Devs here! AMA

[Jas]

Ask us anything! We are working hard on getting the game ready for release and it should be available to purchase in the next ~2 months. Please let us know if you have questions or comments about the game! We want to make sure it is in the best condition it can be in! :)

[Taint Snorkeler]

so will you guys ever bring back drawn character art? the pixel art for the character select looks awful. the OG drawn ones looked fantastic.

[Gang$Robin]

Originally posted by Taint Snorkeler:

so will you guys ever bring back drawn character art? the pixel art for the character select looks awful. the OG drawn ones looked fantastic.

what about the portraits do you dislike? We don't currently plan to go back to the drawn portraits

[LHGreen]

Originally posted by Gang$Robin:

Originally posted by Taint Snorkeler:

so will you guys ever bring back drawn character art? the pixel art for the character select looks awful. the OG drawn ones looked fantastic.

what about the portraits do you dislike? We don't currently plan to go back to the drawn portraits

Tbf, you should have let players choose between the 2, once pixel art replaced drawn.

[Soulologist]

Hey, just wanted to say here. Saw a game on the google play store that looks sort of like a rip off of your game, it was called "Hiker: Heropack Creed". Figured you'd want to know this.

[Lumios]

Originally posted by Taint Snorkeler:

so will you guys ever bring back drawn character art? the pixel art for the character select looks awful. the OG drawn ones looked fantastic.

I think the older portraits for the characters were worse.

I don't know if you were talking about the original portraits, but assuming so:
Firstly, Satchel looked like he got hit by a car, at least in this iteration he looks like the in-game sprite. Tote looked strange, I can't put my finger on why exactly, but she just didn't look right. There was a general lack of perspective on her face, it looked flat. Pochette's portrait was the third best, but even so it was slightly off-putting. I liked Purse's and CR-8's portraits only.

Additionally, Satchel looked consistently awful after each portrait update. And when I thought Satchel's portrait would finally look decent, he then got a redesign that made him look even more feminine, and a brand new portrait that goes with it and which would need to be tweaked all over again.

The gang looks fine right now. Everything in life can be improved, and this goes without saying these portraits could be improved further, but I would rather stick to these rather than revert back to the originals, or some of the older ones.

[Lumios]

Originally posted by Soulologist:

Hey, just wanted to say here. Saw a game on the google play store that looks sort of like a rip off of your game, it was called "Hiker: Heropack Creed". Figured you'd want to know this.

They already know.

[LHGreen]

Originally posted by Lumios:

Firstly, Satchel looked like he got hit by a car, at least in this iteration he looks like the in-game sprite. Tote looked strange, I can't put my finger on why exactly, but she just didn't look right, there was a general lack of perspective on her face, it looked flat. Pochette's portrait was the third best, but even so it looked off. I liked Purse's and CR-8's portraits only.

Additionally, Satchel looked consistently awful after each portrait update. And when I thought Satchel's portrait would finally look decent, he then he got a redesign that made him look even more feminine, and a brand new portrait that goes with it and which would need to be tweaked all over again.

Ehh, Satchel always has that vibe of having just gotten hit by a car and desperately trying to survive. He seems like he's under a lot of stress. I think the real problem is just the overall design of his face. Everything else is great, but they could never get the face to look good.

Actually, his blood red claw-fingers have always looked pretty weird, too....

[きょう]

Is the [Heart of Forest] an item with an incurable curse?
If a copy remains in the Backpack at the end of a battle, [CARVINGS in HAND] will gradually become contaminated.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2033986270980471993/74184E5794AD33EDA021B085AAB3DFE87DAC08A2/?imw=1920&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox

[Gang$Robin]

Originally posted by きょう:

Is the [Heart of Forest] an item with an incurable curse?
If a copy remains in the Backpack at the end of a battle, [CARVINGS in HAND] will gradually become contaminated.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2033986270980471993/74184E5794AD33EDA021B085AAB3DFE87DAC08A2/?imw=1920&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox

when the item is used it is destroyed forever, but when you use it it makes copies that you keep until used. so you can really clog up your deck if you aren't using the copies right away

[Taint Snorkeler]

Originally posted by Gang$Robin:

Originally posted by Taint Snorkeler:

so will you guys ever bring back drawn character art? the pixel art for the character select looks awful. the OG drawn ones looked fantastic.

what about the portraits do you dislike? We don't currently plan to go back to the drawn portraits

they all look the same, the pixel art looks very lazy. its night and day compared to the drawn.

they have no style, it feels soulless, almost place holder like. IMHO a direct downgrade.

dont get me wrong, i love pixel art a lot but the portraits are just not it...

[Taint Snorkeler]

Originally posted by Lumios:

Originally posted by Taint Snorkeler:

so will you guys ever bring back drawn character art? the pixel art for the character select looks awful. the OG drawn ones looked fantastic.

I think the older portraits for the characters were worse.

I don't know if you were talking about the original portraits, but assuming so:
Firstly, Satchel looked like he got hit by a car, at least in this iteration he looks like the in-game sprite. Tote looked strange, I can't put my finger on why exactly, but she just didn't look right. There was a general lack of perspective on her face, it looked flat. Pochette's portrait was the third best, but even so it was slightly off-putting. I liked Purse's and CR-8's portraits only.

Additionally, Satchel looked consistently awful after each portrait update. And when I thought Satchel's portrait would finally look decent, he then got a redesign that made him look even more feminine, and a brand new portrait that goes with it and which would need to be tweaked all over again.

The gang looks fine right now. Everything in life can be improved, and this goes without saying these portraits could be improved further, but I would rather stick to these rather than revert back to the originals, or some of the older ones.

to each their own but the copy/paste soulless new look is not it imo.

[Gang$Robin]

Originally posted by Taint Snorkeler:

Originally posted by Lumios:

I think the older portraits for the characters were worse.

I don't know if you were talking about the original portraits, but assuming so:
Firstly, Satchel looked like he got hit by a car, at least in this iteration he looks like the in-game sprite. Tote looked strange, I can't put my finger on why exactly, but she just didn't look right. There was a general lack of perspective on her face, it looked flat. Pochette's portrait was the third best, but even so it was slightly off-putting. I liked Purse's and CR-8's portraits only.

Additionally, Satchel looked consistently awful after each portrait update. And when I thought Satchel's portrait would finally look decent, he then got a redesign that made him look even more feminine, and a brand new portrait that goes with it and which would need to be tweaked all over again.

The gang looks fine right now. Everything in life can be improved, and this goes without saying these portraits could be improved further, but I would rather stick to these rather than revert back to the originals, or some of the older ones.

to each their own but the copy/paste soulless new look is not it imo.

I definitely see where you're coming from, and while I do think the current portraits are the best we have had so far, since they look the most like how the characters look in our heads, they do stand to be improved. I'll be working on updating the eyes on the portraits a bit, as well as a few other changes.

[Meowish]

Originally posted by SavageKiwi:

Many apologies if this is a common comment, this is more of a bug report, it appears the Heart Cleaver doesn't give the 1HP back on kill, I tied the Gemstone Heart to it (8HP on kill with with adjacent item) and that appears to work so could be an issue there :)

Awesome game loving it so far, keep up the awesome work.

I'm guessing this isn't fixed yet as I don't get my 1hp back on (non-summon) kills either... Came here to find info about this

[Gang$Robin]

Originally posted by Meowish:

Originally posted by SavageKiwi:

Many apologies if this is a common comment, this is more of a bug report, it appears the Heart Cleaver doesn't give the 1HP back on kill, I tied the Gemstone Heart to it (8HP on kill with with adjacent item) and that appears to work so could be an issue there :)

Awesome game loving it so far, keep up the awesome work.

I'm guessing this isn't fixed yet as I don't get my 1hp back on (non-summon) kills either... Came here to find info about this

yes the effect is slightly bugged, if a different cleaver kills something in the chain it will heal though, just not when it itself kills

[Hade]

I think it's been brought up a lot and is already a main criticism of the game, but I bought the game despite all the negative feedback and believe in the devs to fix the issues. But curses and status effects that prevent you from using your inventory or force you to add elements manually to your inventory is extremely frustrating and makes an incredibly fun inventory management deck building game into a slow frustrating grind.

I don't think it's worthwhile to argue about whether curse and status effects should be in the game because it seems like the devs already subscribe to the insane game design principle that you have to annoy and prevent the player from playing the game so they don't get bored.

But please try to do it in a way that interrupts game play less frequently.

Being cursed / afflicted is bad enough without gameplay being completely stopped to manage them.

I'm not sure how much if any data you collect on player runs but I would imagine with the rest of the game being such a fun and smooth experience that afflictions and curses are the number one reason for X-ing out of a game or abandoning a run and its just awful.