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[AndrewFM]

So, where I live, there was this huge snowstorm, and due to it, I wound up getting a nice 6 day weekend. A perfect length of time to make a game. So that's what I did.

I had a pretty complex idea in mind when I started working on this, but then it kind of went out the window in favor of just making a really simple, generic, quick game. Game starts out very simple, but as you go a little further, and start buying upgrades, it gets a little more depth to it. Overall, though, it's basically just a "grind on enemies to get stronger" type of game.

The game doesn't really have an end. It just goes on forever. You could say the end is when you get all the upgrades, get to the last of the enemies, reach the max level, or just get bored of the game...

So, yeah, if you have time to waste, try it out, and tell me what you think. Just looking for general critique. Also, the game is not necessarily in its final state, so if you have any ideas that you think would be good to add to the game, I'd be glad to add them.

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?otztrjgkwtd

Controls:

Arrow Keys - Move
Z - Attack (Hold it down)
X - Interact with things, select things in menus
Shift - Open/Close Inventory
U - View Purchased Upgrades
F4 - Fullscreen On/Off
Esc - Exit Game

System Requirements:

As long as you have a video card with over 32 MB of memory, you should be good to go...

Screenshots

[Christian Knudsen]

I gave your game a try and kept playing for a good hour until I got bored. I was at level 37 and had encountered the green haired characters in white coats (how many more enemy types were there left in the game?) when I quit. While the game is kinda addictive in its simplicity, that same simplicity also makes it very repetitive and pointless after a while. It's also way too easy, since you can always go back to previous enemy types that are easier to kill and just grind xp like that -- which is what the game seems to be all about: xp grinding. So, yeah, the game needs a purpose or goal and something that makes it impossible to just grind xp. Oh, and hitting escape shouldn't immediately exit the game when you're checking you inventory -- I accidentally quit the game the first few times I tried it because I hit escape to exit the inventory.

I'm interested in seeing what you do with this if you continue to develop it.

[AndrewFM]

Thanks for the feedback!

I was at level 37 and had encountered the green haired characters in white coats (how many more enemy types were there left in the game?) when I quit.

The green haired scientists are the 21st enemy of 75 enemies.

While the game is kinda addictive in its simplicity, that same simplicity also makes it very repetitive and pointless after a while.

I agree. The only variation comes from seeing new enemies, which is a reward that looses its effectiveness quickly. The only other thing that provides novelty is the upgrade system, but the upgrades tend to be spaced far apart, so they're not frequent enough to really grab the player, and keep them playing. I think particularly, it needs more depth in the combat system, and it needs a goal to work towards. Similarly to how the player's attacks evolve with upgrades, the enemies attacks should probably begin to change as you go on as well. Perhaps little things like status effects could add some variation, too.

It's also way too easy, since you can always go back to previous enemy types that are easier to kill and just grind xp like that -- which is what the game seems to be all about: xp grinding.

I think this might be able to be resolved with some tweaking with the EXP formula. My original intention was for the player to be able to keep moving from one enemy to the next stronger one without too much time spent grinding. However, the original EXP formula (which I never changed) was based off the idea that you'd generally be fighting enemies that are the same level as you. However, in reality, due to the difficulty curve of the enemies, you're usually fighting enemies 10-15 levels below you.

Oh, and hitting escape shouldn't immediately exit the game when you're checking you inventory -- I accidentally quit the game the first few times I tried it because I hit escape to exit the inventory.

Thanks for bringing that up. For the next release, I'll add a "Do you want to quit?" confirmation when you press escape.

On another note, I should probably come up with a name for this game...

[Blackcorn]

Thank to chrknudsen, I didn't hit escape when I was checking my inventory! As you suggest, a "Do you want to quit?" message will be more than welcome. 

During the first ten-fifteen minutes I found this "maze game" pretty cool and my goal was to buy the boots and after that the critical hit enhancer, then... well, for me, discovering new kind of enemies wasn't motivating at all, even if it was nice to see all these news monsters. I think that your game is technically good, but it miss some mechanism to be engaging (attack variation, a visual and effective area/level change, some little puzzle like "find the button to open the gate", etc.). Think about any Gauntlet-like for instance. It is very repetitive but there are some elements that create interests from repetitiveness.

About finding a name for your game, I can't help much for the moment, but I'm sure you will "a-maze" us for your next version

[Farbs]

What you should have been doing

I can't download the game at the moment - Can't establish a connection to Mediafire for some reason. It may or may not be a fault at their end. My shitty ISP sometimes flakes on large portions of the internet.

[Christian Knudsen]

I was at level 37 and had encountered the green haired characters in white coats (how many more enemy types were there left in the game?) when I quit.

The green haired scientists are the 21st enemy of 75 enemies.

 

I'm glad I decided to quit then instead of keep playing until there weren't any new enemies!

[increpare]

It's interesting that you can't die - after a bit I got tired of fighting and just went forward until things got too slow.

[Farbs]

I spent a couple of hours on this, so yeah I definitely think you're onto something. Like you say there's a problem with lack of variation, but I reckon the solution is not so difficult. The other thing I think you need to focus on is meaningful choice. At the moment you're generally only choosing between higher and lower level enemies.

Here's what I'd love to see:
* Monster variance.
At the moment they only seem to vary in overall stats and graphics. If you dramatically increase or decrease any one or two stats for a particular enemy then they immmediately have character and create variance. Have a think about every single variable that governs how an enemy operates and you'll see how much stuff you can do here.
(movement - a stationary enemy would be cool, rate of fire - enemies you can duck past, high HP - not good for grinding since they take ages to kill, range of fire... and so on)

* Level variance.
All your levels bar one are twisty little passages. They're all the same! (aside from that one roguelike room). The same monsters will play differently in different environments, so it really helps to mix these up. Consider open fields, connected rooms, treasure clusters, monster clusters, parallel corridors, bigger and smaller levels (may require tech rework).

* Monster spawning variance.
It looks like you currently spawn the level's primary monster, then a random mix of anything below it. Just randomly picking from any enemy is a lot less striking and interesting than picking from a small set of distinct enemies, so having only one, two, or maybe three types per level would make each level play and feel more distinct.

* Reward variance.
This is where choice comes in. Rather than have monsters that drop both gold and xp, and chests that also drop gold, why not have gold only appear on the ground in specific levels? That way if a player wants a purchaseable reward they have to plan and play for it, instead of just waiting for their gold counter to get high enough. Similarly, the different potions could be available only in specific missions. If you want elixiers then you need to find a high yield elixier level.

* Shopping variance
Again this should help with choice. At the moment you only get to save up for and buy one item at a time. This means you never choose between rewards here. It would be much better to offer multiple items at a time at similar prices, so that the player would have to choose between them. Better still you could have each shop sell only one item, but have that be a different item in different shops. This would give players even more reason to explore, backtrack etc.

* A map.
Yeah I know, maps suck. But if you add all this stuff players are going to want to know how to get back to things. It's also a very nice reward seeing what parts of the world you've uncovered.

So... yeah. This is what I would add to the game if I were you :D

[AndrewFM]

What you should have been doing

Well, personally, I was busy participating in the most extreme sport known to man...



I love those suggestions . Looks like it's time for me to comment out some of those lazy "auto-generation" formulas, and start adding some manual variance.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Great work! I love these sorts of thing, and it almost reminds me of Maziacs or Mazogs, essentially an ultra lightweight and easy roguelike of sorts!

I noticed that I sometimes went through enemies. Is this a bug? Is it if we both move at the same time perhaps?

[AndrewFM]

It's technically a bug, but I didn't feel it was a big enough deal for me to bother fixing it. However, you're the third person to bring that to my attention, so maybe it is a bigger deal than I thought

And yeah, it happens if you both move at the same time, and are both moving towards each other.

-----------

Edit: It's getting there, little by little. Added status effects, a bestiary, and have been working on the monster variance. Did 40% of the enemies so far. To throw out a few examples:

-Leprechauns don't damage you, but instead steal some money when they attack.
-Zombies heal back some HP when they attack you (drain your HP)
-Kobolds do really heavy damage for their level, but your shield completely nullifies their damage instead of only minimizing it.
-Archers now have a ranged attack instead of a melee attack:



Hopefully if I keep this up, I might be able to have a new version up before next weekend.

[deathtotheweird]

I dunno why, but it was pretty mesmerizing. In retrospect there's not much to do, but I played it a lot longer than I thought I would. I think I got around to level 20 before I asked myself, wait why am I playing this? I didn't seem to mind that though, I still enjoyed the mindless simplicity of it.

[TheDustin]

The structure of this game is interesting; combat is simple and there is always an enemy or treasure chest just out reach. You always have something to work towards, and watching enemies drop almost instanteously is satisfying. All in all the dopamine drip effect works wonders here.

I'm thinking a time attack version of this would fit well. Let it scale from 10-30+ minutes, and have a cash penalty for every time you die. The small play sessions would lend well to this style of gameplay, and would encourage repeat plays if you keep track of how much money or levels you've scored each playthrough. To add some sort of depth I'd advise a rudimentary skill tree, or even just the option to choose to increase generic hack'n'slash stats (attack, defense, et al.) If the enemies had simple attack patterns the game would have an almost rhythm game feel to it, but as it stands the simple combat is already addicting.

[Randomasta]

Nice concept dude, I got to level 22 before decided to quit. I think the silver ring something item should give more critical rate, I only see it like 10 times in the game (and despite my low level, I played it for quite some time, since I'm suck at increasing my level)

[AndrewFM]

Nice concept dude, I got to level 22 before decided to quit. I think the silver ring something item should give more critical rate, I only see it like 10 times in the game

There's two more critical rate upgrades you get later on

I'm thinking a time attack version of this would fit well. Let it scale from 10-30+ minutes, and have a cash penalty for every time you die. The small play sessions would lend well to this style of gameplay, and would encourage repeat plays if you keep track of how much money or levels you've scored each playthrough.

Hmm, that could be interesting. Maybe I can have unlockable time attacks which span over each group of 10 enemies.

To add some sort of depth I'd advise a rudimentary skill tree, or even just the option to choose to increase generic hack'n'slash stats (attack, defense, et al.)

There's only three main stats in the game, but I think that could still work well. Could let the player choose between equal strength to all stats, or influencing attack, hp, or speed above the others. Would add extra player choice, and would make the characters varied and more personal.