Apostasy
Game is Live!
The game is now live.
It has been patched 4 times with quite a bit of new content added and is generally very balanced in current state.
Also working on another indie game that I will be shipping soon.
Cheers,
1800s Child Labor.
Update 4 (Live 10/7/18)
Level Expansion:
-Cave Level 1 has had an increase in size by roughly 60%, adding a new platforming section with more enemies.
-Cave Level 3 is now much darker and has been expanded on by roughly 40%, adding a new portal section with mantis enemies.
-Temple Level 5 has had an increase in size by 60%, adding a new platforming segment with enemies.
Difficulty Increase and Rebalancing
Max Health Adjustment
-Ruby and Ami now have 425 max health, down from 450.
-Lira and Vanessa now have 550 max health, down from 575.
-Terra max health reduced from 725 to 700.
Healing Balancing
-Terra max mana reduced from 55 to 45, ether stasis mana cost increased to 25.
Terra had insane burst healing, she can still burst heal, but it costs MORE than half of her mana.
-Lira passive heal rate reduced by roughly 40%.
-Ruby passive damage to heal conversion reduced from 17.5% to 15%.
-Ami heal on kill reduced from 40% to 25% of max health.
-Vanessa arcane damage on some attacks has slight increased healing, she actually has the worst healing due to it being tied to her mana, so she burns through many quickly to have good healing and damage, but must conserve her mana bar.
Damage Balancing
-Ruby's fire magic damage has been increased and balanced to her mana cost, range, and activation time.
-Terra Axe attacks now inflict more force and damage, to match how slow and heavy the animations are.
-Ami now attacks faster so she needed a durability nerf to compensate for her insane DPS. She is now high risk high reward, or high skill high reward.
Enemy Balancing
-A lot of enemies now have increased health and poise, so a lot of damage and poise numbers have been adjusted on characters for balancing.
-Most enemies are more durable, but attack less often, or with less frequency.
New Enemy Variants
-New Mantis Mini Boss, Predator
-New Rock Horror Mini Boss, Ghost Horror
Update 3 Overview (Live Sept. 5th)
New Music
-5 new songs have been added to the game in various areas.
New Enemies
Spirit Crab:
-Ghost crab added to the game, can be found in later Cave levels.
Dark Prisoner:
-Specter prisoner enemy added to the game, can be found in later Temple levels.
Ruby:
-Base heal on damage rate increased from 15% to 17.5%
Fire Magic:
-All fire magic spells heal on hit.
-Flare activation time increased, damage increased from 100 to 120, cost
increased from 10 to 15
-Flame Wave activation time increased, duration reduced from 1 second to 0.75 seconds, cost increased from 15 to 20, damage increased from 135 to 155
-Flame Orb mana cost increased from 25 to 30
-Incinerate activation time increased slightly, cost increased from 15 to 20
-Inferno cost increased from 15 to 25
-Flame shot activation time increased
Kicks:
-Forceful Heel damage increased from 135 to 155
-Heavy Impact damage increased from 155 to 175
-Heavy Knee damage increased from 105 to 125
-Meteor Heel damage increased from 115 to 145
Whip:
-Backlash aftercast increased so that spamming it isn't viable, and it is only useful to finish or temporarily control enemies, opening up more viability for buffed fire magic
-Ruby Healing rework/addressing a problem with her playstyle
Ruby wasn't able to heal off of fire magic, forcing her to use whip attacks and kicks for most encounters to heal, this has been addressed
Lira:
-Spear Swipe damage increased from 115 to 135, y force reduced from 15 to 12, activation decreased by 20%
This attack is just currenty underpowered and needs addressed. It activates very slowly and is going to be getting a damage/activation buff. It also inflicts high Y force which would allow easy juggling, so this is being reduced as well.
-Hail Storm activation decrease by 20-30%, damage increase by 5 per proc
Hail Storm is pretty strong at the moment but it generally can't be used against aggressive enemies without kiting, and in most cases you're better off Deluge Stabbing or Ice Stomping a foe. I want Hail Storm's very high mana cost of 20 to be justified so it will now activate slightly faster and deals slightly more damage.
Ami:
-Increasing Max Health from 475 to 500
-Increasing kill to heal health returned from 35% to 40%
Quality of life buffs to Ami.
-Increasing the damage of Arcane Slash from 115 to 135
-Increasing the damage of Arcane Release from 225 to 275
Arcane Slash costs a lot of mana, and if you don't execute the timed attack, you more or less waste 1/3 of Ami's mana bar. It has been buffed to justify its high cost.
-Impale damage increased from 95 to 105
-Blade Release damage increased from 205 to 255
-Heel Kick damage increased from 195 to 205
-Repeating stab damage increased from 185 to 200
-Step Slash damage increased from 185 to 205
-Upstab damage increased from 195 to 200, stun duration increased from 0.225 to 0.25, stun magnitude increased from 200 to 225.
Now Slide Kick -> Upstab is a stun opener, while Impale -> Blade Release deals drastically more damage
Wind Spike rework:
-Wind Spike damage decreased from 145 to 70, now travels 25% slower and deals 70 damage every 0.5 seconds, x force reduced from 12 to 7, stagger magnitude reduced from 145 to 70
I'm actually pretty excited about this change, because I discovered a weird combo with Ami where you Wind Spike into Wind Step/Kick combo then do any chain as Wind Spike catches up to you. The new Wind Spike will basically deal more damage up front, as all DoT deal its initial damage then the over time damage at an interval, but it will also allow an Ami player to combo off of a Wind Spike, or keep an enemy being damaged by it.
Vanessa:
-Lunging Stab arcane damage increased from 25 to 45, base damage increased from 125 to 170, mana cost increased from 5 to 10, activation time decreased by ~20%
-Advancing slash stagger magnitude increased from 175 to 250, stagger duration increased from 0.2 to 0.25, mana cost increased from 10 to 12
Both of these attacks deal similar damage and function currently. I want each attack to have a unique function, so I'm making Advancing Slash a stun opener, and Lunging Stab a fast damaging dash stab. With this new change, Vanessa players can use either attack depending on which would be better in a situation. Lunging will be mostly used for quick entry/finishing, while Advancing will be used to start a combo, or open with a stun.
-Dash Slash arcane damage increased from 30 to 35, base damage increased from 95 to 115
This combo felt underwhelming so dash slash has been buffed slightly
-Arcane Diamond damages every 0.75 seconds and deals 25 damage a trigger, but its healing increases by the damage amount, so the first trigger heals for 25, then 50, 75,etc, allowing Vanessa to leech a lot of health. Its cost has been increased to 25 from 15 because of how powerful the healing at range can be.
Utility moves are neat
Umbra Boss:
-Changed the boss layout so that you start out a short distance from Umbra
-Added Dark Prisoner and Apostle spawns to give Umbra time to summon things.
-Updated Umbra spawns so that she spawns Dark Prisoners instead of Goo Girls, for a better boss fight cycle with more interaction
-Decreased the timer to spawn second stage enemies (Dark Prisoners)
-Initial Reformed One spawns at 25 seconds, subsequent spawns occur at 20
-Dark Prisoners spawn every 25 seconds when Umbra is below 50% HP
This is to address Ami's inability to heal without killing things, it is the same reason every boss spawns enemies in some way.
Seer Boss:
-Seer Health increased from 2500 to 4250
-Seer starts with two Dark Prisoners on either side of him
Enemy changes:
Ravager: Health increased from 550 to 600
Rock Horror: Health Increased from 650 to 800
Urchin: Health increased from 650 to 750, poise increased from 150 to 200, urchin damage increased from 25 to 35
Gore Giant: Poise increased from 425 to 650
Apostle: Poise increased from 275 to 325, Flay damage increased from 87 to 97, Poke Damage increased from 63 to 73. Switched the ranges at which apostle uses flay and poke, it will now poke close foes to push them back, and flay at range to prevent the player from closing distance.
Apostle could be safe spotted at point blank. this is no longer possible.
General Changes:
-Fixed an animation visual bug that caused the idle animation to play when moving after an attack, creating a weird looking transition from attack to idle to move animation, the move animation now correctly plays when moving immediately after an attack ends
-Fixed a bug that caused the music volume slider to not work properly
-Fixed some visual bugs, Temple level 5 has some layering issue where death pillars (pillars with mines on them) are behind walkable platforms instead of layered on top of. Temple Level 6 has layering issues with the lanterns and moving platforms near the skull ring as well.
-Improved wind object collision on caves 7 so that the wind jump can be made more consistently
In other news
I'm currently learning Zbrush/Maya/Substance Painter/UE4 to make 3D games. If all goes well my next game will be a 3D, 3rd person shooter with very fast movement and projectiles, if not, I'll make a few more small scale 2D games as I develop 3D skills.
I might be interested in making content addons for Apostasy outside of just patches/polishing, it really depends on if I can get the game more exposure, reviews, players, etc.
I'd love to hear what players think about the game or be informed of any balance issues, exploits, overpowered/underpowered enemies, attacks, etc.
Patch 2 (August 11th)
Going to be releasing the 2nd patch in the next week or so, trying to fix some issues (Nothing serious, just some polish things)
General Changes:
-Added cosmetic background objects in platform segments to gauge where you are in relation to moving platforms or pillars.
-Updated jumping to allow for more precise horizontal movement by decreasing the time it takes to hit near max move speed.
Characters:
1. Lira
-Increased base max health from 525 to 575
Lira's low health made her not durable enough to go in for kick combos against tough enemies, forcing her to kite.
-Increased passive heal from 0.02% of max health per proc to 0.025% of max health (with her new max health, she will gain ~14.4 health per proc opposed to the former 10).
Other characters have much stronger healing, Lira heals over time which yields the lowest burst healing, this should keep her at higher health levels during combat. Burst damage is present in every combat encounter, especially as you progress in levels.
-Increased max mana by 5
Lira burns through her mana very quickly, she still will, but this will reduce downtime between powerful ice spells somewhat
-Decreased kick activation by 20%, except for swift kick, decreased swift kick activation by 30%
Lira's kicks were still underwhelming, so they now activate much faster.
-Increased slide kick attack distance slightly
Now that it activates faster, it needs buffed to allow for the same distance traveled
-Increased all of Lira's kick attacks damage by 5-10
Making kick combos more viable by boosting overall damage
-Increased Y force on crescent kick by 25%
-Increased Heavy Icicle damage from 155 to 175
Ruby:
-Decreased flare activation by 20%, increased flare x force by 20%
-Increased flare damage from 90 to 100
Flare is a low damage fire spell that is supposed to enable Ruby to whip a foe as flare hits for improved burst/control. While spamming it won't be that good due to its low damage output, using it before whipping a foe will add to your damage and force. Now that flare pushes foes back a little more, it will be slightly easier to use to hold foes at bay
Terra:
-Increased Ether Stasis cost from 15 to 20 mana
-Ether Stasis damage % healing will be increased by roughly 35-50% after testing
Terra has very good sustain and can farm almost anything, increasing the cost of her heal will make her long term sustain slightly diminished.
Now that Terra's heal costs more mana, it will convert damage absorbed to health at a higher rate, making it more impactful.
-Increased Mana from 50 to 55
Terra is generally pretty balanced at the moment, the only major issue is she can easily beat the two temple bosses with good ether stasis timing. I might need to re-work those boss fights to be generally difficult for all characters. At any rate her mana has been slightly buffed to account for her increased Ether Stasis cost. She will still be using Ether Stasis less often, but I don't want to punish players by draining her mana, preventing offensive special attack usage.
Ami:
-Increased max health from 450 to 475
-Increase Ami healing on kill from 33% to 35%
-(Ami's new heal on kill amount increases from 150 per killing blow to 166 based on new values)
Ami is in a good spot but her overall sustain is a little below where I want her at. She lives on the extremes, she has very fast speed and very high damage, but arguably the hardest healing mechanic to sustain off of. Killing a foe on ami requires execution of a series of combos, not missing a timed input. She has big highs and lows. You are generally either at full health and speed running levels, or almost dead, kiting to dash in and out of combat to try to combo to refill your health.
-Increased aftercast of slide kick by 10%
This could be used to increase mobility, now it won't speed boost you over time.
Vanessa:
-Decreased upswing force by 20%
Upswing can too easily CC foes/hold them in the air
Future Changes:
I plan on doing at least 2-3 more balance and polish passes before completely moving on to other games.
If someone reports/shows me some kind of serious balance issue/bug after these patches I'll still address it of course.
I made Apostasy with the intention of making more games based off of it, and improving the art quality and gameplay with time in future releases.
I'm currently working on a new game/IP. More info soon
Apostasy Bunny Hop Update: Patch 1 (Released July 15th)
General Changes/Fixes:
-Pressing and releasing jump performs a fast horizontal jump, pressing and then releasing jump after 0.25 seconds or longer causes the default vertical jump.
-Added 6th save slot
-Added a new save slot variable that keeps track of if you beat the game in that save slot
-Added tutorial text explaining new jump mechanics in level 1
-Polished boss healthbar visuals
-Updated in game menus to work with controllers
Characters:
Lira:
-Icy Release damage reduced from 135 to 105, stagger magnitude reduced from 175 to 125
Icy Release was simply too strong and too easily spammed to control and damage enemies, it did too much damage and could stun lock foes too easily
-Bounce Kick damage increased from 90 to 110, stagger mag increased from 100 to 125
-Crescent Kick damage increased from 105 to 145, stagger mag increased from 100 to 150
-Pounce Kick damage increased from 125 to 155
-Slide Kick damage increased from 95 to 120, stagger increased from 100 to 120
-Swift Kick damage increased from 95 to 125, stagger increased from 100 to 150
Lira's kicks were very underpowered, being very risky to use, but dealing the lowest damage of all of the character's kicks. There was no reason to perform kick combos or really attempt them because attacking at spear range was simply more effective. Now that kicks will be stunning more often, and deal much more damage, there is a big incentive to use them.
-Spear Swipe damage increased from 105 to 115, stagger increased from 85 to 110
Spear Swipe was one of Lira's worst attacks, only really being useful for hitting foes that are above you, it will now be much more viable to combo into.
-Icy Stomp damage reduced from 215 to 200
Icy Stomp was one of Lira's serious offenders in terms of an easy ability to combo into and out of. When combined with Heavy Stab into Icy Release combo, Icy Stomp could bounce foes up again allowing another use of this combo. While this is still possible, the damage of this combo has been reduced. The mass of a lot of foes has been increased as well, making this less viable for easy CC.
-Heavy Icicle damage increased from 115 to 150
Heavy Icicle is a great opener, but it costs mana, and now that all of Lira's kicks deal increased damage, it needed a buff.
Ruby:
-Backlash animation duration increased by 20%
Ruby is more or less balanced at the moment, but Backlash spamming is way too effective. Now that it is slightly slower it will be more in line with her kit.
Terra:
-Updated Ethereal Discharge to correctly execute by pressing the Special Attack Button, instead of the Primary Attack Button. Default Q on keyboard.
Ami:
-Reduced the sliding distance of her slide kick by 25%
Ami is already much faster than the other characters, her slide kick can be spammed to increase her speed even further. This might be nerfed again as it is skill-less mobility increase, I might refine the bunny hop momentum increase to allow players to convert skill into higher mobility. This is currently possible, but you do not retain momentum
Vanessa:
-No changes
Enemies:
Large Crab:
-Increased health from 750 to 850, mass multiplier decreased from 0.7 to 0.5, increased aggressive move speed from 1.25 to 1.4
Large Crabs were very easy to kill, especially on a ranged character. As a result their health and mass has been increased, as well as their aggroed move speed. Mass multiplier affects incoming forces, so 0.5 is 50% reduction in force, while 0.7 is 30% reduction in force.
Small Crab:
-Increased damage from bite from 57 to 70
Ravager:
-Health increased from 425 to 550, poise increased from 125 to 145, mass multiplier decreased from 1 to 0.85
Ravagers are a more lethal version of a Scavenger, dealing more damage and moving faster, they now have more health, mass, and poise.
Scavenger:
-Increased health from 425 to 450, poise from 100 to 120, mass multiplier decreased from 1 to 0.9
Scavenger was very easy to control with force and stun, it was more or less in a good spot but it felt underwhelming after you have a basic mastery of any character.
Urchin:
-Urchin base speed decreased from 1.3 to 1.2, aggressive speed decreased from 1.5 to 1.3, health increased from 575 to 650, mass multiplier decreased from 0.9 to 0.5, damage reduced from 35 to 25.
Urchin was a strange enemy in that it either was a huge menace to close ranged characters like Ami, or it wasn't even a threat to characters like Ruby, Lira, and Vanessa. To make it able to close the distance gap easier, it now has more health and mass, but reduced speed. It still leaps, however, giving it bursts of speed.
Small Masked Horror:
-Decreased mass multiplier from 1 to 0.8
Large Horror:
-Decreased mass multiplier from 1 to 0.7
Masked Horrors are pretty big enemies, the fact that they had no mass modifier at all was a design oversight. Generally speaking they're a competent enemy that requires dodging/positioning to fight well, now that they have higher mass, it will be harder to CC them to death.
Blue Goo Guy:
-Mass multiplier decreased from 0.7 to 0.5, attack distance one range reduced from 4.25 to 3.3
Green Goo Guy:
-Mass multiplier decreased from 0.7 to 0.4, attack distance one range reduced from 4.25 to 3.5
Goo Guys are massive foes that generally were bad at close range, but decent at medium range. Their close range attack tended to miss, especially if they are above you, so I reduced the range they attempt to use it. Their mass has been increased to prevent CC chaining on them
Upcoming Content:
I will be addressing issues as I am made aware of them or discover them.
I'll continue to do balancing/making the game a fair challenge.
One thing I want to work on is polishing the boss fights to make them more dynamic, possibly in stages. The primary issue of boss fights currently is the different mechanics of each character. A boss that Terra finds easy might be very hard for Ami (which is the case currently).
Upcoming Patch Overview:
I'm going to be playing through the game again with each character to look for things to improve on, add some content to levels, balance attacks, rework or buff certain enemies and attacks that are underperforming, etc.
I'm also looking out for things that are overpowered or easy to abuse, so if something is too strong it might be slightly nerfed.
Here is the current list, I'll make a full list of updates/changes in 2-4 weeks alongside the new patch. I am interested in adding steam achievements long term and possibly steam trading cards if I can. I recently fleshed out some content for a new IP/my next game so I will address any issues with Apostasy over time, anything that can be fixed quickly will be, however.
-Terra's Movelist states that Ethereal Discharge is executed by pressing X, or the special button again, but in reality it is A, or primary attack. (Incorrect input listed on her movelist)
-Adding a button in the in game options menu to navigate back to the Main Menu so you can load other saves/start new games without exiting.
-Adding railings to moving platforms that are not physical so you can track them while jumping.
-Adding background objects to sections where vertical moving pillars are so you can tell if you are rising/falling (Sometimes it is hard to tell because the pillars moving up and down can give the illusion of rising/falling when the opposite is true).
-General Character Balance