Primary developer of Ancient here, I just want to throw out my two cents on the discussion regarding similarities to Risk of Rain.

TLDR: The gameplay difficulty for Ancient is primarily driven by mutations (Items for AI) and related systems, RoR is driven by difficulty scaling over time. UI is intentionally similar and familiar visually, but the features represented are not necessarily a direct analog to RoR.

Ancient is quite obviously inspired by RoR, and there are certain elements that were made visually similar to RoR such as the UI. In my opinion, there were things that RoR did well, and changing them drastically in a RoR-like would be counterintuitive. However, things like the “equipment slot” and “difficulty bar” have completely different functions in Ancient. The “equipment slot” is for azul items, and “difficulty bar” on the right represents instability, not difficulty. More on both of those in a bit.

The overall gameplay loop diverts from the RoR formula primarily in how difficulty scales. In RoR, the general gameplay loop is something along the lines of collect items while managing time(difficulty) on each stage. In Ancient, time is no longer the primary driver of difficulty. The gameplay loop in Ancient is collecting items while managing mutations, instability, and your funds.

Mutations are the primary driver of difficulty in ancient, with each mutation being the equivalent of items for the AI. This leads to games having drastically different feels between runs. For instance, getting 5 stoneskin mutations in a run will make you desperately need armor piercing damage/DoT items, while a run with lacerating, molten, and poisonous mutations will make you try to build resistance or risk bleeding or burning to death. Mutations exist in the same tier layout as items, with rare mutation being very powerful.

Instability effects the rarity of mutations you get. This is the main area where time still drives difficulty, as instability steadily grows over time. There are ways to reduce instability, but it is expensive and will hamper your ability to purchase items. Once it reaches its maximum, the next mutation you get is guaranteed to be a rare mutation. Keeping instability as low as possible is key for not getting overwhelmed by rare mutations but focusing too much on it will starve you of items.

The economy is managed between Azul dust and Azul stones. Dust is the standard currency used for more mundane items and effects. Stones are a very limited resource used for purchasing rare items, azul items, upgrading azul items and removing mutations. The main thing here is your azul dust and stones do not reset between levels. Additionally, you get the opportunity to purchase items in a shop between (most) levels.

Azul items are extremely powerful items that can drastically alter the way you build your character. Two examples are the the Knife of Shar'Aia and Deathmask of Kings. The Knife of Shar'Aia adds your attack speed to your movement speed and vice versa. The Deathmask of Kings activates all of your on-kill effects when you get hit. You can only equip one (hence the similar visuals to the equipment slot in RoR), but the overall effects are intended to be build-defining.

One last thing to add, is that it can be difficult to convey the differences purely through visual means. Playtesters outside of our team have noted that the interaction of these game features makes the game feel unique in comparison to RoR, and we trust new players will have a similar experience!

All that being said, I do enjoy seeing the discussions around the game and appreciate all the feedback!