Slormite Chronicles #53
Hello everyone and welcome to The Slormite Chronicles #53!
We’ve been back at work since Monday, and as you can imagine, we haven’t made huge progress in just five days. Right now, we’re mostly at the brainstorming stage, not only about a potential upcoming update, but more broadly about how we want to organize the future of The Slormancer’s development and the new content we’d like to add.
It’s always a bit tricky to talk about possible additions. Whenever we say “we’d like to add this or that,” many players understandably take it as a promise. So here’s a quick disclaimer: everything we’ll talk about today is still just ideas. Nothing is final, we’re simply sharing what’s on our minds.
We’re asking ourselves: what kind of content would feel fresh for players, while also being exciting for us to develop? Then comes the question of structure: how to organize updates, how big they should be, and even when to eventually put a final bow on The Slormancer’s development. That day is still far away, but given how long game development takes (and the fact that we’d like to make new games in the future), we need to keep in mind the sustainability of creating updates for The Slormancer. The goal is to ensure we don’t run out of resources before finishing this project, and also leave room for the next one. That said, there’s still plenty of time to deliver meaningful updates before saying farewell.
[h2]Adding a New Game Mode[/h2]
That empty slot at the bottom of the Expeditions menu? It’s meant to be filled at some point. We’re currently exploring different directions for this last game mode. The main idea is to leverage the full horizontal variety of the game.
One of the challenges of making an RPG as a small team is that it’s not always “profitable”: players usually pick a single class and stick with it, which means they miss out on two-thirds of the content. Most don’t fully explore the Slorm Reapers they find, or try all the Skills available. In the end, someone rushing through The Slormancer might only see 10% of the effects and mechanics we’ve built.
That’s not necessarily a problem, but we’d love to give players fun, quick, and easy ways to discover all that content in different ways.
Rogue Mode?
One idea we’re considering is a roguelike-style run, where the hero starts from scratch (like in Hades or Dead Cells) for the duration of an Expedition. After each floor or level, players would pick upgrades, Skills, Reaper effects, Legendaries, Ancestral Skills, etc.... focusing only on short-term synergies for that run, without worrying about long-term progression.
Survivor Mode?
Here’s another concept we’re excited about: “Bryan’s Training Camp.”
In this mode, players would actually control Bryan, whose role is to keep the hero alive with supporting skills, while the hero moves and fights automatically (and often recklessly). Players could give simple orders or directly assist with Bryan’s arsenal of attacks and support spells.
This is the first idea we want to prototype, to see if the concept feels fun. We’re already imagining build options for Bryan through meta-progression, and for the hero via simple in-run choices.
Think of it as a system where the hero auto-casts skills (not limited to three) every X seconds, like Vampire Survivors.
This would be an entirely optional fifth mode, offering an alternative way to play alongside the existing content.
Other Ideas?
If you have suggestions, now’s the perfect time! We’re deep in brainstorming, so every bit of feedback helps.
No matter the mode, the goal would be to push as far as possible in each run, with rewards that feed back into the main game, an alternative to the Battlefield or Forge for farming gear, goldus, and more, but in a less repetitive way.
The goal is not to add another layer of endgame power creep. Instead, we want a fun alternative that lets players quickly experiment with everything, while still earning rewards.
[h2]The Business Model[/h2]
We’re also thinking about how best to release new content. Two models we really like are:
- Old school: a paid “expansion” with a large chunk of new content released all at once.
- Free-to-play style: new content released for free, alongside optional cosmetic skins to support development.
We’re exploring other possibilities, but it will probably be one of these two. Seasonal events and “games as a service” aren’t really our style, so that’s not the direction we want to take.
One thing Early Access has taught us is that each update delays development by 2–3 weeks (testing + bug fixing). For us, a full expansion would likely be the fastest way to deliver the final content we want to add.
Did Someone Say “Expansion”?
Yes, and of course, no expansion in a hack’n’slash would be complete without… new classes. Alongside a new game mode, new classes are something we’re strongly considering (but again, read the disclaimer, no promises yet!).
We’re really excited about this, since designing classes is honestly one of the most fun things for us. Now that the core game’s features are complete, it’s much easier to fit in new skills that work within the existing system.
Did someone say Necromancer?
[h2]A Pile of Ideas[/h2]
As you can see, things are still very up in the air, even for us. The next few weeks will mostly be about iterating on these game mode concepts to see what sticks.
In parallel, we’re also continuing work on new skins. Some concepts already exist, though nothing we can show just yet.
That’s all for now!
Cheers!
