Siralim Ultimate - Survey Results
April 24, 2024 - Reading time: 5 minutes

Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey! With over 500 responses, your insights will pave the way toward a new future for Siralim Ultimate, as well as our other games. Many of the responses took me by surprise, but let's jump to the part you probably care about the most: more content for Siralim Ultimate!

Backer Shop

Over one-third of respondents (far, far more than expected) expressed interest in the return of the backer shop. So, we're bringing it back, improved and streamlined based on past experiences.

Here's what to expect:

  • We'll open a new page on our website where supporters can choose what kind of content they want us to create, payable via PayPal (no account required). The shop will open on May 1, 2024.
  • After choosing your content, we'll reach out to you via email to ask for some more details.
  • Once approved, your request will be added to our queue.
  • Your new content will be added to the game in an upcoming patch. It is important to remember that we will likely receive a lot of orders, and it is very difficult to provide an ETA on when your content will be ready. I'll do my best to keep everyone updated with our progress and plan to keep a public spreadsheet available so you can track this progress in real time.

To be clear, this content will be made available for all players, so even if you don't want to pay for anything, you can still look forward to a huge new batch of creatures, spells, decorations, and much more - absolutely free of charge.

New Game Content

Unsurprisingly, most respondents were interested in new content - particularly, extra game modes (chosen when you start a new save file).

Here are a few examples of some new game modes, but please remember these are all in the "ideas phase" and are subject to change, or might not even make it into the final game at all:

  • Sandbox Mode. Gives you instant access to all creatures, spells, decorations, cards, and more. This is great for testing purposes.
  • Ruthless Mode. This mode features fewer item drops, faster-scaling difficulty, and other tweaks to slow the game down a bit while making everything feel more rewarding. The name of this mode was borrowed from the same one in Path of Exile, so if you've played that, you should have some idea about what to expect here.
  • Story Skip Mode. You'll still start at level 1, but all story quests will be finished, and certain features will be unlocked immediately.
  • Randomizer Mode. You'll be able to randomize all kinds of different things, such as the creatures that spawn in each realm, the contents of shops, and much more.
  • Calm Mode. This mode aims to make battles feel less hectic by reducing the maximum number of actions that can be taken, such as the number of attacks/casts that can be done in one turn. Several traits and other effects will be modified to make it more difficult to reach these new limits as well.
  • I have some ideas that are really creative and experimental as well, but I'd rather not reveal them until I'm sure I can make them work.

These modes can be mixed and matched for a personalized gaming experience. We're also planning to unlock some new content through "stretch goals" in our backer shop, akin to Kickstarter campaigns.

Patch Timeline

The difficult part about updating Siralim Ultimate is that so many players (roughly 60%, judging by the survey results) use our cloud storage feature to access their save files on multiple platforms. Unfortunately, this means that if I add content to one platform, you won't be able to play that save file on another platform until that platform receives the new content as well. For that reason, I will keep this patch on our Steam beta branch for a pretty long time.

The patch will include the promised localizations, bug fixes, suggestions, backer content, and much more. It will be an enormous patch that will take months of testing on the beta branch, but this will ensure that 1) your cloud storage service isn't interrupted and 2) backers can see their new content added to the game as soon as possible.

The Next Game

I want to be very clear that everything I mentioned in this post will have minimal impact on the development of our next game. I have a lot of help behind the scenes these days, and I am confident that I have the time and resources available to devote to both games and give them both the attention they deserve. I enjoy game development so much that working on one game feels like a nice break from working on the other.

This year is going to be a massive one for us, and I can't wait to share more information very soon! Stay tuned for more updates and reveals.

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