After some fantastic help from everyone on discord testing the Awakening Update, it's now live!
This updates is all about making Dreamscaper a more rewarding game to keep coming back to. We focused heavily on game flow and meta-progression, expanding the Waking World to have more depth and gameplay than before.
What's New?
Brand New Game Flow
As we mentioned in the previous update, your feedback on pacing and game flow helped inform this new direction.
Cassidy no longer wakes up between dreams. Instead, your dream is one continuous experience.
We have more we will be expanding on with game flow in our coming updates. Without giving too much away, we'll be working to make sure there are more discreet milestones that help fill out Cassidy's story.
As for the waking world - we've done away with the concept of "time" as energy to be used. The waking world is much more freeform with lots of new things to do.
Meta Progression
In our tease, we mentioned that:
We've spent a lot of our time this update introducing layered progression systems that will alter the Dreamscape, increase Cassidy's strength, provide fun goals and drastically flesh out the Waking World.
Let's dive a little deeper into what those systems are:
Meditation
Cassidy can travel to Taylor Park to Meditate. Meditation allows Cassidy to focus and work on herself, permanently improving stats and granting new abilities to be used in the Dreamscapes.
Daydreaming
At the bar, Cassidy can get lost in thought. While Daydreaming, Cassidy can upgrade the Dreamscape, unlocking new types of rooms and enhancing the dream world.
Sketching
At the Cafe, Cassidy can sketch out new ideas she finds in her dreams. While in the Dreamscape, you will come across Ideas for items that Cassidy will take back to the Waking World with her. Cassidy can spend Sparks of inspiration to flesh these ideas out and unlock new items & abilities for her next trip into her dreams.
To-Do List
Cassidy has begun to keep a To-Do List in her dream journal. There she can track her progress with various quests and reap rewards for completing them.
Item Mastery
All equipment now has a Mastery component. Mastering an item will unlock a permanent additive modifier for that item.
Crafting
Crafting has been stripped down and received a major facelift. This simplified system has been given some added depth with Recipes. As Cassidy travels throughout Redhaven, she can find crafting recipes that will unlock more elaborate gifts to give to her friends.
Updated UI
As you saw above, much of our UI got a facelift across the Waking World.
We wanted to make sure that the quality of the Waking World matched the quality of the rest of the game.
New Nightmare Campground Rooms
New rooms have been added to this update to help flesh out the Nightmare Campground. Expect some new visuals and modified enemy configurations.
Closing Thoughts
As we mentioned, we're quite light on new items, weapons and enemies, as our focus was on a vastly improved Waking World experience for this update. You can expect some cool new content in the next update.
As always, you can expect a slew of bug and crash fixes with this update as well.
Make sure to drop us a line here or in Discord with your thoughts on the new expansion!
Until next time,
- Ian, Paul & Rob