Welcome or Welcome Back!
In today's devlog, I'll be speaking a little about the work done thus far on the roguelike mode, going over what's going to be included in the 0.5.0 update, and what you can expect from the updates between 0.4.5 and then.
Update Expectations:
For updates between 0.4.5, they'll generally come weekly (give or take a few days) and include content that will be featured in the roguelike mode, but isn't made specifically for it. This can be:
New bosses
New cards
New unlockable cards
Balance changes
Fixes (obviously!)
The roguelike systems are being created to be heavily built off of the main game, with the idea that each addition to the main game is an addition to the roguelike mode, so that any addition to the game has some worth, regardless of what mode you prefer to play in. For 0.4.6, I've already made a few balance changes, namely to R34P and E.O.D. per some recent feedback, as well as improved the look of the Entombed status effect from the placeholder to an actual "stone" look, in accordance with the introduction of a new boss...
Medusa, The Gorgon
Yeppers, the update will drop when Medusa is ready, and will be filling our spot for a tier 2 difficulty boss, along with the only other one right now, Zeus. Her main mechanic will revolve around causing your cards to become entombed, completely unplayable by normal means, but can still be discarded. You'll need to pack a way to remove the effect, a way to cheat the effect out or cards that don't particularly care about being played, like Contemplate... from Thoth's reward or like R34P, which ups mortis for the boss without needing to be played.
As a thematic part of her legend, the player will have 5 instances of "Mirror Shard" shuffled into their deck at the beginning of the match - a card that will increase Medusa - or any boss' mortis - based on the number of Entombed cards in your hand, then cleanse the effects. (Still workshopping this, so this might change, but that's what I've got for now!).
There will of course be more bosses as the weeks go on, but this is just the first of a few. Unlike last time, these bosses won't be pantheon-thematic, so don't expect the next 4 bosses to all be Greek.
Roguelike Progress
What might be the more interesting news here - the base systems for the roguelike mode are entirely complete, some bits still need visually sprucing up, as do the "inbetween matches" screen, the case for the reaper on a loss needs swapping up from the usual ability to retry to a restart run and I've gotta save your current run to a json so you don't have to play till you lose and can come back whenever you like, but the actual:
Start run -> Win first match -> choose bucket from 3 options -> choose passive -> go next is in there.
Right now the bosses are always just T1 bosses, e.g. Kalfu or Marinette, but that's because I don't actually have enough bosses to fill out a proper choice system right now, hence Medusa's inclusion first. You might be able to work out, if you've took a look at the current tiers, that that means the next boss to be added will be a new T5 boss, to make each tier have 2 bosses in it. I'm hoping I can extend that to 3 in each tier before 0.5.0, but we'll see!
I'm going to keep details largely quiet, save for previews of new bosses, because I'd rather this be something you discover over something you're fully aware of going in, I always found it neat to be able to read a new effect and theorise what it's use cases could be as they appear, rather than knowing it all as I go in.
Okay so when's the next update?
0.4.6 with Medusa should drop sometime in the coming week, likely towards the end of it, at latest at the weekend. I mentioned it before, but obviously with the primary focus being getting the roguelike mode clean for 0.5.0, content will take a little bit of a backseat for a while.
The good news is, once the roguelike mode's in, that's it, there's no more modes to add, so it's just content, balance and fixes right up to 0.9.9, where 1.0 will see Final Notice go into Early Access on Steam and the itch.io and Steam Demo versions will no longer be updated.
Early Access Plans?
By the time this goes into Early Access, I'm hoping I've got a good wealth of bosses, mechanics, cards, basically enough to call it a complete game - the early access tag is simply there while I'm continuing to refine everything, fix everything up, add new cards and bosses, that kind of thing. Once I feel like Final Notice has fully run it's course and I don't want to continue to add things to it, that's when it'll get taken out of Early Access, and support for the game would cease.
Don't worry, that isn't for a while, LOTS to do yet, but by that time the game should be a game with a tonne of bosses, a tonne of unlockables, some cosmetics, a fully functioning roguelike mode - just a neat little game to burn 30 minutes on here and there.
Of course, plans change, so don't be surprised if something comes up in the future, but for now, that's my overarching idea. Anyway, I'll wrap this up, cheers to all those enjoying the game, and-
Till next time!