Version 1.10 released

The first after release version. Contains traditional fixes, some additional graphics and one interface improvement.

– [interface] Added Overburdened notice on Magic screen (to make it more clear that Arcane is affected by exceeding maximum encumbrance).

– [gfx] Added some missing properly scaled minimap object icons (orbs, crystals, etc).

– [fix] Killing ogre leaders quest (if you have an old save you need to reenter both forts for this quest to register, then you can report to the castle for the reward).
– [fix] Removed useless levers in Crystal Tower (leftovers from EA).
– [fix] One of the plaques in Watchdog Castle had no text.

Version 1.00 released

Finally, the game leaves Early Access. After several years of working on this (when I add up all the abandoned prototypes, rewrites, reuse of older code and so on, this would be the longest in development game I made), the game is going to be released. I’m quite happy with the state of the game, of course one could always improve something and could do it for another 10, 20 or even 30 years and one still have the filling something more could be added or improved. But one need to call the end one day and push it out of the door for players to enjoy.

What’s next. First there are some minor things (linguistic check was not fully completed yet, a few images are still missing and some other cosmetic things need to be done, it will be done in versions above 1.00+ during the next 3 months). So please overlook the minor things during next few months, I’m aware of those and those will be dealt with. But other than that the game is complete. There might be some balance tweaks if needed (especially for Hard and Insane difficulties), interface improvements and other minor things, but I will not touch gameplay (quests, story, world, etc), the game is complete in this regard.

Version 1.00 is mostly polish and last minute changes. There is one important change, monsters can’t move through doors now, I believe it adds another layer of thrill and tactics plus it solves some minor problems and inconsistencies.

– [feature] Monsters can no longer move through doors. It is more interesting gameplay wise (danger of monsters preparing an ambush just after the player passes through the door, adds some thrill and more meaning to doors), it’s also more consistent with how the player moves.

– [balance] The last boss made stronger.
– [balance] The Red Knight made stronger.

– [misc] Files cleanup (removed test files that were used during Early Access, this makes the package smaller).

– [design] Watchdog castle enlarged.

– [gfx] New icon for the application.
– [interface] Adjusted checkbox button (made it pixelated like the rest of the UI).

– [fix] Occasionally monsters being able to move through walls.

Version 0.92 released

This version deals with some last minute bugs, contains finished descriptions for all quests and locations and has balance adjustments for Hard and Insane difficulty levels.

– [design] Added detailed tooltips for all quests.
– [design] Finished descriptions for all locations.

– [misc] Removed “Fix #1 – Emergency Teleport” option since it’s no longer needed.
– [misc] Removed Hot Keys list from help screen (redundant and misleading since those can be checked and rebinded on Options/Controls tab).

– [manual] Updated in-game manual.

– [balance] Hard difficulty: damage of monsters increased slightly.
– [balance] Insane difficulty: damage of monsters increased significantly.

– [interface] Adjusted links on main screen.

– [fix] Two unreachable gates in the Tower of Lava.
– [fix] Ice Queen quest bug.

Version 0.91 released

A boring version containing fixes mostly. Also finished audio and made all trolls resistant to cold.

– [design] Added third exotic food (somehow I forgotten to add it earlier so the cook quest was impossible to finish).

– [misc] All trolls are resistant to cold now (it’s more consistent and intuitive).

– Finished audio (replaced remaining placeholder sounds with proper ones).

– [fix] Heavy Forge Armor was giving immunity instead of resistance.
– [fix] Magic doors in Ogre forts were unlockable.
– [fix] Description of Character button was showing wrong default hotkey.
– [fix] Healer’s Regeneration spell was not working under certain conditions.
– [fix] Arcane Mastery talent not working.

Version 0.90 released

This version is storyline complete, which means every single map area, location, NPC and quest is done. Some of the things might be unpolished and rough but overall the game is complete starting of this version. What’s left is the finial linguistic check, audio adjustments, manual and minor interface tweaks.

Therefore, I announce the [b]final release of the game on 1 August 2019[/b].

– [design] Finished Elven Village.
– [design] Added a first town inn patron with a tip about Griffin Rider Guild.
– [design] Finished all existing inn patrons.
– [design] At least one patron in each inn (both towns and castles) now.
– [design] Fixed dragon’s cave cell.
– [design] Finished Iron Keep.
– [design] Finished one subarea in the snow zone (previously this are was blocked, now you can enter it).
– [design] Added one NPC in the snow zone and finished all NPCs in that area.
– [design] Added Black Dragon’s lair.
– [design] Finished smaller NPCs (1x Librarian, 1x Duke, 1x Courtier, 1x Royal Mines Supervisor).
– [design] Lord in Oldrock castle now gives you a quest (note that the quest might not work if you started the game before v0.90, anyway, it’s a minor quest).
– [design] Finished Crystal Tower (also a way to access it).
– [design] Finished 3 Towers of Fire.

– [misc] Healer ability renamed from Restoration to Recovery (it was confusing since it was identical to a spell name).
– [misc] Added detailed tooltips to around 50% of quests (the rest will be done in the next version).

– [gfx] Separate images for elven and dwarven huts.

Version 0.40 released

This version is code complete, which means everything that was planned was coded into the game and what’s left is storyline/content/assets. This is a very nice & happy milestone for me since code is always the most tricky part. So, in this version there were two major things added and several small ones. Added subraces which allows more variation to the race choices. Redesigned combat abilities, especially Ranger and Knight which were getting on my nerves for a while. There is also an important fix.

– [feature] Subraces added. Now upon creation you can select a variant of each race, for example after selecting an elf you choose if it’s a Wood Elf, High Elf, etc. If you use older saves you will have a generic base race without additional perks.
– [feature] Redesigned knight’s combat ability. Now knights have Charge combat ability which is a special attack which targets all monsters (like Whirling weapon with 100% chance of triggering).
– [feature] Redesigned ranger’s combat ability. Ranger’s Detoxicate was both not too useful and non thematic after introducing racial classes like battlesmith which inherit from ranger. So, now rangers have Stun combat ability which is a special attack which makes the target skip the next attack.

– [misc] Added one mechanic/feature but it not listed to avoid spoilers.

– [balance] Massively increased HPs of all dragons.

– [interface] Tooltips for achievements/titles (on Titles & Awards screen).
– [interface] Upon getting an achievement/title it’s always mentioned on the NPC dialogue screen.

– [fix] Newly generated custom party (non quick start) had wrong stats.
– [fix] The Letter from the Royal Wizard was only showing up if you selected quick start option.

Version 0.30 released

This is a post Digital Dragons version. I collected feedback observing how people play it for the first time. It was quite interesting. To my surprise there were very few things that were confusing to first time players and there was not much. So, this version introduces fleeing from combat. I was considering it for a while but after observing how people play I decided it’s a necessary feature. Also I removed cast spell button and just left spellbook button, that one was confusing and not really useful in practice. One more thing I noticed was people being confused what to do first, so i added more tips to push the player in the direction of the Royal Castle. There is also some rebalancing and traditional improvements and fixes.

– [feature] Fleeing from combat.
– [feature] Keyhole mechanic (keys to open doors). Note that since there are not many gated areas there won’t be many like those in the game.
– [feature] At the game start there is a popup message “Letter from the Royal Wizard” which tells you the initial story and directs you to the Royal Castle.

– [engine] Mute on window focus lost (a small thing that will make some people happy).

– [design] Finished several smaller NPCs.
– [design] Tip on the hut near the starting area how to reach the Royal Castle.
– [design] Northern Keep storyline done.

– [misc] Changed the date to a fictional, lore based one instead of the date since the start of the adventure. I know, that’s a bit confusing to some players, but it’s better immersion wise since it gives you a point of time where the story takes place and connects it better with the rest of the information you find.

– [balance] Added Magic Arrow, a very cheap but weak spell for wizards & sages (so wizards can basically always use soem sort of magic and don’t need to rely on melee combat).
– [balance] Slightly higher starting MP, so some low magic classes (like Battlesmith) can at least use one spell from the very beginning.

– [interface] Left/right arrow keys are rotate instead of move be default.
– [interface] Added rest button on inn page.
– [interface] Small improvements on the main menu screen (size of the title, added buttons with links to Discord, etc).
– [interface] Additional art assets.
– [interface] Removed cast spell button, there is just spellbook button.

– [fix] Escape now properly ends dialogue with an NPC the npc (in some extremely rare cases the NPCs after dialogue action would not trigger properly).
– [fix] Getting sometimes double letters from the Royal Wizard.

Version 0.26 released

This version focuses on finishing & polishing end game elements also it dealt with some things that were confusing to new players. In addition, there is now a “Compatibility” beta branch on Steam which you can use in case of problems with running the game.

By the way, I will be showcasing Legends of Amberland: The Forgotten Crown in a few days during Digital Dragons in Cracow. If by any chance to attend this event, drop by!

– [design] Added proper final dialogue and end game conclusion.
– [design] Mirrors finished.
– [design] Added alternative […] (SPOILER PROTECTION: all I can say is it’s something related to mirrors).
– [design] New side quest for Royal Cook.

– [misc] Added “Compatibility” branch to Steam, which can be used is some very rare cases where the game won’t start. To activate: right click on ‘Legends of Amberland’ and open Properties, the select ‘Betas’ tab and choose “compatibility” branch from the dropdown list. Steam will start downloading it. You can revert this by opting out. Note that this version won’t be updated as often as the main branch so it’s to be used as the last resort.

– [interface] Added “Next Character” button on the party creation screen (it was confusing to some players how to select another character, the old method on clicking the portrait works of course).
– [interface] Attempting to enter locked grate gives a notice “This grate is locked” (it was slightly confusing to new players).
– [interface] Clicking by mouse on lever popups a notice “Enter to interact (move forward) with objects” (operating levers was sometimes confusing to new players).

Version 0.25 released

If I was naming the updates, which I don’t, I would call that one something like “The Great Configurator Update”. It introduces difficulty settings and keybindings. Now you can choose from 4 difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard and Insane. Normal difficulty is the one you were playing so far, it’s the most balanced level, it provides an adequate challenge and allow you to enjoy the journey. Easy is for people who are somewhat stressed and want to make it, well, easier, still it’s not very easy, just easier. Hard is meant for hardcore RPG players, with lots of experience and so on (that’s the recommended difficulty if you came from RPG Codex or similar community), still the difficulty on Hard is reasonable. Insane is meant for those who constantly complain the games nowadays are too easy, it’s unreasonably difficult, with penalties to everything and probably unbeatable for most people. One thing to note, I tried to keep the pacing similar in all difficulties, so I abstained from heavy bumping monsters HP and other mechanics that would make the game longer than harder. It’s more like that harder difficulty levels introduce more deadly environment than more resistant one. As for keybindings, not much to say I suppose, you can bind up to 3 keys per action and rebind almost all keys (except very special like Escape).

– [feature] Difficulty levels upon new game start (Easy, Normal, Hard, Insane).
– [feature] Rebindable keys (Options/Controls).

– [design] Additional shop items (including Arcane buffing items).
– [design] Tower of Despair unofficial name was dropped in favour of the official Ivory Tower (it was confusing using both names, now the Tower of Despair appears only in the lore/rumours sections and it’s always accompanied by the official Ivory Tower name).

– [balance] Reduced regular shop prices for items tier 4 & 5.
– [balance] Decreased Arcane requirements and Magic Points cost for high level offensive spells.

– [interface] Disabled hot keys when in Quick Menu mode.

– [fix] Keyboard bug from v0.24.
– [fix] Inconsistent portraits highlights bug (now I understand why so many players were asking “what it means if the portrait has a yellow outline” :D).
– [fix] Other small fixes (extremely rare and harmless which probably no one noticed).