Version log before release

# Evolution – Beta 1.4

Beta 1.4 focuses on combat flow, visual feedback, and overall game feel. Cards are now easier to track during battle, while new animations and pile visuals make combat more intuitive and satisfying.

## Visual Improvements

* Added smooth card movement animations throughout combat

* Cards now smoothly reposition when the hand changes

* Newly drawn cards animate from the Draw pile into the player's hand

* Played cards animate into the Discard or Rotted pile

* Cards now scale and rotate during movement

## Card Piles

* Added visible Draw, Discard, and Rotted mini-piles

* Mini-piles now use organic card stacking with subtle random variation

* Pile layouts regenerate after reshuffling for improved visual variety

* Added reshuffle visual feedback

## Settings

* Added option to enable or disable card movement animations

* Expanded animation settings for improved accessibility and player preference

## User Experience

* Improved readability of newly drawn cards

* Improved hover behaviour during card animations

* Improved hand re-layout when cards are played or drawn

* Better visual feedback for card transitions between piles

* Improved overall combat pacing and responsiveness

## Technical Improvements

* Added a reusable card animation framework supporting:

  * Position

  * Rotation

  * Scale

* Improved discard, draw, and card rot handling

* Improved reshuffle handling and pile generation

* Standardised all card draw behaviour through the `draw_cards()` system

* Enforced a maximum hand size of 9 cards at the engine level

* Added support for disabling animations without affecting gameplay flow

* Various bug fixes, code cleanup, and stability improvements

## Improvements Still in Development

* Feedback when cards are drawn beyond the maximum hand size

* Improved enemy intent presentation, including a brief zoom effect before enemy actions begin

* Unique death animations for Mammals, Plants, and Fungi enemies

Thank you to everyone testing Evolution and providing feedback.

Beta 1.4 marks an important milestone as Evolution transitions from a functional prototype into a more polished and responsive gameplay experience.

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# Evolution – Beta 1.3

Beta 1.3 introduces the game's first major content expansion, featuring a brand-new story, a new class identity, and several core gameplay mechanics.

## New Content

* New story: **The Rot Below**

* 4 new quests

* 12 new enemies

* New boss and superboss encounters

* 12 new fungi cards

* New artwork for all Story 2 enemies and cards

* Story-specific card rewards

## New Mechanics

### Infect

* Escalating damage over time

* Supported on both player and enemies

* Separate infection stacks for each side

### Spore

* Builds up spore stacks

* Triggers powerful effects at 3 stacks

* Different cards can define unique spore effects

* Fully supported for both player and enemies

### Symbiosis

* Cards gain bonus effects when conditions are met

* Supports flexible requirements through `requires_any`

* Includes full UI, animation, and card text support

### Card Rot

* Cards can permanently rot after being played

* New dedicated **Rotted** pile

* Rotted card count displayed during combat

* New visual effect and animation

## Story System

* New stories can now be unlocked through progression

* Defeating a superboss unlocks the next story

* Separate progression tracking for each story

* Continue Game now resumes the correct story

* Locked stories are displayed correctly in the story selection screen

## Combat & Balance

* Enemies now support regeneration

* Improved support for multi-intent enemies

* Enemy status effects fully resolve before death triggers

* Enemies can no longer act after being defeated

* Final card effects now play completely before death animations

* Improved sequencing for effects and animations

## Deck Builder

* Hovering over selected cards now shows a full card preview

* Evolve now upgrades only one card at a time

* Improved deck management and card overview

## User Interface

* New Draw / Discard / Rotted counters during combat

* Improved status icons and tooltips

* Improved enemy intent text

* New fungi-related animations and visual effects

* Better handling of card artwork with varying image sizes

## Technical Improvements

* Major progression system refactor

* Story progression moved to `player_progression.json`

* Improved reward flow stability

* Multiple save/load fixes

* General code cleanup and performance improvements

Thank you to everyone testing Evolution and providing feedback, bug reports, and balance suggestions.

Beta 1.3 lays the foundation for future content packs, new class identities, and expanded progression systems.

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EVOLUTION – Beta 1.2

Thank you for testing Evolution.

This update focuses on polish, usability, combat feedback, and overall gameplay flow. Many systems introduced in previous versions have now been refined and connected into a more complete experience.

CHANGES

• Improved combat feedback system

• Added multiple effect display modes:

Full Effects

Text + Numbers

Numbers Only

Off

• Added animation speed settings

• Added sound effect support throughout the game

• Improved death animation flow

• Combat effects and floating numbers now stop correctly when enemies die

• Improved reward and boss reward flow

• Improved deck management workflow

• Improved menu navigation and screen transitions

• Added Back buttons throughout the interface

• Added Save buttons where appropriate

• General bug fixes and stability improvements

NEW FEATURES

• Credits screen added

• Expanded Settings menu

• Sound effects and audio controls

• Effect display customization

• Improved deck editing experience

• Improved boss reward navigation

• Better support for repeated playthroughs through configurable visual feedback

KNOWN WEAKNESSES

• Tutorial is still incomplete and requires further improvement

• Credits screen is currently a first version

• Additional sound effects are planned

• Combat balance is still under active testing

• Some visual effects and animations may be replaced or improved in future versions

• More content, cards, enemies, and progression systems are planned for future updates

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Evolution Beta 1.1

Thank you for testing Evolution!

This update focuses on game flow, combat feedback, deck progression, audio, balance, and overall polish. Many of the changes were inspired directly by feedback from the first beta testers.

New Features

• Full sound effects system added

• Individual sound effects for cards, combat effects, UI interactions, victory, and defeat

• Master sound volume control

• Music volume control (for future music support)

• Settings menu expanded with additional options

• Animation speed setting

• Animation on/off setting

• Sound on/off setting

Combat Improvements

• Multi-hit attacks now display correctly as separate hits

• Multi-hit animations play faster and feel more responsive

• Damage breakdowns now display for both player and enemies

• Ferocity bonuses are shown separately from base damage

• Combat feedback is significantly clearer during large attack chains

• Multiple enemy intents are now fully supported

• Enemy actions can combine attacks, status effects, buffs, and defenses in a single turn

Progression & Deckbuilding

• Fixed issues where evolved cards were not correctly updating in active decks

• Fixed deck synchronization issues between progression and saved decks

• Improved card evolution persistence

• Additional balancing of starting card pools

• Improved reward and progression flow

Cards & Balance

• Added healing options to better counter Infection-heavy enemies

• Reworked Photosynthesis to differentiate it from Tailwind

• Reworked Forest Trill to better support the Bird archetype

• Reworked Lynx Ambush to better support the Mammal archetype

• Improved distinction between card archetypes and species identities

• Continued balancing of enemy encounters and rewards

Enemy Improvements

• Enemy Ferocity now functions correctly

• Enemy damage calculations improved

• Multi-hit enemy attacks now display properly

• Improved boss encounter presentation

• Added support for more advanced enemy behavior combinations

Visual & Interface Improvements

• Improved effect animations

• Improved floating combat text

• Improved status effect presentation

• Improved battle information readability

• Improved reward and progression screens

• Numerous visual polish improvements throughout the game

Bug Fixes

• Fixed multiple evolution-related bugs

• Fixed deck loading and deck saving issues

• Fixed progression synchronization issues

• Fixed several combat calculation issues

• Fixed enemy intent display issues

• Fixed various UI interaction issues

• Fixed numerous minor bugs and edge cases discovered during testing

Known Areas Still Under Development

• Tutorial

• Information screen

• Credits screen missing

• Additional sound effects

• Music system

• Further balance tuning

• Additional card classes

• Additional enemies and quests

• More visual effects and polish

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. Every test helps shape the future of Evolution.

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Evolution Beta 1.0

New

- Quest progression system

- Deck builder

- Boss rewards

- Superboss rewards

- Card evolution system

- Permanent progression

- Settings menu

- Status icons and tooltips

- New death animation

Improved

- Battle UI

- Reward screens

- Enemy previews

- Card handling

- Save/load functionality

Known issues

- UI polish still ongoing

- Credits screen not implemented

- Multi-intent enemies not implemented

- Sound effects not yet implemented

- Tutorial incomplete