The first major Asciipocalypse content update is finally out! And it introduces some significant changes to the gameplay. First of all, 3 new monster types will appear throughout the dungeon, each of them with their own attack patterns and behaviours. On top of that, the monster AI is now much more clever - enemies will follow you out of the rooms, hide behind the obstacles if hurt, peek behind the corners if you do so, etc.

Secondly, the dungeon generation also has undergone some notable changes - rooms now contain various obstacles and interior features such as pillars or giant bottomless pits. The overall dungeon layout generation has been tweaked and rebalanced, which forces the player to think more strategically about moving from one room to another.

If that's not enough, a whole new achievement system with 38 unlockable entries (some of them pretty challenging) is now present in the game! And that's just the major stuff - the update adds much more smaller quality of life features and improvements. You can find the full detailed changelog at the end of this devlog.

As always, I'm more than glad to to receive any feedback and suggestions regarding the gameplay/performance/etc. Feel free to leave a comment and follow me if you're interested in any future updates :)

Full changelog

Dungeon generation

• Many new types of room interior features, eg.:
  • curved walls
  • pillars
  • giant pits
• Chance for two neighbouring rooms to merge into one
• Improved algorithm for corridor layout generation
  • less structured and less predictable
  • can contain loops
• Each floor is now almost guaranteed to contain exactly 6 pick-ups (3 skill, 2 armor, 1 health)

Monsters

• 3 new enemy types with unique attack patterns

• Improvements to AI - monsters can now:
  • follow you out of rooms
  • search for you if you hide behind a corner
  • hide themselves if close to a wall

38 achievements to unlock

Other minor gameplay changes:

• Changes to HUD
  • Pick-ups show up on the HUD minimap
  • HUD notifications (achievement unlock, floor unlock)
  • Hints when near the pick-up/exit
• Increased strafe speed
• Sprinting only affects walking forward and rotating
• Slightly brighter barrel texture

Some more technical changes and fixes - details on github page