I finally recorded 40 new sounds for Faith in Despair. It was important to me that I used MTG cards for card sounds (picking up, shuffling, etc.). These sounds are subtle, but should add a lot to the atmosphere.

I also recorded specific sounds for lacrima using my ring and other meaningful items. Having a lot of things in the game that are special to me feels like breathing soul into it, it's something that I've always loved doing, especially since halfquake amen.

The next day I sliced up the sounds, made sure they were as short as possible (especially sounds that you hear a lot) and put them into the game. It felt like the game was speaking to me for the first time. :D It took a bit to get used to it, but after a while I really enjoyed it. Some sounds may need some adjustments here and there, but I'm really happy with it overall.

Displayed Mana Costs

Mana costs are now visible on the cards when you have them in your hands. It wasn't clear before how much a card would cost, since it was simply based on the equipped lacrima on a card. But it's crucial information, so now it's visible.

Mana costs also changed to total lacrima slots on a card, no matter if they have lacrima equipped or not. This allows for more experimentation with equipping lacrima that aren't triggered that often. In previous runs I noticed that I kept cards empty because I would try to keep mana costs down, but now that they cost the same every time, it's very freeing.

Options to regain mana will grow as well in the future, with more blessings, shop re-rolls, as well as the new sacrifice event. Suffice to say, even with the new changes, it was still possible to beat the game, although quite challenging, which is good. :D

Darker Cards

The cards needed to be a bit darker to appear less "blocky". This also makes the numbers and the text more readable. I still want to change how the lacrima look, maybe make them darker overall.

The sigil that's on each lane also sticks out more and more and I'll have to replace it soon with a simple outline, I think. We'll see.

(Speaking of sticking out... :P)

Blessings Complete

As mentioned before, one of the items on my list on the road to the demo was having twenty blessings. And since Friday, that is now complete! I've added some very experimental ones that don't simply change stats, but allow for different mechanics and slightly varied playstyle options.

I will add more in the future, but I'm happy that all bosses and blessings for the demo are now done.

What's Next?

I'll keep playing the game and check remaining sounds that need to be added, or if existing sounds need to be adjusted. Other than that, I want to give the player more options when receiving cards, instead of just adding them to the deck.

For example, in the beginning of a run, I want to offer a choice to pick one out of three blessings, instead of just adding one randomly. Same thing when opening a chest and finding a card or lacrima. More choice is always good and it also goes through the available content quicker (to get to the cards you really need right now in the run).

And of course - music! I've made a list of tracks that I'm going to need for the demo, and it's already 8 in total. Some of them won't have to be very long, like 1 minute total, but I'd need to expand them later for the OST release anyway, so we'll see. Thankfully, most tracks for my games were done in 1-2 days, so it shouldn't take too long.

🧙‍♂️ To be continued...