The Dungeon Paradox
EARLY ACCESS BUILD 5
* Added Informative Titles to Character Creation's three stages
* Adjusted Screenshot Mode (F11) to now also hide Minimap
* Increased banding-dithering for smoother low-light luminosity transitions
* Increased the number of samplings used for Depth of Field
* Increased quality of Depth of Field rendering pass
* Fixed material issue for unlitBlack
* Fixed light cookie bleed for all flashlights as seen on the minimap on some vegetation
* Adjusted some bullet-hole materials for better color-matching and nicer normal-mapping
* Fixed edge-case where Operator and Monster animation-speed wasn't properly reset between state-changes
EARLY ACCESS BUILD 4
* Added Option for showing the Tool Tip - default setting is to show it
* Fix slight camera drift when holding activator (default MMB / Left Shift) but not actively moving the mouse
* Fix issue when Look and Interact's Orders carried across rounds could allow one to interact with Actors from a distance
EARLY ACCESS BUILD 3
* Deactivated Monsters saying lines in Build, useful for debugging but somewhat breaking narrative when playing
* Adjusted a lot of long sentences said by Operators to now be row-broken for easier reading
* Adjusted Camera height to 4.9m from 5.0m
* Adjusted Mouse-scroll tick to 40cm from 50cm, and key-press (def. C/V) to 80cm from 1m, for adjusting Camera height
EARLY ACCESS BUILD 2
* Added higher quality grave models and replace out the existing ones in the levels
* Improved BloodRock and BloodDust effects
* Fixed showing Continue (Main Menu) and Reload from Savegame (In-game menu) options if lacking a savegame
* Adjusted encryption on the savegame files
EARLY ACCESS BUILD 1
* Added a Tutorial level, replacing the placeholder one
* Added Asset-loading Intro-scene
* Added a information tool-tip to the Select Team-mate stage, showing Name, Attribute values, Special Ability and Weapon the Operator starts with
* Added a buttons to Operator Overview window for increasing Attributes of an Operator
* Added a graphical loadbar to all Load-screens
* Added a ESc Menu for ingame control, reload level, return to main menu, exit game back to Windows
* Added Spider (Small) to some levels
* Added a new licensed ambience audio loop to the first levels
* Added several new high-resolution decals (4K)
* Added new mid-step Loading-scene
* Added new trigger-actors, by tile and by range
* Added graphical representation of tick-countdown to Action Phase
* Added new designed Execute Planning button to the Planning UI
* Added new de-spawn sound-effect for Monsters
* Added save-game storing remaining Attribute Points between Levels and after Character Creation stage
* Added an information-UI when reading a Book
* Added multiple alternative key-mappings for input
* Adjusted Look and Interact Orders to now carry over to next Phase if not finished
* Adjusted Input-handling from hard-coded reading keys to using re-mappable references
* Adjusted Wall and Floor texture to be native 4K texture in build
* Adjusted several sound-effect to not be affected of Doppler audio-processing as they are indicatory audio, not real-world audio
* Adjusted sound-range for multiple sound effects
* Adjusted torch-triggers for some Levels, give a more gradual progress and path-indication
* Adjusted Strength of Spider (Normal) for balance
* Adjusted FPS-counter color and alpha
* Improved the sound-effect for flipping pages in a Book
* Improved muzzle-flashes for all Operator weapons
* Improved Camera-control while running with an adjusted game-time (slow-motion, fast forward, pause)
* Fixed weapon-names not being properly shown in Overview window after a large refactoring of weapons for Build 15
* Fixed an issue with Order pre-visualization that would only display one Attack-order when several was queued up for a singe Operator
Early Access available on 2nd of June
As the description of the Early Access declaration on the store-page outlines, we estimate that we are many months away from a gold-version - possible another 24 months(!) needed for all the content to get into the game to make it a full release. And that is only if things progress nicely, and there is no major disruptions externally that occur...and we have seen that things can happen that no-one can predict.
So, here is the pleading: Don't buy the game now. Look at what the game offers today - and how much it doesn't offer - and make the decision to wishlist the game instead. It is the right choice to make.
Observe the progress the game makes, see the patch-notes as the come in, see the reliability (if, or not) of updates and improvements. Don't buy any Early Access title the first week. You are setting yourself up for disappointment.
With that, here is a pledge: The goal is to release this as v1.0 Gold, with all the content (read: levels and monster) as planned and it will not be released as a Gold version before it is. And the updates will be, as have been seen over the past year, be stable. Not fast, not revolutionary, but stable and not abandoned.
Not even if it sells 0 copies the first week. It will not affect the roadmap.
Actually, do me a favour - only buy the game in Early Access if you are willing to spend some time on discord to give your feedback or write posts in the Steam community forum to give your opinions or wishes.
Once the game goes Gold some advertisement will be done, guarantees of content will be given - and everyone is welcome to purchase and review it. Until then - don't. :)
Yes, you are literally told to not buy the game now. Your money is not needed to finish the game. I'd rather see that you are seeing the game when it is finished and ready for a full play-through. Early Access is only for those that like to punish themselves or want to truly be involved in the development of the game in some function.
ALPHA BUILD 15
* Added icon for Freeze Spell
* Adjust default-height for Camera to 5.0 meters
* Adjusted particle-size of despawning effect for corpses
* Added first revision of the Tutorial Level
* Added tilt-camera control using Z / X keys
* Fixed a SoundManager issue that delayed freeing memory during play
* Added first revision of Ambience audio for Dungeon
* Adjusted Gate-mechanics for blocking paths to better optimize changes during open/close animations at phase-end
* Adjusted BrickWallImpact and StoneFloorImpact effects to minimize self-collisions
ALPHA BUILD 14
* Added visual and physical mag-drops during reload for all related weapons
* Adjusted trigger-times for multiple actors to reduce chance of edge-cases regarding re-calc of path when animating at end of turn
* Added new sound-fx for reload of weapons, per weapon-type
* Adjusted MP5K to now use rifle-based animation instead of pistol-based animation
* Added ability to configure hit and miss audio per close combat weapon
* Adjusted sound-fx level for Mushroom attack-moves
* Added XP-gain indication for all Operators upon Monster defeat
* Adjusted team-damage for Operators at Normal difficulty-level at 35%
* Added additional healing-potions earlier at some levels
* Adjusted Fabarm SDASS Ultra Short shotgun muzzle-flash fx slightly
A spring like we never thought was possible - April 2020
With the world in an upheaval we try to stay the course but there is no doubt that there is an impact. More on that later...
Since the last progress summary from Christmas we have had seven updates with changelogs of our ongoing progress.
The progress has been ongoing, albeit not at any blistering speed. Important improvements and fixes have been introduced, and here we will go over a highlight-summary of some of the them from the most recent Alpha builds:
Projectile penetration mechanics
All projectile-based weapons now have penetration-mechanics, where the velocity of the impact against a Monster matters and the momentum that a projectile keep as it passes through it depends on the ammo used. As an example, the AX338 sniper rifle can penetrate several normal Monsters, the assault-rifles may penetrate a Monster, while a submachine gun and shotguns normally do not.
Operator Overview Info Window
Operator overview info window allows a full overview of attributes, skills and their current levels due to Applied Effects; such as being Hurt, Frightened, or having any buffs or de-buffs applied. Being able to quickly view your selected Operator at a glance is important when evaluating your strategy during the planning phase, so this is an important addition.
Movement and Special Ability targeting tiles
The display of movement tiles of valid destinations has been remodeled to not only show the maximum distance the Operator can move in a turn (based on their Agility and applied effects) but also the distance they can move and still retain the ability to go into Overwatch or perform a standard attack.
Another thing also introduced is a visual indicator of valid targets (be it monsters or locations of tile) when using a Special Ability, such as throwing out a Light Flare, Motion Mine or casting a spell. This also includes, when applicable, to indicate only those tiles that can be seen using Line of Sight, to make it clear where the ability can be used.
Overall progress towards Early Access
While regular Alpha-builds is being built and delivered to a handful of testers, as can be seen from the list of announcements regarding this, but being a micro-Indie studio there is a limitation to the bandwidth of development that can be done during any given time-period. It also means that external factors can have a bigger impact on the progress, even if temporary.
The challenge is finding a spot where a Early Access is ready to be released, without being overwelmed by disappointed players that expect an virtually finished product - having misunderstood what Early Access stands for. But one also want to not wait with the release to too late, removing any of the purpose of the Early Access process' benefits when things goes right. There is some genre-titles out there that has benefited greatly from player feedback during it's multi-year time spent as an Early Access - but it may also require that all current players are aware where the product is currently. And some style of games suffer less from having a minor slice of the final content, while others require more of the content to offer any replayability before the game is actually fully finished.
Sadly, there is no magical formula to finding any sweet-spot. And whatever is the correct answer will be wrong months later when other current games will once again have changed the espectations that will be set upon an EA game.
As such, the current plan as of now, is to prepare to open up for Early Access in the near future, knowing that finished content (read: levels) is very limited. We will however also put up a large warning that the game is not yet 'near ready' for Gold (v1.0), it *is* an Early Access title, and non-dedicated fans should wait. In fact, unless one really want to be part of the development in some form, stay away until the game is finished.
This info will be re-stated soon again in a follow-up post.
To stay up to date with the development don't forget to click Follow, visit the Community forums or join our Discord.
ALPHA BUILD 13
* Added ability to see special tiles when using an Operator's Special Ability, based on ability, target-type and Line Of Sight
* Fixed animation issue when carrying a Close Combat weapon and using a throwable Special Ability
* Adjusted animation-speed for Spear-doors
* Fix audio-volume balance between actions for all Monsters
* Adjusted originating sound-location for Wall-mounted Lever
* Added projection-cookies to all Operators headmounted lights and all carried weapons
* Added new Monster, Bomber Bug
* Adjusted sound-fx volume and range for Torches
* Fix issue that could allow for triggering page-turning while animating out a book
* Adjusted Monster AudioManager to allow for custom range per sound-fx if needed
* Added animated shading of highlighted Actors to increase their visibility to new players
* Added new sound-fx to floor-mounted Lever
* Adjusted the wording of some feedback-lines Operators may trigger when attempting to use a Special Ability