Hello everyone! This post will be a roadmap of what's planned for the next major update v0.2 and beyond!
First of all, thank you again everyone for the support! I'm glad the game was recieved well and I'll be working hard to polish the game to perfection!
As for the content planned in the next major update, I'm planning at least 2 new Observatory Levels: this means at least 2 new weapons (previews included below!) and more Memories.
Chapter 2 of the story will be included, with new story characters to meet and at least 2 new Voyages to embark upon, and 2 new bosses to fight as well.
There will be a new playable character: still a WIP so no preview yet, but their kit should be really fun and open up a lot of options!
As for novel content, I want to focus on replayability of the game. Right now, after unlocking all the available Observatory Levels, the only content is hunting for other achievements. To combat this, I'm planning on adding 2 new features:
Stage Conditions
Stages can randomly be under the influence of several unique conditions. These conditions rotate daily (in real life) and provide unique challenges to the player that you are encouraged to build around. Stage conditions can range from voidgates causing new enemies to appear to hazardous meteor rain. Stage conditions only appear after Observatory Level 4. Stage conditions make the stages harder, but can provide unique rewards which flows into the second planned system:
Stellar Prisms
A new type of item gained after a Voyage, Stellar Prisms can be equipped on Weapons to provide unique effects and bonuses. The effect of Stellar Prisms are dictated by the Voyage location, but the substats of the Stellar Prisms are influenced by the current Stage Condition. For instance, collecting a Prism from the Neon Veil could cause Primary hits to cause digital explosions and the stage condition when you collected that Prism could influence its stats to grant crit chance, crit damage, and an extra dash. (Just as an example, may not reflect gameplay.) Prisms will have tiers based on current Observatory Level, so every new Observatory Level will grant slightly stronger Prisms to acquire.
Some especially dangerous (and valuable) stage conditions expect Stellar Prisms equipped on your weapons to succeed, but the rewards are even more powerful Stellar Prisms to bolster your offense as well as some achievements locked behind these conditions. There will be a way to guarantee a certain stage condition for a Mnemoria cost.
These features are subject to change!!
Other features planned for the next major update:
Weapon Mastery (Tying weapon achievements to the weapons, more info later)
Controller support
Voice acting for each playable character
Other features that I may be working on, but may or may not come with the next major update:
Tutorial fight against Garridine to introduce mechanics
Ultrawide support
Training/testing stage
Features planned, but not currently in progress:
Character outfits
Character active skills
Now time for a quick FAQ response:
Multiplayer?
Not in the works, but it would be really cool and I would love to support it. However, working on multiplayer means a while spent learning and implementing it, which means not working on new content. If it was something like a Patreon stretch goal or something, perhaps, but no plans at the moment. Still on the table, though.
Endless Mode?
The game was not designed with an Endless mode and I feel like it would quickly become stale (Progression stops once your inventory is full- there aren't any small permanent bonuses like other games of the genre.) Will need testing.
New Gamemodes?
I have at least one new major gamemode planned- this gamemode will last a lot longer than the current Voyage duration but it's still in the planning phase for now- that's all thats set in stone. I want the main game to have enough content before dedicating time to creating this content, but please look forward to it!
Paid DLC?
There won't be any content dlc (stages, weapons, etc.) before Early Access ends. While outfit DLC may be on the table, again the game needs more content I feel to warrant this sort of thing.
Mod support?
Not planned at the moment, but will be looked into later on once the game has enough content.
Steam Points Shop?
The game is eligible for Steam Points stuff (animated avatars, frames, backgrounds, etc.) but I need to find some time to work on that. On the backburner for now.
Thanks for reading! Here's a preview of two upcoming weapons, as well as their descriptions:
Beast of No Nation
Control the battlefield with this jet-powered spear. Special is a Dash that can execute weak foes. Burst changes if Special is active and inflicts Fear. After Burst, killing foes with Fear will Charge active weapon's Special.
Arborlyre (Name pending.)
Weave random Weaveblooms and consume them with Special for unique buffs that affect both characters: use identical flowers in sequence for even stronger effects. Burst can reshuffle Weaveblooms and extend buff durations.
