Spirit Fire Update #22: Card Stacks, Streamlining, Tariffs
Hi Hi!
Somewhere in the distance, a card shifts ... and immediately regrets not being in the right slot.
At this moment?
Nothing but your presence.
No forms to fill. No quests to complete.
We’re deep in the creative trenches, not digging new tunnels, but testing, tinkering, and listening to what little shifts the game wants. Through it all, Spirit Fire is feeling more and more solidified as the game we want to bring to you: thoughtful, surprising, unexpected, and just right.
Horizontal Card Stacks
A key shift in the design is how the cards are played onto your mat.
The vision for card play in Spirit Fire has been one where the cards continue to have strategic relevance after they are played, triggering and comboing off each other, where positioning of the cards matters and there’s a sort of card-flow rhythm that’s important to your play. We originally envisioned vertical stacks—cards layered tall, one atop the next, in columns. But through playtesting we’ve shifted to a horizontal layout. Instead of stacking, cards are now placed into specific slots, flowing side-to-side in a row.
Along the bottom of this image you can see 5 numbered card slots that now make up your "capacity" where you play your cards. At first glance, it’s a subtle change, but in practice, it supercharges everything we’ve been trying to do with cards. Each slot becomes a deliberate decision. The game becomes a living spatial puzzle—where the placement of just six cards can dramatically alter the course of play, but the main TCG-like feel of the strategy and combos remains the same. It's a have-our-cake-and-eat it-too moment.
This new structure encourages richer combos and more meaningful synergies, offering strategic depth without added complexity. It makes every move matter, every card feel alive—and it’s giving Spirit Fire a rhythm and identity that’s entirely its own.
It’s clean. It clicks. And it feels fresh but somehow also familiar. It feels just right, is what it feels.
Additional Streamlining
Another shift? How about a thousand little ones. We’ve talked in past updates about tiny little refinements to re-arrange the gameplay in little ways to make it less complex where needed, and to redistribute the things you have to think about in a given moment so that you’re never overtaxed and there’s balance in the mental load of the experience. This type of work continues.
One of the most significant reworkings is taking the four Spirit Fire aspects to three core elements: Intensity, Illumination, and Renewal. Awe is now a rarer, wilder occurrence, a tweak that has simplified a lot of things as well as opened some fun new doors.
That and the horizontal card play are definitely the biggest evolutions since the last update. These (and all the other little nips and tucks) all work together to make things flow more smoothly but without changing any of the feel or DNA, so to speak, of what the game is. It’s just a sharper and sharper resolution of the vision, if that makes sense.
Ah yes. This. The world sure is an interesting place, isn't it?
Here’s the deal. Our policy at O-Neb has always been to shield backers from whatever the world throws at these campaigns. Covid, tariffs, whatever it is, our heart is to stand in the gap and absorb the blows. We truly believe in this approach, and are willing to sacrifice pretty much whatever we have the capacity to sacrifice in order to stand by you in this way.
If you want to read more about our thoughts and approach to the tariffs, check out this message on our website.
Generally speaking, at the rate things are happening it’s not really realistic or responsible for us to make any hard-and-fast statements on what will-or-won’t happen or how things will be affected. We’re going to navigate all of this with calm and thoughtfulness. What we can promise is that we *will* deliver this game to you. Will there perhaps be weird complications along the way? It’s certainly possible, if not probable. Maybe we’ll need to hold US shipments in China for a while until the situation evolves. Maybe there will be some crazy port bottleneck because changes *are* made and suddenly everything that’s currently paused gets unpaused. Maybe it becomes cheaper for us to just fly all the backers to China for an in-factory pick up party. Who knows, but again, we’re going to responsibly and calmly watch the situation and make responsible, thoughtful moves to best navigate this project to completion, and we will communicate with complete transparency along the way.
Thanks for being alongside us. As much as we wouldn’t wish these types of situations onto things, we’ve found over the years that moments like this end up resulting in some of our favorite memories with you. Here in the office we often talk with warmth and affection about the crazy COVID situations that impacted our Unsettled campaign; the saga of “Container 3,” and the community's playful rallying around it are some of our favorite experiences as a publisher. Evidence, yet again, that community is what makes this whole thing special, and why we trust everything will be okay in the end. Whatever happens with this new round of global drama, we’ll all stick together, and if we handle it right we’ll come out the other side closer for it.
All that being said, many of you have expressed a desire to stand in that effort alongside us in a more tangible way. As you can imagine, this was very powerful and meaningful to us, and so, with full hearts, we have decided to humbly provide means to receive that support and love. There is a new add-on available on this campaign as well as a space to support through our website.
We cannot overstate the impact this support and sentiment has on the people here who depend on O-Neb campaigns to take care of their families, as well as on our ability to continue to make fun and meaningful things in the future. If this is something you want to do, this thing we could never have brought ourselves to ask for but that you insisted we accept — truly, from the depths of our hearts, thank you.
No specific creative prompts this month, but as always we’re excited to hear from you. Are you thinking thoughts? Are you not, and concerned about it? Do you have curiosities? Wild theories about what Spirit Fire smells like? We’d love to hear about pretty much anything running through you!
Comment below, join the Discord, or just shout your thoughts into the void (we might be listening).
Need Help?
If you’ve got questions, ideas, or want to tell us about a dream you had where Spirit Fire sang you lullabies…please do.
Our Discord is the perfect first stop for a lot of things. Whether you’re looking for answers, community, or just a strange and wonderful corner of the internet to call home, you’ll find it there—along with a bunch of curious, kind humans who totally get it.
Join us on Discord—click here
Need something more official? Shoot us a message anytime at—groundcontrol@orangenebula.com—we’re here for it.
Stay connected with the journey—join our mailing list
Thank you, as always, for being you, and for being here in the special type of way that only you can. We know this particular project has had a longer development cycle than we originally anticipated. We also know this community—you—have been endlessly kind, curious, and full of grace as we guide this one along its way. That’s not something we take lightly. In fact, it’s why we’re doing this the way we are. With intention, with you. With all the love we’ve got.
Keep being wonderful. Your support fuels everything we do (we bottle it, burn it, it's very efficient and has a pleasantly scented off-gas). We couldn’t be more grateful to have you with us.
Until next time, you know where to find us.
O-Neb
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