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Devlogs

Post-jam patch

Gemini
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Nobody gon' read this but it's fun to write legit patch notes. This update includes the following changes:

Damage & Health balancing

  • In the original release, damage numbers were a little high, and it was relatively easy for the Attack Geminus to land one good blow and take out a lower-defense character. These changes give players more survivability and make battles less likely to swing one way or another on the strength of a single blow.
  • Base Health for player classes increased from 50 to 75.
  • Attack / Defense exponent*[see note] reduced from 0.75 to 0.7.

Skill reworking

  • The two damage-debuff skills were a little too strong in terms of neutralizing the Attack Geminus, so their effectiveness is reduced.
    • Disarm damage reduction is always 25%, rather than varying from 25% - 50%. The duration is reduced to 1 to 4 turns from 2 to 5, and it is possible to fail to apply the reduction if the outcome of the Precision check is low enough.
    • Beat Back damage reduction changed to 25% - 75% rather than 50% - 100%.
  • The Guard and Stealth skills are now twice as effective in shifting enemy attention to and from the user respectively.

Enemy stats & behavior

  • Revenge Geminus Physique & Spirit reduced to 6 & 6 rather than 7 & 7.
  • Support Geminus no longer casts Conjure Armor on the Attack Geminus.
  • Support Geminus now casts Toxic Cloud.

Bugfixes and UI improvements

  • Essence Shift skill no longer causes a fatal crash.
  • Typos fixed in stat key.
  • Some battle dialog buttons now correctly have text.
  • Status effects are now listed vertically, making them easier to read.
  • The JRE bundled with the Linux distribution is now minified, reducing the download size by over 50%. The Linux distribution is still notably larger than the other two, since my more sophisticated bundling mechanism only works for the OS of the dev machine, and I don't have a Linux machine handy.

Damage algorithm note

"Attack / Defense exponent reduced from 0.75 to 0.7 ."

This is the most technical aspect. The basic damage algorithm (excluding buffs/debuffs) is:
basePower * (attack / defense)^x
where x is between 0 and 1. The value x controls how much impact the attack and defense stats have. If x is 0, attack and defense are irrelevant and basePower is all that matters. If x is 1, damage is directly proportional to attack and inversely proportional to defense. Reducing x from 0.75 to 0.7 slightly reduces the damage variation based on difference between attack and defense. This makes damage numbers a little more manageable, especially for powerful attackers against weak defenders.

Files

  • Gemini (Windows) 12 MB
    Feb 01, 2022
  • Gemini (Mac) 12 MB
    Feb 01, 2022
  • Gemini (Linux) 55 MB
    Feb 01, 2022
Download Gemini