Bit Kid

I was kind of thinking something similar for Roguelike mode. I feel like for Arcade mode to be fair for scoring runs it shouldn't have any outside influence other than the seed, more just based on the player's raw ability. Maybe in Roguelike mode there would be ways to get small advantages like youre saying over multiple tries..

So Arcade mode is just going to be a straight race through the game's areas in sequence, from the Mines entrance to the collapse of Ulak's chamber, without even the possibility to go back to Karthas for some shopping?

Yep, that's pretty much it. No backtracking, no farming, just push forward through twisting and turning dungeons trying to get your score as high as possible before you die

Be sure to include multiple loops as in true arcade fashion, meaning once you beat Ulak, the game starts over, but at a higher difficulty.

By the way, I'm curious to know why the Trinkets didn't make it into the final game...

It's funny that people seem to think that roguelikes require persistent progress. When games calling themselves roguelikes started coming out that had persistent progress, fans of the genre complained that it was mislabeled because of this fact.

Not complaining I just find it ironic.

My guess is, players want to find comfort in the fact that despite failure, they still did achieve something, however small, and that their time spent with the current run hasn't been for naught, ever inching closer to the ultimate goal. Intangible progress (improvement in skill, "gitting gud" at the game) is not seen as enough, given that free time seems to be at a premium for some people nowadays.

Batstabber wrote:Be sure to include multiple loops as in true arcade fashion, meaning once you beat Ulak, the game starts over, but at a higher difficulty.

By the way, I'm curious to know why the Trinkets didn't make it into the final game...

They just felt like too much clutter in the inventory and didn't add much in the end. We could bring them back eventually, but maybe in a slightly different way.

They certainly were an interesting way of conveying lore. Collecting them felt like doing a little bit of archeology.