At the end of 2022 for those who have played Soul Seeker you'll find that it has massively changed. I took several months off learning new techniques and features and after returning to Soul Seeker I thought it was not in a state I wanted to leave it in. 

The first major overhaul was the Biomes/Islands, I spent a bit of time completely reworking all 3 islands, replacing all asset packs and unfitting assets with my own to fit a coherent Japanese theme rather than a mess of  different styles and aesthetics, I changed the 1st island from a mix of other biomes > a consistent blue forest filled with bio-luminescent vegetation, a serene otherworldly island. The second island was originally a dark forest littered with huge skeletons and mushroom > foggy dense bamboo forest to fit the Japanese aesthetic (also staying consistent with the green theme). Finally the final island was not actually thematically changed too much as the battlefield theme with the castle fit well, but I majorly reworked the island to be much nicer and easier to explore and traverse, thinning down the size of the actual castle and adding more asset to fit the battle worn thematic. Many assets were also replaced such as trees, grass and many old unfitting statues, pillar, rocks etc. The video shown below is a proper look at how much the world had changed before and after.

Another huge addition to the game were also NPCs! I had made a tanuki intended for my next project/game however never got around to finishing the product and since it fit so well the Tanuki we're added to the game to guide the player, provide lore/story and sell upgrades to the player. The tanuki we're spread across the map and you can find them all over hiding from enemies. They're very friendly, curiously look at the Little Reaper and strike up conversations. They're inly slightly bigger than the Little Reaper

In addition to adding NPC the merchants also meant giving the player a shop/upgrade options, choosing what to do with the newly added point/soul system. The player can upgrade their stats (Health, Mana and Damage) with the points they accumulate over the course of the game. Though that was all we did intend to add more abilities in which you could purchase through the merchants, but this may be a feature intended for the next update.

Speaking of abilities as you can see in the previous image we added abilities! Although the original 2022 edition had abilities in the form of the scythe throw and the heal, we created a spell inventory that was intended to gain more abilities and swapped per player choice. However we didn't get around to the swapping mechanic the setup is ready and it is a matter of implementing new abilities to try out. Despite that we did add 2 new abilities Time slowdown and Soul Burst. Time slowdown is an ability that will create an area that slows down enemies and Soul Burst creates a short burst costing both mana and (adding later) Health that deals good amounts of damage.

Overall I'm very satisfied with the current state of Soul Seeker, there were definitely a lot more minor changes and a few changes I am intending to add before we close the project for good (unless more attention is brought to it). The changes include adding new/missing SFX, adding shortcuts and new abilities. I hope you've enjoyed the journey of Soul Seeker and be sure to follow me for my future endavours!