Introduction
Update 2.5, officially named Practice Makes Perfect, was the first update I worked on upon joining the team.
The goal of the update was to add new quality of life features, in order to ease the game’s difficulty curve.
Notable additions and changes
- NEW - Training Room
- New area in the first level of the game, where the player can go and train against different enemies and bosses, in a completely safe environment.
- NEW - Aspects
- New equippable items, only available before starting a new game, that have powerful effects designed to make the game easier.
- NEW - World Map
- Accessible through a button on the minimap, allows the player to see the connections between the different levels of the game.
- NEW - Flawless Outfits
- Upon killing a boss without taking any damage, the player can unlock a golden outfit representing the boss.
A full list of changes can be found on the Dead Cells Wiki.
What I worked on
I was the main programmer working on this update, and thus developed most of its features.
Training Room
The Training Room was the big feature of the update, and after a few brainstorms to define its contents, I was tasked with creating it. It is meant to be a sub-area of the first level, that the player can freely access in order to train with any weapon against any enemy/boss they want.
Entrance to the Training Room, in the HUB area.
The Training Room is a special, non-procedurally generated level in the game. It is made up of a few rooms, each with its own purpose:
- Entrance.
- Weapon Selection, a room with randomly generated gear.
- Fighting Dojo Door, a door leading to the “Fighting Dojo”, aka multiple rooms where the player can freely spawn mobs of their choice.
- Boss Corridor, a room with doors leading to all bosses in the game.
Simplified map of the Training Room. Screenshots taken in Tiled.
In order to make the Training Room work, a few systems had to be developed, notably:
- Infinite weapon tubes that constantly generate new weapons.
- Interactive objects that let the player choose which enemy to spawn.
- Buttons to spawn/reset enemies.
Mob statues can be interacted with to change their type. The button on the bottom left spawns the chosen enemies.
Aspects
Aspects are buffs that the player can equip before starting a new game. Only one can be equipped. They function similarly to Mutations, but with way stronger effects. They also lock post-final-boss progression, and as such are meant as a way for players to have fun with overpowered effects, rather than a true way of progressing through the game.
Aspects are progressively unlocked as the player dies, with a new one being available after each death.
Aspects menu, accessible through a NPC in the HUB area.
While the overall idea of the Aspects was already defined, the final effects were designed in tandem by me and the game designer, and I fully handled their technical implementation.
Minor contributions
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Flawless Outfits are collectibles, unlocked when the player manages to kill a boss without taking any damage. Their implementation was fairly easy, reusing pre-existing systems for dropping loot on bosses, and adding a “flawless” category.
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Bunch of quality of life changes.
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Bunch of bug fixes.