23 Dungeons, a Thunderstorm, and a Ghost With Entrance Requirements

You know what else makes a game feel more complete after you finally remember the sound?

Icons.

Apparently all those abilities look considerably better when they have something to identify them beyond me knowing what they are.

A face for every ability

The abilities from your card selections now have icons, and the difference on the card-pick screen is huge. It's one of those changes where you finish, look at it, and wonder how you tolerated the previous version.

Status effects have their icons too, including things like Blinded and Poisoned, for both monsters and the player. I've adjusted their sizes and positions as well, so they feel much more at home in the interface.

A little less visual guesswork. A much more finished-looking game.

The way is barred!

There's another little polish improvement that has made a surprisingly big difference: a portcullis over your piece placeholders.

Previously, there were moments when the pieces were sitting right there in your hand, but you couldn't interact with them yet. So you'd see a piece, click it, and... nothing.

I'd do it myself. And I made the thing.

Now, a portcullis drops over the piece placeholders while interaction is unavailable, then lifts when you can use them again. Same restriction, much clearer message.

Apparently “not yet” is easier to understand when delivered by a large metal gate.

It's a small detail, but this is the sort of thing that's starting to make the game feel properly polished. Less wondering whether your input registered. More knowing exactly when you can get back to placing pieces.

The dungeon is no longer following you around

The biggest change, though, is the scenery.

Until now, we were using one scrolling 3D dungeon scene for everything. It worked. But we're building toward 100 dungeons, some with four to six stages, and each stage with four to seven waves.

That is a LOT of time to spend looking at the same masonry.

So I spent some money on art assets—I'm still not an artist, sorry—and we built 23 dungeon scenes. Then we gave each one five variant versions, changing objects, lighting, and other details.

Considerably more variety than “perhaps you recognise this wall from the previous several hundred fights.”

And then the weather got involved

Some of the dungeons are open-air, so naturally we added weather. Rain, thunder, lightning. Very atmospherey.

Yes, I'm keeping that word.

There was also a rather nice accident. Because of how the scene is set up, a lightning flash briefly lights up everything—including the dungeon backdrop behind the puzzle board.

It's creepy. It's cool. I loved it immediately.

That is now a feature. Please update the paperwork accordingly.

The spirit has discovered stage production

Our spirit adventurer apparently decided his entrance wasn't spooky enough.

He now darkens the room and floats above billowing, rolling clouds. What can I say? He's kind of special.

Some people bring a chair. He brings his own atmosphere.

His reward chest has had a model change too. The previous one was just too low-poly for the look I wanted, so that's another small piece brought closer to where it should be.

The boss has some notes about your board

Some bosses have picked up another unpleasant habit: one of their melee attacks can destroy a cell on the board.

That can help or hurt. If you're running out of room, having something cleared out might be useful. If it removes part of the match you've been carefully setting up...

Well. Sorry.

I also spotted a problem with the big board-changing abilities. A boss would spend one round preparing the move, then another using it. Which meant two rounds without normal attack damage while you cheerfully continued whacking away.

No. Can't have that.

Bosses can now prepare or use their big board move and still attack during the same turn. Manipulating the puzzle no longer requires them to take a break from trying to kill you.

Much better.

For them.

Now with the appropriate racket

The major board-changing moves have their sound now too. The visuals finally have something to accompany all that rearranging and destruction.

Monster voices are next on tonight's list. I'm aiming for enough to give them some character, without turning every fight into a continuous recording of screeching, growling, and howling.

There's a balance between “the dungeon feels alive” and “please make everybody in this room stop.”

So: icons, new environments, weather, a more theatrical ghost, and bosses with fewer manners.

It's starting to feel like a place worth exploring. Even if the occupants remain determined to make you leave.