Dev Blog #2 - Dungeon Diving
Greetings everyone!
It’s been a week since launching the first public alpha build for Brothel in the Woods, and there’s been a ton of good feedback from both internal and external testing. I wanted to go over some of it today, while also discussing the focus of the next Alpha Release.
The Company News
Firstly, I want to make it a point to keep any news concerning The Company circulating. At the moment, the community has already taken point and started working in the
Discord to set up a git repo and start working through the code. I encourage anyone interested in modding, tweaking, and otherwise creating content for the game to check it out!
I’ll be making a return to the code myself in a few weeks, working on untangling the self-created mess over the course of the year to ensure smooth and rapid development next year. In the meantime, I’m excited to see what comes from the community!
Brothel in the Woods Feedback
Most of the feedback received so far has come in two flavors: Bug reports, which are being addressed as I can get to them, and balancing issues. Balance will be an ongoing endeavor in terms of enemy stats and equipment, stamina usage, and economy.
Alpha 2 will be overhauling the starting equipment options in the game, as well as making a few tweaks to combat calculations. Specifically, weapons now have weapon types and strength requirements, costs have been adjusted, and armor has been improved in terms of combat math. Additionally, critical hits are now tracked in combat. We’ll go more into combat in the next section, so stick around for that.
Stamina usage is something I’m keeping a close eye on, as it’s designed to limit the number of actions you can take in a given day while still making sense in terms of what’s needed where, Right now, it’s possible to have nearly infinite stamina in a day, and passing out from stamina loss feels both abrupt and non-consequential. Passing out (and player death) need a major adjustment in terms of both impact and communication, and will be a priority after getting the next feature off the ground.
Lastly is the economy. While we have plans for how this will look, until time and taxes are added to the game, this is a hard thing to track well in practice. Money shouldn’t be meaningless, and it will be a careful thing to balance especially as the brothel starts to grow. Gold and commerce will be the main focus of an upcoming update, and I’ll share more on that front as it develops.
Other feedback…
- Better interactions with your workers are coming, and will account for character creation
- More spicy scenes in general are definitely coming, with the focus being on the villagers
- More brothel workers, and means to acquire them, are coming
- UI updates, particularly to track needed items for house upgrades, are coming
- New zones and areas to explore are coming
- Iron Bars are coming
- Day tracking is coming
- Leveling and perks are coming
- Again, more spicy scenes are coming!
Combat Overhaul and Dungeons
Finally, I wanted to share a couple major features coming with the next Alpha. Firstly, combat is being radically overhauled to become an automated affair. Rather than clicking dozens of times through multiple encounters hoping for cloth scraps, the entire combat is now simulated behind the scenes and summarized with a post-combat report. Some new visual flair has been added for engagement, and I think the new system will be much more respectful of peoples’ time. It also opened the doors to our next major update - Dungeons!
Dungeons are multi-floored instances found in the game world that contain combat encounters, treasure, boss fights, and story elements. The next Alpha will immediately introduce the Light Woods dungeon, a 5 floor excursion in the woods surrounding the player’s farmstead ideal for collecting animal meat, and the Bandit Camp off the road to the village for stocking up on cloth and gold.
Dungeons are identified by a unique button icon, and will have an upfront stamina cost to enter. All non-treasure loot collected within a dungeon is rewarded to the player after completing (or otherwise safely exiting) the dungeon. Dying in or fleeing the dungeon will forfeit your acquired goods, but you can always try again later.
The Forest Keep dungeon, a 10-floor dungeon to be introduced in a near future Alpha build, will offer up the game’s first boss enemy, as well as a new brothel worker and the introduction to trading and auction mechanics involving Reese in the village.
Dungeons are meant to be fun, lucrative, and replayable, offering incentive for exploring within the game world as areas are opened up to the player.
That’s it for this week! A new Alpha build will have already dropped for Dev Build testers around the time of this post that offers a first looking into dungeon testing, and it will be available to backers and followers in the near future.
Thank you all for your continued feedback and support!