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[rek]

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

Never underestimate the player's ability to make the wrong choice.

And it's a touch screen game, meaning you can hit the wrong square as you move your finger to the square you meant to pick.

[BlueSweatshirt]

It's not like there's dire consequences for messing up. Oh no, you have to restart the level. Whoops! It's not like they're going to lose hours of progress on their carefully built character. It's often more frustrating to a player when a game prevents them explicitly from making these kinds of decisions. It tells the player that the creator assumes they're a tard.

Oh, and, touch screen controls are not that inaccurate, I assure you. The grid size in his game shouldn't prove to be a problem. It's very easy to explicitly tap to the left, right, top, or bottom of the player character.(I believe he is going for that approach rather than forcing the player to tap a specific tile)

[JasonPickering]

yes. I actually use the Drop box app for my Iphone. it allows you to view files on it. specifically images. I upload mockups at the correct resolution to check them out. it seems pretty easy to click specific tiles, but this could be because of my tiny hands.

moving the player you just click the tile next to the player. I was actually going to do clicking on the player as a way to open up your inventory and quaff potions, but I am afraid that might be a bit of a close call. so I might add a button in one of the corners. most likely the bottom right. This of course will all be nailed down once I set up a developer account, which of course will be set up once I find a 100 dollars.

[JasonPickering]

Well Coding continues. I added a few of the special monsters. A fairy that heals you and a yeti that freezes everyone in place for 3 turns. the game is actually to a point where I don't use the Potions at all. So I have commented out that section and I am seeing if a turn based game can be interesting simply based on Monster interactions. So far its actually been pretty good and the main problem is the balance of it. I will probably update this with a post later. I am going to add a few more enemies and then a small amount of balancing.

Any Ideas for other enemies?

[JasonPickering]

Well the game continues. here is an updated build, with just enemies

Test

the main concern is figuring out a way to add a little more "puzzle" to the game as its pretty luck based now. Right now several times the player is forced to walk up to a monster and get hit without having any other options. I want the player to plan ahead (Ex. Attack yeti, it freezes the goblin allowing me to kill the goblin) That does happen now, but not as much as I would like. several things have been suggested from rewriting algorithms to prebuilding all the small islands.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Like the new changes and think the removal of the potions definitely helps.

Only suggestion i have is maybe tweak the yeti's look. Didn't realise who he was until everyone else stopped moving.  (Although i definitely couldn't do any better) Maybe distinguish between fur and hands. Here's a link to a great webcomic that has a snowman as it's main character.

http://www.abominable.cc/2011/11/16/goal-oriented/

[JasonPickering]

thanks, changing the hands on the yeti would definetly help it read better. I definetly like it better without the potion although some type of special power needs to be added to the main character. most likely what will happen will be a player can use their special once per island, and I might do a bunch of different characters each with their own health amounts and special skills.

[st33d]

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

Why we no have horizontal books?

Because the eyes are moving left to right constantly and would lose their place. It's not necessary to look at the entire vertical length of a book either so this argument is pretty silly.

Also I have an art degree. Triple overruled. 

[JasonPickering]

Small mechanical update Here.

Same controls, but if you hold shift and click (Controls are temporary) you will move into an enemies space after you kill them. you can use this to your advantage to get out of the way of attacks or to put yourself in a better fighting position. It gives the player some choice, but still keeps the core mechanics intact. What do you think?

[Franklin's Ghost]

Like the new update, gives the player a bit more choice with their actions and a bit more strategy to approaching the enemies.

[CrazyMLC]

I like the game! Here's some detailed opinion though:
I can't decide whether I like not being able to sit in place or not, it makes the game a bit more strategic however. (Which I assume was the intent)
The gameplay feels really lacking. There's nothing to do other than hit things, and the only difference between the enemies is what they do when they die. This leads to the game feeling like a puzzle game of what order should you kill the enemies to win - was that the goal?
I like the art style, and the pixel art is pretty well done.
I didn't quite feel engaged.
I think the game could really use some simple sound effects at some point. (Shouldn't be too hard to make, yea?)
This teleporter thing decided it was a bridge.

The option to move into an enemy's square when you defeat them is a really interesting implementation and adds a little more depth, and makes some levels way easier.
I like it.

[JasonPickering]

thanks guys.

Franklins Ghost: That was my hope. glad it works out.

CrazyMLC: I took out the skip turn action, because it makes the game much easier. The goal was to make it more puzzle like, but eventually enemies will have other differences. the next enemy I hope to add will be the Witch, She will die normally, but She will have an AOE attack which will hurt anything in its path. meaning you could use her attack to take out some enemies. do you think adding more small touches will help the engagement (I.E. Music and sound effects. which will be down the line once I get more of the engine done).

[CrazyMLC]

I think one of the problems is is that I don't have enough choices to make. I don't feel like I'm in control at all, if I move up or down away from enemies, they just follow me and my situation doesn't change at all. The best I can do is sometimes (maybe) go into a dead end to make it so that only one enemy can engage me at once. The recent update of being able to go into enemy squares gives another dimension of choice, but the game needs more.
Without the option of choice, the game feels unfair, like it's railroading you.

I also don't feel addicted. (I'd read that article if you haven't already, I found it very interesting.)
Let's compare your game's addictiveness to Bejeweled:

1. The game is simple to understand; two clicks and you're in. This is mostly true. At first I was trying to use the arrow keys to move around, but afterwards I got the game mechanics pretty quick.
 2. The game presents a clear problem with a clear solution (make rows of 3+ jewels). Yes, the clear solution is to defeat the enemies? and reach the goal.
 3. The results of action frequently create cascading consequences. If you do something stupid, you lose health for that level. The only way this doesn't apply is because your health resets every level.
 3a. These cascading consequences have an element of randomness / unpredictability / intermittent reward. This doesn't exist in your game at all.

Something I would do to try to make the game addictive is to add random health drops off of monsters, then make it so that your health remains continuous throughout the game.
(This is just off of my analysis though, not particularly out of opinion.)

Sound effects will definitely make it more immersive. I can totally imagine what it would sound like, I just think it could really use a quick implementation of it.

[JasonPickering]

thanks for those articles, they were pretty interesting. Also its funny you mention the potion drop.I had been thinking about doing potion drops and making them auto use as soon as you walk into them. Although after those articles I think its pretty much needed. right now each island is its own little world and is never connected with the level before or after it. I am reminded of this video (A series I have championed on here before). I agree with their idea that a player needs a short term and long term goal. Right now I have no Long term goal, because there is no carry over from one island to another. doing good or bad on Island 1 has no bearing on Island 2.

Also I agree that there is a lack of choice in the current system. I have wanted to give the player an ample amount of choice, but also to keep the gameplay and combat simple. its a fine line, that will take a lot of back and forth to figure out. I realize that adding Skills/Spells to the game would give the player more options, but I think it also would complicate the game. the biggest choice now seems to be the order in which you attack the enemies, but the player has no control over what enemies they have access to.

[Franklin's Ghost]

I have to say that I personally like that sometimes I will have to take an enemy hit. Make's it more realistic and stops it always being to easy. Like having to think about how I'm going to approach each island, who I'm going to attack and in what order. In bejewelled there's time's where you get a bad run of jewels and end up not having any moves left. Think this is the same as sometime's having to take a hit to progress.

Think a long term goal is a great idea because it gives the player a purpose. Although don't have a clue what you could do 

[st33d]

You could get around the skills issue by having a single item slot. You would then have to choose which item to keep or leave items strategically so that you could effect a greater inventory.

Then you would be able to carry one item to the next island.

[JasonPickering]

that would actually be a pretty cool idea. The potions are in and working, and you use them as soon as you step on them, but giving the player an option to carry one would be pretty great. I think I need to step back though and look at my controls. Everything worked out before, because you were only tapping in a direction. as I see it now the player will need a few more buttons.

- move
- lunge
- Pick up Item
- Use item.

and thats assuming I make you pick up an item before you use it. I could also do. Use item on ground. with the pickup also being a swap. this normally wouldn't be a problem, but I have made the level fill so much of the screen that little real estate is left over for these buttons. Although for now I will continue using keyboard controls and keeping them to a minimum until I nail down the UI.

[JMickle]

you could simplify it by just having the inventory slot in the corner, if its empty and you are standing on an item, a transparent image of the item is in the slot, tap it to pick it up.
then, tap the inventory to use the item when you want.

[st33d]

I think auto-pickup is a given, otherwise you waste a turn picking up. A ghost of the underfoot pickup next to the proposed inventory button would help for swapping. With no inventory item, then you could just have ghosted outline of a button.

[moonmagic]

You could get around the skills issue by having a single item slot. You would then have to choose which item to keep or leave items strategically so that you could effect a greater inventory.

Then you would be able to carry one item to the next island.

I also really like this idea; I'm always excited to see someone attempt a compact roguelike, as it's a genre I dearly love, but scarcely have time to play.