As previously mentioned, we started working on a singleplayer campaign mode for Demons with Shotguns. We put together a basic prototype to exercise the game's current mechanics against this type of gameplay. The more we playtested, we came to realize two things.
But first I want to state that Demons with Shotguns has been, and always will be, a competitive local multiplayer game first and foremost. Since the very beginning, everything about the game has been designed to deliver an experience that resembles 90s arena shooters, and we truly feel the game exceeds in delivering that experience as it currently stands.
That said, we found the current mechanics didn’t transfer well to a traditional campaign experience, at least not as they are now. As we expanded the prototype level, it became more obvious the experience was a bit shallow and more depth would have to be added to achieve a experience worth pursuing, and something you’d actually enjoy playing!
Which brings us to our second conclusion. The scope of a traditional campaign would require much more development time then MindShaft Games can afford right now. We can’t succumb to feature creep, which is all too infamous in destroying games, and even studios. One of the hardest things to do in game development is recognizing when something simply isn't fun, and/or can seriously drive the development off course to inevitable doom, and to decide to simply cut it out.
As a result, we've ultimately decided to no longer pursue a traditional campaign. However, we aren’t cutting singleplayer completely just yet! We’ve already started prototyping an enemy horde mode where 1 - 2 players fight to fend off wave after wave of enemies in a single arena space; yes, I’ll make the comparison to TowerFall’s quest mode myself because it’s now clearly obvious why that type of gameplay works so well in a arena platformer. Prototyping will continue and we’ll see how that evolves!