This major update features a lot of UI changes/QoL improvements that players have been wanting since early access launch. Here's all the new content, changes, and bug fixes included in update v0.4.
New Content
- Potion of Accuracy added
- Scroll of Upgrade added
- Rotten meat added
- Enchantment table added
- New special rooms
- Enchantment of Bleeding added
- Enchantment of Draining added
- Glyph of Reflection added
- Glyph of Archery added
- Glyph of Regeneration added
- Coin item added
- Gold bars added
- Skill trees added (randomly generated for each run)
General Changes
- New Skill and Leveling systems
- New weight and weight penalty system
- Basic stats changed to STR, INT, and DEX
- New Enchantments for weapons
- New sprites for enchanted weapons
- New Glyphs for armor
- Perks removed
- Added ability to sell items in shops
- Bundles of items (arrows, coins) have unique sprites
- Coins are no longer separate from the inventory
- Keybind added as an alternative to clicking with left mouse
- Keybind added for freelooking
- Updated breakable pot sprite
- Updated spider enemy sprite
- Updated ladder sprite
- Updated skeleton enemy sprites
- Updated class selection menu
- Updated Sword of Luna screen
UI Changes
- Toolbar for quick swapping weapons and items
- Minimap included in game interface
- New healthbar and armor indicators
- New status effect icons
- New stat icons
- New inventory display
- New tab-based menu system
- Skill tab with player stats and skills
- New main menu backgrounds
- New options/settings menu display
- New save menu display
- New shop display
- New postgame display
- Arrow count displayed for bow type weapons
- Item slots display their enchantment/glyph icons
- Tooltips that display item details when hovering over an item slot
- Improved item information popups
Fixes
- Fixed issue with keybinds not saving
- Fixed issue with shields not being unequipped when holding a two handed weapon
- Fixed arrow dropping bug
- Fixed hunger status effect bug
- Fixed issue with held weapon not displaying properly
- Fixed issue with enemies losing status effects after reloading a save
Future updates and the state of Gloomgrave
A lot of hard work has gone into making the game more user friendly, I've still got a way to go until I'm happy with the game in this regard but I think I've taken a huge step in the right direction with this update. A big reason why it took so long for this update to come out is that I had to completely throw out some old systems and remake them. The in-game menus were reworked from scratch and new features like the skill tree forced me to refactor a ton of other things related to stats and leveling.
Releasing Gloomgrave in its initial early access launch date last year also took a lot out of me and I had some major burnout. It took about a year to go from the start of development to the early access release on Steam and in the months following that release I took development slower. I've still been working on the game all this time but taking it more slowly after that initial release helped me in a huge way to not overwork myself and in the long run it was better for both me and the future development of the game. That being said, I'm excited to keep working on Gloomgrave and now that I've laid a solid foundation with all these important changes I can focus more on releasing new content rather than reworking old systems. This means updates will come out much more frequently than before!
Thank you to everyone for your patience and a big thank you to all the testers that helped me by providing valuable feedback and helping me squash bugs. Hope you all enjoy the update!