Early access version 7 is finally complete! It only took 25 updates over a quick little 13 months!
Early Access updated game version to v7.25
Content Added
- 1 new monster to love! (Total: 99)
- 4 new dreams to fulfill (Total: 637)
Updates and tweaks
- Bullets now appear behind Shanx's front leaf arm
- Updated in-battle pixel art for Sentinel 4X and Sentinel 0X
- Alter Roundsaw: Added new attacks when breaking her small saws and big saw
- Alter Blot: Increased the frequency of the wobbling bullets during phase 2
- Vibrant Veyeral's event was renamed from Vibrant Trade to Vibrant Art Exchange
- Scrambla, Boiler, Prisma, and Vibrant Veyeral have new reactions to specific gifts in their events
Bug Fixes
- Shanx's hands would stay in hit flash coloring when defeated
- During a level 3 battle with Veyeral Quartet's Voltage Veyeral, one of her attacks was blank and did nothing
- Abyss had accidentally unused dialog when choosing to take tetrid gifts that she offers
Version 7 Complete!
Version 7 turned out to be the largest one by far. You have to scroll down about 1/3rd of the in-game Change Log to get to the start of Version 7! It only ended up just a little bigger than I originally planned, but it certainly took much longer than I anticipated. That's just how game development goes I'm afraid. I want to go through all the main additions and reflect on just how much extra work I made for myself during this past year.
First I started with the Altered Story mode which signified the start of Version 7. The mode itself has not changed much since v7.7 when Abyss was added. It will serve as an endgame replacement to normal Story Mode when that is complete.
Version 7 added the bulk of all the events to the game. So many got added, that I decided to give them a place in the collection just to organize them better. Every single Treasure, Trading, and Free Monster Gift event was added in this past year. The various character portraits for all the monsters were very fun to draw, but writing the dialog for each event is one of the most time consuming parts out of anything! (Scope creep also brought you extra events for Unit Lulu, Null Unit, and Venom Veyeral!)
I also added 17 new battles. 9 of them being the new Shiny types that are exclusive to Treasure Events. The shiny battles themselves were not originally planned to have a battle card with all the extra parts that come with that. So that means they would've had no Quickplay battle, no 2 monster achievements, and no place in the collection. They were going to be made as a "scene" battle that played during their events, similar to how the tutorial battle with Unit Lulu works. That would have been much simpler, but as usual, I made more work for myself because it would be way cooler! (Scope creep also brought you Shiny Knot Knott!)
The change with the biggest impact had to be the new Charged Attack system. It was not planned at all, but it was absolutely necessary and I feel so much better about the charged attacks now. It did take about a month of extra work though!
The achievement count also went from 483 all the way up to 637! You know what other game has exactly 637 achievements? It's The Binding of Isaac, a huge inspiration for this game! I thought it would be very funny if we match achievement counts for a while, until I flex on them in the next update. Ha!
Future Roadmap!
First, I'm going to take a break from this game for a month! This is not really a vacation, but rather I have work to do with other dev teams that I want to focus on for a little while. If you are curious, those games are Keylocker and Revita!
Early Access v8.X
The Towers
A new game mode where you must climb a tower and battle monsters on the way up. It's a little similar to a story run except all your gifts are temporary just like quick gifts. There will also be temporary negative cards called Burdens that you must take along the way. You will have to make choices on what positive and negative effects to take on the way to the top!
There will be 7 Towers to climb. The first 6 are each dedicated to the 6 main monster families. You will have to battle every monster in that family that you have seen before. Unlocking and seeing more of them will allow you to climb higher! The newborn monsters will be the focus of these towers in some way.
The 7th tower will be somewhere around 15 battles against any random monsters. Basically a random version of the other towers with the same rules for the gifts.
You will also be able to start tower runs with any Quick Gifts that you have radiated. The limits will be set by each character's carrying capacity. This gives you another reason to unlock their upgrade gifts!
All 7 towers will be available in v8.0!
Burdens
Last year I hinted at the possibility of a negative gift type. This idea was turned into a gift type that will be mostly exclusive to towers mode. They are also temporary like quick gifts with a battle countdown in the corner.
The Alter characters will have permanent versions of Burdens to explain their negative effects. For example, Alter Heart will have a permanent "Forgetful" burden card. If a different character receives this card, it will only be temporary.
Most burden cards will be added in v8.0 with a few more being added in v8.1+
New Music
A 3rd and 4th set of battle themes for each of the 6 main monster types will be added! Where and how they play will be a surprise.
All these songs will be added in v8.0!
New Events
Both Hadesoh and Shanx will have events that deal with Burdens in some way. This will be one of the very few ways they can infiltrate into Story Mode.
These will be added across a few updates in v8.1+
A Little Bit of Story
During version 8, I will also add a small portion of Defect's story! Mainly the real ending to the Totaria path to replace the fake scene that is there now.
I will also add intro and ending scenes to Altered Story for Her Heart, Defect, Alter Heart, and Alter Defect!
These will be added across a few updates in v8.1+
Early Access v9.X
Final Bosses
All final bosses will be added in v9.0 (well... almost all of them)
Story
All story scenes for all characters will be completed for v9.0
In story mode, all characters will have several paths to choose from with different amounts of battles and final bosses in each. Some paths will have whole extra chapters like the one in Altered Story mode. Each heart will have battles with final bosses that others will never meet in their own story.
Fifth Character
This section is exactly the same as last time. She will be added in v9.0
This character has still not been added for a very simple reason, she will unlock when all the other characters advance to a certain point in their stories, but those stories aren't done yet. She would be somewhat of a spoiler if I add her too soon. Especially for the few of you who are too good at piecing things together with those gift memories!
I have confirmed that she will be some sort of helper based character. And yes, she will also have an alter.
Version 1.0!
Ultimate Tower
The final challenge! Can you climb a massive tower while battling every single monster in the game?
I won't give away all the mechanics of this yet, but heartbreak will not necessarily mean starting over from the bottom. But I'm sure some of you will be able to do it in 1 life!
I don't really want to spoil anything, but c'mon. I know you are expecting something at the top of this thing. Have I ever taken the easy way out before?
Timeline
Well... last time I said version 7 would take less time than some of the previous 6 versions, and that turned out to be wrong in every possible way. So let's throw some random guesses out there again!
Early Access v8.X
This will take a few months. I want to say 3 months after my 1 month break. So maybe v8.0 will be ready in September? I expect the hardest part will be The Towers game mode itself. The Burden gifts should be surprisingly quick to make because of a certain gimmick to them that I don't want to spoil yet.
There shouldn't be nearly as many v8.X updates as v7 had. Lord help me if It goes up to v8.25 again!
Early Access v9.X
This is the big story update. All the stories and all the final bosses will be added at once. I can't even begin to guest how long this will take. 9 months? If it starts taking too long I may decide to split it up and release some of the story in chunks, but we will see.
v1.0!
The ultimate tower will be added very soon after v9.0. It will essentially be v9.1, so this won't take very long, by itself. And then the game will be done!
Thank You
I want to thank you all for continuing to support me! I sometimes get a little stressed with how long this is taking now. Many early access games that take this long eventually get a bad reputation, but I also realize just how often I update this game. The frequency of updates is unheard of in basically any other game, and I think it's clear that progress is being made all the time. Thinking about the six years with a perfect user review score that still continues to grow sure helps me snap out of it!
Thank you from the bottom of my void heart!
ːradiantheartː ːradiantheartː ːradiantheartː