Hello everyone, Michael here!
First things first — I owe you all an apology. March slipped by without a State of the Game, and that's entirely on me. Life got a little hectic behind the scenes, but I'm back, and honestly? I'm making up for it today because there is a lot to cover. April has been one of the most productive months Little Devil has seen. So grab a snack, settle in, and let's dig in!
And if you haven't already — the Little Devil Webcomic is live on Webtoons! The story begins there. Trust me, you'll want to know what you're getting yourself into before you descend into Hell. 😈 Read it here!
😈 A Word on the Playtest
Before we get into the new stuff, I want to talk about the closed Steam Playtest — because it's going really well and I'm genuinely buzzing about it.
The playtest is still live and running. If you haven't already, you can head to the Little Devil store page on Steam and hit the Request Access button for a chance to get in. I'll be opening the doors to more players very soon — more on that in a moment.
The feedback has been brilliant. Players have been loving the game, and bugs have been relatively few and far between — always a great sign at this stage. But the highlight for me personally was taking the playtest to Digital Harwich, where people were sitting down to play… and just not leaving. People were coming back for run after run, which for a roguelike is exactly what you want to see. That meant the world to me.
I've been working through a big list of feedback from playtesters, and I'm happy to report that the vast majority of it has already been addressed. Here are some of the key fixes and improvements that have gone in as a result:
Controller improvements — better default controls, a controller menu now available in the pause menu in-game, and a fix for an issue where the game was accepting both new and default controls simultaneously
Audio — reduced the intro screen sound, built a proper audio mixer, and brought the background music volume to a much more comfortable level
Map upgrades — doors now show on the map including their open/closed state, and enemies are visible on the map too. Much more useful!
Dialogue — fixed a freezing issue, and the dialogue boxes now show your actual interact key based on your setup rather than always defaulting to 'E'
Jester's homing bullets now correctly pause when the game is paused
Running Boots have been slowed down — still fast, just less chaotic!
Boss room freeze on entry is now instant as intended
Splash/intro screen no longer replays every time you return to the main menu
Soul cost display now shows a soul icon + "x" to make costs clearer at a glance
Various input, save, and UI polish fixes throughout
Map
Pause
There are still a handful of things I'm working through — including further improving the boss behaviour and adding more pickups to the game. Once those are done, I'll be pushing out a playtest update and letting more players in. So if you're on the waiting list — hang tight, it won't be long! 👹
🎨 New Characters — Greed & Penny
Two big character reveals this month!
Greed has been fully drawn and is looking delightfully horrible — exactly what you'd want from one of Hell's finest. And joining the roster is Penny, your friendly neighbourhood shopkeeper. Every good roguelike needs a shop, and every good shop needs someone running it — Penny is that someone.
|
|
Greed | Penny |
👹 Boss Overhaul — They're Smarter. Be Afraid.
The bosses have had some serious work done under the hood this month.
The Boss AI has been completely rewritten from the ground up. This wasn't a small tweak — it was a full rebuild to give the bosses a much stronger and more dynamic foundation. Alongside this, bosses now have new movement behaviours, making them feel far more threatening and unpredictable in the arena.
Gluttony in particular has a nasty new trick up his sleeve — a brand new puke attack, mostly drawn and fully coded. It's as disgusting as it sounds, and it'll catch you off guard if you're not ready for it.
Gluttony Puke (Animation still to finish)
🗺️ Level Design — Bigger, Stranger, More Hellish
The dungeons of Little Devil just got a whole lot more interesting. Here's what's new on the level design front:
New Room Shapes have been added to the game, which required a full rewrite of the level generator to accommodate them properly. What this means for you is more varied, more surprising dungeon layouts with every single run.
Alongside the new shapes, a batch of brand new rooms have been built and added to the pool — giving the generator more to play with.
L Room (More to come...)
🔫 Stationary Gun Turrets
Hell has installed some new security measures. Stationary gun turrets are now in the game — environmental hazards that'll punish you for not paying attention to your surroundings. Watch your step.
Turrets (More traps to come)
⚔️ Trial Rooms & Secrets
This is one of my favourite additions this month. Trial Rooms are a brand new room type that challenge you to complete a specific objective. Clear it, and you're rewarded.
One of the first Trial Rooms in is the Blood Sacrifice Altar — because of course Hell has those. Complete the trial and you'll unlock a Teleporter to a Secret Chest Room. Hidden goodies for those who are brave enough to earn them.
Blood Sacrifice Room
Chest Room
The Puzzle Rooms have also had a full code rewrite this month, making them a cleaner and more solid foundation to build on going forward.
Puzzle Room
🕹️ Enemy Behaviour
Regular enemies have also received new movement and behaviour patterns this month, making the moment-to-moment combat feel fresher and keeping you more on your toes during runs.
🔗 Stay Connected
That's everything for April — and what a month it's been! The game is genuinely coming together and I couldn't be more excited about where it's heading.
As always, you can find me and keep up with all the latest across the Little Devil channels:
🌐 Website: littledevilgame.co.uk
💬 Discord: Join the community!
🐦 Bluesky: mipixel.co.uk | X: MIPixelStudios | Instagram: mi_pixel_studios | TikTok: mipixelstudios | Facebook: MIPixelStudios
📖 Webcomic: Read Little Devil on Webtoons!
☕ Ko-fi: Support the dev!
🌳 All links: LinkTree
And if you haven't wishlisted Little Devil yet — please do! It helps more than you know. 🙏
Until next time — stay sinful. 😈
~ Michael "MI Pixel" Armstrong-Ingram