Happy Halloween Everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is how it looks like with 3x zoom:

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

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

Hey Everyone,

Summer is over, we have a busy 4 months of this year left ahead, full of new game releases, let’s make GemCraft Frostborn Wrath one of those games!

In this post, I’ll show you the rebuilt talisman system.

The talisman is now a 5×5 jigsaw puzzle, with most of the tiles locked at the start of the game, unlockable by gathering enough shadow cores (the multi-purpose game currency).

All talisman fragments give varying battle bonuses, depending on the rarity level of the fragment (more rare fragments give more and stronger bonuses), the upgrade level (unlocking the potential bonuses of the fragment by spending shadow cores), and whether the fragment is “inner”, “edge”, or “corner” type. Rare fragments can be found during battles boosted with lots of battle traits.

You can sacrifice a fragment to add its shape to your shape collection. The more shapes you gather this way, the more freedom you have when changing the shape of the fragments you plan to add to your talisman.

Just as with a jigsaw puzzle, you have to correctly connect the puzzle piece shaped talisman fragments as you fill the tiles of the talisman. If a fragment doesn’t fit, you can change its shape one side at a time with the arrow keys, but it can only take a shape you already have in your shape collection. Also, edges can’t be changed or rotated, so a top left corner fragment can’t be changed to top right, just as an inner fragment can’t get an edge.

The runes on some of the fragments, as well as the lights on the sides of the talisman will be up to you to explore when the game finally arrives.

Next time I hope I can show you the game’s trailer, and if everything goes as planned, the game can be out this year – more info about the release details when we get closer.

Hey Everyone,

I hope summer goes well and that you can find shelter from the scorching heat.

Battle traits were one of the cornerstones of GemCraft since Labyrinth, giving you control over how difficult challenges to take on and what path of progression to take. Traits will be there in GCFW as well, 15 of them, each adjustable at 12 levels (or left turned off).

Each battle trait adds a unique difficulty boost to battles, giving monsters more hit points or shields, luring greater enemies to the battlefield, or giving monsters an armor boost based on the number of other monsters on the battlefield.
The more and higher level traits are selected, the higher rarity talisman fragments can drop (more about that in the next blog post), and a higher xp multiplier applies to the battle total xp.

In the previous GemCraft, there were also three difficulty buttons. They are now blended into the palette of battle traits, and instead, there are three battle mode buttons.
Journey mode is the baseline experience. Any field that wasn’t played yet automatically starts in Journey mode.

Endurance mode now starts from wave 1 (in GCCS is started after finishing a regular battle), and initially lasts 50 waves. In this mode you can’t lose, you’ll get the xp you gather even if your Orb gets smashed. Beating at least half of the total waves though gives endurance wave stones that will make all future endurance runs longer.

(The achievement icons shown in the outcome panel loot row are still work in progress.)

Wizard Trial mode is similar to vision fields from GCCS, but this time all the fields have this challenging mode, putting your true gemcrafting skills to the test. Skills and battle traits can be obtained by winning trial battles. In trial mode, you can’t use your skills, the starter mana is set for each field, as well as gem types, buildings and spells to use, and battle traits too. (See the greyed out battle trait icons in the traits panel screenshot – in trial mode, the traits panel only gives you info about what to expect, but traits can’t be changed.)

All three modes have their own unique field layout variant and give their own xps for each field.
In trial mode, since the battle traits are fixed, there is no battle traits xp multiplier, calling in waves early will give a generous xp boost instead. Doing so is very risky though in the already challenging trial mode, so be careful.

Lastly, a minor change to the grid of skills shown in the previous post, I realized the new building called lantern didn’t have its own skill that would make it buildable, so I added one and took Masonry out (and used its graphics for the Dark masonry battle trait). I was afraid that lantern would become too overpowered, as well as lagging the game with its AoE damage, but not giving it a skill wouldn’t work. The skill itself still puts some harsh limitations of the building, but it’s sure to change a lot during later playtests.

Have a great August! Next time I’ll write about the new talisman system.