Draft of Darkness News

Draft of Darkness is coming to Early Access in just 3 days! Here's the release time for some other time zones:

July 30, 10:00 PDT / PST
July 30, 13:00 EST
July 30, 17:00 GMT

[h2]What's in Early Access[/h2]
Here's what to expect from the game on launch date:
3 heroes (2 of which is unlockable through events),
4 companion types (2 of which is unlockable through events),
12 companion perks (3 for each companion type),
135 cards, excluding the weak ones and handicaps,
6 weapon types, each with a unique feel and varied play styles,
3 areas containing 28 decision events, some of which having randomly generated puzzles and sections, making them unique every time,
19 non-boss enemies,
9 boss fights,
45 unique trophy items and several consumables,
Randomly generated equipment,
"Part 1" of the story, which sets up the lore, characters and rules for the upcoming second part!
16 notes that can be found throughout your runs,
35 achievements with various challenges,
3 difficulty levels,
Hopefully no bugs! ːsteamhappyː

[h2]What's Been Done after the February Steam Festival[/h2]
Some of you know the game from the Steam Festival on February, which was a huge exposure for the game. During the time between the festival and the EA date, I've been focusing a lot on mechanical improvements and balance with the help of your feedbacks. Although we still have some ways to go, the game is in a much better shape, thanks to your help!

I've also added a new character (Pavel), 2 new weapon types, unarmed cards, the Hospital area, the story events, an actively chasing enemy and more!

Of course, we can't forget many bugfixes and tweaks that's been done with the help of people playing the game during Private Alpha. Look for their Discord handles in the Credits screen of the game!

[h2]What's to Come During Early Access[/h2]
Right after launch, I will be fully focusing on bug-fixing and solving any technical issues that comes up.
After we are out of the danger zone, I will focus on content. I'm planning to populate the areas in the game with new decision events, enemies and bosses. I have also a couple of characters planned and waiting to be added to the game, which means new heroes and weapon types are coming right away! My ultimate goal is to at least double the amount of content.
I have high priority tasks including: movement via mouse in exploration and card play shortcuts (double click to play cards etc). After these tasks, I'll be listening to your feedback to plan the future improvements to the mechanics.
I'll keep balancing the game with your feedback all throughout the Early Access.
The game will be polished by changing older art, improving UI, adding new scenery to areas, and improving procedural generation.
"Part 2" of the story will be added. I'm aiming for a more branching storyline, with multiple endings you can get by making different choices during Part 2. You'll be seeing characters from Part 1 take on important roles in Part 2, it will be up to you to choose who to side with!
New game mode(s) will be added. This will be separate from the story mode currently available. Difficulty modifiers? Endless mode? The possibilities are endless, I'll need your feedback to decide!

[h2]More Plans?[/h2]
There are also some other plans that are lower priority, but can be possible if the game does well and I can afford them:
Translation to other languages. This requires some development time as well,
Mac version,
Port to mobile platforms.

[h2]See You on Launch![/h2]
Draft of Darkness will have a base price of $9.99 + 10% discount the first week.

Thanks for the support and see you on July 30 @ 10:00am PDT. Wishlist the game to be notified for the release!

Draft of Darkness Early Access release date is set to be 30th of July, 2021! You can watch the new trailer below, and play the updated demo on Steam! Don't forget to wishlist the game to be notified on the release date!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Development Progress[/h2]
Since the last devlog Draft of Darkness has been in Private Alpha where a lot of improvements and content additions are made. To compensate for being slow on writing dev blogs, I'd like to go over how the development went during this time. Keep in mind that I'll be pointing out the biggest bullet-points, while there have been many other tweaks and improvements in the background.

[h3]Character Perks[/h3]
All heroes and companions now have perks, which will give them an extra ability that adds variety to how the character plays. Each hero will have a single perk, while companion perks will be randomised depending on the companion type. When you come across a new party member, their perks will be a factor for you to consider whether or not to recruit them.

As an example: Thug's "Assassin" perk gives them increased Critical Strike chance when they swap weapons during an encounter. Here, we are swapping to our pistols and execute the Pursuer with the Last Shot card having 100% Crit. Chance.



[h3]New Companion: Thug[/h3]
Speaking of thugs, they are the new companions added to the game, who can use knife and pistol cards. Thugs have high dexterity, giving them speed and powerful critical strikes. Their perks mostly give them advantage when swapping weapons, so be prepared to give them a powerful hybrid deck with good synergy!

[h3]Rest Screen[/h3]
After every floor, you'll be able to spend a new resource called "Anolette Dust" to heal your party members or rearrange the cards in their decks. This item can be looted from bosses and strong enemies. Before this addition, there weren't many chances to remove cards from your deck or fix the cards in the companion decks. The resting mechanics will allow you to have more control over your companions, and provide a way to heal your party after boss fights.



[h3]Difficulty Settings[/h3]
There has been many changes to cards, enemies and characters to balance the game; but it sure is not an easy feat to make the game perfectly balanced for everybody. For this reason, 2 difficulty modes (aside from the normal mode) are added to the game: Easy and Hard modes. The difficulty settings change various parameters such as enemy strength and defences, resource drop rates etc. Hard mode also gives some of the enemies new buffs and moves. Why not individual difficulty modifiers? I'm not planning to implement them for the story mode. Those should be more fitting for the "Custom Run Mode", which is in the plan of the Early Access phase.

[h3]Starting Weapon Choice[/h3]
When you unlock the booster packs for the secondary weapons that can be used by heroes (flashlight, syringe, axe), these weapons will be available for them from the beginning of the run. You can now try out new starting decks such as flashlight-only or syringe-only decks, without the risk of not finding the corresponding weapon.



[h3]Various UI Improvements[/h3]
There has been many suggestions to improve the UI experience of the game. While there still is room for improvement, the QOL changes definitely helped fix some of the issues players were having. Some of the important UI changes:

• You can now filter & sort items, equipment and cards in various screens. This will help you have a better time looking through your equipment and cards.
  
• "Collect All" button is added to loot windows, which can also be activated with a key shortcut.
  
• Shop goods and booster packs can now be bought in multiple quantities. You can directly input how many you want to buy and the cost will update to show the total price you'll pay.
  
• Items in the item bar can be assigned to one of 10 slots. This will order the items and help you organise the item bar. You can also press key shortcuts to activate the items in these slots.
  
• You can mark items as "junk" in your equipment inventory, then sell them with a single click in the shop.
  

You can see these and the rest of the UI changes by playing the updated demo!



[h3]Story[/h3]
The story-related development has continued in a separate branch to keep things spoiler-free. For the Early Access version, "Part 1" of the story will be available and "Part 2" will be released during the EA period. The first part of the story also serves as a set-up for the rest; you'll be meeting the characters and getting to know the world. This will be important for the decisions you'll make, especially for the second part of the story.

The story of Draft of Darkness advances with the actions you take and choices you make during each of your runs. As a whole, it can't be completed in a single run, as it runs on a "meta-progression" system. After each run, you'll see the "nodes" on the "flowchart" unlock one by one, which will give you an idea about the structure of the story and what to do next.



[h3]Early Access vs. Full Game[/h3]
At the release of the Early Access version, the game will come with 3 heroes, 4 companion types, 6 weapon / card set types (135+ cards), 3 areas, 19 basic enemies, 9 boss fights, 28+ decision events, 45+ unique items, 12+ consumable items, 17 notes & more. Our estimates show that the story included in the EA should take at least 6 to 10 hours to complete, depending on how well you do during your runs. Currently, you'll need to complete at least 3 runs to reach the ending screen of "Part 1". Of course, there are secrets, achievements, unlocks you can hunt, which will add many hours of playtime.

By the end of the Early Access, I'm planning to have the content at least doubled. There will be 2 new areas added (according to current plan) with new enemy types and bosses. During EA, I'll be releasing biweekly patches adding content, making improvements and fixing bugs. Most of the remaining of the story and content is already planned, but I'll need your help to balance the game and improve this experience even further! You can always join our Discord server to give your feedback and ask questions directly to us!

[h3]New Demo Release[/h3]
The demo on Steam has been updated with the latest improvements and fixes. If you've played the previous demo, you'll notice that your progress is reset after the update. This is because I've decided to separate the demo save from the full version and remove most of the story related stuff from the demo so that it'll be a more compact experience. Don't worry, though. You'll be able to import your progress in the full version if you've played the old demo or the Private Alpha!

Draft of Darkness is now in the Private Alpha phase with the release of v0.4.0 patch. If you'd like to help test the game and keep playing it with the most recent content, you can join our Discord server and request access!



[h2]New Hero: Pavel[/h2]
In the full game, Pavel will be an optional, unlockable character. If you played the Steam demo, you may have clues about how you can unlock him (or maybe you've already completed the questline). In this patch, Pavel is added to the game and he's unlocked during the Private Alpha for everybody.



Pavel can use the new Shotgun and Axe weapons, coming with a total of 40 new cards! Shotgun is Pavel's main weapon; it's very hard hitting, as expected, but it's ammo is relatively scarce and building an effective deck requires careful planning due to the Discharge / Pump Action mechanics of the shotgun cards.

Axes are heavy, bleed inflicting weapons that require you to build up a new condition called "Brace" on your character. Building up more Brace will make cards stronger and more effective. The defence buff coming from the Brace effect will let you take more damage during battle, and taking damage will let you "Rampage", getting faster and stronger to obliterate foes. If that doesn't work out, you can always use the new "Leech" ability to get your health back by inflicting damage to your enemies.



[h2]New Companion: Scavenger[/h2]
Scavengers are part of a leaderless group, trying to survive by taking on whatever dirty job they can find, clearing out swarmed areas and looting resources. You can now recruit scavengers you come across as companions, just like officers and nurses.



Scavengers can use axes and knives, allowing for a powerful Bleeding synergy. Scavengers can also use the axe cards to serve as a tanky character in the party, taunting enemies and showing their true strength when they absorb enough damage.

[h2]Turbo Mode[/h2]
Two new settings are added to Draft of Darkness: "turbo encounter animations" and "time bar animation skip". Enabling these options will make encounter animations faster and remove the slow time bar filling delay between turns.



[h2]Balance Changes and Conservation Mode[/h2]
There has been a big number of balance tweaks after the feedback I got from people trying the Steam demo. One of the big issues were that the game was too easy, as you could get high damage with a correct setup, without any risk. Some of the cards were very overpowered, basically guaranteeing you the win. The second issue was that the resources in the game were too randomised, sometimes making you run out of ammo with no way to recover, other times you would swim in resources.

Two weeks ago, I released an experimental balance patch in the Discord server, making many changes and adding the new "Conservation Mode". The Conservation Mode is enabled by pressing a new button and paying 1 energy in the encounter phase. This turns your resource costing cards into "Weak" cards, which won't cost any resources. This gives you a bigger control on conserving your ammo; you can finish off enemies with weaker cards, for example. In addition, running out of resources won't make you completely helpless as well, you can always use the weak cards!



To help with the resource balance even more, shops will now have bigger stocks of ammo and will always have the main resources available to buy. If you run low on pistol bullets, you can sell your extra batteries to trade with the bullets, or vice versa.

As I've mentioned before, there has been many tweaks to enemies and cards, to make the game more challenging with a better difficulty curve. The biggest changes were focused on knife cards, which were overpowered because of the infinite draw possibilities with "Dash" and "Fake Out" cards. The carrying condition effects such as "Blinded" and "Stealth" also got tweaks that will eliminate crowd control chains and infinite invisibility they were giving.

[h2]Private Alpha Plans[/h2]
The game will stay in Private Alpha until the Early Access release, which is currently planned for May. There will be 3 major patches coming in the Private Alpha, which will add more content and mechanics, making the game ready for the EA release. At this time, the Steam demo won't be updated except from possible bug fixes. If you want to try the newest patches coming for the game, you can join the Discord server and request access to the Private Alpha!

Take care!

Hello! I'm the solo developer of Draft of Darkness, the surival horror roguelike deck-builder and dungeon-crawler game! In this livestream, I'll be showing of the game's new features, chatting with you and answering your questions. Feel free to come along and join the livestream!

You can also play the demo version of Draft of Darkness until the end of the Steam Game Festival!

In Draft of Darkness, you will be:

• exploring procedurally generated maps,
  
• fighting enemies in "Slay The Spire" inspired card combat - with unique twists,
  
• recruiting new allies to aid you in battle,
  
• making decisions to change the outcome at the end of your run.
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]