Hello Friends!

It is time to talk about the future of Beyond the Fence. Since the submission, I have been working hard on updates to the game. Stuff that I wanted to do for the contest, but there is only so much time in a 30-day creation cycle. I want to share with you some of the great updates coming to the game in the June Update(s)!

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1. New Special Skill Orbs

A new type of skill orb is being worked on! I had prebuilt the elemental skills during the first week of working on the game, but I wanted more! This comes in the way of Special Skill Orbs. These orbs work in conjunction with a new resource, battery power! You will find these orbs in the game, and you will be able to use them if you have the battery power to power the skills. Some of the Special Skill Orbs that will be in the game are:

                Steal Orb (Programmed)

                Heal Orb (Development still in Process

                Defensive Orb (Development in Process)

                Attack Orb (Development in Process)

The steal orb will steal from enemies! It will also work better the higher the user’s luck!

The Heal, Defensive, and Attack Orb will allow you to do new special skills in new and creative ways that the main characters don’t have. You will also be able to equip these on multiple characters that can help with these duties so not just one character is stuck with this role. Of course, those characters with that main role will do much better at them, but the choices are yours!

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2. Battery Resource

In conjunction with the new Special Skill Orbs there is a resource that is needed for these skills. The battery resource starts with a low maximum amount, but every use of these skills has a chance to raise the maximum amount of the battery resource. You will be able to restore this resource for currency at the shops. Keep it topped off so you can use more of these skills and earn yourself the ability to do more and more!

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3. Weapons and Armor Updates

In the original version, you can find weapons and armor in the first areas of the tutorial. Well, no longer. In the June update, you will be finding fragments. These fragments will allow you to craft the equipment! Along with that, each weapon will have 10 levels that you can level up. They will increase in power, stat bonuses, and its specialty bonus (like hit rate or crit rate). There is also something special for those that work on all of the upgrades for their weapons!

Armor will have less in the way of upgrades. But each can still be crafted and then upgraded, to increase its bonuses.

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4. Crafting

With the Weapons and Armors being crafted and upgradable, there is a new crafting menu to handle this. You will be able to use this menu to craft new gear, and upgrade that gear! It is a much more exciting system than just finding or buying these items, plus with new upgrades available, you will be able to work toward earning that power as well! It will make for a much more exciting and fun experience.

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5. Trophies

As an avid trophy hunter on the PlayStation, I always love the idea of a trophy system. But mine goes above and beyond that. This one rewards you for doing things in the game. The system will earn you points for special bonuses and cheats for the New Game Plus that you can play after beating the game! Each playthrough, you can try to earn stuff you missed and increase the power of your party higher and higher! Which brings me to my next point.

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6. New difficulties

The original version has Time Difficulty which increases or decreases your XP rates to help save time or make it so you can explore more and not over level. Well, now there are actual difficulties that you choose AS WELL!

Normal is the base version. Then you have Hardcore, and Master. These increase the power of enemies and rewards allowing you to go higher and higher with your characters! Hardcore may be beatable on your first run, but Master will certainly take some upgrades and dedication to master.

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7. Magic XP

Magic will now give your party XP! It didn't give out anything before, but I have gone in and created a new system here. Each elemental magic type has its own XP Pool Points. As anyone uses magic of a type, like fire, the XP pool grows. As it does, anyone who uses that skill type earns XP, and it is ever increasing as well! But of course, it isn't a one-to-one ratio. You will need 10 XP Pool Points for 1 actual XP (subject to change). Using higher level magic spells will give out more XP Pool Points.

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8. Tutorials

I am reworking the beginning areas to cut out tutorials from the characters and to have screen with visuals pop up now! You will also be able to go into the menu to review these again!

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These are all the exciting things coming to the game around the June update. Of course, these are subject to change due to time or issues, but luckily, most of these features are already in the game already, so look forward to some exciting changes. If time permits, I will also be going over the story with a rewrite and redoing some of the areas to include more content and secrets to find! Then in July, we will see the story move forward again! Please be ready to go Beyond the Fence!

 -Pip