‘Dev Blog’ is a new series that tells the on-going story of our current development focus, giving you an early first-look at game features we’re currently working on, and what you can expect in Deceit in the near future. We’re excited to see your response and feedback to the articles in this series through our various socials, which gives us useful insight into how we can tweak these systems pre-release.
Progression systems come in many different forms in video games - their purpose being to give us the motivation to return to the game for a steady stream of new content and rewards. Back when Deceit was first released in 2017, ours - levelling, prestige, reputation, and perks - were an afterthought. This year we are overhauling these systems completely, and we want to tell you a bit about that today.
Introducing the Labyrinth
The Labyrinth is a repeatable puzzle minigame that is the cornerstone of our progression systems. It ties together Levelling (and Prestige), Challenges, Perks, the Loot Booth and more. You’ll be controlling a rabbit companion to work your way through a circular maze towards an escape. Along the way you’ll be breaking open routes and collecting rewards. When you reach the end you’ll level up and discover the next puzzle. As you level up the puzzles get more tricky but also more rewarding.
How do you play the Labyrinth?
You’ll be able to access the Labyrinth from the main menu where it will have a physical 3D presence, like the Loot Booth. Experience Points (XP) will now be used to unlock routes through the Labyrinth which gives you access to collecting rewards and to escape. Some rewards are required to open the escape, others are optional.
It’s quite hard to describe the puzzle so below is a mock-up of how the Labyrinth works. The gold circles are required rewards, blue circles are optional rewards, and the green slice is a route that you’re hovering over to potentially unlock.
NB: This is a mock-up drawing to demonstrate the Labyrinth, not an accurate in-game depiction.
What else is changing?
Firstly, Loot Booth Tokens are going to be given out in Shards from the Labyrinth. Collect enough Shards and you’ll be able to combine them into a Loot Booth Token. Instead of spending 3 loot booth tokens per turn, you will now spend 1 token, and get 3 rewards per turn.
Secondly, Perks will no longer be linked to seasons and instead be permanently unlocked when found. From the ones you have unlocked you will be able to choose 3 Normal Perks as well as 1 Ultimate Perk. There will also no longer be Infected perks, instead Terrors will receive their own levelling system separately, called Terror Mutations, which we’ll talk more about soon.
Thirdly, Challenges are being simplified to being just one task each and grouped into Series. There will be no concept of activating challenges. There are now three categories of challenge:
- Normal - Core challenges that are automatically unlocked and progressable
- Daily - given to you each day you log in
- Story - found in the Labyrinth to discover more about the world of Deceit
There will be lots of series of challenges within these categories, and each challenge must be completed before you’re given the next. For example, for the base challenge series specifically about the camera, you’ll need to complete camera challenge 1 before getting camera challenge 2.
Fourthly, Prestiging will now be optional when you reach the maximum depth of the Labyrinth. This resets you back to level 1, but there will be an upgraded look and feel of your Labyrinth, and you’ll be able to show off your new level of mastery. This comes with a trade-off of losing progress in some of the systems mentioned which you can earn back as you start to level up again.
Lastly, we’re reworking the End of Game Experience. This will now be done in-game before returning to the menu so players can talk to each other before they go their separate ways. You’ll be able to see a more advanced breakdown of how you did in the game and review your progress in-line with these new system changes.
What are the rewards from the Labyrinth?
The Labyrinth is the home of rewards, as such there will be a whole array of loot for you to get your hands on, including:
- Loot Booth Tokens - unlock cosmetics for your characters
- Story Challenges - learn more about the world of Deceit
- Perks - improve your likelihood of winning games
- XP - for you to progress further into the Labyrinth
There are also three more systems that we’ll be releasing later on in the year that will also be given out from the Labyrinth, which are:
- Boons - activatable effects in the Labyrinth to manipulate the puzzle
- Upgrades - consumable attachments to items
- Cards - ways to modify and spice up each game of Deceit
When is the Labyrinth being released?
Due to the connectedness to our other progressions systems this will be released in a multi-phased approach, starting in September. This means we will release with an initial group of perks and challenges, with more to come throughout the rest of the year!
Upon release your existing level and prestige will be respected and transferred directly into the new system. To avoid higher levels from being thrown in at the deep end we will offer information on how to play the Labyrinth.
What can we expect from future progression system updates?
We have so many plans around progression and meta systems in general. We’ll be sharing them with you as we start working and as they get nearer to release. We have plans to appeal to social party players, completionists and the competitive crowd, and anyone in between.
See you in Game,
The Deceit Team
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Next in our ‘Dev Blog’ article series we’ll be discussing our plans to bring further depth and responsiveness to combat in Deceit, through additional Terror Abilities, animations and other improvements.