Devlog 1

Hey everybody! This is Kristian from the Arcan Dev Team.

I decided that it might be good to do a text based devlog and discussion for the latest update to the game as I cannot fit all the details of the project in a 7-10 minute long update video. Within this devlog I plan on discussing progress, future aspirations, and I plan on clearing up a few things about how to play the game as there have been some confusion over the underlying systems that I believe need cleared up.

Section 1: Progress

Since the launch of the beta one week ago we have polished up combat encounters, added traps, a new boss, a few new rooms, better level generation, some modifications to sound design, and worked on the lighting system to adapt our game from a very simple top down game, to one of strategy and tension during combat.

The biggest update is the first quest, allowing the player to both learn the basics of the quest system, get a free heal after their first or second dungeon run, and gain their distinctive items based on their class. The Thief receives a spikestrip that will gain damage for every level he gains, the Knight will have a shield that currently blocks 3 attacks per turn in a direction of your choosing, but this is up to change, the Archer possesses a snare trap that will halt the movement and attacks of a single enemy, and the Wizard has a slowly upgrading magically charged bomb that will go off when enemies walk on top of it.

For the boss we have created a Giant Spider that will retaliate on hits and attempt to hit the player back, later on I plan on adding latency to this counter-attack but in this current build it will strike at you quickly, so for short range players, I recommend your magic attacks for safety or using your trap or shield to bring it down without risking too much damage. This boss will also shoot webs at you that will make it cost double stamina to move until the webs wear off, similar to the poison system, and a color change will occur letting you know when you are webbed.

If you run into this creature you must slay her and her kin to pass through a wall that will allow you into the currently unpopulated, but planned underground city. 

Section 2: Future Plans

Currently all that is there to the underground city is a layout and a thank you message on the sidebar, but within the next 2-4 weeks we should have an entirely populated underground town with a few quests, a shop, and even a modifier crafting system that will allow you to use mini-boss drops to upgrade weapons at a cost. We also plan on adding torches or torch upgrades in the future to allow you to see in areas further ahead in deeper levels as the darkness suppresses your natural light. As I am typing this, my other team member is working on implementing new enemies for the dungeon, and once they are done, just a few simple script changes and we can have up to floor 7-8 done and out even before the underground town is.

We plan on adding a checkpoint system where once you reach the first boss you can choose to descend to any floor up to the underground town to allow for the player to have an easier job doing quests, as well as the surface still being somewhat accessible for future features we plan for our 1.0 debut at the end of the summer. 

Section 3: Clarifications

This is the section where I will go over any questions you may have about the game that I can think of, and if you have any others contact me in our discord linked to the games page.

The biggest thing I need to clarify currently is the turn system I believe. This is not a hard system currently, for example you may have noticed that you can attack after you end your turn if you still have stamina or that an enemy may move towards you or attack you on your turn. This is done on purpose to add a bit more strategy to your plays other than maxing out stamina, as well as to test out a hybrid system. Enemies have a set amount of stamina and will move or attack at random times currently based on how much out of turn stamina they possess, so by waiting long enough if you can you can guarantee your safety, snaring or shielding will also help. I plan on changing this from a random number to a set of random numbers so you can have a better chance at dodging the enemy movement by observation and strategy.

The next thing is that this game is going to be an open beta up to around the 0.8 update. I plan on selling this game when its finished commercially on steam, but up until the polishing and finishing stage of the game, I want the communities opinions and ideas for the games development.

None of the sound effects are set in stone and are currently just filler, do not worry, we know they aren't great, and we plan to slowly improve them throughout updates this summer.

Section 4: Final Remarks

I thank any of you who take the time to read this, as its a bit of a wall, but I wanted to go over as much as I could think of at the time. If you have any questions or ideas make sure to join the discord or to leave a comment on this post. Thanks for all your support on the game so far!