A Year In Review

It’s crazy thinking about just how much has changed in the past year alone thanks to Steam Early Access. Some stuff had already changed thanks to the push for Steam Greenlight compared to what the game was when it was exclusively distributed on Desura. Let’s summarize all the big changes from each update

• Items rebalanced so they can be found in any file type

• You may now encounter miniature and jumbo versions of enemies

• More quest types were added

• Character creation and customization with stat point allocation and class based special abilities is now a thing

• All drops are now identified with icons

• HP and Spells regenerate over time

• Floor minimaps have been added to show what you’ve discovered

• Torches are placed randomly to light up rooms

• Pacifist approach added to allow you to defeat enemies by trading items with them

• Added resource harvesting with minigames, so you can get items without fighting enemies

• Party system allows you to recruit a team to adventure dungeons with (befriending enemies with trading adds them to your party)

• Boss fights completely redesigned to take advantage of the party system (it’s now more like traditional JRPGs)

• Daily dungeon now tracks deaths of everyone who plays them and puts down identifying tombstones

• Redesigned settings menu that’s better organized and adds plenty more configurable features.

• Changed all the dungeoning music to be more neutral and jrpg-ish to appeal to a wider audience.

• CRT shader exists for those who want a more old-school appearance

• Main menu completely redesigned and reorganized into a series of functional planets

• Blacksmith exists to permanently improve your equipment

• Persistent parties exist to allow you to recruit party members outside of dungeons

• Persistent party members can be sent off to collect items for you without having to go into dungeons

• New Game+ allows you to continue adventuring and discover more of the world after completing your list of crafts. The game gets harder yet easier each time.

• Resting is no longer a requirement after you die

• Quests redesigned to have their own dedicated dungeons to help with completing them (can only accept one quest at a time now)

• Tons of new enemies and adjectives

• Improved Day system with lunar cycle and scaling difficulty

• Temporary leveling within dungeons based on XP

• Items can rot and become new items

• Turns can execute at a timed interval instead of being full-wait

There’s also be a slew of smaller, more engine related changes regarding graphical performance and stability improvements. Code’s also be refactored quite a bit, and things like dungeon generation have been restructured to allow for additional algorithms, though I still have yet to take advantage of that. And for reference, this is what happened in the past year of on-off development.

That’s quite a bit for a project that’s managed by a single person who isn’t good at keeping track of how much he changes on a file-by-file basis and commits in bursts. Also, a good portion of the file additions were just resources and not code, so the game’s code-base is still manageable (only about 240 source files). Here’s to hoping the game continues to get better. Also here’s to hoping I can finally feel comfortable with wrapping this game up and marking it as a full release.