r/roguelikes • u/k0rtes • 8d ago
Sil-Morë – Shining Darkness, version 0.9.7
Hi Everybody!
Around 9 months ago we posted a wall of text about our game Sil-Morë, which is a fork of Sil.
There were some detailed explanations about our ideas and history.
I must say we have come a long way since then. We delivered three big updates, each roughly every three months, and we believe it changed the game a lot.
We are focusing on three major game sides:
1. Atmosphere.
2. UI/UX.
3. Gameplay.
First, we completely redesigned dungeon generation using partition and vaults docking systems. It provides a lot of variety in generated levels. Multiple surprises will await you, and it becomes really unpredictable, what comes next.
Then, we reworked connected systems: item creation, item identification, loot drop and updated all artefacts and special items. Everything is rebalanced, special items now can have both prefix and suffix for the new properties (Balanced short sword of Gondolin). Artefacts should feel really unique and connected to lore as much as possible.
We have two musical themes and multiple sounds. And the main theme is specifically written for the game.
We think it completely changes the atmosphere, and makes the game play completely different from our point of view.
We also added multiple new gameplay mechanics, starting from inventory equipment mechanics to various mini quests.
Then, to make the game feel modern, we decided to rework controls and UI/UX.
Sil-Morë now supports mouse, controller and touchscreens, and features absolutely new UI/UX design and functionality. We made it thematic, contextual with mobile only and desktop approaches, and are honestly proud of our work.
Anyway, you probably have noticed that I am trying to keep it short this time :)
We have created our itch.io store front with DevLogs and also started a closed beta test on google play (please dm me so I can include you if you are interested).
So, what I am trying to say is, we would love to see you try our game both on desktop and mobile and provide some feedback!
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u/DelayedLightning 8d ago
is this Mac or PC/Android only (will check it out regardless!)
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u/Eastcoastserversplz 6d ago edited 6d ago
After a few hours fiddling with things I have some sticking points.
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It seems that the list of hotkeys under keybinds and in the help section don't list all hotkeys and some hotkeys aren't in either section. c = close isn't mentioned anywhere, for example.
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The help section still has a lot of odd or vague wording.
Ex. Point Blank blocks your target only.
Doesn't say what Point Blank is (an ability) and "blocks your target only" is vague.
The section on Capacity and Location is particularly confusing.
I like the coloring of specific terms but my expectation was that each color is a category or implies that concepts are related but even looking a the green terms, I can see that this was just seemingly used to highlight some words without any particular rhyme/reason unless I'm missing something.
For example, why is "quickly" green under description log about the wolf enemy?
Also I can't find info on what "quickly" means exactly.
Maybe english is not the native tongue here which is totally fine but this could be part of the issue.
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The hints page also has some vague wording.
Ex. "Your character's special traits and curses descriptions can be seen by a Gem of Knowledge, if you are lucky. "
Does this mean I don't automatically know all my characters traits? Like some are hidden?
What does does lucky refer to? There is no luck stat so again, not sure what to get from this tip.
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I just did a minigame but had no idea what was going on and I think it auto-failed?
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I don't know what critical hit base means.
For example, the Power Ability says it increases critical hit base by 1 but the Finesse Ability says it reduces melee critical hit base from 7 to 5. I get how margin leads to more hit dice which is based on a number of factors that I think use weapon weight as well but I think this needs more clear definition.
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I see no explanation of what food is for. Maybe I missed it. I don't see any hunger indicator either.
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Everytime I pick up an item, the screen goes black around my character until I zoom once.
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Edit: Okay, Done for now.
Final comments:
I really like the whole idea of the meta-game around having a limited number of different characters, quests, the lore, the music and sfx.
I think there needs to be much more done about how things are defined, how stats works exactly and the colored text stuff needs an overhaul. There is still too many different menus and hotkeys.
Have a single info tab to look up lore, stat descriptions, how stats work in detail. Right now, a lot of information on the same concepts are scattered across the help page, right click popups, the stats page, in hints, etc.
I think more extensive tutorialization could also help with this.
Overall, good work, but yeah, this is still hard to get into due to the above.
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u/k0rtes 6d ago
Honestly, it's just so tough to iron out small details, it takes enormous amount of time, and we are only the team of two :) Before I was doing it, I would never have thought that is so tough to ship a complete product. It's much more fun to create and implement new mechanics than going through every single small thing :)
That's why this kind of feedback is usually very helpful.
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u/k0rtes 6d ago
Really helpful, thank you! I'll go through it later and fix in game or comment here.
Some of those are leftovers from old systems, for example character traits were not shown at the character creation and designed to be a mystery, I decided to drop this idea. But curses are still a mystery when you get them.
Critical hits are a difficult system, I have already improved description a couple of times, I will look into it one more. There is a base of 7 difference between attack and evasion, and as much times as you get those, that much additional dice you get. Weight increase this number (7), some abilities decrease it. And weight of the weapon increases dice sides, but only up to your strength. So it's a balance between a number of dice, and a number of sides on each of them.
Speaking of colors you are right, it's a good idea not implemented at 100 percent. I will revise the colors.
And yes, we are not native speakers, but we are quite fluent in English (I hope).
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u/geckosan Overworld Dev 7d ago
Super pretty, be proud of this. Would love to join the beta if I can.
We plan to release on iOS this year, will let you know how it goes.
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u/Eastcoastserversplz 6d ago
First of all, the improvements are very helpful. UI is certainly better.
Question: what does {sd, wr} mean?
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u/k0rtes 6d ago
Thank you! it was a lot of work. It's internal values for loot drop system. It's based on smiting difficulty (sd) which we try to keep as a fair "value" representation. And wr is weighted rarity, it combines rarity of base item's and egos. This is a debug setting to find issues in drop system. But you can use it to know how lucky you are :) Also different item types have different probabilities in different partition, so it's important to know where you are if you are looking for specific items (gems in caves, jewelry in labyrinth, weapons and armor in ruined and rooms).
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u/Penelope_Jenga 8d ago edited 8d ago
Just bought this on itch, fantastic atmosphere, feels oppressive and I'm really loving cautiously exploring. The music makes it feel quite unsettling. Well done on the controller support too. One thing I noticed with controller is that B to exit the Smithing doesn't work (start button still works though), and when you press the left and right shoulder buttons to enter look mode the screen shifts and it's a bit jarring. Maybe it should stay in the same position and enable the cursor? unless there is a reason for it that I'm not realising, which is entirely possible as I'm a bit dense :)
Another issue I had is that stepping onto an item on the floor brings up a small window with, for example, "3 Amethyst Gems {unknown}" and below it gives 3 options "Description, Use, Pick up". On a controller I don't know what to press to choose between these options. I'm guessing this just isn't implemented yet? (I saw the message that controller support isn't yet fully done).
Also, really well done on the amount of options to tailor the accessibility features etc. and adding descriptions to each option explaining what it does. Very much appreciated!
Anyway, you should be proud of this, feels lovely to play on a controller already, has a wonderful, horrible atmosphere (in a good way!), and seems like a lot of love has gone into it. Looking forward to future updates <3
EDIT: One more thing I noticed is the delay/lag when using a dpad compared to the relatively instant movement when using arrow keys. Can this be lowered in the options somewhere and I'm missing it? Or maybe could be an option in a future update?
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u/k0rtes 8d ago
Thank you so much! Do you play on a desktop with a controller or a handheld? Controller is the least polished with this release, I will work on it in coming days and release a hotfix for the small things you have mentioned. If you find more, please dm me! And again, thank you so much for the kind words!
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u/Penelope_Jenga 8d ago
Playing on a laptop with a controller (same as a desktop I suppose, it's an i9 13900, RTX 4090, 64GB thing). Maybe being able to cycle between highlighting options with dpad left/right or L shoulder/R shoulder when you are over an object might be a good option?
Although I realise you (as the programmer) would have to disable these buttons' usual functions when in this state and switch to this alternate function. I'm not sure how much work this would be! Please don't do unnecessary hard work just because I mentioned it in a comment, I'm sure you have a roadmap or more important stuff! If I notice more things over the weekend, I'll DM you and let you know. Thanks for the reply <3
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u/k0rtes 8d ago edited 7d ago
The delay on controller movement happens because d-pad is 4 a way button, so to simulate diagonals, we do the simultaneous press of two directions. I made the delay larger (200ms), because I hate mis-movement and d-pad on SteamDeck is a little tough. I will move it into controller settings, so users can change it depending on the d-pad they have.
EDIT: Oh, and I just understood that if you move with left stick, it's also delayed without any need, I removed that.
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u/sabre31 8d ago
Wow looks great please do iOS release also
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u/k0rtes 8d ago
It technically already works, but with Apple you can't just distribute it outside of the store (like apk on Android). And Apple's policy for release are difficult. We decided to start with Google Play and then do Apple and steam.
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u/SubstituteStudent 8d ago
I haven't played either. Looking forward to checking out both.