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[laxwolf]

Quick Link to Update!

I'm currently working on a randomly-generated "first-person" dungeon crawler for iOS. The main focus for this project is the control scheme since my last game "Catswingo" was built around a broken one. Everything from the fruit-ninja style combat to opening and closing the inventory feels natural and can be done with one hand. Random-generation is a huge theme in the game; weapons, items, armor, enemies, and dungeons are all procedurally generated. You can also pick up objects and throw them around, interact with the environment (pull torches off the wall), and much more. "Infinite" playability and innovative, fun touch gameplay are the main goals for this project.

[laxwolf]

This is a happy devlog post!

While refining the combat, I came to one critical conclusion. Pocket Dungeon NEEDED blocking. Leaving enemy attacks to hidden variables and chance left me confused and frustrated, especially when fighting higher level enemies. The idea seemed simple, "I'll just add an onscreen shield!" Not a great idea. Having a shield required multiple fingers and took away from the main mechanic, slicing-that-shit-up-with-your-finger-sword. Then it hit me like a pile of lead cinderblocks, make the shields into targets onscreen. The idea grew, the more shields you hit, the greater your chance of blocking the next attack (or chain of attacks) and if you hit all of them, you completely block your enemies attack. This mechanic felt completely natural and added to the combat in an almost puzzle-like way. Instead of feeling cheated out against a level 50 demon with no input on defense, you are greeted with the satisfaction of your skill being better than theirs. It also adds to the balancing act of your health, stamina, and attack charges as sacrificing your defense/health for a strong attack may cost you the battle and wasting stamina on slashing defense shields may cost you your biggest attack. The patterns become increasingly more complicated and faster, and boss fights will have unique defense patterns. This may add to the mastery of the game.

For the first time in Pocket Dungeons development, I have a real sense of, "this can be good." I really can't wait to share this with everyone, the gameplay is getting so much better and so much more fun.



On top of that, I added:
- Charge added to attacks, much more satisfying.
- Randomly-Generated armor and weapons with unique stats.
- Rare items with unique names (some predefined, some generated.)
- Rooms with multiple doors.
- Locked doors that can be opened with keys.
- Puzzle rooms added.
- Treasure rooms added.
- "Final" rooms added with special chests with better chances for rare weapons and armor.
- Update bar telling you information like "You are now level..." or "You collected 500 coins."
- Detail adder was updated for more flexibility.

[JLJac]

That actually seems pretty great. It forces the player to balance between attack and defense, and it sets up for interesting variation. It seems you just stumbled upon your core mechanic 

[laxwolf]

That actually seems pretty great. It forces the player to balance between attack and defense, and it sets up for interesting variation. It seems you just stumbled upon your core mechanic 

I think I did, which explains why it got me so excited. I really appreciate your reply as well, encouragement helps development.

Today's focus was on inventory management and interaction, which went very well. I also added in armor with all its randomly-generated goodness. I only have some test art but it gets the idea across. And if I haven't stated it, armor affects the amount of damage enemies do. Weapons should be in the game by the time I go to bed tonight (almost the same as armor, just different stats affected.)

[phi6]

This looks really good so far!
I love roguelikes and the interaction with touchscreen sounds different and innovative.
Looking forward to seeing what comes of this

[laxwolf]

This looks really good so far!
I love roguelikes and the interaction with touchscreen sounds different and innovative.
Looking forward to seeing what comes of this

Thanks a lot, Phi6! Tiny Keep is looking great by the way and I wish you luck with the Kickstarter!

I decided to delve into creating more art assets, specifically armor. While doing so, I realized that my code only worked when I had "sets" of armor (helm, gauntlets, greaves, cuirass, and boots) and not for individual pieces. To fix this, I created a special armor table that holds "set-less" armor in individual categories separated by type (helm, gauntlet, boots, cuirass, greaves.) This is different from the rare armor generator as the rare armor generator takes existing armor sets and gives them unique names. Here's some of the armor I created today.

Other things I did:
- Improved combat math to balance strength and weapons.
- Dungeon is now generated with start and end.
- More defense patterns.

[happymonster]

Looks very good!

[laxwolf]

Looks very good!

Thanks you happymonster, means a lot!

I don't know if I'll be on later tonight so I'll update you all now.
I worked on some new enemies and added a zombie (the great thing about the enemy system is it takes five minutes to add in a new enemy once the art is sorted out.) It can attack with its arms as well as bite you (for poison damage.) I also finished up all the current armor sets, some better than others but it works for now! P.S. If anyone knows a faster way to cut sprites with GIMP, let me know!

[laxwolf]

Just added a brand-spankin' new tab system to the inventory that groups items together based on their item type. I was worried I'd have to rewrite my inventory code and add a bunch of tables but alas, it only took one variable that selects item type and a few line rewrites. Doing this also helped me find a bug in my hotkey code so that's back to working order. I also added in all the armor and created a function which decides what items can be spawned based on your level and luck (pacing out the game's content.) You can put on armor and it affects your block. I also added in weapons but I don't want to show it yet since I have a few art challenges to work out. I also added in around a dozen more defense patterns.




Your Opinion? In RPGs, I've always loved the equip screen where you take armor & accessories and drop them into a square (where your helmet, boots, etc. are.) I really want this in Pocket Dungeon but it's not really necessary. Are you more in favor of an equip screen or just selecting armor and having it highlighted in your inventory?

[illugion]

I think an equip screen would be nice, i really like that in games 

Maybe you could do something like: you select to change your boots from that screen then it shows only the boots you have on the inventory so you don't have to go through all items to find the right one. I don't know if that would be complicated to do and don't know if there will be that much equipment but it would help not to get lost i guess.

Your game is really interesting, i wish you'd release it for android too 

[Belimoth]

Nice job with that defense mechanic!

[laxwolf]

Nice job with that defense mechanic!

Thank you Belimoth!

I think an equip screen would be nice, i really like that in games  

Maybe you could do something like: you select to change your boots from that screen then it shows only the boots you have on the inventory so you don't have to go through all items to find the right one. I don't know if that would be complicated to do and don't know if there will be that much equipment but it would help not to get lost i guess.

Your game is really interesting, i wish you'd release it for android too  

That was probably the best idea anyone could of come up with, so I added it! You are now presented with an equip screen with the ability to tap each individual armor part. It then brings up all of that certain item making it easier to select armor. If you don't want to do that, you can simply scroll down and find every piece of armor you have (which is less convenient.) This system is a lot better in my opinion and having the armor presented together is nice. Thank you so much Illugion! I also think I can release on Android now for free, so I will consider it (The software I use originally asked for an additional $199 for Android release but I received an e-mail saying I can publish for free.)



I'm still deciding on what the tabs should be but I think it will end up being Potions & Items (Combat-Related), Armor, Weapons & Spells, and Miscellaneous. Weapons & Spells will contain all your learned spells (not scrolls or books) and the weapon-augmenter (Fable-esque). I'm not sure how this will look yet but it should be pretty classy. Miscellaneous holds quest items and other items such as keys.

Devlog Question of the Day: Would it be a good idea to make gauntlets and boots representative of ONE item meaning you have to get two boots and two gauntlets to complete your armor set? And would any of you be interested in seeing extra armor pieces such as pauldrons (shoulder armor.) I like the idea because it's more content to collect but is it necessary? Thank you!

Happy Mother's Day!

[Bandreus]

Hey lax, game's looking sweet, some great work there 

I think doubling on gloves/boots/etc as 2x piece of armor is quite overkill. I think it would make the whole interface much more cluttered and equipping 2 different gloves might lead to some tedious invetory action.

That being said, it's not the worst idea ever, especially if you had some cool/meaningful mechanic behind a design like that. Double ring slot is pretty common though.

If you simply feel the "need" to have more item slots in the game, I would go with additional slot types instead: belt, cape, pauldron, leggins, cape are typical. Maybe have a socks or pants slot lol

I'm not the hugest fan of having lots and lots of equipment slots, as it usually leads to too much focus on mix-maxing and can be both uninteresting and a hell to balance for. That's just my own take tough.

[fylth]

...If you simply feel the "need" to have more item slots in the game, I would go with additional slot types instead: belt, cape, pauldron, leggins, cape are typical...

I sense you are subtly hinting that you would like the inclusion of capes 

[Bandreus]

lol that was totally my subconscious