Hey Bringers!
The next update to ScourgeBringer is going to be a big one. Quite likely the biggest and most important to date!
Why so? Because it is going to be the full release of the game! But hey, we’re far from ready!
We have a plan! A big one.
Now is a good time to talk about all your feedback. They are extremely valuable, and trust us, we’re reading them all (sometime late, but we’re reading them). Working with feedback is complex but awesome.
Throughout the game’s development, there are numbers of feedback that we couldn’t address just now because we wanted to first build some foundations before going into the details.
Hence, the next update will likely feel like a different game, because we will be rolling out all the revamps we’ve been holding back until now.
Here is what you can expect from the next update and how those features relate to your feedback.
Difficulty
Difficulty and learning curve are THE biggest feedback.
We are very closely monitoring this, as well as preparing ways to improve on that. We know for a fact that players are roughly spread throughout these categories:
- 10% of players are really struggling with the game;
- 80% of players are just fine with game’s progression;
- 10% of players are excellent and getting bored rapidly.
For the excellent players, there is a dedicated chapter further down to this post. We believe that you will be surprised by what we’re cooking up, and you can expect a hot sauce type of challenge.
For the struggling players, we are constantly looking into smoothing out the rough edges of the game. Besides adjusting the difficulty curve, we are also trying to revamp some of the game’s systems to work better together. For instance, we are considering opening up the skill tree way earlier (e.g. removing some of the barriers which require to beat bosses) so that some of the most relevant skills can be acquired more smoothly (e.g. throwing back bullets at enemies).
And for all the players, we are focusing on bringing more diversity to the game!
Diversity
This is the second biggest feedback that you are sending to us, and we’re dedicated to work toward it.
We have already been busy on revamping the item and weapon systems. Items will be more relevant (we removed the least significant ones as well) and we will introduce a rarity system. We want the items and weapons to work more closely together, and we’re presently exploring having items which will modify weapons behaviors (this is still experimental, we don’t know if it’s going to make it into the game as-is).
We are also going to introduce new types of shops to work with this items and weapons revamp.
Besides this, we will introduce a bunch of new mini bosses! Our goal is to have multiple of them for each Realm.
Speaking of enemies, we would like to push forward the synergy between the BLAST.32 and Kyhra’s blade. Therefore, you can expect an enemy revamp to introduce resistances to specific attacks (which we hope will also work in synergy with the weapons revamp).
Secret rooms are also going to be a thing!
And of course, we are working on bringing several new Blessings that will change the gameplay.
Lore
The game’s lore is currently being reworked by Pia, the narrative designer on the project!
When we first released the Early Access of ScourgeBringer, I (a programmer) wrote the game’s lore. It could have been okay, but we felt like you and the game deserved better. That’s why we partnered with Pia (and why we slowed down on adding more lore in the previous update). She is bringing a lot of fresh air to the project and is helping us to better shape the game’s story.
What does this mean for the game? There won’t any major change in the story, but some stuff is going to be added, and some other removed or altered, in order to make more sense out of everything. The computer logs are going to be reworked, and there are going to be many more of them. We’re also working toward having a story with multiple reading layers. If you beat the game with the normal and the true ending, you should have a different understanding of what happened.
Also, another illustrator joined the project to work with Pia on a special something aside from the game itself. More info on that later!
Hard mode & run modifiers
There’s so much we would like to tell you about what we are preparing! But we would like to keep it as a surprise.
We are working toward making the “hard mode” not just something harder, but something different that you will be surprised to discover (we hope so).
This special game mode will unlock after beating the game once, and its features will be entirely integrated into the story of the game. This is through this post-game content that you will access a whole new Realm and unveil the true mysteries of the game.
We can’t wait for you to discover it! Stay tuned to what Garo has to say.
Enhancements, bugs, and quality of life
Besides all of the above, we are reading all feedbacks and continuously trying to adjust/fix the current content. We are adding more visual cues, polishing things up, and squashing bugs on a daily basis.
We would like ScourgeBringer to be a polished game before being anything else. This is our personal touch. We believe that a good game first needs a well-polished foundation before eventually expanding.
We hope that this post shed some light on our plans and that you are as pumped as we are to reach this milestone!
Talk to you soon for some content reveal!
Cheers!
Thomas