Draft of Darkness News

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]

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 attempting to complete a run in the game! I'll be also 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]

It's been a while since I could get a chance to write a blog, but rest assured that there has been a lot of improvements to Draft of Darkness in the last months. In fact, there has been so many that I decided to split the blog into two parts! These changes and the ones in part 2 are already in the Alpha version, so join our Discord and try them out!



Let's not waste any more time and get right into part one!

[h2]Renewed UI[/h2]
I went over the UI's design to adjust it a bit since I wasn't happy with the previous one's color scheme and big pixels. I was torn between changing to a more "post-apocalyptic" style or keeping the futuristic computer interface style; but I decided to go for the latter since that fits to the story of the game as well.



While working on the UI, I've also changed how some of the windows' functions as well. The biggest change is merging the party, gear and deck windows. All the functionality of managing your party, editing decks and equipping gear is now under a single window. It's now much faster to switch between party members, see their decks and make quick changes.

There are also the new "!" indicators to notify you that there is something new! For example, when you get cards during the run, the character edit button will have this icon, as well as the new card, once you open the deck window. Same thing applies for newly acquired gear, booster packs, notes in the library, achievents etc.



[h2]3D Encounters[/h2]
With the switch to 3D in the exploration phase, I started feeling like the styles for the 2D encounters and 3D exploration did not match anymore. After a test I've put together, I liked the 3D encounter style more and decided to keep it. I've added a transition animation to the encounter phase. Also, the camera rotates in a similar manner to "Darkest Dungeon" for entity turns, which enhances the 3D perspective.



[h2]Encounter Animations[/h2]
Characters now have attack, hurt and death animations during the encounters. This was a task I was dreading to work on since it was a lot of work to make separate attack animations for each weapon type and hand. New animations are definitely an improvement over the "slightly slide towards enemy" animation they were doing before.

I've also added blood (and poison) decals, meaning the blood will splatter onto the floor and stay there. This adds some juice (literally) to the combat and makes shooting zombie rats a lot more satisfying. Also there is a twist: if you kill an enemy with a critical hit, you will see a special effect! (Works only on streets area enemies for now.)



[h2]Map System[/h2]
With the new 3D exploration, the "Detector" item had been removed from the game. That item was the main way to find your way in the "dungeons" of the game. I've originally aimed to give player a more organic way to explore the map, by seeing something they want to explore rather than an arrow pointing to things. But with the Detector's removal, keeping track of where everything is in the map got harder. To solve this, I've added a mini-map that can also be expanded to see the whole level. It shows where the events are and you can see the parts of the floor you haven't explored yet. And it was easy to implement for me since it's actually mostly reused code from the old 2D exploration. That's always a plus!



[h2]Tile Grid[/h2]
Something I've noticed with people playing the game is that, the movement in the exploration phase felt very wonky to them; as if the character is getting their input in a delayed manner. This is very apparent with people that are not very familiar with the true movement mechanics of the roguelike genre. Since players don't see the "tiles" while they move, they expect to have free control over the character's movement. As a possible solution for this issue, I've added a grid that shows the tiles during exploration. This is hidden by default, and can be enabled by pressing a key or in the options menu. This grid also highlights tiles that will trigger an encounter, in other words, tiles that are next to enemies. This might be useful for players that prefer to have clear vision on the mechanics instead of trying to immerse themselves in the game's atmosphere. I personally prefer playing with the grid off, but I won't hold it against you if you enable it!



[h2]Huge Performance Boost[/h2]
If you're in our Discord server and have read my recent devlog messages, you're probably aware that I've recently lost my precious GPU. As grim as it is, this technical issue actually turned out good for the game. I've been literally forced to optimize the game to be able to continue development on my Intel onboard GPU. I'm happy to announce that the game now works on Intel integrated GPU on 60 FPS on low settings!

I don't want to go into technical details but I've made many changes to what the preset quality settings actually do. For example, "Low" setting now completely removes shadows, which brings huge performance boost. There are also separate options to disable taxing post processing effects like "ambient occlusion", "color bleed" etc. Other than these options, I've also worked on dynamically merging game objects after generating the level. Since static batching is out of the picture for the fully procedurally generated levels of Draft of Darkness, this method of merging meshes on the fly was a huge improvement for a big performance increase.

[h2]Are We Done?[/h2]
We are not done yet, but since there are a lot of changes, I split the blog into two parts. If you want to see all the changes yourself, you can play the game for FREE in our Discord server. Draft of Darkness is in the last stretch of the Alpha phase of development and will soon evolve into it's Private Beta phase. So catch it while it's available by joining our Discord server! See you on the next one...