Hello!
The Frontier Paladin demo was available for the first time during the Tower Defense Fest. While we've done a bunch of internal and external testing in the past, nothing beats getting it in the hands of the public.
As we had hoped, we learned a lot and took the demo down to work on the feedback we received. In no particular order, here are some of the biggest changes we made:
Optimization - The first level specifically was not well optimized. We're now getting almost double the frame rates from before!
Tutorials - There's a lot of depth and nuance to Frontier Paladin's mechanics. While you don't need to know it all right away, the feedback we got was we were giving too much information at once and simultaneously not enough. We've now spread out the tutorials, as well as made them more seamless in how they're presented to the player.
Settings - Much requested, this allows the player to do a myriad of things like changing graphical options, audio, etc. Rebinding keys will have to wait however, we'll need some more time for that.
Entirely New Quest - We've changed the quest flow, hopefully making it more interesting while also making it less likely the player gets lost along the way.
Journal - We've added in the Journal component to the pause menu, allowing the player to get a better sense of what they need to do, as well as what Titus thinks about what's happening to him, as well as the rewards on offer for the current quest.
Cutscenes - Added in several new cutscenes to immerse the player in the game.
Music - Added in two tracks, one for the main menu / castle, and the other for the boss fight. Audio in general has been worked on relentlessly and improved.
Character Illustrations - All new illustrations for each character you'll interact with. All the named NPCs have their own unique illustration while some generic characters share one.
Enemy Brawls - In the swamp level, the two enemy factions at war with each other will now engage in skirmishes and fight against each other more effectively and often.
Tower Defense - Improvements in tutorialization and controls of these segments. We've also added in a TD segment in the Swamp map to further show the potential of this mechanic.
Better Notifications - The player now gets better, more easier to notice notifications when completing objectives and quests, as well as SFX.
Warhammer - Rebalanced the Warhammer to place it close to the effectiveness of the sword weaponsets.
Main Menu - There's a whole new main menu! We think it looks cool.
XP Bar - A small bar under the mana bar that lets you know how far along you are to levelling up.
Much Better Dialogue UI - Significantly better looking and thematically appropriate Dialogue UI!
These are just some of the additions and improvements. There's a bunch of bug fixes as well which we won't mention here. Suffice to say we think the game has never been better and we're excited for new and old players alike to check it out and give us their feedback!
The demo will be available by the 18th of September.
Thanks,
Ignatius