The Spell Book

Latest Patch Notes

Version 0.9.13 - March 6, 2025
- Improved the quality of the monster sprites on the world map
- Optimised backgrounds, uncompressed size down from 29.2 MB to 12.9 MB
- Optimised character sprites, uncompressed size down from 717.69 MB to 265.32 MB
Version 0.9.12 - March 5, 2025
- The map has been greatly expanded, and all stages have been added to the game. There are now 100 stages to play!
- Two new shops can be found in the new sections of the map
- The following additional items are now fully implemented and can be found in the game:
  - Ring of Wisdom: You learn faster!
  - Katterat's Blessing: Chance to find more items
  - The Vampire's Embrace: A little life steal goes a long way
  - Jewel of the Merchant Prince: Another way to get coins
  - Ring of Dexterity: Chance to dodge an attack!
  - The Guided Arrow: Hit 'em where it hurts!
  - Pendant of the Clever Fool: A benevolent spirit will occasionally help you spell words
  - The Golem's Skin Serum: Helps your skin resist minor abrasions
  - Elixir of the Eagle: Get an eagle's point of view
  - Potion of Perception: Helps you think of a word to play
  - ...and more!
- Increased the input area around a stage, triggering a stage won't require as precise a touch anymore
- King Arkind will now actually give a reward for winning as promised. If the player's inventory is full, the player will receive some coins instead!
- Item drop rates and level progress have been rebalanced with the larger map and increased amount of items in mind
- Fixed a bug where sometimes an NPC's dialogue would be immediately skipped and the game would continue to the battle arena
- Fixed spacing in the win dialogue when displaying large XP rewards
- Sped up the XP traveling from the defeated monster to the experience bar
Version 0.9.11 - February 19, 2025
- A new NPC by the name of Nevi will deliver the storyline through dialogue in-game
- A tutorial has been added. Upon starting a new game, Samarinda will guide the player through all the intricacies of the game
- The tutorial can be disabled in the settings
- The world map GUI has received a much-needed upgrade
- Added a player character info sheet to the world map. Tap on your character's portrait to view stats like class, level, stages cleared, and more!
- Added your total gained XP to the rewards list on the victory screen
- Added a watch ad button on the victory screen. Watching an ad will give you bonus rewards!
- Fixed having to tap on a stage twice to trigger that stage if you've just loaded the game, or returned to the map, and your character is already at the stage you tried to enter
- Fixed character ending up at the wrong stage when changing destinations partway through travel
- You can now view stage details after winning a stage. These details include monster name, monster level, total wins and losses, and the trophy/star requirements
- You can now battle for a better trophy/more stars by watching an ad
Version 0.9.10 - February 6, 2025
- Games saved before this patch will be wiped
- Stars and trophies for winning a battle have now been added!
- Rebalanced player progress and monster levels
- You can now challenge opponents multiple times. The XP rewards will be subject to diminishing returns
- The following additional items are now fully implemented and can drop as rewards:
  - Potion of Thought: Adds 15/10/5 seconds to your timer based on the game's selected difficulty
  - Potion of Echoes: You can play two words during your turn
  - Elixir of Knowledge: A rare concoction that boosts your XP
  - Elixir of Souls: A rare concoction that gives you two additional tokens
  - The Somnambule's Shield: A ring that gives some damage protection
  - Ring of Ur the Farsighted: Allows the player to see farther through the fog of war
  - Pendant of Pirriax: Chance to confuse your enemy, making them lose their turn
- Elixirs cannot be equipped and must be consumed on the world map straight from the player's inventory (double tap an item to open its description)
- Added a few hidden stages. There's an item in the game that might help you spot them!
- Added a new shop, Loriquai's Bazaar, on the path before the swamps
- Added a dedicated close button for the inventory screen
- Added placeholder textures to equipment slots to indicate the type of equipment the slots are intended for
- Added more missing words to the database
- The save game slot buttons in the Continue game submenu now show the saved game's character level, total stages cleared, and avatar head, in addition to the previously added difficulty level
- Added background music to the world map
- The world map background music can now be toggled in the settings menu
- Added an alert sound and pulsating effect to the turn timer during the final seconds of the player's turn
- The pirate captain's appearance has been tweaked to better reflect his ghostly nature
- Using sort or shuffle while having a word partially played will no longer affect the played letters
- Fixed hit animations playing twice under certain conditions
- Fixed the item description window occasionally closing as soon as it was opened
- Fixed the king's stage becoming visible and accessible too early
- Fixed missing throw animation on one of the knights near the king
- Fixed long words causing the attack to get stuck in the spinning animation
- Fixed long words sometimes inflicting damage to the player while they were being spelled out
Version 0.9.9 - January 24, 2025
- Games saved before this patch will be wiped
- A new token system for game play has been implemented. To challenge enemies you must have tokens. Losing a challenge, or leaving one before it's finished, will cost 1 token. When you're out of tokens, you can watch an ad to gain 3 new tokens
- Reduced the bonus damage given by the Ring of Power from 2 to 1
- The World Map HUD is no longer blurred when the inventory or shop is open
- HUD sound effects can now be switched off in the settings
- Marked a few additional words as vulgar to prevent monsters from spelling them
- Fixed played letter tiles alignment, they are now properly centred between the player and monster
- Monsters can no longer repeat words played by the player
- The game slots in the Continue sub menu will now show the saved game's difficulty
- There is now a confirmation screen when overwriting a saved game slot
- There is now a confirmation screen when buying or selling items in a shop
- Fixed the first stage of the branching path next to the king becoming available too early
- Sprites in battle arenas are now positioned closer together on wider screens
- Potions of Health will now correctly apply their intended effect, instead of always granting 5 health
- You can no longer drink a Potion of Health if your health is full
Version 0.9.8 - January 17, 2025
- Added difficulty options when starting a new game. Existing games will default to medium. Choose wisely, the difficulty can't be changed once the game has started
  - Easy: 30 seconds per turn
  - Medium: 20 seconds per turn
  - Hard: 10 seconds per turn
- The main menu has a new game title, logo, background, and more
- Fixed layout issues on tablets
- Added some missing words to the dictionary
- Added a label to shops, indicating the shop's name
- Added a dedicated close button for shops (you no longer have to use the inventory button)
- Various menus and other windows will now blur the scene running in the background
- Increased the size of the menu button in battle arenas
- Added a Close button to the menu in battle arenas
- Item prices will now show directly in the shop inventory UI
- Added an options menu to the world map, so you can return to the main menu
- The speed at which attacks travel towards their target has been increased
- The New Game/Continue sub menus on the main menu are now titled accordingly
- Clicking the main menu menu items now properly opens/closes the correct sub menus, when applicable
- The Continue button in the main menu is now disabled if there are no save games to continue
- The game slot buttons will now show an 'Empty' label if there is no saved game in that slot
- The game slot buttons in the Continue sub menu are now disabled if they have no save game to continue
- Fixed old save game data being transferred over to new games
- Fixed next stage(s) always being revealed when returning to the world map, regardless of the last match's outcome
- Fixed the first stage on the path on south western corner of the world map being revealed too soon
Version 0.9.7 - January 14, 2025
- Added a shop to the starting area where the player can buy and sell items
- Some NPCs/monsters now have things to say!
- Updated played tile y position to match the recently updated player and monster character positions
- Player's wealth is now stored in the inventory resource (code change only)
- Fixed first stages on branching paths being revealed and becoming accessible too early
- Increased the size of the item description pop-ups, and added the item's sell value
- Fixed player still being allowed to play letters after the turn timer ran out
- Fixed quick tap on a letter moving towards the played area causing that letter to be returned to its original position
- iOS: Fixed pinch to zoom on world map