Dev diary - January 2025

First dev diary of the year, let's dive into Update 3.
Hope you all had a nice holiday season. Update 3 is a pretty big one, and it's taking some time to refine. Hopefully, the result justifies the wait.
Not everyone wants to read the entire dev diary, so I'll just start by saying I intend to push the update on February 7th. It's a bit over 2 months of delay since the last one, but a lot of stuff is getting changed. This is not a fixed date, but I feel like it's enough of a wait for you already.

The main mechanic changes have been implemented. This include an improved room system, an improved level system, some meta-progression, a card upgrade system, and other mechanics I talked about in my previous diary.
There was trial and error with some of these, as the game worked on a fine balance and I couldn't really change one mechanic without being required to change several more.

For instance, let's say I want to add meta-progression, with the ability to retain your experience between floors. I suddenly need to change how the floor system and monster balance works. Individual levels, with each a limited amount of cards, have limited potential, and have to be discarded after you're done with them. I have to change most cards as well. Items don't scale well, and I have to change them. And changing each of those could result in ever more changes down the road.
For this reason, I had to make all the gameplay changes in one update, which is why this update is a bit heavier and takes a bit more time, otherwise I would have split it in two parts.

In any case, most of it is done. I'm still refining some of it, and it needs polish. The card upgrade system especially I'm still tinkering with.

I have also added a trait system. In the maze, you'll be able to gather shards, and keep them around after you exit the dungeon. Those are a persistent currency, and you can use them to gain persistent upgrades, like upgrading your starting level, your exp gain, regeneration, and other bonuses.

I still have a lot of work before the update releases, though.
While testing the game mechanics, I mostly focused on one character, and I am slowly updating each character.
Don't worry, I'm not discarding all the existing to replace it with something new. The main change is the lowered importance of scaling effects in combat. Otherwise, I'm mostly adapting what is existing, and using the new mechanics to add content.

Speaking of content, I still need to add more.
I created an event room system, but it's mostly at a proof of concept stage right now. I still need to add a lot of events, characters and interactions for added variety, each with their unique dialogs. I'm also in the process of adding many relics and items to make each run feel unique.
I am also adding more floors, and enemies. The floor system is changing a bit, as well. Instead of having each floor unlocked with each level, they're completely separate. After several floors, the maze is going to have an end. And in future updates, the maze itself is going to improve to keep things up.

I started to work on an upgraded main menu, split by characters. The goal is to feel like you live with the character, and you can check your cards, your traits, your previous runs, your body in the mirror, etc, with an evolution based on your level. I wanted to have you be able to interact with various characters as well, based on your level, but the timing seems tight if I want to push the update on the given date.
Especially given that I still need to implement the story back in. Focusing on the gameplay changes, I put it apart for the time being. I need to implement it in a way that makes sense, as it was originally designed for the previous level stages and now those have changed.

This one feels like a rush. There is a lot to do. Hope you can all understand. I'll publish some sneak peeks later to ease the wait.

I'll finish by stating that I may have lost a few days of development to work on something unrelated to the update. It may not have been the brightest idea given how big Update 3 is, in hindsight :p Don't worry, it's still for the patreon, but I can't talk more about it for now.