I just launched a big Bridgebourn update (available in demo)! The goal is to solidify the game experience by adding new content, iterating on problematic content and balancing the player/party. Let's get into the changelog and the reasoning behind some of the changes.

Death Bank

• Added Esse Finis, a new map
  
• Added Vizaresh, a new boss. Found in Esse Finis
  
• Added portals in the overworld that take you to Esse Finis
  
• Player now loses half experience and any levels that it makes up on game over (Vizaresh accumulates this experience and restores it upon its death)

Previously, a game over would clear whatever experience you had in your bar and you had no way to get it back. Due to this, I couldn't make the death penalty that bad and it seemed to have no real consequence. Losing a lot of levels would also make the player feel like they are going backwards with progression, which never feels great in an RPG. So, I introduced a "death bank". You lose half of your total experience, which could lose you levels. However, the more experience you lose, the more likely you are to stumble across portals that lead you to a new boss. This new boss will restore your lost experience if you defeat it. However, doing so will make the boss even more challenging the next time you fight it. This change is trying to add some more skin in the game with a game over, while also giving the player a new goal rather than making them feel like they lost progression.


Mana Rework

• You can now spend mana even when run out, though that puts you in mana debt
  
• Added mana debt stage system - reapers start hunting you when in mana debt
  
• Added Reaplet, a new enemy for mana debt stage 3
  
• Added Maar, a new enemy for mana debt stage 4

Previously, Mana Reapers would spawn when you spent your mana past a tiny line indicator. This felt unintuitive and distracting in battles. This new system allows you to perform abilities regardless of how much mana you have to allow for flexibility. However, when spending mana past 0 mana, you'll start going into deeper stages of mana debt. The screen will flash to indicate this. Past the first warning stage, you'll start being hunted by more and more challenging reapers. The deeper the mana stage, the longer cooldowns you'll have on your mana based abilities. To exit mana debt, just wait it out and survive the reaper onslaught. Doing so will replenish some mana. This change is intended to add more emergent behavior and flexibility to combat. If you really need more mana, you'll need to make a deal with the devil. Let's hope you survive!


General

• Added Meteor, a new ability
  
• Added Secondary abilities (12 of them! Go find them all!) - cannot be equipped on ability bar, but can be used for custom abilities
  
• Added a new crying gesture for Bahj during round table cutscenes
  
• Added a new game over animation
  
• Added a shield parry window telegraph for the Player
  
• Added a heavy attack windup completion telegraph for the Player
  
• The party now comment on nearby elites
  
• You can now restore charges on custom abilities by spending iridine crystals
  
• Various bug fixes and tweaks

Balance

• Added 11 new equipment slots for Bahj and Pahri
  
• Added a new node for Bolt to allow teleporting of the entire party
  
• Added item property brackets
  
• The extract cost of an item property now increases based on how much you already upgraded it
  
• Player base mana regen per sec decreased from 1 to .75
  
• Increased Slash/Punch slide by 1.143x
  
• Heavy Slash has 1.364x more thrust
  
• Base slash now comes with a small thrust
  
• Phantom Slash now poisons you
  
• Increased merchant starting gold
  
• Merchants inventory now restocks
  
• Item drop rate slightly reduced
  
• Reduced Rare item chance from 8% to 7%
  
• Increased Enchanted item chance from 32% to 33%
  
• Ability glyphs now drop 1.3x more often
  
• Ability scrolls now drop .9x as often
  
• Cursed ability scrolls now drop .975x as often
  
• Player and party no longer get hit and parry stunned
  
• Increased the cost of various item property extractions
  
• Chest items can no longer roll Max Mana or Damage to Mana properties
  
• Leg items can no longer roll the Damage to Mana property
  
• Shoulder items can no longer roll the Mana Regen property
  
• Glove items can no longer roll Max Mana or Mana on Hit properties
  
• Increased Daeva experience from 500 to 600
  
• Decreased the experience that many general enemies give

The Player's exponential power curve was too steep. This was due to item extractions being too cheap, and mana feeling too abundant, even without Slashing. A lot of armor types will no longer be able to roll some mana stats and mana item properties now roll smaller numbers and are more expensive to extract. The purpose is to limit the use of very powerful magick abilities, and give Slash more reason to be used as a mana gain mechanic. Players were also gearing up too quick, so I reduced item drop rates and Rare quality chances. This should make a great item drop feel more special. In contrast to the Player, the party members felt like they were lagging behind in terms of power and becoming obsolete. I gave Bahj and Pahri more equipment slots and a lot more items to fit them! This should help them keep up.


UI/UX

• Added an icon demonstrating that you cannot revive the party during battles
  
• Elite icons now only show when nearby
  
• You now have to press and hold to chat to your party and NPCs
  
• Ability bar now shows hourglass icons and text for explaining why you failed to perform an ability
  
• You can now wishlist merchant items to prevent them from restocking
  
• Pahri now comments on how to neutralize their status effects
  
• Added a visual damage indicator on the ground for some attacks

Music

• Added Pahri's theme, playing during their intro cutscene
  
• Added Foothills theme
  
• Modified Hunted theme to have both combat and non combat variations
  
• Added 2 more Secrets tunes

I am so honored to have been both the investors and audience pick for the first episode of OTK's Pixel Pitch! It was such a blast to be on the show.

Where do we go from here?

In the short term, I'll be fixing bugs and monitoring the response from the demo. It's currently getting a very large influx of new players. I'm so excited to hear what y'all think of it. Because of this wave, I'm expecting to receive bug and feedback reports. Rest assured, I'll be working to fix these ASAP.

In the long term, I'll be back on track with working toward the final release. I'll be posting updates frequently via the Bridgebourn Discord server and Twitter, so you'll be in the know.

I hope you enjoy the demo, and let me know if you run into any issues! Bonus points if they are replicable.

Now, back to developing! Cheers!