Preface

I don't post around here much, as I am more active on other platforms. So I figure if I am going to use itch as a distribution platform for my games, I should post on a regular basis. With that said, welcome to the my first non-devlog post here.

I am currently in the process of making the 50 weapon, and 25 magic skills for a game in development by the name of Facet Final.

Pricing

Facet Final is an SARPG (Diablo / Path of Exile -like), and is probably the first game I am going to try to sell. I have decided to, with each stage of the game's progress, up to release. Give out a number of free copies of the game to whoever wants to claim them, relative to the game's popularity or community size. I've started out with 50 copies for the In-Dev phase, and so far 2 have claimed copies. As the game expands in scope, the box price of the game will also increase. Meaning that the earlier people are involved with the project and its community, the less they need to supply to get involved. I do plan to provide Steam Keys to anyone who gets the game on itch through any means.

Introduction

This game is effectively a practice run for another project of mine. But rather than relegate it to "side project status", I have decided to give it my full effort and turn it into a product. The player takes the role of a polygonal being who seeks revenge after losing a partner to an attack by the Stellars, a race of semi-sapient cosmic monsters. The game is not at all story focused, and the setting only serves to set up the gameplay mechanics.

Facet Final uses the resources I created for Facet Fury, a game I created over the course of 18 days for Big Mode Jam 2023. Facet Fury received a number of complaints about its onboarding, which I intended to fix and rerelease. However, the game I was turning Facet Fury into was more fun than the game I was trying to fix, so I just decided to make it a new project entirely.

This is my first attempt at making an ARPG of any kind. I have hundreds of small tests I've done over the course of my life while thinking about how I would go about doing this if I did. The engine I am using is GameMaker Studio LTS, which I've found to be quite helpful given the game's complexity.

Release Stages

Facet Final will have many SARPG mechanics, and will expand its scope over the course of its release stages:

In-Dev - This stage of development will set up all of the game's primary features. There are alot of them, and many are already complete. This includes everything related to itemization, affixing, upgrading of affixes, item upgrading, gambling, towns, and NPC interactions. Combat features such as player attacks, all enemy attacks and their variations, player skills and spells, potions, affix special modifiers, ultimate attacks, boss attack patterns, as well as every bit of combat math. Facet Final has alot of math governing its combat system, with criticals, elemental resistances, and affix attack type modifiers from every piece of equipment. All of this needs to be complete before the game can move out of the In-Dev phase. I would say I am currently more than half way done with this.

Alpha - This stage concentrates on expanding the amount of game content. The game is planned to cover 10 chapters of content, with each chapter containing 5 areas for the player to explore and play through to achieve the goal of unlocking a giant door leading to the center of the Stellars' hive. Each chapter is designed to be longer than the previous, so that the gameplay world increases in size relative to the playtime. After the tenth chapter, the player will enter an "afterstory" mode with late game content. I have no idea how long the it will take to complete the main game. However, I intend it to take multiple hours or multiple full days; even for a seasoned ARPG player. I know that Chapter 1 takes about 10-15 minutes or so if you are rushing through maps targeting minibosses. Longer if you kill every enemy in every map. With quest waypoints and objectives, it might take about half an hour or longer.

Beta - This stage will concentrate on optimizing all of the existing content, fixing bugs, and improving framerate. The game does not "currently" have frame rate issues. There are some dips below 60 when there are many objects and enemies in a room. However, that is to be expected. Often, the game is running over 1,000 FPS as it is not graphically intensive. The beta stage will also focus on expanding existing on existing content to improve the gameplay experience. Adding new affixes, spells, and skills perhaps. A late game infinite dungeon, boss rush, or ultrahard gamemode. Stuff like that. This will be the "early access" period for the game. I refuse to release a "prelude" or "prologue" version of the game that isn't just a free demo on a main store page. There might be a Steam store page available during the beta, we will see.

Release - This will be a final release of the game, and lunch on Steam and other distribution platforms. Although, Steam is the only one I really care about. (Maybe you here at itch.io of course, but you get the play the game before release.) There is no planned "DLC" or "Expansion" content. Although, I do plan to support the game after release with occasional light content updates and bug fixing as long as it remains relevant to do so.