HAPPY PRIDE MONTH, EVERYONE!

What's been up?

I'm sure some of you have noticed that development has been sparse these past two months, but I have a good reason for that! I'm currently searching for a job in game development, a big move that feels like the culmination of years of study and hard work. Even if it takes me a bit to find the perfect position, I'm grateful for the opportunity to apply for jobs that, a few years ago, I wouldn't have dreamed of shooting for.

That being said, I have been tinkering on TCD here and there, and here's what's in store for the next update:

0.5.0 and the future!

I've been thinking quite a bit about the direction I want to take Turk's Crawling Dungeon in the next couple of months. At first, the sequel to the Embark Update was gonna be a simple patch to rid the game of some stuttering, bugs, and to give the game a little overall polish. 

But I, being a total psycho, decided to go bonkers with the next update. I want to transform Turk's Crawling Dungeon into a much more accessible and appealing game experience than it has been.

My own primary criticism of Turk's Crawling Dungeon isn't that it lacks polish; after all, it's in early alpha and the performance hitches, bugs, and other nasties are somewhat to be expected. My concern is that I haven't been dishing out the meat and potatoes: gameplay. 

The project currently has breadth, but not depth, complication and not complexity, and if my enthusiasm for TCD is to persist, I'm gonna have to serve some goddamn meat and potatoes to you guys! Hence, I'll be cooking up some major improvements to gameplay, building off the systems implemented in the Embark Update to add depth and replayability to the TCD experience.

What does that mean? Well, for starters, I'm halfway done with a tutorial that's meant to get new players (and those who previous put the game down in 30 seconds due to frustration) a comprehensive blueprint for interacting with the game. 

Once that's done, I'm gonna be stuffing the game as chock-full of content as I can muster in a single update. 

Planned features... of the future!

• New player talents will be added and existing ones expanded to allow for more varied gameplay. 
• Enemy talents will be implemented so that every new foe is a fresh challenge that poses unique risks to the player. 
• Discoverable lore will be added and scattered across the dungeon's zones to incentivize exploration and interaction with one's environment.
• Combat will be more brutal with the addition of persistent injuries that will hinder the player, requiring treatment.
• Leveling up will allow the player to allocate talent points in order to enhance their combat prowess.
• Enemies will scale to offset the levels gained as the player progresses through the dungeon.
• MORE enemies! MORE zone templates! MORE weapons! MORE!!!

In conclusion:

Turk's Crawling Dungeon has been somewhat of an opaque project this past year or so. It's been inscrutable, difficult to get into, and lacking in content. Lots of effort for little reward. Well, hopefully that's gonna change! 

I'm lowering the bar for entry by adding a tutorial, and rewarding the player for sticking with it by making the game replayable and fun.

Thanks to everyone who's stuck with and shown interest in Turk's Crawling Dungeon these past couple of months! We've gotten a lot of downloads in the previous weeks and I'm proud to welcome all of you on this wild journey.

Happy pride month, y'all. Stay cool, and see you in the next update!