The first thing I thought of when my hard drive died was the latest Dego build and how to save that data!
Here's the newest blog update, which I thought was way too important not to post here.
Final Status Update
I've got all the hard drive issues sorted out, and I'm back to work with a bold claim, the final status update! I've worked the better part of this week, and finished up a good chunk of the endgame content. Now the to-do list has come down to 1-2 more quests, last set of items, and any final tweaks/bug fixes.
I'm really excited to soon be able to call this game complete. When I first came up with the plan for Dego, I wanted to finish development in a year, but now it's been 20 months! I'd like the thank everyone who has been following this project. I appreciate all the comments, feedback, suggestions, and most of all, stories of people's adventures in the game. It has taken longer than expected, but I want to remind everyone that this is a full length game with 30-40 hours of gameplay per character, and I want to release a final product that I believe is worth the wait.
On a side note, I'm really satisfied, almost surprised, with how well the character development turned out, considering a player can only equip three items. With each new tier of equipment, the game introduces new effects and passive abilities, and by the time you make the jump to endgame items, there is a huge variety of combos. Between dungeons, you can completely change how your character plays. I'm constantly trying to find new, horribly overpowered combos to make sure everything is properly balanced. I've found a theoretical combo that, with careful execution, can make a thief character permanently invincible. I already have 2/3 of the items needed; I just need to get a hold of an extremely rare item to make it happen. Still thinking of how to balance this one!
Here's a summary of some of the major changes made since that ancient demo I released, so long ago:
Melee characters have inherent damage and defense boosts, plus a much larger attack radius. This helps them keep up with range and magic users, who have an easier time dodging. Some enemies will screw over melee characters, but be easy for ranged attackers, while other enemies will be a nightmare for magic users, but easily fall to melee weapons. This makes for better multiplayer, with each person having a more specialized role.
Immediately threatening conditions like shock, freeze, and confuse are clear and obvious to spot. When you are frozen, your character in physically covered in ice. Trying to quickly move back and forth will crack the ice, causing it to shatter and free the player trapped inside. Confusion now reverses your controls, instead of randomly switching them. This lets skilled, experienced players be able to guide their character even while suffering from confusion.
Content wise, the game is leaps and bounds from the demo. There are 28 dungeons, including hard mode, and over 400 items. Plus, there are quests all over offering unique monsters to fight and exclusive items to find. Each dungeons has hidden rooms stacked with treasure, mysterious NPCs who may join you or sell exclusive items, and a secret room with alternate, rare versions of monsters.
Players can use their skills faster. You get more SP per attack, more SP when damaged, more SP while fighting bosses, and everyone has a natural SP regen. This ups the pace of the game and makes combat more strategic, putting a bigger impact on your class and the diversity of your party members.
The story is much fuller and has a proper resolution. There are a much larger number of NPCs, with each adding a personal insight into the world's conflict with the horrific Malice King. And with more dungeons to travel, there are several main, reoccurring characters who go dungeon hopping with you. The tale is still pieced together by the player based on who she meets in the randomly setup dungeons, but there are now a few forced cutscenes towards the end. Of course these are skip-able, for the adventuring party that has fought that boss a hundred times.
All this text and no mention of a release date? For that I say, sometime soon.
