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"No one intends to become a monster...
But it can happen to anyone."
Synopsis
The world is at peril. Creatures that appeared around 400 years ago have dominated the southern hemisphere, forming their own dystopian society, and are a constant threat. Most of humanity does nothing to fight back, and those that do rarely last. A stand must be taken, before the rest of the world is overrun...
But watch that you don't become that which you fight.
Warning: This game contains course language, pixelated violence, and depictions of torture and mutilation. Player discretion is advised.
Features
Here's a condensed list of what this game features:
Thrall combines four different concepts into a single game. A rarity based loot system and skill tree system similar to what is seen in the Borderlands series, random dungeon generation similar to the Mystery Dungeon series, ATB sideview combat much like the classic Final Fantasy games featuring an Overdrive system, and a branching narrative story structure, leading to a different gameplay experience every time you play.
Note about the demo: The current story content of the demo does not have noticeably different gameplay in each branching path, save for character interactions and certain cutscene progression. The first five missions are the same on each path to establish the characters in the game, after which the story will begin to change based on your initial decision in the prologue.
This game is best described as a Roguelike (or Rogue-lite, technically) with RPG elements. This means that the game focuses heavily on gameplay, mechanics, and random loot and dungeon generation, while the narrative is present to tie the game together. This game is intended more for players who appreciate mechanics and gameplay over story, rather than story over mechanics. That said, full effort (of a one-person development crew) is given to every aspect of the game, including story.
Early on, you'll be faced with a decision that will affect the remainder of your playthrough. Everything from the party you have, the missions you obtain, the cutscenes that play, and the enemies you face will be determined by this single decision. With four different options to choose from, there are essentially four different story paths to follow, not to mention the various builds and loot you'll find on each individual playthrough.
With that in mind, the loot system will generate random equipment with every enemy you defeat, every chest you open, and every shop you enter. No two weapons or armors will be alike, and many will have unique traits that make for a very different playstyle. Literally billions of different weapons and armors are available for you to find.
And it's not just the loot you find that will affect your playstyle. Each character in your party has three different branching skill trees to explore. Learn different builds that work with the equipment you have, try new combinations, and find ways to become as powerful as possible!
The demo features approximately two hours of gameplay, although can be extended considerably longer. The full release should feature approximately 30 hours of gameplay per playthrough, and will feature a New Game Plus mode.
Credits are in the "Credits" folder in the download, and Controls are described in the "Readme" file in the root folder of the game.
But it can happen to anyone."
Synopsis
The world is at peril. Creatures that appeared around 400 years ago have dominated the southern hemisphere, forming their own dystopian society, and are a constant threat. Most of humanity does nothing to fight back, and those that do rarely last. A stand must be taken, before the rest of the world is overrun...
But watch that you don't become that which you fight.
Warning: This game contains course language, pixelated violence, and depictions of torture and mutilation. Player discretion is advised.
Features
Here's a condensed list of what this game features:
- A rarity-based randomized loot system
- Branching skill trees for each party member
- A branching narrative story structure
- Pseudo-random dungeon generation
- ATB style sideview combat system
- Tons of custom UI and mechanics
- Expansive dungeons and locations created using Parallax mapping techniques
- Music by Fesliyan Studios (for now, possible custom music at full release)
Thrall combines four different concepts into a single game. A rarity based loot system and skill tree system similar to what is seen in the Borderlands series, random dungeon generation similar to the Mystery Dungeon series, ATB sideview combat much like the classic Final Fantasy games featuring an Overdrive system, and a branching narrative story structure, leading to a different gameplay experience every time you play.
Note about the demo: The current story content of the demo does not have noticeably different gameplay in each branching path, save for character interactions and certain cutscene progression. The first five missions are the same on each path to establish the characters in the game, after which the story will begin to change based on your initial decision in the prologue.
This game is best described as a Roguelike (or Rogue-lite, technically) with RPG elements. This means that the game focuses heavily on gameplay, mechanics, and random loot and dungeon generation, while the narrative is present to tie the game together. This game is intended more for players who appreciate mechanics and gameplay over story, rather than story over mechanics. That said, full effort (of a one-person development crew) is given to every aspect of the game, including story.
Early on, you'll be faced with a decision that will affect the remainder of your playthrough. Everything from the party you have, the missions you obtain, the cutscenes that play, and the enemies you face will be determined by this single decision. With four different options to choose from, there are essentially four different story paths to follow, not to mention the various builds and loot you'll find on each individual playthrough.
With that in mind, the loot system will generate random equipment with every enemy you defeat, every chest you open, and every shop you enter. No two weapons or armors will be alike, and many will have unique traits that make for a very different playstyle. Literally billions of different weapons and armors are available for you to find.
And it's not just the loot you find that will affect your playstyle. Each character in your party has three different branching skill trees to explore. Learn different builds that work with the equipment you have, try new combinations, and find ways to become as powerful as possible!
The demo features approximately two hours of gameplay, although can be extended considerably longer. The full release should feature approximately 30 hours of gameplay per playthrough, and will feature a New Game Plus mode.
Credits are in the "Credits" folder in the download, and Controls are described in the "Readme" file in the root folder of the game.
Latest Blog
Ch-ch-ch-changes - Progess Report 11
Strak
Greetings Vampire Hunters!
Thrall is undergoing some changes. Turns out, I vastly underestimated the scope of this project. Allow me to illustrate.
The image above is essentially a very simple layout of the story progression for Thrall, and how the development is currently going. Up to this point, I've essentially completed three dungeons and a "boss rush" style of dungeon, which has taken me close to one full year to do. I should mention, these dungeons are the smallest in the game. Each of the bullet points on this image signify another dungeon, each one getting progressively longer.
Problem is, my method of making dungeons up to this point is extremely time consuming, taking months to complete even a relatively small dungeon. When I ran the numbers on how long it would actually take to make every dungeon in the game with my current method, it equated to around 1200 maps, each taking 2-3 hours to make. That's like, three to four years of working every single day, 2-3 hours a day on just maps. No cutscenes, no story, no bosses, no mechanics. Just maps. Four years, no breaks.
I'd like to release this game sometime in my life. Preferably in the next two years. So something had to change. I came up with four potential solutions.
One, I could team up with someone, or a group of people. Couple issues with this, however. First of all, I'm not selling this game, or at least I don't plan to at this point in time. So any help that I get would either need to be paid out of my own pocket with no expected return, or I'd need to find people willing to work for free. I believe in compensating people for their time and their work, so that's a no-go. In addition, teaming up with people will inevitably change some things about the game. It's difficult to teach people a consistent art style, so I'd likely have to make some compromises there. Not my favorite choice.
Two, I could reduce the scope of the game. Instead of around 25 dungeons, I could maybe reduce it to ten, and eliminate some of the branching paths. Maybe eliminate the branching narrative structure altogether. Again, not really the vision I had for the game, and not my favorite choice.
Three, I could change the artistic style of the game. Simplify the dungeon style, maybe go tile-based instead of parallax mapped. But, one of the reasons I embraced this style in the first place was because I couldn't stand how bland the dungeons were in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, which is what the dungeon generation aspect of this game is based on. I just felt that the dungeons needed to have some flavor, some character to them. I didn't want basic bland empty square rooms, with maybe a few swapped tiles and different music. So again, not the ideal choice.
And so, there's the fourth option. Find a way to create procedurally generated dungeons, while retaining the artistic style of parallax mapping. And that's exactly what I did.
This mockup is still pretty square and grid-based, but I successfully managed to create a system that procedurally generates dungeons using a series of parallax mapped rooms. The game constructs a dungeon layout, then searches specific folders for image files to stitch together, then reads the image file name to get collision and spawn point data for that room. The game then creates a parallax and overlay using those images, changes the tile data within the map, and reallocates the player, enemies, chests, and any other events such as exits and item bags.
I also got creative with how spawn points are set up, so that a player will never spawn in the same room as a monster, and you'll never have two monsters spawn in one room. Events will never spawn on top of each other, and the map will always generate a layout that is fully accessible, with no isolated sections. And it's still parallax mapping! I have full control over what each individual room and corridor looks like, how it's decorated, how collision is determined, and I don't have to resort to using tiles in the engine! Every dungeon can still have the flavor and character that I'm going for, while actually being MORE random than it was before!
And the best part? Every dungeon, no matter how many floors it has, will only EVER need 82 small maps to create fully random, procedurally generated maps. 82 sounds like a lot, but it's really not. Especially because they're very tiny maps. Like, this tiny.
Tiny. 82 of those? I can make that in about two weeks working for less than an hour a day, maybe three weeks if I take a day or two off. And that's for every single dungeon in the game. No more spending months on end working on a single dungeon, getting burned out, and wanting to give up.
So, what does this mean for Thrall? Well, first I'm going to remake all the existing dungeons. Yes, I'm basically throwing away nearly a year of work, at least on the mapping side. But the end result will be worth it. I've already nearly finished remaking the Bloodstone Mine, and I only started on the maps a week ago. Next is Eleston, then the Lyre Forest. Those will take some creative thinking, but I'll find a way to make it work. The end result might be a little bit more simple, not as detailed, but still very distinctly unique.
Once the existing dungeons have been recreated, I will release a new demo with the changes. This will also include the changes to the Difficulty system that I mentioned in the last blog. And then, it's onward and upward from there! The game may very well be completed by the end of 2025, like I wanted! And it will have even more randomness, even more replayability than I'd ever thought possible.
So with that, stay tuned! It only gets better from here.
By the way, I made a few videos talking about dungeon generation in Thrall, so if you want to check them out, head over to the Media page and go into "Developing Systems." There's a video that talks about the first method used to generate dungeons, and I've linked the video talking about this system as well!
Thrall is undergoing some changes. Turns out, I vastly underestimated the scope of this project. Allow me to illustrate.
The image above is essentially a very simple layout of the story progression for Thrall, and how the development is currently going. Up to this point, I've essentially completed three dungeons and a "boss rush" style of dungeon, which has taken me close to one full year to do. I should mention, these dungeons are the smallest in the game. Each of the bullet points on this image signify another dungeon, each one getting progressively longer.
Problem is, my method of making dungeons up to this point is extremely time consuming, taking months to complete even a relatively small dungeon. When I ran the numbers on how long it would actually take to make every dungeon in the game with my current method, it equated to around 1200 maps, each taking 2-3 hours to make. That's like, three to four years of working every single day, 2-3 hours a day on just maps. No cutscenes, no story, no bosses, no mechanics. Just maps. Four years, no breaks.
I'd like to release this game sometime in my life. Preferably in the next two years. So something had to change. I came up with four potential solutions.
One, I could team up with someone, or a group of people. Couple issues with this, however. First of all, I'm not selling this game, or at least I don't plan to at this point in time. So any help that I get would either need to be paid out of my own pocket with no expected return, or I'd need to find people willing to work for free. I believe in compensating people for their time and their work, so that's a no-go. In addition, teaming up with people will inevitably change some things about the game. It's difficult to teach people a consistent art style, so I'd likely have to make some compromises there. Not my favorite choice.
Two, I could reduce the scope of the game. Instead of around 25 dungeons, I could maybe reduce it to ten, and eliminate some of the branching paths. Maybe eliminate the branching narrative structure altogether. Again, not really the vision I had for the game, and not my favorite choice.
Three, I could change the artistic style of the game. Simplify the dungeon style, maybe go tile-based instead of parallax mapped. But, one of the reasons I embraced this style in the first place was because I couldn't stand how bland the dungeons were in the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, which is what the dungeon generation aspect of this game is based on. I just felt that the dungeons needed to have some flavor, some character to them. I didn't want basic bland empty square rooms, with maybe a few swapped tiles and different music. So again, not the ideal choice.
And so, there's the fourth option. Find a way to create procedurally generated dungeons, while retaining the artistic style of parallax mapping. And that's exactly what I did.
This mockup is still pretty square and grid-based, but I successfully managed to create a system that procedurally generates dungeons using a series of parallax mapped rooms. The game constructs a dungeon layout, then searches specific folders for image files to stitch together, then reads the image file name to get collision and spawn point data for that room. The game then creates a parallax and overlay using those images, changes the tile data within the map, and reallocates the player, enemies, chests, and any other events such as exits and item bags.
I also got creative with how spawn points are set up, so that a player will never spawn in the same room as a monster, and you'll never have two monsters spawn in one room. Events will never spawn on top of each other, and the map will always generate a layout that is fully accessible, with no isolated sections. And it's still parallax mapping! I have full control over what each individual room and corridor looks like, how it's decorated, how collision is determined, and I don't have to resort to using tiles in the engine! Every dungeon can still have the flavor and character that I'm going for, while actually being MORE random than it was before!
And the best part? Every dungeon, no matter how many floors it has, will only EVER need 82 small maps to create fully random, procedurally generated maps. 82 sounds like a lot, but it's really not. Especially because they're very tiny maps. Like, this tiny.
Tiny. 82 of those? I can make that in about two weeks working for less than an hour a day, maybe three weeks if I take a day or two off. And that's for every single dungeon in the game. No more spending months on end working on a single dungeon, getting burned out, and wanting to give up.
So, what does this mean for Thrall? Well, first I'm going to remake all the existing dungeons. Yes, I'm basically throwing away nearly a year of work, at least on the mapping side. But the end result will be worth it. I've already nearly finished remaking the Bloodstone Mine, and I only started on the maps a week ago. Next is Eleston, then the Lyre Forest. Those will take some creative thinking, but I'll find a way to make it work. The end result might be a little bit more simple, not as detailed, but still very distinctly unique.
Once the existing dungeons have been recreated, I will release a new demo with the changes. This will also include the changes to the Difficulty system that I mentioned in the last blog. And then, it's onward and upward from there! The game may very well be completed by the end of 2025, like I wanted! And it will have even more randomness, even more replayability than I'd ever thought possible.
So with that, stay tuned! It only gets better from here.
By the way, I made a few videos talking about dungeon generation in Thrall, so if you want to check them out, head over to the Media page and go into "Developing Systems." There's a video that talks about the first method used to generate dungeons, and I've linked the video talking about this system as well!
- Production
- Strak
RPG Maker VX- Action Adventure RPG
- 05/21/2023 03:09 AM
- 03/29/2024 10:00 PM
- 02/26/2026
- 19442
- 15
- 210
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Gari
127
Looking for it!
Probably easier, but VXAce has a game about items loot, where the weapons/armors have custom stats... am I suggesting new ideas? Maybe...
Probably easier, but VXAce has a game about items loot, where the weapons/armors have custom stats... am I suggesting new ideas? Maybe...
Strak
1560
Oh dang, I didn't know that! To my knowledge, this was the only game I've seen that utilises a fully custom random loot system. Well, guess my claim to fame is over, time to scrap the project kidding, kidding. I'm having way too much fun making this to do that.
Strak
1560
After reflecting on the usefulness of some of the Action Skills, I've made a slight adjustment. Seeing as how both "Rage" and "Stalking" require a turn to activate, their usefulness was somewhat mitigated. In my own tests, I found myself rarely using the skills, resorting to just spamming attack instead. "Aura" was used quite a bit, and gains even more usefulness in later levels, and of course "Elemental Burst" was extremely useful no matter what.
To that end, I've modified both "Rage" and "Stalking" to be immediately applied on use, without costing the turn to do so. This means that you can trigger the skill, then immediately do another action such as attack, use an item, or defend. Keep in mind that "Rage" takes away player agency until a much later skill is unlocked, but essentially this means you can use "Rage" and attack in the same turn.
I've also increased the damage modifier of "Rage" from +20% to +50%. I found that the buff wasn't quite enough for it to be truly worth the cost, so now it has been improved.
In regards to some player feedback, I've also slightly reduced enemy damage stats, and I've removed the enemy respawn functionality from the first boss fight. Balancing is something I'll be doing a lot more of in the full release, but for now this will have to do.
Version 0.2 is now available, so feel free to download it and give it a try! Old saves should be compatible (for whatever that's worth for an hour long demo). Thanks for playing!
EDIT: There seems to be a slight bug with the new action skills when animations are playing that causes battles to freeze. I'll release a patch later tonight that fixes this, but it will disable the action skill animation for the time being until a more permanent fix can be employed. Thank you for your patience.
EDIT EDIT: Turns out this bug is more tricky to figure out than I'd initially thought. I'll keep working on a solution, but the fix will be delayed somewhat.
EDIT EDIT EDIT: I've reverted the demo back to version 0.1 temporarily while I figure out this bug. Turns out it was far more buggy than I'd initially realized, and any solutions I've come up with have a whole host of other problems attached to them. I'm still working on a fix, but for now at least the available demo isn't a completely buggy mess.
To that end, I've modified both "Rage" and "Stalking" to be immediately applied on use, without costing the turn to do so. This means that you can trigger the skill, then immediately do another action such as attack, use an item, or defend. Keep in mind that "Rage" takes away player agency until a much later skill is unlocked, but essentially this means you can use "Rage" and attack in the same turn.
I've also increased the damage modifier of "Rage" from +20% to +50%. I found that the buff wasn't quite enough for it to be truly worth the cost, so now it has been improved.
In regards to some player feedback, I've also slightly reduced enemy damage stats, and I've removed the enemy respawn functionality from the first boss fight. Balancing is something I'll be doing a lot more of in the full release, but for now this will have to do.
Version 0.2 is now available, so feel free to download it and give it a try! Old saves should be compatible (for whatever that's worth for an hour long demo). Thanks for playing!
EDIT: There seems to be a slight bug with the new action skills when animations are playing that causes battles to freeze. I'll release a patch later tonight that fixes this, but it will disable the action skill animation for the time being until a more permanent fix can be employed. Thank you for your patience.
EDIT EDIT: Turns out this bug is more tricky to figure out than I'd initially thought. I'll keep working on a solution, but the fix will be delayed somewhat.
EDIT EDIT EDIT: I've reverted the demo back to version 0.1 temporarily while I figure out this bug. Turns out it was far more buggy than I'd initially realized, and any solutions I've come up with have a whole host of other problems attached to them. I'm still working on a fix, but for now at least the available demo isn't a completely buggy mess.
Strak
1560
Okay, so that was a mess. The "fix" that I implemented in v0.2 was super buggy, and trying to fix it was like trying to make water run uphill. I was basically trying to make the engine do something that it absolutely DOES NOT want to do. That's not to say it was impossible, but far more trouble than what it was worth. So I came up with an alternative solution.
The main problem surrounding "Rage" and "Stalking" was that they weren't worth spending a turn to activate. Yeah, that changes later in the game when you unlock more skills, but these are the characters primary Action Skills. They should be at least SOMEWHAT useful as soon as you unlock them. My initial solution of having them not cost a turn to activate WOULD have been fine, but it's not the only solution.
To that end, I've changed the functionality of "Stalking" entirely. Instead of just a straight damage buff, "Stalking" will now completely conceal the Hunter from enemies, preventing him from being targeted at all until his next attack lands. Even if he's the only one still standing. Even if there's a technique that targets everyone. He simply cannot be targeted. There is still a tier 1 skill that DOES give "Stalking" a damage buff, but the skill itself is not focused on that. This should give the skill much more usefulness, and make it worth spending a turn to activate even at low levels. This also may be pretty broken at later levels, so I may need to do some balancing later, but I'll get to that.
As for "Rage," nothing fancy. The damage and dexterity buffs are actually pretty good on their own, especially when paired with Overdrive techniques, but the main problem is that they didn't last long enough. So I doubled the duration of "Rage," and increased the duration buffs of some of his skills. Now it doesn't just last for 3 or 4 rounds of combat, and you should get a lot more mileage out of the skill.
While this wasn't the initial solution I wanted, part of game development is thinking outside the box and coming up with innovative ways of fixing a problem, even if the solution isn't what you thought it would be. Essentially, just because a problem presents itself doesn't mean that's the actual problem. It may just be a symptom, and the real problem lies somewhere else. The problem wasn't that these skills don't activate right away, the problem was that they weren't worth spending a turn on. Instead of addressing the symptom, I just made them worth the turn you have to spend on them. Hopefully this works out, but let me know your feedback, and thanks for your patience. Happy looting!
The main problem surrounding "Rage" and "Stalking" was that they weren't worth spending a turn to activate. Yeah, that changes later in the game when you unlock more skills, but these are the characters primary Action Skills. They should be at least SOMEWHAT useful as soon as you unlock them. My initial solution of having them not cost a turn to activate WOULD have been fine, but it's not the only solution.
To that end, I've changed the functionality of "Stalking" entirely. Instead of just a straight damage buff, "Stalking" will now completely conceal the Hunter from enemies, preventing him from being targeted at all until his next attack lands. Even if he's the only one still standing. Even if there's a technique that targets everyone. He simply cannot be targeted. There is still a tier 1 skill that DOES give "Stalking" a damage buff, but the skill itself is not focused on that. This should give the skill much more usefulness, and make it worth spending a turn to activate even at low levels. This also may be pretty broken at later levels, so I may need to do some balancing later, but I'll get to that.
As for "Rage," nothing fancy. The damage and dexterity buffs are actually pretty good on their own, especially when paired with Overdrive techniques, but the main problem is that they didn't last long enough. So I doubled the duration of "Rage," and increased the duration buffs of some of his skills. Now it doesn't just last for 3 or 4 rounds of combat, and you should get a lot more mileage out of the skill.
While this wasn't the initial solution I wanted, part of game development is thinking outside the box and coming up with innovative ways of fixing a problem, even if the solution isn't what you thought it would be. Essentially, just because a problem presents itself doesn't mean that's the actual problem. It may just be a symptom, and the real problem lies somewhere else. The problem wasn't that these skills don't activate right away, the problem was that they weren't worth spending a turn on. Instead of addressing the symptom, I just made them worth the turn you have to spend on them. Hopefully this works out, but let me know your feedback, and thanks for your patience. Happy looting!
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
I gave the demo a try on stream yesterday. Overall, I enjoyed the game once I got past the intro. The loot system was interesting and kept me engaged throughout the whole run of the Bloodstone mines. It's great that each piece of equipment wasn't just a straight upgrade or downgrade, but allows for more in-depth customization of your party, and finding new pieces of gear forced me to adapt to new strategies.
That said, having some knowledge of the basic stats would have really helped my decision-making. Most of them were pretty obvious, but with accuracy, crit, and evasion being listed separately, I wasn't sure what the DEX stat did. If I have to make decisions to sacrifice DEX for DMG or vice versa, I'd like to be perfectly clear on what kind of alterations I'm making to the characters. Since so much of this game's mechanics are custom, I don't want to assume all stats work exactly the way they do in default RPG Maker.
I don't really have much to say about the narrative since I don't feel like it was much more than a framework to tie the dungeon-crawling together. The only hangup I really have (and this isn't really a big one tbh), is that selecting one of them to leave behind wasn't much of a choice. Not because they were all interesting and I didn't want to leave one behind. Quite the opposite, actually. I didn't spend enough time with any of them to get to know their personalities well enough or even their gameplay styles since they don't learn their Action skill until right when I was done playing as them.
Anyway, the loot system is fun and addicting, and the enemies were difficult to necessitate constantly changing equipment. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next!
That said, having some knowledge of the basic stats would have really helped my decision-making. Most of them were pretty obvious, but with accuracy, crit, and evasion being listed separately, I wasn't sure what the DEX stat did. If I have to make decisions to sacrifice DEX for DMG or vice versa, I'd like to be perfectly clear on what kind of alterations I'm making to the characters. Since so much of this game's mechanics are custom, I don't want to assume all stats work exactly the way they do in default RPG Maker.
I don't really have much to say about the narrative since I don't feel like it was much more than a framework to tie the dungeon-crawling together. The only hangup I really have (and this isn't really a big one tbh), is that selecting one of them to leave behind wasn't much of a choice. Not because they were all interesting and I didn't want to leave one behind. Quite the opposite, actually. I didn't spend enough time with any of them to get to know their personalities well enough or even their gameplay styles since they don't learn their Action skill until right when I was done playing as them.
Anyway, the loot system is fun and addicting, and the enemies were difficult to necessitate constantly changing equipment. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next!
Strak
1560
Thank you so much for doing a stream! It really is true that you can learn more about your game from watching others play it than you can from the verbal feedback they provide. That said, your verbal feedback was also excellent, and I took a ton of notes. Couple takeaways:
Difficulty: I should probably tone it down quite a bit, considering the number of deaths in the first dungeon. It's the first dungeon. It's not meant to be quite that difficult. Granted, dying isn't TERRIBLY costly, and it does encourage optimizing your equipment, but still. I'll be doing a LOT more balancing before the full release.
Level Requirements: So, there was a reason that equipping weapons was locked behind a level requirement. It has to do with the locker in the Keep. The one that allows you to move items between save files and playthroughs. Essentially, with that locker, you could put a level 99 weapon onto a level 1 character without the requirement. That said, I will admit it can be very frustrating to find an obviously better weapon only to find you can't use it yet.
On the one hand, I wanted the player to have equipment that they can use as soon as they level up, rather than leveling up and basically needing to wait before getting better stuff. On the other hand, then you've got an inventory full of stuff you can't use. I'll definitely do some modifications, maybe adjust the drop rates to set the equipment to your level, and only RARELY provide equipment above your level, but I'll have to think it through.
Oh, and as a side note, DEX determines how fast your ATB gauge fills. The idea being that if you use an underleveled weapon just for its special effect, eventually you'll be too slow to really make good use of it. Really should have described that better in game. My bad.
Consistent Visual Language: This is a two parter. One, the tutorials. Yep, that's bad consistency. I'll fix that. I wanted to give the characters some dialogue to represent their personality a bit more, but that... doesn't really come through in a tutorial about mechanics. Also, yes, I will add tutorials for each of the stats and what they actually do in one of those tutorials. Maybe the one where it describes item comparisons?
Second, I noticed that you immediately went for the red item bags in the dungeon, but occasionally missed a chest or two. Granted, the only chests you missed were tier 1 chests that typically don't contain great loot, but frankly it should be obvious what can be interacted with and what can't. I'll work on that.
Boss Fight: Ironically, I was trying to add additional gimmicks that fix the "damage sponge" boss that most RPG's seem to fall in to. Changing elements was the gimmick I went for with this boss. The HP bar changes color based on the bosses elemental weakness. Unfortunately, the only way to do that was to essentially spawn in a new enemy, which heals it. I can work on an alternative solution that maybe spawns it in at the HP of the enemy that was despawned. Shouldn't be too tough to figure out.
As for the slimes, those were included because of one specific feature: Kill skills. Certain characters (Damien especially, but everyone has them) have skills in their skill trees that proc extra abilities when they kill an enemy. It could be additional HP regen, stacking Overkill damage, damage resistance, etc. Adding minions to boss fights essentially means you can proc those abilities during longer encounters. That's great later on, but I guess it's not really necessary if you literally don't have any of those skills available to you yet. Maybe a later boss fight would have them make more sense, but not the first boss.
Narrative: I agree that you don't really get to spend enough time with any of the characters to develop any sort of emotional attachment to them, but I'm not entirely sure how to fix that, to be honest. Something tells me that making the prologue an hour long isn't the solution. I'm open to feedback, and I'll do some thinking about that myself, but I don't exactly have a solution right away.
As for the differences between playthroughs, yes, you will see cutscenes play out quite differently depending on who you leave behind. The actual progression of the storyline and which dungeons and enemies you face will actually change as well, but this isn't reflected terribly well in the demo. The first five dungeons roughly will be basically the same in each playthrough, albeit with different dialogue and interactions, but after that point there will be a split in the story path based on who you leave behind, which will branch out even further on each path. There will be a converging of those paths closer to the end of the story, but still with some VERY distinct differences based on your initial decision.
Game Page Presentation: Honestly, didn't even really think about this, but I'm glad you brought it up. Yes, I will spend some time clarifying the trigger warning. It's mostly due to the language present in the game, and some of the animated violence in cutscenes. I think the worst of it in the demo is the first boss getting decapitated, but I mean... it's a pixelated sprite. There's going to be a fair bit more gory cutscenes later on, but nothing much worse than what was seen here. There will also be scenes including depictions of torture. I will clarify all of that so that it's not just a generic content warning. I will also spend some time modifying the tagline and synopsis to be more words better. To make better word mouth. To... uh... make sense? Yeah, let's go with that.
Anyway, thank you again, this was incredibly helpful. I intend to make a lot of adjustments in the final release, and absolutely am open to feedback, so this was great. That said, I want to avoid falling into the trap of constantly updating a demo, so what you see here is what you get for now.
Difficulty: I should probably tone it down quite a bit, considering the number of deaths in the first dungeon. It's the first dungeon. It's not meant to be quite that difficult. Granted, dying isn't TERRIBLY costly, and it does encourage optimizing your equipment, but still. I'll be doing a LOT more balancing before the full release.
Level Requirements: So, there was a reason that equipping weapons was locked behind a level requirement. It has to do with the locker in the Keep. The one that allows you to move items between save files and playthroughs. Essentially, with that locker, you could put a level 99 weapon onto a level 1 character without the requirement. That said, I will admit it can be very frustrating to find an obviously better weapon only to find you can't use it yet.
On the one hand, I wanted the player to have equipment that they can use as soon as they level up, rather than leveling up and basically needing to wait before getting better stuff. On the other hand, then you've got an inventory full of stuff you can't use. I'll definitely do some modifications, maybe adjust the drop rates to set the equipment to your level, and only RARELY provide equipment above your level, but I'll have to think it through.
Oh, and as a side note, DEX determines how fast your ATB gauge fills. The idea being that if you use an underleveled weapon just for its special effect, eventually you'll be too slow to really make good use of it. Really should have described that better in game. My bad.
Consistent Visual Language: This is a two parter. One, the tutorials. Yep, that's bad consistency. I'll fix that. I wanted to give the characters some dialogue to represent their personality a bit more, but that... doesn't really come through in a tutorial about mechanics. Also, yes, I will add tutorials for each of the stats and what they actually do in one of those tutorials. Maybe the one where it describes item comparisons?
Second, I noticed that you immediately went for the red item bags in the dungeon, but occasionally missed a chest or two. Granted, the only chests you missed were tier 1 chests that typically don't contain great loot, but frankly it should be obvious what can be interacted with and what can't. I'll work on that.
Boss Fight: Ironically, I was trying to add additional gimmicks that fix the "damage sponge" boss that most RPG's seem to fall in to. Changing elements was the gimmick I went for with this boss. The HP bar changes color based on the bosses elemental weakness. Unfortunately, the only way to do that was to essentially spawn in a new enemy, which heals it. I can work on an alternative solution that maybe spawns it in at the HP of the enemy that was despawned. Shouldn't be too tough to figure out.
As for the slimes, those were included because of one specific feature: Kill skills. Certain characters (Damien especially, but everyone has them) have skills in their skill trees that proc extra abilities when they kill an enemy. It could be additional HP regen, stacking Overkill damage, damage resistance, etc. Adding minions to boss fights essentially means you can proc those abilities during longer encounters. That's great later on, but I guess it's not really necessary if you literally don't have any of those skills available to you yet. Maybe a later boss fight would have them make more sense, but not the first boss.
Narrative: I agree that you don't really get to spend enough time with any of the characters to develop any sort of emotional attachment to them, but I'm not entirely sure how to fix that, to be honest. Something tells me that making the prologue an hour long isn't the solution. I'm open to feedback, and I'll do some thinking about that myself, but I don't exactly have a solution right away.
As for the differences between playthroughs, yes, you will see cutscenes play out quite differently depending on who you leave behind. The actual progression of the storyline and which dungeons and enemies you face will actually change as well, but this isn't reflected terribly well in the demo. The first five dungeons roughly will be basically the same in each playthrough, albeit with different dialogue and interactions, but after that point there will be a split in the story path based on who you leave behind, which will branch out even further on each path. There will be a converging of those paths closer to the end of the story, but still with some VERY distinct differences based on your initial decision.
Game Page Presentation: Honestly, didn't even really think about this, but I'm glad you brought it up. Yes, I will spend some time clarifying the trigger warning. It's mostly due to the language present in the game, and some of the animated violence in cutscenes. I think the worst of it in the demo is the first boss getting decapitated, but I mean... it's a pixelated sprite. There's going to be a fair bit more gory cutscenes later on, but nothing much worse than what was seen here. There will also be scenes including depictions of torture. I will clarify all of that so that it's not just a generic content warning. I will also spend some time modifying the tagline and synopsis to be more words better. To make better word mouth. To... uh... make sense? Yeah, let's go with that.
Anyway, thank you again, this was incredibly helpful. I intend to make a lot of adjustments in the final release, and absolutely am open to feedback, so this was great. That said, I want to avoid falling into the trap of constantly updating a demo, so what you see here is what you get for now.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
author=Strak
Level Requirements: So, there was a reason that equipping weapons was locked behind a level requirement. It has to do with the locker in the Keep. The one that allows you to move items between save files and playthroughs. Essentially, with that locker, you could put a level 99 weapon onto a level 1 character without the requirement. That said, I will admit it can be very frustrating to find an obviously better weapon only to find you can't use it yet.
I have a few questions about this:
1) If there is a level requirement for equipment, then isn't the idea of transferring equipment between save files already negated since anything I put in that chest will have to wait until my next party is already leveled up enough to use it? By the time I level up enough to use that gear, I likely would have found something just as good (or even better) for my party in my next playthrough since I can get lucky and get a high rarity item early on.
2) What exactly is the harm in letting players transfer high level gear in a subsequent playthrough? The chest can only store ONE piece of gear, after all, so it's not like you can completely deck out your party in OP gear in your second playthrough. Even if you could, I feel like anyone who would make use of this mechanic is to see the routes that that didn't take the first playthrough, and letting them use high level gear just makes it easier for them. If they wanted a subsequent playthrough to be fair and challenging, they would not make use of this item transfer mechanic at all.
I had a similar issue in Prayer of the Faithless where I added EXP decay once your party started to outlevel the enemies. I did this to discourage tedious grinding and to learn the actual battle mechanics. And yet I still got reports that some players would just grind anyway, EXP decay and all. Eventually, I just threw up my hands and said "fine. Make it easier for yourself. At least you've earned it."
Boss Fight: Ironically, I was trying to add additional gimmicks that fix the "damage sponge" boss that most RPG's seem to fall in to. Changing elements was the gimmick I went for with this boss. The HP bar changes color based on the bosses elemental weakness. Unfortunately, the only way to do that was to essentially spawn in a new enemy, which heals it. I can work on an alternative solution that maybe spawns it in at the HP of the enemy that was despawned. Shouldn't be too tough to figure out.
I feel like the underlined statement goes against your stated intention of accommodating colorblindness. I haven't checked, but what changes about the HP bar if you enable colorblind mode?
As for the slimes, those were included because of one specific feature: Kill skills.
That's a dangerous reason considering each character has 3 different skill trees and so the possibility of a party with no kill skills is fairly high. I stand by what I said during stream that the additional enemies need to make the boss fight itself interesting and not exist purely as trash mobs to annoy the player. Kill skills should be a reward for diversifying your party's skill set, not a requirement for beating boss fights.
Narrative: I agree that you don't really get to spend enough time with any of the characters to develop any sort of emotional attachment to them, but I'm not entirely sure how to fix that, to be honest. Something tells me that making the prologue an hour long isn't the solution. I'm open to feedback, and I'll do some thinking about that myself, but I don't exactly have a solution right away.
You're right in that making a longer prologue isn't the answer. Depending on what you want to emphasize to the player, there are a few ways to address this:
1) Punch up the dialogue that is already there. You can use tutorial messages and other flavor text to help expand on the character's personalities more. Mel, for example, has absolutely no personality to work with at all. You can do pretty much anything with her dialogue and it would be an improvement. Brutus is alright, but pretty one note with his anger issues. I get that he's a Berserker (though not angry enough to actually Rage in the middle of battle, I guess), but the current dialogue leans so hard into it that it's his only character trait. Lionel is the group leader, but all he does is give orders and boss people around. He's done nothing (from my perspective) to earn the loyalty and trust of the rest of the team. All he did is bark orders and shut down any dissent. Why did he split the team up the way he did? What does he know about each one to know that they would work well together? Damian is... alright, actually.
2) Give the characters their Action Skill right away. As I mentioned on stream, most of the fights in the tutorial area were just "press space to win" fights. It wasn't nearly enough to give me an idea of how each character played (which is what I thought the point of splitting the party up in the first place was). Since you can guarantee that certain party members will be in certain places, it's the perfect opportunity to design enemies in such a way to make use of your character's Action skills. Making physical resistant enemies to encourage uses of Mel's Bursts, or poison/burning inflicting enemies to make use of Lionel's Aura skill.
Anyway, glad to help and glad to see the stream helped you! I'll give the next release a playthrough too with a different party setup and see what I missed.
Strak
1560
Great questions, let me see if I can answer them for you.
Not necessarily. Have you ever played the "Borderlands" games? This loot system is very similar to the system seen in those games. Level requirements and all. One thing that I noticed in your stream of the game is that I don't think you quite experienced the full potential of the loot system in your particular run, most likely just due to bad RNG, honestly. I didn't see any gold chests in the dungeons that you went through, and I think the highest rarity item you found was blue. So basically, there are three more rarity tiers above what you found that are much harder to find, and are much higher quality. Purple rarity is even better than blue, and orange rarity is better still. Even better, orange rarity items have special effects that are unique to them, that don't generate on any other piece of equipment.
An example is the orange sword you found in the first chest in the Keep, the "Aremen." While it's listed as having 0 DMG, it has a unique effect that actually sets its DMG stat based on the level of the player equipping it, so it grows with you. There are dozens of other Legendary weapons and armors that can randomly generate as well, and so being able to transfer those between save files is a good way to re-use items that you've found on other saves, but are no longer useful.
In addition, the stats scale pretty dramatically as you get to higher levels. Some of the highest damaging weapons will literally break the engines pre-set stat caps with over 1000 DMG and around 300 DEX. Needless to say, equipping that to a level 1 character would pretty much break the game.
Now, you can still abuse the locker by transferring over high selling items, so that you have an abundance of gold and can afford whatever you want, but it still encourages you to play each playthrough using what you find, unless you happen to have something EXTRA useful on another file at your current level.
Kind of addressed this in the first answer, but I'll also say that a big part of subsequent playthroughs is (hopefully) not just for story purposes, but also to try out new character builds, and see how the character you left behind works in unison with the others and their skill trees.
Actually, yeah this is accommodated. The HP bar doesn't change, but the cursors change. For your action skills, the cursor changes shape when the action skill is ready to use. As for boss HP bars, the cursor will change when targeting an enemy with an icon denoting their weakness. Fireball when weak to fire, lightning bolt when weak to lightning, and so on. In addition, if you enable colorblind mode before the tutorials, the tutorials will also change to reflect this.
I did have an oversight in that mode though, which is in regards to comparing stat increases or decreases. I've already fixed this for the full release, but basically now when a stat is increased, it will display with an "O" next to it, and for decreases it will display a "X". That isn't available in the demo, unfortunately, but I appreciate you mentioning it in your stream. Problem with testing a colorblind mode when you yourself are not colorblind: You can test to see if a script does what you want, but not to see whether or not it's effective.
Fair, although I personally think a playthrough with no kill skills is going to be fairly unlikely, especially given how powerful a lot of them can be. As a matter of fact, Lionel has a specific kill called "Mercy" that's designed to set others up to trigger their skills. I did remove the slimes from the Spider boss, since it's not really necessary that early in the game, but I personally think those kill skills would be almost useless unless SOME of the bosses in the game have minions, and there are a lot of really ridiculous builds that can be done when those skills synergize. I'll work on finding a happy medium.
That's a darn good solution, right there.
And so is this. That's actually a great idea, just gotta rebalance the skill trees to make sure the skill point allocations are still appropriate. The way it's set up right now, unlocking every single skill is possible at exactly level 99. Kind of want to keep it that way if I can.
author=Red_Nova
1) If there is a level requirement for equipment, then isn't the idea of transferring equipment between save files already negated since anything I put in that chest will have to wait until my next party is already leveled up enough to use it? By the time I level up enough to use that gear, I likely would have found something just as good (or even better) for my party in my next playthrough since I can get lucky and get a high rarity item early on.
Not necessarily. Have you ever played the "Borderlands" games? This loot system is very similar to the system seen in those games. Level requirements and all. One thing that I noticed in your stream of the game is that I don't think you quite experienced the full potential of the loot system in your particular run, most likely just due to bad RNG, honestly. I didn't see any gold chests in the dungeons that you went through, and I think the highest rarity item you found was blue. So basically, there are three more rarity tiers above what you found that are much harder to find, and are much higher quality. Purple rarity is even better than blue, and orange rarity is better still. Even better, orange rarity items have special effects that are unique to them, that don't generate on any other piece of equipment.
An example is the orange sword you found in the first chest in the Keep, the "Aremen." While it's listed as having 0 DMG, it has a unique effect that actually sets its DMG stat based on the level of the player equipping it, so it grows with you. There are dozens of other Legendary weapons and armors that can randomly generate as well, and so being able to transfer those between save files is a good way to re-use items that you've found on other saves, but are no longer useful.
In addition, the stats scale pretty dramatically as you get to higher levels. Some of the highest damaging weapons will literally break the engines pre-set stat caps with over 1000 DMG and around 300 DEX. Needless to say, equipping that to a level 1 character would pretty much break the game.
Now, you can still abuse the locker by transferring over high selling items, so that you have an abundance of gold and can afford whatever you want, but it still encourages you to play each playthrough using what you find, unless you happen to have something EXTRA useful on another file at your current level.
2) What exactly is the harm in letting players transfer high level gear in a subsequent playthrough? The chest can only store ONE piece of gear, after all, so it's not like you can completely deck out your party in OP gear in your second playthrough. Even if you could, I feel like anyone who would make use of this mechanic is to see the routes that that didn't take the first playthrough, and letting them use high level gear just makes it easier for them. If they wanted a subsequent playthrough to be fair and challenging, they would not make use of this item transfer mechanic at all.
Kind of addressed this in the first answer, but I'll also say that a big part of subsequent playthroughs is (hopefully) not just for story purposes, but also to try out new character builds, and see how the character you left behind works in unison with the others and their skill trees.
I feel like the underlined statement goes against your stated intention of accommodating colorblindness. I haven't checked, but what changes about the HP bar if you enable colorblind mode?
Actually, yeah this is accommodated. The HP bar doesn't change, but the cursors change. For your action skills, the cursor changes shape when the action skill is ready to use. As for boss HP bars, the cursor will change when targeting an enemy with an icon denoting their weakness. Fireball when weak to fire, lightning bolt when weak to lightning, and so on. In addition, if you enable colorblind mode before the tutorials, the tutorials will also change to reflect this.
I did have an oversight in that mode though, which is in regards to comparing stat increases or decreases. I've already fixed this for the full release, but basically now when a stat is increased, it will display with an "O" next to it, and for decreases it will display a "X". That isn't available in the demo, unfortunately, but I appreciate you mentioning it in your stream. Problem with testing a colorblind mode when you yourself are not colorblind: You can test to see if a script does what you want, but not to see whether or not it's effective.
That's a dangerous reason considering each character has 3 different skill trees and so the possibility of a party with no kill skills is fairly high.
Fair, although I personally think a playthrough with no kill skills is going to be fairly unlikely, especially given how powerful a lot of them can be. As a matter of fact, Lionel has a specific kill called "Mercy" that's designed to set others up to trigger their skills. I did remove the slimes from the Spider boss, since it's not really necessary that early in the game, but I personally think those kill skills would be almost useless unless SOME of the bosses in the game have minions, and there are a lot of really ridiculous builds that can be done when those skills synergize. I'll work on finding a happy medium.
1) Punch up the dialogue that is already there.
That's a darn good solution, right there.
2) Give the characters their Action Skill right away.
And so is this. That's actually a great idea, just gotta rebalance the skill trees to make sure the skill point allocations are still appropriate. The way it's set up right now, unlocking every single skill is possible at exactly level 99. Kind of want to keep it that way if I can.
Strak
1560
Demo Version 0.4 is now available! I made a ton of changes with this release, so check out the blog post for more information! And if you've tried this game before and found it too frustrating, maybe give it another shake. A lot of the mechanics that frustrated most players have been significantly adjusted to make for a much smoother gameplay experience.
Trust me, a lot of those changes were NOT easy to figure out. There were a lot of times in the last month where I was sitting at my computer thinking "How the hell am I going to do that?" But, well, see for yourself! The updated demo is available now.
Please let me know if you encounter any game-breaking bugs, and I'll make an effort to patch them as soon as possible. Thanks for playing! Happy looting!
Trust me, a lot of those changes were NOT easy to figure out. There were a lot of times in the last month where I was sitting at my computer thinking "How the hell am I going to do that?" But, well, see for yourself! The updated demo is available now.
Please let me know if you encounter any game-breaking bugs, and I'll make an effort to patch them as soon as possible. Thanks for playing! Happy looting!
Strak
1560
There will be no blog post tomorrow unfortunately, despite the release schedule I had. Please see user statuses for more information.
Strak
1560
author=AnneLaurant
Woah, is this new? I'll have to allot a schedule for this!
It's new to this year! I started work on the project back in February, I believe. Hoping to have it done by the end of 2025, but that may be a bit unrealistic for the scope of this project.
Strak
1560
The demo for Thrall has been updated!
What's new in v0.5?
- Button configuration recognition and accurate on-screen button prompts
- Added a new weapon accessory, "MULTI"
- Added option to sort loot based on either rarity or type
- Added Elite enemies with unique affixes
- Added a Blackjack minigame
- Added character specific unique Overdrive skills
- Updated major cutscene during prologue
- Altered "reset" functionality on floor change. Now only Overkill and Fury will reset
- Reinstated "unequip" functionality
- Turn counters added for skills on cooldown
- Adjusted how enemy weaknesses and resistances are determined
- Overhauled skill trees
- New skill tree layouts and names
- Overhauled loot table and inventory screen layout
- Added healing items to starting inventory
- Changed status healing item functionality
- Added Gold drops to loot pools
- Adjusted formula for hit ratio (less likely to miss)
- New unique and Legendary weapons (Gravity, Gold, Chastiefol, Conductor)
- Variable drop rate and EXP gain based on Difficulty settings
- Changed EXP formula based on overleveled allies
- More streamlined and consistent code for enemy management
And a ton of other minor quality of life improvements! No additional gameplay has been added to the demo, it still only extends to the end of the first dungeon, but I have done lots of work on developing later dungeons and story points. I simply don't want them in the demo. I'd rather the demo stay the same length, but have functionality and mechanics that accurately reflect what the full release will look like. Regardless, have fun with the demo!
If you encounter any bugs or situations that seem out of the ordinary, please let me know and I'll do my best to resolve them as quickly as possible. Happy playing!
What's new in v0.5?
- Button configuration recognition and accurate on-screen button prompts
- Added a new weapon accessory, "MULTI"
- Added option to sort loot based on either rarity or type
- Added Elite enemies with unique affixes
- Added a Blackjack minigame
- Added character specific unique Overdrive skills
- Updated major cutscene during prologue
- Altered "reset" functionality on floor change. Now only Overkill and Fury will reset
- Reinstated "unequip" functionality
- Turn counters added for skills on cooldown
- Adjusted how enemy weaknesses and resistances are determined
- Overhauled skill trees
- New skill tree layouts and names
- Overhauled loot table and inventory screen layout
- Added healing items to starting inventory
- Changed status healing item functionality
- Added Gold drops to loot pools
- Adjusted formula for hit ratio (less likely to miss)
- New unique and Legendary weapons (Gravity, Gold, Chastiefol, Conductor)
- Variable drop rate and EXP gain based on Difficulty settings
- Changed EXP formula based on overleveled allies
- More streamlined and consistent code for enemy management
And a ton of other minor quality of life improvements! No additional gameplay has been added to the demo, it still only extends to the end of the first dungeon, but I have done lots of work on developing later dungeons and story points. I simply don't want them in the demo. I'd rather the demo stay the same length, but have functionality and mechanics that accurately reflect what the full release will look like. Regardless, have fun with the demo!
If you encounter any bugs or situations that seem out of the ordinary, please let me know and I'll do my best to resolve them as quickly as possible. Happy playing!
Strak
1560
Looks like the download link wasn't functional for some reason. I've had to host the demo off site due to the file size, and it's causing some trouble. It's fixed for now, hopefully problems don't persist. Thanks for your patience.
EDIT: Link is apparently still broken. Working on a fix.
EDIT EDIT: Link is working again. Hopefully it stays that way this time.
EDIT: Link is apparently still broken. Working on a fix.
EDIT EDIT: Link is working again. Hopefully it stays that way this time.
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