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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsGuild of Dungeoneering [now out on iOS and Android too!]
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Author Topic: Guild of Dungeoneering [now out on iOS and Android too!]  (Read 88227 times)
Inanimate
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« Reply #20 on: October 22, 2013, 06:21:06 PM »

The hero AI is very, very basic right now. He looks at neighbouring rooms only, and if there's one with treasure in it he goes for that. Otherwise he picks a random one! (this will be improved later).

The next gameplay improvement I'm thinking about is to improve what you do each turn (choose cards to play). I'm thinking of giving you more choice each time, but with consequences. So for example there could be a monsters & traps deck, and an items & events deck. You can choose which deck to draw a card from, but you will want to balance the good & the bad slightly. I'm thinking of either a 'danger level' for the dungeon that goes up and up, but playing monster/trap cards lowers it slightly (so you want to keep it at bay), or perhaps link it to the hero eg an 'interest' bar where if you never play any monsters he decides the dungeon isn't good enough and leaves.

I also have a lot of ideas about improving individual cards to be more interesting. For example a room that is a monster lair, or treasure trove. Special boss monsters. Etc

These are some great ideas on how to improve the game, and you're definitely on the right track. The problem right now is that there isn't a lot of tension - as you said it, not a lot of 'interesting decisions'. The ideas you have here are great for provoking such decisions.

A 'danger level' is much more visceral and entertaining than an 'interest meter', so I'd recommend that. Perhaps, if you don't play a 'bad' card for a while, the game begins drawing one random card from the monster/trap deck and placing it for before you draw your cards. Further, as the danger level rises, the cards drawn from that deck could increase in danger, so you're given an interesting decision: do you place the monsters you're drawing yourself? Or do you push your luck and see what the deck gives you?

I also think there should be more risk - and reward - behind placing creatures down. Perhaps some monster cards could have a 'treasure' or 'encounter' card attached to them; "Kill me and you get this fancy 1-time use spell!" That would encourage people to take more risks. Further, instead of a simple 'monsters killed' meter, why not something like "Glory"? Then you can actively rewarded for trying to take down the biggest and baddest monsters.

Speaking of risks... many board games have random mechanics, and there's a reason for that. As it is, you can usually calculate your turn in advance, and know exactly what's going to happen. Logically, this seems more satisfying to the user - everything's in your hands, you won't lose out of nowhere, and you don't suffer those "feel-bad" moments. But in fact, randomness is essential to much of the fun of many games, and I think this is one such game. When you see a card that has a chance of hurting you, you go - "Do I risk it? Do I try to get the reward? I should be fine..." Then you eagerly watch in anticipation - maybe even a bit of fear - to see what the result will be! As it is, no such tension happens with this game. The drawing of the cards is pretty much the only luck factor here, but the amount of control the player has over card placement negates such tension (another argument in favor of the 'wild placement of a bad thing every turn' idea). Some cards along the lines of "This demon offers a tantalizing offer... there's a chance of it backfiring on you, though. Do you take it?" or "The dragon has a 1/6 chance of casting a super-fireball when it attacks!".

TL;DR: While leaving everything in the player's control seems like a good idea, often it makes a game less exciting and removes the tension. I'd suggest exploring ways to craft moments of suspense, tense gameplay, and perilous decisions. As it is, you have too much information available, and exert too much control over the boardstate, to have any such tension.

This game is a wondrously beautiful idea, and I am eagerly looking forward to future builds, and sharing it with my friends. Best of luck!
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gambrinous
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« Reply #21 on: October 23, 2013, 01:02:53 AM »

Cheers for the in depth feedback Inanimate!

Lots of great ideas I'll be taking on board. Particularly agree with the danger level causing automatic monsters, and the idea of cards not being a sure thing. (another easy example: trapped chest)
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CAH1968
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« Reply #22 on: October 23, 2013, 04:29:55 AM »

Hi, great concept, you could try giving the player a health bar, and food cards to place, and make the enemies move one space also, so the player can't keep placing the treasure items next too himself as much. just a couple of ideas, hope this helps, keep up the good work.
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gambrinous
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« Reply #23 on: October 24, 2013, 02:42:44 PM »

I've posted a collaboration thread about the art. Also willing to pay. Have a look - and if you know anyone who might be interested please share it!
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gambrinous
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« Reply #24 on: October 29, 2013, 10:52:35 AM »

Update: Oct 29th

Got some extra things in today
- Card decks. This is the first half of getting more interesting choices into the game. You can now pick which type of card you want to add from decks marked 'dread', 'seek', and 'hope'. For now these are monsters/tiles/items, but in future they will have a mix of card types (including new types).



- Next up on my todo list is the 2nd half of this (hinted at in the screenshot): danger level. This will gradually go up each turn, and will go up faster if you choose not to take any cards from the 'dread' deck. This represents the danger level of the dungeon you are in and will lead to nastier monsters in the dread deck. If you repeatedly skip out on triggering some dread some nasty things may happen, like a monster ambush.

--> Try it here (flash) <--
Feedback very much welcomed!

« Last Edit: October 31, 2013, 04:20:10 AM by gambrinous » Logged

Orymus
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« Reply #25 on: October 29, 2013, 11:13:21 AM »

Great progress!
Love the player decision-making for picking the cards.
"Seek" really helped insuring no dead end.
Any ETA on when you'll turn treasures into something more than a counter (and introduce more rps-esque mechanics to support the game?).
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gambrinous
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« Reply #26 on: October 29, 2013, 11:19:35 AM »

My todo list for major gameplay features right now is
- finish the card choice stuff (ie danger counter + consequences)
- RPG elements. So this will be the hero actually equipping items he finds, and both he and monsters having stats, that are then used when they fight each other.
- (edit: forgot this one!) Putting in a 'goal' for the dungeon. Such as 'find the treasure room' or 'find and kill this particular boss monster'. Completing it wins the dungeon for you and returns you to the guild management part of the game.
- Very light version of the 'guild' gameplay, ie in between dungeon exploration trips you have a guild to manage (recruit new heroes, choose which dungeon to check out, etc)

Once I have a better idea of what level of art this is going to have (currently ongoing) I will also fill out much more content (so monsters, items, etc etc).
« Last Edit: October 29, 2013, 11:31:12 AM by gambrinous » Logged

Orymus
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« Reply #27 on: October 29, 2013, 12:37:09 PM »

How "complex" do you want your inventory management to be? Diablo-like with actual slots and all, or just swapping things from the ground with what you have equiped?
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gambrinous
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« Reply #28 on: October 29, 2013, 02:17:20 PM »

I'm thinking of keeping it pretty simple, at least at first. Like say just 1 weapon and 1 armour slot, with no inventory. When the hero finds a weapon or armour item, they either sell it if it's worse than what they are using, or equip it and sell what they had been wearing.

Since it's automatic I've been thinking this can tie in with the hero AI for some silly things, like having heroes who really really prefer daggers over any other kind of weapon (even clearly better ones), etc.
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Orymus
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« Reply #29 on: October 29, 2013, 03:33:16 PM »

I think it would be 'on-theme' if your hero would choose what he keeps/equips. That way, player interaction would come in attempting to figure out the ai that has been set for his hero. I can see untapped potential in this kind of relationship (ala "Guess-Who") where a player needs to understand his hero to really be able to progress efficiently.

Some heroes could be more attracted to certain gear, or just gold, others by fights, etc.

I'm very curious to see where you're headed with this game!
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gambrinous
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« Reply #30 on: October 30, 2013, 08:15:43 AM »

Update: Oct 30th

Ok, I've now made monsters that come out of the dread deck be linked to the dungeon's dread level. It starts at 0 and can reach 5. It goes up over time, but you can make it drop by picking enough dread cards in a turn (specifically - more than the current dread level). As it goes higher the type of monster you get tends to be nastier. (of course, this doesn't mean much yet as they all do the same thing for now)

It's already a big improvement though, I think this is sort of coming together gameplay-wise. I think in another couple of days of work I'll have a really solid alpha version.

--> Try it here (flash) <--
Feedback very much welcomed!



How it looks in animated gif form..
« Last Edit: October 31, 2013, 04:17:36 AM by gambrinous » Logged

gambrinous
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« Reply #31 on: October 30, 2013, 04:04:08 PM »

OK so since I'm taking part in the Ludum Dare October Challenge (get a game to market to try and make at least $1 from it before the end of the month), I have now put up the pre-order page for Guild of Dungeoneering!

--> Pre-Order Guild of Dungeoneering <--

If any kind souls think this game is going to be good enough for $5 then get on board! If not I hope to convince you as this devlog progresses.

Also, finally got rid of the look n feel of the older game
« Last Edit: October 31, 2013, 04:15:46 AM by gambrinous » Logged

Orymus
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« Reply #32 on: October 31, 2013, 04:05:33 AM »

Hey,

You can actually set your imgs to forced width 730 to avoid the "scrollbar" on these forums.

your tag should look like this:
[img width = 730]http://imageURL...[/img]
(no spaces before and after the "=" sign)
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gambrinous
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« Reply #33 on: October 31, 2013, 04:18:10 AM »

Oh thanks, yes that's far nicer. I've set them to 700 width to fit better.
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gambrinous
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« Reply #34 on: November 01, 2013, 08:25:29 AM »

I've now partnered up with an artist for Dungeoneering, so expect to see some serious visual improvements in the coming weeks :D
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gambrinous
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« Reply #35 on: November 03, 2013, 03:42:25 AM »

Indie achievement unlocked: sell a copy of your game (to someone you don't know)

\o/ Pretty exciting!



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« Reply #36 on: November 03, 2013, 04:00:14 AM »

congrats :D

I'm not sure what your planing in the future, but I don't see much of a challenge or meaningful choice yet. I'm sure it will come together in the end and you probably already have stuff in mind, but at the moment you can simply avoid all enemies. In my playthrough right now I didn't run into a single enemy. I just placed the behind me and placed all loot infront rendering all the dread pointless somehow. One idea that could mitigate that maybe is that when you leave the dungeon you actually have to get out. Making it dangerous to place all the monsters at the start of the level, because you have to pass it again.

I'm curious to see how  this develops Smiley
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gambrinous
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« Reply #37 on: November 03, 2013, 07:03:07 AM »

Thanks for giving it a go. Yep challenge & meaningful choice are my #1 priorities right now. I think the next few weeks will see this come together. Cheers for the ideas about getting back out - will give that a think
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gambrinous
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« Reply #38 on: November 03, 2013, 11:27:33 AM »

This is very early work, but just wanted to share a little peek at the direction we're going with the map tiles. Trying for a pencil-on-graph-paper kind of look:

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gambrinous
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« Reply #39 on: November 10, 2013, 07:30:26 AM »

And some more..

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