2018 in Review!

Originally published at: 2018 in Review – Gems of War

2018 was a big year here at Gems of War! We released more content than ever before, grew to new heights and explored unchartered territory. With that in mind, let’s review how Krystara changed this year.

Underworld & Make Over

Krystara’s crust cracked open this year, revealing the fiery depths of the Underworld! Players were free to Delve for treasure, explore factions and recruit new allies.

Accompanying the discovery of the Underworld, Gems of War had a makeover. Krystara’s map was polished and the game’s UI streamlined.

New Game Modes

This year guilds were more active than ever, in part due to the release of 3 new game modes! Alongside waging war with other guilds, players were encouraged to work together to climb the Tower of Doom, prevent Zuul’Goth from escaping into Krystara, and invade enemy Citadels.

Speaking of Guilds… Just before the holidays we released out latest update, which brought customisable shields and titles, activity logs, requirements and much more!

Events

We always wanted to bring 24 hour and weekend long events, and this year we were finally able to! Our team were passionate about adding mid-week events to boost your progress, so 24 delve, pet rescue and hero class events were created! Heroes were called to aid in the hunting of bounties, and the doors to the legendary gnome vaults were discovered. (Leading to the slaughter of many gnomes…)

Hero Classes and Weapons

Hero classes and weapons saw a rework in 2018! By gaining Champion XP players could unlock traits and ingots used to power up weapons. More hero classes were released, with weekend events scheduled to kick start their progress.

Rumour has it that the 50 gem fee to change classes is being removed in 2019, and that hero classes and weapons will be able to be saved to your teams.

Troops

In 2018 we released a record breaking number of troops! 186 new denizens flooded Krystara, 12 of which were mythics. Joining the ranks of our highest rarity were the following, in order:

  • January - Gargantaur
  • February - Voice of Orpheus
  • March - Champion of Anu
  • April - Undine
  • May - The Wild Queen
  • June - Ubastet
  • July - Suna
  • August - Arachnaean Weaver
  • September - Megavore
  • October - Fallen Valdis
  • November - The Possessed King
  • December - High King Iron Gut

Pets

There’s nothing quite like adventuring with a pet! This year a horde of adorable critters were in dire need of rescuing. 61 in fact!

Pets could be found by defeating their kidnappers, Pet Gnomes, or during our 24 hour pet events. Certain holidays saw the release of exclusive cosmetic pets, and heroes are now free to roam Krystara with their chosen companion perched jauntily upon their shoulder.

Gnomes

Like a particularly nasty rash… No, maybe a welcome rash? That’s still not quite right… At any rate, like bunnies (?) gnomes spread across Krystara! Gnomes are well known for coveting different things, so Jewel Gnomes, Pet Gnomes and Soul Gnomes (to name a few) popped into battles when heroes least expected them.

Once defeated, a gnome’s loot was collectable, rewarding resources or triggering pet rescues. On occasion, a player could even pillage a gnome’s fabled vault for untold riches…

New platforms

Gems of War invaded Amazon! We are hard at work bringing Gems of War to new platforms in 2019, so make sure to keep an eye out.

2019 Resolutions

  • To keep bringing you fresh, exciting troops and content!
  • To bring Gems of War to more platforms, solidifying our plans for world domination through bad puns, RNG and all things match-3.
  • To spend more time with you! We will endeavour to talk to you more, facilitate more ways to interact with our developers, and have more fun.

From the entire team at Gems of War, thank you! It has been an amazing 2018, and we cannot wait for what the future holds. The happiest of New Years to each and every one one of you!

See you in 2019!

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Pssst, I know a few of you were sad that we didn’t do an infographic last year, so @Sirrian was kind enough to make a new one!

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More platforms? Does this mean a possible port to Nintendo Switch?!

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Our lips are sealed!

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Congratulations and more stats please! The infographic is very cool, but even just additional bullet points would be fun. Whatever you are willing to share!

Also, I would love to see this in lieu of Jewel Gnome :laughing:

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1million of those firebombs exploded are mine! xD

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Since Sybil of Lust debuts during New Year’s week this resolution started on the wrong foot already…

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Perhaps they celebrate the chinese new year instead.

If it doesn’t allow cross play with PC/Mobile then just ban my forums account for a week after you announce it please.

(In regards to the Switch Port)

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@Saltypatra according to the resolution. You should unseal your lips.
What’s the harm in saying you’re working on a Mac and a Switch Port? :thinking:
(Too early for next gen ports and I can’t think of any other platforms that GoW isn’t available on)

If we aren’t saying something, I think it’s safe to assume it’s because we aren’t allowed too. <3

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Maybe we need a new Soon TM then. Like a, Too Soon TM.

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To another year of 505 being my #1 nemesis then.
Thanks anyway.

Is it possible if a Switch Port did exist, hypothetically, it could cross play with PC/mobile?
Or at the very least would Nintendo make that call?
Without Microsoft and Sony having any involvement in that decision?

It’s ok, you Nintendon’t have to say anything else on the matter.

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Ty @Sirrian @Nimhain @Saltypatra @Cyrup @GoldPhoenix0 @Ozball @Kafka @Alpheon @Andrew @CliffyA @ you guys made me play during 4yr with your addictive game. I don’t always agree with every decision you made but at the end i still enjoy the game and it’s the most important.

Thanks for everything!!! Best wishes for 2019

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Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for all your engagement and passion. It’s amazing to be apart of such a vibrant community.

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Thank you Devs for a year gone by and a thank you for another year to come.

Also a big thanks to the lovely community on the forums and my family members.

Love you all :heart:

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Thank you for a wonderful year of gameplay. I look forward to many more!

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Thanks for the infographic, that was really fun to read! Sometimes, it’s little things like that which can make all the difference in communicating the epic amount of effort (and love) that is applied to crafting GoW.

I’d love to hear the story behind Fire Bombs at a future dev Q&A stream. Pretty sure that 1.7m fire bomb explosions were not intended player behaviors. :rofl:

Well, for whatever good, bad, or just outright different things that are planned for GoW in 2019, it’s hard to argue against this mission statement for world domination. Pinky would absolutely approve, narf.

Here’s to another year of surprises, rants, raves, birbs, bunnies, puns, bingo cards, lore, and the best community around these parts of the Internet.

/raises glass for another successful year of GoW

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