Demon: A monster collection roguelike 3/31!

[Ferret]

Demon's newest build has been released, featuring the new side-dungeon, the Anomaly. PC, Mac, and Linux builds are available at the usual link: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

The entrance to the Anomaly is fickle, sometimes appearing on Tower:5, sometimes on Tower:6, but the appearance of the warp leading to it is unmistakable:



Inside, you'll find new demons unique to the Anomaly, with new abilities. But.. other summoners have probably come to the Anomaly for the same reason.

This build also includes some balance changes based on feedback received over the course of the last month or so.

Enjoy, and good luck in the Tower... and the Anomaly.

[jim]

Looks great! I'll have to try it!

[Ferret]

Oh, hey.

Please do, and lemme know what you think. Demon's a pretty different place since the last time you stopped by the thread.

[jim]

First impressions:

-Graphics much improved - still with the primitive aesthetic, but now possibly on-purpose primitive
-Game is harder!
-Fighting is more complicated and I'm having to pokemon-switch constantly.
-Ow ow ow ow ow.

Very good stuff, Mr. Ferret!

[Ferret]

That's right, the alternate character art set Geminimax is maintaining is new to you too. (If by some chance you want the old back, there's an options menu accessible with the - key that is probably also new to you. )

I'm glad you're enjoying the bumped up difficulty level. I don't remember where exactly it was at in your era since it's bee awhile, but I do know it's only moved in one direction for awhile now, so it's definitely higher than it was when you played last.

Thanks for playing again. I'm always happy when previous players visit again and like the changes they see.

[Ferret]

Whoops. I went dark here a bit longer than normal. In my defense, it's been because I've been buried in content land.

I'm getting close to releasing the next build, which will add floors 18, 19, and 20 to the Tower. Some of the demons lurking about up there may be a bit crazy...



(Note: Soul is a new cooldown type. It refreshes 1 point every 10% of a level the character gains. So, once Eternal Glory triggers, it's on cooldown for 9 levels.)

[getter77]

Crazy...but as it is a classical one versus the Tezuka rendition, not too crazy.   

[Ferret]

Woo hoo, the 2/3 build of Demon is out. The Tower expands to 20 floors (not counting the side-dungeons that appear within it)!

Download link: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

Of course, it's a long way up. Less than 1% of games reach Tower:17. A great many end in this spooky hole on Tower:2...



It may seem strange to work on the "end" of the game given that, but I wanted to thank the players who are playing heavily managing to beat the current content with some new stuff to find up there.

Good luck.

[Ferret]

Getting close to the next major release, which will include Arcadia, a new side dungeon that has a 50% chance of replacing Tower: 1 & 1/2 in a given game.

Second pass of the terrain art: wall improvements to make it less hedge mazey and more foresty and maybe more "lone tree" art variety are the only major things left to do here:



An example of the sort of maps generated for Arcadia: The forest architect I made tends to create big semi-open areas with several offshoot areas. It feels fairly foresty to me, at least.



Probably a bit more than a week of work left on the build, but we're getting there. I hope to announce the release soon.

[Ferret]

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

This build includes Arcadia, the new one floor side forest-themed dungeon that sometimes replaces Tower: 1 & 1/2.



This build also has some other good tweaks and adjustments:

• Slimes are no longer weak to Fire and Electricity.
• Freybugs are now weak to Light instead of Fire.
• Modifiers granted to demons now give stats focused more on the role the modifier encourages rather than just the abilities it can grant. (i.e.: Melee modifiers now grant more Agility and Vitality than before, for example)
• Some small adjustments to Earth Break, Avalanche, and Bloodlust to bring other melee abilities back up to speed. (Yes, this means I nerfed those three things Sorry, had to be done! )
• The new demons local to Arcadia can sometimes be found in the Tower itself, as early as Tower:4.
• Adjusted the AI calculations for stagger/turn acceleration effects.

It's good to finally begin to have enough content to be able to have some of it randomly selected each game instead of needing it to all be turned on. Good luck in Arcadia, and as always, I welcome any feedback.

[jim]

Awesome!

[Ferret]

Late Ferret is late, but a new build was released 3/23. You can grab PC, Mac, and Linux builds from the usual spot: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web

This was a polish / tweak / re-balance build to take care of some outstanding issues before moving on to adding the currency system to the game.

Among the goodies added are:

* Cleaned up texture bleeding errors that were happening on a small number of machines.
* "Pacifist" demons now do a somewhat better job of not advancing into combat.
* Adjusted the early game slightly: 2nd and 3rd level come a bit more quickly, some demons (especially corporeal undead) have had their resistances adjusted, and a few of the more exceptionally deadly early encounters have been quietly toned down a bit.
* Four new items added: Magic Map (maps the current level fully), Calm Card (unsummons all allies as a free action), Zephyr Card (summons one ally to any space in range as a free action), and Guardian Gem (buffs Evasion and Defense for all allies)
* Auto-explore is now considerably more efficient.
* Bigger sprites on character sheets. Several players had mentioned wanting to see "big" sprites for all characters, not just ones you can negotiate with, so I changed character sheets to show them:



Next up will be the currency build, which will be a pretty significant change to Demon. See you then.

[Ferret]

Builds with the new currency system have been released. PC, Mac, and Linux builds are all available here:  https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B-sx_4eW-B5hWnhNZlRPclZLeUU&usp=drive_web



With the new currency system, quite a few things have changed in Demon:

* As you explore the Tower, you will find caches of crystals that your summoning relic absorbs, recording the amount absorbed as Credits.
* Credits are used to perform advanced relic functions collectively called Transmutations.
* The available transmutations are Copy Ability, Delete Ability, Fuse Demons, Restore Demon, and Delete Demon.
* Copy Ability allows you to copy an ability from a demon ally to another demon ally, or (at increased cost) to the main character. It replaces both the Training Point system and the gradual passing on of abilities from demons to summoners that used to occur.
* Delete Ability costs no credits, and simply allows you to remove an ability from the target ally, should you find a reason to do so.
* Fuse Demons allows you to sacrifice one demon to give a modifier to another demon. Fusion is expensive in terms of credits, but modifiers provide powerful benefits to the recipient. This replaces the Silver and Gold Matrix items, which are no longer found in the game.
* Restore Demon allows you to revive a fallen ally, though it is quite expensive. This replaces the Spirit Chime item, which is no longer found in the game.
* Delete Demon costs nothing, and allows you to remove a demon from your party should you find a reason to do so.

In essence, Currency is being used to remove clunkier systems (Training Points ) or stabilize previously overly RNG-reliant mechanics (having to find Matrix items to Fuse Demons), while at the same time giving the player more interesting choices to make (namely, how to divide a very limited resource that is now shared by all of these systems.)

So far, the regulars seem to be pretty happy with the changes, and so am I. If you give it a try, let me know what you think. Until next time, good luck in the Tower.

[Rickton]

So I'd seen this game pop up in the Early Dev forums but hadn't checked it out until now. Just died for the first time on Anomaly 2.
I'm impressed. The game is really good! Don't know what they were like before, but the credit system seems to work well (though I'd maybe suggest a more thematic name than credits ). I really like the way you can customize your player and your demons with merging and transferring abilities. The variety of demons and powers also means that you have to switch between them a lot (although I did manage to make a super-healer fairy that I never unsummoned). I liked the variety of recruitment events too, I was expecting it to be just SMT-style negotiations (not that there'd have been anything wrong with that), but there was some neat variety in there (I really liked the Headless special recruitment!).

From a game design standpoint, the only thing that really sticks out at me right now is resting. Since there's no food clock or anything, there doesn't seem to be much reason *not* to rest after every battle (unless you're in a timed recruitment event).

I'm really enjoying it though, time to go pick a different relic and see how a second play through goes.

[Ferret]

Hey. Thanks for checking Demon out, I'm glad you're enjoying it! Anomaly: 2 is pretty amazing for a first run. Congrats!

Re: Resting, Demon uses a bit of a different scheme than most roguelikes. There is no reason not to rest up between fights... but on the other hand, encounters are balanced assuming you've rested between them. Of course, that makes the timed recruitment events you pointed out require some pretty efficient conduct to succeed at (though in some cases, the thing you're trying to recruit is willing to help out.

Good luck on your second run.