The biggest news for this entry is that Faith in Despair has a new cover by Marcela Bolívar, who already created the cover for my album Still Leben. I've added the new image to all store pages, the presskit, and the in-game title screen. The old splash screen had its charm, but opening the game feels much better now. I will use the old "black rain" effect for despair effects later on, so it's not entirely gone.

Why is a new cover important? Well, I can show it to people and the new image will make it much more presentable and recognizable. But for me personally, it feels like it informs the game as well. Everything I do from now on has that image in mind, which is exciting. The image was inspired by the game (as general instructions/guidelines), and now it inspires the game right back.

The new update also includes balance changes. Most importantly, all blessings, curses and bosses now come in three variants, depending on the current chapter. This lets me easily fine-tune all the values, and I think it feels a bit better to play now. Especially the offered blessings make more sense in the third chapter.

I've also added more detailed run statistics. Every map node now saves current faith, current despair, gold, total cards, etc. And it also saves the highest damage done per round, which lets me check how the game scales after a while. All these statistics I can now evaluate, and I think this will improve the game even more from now on.

Overall, feedback is good and there are always new players trickling in and finding bugs and suggesting new features. One thing that is missing now is more cohesion between runs, some kind of progression, and more "cutscenes" with Death.

I have a plan that should solve this: The difficulty circles of hell will receive an update that is similar to the Final Fantasy X sphere grid. Basically it will be a disc with sockets, and each socket will contain a difficulty modifier. You need to fight your way through each modifier to unlock adjacent ones. But to reach the outer edge, you need to string together modifiers starting from the center. You can still build your own difficulty by going different paths, for example if one modifier is giving you trouble, maybe you can go around it, something like that.

And of course, more starter decks. I'm still planning to add 20 starter decks in total, as long as they are mechanically different enough.

Since it is finally cooler outside, I'm also planning to stream more and work on the game live. It has brought in a lot of good suggestion previously, so I'm looking forward to getting back into the rhythm again. As long as I'm not occupied with attending gamedev meetings and talks, I should be able to stream every weekday. So, maybe I'll catch you there.

The latest update introduces Death as the antagonist, who's the one behind all the words at the top of the screen. You are playing against Death for a chance to escape. Will he ever let you go? Probably not.

Other than that, lots of new tips and quality of life changes. When will quality of life be 100%? Not sure.

Two weeks ago, I was at Gamescom and several people played Faith in Despair on my Steam Deck. It was amazing seeing people interact with it, and they all gave amazing feedback. Overall, it was very well received, which is always good for a boost of motivation.



When I got back, Gamescom also came back to haunt me, as I got some kind of flu (the usual, I guess). Took me another week to recover, but I think now I'm fine again.



Cologne was pretty amazing. I was there as a little kid, and I only remember it because of the VHS tapes that still exist of it. When I was there, I specifically went to a fountain where my father filmed me jumping from rock to rock. It was quite surreal seeing it with my own eyes. I mean, again.



I also met a lot of like-minded people and made new connections. I even handed out Faith in Despair cards for those who were curious. And not always to other gamedevs, sometimes I also got players interested as well, especially in the indie booth area.

Will I go again? We'll see. First, I got a game to finish.

Turn to Mine is now available on all major consoles:
PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox

You might remember this game as being called Turnament. We had to change the name of the console release, because there was another big publisher who had an IP with the same name, and we didn't want to risk anything.

Besides, Turn to Mine is a pretty cool name. :D

Thanks once again to Pinkerator over at Sometimes You for porting and publishing the game.

On a personal note: You can unlock the Halfquake mode in the Unlockables section of the game. It feels pretty cool that you can now listen to Ambience on a console. (<

Catty & Batty: The Spirit Guide is part of the Cat Awareness Feline Sale and you can get it for 80% off right now.

I'm also excited to share that I will be at Gamescom in two weeks, showing off Faith in Despair. If you're there too and would like to meet me, let me know.

I've been looking for artists for a while and finally Faith in Despair has art now. First artist is Vergvoktre, who was already featured in the Halfquake Trilogy. Second is Marvin Blattert, who has provided art for blessings.

The cello track is also in the game now, and it plays in chapter 3. I worked together with Lou Dunand-Vincent again, who has worked with me previously.

And lastly, there's a new deck called Bloodsucker. I wanted a deck that focuses on "stealing HP" while having low HP. It needed special lacrima for an additional way to save Despair, and I think it works well. Lots of playtesting is still needed, but I think it's fun.

More decks are planned, of course, including a Mirage deck, which I'm very excited about.

It's always cool to see when a small change can lead to a different game feel.

This update represents kind of a milestone for me. It's still not feature or content complete, but I now see a game before me, which is always a special moment. Seeing chapter 3 with the new background and the new cello music feels like something the game has been leading me towards all this time. And I'm excited to see where it wants to go next.

I have one more big feature planned that I won't talk about just yet. It doesn't mean "big" in the sense of adding a completely new game mode, but "big" as in... it will add to the atmosphere of the game, and I think it will be focus of the next update. But we'll see.

Gamescom is coming closer, and I want to make sure the demo is as polished as possible, so I might not want to add anything "experimental" in the next few weeks.

Unless...?

The heat is also getting worse, so I have to carfully pick my battles. High temperatures are my Achilles heel.

Either way, dear reader, play the game and let me know what you think.