Wantless: Solace at World's End - turn-based tactical RPG where you fight in procedurally generated mind dungeons - now on Early Access

[cyborgboy95]

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1807090/view/3391793024756156049

Devblog #8 - Nightmares, Dreams & Merchants
Hi there investigative gamers,

We hope you’re doing well and, if you’re a northern hemisphere dweller, enjoying summer! Southerners among you should of course still be having a great winter time ♥

We’ve spent a lot of time working on necessary admin tasks and continuing the upgrade work that’d been started on the Desolate Nightmares biome, so there might not be as much novelty as usual.

Nonetheless, here’s some of what we’ve been doing!

___________________________________________________________________

The Desolate Nightmares

[NEW] Lesser envy

A support variant for the sniper enemies. They shoot doping rounds that cause enemies to grow stronger, and crippling bullets that silence you.

“Hatred often takes a less direct, more insidious form. Self-centered worldviews can fuel silently hateful friendships, and deeply resentful love.”

The Hive Driver Regret

The swarm-themed boss. Regret herds forsaken thoughts and ideas, strengthening them and making them ever more noxious. This fight is about controlling summons and keeping damage over time effects in check.

“At times, the immeasurable mass of abandoned thoughts and lost potentials makes itself manifest. Panic ensues, what else could you have been, what splendors have you missed out on?”

The Bubonic Behemoth Acrimony

Core gameplay identity for these guys hasn’t changed much from before: they’re tanky, deal quite a bit of area of effect damage, and cover the battlefield with Foul ground - a tile effect that slows you down and inflicts damage on contact, while healing enemies instead.

“Part of yourself doesn't want to see the world thrive. Being miserable wouldn't feel so bad if misery was all there ever was. You detach your conscious self from this toxic persona, but you can always feel it crawling up the back of your mind, oozing resentment.”

The environment

We’ve made progress on enhancing the environment as well, with new assets and level design.

We'll keep working hard to make it ever nicer and more immersive, but we've arguably come a long way from just a few months ago:

___________________________________________________________________

Difficulty tiers

While it’s not a new implementation, I thought it’d be relevant to mention that all minds have a difficulty tier that determines what enemies you could face inside and how powerful they are.

All bosses have upgraded forms depending on that difficulty tier, each with an enhanced skillset and stats.

Regret, for example, goes from Lesser Regret at Tier I to Deepest Regret at Tier III.

Lesser Regret summoning

Deepest Regret summoning

___________________________________________________________________

Innar, the merchant

When exploring your patient's mind, there's a chance you'll bump into Innar, a dissociated projection of Eiris.

He’ll present you with a random set of trades, all requiring you to spend Awareness or a % of your health. Possible offers include:

• Obtaining a specific gear or crafting item
• Gaining a buff for the rest of transposition (health regeneration, haste, the ability to debuff your enemies on hit)
• Earning rare currency

We intend to add a vaster array of unique tradeoffs to make each encounter with Innar special.

___________________________________________________________________

Back to the Twisted Dreams

We’re now back to working on Wantless’ 2nd mind biome: the Twisted Dreams.

Visuals are still coming together, but since this “Alice in Wonderland”-inspired biome is set to explore themes such as addiction and mourning, we’re implementing fitting gameplay effects such as:

• Haze: some tiles are covered with dense fog, causing the enemies inside to become invisible. Lure them out, or blast the area like a madman, but keep your distance, as your Action Points are reduced inside the haze.
• Tearpool: some tiles are covered with a sap-like substance that inflicts a stacking damage and resistance debuff to most allies or enemies. Certain types of plant-like enemies will instead consume the sap on contact and leave a pool of Clear water in its place. Clear water cleanses some of that same debuff’s stacks.
• Replicate: certain creatures in the Dreams can create exact replicas of themselves, indistinguishable from the original until damaged.

Can’t wait to show you visuals for these effects and many, many more! I think this biome is going to raise the stakes for strategic gameplay, with a lot new, less straight-forward, enemy behavior.

___________________________________________________________________

That’s it for today!

Thank you for reading, and we’d be happy to welcome you on Discord[discord.gg] if you ever want to chat!

Smile, enjoy the weather, take care of yourself ♥

 

[cyborgboy95]

Devblog #9 - Dreams come true
Hi there,

We hope this little update finds you well and energized from some well-deserved summer rest! Our sympathies go to you too, who’ve worked all summer instead.

Our social media has been rather quiet lately, and while we won’t be able to go over why that is today, development hasn’t slowed down in the slightest!

As usual, let’s jump right in.

1) More Twisted Dreams

We’ve spent a lot of time building the first batch of content for our new mind biome, the Twisted Dreams.

a) New enemies have joined our ever-cheerful cast of materialized woes:

Worthless

A reflection of self-destructive instincts and low self-esteem, the Worthless self-destruct, inflict high damage and stacks of the dreaded Infect debuff (more on that a few scroll-units down).

"Self-esteem rested atop other people's impressions will crumble when they part. Not much remains standing then."

Brume

The Brume is a lesser manifestation of people's ability to hide their needs from themselves, out of fear or self-deprecation. They spread Haze to hinder your perception, and sprout into bigger threats after a few turns.

"All roads lead to sorrow eventually, that's unless they evaporate partway. Why the roads in the first place? No roads, no destinations, no destinations, no expectations, no expectations, no sorrow."

Grudge

The Dreams are also home to some more bellicose manifestations. Grudges move fast, and hit faster. Their straightforward damage-dealing profile is made deadlier by all the debuffs and hindrances thrown by other Dream dwellers.

"Loss is seldom fair, and injustice sticks to your soul. Let it macerate for too long, and it'll breed monsters."

Hollow

One of the first bosses you'll find in the Dreams, the Hollow will try to bury you under thorned brambles and charge deadly skills you must dodge to survive.

"At first it was just pain, then a hole, then a vaster gape...then this. The thin husk of being that remains is barely enough to justify existence."

b) Signature effects you’ll find in the Twisted Dreams are now implemented and include:

Haze

Haze is a tile effect that renders all enemies inside invisible, and reduces your Action Points if you're caught in it yourself.

Tear pools & clear water

Tear pools are another signature Dream tile effect, non-fungi entities walking over it will receive an Infect stack, reducing their damage output and resistance proportionally to the number of stacks. As a non-fungi human being yourself, you are of course vulnerable to it, but you could also use it to infect a Grudge, for example.

When a fungi entity walks over tear pools, they heal instead, and turn it into clear water. Clear water in turn clears infect stacks when you walk over it, so you'll have to try your best to control who walks over tear pools and when.

Summoning brambles

Brambles are destructibles permanently under the "thorned" effect. They break easily, but you'll take damage whenever you hit them.

These are just a taste, many other illusion and confusion-themed effects show in the dreams.

c) Finally, a ton of assets are now ready to help us build the level design for these realms as we see fit:

2) The Map

Wantless takes place on a floating transposition laboratory, a ship. As you sail down river Artiris, you’ll go through different hamlets and meet different patients.

It is through this map & navigation mechanic that you’ll progress through the story and difficulty tiers. It is one of the last structural features we were missing.

The high-level game loop looks like this:
Navigate to the next, more difficult area >>> Successfully transpose patients >>> Earn enough reputation in the current area to unlock the right to travel further

Each area has its own visuals, difficulty level, unique patients and events.

There’s still a ton of content and polish we want to add to this feature, but its initial introduction kinda closes the game’s core loop!

There will definitely be a whole devblog about this feature when more of its content comes together.

3) Corruption

We’re just starting to work on the game’s main storyline and its special mechanics.

Eiris' travels will take you inside spirits afflicted beyond what’s incarnated by the Twisted Dreams or Desolate Nightmares. Something different looms over these unique patients’ minds, something darker.

___________________________________________________________________

That’s all we have for today!

We’re starting to see the light at the end of the core system implementation tunnel. Hopefully the next few months will see us focus more on content and polish, so YOU can see more gameplay and get a clearer picture of what Wantless will play and feel like.

Our Discord server[discord.gg] is still tiny and quiet for now, but it’ll happily welcome you for a chat anytime!

You can also follow Wantless on Twitter to get more frequent updates.

Take care, stay safe, and don't lose track of your needs ♥

 

[cyborgboy95]

The map lets you sail to new areas within the ghost metropolis - yes, you’re a sci-fi psychiatrist AND a ship’s captain.

 

[cyborgboy95]

Demo available

 

[Infinitron]

Ah, these guys are finally on YouTube:

 

[Nortar]

There's a demo on Steam, so I gave it a try.
The premise, as I got it, is pretty much "Sucker Punch the Movie the Game".
Except instead of the sexy Babydoll with big eyes and bigger tits your character is an androgynous xir.

Spoiler

Fuck off game, it is sad.

The character runs a loony bin and treats psychos by projecting inside their mind and burning out sickness such as "bad memories", "self-destructive thoughts", "alter egos" and other shit taking the form of different monsters.

Spoiler

All the patients seem to be directly inspired by Codex regulars

The game conforms to the Current Year Standards as the very first character you meet is clearly deranged.
And as if the signature "lobotomy-ready" haircut was not enough giveaway, xir kept calling me Rusty.

Spoiler

But wait, there is a good part. And that is gameplay.

* Combat is turn-based with real Action Points, not the castrated nuXcom 2-actions variety.
* The interesting bit - enemies get as many APs as you've spent on your turn.
But at least 1 (so if you had the same bright idea as me to just skip turns until your cooldowns reset - it won't really fly).
* The interface, despite the acidic colors, is intuitive and informative. There's a combat log and detailed info on enemy status and effects.

Character progress.
There are no classes and character builds are free-form, but the game offered to hold my hand by providing 3 starter builds:

Spoiler

I chose the Blunt melee, for hands-on therapy, and suffered for it, as nearly every enemy exploded on death showering me with their toxic innards.

There are 3 areas of character customisation: gear, active combat skills and passive mind tree.

Gear is gear, there are 6 slots to equip shit.
But I have not seen much of it yet, so I can't saything anything other than it's there.

Spoiler

The Mind Tree, the passive stats, on the first glance looks more impressive than it is.
In fact each "constellation" of the 5 connected stars gives the same effect, so basically it's 1 node with 5 levels to it.

Spoiler

The Skills is the interesting part.
* There are a lot of different skills - for dealing damage, for healing, for movement, for control - pulling, pushing, stunning.
* What's even better, the skills can be crafted by combining "Synapses".
These synapses are used as spare parts and you can rearrange them as you see fit to get skills with effects to suit your tactic.
* There are 11 slots for active skills, but 1 is always reserved for basic auto-attack.
* The overall loadout of skills is also limited by the Discipline stat. So it's not enough to craft all the best shit and go to town, if your mind is undisciplined you won't be able to do much.

The combat is pretty intense. It starts pretty easy, but there's lots of potential for it to grow complex.

Spoiler

As the psycho's mind state degrades, so does his mindscape, it starts falling apart presenting additional environmental hazards and roadblocks.

Bosses have lots of abilities, some telegraphed better than the others, and some effects look pretty cool.
I have to admit that the first post-tutorial boss handed me my ass.

My main complaint is that the enemies look pretty much the same and non-distinct enough.

There's also some sort of strategic layer.
You can upgrade your base and there is a timeline with counting days. But I have yet to see what it does.

All in all, it can turn out to be a decent tactical game, despite the garish visuals.

 

[Infinitron]

Early Access in November:

 

[Abu Antar]

Confirmed date.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

TRANS-POSERS! Trying to turn people into TRANNIES by invading their mind?

Maybe I’m being harsh, I haven’t even seen a review.

 

[Infinitron]

They changed the game's name.



https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1807090/view/3662042610478623515

Early Access Release on November 8!
Discover Wantless: Solace at World's End

Hello passionate gamers!

Are you a tactical RPG and a sci-fi fan? A lost wanderer? Or simply curious about our upcoming title? Whatever your reason, you've come to the right place! Mark your calendars for
November 8
because that's when you'll be able to embark on this mind-boggling journey with us!

What's new?
First things first, we're excited to reveal the updated title of our game – "Wantless: Solace at World's End." We feel this name truly encapsulates the essence of our story, set in a bleak future where most of the population has chosen to enter an artificial sleep to escape suffering, rendering them "Wantless." Are you ready to find out more in our gameplay trailer?

Early Access Features:

In the Early Access version of "
Wantless: Solace at World's End
", you can look forward to:

Over
50 Synapses
and
30 forms
: to be combined at will into thousands of deadly spells.
More than
50 enemies
: face challenging adversaries as you navigate the minds of your patients.
20 formidable bosses
: including 10 unique bosses, each with their own strategies.
6 Sub-Biomes
: explore a variety of environments, each with its own set of monsters.
4 Patient Difficulty Tiers
, culminating in a challenging end game to make your builds truly shine!
A
very large skill tree
to customize your character's abilities and playstyle.

With this, Early Access will provide you with many hours of exciting gameplay, and a great opportunity to help us shape the development of the game with your feedback and suggestions!

Follow us on the social media

To stay up to date with our latest news or engage with other like-minded Transposers, be sure to join our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or simply head over to our Discord server. We have also set up a community section over on Reddit.

Thanks for reading!

Speak to you soon.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

You mean they “Transposed” the game’s name.

 

[JarlFrank]

>proc gen

Man this fucking trend has played itself out a long time ago yet they keep spamming proc gen games onto the Steam store.

 

[Tyranicon]

>proc gen

Man this fucking trend has played itself out a long time ago yet they keep spamming proc gen games onto the Steam store.

Financially, proc-gen is a gamechanger for lazy and no-talent devs. You get to trick mouthbreathers into near endless play time, while actually only needing to create a minimum level of content.

No surprise why it's still going strong.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Depending on one’s mood and the game it can eat time away (I prefer the free price range tbh)

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1807090/view/3779143176158026466

Early Access Now Available
Play Wantless : Solace at World’s End today!

Greetings, fervent gamers!

This is it! We are thrilled to announce that the Early Access for Wantless: Solace at World's End is officially live! It's time for you to become a mind-doctor and make good use of your tactical cunning in a dystopian future.

What to Expect in Early Access

Here's what you can look forward to at this stage:

Discover your role in Wantless
Immerse yourself in a bleak future, where most have chosen to escape suffering by entering an artificial slumber. Help those who remain by facing their inner struggles and appeasing their mind.

Customize your gameplay
Experiment with skill-crafting to create a wide array of deadly custom spells. Face over 50 challenging enemies and take on 22 formidable bosses, with their own strategies to bring you down.

Diverse Biomes
Discover six distinct environments, each with its own set of monstrous... Inhabitants.

Challenge yourself
With 4 patient difficulty tiers and an extensive skill tree to personalize your playstyle.

Endgame
Wantless reaches its full build creation and tactical challenge potential in the endgame, past the current end of the main storyline. Endgame content will be vastly extended with our first large Early Access update, planned for December 2023.

Early Access Launch Discount

To celebrate the launch you can enjoy a
10% discount until november 15
!

Help us Shape the Future of Wantless

Wantless is a labour of love by a small team of passionate developers. Your input will be invaluable in shaping the final release! So be sure to engage with fellow players, share your experiences online, and provide feedback. We have set up a dedicated website to collect everything you have to say! We cannot wait to read about your experience.

Join the Community!

You can find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or you may head over to our Discord server. We have also set up a community section over on Reddit where you can freely share and engage in discussions about Wantless.

Before we let you go on with your journey, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has supported us so far. Your enthusiasm and dedication have been instrumental in bringing "Wantless: Solace at World's End" to this point... And it's only the start!

Let the adventure begin now!