06-12-2021 It’s been a while since the last update. Last time the game was pretty much in disarray, which has since been fixed. Therefore another demo video was created which can be found at the end of this article.

Hiring new characters
With the upgrade function in place it was time to make it possible for the player to hire extra characters during the game. All this time the knight has been battling enemies on his own and the other characters were getting kind of antsy. So in the current version of the game a new character can be hired after every battle. For now, a ‘Hire’ button was added to the interface which allows the player to get an extra fighter in between rounds. The party has a maximum number of five slots and right now the type of character that is hired is determined randomly.

In the future, hiring characters will be a bit more interesting and less frequent. An example would be: after a boss fight (every 5 levels) the party will have a special encounter; 1-3 characters present themselves and the player is allowed to pick one (or none!).
Characters can also be dismissed from the party, so the player should have a lot of control what types of characters the party consists of.

Upgrading characters
Although it was possible to upgrade the knight character, as shown in the previous development update, this functionality had to be expanded to also pertain other party members. There still is only one type of upgrade, a flat 200 bonus to health, but in future updates there will be more variety and more importantly… balance.

Saving party member stats
A logical next step after implementing previous functionality was to expand the save file to contain the entire party. The game is now saved after the player presses the ‘Done’ button. This button is only active during the upgrade phase of the game. This may still be changed as it does allow for some “save scumming”, because the player can theoretically quit the game when a battle is turning sour and retry it endlessly. On the other hand, if the game is saved after upgrades are done, a player can just try different upgrades which may greatly influence the following battle.

Development changes
Disclaimer: everything stated below is susceptible to changes in the future.

• Hire new character
  • New party members can be hired after each battle up to a maximum of 5 characters
• Party upgrades
  • Upgrade functionality in between battles has been expanded to the entire party
• Save feature
  • Stats are now saved for all characters after each upgrade phase

Current state of the game demo
The video below shows the game in its current state. Please be aware that some character stats have been boosted. This video purely for demonstrating the character upgrade cycle in between battles and the option to hire extra party members.

Future changes
NB: from now on, only short term changes will be mentioned here. For long term changes a seperate road map will be created.

• Functionality to change party order / formation
• Different types of stat and skill upgrades
• New type of enemy: Familiar