Spring 2026 Dev Update
Hello everyone! Doug here with the latest Advent of the Reaper news! I wanted to spend a little time talking about some new assets that have been made for the game, as well as some of the features and content we've been working on implementing!
Part I: Art Asset Updates
As I mentioned in our last blog, progress really slowed to a crawl in the second half of 2025, and new art assets were impacted as much as any other facet of the game. As the lead pixel artist, that hurt my soul, but I'm back in the saddle and crafting new sprites every week, along with some new sprites from our contributing artists!
As a prime example, take a look at our new combat sprites for the Royal Knight, Juliette! Juliette is a playable character starting in our third chapter as a member of the Angel Party.
Juliette Combat Animations
As you can see in the animation above, we also needed combat sprites for wolf enemies and the third chapter boss, the Mirewolf. I enlisted the help of another talented spriter to create these, Hybrider-83, and the results look great! We’re thinking about giving the Mirewolf a Poison-inflicting attack.
Larakel vs the Mirewolf boss unit
And of course, new VN portraits have been coming in from Yolie as well, giving our characters more emotions to convey throughout the Visual Novel scenes. Take a look at the Angel Larakel displaying a show of… happiness?! She’s usually quite prickly!
Larakel looking quite pleased about something
And as a final treat, check out some new promotional art from Jem for our second chapter boss, the Jester's Crown Knight Natalia!
Natalia, a knight fighting for Jester’s Crown
Part II: Features & Content Updates
On this front, we've been focusing on getting our third chapter implemented, as well as some additional convenience features. Naturally, some of the art assets help feed into that third level prep as well. We actually already had the third level map laid out, but the enemy map asset was a placeholder. Additionally, we only had "standard" combat animations for the Angels Larakel and Nathaniel, who still needed their Ascend combat variants. Getting the new enemy sprites imported, properly aligned for in-game transitions between states, and wired into game objects has been an important step!
Ya’ll got any more of them HPs?
For our third chapter, we also introduce several new mechanics to the player. The first is one everyone already expects from games: healing abilities! Up until now, we were only in the business of dealing damage, not recovering from it (okay, maybe that’s not technically true - but let me roll with it)! We now have the functionality for characters to have targeted healing actions implemented. This went hand-in-hand with another important mechanic needed for the chapter...
The Sacred Sigil System
This is a top-down mechanic bringing part of the Advent lore into gameplay. Every Reaper and Angel character possesses an Origin Sigil, which imbues them with their powers. However, there are also ten Sacred Sigils which can be inherited in addition to a character’s Origin Sigil. These Sacred Sigils grant their inheritors unique magic and were instrumental in shaping the strongest Reapers and Angels throughout history. The way we’ve decided to demonstrate that in-game is through unique bonus actions. What does that mean, exactly? The Angel Larakel, introduced in our third chapter, possesses the Sacred Sigil of Vitality. This grants her a special turn action: she can move, perform a free healing magic action (no resources required), and then act again (move, attack, etc)! Our current method for limited these actions’ use is a simple turn-cooldown timer. While Sacred Sigils are rare, the Player will encounter a number of them throughout the game, both possessed by player and enemy units. Please look forward to seeing these exciting abilities in action!
Dedicated Game Over Screen
Believe it or not, when a Player triggered a Game Over state, up until very recently we were still using a placeholder dialog popup that said “You lose” (and did not match any of the game’s other current UI) that had persisted from a very early build of the game. That has been replaced with a proper Game Over screen, complete with dedicated music to make you feel bad and sad (or, preferably, filled with a desire to avenge your loss).
You Lose :(
…And More!
We have a roadmap for several other features, including the oft-requested Unit Status Screens, a rolling alignment-based bonus system, and more on the way. Thanks so much for your continued interest and support for Advent, and look forward to more updates to come! If you haven’t already, don’t forget that you can wishlist Advent of the Reaper on Steam!
Next Up: Indie Game Fest 2026
We'll be returning to the Indie Game Fest in Baltimore, MD in June! While it's going to come down to the wire (when does it not in the world of game dev?), we're hoping to have our third chapter, featuring the Angel party of Larakel, Nathaniel, and Juliette, available to play at the event. If you’re local to the area, please come try out the newest Advent of the Reaper demo along with dozens of other indies, game dev talks, and more! Event information available here.