A lot of what’s in the game is incomplete / has placeholder art, so this list should help players to differentiate stuff that's intended to be final vs stuff that's still under construction. This is what pre-Early Access looks like. We welcome questions and feedback.
I hope you guys like bulleted lists as much as I do.
Part 1: Stuff in the game that we plan on updating
Run Mechanics
Run Start Options
- Current state: 4 options which always appear.
- Planned: 12 options total, 4 of which appear each Run.
Trinket Chest updates
- Trinket chests will include additional Water for balancing purposes; also, at least 1 Run Start option will affect the behavior of Trinket Chests.
- (other potential updates to make chests more balanced with Ruins)
Enemy encounters rework
- Current state: 11 gradients of enemy difficulty per World (confusingly called “levels”); 3 different potential encounters per gradient on World 1, 1 potential encounter per gradient on Worlds 2 and 3.
- Planned: 5 gradients of difficulty per World; ~5 different potential encounters per gradient on all 3 Worlds (with the exception of the first few fights).
- New map tile sprites to match.
- All tiles in any group will likely continue to share the same loot table; this helps avoid snowballing. However, some small added benefit for fighting harder enemies is also likely.
- The goals of this change are to A) make the map easier to parse by getting rid of numbers, and B) increase the diversity of the types of fights encountered throughout the game. For example, one fight might contain all assassin-like enemies, while another might contain mostly spellcasters.
A new consumable (or other reward) to allow players to better force “vertical” teamcomps
- Current state: It is very hard to get a lot of one Trait on your team, and while we don’t want every run to be about doing that, we want it to be easier to do than it is now. Stay tuned for details.
Item Trader rework (nerf)
- Current state: Lesser Equipment trades for a related upgrade of player’s choice.
- Planned: Lesser Equipment trades for a random related upgrade; Greater Equipment trades for a different Greater Equipment in the same upgrade pool.
Ruins
- Current state: Ruins can appear multiple times in a run; Any Ruin can appear on any World. Few Ruins are available.
- Planned: A Ruin can’t be encountered twice in a run; Each World has its own set of Ruins (sets will still have some overlap). Many Ruins are available.
Economy revisions / balancing
- Revisions to passive Water generation, Shelter harvesting, unit selling systems - TBD
UI
The following UI features need anywhere from small tweaks to complete reworks:
Map tile selection (round-to-round)
- Postcombat screen update
- Map update - groups are separated
- Animations for tile state changes
- (?) Enter combat animation
Trait Display
- Replace placeholder Trait icons (no more “Ass” ;))
- This may require changing the shop to make icons visible as well (currently, we know icon visibility is poor)
- Move from numbers to a “pip” system
- Traits active with only 1 unit (Assassin, Ascetic, Cleric, Rider, Slayer, Sniper) need to correctly display as being active
- Hovering over a Trait highlights units with that Trait
- (?) “Tank Trait” BGs to indicate Traits which make your team tankier
Rework top bar; move bomb UI
Trinket UI - Move to top bar and separate from Trait Display
Bottom right buttons
- Replace text buttons with icon buttons
- Inventory Button - different states for full / empty
Tooltips
- Improve visual hierarchy (need headers at the very least; they need to be easier to read overall)
Enemy and boss info
Team display
- Larger cards; less cards onscreen at once
- Hover over card = highlight unit
- Cards have units’ Traits
Combat text / damage numbers
- Replace placeholder formatting with readable text
Shops o’ Crops
- Different frames for different tiers of units. Getting a Tier IV unit early should feel special.
- Ensure traits are visible in shop
- (?) “Pea pod” UI
Player health loss animation
- Replace placeholder
Unit Health / Mana bars
- Tween on health loss
- Improved MP visibility
- Nicer UI element indicating unit level
- (?) Icons for unit class
Art
- All unit and enemy spell visual effects
- Replace placeholder unit models (Progress: 47/77, excluding Summons)
- Replace placeholder enemy / miniboss models (Progress: 7/26, excluding Summons)
- Replace placeholder unit portraits (Progress: 0/77)
- The current art is AI-generated. We have an awesome character artist who is working on new portraits now!
- Replace placeholder Ruins, Shelter, Item Trader, Run Start, Title Screen art
- Item Art - ? (May or may not replace)
- UI Art - ? (Planned UI updates are listed above; more artful contributions to the UI may or may not be in the cards.)
Flavor
Tutorial -> Terra’s Tutorial
- Current state: A few static screens explaining the game
- Planned: Terra explains the game mechanics over the course of a run
Flavor text for everything on inspect
Content balance
As needed. We know it’s very rough right now; so far, our priority has been on putting stuff into the game, stopping only to correct game-breaking balance issues. In the future, we plan to collect metrics to help us balance more intelligently. Until then, we’d appreciate you letting us know about any power outliers you encounter.
Content mechanics
- The Dark Trait will be reworked to more heavily punish the player for using it. Certain items will make this beneficial.
- Divine Trait rework -> “healing matters” theme
- The Reap mechanic will likely be modified to have more utility against bosses.
Part 2: New stuff that we plan on implementing
Features
Sound FX
Combat timer / Overtime
- After 30 seconds, combat overtime will kick in, quickly bringing about the end of combat.
- (Currently, it’s theoretically possible to extend certain fights indefinitely with low-damage, high-healing teams. Have fun!)
Post-run progression system
- Upon completing your first run, you gain access to a system of incremental difficulty progression.
- Separately, some content may be “locked” when you start the game, and should quickly become unlocked.
Programmatic Unit : Trait variations
- The Traits of certain units will vary run-to-run.
Introductory story text
- Before the title screen, some text will scroll which explains the story.
(?) Unit dialogue
- Speech bubbles either from unit models or Team Display cards triggered by various criteria
Wiki
- Website; separate from game itself
- Contains data on Units, Traits, Items, etc
Content
These “buckets” of content exist, but are incomplete. This content is critical for creating a greater variety of play experiences and adding replay value to the game.
- Ruins (Progress: 5/15+)
- Trinkets (Progress: 19/62)
- Enemies and minibosses (Progress: 10/26)
- Bosses (Progress: 3/9)
UI
- Animations for transitions between screens (eg, quickly fade out and fade in)
- Animation for Water received
- Tooltips for Ruins buttons (ie, see what stuff does before you choose it)
- Misc juice
Part 3: It’s basically done
NOTE: Even though this stuff is implemented, it will still be iterated upon and updated as we see fit.
Content
- Units (75/75; as mentioned above, many portraits and models are still placeholder, but the mechanics are in place)
- Traits (22/22)
- Equipment (35/35)
- Other Items (28/28+; more will likely be added)
- Worlds (3/3)