Hello everyone!
May was a busy month!
The second part of the demo update is finally out, bringing one of the biggest gameplay additions I've worked on so far: weapons. KAZ was also featured in a few events throughout the month, and I spent a lot of time polishing, balancing, and improving the overall experience.
The biggest addition this month is the new weapon system.
At the start of each run, you can now choose from six different weapons. Each weapon stays with you for the entire run and comes with its own visuals and gameplay advantages.
This is actually the first feature that fundamentally changes how a run begins. Before, every run started from the same place and evolved based on the items you found. Now, your first decision happens before the run even starts. Depending on your weapon choice, you'll naturally lean towards different builds, strategies, and playstyles.
I wanted to add more variety and replayability while keeping the game simple to pick up and play. Weapons are now available across all game modes!
Outside of weapons, I focused a lot on progression, balance, and overall polish.
Gameplay & Progression
Reworked score requirements for round progression
Improved item rarity and distribution
Increased map growth speed and added much larger levels
Added item selection to the first round in certain modes
UI & Quality of Life
Added a new cell dig counter
Added new UI effects and visual feedback
Improved various menus and interface elements
Balance & Polish
Improved enemy behaviour
Reworked item rarity selection
Tweaked progression scaling and item balance
Adjusted several abilities, bonuses, and cooldowns
Fixed a large number of bugs and gameplay edge cases
As always, there were also dozens of smaller fixes and tweaks that don't make for particularly exciting patch notes, but help make the game feel smoother and more consistent overall!
This month KAZ was featured in a few different events.
I had the chance to showcase the game in person at Indie Game Lyon, which was a lot of fun. I even brought a dance mat and let people play KAZ with it. Watching people try to play the game using their feet instead of a keyboard was definitely one of the highlights of the month.
KAZ was also featured in the Six One Indie Showcase and the Psychedelic Festival on Steam. It's always exciting to see the game appear alongside so many other great indie titles!
Thank you to everyone who played the demo, shared feedback, reported bugs, or stopped by one of the events this month!
If you'd like to follow development, join future playtests, or stay up to date with everything KAZ:
And if you'd like to join the community, share feedback, or just hang out, feel free to join the Discord:
See you next month. :)
— Kalinarm