Dungeon crawler, Ebony Spire: Heresy, will be getting an anniversary update next month

A recent post by the developer has detailed plans going forward for the title and there’s big changes incoming.

Ebony Spire: Heresy [Official Site] is a dungeon crawler that’s inspired by the titles of yesteryear but made to be played in more manageable time chunks. Liam wrote about it when it first came out and he seemed to have a really good time. It had a rocky start at launch and wasn’t really able to sell many copies, something which the developer has been refreshingly open about, but has since then gone to break even and surpass sale expectations selling over 6000 copies.

As a thanks for the continued support, the game is getting a major graphical overhaul as well as a fair deal of UX and general improvements. Here’s some of the bigger stuff you can expect from the revamp:

• Full mouse support for the game: This has been the most requested feature since day one. I heard you loud and clear. Movement, Menu, Actions and Interactions will be available to your pointer.
• Auto-equip items in the inventory when a new game starts: Many players were confused about not being able to damage enemies on their first few runs because they had no idea how to access and use the inventory.
• The second most requested change for the game was the ability to not start FACING THE WALLS in Infinite_Mode.
• A way to select which items you want to pickup from the ground if more than one are available. Or see details about those items.
• Improved dungeon textures: To quote a piece of feedback I received “main dungeon visuals are boring, while portals you visit are pretty cool”. No more, dungeons look better and will be more interesting.
• The ability to re-size the screen of the game.

In a more recent post the developer, Bearded Giant Games, has shared the reasons why the reasons why he was able to do this update in the first place. It's a good reminder of the realities of being a small developer and something well worth keeping in mind for the next game you play or purchase. There are also some comparison images showing what we can expect from the graphical revamp:

It’s looking good and definitely gets that retro vibe right. In the same post, the possibility of a sequel is also teased if the original game continues to sell at a steady rate (at least $100 a month). I appreciate the frankness of the dev and wish him the best of luck meeting his target.

It may also interest you to know that the game is MIT-licensed and purchasing the game on itch.io will give you a copy of the source as well. There’s also a github page but it looks like it might not be up-to-date.

You can grab Ebony Spire: Heresy on itch.io or Steam.