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AbstractLaser7 days ago(+2)

 I managed to reach the next village but got annihilated fighting the boss with the knight armor :D

This is such an ambitious scale for a game jam, The game still needs a TON of polish to make it appealing.  But,, I think you did a good job on implementing the basics for what looks like a turn-based RPG game.

Here are some of my thoughts:

- I feel the game is too relentless since I don't see any opportunity to heal between battles.

- Having to re-shuffle items when I don't see the one I want is frustrating. It feels like I am being punished for not doing anything wrong.  Since I am used to classic jRPG like Final Fantasy, being able to use all available items when acquired is just more natural (with the exception of FF Tactics) 

- Operating loot assignment after each battle is kinda confusing. The tutorial has too much text at too short period of time. Instead of text, I think adding auto-assignment to loot will make it simpler.

- Again, the initial tutorial is kinda long-winded. I am happy that you at least include the option to skip it. But making it shorter for the next iteration will be sweeter.

Just my two cents... If you are planning to make an RPG with epic story and such, I think you should first make the game less punishing and do less battles in-between story beats. Making your main characters as slime is very hard make it appealing, so it needs a LOT of polish to the visual to pull it off.  Right now, the slimes only differ in color so it's difficult to distinguish between who and who. 

Good luck!

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Dragon's Isle Software7 days ago (1 edit)

Thanks for playing and leaving feedback.

The game has grown a lot from where we started. We are currently transitioning from a faster paced game focused on the combat, to adding more RPG elements. Our next update, which should be before the end of the month, will be reworking the towns to include a new UI and the start of more to do there. We have some ideas on allowing item use between battles. In the next update you will be able to open the inventory at any time you are not in combat, or during certain events, but the use of items from that screen is not ready.

The inventory has filters and sorting of your bag, to help with finding the items you want. We plan to refine these in the future. One of the main things being added to the towns in the future are ways to clear out your inventory, such as by sending excess items back to your clan as food for your main quest. We are also working on how we want to implement the shops and the potential for selling items.

The loot assignment is a core part of the strategy for the game. Picking who gets which items that they can best use, and that are best for the enemies they are currently fighting, not too mention personal play style, will affect the way the game feels. We are thinking on some options for auto-moving items to personal bags, but it would be based on what the player chooses. The items the Slimes consume are going to be getting additional gameplay effects as things progress, including more influence on each Slime's special abilities.

We plan to redo the tutorial once some new systems are in place. We are thinking on how best to communicate all the info, but not be too wordy. We liked the idea of training before leaving (I was thinking of Final Fantasy 3/6 with the building of instructors), but it is not working well, so we are discussing ideas on how to split it out and make it still fit into the story. I am thinking of having prompts asking if you want details on different parts, rather than all of it at once, and seeing what can be moved to later in the story.

We just recently swapped the art over to our own art, with just basics to start. We are working on polishing it up now, and adding additional accessories and little details to make each character more distinct.

The combat will be re-balanced as we play through, and we do plan to have difficulty settings in the final version, including a very easy "Story Mode". We enjoy classic JRPGs from NES through early PS1 era, and are taking some inspiration from them as we add more RPG elements. In the future we plan to do a full JRPG, but settled on this style as a bit simpler and quicker to make than a full world to explore. 

The game is also meant to have saving, but that is currently disabled until it can be updated for all the new features we've added.

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AbstractLaser7 days ago (1 edit) (+2)

Hi, thank you for your reply. 

Yes, I understand that a lot of the system in place are basic RPG system and will be refined as time goes. I hope I didn't come across as intrusive to the development of the game. I would love to have back-and-forth discussion on this if you don't mind. Just putting out thoughts as a consumer, so please take my comment with a grain of salt.  

But coming from a perspective of someone who like and used to play a lot of JRPG (same as you through the PS1 era), I expect to see a dramatic story, cool characters, or environment at the beginning of the game to get invested in. If you guys are indeed planning to do a full JRPG for the project, I think making a well-crafted story, with engaging plot, intriguing characters, or cool environment first (just for the beginning part)  would be the utmost priority for what you want to achieve? Implementing the battle, inventory or tutorial system seems to be secondary for the type of game you're aiming.

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Dragon's Isle Software7 days ago(+1)

We are always open to feedback and discussion.

Our original plan for the jam version was less story and more fast paced combat. The story grew over time, and now we are reworking a lot to go more RPG. This game is not going to be a full free roam JRPG, as we know just how much additional time it will take to properly build the world for such. We aim to stick with the current, mostly linear, side-scrolling, but adding more to do in the towns, along with optional side quests, random events, and choices that can allow the player to pick their path, among the ones offered.

My partner is a storyteller, and we have a lot we want to do for world-building. A lot of our upcoming todos are related to building out the systems to add more to the world. The new town UI will be adding flavor text to each inn, and we are adding taverns with the ability to chat with random NPCs. We had been focusing on later towns, but I agree with you that the opening could be stronger. We were skipping over the starting town with the new story bits we are currently working on, but you make a good point, and we will be sure to add more to do there as well.

This has me thinking on ways to improve the intro to our story. We've discussed your comments, and can acknowledge that going to a big fight at the camp worked decently for the original design, but may be too much combat too soon for our current direction. We are considering adding a small town between the start and the camp combat, to help with world-building and more smoothly introducing the combat.

The combat is going to expand, which should help it feel more balanced. The original jam theme was "Consume", so the combat was based mainly around consuming the items. We still like the core idea and plan to work with it, but also add more than just eating the item that best matches the Slime's affinities and the enemy's weaknesses. The # of slots is planned to increase as you progress, but we are considering how best to improve the overall feel of combat and its UI. For the fast paced gameplay we wanted to have a smaller number of options that could be quickly clicked to progress combat. With going more RPG, we may switch to popup/sub-menus that give more options without flooding the screen with too much UI at once.

Thanks for your feedback. We appreciate hearing honest feedback from other devs and gamers. Even if we don't always agree with all the feedback, and can't implement everything suggested, we still keep everything we read in mind and consider it when making decisions, while staying true to the core of our vision. This kind of feedback is exactly why we decided to host this jam. We look forward to playing your game in the near future.

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AbstractLaser7 days ago(+2)

OK, I will keep your comments in mind with future review. it's good to know the intent of the developers so that the area of feedback can be more focused. If you are planning to do this like once every month, I would love to give some feedback on the feature you specifically just implemented or requested to review. 

Thank you also for hosting this kind of feedback jam thing. I feel we gamedevs are trapped in our own project for too long without any external opinion that it just warp our senses. It's just good to have an outlet for honest and constructive discussion in the early part of creative process.

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