Arcane Revolt News

Hello rebels!

We’re beyond excited to share some awesome news with you all, Arcane Revolt is joining Steam Next Fest! 🎉

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes, and now it’s time to share a sneak peek with you all! If you've been curious about the rebellion you’ll be leading, now's the time to experience a bit of the magic! ❤

Please take a moment to watch our trailer, and if you haven’t already, add us to your wishlist and join the revolution! ✨

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Thank you so much for your support!

[h3]Hello rebels![/h3]
Our fourth devlog video is live on Youtube. We talked about new lights, room and map system and game expo.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Room and Map System[/h3]
First and foremost, we've made significant changes to the game's storyline and progression system from its initial concept. Trying to create some kind of open-world structure was a daunting task. We combined elements from games like Slay the Spire for map structure and games like Moonlighter or Cult of the Lamb for room-based level design. In recent times, especially in independent roguelike games, we noticed that many developers use "randomly generated" systems to reduce their workload, but we decided to adapt these systems to our "branching" narrative by manually creating them. Each node on the level map which allowing us to make critical choices in the story progression represents a map composed of rooms. This change has been beneficial in many ways for our game. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, it keeps us as developers within specific boundaries and accelerates our development process.



[h3]Lights and URP[/h3]
One of the most significant developments we made recently is related to lighting. When we started developing Arcane Revolt, I had no knowledge of Unity's render pipelines. However, to use 2D lights, we had to change our project's entire pipeline to URP. The atmosphere that lights add to the environment from the beginning was very impressive. Additionally, the level of detail and their realistic working mechanisms are fascinating. Just take a look that:



[h3]User Interface and Menus[/h3]
We enhanced our basic cooldown bar to make it more interactive and understandable. But before that, I think I need to talk about our visual interface because we redesigned all of them from scratch. We moved our character's skills to the bottom left and added a simple minimap to the right. Currently, the minimap has a very basic style, but we plan to transition to a map system similar to other room-based games in the near future. In the top left, there is our character's portrait, health bar, and a bar to store experience points. The most challenging aspect of interface design was the color palette because we needed colors that wouldn't distract from the game's main color palettes but would still be noticeable. For now, I think these colors are eye-catching enough. We completely revamped the "pause menu" and "main menu" designs even though they are a bit unnecesarry.

Now, back to skills and the cooldown bar. Providing players with visual and auditory feedback on whether their abilities are ready to be used again is crucial. For this reason, we added both a radial cooldown timer and a small sound effect and red flash when players attempt to use an ability that is not ready.



[h3]Dialogue Portraits[/h3]
In addition to our game's simple pixel art, we tried to create detailed character portraits that would catch the players' attention and create a stronger connection with the characters. We also plan to add different emotional states to these portraits according to the dialogues. Don't forget to let us know what you think about them.



[h3]Gaming Expo Participation[/h3]
In September, we participated in Gaming Istanbul, the largest game expo in Turkey, and had the opportunity to showcase our game to a large and diverse audience for the first time. This opportunity allowed us to gain experience and change our perspective in many aspects. It was quite satisfying to see many people appreciate different aspects of the game. The game's visual style, colors, and atmosphere were well-received by most. The game's dialogues, artwork, decision points, and combat received positive feedback, which is quite encouraging. One major issue that annoyed players the most and made the game unplayable for many was our control scheme, which solely relied on keyboard input. Therefore, I've already started transitioning our game to a mouse + keyboard scheme, similar to what most ARPGs use, which allows more flexible control.

[h3]Don't forget to wishlist Arcane Revolt[/h3]

Please consider wishlisting Arcane Revolt if you are interested in what you see and want to help passionate students in their indie game dev journey.

[h3]Hello rebels![/h3]

Exciting News: We're thrilled to announce that we'll be participating in Gaming Istanbul, an annual gaming exhibition held in Istanbul. Join us at our booth for an exclusive demo of Arcane Revolt and be among the first to experience the immersive world we are crafting.


[h2]See you at Gaming Istanbul![/h2]

[h3]Don't forget to wishlist Arcane Revolt[/h3]

Please consider wishlisting Arcane Revolt if you are interested in what you see and want to help passionate students in their indie game dev journey.

[h3]Hello rebels![/h3]
Our third devlog video is live on Youtube. We talked about guild meeting scene, new map, music and sound effects.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Guild Meeting Scene[/h3]
In Arcane Revolt, we want our players to be able to make choices on the storyline and see their consequences. One of the best ways to achieve this is through the dialogues of our character and the dialog options. The main character of our story, mage "Eldoragius", yes he has a name now, is one of the most powerful mages of a mage guild, and throughout our story he will try to overthrow the tyrants with his guild, reclaim the resources they have taken away from the people. In this process, we will also experience ideological conflicts, intellectual clash with corrupt mages in the guild. For this reason, guild meetings will occupy an important place in the game. At certain points of the story, we will have scenes where the six mages gather to make collective decisions, and there will be plenty of dialogue options.



[h3]Combat[/h3]
We got rid of boring slime enemies which you know from our previous videos. Now, all our enemies have their own unique sprites. Our melee enemies are now waiting at a certain point, if we get close enugh, they follow us , and if we leave their following range, they return to their original points, our shooting enemies now have very cool looking sprites, enemies who damage us on contact have turned into creatures with sharp spikes. Check out our boss. Now rather than a fat slime, he's become a pretty cool demonic beast.



[h3]Shooting Traps[/h3]
One of the features that will add variety to the gameplay is traps. There are traps that shoots fireballs constantly in a certain direction and require you to use the shield or dash skill if you don't want to be damaged.



We have another trap type that is triggered by a button you press. Combining these shooting traps with different ground surfaces which we updated their appearance is also one of the elements that diversify and complicate the gameplay.



[h3]New Map[/h3]
We created an orange and brown heaviness world that reflects the state of the devastated and miserable people. The evil ones really need to be stopped. The people are trying to live in these ruined houses, among forests full of dry and scary trees and skeletons.



[h3]Attacking Feel[/h3]
Our game is still very far away from being juicy enough but we worked on the attacking feel a bit. Our character and enemies now flash red when they take damage and splash blood particles. I can not tell you how much such a small changes have an impact on gameplay. Now it is much more enjoyable to throw fireballs at our enemies.



[h3]Music and Sound Effects[/h3]
Unfortunately, we don't have a friend working in the field of sound and music. We have added Leohpaz's amazing sound effects and music from various free music packs to our game.

[h3]Menus[/h3]
We added simple main menu and pause menu. For now, they are only there to implement the basic mechanics and they need a lot of improvement. In our main menu and pause menus, we can adjust the volume of sound effects and music.



[h3]New Logo[/h3]
We designed a logo that highlights our mage's main skill, getting rid of this ugly thing that is just a plain color behind the Arcane Revolt text written with a pixel font. I worked on this type of logo for the first time, and I would love to hear what you think and get some advice. I have already started using our new logo in our Steam visuals but I can always make changes based on your comments.



[h3]Future Changes[/h3]
These were the most important features we added, and besides that, we dealt with a lot of small changes and bug fixing. The game expo we mentioned in the previous video has been postponed to September, giving us more time to bring our game to a level that will satisfy us before we showcase it to players. By a level that will satisfy us, we also mean that there will be a few significant changes in the game. For now, I can't say much about it, but I recommend you to wait for our next devlog.

[h3]Don't forget to wishlist Arcane Revolt[/h3]

Please consider wishlisting Arcane Revolt if you are interested in what you see and want to help passionate students in their indie game dev journey.

[h3]Hello rebels![/h3]

Our second devlog video is live on Youtube. We talked about Arcane Revolt's inventory system, new enemy types and new skills.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Items and Inventory[/h3]
In Arcane Revolt, we do not plan to offer a system in which we can change our clothes or armor. We know very well that it is very satisfying in terms of the feeling of character development to see your character wearing clothes and weapons that look more visually impressive as you progress through the game. However, we want to show that our character has developed, especially with his progress in magic power. Most likely, the main items that will take up space in our inventory during the game will be consumables, such as potions and scrolls, that will add different bonuses to our character or improve him in a certain field. We are planning to add many different types of potions, from the simplest health potion to the speed potion that speeds up our character for a certain period of time. In addition, since we know that our game cannot offer a cinematic storytelling, we will ensure that our character gets information about the universe and events he is in, with different readable items he finds from the environment. This means that it is very likely that in your bag there is a letter from an enemy or villager containing personal information about his life, or a bounty poster on your behalf by your enemies from the board in the village square.



Our inventory has a very simple control scheme and a very basic design. We can switch between the items in our bag with the arrow keys, use the item with a key, and throw it out of our bag with another one if we want. While certain items can stack on top of each other, others take up separate spaces in our bag. After collecting and stacking the items one by one from the ground, we can throw them together.

[h3]New Enemies[/h3]
Two more different enemy types have been added next to the slimes that do damage on contact and simple melee enemies. Our first new enemy shoots fireballs right at us and constantly moves in different random directions. Especially when you find yourself in a room with a few of them, things get really difficult. It is quite challenging to try to hit the moving targets while trying to avoid the fireballs that are constantly coming to you.



Our next enemy type also throws fireballs, but it does so in a slightly more messy and random fashion. It spawns randomly at a certain number of points that we have determined on the map and moves to another one randomly. After shooting for a certain period of time, it disappears for a short time. It also gets angrier and stronger as he takes damage. In his second level, he shoots in 8 directions, not 4 directions. In the 3rd, the balls rotates and cover a larger area. We want to use this as a boss in our game.



[h3]New Skills[/h3]
As we diversified the enemy types, we also diversified the abilities of our character. As we mentioned in the previous devlog, our mage will have 4 main skills, and by developing these abilities through a skill tree, he will gain different uses. Our first and most important damage ability was the fireball. We've also added a stun skill next to the fireball. This is used in the same way as the fireball, but it prevents the enemy from moving and attacking for a certain period of time. Our third skill is simply a shield. We create a circular magic shield that surrounds us and we become invulnerable for a certain period of time. Among the upgrades of this skill, features such as the shield reflecting back the shots or the shield exploding at the end of its duration, damaging those around it can be added. Our last skill is a dash. It will be very useful in terms of finding a better position for a short time among the enemies that come upon us in large numbers. We can add upgrades to this ability as well, allowing it to deal damage on its path or simply dash further.



[h3]Demo and Game Expo[/h3]
Once we are sure that all the new features we've covered in this video are working smoothly, we'll be ready to work on the first demo of our game. We want to prepare a basic level demo of the first of the 5 main parts that we plan to take part in the game. It will be a pretty good way for us to test how the main features we will use in this game are combined and how the game will feel in general, and to better explain the project we have in mind to the players. Thus, we can get feedback much more easily and check whether the features we have added work as we want.

Another important reason why we want to prepare a demo is that we want to bring our game to the players for the first time at a indie developer booth at a game expo that will be held in Istanbul in June. Within the scope of Gaming Istanbul expo, we can show our project to a large number of people, get feedback and meet new peeople with similar interests. This will also allow us to become known to a certain extent in the local community. We are already very excited about this experience and very curious about what will happen, but for now, our only goal should be to prepare a pretty good demo.

[h3]Don't forget to wishlist Arcane Revolt[/h3]

Please consider wishlisting Arcane Revolt if you are interested in what you see and want to help passionate students in their indie game dev journey.