Greetings! We are Team Tapas.
We would like to send our sincere gratitude to everyone who played the demo version (v0.3.8) of Garden of Witches.
We are currently receiving a lot of feedback and are carefully reading through all of it. While some changes can be implemented quickly, and others may take longer, we aim to update the aspects that can be addressed first before Steam's Next Fest begins.
#Improvements to Early Stages of Gameplay
It seems that more attempts than expected are required to defeat the first boss. Even after understanding the boss's patterns, the high cost of upgrading movement speed and scissors attack speed seems to demand excessive retries. Additionally, the first area has more general combat sections compared to the second area, which may cause the players to feel tedious. As a result, we plan to implement the following changes:
- Reduce the cost and number of stages for upgrading movement speed, scissors attack speed, and dash recharge count
- Shorten the general combat section leading to the first boss by one stage.
#Skill Balance
Internally, we believe the overall skill balance is fairly good. However, since not all systems are revealed in the demo version, it might appear somewhat unbalanced. Particularly, magic skills with utility effects still deal similar damage when compared to pure offensive spells. However, we anticipate this will change with the systems introduced after the full release, potentially reversing the performance and providing new experiences as mechanics evolve.
For now, we will focus on improving the usability and tooltips of the skills in the demo version, and we welcome further feedback.
#Boss Battle Difficulty
The boss battle difficulty in the demo was set at a maximum level, which is barely clearable by experienced players without upgrades. As a result, those who are new to this game genre or boss pattern mechanics may find it somewhat difficult. However, most players seem to clear the boss without major issues after becoming familiar with the patterns and upgrading a few key abilities.
Therefore, we plan to maintain the current difficulty for boss battles in this demo. In the full release, there may be options such as adding difficulty settings or adjusting phases depending on the overall length of combat.
#UI, UX
For players new to the game, we will work on reducing the amount of excessive information or addressing areas where information is lacking. Additionally, we aim to make any difficult-to-understand explanations more intuitive. While there will always be room for improvement, we will continue to refine the game's usability as much as possible.
#Bug Fixes
We are working to resolve identified issues, such as the problem where using an ambush attack on enemies in the corner causes players to move outside the map and the issue where the exploding butterfly doesn't disappear when transitioning to phase 2 of the first boss fight.
Any additional issues will be included and addressed in the next update, so we appreciate your continuous feedback.
We will continue incorporating your valuable feedback to create a more refined game.
Thank you!