Ello! The core game mechanic is great, but at the moment, there does not seem to be much replayability because only a limited number of features have been introduced so far.
Here are a few ideas you could consider:
- Allow players to jump over enemies.
- Allow diagonal movement.
- Allow players to switch places with enemies or other characters.
- Add a teleportation ability.
- Introduce obstacles onto the board.
- Expand the grid size.
- Let the player control two characters at the same time. This could feel like having two lives, but both characters would move in the same direction whenever the player makes a move.
- Allow players to move from one edge of the board to the opposite edge. For example, if the player moves left from grid position 0,0, they could reappear on the far-right side of the grid.
Since players may want to keep playing to beat their previous high score, these abilities could be introduced through roguelite progression.
For example, the score earned during each run could act as a currency that players use to permanently unlock new abilities.
Another option would be to offer upgrades during a run. Whenever the player reaches a certain score threshold, such as 15 points, they could be presented with three random abilities and choose one. This would introduce more strategy and variety between runs unless you are intentionally designing the game without randomness.
At its current stage, the game is fun for a while, but it does not feel rewarding enough for me to return to whenever I have free time.
The modifiers are a good addition, but they currently feel more like a separate mini-game rather than something that strengthens the main gameplay concept.
My highest score is 87, though, so maybe I am just bad at the game. Hahaha. Luv the minimalistic UI.