Background Hero Development Update

Hey heroes! I haven’t really posted a ‘state of…’ update yet, so I wanted to go over where Background Hero currently stands and what I have been working on. Especially as we get closer to the Steam release.

The game has come a long way from the original prototype. The main focus is still the same: long-term idle progression inspired by games like RuneScape, with skills, resources, equipment, and account-wide progression all leveling up and feeding into each other.

Current Game Systems#

Background Hero currently includes a large set of skills across gathering, production, combat, and passive progression.

Some of the main systems already in place include:

• Woodcutting, Mining, Fishing, Farming, Hunting, and other gathering skills
• Smithing, Cooking, Brewing, Carpentry, Lumber Milling, and other production skills
• Combat and loot based equipment progression
• Offline progression
• Cloud saves
• Achievements
• Inventory and Trade Market systems
• Overall account completion tracking

Endless Tower#

The old dungeon system has been replaced with the Endless Tower which is another area of progression that drops rare loot.

The Tower currently includes:

• 100 floors
• Randomly generated enemies and bosses
• Procedurally generated weapons
• Weapon rarities, prefixes, suffixes, and conditions
• Floor modifiers that are directly affected by your weapon stats
• Weapon reforging, min-maxing your weapon for specific floors or clout
• Equippable artifacts
• Robot followers
• Treasure chests and offline rewards

UI and Art#

A lot of work has also gone into cleaning up the overall interface.

Recent changes include:

• New action card layouts
• Skill-specific UI colors
• Cleaner navigation and progress displays
• Trade Market improvements
• Better inventory layouts
• Improved desktop and responsive layouts

There is still a lot of art left to replace!

Steam and Desktop Work#

Steam release is very soon, and will be identical to the web build. The web will have two functions: a demo to play a curated version of the game, or playing your Steam-purchased game on the browser, which has the full game unlocked.

On top of the Steam release, it’ll include…

• Steam authentication
• Achievements
• Windows and Linux builds
• Same Cloud save as the web

What I Am Working On Next

The current priorities are:

• Finish and balance Archaeology and the Museum
• Continue XP and economy balancing
• Improve how skills interact with each other
• Replace more placeholder artwork
• Expand achievements and long-term goals

There is still plenty to work on, but the major systems are starting to come together and development is moving more toward balance, polish, and improving existing content.

Thanks to everyone who has wishlisted Background Hero and followed development so far.