Your poor developer has been through it these past few weeks. Between fighting off COVID, falling down a hill, a near encounter with a bear, and multiple sleepless weekends, the only thing on my mind was survival. Survive, so that you can bring them this:

THE ECONOMY UPDATE

The main game loop was there. Combat was working, there was strategy and intrigue, a variety of tiles, and even multiple classes of enemies to fight through. But, fighting through enemy after enemy leaves you with strange feelings and many questions. Is war all there is? Why does the developer hate chickens so much? Is there some history between the ducks and chickens? Has the developer ever heard of another bird?

Well, the answers to (some of) your questions are here. 

During your journey, you will still fight through an onslaught of bloodthirsty chickens, but you will also encounter merchants, traders, and other beings who happen to have been caught in the midst of the duck-chicken war. 

The biggest thing added in this update is control. Between the merchants and rerolling, you can actually decide what your deck will look like. Obviously, your control is still (intentionally) limited to keep battles interesting and unpredictable, but any degree of influence is better than none.

Anyway, what's new?

Here's the low-down for those who are not here to read my ramblings.

• Non-combat encounters
  • Merchants, like the owl, who will happily accept your gold for goods
  • Traders, who offer a different type of exchange
  • Other characters who are just looking for someone who will listen
• Two new enemies for the Henfields environment!
• Rewards are now location-specific; in general, better rewards will show up in later areas, but the rewards will be more thematically-relevant.
• 5 new tiles!
  • The Bomb tile: explodes when damaged, destroying any nearby tile
  • The Axe tile: At the beginning of every turn, it slices upward and destroys tiles in its path.
  • The Watch tile: increases in damage at the end of every turn
  • The Arrow tile: when placed, fires arrows at any tile above and below it
  • The Earthquake tile: causes all tiles to fall down the board.
• Have I mentioned the attack animations before? If not, they're here.
• New cover photo and logo! This isn't a gameplay change, but I made it and wanted to tell you about it.
• Reworked AI again. This has been a recurring issue. I'll get it right eventually.
• Gold and points accumulated change depending on the enemy. Generally, bosses drop more than elites, who in turn drop more than normal enemies.
• Speaking of elites, the path-making algorithm has changed to guarantee you will encounter an elite enemy in every area. 

What's next?

The economy update is still underway. There are a few more types of merchants that I want to add, but I won't spoil anything here. Just know that they're coming soon.

I'm also working on an item system that will make rewards a little more... rewarding. I'm not going for anything innovative (yet), just a simple inventory of potions that might help you on your journey.

Finally, I'm working on some highly requested UI features. If you've played the game, you probably know what I'm referencing here. It's proven to be a little more difficult than expected, but we'll get there eventually.