Soul Games — August 2026 Development Update

July & August have been pretty ridiculous months for Soul Games.

A large part of the work these past two months focused on stabilizing the current build, improving combat feedback, cleaning up card mechanics, expanding quality-of-life systems and preparing the game for its first wider round of testing.

This is not every tiny change made during the month, but these are the major ones.

Battle & Combat

• Reworked and polished the Victory Screen.
• Fixed enemies not dying immediately when receiving lethal damage.
• Dead units are now clearly displayed in grayscale.
• Fixed lethal damage caused by start-of-turn effects such as Bleed.
• Improved HP, Shield, Armor and Life Force combat feedback.- Finally did it, can I sleep now?
• Added clearer feedback when attempting to play a card without enough Life Force.
• Added damage, healing, Shield, Armor and status target previews before effects resolve.
• Added drag-to-target card gameplay while keeping the original click-to-target controls. -Nat's request that made me remake so much...
• Fixed click-targeting accidentally opening the target unit's inspection card.
• Added a short delay before world-unit hover previews appear to reduce accidental popups.
• Added a subtle breathing transparency effect for CLOAKED units and cards.
• Improved targeting and preview behavior for effects that affect an entire selected side.
• Multi-target effects now display previews on every unit that will actually be affected.

CLOAKED Rework

CLOAKED received a major rules and implementation pass.

• CLOAKED now has a maximum of 10 stacks.
• Each CLOAKED stack grants +5% outgoing Damage.
• Units lose 1 CLOAKED at the end of their personal Turn.
• Units lose 2 CLOAKED when taking Global Damage.
• Attacking consumes all remaining CLOAKED after the card finishes resolving.
• Individual cards no longer bypass the universal CLOAKED Damage bonus.
• Card resolution now preserves the pre-attack CLOAKED amount long enough for effects such as Assassin's Strike and Silent Kill to resolve correctly.

Cards & Hand

• Added persistent hand sorting:
  • Draw
  • Cost
  • Archetype
  • Name
• Added a visual label showing the currently selected sorting mode.
• Improved Battlefield Card readability for:
  • HP
  • Speed
  • Armor
  • Shield
  • Life Force
• Improved card hover behavior and target previews.
• Improved pointer priority when hand cards overlap battlefield units.
• Fixed several card-name and description typos.
• Cleaned up card wording across Physical, Magical and Utility cards.
• Standardized terminology and casing for terms such as Damage, Target, Turn, Armor, Shield, SACRIFICE and Global.
• Card damage descriptions can now display dynamic values instead of relying entirely on hardcoded numbers.

Damage & Status Rules

The general interaction between damage types and statuses has been clarified.

By default:

Dealing a Damage type also applies its corresponding Status.

Explicit exceptions can exist for mechanics designed around consuming or resetting those statuses, such as certain Execution effects.

Additional card-system support was also added for:

• Generic Remove Status effects.
• Outgoing Status bonuses.
• Temporary card-cost modifiers.
• Cost modifiers that expire at the end of the owner's personal Turn.
• Automatic hand-cost refresh when temporary modifiers expire.
• Conditional effects based on other units on the same side having a Status.
• Damage scaling based on the difference between caster and target Status stacks.

Attack Bypass System

Cards can now explicitly bypass individual defensive or reactive mechanics during the current attack.

Current support includes:

• Ignore Armor
• Ignore Shield
• Ignore Riposte

This was a much needed addition.

Card Mechanic Fixes

A large card cleanup and repair pass was completed.

Fixes included:

• Lucky Dagger
• Bear Hug
• Deep Slice
• Press the Wound
• Assassin's Strike
• Red Gamble
• Red Finish
• Cloak Discharge
• Unseen Redirection
• Red Momentum
• Pain Focus

Additional card-definition and Damage Type metadata cleanup was also completed.

Balance Pass v1

The first general card-value baseline has been established.

Multiple cards have been re-balanced.

It was needed to give each card a value.

Balance Adjustments

• Rebalanced Blade Shatter.
• Adjusted Graveyard Call.
• Adjusted Life Siphon.
• Reduced redundancy between several similar Slash cards.
• Gave Deep Wounds a clearer identity as a WOUNDS setup card.

Campaign

• Fixed Campaign nodes sometimes failing to unlock after winning battles.
• Improved progression handling after non-battle and event nodes.
• Quit Run now correctly returns to Main Menu and requires a new squad for a fresh run.
• Removed technical/internal node numbering from encounter presentation.
• Added direct Codex access from the Campaign Map.
• Improved Codex scene transitions.
• Improved Campaign state handling and progression reliability.

Codex / Pause / Options

• Fixed opening the Codex during Battle restarting the entire fight.
• Codex now opens additively and preserves the exact current Battle state.
• Improved Battle Pause Menu behavior.
• Improved support for authored Pause UI.
• Expanded Options with:
  • Video
  • Audio
  • Gameplay
  • Controls
  • Tutorials
• Added persistent keyboard and controller rebinding.
• Improved contextual control prompts for:
  • Keyboard
  • Xbox controllers
  • PlayStation controllers

Only the currently active control method is displayed.

Tutorials

• Added a reusable multi-page tutorial popup system.
• Tutorials can now be disabled individually.
• Tutorials can now also be disabled globally.
• Added tutorial reset support.
• Added runtime tutorial testing tools.

Important: Tutorials are not fully implemented yet, however, it is in a bare bones state that can offer the minimum amount of information.

Armory & Input

• Fixed Search losing keyboard focus when switching from Mouse to Keyboard input.
• WASD and arrow keys can now be typed normally while editing the Search field.
• Improved keyboard/controller navigation behavior throughout the Armory.
• Improved deck-building interaction and card selection behavior.

Main Menu

• Fixed an issue where the Battle Mode Select panel sometimes required pressing PLAY twice before appearing.
• Improved Main Menu interaction stability.
• Added and polished the Credits interface.
• Added clearer Pre-Alpha development messaging.

Saves & Stability

• Migrated Campaign save data to encrypted .sav files with integrity protection.
• Improved scene transition handling.
• Fixed UI shader compatibility warnings appearing in Development Builds involving _MainTex.
• Various fixes to:
  • UI
  • input
  • hover behavior
  • targeting
  • runtime stability

Training & Simulation

• Training D.U.M.M.Y. added so you can test combos on it.
• Due to a bug found by Nat, Simulations mode was added allowing you to chose to duel against enemies you chose against the deck you choose or even your deck. The bug was too fun to just fix.

Platform Builds

The current Pre-Alpha is now being prepared and distributed for:

• Windows
• Linux
• Android

This is also the first version being prepared for testing through the official Soul Games itch.io page.

Still Being Worked On

Some systems are intentionally not considered final yet.

Armor

Armor will receive another major pass when development moves further into the Blunt archetype.

The current direction is to make Armor substantially stronger and potentially introduce some fun interactions with it.

Unit HP

Current unit HP values may increase later as Passives, Status combinations and archetype synergies increase overall combat output.

PvP & Additional Archetypes

PvP and the larger first batch of archetypes are still in development and were originally intended to exist before Soul Games was shown publicly.

The Pre-Alpha has been released earlier than originally planned so development can begin benefiting from a larger testing group.

And Finally...

This month involved a lot of fixing things, breaking other things while fixing those things, and occasionally discovering that a bug was actually a pretty good idea for a mechanic.

Soul Games is still extremely early.

There is a lot left to build.

But compared to where the project was at the beginning of the month, it is becoming a considerably more complete game.

Now comes the dangerous part:

letting more people play it.

Thank you to everyone who has helped test, break and improve Soul Games so far.

— Sir Lag

Soul Games — Update Notes & Development News

Hello!

This thread will serve as the main place for Soul Games build updates, patch notes, development news, and important changes.

For larger updates, I may also publish a dedicated itch.io Devlog with more details, screenshots, or explanations.

Because Soul Games is still in very early development, updates may range from:

• Bug fixes
• Balance changes
• New cards and units
• UI and quality-of-life improvements
• Campaign changes
• New mechanics
• New game modes
• Performance improvements
• Complete reworks of things I previously thought were a good idea

So... pretty much anything.

Current Build

Pre-Alpha — 20260821

This is the first build being made available through the Soul Games itch.io page.

Available platforms:

• Windows
• Linux
• Android

Current playable content includes:

• Campaign (playable-incomplete)
• Duel
• Training modes
• Armory / Deck Building
• Classic battle presentation
• Card battle presentation

This build is being released much earlier in development than originally planned, primarily so I can start gathering feedback, finding problems, and seeing how the game behaves outside my own testing environment.

There are still unfinished systems, missing content, balance problems, placeholders, and probably bugs hiding in places I have not looked yet.

If you find one, please use the Pre-Alpha Feedback & Bug Reports thread.

Future Updates

For every new public build, I will try to include:

Build date / version

Added

• New content or systems

Changed

• Balance, mechanics, UI, or existing content

Fixed

• Bugs and unintended behaviour

Known Issues

• Problems I know about but have not fixed yet

Not every update will contain this stuff but you get the idea.

Sometimes an update may simply be:

"I broke something yesterday. It works again."

Those count too.

A Small Warning About Early Builds

Because the project is still changing rapidly, I cannot guarantee that every update will remain compatible with older saves.

I will try to avoid breaking existing saves whenever reasonably possible, and if I know that a fresh save is required, I will mention it clearly in the update notes.

Development is moving fast, so expect this thread to grow.

Thank you to everyone testing the game, reporting problems, suggesting ideas, and helping shape Soul Games.

— Sir Lag

Soul Games — FAQ

This thread will be updated as development continues and new questions come up.

If something is missing, feel free to ask below.

What is Soul Games?

Soul Games is a dark-fantasy tactical card game that will be focused on deck-building, units, status effects, passives, resources, and interactions between all of them.

The basic philosophy is pretty simple:

Units define how you play. Cards let you break the rules. Numbers make everything worse.

In a good way. Hopefully.

Or in a bad way. Chaos! 

What stage of development is the game in?

Very early.

The current build is not something I am comfortable calling a finished Alpha or a proper Demo yet.

It is playable and the core foundation is there, but systems, balance, UI, artwork, cards, units, progression and entire features may still change.

Expect bugs.

Probably some spectacular ones.

What platforms are currently available?

The current Pre-Alpha has builds for:

• Windows
• Linux
• Android (slow UX development)

These versions may not all receive the same level of testing at exactly the same time, so please mention your platform when reporting a problem.

What game modes are currently available?

The current build includes:

• Campaign (early stage)
• Duel
• Training
• Armory / Deck Building

Combat can also be played using two different presentation styles:

• Classic Mode — characters are presented directly on the battlefield.
• Card Mode — units are presented using a more traditional TCG-style card layout.

The underlying battle is the same; the presentation is different.

Is PvP available?

Not yet.

PvP is planned, it is the main focus, but I originally intended to have considerably more of the game finished before showing Soul Games publicly.

Is there a complete card / archetype roster yet?

No.

More cards, units and archetypes are still being developed.

The current content should be treated as a working slice of the larger system rather than the final card pool.

I can tell you that at least several archetypes are in development and one is almost there.

As for the word complete, I am planning to add cards for as long I can work on this project.

Will my save always work after an update?

I cannot promise that during this stage of development.

I will try to preserve saves whenever reasonably possible, but major changes to progression, decks or underlying systems may occasionally require a fresh save.

If an update requires one, I will try to mention it clearly in the update notes.

But up to this point I tried to make the saves as future proof as they can be - AT THIS POINT-. 

How do I report a bug?

Please use the Pre-Alpha Feedback & Bug Reports thread.

If possible, include stuff like:

• your platform;
• game mode;
• Classic Mode or Card Mode;
• what happened;
• what you expected to happen;
• how to reproduce it;
• a screenshot or video if useful.

You do not need to write a professional bug report.

"I clicked this, played that, and the game died" is more than enough at this point.

Can I suggest cards, mechanics, units or features?

Absolutely.

However, spoiler alert, some mechanics may already be in the game, just not finished and turned on.

How often will the game be updated?

There is currently no fixed update schedule.

Soul Games is being actively developed, and I would rather release an update when there is something meaningful to release than promise a date I may not be able to keep.

Major changes and new builds will be documented in the Update Notes / Devlogs.

Is Soul Games free?

The current build is available on itch.io as $0 or donate.

You can download and play it without paying.

Support is appreciated, but feedback and simply playing the game are useful too.

Will it be free upon release, depends on too many factors that I simply do not want to think about now. Rest assured, when the elephant enters the room, I'll be the first to not not see it.

Can I support development?

Yes.

The itch.io page currently allows optional donations, and I am also working on additional ways for people who want to support development.

I will update this FAQ when those are ready.

Was AI used to make Soul Games?

Yes.

Some of the code was partially generated by AI and other parts were repaired by Chat GPT.

Art was also done by AI.

Soul Games is currently being developed with a very limited budget, and these tools have allowed me to build and iterate on something I otherwise could not have produced at this scale.

Where should I follow development?

For now, the itch.io page and its Devlogs will contain important build updates and development news.

More community and development channels are being set up.

I have a question that isn't here.

Ask below.

If people keep asking it, congratulations — you just helped expand the FAQ.

Please understand that I spend most of my time either at work or working on the game, I will try to be active here but there is no way that I will be active on these threads every single day. I will however try to read as much as I can and answer your question.

And again, english is not my first language, so try not to be hard on me.

— Sir Lag

Pre-Alpha Feedback & Bug Reports

Hello again!

If you are playing the current Soul Games Pre-Alpha, this is the main place to leave feedback and report bugs.

At this stage of development, things will break. Some systems are unfinished, balance is still changing, and there are probably plenty of strange interactions I have not discovered yet.

The story is not turned on either at this point.

That is exactly why your feedback is useful.

Bug Reports

If you encounter a bug, please include as much of the following as possible:

• Platform: Windows / Linux / Android
• Game mode: Campaign / Duel / Training
• Battle presentation: Classic Mode / Card Mode
• What happened
• What you expected to happen
• Steps to reproduce it, if you can reproduce it
• A screenshot or video, if it helps

You do not need to write a perfect technical report.

Even something as simple as:

"I played this card on this unit and everything exploded."

is useful if you tell me roughly what happened before it exploded.

Feedback

Feedback does not have to be about bugs.

I am also interested in things such as:

• Cards or units that feel too strong or too weak
• Mechanics that are confusing
• UI that is difficult to understand
• Things that feel slow or annoying
• Controls that do not feel right
• Deck-building ideas
• Strange or overpowered combinations
• Features you would like to see
• Things you simply liked or disliked

And please do not worry about being overly polite about it.

If something sucks, tell me what sucks and why.

That is far more useful to me than pretending everything is fine.

At the same time, keep in mind that Soul Games is still extremely early in development. Not every suggestion will be implemented, and some things may already be planned for later versions, there is a lot of stuff waiting on the bench.

But I will read the feedback.

A surprising amount of the game already exists because someone found a bug funny or simply asked if something can be implemented.

So please keep doing exactly that.

Thank you for helping Soul Games any way you can and helping me break it properly.

— Sir Lag