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[Squidly]

Note: At some point, I let this post die. Let me clarify that A LOT has changed since then. Such as the adding of an entire different zone, SEVERAL classes, a class-select screen, and just several things, really. Thus I'm going to revive this.

Original Text: This is essentially my attempt at trying to make the simplest RPG possible, without being stupidly simple. For example, there are 3 stats, and right about everything can be said in two lines or less.

It's pretty much a rogue-like without the dungeon-grid.

Anyways, here's the link to the updated build:

http://tinyurl.com/dungeonexplore

In this version:

- NEW: Practically Everything
- Melee Classes: Warriors, Paladins, Blackguards
- Ranged Classes: Ranger
- Martial Classes: Monks, Enforcers, Oni's
- Utility Classes: Rogue, Bard, Mercenary
- Mage Classes: Wizards, Darkfolk, Clerics, Necromancers, Druids
- Hybrid Classes: Avengers

- There is now a dungeon boss for the Dungeon, which leads to the second zone.
- The second zone is also complete-able up to the point that it leads to the third zone.
- Lot's of stupid cameos

Older Things:

- Chest of the Gods: These chests appear at level 5 and ask church trivia for stat boosts, now you have an actual reason to hit the 'learn' button :d
- Second Wind button, this is only usable once and is a sort of 'continue'
- Monsters now give less exp if they're a much lower level.
- Almost everything is clickable for witty text, really, try it.
- Events: Newts, Bags, and sad Dungeon Wanderers :O
- Exploring
- Combat
- Armory (Weapons Shop)
- Forge (Armor Shop)
- Adjusted Shop Pricing - Unique Discounts/Increases
- Five Churches - Church of Killogy (-Dex, +Power,) Defolgy (-HP, +Arm,) Quilogy (-Arm, +Dex,) Necrogy (-Pwr, +HP,) Randology (Random)


There is A LOT to be added in this game, currently, I plan to have:

- Three zones (The Dungeon, Hollow Earth, and the PentPlane Area)
- Possibly Character Classes (If you have requests, now is the time to voice them before I start working on the third zone.)
- Many, many, more monsters
- The Endgame
- Make most classes locked with unique unlock requirements (challenges and such)

Pics:

[Spooder]

Very neat, like a roguelike cross text adventure...can't wait to see more!

[sevn]

this is way too complex.







lol jk.

The gui needs a bit of a rethink to be honest. There where a few things I was confused about at first such as I thought (stupidly) that the loading bar was some kind of directional map.

Also the text messages need to be highlighted more.

But yeah. I've always hated these games because they seemed to take the focus away from the text. When the text should be the more important part of the game.

Might just be me though.

[verticalvertex]

Plays great. But as stated before the text might need a little bit more work.

[Chromanoid]

is there something after the sword Ultimate Ultimacy?

[Squidly]

The gui needs a bit of a rethink to be honest. There where a few things I was confused about at first such as I thought (stupidly) that the loading bar was some kind of directional map.

Also the text messages need to be highlighted more.

But yeah. I've always hated these games because they seemed to take the focus away from the text. When the text should be the more important part of the game.

Might just be me though.

So I have a few questions about this.
I thought the loading bar was rather self-explanatory, as there is no "map" in the game, but if everyone's thinking this, it could be a problem that I have to address.

Now, regarding the text, I thought it IS an important part of the game. Is it going by too quick? Is it too repetitive? Are the images detracting from it?

Plays great. But as stated before the text might need a little bit more work.

Now here's a question: Is the text showing up as intended?
As in, are you all seeing plaintext? If so, I might not have embedded properly, what you SHOULD be seeing is Atari Classic Smooth: http://members.bitstream.net/~marksim/atarimac/fonts.html

What does "needs a little more work" mean specifically?

is there something after the sword Ultimate Ultimacy?

Nope, hence the name :D

Also, I'm rather surprised that you got to that point, you must've been playing for FAR longer then I intended people to, were you just not buying armor? The Sword of Ultimate Ultimacy should be rather hard to get until you get to the Hollow Earth, which hasn't even been added yet, and has monsters that drop many more coins.

///////////

By the way, new version uploaded :d

[Chromanoid]

Oh I did not understand that one can buy armor. I was relaxing and wanted to click a bit while watching some tv series. I only upgraded my sword and leveled to 12 (I think the first thing I saw when having the right amount of money was always a sword seller)... Just killing white guys, orcs, blocks and these other green things.... It was quite entertaining

[Squidly]

Oh I did not understand that one can buy armor. I was relaxing and wanted to click a bit while watching some tv series. I only upgraded my sword and leveled to 12 (I think the first thing I saw when having the right amount of money was always a sword seller)... Just killing white guys, orcs, blocks and these other green things.... It was quite entertaining

Must've been playing the older version, I just added a few bunch of monsters.

[capn.lee]

there doesn't seem to be much in the way of meaningful choices. I don't know if I was just unlucky, but I seemed to find a pot had an equal chance of containing insta-death or insta-heal. Upon realising this I just stopped using them all together. The same goes for the potions, drinking a potion would either increase or decrease a random stat.

I would definitely reconsider these events.

Does guard do anything useful at all, I found no advantage to using it?

Also, the text looks to be times new roman rather than atari classic smooth

[Squidly]

there doesn't seem to be much in the way of meaningful choices. I don't know if I was just unlucky, but I seemed to find a pot had an equal chance of containing insta-death or insta-heal. Upon realising this I just stopped using them all together. The same goes for the potions, drinking a potion would either increase or decrease a random stat.

I would definitely reconsider these events.

Does guard do anything useful at all, I found no advantage to using it?

Also, the text looks to be times new roman rather than atari classic smooth

- There is a 1/8 chance that you either decrease/increase HP, Dex, Pwr, and Arm using a pot.

- There is a 1/4 chance that you get money or a bomb, and a 2/4 chance of getting a mutton.

- Bombs can be avoided, just click the leave button as fast as you can (before it explodes.)

- Guard adds temporary Arm that disappears as soon as its broken, more useful against monsters which are stronger then you.

- I just added the Church of Killogy, this increases your Pwr in exchange for Dex, this works hand in hand with pots.

- There will be events later that ARE meaningful choices, such as a curious lever which may or may not release a valuable from a cage and activate a trap, at which point it'll test your dex to see if you make it out or not.

- By the way, I'm asking for suggestions on those, I'm uncreative sometimes.

- I don't know why it would display as Times New Roman, I already embedded the text!

Any suggestions on how specifically to improve things? Events?

[Chromanoid]

I think it would be nice to know some probabilities as percentage values in advance. Maybe with vague descriptions, but give me something I can gamble on
For example:

----
15% - something bad happens
80% - something good happens
5% - ? ? ?
---

[Picture of Potion]

---
USE LEAVE

When using it you see the lines flashing slot machine like for a second and then you get the event... When displaying the probabilities you can vary these per found potion for more fun too.

An alternative presentation which might bite with your style would be a wheel of Fortune like bar at the top/bottom of the screen. Something like this:

[Picture of Potion]

------▼---------
|☠|♥|♥|♥|☠|☠|?|
-----------------
USE LEAVE

[capn.lee]

- There is a 1/8 chance that you either decrease/increase HP, Dex, Pwr, and Arm using a pot.

so if you drink a lot of potions your stats are expected to be completely unchanged?

I would recommend adding a few more potions with negative effects, maybe temporary reductions to chance to hit (some kind of alcoholic potion), a poison that does a flat reduction to your health and/or a potion that removes the visible stats for the enemy in your next combat (blindness potion?) then at the start of the game, attach each potion to a colour. The player will then be able to drink a potion to find out what it does (this play-through only, of course) but with serious risks to consider.

It would certainly be worth adding some kind of indication also that you can escape after discovering a bomb.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2021720/Untitled.png
This is how the game looks on my browser, the buttons are in the correct font, but not the text.

[Squidly]

Ok, how about this?

The potions work in that certain colored potions have a higher chance of dealing bad effects, but their good effects are much better. This will be hinted at by saying "You have a vague feeling of dread" or "You feel as if this potion may be rewarding."

Also, can you check now and see if the text's still broken?

[capn.lee]

text is fine now aside from in the cost of upgrading panel, the xp and gold notifications you get from killing an enemy and the enemy health notification.

[CorazonAzul]

I played the game for 10 minutes, lot of feedback already so I didn't bother going further yet

INTERFACE
Has all the ingredients for great accessibility- simple interface, plenty of color coordination, no overwhelming wall of data. I was drawn to its simplicity-victory! Also reminds me of my own childhood making pen/paper "RPG's" that I'd play all by myself. More on that later

The cake isn't baked to perfection yet, but I'm sure is in the works. It takes a number of trials just to figure out what the (life/exp/gold) numbers are. After upgrading my weapon, the stats didn't go up- no way to measure the deal versus upgrading something else first

MECHANICS
The Heal ability will surely catch any player off guard, as I don't think anyone is expecting it to work off gold coins. Another trial and error here. Is there a particular usefulness to the Guard ability?

DIALOGUE
Good. Humorous, mysterious. However, some of the text disappears too quickly to read, such as after using the Bash ability and when gaining exp and gold after battle. For a new player, it's hard to tell what's all going on

GRAPHICS
Good. Retro, catchy, accessible

BUGS/ERRORS
Core ran well. Handful of typos, here is one: "Welcome to Ezekial's _curiosly_ located armory". Also, after I let a Rooky Orc kill me, I couldn't find a way to reset the game. Just for fun I right clicked the application and hit "play", which advanced me to a new room bearing 0 life- zombie! I explored until I ate some food, gained 30 life, and could have kept going

CONCLUSION
A bit many trials and errors at the moment just to learn how the game works, which shouldn't happen in a game based on simplicity and accessibility. Despite that, I don't think the game is too much farther from its goal. Cool project, keep going