Warriors, Delvers, Plunderers, and Heroes,

We are sad to announce that Labyrinth will be shutting down in September of 2019. We have made the difficult decision to move in a different direction and will no longer be supporting the game in its current form.

We are incredibly grateful to all Labyrinth players that have joined us on this journey over the last five years. It has been an honor and a joy to be able to make the game that we wanted to play, and share it with such a wonderful community. As a way of saying thank you, everything in game is now free so you can build your ultimate decks and show Starfall what you’re made of.

And, as you fight your way through Starfall once last time, keep your eyes peeled. You never know where Korghan and his band will show up again!

For questions or concerns, please write to labyrinth-support@freerangegames.com.

• User names of players now display a rank with badge based on performance in the Labyrinth
  
• Space bar now skips through conversations
  
• Rewards will now be split into multiple chests of no more than 5 per chest to prevent overflowing on screen
  
• Card tooltips in the deck editor and in the store are now centered and larger

• Hero and Boss Health numbers on the status panel of the Zone map were not including equipped Perks in the calculation in some circumstances
  
• Card pack rewards now have keys displayed

• No PvP until the Labyrinth: Boss battles in Northgate and Smithstone are now exclusively against AI Bosses and player Bosses will only be raided by Minions
  
• Enemies that affect the Boss but do not depend on them for value have been added back to PvE fights for Heroes and Bosses
  
• Structures that do not depend on the Boss for value have been added back to PvE fights
  
• Hero PvE fights in Labyrinth now occur 20% more often
  
• Escape the Eye has been rebalanced to only 3 points more Lair than Lost in the Labyrinth, but the reward has been reduced to only double Lost in the Labyrinth
  
• A third Hero PvE, Ritual of Reflection, now occurs once per Labyrinth exploration after enough progress without returning to the Lair and rewards a Token
  
• Repeatable Hero PvE fights now have a Doom Clock like Boss fights
  
• Wounds now vary by Zone with rarity increasing along with progress

• Consumable items earned while offline by Bosses were not being delivered to the Lair stash
  
• There was an unintended limit to the amount of re-exploration in Northgate and Smithstone that was causing the game to hang after Victory for some players

• Bag of Endless Things now costs 1 Tick to equip instead of 2
  
• Precision Strike now costs 3 Ticks instead of 2 and deals 5 damage instead of 3
  
• Gunshot now deals 6 damage instead of 5
  
• Thief's Meddling now deals 4 damage to non-Structures instead of 3
  
• Carve now costs 4 Ticks instead of 3 and deals 7 damage instead of 5
  
• Penetrating Shot now deals 6 damage instead of 5 or 8 damage instead of 7 when Amped
  
• Aim from Within now deals 3 damage instead of 2
  
• Longshot now deals 3 damage instead of 2
  
• Seeker's Dagger now takes 2 Ticks to equip instead of 3
  
• Kill Shot now deals 8 damage instead of 7
  
• Heartseeker now costs 2 Ticks to equip instead of 4, but 3 Ticks to use instead of 2
  
• Mastercraft Jezail now deals 8 damage instead of 7 or 10 damage instead of 9 if full move remains
  
• Leaden Javelin now deals 4 damage instead of 3
  
• Crush of Boulders now deals 6 damage instead of 5, 8 damage at 5 Focus, 10 damage instead of 8 at 10 Focus
  
• Conjurer's Hex now deals 4 damage instead of 3
  
• Pyretic Missile now deals 10 damage instead of 9
  
• Stonespear now deals 5 damage instead of 4, 7 Piercing damage instead of 6 Piercing at Focus 5
  
• Cracking Rift now deals 5-8 damage instead of 4-7
  
• Blazing Rift now costs 3 Ticks instead of 5 and either gain 2 Focus or deal 6 damage instead of 3 Focus or 9 damage
  
• Ice Spike now deals 6 damage instead of 5
  
• Freezing Blast now only targets characters to prevent waste on Structures
  
• Cascade of Stone now deals 2 damage instead of increasing damage

• Some Hero cards that have immediate effect and Blast area were not usable when the only target in range had Stealth
  
• Boss Windup cards with area effect were not finishing when only target in range at end of Windup had Stealth
  
• Astral Batteries were inconsistently triggering relative to Boss timing on the same Tick instead of acting first

• Chain Lightning damage was only doing 3 damage per target with more than one target instead of 6 per target

• Leg Wound is now Rare not Common (Smithstone or Labyrinth)
  
• Severe Bruise is now named "Stitched Wound" (Rare, All Zones)
  
• Major Wound is now Epic not Rare (Labyrinth)
  
• Dazed "You start your next battle 1 Tick late." (Common, All Zones)
  
• Broken Arm "Your Guard doesn't gain Armor" (Rare, Labyrinth)
  
• Confused "You start each battle with 1 less card in hand." (Epic, Labyrinth)

* Card Pack Rewards are missing their model in the reward display
* Mac users may experience floating cards in hand, can be worked around by hovering over and out of each card


* Boss v Minion raids were not showing up in Replays
* Card Unlock and Card Pack Rewards were not providing notifications
* Consumable items were being moved from Hero inventory to Lair stash on Hero death
* Dupes filter in collection view was not dealing with Stack 2 Perks properly
* Players could not buy or equip Skins for Heroes
* Hero cards on mouse hover in Collection and Lair were off-screen




* Quests turned back on and heavily revised
* Orb drops on enemy death now last for 7 ticks before disappearing instead of 5
* Bosses will now spend one Boost Perk worth of Boost per PvP raid instead of just one Boost
* Players will now purchase each Perk worth of Boost with one click of Starstone button in Lair and be unable to click button with less than that amount of Starstone
* Random Minion raids reduced to 10 or fewer Minions, none of which are Boss-dependent for value
* Hero v Minion raids have been rebalanced to be closer in difficulty to PvP raids
* Hero v Minion raids have been added to Labyrinth, taking place in any Lair except your Boss Lair, with appropriate Minions
* Boss v Minion raids in Labyrinth now take place in your Boss Lair and exclude enemy minions with the same traits as your Boss
* Ancient Treasure has been removed from the Labyrinth and replaced by hard mode Hero v Minion raids with a variable number available per map and bigger aggregate rewards




* Rohin's passive was giving full move on orb pick up even when he had a leg wound - Judgement of Urix kicker was healing Structures instead of only characters
* Fire From Ashes could not discard consumable loot items
* Crushing Blow, Lead the Charge, and Earthspike were wasting when only available target had Stealth
* Death Blossom was not preventing repeat hits on same targets


* Defend the Mine is no longer a Windup and Mine Securitrons now have Piercing and 3 Health instead of 2
* Pounce now causes Bleeding in Blast 1 instead of dealing damage in Blast 2
* Steel Sentries now have Range 4 instead of 7 - Bronze Captain now has 4 Attack, 9 Health, and 1 Armor instead of 5 Attack, 10 Health and 2 Armor
* Boss instants will now be played first when in Boss hand to prevent not being played before reshuffle on empty deck




* Star Stamina is now +5 Health instead of +2 Health
* Star Soul is now "Your first non-Channel card costs 1 less." instead of +3 Health
* Minor Wounds are now -1 Health instead of -2
* Leg Wounds now only last for one battle and don't occur in Northgate
* Potion of Strength is now +2 damage on next melee attack this turn instead of +1
* Potion of Accuracy is now +2 damage on next ranged attack this turn instead of +1
* Scroll of Arcane Blast now does 5 damage instead of 3 in Blast 2 instead of 1 and costs 2 Ticks instead of 1
* Scroll of Lightning Bolt now does 6 damage instead of 3
* Scroll of Chain Lightning now does 6 damage per target instead of 3
* Scroll of Protection now gives 2 Armor instead of 1 and costs 2 Ticks instead of 1
* Scroll of Stasis now adds 3 Ticks instead of 2
* Scroll of Firebreathing now does 5 damage instead of 4 in Cone 7 instead of 4
* Scroll of Restoration now restores 7 Health to each friendly character instead of 2 and removes 2 Ticks from each instead of 1, but costs 2 Ticks instead of 1




* The art team created more card art; modeled All Matter Golem; skinned Faydin; worked on Mayan dragon concept; and created idle animation for Faydin.
* The audio team created map music triggers; looked for missing audio; and worked on music for Landing and Map.
* The design team worked on scenario art; plus worked on balance and keyword revisions.
* The engineering team worked on bug fixes and the back button from battle.

The Adventure update improved the amount of engaging fun players are having, and it's a move in the right direction according to many of you. Here are some of the results:

* Daily players almost doubled
* Logins more than doubled
* Encounters played increased nearly 300%
* Encounters/Login is greater than 5, more than doubling
* The Discord server went from a trickle to having hundreds of posts a day




Thank you very much to all the players helping us find bugs and giving us feedback on what to improve. We couldn't have made it this far without you. We have also been getting a lot of positive comments from players on the Adventure Update. Thank you all so much for your kind words. Here is a selection of a few of them.

"Holy that looks fresh" ~Shogun

"I just started and have to say that the polish and animation between scenes is amazing. Lots of work was put into this I see." ~Portensio

"I really like the new update, you guys have added so much! The story is fun to play through so far (just finished the prologue)." ~Platinum

"The story intro's are excellent and I'm not a new player so I can't tell for sure but I think integrating the them with or as the tutorial is a pretty brilliant move." ~tuckboat

"I adore the new update, thank you! Really getting to see Starfall live and breathe for the first time!" ~holy_darkness




If you haven't yet, please take a moment and write a Steam review. It will really help Labyrinth.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/412310/Labyrinth/




Is there a reason to hoard gold anymore? No, buy card packs with your gold and disenchant your duplicates to get Stardust to buy the specific cards, heroes, and bosses that you want. You no longer need to worry about "do I save my gold for card packs or heroes?" Most recent active players in the last week have realized this and approximately 500 players (2.5% of all registered accounts) have opened over 20% of the unopened card packs in the entire economy that have been mounting up since last July. We will reset accounts when we exit Early Access and will refund any card packs bought.

Where do I buy card packs with my gold? It's in the Store under Combo Packs. We'll make it more obvious in the next patch.

Why should I play in the Labyrinth zone? The Labyrinth is the competitive PvP zone, replacing the old Casual mode. We will expand on what this zone is all about in an upcoming update, but for now there is a treasure hidden in a random location. Every time you go back to your Lair, the Labyrinth resets. So you can hunt for the treasure again and again. You also have to make the decision, do I battle on wounded or do I return to my Lair to heal, restock on consumables, boost my Boss, and edit decks?

Are the Bosses in Northgate and Smithstone AI bosses? In most cases no. Whenever there is a good match for you, you are matched against a real person's boss deck. When there isn't a match available, the game defaults back to a random AI boss. Now with hundreds of players playing, it isn't that common.

Can I go back a replay a prior Zone? Yes! You will have to adjust your decks for the new star cost but the boss fights there reset and some of the PvE scenarios reset too, so you can play at the difficulty level that your collection allows.

Vann died! For both Lavella and Renna tutorials, we gave the heroes companions to indicate that the heroes are not meant to be on the front line fighting.




Over the past few weeks including this week, when not debugging and trying to launch the Adventure update and next week's patch, we were working on the following tasks:

The art team completed UVs for Smithstone tiles; created 2D maps; improved reward screen; skinned dialog characters; completed normal mapping for Smithstone tiles; created Vann dialog protrait; completed masks and fake ambient occlusion for Smithstone tiles; created concept art for card pack keys; created key models; created more card art; card pouch; created key model textures; created Medallion; modeled pouch; worked on Starfall Map; and modeled All Matter Golem.

The audio team added sounds to map scenes and store; revised music; investigated licensing new music; recorded Korghan VO; and added sounds for rewards.

The design team added onboarding tips; integrated dialog characters and Bladey map; tweaked tutorials; completed store art pass; worked on new Pyro tutorial; Completed major pyro overhaul; colored and lit boss loadout scene; designed and implemented store features; hooked up maps; worked on story and map art; added card pack rewards; added Welcome screen; filled in some art holes; and created skin for mech scorp.

The engineering team worked on Starting UI flow; fixed bugs; worked on moving Deck Builder into map; added boss deck edit tips; worked on rewards logic; added migration scripts for update; made card pack changes in store; worked on letting players see unlocked zones immediately; undertook client side room unification; hooked up 3D rewards; custom feature bundle, safety checks, free heroes in store; fixed Quest screens; and added analytics for map screen.




We put pencils down yesterday and are starting to QA a patch to release next week that will address some of the major issues and known bugs in the Adventure Update. Among the fixes will be:

* Turn on New Quest System
* Card Unlock and Card Pack Rewards were not providing notifications
* Consumable items were being moved from Hero inventory to Lair stash on Hero death
* Players could not buy or equip Skins for Heroes
* Hero cards on mouse hover in Collection and Lair were off-screen
* Boss v Minion raids were not showing up in Replays
* Several game play revisions
* Some rebalancing




Daily quests are the primary way to earn gold in Labyrinth. The new Quest system has been redesigned to make your choice of quest more meaningful. Like before, each day you will be given a quest and can have up to three active. But now, you will be presented with three quests to choose from and the ones that you do not pick will go up in value for the next day, so you can choose to delay a quest until it has the right effort/reward ratio for you. We have also rewritten some of the quests themselves based on player feedback.

If this system works better than before, we will continue to refine it and add new quests. Please consider it a 2nd draft and let us know what you think of it.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/412310/Labyrinth/

Embark on a new adventure through the city of Starfall on a quest to find the entrance of the Labyrinth. Enjoy a new expanded story as you explore the mysterious and dangerous streets of Northgate and Smithstone. While your heroes are away, protect your Lair with your Boss against would-be interlopers!


Improved progression. Your Heroes and Bosses move to each new zone together, and gain in power as they do so. Stars are tied to your location, and no longer gained with level. Level still unlocks cards.

Adventure combines other modes. PvP and story content are woven into a single campaign. As you battle your way to the heart of the city, you encounter the Bosses of other players who are doing the same.

Simplified economy. Gold is now primarily used to buy card packs. Stardust is used to craft cards and buy Heroes and Bosses. Additional rewards along the journey to get to the Labyrinth. Hero Card Packs and Boss Card Packs have been added for real money purchase.

Quests temporarily disabled. A new quest system will be turned on in a patch in the couple weeks, as we get back to a regular cadence of updates. The additional rewards from the tutorial and Northgate, plus the reward at the end of the Labyrinth should more than compensate in the short term.

Please let us know what you like about the changes and any questions you may have. We will follow-up with another report next week.

Enjoy!

Free Range Games

P.S.


* Quests have been temporarily turned off while we finish refining the new Quest system
* Consumable items in Hero inventory are being moved back to the Lair stash upon Hero death
* If you leave the adventure map with your Heroes on your Lair, but don't Return to Lair, when you hit Play to return to game you will pass through the Lair but not cure Wounds or respawn empty map locations until you go to map and hit Return to Lair
* Card pack rewards and, in some cases, card unlocks are being granted but reward notifications for them are not appearing
* Dupes filter in deck editing includes 2nd copies of Stack 2 Perks
* Some UI elements move out of place in certain menus on multiple viewings of the same screen
* Scrolling Heroes and Bosses in the store isn't intuitive New icons are disabled on new cards added to Collection


* Kylee's passive ability was unnecessarily restricting draw with a full hand to replace the triggering Ranged Attack card played
* Whetstone was not adding "Draw a card." to Acuminate text
* Spiked Vambrace was only giving Counterstrike 1 not Counterstrike 3
* Crackling Tesseract could not be used actively, only passively
* Untamed Flames kicker could hit same target twice instead of second target
* Petrifusion with Phial of Smokestone was spending Molten Veins
* Walk the Mists was allowing teleport next to enemies
* Howl From Within was sometimes not appearing in the action feed
* Ember Hounds cards still had Volatile text on card inspect even when Ignited Hounds Perk had removed it
* Frozen Solid erroneously described as increasing Attack, but increases Armor
* Gravity Generator wasn't triggering on pick up of Defense Orb
* Blade of the Deathless was playing with no valid targets when only Hero had Stealth
* Crown of Vaylar was missing some Minion kills in its count


* Pickpocket now won't place drops on occupied spaces, but can be wasted if there are no empty spaces
* Relic of Ynoth now costs 3 stars instead of 4
* Necromotivator now costs 4 stars instead of 5
* Bloodborn Bracers now costs 4 stars instead of 5
* Mastery of the Ways now costs 4 stars instead of 5
* Coiled Dragon Technique is now 3 Tick Windup, 3 Piercing in Blast 2, 3 Armor during Windup, no Fury kicker
* Phial of Smokestone now costs 2 stars instead of 3
* Militant Monk now costs 2 stars instead of 1 and has speed 2 instead of 3
* Unstable Core now gives Frozen Sentinels "Last Words - Enemy characters in Blast 1 are Frozen."
* Power Slam is now Blast 2 not Cross 3
* Thundering Rage now won't be played without an adjacent enemy
* Zha, Which Eats the Sun now draws and plays Breath of the Sun instead of doing the equivalent as a default attack action

Since the last progress report we encountered a couple bad bugs that put us behind our desired schedule, but we've moved past them and in the process had the opportunity to rethink the onboarding flow and made a big change to the organization of the tutorial content to fit that better flow. Additionally, the team worked on the following.

The Art Team created more card art; modeled dialog characters, Engineering A & B characters, Smithstone tiles and others for Smithstone; colored all levels; post-processed color grading; completed the Church Entrance; created Shenjang map; created Boss map concept art; created UVs for Smithstone tiles; improved reward screen; and skinned dialog characters.

The Audio Team mixed music; improved transitions; created ambiences for all adventure levels, convo bubbles, and encounter sound.

The Design Team wrote Pyro tutorials; ​worked on loadout and chapter select ui​; tested tutorials​; researched streamers; created scenario art; added scrolls & potions art; rewrote Pyro tutorial; adjusted loadout scene and level unlocks; adjusted lighting; changed pyro flow, smithstones encounters, and PvE balance; integrated Smithstone map; revised Thief tutorial; added onboarding tips; revised progression and rewards spec.

The Engineering Team implemented migration code for update; optimized build; restored iOS build; implemented new analytics; updated store prices; added ​replay indicator; added code for PvE raids for tokens; descend room bug, new pyro unlock, tutorial auto-starts; and fixed starting way point.




We are going to spend more time on Twitter to liven things up a bit over there, so if you have an account, please follow @LabyrinthOracle and say hi. Please share any screenshots you think are cool. We'll like and retweet.




Still upcoming. Working to get the current internal build into testing. OK, it just went out before I could hit send on this progress report.

The images in the report are new art you will experience in your journey through the city of Starfall on your way to the Labyrinth.




Now that we have a new analytics system implemented, since the company providing the old one shut down, we are going to looking up fun stats every week and posting them on Discord and Twitter. If you would like to request something, let us know.

⚔️ Slowest Kills ⚔️ These players won their raids, killing the boss after the doom clock. KO420 managed to soak up more than 36 points of damage at the end and still survived!

In addition to cleaning up bugs to prepare for internal testing of the upcoming update, the team worked on the following tasks since the beginning of the year.

The art team created more card art, Smithstone street concepts, and dialog characters; modeled Thieves Guild's church entrance; baked lightmaps; worked on a new landing scene; completed an art pass on the Store, Pyro, and boss loadout galleries.

The audio team remixed music and added it to UI music.

The design team implemented Smithstone assets; revised tutorials and conversations; wrote fireheart and Pyro tutorials; completed other tutorial scenes; implemented Starfall prolog with bosses; updated analytics sheet; and verified Playfab against Steam revenue reports.

The engineering team implemented equipment showing on heroes in Store; updated currencies; polished Store/Chapter Select code; worked on UX flow and Chapter Zone select; converted damage numbers to use Text Mesh Pro; upgraded to Unity 2017; worked on network optimization and Elo matchmaking.




Labyrinth ended the competition in the Top 100. Thank you very much for voting and helping get the word out.




We are targeting the end of the month to release the update. There is lots of new code going into the game, so depending on issues we find, it could be later.

Thank you all for voting in the IOTY competition for 2017. Labyrinth made it into the Top 100 again and in popularity rank hovered around 20-60 throughout the month. Popularity rank does not directly correspond to voting. That's a pretty solid performance, but perhaps not enough to get Labyrinth into the Top 5 awards. We'll have to wait and see.

A big thank you to Skybound and The Walking Dead which helped promote Labyrinth in the competition too!




Like many people at this time of the year, we have been really busy trying to make as much progress as possible. It has only been a week and a half since the last progress report, but this is what we accomplished:

The art team worked on the Starfall world and Smithstone district map; made UVs and textures for Thieves Guild; worked on dialog art; baked gate pieces' textures; and worked on the Faydin model.

The design team designed initial and reward flows; created levelup rewards; assigned map tokens to rooms; fixed loadout UI; completed the Thief tutorials; created generic boss tutorial layout; created Beneath the Streets scene; developed Smithstone street concepts; Adolphus scene, Nexus art, Abandoned Mineshaft art pass; microtransaction analysis; and analytics spreadsheet optimization.

The engineering team completed Quests refactoring; completed zone end cinematic; worked on district/chapter select; added new quests; implemented District Selection; fixed overclocked bosses; plus, improved "new" indicator and added "new" and "surplus" card filters for Deck Builder.




The Labyrinth - Starter Pack is on sale for -25% during the Steam Winter Sale.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/641450/Labyrinth__Starter_Pack/



We will be taking a long overdue break next week to celebrate the holidays. So the next progress report may not come out until mid-January. Happy New Year!

Easy and quick!

http://www.indiedb.com/groups/2017-indie-of-the-year-awards/top100#vote45170

Thank you!

http://www.indiedb.com/groups/2017-indie-of-the-year-awards/top100#vote45170