Talebench

What’s new

What changed in Talebench, a section per day, newest first.

Look → How the game sounds offers Table sounds as a pictured choice: wood, leather and paper for every click, the sounds a new game starts with. · 1 change

Updates that day: First steps counted once known · Table sounds to pick · Your last matches · Back to your match

Playing

  • A rider’s values name the mount they ride in their breakdown (“Donkey +2”), no longer its ID.

Put your published game on itch.io or your own page: Copy embed code and Download for itch.io in the Publish panel. · 9 changes

Updates that day: Change your email · Games on other sites, lighter pictures · Play again with a friend · Faces on the fighter select · Every fighter framed alike · Twenty-two fighters and the table sounds · A button that cannot be used says so · Dice that sound real · A friend from the fighter select · Characters keep their look in every mood · More sounds as you play · Fair fights on the fighter select · Choose your fighter

Playing

  • Put your published game on itch.io or your own page: Copy embed code and Download for itch.io in the Publish panel.
  • Pressing a button that cannot be used right now plays the look’s “not now” sound, such as a battle command that waits for something else.
  • Dice Duel’s fighters are balanced against each other: whoever you pick, every matchup is a fair fight. Each fighter shouts as it is picked.
  • Published games download less: play statistics load only for games that count plays, and the character creation screen only for games that have one.
  • Published games load faster: their pictures go to players as WebP, at most 2560 pixels wide, wherever that is smaller than the file you uploaded.
  • Picking up and laying down a thing in the inventory, and copying a link to play with a friend, have their own sounds.
  • Games play them where they happen: switches and sliders in the settings, the menu’s tabs, a battle’s target, a place on a map, a battle won with spoils, your move when playing with a friend.
  • Dice Duel’s Arcade never puts the same foe in front of you twice in a run.
  • Dice Duel has a front room: an Arcade of five fights and the Dice King, a quick fight, and the tavern’s tables as before. Beat Captain Aldric or the Dice King to fight as them.

Playing with a friend: only the player whose move it is gets the controls; the other sees whose move it is and no longer gets buttons that looked like their own turn. · 9 changes

Updates that day: Clearer turns when playing with a friend · Run maps · Things made with random parts · Rules that move the story, and extras · Roles and shaking ways · Values for one chapter · Fade it out

Playing

  • Play with a friend has a row of its own in the menu; the lobby closes with Close before a match is made, sits in the middle on a phone, and no longer names a fight “Together” twice.
  • Players see the whole map above the options, with the places they can reach marked; the options stay the way for keys and screen readers.
  • The Crystal of Aster has old catacombs under the town square: a new way down every time.
  • Players see a made thing by its own name everywhere, with its rarity as a word and a coloured mark; the bag frames it, and its card now says what a thing is worth.
  • In Deepwatch, every Brass Sentinel drops a Deep Blade of its own make.
  • In the Lantern Keeper, the storm now ends the game wherever it catches you in the lighthouse, and its title screen offers all four extras.
  • In Deepwatch, whoever leads the four speaks as you go down, and in the Lantern Keeper the tower door shakes the screen when you force it.
  • In Last Train to Wintermere, Mira notices when you have walked the whole train.
  • In the Lantern Keeper the storm falls away as you climb the tower, and in Wintermere the snow goes quiet once the compartment door is shut.

A published game can be added to a phone’s home screen with its own colours and picture, and it opens again without a network: what was played stays on the device, and a game opened from the home screen keeps all its files. · 6 changes

Updates that day: Up to four together · Face to face, all of them · Fight together · Games on the home screen, and offline · Go back further, and see what others chose · Your progress on every device, and settings for every player · More room to read on phones · Safer sign-in · Duel a friend

Playing

  • A published game can be added to a phone’s home screen with its own colours and picture, and it opens again without a network: what was played stays on the device, and a game opened from the home screen keeps all its files.
  • Going back is on for every new game: players undo choices and step back line by line, now up to fifty choices back, and still after leaving the game and coming back to a save. You can switch it off under Settings.
  • Signed in, the endings you found, your collections and your settings now follow you to every device, like your saves; what you find on one device joins what you found on another.
  • New in the settings: “Colours” for red–green and blue–yellow colour blindness (gauges, dice battles and maps then use colours you tell apart, with a shape beside each), and “Keys and buttons” to move any key or gamepad button to the one you like.
  • The first time someone plays a game, it offers the settings once: text size, colours, keys and more.
  • On a phone, a story box of a fixed size under the scene’s picture grows into the empty room below it, so a passage reads whole without scrolling inside the box. See it in Wintermere.

On the story map, arrows no longer cut across the corners of passages: where a curve would, the arrow goes round at right angles. · 1 change

Updates that day: The map stays where you move it · Groundwork for duels between two players · A lost battle’s arrow around its passage · Room for every panel · Arrows that keep clear of the passages · A new passage you can always click · A picture for each kind of game · Dungeons in words on a page

Playing

  • In a scene, the list of what you can do here shows a soft edge when there is more to scroll to, and stays pressable above a dialogue box at the bottom.

Deepwatch lets you go straight to any of its floors from the yard, with what a party walking down would carry by then. · 5 changes

Updates that day: Go to anything, switches in dungeon walls, and Deepwatch floor by floor · Title screens of their own, and fighters you can see · Point and click, and bigger text on big screens · Pictures fill the screen · Safer saving when working together · The add-on library · Add-ons with a page of their own · Share your kits

Playing

  • Deepwatch lets you go straight to any of its floors from the yard, with what a party walking down would carry by then.
  • In a scene with places to click, the picture is the way to play: the same actions wait behind one option, What can I do here?, instead of a long list under the picture.
  • The endings still to find count only endings the story can reach.
  • On a phone, the values shown at the top of the game are easier to read.
  • Hold the space bar, or press and hold the picture on a phone, to see every place you can click, each with its name.

An add-on can have settings of its own: in the full view, Features → Add-ons shows them on its card, and the game uses what you set there. · 2 changes

Updates that day: Add-on settings and new versions · Add-ons for your workspace · Add-on pages in your look · Collections as an add-on · Add-on steps · Pages for add-ons · Add-ons with their own moves · Dice as they fell · Editing together, safely · Editing together, more safely

Playing

  • A save remembers the version of each add-on it was made with, and a game that is older than the save says so instead of loading it wrongly.
  • A save made while an add-on’s step was waiting now loads back at that step.

Dice battles that throw for who starts show it on the table: before the throw, then both sums and who starts. · 3 changes

Updates that day: Who starts, plain to see · Kits kept in your workspace · Kits that bring their bundle · Kits in a demo · Make your own kits · Removing a kit · Kits · Lighter still · Lighter stories · Stories without battles load faster · Start with a bundle · Battles as a module

Playing

  • The words of dice battles and dungeons now come only with games that have them, so every other game loads a little less.
  • A game without a world map, shops or a camp no longer downloads those screens either: stories start a little sooner.
  • A game without battles no longer downloads the battle screen: stories start a little sooner, especially on phones. Games with battles load it with the rest, as before.

Features now lists what your game uses under In this game, and everything else under Add a module: each module says what it needs and how much it adds to your game’s download. · 1 change

Updates that day: Checks, documents, levels and equipment as modules · World maps and decks as modules · More features as modules · Modules: only what your game uses · A passage between two · Blows you can hear and see · Dice to throw again, and a real axe · One sword on the coin · Iron plaques and sharp badges · Tips where they belong · Rules and log in the table’s colours · Combinations named beside the dice · A proper dice cup · Dice duels on a phone held sideways · A calmer dice table · New faces at the dice tables · Coins in sight while you choose · The dice duel on a phone held sideways · A feint that re-aims every die · Every 1 counts: the stealth jab

Playing

  • Games without dungeons no longer load the dungeon screen, so they start a little faster.

A one-against-one dice duel now takes the screen while it lasts: it stands still in the window under the top bar, the story’s text steps away until the fight is over, and nothing scrolls. · 3 changes

Updates that day: A table that holds still when you drag · Feint by hand, a shield that counts, throw again your way · Your lane stays while Aldric’s blow lands · Your feint and your shatter are your choice · The rules of each dice fight, one click away · Attack and defence always shown in a dice duel · One Victory! at a time · Die against die, heard · Your dice lane stays while you defend · The duel takes the screen · A dungeon map that shows what you know · A steadier test play · Quieter error reports · One number for a defended blow · A tidier cell panel

Playing

  • Sound captions now stand side by side under the top bar instead of one under the other, so two at once no longer reach into the picture.
  • A value with a bar shown as a percentage under Stats now also gives the same numbers as the top of the game, for example 6 / 10 · 60 %, measured against the bar’s maximum.
  • A dungeon’s map that grows as you walk now shows the part you know, large in the middle of the screen, instead of a few small cells in a corner of the whole floor.

When a foe in a dice duel defends die against die, each of its dice now shows under it what your die above got through (or ✕), and the line under the lanes sets your dice against its dice (“19 vs 7: 13 damage”), so you can follow how the damage came. · 3 changes

Updates that day: See how a parried blow’s damage comes · A defence’s total no longer shown as armour · Coins that count right against a defence · A party of four stands two and two · Hit zones in sight from the start · Dungeon words and wide screens · Walls and doors right under What’s here · A dungeon’s check fits the window · A duel’s last blow told right · A dungeon’s floor and ceiling their own · Dungeon cells set in one step · Your gear always in sight, a calmer Fireball

Playing

  • A dungeon’s made words list its ways as a list: “Ways lead north, east, south and west”, not “north and east and south and west”.
  • On a wide screen a dungeon seen from inside keeps its picture at the top of its panel, the small map in its corner on the picture.
  • When a trap or a check waits in a dungeon seen from inside, the picture grows a little lower so the whole screen, down to its Map button, stays in a low window; the party keeps its row.

New for dice battles with defence throws: Like answers like. · 1 change

Updates that day: Combinations that shake the table · Five more dice tables · The dice duel fits a laptop window · A dice battle stays in view · Painted boots and gloves · Dice duels: your gear on the table · Dice duels: portraits in frames, the right pair in the right lane · Dice tables: the duel on iron and wood · The real sum under the dice, readable results, the defence’s steps told apart · A dice duel fits a phone · A pair: its two dice count +1 · An action lane between the dice lanes; zones as circles · Dice lanes: the foe’s dice above, yours below, your commands beside them · A run counts as its highest die; the top bar in icons · Your defence thrown once, a quieter dice battle, the Grand Champion · Four zones fit on a phone · Momentum over the dice · The Attack button names the foe, one line says the moment · A pair stops a pair · Dice blows you can hear · A duel reads top to bottom · Four hit zones, die against die · Combinations that beat the defence

Playing

  • The top bar shows icons only; their names are the tooltips, so it fits in every language.