Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

[bigosaur]

I noticed a bit of glitching in the latest version, when playing the daily challenge - not a consistent slowdown, just the game freezing for a quarter-second or so, once or twice a minute, long enough to be noticeable.

I don't think it's anything related to the latest changes (which have nothing to do with the game performance or such). I have seen the same problem with some people streaming the game on Twitch in earlier versions as well. And I have also seen the problem on one of my computers (the desktop one with nVidia card) a couple of times. I believe it's a graphics driver issue, because I have seen it with a couple other games as well on that computer (for example Dark Souls 3). It doesn't happen often, maybe once per month. On my other computer that has Intel Iris Pro, it never happened.

[bigosaur]

Did the problem happen to you again since the last time? If it does, please let me know.

[bigosaur]

I'm happy to announce that Son of a Witch launches on Nintendo Switch on September 4th (in American eShop). I will probably do a EU release soon, I just need to have all the translations completed.



The Switch version is the same as the current Steam version except for some Steam-related features like leaderboards (there's no daily challenge) and it's local co-op only. I plan to add these features as well in the long run. It's my first time releasing a game on a console, so I'm still learning how everything works.

Achievements are in (Switch is the main reason why I added that achievement screen in the main menu).

[Jubal]

I got some gltching again in today's Daily Challenge.

Though on the plus side, I think I may have broken my record for highest damage per hit: 5750 points in a single hit, using an upgraded Ringleader's Hammer with over 1000% boost from money is power

[bigosaur]

I got some gltching again in today's Daily Challenge.

I guess I could try to add some additional checks to try to prevent this in the next version.

How does it glitch? Does it looks like your whole computer freezes? Can you Alt+Tab back into Desktop when this happens?

[Jubal]

The glitches I've had have been too quick to work out if it's the whole computer or to tab out - it just looks like the game picture freezing entirely, only for a part of a second, but long enough for it to be jarring especially in a fast-paced battle and to throw off my timing when I'm fighting. It doesn't seem that consistent either - I didn't notice it at all today.

EDIT: just started today's daily challenge and this one's really glitchy

[bigosaur]

EDIT: just started today's daily challenge and this one's really glitchy

I don't know. I haven't changed anything in that area for months, and there are no other players reporting similar issues. Could it be that you have something running in the background (like anti-virus or firewall program) that causes sudden spikes of CPU usage or something like that?

Also, try disabling recording of games if you have it enabled. Recording is resource intensive, so maybe that's the problem.

[bigosaur]

I'm preparing and testing some new stuff:

- Rogue is practically ready, the "quest" to unlock him is rather simple (just blow out some rocks in the dungeon) because I want beginner players to have access quickly. I tried a couple of runs, and it's great because you can mix and match melee and archery better than any other hero
- A new themed area on the battlements where a redhead warrior challenges you to a duel and drops some useful items (sometimes drops the sword)
- Bushido NPC (mercenary) now sits in the tavern and gives you an item that allows you to summon bushidos for 120 gold. The summoned unit doesn't leave the room and is allied to the player. Only works in non-boss rooms.
- A bunch of new potion effects: vampirism gives HP for kills, confidence gives damage bonus when full HP, pickpocket gives gold after each battle but wears off if you get hit

Other stuff planned in this batch:

- A room in the castle with enemy portraits. You can pick one of them to be your "sworn enemy" and you would do double damage to such units until the end of the game
- Vampire Slayer NPC quest (from Jubal ideas thread)
- Dwarf NPC with multiple roles and appearances: 1. shopkeeper on the ice level, 2. special ice shop where he sells runestones for 500gold each, 3. a special room in the forest (or on the battlements) where he acts as a blacksmith and turns weapons into runestones
- Sticky bombs: bombs that glue to the enemy

I'm still not sure how the sticky bombs should work. One idea is to just add sticky-ness to regular bombs, but regular bombs are rarely used to kill enemies anyway. Another idea is to have a special type of bomb that only hurts enemies and you can drop them and then get the enemies to walk into them and get glued to them until they explode. Or maybe, have a pet that randomly drops such bombs on the screen and you have to lure the enemies into them.

[Jubal]

Is Vampirism a status effect, and does it stack? I feel like it sounds like it should have a drawback - vampirism usually isn't a positive thing so it would feel strange if it were just a benefit you really wanted to get. Maybe it slowly loses you health (speed similar to hunger) if you have the effect active on any of the outdoor levels (1, 2, 6, 7) without a darkness scroll/staff activated. I like the sound of confidence - again, stacking? Pickpocket sounds really fun.

Regarding the sticky bombs... I wonder if having a pet that dropped what are basically mines would work, where they go off as soon as an enemy walks onto them? (Or even an enemy or friend, if you wanted to make them a bit more dangerous!)

120 gold really feels a lot for something that only affects one room, gives no permanent bonus, and can't be used on bosses, but that may just be me?

[bigosaur]

Is Vampirism a status effect, and does it stack?

It does. But the effect is rather weak, so I don't feel like it can become OP unless you get a Retort or something like that and drink 10+ such potions.

I have also changed the Vampire Sword to give you HP on every hit instead of kill. It makes it much more enjoyable to use, especially in co-op where you don't have to yell at your ally for dealing the final blows to enemies

Maybe it slowly loses you health (speed similar to hunger) if you have the effect active on any of the outdoor levels (1, 2, 6, 7) without a darkness scroll/staff activated.

That would be reasonable and very cool, but somehow I find such complicated mechanics hard to explain to players, esp. since I like to keep the text for potion effects as short as possible. It would also be good to prevent players getting HP from bloodless enemies (skeletons, slimes, etc.). If only the game were full RPG, I would have added all the complex mechanics on top as well.

I like the sound of confidence - again, stacking?

Yes, +20% to all skills per potion. But only active while you're full HP.

It makes a nice decision dilemma when you're almost at full health and don't want to spend a healing potion to heal, say 3HP, but doing so would give you a +60% damage boost for example.

Regarding the sticky bombs... I wonder if having a pet that dropped what are basically mines would work, where they go off as soon as an enemy walks onto them? (Or even an enemy or friend, if you wanted to make them a bit more dangerous!)

I feel like it might be hard to track if they went off immediately. Maybe a combination would be a good idea: a pet places them on the ground and they are inactive until an enemy walks into the bomb. Then it glues to the enemy and starts ticking and explodes a couple of seconds later.

I guess I'll have to add it to the game and test to see what feels the best.

120 gold really feels a lot for something that only affects one room, gives no permanent bonus, and can't be used on bosses, but that may just be me?

Initial idea was to be able to use it on a boss as well. But then I tried to play a couple of games with it and the attack speed of the Bushido stun-locks all the small boss types (violent knights, trickster, dragon master, etc.) to the point the boss fights become trivial (esp. if you summon two of them in the same room).

The main use is if you get into late game (ice, desert) with low damage output, but have a lot of gold (it's usually in the 1500-3000 range for me) that you cannot spend otherwise anyway. So, summoning those to get through some tough rooms can be a life saver.

Maybe I should lower the price. It needs testing, of course.

[Jubal]

If you put some of the things on a testing branch thingy on Steam I'm happy to give them a couple of runs for you

[bigosaur]

If you put some of the things on a testing branch thingy on Steam I'm happy to give them a couple of runs for you

I will, but not yet. The new things are few and far in between, so it may take more than a couple of runs to see it all. I want to add all the new stuff first, and then I will put it all in the beta branch for testing for a longer time (say, a month before officially releasing).

[Jubal]

Fair enough - looking forward to it, anyhow.

Regarding general game balance, could the portable foundry become a rarer item? I just increasingly find it makes the game less fun, because so often it becomes the right move to focus on a portable foundry + money is power combo to the exclusion of anything else tactical (and once you're buffed properly with that, it doesn't even matter what your starting character class was because your stats are all 400 or 500 so the 50% difference between your melee and magic isn't so relevant any more). I think it's just a bit too dominant a strategy at the moment - I'd rather the foundry became something quite rare, like only a reward for certain special rooms so you wouldn't get it most games.

[bigosaur]

Regarding general game balance, could the portable foundry become a rarer item?

Sure.

Also, I am adding more items, so the drop rate will be lower anyway. And I'm also adding 3 new potions, so "Money Is Power" won't show up so often.

[bigosaur]

Your stats are all 400 or 500 so the 50% difference between your melee and magic isn't so relevant any more)

Maybe I should change the way it works?

Instead of adding up percentages, it could apply the percentage to the skill level. Example:

100 magic, 30 melee, 70 archery + 500% money is power would give +500% magic, +150% melee and +350% archery, so the skills would become: 600/180/420.

I could do the same for Darkness and Confidence as well.