If you've not yet read about the general changes in the 1.4 beta line, now is a good time to do so. It's expected that we'll stay in beta for the 1.4 line until the week of July 29th, when we'll do an official release called 1.5. A lot is different here, so we want to make sure and give this time to mature before we put this out to everyone.
This one is the first release in a couple of weeks, which is uncharacteristic for us. Firstly, people seem pretty happy with the last beta version, so there were surprisingly few bug reports or requests for changes.
Given that, I've been putting most of my efforts into a combination of the upcoming Nihon no Mura expansion for Skyward, as well as our upcoming tactical roguelike Bionic Dues. Last week was also kind of a wash, too, because I had two unrelated deaths in the family and thus was hardly at work at all thanks to the funerals and related family events.
Anyway, about this new version: I think this is going to be a very exciting one! The visual look of it is vastly better thanks mainly to the new font, but also due to some other smaller additions. There are also two new difficulty modes, which should provide the experience that a number of players are looking for (either something between the old Medium and Hard, or something greater than the old Expert, respectively).
There are also a couple of really key balance changes in here. Lumber is no longer so incredibly scarce, and the Ally Camps no longer are something you can exploit (at least not in the same way; let us know if you think of something new).
This is probably the last release for a couple of weeks, unless something significant comes up today or tomorrow. I'm going to be unavailable this Friday and next week (boy this month is not good on that front). The week that I get back, the Nihon expansion will come out into beta. The 2.0 version of the game, plus that expansion, will officially release probably in the week of August 19th.
Enjoy!
This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have any version of the game. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time.
Originally posted: Arcengames.blogspot.com
