The Future of Mimicry

Hello fellow mimics,

As the month draws to a close we want to thank those of you who have begun this journey with us, despite the game being in a rudimentary state. As well, we thought it would be a good time to look ahead and properly lay out our plans for where the game will be heading in the future, beyond vague bullet points and small-scale discussion responses.

We'll start with the bigger picture, which in this case is to have three major updates (possibly with some smaller ones in the middle) during the beta phase, then the full release. We'll break these updates down into their components before getting into finer or more general details about future updates.

1st Beta Update - Floors 2 and 3 Rework

While this update will contain more than just what the name suggests, it will primarily be a rework of the two existing floors. Floor 2 will be redesigned from the ground up with better gameplay learning and progression in mind. Floor 3 will not be as significantly altered, but it currently lacks gameplay progression and motivation, which we plan to fix in a few ways. In addition to updating the level design, this update will bring traps and puzzle rooms, which will provide strategic ways to lure enemies, and difficult obstacles to progress and find loot. Slightly less exciting than traps is the introduction of a proper tutorial system, which will continuously guide the player through new mechanics, and hold their hand a little at the start so the beginning of the game is playable. Releasing Halloween.

2nd Beta Update - Combat Overhaul

This update will be centered around combat mechanics, but not everything will be part of combat. The biggest changes will be to attacks, special attacks, and weapons. Attacks will be based on what items the player has or their level. More weapons will be added to the game, along with more natural attacks other than biting. Special attacks will use these and will be unlocked through progression. Enemy AI will receive an overhaul as well, making the dungeon feel more alive and providing players with more opportunities for strategy with higher risk. In tandem with more complex enemies will come more stealth mechanics such as how enticing different chests and traps are to enemies. This update will also include the addition of the three other playable classes, allowing for a much greater diversity of playstyles, as each class will utilize stealth and combat differently. Aimed for release some time next year.

3rd Beta Update - Floors 1 and 4

As the name suggests, this update will see the first addition of new floors to the dungeon. These two floors will restructure the story a bit and the path players will take to move throughout the dungeon. Both floors will also introduce new mechanics and playstyles. While we don't want to get into too much, this update will also introduce the beginnings of the mimic society in the dungeon, which will provide several new merchants and quests.

Full Release

The full release of the game will add the bottom two floors, floors 5 and 6. Because of how far away this update is (and because we don't want to spoil too much), we won't go into great detail about what's getting added in the full release. In addition to the last floors, the update will add some other new areas, more enemies, and most of the bosses of the game. Lastly, it will add the all important ending to the game.

With a look at all of the updates done, now let's discuss the more general changes we want to make.

Three important game mechanics that we plan to incorporate in some way in all of the updates are quests, merchants, and progress tracking. Quests will give the player objectives and reason to explore other than just fighting nameless enemies. More merchants will help offer specialized items and services that will make gameplay more rich as the game develops. Progress tracking will range from logging new items and enemies to mapping the floors of the dungeon and monitoring patrols.

Apart from additions to the game, we want to talk about the direction the game will take. The core idea of Mimicry is that it's a dungeon crawler but you are one of the monsters in the dungeon. Right now it is mostly just a dungeon crawler with the names of everyone swapped, with a taste of being a dungeon monster. Going forward, we do want to make combat and directly fighting hordes of enemies more complex and enjoyable, but we're going to more greatly expand on the theme of being a mimic and how that allows you to hunt human enemies.

Of course, the game is very young right now, and plans can always change, but this is our current vision of where Mimicry will go. We hope that you all are excited for the future of the game just as we are, and we very much look forward to making the game better than the rough outline it currently is.

-Noah & Grayson