Devblog #23. The Demo and Limitations.

Steam post image Hello everyone.

Today I want to take a closer look at the game’s demo and think about what should remain available there and what should be reserved for the full version. The current IRSEN demo already presents the game’s main systems: genes form chains, chains unlock skills, mutations force the player to change their build, and enemies act as a coordinated group. If I remove too much, the demo will stop showing what the game is really about. If I include everything, a new player will probably struggle to understand all the systems at once. This is especially important because the game is still in development and its systems continue to change. Some mechanics are added, while others are removed.

Because of this, when preparing each new version, the main question is not only which systems to add, but also where to draw the boundaries.

What should the demo show?

My idea is that the demo should communicate the core concept of IRSEN. The player controls a single character and fights against groups of enemies. Each enemy group is built like a traditional RPG party. All progression happens within a single run: the character extracts genes from defeated enemies and modifies their own body without using experience points or equipment.

The player needs enough time to obtain new genes, rebuild gene chains, create different skills, and accumulate corruption and mutations. A good run should contain at least one moment when the player has to change their current build. To achieve this, the demo does not necessarily need to include every feature planned for the full version of the game.

A limited selection of origins.

Each origin changes the character’s starting genes and introduces its own progression rules. Making all origins available immediately would require much more balancing, onboarding, and testing. Because of this, only Bastion and Neuropath will be available in the next demo.

Bastion is intended to provide a steady and relatively safe start. Neuropath relies more heavily on psionic abilities and extracting a larger number of genes. Together, they should demonstrate how origins can differ from one another and how they can change the direction of a run. They will also help me decide whether origins need even stronger differences in the future and how far those differences should go.

Four floors instead of a full run.

The demo ends after the fourth floor. A run that is too short would not give the player enough time to develop their build. At the same time, completing all six floors would require too much time, and I do not expect players to spend several hours playing a demo. Four floors give the run a gradual beginning, fast development, and a sharp conclusion.

The first battles introduce enemy roles and basic gene chains. Later, enemy groups become more dangerous and the demands placed on the player’s build increase. The final floor is currently completed relatively quickly, but it forces the player to accumulate a large amount of corruption. This should strengthen mutations and allow the player to experience their effects before the demo ends.

Locked scenarios and difficulty levels.

Most scenarios and difficulty settings will remain unavailable for now. A scenario changes the general rules of a run. Difficulty affects not only enemy health, but also how forgiving the game is toward mistakes, ineffective builds, and poorly considered battles. On higher difficulty levels, enemies also use smarter AI.

If I make every option available now, the demo will contain much more content, but the results of each run will become harder to analyse. At the very least, it will be difficult for me to understand whether gameplay problems are caused by balance, onboarding, or simply the starting conditions. For the demo, I am keeping one controlled starting setup. Additional modes will become more useful later, when the game is clearer and more stable.

A demo should end, not simply stop.

Reaching the final available floor should give the player a clear result. If the character dies during the final battle, it is still a defeat rather than an early completion of the demo. Completed runs are now saved in the Character Archive, which I am adding in version 0.48. The archive currently provides no permanent bonuses. It simply preserves the history of individual attempts. In that sense, it is more like a character graveyard - or perhaps a monument.

I am not keeping these restrictions in the demo simply to make the game artificially smaller. I am trying to build the demo from the most stable parts of the game: systems that I either want to test or no longer plan to change significantly. At the same time, the demo must remain large enough for those systems to come together and influence the gameplay.

In the end, the demo should answer one main question: is modifying your character through genes interesting enough, and can that character effectively deal with coordinated enemy groups? And will every new run feel different from the previous one?