next »

[Keith]

I'm enjoying the updates and definitely interested to see where this continues to go.

[Eric Winebrenner]

Thanks for following! I'm interested too

[Eric Winebrenner]

Basic overworld gate unlocking!
DadQuest's overworld is presented in a top-down RPG style, with entrances to action sequences, towns, and exploration sections placed throughout.
Defeating all of the enemies or completing a task within each section will cause changes in the overworld, like gates opening, that allow the player to progress.
When changes occur, the affected nodes are placed in a queue, and the camera pans to each one, playing a (currently non-existent) animation, and a (currently non-existent) rewarding sound, much like the puzzle completion sound in Legend of Zelda games that we all love.

[Eric Winebrenner]

Working on a new enemy!




Since enemies can talk, I'm using dialogue boxes to help me debug AI patterns
This guy is telling me his movement state

[Eric Winebrenner]

They grow up so fast...


Cultist class Shank ability

[Eric Winebrenner]

High level scholar charge ability

[RyanHuggins]

Love the new enemy! ...but what does it actually do? haha

Also the child abilities are looking good! Haven't seen them in awhile.

[dan19]

This is hilarious

The child-throwing reminded me of this dialogue from Friends:

Ross: I had a dream last night where I was playing football with my kid.
Chandler and Joey: That's nice.
Ross: No, no. With him. I'm on this field, and they... they hike me the baby. And I know I've gotta do something 'cause the Tampa Bay defense is coming right at me.
Joey: Tampa Bay's got a terrible team.
Ross: Right, but it is just me and the baby, so I'm thinkin' they can take us.

[ernanir]

Just thought I'd show off Gravity Well, one of the upper tier child abilities

Reminded me of the simpsons for arcade.

[Eric Winebrenner]

Love the new enemy! ...but what does it actually do? haha

Also the child abilities are looking good! Haven't seen them in awhile.

The blue enemy will behave a little like a metroid. When you get too close he'll fly to your head and leech your health.

This is hilarious

The child-throwing reminded me of this dialogue from Friends:

Ross: I had a dream last night where I was playing football with my kid.
Chandler and Joey: That's nice.
Ross: No, no. With him. I'm on this field, and they... they hike me the baby. And I know I've gotta do something 'cause the Tampa Bay defense is coming right at me.
Joey: Tampa Bay's got a terrible team.
Ross: Right, but it is just me and the baby, so I'm thinkin' they can take us.

Thanks! Yeah, throwing and/or kicking children seems to be a more common fantasy than I thought

Just thought I'd show off Gravity Well, one of the upper tier child abilities

Reminded me of the simpsons for arcade.

Not sure I see the similarity tbh

[ernanir]

The team-up part.

[Eric Winebrenner]

Made a placeholder main menu using in-game parallax backgrounds.
Also a good test for fading transitions using overlays!

Also in this gif is the child class selection screen, in which the player can choose between 2 random child classes. More on that later!

[Eric Winebrenner]

As one of DadQuest's roguelike elements, all Child progress will be lost upon death.

I'll let this diagram explain.



As you can see in step 4, the new Dad gets a new, unique child. This is where Child Class selection comes in.



In Child Class selection, the player chooses between two child classes.
More options for child classes will be unlocked over time.
Each child class is unique, but is a subset of a larger base class.

A few examples of base classes and unique subclasses:

Jock
Bodybuilder
Lax Bro
Letterman

Scholar
Biologist
Librarian
Professor

Cultist
The Reborn
Initiate
Recruiter

The player's choice will be determined by a number of factors.
Each class has 3 stats: Power, Intelligence, and Loyalty.

The level of each stat will come with its own perks, including passive throw effects like Bounciness, and Shockwave.
In addition, each base class has its own set of active abilities, which are unlocked at levels 3 and 5 of its Main Stat.

Main Stats
Jock - Power
Scholar - Intelligence
Cultist - Loyalty

The numbers next to each stat are experience multipliers. Stats with higher experience multipliers will gain more experience from each experience orb of that type, significantly cutting down on the number of kills needed.

Let's look at an example below.



Here, the player is presented with a Recruiter and a Powerlifter. Each comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.

Recruiter
Cultist starting at level 3 loyalty, allowing use of the Shank ability right off the bat. Unfortunately, loyalty is capped at level 4, meaning he cannot get a level 5 active ability. The high intelligence cap allows for the Shank ability to be used from a far distance, allowing the Dad to avoid danger completely.

Powerlifter
Starts at all level 1 stats, but has great power potential, and 2x Power multiplier. This allows him to quickly climb to level 5 power and use a powerful active ability. His intelligence is average, and his loyalty is low, making him rely on his power to  destroy enemies from up close.

Not all Child Classes will necessarily be equal or balanced, but this choice will hopefully be a fun part of an otherwise painful death.

[Joh]

This looks super cool and interesting,
I like how the stats have multiple elements to them (start, cap, multi)
And very nice diagram!

Is there inheritance? I don't think flat-out starting with stats close to the father would be wise, but perhaps have the parent stats/class slightly influence the kids stat and class.

Like if you always pick scholars, your odds of getting more scholars increase and the odds of a scholar having great stats increases, but as random luck goes its always possible to get another class and "star a new branch".

[Flabby__Fabby]

Will there be any multiplayer? I would love to battle my friends in this game!

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

new Dad get daughter : Game Over ?

[TheWing]

new Dad get daughter : Game Over ?

Dad has daughter
 - Is sad


Seriously loving the concept, looking forward to seeing this process and evolve

[RyanHuggins]

Will there be any multiplayer? I would love to battle my friends in this game!

We unfortunately don't have any current plans to implement multiplayer! I don't think that the gameplay necessarily lends itself to player Dad vs player Dad encounters either. It's definitely something to think about in the future though!

new Dad get daughter : Game Over ?

Every child becomes Dad.

[A Strange Bird]

This is perfect! Definitely following this 

[Eric Winebrenner]

This looks super cool and interesting,
I like how the stats have multiple elements to them (start, cap, multi)
And very nice diagram!

Is there inheritance? I don't think flat-out starting with stats close to the father would be wise, but perhaps have the parent stats/class slightly influence the kids stat and class.

Like if you always pick scholars, your odds of getting more scholars increase and the odds of a scholar having great stats increases, but as random luck goes its always possible to get another class and "star a new branch".

Funny that you mention inheritance! In a very early design iteration, when there was a separate set of stats for the Dad, the Dad's stats would greatly influence the child stats on each generation. I like your idea of the parent stats influencing what classes you get. I'd be wary of locking the player into a branch if there was only one child class to choose from, but because there's two options, the first option could be influenced by previous children, while we leave the second option more random.

So here's what the team came up with, taking your feedback into account:

We are going to have the two options be different base class types (ex. Scholar + Jock, never Scholar + Scholar) to make the choice more interesting, and to provide more branch opportunities. More powerful sub-classes, like those with stats starting at level 3 or 5, will only be made available by first reaching those levels by through training manually in game. This means that the starting classes will all have level 1 or 2 starting levels and low exp multipliers, but by putting in the effort to train them, you increase your chances of rolling more powerful classes in the future. For example, training a Cultist to level 3 loyalty and unlocking the Shank ability improves the chances of rolling a Cultist starting with level 3 loyalty in the future.   This rewards the player for sticking with a single class, but also requires them to train that class, and truly love and raise their child to improve the gene pool.

This is perfect! Definitely following this 

Thanks for the follow!