Heyyo, it’s CraftedCircuitry again. With some amazing feedback recently, there’s a new Free Demo Update you can check out! I said it was Final before, but you can’t really stop optimizing and perfecting while there’s still time to do so.

The big behind-the-scenes reveal, I am proud to announce that I will also be selling this game on Steam! The Steam Page should be live by the time I post this DevLog, so check it out and Wishlist if you’ve been wanting Deep Dark Wrath on Steam as well! I’ll still be updating and selling Deep Dark Wrath over here of course.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2891520/Deep_Dark_Wrath/

TL;DR: Speed and Attack reworked; More Balancing; New Visuals on Pages; Steam Page, please Wishlist if you can; Delays because of Steam Release; Compatibility Changes; and Free Demo Update

Delays

I will sadly be pushing the deadline a little bit from Q1 2024 to April 2024/mid-May 2024, to accommodate for some Steam-side work, internal stuff and things, and just overall rest from the game. My biggest challenge goal for this game is finally going to start so I want to rest a little before the release. I kinda wanna see where my current set of skills can take me.

The Big v0.6.6 - Feedback Quest 6

Shoutout to the absolutely amazing people who hosted and participated in the Feedback Quest 6 Game Jam, there were a lot of cool games that I tested and rated, and a lot of feedback for Deep Dark Wrath, so please check them out.

https://itch.io/jam/feedback-quest-6-get-your-game-reviewed

Through their feedback, I decided to revamp combat. This prompted the next v0.6 Updates. Very late into development, but I decided to go for it to fix the underlying issues it had. I had some iterations that I did not like at all, but I decided to keep the easy-feeling of the old combat but added a punishment for always pressing Attack. Now, the Sword will always initiate a Swing when you press Attack even if there’s no targets, which will also deplete Stamina if used carelessly.

I also buffed and nerfed some Dungeon Areas and a lot of the Stat Boosts, especially toning down Damage, Dexterity, and Willpower, which is an odd choice. Willpower had Attack Speed buffs so I decided to remove them as well. The damage boost is slightly smaller, the ranged boosts shortened, and the attack speed boost booted off the game. Some area’s choke points are also far more fortified with stronger Enemies, and some Enemies strengthened to make for a harder final stand before you escape the Dungeon.

V0.6.8 - Quick Access

I finally got down to the final main feature of Deep Dark Wrath, the Quick Access option! With the option activated, the Adventurer can now teleport around the Safe Area easily with less need of moving to it. Some people might be put off by the fact that the ‘main menu’ is a whole area, so I added it. It’s been a long time since I’ve had this feature on my mind and I finally got around to doing it.

V0.6.20 - Lots More Testing

I further balanced combat, enemy spawning, and continued more testing on the game. I decided to re-add Attack Speed as through more testing, the bigger concern was really just the Dexterity’s seemingly big range. Attack Speed is now applied whenever you have an Enchanted Card and with every Speed Card level. I have to always remember that I’m balancing the game more on the Wrath’s Anger state and less on its normal non-Anger state. The idea is to make the Adventurers scared of the Anger state and to bring their A-game to it when going for an Oracle Piece.

I’m still also testing to make sure that the non-Anger is not super easy, of course. Some areas may already have stronger enemies spawn in them in the middle of the Dungeon Run. I also did more bug fixes, sound balancing, and other various little quality of life changes to make the game a little more polished, as usual.

The Big v0.7

This big update was prompted because of movement speed changes. I want the pace of this game to be the way I wanted it, so for the longest time I’ve only changed the speed in little amounts. Because of feedback I’ve received, I decided to test out changing the base movement speed, and came to the conclusion that it didn’t really affect the vision and pace I wanted. What made movement speed better was better moment-to-moment interaction outside of the enemies, which is basically a free plus for the game. So, I’ve decided to balance overall movement with this updated version.

I’ve also been meaning to balance the boosts from Speed and Refresh, especially as Speed seems to be a bit uncontrollable at 4th and 5th level. The base-sprint speed used to be 450-850, now its 575-950. Roughly, a 25% boost to still give way for Speed and Refresh.

v0.7.2 - Rabbit Hole of Pacing

Because of the aforementioned speed changes, a whole slew of Enemy, Enchanted Card, and Stat Boost tweaks and changes happened to properly balance the game’s new and slightly faster pace to not make the Adventurer so fast or make the enemies so slow, etc. Speed and Refresh were nerfed to compensate, and Enemies were given buffed speeds, which was the one I tested thoroughly.

v0.7.7 - Final Speed Tweaks

After some more testing, the enemy speeds I set beforehand were too jarring so I fine-tuned them a few more times. I think the speed of this version is perfect. I took a couple of days of just feeling and vibing with it, and I think it’s how I want the enemies to be. Luckily, I had different save files at different points of the game(basically how many Oracle Pieces) to make sure the overall pace is good at any point of the game.

After this, I don’t ever wanna touch this again. I’m adamant on this speed now, the base Adventurer is pretty quick already on its own but the Adventurer is still slow enough that Speed and Refresh can still boost you further and make your runs that much quicker. I really don’t wanna go through this rabbit hole again.

I will say though, the pace only changed very slightly in the end. The moment-to-moment interaction with the game definitely feels faster which can really help newer Adventurers to explore, actually map out, and get better at the Dungeon. The game still slows you down from escaping with the Anger State, which is what I ultimately want.

v0.7.10 - Compatibility and Better Communication

I hadn’t thought of enemy spawning for a long while, but I was given feedback that it can be a bit jarring when enemies can just spawn on the Player. So I added buffers to make the spawning more robust and fair, especially when the Anger state happens.

The biggest change however, is the use of the Compatibility Rendering of GLES2 instead of the more powerful and more recent GLES3. This should make almost zero difference since the game is 2D but should allow for weaker systems to get the game working and more smooth working, i.e. older Android phones or older PCs and Laptops. I also did minor fixes to polish up the new things I’ve added.

v0.7.14 - Safe Area Revamps

Through the help of some feedback, I decided to revamp the Safe Area a little bit. I was adamant on keeping the Save Plate as is, but revamping it just gave a lot more sense, life, and space for more information. The Save Plate is now a Journal that has a Button to confirm instead of waiting for it. It also shows the amount of Dungeon Runs and Enchanted Cards the Adventurer has.

For now, I added a subtle Background to the Safe Area. I’m still testing out various sounds and melodies to give the right feeling I want for the Safe Area. There’s also some little revamps and tweaks I did, lowering the frequency of the Adventurer’s steps, and such.

I, uh, also fixed a mechanic that I accidentally broke because of the Quick Access teleporters. Back then, I thought ‘Hmm, I feel like there’s something wrong with this code but I can’t quite put my finger on it’. I now see what that wrong thing was xD.

A pretty big change was also giving the Always showing HUD items like the Stamina, Health, etc at the bottom a transparency. It’s been a small irk in myself on what to do because as much as I love the bars, I really want to either re-design them or give them transparency. I went with transparency first and I think it allows for more things to see better. The opaqueness really hides a lot of oncoming enemies, so this should really help with more Dungeon vision.

v0.7.14_1 - A Quick Fix Update

A very quick fix because of a graphical glitch, it’s supposed to say v0.7.14 Demo not v0.7.14 Debug. Debug is the version I use when I export and when I’m testing on my other devices. Other than that, the 2 are carbon copies. I just wanna make sure that the things I put out are named appropriately.

Lick of New Visuals

With the Steam Page release, I also finally churned out new visuals, a new trailer, and of course, the all important Steam Capsule Arts. The photos on here and the Steam Page should show the final look of the game, similar to the recent Demo Updates. Not all Visuals are updated though, like the small change of the transparency on the HUD elements.

Final Revisions

Making sure everything is perfect and what I want it to be. Content-wise, the game is essentially complete, so perfecting, getting the information out, and reaching my target audience more are the most important parts now before I release the game.

If you’ve been following the DevLogs, thank you so much for the support. It’s been nice to just show my stuff and get Deep Dark Wrath ready for the world to see. The next DevLogs may simply talk about Steam-side stuff so I might chuck those on to Steam, or this might just be the final DevLog before the Full Version Release.

I decided to just make one Sticky thread to make the Community of Deep Dark Wrath clean. So if you have some more feedback, please leave them down here or the Free Demo community thread on the main page!

Again, you can check out the newly Updated Free Demo if you’re interested in seeing the fruit of my changes! Do also check out the Steam Page if you haven’t and Wishlist if you wanna support my game!

It has been CraftedCircuitry, signing off for now.