Hey everyone! After having this game available to the public for over a year now, I've been able to better understand what I value in a game like this, what kind of experience I want to bring, and how I want new players to feel when they get their hands on the game for the first time. Now that I'm more experienced at coding, using the engine this game is made in, and have a [b]much[/b] clearer vision for the game & its world than I started with, I've decided to essentially remake the gameplay experience of this game. The overall aesthetic and tone will remain the same, and the fundamentals of the combat system will remain (Crystals, Potential, enemy recruitment), but the entire game experience and structure is going to be re-evaluated and redesigned with a lot more consideration and knowledge than was possible when I decided to start making this game. [h1]What's Changing?[/h1] - The structure, pacing, and balance will be designed from the ground up with the knowledge of all the current game systems. This game was never designed with systems like Demonform or Essences in mind, they were bolted on after the fact and have not been cleanly integrated with the gameplay experience. -[b] Every game system will be re-evaluated,[/b] and may undergo significant changes, or be removed/replaced, with a core focus on information & mechanics being [b]clear and easy to understand.[/b] - Combat will generally have [b]significantly[/b] fewer things happening at any given time, but with more impactful results from those things. [b]This means every single skill, mechanic, status effect, enemy, and boss fight in the game is going to be redone and streamlined.[/b] - Complex systems will be more heavily gated by progression, and come with proper onboarding that show you why & how you would want to use that system. [b]- Progression will be pushing more to the "lite" side of things.[/b] This means moving away from the design philosophy of "winnable" first or second runs, or full access to complicated mechanics out of the gate. The most skilled players would still be able to achieve victory on early runs, but much more raw power will be available in the metaprogression system, similar to games like Hades. [b]There will be options that allow advanced players to speed straight to the end of the power progression very quickly.[/b] For new players however, this system will allow them to make smart decisions about their upgrades in order to improve their next run, before being forced to rely purely on how well they remember what enemies and skill combos are good or dangerous. It will also include alternate versions of each perk (like the mirror in Hades), letting you decide how you want to customize your power even when you've fully unlocked everything. - [b]The length of runs is going to become much shorter, and more consistent.[/b] Currently, the game is designed in a way that causes a truly immense gap in the amount of time your first few runs take compared to every run after that, which is very unpleasant to get past. The number of skills / items / passives you need to bring together in order to really get a build going will also be reduced. This will make it much easier to figure out what kind of enemies you want to recruit, and what kind of builds are available to you. - Boss fights will be overhauled to have a stronger focus on novel mechanics. Removing the information overload that currently exists in combat will allow players to instead focus on what is interesting or different about their current battle. - The naming schemes of things may change in order to clarify common confusions (like mixing up Essence & Potential). - The Grand / Hearse / Tough Tactics will be redesigned to suit this new version of the game. These mechanics have all been heavily warped and/or made obsolete over time as the game has changed around them, which has led to some confusing design and irritating glitches. - The UI is going to be made more consistent across features. Currently the game features UI from various different stages in development all existing side by side. - The performance should hopefully no longer be trash. I've been working on a small Vampire Survivors style game on the side for the last week or so to learn more about optimization and better coding practices. A demo of Spellbook Demonslayers will be available soon to people on the Discord server! I'll still be fixing bugs and accepting all feedback & bug reports while working on this, but content & gameplay updates for now are likely to all be rolled into the launch of this improved version of the game.