Dear friend of Skytear Games,

The crowdfunding for the third chapter of Skytear Horde last month was a great success! The project is now being polished every day and that is what we are focusing on. Thank you to everyone who backed us!

But today's email is about our third game, Onward.

For years now, we have been working on a spiritual sequel to Skytear, our first game released in 2020.

For the new players that joined only recently: Skytear is our card and miniatures game that delivers the feeling of MOBA video games like League of Legends or Dota 2.

Onward, is much more than just a second edition of Skytear. And that is why we have a new name for it instead of just calling it "Skytear 2".

Despite Onward being a new game, all the miniatures from Skyetar will be used in Onward as well.

We will make a special package for existing players with only the (few) new miniatures.

Now let's talk about the high-level gameplay a bit.

In short: Onward is a lot more accessible and easier to play and table. Streamlined but not dumbed down.

It's more like a deep board game and less like the "lifestyle" game Skytear is.

What we added, kept, and removed

Compared to the original Skytear, we KEPT the best parts liked by thousands of players, ADDED some more key MOBA features, and REMOVED everything else that was not essential.

What we ADDED to the gameplay:

• Monsters and jungles. You can go earn gold to scale your heroes power. And yes, you might encounter the monsters you have seen in Skytear Horde!
• Items to customize the hero as you play.
  The changing market mixed with the changing roster of heroes creates *a lot* of interesting and unique combos.
• Towers and nexuses you can attack.
  ​Unlike with Skytear, these structures are now fully integrated in the gameplay and you can attack them... or at least try to!
• Even though the focus remains the 1vs1 competitive game mode, we have been designing Onward with solo, co-op, and 4-player mode.
• But wait, there's more! There's a dragon-outsider in the river, the central area of the map, that award game-breaking bonuses.

What we KEPT from Skytear:

• The focus on 2 players controlling multiple heroes at once, where the heroes you drafted form your deck.
• The playtime of 45-90 minutes, depending on the map and players experience.​
• The importance of managing the wave of minions across multiple lanes with its deep strategy implications across multiple rounds.​
• The highly interactive card play, so that you are always on your toes. And yes, we kept the controversial "stack" mechanic, although streamlined quite a bit!

​

What we REMOVED from Skytear:

• The hexes are gone, they became fewer and bigger areas instead, so that you can focus on card play more.
• The *mandatory* deckbuilding with long setup/teardown is gone.​
  Just draft your heroes, or use the presets teams, and play! Each card has a hero clearly marked on it, so setup and teardown are a breeze (unlike before!).
• A lot of rules and "complexity" is gone.
  ​In Onward there is a 100% card-driven action system and a much shorter and simpler rulebook with all the core rules fitting in just 6 pages.
• The victory cards that were leading to many "gotcha!" moments are gone.
  Their spirit lives on though, as there are multiple ways to achieve the single goal of destroying the enemy nexus, meaning the game is always open until the very end and different play styles are possible!

The inevitable call to actions

Smart people told me I have to put them so here they are:

• ​Follow the crowdfunding draft on Gamefound
  Get a free promo pack with cool-looking ultimates to win (or lose) with style!
• ​Sign up to play it in early access
  As soon as we finish the polishing touches we will send you everything you need to play it in advance. (we will not say a date because it always taking longer! Even more so now that our focus is on the third chapter of Skytear Horde)

Or even... just reply to let me know what you think!

I guess that is enough for today.
In the next months, we'll get deeper into the gameplay as we get closer to the launch date.

Hopefully, we will be able to launch before the end of the year, once Skytear Horde set #3 is sailing through the oceans on container ships...

Happy gaming!
Giacomo