Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

 
Advanced search

1411276 Posts in 69323 Topics- by 58380 Members - Latest Member: bob1029

March 28, 2024, 10:43:47 AM

Need hosting? Check out Digital Ocean
(more details in this thread)
TIGSource ForumsCommunityJams & EventsCompetitionsOld CompetitionsAssemblee: Part 2Tiny Crawl (Complete- development continues!)
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6
Print
Author Topic: Tiny Crawl (Complete- development continues!)  (Read 76857 times)
Preachieved
Level 0
*



View Profile
« Reply #60 on: December 31, 2009, 01:39:26 AM »

You could have a level up kind of system. At the end of the floor you get a bonus sword, shield, or something. Then, the ones hidden around the floor would be a bonus on top of the "floor complete" reward.
Logged
Reiss
Level 1
*



View Profile
« Reply #61 on: January 01, 2010, 01:29:56 AM »

Really nice game -- I like your minimalism.  Weird bug: sometimes when I'm near the edge of the map, clicking on a tile results in the tile beneath it getting marked, instead of the tile I clicked on.  Not gamebreaking by any means -- clicking on the white space above the tile marks it.  Just a little weird.

Got to the fourth level, then accidentally walked into a trap with low health and died.  I think there's some slowdown / unresponsiveness in rooms that "smell like danger"...  Could be just me, though.

Game feels like Minesweeper rather than a Rogue-like at the moment, as the logic is fairly simple in that typically death results from bad guesses, unlucky situations and misclicks. This is not a bad thing, depending on how you envision the game shaping up.

It does have a Minesweeper vibe to it -- which yeah is not a bad thing.  The monster patrols sound like they could change that somewhat, but they do induce the penalty (if it's a penalty?) of making the game more luck-based: if you come across decent treasure quick, you're a lot better off.  You could try making the grace period treasure-dependent?  Like after you pick up a piece of treasure, a counter starts, and you have to either try your luck and keep exploring, or try to find an exit before the patrols come.
Logged
Loren Schmidt
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #62 on: January 02, 2010, 01:06:17 PM »

Hello, folks. I was away for two days for New Year's festivities, but I'm back home now and I've got two days of solid development ahead of me.

SirNiko, jrhill-
I found the cause of the sword and armor powerups not being placed. It was a result of the total number of items being two less in dungeon levels with no boss.

SirNiko
-
Thanks for the addendum to your last post. I'm adding nearly everything you wrote to my to-do list.
I've thought about having it be possible to clear the summon / charm tab and retain a new monster. I'd like it to be possible to specialize in this spell, and that either means a more reliable stream of new tabs or the ability to reset a tab somehow (probably at some cost).
You're right about the issues with the current incarnation of the healing tab. It certainly isn't going to remain the way it is. I'm actively thinking of alternative systems, so suggestions are quite welcome. In terms of design, I'm aiming at having health be a resource. For that reason I'm particularly interested in healing abilities that yield health exchange for some other valuable commodity.

Preachieved-
I like the idea of a guaranteed reward at the end of each level. It's similar to handing out a free spell at the beginning of the game in that it makes the game a little less luck based. In my book that's a good thing. It is my hope that the randomization will make the game feel more fun and mysterious, and lead to a bit of interesting strategy. I don't want the randomization to give us 'bad' or 'good' rolls.

Reiss-
I've noticed this bug too. I'll fix it right away.
Logged
J. R. Hill
Level 10
*****

hi


View Profile WWW
« Reply #63 on: January 02, 2010, 03:07:49 PM »

Awesome, keep it up!
Logged

hi
Loren Schmidt
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #64 on: January 06, 2010, 02:02:38 AM »

Sorry for the lack of releases- I've been making a lot of changes, and the game's been in a strange state with a lot of new features partially implemented. Today I overhauled the UI. Here is an in-progress shot of the way the game looks now:



One of the new additions is a dedicated area for flavor text. The current selection will be shown in this area, accompanied by a small piece of descriptive text (there will be a number of permutations for each type of monster or object, so it won't always be the same).
Logged
J. R. Hill
Level 10
*****

hi


View Profile WWW
« Reply #65 on: January 07, 2010, 12:09:09 AM »

You encounter a Strawberry Flavored Goblin.
What do you do?

>_
Logged

hi
Loren Schmidt
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #66 on: January 07, 2010, 12:57:41 AM »

You know, it's odd... I actually considered calling them 'tomato men.'
Logged
Albert
Level 0
**



View Profile
« Reply #67 on: January 07, 2010, 09:56:12 AM »

Wow I Love it!  Wizard
Logged
Loren Schmidt
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #68 on: January 10, 2010, 12:51:25 AM »

I'm adding procedural sounds. I got basic sine waves and envelopes working tonight. I think I won't be posting another public build until the deadline (I will, however, be updating regularly after the deadline. Here is a screenshot of the procedural sounds in action:


(#18 is the procedural sound with an envelope Smiley)
Logged
Loren Schmidt
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #69 on: January 10, 2010, 03:34:38 PM »

Ack, I rewrote the dynamic sound system at the last minute. I know in the long run it was the right thing to do- but there's a deadline tonight! But yeah, I'm glad it happened. It's much more versatile now (it works with either sounds that are cached once at play time or sound that are completely on-the-fly). I also made a visualizer, which will help a lot with creating the algorithms for the sounds. Special thanks go to Dave Whitlark and madgarden, who both helped a lot with figuring out how to get all this working.

Logged
Loren Schmidt
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #70 on: January 10, 2010, 11:59:58 PM »

Yay, I replaced all the sounds in time to submit! The sounds are rather lackluster at present, but they are completely generated at run time.

I am continuing development of this game after the competition deadline. I'm expanding it into a better tuned, deeper, longer, harder game. It will also feature all new, hand drawn art.


Competition Version
Play Tiny Crawl v.0.25

changes:
  • All new UI!
  • Funky procedural sound (will be improved in future releases)
  • Monster search parties start arrive if we stay too long in one level

« Last Edit: January 11, 2010, 12:06:20 AM by Sparky » Logged
oryx
Level 3
***



View Profile
« Reply #71 on: January 11, 2010, 12:14:56 AM »

"Ominous Message 4"

I cry fowl!  Outraged
Logged
Loren Schmidt
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #72 on: January 11, 2010, 12:57:00 AM »

I didn't have time to implement line wrap so the flavor text is all locked inside a highly secure text file next to my source folder.
Logged
jotapeh
Level 10
*****


View Profile
« Reply #73 on: January 11, 2010, 05:42:43 AM »

I like the revamp a lot. One bug that froze me in my tracks though, when I used the lightning bolt 'summon' spell after winning my first fight, I was frozen and couldn't move anywhere. (edit: actually it just happened again, this time I got the summon spell last but froze up after a few turns of having my summon out.)

I also had no idea Flash could produce procedural sounds... I guess FP10 is good for something other than horrible 3D Smiley
« Last Edit: January 11, 2010, 06:01:58 AM by jotapeh » Logged
SirNiko
Level 10
*****



View Profile
« Reply #74 on: January 11, 2010, 07:46:25 AM »

On floor 3, I used a charm spell to capture one of the sword-wielding monsters. I fought with him for a few battles, and he was killed. Then I moved to the next room (which contained mushrooms) and hit the charm spell to summon my minion again. He was summoned, but I was then unable to move. I could still click to make traps on the map, and I could highlight and click my spell/sword icons (they did nothing). I could not hit space to eat a mushroom, tab to select a different 'shroom, or use the arrows to move to a new room.

-SirNiko
Logged
RodrigoCard
Level 0
*


View Profile
« Reply #75 on: January 11, 2010, 09:23:37 AM »

The summon freezes the game for me too  Hand Point Right Epileptic

Sometimes it happens when there is a summoned creature without enemies in the room
Logged
SirNiko
Level 10
*****



View Profile
« Reply #76 on: January 11, 2010, 10:42:59 AM »

Holy crap, the patrols are potentially lethal!

I reached level 5, was doing fine, and then I wandered into a dead-end with a shield spell. I turned around, and discovered no less than 15 foes were waiting for me in the next room. I'm pretty sure there was absolutely no way I could have survived that without two double-spell items and a multi-missile.

It seems like patrols don't actually trigger if you meet them in a room that already contains something.

-SirNiko

Edit: Beat the game. Patrols make it more difficult to simply stand around healing, but not much. I completed all five levels without too much difficulty.

When you finish level 5, the game still says you've completed 'the demo'. When you restart from here, the UI disappears, and you do not get to start with a spell of your choice.

Knowing there is only one sword and shield per level, my play style focuses on getting those items and escaping the floor with the first ladder I find to avoid the patrols. Knowing the game ends at floor 5, there's no reason to explore that floor beyond the first ladder you locate.

Finding spells is still pretty hit or miss. Single-missile spells are pretty much useless after the second floor. Multi-missile, heal, and double spell are my top picks when I can find them. Shield and charm are useful, but not as useful as the three mentioned before. The freeze spell seems pointless. Perhaps you can balance the spells through the use of cool-downs. More useful spells have longer cool downs, while less useful spells can be free casts (like how I can cast heal and still attack in the same round). Even with the patrols, I found myself spending a lot of time between fights treading ground to recharge healing spells.

Very enjoyable game! Even in its current state, I find it to be a relaxing game to play when I want some simple dungeon-crawl action.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2010, 11:08:44 AM by SirNiko » Logged
Loren Schmidt
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #77 on: January 11, 2010, 11:20:42 AM »

I've run into that summon bug as well. I've uploaded a version that should fix it- I've played with summons for a while but didn't encounter it. If anyone runs into it (or any other bugs) again, let me know.
Patched competition version (same link as in first post)

SirNiko-
Thanks, I'm glad the game is enjoyable even in this state. It feels really incomplete to me, and I hope to have a fuller version in your hands soon.

Yes, actually the patrols in the competition version are only partially implemented. They have no pathfinding, and generally need some love before they'll feel like a valid part of the game. I think they'll be much more of a constant resource drain once they're actively seeking the player (rather than the occasional hiccup that they are now). I wonder the game ended up with so many enemies in one room? Perhaps multiple patrols can stack...

I suspect at this point that it will take more than patrols to make the healing spell interesting / better tuned- once patrols are fully implemented we'll probably know more.

Unfortunately implementing the sound took longer than anticipated, and I didn't have time to do as much content and tuning as I'd have liked. Your comments about spell drop rates and single target missile are totally accurate, and until both are resolved I won't really feel good about the game.
Logged
Reiss
Level 1
*



View Profile
« Reply #78 on: January 11, 2010, 08:50:23 PM »

I've played through the compo version a couple of times now -- I like the new UI (although it looks like that was also in an older version that I missed).  Looking forward to the flavor text...  And the "Ominous Messages."  It's neat that the message "The Fallen King awaits" always precedes the Fallen King fight -- are you going to do that for all of the bosses?  It's a clever way to tell the player that they'd better heal up before exploring further.

Does the charm spell only charm a monster once?  As in, can you re-charm a different monster later, to get a different companion?  It seemed like my little goblin guy from the first floor leveled up as I descended, but I couldn't tell if that scaled to the increasing monster power level.  It could be interesting if you could re-charm every time your companion died, but since charming immediately removes an enemy from battle, I could see how that wouldn't balance well.

Overall really solid though, you're playing around with some cool stuff.  The procedural sounds actually feel pretty good already, although I can understand why you're working on them more.
Logged
Loren Schmidt
Level 10
*****



View Profile WWW
« Reply #79 on: January 12, 2010, 06:49:35 PM »

Reiss-
Thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying the game so far. I'm not 100% settled on how the charm / summon spell will work yet. The main issues on my mind are these:
  • How should capturing / releasing creatures work? Currently creatures don't level, and it's impossible to reset the tab. But that doesn't need to be the case. There are definitely systems other than the current one that are worth looking at.
  • How should damage distribution work? Currently enemies prioritize summoned creatures, and attack us only after all our allies are down. Whatever the system is, it should be predictable- it should always be possible to predict the next round of combat in advance.
  • It's currently not really possible to specialize in summoning, because there isn't a sufficient flow of summon tabs to allow capturing new creatures regularly. An across the board increase in the spell choices available (possibly by having each spell room offer us our pick of two tabs), if implemented, could help with this.

I'll be releasing the first post-competition version in the near future.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2010, 04:33:56 PM by Sparky » Logged
Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 5 6
Print
Jump to:  

Theme orange-lt created by panic