Black Dragon Mage News

[h3]Here are some recently fixed bugs and added tweaks in the latest demo update:
[/h3]

• 🐛 Bugfix: Luminor, the Boss Pyramid, would sometimes take a vacation in the Bermuda Triangle and disappear indefinitely.
  
• 🐛 Bugfix: Void projectiles from e.g. the Shadow Staff had their visual lurking around after despawn sometimes, now they disappear correctly. Into the void.
  
• 🐛 Bugfix: Reaper would sometimes not respect the player's shield. He apologized.
  
• ⚔️ Improvement: Adjusted Luminor's move set & battle sequence.
  
• ✨ Improvement: Pentagram ability icon & visual. Should be easier to make the visual link between the icon and the spell now.
  
• 🎯 Improvement: Player projectile origin adjusted for better visibility and less overlap.
  

Thanks for the community bug reports & feedback! 🧙‍♂️

[h3]Play the updated demo:[/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2207230/Black_Dragon_Mage/

[h3]Here are some recently fixed bugs and added tweaks in the latest demo update:
[/h3]

• 💎 XP Gem absorption scroll is now faster, snappier, and hopefully won't permanently slow down your run or session — even if you absorb thousands of XP at once!
  
• 🏛️ Pyramid Boss Luminor won't stall during final phase, or fly off to vacation in the Bermuda Triangle
  
• 🎮 Improved controller D-pad handling, particularly in UI
  
• ⚙️ Made settings menu selections easier to see when using a controller with a yellow highlight
  
• 🕹️ Improved controller detection (you can also adjust button glyphs in the settings)
  
• 🖱️ Fix: cursor was sometimes missing when it shouldn't, such as in the Hall of Relics (Shop), now you can click to buy
  
• 🕰️ Fixed timescaling during heart steal event (Reaper)
  
• 🔧 Various other small fixes
  

Thanks for the bug reports & feedback! 🧙‍♂️

[h3]Play the updated demo:
[/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2207230/Black_Dragon_Mage/

Hey adventurers! How have you been? There have been a lot of updates and changes to the demo to give you a taste of the final game, many of which were inspired by community feedback!

You can use the pause menu to submit your thoughts, bug reports and general feedback directly to me while playing the game, by the way!

Stay tuned for more updates, thanks for joining me on this journey. ~ datablob


[hr][/hr]

[h2]🌟 New Features & Gameplay Enhancements 🌟[/h2]

[h3]Changes to maps[/h3]
🗺️ Maps are now procedural, infinitely large (instead of walled arenas), with more to uncover!
⚰️ Cemetery map has new lighting and ambient effects to deliver on a chilling atmosphere.
🧭 Added a mini map to show resources, enemies & more information.

[h3]More rogue-lite design, more build flexibility[/h3]
💰 Gold now only exists within runs and is used to buy new upgrade types. You always start a run with 250 gold, collecting gold during your run unlocks further upgrade choices.
🍄 Mutator items are unlocked in the Hall of Relics, but instead of perma-equipping them, they then appear as upgrades during your run, making for a more varied experience.
🗡️ Main weapons and hats remain perma-unlocked and can be equipped prior to runs.

[h3]New Resource System & Upgrades that cost gold[/h3]
💎 New resources are now your currency in the Hall of Relics!
⛏️ Mine for the first resource, Ice Crystals, by tracking them down on the map.
⚔️ Void Eyes now spawn in the desert, which can be used to unlock the cemetery door.
🎆 Elemental mana icons now appear on some of the upgrades. They're a new addition used to power up and multiply the effects of some upgrades, more to come.
❄️ New stackable passive spells that auto-trigger on cooldown.

[h3]First look at boss battles[/h3]
👻 Added epic boss battles with rewards in their first iteration, more to come.
🔥 Summoned flame now has improved visuals, making it clearer and more satisfying.

[h3]Balancing and Core Loop[/h3]
⌚ Runs are now shorter and end in a boss battle.
📊 New XP Curve to level up faster, speeding up the time until overpowered.
☄️ Mobs now spawn in more varied patterns, in greater numbers, with a rebalanced rhythm and reworked movement.
🃏 Upgrade choices are more shuffled, giving you more flexibility.
🎒 Redesigned loadout screen! You may notice that there are now multiple slots for characters and dragons...

[h2]🛠️ Quality of Life Improvements 🛠️[/h2]
💨 All animations, cut scenes and various aspects of the game are now faster. Less waiting, more slaying!
🛒 Players can now buy items directly with their mouse for smoother shop interactions.
⌨️ Pick upgrades using just the keyboard (single-handed play)
🕹️ Resolved projectile overlay issues and improved shading for better player visibility behind projectiles.
☠️ Better player death sequence.
📈 See the outcome of stat calculations as a preview in the UI.
📊 Moved player & weapon stats to the pause screen to clean up UI and make it easily accessible.
🖥️ Various UI changes, such as moving the dragon-related UI elements all into the same corner.
🔊 Some of the sound effects are now 3D audio, so you can locate them better.
👁️ Added accessibility controls to reduce motion effects, for comfort.
🐉 You can pet the dragon in the Hall of Relics now.

[h2]🐛 Bug Fixes & Performance 🐛[/h2]
🔧 Fixed several visual glitches across maps and menus. Improved widescreen and ultrawide support.
🎵 Fixed issues with music queueing.
🧹 Mobs with the dashing movement style were sometimes getting stuck while dying.
💬 Fixed bugs where localized text sometimes misaligned or replaced incorrectly in certain languages.
🔊 Reduced overlapping sound effects for a cleaner audio experience.
🧩 Loading sequence fixes to prevent crashes during map transitions.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2207230/Black_Dragon_Mage/

Hey Adventurers, time for a new Black Dragon Mage development update!

Time flies when you're a solo indie and hard at work to make your game happen, it feels like it has only been a week or two since I've last posted an update, but it's flips through notes been 1.5 months plus already! I've returned from the depths of my arcane library with a long scroll of update notes for you.

A lot has happened and the game is under intense development, still on track to come out sometime later this year. The changes since the last update are way too many to list, so here's a quick pick of some of the highlights.

[h2]🌟 Curator resonance[/h2]
More and more Steam Curators are posting their preview-reviews of Black Dragon Mage and I'm glad that they enjoy the demo so far:



[h2]🛠️From the Forge of the Magi: Latest Dev News[/h2]
The previous dev update can be found here, by the way.

The focus on boss fights is still strong, with the first boss being live and testable on the playtest of Black Dragon Mage now! In playtest[staging] v0.5.2, the following changes went live this weekend, for private testers.



[h3]✨ Playtest (staging branch) updated![/h3]

• preview of Boss Fight against LUMINOR, THE SHROUDED is finally playable!
  
• new area damage spell ❄️ ICE FORTRESS - casting ice spike mines in the shape of a snowflake, giving you more space to escape from sticky situations. Lower health mobs are killed by contact, higher health mobs can either freeze or get pushed away.
  
• all attribute upgrades get unique rolls and thus rarities/values now!
  
• reduced the round duration to snappy 15 minutes. At the end of a round, the massive stage boss appears. If you defeat a stage boss, you can continue your conquest for another round and keep growing your powers for as long as you want to (or survive!). The level progress bar indicates when you will encounter elites and bosses.
  
• experimental: spells now have a new underlying tree hierarchy, where certain spells become unlocked in a run if you own multiple prerequisite conditions (such as owning Spell A and Spell B and perhaps a certain main weapon), adding depth. This is mostly under the hood as of yet, waiting to be properly used with the next content update.
  
• preview your resulting stat changes when hovering over an upgrade! Players frequently requested more clarity and this is a nicer inline preview than having to look at the stats screen (which you can still do, btw).
  

[h3]👁️ Testers might notice [/h3]

• countless bugs squashed (and probably some new ones to find)
  
• various UI changes, including integrating the mana bar with the dragon area at the bottom right for clarity
  
• accept upgrades with SPACE BAR (or mouse/A), so you can now play the game with one hand, particularly if you...
  
• toggle auto-fire with TAB key (or middle mouse)
  
• better game feel and super responsive inputs through reduced latency! You can now disable VSYNC in the settings and the frame limiter will take over, so that your GPU doesn't have to render extra frames. Borderless mode is now the default also. Cursor is not locked to game view.
  
• tons of stuff has changed under the hood, too much to list here, but game should feel even more responsive and smooth with even better battery life on Steam Deck
  
• player logs can be set to verbose for debugging & attached to bug reports in a privacy-friendly (sanitized) and opt-in way
  

[h3]Currently🚧 WIP[/h3]

1. world difficulty does not increase after beating a round, that will change soon (enemies and bosses will scale with each round you beat)
   
2. there's no "ok, I'd like to exit this run now that I've beat x rounds" mechanic yet, but I have something planned to make every run feel more like an expedition with increasing stakes
   
3. boss sequencing (of its many different behaviours) is still being iterated on, expect changes very soon, it's more of a quick demo of how the boss moves and operates, but all of the bits and pieces are there now
   
4. new ❄️ area spell will likely move to becoming passive mastery that doesn't take up an ability slot
   
5. ❄️ area spell only has a dummy cooldown of 1s for demoing
   

[h2]🔭 What's next?[/h2]

Once the current testing build passes a bit of private playtesting on my Discord, I will update the public demo with the new content and changes.

Initially I had planned to not maintain the demo in parallel (since that takes additional effort and I'm only one guy), but I understand that it's ultimately better for the game to receive on-going player feedback and added exposure through frequent updates. That means: The demo will as of then be kept updated until release, so that you get a little taste of where the game is moving.



Stay tuned for more updates, coming soon!
And thanks for all the kind words and support, you keep me going on this journey! 🧙‍♂️💖

Hey Adventurers, did you know that Black Dragon Mage is a solo indie effort from Germany?

The enchanted Black Forest, Spätzle with plenty of cheese, Tannenzäpfle Beer - yup, the South-West of Deutschland, actually. I grew up around this area and spent more than a couple decades here.



I’m thrilled to announce that Black Dragon Mage has been selected to participate in the "Games Baked in Germany 2024" event by Games+Germany. As one of the upcoming titles, you can dive into a playable demo if you haven't played it yet.

[h3]🛠️From the Forge of the Magi: Latest development news[/h3]

Lots of things are cooking in the full version of the game - note that the demo does not have these in-development features and updates at this moment.

🔥 Boss AI Upgrades: I’m almost done building the "brains" for boss enemies, hoping for juicy and varied boss fights! Next, I'll be sequencing and assembling all of the various offensive, defensive, and surprise moves I've built over the past month or so.



💀 Reaper AI Enhancements: The Reaper will also learn some new tricks, borrowed from the new boss logic, to keep you on your toes.

✨ Spell & Synergy Updates: Spells are another major focus area. Stay tuned for more in an upcoming update.

🎨 Visual Effects: Completed work on a new visual effect system, allowing for more flexible combinations of cool pixel art FX.

[h3]💖Thanks to community feedback:[/h3]

Too many changes to list since the last update, but here are a few highlights:

Enhanced Visual Clarity: Dashing enemies now have clear visual indicators to help you strategically evade or counterattack.

UI Improvements: Based on your feedback, I’ve rearranged parts of the UI. The mana bar, essential for summoning your dragon, is now closer to the dragon icon for easy access. The round timer is now smaller and located in the top-right corner.



New Round Progress Indicator: A new indicator at the top of the screen shows round progress and when special encounters happen, like elite enemies and bosses. Your mage travels along this progress bar during a run, from left to right.



[h3]Can't wait! - so when can we finally play the full version?!?[/h3]

I know you’re all eager to experience the full adventure with more spells, more action, and all the epic boss fights and areas unlocked.

I’m working tirelessly (but also taking care to not drain my batteries) to bring Black Dragon Mage to you as soon as possible. The game is still on track for a 2024 release based on the current development pace.

Make sure to wishlist & follow so you’ll be notified about updates and the official release!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2207230/Black_Dragon_Mage/