Welcome to my Developer Log!

This is where I share insights about the production of the game and my ideas going forward. And oh boy; is there a lot to talk about this time! I have gotten a lot of great feedback, as well as looked at the gameplay from other's perspectives to see what needs added / changed!

First things first - I think the game needs more spice. More randomness in runs, and more rewards. Currently, the game has the vibe that you "play to beat it", which is very wrong - it is made to be a re-playable experience. However, much of how you play is up to the player deciding to change it, which is very wrong for this genre. So we need a little more spice! More difficulty modes, as I have mentioned, but also some more randomness in the runs to nudge players into new play-styles, build hype, ect. And it needs to be controlled randomness, where a skilled player can always win no matter what.

Blessings After Each Round

My first idea is a new system - blessings!

Noticed that in most rogue-likes, you get a small treat at the end of a round. Or in any Souls game the boss also gives you their soul / item for a unique upgrade. My game is lacking this - image Elden Ring but you only get souls from bosses and they drop no items!

But in this game, even the normal waves are kind of bosses. So, we need little treats! That is where blessings come in to play; here is a screenshot.

Blessings will provide small buffs (think like Elden Ring: Nightreign). Was inspired while watching Vinesauce Joel play Nubby's Number Factory - something just clicked that my game was lacking "sauce".

They will also have randomized rarity levels, so that your neurons can get a bit of that randomness dopamine too. You can also always skip if none of the bonuses are to your liking, giving you a certain amount of bones based on how many you got in the round (affected by bonuses).

In the future, if you have played horse girl game you may have an idea where this is going, but these will be like the "white sparks", where you have a very small chance to get them in a legacy, and still have to pass another chance to actually inherit them in a future character. I think that will add even more to our legacy system! Maybe you can combine two of these to make a stronger version? Or maybe it is always guaranteed if both parents have it?

Either way, the game's balance is going to be a little wild, because I will need to boost the difficulty after introducing this, but it also will achieve the goal of "adding randomness", so who even knows. Everything is a little up in the air, so I'll mostly do it off of feel and player reaction.

Other Planned Changes

I don't know when I will add this, but I want to make the merchant have certain items on "sale" at times, and all items cost more in general. That way, players will be more encouraged to try items on sale, and it will boost some of the good feeling of things lining up just right! Maybe even add some relics or a class power in the future based off of this. Merchant may even sell relics, but very rarely!

More challenge modes are very much needed. Plan on adding those soon, maybe just a few option toggles at the start to tide us over until I can make some really good ones.

I want to keep building and not building in check, also. Both should be viable based on play-style - and there should be a small sweet-spot in the middle where it is most efficient to build some defenses, but players can kind of opt into what style they want. So I am still trying to find what works and sort that out.

I think for a little bit I am going to say "screw balance, focus on what feels good and is fun"! That's what most games should do anyway!

Thank you for playing!

You guys have been awesome!

THANK YOU all for the feedback! I have read all of it - some of you have great ideas! And I have patched some of the bugs. Whether you are streaming, playing on YouTube, leaving a review, submitting on the forum link - I have been paying attention and looking carefully at every bit feedback. It's like digital gold to me.

That's part of what will make the game great - the community, and my need to grow it. That may seem odd - but makes sense in practice. In order to get more sales, I have to make what the people want!

I want to show people that you can make this style of game, and that it can work. And I want to provide the players what they want too.

I want to smash that glass ceiling and see all sorts of games like this being made. Because.... I WANT TO PLAY THEM! Literally made this game JUST BECAUSE I WANTED SOMETHING LIKE THIS TO PLAY! and a fun LAN game party to play with friends. And I am prepared to take the many arrows of backlash that I will get from wanting to do so, too. Will the game get nuked from orbit for being a ripoff? No, and it certainly isn't. Will it get review bombed by people wanting to see it fail? Again, no, nobody is maliciously out to get me or cancel me or anything (except that one guy a long time ago who was mad because of my AI wife (ahhh, the good old days...)). I need to exercise more mind control and pay not attention to these things!

Noticed a higher rate of returns than usual on Steam - not too much more, but more than I would like. I realize, however, looking at the reasons, it's a lot of people who want a Terraria 2. Imagine coming in expecting that and then getting a game that has the blood of the Dark Soul! No wonder they gave it back! They can't even persevere through the first boss! Like, get out of here little bro, SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, ONLY REAL GAMERS IN MY COMMUNITY!

Perseverance is key. Despite the game's low numbers of sales (you might have seen the sales bar and noticed it isn't updating when I update the game, we aren't event at 332, that's what I expected day 1), the reviews have been great, watching people as they play the game they really enjoy it, and I can feel it in my bones that this is good.

This is my best chance at making a game people will play and enjoy. So it's time to just keep going!

Also no big streamer or youtuber coverage yet, so the lukewarm number are like duh! this is a game that people will want to play once they see it being played - not one that is too flashy "cinematic HD" on the storepage, you know? Like most of the other "number goes up" rogue-likes (of which, this is one!).

So, it's not over, and I still have issues to fix that people have been reporting.

Healing round time! I am lowering the rate of ads to stop the slow bleeding of my money (it's more like a 'break even', which is pretty impressive NGL most games couldn't manage this from ads, especially at my pricepoint. The issue is just my on-hand cash is running low), patching up the game, then going out to show it around more. We just need a few streamers - YouTubers - anyone to cover the game and then BOOM, we are off to the races! A few weeks of code shall improve this yet more!

TL;DR The game is fun, but it needs to be more "fun" also.