The big update is soon here, I'd just like to update everyone on the state of development and to say that it's going great! It'll be just a while more since there are still some stuff I want to implement and improve.
The next update will include a totally new zone called the Frozen Depths, this zone contains entirely new enemies, hazards, Relics, two new bosses and a new spell!
Before I show a little of whats in the new update I want to do an update on the development roadmap.
Almost made it!
Due to some unplanned changes to the game I did this Spring, like the full re-balancing of all Relics... And generally more improvements and changes to the game than I planned on doing. That means I am a little bit behind on what I hoped to get done in Q2.
So the new area was planned to come out today but it'll be 1-2 weeks more, it's nearly done but there is still things like finishing the music for the new area, adding new SFX for the new enemies and abilities. I'm also rewriting a lot of the current dialogues... also then making sure everything works as intended!
Some might notice that I'm cutting two areas from the game, the reason for this is that I'm reducing the scope of the game a bit to get it finished this Fall instead of most likely next year. I feel like the game is already quite large and know that this is in no way a sign that I'm somehow rushing the game. The opposite, this gives me more time to actually polish everything that will be in the game.
I'm confident I can put in the ending and the 10th zone in Q3 and I'd love to get the game out before Q4 but I'll leave Q4 as the possible quarter where I'll be really polishing everything and wrapping the game up. The version of the game you are playing today is really just a bare minimum version visually of what I have in mind, the things I'm putting of for last is making unique assets to almost every room and really making the world of Lone Fungus into a really believable world and less of the tileset like place it is now.
Me cutting two zones does not mean those two zones I had in mind will never get put in, I'd love to keep working on Lone Fungus after the game is finished and keep on expanding the game in forms of free DLCs similarly to how other Metroidvania games have done it. I just feel I want to get out of Early Access sooner rather than later with no existing content suffering, and the best way to do that is to cut some planned content out of the game.
So to sum up what's left to do before the game is finished.
- Zone #9 (Coming in 1-2 weeks)
- Zone #10
- True Ending
- Missing Astral Gates
- MUCH more lore, dialogues, story and re-writing of current dialogues
- Unique assets to make the world more believable
- And ofcourse general improvements to everything...
Frozen Depths
I won't show too much what's included in the new area but know that it's quite a large and dangerous area. One of the bosses is currently the largest boss and boss arena in the game! Apart from the new area I can also say that some improvements have been made to the Gold Mines, both visually and in terms of content actually existing there. It's been expanded!
Apart from new content there is also some changes to the difficulty modes, notably you being able to see your map position on Hard.
Some other changes are that Healing will now cost a set percentage of your max MP instead of a flat amount. This is technically a nerf towards the effectiveness of damage tanking bosses or enemies and playing carelessly, especially in later parts of the game as your MP increases. This means as you pick up Mindshrooms only your Spell casting abilities get improved and the risk/reward between Healing or Casting spells lean towards allowing for more aggressive spell casting playstyles.
With full MP you will be able to heal only three times, with the Cheaper Healing Relic it's increased to four times. And that's it, I feel like that's pretty balanced. The game becoming easier as time goes is never fun in my opinion, so this change will keep the game challenging as you get stronger. There is probably more balancing changes coming in the future. And if this new systems ends up being bad in any way then I'm open for changing it.
Anyway, that's it for this update. Just a heads up on what's coming. Thank you everyone who has purchased the game so far, I look forward towards bringing Lone Fungus into the bright future that I think is ahead for the game.