We made it so that there was another place that players could go to make permanent upgrades to their gameplay experience.  After they defeat the Arborescent boss, they are able to use the wood they gain from it to create a tavern for the monsters to go to blow off some steam.  There were all sorts of upgrades there.  Some of it allowed for better boxes and gifts that the game would send your way, others added completely new types of experiences.  As you can see here, in the first image, one of the things that definitely jumps out at you is the wheel.  Every eight hours, players are able to “wish” for something, and a random prize is given.

It’s not until our first update to the image came through that you get a bit more context about just what gives players the wish.  Once you defeat the Aetherite Lord, you unlock the ability to use his genie-like powers to make your wish.  You can also see in this update that we added a couple of other things too, including an arcade cabinet, and a change to the crates on the side.  An arcade cabinet doesn’t quite make sense in the grand scheme of things, but every now and then you just want to make a fun reference instead of staying beholden to the source material.

Our next update gave us a delivery imp with a special crate, as well as a table for arm wrestling.

It was the update after that which was one of our biggest ones.  We added a fiery bat, which you could see flying across your screen for an extra chance to get Merge Dungeon’s premium currency, changed the shape of the Aetherite’s cage to better reflect that it was supposed to be the one that you received once you beat the jailer and freed the spectral hand, added the imp arm wrestlers we talked about, showed some images on the arcade cabinet, and of course, added a barkeeper to serve demonic root beer.

Finally, we had just a few small coloring and effects changes to add to the mix for the final piece, including turning our demon bartender purple.

We still had one or two other final changes that we made to Merge Dungeon, but you’ll have to wait a couple of weeks for those.  See you soon though!

The post Merge Dungeon Art – The Tavern appeared first on Tellest.

We’ll start off with this little guy.  A baby basilisk is a sight to behold, as it merges characteristics of avians and reptiles.  When they’re young, basilisks in Tellest have a bite that can paralyze, but when they’re older, their bite can even turn people to stone.

Although it might not seem like much, by way of an upgrade, a cockatrice is a bit more deadly.  Whereas a basilisks paralytics and petrifying bites are spread through contact, a cockatrice has a deadly petrifying gaze.  It’s a bit of a rare creature, so not many people endure that aspect of the creature or can even confirm how it works!

A feathered serpent is like the best of both worlds.  It’s deadly, huge, and has a venomous bite.  Oh, and it probably flies better than either of the other two avian/reptile hybrids!  The feathered serpent received a spot in our splash art, so let’s hear it for this awesome guy (or girl).

Don’t ask me how, but we move on from flying snakes to wolves somehow.  Whatever the dungeon’s beastmaster knows about biology is something beyond me.  The wolf seems pretty normal, but the canine upgrades get pretty intense!

The dire wolf is up next, and it looks like it’s ready to rock.  I wouldn’t want to be stuck fighting this guy in the arena.  But you know what?  At least he’s not spitting fire, right?

…Well, so much for that.  The hellhound is like a suped-up version of a dire wolf, and it’s deadly indeed.  And you might think that there’s nowhere to go from here but down, but you’d be wrong!

Our biggest canid is the three-headed Cerberus!  Ol’ Spot will have his day in the dungeon when you’re in charge, so merge up to him, and then merge a ton farther to see all there is to see in the animal merge chamber.  And remember, as I said earlier, there’s a ton of other content we’re working on, so keep your eyes peeled.  The best is yet to arrive!

The post Merge Dungeon – Animal Set Preview 2 appeared first on Tellest.

In the meantime, I thought we could look at some more of the content in the game.  We already looked at slimes and skeletons.  Let’s look at some merge-worthy critters from the animal chamber.

It all starts with one lowly rat (as the plague usually does, though that’s another game entirely).

Of course, if you merge the tiny rats together, you get bigger meaner rats (this one actually is a plague rat).

Giant rats are troublesome for adventurers, but not altogether unbeatable.  Still, I wouldn’t want to be nicked by one of those chompers!

Moving from the ground to the sky, we first go a little smaller again, with your standard bat.

Upgrading from there gets you to a mangy looking vampire bat!

Once you move from there, you go even bigger.  This bat is so big, it’s a wonder it’s able to stay aloft!

And here, you have this first set of disease-riddled beasties.  There are about 30 animals to upgrade to in Merge Dungeon, so this is just a very quick preview!

Throughout this year, we’ll be showing you more from Merge Dungeon, so keep your eyes peeled!

The post Merge Dungeon – Animal Set Preview 1 appeared first on Tellest.

When it comes to the undead, we start with the basics.  As of the time of this writing (which should be well after the game releases, fingers crossed), we were still considering calling the undead chamber the “hero-deboning chamber” but I’m not sure how much that will stick.  We wanted to make sure that the undead in our game weren’t too scary.  It is a casual game, after all, and we wanted just about anyone to be able to play it.

The next skeleton up is armed, making him a bit more of a problem for would-be adventurers.  Still, with how long he’s been in the ground, there’s a good chance those weapons won’t amount to much!

Our highest level skeleton has some snazzy armor and dual wields.  While those bones might be brittle, the weapons certainly aren’t, so anyone daring to face off against the skeleton warrior better bring their A game!

After brush past the skeletons, we move on to our slightly fleshier monsters.  This zombie looks like he needs a vacation.  Since he’s in the Living Dungeon (or at least getting shipped off to it), there’s no hope for that.  His only hope is evolving into something stronger.

Ghouls are a little more eager to cause some damage, and a little less squishy to boot.  This guy’s fangs and claws are almost just as bad as those skeleton weapons we saw earlier!

The scariest of our lower tier “zombies” is the ghast.  Magic has kept him fierce and hungry, and unsuspecting heroes are in for a rude awakening when this guy leaps out of the shadows.

We wanted to shake things up from the slime chamber, so the undead chamber doesn’t constrict itself to just sets of three monsters.  The “zombies” end up going for a few more monsters.  This revenant has a little more sentience than the previous baddies.

Wights are like revenants but with a bit more meat on their bones, so to speak.  They’re smart enough to armor up and bring powerful weapons to bear against their enemies.

The abomination might seem like  step back, since it doesn’t have any equipment, but this abyssal amalgamation comes stocked to the brim with potent magic.

After zombies, we move on to mummies.  These ancient undead are a bit more mystical, and provide a good amount of monster essence to the dungeon master.

A step up from the regular mummy, royal mummies are guardians of ancient kings and queens.  They were buried with more finery and weapons, which make them worthy adversaries.

The final monster we’re showing off in the first set of undead monsters is the pharaoh mummy.  He (or she) brings powerful magic to the table, which can be used against adventurers, or to bring plentiful monster essence to the dungeon.

This is a nice look at the 12 monsters we’ve shown off so far.  Come back here in another three weeks when we show off the rest of the undead scourge!

The post Quantum Quest: Merge Dungeon – Undead Rise One appeared first on Tellest.

In order to make Merge Dungeon work, we needed a place to put our monsters.  Sergei hooked us up with some great looking tiles.

We also needed a place to summon the monster crates that our monsters come in.

And of course, here is one of those crates.

We needed some buttons that would take you to different places in the game (in this case, the shop or settings pages).

Here we have the trusty experience bar.

And we also have the monster essence bar.

While we had a mostly black background during the design process, we wanted to make sure it didn’t just look like an empty room, so we added some walls at the top.

And finally, we wanted to experiment with a monster hand as a cursor.

When you put it all together, you actually have something that turned out really cool:

Even at this point, it doesn’t really sell the idea as much as it could.  That’s why in a few weeks, we’re going to show you the first set of slimes—the monsters from the first room of the game.  Stay tuned!

The post Quantum Quest Merge Dungeon Interface appeared first on Tellest.