Slormite Chronicles #54

Hello everyone and welcome to The Slormite Chronicles #54!

In the last Slormite Chronicles, we talked about several questions we were asking ourselves regarding the future of the game’s development, things like our sales model (DLCs, paid cosmetics, expansions, etc.) and the direction for the fifth game mode. We received a big number of responses, probably more than ever before in a Slormite Chronicles. It was really interesting to read through them all, and it helped us make some key decisions.

Toward an Expansion
As for updates and the overall development model, we’ve decided to focus on creating a large expansion that will include everything we’re currently working on, as well as everything planned for the coming months. It’s not impossible that we might release a small update in between, but that’s not the plan for now. Nor is it impossible that we’ll change our minds mid-development, that’s not uncertainty, that’s agile development!

Progress on the Rogue Mode
On the development side, we’ve started exploring ideas for The Slormancer’s “Roguelike” mode. I spent some time experimenting with an idea where the player would control Bryan (the little blue orb) and issue commands to the hero, who would move semi-automatically, something like a Survivors-like. Long story short, it didn’t work. There wasn’t much interesting happening on-screen or for the player, so I quickly abandoned that concept.

We’ve now moved toward a more traditional roguelike idea. We believe we have a lot of horizontal content worth exploring, and the goal of this mode is to let players build complete, interesting setups in about 30 minutes by cleverly combining the elements they’re given.

I’ve had a pretty busy month with real-life obligations, so we haven’t progressed as much as we’d hoped, but things are picking up again.

We’ll enter production once we’ve nailed down everything needed to make this mode solid. After a few prototypes and brainstorming spreadsheets, we should be ready to move forward.

We can’t completely recreate a roguelike at the level of a game built from scratch around that concept. We have constraints tied to what’s already in the game, which limits what’s possible. We also want to make sure this mode is accessible, even for players who’ve never tried The Slormancer before.

When launching the mode, you’ll start from scratch, level 1, a basic Slorm Reaper, and your class’s first skill. From there, you’ll have to build an efficient setup based on the elements the game offers you.

The run will take place across floors similar to the Battlefield. At the end of each floor, players will get to choose their path forward by selecting between three different floors, each with distinct rewards and bonuses. Every few floors, you’ll face a boss (campaign bosses, not procedurally generated ones), until you reach the final boss.

During the run, the player will build their character based on what they acquire:

When leveling up: choose 1 new Skill “card” (see the menu below) from 3 options.
When closing a Breach: gain 1 stat bonus from 3 options.
When closing a Cataclysmic Breach: gain 1 Ancestral Skill from 3 options.

…and so on.

Simplified Character Building
We started with an accessibility constraint: the entire build must fit into a single menu. For a rogue mode meant to be played in around 30 minutes, there should be no need to juggle the 6 or 7 different interfaces usually used to manage your build.

To keep things simple, there won’t be gear management. Instead, you’ll gain regular stat boosts that can easily be directed toward the attributes most useful for your current build. Legendary effects will appear separately as passives.

We’ve also separated elements that can stack indefinitely (like Ancestral Tree passives or stats) from elements that replace one another, such as Slorm Reapers or Primary Skills.

Here’s a look at the build menu prototype:

Imbue Skills and Ancestral Skills are grouped as “cards,” just like class skills, and replace the previous configuration when selected.

One issue we had to solve was related to the game’s many stats. There are dozens, and not all are inherently useful in this mode. However, most of them have at least one synergy or Slorm Reaper that gives them a reason to exist. So we decided to keep all stats in the game but simplify how they’re obtained. If we had removed some stats, certain Slorm Reapers or legendary effects would have instantly become obsolete, which we wanted to avoid.

A roguelike usually ends in one of two ways: either the player dies, or they reach the end of the run. The question of player death came up, because once you reach a certain point, the game isn’t particularly efficient at killing experienced players. During the campaign, once you find your first Life Regen or Life on Hit stat, difficulty drops sharply.

To avoid that, while still keeping Life on Hit, Leech, etc., we’re changing (in this mode only) how and when health can be recovered, making fights more tactical than in other modes. Limiting out-of-combat healing is being strongly considered.

We also ran into another issue with mana. If a player picks a skill they can’t actually afford to cast, they can’t immediately or reactively adjust their mana pool, regen, or reduce the skill’s mana cost by removing an upgrade. In this mode, if the player runs out of mana, the skill will still cast, but its damage will be reduced in proportion to the missing mana. The idea is that if a player’s mana management isn’t great early on, it can improve as the run goes on, and the skill will become more effective over time.

These are just a few of the design problems we’re thinking through. For now, we have a system that feels robust enough to enter production. We’ll no doubt face many challenges along the way, so the more stable the foundation, the better.

We haven’t yet tackled certain topics such as Skill upgrades, Slorm Reaper upgrades, NPCs and their utility during a run, various events that may occur or metaprogression. I’ll save those for the next Slormite Chronicles. First thing first, we now need to make sure that our idea is working as intended.

That’s all for now!
Cheers!