Hello everyone,
This is Alfred, the Game Director of Food Devils!
After listening to your feedback, we've worked hard for months and we've just released version 0.4.0 of the public demo. It features new ways to learn and test the game's mechanics, faster Encounter options, extensive UI improvements and a large batch of fixes.
The changes marked with ❗ are the most important!
⭐ New content and features:
❗ Added the Training Grounds! Before setting off on an expedition, you can now access a series of "puzzle-like" simulations designed to teach and test specific game mechanics. Training Grounds are organised by difficulty and can be entered from the area outside the restaurant.
❗ Added the Glossary! You can access it from the context menu during Encounters by pressing ESC or clicking on an empty tile. It contains reference information about Classes, Movement Types, the Flavor Triangle, Stats and other essential mechanics. This has also allowed us to reduce the number of repetitive tooltips.
❗ Added the option to disable the Combat Phase during Encounters. When this option is enabled, units fight directly on the map without transitioning to the extended attack animations. This makes Encounters considerably faster for players who prefer a quicker gameplay experience. You can change this setting at any time.
Added Skip and Auto controls to the game's dialogues.
Added labels explaining the general role of each Skill Pack type, and added an animation for opening a pack.
🍀 Quality of Life improvements:
❗ Significantly improved the Skill Equip screen:
Unselected Adventurer portraits are now darker, making the currently selected unit much clearer.
Additional information is now displayed for the selected Adventurer, including HP, Movement Type and Class.
A floating exclamation mark now appears over the Skill Equip icon in the Overworld whenever you have new skills available to equip.
❗ Refactored the tooltips system in response to player feedback:
All nested tooltips can now be opened by pressing the Info button only once.
Skill tooltips now have opaque backgrounds and coloured borders indicating their nesting level. Redundant info has been moved to the Glossary feature we described before.
The system should now be easier to read and navigate overall. We're especially interested in hearing your feedback about these changes!
❗ Added more information to the combat preview. Damage dealt before or after combat is now displayed separately from the unit's direct attack damage, making additional damage from status effects, passive skills and similar effects easier to understand.
Remaining Movement is now displayed and updated in real time as a unit moves during the Movement Phase.
Action buttons during Encounters are now larger and spaced farther apart. The currently selected action also has a yellow border.
You can now press ESC to open the context menu during Encounters. Previously, this was only possible by clicking on an empty tile.
Added new colours for status stack counts in the combat preview.
When an Adventurer with at least 1 Hunger is targeted by a potentially lethal attack, the combat preview now displays an "X" instead of revealing whether their survival effect will trigger.
Added a Class label to the Adventurer selection screen used when preparing your party.
Improved the visibility of highlighted elements in the Merchant Node and Set Menu interfaces, alongside several general UI and UX improvements.
Improved menu navigation after confirming changes:
After confirming a selection or changing Furniture, the game now automatically returns to the previous menu.
Confirming certain Furniture Set combinations now returns you directly to the appropriate main menu.
The Infernal Codex icon in the Encounter context menu now changes according to the Devil currently being used.
Added new sound effects for Skill Packs.
⚔️ Encounter and system improvements:
❗ Improved the victory conditions for DEFEND Encounters. You can now win before the turn limit expires if every enemy has been defeated and no additional reinforcements are scheduled to appear.
Refactored enemy AI behaviour to reduce potential slowdowns and freezes. This system is still being tested, and we'll continue monitoring its performance.
Added diagonal movement of the grid cursor for controller and keyboard.
👾 Bug fixes:
❗ Fixed a rare yet critical issue that could leave the screen black after loading and prevent players from continuing their save files.
Fixed AoE skills displaying incorrect damage in the combat preview.
Fixed information pop-ups covering Terrain tags.
Fixed a gamepad navigation issue in the Encounter Options menu during early scenes in which the Infernal Codex had not yet been unlocked.
Fixed the purple enemy range preview. It now highlights every tile the enemy can act upon.
Fixed imprecise or unexpected input behaviour when selecting an option at a Rest Node, including lost focus and accidental selections.
Fixed the same skill being able to appear multiple times in the Skill Pack obtained after completing the first node of an expedition.
Fixed the Primal Furniture Set summoning more Adventurers than described.
Fixed Bonfires being able to spawn on raised areas of Encounter maps.
Fixed gamepad users being unable to select the red "X" used to remove a skill from their build in the Skill Equip menu.
Fixed right-clicking during confirmation screens allowing players to move backwards through several UI screens at once.
Fixed players being able to navigate the Overworld interface while selecting an option at a Rest Node.
Fixed gamepad navigation becoming unavailable in the Merchant Node when the player did not have enough money to purchase a skill.
Fixed music sometimes failing to play after returning to the Title Screen.
Fixed several audio and music issues in the Training Grounds.
That's all for today!
This update contains many changes based directly on the feedback we've received from demo players. Please continue sharing your thoughts and reporting any issues you encounter through Steam Discussions or our Discord server. It helps us immensely as we continue improving Food Devils!
Thank you so much for supporting the development of the game.
Take care! 🍖
-Alfred, Game Director at Studio Daimon