We could have had Kain's sword, the Bravestar, just be a normal sword - you swing it, and things die. Ho hum, nothing special.
In fact, it started off that way! Early on in Wrack Remake, you'd just swing it, and it'd pretty much gib everything - so much to the point where it was overpowered... and started to be boring. Yikes!
I was ready to simply reduce the damage on it and call it a day. But, thankfully our audio guy Michael Markie stepped in and pointed out how satisfying the sword is to use, and how making it not blow up everything in sight would be a mistake. So, together we found a solution - energy!
The sword would remain OP, but only for a short time. With each attack, it'd consume some energy, and eventually become depleted - unable to do the full amount of damage. While it does slowly recharge on its own, waiting around is boring, and we want the game to be beatable using just the sword. The solution?
Enter alternate fire! All weapons in Wrack Remake have an alternate fire; and, in the case of the Bravestar, it works together with the primary fire. Using the alt. fire causes you to block with the sword - allowing you to parry melee attacks, and deflect missiles. If you can pull this off, your sword recharges instantly, and you can go back to rampaging like a boss!
Sound interesting, but a tad complicated? That's part of why we introduced the brand new tutorial! Rather than shy away from mechanics that make the game better and more interesting, but not immediately intuitive... we thought we'd just do a better job of communicating the inner workings of Wrack to you, so you have a much better time with the game, and way less confusion.
Want to Try It?
If you'd like to see how the tutorial, and all these design decisions are working out... there's good news: We're going to have a demo, and it's coming soon! So, you'll want to stay tuned for when that happens (to do so, might we recommend our Discord?). But, there's even better news: We've launched a limited beta of the game! If you're interested, just click the "Request Access" button on the Wrack Remake store page.
Limited slots are available as we prepare for the demo, so be sure reserve a spot quickly. (In fact, all spots already filled up at the time of writing this, but we'll open up more spots soon.) We're looking to make this game as great as it possibly can be, and your feedback will help a ton with that. So, it's much appreciated!
If you made it all the way down here, why not join our Discord? We'd love to hear from you!