Believe it or not, we are still rolling those dice.
Sorry it’s been a while, but we promise we are still working on Diceheart. The last few months we’ve been working really hard to get the closed alpha ready – and it’s now become a real game, as it’s on Steam! Not only that, but we’ve added loads of new features, and not just the ones we mentioned in the last devlog.
Tutorial
First thing’s first, one of our most-requested features: it’s a tutorial. This can be accessed at any time through the main menu. In it, you’ll go over each of the main room types, and break down battles into easily-digestible chunks. Hopefully this’ll help anyone who was bamboozled by the elements system in the pre-alpha, and we’re eager to hear your thoughts on it.
Backpack
With the absurd amount of tricks and gambits in store, you’ll soon lose track of what you have, so we’ve finally added a backpack for you to browse all your loot. You can also modify your gambit hand to make it fit your dice loadout better. This can all be accessed at anytime using the backpack icon in the top right. For now, we’ve just focused on implementing the functionality, but we’ll be adding more features and fleshing out existing ones as development progresses.
New level
Two new levels have been added! The pixel-poisoned promenades of Blockdown City, and the scintillatingly spicy streams of Capsitoa Archipelago! This is just the beginning, and our way of introducing you to the first fork in the road; there’s still 5 more levels on the way. We’ve also added a stat allocation system between levels, allowing you to strengthen your health and/or resistance in preparation for the path ahead.
Optimisations and support for other systems
Apparently, some of you own Macs, and the pre-alpha Mac build we sent to a few people was an absolute disaster… And, as it turned out, so was running it on PCs with integrated graphics. We’ve put a lot of effort into optimising the game for all Windows machines, Macs, and Linux – including Steam Deck, so you can play Diceheart in the tranquil comfort of your toilet.
Steam Integration
Naturally, as we’re on Steam, we’ve got the early steps of Steam integration up and running. Namely, we’ve got it so your status will display info about your current run to all your friends. Wow, playing Himitsu again, huh?!
And, of course, we’ve started thinking about the most important thing a game can have: achievements!!! We have some fun ones planned, not just that ‘beat the first boss’ crap. Hope you look forward to them.
Flee Mechanic
In the pre-alpha, the lack of restriction on fleeing was a little too loosey-goosey. We knew this at the time, but weren’t sure of a way to make it interesting.
Of course, the solution was simple: add dice! You now have a base chance of fleeing that decreases the more you do it, and increases as you defeat enemies. You can increase the chance further by selecting some dice before attempting to flee; but if you fail, those dice will become unusable, and you’ll be stuck in the battle in a much worse position. We do love some risk/reward.
Minor Updates
That’s most of the big stuff out of the way, but a whole bunch more stuff changed since our last post. Here’s a few of them you can look forward to in the alpha:
- Updated and added many tricks.
- Updated and added many tooltips.
- Show incoming damage prediction and imminent death indicator.
- Introduced a system to allow manual tricks to be usable outside of battles.
- Updated a tonne of enemy animations.
- Numerous gambit updates and initial balancing.
- Added and updated more backgrounds.
- Gave boss battles unique backgrounds.
- Updated level transition visuals.
- Updated map visuals.
- Updated map generator.
- Updated event system.
- Added hard dice limit of 20 (yes, this became necessary).
- Many more SFX.
The future
The alpha is currently available to a very select few, and we’ll be opening it up to many more in the coming weeks. The feedback form’s been updated, and we’d love to hear your thoughts after you get your hands on it. Once the dust settles and we implemented any pressing changes after that, we’ll start thinking about a public release. Woo!
As ever, thanks for your support. See you in the next one!
