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[xarn]

Hello!

The game is released!

http://creatures-of-gaia.com/play.php

...since it's pure HTML5, you can also play it on your smartphone or tablet!


Screenshots









If you want to make a screencast, you're welcome!

ORIGINAL FIRST POST

Intro

Today I would like to present you an upcoming game! It is still in development but a peek preview is available! It is loosely inspired from Pokemon, yet different and unique. In this game, you are a Beast Master. You control creatures and battle with them to deliver the island of Gaia from a lurking evil!

The game genre is a bit in-between a RPG and a TCG, combining a cute flavor with turn based battles. You select a party of 6 creatures, level them up, use items to boost them and so on. In total, there are over 150 creatures to discover, fight, capture and train!


New in version 0.5.0:
- 2 new NPCs / more story
- diversified in-battle attack effects
- UI updated
- tweaked difficulty progression (is it right now?)
- fixed a few of bugs

Work in progress for next version:
- missing skill & attack graphics
- all creatures (+ customized skills)
- all items (+ adjust prices)
- an ending

Open question:
When you progress, you must face stronger and stronger creatures. Do you think it is better to:
A) give them stronger base stats
B) give them a higher max level cap
?
...of course both could be combined. The question should therefore be: is it a good idea to give creatures always higher max level caps?


Perhaps in the far future, depending on feedback
- multiplayer
- a "garden" that you can decorate and put reserve creatures into
- winning items, crafting, marketplace
- voiced narratives
...so if you REALLY want one of these, just tell me

Feedback

Any feedback is welcome! Did you like it? Or did you find it sucks? (It's ok if you don't like it, knowing why would be even better )

Basically, I try to make a great game! ...but between theory and practice, there is a gap! :p
Actually, I really wonder what my next step should be, and that's where you come in! What would you like to see added/changed to it to become a game of your liking? (this can be tiny details or huge drastic changes, you're welcome!)

Any feedback welcome!
What should be my next step?

Cheers,
Arnaud

[Prads]

Couldn't play it due to crashes. First it crashed 4 times while loading, once at 4%, then 17%, then 60% and 95%. After crash I had to refresh my browser.
And then it crashed twice in the first tutorial section in 'New Game' just after I click on sword sprite. The message was "InvalidStateError: An attempt was made to use an object that is not, or is no longer, usable"

[xarn]

Thanks for the feedback, these errors are pretty surprising.
I think they occur because of timeouts. Is it possible that you have a very slow connection? ...the biggest file is around 1mb and the timeout is set at 20sec, I thought it's more than enough but apparently not for everyone. Can you provide information about your location/connection? Thanks!
I guess the other errors are indirectly caused by this too.

[Prads]

I'm from Nepal so yeah the connection here is pretty slow.

[Naz.j]

It showed me this errors

The top one was displayed before the first battle, the bottom one before the second one, and finally before the third one, it crashed.
It felt like there were a lot of things to be polished (mostly the introductory dialogs), but it's an interesting idea.

[xarn]

Oh, that was a silly error of mine  ...it should be fixed now!

[Writy]

I've just tried it and it worked well!

The only thing I noted was a problem with the display of beast's attributes at the very beginning (the one is on the star, instead of being displayed on the right). Also, the golden letters are collapsed when you start the first battle.

Otherwise, I really like the little beasts, they are cute and well designed in my opinion. I am not a fan of the moving character though, and I don't really like the "menu buttons". Of course, this is all just a personal opinion.

[Prads]

Gave it another try and this time it didn't crash. I played it for more than 30 minutes. It's nice but I found it repetitive. The battle looks and plays the same each time, the only difference is the number of enemies. Although there were different types of enemies in the game, there were only 3 different attacks and every enemy performed one of the 3 attacking move which made it boring to play. I would suggest you to design more moves and make so that each unique enemy performs something different. That would have made me little more curious and I would have played it a little longer.
Also, when the fireball thing moves from right to left, it's facing the wrong direction...

[xarn]

Cool, thanks for playing! I'm glad to hear it hooked you for a good half an hour.
Actually, all the creature got their special skills removed in this version.
It was partially to assess if the overall pace at which the creatures evolve and the difficulty was ok.
In a couple of days, there should be a version with the special abilities of the starting creatures included.

[Prads]

No worries. Let us know when the new version comes out and I will try it again.

[xarn]

A newer version is here!

New in version 0.4.0:
- you can now have as many creatures as you will in your reserve
- creatures have skills again
- a shop to spend the gold and buy new creatures (not fully finished but good enough)
- the UI revisited a little
- sound on/off button
...this release was not intensively tested, so I hope it's all right

[arrogant.gamer]

Very Cool! I enjoy collecting and battling monsters.

My thoughts for improvements: right now the UI in the shop is ridiculous. I got lost deep in the creatures list, and had to click "left" again and again to get back to the available monsters. There is a better way. You could always sort by available, etc...

Music and graphics are excellent, and I enjoyed the battles. Could use more tactics? Like, as it stands, there isn't much in the way of "cancelling" or "delaying" enemies. I like to harry in strategy games.

[xarn]

Hi,
Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you liked it, and sorry for the delay.
The shop was brand new, just added in last update, so it needs a bit tweaking indeed. ...I wonder though if I should show:
- every creature
- or only the ones you discovered so far
- or only the ones you discovered so far and a few other ones
When opening, I'll also let it show your latest discovered creatures.

I'm still working on the special skills, and I'll try to increase the "combos" possibilities to increase the tactics.

Btw, the new update should be coming soon.

[xarn]

Btw, I think there is also something work with the difficulty progress curve.
At the beginning, it's quite ok, but when you progress, it doesn't really become harder... I definitely have to tweak this, but it isn't easy to find the right balance. ...and a lot of playtesting.

[xarn]

New in version 0.5.0:
- 2 new NPCs / more story
- diversified in-battle attack effects
- UI updated
- tweaked difficulty progression (is it right now?)
- fixed a few of bugs

Work in progress for next version:
- missing skill & attack graphics
- all creatures (+ customized skills)
- all items (+ adjust prices)
- an ending

Open question:
When you progress, you must face stronger and stronger creatures. Do you think it is better to:
A) give them stronger base stats
B) give them a higher max level cap
?
...of course both could be combined. The question should therefore be: is it a good idea to give creatures always higher max level caps?

[xarn]

Version 0.6 is online!

...I noticed there were a few nasty bugs in last version. I hope now everything is ok now.
There were many changes in the game's balance. Now, different creatures have also different max level they can reach. The more you progress in the game, the more they can level up!
Many items were also added.
I'd say the game should be well rounded by now.
Have fun!

[HDSanctum]

I saw your other topic so I played your game for a few hours today and I really enjoyed what I got to ! I really like the depth of strategy you get to see early on.

Things I like:

• The art and creatures are really accessible.
• The combat is simple and engaging.
• Diversity in monsters and real elements of strategy available

Things that could be improved:

• The tutorial throws you right into combat, and doesn't really explain the mechanics of it. Eg: I was left guessing how the turn system was going-- was it an old style jrpg? Is it a spamfest click first and win? etc. You could try to explain, or something even simpler that simply states "Your turn !" in battle.
• I am up to a point where I have a solid team pretty early on (3 turtle front line, a fire AOE + 2 healers) and I find myself getting into a lot of unengaging combat. The problem is that my team is weak to single target ranged, but for some reason I am not encountering a lot of that at the moment.
  
  I am not sure how your random encounters work, but I would spend time to ensure that there a few random compositions you can face, rather than simply random monsters.
  Eg:
  
  • 1 Ranged, 2 Tank, 1 Healer, 1 Single target sniper
  • 2 Ranged, 1 Tank, 1 Healer, 2 AOE DPS

etc. So that you always face a competitive team, but the team compositions change from battle to battle, to keep your team set up challenged.

[xarn]

Actually, I planned something related early on: to play against teams of other players. Either in an arena, via a "challenge friend" link, or as random encounters. ...but it's quite some work and reserved for a future update, like many other things.
Currently, I'm more trying to get the game out to the world.