Acquiring feedback
During the past two months we were lucky enough to get two bigger instances of feedback, which we've pored through intensively. After releasing our previous build we had a "playtest-party" at our office and even though we didn't get as many testers as we would've liked to, we had a good time and we got some very usable feedback!
The other source of feedback was a youtuber/streamer by the name of Highsight that featured us in his twitch stream. A few people has covered us before, but this time the feedback was on point. The stream had a ton of great commentary from the streamer and the viewers also. We've been implementing as much of the feedback as we could for the next build. We highly recommend to get in touch with Highsight if you're an indie developer and are looking to get constructive feedback.
Upcoming Beta 1.4
Improved Fog of War
Boring black FoW was changed to a bit more interesting with a proper texture and animation. The FoW also hides enemies properly. There are still a few things to improve that probably won't make it to the next build.
Perk system revamp
Massive revamp on the perk system is coming along with new perks. You will no longer have to choose between 5 random perks, and the perks themselves have been arranged into a tree like structure. The UI is still the same, but probably will be changed in the future to support the perk trees.
We've only updated Commando's perk tree so far, but the next build probably will have some new perks for Magnus also.
Commando pistol rework
Throughout development we've gotten a lot of feedback on the Commando's pistol, which is not surprising. It's the first skill that the player will use in the game and they use it a whole lot. We gave it a rather big rework and it now acts as kind of a combo attack. Every third bullet is bigger and deals more damage. The 3-round-burst works in a similar way.
Screenshake
Easy way to make things feel powerful, right? We added a screenshake effect here and there.
Tutorial improvements
No big changes here, but Risto made the tutorial more fluid and it's leaps and bounds easier to follow.
Co-op improvements
The biggest points of criticism was character visibility, especially in a 4-player game. Peiple seemed to lose track of their character all the time so we proceeded to add colored outlines to player characters and adjust the dynamic zoom.
Game balance
The first level seemed to be too unforgiving for new players, so we finally made several changes that should make the game a bit more beginner friendly. I.e. players don't encounter the exploding enemy until the later levels.
Orbs
We weren't happy with how Monuments and some other new activatables worked in terms of player reward, so we tried something new. Three different kind of orbs were added that now act as a reward: Stat, experience and perk orbs. Quite self-explanatory. Instead of getting the reward directly, you now have to pick up the orb to get it.
To adjust game balance, we've also added one free perk orb to the beginning of each game on easy and normal difficulties. Crude execution, but it serves its purpose for now.
Long term stuff
- Shops & chests to forges
- Redesigning the HUD
- New Worlds
Read the full article on our blog.
