It was a very productive month for us. These updates mostly complete our revamped mechanics. There is still quite a lot of things we need to finish to get the game ready for our fast approaching Early Access launch this coming May but we're getting there inch by inch!
Elemental Status
We've recently introduced various Elements into the game with various effects and interactions. These are: Fire, Water, Electric, Ice and Poison
When these Elements are dealt to an object as damage, they also apply unique Statuses such as Burning, Wet, Zapped, Freezing and Poisoned. Certain Statuses interact with different Elements in interesting ways. For example, Electric damage travels through Wet objects while Poisoned objects explode when exposed to Fire Damage,
Experimenting with various ways to trigger chains of Elemental interactions can be a source of great "fun". Over the course of Early Access, we will be introducing objects and characters that would trigger or spread various Elemental Damage and Statuses.
Playstyles
We're working on building a good progression system for the game for replayability and longevity. One major aspect of this is player playstyle (or should we call this Archetypes?). When the player starts a game, he may choose from three different playstyles: Ravager, Lich and Puppetmaster. These different playstyles determine the player's starting Spells, Minions and Abilities.
Ravager
This playstyle has access to a lot of damaging spells and powerful beasts. This is the most visceral and direct playstyle.
Puppetmaster
This playstyle will have you afflicting characters with various flaws and pitting characters and factions against each other. It's intended to be a tough playstyle that requires you to perform subtle manipulations from behind-the-scenes.
Lich
This is a balanced playstyle that has access to some powerful spells as well as some interesting manipulations.
Right now, we're still deciding between two different progression system: one where the progression is mainly on a per-game basis (the player gets stronger as he plays through a single game) or one where the progression builds up over multiple games (the player unlocks more powers over the course of multiple playthroughs). Let us know your thoughts on these!
Bunch of New Spells
Poison Cloud
This noxious cloud may apply poison to objects in its path. Explodes when it gets in contact with Fire, dealing Normal damage and applying Poisoned over a large area.
Meteor
A huge meteor will strike the designated spot, causing major Fire damage.
Water Bomb
Applies Wet to a 2 tile radius around the designated spot. It doesn't deal any damage but adding Wet to tiles and objects has its uses...
Lightning
A lightning bolt will hit the designated spot, causing Electric damage.
Splash Poison
Applies Poisoned to a small area around the designated spot.
Brimstones
Burning meteorites will strike random tiles on the target area, dealing Fire damage. And when Fire damage hits a Poisoned object:
Locust Swarm
These starving insects will consume all edible objects in its path.
Blizzard
Significantly lowers the outside temperature on the target area, which may randomly apply Freezing on affected characters.
Earthquake
Violently shakes the ground, dealing Normal damage to objects and randomly moving them around. Characters will become Disoriented.
Manifest Food
Produce a small amount of Food. Sometimes, you need to feed your prey.
Ravenous, Feeble and Forlorn Spirits
Ghastly spirits that roam around and then drain Need Meters of any character that gets in range. Dissipates after an hour.
Boulder
This will produce a durable and impassable block of stone. This will probably be only a stepping stone in allowing player more extensive ways of manipulating the landscape.
Minion Actions
Minions can now be instructed to harass settlements as well as abduct or kill characters. They can also learn to breed new monsters (they must disable one and then study the monster for a short time). We're not quite happy with how fiddly Minion and Monsters work at the moment but we have time to improve on their functionality next month.
Internal Demonic Structures
We're reworking how the structures function now that the strategic layer has been removed. Similar to the Minions, I'm not quite happy with how they function yet - both in terms of usefulness and UX so I think there's some more improvements in store for most of these. They are starting to look great though!
Spire
The Spire now allows a player to unlock new Spells and Afflictions that are only available from other Playstyles. The options available here are randomized. Learning new ones cost Mana. If we decide to go for the multi-playthrough progression, this would have to be revamped, though.
Kennel
This is where the player can breed his own monsters. Except for the Puppetmaster, each Playstyle has its own set of initial monsters it can already breed. The player can unlock more by learning the monsters that have been randomly spawned in the world. If we go for a multi-playthrough progression, this may be more interesting as new monsters learned can be carried over to future playthroughs.
Goader
This is where the player can force characters to join or leave factions using Mana.
Prison
This is a demonic structure that can contain abducted characters. If you have a Prison, characters abducted by your Minions will be dropped here instead of near the Portal.
Torture Chamber
This is a demonic structure that can contain abducted characters and torture them, causing various negative Status Effects and Traits. If you have a Torture Chamber, characters abducted by your Minions will be dropped here first before Prison.
The Eye
We've disabled most of the notifications that used to popup at the bottom right of the screen when the player sees character activities in the world. We've now transferred that functionality to the Eye. When the player has an Eye on a region, it will add notifications for important events that occur there. The Eye is therefore important for Intel gathering.
More Monsters
We've introduced a few more monsters into the mix. They don't have animations yet. We're considering skipping on the walking animations for now even up to Early Access launch in favor of having more quantity available up front.
What's Left?
As mentioned, we're launching our Early Access this coming May! So we'll be putting a lid on adding new features by next month. The last major thing we feel needs to be prioritized is character behavior. We've lost some of the more fun things the characters used to do after we reworked their behavior so we need to get those things back next month. They don't properly react yet to elements and disasters, so that also needs to be addressed. Lastly, we need to start implementing the various unique abilities of character classes as well as the different non-demonic structures (Mage Quarters, Apothecary, etc). We'll try to get as many as we can next month but it's a dizzying challenge to figure it all out and make it come together well!
After March, we'll focus on improving user experience, player feedback, tutorials, combat balance, bug fixing and polishing.