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[JasonPickering]

Okay, so MicRogue is finished and I am looking for another project. I wanted to build a a new Roguelike engine using GameMaker so I decided to revisit an idea I had a very long time ago. Eventually this will be an iOS game, hence the odd screen size, although I really like vertical games lately, It reminds me of old arcade games like Donkey Kong.

The way this game will work is the player is given a small "Deck" of spells and must get through the dungeon to a specified level to grab the gem. I am leaning more towards the Zaga-33 style Roguelike then the more numbers based Angband. All combat is deterministic and enemies have very low health values. The game is actually fun so far, and one of my more complete prototypes.

The main problem I have come up against now is the construction of the spell deck. Right now 6 spells are randomly chosen and given to the player. I feel like I want the player to have a bit more control though. the ideas I have are as follows.

- Player Chooses item before entering the dungeon and those items have cards associated with them.
- Player is given a random page of cards and must choose a certain number.
- player is given sets of 3 cards and must choose cards from each set until they have 10.
- player starts with 4 spells, each new floor gives them 3 spells and they can choose two.

I am also thinking of other ways, like perhaps different characters that start with different decks. or maybe just leaving it completely random and weaving that into the player.

Download Prototype

[JasonPickering]

Okay. Added a link in the top post. It has some strange bugs, but gives you a good idea.

[Sebastian Brandt]

I like the looks of this, the graphics are sweet, this looks like a perfect pocket-sized mini-adventure.
Can't play the play right now, but looking forward to more updates.

[missionctrl]

Hey look at me, I signed up for tig just to download and talk about your game!  I might even start a devLog myself.

I think this is a fantastic core idea.  I played through several times and even in this very early limited state, there is a lot of strategic depth to the gameplay. Lots of interesting decision making.

As far as deck generation goes, that really depends on how casual of a game you want.  For a more casual approach, go with a pretty much fully random deck.
If you want more depth, how about something like classic D&D... the player chooses their specific spells (cards) at the beginning of each dungeon.  Different classes have different spells available.  And if you want to incorporate character leveling/experience, as the player levels up, they can memorize more spells and increasingly powerful spells.  Maybe the character gains a level for every dungeon they complete.

You could also incorporate the classic magic scroll/book mechanic... find a spell scroll and it adds that card to your current deck - a onetime use spell... but find a spell book and it adds that card to your available cards when building your deck at the beginning of a dungeon.

[JasonPickering]

I think I want the game to be a bit more casual. I don't want to do a lot of player progression and such. I have been thinking about the deck creation and I think I am going to go with the random idea. I think it works better. Giving the player the option to select, I feel that they will always pick the same spells. Also having a limited number of spells doesn't give much of a choice in the beginning.

I have wondered if perhaps I could have different characters. I could also just play with the "Stats" maybe another character might have more health, but a smaller deck.

I am thinking in terms of premise, the Player has had their Spellbook stolen. The chests will be replaced with dropped torn pages. I think that having a premise in mind might also help with refining the mechanics.

[jamesflanaganmusic]

Great concept!  It has me thinking of The Immortal and other action-puzzlers that afford the player a bit more freedom than a strict puzzle game.  Very fresh and welcome these days.

I think a random card set is a very roguelike archetype, and to combat users who might be discouraged by 'bum' sets, why not add incentives for mastering as many permutations as possible?

[JasonPickering]

I couldn't find anything on "the immortal " what is it?

Yeah I havent really planned out much in the way of extra stuff yet. Building the game piece by piece. I will try and post tonight about the enemies for the game. I want to have like 5. I am also thinking about maybe expanding and having different dungeons to explore.

[JasonPickering]

Enemies

So my current plan for enemies is:

Slime - 1 health base enemy
Goblin - 2 Health base enemy
Skeleton archer - shoots the player if they are in line (currently other monsters do not block, this may change)
Demon - He will move twice, which includes moving and attacking, or attacking twice.

[Canned Turkey]

Why are you using strait black for eyes and mouths?
You have a near black brown that you seem to be using as black, but not for faces?

Anyway, it looks really good. You do a good job showing detail in small areas.

[JasonPickering]

I didn't actually realize I did pure black for the mouths and eyes. that will be fixed in the future. I added the skeleton back in, and the game has become WAY harder thanks to their distance attack. Its not that the game is impossible, but you need to keep yourself hidden behind rocks and walls now, which wasn't a concern earlier, so I am happy with that. I am going to try adding the demons next and then I will upload a new build.

[and]

Just had a play through the prototype and won (whoop)!

I really like the idea of the random spells, how many do you think you'll be adding in total? I think it would be interesting to add some that change how far you move or do more damage? Maybe swap the enemies?

I noticed sometimes the enemies wanted to spawn on my tile by the way (if you've not already fixed that).

Also, is there any way you could add a wait button?

[JasonPickering]

TripleVision: Wait buttons really don't work in a system like this. Most enemies die in one hit, so then you could just wait until an enemy moves next to you and you can strike them, but if you wanted to give it a try its easy to add in (I had one in for debug testing). My best suggestion though is remembering that all spells take a turn. I have found myself saving Shields and potions to use as a Wait command. Also the warp spell works pretty well too.

as or spells I am really torn. I want to have as many spells as possible, but then I want to make sure people always know what the spells are. I am thinking maybe I can do something like 868-hack, where new spells are added as the player wins, and that might stop the player from being overwhelmed and I guess only having two spells at a time makes it less the player needs to worry about.

I think with random spells its possible to have some over-powered spells and some less then stellar ones, as long as each spell is useful. as for ideas I am completely open. I want every spell to be one click though. I am trying to make it as simple as possible and want to stray away from making a player choose spell directions and such. Some other ideas I have are changing monsters into other monsters and then also spells which randomly effect one enemy would work good too. The nex

[JasonPickering]

I redid the art. aiming for something a little darker environment wise. I am also going to migrate the build over to Itch.io to give it a proper page. I also muted the colors, but I don't know if I like it any better. I blame the playthrough of Darkest Dungeons I was watching.

[JasonPickering]

New Prototype uploaded! and its hosted over on itch.io.

[JasonPickering]

Reworking the spell system a bit. I am cutting some spells, adding some new ones, and changing some current ones. I am changing up the spells so they are more directional. so you will cast the spell, then hit a direction. I added one called swap, that allows you to swap with a monster in a line. I will also rework the freeze to be a cone, that comes form the player. I am also moving all the spells into "types". so the spells that I am working on now are:

Fire:
Fireball - shoot a fireball in a direction
Scorch - surround with fire blast
Ice:
Cone Freeze - icy blast in a direction
IceBlock
Arcane:
Swap With Player
Smite

right now, the scrolls you find to add new spells are red, but eventually they will be color coded, so you will at least know which type of spell you will get.

I am hoping this adds a little more strategy to the game.

I was also thinking about passive traits some examples:
- Starts with more health
- Starts with more spells
- 10% chance to get a spell back, after using.
- 10% chance to heal 1 point when killing an enemy
- Better chance for potions
- Better chance for scrolls.

so I think these could be fun. I figure I have two ways to do these. A. create a bunch of different heroes, and each hero gets a different trait. or B. where the player can find these traits as they traverse the dungeon.

[mirrorfish]

Can we create a genre for Brogue-likes?

Love the look of this and the concept. I like in 868 Hack where you get different starting skills, it gives a little additional variety and avoids players trying to go for exactly the same build each time. Being able to make choices about what you pick up next balances this out, so in 868 if I get a 'Push' I know I want to look out for a 'Debug' and prioritize that.  Anyway this type of small constrained RL is very much up my alley. Good luck! Look forward to checking it out.

[JasonPickering]

Yeah, I thought about making it when you pick up a scroll, you get to choose the type of spell, but I don't know if that really adds anything. I think I Might end up adding a third magic slot though. The one thing that worries me is I seem to be moving off the spell deck idea and I need to come back and focus on it. I also think I need to focus on some more mechanics that change position and your deck. Position is super important because of the deterministic combat.

assorted ideas.
- enemy that pushes you back on hit
- enemy that steals spells on hit
- enemy that adds a junk spell.

[and]

Hi

Yeah I get what you mean about the wait button.

I like the idea of having the abilities similar to 868-hack and I'll have a play on the new prototype when I get back to my PC

I'm not sure which colour palette I prefer. Probably the pink one, but they both look good to me!

[JasonPickering]

Took a break from this to work on my 7DRL. Back to working on this. I might try something I liked from reading about a card game called ThornWatch. I might do away with Health. Each time a monster hits the player a Skull card will be added. If a skull card is drawn it is basically unusable and potions will remove skull cards from your hand. The only thing That will be a problem is the player can technically keep their health with not using spells, there by not opening new slots to be filled with skulls. So I may be able to instead change spells in your hand to skulls instead.

[JasonPickering]

Much bigger update. Although I haven't changed the build up on itch yet. I will try and do that tonight. New build has 5 spells in it and all the new ones. Fireball, Scorch, Swap, Ice Block, and Ice Blast. The games feel much more tactical with all the spells being focused around the player location. Also Scrolls are color coded now and give spells based on color.