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[JasonPickering]

So I have started working on an old game I was making called MicRogue. So I have been slowly rebuilding it and I am starting to get to the point where talking about it would help the design. I will be using this spot for major updates and also new builds.

Original Thread

Apple App Store

[JasonPickering]

So here is the first design problem to tackle.

Right now the player enters the dungeons, battles some monsters and grabs the treasure on floor 5. The main problem I have is I want the game to get larger, and harder as the player goes. I liked the feel of Binding of Issac. Currently I keep track of wins and after several wins I increase the final floor by 1. so after winning 3 times the dungeon becomes deeper and the player must get to floor 6 to win.

I have been thinking about adding new monsters and traps as you play either by checking wins, or also I want to keep track of certain enemy deaths. So for example after killing 50 skeletons, a lich is added. The lich will run from the player, and will randomly summon new skeletons to battle you. I am not sure if the lich will replace the skeleton, or just be added as a tougher enemy.

The major problem I am having now it this though. I have 7 enemies now. I am thinking I don't want all 7 enemies to appear every time you play as it can get a bit muddled having all these different monsters on a single floor, and it will only get worse as the player unlocks more monsters. So I was wondering how I should go about separating these monsters. I was thinking I could set them into 3 tiers and then select monsters from each tier. kind of like an Easy, Medium, Hard setting. Easy monsters would show up earlier then Hard. I already have a system in to decide what floor a monster can start on. I could also do special tilesets, but I am afriad that might limit me as the monsters I have now, dont fit into a lot of different tilesets.

so what do you think?

[Xion]

could you reskin monsters to behave the same but just fit better in the different tilesets? ex rat in dungeon becomes slime in sewers becomes snake in forest, etc.

edit: also, I'm glad to see this is alive again.

[JasonPickering]

I thought about this, but I worried about different characters. The enemies all have different chess style movements and the rats for example move 1 square in the four cardinal directions. I was afraid of introducing multiple characters with the same move system. It was also suggested about making a base set of enemies in a couple different colors. So normal rat, snow rat, fire rat. Rats would all move the same but their color would match the area. I could probably build a couple tier Easy guys like that. I have a bunch of hooded monks, and I could also create some guards too.

[Arnold]

big fan here!
glad to see this again! i liked it from the beginning. I see this could work really well for mobile.
st33ds ending was cool on mobile too. visually i'm not sure about the texture, but thats personal taste i guess.

[Purcy]

I love the art style and would love to see this on iOS

[rek]

Good to see this is back, but why not continue the old thread?

For every (or every x) harder enemies you add, you should subtract an easier one (to a minimum of one per tier, perhaps themed to the dungeon as mentioned above).

[JasonPickering]

Arnold: I really like what Aaron did with Ending. it was great. People seem to be pretty divided on the texture. I think it might be a little to dark at the moment.

Purcy: Thanks. It will be on iOS and Android.

Rek. The last thread was really old and Microgue had gone through a very large change from the begining. I will add a link to it though.

I actually like that Idea. so as the player wins I can "Upgrade" the enemies, so originally I could like have 6 enemies and then the game can replace them as it gets tougher. I have a Lich that can summon Skeletons so that would be a good replacement for the skeleton and I have a Wolf that is like the rat, but he can move 1 or 2 spaces, like the main character. I can also add enemies that only appear at certain floors which would be like an unlock, so for example a dragon might not show up till floor 7, but the player would need to win a lot to get to floor 7. I could also maybe add themed floors similar to Spelunky. Like I could make the first 5 floors cave, then floor 6-10 could be like Lava. meaning I can make much tougher Lava themed enemies and contain them in the harder floors, like dragons and demons.

[JasonPickering]

Rebuilt the unlock system and built a way that I can set enemy rarity by floor. Going to start working on getting a good gameplay curve now. I don't think I am going to do anything special with the main character but I would really like to have different ones. They might just be cosmetic like spelunky though. It might be fun to unlock.

[JasonPickering]

started working on the Message system. This will give the player some context for the story and the unlocks. Basically an evil wizard has stolen some random artifact from the king and you must get it back. The artifact will stay the same until you rescue it, but each time you die you will be spawned as a new character ( sprite and name) and sent in to get the item. This allows me to create a decent villain for the player to focus on and makes better sense as his defenses get stronger as you continue to thwart his plans. It also gives me a way to tell the player of upgrades. You head into the dungeon and the evil wizard says " ha ha, I just bought a ton of giant snails." And now levels have big menacing snails ( as menacing as snails ca be) in them.

[JasonPickering]

Bumped the game up to 30% and have gotten pretty far on the level progression.

the way it works now is each time an artifact is retrieved the dungeon is notched up on the difficulty scale. so a few examples

First Win = Snails are added as monsters
Second Win = Spike Traps are added
Third Win = The Final Floor is increased from 4 to 5
Fourth Win = Yetis are added as monsters

I currently have about 20 levels of unlocks. Each Artifact will be designed by me to. They will all be some type of magical artifact you are always acquiring in RPG games. Each one will also have the hero deaths recorded. so If you collect the first artifact and then die 5 times before getting the second one It will tell you that 5 heroes died to retrieve this artifact. The artifacts wont really do anything, they are just trophies.

[i-kari]

Like I could make the first 5 floors cave, then floor 6-10 could be like Lava. meaning I can make much tougher Lava themed enemies and contain them in the harder floors, like dragons and demons.

That's what I have in my game Power Heroes. The enemies are divided into different sets and the sets are then linked to level themes. When the theme changes, new enemies appear.

so If you collect the first artifact and then die 5 times before getting the second one It will tell you that 5 heroes died to retrieve this artifact.

That's a very nice touch. Clever.

[JasonPickering]

Yeah the different level tilesets was a good idea, but I was really having trouble coming up with sets of characters. I might have to revisit it though as it really makes sense with the level progression system I use.

As for the heroes counted, Each time you play a random hero is created. Its a combination of Sprite and Name. I really wanted to push the idea of the disposable heroes.

[JasonPickering]

Working on the title page.



might animate the clouds, and add some movement to it. or maybe monsters sneaking around. up the creepy factor.

[barneycumming]

the title screen is very cool- looking forward to animated version  

this game is great, lovely clean super low-res style!

[karlozalb]

Working on the title page.



might animate the clouds, and add some movement to it. or maybe monsters sneaking around. up the creepy factor.

Looks cool, waiting for the animated version

[JasonPickering]

So worked on animating this last night, but nothing really looked good. I tried to make the clouds move very slowly but no matter how fast it always looked to fast. I also added movement into that big window. A few pixels moving in then moving away but that did not work either. Next I will be adding some lightning so we will see how that works. Any other suggestions?

[08--n7.r6-79.84]

Working on the title page.



might animate the clouds, and add some movement to it. or maybe monsters sneaking around. up the creepy factor.

=)

[akoluthic]

Working on the title page.



might animate the clouds, and add some movement to it. or maybe monsters sneaking around. up the creepy factor.

Beautiful pixels.

[JasonPickering]

Lightning!!




anything else you can think of?