SpellCrawler - Dec 2024 Dev Log

Hello! Normally updates about my game are delivered via discord messages with an image or two attached, but this time around I wanted to try and make something a bit more polished and a bit more public. The following is a small behind the scenes peek about what I have been cooking these past few weeks for my dungeon diving game called SpellCrawler. There isn't a playable demo available as there is still much to do.

This time around I was focused on designing what a home base would look like. So far I wanted a place where you can offload your collected items, craft/disassemble them to gain resources, and of course a launching point for choosing the next dungeon to crawl.

The first thing I started with was this very rough image of the layout of things I threw together with a line tool in CSP.

I kept being drawn to this idea of an RV that the player drives around in this post-apocalyptic setting with a bit of magic thrown into the mix. This is still being explored as a concept, but I'm liking the direction that it is heading. Something about magic being tied into causing the end of the world and how it blends with nature/technology is a lot of fun. After a bit more work I ended up settling on this as the background for now:

This is the second rendition on what I'm sure will be many more updates to the style and look, but it beats looking at a white background with some abstract lines.

So what can the player actually do in the home base?

Transfer items to and from storage: 

Choose a mission from an map I will certainly have to update later. I like the idea that the map is slowly revealed as the player advances through the story or discovers new areas.

Disassemble items for essence. This will then be used to upgrade gear/spells in a future update.

There was a good amount of work behind the scenes as well! These don't have flashy images to go with them, but I think that they are pretty noteworthy. There is an entire save/load system in place for both the player's inventory and storage. This was basically required to have a functioning home base so it was the first thing I tackled since my last update.

What comes next?

Next I think I would like to revamp how the current spell system works as well as connect the loop between selecting a mission and returning to the home base. These exist separately, but there are a few components that need to be put in place to actually make it work. Stay tuned for future updates!