DEVLOG4 - The Table Starts Moving
Yesterday's Devlog was about making REVERIE easier to read.
That work was necessary. The game had systems, but the player needed to understand what was happening: where points came from, why spells triggered, what the route meant, and how to make decisions without staring at a debug machine.
Since then, a lot has changed.
This update is less about adding random new content and more about making the game’s core screens start behaving like the game they are supposed to be.
The table is starting to move.
The Reading Path became a real route
The Reading Path was one of the biggest changes.
Before, the route was functional, but it was too small and too literal. It was basically a short chain of nodes: round, shop, omen, final shop, final threshold. It worked as a prototype, but it did not feel like a run.
Now the Reading Path is a larger hand-authored route map with:
- branching paths
- optional detours
- convergence points
- multiple shops
- a final threshold
- compact glyph nodes
- a Grimoire-style key
The map no longer uses big text boxes for every node. Instead, it uses symbols and lets the detail panel explain what the selected node means.
That sounds small, but it changed the whole feeling of the screen. It feels less like selecting a menu option and more like following a strange reading across a board.
We also changed a bug with how our run system // or THE SHROUD works.
Previously, the game treated round 3 as the Shroud round. No matter what. That was fine for the tiny prototype route, but once the route expanded it became a problem. Normal late-route readings would accidentally become boss-pressure readings just because the internal round counter hit 3.
That gives the route room to breathe.
The scoring basket is becoming the main ceremony
The scoring reveal has also changed a lot. It's still hilariously uniform. We'll probably add a cone downwards at an angle and randomize the bit spawning.
The play area is now becoming the game’s scoring chamber.
Instead of every score contribution simply flying straight into the UI, positive Sigil contributions now emit little bits into the central trough. The bits rain down, spread across the floor, collect together, and then drain into Sigils or Confluence.
The important part is that this is not just visual noise.
The score still comes from the same authoritative math.
The basket is presentation, not fake scoring.
But the presentation matters.
A card giving +15 Sigils now feels more like it is physically contributing to the reading. It rains into the table. Multiple cards can rain bits at the same time. Spell and faction contributions can join the same scoring surface before the shared drain.
Confluence bits are also visually distinct from Sigil bits. They are larger and heavier so multiplier gains read differently from point gains.
This system is still early, but it is finally pointing in the right direction.
Future basket work will probably include:
- bit combining
- merge effects
- lingering omen, relic, construct, or ritual tokens
- Sigils and Confluence crashing together
- slot-machine-style final total settling
But the foundation is now there.
The table receives the score before the UI does.
That is the feeling we wanted.
The shop became an actual shop
The shop also got a major pass.
Previously, the shop had one relic offer and a couple of service panels. It worked, but it felt too much like a functional menu.
Now the shop has a 4-offer relic grid.
Each relic offer has:
- name
- rarity
- cost
- effect
- its own purchase state
Buying one relic marks only that slot as sold. The other offers remain available. Refreshing still costs 1 Offering, but now it rerolls the whole grid.
The shop was also restyled closer to the Grimoire and Reading Path language: thinner amber linework, darker ledger panels, tighter spacing, and smaller buttons.
The goal is for the shop to feel like an occult counter between readings, not a generic store screen.
There are still future shop systems planned: card packs, card removal, faction services, and stranger offers. But this pass was about making the current shop feel like it belongs in the game.
Death is now Legendary
We also started adding card identity rarity.
The current rarity tiers are:
- Common
- Uncommon
- Rare
- Epic
- Legendary
- Mythic
- Corrupted
Death is now globally Legendary and is no longer available in starting decks.
This matters because Reverie should not treat every card identity as equally available from the start. Death should feel like an acquisition moment, not starter filler.
For now, this is a small first step. Death is excluded from starter generation and the starting deck customizer, but the full rarity economy is still deferred.
Eventually rarity will matter for:
- card packs
- shops
- rewards
- upgrades
- special events
- corrupted cards
But this was the first piece of that foundation.
The Silver Nitrate Dream got its first real identity
The Silver Nitrate Dream has a strong visual identity: silent film, old theatrical framing, flicker, edits, repeated images, and haunted performance.
Now it has mechanical identity too.
WHAT does that mean? Passives? Builds?
Check them out in Devlog4.5
What allllll this means for the game
Reverie is still early, the numbers are not balanced yet.
But the game is becoming more like itself.
- The route is no longer just a menu.
- The scoring reveal is no longer just arithmetic.
- The shop is no longer just a debug store.
- The Silver Nitrate Dream is no longer just a visual set.
- The systems are beginning to form a language.
That is the main progress since yesteday.
Not everything is done. A lot is still rough. But the direction is much clearer now.
The current focus is still the same:
make the game readable make the game strategic make the game feel ritualistic make every number have a source make the table answer
Next up, we will probably keep testing the new route, shop, and scoring basket while continuing to give the four active factions more personality.