Devblog #72 (Patreon)

Hey Wizards!

Shady Character One here!

So, today I wanted to talk about some design struggles and how we try to work around them. Mostly about balancing the classes in the game. As most of you know, we have eight different classes, but not all of them are created equal. Right from the start we knew that we wanted more than five classes in the game. More than we had different stats to raise. So it was always a conundrum on how to make players use all the classes. Of course, we could just make different classes raise the same stat and just have players attend the classes that the player felt narratively appropriate for their playthrough, but having more options that do nothing really in the game that is already a bit overloaded with options didn't sound like a good idea. So we had to come up with ideas on how to make three of eight classes unique.

Divination was an obvious and easy fix, so the list of classes in question got reduced to two almost immediately. Now we only had to decide what to do with Brewing and Duel Practices. Giving them something way too specialized was a no-no, because that way we would either make them semi-mandatory if that something was very useful. Or we would make them a waste of time if that something was less useful than simple stat grinding. After much deliberation, we ended up just making them double stat classes. They train you in two stats at the same time, but give half the effect in each stat. It was a solution that felt both balanced and elegant. After a while though, the cracks started to appear on that idea.

There was very little incentive for players to choose dual stat classes over their more specialized competition. And adding, on top of that, the fact that they became less useful when one of the stats they train got high enough (or even worse—maxed out) made them a worse solution in most cases. So what can we do in this case? Make them more effective at what they do? No matter how I do it: increase stat gain, reduce stamina cost, increase the deterioration delay... That would make them a better overall solution and force the players to do dual-stat classes if they want to maximize their gains. So recently I decided to try a new approach—if I can't make them better at what other classes can do, I will have to give them a bonus that sets them apart from the rest. But since I cannot give a flat bonus (since that would, again, make them always more attractive), I came up with a situational bonus which would apply only occasionally and would not give outright benefits.

For Brewing, well, I decided to add the actual potion brewing to the class. Sometimes Hayes would leave the class for some self-study, and you will be able to brew an energy potion for yourself if you are willing to risk it. The higher your brewing-associated stats—the higher your chance of getting a potion that would give you a nice boost to your stamina. Fail—and you'll lose a bit more stamina during that class.

For Dueling, I decided to try and add a chance to do a "special" training with Professor Bolg himself. This would increase your stat gains during that class, but will cost you extra stamina. Improving the action economy if you are willing to spend more stamina.

Hopefully, these additions will make these two classes more appealing, but not too appealing to throw the balance in the opposite direction.

Now, with that little insight into the design process, let's get back to the progress report. I am happy to say that I actually finished writing Violet's seventh event. It being the first event using the date mechanic will finally give me a chance to stop constantly replying "there are currently no dates in the game". I will need to polish the event a bit more, but it is pretty much done at this point, so I will definitely finish it by the next supporter update. After that, I will have to give some other girl a chance to shine.

So, yeah. The next update should be a doozy. Second Trial, a date with Violet. Hope you're excited!

Shady Character One, out!