Revenge of the Mage news & patch notes

Hello Mages!

We're back with another Dev Diary!

First to know, instead of releasing one large update, we've decided to break these features (that we have teased in our latest blog) into multiple patches/updates. We are currently working on three (and possibly four) key features that will be added to Revenge of the Mage soon: Steam Achievements, the Talent System, Voice Acting (and Leaderboards). These features are designed to enhance long-term goals and player progression, as well as to elevate the game's storytelling.

Achievements

We are currently testing Steam Achievements to give you specific milestones to work toward. We’ve designed a variety of achievements that track different accomplishments in the game. Some will be tied to general progression, while others are designed for specific, challenging tasks.

These achievements are intended to add a new layer of goals and replayability for those who enjoy chasing them. As a starting point, we have planned a specific list of achievements. Here are some of the Achievements to give you an idea.

But over time, we want to expand the list bit by bit. We believe this will be especially fun for the Achievement Hunters out there to come back and claim them.

The Talent System

To address the desire for more lasting progression between runs, we are adding another feature to our meta-progression system: The Ancestral Talent Board, which we had mentioned in our second blog.

This is a well-known skill tree where you can spend your skill points to permanently improve your character. You'll gain these points when you level up (yeah, big surprise :P). The talents will offer a range of upgrades, from increasing your core stats to unlocking new passive abilities or modifying existing ones. It's still under heavy construction, but you can see two versions of the concept design for the Ancestral Talent Board here. And yes, there are Ascendency nodes at the top of the second concept ;)

We are going back and forth on these concepts and the system itself while testing to find out what would be the best fit for Revenge of the Mage. Once a decision is made, we'll provide more details about how this feature will be introduced later. But eventually, this system is going to be a designed to provide a tangible sense of growth and a reward for your time spent playing, regardless of how far you get in a single run. The choices you make in the Talent System will allow you to customize your build over time, offering new strategic options for future runs.

Voice Acting

To truly bring their personalities to life, we're adding voice acting for the player character and the Wizard Cat. This is just the beginning of our voiced characters feature for Revenge of the Mage, designed to elevate the game's storytelling and humor and help you get to know these two heroes on a whole new level.

Leaderboards

For those of you who love a good competition, we are looking to include Leaderboards in the next update. We'll use Steam's leaderboard infrastructure for this. The plan is to track a variety of metrics, such as your highest score in a run and your fastest time to defeat a boss. This feature is all about friendly competition and seeing how your skills stack up against other mages and your friends. We're planning to introduce several leaderboards to give everyone a chance to climb to the top, regardless of their preferred playstyle.

Optimization & Performance Issues

We are aware that some mages faced frame drops and stuttering, particularly in specific multiverses. There are also a couple of crash scenarios that we are investigating. We are aiming to address all of these by the next update.

That’s it for this diary— we’re incredibly excited for what’s ahead, and we’re thankful to have such a supportive and passionate community with us on this journey. As always, your feedback means everything, so keep it coming!  Until next time; — The Revenge of the Mage DEV Team

Hello Mages!

Most Mentioned Topics Since the Start of Early Access

Repetitive Gameplay & Lack of Content Variety

• A new Game Mode: ”Darkest Deep” (Endless Arena) that plays differently from the current ones. Each run will feature unique encounters with enemies and bosses from all multiverses. This is a mid-sized arena fight that only ends if the player dies. Players have to survive as long as they can. After entering the Darkest Deep player has to take the light source to start the fight. The max range of the visibility is limited, the arena has a dim light, and the only bright light source is the player himself. It’s hard to see the edge of the arena. Players can increase the radius of the light they carry, but in time, the light will diminish and return to its base value. We will introduce more details for this game mode later.
• We also plan to include a leaderboard to track top performers.
• Introducing new enemy types over time to keep gameplay dynamic for all Multiverses. These will be rolled out in regular updates as they’re completed, rather than bundled into large, infrequent patches.
• Balancing the Cards, Power-Ups, Difficulty, Leveling, and Currencies will continue with the feedback.

Optimization & Performance Issues

• We’re actively working on optimization and will continue to roll out performance-focused updates to improve stability across all supported hardware.
• The Forest multiverse had the most noticeable performance issues at launch. We’ve already addressed many of them in previous patches. This same deep-dive process will continue for each multiverse to ensure a smooth, stable experience overall.

Weak Storytelling & Lore

• Our most recent patch focused on improving cinematics and immersion. All boss encounters will now include intro cutscenes, and we’ll continue filling in the missing scenes across multiverses.
• We’re planning to expand environmental storytelling to make the worlds feel more alive and detailed.
• We’ll add flavor text to cards, spells, items, and Ancestors to help deepen the lore and give players more insight into the story.

More on the Horizon

• Achievements – For those who want to chase every goal and collect everything.
• Leaderboards – Compete and compare your best runs with others.
• Ancestral Talent Board – Expand your build possibilities and customization. Here you can see the concept design of Ancestral Talent Board; the details about this feature will be introduced later.
• Smuggler – A mysterious new character who can secure your goods before you fall and lose them. The Smuggler will appear randomly during runs. Interacting with him will pause the game — you’ll be able to hand over items you want to protect, and then he’ll vanish. You’ll find him later at The Safe Haven (HUB), where you can reclaim the items he safeguarded.
• Shop Vendor – A new zone featuring a vendor who offers valuable goods and services in exchange for your hard-earned gold and other currencies. It's a place to stock up, trade, and make choices that could influence your run.
• Shrines of Magic – Shrines will appear randomly on the level, or maybe not. Upon interaction and purchase, the player will have a chance to receive a Random Card, Power-Up, or Temporary Upgrade until the boss is defeated. There will be a base gold cost, and it will increase by 25% with each activation. And will be activated for a limited number of times. There is a chance of not getting any reward.
• Destructibles – To add more interaction and chaos to the environment.
• Tutorial Level – To better onboard new players into the game systems.
• Deck Building – Unlock new cards to use them in multiverses.

Greetings Mages!

New Cinematics

• Level Intro Cinematics New intro cinematics have been added for Cathedral, North, and Tokyo. These are designed to deepen the immersion and set the tone for each run.

  Next up for cinematics: Boss Intro Cinematics for all multiverses!

  Player Experience

  • Gem Crystal Visual: Added a glowing effect to Gem Crystals to make them stand out more.

  • Boss Health Bar: Adjusted boss health bar to make remaining health easier to understand.

  • Small Teleport Panel Adjustment: Added a scaling animation to the text below the gold recovery bar to better introduce the gold recovery mechanic.

  • Boss Objective Animation: A scaling animation now plays when a boss objective is active. This will be further enhanced to improve clarity for new players.

  Bug Fixes

  • Boss Objective Marker: Fixed an issue where the boss objective marker wouldn't appear in some multiverses.

  • Ring of Thirst: The ring now deals the intended damage as described.

  Happy casting! —The Dev Team {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45265547/8f42ad42a69012e8e6fb114e42d31f9dfae8e927.png

Steam Cloud

• Integrated Steam Cloud: We've prioritized Steam Cloud integration based on community requests and moved it up in our roadmap. Now, our dear Mages can sync their saves seamlessly! Before syncing Steam Cloud, we recommend backing up your files just in case. This will allow you to recover them if any errors occur with Steam Cloud. Save Files Location: AppData/Local/RevengeOfTheMage\Saved\SaveGames

Gameplay Changes

• Energy Detonation: We’ve received feedback about the ability and immediately revised it.
  • Lowered the animation sound volume.
  • Increased the effect area: 1.75m → 2.50m
  • Increased the cooldown to balance the effect: 2s → 4s
• Distinct Power-ups: Power-ups now always spawn as distinct types, preventing duplicates.
• Trap Spawning: Traps no longer spawn beneath the player at the start of the Pyramid Boss Fight.

Bug Fixes

• Cathedral Enemies Stuck: Enemies no longer get stuck on one of the nails in the Cathedral Multiverse’s center area.
• Cathedral Nails: Thanks to a community report, we fixed one of the nails in the Cathedral Multiverse that dealt unintended damage.
• Teleport Back Locations: Thanks to another community report, we fixed an issue where players would get stuck when teleporting back to the surface from off the map. Teleport locations for the Tokyo and Cathedral Multiverses have been updated.

Optimization

• Forest Multiverse: To improve performance, we’ve temporarily removed towers and optimized enemies. In our internal tests though results may vary by system, this increased performance by an average of 20 FPS. This is not a permanent fix but will enhance the experience until a full solution is implemented.

Localization Fixes

• Fixes for All Languages: Since the Major Update we've revised localizations in all languages.

The Wizard Cat

• Audio: The cat now purrs when petted—voiced by one of the dev team’s own cats! 😺

• Updated power-up locations in Forest and Cathedral multiverses.
• Removed Eclipse stone indicators from all multiverses except the Forest.

Summary

• Pet the Wizard Cat! – Yes! As you requested, you can now pet the Wizard Cat! :)
• New Archetype: Lightning – Command the power of storms!
• New Combo Gauge System: Keep fighting to deal even more damage!
• New Crafting System: Start crafting powerful rings.
• General Progression Level System: Play more, progress more.
• Gameplay Changes: Scaling Difficulty tweaks, balance adjustments, and more.
• Tons of bug fixes: We’ve squashed a lot of them!

Pet the Wizard Cat!

Lightning Archetype

New Combo Gauge System

Crafting System

• Reach the required Progression Level to unlock them.
• Collect Gem Crystals scattered across the multiverse.
• Break Gem Crystals to obtain Gems. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45265547/ca82b5cdb99cef1e94e8bc198fd26d8642fe1716.gif
• Use Gems and Gold to Craft or Upgrade a ring. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45265547/f08c4505f88c3de0e3d6e209d479d94a84e5190b.gif
• Equip your rings and enjoy their special effects! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45265547/d819614db04f0877de613b4c91e4e0713db25be8.gif For example, let's look at two rings. These rings modify the Draw The Line and Holy Ground cards. Normally, these cards create zones that provide movement speed and healing. However, when the rings are worn, these zones transform into auras surrounding the mage. This effect allows mages to maintain their momentum in battle without being restricted to specific areas. Ring of the Moonwalker for altering the Draw The Line Card {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45265547/1e762a754292616d6bb2401d24c29df80344c40a.gif Ring of Medic for altering the Holy Ground Card {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45265547/7c86ada88cb4df4f90873c388e8336618d938148.gif

General Progression Level System

Gameplay Changes & Bug Fixes

• We made a significant change for how often Scaling Difficulty increases.
• Boss health pools have been reworked – Since difficulty scaling now applies, we’ve reduced their base health for better balance.
• Primary abilities of all Archetypes have been adjusted – This change is driven by the revised Permanent Upgrade Moar Powwa, which now grants +10 base damage per rank instead of +5. Additionally, auto-targeting abilities now deal slightly less damage to maintain balance with aim-required abilities.
• The new Combo Gauge System now boosts primary ability damage as your combo rank increases.
• Enemy Hit Outline: Reduced the duration of enemy hit outlines for a sharper hit response.
• Effects after Boss Defeat: Poison areas are now removed after the boss is defeated.
• AoE Ability Visuals: For AOE spells decal areas increased 30% to match better with collision area.
• Piercing Projectiles: Now piercing projectiles pierce through shields.
• Description Revisions: Revised ability descriptions to match their in-game representation.
• Gold to Recover: In the portal interaction window "Gold at Risk" has been changed to "Gold to Recover" for better clarity.
• Portal Locations in Safe Heaven: Swapped the locations of the Tokyo and Forest Portals in the HUB to match the unlock order.
• Pause Menu: Pause menu not showing when return to hub/menu or quit widgets closed with esc fixed.
• Chest Pickup SFX: Chest pickup sound not playing fix.
• Passive Spell Cards on Pause: Passive spell card animations now properly pause when the game is paused.
• Drone Health Bar: Fixed drone health bar position being too high.
• Enemy Outline: Enemy hit outlines now appear in the North and Tokyo multiverses.

Language Support

An Electrifying Progress

Let’s go deeper!

Gems, Gems, Gems!

• Each multiverse has Common Gems, which determines the most frequently found Gem Types.
• Gems can be collected by moving over them after breaking Gem Crystals.
• Gem Crystals can be found in certain spots when you enter a multiverse.
• The number of Gem Crystals and the Gems they drop increase with your base difficulty level.
• Collected Gems are added directly to your inventory and are not lost if you fall in battle.

Let’s see some rings!

Account Progression

Fixes & Changes on the next patch

• Ability Updates: We revised some abilities to make them more impactful.
  • AoE Visuals: We’ll increase decal size by 30% to show their effect area accurately.
  • Piercing Projectiles: Previously, these projectiles only passed through enemies. Now, they will also penetrate shields Which will significantly enhance their effectiveness.
• Boss Difficulty: Boss HP and damage will be adjusted with your scaling difficulty, with bosses receiving a slightly larger boost than other enemies. This will ensure a fair challenge, especially during consecutive runs.
• Description Revisions: We're updating descriptions to improve clarity and consistency. We want to ensure they accurately reflect their in-game representations.
• Bug Fixes: There will be several fixes which are focused on delivering a smoother gameplay.
  • Pause Menu: It will properly appear when returning to the Safe Heaven or closing menus with Esc.
  • Chest Pickup SFX: There is a fix for chest pickup sound not playing.
  • Passive Spell Cards: UI animations are going to correctly pause when the game is paused.

Crash fixes

• Game Not Launching: Some players were experiencing an issue when launching the game, it closed immediately. This issue has been resolved. (DEV Note: If this issue still occurs please inform us again.)

Bug Fixes

• Boss Objective: Fixed the “Defeat the Boss” objective not being completed in some multiverses.
• Boss - Mumadonna's Weapon: The issue with Mumadonna’s staff is fixed. (DEV Note: That we announced in the latest patch note.)
• Cathedral Boss: Fixed Ashtur getting out of the boss area and Ashtur now doesn’t deal damage when he is dying.
• Tokyo Boss Area: Fixed a spot where AI doesn’t follow you.
• Boss Music: Boss fight music now stops properly when the boss is killed in each Multiverse.
• Lava Leap: Fixed teleporting to the wrong location if the mouse hasn’t moved.
• We’re always grateful for your feedback and excited to see how these changes improve your experience. Stay tuned for more updates and as always let us know if you encounter any issues!

Gameplay Changes

• Tokyo Boss: Revised the Tokyo Boss’ behaviors according to player feedback.

Animations

• Forest Boss Intro: Added a brand new boss intro sequence.
• Enemy Attack Variations: Egypt and Winter Multiverse enemies now have their new attack variations. These new animations minimized the repetition and enhanced immersion. (DEV Note: We will keep adding new animations and enemy types in the future.)

Language Support

• Spanish: Introduced Spanish localization to make the game accessible for more mages.

A Sneak Peek at What’s Next!

The Mighty Lightning Archetype

Ring Crafting

Let’s do some crafting!

Well, here’s a glimpse at what we have in mind;

How does it work?

• Find Gem Crystal across the multiverse.
• Destroy a Gem Crystal to acquire Gems.
• Use Gems and Gold to Craft or Upgrade a ring.
• Wear your rings to enjoy their unique effects.

New Combo Gauge System

Momentum is Power – Keep Fighting, Keep Hitting Harder!

Our current Combo Gauge Rank System:

How does the new Combo Gauge System work?

• Engage in combat and get your rank up.
• You will get a bonus primary ability damage according to your new rank.
• If you stay away from a fight for a while, your rank resets and you lose your primary ability bonus

Crash fixes

Gameplay Changes

• Gold Chests: Now automatically collected when approached—no need to interact.

Ability Updates

• Fire Arrow: Crossbows now appear on the character’s arm, and arrows fire from there.
• Added a special reload animation. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/45265547/51214d7bc782ca5a1727927ed98ebcfd4e15c18f.gif (DEV Note: Cavill's iconic “arm reload”, that was fun to add lol)

Animation

• Obliterate: Now plays an animation on activation. (DEV Note: There’s also a hidden animation accessible via a cheat code)
• Also Implemented an SFX for the new Obliterate animation, including its secret animation version.
• A spawning sequence for the Forest Boss has been added.

Community Requests:

• Game audio now mutes when the game loses focus.

Bug Fixes

Passive Spell Cards:

• Are We Sure About This?: Fixed an issue where the 3× enemy difficulty increase didn’t reset after death.
• Queens Gambit: Fixed a crash when automatically selecting a card while teleporting.
• Burnable Cards (Obliterate, Trick the Reaper, etc.):
• No longer persist in the UI on the top left after use.
• Cannot be selected again.

Other

• Fixed incorrect images on portals after defeating bosses.
• Fixed some bosses’ death animations.
• Paused Audio: Sound effects now pause correctly when the game is paused, while music continues playing as intended.
• Alt-Tab Issue: Fixed mouse sticking to the center after alt-tabbing.
• Intro Skip: Prevented starting the game without waiting for the intro logos with a controller.
• Welcome message UI now can be closed with controllers.
• Meteor Strike: Sound effect now cancels properly if the animation is interrupted.
• Flying Potions: Fixed potions floating in the air when dropped by flying enemies.
• Fixed an issue where interacting with a portal while airborne would cause the player to become stuck in midair.
• The frames around hub portals are no longer climbable.

Challenges We’ve Faced

Optimization and Stability:

• Creating a visually detailed world with fluid performance was one of our biggest challenges. Reports from our community pushed us to improve stability, and we’ve made significant progress.

Gameplay Refinements:

• Adapting gameplay elements to player feedback to enhance the overall experience was one of our key focuses.

Expanding Audience:

• We focused on making the game accessible to a wider audience. We improved UI readability, added language support, and offered control customizations.

Key Improvements

Bug Fixes and Stability Enhancements:

• Persistent crash issues have been significantly reduced.
• Optimization efforts have made the game more stable across a variety of systems.

AI Behavior:

• Enemy behaviors were refined to make combat more dynamic and strategic.
• Ranged enemies and horde systems now behave more consistently.

Gameplay Improvements:

• We refined gameplay elements to enhance pacing and provide a more fluid experience.
• Auto-targeting systems were refined to prioritize critical threats during combat.

UI and UX Updates:

• Fonts and card descriptions were adjusted for better readability.
• Improvements to user experience, such as confirmation prompts and enhanced navigation clarity.
• Default settings were adjusted to improve the first-time experience for new players.

Optimizations Across the Board:

• We’ve made performance improvements to VFX and maps to deliver smoother gameplay. Even on systems meeting the minimum requirements.

Customization for Controls:

• We added detailed customization for controls.
• Added gamepad aim to assist customization to improve accessibility.

Expanding Language Support:

• We added Russian and Chinese language options to welcome more players.

The Demo

Looking Ahead

Roadmap

Bug Fixes

• Missing Loading Screen: Missing loading screen when returning to hub /menu from pause menu fixed

Ability Updates

• Missing Multicast Functionality: Added missing multicasting functionality to Arcane Missiles, Arcane Turret, and Blazing Surge abilities.

UI/UX Improvements:

• Gold Recovered: A gold recovered widget added to improve feedback.
• Are you sure widgets: Are you sure widgets added to return to hub and return to menu buttons.
• Added reminder for card selection on screen.

Optimization

• Performance Optimizations: Optimized performance across all levels, spells, and character models to improve gameplay experience and reduce system load. (DEV Note: We keep exploring the possibility of lowering the Minimum System Requirements without losing too much visual quality. In the future, we also aim to increase the overall visual quality as much as possible. This may take a few more patches to hit perfect performance.)
• FPS Limit: Increased the FPS limit to 200. (DEV Note: Community request)

UI/UX Improvements

• Increased the font size of card descriptions for easier readability.

Gameplay Adjustments

• Auto-Lock System: Auto-lock now prioritizes bosses. It also fixed an issue where auto-lock sometimes failed to target the Cathedral boss (Ashtur) and shield enemies. (DEV Note: Community request)

Control Settings

• Invert Mouse Update: The Invert mouse setting has been divided into horizontal and vertical. This is also added for the gamepad.
• Gamepad Magnetism Settings: Added gamepad magnetism strength and gamepad magnetism radius settings.

Bug Fixes

• Card Selection: Fixed an issue where the card selection screen would sometimes not appear.
• Mumadonna Boss (Ring Ability): Some rings previously failed to deal damage when moving away from the boss, but they now function as intended.
• Saving Control Settings: Fixed control settings not saving properly.
• DLSS: Fixed DLSS not functioning correctly.
• Level(North) Fix: Misplaced blockers removed.

Sound Updates

• SFX for Spell & Mage Unlock: Spell & Mage unlock SFXs added.

Language Support

• Added support for Russian and Chinese. (DEV Note: Please share any feedback for further improvement!)

Ability Updates

• Glacial Step and Fiery Charge Rework: These abilities have been reworked to allow players to pass through enemies during their use. (DEV Note: Community request)
• Meteor Storm: This ability can now also deal damage to airborne enemies. Ability’s radius reduced, 10m → 7m.
• Cosmic Storm: Ability’s radius reduced, 10m → 7m.
• Meteor Strike: Ability’s radius is increased, 5m → 7m.
• Inferno Beam: Movement speed penalty decreased, 60% → 30%. (DEV Note: Community request)

Card Updates

• Damage Area Increase Card: Now also affects the radius of Contagious Burn and Meteor Strike.
• Trick Reaper Card: Players now gain 5 seconds of invincibility upon activation.
• Obliterate: Players now gain 2 seconds of invincibility upon activation.
• Healing zone: Lv1→30%, Lv2→50%, Lv3→70% (Max 3 stack).
• Speed zone: Lv1→40%, Lv2→70% (Max 2 stack). Added probability-based spawning for Heal and Speed Zones
• Faster Recharge Stack Limit: Reduced card's stack limit to 2.

Improving Overall Performance

Crashes

What About the Next Patch?

Optimization

• Making improvements to optimize performance. We’re also exploring the possibility of lowering the Minimum System Requirements, but of course without losing too much visual quality. In the future, we also aim to increase the overall visual quality as much as possible. (DEV Note: This may take a few more patches to hit perfect performance.)
• FSR support is one of the most frequently requested features and is on the way.

New Accessibility Features

• The Invert Mouse setting has been divided into separate horizontal and vertical options.
• Adding Invert Horizontal/Vertical settings for controllers.
• Adding settings for Gamepad Magnetism Strength and Gamepad Magnetism Radius.
• Adding more sound effects for Spell and Archetype Unlocks to improve UX.
• Adding bigger font sizes for card descriptions to improve UX. (DEV Note: This may slip to another patch, but bear with us!)

Localization

Changes & Balancing

• Reworked Glacial Step and Fiery Charge: These abilities can now pass through enemies during use.
• Reworked Meteor Storm: This ability now deals damage to airborne enemies as well.
• Reduced Meteor Storm radius from 10m to 7m. (DEV Note: Slightly nerfed.)
• Increased Meteor Strike radius from 5m to 7m. (DEV Note: Slightly buffed.)
• The Damage Area Increase card now also affects the radius of the Contagious Burn and Meteor Strike.

Bug Fixes

• Fixing an issue where key rebinds are not saved after exiting the game.
• Fixing the controller aim assist vertical issue.
• Fixing multiple ring abilities of the Mumadonna boss. Some rings are not dealing damage when moving away from the boss; they will now deal damage as intended.
• Fixing an issue where card selection sometimes does not appear.
• Fixing an issue with Arcane Missiles auto-lock not targeting shielded enemies.
• Fixing an issue where Morva the Defiler's projectile attacks bounce back even without The Mirror Mirror Card.

What’s Next? A Small Glimpse Into the Feature Updates!

• It's hard to see some bosses within all the chaos of combat, so we planned to add an indicator for the boss, so players may more easily track them. This feature probably will have a QoL setting in the options, for those who don't want to use it.
• When a player uses ALT+F4 or if the game crashes mid-run, players lose their hard-earned gold. We’re actively working on a solution to save your gold without breaking the high-risk, high-reward concept.
• We’ll bring more cards and permanent upgrades that can be combined with the Archetypes!
• Leaderboards, Steam Achievements, and Trading Cards are features we want to introduce as soon as possible. (And Cloud Save for Steam!)
• Deck-building is one of our priority features, so you’ll be able to choose your favorite cards and leave out the ones you don’t like.

Bugs Fixes:

New Changes Based on Player Feedback:

Optimizations:

Minor Changes and Adjustments:

Known Issues:

Bugs:

New Changes Based on Player Feedback:

Game Features

The Difficulty

Rogue-lite Cycle

What’s Next?

Calling All Mages!

• Share your thoughts and feedback, just like the many mages before you!
• Get exclusive updates and sneak peeks straight from the developers!
• Forge alliances with fellow spell-slingers and discuss your favorite cards, spells, and more!