Dev Diary #3 – The New Game Mode & More
By Hello Mages!
We’re back with another Dev Diary to talk about the future of Revenge of the Mage. First of all, we want to thank each and every one of you who played the game, shared feedback, wrote reviews, and supported us throughout this journey. Your input has been incredibly valuable, and we’ve been carefully analyzing everything you’ve said since the day we launched.
Over time, a few recurring themes stood out in the feedback we’ve received. We want to take this opportunity to acknowledge those points, share our thoughts, and give you a clearer picture of how we’re planning to address them in the coming updates.
Most Mentioned Topics Since the Start of Early Access
Repetitive Gameplay & Lack of Content Variety
One of the most common pieces of feedback has been that the gameplay loop feels repetitive. Many players noted that missions tend to follow a similar structure and that the design doesn’t offer enough variety to keep things feeling fresh over time. We hear you loud and clear.
- A new Game Mode: ”Darkest Deep” (Endless Arena) that plays differently from the current ones. Each run will feature unique encounters with enemies and bosses from all multiverses. This is a mid-sized arena fight that only ends if the player dies. Players have to survive as long as they can. After entering the Darkest Deep player has to take the light source to start the fight. The max range of the visibility is limited, the arena has a dim light, and the only bright light source is the player himself. It’s hard to see the edge of the arena. Players can increase the radius of the light they carry, but in time, the light will diminish and return to its base value. We will introduce more details for this game mode later.
- We also plan to include a leaderboard to track top performers.
- Introducing new enemy types over time to keep gameplay dynamic for all Multiverses. These will be rolled out in regular updates as they’re completed, rather than bundled into large, infrequent patches.
- Balancing the Cards, Power-Ups, Difficulty, Leveling, and Currencies will continue with the feedback.
Optimization & Performance Issues
We know performance has been a concern. Frame drops and stuttering have affected the experience for some players, particularly in specific multiverses.
- We’re actively working on optimization and will continue to roll out performance-focused updates to improve stability across all supported hardware.
- The Forest multiverse had the most noticeable performance issues at launch. We’ve already addressed many of them in previous patches. This same deep-dive process will continue for each multiverse to ensure a smooth, stable experience overall.
Weak Storytelling & Lore
Players have been asking for a deeper narrative and stronger world-building. The current storytelling has been seen as too shallow to sustain long-term engagement. That’s fair — and to be honest, during the early stages of Early Access, we intentionally focused more on core gameplay first. But now, the time has come to bring the story into the spotlight.
- Our most recent patch focused on improving cinematics and immersion. All boss encounters will now include intro cutscenes, and we’ll continue filling in the missing scenes across multiverses.
- We’re planning to expand environmental storytelling to make the worlds feel more alive and detailed.
- We’ll add flavor text to cards, spells, items, and Ancestors to help deepen the lore and give players more insight into the story.
More on the Horizon
In addition to the key topics above, we have many more features and improvements in the works, but these are probably getting the priority:
- Achievements – For those who want to chase every goal and collect everything.
- Leaderboards – Compete and compare your best runs with others.
- Ancestral Talent Board – Expand your build possibilities and customization. Here you can see the concept design of Ancestral Talent Board; the details about this feature will be introduced later.
- Smuggler – A mysterious new character who can secure your goods before you fall and lose them. The Smuggler will appear randomly during runs. Interacting with him will pause the game — you’ll be able to hand over items you want to protect, and then he’ll vanish. You’ll find him later at The Safe Haven (HUB), where you can reclaim the items he safeguarded.
- Shop Vendor – A new zone featuring a vendor who offers valuable goods and services in exchange for your hard-earned gold and other currencies. It’s a place to stock up, trade, and make choices that could influence your run.
- Shrines of Magic – Shrines will appear randomly on the level, or maybe not. Upon interaction and purchase, the player will have a chance to receive a Random Card, Power-Up, or Temporary Upgrade until the boss is defeated. There will be a base gold cost, and it will increase by 25% with each activation. And will be activated for a limited number of times. There is a chance of not getting any reward.
- Destructibles – To add more interaction and chaos to the environment.
- Tutorial Level – To better onboard new players into the game systems.
- Deck Building – Unlock new cards to use them in multiverses.
That’s it for this diary— we’re incredibly excited for what’s ahead, and we’re thankful to have such a supportive and passionate community with us on this journey. As always, your feedback means everything, so keep it coming!
Our renewed Roadmap is here
Until next time;
— The Revenge of the Mage DEV Team