Devlog #3 - Region 2, Exorcisms, and upcoming Beta Testing!
Happy Friday folks!
It’s been a few weeks now that Malys has been out in the world. I know we sound repetitive, but we really can’t thank you enough for the support on the game.
Releasing any game into Early Access (or even just into 1.0) is always daunting - especially when there’s things you want to fix and bugs cropping up as you iterate and add. As a team, it’s easy to get in your own heads and focus on the things you wish were better. When it gets to players like yourselves and you’re not only understanding, but excited about what we’re building, it reinvigorates that fire (in this case hellfire) for what we’re building.
Feedback So Far
As we mentioned, the more reports we get, the easier it is for us to tell what’s an issue affecting a lot of you vs what’s a one off that will need a lot of investigating. We want to set up a system where we can easily reflect bugs that are known to us to save you some time, but figuring out the how and where (and how to keep it properly up to date) is harder. We hope the Known Bug list in the last Steam update was helpful here at the very least.
In terms of what we’re hearing from you, the UI feedback we've received has been great - in particular, a few people suggested the new card reward selection VFX should be more obvious - as well as some difficulty targeting minions when all minion slots are filled, and some issues with accidentally targeting the Host.
Some individual card bugs, balance suggestions and typos have also come in (thank you!), and some specific balancing comments/suggestions on some demons, namely Pearl Eye and Mammon, both of which are now too overpowered. I'd throw The Many As One on that list as well! Multiple comments that Lesser demons are still too easy - absolutely agree, we're still thinking about how to handle balance across the different kinds of fights in a run overall.
Other bugs reported include Pocket not currently working as intended (honestly, it needs a bit of a rework), and the Run Summary playtime only includes your current session.
We've added these and more to our internal tracker, and are chipping away at them in between the main focus of the next update: Region 2.
Upcoming Content: v0.3
One thing we’ve been focusing on a lot for the future is regions. The region you’ve been playing in Early Access so far has been extended to give you room to experiment with deckbuilding, but the final release of Malys will have 3 regions that are each shorter in length.
In the v0.3 update, we're focusing on Region 2: the region itself, the new demons, and the new region boss. This will include some new keywords, as well as behind the scenes, a significant rebuild of region generation and the rules behind that to support multiple shorter regions rather than a single longer region.
We plan to fix as many bugs as we can as well, though to set expectations, our main focus will be setting up multi-region play and supporting content as it’s a significant step forward with a lot of work involved.
In v0.3 we also plan to implement a solution for the infinite card draw issue. A huge thank you to everyone who sent in suggestions and feedback, it’s been incredibly helpful.
In the background, I am also spending time working on systems we can use for further balancing the game: ensuring a more enjoyable, consistent difficulty curve that's easier to iterate on. The content in the game right now (as many of you have rightly pointed out) is not there yet balance-wise. We prioritized getting Malys to Early Access launch and now, thanks to your feedback we’re able to really dive in on balance. I've been busy in spreadsheets building models to help us more accurately understand and adjust things like card and curio balance. With any luck it will bear fruit in a future update, though it's still a while away as a system-wide rebalance is a significant amount of work!
In a similar vein, we’re planning an in-game codex that would allow you to quickly reference how different effects behave at any time. A lot of you have mentioned being unsure what different abilities do on certain cards, and that some gameplay concepts, keywords, status effects etc. need some additional explanation. It’s still a while away, so in the interim, we’re putting together a version of the codex online so that you can reference the abilities (without the card context) at any time. We’ll update you on this soon!
Exorcisms
One thing we’d really love feedback on that is more about experience than necessarily bugs, is how you’re finding exorcisms. A lot of the feedback we’ve seen on them is contradictory - some of you think the fights are too easy, some of you think they’re a bit hard, some of you love the multiple stages, some of you wish they were a little shorter. This is super normal when there’s a bunch of balance to come, but what we’d like to understand is what you’re loving (or hating!) about how they currently function, particularly around demon mechanics. Do you have a favourite exorcism? Do you have an idea for a encounter that you’d love to see play out? Which demons feel oppressive, and which feel totally meh? Let us know here in the comments, or via the feedback form.
Upcoming Beta Testing
We know for a lot of you, you’re eager to test changes as soon as they’re available in the build. We’re still planning on our updates every three or so weeks, with these devlogs and some other chats in between, but we thought we should give those of you who are interested the ability to get into the game earlier and into testing things we’re fixing. This isn’t quite set up yet, but we’ll be putting a beta live in a week or so to let you test a little before the next update. From there, the beta will stay up and live for you to play around in when you like. Obviously being a beta build, it’s going to be less stable and more prone to breaking, but if you’re willing to experiment to help us out in making sure the fixes we’re putting in are working, we really appreciate it!
When it’s available, to access the Malys beta build in between updates, there’ll be a few things you need to do.
Right click on Malys in Steam and select ‘Properties’
In the ‘Properties’ window, click on the ‘Betas’ tab.
Select the Beta Branch from the dropdown menu.
Close out and Steam should automatically start downloading the Malys Beta!
It’s important that we know which build you’re on for testing purposes, so make sure you provide that information to us in your feedback submissions. We’ll post on Steam and socials when the Beta is live, so keep an eye out!
We’ll let you know when that beta is live, and we’ll still be reading everything you share! Thank you, and speak soon!
Liam
