Check out our screens to see who we are and what this project’s all about!

If I say that things are heating up, I’m definitely not exaggerating. 🙂

We barely just announced that from now on, every Monday we’ll update you on the past week’s progress, and here we are with our next Monday - bringing you our second Weekly Fix post!

In this update, we’ll introduce Anchorn, the master of dark magic, and share what happened last week. Ready? Let’s go!

Anchorn, the Dark Mage

As we mentioned in our previous article, we’re currently preparing for the closed Pre-Alpha test, and you can also sign up on our Discord server. In this version, all three characters will be able to use four abilities each. Let’s check out Anchorn’s skills:

Dark Bolt:
This attack deals shadow damage to opponents and breaks off a tiny piece of their soul. The mage collects these soul fragments, and right now he can manage up to 3 at a time. These fragments are then used to power up his other abilities.

Dark Shield:
This is a dark, magical shield that Anchorn can summon. The strength of the shield – meaning how much damage it can withstand – depends on the number of soul fragments he has collected.

Hell’s Anger:
This ability is summoned straight from the depths of hell. It’s a powerful attack, but casting it takes some time. The more soul fragments Anchorn has, the faster he can unleash this attack.

Life Stealing:
With this ability, Anchorn can drain life from his opponent and restore his own health. The more soul fragments he has, the more health he can steal from his enemy.

We find Anchorn to be a really exciting character. Even now, we’re enjoying experimenting with different combinations during testing. And once he gets his additional abilities, he’ll become a truly formidable and destructive force in the arena.

So, what happened last week?

We have to admit, as we get closer to showing the game in the closed test, we’re getting more and more excited - but that’s only natural. At times like this, you try to tweak and polish everything a bit more, to get the most out of the game. Of course, we know this is still just the early phase of development, and we can (and probably will) change just about anything. Our goal is to create a truly enjoyable, addictive gaming experience for mobile platforms.

✅ We polished the results screen to make it clearer who won, who lost, and what happened during the match.

✅ Previously, characters appeared statically on the loading screen. Now, only the actual fighters in the upcoming match are displayed.

✅ On the registration page, there was no feedback if fields were filled out correctly or not. We fixed this, so you’ll now get proper feedback.

✅ We’re preparing for the closed pre-alpha test, where only practice mode will be available for testing, so we’ve disabled the ranked option for now. (Sorry, this stage isn’t about ranking yet!) 🤷

✅ After the results screen, the game didn’t always take you to the right page. That’s fixed now.

✅ In the character selector, after you pick your character and signal that you’re ready to fight, the button now updates to show that you’re set and waiting.

✅ You now have 30 seconds to select your character. If a player doesn’t make a selection, the game will assist them. 😉

✅ If someone leaves the match during character selection, the rest are sent back to the waiting room until a new player joins. Then, you’ll have another 30 seconds for character selection.

✅ We’ve created the first batch of tips that will appear while you’re waiting for other players.

✅ Username length is now limited.

✅ Zyn’s abilities are done! 🎉 - Zyn will also be introduced to you very soon.

Besides all this, we did several smaller improvements to the website and our admin panel. If you’re interested in those details, we’re happy to share them with you on our Discord server!

Thank you so much for spending your time with us! In just 7 days, we’ll be back with another update. Have an awesome week! 🙂

Let me know if you want any parts reworded, more playful, or even more professional!

Tian

We want you to be part of the journey that is building this game. That’s why we’ve decided to share our progress with you every Monday in a weekly update. If you’re hungry for even more info or want to be a deeper part of the development process - not just reading about us, but actually talking to us - then join our Discord server. 

Quick note before we dive in: as many of you already know, we don’t have a publisher backing us, and we’re currently unable to work full-time on the project. That said, we love this game, and we put in as much time as we possibly can. Whether it’s early mornings, late nights, or weekends - we’re working on it whenever we get the chance. Still, there may be some weeks where we don’t make big progress. If that happens, we’ll be honest about it, because transparency is something we truly value. 

This one might be a bit of a longer read, since we want to give you a more detailed picture of where things stand right now.

Let’s dive in!

In our first article → Spirit of Tazo: Opening Strike ← we already gave you a glimpse of what we’re working on. But now it’s time to take a closer look at our current progress.

One thing you should know about us: we love games! – Shocking, right? 😄

When it comes to PC or console titles, our favorites are MMORPGs and MOBAs. These genres really inspired us to create a similar kind of strategic and competitive experience - but for mobile.

The idea for this project was born back in 2018: build a mobile game that focuses specifically on combat, its tactical depth, and knowing your characters inside and out.

We knew from the start that we wouldn’t be able to compete with the big studios in terms of visuals - for two main reasons:

1. We’re not graphic artists,
2. And we don’t have the budget for 3D models, animations, or textures.

But we realized that what might seem like a “limitation” could actually be a strength. So, we stripped the gameplay down to its essence, removed movement from the equation, but kept the action real-time.

One of the best things about games like these is the co-op experience - sharing the fun with your friends. A unique twist in our game is that players really need to be in sync to win. That made it a no-brainer: coordination would be a key mechanic.

Of course, sometimes you just want to hop into a quick solo match. So, taking into account what works well on mobile, we decided to support 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 battles.

And since the game is PvP-focused, ranking naturally becomes an important feature. We won’t hide it - it would make us incredibly proud if this game someday made its way to an Esports stage. In the future, we’ll place strong emphasis on features that help you measure and understand your performance - but more on that later.

Where we’re at now

We’re getting very close to launching our first closed pre-alpha test. In this version, our plan is to let players try out three characters in 1v1 mode (no ranked matches yet), with four unique abilities each.

The main goal of this test is to evaluate the technical foundation of the game - to see if it’s as solid as we want it to be.

Two of the characters - Anchorn and Kaenu - are already fully ready for this test. The third character, Zyn, is still in progress: we’re finishing the implementation of her four abilities. The animations and visual effects are already done.

Before the pre-alpha test, we’ll publish separate posts introducing each character.

Currently, the game has no audio yet - we’ll see if we manage to get that far before the test. But as we mentioned, audio isn’t the focus of this test. It’s all about testing the technical implementation.

Speaking of which, we still need to review our system to ensure we’re logging data in all the right places (don’t worry - it’s all system-level data, nothing personal! 🙂), so we don’t miss anything important.

What happened this past week?

A few weeks ago, we received the new UI design from our graphic designer.

Before that, in true dev fashion, every screen outside the battlefield looked like neatly aligned squares. 😅 Once we had the new designs, we implemented them right away - but the process flow also changed.

Previously, players would first choose the team size (1v1, 2v2, 3v3), then select a character, then queue up and wait for an opponent.

In the new UI:

• Practice and Ranked modes have been added,
• The team size selector is now right on the main screen,
• And character selection now happens after matchmaking, so in 2v2 and 3v3 matches, players can see which characters their teammates are choosing.

This required a full overhaul of the matchmaking and selection process in the background.

The mobile client now fully supports this flow, but at the time, we hadn’t yet updated the server logic - because we also received the website design around then.

We decided it was time to finally go public and start sharing updates - so we shifted our focus to getting the website ready.

Now, the site is live - and in fact, you’re reading this article through our new admin interface! Of course, both the site and admin tools will continue to evolve.

So… what did we do last week?

We finally got back to the core server logic and began implementing the changes needed for the new UI flow.

We also squashed a couple of minor bugs on the website:

• Fixed a bug where the homepage image slider on mobile was spinning out of control
• Continued polishing the admin interface

If you find any bugs - whether on the site or while testing the game - we’d really appreciate it if you let us know in the right channel on our Discord server! 😊

Thank you!

Thanks for reading this (not-so-short 😄) post!

We’ve embarked on a journey that means a lot to us, and we’re beyond happy to have your attention and support.

We’ll be back next Monday with the next weekly update.

Until then - come say hi on Discord!

Tian

Are you sitting on the bus, subway, or simply waiting between tasks and feeling like you could use something more exciting than scrolling through the same TikTok videos you've seen a thousand times?

Do you love fantasy worlds, enjoy PvP games with deep strategic elements, and prefer matches that don’t drag on forever? Then you’ve come to the right place - Spirit of Tazo is made exactly for you!

Spirit of Tazo is a mobile tactical and cooperative combat game featuring uniquely hand-painted fantasy characters, offering fast and thrilling battles anytime and anywhere you feel like stepping into a good fight.

This marks our first official announcement and the beginning of the Spirit of Tazo story. In this article, we want to introduce you to the game we’re creating, update you on our development progress, and share our vision for the future. Importantly, our future plans aren't set in stone - we aim to shape them together with you, our players, creating an experience truly built by and for the community.

Want to get involved right from the start? Join us on our Discord server to receive firsthand updates and actively participate in shaping Spirit of Tazo! Go to Discord

Why is Spirit of Tazo Special?

Let’s start with what you won’t find here: no pay-to-win mechanics or ads. We consciously avoid these because we believe victory should solely depend on your skill and strategic insight.

Our Goal

We aim to create a genuinely enjoyable PvP mobile game with strategic depth, making every match exciting and fun. While we know it’s an ambitious goal, our dream is to one day be recognized within the esports community.

Hand-Drawn Digital Characters and Effects

Every character is uniquely hand-painted digitally - not AI-generated - because we believe true value lies in creative, artistic originality. Each character has a distinct personality, reflected through their abilities, style, and visual design, allowing you to easily find your perfect match on the battlefield.

Deep Strategy, Simple Controls

Let's be clear: this is not a 3D acrobatic game. The battlefield is fixed, with no movement required. Battles occur on a 2D, disc-based battlefield displaying your team and the opponents as avatars. Each character possesses visually stunning, hand-drawn animated abilities, easily activated by selecting your target with a simple tap. We offer profound strategic depth combined with streamlined controls, focusing purely on your tactical decisions.

Who is it For?

• Players who love quick, dynamic PvP battles.

• Those who value winning through genuine tactical decisions.

• Gamers who enjoy team cooperation (2v2, 3v3).

• Strategic thinkers who prioritize strategy over reflexes.

Coming Soon: Closed Pre-Alpha

We're currently preparing for our closed pre-alpha test launch. Registration, character selection, and match-making are already functional, and each character currently has four active abilities, soon expanding to eight. Battles conclude once your team manages to eliminate all opposing team members. Similarly to ranked chess, you can earn or lose points in ranked matches - ensuring exciting, ongoing challenges.

Join Us Now!

We want this game to evolve based on community feedback, so we’re counting on your involvement right from the start. Follow our progress, join the testing, and tell us how you envision the future of Spirit of Tazo!

We look forward to seeing you on our Discord server: Discord

In our next article, you'll meet our team and discover the journey we've undertaken - because Spirit of Tazo isn’t just game development; it's about building a community together. Are you ready to join us in our first battles?

Tian