Greetings heroes! It's finally that time - the Big News day. We've been hinting at it for a while throughout our posts, as well in Discord (see if you can spot them?), but we're finally ready announce the update. It's a huge change, and came after lots of discussion about how we can grow into our own identity, with our own, unique offering - whilst ensuring that we remain fun for you guys in the long-term.

Anyway, let's get right into it.

The Contest of Gimmicks

Today, we're formally announcing The Contest of Gimmicks (or, TCG)! This enormous update completely overhauls combat in Genfanad- through the inclusion of trading cards! Yep, that's right- we're upgrading from an MMORPG to a TCG-MMORPG hybrid! CLicHe bigwigs love the extra letters.

How will it work?

Our main focus (for now) in this update is reworking combat. No more clicking slimes and waiting for them to die (or kill you)- soon, you'll be able to build a deck, utilising your strategy and cunning to do battle against foes across Nuublandia! Integrating deckbuilding elements with our MMORPG core gives us more opportunities for unique and creative experiences going forward. Bosses, for instance, can now provide unique battle experiences; players can trade cards, craft items that affect your deck, and so much more. It also offers more variety for you guys when it comes to playstyle and player expression.

We're still finalizing what things are going to look like but here's a WIP sneak peek!

When is this happening?

The team has been working incredibly hard to put this update together over the last couple of months. For now, we're going to need some help from you guys. We're announcing this update here in Discord and our blog before anywhere else (shhh, it's a bit of a secret) to give you guys a heads up.

Sometime in the first week of September (we'll provide an exact date as the time approaches), the public servers will be shut down. Then, we'll be opening up the beta servers to Kickstarter backers and certain Patreon tiers (more details to follow) in mid-September!

Why are you closing down the servers?

We've got a lot of new content to test. Closing down the servers makes it easier for us to test the new system whilst receiving feedback from you guys about what you like, dislike, etc.- in turn using that feedback to integrate changes quickly without confusing or inconveniencing new players.

What about my progress?

Don't worry! As we've stated before, your progress will not be reset. Your public server accounts will be frozen in time, waiting for you when we're ready to relaunch - likely towards the end of the year. We'll be keeping you guys updated the whole way through.

Make sure to join our Discord if you haven't already to be kept up to date - but we'll also be posting to our blog every week.

Wrapping up

This is an enormous update, and we can understand that some of our community will have mixed feelings about it. We think it's the best decision for Genfanad, though, and we're incredibly excited to show you guys what we've been working on!

As a treat (and to further explain our decision making process), Heleor has made a video explainer about the update here: Message to our fans

Thank you everyone for supporting us through our journey- and for your support moving forward! We hope you think this update is as cool as we do!