Devblog #1

It’s been one week since the game reveal, and we’re honestly buzzing about finally being able to talk openly about Wielders of the Essence. Starting something new is always a mix of joy, nerves, and a little bit of “oh no, people will actually see this”, but that’s part of the fun.

When debugging enemy behaviour, it's nice to have development tools like this one that Niklas made. It helps both visualise movement patterns and makes for nice GIFs, so thanks, Niklas!

We’re currently deep into finalising the core gameplay. Before we dive into the juicy effects and the dopamine spark, the foundation needs to be genuinely fun. That means refining the moment-to-moment experience, testing Wielders and their signature attacks, experimenting with spells, tuning troops, and discarding elements that don’t earn their place. It’s still all a bit messy, in the best possible way (we’d like to think!).

Another nifty development cheat is to enable invincible mode when testing features like the level-up choices and how they feel.

We’re also sketching out the long-term hooks: what you unlock, how you grow between runs, and why you come back for “just one more try”. This is still early, but we want progression that feels exploratory and exciting rather than grindy, something that keeps opening doors instead of forcing you into a chore loop. We expect experimentation in this area, things will likely shift as we test what actually feels rewarding. The meta progression system is in place, but it needs a more fleshed-out design.

Christian is experimenting with the UI visuals. Inspiration - "A worn fantasy book from the 80's."

Patrik has been working on the meta progression system. The current idea is to utilise exotic resources to unlock various aspects of the game, such as new troops, spells and Wielders.

There’s no shortage of Survivors/Bullet Heaven games out there. But we, of course, want to bring something of our own. We’re therefore exploring a dynamic interaction between spells, troops and Essence, something that Songs of Conquest players will recognise from our strategy game. We aim to make choices feel impactful, with both Troops and Wielders having distinct characteristics that significantly alter the game experience compared to each other.

Essence is kind of similar to mana in other games. In this GIF, Robin has added an unreasonable amount of Essence to test the fireball spell.

We also want to hear your thoughts now that the game is publicly announced. What excites you? What confuses you? What do you want to see in a game like this? Leave a comment or a question. We read everything, and even if we might not reply to all comments, your feedback genuinely shapes our direction.

Concept art comes in all shapes and sizes. This is an idea for how mines could work in the game. The artist wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.

Thanks for being here at the start of it all!

/Team Lavapotion