The Counting Kingdom Released - Rescue the Kingdom Today

Get your balloons and party hats out, The Counting Kingdom has released!  Today is a day of magic, monsters and math – please help us spread the word!

Along with font updates and a few small graphical fixes, here are the bugs that have been fixed in the 1.0.0 update:

• If the player has the Helper Panel up and combines spells, the panel is no longer accurate
• In the first tutorial, players could attempt to drag the spell causing all sorts of weirdness to happen
• The incorrect number of doubling tiles was showing up in Free Play mode
• If a battering ram gets into the castle, but on the same turn a crumbling tower gets the last monster, the player will lose and then win

A HUGE thank you to all of our Early Access players who have given us feedback and helped us track down bugs – we’re incredibly grateful for your help making this game great!  A big wizardly hug from all of us here at Little Worlds Interactive.

- Jenna and the Little Worlds team

A Wizard's Guide: Potions of the Counting Kingdom

As you travel from region to region across The Counting Kingdom, you'll unlock 8 different types of potions that you can use on monsters to defend the castles.  Here's a guide to the potions you'll encounter:

Plus 1 & Plus 2 Potions

You'll start the game with these two potions, but a wise wizard will find that they are helpful throughout the entire map!  If your spell is just a little bit bigger than you can cast, drop these onto monsters to add 1 or 2 to their number.

Minus 1 and Minus 2 Potions

You'll unlock these two potions in the Magical Meadows.  Combined with the Plus 1 and Plus 2 potions, you'll have many options for adjusting the monster's numbers to cast that perfect spell.

Move Potion

Sometimes finding neighboring monsters that add up to one of your spells can be tricky.  Use the Move Potions to move a monster one space in any direction (as long as there's open spot!)  You'll unlock this potion in the Sorcery Sea.

Zero Potion

You'll unlock the Zero Potion in the Wizard Woods, and it can be used to drop a monster's number to zero.  This can be extra helpful when you have a monster whose number is extra high (maybe it ran into a doubling tile!).  You can also use this potion to 'connect' two monsters - if you have a 10 spell and a 4, 5, and 6 monster next to each other, use the Zero Potion on the 5 monster so that you can now cast the spell on the 4, 0 and 6 monsters.

Freeze Potion

As our journey takes us to the Polar Plains you'll unlock the Freeze Potion.  Appropriate for the icy winds of this region, the Freeze Potion will freeze an entire row in place for two turns.  This can be helpful if you have a row that's getting dangerously close to the towers - you won't have to worry about them moving forward for a couple of turns!  It can also be helpful to prevent a monster from moving forward onto a doubling tile (for 2 turns at least!).  You can still cast spells and use potions on monsters that are frozen.

Kaboom Potion

Arguably the most powerful potion in the game, you'll unlock the Kaboom Potion at Polygon Peak.  This potion will take out an entire row of monsters!  Use it wisely since it's appearance is pretty rare - I like to wait until I have 3 or 4 monsters getting too close to a castle for my taste.

Those are the potions of The Counting Kingdom!  Which one is your favorite?

Launching August 5th + New Trailer

It's official - The Counting Kingdom will be releasing for PC and Mac on August 5th, one week from today!

It's been a long and exciting road to the finish line, and we could not be more excited to launch.  We're so grateful for the support from our amazing community - your feedback and encouraging words have helped us make The Counting Kingdom amazing!

If you're eager to get the game now, remember that you can pick it up on Early Access before the official launch!

Bucket o' Changes: 0.9.1 Update

With the game feature complete we've been polishing things up, getting to all the little things that we didn't have time to revise before, and making sure the game is as bug-free as possible. Here's the list of what's new in this build: 

End of Game Cinematic 
After you've been kind enough to rescue the Kingdom, it's time to celebrate! I don't want to spoil the ending, but I can promise that it includes cake. 

If you've already finished the game, you can access this cinematic by clicking on the little gear button on the Title Screen, and selecting "End Story". This will be locked until you finish the game, so no peeking ahead! 

View fullsize

New Particle and Sound Effects 
Check out the new particle effects for the Kaboom potion, Freeze potion, and the crumbling towers. We also have new sounds for the Kaboom potion and Battering Rams. 

Tiny Changes 

• Updated Credits screen 
• The Kaboom potion now gives 200 points 
• Players can now reset their save data from the title screen menu 
• Players can now access both cinematics from the title screen menu

Bugs that have been fixed 

• Players can click castles during the "You Rescued The Counting Kingdom" screen 
• Monsters that are moved onto doubling tiles do not have their numbers doubled 
• The spell effect doesn't show up for the armored monster the second time you cast a spell on it 
• If you move a monster behind a battering ram it stops moving forward 
• If you use a freeze potion and the battering rams come out during the next two turns, after the potion wears off that row of monsters doesn't move forward 
• Players can use the Move potion, but then not click on any of the arrows 
  
  The game is very close to launching - we'll be announcing the official date tomorrow! If you find any bugs please let us know in the forums so that we can get those all squashed as quickly as possible! 
  
  Thanks as always, 
  Jenna and the LWI team

The Counting Kingdom featured in the PAX 10

We've been anxiously waiting to share this news with you, and today we are so proud to announce that The Counting Kingdom was selected to be a part of this year's PAX 10 Indie Games Showcase!  

The games featured in the showcase are chosen by a panel of 50 industry experts, and represent some of the most innovative and fun independent titles of the year.  It's a huge honor to be selected, and we'll see you out in Seattle next month for four days of monsters, magic and fun!