Hello looters,

Here’s the latest news from the depths of the dungeon!

After some slowdowns due to various autumn viruses, the game has finally taken a big step forward with the launch of the second private beta. Below, I detail all the latest progress toward a release that’s getting closer and closer :)

Beta 2 in progress

Beta 2 has finally started, with 20 new players. Huge thanks to all participants for their time and valuable feedback. Thanks as well to everyone who applied and showed interest in it.

I’ve already started receiving feedback (YAY \o/ ) and lot of bug reports (OOHH T_T ). I hope this time I’ll be able to validate everything and prepare the final beta and release :)

More NPCs

This beta version includes an important addition that I had put aside for a long time because I considered it “out of scope”: the addition of more NPCs in the game, more or less hidden in the dungeon, that you can talk to. Not only it’s a big addition for the story and for enriching the universe, but they also can sometimes even help the player a bit…

Shaders

During a discussion, Yvain, a friend and rendering specialist, convinced me to try reworking my shaders a bit, especially for skin and metals. And indeed, after some testing, the result were really nice. So I reworked metals, wood, fabrics, skin, and walls, while keeping the “simple” style. It’s very nice looking and dramatically enforces the sense of presence. Thanks again Yvain for the advices :)

Going back to previous levels

One important request from testers was the ability to go back and revisit previous levels, to avoid feeling trapped when moving to the next level without having collected everything. Indeed, testers were forcing themselves to continue playing a level to get all when they just wanted to see what’s next.

So, after some tests, I finally validated this idea, and it’s now possible to go back to previous levels. It will now remove the frustration of missing something and having to load an old save to get it. This was pretty quick for me to do since my freshly recoded save system had this possibility already implemented. By the way, Pocket Heaven now allows fast travel to all already visited levels.

Maps

To reinforce immersion and worldbuilding, but also to help players orient themselves and build a mental image of the places, I added different types of maps into the levels. Most of them can be carried and equipped in hand, for example you can walk around with your compass to find your way through the sewers. Look at them carefully, they sometimes contains some secrets ;)

Combat – Back to FUN

Over the past few months, I spent quite a lot of time working on combat to make it more tactical, with stamina management, blocking and dodging, and fairly strong enemies… But not only were there balance issues causing a lot of frustration, the fights also weren’t that fun.

So I decided to go back to the “fun” by adding a “kick to ragdoll” feature. When you do a heavy attack or a kick, (some) enemies get thrown into the environment. Sure, combats are now a bit less difficult, but they also are way more fun, and it works much better with the game’s overall physics-fun design. Knocking a lurker over the railing of a bridge is really satisfying.

Reworked area 4

As I already started to detail in the last devlog, area 4 (previously area 2, which caused so many problems in beta 1) has been reworked again. I mainly reworked the visuals of the areas to better differentiate them, made checkpoints more accessible, removed some monsters and reduced their difficulty, and added a bit more guidance. The level experience is now way more smooth while keeping it’s dark and tense vibe. The pacing with other levels is also much better.

Trap difficulty

On other things, I reworked the trap difficulty settings, so you can chose how difficult it is to spot the traps and secrets. Here are comparisons for lowest-highest trap difficulty:

Many other things

As usual, I worked on a lot of other things, fixes, issues, improvements. For instance, I reworked ladders to make them less dangerous to use :)

Christmas special demo

Like every winter, the demo has switched to (optional) Christmas mode. If you want to play (or replay) the demo with these latest additions, now’s the time to enjoy this really nice snowy atmosphere. Why is there snow in a cave? I don’t know, but it’s pretty.

PLAY THE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL DEMO

Roadmap

I’m going to take a few days of rest during those holidays, then I’ll have a lot of beta 2 feedback to analyze and probably a lot of issues to fix.

I’ve already started finalizing the last levels (which shouldn’t need major changes).

Then I’ll validate all texts and prepare all the documents related to translation, validate the language I that will be available for release, and start looking at competent translators that don’t use AI, really read the localization guidelines, and answer to dev requests.

I should also take some times to improve the game performances, notably some area still have fps drops that need fixing.

After that, it’ll be time to prepare the final beta 3 :)

Before release, I will also try to find an artist (old-school RPG black-and-white ink specialist) to replace the last placeholders that are still in the game, and maybe even create some new cool art for the intro and some in-game elements.

Finally, with the excellent Alexandre Sciré, who composed the original soundtrack, we’re working on preparing an official OST that should be available for the release.

Merry Christmas & happy holidays

That’s it for today, I wish you all happy holidays and a Merry Christmas, and I hope you loot lots of presents 🎁

Arnaud