How Lost in Random: The Eternal Die Perfected Its Roguelike Challenge – Insights from the Director
Balancing a roguelike game is no easy feat, and Lost in Random: The Eternal Die director Martin Storm shares some behind-the-scenes insights on the process. The game, a spin-off from 2021’s Lost in Random, challenges players to navigate four unique worlds as a remorseful queen trapped in an ancient artifact. While the game isn’t as punishing as a Soulslike, it still offers a solid challenge inspired by titles like Hades.
- Why the final difficulty ended up slightly easier than planned
- How different world difficulties were balanced for player experience
- The evolution of combat mechanics and the removal of some ideas
- The introduction of the Relic System to fine-tune randomness and player choice
Finding the Right Difficulty Curve
Martin Storm admits that The Eternal Die might be “slightly easier than I wanted it to be in the end.” He wishes the game was about 10% harder overall, but the team decided to differentiate the difficulty across the game’s four worlds. The first world offers the most enemy variety and a solid challenge, while the second world is intentionally easier to prevent players from hitting a difficulty wall too soon. The third world then cranks up the challenge again, providing a balanced progression.
Combat Tweaks and Dropped Ideas
The combat system evolved significantly during development. Aleks, the player character, has several weapons, but not every gameplay idea made it to the final build. For example, the original Lost in Random’s time stop mechanic, where Even would roll Dicey to freeze time and select abilities, was tested but ultimately dropped. Storm explains, “We did try to convert that into [The Eternal Die]. That’s how we started out. But the thing is it was too slow and it didn’t fit.”
The Relic System: Bringing It All Together
The gameplay loop really clicked when the team introduced the Relic System. This lets players pick bonuses and abilities, and by aligning same-colored bonuses on a grid, they unlock passive stat boosts. Storm says, “Everything came together when we added the Relic system really, and just started removing things. Because sometimes you just have to kill your darlings.” This system also gives players control over how much randomness they want, especially through Relics that affect the die rolls. Testing what was fun helped shape the basic combat for the character Fortune.
