Hi everyone,
Today I'll share the news about the quest system in Dragon Ruins II.
As you might remember, the original had a single quest -- get strong enough to reach the end of the dungeon and defeat the dragon, and repeat that process as many times as you like.
At first, I considered having a similar structure in the sequel, except the story and maps would've changed with each run to consider various "what if" scenarios. What if the dragon is no more than a pup who minded its own business, but humans got scared and attacked it? What if the dragon was little more than a rumor that spun out of control?
After about a month of initial planning, I realized that having a single quest with minor variations would make the game feel more like a safe, iterative sequel and less like a new and exciting adventure. The solution was obvious -- give players something else to do before facing the dragon.
New Quest System
The game features multiple quests that can be tackled in almost any order. Subsequent playthroughs change the premise, monsters, and reward, creating a subtle narrative behind a familiar area. A zombie-infested crypt can become a thieves' den on the next run, and sometimes more humorous scenarios play out, such as a court jester raising the undead by practicing the trumpet in the dungeon and hitting the wrong note.
This idea came from looking at a few older PC and tabletop games. Since our goal of creating an RPG for tired people remains the same, creating scenarios of various lengths and difficulty would provide additional variety within comfortable bounds.
The visual style has changed quite a bit along the way, and each area features area-specific assets and colors. The goal was to make the game feel like a playable sketch from an old game manual.
Please wishlist the game and look forward to new information about it. In future devlogs, I'll talk about the changes to the character and battle system.