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[JasonPickering]

And here is a new Mockup



We have the Alter which is your goal and a deadly skeleton, although this player will be fine, with all the potions they have.

[BlueSweatshirt]

This looks fantastic I want it now now now now now!
Hahaha. Really though, I am genuinely excited to play this. 

Also if you need a tester for your iPhone port,(I'll test any version, actually! Muahaha!) I'm available. 

[JasonPickering]

not a problem. I am burning through this and want something up soon. the problem is I am into the inventory section and trying to figure out how to set that up. I know it will change like a hundred times, but I am trying to figure out how to show the different things now.

the potions I hope to add will be.
- Healing = Heals you 2 hearts
- Freeze  = each monster is stuck in place for 2 turns
- Fire    = An AOE spell that kills monsters in the cardinal directions.
- Swap    = swap with any monster on the board

so in the above mockup. if the player takes a step, the skeleton will kill them. they have a few options though.
- heal themselves
- freeze player and make a run for the alter
- Swap position and make a run for the alter
- use any potion, because it counts as a turn and the skeleton would move into killing range.

being against one monster is usually not a problem, the last level I played there were about 10 that was a problem.

so do you like the main sprite with or without weapons?

[BlueSweatshirt]

I think him with the weapon looked better.

[JasonPickering]

Good NEWS!!

I have a small Playable build.

TRY IT OUT!

so here is how it goes. March across 5 islands to get to the Alter to grab the magic Gem.
Use arrow keys or click next to the main character to move and attack(bump into enemy). Use 1 and 2 to casts skip turn and heal respectivly.

each time you kill a monster you get one Essence (the bar below the hearts) you have two spells now. Skip Turn which casts 1 bar and Heal 3 hearts which costs 2 bars. I had always wanted to try something like this forcing the player to pick and choose their spells to use with a common currency. I don't think it works here though and I might have to go back to the drawing board. Originally it was going to be Potions that did everything, but this idea was much easier to implement, and requires less stuff for the player to worry about (I.E. inventory and picking potions up to use) So I guess my Main question is do you think this is a good idea, just needs some balancing. (What are some other ways I could fill the essence bar, I was thinking maybe like beating a level)

Also. if you die, or if you win by touching the Alter, the game does recognize those yet, just refresh the page, this is an early build.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Love it, really fun to play already.

Nice job with it all 

[JasonPickering]

any suggestions for the spell system? I plan on adding more monsters too. woul you like to see other environments?

[lowpoly]

hey just gave it a run through, here's some thoughts I had:

The spell UI is confusing at first glance, consider using a darker color for the empty bars.

There isn't a lot of motivation for venturing across the island. Starting out on a bridge means the enemy only has one point of attack and especially on the later islands, you can easily game that setup by staying in the starting spot and alternating skip turn and attack without ever feeling threatened. The enemies more or less just come to you and die. I'm guessing having more powerful enemies will rectify this to some extent and force you to move strategically. Something else that may help would be to start each island off in a spot that allows the enemy to surround the player.

Another suggestion would be to start the game out with only 2 hearts and every X islands cleared gives you another one.

One bug I found, on a later island the very last enemy actually ran off the far bridge before I could kill him.

Looking forward to seeing where you take this, really love the style of the game and I'm excited to see some new environments and enemies.

[BlueSweatshirt]

Environment doesn't matter so much to me unless there's gameplay variation that comes with it. Like different enemies, traps, item on the ground, etc.

I found the game to be very easy so far, but maybe that's just because there were only rats. It was fun though. I think the dynamics of the game will be very different once you add in some stronger enemies and such.

Also I think the spells are kind of redundant, or will be redundant, when alongside potions. It might be a better idea to just stick with one. I personally favor potions, because I like the one-and-done concept. That said, I did like how you had to kill enemies to be able to skip. With the abundance of rats I never ran out of skips though, and that is why I think the dynamics of the game will change so much when you add in tougher enemies.

[JasonPickering]

Thanks guys. I really think that dumping the spells and going straight potions will be the way to go. I think I am going to make most enemies have either 1 or 2 health, but I want to put some changes in the death system, monster death having effects like potions. the next enemy, will be the skeleton. on death they basically form a wall. the player will be able to kill it, but a monster will not, so you can use that to protect yourself from that side, or block monsters in. also the idea will also be that in a few turns, the monster will transform back into a regular skeleton, this enemy would basically be unkillable. you can only slow it down.

Lowpoly: yeah the skip turn was an initial problem, I tried limiting it here, but having 3 bars still gave you 3 chances to skip. so I will drop it, but it will still secretly be in the game as drinking a potion, counts as your turn, so using any potion will be like a skip turn, but it will waste a good potion.

jakman4242: I will probably hold off on the environments for now. One idea was each island was a different one, or I will do one where all 5 islands go with a random theme. My one goal would be to add at least 1 environmental danger to each land type.

[JasonPickering]

Update: Working on adding the 3 base enemies. Mouse, skeleton, goblin

mouse and goblin are in they were easy. mouse has 1 HP goblin has 2. I am working on the skeleton now. I finally got the code for the skeleton to crumble, but now the harder part is getting it to turn back. The main problem is that it requires Enemy Statuses to work. so I have to code in the Status system, before I can go any further.

[JasonPickering]

Update: Done with my base enemies and moving on to the Potion System.

wondering what works better for an IOS game. Vertical or Horizontal what do you think

[st33d]

horizontal - portrait is only necessary if the mechanics demand it, you have two horizontally placed eyes after all

[wademcgillis]

horizontal - portrait is only necessary if the mechanics demand it, you have two horizontally placed eyes after all

Why we no have horizontal books?

[BlueSweatshirt]

Horizontal all the way, Jason. Over time it is much more comfortable to hold the device horizontally and your fingers also get in the way of the screen less often. Also personally, I think the horizontal presentation looks better with the UI and such.

[Inanimate]

Why we no have horizontal books?

Easier to close, I assume.

[JasonPickering]

we did have horizontal books, they were called scrolls.

anyways back on topic. Yeah I think horizontal is the way to go. Now that that's decided for the moment, I need to get the potion system in. I really need to get this running on a touchscreen device though, I need to know how precise the touch controls are.

I need to give the player a way to use the different potions (aside from the numkeys like I did have). Oh and also potions are not something you find. when you begin you will choose 5 potions. perhaps you may find some, but that is a slim chance. mostly you will need to choose these potions, and think about what you might get stuck doing. some of the ideas I have so far are: (Not sure if I said these before)

- heal   = Heal yourself
- freeze = freeze enemies in place
- swap   = change places with a monster
- fire   = fire blast around you
- Banish = Removes a monster type from the game entirely.
- quake    = Removes a piece of land
- Morph  = turn a monster into a mouse
- Power  = 2x damage for rest of the island
- Grow   = build a section of land

also some monsters will act like potions. killing a yeti is the same as using a freeze potion.

my favorites to take so far are 2 heals, swap, and 2 freeze.

- I actually tend to rush through the levels not fighting. I use freeze to get out ahead of the enemies and I use swap to jump to the far end, which works well with the ghost, who can not be killed, when you hit one it teleports to a new square, which works well when they escape to the other side of the screen.

[rek]

- quake    = Removes a piece of land

Trapping the player on a level if he removes the wrong piece?

[JasonPickering]

Why would you remove a piece that would trap you. That seems vey silly on your part.

[BlueSweatshirt]

Why would you remove a piece that would trap you. That seems vey silly on your part.

I like that mentality.