Heroes Of Loot: Gauntlet Of Power News

A new demo drops just before the holidays! So come and play in the warm dungeon full of loot!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2374320/Heroes_Of__Loot_Gauntlet_Of_Power/

Since it's been a month (and a day) since the last demo update, and I've been working on the game every day, the list of new things, changes and improvements is extremely long, so let me highlight some of the more important things here:

New enemies added, like that happy Skully chap in the GIF above, but a few others will cross your path
New boss-fights, although they are on a "low" spawn in the current demo, you will probably encounter them every now and then
Weapon-tree/level up system - FINALLY got around to this, more on that below
Hit feedback for the player (most requested by demo players)

So let's dive into the weapon system, it was always the goal to make this more interesting then just mounting weapons in all directions! Just had to figure out what I wanted to do with it exactly.. and I couldn't decide on just one way, so there are now multiple ways to upgrade your upgrades, here's a little cheat-sheet I made (will be extended, might change over time, but for now this is accurate) :



So we have combo weapons, these require your main weapon to be at max level of 6, and then you can combine it with another weapon to turn it into a "combo weapon"

The other thing you can do is create a "union" of two weapons mounted next to each other on the Gauntlet of Power, and once they have the correct level, you can decide to union them into a new cool gadget like the Rune of Fire!

On top of all that there are modifiers that will modify any weapon at a specific level. Right now if you level up that weapon the modification will be gone! I might change this later.

I'm still play-testing the weapon system myself, but very open to feedback on these things as you encounter them (although it can be hard to experience all these upgrades during the duration of the demo)

I'll have this weapon sheet uploaded and updated over on the -> Orangepixel Support Wiki alongside all the new items that got added to the game as a nice reference.



Full changes list:

• added: Moved player-preference save file location
  
• added: Little bump effect when player gets hit
  
• added: "Hurt" Sound effects to player getting hit
  
• added: made Gauntlet fire when near wooden crates/obstacles
  
• added: Slight increase on loot-pickup vanishing timer
  
• added: Compass drop chance early in game increased
  
• added: Small Health flask to restore a single heart
  
• added: Gauntlet can now be checked in Pause screen
  
• added: Shields are now upgrade items, not Gauntlet slots
  
• added: Combo weapon functionality
  
• added: Combo-Weapon Twirl Arrows
  
• added: Combo-weapon Soul Sword
  
• added: Combo weapon Chaos Knife
  
• added: Combo weapons options now light up (feeling the power)
  
• added: Combo weapon: Magic of Impact
  
• added: Weapon modifier: Vampiristic
  
• added: Weapon modifier: Fire
  
• added: Weapon-union system
  
• added: Union weapon - Sword of Light
  
• added: Union weapon - Rune of Fire
  
• added: Union weapon - Stormbreaker
  
• added: Union weapon - Blades of Fury
  
• added: Axe of Protection
  
• added: enemy Skully
  
• added: enemy Bolt - can electrify your Gauntlet weapons on touch
  
• added: new enemy: Bombies
  
• added: Boss - ToFuMagic
  
• added: Boss - Muddy
  
• added: Boss - Shelly king
  
• added: Boss - Ironicle
  
• added: Bombies can spawn from objects in later area's
  
• added: Visual distictions for Magic-weapon levels
  
• added: Temporal-chest will now show the item it would unleash at current level
  
• added: Active item Dice - rerolls the pickup items in current room
  
• added: Active item recharging now done from previously-collected purple/blue gem
  
• added: Item Blast protection now defends against all hits
  
• added: charge item Book of Darkness
  
• added: charge item Lamp of Shinies
  
• added: Shields now also block fire/flame/bullets from creatures
  
• added: Blood-debris setting
  
• added: Dungeon progress bar
  
• added: Dungeon # to status bar hud
  
• added: Score word shown in HUD
  
• added: Blue and Purple gems now shown in side-hud
  
• added: Separated GUI gamepad controls from game-controls
  
• added: remapped default gamepad controls (B - bombs instead of A)
  
• added: Credits screen
  
• added: Codex access from settings menu
  
• added: selected mount-direction in level-up now glows
  
• added: Active charge item now more visible in HUD
  
• added: Codex pages for missing items
  
• added: general visual effect for Active-item usage
  
• added: Upgrades now include character class in weapon drops
  
• added: Extra spawn-effect, warning player of incoming critters
  
• added: Rebalanced dungeon obstacles first-appearing level
  
• changed: Bombs now drop at actual location (no velocity added)
  
• changed: slight increase in bomb-explosion delay (after dropping one)
  
• changed: removed loot-drop on mini Flames spawned by Flamehead
  
• changed: Made gems more shiny (and proper palette use)
  
• changed: Bolt won't spawn in starting room of a dungeon
  
• changed: Dungeon progress now area-based
  
• changed: Shovel of descent now takes you to next "area" not level
  
• changed: Charge items only use gems when used, not just when collected
  
• changed: Bombies now have lower HP, and move into "explode mode" when shot
  
• changed: Lamp of shinies usage - loot shouldn't be collected instantly, make it fly towards player
  
• changed: Added proper GUI key controls (framework upgrade)
  
• changed: Weapon-max levels and branching now more uniform across all weapons
  
• changed: Balancing difficulty and loot drops
  
• changed: Made starting Gauntlet room smaller
  
• fixed: Unique (single-drop) items can still be dropped multiple times
  
• fixed: Secret room can't be re-entered after leaving
  
• fixed: hit-feedback on player/screen
  
• fixed: healing potion doesn't restore full health
  
• fixed: Wizard slide+exit animations aren't updated to new looks
  
• fixed: Reflection rotated images is wrongly positioned (Framework fix)
  
• fixed: Screenshake preferences aren't remembered
  
• fixed: Exit screen doesn't fit on all resolutions
  
• fixed: Secret room to the right has treasure infront of door
  
• fixed: Visual explosion seems off from the actual blast area
  
• fixed: Cyclo-brothers always move to lower-right corner of the dungeon
  
• fixed: Bolt moved outside the room walls
  
• fixed: Boss fights will hurt player before they are fully spawned
  
• fixed: Crash bug opening pause menu
  
• fixed: Spooky, Bolt and Skully have no spawn-delay when entering a room
  
• fixed: Active-item recharge should be gradual, not instant
  
• fixed: Proper difference between Bomb and Interact key settings
  
• fixed: Codex crashes on last item on the page
  
• fixed: Backing out of pause menu drops a bomb
  
• fixed: Shellies can bump things out of room boundaries
  
• fixed: Rendering bug in dungeon walls
  
• fixed: optimized dungeon rendering
  

Hey adventurers and new party joiners! This is a somewhat unplanned update to the demo, but I noticed there were some crashes caused by Spooky (the pink ghost) it was important to make sure those known crashes aren't happening anymore, so here's a "lite" update that does bring you some interesting changes.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2374320/Heroes_Of__Loot_Gauntlet_Of_Power/

I improved the generation of the dungeon layout, so there's now more "splits" and dead-ends (which can be used for interesting future rooms!)

Also introduced a couple of different dungeon room sizes, and in those tight places some good bullet-heaven fights can be had (or a well placed bomb does wonders).



Finally I've been tinkering a bit with balancing things concerning enemy-skills, loot-drops, level-up speed, etc. So this new demo might feel a bit different!

I was planning on more features, but as mentioned, I consider this a lite-update mostly to fix some crash issues.

Full changes list:

• added: More variation/splits in dungeon generator (bigger levels)
  
• added: Different room sizes
  
• added: Shop rooms now use unique graphics
  
• added: bombs and keys now flash in hud when picked up
  
• added: tiny-room specific room designs
  
• added: render MAX on items in upgrade-screen at max level
  
• changed: Treasure rooms are now smaller
  
• changed: Secret rooms are now tiny
  
• changed: Room light depends on room-size
  
• changed: Renamed Tiny key to Silver key
  
• changed: Renamed Boss key to Gold key
  
• changed: Bombs and Silver keys don't give pop-up messages anymore
  
• changed: Improved message overlap order/importance
  
• changed: Narrow rooms won't appear in first 2 levels
  
• changed: rebalancing tweaks
  
• updated Gauntlet of Power support site with new items
  
• fixed: some interface text position bugs
  
• fixed: Various books for level-up weapons didn't level-up all weapons
  
• fixed: bullets would vanish after the wizards time-bubble
  
• fixed: Menu navigation from preferences back to options has no selection when returning
  
• fixed: Spooky monster can crash the game
  
• fixed: key spawn in wall-pilar room can be pushed away/made ungrabable
  
• fixed: Treasure throws item into door-passage making in unpickupable
  
• fixed: secret room coverings re-appear when moving back to non-completed room
  

You can't have a great adventure without a bunch of friends! So the Heroes of Loot are reunited again as this demo brings the playable characters for Wizard and Valkyrie!

I'm still balancing their weapon stats and dodge moves, but take them for a spin and let me know how far you got!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2374320/Heroes_Of__Loot_Gauntlet_Of_Power/



So the update list is LONG this time, if you prefer shorter ones, come hang out on the Discord for the shorter "day by day" updates thanks to my Ori bot.

Version 0.0.7 of Gauntlet of Power comes with a bunch of fixes, improvements and of course new features. Like the playable characters, new enemies, and a collection of new items (my goal is to increase this towards a hundred items before we release..!)

There are als a couple of extra boss battles in there, and I randomized the order of encountering them for even more fun.



Next on the list of features is more special rooms where you can encounter NPC's who give you a quest, or maybe trade items with you, or other kind of adventurous interactions. Besides that a big missing feature is still weapon-combo's to unlock new special weapons.. I just have to figure out what kind of weapons !

So that's a couple of big things I plan on working on for the next demo!

Full changes list:

• added: save/restore functionality to rooms for entities in it
  
• added: persistent debris (blood,bones,etc)
  
• added: little HUD flash when XP bar is increased
  
• added: bombs can now destroy room-obstacles
  
• added: Compass shows in HUD near mini-map
  
• added: a codex with info on the various items
  
• added: "wood-breaking" sounds to floor-arrows being hit
  
• added: Fireball cannons
  
• added: Bouncing enemies
  
• added: Shellies (enemy type)
  
• added: master key "auto open" doors and treasures when touching them
  
• added: Shellies and Choompa's drop loot when hit
  
• added: make fireball-cannons destroyable with bombs
  
• added: 360 fire turrets
  
• added: Slowmotion time when player does a pickup-stance
  
• added: Shellies and Choompa spawn count should increase in later levels
  
• added: Alchemy - upgrades your bombs, so they can blow up treasure-room doors
  
• added: Max-level to weapons
  
• added: Weapon max-level status to level-up screen
  
• added: tiny Choompa critters
  
• added: Cyclo Brothers boss
  
• added: code for the Minotaur mini-boss
  
• added: slow "boss energy" increase when boss appears (dramatic effect)
  
• added: Proper character-select screen
  
• added: Time-slowdown to Wizard dodge move
  
• added: new Monster Spooky
  
• added: Valkyrie character
  
• added: Assign gauntlet weapons with controller using 360-degrees method
  
• added: Wizard's use of Magic is more powerful
  
• added: Visual changes to the Knife weapon (per level)
  
• added: item Wings of Metal
  
• added: item Wings of Wood
  
• added: item: Blast Protector
  
• added: item: Temporal Chest
  
• added: item: Shovel of Descent: allows you to dig down to the next floor (skipping boss fight)
  
• added: item: Ring of Teleportation - moves you to a random room on current floor
  
• changed: Panic button now needs charging, but can be used multiple times
  
• changed: cleaned up monster-generation and basic movement code (Re-usable)
  
• changed: Screenshake moved to Render instead of World (Framework change)
  
• changed: Improved key spawns (treasure room, tiny chests, etc)
  
• changed: Improved look of Choompa's because of Tim's post :P
  
• changed: tweaked the Axe weapon's movement some more
  
• changed: randomise the boss order
  
• changed: Title screen
  
• changed: Made active items appear on special pedestal
  
• fixed: Shellies shouldn't drop loot with every hit
  
• fixed: destroyable objects sometimdes show statusbar (after room re-entry)
  
• fixed: floor-arrows don't "delay" when in slow-motion mode
  
• fixed: getting stuck in walls when moving from room to room
  
• fixed: Panic button is not available in "starting room"
  
• fixed: mouse cursor remains as visible pointer during gameplay
  
• fixed: Player is invinceable when making a pickup-stance
  
• fixed: Vertical room has vertical fireball gun on the edges. Should be horizontal
  
• fixed: Choompa's can jump outside the level
  
• fixed: Shellies can still get out of the level area. Rare ones even spawn outside of it
  
• fixed: weapon mounting doesn't take into account the "new max" of the weapon
  
• fixed: Warrior's dodge move's slide is way too long
  
• fixed: Huge wall spike pillars don't pause when player has a Pickup-moment
  
• fixed: dungeon-generation endless loop
  
• fixed: compass teleportation to vertical/horizontal room should land near door, not room-center
  
• fixed: Bomb-count not reset between games
  
• fixed: Bosses being massively damaged by a single shield hit
  
• fixed: Pickup-flare lasts longer than pickup-stance
  
• fixed: Last item not shown in Codex
  

Pretty quickly after the 0.0.5 demo drop, this demo brings you a lot of new goodies, and a small change to how things work. I rewrote the whole item-pool-usage system and split things up into proper item categories. Make sure to download the demo from Steam and don't forget to Wishlist + Follow!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2374320/Heroes_Of__Loot_Gauntlet_Of_Power/

What this means is that we now have active items, passive items, and consumables/trinkets. You can carry only one active item at a time, and it will now be activated (once charged) with a special button, instead of the automatic activation in previous builds of the game.

The other items are either instant usage (like the Book of Magic will automatically level-up all your magic weapons, but also heart-containers, potions, etc.) and other items will have some sort of triggered use (like the Dash-boots).

I created a Support page for Heroes of Loot 3 over here : Orangepixel Game support and I'll update it as new items are being added, and eventually will also include information on the various monsters and other things of the game.  For now you can find all current items that I've been adding in this build and figure out some information on what they do (there will be an in-game codex eventually).

Besides all the items I've also been working on more variation in the dungeon layouts. So there are now narrow hallways, obstacles, and more will be added as we turn this game into a worthy dungeon (action) adventure!

I'm now fairly confident with the state of the game, and I'd think we can call this a proper vertical slice! So if there are any publishers out there interested, make sure to contact me (already talking to a couple!)



Full changes list:

• added: Treasure room now needs key+player interaction to open (no more auto-open if player has a key)
  
• added: visual changes for the Axe for 6 levels
  
• added: visual changes to the Arrows for 5 levels
  
• added: Dashing will break wooden obstacles
  
• added: little puff indication effect for when dodge-move is "active" again
  
• added: wood-debris to arrow-hazards being broken
  
• added: new danger-room (floor spikes everywhere)
  
• added: Big Map view (keyboard input might need reset-defaults)
  
• added: 35% chance a completed room drops an item of value
  
• added: Active items, requiring charging and button-press to activate
  
• added: Improved dialog and pop-ups
  
• added: item: Book of Elves - level up arrows
  
• added: item: Book of Magic - level up magic weapons
  
• added: item: Big coin - gives 10 coins
  
• added: item: Panic button - teleports you back to starting room
  
• added: item: Hourglass - freezes enemies for a few seconds
  
• added: item: Dungeon-map - reveals current dungeon layout and room locations
  
• added: item Voodoo doll - revives you after death
  
• added: item: Master-key to open all chests and treasure rooms
  
• added: item Compass for quick travel on map
  
• changed: Showing empty heart containers in HUD
  
• changed: improved working of floor-spikes
  
• changed: rebalancing difficulty of creatures in later levels
  
• changed: unified look to hud + interface
  
• changed: Tiny keys won't vanish like normal loot
  
• changed: Book of skill is now an item, not a weapon-upgrade
  
• fixed: If at Tinychest or Doors that need interaction, bomb's won't be dropped by accident anymore (Same button)
  
• fixed: some collision detection issues/inconsistencies for bullets/walls
  
• fixed: exit on gameover screen not clickable
  
• fixed: shortened duration of the boss-appearance effect
  
• fixed: start room of a dungeon will remain empty from obstacles spawning
  
• fixed: monsters not moving / attacking
  
• fixed: shop-prices are all $00
  
• fixed: removed big-coins from the shop
  
• fixed: "single-drop" items now properly checked across all item pools
  

Demo version 0.0.5 is here with a couple of minor changes and tweaks. The most important one, requested by the Discord chat, is having the Bomb's attached to an action button instead of the dash movement.

This version also comes with brand new music from the hands of Rob aka Fractures, and it should get you pumping through those dungeon levels at increasing difficulty!

Besides those two key things it's just a few little tweaks here and there to improve the overall demo. Didn't have a lot of time to work on it in recent weeks (partly because of the Regulator City demo also getting a big update) but I wanted to push out a fresh demo, so enjoy!




Full changes list:

• fixed: tiny-chest in same room as Boss key could spawn endless Boss keys
  
• fixed: secret doors show a shadow marker (give away their presence)
  
• fixed: some collision detection inaccuracies
  
• fixed: random dungeon crash
  
• fixed: some confusing controls with mouse in level-up screen
  
• added: Bombs now thrown with action button (not with dodge/dash move)
  
• added: Slight slowdown and invulnerability when level-up appears
  
• added: Item description for Shop items
  
• added: Light-up effect on certain items of interest
  
• added: Different map-icon if you already grabbed the treasure-room chest
  
• added: Random objects along the walls of dungeon rooms
  
• added: New music
  
• changed: Made axe movement more subtle
  
• changed: cleaned up settings menus
  
• changed: cleaned up Keyboard+Gamepad input settings
  
• changed: disabled bomb-dropping in the shop room (no need there, and usually happens by accident)