Equin 2: The Warren Peace releases this Friday, Nov 19th!
The time is now!
After a pretty arduous year and a half plus it's just about that time.
Equin 2: The Warren Peace, the sequel to DXF Games' best seller Equin: The Lantern will finally be here this Friday, November 19th! When an evil wizard writes the longest and most boring book of all time- which literally bores people to death- it's up to the town stranger to get rid of it.
Follow the exploits of your new adventurer in a brand new and improved traditional roguelike game that pits them against all manner of nasty beastie, on a grand quest to return the damn book to its evil master. Featuring four different player classes and playstyles, skill choices for builds, over 250 different weapons / armor / potions you get the idea. With a special focus on gear variation and the ability to upgrade hundreds of items, even that lowly wooden staff can be a weapon of mass destruction.*
*Potentially, I mean after all it IS still a wooden staff in the end!
Journey through jungle swamps, arid deserts, haunted caves, a frozen prison and more for a one-way trip to the evil wizard's menacing tower in A PLOT THAT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE.
Fight monsters, not the controls!
But best of all is this game's easy to use control scheme- a rarity in this genre from what I've seen. By primarily using only the arrow keys and space bar many of your actions are done through a special context menu. No need to memorize a thousand input keys or hidden keyboard shortcuts.
By standing next to this witch's cauldron and pressing the space bar you'll have the option to fill an empty bottle and get a free potion- you DID bring an empty bottle, don't you?
"Fight monsters?? Why's everybody hatin' on us zombies? All we want is a little love, dammit. Well that, and some brains of course."
Want a taste? Try the demo!
The game has a free demo in which to try this time! Though the full game has been greatly expanded upon in the weeks since the last demo build, it'll give you a good idea on what this game is all about. If you enjoy it, there's no way you won't like the full game. NO WAY, I said.
The demo can be found if you scroll down a bit on EQ2's store page here:
I want to give a special thanks to those of you here who have followed my games' development and enjoyed them over the years up on Steam. It's a fact that we're all getting older and my 47th birthday will be here pretty soon (!!) Don't laugh, it'll happen to YOU TOO one day lol..
Being a solo dev isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world however I wouldn't change it for anything. I don't know how many more of these things I can pump out, but I'll try my damnedest to deliver quality experiences that offer fun, humor, and heart as long as I'm able.
Thanks and have a great day!
And here's a bonus shot of me and R2-D2, who encourages you to at least try the demo. Or is he trying to blink twice for help? Since I don't speak Bocce, I have no idea.
Equin 2: The Warren Peace is part of this year's October Steam Next Event
The upcoming sequel to Equin: The Lantern will be part of the October Steam Next event which starts later today, Friday Oct. 1st. Be a part of it and check out the new updated demo. The demo lets you play as the Warrior class though the first two areas. I really think anybody who enjoyed Equin: The Lantern will for sure like The Warren Peace as well.
And I even made a new trailer to show off some of the later areas too!
As always any feedback would be super helpful to me. The game is planned for a Nov. 19th 2021 release.
Thanks and enjoy the event!!
The Equin 2: Demo is here!
Hey everyone, the Equin 2 demo is finally available!
This is a short demo showcasing the first two areas of the game using the Warrior class. The full game has all four playable classes and six areas to adventure through.
Fight Monsters, Not the Controls!
The game is designed to be easy to learn how to play, yet still challenging to give you a good time. You will be using the space bar to call up a context menu to perform actions most of the time. For example if you walk over a treasure chest, pressing the space bar will give you the choice to open it (or attempt to disarm the trap, if it has one). Walking up to a door while in the dark and pressing the space bar will let you listen to see if you can hear monsters on the other side. These are but two small examples.
Plus it'll show you a small picture of what you're interacting with at the bottom. Hoorah!
Temple Ruins
This joint holds the kind of jerks you read about: Bats, Snakes, Zombies, and Slimes are some of the monsters you'll encounter here. Second in rainfall totals only to Ferenginar, the place is covered in swamps and ponds. Careful swimming in them!
Desert of Doom
Overall much more open and spacious than the temple area, it's like a giant beach that nobody in their right mind would ever visit. Orcs- vicious pig men- make their homes here amongst the heat and sand. While here be sure to watch out for the random firestorms that sweep through every now and then, as touching the flames will surely burn any wooden gear away.
Items Ahoy!
About pretty much every item can be gotten in this thing if you're super lucky. Swords, helmets, potions.. to the tune of near 275 items of varying degrees of rarity and power. Most can be further upgraded and made much better. There's even an item log to keep track of them now too:
The full game is set to release this November 19th, 2021.
You can download the demo from the Equin 2 storepage's GIANT GREEN button below all the stuff. You can't miss it.
Is my 2nd ever roguelike (and probably my 20th ever completed game, give or take). It takes place in the same world as Equin: The Lantern and makes many significant improvements from my first effort.
The Story So Far
An evil wizard has written a 6000-page book, "The Warren Peace", which is the longest and most boring book known to man. Sending it to your village, the curious townsfolk started to read it and then PROMPTY BORED THEMSELVES TO DEATH. As the mysterious stranger, you found the book and have vowed to destroy it by returning it FROM WHENCE IT CAME.
"The Warren Peace" is also an in-game indestructible item, which can be equipped in your off-hand slot and read in combat. This will put your character to sleep for a single round, but enable him to recover stamina. Stamina is used for fighting and many other actions within the game like fishing or digging up graves.
FEATURES
Easy to use controls, which I find to be a rarity for roguelikes
Lovable rabbit warriors, thieves, wizards, and clerics to routinely kill all the live long day
Equipped gear visibly shows on your character
Larger visible playing field
Battle enemies in first person combat, or automatically 'bump to kill' weaker ones at high levels
Hundreds of items and gear to upgrade
More diverse class skills and this time you can choose what you learn
Travel the world to dispose of the evil book- from swampy temples to arid deserts to underground prisons and more!
A brand new OST featuring real drums, bass, keyboard / synths, and guitars.
WISHLIST TODAY!
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1630690/
Please stop by and take a GANDER, if you like what you see please by all means Wishlist and Follow! Know anybody who is interested in roguelikes but is easily scared by how complicated they can be to play? Tell them about it too!
Equin 2: The Warren Peace / Beta Testers Sign Up-O-Rama
Good afternoon!
Today I'm going to try something a bit different. I'm holding a contest / sign-up for those who'd like to become Equin 2 beta testers! If this doesn't sound like fun, you need not apply of course!
As I'm fast approaching an entire year with the project I can safely say that while it's got tons of cooking left to do I'm getting happier and happier with what I have every day I work on it. Even though I playtest the crap out of my games a lot I believe that in order for me to deliver the best overall product in the end I'd need help to fully test things and probably more importantly get early feedback from you guys so that this can happen.
I've been a long-standing supporter of NO EARLY ACCESS, and while maybe other devs would take what I currently have and try to sell it to make some easy money that's not what I'm going to do. I figure this way I can get the help and feedback I need and some of you can get a free game out of the deal and hopefully a lot of fun, too!
The Gist
Equin 2: The Warren Peace is my 2nd roguelike game, and the sequel to Equin: The Lantern. It follows the traditional roguelike structure for the most part and has randomized dungeons / permadeath / turn-based, tile-based movement. The biggest thing that separates my games from those however is the inclusion of a first-person battle system akin to the Dragon Warrior (or Pokemon) games. Depending on what items you have equipped in your hands will determine what battle actions your character can perform.
Unlike almost every other roguelike I've ever tried, this game purposely has easy-to-learn controls. Arrows move you around, "I" is for inventory, "W" waits a turn, "S" shows you your Special combat skills and special effects, "ESC" lets you quit and save for next time, and "H" is a small Help section if you need it. Most importantly though is the Space Bar. Pressing Space Bar while you're on or near something you'd like to interact with will bring up a small context menu and let you choose what to do next. This ranges from opening a chest to closing a door to entering a building. So don't forget the space bar!
The game's controls are also always shown on the right bottom of the screen so you can't forget.
There are four playable character classes, each with their own good and bad points. You begin with a set combat skill at level 1, and upon reaching levels 3 and 6 you'll be able to choose one of two other combat skills as well. This differs with the first game as you only had 3 total skills that were always the same. So while it's not Final Fantasy Tactics levels of depth, it does make for more interesting gameplay.
The inventory screen came out really well!
As of this writing, there are 198 total weapons, armor, and other items in the game. Almost all of these can be found upgraded (rarely) or upgraded yourself through use of the amazingly-named "Upgrade Dust". These can also be found in sacks or chests, won as rewards or purchased at shops. Upgrading your gear can really make you more powerful, and unlike some games it's not always going to be "+1 damage, +2 damage, hurr durr". Equipped items also show on your character this time around! I've really put a lot of thought into this game's itemization and I hope it shows through.
Item categories (from worst to best): Common / Rare / Unique / Heroic. Additionally there's "Enemy Drop" which are items that can only be found by killing enemies and getting them from a dropped sack. Very often enemy drops are excellent- rivaling the best rares or even some uniques! To balance them, they will never drop pre-upgraded. That doesn't mean you can't use an Upgrade Dust to upgrade them yourself later, of course! Heroic items are very rare and can't be upgraded at all since they are already pretty damn powerful as-is. Don't fret if you aren't finding many powerful items right away- I'm designing the game so that a player can succeed with a full stack of common gear too!
The game's water generation is a billion times better than ETL's. Sometimes you can get huge lakes like this!
Overall there are less treasure chests in this game than the first one, but that's by design. However, every chest will hold an item in it 100% of the time. Gold pieces are also harder to come by, but for the most part shop item prices have been lowered over the first game's too. Money is acquired through a few ways: 1) Find it in barrels / crates / pots. 2) Scrap an unwanted item for a small amount of cash. 3) Enemies can sometimes drop sacks which contain gold pieces.
Currently, I have 3 dungeon areas more or less complete (Temple / Desert / Crypt) with 2 more planned. Upon reaching the end of the Crypt area you'll be taken to the "end of content" screen.
If you would like to apply, please note
This is a very unfinished / unpolished game, and will only improve over time. Many of the battle effects and etc. for example are really rough-looking.
It's only me making all aspects of this, but I do work on it when I'm able to and will absolutely finish it bar an asteroid falling on me or some other godly event.
Your feedback will be kind of greatly necessary to me in order to make this the best game possible for everyone in the end. Think a weapon is too weak? Say so! Think that font looks like ass? Let's hear you! Can't get past the desert area and ready to pull your hair out? Let me know!
Requirements
I'm looking specifically for those who have extensive knowledge of the first game, Equin: The Lantern. I figure this is the best way to go about it, since I'm trying to improve upon it.
If you can't really put the time to play more than a few minutes of this here and there, please let someone else give it a shot. I only asked for a small amount of beta keys from Valve and want to give those who really want to do this a chance.
---
I only have a handful of beta keys, so these probably won't last too long. If it's something you'd like to participate in please comment below saying as much and we'll friend request and all that fun stuff afterwards.
Thank you for hearing me out and let's make a good game, dammit!
Equin 2: The Warren Peace / Progress Report, April 2021
Hello!
We are coming up on almost a year since I started to make Equin: The Lantern's sequel, "Equin 2: The Warren Peace". Why is it in quotation marks? Nobody knows!
Here today though I want to show a few screenshots of what I've been working on this past month (when I can), as my fourth child was just born a couple weeks ago so the goings have been slow.
In-game Help Menu
It might not seem like much (and it just might not be) but I've added a small help option the player can access through pressing.... H.. For help. Wow, how innovative! Anyhow you can get a small rundown of some topics from here at any time while playing the game. Here for example is some more detailed information about the Strength attribute, including some behind the scenes crap like how it influences critical hits and attack power.
To make room for this option to show on the main screen I just got rid of the "CONTROLS" label, which was kind of redundant anyhow.
More building types
So far we have three different types of buildings you'll come across while playing, but there will for sure be more later, as I figured out a cool way to add these without having to contact NASA for mathematical assistance.
In addition to the Shops, there are Guilds (pictured), and a Casino where you can gamble away your worldly possessions.
More gear, all the time, always!
And every single time I go to work on the game for anything I'm adding new gear to it. The last thing is this warrior-only Halberd, which is a huge-ass axe / spear class weapon that requires two hands (that's what she said!). Other recent additions off the top of my head include:
Set of crocodile armor that lets the player submerge in water (all non-water enemies won't detect you or move to intercept while underwater)
A weathervane staff weapon that gains an electrical attack whenever it's raining outside.
A Heroic Amulet that lets you equip any gear, regardless of class.
One magic necklace that heals a % of your HP every time you score a critical hit.
Minor demons can potentially drop a nice shield which you can use to bash enemies and has a chance to burn them too.
There's just way way more than this but I don't want to spoil everything because that'd suck. In fact later tonight I'm planning on adding a new ring that helps extend effect duration.
That's all for today, have a good week!
Dave / Del_Duio
Equin 2: The Warren Peace
Lot of stuff this week!
Equin 2: The Warren Peace
Made the official title public. I love me some puns.
Started (and basically finished) the 3rd playable dungeon area, a crypt of all things. Undead are SCARY.
The Crypt's floors have a high chance to be in complete darkness. Additionally there's a ~20% or so chance for that floor's water supply to be polluted right off the bat.
New enemy ability to heal themselves. Luckily not every enemy can do this.
New enemy "blood bat", which can morph into a vampire in mid-battle. These guys are super strong if they change form. They have a unique battle option called bloodlust where (if active) they will heal 25% of their max HP whenever they touch and damage you. Vampires came out great. Tweening animation and everything, and it doesn't look like shit to boot!
Lots of new mundane items like the Painted Shield and Studded Leather armor. The armor has some flavor text about everyone's favorite movie bar, of course:
[previewyoutube="jo3m2ATiomY;leftthumb"]
Vampires can now potentially drop their fangs. These can be used to give you their bloodlust effect for yourself!
A couple new rares including a Bloody Chain (necklace) which protects you vs. that vampire's draining attack. As a true roguelike fuck you to the player this will also nullify the effect of a Vampire's Fang if you go to use it on yourself while the chain is equipped. So don't do that.
Spazz Weed is back! However this time it has only one effect. It'll make you super paranoid, which raises your Hit and Evade % by a ton, at the cost of potentially bugging out in battle (and losing your turn). Unlike other consumables, you'll need a torch in your pack to burn it in order to work.
Old campfires can be restarted by using up a torch as well, and dumping a bottle of Fire Water will do the same thing. More examples of how a single item can have more than a single usage.
I'm bringing back ETL's Time Bomb floor events only this time I'm tying it to an enemy of sorts. So you can still try and escape the floor before the bomb goes off and kills you OR you can locate the actual bomb itself and attempt to disarm it in battle. Each round that passes where you don't disarm it makes the bomb more and more unstable, which may explode and kill you earlier than expected. But overall I like this new mechanic a lot. Choices, am I right??
There is certainly more, but I can't remember. It's coming along pretty great!
I don't have screenshots of any of this stuff right now, you will have to take my word for it.
EDIT: Yeah I do!
A timebomb event in action
This cleric fears not the Crypt! Well, maybe a tad. He still has his starter wooden club.
Thanks!
Dave / Del_Duio
Hi! It's the.. COVID-19 update??
Hello!
I have a small but important update for you all today, the first in almost an entire year (gasp!) As some of you may already know I've been hard at work on this game's sequel, but that doesn't mean ol' ETL can't get any love still.
Here are the changes:
Some starting Bonuses were improved- XP went from +15% to +20%, Gold earned from +25% to +30%, MDEF went from +3 to +4. Attack +2 and all stats +1 remain unchanged because that's pretty good as they were.
Regular chest spawns were SLIGHTLY reduced, from 20% to 12%. In the sequel game I have less chests but made them more impactful. So that's what I'm doing here as well, because...
Gold chest chance was increased kind of a lot.
Shadow chest chance was also inceased kind of a lot, and a TON during Graveyard / Treasure / and Champion floor events.
The game's title page has little sparklie doos over "Equin: The Lantern"
The sequel's water came out so good, that this game's water puddles sort of embarass me lol. To SORT of make amends, I've redone the graphics a bit for said water puddles.
Touching an Equin Statue now no longer has a chance to lose max HP and Stamina! To compensate, the odds that you'll be healed were increased. Also the odds that a random item in your pack gets changed went up too.
Touching an Equin Statue now gives larger permanent stat gains, should it roll that way. Permanent STR / MAG / DEX / and CON will be raised +1-3 points now. It used to be +1-2 before.
XP gains from touching an Equin statue were increased by another 50% (went from 'Dungeon Floor' x 100 to 'Dungeon Floor' x 150)
Change the date! Since it's now 2021, the appropriate changes have been made there of course.
Well that's all for today, I have to run!
Have a great weekend and remember if you like the game please consider dropping a review on the store page. I have lots of competition out here, you see!
-Dave / Del_Duio
Equin 2, Event Rooms
Hello!
I'm working on making some random events for the Equin sequel, and have several that are pretty funny / unique. How it works is you'd enter a special door (may or not appear on any given floor) and it randomly chooses from X amount of events to display.
Further, there can be either 2 or 3 different actions the player can choose this time around (vs. the simple "yes" or "no" in Equin: The Lantern). What's cool is that I can tie the possible choices to stat checks or even player class now, since it's been built from the ground-up.
Some examples:
You find a locked golden chest w/ an especially dangerous trap. You can either leave it alone or attempt to disarm it (uses DEX x 5%) If you disarm it you'll get a random piece of rare gear that's either pre-upgraded +1 or +2. Failure to pick the lock may very well kill you, but at least you'll get the choice for either.
A confused wizard is here with two types of potions. He says that one is a healing potion while the other is undoubtedly a deadly poison. He wants you to choose which is the healing potion with the caveat that you have to take the first sip. - Now what makes this one kind of cool is the game checks to see if you yourself are also a Wizard character and if so your choices make it very obvious which is which. If you're NOT a wizard on the other hand you have to make one of two blind guesses, as well as have an option to leave the room and not risk it.
The book of Curiosities makes a triumphant return! You can either choose to read a page or not, however if you do decide to read a page many different things can happen like swapping your STR and DEX stats around and etc. The good thing here is that each volume of these books is tied to a specific alteration- So you might want to purposely read Volume 4 if you know that it will swap your CON and MAG around and need more CON.
There are more, but I can't spoil them all here because that would suck.
So.. ah, anyone have any interesting ideas that might be fun I could add? Example: "You walk into a room and there's a pie sitting on the ground with a wick sticking out. It could be very delicious, but then again it could be an EXPLODING PIE. What will you do?" Then the options might be to 'leave it alone', 'take a bite', or 'poke it with a long stick'. and etc.
I'm going to have at least 30 of these in the game so things don't get too boring.
Christmas Time? Christmas Tree Weapon!
Merry Christmas, all!
'Tis my yearly reminder about Equin: The Lantern's special ultra-rare Christmas Tree weapon! If you're new, this thing will be available at the start of any new run all day tomorrow Dec 25th! (There's some other odds and ends you'll get too but the tree is the big one)
Christmas Tree
One-Handed Magical Spear
Equippable by: Everyone, huzzah!
ATK +10
STR +2
MAG +2
DEX +2
CON +2
Crit Chance +2%
Fire Prone
Battle Options: POKE, SPARK (minor electric spell), RECOUP (recover stamina)
Equip it, and steamroll the early floors like Santa run amok! However keep in mind since it's y'know A TREE and all it'll get destroyed if hit by fire!
See this bat? He slept on the Christmas Tree. Know what happened next? He died, Jill.
In sequel news, progress on the game's desert area is really coming along! Aside from new scorpion enemies there's also a chance to get floorwide Firestorms now (kind of like ETL's Inferno floors, but with much less chance of fire tiles... And with a different name). New uniques and rares were added, and I'm working on adding a way to view your skills and skill descriptions out of combat. Almost like a real game!
If you thought killer scorpions and buzzards were something to fear, wait 'til you get sand in your shoe.
That's all for today, have a safe & happy & COVID-FREE holiday!! ːsteamhappyː
