With the Steam Strategy Fest well and truly over, we're due to turn off access to this alpha version in a couple of days! Thanks to everybody who's played, discussed and shared their thoughts and suggestions 😀
Here are some of our favourite screenies from the Discord (click to expand):
So, what'd we learn from this alpha?
- The stun protection system we implemented is feeling good! Stuns still feel strong when stacked, but not at all overpowered like before.
- The game's feeling stable! Almost no bugs came up.
- The game's performance is in a much better position! Especially compared to the first alpha where we found people racing to get to 0 FPS with their infinite stun builds 😆
- Sniper Tower game design is broken.
- Otherwise, game design is at a decent place. Most players are struggling to get past the wave 80-ish mark (without depending on Sniper Towers), which is about where we want it to be at this stage - considering things like the Salvage System don't exist yet.
Overall a healthy set of positive feedback! Of course we have a lot more to work on moving forward, but it's good to know that our efforts so far have been in the right direction, and that the reality of how things play out are in line with what we've been developing towards.
What's next?
- Expect the current alpha to be switched off in about 3 days from this posting.
- For now we're simply removing the Sniper Tower insta-kill mechanic. That behaviour will be replaced with a 100x damage multiplier.
- We need to fill the shortage of stats and boons to add more variance and dilution to the roll pools, e.g., to prevent people from reaching 1,000% cooldown recovery 😛
- We'll complete a little more content to create more strategic options - particularly around trigger-chance based mechanics.
- There's a significant game design change in the works that we're eager to see everybody get their hands on 😉
- We're planning a limited time beta for the demo in maybe 2-3 months!
It's been a long journey, and clearly there's still a while ahead of us. But it's been great to see the game being received well in its current form. It's still going to get a lot better 😀 ⚡
Oh, and for those still playing the alpha <.< try pressing F7.
