Hey ! It’s about time for the first devlog of DPS ! Feel free to read the game description, watch the video or even to play the game to get an idea of what the game is about before reading (TL;DR at the end)

The game already went through some changes since the beginning :

GameLoop

It started as a arcade-like game with few motivations or objectives. Get as much score as possible, upgrade rinse and repeat until you reach a very high score. It would have been pretty much skill oriented and not very interesting as I do not yet have the skills or the experience to do those kinds of simple n’ addictive games (such as Vampire Survivors) and mix it with skill oriented gameplay.

Instead, I’m looking to do a ~5min experience akin to a boss rush, cut in phases with the player being able to upgrade between them. The end will be way easier to reach, probably on the second run, taking into account the time needed to adjust to the gameplay (and it only getting faster).

The real treasure is the skill you got along the way

DPS Cycle

What didn’t change is that I like the idea of the DPS Cycle, doing an effect when the player achieves the 3 main actions.

The DPS Cycle also went through multiple iterations, at the start simply being a way to massively boost combo until you got hit. Completing the DPS Cycle felt like it didn’t have enough direct impact on gameplay, only number values and while I like big numbers (Diablo player you know the drill), I agree that it needed to have a more direct impact.

Hence, the new DPS Cycle, completing it gives a permanent damage boost (big numbers yay), a shield to prevent the next attack and creates a shockwave stunning everyone for two seconds. I still feel like I should add something else with the shield, thoughts in progress, but I still think this is way better and it feels good when you complete it.

Shockwave !

Room Generation

The room generation is one of the main features I needed to do right in order to keep the game interesting over time, and while it works pretty well, forming little “mazes” you need to work around, I do not think it will stay like this. The walls don’t always interact properly with the border walls or with one another and the warnings are somehow misplaced sometimes still need to figure out why.

Bit of a dizzy effect when the room is changing (realised afterwards it’s minecrafts nether portal)

Other

• The Mage got a melee-like attack added to his kit, he was supposed to only be able to shoot fireballs but it sounded a bit boring. I still need to change it a little bit, it does not feel menacing and is hard to dodge but I like it and think I may add more to his kit in the future !

• I think I need to focus on how to make great and greater feedbacks for now, to make the game feel good playing it. I’ll also think about adding real skills to the skill tree cause for now … it’s numbers :D

• I like the tutorial but I’d like to revamp it just a bit to add options in it, mainly to let the player choose between the dash direction on mouse position or on player movement.

• Oh and as of now the game is not playable with a controller I need to implement it.

That’s it for now I’ll take a winter break, but I will continue to do devlogs maybe once a month or so but it will probably not be that long . If you have any feedback I’ll be happy to take it anytime !

Oh and TL;DR:

• What I did

• The Tutorial is nice

• The DPS Cycle isn’t all numbers

• The Mage has a melee attack

• The game is cut in phases

• The Skill Tree has “number up” skills

• The wall generation works

• Feedbacks are there

• What I will do

• More and better feedbacks

• Better wall generation

• Skills that aren’t “number up”

• More attacks in the Mages kit

• Controller support

• Replace all placeholder eventually

fren