Contributions

It's been a month since the first demo was released. In the meantime, I focused on improving the system related to items, which is the core of the gameplay:

1. Inventory
   
2. Different rewarding systems
   
3. Item Exchange

Before we start, there are some things that I need to explain first. Dimension Breaker is a 'stage survival rogue-lite game' where the presence of items is paramount in the game. Therefore, our team devised various items and implemented some of them in the game. In our initial plan, players should be able to use unlimited numbers of items at once without restriction, and we also envisioned a synergy system between the items.

However, there was a problem during the playtest. Playtesters had trouble managing many different weapons at once because weapon items have their own playstyle. Therefore, "how do we prevent players' confusion if they have weapon items with conflicting playstyle" has become a big concern for our team.

So we decided to set limits on the number of items that the player can have at once. Instead, we added a function to enhance the item if the players choose the item they already have from the reward. This feature allows players to plan for future gameplay by choosing whether to continue to use existing items by reinforcing them or exchanging them with new items.

1. Inventory

The inventory has a total of two UIs. There is a simplified UI that always displays all current weapon items in use at the top left corner of the screen and a UI that displays all weapons (3 slots in the top row) and artifacts (items boost the players' stats. 5 slots in the bottom row) with pause the game by Tab button.

- Why 3 weapons and 5 artifacts?

(*The total number of items adjustment needs a playtest.)

First of all, in the case of weapons, we set them to three, which are considered the most balanced numbers. Below this number of available weapons is likely to feel too little, and more weapons would confuse the player. 

The reason why the number of artifacts is set to five is simple. Because artifacts only raise the player's stats.

2. Different rewarding systems

The above image demonstrates both types of rewards systems.

1. Level Up
2. Chest Pick Up

The existing reward system randomly selected three options from all lists of items in the data and provided them to the player. The player can select and acquire one of these. I set this as a reward for the level up. Because we had to provide a means for the player to be stronger to survive, I decide providing it through killing monsters which is what players have to do anyway. Through it, we encourage players to do not just run away from monsters, but actively hunt them down. Meanwhile, the new reward system is available through box pick-up items that you will get as a reward if you clear the stage or kill the occasional elite monsters. This reward is effective in enhancing the weapon that the player wants because the option is determined by the items the player currently has.

3. Item Exchange

Lastly, it's about exchanging items. As I explained earlier, we have limited the number of items that players can carry. This feature allows the player to choose whether enhance the item that the player will continuously use or exchange one of the equipped items with one of the new options.

This function has been implemented to solve the case of 'reaching the retention limit with only unwanted rewards' that occurred during the playtest.