we need to talk about randomness, fairness and decision-making, but let me get started with some great news​. I did not want to make this the headline of this devlog, because I already shouted it all over social media: We won yet another award!
In the course of the DevGamm awards 2022 we were selected for the special nomination award "Versus Evil Victor" sponsored by Versus Evil. We are super proud and honored!
I had planned to talk more about tower crafting in this devlog, but then decided to cover one of our core mechanics and the recent slight, but important changes I made to it. Those of you who already played the game might spot something new in this gif:
That's right, I added a preview of the next four flasks you will draw. You can call it a "magazine". I added this to give players the chance to make more informed decisions, which means more fun in my eyes.
While working on the flask system, I thought about randomness quite a bit. I watched people play the game and get frustrated because they did not draw the flasks they wanted to draw. Such a frustration is okay for me, if the player built their deck of flasks in a "bad" way. But what if they are just crazy unlucky? Let me put it like this: Wouldn't you get frustrated or feel treated unfairly, if you had tossed a coin 9 times, it landed on heads 9 times, you toss it again and the 10th time is heads yet again? BattleJuice Alchemist is not a casino simulation, so I decided to accommodate for this unfairness. The change can be explained very simply: in the past you drew a card, put it back, then I shuffled your deck. Now you draw a card and don't put it back, so the remaining cards will be drawn first, before you can possibly draw your first card again. It feels a lot less frustrating to me and I'd love to hear what you think, once this change is patched into the game.
That's it for today. If you have not yet, make sure to join our Discord and have a great weekend!
Alain
DevLog: Preview on Alchemy Tower Construction
Hey everyone,
so this week I have something small and something big for you. Let's start with the smaller something.
I always wanted to keep UI elements attached to the 3D elements of BattleJuice Alchemist's world to a minimum. Years later I realized that I had already added quite a few interfaces and somehow missed the most important one: health bars for enemies. So, here they come:
I went for this "newer" style that I think was popularized by games like Dark Souls, where the red bar is instantly shortened, but a secondary yellow or in my case beige bar slowly follows and gives you a good idea how much damage you dealt, even if the bar was not full when you hit.
Now for the big deal, which is mainly a teaser. I wanted to add one big gameplay element that ties together a few underused mechanics and adds depth to combat as well as crafting. This is why I am adding crafting your own alchemy tower. And the best thing: You can relocate it and summon it to the battlefield!
Very roughly speaking, the plan is to make enemies tougher at night, so you yourself need more firepower to deal with them efficiently. This firepower is provided by your tower, which you construct yourself and equip with traps, canons and other elements.
I will talk about the tower in more detail in the next devlog, so stay tuned! Don't forget to join our Discord and enjoy your weekend!
Alain
Update: Patch Notes 0.21801
Hey everyone,
I usually post patches for the Steam playtest on Fridays, but 0.21801 is already done, so here it comes a day early!
As announced in the last devlog, you can now choose if you want to play the Bold, the Swift or the Sly Alchemist. They all come with their own unique way of handling flasks and their own perks.
The Sly Alchemist for example hurls flasks into the air and hits targets on the ground with a certain delay.
This patch also comes with a seemingly small, but in my eyes significant feature allowing players to choose the way they prefer to play: You are not forced into close combat anymore, but can opt out of it.
Last but not least, we have a little teaser for what is coming in the more distant future: A second game mode called Survivor Mode. I'll talk more about it in the future when it is closer to be done.
These are the big changes for this patch. As always, the full list can be found on our Discord. If any of this stuff sounds interesting to you and you decide to try it out, I'd love to get your feedback!
Cheers,
Alain
DevLog: Preview on Perks and Classes
Hey everyone,
when I started working on BattleJuice Alchemist, I was sure that you would play an alchemist. But the game is also an RPG and different classes are expected. So how do we handle that? Let me present to you our all-alchemists-class-system (TM)!
When creating your character, you can now select between the Bold Alchemist, the Swift Alchemist and the Sly Alchemist. In non-alchemy terms, you have a melee class, a ranged class and a mage class. These three have different ways of using their flasks: for the Bold Alchemist they explode right in his hands, the Swift Alchemist throws them at a target point and the Sly Alchemist drops them to the ground where they explode after a delay.
When leveling up, every class gets access to exclusive perks that enhance their special abilities. Additionally, there are perks available to all classes.
This allows for interesting character progression and builds. Want to play a teleporting melee character? You won't be a master teleporter, but you can pull it off. Here are some special abilities in action:
You won't have to wait too long to try out the classes and perks in the Steam playtest, they will be in the next patch coming in two weeks. I now have some testing and balancing to do. Until then, don't forget to join our Discord if you want to follow the development more closely.
See you there!
Alain
DevLog: Preview on Perks and Classes
Hey everyone,
when I started working on BattleJuice Alchemist, I was sure that you would play an alchemist. But the game is also an RPG and different classes are expected. So how do we handle that? Let me present to you our all-alchemists-class-system (TM)!
When creating your character, you can now select between the Bold Alchemist, the Swift Alchemist and the Sly Alchemist. In non-alchemy terms, you have a melee class, a ranged class and a mage class. These three have different ways of using their flasks: for the Bold Alchemist they explode right in his hands, the Swift Alchemist throws them at a target point and the Sly Alchemist drops them to the ground where they explode after a delay.
When leveling up, every class gets access to exclusive perks that enhance their special abilities. Additionally, there are perks available to all classes.
This allows for interesting character progression and builds. Want to play a teleporting melee character? You won't be a master teleporter, but you can pull it off. Here are some special abilities in action:
You won't have to wait too long to try out the classes and perks in the Steam playtest, they will be in the next patch coming in two weeks. I now have some testing and balancing to do. Until then, don't forget to join our Discord if you want to follow the development more closely.
See you there!
Alain
Update: Patch Notes 0.21401
Hey everyone,
in the last devlog I already talked in depth about the upcoming UI overhaul. It is now completed and live on the public branch of the alpha playtest. So you might have already seen bits of the new UI and I'll only show you the local map here (because working on it is an evergreen for me) as well as the overhauled HUD tooltips:
I also took a close look at the combat behavior of our companion Plato. His freeze attack was quite unpredictable, which should now be fixed. Plato should now freeze your opponents like a champ. He is just such a good boy.
As always, there are a lot more minor changes. The full list of them can be found on our Discord as usual. I'm currently working on a quite big addition to the game that I will hopefully be able to talk about next time.
Cheers,
Alain
Update: Patch Notes 0.21401
Hey everyone,
in the last devlog I already talked in depth about the upcoming UI overhaul. It is now completed and live on the public branch of the alpha playtest. So you might have already seen bits of the new UI and I'll only show you the local map here (because working on it is an evergreen for me) as well as the overhauled HUD tooltips:
I also took a close look at the combat behavior of our companion Plato. His freeze attack was quite unpredictable, which should now be fixed. Plato should now freeze your opponents like a champ. He is just such a good boy.
As always, there are a lot more minor changes. The full list of them can be found on our Discord as usual. I'm currently working on a quite big addition to the game that I will hopefully be able to talk about next time.
Cheers,
Alain
DevLog: Preview on UI Overhaul
Hey everyone,
let's dive right into what I have been up to recently. Everything presented here will be within the next patch, which will be published in a couple of weeks. So, less talking, more moving images!
I overhauled the visual effect of interactive objects like the workbench when vision onto them is blocked. This (optional!) feature is not entirely new, but the old version did not support readability that much. Here is an example:
As you can see, the workbench (as well as the fire on the right) have a slight outline and transparent color when occluded. The same also goes for enemies.
The second and a lot more work-intensive task was working on the game's UI. When I initially designed it, I wanted it to be vivid and colorful. But it turned out that when everything is colorful, it is hard to see what is important. So I stripped away a lot of color and ironed out a new design guideline. So here is the new inventory as an example:
I could not bring myself strip away all the visual fluff, which is why there are still decorative elements, e.g. in the character sheet and quest log:
I would really appreciate some feedback on whether I should streamline these elements even more. I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts and hope you have a nice weekend!
Alain
DevLog: Preview on UI Overhaul
Hey everyone,
let's dive right into what I have been up to recently. Everything presented here will be within the next patch, which will be published in a couple of weeks. So, less talking, more moving images!
I overhauled the visual effect of interactive objects like the workbench when vision onto them is blocked. This (optional!) feature is not entirely new, but the old version did not support readability that much. Here is an example:
As you can see, the workbench (as well as the fire on the right) have a slight outline and transparent color when occluded. The same also goes for enemies.
The second and a lot more work-intensive task was working on the game's UI. When I initially designed it, I wanted it to be vivid and colorful. But it turned out that when everything is colorful, it is hard to see what is important. So I stripped away a lot of color and ironed out a new design guideline. So here is the new inventory as an example:
I could not bring myself strip away all the visual fluff, which is why there are still decorative elements, e.g. in the character sheet and quest log:
I would really appreciate some feedback on whether I should streamline these elements even more. I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts and hope you have a nice weekend!
Alain
DevLog: New Gameplay Stream, FearFest Interview & More
Hey everyone,
this fine Friday I have a mixed bag of devlog-worthy goodies for you, so let's dive right into it.
I had to talk to a lot of people in the wake of Gamescom, which was fun, but also time-consuming. Afterwards I also got around to recording me playing BattleJuice Alchemist a bit. I skipped the tutorial level to showcase what the gameplay will actually be like. You can watch it over on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz3gsKwSA0o
I actually enjoyed doing this quite a bit, maybe I can do it more often in the future.
The second video I want to share with you is an interview I gave for Fear Fest '22 this week, a games festival celebrating horror games of all sorts. Check it out if you really can't get enough of me rambling about BattleJuice Alchemist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXLlxgroTpk
Last but definitely not least, I have some wonderful personal news: I'm a dad now! Two weeks ago our little son was born. He and his mom are well and we are simply over the moon.
