As a solo developer, I can throw out all the marketing practices and just tell you really what my game is about.
Demon Source is a soulslike with procedurally generated dungeons.
But only their order is procedural
—
all rooms were composed by me
or taken half-ready from the assets I bought.
The game uses a
Dead Cells-like item system
.
You will have 2 slots for weapons, one for armor, 4 for abilities, and 2 for rings that provide powerful passives.
You will also be upgrading your
stats
. I had countless iterations but came up with a system that makes each of them meaningful.
Also, each stat unlocks perks. For example, 20 Intelligence will remove the cooldown from mana-based skills. And 40 Agility will slow time when you aim with a bow.
Each weapon provides a unique style of play. Daggers are fast and provide a bonus to the parry window but deal almost no damage to enemy poise. With greatswords, on the other hand, you can cancel most of the enemy attacks, but you will get less defense and maneuverability. But bonking your enemy to death appears to be surprisingly satisfying.
Magic is here too. Magic staffs have spells instead of combos — tailored to be useful in different situations. But if you are out of mana, there is a handy melee attack available.
When making the game, I was upset that environment is not very interactable, so I added something destructible almost to every room. Including the damaging stuff.
I did my best to make the game a roguelike, not a rogue-lite. But absense of progression is also disappointing. So to improve your runs, you can improve your healing flask (that also restores mana!) But more interestingly, you can improve your "Mystic Sence" - it will allow you to find secrets that you have missed in previous runs. Which, I hope, will allow to make each run interesting.
Of cource, you are not bounded to that "Mystic Sense" - all secrets will be available for you even without it.
Seek for story and lore?
I have some!
*clears his throat*
Deep down the Ulm rock dwarves found the relic of great power. Demonic power. Very soon hordes of demons and possessed undeads were marching through the Lavert Kingdom. Heroes of the past had stopped them, but they couldn’t destroy the Source. Inside the Ulm mountain this power was able to reshape dungeons to an endless labyrinth full of creatures of the dark. It also was able to revive demons countless times so they can’t be really killed.
Some heroes drink demon blood in order to receive same reviving power. Those who did not died from the transformation, went deeply to the old dwarf kingdom in order to find and destroy Demon Source. You don’t remember how have you got to that dungeon. But it is clear that you are immortal such as those demons. Every time you die, the dungeon reshapes and all demons revive. Source doesn’t want to be found and doesn’t want you to go back.
People of the past were optimistic about that - saying that now they have countless attempts. But it appeared to be "countless deaths". And now they are all mad and became corrupted guardians of the Source.
Try this game made with all passion just by single person. And let me to tell you the story of redemption which you will probably experience on yourself in the future. Try the Demon Source
