Posted January 31, 2023 by Daaa
#roguelike #sonar
Day 01-02: Initial Ideas, Basic 3C & Targets
Day 03-04: Minimum Demos
Day 05-06: Inviting Playtesters! (first-round playtest on Ins)
Day 07-10: Gameplay & System Implementation
Day 11-12: Add Polishment, Sounds, VFX
Day 13-14: Delivery! (second-round release on Itch)
I always want to create a roguelike game. Procedurally generated dungeons, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death. It's kind of an old romantic fashion, huh? So why not just grab this two-week challenge from FIEA, forget everything else and sit down to make it a game?
To me, the most exciting and intriguing part of a roguelike game is the field of view. Especially when the environment is randomly generated, the limitation of FOV creates mysteriousness and invokes the desire to explore. So I decided to design the core gameplay based on FOV.
So, after shortly wrapping things up, I made several super early minimum demos, and two of them are my favs. All of them are built around the core idea: FOV. One works like a Lidar system with color (just call it so for convenience); the other works like a Sonar device.
Choose one (or zero) between the two? Invite some playtesters!
I don't have thousands of followers on any platform, and I don't have a team. So, the easiest way to do so is post the gameplay video on my social media, and set up a poll for my friends to vote.
The result is obvious, so I just trust my friends and take the challenge!
According to the poll result, I choose the sonar one as the core gameplay and FOV system. Everything in the environment discovered by the player should be settled down to a little point, which represents its position and direction according to the player.
I start on this one first because I think it can control the minimum result I can get after two weeks. Even if I did everything else badly, thanks to the core of roguelike, it can still be a game.
I don't want the fight to be escapable. Once the enemy sees you, it will chase you to the end of the world. The only ways you can fight back: exchange your health with it; use the sonar skills that will implement later.
Also, I want to give the player some hints and a sense of oppression when enemies are approaching.
No treasures, no roguelike.
Surrounding the core Sonar System, I designed two skills:
The cool thing about this part is: the player starts to have some ways to build their strategy. You can use bait you attract enemies away and secretly go through behind, or you can attract plenty of them together and use a boom to end all this.
And the variation in this part excites me the most.
To make the game more intriguing, I did several polishments:
Simply click upload and... wait for bugs and feedback!
After inviting many of my friends to give it a try, I received many meaningful feedbacks:
And... that's pretty much for now! Feel free to leave any comments, cool ideas, critics, or bug reports below. Cheers!
2023. 01. 30