Producer's Note #42 - What we are working on!
Heroes! We recently shared some insight into our current plans for Shakes & Fidget in the latest Producer’s Note . After this we looked at your feedback and open questions and decided that we want to update you on the current status for some of our more endgame focused featur
Heroes!
We recently shared some insight into our current plans for Shakes & Fidget in the latest Producer’s Note. After this we looked at your feedback and open questions and decided that we want to update you on the current status for some of our more endgame focused features.
We currently have three different features for this in either planning or in active development. Those are a brand new dungeon world, a new endgame dungeon feature and the Monster Hunt.
Let's see what this means. We can't share all in-depth details about these features, but you should get an idea of what's coming. Plans or ideas may change, but we know some of you worry about endgame content.
Class World
We are actively developing a new Dungeon World: a Class World. This new dungeon map lets you fight enemies that use all our existing player classes.
Currently we plan to release this in several parts, starting with the first part including the following classes:
Mage
Warrior
Scout
Necromancer
Every Dungeon has its own class. You will fight a whole dungeon just with Mages and so on. Once you have beaten all dungeons on the first map, you will be able to fight a portal which will unlock the next zone (once released). The next part of the class world would then release with different classes as enemies.
As of now we do not plan to release this dungeon world with Experience as a reward but for example:
Gold
Fruits
Metal
Arcane Splinters
We are looking into adding Experience for the later more high level dungeons of the class world which will release later, but we cant guarantee it yet.
We currently plan for those dungeons to start at around level 250 and later parts of the class world will be up to level 750. Since we start with one class world area, the initial player level will be low. As we release more areas, endgame players will have content to clear but this content wont be available on release.
This new dungeon world lets us better balance some classes in the future. Currently, dungeon enemies use our base classes and link directly to player classes. We will separate the player classes from dungeon classes which allows us to adjust player classes in the future, without changing anything with our current dungeons. This allows us to for example rework the Warrior.
This also opens the possibility of creating unique encounters with unique classes. Ever wanted to fight a fire dragon that spits fire, claws at you, and more? This could be possible in the future.
We are cautious about sharing exact dates but aim to release the first part in the coming months.
Monster Hunt
Some of you already know this feature as “Treasure Hunt”. The current plan for it is to initially unlock at level 350, but the feature has an internal progress as well. After lots of different iterations, we have now landed on something that feels like a fitting design for this Shakes & Fidget expansion.
We are moving development forward into a first playable Alpha version, which allows us to gather feedback from selected players and the Alpha Group. First internal playtests were not only a fun time, but showed a promising gameplay loop.
We won’t share all the details on Monster Hunt just yet, but here is a first look. Keep in mind that this shows an early work in progress (WIP).
New Dungeon Feature
This feature is in early development, but we want to share the initial idea with you.
We plan to add a dungeon that lets you choose the type of dungeon to fight. Use Keys to open your chosen dungeon. You decide the enemy and difficulty. Harder fights yield better rewards. Rewards vary by enemy type. This Feature wont have an end and will scale based on your own powerlevel.
A harder self-imposed challenge will yield better rewards.
You will also be able to decide what kind of dungeon you want to engage with. A normal one, one with companions, a demon portal, a random selection and so on.
This lets you choose rewards that fit their current gameplay goals.
We will share more updates as we develop this feature since this is still in a very early stage.
One more thing.
Customization
Customization has been a widely discussed feature. We conducted several surveys, reviewed your feedback, and evaluated our plans. When we announced it was not our focus this year, many of you expressed disappointment. On a technical level, this feature requires significant work, and we wanted to prioritize other topics first.
We reviewed your feedback again and decided to allocate more resources to Customization. We will share a concrete plan soon and aim to release a basic version of this feature by the end of the year.
What does that mean?
We want to deliver a working feature that you enjoy. We will release it once the basic elements in the game function properly. This means we won't launch with 100+ new avatars, skins, hats, etc., but with the basics and then add more every so often our development pipeline allows.
Customization opens many ways to reward you during events, features, and more.
We know some players prefer their old looks. That's fine! You can choose to use the old or new avatars. If you want to keep your old looks, you can do that via the options. You will see other players that chose to use our new system with their new avatars, while using your own old one.
Have a look at our last Blog Post about this topic.
XP Curve
One last word on a topic a lot of you are waiting for. Changes to the XP Curve. This topic is very technical and we wont go into detail here. We will soon release a dedicated blogpost about this topic, so stay tuned.
