https://undeadlabs.com/2015/08/news/the-sun-sets-on-moonrise/

Hello Moonrise fans,

As you know, Moonrise has been in beta on Steam in the Early Access channel for the past few months. At the same time, the iOS version of the game has been available in limited release, in countries including Australia and Canada. During this beta period we’ve been gathering data on how people play the game. The free-to-play model, and the mobile market, are new territory for Undead Labs, so we’ve been paying close attention to these numbers to make sure we’re making a game people are excited to play, and also a game that we can operate profitably and sustainably with the level of support you expect.

What we’ve found is that while some people really love Moonrise, there were unfortunately many more people who played the game and then moved on after a few days. For a standalone, offline game that might be fine; but for an online game with significant server hosting costs and an expectation for ongoing development and new content, it can mean a game that not only doesn’t pay for it’s development costs, but might even cost money to operate. As you can imagine, that’s not something that makes sense for an independent studio like Undead Labs, nor for that matter would it be a good business decision even for a large publisher.

In light of this, we won’t be commercially releasing Moonrise. There are some fantastic elements to the game that we’re extremely proud of, and those might find their way into a future game someday, but for now we’re going to make some changes to the game that make it a blast to play for our existing players.

Since we won’t have to worry about whether the game is profitable, we can just have some fun and open the floodgates. We’re updating the game with new Solari, wildlands, dungeons, and clothing shops. We’re also increasing rewards in Arena Mode, making it easier to earn XP and hit upgrade and evolution milestones, increasing drop rates, decreasing leveling time, and generally making the game play faster and easier across the board. We’re also giving every player a free Sunset Pack containing 2,000 gems, 10,000 gold, two Solari Boosters, and a bunch of essences. Detailed patch notes are here.

This update will be available on Steam today. We’ll keep the servers running for the rest of the year, ending midnight, December 31.

I want to personally thank every one of you who played Moonrise, and in particular those of you jumped in on our Steam and UL player forums and shared your feedback with us — both the praise, which makes us giddy like little kids, and also the criticism, which makes us learn and get better at our jobs. Our future games will benefit tremendously from your feedback and support.

Jeff

DUNCAN: It is I, Duncan the Explorer, back once again to share knowledge of the wondrous Solari that one can find in a particular area. Today we’ll cover a dungeon in Taankwan Thicket known as Sagalee Ridge.
As it so happens, I’m quite familiar with this dungeon. When I was a younger explorer, I delved into these tunnels for weeks. I gathered samples from various depths, collected plant and fungus specimens...and did my best to avoid the Solari that lived there.

Which is why I’ve asked Guildmaster Laskian, of Kijang Village, to join me at the local tavern for a spot of lunch and a few stories. Laskian, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with my “students.”

LASKIAN: You are quite welcome, Duncan. It is my honor to assist you in imparting knowledge to those who seek insight and enlightenment.

DUNCAN: So then...what can you tell us about the Solari that live in Sagalee Ridge?

LASKIAN: As you might guess, the most common affinity of Solari living within an enormous fallen tree is Nature. No fewer than three iconic Nature Solari thrive within the woodland reaches of Taankwan Thicket, and each one shows a slightly different aspect of the affinity.

Read it all here - https://undeadlabs.com/2015/08/news/solari-safari-sagalee-ridge/

Bug fixes! Today’s update fixes some minor issues while we work towards the Next Big Thing. Some we found, but a lot of them were found by amazing players that let us know about them, a big thanks to everyone!

Bugs

• Fixed some achievements that were not being awarded retroactively
  
• Fixed a visual bug where Petrify caused the text INTERRUPT to appear
  
• Updated Lunari loadouts in The Spire: Descent to reflect the recent changes to Dispel/Guard conditions
  
• Implemented a fix for quest exclamation color not matching quest type when it animates in HUD
  
• World Map location names are clickable again
  
• Releasing new Solari from the team menu now removes the "New!" banner
  
• Fixed Solari in The Spire: Descent that were missing fast booting attacks
  
• Removed the extra ‘and’ in the description for "Boosts Bundle"
  
• Fixed attack pulse ring not being correctly aligned in the combat HUD
  
• Skiptail now has four skills when acquired from a Fortunato key
  
• Boost icons lead to the store when clicked

As always, if you find any bugs or have any questions or concerns with today's fixes, please let us know in the comments.

[http//%27https]DUNCAN: Hello, and welcome to the lush and beautiful Taankwan Thicket. As always, I’m Duncan the Explorer, and I’m here to learn about local Solari. Guildmaster Laskian, thank you for joining me. Now is it just me, or are guildmasters getting younger and younger?

LASKIAN: I do not believe that the average age of all guildmasters has fluctuated significantly. Rather, I expect that the relative age of the guildmasters you meet may have changed slightly, at least from your particular perspective.

DUNCAN: That’s the kindest way anyone has called me “old” in quite some time.

LASKIAN: You’ll find that we in this village--and indeed, throughout Kunisi Wood--do not distance ourselves from our elderly citizens. Quite the opposite! We revere our aged population, whether those are people or trees.

[http//%27https]Laskian respects his elders and his youngers alike.
DUNCAN: I’ll have to remember that when I retire from traveling! But let’s get back to our topic at hand. Guildmaster, I must admit that most of my Solari conversations have taken place from the safety and comfort of a guildhall or tavern. But you’ve led me here, to the edge of Taankwan Thicket itself. Why is that?

LASKIAN: To truly know the Solari that live along the Verdant Path of Taankwan Thicket, you need the understanding of experience. For this reason, we will now walk the Verdant Path together, encountering the very Solari you wish to learn about.

DUNCAN: That’s...different! Well, I suppose I’m in good hands. After all, you must know everything about the Solari we’ll encounter.

LASKIAN: No one can know everything about anything, my friend. In fact, I would also argue the impossibility of knowing anything about everything. The world is simply too complicated.

DUNCAN: Okay, I think I followed that. Hey, over there! Isn’t that a Sportle!

[http//%27https]Read the full article here - https://undeadlabs.com/2015/08/news/solari-safari-taankwan-thicket/

Hey folks, here’s a rundown of the fixes and updates you’ll find in the latest build. This is a mixture of balance/tuning fixes, and some nice presentation changes. Of particular note are the changes to to dizzy, which now clears after the afflicted Solari or Warden misses once. We also updated the naming screen, but if you’re reading this, you’ve probably already named your Warden, and can’t see this screen. The most prominent change is an update to how we display boosts, which feels significantly cleaner now. As always, we’d love to hear feedback, thoughts, suggestions, complaints, concerns, troll riddles, praise, and conspiracy theories. Why aren’t there any pyramids in Moonrise? What are we hiding?

• Updated Boost UI
  
• Updated the Warden Naming Screen - It’s prettier now
  
• “New” badges display on Warden/Gear menu when there is new gear
  
• Equipped clothing now displays on the Warden gear screen
  
• Players draft 12 Solari instead of 10 in Arena Mode (this actually already happened, but now it displays properly, too)
  
• Added Hotkeys to flip the Solari info cards after recruiting a Solari
  
• Balance Changes
  
  • Relic Changes
    
    • Surging Resolve - Relic boot/cooldown adjusted to 0/40
  • Other
    
    • Adaptive Block should only appear one time after proccing
      
    • Emberjaw evolution line has a new passive: Revengeance - gain Rage after taking 33% health damage. Should only proc once.
      
    • Adding a non-coverable action tag to self-debuffs from skills. (so.. things like Burn Self on Cannonfly's Signature Skill should be non-guardable.)
      
    • Dizzy and Dizzy Self - Now removes itself after proccing 'Dizzy Miss', meaning you can only miss once! This also means that multi-target skills will only be able to miss once, instead of several times as before.

Bug Fixes

• Implemented a fix for infrequent repeating disconnects during Warden Fights
  
• Cleanse now has a UI pip in combat

Hello! Have we met? I’m Vicki Ebberts, resident User Experience Designer here at Undead Labs. The other designers have already talked a bit about the design of content and systems in Moonrise, but if you’ve been wondering just how a design goes from words on paper to something you—the player—can enjoy as an in-game experience, well you’ve come to the right place, friends!

First, for those of you not familiar with UX design or what that even means in video game development, in a nutshell: UX for video games is all about crafting experiences and interfaces that feel good to use, and that fit the needs of a wide range of players. Easy enough, right?

Luckily, it’s not up to the UX designer alone to think about these things (whew!). Creating good user experiences is a studio-wide philosophy that all of us are thinking about all the time here at the Lab. From the beginning of a system being designed all the way through implementation, we all try our best to consider how the things we put into the game will impact the player and their overall experience.

So, how does one design UX for a game? Every UX designer’s process is a little different, but for me it typically goes something like this:

Read the rest here![undeadlabs.com]

DUNCAN: Hello! I’m Duncan, a humble explorer of these lands, and welcome to another chat about the wondrous creatures known as Solari!
Did Duncan just call himself humble?

I had planned to discuss the inhabitants of the dungeon known as Xenari Caverns with Guildmaster Ibli, but he was, uh, called away on urgent business and could not join us this afternoon.

Kumail is super-happy to be here.

KUMAIL: No, I’m pretty sure he said he was tired of listening to a “preening dilettante who didn’t understand the first thing about Solari habitats.” See, I jotted it down in my notebook.
KUMAIL: No, I’m pretty sure he said he was tired of listening to a “preening dilettante who didn’t understand the first thing about Solari habitats.” See, I jotted it down in my notebook.

DUNCAN: Yes, thank you, young man.

KUMAIL: And that was right after you called him a ....

DUNCAN: Ahem! In the guildmaster’s place, I’ve recruited a young scholar I met recently. Kumail, thanks for joining me here in Hoku’s Tavern!

KUMAIL: It’s an honor, sir! It’s not every day the heroic Duncan the Explorer asks for one’s expert opinion.
HOKU: Nobody calls him that!

Did he just say that it’s easy to take Eggbert for granite?

DUNCAN: I think we could use a bit less snark and a few more snacks, my bartending friend! Now then...Kumail, I understand you recently investigated Xenari Caverns.
KUMAIL: Yes indeed! I mean, technically I was helping a friend who just graduated from the Warden Academy, but I was absolutely there the whole time.
DUNCAN: So I expect you encountered quite a few Solari down there. What can you tell us about the dungeon’s denizens?
KUMAIL: First of all, I was surprised that we didn’t see more Stone Solari. Sure, I saw lots of Eggberts, but they’re all over the Daharan Desert so it’s easy to take them for granted. Which, yes, is odd to say about a floating rock that fires a ray from its giant red eye.

Shellfoxes aren’t everywhere, it just seems that way.

We also encountered a Shellfox or two, but not as many as I expected. Based on my experiences in Thorn Heath, the Crumbling Ruins, and the Daharan Desert was starting to believe it was common everywhere. But that’s why you always want a larger sample size!

DUNCAN: Did you find any Stone Solari that you hadn’t seen before?

Read more here! [http//%27https]

Hello Wardens! This time around we have some important balance changes that will hopefully improve the current PvP meta game.

Arena Mode

For this pass, we made sure that every Solari has a skill to use shortly after being summoned. It didn’t make sense for some Solari to have four really slow skills, and just get hit continuously by opponents while just waiting for skills to come off boot time. We also found that self-buffs on Tier-1 Solari such as Block/Deflect/Evade proved to be a rather dull way to start off the fight, so they are being replaced with the support versions to buff allies. This way, the lower tier Solari will be able to support stronger Solari by protecting them with a shield. Due to our recent Cleanse/Dispel changes, we’re also increasing the availability of them from Solari skills to make up for their loss in immediate power.

Skill Changes

A couple of Basic type AOE skills with middle of the road boot and cooldown times, intended to be simple, efficient bread-n-butter skills have proven to be too efficient, so we’re retooling their boot and cooldown times to prevent repeated usage, and slightly lowering damage. That means that fast solari can actually use these skills sooner, but there won’t be any cases where the skill is used twice in a row. We’re also fixing a bug with Solari not being able to use any Vigor skills, so dust off your Strength skills!

Relic Changes

We’re targeting all team-wide buff Relics to have a more appropriate cooldown. These buffs previously had 2~3 seconds on their Boot times which meant they were slower than Quick skills (Skills with no boot times). With these changes, Wardens should now be able to open up with these team wide buff skills and not feel like they got cheated on those Quick skills not being mitigated if they chose to use the right damage type buffs (For example, opening up with Stone Wall vs a Quick Attack). This should also make “Ramp” style team compositions a lot more fluid due to the slight decrease in boot times. As a side note, there are some important bug fixes, with Shielding Strike clearly doing way too much damage, and Stone/Crystal Wall targeting all ally Solari instead of all allies.

Solari Stat Changes

We recognized that we were severely lacking Solari with naturally high resistance stats, so we’re adjusting some Solari to be tankier against those powerhouse Spirit attacks! This should give players a bit more options to turn to when they want to build some resist focused Solari. We’ve done this in a way that should play nicely with ideal stat customization choices, such that relatively few Solari builds that currently exist would be made less effective.

Arena Mode changes:

• Ryzo has Quick Gust instead of Spinning Leaves
  
• Shellback has Crystal Citadel instead of Stone Citadel
  
• Zigzap has Toxic Slash instead of Life Spark
  
• Squizzle and Squillex have Quick Heal instead of Healing Splash
  
• Wiggleby has Quick Swipe instead of Quick Douse, Aqua Impact instead of Deliberate Smash
  
• Emberjaw has Defiant Brand instead of Reckless Flames
  
• Sportle has Tangling Gust instead of Virulent Surge
  
• Frogaroo has Bramble Gust instead of Root Lash, Swirling Tide instead of Aqua Impact
  
• Increased the availability of Cleanse and Dispel skills to Solari skill sets
  
• Sleeslugg has Quick Douse instead of Scouring Tide
  
• Snapcoil has Quick Briar instead of Root Lash
  
• Slithy has a new skill kit to be more similar to Krillig/Crabberwock (Poison skills!)
  
• Self Block/Deflect/Evades should no longer be in any Arena Mode Solari skillsets. They should now be ally Block/Deflect/Evade
  
• Added Incite Team minor relic in arena mode

Skill Changes

• Force Burst/Wave/Nova - Skill boot/cooldown times adjusted to 6/42, damage slightly lowered to 17/28/40
  
• Force Pulse/Blast - Skill damage slightly lowered to 31/46
  
• Enrage Team - Skill changed from all allies to ally frontline
  
• Added Grant Vigor and Team Vigor to many Nature affinity whitelists.

Relic Changes

• Primal Vigor - Relic boot/cooldown adjusted to 0/40
  
• Tempus Fugit - Relic changed from ally frontline to all allies. Boot/Cooldown times adjusted to 0/60
  
• Stone/Crystal Wall - Relic boot/cooldown adjusted to 0/40
  
• Grand Vigor - Relic boot/cooldown adjusted to 0/65
  
• Stone/Crystal Bastion - Relic boot/cooldown adjusted to 0/65
  
• Grand Resolve - Relic boot/cooldown adjusted to 0/65
  
• Shielding Strike - Relic nerfed in damage from 130 to 100 (arena version is the only one that is accessible at T3)

Stat Changes

• Crowbear's Stony Shackles - Now single target (from all solari), petrifies both self and target.
  
• Clawburn/Clawburst/Clawesome base defense stats changed from 55 armor/55 resist to 45/65
  
• Ryzo/Shenzo/Zentaro base defense stats changed from 55 armor/55 resist to 45/65
  
• Zurgle/Zuggathor base defense stats changed from 65 armor/55 resist to 55/65
  
• Vulcature/Magmarauder/Magmaclysm base defense stats changed from 65 armor/55 to 55/65

Hello Wardens! We have an exciting update for you. The big-ticket items this week are Chapter 4 side quests, a new Hotkey Overlay, and Balance Changes. Please let us know what you think in the comments below.

New Stuff

• Chapter 4 side quests
  
• Hot key overlays available in combat (toggle with CTRL)
  
• Rarity indicators on gear frames
  
• New indicators for equipped gear
  
• Press “Enter” to advance dialog boxes
  
• ESC to close info card
  
• Freefrom screen window resizing via mouse (within accepted bounds)
  
• Characters cast shadows in town
  
• Can now rotate Solari models during capture and evolution scenes.
  
• Signature Skill Placement
  
  • Solari Signature Skills are now displayed in the leftmost slot on all screens (even if it has not yet been learned)
    
  • Locations include: Combat UI, Solari info cards (small and large)
• Tooltips on rewarded gear
  
• Balance Changes
  
  • General
    
    • Cleanse/Dispel Overhaul - These are now removed after preventing the next buff/debuff applied, respectively.
      
    • Skills and Relics that utilize Cleanse, Dispel, and Guard had their boot/cooldowns increased
      
    • Guard Team/Guard Ally - boot times slightly increased for Warden relics.
      
    • Gear modifiers changed to be % thresholds instead of flat. Previously we were using a flat number thresholds for a gear modifier to trigger, which means it does not play well with early game scaling. We changed these to be % ratios so that they are relevant no matter what level you are.
      
    • Choking Lash/Choking Vine/Strangling Thorns - cooldown increased.
      
    • Fixed a bug where some Solari in Arena Mode had tier 2 signature skills instead of tier 3.
      
    • All Solari now learn their next tier signature skill when they hit their next evolution milestone.
      
    • Aqua Current/Impact/Crush now has faster boot time.
      
    • Quick Splash/Douse/Drench now deals less damage.
      
    • Updated Solari skill sets in Arena Mode to reflect balance changes.
      
    • Further increased the limit of speed affecting banish times.
      
    • Warden challenge dungeons 1 and 2 have been made easier. (Lower levels)
      
    • Rare Solari from the Menagerie don’t come with T3 attack skills anymore.
      
    • New skills available (not available through loot drops)
      
      • Quick Flicker/Ray/Beam - Basic Spirit-based no-boot skill
        
      • Quick Breeze/Gust/Wind - Nature Spirit-based no-boot skill
    • New relics (only in Arena Mode PvP): Toxic Barrage, Cunning Gambit, Incite Team.
      
    • Entomb relic cooldown increased.
  • Solari trait changes
    
    • "Adaptive Defense” - Increased chance to trigger, added a minimum damage threshold to trigger.
  • These Signature Solari skills changed from Spirit to Strength-based:
    
    • Shrubble’s “Nettling Cloud”
      
    • Stalactooth’s “Sturdy Bulwark”
      
    • Kodiarch’s “Stony Serenity”
      
    • Skiptail’s “Spark Rocket”
      
    • Skitterbolt’s “Reckless Storm”
  • Solari Signature Skill Changes
    
    • Teslak’s "Electro Pulse" - Dizzy removed, Stun changed from guaranteed to chance.
      
    • Shellback’s "Battle Roll" - Fixed stats to accurately reflect its behavior. Damage has been slightly increased.
      
    • Petalsaur’s “Tidal Fury” - Now targets all enemies. Added new effects: Chance to Resolve self, but applies Backfire.
      
    • Blisterbug's “Scalding Sting” - Now Burns self and has higher damage
      
    • Magmarauder's “Firenado” - Now targets all enemy Solari instead of all enemies and deals significantly more damage.
      
    • Magmaclysm's “Conflagnarok” - Now targets all enemies instead of all Solari. This skill will also apply Backfire.
      
    • Nemony's “Cleansing Boon” - Boot/cooldown times and healing amount have adjusted to account for the Cleanse changes.
      
    • Corviak's “Petrifying Doom” - Fixed a bug with Doom not being applied while petrified.
      
    • Fangworm/Leechwing/Sanguivore's Signature skills - Heals now have a delay, so it doesn’t overlap with its passive ability's heal.
      
    • Skitterbolt’s “Reckless Storm” - Now has Backlash instead of Backfire and a much larger boot time
      
    • Slugley’s “Wild Ignition” - Now targets enemy front line, has a 40% Burn chance, and Stuns self.
      
    • Shellfox's “Spinward Strike” - Now targets enemy instead of “any enemy,” now has 30% chance to Dizzy.
      
    • Shellback's “Battle Roll” - Now applies Rage self instead of Stone Shield self.
      
    • Shellverine's “Reckless Frenzy” - Now applies Rage self, Backlash, and 50% Stun chance instead of Stun and chance for Backlash
      
    • Eggleg's “Igneous Beam” - Now has Backlash, high damage output
      
    • Eggaton's “Beakhammer Quake” - Now targets all enemies instead of all Solari, now has Backlash and Dizzy self. Adjusted damage/timers.