Reynard Devlog #30 – 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 😀 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 😀
I’d like to thank Boštjan, 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 – 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 😀
Reynard Devlog #27 – 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 😀
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 – 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” 😀
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 #24 – 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 – 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 it’s not the first time that we’ve 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 don’t 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, I’ve decided that they’re right and that the relic should be removed. So it’s gone… for now 😀
Daily Runs and Scoring
The whole point of the daily run is to achieve the highest score. Until now if you didn’t die… you could clear every room and in the end your score would be very similar to your rival’s 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.
It’s holiday season and I’ve been busy… eating and hanging out with my family. But I didn’t forget about my fellow gamers!
Racoon Skin
To express my gratitude to early access supporters I’m including the Racoon’s skin to Reynard. Once Reynard is fully released the skin will become a DLC. Early access supporters will be able to claim it for free!
Reynard Devlog #20 – Boss Noc, Ally Judy and More (0.9.1)
Darkness was missing and Noc is bringing it!
Noc
Till now the balance was in favor of Melee bosses. It would be wrong if it remained that way for a longer period. But it would be boring if the new Ranged boss would deal a “regular” ranged attack damage. That’s the reason I’ve created Noc.
Unlike other bosses he doesn’t have health dependent states! Noc is aggressive from the beginning. His mission is to chase Reynard and hit him with his darkening / ethereal fists. If Reynard get’s hit by his fist, his vision becomes limited.
Not only that he’s shooting dangerous projectiles, he’s also summoning cursed weapons!
Judy
Judy can now be rescued in the dungeons. She’s one of the most powerful allies. Her attack is shooting homing arrows from her arbalest towards her enemies. She has a fair amount of health and is currently my favorite ally!
[MINOR] Changed the description of the throwing spear.
[MINOR] Added SFX to various enemy and ally attacks.
[MINOR] Drake now has a nice death animation and projects fire projectiles from correct position.
[MINOR] Added SFX to “pawn” shrine.
[MINOR] Added death animations to mobs.
[MINOR] Crate buildings now display healthbars.
[MINOR] Water can now appear instead of the abyss – More biome variations,
[MINOR] Last hitting an enemy triggers mini camera shake.
[BALANCING] Necro Staff’s kill count before summoning an ally skeleton is reduced from 15 to 10. Its damage has been incresed from 1 to 1.3.
[BALANCING] Forest Child perk nerfed. It also takes 20% of player’s score and gold.
[BALANCING] Water Plate Armor’s durability increased to 50.
[BALANCING] Bubba’s prices and gap between them increased.
[BALANCING] Mumu’s explosion damage increased by 100%.
[BALANCING] Zombies’s damage increased by 50%.
[BUGFIX] Fixed some cells where player directly runs into an obstacle or an object.
[BUGFIX] Changed the colliders of the water obstacles in dungeons.
[BUGFIX] Blind monk perk now influences vision on all levels… Invasion and bosses included.
[BUGFIX] Rotation of Bubble turret bullets has been fixed.
In the upcoming week I’ll focus on polishing stuff! I’ll probably add some map on the loading screen, so the player will know how far from saving Prascilla he is. I’ll try to add options to the ingame menu, fiddle with dungeon progression and as always… add a new enemy or ally.
Next Friday is after Christmas so I wish you a merry Christmas upfront 😀 Have fun beating Noc and Santa!
Reynard Devlog #19 – Santa Boss, Zombies and More (0.9.0)
Ho-ho-ho! Christmas is around the corner and Santa has come to visit Foen!
Santa
Since it’s December and Christmas is around the corner I wanted to add some Christmas spirit to Reynard’s universe.
Luckily, last week Elthen came to the stream and said “hi” (He’s a fellow dude that draws some of the pixel art that we’re using in Reynard). I knew that I had an opportunity to influence his next drawing project and I kind of cheered for a fighting Santa. A week later Kung-fu Santa was made. So Elthen, thank you!
He became another boss influenced by the powerful Wizco’s magic! But you can bring him back to his senses if you free him from the spell (beat him). Players who can defeat him will be rewarded with Santa’s costume!
Santa is a first “seasonal boss” who can be fought from “12/12/Every Year” to “1/2/Every Year”. There will probably be more seasonal bosses in the future.
Even though there are many enemies in Reynard, a zombie was a must! It fits into the dungeon environment perfectly!
Not only that; he’s good looking, he’s baddass… In a way. If you have any companions and the zombie kills them, they’ll turn into zombies!
He’s immune to necro and poison damage and is from now on a regular companion of Doctor Plague.
All Changes
[BOSS] Added a Santa Clause boss battle. Free him and unlock yourself a Santa’s costume. You can start the battle by interacting with the portal next to the fox hole. You’ll be able to fight Santa from 12/12/Every Year to 1/2/Every Year.
[ENEMY] Added a Zombie. Immune to poison and necro damage. When it kills its victim it restores 0.25 hp to itself and spawns a new zombie in its victim’s place.
[BALANCING] Doctor Plague now spawns Zombies and Skeletons. His movement speed was increased by 50%. He now has some companions from the beginning.
[MINOR] Removed a single pixel mistake on Reynard’s Santa costume 🙂
[BUGFIX] Fixed a bug where golems dropped golem’s fist instead of golem’s hand. (one is usable, the other is the actual weapon of the golem).
[BUGFIX] Wilson’s laser beam can now damage allies and companions.
[BUGFIX] Doctor Plague can now damage allies and companions.
[BUGFIX] Fixed the bug when the stairs to secret room are spawned behind the indestructible objects.
[BUGFIX] Companion skeletons wouldn’t get transported to other levels.
In the upcoming week I’ll focus on boss battles, new enemies and new rooms! If you’d like to recommend anything, please let me know!
