You can now preview enemy intents before committing a movement. The lack of this information was leading to slower and more careful play, so I hope this enables more curiosity and experimentation! In addition, any enemy that you've defeated at least once is now added to the monster library, which enables you to look directly at their cards by selecting them. Various feedback has been implemented, such as having your party fully heal after a boss battle (rather than just 90%), adding a setting to choose between the old tile-only cursor and the new unit-sensitive cursor, and having the option to make camera rotation snap instantly to reduce motion sickness.

Changelog

v0.5.4 -> v0.5.5

BUG FIXES

• Damage preview now takes into account special reactions such as physical/magical weakness.
• Switching units while dragging a card now cancels the drag.
• Item tooltips no longer disappear when mousing between the item and the discard button.
• The "?" button to examine a specific character on the selection screen should no longer be pushed offscreen when the window is especially small.
• Prevented checkboxes from repeating when the battle ends before they've been checked.
• Fixed knockback not previewing when Paper Hydra copied knockback cards that did no direct damage.
• When Paper Hydra copies knockback cards that do no direct damage, these are now displayed as Attack intents.

STORY

• Home base conversation portraits now have different character outfits to reflect the setting.
• Shortened tutorial to 2 fights instead of 3.

VISUALS

• Made difficult terrain tile highlight more distinct.
• Made enemy attack range highlight more distinct.

AUDIO

• Replaced healing sound.

GAMEPLAY

• The monster library has been implemented. Defeating an enemy adds it to the library.
• Any foe added to the library can be selected in battle to examine its abilities.
• Added more enemy special behaviours.
  • Swift: Movement speed is increased by 2.
  • Purifying: Purges 1 stack of all debuffs each turn.
  • Spacefolding: This unit can teleport anywhere.
  • All-Seeing: This unit bypasses line of sight.
  • Rheopectic: Gains 2 Resist when attacked.
• Changed map generation to prevent players being boxed in at the start of a battle.
• Party members now recover all of their HP after a boss battle, rather than 90% of their missing HP.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• You can now preview which enemies will attack you before you commit a movement.
• Paced and refined tutorial messages to avoid information overload.
• Added tutorials for the enemy library and examining enemies.
• Added a tutorial for the line-of-sight icon.
• Added a setting to only consider tiles (not units) with the cursor.
• Added a setting to have camera rotation snap instantly rather than gradually.
• Added a toggle for click-and-hold item use.
• Added a toggle for showing status tooltips when examining a unit.
• Reworded knockback tooltips to make them more clear.
• Highlighted certain codex entry snippets in gold.

CARDS

• Seagull: Light From Within now gains range on upgrade rather than dealing 5 less damage.
• Cricket: Hardened Fist now gains 1 range on upgrade rather than 2 more charges.
• Scaling factors on cards are no longer written in all gold.
• Scaling factors now say "Potency scales by..." rather than "Potency increases by..." to more clearly link them with items that affect scaling.

[ 2025-04-27 15:00:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

The story continues! You can now play lunge cards in all directions, not just orthogonal and diagonal. Unfortunately, this makes past-me a liar because he wrote about his reasons for restricting lunge cards to those directions, but I found a way to make your final lunged position intuitive. Hopefully this makes longer-range lunge cards like Surging Tide more fun to play! In response to feedback, enemies that are about to push or pull you now show a knockback preview on the target party member. Currently only Paper Hydra can ever do this (after it witnesses one of your push/pull cards), but this opens up the design space to future enemies that incorporate knockback into their standard kit. In addition, you can now hover over a specific status icon to get a description of just that icon. No more being overwhelmed by the list of every status a unit has.

Changelog

v0.5.3 -> v0.5.4

BUG FIXES

• You can no longer push your ally off a ledge.
• Fixed rare cases where Paper Hydra would copy a lunge card and then appear to lunge to the edge of the universe.
• Fixed rare cases where bridges would draw mid-air.
• Fixed rare cases where special terrain effects would fail to draw.
• Playing cards too fast no longer causes incoming damage previews to be incorrect.
• Fixed issue where damage preview for knockbacks would be incorrect on enemies with exactly 1 stack of Vulnerable/Parry if the knockback card does no direct damage.
• Items for locked memories no longer appear in the Cauldron.

STORY

• Added a new main story conversation.
• Redid a few art assets to illustrate what the Scourge actually looks like.

VISUALS

• Special behaviour status icons now show potency if applicable.
• Buffer stacks being consumed now shows text above the unit.
• The time dilation effect no longer applies when defeating the split copies of the Wildfire Exemplar.
• Items that deal with Overheat/Discard now have tooltips for these effects.

AUDIO

• Made hit sounds punchier.
• Added sound for defeating bosses.
• Updated conversation theme.

GAMEPLAY

• Lunge/Retreat cards are no longer restricted to cardinal and intercardinal directions.
• Lunge/Retreat cards no longer trigger "on move" effects if they didn't actually move you.
• The incoming damage preview now shows when an enemy is about to push/pull a party member.
• Some enemies now prefer to move even when they're already at their ideal range.
• Added more enemy special behaviours.
  • Metallic: Gains 1 Parry when targeted by a Skill.
  • Fibrous: Gains 1 Parry when targeted by a Spell.
  • Noxious: Inflicts 1 Poison when attacked.
  • Spiked: Deals 3 damage when attacked.
  • Abrasive: Inflicts 2 Exposed when attacked.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• You can now hover over a status/behaviour icon above a unit to get an explanation of just that status/behaviour.
• You no longer have to wait for the camera to finish rotating before you can pan again.
• More tutorial messages now highlight the thing they are focusing on.
• Special behaviour tooltips now also explain any status effects mentioned.
• Settings can now be changed by dragging the fill bar.
• Vsync can now be set from 0 to 4 times (formerly just 0 or 1).
• Save files now show story progress.
• There is now a small greeting describing the game on startup.

CARDS

• Butterfly's Joust now has a cooldown of 2 instead of 0, to balance out its direction no longer being restricted.
• Cricket's Dropkick now Exhausts, to balance out its direction no longer being restricted.

ITEMS

• Reworded many item descriptions for clarity.
• Metal: Roborant now only heals for 15 rather than also giving 15 max HP.

[ 2025-04-19 15:00:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome to the first post-demo update! As per feedback, tutorials should now never repeat, and a number of them have been reworded for clarity. Five new enemies have been added to the game. They show up rarely, but they have peculiar mechanics that should add an interesting twist to the encounter. Also, I've been meaning to redraw the pixel-style status icons for some time now, and it's finally been done. In addition, Jing and Florian have their final portraits. Next update, I plan to continue the story and update the adventurers' conversation portraits as well.

Changelog

v0.5.2 -> v0.5.3

BUG FIXES

• Fixed minor text spacing issue on cards that apply statuses in an area.
• Fixed edge case where a tutorial would repeat when you selected and deselected a push/pull card multiple times.

STORY

• Librarian Jing and Searcher Florian now have their final portraits.

VISUALS

• Redrew status and intent icons at much higher resolution.
• The cursor now takes on a different look when dragging a card.
• Unlocks are now always listed cards-first.
• Status icons above unit sprites now max out at 5 across rather than 7, and stack upwards rather than reflowing downwards.
• Reduced intensity of menu motion.

AUDIO

• Added different ambient audio per realm.
• Added a theme for story conversations.

GAMEPLAY

• Terrain effects can appear in more diverse patterns.

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Selecting a card with only one valid target will now automatically preview what would happen if you played it on that target.
• Tutorial checkboxes are now pointed to with a shrinking diamond.
• The codex now describes double-click to play and drag to play.
• Tutorials never repeat after they've been acknowledged (previously they'd repeat if the battle was ended before the "chapter" of tutorials was done).
• Reworded enemy intent tutorial for clarity.
• Added line-of-sight tutorial.
• Added line-of-sight codex entry.
• The line-of-sight eye icon now takes into account the ranges and targets of cards in your hand.
• The item discard "X" now notes that you should click and hold on its tooltip.

ENEMIES

• Fire: Added Enkindler.
• Water: Added Skipper.
• Wood: Added Dampener.
• Metal: Added Serration.
• Earth: Added Fossil.
• Bosses now have different bases on their sprites.
• Added a notification that the second boss has appeared early because the game is unfinished.

[ 2025-04-11 19:55:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Steam! The demo for NOMIA is now available. In it, you can do the first leg of a run, and experience the first little bit of the story and all character relationships. All four characters are unlockable. This represents a little over a year and a half of work by me, so I'm very excited to present it to you! Any feedback or comments are welcome. If you've been following this journey from earlier, here's detailed patch notes as well!

Changelog

v0.5.1 -> v0.5.2 Welcome to the demo build! This update greatly speeds up game flow by letting you play cards by double-clicking, or clicking and dragging. The first proper "main quest" conversation (after the prologue) is also now in the game. I look forward to presenting the full story in time!

BUG FIXES

- Fixed character select screen pause button peeking out from the bottom of the screen when examining a character. - Fixed Butterfly's Spear Plume not showing the tooltip for Distracted. - Memories that activate upon defeating enemies now trigger multiple times if you defeated multiple enemies with a single card.

STORY

- Added a new main story conversation.

VISUALS

- Enemies with an additional special behaviour now have a subtle trim on their sprite. - Knockback that isn't sufficient to kick an enemy off a ledge is now indicated by a unique animation. - Made various notifications point to places on the screen with a shrinking diamond effect.

GAMEPLAY

- Playing a Lunge card on an empty tile now moves you to that tile rather than adjacent to it. - You now have multiple save files.

QUALITY OF LIFE

- You can now click and drag to play cards. - Cards that only have one valid target can now be played with a double click. - Added more tutorial messages when certain mechanics are encountered for the first time. - Push/pull - Opposing statuses - Codex in pause menu - You can now use the scroll wheel to view cutscene/conversation history. - "On attunement" for memories is now worded as "When equipped".

CARDS

- Butterfly's Spear/Halberd/Quarterstaff is now a Targeted Lunge. - Cricket's Steal is now a non-targeted Lunge.

MEMORIES

- Butterfly: - Added Arming Belt, which grants 1 Nimble upon playing a lunge/retreat card. - Added Armour-Piercing Thrust, which has a 1 in 2 chance to remove 2 stacks of a random defensive buff when you attack. - Added Tricky Tempo, which applies 1 Blinded to surrounding enemies on turn end for the first 2 turns of each battle. - Effortless Grace now gives 2 Focus rather than 3. - Seagull: - Added Sharpened Wand, which grants 1 Focus when playing a zero-cost card. - Added Back to Back, which grants 1 Grit to both you and your ally if your ally is in the surrounding tiles on turn end. - Added Geometric Instinct, which has a 1 in 8 chance to make a card ignore line of sight for this turn when it is drawn. - Cricket: - Added Gambeson, which grants 1 Buffer every fifth turn. - Added Blueprint, which grants 2 Grit if you have leftover Block from last turn. - Added Wandering Heart, which causes your first attack each battle to inflict 10 Fragile. - Crow: - Added Ice-Blue Contacts, which heals you for the number of units hit when you hit more than 1 unit. - Added Corvid Gaze, which grants 2 Grit if you end your turn with no surrounding units. - Added Painted Talons, which grants 2 Critical upon defeating an enemy.

[ 2025-04-05 03:32:58 CET ] [ Original post ]