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[JasonPickering]

here are some Button Mockups. not sure how I feel about the check.

[sonicblastoise]

I like the sword (looks like battle)
I like the potion
I like the card shuffle
I think if you colorize the mouth it would be distinctive enough. the check mark is good, but maybe too plain.
Dollar sign is good.
I don't know what the fish is for.

[JasonPickering]

it was just an idea I had, the "Action" button changes depending on what you are facing. it might be attack for monster, dollar sign for a merchant, or fishing.

the idea I had was maybe you could come across a fishing hole. press the button to fish and then you get a random fish item that restores some health, but there is also something lurking in the water, be careful or you might have to fight it.

[AndrewFM]

When I first saw the mouth, I thought it was a shield (defend action). Other than that, the rest of the buttons are well defined, and easy to recognize.

[BattleBeard]

 Pretty good, but sometime enemies spawn in a way where you can't dodge and your attack bar isn't full.

[Hangedman]

You could make the consume button a bottle or a chicken leg
And just shade the dollar sign and checkmark a bit to give them depth, perhaps

[JasonPickering]

so small update guys.

right now the game contains 7 Enemies and 1 Merchant card. its not a huge amount of variety, but its a beginning. I also need to add a "rarity" so when the deck is built, its got a better range of enemies, right now there are the same amount of low ends as high ends.

I have also removed the banish option. if you get stuck you can reshuffle the deck and get 3 new cards and it will still cost boss power.

The merchant works well. he spawns with one random item and the cost isn't to bad. he comes up a lot with only having 8 cards in the deck, so the rarity thing will fix that. Also the inventory is in and working. next on the list is the Boss monster. then I will be able to have people testing. after that I will add status effects to the game, since I think they will make the biggest difference.

[JasonPickering]

so updates abound in this new version.

Give it a Try! (3.34MB)

Added:
1. Merchants to sell goods
2. Enemies with Status effects
    - Poisonous scorpions that lower your attack
    - Bandits drop small potions
    - goblin swordsman drop small elixirs giving your next attack a bonus.
3. and a BOSS

there is still a lot to go before I have anything official that I can get some major testing on. I need to make you actually die when you reach 0, and I need to make the game have an ending when the boss is defeated. once that is in the engine is basically done and the game can just continue on. I am also dropping the Banish, its really useless I ever hardly need it, but I will add in something that reshuffles the deck, but it has a cool down timer, so you wont be able to use it all the time. I have also started working on a few other statuses. the next ones might be the minion, slime, bloodlust, and Shuffle.

Status
a monster status is displayed in the corner (eventually you will be able to tap the icon for a description). on their death you are given a status effect. killing another monster will remove that status effect back to normal, or whatever that monster has. so yes it is entirely possible to defeat a scorpion and have to fight the boss with -1 attack for the entire battle. you should have planned ahead.

the first card with a minion status will be the rat king. this deck will have no mice in it, on his death he will add a mouse card to the Deck. each time he is killed he adds another mouse to the deck. these basically will get in the way and have no mana value, they will just keep adding to the boss.

the next status will be the Slime. right now there will be several copies of most cards in a deck. there will only be one slime. each time you kill a slime another slime card is added in, until eventually the entire deck is overrun with them. these of course will only be used if you venture into the slime cave Dungeon.

next is Bloodlust, this will be a red drop to match the posion. in your next battle you will be given +1 Attack. this should help with any strong enemies in your way, especially if you can kill this monster, before facing the boss. Also remember that killing an enemy removes your status, it is entirely possible to weaken all 3 monsters while you have this status and then one shot them all afterwards.

Lastly is Shuffle, as I was testing I felt my self planning ahead a lot and what fun is planning ahead if it cant get ruined. shuffle will take the the three current cards get rid of them, reshuffle the decks and give you 3 new ones. so lets say your saving that monster with bloodlust for the boss, oops well now its gone. on the other hand if there is an enemy you wish to not fight, this shuffle would be great

Comments
I am really enjoying what I have so far. I want to keep working on this after I release it too, but I don't really know how I would keep the money coming in on it. What I am hoping is perhaps I can sell the initial flash on FGL and then take any money from that and invest it into android and IOS development. then use funds from those to continue updating all 3. I almost just want to create a kickstarter page so I can get enough for the development tools I will need.


all feedback is welcome and here are some specific questions.

1. how does the game feel challenge wise?
2. does any enemy feel to strong?
3. were you able to level up?
4. do the status make sense?
5. did you beat it first try?
6. what would keep you coming back?
7. are there to many enemies or not enough? do you just need more varieties in the statuses?
Edit: 8. is the slow healing over time (shown by your little heart filling up) needed? I don't think it is.


the Music is not final, just something I grabbed from the Assemblee Competition by Craig Stern so it wasn't so quiet.

[Inanimate]

Ah! I figured out how to play this after a bit of experimentation. It's really fun! I actually like it a lot. Can't wait to see further progress, mate.

[sonicblastoise]

1. how does the game feel challenge wise?

game is pretty easy so far, but it definitely has a sense of challenge now (the previous build did not). I found myself using all the items I had at the end, but I did manage to win rather easily.

2. does any enemy feel to strong?

the sprite is incredibly strong, but not too much. its unfortunate that the bat is so low in HP though. I think that his high attack power is wasted as a threat, esp since your base attack is 2. but, seeing as how you are beginning to mix it up with the poison, I can see how it may get you in to a bind with a bat. in short, nope. enemies are pretty balanced so far.

3. were you able to level up?

leveled up once. very satisfying, it was nice to have health regenerated right before the boss.

4. do the status make sense?

not entirely. I got the poison effect once, but i thought it would prevent me from healing so i was focused on my hearts and didn't notice my attack power decrease. That and the next enemy was a mouse. Woops.

5. did you beat it first try?

yes! I am the best.

6. what would keep you coming back?

More variety of enemies, varied attack animations, mystery items, and more BOSSES! And a readme. The UI is very minimalistic, but easy to understand once you've played through once or twice (and read your explanation).

7. are there to many enemies or not enough? do you just need more varieties in the statuses?

I think that there could be more enemies and more status effects could make it interesting. But I see that you're trying to keep things kind of simple, which I like too. I say make more boss types, and maybe focus less on lots of enemy variation.

Edit: 8. is the slow healing over time (shown by your little heart filling up) needed? I don't think it is.

I think it's nice. It adds a bit of tension, because the only other alternative is to just have the heart show only integer changes, and that may feel a bit random. I think it's nice to see your health recovery happen per-turn, even if it isn't a complete heart at a time.

[JasonPickering]

thanks guys. I am working on making it a "complete" experience now. by that I mean you dying ends the game and killing the boss wins the game. from that point I will be able to keep adding stuff.

sonicblastoise: couple questions

would being able to tap the icon and get a description help with the Poison confusion?

what do you mean by "Variety of Enemies" different sprites? larger range of stats? more status types?

what do you mean but "varied attack animations"

and finally what do you mean by "mystery items"

[sonicblastoise]

would being able to tap the icon and get a description help with the Poison confusion?

yYs, i think that would definitely help.

what do you mean by "Variety of Enemies" different sprites? larger range of stats? more status types?

different sprites would be cool. even color variations would add something to the game, seeing as how many small games do that to denote changes in attack power, effect, or level (like, OH MAN, RED GOBLIN, vs. puny weakling green goblin)

Larger range of stats would be good, but it would have to take into consideration your level.

more status types, yes. Things like no heal, defense down, no item use, blind to HP (cannot see enemy's HP)

what do you mean but "varied attack animations"

I think it would be cool to have Alaric perform different kinds of attacks as he leveled up, to match his appearance. That's all

and finally what do you mean by "mystery items"

Mystery items are items that drop randomly and have unknown effects. Off bosses perhaps? Like, they could hurt or help. It might be cool, unless we're really just going straight for the "items help, randomness comes from enemies only" approach. I personally enjoy a bit of mystery in my games.

[JasonPickering]

thanks that feedback is awesome.

doing different colored characters, would be pretty good, and add to the enemy count, without giving me to much extra art. I wont run out of ideas though I currently have a list of 60 different monsters, this list is separate from the boss list of course.

love the status ideas and the blind HP is going in. I can even denote it as two question marks. not sure about the monster though, the health would need to be somewhat random maybe a base number +/- 2 that way the player doesn't really know.

I love the mystery item idea. it seems very roguelike. this might be a later addition though. I think maybe I could do the merchant sells random potions. I have also been thinking about maybe adding equipment where before you go out you can take one item with you.

[JasonPickering]

UPDATES!

alright guys so I have created the list for what I want in the initial beta.

* 2 Heroes
* 10 Monsters
* 4 Status Types
* 1 Area

- 2 Quests
- 2 more bosses.

so that's my goal. right now everything with a asterix is in the game. so I only need to draw 2 more bosses and then add in the code cards. problem is I am having a hell of a time making some boss monsters. I might post some art in here later today.

[JasonPickering]

Update

well everything above has gone in. I have spent most of the day balancing enemies and building engine stuff for down the road. the Next thing added in will be NPC/Quest stuff. I will add the Wanted poster and the Alter card.

wanted poster - will add a card if you find it you get a big mana bonus.
Alter - gives you a stat boost, but adds a gaurdian to the deck. these are basically boss monsters that will come up in regular combat.

I will also be sending out a call for testers. flash testers first and then android later.

[Thomas Finch]

I'd love to be an Android tester!

[JasonPickering]

ardbob: when I am looking for android I will remember that.

I have a feedback thread for the time being. trying to get as much info as I can. if you wish to give it a test head over to. the Feedback Thread

[JasonPickering]

so I have been getting feedback from a lot of different sources and I might "drop" the level up mechanic. most people like it only for the reason that it gives them full health. I am trying to think of ways to make the heroes feel different. One idea I had was maybe keeping the bar, but using it differently. I remembered the super bar from Street Fighter and might prototype something out like that. as it fills up you get special "Moves" (some of which would heal you) problem being I don't know how to show this in game yet as my UI is so simple, but this warrants further investigation.

[Inanimate]

so I have been getting feedback from a lot of different sources and I might "drop" the level up mechanic. most people like it only for the reason that it gives them full health. I am trying to think of ways to make the heroes feel different. One idea I had was maybe keeping the bar, but using it differently. I remembered the super bar from Street Fighter and might prototype something out like that. as it fills up you get special "Moves" (some of which would heal you) problem being I don't know how to show this in game yet as my UI is so simple, but this warrants further investigation.

The bar could have different 'icons' on it that indicate each super-move. You hover over it, the notch expands to an icon to click! That could work well.

[sonicblastoise]

Nice work keeping this going Jason. And thanks for taking my feedback into consideration

That being said, I'm down for being a playtester on either/both platforms.

Keep up the excellent work!