Devlog #21 Dungeons

As always, it's been too long.

I'm getting close to starting the wrap-up procedures on the next large update for Rewind, so I'm going to go in-depth about the new features here, show off some of the coming artwork, etc.

This update is 95% focused on adding dungeons into the game world. This is (pretty much) the last large feature update intended for the foreseeable future, and it's been saved for last because it's rather ridiculous in scale. First, dungeons are split into two general types: story dungeons and 'wild dungeons'. Story dungeons are planned story content that either relates to the main story of one or more character(s) or acts as fully contained side stories. Wild dungeons are randomly generated challenges to unlock mini-stories, events, items, titles, and things like that. Essentially, wild dungeons are an extension of the existing maps and act in a similar way to existing content, while you can expect story dungeons to make use of the death mechanics, titles, and skills to tell a much longer and more in-depth narrative.

Now, for those active or lurking in Discord, this is nothing new, so I really recommend that everyone drop by if you're interested in day to day progress updates. I'm really bad about updating Patreon because I feel like a post here needs to contain... like... REAL stuff. Finished stuff.

Here's a quick breakdown of what you can expect to be released in... I hope... a few more weeks:

- One Story Dungeon: 'Trials of the Succubi'
- One type of Wild Dungeon: Temples
- Four or five animations (I haven't decided)
- 15 enemies
- about 20 drop items
- one new outfit for Lani
- between 40k and 60k words of additional story content (it's hard to really give a number, since so much talking in games like this is redundant with little changes based on your progress)

Anyway, Wild Dungeons give random rewards from a long list based on their difficulty. This includes title upgrades for otherwise difficult to update titles (like Programmer), skills, flags, and items. These dungeons are generated at random based on your searching abilities and will remain on your map after death (the game records the date that you discovered the dungeon as well as the dungeon type and difficulty. They are available in future lives within 10 days of your initial discovery date). Difficult dungeons are considerably difficult and are not intended for low level players, while beginner dungeons are fairly easy and give small rewards.

The first Story Dungeon, on the other hand, is not difficult to find, as it's in your backyard. The Trials of the Succubi is intended to be your tutorial into the world of Dungeons, and it will be available once you've leveled up a bit. Marla is the reason you're venturing into this particular dangerous location, but if you have Lani in your party, then she will also join you. Having Lani in your party provides some benefits, but also limits the amount of dialogue and interaction with Marla. Largely, though, I think most players will prefer having both girls around.

This dungeon is also the first use of anything 'cinematic' (one of the videos is posted in the lead image). There are a few moments in the game that are intended to be movies but have been left out of the existing storyline (or simply not been made into movies), and this is the first time that I've actually gone ahead and made the damn movie. There will be a little under 30 seconds of actual (non-sex, non-looped) movie footage in this update. And there will also be looping animations for Marla and the succubus. Maybe for Lani, too, I'm still not entirely sure.

I think that covers most everything. I mentioned it above, but it bears repeating: I'm still at least a few weeks away on this. I've been pushing into new and uncomfortable areas of both visuals and coding, so this update has already been drastically pushed back. I'm hopeful that I'll manage to finish on an efficient note, but I've been wrong about that before.

Cheers.