Cheese: Hello! I'm Cheese, a developer working on <Ratocalypse>.
Since returning from BIC (Busan Indie Connect), the indie game exhibition held in Busan this past August,
I've been focusing on preparing the <Ratocalypse Demo>, which will be released on Steam on October 13.
In this devlog, I'd like to share a brief (if slightly belated) recap of BIC,
and walk you through what we've been working on for the demo.
BIC Recap
This year's BIC was our first exhibition with a new title in three years since <Ratopia>, so we had high expectations.
Since the event drew so many indie gamers, we hoped to attract even more attention than at PlayX4, which we attended in May.
So we tried something a wishlist event.
To catch visitors' attention eyes, we also ran the booth with <Ratocalypse> merchandise and event props.
The Ratocalypse booth at BIC
However, the booth was a bit too small for multiple PCs, so we could only set up two demo stations.
On top of that, we had more visitors than expected.
So, the average play session increased to one hour per person, which was 20 minutes longer than at PlayX4.
We're grateful to everyone who waited despite the long waiting times lines, and sorry to have kept you waiting.
Although the booth didn't see much turnover, we received in-depth feedback from those who played at length.
And thanks to the many people who joined our event, we gained over 400 wishlists during the show.
As at PlayX4, we ran a satisfaction survey at this exhibition and compared the two sets of results after the event.
Fortunately, we saw improvements across the board.
But since BIC attracts many people who already love and support indie games,
it's still too early to conclude from these results alone that the game has improved enough.
Comparison of 1–7 scale scores collected at the two exhibitions
Still, the demo sessions and surveys gave us a lot to think about.
In particular, the controls satisfaction score suggests that recent improvements, such as mouse movement support, have paid off.
On the other hand, watching people play firsthand made it clear that the tutorial still needs a lot of work.
Many players also told us the game's strategic depth came across better than in previous builds,
which helped us think about which strengths to build on going forward.
Based on these results, we're focusing on improving the tutorial and the way information is presented in the demo.
Adding Hands-On Tutorials
One piece of feedback on the tutorial was that players wanted to try out actions themselves after reading the instructions.
Previously, we explained a lot early on through text alone, which left players with too much to learn at once.
Players often moved on to the next tutorial step without fully understanding the previous one.
To address this, we spread out the timing of some tutorials so that explanations don't pile up in one place,
and added hands-on steps where players try out what they've just been shown.
The goal is for players to learn features through interaction instead of just reading them.
A hands-on tutorial where players follow the on-screen instructions
That said, we still feel there's a lot to learn early in the game.
We'll keep making improvements after the demo launches so that more players can understand and follow the game more easily.
Improved Combat Information Display
In <Ratocalypse>, we want players to anticipate the flow of battle and adjust their squad's tactics accordingly.
For that to work, players need to be able to predict how their tactics will play out and judge whether they're the right fit.
However, we felt the information needed to make those decisions wasn't shown clearly enough, so we enhanced what's displayed during tactical preparation.
First, we improved the visual cues showing which skills each character can use next during tactical preparation.
Each skill now displays different colors and icons depending on whether its conditions are met,
making it easy to see which condition is preventing a skill from being used.
Skill conditions and whether they're met, shown in the skill tooltip
Second, we added an indicator showing the path the selected character will take and the skill they plan to use.
When you change a character's skill settings, the planned action updates instantly, so you can see the result right away.
Unselected characters are also shown semi-transparent, so you can focus on the currently selected one.
UI showing the selected character's movement path and planned skill
We hope these features help more players understand the game and enjoy the experience as we intended.
Other Visual Polish and UI Cleanup
While preparing the demo, we've also been using spare moments to polish the visual presentation throughout the game.
Here are some of the highlights.
First, we changed how characters are displayed when they're hidden behind walls.
Previously, when a character was blocked by an object such as a wall, the wall itself became semi-transparent.
This looked unnatural and sometimes caused too many walls to turn transparent at once.
Now only the hidden part of the character is revealed, so characters behind walls look more natural.
Next, to boost immersion, we improved how enemies make their entrance in battle.
Some enemies received detailed movements and entrance animations that suit their region and situation,
and powerful enemies got enhanced effects and animations to leave a stronger impression.
We also cleaned up the UI layout of the character progression screens.
Until now, the screens for choosing skill upgrade branches and learning camp skills had used placeholder layouts.
This time, we rearranged each element more cleanly, leaving room for content we plan to add in the future.
Closing
The response we received at BIC was a great help in reflecting on our progress so far and deciding what to tackle next.
As we prepare the demo, we're refining many features, including the tutorial, information display, visual presentation, and UI.
There's still plenty to improve, but we're excited to hear from more players about their experiences and opinions through this release.
The <Ratocalypse Demo> launches on October 13.
We'd love for you to try it out and share your thoughts.
We'll keep improving the game based on your feedback.
Thank you for reading!
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4156040/Ratocalypse/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CasselGames/
X: https://x.com/CasselGames
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassel_games/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@casselgames
Cheese: Hello! I'm Cheese, a developer working on <Ratocalypse>.
Since returning from BIC (Busan Indie Connect), the indie game exhibition held in Busan this past August,
I've been focusing on preparing the <Ratocalypse Demo>, which will be released on Steam on October 13.
In this devlog, I'd like to share a brief (if slightly belated) recap of BIC,
and walk you through what we've been working on for the demo.
BIC Recap
This year's BIC was our first exhibition with a new title in three years since <Ratopia>, so we had high expectations.
Since the event drew so many indie gamers, we hoped to attract even more attention than at PlayX4, which we attended in May.
So we tried something a wishlist event.
To catch visitors' attention eyes, we also ran the booth with <Ratocalypse> merchandise and event props.
The Ratocalypse booth at BIC
However, the booth was a bit too small for multiple PCs, so we could only set up two demo stations.
On top of that, we had more visitors than expected.
So, the average play session increased to one hour per person, which was 20 minutes longer than at PlayX4.
We're grateful to everyone who waited despite the long waiting times lines, and sorry to have kept you waiting.
Although the booth didn't see much turnover, we received in-depth feedback from those who played at length.
And thanks to the many people who joined our event, we gained over 400 wishlists during the show.
As at PlayX4, we ran a satisfaction survey at this exhibition and compared the two sets of results after the event.
Fortunately, we saw improvements across the board.
But since BIC attracts many people who already love and support indie games,
it's still too early to conclude from these results alone that the game has improved enough.
Comparison of 1–7 scale scores collected at the two exhibitions
Still, the demo sessions and surveys gave us a lot to think about.
In particular, the controls satisfaction score suggests that recent improvements, such as mouse movement support, have paid off.
On the other hand, watching people play firsthand made it clear that the tutorial still needs a lot of work.
Many players also told us the game's strategic depth came across better than in previous builds,
which helped us think about which strengths to build on going forward.
Based on these results, we're focusing on improving the tutorial and the way information is presented in the demo.
Adding Hands-On Tutorials
One piece of feedback on the tutorial was that players wanted to try out actions themselves after reading the instructions.
Previously, we explained a lot early on through text alone, which left players with too much to learn at once.
Players often moved on to the next tutorial step without fully understanding the previous one.
To address this, we spread out the timing of some tutorials so that explanations don't pile up in one place,
and added hands-on steps where players try out what they've just been shown.
The goal is for players to learn features through interaction instead of just reading them.
A hands-on tutorial where players follow the on-screen instructions
That said, we still feel there's a lot to learn early in the game.
We'll keep making improvements after the demo launches so that more players can understand and follow the game more easily.
Improved Combat Information Display
In <Ratocalypse>, we want players to anticipate the flow of battle and adjust their squad's tactics accordingly.
For that to work, players need to be able to predict how their tactics will play out and judge whether they're the right fit.
However, we felt the information needed to make those decisions wasn't shown clearly enough, so we enhanced what's displayed during tactical preparation.
First, we improved the visual cues showing which skills each character can use next during tactical preparation.
Each skill now displays different colors and icons depending on whether its conditions are met,
making it easy to see which condition is preventing a skill from being used.
Skill conditions and whether they're met, shown in the skill tooltip
Second, we added an indicator showing the path the selected character will take and the skill they plan to use.
When you change a character's skill settings, the planned action updates instantly, so you can see the result right away.
Unselected characters are also shown semi-transparent, so you can focus on the currently selected one.
UI showing the selected character's movement path and planned skill
We hope these features help more players understand the game and enjoy the experience as we intended.
Other Visual Polish and UI Cleanup
While preparing the demo, we've also been using spare moments to polish the visual presentation throughout the game.
Here are some of the highlights.
First, we changed how characters are displayed when they're hidden behind walls.
Previously, when a character was blocked by an object such as a wall, the wall itself became semi-transparent.
This looked unnatural and sometimes caused too many walls to turn transparent at once.
Now only the hidden part of the character is revealed, so characters behind walls look more natural.
Next, to boost immersion, we improved how enemies make their entrance in battle.
Some enemies received detailed movements and entrance animations that suit their region and situation,
and powerful enemies got enhanced effects and animations to leave a stronger impression.
We also cleaned up the UI layout of the character progression screens.
Until now, the screens for choosing skill upgrade branches and learning camp skills had used placeholder layouts.
This time, we rearranged each element more cleanly, leaving room for content we plan to add in the future.
Closing
The response we received at BIC was a great help in reflecting on our progress so far and deciding what to tackle next.
As we prepare the demo, we're refining many features, including the tutorial, information display, visual presentation, and UI.
There's still plenty to improve, but we're excited to hear from more players about their experiences and opinions through this release.
The <Ratocalypse Demo> launches on October 13.
We'd love for you to try it out and share your thoughts.
We'll keep improving the game based on your feedback.
Thank you for reading!
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4156040/Ratocalypse/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CasselGames/
X: https://x.com/CasselGames
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassel_games/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@casselgames