Greetings Mages! In this week’s update, we’re breaking down the pricing structure for the purchasable stuff that will launch in Tales of Fablecraft once we hit Early Access this summer. Before we get into the details, I want to make two notes.
First, prices will be lower while we’re in Early Access.
Second… We’re still making a free-to-play game.
Fablecraft will launch with the complete five-session The Road to the Starfall Festival Adventure included for free. GMs can use the 130+ assets from that Adventure and custom uploads to homebrew their sessions, too.
Today, we’re answering a bunch of questions we routinely get about the cost of the extra cosmetics and Adventures.
Let's begin!
Meet the Marketplace, a work in progress
We’ll begin in the Marketplace. This screenshot represents a work in progress and features some temporary language, pricing, and features.
Those Mages among us with a lot of points in Perception may notice two things on that screenshot that we won’t talk about much today. First, the Unlock Content button on the bottom left will be where players can use a code to get content, whether that’s from a special at a convention or a giveaway online. Second, the Friends of Fablecraft button on the bottom right will allow players to support creators and small, local game shops that have worked with us to become partners. That second button won't be available at Early Access launch, but it'll be coming very soon.
Speaking of which, if you’re a local game shop and are interested, drop us a line on Discord. The idea here is that players can enter your unique code so that you get a portion of whatever is purchased. We’ll officially unveil this program down the line with details about how to sign up, but we hope this helps spread the word about our virtual TTRPG while supporting the stores that introduce us to some of our favorite games.
Okay, who needs to buy the pre-made Adventures?
This is a quick and easy one! Only the Game Master needs to own the Adventures in order to run them for players.
Some parties will want to pitch in to split the costs, while others will continue allowing their friends to pay the GM tax on their own. We don’t want to ruin your table’s dynamics! No shame!
How much will five-session Adventures cost?
Standard five-session Adventures will normally cost $19.99.
These Adventures will always include a complete Game Master Guide for running each session alongside a slew of original artwork, Battlemaps, NPCs, monsters, music, and soundscapes for GMs to use however they please… That includes homebrew and, of course, improvising once their party veers wildly off course.
Two paid, five-session Adventures will be available in the Marketplace once we hit Early Access: The House in the Manor and Murder on the Tipsy Pearl. We’ll be adding more of our original Adventures over time!
What types of cosmetics will Fablecraft offer, and how much will they cost?
Two key cosmetics will be sold in Fablecraft: Dice Skins and Player Token Skins. They will each normally cost $2.99 separately or $4.99 when purchased as a pack of two.
Here's what the Dice and Token Skin section of the Marketplace looks like right now as a work in progress.
We love these cosmetics and think they’re a great way for players to express themselves when rolling and in battle. We’re really excited to grow the slate of options as time goes on. Personally, I want loads more Dice Skins.
We may offer other cosmetics down the line, but this is all we have planned for now.
What about discounts? Packs? One-shots? Future content and subscriptions?
The Dice and Player Token Skin packs are a great example of how the Packs will work. We’ll bundle similar items together and offer them at a discount when you buy them as a group. So, instead of spending $5.98 for the Long Meadows Dice and Long Meadows Token separately, we’ll offer them as a pack that goes for $4.99.
We’ll also have things discounted over time, but we haven’t decided when and how those sales will start. They may be during seasonal events or tied to Steam sales. Just know that checking the Marketplace occasionally is probably smart, as things will be discounted.
We also intend to release some special one-shot Adventures (one of which is in production right now). These one-shots will work just like standard Adventures, but they’ll be shorter and cost less. We’re planning to launch the first one-shot later this year for $9.99, and it’ll come with a ready-to-run GM Guide and a host of new assets, NPCs, battlemaps, story scenes, and more.
Finally, the planned subscription. At launch, we won’t have a subscription available. However, as GMs get in and start homebrewing campaigns, we intend to offer a subscription to offset server costs. All GMs will get 100 MB of free storage for their homebrew needs. The subscription will be available to remove that cap.
Down the line, that subscription may include extra perks, but we haven’t gotten there yet in development. As for the price of the subscription? That’s undecided as well. We’re looking to keep it as inexpensive as possible, and we’ll share the price as we get closer to launching the subscription service.
That’s it for the Marketplace and the initial pricing plans for those Fablecraft goodies. If you have any questions, you can always comment on this post or hop into our Discord to chat with other players and our team.
We’ll see you in Mythas very soon, Mages! Don’t forget to add Fablecraft to your Steam Wishlist!
Hey everyone, the first bigger update is here! Let's dive right in! :)
ENDLESS MODE
If you beat a Crawl or Delve run, you can now choose to keep going on the game end screen. Each level into endless will raise the stakes by adding additional enemies and generating harder layouts, but on top of it an ever-increasing enemy damage multiplier is introduced, making it especially tricky to survive not clearing all enemies with your initial set of shots.
Let me know if you find issues or have feedback on this big new addition! How far can you go? How many items does it take for the game to break? (Probably quite literally, but that's part of the fun... right? :D)
NEW ITEM: STOP SHOT
Some players found themselves wishing for more post-shot control, and Stop Shot is here to help. With this item, if you aim at an enemy straight on you will stop in place after hitting it. The maximum angle is 5° with one copy of the item but can be multiplied by stacking it. The collision prediction will also show a stop sign if your angle is in range to make sure you can reliably plan around the stopping effect.
NEW ENEMY: FLOATY
This balloon-carrying enemy slows down a little quicker than your typical monster ball, but also introduces a new kind of “defeat method prioritization” gameplay. If you try to send it into a hole, it will spend its balloons to return as a Normy enemy. Other methods of defeat will take care of it immediately though, so you better plan carefully where you send it!
NEW RUN MODIFIERS
These new modifiers will now be able to show up in Daily and Wild runs!
Positive: There is a 10% chance for a gem to spawn each turn.
Negative: Take 1 damage when you pick up the first coin or gem in a level.
Neutral: Mini balls are bigger.
The Gang just got scary... 👀
BALANCING
With one exception, the item changes are all buffs of weaker or very random and/or situational items to hopefully make them more generally useful and pickable.
Beanstalk now gives 10 gold (instead of 5). Reasoning: Rocky enemies add quite a bit of risk and usually mean you have to at least take a couple shots and / or hits more which almost negated the gold gain already.
Clumsy Trade now gives 3 (instead of 2) random items. Reasoning: Random items are random and therefore not worth as much as deliberate picks, especially if you’re lacking “mass item” synergy. Plus, losing a random item that might be more important after the level is a considerable downside (unless you’re in the last level, which previously was arguably the only decent spot to pick this item, now there should be a few more, especially “Hail Mary”, situations where it could make sense).
Make ‘Em Count now increases the price of buying shots by 20 per copy you own. Reasoning: Since the price of an additional shot is based on how many max shots you have, it was too easy to counter the downside of the item (buy just cheaply buying back 1-2 shots) while making full use of the huge power potential gained through its upside in the long run. Sometimes this could even render higher difficulty runs mostly no-brainers. Now playing around the downside (by e.g. buying shots first and then picking up the item after) should lead to more interesting decisions.
Money Is Power now triggers per 8 gold spent (instead of 10). Reasoning: The power level of this item was just a bit underwhelming in general and it required too much spending to really be worth it, especially on higher difficulties where gold is usually pretty tight.
Parasite now makes an enemy shoot at the closest other enemy (instead of in a random direction). Reasoning: Fully random mini ball shots can be kind of fun and chaotic but didn’t really help the reliability of the item. Now it’s much more likely to result in enemies dunking one another. Fun? :D
Patience now grants you 10 gold on top of its other effects. Reasoning: This should make it a little more attractive to pick (or randomly receive) the item earlier in a run, while it previously was really mostly just viable when already in the last level.
Rack now grants 2 gold (instead of 1) per defeated Normy enemy. Reasoning: The risk the item introduces of adding additional enemies is quite scary to take on, and high risk should come with high reward.
Raging Bull now also gives 5% shot power. Reasoning: Just making the item more of a certain net positive (and a little more flavorful). Its effect, while generally useful on its own, can be tricky to assign value to as a player.
Spike Shield now works 2 times each level per copy you own. Reasoning: While it could very situationally be more useful than Impaler (that just grants you the rotating spikes on level start), those moments were so rare that it was usually just a flat-out worse pick. Therefore, more rotating spikes!
Wild Ball now shoots a mini ball with triple speed. Reasoning: This gives the item more identity (when compared with other mini ball items), makes it more flavorful (it’s “wild” indeed now), and also makes up for the randomness of its targeting with more potential. If you’re afraid of dunking yourself by the way, make sure to grab those Guard Balls!
Toxy enemies are now defeated when hit by mini balls. Reasoning: Toxy is a pretty feared enemy, but it's really fun to figure out ways to get rid of it without taking damage, such as hitting other enemies into it to push it into a hole or timing your rotating spikes right. This adds another option in the form of mini ball assassins!
MISC
Added option to swap left/right mouse buttons to aim and shoot.
Small Steam Deck improvements (game is "verified" now, yay).
Improved wording of a few items.
Lots of minor fixes.
Phew, that was quite a bit! I hope you find something to enjoy about this new update. Once again, thank you so much for the continued support, feedback and reviews that allow me to work on this game more, I love every minute! ❤️
Finally, as always, if you'd like to get in touch about bugs, feedback or suggestions please do so via the comments below, the Steam forums or the Discord! Rest assured I read every post!
All the best and have fun, Fabian
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P.S. Speedrunning Tutorial!
I have to add one final shoutout! Just as I was working on these patch notes, speedrunner extraordinaire SatanHerself dropped a super comprehensive speedrunning tutorial on YouTube including a detailed companion guide document! I'm amazed and honored to see this kind of dedication (and also the runs are super fun to watch)! ːsteamhappyː
Run your very own shop and attract customers to sell your crafted items. You set the price, but beware: there's a supply and demand system in place. While it's easy to spread your shop's influence and gain fame, it can also drop quickly if your customers are unhappy.
Find and reuse old furnitures buried in the ground throughout Quidland and customize your shop to your heart's content.
Furniture not only makes your shop more attractive but also boosts your customers' moods, making them more generous with their wallets.
Haggle system: Don't worry if you overpriced your items; many customers are willing to haggle. Negotiate the best price while keeping customers happy.
The demands for items constantly change from day to day, so you'll need to adapt.
There was a few bug fixes and improvements as well, but I got too involved in development and didn't write it down, so I don't know what it was anymore. ːlunar2019crylaughingpigː
Future plans for the Shop (for later update):
Get ready for some friendly competition! Competing stores will challenge you to become the best in the region. Can you rise to the top and make the most profit from your crafted items?
Get ready for some competition! Beat all the other blacksmith stores from the region.
Brace yourselves for random events that shake up the supply and demand system, affect competitive stores, and even sway the attitudes of your customers. Adaptability is key to success!
Participate in mini-competitions and launch shop advertisements to attract more customers and increase your revenue.
I know that even with the shop the game loop needs more interesting elements and I will add more that's for sure! The next big update will be the Hazard update which will bring interesting elements to the mining process. I want it more difficult and fun. There will be also more stuffs to spend the money for! I really want to make TerraForge more enjoyable so you guys can have more fun and hopefully it takes you away from the stress of everyday life, that's my goal :)
Thank you everyone for the patience and support; You all are truly awesome!
Features: - Shop items will now no longer contain duplicates - Projectile Count stat now correctly applied - Damage numbers are now shown in color of the element that the damage is * - Dash visualization - Camera shake when taken damage - (Mini)bosses now no longer teleport when far from the player - Adventure finished screen now shows weapons in descending DPS - Removed health drops from (Mini)bosses as there is not time to pick these up
Fixes: - Added background music on adventure failed - Fixed canvas issues (talent tree lines + controller in menu) - Fixed Inferno Blade only hitting to the right - Fixed icons in tooltip and stat overview being different - Fixed items/weapons/bags not shown on top of other UI items when dragging - Fixed HP bar of endboss staying empty - Fixed knockback defense not always working - Fixed loot being scaled to the same scale as the enemy dropping items - Fixed adventure rewards not being reset when starting a new game
Balancing: - Magic Wand - Min damage 5 (was 1) - Max damage 10 (was 2)
Happy first anniversary to Herald of Havoc! To celebrate this special occasion, I'm releasing a new patch containing major visual upgrades, enhanced sound effects, a new enemy type for survival mode, and an entirely new level! I hope you'll enjoy it :) - Zeldars
New:
- Added a little bit of spice in E3M4 - Cursed Town - Added a new enemy in survival mode (more info in the survival section) - Added a new level: the Military Zone
This level will replace the current E1M2, the latter is still playable in the "Extra Levels" menu
Improvements:
- Weapons got a visual update! Here's some examples for comparison (new visuals are on the right):
- All enemies got a visual update! Again, here are some comparisons:
- Some levels got a visual update and E1M1's gameplay has been tweaked a little bit - You can now visibly see the guards holding the keys in E3M1 - Hide and Seek - Lower tier enemies now have more sound effects when killed - Bullet based weapons sound more impactful when hitting enemies - You can now delete a save file by pressing 'Del' on the keyboard - You can now visibly see cracks on Skeleton, Metal Colossus, and drone when they are badly damaged
Survival mode:
- Endless mode renamed to Survival mode - Added a new special enemy for survival mode: The Unstable drone!
It's like a regular drone... except it explodes when killed, dealing big damage to enemies while you don't take any damage from its explosion! It's like a flying explosive barrel. Enemies hit by the explosion take full damage regardless of the distance between them and the explosion
Balance changes:
- Metal Colossus's homing projectiles now disappear a little bit faster
Bug fixes:
- Fixed the jump keybind not being rebindable - Fixed a bug where you could pick up an health pickup while at 100 HP - Fixed a bug in E3M4 where entering the pool of blood would sometimes make you bounce - Fixed a bug where the Shotgun's muzzle flash would stay on forever
New Features: - Added a green room before the game starts, where characters get to know each other and share their impressions before the upcoming game - Added a white outline for characters
Bug fixes: - (null) should no longer appear in the pack description - If the choice text in a multiple choice question is empty, the button with the option to vote for that choice no longer appears - More explicit error message when something goes wrong with the AI host is now being displayed - If you delete a sound while it's playing in the constructor, it will now stop correctly - If you move a theme from normal to final in the constructor, you can no longer add more than 1 question to it - Final question now works with an AI host - If there are less than 3 players (2 or 1), the pedestal is now displayed correctly - Other fixes and improvements
This Friday, June 28, 2024, we will release a patch that will add requested features and fix several issues.
Addition of Key Customization
Thanks to some players, we realized that players with a QWERTY keyboard could not play properly and likely thought the game was not working. To address this, we have integrated the option to customize action keys in the settings.
We have not reassigned everything yet, so even after changing a key, the images in the player interfaces will not be updated. We will fix this in a future update.
Addition of Mouse Sensitivity
We have also added the ability to change mouse sensitivity because many of you told us it was too sensitive.
Fixes
We have fixed the general intelligence of the creatures.
We have fixed the issue where you passed through the scenery on the tropical island.
We have fixed the inventory duplication.
We have fixed the food system that removed everything except the selected food.
We have fixed the campfire placing a workbench instead of a campfire.
We have fixed the issue of duplicate unlocked crafts.
We thank you for your mostly positive feedback. We continue to evolve the game and hope to satisfy you with each update.
As stated in the previous patch, we will not release another fix for a while. If you encounter a bug, it will be fixed in version 1.1.0 which should be released at the end of July.