Sin Spire - Dev Log 19

Hello everyone! Happy December! Last week, I released 0.0.2 of Sin Spire’s Alpha build. This new build included the Witch Boss Fight, the second dungeon, new items and more. The reception has been very positive and, when compared to the 0.0.1 release, very few game-breaking bugs were found. The influx of positivity and excitement has motivated me to dive straight into work this week, instead of taking a break like I did after the first release.

Gameplay Changes

Rather than having a long-running paragraph, I’ve decided to try breaking down the changes into headers and bullet-points. Let me know what you think of the format. Anyway, the current changes I’ve made so far include:

• Sex Scene System Modifications: Adjustments made to avoid odd blending between stages.

• Voice lines in the Witch Fight: The Witch now laughs and yells during combat.

• Implemented ‘Dirty Talk’ During Sex: A system that allows for dialogue to be spoken during sex.

• Stalker Mouth Movement: Automated movement has been implemented for any voice lines that a Stalker can say (This is basic and not detailed).

• Enemy Reset: Enemies now reset between floors, preventing them from bunching up between run-throughs.

• Improved AI awareness: Enemies can now hear better.

• New Throwable Weapon-Type: Added support for single-use throwable weapons.

The last addition of Throwable Weapons was influenced by the changes to AI awareness. Previously, enemies could hear you but wouldn’t properly update their investigation location. For example, if you are heard and then an enemy decides to check that location, you could then run somewhere else and fire, say, 10 shotgun blasts, and the enemy would still be focused on that first location. Now, AI will update their investigation location on the fly. This adjustment is particularly important for Stalkers, as it was too easy to slip behind them before.

To compliment that, I implemented a throwable bottle, which can be purchased from Savina. They’re cheap and deal very little damage, but their purpose is to distract enemies. I’m sure some players will attempt to use the bottles for a challenge run of sorts, considering how cheap they are, but the intention behind them is to throw them away from your current location to misdirect enemies. For example, if a Stalker is approaching your location, you can throw a bottle to divert her path.

Adding the throwable weapon-type required significant changes to the weapon system, but it seems to all be working well. I have to admit, throwing bottles has been surprisingly satisfying – I ended up spending way too much time just chucking the things at walls during testing.

Art Changes

Alongside the gameplay improvements, I’ve also started work on replacing placeholder assets. Among the placeholders replaced, most significantly, was the Altar. The new Altar now features a glowing green crystal shard with particle effects, making it both more visually appealing and helping it stand out as an object of significance. This is to encourage players to interact with it before speaking to Savina when entering the Starting Hall for the first time.

I’ve also been replacing some other assets, primarily in the Starting Hall, but still have a few key objects to replace – particularly the statue in the center and the doorways on either side. On the note of statues, I’ve created a new material and texturing process for statues. To test this, I used the Statue enemy type found in the second dungeon. The new statues have been retextured to have softer highlights to make them look more like stone rather than shiny metal.

There’s still plenty to replace, but I’m looking forward to when all the major eyesores are gone from the game.

Last Week’s Release

There are a couple of things I’d like to mention about last week’s release. First off, there were two bugs that have stuck out to me as a problem:

• Repeatable Witch Boss Fight: This allows players to ‘farm’ the Witch and become overpowered.

• Main Quest Soft-Lock: No one has done this to my knowledge, but the risk is there for those who participate in a lot of dialogue.

These bugs aren’t game-breaking, and I have mentioned them on the Discord and how to avoid them, but I’ve received some messages about how the game is “too easy” and how “farming” the Witch can result in becoming overpowered. Guys, if it wasn’t obvious already, you’re not meant to be able to do that.

I initially wasn’t going to release a hotfix, or any fix for that matter, but the impact on balance and the danger of breaking the save file due to that soft-lock, has convinced me to release another build this month after all. I’ll probably release a 0.0.2a version of the game later this month. I’m mostly waiting on the rest of the Witch’s voice lines to be ready before I push that out.

This means that the next update will include all the changes mentioned earlier and more. It won’t feature a new dungeon as I hadn’t planned for a December release and have just been focusing on smaller tasks. A full changelog will be made when the next update is ready.

Final Thoughts

I’m really glad to see so many people enjoying the current build and providing that much-needed feedback. For now, I’ll be going back to replacing placeholders and, eventually, starting to put together the next dungeon. Unfortunately, I will be making a significant change to a dungeon I previously discussed. The reasons are somewhat external, and I’ll share more details down the line.

That’s all for this week. Thank you all so much for your continued support! The game is steadily coming together and, dare I say, quite quickly. See you next time!