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[st33d]

Bump 2

It's a sequel to my other game, Bump!

Took this to London Indies and got a mixed reception. Realised my combo-highscore objective was based around standing still forever - how boring! I added a combo-dash and now it's a new game.

Is it fun? I think it's fun, but I thought it was fun before and I was wrong.

Just the basics are in now - have a go, tell us if it's fun and what sort of score / multipliers you get. I've gotten it up to x30 and 111,000 on a time out.

http://robotacid.com/games/bump2/bump2mechtest.html

[mtarini]

It is fun.
Very, very, very, very much so.

(I scored 180K).

As it is now, i.e. as a "hi-score gauntlet": a nice, self-contained game!

Maybe, the 500 score for the gems is a little unbalanced. Killing monsters in succession is a lot more fun, but currently to maximize score the only thing that matters is that the combo ends with a gem. It's fun already, but I think I would prefer it if gems were just a little extra bonus in the succession, and what mattered was monsters: i.e. walls breaking to help building up bonuses (as now), but monsters squashing to profit.
Idea: maybe the gems should be a +2 increase in the bonus (rather than a lot of points)?

Also, sometimes (rarely) it happens that two monsters are killed in one move (with bombs), which is cool but, currently, counter-productive. Maybe the bonus should go up +2 in these case? Or even +3!

The time limit is a bit of a nuisance, but I see why it is there.
Maybe an (unmodified) score bonus for just surviving would be nice.


---------------------------------
 
Score gauntlet aside, I love the mechanics and the look.

I wonder if they could be employed as a basis for a more full-fledged, RPG rogue-like; you know, with more monster types (with differentiated AIs), objects giving special abilities (e.g. "Orb of Patience" -- use once to wait a turn, abilities to break certain walls, armor piercing weapons, re-gainable armor, etc), specials abilities, shops, quests, dungeons, bosses, classes, savegames, etc.  Keeping it simple, naturally (a bit like in the spirit of Desktop Dungeons)

[mtarini]

Apologies for double posting, and apologies for bumping (no pun intended) the thread,
but, after almost 1/2 a year, I've got a little confession to make:

I.
Have.
Never.
Stopped.
Playing.
This.
All along.

Once every while, but (I think) invariably at least multiple times a week, I have a little go.

IT IS VERY FUN TO PLAY. ADDICTIVE.
Don't drop this. It is game-mechanics gold.
And pleeeease don't ever remove it from the web!

Very fun and unexpectedly complex strategies. SUPER FUN.
It just never gets old.
Apart from my old suggestions above, I've a few new ones, both about the mechanics and the graphic coating:

Suggestions for mechanisms:

(1) I think it might be worth testing this:
when the player fails to score an hit this round, half the multipliative bonus (rounding down) instead of dropping it to x1 in one go, like now.
E.g. you go from x10 to x5 to x2 to x1.
It is still a very steep fall, but currently it is a little too harsh to nullify a spree so completely and immediately.

(2) you know the toughest enemy, the one with the pointy bits and the protective shield? Reward the player if he can manage to kill all of it within a *single* killing spree. That is, if the player removes the shield and then kills it without ever incurring in a non-hitting move in between.
Reason: it is very difficult to do that (but, possible), and when you manage, it is spectacular thing which gives great satisfaction; so it should probably be rewared.
How to: when the shield is destroyed, a gem appears on the enemy. As soon as the player makes a non-hitting move, the gem breaks and disappears.

(3) when you kill enemy by bombs, increase the score multiplier by an additional +1 for each enemy killed.
Reason: killing enemies with bombs is a fun, difficult and satisfying thing to do, requiring a certain amount of luck / skill / planning. However, often , it currently is counter-productive to do so.


Suggestions for graphics:

The puzzle aspects of this game are already predominant (with respect to the rogue-like aspects).
So I think it would cool to increase its rogue-likeness in the graphical coating. Currently it looks-and-feels too much you are in like some giant cell or something.

Here's what I had in mind:

* repaint the Gem Wall icons with (closed) Treasure Chest icons. So it would be fitting and justified that is it so valuable. Small animations of it opening and revealing a gem inside when bumped. Makes the map very dungeon-esque and RPG-ish.

* rename the bonus multiplier as "EXP". E.g.: "EXP: x6". It would be fitting that it increases by killing things.

* repaint blob monsters (the stupid ones) as "rats".
Making 4 images for them, one for each possible facing (views from front, back, left side, right side).
I.e. pseudo-isometric, not just from above.

* repaint big-head monsters (the simple, seeking ones) as icons a bit in the style of the hero's, but goblin-esque (and no weapon). No facing (except from left-right mirroring, just like the hero).

* repaint the pointy monsters as icons of a "orc" equipped with a big frontal shield and spear. Four facings, pseudo isometric -- see "rates" above.

* as for their armoured version: it would be cool to just give them one-hit helmets like the hero, but I dunno how to justify that they are "blunt" when they have the helmet on (no hitting power). So, maybe, magic shield aura around them like now is fine. Or maybe when they have the helmet on they only bash with the shield, and when they lose the helmet the take the spear out.

* not sure what to make of the bombs. Maybe leave them as they are, maybe turn them into braziers?