Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vaulthas a significant facelift compared to the original game, but that’s not all. Developers at Digital Sun Games revisited nearly every element of its design to makeMoonlighter 2: The Endless Vaultthe best possibleroguelike action RPGit could be. Of course, it continues on from the first game and fans of the original are going to see that, at its heart,Moonlighter 2is stillMoonlighter.
Game Rant recently spoke with co-design director Luis Pérez aboutMoonlighter 2: The Endless Vault’s earliest days of development, improvements and changes to its combat, and more. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Early Days of Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault
Q: Going into this sequel, was there any sort of major feedback from the first game that y’all really wanted to nail this time around?
A:One of our maingoals with this sequelis to not just bring new players in and share the experience with them, but to upgrade it, polish it, and use all the feedback from the first game to give old players a more satisfying experience. Some of the main things we are changing are deeper combat and a more emergent experience during dungeons. We want more rewards for the effort, basically, and we also bring more depth to the gathering of relics and the backpack. We heard a lot of feedback from players on the first one, and we’ve tried to implement it, add to it, polish it, and make a great experience for them.
Q: Once this sequel was greenlit, what did “day one” of this sequel’s development look like?
A:We were taking things slow with Moonlighter 2 because we wanted to learn a lot of things. From my perspective, there was a lot of seeing what the game could be, managing how to reach that point, gathering feedback from the first one, talking with a lot of people, and trying to figure things out for the game and what it needed. It was a huge, but slow process, and a lot of people were involved. It was super cool because a lot of perspective was added during that process. The first thing we did was decide what kind of game we wanted to make; what was the right approach to make the best possible Moonlighter 2 for players, right?
Q: As a design director, could you tell me what your day-to-day workload looks like?
A:A lot of talking and a lot of thinking, actually, but it’s more of the first one in the early stages where we are figuring out the core principles of the fantasy we are working on. We then try to develop them into something concrete that will shape the experience you have in mind. You try one thing, you see how it works out, you iterate, and you listen. It’s a huge process of analyzing, testing, listening, improving, and iterating.
Q: Overall, what would you say the core design pillars of Moonlighter 2 are and how do they differ from the first game, if at all?
A: They have changed and been more integrated, but all the core princes that were in the first one are here too. Theshop is key to progressionfor the player, the player has a constant sense of adventure, and so forth. Iterations come when we bring more emergence to those aspects, when we bring more depth to the combat, and when we bring more depth to the shop. We want an experience that allows the players to fill their shop on their own and reach new heights themselves.
Combat Changes in Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault
Q: It’s been mentioned a few times already, but you’ve talked about deepening the combat for players. Can you take me through that process and what that looks like in the game?
A:There are two layers to how it has been deepened. In the first game, you chose your weapon and your armor, and then you went into the dungeon. Most of the weapons were similar, just with a power increase. Now, in terms of combat, we have three layers. The set of weapons has new depth, and then we have the gadget that gives you a combination of melee and ranged combat. Then, we have the backpack that can launch some enemies when they’re in a vulnerable state. These three layers themselves bring more depth to the combat, but we also have perks during the run. You have perks that will change how those things behave, so you are constantly making choices about the best build for this specific fun. You will also be developing throughout the game and you will have an increased number of weapons and so on.
Q: The other side of combat is the enemies. Can you tell me about how you approached them in this sequel?
A:In the sequel, we wanted the enemies to fit several roles that allow the players to have challenges to be solved. Basically, the enemies all have different types. Some are weaker to certain things, but they are stronger against other things. For example, we have an enemy that flies, but if you shoot them, they enter a vulnerable state and you can launch them away. We have some ranged enemies that are easier to shoot than melee, but you’ll need ammo and ammo recharges with melee. There are a lot of loops and enemies that are best approached in one way or another, but they like the player feel like a total menace. It allows the perks to be what defines how players approach combat, so a perk might make some enemies easier, others harder.
Q: What can you tell me about your dungeon design philosophy?
A:Our philosophy isdungeons are a chain of rewards and challenges. Players encounter rooms of several sizes, you select the reward for the next room, and there will be challenges in that room. There will be events that could happen in the dungeon, and certain characters can give you perks too. We take less of a Binding of Isaac approach and more of a Hades approach to the map.
Q: What’s the road to release look like for you?
A:Just to keeppolishing the gameand keeping track of what it needs in terms of little design decisions and how some things should be structured. But it’s really just polish and polish and polish and polish.
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