Fire Spell VFX Tests

We've been talking a long time about the upcoming combat re-write, and while we don't have a specific release date for it yet, I thought I would share a behind-the-scenes look at how some of the VFX for some of the new fire spells are shaping up.

Any ideas on what you think these spells could be? Feel free to comment below with your ideas, and let us know what you think so far!

Fire Spell #1 VFX Test:

Fire Spell #2 VFX Test

Fire Spell #3 VFX Test

Fire Spell #4 VFX Test

Update #2: The Mage Tower Has Been Unleashed!

Hello fellow adventurers!

Our 2nd major content update is now available. We know many of you have been waiting for the Mage Tower, so we're very excited for today's release! Please see note below about previous game worlds and save files.

NEW:

• You can now buy land to build a mage tower from any town mayor

• Blueprints are now available to be purchased from the town mayor and conclave chapterhead

• Mage Towers can be built room-by-room using the new Mage Tower build mode

• Each room in your Mage Tower can serve a variety of functions, based on 12 different room types (listed below) and provides some extra storage to your tower.

• Bedroom - gives the option to Sleep and Treat Injuries (provided there is a Healer located in the town next to your tower).

• Study - allows you to “Study a Book” similar to a Conclave Chapter (studying is now only available in your tower and no longer an option at a chapterhouse)

• Blast Chamber - allows you to increase your Magic XP (or blow your leg off, or some other unintended consequence) through experimentation

• Library - allows you to increase your Magic XP at a slower, but safer pace through Research

• Dining Room - gives you the option to Dine In at your tower based on available dining options at the Inn next to your tower

• Storage Room - adds extra storage capacity of your tower

• Games Room - provides entertainment options (similar to the inn), each of which will add a temporary buff

• Gallery - a place to display your collected Art

• Wine Cellar - a room to display your wine collection

• Stables - a place to house and pet your mounts

• Portal Chamber - allows you to teleport to any of your other towers that also contain a portal

• Music Room - allows you to listen to and change the music for your tower

• You can now research specific magic types in a Conclave Chapterhouse or in your tower's library

• Rideable Mounts! Now you can hire and ride a variety of mounts from an animal trader that will provide a variety of travel and skill bonuses, including faster travel times. These mounts include Palfrey, Longclaw, Rumbleback, Yarok, Ironwart, and as promised on our Early Access release livestream... the epic Cavalcavara (giant Guinea Pig)!

• New sounds and artwork for mounts

• Injuries have returned, though only through Blast Chamber experimentation currently. Injuries can be chained into worse injuries if left untreated

• Healers can now heal injuries

• Building multiple towers with portal rooms allow you to gain access to healers and dining options in any town next to another one of your towers with a portal (like magical Uber Eats!), providing you have the appropriate rooms in your tower

IMPROVED:

• Changed Goblin Vexer's Force Pulse to Physical Damage for clarity

• Fade to black and summary info when animal training

• Disabled snowmoss quest

• Adjusted the cost of food to be more reasonable (though signature dishes are still more expensive)

• Animal Training process has been improved

FIXED:

• Fixed error when asking an NPC's opinion of another NPC in a different town

• Fixed Arcane Insight not having duration set properly when cast in the overworld

• Fixed job bar tooltip not showing properly

• Fixed a bug that can cause issues loading a save from inside a dungeon

• Fixed a bug causing the shop window to not start from the top of the items list when buying/selling items or using services

• Fixed quest log and dialogue text issues with the mayor's starter quest

• Fixed missing quest log for one of the weaponsmith's skill quests

• Fixed a few typos

World and Save Game Incompatibility

To make all the new stuff above, we had to significantly change things that breaks current worlds (and therefore saves). Sorry, there was no way to migrate data across. We try very hard to maintain file compatibility within minor versions but will likely change it significantly across major versions.

Thanks so much for being on this adventure with us! We really hope you enjoy this update!

Celebrating Steam Early Access with free DLCs!

Before you rush off to wishlist it on Steam (which we would appreciate BTW!), you’re going to want to read on a little bit longer.

First off, thank’s so much for supporting us through this whole journey! A lot has happened since we last reached out to you (wow has it really been a few years?).

Our team has grown, we pushed out our first demo build last February (just in time for Next Fest), SplatterCat demoed Archmage Rises on his YouTube Channel, and we’ve been receiving incredible responses to the game so far:

All of the incredible responses, like the one above, have been such a great boost for us to get our first release build ready for all of you. Speaking of which, the official release date for Archmage Rises on Steam is April 24th, 2023! That’s just over a week away!

Now, to talk a bit about the elephant in the room: Steam Launch Discounts.

It’s fairly normal practice (and encouraged) by Valve that when a developer first releases their game on Steam, that developer launches their game with a small discount to encourage more gamers to buy the game on release.

We’ve decided to follow that tradition by offering a 15% launch discount, which means that some of you who have already purchased the game have actually paid a little bit more than those who will buy it during our launch week.

That didn’t sit well with us, because we really wanted to reward those of you who had supported us early on and continue to support us throughout the journey so far. So we’ve come up with a solution that we think you will like…

We’ve decided to give all of you who have already purchased the game the first two DLC packs free!

Part of the reasoning behind this perk is that these DLC packs contain some features that we wanted to include in the game when we first conceived of it. We have since realized that they were things that were too big in scope to develop for the core release, so we’ve decided to pull them out as expansions for after the core game has shipped.

Speaking of which, you can check out our whole new roadmap that will show our plans to release more features of the game from our Early Access Release to 1.0 (and beyond)!

Thanks so much again for sticking with us throughout this journey, and we wouldn’t be at this huge milestone if it weren’t for you!
If you haven’t bought the game yet, you can still pre-order it until April 21 to get in on the founder’s free DLC. Or you can add it to your Steam Wishlist and grab that 15% launch discount on April 24th!