Genre: Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Indie
Dungeon Looter
Update 0.15 Localization and Achievements
New Stuffs
- Add localization of 3 new languages. Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Thai. - Add support for PS controller and will show correct button image in-game. - Steam achievements, there are 30 in total. Those who already unlocked the "in-game unlock" they will also get these Steam achievements if you reenter the town screen.
Dungeon Looter will plan to go full release this quarter. (Q1 2024) The price will also increase to $11.99. Also let me think about a little bit something more to add before going full release this quarter. (TBD)
Statistically, the game had sold ~750 units (net, minus refunds) since its initial release in October 2022. (And before you ask, no you just don't just x$10 to this number, game sold in different country and on sale have lower price per unit)
How was this number doing? Looking back, not bad for the first game, it could be worse for the game with 0 PR. But I'm aware that a somewhat successful game (having review number hover around 200-300) would make the same as mine in just one month on launch, vs mine that been gathered this for 13 months. I'm still very far to that goal.
My lesson for this one is that, don't neglect the PR, and I will have to start it soon around the upcoming full release.
Thank you everyone for joining and be part of Early Access during this 13 months! Your support means a lot to me. ːlovekamiheartː ːlovekamiheartː ːlovekamiheartː
-----------------------------------------------
That's all for now, See you in the upcoming full release then! ːsteamhappyː
Update 0.14 Knight & Relic
New Stuffs
New class: Knight
Specialize in heavy weapons, shield is also their weapon, can hold guard stance, has dreadful whirlwind and shield charge skill, but with noticeable drawback that they cannot dash and burn calories very fast! So bring in extra food. Knight is locked on start, gather total 120,000 class EXP from any class to unlock.
Rework on perk and relic
Perk upgrade is when you level up in the dungeon, it is now come with more variants and synergies. Most relics will need to be unlocked first, so check the unlock menu for how to proceed. There is no Steam Achievement yet, but those unlocks will be linking to Steam Achievement when it is here so no worries.
Other Fixes and Tuning
Town lobby screen: Bring difficulty menu to front menu instead of buried deep inside.
Town lobby screen: As a fun addition, last lobby member who is not ready will get an annoying message "Waiting for YOU" flash on their screen.
HUD: Rework on health bar, shows number.
System: Game will use in-game cursor for clarity. Auto-hide cursor in-game if you play with gamepad.
Rogue: Gets new passive skill "Elite Damage Up" to be easier to work with boss and elite. (up to +50% damage)
Adventurer: Buff on faster revive skill. Getting stunned with Cool Sweep skill will now reset (zero) the stun gauge.
Item: New item modifier "strong" is added to the pool. This will slowdown durability consumption vs its "durable" counterpart which add durability number. (which makes repair in blacksmith more expensive) So having them both together is better economic choice.
Gameplay: Buff LP and EXP rewards when completed a run perfectly (no death, no continue) or with challenge condition (zero skill, zero item).
Dev Talk Corner
Dungeon Looter is now 1Y anniversary in EA (Early Access). *slow clap*
I saw one EA game gradually raise its price by each major update and people love the idea, I like it too! I thought to myself why didn't I think of that *laugh with tears*, start from something like $4 and slowly going towards $9, but it is too late now and would be unfair to make that change now. Yeah I think I need to do that if I ever have a next EA game.
But no, because Early Access means big game, I think I don't want to solo dev a big game for some time, not in the near future. So no EA game for me for a while.
One more rant, Steam game fest theme this year are all unrelated to Dungeon Looter (horror, deck building fest, etc) so another bummer for me. *sad pepe*
Next plan
Currently I would evaluate it to be around at 70% progress toward full release.
<0.11> Initial EA release <0.12> Rogue+Sewer <0.13> Hard mode <0.14> Knight+Relic <--- WE are here -- next ------ maybe some addition to current theme (like prison have the wave hold-out) Finally Steam achievement + localization -- full release -----
-----------------------------------------------
That's all for now, If you found any bugs, please report them in the forum! ːsteamhappyː
Revise Speed Strike Formula (Update 1775)
Update 1775
Adjust how speed strike is calculated (your speed vs target speed) more detail below. In summary, you should see damage increase in speed build such as spear build.
Increase move speed and turn speed for player's large sword moves. 0.2x move speed and 0.15x turn speed while swinging, to 0.4x move speed and 0.2x turn speed. It will be less sluggish when swing.
Speed strike
Before this update, speed strike worked by adding velocity of both parties (adding vectors), if you are running right with speed 4 and target is running left with speed 2 and you land a spear hit on it, enemy got hit harder because it is also running into you, it becomes clash speed of 6 and you get bonus from speed strike accordingly. Ok so that's logical.
But now when you continue to combo your target while it drifts away with same direction as yours, say, you are still running right with speed 4 and target is now bashed and also drifting right with speed 4, two of you are moving at the same speed and direction, so 0 clash speed bonus this time, making spear build and "bashing" item modifier become useless.
This update, will just add speed of both parties without vectorial calculation, you 4 to the right and enemy's 4 to the right = 8 clash speed bonus. Spear build will enjoy significant damage boost from this change.
Previously, in situation like this, there would be less damage to combo 2 and 3 as target is now moving in same direction as yours. Now combo 2 and 3 will properly receive speed strike bonus by this update.
Minor difficulty adjustment (Update 1774)
Update 1774
Forest stage second floor breakout in hard mode will has less barrels. Mortar is added at last fence.
Buff enemies HP in hard mode a bit (+10%)
Fix lava stage explosive stalagmite trap did not work due to wrong configure.
Major Update 0.13 New Hard Mode + A bit more
New Stuffs
New difficulty: Hard
Dive into harder variant of dimension with each new gimmicks of their own. Some enemies might got their new trick too. Select the new difficulty in room setting in town lobby screen and give it a go!
Town Blacksmith
Weapon mods customization is now possible, including repair your equipment or protecting them from completely broken! But this privilege is reserved to veteran dungeon looters, it will be demanding considerable resources and gold. Unlock it from DDD upgrade menu along with other new added upgrades.
Rework on Loot Points (LP)
Previously loot points are 'imaginary' point that you obtained when smashing the boxes/vases. I decided to rework it to be more 'visually understandable'. So in short, these new glittering are your new LP, go get 'em! At the end of the run they will also converted into gold.
Fast Travel
If your team explored 100% of current floor and cleared 100％ all enemies. You can fast travel to important locations such as shop or exit door without having to navigate the floor again.
Gameplay changes
That you should know.
Rogue: canceling dodge roll with attack
This technique gives better chance to backstab while rolling pass enemy's body. While in the rolling animation, hold the opposite direction key and then attack. Effect clue will play if you do it correctly.
Ranged weapon can now deal with enemy's spinning move
Old: Player MUST use guard+counter to stop such move. Ranged projectile cannot hurt them as this melee attack also deny incoming projectiles. New: In additional of guard+counter, player can also use ranged projectile to damage and make them stagger. (especially for rogue who does not have guard+counter) Enemy spinning melee attack will not deny projectile from hitting anymore.
Random teleport card will confuse chasing enemies
When using a random teleport card (Random-Access Card) to escape chasing enemies, they will become confused for short period. (lose current aggro and won't be able to sight a new target, similar to rogue's smoke bomb skill)
Projectile deny and mage's mana wall VS explosive
Old: Denying (slashing) an explosive projectile and it will still explode in your face. New: Denying will safely dispose of projectile without explosion, mage mana wall also does that so standing near it won't face an explosion anymore.
Other Fixes and Tuning
All classes: Buff starting stamina of every classes. This should make more flexible game play for new players.
Rogue: Have double daggers as default weapon instead of 1 hand. (To be able to use sonic slash on start)
Sewer: Tune slime splitting, split slimes will have less level than its original.
Boss world: Final boss will randomize each minigame by shuffle bag method (pick and remove) instead of fully random so every minigame can take turn to appear.
Item: Change the way item modifier "cursed" work, it will now add attack bonus to player instead of apply in weapon per-swing, this was adjusted for rogue dual wielding to get more fair damage output while holding 2 curse weapons. (and still getting defense down debuff from both hands)
Loot: Rework on item generation logic, it should give a proper better item naturally in higher floor.
Economy: With introduction of new LP system, diver license level curve, dungeon shop are heavily re-adjusted.
Economy: Selling items in town gives you more gold, especially valuable items.
Hot join: Fix hot join procedure to properly work again vs new player who still preparing in the town screen.
Dev Talk Corner
2023 is still going, pandemic comes and go, new game genre also come and go, back then there were auto battler, bullet heaven, now is 'only up' and their army of clones. And I looked at at my personal project, Dungeon Looter, who is still on the old side of genre, I smirk a bit.
Dungeon Looter was perhaps too ambitious and expensive to make, not cost-expensive but time-expensive. There were 1Y before putting it into the EA, and now it should be near another 1Y anniversary in EA.
I'm happy how the new difficulty update turned out and make the game is closer to what I wanted it to be. I'm relieved that I can deliver it by the promised time (August) from the last update post. But looking ahead, given the speed of 2 major updates I managed to push out, I want to reconsider some extra features I think might be too costly to include in the early access phase, let's talk about them a bit.
- Bots: This was intended to be for solo players to be able to get the chaotic fun experience the game could offer in multiplayer room. For technical perspective, it would also hard to make good AI. Will it be worth the long development effort, not to mention will it really worth it and make the game more fun in the end?
- Modding support: Modding would be very great choice for game with existing player base, and if the game genre itself is kind of sandbox which allow player to have fun modding it. Even though Dungeon Looter satisfies second condition, but probably not enough for the first. So this also has to wait and see.
- Another game mode: Could served as an extension content after the release but I feel like I should not tie or delay full release with this condition. Let's focus on the main mode experience for now.
With aforementioned reason, I would like to announce that these extras will be moved to beyond the full release.
Next plan
Since this update is a feature update, next one will be a content update.
I aim to add +1 another class, + 1 another theme and some side dishes maybe new item modifier and rework on perks.
For the ETA of next major update would be around Dec-Jan.
Current Early Access Progress
Currently I would evaluate it to be around at 50% progress toward full release.
<0.11> Initial EA release <0.12> Rogue+Sewer <0.13> Hard mode <--- WE are here -- next ------ <0.14> 1 class + 1 theme <0.15?> maybe some addition/adjustment to the core game play <0.16?> Finally achievement + localization -- full release -----
With this new plan, we would see full release around Q3-Q4 next year, with total time 2Y in EA which is maybe already uncomfortable than I wanted.
For those extra features mentioned above (bot+modding etc) will not be totally scraped out, but moved to "maybe" after the full release.
-----------------------------------------------
That's all for now, If you found any bugs, please report them in the forum! ːsteamhappyː
Fix bad switch placement (Update 1539)
Update 1539
Fix a bug where objective switch could be placed in unreachable locations which will make floor becomes unwinnable.
To allow flexibility if such case happen again, player is allowed to activate switches through wall, range to reach the switch are also increased significantly. (+1.0 meter)
Beginner's tutorial "item enter weight limit" will not popup anymore when you enter your item loadout in town screen if you have played the game (have license loot point > 0)
Fix sewer slime boss' collision will float above player if rogue were to dodge roll into it.
Bug regarding switch placement is addressed, but as an insurance, if switches are in unreachable locations again, you should still be able to push it through the wall.
Fix slime will ride on top of you if you dodge roll under it, making you cannot attack it. (smart move, actually!)
Fix error when rejoin a room (Update 1535)
Update 1535
Fix an error in rejoin offer dialog on title screen (if you were disconnected during the game and back to title screen)
Previously it will play repeated sound and rejoin process will fail, this patch should fix that.
Note that rejoining back to the game (with level and inventory retained) only supported for "interrupted connection", it does not supported if game is crashed at the moment. (Your run progress will be lost in such case)
For those who never see this screen, you're good! I hope you ever don't have to :)
Small bug fixes (Update 1532)
Update 1532
Fix option item "Show Attack Range" = OFF does not work.
Fix option item "Show Control Tutorial" = OFF will have effect immediately.
Fix map generator can sometimes place objective switch in unreachable place.
Item Modifier Tiers (Update 1526)
TL;DR
Update 1526
Change item modifiers to be displayed in tiers from 1 to 5, each tier has different drop rate.
Change LP shop to have items with higher modifier tier.
Small bug fixes (details below)
Here is a small update to game mechanic that I wanted to ship before the lengthy process of adding HARD mode.
Previously, when the game add a line of upgrade (modifiers) to an item, behind the scene it will also roll power magnitude from 1 to 10 with 10 having max effect, but those 1-10 number were not displayed to player because I wanted to keep things simple.
The only way player can confirm these differences is to go into item info popup in detailed mode. (Keyboard: HOME key, Gamepad: press the R-stick [R3])
On this update, I decided to bring these numbers up to the surface and with just a glance you can confirm which effect is big or small.
Each tier now has different drop rate
Previously, the old system will just pick a number from 1 to 10 equally, now it will use percent. Rates are around these numbers: - T1 = 55% - T2 = 25% - T3 = 10% - T4 = 6.66% - T5 = 3.33%
Additionally, the whale's LP shop which was nerfed by previous update to produce items with less upgrade lines, will instead get modifier tier boost in this update. e.g., any modifier line generated as T2 will instantly become T3.
What will happen to my existing items?
Internally, data stays the same, existing items in your home base will be displayed with this format, you will even see some of them identified as T4 or T5 as the old system picked 1 to 10 equally so it was relatively easier to have T4 or T5 lines. Good for you!
What will this mechanic evolve into?
With that intimidating drop rate, It seems like a bit more troublesome to find high tier modifiers, but worry not, in later update (TBD) you will have an ability to upgrade or forge these modifier lines!
For an instance, if you have an item with 'Cursed III' you could upgrade it to 'Cursed IV' yourself with upgrade material collected from 'dismantling' another items with 'Cursed' modifier. This is not only served as an end-game content but also give meaning to upload weapons (with modifier lines) from dungeon back home.
Another fixes in this update
Bugfix: When client play as Rogue and use 'Sonic Slash' skill, the attack won't get damage bonus from 'Dagger Damage' perk.
Bugfix: Mouse wheel cannot scroll item info if hover over equipment slot area.
Balance: Buff 'Sharp' modifier a bit.
-----------------------------------------------
That's all for now, I'm still watching forum for bug report and suggestions from last update, keep em coming!
ːsteamhappyː
Update 0.12 New Class - New Theme
This is content update pushing toward full release. 0.12.1518 or simply "1518"
New Stuffs
New class: Rogue
A class specialized in daggers and can even dual-wield them! - They have a 6-combo attack! Backstab for maximum damage!
Who needs guarding? Dodge roll FOR THE WIN! - Rogue's guard action is replaced by a dodge roll which completely nullifies damage! But there's a catch though.
And 3 skills to help rogue dodge the dodgy situations! - Sonic Slash: A fast long reach 8-hit attack. Since dagger's reach is short, this extra range offer is very much welcome. - Smoke Bomb: Got dozen of enemies on hot pursuit? This ninja tech is the way to go. - Place Decoy: Let the folks become busy, open your way out or an opportunity to backstab.
New theme: Sewer
The new dungeon coordinate points you to this monster-infested stinking water territory!
Water area will slow you down Not a great place to start a brawl...
Something might be lurking underwater Beware the new enemies who will ambush!
The new boss awaits No spoiler, but make sure to have a weapon or AoE skill that can deal with multiple targets!
Fixes and Tuning
Database: Make some existing elite enemies and boss a bit stronger
Database: Tune LP shop item listing because item offered there was too OP
Database: Tune later floor to have more enemy credit, early floor stays the same
Final Boss: Fix object error that could happen in final boss minigame room such as teleport pad that was not cleaned up
Final Boss: Each wave of "stun wave" (where you deal enough damage to the boss) will increase in number each time
Item: Fix glove should not reduce its durability on using throwing knives
System: Fix hot join player which receive initial starting level, to get to pick their perk right on that floor instead of having to play next floor without perk then pick the perk
System: Fix client does not offer to reconnect to the the same lobby if player was disconnected
Dev Talk Corner
- What took this update so long? The new class (rogue) really added a lot of new stuff in technical aspect, like dual weapons system or dodge roll. Including several new mechanism in new theme like water terrain. There was a lot going on in the code level for these.
- A bit of fun fact: I took liberty to compose all dungeon theme song by myself I happened to compose the very first one (prison theme) on the whim because I did not want to use stock music and it's now become my self-imposed challenge to do all of them since. It was nothing to brag as I'm not from music background but if you did not noticed that it sucked that's already a compliment to me!
- I was really reluctant about difficulty tuning in the previous release For the fear that it will turn people off (exactly this happened in very first demo pre-release), like imagine being gang-up and dying in the first floor, that would be instant frustration. (plus the control was still kinda bad back then)
It result in Dungeon Looter was tuned to be easier than intended, this decision had also backfired a bit that some power players can just finish it on their very first run, so it will be like "Huh? was that all of it?" Compare to similar genre like in 'Risk of Rain', 'Heroes of Hammerwatch', 'Gunfire Reborn' or alike where you are less likely to finish a first zero-upgraded run, so that's not a good design in my view. So I decided to ramp up difficulty in the late floor a bit in this update.
- Dungeon Looter had sold 500 copies! (as of Jan 2023) Thank you everyone for the warm support, very much welcome. As my first release on Steam and since then I have learned more about visibility mechanism behind Steam.
I do have regrets though, participating in Steam event is very good way to boost said visibility, but sadly Dungeon Looter did not have a chance to do any, one was my fault, the Steam NEXT fest where they show upcoming games's demo, but I failed to submit in time. Another was bigger BASHBASH event (Nov 2022) featuring action games which I'm positive that Dungeon Looter could fit for its theme but was denied boarding at discretion from event staff.
To rub salt to the wound, on actual day, there were many games similar to mine that allowed to participate, even unrelated genre like freaking typing game! I was stupefied but no use in crying over spilled milk, let's move on...
Next plan
Since this update is content update which add a new class and a new theme. Next update will be alternate to feature update. - I'm expecting to add HARD MODE (finally!) to the game since current content is very limited of what can be done after beating normal mode. This will also unlock more town upgrades which tied to new rewards dropped in hard mode. - I want to revisit item modifier and perk, since current system is very monotonous, you see good perk you select it, etc, etc. Maybe adding new variants or some twist to it.
For the ETA of this update, since HARD mode alone will be a big addition, like adding extra type of enemy to EVERY themes, even add new moves to EVERY existing bosses or some enemies. On very rough ETA I'd expected to be around August+.
State of the Early Access
Currently I would evaluate it to be around at 20% progress toward full release. As of this update Dungeon Looter now have: - 4 player classes, out of 5 planned. - 5 dungeon theme, out of 7 planned. - only 1 game mode, out of ? There are more essential feature that I planned to add into the game along the way such as (sorted from most important) - AI players (BOT) - Late game mechanism (after all difficulties are done) - Achievement - Language localization
-----------------------------------------------
That's all for now, If you found any bugs, please report them in the forum! ːsteamhappyː
