Several days have already passed since the launch of "The Shadowed Rune" and since then I have not stopped working to improve the player experience, fix issues, balance the game and make it easier for new explorers to enter the Tower. Thank you very much to all the rune masters who have shared their feedback with me to make "The Shadowed Rune" better every day!
As a result, the Update 1 (version 0.378) has arrived, bringing important improvements, although the main one is the full integration with Steam Workshop.
STEAM WORKSHOP
In all games, no matter how much content developers try to create, it is always consumed by players much faster than it takes to create it. Until now, a level editor was already available to create simple dungeons and connect them (up to 100 levels per dungeon), but sharing them was difficult. The next step, therefore, was to make sharing them with the community easier. The Steam Workshop integration comes to solve this problem at its core.
Now sharing your creations (after unlocking the level editor) is as easy as entering an editor portal, creating a level and giving it a name and description. With a single click you will have the level uploaded to Steam Workshop!
To make it easier for your friends to play it (and the community in general if you wish), after reaching the camp for the first time you will already have a special portal unlocked to access the entire library of levels created by the community and play them. You access Steam Workshop, subscribe to an item and after it is automatically downloaded you will be able to access it and play it, being able to find all kinds of levels (including the ones you create and want to share).
Examples of what you will be able to find:
Combat arenas
Escape Rooms
Levels with elemental puzzles that would not be possible to include in random levels
Full campaigns with up to 100 levels connected in a non linear way
Educational levels or levels designed to play with younger children, adapting their difficulty
Fully creative challenges, such as tributes to movies or other games
And much more, there really are infinite possibilities.
AND WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE GAME? ARE THERE NEW FEATURES?
But during these two weeks I have not limited myself to just adding this new functionality. Although you can access all the Patch Notes published over the last few days, here is a small summary of the most important changes and new features.
Difficulty and progression curve revised.
Now, when starting a new run, each player will be able to choose a rune to begin with. Each unlocked character will add a new rune to choose from, starting with the Water and Fire runes.
In addition, now every two sub levels of the Tower you will have access to the Hidden Shrine, where you can save your game to continue from that point if you have to interrupt your play session. This point is important because you will now be able to encounter the NPC Adrian earlier and unlock the Dungeon Editor much more easily. Buy the upgrade in the camp beforehand and reach a shrine. Easy, right?
On the other hand, it is now easier to increase the power level of your protagonists, although the initial mana and its upgrades have been balanced so that there is more variety in character builds. The Tower levels have also been reorganized so that lower difficulty levels appear on floors 1-1 and 1-2, and the more challenging battle levels with mini bosses, etc. appear from level 1-3 onwards. The fight against the Lord of Mud is easier now.
Level editor
The Level Editor, together with its integration with Steam Workshop, has received several important improvements:
It is now possible to select the biome through an object placed in each level.
The possibility to place NPCs in addition to objects has been added, to interact with players. You will be able to write their in game texts and they will be saved in your created dungeon: up to 10 different texts per room, which means you can create a dungeon with up to 1000 different texts across 100 connected levels.
The door system has been improved. If you only want to design a single level, place an entrance and exit portal and you will have your level ready without problems. But if you want to create a full experience, you now have different doors and keys that will allow you to connect levels as you wish: return to rooms you have passed before, place single visit rooms, all of this is explained in the following guide.
And much more
Apart from these main changes, I have improved many aspects of the game, such as jump speed, trajectory calculations, menu navigation improvements and a multitude of small things.
From here on, I will work on the next major update for January, with lots of new content, since the camp needs some love and your reserves of gold and arcane orbs are burning a hole in your pockets... have you already unlocked Veld? He is waiting for you in the prison of the Arcane Tower... Another run?
