February 2026 Update

Spring is almost here! Here are the updates for February:

Belfry and Boss Summoning

This was the major feature update for February. Each realm will have a godly boss the player must summon. In order to summon the boss the player must find two “belfry crystals” in the level. These crystals are in random areas each level and once the player finds one, they must wait (survive) near the crystal until it “attaches” to them. Once it is attached, the player must guide the crystal to the belfry so that it can then be placed into its sconce. Once the two crystals are in place inside the belfry, the player can then choose to summon the realm’s god.

I wanted to make this summoning process a player decision rather than a passive one that happens automatically after the player completes a certain amount of waves or kills all enemies. I want to give the player the freedom to either immediately rush the boss (if they are confident) or to wait, kill some enemies, level up, and then summon the boss.

Loading Screens

Up until now, when a player transitioned between major game states or levels the game would freeze for several seconds. In some playtests this led players to think the game was crashing. Now there are actual load screens! They are not pretty yet (I’ll polish these later in the cycle) but they do communicate to the player that the game is loading, please wait.

Enemy Collision Upgrade

I have updated the collision behavior between the player and enemies so that now the player is knocked back and takes a small amount of damage if they run into an enemy. I am still testing this and am looking forward to more playtesting with others to determine the right balance here. Initially I did not want the player to be penalized for running into enemies which would allow them greater movement throughout the level, however, it started feeling that the enemies lacked substance in that model – now that they react to colliding, the game is a bit more difficult though it comes at the cost of freer movement when the enemies become crowded. This will certainly require more balancing throughout this process.

Onward & Upward

Bobby @ Long Tooth Llama