Project Ventureville

Ventureville is a non-commercial, work-in-progress project. **We do not claim ownership of any third-party assets used in it.** All art, sprites, tilesets, effects, fonts, music and sound

effects listed below belong to their original creators and are used under the terms of their respective licences. Full credit goes to them.

If you created an asset used here and would like it credited differently or removed, please contact us and we will act on it promptly.

### AI-generated art

Some of the artwork currently in the game (for example character portraits, battle art and

card art) was made with AI image tools. **All AI-generated art is a placeholder only.** It is

used to test the game while it is in development and will be removed and replaced with

original or properly licensed art before any finished release. None of it is presented as the

project's own artistic work.

### Third-party assets

**Tilesets & sprites**

- *Forgotten Memories* tileset (ground, trees, props, water): creator to be confirmed

- *Character Fantasy Sprite Pack*: Memao

- Black Knight and Alice overworld sprite sheets: creators to be confirmed

**User interface**

- *GUI Interface Kit Free*: Jamie Cross ([jamie-cross.net](https://www.jamie-cross.net)), CC0

- Borders and panels: Kenney ([kenney.nl](https://kenney.nl)), CC0

- *UI asset pack*: Edinnu

- UI assets: Wenrexa

- *Free Horizontal Game Backgrounds*: CraftPix.net ([craftpix.net/freebies](https://craftpix.net/freebies/)) (included, not yet used)

**Visual effects**

- *Pixel Art Animations - Slashes*, *Pixel Art VFX - Blood Mage* and *Pixel Art VFX - Vampire* (free versions): Frostwindz, under the Frostwindz Asset License Agreement

- *VFX Free Pack* (impacts, explosions, fire, shields, vortex and more): creator to be confirmed

- *FREE VFX Mysterious Object*: Pipoya (included, not yet used)

**Fonts**

- *Eczar*: Rosetta Type Foundry, SIL Open Font License

**Sound effects** (from [Freesound.org](https://freesound.org), by their uploaders)

- Unsheath sword: qat

- Armor: juryduty

- Hit swing sword, hit impact sword 3: cogfirestudios

- Magic loop: rising_moon

- Magic spell casting 02: vrymaa

- SFX attack sword 001: joelaudio

- Wooden door open/close: doppido01

- Magic spell blast: akkaittou

- Wet / squishy footsteps: federicoy

- Fire whoosh samples: mikiko850

- Magic burst: humordome ([Pixabay](https://pixabay.com))

If you are an artist and wish to contribute to this game's art, feel free to contact me on Discord as imgwatcher22.

# NewVentureville 0.0.6 Pre-Alpha

The story begins. New Game now opens with an interactive intro that ends with you choosing your Essence and waking up alone in the Forbidden Forest. The forest has become a place to explore, with quests, patrolling knights, a village to walk to, and an Inventory and Character sheet right on the map.

> **Pre-alpha:** expect rough edges, placeholder art and balance changes between builds.

## How to play

1. Download **NewVentureville-v0.0.6-pre-alpha-windows.zip** from the Assets below and unzip it.

2. Run **NewVentureville.exe**.

3. If Windows shows *"Windows protected your PC"*, click **More info → Run anyway** (the game isn't code-signed).

Windows 10/11, 64-bit. Your progress is saved locally on your PC.

## Changelog

**A new beginning**

- **New Game now starts with the story.** An ordinary day ends somewhere else entirely: a few short scenes with choices, then darkness, a voice, and a question: *what is your name?*

- **Choose your Essence.** The Unknown Presence offers four Essences: Life (Blood Magus) and Sound (Voice Magus) can be chosen now; Oblivion and Might are coming. Your Essence is your class.

- **The class selection screen is gone.** Every new character starts at **level 1 with every stat at 10**. No free points: stat points come from levelling up.

- **Skip** (or Esc) jumps straight to naming yourself and choosing your Essence; that part can't be skipped.

- You then **wake up in the middle of the Forbidden Forest**, and your first main quest begins.

**The Forbidden Forest**

- **Two Foot Knights patrol the east path.** They see in a cone in front of them and give chase when they spot you, so sneak behind them or fight. Beaten enemies are gone for good.

- **HP, Sanity and items now carry over** between fights on the map.

- **Night falls** on the forest, with a lantern lighting your way and a new nighttime ambience.

- **People to talk to:** dialogue with names, portraits and typing sounds.

**Briarwick, a village at the forest's edge**

- Walk off the **west edge** of the forest to reach Briarwick: five houses, a well, lamp-lit streets and five villagers with something to say (and more if you come back).

- Knock on doors. Nobody answers... yet.

**Quests**

- New **Quest Menu (J)** with Main, Faction and Side quests, objectives and rewards.

- **Main quest: Out of the Dark.** Find somewhere safe.

- **Side quest: The Lost Locket.** Bram dropped his mother's locket while fleeing the knights. Fight them for it, or sneak in and grab it.

- **Quest Completed** screen with your rewards (cards, items, XP, levels).

**Inventory and Character sheet**

- **Inventory (I):** see everything you carry, and drink healing and sanity potions outside of battle.

- **Character sheet (C):** your portrait, level, XP, HP, Sanity and every stat. Spend unspent stat points whenever you like.

- **Damage stats unlock with your cards:** a stat (Blood, Influence, Entropy, Strength) can only be raised once you own a card of its kind, so points never go to waste.

- The map menu (Esc) now has Quests, Inventory, Character, the Deck Editor and **Battle Select**, so the four-battle campaign is one click away.

**Battles**

- **"?" is now an inspect mode:** hover anything on the battle screen to see what it does, one thing at a time.

- **The turn can't end while a card is still resolving**, and a played card stays on screen until its effect is done.

- **New Voice Magus cards:** Grand Finale, Ad-libitum and Thespian Coronation (Puppet Theater).

- **Cadenza** now counts cards Orchestrated this combat. **Impale** reworked: strips the target's Shield, heals that much, then strikes.

- Stolen moves (**Mimic**) use the enemy move's own name, and cards added to your hand get their own animation.

- **New stat curve:** every point counts the same and growth slows gently instead of capping.

- Draw, card-created and Mindblast sounds.

- New pile viewer for your draw pile, discard pile and deck; reworked card inspector (right-click) with every keyword explained; a reshuffle animation; smooth scrolling everywhere.

- Status tooltips behave consistently when an effect list is expanded.

**Fixes**

- Every sound effect now follows the **SFX volume** slider (many ignored it).

- Long dialogue lines scroll instead of being cut off.

- The card reward screen no longer lifts other cards over the card you're inspecting.

- The pause menu on the map no longer crashes the game.

# NewVentureville 0.0.5 Pre-Alpha

About the game

NewVentureville is a dark-fantasy deckbuilder. Create a mage, battle through a campaign of increasingly dangerous foes, earn new cards after every victory, and shape your deck around your class's strengths.

Features

• Two playable classes
  • Blood Magus: pays for power in blood. Sacrifice HP to fuel spells, forge Blood Weapons, drain enemies with Blood Syphon and Ascend beyond your limits.
  • Voice Magus: breaks minds before bodies. Build up Horror, chain Orchestrate cards, predict and steal your enemies' moves, and shatter their Sanity with Mind Break.
• A three-battle campaign: the Foot Knights, Gladius the Beast of Night, and Alice, a three-phase boss. Each victory unlocks the next fight.
• Card rewards after every win, from Common to Legendary.
• Deck Editor with drag and drop and a live card preview.
• Two kinds of damage: HP and Sanity. Psychic attacks wound both body and mind.

Controls

Action	How
Play a card	Click it, then click a target (or drag it onto the target)
Read a card's keywords	Hover over the card
Inspect a card up close	Right-click it
Open the Battle Log	Click the log bar at the top, or press L
See what everything on screen does	? button, top right
Retreat from a battle	Escape on the bar at the bottom (no rewards, not a loss)
Use potions	Items on the bar at the bottom
Settings / Quit	Pause button, top right

A big content update: a new enemy you can talk down, real rewards for winning, save slots, a smarter Deck Editor, livelier enemy attacks, and a first look at exploring the world.

> **Pre-alpha:** expect rough edges, placeholder art and balance changes between builds.

## How to play

1. Download **NewVentureville-v0.0.5-pre-alpha-windows.zip** from the Assets below and unzip it.

2. Run **NewVentureville.exe**.

3. If Windows shows *"Windows protected your PC"*, click **More info → Run anyway** (the game isn't code-signed).

Windows 10/11, 64-bit. Your progress is saved locally on your PC.

## Changelog

**New enemy: the Black Knight**

- A new battle, second in the campaign, between the Foot Knights and Gladius.

- He fights with greatsword strikes, shield bashes that can Concuss you, and a guarding stance (**Bulwark**: Shield every turn).

- He swears **Oaths** to restore his HP and Sanity, up to three times per battle.

- Below half health he becomes **Indomitable**: the first debuff you apply each turn bounces off.

- **Talk is now a real choice.** Taunt him to make him reckless (he stops swearing Oaths but attacks relentlessly), or question his motives in a conversation where one wrong answer undoes your progress. Make him hesitate three times in a row without attacking him and he lays down his sword: you win without killing him.

- Beating him rewards one card of each rarity.

**Spoils of Battle**

- Winning now grants **XP**. Level up to earn stat points and spend them right on the results screen (unspent points are kept).

- Battles drop **items** (potions and elixirs), which go into your inventory. Used items are gone for good.

- Card rewards follow, as before.

**Save slots**

- Up to **six characters** can be saved. **Continue** loads your most recent one.

- New **Load Game** menu showing each save's name, class, level, battles won and when it was saved. Saves can be deleted (with a confirmation).

**Deck Editor**

- **Sort** your deck and collection by name, amount owned, latest received, card type or rarity (and reverse it).

- **Filter** each side by card type, AP cost, MP cost and keywords.

**Battles**

- Every enemy attack has new animations: lunges, slashes, impacts, fire, shields, charges and phase changes, so it's always clear what just happened.

- Effects fade in and out smoothly instead of popping in.

- **Mindblast** now has a big, unmistakable flash so you see when it triggers.

- Cards glow **cyan** when their Orchestrate bonus is active, and **red-orange** when playing them right now would do nothing.

- Battle music now loops seamlessly (Gladius' second phase switches to its own section of the track).

- Status tooltips and icon flashes always appear on top and centred on the right character.

- Enemy damage reworked: enemies now use their full damage values, and the Foot Knights hit harder.

**Voice Magus**

- New card: **Voice Essence**. Predict the enemy's next action; if you're right, gain **Intangible** (every hit you take is reduced to 1).

**Work in progress: the Forbidden Forest**

- A first explorable map. On Battle Select, press **WIP**, then **Map access**.

- Walk with **W A S D**, walk up to an enemy and press **E** to fight it (Alice and the Black Knight are there). Rewards are the same as from Battle Select.

- Defeated enemies stay gone while you explore, and return the next time you enter the map.

- A top toolbar opens the **Deck Editor** and a **menu** (Esc) with Settings and the Main Menu. Your portrait, level, HP and Sanity are shown in the corner.

## Known issues

- The Forbidden Forest is a work in progress: there's little to do yet besides the two fights, and HP and Sanity don't carry over between battles.

- Some cards and enemies still use placeholder art, and the Black Knight's dialogue is placeholder text.

- Balance is unfinished, especially for the Voice Magus and the later bosses.

- Mouse and keyboard only.

## Feedback

Found a bug or something that felt off? Open an issue and tell us which class and battle you were playing.