I was contacted by them earlier this year and we put together a publishing deal shortly after the Mega Update.
Leiting Games is also the publisher for the Greedy Cave 1 and 2, which were largely inspired by The Enchanted Cave 2. Leiting had many fans of the Greedy Cave who may have never heard of The Enchanted Cave 2 so this partnership provided a unique opportunity to provide those players a way to experience my own Enchanted Cave 2 in their native language through some cross-promotion between TEC2 localization and the upcoming release of GC2, so I was excited get started.
Localization
The development work consisted of compiling all of the text that appears in-game together in a spreadsheet to be translated, and then replacing all english text in the game (including some images) with the Chinese text. I hadn’t planned for future localizations in the original development so most of the text was pretty hard-coded into the game, which took some work to pick apart and rewrite in a more multi-lingual friendly setup by replacing instances of text with variables holding the translated text, but the end result is elegant and the language the game is compiled in can now be changed with a single flag. I’d never thought about it until compiling all the text for the localization, but it turns out the game has around 1600 different pieces of text that needed translated! Probably around half of that is item names and descriptions.
Promotion
To promote the release of the Chinese localization, Leiting Games generously paid to have me fly out to Guangzhou, China to attend the G-Fusion Tour 2018 Game Festival held by Gamecores. It was like a smaller version of PAX basically, but still very cool to walk around and see and play some other upcoming games.
Myself demonstrating the mobile version of the game during the stage event
This was just for the PC version since there’s currently a delay with the release of any Chinese mobile game because of the Chinese government now requiring licenses for all mobile games in China, but we hope that will work out sometime early 2019. That should reach even more players considering that the mobile gaming market in China is much larger than their PC market.
Overall it was a wonderful experience and the PC launch went pretty well! There was an early hangup with save data sometimes not cooperating well if Chinese characters are a part of the filepath, but I was able to fix that shortly after arriving back in the US and now thousands of players in China are currently able to enjoy the game in their native language.
“That’s not a roguelike! That’s a [roguelite|roguelike-like|procedural death labyrinth|]!”
The reason I describe The Enchanted Cave 2 with the term “roguelike” is for two reasons that work together:
The massive majority of players either agree in calling it a roguelike or simply don’t care about the precise technical accuracy of a game’s label enough to affect their enjoyment.
Today I’m thrilled to announce that The Enchanted Cave 2 is getting a major update on all platforms on May 2nd! This update I have appropriately named the “MEGA UPDATE.”
This update will set the game to version 3.0 and will add tons of new content.
Complete list of changes:
Added full controller support
Added 3 challenge game modes
Added 5 new heroes (one only in green goo’s quest)
Heroes now have unique starting stats
Added 2 new NPCs that can be helped
Added 7 new items (one only in monster’s lair)
Added 2 new monsters (both only in monster’s lair)
Added a new merchant
Added bonus infinity skill nodes to skill tree that are revealed when a full branch is completed
Added Import/Export feature to transfer save data between devices
Added monster descriptions to bestiary
Reduced MP use of attack magic from 8 to 7
Increased value of “magic” enchantments by 50%
Fixed bug where magic bonus with crafted potions had no effect
Small visual improvements to some UI elements.
Fixed some visual bugs with spritesheet edges on some objects
Fix when enchanting to have an item’s single current enchantment selected by default when adjusting enchantments.
Fixed a rare soft-lock that can happen when clicking anywhere immediately after death
The MEGA UPDATE features 3 new challenges, which each take the base game and adds their own twist on it as a shortened 50-floor adventure. Explore a dungeon crammed with a more varied and more numerous selection of monsters in the “Monster’s Lair,” or try out the cave as a maze with limited visibility in “The Labyrinth.”
Monster’s Lair
If you’re looking for a radically different experience, you may love “Green Goo’s Quest,” in which a particularly courageous green goo from the first Enchanted Cave sets out to be a hero! You can only equip swords and helmets, with loot and enchantment stats adjusted for this.
Green Goo’s Quest
There are 4 new heroes (5 including green goo), and every hero now has their own unique starting stats.
Hero Selection
Full Controller Support
The largest addition as far as my own development time goes is the addition of full controller support for the desktop versions. It turns out there are quite a lot of clickable things in the game that had to each be considered to make everything easily accessible with a controller!
Import and Export save files to any other device
The Enchanted Cave 2 is now available on PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and even some html5 versions, but all platforms handle their actual save files differently. With the new Import/Export feature you can copy a text output of your slot’s save data, transfer it to another device you have the game installed on (emailing it to yourself works great), and paste it directly into the game on that new device to effectively transfer a save. This feature can also be used to copy save files on the same device, or make backups of your save slots.
Import / Export Feature
Live Beta on Steam available now!
Every bit of content in the update is completed and is the beta stage of development (except for the artwork of one more hero which I plan to live stream the creation of during a Q&A on the update). If you own the game and want to test out the new content today and help me iron out any bugs I may have missed, check out the steam thread here!
Price Change
In the interest of full transparency, when the update goes live on May 2nd I will also be increasing the price of the desktop version from $4.99 to $9.99 as well as the mobile versions from $2.99 to $5.99. If you already own the game before May 2nd, you will not have to pay any extra for the update – it is a free update and is not paid DLC.
The reason for the price change is simply because I have felt that the game has always been very under-priced (which was my mistake) even before the new content. I’m confident that the quality and amount of content the game provides is well worth a $9.99 price tag with of course the occasional discount during sales.
The new content adds plenty of new features that I’ve either considered from the start and turned out too time costly to add (like controller support) or ideas that cropped up during the months or years following the release. In addition, the update allows me to provide a significantly richer experience that further distances the premium version from the stripped down free flash demo.
Personal Note
It’s around 3 years after the release of the game and I’ve always been pleased with how the game turned out and it’s reception, but this update especially feels like a more complete conclusion to the development process. The Enchanted Cave 2 will now feature everything plus more that was originally envisioned, and at a fair price that will further support myself as I work on my next game. Thank you to everyone who is a fan of the game for your support, bug reports, suggestions, and sharing it with your friends, and an extra thank you to my original kickstarter backers who funded the development of the game because none of this would have happened without your generosity!
