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[Lurb]

This is my first "beyond the tutorial" game programming attempt.
In fact the folder holding the files is still named "flashpunktutorial" and I'm adding stuff piecemeal while I actually learn ActionScript and the flashpunk engine.

The game is becoming sort of a genre mashup that I hope will work gameplay-wise. But it's all in the name:

-You have to defend a dungeon, just like in Dungeon Keeper!
-You control your monsters with a Match-3 style swapping interface, just like Zoo Keeper!
-Mouse-click on a monster and swipe in any direction to move it.
-Matching the monsters makes them stronger so they can oppose better the Tower Defense style stream of "heroes" trying to cross your dungeon.
-The Crawl rltiles tileset and turn based combat bring the roguelike vibe.

I have most of the basic systems working, but the thing is barely playable yet (the "you lose" condition is still a crash when the pathing of the hero gets to the end   ).

[adam a]

Looks interesting, though I can't quite imagine how it will actually play. I look forward to a demo.

[Lega]

Are you going to just have a sea of monsters, like in the picture you posted? I think it would be interesting to add "wall" tiles too, so you can swap walls around to make a sort of maze for the humans to navigate while also trying to keep in mind how to make the best monster match-ups.

I look forward to seeing a playable demo of this one, it looks neat so far! 

[Lurb]

Thanks for the replies.
I'm working on the combat right now, will keep it simple and roguelike-like.  Once I have some sane balance that shows the intended gameplay and chase some sneaky bug I'll post a demo for feedbak.

The main trouble with walls or corridors is that with the match-3 control scheme you actually help the heroes by making harder to swap the monsters around. Maybe a limited number of indestructable or very hard to destroy wall tiles or boulders with limited movement options could be incorporated.

What I do intend to do once I have some feedback on the basic gameplay is adding some twists: ranged heroes that plink at your monsters making you come to them instead of waiting, healing monsters, boss monsters that give a big bonus to nearby ones.

[Onza40]

This looks pretty sweet and your description of such a mashup of genres sounds awesome, looking forward to playing it

[Lurb]

Balancing difficulty is quite hard so far. The game can go from plain boring to slow and strategic to crazy and twitchy just changing a couple of constants.
What I want to decide now is if the mechanics are promising enough to add polish or if I'm mostly done with this.

[Onza40]

So what does matching 3 monsters actually do?
I played for a while but there seemed to be little obvious difference.

Perhaps have a system where combining 3 little guys of 1 variety converts them into 1 bigger guy of that variety, and occasionally you get resupplies of the little guys (maybe as a row from the top - bust-a-move style).

I still like the concept, but I think it needs more to it, progressive levels, some form of player advancement, mazes, monsters levelling based on how many heroes they kill/help to kill.

Nice start though

[compositeredfox]

I really like the concept and I think you're not too far from nailing it. I think the biggest problem is the controls versus the speed of the game.
Selecting monsters and attacking with the keyboard is really slow. Is it necessary to use the keyboard? I can totally see this working with the mouse, clicking on monsters or dragging.

[Lurb]

I've added mouse "swipes" for control and yeah, it's definitely nicer and would translate better to those touch thingies.

[compositeredfox]

It's definitely better. Some feedback:

I would keep the selection rectangle like it was before, now you have no feedback of what monster you're actually moving. I'd also add clicking on a monster to select it and then clicking on where you want it to go, as most mouse-based games with units to control behave like that.

The spiders don't read well with the background, they have similar colors.

If I select on an empty tile next to a monster, and then drag to the monster, he moves to the empty tile.

About the feedback of the resistance bonus, I'm not sure what fits the theme. Maybe group them by color, with some sparkles, or glow.

[Onza40]

I would keep the selection rectangle like it was before, now you have no feedback of what monster you're actually moving. I'd also add clicking on a monster to select it and then clicking on where you want it to go, as most mouse-based games with units to control behave like that.

I like it how it is now, it is pretty obvious what's going on, you could maybe highlight the square you first clicked on while the mouse button is held, otherwise it's fine controlling like this though