Need to connect 2 Runes to make it go away.
Scrolling rotates the Runes.
Though I now realize I forgot to say that in the tutorials. lol
There is no healer. Only the Booster Rune "LIFE".
No, actually. :V
I actually thought of it on accident when I was trying to decide on how to do a timer for the attacks.
Not to say there could be a game out there with a similar thing- but I don't know any that have done it before.
Originally, the abilities were each going to have a cooldown, and you connected Runes in each of the Abilities' own tabs.
Then I thought to give each the same timer, and you just use any ability you want. But then players would focus hard on just one Ability, and I sort of wanted that Ability cycling Vampire Survivors had.
So I asked the questions:
- "How do I auto-make-sure an Ability is selected?" Because I don't want the player constantly selecting the ability. (Tedious)
- "How can it cycle through the Abilities so someone doesn't pick the same Ability?" Variety and "forced-to-use-what-is-given" philosophy.
- "How can the player change the order?" Control on timing and "combos".
Then, when I was testing placing the Runes and put one above the other on the Grid, I was like, "Huh... It's sort of like a calendar."
And that sparked the idea into what it is.
Some only spawn in view. It used to be that they spawned outside it, but it was a little annoying.
Now only 1 does, and it disrupts your radar.
You also have to rotate the cam for more gems, so you can be put into a position where they spawn in the opposite end of your view that you want to turn. which I was fine with.
I considered banking the attack a while back, like, you skip it and the next time it pops up, it's stronger, but I really liked the loss of time by waiting and not positioning it well-enough on the grid to fit the timing of the enemies.
But another issue with it was that, in the later game, the enemies come so fast that you sort of have to use the weapon every time it pops up.
So that then counters the idea of skipping or powering up, especially when using it as fast as possible benefits you since every second you wait on using anything, causes a growing backup of timing.
The level ups were coming so fast! :V
Also gave me some flashbacks to SimCity back in the day.
Though this sort of game would probably be better if it didn't have a full game over state, but a "failing" state that halts progress and requires demolishing. Not that the fail state is bad. Just that it's a chill game and a fail state punches you in the gut suddenly. lol
This was my original idea before the one I chose for my game! :V
Though, more limits on the connections and more pathing like traditional TDs, but multiple paths.
But yeah, cool to see it in action! Though, after buying a lot of the upgrades, I was no longer able to see the enemies before they died. Except when I bought the bounce because I had so much money and then saw them bounce the elites enemies closer! :V lol
Beat it all! :V
Fun characters, fun story, fun gameplay -which could definitely be expanded on- and so much content! :V
I wasn't a huge fan of the ending fight though, as it became just tedious and I could have started farming points to infinity, which would just become a tedious venture at that point since I upgraded the pellets to max and I just had to go from left to right constantly. But I'm also not a huge fan of Horde Survivals for that exact reason! :V Still enjoyed it though!
Had no clue what was happening with the attacks. I rolled both dice and sometimes I'd kill an enemy- which they'd drop things that I don't think I could use! :V
I was also confused on the dragon bit, as there wasn't one at the end of the compass. It just pointed at a spiral thing that sparkled after activating all the cubes.
But I did like the idea of the rolling attack- it just needed feedback on what was going on. Like a "Success!" or "Failure!" if the roll was bad- as well as damage numbers.
The saws are actually one of the strongest abilities later on, but have a higher skill-check to them.
The trade-off with the castle upgrade was intentional, as I didn't want players to keep choosing the castle early for more room.
As for the Rune sizes, there's no real weighting system other than a slight percentage chance for how many connections there are.
And speaking of the connections, it is possible to trigger an Ability, swap a Rune to another Ability before the Ticker reaches it, and get that benefit. Though that's also a bit of a skill check with planning.
As far as balancing goes, it could use some work, but there's some higher level play and strategies I accidentally discovered while testing it that allowed some of the balancing to be less needed. Which was somewhat beneficial since I didn't have time to balance it as well as I wanted to.
I noticed the gun shot faster the further you got.
Could change it to, similar to how you have it, where holding it down slowly fires faster, but the speed up is MUCH faster, but you also lose speed, so there's a risk/reward.
Then there's the classic roguelike spice of upgrades that affects gameplay, as well as different weapons.
I REALLY loved this idea! :V
Honestly surprised I've never ran into a game where you click to move and shoot while it's moving.
Then, combined with the little ship that breaks your focus, it adds a very nice combination of attention-splitting!
You should definitely expand on this idea, because it's really worth something and will make an amazing game people will want to play!
Love the vibe of this game- especially the intro. lol
It took me a good while to understand what was happening, but after spamming space a hundred times to jump around through... trees? Walls? I eventually saw that I was infecting the enemies and then controlling them in unison!
Once I understood that, the game became a lot more fun and understandable! Really loved the concept once I knew how it worked. :V