[p]Hi everyone! This is the first development roadmap update, where I’ll go over what’s next on the list and what you can expect in the coming months.[/p][p]I plan to post updates like this regularly so you can stay informed about what’s being worked on. There’s always a lot to tackle, so I’ll focus on explaining why
certain areas are being prioritized, whether due to importance, player impact, or quick wins that improve the experience right away.[/p][p]Thank you to everyone who joined the
Early Access so far! I’ve already received a ton of valuable feedback, and some design issues have come to light that I want to address before moving forward with new content and levels.[/p][p][/p]
Current Issues
[p]After watching many playthroughs,
I noticed a consistent problem: players often don’t understand the
non-linear structure of the levels. A lot of people leave the game thinking they’ve seen everything, even when several levels were still undiscovered, usually because they
unknowingly took an alternate path and skipped a core level.[/p][p]I thought the
Journal would be enough to show players when they were missing content and where to look for extra exits, but most players were overlooking it.[/p][p]I got the idea of making the game this way after seeing how the
Backrooms wikis are laid out, and how the setting is explained with the
prevalent feature of levels having
many entrances and exits, and how other games dont use this fact, powered also by
procedurally generated levels to leverage
replayability of levels.[/p][p]Seems like my assumption was wrong about how much this is a
known fact, and seems like only hardcode backrooms fans appreciated this mechanic, but most people completely missed it and the result is a negative experience.[/p][p]I'm still debating if this is still an interesting idea or if the normal linear level progression is what players expect and want, so
I would love to hear more feedback on this![/p][p]I have ideas to improve this with
better onboarding, more
in game hints and a
new objective to look for so you
have a reason to try to explore at least most levels, or at least not end up closing the game thinking that was everything.[/p][p]Also general game mechanics onboarding and accessibility can be improved a lot.[/p][p][/p][p]These issues are on me, I didn’t gather enough early feedback from a
broader audience. Most of the early players were already
familiar with Backrooms lore, so I wasn’t able to catch this problem early.[/p][p]I have plans to address this, and it’s my top priority moving forward. I’m
still listening closely to feedback, so I’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue.[/p][p][/p]
Planned Improvements
[p]Here’s the list of
changes and improvements you can expect in the
coming months. I won’t begin working on new levels until these issues are
addressed and the overall experience is more
polished. I also want to add a few features that didn’t make it into the initial release, so once I move on to the next level, the core game is in a solid state to build on.[/p][h3]Top priority:[/h3]
- [p]Improved Onboarding on Level Navigation[/p]
- [p]More in game hints[/p]
- [p]In game navigation map[/p]
- [p]New game start cinematic to explain the setting[/p]
- [p]New soft ending objective[/p]
- [p]Improved level navigation to avoid accidental dead ends[/p]
- [p]Improved general First Time User Experience[/p]
- [p]Improve Level 0 Puzzle[/p]
- [p]Also some Level 0 Enviroment enhancements are planned[/p]
- [p]Accesibility features (Disable motion blur, camera shake, adjustable fov, and other settings)[/p]
[h3]Also planned:[/h3]
- [p]Inventory rework[/p]
- [p]Drop items feature[/p]
- [p]Lobby Browser[/p][p][/p]
Later on: New Levels plan
[p]Hopefully I can work through the points above quickly so I can move on to new levels, something the game is currently a bit short on.[/p][p]The original plan for the
0.6 Update was to include three new levels:
Level 3, Level 4, and Level 1.01. But instead of delaying the update until all of them are finished, I’ll work on them one at a time and release each level as soon as it’s ready, starting with
Level 3. You will know more about this once I start its development.[/p][p][/p][p]Thanks for reading and for joining the Early Access phase of the game. Let me know what you think about these plans, and I hope you stick around for the upcoming updates![/p][p][/p][p]As you know, most of these topics can be tracked on the
Development Roadmap Trello, I will keep it updated.[/p][p][/p][p] - Augusto[/p]