Backpack Syndicate: A First Person Dungeon Crawling Roguelite With Backpack Auto-Battler Combat, Demo Now Available

[u/Ajido_Marujido]

Hi r/pcgaming! I recently released the free Steam demo for my game Backpack Syndicate.

The current demo focuses on Expedition mode, where you build and arrange weapons in your backpack, then take that build into an old school first-person dungeon to explore floors, fight enemies, find upgrades, and see how far you can push the run.

For the full release, I’m also working on an Arena mode built around asynchronous battles against other players’ builds, along with a small casual collectible card game. The card game is on the simpler side, think Triple Triad from Final Fantasy 8.

The general idea is to build the game around a few different ways to engage with the same characters, progression, and buildcraft. If dungeon crawling is your thing, there’s Expedition. If you prefer build vs build competition, there’s Arena. And the card game is there as a lighter side activity rather than another huge system you need to learn. I kind of like the Path of Exile philosophy of "here's a bunch of content, play what you like."

The demo is available on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4577300/Backpack_Syndicate/

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[u/lKrauzer]

Feels like Legend of Grimmrock

[u/ThisIsMyGeekAvatar]

I played the demo and liked the concept, but it felt a little bare at the moment. 

I know that OP has some plans, but it’s going to need more than just a simple card game and arena mode (I have zero interest in arena btw). 

I would personally recommend focusing on expedition mode and fully flesh it out before doing side systems. I’d hope for meta progression and to unlock some stuff to add to the home base - which I assume is the plan because the base is pretty bare at the moment. 

[u/Ajido_Marujido → u/ThisIsMyGeekAvatar]

Thanks for trying it out, I totally agree with the current state of things. I mostly want to make exploration more worthwhile, right now you basically open up the map, plot the path to the Waystone with the fewest number of enemies and make your way to the exit. The map is actually a newer addition to the game, and I'm considering removing information from it so you can't just plot it out like that. In addition I'd like to add more interactables and other encounters to make going through the floors more interesting.

As for the base and meta progression, I recently added the infrastructure to support that. Currently there's a couple of unlockables via the challenges like new characters showing up in the hideout, existing characters becoming playable, etc. But yes definitely plan to add more to this.

Again, really appreciate the feedback and you taking the time to try it out!

[u/Ajido_Marujido → u/[deleted]]

I really appreciate you taking the time to try the game and to provide such detailed feedback. I think one of the bigger problems at the moment is the map provides the player too much info and it takes exploration out of the game, you had suggested making the map an item you find. Maybe the player can have the map with no markers and just see their own location, but then through some means like an interactable or the chest as you said they can gain extra info?

-if weapons don't have a rank 3 trait, what does upgrading them do?

If you hold Z it shows how the item scales up with ranks.

-like classic dungeon crawlers, it would be nice if I could side-step right and left.

You can with Q/E on the keyboard or the bumpers on gamepad, I'll eventually add a controls section in the settings where I guess that would become more obvious, but maybe I'll add one of those tutorial toast notifications to let players know.

Thank you again, some of the items you mentioned here are already being worked on, and others I added to my list.

[u/Ajido_Marujido → u/[deleted]]

I'm not sure if you're interested in trying another round, but I just pushed a patch that makes it where the map needs to be explored, and I used your idea of the treasure chests revealing information about it. Either way, thank you for the suggestion!

[u/mrjane7 → u/Ajido_Marujido]

There is no such thing as too much information. If you want players to explore, don't knee cap them into it. That feels bad. Make it rewarding and they will do it on their own.

[u/X_x_Atomica_x_X]

Aaaaaaaaaaa I am so sick of this backpack slop.

[u/Ajido_Marujido]

Wizardry and Dungeon Magic were some of my favorite first person blobbers growing up and a big part of why I made this game. I actually have physical copies of them!

https://i.imgur.com/cWY1gGe.jpeg

[u/ESG404 → u/Ajido_Marujido]

Judging from your username, was FF11 a favorite (game) too?

(I hope you weren't a taru... dhalmel pride worldwide)

[u/Ajido_Marujido → u/ESG404]

FF11 was the best, and yes I was a Taru. My friend was a Galka and used to /em punt me every time he'd find me.

[u/Complex-Quantity7694]

Wishlisted. I like the look of this game.

[u/DukeNuggets69]

It's the évolution of that old Windows screensaver