Messages

1

Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 3/31!

« on: May 09, 2017, 02:02:25 AM »

Hey ampnaman Thanks for trying Demon out, and I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Early relic wraiths can definitely be a bit of a bother: since these are player ghosts, they can have access to some nasty abilities from starting packages early on. If you're not feeling confident, you can skip searching corpses, or pick up the Enemy Sense relic upgrade (which will tell you which corpses are going to spawn enemies or become wraiths) and get the goodies without the danger.

The pair of ghouls in Tower: 1 & 1/2 are toughies, as can be some groups of blaster enemies. One tip I can give that definitely applies to ghouls, and often other troublesome groups: look for opportunities to use recruitment mechanics to break up things a bit. For example, Ghouls are recruited by joining up with one and helping it rampage around the level. If you run into that pack of 2 ghouls, you can start a link with one and it will help you kill the other. Even if you ultimately fail the capture attempt, you get to fight both ghouls separately instead of together. Look for similar opportunities in other troublesome groups: they are not always present, but more often than not they are.

Yeah, the Currency/credits system needs a bit of tuning. I'm in the middle of some experiments with combat at the moment, but this is probably next on my list since it's sort of bugging me too. Uniques're definitely difficult to recruit, though they will be a little easier in the combat experiment build since damage across the board is up a little.

As for Actaeon vs. Artemis, that depends on who you ask. In some circles, Actaeon is widely regarded to be the best choice due to the abilities he provides when used with Fuse Demon, Revelation, or Transpose Soul.

I'm still working on it, so more content will be coming. There's already 23 floors to the main Tower and a smattering of side-dungeons to explore, so you've got plenty to keep you busy depending on how far you've gotten so far. Good luck in the Tower, and thanks for the feedback.

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Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 3/31!

« on: April 19, 2017, 12:38:42 AM »

That's pretty much what I was going for. Thanks for trying it out

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Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 1/7

« on: April 01, 2017, 01:10:06 AM »

The new build is finally released! Here's a link for the PC, Mac, and Linux builds:  https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

As discussed in my posts above, the new build adds 3 new dungeon floors, 20 new demons, and over 160 new abilities, as well as some AI and balance tweaks that should make the game play better.

I'd say more about it.. but... I'm tired. You can read most of the important bits in my posts above, or in the change logs included with each build. Cheers, and good luck in the Tower!

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Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 1/7

« on: February 27, 2017, 01:51:46 AM »

Hey. Things have slowed down a bit as I've transitioned from full-time to part-time work on Demon, but slowed down doesn't mean stopped:

In the month or so since the last post, not only have I finished the icon art for the 160+ new abilities coming in the next build...



...but, as of now, 140 or so of them are also implemented.

A reasonable question to ask would be why so many? It goes back to Demon's random modifier system: every 1/3 of the game uses a different set of random modifiers that can be applied to demons as they spawn. Each random modifier is also supposed to have level-appropriate abilities it chooses from to give to demons that receive it... thus, since the build is the first build with content from the last 1/3 of the main game, I needed to make the abilities to fill out the new set of modifiers' lists properly.

I also wanted to make SP-denial and physical/elemental hybrid builds more attractive and interesting, so some of the abilities were added to accommodate that as well.

This is one of the last big tasks left before the next release, though there are plenty of smaller ones and a fair bit of testing still to go, but I'll get through it. Hoping for a March release at this point. Cheers!

5

Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 1/7

« on: January 30, 2017, 04:09:33 AM »

Thank you. I'm glad Baba Yaga in particular came out well: she's a major figure in mythology, besides also being a Unique in Demon. Now that I'm getting to doing content for the last third of the main dungeon, I feel I can start using some of the more major figures in mythology (which is why you see Basilisks and the Jotunn finally joining the roster).

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Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 1/7

« on: January 28, 2017, 03:01:27 AM »

The next build coming up is a content build, the primary goal of which is to expand the main dungeon from 20 floors to 23 floors.

A grand total of 21 new demons are being added, and I am happy to announce I've finished the sprite are for all of them. If you're a fan of Geminimax's sprite set, don't worry, he's still working on his. Just a little busier with college than usual.

Without further delay, here's the original sprite set art for the 21 new demons:

Abbey Lubber


Alma


Baba Yaga


Basilisk


Brucha


Buruburu


Couril


Death Worm


Estas


Eye Killer


Flying Head


Friar Rush


Jotunn


Leib-Olmai


Mulassa


Mummy


Ogun


Sankai


Shikome


Virtue


Zaltys



Still a ways to go on release, since there's this much content going in, but it should be an awesome build when it's ready. Cheers!

7

Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 1/7

« on: January 10, 2017, 11:44:44 PM »

Hey, thanks for checking Demon out, I'm glad you're enjoying it.

I'm happy the tooltips and controls are easy to pick up: I confess UI isn't my favorite thing to work on (says me and almost every other roguelike developer), so it is always nice when someone mentions it has helped them play.

Claiming you don't have any of a thing is usually only an option for item requests, rather than money requests, because while it is relatively common to be out of a specific item, it is relatively rare to be out of credits. You could argue the option should still exist for the purposes of lying... but by the same logic, while demons do sometimes believe a lie about being out of an item they want since it is a reasonable thing that can happen, they should probably almost never believe it about money, which would make it a strictly worse option than just refusing since demons who think they've been lied to tend to react worse than demons who are just told no.

Thanks again for checking Demon out, and for the feedback.

8

Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 12/12

« on: January 07, 2017, 04:38:18 AM »

Whoops, found and fixed a bug with level-boosted enemies that prevented them from spending bonus points. Fixed in the 1/7/2017 builds, available now at the usual link: : https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

Apologies, and enjoy!

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Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 12/12

« on: January 06, 2017, 06:45:20 PM »

The 1/6 build is out! Updated builds can be found here, as always: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

The main addition in this build? The Codex Daemonium: an automatic record of every demon you've ever recruited. Depending on your option settings (accessed via the '-' key during gameplay), the Codex can be character-specific, global to every character you've played on the current build, or act as a spoiler and show all demons whether you've actually recruited them or not.







Also in this build, by semi-popular demand, you can now toggle online features on or off in the options menu:




In addition to these changes, several other additions and adjustments were added including:

• Improved corpse interaction results: fewer "nothing" results, more challenging demon encounters, and Enemy Sense now identifies corpses that will trigger encounters
• Demons now sometimes directly demand Credits during negotiations, previously this only happened as part of other demands.
• Revamped Hero rank benefits: Heroes are now more deadly than ever

Enjoy, and good luck in the Tower!

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Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 12/12

« on: December 18, 2016, 06:31:40 PM »

Oof, been awhile since I posted any progress here, with apologies. Work has continued on Demon throughout, but since I'm not full time on it these days I've diverted some time away from posting so that devwork can continue at a decent pace.

There have actually been two builds since my last major post here: a 10/13 build that was mostly UI tweaks and improvements, and the much more exciting 12/12 build that added two major new features to the game: Relic Wraiths and searchable summoner corpses, which are the first instance of the new Interactables mechanic. You can grab the 12/12 builds for PC, Mac, and Linux here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

As the name implies, Relic Wraiths are Demon's take on player ghosts:



When a player dies in the Tower, Relic Wraith will be saved locally and later used to spawn Relic Wraiths in future games. Relic Wraith data is also sent with score data at the end of a game, so you can run into Relic Wraiths created by other players' deaths as well. Having had some... disagreements... with how other games handle ghosts in the past, I've done a few things differently with Relic Wraiths:

• For the moment at least, none are ever encountered randomly. The player must initiate specific courses of action to spawn them.
  
• The "rules" on Relic Wraith creation and spawning are specifically designed for fairness. The main criteria for selecting a Relic Wraith to spawn are what the last new floor the Wraith's player discovered was vs. what floor you are currently on, and the relative level of the Wraith and the active player.
  
• The demons who serve Relic Wraiths can be recruited once you have defeated the Wraith itself, just as with any other summoner.
  
• The resistance tables of Relic Wraiths vary from Wraith to Wraith, based on the Relic the player who made the Wraith was using. There are no universal weaknesses/resistances common to all Relic Wraiths: some are actually resistant to Light and Fire for example, while others can be poisoned or affected by Dark magic. (Despite the name they are not strictly undead creatures.)

Player ghosts have always been an interesting idea to me, but I've never quited agreed with most implementations of them. I'm hoping I've managed to solve the problems I usually see with them and retain the interesting and exciting bits.

The other major addition was the first Interactable, summoner corpses:



Summoner corpses are found strewn about the Tower, and may searched for various rewards... though doing so is not without risk (in fact, this is one of the methods by which a Relic Wraith spawn may be triggered.) Besides the horrifying possibility of a Relic Wraith, the results of a search may include finding an item, managing to extract an ability from the summoner's damaged relic for your own use, or accidentally releasing hostile demons from the Relic.

As an aside, the non-Wraith encounters spawned by searching corpses differ significantly from normal encounters in the floor: they are truly random combinations of demons, since they are meant to represent a dead summoner's cadre rather than a group of demons that naturally appear together. This can result in some interesting (and surprisingly challenging) groupings of demons that normally don't occur in the wild.

I'll be powering down for the holidays shortly to take a short break, but my hope is to start of 2017 strong for Demon with the next major build including an expansion of the Tower from 20 floors to 23. Until then, cheers, and good luck in the Tower!

11

Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 9/18 ARRP 2016

« on: December 17, 2016, 04:27:53 PM »

Same day you posted here, but there was a bug fix update the day after on the 12th. I should be able to do a proper write up on it here tomorrow. If you don't already have the 12/12 version, you can grab it here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

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Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 9/18 ARRP 2016

« on: December 16, 2016, 11:59:07 PM »

Awesome. I hope you enjoy it, and I look forward to the feedback. Apologies for the slightly tardy response, this past week has been especially busy. (For that matter, I should probably write up a post about the build I released this week here. )

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Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike 9/18 ARRP 2016

« on: September 18, 2016, 09:39:54 PM »

Hey, I was on my way here! Thank you for the assist though!

14

Other Announcements / Re: ARRP 2016 Looms!

« on: September 11, 2016, 02:33:15 PM »

Ooof, this snuck up on me. But I'm in.

15

Early Dev / Re: Demon: A monster collection roguelike

« on: August 12, 2016, 04:00:39 PM »

New build is out! You can grab the Windows, OSX, and Linux builds here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

This build was something of a consolidation opportunity: a chance to take some time between major features/updates to address a pile of smaller things that had been on the to-do list for awhile. Among the notable changes:

1) Unity 5 and Performance Upgrades
Starting with this build, Demon is now developed in Unity 5. Among other things, this has given me access to a profiler which I have used to make substantial performance improvements to Demon. However, it does mean the list of older systems that can run Demon has shrunk a bit. You can review the system requirements here to see if your system is able to run Unity 5 games: https://unity3d.com/unity/system-requirements


2) Light and Dark Revamp
Many abilities in the Light and Dark ability sets have been significantly changed. For the most part, these abilities fall into three categories: Smites (low to medium damage spells that don't require line of sight or check accuracy, usually no or only a very brief cooldown), Miracles (moderate cooldown, high damage spells that affect all enemies, and only enemies, in a wide area which meet a certain condition), and Miens (passives that add bonus effects to all sources of Light & Dark damage if specific conditions are met.)

The intent is that these should prove much more useful and fun than the previous model, where Smites had conditions *and* cooldowns, often making them feel not worth the effort of trying to use. Miracles did not exist prior to the revamp, and their presence now gives Light and Dark users a high effort/high reward option they can take advantage of if they choose. Miens are not new to the revamp, but the vast majority of them did not exist prior to it.


3) Credit rebalancing
Currency costs have been significantly adjusted for nearly all transmutations. The two biggest changes are:

* Most transmutations involving demons (such as Copy Ability, Fuse Demons, and Restore Demon) now have their cost based on the demon's initial level, rather than their current level.

* Copy Ability's base cost has been significantly reduced (on top of the change on how the cost is calculated relative to demon level.)

The goal here is to allow more experimentation and use of transmutations, with only Fuse Demons and Restore Demon remaining relatively high costs. This will end up making the game a bit easier... but metrics strongly, strongly suggest this will not be a problem, 98% or so of games still end on the first four dungeon floors (out of around twenty-five!)


4) Strength change
The latest and finally successful (if testing and early feedback results hold up over more time) change for attempting bringing melee characters into line with magic characters: the Strength stat now reduces all damage taken in addition to raising the damage dealt by physical attacks, giving melee-focused characters a significant benefit for their investment in Strength. This helps make up for the facts that most physical attacks are short range versus the longer range of magic, and that magic encompasses a wider array of abilities than non-magic.


5) UI Upgrades
Leveling up is now done manually via the Transmutations menu instead of being forced at the moment you have enough XP:



Targeting UI has been improved as well, highlighting characters who will actually be affected by the ability, which is particularly helpful for Light and Dark's conditionally effective abilities. In the screenshot here, Humble (which only hits enemies with full health) is correctly highlighting only the full health enemy goblin, and not the wisp (who isn't an enemy) or wounded goblin:




Some other smaller changes here and there too. You can find out more details in the change logs included with each build. Cheers, and good luck in the tower!