- v1.1.1: Minor Updates - 8 May 2021
v1.1.1 Updates Dungeon areas received additional props and decorations. Internal editor updates. Minor UI color adjustments. Fix bug with some room modules not connecting.
- v1.0.9: Hotfixes - 30 January 2021
v1.0.9 Fixes Fix bug with skeleton boss ending encounter early during crystal phase. Exploding mushrooms deactivated when underground boss is completed. Fix mushroom targeting collision layer. (Ignore raycast.) Fix error when loading save game that has no tutorial completion information. Fix some sounds that were not managed by the sound manager.
- v1.0.8: Spell Perks - 29 January 2021
v1.0.8 Features Perks: Upgrade your skills with minor and major perks. Major perks significantly improve the behavior of each spell. New Trap: Exploding mushrooms? They're purple, they glow, and they explode! Major Perks The following is a quick rundown of the major perks for each skill. There are also two minor perks which slightly improve the core skill. Fireball: Explodes on impact for additional area damage. Self Heal: Instantly heals for 100% health. Blast Wave: Casts a second ring of fire outside of the first after the first expires. Short Teleport: Teleporting deals damage around the hero at the start and end locations. Electric Fire: Splits into three separate blasts. Heat Shield: Deals damage to nearby enemies while active. Molten Core: Can hit a second enemy, both impacts with area damage. Fire Wall: Casts a second wall perpendicular to the first. Improvements Simple tutorial…
- v1.0.7: Randomized Crypts - 19 January 2021
v1.0.7 Features New Dungeons: Two new dungeon areas. Cemetery Crypt and Arachnid Tunnels. These areas are procedurally generated, so the layout and number of creatures will change with every visit. New Creature: Venom spitting spider. New Spell: Fire Wall unlocks at level 8, dealing intense damage over time to creatures standing in its wake. Melt your foes! Heavily rework checkpoint system. Game session is now preserved. Teleporting to scene two, then teleporting back to scene one will no longer cause all creatures to respawn. Exiting to the menu, or exiting the game will still cause creatures to show up again once loading or continuing the game. Game session is even more relevant as entering the crypt, then leaving the crypt will not suddenly respawn all of the creatures guarding the crypt entrance. Improvements Minimap improvements. Two textures help show the areas off the main path w…
- Dungeons Underway - 16 January 2021
As a first step towards some randomized play areas, the crypt area in the cemetery will see our first procedural dungeon show up in the next release. Lots of work has gone into integrating a wonderful third party asset, Dungeon Architect. It is now deeply tied into the core code base. The hope is that it will also come into play with some of the open world areas as well, but that's still in the concept phase. A secondary effort that was required to support these dungeons is a completely reworked checkpoint system. From the user point of view, things will be fairly similar. Checkpoints will still be unlocked, and teleported between. What's new is session persistence. If you have cleared an area, teleport away, then teleport back, those creatures will still be cleared. This was important so that when you go into the crypt/dungeon, then return to the main map -- all of the creatures won't…
- v1.0.5: Ratkin Nuisance - 7 January 2021
v1.0.5 2021-01-06 New spell, heat shield. Protects the caster from incoming damage. Added a silhouette to creatures. Seeing skeletons behind rock walls is now easier. Adjust camera dolly to position player 5% higher in frame. Helps balance view range above and below. Clicking spells in the spell book or skill bar now casts the spell if a target is not required. Spell book window now shows the cooldown for spells. Adjusted sizing to show more spells. Ratkin Valley New area has been released! Forge through the ratkin valley, eliminating the gloom crazed warriors. Includes new boss fight with the Ratkin Necromancer. Kill the two ratkin lieutenants and then liberate the main fortified camp. Ratkin horde introduced: Slave, Warrior, Rogue, Mercenary, Necromancer (+Marauder from caverns map.) Spells Molten rock cooldown increased from 4s to 6s. Electric fire damage increased from 14-22 damage…
- Update: v1.0.3 - 1 January 2021
v1.0.3 2020-12-31 Massive FPS fix for the Orc boss fight. (Read about it over in the dev log.) Level experience requirements increased. From: 0, 440, 910, 1410, 1940, 2500, 3090, 3710, 4360, 5040 experience. To: 0, 695, 1610, 2865, 4580, 6875, 9870, 13685, 18440, 24255 experience. Add guidance tip to unlock second checkpoint stone. Fix bug where some creatures would not call their neighbors for help. Scene 3 New elite spider creature. Increased size of scene. Introduce torch mechanic during level to demonstrate before boss encounter. Improve arena torch particle state switching. Smoother transition. Minor Increase standard spider attack speed. Further adjustments to notification vertical positioning to fit level notices and checkpoint info cleanly. Fix some inconsistent shadows on main entrance gates. Spell Book (from v1.0.2) The previous update was a "minor" update, so the header image…
- Dev Log: Frame Rate Frustration - 31 December 2020
TL; DR. Success! Much improved frame rates in the Manamancer Boss fight with v1.0.3 release. FPS Woes As I was recently expanding the playable area in the Mountain Pass scene, as usual I was doing some play testing. When testing the boss fight again, the lag was sticking out as a major issue. I had been putting this off for a while, but it finally bubbled to the top of an enjoyable play experience for me. So, I dove into it. I started reviewing the profiler, turning various features in the fight area things on and off. The profiler shot below shows there was clearly an issue. The large green bumps at the top of the profiler showed that the CPU was waiting for the GPU to finish it's thing. I have a pretty decent GPU, so I would not have thought that would be a problem. Starting to investigate, someone on Discord (Thanks @Invertex) suggested checking out overdraw. Good idea! The particles…
- Small Update: v1.0.2 - 30 December 2020
v1.0.2 2020-12-30 Added a Spell Book! Added "S" hotkey to open the Spell Book. Added ability to drag spells from spell book to skill bar. Added level requirement for spells. Spells now gained more slowly based on level. Spells added automatically on level up if there is room on the skill bar. Unlocked skills included in level up notification. ESC key now closes checkpoint teleport menu. Add remaining level entrance indicators. Add a couple elite skeletons to first level. Can now attack the corrupted crystal in first level. Plus, there are a few more. Fix bug where sometimes the game could get stuck paused when toggling the menu. Reduced Fire Rock damage from 51-66 down to 45-56 base damage. Increased cooldown from 3.5s to 4.0s. Minor: Removed some old spell data. Adjusted "notification two" location to add more data to "notification one." Created window manager to support in-game dragga…
- Small Update: v1.0.1 - 30 December 2020
v1.0.1 2020-12-29 Add help tip to skeleton fight for the first recharge mechanic if player isn't making progress. Add visual indicator to level entrance point. Adjust some props that created a navigation hurdle in skeleton encounter. Also, thank you Zaxtor99™ for the video review, it was helpful to hear your thoughts and see how you progressed through the game. I appreciate the criticisms as well. Hopefully the player tip added with this update will help other players avoid getting stuck on the first boss. :)
- Final Rundown to v1.0.0 - 29 December 2020
v1.0.0 2020-12-28 Bump version for final build! v0.9.9 2020-12-28 Minor minimap path improvements. Minor UI layer adjustments. v0.9.8 2020-12-28 Fix bug with impact sound missing from ratkin in underground. Final Cleanup: Removed extra story line canvas elements. Fixed splash screen resolution. Baked navmesh and lighting for all scenes. v0.9.5 2020-12-28 Wrap up achievements for release. Add wizard staff charge achievement with persistent visual. Fix major bug with skeleton boss protecting vulnerable crystal. Minor: Added missing sounds to in game menu. Reduce menu button sound volume. Cleaned up some sounds on skeleton fight. Re-added missing summon visual. Fixed infrequent bug with skeleton boss moving too quickly after shield. Moved version string to in game menu, out of main game UI. Add rock golem growl sound. 2020-12-27 Add credits window to main menu. Linked credits up to game vi…
- Beta Test Updates v0.8.6 - 21 December 2020
v0.8.6 2020-12-20 Add heal spell. Add skill bar tooltips, with colored descriptions for each spell. Add objective notification to each zone. Add quit to menu button. (Report any bugs!) Adjust story-line scenes to visually separate voiced text from non-voiced text. Include version in player log startup messages. Some small fixes for cave zone, further increase light level. Fix fog of war cover near end of graveyard map. Rebaked all lighting and navmeshes. Fixed some bad lights that interfere with minimaps. v0.8.5 2020-12-20 Fix bug with skeleton boss despawn. v0.8.4 2020-12-20 Heavy rework of boss health bar. Should now go away after encounter. Increase speed at which boss health bar decreases to actual value. Now properly goes down to zero, rather than looking empty at 5% health. Potential fix for crash with ending encounter, and dropping aggro. Fix up Manamancer's flame pillars. Fix bu…
- Mana Gloom Releases December 29th! - 16 December 2020
Get ready to engage in epic battles with corrupted spell casters. The mana stream has been infused with what the citizens have begun to call, Mana Gloom. Wishlist this title and get ready for December 29th as it releases on Steam for Windows. About the Developer Hello Adventurers! I'm Sarynth. I've been working on games, from text based games to custom maps for nearly twenty years. I've always focused on building things that I enjoyed playing. Mana Gloom is no different. My favorite aspect of many games is the boss fights, and that is where a lot of time and attention is focused. I hope you enjoy the various dynamics that enter into the boss fights, and I look forward to releasing more as time permits. Please do share your favorite moments and biggest frustrations. I am listening! My initial focus is on quality gameplay and fight mechanics. There is no loot or inventory. There are no sp…
- Dev Log: Emission and Bloom - 10 December 2020
Sometimes I wonder myself, what takes so long to develop a game? Within a few hours of starting your project, you can have a character in a world, running around an island, swinging a sword. It shouldn't take that much longer to round it out and ship it. Right? Let me tell you something... it's about the details. It's about the immersion. It's about the complete package. Some of the many things that go into that are emission and bloom. While it is easy to go overboard with these, without them things are pretty bland. Take a look at these examples. In this first image, there is no bloom, and no emission. Neat model, right? I thought so. Let's add in some bloom, and overall post-processing effects. Okay, we gained a little bit of ambiance. Something is still missing. I tried adjusting a few settings in the shaders, but it still didn't pop the way I wanted. Finally I decided to pull open t…
