Hey everyone, I'm back with (potentially) the final devlog of Oneiro!

Before I get into the 1.0 change log here, incase you weren't aware, Oneiro now has a steam page! So go check it out at the following link, let me know your thoughts on it, and wishlist it if you're interested!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1235800/Oneiro

Oneiro’s development has been at an awkward phase recently, as I’ve been transitioning it from a free game to a full release. So this is going to be one of the last few version changelogs of Oneiro - if not, the last one. Here’s everything that will be coming in the full 1.0 version of Oneiro.

Major changes

• 3rd Layer has been developed and implemented.
  • General theme of this Layer is caverns.
  • 5 new enemies + 1 miniboss & 1 boss
• Final Layer has been developed and implemented.
  • This is the only Layer of the Labyrinth that is not procedurally generated.
  • This Layer consists of of a single enemy, which is the final boss.
• The timer given for each dream sequence is set at 30 minutes, which can be manipulated by a gear that can drop from all enemies. This gear is Sleeping Medication, which extends the sleep timer by 30 extra seconds. Can be duplicated as well.
• I’ve added a subtle progression on the narrative the more you play the game. Different events will happen in the Real World, and the player will be able to talk with the NPCs and understand more about the games story and what it’s like on the Island.
  • There’s a ton new dialogue, and all of it has been rewritten. I spent a little while getting into character and writing the NPC’s dialogue, so I hope you enjoy them.
• Dream Essence is a new addition entirely. Essence works as the games currency and you acquire it from defeating enemies, with higher tiers of enemies giving out more.
  • Essence can be spent at something new called “Living Walls”, which are a couple randomly chosen walls in the Layer. They reveal themselves with a visual and sound cue when the player is near.
  • Living Walls will sell the following: One Common item, One Uncommon item, One Rare or Unique Item, and one “Lesson”.
    • Lessons are newly added, and they cost a large amount of essence, but for good reason. There are 5 lessons that can be purchased, one for each Base Stat. Lessons increase your stats base value by a small amount. “Base values” meaning- the values that are initially used before applying any bonuses you get from items/gear.
  • Living Walls are functionally the exact same as normal walls, meaning they can- and will- be destroyed if you aren’t careful. 
    • That being said, Living walls do have a sort of, threshold, in the sense that they will not be able to be taken out with a single hit if they have the full health value. They will always require at least 2 hits to break.
• Mimics are unique to all layers. In addition to this, chests differ between layers in terms of visuals now. Each of these mimics have different behaviors to give each layer a more unique feel.
• Several enemy AI’s have been upgraded to allow for an “advanced” version of their base AI.
  • These advanced AI’s are used in later layers to give new movement/attacks to enemies that would otherwise be a carbon copy of earlier enemies.  I figured this would be a better way to handle “duplicated” enemy AI and models, but still give the player a little something new to learn and fight against.
• Statistics have been added to the pause menu. This details some stats about the player such as amount of dreams, time spent in dreams, how many enemies defeated, how many layers conquered, etc etc.

Changes to Items & Gear

• There has been several new items added, and some items have been changed.
• The Gauntlet item has returned after being absent from the last update, and will now improve the base damage of your fists by 2.
• New Item: Ancient Crossbones - Gives the player an extra attack onto any normal attack combos. Found from the Skull enemy in the 3rd Layer.
• New Item: Black Powder - Gives the player a 5% chance to dodge an attack. Found within chests from the 3rd Layer.
  • Not applicable towards status effects.
• New Item: Plush Imp - Gives the player a short time frame of invincibility. Found from Imps in the 2nd Layer.
  • Not applicable towards status effects.
• New Item: Serpent’s Eye - Gives the players normal attacks a chance to paralyze foes. Found from chests in the 2nd Layer.
• Weapon Specific extraordinary items exist now. They are obtainable by defeating the Gold Mimic( The 3rd Layer miniboss). The item you get is dependent on which weapon the player had equipped at the time of defeating the mimic.
  • Swords: Knight’s Chainmail - 3 extra hits onto your sword combo
  • Spears: Marksmen Blessing - Automatically creates a copy of a thrown spear assuming you hit an enemy with it. This does not count towards the dream score
  • Hammer: Iron Gauntlet - Hammers alternative attack will cause a larger shockwave, as well as launch you upwards for extra mobility. You can interrupt the alternative attack with a normal combo.
  • Karambit: Ninja’s Scroll - Wielding Karambits make you faster, and unable to trigger traps in the Labyrinth. You can also move while performing a counter
  • Fists: Monks’ Aura - Fists become much more destructive, by increased attack speed, increased damage and a slight increase to attack range when using fists.

Notable Tweaks and Changes

• More patterns have been added to the generation, some of which are super bizarre, such as a 3x3 area that's only pitfalls/spikes
• Grapple Hooks will now be able to pull in weapons/items.
  • In addition to this, grapple hooks will have autotargeting to thrown spears. This allows for a very efficient method of travel.
• Traps can now be triggered from underneath the land, which sounds weird at first, but in practice it’s really good because you can trigger pitfalls from underneath the labyrinth.
• Health-increasing items will actually increase your current health in relation to your max hp.
• More options have been added, such as a target FPS setting, as well as a healthbar/damage number toggle.
• A rather common glitch was fixed where the player would get stuck at the top of the ladder and unable to climb up onto the land. Plenty other glitches have been fixed as well.
• More work was done in regards to the treasure chests. I’ve added code for the game to attempt to balance the contents of the chests, so getting 8 of one item purely through treasure chests is a lot less likely. Still can happen, but only if a few rare circumstances are met. 
  • Another thing to mention is that I've reduced the number of chests you'll find (as well as tweaked some item effects)
    • I lowered the amount, and in return I have some "dev influence" going on with pot destruction; players are now going to have a higher chance of getting Duplicators. This change allows for the player to feel like they have some control over their inventory, instead of relying on RNG from treasures.
• A couple pieces of music in the game have been improved, longer tracks, tweaked some instruments to help convey the correct feeling. The Title screen track is probably my favorite, closely followed by the final boss theme.
  
• Extra sound effects have been added for a couple enemies, and the player getting hurt. Some older sounds were improved.
• You are now able to mount weapons onto a weapon stand. This was added purely for those who want to stick with their fists, but don't want to miss out on the score they get for finding a new weapon

Additional Information

• Aside from Steam, I will (try to) launch the game on Itch.io, and Gamejolt.
• The planned release date is June 17th, 2021. Slightly above 2 1/2 years of work. This game took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I'm gonna save this kind of talk for a youtube video.
• The price for the game will be rather cheap at $4.99, along with a 10% launch discount to incentivize potential buyers.  I chose this price because of a few reasons...
  • I don't have a large following, so it'd suck to drive away any potential buyers with a high price tag.
  • Visually speaking, the games graphics aren't the best, nor is the sound. I personally feel the atmosphere is pretty good, but it's not something player can grasp until they play the game themselves- and the same argument goes towards the gameplay.
  • I never planned to make a living off of this game. Really, the driving force for me to finish this game is so I have something flashy on my resume, so high price tag isn't really necessary for this in mind.

• I'll be keeping an eye on the discussion forms as well as the community hub in general on Steam. 
• Depending on how I feel, I'll be updating the game over time for a short while. There's a few things I want to add, but there are simply more important things to work on in order for me to get this done by June 17th.

So there you have it, the games coming to completion and I couldn't be more excited. 

Thanks for checking this devlog out, and spread the word about the Steam page if you find the project interesting.