Nei Nalen
patreon
Plans for Update 3
🕑 Added 2024-12-03 20:51:09 +0000 UTCUpdate 2 has been live for a few days now, and people have been enjoying Beryl. You may have encountered a few bugs if you played during the hours after she released, but the majority should have been patched in the following day.
I started working on Update 3 already, and I have a lot things planned. Probably a bit too much, by the way. I am sure that despite liking the game, some of you wished it had... more. I do too, and I am aware of the flaws of the game. I want to improve on a lot of areas, but I don't know how much I'll be able to do in one update. Thus, I have another poll below to ask for your sentiment and how I would have to prioritize things.
The objective for Update 3 is just to make the game more enjoyable overall.
Refreshing gameplay loop
A downside of the game is that runs can end up feeling a bit repetitive. For each level, the cardpool is limited and you could end up with similar synergies, doing similar things. Gold lacks value and equips don't change much. The lack of monster diversity and items doesn't help either. I want to add more cards with added diversity, and rarity to make synergistic cards rarer to obtain, forcing you to adapt your gameplay a bit more from run to run. As you progress through the game, new areas, events, cards would get added to refresh the gameplay, and main objectives would be such as to promote different playstyles. The equips would be reworked to give a lot of incentive for various playstyle and spice things up a lot more as well, and random events would occur as well.
Balance rework
Something that was intentional design but might get a change is how much the game is focused around scaling. I wanted to give a feeling of ever-growing power to the player, but it made balance a lot harder. The game is not necessarily unbalanced, but can feel unfair, as a few mishaps can lead to things going very out of control, very fast. Not only that, but it polarizes the game a bit, and restrains design space for added variety. I know some people liked how stupid it was, but I want to scale back on the scaling and overall power level. You'll still be able to do stupid, but scaling cards are going to be higher rarity, so you'll have to adapt from run to run.
Meta-interaction
Currently, there isn't a lot to do outside of runs. The game keeps track of your progress through quest completion, and that's basically it. I want to rework the menu to make you feel a bit more like you are following the characters in their life outside the maze. They would have their size updated, be able to interact with different characters, check their body and compare themselves to their previous selves.
Meta-progression
I don't like the quest system much. You're basically going through the same place but it just changes the type of enemy you face at the end. I want to part away with the current one and make you have to play things out a little bit differently in order to progress. Also, I don't like the current quick start system, I'm parting away with that. I added it because the maze would eventually end up being long, and you'd need a way to go faster. Well, things may change a bit. I have a few ideas in mind to help with that, I'll tell you more in due time.
Sexy scenes
I know. I want more sexy in my sexy game. Beryl's update was a bit light on that end, and to be honest most of the game is. I want to add scenes for existing growth stages like Amber teasing someone sexily, or Ruby having actual sex scenes, you know.
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That's the gist of it. There are other things to do, of course. Achievements, in-run dialog and interactions, and obviously level 4. But I think I want to polish the existing content to be able to work on a better basis. That's... already a lot, to be honest. I'm a bit scared, but I'll try my best.
By the way, I'm not sure how to handle previous save files. I could technically have some things port over, but because there are a lot of changes about how progress is handled, you'll be launched in a new system with no idea what to do or what is supposed to have happened, so I might just not have previous progress load.
Please, give me some feedback! I'm sure you'd like to see level 4 soon, and I'm sorry, but if all goes well, it should be nothing but better when the time comes.
What would you like to see get prioritized the most? What types of sexy scenes do you envision?
Comments
Nyx
Honestly, my suggestion is do a bit of column A and a bit of column B. A being reworking systems or ideas and B being new content. For column A I would prioritize things that require changing current things as those will need to be decided in order for new content to be created without having to go back and fix it yet again. Then once you’re satisfied with the “rework” parts then add the quality of life ideas such as shop fixes, sexy scenes etc. Also if you do not feel like your writing is up to par, it never hurts to put your feelers out for someone to help with it. I am a solo dev myself but I never shy away from asking for help on those subjects I’m weakest with.
ekwood
The biggest thing, off the top of my head, is that the labyrinth doesn't really feel like a labyrinth. It's a straight hallway with encounters. Just some element of navigation, randomness, risk/reward and danger would do A LOT to add replayability, variety, and challenge. Not to mention add some flavor and address some of the monotony in the gameplay loop. Edit: and I know choosing the difficulty of the next encounter is somewhat like this, but it's so bare bones I had basically forgotten it was a thing. My bad. I ain't saying the Maze needs to be OOT's Water Temple or something, but it could benefit from some extra layer or variety of challenge, perhaps in the form of finding your way or defeating obstacles other than the enemy's health bar.
Nei Nalen
I'm just always worried because at the end of the day that's still why people play a game like this instead of a popular roguelite. Though I have some ideas to help with better enjoying the growth through gameplay while improving the gameplay itself, assuming they play the way I envision them. Based on the feedback I got I think I'm going to prioritize that rather than scenes.
Maxam3000
Personally i feel like the Meta stuff and refreshing the gameplay loop are the priorites. They are the places where i feel the game lacks the most right now. The balancing is fine and the characters will get sexy scenes in due time but from a player standpoint i really feel like the gameplsy loop and meta should be prioritized. Making a damn good game will keep people invested, having sexy images will make them come for the images then leave.
Æther
I think the writing has been charming so far! Can't wait to see what's next
Milk-N-Potatoes
imho, you listed them in my preferred order of importance. Gameplay loop and balance are my 2 biggest (potential) issues with this game. Doing Beryl's content on drop made me realize how I was essentially just blitzing through the game to get to the stuff at the end- not actually taking much time to enjoy the game itself. And since the start, I've wanted to play on hard, but found it just too much effort. It really felt like it was more luck than skill to get anywhere. Considering even some of the bosses on casual give me a rough time, I'm glad I quit playing hard a while ago. As for the meta stuff, I really like the idea and think it could really spice up the game with some needed interaction, but compared to making the actual game fun, it's lower on the ranking. And, last, the sexy stuff- idk about anyone else, but the growth content is honestly all I care about. And even then, it doesn't really matter how good they are if it's too frustrating to unlock them (though I guess that's what the two easier modes are for so, meh) All in all, the foundations for everything is super solid and that's the important part. Just keep doing what you're doing and it'll all work out in the end.
M Gmo
I fully get that. If someone wanted to play Slay the Spire with BE there is always something like the buxom mod. I adore Slay the spire, monster train, Balatro, etc and the foundation of the game is actually good. It's a lot like the buxom mod, people probably get drawn to it because it has this fetish component but the underlying game (or changes in regards to the buxom mod) are actually good. I just wanted to throw out some feedback that wasn't "I really wish I could press 1 to select the first card in my hand, 2 for the second, etc".
Nei Nalen
Yeah that's a big concern. I'm not a big writer and scenes and storylines are honestly the hardest part for me (weird I know, that's probably some of the lowest quality element of the game). Instead I wanted to also convey that emotion through other means. I have a few in mind, but they all take time to implement.
Æther
Save file compatability between this and the next build should be the least of your concerns if it means an easier time delivering on these ideas! Love the plans so far and I'm excited to see how the game changes! Also, if meta-interaction is added, that's an easy way to add more personality/sexy to each character without having to focus entirely on that/adjust storylines, assuming that's a big concern of course :P
Nei Nalen
I do have the problem that as I spend time to come up with solutions to some of the design issues, I realize they're the same solutions as in other games, and I feel pretty bad about it, I still want the game to feel unique enough.
Nei Nalen
There are a few things planned :p
Nei Nalen
Card replacement was pretty important because the idea was that you'd need to constantly replace your cards as you grew because you'd get access to better ones. I don't want you to play a growing character and have all the low power stuff, I need you to be able to quickly get access to the new powerful cards.
Azzwyn
Sorry may have came off wrong lol, yes still a roguelite. The early section is that rough reset, maybe starting with a random buff or a choice of a starting card or two to help speed things up. Nothing complicated to help boost the first 3ish fights or something? We love gambling in roguelikes
M Gmo
However I get how this needs to happen because there isn't any map you traverse where you can plan to go to the shop or bonfire to remove a card.
M Gmo
I haven't done hundreds of runs so take my opinions with a grain of salt. Going 1:1 when adding cards takes a bit away from the deck building. There are cards that are just fundamentally better than the base cards and no real disadvantage to getting them. In something like slay the spire a good card being added to a deck with 30 cards is just less impactful than that same card being added to a deck of 10 cards. So when I get offered no touchy and get to replace a defend with it there just isn't any drawback.
Nei Nalen
The engine is custom-made, and I made a whole part about save file compatibility, so it's not a technical issue, but a design issue rather.
Nei Nalen
You're still going to need to complete multiple runs to go through the game. It's a roguelite at the end of the day. The focus point is on making new runs feel more refreshing.
Azzwyn
I agree with the rework on quests, I enjoy the game a lot but the sudden resets after completing a quest is rough. You probably don't need to worry to much about keeping save files compatitible, maybe provide a save file to patrons that skips them to level 2 with all characters?
