Hello and welcome back to another development update. Because of the holidays, progress has slowed down a bit. :s

The topic I would like to talk about is the Arcana System or the spell system in the game. This system has gone through many changes and for today's update I would like to talk about it. So to start off, the Arcana system as it is seen in the demo is a far cry from what it used to look like when I first created the game. For one, the original system was more focused on deck-building. Cards were a limited resource and could only be played once per level. Ultimately, while I  did like the deck building idea, it didn't really fit into the ARPG feeling I was going for. I received feedback and it has my belief that players should be allowed to cast spells more often and more freely. Pretty much the deck building as a game mechanic could not stand alone when attacking was removed, so it prompted me to rethink the mechanic all together.

For the current iteration I pretty much had 3 main things I wanted to accomplish. One increase the usage of spells, if a player would like to go spells only instead of attack, they should be allowed to. Two, I wanted to maintain some degree of customization and discovery similar to what was currently available with the deck building system. And three, which is a new idea, have some sort of combo system associated with the system. These 3 main points led to the system you see today.

I would like to spend the rest of this update explaining how the system currently works because I don't believe I explained it very well in the game description. So here we go...

In this game, spells are cast using cards. Spells Cards are broken into 5 elemental types: fire, water, life, earth, and air. Cards are cast using either your Major Arcana and your Minor Arcana. By default players will start off with one Major Arcana and 2 Minor Arcanas. A Major Arcana by default consists of 3 slots that spells cards can be placed whereas Minor Arcanas can only hold 1.  In addition equippable cards for either your Major and Minor Arcanas depends on your character's Elemental Affinities. Every character will have a main affinity and up to 2 side affinities. In you Major Arcana, the last card slot is referred to as the Finisher and only cards that match your main affinity can be equipped there. Other than the finisher slot, any card that matches your main or side affinities can be equipped in any other slot in your Major or Minor Arcanas. The Finisher card of your Major Arcana is a bit special, based on the spells that were in the first 2 slots of your Major Arcana the effect of the card in your Finisher slot may change, sort of like a mutation or enhancement. Pretty much, based on the spell combo you make for your Major Arcana, the effect of the Finisher can vary greatly!

Well, that's pretty much how it works now. I am currently still in testing for this new system but overall, I think that there is a lot of potential here. All that's left is to explore it some more :D

That's it for this week, sorry for no pictures! I'll make sure to have some fresh ones next week!