Hello dungeon raiders,

I hope you are well since last time.

I’m sorry I do not write devlogs more regularly. I’m too focused on the development of the game and I completely neglect giving news and promoting the game. That’s really not a good thing. This devlog will therefore be a long overview of the many things that I have done in recent months and the state of progress of the game.

Development status – entry into polishing phase

Last time, I told you a little about my work on the last level, and it’s now finished. I think it’s really great, and I can’t wait to see more people playing it. Of course, it still has some flaws. The various playtests revealed some problems which will be corrected gradually.

In terms of general progression, I am now “feature and content complete”, that is to say that all the levels and the content planned for release are done in a playable in a rather clean and polished version. I am now moving into the “polish” phase, that is to say multiple successive iteration and improvement until I reach sufficient satisfaction with all the elements of the game. Of course, I may add a few things here or there.

I’d like to do one or two more iterations on the whole game before doing more open playtests, but they’ll be coming soon.

After a big period of fatigue at the start of the year, this summer finally went well, but I am currently experiencing a seasonal autumn fatigue. This is usually the period of the year where I do a deep look at the project. It is an opportunity to lay the foundations, the vision, to review the schedules, to return to the cor experience, telling myself that this year will be the one!

You will probably have guessed it for yourself regarding the date, the release will therefore not take place in 2023 as we all hoped, once again the release date has been postponed. I had really neglected the accumulated fatigue which seriously affected my production rate. Additionally, the stress generated by approaching the end of development makes me question everything and waste time going in all directions.

Gloomy2

Last year I drastically improved the art style with the “gloomy” update, that consisted in a full rework of all textures and materials. This month, I just completed the “gloomy2” update that goes further with creating better and more varied textures, new environment meshes, and improving the atmosphere using fog, particles and special effects.

This update jas significantly improved the aesthetics of the game, and I plan to continue working on the artistic style.

Improved stealth

For a long time, I had wanted to improve the infiltration system, to return to a richer system based on light and sound, inspired by Thief: The Dark Project.

I finally took the time to create a prototype in which I reworked the detection systems. The goal was to test the technical feasibility of such system in the actual game, but also its impact on the core experience.

Previously I only used a simple detection cone with a basic detection test, which resulted in a binary “seen – not seen” state. Detection is now affected by how hidden you are in shadows and how much noise you make. The system incorporates multiple levels of detection, NPCs will first “look at something suspicious”, then “investigate” if you are almost detected, and be “alert” when they spot you.

I put my levels to the test by creating more interesting stealth situations in each level, to see if it worked well with the experience I was trying to create.

Well yes, the new infiltration system enriches the game’s experience as I was expecting. You explore “slowly and carefully”, which allows you to detect and avoid both traps and monsters.

So I validated this change, and integrated it into the game. With these improvements, you can now move slowly and silently in the shadows to completely avoid combat or perform sneak attacks. You can also create diversions by making noise, such as throwing objects, or sneaking up behind an enemy to push them into a trap.

Besides, did you know that there already was a lure system based on food? Monsters can be attracted if you place the appropriate food nearby. For the rats, it will be cheese. Use it to keep them away from you or lure them into a trap.

You can test the new stealth system in the last demo update.

Combat Improvement – Dodging, Blocking

A significant criticism of the game was that the combat was not very interesting, consisting only of circling around enemies. Even if combat is far from being one of the priorities of the game, because it’s not an action and combat game, I decided to nevertheless improve it.

This time again, I created a prototype to try out new features and see how to improve combat. After some experimentation, I finally added two new moves: dodging and blocking.

Blocking can be done with the weapon in the right hand or with a shield equipped in any hand. Shields can even block arrows and certain traps. However, be careful when blocking, as it consumes stamina and you will be stunned if you block without enough.

Dodging revitalizes movement, it is much easier to avoid an attack or to slip behind the attacker’s back.

These new movements are well in line with the type of combat that I am trying to create, slow and strategic, where the management of positioning, rhythm, and endurance are priorities to defeat your enemies. I don’t want a game that’s too action-heavy with quick fights where you chain monsters together. I want to encourage players to detect and then approach monsters thoughtfully, by creating an advantage, or using the environment to their advantage.

These changes have also been integrated into the game, and you can also test them in the latest version of the demo.

Player progression and skill tree

In Neverlooted Dungeon, there are no experience points and levels, it’s a “light” RPG. But actually, yes, there are. Gold coins are the equivalent of experience points, and magic items and equipment are the skills you unlock by spending your gold.

Consequently, there is a kind of “skill tree”, even if it is a little hidden. As you progress, you can buy more and more magical items, more varied, but also more powerful. For example, after purchasing “speed boots”, you can choose later to buy “advanced speed boots”, or rather “double jump boots” if you are more of the acrobat type, or even “powerful kicking boots” if you’re the warrior type.

What kind of abilities are unlockable? A lot ! Some examples: telekinesis, rope arrow, speed, high jump, double jump, levitation, slow fall, rock creation, flame thrower, fire extinguisher, enlarge or shrink objects, control and summon rats, fireball…

From a narrative point of view, this system is justified by the fact that when you die, you are a new dungeon raider. Gaining levels therefore makes no sense. However, you can “recover your experience” by looting the corpse of the previous looter to recover your gold and equipment.

Another fundamental difference with a classic “skill tree” is that a skill tree commits you to a branch, for example you have to buy “speed 1” to unlock “speed 2”, and this often prevents you from experimenting because the points are limited. Here, you can simply sell your boots to buy another type, which allows you to change branches whenever you want to try several styles of play.

However, even if there is indeed a character progression, I also don’t want the game to have a “zero to hero” type progression. I see the player’s progression more as an enrichment of the game possibilities, with more and more capabilities, than as a simple “power up” to become a “hero”. It is above all the player himself who will progress and become a better dungeon raider rather than his character.

I hope that these choices will be well understood and appreciated.

Feature Failure: Mega dungeon

When you’re developing a game, it’s sometimes hard to stay on track and always make the right decisions. The creation process is very different from that of software creation, with (more or less) clear specifications and a (more or less well-made) budget. When we make a game, the objective is not clearly defined, we seek to achieve a “vision”, but without always knowing what are the right decisions to achieve it.

When I paused Goblin’s Week to work on Neverlooted Dungeon, one of the constraints I imposed on myself was to have a set of independent levels, and not a mega dungeon with interconnected levels, to better manage the scope and avoid a new pitfall. But for a long time, this idea of an “interconnected mega dungeon” had been circling around in my head, and I couldn’t decide if it was the right decision. So, once all the levels were completed, I wanted to spend a few days working again on this concept of “interconnected mega dungeon” to validate or invalidate it once and for all.

For this, I made several prototypes:

1 – The first was a technical feasibility prototype. Given that I already had everything set up during my work on Goblin’s Week, it didn’t take very long to connect all my levels with object persistence (for example, place an object on the ground in a level and it will still be there later)

2 – Next, I wanted to evaluate whether connecting the levels and allowing back and forth had as much added value as I thought. So I put together the “coolest” ideas that had been running through my head for months. While playing it, there was certainly added value, but I also encountered some degradation of the core experience, and I also found that certain aspects would require more work to adapt than expected.

3 – I was also wondering whether I should connect the levels around a central hub or in a more organic way. I had the central hub set up and started making a more organic version. The central hub was rather unsatisfactory, but the organic connection added even more problems.

The important thing when making a prototype is that it must answer a specific question, here was whether an “interconnected mega dungeon” was the right direction to take to complete Neverlooted Dungeon. No, it’s not a good idea. This is a very important element and one that works well for games that are built around this idea from the start, like Arx Fatalis or Lunacid, but for Neverlooted Dungeon not only does it degrade certain aspects of the experience that I consider important , but it also requires a lot of additional work that I would prefer to invest elsewhere.

I decided invalidate that hypothesis and return to the fundamentals of Neverlooted Dungeon: atmospheric dungeon exploration, traps, treasures, and a lot of freedom of action. From my point of view, there is still a lot of work on this side, and their improvement has much better added value than the connection of levels.

This little paragraph was written to show you that in a game development, it’s misleading to look at the final product and imagine that everything has flowed naturally. The creation process contains a lot of research, trial and error, and sometimes failures and cut content. I recently found the graphic below at a GDC talk and think it expresses this point perfectly.

Many other things

Apart from the work on the levels and major features, all the elements of the game continue to progress. Most of these changes are invisible, but you may notice improvements in all areas of the game.

The music is almost finalized. Alexandre Sciré continues to compose excellent pieces, separated into stackable tracks, which I spend a lot of time listening to in detail, mixing dynamically, testing in the game, writing precise and detailed feedback, so that the soundtrack allows really create the atmospheric exploration experience I desire.

I made lots of tweaks and minor changes here and there. For example, the improved stamina/health UI which better shows consumption or damage taken. Or that nice gamepad control scheme.

I told you last time about rope arrows, they are now available in the demo. Try to find them and use them to reach inaccessible places and collect all the loot.

Don’t like spiders? Look at the game settings and turn them off for a spider-free experience. Also, I was told that I should also add a thalassophobia mode, it will be done.

Christmas demo

Finally, this year, a little break in development to put the demo in Christmas colors. If you missed the Halloween update, now is the time to go and test the latest new features with a winter theme (shields, parries, infiltration, rope arrows, etc.) and give me your opinion.

Roadmap

I am therefore in the polishing phase. The biggest difficulty is sorting the things to do by importance and properly estimating their costs. I’m currently focusing on improving atmosphere, exploration, traps and treasures. Some levels need more work than others. Some levels require more variety of traps and monsters. I also know that the narrative needs to be improved to strengthen the player’s motivations. There is also polish work to be done everywhere, whether on the visuals, the interfaces, the dialogues.

In short, there is plenty to do… 2024, I believe in it!

Hello everyone, here is the news from the front.

Several months have passed since the last newsletter, it’s time to take a look at the progress of Neverlooted Dungeon. I’ve been pretty tired lately and my work rate has dropped a bit, but I’ve still done a lot of interesting things that I’ll show you:

Demo update

First of all, the demo has just received an update to stay as close as possible to the final game experience. It includes, among other things, the changes described below. Feel free to relaunch it and let me know what you think of these changes.

Rope arrows!

For a long time, I’ve wanted to add the ability to fire rope arrows inspired by Thief: The Dark Project. It’s a new tool that allows you to fire special arrows on walls or ceilings, which upon impact release a rope that can be used for climbing.

In the past, I had already made several attempts and given up for various technical reasons, but I tried again recently, and this time it’s the right one!

After testing this feature in all the levels, I must say that it’s really amazing. It unlocks a lot of possibilities to explore the level vertically, and also a lot of possibilities to avoid traps.

There are no limitations on arrows, they work anywhere, you can shoot them into a stone wall or ceiling. I didn’t want to offer such a creative tool and limit it only to places where I myself would have planned to use them. Besides, I would not have liked to have to manually add “wooden beams” everywhere in the levels so that we can plant an arrow there.

Some could ask me: but, these arrows must totally break the game and the exploration? And I would answer that there are already magic items allowing vertical traversal (like the great jump boots, the wand of rock) and that the levels were designed to be explored freely. On the contrary, the experience that I want is precisely to make the player feel that he is smarter than me because he has used the ropes in an intelligent way, perhaps even unintended. The vertical exploration aspect is just reinforced, and I should just be careful to balance the availability of arrows.

Here’s a little WIP video showcasing some possibilities:

There are still a few design and technical issues to solve, but adding them is so positive that I’ll take the time to make it right. And I have to tell you, these arrows will be especially useful for the grand finale.

Full gamepad support

In order to avoid having certain critical tasks left for the end of development, I worked on gamepad support and accessibility features, so that the critical features are all in place and only content and polish are missing.

I implemented full gamepad support. A lot of work was needed, especially on the redesign of the menus and of the inventory, so that everything could only work with a gamepad.

Although I’m more of a keyboard-mouse player, I find the game very enjoyable to play on the gamepad, and the default controls very easy to pick up and satisfying. All control keys are obviously configurable to play as you prefer.

I also added control and interface options (detailed below), such as interaction assistance and object highlighting, which are more suited to gamepad control.

If you like playing with a gamepad, I invite you to try the new version of the demo and give me your feedback. Above all, if you have the slightest gamepad detection problem, remember to report it to me, on Discord or via the bug report form included in the game.

Accessibility and interface options

I’ve implemented a lot of control and interface options to make the game as customizable and accessible as possible, and to better suit gamers who prefer playing with a gamepad:

– Interaction assistance with a customizable action radius that allows you to interact with objects even when you are not quite focused on them.
– Highlighting targeted objects with a colored outline.
– Adjustment of the size of texts and interfaces.
– Choice of an OpenDyslexia font as well as a more readable font.
– Adjustment of background transparency in texts.
– Reminders of the controls displayed during the game.
– Actions crouch, run, lean, carry, can be set to “hold button” or “press once”.
– I tested the game quite a bit with a color blindness filter to check that the game was playable for everyone. I took the opportunity to rework the potions and magic items to differentiate them more easily by their shape and not just by their color.

Here is a small preview of these features, where the game detects a gamepad for the first time and sets the default gamepad settings.

More loot!

I decided to reinforce the loot aspect of the game (after all, it’s in the title!) by varying more the treasures found and the way to find them. For example, you don’t find only hidden gold coins, but also valuable items, like golden chalices, golden candlesticks, jewels, precious stones, relics, etc.

I wanted to reinforce the immersion with coherent objects, but above all the “investigation” aspect. When you enter a room, you will look more for what objects could have value. “Those gold candlesticks on that tombstone look well made.” Some additional interactions (and traps) are to be expected, such as detaching a precious jewel from a statue… watch out for the statues… I would have warned you.

To recognize valuable objects, first of all there is their golden / precious appearance which contrasts with common objects and allows them to be spotted. Then, next to the name of the precious object is displayed an estimate of its value (“precious”, “very precious”, “extremely precious”, etc.). There is also the sound emitted during the collection which clearly indicates that it is a precious object. I’ve also added an optional option in the difficulty mode that allows you to add some eye-catching light effects, to make them easier to identify at first glance.

When you complete the level, there is now a small loot report animation. Will you be a “Bredrouille Explorer” or a “Legendary Pillager”?

Last level soon completed

In terms of content, I’m finalizing most of the work on the last level. There will follow a playtest phase, followed by several iterations to arrive at a well-constructed level.

I can’t talk much about it because this level has to be kept secret, but it’s an extremely interesting and unique level, but oh so hard to complete. The advantage of making the levels by hand and not procedurally is that you can create very rich and complex conceptual levels. But here, I really did something complex. When you discover it, I hope you will appreciate it at the height of the energy that it will have required of me!

Get ready for a mind-bending finale.

SteamDeck Support

After several tests, it seems that the game works perfectly on SteamDeck. I do not have the official certification yet, it will only be done at the time of the release. If you have one, don’t hesitate to try the demo and tell me if everything works. If there are any problems, don’t forget to let me know.

Speedrun

Members of the community are already having fun making and redoing the demo to see who will be the fastest, and have recorded their records on www.speedrun.com. Congratulation to Gatorraid for the fastest run! Several records have been broken and you can watch the latest, and why not enter the competition by posting your own video:

https://www.speedrun.com/neverlooted_dungeon

Thanks to the alpha playtesters

Thank you to the few alpha playtesters who continue to play regularly and give me feedback. In particular, thanks this month to Siegfried who recorded a complete walkthrough and talked to me about his experience.

I haven’t given out new test keys in a long time, and I know many people are eagerly waiting for one; but I currently do not have enough time available to process all the feedback that may be made to me; moreover, I have not yet been able to correct the biggest issues that have already been reported to me. Rather than hearing the same thing again, I prefer to wait until I have completed the last level and made a first pass of correction, to finally start giving keys. Don’t worry, there will be!

Thanks to those who talk about the game!

I would like to say a big thank you to Nilme from Discord, who told one of his favorite streamers about Neverlooted Dungeon, and he was convinced to try it out, and loved it! He did a full live demo which generated a lot of views.

These kinds of videos are essential to raise awareness of the game and increase wishlists, so if you have a favorite youtuber/streamer, don’t hesitate to whisper the sweet name of Neverlooted Dungeon in their ear to encourage them to discover the game and make a video.

Roadmap

There is still a lot of work planned, not that much compared to all that has been done in all those years, and nothing very complicated, but with the accumulated fatigue I am progressing more slowly than I would like.

I’m going to complete the last level first, it’s my big priority, because I will finally have a “complete” game. Then, I will start successive passes of improvement, each focused on a particular aspect of the game (narration, level design, graphics, balancing, etc.).

I’m still planning some small additions, for example a few more monsters, some very unique traps, an improvement of the inventory, etc. I will also have to make an intro and ending sequence. For the intro, I think I’ll do a cool image animation with a voiceover, for the ending sequence I’m experimenting semi-interactive cutscene.

That’s it, thank you for reading, and see you soon!

Arnaud

Hello everyone, here is the news from the front.

Intensive Level Design

I spent the last weeks doing intensive level design, in order to have a beta version of the whole game as soon as possible.

I’ve been working quite a bit on the level design of the last level. Unfortunately, I can’t show you any images so as not to spoil the surprise for you.

I also reworked on level 2 to improve it. For quite some time, I’ve been thinking about my level 2, which I don’t find good enough. For me, this level is very important because it is a question of “confirming” to players who liked level 1 that the game is good and to make them want to continue. Since it’s one of the oldest levels, it wasn’t designed from the start with the same level design constraints that I use for the other levels, making it a nice level, but not good enough, and a little below the others.

I thought about and experimented a lot on this level and, contrary to my initial planning, I spent several days reworking it. After improving the level and creating many really interesting areas, the result is much better, but the new version now has other flaws, and above all a big problem with the pace: the level is too long!

I was a little discouraged because I thought I could have a level 1,2,3,4 as “gold”(ie almost final) at the end of December and all other levels in “beta”, but unfortunately that won’t be the case. Finally, I decided to put this level 2 work on hold and to focus on the last level again. I return to my original goal of having the game playable from start to finish in good quality (beta for all levels) as soon as possible. Then I would resume my work on level 2, and the other levels, to iterate until everything is perfect.

Here is a small preview of a new area of this level 2 rework.

Full gamepad support

I also started working on the most urgent tasks for the game’s release, including full controller support.

I’ve already completed full controller player control, although there are still a few things to tweak. I’m now working on the game menus and UI, as a lot of their logic needs to be reworked to support controller based navigation.

I have almost finished this task, I still have the inventory which will need a lot of work.

Roadmap

Once I’m done with gamepad support, I will go back on level design to finally have a “content complete” game :)

See you soon,

Arnaud