🐺 Dev Update – Difficulty Settings, Tutorial Improvements & Streamer Feedback

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been watching streams, reading comments, and collecting direct feedback from testers and content creators.

This update is largely shaped by that feedback.

Here’s what’s new:

🎮 New Difficulty Settings (Story / Balanced / Souls)

One of the most consistent pieces of feedback was that some regular enemies felt like “hit sponges.”

At the same time, bosses were widely described as fun, tense, and satisfying.

So instead of globally lowering health values and flattening the experience, I added a Difficulty option in the Settings menu:

• Story – 30% enemy health. Faster progression and combat flow for players focused on exploration and narrative.

• Balanced – 50% enemy health. A smoother combat rhythm while preserving tension.

• Souls – 100% enemy health. The original intended tuning of Daemon. Combat as originally forged — tense, punishing, and uncompromising.

Importantly:

👉 Boss health is NOT scaled by difficulty.

Boss encounters were already landing well in terms of pacing and challenge, so those remain intact across all difficulty modes.

This keeps the identity of Daemon’s boss design consistent, while letting players tailor moment-to-moment combat flow.

🧱 Improved Micro-Tutorial Gating

I received feedback from a demo player who struggled to figure out how to dodge and evade properly.

That told me something important.

It wasn’t that dodge was broken — it was that the tutorial delivery wasn’t landing clearly enough. Some players were either skipping it or it blended into the opening information too much.

So I:

• Reworked tutorial gating

• Separated key mechanics into clearer micro-moments

• Reduced early information density

Core movement and survival mechanics should never feel unclear. That’s on me as the designer.

🛠 Demo-Specific Fixes

• Fixed a demo-only issue where “Return to Main Menu” did not function correctly.

• Added a common controller convention: B button now exits menus on gamepad.

Small changes — but these are friction points that matter.

📺 Streamer Momentum

We also have several streamers lined up to showcase Daemon in the coming weeks leading up to launch in late March.

Watching people engage with the systems live has been one of the most valuable forms of playtesting so far.

If you’re a content creator and interested in coverage, feel free to reach out.

This project is being developed solo, and every update is shaped by real player interaction.

Thank you to everyone who streamed, tested, critiqued, and broke things so they could be fixed.

More soon.

— Kero Team iNtuition