Conquest Dark has now been in Early Access for one year (actually a week over, but I was too busy writing this last week). Since launch it has sold more than 150,000 copies, securing development funding for years to come, especially for a one-man team. This allows me to take my time and think beyond the game’s original concept, shaping it into something truly unique that stands out among other survivors-likes and ARPGs.
The First Year
Before I go into more detail about what’s coming in the future, I want to take a quick look at what was added during the first year and also set expectations for the amount of new stuff coming in year two. There were a total of 37 major, minor, and hotfix updates to the game during its first year. Here are some of the highlights:
Gameplay and Systems
New Character Creation [Community Request]
Damage Meters [Community Request]
Eldritch Scrolls and Eldritch Gear
In-Game Build Planner, Shareable Builds and Auto-Build Mode
Reworked Altars [Community Request] (later reverted due to community feedback)
Ancestral and Primeval Soul Fragments
The Orrathorium [Community Request]
Ability Master Levels
Ability Upgrade Global Bonuses [Community Request]
Game Speed adjustment [Community Request]
Mouse Movement [Community Request]
New music tracks and reworked audio
New Content
2 Rituals
6 Bosses
2 Events
20 Unique Items
11 Eldritch Items
3 Weapon Sets
1 Armor Set
6 Abilities
4 Artifacts
6 Runes
2 Origins
9 Stats
The game also received a total of 12 major and 9 minor balance passes.
There were also numerous other changes, such as reworked energy mechanics, revamped armor sets and set bonuses, improvements to the UI, game guide entries and tutorials, bug fixes, optimizations, visual improvements, engine updates, and more. A large part of these additions and changes was influenced directly by community feedback from you.
A Look Into the Future
For many players, the first year felt light on new content, especially new areas to explore. A large part of this was due to the focus on implementing missing features and reworking some of the existing ones (which is what Early Access is for). Roughly two-thirds of my development time was spent on this.
The game is still missing some core features such as translations and achievements, but I will try to do a better job of pacing these alongside new content. That said, the old format of using a rigid, fixed roadmap, where decisions about what is coming next are made 6 to 12 months in advance, is not working, especially when I want to react quickly to community feedback and needs.
From now on, I’ll communicate more frequently about what’s coming next and how development is progressing, alongside a separate list of features and ideas planned for the future. This gives me more flexibility when deciding what to work on next.
Translations
Translations are the most requested feature for the game, and not having them leaves a large part of the playerbase out. However, translations are also a huge undertaking for a single person and significantly increase the amount of time spent on every new feature, as all translations need to be added and kept up to date.
Outsourcing translations is very expensive, especially for a game that is constantly changing and has a rapid update cycle, and it is not a viable long-term solution. Because of this, the translation system will be based on machine-translated and community-driven translations, with a limited number of supported languages available at launch, alongside an open system that allows players to easily add their own languages.
I don’t currently have an exact ETA for this system, but I expect it to arrive late this year.
Achievements
The second most requested feature is achievements. I have to admit that I’m not personally a very big fan of achievements, especially when they create very mobile game-like in-game task lists for players.
The simplest form of achievements would be standard Steam achievements, but I feel that many players have different expectations for this system, which I’d like to hear about in the comments below.
This feature will most likely be one of the last additions before the 1.0 launch, as the game is still changing rapidly during Early Access, which could result in achievements being changed or removed over time.
New Class
This is the most exciting thing coming to the game in the near future for me personally and it’s something I’m currently actively working on.
With the new class naturally come new mechanics, a new ritual, a new faction, new abilities, armor sets, stats, artifacts and more, amounting to the largest content update the game has received so far.
I’m going to keep the new class a secret until its release, but it probably won’t be hard to guess once I start sharing updates. I expect this update to take 2 to 3 months to complete, during which the game may once again feel “dead” or “abandoned.”
Thanks again to everyone who has supported the game and taken the time to read through this post. Keep sharing your feedback, builds, and ideas through our Discord server and Steam discussion boards. Your feedback has had a huge impact on the game over the past year and it continues to help guide its future.
-Irmstoi