STRIVE [7DRL 2015] - FINISHED

[supperdev]

Hey everyone. First time joining in on the 7DRL challenge, figured I'd make a thread and show you guys whatup.

STRIVE
STRIVE is going to be a roguelike with a focus on tactical combat. By using ability cooldowns and a mixture of diverse weapons, items and monsters, I want to put as much decision making in each turn as possible. It's a mixture of the design philosophy behind shooters like Doom/Serious Sam and roguelikes like DoomRL and Brogue. The player will enter a small and fairly open level. Enemies will spawn in waves and groups, opposing the player as he goes around the level collecting weapons, items and upgrades. I also want to add in environmental objects like exploding barrels and triggerable traps. The player can progress to the next level after killing all enemies. There's no end to the game: the player fights and progresses until he dies. I do want the duration of the game to be small, about 30 minutes for a full playthrough, if not shorter.

Here's a link to a GUI mockup: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ykgax4a7zwwf6gv/mockup.png
Here's a link to my twitter: https://twitter.com/supperdev

I've been working on it for a few hours today, but I'll post a progress report tomorrow - it's late and I'd like to get some rest for a full day of devving.

EDIT: I did post a progress report on Reddit. Go check it out:
http://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/2ydpvk/7drl_progress_thread/

[supperdev]

Well it's been a week and I can happily say, it's FINISHED!

The download location is at:
http://supperdev.itch.io/strive







EDIT: welp I typed "and I can not happily say" but I CAN! Dunno why that not sneaked in there.

[Samildanach]

One of the strongest entries I've played so far this year. Seems simple to start off with but rapidly becomes very tactical.

[NikB]

Very roguelike-ish thing. Managed to make it to floor 13, then died surrounded by a pack of beasts. A few things I didn't really like:

• When you collide with a weapon, a note in the right corner, above the log, says to press S or D to switch it. In fact, you have to press Shift+S or Shift+D
• Beasts are the same color as blood splashes, which can be confusing sometimes
• It's not clear whether you waste your turn using a weapon, or not. So far it seems only rifle saves you your action point
• Blue stars (reloaders?) are almost completly useless, as the situation in which you can use them hardly ever occurs

Overall, a great game! )

[Samildanach]

Very roguelike-ish thing. Managed to make it to floor 13, then died surrounded by a pack of beasts. A few things I didn't really like:

• When you collide with a weapon, a note in the right corner, above the log, says to press S or D to switch it. In fact, you have to press Shift+S or Shift+D
• Beasts are the same color as blood splashes, which can be confusing sometimes
• It's not clear whether you waste your turn using a weapon, or not. So far it seems only rifle saves you your action point
• Blue stars (reloaders?) are almost completly useless, as the situation in which you can use them hardly ever occurs

Overall, a great game! )

I agree on the S/D thing. That confused me for a minute or so. It's just...wrong.

Is that what blue stars are for? Reloading? I thought they were just scenery; I've never identified a use for them.

Definitely some parts of the game could be clearer, but that's not a bad selection of flaws for a 7DRL.

[supperdev]

Thanks for playing and thanks for the feedback!

• When you collide with a weapon, a note in the right corner, above the log, says to press S or D to switch it. In fact, you have to press Shift+S or Shift+D

Yeah, I thought it would be ok since they were capital A and D, but I was wrong with this. I'll avoid this in the future!
Stupid enough I did add shift+D in the readme and help screen, but didn't occur to me to also have it mentioned ingame.

• It's not clear whether you waste your turn using a weapon, or not. So far it seems only rifle saves you your action point

None of the weapons should save your action point. Try misfiring the rifle and you'll see that the enemies take a step closer. 

• Blue stars (reloaders?) are almost completly useless, as the situation in which you can use them hardly ever occurs

Yeah I don't like em either, but it was too late to change them. They're too situational and weapon cooldown wasn't as long as I initially thought it would be. People had real trouble figuring out what it was, so I added text when you stand on 'em in version 1.3. At least one person figured it out I suppose. 

Definitely some parts of the game could be clearer, but that's not a bad selection of flaws for a 7DRL.

I'm surprised I don't hear any reports of crashing. You don't wanna know what it feels like to realise that the release build had all kinds of errors that the debug build (which I was working with all the time) surpressed.. on day 6! I suppose I ironed them out well enough. 

[Vanguard]

This game owns