I got hit with some kinda of upside down heart thing and I had no idea how to get rid of it, so I figure some more detailed messages or descriptions of things like that could get in
That's an example of a status effect--there are lots in the game, and they're sort of the third major type of attack next to dealing damage and healing (or at least that's how I'm trying to build them now). There are certain coins that remove them, but for the most part you just have to live with them and work around them, there's mostly no direct action you can take to remove them. But there's lots of ways you can deal with them--the damage from the upside down heart, for example, can be soaked up by a shield coin, or counteracted with one of the rightside-up green hearts. Anyway. I'll add some information on the status effect on mouseover--thanks!
I think you should guarantee a fighting coin gets in your hand every time, or make it more obvious when one isn't so that I can know i should switch hands or something, cuz I died a lot just trying to figure out what coins i was holding atm
I like that the game is fast paced but it's hard to be when reading is necessary for the coin details, I think you should try to make more visual-oriented cues on what coins do so players can react quicker and have a better chance at winning
Yeah, I'm entirely sure how to deal with this. Part of me wants to replace key text with pictoral elements, so instead of "deals 10 damage" you'd see a starburst and the number 10. But that might also create more readability issues rather than less. I think if you play enough you'll start to learn what each coin does, and get sort of engrossed in the "language" of the game and not need to read descriptions so much. But I think I could also do more to create a visual language for that. Just, the exact nature of what should be currently eludes me. Will keep pondering.
Holding the mouse button continuously doesn't seem healthy for my mouse or finger. Maybe some other control scheme?
I've been building the game for touch, so a lot of elements are sort of archaic... this included. Making keyboard-optional control would be an easy addition.
About the gameplay mechanics. I think it's missing something, I played for a while, thought "this is nice", but I didn't keep playing. There was nothing drawing me back in. A story and a sense of progression could help, it's something to keep the player curious about what's deeper and makes him want to explore. also, upgrades and character progression could probably get me addicted to this. It could allow the player to upgrade after dying, which allows him to go even deeper the next run.
This is definitely one of the most important questions to me right now. I plan to include a listing of every coin in the game, so you can see empty slots for coins you haven't yet found, and work in lots of secrets and coins that are exclusive to certain events. More worlds with a defined ending level are also a definite plan here. I'd like to do player upgrades, but the precise nature of those eludes me at the moment.
I thought about giving you options for your starting deck of coins, but that wouldn't really have an impact on the game past the first level. I could also make characters to select with different attributes, binding of isaac style. Run speed, coin cast speed, hand re-draw speed, health, hand size, etc are all things which can already be upgraded in the game, but could also make for interesting variations. I just don't want to steal too directly from BoI. I liked Spelunky's shortcuts too, but, again, I'd also like to find my own voice for this. Permanent character upgrades I don't like, since that creates a straight and narrow linear progression--I definitely like the "upgrades" really being more like "options." It's just what those options ought to be that I'm not settled on yet.
If I had to pick, I think I'd rather have attack coins clicked on just before a fight ends be wasted after the bell than have healing/etc. coins not take effect, assuming the behavior needs to be symmetric.
Interesting idea! I think this would make you a lot more careful about what you do at the end of a fight, but that tension may also feel pretty good... I'll try it out and see.
I admit I haven't really delved into the deck-building aspect much, maybe because I haven't played many deck-building games. (The one exception is when forced to do so by a situation like that from the previous paragraph; so in this sense I see how you could argue the current end-of-fight ruleset encourages a wider set of player behaviors.)
The "deck-building" I feel is currently the weakest piece of the pie right now... I think it needs a big adjustment in some way. A friend once suggested forcing the player to choose from a pool whenever you defeat an enemy or open a chest instead of automatically getting everything, which is interesting, but I don't think I like interrupting the flow of the game for something like that.
What I'm thinking about doing is making shops a lot more frequent, and add in more opportunities and ways for the player to spend and throw away coins so that you sort of build your deck out of deconstruction. For example, a statue that heals you 5 HP for every $10 you give it, or something. Forcing the player to give away coins makes them make choices about which ones are valuable to them, and I think that could help put an emphasis on deck makeup.
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