Hello again! Time for another update on what we’ve been working on lately, and this one’s a fun one!

Multiplayer is now fully integrated in New Game+! We’ve tested all the critical points we could think of: cutscenes, transitions, pins, enemy replacements, and so on, and everything should work as intended. Of course, as always, we’re counting on you to help sniff out any bugs we might have missed once this goes live.

Custom Game mode is also implemented, and yes, it works in multiplayer too!

What in the world is custom game, you might ask, as we haven’t mentioned that before?! Well, essentially it’s a mode in which you can pick and choose between a number of settings, creating your own version of the game, in a way.

Here’s a list of the Custom Game settings currently available:

Gameplay Settings

  • Pins: Toggle whether pins drop from bosses.

  • Enemy Pins: Enable random pins on enemies.

  • Enemy Pin Totems: Whether the game spawns totems that apply pins to nearby foes.

  • Randomized Monsters: Shuffle which enemies appear in what areas.

  • Randomized Treasures: Mix up the loot in chests.

  • More Than One Card: Enemies can drop multiple cards, stacking the effects of each card.

  • Hyper Elites: Tougher elite enemies may appear.

  • Hyper Farm: Enemies become stronger and drop more loot the longer you grind.

  • Alternative Awakening Crystal: Replaces the card collection objective with… a very different kind of challenge (spoilers: Grindea fight).

Difficulty & Progression

  • Maximum Player Level: Set your own level cap.

  • Increase Health With Levels: Adjust HP scaling.

  • Experience Multiplier: Change how fast you level up.

  • Enemy Damage Multiplier: Make enemies hit harder (or softer).

  • Card Drop Rate Multiplier: Tweak how often cards drop.

  • Healing Strength Multiplier: Adjust how effective healing is.

Chaos Settings (a.k.a. “Candy Curse” Inspired)

  • Enemies Drop Hazards on Death: Just like the Candy Curse!

  • All Enemies Elites: Every enemy becomes an elite version.

  • Darkness Descends: Evil Eye-like blue eyes spawn constantly; break them or go blind.

  • One Slice Mode: A perfect guard followed by an attack deals massive damage (think 9999+ territory).

Whether to keep all these options is up for debate, but currenly, we’re leaning toward letting players go wild as much as they want.

Meanwhile, we’ve also implemented the first draft of the New Game+ unlock!

When you return to the main menu after finishing the game, you’ll see a popup letting you know it’s unlocked. Here’s a short video of that process in action (with placeholder graphics), and a screenshot with the finished version of the popup graphics for good measure:

Lastly, a quick update on the Production Book:

After going through the test print a few times, we’re honestly not completely happy with the quality. As you can see in the image above, the printing process at KDP adds a white border between the pages even though the size setting and bleed is correct. This sort of ruins the double page-spreads and generally looks off and low-quality. Because of that, we’re now leaning toward doing a limited edition print instead of offering it via print-on-demand. We’ll keep you updated once we’ve looked into more options!

For now, thanks for sticking with us as we inch closer to the big NewGame+ update!

Until next time~