At this point, I’ve got a mountain of notes for features I’d love to add, so it’s time to focus in on what will bring the most benefit to the first public demo.
I’m aiming for a mid-June to early-July demo release window. This post outlines what I’m prioritizing, plus stretch goals that I'm hoping to sneak in if time allows.
Feedback is always welcome - if something here jumps out (or something’s missing), let me know here or in the discord at https://discord.gg/h4vvUsCwUU .
Core Enhancements:
- Replace the current 16x16 placeholder map with a new map using commissioned 48x48 tiles. This will require a full rebuild of the map due to the change in scale, but will make each zone feel much more alive, and visually consistent with other art assets
- Enemy sprites movement animated, with some getting animations for their abilities as well
- New abilities added to Rail Sniper and Heavy Tank to bring them more in line with the other 3 advanced enemies
- Mage and Cleric active abilities
- A tutorial or some kind of new player friendly mode to ease players into the game's higher than average difficulty and learning curve
World Building & Exploration:
- 3-4 exploration unlocked minibosses, and a hintervale clearing final boss
- Prometheus redesign if that encounter's quality noticeably falls behind the quality of the newer bosses
- 2-3 more zones to flesh out the eastern side of the map and reduce the size of plains/farms slightly
- A dialogue system that provides the player with decisions that have lasting impact on the game world and overarching story
- Exploration puzzles, with simple puzzles giving repeatable rewards, and more complex puzzles semi-permanently altering how zones behave or unlocking new sub-zones to explore
- Zone-specific destructibles that have unique impacts on the run
- Zone-specific interactable locations that give temporary or run-persistent buffs
Player Progression:
- Experience system that gives players slight progression even if no modules are dropped in a run
- Crafting option to replace unwanted affixes
- Crafting option to destroy a module in order to transfer one affix from that module to another module
- Module-unlocked upgrades for Ranger and Mage
- Additional prefixes for core stats, for more module diversity
- Suffixes that adjust the rarity of upgrade selections
Closing
A quick note on roadmaps in general - they can be a bit of a double-edged sword, especially for solo devs. On one hand this helps keep me focused and accountable. On the other hand though, it can limit the freedom to shift gears when new ideas come up that might lead to a better game.
That said, this isn’t meant to be a set-in-stone list of features. It’s more of a tool for us to talk about where the game’s headed, what I’m aiming for in the demo, and what might evolve based on feedback or time.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3541210/One_More_Run/