Here Be Dragons 2 (7DRL 2015) - FINISHED

[watabou]

Explore 10 levels to reach the Lost City of Dragons

• 10 levels
• 8 biomes
• 15 types of monsters
• 14 heroes to recruit
• deterministic combat

Not all features I planned have been implemented, but at least there is a victory condition (there wasn't one in the original HBD).





You can play it here (Flash): http://herebedragons.watabou.ru/2015.html

[Adam Perry]

I preferred the aesthetics of your previous game, but this one's a lot of fun. My primary complaint is that there's no way to restart the game after dying -- I have to refresh the page. I also wish there were a way to gauge the strength of an enemy (both attack and life).

The game could benefit from some instructions. It took me two games to realize that map completion determined my starting life for the next level, and I'm still not sure if treasures do anything. Seems like there should be a score based on cumulative treasures, maybe with a bonus for exploration.

[watabou]

Thanks for comments!

My primary complaint is that there's no way to restart the game after dying -- I have to refresh the page.

I will add "Restart" button.

I also wish there were a way to gauge the strength of an enemy (both attack and life).

It wasn't implemented, because in most cases your decision what to do won't depend on an enemy's stats anyway. But I'll try to add it too

The game could benefit from some instructions. It took me two games to realize that map completion determined my starting life for the next level, and I'm still not sure if treasures do anything. Seems like there should be a score based on cumulative treasures, maybe with a bonus for exploration.

I agree with you and I was going to place some instructions on the page with the game, it just completely slipped my mind
Treasures are useless, they are part of the mechanics I didn't have time to implement. There is indeed a score and it's based on exploration percentage. It's displayed only if you win the game though.

[Tim Saunders]

I just played a couple of games. I personally love the look of the game, did you do all the graphics this week too? They're great.

The game is fun to play, but there doesn't seem that much strategy involved since it seems to be mostly luck that determines when you find people to join your party and combat seems to be mostly about getting the first hit and then hope for the best (unless I'm missing something). If there was some way about getting clues as to where you might find treasures and avoid monsters (perhaps by telling you what might be in adjacent tiles in the way that minesweeper does) then it might make an interesting exploration mechanic.

There's definitely something here though that could be expanded to make a very nice game.

[watabou]

I just played a couple of games. I personally love the look of the game, did you do all the graphics this week too? They're great.

Thanks! Some of the graphics I did about a year ago while exprimenting with hexes. It seemed fit for the idea of this game, so I expanded it adding heroes, biomes etc. Well, actually there are only tiny heroes sprites and tiles and no other graphics

The game is fun to play, but there doesn't seem that much strategy involved since it seems to be mostly luck that determines when you find people to join your party and combat seems to be mostly about getting the first hit and then hope for the best (unless I'm missing something). If there was some way about getting clues as to where you might find treasures and avoid monsters (perhaps by telling you what might be in adjacent tiles in the way that minesweeper does) then it might make an interesting exploration mechanic.

There's definitely something here though that could be expanded to make a very nice game.

Yes, just try to explore effectively and avoid enemies (in most cases) - that's all the strategy involved. It is indeed rather shallow