u/eldawidos111

We've been revisiting our UI and are thinking more about exposing information that was previously hidden from the player.

One change we're experimenting with is showing the piety requirement directly in the upgrade selection screen, so players know exactly when an upgrade becomes available instead of having to discover it through trial and error (It's still somewhat visually vague, but at least it's not completely hidden).

The goal is to make progression more transparent without making the screen feel cluttered.

What do you think about it?

Hi!

The demo for Dungeon Potato released a few days ago, and it got me thinking about roguelite onboarding.

In our demo, the first run is partially curated. Enemies are drawn from a significantly easier pool so players can learn the basics, but random upgrades, buffs, and challenge options are exactly the same as in any other run.

Some options are straightforward, such as guidance from the Messenger NPC. Others can be quite risky, for example:

"You no longer see your cooldowns, but gain X"

"Instantly teleport to the boss, but gain Y"

Looking through analytics, I've noticed that some players almost never refuse these kinds of options. They pick them, die shortly afterward, and then quit the game entirely.

This made me wonder whether we should restrict or delay some of the more punishing options during a player's first run. At the same time, I don't want to overprotect players or make the opening feel overly scripted.

Where would you draw the line? What's the best middle ground between letting players experiment freely and protecting them from making run-ending decisions before they understand the consequences?