Version 1.1 of A Scoundrel’s Tale is live on the App Store and Google Play. If you already have the game, the update arrives like any other. Your save, your progress and your purchase carry over, and you don’t have to do anything.
A new engine
Version 1.0 was built with React Native and Expo. That’s a good toolkit for regular apps, but it isn’t made for games: animation, lighting and effects were always harder than they should be.
For 1.1 I rebuilt the whole game in Phaser, an HTML5 game engine, packaged for iOS and Android with Capacitor. The rules and your save came across as they were. Almost everything you see and touch was redone, and the game runs more smoothly now. Like the first version, most of the code was written by AI under my direction; I wrote about how that works in an earlier post.
What you’ll notice
- Boss fights look different. The boss now stands behind the table, and hits land harder: the screen shakes, the blow freezes for a split second, and there are new effects when something dies.
- When you drag a card, the table lights up every place it can go, and the spot you’re aiming at is the bright one.
- Story scenes have a log. If you tapped past a line too quickly, open it and scroll back.
- Lots of smaller fixes and changes all over the game.
A lower price
Act I and the endless mode are still free. Unlocking Acts II to V used to cost €7.99. It’s €4.99 now, or the equivalent in your store’s currency. €7.99 put the game above most games of its kind, and I’d rather have more people play it than earn more per copy. It’s still one purchase, with no ads, no subscription and no in-game currency.
If something’s off
A rebuild this big will have missed something. If a screen looks wrong, a card does something odd or your save didn’t come across the way you expected, write to hello@scoundreltale.com and tell me which phone or tablet you’re on. That makes it much easier for me to find.