Hi all,
GEARSHIFTERS is set for release on Steam on the 1st of October (01:00 PDT / 09:00 GMT / 10:00 CET).
That's THREE DAYS away!
As a little bit of a "devlog", I wanted to talk a little about my design philosophy for bosses because it's a side-step away from what you'd normally see in games of this type.
The satisfaction of defeating a boss in any game is always a high point (or a moment of great relief), but the nature of roguelike/lites means levels and especially bosses need to be tackled over and over. This can get frustrating. In addition to this, a really difficult boss can put you off a game completely. (If "Jedi: Fallen Order" hadn't been a Star Wars game, I probably would've stopped playing at Malicos!)
So, in the "Standard" game mode of Gearshifters we've changed things up from the usual progression format:
- Once a boss is destroyed, then it's gone and you don't need to battle it again.
- Destroying a boss then leads to defeating the boss' faction over the next couple of runs through those stages. This effectively means that you can "capture territory" on the map and bypass levels that you've played a few times.
- It's not necessary to destroy a boss to progress past it. You can take a more defensive approach if you struggle with a boss. Just get to the end of the stage and you will move to the next zone or complete a cargo mission.
Now ultimately, you do need to defeat ALL the bosses to complete the game, but this design allows for greater flexibility for about 80% of the way through, if needed.
And, if that sounds like it's making things too easy for your tastes (trust me, it isn't), you can try "Arcade" mode for a more linear progression, or "Deadly" mode which introduces permadeath into the mix.
Cheers, and I'll catch you on launch day.
Richard (Red Phantom Games)