Demo Launch!
It's been a few months since the last development diary, but it was all for a reason: I’ve been working hard to launch a demo in September! Also, we presented the game at our stand at Indie Dev Day in Barcelona, so we had to put in extra effort to polish the game as much as possible. But now, with the demo complete, it’s time to take a breath, relax, and share all the updates with you:
1º NEWS
Many months have passed since Roguelike Jam 7. After the Jam, we started the project from scratch, considering everything needed to create a complete game, keeping what worked and discarding what wasn’t necessary. In May, we completed the first demo to send to Indie Dev Day and participate in IDD. From May to August, I’ve worked on a second demo with a complete foundation, ready to be expanded with hundreds of levels, items, enemies, and spells.
- The dungeon system presented in the previous Dev Diary is complete, so the next step is to create levels to fill the system. I used this system in the demo to fix a seed and handcraft a dungeon by linking a series of separate rooms to test that everything works correctly and that the experience is what we intended.
- Artifact, chest, shop, and reward systems, with a small sample of each system in the demo dungeon.
- New enemies with various abilities and variants.
- A final boss with multiple phases.
- A multitude of new puzzles, traps, secrets, and dungeon-specific mechanics.
2º KEY FEATURES
RUNE SYSTEM
Real-time combat with the ability to swap rune orders at any time to modify your attacks and adapt to enemies using the power of the runes: Seven elements are included in the dungeon for you to experiment with.
One of the things I will keep improving and explaining after the demo is the Transfer system that each element has.
Besides elemental damage, which is obvious, the runes have a special characteristic that is shared with all the equipped elements. When you cast a spell, the active element determines the type of damage, but all equipped runes will enhance the spell with their extra features.
For example, Wind makes spells bounce off walls. If you cast a fireball with several wind runes equipped, the projectile will bounce several times before destroying itself. However, if you use water runes instead of wind, the projectile won’t bounce but will penetrate multiple targets. The elemental effects are explained in the compendium.
Additionally, each extra element of the same type adds two additional projectiles, just as powerful as your primary one. The key to the system is understanding which auxiliary runes are worth equipping:
Do we want projectiles to bounce? Create explosions? Chain together? Or maybe move faster? There are also additional synergies to experiment with: Each element followed by the same type adds a bonus, and if the last element matches the first, you get another…
Ready to create your build?
ARCANE SPELLS
Arcane spell system that you can discover and use based on the order of your equipped runes.
Expert players will find as they progress through the game that unknown spell messages appear to unlock. These spells break the normal system and can be anything from healing spells, summoning, large explosions, or special projectiles.
Some of these spells are very powerful, so they had to be limited and balanced in some way: mana crystals. These crystals can be collected in the dungeon or as rewards for defeating enemies and are consumed when using spells. Managing these crystals is key to casting arcane spells at the right time.
ARTIFACTS
Mask and artifact systems, which modify gameplay in unexpected ways. To save time managing the inventory, all artifacts you find are added to the top of your interface. You can consult the compendium at any time to check their characteristics.
Currently, there are 3 types of artifacts:
Masks: You can only have one in your inventory, and you can equip or remove it at any time. Its effects only apply while it’s equipped. If you obtain a new mask, it replaces the previous one.
Rings: Provide passive effects that are always active.
Potions: Add an extra effect, either immediate or lasting for a set time. Consuming a new potion will replace the previous effect.
Compendium: After the spell and artifact systems, the Compendium is the 3rd pillar of the game. Once found, it records all the items, arcane spells, characters, and enemies you encounter. Each entry will have a brief description and even some lore, so you can learn more about the story of 'The Shadowed Rune.'
You can check the Compendium at any time, making it a useful tool for viewing spell formulas or understanding the characteristics of some activated artifacts.
3º SOUND DESIGN
We have updates here as well: Félix Herrero, a professional musician, joins the team. He has composed several tracks for the demo that give it a unique and special touch.
At the same time, we’ve worked on a dynamic music system for combat. The same exploration theme transforms into combat music when a battle starts, maintaining instruments and the song's position. Listen carefully—it’s impressive!
We’ve also added some voice acting for special moments to enhance the atmosphere during exploration.
4º ACCESSIBILITY
One of my major goals for the game is to make it as accessible as possible. We’ve even integrated accessibility into the game’s lore.
After starting tests with the Steam Deck, the first step was to add an option to enlarge the game’s text when necessary, making the experience perfect on this platform and small screens.
Additionally, I’ve added a system for help texts that can be activated or deactivated, indicating which keys to use for common actions beyond attacking or dodging. For example, during testing, we found that players were not using Arcane Spells because they forgot which key or button to press to unlock and activate them, so we added this tooltip.
Finally, within the mask system, we created a special mask designed for playing with young children or players with aiming difficulties. When equipped, the player will automatically attack the closest enemy. As mentioned, the description of this mask indicates that it was created to help "novice sorcerers," so it is fully integrated into the lore.
5º DEMO CONTENT
The demo can be played in both single-player and two-player modes, so don’t hesitate to start in cooperative mode, as it doubles the fun.
The demo works as a "vertical slice," so the player starts with more life and 5 rune slots. This way, the initial difficulty is slightly reduced, and progression is controlled over a shorter playtime, allowing players to experiment with advanced combinations.
The demo includes:
- The story prologue, which serves as a tutorial. It’s divided into three sections that will teach you the basic mechanics of runes and element combinations.
- A special fixed-seed dungeon: It’s generated with the random generation system but always with the same seed, so the experience is controlled and you can enjoy a balanced and fun experience. Upon completing the dungeon, you’ll face a challenging final boss (not everyone defeats it on the first try).
- There is also an option to jump straight into the dungeon, skipping the tutorial and camp.
- Additionally, although the dungeon is not random, the items and artifacts are, so in each playthrough, you’ll find different objects, potions, and masks to try out various builds.
- Lastly, several arcane spells are activated for discovery and use, just by finding their rune combinations. You can create healing spells, summon flamethrower turrets as combat support, and more.
Here’s a gameplay video by Chiadow, a friend who recorded a super cool video about the game, with interesting gameplay:
6º WORK PLAN
After the demo launch on September 24th at 6:00 PM, I’ll spend a few weeks fixing any bugs that might appear and listening to the community for feedback to implement gameplay improvements, content, etc.
That said, we’ll gather all the feedback from the demo and start preparing the Early Access version, focusing the next few months on creating all the necessary content to launch it in the first half of 2025. When will it be ready? When the game is done.