Patch 1

Welcome to Dream Warrior's first patch since launch! There are a few big things and some smaller ones. Let's dive right in.

Endless Mode

The biggest change is an Endless Mode for Dream Warrior. Have you ever had a really good run that you wanted to keep playing, even after reaching an ending? Well, now you can.
New enemy types appear in this mode. At first, they're not much different than normal enemies, but as you clear them they get progressively stronger. There are even endless bosses which drop a new set of top-tier equipment. Can you complete the set before the endless get too strong?

Control Options

Dream Warrior was designed with a mouse in mind. That's how I play games and honestly how I think about playing games, too. However, I heard from a number of people who wanted to use other methods. In this update, both keyboard and gamepad control options have been added. The support is a little basic, and setting options with gamepad controls may not be possible. However, the game itself is perfectly playable this way. If I'm honest, I do find it kind of comfortable to use a gamepad here. I must also note that Dream Warrior, as a NW.js game, is using the browser gamepad API under the hood. Insofar as your gamepad resembles the standard mapping, it should work well. However I only have access to two controllers: an ancient iBuffalo Classic pad and a weird adapter which allows a PlayStation 2 controller to plug directly into the PC. The former needs no drivers, but the latter does. The former, as it happens, works flawlessly, but no matter what I did, the latter just simply was not detected. I'd love to test a wider variety, but, well... you know that bit on the store page about being developed on a circa 2010 PC? If I could afford PC bits, I would buy a few other things before gamepads. Additionally every feature from the gamepad control scheme was also assigned a keyboard hotkey. While I was at it, I made the hotkey sequence for fast game exit a lot harder to press accidentally. That turned out to be a pain point for several players. I hear you, problem fixed.

Assorted Other

• Text fixes. Please let me know if there are more that need attention.
• It turned out that silence and poison were ticking when entering and exiting the use item menu. That should no longer happen.
• Dark Contract now requires 1 MP. Being able to use it while under the effects of silence kinda-sorta trivialized the Demon Lord fight, since it is (practically speaking) impossible for him to use physical attacks.

What's Next

There were a few other things I wanted to get in this patch. Unfortunately I lost a bit of time in the last few days and I wanted to get this patch out for the RPG Fest. I'm going to try to get another small patch out after this one. Unless things really turn around, that's probably all for this project though. Of course, if you've been following the development of this game, I have said words to that effect at least three other times before I ever brought it to Steam. I mean it this time, though. This game is by far the stupidest thing I have ever written, and I love it. However thus far it has only barely recovered the Steam Direct fee. I never expected to get rich with this game. It's just not that kind of game. I genuinely did not expect this to flirt with losing money, though, considering how little I was out of pocket. Either way, if there are some things you would like to see in Dream Warrior, let me know! I can't promise anything, but there is definitely a chance that I work a few more items into patch 2.

[ 2024-09-30 17:19:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Media Roundup

In just under 24 hours, Dream Warrior will go live. It's definitely been an interesting process! I'm very excited to bring this game to a larger audience. It's always going to be something niche, but being able to put it in front of those in that niche has been quite rewarding. If you'd like to see some preview content for Dream Warrior, a number of awesome creators have covered it! In no particular order:

Reviews

• NoTimeToGame
• Paul Werkema

Streams & First Impressions

• HawkZombie
• MidwestGameGuy
• d757gaming
• TenkoBerry
• ICouldntGetTheNameIWanted, part one and also part two
• Mammut (auf Deutsch)

Patch Zero

Based on feedback and watching some of the early streams, this morning I uploaded a patch. If you watched some of the above videos, or perhaps were yourself one of those players, there are some notable changes:

• Expanded Tutorial Content: the game now gives clues about how to use some of the abilities. This can be disabled in the options menu if you're a pro and already know.
• Reversible Transactions: you can now revert a transaction at a vendor, should you misclick
• Endings: Dream Warrior has 4 endings; now, if you get one, that fact is made more clear
• Better Robes: robe-class armor now has a little MP on it, making more attractive for those classes that can wear both robes and heavy armor.
• Defensive Clarity: when you can't damage an enemy because your weapon is far weaker than its armor, this is made more clear. Also, there's a chance to deal 1 damage anyway, which can prevent a soft lock.
• Node Map: the drunk is now shown on this map, by request
• Stun Cooldown: A lot of people had a hard time with getting stun locked. Dream Warrior does provide tools to get around that, which are more clearly communicated in the tutorial content. However, there was one specific fight where it was possible to get stun locked for a few turns regardless. Anyway, there is now a slightly longer cooldown on enemies using stun. This does however result in the endgame being a bit easier (and Reflexes being a worse skill pick).

[ 2024-08-07 17:19:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

If you've been following the Twitter account, you might have seen a series of threads introducing the seven classes in Dream Warrior. If you're like me, you might prefer that all of that info is in one place, rather than spread over a number of threads. So, here we go: an introduction to the classes of Dream Warrior and a bit about their design.

Warrior

Drinking Ale transforms you into a Warrior. This is one of the classes that is available from the start.
The Warrior is a strong fighter, boasting excellent stats, stat growth, and equipment selection. As you might imagine it is a simple class, focused on dealing and absorbing damage. This is a good class to start with, especially for those unaccustomed to classic turn-based RPG combat.
From the beginning, the Warrior can parry attacks, reducing their damage and stunning the attacker. Later, the warrior gains a stunning shield bash and an improved attack which ignores armor. However for all this power and survivability, Warriors are not without weakness. They struggle to maintain enough MP to use skills, and all the heavy armor in the world will not protect against magical damage.

Cleric

Wine, the other starting drink, transforms you into a Cleric.
The Cleric is much weaker than the Warrior, and has a more limited weapon selection. However, perhaps unsurprisingly for those familiar with this sort of game, the Cleric compensates by having access to healing powers right from the start.
Additionally, the Cleric can entreat The Almighty for assistance at any time. This frequently restores MP, and sometimes HP as well. However, when seeking divine assistance, one must be prepared for silence, sometimes.
Later, the Cleric gets access to acts of faith that damage enemies (and are especially effective against the undead), prevent enemies from using magic, and heal even better.
The Cleric is also a very survivable class. Unlike the Warrior this is not achieved via brute force, but with an enormous capacity to heal damage.

Monk

Becoming a Monk requires drinking Baijiu. This is not available from the start, but if you keep going forward, surely you will find someone willing to share a bottle.
The Monk is a physical attacker like the Warrior, but one that eschews heavy armor and weapons. Indeed, one of the most striking features, pun intended, of the Monk is the ability to perform an unarmed strike from level 1. This attack circumvents the standard formulas and deals damage that scales with the Agi stat rather than Atk. A consequence of this is that the Monk can largely, if not totally, ignore weapons.
Later, the Monk gains additional abilities: stuns, modest healing... and the dread, secret attack: Deathblow. The latter does just what it says on the tin, but affording the MP cost is another matter. It is a bit dramatic, but not quite as overpowered as it might appear at fist glance.

Goth

I admit, the Goth is a personal favorite of mine. Is it a barbarian from the Dark Ages or a member of a late 20th century subculture? Yes. Becoming a Goth requires finding a bottle of Absinthe, which should be easy enough, if you meet with tragedy.
An interesting feature of the Goth is that it forgoes wielding anything in the off hand. Instead, it carries the mightiest possible two-handed sword.
Later, the Goth is about managing HP. Some attacks damage the player and enemy alike; others scale in power with lower HP. The Goth can also self-heal, but it's quite a sad thing.
The Goth was quite fun to write. Perhaps I got a bit carried away, but possibly I didn't go far enough. If you've read this far and know where This Corrosion came from, please let me know in the comments.

Wizard

Becoming a Wizard requires truly understanding the fires of sorcery. This, in turn, requires drinking Whisky. Finding a bottle isn't easy, but if you meet with great disappointment, it's never too far away.
The Wizard is an MP-based glass cannon. Right from the start it can burn away most enemies quickly. Like the Cleric, it can also recover MP. Unlike the Cleric, this recovery requires also spending MP. Woe unto the Wizard who runs out!

Later the Wizard gains even MORE attack magic. It's kind of their thing. They do gain another trick, though: Wizards can recover MP by stealing it from an enemy. Obviously this only works against enemies that have MP to steal.

Drunk

Perhaps the most authentic class is the Drunk. Being a Drunk requires drinking Grog. If you find the rest of the drinks, you'll surely find this one, too.
As you might have noticed, the Drunk starts with quite impressive stats. That raw power is counterbalanced by poor stat growth and unpredictable abilities which, indeed, may do more harm than good until you find larger bottles.
Much later, the Drunk does get a powerful way to remove certain enemies quickly. (Aside: Oinomancy, which provides the skillset of the Drunk, is a real thing. It may or may not work differently in real life, reports are mixed.)
The Drunk is a challenging class, by design. It is powerful at the start and potentially the end, but getting through the middle part of the game requires no small amount of skill.

Straight Edge

Quite the opposite of the Drunk, the Straight Edge is naturally tied to drinking Water. Finding that is not easy, but there's a clue on the store page, if you look closely.
The Straight Edge deals in item creation, buffs, and debuffs. Right from the beginning, it can summon a selection of vegetarian food.

This is important because the Straight Edge is bound by its philosophy to avoid things like Herb. There are honestly a lot of consequences to this philosophy, but you can at least always have healing (and buffing!) items. Just make sure you've planned well in advance of your need

Later, the Straight Edge gets more skills to summon items, as well as to debuff enemies. The final skill can be used to debuff oneself in exchange for a powerful attack against the enemy.
Writing the content for the Straight Edge was right up there with the Goth in terms of enjoyment. Also, in my humble opinion, it is quite a different experience than the other classes. Thematically, it was also interesting to follow the progression of the player from Drunk to Straight Edge. Actually, because of that, I tried to send Davey Havok, a well-know vegan straight edge himself, a key for the game. I couldn't find his email and he never got back to me on Twitter. Alas.

Conclusion

Those are the classes in Dream Warrior. I hope the options will be enjoyable. Likewise, I look forward to seeing people unlock them! Most should be easy, but I admit the Straight Edge will require some doing. Dream Warrior launches in 6 days, on August 8, 2024. I hope to see you then!

[ 2024-08-02 20:24:18 CET ] [ Original post ]