Heyyo, I am CraftedCircuitry and welcome to my first to-be-released game, Deep Dark Wrath! It’s been 6 months of game development and it's finally about to be released in a couple of months.
The game started as an idea when I was playing Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. I wanted to get the endgame grind experience, but at a smaller package. For years the idea of a quick-to-play game was in my head but was left on the backburner because of life. I also haven't really set on a proper idea of what the game loop would be.
But inspiration hit me from a very odd place. I got inspiration from a Minecraft minigame, Decked Out from Hermitcraft. And it finally clicked, I really liked the dungeon diving experience that minigame had so I put a little twist on it and gave it my own flare.
The game loop for the game was:
- Enter the Dungeon
- Gather Points from Dungeon
- Safely Escape the Dungeon
- Use those Points to buy Enchanted Cards, ideally increasing in rarity and power
- Repeat
With the end goal of diving deeper and deeper so that you gain more and more Points, access to more powerful Enchanted Cards, and to find the source of the darkness, the Oracle Pieces, at the end of the Dungeon. The Oracle Pieces which can turn into Oracle Cards that can be used to make it easier to dive deeper in the Dungeon, and to hopefully quell the Deep Dark Wrath.
I now had a game loop, a rough idea of what the game will be, and a drive to make this game. It's been 6 months of solo developing and here we are. I'm proud of what I've achieved and done so far. And, I hope people like and enjoy this small game.
Let me quickly showcase the progress so far.
V0.1
Promptly after the idea was finally formulated, I started prototyping the mechanics. Making sure everything works and all that. After weeks of prototyping, I spent almost 2 months completing the content of the game. The vast Dungeon Areas, the challenging Enemies, all the Key Items, and the goal of the game. I already had a pretty good idea of what I want this game to be so it was simply a matter of making the game a reality.
V0.2
The Lighting and Feel of the Game were added here. This gave the game the mostly signature look it has now. It's a lot lighter back then as I still wanted to keep the big visibility. This was also when I ripped out the camera movement via mouse as it wasn’t really needed anymore.
V0.3 - v0.4
These versions focused on polishing the content and mechanics of the game. This was also the time where I was finally confident enough to start showing off this game to the world and on various social media platforms.
V0.5
The Fireball was introduced in this progress version, a powerful attack the Adventurer can unlock later down the line(not in the Free Demo). I also did a lot more polishing to this game, of course.
V0.6 - V0.7
The Combat Update happened in v0,6, while a Speed and Pacing Update happened in v0.7. These were 2 very big balancing of mechanics updates that I did due to a lot of feedback from a game jam. These updates helped shaped a better experience for the player as they explore the Dungeon.
I also made this game a bit more optimized for lower-end hardware. It's a fairly simple 2D game, surely it can run on a good range of hardware. A lot more lag was quelled, and a lot of mechanics optimized and made easier to run.
v0.7 is also the version of the Free Demo you can download to try out the game! I’ve been working hard to polish and perfect it, and to give it the best experience so that you get the gist of the game. As such, this is also the point where I finally made and released the Steam Page!
V0.8
The Final Stretch of Polishing is here. From little quality of life changes to bug fixes, this current version I’m working on is really about finishing this game. I've still got a lot to do, better sound design, better quality of life changes, and maybe add some Steam Achievements later on.
Multiple times I thought, 'I am done with this game'. I'm glad I didn't just released my game willy-nilly as it wouldn't have been so much better. I'm glad I can introduce this first Steam game to you all, Wishlist the game if you like what you see!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2891520
This has been CraftedCircuitry, signing off for now.