Dear players,

Great news! The Kickstarter dates have just been set! 

The 'Horn of Balance' Kickstarter will launch on Friday March 8th!

Be sure to give the project a follow over on the pre-launch site:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hornofbalance/horn-of-balance?ref=discovery
It will notify you about the exact timing and will help you snag a cheaper early bird copy of the full game.

As for planned Kickstarter rewards to look forward to (in no specific order):

• All backers are eligible for a credits listing and special Discord role. (=No pay walling)
• Want to add the soundtrack, beta access or alpha access? I've got you covered.
• Noticed those statues in the demo dungeon? How about a tier to insert your very own character's name and backstory into the game?
• Want EVEN more?! Well, how about the rare opportunity to help me bring one of you enemy designs to life?
• Or the limited option to insert your pet into the game?
• Or to literally become part of a secret boss?
  Wait, what?!
  ...
  Uuhm...
  You know what? Yeah, let's do this! 
  Fought the demo end boss yet? There will be a harder end game version of that fight and one of its pieces could look just like you (or your OC)! How cool is that?!
• And if ALL of that STILL leaves you wanting more:
  There will the rarest tier that will make me add an entirely new extra secret boss into the game based on your design!

Also note that most of these rewards stack, but more on that later. It is going to be quite the event!



In the meantime: I have also been working on the next demo update (=2.1) which is now available!
This one focusing on further tweaks and fixes, as well as more quality of life improvements:

• Laid the groundwork for an upcoming French version of the demo. We're about 40%-50% done with the translations.
• You will now release unusable sprites when used, allowing you to always be able to free up nests
• The default hero name has been set to Linden
• You can now use special characters when naming the hero
• Added more screen resolution options
• Lowered the game's overall music volume
• The options menu navigation has been improved
• Improved the subboss attack transitions
• Fixed the wind and darkness sprites switching once you've captured them
• Fixed the fire elemental making enemies immune to most damage, if not killed on the first hit
• Tweaked a few minor visual things
• For more detailed progress updates and weekly posts, feel free to join our Discord community

Note that I've also mentioned new dungeon music coming soon. It is underway, with the first demo snippets having been approved just yesterday. So expect another demo update before the actual Kickstarter event.

Greetings,
Martijn

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For more "Horn of Balance" goodness check out:
- (Pre-launch) Kickstarter page - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hornofbalance/horn-of-balance?ref=discovery
- Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2738140/Horn_of_Balance/
- Discord - https://discord.gg/redHXyZ2Gc
- Twitter/X - https://twitter.com/HornofBalance
- Mastodon - https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@HornofBalance
- Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/hornofbalance.bsky.social