Playtesting Concluded and Future Plans

I’ve just closed the playtest signup, and I wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped out by sending in a feedback response. The feedback google form will probably be staying open permanently, and I’ll still be checking it periodically. Feel free to submit any fruther critique, ideas, recommendations, etc. and I’ll be sure to take note of them.

Overall, the playtest has gone very well. The general response was very positive, and I’m happy that so many testers enjoyed playing FATACLYSM. I have a concrete list of things I want to work on in the future, but it’s become pretty clear to me that people have responded well to the core gameplay loop. Anyways, here’s a summary of major things I’m planning of doing based on all the feedback I’ve received.

Originally, the plan was to have a full “run” be comprised of 5 different layers. However, based on what testers have said, I’ve decided to amend this to only 4 layers making up a run. Most are in agreement that they want to see more from each layer, like more events, enemy variety, better/more items, and so on, and I think that shortening the overall length of runs and then increasing the amount of content in each layer would facilitate this. The big changes that would come with this are as follows:

• More enemy variety in each area, and another encounter before confronting the boss (the Warden would be nerfed so as to keep the difficulty consistent)
• More events in each area so each run feels different
• Higher drop chances for rare items
• Addition of minibosses and other encounter types to shake up the structure of each run a bit more (These are already planned/implemented for the Palace, but I want to add them to the Penitentiary as well)

And here’s a list of smaller changes that I also plan to add eventually:

• A fair amount of players would like for music to be added, so it’s on the to-do list now
• Adjust implementation of locked weight stages so as to make them less intrusive whilst still not spoiling progression
• Spreading out the lore and information that’s provided in the last third of the intro throughout subsequent runs so as to not dump so much on the player at once
• More interactions between party members, potentially both during and outside of combat
• More clarity regarding some things in combat like turn order and damage numbers

That’s about the gist of things I’ve gathered from feedback, but another quick thing I want to make clear that was already full intended and some have asked for: More party members will be added. The starting four aren’t the only ones that’ll be joining the fight!

Finally, the plan moving forward. The official release will still be happening some time in May, and will include the full areas for both the Penitentiary and the Palace (FYI, the Palace is a longer area and already has more content than the Penitentiary). The Palace will contain new enemies, a boss, events, special events, and so on.

I can’t guarantee that the list of goals from the playtest will be completed by the time of release, but I can promise that they’ll be priority #1 in terms of further development. Two new enemies are already in the works for the Penitentiary, and at least one of them should be ready for full release, with the next one (who is a miniboss) likely coming in the following update.

If you want to follow along with exact release dates as they’re announced, make sure you continue watching the main page for the game, and please consider following me on itch to stay updated. See you all again in May!