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[JasonPickering]

Update:

working on the combat mechanics for now. really trying to get that working. I am working on blocking and also working on the enemy faking attacks. its a little odd now as if an enemy can block it makes waiting longer seem almost pointless since now your dealing with a chance to hit, and if that hit lands, then an enemy can block. so the blocking and faking is still out there. I think I might do away with the enemy bar. so enemies will just attack and then you can block them. some will have specials they can do to. that leaves the player to only worry about their Bar for accuracy and any "Miss" will just be a block.

I am still working with the map, but its not going so great. its seeming a little ridiculous at the moment so that is still being ironed out. I can really make a huge map, so that idea i had about the small Shogi board really isn't working. So that will be back to the drawing board for now till I can refine that.

in another idea of putting the players long term goal and short term goal in opposition, I am thinking about adding a boss guage. each time you attack the wait time is dumped into the boss gauge. if the boss gauge fills the boss becomes to powerful to defeat. so this makes the player think about waiting more. yes you can kill this guy by waiting for it to fill to 100, but you cant keep doing this or the boss will win.

[JasonPickering]

Update:

so haven't done much with this. I have been reworking my entire Demo Reel in hopes of getting some full time animation work soon, but I have been working on this during downtime while my computer is rendering.

so here is how its going. current battle screen looks like this:


we have the attack bar down bottom, and the defense bar below it. the defense bar will start at 100% and slowly go down as you block, if its empty you cant block anymore. so its best to tap it at the right time instead of holding it. the scorpion has a shield symbol next to his health he is a Defense enemy. basically if he hits you you loose a Heart, and some of your defense bar.(might change to just attacking the defense bar not the heart)

and this will be between the monster fights


so I removed the map and now the player will be given two paths to take, with 4 enemy types in each. the player will have to decide which path to take. a player will then battle 4 monsters, before getting back to this screen. there will be no healing until you reach this screen. I also thought maybe I could allow the player to upgrade their health, speed, and defense but I might do away with that since the games will be so quick, and just give them these options in the beginning. I cant decide, if I want to do the symbols like I have now, or actually show a enemy sprite lineup, with their health and type listed.

so here are the enemy types I currently have
Sword  - if enemy hits you lose 1 heart and your attack bar goes down
Shield - if enemy hits you lose 1 heart and your shield bar goes down
Hammer - if enemy hits you lose 2 hearts
Bomb   - player has a timer, when it reaches 0 it explodes doing massive damage
Portal - player has a timer, when it reaches 0 you are sent back to the last path choice
Ghost  - switches from there to invisible, can only hit when fully there

[BlueSweatshirt]

I love it. 

[JasonPickering]

yeah the break really helped clear my mind. I am having problem conveying data with such a small resolution so I have to go super simple, design wise.

Edit:

this is what the other choice idea might be.



I like this better, but the player wont know enemy types, or health amounts. if you have an idea, I am all ears.

[BlueSweatshirt]

I like the first one more, it was much more informative to the player.

That said, I think if you showed the player's stats along with that vertical center bar(how close you are to the boss gauge?) on your new design I think it would be great. Perhaps reorienting that boss bar to be horizontal and lining up all the information on the top or bottom.

I think it's important to include that info, since those factors may help the player determine which branch would be best to take. I.E. if the player's health is getting low they may want to fight the weaker enemies, or perhaps play it safer if they can see they're getting closer to the boss. Etc.

[BlueSweatshirt]

Hoy! Any progress?

[JasonPickering]

there has been some, but not much to show. I have got the choice mechanic in the game, Now I have to implement the battle system. after that I need to add at least one boss, and I should have a pretty good example of what the standard game will look like. I spent a lot of time redoing the XML enemy sheet for the sake of making it simpler. Now enemies can spawn in multiple locations, and each one has a rarity to it. so for  example a mouse has a rarity of 3 (pretty common) and can show up in fields and forest. basically i go through and build an array of all possible enemies then randomly select however many are needed. I also worked on a few more enemies, bringing the grand total up to 14 characters animated.

[JasonPickering]

Update:

alright so I think I have my final mechanic all nailed down for the battle system so here is what gameplay looks like at the moment.



so basically combat will work like this. Each character will have an attack number and a defense number. attack will work like most traditional RPG tabletop games. Attack+D6 VS Defense+D6. so you will attack it will be your attack vs monster defense then vice versa.

Players will have specials moves that add to their attack or defense values and will cost Tokens (needs a name). as they battle they will earn something similar to XP except they will get tokens instead of new levels. each time a spell is used the player token cost for that spell goes up. players will also have 4 item slots these can be used to change your stats or enemy stats. in between each area there will be a shop where a player can purchase more items, heal, etc..

I think this is pretty well fleshed out and I have been playing a prototype and its been fun so far. there is one thing I don't know about. right now a +2 spell and a +2 potion are identical so I think I might drop the spells and only give the player items to buy, with items going up in cost as you use them, but further play testing will decide that. also I currently have stats written as Attack = 3. would it be better to show the range like Attack = 3-8?

[BlueSweatshirt]

 

That is excellent layout design, right there. Magnificent!

Perhaps some temporary damage/defense boosting potions would be appropriate. Like for one battle, for example.

The only thing I don't think I see is an attack button...?

[JasonPickering]

all potions will be for one attack, although the player will be able to purchase upgrades. still working the layout but I was thinking attacking would be super direct in that you just tap the enemy when you are ready to go.

[BlueSweatshirt]

Ohh, so it's turn based now?
I thought you were still going with the action-gauge like setup from before somehow.

[JasonPickering]

nah the Action Gauge wasn't giving the feeling I wanted.

so basically I have been looking at the Experience I want to give the player and Gimmy Tilbert has been talking with me on this. So I figured I would talk about that for a bit to get some feedback and maybe a few ideas.

in a nut shell I want the player to manage limited resources. the player will manage a combination of stats to progress through the game. the player defeats monsters, to make themselves better at defeating monsters in hopes of defeating the boss. the player will be able to make long term investments in themselves as well as cheaper short term investments.

the player will be able to effect
1. how well they kill monsters
2. how long they live
3. coins collected from monsters

each of these can either be done as a short term investment or a long term one, but they will need to decide whats right for them. that's pretty much what I have at the moment, but it should help for people to get an idea, before I have a working prototype.

[WelcomeToAwesomeness]

This is looking really good. Are you thinking of selling it when you are done, or will you keep it free?

[JasonPickering]

Well that's an unknown at the moment. I might put it up flash for free, and then if I can get any money from that, invest in an android tablet and make an android version. If I make an android version it will probably be like a dollar or two. If I do make something I can sell I will probably support it longer, add new areas, monsters, and heroes. I don't really know at the moment cause I haven't had great luck with monetizing my last flash game. 

[JasonPickering]

So working on fixing the UI and getting a better layout. so I thought it would be best to show you guys just how I go about doing UI and screen layout, it might be helpful to some people.

so usually I start with an idea of what I want to show and list out what exactly I need and exactly what each part will be about. then I work with large blocks of color. just trying to get an overall feel for the shape. this is pretty far along in the process and almost ready to be switched over. I used large green blocks for different information, then break them up into other green blocks to further break down the information


after I get something I like I start filling in the boxes with the correct stuff. which you can see below.

[BlueSweatshirt]

Nice! Thanks for sharing. 

What is the red bar under their name(as detailed by the 'schematic', not the mockup) for? At first I thought it was health.

[JasonPickering]

an idea I was playing around with all monsters will have an amount for Purple and an amount for Blue. Blue effects your bar, purple theirs. when your bar is full you level up. All Enemies share a purple bar, when it is full you challenge the boss. So that Scorpion will actually subtract from the purple bar. This will all be part of the much larger rollout I have when I have finished the prototype.

[gimymblert]

If I understood correctly the way you fight might affect if you meet the boss sooner or later? You can affect the way the enemy bar fills up?

[JasonPickering]

yes its something I am testing. all enemies will have two stats an XP value and a boss value. I wanted to give the player choices about how they go about getting to the boss and my original set level of 2-3-4 was pretty stale. so now the player will need to consider how much XP they are getting vs How soon they will fight the boss.

the player will be given a few enemies and must battle one. they will all have different stats that will be combinations of +/- XP and +/- Boss. so it is possible to fight an enemy that is +XP and -Boss but such an enemy would be rare and probably powerful.

Another idea using the Boss Bar in other areas to. imagine fighting an enemy stronger then you, but using your powerful spell, ups the Boss bar. would you heal at an inn if it meant facing the boss sooner? basically I want to put the players short term(stay alive) and long term goals(level up to fight boss) in conflict.

[gimymblert]

Now that's an awesome and orignal idea, hope you get it well. If there is loot (potion,cure,antivenom or elixir for example) it could be very interesting!