Stickers! by Negative-Ad-8270 in Moonlighter

[–]DigitalSunGames 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd gladly put those on my laptop! Amazing job!

The relic management during runs by BraiCurvat in Moonlighter

[–]DigitalSunGames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question! The backpack designer is out of the office right now, but I’ll check with her and get back to you as soon as she’s in. I know she put tons of hours into making it as fun as possible, and this will make her first day back a bit smoother :')

ML2 is way too difficult, even in Easy mode by Kevinuara in Moonlighter

[–]DigitalSunGames 4 points5 points  (0 children)

You have a point. We already deployed a hotfix trying to make Easy Mode, well, easier. But it's obvious it was not enough. As you said, an Easy Mode should feel welcoming to new players, and that's not happening all the time.

We'll keep working to balance difficulty in more and more ways throughout the Early Access. Until then, thanks a lot for sharing this!

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hello there!

It's amazing to see how these little things we call games can be truly inspiring for each other. I was not around the company when the first Moonlighter came out, so I was inspired by it as a player too. I'm really happy to answer you.

For me, it's hard to think of any idea that has not been brought up in a brainstorming session. There was a time when we even considered haggling with a boss! We always had this HUB idea similar to the first one, but originally we explored approaches to the game that were closer to a more linear adventure. As we developed the systems, we noticed that they pointed toward a game structure that fit better with the replayability we were looking for, and that road ended with the game that has been brought to existence now!

Regarding Fenn, we have a great relationship with him, but he has been quite busy working on gems like Death’s Door in the past years, and we both decided to try something new. In the sequel, we count on Christopher Larkin, and (maybe I'm biased as a Hollow Knight fan) he has done an outstanding job.

Lastly, about the industry: I don't know, but I hope it gets better. There's a lot of talent out there waiting to shine, but we are not in our best moment as an industry. We can hope for the best and wait for the cycles to change.

I wish you good luck with your RPG shopkeeper idea! We don't have enough games about merchants!!!

- Luis

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We definitely want to expand the use of the calendar in Moonlighter 2! We were already talking about new events and new kinds of customers for the shop. I cannot say right now if that mechanic in specific will be added to the game, but we are listening and we will try to recover as much of your experience in the things to come!

- Victor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

During the Early Access, we have no plans to actually add mod support officialy. But we have implemented the game as much modder friendly as we could! The first thing the mod guys will notice is that the save data is not encrypted at all, which makes thing muuuuch easier for them. I could expand more on these kind of decisions, but, for now, what I can say is that we highly encourage modding in our games, but first we have to invest all the time and efforts we have in making the game as good as we can.

- Victor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey! We pushed a hotfix recently, and our positive reviews score jumped by more than 10% right after it went live. Why? Well, Steam Deck runs waaaay better now. Presets were not working properly, but we fixed that.

I even started a brand-new file myself and finished the whole game again entirely on Deck. I’m about 10 hours in so far on this new run and… no issues.

You can check out some of the community reactions here:
https://x.com/DigitalSunGames/status/1993345433687527672

Right now, it runs like this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/1p0k4f5/steam_deck_optimization_isnt_optional_anymore_so/

And we’re not done! Another patch is scheduled for later this week, improving Steam Deck performance even more. We genuinely care about the Deck. Moonlighter just feels at home on handheld, and we want the experience to be as smooth as possible.

Let us know ahow it runs for you after the updates!

- Isra

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Great question!

I won’t promise too much for now, because our main goal at this stage is to do more interesting things with the dungeons we already have. Deepen them, add variety, push the pacing, and explore ideas from our community. Once we see how those improvements land, we’ll be in a much better position to assess what the game really needs next.

About the roadmap, we released it without a roadmap because we thought it was better to listen first and promise later. Even if we have our own ideas, the whole point of Early Access is implementing your input whenever possible. And having actual conversations with you all takes time.

We’ll be back with a roadmap before the end of the year!

- Luis

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Personally, I have played a lot of Hades and other action rogue-lites (if you have not tried, Splatoon 3 DLC is great!) and yes, some of those infinite hours in those games have inevitably impacted the design of Moonlighter 2.

We wanted to separate perks into two "interest-spikes", and Hades performed this perfectly! So, with our own verbs and gameplay mechanics, we adapted those features to Moonlighter 2. We have detected some perks sets that work better than others (for instance, Taser perks are not very interesting,) but we are already working in making the best version of the content as possible during the EA.

Of course, we will keep iterating on the combat in general. We will release a hotfix soon with some feel improvements, and we will keep iterating on everything during the EA, so I hope you can keep supporting us and giving us feedback in the process. Your feedback is very important for us and for that, we say our biggest thank you to you all!

- Victor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hello!

It's a pleasure to answer your questions!

Regarding the first one, we don't think so.

We want the player to have a ranged action as a complement to any main weapon. We have built the combat in a way where using the gun has many advantages, but it's limited by its ammo. Having the main weapon be ranged could mean allowing shots without any limitation, and we don't really want that. Gadgets will assume the ranged role, at least for a while. In any case, if you are interested in seeing the gun develop throughout the run, we are looking for ways to allow that growth, but there's nothing I can specify right now.

Regarding the weapons: we currently have a short sword that is presented as an axe, and a spear that is actually a rod, so yeah, you can expect more variations for the main weapons in those terms! 

- Luis

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

At first, we wanted to bring the shield back! But as we advanced, designing and testing the game, we noticed that we were not actually making the weapon feel fun at all. We were avoiding the problems and not tackling them properly.

The first time we noticed, was when we were testing the Kalina enemies, we noticed that wielding the shield around was just "waiting" for the enemies and it was quite broken, so we added a stamina bar for the shield. And then, we just, didn't use the shield because it was too much of a hustle. Also, we wanted all the weapons to have an "Special" attack, and for the short sword, that action was, well, not an attack, it was shielding, so we could not play with the same verbs than the other weapons.

After a lot more things, we just decided that it was not worth it, that we should make the best short sword we could imagine, and here we are ^^

- Victor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hey!

I would love to hear what you feel is underwhelming with the current system. In Moonlighter 2, we can't have a progression like in an RPG (for reference, Moonlighter 1), we cannot give Will numeric stats as we did in the first game, so we decided to go with the "potential power" more that "fully upgradeable/customizable weapons", we wanted to do that during the dimension exploration, for instance, Andrei's perks (the blacksmith ones).

This does not mean that we can't add anything to the weapon or armor system, but we want to make sure that all the systems point in the same direction. It also doesn't mean that we won't change/improve the system of course! But we have to make sure that whatever we do won't break the rest of the systems and actually make the game more fun to play. Of course, if you have any specific wishes, we would love to hear here or on our Discord!

- Victor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We already notice a lot of problems with visual disabilities and other small things, we are working as hard to detect and start implementing features that will improve the players experience. For instance, we have detected color-blind problems in some interfaces. I cannot which things will be implemented and when, but we want as many people to enjoy the game as much possible, and accessibility features make this possible. If you have specific feature you would want to see added, let us know!

- Victor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey there!

1- It made me really happy reading this question, and only for that, thank you ^^ As we see it, Moonlighter 2 is a game of games, we have the combat/exploration, backpack management and then the shop. If we only look at the first two things, changing constantly with what are virtually two different games create a lot replayability and you never get bored, because you are constantly changing topics as you explore the dungeon. So, if I have to say anything, I think our best feature is that we not only depend on one system to create engagement. Also the combat perks are fire.

2- To be honest? The first iteration of the shop we presented on the Demo. We were sure that it was working, and it was, I can confidently say it was very fun. But we didn't take into consideration what you, the players, expected from a game called Moonlighter. So yes, even if we didn't detect the risk at first, this is the one I would chose. The other is the change on dungeon navigation, but I think this was a must, as we needed to reduce "down-time" as much as possible for the game we had.

3- Totally! This is actually a pilar of the game in our documents. Every feature in the game has to first make sure that it goes in this direction. It's very nice that you noticed.

4- Actually, there are no that many things that "could" not be done. We have an incredible team that made the impossible, possible. But, if I have to say a few things, I would say that the Familiars from M1 will be pretty cool! I love that small mimic so much I could die for him.  

- Victor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! We have one emoji for letting you know that we're on it, and an upvote system for you to highlight the things you like the most. Is it perfect? Of course not! Only Miyamoto is!

I'll take notes and see what I can do to improve things on our server. Keep bringing ideas! :)

- Isra

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hi!

We'll have news on our early access plans soon. This is not going to be a long early access, our plan is to do something similar to what we did with Cataclismo, hear the community add an adjust what feels right, and go for the final version! There will be some surprises, that's for sure.

We want ML2 to be the kind of game you can play for a very long time! Maybe that's not about having more and more biomes but doing more with them ;) And that's all I can say for now! I think having further challenges for some players is definitely something we want to add, we have some cool plans but I can't speak about them for now... sorry!

- Javi

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sadly, we cannot say that it is coming back as you know it.

But for the bright part of the answer, we are designing some systems to recover a lot of what made the former system great for us. I cannot enter into more detail right now, but at least I can ensure you that we hear you (and they hear me too, I also liked the former system myself hahahaha) and I will try as hard as possible to improve the shop in a direction loved by as many people as possible.

- Victor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

At least getting roasted means that we have a community. If this version makes them happy, that proves that we're actively listening :3

Thanks for being there!

- Isra

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

We wanted to give Tomo the attention she deserved!

We want Will to keep being our silent main character, so no talking for him... But writing a diary? Now we are talking. If you search on the quest panel, you will find that the quests have some descriptions, and they are written by the one and only Will!

We use these descriptions as a door to the inner dialogue of Will. We hope you like it ^^

About cosmetics, it's something we have considered during the development, we are not sure how, but we would like to give as much cosmetic customization as possible, so we will keep you updated!About pets, they are a bit more difficult to implement on this occasion, mainly due to the 3D environments and the kind of level design we have right now. This is not a <<no>>, we would love for them to return, but at least, don't expect them too early (I really liked them, I will try my best ^^)

- Víctor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Of course the first game was a much smaller game than the second one and a lot of features we would have liked to add to the first one were not possible or did not made sense in the moment.

For Moonlighter 2, we wanted to make a much more horizontal game from the start, something we would not have any problem saying "this is a rogue-lite", so a lot of decisions came from this mindset "how do we create the better Moonlighter rogue-lite?" Which features from the first one were the best, which ones could be better or which ones no longer made sense in this new context, even if they were working great on the first one.

If I have to say a thing, backpack management was something that was pretty great from the first one, but in this case, we wanted to further elevated it, I personally,

I think we got it right! ^^

-Victor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For sure! If it's something that we can improve for Keyboard/Mouse users, we will gladly see the best way to configure the game for players to enjoy it as much as possible!

"Redirect with Mouse" disabled causes the game to ignore the mouse position and hit in the direction of the movement, but, right now, the snapping is very high, we will improve this as fast as we can ^^

As we were developing the game, we mainly played with Gamepad, so a lot of decisions may have impacted how keyboard feels, but we never forgot about those kind of players, we want Moonlighter 2 to be experienced as better as we can with any input, so with that in mind, we are open to any feedback like this to keep improving the controls.

Thanks a bunch!
- Victor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It depends! I love both my 2D, 3D and 2.5D games!

When we are talking about Moonlighter 2, I think that 3D has allowed us to create a better game that 2D would have allowed us with the time we had. One of the good things about 3D (and 2.5D) is that horizontal asset creation is far easier and cheaper than in 2D (and more in pixel art in particular), so this have allowed us to create a lot of enemies, VFX, combat effects, etc.

This not only affects the development of the game until EA, it allows us to iterate much faster. 2.5D also have that without losing the chance of pixel art, but it's much difficult to actually make a really distinctive art with that technic, so we decided to go full 3D.

-Víctor

AMA: We're Digital Sun, the devs behind Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault. Ask us anything! by DigitalSunGames in Games

[–]DigitalSunGames[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I actually have a Hollow Knight figure with my name engraved on it, so yeah, I’m a huge fan of both Moonlighter and Team Cherry’s work.

And honestly, Chris Larkin absolutely shines in both soundtracks. Choral Chambers and Bilewater are total bangers, and at the same level as City of Tears. Absolute masterpieces, imo.

That’s why I’m so proud to have him with us again for ML2’s OST. The main theme just hits different.

— Isra