After an incredibly successful release, the hit deckbuilder roguelike sequel Slay the Spire 2 released its first major content update on April 16, adding new relics to Act 1’s Ancient, Neow, updating a whole bunch of art, changing up a few cards, improving map generation, and more. Now, a month after release, in their April newsletter (dubbed “The Neowsletter”), the developers at Mega Crit have detailed plans for the future of the game on the road to the 1.0 release.
The roadmap doesn’t have a fancy graphic, some games put out for the occasion, but instead quickly details a whole lot of planned features and goals. Some would be returning from the first game, such as Steam Workshop support, a “True Victory,” Steam Trading Cards, achievements, and ports to mobile and console. Mega Crit also promises further bug fixes, balance changes, performance improvements, quality of life features, and further additions of cards, relics, events, and potions.
Most notably, they promise one new character (could The Watcher return? Or will it be someone entirely new?), alternative second and third Acts (currently, only the first Act splits into two versions: Overgrowth and Underdocks), and experimental game modes. Slay the Spire 2’s popularity can be attributed in no small part to its inclusion of a new mode—that being co-op multiplayer—so it’d be interesting to see what other ways of playing Slay the Spire 2 Mega Crit can come up with.
It’s worth noting that none of these features has a specific timeframe. One of the developers and studio co-founder, Casey Yano, responsible for writing the newsletter, says that deadlines produce “sloppy uninspired work” and that he doesn’t want “Sloppy Spire 2.” For those wanting faster changes, the beta branch “intended for testing experimental changes” will be updated more often, so if you want a chance to provide feedback while getting the latest version of Slay the Spire 2, you can do so by opting in. Just right-click on the game in your library, click Properties, then Game Versions & Betas, and there, select the public-beta branch.
Alongside the roadmap, the team gave us a small glimpse into the stats for some of the events currently in the game. In total, the players have embarked on around 145 million runs. For the event that gives the players the chance to obtain The Lantern Key after a fight with a tough enemy, 56% of players choose to avoid the scuffle. For the reward that comes as a result of obtaining it, 88% of players pick the History Course relic over the 2 random potions and 2 random relics. Only 37% of players take the Chosen Cheese when given the option. Most balanced, 51% of players take the Byrdonis Egg that can then be hatched at a campsite.
The newsletter is definitely worth following for all fans of Slay the Spire, as there’s more news and community projects to be found in each one. They feature artwork made in the game (using the game’s drawing tool) or outside it, Connections puzzles made by the team, and monthly themes the team puts forward for fan art creators. For all the latest on roguelikes and indie games, however, stay tuned to GameObserver.
