BellHop StudiosHow a fight works
Six stats, one hit pipeline, four classes, how a hero is written down, and the order of authority that decides every beat.
Devlog
Behind the scenes at BellHop Studios: how our games are made, what we cut, and what we learned along the way.
Reception: the build story
Reception is our gacha dungeon game, in alpha with testers. You join a guild run by its receptionists, collect heroes, and send four-hero parties into the fields and dungeons. Here's how it was built, from the first dot on a grid to a live alpha in eleven weeks.
Monsters by the numbers
Three species, four tiers, five abilities, and the thousands of simulated fights that set every number.
How Reception was built
The whole story in one read: eleven weeks, six bursts of work, about 300 changes and 70 cuts, from a dot wandering a grid to a live alpha.
A game you could only watch
26 July to 4 August: a four-hero party nobody controls, a dot rolling directions once a second, and ten days that turned it into a world.
Becoming Reception
30 August to 3 September: the prototype gets its name, its guild of receptionists, fog of war and its core rules.
Design first
18 to 27 September: research and specs first, then fatigue, the gear economy, the shop and Hire a Hero, built in one pass.
Going live
29 September to 3 October: one simulation, a server that owns every save, the alpha goes live, and testers arrive within hours.
Taking the lead
4 to 7 October: Reception stops being a game you only watch. Player-led Dungeons, Mettle and Banner, and a story.
The roster and its rules
8 to 11 October: new anime portraits and lore, ability cards that state their exact numbers, dungeon tiers, and what comes next.
70 things we cut
About 70 features were removed or replaced on the way to the alpha. What went, what replaced it, and why.
Seven decisions we changed our minds on
Scroll or scale? Ladder or carousel? Never sell power? Seven calls that went back and forth before they settled.
Reception by the numbers
Eleven weeks of Reception in numbers: changes, cuts, heroes, ability cards, tests and gacha rates.