Demo Patch 0.8.20 - Addressing Difficulty and Controller Issues

A little over a week since the demo was first released and HoooWeeee have you all given me lots to work on and think about. The loudest signal I was hearing was about the games difficulty, specifically that the game should be considered a souls-like with how challenging it can be.

Well, Sneezy and I got right on that and implemented a hidden metric called the Player Level. When first playing the game your player level will be low and concepts/enemies are introduced more slowly, eventually ramping up to the level of difficulty seen pre-patch.

I consider this more an onboarding feature to help new players get used to things before throwing them in the deep end with lots of props, enemies and strategical whimsy. This system is going to get refined and expanded over time. In the short term, you can expect early levels to be less overwhelming and have a slower pace of enemy spawns.

Also, to address two of the more punishing aspects:

• Knight attack areas reduced. They were getting a little too ambitious. Knights have been reminded of their boundaries.

• You can now purchase Flow from the Merchant. Yes, pay the tithe to wash away the evidence of your past digressions.

Controller Improvements

We've made a bunch of improvements to using the controller, but we're not done yet! Give the game a try with the controller or on your Steam Deck and let us know what's not intuitive or needs work. I'm all ears

Pacing

Fast Forward is faster. It now fasts more forwardly. Up to 4x from 2x!

Enemies no long have delays that ignore the Fast Forward. Many other UI, translation and minor issues were stomped out too, but I'm sure there are more to find!

That’s the patch. Things are much improved by everyone's feedback over the week. Thank you all so much for playing, reviewing and dumping feedback on me.

Go break it again.