Unsung Ballads News

Hi All,

Today's update implements duty events. Some duties have a chance of an event happening. When the event triggers, you'll be presented with a short story that requires you to make a choice. At least one choice will be free, while the rest will cost resources: money, fame, and infamy.

Fame and Infamy can now be gained from combat missions.



Enjoy!

Hi Everyone,

Today's patch fully implements the Bow and Maul cards. Both two-handed weapons are good at range and can do some AOE.

When starting a new adventure, you will receive three random weapons, two 1-handed and one 2-handed. The base shop also has a stock relative to the starting weapons.

Enjoy!

Happy New Year to all!

It has been a very challenging year here at Read Play Code, but ultimately fun too. I personally read a lot of opinions and stories of game devs getting laid off, burned out, or struggling with their games, and I realized a few things this year:

1. We are lucky to be alive at a time when there are so many video gaming options: many different games and game genres, platforms, gaming accessories... Of course, that also means competition is meaner...
   
2. Generative AI is here to stay. Even though in terms of quality and accuracy, it's not there yet, I have seen successful games blatantly using generated images as their Steam capsule - blatantly because if you look closer, you can notice defects specific to generation. Now, we also used generative AI in our marketing material but also retouched it to deal with glaring issues. Does that matter? Probably not. What matters is that generative AI is here in many different forms, and we all need to learn to live alongside it but also look at what it is offering and what it's taking away.
   
3. Making a video game is hard, making a good video game is harder, and making a good video game alone is almost impossibly hard. But that doesn't matter to the player. The only thing that matters is that the video game is being made or that it has already been made!
   
4. Everybody has an opinion or two, but fewer and fewer stop to listen and critically think about that opinion and then have a civil argument. AI has the potential to make this even worse.
   
5. Mental health has a bad reputation. It badly needs a rebranding, and it needs to be taught about in schools. Even more so with the current intrusiveness and insidiousness of social media.
   
6. Exciting times ahead. Aren't they always? Funny thing that.
   

That being said, our game has been in development for over two years now. It was released in Early Access at the beginning of this year in an admittedly pretty poor state. Since then, it has received (*quickly checks notes*) a dozen patches that have gradually improved many aspects of it. Next year expect more to come.

Fixed an instance where the game was left in an unresponsive state.

Hi All,

This patch brings a small number of improvements to combat.
Full list:

• Card descriptions updated to be shorter
  
• Cards now get straightened and larger during highlight to help with readability
  
• Card keywords now get tooltips during card highlight
  
• Combat initiative now increases based on the number of cards played in a turn instead of the number of action points spent
  
• Fixed characters having gray teeth. Now they are blooming white. Literally. A fix for another day
  
• Upgraded to Unity 6 to take advantage of all the performance and usability improvements during development
  

Known bugs:

• After acquiring the first mutation, the game might get stuck in a state where you can't take on duties or do training. Quitting to main menu and reloading would fix the issue.
  

Enjoy!