2 party characters have been added and can now be found & unlocked in the dungeon. Rogue (Jail Room) & Void Mage (Templar Library).
A few additional room interactions added.
Unlockable enemies (Templar Knights) added after Void Mage Unlock
Goblin Map Vendor once unlocked (Lamp Room) now sells map fragments 1 and 2 (will not sell part 3 revealing secrets), for 50 gold and 250 gold.
Players can now bank gold at campfire. Banked gold is available at start of next run, and can still be used in dungeon when banked.
Healer NPC added to Sanctuary - Will Heal Party & Remove any active curses.
Old Knight NPC added to Sanctuary - Provides game tips.
Blacksmith (and Dungeon NPC's leveling STR & DEF) now active. Upgrading is free for testing. Blacksmith in Sanctuary can be used over and over, but dungeon blacksmiths should be single interactions.
UI Updates
Map Updates include clearer indicators for already visited rooms
Confirmation UI added.
BlackSmith UI added - w/ Party Viewer for live model of selected character
I've added few Quality of life changes (like added permanent "E"-button animation on top of weapon creator and lore notes panels)
Make sure you interact with them every time you see them)
Also I made few changes to the difficulty:
"Mr. Crabs" and "Wanna be Devil", you can encounter on level 1 of Laboratory, now have about 30% LESS health. This changes must help new players get into the game easier.
"Kraken's" ability - "Lightning Strike" now have new animation. With this change you now have more time to react on this attack.
"Petey"from level 3 of Laboratory, going on ability rework. His old ability was too problematic and may cause some weird interactions with player and "Petey's" bullet was not visible enough. But don't worry - he will return soon with cool new ability)
In this update, I have fixed many things, such as the speed of characters and distance of dodge rolls were faster or slower depending on fps which is now fixed, and dodge rolling makes you invincible as was always intended. I also linked up a stamina stat which has been in the game but I never used, and this is displayed on a radial bar located around the character's feet, so thats cool. :D
more details below:
Added:
- Linked Stamina stat that has been unused for the past 2 years - Added a ring around the player's feet to display the current stamina value (only visible while it is regenerating and was recently used) - Added some different cursors. - Added a back button in the position of the previous exit button, which backs out of the pause menu.
Changed:
- Upped Bingledorf's Speed - Upped size of Ron's passive fear range: 5 -> 8 - Buffed Weapon Size buff card - Changed the Exit button on the pause menu to be in the bottom right corner, to lessen the likelihood of someone accidentally ending their Run early. - Optimized Camera movement script - Optimized dodging code
Fixed:
- Dodge rolls make the player invincible for the first half of the roll. - Movement is now the correct speed no matter the fps value. - Dodge distance is now correct no matter the fps value. - Fixed Ranged enemies being machine guns when running the game at low fps - Fixed Menu popups being different speeds depending on fps - Fixed Turret error - Fixed Enemy error - Fixed upgrade error - Fixed Mighty Beetle's error of not sucking in shells - Fixed Lemon Disk error - Fixed Bug splatter error
Please Consider Wishlisting if you don't already own the Game.
It's been over a month since we launched Early Access, and during this time, we were able to present the first update.
As we were gearing up for updates to improve UI/UX and convenience, we took a step back to go over player feedback related to the core fun factors of the game and shared our analysis and some questions over the last three dev notes.
After all those discussions, we've decided that, even if it means taking on some risks with changes to the development plan, we must tackle the fundamental linearity issue.
Growing the dev team and starting fresh!
The current linear structure brings about issues beyond just the satisfaction with the game volume. It also raises problems like controlling the learning curve and being unable to feel the results of weapon and character growth.
Even if we were to introduce even more powerful Infested and stages with enhanced tactical elements, those who have positively rated the current game direction might still perceive the learning curve or difficulty level as too excessive.
However, as mentioned in the initial post about linearity, we believe that with the existing composition of the dev team alone, we won’t be able to reach the level of non-linearity and meta-game development that we originally wanted.
So, over the past month, in addition to analyzing the game, we've been actively looking for teammates who resonate with the direction of our game. If we couldn't find the right team members, we had planned to finish development as scheduled to the best of our abilities.
But... luckily, some fantastic developers who had a connection with us gladly joined the team! We spent a really intense month sharing our plans with the new teammates, and at the same time, verifying if their skills align with the new direction.
We've been thinking about team expansion for some time, but it was challenging to make any decisions before confirming the core fun of the game. Thanks to the positive reviews from many players during Early Access regarding the game's foundational potential, we gained the courage to move forward. The new teammates also recognized that potential and decided to join us.
Everyone we've brought on board is highly skilled and proven, but now the challenge is to truly sync up with the existing members and start performing as a true team. With the development team growing by around 150%, there's also a need to establish new processes for team role assignments and communication.
However, all the new members deeply resonate with the current direction of the game and future plans. They have a strong desire to create and showcase an enjoyable game, so we know we can overcome any challenges.
Goals of the new development and schedule
Our long-term aim is to release it by 2025. After redesigning the game foundation by the end of 2024, we plan to create a meta-game-focused core system based on it. In the remaining time, we'll concentrate on leveraging the capabilities of the expanded team to generate content.
To achieve this goal, we're considering adjustments to the schedule mentioned in the existing Early Access FAQ.
The most ideal scenario is to create all the initially planned content within the set time frame at a level of completeness that allows for an official release. However, even if the quality at that point isn't entirely satisfactory, we aim to at least have a build available by 2025 that lets all players experience a completely transformed game.
Our goals that we aim to achieve are as follows. These are aspects that many of you have requested through feedback and are elements that we originally wanted to create.
Improved Map Structure: Changing to allow for a more diverse range of stages than currently
Additional Characters: Ensuring at least twice as the current 3 types.
Reworking the Meta-Game according to the changes above.
To achieve these goals, practically everything in the foundational game design, aside from the base content like combat systems and weapons, needs to be reconstructed from the ground up. Systems tailored to the “fixed character/linear” progression must be individually modified or new systems developed to align with these goals. The existing artwork may also need to be modified to fit the new environment or even created over from scratch.
We are confident that the introduction of “strategic” elements to a game that previously only had “tactical” aspects will make it even more enjoyable. Therefore, there is no worry about the direction of development, just eagerness to complete the goals as quickly as possible.
Currently, each development team is reviewing “what needs to be changed” and “what should not be changed” in each area. The goal is to preserve the “fun points” of the game that were pointed out in Early Access, and various prototyping and resetting of design intentions are already underway.
Management of the live build and sharing of the development process
The new long-term goals require a fairly extensive planning/technical R&D process and preparation of artwork, making it difficult to present large updates on the live version in a short time.
Applying incomplete systems to the live version hastily not only makes it challenging to ensure technical stability but also slows down the development speed for new systems as more time is invested in continuous live updates.
However, we aim to maintain the core combat system even in the new development version. If changes are needed in the combat system, we want to find the best solutions possible and to gather feedback from current players.
For example, we are currently contemplating the question, "Should the logic where all enemies immediately track and engage allies upon detection be maintained to preserve the intended tactical depth?”
When we shared the last dev note, many expressed concern that the depth of the game and the appropriate level of danger within the apocalyptic narrative might decrease.
While we will certainly maintain the existing identity, we are experimenting with various prototypes, believing that the goals can be achieved in less complex ways than now...
Apart from that, we believe it's essential to continuously update and improve convenience without excessively delaying the pace of long-term development or addressing obvious design flaws. This allows us to receive feedback and gain insights for the new development version.
However, given the current situation where all development teams are fully committed to directly improving the current version, we seek your understanding that the pace and volume of updates may not be satisfactory for a while. Demonstrating our commitment to swiftly improve the foundation and fulfill promises is the only way to make waiting worthwhile.
As always, we will share the progress of game design and ongoing long-term development through weekly dev note updates, allowing you to directly or indirectly witness the process.
We sincerely appreciate your continuous support and will be back with more exciting news next week!