Very addictive and solid game overall. Having multiple ways to interact/remove symbols, and the companion system is pretty sweet.
Feedback
- Personally i'd prefer if the level was a bit shorter and more challenging. Allowing the player to fail faster and test builds faster.
- Find a way of allowing players to not focus on gold so aggressively; currently you pretty much have to min-max gold to get the trinkets and deck layout you want. Increase trinkets in shop to 4-6 perhaps? Or give players a free refresh. Not sure.
- Possibly add a fast mode that removes or speeds up animations. Collecting resources and dealing damage can drag on a little bit.
- Polish/balance some of the build paths. Some are ridiculously overpowered, like having beserk armour with axes dealing 100k+(Potentially dealing ((8 base damage? Can't remember) * 3) repeated 23 times for each beserk armour on a single axe = 753,145,430,616 damage).
To avoid this, look up Multiplicative Vs Additive damage modifiers. You need to use an Additive multiplier(or a 2 tiered system). For example, instead of tripling the axe damage over and over 23 times. Try multiplying by it's baseDamage value one at a time separately and add them all together. I.E this is for 23 berserk armours and 1 axe -- (8 axe base damage * 3 berserk armour multiplier) + (8 * 3) + (8 * 3) + (8 * 3) + (8 * 3)... 23 times = 552 damage. 10 axes & 10 berserk armours: ((8*3) x 10 axes = 240) * 10 beserk armours = 2400). Now you can add another multiplier like some global damage buff: 2400 * 1.5(+50% all damage) = 3600 (REMEMBER if you have multiple buffs of the same type or category, add them together before multiplying! I.E 7x 50% global damage buffs would be 350% = 4.5 multiplier). Much easier to balance the game vs the current Multiplicative approach. Example code below, haven't tested it.
private static float symbolStartingBaseDamage = 2; //Before any modifiers, helpful when you want to reset a symbol to default value
private float symbolCurrentBaseDamage = 8; //Base damage after any added flat bonuses
private float symbolDamageAfterAllMultipliers = symbolCurrentBaseDamage;
void Awake()
{
ResetBaseDamageMultiplier();
}
public void AddToBaseDamage(float baseDamageToAdd)
{
symbolCurrentBaseDamage += baseDamageToAdd;
ResetBaseDamageMultiplier();
}
//Called from external symbol/trinket usually multiple times
public void AddMultiplier(float multiplierToAdd)
{
symbolDamageAfterAllMultipliers += (symbolCurrentBaseDamage * multiplierToAdd);
}
//Should be called after all multipliers have been added
public float GetFinalDamage()
{
float finalDamage = symbolDamageAfterAllMultipliers;
ResetBaseDamageMultiplier();
return finalDamage;
}
private void ResetBaseDamageMultiplier()
{
symbolDamageAfterAllMultipliers = symbolCurrentBaseDamage;
}
- Easiest way to test build viability, is give yourself all the best possible symbols/trinkets for each build and see if you can beat the last few waves. Ideally each build should be able to win within 0-2? spins after boss spawns for example. If boss instantly dies with the player dealing 2-4x? or more of max boss health, then you most likely need to nerf that build as it could indicate, that once a few items are acquired it snowballs, ruining the challenge and making certain items way too valuable. If you can't win or struggle, then it needs a buff, rework or new item. There is no issue with having a build shred the boss instantly, the issue is with symbol balance against other symbols causing players to pick the same symbol for most builds. Gold and food will be the worst affected areas as you want to min-max those using as few slots as possible. It's worth finding out the best methods for earning gold/food and having multiple balanced ways of achieving similar outcomes. Giving the game more depth than going for topaz gems into rich lady each game, for example.
- Possibly reduce chest spawn rate mid-late game, some builds don't need anything apart from top tier Symbols. Having to skip or spam symbols that companions eat, isn't fun. Issue being, as you develop a good build you are able to shred any enemy. Rapidly going through spins. Solution would be to constantly keep player engaged, by dynamically increasing enemy difficulty if player is killing them too fast and reducing difficulty if player is struggling. E.g adding/removing bonus health from enemy, adjusting enemy spawn count(some enemies might not drop chests), spawn enemies that counter player build and or adjusting rarity of chest drops. Or just balance symbols/trinkets/builds to avoid player being too powerful mid-late game.
Ideas
- Wolf/Dog that eats raw/cooked meat to get stronger, dies if eating nothing for 3-5 spins. Possibly add sheep that can also be eaten > sheep eats any plant or mushroom to survive and duplicate.
Best of luck with the game mate, game dev is hard. Keep it up.