Development Log #051

Demo: Scenario 8 & 9 – April 23rd 2022

I’ve been creating the vertical slice demo for most of this year and I am finally nearing the end of the Scenarios. I plan on having 10 different Scenarios in all and I am currently working on the 9th.

The 8th Scenario takes place on the new desert/sand tileset and features different types of buildings and even a shore.

Testing continues on Scenario 8, which has a “kill the boss” objective. The average play time is a bit high at 30 mins probably due to the boss staying at the back. In this run, Bugsy Lemons really stepped up! He knocked an archer off of a tall cliff, doing 912 damage!

This brings us to the question of how to handle things like over-healing and over-damage as they will have an influence in the rankings. While Bugsy did cause 912 damage, the enemy only had around 160 HP, so it should probably be reflected as 160 damage. Also, I never get this stuff recorded. It was an epic drop though.

For the second part of this update we have Scenario 9 which introduces Camus, a peculiar water-walking Rogue who is not very fond of people. He lives alone in an abandoned guild hall & tasks you with clearing all the elemental slimes from his flooded basement.

Each scenario has a different mechanic in terms of the objective and strategy. From the basic “Kill all enemies”, to “Protect x ally”, “Defeat boss”, “Survive x turns” & more. They’ll also showcase various gameplay elements like terrain, height, weather, time of day, etc.

This one focuses on elements, water combat & visibility/lighting. The level will start pretty dark as it’s a basement where runic energy caused the torches to turn into fire elementals. which is of course what obviously happens in situations like this. With each fire elemental you defeat, an unlit brazier will re-ignite and brighten the map.

Contrary to the first gif, the map will only feature fire & water elementals as well as a single dreaded dark elemental. Camus will help you in the battle as his water-walking passive is very handy for avoiding terrain penalties. Together you’ll have to defeat all of the elementals.

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Some interesting notes/tips:

Water elementals move better, have boosted defense & stronger water attacks when submerged in water.
Dark elementals are very strong at night or in dark places & get weaker in the light.
Fire elementals have an ability to lava-walk, but that wont help them here. In fact, the water that exists can kill them instantly should they somehow fall into it.
Destroying the fire elementals first will illuminate the map, weakening the dark elemental (who is already pretty strong), making him manageable.
Luring the water elementals out of the water will make them easier to handle.

The next focus will be the LAST scenario for the vertical slice demo. The theme for this scenario is “the big battle”. It focuses on castle sieges, large maps, large armies, enemy troop reinforcements and all that cool ‘last stand at the castle gates’ type jazz.

Note: Remember, some of the images and gameplay depicted here may be outdated and does not represent the current state of the game!