Codename: Project Dungeon - Focus Shifting and New Tentative Name

After deliberating the game systems we have created, and looking into scrapping what had no significant gain on the gameplay we decided to change much of the focus for Codename: Project Dungeon; which I will now be referring to as: "You May Be Eaten By a Gru" as Project Dungeon seems to be someone else's project name. The new streamlined systems should help increase the flow of the game, hopefully giving a much more arcade feeling to the game; this was the original idea for the game, one that was lost in the abyss of crazy ideas.

The first thing to go was the crafting system. I know what you might be thinking: wasn't that kind of the whole basis for the game? Yes and no; the idea for crafting came with the original game idea, but you can't be nostalgic for something that just overall wasn't any fun. Crafting added nothing to the gameplay, other than a mess of menu systems, while simultaneously slowing gameplay down to a crawl. It's gone; maybe another game some time, just not this one. Although the idea may come back in a different way, you wont be placing objects to solve puzzles.

The inventory is now gone. No need. You don't collect items to craft any more, so the objects you collect can all be stored on the main hot bar. This was done in direct correlation to one of the other major changes, rendering the system nearly useless.

Professions are now gone. Again, without the crafting there was no real purpose anymore. They were deemed unworthy and have been stripped; like crafting, they may come back in a different way much later on, but for now there was no point in keeping them around.

The Alpha maze will now be a 10 x 10 grid. We needed to work on getting a solid foundation for the aesthetics for the maze. This is not to replace the 20x20x2 maze we have already created in the final product, this is just so we can get a basic implementation of everything done, and have a product that players can actually play; completed. The overall goal is to then use the feedback we receive from players about the smaller maze, and use it to make the larger one even better. We also have no intention of scrapping the larger maze since the layout and foundation has already been created; we wouldn't want to let all that hard work go to waste.

The upgrade menu is now going to be at the beginning of the game, created as a load out screen. You will be able to upgrade your player attributes, and select what main weapon, and alt weapon you want to take with you on your journey. We feel like this will allow players to focus on a variety of combinations and play-styles without being overcome by the amount of items they have available. Main Weapon, Alt Weapon, Health Potion, Mana Potion; that's it. You will collect money and experience throughout the maze, money is used to buy potions from the shop, and is lost upon entering the maze; experience is kept permanently. You can also find Mana and Health Potions in the maze; they are simply added to your stacks. When you die, all of your Mana and Health potions are dropped.

Player Attributes have been reduced significantly. You now have Vitality, Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity. Vitality increases overall health, Strength increases melee damage and defense, Intelligence increases magic damage and overall mana, and Dexterity increases ranged/trap damage and movement speed. There was no reason to have as many as we did; it added too many options for the player, which we came to realize detracted from the overall fun of the game.

Weapons and Magic have been reduced, we felt that duplicated items served no purpose to the fun of the experience and so they were dropped in favor of balancing the attribute systems. Main Weapons will be: Axe, Bow, Magic Staff (Fire and Ice Magic). Alt Weapons will be: Dagger, Caltrops, and a Healing item. This gives us a balance of heavy melee, direct ranged, and offensive magic for the main weapons; and light melee, indirect ranged, and support magic for the alternative weapons. Obviously the system allows for expansion, but for now we felt like creating balanced and unique weapons was a better route than simply throwing duplicates at the player.

I think that about covers the major changes for "You May Be Eaten By A Gru" (tentatively titled). If you have any questions or concerns leave us some feedback! We always like to hear what players and potential players think; hence all the major changes. Remember that we are still only a few weeks into this project, all of this is subject to change at any time.