Minimalist Exilelike ARPG with DEPTH: My Spellblade FLICKERSTRIKE Build in DARK HUNTING GROUNDS

[@akitake_]

As someone who can code, has always wanted to make a game, but can't do art, this is inspiring!

[@ragura]

Don’t underestimate the difficulty of producing art such as in this game though.

[@akitake_]

@ragura oh I know, but the monochromatic style plus minimalist art is approachable for anyone motivated enough

[@D.Rodri.]

Nowadays isn't exactly hard to create art for games that looks quite okay to use and sell (artists that do crazy good art are on another level and have years of experience, this is not competing with those). Here are two good examples of what lots of indies use: - Vector art. With free programs like Inkscape enabling it you only need some experience with image editing to get somewhere. The idea here is to create perfect lines with the help of math by adding dots to specific places and connecting them all together with each of their unique layers to end with something that looks good. Lots of tutorials are around on KZbin and you can even use it to create pixel art like some indie devs do. - 3D models with Blender that look like 2D sprites. This crazy good program is used a lot to create 3D models. One little thing that many don't know is that you can export the frames of the animations as 2D sprites through an add-on if needed. A bunch of indie games do this and in a lot of cases nobody right away notices it.

[@johnh290]

you should check out godot its really easy to get a basic 2d game off the ground in it

[@SusYangYang]

This is like the 5th game I'm trying because of your recommendation and I love it every time. Keep 'em coming!

[@ZiggyDGaming]

✅ LOOT CAT ✅ SKILL TRANSPARANCY SLIDER ✅ AUTOSALVAGE ✅ EXILELIKE

[@nightxwolf2704]

ty for showcasing the game i bought it and end up making a crazy elemental summons build crazy fun

[@erikkremzner1662]

Definitely worth playing, I recommend pushing to out least when you unlock the abyss cores system which are basically... set bonuses and the end game crafting. The dps will scale well into the trillions and i feel the defensive layers are pretty much all the same for all builds after a while as there are only so many of them. You eventually unlock an endless abyss mode... like a delve style where the damage will and tankiness will keep scaling up indefinitely. Hope they add some more content in, it was alot of fun to min max gear and create cool builds, but pushing 1000+ abyss is not a ton of fun, the damage will eventually one shot you even with all the defensive layers, I've never gotten past abyss 1100.

[@iFoss]

What build are you playing? Trying to find some end-game ones to try out

[@Flamewarden_Honoushugoshin]

This game is WILD, within 24 hours of seeing your video I got hooked, made a summoner that spams out 10 dudes that each uses miniature versions of your build, hit for 260 million dps on the dummy and heal 50% of my 1,500hp 7 times a second with capped out resistances and 40% dodge. Still die to running into the spike ball dudes sometimes though... Seriously though it's really impressive how fast you can get to end game, realize this little 10 dollar game has WAY more synergistic complexity than you thought, and be ready to try a dozen different variants of a crazy build that seems like it's breaking the game, yet still feel like the one wrong move will lead to either falling on your face if you are a glass canon or running into a DPS check if you are a tank (or both even if you feel strong on all fronts). The Bosses are WAY too good for what you expect just looking at the minimalist performance-first art, seriously some of them are legit on par with some pinnacle fights in Torchlight Infinite or even some in PoE, assuming you are fighting them on a difficulty you haven't out-scaled. Speaking of the scaling difficulty, while it is a bit repetitive, and the bestiary seems small, I noticed that not only does the player keep getting new skills and tricks long past level cap and into the endgame, but the same enemy you fought moments ago might just have some crazy teleport into "react, noob" screen-wiper hitbox that you swear they didn't have the last 5 times. It's genuinely the distilled essence of AARPG game loop, run content, get gear, craft gear, run harder content for better stuff and more crafting mats, yes somehow has already felt like it has reinvented itself a dozen times in as many hours. I'm currently finishing up Purple (epic) skull difficulty and tidying up my build with Abyss Eyes, even if the game starts to level out now, I know there are at least a dozen other builds I can come back to, and I know that since there is no long walks and backtracking I can have them end-game viable in a few sessions, even taking it casually.... Warning: if you are like me, this game is CRACK, a cheap, efficient hit that leaves you wondering why more games don't do the dozen or so simple, obvious things this one does....then you realize probably because they aren't trying to be the leanest, meanest 1.7gb AARPG in the world but trying to take up 100gb of 4k art assets you wont look at anyway, but you do appreciate them. Look, if you want narrative and sprawling level design, this game does NOT have it. If you want to frantically mash some wacky RPG mechanics together and blast until you get blasted or can blast no more, this game is AMAZING for that. I may only have known about this game for a little over a day or so, but I signed up for a good time, not a long time, and honestly if there end up being serious content updates throughout the Early access, I might just get both!

[@ZiggyDGaming]

That's so awesome to hear mate, I love getting comments like this when I cover random indie games that I like! Sounds like you've already gotten so much value out of it!

[@TirpitzLuminare]

Been playing this since Nov. when it was still a free demo. 100% recommend this game.

[@kc-lz8gs]

Thank you! I love little games like this. :)

[@Slagomancer]

You got me playing Chronicon so now I have to try this as well. Thanks for sharing.

[@Phegan]

ExileLike!!!

[@taronzgaming7739]

So you got me tinkering after this video came out. I have a fully afk summoner with an army of PocketPohxes charging at enemies. They are permanent minions though I do also have them auto recasting to keep up infusion as I'm 30/30 in Scholar and Summoner trees (MoM + Minion deferred damage is prety wild as a defensive layer). There is another customization system not shown here as Ziggy isn't up to it yet in the form of things called Abyssal Eyes. They are a set bonus for "class identities" sort of. Of which so far I have farmed 3 ranks of Soul Master, which defers a massive amount of damage to my tankiest minion, while making that minion even tankier. I do need to work on mana regen a bit more for afking, since -some- nasty elite combos (you can force multi-elites in the mapping mode with some affixes) almost break through my mana at my current 2 purple skull difficulty with about 400 mana/sec regen with... not super optimised gear for it yet. Good game so far, definitely worth a tinker :)

[@jpVari]

Ive put a lot of time into vampire survivors style games the last 3 years. So many of em and they're cheap. But I really hope this catches on, I prefer the depth of games where you do full builds rather than quick runs but they satisfied the basic desires of an arpg. Gotta try this and see where it lands.

[@lp24300]

I played DARK HUNTING GROUNDS for more than 2 weeks. I think it shows extreme farming and freedom of building as a core value in POElike. what I mean is, that the craft is simplified to a very low level, and the player can spend time on the farm and study to the build only, and no punishment for change build (and almost no action complete with POE2((even poe2 don't have action in end game, so sad))). PS: It still has many bugs and imbalances in the game right now.

[@evotech]

looks fun, think ill pick it up a bit later once its had some development time

[@FoxiiGSK]

Great fun game - use Xmouse button to attack 😊

[@zxkredo]

Instatnt buy! Sorry for not watching more than 4 minutes but I realyl dotn wann get myself spoiled! ps. Wiritng this after playing a bit and I also instantly fell in love with the "flicker" :D

[@DiegoSzad]

Missing steam link. After Chronicon, i take every recommendation you give at least a try.

[@cybersosis]

Diablo 2 is my fav exile like game.

[@TadFiish]

Im only half way though, but for Focus, it is removed on crit. Since you added more crit chance, its removing quicker than before? Unless I'm missing something.

[@Shishanann]

Is this the Path of Achra of ARPGs?

[@ZiggyDGaming]

That's a cool game, I binged it a bit a while back.

[@MrChelo1998]

Watched the first 2 minutes, proceeded to buy the game and play for 15 hours on 2 days. I'm watching the rest of the video now 😅

[@ZiggyDGaming]

Haha, amazing! Sounds like you've definitely got your money's worth too! How's your build cooking?

[@MrChelo1998]

@@ZiggyDGaming Awesome! Went with Nova stacking AoE and also triggering lightning strike. Then went with Scattering but changed into Rain of Arrows with a relic for more AoE. This is on an automation setup also triggering LS. On the passive went with Focus and Infusion effect + MOM for defense. Now I'm trying to cap block and dodge to AFK on the orange difficulty :D

[@bmnbl]

Isnt it amazing that we just got POE2 the most anticipated ARPG in decades, the "messiah", and we already have tons of players wanting to go back to POE1 or even ANY other new ARPG that looks/feels interesting?

[@ZiggyDGaming]

It's not too surprising, it's been over 2 months. There's a reason they historically aimed for 3 month leagues, because around the 2 month mark the majority are finished and have reached their goals or gotten distracted by another game. The really amazing thing is how high the player count still is. Considering PoE2s many issues and unfinished state it's shown remarkable retention.

[@Ankh.of.Gaming]

Does the difficulty of the hunts go up forever? If it does, does it really matter that OP builds exist if they will run into a wall eventually? (Because player power does not seem to be scaling indefinitely.) Maybe that's the "solution" to out of control player builds?

[@ZiggyDGaming]

@@Ankh.of.Gaming I'm not sure the limits, it seems like you can indeed push things to insane levels. I think it's fine for op build to exist! I just thought it worth mentioning that my first five hours were super easy and it takes a while for the scaling to catch up.

[@TheTreydogg27]

Why not link to the game chief?

[@ZiggyDGaming]

@@TheTreydogg27 oops, just forgot! I'll add a link to the description

[@isaacbenrubi9613]

Exilesque

[@Peter_Tissot]

omg even at Level 1 im faster than POE 2 endgame!

[@nerdvananc]

Another tempest strike herald of thunder monk build 😂😂

[@shartonamonday5085]

Poe 2 is shit, change my mind

[@Jingoo94]

My brother is christ, this is Vampire Survivors demake

[@ZiggyDGaming]

The Survivorlike genre is pretty similar to the ARPG genre. But outside of those similarities inherent to the genres this game has more in common with PoE or Diablo than Vampire Survivors, despite looking more similar to the latter. Not being roguelike/lite is one of the biggest differences, but the loot and power progression is the other one. (Even though some survivorlikes are experimenting with ARPG loot lately).

[@sethjones6711]

Poe 1> D4>whatever this game is> D3>wolcen>Poe 2

[@SpookyDeluxe]

D4 > POE2 is an insane take lol

[@jordanearl5449]

if it was priced correctly i'd try it, but sorry this aint worth no 10$ ... holy moly.

[@ZiggyDGaming]

Yeah, I'd say with the depth and systems it has probably $15-20 USD would be more fair. Seems a steal at $10.

[@ryanbach9929]

There's a free trial if you don't want to dive into "almost double digit price tag" territory blind.

[@derekboardman9995]

If someone can make such a simple game cool and fun, then you have to know that POE2 and D$4 are shitty on purpose. At first I accidently typed "$" instead of "4", but Diablo "$" seems very apropriate.

[@Brakmek11823]

>PoE2 >Shitty >Lumped with D4 Lol okay

[@derekboardman9995]

@@Brakmek11823 D4 seems to be about 100 times worse for sure, but the similarities are there. They're both sequels to games that took years to perfect, and they both took the best features of those games and swept them into the trash.

[@JJroks543]

@@derekboardman9995 PoE2 is barely 30% finished in GGG's own admission, if you're not enjoying it because of that then why did you pay for an Early Access game?

[@derekboardman9995]

@@JJroks543 I didn't. I'm going off of what all of the "content creators" are talking about, and their comparisons to POE 1.

[@666xRoach]

⁠@@derekboardman9995 so... you haven't even played the game yourself? and you're calling it trash? that's ridiculous