning a non-mutated snake owned by the enemy after battle. This was a fun bug to figure out :) (Thanks Lap)

Fixed bug where player is knocked into water for lethal damage but they have the Joker potion which should revive them, and as a result, their Summoner is removed from the game, resulting in a battle that cannot be ended. (Thanks pellemat696)

Fixed bug where it was unclear that Rogues bonus attack on enemies with 1 life remaining only triggers on ranged attacks. I made it so the rogue's ability now works for melee as well. (Thanks ink)

Fixed bug where player opened a sarcophagus and immediately right clicked on guardian that jumped out caused a soft lock. (Thanks Fareley)

Fixed bug where the Warlock Staff wouldnt target units at range if moving away from enemies who originally surrounded you to shoot them. (Thanks mr.kitty, NMP and xacegod)

Fixed bug where unequipping items that affect health (like the Samurai Helmet) could make shopkeepers turn hostile on the player. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed bug where units with lunge were still required to attack boxes and barrels adjacently in explore mode. Theyll now attack surrounding objects diagonally.

Fixed bug where ranged units equipped with a melee weapon would sometimes use their dagger stab attack animation instead of the animation for the equipped weapon.

Fixed typo in marauder ambush encounter "verocity" should be "ferocity" in text description (Thanks dragoonO1)
[/olist]

Black Screen/Loading Issue:

I am still trying to fix the Black screen on load error thats being reported (mostly by Chinese and Korean players with what I suspect are AMD graphics cards with specific driver versions). Ive put in several potential fixes, but I have yet to receive player response to let me know if the issue is in fact resolved. If you have encountered this issue in the past or are experiencing it now, please reach out via the in-game report, Discord , or Steam friend request so I can help you.

Also note: A temporary fix that seems to work is kicking the game into windowed mode using Ctrl+F

Thanks for Your Support!

Thanks again for reporting these issues and providing me an opportunity to create a better game experience for you.

Remember, Steam reviews are the life-blood of indie devs like myself. If youre enjoying the game and the service youre receiving, please hit that thumbs up icon for Abalon in your Steam library and let me know how youre enjoying the game :)
Game Description Image

[ 2024-05-29 22:57:05 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #33 1.36.3 Patch #3

As promised, another round of bug fixes!

[olist]

Fixed bug with the Snake Staff so it now works correctly as a Farshot ranged attack and also attacks barrels and crates correctly while exploring. (Thanks SpadeDraco, BurntFaceMan and ink)

Fixed bug the Warlock Staff so it now lunge attacks correctly on diagonal targets (instead of casting a fireball and blowing up its wielder) (Thanks BurntFaceMan)

Fixed bug Fixed bug where a Bow and Arrow equipped to a farshot unit would lose its +2/+0 bonus after battle until unequipped and re-equipped. (Thanks Fareley and ink)

Fixed an exploit that would allow infinite healing by equipping and unequipping the Samurai Helmet (or another Max Live giving artifact) while the player also had armor. (Thanks bmcfluff, NMP, LordCameron)

Fixed bug that could occur when attempting to view unit cards during the AI turn while they were casting spells.

QoL: Players can now open and view unit cards during the enemy turn and inspect their inventory without their cards being closed whenever the AI casts a spell. Instead, the game will now pause in the background whenever the player is inspecting a card or tile on the board and resume once the player has closed the card they are inspecting.[/olist]
Keep your feedback coming and I'll get another patch out for you tomorrow :)

~Ross

[ 2024-05-22 03:29:31 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #33 1.36.2 Patch #2

And take 2... sorry about that everyone! Seems my last patch caused a different bug (thanks for the quick reports, it should be all good now). Here's the update notes again in case you missed it:

Wow, thanks so much everyone for the very positive reaction to our "Gear Up!" update. I'm so glad you're enjoying the new equipment feature. Please be sure and write/update your Steam review if this update has addressed your feedback :)

Also, I wanted to let you know I'm working as fast as I can to fix the recent bugs you've discovered, so here's a quick patch that takes care of a few of those issues so far:

[olist]

Fixed bug where item icons were not fitting within the icon slot and equip/unequip buttons were appearing too large or small depending on your display scaling.

Fixed bug where players on specific combinations of AMD graphics cards and driver versions saw only a black screen when opening the game in full screen. (If this issue affected you, please respond in the comments to let me know if this fix worked for you as I can't verify against every driver and I want to make sure you are taken care of).

Fixed bug where right-clicking to view a character card equipped with max items would throw an exception. What's actually happening here is that these characters were able to equip more than the max number of 8 items via the Fallen Angel encounter (or other events). I'm still working to fix that, but in the meantime, you'll be able to view your character cards without the error now.
[/olist]

Expect more fixes and improvements to come soon!

~Ross

[ 2024-05-21 19:05:57 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #33 1.36.1 Patch #1

Wow, thanks so much everyone for the very positive reaction to our "Gear Up!" update. I'm so glad you're enjoying the new equipment feature. Please be sure and write/update your Steam review if this update has addressed your feedback :)

Also, I wanted to let you know I'm working as fast as I can to fix the recent bugs you've discovered, so here's a quick patch that takes care of a few of those issues so far:

[olist]

Fixed bug where item icons were not fitting within the icon slot and equip/unequip buttons were appearing too large or small depending on your display scaling.

[ 2024-05-21 18:18:35 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #33: Gear Up with our latest MAJOR update to Abalon!

Game Description Image

Time to Gear Up!

We've just rolled a year past our 1.0 launch on May 11th and nearly two years since our early access debuted in June 2022, and WOW, I'm so grateful for the positive reception, your critical feedback, and the many hours you've enjoyed playing Abalon. Thank you all so much for being a part of our D20Studios community!

Today, Im thrilled to announce the release of our 10th major update for Abalon! Per your many requests and feedback, I'm bringing you an enhanced equipment system that will allow you to fully upgrade the look, stats, and abilities of your team of adventurers.

Out with the old, in with the UPGRADES!

Let's be real, our old equipment system was a bit confusing. Sometimes it dropped as cards to place in your decks, and other times, it was a one-time use satchel card. And many a-wise player avoided the risks of giving their hard-earned artifacts to guardians (who took their treasures with them to the grave when they died).

In this update, I scrapped all that nonsense: All equipment drops are now satchel cards. And all equipment and artifacts are kept safe in your satchel whether you die, choose to swap with another equipment, or kick a party member off your team: your gear stays with you for the entire run! This is true even if you're playing perma-death mode or choose to equip your gear on a loyal or summon.
Game Description Image

Here you can see an example of the Fighter Mage decked out with some gear including custom helmet, a mighty pitch fork and even a phylactery potion to ensure he doesn't meet an untimely demise.

Game Description Image

Consequently, this also cleans up the status panel for the unit card itself (especially if you have multiple artifacts equipped) since it no longer has to show the status/keywords for equipped items.

Seeing the item graphics vs. pure text also adds a nice touch, and you can quickly access the full cards via mouse, keyboard or gamepad.

There are a couple rules in place to balance this:
[olist]

Each character can equip a maximum of 8 items (so you'll have to make decisions about the best combinations and characters to carry each item)

If an item is unequipped during battle (either by choice, defeat, or an enemy effect) it cannot be re-equipped til end of battle (This is intended to prevent what would be a very tedious min/max strategy to equip an item, attack with ally, re-equip to another ally, attack to regain benefit, etc.)
[/olist]

Lots of New Gear to Discover

Not only does all existing equipment become extremely relevant for creating your own custom character builds, but I took it a step further and added over 20 new cards to the game for you to experiment builds with. Go ahead and break my game!

New Shops!

And just how will you find and collect all that loot? Well, in addition to the new thematic shopkeeper, Vulcan's Forge, there's also the Traveling Salesman that offers a whole new purpose for the campsite.
Game Description Image

Once found and rescued, the Traveling Salesman will join you at your campsite on every future run, offering a new set of gear to buy each time you light up the bonfire.

Game Description Image

Yes, we improved the gamepad controls! Direct-access to satchel during combat.

Game Description Image

Don't forget, all of the controller buttons are fully customizable to ANY game action you like from the game library. While you're there, give the game a thumb's up, too :)

v1.36.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Robust Equipment System: Customize each of your characters (skins, stats, and abilities) by equipping up to 8 pieces of gear. When defeated or swapping equipment, your gear automatically returns to your satchel for easy access. Thousands of potential combination to try and break the game with!

New Campsite Upgrade: Purchase new gear each time you rest at a campsite once you rescue the traveling salesman.

New Thematic Shop: Vulcans Forge (Sells Equipment/Artifacts)

QoL: Removed the on-grid status icons for four leaf clover, ghost in a jar, guardian angel, jokers last stand, phylactery potion as these now appear in the icons above the card. Non-triggered surprises can even be unequipped and placed on different characters before they are consumed.

QoL: Red Soul Gems picked up as satchel cards will now deal damage when used on the boss after it has been injured. (Thanks Kaaz)

QoL: Traps can no longer be played outside of battle. Additionally, Ive added the Satchel shortcut to the command menu so you can quickly access your traps and other satchel cards. Note: You can also map a custom button to Satchel if this isnt fast enough for you. (Special thanks to VahidSlayerOfAll and flakesl)

QoL: Major control improvement for casting satchel cards overall - the camera no longer locks to tactical grid, but remains fluid in exploration mode, allowing you to equip quick successions of gear on different characters and resume movement immediately after.

QoL: Fixed the issue with gamepads not closing cards when using the back/menu button (previously, this was triggering the main menu to open instead of closing the card) (Thanks Xargle)

Balance: Changed the minimum chapter the Wild Hunt encounter can spawn on from 1 to 2 (Thanks Dobermann)

New Artifact: Arcane Heart

New Artifact: Celestial Heart

New Card/Artifact: Crystal Sword

New Satchel Card: Dark Elf Armor

New Satchel Card: Dreadnought Armor

New Card/Artifact: Fire Staff

New Card/Artifact: Fire Sword

New Card/Artifact: Frozen Dagger

New Card/Artifact: Giant Spiked Club

New Card/Artifact: Glaive

New Card/Artifact: Ice Axe

New Card/Artifact: Ice Staff

New Card/Artifact: Morning Star

New Card/Artifact: Oaks End

New Card/Artifact: Rugged Staff

New Satchel Card: Samurai Helm

New Card/Artifact: Serrated Spear

New Card/Artifact: Shuriken

New Card/Artifact: Snake Staff

New Artifact: Void Heart

New Card/Artifact: Warlock Staff

New Card/Artifact: Wizard Hat

Balance: Guardian Angel can now be gained as an equippable satchel card from the Fallen Angel encounter and found elsewhere as a satchel reward.

Balance: Reduced mana cost of Arcana from 2 to 1

Balance: Arcana is now an Artifact/Satchel in addition to a regular deck card

Balance: Poison Blade is now an Artifact in addition to a regular deck card

Balance: Necromancer Staff is now an Artifact in addition to a regular deck card

Balance: Shaman Staff is now an Artifact in addition to a regular deck card

Balance: Guardian Heart cost reduced from 750 to 350 (as it still works as healing potion consumable) but the other heart upgrades can be equipped.

Balance: Adjusted the gold prices of previously existing equipment

Fixed bug where rescuing hellound puppy didnt always save the achievement if you exited before another player save data was written
[/olist]

Other New Equipment System Notes:

[olist]

For adventure and survival modes, equipment should now always drop as satchel cards instead of deck cards. If you find equipment cards with mana costs as rewards while playing adventure mode, please let me know via Menu -> Share Feedback.

Some equipment can also be placed in custom decks made for battle mode and fast adventure.

When you find equipment that can be played as a deck card in battle mode, youll automatically unlock the deck card version for battle mode when you find the satchel card version in adventure/survival mode.

I did my best to balance all of the the near gear, but please keep in mind this is a massive update with trillions of potential permutations. I'm [u]certain[/u] you'll find ways to break the game, and I hope you have fun doing so! If something seems off or broken in a not-so-fun way, please let me know and I will respond as fast I can to get it fixed.[/olist]

On the Horizon

[olist]

Upgrading the leaderboard with more categories (ex: top fast adventure player, top traditional player, top hardcore player, highest challenge completions, etc.)

Improved AI (3.0 Engine)

Multiplayer with Abalon Arena

More player requested QoL (randomized starting hero, saving starter decks, etc.)[/olist]

Support Our Community

Love what were doing here? Help support Abalons development by writing/updating a Steam review, sharing Abalon with a friend, and wishlisting our upcoming title, Abalon Arena .

Thanks for reading and being a valued player in our community!

~Ross

[ 2024-05-19 18:03:05 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #32 v1.35.0 Requested Fixes Before Next Major Update

Welcome New Players!

Warm D20Studios welcome to all of our newest Abalon players! Thank you so much for sharing your feedback in-game, on Discord , and on our Steam community page .

Ive got our next major update scheduled to roll-out a little later this month that aims to add some highly anticipated player requested features. For now, heres a quick update to take care of those bugs youve reported and keep your games running smooth!

v1.35.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where, when a bug triggers before auto save has completed, player's world is not populated with a boss key , skeleton keys, or soul gems. (Thanks SuperKickParty, Goo Sack!, tyr77987 and )

Fixed bug where playing Abalon in offline mode would generate a "Steam Connection Error" repeatedly throughout the process of starting an adventure and selecting adventure options and result in a bug report being triggered once the adventure starts (which could then cause cascade bugs, such as the boss key not being populated or starting with the the wrong character). (Thanks Goo Sack!)

Fixed bug with rendering ultra high monitor DPI resolution 1365x720 with 300% scaling (Thanks kdgamers).

Fixed bug where weapon/armor cards were showing the Consumable keyword when they were of the "goes in deck" type rather than the "satchel" type. (Thanks aPot ).

Fixed bug where switching between Deck and Satchel tabs in the progression menu would sometimes not switch the mana icon to a satchel icon if the same card was immediately rendered.

Fixed bug where, if the last enemy unit defeated is a minion summoned by a Dreamstealer, the lore hidden in that map doesnt drop. (Thanks Fonz)

QoL Changed description of Lifesteal keyword from Heals when dealing damage to Heals by damage from its attack up to targets remaining life to clarify that the ability only works with attacks (not spells/other abilities) and that you cant suck extra life out of a 1/1 squirrel if you overkill it. (Thanks Sinzar)
[/olist]

Thanks for reading, and remember you can show your support for the continuous development on this game by writing us a Steam store page review :)

~Ross

[ 2024-05-08 04:03:27 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #31 1.34.3 Patch #3

v1.34.3 Patch Notes

This patch is intended to fix the Ultra High DPI Monitor issue we were seeing in the bug reports that prevented the game from running full-screen on those really fancy ultra-wide gaming monitors.

Special thanks to Chaplin for providing some additional help that allowed me to reproduce the issue. Awaiting a confirmation that we've resolved it for certain and then I'll update this post :)

Update (4/16/24):
We have confirmation that this fix does solve problem. However, if a player has previously rasterized the graphics in the old version, it's necessary to clear the cache so the patched version can re-rasterize the textures within the GPU resource limits.

Here's how to do that:
1) Force the rasterizer by exiting full screen (Ctrl+F) then re-enter full-screen mode (Ctrl+F) again.
or
2) Delete the existing cache: C:\Users[UserName]\AppData\Roaming\com.d20studios.abalon\Local Store\assetCache and restart the game

Minor versions don't require re-rasterization of the graphics which is why this manual process is needed. When we update the game to next major version (1.35) the rasterization will occur automatically.

Infinite Loading/Black Loading Screen:

Id also love to create a proper fix for the black screen/failed loading issue .
Ive been unable to reproduce this bug, so if youre experiencing this and would be willing to chat with me on Discord, Im sure I could get it resolved.

Thanks for your continuing feedback and support everyone!

~Ross

[ 2024-04-15 18:15:24 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #31 1.34.2 Patch #2

v1.34.2 Patch Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where opening the map and pressing the confirm button (ex: space bar) generated an error. (Thanks Rakaran and Vincent for the repro steps)

Fixed bug where switching the map to a different floor and then attempting to select a cell with the keyboard or controller would generate an error. (Thanks darkmage101_ and Swiftflame)

Fixed bug in Korean translation where attempting to play endless in Survival would lock up the game (Thanks )

Fixed bug where starting an adventure could potentially lock the game in an error loop if the final selected card choice isnt hidden before the title screen is disposed. (Thanks MediocreJoker and Gizmo)[/olist]

Ultra High DPI Montiors:

Im still trying to fix the 6K+ monitor resolution issue .
If you have a really high DPI monitor (6K+) and would be willing to help me debug this one, Id greatly appreciate it!

Infinite Loading/Black Loading Screen:

Id also love to create a proper fix for the black screen/failed loading issue .
Ive been unable to reproduce this bug, so ff youre experiencing this and would be willing to chat with me on Discord, Im sure I could get it resolved.

Thanks for your continuing feedback and support everyone!

~Ross

[ 2024-04-12 23:10:52 CET ] [Original Post]

Turn-Based Thursday Festival

Game Description Image

Turn Based Thursday Festival

Abalon is proud to be featured in the Turn-Based Thursday Fest . Running April 4th - April 8th, the festival highlights a curated selection of turn-based games of all kinds.

Abalon Arena Demo

We're celebrating with both a continuation of our ongoing discount and another run of our upcoming multiplayer, Abalon Arena , with a free demo that enables you to battle versus or together with your friends online or on the couch (and full Steam deck verified and controller support, too).

Check it out and let us know what you think!https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352400/Abalon_Arena/

Thank you for your feedback!

I'm so glad everyone is enjoying our recent Fast Adventures update ! We've received such a positive response to the new addition so far - thanks for letting us know how you feel! I aim to continue updating Abalon with more great features, so please keep sharing your feedback in-game and here on Steam :)

We'd love your Steam Review

Aside from already being a valued player, the best way you can help support our game and development of Abalon is to write a Steam review. This helps improve our discoverability by letting other members of Steam community know you're having a great time. I also personally read all reviews to address feedback and further improve the game.

Here's how to leave a review: Game Description Image

From your Steam library, select the thumbs up or thumbs down and write a sentence or two about your experience. If you're dissatisfied with the game in anyway, rest assured, it's my mission to rectify that however I can, so please let me know what I can do for you.

I appreciate all of your support!

See you on the battlefield!

~Ross

[ 2024-04-04 17:20:17 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #31 1.34.1 Patch #1

v1.34.1 Patch Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where AI sync could be caused in Fast Adventure when defeating a boss results in a skeleton spawning on the satchel and triggering a choose card before the victory prompt. (Thanks Kaaz)

Fixed bug with German translation that made it impossible to progress past the Unit Abilities tutorial after acquiring Oaks End. (Thanks Balalaikalakalla, Shosen, silku, Asha93, BartucKdB)

Fixed bug where closing the map then immediately hitting the confirm action would throw an exception. (Thanks Shirosasaki)

Fixed bug where canceling fast travel would result in the map cursor getting stuck until closing and reopening the map.[/olist]

[ 2024-03-27 01:01:53 CET ] [Original Post]

Fast Adventures

Game Description Image

Happy spring, my D20 Fans!

Im thrilled to announce the release of Fast Adventures, our 9th major update for Abalon. Fast Adventures delivers shorter runs with more diverse encounters. Instead of starting with a single character, you choose your party and spells right from the start and explore a biome-diverse open world to hunt the bosses and fulfill your cosmic destiny!

This update was inspired by content creators Retromation and Wanderbot , experts in the roguelike genre who have suggested shorter runtimes are a key factor to engagement and having an enjoyable experience. Why? A 50-60 minute run is a sweet spot of attention span - enough to sample and witness the possibilities, culminating in a meaningful end goal where the building blocks of whatever strategy youre going for pays off in a rewarding fashion.

At its heart, Abalon is a game that strives to encourage player creativity through the exploration of different character and spell combinations. I hadnt realized until we took the time to implement this feature, but I have to agree that they were right! Shorter runs offer a very gratifying experience, after which you feel revved up to try another run with a new team. Thank you Retromation and Wanderbot for your feedback and your lets play series that have helped so many players discover the awesomeness of roguelikes. We dedicate this build to you.

About Abalon's new "Fast Adventure" Mode:

[olist]

Complete a full adventure run within 60 minutes

Instead of starting with only a few cards and a single character, start with a complete deck and party of your choosing.

No lore or boss key drops. Boss locations are indicated on your map.

Start with gold so you can purchase artifacts and consumables from shops.

Instead of limiting consumables to battle prep only, you can now use them anytime during combat.

Soul gems acquired by defeating elites can be saved ininventory and selectively used on bosses you choose.

Do more in less time: Explore an open world filled with multiple environments and dungeons and a greater variety of monsters and encounters to experience.[/olist]
And thats not all I'm also addressing other player feedback and suggestions in this build as well!

Choose Your Playstyle

One of Abalons signature mechanics, called by some players the cards as stamina" mechanic, is that cards do not reshuffle into your deck until resting at a campsite. It's intended to provide an element of resource management and put focus on maximizing the tactical position and abilities of your units. A lot of players love it and some do not.

To address this feedback, Ive added another new feature called Choose Your Playstyle where you can customize your game experience after choosing difficulty.
Game Description Image

Signature Style

[olist]

Cards do not reshuffle into your deck until resting at camp.

Maximize your run score multiplier by activating unlocked challenge modifiers.[/olist]

Traditional Style

[olist]

Cards reshuffle into your deck after battle.

View cards in your enemys hand to anticipate (not predict) their intent.

Summoners and Guardians have permadeath regardless of game difficulty.[/olist]
And for those players whove been asking for a more purist version of our original release, Ive added a new challenge modifier you can tack onto the Signature Style:

Forbidden Relics: You may not use artifacts.

This challenge echoes back to our initial launch before artifacts were included and makes the game a lot harder. As such, this challenge grants a 20% score bonus at the completion of your run.

Card Cycling

Additionally, for those who have expressed desire for more control over your cards (particularly the cycling of cards) Ive implemented a new set of actions you can use on cards in your hand to manipulate your deck and gain the advantage:

[olist]

Replace: Draw a new card and reshuffle this card back into your deck. (Use only on your first turn)

Recycle: Place card at the bottom of your deck.

Discard for Mana: Place card in discard pile. Discard two cards in the same turn to gain 1 mana.[/olist]

Jokers Last Stand

This past November, I was a guest of Twitch streamer AlchemistJoker . The two of us had met in person at the Seattle Indies Expo where Id showcased Abalon. Hes got a great charism and natural upbeat energy that really reignites your passion for games. During the stream, the hazards and enemies of Abalon put his gamer skills to the test. His run culminated in an epic battle in the Sandpit Arena. Low on resources as the last surviving member of his party, wave after wave of marauders and a monstrous cyclops set the stage for what was sure to be his defeat. It was here Joker and I agreed if he could someone manage to survive, Id commemorate his achievement with something special: a card made in his honor.

Never doubt the resolve of a determined gamer - because despite the odds stacked against him, Joker made his last stand and defeated the hordes of the arena in an epic showdown. Today I make good on my commitment to Joker, with the addition of the following new card created in his honor:
Game Description Image

May you, too, make a lasting impression in your next run!

Content Creator Spotlight: Yukmouth

We're thrilled to have positivity focused streamer, Yukmouth, kicking off the launch of Abalon Fast Adventures with a stream Monday morning starting at 7:30AM PT. Yukmouth is well known for streaming CCGs including Hearthstone, Storybook Brawl and Fairy Tail Fables.

Tune in to watch the broadcast on his Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/yukmouth

v1.34.0 Release Notes

[olist]

New Game Mode: Fast Adventures is a new game mode where you choose your team and hunt bosses in a large multi-biome world. Complete an entire run in 60 minutes or less!

Choose your Playstyle: Weve introduced play styles as a way to customize your experience in Abalon. Youll choose your playstyle after picking difficulty to gain different abilities and challenges.

QoL: Player Panels - The new player panels indicate which player is currently taking turn as well as display their current deck count, mana, and number of cards in hand. If an opponent plays a surprise, the mana count is hidden and instead youll see a question mark indicating the number of active surprises that player has on the board.

QoL: Map Tabs - The world map now includes tabs that let you quickly view different dungeon floors and fast travel to them without having to navigate to a staircase, cave or portal first.

QoL: Satchel Cards - All satchel cards can now be played at anytime during exploration or battle. Save your potions and drink them on demand when needed! As such, the Flexible keyword has been removed.

QoL: Card Cycling - Gain more control over your deck with the ability to replace cards in your hand at the start of your turn, recycle cards to the bottom of your deck, or discard two cards for an additional mana.

New Challenge Modifier: Forbidden Relics: You may not use artifacts.

New Challenge Modifier: No Second Chances: You may not replace or recycle cards.

New Artifact: Chrono Spectacles: View the cards in enemys hand.

New Artifact: Incinerator: You may discard unlimited cards each turn for mana. Gain 1 mana for each card.

New Consumable: Jokers Last Stand: Downfall: Deal 10 damage to visible enemies. Revive with 5 life.

Balance: All Artifacts are now unique (there can only be one instance acquired for an entire adventure). Removed the Unique keyword from all artifacts since they are all unique now.

Balance: Removed the Satchel Card keyword. Satchel cards are now either Artifacts (permanent abilities) or Consumable (one-time use abilities). All consumable cards can be stacked. Artifacts cannot be stacked.

Balance: Collar of Devotion changes from The next animal you summon gains Loyal until resting at camp to Change an animal guardian into a loyal unit. Its gold price increased from 1350 to 1500.

Balance: Iron Oath changes from Transform a Guardian into a loyal unit to Change a non-animal Guardian into a loyal unit.

Balance: Pyramid Vaults ability changed from You may play satchel cards during battle. to Choose 1 of the next 3 cards in your deck and add it to your hand. It costs 5 less. Its gold price was reduced from 1575 to 1000.

Balance: Dreamcatchers ability changed from You may recycle cards to the bottom of your deck instead of discarding them for mana. to Once per battle, you may cast a discarded card as you would from your hand.

Balance: Strength Potion can now stack. Gold price increased from 300 to 450.

Balance: Imperial Dragon gains Immune (Freeze)

Balance: Increased cost of Raise Dead spell from 2 to 3 mana.

Balance: Mana potions can now be found in survival mode.

Balance: Time Traveler effects now return ally teammates to the board at the start of their next turn instead of the player who cast the time travel effects turn.

Fixed Bug where changing orientation while world map is open results in world map tiles being unpopulated.

Fixed Bug where after viewing Progression, then attempting to inspect a deck, it shows the stats panel instead of that deck.

Fixed Bug where Mad Metal Max was not appearing as a potential boss type in the desert.

Fixed Bug where player gets a null exception if they try to open their satchel after entering a portal to the next world just after the units vanish from the screen.

Fixed Bug where using the Reset Stats option in progression was not clearing the players prior run history.

Fixed Bug Where players snow biome world could spawn with one less campsite than expected (there should be at least 4 campsites per world)

Fixed Bug where an AI Sync Issue could occur due to the use of equipment (ex: bow and arrows) which caused status effects (the new melee attack) to be removed when the bow and arrow is removed as a result of removing units. (Thanks YuraConst)

Fixed Bug where unique artifacts could be discovered again in subsequent chapters of a run.

Fixed Bug where a cardView being animated (i.e. doobered to the deck/discard) could suddenly vanish if another instance of it is drawn to hand before the doober animation completes.

Fixed Bug with Chinese localization: "Arch Angel" should be translated into "" instead of ""

Fixed Bug where players could lose buffs or debuffs earned from fate encounters from retreating instead of winning the battle.

Localization updated and improved translations for all supported languages.[/olist]

Abalons Major Updates:

For those new to our community, we pride ourselves on responding to player feedback to continuously improve the game. Heres our past major updates to the game (not including many more regular updates that also addressed player feedback):
[olist]

Masters and Minions Aug 15 2022

Harvest World Oct 25 2022

Croakus Lord of the Swamp Nov 21 2022

Demon Realm Dec 16 2022

Land of Ice and Snow Feb 16, 2023

Cyber Lizard Wizards May 11 2023

Treasure Trove Jul 19 2023

Horde Survival Oct 12 2023

Fast Adventures March 25 2024
[/olist]

On the Horizon

[olist]

Improving artifacts with a new interface that allows you to see the original card icon, view the artifact cards, and equip/remove items from your characters so you can safely invest in upgrading guardians without fear of losing your artifacts upon their death or removal from the party.

Upgrading the leaderboard with more categories (ex: top fast adventure player, top traditional player, top hardcore player, highest challenge completions, etc.)

Improved AI (3.0 Engine)

Multiplayer with Abalon Arena [/olist]

Support Our Community

[ 2024-03-24 13:30:22 CET ] [Original Post]

WINGS 2024 Women's Day Event

Game Description Image

WINGS 2024 Women's Day Event

D20Studios is proud to participate in the WINGS 2024 Women's Day Event on Steam , featuring over 400 games created by women-led studios. Looking back on our dev journey for Abalon, which began in 2016, we have a lot to celebrate thanks to the accomplishments of the women on our team.

Kelly Przybylski

Kelly and Ross Przybylski

Kelly Przybylski is my wife and studio co-leader. She heads up our marketing and creative. Her efforts were instrumental in growing our community and successfully funding our Kickstarter in 2017. Engagements she's crafted over the years have included community voting on artwork direction, newsletter updates, and my personal favorite "Kelly Comics" some examples of which you can find below:
Game Description Image

Kelly has a strange yet delightful sense of gaming humor

Kelly is also responsible for our most innovative character designs, such as the Celestial Steampunk Timekeeper Rats. My best idea was something akin to the traditional sewer rat mutant, to which Kelly replied "Boring!!" and instead pitched a race of sophisticated and dapper rats dressed in steampunk who had the uncanny ability to control time. It's amazing ideas like this that I'm so grateful to work with Kelly. She brings so many totally original and refreshing ideas that allow our game to go where no other game has gone before.
Game Description Image

In game character models for the Celestial Steampunk Timekeeper Rats. These character have abilities that manipulate time, such as slowing enemy movement and teleporting allies to the future.
Game Description Image

Key Art of the Timekeepers illustrated by our concept artist Marvin Blattert.

Kelly enjoys many tabletop games including Hero Quest, Magic the Gatheirng and Warhammer (for which she has painted a spectacular Tyranid army) - and of course Abalon. For the duration of the event, we're streaming a throwback video on our store page from our initial early access launch (when Abalon was still called Summoners Fate) with Kelly herself playing and discussing the game. Hope you enjoy!

Laura Palavecino

Another woman we'd like to recognize today is Laura Palavecino who hails from Argentina. Laura is an exceptionally talented artist who made a significant contribution to the game by redesigning the look and feel of our UI.
Game Description Image

Laura named the signature textured stone look of the HUD "Blue Fate". The UI is more than just buttons and HUDs, though. Laura also helped improve the character movement and interactive flow and aesthetics.

Coming Soon

We'd planned to launch our next major update in conjunction with this event, but after some initial testing, we realized there's still a few bugs we need to work out with the procedural generation algorithm before it's ready to roll out - so we're rescheduling the launch for later this month.

Among other player requested feedback and QoL improvements, our next update will include the new "Fast Adventure" featured that was inspired by content creators like Retromation and Wanderbot.

Here's what I can tell you about it so far:[olist]

Single large world with multiple biomes

Three bosses to hunt - No Boss Keys - you'll have the location of each boss identified on your map from the start

Targeted average completion time 80 minutes

Simplified resource HUD - (Gold, Marshmallow, Dice, Keys) only

Elites will drop soul gems, but they will be consumable satchel cards instead

You'll be able to play satchel cards during battle

No lore for fast adventure (because... well reading is not very fast)

You'll start with a full party and at your health max[/olist]

The goal of fast adventures is to fuel faster, more diverse runs that encourage players to explore the different summoners and experiment with creating different teams. So far in testing, the diversity in biomes gives exploring vibes reminiscent of top down Legend of Zelda, with deserts or swamps adjoining forests and staircases leading to underground dungeons.

We're also aiming to address the player feedback around our signature "cards as stamina" mechanic by providing alternative play modes with different advantages/disadvantages. For those that have enjoyed this mechanic, you'll be able to double-down on it with a more "survival" path. For those coming from traditional deckbuilders and expect card cycling, there will be an alternate path that lets you recover your entire deck each battle (but with some attached disadvantages so as not to break the overall balance).

Share Your Feedback

As always, I invite you to share your feedback with us so we can continue to improve the game. For bugs or improvements you observe while playing, it's best to report in game using Menu -> Share Feedback (as this captures a reproducable bug state to make fixes faster).

For overall ideas/suggestions, use our Steam community forum or come chat with us directly on Discord .

And, of course, the best kind of feedback is a Steam review. This helps us understand our strengths/weaknesses and gives our community a boost so more players like you can discover and enjoy the game.

Thanks for reading!

~Ross

[ 2024-03-01 18:00:45 CET ] [Original Post]

Abalon Arena - Last Call for Current Public Demo

Game Description Image

Abalon Arena - Public Demo

Just a quick reminder that our public demo for Abalon Arena (the multiplayer version of Abalon with support for up to four players, including online and, as of today, local couch-coop) will be closing on Monday, February 19th.

If you haven't already checked out the free demo, be sure to login and give it a go here:https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352400/Abalon_Arena/
Also, wishlist and follow the Abalon Arena store page for updates on the development progress and future demo opportunities.

Thanks so much!

~Ross

[ 2024-02-17 01:46:50 CET ] [Original Post]

Abalon Arena's First Public Demo Now Live for Steam Next Fest!

Game Description Image

Greetings D20Studios fans!

Today, I'm super excited to announce the release of our first public demo for Abalon Arena that will run for the duration of the Steam Next Fest and through the following week for Steam's Remote Play Festival.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352400/Abalon_Arena/
For those unfamiliar, Abalon Arena is our multiplayer-focused game in the Abalon series. This demo features the ability to create custom game lobbies with support for up to four players in 1v1, 2v2 and coop vs bots. The demo will run for the duration of the Steam Next Fest and through the following week for Steam's Remote Play Festival.

Full details available here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2352400/view/4021220068120318348?l=english

Be sure to Wishlist and play the demo while it's available :)

~Ross

[ 2024-02-05 19:25:20 CET ] [Original Post]

Abalon Map Editor Available Free

In anticipation of our upcoming public demo for Abalon Arena , I've created a free map editor available to anyone interested in creating and testing their own custom battle maps.

Download the standalone Abalon Map Editor for Windows:https://d20studios.com/abalon/downloads/mapEditor.zip
Watch this tutorial video to learn how to install and use the tool:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arU0evsnPy4[/previewyoutube]

Share your custom maps here in our Steam community on our Discord or email your map data to me directly at ross@d20studios.com for consideration to be included in the game.

Have fun creating!

~Ross

[ 2024-01-18 19:05:07 CET ] [Original Post]

Happy Holidays from D20Studios

Game Description Image
It's a 3 vs. 3 goblin snowball fight, but no-one said building a snowman was against the rules! Hope this playful piece from our concept artist, Marvin, brings you a smile :)

Happy Holidays from D20Studios

2023 was an exciting year with the 1.0 release of Abalon andseveral major updates , too! I'm looking forward to delivering even more next year, including our mobile build of Abalon and our multiplayer title, Abalon Arena .

I'll be continuing to support Abalon with new features and updates such as:
[olist]

Ability to use satchel cards during battle in adventure mode.

Persistent artifacts on guardians when defeated/removed from party.

Equip/dequip feature to customize heroes

New Game Mode - Fast Adventure

Addressing more player requests
[/olist]
I'm also looking into how I can address player feedback regarding the "cards as stamina" mechanic, which is one of Abalon's signature features. It's intended to provide an element of resource management and put focus on maximizing the tactical position and abilities of your units. A lot of players love it and some do not.

During early access, I introduced artifacts as a way to modify the rules (for example, allowing you to recover cards after battle, increase your max hand size, etc.). While this helped some, it didn't fully solve the feedback. And, interestingly, some players now want to see challenge modifiers to eliminate these artifacts and bring Abalon back to it's survivalist beginning.

Since Abalon is all about fueling player creativity and satisfying lots of different play-styles, I'm thinking some alternate play modes might be the way to go. Pure survivalist route for some. And a more deckbuilding focused route for others. The key is to find ways to balance these changes so the game remains challenging. Maybe a more traditional deckbuilder mode has tougher enemies or you can't take guardians? I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this :)

Prerelease Testing for Mobile & Multiplayer

If you're a current Abalon owner and can't wait to try out our upcoming mobile launch and/or multiplayer features and would like to shape the development by contributing feedback, we're running a closed-beta test. Information available in our Discord in the #multiplayer channel: https://discord.gg/d20studios

You can also Wishlist Abalon Arena here:https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352400/Abalon_Arena/

End-of-Year Goal Achieved: 300 Steam Reviews!

Thank you so much for being a valued player and supporting our games' development. I can't express enough how much I appreciate our community and all of yourinsightful feedback that has helped us grow and improve.

I'll be working through the holiday season, though expect my availability to be more limited than usual as I take some time to spend with my family. If you have issues with the game or want to share feedback, I'll have Discord and Steam alerts running and do my best to respond. You can also report feedback in game using Settings -> Shared Feedback which will provide me with a gamestate I can use to quickly repro and fix any issues.

~Ross

[ 2023-12-23 00:59:55 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #30 1.30.2 Patch #2

v1.30.2 Patch Notes

[olist]

More Starting Character Choices: Added additional starting character choices for players to choose from. For the demo, this includes the Druid, Pyromancer and Battle Mage. For the full game, this includes (in addition) the Fighter Mage, Ice Queen and Liche King.

Fixed Bug with language support by adding support for Steam to auto start with selected game language for German and Brazilian Portuguese without having to select it in the language menu when starting the game.

Fixed Bug where the Brazilian version of Portuguese was not listed in Steam language menu.

Fixed Bug where the orc shaman was not healing closest ally after inflicting damage with its attack.(Thanks Co0kieL0rd)

Balance Changed the behavior of Inflict Freeze, Inflict Vulnerable and Inflict Daze so they no longer require melee attacks. This means, if you equip a bow and arrow on an ice golem like Frostilicus, it will now freeze when shooting enemies in addition to freezing with its melee attack. (Thanks Co0kieL0rd)

Fixed Exploit: If you have a guardian with regeneration you can enter and retreat from a fight over and over again and bring them to full health. The new rules make it so that if you retreat as your first move (without rolling a dice) the life recovered from the first turn regeneration is lost. (Thanks Lord Cameron)

Fixed Bug where it was possible to use the Hero Doll card to obtain a copy of a guardian already in your party. Since only 1 guardian of each type can be included in a team/deck, this card has been changed to exclude guardians already encountered in your adventure. (Thanks Lord Cameron)

Balance: Increased damage Frog Demon Heart deals from 1 to 2. Increased its gold cost by 100. (Thanks Lord Cameron)
[/olist]

[ 2023-11-22 20:22:55 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #30 1.30.1 Patch

v1.30.1 Patch Notes

[olist]

Fixed Bug where units revived by Scroll of Resurrection or Raise Dead might vanish after being revived (Thanks PorkDiesel and Dustbunney)

Fixed Bug where loading a Horde Survival game after having played equipment based satchel cards could result in having a negative mana balance. (Thanks Dustbunney)

AI Improvement: Fixed reported bug where AI was casting Flash Bomb on its own units instead of enemy cluster. I added a special trait for AOE related actions to improve how the AI uses this heuristic (Thanks Pork Diesel)

Fixed Bug where player found another copy of unique satchel artifact after having already discovered it in Horde Survival. This unique satchel bug is actually caused by the fact that the space on which the satchel is dropped is storing a shop, so it reuses the same card choices as earlier in the level. The solution is not to store shop property on spaces. (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Fixed Bug where attacking and killing a Skeleton Captain with a Vampire Lord could result in increasing the remaining health of the enemies skeletons. This occurred because the unit was temporarily mind control before death, so I added an additional check not to mind control units with 0 or less life remaining. (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Fixed Bug where Dreamstealer would cast spells at the closest space (relative to the clockwise order) but not the closest space faced. (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Fixed Bug where losing on a wave would still count as having survived up to that wave number. (Thanks Dustbunney)

Balance Increased Deaths power and life stats.
[/olist]

[ 2023-11-22 00:20:42 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #30 v1.30.0 New Languages, New Waves, Balance and Player Requests

Game Description Image

Making Abalon the Best It Can Be

Thanks so much to all of our players for continuing to share your feedback and positive support. I take all of your input very seriously, and I want to do the best I can to continue improving Abalon.

This week I'm pleased to announce we've added support for two additional languages: German and Brazilian Portuguese. Additionally, I've added another 5 waves to endless survival mode, new NPCs that should keep quite challenged this round, more balance changes, and addressed a number of other player requests.

Enjoy!

Content Creator Spotlight: MacNcheese

She's well known for her delightful Minecraft Youtube videos, but did you know she also enjoys roguelike deckbuilders? MacNcheese was also the wonderful host of the SIX Online earlier this month.

I'm excited to announce Twitch streamer MacNcheese will be playing Abalon today starting at 12PM (noon) today (just a few minutes after this update went live).

Tune in here: https://www.twitch.tv/macncheesep1z

Content Creator Spotlight: AlchemistJoker

We've got a special event planned for tomorrow with Twitch streamer, AlchemistJoker! We met at the Seattle Indie Expos where I'd showcased Abalon, and Alchemist also covered the SIX Online feature earlier this month. He's super energetic, charismatic and brings a lot of positive energy that reminds us all of the joy video games bring to our lives.

Tune in to his Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/alchemistjoker

When: Tomorrow - Tuesday, November 21s from 6PM-8PM (PT) where he'll playing Abalon. I'll also be on the stream (voice only) to answer his viewers burning questions about the development of the game and provide morale support as he explores Abalon and pits his wits against the monstrous hordes that await in his journey. Maybe we'll even play a PvP battle to showcase our upcoming game, Abalon Arena ...

v1.30.0 Release Notes

[olist]

New Language Support: German

New Language Support: Portuguese

New Language Support: Updated translations for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and Russian. Korean and French updates will be added soon.

Horde Survival: Added 5 additional waves to Horde Survival and new achievement.

New NPC Unit: Flesh Giant

New NPC Unit: Golden Death Reaper

QoL: Added Rest at camp to shuffle discarded cards back into your deck to the Cards tip prompt. Additionally, made the Cards tip prompt act as a regular tooltip so that it will now surface whenever drawing a card (regardless of whether or not you play the tutorial) provided that you have not selected the Got it button or Complete all Tips in the settings menu. (Thanks TART Raisin)

Demo: Changed the demo so that instead of ending at the start of the boss fight, playtime is unlimited but the portal to next chapter cannot be used until the full game is purchased. (Thanks TART Raisin)

Balance: The status effect applied from Polymorph is now considered a Debuff rather than a buff. This is so that units like the Fairy Queen will not remove the Polymorph applied when attacking. It also makes it easier for victims of Polymorph to remove the spell and change their unit back to its original form. The ideal combo is to polymorph and then immediately defeat the squirrel to remove the enemy unit (similar to how Smite requires damage before it can defeat a unit). (Thanks mr.kitty)

Balance: Units that have been created as the result of morphing into something else are no longer considered as added to the defeated unit stack. When a unit that has been morphed (ex: into a squirrel or into a copy of another unit) is defeated, it will revert back to its original form upon defeat. This means, if you defeat a polymoprhed Barbarian, then use a Raise Dead spell, you will now raise the Barbarian instead of a squirrel.

Fixed Bug: where mutating a unit polymorphed into a squirrel with Animal Growth would remove the polymorph instead of changing the squirrel into a squirrel mutant. The squirrel will now become a mutant with a permanent status applied, meaning that the mutant cannot be transformed back into its original form until it is defeated. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed Bug: where a battle could lock up after winning if a unit had been polymorphed into a squirrel. What was happening was that, after the battle ended, the polymorphed squirrel would run away, but the enchantment would be removed, recreating the original enemy that was transformed and initiating an unplayable battle. With the additional changes to the morph mechanics, units of defeated players will not revert to their original form upon status removal when the battle ends. (Thanks Lord Cameron)

Fixed Bug: where Barbarian would attack nearby brambles summoned via a spell after defeating an enemy instead of moving and attacking the closest enemy as indicated by his ability. (Thanks dieszy)

Fixed Bug: in Russian translation where canceling a biome choice acted the same as confirming the biome choice. (Thanks Chopper Dave)

Fixed Bug: where two Frog Demons stacked on a single character were only dealing 1 damage back to enemies instead of 2. (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Fixed Bug: where Fairy Wings could be removed by the Auramancer or Fairy Queens ability to remove buffs. (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Fixed Bug: where Guardian Heart removed friendly buffs. The artifact now correctly removes Enemy Buffs such as Mind Control. (Thanks PorkDiesel).

Fixed Bug: where the Metamorph would lose base health each time it transformed into another Magiscale type unit while ally Graviton Warriors are on the board. This was caused by the SetAttributeValueCommand not properly calculating the attribute change for base modified attributes. (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Fixed Bug: where Metamorph would recover health when changing back into a Metamorph while Graviton Warriors are present.

Fixed Bug: where Cyclops ending its move facing a neutral object didn't pick up satchel cards in its path because the game had considered him as "charging with intent to use his bull charge ability" even though a neutral obstacle is not a valid target for bull charge. (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Balance: Changed Bloom so it can only target neutral plants (ex: trees/brambles/etc.) if they were summoned and not those already present on the board. Fixes bug where AI might Bloom on indestructible trees (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Fixed Bug: where Sir Cheezles was not removing debuffs with his send ally to the future ability. (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Fixed Bug: where the Fennec Fox was triggering a combo VFX/SFX when using its special ability. The Fennec Fox attacks at full strength after using its support ability. As this is attack is triggered, it cannot be counter attacked like a regular attack.

Fixed Bug: where a unit protected by Celestial Shield that is attacked by a unit with Pierce would remain pierce vulnerable to the next enemy attack, even if they didnt have pierce. Also made it so that units with shields will not lose lose their block (have their shield go down) as a result of the initial attack since it dealt no damage. (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Balance: Improved Reflect Damage so that it triggers preemptively upon damage that would be taken. (Previously, it would trigger only when actual life was lost, now it will trigger to prevent damage against damage as well).

Fixed Bug: where Marauder Warlord would turn to face the direction of a new marauder being deployed when his Rally ability activated.

Fixed Bug: where Satyr Champion was not giving +1/+1 to enemy animals summoned after he was summoned, despite saying in his card text All other animals +1/+1.

Balance: Hellhound puppy is now a unique unit. Its life reduced from 5 to 3.

Balance: Reduced Bards life from 12 to 11

Balance: Reduced Ice Golems life from 6 to 5

Balance: Gravomancer no longer pulls as a counter attack against ranged units.

Balance: Reduced the dice roll difficulty for all hostile weather events and added an additional outcome to clear hostile weather before incurring penalties. (Thanks )

Balance: Changed the Traveling Highrollers event so that it will always reward locked/missing cards from the players collection (if there are locked cards for their played summoner available) OR satchel cards if there are not locked cards available. Lowered the gold cost for playing the Traveling High Rollers event from 400 initial gold to 250 initial gold and the gold cost increase from 100 gold to 50 gold. (Thanks Done25)

Balance: If your hand has less than 3 cards at the beginning of your turn (due to having cards stolen from demons or the Stolen Dreams spell, youll now draw back up to 3 at the start of your turn.

Balance: Increased Swift Strikes bonus from +3/+0 to +5/+0.

Balance: Flesh Golem no longer turns to face the summoner when damage is redirected to it.[/olist]

On the Horizon

Some new features in the works for future updates include:
[olist]

Ability to use satchel cards during battle in adventure mode.

Persistent artifacts on guardians when defeated/removed from party.

Potential for equip/dequip feature to customize heroes

Addressing more bugs and QoL requests

New Game Mode - Fast Adventure
[/olist]

Help Me Reach 300 Steam Reviews

Thanks you so much for the surge of reviews after last week's update! We're now just 15 reviews short of our end of year goal of 300 Steam reviews. If you havent yet written a Steam review, do please consider sharing your feedback. It means a lot to me (reviews are serious motivation) and it also helps other players discover what you like about the game.

Thats it for now. Thanks again for all of your kindness, feedback and support! I hope youre enjoying playing these updates as much as I enjoy making them for you.

~Ross

[ 2023-11-20 18:50:57 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #29 1.29.1 Patch

v1.29.1 Patch Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where defeating an enemy hexed with Polymorph could result in a battle not being concluded. This was due to change in previous update, which introduced the lingering status on Polymorphed units so that the Hex could be removed to change unit back into their original form. (Thanks for reporting).
[/olist]

[ 2023-11-14 03:39:35 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #29 v1.29.0 Bigger, Better Hordes - Challenge Accepted!

Game Description Image

Improved with Player Collaboration

Im very pleased to deliver this next update which is a direct result of collaboration with some of our top players. Survivors of wave 30 shared their strategies with me, and I was amazed to discover so many synergies and quite literally unbeatable armies that players had devised. It was clear that simply adding additional waves was not going to provide enough challenge - the system itself needed revision. Special thanks to Kaaz, Dusty, PorkDiesel, Scharlatan, Jear and Diezy for their collaboration with me on Discord and help designing the new enemy NPCs and balance optimizations for this update.

Additionally, our recent PvP tournament and weekly play sessions have helped to reveal and solve additional balance concerns as we move closer to the release of Abalon Arena . If youre interested in PvP and would like to join our intimate and well mannered test group, you are most welcome. The closed beta for Abalon Arena is currently open to any players who already own Abalon on Steam. Simply join our Discord and fill out the application in our #multiplayer channel so I can add the appropriate permissions.

Player Spotlight: Reiga

This week were honoring one of our players, Reiga, by naming a card in his honor. Reiga has been a constant champion to the growth and strengthening of Abalons community by promoting player collaboration in our discord server, helping us connect with the content creator community and organizing PvP tournaments for our upcoming game, Abalon Arena . The campfire is a symbol of camaraderie and party members bonding together. Henceforth, the Bonfire Elixir card will be known as Reigas Bonfire Elixir. Thank you for all of your kindness and support this past year, Reiga!

Content Creator Spotlight: Retromation

Retromation is a rock-star on YouTube when it comes to roguelike games. His videos are great for introducing new games, and theyre also incredibly helpful for developers like myself looking to improve the experience. Im honored once again for his recent Lets Try video, this time trying out Horde Survival:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=OYfCiYWrRvc&ab_channel=Retromation

Some takeaways for me to further improve the game from this video:
[olist]

Auto-equip passive artifacts (In progress)

Better explain flying units - (They fly over traps, but still take damage if they end their move on a trap)

Consider balance such as reducing drop rate/num selection choices (Done in this update!)

New Gameplay Mode: 1 Hour Adventure - Start with choosing your team, explore a single larger/multi-biome world (Goal: Faster, more diverse runs to encourage more subsequent plays to try out the different teams) - Im interested to build this![/olist]

New Language Support

Support for German and Brazilian Portuguese will be coming soon in a future update. Were currently looking for volunteers to help us translate our game in Polish and Italian. If youre interested, please contact me on Discord (@rossd20studios) or shoot an email to contact@d20studios.com.

Also please note that since I have changed a few card descriptions, these will appear in English text for a few days while our translators are updating the copy. Thanks for your patience and understanding :)

v1.29.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Horde Survival: Added 5 additional waves to endless mode.

Horde Survival: Added dynamic difficulty adjustment that adapts to the top player strategies by adding new elite NPC enemies to existing waves to disrupt standing army tempo.

Horde Survival: Created a hard-coded a reward drop algorithm to make drops more consistent. Also made it so that only the first spawn encounter in each wave drops rewards, greatly reducing the excess drops seen in previous builds.

Horde Survival: Limited the card choice selection to 3 for most pickups and 6 for the satchel dropped from summoners.

Horde Survival: Added additional drop tier including small potions and weapons.

Horde Survival: Added Sacrificial Orb, Lightning Orb, Forcefield Orb, Fire Orb and Trinity Orb to survival mode.

Horde Survival: Added Hellfire Candle and Radiant Amethyst to survival mode.

Horde Survival: Created several new NPC units for upper tier waves and adaptive strategy

New NPC Unit: Bringer of Darkness

New NPC Unit: Greater Magma Golem

New NPC Unit: Skeleton Barbarian

New NPC Unit: Elder Gruar

New NPC Unit: Dark Elf Elite Archer

New NPC Unit: Vampire Succubus

New NPC Unit: Death Knight

New NPC Unit: Deaths Apprentice

New NPC Unit: Death Reaper

New Card: Lightning Crystal - Summons a Lightning Elemental

Balance: Babarians ability changed from Wreck: May move and attack again. to Wreck: Move towards and attack the closest enemy. Note: Movement is not optional.
I have received a lot of feedback about this character (players love him, but also felt he was too powerful). I believe this change effectively balances the barbarian AND makes him even more distinctive, challenging and fun to play. Effectively, he becomes the incredible hulk, charging recklessly towards the enemy in a blood drunk rampage. Without having explicit control of where the barbarian goes, he will be putting himself at high risk of counter attack. But players who set him up right will be rewarded with a crazy barbarian roaring rampage combo!

Balance: The Dreamsteal ability to steal a card from Summoner hand and cast it, used by the Dreamstealer and Glith of Nithsrott, is now an Inflict ability. This means it will no longer proc for combo attacks. This also means the glyph will no longer trigger twice when attacking with ClikClik. (Thanks Furoggu )

Balance: Changed the wording of Abysmal End from "Destroy an ally and deal damage equal to its power to visible enemies." to "Destroy an ally. It deals damage equal to its power to visible enemies." This is to clarify that 1) Spellblock ability will not block this damage and 2) Veil and stealth units are protected from damage since it requires visibility. If a Veil unit is adjacent to the destroyed unit, it will take damage per regular Veil rules. (Thanks Scharlatan and mr.kitty)

Balance: Reduced the cost of Forcefield from 2 to 1.

Balance: Turn Back time now removes all enemy buffs in addition to its other effects.

Balance: Melt now removes enemy buffs in addition their equipment.

Balance: Cleansing Fire, Rust and Deconstruct now say Any instead of Target to clarify that these spells can now target any unit without line of sight required (including targets with Stealth and Veil). This is intended to help provide options for combating these abilities, as well as providing an option to recover Mind Controlled units. Note however that only Cleanse, Dispel Magic and Turn Back Time have the power to remove enemy buffs on an ally unit (such as Polymorph).

Balance: Revive spell will now only revive guardians defeated in the current battle. The Scroll of Resurrection satchel card will revive guardians defeated in any previous battle.

Balance: Reflect Damage spell now prevents damage before Inflict abilities trigger.

Balance: When a unit is transformed (with the exception of the Metamorph) it loses all status effects and equipment before being replaced with a new unit. The Metamorph will transfer over its health and status effects to its new form when changing shape.

Balance: Savage Transformation now removes all status on the summoner (buffs, debuffs, equipment) and replaces it with a 4/11 bear (including the health). When the summoner changes back, it will be at the previous health value before transforming.

Balance: Units transformed into a squirrel by the Polymorph spell will now have a buff applied to them that says Unit Name is Squirrel. Spells like Cleanse, Cleansing Fire and Dispel magic can remove this buff to transform the squirrel back into the original unit.

Balance: Metamorphs (or any unit transforming into a Marauder or Ironclad) will no longer trigger Rally effects associated with its unit type. This is to prevent unintended escalation of these abilities with repeated transformation (Thanks Jear). A morphed unit transformed into a unit with a Rally ability will still use that rally ability when a natural unit of designated type enters the battlefield.

Balance: To be consistent with the Marauder Metalist and Warlords Rally trigger, Legatus Isabelle no longer triggers her Rally when being summoned from the deck - only when starting the battle as a guardian and when another Ironclad unit enters the battle.

Balance: Metamorphs life reduced from 10 to 9.

Balance: Reduced cost of Blue Dragon from 5 to 3

Balance: Ice Golems life reduced from 7 to 6, and cost from 3 to cost 2

Balance: Reduced Skeleton Reaver from 2/3 to 2/2

Balance: Ring of Power no longer stacks.

Fixed Bug where a Metamorph that had life buffs was healing for each point of bonus life status when changing form. The metamorph should always retain its exact health when changing forms. (Thanks Jear)

Fixed Bug where polymorphing a Metamorph while transformed resulted in changing back into the Metamorph instead of becoming a squirrel.

Fixed Bug where Metamorph runs away after survival mode if battle ended while it was transformed. (Thanks Jear)

Fixed Bug where Occuloid Boss [NPC] appeared in the summoner selection screen. (Thanks Divine Sage Mahogany)

Fixed Bug where Farshot Attack from the Occuloid doesnt trigger the frog demon heart artifact. (Thanks Scharlatan)

Fixed Bug where it was possible to clone guardians with the Resurrection Scroll satchel card by first reviving a single guardian at camp, then using the scroll. The game now properly tracks when guardians have been revived at camp (even if not in your party) and when they are encountered again in the world (if using the Lost Guardians challenge modifier). Note: The Resurrection Scroll can be used to revive a lost guardian when this challenge is active until the player finds that guardian again. Lost guardians can only be found again in the next biome choice and beyond within the adventure once lost.

Fixed Bug where Revive spell wasn't reviving the last guardian defeated in combat, but rather the first. Additionally, Revive spell will only revive guardians defeated in the current battle, unlike the Resurrection Scroll, which can revive guardians between battles or in exploration mode.

Fixed Bug: Fixed bug where it was possible for players to enter adventure mode while in Horde Survival after clearing a wave in which their summoner had been revived using an ability such as Spirit Recall or Phylactery. (Thanks PorkDiesel)

Fixed Bug where Wave 27, 28, and 29 didn't have any text show up in the banner when the wave started.

Fixed Bug where armor was only rendering half of the texture on female armatures.

Fixed Bug where fire dragons and dragon whelps couldnt damage units with Immune (Fire) with their melee attack.

Fixed Bug: Stacked Rings of Power were only showing +1/+0 in the status pane instead of the true amount.

Fixed Bug: Iron Angel Crest card was showing gain Armor (0) instead of Armor (1)

Fixed VFX on Abysmal End so it shoots particles at all targets

New SFX: for Banshee and Psychic Screamer[/olist]

On the Horizon

Some new features in the works for future updates include:
[olist]

Ability to use satchel cards during battle in adventure mode.

Persistent artifacts on guardians when defeated/removed from party.

Potential for equip/dequip feature to customize heroes

Addressing more bugs and QoL requests

New Game Mode - Fast Adventure (See above in Content Creator Spotlight)
[/olist]

Help Me Reach 300 Steam Reviews

I have a goal to reach 300 Steam reviews before the end of this yearand were so close! Only 25 more reviews to go. If you havent yet written a Steam review, do please consider sharing your feedback. It means a lot to me (reviews are serious motivation) and it also helps other players discover what you like about the game.

Thats it for now. Thanks again for all of your kindness, feedback and support! I hope youre enjoying playing these updates as much as I enjoy making them for you.

~Ross

[ 2023-11-11 00:22:19 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #28 v1.28.0 Celebrating ScreamFest with even more nightmarish hordes!

Game Description Image

Celebrating ScreamFest with even more nightmarish hordes!

Happy Halloween everyone!

The hordes invasion of Abalon continues throughout Stream's Scream event. In response to our players victories in endless survival mode, the horde is growing, and becoming even more deadly. Do you have what it takes to survive?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1681840/Abalon/?utm_source=screamFest2023

Survival Mode Champions

This week I'd like to recognize Dusty, the first player to successfully clear Wave 24.
Game Description Image

And here's a look at the custom deck used to win: Game Description Image

Congratulations, Dusty!

Other notable champions include Jear, Scharlatan, Lykurgos, and PorkDiesel. Each player devised a unique strategy to defeat the horde.
Game Description Image

Jear's army of super Ironclad soldiers.
Game Description Image

Scharlatan's super-charged firepower strategy

The v1.28.0 update adds an additional 6 waves to endless mode and a number of key balance changes. Who among you will be the first to survive the new waves in endless survival?

v1.28.0 Release Notes

[olist]

6 New Waves added to Endless Survival and a new Steam Achievement for clearing Wave 30.

New Rule For Survival Mode: "Units summoned from non-unit cards and abilities do not persist between waves.

Added new rules for Combos: Combos don't trigger Inflict and Units can only combo once per turn.

Vigil units may combo unlimited number of times per turn.

Created new status icon to show that unit has combo attacked. It appears in the same slot as the cannot attack icon. If the unit has used their combo and can still attack, youll see the combo used icon. If you have exhausted your attack, the cannot attack icon will replace the combo used icon (since you cannot combo if you cannot attack).

Balance: Mating Season now draws 2 cards instead of 3.

Balance: Liche King now raises a 1/1 Skeleton instead of a 1/1 Skeleton with Block when defeating an enemy with attack

Balance: Raise Dead and Your Soul Is Mine now place a Mind Control effect on the revived unit so that it can be recovered by the owning player by using buff removal spells and abilities.

Balance: Sojurns Double Strike will no longer trigger a second strike for combos.

Balance: The harpoon attack used by ClikClik, Gladiator and Ninjas now treats the second attack as a combo, meaning that it will deal half damage (rounded up) - unless the character has vigil - and will no longer trigger inflict abilities.

Balance: Titus, Gladiator gains Vigil ability.

Balance: Preservers healing reduced from 4 to 3.

Balance: Sojurns defender ability changed from Prevent 2 damage from attacks on surrounding ally units. To Prevent 2 damage from non-triggered physical attacks on surrounding ally units.

Balance: Kroxs Gravity pull ability changed from Farshot to Sprintshot.

Balance: Krox gains the Vigil ability.

Balance: Reduced Muses buff from +3/+3 to +2/+2

Balance: Forcefields created by the Auramancer are now removed if the Auramancer is removed from the board.

Balance: Sir Cheezles, Chronomancer gains Lunge and Support: Remove debuffs.

Balance: Occuloid no longer deals friendly fire damage. Melee attack power reduced from 5 to 4.

Fixed Bug: where the cost discount granted from units like Spriggan and Preserver would be removed again from the owning player when they are defeated while mind controlled by opponent, resulting in spells costing higher than their original casting cost.

Fixed Bug: where spells that apply a cost discount like Resurgence, Meditate and Time Warp would continue to add cumulative discounts each time the spell was returned to hand. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed Bug: where Sojurns defender ability would trigger on surrounding ranged units when they attack.

Fixed Bug: Units that throw harpoons (Mantis, Ninja, Gladiator) afflicted by the Weaken spell can no longer combo on pull.

AI Improvement: AI makes better assessments on the value of farshot attacks.

AI Improvement: AI makes better assessments on the value of using sprintshot attacks.
[/olist]

Seattle Indies Expo - Online

SIX Online airs tomorrow, Saturday 10/28 starting at 9:30AM PT - and featuring 25 amazing games from the Pacific Northwest.

I'll be streaming live with some popular streamers including MacNCheeseP1z, AlchemistJoker and Stephazoid starting just after 11:00AM PT, so be sure tune in on the SeattleIndies Twitch channel here:

https://www.twitch.tv/SeattleIndies

Kormakrtv Stream

Speaking of amazing streamers, Kormakrtv was kind to share the replay of his recent live stream of Abalon - Horde Survival, and we'll have it broadcasting here on our store page for the duration of the Scream Fest.

Your Feedback Matters

Just another friendly reminder that I really care about your feedback - it's what drives me to do better with each update. Here's how you can get involved:[olist]

Write a Steam review for Abalon - Your reviews help immeasurably with our game discoverability and motivate me to keep developing and improving. I greatly appreciate your reviews, so please take a moment to share one if you haven't yet :)

Submit feedback (especially bugs) directly in-game via Settings -> Share Feedback. This makes it really easy for me to reproduce your bugs and nicely organizes your requests into my "to do" list so I don't forget.

Post a message on our Steam discussion board.

Join our Discord community

Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)
[/olist]
Thanks so much!

~Ross

[ 2023-10-28 01:12:09 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #27 v1.27.0 Celebrating Roguelikes with more Hordes!

Game Description Image

Celebrating Roguelikes with more Hordes!

Abalon is a proud to be featured in the 2023 Roguelike Celebration alongside a curated collection of other fantastic games created by fellow passionate developers. For the duration of this event and through to the end of Steam Scream Fest, Abalon is on sale for 40% off. Don't miss your chance to fight the spooky hordes of withereds, vampires, and other horrific monsters this Halloween season with our latest major update: Horde Survival!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1681840/Abalon/?utm_source=roguelikeCelebration2023Sale

Speaking of Hordes...

I'm both shocked and amazed that one of our players, mr.kitty, was the first to complete all 20 waves of endless mode. I truly didn't expect anyone to survive this far in our first week, but I did hide a little easter egg at the end for the first player that managed to achieve it just in case. As promised by said easter egg, I'm making good on my promise to add additional waves and ensure the horde is truly endless.

Congratulations, mr.kitty!
Game Description Image

Traps were a key element of mr.kitty's strategy, so I've armed higher wave summoners with spells that can clear your traps.

The v1.27.0 update adds an additional 4 waves to endless mode as well as several key changes I hope will keep you challenged a little longer this time. Keep up your amazing gameplay, and I'll keep expanding the horde throughout the end of this month.

Speaking of amazing player strategies, I'd also recognize the following players: Lykurgos, puninokp, Kiro, Dustbunney, Agent Merlin, 1499148650 and stauchd who devised a clever tactic of creating their own horde of withereds to defeat and transmogrify the enemy horde. I hadn't anticipated the chaos that could happen:

Effectively, these player-created withered hordes turned Abalon into an auto-battler. The problem, though, is that they were so effective that their hordes eventually filled the entire board, making it impossible for the enemies to spawn. To remedy this, I've added a new rule to Horde Survival: "Copied units do not persist between waves." Additionally, enemies can now spawn in the player spawn area if their spawn area is completely blocked.

You'll still be able to keep your summoned withereds, but the copies they create will no longer remain, making it a little more difficult to mass a huge horde. I reached this decision after deliberation and discussion with our Discord community. I always like to understand the impact of balance decisions so I can address bugs like this without taking away the fun and creative strategies you come up with.

v1.27.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Added 4 new waves to endless survival mode. Complete the 24th wave of endless mode and I'll continue adding more.

Enemy summoners in endless waves may now carry cleanse spells to remove player created traps.

Copied units do not persist to the next wave in survival mode.

Enemies in survival mode may now spawn in the player area if the tiles in their spawn area are filled.

Fixed an AI sync error that occurred as a result of a speed optimization introduced in the last build. (Thanks kilokkkk, , bilbort scruomblb, Taokaka, , , and hexau)

Guardian Heart now fully heals guardians it's given to, as well as removes all debuffs/mind control effects.

Pendant of Ryu Sage will now activate its ability during battle if played in Survival Mode or with the Pyramid Vault. (Previously, it only applied to the next encounter).

Sybilla's +1/+1 to summons now persists after wave change in survival mode. (Thanks CoolStory)

Fixed Bug: Neuks Scorch Trap. After the initial trigger, this trap leaves behind a tile which has a description telling that it will do 1 damage and instead, it does 4 damage. (Thanks Lykurgos)[/olist]

Your Feedback Matters

Just another friendly reminder that I really care about your feedback - it's what drives me to do better with each update. Here's how you can get involved:[olist]

Post a message on our Steam discussion board.

Join our Discord community

Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)
[/olist]
Thanks so much!

~Ross

[ 2023-10-20 06:00:37 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #26 1.26.0 Horde Survival

Game Description Image
Hey everyone! I'm pretty excited to bring you this update inspired by my conversations with many of you who've long been asking for an "endless mode" style challenge.

Fair warning: The new survival game mode is not for the feint of heart. It's intended to be brutal and horrific, and I'm sure you'll be cursing my name in frustration the first few goes at it. Expect to die quite a bit until you discover how to make the best use of your resources and optimal placement for your defenses. After that, I think it'll grow on you. And, I'm quite certain a few of you are going to find ingenious ways to break this that I couldn't possibly anticipate. So, have fun with that!

As always, I'm very open to hearing your feedback - but do please try and give it a day after your first couple runs before you tell me it's totally broken ;)

Onto the official feature description!

Can you survive against the horde?

As Halloween approaches, a dark horde of withered beings, vampires, and scavenging horrors gathers in the world of Abalon. You must carefully choose your team of heroes and arsenal of magical spells to make your final stand. Abalon's all-new survival game mode combines turn-based tactical combat with a layer of strategic defense where players can place walls, traps and units to thwart the advancing waves of enemies.[olist]

A full run of Horde Survival (8 waves) lasts about 45 minutes (Many of you have requested shorter runs and more cut-to-the-chase on strategic planning, so this is for you <3 )

Build your entire team and 20 card deck before the battle begins or choose amongst 20 different all-star teams.

Your heroes also begin the fight with a small supply of satchel cards including health potions, recovery vials and traps that can be played anytime during battle.

There's no exploration, camping or shops in survival mode. Instead, you'll need to make use of your satchel card supplies to recover and build defenses.

Enemies can drop additional satchel cards, but supplies are limited. Use them wisely.

Your traps and summoned units persist on the board between waves.

Enemy waves always spawn on the board side opposite of your Summoner.

Buffs and debuffs do not persist between waves.

Players who beat survival mode by completing the first 8 waves may choose to continue to "Endless" mode and face even more terrifying combinations of enemies.

The environment and all of the waves of horde survival are handcrafted (including the endless waves). I wanted to ensure a consistent experience for all players and provide a fair opportunity to exploit your knowledge of the enemy.

New satchel cards include walls, barricades, traps, and explosives.
[/olist]

Abalon Horde Survival to be Featured on Kormakrtv

Our dear friend, Kormakrtv, will be pitting his resolve and viking warriors against the horde this coming Wednesday, October 18th, so be sure to follow his Twitch channel and mark your calendar:
https://www.twitch.tv/kormakrtv

The stream block will be starting 10am CEST - 4pm CEST with a 2-4PM spotlight on Abalon.

Additional Fixes in v1.26.0

[olist]

Balance: Largely considered the most difficult boss in the game, Nithsrot Gerr has been configured to only (and always) appear in chapter 3 of the Dungeon Biome. I have reflected this in the Dungeon Biome description that when played on Chapter 3, the Difficulty is 5. I'm hoping this helps both new players from rage quitting (when previously encountered on the first chapter) as well as hardcore veterans who specifically want the challenge of hunting this beast down.

Fixed bug where switching between custom and all-star decks would sometimes result in the deck list being invisible until a deck on that page is selected.

Fixed bug where loyal characters in shops (such as the Ironclad Soldier) could appear at the camp as if they were a guardian after being hired. Attempting to add them to the party could then cause an exception error. (Thanks The Grand Mugwump, Realm Imp and others).

AI: Enemies will now attack summoned spore pods and obstacles.

Fixed bug where Celestial Barrier didn't block all forms of ranged attacks and sometimes resulted in animation soft locks. Additionally, the spell no longer counters the attack if the triggering unit is the primary target.

AI: Optimized algorithm for calculating lightning bolt targets to improve AI turn calculation speed.

New Keyword: Flexible allows select satchel cards (such as traps) to be played during battle without the Pyramid Vault. To play these cards, access your deck, then switch to the satchel tab.

Guardian Revival: The new Scroll of Resurrection, Bonfire Elixir, and the existing Revive spell can now bring guardians back to life, even if they were defeated in previous battles and even if playing with the Lost Guardians challenge.

New Card: Bonfire Elixir

New Card: Scroll of Resurrection

New Card: Neuk's Scorch Trap

New Card: Caltrops

New Card: Cryonic Chrysalis

New Card: Ghost in a Jar

New Card: Spiked Block

New Card: Brick Block

New Card: Wooden Barricade

New Card: Powder Keg

New Card: Wall of Brambles
[/olist]

Your Feedback Matters

Just another friendly reminder that I really care about your feedback - it's what drives me to do better with each update. Here's how you can get involved:

Write a Steam review for Abalon - Your reviews help immeasurably with our game discoverability and motivate me to keep developing and improving. I greatly appreciate your reviews, so please take a moment to share one if you haven't yet :)
Submit feedback (especially bugs) directly in-game via Settings -> Share Feedback. This makes it really easy for me to reproduce your bugs and nicely organizes your requests into my "to do" list so I don't forget.
Post a message on our Steam discussion board.
Join our Discord community
Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

[ 2023-10-12 17:00:46 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #25 1.25.1 Patch

v1.25.1 Patch Notes

[olist]

Balance: Giant Meteor now deals Fire damage, counts as a fire spell, and its secondary splash damage deals 2 instead of 1.

Fixed Bug: Where Metamorph would sometimes not inherit abilities after morphing into an archer and back as well as show attack used status when shapeshifting into a unit that already used its attack (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed Bug: where Fate Encounters run score section was being populated with numerical titled encounters that weren't associated with any score. (Thanks Lykurgos)

Fixed Bug: where Bosses were showing debugger information in their card description (Thanks Lykurgos)

Fixed Bug: where one of the snow world treasure rooms could have its exit blocked when spawning adjacent to maps containing other obstacles. (Thanks Dermockracy)

Improvement: optimized the initial tutorial prompt flow.[/olist]

[ 2023-09-01 21:35:48 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #25 1.25.0 Steam Strategy Fest Abalon Event

Game Description Image

Greetings Abalon fans!

Im excited to announce our participation in Steams Strategy Fest with a 35% discount on Abalon. In addition, were running a special event this week that will unlock several characters that normally require completing some achievements before they can be played. These include the Pyromancer, Fighter Mage, Liche King and Ice Queen. Simply login to play during the duration of Steam Strategy Fest and youll automatically unlock them.

Additionally, I have some more balance changes and bug fixes for you!

v1.25.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Balance: Metamorph no longer shape shifts as a counter attack to ranged attacks. Metamorph now inherits the life total and any status effects (ex: poison, frozen, etc.) to the new creature it transforms into (and vice versa when changing back). Metamorph can no longer target other metemorphs to create an infinite transformation loop.

Balance: Muse gains the Unique ability to prevent infinite musing between two muses.

Balance: Ice Fall, Blizzard, Flash Bomb and Time Bomb can no longer damage obstacles that cannot be targeted by attack (ex: trees)

Fixed Bug where losing a unit that grants a card cost discount could result in cards drawn later during the game costing more than their base cost.

Localization: Fixed bug in Russian translation that prevented exiting the End Turn warning prompt when actions were still available (Thanks Neuk)

Localization: Updated French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Japanese translations.

Fixed Bug where particle effects (ex: Cleanse Animation) were not animating all the way across the map when framerate is set to 120FPS

Fixed Bug where Fellow Adventurer or Mercenary would fail to spawn in the dungeon room containing a path of spike traps. (Thanks Rathskellar and hbm001)

Fixed Bug where player couldnt access the gold chests as there is an invisible barrier at the boss gate and there are no other paths. (Thanks hbm001)[/olist]

Abalon at SIX (Seattle Indies Expo)

If you're attending PAX Seattle this week, don't forget to stop by and check out the Seattle Indies Expo. I'll be showcasing Abalon there, so this is your chance to meet the developer in person as well try our upcoming mobile build. Details: https://six.seattleindies.org/

Your Feedback Matters

Just another friendly reminder that I really care about your feedback - it's what drives me to do better with each update. Here's how you can get involved:

Write a Steam review for Abalon - Your reviews help immeasurably with our game discoverability and motivate me to keep developing and improving. I greatly appreciate your reviews, so please take a moment to share one if you haven't yet :)
Submit feedback (especially bugs) directly in-game via Settings -> Share Feedback. This makes it really easy for me to reproduce your bugs and nicely organizes your requests into my "to do" list so I don't forget.
Post a message on our Steam discussion board .
Join our Discord community
Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

[ 2023-08-28 18:04:56 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #24 - 1.24.0 Patch

Update #24 - 1.24.0 Patch Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where player was receiving the Exploiting Fate Encounters penalty when choosing the "Flee Immediately" option on Goblin Birthday Party and ambush encounters (Thanks Rathskellar, Esfer, Lykurgos and hoodsome)

Fixed bug in early level gameplay that could result in adventure being reset (Thanks hbm001 and Bill the Butcher GangsofNewYork)

Fixed bug where Fallen Angel was not granting blessing. (Thanks Thm Ngn)

Russian Localization Fully up-to-date (Thanks Neuk)

Spanish Localization Fully up-to-date (Thanks Semaniel)

Balance: Metamorph changed: Instead of taking 2 damage to base life when transforming and receiving a new unit (which, unless killed, prevented any damage being dealt back to metamorph), I have removed the transform penalty and increased its life from 8 to 10. And, instead, whenever the unit metamorph is transformed into takes damage/is healed, that damage will now be reflected back on the metamorph when it changes back. So if you transform into a dragon, take 10 damage while transformed but don't die, you will die when transformed back as your life total will now be zero. Note: Were still playing around with possible solutions to improve the balance of this character; lets try this out for now and see if it feels good or still needs further tweaks.[/olist]

[ 2023-08-24 16:42:40 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #24 1.23.0 Leaderboard Reset, Fixes, and Exciting News

Game Description Image

Greetings Abalon fans!

Todays update includes a whole bunch more fixes and improvements, leaderboard reset, plus Ive got some exciting news to share!

Leaderboard Reset

Per my communication in the last update, I have reset the top leaderboard scores to give everyone in our community a fair shot at the top positions with the latest balance changes and score exploit fixes. I look forward to seeing who will claim the new high scores and earn a place in our next hall of fame.

Seattle SIX Indie Expo

Im thrilled to announce that Abalon was selected to showcase in the highly competitive Seattle Indies Expo thatll take place the weekend of PAX West in Seattle on Sunday, September 3rd from 12pm-9PM on the 3rd floor @ the Motif. Additional details at: https://six.seattleindies.org/

If you live in the Seattle area or are visiting for PAX West, attending the Seattle Indies Expo is a must-experience event for indie game lovers: its free, theres an after-party after 6PM, and no PAX badge is required to attend. Ill be there in person showcasing our exhibition demo on a number of different devices, including our upcoming mobile release, and Im eager to meet new and existing fans alike in person.

Dreamhack Summer Indie Showcase

Abalon is also currently participating in the Dreamhack Beyond Summer Indie Showcase that runs 8/18 -> 8/27. Be sure to check us out and play some other great indie game demos as well.

v1.23.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Russian Localization received a massive update to the translations. (Thanks Neuk)

Fixed bug with Finding the Perfect Tree encounter where the Woodcutter axe would not get added to the deck after helping the goblins if player had less than 20 cards. (Thanks Thm Ngn)

Fixed bug where an exception is thrown when resizing the screen or changing the UI option for Large UI while in the challenge modifier selection screen.

Save Exploit Fix: Abalon does does not currently support saving during fate encounters and players have discovered they can exit the game while prompted to avoid undesirable outcomes. To remedy this, Ive introduced a system that will detect when this exploit is used and prompt the player. You are welcome to use this exploit, but each time you do, it will have an increasingly negative impact on your run score to keep leaderboard rankings fair.

Fixed bug Fixed bug where storing the dice roll results could potentially wipe adventure save data if player exited during a roll in an attempt to exploit the save system to try for a different result.

Fixed bug where Sojurn's defender ability was behaving in way that confused players. I made a new targeting type for targetsOfAction so that Sojurn filters out allies who are not adjacent as well as enemies. Instead of applying the prevent damage to action, it's now applied to the individual ally units. I also made it so that this ability now triggers on any enemy attack so that it will properly defend units who are surrounding Sojurn, but are not the primary target (ex: when a bear swipes) (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed bug where touch controls threw exception when attempting to drag a card that could not be played (Thanks Kolbex, DaneSilverHawk)

Resource Limit: Set the flag for ignoreResourceLimits to avoid game crashing when texture memory is exhausted.

Fixed bug where clicking to cast a card while on the AI's turn would result in the card being stuck in view mode. Disabled click to cast for mobile.

Fixed bug where player could discard during the AI's turn, creating a desync with the AI. (Thanks kyon)

Fixed bug where the previous updates fix for challenge run scoring could win the adventure save data of runs with challenge modifiers started in older versions instead of simply not counting the challenge mod scores. (Thanks Reiga)

Improvement: Made it so the scrim shows when using touch controls so that there is a way to deselect the currently selected card and view the other choices together.

Fixed bug where the extra gold earned from the Cursed Coin artifact could drop into impassable terrain. (Thanks Thm Ngn)

Fixed bug where, if player clicks to cast on an enemy turn, the card could get stuck in the show position until players turn began.
[/olist]

Your Feedback Matters

Just another friendly reminder that I really care about your feedback - it's what drives me to do better with each update. Here's how you can get involved:

Write a Steam review for Abalon - Your reviews help immeasurably with our game discoverability and motivate me to keep developing and improving. I greatly appreciate your reviews, so please take a moment to share one if you haven't yet :)
Submit feedback (especially bugs) directly in-game via Settings -> Share Feedback. This makes it really easy for me to reproduce your bugs and nicely organizes your requests into my "to do" list so I don't forget.
Post a message on our Steam discussion board .
Join our Discord community
Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

[ 2023-08-22 00:15:10 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #23 - 1.22.0 Patch

Congrats to Thm Ngn for once again taking first place on the leaderboard with a top score over 1.3M and discovering a vital bug for us all in the process. As mentioned, I'll be reseting top leaderboard scores this week to put everyone on even playing field. For now, here's a few quick fixes to our update from last week.

Patch Notes

[olist]

Challenge Modifier Scoring: Fixed bug where end of run scored challenges (ex: Lost Guardians) was accruing more and more points each time the run-score prompt was opened, allowing for the potential to gain excessively large scores. (Thanks Thm Ngn)

Anti-Cheese: Fixed a form of cheesing where player could quit the game after rolling the dice for a retreat roll and then restart the game to receive a different roll. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Balance: Changed Orc Battle Horn from a cost 2 spell that read All Allies Get +1/+1. Orcs and Goblins get +2/+2. To a cost 1 spell that reads All allies get +1/+1 until start of their turn. Orcs and Goblins get +2/+2.

Fixed bug where camera would pan extremely slowly back to the character when retreating while having set the frame rate above 60FPS in Video Settings (Thanks bumbaclad)[/olist]

[ 2023-08-15 21:11:08 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #23 1.21.0 More Bug Fixes and Leaderboard Hall of Fame

Game Description Image

Hi Abalon Fans -

Thank you so much for feedback and support. It makes all the difference in fine tuning the game and creating a wonderful experience.

This update aims to resolve the bulk of the issues reported since the Treasure Trove update and create a nice stable base on which to continue building new features and content. In addition, I'm introducing the Abalon Hall of Fame to recognize our top players and give everyone else a fair playing field on which to attempt the next run of global high scores. Read on to learn more.

Version 1.21.0 Release Notes

[olist]

Fixed bug where party members didnt follow their hero into a battle map because the hero entered in an area blocked off by bushes a there wasnt room for the other heroes to follow. (Thanks rh)

Fixed bug where armor and weapons racks were dropping artifacts (ex: Sacred Sapling) instead of equipment. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed bug where a mercenary could spawn in a narrow chokepoint path in the floor spike trap room of the dungeon and prevent the player from passing until their were hired. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Added Timekeeper tag to the Glimpse spell (Thanks Mantis)

Specified on its card that Magma Giant deals Fire damage when its stomp ability is triggered (Thanks Mantis)

Fixed bug where, when the alchemy table exploded, it failed to cause damage to player's summoner (Thanks Napoleon)

Fixed bug where Carniflowers spawned from the Toxic Spores spell could emerge after winning a battle and lock the game. (Thanks Napoleon)

Implemented Player Suggestion: When the axe slayer is found "weakened in the tomb" it'd be thematically neat if they joined your party with partial HP.) Guardian is now found with 3 damage on it. (Thanks Reiga)

Fixed bug where the Celestial Blast card implies that it cannot heal Void allies, but it does. It now clearly states that it deals 4 damage to 'enemy' void units. (Thanks Mantis)

Fixed bug where Necromancer's staff had Create Skeleton Warrior (Block)" printed twice. (Thanks CoolStory)

Fixed bug where Spoil the Surprise would counter your own Guardian Angel blessing from the fallen angel fate encounter. (Thanks jsssonic)

Fixed bug where having too many loyal followers blocked the ability to enter the demon world dungeon because, due to lack of space, allies would wedge themselves into the tile where the one-way push block needed to go to enter the dungeon. When pushing a block into an ally, the block is now destroyed. (Thanks Rathskellar)

Fixed bug where playing a satchel card with Zenon and then attempting to use a portal, exit a shop, camp or interact with other map items, or resize/re-orient the screen threw an exception. (Thanks to many for the reports and Kelly and Wesley for the repro steps)

Fixed bug where Transfer Consciousness did not restore control to the players original summoner if their original summoner was defeated in battle. After the battle, a defeated summoner is now returned to the board with full life and restored as the players controllable character in battle. (Note: This fix does not correct existing games where the player is already stuck as the transferred unit; a new adventure will need to be started). (Thanks Chichi2000fgh, Fungamer07 and Pipmalice / )

Fixed bug where playing a rejuvenation potion in battle could desync the AI (Thanks rh)

Fixed bug where the companion created by using the Chronomancer Hat satchel card did not actually become loyal as specified on the card, and thus left the party after surviving one fight. (Thanks Lykurgos)

Fixed bug where Challenge Modifiers with battle score bonuses were also getting score bonuses from completing fate encounters, resulting in over-scoring.

Fixed bug where Challenge Modifier score was not totaling correctly and not being applied to the run score. Note: Due to the excessive over-scoring that was fixed in this patch, this fix will only apply to new adventures started in v1.21 and later. (Thanks Thm Ngn and mr.kitty)

Fixed bug where the battle score for par sometimes reflected differently than the score awarded to player, even if they had the par number of turns. Because the par scores were based on average turn floating point, not a whole number, they reported different values. I changed the calculation for new average score to round the average turn so it reflects a whole number par value. Now the values are consistent. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed bug where player received a "No usable cards found" prompt when attempting to acquire a locked card from the Dice Mistress instead of obtaining the final card needed to complete their collection (Cover of Shadows). It turns out that the algorithm was preventing shop-exclusive cards from being acquired. (Thanks jsssonic)

Fixed bug where if you open satchel card menu in progression, exit out of progression, open progression, then it will show normal cards but satchel card tab is highlighted and the normal cards show with the satchel card UI. (Thanks Wesley)

Fixed bug where it was no longer possible to drag cards to the discard pile. (Thanks diezy and jsssonic)

Fixed bug where Bleets Bestiary could sell guardian animals not compatible with the color of your Summoner.

Fixed bug where summoners were receiving artifacts/artifact choices that didnt make sense for their magic colors (example: a Demon lord, which does not control arcane magic, will no longer receive a Radiant Amethyst, which only benefits arcane magic users, as a choice. (Thanks mr.kitty)

Fixed bug where event and achievement specific artifacts (like Big Beards Helmet and Goblin Party) were being found in chests, armor racks, and shops.

Added the unique keyword on certain artifact satchel cards that dont make sense to have more than one to prevent these cards from surfacing as rewards during the same adventure once player has already encountered them. For example: World Map, Compass and Insatiable Coffer are now unique since their ability provides a global benefit for the entire adventure. To clarify how this works: Unique Artifacts will only be encountered once per adventure, meaning if you acquire one, you won't find it again. If you see them in a shop, you'll need to buy them at that shop or you won't find them again during your adventure. If you are presented with a choice of a unique artifact and don't choose it, then it is not encountered and you can still find it in future choices or shops. (Thanks Strider)

Non-fate-event driven alchemy tables now always drop a potion instead of a spell card.

Went through every artifact and satchel card and clearly indicated in the card text which ones do not stack to avoid confusion.

Fixed bug where retreating from Caged animal encounter battles and returning did not initiate a battle, but rather a passive enemy that could be attacked in exploration mode. (Thanks Reiga)

Fixed bug where Hero Doll card was allowing player to pick from any card instead of just unlocked guardians (as stated on the card). (Thanks Wesley and Mantis)

Fixed bug where satchel cards purchased from Betty's Brews were being added as cards to the deck instead of to the satchel. Note: This fix does not correct potion cards already added to the deck, but will fix future purchases.

Early level spawn protection (which automatically swaps early difficult battles in the world with easier fights) now disables when player equips a Compass or Insatiable Coffer to ensure that enemies and treasures located on the map dont change position.

Streaming on Discord: We received some reports that Abalon crashes when attempting to stream the game with Discord. It doesnt seem to happen for all users, but what we did find out is that this problem can be solved by disabling a setting called advanced technology in Discord. Ive posted this (and more) solutions that should get you streaming on Discord happily again here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/0/7134317381874610530/ (Thanks Sandling)[/olist]

Leaderboard Hall of Fame

Per player request, I've decided we're going to attempt our first leaderboard reset this coming week. Many of the recent changes to balance and challenge modifiers have affected the scoring potential, so I agree this is a nice way to put the top global positions back on an even playing field that everyone can strive for.

Before this takes place, however, I want to recognize our top worldwide players for their incredible accomplishments. Behold and congratulations to our first players to enter Abalon's Hall of Fame:
Game Description Image

And congratulations to the players who achieved the top high scores for each Summoner. Welcome to the Abalon Hall of Fame:
Game Description Image

As Abalon continues to progress, we'll be thinking up ways to recognize and reward player achievements like this. It could be a special badge on your name, a new special in-game tab listing the hall of fame entries, and more. I'm open to hearing your suggestions and ideas. Let's make this fun together!

For the time being, your scores are immortalized here in this update and added will be added to a permanent registry so we can track and apply rewards when we come up with them.

How will the leaderboard reset take place?

To be clear, I don't intend to delete anyone's high scores; rather, I'm going to clear the top 16 positions in the global leaderboard and reset the global summoner leaderboard for scores earned prior to the release of v1.21.0 for some fresh competition. The reset will take place this coming week after the update has had a chance to fully propagate. You'll still be able to see your previously earned high scores in your personal leaderboard.

As we evolve the game and learn more about how folks are engaging with the leaderboards, I plan to create new events (perhaps weekly or monthly challenges as many of you have suggested) and give everyone exciting opportunities to compete and accomplish great things. As always, player input is most welcome and highly encouraged :)

AI Engine 3.0 Update

In addition to continuing to evolve leaderboards and events, I'm also still aiming to revamp the AI engine from 2.0 to 3.0. This is one of this things that just gets better and better the more feedback and information I have from you. The best way I can train the AI is with test cases, so when you experience the AI do something odd or see an opportunity where the AI could have performed a better move, submit a report in-game at the precise moment by going to Settings -> Share Feedback and jotting a few notes. This way, I'll have a reproduction of the battle and I can tweak the algorithm, then re-run the test case to see if it now performs as expected. And on that note, I wanted to give a special shout out to jsssonic for the excellent bug reports regarding AI Behavior. I'll be making use of these to help hone the new engine in the near future.

Your Feedback Matters

Just another friendly reminder that I really care about your feedback - it's what drives me to do better with each update. Here's how you can get involved:

Write a Steam review for Abalon - Your reviews help immeasurably with our game discoverability and motivate me to keep developing and improving. I greatly appreciate your reviews, so please take a moment to share one if you haven't yet :)
Submit feedback (especially bugs) directly in-game via Settings -> Share Feedback. This makes it really easy for me to reproduce your bugs and nicely organizes your requests into my "to do" list so I don't forget.
Post a message on our Steam discussion board .
Join our Discord community
Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

[ 2023-08-11 21:22:07 CET ] [Original Post]

Abalon Is On Deck

Game Description Image

I'm beyond thrilled to share that Abalon is now officially Steam Deck Verified! This is a goal I've been striving for ever since I heard about Steam Deck back in July of 2021.

The first major milestone was integrating Steam Input controller support back in October 2022. It turns out this was a lot more challenging than I initially estimated, but well worth the effort and a fantastic learning experience. The second milestone was adding Native Linux and Steam OS support, which I was very proud to accomplish this year in early July. Finally, my latest push to add UI scaling and controller glyphs this month finally saw my goal realized, and I couldn't be happier to bring you a turn-based tactics and card strategy experience that plays great on Deck!
Game Description Image
Achievement Unlocked: Steam Deck Verified!

I hope you enjoy and I can't wait to hear about your experiences playing Abalon on Steam Deck :)

~Ross

[ 2023-08-04 22:37:54 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #22 1.2.0 QoL Requests Granted

Game Description Image

Granting you Quality of Life Wishes

Version 1.2.0 Release Notes

Hi Abalon Fans -

I'm excited to deliver on another round of QoL (quality of life) improvements you've recommended in your feedback to me. Here's what's included in today's update:
[olist]

Control Prompts: Added control prompting during battles to help better communicate how to execute commands like move and shoot with sprintshot units. The control prompts adapt to the last input used (ex: mouse, keyboard, gamepad) and will even show the proper image glyph of the controller button you've mapped to that action. These control prompts are optional and you can disable them from the control options.

UI Scaling: Added a new video option called "Large UI". When enabled, this will re-rasterize the cards and prompts to a larger size so they are more legible on the SteamDeck or when playing on a TV from the couch. It will also increase the size of unit stats and your resource HUD so these are legible as well.

Card Controls: You can now use the cancel button (default key "X", default button "B") to deselect a card when on the choose a card screen if you want to see the entire offering.

Card Controls: Made it easier to perform a click to cast by adding a click delay. This way, if the mouse is moving/drags slightly while pressed, it'll still count as a click to cast instead of a drag and release.

Card Controls: Made it so that when using click-to-cast, mousing outside the grid does not reset the action. The player must explicitly right click or press the X button to cancel. This makes it much easier to cast AoE spells by clicking twice instead of having to click to cast, then click on the grid.

Card Controls: Right clicking to cancel an action will no longer show the card underneath the mouse cursor. To show the card, you'll first back out of targeting, then right click to view click.

Targeting Controls: Fixed bug where if player confirms movement space, but then mouse off the grid and returns to grid, it removes the drawn arrow but shows a pulsing blue space.

Card Controls: Fixed bug where the default discard controller button (X) was not discarding cards because of an issue being double mapped to the undo button.

Card Controls: Made it so right click now discards a card in hand.

Fixed bug where it was possible to fire multiple discards on a card in hand.

Card Controls: Made it so that cards that cannot be played present warning immediately on click to cast or attempt to drag to board versus waiting for release or secondary click. (Saves a lot of time thinking you can cast the spell only to release you don't have the mana for it)

New QoL: Added "Disable screenshake" option to game options

New QoL: Added "No Lightning Flashes" option to video options

New QoL: Added "Always Confirm Move" option to control options

New QoL: Added an Animation Speed slider to video options. This currently ranges 1-2 with 5% intervals. 2X speed is quite fast, but please let me know if you need more range here. Also - I'd love to hear from you what animation speed setting you prefer to play the game at ;)

Card Controls: When a card is shown, dismissing the card no longer selects the contents underneath (in combat and in explore mode). The first click dismisses the card. Then, it allows interactivity with the board in the next click.

Fixed bug where the Counter Attack tip was not playing in the tutorial.

Fixed bug from a previous fix that seemed to cause a number of issues with guardians such as no longer showing fast travel animation, not healing at camp, not being able to be equipped with satchel cards, etc. where guardians were no longer showing their fast travel animation or behaving correctly when making camp, etc.[/olist]
That's all for today's update. If you don't see your requests addressed in the list yet, don't worry. I couldn't get to everything in this update, but rest-assured I have your feedback captured and aim to incorporate your requests in future updates. (And I aim to be as quick as possible with turnaround)

Player Driven Development

Your Feedback Matters

Just wanted to say again how much I greatly appreciate everyone's feedback and Steam reviews. These seriously help development a lot. It brings me a lot of joy to see you satisfied with the game, so please continue to share with me.

Here's some ways you can contribute to our player-driven development:

Write a Steam review for Abalon
Submit feedback (especially bugs) directly in-game via Settings -> Share Feedback. This makes it really easy for me to reproduce your bugs and nicely organizes your requests into my "to do" list so I don't forget.
Post a message on our Steam discussion board .
Join our Discord community
Instant message me directly on Discord (Username: RossD20Studios)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

[ 2023-08-02 20:18:18 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #21 1.1.1 Patch

Patch Notes

Hi everyone and thank you for the feedback on our latest update, Treasure Trove! I appreciate your suggestions and bug reports and will be doing my best to get you taken care over the next several days. For starters, heres a few fixes in todays patch.

Bug Fixes

[olist]

Fixed were entering a battle while transformed into an animal and Summoner had been carrying an artifact (ex: Juggernaut Rubrix) before having been transformed resulted in an exception. (Thanks robin_hood_md)

Fixed bug where attempting to enter battle with Azmodius the Mad with the extra minions challenge activated would throw exception because there were no valid minion encounters found to add. (Thanks CoolStory)

Fixed bug where the Totem of Azurach artifact would heal units when retreating from a battle. This artifact should only heal upon winning the battle. (Thanks CoolStory)

Fixed translation of the Hero Doll artifact. This artifact finds and adds a previously unlocked guardian card to your deck. It does not summon or recruit the guardian. However, you can use the artifact to add a guardian to your deck, then, at camp, move the card out of your deck to become a guardian. (Thanks
)

Fixed bug where the More Minions challenge would spawn minions outside U'lag'u's Cave (Thanks mr.kitty)[/olist]

How to Report Bugs

Remember that you can report feedback in game using Settings -> Share Feedback. This is the fastest way for me to reproduce and fix any bugs you many find. Additionally, if you trigger a bug, please include some notes about what you were trying to do (otherwise, I may have a harder time trying to figure out exactly what caused the bug and the fix will take longer).

[ 2023-07-22 18:09:17 CET ] [Original Post]

Update #21 1.1.0 Treasure Trove

Game Description Image
My dear players -

We've raided the dragon's den and bring you a Treasure Trove of exciting new content to put your synergy building skills to the test. There's a LOT to cover, so let's dive in...

Challenge Modifiers

Since our EA launch, challenge modifiers have been among the top player-requested features. For the past year, we've been collaborating directly with many of you on Steam discussion and Discord to design this system together to deliver the precise sweet spot of challenge customizations you've been dreaming up. This culminated late last night with a final send off of the designs to our prerelease testers to get direct player input on the balance. Special thanks to Reiga, Kaaz, and Psilioxus for their input and recommended tweaks on the balance tuning.

This update introduces 27 distinct challenges ranging from level 1-3 in difficulty rating, all of which can be stacked together for an insane total challenge level of 40 (Which you will not survive...)
Game Description Image

Some examples include the "Lost Guardians" challenge that effectively gives your guardians permadeath, adding to the intensity of each battle. We've also got "Bigger Bosses" (nuff said), "More Minions", and the "Deadly Poke of Zorro" that will see every enemy piercing through your armor and shields. And if you think you can run from this, the "No Escape" challenge ensures you cannot retreat after your first turn.

With greater challenge comes greater rewards: Each activated challenge will supply a bonus score percentage to your battles, fate encounters, or grant an additional run completion bonus. Whether you're psyched to compete globally or take pride in beating your personal best, the leaderboards just got a whole lot more fun!

New Artifacts

Our second biggest player feature request has been to supply more permanent ability upgrades for your heroes to help further synergize with your decks. Treasure Trove brings just under 40 new artifacts, each adding a distinctive, game challenging ability to encourage new deck construction and make careful resource management even more rewarding.

Among these new artifacts, our skeleton summoning fans will surely enjoy Semaniel's Necronomicon that allows your hero to summon a skeleton warrior for every unit it defeats on the battlefield. This could be with its attack, an AOE destroying half the map, or poison enveloping your foes - creating instant undead armies. This artifact is made in honor of Semaniel, who we thank and honor for translating the game in Spanish and the wonderful coverage on YouTube .

You'll also find the "Weighted Die of Theron" I promised in response to the RNG feedback in our Steam forums . This artifact will ensure you get a 20 the next time you roll dice.

Additionally, to encourage exploration, we've eliminated the "automatic" treasure finder and instead added things like maps and compasses to reveal new areas. And that's just the tip of the ice berg.

Thematic Shops

I've been promising and delaying this feature for too long...no more! Thematic shops are here at last. This was another heavily player-requested feature, and I gotta say, it was a good call. It really does add a lot to the feel of exploring - you never know which new weird character you're going to find in the wilderness and what kind of exciting goodies they have in store for you.... a Satyr selling loyal bunnies, a potion brewmaster, an ironclad outpost stocked with a legion of soldiers to recruit?

Russian Language Support

Special shout out to community member Neuk for providing Russian translations for the game!

While these are still a work in progress, it is more than 99% complete and I'm very excited to roll it out this update. Please feel welcome to share your feedback via the in-game reporting system and enjoy!

We'll be coming up with something special to honor Neuk in the game in our next content update :)

Additional Build Notes

[olist]

Fixed AI Sync error caused by Nithsrot retaining ownership of the Treant card in Animate Tree for discard purposes after action has been undone. This happens because the triggered ability in the card itself is reassigned to the previous card action user (Nithsrot) in the undo sequence before assigning the previous user (Rugged Mage). (Thanks Daniel Taylor, Havok, UwUShuna and )

QoL: Made it so that artifact equipment cannot be removed by spells like Rust.

QoL: Indicated on all equipment cards the equipment slot that is used (ex: right hand, left hand, two-handed, helmet, outfit)
[/olist]

Steam - Deal of the Day

Lastly, I'm super excited to share that Valve honored us with a home page feature as July 19th's "Deal of the Day". From now through this week, you can pick up Abalon for our biggest discount yet of 40% off.

I hope this encourages even more folks to discover Abalon and share with their friends! It's my aim to continue developing this game and the Abalon series of games for the next decades into the future.

So please keep your feedback and reviews coming! It's my drive and passion to see you that you have the most satisfying experience in the tabletop inspired world of Abalon!

Join the Discussion:

- Steam discussion board: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1681840/discussions/
- Discord: https://discord.gg/d20studios (RossD20Studios#2359)

Thanks so much!

~Ross

[ 2023-07-19 18:36:12 CET ] [Original Post]