Posted December 14, 2022 by cryy22
hello friends, happy release note wednesday. this time around i’ve made some significant gameplay changes — and some decisions about what exactly i want to do with this little prototype.
one of the most frustrating elements of autobattlers in my experience is when your units take actions that are unexpected, or when the rules that govern the order of operations are too unclear or convoluted or inconsistent to formulate an effective plan. don’t get me wrong, sometimes it can be fun to realize you’ve accidentally screwed yourself over by mussing up some synergy or another, as long as you can understand the “why” of it and learn from the experience.
at the same time as i’ve been thinking about this, i’ve also been trying to make the boss battles here a bit more “epic”, where the outcome is less obvious and the challenges more daunting.
i believe i’ve improved both situations somewhat by implementing a simple rule: units rotate to the end of their squad when they are attacked. i didn’t say “player units” because now enemy units rotate too. in battles with low-health grunts you may not even notice this change, but as the game progresses, the higher-health knights will be able to get off a few more attacks, and against bosses it becomes much more important that you have the firepower to finish them off quickly.
besides this, i’ve added a few new effects of the sort commonly found in games like this such as “spiky” and “tough”. i’ve also added a weighting system to preparation-phase options so that you aren’t constantly being offered abilities you have no interest in and should be able to reliably snag many more stat bonuses than you have in the past.
i’ve been unsure how much longer i wanted to continue developing this project. this is my first released game and i’ve heard that releasing a large amount of tiny games is a great way to learn, and for a while i’ve felt like this prototype was nearing its end and that i should move on to something new.
but i was stricken with a new bout of inspiration recently when thinking about this game while walking my dog this week. the vision i have for this game now has grown significantly – it’s still small, this is my first game after all and i’m just one person, but the ambition and inspiration level has notched up slightly.
without going into too much detail, i see gulch guardians becoming a proper 1-hour-run roguelike with the addition of two core mechanics: an experience/evolution/class system and a (teeny-tiny) card system. the main structure is:
i’m really excited to give this structure a shot. it makes sense in my head, but now i need to see if it makes sense in the world. in order to make this a reality, i have to make a couple of tricky decisions:
if you’ve made it this far, you are a true friend. thanks for reading and for supporting me!