I'm thrilled to announce the full release of the v1.2 update for Draft of Darkness! Prepare to navigate the perilous Sewers, confront the challenge of double boss fights, and push your limits in endless runs!
Simplified Chinese and Turkish Support, More Languages Coming
Draft of Darkness now supports additional languages beyond English. Initially, Simplified Chinese and Turkish are available, with plans to introduce Russian, Japanese, and Spanish soon. We are actively working on improving translations thanks to our community members and plan to improve localization with upcoming patches.
While not guaranteed, I'm exploring the possibility of enabling custom translations to further enhance language support.
New Area: Sewers
The Sewers introduce a new starting area, offering an alternative to the Residence. Available in Story Mode after completing Part 1 of the story, this dank labyrinth is teeming with slimy monsters and acidic hazards. It features 6 new enemies, 3 new bosses, and unique events. The Sewers' tight corridors contrast with the Residence Area, challenging players to make strategic decisions that can turn the tide in their favor.
This update introduces over 23 new events where you'll make critical choices to survive or risk being consumed by the Darkness! Nine of these events are exclusive to the Sewers, enhancing its dark atmosphere, while the remainder can occur in various areas. We've also refined the cyclic spawn mechanism, reducing the repetition of events across different areas and runs.
New Game Mode: Challenge
Challenge Mode offers a variety of unique challenges, each with its own twist on the game's mechanics. These challenges, designed to extend gameplay beyond Story Mode, can be tackled on any difficulty, allowing you to face them as you see fit.
Successful completion of Challenge Mode rewards players with Challenge Gems, which can be used in the Credits Shop. The shop now features "Epic" rarity moves for all weapons, purchasable with Challenge Gems. Unlocking these moves adds them to your arsenal during runs.
New Game Mode: Custom
Custom Mode introduces the ability to adjust runs with various modifiers, which can either increase or decrease the Credits earned. This mode gives you the chance to craft your own challenges and share them with the community.
Both Challenge and Custom modes are separate from Story Mode, with all areas accessible from the start. Story events are excluded, allowing players to focus purely on gameplay without needing to complete Story Mode.
Future Plans
This is the second planned post-release update for Draft of Darkness, expanding the game's content, and this one is the size of an expansion! With this update, I'm happy to say that the game has reached a state I've been aiming for. This project has been a massive undertaking for a solo developer, and it took years to reach its current state. Although it hasn't performed well financially—falling far short of justifying the time and money invested when looking purely at the numbers—I'm proud to have succeeded in staying dedicated and completing my first major project after failing to do so for so many others. I'd like to extend my heartfelt thanks to all of you for your support thus far and hope you're pleased with how Draft of Darkness has turned out!
Going forward, I don’t plan on releasing major updates. Big updates, as you may have noticed, require a significant amount of time. Given the current size of the game, managing such updates as a solo developer is becoming increasingly challenging, and it’s unrealistic to expect players to wait patiently for them every time. Instead, I’ll focus on releasing frequent bug fixes and balance updates in the coming weeks, along with introducing the remaining planned languages. While I do intend to further expand the content for Custom Mode and Challenge Mode, my immediate priority will be on maintenance, addressing important backlog tasks, and implementing suggestions. If you have any suggestions, bug reports, or requests, please feel free to post in the forums or join our Discord Server!
Don't miss Draft of Darkness for 30% OFF until April 8th!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1380650/Draft_of_Darkness/
Update Notes for Patch v1.2-v1.2.8 (Full Release)
Mechanics
* Custom Mode: A new game mode where modifiers can be added to create runs with custom rules. Rules can be "codes", which modify the run parameters (ex. Bigger ares, no shops, starting health...); and they can be "goals", which can be achieved during the run. Rules have credits multipliers that add to the run's credits prize.
* Challenge Mode: A new game mode with specially designed custom runs. Successfully completing challenges gives "Challenge Gems", which can be spent in the Credits Shop to unlock new content.
* Added an unlock notification screen showing when something is unlocked.
* Separated the credits shop into categories. Added a new category for unlocks.
* Changed the "run time" to be turn-based. The achievements looking at the real-time timer now considers the turn based timer instead.
* Changed how events spawn for better event rotation and preventing repeated events in custom / challenge runs.
* Fast travel now advances timers.Content
* New area added: Sewers (as first area) (can be unlocked with Challenge Gems).
* Added challenges: "Boss Rush", "Boss Duo Rush", "Dark Escape", "Extermination Team", "Long March", "No Time to Shop", "Punching Jake", "The Darkness Prowls", "Trouble in Sewers", "True Hardcore", "Valkyrie's Revenge", "You Need to See the Doctor".
* Added custom rules: "Big Areas", "Darkness Level at Area Start", "Strong Encounter Count", "Encounter Count", "Starting Energy", "Starting Health", "Goal: Victory", "Goal: Time Trial", "Loot Count", "No Terminals", "Recruit Count", "Shop Count", "Small Areas", "Vision Range".
* 23 new Decision Events are added: "Novice Robot", "Scanner Machine", "Chained Cupboard", "Bloodied Mirror", "Trickster 2", "Gumball Machine", "Slimy Bag", "Altar of Darkness", "Iron Maiden", "Electric Cable Hazard", "Automatic Teller Machine", "Pile of Rubble", "Punch Machine", "Shape Sorter", "Sewage Pipe", "Hidden Arrows", "Old Clothes Dispenser", "Locked Fence", "Tree Roots", "Purification Machine", "Darkness Filled Corridor", "Secret Stash", "Newspaper Machine".
* 6 new normal enemies are added (Sewers):
"Spitting Prowler", "Bloodthirsty Prowler", "Night Prowler", "Sewer Crawler", "Grunge", "Newborn Zombie".
* 3 new bosses are added (Sewers):
"Sewer Disease", "Sewer Walker", "Impending Nightmare".
* 1 new unarmed Rare Run move added: "Think".
* 12 new "Epic" run moves are added (can be unlocked with Challenge Gems):
"Desperado" (Pistol), "Assassin's Prowess" (Knife), "Uprising" (Syringe), "Seraph's Vision" (Flashlight), "Unbreakable Will" (Axe), "Lock and Load" (Shotgun), "Paired Entanglement" (Dark Weapon), "Sticky Situation" (Spray Gun), "Lick Wounds" (Chainsaw), "Bolt: A.I." (Crossbow), "Master Stance" (Shield).
Changes
* (Card/Shield) Shield Cake: Dmg per block 0.25x->0.2x (+1: 0.5x->0.4x)
* (Card/Pistol) Blind Fire: Energy Cost 5->4.
* (Card/Pistol) Warning Shot: Energy Cost 3->1.
* (Card/Knife) Choppy Chop: Dmg 0.75x->0.5x (+1: 1.5x->1x)
* (Card/Flashlight) Dim Light: Resource Cost 3->2; Crit. Chance Increase 30%->40%.
* (Card) Incite: Now can only target other entities.
* (Item/Consumable) Crowbar: Rarity: Epic->Rare. Max drop count: 1->2.
* (Perk) Vicious: Now always reduces Physical Defence on Bleeding trigger, instead of having a chance.
* Reduced "This is an Emergency" achievement time requirement to 15 minutes. Reduced "Parkour Runner" time requirement to 15 minutes. This is because run time is now calculated as turn based time.Utility
* Added localization support.
* Added initial language choices (translations pending): English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Brazilian Portugese.
* Simplified Chinese language support progress. (Credits: Qaym)
* Turkish language support progress.
* Added support for importing translations through Google Spreadsheets.
* Default fonts are changed to fonts that are more suitable for localization. Alternative fonts are added for Chinese, Japanese and Cyrillic characters.
* 2 new music tracks are added: "Sewers Encounter", "Sewers Boss".
* Added visual effects for Stealth condition.
* Changed encounter condition inflict & decay animations to show icons instead of names.Fixes
* Weird Painting choice gives Dash move instead of Energetic Slash, which is an equipment move.
* Fixed companions having different sufferings if recruited later.
* Fixed crashes occurring with Toxic Worm enemy in certain cases (Burrowed status).
* Fixed "Sunburn" dealing damage based on condition count instead of layer count.
* Fixed some of the card attribute bonuses showing up as ??? in modifier breakdown.
* Fixed Perpetual perk affecting Fleeing.
* Fixed "Crippling Shot" not applying Crippled.
* Fixed Cian's "Light" move dealing Dark Damage.
* Fixed a bug with weapon drops when no character can use weapons.
* Sapphire Cube and Sapphire Fragment now triggers with Restoration heal.
* Fixed Mona repeating her lines in encounter, if her move cooldowns are reset.
* Various fixes.