What a journey! I originally started the earliest version of what became Krumit's tale back in 2018. After the release of Meteorfall: Journey for iOS and Android, I was trying to come up with a new game idea. I knew I wanted to do another card game and I knew I wanted to explore Meteorfall further, but I wasn't sure where to go next. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35301153/707598d9a01c10f9ab679cc3e92c63d2a22ccbb6.png[/img] [h2]Influences on Krumit's Tale[/h2] I was influenced at the time by two things that I can recall. One was Card Crawl on iOS / Android by Tinytouchtales. I tried to imagine what a deeper version of that game might look like. Like Krumit's Tale, Card Crawl is also a game that shuffles your deck and the enemies together, and limits your potential actions by having inventory slots that where you have to put your items and abilities. Another influence from that period was Sage Solitaire by Zach Gage. I really liked the idea of 'piles of cards' that you had to clear. A later game by Zach Gage, Cards of Darkness on Apple Arcade, was actually closer to the original vision for Krumit. Krumit eventually outgrew the initial vision and added gravity to the tiles, which I think is interesting - but the initial vision was much simpler. [h2]Building the first version of Krumit's Tale[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35301153/5f386535b0ee2fb72ad0a41201d2d834592293dd.png[/img] From here, I started prototyping out the concept to see if it was fun. Compared to Meteorfall: Journeys, Krumit's Tale took *a lot* more iteration to get right. Meteorfall, at least, *looked* like games I'd played at the time, such as Dream Quest. Krumit's Tale, with its grid system and the way you acquire tiles, meant that I didn't really have a lot of other games to draw influence from and had to just iterate on different ideas to see what worked. I again partnered with Evgeny Viitman ([url=https://www.behance.net/EvgenyViitman]Portfolio[/url]), a brilliant illustrator and animator that I'd worked with on Meteorfall. It was magical to see the characters of Meteorfall come to life. All the character designs I'd grown to love in Meteorfall were now animated in all their glory. Evgeny did an amazing job translating his signature style to the animated world of Krumit's Tale. Perhaps most remarkable was how close Evgeny's original sketch was to the final version of Krumit! [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35301153/827d8de54f9db98a16cc34f08913044d06e4d44d.png[/img] [h2]Krumit - The Final Piece[/h2] The final lynch pin that I think really puts Krumit's Tale over the top is the mysterious and strange Krumit - the titular narrator of our story. The Krumit character, his design, and the way he's displayed in game with the box was all Evgeny's idea. In Journeys, we had the 'bear' that would swipe the cards off the table in a really silly and fun way. Adding Krumit to the game added immediate charm and a distinct character for players to relate to. Krumit took on new life when we worked with Adrian Vaughan ([url=https://www.adievaughan.com/]Portfolio[/url]). Adrian is the voice of Krumit and I can't even play the game without Krumit's voice anymore. Adrian's rendition of Krumit really put the production level over the top for me. Hearing Krumit cheer (and sometimes chide) the player adds just so must personality to the game. Recording with Adrian was an absolute blast as well. He's so incredibly talented and pleasant to work with. [h2]Looking Back[/h2] In May 2019, I wrote a [url=https://medium.com/@slothwerks/meteorfall-krumits-tale-92505dff5514]Medium post revealing Krumit's Tale[/url], and looking back - it ended up being pretty close to the final version! The screenshots and mechanics are immediately recognizable. The game has come a *long* way in terms of cohesion, UI, and usability since then, but the core gameplay is still recognizable. I'm so incredibly proud of what we were able to deliver with Krumit's Tale. It's by far one of the biggest projects I've worked on in my life, and I got to work with such talented creative folks to bring it to life. When COVID started spreading in the US in March, the office where I work (at my full-time job - I develop Krumit as a hobby) shut down and I was laid off. Having a personal project that I could focus all my energy on, with such a supportive community, helped me power through that difficult time with excitement instead of fear. I've been fortunate to work on Krumit full-time for the past few months and I've had an absolute blast doing it. I'd also like to give one more shout out to all the supportive folks who helped me ship this game from Early Access. It's almost funny when I look back at Day 1 of Early Access and all the rough edges the game had at that point, and how far it's come. A lot of that polish game from players telling me what worked, and what didn't. Players challenged me to be more detail oriented and critical with the bug fixes, and made helpful suggestions about how to adapt the UI to mobile. In total, players filed over 800 bugs and improvements during the 9 months of Early Access, the game is better because of it. Thank you! I hope you all enjoy the game and stay tuned - there will be more content to come!