Crypt Walkers v0.04.0 preview update

A day late, but whatever. I am really excited about this one.

This introduces some features, that while still primitive, are a big step forward.

The Magic Wand

There is finally an alternative weapon to the baseball bat. The new magic wand, is really fun to use. And might be a tad bit OP honestly, but we’ll sort out game balancing as we progress through development.

As cool as the wand is, its not done yet either. The plan is to let it use a variety of magic attacks, chosen by the user. For instance, lightning or fire. Whether this is done by casting a spell to change the current attack type, or just by way of a UI button, I’m not sure yet.

I’d also like for it to give some kind of bonus to other spells the player may cast.

The Crystal Ball

The crystal ball existed in the prior update, but didn’t really do anything. Now after you’ve picked up the crystal ball, you’ll see enemy stat bars over their heads. This also gives clues as to where enemies are when it gets dark.

In the future, the goal is to have it highlight traps, and also allow the player to peer around the map, into other rooms. But until we have a working map system, this remains in the long list of to-do’s.

The introduction of the wand, and updated crystal ball really highlight other areas where the game needs a lot of work. One is a working inventory system. So as an example, players can keep a wand stashed away, if they want to use an assault rifle, and vice versa. Right now, the game gets past this by forcing the player to only equip a single weapon. And of course, there is no options to store potions for later use.

But this will get addressed at some point.

“Spellisense”

This is a system that shows your potential spell casting completion options, based off of your currently cast spell tokens. Hopefully this makes the game a tad more approachable, vs having to memorize each and every spell.

Anyways, onto the changelog!

[0.04.0] - 2025-12-02

“I can’t believe its December” preview update.

Changed

• CrystalBall shows entity stat bars, adds some lighting.
• HeartShapedBox health bonus increased to 50hp, from 25.
• Player drops equipped weapon on death.
• New model for BaseballBat replaces placeholder.

Added

• New ranged weapon, “Magic Wand”.
• New spell, “Touch”.
• Can now drop currently equipped weapon via X key.
• New “Spellisense” system displays potential spell completions.
• Text notifications displayed for item pickups and drops.

Improved

• Switched to volumetric fog.

Documentation

• Added entry for Magic Wand.
• Updated Crystal Ball entry.

Shooting for Dec 15th to the 19th for the next update. Not 100% sure what I’m attacking just yet. But I am leaning towards fixing the janky animation, and finally introducing some of my own monster models, instead of the current placeholders. We shall see.

-Tim

NINJA EDIT At this point, I’m not really sure what the system spec is. I’m on a decently powered desktop, and haven’t tested on lower spec anything in awhile. The end goal is to make this work on GTX 1060 / RX 580 class GPU’s. But apologies ahead of time if this becomes a slide show. Also, I notice some initial stutter on windows, which goes away after first run. Thought this was solved by my preloading scheme, but maybe not.