I don't work for any development-related company, but it was great to see Toejam and Earl again as well as their ship.
I loved the game on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis back in the day. I would play alone using two players as that seemed to be the only way in which to be able to finish the game. This method would be a lot easier using the TVs that we have today. Split screen on a little TV that resembled a box was not great.
Something else I can't help but wonder.
Did there used to be more creds earned? Maybe an increase in rewards as the Overworld levels progress?
I ask this as I am saving up for those Production rooms and Generators which are kinda pricey, especially when 25-35 is as much as I can expect for a reward be it on level 1 or level 101. I did just get an Orbin Generator as a Puzzle reward though, so that saved me 5.5k creds.
I ask, because this must have taken a while
Then again, you are the dev so I imagine that cash and objects aren't as much of a hassle for you to get than they are for me.
The game should end when you return to 0%, but the number starts to increase again at the same speed that it was decreasing at.
Fun little game though :)
Then again: Endless Jam!
It did eventually stop at 0% and my company, Menstrual Apocalypse, made over a quintillion dollars from its 600 trillion customers.
I just had another thought concerning those irritating little Soul Fragment ghosts. Maybe they could also shoot each other. So the area begins with all those ghosts. You move around the screen looking for the fragment but also positioning yourself so that ghosts get destroyed. Eventually it will be much easier to find and collect the fragment as there can be just one ghost remaining as a ghost is not going to shoot itself.
So it can end just slightly harder than no ghosts, but is still a challenge compared to an empty screen.
Also, you said that Hammers drop much more frequently after the Path. I got one immediately after completing the path and none since. I am on level 110 now. Is it a case of being unlucky, like the rest sites, or is 'much' more frequently relative to not at all?
OK. I get it. That's a nice little touch. I had wondered why sometimes those boxes appear all the time and others I don't get one in an entire game. I am glad that I haven't chosen any slow ones then, but if I am feeling grumpy then I may do, now that I know its effect!
As you say, x2 or more would also be a nice addition. In fact, pause or speed up could come in the form of boxes that are bought and vanish upon use rather than a simple toggle. Wanna pause again? Buy another box at twice the price.
I don't mean directly after, I mean at all. Do Rest Sites exist in the Overworld after the Path of Chaos?
I'll double-check this.
No need. I have had a few now. I guess I was just being unlucky. It did teach me how to rearrange my items to earn some HP from other means.
I thought of social hall because I keep unlocking new characters all the time, but the majority of the older ones are level 7-12 but these few that I have been using on the same run since beating the Path are still with me. I am now on level 95 and I will be sorry to see them go when I inevitably 'die' eventually.
I like the tree too. Being what it is it can go anywhere at all without interfering with the placeholders you have set up for future buildings. You could also go full Avatar and make it stupidly large. It could even start off small and grow as tall as you want. It could eventually just be a tree trunk, with the leaves off screen and items falling to the base every now and then.
This is one of the things I love about your game. You have introduced so many aspects that virtually anything is fair game as long as you have the programming knowhow and it isn't going to add an unwanted extra level of complexity. I hope it never reaches PvP capability.
I am a 100% old school 1-player gamer. I grew up with the Spectrum 48K, first job selling Sega/Nintendo/Neo Geo console games, second job testing and reviewing Playstation 1, Dreamcast and N64 games. Street Fighter 2 is about my limit for MMO: Not M, slightly M and not O.
I have just discovered this great game and happily wasted a few hours, managing to get to rank 34. I will improve in time.
I thought of three possible additions that I think would be nice.
First is a visual change. When you are buying the boxes, they are listed in red when you can't afford them and green when you can, but when you are upgrading them, they are always green. I was thinking that the same red/green system should occur here too.
Second is a pause button. Whether you want a moment to visualise what to do next, make a coffee or deal with whatever commotion your child/wife/boss/mother is making.
And last is something far less simple that the first two. A sandbox mode where you have unlimited funds and you can play around with different setups just to see how they work with the aim of making the perfect game when you play for real.
Thanks for this game. It's very nice to look at and is somewhere between calm & meditative and frantic & insane.
One last thing: Is there any point to the question at the end of each level asking about the kind of box you want?
Is it intentional that there's no Rest Sites after the Path of Chaos or am I just being very unlucky not to have found one over 30 levels later?
By this do you mean after beating the Path of Chaos? If so, I don't think there is, I could add one though.
I don't mean directly after, I mean at all. Do Rest Sites exist in the Overworld after the Path of Chaos?******
Thinking about potential new buildings as you seem to have made space for MANY of them in The Sanctum.
Clockmaker.
Collect clocks or clock fragments.
Each clock can move forward the idle time of any one building by x time.
Kennels.
Much like the Soul Storage but for pets and boosted using food from expansion or bought from the kennels.
One boosted animal would boost all instances of that same animal.
Bar/Pub/Nightclub/Social Hall
Every soul would be here at one time or another, but buying drinks or food for any of them would increase the chance of that particular one being selected by the Soul Creator.
Clothing store.
Shoes - speed.
Raincoat - water resistance.
Scarf - freeze resistance.
etc.
Not a cosmectic change.
Per character.
x% chance of activation per item OR permanent passive increase.
x of each item can be bought.
Cred/XP/Magic as currency so the player can spend whatever they have excess of.
Cafe
Consumable food items which can be used in battle for varied effects.
Tree
A massive tree that grows random items and has to be checked now and then. It could be boosted to grow better items or be truly random. It could grow any item at all including the ones mentioned above and...
Just a few things that come to mind that would work.
Is it intentional that there's no Rest Sites after the Path of Chaos or am I just being very unlucky not to have found one over 30 levels later?
And are you a South Park fan? If you are, don't you think that the character in charge of Expeditions looks like The Coon - Cartman's Superhero alter ego?
And I can't help noticing that there are six characters on here on your team. Is this something that I can do too, maybe once Character creation chance is maxed?
I am using a Windows 10 PC that was not-very-good when I bought it 10 years ago.
Awful graphics card. I can just about play GTA V if I put all the settings down to minimum and even then it crashes now and then. This is how I found my way to itch - a bunch of games that actually work on my crappy computer!
Not sure what other specs you'd need to know.
The one thing that would really help would be if just passing the cursor over the item would pick it up and not needing to click, but failing that, less bullets, less ghosts, slower bullets would all help. Too many times, the item has a ghost either on it or right next to it and any time I get close enough to think about picking it up, I am shot.
I was thinking of game names again.
Sanctum is taken. Soulmancer is taken. Soulmancer's Sanctum of Souls is too long, though it does have three S's which can help for an aesthetically pleasing cover. Sanctum of Souls isn't taken but it was something within Final Fantasy XIV, it also abbreviates to SoS, which is nice.
Return of the Soulmancer could work as most characters found in the game express their surprise and joy and seeing a soulmancer once again.
Soulmancer Incremental or Incremental Soulmancer could also work, but it puts a literal limitation on the game and could put off potential future players who make an assumption based on the name alone. Also it's a bit stale.
You could always keep the name TBD which allows for the game to take any direction you want in the future. You could come up with a million acronyms for it.
The Battle Dimension
These Buildings of Death
Thick Butts, Damn!
"The only bug I noticed was with hovering over an ability, the effect on the character flickered a lot, and made it tough to see what it did."
I've heard of this bug report on rare occassion (3 people total so far I think), and I'm no sure if it's device specific or not. Has this flicker been present before or is this a new experience for you? (I've yet to reproduce this on my end, so trying to track down why this happens)
*****
I get this too. I keep forgetting to mention it. For me, it happens when enemies have that square above their head with a picture to represent their skill. I hover over the picture and the shown effect jumps from character to character. I can figure it out, but it takes a bit of patience rather than just a glance.
This new soul fragment thing is really annoying. It's the only time in the game that you can't just relax and play and totally goes against the pace of the rest of the game. Like having a meditation part immediately following the start of an F1 race game, or having to play a round of Tetris in the middle of a battle in PUBG.
The great thing about our different timezones is that updates are ready when I get up in the morning.
I just opened the game to check if I can play in the Outerworld again and thankfully I can. Great job. Though the fix is not as you described. The Path of Chaos message now comes with an X allowing me to close the message.
I also noticed that minutes are now visible under an hour in expeditions. I was in there checking if hammers had possibly been added as a reward. Maybe they have and I was just unlucky, but I imagine that they have not!
I also checked if hammers now generate on their own in Expansion, but they don't as you well know.
I shall stop talking about hammers now as the image of a rapper with glasses and stupidly baggy trousers has invaded my mind.
Great job with the fixes and improvements. I'll get back to The Path when I have time later.
=D
Everything you say about the elements sounds very nice and interesting, but I can't find any proof of any of it happening.
So far I can increase my max coins and clicks as well as my clicks per click and coins per click.
I have had messages about unlocking elements and increasing the amount of them, but no way of tracking them or seeing them.
Also, I don't get what the passive points do. I get some passive points which vanish if I click the blue arrow. What does that do and where did my passive points go?
The game looks interesting, or rather it has the potential to be interesting. I am wondering if you just forgot to add a bunch of things or if I need to get my mine to level 100 first or something...?
EDIT: The elements have just appeared at the top of my screen. No idea why or how or how their totals can be raised, but it's a start. Hopefully it will make more sense later!
Great.
Being unable to do Outerworld did make me focus a lot more on the Tower, which has been very useful. I had sort of forgotten about it.
Was the easy character-related trivia intentional? It has made me learn what each character's motto is. Maybe the trivia will become hard again after the Path of Chaos? Or never?
0.84.7 seems to be full of errors.
I have just hit the Path of Chaos for the second time and the message saying, 'You've Entered the Path of Chaos' has appeared with no way to close it.
EDIT: The location before The Path was a Trivia square. I think this is interfering with the Path message. Maybe the Path message should come after the trivia question, not before. My only other option is the merchant, which has the same problem. So my second visit to the path will end before it starts as I need to quit entirely and plan my route next time to have a fight before arriving at the Path.
EDIT2: Outerworld is totally broken for me. I can't enter the path due to the message being unclosable due to the issue above and I can't restart Outerworld as it can only be done from a fight scenario. Game-ending glitch right here!
Trivia doesn't always give rewards now and the questions relating to the characters' mottos are too easy as the answer appears if you hover over the character with your mouse.
There is this mirror asking me riddles now. The character related questions are easy as above. As for the other riddles, it tells me I'm wrong when I choose the correct answer. I tried to select the wrong answer, but this was also wrong, so it's not completely broken!
And in fights now, Soulmancer at the back of the party resembles a very burnt potato rather than a little magical dude.
I'm guessing that somebody complained that getting Soul Fragments is too easy. Tell them an overly sarcastic "Thank you" from me!
Maybe I'm just being impatient!
I'll try again. I'll get a whole bunch of characters to the high teens or 20s in level and then there won't be an issue, but more hammers would be nice. I just like the expansion zone is all. I want to explore the caves, uncover the whole map, have a gold income.
I'll keep plugging away ;)
From what you have said and from the game page on itch it seems like I have all of the current buildings or at least most of them.
Having died on my first journey down the Path of Chaos I find myself wanting another way to get hammers.
So I have an idea for you that fits with the genre:
Alchemy.
All items would need to be ranked and then given a percentage chance of successfully changing one type of item into another.
Changing wood into stone or creds into XP would have a high percentage, but turning wood into a small Soul Room would have a very low percentage and 1 cred into a hammer would also be very low.
As far as upgrades for the building go,
Percentage chance could be increased.
Time to completion could be reduced.
Options of what can be transformed could be added.
You get the idea, I'm sure.
Do we ever earn new hammers with which to build structures in expansion? Or is the only way to get them to restart the area?
I earning many resources each hour and I am offered most others as optional rewards for missions in the main game, but I have never been offered nor earned a new hammer.
And if I do start a new area, will I keep my current totals of each of these resources or will everything be returned to its default amount?
I have been playing expansion for less than 24 hours, I think, so I am hoping that hammers are earned each day.
Something that would be a welcome addition is moving around the expansion map by just pushing the cursor to the edge. I just laid a stonecutter's hut somewhere completely pointless because I had to click on the ground to move the screen. Though movement would need to be quite slow. In too many games, the map moves far too rapidly when the cursor hits the edge of the screen.
I have just realised that I could have scrolled out rather than moved the screen. The things we do when we're half asleep...
And this brings up another point. It would be nice if I could destroy a building that I have placed and get the materials back or at least a portion of them.
Something I've been looking for which I don't think exists, and maybe it's intentional is the ability to access the level-up, pet, accessory etc. pages of any character at any time.
I thought that there would be a way to do this from the soulmancer recruitment section, but you can only view the characters you have and their skills, not actually alter anything. It seems that I can only level or alter a character in my party.
I am also wondering if there are any earth pets. I have about 25 pets but zero earth element ones.
The game continues to astound. I have just unlocked the expansion part. A game-within-the-game and a whole new dimension in more ways than one.
I was looking at some of the comments made in the Jam section and while I agree that it is a bit overwhelming to begin due to lack of explanation, in a way this is not true. We are instructed to hover the mouse over everything we don't understand, but there is so much that a new player doesn't understand that it takes too much time to do this. I didn't do this and I am only really doing it now, as I am getting to grips with all the separate mechanics and understanding what each buff does, how it is activated, what it affects and how it can alter the battle or my other characters has become vital to progressing further.
I think that many of these jam people are expecting to understand the entire game in way too short a space of time as they probably play a multitude of games. You play a racing game and after a track or two, you know what's what. The same goes for a sports game and pretty much every kind of game. It is rare to play a game that is so eclectic. The amount of variety is on a par with one of the good Final Fantasy or GTA games. You don't have the story, but that is the way it is these days. Beginning, middle and end has all but died in computer gaming and been replaced with a constant and never-ending middle.
Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a plan for a proper story mode in here with an actual ending. Obviously the option to carry on until the end of time goes without saying, but as with books and movies, it's always nice to be able to have a sense of completion in a game.
I have written way more than I intended. I have taught so many classes today that my brain is still in teacher-mode.
Time to return to gamer-mode...
OK. Maybe I just haven't actually unlocked the Aura's part properly. I have the building, maybe I need to rescue a worker to activate it.
One error that happened once before and just happened again. I open the game and instead of going to the main menu, it takes me to an empty screen with a 'Leave this area' arrow that can't be activated. Closing the window and restarting fixes it.
Very nice layout to your reply, I feel wholly inadequate just replying with the same text from beginning to end.
I remembered something about having multiple souls of an element in your party, so I recently had all four being fire elements but it didn't seem to do anything which was why I asked. Does it have to be three, or three or more?
I had assumed that the name was undecided and I was trying to think of a name. I came up with Soulmancer Elite, which would allow for other games in the future should you decide to make sequels, spinoffs or whatever within the Soulmancer universe: Soulmancer Puzzle, Merge, Incremental Clicker, Fap VN, Soulmancer The Movie 1-8 (starring Dwayne Johnson, Charlize Theron and God) etc.
I get about 80% of the trivia right, I just want it to be 100%, but I guess I should remember rather than cheat. I shall study harder.
I haven't played as much as I'd like to, but two things spring to mind that would be nice.
Firstly, it would be nice if the the countdown timer on the expeditions had minutes for when it goes under an hour. Right now I can't decide if I should go to bed rather than wait for somewhere between 1 and 60 minutes.
Secondly, the question mark is supposed to give help on anything you don't understand. But all it does is bring up a menu of four items that I do understand. I would like to see the tutorial of the Auras building as I forgot what it said about it the first time, but there doesn't seem to be any way to do this.
And while I'm here, is there a cheat sheet for the trivia? I was thinking of making one myself rather than trying to remember every single character.
And I remember another thing I wanted to ask. Is the final name for this game 'TBD' or is the name still TBD?
