Hey guys, it’s time to share the big changes we are working on right now for the game. Without further interruption, let me tell you about our Performances.
What?
Performances will replace the rooms and affectors system we have currently. Before, you had a straightforward floor layout that contained battle rooms and empty spaces for you to place the affector cards onto. Now, we decided to merge them together, creating the ultimate beast - a proper theatrical performance.
It works like this: in the beginning you have a floor with only a starting room and a boss room, and a number of free slots between them (usually, the deeper you go the more slots there will be). You draw performances into your hand just like you did with affectors, and you can place them on the floor map according to your battle strategy or quest requirements. The layout's structure is also non-linear now, which means at some point you can choose between several performances to go to.
Okay, but why?
When we claimed that you can build your own dungeon in the game, just putting 2-3 rooms inside a predetermined pattern doesn’t sound that impressive. Having you physically assemble the majority of the dungeon? Now that sounds like a fancy feature!
Mechanically it doesn’t change the flow of the game much – each performance still has battles, enemies, and special modifiers that twist the rules of the game. But we also wanted to highlight the game's narrative potential, fixing the disjointed experience of breezing through dozens of generic rooms randomly slapped together.
Gimme more
Okay, so let’s break it down in a bit more detail:
- Each performance contains a set of 3-6 encounters with enemies unique for this biome, or even created specifically for this particular story.
- Each performance is a small story in itself, exactly like a real theatrical play. It expands on the world of the game without unnecessary walls of text, relying heavily on environmental and mechanical design, and may sometimes include the characters you meet in the Mansion.
- Each performance has a set of unique conditions that change the game’s rules to some extent. Imagine a performance about escaping from a dilapidated temple, where each reward makes you slower and your risk falling into the abyss together with the crumbling floor, or a performance where previously defeated enemies haunt you as ghosts.
- Each performance has its own set of mini-quests and conditions that, if completed, provide you with extra rewards.
And did I mention that all of them are visually distinct and contain a set of unique graphics, lighting, and visual effects?
So these are performances in a nutshell. Check out the next devlog for more information about upcoming changes and inner workings of the development process!
Your regular "horny and depressed" indie game developer, signing out.
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