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[Viza]

Hi everyone!

Let me introduce to you my little game "Drop Hero":

It is a pachinko/rpg hybrid (if you are familiar with One Tap Quest you will instantly know whats going on in the gif.  ) - you just choose the starting point for your little hero, then drop him into the battle and hope that he can make it trough the field alive

Actually there is a bit more than that: you are a healer mage, and can summon health packs for your hero - but you have to time the drops correctly so he can pick them up.
Also there is (will be) some rpg-ish leveling up between the battles. There are already some traces of it (as you can see in the upper left corner), but this part is not really designed yet, I'll just make up something along the way. 

Hmm, what else? Ohh, this game is my entry for this month's #1GAM, so I *must* finish it in June - probably it won't have a huge scope for this reason (I work on this in my free time, but I try to spend some time on it every day). At least it will be small-ish in this incarnation - if there will be some interest I will expand on the idea later.

If you would like to see the previous steps in the development (and more animgifs from this and my previous little games), check out my tumblr blog: http://blog.ccatgames.com and/or follow me on Twitter: @viza

Feedback, questions, thoughs are appreciated!

[tieTYT]

It is a pachinko/rpg hybrid (if you are familiar with One Tap Quest you will instantly know whats going on in the gif.

Wow that's a really cool idea for combining genre's.  Somehow it reminds me of Coin Dozer

[Viza]

Yeah, both are low interaction, high chance games. Before Peggle I though this is nonsense, but since then I'm a believer.

So much in fact that I created a Peggle-like physics-puzzle game a couple of years ago, which was kinda popular: Sundrops
Since than I had a bunch of pachinko+something gameideas, some of them even fantasy games, but One Tap Quest (and #1GAM ) gave the final push to actually start on creating one.

[Viza]

Today’s achievements: menus. I did the lose and the win+upgrade menus.

The upgrade menu finally makes it possible to test longer gameloops (not just the minute-to-minute one). I have my doubts that if this very basic upgrade-one-of-the-two-possible-stats idea will work out, but hey: implement the simplest thing imaginable, and sometimes you’ll be surprised when it works against all odds.

[Viza]

Money just solves everything. Yesterday I mused about whether two upgradeable stats will provide enough variation/possibilities for the player, and tried to come up with a way to make it work, but I couldn't.

Soooo... Loot!
And items. And a shop. And of course a lot more work.

So, the idea now is that the weapon and shield upgrades on the level are just temporary ones, the player can't carry them to the next level. But he can buy better gear from the gold collected on the field. The monsters now drop coins (in random directions, so not all of them will be collected by the hero. At least not at first - I see a potential buyable magnet item. )

The collected coins  are stay with the player even if the hero dies (as opposed to the xp, which is only awarded if the hero makes it through the battlefield alive). The items bought in the shop will probably have a durability stat too, which will hopefully add an another layer of tensions to the buying and playing decisions.

[Jeff Skyrunner]

Very nice idea! It seems the classic "easy" game (it is meant as a compliment) where you're going to lose a lot of hours!

Looking forward to see it finished!

[James Edward Smith]

This sorta reminds me of the Pixeljam game "Mountain Maniac".

Am I the only one who thinks the player's little hero guy should be a "drop bear" style Koala?

[Viza]

@ Jeff:
Thank you, I'm on it!
Or maybe I will be on it, because now it seems that there is a crunchtime situation emerging in my dayjob, so for a couple of days I'm afraid the updates will be very sporadic.

@Geothermal:
I didn't know about Mountain Maniac, but checked out now, and yeah, there are some similarities. It reminded me that I wanted to add some stationary enemies to Drop Hero too

I also didn't know about drop bears  :D
Maybe I can include one as a unlockable character.

[Superb Joe]

hello. i ahev never played a dark souls game, but ibelieve they are marketed with some kind of slogan about dying. and your game has a fantasy theme. well, what i'm saying is "drop dead" is a phrase that people say (it's a mean one, please don't say it). feel free to use the phrase "drop dead" to promote your game, i have yet to trademark it.

[Viza]

Good idea!
...and it can be made even better, if I'm introducing a zombie playable character in the game.

[Viza]

Hey long time, no see!
Actually I was on a crunchtime in the last days (weeks? I lost my sense of time completely...) and I didn't have the energy to update Drop Hero.
But now I'm back, and continue the work on it. In fact I already released a pre-alpha to your playing plesure http://j.mp/dropherogame
Please try it, and tell me what do you think!

And today's update brings the beginnings of the GUI:



The shield protects the health display - just as in the game. More cracks appearing as the armor property goes down, and finally falls away, when the hero loses all armor.
The health display is a Diablo style red liquid sphere thing - quite big, I hope this makes it easier to watch both the hero/monster situation and the health level.
The text displays are just placeholders - I want to change those to icons.
Unfortunately the xp display is kind of hard to read on the tail of the dragon - seemed like a good idea, but maybe I should reconsider it. :-?

Ohh, and none of this is working ingame yet - I only got to the concept level today.

[Viza]

The GUI, this time functioning in the game.
You can check it out in motion at http://j.mp/dropherogame

[noumenus]

Iteresting take on an old idea! I like how the char bounces off of enemies so that its less predictable