1. Forgotten Mines
  2. News

Forgotten Mines News

Enemies variety

Good day Heroes!

Welcome to Forgotten Mines, where you’ll have to face numerous foes. The diversity of opponents extends beyond simple looks; traits, abilities and weaknesses call for a real challenge to overcome. So, in this first blogpost of 2024, let's talk about our kryptonite; the enemies.

[h2]Types of Enemies & Compendium[/h2]

Enemies are more than just hurdles to overcome, they’re the driving force of the game. Each enemy is a new challenge; they all have different perks, traits and abilities that you’ll have to analyze. Whether you’re facing regular enemies or taking on massive bosses, those foes will push you to your limits and make you rethink your strategy for each run.

In Forgotten Mines, there are more than 50 enemies that you’ll have to face. Although you won’t meet them all on your first run. Each room has its own random generated enemies and no run is alike!
Each floor presents a new challenge. As you go deeper, expect to face a variety of foes, from Goblins on Floor 1, to Undeads on Floor 3 etc. However, the ultimate test awaits in the last room of each floor, where a powerful boss guards the path to the next one.



The act of defeating enemies goes beyond just combat—it's a gateway to unlocking deeper knowledge of who you’ll face. In fact, when you kill an enemy multiple times, they will be showing up in the game’s Compendium. Once the enemy appears in the Compendium you will get to know more about their spells, their lore and backstory which makes it an invaluable tool for players. Understanding your enemies is the key to outsmarting them and winning your run.



[h2]Enemies and their Inspiration[/h2]

The diversity of enemies adds excitement and challenge to the game, and as I said earlier, there are more than 50 enemies, so where did I find the inspiration for those foes? Let me tell you!



It all started with the Goblins, actually. The aesthetic freedom they have in many fantasy works is something I loved. While Goblins typically appear green, the idea of incorporating Orcs with a bluish tint came up. Undead entities, on the other hand, stand a classic piece in this imaginary, and will appear as reinforcements after the player’s turns end.
While thinking about the lore of those mines, demons appeared as a key part of the narrative. It's as if the Dwarves found Pandora's Box by digging those tunnels: they accidentally opened the doors of the Abyss. Demon designs were based upon the extremely popular Christian-esoteric imagery we can see in a lot of mediums, with each of them possessing distinctive traits.



Mimics are essential enemies in several RPGs, electronic or tabletop. They can only appear after the first floor, leaving players calmly enjoy the early game. There are 3 different types of Mimics, with different power levels and rewards. There is currently no other enemy like Mimics in the game.
There is, however, a secret entity that you can face after a certain sequence of events…

Last but not least, as the player, there are really unique spells that you can use such as Blasphemies; they are powerful magical abilities, sometimes granted to you in the early game where you deal a lot of damage to enemies but it also makes an enemy Ghoul spawn. They can complicate a battle in unexpected ways. The intention is to show that, in the world of Forgotten Mines, you should perhaps set aside your moral judgment and do what you must to survive. There is no dishonor in invoking blasphemy against your enemies!



The variety of enemies adds depth and richness to Forgotten Mines’ gameplay, keeping it engaging and ensuring that no two playthroughs are ever the same. As you conquer these adversaries, you don’t only progress through the game but you understand their behavior, learn about their traits and their weaknesses—offering you insights for your future strategies.

Thank you for reading, I'm looking forward to you fighting all those enemies and sharing your Compendium discoveries!

And don't forget: Forgotten Mines will be available on Steam later in 2024! Until then, you can wishlist the game and play the demo!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2238630/Forgotten_Mines/

If you want to chat with the team and other players, you can join us on Discord and Twitter!

Tactical fights

Hello Heroes, hope you’re doing well!

In today’s blogpost we’ll be talking about how Forgotten Mines’ environment and combat system impact the way we play and strategize. Let’s get started!


[h2]Inspiration, innovation[/h2]

Forgotten Mines takes its inspiration from impactful roguelikes in the indie community such as FTL (Subset Games, 2012) which brings combat in real time where the enemy is always on the move.
Another inspiration is Into the Breach (Subset Games, 2018) which has turn-based combat with a limit to achieving the stage objectives.

And finally Brigandine : The Legend of Forsena (ATLUS, 1998) which features combat between two troops who face each other in turn-based combat over a maximum of 12 turns.



That’s why, while prototyping Forgotten Mines, it became clear that playing defensively made the game boring and easy since the enemies would come to you and you’d calmly eliminate them. A working and functional system but where’s the fun in that?

The turn limit brings the need for action and reminds you that you’re not in a safe position; your units are descending towards the Abyss on a one-way expedition. Time is to be turned into a resource. Therefore, a turn limit (as in Brigandine) was necessary.

[h2]Small rooms, big stakes[/h2]

In Forgotten Mines, each room has its own unique environment, with a composition of randomly placed enemies - each time you start a new room, it will be generated differently so no two runs are alike. One thing remains the same: the size of the room. Its inspiration comes from the classic chessboard, a space divided into 8 x 8 tiles.

And even in such a limited area, the possibilities are countless as they allow you to strategize in a dynamic and dangerous environment, with tiles assuming different conditions to be accessed and some tiles being completely inaccessible. It allows endless unique runs: use abilities to change the tiles and therefore the course of the game!

The room’s environment includes the various objects and details with which we can interact. For example: boulders and chests can be used as a cover, adding a new layer of strategy with a reward/risk situation since both hold resources. Will you use them to protect yourself or destroy them to collect the resources, risking exposing your units?



With all those things in mind, it’s important to prioritize things over others, let’s see which ones.

[h2]Focusing, prioritizing[/h2]

Your objective is to go from one room to another - what effectively prevents you from achieving this? You guessed it; the enemies. Observing the position and surroundings of each foe is essential.

During the fights, you have the possibility to farm boulders which is something you shouldn’t underestimate. Boulders are the main resource: breaking them yields collectible ores that can be used to buy items in the Store or upgrade your equipment with the Blacksmith.



If you manage to leave the room by turn 4 or less, the spoils of war will be greater. Which does raise one question: when you’re done slaying the enemies, will you farm the boulders and chests or save time and leave for the next room?

There is no wrong answer, optimize your time and resources but be careful of reinforcements, they’re no joke!

[h2]Limited turns, tactical fights[/h2]

There is indeed a turn limit in Forgotten Mines, in a normal room, reinforcements will appear after turn 8 and in a Boss room, they will appear after turn 15. To avoid those not-so-cool guys, you’ll have to play offensively to end as quickly as possible. If you don’t, you’ll have to fight them but no worries though, since Forgotten Mines is a roguelite: death is a resource.


Each new run will allow you to change your heroes and amulets to shape new strategies. For example, if you struggle fighting the Undead, the right combination of amulets will help you make your Sniper an Undead exterminating machine. As the run progresses, you will find new equipment and level up your characters.

If some types of enemies are still a problem for you: experiment with other classes, try out new compositions, strengthen your ranks and make sure your characters complement each other.

What will be your strategy?


Thank you for reading, I hope this has helped you better understand the environment and the combat system!

And don't forget: Forgotten Mines will be available on Steam Q1 2024! Until then, you can wishlist the game and play the demo!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2238630/Forgotten_Mines/

If you want to chat with the team and other players, you can join us on Discord and Twitter!

Welcome to Scream Fest

Good day Heroes!

Scream Fest starts today as Halloween gets closer and closer, drawing ghosts and demons out of the shadows. You're left with only one choice: face your fears and vanquish them all!



For the occasion, I just released a brand new demo of Forgotten Mines, with the following changes:
  • Optimization
  • New color for Diamond ore
  • New debuff effects on the character sheet
  • New controls
  • More options
  • Lot of balancing
  • New spells and skill for early weapons and armors
  • New special effect for spells and skills

Also I released a new article last week about the different classes and weapons available in my game!

As a solo dev, wishlists are super important as they will help a lot to boost the visibility of Forgotten Mines, so don't forget to wishlist the game!

If you play the new demo, I would love to hear what you think about it in the forums:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2238630/Forgotten_Mines/

To chat with me and other players, join my Discord and follow Forgotten Mines on Twitter!

Classes & Weapons

Good day Heroes!

Welcome to Forgotten Mines, a tactical RPG with roguelite elements where you play as dwarves, elves and humans who have to reclaim lost mines from goblins, orcs, skeletons & demons.

One of the most important features of the game is the variety of classes and weapons you get to experience during your runs. Let’s go through them!

[h2]CLASSES[/h2]
In Forgotten Mines, you will get to pick the classes of the characters in your team at the start of your run, although, to experience all the different classes you will have to unlock them.

And you can unlock… many, many classes. Fighters, wizards, healers, archers and the list goes on. Each class has its own perks and can equip its own type of weapons, and let’s not forget: its own type of equipment.

Fighters for exemple, they’re melee warriors capable of great damage: their perk is to get more vitality than other classes (+15 HP). They can only equip swords and wear heavy armors.


[h2]WEAPONS[/h2]
Never underestimate the power of weapons because some of them grant you an extra ability, like the poison bow for exemple which gives you the ability "Poison Shot".



You start every run with basic weapons but no worries: you’ll get to pick up new weapons all along your run in chests and on enemies, but not only! You can buy some at the Store and you’ll be able to upgrade your equipped weapons at the Blacksmith.

On a side note; not all weapons have the same features, some have more attack power, others allow you to have one more action or - oops let’s not spoil everything.

[h2]BONUS[/h2]
As I mentioned before, your equipment will also play an important part in your gameplay.

Each class has its own type of equipment, although some pieces can fit multiple classes. The equipment consists of three wearable pieces: a weapon, an armor and finally an accessory. Just like weapons, everything you equip will give you different bonuses and sometimes penalties.


Thank you for reading, I hope you're as excited as I am!

And don't forget: Forgotten Mines will be available on Steam Q1 2024! Until then, you can wishlist the game and play the demo!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2238630/Forgotten_Mines/

If you want to chat with the team and other players, you can join us on Discord and Twitter!

Announcement trailer + Publisher news!

Hello everyone!

First of all, I'm very excited to show a new trailer for the game, showcasing a portion of what Forgotten Mines will offer upon its release!

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/O2Qbfw8uBvo[/previewyoutube]

I hope you're all doing good. On my side, I've been working hard on the game and have kept on adding new features that I hope will make the game truly special.

Also, as you saw at the end of the trailer, I'm very happy to announce that Forgotten Mines will be published by Ishtar Games!

Ishtar Games is the publishing label of Nacon. They worked on games like Dead in Vinland, The Last Spell and Lakeburg Legacies, and they're working with me to make sure Forgotten Mines gets the attention it deserves! Also, thanks to them, I can be even more ambitious about the game and make it even better.

Forgotten Mines will be available on Steam during Q1 2024