Messages

61

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: August 06, 2013, 02:54:33 PM »

Another update. I added The ninja, Eye, and Snail. bringing the total enemy count to

1. Rat
2. Skeleton
3. Yeti
4. Demon
5. Eye
6. Snail
7. Ninja

and here is a character mockup sheet. Top row are heroes, the rest are all enemies.


I think that's a good starting point to start working on some type of progression. and thinking about different hero's and how they will work, if its simply a sprite change or something more. I am really thinking about giving each character a spell, but going with my idea of "Spell Tiles" where when a player moves to that it sets off their spell. I need add it in as a prototype to see how it feels. this will probably feel similar to my Dungeoneer prototype.

I am still working on making the game feel larger. My current plan is as the player wins new unlocks are added. unlocks will be:
- New Characters
- New Traps
- New Enemies
- Increasing final floor number (game ends at depth 5, but it will increase as you go)

I am also thinking about possible expanding with other dungeons with other possible goals. such as a cave where the player is sent in to kill a certain number of monsters and floor does not matter, only how many monsters you kill. the kills required expanding each time.

62

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: August 01, 2013, 10:48:57 PM »

I thought about that. But I think different Move and Attack range can be really dangerous and very confusing. I worry a bit about having very specific movement patterns like Knight style or only diagonal, but I have thought about creating characters with different movement patterns. the few ideas I had were.

1. 2 space cardinal movement (Currently whats in)
2. 8 directional movement 1 space.
3. increasing move range, each move an enemy is not killed. (Cleric themed around not killing)

I think as long as I have cardinal movement the levels should all be passable.

63

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: August 01, 2013, 02:35:58 PM »

Jo: I think its cool that binding has you unlock characters, but they have stats, and starting items to play with, which I do not. I thought about giving each playable character one spell and then creating some way to recharge it. so the ice sorceress gets a freeze spell, the wizard gets a fireball, the knight gets a charge. I don't know how it will feel. I think it might make the game a little to easy, but that's what testing is for.

I also thought about giving each player a spell. but making them tiles. Currently the game is all about position, and I thought about basically adding a "Spell Tile". it works similar to some of the creatures so you can think of a "Freeze Tile" as a unmoving yeti. It sticks with the idea of the placement of yourself and enemies, but also limits it use and it would randomly show up on levels.

I also thought about doing something where a player can "purchase" new heroes. I was going to do the idea of running in to get some magical artifact. well each Artifact would have a monetary value and that would be kept. so as you win you build up this coffer to spend on new heroes. It gives the player some choice, an overarching goal, and a feeling of progression.

I have been looking at binding of Issac also. I think what I might do for quests is give the game a large pool of enemies, areas, traps. and then when a quest is started select an Area and then a slice of enemies and traps for this certain quest. I think that might lead to a lot more variety. I can also build weighted matches if I find good combinations of enemies that work well together to be troublesome.

64

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: August 01, 2013, 02:29:09 AM »

I think Darren described Binding of issac very well when he described it as being very wide and you get a sliver of game each time. I think that's probably a pretty good idea. I really like the idea of Player progression also, but haven't really thought of a good way to do it. I really liked the feeling of progression in Shiren and I have been thinking about some kind of base or town your hero leaves from. but the game is so tight there is not a lot of maneuver ability for upgrades and items. I have like 10 different heroes and I was thinking of allowing the player to find and rescue other heroes, but they would most likely just be skins. I also will probably allow the player to unlock new enemies to make the game harder as you play.

New build is up also. It has the demon in it now, which they kill me the most as I never pay attention to where they move from. I also shrunk the entire resolution of the game from 11 x 6 to 9 x 5. The 11 x 6 felt like there was a lot of wasted room. the smaller map feels much better, but not quite as crowded as the originals 7x4.

65

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 31, 2013, 05:51:13 PM »

Here is a Mockup guys.



Jo: I like the idea of different areas with different Rats. I am thinking perhaps 4-5 enemies per areas. with some crossover on enemies if it makes sense.

I really dont know about bosses yet. I initially asked Darren about that for their Roguelike Radio. I had a couple ideas but it would require me to have to do premade levels like 100 rogues did. so I am still on the fence.

The main reason I worry about the enemies is just allowing replayability into the game. its such a fast game that I want to make sure people have a reason to continue playing. using 868-HACK as an example after completing the game you can begin playing for a higher and higher score.

so what would keep you coming back for more?

66

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 31, 2013, 01:18:38 AM »

Thanks. I hope to continue adding enemies. I am still trying to figure out how to do the enemies though. I have a few ideas.

1. Enemies are in a big list with different rarities and just drawn and placed (Original Microgue worked this way)
2. Build a List of enemies prior to entering and also theme Dungeon possibly (Tomes full of Skeletons and Rats)
3. Enemies are added to the pool by level. (Yetis show up after level two)

Edit:

Added my new favorite enemy tonight, the Demon. He switches from Cardinal to Diagonal movement every other turn. Makes it a pain to keep your eyes on.

67

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 30, 2013, 03:45:10 PM »

Another Update. Added in the Yeti, and rebuilt the level loading code, so monsters don't spawn on traps, and traps dont spawn on stairs. Next is redoing the enemy movement code so they all move at the same time.

68

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 29, 2013, 11:23:17 PM »

Yeah I think you are right about the turn order. I could Just have all the enemies move at once. Originally Microgue was built turn for turn because I did not know how to do all the enemies move at once. I have since then figured that out.

as for frame rate. It doesn't really matter. I am using a variable timestep so I can just swap the framerate and the game will play exactly the same. It was just left over from a previous prototype that was a platformer that I grabbed the loading code from.

The spikes currently go off every 3 turns. although there are some bugs that are interrupting turn order. as for the map I wouldn't go bigger then this. I spent a lot of time trying different sized maps and this one felt just right.

Thanks I will check out that hosting. I guess I would need to build a Microgue site too.

69

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 29, 2013, 08:57:29 PM »

did some more work. I am still on the fence about the spells. I might do something where I add more traps to the game and those traps are spells. so there may be a tile that freezes all enemies. I could also make it so monsters could use the traps too. This is all backburner stuff though.

My next goal is to add the ending. I really liked a game called Cave Noire. It has a mechanic where you choose a "Quest" before going in. so for example a Quest might be collect 4 gold. when you collect 4 gold the exit appears and you win. but now that quest reads collect 5 gold. so it slowly increments the player as they travel forward. I might try something like that with the final Level, as the player wins the dungeon becomes deeper and deeper.

I would also like to add unlockables but haven't really thought of what to add, aside from just different player sprites like the original game had.

70

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 27, 2013, 04:50:50 PM »

Monsters will still behave the same way with Yetis freezing enemies, but I kept finding myself getting into an unsolvable situation. Where the player was doomed, no matter what they did. It always feels really unfair.
I wonder if its because I make the levels larger. I plan on doing testing today with different sized levels. It also seems levels with pillars to hide around are much better then ones that have the walls jutting out.

Also if I did do the "spells" they would be a one time use. just a small boost for the player. It would be something for use only in desperate situations. I think the enemies are a bit shallow at the moment. so as I add more and they get to be a bit more diverse then just rat and skeleton it might feel completely different.

71

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 27, 2013, 02:31:22 AM »

another update!.

added the first test spell. You can hit the A key to cast freeze. it will freeze all enemies for 3 turns. I have also added Mines as traps too.

72

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 26, 2013, 07:50:09 PM »

another update. added the UI in. The UI will have the floor number. space for your two spells or items. and then a Help block. the player will be able to tap that and a spell or a monster to get info on it.

73

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 26, 2013, 03:14:06 PM »

Yeah, Keeping track of levels will probably be enough. Replay-ability is always something I always worry about.

as promised here is a build. Check it out.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21825227/Prototypes/Microgue_Newest.swf

controls:
tap a space to move and kill Enemies
hit R to restart after dying.

74

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 26, 2013, 03:04:26 AM »

Added traps back into the game and they increase as you play. Tomorrow I will add winning when reaching the eighth floor. And restarting upon death and then I can start moving right along. Still unsure about a PC build. It would be really nice but I am looking for sites to host it as I don't want to do it myself.

I am either going to make floors increasingly harder. Like after floor 2 there are traps, or make each run harder. So second run has traps. Still up in the air. Difficulty is a hard thing to do.

I don't know about score. I was going to do floor is all that matters, but I really love the score mechanic of risk vs reward in 868-HACK.

75

Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 25, 2013, 08:24:45 PM »

so Game coming along much better. stairs are in.

Not sure if I want to do the in and out gameplay I might just have the player aim for 10 floors to get the treasure. I also might do it where each time the game is deeper. so if a Hero grabs the stone from floor 8, the new final floor will be 9. forcing the player to always get deeper after each successful run. I think this adds a level of difficulty.

still unsure about specials. in the current version they almost seem needed because the game is very hard, but I have not added in Traps yet, which were a great way of disposing of monsters in the original. I would just like to add a few different characters.

I want to have a build up but I am having trouble with a web build at the moment. I am hoping to sort it out this weekend so I can get tons of feedback.