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[InfernoRaven]

Puzzle Slash

Its a fast-paced side scrolling RPG with a catch. All your attacks come from playing the tile-matching puzzle game. Quest along killing monsters and leveling up in hope to take on the master boss demon!

Get the game http://users.on.net/~infernoraven/puzzleSlash/PuzzleSlash.zip

Well the compo has come to an end. It was a mad rush to get something playable out to you guys but I'm glad I did. My first released game on the net YAY!   So hope you all like it. Hope it gives you a feel for what I was going for. Sorry there wasn't enough time to tweak it so I'm sure its heavily unbalanced. But enjoy and I will catch you for the next compo!  

Also a big thanks to:

Artists - Oryx and Oddball
Music - NotWorthy

I loved your assests and had heaps of fun using them 

[InfernoRaven]

Hello Everyone!

I've been following the last few comps, loving what everyone has done, but now it is my turn to contribute. I didnt want to post too soon if I couldnt get anything done, but im happy with how things are slowly turning out, so without further delay i present...

Puzzle Slash (title pending) - the hack and slash side scrolling RPG with a Bejewled-esque puzzle game.

Latest Screenshot

Grand Goal
So what I have in my mind atm is that it will be a traditional RPG where you fight monsters, quest, level up etc. All this takes place in the little side scrolling box down the bottom. You will be able to enter dungeons, talk to vendors, and explore the world.

On the puzzle side of things, while in combat all your attacks come from connecting blocks. You hit 4 swords instead of the regular 3 and you do more damage, get some combos from falling blocks and that means multipliers and extra damage.

Im open to all suggestions on how things could fit together, I've been wanting to make an rpg and puzzle game for ages so why not combine the two in this compo to help motivate me on finishing it. Most of the programming I do ends up being small prototypes for myself or my younger brother. So heres to putting it out there and submitting something fun for everyone! 

Current Progress
- Ok I've got most of what I need drawing to the screen, and the little rpg world only renders a pink void so lots to do on that side.
- I can swap puzzle blocks around, however no calculations to clear them yet  .
- I have my character saving out to a file and loading it so you can continue your quest.

So my focus will be getting the puzzle mechanics working and then fighting a linear line of monsters to test if the game is actually fun. Once that is working I'll get into the exciting side of making an rpg world. Having it procedural would help the replayability but one step at a time...

Note
Its been great seeing all the art/sounds/music ppl have done and the games that are shaping out from them. Goodluck to all!

[jamatthews]

This has the potential to be amazing. Don't mess it up.

[SirNiko]

This sounds cool. I never played Bejeweled Quest or any of those games, but you might consider looking at those. Specifically, read all the things people disliked / complained about and then try to ensure you fix those problems, or move the focus of the game away from them.

-SirNiko

[saluk]

I loved puzzle quest, so this looks fun!

[mizipzor]

Like puzzle quest? That game was fun but a bit to tedious. See to it so the concept is done right this time. 

[SimpleSyrup]

Ooh, XNA? I'll spend 80 credits if you finish it. 

[InfernoRaven]

JaMatthews - hehe, I'll try 
SirNiko & Mizipzor - Yeah I never played those games but finding out where they went wrong is a great idea. I'll download the demo and see what its like. 
Saluk - glad its looking interesting so far 
SimpleSyrup - if i can actually finish it ill be so overjoyed ill release it for free! 

Ill post again later today on my lunch break if ive had anymore thoughts on nutting out the finer details.

[oryx]

This looks really fun, I wish you lots of luck.

[harima555]

oossuuuumm!!!!   
looks very nice, i wll definitely will be looking foward this 

[InfernoRaven]

Well, it was complete fail over the holidays, i got zero time for programming So I havent nearly got as far as I would have liked on my game however I have spent all today doing it and have gotten somewhere respectable now

I know the compo finishes tomo so I'll definetly upload what I have so I've atleast given something for everyone to try.

I wont bother telling what I have finished or going to do next as its too late to post all that, if I had time to work on it over the Xmas holidays it would of been great getting you guys involved during the dev time.

Well till tomo guys, hope what I show is a nice taste of what I was going for in my idea. But either way im happy with my progress with the time I've spent on it and I'm sure I'll polish it up for a better release later on.   

[Aquillion]

I don't know how much you intend to base it on Puzzle Quest (or if you're basing it on that at all, or if you ever even played puzzle quest, he he he), but since it's the most famous game of this type...

One thing I liked about Puzzle Quest, which most of the later games based on it missed, was the large number of powers, spells, and other abilities you could collect.  Not just for the fun of collecting them, but because there were many that would drastically change how you played the game, effectively turning the puzzle into something different -- some strategies were based around collecting all of a specific color; others were based around setting up a huge combo or an instant-win condition; sometimes you'd have to focus on keeping particular colors away from your opponent, etc.  Powers that collect an entire row or column or square at once would encourage you to set up combos or attacks that you couldn't exploit before you had them.

Of course, I imagine that this is a much simpler game than that, so you probably haven't focused on those things.  But if you're going to cross a puzzle with an RPG, one thing you might want to consider including is some kind of collectible set of simple special powers or whatever that can change the rules of the puzzle as you collect or mix-and-match them.

[InfernoRaven]

I had all intentions to actually play puzzle quest but going back interstate took up my entire holidays

Its great for you to summarise what you enjoyed in puzzle quest. PQ sounds more strategical and rewards good planning, where mine atm is a fast pace mashup but hoping to get more thinking involved during todays coding.

In terms of the hidden powers and such, im all on board for that. I have code in place to support that and im trying to do an item system today. But i definitely want to add powers that you can hit in your quickslots that say wipe out all blues and then more chains come from that too.

Also these are the supported blocks i have:

1. Empty
2. Sword - melee
3. Sheild - blocks next mosnters attack
4. Red - Fire
5. Blue - Ice
6. Green - Posion
7. Yellow - Light
8. Purple - Dark
9. Empty potion bottle - gives either a health or magic potion to item slots

I was sortof planning that your learn different spells over time, or at least customise what ones you have available, i think due to time ill just reduce some of the block types so you get bigger combos hehe.

So Im aiming to add in weakness and all that to monster types so that it adds a small bit of strategy to what blocks your focusing on. So yeah im gonna try very hard to get as much done today so hopefully i can add those things you like cause it sparks my interest too 

After yesterdays stint i got a fair chunk of the game together and i was starting to have fun. And ive only done some minor tweaks to how things are calculated such as combo multipliers, level xp, damage, monster strengths, etc. With more testing I could balance it a lot more but looks like I be shoving the poor thing out the door half dressed 

Anyways Im blabbing again, back to coding but hope ppl still post through the day cause I still have time to consider everyhting everyones saying   

Oh and heres a little pic, at least you can see the world and my guy shooting a fire ball. Oh and just ignore that debugging mouse coords there, lets hope thats not in the final game 

[oryx]

I love the locations and little image of the scene - I hope you see this through, looks great.

[InfernoRaven]

Thanks Oryx, i will definitely see this through but im missing a few of the major things for it to be a real alpha game.

Whats everyones view on what you want done first.

- Start screen / Character Selection (atm your that guy with my name  )
- Enemys dont attack back but they do agro to you (thus shield is currently useless)
- Cant distribute points once you level (atm they just go into attack and magic power)
- No item pickups (means no health bottles, no swords with extra damage, or special items)
- Monster Progression (its only a random string of monsters that level up every 10 monsters)

thats all i can think of at this stage, aaaarrghh so much to do and so little time.
Let me know what everyone thinks more important. Im thinking monster fighting back might be a good place to start until i hear back from ppl.