2500 total games of Demon have been reported to the server since I started tracking around 5 months ago. (For those keeping score, the 1000 mark was reached about 6 weeks ago.)

The overall plays/day has been relatively consistent as an average since the 1000 mark, with about 30ish plays/day being the average, though this has included some spikes of 100+/day and some lower points (usually just before releases, I’ve noticed). I suppose it is normal people would wait for a release when they know one is really close.

I hope everyone continues to have fun playing Demon. I’ve barely started this current year of full time development, and already a lot of nice stuff has gotten in: automapping, an options menu, the infamous stairs change, and plenty of UI upgrades. Plenty more goodies are on the way too.

Anyway, time to get back to work. Good luck in the tower, and thanks for playing!

This week, I’ve been working on planning out and implementing various forms of polish for Demon’s capture mechanics.

A fair bit of this effort will be centered on Negotiation initially. The first major piece of this is already done: a UI pass on the negotiation interface itself. It now:

• Shows your current progress towards success, and the amount needed with the Approval meter.
• Allows you to use the mouse to select responses.
• Gives more direct messaging about the results of your choices.

You can see these in the screenshots below.

Next up for Negotiation will be adding more ‘demand’ types to help keep negotiation encounters interesting and varied. Stay tuned for more information on this soon.

However…

There is also something else that has been in the works for about two months now that I’ve been keeping a lid on. But, I’m getting *very* close to being ready to reveal it. What is it? Well, I don’t want to say exactly what it is just yet… but I will very soon. Shortly after that, you’ll be able to see it for yourself in a build.

All sorts of UI/player friendliness goodies coming up in this one. I’ve already shown you the options screen and what it will have to offer in terms of customizing your experience, but now it’s time to talk about the rest of the features. I’ll let the screenshots do most of the talking.

The one major non-UI change in this build is a revamp of how stairs work in the tower. Freely going back levels is no longer possible: the only portals in the main Tower are either one way portals going to the next floor, or portals going to side dungeons. Side dungeon portals close after being used: once you return from a side dungeon (whether you completed it or not), you cannot return to it. Also: side dungeons (for now) have a 100% chance to spawn, since there aren’t many of them. Later when there is more side dungeon content, I will have a certain number drawn from a larger pool appear each game.

Modifiers now provide some information about themselves when mousing over them during use of a Silver or Gold Matrix. Additionally, you can right-click them in the selection list to see a full list of the possible bonus abilities they provide.

Player allies now look distinct from the player, thanks to a different shape of faction indicator being used for them:

Basic attack information is now available on the traits page of character sheets, allowing you to see what damage type each character’s basic attack deals. This can be important when dealing with enemies that are resistant or weak to specific physical damage types.

That covers most of the major updates, though of course there are also some bug fixes and tweaks. I hope to release the next build within a few days. See you again soon.

Here are options I’ve implemented as part of the upcoming build. They’re designed to let you streamline the experience in various ways, such as by limiting when the message log will require input to continue, controlling how/when Vfx play, and a couple of other odds and ends.

So, what’s coming up in the next build? Glad I asked!

Much of this one comes from feedback I’ve received from the forums, so if you’re a frequent visitor there this won’t be a very surprising list, but for those who don’t keep up with the posts there, here’s a rundown. This isn’t an exhaustive list, there are some other things I’m going to take a swing at, but here’s what will be in for sure:

* Increased control over the message log through a new options menu, including the ability to disable various pauses such as for too many messages or low HP warnings.
* A revamped stair system for the Tower to discourage stair-dancing.
* Other UI improvements such as showing tooltips for modifiers when using Matrix items, tweak the indicators for party members vs. the player himself, syncing up keybinds for the various party member lists (so that ‘b’ refers to the same monster whether or not it is a list the player is normally included in, etc.)
* Any bugs that have come up or come up.

In brief, it’s a UI/usability patch mostly, but that’s what the feedback indicates is needed. I plan to return to the original schedule after this, which would have capture mechanics upgrading next on the list.

It looks like I had accidentally left a save game file I was using for build testing in the PC version of the 9/21 build. Not a big deal, but it was probably a bit confusing to folks. I’ve removed it now. Sorry about that!