The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker

26 Απριλίου

Content Update - The Squallstone Keep

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Hail, medieval adventurers!

Today we’re introducing a fresh content update, The Squallstone Keep, which brings to the game ‘The Barbarian Raids’ end-game challenge and a massive player home, as well as other features and improvements based on your feedback!

Quick overview:

The prior barbarian ambushers roaming Amarien's Foothills have been repurposed into a new minigame!
A short new quest has been added to Amarien's Foothills, centered around the lore of a long-lost mountain castle and its overlord, a menacing ogre baron causing chaos in the region.
Completing the quest unlocks a repeatable minigame, where defeating increasingly challenging groups of enemies roaming the mountains earns unique rewards - including a new castle home, powerful weapons, abilities, and plenty of unique and functional furniture!
Accessing Thornhill trainers no longer requires leveling all skills; the academy quest has been modified to support this; it is instead optional, granting a new, additional reward in the form of a unique Thornhill fast travel network upon completion.
Easily switch around trainer traits with choices - you're no longer locked into your initial decision on a playthrough.
Improved modding support through code cleanup and easier access to game files.
Lots of new unlockable fast travel options to ease traversing the map!

New Quest: The Squallstone Keep

Starting location

Amarien's Foothills, North Barracks

Quest length

Short

At the barracks on the northern side of Bulwark Cliff stands a tragic old figure. Sir Taron Rimeholt, the last remaining Baron of Amarien's Mountains, commands the men. Long ago his family lost their seat of power, the great Squallstone Keep, to the raiding barbarian clans...

Since then the castle has received a new master - the self-proclaimed 'Big Baron', whom Sir Rimeholt never managed to dislodge. But perhaps now, after all the decades, a brave new adventurer might come along, present a challenge to the decadent lord of the keep, and reignite the hope of restoration of the castle's former glory!

Completing the quest unlocks the Barbarian Raids minigame; once active, the ogre baron's raiders begin roaming the wilderness, only presenting a stronger threat with each defeat they suffer. Maintain your kill streak to earn progressively better rewards, though beware! If you suffer a defeat yourself, or are forced to retreat after initiating a fight, your running tally will reset!

Track your progress easily via the on-screen display, and periodically claim your rewards at one of tally boards, located at either barracks near the mountain village, or the castle itself. The boards are also where you may toggle the minigame on/off, as you please.

You'll find the barbarian raid groups are also marked with a skull on the minimap, making it easier to engage them, or perhaps to avoid them in the event you need to make it to safety to claim your rewards.

Earn unique furnishings - such as many forms of teleporters - a powerful new sword, spells, and an upgraded backpack. After conquering a fair few raiders, you may unlock the majestic three-floor Squallstone Keep as your personal home!

As you reach the end of the meaningful tally, you will face the big ogre baron once and for all...

The Squallstone Keep, which may be unlocked as a personal home throughout the raiders minigame.

A brand new achievement may be earned for overcoming the threat of barbarian raiders and placing a banner, signifying your victory, to fly high at the top floor of the castle!

Trainers & Traits

We've now successfully uncoupled the quest requirement at Thornhill's Academy to access the Thornhill trainers, while still keeping the quest as a relevant, optional challenge in the game.

The trainers may now be accessed on an individual basis as you reach relevant levels in the skills they represent. While the Academy quest is no longer required to this end, it will now provide a new, additional reward in the form of a unique fast travel network within the city.

Also, by popular request, you can now freely switch between trainer traits that present a choice! Just open the trainer UI and choose a different trait for a small coin cost - no more being locked into your first choice.

This was an important one to knock out, a carry-over from earlier development days when we felt more inclined to include permanent choices in the game.

Modding

For those who are technically inclined and interested in modding, we've taken some steps to make the game easier to modify. To recap from our earlier blog, we decided to take steps by removing code obfuscation, cleaning up the codebase, and exposing important game data as easily modifiable files (such as items, shops, NPCs, dialogue, quests, interactions, and NPC/Loot spawn locations). These changes are now rolling out along with this game update.

You may edit the existing data files or add your own to include extra content, expanding the game however you like. While we're in no position to provide full modding tools or official support, we’d like to do what we can, at the very least, to not stand in the way of modding aspirations.

We've also opened a new modding channel on our Discord server (link below), where you can discuss ideas, ask questions, or chat with others. We devs may occasionally drop by to help or say hello, though we're often quite busy, but we'll try to pop in when we can!

Other things...

In an effort to continue enlivening the game world and especially small villages, this time the village of Grainwater has had its turn in receiving some new background npc interactions.

On the other hand, a new alchemy trait grants you the Blightpowder ability, which is used to poison foes so that any healing effects they receive are severely less effective. An excellent tool against barbarian raid groups with healers!

These and other minor changes, improvements and fixes will be accompanying the latest game update.

Would you care for merch...?

We’re excited to announce a limited stock of handcrafted resin statuettes of Opticus Aluminar, now available for purchase on Etsy! They’re made by a local artist connected to our team, with careful attention to detail.

Purchasing the game really is the best way to support our work in general, but for those who have felt inclined to tip our dev team, this is now an avenue for it while also getting something cool in return.

We'll also include two Steam keys for Cursebreaker alongside every purchase, to share the adventure with friends!

Here's some additional detailed description of the statuettes:

"A handcrafted statuette of Opticus Aluminar from The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker video game, wearing a merchant outfit and holding a focusing crystal.

The main character encounters Opticus, an artisan and a merchant, as he searches for a focusing crystal for magic at the behest of a powerful necromancer. Acquiring the focusing crystal does not turn out to be as simple as expected, however, as the workshop of Opticus has been ransacked and the man himself captured by a local menace – Hubert the Axe.

My goal was to design a piece that honored the game's medieval adventure atmosphere, both through the character's costume and personality."

Please follow this link if you're interested in learning more:
https://www.etsy.com/fi-en/listing/1903813177/the-black-grimoire-cursebreaker

Edit: Thanks for giving us feedback regarding the shipping costs, which seem very high to various locations and especially to the US. We'll look into this and keep you updated on whether we'll manage to arrange for a cheaper shipping company. Also, if your country does not appear on the shipping list, you can send a message through Etsy and ask - we should be able to deliver to any country but the shipping costs may vary.

Finnish Game Awards Nomination

As we're a small Finland-based team, we’re happy to share that The Black Grimoire: Cursebreaker has been nominated for Finnish Game of the Year 2024 at the Finnish Game Awards 2025!

The event will be live-streamed on May 13th and you can check out the other games also nominated via the link above.

What's upcoming?

We still remain committed to delivering free updates for the game for now. We have quite a large backlog of bug reports and feedback - thanks for sending them in! - and we'll be addressing it as best we're able. Additionally, here are a few points we discussed in our prior dev blog, which didn't make it into this update but continue to be on our agenda.

We've seen that some players mistakenly believe the Bandit Fortress is part of the main quest and end up tackling it too early, often feeling overwhelmed. The change we discussed in the previous dev blog; modifying the quest to contain an extra step with something to do in Thornhill, to better guide the players along the intended main quest path.
At least one more content update is planned, likely focused on high-level quests in the 50–100 range. We’re not ready to share any details yet - but let’s just say, what kind of medieval adventure doesn’t have a good old dragon slayer quest?

With that it's time to wish you all happy adventuring!

Pura

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