December Week 2 Update

Greetings! For the second week's post, we will be discussing more about class mechanics mentioned previously as well as new features!

Lexicon

Due to the complexity of the game and a large amount of icons and terms players will be seeing, we decided to introduce the Tidewoken Lexicon. This will be located in the game, accessible to all players at all times. It will have every term in the game a player will see and a definition for each. It will also go more in-depth with certain mechanics explaining the numbers behind them.

Since this is the first version of it, we will be continuously adding to it and improving how it is visually represented for players to not be overwhelmed and also be able to find what they need when they need it as fast as possible.

Class Mechanics 

Each class has a unique feature that either comes in the form of abilities or effects from their own abilities. This week we will dive in and explore a few of these. 

Alchemist 

One of the Alchemist's big features is working with cauldrons to gain special area of effect abilities by using essences. However, one of the drawbacks of this is they will give themselves Chemical Burn. Chemical Burn reduces armor and deals damage to the Alchemist at the start of each turn but also gives them a slight magical damage buff. Stacking too much Chemical Burn can prove fatal, but can also change the game due skills interactions with Chemical Burn making them a lot stronger. There are also multiple skills that can be used to manipulate Chemical Burn such as transferring it to other characters or turning its effects into more beneficial than negative ones.

Mystic 

The Mystic is a powerful character. A feature of this class that really separates them from others is the Spirit Realm mechanic. Someone in the Spirit Realm will take and deal 20% reduced damage and healing from characters outside of the Spirit Realm while increasing these to and from characters inside it with them. Many skills will also have special effects that interact with this mechanic. They will have multiple ways of sending characters in and out of the Spirit Realm, allowing heavy control on the pace of the game. As always, this can be used in many ways. One can use this to shut down an aggressive player, set up a deadly combo,  or use to save an ally from death. 

Tempest 

With Assault being completely reworked into Tempest, a lot of class ideas became merged into passive mechanics. The major one being Wind Essence. Wind Essence starts at 10 stacks and changes based on skills you use, either consuming stacks or gaining them. The effect of this being for every stack of Wind Essence lost you gain 6% bonus damage allowing for up to 60% bonus damage! The drawback, however, is another mechanic called Reckless. When you reach less than 4 Wind Essence you gain Reckless which heavily reduces your defenses as well as your ability to move each turn. The final one is called Teleportation Sickness. With the Tempest constantly having to play around their Wind Essence jumping in and out of combat, they will gain Teleportation Sickness when using any form of teleportation. When they have this effect it will interact with skills differently. We really wanted a more challenging and rewarding kind of class and we believe Tempest is filling the role nicely.

Hopefully, you have enjoyed a small look into the game for week 2! With the holidays just around the corner, things have been a little busy, however, we are still pushing out as much as we can to make sure testing can begin as soon as possible! 

For those interested in participating with Tidewoken or want more information, you can reach us through the following:

Discord: https://discord.gg/hcR2m2R

Email: community@tidewoken.com | support@tidewoken.com

December Week 1 Update

Hello everyone. This week we will be showcasing new improvements, changes, and sharing some class abilities while discussing them!

Lava Map

The map felt too closed off in terms of choke points and allowed some classes too large of an advantage over others. Along with a few tile changes, the middle walkways were added to open up the middle for everyone while also maintaining the support for range attacks and the ability to play around LoS.

To also improve the theme and aesthetics of the map, new objects were added. This was to help reduce the amount of repeating objects, but also to bring even more of a dark vibe to this area. These include sharp rock formations spread around, as well as a couple gravestones.

Skill Sharing

For this first week, we will be sharing one skill from each of the three finished classes and discussing a little about what they do to give some insight into the game. Below you will see the current way skills will be represented when being hovered. You will see all the information possible such as range, energy, attribute, effects, and so on.

The Tempest - Mask of Fear

The first skill we will talk about is a Legendary from the Tempest, Mask of Fear. The main purpose of this skill is to be able to keep the targets Magical Armor lowered by adding a deadly effect if it is removed early. Keep in mind you do need to be careful as you can get teleported into the enemy team with no Wind Essence, meaning you will have lowered defenses due to how Wind Essence works! Since the skill does not state it requires line of sight, it can be used through objects and at long range to make sure you can always induce fear in your prey.

The Alchemist - Shielding Vial

The next skill we will be showing is from the Alchemist's Botany Knowledge attribute, Shielding Vial. This skill's purpose is to allow an Alchemist to give his allies small shields every turn to maintain a steady defense. Since the shield only lasts for 1 turn, they are going to want to try to use it often as possible, especially since it has no cooldown. If they are smart with positioning and make use of their class mechanic of Chemical Burn, they can even turn this into an area of effect shield for multiple allies and themselves. They do need to be careful though, as Chemical Burn will cause the Alchemist to take damage each turn.

The Mystic - Spirit Release

The final skill being shared for this week will be the Mystic's Spirit Release. A very diverse skill which can be used defensively or aggressively. You can summon a copy of your own ally and then grant them extra healing by keeping the spirit away from combat, or even summon a copy of a foe and then unleash area of effect damage to really hit them hard. This skill can always backfire however due to it allowing foes to deal extra damage to your ally or foes to heal it if it is a copy of their ally!

Team and Testing Progress

As December continues, we now have someone working on sounds who we really enjoy, which means the first closed alpha will have some sounds already implemented (video of the map with sound). We will announce the set date for the testing after the new year, but it will most likely be around the end of January. Remember that this game will be through Steam. We are looking forward to showing you more parts of the game and will keep posting weekly updates for changes and improvements!

Thank you all who have shown interest and support. If you are interested in closed testing, be sure to reach out to us through one of the following!

The Tidewoken Discord: https://discord.gg/R6ShcrZ

The Team's Emails: community@tidewoken.com | support@tidewoken.com

Games Status and Progress Update

Hello everyone! It has been a while since the last blog update. This is due to the team spending a lot of time focusing hard on reworks and changes. What has been happening the past couple of months is preparing the game as much as possible for the upcoming first Closed Alpha testing.

I would like to take a moment to introduce myself and my role in Tidewoken. My name is Joseph, or in gaming usually people refer to me as Shade. I am going to be taking on the role of Community Manager. I will be working with the community directly on getting feedback, sharing information, handling issues and questions, and working on making sure that future tests go smoothly. I also do internal testing as well as helping with game design. To reach me, you can contact me via email at community@tidewoken.com or my Discord, Shade#2029.

Enough about me though, let us get into what all has happened since the last post!

Maps

All images and videos seen so far have been on a plain testing map. This has mainly been for giving the team a way of working in-game. However, we plan on having multiple themed maps for the full release. The first map, a lava themed map, has been completed. This map features narrow spots on sides, along with a long open middle area and plenty of places to hide behind.

We will, however, be using the generic play test map during Closed Alpha as well just to work with having multiple map options available. We are wanting to try and have maps feel truly different from a gameplay perspective and not only from a visual one. Due to this, we are not wanting to rush on releasing them, especially since the gameplay is the main priority for now.

Classes

There are 4 classes planned for the full release but we will only be using the 3 finished ones for the Closed Alpha. These are Mystic, Tempest, and Alchemist. Most of the time spent as of lately has gone into completely revamping the old Assault, which is now Tempest. It has gone through quite a few changes, but we finally found out how we wanted to shape the play style for it.

The Tempest will now use a class feature called Wind Essence. These will be used to trigger special skill effects as well as change gameplay by granting high damage at the risk of taking more. The main themes of Tempest will now be teleporting, using your Target Dummy to control the field, and managing Wind Essence for game impacting combos.

We have also made some changes to the Mystic as well, as to give Spirit Realm and Axe Mastery more diversity and purpose. Alchemist is also finished and will be mostly a support style class.

Gameplay Changes 

During testing, we ran into some issues of games being way too long, or skills feeling not so impactful. For starters, we now have given every build 9 skill slots instead of the 8. This is to allow a larger variety of builds and play styles, promoting more synergy. This, of course, is up to being changed, but it is something we feel will be better overall for now. 

Next, we cut health pools by a large amount. In the earlier stages, players had so much health that the games were quite long and fights were somewhat bland because of it. Now with lower health pools, it really pushes the gameplay in the direction envisioned to be a lot more tactical. 

Lastly, a small change was the attribute system. There are still 3 attributes per class and the same amount of skills. What changed was the amount of points given to work with and how they split up for builds. The main reason for this is just trying to make sure the builds aspect makes sense for gameplay, allowing for better synergy between attributes or gameplay choices.  

Current Status and Closed Alpha Testing

We plan on having the first Closed Alpha testing in early 2020 (keep in mind that this will be only through Steam). However, we still need to finish implementing the back end as well as getting in-game sounds added. While this is being worked on, we will also be finishing up major bug testing involving the skills for the classes and trying to make the gameplay as fun as possible.

For the first Closed Alpha, we will only be having a few people join us for this testing that will be able to give all the feedback needed. There will be a form later on for anyone interested in joining us for testing. As testing progresses, larger and more open tests will be planned. We want to focus mainly on fixing bugs and bad optimizations that are found, getting all of the feedback of the testers as to what they enjoyed, did not enjoy, what ideas they have, and as well as balancing the gameplay.

The best way to get in contact with us is through the official Tidewoken Discord: https://discord.gg/hcR2m2R

However, we also have the Dev's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mcfuddl

As well as two e-mail accounts now set up: support@tidewoken.com | community@tidewoken.com

Thank you all who have shown interest and support so far, and we are really looking forward to what is on its way!

- Shade, Community Manager