Hi there,
We hope this little update finds you well and energized from some well-deserved summer rest! Our sympathies go to you too, who’ve worked all summer instead.
Our social media has been rather quiet lately, and while we won’t be able to go over why that is today, development hasn’t slowed down in the slightest!
As usual, let’s jump right in.
1) More Twisted Dreams
We’ve spent a lot of time building the first batch of content for our new mind biome, the Twisted Dreams.
a) New enemies have joined our ever-cheerful cast of materialized woes:
Worthless
A reflection of self-destructive instincts and low self-esteem, the Worthless self-destruct, inflict high damage and stacks of the dreaded Infect debuff (more on that a few scroll-units down).
"Self-esteem rested atop other people's impressions will crumble when they part. Not much remains standing then."
Brume
The Brume is a lesser manifestation of people's ability to hide their needs from themselves, out of fear or self-deprecation. They spread Haze to hinder your perception, and sprout into bigger threats after a few turns.
"All roads lead to sorrow eventually, that's unless they evaporate partway. Why the roads in the first place? No roads, no destinations, no destinations, no expectations, no expectations, no sorrow."
Grudge
The Dreams are also home to some more bellicose manifestations. Grudges move fast, and hit faster. Their straightforward damage-dealing profile is made deadlier by all the debuffs and hindrances thrown by other Dream dwellers.
"Loss is seldom fair, and injustice sticks to your soul. Let it macerate for too long, and it'll breed monsters."
Hollow
One of the first bosses you'll find in the Dreams, the Hollow will try to bury you under thorned brambles and charge deadly skills you must dodge to survive.
"At first it was just pain, then a hole, then a vaster gape...then this. The thin husk of being that remains is barely enough to justify existence."
b) Signature effects you’ll find in the Twisted Dreams are now implemented and include:
Haze
Haze is a tile effect that renders all enemies inside invisible, and reduces your Action Points if you're caught in it yourself.
Tear pools & clear water
Tear pools are another signature Dream tile effect, non-fungi entities walking over it will receive an Infect stack, reducing their damage output and resistance proportionally to the number of stacks. As a non-fungi human being yourself, you are of course vulnerable to it, but you could also use it to infect a Grudge, for example.
When a fungi entity walks over tear pools, they heal instead, and turn it into clear water. Clear water in turn clears infect stacks when you walk over it, so you'll have to try your best to control who walks over tear pools and when.
Summoning brambles
Brambles are destructibles permanently under the "thorned" effect. They break easily, but you'll take damage whenever you hit them.
These are just a taste, many other illusion and confusion-themed effects show in the dreams.
c) Finally, a ton of assets are now ready to help us build the level design for these realms as we see fit:
2) The Map
Wantless takes place on a floating transposition laboratory, a ship. As you sail down river Artiris, you’ll go through different hamlets and meet different patients.
It is through this map & navigation mechanic that you’ll progress through the story and difficulty tiers. It is one of the last structural features we were missing.
The high-level game loop looks like this:
Navigate to the next, more difficult area >>> Successfully transpose patients >>> Earn enough reputation in the current area to unlock the right to travel further
Each area has its own visuals, difficulty level, unique patients and events.
There’s still a ton of content and polish we want to add to this feature, but its initial introduction kinda closes the game’s core loop!
There will definitely be a whole devblog about this feature when more of its content comes together.
3) Corruption
We’re just starting to work on the game’s main storyline and its special mechanics.
Eiris' travels will take you inside spirits afflicted beyond what’s incarnated by the Twisted Dreams or Desolate Nightmares. Something different looms over these unique patients’ minds, something darker.
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That’s all we have for today!
We’re starting to see the light at the end of the core system implementation tunnel. Hopefully the next few months will see us focus more on content and polish, so YOU can see more gameplay and get a clearer picture of what Wantless will play and feel like.
Our Discord server is still tiny and quiet for now, but it’ll happily welcome you for a chat anytime!
You can also follow Wantless on Twitter to get more frequent updates.
Take care, stay safe, and don't lose track of your needs ♥