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XCVG138 days ago

The central mechanic of the dungeon being randomly connected frankly isn't fun. It could be made interesting, but I ended up just wandering aimlessly trying to find something that would advance the story before re-reading the description and realizing it might not actually have an ending at all. I'm not willing to keep poking at it to find out- there really needs to be something to give a sense of progress and keep you pushing forward.

There's a lot of typical "first RPG Maker game" issues- huge maps with little interactivity, a lack of music. It does at least avoid padding the game out with random encounters, and some of the dialogue is pretty funny. I can't say whether "overreliance on battles that aren't that fun" is an issue or not because I avoided combat entirely.

I do feel like the wrong parts were finished- it would have been far better to have a smaller dungeon with fewer maps and no overworld, but more stuff in each section of the dungeon and an ending. Alas, hindsight is 20/20.

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Sammyall138 days ago

Thank you for your feedback! It is genuinely appreciated.

Your 100% right about the whole "needs to be something to give a sense of progress and keep you pushing forward". That is honestly why this version has monsters and some equipment in the dungeon. So that there's at least some type of progression before you get to layer 1. And yes, layer 1 would technically be the "ending" (Big quotes there) at this point in time.

Also, with the point above and what you said, that's exactly why I didn't put some monsters to chase the player. It would have just made the experience even worse than it already was.

"smaller dungeon with fewer maps" God, I wish that was the case with the main mechanic. Originally I was going to have about 5-10 rooms per layer, and that was it. However, when I tested it, some rooms would come up like 8 times in a row. And that was really, really boring and annoying, even if I was just testing the randomness at the time. Currently you should have, at most, a 9% chance of getting the same room (so long as there are 3 exits).

You also pointed out both a benefit and an issue this game had, the fact that the "wrong parts were finished". If it wasnt suprizing at all, I first worked on the dungeon part first, since I tend to prioritize the more compicated parts, espicily since I didnt know if that could be fesably done with my understanding of RPG Maker. Furthermore, I just genuinely blanked on the music part since I had it turned off since I listened to YT when I was making it.

"Alas, hindsight is 20/20" Thank you for summing up my expeience making this LOL. Furthermore, thank you for the compliment about some of the dialogue. I wanted there to be some breaths of fresh air that aren't all about the dungeon or the Guild. Sorry if this reply is long; I tend to write a lot, and I wanted to not only give info about what you've said (even if you probably don't really care that much), but also let you see how much I am thankful for your feedback!

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XCVG138 days ago

I think there's an implicit assumption here that the combat and progression is inherently compelling, but I usually find it to be the worst part of the experience when it comes to RPG Maker jam games, and this one seems to be as barebones and stock-standard as it gets. That I ran through this one avoiding combat is no accident. That's why I'm saying you focused on the wrong thing here- sure, we have some monsters that we can kill and level up, but I can get the exact same thing from a ton of similar games, and it's only tolerable at best. Focus on what makes this one unique!

I do get what you mean by a smaller dungeon feeling overly repetitive. This is probably one of those places where you want to rig the dice, so to speak, to avoid excessive repetition at the expense of true randomness.

Also, yep, sometimes a project just doesn't go as planned, and you realize after the fact that you swung and missed. I realized today there was a very obvious joke with the title of my game that I should have put in, but had never occurred to me.

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Sammyall137 days ago

I get what you're saying, and I do agree! I just now figured out how to get it so that both monsters and items can show up randomly in predetermined spots. That was one of the huge ideas I wanted to get into this version but couldn't because of how bad my time management was.

And yes, I fully agree on the whole combat thing being an assumed idea to drive a player to play. The main reason why I put the monsters in there with how half-baked they are was simply to have SOMETHING that isn't just "walk through a room, look at it, then leave" over and over. The monsters just existing gives the player a sense of something rather than nothing. Remember I'm saying this with the understanding that they are really, really underdeveloped. I could have put some NPCs down there, and that might have been a better choice. But to me it would have still been the same issue as above, in my opinion.

Another thing you might find surprising. I actually spent a small amount of time on the monsters and the items. Most of my time was spent creating the dungeon maps, the randomness of it, and making the town. So its not like I didnt specificly focus on them, it was more of like "padding" in a story.

One thing I actually actively avoided was rigging the dice. I don't really have any good reason as to why I didn't; I just didn't want to. I felt like it wouldn't be fun, nor unique if I just rigged the dice, like what basically every game would probably do. That and I like the idea that the more exits a room has, the more often it would show up. Maybe I might rig the dice on a specific layer or something, but for the whole dungeon, that would defeat the whole "uniqueness" I'm aiming for.

And yeah, I did the same thing with my title. Though I would be both very surprised and very concerned if someone found out what it referenced (other than me, only one person knows and that's because I told them). Simply because it takes numerous leaps of logic to get to the end of it. Though I only did this because I'm genuinely shit at naming things and this was the only way I could name something. (A hint is that the name eventually leads to the idea of randomness.)

Again, thank you for your response and the time it took to craft it! I do genuinely appreciate it :3

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