Hello there from the developer. My name is Ramil, and I sincerely hope this Demo brings you much joy, as well as chaotic and challenging experience. This is my first ever game made solo, with no prior experience in game-development.
The content of the Demo:
This is quite shot experience, but given that it may prove to be challenging and somewhat unfair at times, beating it might require some time.
The Demo consists of 6 playable areas with a number of randomly generated events. You will have to progress through those areas, survive the encounters, while upgrading you character and elemental powers. You will eventually reach the area with spawning waves of corrupt enemies, which you would have to survive in order to meet the boss of the area.
Demo is some sort of tutorial to the Main Game
There is no traditional Tutorial in the Main Game. I personally very much dislike the tutorials in games. Each year they become dumber and dumber. A huge part of the gaming experience is figuring things out via trial and error. With this philosophy in mind, the Demo of Echoes of the Abyss was designed. There is no tutorial. But I also wanted to provide some pieces of guidance to Players, as not to leave them completely in the dark. During playthrough, you get little hints via short dialogues with 1-2 NPCs, and some short instructions in Level-Up menu (you get to it via natural progression).
So, the Demo is not as random, as the Main Game, but a bit more linear
Randomization is a huge part of rogue-like genre, and it exists on many different levels. Random level generation and layouts from hand-crafted presets, random loot generation, random generation of enemies from hand-crafted presets.
Given the need to guide and ease in Players into the Game, it was decided that the Demo would be the level instead of the Tutorial. It is designed in such a way as to show key parts of the gameplay to Player naturally without hand-holding.
So, if tutorial might appear a little bit repetitive, the Main Game will be much more randomized.
Report any bugs or your ideas that you have
As the game is still in development, you will surely encounter performance issues, bugs and work-in-progress elements during your playthrough. If you have any reports or suggestions, please contact me through the dedicated Discord server. I really hope to see you there.
Please Wishlist the game on Steam and I sincerely hope you have fun!!!