I wanted to share more about the new companions added officially in v0.55! And also on pricing clarifications on itch.io.

I didn't explain much about what the new companions do so I will share them! These changes not just help make late game progression more fun, but the Duck even helps ease in early game progression and make it much faster to ascend.

Goat on a Boat

This word pun was inspired when I was chatting with xXxDeath420xXx, one of the first few people to try Siegeturtle!

I thought it was cool to have such an animal name and so it was added to the game!

In v0.55, enhancement stat requirements were changed after 1000 stats, and with it, I added a new companion that can reduce stat requirements - the goat allows you to enhance stats much earlier than before, by reducing the stats required to enhance them.

Instead of 200 STR, you can reduce this to 100 STR with the goat. One cannot go below 50% of the original requirements, but at higher levels, a 50% reduction results in several more enhancements being possible, which amplifies stats growth in the late game.

Professor Quack

I wanted to add a duck to the game too, similar to Havendock's Duck on a duck on a duck:

But ultimately came up with a skill for reducing enhancement prices. I came up with a story for the duck and its personality and came up with Professor Duck and his skill, Quackonomics, which fit the flavourful style of the game.

After a semester at the prestigious School of Quackonomics, this duck mastered the art of pinching pennies. Now he's on the run for scamming his students of bread.

The duck unlocks a skill that reduces the cost of enhancements by a percentage amount exponentially - similar to the Goldfish, but for enhancements. Apparently, it is currently rated as an S-tier skill by Fortas, one of the most experienced players in the game, alongside the Goldfish, Kingfisher and Bee companions.

Itch.io Game Pricing + Steam release

Also I noticed some people confused about the game pricing so I want to also address that.

This was already explained in a previous announcement as well as a comment on the game page. Basically, Siegeturtle will be released on Steam soon (release date to be announced after confirmation with my publisher) and so new purchases on itch.io had to be disabled as preparations are made for Siegeturtle's Steam launch.

However, removing the paid versions would also lock out older users who had already purchased the game. Thus, to allow older users who had purchased the game to continue get access to updates, setting the game to the maximum allowed price on itch to prevent purchases was the only way I am aware of to achieve that.

I have sent an email to itch.io to do this in a more elegant way but there hasn't been a response in two weeks so for now the less elegant solution is to set it to a maximum price to prevent that.

If anyone knows of a better way to do this, I am open to it, but I am still waiting for itch.io's response.

-YYZ