Hi everyone!
I figured it's time I got around to introducing myself, and to provide some updates on the game. Starting this week, I'm going to begin posting devlogs on Ritual Chambers, so all of you get an idea on what's being produced, and how much you can expect when the game demo is finally released!
So hi, I'm the main dev of Ritual Chambers, and here's a rundown on the game's progress.
Recent Changes
UI Overhaul
Firstly, the earliest amongst you guys would notice the UI looked much more "old school" and boxy before. After some internal feedback, I've decided it could use a makeover. To give it a more on-theme and clean layout, I've changed it to a more "ritualistic" and dark fantasy aesthetic.
I also finally got rid of the old placeholder spell icons I got from some asset, and updated it with cleaner and "grungier" icons.
I'm also a big fan of diegetic menus and thematic aesthetics, so the Binding Altar's UI gets a huge upgrade as well! I've also made the UX more intuitive. In the old UI, my playtesters kept having issues getting to the fun part of the game, where they gain new spells and started casting. The new UI should be a lot easier to navigate now. Also, it looks cooler. (imo)
Ammo System
You may have noticed it in the earlier image, but yes, we have an ammo system now!
As a developer, I want my players to have fun and have to freedom to be as wizardy as they want, with a higher focus on mana management rather than the usual FPS aspects. I realized I wanted wrong.
A few playtesters brought up the issue that the gunplay may be too monotonous and the game lacked dynamism. Before, you essentially had infinite ammo with any gun, though you need to reload. Since you could essentially empty your magazine and kill stuff with no repercussions, this made spells less useful, which is basically blasphemy.
In the end, I caved in and implemented an ammo system. Now, firearms will require ammo, with ammo being separated into three types:
- Light Bits: High fire-rate firearms, like assault Rifles and submachine guns. etc.
- Heavy Leads: Low fire-rate but high damage firearms, like pistols, revolvers, shotguns, etc.
- Esoteric Scuds: Firearms with variable damage and add-on effects. Rarest ammo type.
Additionally, I can place ammo as a form of loot around the map, incentivising a need to explore, and adding some dynamic flow to combat.
I hadn't implemented guns with Esoteric Scuds yet, but I have plans to include more than the usual guns you see in FPS. I'd love to really get creative with some fantasy gun designs. Maybe a firearm made of floating bones, or a squirt gun with a jar of detached alien eyes, or some other cool thing like that. Honestly, the specific designs are still confined to the drawing board!
New Spells
My personal favourite part of the game, both as a game dev and fantasy enjoyer. If you're like me, and like variety and creating builds, you'll be happy to hear that I'm designing the spells with that intent in mind. I want to give you guys the whole palette, not just 66 differently coloured fireballs and encourage mixing spells and firearms, so you guys have all the ammo to optimise your builds with.
A quick rundown on some of the spells in Ritual Chambers, including ones already implemented.
- Wisps: Shots are turned into lightning wisps that float in the air based on how its fired, firing lightning at nearby enemies.
- Gust Bubble: Your next shot release a windy shockwave, knocking back all nearby enemies and creating a temporary wind dome barrier in the area.
- Desecrate: Shots fired at a corpse consumes the corpse, and results in a large explosion.
- Napalm: Fireball.
- Soul Metabolism: While the spell is active, Rune Counter (a combo mechanic) regenerates your health instead of mana.
Where's the game at?
Currently, I feel the game is still quite early. While I'm very happy with game's current look and base systems, there is much more content to be implemented before it's ready to be played. I want the game to be a truly satisfying experience for you guys, and that means replayability, catering to different playstyles, intuitive UI, fun-to-explore rooms, and so on.
The game has most of the base systems established:
- Gun-casting System: Equipping guns or spells, enchanting spells unto guns, and various other spell types and bullet-hit interactions
- Level Generation: Room pooling system, where each run involves going through a randomised set of environments.
- Resource Management: Rune Counters and Ammo, the main systems that generates the resources the Player needs to fight.
- Spellbinding: Finding and interacting with a Binding Altar lets the Player spend affinity (gained throughout the level) to gain Spells for that run.
- Sigils: In-run passive abilities that further adds to build variation.
- Blessings: Out-of-run progression system. Gain passive abilities and stat increases that remains throughout the game.
I'm a big fan of making builds in RPGs, large variety in abilities, open exploration and dark fantasy, which might be apparent in the game's design. It's kind of a passion of mine to truly explore what I create with a magic system, and Ritual Chamber is my first big step in doing that, so I hope you all like what you see!
Future plans
This include the main things Ritual Chambers need to be a proper viable game. Well, this is half things the game needs, and half things I want to put in the game. Here's a list of things I plan to implement by the time the early access is out.
- More guns: The current roster of 3 guns is pathetic. At least 12 firearms, split between the 3 ammo types should be in.
- More SPELLS: There's never too much ritual for the chamber! 80 Spells split between the 5 Spell schools.
- More enemies: I want to reach low double digits for the number of enemies in this game. They will ideally each post challenges in different ways, and hopefully push the Player to try out different tactics.
- Large open level design: The number of rooms in the map is still limited. Expect puzzle mechanics, hidden rooms and randomised (but balanced) loot spawns.
- Gun customisation: Optional, and not promised system. Though, ideally, I want the Player to be able to have more tools to solidify their builds in Ritual Chambers.
- Sigil Alchemy and Spell Combination: VERY OPTIONAL and also not promised. But, the idea of the Player having a way to craft their own Sigils and Spells, or combine Spell effects appeal to me very much. Realistically, though, this will require a lot of work and come with balancing concerns. Imagine it though...
If for some strange reason, you want to see more flashy spells, or you'd like to follow the game's progress much more closely, I turn you to the Ritual Chamber's various social media accounts, where we're more frequent with our updates.
https://www.tiktok.com/@ritualchambers
https://x.com/RitualChamber_
https://www.instagram.com/ritualchambers/
https://www.youtube.com/@RitualChamber
Otherwise, stay tuned for more devlogs and let's see how far we can take this project!
All the best!
B
Ritual Chambers Main Dev