Huge steps forward this week as the first playtest of Tyrants Must Fall has gone live on Steam! At the moment we’re restricting the participant pool, but the plan is to open that up to a wider audience in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned!
As a result of getting into the hands of more players, naturally, is the discovery of lots of new bugs and gameplay issues. So while it’s been a busy time fixing those up, there’s still been plenty of forward momentum with a huge overhaul of the controller input system, more narrative events, and a restructuring of how inherent unit abilities work.
But for today, I want to take a look at something that sits at the heart of the game: the metaprogression.
Looping the Loop
Tyrants Must Fall is built around the core idea of the “roguelite”. To put it simply, roguelites* are games where the player repeats some sort of gameplay loop that’s different each time they play, but with persistent improvements of some type that grow over time, ultimately opening up new gameplay options.
Slay the Spire is a prototypical roguelite - each run has the same basic structure, though the individual details of what enemies you face and what cards you get are random. At the same time, the more you play, the more cards and relics you unlock, giving you more options in subsequent runs. Balatro is another big example of the model. I hesitate to call it a genre because it’s really more of a structure that can be applied to all sorts of different genres. There are roguelite deck builders, roguelite city builders - heck, there’s even roguelite platformers.
Semantics aside, the point is that Tyrants Must Fall has a primary gameplay focus the player will attempt over and over - fight your way to the Tyrant King through a series of branching paths! - and a persistent metaprogression that will help change how they do that.
*some people use the term "roguelike" interchangeably, but that's a discussion for another time and place
Marching Onward
When the player first starts the game, the player begins at the edge of the outer provinces region with just a handful of brave rebels under their command. As they move forward, selecting which roads to take, they’ll encounter battles, villages, loot, and events. Defeating enemies will earn Glory, which will help attract more and stronger units to the cause. They will also collect gold, used to hire mercenaries, heal units, and upgrade more experienced units.
Eventually, perhaps, they might make it to the boss of the region. After a pitched battled, they might lose. But fear not, because (as I may have mentioned), the Stone of Destiny is never wrong and Jairm will just have to try it again!
A new run begins, still at the edge of the outer provinces and still with that same core group of rag-tag rebels. But the path forward will be different this time, with those nodes from last time now in a new arrangement. The player will never know what the road ahead might look like, but it’s not all bad news.
From that previous trek, they’ll have gained experience for Jairm. Experience comes from winning battles, successfully completing events, and other little activities the player might get up to along the way. At the end of the run, that experience is tallied up and added to Jairm’s overall experience pool. Once he’s gained enough, he’ll gain a level as the Hero of Destiny and, more importantly, a perk point to spend.
Perking Up
Perk points are the currency Jairm can use to open up new abilities on his Path of Destiny. The Path of Destiny is the foundation of the metaprogression, giving the player ways to improve Jairm’s abilities to focus their playstyle, as well as improve the rebel army’s overall survivability.
The Path is divided up into several individual tracks, each focused around a particular aspect of Jairm’s leadership abilities. The Health track, for example, improves Jairm’s hitpoints, giving the player the chance to absorb more hits in battle should their strategy go awry. The Deploy track improves the number of units Jairm can place in the field at the beginning of battle, greatly increasing the chances of being able to set up early units exactly the way the player wants. The Power track even grants Jairm powerful abilities he can unleash in battle to help turn the tide, such as healing all his units.
Unlocking a Perk requires a perk point, as well as having unlocked the perk before it on the track. So with those points, players have the opportunity to fashion Jairm’s growth in the direction they think would most help them. Maybe they want to focus on deployment because they like having more control over how the battles begin. Or maybe they want to focus on Army Size, because they prefer to have lots and lots of units to flood the field with. Or maybe they want to be more of a generalist, growing down several different tracks to keep things balanced. Ultimately, the choice is up to them!
Going Off Track
Now, all that being said, the perk track is likely to face some adjustment as development continues, but the fundamental idea remains the same: grow your hero over the course of many runs, and hone them into something that enhances (or directs) the playstyle the player prefers.
Of course, it’s not fun unless there are a few surprises along the way, so there are some additional elements to the metaprogression I’ll keep under wraps for the moment. Some things that may have an even wilder impact and spur the player into thinking about new ways to face the challenges ahead. Because while the Stone of Destiny is never wrong, it also knows that it doesn’t always hurt to spread your bets…
Next Time: Diving deeper into music and audio!
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