Hello fellow Tiny Rogues,
3 weeks ago I told you guys the next dev blog will be showcasing weapons! 
Well, it seems I was wrong. 
Because I have been thinking. And I think I cannot start showing off Weapons willy-nilly before I have given more information about what my goal of the next update actually is.
The good news first:
We are very busy and things are getting done! All weapons have been reimplemented. As of right now, this means that after the update the game will have 442 weapons! All the equipment items are also done already and right now I am in the process of finishing up companions, traits and classes. Development velocity is great!
There is no bad news:
Okay. Let's get into it.
Everybody seems informed about the basics. Big ol' update, lots of new content, the abyss, mid-run saving, localization, all the good stuff.
But many of you might be looking at Tiny Rogues and think to yourself "This is a perfect game, what could RubyDev even want to change? Why did he rework all the stuff?"
In essence, ever since the last big update, I've been on a journey of discovering the magical concept in game design called: Identity.
And I am really intrigued by Identity.
Identity
Now, what is Identity? I could probably find some definition online, but it may help more to tell you what I mean with it. The main word that I think of when explaining Identity is: Purpose.
I desire things in games to have a purpose. I dislike it, when things don't serve a purpose. Even if it's a niche purpose. I like being able to look at an Item, a Weapon, an Enemy, a System or anything else and think to myself "this seems quite unique, under these circumstances, this can be something special".
To me, this basically implies that things differ from each other in meaningful ways.
Things don't have to be super unique, novel or extravagant. If a game has enough Identity, even mundane things suddenly stand out as being ordinary. It's really cool and it's all about contrast!
Have you ever been playing Tiny Rogues, gotten a choice of 3 Weapons and all that you asked yourself was: Which one deals the most damage?
I want to say, nothing is super inherently wrong with this. I actually think in a roguelike game like Tiny Rogues, you do not want this choice to become too overwhelming. BUT. I do want to remedy this decision process a little bit.
I want weapons to, at least on paper, have more strengths and weaknesses that set them apart from each other.
Another example: Have you ever found a Rare Weapon in Tiny Rogues and asked yourself, why even use a Rare Weapon when my blue stick is good enough and I can just later grab an Epic or Legendary?
I am going deep on bringing more identity to Tiny Rogues. Even to the Rarity tiers themselves.
For example, the Rare tier is now purposefully designed as the transitional tier. Very often Rare Weapons now have economy, utility or scaling effects.
Here is an example, a new Weapon, the Cook Book! Any time you upgrade it, you gain additional Food. Keep cooking!
Sometimes Rare Weapons evolve or have unique scaling effects which allow you to invest into them until they become even better than an Epic or Legendary later on.
As an example, let me present a beloved classic. Minibee now evolves after defeating 3 Bosses. In general a lot of Evolve Effects have had their condition updated to be ever so slightly more interesting than "Upgrade to Level 4 btw".
Weapon Rarity Identity Breakdown
Rarity | Purpose |
|---|---|
Common | Subpar Weapons with no special effects. This tier mostly exists for starter Weapons. Swap away from these Weapons as soon as possible, this is a game about finding cool loot, don't stick with your starter Weapon. (Unless?) |
Uncommon | These Weapons represent the baseline of the Weapon Type. Different versions can have slightly different strengths and weaknesses but have no exciting or complex effects. They mainly differ in damage type, range, attack speed. These are intentionally light on text, easing you into a run. |
Rare | These Weapons bring a big power boost which is needed to be comfortable in the mid game. They often have effects which support you scaling into the late game. |
Epic | Strong weapons with specific and powerful effects. Effects can be very specific or even come with a downside. If these Weapons fit your build they can be “best in slot” for the rest of the run, even surpassing Legendary Weapons. |
Legendary | These Weapons are like Epic Weapons but have higher versatility. While damage output is similar to Epic Weapons, the effects never or rarely come with a downside and are generally very powerful, unique or game changing. |
I can keep going on and on and on about explaining the identity of different things now. So many things are more thought out now and serve a purpose.
For example Poison now negates any healing that Enemies would receive and Burn spreads when the affected Enemy dies. (Making it a good addition if your build lacks area coverage.)
A lot of effort has been put into more visual identity of mechanics too. I wanted to turn mechanics and effects into stuff that happens on your screen and can be felt and seen!
Even hit-types like Lucky Hits or Cursed Hits have more identity now.
Lucky Hits make your damage bounce to another enemy. If you get additional Lucky Hit Bounces, the damage can even bounce back to the same target and amplify your single target DPS.
Cursed Hits now have a chance to spawn a Wraith Enemy which can get dangerous but you can use Cursed Hits now to spawn Enemies and then trigger On Kill effects during prolonged Boss Fights.
Weapon types have more identity now, for example Bows more strictly classify as long range single target weapons that require aim.
Throwing weapons now all shoot projectiles with super-strong homing, though they deal less damage than, for example, Bows.
Boomerangs now can pick up Pickups and Powerups for you. (Powerups are a new mechanic.)
Spears have the highest melee range now, Daggers are short range high DPS and Maces have high Stun Buildup. (btw yes, you will be able to stun and stagger Enemies now)
I can keep going, and I probably will in another blog post, but I hope you understand the basic idea now.
Which actually brings me to my next big point. A thing I noticed on my journey of putting Identity into Tiny Rogues.
You can't really give tools identity, if there isn't a problem for the tool to solve which itself has sufficient amounts of identity.
Problems and solutions, obstacles and tools, enemies and weapons, these things are proportional.
You will have a hard time finding good Player Identity in a game with weak Enemy design.
Good enemy design allows the Player design to breathe and shine in the first place.
For me, in an ideal world, every Enemy in Tiny Rogues has something unique about them, or at least serves a unique purpose in composition with the other Enemies on the Floor.
Enemy identity starts with the enemy doing something. ANYTHING! At a minimum they should have a unique approach to being a nuisance to the player. For example with a unique attack pattern and movement behavior. (This is where most games fail already, in many games 9 out of 10 enemies just walk up to you and try to punch you.)
Historically Tiny Rogues has been pretty good at this already and I think it's one of the big reasons why the game has been a success!
The thing that enemies are currently missing, is identity apart from the Bullet Hell!
What about STATS? This was always supposed to be THE Bullet Hell RPG Roguelike, right? What about EFFECTS? What about strengths and weaknesses? Why pick the Blue Damage Type over the Red Damage Type? What's the Green Damage Type good for? Why is it Green? Why do I care about dealing Green Damage? (I am talking about Poison btw.)
At the very minimum, the game should sometimes make you feel a lack of single-target and other times make you feel a lack of area coverage. Tiny Rogues is very bad at this currently. Every Weapon kind of does enough in terms of AoE, you mainly care about DPS to blast bosses before they blast you.
Because Enemy Encounter identity will be more of a thing now, it becomes more important to teach you, the player, about the tools at your disposal.
For that, all Weapons now come with a little chart attached. This shows you how they rank when compared against all other Weapons in the game.
This is quite important because numbers by themselves don't mean anything, especially when you are new to the game. "260 Physical Damage", is that a lot? Who knows! Wouldn't you like to know, weather boi!
Mapping numbers on a scale of 1 to 5 allows you to at least gauge a little bit what the identity is supposed to be.
The Bardiche might be a decent early game pick, some range, lots of damage for an Uncommon, a bit of utility. (Utility of this Weapon is provided by it having a decent amount of Stun Buildup.)
On the other hand, there is for example, the new Talisman Weapon Type. These can be used and then you can swap back to your Main-Hand, which makes them inherently very high utility Magic Weapons.
Oh right, I have to mention: I removed the Weapon Swap Slot. Instead you can now Dual-Wield! (As in, you can combine attacks of the same type and you automatically will alternate between the attacks.)
Alternatively you can still wield 2 different Weapons, forsake wearing a Shield but enjoy the benefits of swapping between different attacks.
This choice was made because Weapon Swap as it exists in its current iteration would have invalidated too much identity.
If you want to fix a weakness of your build by wielding 2 different Weapons, I want you to pay for it by e.g.: not being able to wear a Shield.
I want you to get creative and explore different solutions, not just equip a Gatling Gun in Slot 1 and a Bazooka in Slot 2 and then swap to the Bazooka when the Boss decides to swarm you with minions!
If it was that easy, it would take away from the earlier mentioned ways to supplement your area coverage, like Lucky Hits and Burn.
Alternatively, if you don't want to Dual-Wield or wield a Shield, you can wield a Weapon as a Stat-Stick in your Off-Hand.
There are even Weapons which have their entire identity built around being used as a Stat-Stick, possibly only serving you during Mid Game until you find something better.
(Aw shucks. I just noticed I can't go 1 screenshot without showcasing a new thing, yes Evasion and Armor are stats now. I'll explain the defensive stat rework the game has undergone some other time.)
So, anyways. Where were we? Right, I want to give Enemies more RPG identity, like Resistances and special effects.
Now, you might be like "But RubyDev, you will make me randomly face cold resistant enemies with my cold damage build that I randomly got to do this run? How is this good design!?"
You are right. This wouldn't work. This is where the game had to evolve further.
The solution to this problem is: Information.
The trick is to give the player information about challenges ahead BEFORE they face them. This way they have a chance to prepare for them. (Makes sense, doesn't it? Well, 95% of games I play fail at this. They just throw stuff at me!?)
I want you to pick a different trait, pick a different weapon than in the run before, drink some Booze, swap some Equipment, do SOMETHING different to gain an advantage in THIS run.
And you will be able to do all that because the game will not follow a linear 10 Floor structure anymore.
I've shown it before, but I'll show it again.
Welcome to the Rogue Hideout
This is a new in-run hub area to which you return to after every Floor. This replaces the Tavern and it probably warrants its own blog post. (It's also still in development.)
Between Floors you can salvage Items, upgrade Weapons, store valuables for later, heal up, interact with the NPCs and plan your next move.
You now get a choice where you want to go next. You still have to beat all the Floors but you have more agency and information about which order you want to do it.
This new structure provides the opportunity to deliver information about the upcoming floors BEFORE you enter them.
In my mind, the train of thought of a player might go something like this: |
|---|
Hmmm, the upcoming Jungle Floor with Poison Resistant Enemies is particularly difficult for my current build. Okay, I'll just venture into the Volcano and Icy Cavern first, maybe I can find a good counter that will make my life in the Jungle easier. |
Also, as you can see above, every Floor now also comes with a Reward. Going to the Library here will make the Blacksmith join the Rogue Hideout, which enables upgrading your Weapons.
To state it again, this is an in-run hub area. The world map and the NPCs you get each run are randomized.
This is NOT a meta progression hub like other games have.
This area and new structure exists to enable you to act a bit more strategical throughout a run.
It's THE foundational change and piece to the puzzle which will make all the identity work in the first place.
This might be a good point to mention, I do not intend to change Tiny Rogues into feeling completely different. I want to keep the basic vibe of the game but spice it up here and there.
You'll still be able to grab big sticks, deal big crits and beat up big bosses. Yes, there are new strategic elements, but I don't intend for this game to be a strategy game. Yes, there are new combat mechanics like Stun but I don't intend on going all-in on "meaningful combat".
So don't be scared. The game is Tiny Rogues and will still be Tiny Rogues. (Which is a big reason why this is an update for the game, and not Tiny Rogues 2. It's really still the same game, just updated!)
Also, don't look at this post as a sort of "patch preview" or "this is all the update has to offer".
This is a small "game design catch up". There is so much more, it won't stop at all the above. There are new semi-environmental effects that give identity to each Floor, all the different NPCs in the Rogue Hideout, the new Cinder System that is coming, the new Skill System and design philosophy change behind all the new Skills, consumables are so cool now and there are so many new ones! I don't even know where to start and stop. (Without overpromising. )
It's all going to be really cool and I am so hyped for the future of Tiny Rogues.
How do we proceed from here?
The more content and systems are finished, the more blog posts may come.
Specifically I am thinking about these topics next:
Melee Weapon Deep Dive
Ranged Weapon Deep Dive
Magic Weapon Deep Dive
Companion Showcase
Deep Dive into new and reworked Traits
Skill System Deep Dive
My only problem is: I really want to spend time making the update, not writing blog posts. But this stuff is important so I'll try to increase the frequency.
I hope this blog post served its purpose of showcasing that things are actively advancing and we are not too far (but still somewhat far) from the next big Tiny Rogues update.
Cheers,
RubyDev