- Hotfix 0.9.83 - 1 August 2025
BALANCE:Reduced Glimmer drop rates in the end game.BUG FIXES:Fixed an issue where a cutscene could cause the battle start event to activate even when the encounter didn't include combat.Added a failsafe to prevent crashes tied to buff icons on enemies without active health bars.Fixes to characters' dynamic "maybe" responses.Corrected Z-ordering on the camp screen.Fixes + additional encounter compositions in the Claw Marks quest.Bandaid fix for texture glitches upon loading the main menu.Dev note: The texture fix is temporary and makes the game load for a bit longer. I'll add a more robust solution in a future update.
- Hotfix 0.9.82 - 1 August 2025
Another quick fix. This time mainly for tooltips that got messed up by the GUI rework. BUG FIXES:Fixed positioning of unit tooltips vs the unit's portrait.Portrait tooltips can no longer end up partially off screen.Disabled some debug functions that were left on by mistake.Attempted fix for a rare crash with the Failures encounter.Dev note: The crash fix was done blind, and I'm pretty sure it's not 100% done. Let me know if it happens again.
- Hotfix 0.9.81 - 25 July 2025
A quick hotfix for some pretty brutal bugs in the new danger system. BUG FIXES:Ambush chance now correctly updates on travel.Prevented ambushes from happening right after reaching a new area.Potential fix for a bug where ambush would erroneously trigger on quest completion.Fixed crash caused by incorrect asset references in forest sunny weather.Corrected some typos.Dev note: You'll need to move to another location for the changes to the ambush system to kick in.
- Whispers Update - 22 July 2025
The Whispers Update is out, introducing new danger management mechanic that finalises the game's survival component, as well as a full GUI overhaul!AMBUSHES & DANGER The party is now on the run not only story-wise but also mechanically. As you explore an area, Mournfolk zero-in on your location and will eventually ambush the camp. These ambushes are extremely challenging even for endgame parties and their best outcome is still forced move to another location with some resources left behind.Managing this new danger becomes a game in itself, with constant pressure of having to pick what quests to prioritise, when to take the risk, and when to just leg it. And like with everything in Bonfire, every now and then you just have to take the loss.MORE USE FOR GLIMMERSGlimmers are now a truly rare and valuable resource with several new uses. Rune abilities are no longer infinite and require Glim…
- Next Patch Coming Soon - 2 July 2025
Just a quick update today. The next content patch is almost done and should come out within the next couple weeks. All the big changes - like the GUI overhaul and the new danger management system - are in and tested, and we're currently closing down some remaining assets, the new intro sequence, and general polish. I'm also probably gonna change the strategy for future updates from making a huge patch once every century to something more gradual, but more on that in the actual update announcement. Cheers! -Tom
- Dev Diary: The Game Plays Itself - 26 May 2025
(it literally does play itself here) Testing is probably the biggest hidden bottleneck for solo devs and small indie teams. I obviously dry test every new feature and piece of content I add, but there's time where I just have to sit down and play the damn game normally. Especially when I'm almost done with an update and need to check how everything fits together. I do two complete runs for every major release. A fresh playthrough, and one using my beloved save file that I've kept since the very first release to test compatibility and balance from the perspective of an existing player. It currently takes about 60 hours all in all. Including on the fly fixes. That wouldn't be an issue in the studio I work for at my day job. We've got several full-time QA folks who do nothing but play the project every day. But for Bonfire, well, it's just me. And I needed a better solution. I had this par…
- Update Sneak Peek: They're Out to Get You! - 20 February 2025
Let me tell you how the next update will make the game easier by making it harder. One of the upcoming features is the introduction of danger level. As your party explores their current area, Mournfolk will slowly zero in on your location and eventually ambush the camp. This leads to an extremely difficult battle and a forced escape to another place, with some resources inevitably left behind. And that's in the best case scenario! Managing this danger level becomes a game in itself. The threat of being ambushed means you really have to pick what to focus on in the current map. Sometimes it's okay to explore a bit, sometimes it's best to pursue only the most critical resources, sometimes you just have to run and that's it. There are also other, more intentional ways of lowering the danger level, if you have the time (and heroes) to spare. All in all, it's something that you'll always hav…
- Back to Work! - 6 January 2025
Happy New Year! Sorry for the recent lack of updates. For the past few months I've been focusing on another project (that I hope will go public soon) where I work as design lead to pay the bills. Apparently indie devs moonlight at larger studios and not the other way around these days. Or at least I do. With that out of the way for the foreseeable future, I'm now back to working on the next Bonfire update full-time. Majority of the back-end work is already done, but we're still largely in the woods re. content and overall polish/integration. Expect more info about what's coming soon. Cheers! -Tom
- Patch 0.9.74 - 8 March 2024
Patch 0.9.74 is probably the last larger hotfix for Witching Hour before we move to working on the next major content update. It brings some important balance changes, as well as a few minor bugfixes. BALANCE: Zhu's Inspiration ability no longer extends debuffs but instead grants one free use of an item. Hexa's Inspiration ability no longer grants a Special buff and instead extends debuffs. All stats now have effective caps of -100 at minimum and 200 at max. Zivko's Boost duration now increases by 1 per charge instead of 2. Zivko's Boost power decreased from 50%-200% to 50%-150%. Witching Hour rune now applies its quickening effect before the Special buff takes place, making it a little less impactful. Stat boosting items are no longer exempt from free item use effects. Dark Feast should now always kill its target. Dev Note: Zhu's and Hexa's Inspirations switcheroo is meant to better fi…
- Hotfix 0.9.73 - 23 February 2024
An important hotfix as -- keeping to the best traditions of game development -- last patch fixed some bugs by adding far worse ones. Gameplay & QoL: You can now equip Inspirations that are slotted by another hero without having to unequip them first. Summoning creatures when at minion limit will now destroy the weakest summon to make space. Added a tutorial message that explains this mechanic. Bug Fixes: Fixed a crash on Food and Glimmer tally in quest and errand reward messages. Abilities that call for enemy reinforcements will now place them correctly in horde events. Absorbing Shadowspawn should no longer crash the game in rare situations where it causes the Witch to die (such as Booby Trap chain reactions). Dev note: The tally bug crashed the game at the end of many quests, which could result in them behaving as if only partially completed. This might temporarily affect your save fi…
- Hotfix 0.9.72 - 22 February 2024
Balance: Shadowspawn's free move upon casting has been changed to 66% towards a move. Dev note: This makes the skill a bit more risky as it takes longer for it to be a net benefit in terms of turn economy. Bug Fixes: Brave Blade will no longer crash the game when attacking an already burning enemy. Fixed a crash on skipping the quest reward message when it's at Glimmer tally. Some fixes to string parsing for the scene system. Inspiration descriptions on the hero screen now correctly only list the extra ability at Inspiration level 3. The Undying will no longer take eternity to look for his friends when there are none, even if it's relatable. Corrected the order of some scenes in Hexa's and Erzsi's story arc. Improved some quest wording. Fixed a few more typos in character dialogue.
- Hotfix 0.9.71 - 21 February 2024
A small but important patch. Especially for Intel Mac users. Bug Fixes: Bonfire should work properly on Intel-based Macs. Witch's runes and rune items now use correct assets instead of placeholders. Twist of Fate now correctly applies the Hex effects when removing immunity. The dragon in Hexa's tutorial quest can no longer spawn immune to debuffs. Several typo fixes.
- Witching Hour Update - 19 February 2024
The Witching Hour Update is out, introducing a new playable character, expanded storyline, as well as numerous optimisations and bug fixes! NEW HERO: THE WITCH Hexa the Witch is the biggest new addition of 0.9.7. She's a support character who uses hexes and wards to weaken enemies and protect her allies. She's also able to halve her HP to spawn a shadow clone that doubles her action output, allowing for a more offensive (but also risky!) build. Especially as her abilities tend to ignore armor. Her addition takes some weight off Hildie's shoulders as damage mitigator, and off Ephrem's as armor piercer, allowing for more diverse party compositions in the opening hours of Bonfire. The Witch is unlocked very early in the game and requires no special actions to be taken. Just play as you would and she'll show up (don't expect her to be happy about it, though)! MORE (BACK)STORY Hexa is an old…
- Quick Update on the Update - 24 January 2024
Quick news time. As of today, we've completed the main bulk of work on the next major update that includes the new hero Witch and a lot of additional story content (among other things and fixes). From now on, it's just functionality & balance testing with the help of a new automated testing bot that I totally want to write more about one day. We expect the patch to hit Steam within the next few weeks. Cheers and thanks for your patience! -Tom
- Dev Diary: The Witch and the Hero Design Process - 26 May 2023
So as I chip at the next hero update, I thought I could share a bit on how the process looks like from the dev's perspective. The Role Every hero in Bonfire fulfills a couple roles that define their place in the party. For the initial five this was easy. We needed a character for each of the common roles (attacker, healer, damage mitigator, someone who pierces armor, and so on), and another one who can fill their boots in a pinch, to allow for some flexibility. Things get more complicated for the heroes we started adding later on. These have to respond to the game's environment and fill up any unexpected niches that have formed. For instance, we've realised new players over-rely on Hildie, so a new damage mitigator available in the early game could increase build diversity. At the same time, highly armored enemies are a common danger in the late game, and only one character is truly ada…
- Hotfix 0.9.62 - 20 January 2023
Bug Fixes: Fixed a potential freeze on maps with high quest density. Fixed all heroes being referred to as "she" during party departure scenes.
- Patch 0.9.61 - 27 December 2022
Update 0.9.61 is a small patch that nevertheless addresses a critical crash in one of the quests as well as introduces some minor balance changes. Balance: Zhu's Detonator power reduced from 220% to 200%, Nadia's Assassinate power reduced from 100%-300% to 100%-280%. Updated elite monster occurence for some late-game encounters. Cosmetics: Updated FX for the Champion buff application. Updated FX and animation for Erzsie's Blood Ritual. Adjusted volume for XP bar sounds. Bug Fixes: Fixed a crash related to the Undead Horde quest. Abilities and items that were meant to destroy debuffs no longer also remove positive effects. New highest difficulty encounters now correctly appear on Gauntlet and "Ultimate" tier quests. Fixed some wording and typos in new quests description. Boss explosion effect now correctly takes enemy's scale into account. Have fun! -Tom
- Runic Update - 22 December 2022
As the year closes, Hildie's crew finally reaches its true potential thanks to the Runic Update -- a large content patch introducing new rune abilities to find and incorporate into your builds, as well as challenges to match this newfound power! NEW RUNE ABILITIES Update 0.9.6 brings a set of new runes for each character! Some open up completely new item abilities aimed at covering hero's previous limitations, allowing for more flexibility in team building, while others facilitate more focused builds by heavily raising some attributes at the cost of others. This addition finally closes all the content we've had planned regarding character customisation, ticking another box off our Road-to-1.0 list! EVEN MORE ENDGAME QUESTS Late-game parties now get the chance to pass even more difficult journey quests to reach the highest tier of areas, gaining access to a plethora of new Ultimate diffi…
- Next Update Sneak Peek: New Rune Skills - 7 December 2022
With the next update coming soon (probably in the next few weeks), we wanted to give you a little preview of its biggest feature -- new rune abilities for each of the characters! Vengeance: Hildie needed her "big" ability and it's coming in the form of Vengeance. When used, Hildie draws all enemy attacks for a while, absorbs their power, and the retaliates with a huge explosion. This skill has a strong screen-clearing potential, especially if you're heavily invested in the Special stat, but drawing all attacks comes at a heavy risk. Good timing and healer support is critical here. Zapper: Zhu now joins Erzsie as a hero who can summon her own help with the Zapper. It's a pocket automaton that -- well -- zaps enemies with armor-piercing bolts of electricity, increasing Zhu's single-target damage potential. Zappers are rather fragile but spammable and they combo very well with Cauterize to…
- Hotfix 0.9.51 - 11 March 2022
Balance: Zivko's Blast Prism power went from 70%-340% to 100%-400%. Bug Fixes: Multiple grammar issues and typos have been corrected. Adjusted DoT-related decision making for the AI. Fixed a bug where hero would sometimes end offscreen after clicking a chest. Fixed a similar bug in archer ambush encounter. Nadia's Assassinate skill now correctly doesn't work on NPCs such as Master. Replaced leftover legacy action icons for the Disenchanter enemy. Corrected XP requirements for later skill levels.
