For immediate release, Mantis-Eye Labs, LLC is pleased to announce:
After dozens of sales and a little time away I'm happy to announce the future of Realm of the Ghost King! In the near future an update with new content, bug fixes and other fun stuff will be released totally free of charge to current owners of the game!

So what content is in ROTGK 1.1.0, you ask? Well, here's how game development works: you think of all the cool shit you want to put in a game and then you completely cut like 80% of those things because otherwise you'd never release anything. 1.1.0 is my chance to add back in some of those things!

But Why?

Because I can! The game didn't exactly sell like hotcakes, which is fine, but the last year or so of development was quite a slog. It made me kind of dislike the game, and I don't want to end on that note. So I'm adding in a few features that I cut, some other good ideas I had, and tossing in a couple things I knew would be really fun to build. It's an update for me, the developer, as much as you, the player. So what's in it? Glad you asked!

Graphical Updates!

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen this tweet with a mockup of some new "lighting". I always felt the levels were a little sparse around the edges, but it wasn't a high priority to fix them. The new look isn't quite as dramatic as that mockup, but I like the final result:

Playable Ghost King

Having the Ghost King be a playable character was something that seemed fairly obvious, but it ended up as part of that 80% I mentioned earlier. A lot of the 80% of stuff cut is for the better, but some of it is just a bummer. Unlocking the Ghost King awesome and I'm glad he's finally playable! Here's his character select screen:
I'll have more stuff on him in the near future. Keep an eye on Twitter where I'll probably post some videos or GIFs about this.

New Monsters

In the above image you might also notice there are twelve characters to pick from now instead of ten (nine plus the Ghost King). This is one of the fun things! Designing new monsters is a lot of fun! I'm so excited that I even made a graphic!
Both of these are still in the pretty early stages of development, and it's possible I won't even be able to pull off Phantom's special ability in the way I want to (which is why I'm being vague with "possess your foes") but maybe announcing it will motivate me. Like I said before, I'll put stuff up on Twitter when I have something I'm happy with and worth sharing.

What Else?

A couple less fun things that are still hopefully good! This is a small change but I like it. The Daily Challenge starts and ends at midnight UTC every day, which is more or less an obvious time to do it, but it's never actually communicated anywhere. Now there's a little countdown letting you know when the current challenge ends (or when the next one starts, if you prefer). I'd like to balance the last (non-boss) level of the game a little bit better. It's always seemed too hard to me. It should obviously be hard but something makes it feel a little too difficult in an unfair way. I'd also like to add controller support. I'm not sure if anyone actually wants this, but it seems cool to have and I don't think it will be too tough to do... might be famous last words though. More achievements for the Steam version! People like achievements, right? I thought I would hate them but I had fun implementing them and I'll try to think of a few more that are actually achievable.

Okay So, When?

No date is set yet! I'm hopeful for late April or early May, but I'm not going to promise a date just yet! So, for now...

There will be plenty more #content and #announcements to come regarding this version. I'm excited to build some (hopefully) cool junk for this game!

[ 2018-04-10 03:04:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

For immediate release, Mantis-Eye Labs, LLC is pleased to announce:
After dozens of sales and a little time away I'm happy to announce the future of Realm of the Ghost King! In the near future an update with new content, bug fixes and other fun stuff will be released totally free of charge to current owners of the game!

So what content is in ROTGK 1.1.0, you ask? Well, here's how game development works: you think of all the cool shit you want to put in a game and then you completely cut like 80% of those things because otherwise you'd never release anything. 1.1.0 is my chance to add back in some of those things!

But Why?

Because I can! The game didn't exactly sell like hotcakes, which is fine, but the last year or so of development was quite a slog. It made me kind of dislike the game, and I don't want to end on that note. So I'm adding in a few features that I cut, some other good ideas I had, and tossing in a couple things I knew would be really fun to build. It's an update for me, the developer, as much as you, the player. So what's in it? Glad you asked!

Graphical Updates!

If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen this tweet with a mockup of some new "lighting". I always felt the levels were a little sparse around the edges, but it wasn't a high priority to fix them. The new look isn't quite as dramatic as that mockup, but I like the final result:

Playable Ghost King

Having the Ghost King be a playable character was something that seemed fairly obvious, but it ended up as part of that 80% I mentioned earlier. A lot of the 80% of stuff cut is for the better, but some of it is just a bummer. Unlocking the Ghost King awesome and I'm glad he's finally playable! Here's his character select screen:
I'll have more stuff on him in the near future. Keep an eye on Twitter where I'll probably post some videos or GIFs about this.

New Monsters

In the above image you might also notice there are twelve characters to pick from now instead of ten (nine plus the Ghost King). This is one of the fun things! Designing new monsters is a lot of fun! I'm so excited that I even made a graphic!
Both of these are still in the pretty early stages of development, and it's possible I won't even be able to pull off Phantom's special ability in the way I want to (which is why I'm being vague with "possess your foes") but maybe announcing it will motivate me. Like I said before, I'll put stuff up on Twitter when I have something I'm happy with and worth sharing.

What Else?

A couple less fun things that are still hopefully good! This is a small change but I like it. The Daily Challenge starts and ends at midnight UTC every day, which is more or less an obvious time to do it, but it's never actually communicated anywhere. Now there's a little countdown letting you know when the current challenge ends (or when the next one starts, if you prefer). I'd like to balance the last (non-boss) level of the game a little bit better. It's always seemed too hard to me. It should obviously be hard but something makes it feel a little too difficult in an unfair way. I'd also like to add controller support. I'm not sure if anyone actually wants this, but it seems cool to have and I don't think it will be too tough to do... might be famous last words though. More achievements for the Steam version! People like achievements, right? I thought I would hate them but I had fun implementing them and I'll try to think of a few more that are actually achievable.

Okay So, When?

No date is set yet! I'm hopeful for late April or early May, but I'm not going to promise a date just yet! So, for now...

There will be plenty more #content and #announcements to come regarding this version. I'm excited to build some (hopefully) cool junk for this game!

[ 2018-04-10 03:04:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Realm of the Ghost King is a quick-play roguelike where you must battle your way through eight randomly generated dungeons to defeat the Ghost King and become the new king of the realm.



Select from nine unlockable characters, each with their own unique abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. You must manage your resources, strengthen your character and rely on your choices to get through each level. ​ Use bombs to defeat enemies and get to hidden power-ups. Just don't make the wrong choices because death is permanent.

• It's a quick-play Roguelike! All the turn-based, randomly generated, perma-death, and monster battling that you love but designed to allow for quicker play sessions.
  
• Randomly generated dungeons ensure no two playthroughs are ever the same.
  
• The Daily Challenge, which lets you compare your run to other players. Everyone plays the same set of levels and you have 24 hours to play, but you only get one shot. See how you stack up on the leaderboards.
  
• Hopefully awesome pixel art if you're into that sort of thing.
  
• Secrets! Lots of items and places to discover and unlock.