Burn it all down

New devlog, lets go!

New monster: phoenix

Phoenix is a strict lady of age. She'll be picky, so if you're not sure about what you want to say, better keep your mouth shut.

But rest assured, you can find the right approach to her too. Just first make sure you're ready to deal with the consequences of your actions: because if you think it's enough to only handle the Phoenix once, you're wrong... she's just warming up!

Some hot takes about phoenixes:

• they love spell scrolls - whether they read them or just burn them, they will definitely be impressed by such a gift;
• older phoenixes don't just go away - they burn, but only to rise from the ashes (in a much rejuvenated and sexier form);
• young phoenixes are very passionate, hot-headed even, fiery - dare I say, and like to throw fireballs, but before each salvo they need a little "recharge".

This is fine

If you, like Icarus, have soared to the heavens, be careful, for while you are wandering in the clouds, not only the sun will try to burn you!

Map update: the skies

So, we've improved this map a bit before by shifting the shadows, but that created a new problem: now in places where there are no shadows, the top layer practically blends in with the bottom layer - the border between them is quite thin, and it's hard for the player to understand which area they can move around in. To fix this, I added a little darkening to the cloud layers that are at the bottom (the lower the clouds are, the darker they become). The result is like this:

I hope it's more "readable" now!

New setting: fullscreen

Aha, you see, the addition of the settings screen was justified - there are now two settings in total! Nothing extraordinary, you just click on the checkbox and switch between windowed and full-screen modes. But there are a couple of nuances.

For the web version

Web applications are not allowed to automatically launch in full screen mode, so this setting will be reset at the beginning of each session. But it's very easy to turn it back on: standard browser keybindings work (i.e. you can use F11 to toggle full-screen mode and ESC to exit it).

For the desktop version

Here everything is exactly the opposite: your choice will be remembered (i.e. if you left the game in the window, the next time you play it will still be in the window), but there are no hotkeys (you have to go to the menu to switch). 

Sidenote: the introduction of windowed mode has created a new problem - the ability to close a window without saving. So now, if you try to close the game with a red X, the app will ask you if you are sure of your actions. If you answer yes, the game will close, and if you answer no, it will continue. The feature works in both web and desktop versions.

Game tips

I am aware that some of the game mechanics are not obvious. On the one hand - that's by design. Here are a couple of iconic features of NetHack, which I consider a major source of inspiration:

• "net" in the name, meaning, among other things, that in order to successfully play the game you need to communicate with like-minded people, which usually happens over the internet;
• source (code) diving - usually the one who knows C well or has such acquaintances wins.

I'm not going (at least not yet) to reveal the source code of my game, but the point here is different: the game should be complex. The mechanics should be non-obvious, and players should use all the meta tools available to them to comprehend it.

So I thought when creating my game, but I didn't take into account some peculiarities, mainly - it's a porn game dammit, players shouldn't suffer so much! So, I'm introducing tips into the game. As it's done in a lot of other projects, hints will be shown on the loading screen when the game starts. The hints will be chosen at random, but at the same time:

• if you are defeated by a certain kind of monster, the next hint you see will be related to that particular kind (so that you have a better chance of dealing with them next time);
• hints will not be repeated until you have seen them all (hey BG3, I've already got that Shar and Selune fight a divine war of darkness versus light, no need to repeat that).

Hope that makes things a little easier for you now!

Life circumstances

You may have noticed that this devlog is coming out a day early - that's because tomorrow is going to be a very busy day for me, as I'm moving to another city! It's not a very quick process and involves multiple challenges, so I expect I won't have a chance to work on this project for the next couple of weeks. Sorry! I'll be back as soon as I can.