Hi everyone! 👋 It’s Cesar Torres here with another update on Legions Survivor! This time, I’m thrilled to share some major updates, including improvements to enemies, scaling difficulty, and the release of the first playable demo! 🎉

First Playable Demo is Here! 🎮

After weeks of hard work, I’m excited to announce that the first playable demo of Legions Survivor is now available! This is a big milestone for me as a beginner developer, and I can’t wait for you to try it out. 🚀

The demo gives you a taste of the core gameplay:

• Fight waves of enemies with your growing arsenal of spells.
• Experiment with upgrades to find powerful combinations.
• Test your skills as the game gets progressively harder!

Your feedback is incredibly valuable, so please let me know what you think. Whether it’s bugs, balance issues, or new ideas, I’d love to hear from you! 💬

What’s New in Legions Survivor ⚔️

Here’s a look at what I’ve been working on recently:

• Enemy Variety: 🧟👾 I’ve added new enemies. Some enemies are fast and fragile, while others are slow and tanky, keeping the gameplay dynamic and fresh.  I have implemented the use of scriptable objects to set the stats of enemies when they are spawned this will speed the enemy creation process.
• Scaling Difficulty: 📈 To keep players on their toes, I’ve implemented a scaling factor that increases enemy stats (like health and damage) as time progresses. The longer you survive, the tougher it gets!
• Enemy Spawner Optimization: 🎰 The spawner system has been updated to manage waves more effectively. Using a list of stage events to inform the enemy spawner how many and what type of enemy should spawn (Scriptable objects magic!!).  Using scriptable objects to send information specific to the current level will allow me to design different spawn patterns for each level.
• Spell Upgrade System Optimization: 🛠️✨ The upgrade system now ensures:
  • No Duplicate Upgrades: Players won’t see the same upgrade option multiple times in a single selection.
  • Unique Upgrades: Some upgrades can only be obtained once per run, making them feel more special. (Spells unlocks)
• GameOver and Level Complete Panels: Updated the visuals of the gameover and level completed panel and added buttons to replay or go back to the menu. 

Lessons Learned 🛠️📚

This phase of development came with new lessons and insights:

• Designing Enemy Variety is Complex: Balancing enemy types to create interesting interactions with spells and upgrades is an art! Definitely plan to add more variations like Range Enemies and Bosses in the future!
• Scaling Challenges: Finding the right progression curve for enemy difficulty took a lot of tweaking to ensure the game remains fun but challenging.

 I tested different ways to scale the experience required for the player to level up and then see how many enemies would need to be killed to achieve those levels so I could have an idea of how many enemies to spawn. 

For hp and damage, scaling did some tests also so that I could balance the initial damage values for spells so they scale well with their respective upgrades.

From this process also I realized that the number of enemies that will be used in a playable game is huge and that is why I'm planning to implement a pooling system for enemies and spells to improve performance.

• Iterating on Systems is Key: Revisiting and optimizing existing features (like the upgrade system) was time-consuming but worth it—it’s now much smoother and more rewarding for players.

What’s Next? 🚀

With the demo out, I’ll be focusing on gathering feedback and refining the game further. Here’s what’s next on the horizon:

• Demo Feedback: Analyzing player feedback to improve gameplay, balance, and overall polish. 📋

• Advanced Enemy Behaviors: Developing enemies with special abilities to further challenge players. ⚔️
• Object Pooling: I plan to implement an object pooling system to boost the performance of the game. 📋

Try the Demo and Share Your Feedback! 🎮💬

The first playable demo is a significant step, and I’d love for you to try it out! Your feedback will help shape the future of Legions Survivor. Let me know what you think—what you love, what needs work, or what features you’d like to see next!