Emberward

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• Announcements·2 Sept 2026Official

  Emberward 1.0 Coming September 17!

  Yup, it's decided. The 1.0 update is coming on September 17!And... um......Yeah, actually, that's all I need to say here. I've got TONS of stuff that needs to be finished in the next two weeks, so I'll keep this short and get back to work. 😆By the way, the 1.0 version is currently in the testing phase. If you're interested in helping out with testing, feel free to join the Discord server to get access to the playtest branch. Of course, you may run into all kinds of issues during testing, so if you just want to enjoy the new region and other content, I'd recommend waiting until 1.0 officially launches. Two weeks will go by really fast!That's all. See you all at the 1.0 launch!- Refi
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• Announcements·9 Jul 2026Official

  Pricing Changes!

  Hi everyone!Although we just talked about what's coming in 1.0 recently, it didn't really hit me until I started writing this announcement. Emberward's Early Access is really almost over! I've been trying really hard to get everything done lately...I'm even dreaming about designing new levels. Hopefully I can wrap up 1.0 soon so I can get back to working on the more fun stuff, like new towers and relics 😆(If you missed what's coming in 1.0, you can check out the previous post!)Because of Steam's rules, after a game's price is changed, there's a one-month cooldown before it can go on sale. So I need to update the price to the full release price a little ahead of the update to make sure there can be a launch discount when 1.0 comes out.So, Emberward's price will change from $14.99 USD to $19.99 USD on July 15! Regions with regional pricing will be adjusted accordingly as well.And since this announcement happens to go out right before the Summer Sale ends (Yeah I totally forgot about this...), I've also extended the discount until July 15, so players who see this and want to pick up the game right now won't be sad to find that it's already back to full price.As for the 1.0 release date, I'm hoping to get it out before the end of August, but there are still a lot of things I'm not totally sure about yet (like how long testing and translation will take). I'll share it once it's confirmed! Thanks again, everyone, for supporting Emberward's development over the past two years. I'll do my best to get the new 1.0 content into your hands soon!Refi
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• Announcements·14 Jun 2026Official

  Dev Chat: What's Coming In 1.0?

  It's been almost 2 months since the last update!Recently I've been seeing more and more people ask when the next update is coming. (Someone even emailed me asking if I was sick) So I guess it's time to talk about what's coming in the 1.0 launch!When Early Access first started, my plan was pretty simple: just steadily finish all 4 regions, make all the towers and relics I had planned, fix the bugs, and the game should be ready for 1.0! Surely that would only take about a year...right? But once I actually started working on it, I realized things were completely different from what I had imagined. Players often suggested ideas or gave feedback to improve the game, and I'd also keep thinking of things I wanted to add myself. In the end, a whole bunch of things that I had never originally planned ended up being added to the game 😆. Endless Mode was originally going to be much simpler. Infernal Shards were only decided later, and Special Event Characters, holiday events, and the Enigma Sanctum were all things I suddenly thought of. (...And that's how Early Access somehow stretched into two years.)Since I started planning 1.0 a few months ago, I've been struggling with what exactly should be added in the 1.0 update. I've seen some games where the 1.0 update is about the same as a regular update, but I feel like people still expect to see something new and exciting? But if I spend too much time preparing for 1.0, I'm also really worried that by the time I finish it, everyone will have already lost interest. After thinking about it for a long time, I feel that...the reason Emberward has been able to grow into what it is now is because so many players have supported it. So for 1.0, I want even long-time players who have already played a lot to still have something new to enjoy. If someone has supported the game for a long time, but then when the full release finally arrives, they feel like there's nothing to do because they've already played everything...that just doesn't fee...
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• Patch Notes·16 Apr 2026Official

  Game Update! (v0.4.12)

  New update!Another month just flew by!In this patch, there are some big changes to Endless Mode. Previously, Endless Mode had random anomaly effects to ramp up the difficulty, so you had to adjust your strategy, towers, and relics around them. But from player feedback, a lot of people mentioned that those restrictive effects didn't feel great to play with. So this time I decided to try a different direction (...the exact opposite direction) and added powerful positive effects instead! Honestly, I think having both positive and negative effects could lead to more interesting strategy, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on a buffs-only version first. Let me know what you think after you try it!After this update, I've decided to start focusing on 1.0! I've already been slowly working toward it over the past few months, but trying to keep regular updates going while also building all the features needed for 1.0 has made the development process a lot more complicated. So I'm going to focus on it fully for a while! This way I don't have to worry about updates going wrong, and I can have more time to work on new stuff. Since there's a lot to get through, there might not be any more updates before 1.0 releases. Just wanted to give you a heads-up in case anyone's worried. I'll make another post later and show you some of the progress!That's it for now. Hope you enjoy this update!(btw, I mentioned reworking old relics and towers last time, but it turned out to be a lot more work than expected, and I also had some new ideas I wanted to try first, so they're not in this update. Likely coming with 1.0 instead!)- RefiNew FeaturesEndless ModeEndless Mode now unlocks once Misty Forest has been cleared on any difficulty. However, which maps you can play still depends on the player's progress.For example, if a player has only cleared Misty Forest, but today's Daily Challenge rolls a map from another region, they will not be able to enter it.The event maps have also been slightly adju...
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• Patch Notes·9 Mar 2026Official

  Game Update! (v0.4.11)

  New Update!Not sure if you noticed, but this week is Steam's Tower Defense Fest! The event is meant to help people discover more tower defense games, but it got me thinking... if it's a tower defense fest, maybe I could make something that fits the tower defense theme?Then I remembered something I've seen quite a few times in the feedback form. Many players said that after playing Emberward, it reminded them of the old days playing WC3 or SC2 custom games. For a lot of people, that was their introduction to tower defense games (yeah, same for me). And since the last update added the Fort Tower, I thought...why not take this chance to revisit that style a bit?In the new event map, you won't use any blocks to build your maze. Instead, we're going back to the classic approach - using Fort Towers to change the monsters' path. You'll also get 7 additional 2×2 towers, and you can use the Fort Tower's red upgrades to strengthen your defense depending on the situation. Although without blocks it doesn't really feel like Emberward, I think old TD players might find it pretty nostalgic. At least I had a lot of fun playing it 😆This update also adds two "Endless Modes" that people have been asking for for a long time. I remember when Emberward first launched, I was pretty confused by all the different requests for endless modes. Some people wanted a separate endless mode, some wanted to keep building on the same map after clearing it, and others wanted to keep playing after defeating the boss…Well, after this update, all three types of endless modes are now in the game!For the next update, I'm planning to adjust some older towers and relic effects, and add the remaining features I'd like to finish before 1.0, such as custom games for Endless Mode, and some changes based on feedback. After that, it'll probably be time to focus on preparing for the 1.0 release, including translations for other languages and all the other things that need to be ready before launch.That's all. Hope...
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