Bonfire (Now at Alpha v0.9.1.0 with Demo) $

[getter77]

http://moacube.com/games/bonfire/

Bonfire is a tactical RPG with a puzzle element. The puzzle is: “How the hell am I supposed to survive this!?”

Demo available for Mac and Windows, as is the full on Alpha for $7.95 as per the following:

Here’re the details:

    -A fully playable current version of the game will be available for $7.95.
    -The forums will be open for your feedback on balance, future features, etc.
    -With each major update, the price will increase towards $15.95.
    -Existing owners get all the updates for free, of course.
    -Unlike most alpha funded games, there’s going to be a free demo available.

It’s also worth mentioning that the current build is actually pretty polished (I think I overdid it and should release earlier to be honest). There’s still a lot of content I want to add, but even at this point it’s enough to provide hours of challenging and pretty bug free gameplay.


Bonfire is what happens when you take a battle system out of an RPG, boil it down to what really matters strategically, and make it super-hard. It’s a game takes 10 minutes to learn, but hours upon hours of sweet suffering to get good at.

You form a party of three distinct heroes and use it progress through randomized quests and puzzle-like challenges. You manage your health, come up with cool strategies to get out of hopeless situations, think when to activate powerful single-use items, and improvise to get the most of your setup. Defeat comes often, but it only makes the rare victory that much sweeter. Progression unlocks more characters, allows to develop their stats, initial equipment, and further customize your strategy.

The game is set up so that every encounter and party combination requires improvisation and custom approach. All monsters are designed to break or counter different strategies, and your characters are pretty fragile. Trying to do the same thing over and over results in a quick defeat. Every turn, you must consider what’s the best action to take, depending on the encounter’s composition, your characters’ status, and what items are available. Each battle is a puzzle of its own.

Why it’s going to be cool:

    It’s all about clever tactics and improvisation.
    The rules are simple. The strategy is hard!
    It’s good old challenge at its best.
    It has exploding dragons!

Extras:

    Feedback and strategy forums
    What’s coming in the next update
    What new features are planned for the future
    Download the press kit

Seems quite promising and fairly wrangled---adventurous hybrids are an important part of the grand mix of it all.   

[getter77]

v0.9.0.0

Update 0.9.0.0 is finally out! You can re-download it from the same purchase email. If you lost it, or have any other problems -- give me a shout.

As the initial release was pretty quiet, I decided to give the update a bit more time, so it's much larger than I initially planned.

The biggest addition is the Endless journey. Simple premise: get as far as possible in a procedurally generated infinite quest. With two twists: dead characters stay dead and are replaced by your other unlocked heroes, and at some points you can decide to finish your run and get the spoils or risk going further for a bigger reward. It's currently my favorite way to play the game. Getting very strong roguelike vibes from it.

Other than that, I've added the two remaining heroes and the respectable challenges required to unlock them. There are also some new bosses, monsters, and items.

For the more casual players, I've added the Lighthearted difficulty mode. It's much easier, but in turn monsters leave less gold. It can be switched in options at any time.

There's also a fullscreen mode now, as some of you have requested it. Nothing too special about it.

You can check all the other tweaks and balance changes in the list below. There's quite a lot of them really. Some are pretty big. In general, I consider this to be the best version to get into Bonfire. It's pretty much a complete game at this point. There's no leftover or locked content, it seems to be bug free, and all the major issues have been addressed. Of course, I still want to give it more depth in future releases, but it's already a complete and polished package.

Let me know what you think once you give it a try. I'm especially interested in your feedback on the new heroes and the Endless journey.

Have fun .

Changelog:
0.9.0.0
NEW CONTENT:
- quest: Endless Journey (unlocked after Deadly)
- quest: Challenge of the Wild (unlocked after Medium)
- quest: Challenge of the Starved (unlocked after Medium)
- hero: Wildthing (unlocked after Challenge of the Wild)
- hero: Diverter (unlocked after Challenge of the Starved)
- monster: Werewolf Paladin
- monster: Zombie
- boss monster: Djiin
- boss monster: Blade Wold
- item: Aegis
- item: Prism
- item: Foul Wind
- item: Troll Heart
- new Lighthearted Mode difficulty, accessible from the options and after finishing the tutorial
- new music track

BALANCE CHANGES:
- stunning effect is now significantly weaker on enemies who are already stunned
- leveling up overhaul - it's easier to gain early levels, but later ones come at a much slower pace
- healing from vampiric damage now gives EXP
- Pyra's Blaze deals more damage now
- Mage's Charge Up takes a little more time
- Witch's Curse now deals much more damage
- Monk's Piercing Strike is slightly more powerful
- Knight's Protect's now gives less Armor
- Countess' Shriek's slowing effect is a bit smaller
- Blind Archer's Guided Shot deals a bit more damage
- Blind Archer's Earshot deals a bit more damage
- Wildthing's Call of the Wild is a bit weaker
- Potion now heals more health
- Werekoshaks are a bit easier to kill
- Plague Queen received several nerfs
- Ninja's AI is more focused on attacking now
- Wolves can now be encountered in newbie monster set

IMPROVEMENTS AND GAMEPLAY TWEAKS:
- all quests were made significantly shorter, with less filler battles
- fullscreen mode added
- the loadout screen has been expanded with new items to buy
- completed quests are now marked with a tick
- same chest loot won't appear in a row
- items are less likely to be found in chests if you have a lot of them already
- heroes now say something at the start of the quest
- many in-game scenes were made a bit shorter
- hard encounters now have more variety
- items are faded out when they can't be used for increased clarity
- dungeon progress map can be seen by moving mouse cursor to the top of the screen
- coin counter can be seen by moving mouse cursor to the screen's corner
- tutorial for buying items is more clear
- Golem's Absorb skill has a more clear description

COSMETICS AND EFFECTS:
- hero graphics are now much larger
- new bonfire effect in the main menu
- new Wildthing sprite
- new Diverter sprite
- new Batling Slave sprite
- new Dragon sprite
- desert area has received a graphical overhaul
- temple area has has been touched up a bit
- better effect for Wildthing's Primal Scream
- better effect for Wildthing's Call of the Wild
- better effect for Diverter's Shatter
- better effect and sound for Witch's Bloodlust
- better effect for the Pariah ability
- better effect and new sound for Mage's Boost
- added sounds and effect for Call Koshaks ability
- added sounds and effect for Summon Skeletons ability
- added sounds and effect for Call Batlings ability
- added sounds and effect for Champion ability
- added sounds and effect for using Horn of Victory item
- added sounds and effect for using Aegis item
- added sounds and effects for using stat boosting items
- added an effect on a buff icon when its duration gets reduced
- nicer coin collecting effect in the victory/loss screen
- game's logo appears in a nicer way

BUG FIXES:
- fixed Odillons sometimes firing two beams instead of one (nasty!)
- death now occurs at 0hp instead of -1hp
- Plague Rats no longer steal debuffs from each other
- no more visible "hiccup" on coin counter disappearance
- Bloodlust and Perfume now correctly take away control over hero
- Pyra no longer has an active circle of different color
- no more enemies protecting another protector
- stun stars now correctly disappear when moving to another area
- it's now impossible to leave an empty hero slot in the team selection screen
- leaving empty item slots in the loadout screen no longer causes bugs

[getter77]

v0.9.1.0

Update 0.9.1 is out. Released a bit earlier than I initially planned, but we'll be busy with Solstice pre-orders in the upcoming weeks, and I'd rather not leave the game with unsolved bugs and balance issues.

This means that the General hero and new items had to be pushed into the next update. The General specifically ended up very hard to balance and needs more time in the oven. Really cool hero, though.

You can re-download the update from the same purchase email. If it says the link got blocked or expired, let me know and I'll generate you a new one. Enjoy .

Changelog:

0.9.1.0
NEW CONTENT:
- item: Tiger Blood

BALANCE CHANGES:
- Guided Shot now lasts one more turn, allowing for three attacks
- Bladewolf received several subtle nerfs to its abilities
- Djinn had 5 points of Speed moved into Attack
- Smash now deals 0.5-1.6 magnitude damage depending on target's health
- Witch had 5 Attack moved into Speed
- Countess' Shriek's delaying effect lowered from 0.85 to 0.8
- Djinn's Doom damage lowered from 1.8 to 1.5
- Plague Queen's Toxic Gas damage lowered from 0.35 to 0.3
- debuffs now use Special stat directly for computing damage

IMPROVEMENTS AND GAMEPLAY TWEAKS:
- excess experience points now carry over to the next level
- rewards for Endless Journey are now larger
- options screen can now be accessed during cutscenes
- added tutorials explaining the difference between Journeys and Challenges

COSMETICS AND EFFECTS:
- all "goblins" were changed to "batlings" for consistency
- Mage artwork improved
- Assassin artwork improved

BUG FIXES:
- Djinn's Discharge no longer causes the game to freeze occasionally
- fixed X button sometimes not closing the game on Windows
- fixed a graphical glitch with bonfires in Endless Journey
- coin payout on completed quests should no longer slowdown on weaker PCs
- Witching Hour should no longer cause glitches when playing in fullscreen