It’s already been a month since the Oftalmogarden Alpha Demo was made public, and most of that month was spent resting and socializing (safely) during end-of-year holidays. So that first patch will be relatively small in scope and will primarily focus in bringing some variety to the game.

Like any roguelike or roguelite, I want each run of Oftalmogarden to feel different, at least in the sense each one presents its own set of challenges, successes, and surprises. Of course, achieving this level of variety will not happen in a single minor patch and will be a long-term goal, but here it is: New stuff to make runs less predictable and more different from one another.

More Upgrades, and Curses

First of all this patch contains 4 new Upgrades and 2 new Curses, since Upgrades and Curses are in my mind the main ingredient of unpredictability in the game. I will speak about them in more detail below, some of them aim at giving more damage and multi-target options, while others give you a bit of influence on the randomness of the game.

More Enemies

Second of all, the patch introduces two new enemies to spice up encounters. An issue I have with the way Oftalmogarden plays at the moment is that almost all enemies feel like cannon fodder, and are only dangerous in great numbers. These newcomers are the first of a new strand of beefier, stronger, scarier enemies.

A Particle Gun, and More

And finally a whole new weird weapon, because it’s too easy to fall into the habit of always picking the same favourite guns you’re comfortable with, so I want to dilute the weapon pool a bit.

The patch also comes with a bunch of balance and design changes which I think will be more than welcome, especially since a lot of them aim at making Curses a lot less harsh. As a quality of life improvement, it is also now possible to see the names and descriptions of owned Upgrades and Curses.

Another change is the addition of a mouse sensitivity option. Controls and accessibility options are important and I will do my best to include as much as I can with each patch, the next one probably being key rebinds.

Future Lore

That’s about it for this first minor content patch! I also added a teeny tiny bit of lore in the choice screen after you’ve picked all your Upgrades and Curses, as well as some general tips and nods. The story and setting are really starting to take shape in my mind, but I still haven’t fully decided on how to deliver them in-game, as I don’t want lengthy dialogue or walls of text to interrupt the action. This is a game about going fast after all.

You will find the full patch notes with some details about everything listed above and more, as well as some additional thoughts just below. Hoping you have fun with the new stuff!

Weapons

• [NEW] Particle Gun
  • A powerful mid-range weapon that rapidly shoots waves of explosive particles.
  • Effective against large single targets or small groups of enemies, but inaccurate at long distances.
• Cannon: Increased cannonball damage to 60 (from 40).

Note: While this seems like a huge buff, this change is not that impactful knowing that the Cannon already one-shots most enemies.

• Shotgun: Increased pellet count to 16 (from 8), reduced pellet damage to 4 (from 10), knockback to 10 (from 20).

Note: The increased pellet count should make the Shotgun more reliable at hitting enemies, the damage per pellet has been reduced a bit to keep things in balance.

• Minigun: Increased ammo on pickup to 600 (from 500), reduced damage per shot to 5 (from 10).

Note: I love the Minigun, but it was just too good, its only weakness was ammo consumption which may not that much of an issue in the late game. Groups of enemies will not melt quite as fast with this change, but don’t worry, the Minigun is still one of the strongest weapons in the game, if not the strongest.

• Weapon projectiles no longer destroy enemy projectiles.

Upgrades

• [NEW] Cyber Necromancy
  • Enemies may spawn an ally drone on death.
  • The drone attacks nearby enemies for a few seconds, then explodes.
• [NEW] Marking Shot
  • Chance to fire a homing projectile on hit.
  • Each damage source has its own on-hit chance coefficient.

Note: Cyber Necromancy and Marking Shot accomplish a couple of things: They give the player more options to deal damage and they are effective tools against the overwhelming number of enemies in the late game. They are also random procs, which is something I’ve always liked.

• [NEW] Four Leaf Vegetable
  • Increases luck. 
  • Luck is increased by rerolling positive random events and picking the most favourable outcome.

Note: The goal of Four Leaf Vegetable is to give the player some form of influence on random events in the game (e.g. Improbability Barrier or Cyber Necromancy). You will notice that this one only affects positive random events.

• [NEW] Light Screen
  • Light Drops grant a small one-use shield.
• Fuel Injector: Now scales additively instead of multiplicatively.

Curses

•  [NEW] Dark Feline Energy
  • Equivalent of Four Leaf Vegetable for negative random events.

Note: Another tool to influence random events, this time for negative ones. It also ties in with the reworks of some existing curses that I felt were too impactful, more on that below.

• [NEW] Fittest Survivors
  • Enemies have more health. (+10% per stack)

Note: Like the new enemies, this also aims at mitigating that cannon fodder feel.

• Corrupt Decision Tree: No longer prevents from choosing Upgrades and Curses, increases chance to obfuscate an Upgrade/Curse choice instead.

Note: This is probably the biggest change in an existing Curse. The previous effect was just too ridiculous and made the curse a “never pick”, especially knowing how harsh some other Curses are. By hiding some choices instead of removing any possibility of choice, you still have the option to gamble without completely ruining your run.

• Lossy Transfer: Reduced light drop requirement multiplier to 10% (from 20%).
• Induced Mutation: Enemies are no longer guaranteed to spawn an acid spill on death. Is now stackable, each stack increases acid spill spawn chance.
• Bad Karma: Now scales additively instead of multiplicatively.
• Bleep on the Radar: DETH now spawns 10% earlier per stack (down from 20%), now scales additively instead of multiplicatively.
• Planned Obsolescence: Enemies are now 25% faster per stack (down from 50%).
• Unsecured Latch: Each stack now has a 50% to drop a weapon at the start of each garden (down from 100%).

Enemies

As previously mentioned, both of the new enemies are here to tank some damage, but they can also be extremely dangerous if not quickly dealt with.

• [NEW] Slicer
  • Is tankier than most enemies.
  • Slowly follows the player and stops at a distance.
  • Shoots 3 large vertical projectiles after a while.
• [NEW] Knight
  • Is currently the tankiest enemy.
  • Has a cool rotating exoskeleton.
  • Charges at the player.
• Carrier: Increased HP to 60 (from 50).
• Hunter: Attack windup can no longer be interrupted, increased HP to 60 (from 40).
• Sentinel: Slightly reduced attack cooldown.
• Reduced first attack delay of most enemies. Note: This last change aims at making enemies feel more aggressive and less like targets for your weapons.

Options

• Added mouse sensitivity options.

Other

• Increased follow speed of Ammo Drops and Light Cluster Drops.

Presentation

Visuals

• Added death cam, with explosions and slow-motion. Note: Had fun making that one!
• Added a vibration effect on Plasma Rifle projectiles.
• Added trail effects on enemy projectiles.
• Slightly improved existing trail effects.

Interface

• Upgrades and Curses are now visible on the pause screen and end screen.
• Icons of owned Upgrades and Curses can now be hovered to display their names and descriptions (choice screen, pause screen, end screen).
• Tips and trivia now appear at the end of the choice screen.

Fixes

• Enemies spawned by Cellular Replication should no longer appear under the map.
• Dropping a weapon by running out of ammo now correctly updates the displayed weapon name.