Hello!

I hope you are enjoying King of Deadlands!

It's my solo game and almost everything (apart from a few things like a several sound effects, which were assets from free libraries I found over the years) is made by me. So, the fact you like it is especially important and uplifting for me. Thank you! :)

This update is the first serious one, previous were just small bug fixes.

It brings you, among other things, Dust of Blessing - a currency to keep between plays. It can be used to significantly boost your start on the new map.



Unfortunately, the web version doesn't save amount of currency between launches in a browser, so it'll come back to default value after you reset the page.
However, I think of adding some "code" to balance that flaw soon - when you enter it in the main menu, it will set Dust value to a moderate amount to give you a better start after coming back to game. I'm thinking of having the game show it to you after collecting a large (around 3000-4000 maybe?) amount of Dust without refreshing the page. Details may change, but I like the idea. I will post a small log in the coming days if I decide to implement it.

Next thing to talk about is the battle:

I decided to balance "Lifesteal" - an enemy ability possessed by Vampires, because it was too difficult for players with a lesser strength - you simply couldn't win most of the time due to the insanely fast healing of this enemy and that resulted in a loss of progress somewhat unfairly. Now this action loses its effectiveness - the longer the battle, the longer intervals between its uses. It still can be quite difficult though!

UX of the battle has been slightly improved too - the shadow cast by falling figure makes aiming easier, falling when holding the down arrow or "S" key is now faster, and destroying 4 or more lines at once result in an additional boost to spell charging.



In the current version you will also be able to see marked area around the place where figures spawn - it's there to clarify the losing condition. If you build in this area, you lose (the above gif is from before the final version of this update, so there's no area shown).

Map:

Dead spots on map have now their own graphics! It's not a finished version yet, but it's quite a significant change already. There were also some bug fixes and improvements in UX over the whole game, but it's not too much to talk about. Just know that I'm constantly improving it!

There is now a limit to Sawmills and Quarries a player can have at once, increasing every 5 Hero levels.



I'm still experimenting with this system, but I added it with a future gameplay in mind, when there will be more realms in the game - player could get insanely rich on too low levels every time. I'm thinking about at least 3 zone types that you can travel between using the Portals, but I'm sticking to only the first in the demo.
By the way, since we are speaking about the limits, to make a full version I will have to think about running a Kickstarter or finding a publisher. It is so much work that it would probably take me years if I did it with only my own funds. Anyway, that'll come after making the trailers. I started drawing a lore trailer / game intro already! :)

I would like to express my gratitude to some people for their valuable feedback.
Make sure to check out their twitter and itch.io games, it's worth it. :)
Cryy22 on Twitter,  Gulch Guardians on itch.io (an absolutely great and adorable deck building game)
Stefan Sadchikov on Twitter,  Crab Raid Tactics on itch.io (a really funny roguelike RTS about a mmo-like raid, wishlist on Steam!)
Artur Smiarowski on Twitter, solo dev with a successful roguelike Soulash released, sharing a lot of good knowledge

It means a lot! Thank you!

And most of all, thank you, dear reader, for taking the time to check out this devlog and King of Deadlands game :)