This release improves crash reporting to help us find and resolve application bugs faster. A few bugs have also been fixed, and a few unused files have been deleted.

This release fixes a few bugs that were introduced with the big infrastructure overhaul in version 2.30, including a game crash that can happen when interacting with the Bone Organ. If you find any more bugs, please let us know! Your feedback is extremely helpful.

This is a patch on top of 2.30 which fixes a game crash that happens when familiars level up. Sorry about that! If you are on version 2.30, please upgrade to this version (2.31) immediately.

What started as rebuilding our aging content management system blossomed into a year's worth of maintenance. Technical debt was piling up and we made the decision to address it before everything collapsed. Even though we released the first version of Bardcard only a few years ago, the code base is much, much older and needed some love. This release gives it that love! Updated lots and lots of dependencies. Sometimes this was a simple as a version bump. Other times we ripped out old dependencies and replaced them with new ones. Almost every feature was touched so thorough testing was necessary. The end user experience result of this work should hopefully be the same overall experience as the previous version. While playing, if you notice any bugs or other regressions, please let us know! We tried our best to test everything, but sometimes things fall through the cracks. Feature-wise, I added the top-most requested feature: Audio volume controls. You can find these in the Settings menu. Fixed notification UI placement issue on newer phones that have the dynamic island. Fixed an intermittent bug that caused the game UI to freeze when navigating between Main Menu screens. Various animation tweaks. This was due to changing the core animation capabilities. Hopefully they generally look/feel the same. Accessibility: Some minor VO improvements and regression fixes around control labelling and focus order. Removed lots of unused code and assets.

More VoiceOver improvements have been made in this release! While there is still much more room for improvement, this update aims to address the biggest barriers to enjoyable gameplay. Thank you for all the feedback and keep the reports coming. We are listening. While VoiceOver is enabled, battle turn result information no longer automatically advances with a timer. Instead, focus is placed on the result text to be narrated once a battle action is selected. To advance the battle, a "Continue" button follows the result text. This works fairly well but sometimes the focus can be a bit finicky. The good news is that the battle will not advance until you consent, so in cases where the focus is not automatically set, you can still access the result text. Note that this change affects non-VoiceOver users in that the big tappable area under the result text is now a "Skip" button instead. This fixes many usability issues I've encountered and should make battle turn skipping more clear. (For VoiceOver users: This "Skip" button has the same effect as the "Continue" button in that they both advance the battle.) Transcripts for the application boot and game start cutscenes have been added for VoiceOver users. A "skip" button is rendered at the top of the transcripts to bypass them quickly. Various labels are updated for VoiceOver support. Monster health is now read as a percentage until you've advanced to a knowledge level that reads out the actual values. Battle actions are now narrated with the action type (for example: "Bashing", "Freezing"). Notifications are now announced. These include player state changes such as when you are starving, overburdened, or in a dark room. There are also announcements for when the dungeon board changes: For example, when new cards are added to the board based on a triggering condition. Hopefully these notifications will give players a much better understanding of the game state. VoiceOver support for traps to hopefully make solving them clearer. Tile labels have been updated to narrate the row and column more clearly. Also, a bug was fixed that incorrectly narrated tiles on column 6 as column 0. I've changed the tile labels to narrate "tile" after the coordinates, as my assumption is that the coordinates are much more important and hearing "tile" over and over again could be tiresome. Revealed tiles that are not markers now narrate that they revealed nothing, instead of having the same label as unrevealed tiles. Fixed a number of broken VoiceOver labels. Fixed a bug on the Settings screen where toggling the music on while in the dungeon would play the Main Menu screen music. Fixed buggy behavior related to starvation and card matching which enabled players to continue playing briefly while their health was 0. Also fixed a starvation bug where the cause of death was the matched card instead of "starvation". Fixed buggy behavior due to fluctuating vitality. For example, it was possible to have health drop to zero if a vitality-granting effect wore off while at low health. Escaping from a paralyzed monster now has a 100% success rate. Updated various images including some card faces and dungeon background images. Various UI tweaks. Various copy changes.

This update has been a long time coming! As we're building features for the next big content release, we kept running into scaling issues. In this update we've redesigned some core components and took the opportunity to address long-standing feedback. Here’s what is in this release: Overhauled floor completion mechanics. Our number one piece of feedback is related to confusion on completion: What it means for a floor to be "complete", and players missing out on exploration opportunities due to thinking "complete" meaning "there is nothing else to do on this floor". We've changed how completion works by applying completion criteria to rooms instead: Cards: Have all the cards been matched upon exiting? Exits: Have all exits been taken at some point? Items: Have you found all the objects outside of simply matching all the cards? (Example: Completing tasks are now required for completion as they grant items and other valuable objects.) We've redesigned the "Floor Exit" screen to display completion criteria progress. If you've exited a previously-completed floor, the game will simply transition to the next floor (no need to keep seeing a "completed" screen over and over). (One note: Under these new rules, the "Secret Passage" room on Floor 16 can no longer be completed as it requires data from the next big content update. Sorry for confusion! This will be remedied soon.) Overhauled the "Map" Journal page. This is a big UI improvement over the old map which had major scaling issues and was generally buggy. The new map has smoother touch interactions and can be zoomed in and out to give you a better picture of your surroundings. It also includes the completion criteria for each visited room, and a "cards" panel that provides room information as you satisfy the different criteria. Let us know what you think of this new experience! Many VoiceOver support improvements. We've added missing labels to UI controls all over the app including the Trap experience, the Embark experience (the screen where you can configure your equipment and attributes when a new game begins), and all screens in the Journal. We've addressed focus management on modals, so when you exit a modal focus should return to the control that triggered it. We've also improved swipe navigation to make it easier to locate content. Note that we still have many, many more improvements to make! But hopefully the game should be more playable now for VoiceOver users. Increased the defense and durability of some shirts. Increased the damage of many two-handed weapons. Swapped the Wandering Healer for a Fountain in the Mystic Chamber on Floor 22. Fixed a bug where inspecting an item in the "matched" screen (by tapping on the big item image) would render an informational modal missing specific information, such as durability and granted effects. Fixed a bug where the game would recommend (via glowing equip slot) equipping a Lantern in a non-dark room, which would not help the player. Tons of dependency updates including framework upgrades. Various copy changes. Removed lots of unused code and data.

This version provides a fix for a game-breaking crash introduced in the previous version, happening when you visit a familiar-provider while the familiar is with you. The provider should grant you "bond" points, but instead the game would crash. Sorry about that!

Lots of framework updates and new support for Chapter 2 features! We are getting closer and closer to this monumental release. While most of the changes will be undetectable for now, they will be released soon :) XP and levels have been refactored. As we build out more Chapter 2 content, we've realized that XP point values and corresponding level requirements were not scaling well. We decided to reduce the XP values of all artifacts and increase the XP values of a few monsters. This should make progression more constant, satisfying, and scalable. The bad news is that the current highest score is lower than in previous versions (note that we never reduce leaderboard scores so your previous best is unchanged). But! The good news is that you are probably at a higher XP level than you were before. Be sure to allocate your extra attribute points when you begin a new game. Also, the current highest score cap is temporary — it will be increased once Chapter 2 rolls out. Increased the health granted when drinking Murky and Milky Potions by 50%, and Misty Potions by 20%. Updated UI rendering to better support iPhone 15. Fixed a bug where incorrect damage calculations were generated when accounting for opponent weaknesses and resistances. Fixed a bug where "almost escaping" in battle would not actually escape the battle. Minor copy updates.

Fixed an issue where Artifacts could be found multiple times from chests. The duplicate artifacts did not affect XP thankfully (as they are unique items) but it presents a confusing experience. Fixed a crash that could happen when opening a Familiar modal rendered from a card match screen. Fixed an issue where starving at low XP levels would add health instead of subtracting it. Fixed multiple types of battle actions that were accidentally causing equipment to decay faster than expected. These include actions such as the Whelk's poisonous goo spray that caused damage and applied a negative effect. As it turns out, both of these logic paths caused decay, which is not intended. When matching monsters and items (weapons, armor, magic, generic items, etc.) you can now tap on the card image to view more information. This should help you better strategize when fighting monsters (for example, you could quickly see monster stats and resistances/weaknesses) and decide whether or not to pick up an item. These two aspects are some of our most requested features -- let me know if they help! Updated battle action selection ordering to be more consistent: Actions are now ordered by equip slot (starting with the left hand slot). Having a burden value equal to your maximum burden level no longer counts as being overburdened. Enjoy your extra burden point! Updated the `escape` battle action result text to be more clear when you cannot escape from an opponent (such as rare monsters). Uncursing the Iron Sphere now gives you a Crystal Ball. Updated the "Found on floor" label in Artifact modals, removing the floor letter. This is a bygone from when the game referred to floors off the main path with letters. Since this concept no longer exists, the letters are confusing. Fixed a longstanding rendering bug where the Room Complete "checkpoint reached" copy overflows out of the container. It finally annoyed me long enough to fix it :) Fixed various copy blocks, addressing typos and updating to provide clarity. Removed unused code.

Added new weapons and armor, and shuffled all weapon and armor cards around: Some new cards are found earlier in the game, and attributes for many cards have changed slightly. Updated Familiar level up experience to clarify the skill improvements: New skills are denoted as "new" and updated skills now render the total bonus granted. Made the last tapped Journal tab persistent when viewing the Journal in-game: After exiting and reopening the Journal, you will land on the last tab you were on. This should make activities like constantly checking the Map easier via fewer taps. Fixed an issue where Myre's "Illumination" skill would sometimes not trigger a notification. Fixed a data consistency issue where a Familiar would not render in the Journal Status screen between games (e.g. if no active player is present such as when a game ends). In this case, the default familiar selected from the "Embark" screen will be rendered. Tweaked trap generation mechanics to slightly increase the number of turns a player is granted to disarm a trap. Fixed an issue where an odd number of Gnawers could be revealed via Rubble in the Crumbling Walls room, making one card unmatchable. Rare monsters that drop unique loot such as Artifacts and Relics now drop random rare items in subsequent battles. Tweaked the Crystal Ball mechanics to increase the number of cards revealed. This is based on your `magic` attribute and floor number just as before, but the calculation is more consistent. Uncursing the Iron Sphere now gives you Dark Powder. Updated the UI when uncursing an item using Myre's ability. Updated the copy on "investigative" cards such as Rubble and Bone Pile. Removed unused code and data.

More infrastructure changes for Chapter Two content! We're cooking up a lot of goodies and we cannot wait to share them with you. Updated board UI graphics including card backs, blocks, and other graphical treatments. Fixed an issue where duplicate found artifacts all contributed to XP gains, accidentally inflating scores for players who ran into this bug. (I believe the bug is fixed, but please let us know if you are able to get multiple copies of an artifact!) Note that your in-game XP score will be recalculated to account for duplicates, but your Leaderboard score will not be lowered. New content is on the way which means higher maximum scores, so the discrepancy will resolve itself. Refactored XP values across the board. Monsters and traps now generally grant more XP, and artifacts grant a little less. Floors grant XP according to their zone (for example, all floors in "Deep Cellar" now grant 20XP where before, some granted 10XP) and monsters/traps generally match this approach. Relics can now be dropped from your game inventory. Slightly reduced the percentage chance for some familiar skills to activate. We'll be increasing the familiar level cap soon and need to better balance the skills. The "Iron Sphere" is now a Notable Card. Replaced the "Lantern" on floor 21 with "Silverseal". The "Vigilant Avian" now gives you a "Lantern" if you are wearing the "Avian Pendant". Upgraded core application dependencies. Minor copy edits. Removed unused code and data.

Lots of infrastructure changes! We're building foundational features for Chapter Two content. Hopefully we didn't break anything :D But if we did, please reach out to us and we'll fix it! Fixed a bug where action cooldowns were not being applied correctly. Fixed a bug where the "Level Up" screen would not render for mastered traps. Fixed a bug where Squeaker nests would trigger even when declining to investigate Rubble. Goblin Bully no longer resists piercing. Avian interaction outcomes are now dependent on whether or not the Avian Pendant is equipped when you match them instead of whether or not "The Avian Elder" task was completed. Slightly renamed the "Iron Sphere" items and updated their descriptions. Added durability and increased the burden value. Increased the Gleaming Gem gold value from 4 to 6. Updated the icons for the "cursed" and "light" effects. Added Exit Modal flavor text when falling down pits. Minor copy edits.

Fixed a bug where the game could crash after leveling up the first time. Sorry about that! A silly mistake on our part -- huge thanks to the player that reported it. A reminder to everyone out there: If you find a bug, don't hesitate to contact us directly! We are listening :)

- Updated the animation that runs when two cards are successfully matched. The aims were to make it smoother and quicker. The original "match" animation was one of the oldest pieces of code in our app, so it felt good to give it a refresh. Let us know what you think! - Addressed a crash that can happen when a user chooses to load backup data while in a game (as opposed to from the title screen) by restricting the option for loading backup data to the title screen settings. Loading backup data while in a game presents numerous challenges that are better left alone for now. If you want to load your backup data, head to the title screen. - Updated the UI for victory screen entities (such as familiars and monsters) at their maximum levels. Fixed a bug where maxed out monster entities would always render the "level up" state. - Fixed an issue where modals opened from a toast notification would not have a header image. - Fixed an issue where certain instances of monsters would not render in-battle data regardless of the Knowledge Level obtained. - Fixed exit modals that did not render any flavor text, such as the Shimmering Circle. - Added better error messaging to the remote backup modals. - Minor copy edits related to multi-action weapons such as the Firebroom. - Removed unused code and data.

We gave smaller and larger screens some love in this update. If you're using an iPhone SE or iPad, the game should be less visually ugly. These changes include: Spacing adjustments between various UI elements, bumping the text size on smaller screens, and fixing issues on the Title screen where the menu was rendered off-screen on iPads. Fixed a rendering bug where solving a trap in darkness and then equipping a light source would not render the "nearby" tiles correctly. Fixed a bug where a game loaded from backup would crash when trying to access newer settings that do not exist in the backup data. Minor copy edits. Removed unused code and data.

The player status UI has been overhauled to improve information architecture and increase scalability to better support upcoming content. The tab UI has been replaced by a persistent "Backpack" module (which contains information migrated from the "Items" tab) and buttons linking to the Journal and Settings screens. All player stats are now found in the Journal, which now includes learned abilities. The bestiary has been combined with the "Artifacts" section and renamed "Collections". Added setting for toggling card animations such as when cards are flipped or successfully matched. This is useful for players who may find these animations distracting or players who desire faster gameplay. Improved Journal "Map" rendering performance. It is not quite where it should be, but much better than the previous version. Moved the Title screen bottom bar (the UI containing the version and links to the Changelog and Roadmap) above the swipe bar for easier access. Renamed "encumbrance" to "burden". Encumbrance is a more complicated word and is challenging to fit nicely in the UI. Increased the health gain when drinking potions. Added two missing monsters to the bestiary (which has now been migrated to the "Collections" Journal tab per the status UI overhaul). Updated images for the Avian Elder and Avian Mystic. Fixed a bug where a dark room would remain lit if the Raven’s "Illumination" effect ended during combat. Fixed a bug where a Familiar icon rendered on the "Hole in the Wall" screen even if the correct Familiar to use was not the current companion. Fixed a bug where the leaderboard was not immediately updated when XP was earned from monsters and traps. Removed unused code and data.

Remote Backup is now available! Do you want to securely backup your player data? Are you getting a new phone and want to transfer your player data? This feature is for you. To create your backup account, navigate to "Settings" => "Create Remote Backup". A default username (based on your player name) and backup key are pre-populated in the text input boxes. Feel free to change them if you like. When everything looks good, press "Enable" and you're officially backed up! By default, your player data will be automatically backed up via certain gameplay actions (like finding a new Artifact) or when you visit the title screen. If you want to backup manually instead, disable "Auto Backup" in the "Settings" menu and use the "Backup Now" button in "View Backup Info". To transfer data to a new phone, download Bardcard on the phone and go to "Settings" => "Load Backup Data". Enter your username and backup key, and you're good to go! If you uninstall Bardcard on a phone where you created a Remote Backup and then reinstall, your previous player data should be automatically installed. Note that Remote Backup only saves player data (i.e. everything in your Journal, your XP, learned abilities, etc.) It does not save game data (e.g. progress during your current run). Also note that you must be connected to the Internet for all of this to work properly. ;) Other updates: - Fixed an iPhone 14 issue where the "Dynamic Island" obscured game notifications. - Removed unused code and player data. - Upgraded code dependencies.

We've got a Discord server up and running! Added a link to it in the social media section of the About screen. Fixed the email address that populates a new email launched from the About screen. Improved VoiceOver support on the Main Menu, About, and Settings screens. Minor copy changes.

- Expanded Leaderboard UI to offer two views: The top 100 scores and a slice centered around your personal ranking. - Updated match UI where players make choices to use items/artifacts (e.g. to complete a task, to open a door): An icon of the item is rendered with a prompt to make the transaction clearer. - Added notifications when a familiar assists you in some way. For example, if your weasel uses "Scavenge" and an item is found, a notification makes this clear. - Fixed an issue where familiar skills sometimes failed to execute properly. - Fixed an issue where a monster using an effect on itself would incorrectly reduce the player's armor durability as if being attacked. - Minor copy changes. - Removed unused code.

Big update! This version features a large change to core gameplay progression based on lots of player feedback: Instead of losing earned experience and levels upon death, they are persisted between games. "Dungeon Points" have been rebranded as "XP" and now dictate a player's experience level. Defeating monsters and disarming traps no longer grant experience directly, however, advancing beastiary levels does grant XP. Traps have been added to the beastiary (sure, they’re not really "beasts" but the progression mechanics are similar enough where they make sense together). Gaining trap beastiary levels increases trap proficiency (the number of turns allotted to disarm a trap). Player attributes can be altered when beginning a new game. The total number of points available for distribution is proportional to the XP level. There is no penalty for redistributing points: Experiment with different builds to overcome challenges and suit your play style! The point values of two Artifacts have been reduced to better balance XP progression. To compensate for the point value reduction, a new Artifact is now available. You can find a clue about this Artifact's location at the Crossroads. (Note that leaderboard scores are not affected if a player's score is reduced due to the Artifact point value change; they will always persist the highest score logged. With the bit of new content and points available from beastiary levels, a new highest score is now possible although temporary; a new maximum will be available after the next large content update.) Artifact equipment ("relics") is no longer indestructible. Unbreakable, permanent items felt overpowered and reduced the need (and excitement) of finding new equipment that shared the same slots. While relics are now breakable, they have much higher durability than non-relic items found in the dungeon. Tweaked various monsters to rebalance the game against the new progression mechanics. Reduced the Weasel familiar’s War Dance skill gain from 15% to 10%. Fixed a situation where players could find duplicates of the same relic. Removed monsters from and added monsters to the beastiary. The slots should now be 100% accurate. Swapped two Artifact names, descriptions, and images. Removed unused game data.

Large refactor of core game internals to prepare for more persistent player progress. The gameplay is not changed in this update, but it will be activated in the next release or two once a few loose ends are tied up and rebalancing is complete. Fixed a bug where the "All Cards Matched" UI in the Floor Exit modal would render more than once. Various small copy tweaks.

Updated "basic exit" card (e.g. Stairs, Wooden Doors) match screens to include an option to flip the cards back down instead of taking the exit. This will help prevent players from accidentally leaving a room prematurely which tends to be frustrating -- especially when the exit is the very first match. Updated the starvation health reduction penalty to be 5% of max health (rounded down) instead of the value "1". This addresses an imbalance where the "starving" status ailment disproportionately affects lower-level players more severely than higher-level players who can safely ignore the health reduction penalty due to their high health. Note that the penalty is based on the max health value before the vitality bonus is added, so players are not penalized further by having a high vitality score. Removed unused code. Trying to keep things tidy.

Overhauled the Task experience to show a screen informing the player when a task is started or completed. Added a "Tasks" screen to the Journal that lists all found tasks, organized by "In Progress" and "Completed". Removed the small task list from the in-game "Journal" status tab. Fixed a crash caused by the Repaired Cabinet attempting to generate an item type it does not have access to. Updated image for the Thoughtful Avian. Maintenance: Upgraded a data layer dependency.

Fixed a game crash that can happen when finding a new Artifact. Players may or may not actually receive the Artifact when the crash happens, so check your Journal to see if the Artifact is there. Sorry about this! Not sure how the crash was introduced but it should be fixed now. Removed some unused game data.

Tweaked the Leaderboard UI and increased the number of scoring positions from 20 to 50. Congrats to those who are absolutely crushing it! Added links to the Changelog and our Roadmap. Let us know how you feel about our ideas and, if you have ideas of your own, let us know! Fixed a Journal UI issue where Artifacts and Monsters rendered more entries (via the empty dotted line cells) than what is actually available. Be on the lookout for more entries to be added as we develop more content. Updated the “player name” flow to better account for duplicate names on the Leaderboard. Before, if you registered a name that was already taken, the Leaderboard would show a blank space for your name. Now, your name will show with a randomized hash next to it. As always, you can change your name at any time by visiting “Settings” => “Change Name”. Removed unused code. Trying to keep the codebase clean within reason :)