Jul 5, 2018

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hello,

Hope everyone's having some fun and the sun! Taking a break in the shade to play Slay the Spire is nice, too :).

This week's focus is mainly on content and improving usability for Custom Mode.

Face Trader

It's a new event! This event shows up in any Act and can give you 1 of 5 relics
exclusive to this event, we think it's facetastic.

Shop Relics

The third relic sold by the merchant is now always a shop rarity relic. To prevent players from seeing too many familiar relics there, we added 5 new shop relics! (Spoilers in patch notes)

Relic Overflow Paging

We noticed that relics got a bit too small when people were having fun testing the game's limits. To maintain a reasonable hitbox, we removed the shrink logic and replaced it with arrows to allow you to page through relics. We decreased the spacing a bit, so it can pack 25 relics per page.

Community Fan Art

Didn't post any last time, sorry. Send us more! It's amazing to see the game's characters drawn (or created) in so many ways. Thank you!

Lego Ironclad by /u/LBomb_25

The Silent by @Noxykat

The Ironclad slicing through Donu by @shimoyamamikito

Patch Notes

Content

Adding shop relic Clockwork Sourvenir.
Adding shop relic Dolly's Mirror.
Adding shop relic Meal Ticket.
Adding shop relic The Abacus.
Adding shop relic Twisted Funnel.
Adding the Face Trader event.
Adding event relic Cultist Headpiece.
Adding event relic Face of Cleric.
Adding event relic Gremlin Visage.
Adding event relic N'loth's Hungry Face.
Adding event relic Ssserpent Head.
Rework: Berserk card: Gain Vulnerable for several turns to gain +1 Energy per turn.
Rework: Corpse Explosion card: Apply 6 Poison. When this enemy dies, deal damage to ALL enemies equal to its max HP.

Balance

Toolbox relic is now shop rarity.
Centennial Puzzle relic is now common rarity.
Knowing Skull HP cost minimum is set to 6 to prevent infinite gold with Bloody Idol.
Mind Blast is now always Innate and costs 2. Upgrade reduces cost to 1.
Shackled Power now capped at 999 for Transient.
The 3rd relic in shops are now always Shop rarity.
The Chosen enemy's AI is now less random.

UI and Effects

Seed Input Panel improvements for Custom Mode.

Bug Fixes

Uncommon relics were more common than Common rarity in Shops. Swapped (48% <-> 34%)
Buying an egg relic in the shop will now correctly show cards in the shop upgraded.
Custom Run's Embark button is no longer disabled when entering the screen.
Custom Run now resets the set seed when screen is reopened.
Disallow interacting with objects behind the seed input panel in Custom Mode Screen.
Donu and Deca now alternate their attacks on turn 2.
Draft mod should now always draft 15 cards, even if you abandon mid draft.
Energized power now caps at 999.
Fixed Fairy Potion and Lizard Tail not triggering with Muzzle blight.
Greatly increased compatability of various mods in Custom Mode.
Fixed issue where Daily scores weren't uploading for some players.
Sundial relic wording improvements.

Localization

Updates for DEU, FRA, GRE, ITA, JPN, KOR, RUS, ZHS, ZHT.

Jul 5, 2018

What Works And Why: Juicy maths in Slay The Spire

Slay the Spire - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Tom Francis)

What Works And Why is a monthly column where Gunpoint and Heat Signature designer Tom Francis digs into the design of a game or mechanic and analyses what makes it good.>

When games offer you abilities and perks that boost your stats, they often do it in a meager, fiddly way:

5% chance to deal 10% extra damage for 5 seconds. Does not stack.>

This is dry, fussy and boring to me. A 5% chance is so low I can never bank on it happening, 10% extra damage is so small I won’t notice it, and lasting 5 seconds means there’s this extra state I now need to know about and track. And ‘does not stack’ might be the saddest phrase in game design.

(more…)

Jun 30, 2018

Slay the Spire adds third game mode, reaches one million copies sold

Slay the Spire

Excellent deck-building roguelike Slay the Spire has now sold one million copies, developer Mega Crit Games said this week as it unveiled a new game mode that allows you to craft custom dungeon runs.

Custom mode, Slay the Spire's third game mode, offers a variety of modifiers to switch on and off that will drastically change your next run. You can jump into the custom dungeon yourself, or share your options with others for them to try.

The 15 or so modifiers can both make the runs easier or harder. For example, one will let you pick your own custom deck before the run starts, while another changes the map so it only contains one path, cutting down your options. Some will add specific cards to your deck to alter your play style. Switch on all the difficult ones and you'll create a near-impossible challenge.

To unlock the mode, you'll first have to complete one of the difficult daily challenges, which will earn you the "My Lucky Day" achievement.

"Our aim is to expand this mode to allow new challenges such as Endless mode (which is still being worked on in Beta) and eventually allow players to create, incorporate, and access mods through this flexible interface," the developer said in a Steam post. See a quick gif of that interface below.

Thanks, PCGamesN.

Jun 28, 2018

Weekly Patch 31: Custom Mode

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hello!

I hope everyone's having a good week, we've been quite busy with a bunch of new players thanks to the Steam sale. Hello new players!

This week brings in a 3rd game mode called Custom Mode.

Custom Mode

This third game mode allows players to turn on/off various modifiers to create and share unique challenges! This can be unlocked by unlocking the "My Lucky Day" achievement, which is done by winning a Daily Climb.

Our aim is to expand this mode to allow new challenges such as Endless mode (which is still being worked on in Beta) and eventually allow players to create, incorporate, and access mods through this flexible interface :).

Controller Support

Additional work and support is still coming! Lots of work was done this week to enable functionality and fix bugs related to Custom mode.

One Million?!

Just a few days ago, we reached 1,000,000 players for Slay the Spire! It's been a wild ride as the two of us (and a great number of collaborators!) started work on this game almost 3 years ago. The feedback and reception for the game has been far more than any developer could hope for and we'd like to sincerely thank all of you for playing the game, creating amazing content, and even starting riots over boots.

We hope to pay you all back by working our butts off.

Alright, Patch Notes

UI and Effects

Increased spacing between floor/ascension and modifiers in top panel.
Clarified relic rarity on Mysterious Sphere event.

Bug Fixes

Closing and opening the Daily Climb screen now refreshes the Daily leaderboard.
Fixed issue where Defect's fastest time wasn't uploaded to leaderboards properly.
Match and Keep cards are now viewed as upgraded w/ Egg relics.
Now save/loading a daily run properly uploads scores when you win/lose.
Prevent various crashes in Run History due to certain relics.
Pride curse will no longer appear from Calling Bell and a few other sources.
Some events that damage and kill the player should no longer crash the game.
Special seed energy relics were double-applying their effects.
Transient achievement properly unlocks now (Transient is only in Beta still, sorry)

Localization

Optional UPGRADE_DESCRIPTION added for Pummel, Heavy Blade, Offering, and Reprogram
Updates for DEU, ITA, JPN, KOR, SRB, SRP, UKR, RUS, ZHS, ZHT.

Jun 21, 2018

Weekly Patch 30: Skewer

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hey all,

This week we experimented a lot with Endless mode while incorporating more Act 3 content.

Endless

We believe the feedback gathered from trying out new mechanics in Endless mode have given us a good direction to work towards.

Custom Seeds

Custom seeds have been popular so UI improvements and surprises are coming!

Controller Support

Lots of bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and minor improved compatibility has been added. Currently, Slay the Spire supports controllers with DirectInput support but we're looking into utilizing the Steam Input API as well.

Community Fanart!

We really enjoy showcasing all this artwork since it makes our patch notes more colorful! If you want your art showcased, just give us a shout on our twitter @MegaCrit.

Dagger Spray of Silent by 마른비_DryRain

THE DEFECT by WestlyLaFleur

The Humiliation of the Lagavulin by Antarasis

Ironclad by Limbo-Chan

Patch Notes

Hotfix

Map generation was updated so save files became incompatible. If this occurs, player is now forced on to another random room on the same floor instead of crashing.

Content

Added 'M0RECARDS' custom seed to enable Hoarder Mod.
Added 'CURSED' custom seed to enable Cursed Run Mod.

Balance

Knowing Skull event now always asks for 10% of your Max HP instead of a set amount.

UI and Effects

Added a VFX to let you know when Ascension Mode is unlocked.
Added hover outlines for Rest Site options.
Adding a Controller Enabled toggle in Input Settings screen as Steam Controller would duplicate input.
Channeling orbs are now considerably faster in Fast Mode.
Daily Mods will no longer overlap floor number in top panel.
Updated asset for Lift option via Girya.
Void card now resolves 0.25s faster.
You can navigate to the Reset to Default button in Input Setting with controllers now.

Bug Fixes

Ascension no longer increments if you use a custom seed.
Custom seed flag wasn't saving/loading correctly uploading incorrect metrics.
Falling event will no longer softlock the game if you have no valid cards to remove
Fix for Vampire and Ghost Council event which could set your HP to 0.
Fixed crash when navigating right in topPanel via controller.
Fixed issue where cursor would not reappear when going from controller mode to mouse.
Fixed issue where players could queue up extra cards during an animation to play latter cards for free.
Fixed issue where relics like Cursed Key given by custom seeds didn't work.
Fixed issue where you cannot view relics via controller while boss chest is open.
Fixed odd scrolling when entering new acts in controller mode.
Fixed Snecko Oil description issues on Ascension 11+.
Fixed X button icon overlapping floor number in controller mode with Potion Belt.
Fixing cards discovered and unlocked count totals in the Character Stats screen.
Moved mouse reset position for controller mode so Linux doesn't activate Hot Corners.
Peace Pipe relic cannot get rid of Bottled cards anymore.
Run History performance fixed when you have a lot of relics.
Status cards that are added to draw or discard piles are now marked as seen/discovered.

Localization

Updates for DEU, FRA, ITA, JPN, KOR, GRE, RUS, SRB, SRP, UKR, ZHS, ZHT.
Updating credits for Korean Localization.

Jun 14, 2018

Weekly Patch 29: TURBO

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hey again!

This week we worked on polishing and finishing up controller support, bringing in a new game mode: Endless, publishing the soundtrack, special seeds, and a handful of new relics.

Controller Support

It's out of beta! Currently, support is limited to PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One controllers on the PC. To use a controller, just start the game with a controller plugged in.

Endless Mode (Beta)

We're testing a game mode in the Beta branch: Endless! A lot of changes, bug fixes, and content are still planned so stay tuned!

Soundtrack

The official soundtrack is finally here! All of these tracks were created by Clark Aboud and the soundtrack contains all songs (plus a few extras) as 320kbps MP3s. If you want to know more, visit the Soundtrack page!

Special Seeds

Special runs can be played by entering specific seeds! Ever wanted to play a random daily run? Play Slay the Spire in Draft mode? Do you just want to be one with Snecko? Now you can, and more! All of your dreams will come true, yada yada. A special UI and menu will probably be created if this turns out to be high demand.

We added special runs that you can play by entering specific seeds:

RAND0MM0DS or DAILYM0DS will let you do new daily-style runs.
DRAFT will activate the draft daily mod.
MEGADRAFT will activate Diverse and Draft daily mods. Letting you draft from every characters' cards.
FADEAWAY activates Night Terrors and Terminal. Can you beat the game before running out of HP?
PRAISESNECK0 Will replace your starting relic with Snecko Eye.
Y0URET00SL0W Will activate the Time Dilation daily mod, giving all enemies Slow.
STARTERDECK Will give you Busted Crown and Binary (Meaning enemies drop 0 cards. Can you win with the starter deck??)
INCEPTI0N Start with Unceasing Top _(it's a dream come true!)_
MYTRUEFORM You're a Demon! You're a Wraith! You Echo... echo echo. Start with one of each 'Form' card.
1HITW0NDER Can you beat the game with 1 Max HP?

Community Fan Art

Wooow, everyone is so talented. We're really happy to showcase these!
If you want your art showcased, just ping us at @megacrit!

Amazing print by Jesse Turner (@jouste) of Crypt of the NecroDancer fame!

The Silent by HiroMoru

The Time Eater by George Eracleous

Summer Fun Donu by @lotsofwoomy

A Younger Silent and Ironclad enjoying a Snack Together by @Amueezy

The Defect by @BaeFeather

Patch Notes

Hotfix

Fix issue where daily mode can be treated as an endless run.
Fixed Snecko Oil description issues on Ascension 11+.
Run History scrolling now works correctly for Endless Mode.

Content

Adding boss relic Coffee Dripper.
Adding boss relic Empty Cage.
Adding boss relic Fusion Hammer.
Adding rare relic Incense Burner.

Balance

In the Nest event, you receive the dagger for 6 damage instead of a downgrade now.
In the Nest event, the non-dagger option steals less gold now (150 -> 99). Ascension 15 -> 50.

Bug Fixes

Aggregate now gives the correct amount of energy.
Fixed instance where audio would overlap with Hexaghost on Save/Quit interactions.
Fixed issue where Fairy Potion wouldn't heal you if max HP was less than 10.
Fixed issue where game crashed if Gdx.audio was null.
Fixed issue where Gremlin Wheel event was not seeded.
Fixed issue where Input Settings' rows were duplicating when reopened.
Mind Bloom no longer shows status/curse cards upgrading.
Ritual Dagger card is marked as seen when you obtain it now.
Smoke Bombs now work when fighting monsters in ? rooms.
Some dialog for events was leaking into other events. Now cleared out between events.
Unceasing Top no longer infinitly spins when you are out of cards (hand/discard/draw pile)
Reducing a lot of unnecessary saving whenever you see cards/relics.
Reducing memory usage at certain points.
Removing unused asset menuPanelPortrait.png

UI and Effects

Updated art on Endless mode's panel.
Updated bg art for Defect in character select screen.
Attacks that hit all enemies are now properly faster in Fast Mode.
MindBloom upgrade now only shows up to 20 cards as it's CPU intensive.
Seeds are now alphanumeric.
Tips are now rendered on the left side of the screen in Relic Library as the position was inconsistent.
ToughBandages relics now uses its effect faster (0.35s -> 0.2s).
Viewing potions during Discard/Draw Pile view no longer scrolls oddly.
Fix grammar issue in Sensory Stone event.
Less vs Fewer for Potion Slots relic.
Pick up -> pickup wording change for several relics.

Localization

SRB and SRP no longer render ordinals for floor numbers.
Updates for DEU, FRA, GRE, ITA, JPN, KOR, RUS, SRB, SRP, ZHS, ZHT.

Jun 7, 2018

Weekly Patch 28: The Ritual

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hey everyone,

It's patch time! This week we focused on expanding content for Act 3 while continuing work on prepping the Soundtrack and Controller support.

New Events

Two new events! The Nest can be found in Act 2, and Mind Bloom is in Act 3. No spoilers though.

Controller Support

Mainly bug fixing, there were a bit more bugs than expected but it's getting pretty close to reaching the quality level and usability that we want. For those in helping us test out controller support, please opt into the beta branch and provide feedback at our Discord channel.

Localization

Greek has been added! If interested in helping out with translations, please visit the localization channel at our official Discord :).

Community Fan Art!

We're trying to feature more art from the community! Just ping us in the fanart channel at our Discord or our official twitter (@megacrit)!

Amazing sculpture of The Collector by Kyreelle

The Whale's Blessing, by @AnnieFeatherw8

The Silent, by @evergreenqveen

Patch Notes

Hot Fixes

Fixed an issue where Blizzard card was causing crashes in French.
Made event dialog update code more robust, preventing crashes in some instances.
Updates for KOR and UKR languages.

Content

New Achievement: My Lucky Day
New Achievement: Neon
New Act 2 event: The Nest
New Act 3 event: Mind Bloom
New Relic: Busted Crown
New Relic: Mark of the Bloom
New Card: Ritual Dagger

UI and Effects

Boss relic picks now show up in Run History.
Conserve Battery card renamed to Charge Battery.
Input Settings' row height increased by 20px to enlarge hitboxes.
Input Settings' rows now use a larger font for legibility.
Lengthened various hitboxes for Settings screen.
Menu panels are highlighted slightly brighter when hovered now.
More card coloring consistency in events.
Removing non-keyword gold text on Question Card relic description.
Updated assets for Energized power icon (green and blue).
When hovering over toggle boxes in Settings, they increase in scale by 25% (color blind accessible).

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue where the game would immediately save after loading a combat post-combat.
Fixed bug where Terminal mod would cause player to reach 0 Max HP and the game would become unplayable. Now caps at 1 HP.
Fixed exploit where reloading into a boss room would give you bonus gold.
Fixed issue where boss relic chosen wasn't recorded if you loaded a save.
Fixed issue where cards stayed after combat with Echo Form or Double Tap.
Fixed issue where Strike (blue), Thunder Strike, and Meteor Strike weren't used by Perfected Strike.
Fixed softlock caused by cards that Discard if the combat was over.
Fixed typos on Storm Power's description.

Balance

Ascension 11 modifier changed. Instead of weakening potions, the player starts with 1 less potion slot.
Common Sense achievement now unlocks with a win with a deck without uncommon/rare cards.
Conserve Battery card now gives energy next turn rather than conserve it.
Masterful Stab card gets a minor damage buff.
Runic Pyramid relic no longer has a downside.

Localization

Adding credits for Greek localization.
Adding shop assets for RUS.
Darkness now utilizes UPGRADE_DESCRIPTION for plurality (for non-Eng languages).
Greek language is now available.
Updates for DEU, FRA, GRE, ITA, JPN, KOR, RUS, SRB, SRP, UKR, ZHS, ZHT.

May 31, 2018

Weekly Patch 27: Hello World

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hey world,

This week adds the long anticipated third character into the game!

The Third Character

It's finally here! Those of you who tested out the character in beta, we sincerely thank you for your feedback and gameplay data. The first two characters took about a year of balancing and reworking, it really helps us work faster to get all of your input.

Edit: To unlock the new character, play a run as the Silent (win or lose).

Content:

A new character with unique mechanics, keywords, and art.
75 Cards.
9 Relics.
3 Achievements.
Additional lore in the Sensory Stone event.

Controller Support

Still trying a few things here and there while fixing up critical issues and usability quirks. We aim to get this ready for main branch in a few weeks, but it's been quite challenging! We're learning a lot about controllers.

Patch Notes

Content

New colorless card: Magnetism.

Bug Fixes

Boot relic now triggers on 4 or less rather than 5, this caused it to flash when it did nothing.
Closing discard or draw pile view screen can no longer reopen in some cases.
Egg relics now show pre-upgraded cards for Sensory Stone event's choices.
Empty save files now treated as corrupted (some files were getting deleted, sorry).
End of turn Relics and Orbs now trigger after all cards are fully played.
Fix for Bottled cards showing up in Wheel of Change event's Purge result.
Fixed an instance of players losing progress due to slow storage write speeds.
Fixed bug where Elite BGM plays if you load into a reward screen (post-combat).
Fixed issue where Common Sense achievement was not triggering correctly.
Fixed issue where loading saves would modify source relics rather than copies.
Fixed issue where playing cost X cards quickly after energy gain cards failed. Offering -> Whirlwind
Fixed issue where relics looked tiny in Run History screen.
Fixed issue where the game could crash when arriving at a boss under certain circumstances.
Game data now loads attempts to load a backup if the main save is corrupt.
You can no longer select/click things while the game is fading out during Save & Quit.

UI and Effects

Increased size of 'Take All' button asset for localization and Button UI purposes.
Confirm -> Confirm Card for Input Settings.
Drop Card -> Release Card for Input Settings.
Master Deck -> View Deck for Input Settings.
Updated description on Bronze Scales to match Liquid Bronze and other similar relics.
PNG compression for large size card portraits. Reduces disk space usage.
Removing 5 unused assets (buttons and misc UI). Reduces disk space usage.

Localization

Added shop assets for RUS.
Updates for DEU, FRA, ITA, JPN, KOR, RUS, SRB, SRP, UKR, ZHS, and ZHT.

An official soundtrack is coming soon!

May 24, 2018

Weekly Patch 26: Controller Support Testing

Slay the Spire - Dinosaurs

Hey everyone,

This week we continued to work on controller support and character 3. You'll see that controller support is now available in the beta branch! Also, more content is going into Act 3 so players in the beta branch may start seeing changes as we test out new enemies, events, etc.

Controller Survey

For those interested in helping out with controller support, filling out this short survey will be a great help.

Third Character

Next week!

Patch Notes

UI and Effects

Cleaning up some metrics code to improve performance.
Hovering menu items in the Main Menu is now more obvious.
Input Settings gets a Drop Card -> Release Card hotkey.
Now displaying Shop purchases in Run History.
Updating credits for Playtesters and UKR localization.

Bug Fixes

Entropic Potion now works properly with Potion Belt as intended.
Fixed issue where if you fail to match cards in the Card Match event, a card can stay large.
Post Combat Save no longer cause enemy power icons to flash on continue.
Post Combat Saves were incorrectly altering the enemies that would appear next.

Localization

Shop assets are now localized in UKR.
Updates for DEU, ITA, JPN, UKR, ZHS, ZHT.