Life is given. Spells are broken.
about 5 years ago – Sun, Apr 07, 2019 at 07:00:26 PM

Hello cursed humans!

Life! It's a good thing to have in Life Siphon. Go figure! Now you have the ability to get even more of it with The Life Giver.

It's finally time to round out the Fearsome with the last member!

The Spell Breaker allows you to draw an extra card when it deals damage. Some say it is the most powerful of the Fearsome, though it is highly dependent on your style of play.

Either tomorrow or Tuesday, we will be dropping some super fun info on solo and 2 player modes, so stay tuned!

Cursedly,

Lay Waste Games

Here comes Pain! But also Life. + Penguins?!
about 5 years ago – Fri, Apr 05, 2019 at 01:24:23 AM

Hello cursed humans!

PAIN IS IN THE BUILDING! Every game will now make more pain than you could ever imagine with The Pain Maker! But for now, the next stretch goal and the third Fearsome!

The Life Giver allows you to choose a player to gain 1 life when it deals damage (and yes you can choose yourself!). They can be very powerful in the right moments, much like the rest of the Fearsome. 

PENGUINS?!

Serious question. Y'all really want this derpy little flightless bird?

What in the world would you do with it?!

Cursedly,

Lay Waste Games

April Fools! + HUGE Gameplay Update!
about 5 years ago – Wed, Apr 03, 2019 at 08:53:59 PM

Hello cursed humans!

If you didn't guess already, the last update was an April Fools joke. No re-theming is happening, and we can promise the game is becoming more and more awesome every day! But seriously...who wants a penguin meeple?

As you may have guessed, each player gets their own personal set of one Dragon, one Shade, and one Plague Rat. They are your own personal pool, in addition to the communal pool of Dread Knights, Liches and Imps. When one of these Familiars is removed from the board, you can then summon it again.

THE NEW FAMILIARS

The Dragon costs 4 life (same cost as a Lich), with an attack of 3 and defense of 1. The Dragon has a unique attack called Breath Weapon. When your Dragon attacks, your opponent must assign all 3 points of damage divided however they want between their own life and their Familiars in the battleground. And the best part of all is that your Dragon takes no damage when attacking with Breath Weapon!

The Shade costs 3 life (same cost as an Imp), with an attack of 2 and defense of 1. Whenever the Shade is removed from the board, it deals 1 damage to any player or to any 1 Familiar in the battleground.

The Plague Rat costs 2 life with an attack of ZERO (yep, you read that right) and a defense of 1. If your Plague Rat attacks and isn't blocked, your opponent must discard 1 card from their hand (even if the Plague Rat deals zero damage). However, if the Plague Rat is blocked, as long as you increase its attack to at least 1, it will remove any Familiar that it damages. So while this pesky little rodent may seem weak, it has the potential to be the most lethal Familiar when combined with a damage increase spell.

THE ESSENCES

In addition to these 3 Familiars that every player gets, each player also gets 3 vials containing a one time use essence.

Allows you to grant one of your Familiars Breath Weapon until end of turn. Watch as your Imp breathes some serious flames! 

Allows any of your Familiars to deal 1 damage when they're removed from the board, just like the Shade!

Allows you to summon one of your Familiars back to your summoning space when it's removed from the board...for free!

Save them all till the end of the game, use them all up at the beginning, or find the perfect moment to get the best value out of each vial throughout the game!

THE FEARSOME!

The four Fearsome are powerful Familiars that can be summoned for free...as long as you have 4 life or less! You can only have 1 Fearsome at a time, but trust us you'll see why.

Each Fearsome has an attack and defense of 4 (compared to the Dread Knight's attack of 5 and defense of 3). In addition to simply being strong and sturdy units, each has a special ability that triggers when the Fearsome deals damage.

Allows you to move a Familiar an extra time (even if it's not your turn!) when it deals damage.

Allows you to deal 1 damage to any player when it deals damage. However, like the Dread Knight you need to pay 1 life to move the Pain Maker.

For the final two fearsome, you'll have to wait until they are revealed!

For those looking for information on solo mode and 2 player, we are still writing that up. It will be coming out this week or early next week.

After reading all this information, you may have some questions. The team is standing by to answer them! Toss them in the comments.

Cursedly,

Lay Waste Games

MAJOR GAME CHANGE!
about 5 years ago – Tue, Apr 02, 2019 at 01:29:41 AM

Hello cursed humans!

Wow have we been working a lot. We are tired! After an amazing weekend at PAX East showing off Life Siphon nonstop, we came back this morning to make some changes to Life Siphon. This is precisely why it took us so long to get this update out! So let's get into it.

First, you unlocked the Void Bringer! We may simply activate them to go post this update days ago. That works, right?? We are now onto the next Familiar of the Fearsome!

Now that we are past PAX East, the designers (Zach and Jake) are working on a larger gameplay update for the new Familiars so you can get an idea into how they play.

BIG UPDATE

Due to overwhelming feedback at PAX East, we decided to shift Life Siphon in a new direction. So many people mistook the eye for a beak, and nearly everyone said the game lacked penguins. And to be honest, the team thought this change just felt right.

Ice Siphon is an asymmetric ice warfare game where your own ice is the only resource. Use it to make things cold, or slippery, depending on which strategy best suits your win condition- make the opponent to your left cold or slip.

Summon eggs to slide into your battleground to hatch into warrior penguins. Divert your opponent's ice flow to steal resources.

The map was reworked by Nick to evoke the new themes of water and cold and wetness. He did a pretty good job.

The entire team is very happy with this new direction, and we are confident that you all will be too. Penguins are lovely creatures and violent when wet. ENJOY!

Freezingly,

Lay Waste Games

What is a bunch of rats called?
about 5 years ago – Fri, Mar 29, 2019 at 09:55:51 PM

A MISCHIEF! And that is what you are all getting in essence form. Drink it up!

Now...we know we showed you one hidden Familiar in the page...but we lied. Sorry not sorry!

THERE ARE 4 MORE FAMILIARS COMING!

The first of the group we are calling The Fearsome is...

We are going to be posting a gameplay update, informing you all about how The Dragon, The Shade, and The Plague Rat, and the next round of Familiars works. They are soooo much fun! Keep you EYE peeled over the next 48 hours for a detailed update!

Apologies for the delayed update here. We are all at PAX East, showing off Life Siphon and all of our other goodies! If you are here, please swing by booth TT51 in the Tabletop section. We will be running multiple demos of Life Siphon through Sunday, and will happily tell you some secrets about the game if you ask nicely :)

Also, WE HAVE A GLOW IN THE DARK PIN!

Cursedly,

Lay Waste Games