I decided to ask Actaeon… well, several Actaeons, actually… to help me test out Create Brand:

Let’s see what they ended up producing:

Create Brand’s results depend on the modifier the demon has. As you’d probably expect, Actaeon’s Well Fed modifier tends to produce Brands that penalize Speed, but give defensive bonuses. The word “tends” here is important: there is still a significant random component to Brands made via Create Brand, so you will sometimes see deviations from what you might expect from a given modifier. Still, usually, the result will be fairly consistent on at least the major beats, such as Well Fed’s Speed penalty.

Now I just have to create Brand modifier lists for the other several dozen character modifiers.

The timing’s a bit demonic, but work’s picking up to a heavier than normal level again, so the full release of Brands may be a little ways off still.

I think I’ve said most of this before in scattered places, but just to reiterate what’s coming:

1) A new Brand Upgrade (still working on the name) that lets you convert demons into Brands. The Brands will tend to have modifiers of types related to the sacrificed demon’s modifier. Unique modifiers will have unique tendencies.

2) Another new Brand Upgrade that raises the number of Brands you can carry significantly.

3) More new Brand modifiers.

4) Some method of viewing past message log messages.

5) A few more tweaks and adjustments to previous Brand content.

Once I can finish all that, the full release will be… well, released. Thank you to everyone who’s helped with playtesting the Brand builds up to this point, and another thank to everyone period for your patience with the slower update pace this year. Changes at work have definitely slowed me down from my previous working pace for Demon which is a bummer, but I greatly appreciate everyone being cool about it and remaining supportive of Demon despite the slower pace.

Until next time, good luck in the tower!

Hey folks. Just dropping a quick line to say Brand Test Build 9′ll be out next weekend, introducing new Brand-related upgrades, new Brand modifiers, and Brands on corpse encounters. Cheers!

A sneak peek at a couple of new Relic Upgrades…

Whew. My free time is finally… well, mine again.

I should be able to release Matter Test Build 8 this week, which will fix all current bugs (except any I decide to stuff in the post-release icebox, but that is rare.)

After that, I will immediately begin on #9, which will add the first batch of remaining Brand-related content.

Cheers, and good luck in the Tower!

Hey folks. Apologies for the slower updates this month; April’s had a lot going on, but I should have more development time available after this week.

The bugs are starting to wind down nicely: most of the ones left / being reported recently are balance or polish issues, rather than critical or systemic, so I’ll be switching over to beginning to work on the remaining Brand-related content soon, including Brand-related Relic Upgrades, Brands spawning on corpse encounters, and new Brand modifiers.

Thank you everyone for your help with testing, and for your patience while life’s kept me a bit busier than usual.