Hi Hunters,
Lucy here! We’re doing this video today to recap everything we've done during 2021 for the development of Relic Hunters Legend and talk about what you can expect from the franchise for 2022!
2021 was really great for Rogue Snail. We grew as a studio, got new partners, hired more people and now we’re an independent Brazilian remote studio with almost 40 people in our team!
We developed and implemented a LOT of new features for Relic Hunters Legend last year. The game today has two full Story acts and the third and final one is almost done, with a total of 30 hours of gameplay until you finish the main campaign (or much more if you are a completionist!). We’ve created many new features, tested and got a lot of feedback from you - our community - as we kept making the game better and better.
So, without further ado, let’s check out everything we’ve done for Relic Hunters Legend in 2021
New Story content
Relic Hunters Legend now has three Story acts with a total of 30 hours of Main Story Adventures. The final act is in development and will mark the end of the first season of our Relic Hunters' adventure, and the definitive end of the story of Seven, the time traveler. We’ve poured our hearts and souls into this story and these characters, and we hope you love it as much as we do!
We’ve also made a lot of improvements to how Story works in the context of the game, with a big re-do that we called “Story 2.0”. The overall user experience with navigating, starting and completing Quests is now MUCH better, and we have also improved the flow of the missions (drastically reducing how many loading screens you encounter) and made it a lot easier to coordinate with your Party when you have to do a solo Story mission.
New fully animated Cutscenes
You told us how much you LOVED the intro cutscene, so we’re doing more of them! Expect a few more fully animated goodness as you progress through the Main Story.
Journal and Adventures
Last year we created the Journal screen, where you can track all of your Adventures and Quests. We kept improving the user experience of this screen throughout the year, but the main thing is this: you can now track multiple Adventures and Quests at the same time!
We’ve also implemented track icons in the Map Screen, so you can easily find where you need to go for a specific Quest.
New Adventure Covers
New Adventures being created means new Adventure Covers in the Journal screen. We've created almost every card that will appear in the Journal for the three Acts. As a bonus, we've got some amazing wallpapers to share with all of you in the future!
Chat System
Creating a good Chat system in-game is a LOT more work than you probably think (unless you are an experienced game developer, and in that case stay tuned for our job postings!).
Last year we’ve put in a lot of hours to improve the Chat experience, creatings tabs for different channels, the ability to send direct messages, and implementing spam protection measures. You can now chat in Public, Private with your friends and LFG (Looking For Group) channels, and in the near future we’ll also have the Trade channel.
Skill Trees and Ultimates
You can customize your favorite Hunters with your own build! There are 30 Skill Nodes divided into 3 different Skill Trees for each Hunter, and we can’t wait to see the crazy build you’ll come up with.
We’ve also implemented the Ultimate Skills - one for each Hunter -, so you can punch Ducans with Pinkyy’s Gauntlets, freeze enemies with Seven’s vortex, Shoot them like a crazy hurricane with Jimmy, aim from the skies with Ace’s jetpack or enjoy some beats and blast everything with Raff’s Keytar!
Tons of new Gear
We made a TON of new Gear pieces including Legendaries, Exotics, Augmented, and Set items, creating an even wider range of possibilities for your builds. Our backers have played around with a few of them in Act 1, but we have a LOT more items that we are saving for Acts 2 and 3!
Item Favorite
We also improved the systems inside the backpack with features suggested by the community. The first one is “Item Favorite”: you can mark your Gear or Weapons as “Favorite”, protecting them from being Recycled.
Compare Items
Another addition was the ability to Compare your equipped loot with the new ones that you just got in your Backpack! Pretty handy to check the rolls on all those randomized affixes.
Inventory Screen
We’ve added an inventory screen for all your currencies, consumables, and materials. There are still more features to be added, but the screen is already working in-game.
Mass Recycle & Auto Recycle
The most requested features from our community are now in the game! With Mass Recycle, you can configure filters to choose which items you want to recycle. Then you just press a big green button to dispose of them all, quick and easy!
Using a similar set of filters, you can also set up your Auto-Recycle: any items meeting your criteria will be automatically converted to Materials when you pick them up!
Currently, the filters for Mass Recycle and Auto Recycle are very simple (just Rarity and Type), but after the game is released we plan to add more options. Hopefully one day they’ll resemble the complex “Loot Filters” that you can find in ARPG games such as Path of Exile.
Secret Market: Our first Social Hub
We implemented the Secret Market, the main Social Hub in Relic Hunters Legend in 2021. This is where you’ll find Quests, friends, events, buy new equipment at Shops, and pick up some items in your Storage.
Party System
Now you can invite your friends and party up! In the future, we’ll allow you to invite people from inside the game, without needing to add them to your Steam Friends list.
New Lobby System
We’ve also created a Lobby system in the Dropship, where your party will gather and prepare for battle. Now it’s easier to manage the party and to wait for everyone to set up their loadouts!
New Scoreboard
We have a brand new Scoreboard at the end of the Missions! Now you can finally find out who’s the MVP of your gaming group (and who is the “Moral Support”), along with many other stats. You can also endorse your favorite teammates with hearts and super hearts!
Customization
We’ve finally added the Customization Screen and Cosmetic Items to the game! You can choose your favorite hats, hair, clothes, and accessories in many different colors to style your Hunters the way you want.
Emotes and emojis
You can now choose between many different animated Emotes and cute Emoji, and you can combine them to express yourselves in multiplayer!
Gear Score Rank Outfits
We also wanted to make player progression more fun and visually exciting! We implemented Gear Score Rank Outfits: whenever you reach a new Gear Score Rank (such as Common I or Rare I) you will get a visual upgrade for that Hunter! The cool thing about this is that you are not locked into a specific look - you can mix and match pieces, change their colors individually, and have your Hunters always look the way you want them to.
Rewards on Stages
Now you can find more materials and rewards during your Missions with Chests and Resource Nodes. Regular chests (the blue ones) and resources respawn every 24 hours, so you can come back to areas that you previously explored and farm some more resources!
And if you like looking for hidden things, we’ve placed some Red Chests in secret spots all across planet Cradle. Can you find them all?
Galaxy Screen
Most of your adventures at the time of release will take place at Planet Cradle, where you can find places such as Galyno Desert, the Secret Market, and etc. In the future, we hope to expand our universe even further, and the Galaxy Screen is where you’ll choose where your spaceship will take you next!
New Map screen and new missions
Also, a new and polished Map Screen has been made with a lot more detail - and even more beautiful! Now we have over 50 locations for you to explore in several different Regions!
New Game Modes
You were already familiar with Skirmish and Scavenge - this year we’ve added Payload, Exploration, Defense, Delve, and Distraction! We are now developing the sixth new game mode, Rift, for a total of eight Game Modes at release!
New Bosses and Enemies
With new Game Modes, main Adventures, Missions, and etc, we needed to create a wider range of enemies and bosses for our players to face even greater challenges. We created 12 new bosses such as The Riotbreakers, Lt Susan, Cobran Captain, Ducan Flamebeak, and the Kami Queen. We also developed new Kami Species, like the Kami Nari and the Kami Spit, The Gatecrashers for the Defense Game Mode… plus a “Mysterious Faction” that we won’t spoil, because you will meet them (and fight them!) in Acts 2 and 3!
The Rebel Rank
One of the core features of your progression in the game is now done! Rebel Rank is your account level, and is constant across all of your Hunters - similar to “Mastery Rank” in Warframe or “Adventure Rank” in Genshin Impact.
What’s unique about Rebel Rank is that you progress it solely by completing Achievements! These are divided into Chapters that unlock as you progress, making it also a cool way to guide your progression in the game!
The main benefit of increasing your Rebel Rank is that it raises the Level Cap of your Hunters, allowing you to level them up even further! But that’s not all - you also gain increased Storage space, Gear pieces (including Legendaries), Materials, and more! You also get a Rebel Rank indicator on your profile, to show all Hunters how much of a legend you are.
Checkpoints
One piece of feedback that we got loud and clear from our early access players was that they hated running back through empty levels if they happened to die at the very end. We have implemented a smarter Checkpoint system that will reduce the amount of running after the party wipes.
Pause Function
We also created a Pause Function for single player activities! Now if you are playing solo, you can check your Backpack, complete an Achievement, or take a quick bathroom break without worrying about enemies attacking you! This feature is disabled in multiplayer, naturally.
Visual improvements
We’ve added a lot of visual bells and whistles to the game this year! There’s new visual feedback for the capture point in Scavenge, new vegetation shaders, better Ambient Profile setups that change shadows, daylight, and nightlight, as well as cool new water shaders.
New music and SFX
With all the new maps and stories being implemented, of course, we’ll have new Music and Sound Effects too! We hope everyone will enjoy the Relic Hunters Legend soundtrack when the game is fully released!
It’s been over four years since we started this journey with you.
To think it all began with pretty much just Mark and Betu; then we put our own savings into the project and grew to a team of 7; then we had a Kickstarter campaign and the Founders program and grew to a team of 12; and now we have the support of our Mysterious Strangers, and we are now proud to be 36 people at Rogue, building this dream together.
We couldn’t be happier and more grateful! But there’s still one thing left to do…
…we have to release the game, right?
We are almost finished with the main Story. We still have some endgame systems to finalize (Asteroid Dungeon Nemesis, wooooh), and a lot of boring backend, maintenance, performance and bug fixes to do. But we are very close.
So I know we’ve been, uh, kinda bad with dates up until this point. But for 2022, we promise you this: we will announce who our Mysterious Strangers are (they’re awesome!)...
…and we WILL release the game publicly on Steam!
We can’t give you the exact dates yet, but… SOON™.
It’s been a long journey, but for us, it really is just the beginning. Releasing this game just means we have more friends to play with and to give us ideas and feedback to keep improving the game. We want to be able to keep working on Relic Hunters for many years, and with your support we have no doubts that we’re going to achieve this dream!
Thank you for everything in 2021. See you on the other side…
Cheers
~Lucy, Mark, Betu and The Relic Hunters Team