Reynard Devlog #31 β Optimization, Bug Fixes and the Future (1.0.3)
This week I focused on optimization and bug fixes. I also have some important news about the future of Reynard and Hyper Fox Studios.
A lot of people asked me if Reynard will be released on Nintendo Switch platform and I can finally reply that… IT WILL!!! Nintendo approved my developer account for Switch. This gave me another huge motivation boost!
This means that I’ll be:
Adding more new content (bosses, enemies, items…),
Further optimize the game,
Squish undiscovered and upcoming bugs!
It’s good news, but I’ll have more expenses by getting the right hardware (Switch) and so on. Besides that, my PC freezes from time to time. I really hope that he only has a “phase”.
I’m super happy that so many of you support Reynard. But I’m not able to live off our little fox π So in the next couple of weeks, I’ll try to earn enough money for the upcoming costs. I’ll have to pick up some client work in web development. So in these weeks don’t be mad if there will be only minor updates for Reynard.
Enough with the news! Here are the changes!
All Changes
[MAJOR] Movement and dash of Reynard and NPCs has been optimized. The game should run smooth now on 60 FPS.
[MINOR] Added the FPS option – 60 FPS.
[MINOR] Added the starting area blocades in Ferdinand’s level.
[MINOR] When crafting, everything except equipment now gets added to your inventory automatically.
[BUGFIX] Fixed the bug when you’d play on the easy mode and the perk would take away more stamina than allowed.
[BUGFIX] Daily run on easy mode now loads starting items correctly.
[BUGFIX] Mumu now deals damage over time.
[BUGFIX] Effect zones of spawned cursed weapons don’t get blown away by the wind anymore.
[BUGFIX] No more building stuff on player, enemy or ally ocuppied area in the invasion.
[BUGFIX] Fixed a room cell which had a “physical” golden key in it.
Until next time I wish you an awesome weekend and happy dungeon crawling! π
Reynard Devlog #30 β Difficulty Modes, Leagues and Much More (1.0.1 & 1.0.2)
Hey there! It’s the first week after the release and I’m happy to say that I’ve pushed 2 updates already! I know it’s not Friday… I’m releasing this update one day earlier because I’ll probably start working on other things that might take more time.
Difficulty Modes
Some of the players told me that the game is very difficult. I just couldn’t keep them waiting, so I quickly created an update which introduced an easy mode. Now players can select the difficulty first time before they enter the dungeon or in the options menu.
Easy mode reduces buffed enemy count, removes boss scaling and adds some cool starting items to the player at the beginning of the run.
Normal stayed… well… Normal π But I’ve also added a hard mode, which I don’t want to spoil too much.
More Achievements
Because I’ve introduced the difficulty modes and because they were proposed by the community I’ve added 18 more of them. You can check all the achievements here.
Leagues
It wouldn’t be fair if players would be playing on a different difficulty and they’d be competing against each other on the same leaderboard. So leaderboard had to be split to 3 different ones:
Green League (Easy)
Orange League (Medium)
Indigo League (Hard)
Skeleton Mage
To spice things up on the hard mode I’ve added a new enemy. I hope you’ll like him ;D
Reynard is a game that I made when I dared to call myself a full-time indie game developer, a product that I made with a help of a friend and a small awesome community that formed around it.
I could be chasing version 1.0 for months or even years. But everything has to have a goal or at least a major milestone, and my main goal was to release a game that captures elements of my favorite genres in a good way. I think that my goal was achieved. Reynard has left the early access and I can’t wait for your feedback.
All Changes and Epilogue
[MAJOR] Because scoring changed during the development, I’ve reset the leaderboards.
[MINOR] Grammar fixes.
[BALANCING] Further improved rune generation.
[BALANCING] Buffed Ifrit boot’s fire trail damage.
[BALANCING] Buffed Barbarian’s battle axe damage.
[BUGFIX] No more double item purchases from merchants.
[REMOVED] Golem’s hand.
[REMOVED] Copper plank.
This is not the end! It’s a major milestone. I’ll continue to add improvements proposed by the community and my “imagination”.
I can bet that I’ll have to squash undiscovered bugs in the future and I’m pretty sure that I’ll have to start freelancing or find myself another job if I want to keep paying bills π
I’d like to thank BoΕ‘tjan, Nika and all the supporters! We did it! Thank you so much for staying with me on this journey. It’s been a hell of a ride but I’d do it all over again.
I really hope you like what Reynard has become. You can read about the whole journey here.
Reynard Devlog #28 β Bunny Skin, Turret Animations and More (0.9.9)
Bunny Skin
I had to include a reward for the most skilled players. Here it is! A bunny skin! You’ll be able to unlock the bunny skin by completing a run under 25 minutes! It’s extremely hard, but still doable π
Reynard Devlog #27 β Ally Zombies, Ifrit’s Staff and More (0.9.8)
Sadly I was sick this week, but gladly I managed to prepare stuff for 0.9.8 version of Reynard! Only 2 more weeks from 1.0 π
Ally Zombies
Vampire perk was underpowered! It is the most expensive perk after all and it just had to be buffed. Well I buffed it by adding an ally zombie to it!
Remember that if a zombie kills another enemy it will spawn another zombie. Same rule applies for an ally zombie. It can snowball insanely if you have companion relics.
To sum up the new vampire perk: 50% less health, 50% less stamina, start with an ally zombie and a vampiric rune (necro rune). To unlock the perk you’ll have to spend 20 boss coins!
I don’t know if I can give credit to the fever or my imagination, but I had an urge to create a weapon that shoots fiery projectiles in every direction! Here’s the result – Ifrit’s Staff!
Reynard Devlog #26 β Numbers, Trophy and More (0.9.7)
Numbers
To be honest I forgot why I went with the floating numbers (0.1, 0.2…) in the first place. Only when I started displaying damage numbers it kind of started bothering me. Dots and commas just don’t belong on the screen. They unnecessarily increase the size of the damage text. Even one of the reddit users pointed that out.
You’re probably thinking that it was an easy task to transform most of the floating numbers to integers. Well… it wasn’t a rocket science, but I really had to change the values of every item, health and stamina of every NPC, shop prices etc.
It took a while. But now the numbers at least look “humane” π
I bet you were wondering why there is a trophy inside the house. Its functionality is finally here! If you interact with it you’ll get the access to achievements, stats and leaderboards!
Stats
I like to look at the stats in games and I have a feeling that I’m not the only one. It’s satisfying to see how many enemies and bosses you killed, what is your current level, highest score etc.
Leaderboards
Until now if you played the daily run your score was submitted to the leaderboards! The only problem was that you couldn’t check the daily score anywhere else but on the daily run’s game over screen. Now you can check the highest score of all time and the daily score also by interacting with the trophy!
All Changes
[HUGE] No more numbers like 0.92 etc. Majority of the numbers are now rounded and scaled to the integers (1, 2, 3..).
[HUGE] Reworked rune generation. It’s way better!
[FEATURE] You can now see your stats like level, enemies killed, invasions played by interacting with a trophy in the house.
[FEATURE] Check out the best score of all times and daily run leaderboards by interacting with a trophy in the house.
[MINOR] Mobs now collide with each other. They can surround you more easily.
[MINOR] Added information icons for weapon usage in the HUD!
[MINOR] Fixed couple of pixels in the “Pot Hater” skin.
[MINOR] Added more structure and starting rooms to the invasion. The layout of invasions are now more interesting.
[MINOR] Damage numbers don’t appear anymore when you break pots etc.
[MINOR] Added option “Nothing” to Zoe.
[MINOR] Added the “Best played with a controller” screen.
[MINOR] Secret library is resized to a normal size.
[BALANCING] Jolt, Jolt Volt, Jolt Volt Bolt now have reduced cooldowns.
[BALANCING] Buffed the vampire rune.
[BALANCING] Buffed bubble turret’s attack rate by 20%.
[BALANCING] Buffed triple turret’s attack rate by 25%.
[BALANCING] Information about the item now appears in 0.5 seconds instead of 1.
[BUGFIX] Fixed double healing numbers on life steal attacks.
[BUGFIX] Sizzles and Cobras are now only immune to poison.
[BUGFIX] Fixed the bug where you could interact with zoe even if she already gave you a reward.
[BUGFIX] Fixed pressure plates spawning outside of the dungeon.
[BUGFIX] Everything on fire now has 80% chance of spreading the fire between nearby enemies, companions etc.
[BUGFIX] Changed the rune in “Dundee” perk.
[BUGFIX] Fixed the bug that wouldn’t play secret room’s open door animation.
[BUGFIX] Crates in invasion which are used as buildings don’t give you score anymore.
I’m starting to think about the release date. March 1st seems tempting. What do you think?
Until next Friday I wish you happy dungeon crawling!
Reynard Devlog #25 β Damage Numbers, Zoe, Resolution Improvement and More (0.9.6)
Damage Numbers
Now you can see clearly what’s going on. How much damage you’re dealing, how much damage you’re receiving, if you’re getting healed etc.
In my opinion damage numbers give player a valuable feedback about what’s going on. In the future update I’ll add an option so you will still be able to disable them if you find them bothering.
Besides all the special rooms that you can find in Reynard, I wanted to add another thing that would reward exploration.
That’s why I’ve added Zoe. She’s a cool owl which can reward you with different items. You’ll be able to summon her only if you trigger all the pressure plates in the level.
Zoe
You can select the type of reward you want to receive based on the pressure plates you’ve triggered. Reward types are:
Armor
Companion / Ally
Relic
Rune
Weapon
Resolution Improvements
As the playerbase of Reynard is growing, I’m receiving more and more feedback. One of the fellow gamers told me that he had an issue with a resolution. He told me that he can’t normally see the whole cell of the dungeon.
I had no other options left, but to tackle the camera again, which lead me to upgrade the whole unity project to the newer version etc.
Now in dungeon all players have the same visible field. I solved this with leaving the game to the monitor’s native resolution and adding black bars to the screen. It works good and the game looks smoother than with an older camera settings!
All Changes
[HUGE] Camera rendering changed. The dungeons should now be normally visible on “unordinary” resolutions.
[FEATURE] Added damage and healing numbers!
[FEATURE] Added Zoe (an owl).
[FEATURE] Reynard’s house has been redecorated!
[SKIN] Those who will unlock the “pot hater” achievement will also unlock the “pot hater” skin! (Inpsired by the one and only – Link).
[MINOR] UI is now being rendered clearer.
[MINOR] Damage of “damage over time” effect now gets applied after a second and not instantly!
[MINOR] Invasion now also spawns water.
[MINOR] Added more invasion layouts.
[BALANCING] Buffed the waves and subwaves of the invasion.
[BALANCING] Nerfed the xeno turret’s attack rate.
[BALANCING] Nerfed Sizzle’s damage and increased his attack rate.
[BALANCING] Buffed Cobra’s attack rate.
[BALANCING] Buffed fire spear’s fire duration.
[BALANCING] Tweaked the generation of runes which deal damage over time.
[BUGFIX] Fixed a lot of animator missing values.
[BUGFIX] Removed wooden club’s damage over time.
[BUGFIX] When moving up and left on keyboard Reynard was facing up. When moving up and right he was facing right. Now in both cases he faces up.
[BUGFIX] Fixed the Judy’s arrow’s starting position.
[BUGFIX] Fixed the Skeleton archer’s arrow’s starting position.
Reynard Devlog #24 β Scaled Bosses, Skeleton Archer and More (0.9.5)
Hey dudes! We’re already at the 0.9.5 and I’m starting to wrap things up. I think that Reynard will get out of early access in the end of February. So approximately 5 more weeks (5 updates)!
Scaled Bosses
Each boss now has 3 difficulties. Let me explain it on Dexter. Until now if you faced him in the “Terra” dungeon (yeah… dungeons now have names), his level wouldn’t be any different from if you’d met him in the “Infernia” dungeon. And this kind of bothered me.
That’s the reason why I’ve added changes to the levels based on when and where you meet the boss. Check out pictures of Dexter down below (I don’t want to spoil the other bosses).
Dexter in Terra
Dexter in Infernia
Dexter in Glacia
Skeleton Archer
Skeleton archer brings a nice addition to the enemies. He’s faster and stronger than other ranged baddies.
It’s always interesting to observe others play your game. For example I’ve been watching a streamer RadioHupfen when he played Reynard. Observing him made me see some places for improvement.
Removing The Blueprint Machine From The Invasion
When he came to the tower defense part, he didn’t really know how to place down turrets and he got confused by the blueprint machine. This was a clear mark that a blueprint machine doesn’t belong in the tower defense part of the game. Because it’s purpose is similar’s as ducky’s. You unlock the blueprint and then you play the game.
Fade-in And A RoadMap
Until now there was fade-in before each scene starting… It isn’t too bad, but it sure doesn’t add the premium feel as unraveling black bars with an area name and a roadmap which helps the player plan ahead.
Color Enhancments
Terra’s brown color started to bore me. It’s the dungeon which the players will see most of the time and it should be more appealing to the eye. In a previous update I’ve added water tiles which helped, but the floor itself still wasn’t interesting enough. So I’ve added some green grass which adds a nice contrast to the dungeon.
[FEATURE] Loading screen changed. Added the area info at the beginning of the scene and a roadmap. Transitions between scenes are now more “polished”.
[FEATURE] Bosses now have different difficulties. For example if you face Dexter as a second boss he’ll have bumper traps around his area. If you meet him as third there will be bumper traps + flames.
[FEATURE] Using a health potion now heals your weakest companion / ally for 50% of potions healing power.
[MINOR] Turrets are now automatically sold when you finish the invasion.
[MINOR] Reynard is now looking up when he spawns in the boss room or invasion.
[MINOR] Blueprint machine now only appears in the last level of invasion.
[MINOR] Papa John now appears only in the first level of invasion.
[MINOR] Papa John is now hidden until you clear the “stairs” room.
[MINOR] Loading progress on the loading screen now displays progress up to 99%. Some players found it confusing if it stayed on 100% for couple of seconds XD
[MINOR] Fairy stops healing Reynard if he has full HP and continues when he gets hurt.
[MINOR] Named the dungeons: Terra, Infernia and Glacia.
[MINOR] Added outline to HUD’s numbers. It increases the invisibility in the Glacia.
[MINOR] Destroy particles now spawn in front of the item being destroyed.
[MINOR] Changed some pebbles in Terra to grass.
[MINOR] Added description to the daily run.
[BALANCING] Buster Sword’s starting damage nerfed by 50%.
[BALANCING] Buffed the Ifrit’s boot’s fire damage.
[BALANCING] Dexter’s charge damage nerfed from 5 to 3.
[BALANCING] Reduced starting stamina from 20 to 10.
[BALANCING] Dash stamina cost reduced from 1 to 0.5.
[BALANCING] Lowered prices of Max Stamina and Max Health cost options in shrines and libraries.
[BALANCING] Lowered gold price at the silver key shrine.
[BALANCING] Nerfed Xeno Turret’s damage. It has to hit golems twice to kill them.
[BALANCING] Buffed Triple Turret’s damage.
[BUGFIX] Selling turrets doesn’t give you bonus gold anymore.
[BUGFIX] Fixed 8 buggy room cells.
[BUGFIX] Fixed the bug when sometimes icons disappeared from the minimap.
Reynard Devlog #23 β Balancing, New Weapons and More (0.9.4)
It’s not the first time and definitely not the last time I’ll have to do some balancing.
Balancing
As said in our “Why early access?” section on steam we want to involve our early access supporters in development of the game.
Stamina Regeneration
Because itβs not the first time that weβve received a proposal for stamina to regenerate itself instantly once you clear the room, we’ve added this feature.
Health Regeneration
Some of our players also pointed out that they donβt see much sense in waiting for their health to regenerate if they have a health regeneration relic. They see it as an exploit. After thinking about it for some time, Iβve decided that they’re right and that the relic should be removed. So itβs goneβ¦ for now π
Daily Runs and Scoring
The whole point of the daily run is to achieve the highest score. Until now if you didnβt dieβ¦ you could clear every room and in the end your score would be very similar to your rivalβs score.
That’s why from now on speed and remaining gold is being rewarded. If you complete a run under 40, 30 or 25 minutes you’ll get 10000 bonus score for each mark. Also at the end of the run remaining gold now gets transformed into a score.
Weapons
Titan’s Belt
It can spawn up to 4 circling discs around Reynard that stun and hurt attackers.
[WEAPON] Titan’s Belt. Can spawn up to 4 circling discs around Reynard that stun and hurt attackers.
[WEAPON] Luna’s Cloak. Become invisible for 5 seconds. Invisibility stops if you attack.
[HUGE] Stamina refills when transitioning through doors. Regeneration rate is increased when you clear the room, you’re waiting for the next wave or you defeat the boss.
[MINOR] Wind can’t spawn in forge rooms anymore.
[MINOR] Added confetti to the win screen.
[MINOR] Repositioned the HP bar of Xeno turret.
[MINOR] Removed HP regeneration relics.
[MINOR] Minor modification to Foen’s island shape.
[MINOR] Added a tiny easter egg.
[MINOR] Added more supporters to the book of credits.
[MINOR] Speed is now being rewarded! If you complete a run under 40, 30 or 25 minutes you’ll get 10000 bonus score for each mark.
[MINOR] At the end of the run remaining gold gets transformed into score.
[BALANCING] Buffed the Ifrit’s boot’s fire damage and spread duration.
[BALANCING] Reduced starting max stamina to 20.
[BALANCING] Enemy loot drops in invasion are halved.
[BUGFIX] Goblins don’t steal from player when hitting his allies.
[BUGFIX] Fixed lifestealing from corpses.
[BUGFIX] Fixed jittering of a special weapon image on a HUD.
[BUGFIX] Falling Boulders now deal normal damage instead of fire.
[BUGFIX] Fixed 10 room cells that displayed water in a weird way.
Next week I’ll heavily focus on boss scaling, balancing, polishing and more.
Reynard Devlog #22 β Special Weapons and More (0.9.3)
Happy New Year!
Special Weapons
After watching some of my friends, youtubers and streamers play Reynard, I’ve noticed that they got “crappy” items or items that have the same functionality way too many times. It was an eye opening moment.
I’ve decided to rebalance some of the weapons. Remove the ones that are “underperforming” and most importantly create more special weapons which are fun to use.
Ifrit’s Boots
I’m not gonna go in full details who or what Ifrit is, but I can tell you that he’s a fiery being. Frequently he appears as a powerful ally in the games I love.
If Reynard gets his boots, he can activate them and spawn a fiery trail. His trail is limited to 10 flames. The flame count can be increased by 2 for each fire rune inserted into the boots.
I was always impressed in other games with weapons or spells that have a chain lightning effect. I couldn’t wait any longer. It’s here in 3 forms. “Jolt”, “Jolt Volt” and “Jolt Volt Bolt” (More words == More Power) π
Foxes are known tricksters. So Reynard needed an item for fooling enemies. Behold the “Luna’s Mirror”. It spawns Reynard’s reflection which taunts the surround enemies.
All Changes
[WEAPON] Ifrit’s Boots. When you activate them, they spawn fiery trail!
[WEAPON] Added Luna’s mirror. It spawns a projection of the owner which taunts the enemies.
[WEAPON] Buster Sword. No explanation needed.
[WEAPON] Added Jolt, Jolt Volt and Jolt Volt Bolt – Items that shoot “chain lightning” like projectiles.
[HUGE] A lot of weapons have been rebalanced. Many “junk” weapons have been removed. Critical koeficient for every weapon is now minimum 2.
[MINOR] Rune slots are now displayed in a text form! Now you know how many rune slots a weapon has even if you’re purchasing it from a merchant.
[MINOR] You can now sell buildings in invasion. Added sfx when buying and selling.
[MINOR] Space button is now scaled correctly in the dialogue window.
[MINOR] Spider, spider webs and web traps have new skins!
[BALANCING] Bosses now have larger pool of dropabble “cool” items.
[BALANCING] Silver chest can now contain any item.
[BUGFIX] Bug where you could stay locked out should be fixed.
[BUGFIX] Fixed the Runemaster perk. Runes get assigned correctly now.
[BUGFIX] Wave counter now gets updated correctly in the beginning.
[BUGFIX] If Ferdinand was attacked by a companion… Sometimes he wouldn’t trigger boulders.
Hope you like how the game is evolving. I’ll add more stuff and special weapons next week π
