Author Topic: Here Be Dragons (7DRL 2014 - finished)  (Read 10272 times)

watabou

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Here Be Dragons (7DRL 2014 - finished)
« on: March 16, 2014, 10:45:07 AM »
Simple party-based RL (no items, no exp, no level-ups) with randomly generated monsters (too tired to type more :) )

http://herebedragons.watabou.ru/


Rickton

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Re: Here Be Dragons (7DRL 2014 - finished)
« Reply #1 on: March 16, 2014, 04:04:28 PM »
I like the graphics style, and the party mechanics. I was a little unsure about a party based roguelike, but the fact that the party moved as one unit and the members were more like equipment was a neat touch. The randomly-generated monsters were cool too.
It seems like, based on the controls, it was kind of designed for touch-screen devices. I'll have to try it out on my iPhone.
Is there any way to heal?
Creator of the 7DRL Possession: Escape from the Nether Regions
And its sequel, simply titled Possession

watabou

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Re: Here Be Dragons (7DRL 2014 - finished)
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2014, 09:04:02 PM »
Thanks for the review!
...and the members were more like equipment was a neat touch
Yes, "party members as equipment" is exactly how I word the idea for myself :)

Quote from: Rickton
Is there any way to heal?
There is no real healing in the game, that's one of very many things I have failed to implement in time. But some heroes (Bard and Huntress as far as I remember) have a "Camping" skill. This passive skill automatically restores 1HP in the beginning of each stage. Also "Drain Life" restores 1HP on each successfull attack.

The game in the current state lacks many features I planned. The most obvious of them is active skills. For example there are Huntress and Marksman in the game, but they can't shoot. I'm going to fix it later.

koiwai

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Re: Here Be Dragons (7DRL 2014 - finished)
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2014, 10:33:31 PM »
I agree, the graphic style is very well done (I like a lot the foggy boundaries, the feeling of adventure!). And the idea of team selection is applealing. Hope, you will complete the remaining abilities, and maybe add some global quests to give the sense of exploring a bigger world, with some final goal to achieve. ::) 

slothwerks

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Re: Here Be Dragons (7DRL 2014 - finished)
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2014, 11:13:41 PM »
This was one of my favorite RL's that I tried from the 7DRL2014, in addition to Power Lands.

The whole aesthetic is brilliant.  It reminds me of the screenshots I've seen from the Curious Expedition; it would work really well with a 19th-early 20th century theme, with an Indiana Jones sort of feel.  The way the maps are drawn, with the texture, and silhouettes, would reinforce the theme.  I could imagine a game where you're trying to track down a single artifact (in a traditional roguelike way, with amulets or whatever), or instead, perhaps multiple artifacts.  You could grab one for an easy win, but to to top the highscore chart, you'd need to risk more and capture multiple artifacts.  DCSS does a good job of this.

Two areas of improvement (beyond balance/etc... ) are to add keyboard control and to make the ability explanation easier.  Regarding the ability text, the icons are tiny and sort of nondescript, so it's hard for me to tell at a glance what my powers are.  It would be nice if all my powers were listed on screen, or perhaps I could hit one button to see all of them.  On the party selection screen, it would also be nice to see a list of what my current abilities are, and to make it more clear what my current stats are -- several times I started the next level, not realizing that I was half dead already.  I never did figure out what the 3rd stat (circle/donut icon?) was.  And naturally, I think a goal or objective of some kind would really help tie everything together.

All these are issues could easily be addressed with more time, I realize, but I think you have a really good start here.

watabou

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Re: Here Be Dragons (7DRL 2014 - finished)
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2014, 01:48:23 PM »
...some final goal to achieve. ::) 
I could imagine a game where you're trying to track down a single artifact (in a traditional roguelike way, with amulets or whatever), or instead, perhaps multiple artifacts...
I think it will be about searching for eldorado or an ancient lost city... Not about slaying some evil lord :)

Speaking about Curious Expedition, I'm considering to switch to hexagonal grid. But I have never worked with it before, it may be tricky - level generation, calculating FOV...

You can check the updated version of the game here: http://herebedragons.watabou.ru/updated.html. It does not differ much from the original one, because work on PD update is my priority at this moment.

slothwerks

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Re: Here Be Dragons (7DRL 2014 - finished)
« Reply #6 on: March 20, 2014, 06:23:38 PM »
Hex tiles would be amazing, although as a developer, I've been too timid to try them as well (lack of understanding of the related math). 

jonbro

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Re: Here Be Dragons (7DRL 2014 - finished)
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2014, 12:05:50 AM »
whoa, that was very cool. I agree, the active abilities will be the treat here, possibly with cooldowns or some additional cost to use. I like the fact that you have collapsed all the health into a single track as well, it really simplifies the decisions.