SOULBREAKER DIGEST: JANUARY 2024

Welcome to the first Soulbreaker Digest! If you didn't know, I'm a huge fan of Soulbreaker, an action roguelite with relationship building elements that is still in development. This is a repost of my Tumblr post about the game. If you want to learn about what it is, please check out my previous post on tumblr (linked below) or watch the January 2024 official update video also linked below. The examples of art from the Soulbreaker Update video have also been removed from this version of the post as I feel like reposting art someone else's art onto a dedicated art website is probably not ok. The art shows up in the official update video and in my tumblr version of this post.

Soulbreaker January 2024 Update Video

[What is Soulbreaker? (Link to tumblr)]] [Tumblr Version of this post.

Welcome to the rest of the post! It will be split into a few questions, including game updates, answered Q&A questions, theories, and misc. I will not being going through the non Soulbreaker content discussed.

GAME UPDATES

• Dice Death and Dating is now Soulbreaker! So much new content as been added that it really requires a rename! (exciting!!) And the reason for the name is spoilery
• Nothing has been cut from DD&D (awesome!)
• Gameplay has been being rebuilt to make it more satisfying, responsive and juicier.
• The main gameplay loop is finished, work on story and other content is going to be worked on now to get it to a state for a public demo.
• Work has been done on the Soulbreaker's sprites! And we got to see the walkcycles! (See video to see the walkcycles)
• New enemies! Twiggy, Teevy? (Look the subtitles call it TV so IDK how it's actually spelt) and Burnie (also nicknamed explodey) They're more basic enemies and also "little bastard" (See video to see the walkcycles)
• Story progress! The game is almost half written at this point, polished and all.

Q&A ANSWERS

Taken directly from the video!

Q: "Is our main character canonically nonbinary, or is it one of those "its you so they're whatever you are" type of deals.

A: " I'm happy to confirm that it's the latter.

The character is whatever you would like them to be and the reason for that is that, while the character does have their own personality and their own story, we still wanted it to be you because the game's also still got some dating sim in it and if there's like a weird disconnect then it just feels off, you know?

So the character is very much you. It's whatever gender you prefer them to be honestly. It's kind of like Link from Zelda, technically link is a dude but you know."

Q: "Will there be permadeath and if so how is that going to work story-wise?"

A: "Permaddeath no not exactly, the game is a roguelite and the lite part means every time you die you get to retain some of your stuff.

You'll be dying a lot probably, but if you've played games like Hades, you know, you can come back check in with some of the story elements that are maybe in the House of Hades, before you then gear up and head out to your next run. So kind of a similar flow like that for Soulbreaker."

Q: "I remember when talking about Soulbreaker, Cult of the Lamb was mentioned as inspiration! Are there any other games that are noteworthy to its inspiration to give us a good idea of what we'll be seeing?"

A: Definitely so, Cult of the Lamb is a huge one, I mean everybody at the studio loves it. But some of our other Inspirations for Soulbreaker are Binding of Isaac, Dead Cells, and Hades, because they're all fantastic games, we all love them, and really we're just combining them into like the Bound Dead Cult of Hades kind of thing.

It's going to be so much fun, and if you like any of those games or you're curious about them you're going to love Soulbreaker, so yes..."

Q: "What will our ranged attack arsenal be like? Will we be able to attack at range at all?"

A: "Yes. So you'll be able to cast all sorts of spells, and there's actually currently some talks in the studio about adding a dedicated ranged weapon as well, so, yes on all fronts! Melee and ranged you guys."

Q: "Is there going to be co-op play?"

A: Not for now. This is an idea that's floated around, but to be honest, co-op takes a lot of time and effort to do right, and right now we're focusing on all the other features instead.

This is one of those 'maybe wishlist features', would be cool if that could be added one day, but for now? No, it's not going to be in the game."

Q: "Can we befriend the tarrasque?"

Q: "No no no, the REAL question is, can we ROMANCE the tarrasque?"

A:

Q: "What is the power system in the game? Like, can the little Soulbreaker guy unlock new abilities, or will it be more based on loot and magic items?"

A: "Yes, both actually. There will be some upgrades you can unlock to permanently upgrade yourself, and there's also a ton of items, kind of like in Binding Of Isaac, that you can use to upgrade your player during a run. It should be amazing chaos."

Q: "Will Gorthan and Julian be in the game?"

A: "Absolutely! In fact, the whole Fool's Gold cast will be in the game. Gorthan and Julian will likely take the place of merchants / blacksmiths in the game.

Theories and Misc observations.

So, VERY interested in the name Soulbreaker being spoiler teritory! I'm guessing the term Soulbreaker means something tangible in the game, as in its a class or a title of some sort. Maybe it's related to the mercury infection, maybe you can fight it *because* you're the Soulbreaker.

Happy to have some of my questions answered. VERY happy Julian and Gorthan are back (Over the course of the development for @fghuntforthecrystals I have grown pretty attached to Julian and Gorthan). I hope we get lots of banter and stuff with them! I need more Julian content in my life!

Also interested in the mention that, while the Soulbreaker's gender is up to the player, they have their own personality and story. Was really hoping they would have their own personality and I'm very happy about it!

Congrats on my friend @alynwrench for getting their art shown in the Sands segment of the video at the start too! That's awesome! We love Alyn here!

Last but not least, excited to have the new enemy sprites, will be adding them into my Soulbreaker Kristal mod at some point, though I will have to guess on how they attack (minus Burnie) since we didn't see them in action.

Huge thanks to Felix and the rest of the Cryodon team for working hard on the game, and showing us the development. CANNOT wait for the kickstarter, I am so hyped.

- EJ out.