State of the game

Hi, this is Flo, one of the developers of Beats of Betrayal.

I want to start this post off by saying that the game is evolving at a very satisfying rate! That is mainly because my new job allows me to spend more time on it, which I enjoy very much. Also we have a serious deadline for a playable version coming up, I will make another post about that. For now I want to talk about the current state of the game as it is, and what content we want to implement for that playable version.

Play Mode

The game runs in sort of an Arcade-/Rogue-like mode. In Arcade mode you insert credits which are used to start the game and optionally get used up to continue after you die, resetting the score, just like in a real coin operated game. You can either die from damage or when the timer runs out, however defeating enemies and progressing through the stage adds bonus time. Upon defeating the stage boss the player can progress to the next stage. The goal of the game is getting the highest score possible. You earn points by defeating enemies and playing well, and at the end of each stage there is a result screen that shows your final grade for the stage.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the player can chose one of currently three playable characters (in this case “Bob”), and the player also has some difficulty settings. You can choose from one out of four difficulties (Normal, Hard, Nightmare, Betrayal) to make the game harder.

Control schemes

You can choose from three different options: “Beginner”, “Single” and “Double”. To attack, you have two buttons, the kick drum and the snare drum, which must be pressed according to the rhythm of the soundtrack. In the past we required the player to control both buttons, however moving the player and taking care of hitting the buttons to the beat proved to be very challenging for various play testers, especially those with no previous experience in rhythm-games. This is why we introduced the “Beginner” mode which only requires holding down the buttons, and the “Single” mode which only requires pressing to the kick beat.

Stages

As of right now, the game includes three stages. Each with a unique soundtrack, enemies, boss and obviously different scenery. These are the forest, the city, and the temple. We try to make it so each stage offers a slightly different play style. Also these stages are randomly generated which means that each time you enter the stage, the layout will most likely be completely different.

Screenshots from the three stages currently available in the game

Power Ups

When you enter a stage, you will have zero units of the currency we called “Beatcoin”. Defeating enemies and picking up treasure chests will provide you with more coins to loot. There are two ways to spend those for power-ups. Either by opening one of the ability chests that are scattered throughout the stage, or by visiting the shop. In each stage you will find entrances to that stages shop. It will have three different power-ups to offer at a time, which are also split into three categories. Also you have the option to re-roll the selection the shop has to offer.

Power-ups usually appear in stacks, so you will pick up multiple instances of the same power up at once. This is because the power ups have a finite life-time: after a certain amount of time one instance of the power-up will disappear. If you have none left, you will no longer have the bonuses it provided. It might be wise to save some money first and stack up on power ups in the second half of the stage, so you hopefully have some power ups left when you enter the stage’s boss fight.

Characters

There are different characters to choose from, each with a completely unique skill set and a unique action ability. To provide the character’s skill set, we made the game in a way that completely swaps out the pool of power-ups that can appear in chests and the shop, depending on what character you chose. That way the vampire character can get “companion bats” (see video above) while a mage-type character might have some ice spells in store for example.

Playable version

To “complete” the next playable version, we want to give all three areas their finishing touches, rework some of the characters power-up options, and make a lot of comfort changes (the menu is missing some information for example). Also there is a game mechanic that we have yet to introduce to the game, which are “perks”. In the future we plan it so after each stage the player can spend the coins he saved by not buying power ups on perks, which provide them with a permanent bonus for the duration of the run. This will be a new strategic element in the game, where the player’s decision in the first stage might affect their performance in the third stage.

The end of this post

I wanted to provide the reader with kind of a complete package on what our game currently has to offer. More stages, characters, power-ups, and so on will be created in the future, until we are satisfied with the amount of content. For now we focus on wrapping up that playable version and go at it one step at a time. Thank you for reading!

Greetings,
Flo