Hello looters, here is the news from the dungeon’s depths.
Merry Christmas
First of all, let me wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and most of all an Happy Dungeon Looting.
Release date
The sound of hammers echoes in the depths of the dungeon, where I continue to work hard to prepare for the release of Neverlooted Dungeon. You probably already guessed it from the current date, the game will not be released in 2024 as I had planned. But I have not been idle, the game has progressed well. I even played last year’s version before writing this post, and the gain in quality is palpable. I tell you again, it would have been a shame to release the game last year, without these improvements.
In this end-of-the-year devlog, let’s review some of the major work accomplished in 2024 and discover my latest work.
Texture work
This spring, I created a lot of new textures, using the amazing Material Maker software. I created a large number of textures for floors, walls, tapestries, stained glass windows, paintings, sculptures, and other decorative elements. This decorative and narrative elements really make the game more interesting to explore.
Even more monsters
This spring too, I added several new monsters. Not only does this add some welcome variety, but their inclusion also greatly improved the atmosphere of the levels, making them feel more alive and immersive.
Some of the tested monsters didn’t made it to the game, for instance I decided not to include this cute gelatinous cube.
This is my last creation. If you love to devour books, know that in Neverlooted Dungeon the books also love to devour you :)
Interactive ending
This summer, I focused on the creation of the game ending, in particular to make it an interactive playable scene. I obviously can’t tell you anything about it, but I put a lot of effort into it to reward looters who will reach the end. I had to create a lot of elements to do it, it took some time, but I’m very happy with the result.
I even added hidden alternate endings and small variations to reward the smartest among you :)
The ending is almost in its final state, but I still have to find a voice actor to dub the voices, because I want it to be fully voiced. I have already received quite a few applications but, as always, recruiting someone always takes me a long time.
Monsters vs. Monsters
This fall, I have thoroughly reworked the behaviors of the monsters so that they finally can fight each other. Why? Well, attracting one enemy to another can be a good way to get rid of them. Also, the rat summoning flute or the charm wand now allow you to give attack orders, which makes them even more useful. Do you want an army of rats to devour your enemies? Well, you can! Besides, the charm wand allows you to do really cool things in the last level, will you be able to discover them? ;)
Level design improvement: “More Sand”
For the past year, I’ve been in the “polish” phase. The game is complete and playable, and with each version I improve different aspects according to certain priorities, whether it’s visuals, systems, level design, difficulty, narration, bugs, etc., until I am satisfied with the result.
To do this, I created several custom evaluation grids, and with each iteration I play and evaluate the whole game, and I define the improvement priorities for the next build.
For example, one of my current priority is a level design task that I call “add more sand”. Indeed, with all the systems and gameplay, the game is providing a large amount of “toys” to be played in the “sandbox” levels. But I find that some levels still lacks situations of use. My mission is not only to continue to improve the levels on various domains, but above all to ensure that they are all largely provided with interesting situations with which you can exploit the great possibilities of the systems.
For example, but not limited to, more situations for climbing, searching, burning, breaking, physically interacting, sneaking, disarming traps, etc.
Full rework of level 3 in 2 new levels
In the last devlog, I already presented you my work this spring of the whole rework of the level 2. And as I was working on the level 3 for my “more sand” update, I was still very bothered by the fact that this level structure was not exactly what I wanted.
Indeed, for a long time this level was supposed to be two separate levels. Two years ago I had started to slit it in two separate levels but I had to put this project on hold. Then, this summer, I went back in this direction with some “extensions” of the level, to include the “must have” elements I had in mind, but also to test if the level split was still doable. Finally, this Fall, after a few day of prototyping the level split, I re-dedicated a few weeks on it to re-do it in depth and finally create the two levels that I had in mind from the start, using the different versions of the level, its extensions, and the stuff on hold. And now that I have finished this task I am really happy with the result, as I was also able to “add more sand” as I wanted.
These new levels are now really solid, and this task ends my “major rework” tasks. I still have minor improvements of the other levels to do, but nothing as radical as a complete rework.
With all these changes, I sometimes think that it would be interesting to publish one day the different versions of the game in a kind of playable making of, where you could play the various versions of the game with some dates and explanations, to discover its evolution. What do you think?
Combat improvement, again
Among the flaws criticized in the game, it was often the combat that came up. I spent some time to correct some aspects, in particular on the reactivity of the inputs to chain attacks and parry. There is still work to be done on the balancing of stamina. Do not hesitate to tell me what you think.
Finalizing the music
I worked with Alexandre Sciré on the music, in order to give him relevant feedback to finalize the soundtrack. I also created new mixing and fading tools to make the loops as invisible as possible and further enhance the immersion.
Technical debt
As always, a lot of bug fixes and various improvements. In this regard, I would like to thank everyone who take the time to report bugs. I was a bit behind in support and a major bug was reported over 40 times in September! I finally released an update to fix it. Please continue to report bugs, I always end up fixing them :)
Demo reviews
The demo has exceeded 178 reviews, and they are 99% positive! Thanks to everyone who left a review! If you didn’t yet, don’t hesitate to do it to help. I read them carefully to know what you like and what needs to be improved.
All these positive reviews confirm that my particular game, mixing several genres and influences of classic games, seems to convince you, and I am working hard to make the rest of the game live up to your expectations :)
LEAVE A REVIEW -> https://store.steampowered.com/app/1394770
Seasonal fun
This fall and winter, it was the occasion to re-enable the (optional) Halloween-special and Christmas-special versions of the demo.
If you missed Halloween … change your computer date ;)
The Christmas special is still available throughout the month of January !
Bunch of screenshots
Finally, here are a bunch of screenshots to show you a little bit of what awaits you in the depths of the dungeon.
Roadmap
There’s still work to be done before release, including level improvements, final texts and localization, voice acting, some illustrations, optimization, debug, and finishing up small additions here and there. I won’t risk giving an approximate date anymore, so it’ll remain “I’ll release it as soon as possible”.
Thanks for reading this long devlog. See you soon, Arnaud