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[Squidly]

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 _ curiously_ located armory". Also, after I let a Rooky Orc kill me,A 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

Ok, so here is where things get strange: My vision for this game is rather foggy.
I feel like I would like the core game to be simplictic, but the deeper game to have a lot of little things that make it just less bland.

One of my ideas has been to implement an 'info' system, a little "i" icon that you can use to click around, the only question, however, would be where to put it?

At the same time, I also don't want to give TOO much information, as I'd like the game to be Nethack'ish in its means of exploration.

As for weapons, this goes into the hidden simplicity: Weapons do not improve your pwr and armor does not improve your defense. Instead of stat boosts, they affect certain scenarios. For example, your damage for your bash attack is (pwr + d6)*wep. As in, weapons don't have whole number values such as 1, 2, 3, instead they have decimals that they mutliply by, such as 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, and so forth. Since I limited myself with this HUD, I don't quite know WHERE to put this information - this goes back to that "info" button.

Would it make sense to put the info button only in the combat screen? Or would it have to find a permanent place in the HUD?

As for the reset, yea, sorry about that, I completely overlooked it. I'm not quite sure what I want to do with the score value yet :/

As for the zoom forward, that will be removed in the final build.

As for the typo's, just shoot em' out when you see them and I'll fix them.

All in all, thank you.

[CorazonAzul]

I think some basic info about what's happening on the screen should be available somewhere, and I agree it shouldn't clutter up the main interface. Some info boxes could activate on hover, or a toggle button to change the data displayed while toggled. AKA none of us want a room with dressers already open to see what clothes are in there- only that the knowledge is always available

Since it appears the game is about fun and exploration, you can relocate the mystery or gamble elements from the vital components to optional (exploration) components. Instead of risking your chances of survival, your gambles determine where the chain of events takes and doesn't take you. So you have something to depend on- the factors you can control which lead to victory in battle, and something to take a chance on that won't screw up the flow of the game

[Squidly]

Uh, where the chain of events does and doesn't take you?

Well, you can choose to attempt to pull the lever or just leave it be, and it's not exactly random, you're making an attempt against the obstacle, if you haven't been boosting your dex, don't pull.

Now the problem with toggles is this: What else could I toggle to?

I mean, I have the battle screen toggle, this makes all action buttons into info buttons until toggled off, not quite sure what else to say. Currently, I'm debating wether I should have a main menu or not, and if I did (which I most likely will) if I should add a "how to play" box.

[Squidly]

Sorry for the double post, but I find this topic sinking and I just completed the church system.

I would like your thoughts on how I implemented them.

[increpare]

Hey, a game, cool!

My issue with the game is that it doesn't really explain itself very well.  Lots of numbers.  Oh, there's a status bar system.

Blue text on dark grey looks bad/hard to read to me (also I can't click the blue numbers).

Can't click on portraits/pictures to get some description text? boooo

"Your offer reaches Armon, you feel protected! Yet you feel your heart beat slower"
I don't know what this means :|

Oh okay, kinda getting the hang of it now.

When will there be music/sound?

[Squidly]

Hey, a game, cool!

My issue with the game is that it doesn't really explain itself very well.  Lots of numbers.  Oh, there's a status bar system.

Blue text on dark grey looks bad/hard to read to me (also I can't click the blue numbers).

Can't click on portraits/pictures to get some description text? boooo

"Your offer reaches Armon, you feel protected! Yet you feel your heart beat slower"
I don't know what this means :|

Oh okay, kinda getting the hang of it now.

When will there be music/sound?

I'm not quite sure what the specific criticism here is, this is what I gathered:

- I should change the monster HP to another color.

- Lots of numbers? Try clicking on them :d

- You can click on almost anything except for monsters (for now.)

- Lots of the description text is purposely vague, look at your stats before/after, it's part of the exploration :d

- Then at some point you got the hang of it, yay, I'm emulating the roguelike experience! That gradual change from "what the fuck am I doing" to "oh, I get it."

- Sound is basically gonna be the last thing I put in, just for the fact that it makes compiling take much longer. I also plan to get an easy chiptune musician, or learn how to do it myself.

[increpare]

- I should change the monster HP to another color.

Why not make them the same colour as player HP?

[Squidly]

- I should change the monster HP to another color.

Why not make them the same colour as player HP?

Because then it's actually MORE confusing :/

I try to keep everything rather color coded.

[increpare]

No it's not.  Look at any RPG ever.  A colour code doesn't mean different colours for everything (that's the opposite of a colour code), it means the same colours for the same things.  The position of the two numbers distinguishes their relationship enough I think.

[Squidly]

No it's not.  Look at any RPG ever.  A colour code doesn't mean different colours for everything (that's the opposite of a colour code), it means the same colours for the same things.  The position of the two numbers distinguishes their relationship enough I think.

Fair point, I suppose.

Anything else?
Is the humor on par? I'm trying to build a vague narrative that's not going to be too clear until the other two zones are added, similar to how Nethack DOES have an overreaching narrative.

My worry is that the game may be too hard to beat for most people, I don't want it to be easy, but I don't want it to be impossible.

EDIT: I added descriptions to just about everything, including monsters, so it's all clickable.

[Squidly]

So there was just a HUGE update.

I nearly doubled the amount of monsters and made them level less.

I was playtesting this with my friends, and it seemed there was a general aggrevation at the concept of permadeath. This was coming from a Realm of The Mad God player, who though loved the game, found permadeath a little harsh, especially since there's no 'run' button.

So here's your second wind, you only have one, so use it wisely.

I'm not sure if I want the player to be able to charge second winds or not, from possibly an NPC ("Life Insurance,") a level milestone (every 5 levels,) or entering a new zone (max 3 in the entire playthrough, due to there being 3 zones. Opinions?

I'm also considering adding a questing feature, basically there would be a bounty hunter who would give you additional exp for killing certain monsters, good idea or no? I don't want to make leveling happen too quick or make money too common, as that would ruin prices in the game, so I'm questioning this.

[Fyren]

The game didn't feel like I had meaningful choices.  I read the thread to figure out what guard did (I didn't really see any evidence it did anything) and still don't really know what it does.  Giving 'temporary armor till it's broken' sounds like it's not worth a turn unless it's enough to completely block more than one attack.  If it does block more than one attack's worth, you always use it, otherwise you never use it.

The first time I played I got a series more than eight shop/tree/sign/church events in a row at the very start.  That sucked.  I just bought weapons and eventually started coming up against acolytes and ghosts.  I would probably hit them less than 25% of the time, so eventually one killed me.

Second time I bought armor instead.  The price didn't seem to go up, I bought armor of invincibility or something for like 40g.  Then it offered me armor again for like 40g and I bought it, but it didn't give me anything new.  I missed what the text called it.  By this point (maybe earlier and I didn't notice), enemy attacks would actually usually heal me.  Against the 60ish HP ghosts, I'd probably have to attack 20-30 times just to hit them the three or so times necessary to kill them.  Then I got a 90 HP ghost that I attacked 50+ times and hit only once.  I stopped playing there (still at full health because of the healing).

I play roguelikes, so the idea of permadeath isn't harsh to me, in general.  In most roguelikes you have many paths to build your character and strategies to use in combat (including running away).  Here, you basically click fight a lot unless you're about to die so you hit heal instead.  If you give players enough options that they feel that they wouldn't die if given the same situation again (even survival means fleeing) or that they learned something and would do better next time, permadeath is not bad.

[Squidly]

Yea, you might have been experiencing the game before I fixed some glitches. The armor thing is now fixed, sorry about that.

I'm still pondering whether there should be a run button or not, I need a viable way to make sure it's not too easy to get out of situations (I hit run every single time.)

Now the guard is half your armor value added as temporary until it's broken. Eventually, I'll do it so it's that and also decreases at a rate of 1 per turn.

I think there's quite a bit of ways to fix up your character, there will certainly be more character classes (currently planned: archer and monk, I'll see how I can pull off wizard, I'll find a way.) Archers have a system of loading arrows into their quiver and shooting in quick succession, yet have abysmal power (unless you edit it at a church, yes, dexless powerhouse archer's are possible.) I made it so that church's DON'T interfere with eachother, that if one church highers dex and lowers defense, the other won't higher defense and lower dex, instead, it goes in a circular motion.

What kind of meaningful choices are you looking for? Should I nerf the late game monsters so that dex isn't absolutely necessary if you don't want to get massacred? But then the game gets too easy, yes, this can go any way.

[capn.lee]

perhaps read this, it may give you a few ideas.
http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/01/game-theory-applied-to-game-design/

[Squidly]

perhaps read this, it may give you a few ideas.
http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/01/game-theory-applied-to-game-design/

Nice read.

So what I'm thinking is that I should expand the gameplay possibilities, which is what I'm in the middle of doing.

First off, I'm going to rebalance all the monsters. Let's face it: They're not balanced at all. They're cakewalks until you encounter dungeon wanderers and angry mobs which do a fine job of murdering you completely. It's either dex or die, which leads people to get less arm, which makes guard essentially useless.

Second off, I'm going to create a bunch of counters to every monster. If you noticed the "tear cans" and "anti-kubes" work against certain monsters. I'm going to heavily expand this.

Third off, I'm going to add these monsters called "Demonium." What they do is, when killed, drop a piece of Raw Demonium, which you can then contact either an NPC scientist or NPC miner who will give you either a random upgrade (no downgrade) or cash. Demonium doesn't give too much exp and doesn't drop too many coins by itself.

Fourth off, I'm adding in an idea from a friend of mine, the "Chest of the Gods." Which asks for church trivia and rewards stat boosts.

Any other ideas?

I think much of the blandness of the combat will be revamped with the introduction of new classes, for example, rangers can load multiple arrows and shoot them in rapid succession, and monks can 'metsu' their shoryuken or hadoken for extra damage. Shoryuken's are a high power, low dex attack (harder to hit,) and Hadokens are a low power, high dex attack (easier to hit.)