Summer 2026 Dev Update
Greetings, travelers! Doug here with all of the latest Advent of the Reaper news! Thanks for continuing on this journey with us! Since our last blog in April, we’ve been quite busy and have lots of exciting items to share!
Part I: Game Content Updates
First and foremost, we have made huge strides with our third chapter, featuring the Angel Party of Nathaniel, Larakel, and Juliette. This level is now fully playable (although we are continuing to update and balance it)! In order to help make playing through each party’s dedicated chapters feel unique, we’ve created an entirely new UI for each element in the game’s Angel Party chapters. Perhaps in the future we’ll allow the player to override which variant of the UI is displayed, but for now, it’s dependent on which type of chapter is being played - Reaper or Angel. All interactive UI elements are graphically and position equivalent - they present the same gameplay experience, just with a different visual flair.
Screenshot showing the Angel UI for VN dialogue
In the Spring update, I mentioned how we had implemented a healing mechanic, in preparation of both healing items and healing magic effects. The Angel Larakel is the game’s first such example of this, combined with another system I brought up previously - the Sacred Sigil System. Larakel has been granted exceptionally rare magic that allows her to move and act again after using her special healing action. The current implementation uses a turn-count cooldown to keep the use of the ability strategic!
Perhaps most exciting, this chapter also introduces a new mechanic that I envisioned in the very early days of Advent’s game design. Dubbed the E/F system (for ebb and flow), this is a rotating bonus system based on a Unit’s Dark or Light alignment. While we are only just starting to explore the full depth this system will offer, Units receive stat boosts and automatic minor healing while their bonus is active, and future implementations will see special actions restricted to use during their bonus period, different effects applied to attacks, and so forth. Part of our UI updates included conveying the bonus state to the player as part of the turn/phase flourishes.
Screenshot showing the Angel UI for combat
A variety of other updates have been happening as well, such as…
Visual Novel dialogue updates and corrections (incredibly, we had a typo in the first line of the first chapter’s VN which no one had caught or pointed out in the last two years..).
New emotions for some characters’ visual novel portraits
A rework of how ranged projectiles are displayed
…and of course, bug fixes galore!
We have more exciting plans in the months to come, as well - look forward to it!
PART II: EVENTS
Last month we had the pleasure of returning to the Indie Game Fest in Baltimore, held at the Enoch Pratt Central Library. This was our third time at the event, and we had an amazing time (as always). While we were sadly not able to have players try out our third chapter at this event (we just had a few too many lingering bugs to squash and get things stable), we still received lots of great feedback and a great time chatting with players. I’m not sure if they decided to do things alphabetically this year, or if we just got lucky, but we were placed right next to the event’s entrance and were very thankful for the extra exposure!
What’s next, you ask!? Turns out our next event is right around the corner. Advent of the Reaper will have an exhibitor booth at Supernova 2026, taking place in the Baltimore Convention Center from August 6-9th, 2026. I was unfamiliar with Supernova prior to this, but they actually reached out to us after seeing us at Indie Game Fest - how cool is that!? They are expanding their indie dev presence with a new venue for this year, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it! We are excited to show off our new playable chapter and give people the opportunity to try out the game for the first time. We have a monstrous 10x10 booth space (same as MAGfest), so we’ll have the opportunity to break out our 8x10 foot banner for the first time since its MIVS debut! You can, of course, expect a recap in the next blog as well!
Supernova 2026 Details
Finally, we’ll be submitting to MAGfest MIVS 2027 within the next week. Here’s hoping you’ll be able to see us there!
PART III: Wrapping Up
Before I finish up this post, I just wanted to give a small shout-out to Syntax Issues, a devlog documenting one game dev journey through a series of videos. Advent’s pixel art was featured in an episode of the devlog, which always fills us with the warm and fuzzies!
Thanks everyone for reading and for your continued support of Advent of the Reaper! As always, don’t forget that you can wishlist Advent of the Reaper on Steam!