Hello, this is Cheese, the developer of Ratocalypse.
Before our Steam page was launched, we posted our development diaries exclusively on our company’s official website.
Link: https://casselgames.com/ratocalypsedevdiary
Going forward, we plan to regularly share a development diary here on this Steam page once a month. Thank you for your support.
Following the test conducted last month, we first focused on organizing our upcoming development milestones based on the feedback we gathered. With those milestones in place, we decided to concentrate our efforts during January and February on developing new content and features.
In this dev diary, I’d like to walk you through the various elements that were developed throughout January, one by one.
Leader Skill
The first piece of content we’d like to introduce is the Leader Skill, a set of abilities that can be used by the expedition leader regardless of the character.
After the December test, we received a significant amount of feedback suggesting that it would be great if the expedition leader could act in a more proactive and engaging way. In fact, this was something we had already considered during the early planning stages before development began. However, during the test build phase, we decided to set it aside, assuming it wouldn’t be a high priority at the time.
Since the expedition structure allows players to directly control only a single character, it became clear that many players wanted the expedition leader to be able to perform a wider range of actions and strategies.
To allow players to intervene more actively in combat, we prioritized adding skills that enable actions such as directing allies to focus on a designated target, or moving a selected ally during the expedition leader’s turn. As shown in the GIF above, Leader Skills will be available through a dedicated skill tab.
Rather than stopping at active skills alone, we also introduced a variety of passive skills that allow expeditions to begin combat with beneficial effects applied to the expedition leader or party members.
Passive skills provide a range of effects that enhance both the directly controlled expedition leader and the characters belonging to the expedition.
For both active and passive skills, we chose an achievement-based acquisition system. We felt this approach would better encourage players to try forms of exploration and playstyles they might not have attempted before, while also serving as a fitting reward for those efforts.
Moving forward, we plan to continue testing by adding and removing various skills. Ultimately, we hope that Leader Skills will naturally encourage players to explore new content elements and experiment with expedition compositions they may not have tried previously.
Evasion System
The evasion system wasn’t introduced in response to a large volume of specific feedback. Instead, it originated from a simple question: “What if we added elements that could act as more random variables during combat?”
With this update, individual characters now possess an Evasion stat, along with related buffs. Going forward, this will allow players to build strategies that go beyond purely defense-oriented playstyles reliant on armor, and instead incorporate evasion-based tactics into combat encounters.
Skill Perk System
Before introducing the newly added perk system, I’d like to first clarify how we differentiate between skill enhancements and skill perks. The table below illustrates the distinction as we see it.
Since unlocking new perks requires the consumption of resources, we wanted their effects to feel noticeably more impactful compared to traditional skill enhancements. Rather than offering simple numerical increases, our goal was to provide players with opportunities to rethink how existing characters are used, and to explore new ways of approaching combat and strategy through these perks.
As an example, here are a few of the skills that have been implemented so far, illustrating how the perk system works in practice.
Previously, Necromancer’s Fate Reversal skill reset its cooldown at the cost of gaining Curse (5). With different perk choices, the skill can now be used more frequently in exchange for receiving a higher level of Curse, or alternatively, it can consume Souls instead, removing the Curse drawback entirely.
Instead of placing slime on the ground, Mortarat’s Fire Slime skill can be modified to apply an effect that restrains enemies. It can also be altered to convert its damage type from physical damage to magical damage.
Druid’s Life Transfer skill can be adjusted to increase the number of allies that can be healed at the cost of reducing the amount healed per target. Conversely, it can also be modified to heal fewer allies while significantly increasing the healing amount.
As shown in the examples above, skill perks provide functionality such as changing the target or scope of a skill’s effect, consolidating its impact, or converting damage types.
Through these options, we aim to allow players to make choices that best suit their intended expedition destination or preferred party composition, guiding the flow of gameplay in a direction that feels advantageous to their strategy.
Other Improvements
To briefly touch on a few additional updates, we’ve also been working on UI improvements and the introduction of Camping Skills.
For the UI, players can now check how a character’s stats are calculated through tooltips, making it clearer which elements contribute to each attribute.
As for Camping Skills, we are experimenting with adding character-specific skills that can be used at campsites during expeditions. This is another step toward encouraging greater strategic variety, and we hope players will enjoy exploring different combinations built around each character’s unique skill set.
Closing
Over the course of January, a considerable number of new elements have been added to the game.
That said, as further testing and balancing take place, many adjustments are expected. As a result, the content players will ultimately experience may differ from what we’ve shared today.
For the next test—whose schedule has yet to be finalized—we will continue striving to deliver a more refined and enjoyable experience, along with an even wider variety of content.
That concludes this dev diary.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read through this long update.