Since releasing the demo for Grit & Valor, we’ve learned a ton about what makes roguelite and tactical games feel rewarding—and we can’t wait to bring that experience to life. We’ve gone through every comment, crunched the game data, and we can’t wait to show you what’s coming next. Here’s an overview of what’s in the works!
Run Rewards
Get ready for major improvements to the rewards you’ll score both mid-run and back at base! We’re dialling up the impact of your choices, adding more variety, and making every decision feel bigger and bolder.
- Reward Frequency + Mid-Run Rewards: we noticed that only offering mid-run upgrades at the end of a mission meant long breaks between upgrading your squad over the course of a run. We’re looking at "dropping" upgrades during a mission, causing players to choose whether they can risk collection.
- Playstyle-Altering Rewards: taking inspiration from upgrades like the Daedalus Hammer in Hades, you will be able to augment Pilot Abilities, fundamentally changing the way they behave. We expect this to greatly increase the uniqueness of every run.
- Improved Enhancements: to make choosing enhancements and going for a specific build more meaningful, we’re going to improve their effects and create synergies between different Enhancement types.
More Pilots and Abilities
Our demo contained four Pilots, each with a unique ability. To increase varirety, we’re examining options such as allowing duplicate pilot abilities within a squad as well as adding more abilities. Each option would offer both more content to unlock throughout the game and greater variety!
The Opening Gameplay Experience
In the demo, players went from controlling one Mech in a safe environment during the tutorial to controlling three plus the Command Vehicle in a live mission. To help familiarise first-time players with the mechanics, unlocking Mechs and Pilots will be made more gradual.
Similarly, Pilot Abilities appeared to add a layer of complexity too early on and were underused in early levels. Gradual unlocking and UI improvements to better communicate when abilities can be used will make this easier.
Combining the Mechyard and Scrapyard
Moving between the Mechyard and Scrapyard to buy modules and then upgrade mechs was more cumbersome than we would like. Combining these spaces should streamline the upgrading experience by requiring fewer steps.
Casual Mode
To offer a fun experience to our more casual audience, we’re working on a more forgiving difficulty. This will likely be stat-based and allows us to maintain the current level of challenge for players who prefer it.
The Command Centre
The Command Vehicle will receive its own progression system, via the Command Centre, a new location within the hub. Here, you will be able to unlock and upgrade further abilities for the Command Vehicle, making it more integral and useful part of the squad in battle.
The Command Centre will also allow players to unlock other mechanics and progression systems within the game.
Region Map Changes
- Random Narrative Nodes: having the option to choose a narrative node missed an opportunity for spontaneous moments. We’re addressing this by introducing more choice, strategy and variability into the Region Map. Our exploration here is designed to make these events feel more natural when they arise.
- Reviving Mechs: losing a mech during a run can be devastating, especially if your build focused on enhancing that specific type. Shop nodes and starting currency will be adjusted to make it easier to buy back a mech, especially if one is lost early in the run.
Highlighting Time Controls
Many players in the demo found and enjoyed the time controls allowing the game to be slowed down or even paused while they assessed and issued commands. However, due to time constraints, these were only previously available via the Settings menu and unbound by default. These controls will be added to the UI along with other general UI improvements.
Thank you again for your support! We’re thrilled to keep improving Grit & Valor - 1949 with your feedback and look forward to sharing more updates soon! Over the coming weeks, we’ll dive into these changes in more detail.
If you’d like to help with future changes, apply to our Ambassador program where we hold regular playtests. You can also join our Discord for extra behind-the-scenes content!
~ The Grit and Valor – 1949 Team