It's getting closer to the end of the year, and I am starting to look at what to improve on Xmas Apocalypse. Since it's an extremely seasonal game my general idea was that I would provide new content every coming year, but for this year I want to do something bigger and overhaul a lot of the gameplay mechanics based on feedback that you have given me after release!
Everything I list after this are things that I want to be in the game, I cannot promise that they will be immediately in the 1.1.0 Update in November, but it is my intention to add all of this as I further develop the game. Any comments or suggestions that you have, please reply to this post or to the pinned Suggestions discussion.
Weapons
I want to implement different weapon handling and controls for each weapon, and also extend the list of weapons available. The plan is to make each weapon to feel unique and not just be a different version of the shotgun. Right now I'm considering to add a mini-gun and a grenade launcher, but I'm open to hear suggestions.
More enemies and a new map
I want to extend the duration of the current level beyond the 10 min mark. For that it needs more enemy variety and a few more bosses. Also I want to implement a second map with unique enemies to add a bit more variety.
New player characters
I'm looking forward to introduce new player characters to the game. I have some ideas that I will share at a later point. 🤖
Skip/shuffle or skill card refunds?
One of the complaints in the reviews has been that purchased skill cards on the skill tree are not 'refundable'. In my opinion the thrill of the game comes from not knowing which upgrades you can get this round and sometimes being stuck with combinations that you didn't plan to have that can still work out well. Having full control over which upgrades you can get each round will just lead to the same builds again and again which is not really in the spirit of the game. I do see though that there can be a middle ground. Maybe that each character gets a further stat of how many times you could skip an upgrade selection during a run if you don't like any of the offered cards, or a second shuffle to have a chance at something else. Another idea would be to have a selection screen at the beginning of the round in which you could activate or deactivate all available skill cards which I am hesitant to do though for the previously mentioned reasons. Admittedly here I would love to get feedback from you guys! So please let me know what you think
General improvements to the game
There are a lot of things that I want to have in the game that are more related to settings or the steam environment. Setting up some of these will unfortunately require to wipe everyone's save files which I deeply regret having to do, but it will lead to a more future-proof game experience.
- Steam Achievements
- Cloud Saves
- Controller Support
- Further languages beyond English (Suggestions? Japanese, German, etc?)
Again I want to emphasize that it might take longer than November to get all of these things into the game, but I'll do my best!
Thank you for all the support so far!