Post by IndieBen in Deals and Duels comments

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Thank you very much for the kind words !

Maybe I can add a few seconds to the flash sales so it gIves a bit extra time to sell stuff before it ends.

Ah, you are right the fight listing are currently easy and no real risk, I need to work on that. ( If you have ideas for what could be at stake / what would we lose if we lose a fight listing , I am all ears ).

I need to think about some sort of goal to complete the game experience I guess. Maybe some sort of leaderboard or specific goals or boss fights et the end or something 😅.

I plan to add around 60-70 units and have deeper synergies / combos / strategies.

But indeed I need to fix those issues.

Thanks a lot for the feedback and glad that you liked the concept :)

THE B345T46 days ago

About the goal: I think there are already good games out there that show you how this could work. For example in many autobattlers you have async multiplayer with a leveling/ranking system. So you play until you either get 10 wins or loose all your lifes. then you either rank up or down and get more difficult or easier oponents in the next run. I think this sort of dynamic difficulty could also work without the async multiplayer. You just make the oponents stronger for better ranks and weaker in the lower ones.

For the Fight listings I am not so sure. One Idea I have would be to add a time limit to the fight so that you need to finish them off quickly. This seems like an interesting challenge as it might be difficult to guess beforehand if you can win. Also it might just cost something to do the fight. The fights could also be much more difficult to just make it harder to win them. This would be kind of like the mechanic of “mini-bosses” in a lot of roguelike games. They are high-risk high-reward. If you loose the fight It should have a negative consequence like maybe loosing one of your teammembers.

The idea of having many units is great. I would wait with adding them however. I feel like the current units are already interesting and allow for some interesting strategies. I would first concentrate on fixing the issues and only then add more content.

Again I think you should keep working on this. I like it a lot. :)

IndieBen46 days ago

Ah yes. Scaling difficulty between runs, I did not even think about that yet 😅 can definitely do that.

Yep a bit like super auto pets ( which I played for inspiration haha ).

That could be interesting for Neutral fights, a timer to win, and the neutral being stronger and you lose something if you lose ( maybe a random item in your inventory ) that could make it more challenging and interesting I like that idea thanks.

Yes I'll keep improving my current version before adding the other units, it was just to tell you the next steps :)

Thanks again for the feedback, it's really helpful for ideation and motivation.

IndieBen41 days ago

Hi, I tried to scale up difficulty over time, if you have some time to try let me know :) ( basically the enemy will start making better placement after day 9 )

Also, I wanted to ask you, do you think I should do something like that :

Every 2 weeks, add a " boss " and only allow the player to buy other factions after ? Like you start only with Humans, then you can get orcs in the listing and then elves, undead, etc ? Or should we have access to most factions ( weak units ) from beginning and just gets stronger units over time ?

( I still need to rework the fights in the listings )

THE B345T39 days ago

Hi :) I just played it again and it is still way too easy imo. I had my build fully done by about day 10 and I never had any problem to win a fight. I played again util day 15 and even though it felt like the fights were a bit tougher it still was not enough to make me loose a fight.

I think boss levels would be a nice idea. They should be a lot more challenging. In general I think the pacing for the difficulty in general should be faster. If the player can “finish” a full build in about 10 days then this should be the final level of the run and it should get more difficult quickly. Maybe day 10 is a boss level and after beating it the player unlocks a new class/faction for the next run.

With this you can make sure that new players understand the concept and do not get overwhelmed by too many different units. also experienced players will have access to more units and cool combos.

IMO playing after the build is finished feels boring. The fun part is assembling the team and trying to find the pieces you are missing in the listings. Once you have that there is nothing to do really. So I would make it so that it ends after this.

Also I now played with a mouse and the scroll speed in the listings panel was way too slow.

Here is my build:

IndieBen39 days ago

Hi, thanks a lot for the feedback !

So in that case it would indeed make sense to add bosses or something every 10 days or so and add new faction after as a reward. So that each new " 10 days run " feels a bit different with new units and new synergies possible.

Ok I'll try to rework more the difficulty 😅

Thanks for the helpful feedback ! I'll also add you to a list of people I'll give a Steam key for release :) ( still some way to go before 😅 )

THE B345T38 days ago

Thank you so much 😊

Yes i think with a limited run duration and the unlockable units you have some great incentive for players to play multiple runs and to experiment. The runs could also unlock difficulty levels for each time the player wins (like the difficulty in balatro).

Also I thought about the Infos you can buy about the units. In my first playthrough I bought them because I did not know about the units but it did not seem useful the second time.

Maybe they should also give you a bonus on the sale price or maybe let you see the condition of the items before you buy them etc. i feel like currently they are not interesting once you know the game a bit. This would make the game even more difficult as a new player because you need to buy them.

The idea of the info being an item you buy is interesting though and it feels nice to have the tutorial be part of the game somehow.

Again i think you have a cool and interesting concept here. Just keep improving the design and it will be great. 😊

IndieBen37 days ago(+1)

Thanks a lot ! That gives me elements to brainstorm and iterate further :).

Will explore these ideas further.

Yes it makes sense, paying for info could show the condition as well, as a useful thing for experienced players, that makes sense.

Thanks ! :)

IndieBen12 days ago

HI :) I just started to add a roguelite approach to the game ( like run of 10 days and so on ) if you have time to try it at some point let me know if it's in the good direction or not :)

THE B345T15 hours ago

Hi :) Just tried it again. I think the “ending” makes it a lot nicer to play. I felt like I had a goal that I can achieve. At the end of the game there was a bug and I could not choose a unit to be added for the next run. Also I was waiting for an archer to show up because the arrows and bows are still available even though the archer is not. I think it would make sense to have those unlock together.

The biggest problem I see now is the economy. The absolute best thing to do is to do the fights and then sell the figures you gain from them (75 each). this gives you way more money than trading and it is super easy to do. I think either trading needs to be better (better margins) or the figures you gain from fights should be worth less. I think making trading better is the nicer approach but just try it out. Also I think it might be nice to gain some money after each fight because otherwise you can end up in a “hole” without money and then you cannot trade etc.

Overall I think you are moving into the right direction. The “remove from team” button in the inventory is also a great addition. :)

IndieBen1 hour ago

Thanks for the feedback again :)

Oh, you were supposed to get new units as a reward for the next run ( archer / assassin etc ) I'll try to see what happened. I was wondering if I should also lock archer items or let them to " tease " what you can win, but maybe I should lock it.

Ah I see, yes maybe we should be able to make more money with flipping rather then selling necros 😅 . That makes more sense. I need to rework all of these things.

Not that easy to make a game feel good 😅.

Thanks for the feedback :)

itch.io

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