[h2]Welcome to the first installment of the monthly dev blog of Hordes of Hunger.[/h2] In this log we will let you in not only on the current state of the game, but also on the details of our team’s creative process. So stay a while and listen, and who knows, maybe you will even have a chance to impact the game’s development. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43718100/da09192860310055d9cec5d4a94dcf6241dbef92.jpg[/img] [i]The cathedral, once holy, stood now bathed in crimson, washed of all its purity, anointed by the time of hunger.[/i] [h1]Defining the core concept[/h1] [b][i]“From the utter darkness it came, a hunger made manifest…”[/i][/b] Many of you might be wondering what Hordes of Hunger is exactly. So to satiate your curiosity, let us break down the core concept to reveal the spine of the game: [list] [*] Action roguelite: you build your character during the run on the basis of random skills obtained from a huge pool of options. [*] Visceral hack & slash combat from third-person perspective. [*] Gameplay focused on tackling absurd amounts of enemies. [*] Dark gothic art style and somber atmosphere rendered in Unreal Engine 5. [/list] Every story has a beginning and this game’s development story starts with the desire to capture the grand scale of fighting legions of enemies with the core gameplay loop akin to those found in games like Vampire Survivors, rendered in tone usually reserved for Soulslike games. [i][b]“The hungry beasts look up, and are not fed”. [/b][/i] The first major development hurdle came from the shift to the third person perspective as the lack of total-awareness of enemy movement negatively impacted the gameplay experience. Managing hordes of enemies became less enjoyable as the player had to choose between constantly looking behind one’s back or getting surprised by enemies from behind. Enemies with projectiles became especially problematic. Since the primary premise of the game was to fight a ludicrous amount of enemies at the same time, ranged enemies quickly contributed to the bullet-hell experience, which was at first desirable, but players getting eliminated by a barrage of projectiles coming from a blind spot was definitely not desirable. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43718100/283a7243ba687d6f88e402962baa5fa1ad81dec0.jpg[/img] To address this problem, we started to experiment with certain solutions and systems. Among other things, we tried to redefine the enemies themselves, from making them simpler and weaker to drastically decreasing the total number of enemies on screen and implementing in their stead more specialized and demanding opponents. Going for one of the extremes would have been much easier, but that would compromise the original vision of the game and we rarely say no to a challenge. Thus, during this back and forth experimentation we have found a sweet spot. Finally, we have settled on simplifying common enemies and reducing the number of enemies to the point where you still feel like fighting off a horde, with more demanding mechanics relegated to a special cast of adversaries - these have more complex gameplay patterns that interact not only with the player, but also with the horde, be it in a beneficial or detrimental way. [i][b]“Driven by hunger, rot they inwardly and foul contagion spread”.[/b][/i] To end this month’s log, we let you feast your eyes on the first specialized enemy, the Exploder: [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43718100/564de3d4717bbd88fcf8a18f72d2951625bfa6e3.png[/img] [i]And then I beheld it, sharp teeth attached to a writhing mass that slithered towards me. Each move contorted its body and threatened its rupture.[/i] As its name suggests, this enemy has a nasty tendency to self-detonate when agitated. However this particular fiend can be used to the detriment of the horde as a clever player may coax it to self-destruct at just the right moment to take out multiple targets at once. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43718100/2e73d08f8132b38e4ce3dc2a8ae467f6bb0a0bc8.gif[/img] [h3]Make sure to swing by next month for another portion of news![/h3] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43718100/837feb3f28a9199565f25131081dd9a6a06b4fa0.png[/img]