Greetings everyone!

As you might have noticed, the pre-alpha demo of MindSeize doesn’t contain many systems that are usually present in metroidvania games, so we’d like to explain what we’re planning for the full version of the game. We’re planning on adding plenty of crucial systems to make gameplay more interesting, and also altering the current power(stamina) system to enable more flexible playstyles from players and to give us more freedom when designing content.

Combat in the game revolves around two weapons, as you can have one melee and one ranged weapon equipped at the same time. There will be plenty of different weapons for you to find in the full game, with their own animations and effects. To help you in combat and exploration, you will find abilities that you can use to move or unlock routes in the worlds you wander in. Examples of these abilities are the dash, air dash, double jump etc. which can be found in most metroidvania games, but we have loads of unique abilities planned as well!

In the world while exploring, you will find Upgrade Points, which can be used in the Upgrade Network. Upgrade Network is a network of perks you can unlock with the points you find. The perks include stuff like increasing your health, damage and power regeneration, among many other more special perks. At first, what you can unlock in the network is limited, but you can reveal more of the network as you find abilities and weapons, and spend more Upgrade Points.

You will gather a resource called “scrap” from dead enemies, which acts as the game’s money and as a resource for crafting. With the scrap resource you can buy mods and usable items(you can also find both in the world) that will help you on your quest. Mods work like armor in games you might have played, you equip them onto a certain slot and they increase your stats. Some weapon mods alter the way you attack with them, some might alter the bullet paths, some enlarge the hit area. There will be lots of mods so find the ones that work the best for your playstyle! Usable items are, as you might have guessed, items that are consumed when you use them. They include emergency healing, power restoration, shield regenerators and various buffs among many other items. We’re still in the middle of designing crafting so stay tuned about that!

Now, about the changes to the power system compared to the demo. At the moment in the demo, you only really have one proper way of playing, shooting the enemy first and finishing it with the sword. The power is used by the dashes so it also restricts exploration and movement too much. In the full game, we’ve decided to not use power for key movement abilities, like dashing and air dashing. Melee and ranged, will both regenerate power with their normal attacks, but power won’t regenerate on its own at all. Instead, in the full game, most weapons will have a special attack you can use when you have enough power, so power works much like a big finisher you earn by hitting enemies with melee or ranged attacks. This also means we, when designing encounters, know that the player will always have a ranged option and a melee option when fighting, unlike in the demo when there might have been times when the player didn’t have enough power to dodge an attack with a dash or attack with melee.

And that’s it for now! We hope you like the mechanics we’re planning for MindSeize.

Thanks for reading!
Paavo - Kamina Dimension Team