The New Beginnings Update (0.0.12) gives Upheaval a brand-new opening sequence, a mysterious Magician’s Diary, a starting item choice, background info about you and the town, and expanded tutorials! Try it out on itch.io or on Steam. I hope you enjoy! 🥳

• Play the Demo on Steam
• Play the Demo on itch.io

If you own the alpha version, download the new update from itch.io or Google Play. To get an email when the full game is done, wishlist Upheaval on Steam.

After you download the update, start a new game to try out the new content. New: If you want a completely fresh game experience, delete all your save data using the new option in Settings!

SPOILERS MAY BE AHEAD! TAKE CARE!

Highlights from this update

• Brand-new beginning to the game! Receive a mysterious letter, choose a starting item, and learn more about the town, yourself, and your surroundings.

• New map features in the graphical version! Labels for regions, labels for people (Magic Map only), an optional node map overlay, and an experimental “Place marker” feature (let me know how useful it is for you!).

• New Magician’s Diary and Records views help you plan future runs and review past ones!

• Expanded tutorial from the tavernkeeper that optionally teaches some of the finer mechanics of the game.

Keep reading to see the complete list of changes! 😊

Detailed changes

Special thanks to Julia, Courtney, Brad, Max, Jonathan, Chad, and Maria for playtesting this release! Your help is really appreciated. ❤

Additions:

• Added a new choice to the beginning of the game, where you can choose an item to start with out of the following: a Cruel Dagger, a Magic Map, a Jar of Fireflies, a Fishing Rod, or your Wits (i.e. nothing).
• Added lots of background information to the game’s beginning.
• Added new tutorial questions you can ask the tavernkeeper, both in the beginning and if you talk to him in the tavern. One of the questions you can ask gives precise directions to the location mentioned in your mysterious letter!
• Added new Magician’s Diary, showing optional goals you can complete.
• Added new Records view, letting you read summaries of your past games.
• Graphical version: Now you can add a single marker to the map (right-click on desktop, long-press on mobile) so you can mark locations to remember them better. Trying this to see if it’s a useful feature!
• Added new cosmetic status “Getting ready” at the beginning of the game.
• Added setting to automatically add ALL suggested entries to your journal.
• Added setting that disables all tutorials and repetitive introductions.
• Added ability to delete ALL save data (including the Magician’s memory) from in-game (under Settings).
• Added more options to bandit and goblin encounters (thank you Illegally Sighted for your suggestions!).
• Command line version: Added detailed time information, so you can know exactly what period in the day it is (thank you Illegally Sighted for the suggestion!).
• Added indicators so you can tell which options are affected by randomness (graphical version: 🎲, command line version: success/failure is random, thanks Phobie for the suggestion!).
• Added tooltip to “Search this area” that shows how many times you searched it before you click search (thanks Phobie for the suggestion!).
• Graphical version: Added tooltip that shows which option leads back to the place you just came from (thanks Phobie for the suggestion!).
• Added a warning if you are traveling into the burial mounds and it will be night when you arrive.
• Added buttons to the main menu to join the Discord server and fill out the Feedback form.
• Added new scouting option when you go foolishly into goblin territory.
• Added new dialogue option in manor after you talk to the prisoner in the goblin caves (thanks to the streamer who tried to do this whose name I sadly forgot to write down, if this was you let me know so I can credit you!).
• Graphical version: Added labels to the map (can be disabled in Settings, on by default, thanks Phobie for the suggestion!).
• Graphical version: Added node map overlay to the map (can be enabled in Settings, off by default, thanks Phobie and for the suggestion!).
• Added the ability to ask the tavernkeeper to do something about the rowdy group making a mess out of the corner table.

Changes:

• Graphical version: Made the Magic Map actually show labels on your map (thanks to every playtester who has ever instinctively checked their map after getting the Magic Map in the past, I finally added this).
• Command line version: Moved the option to look at the labels on your Magic Map into the map menu (for parity with the above).
• Made bandits move after you run away successfully or try to be friends with them unsuccessfully (thanks to the anonymous feedback survey response that suggested this!).
• Made Magician better describe more things you might have done during your adventure (thanks to Courtney for suggesting these!).
• Removed the “Load Adventure” button: you can now only play one adventure at a time, and must choose to either abandon or complete your current adventure to start a new one. (Note: Loading games back and forth was wreaking havoc on the Magician, who remembers all your past playthroughs! So only one game at a time now, for the Magician’s sanity. 🙂)
• Renamed the Long Knife to Cruel Dagger.
• Graphical version: Moved “Share anonymous data” setting into “Save Data Settings.”
• Command line version: Commands that have whitespace at the beginning or end are now recognized.
• Made the wraith’s curse last indefinitely until it’s removed (rather than automatically expiring after a certain length of time).
• Made the heart of the fen open up if you are cursed.
• Made the throne room have a hidden goblin key right away.
• Changed “Goal” to “Dream” on the character sheet.
• Changed the time cost of actions when going foolishly into goblin territory.
• Asking around town now takes longer when you’re cursed.
• Changed default status from “None” to “Doing fine.”
• Made asking to join the goblins not automatically land you in jail (until I finish that story line).
• Removed the popup introduction at the beginning of each game (it was redundant).
• Cleaned up MS Paint-style tallgrass location marker.
• Shuffled around and rewrote in-game tutorials.
• Made catching the imp actually random.
• Removed an unhelpful question from the tavernkeeper. 🚫⚔️
• Graphical version: Made tutorial text italic.
• Made it less likely that the town would have the same name twice in a row.
• Made searching automatically succeed the first time you search for the item mentioned in your letter (only on your first game).
• You can no longer take the archives tour in the late afternoon, since that would leave you with no time to do anything in the archives (thank you to all the players who pointed this out to me!).
• Reformatted descriptions for eating food so they look better.
• Fixed typos and improved descriptions throughout.

Bug Fixes:

• Graphical version: Fixed several display issues with Dark Mode where text was rendering in the wrong color (thanks Max Angor!).
• Fixed a bug where sometimes stealing a key from the goblins while you reveal yourself wouldn’t actually give you the key. 🪦🗝️
• Fixed a bug where imp and fireflies wouldn’t properly defend against the wraith.
• Fixed time sometimes displaying wrong in the demo.
• Fixed rumors sometimes displaying twice in a row, or twice before a new rumor was shown.
• Graphical version: Fixed bug where game window would still accept clicks normally if another window received focus while it was starting up (if this still happens to you please let me know!).
• Command line version: Fixed bug where sub-menus like Settings were not navigable when you were viewing a previous encounter.

Give feedback

Join the Upheaval Discord to find out when the next update will be available, chat with the developer, make suggestions, ask questions, and get the inside scoop on what I’m working on. Thanks! 😊