Devlog #5 – Introducing the New Demo: Expanded Content & Major Upgrades

Hey Survivors!

We’re thrilled to share that this devlog is centered around the upcoming Tri Survive demo, releasing on May 16th, and what you can expect when you dive into it. A lot has changed since the last build we shared during the Alpha playtest we did back in January, and we can’t wait to hear what you think!
You can download the demo here.

Before getting started, we remind you that this demo will be open to anyone. This means that anyone interested can navigate to the Tri Survive Demo page, download the demo, and start playing it instantly (on May 16th).

What's in the Demo?

Players will start with the base 3 heroes:

- Alric, Commander of the Vanguard (tank),
- Elaria, Light Keeper of the Crown (healer),
- Ignis, Archmage of the Eternal Flame (DPS),

Each has distinct abilities tied to their roles and synergizes in combat.

And you can get familiar with the gameplay with the starting characters through the first 2 levels:

- Castle Courtyard.
- Rocky Desert.

The Castle Courtyard is where the story begins and is considered the tutorial level. Reading some quick dialogue between the characters before you begin the fight sets up the story and the background for the game, as well as some dialogue with the first boss you encounter. And upon completing that level, you will unlock the Rocky Desert, where you continue your journey in battling the demonic invasion that has plagued the lands and unraveling the mystery of why and where those demons are coming from.

Completing the 2nd level will unlock your first new hero, “Granite, Heart of the Earth” (tank). This big, beefy boy packs quite a punch! So it will be fun to experience a new character with his own set of attacks and abilities, and you can choose to replay the first 2 levels again with the new dynamic that he brings to the team.

You can also experience the Tri Ultimate Ability: a powerful attack that is performed by all 3 heroes at once and you can manually trigger it (by pressing F) once it is charged-up during combat and offers devastating power that can get you out of a tough situation, help you finish off the boss or mow down that army of demos that piled up and been chasing you for the past 3 minutes.

Lastly, you will also try out the Power Up Shop, the meta progression system in the game, and where the “rogue-lite” aspect comes in. Here you can purchase upgrades that affect your party's health, damage, speed, and ability cooldowns. In the future, the power-up shop will expand to include upgrades to the individual tank, healer, and DPS roles themselves, regardless of which combination of these heroes you choose in your party.

Improvements Since the Last Playtest

We’ve been hard at work polishing the experience based on your feedback. Here’s what’s new:

• All in-game art has been updated, including character designs, animations, and interface elements.
• Enemy wave balancing has been significantly refined to improve difficulty curves and flow.
• Hero Abilities balancing and tweaking, your squad will feel more powerful and intentional with their abilities.
• UI/UX and VFX improvements for a smoother experience, and a bit better readability, some of the heroes got improvements to their attack visuals as well.
• A Classic Experience-Based leveling system, where previously you would level up immediately upon picking up “Ability Orbs”, we replaced those with “Experience Obs”, which you collect from slain enemies to fill up your experience bar and then choose an ability upgrade each time you level up.
• Audio and Music! We added some cool new sound effects to the heroes' abilities as well as some of the enemies and bosses, where previously it was all lame placeholder sounds. And added a new background music track that is still a work in progress.
• Improved Interactive Tutorial, previously we had a bunch of text that you had to read at the start of the level that explained the controls and gameplay, and now it is more integrated within the gameplay, as you get messages periodically that explain the controls.

Your Feedback

As you explore the demo, we’d love your input on what you have experienced and the elements that you found good to play around with, and others that did not convince you fully. Specifically, we want to know more about these main features:
Tri-control mechanic

• Story pacing
• Abilities & upgrades
• UI clarity
• Bugs & performance

Join our Discord Server to chat with the rest of the community and follow us on our socials to be the first to know about the latest news for Tri Survive!