Really fun and charming game! I really enjoyed it, even though I softlocked myself somehow by not being able to place my throne room anywhere. I also noticed that graveyard triggered EVERY time you built a layer higher and kind of obliterated the gold balancing with that. Might be cool to balance as a deliberate effect, maybe if it was just 1 gold and triggered every time you built the tower higher
can't promise in the near near future im graduating college this semester and plans unknown for after; for the time being i've been having issues porting it to a newer version of gamemaker but i fully intend to revisit the game in one form or another eventually
I have plans to swap the level gen system from specific sets of hazard per level to picking from a random suite of presets; I think an interesting caveat to that system would be choosing between 2 presets, say a pirate-heavy level or spiller-heavy level, to allow players who struggle with specific obstacles to see them less often
Shortcuts are something I intend to revisit, moving the unlock for a shortcut to finishing the area as opposed to first seeing it to avoid players approaching progression with grinding. As a countermeasure to the difficulty inherent in starting in a later area with fewer resources, I can guarantee that you will start with additional HP starting in later areas, and potentially an item draft if that can be done seamlessly
Metaprogression is not something I like in most games, I find it misused more often than not, gating off essential mechanics or trivializing the game. While I plan to add unlockable items tied to achievements ingame I'm hesitant to add metaprogression in the form of permanent and innate upgrades
Delighted to hear back and that you are enjoying the game!
Addressing the bugs, I had known that a few ? rooms would boot you out due to the ground level being too low and fixed the ones I knew of, do you consistently notice specific ones doing it consistently? Otherwise it could be a programming error as opposed to design.
I definitely know what you mean about the solitaire effect, being out of bounds in a Source Engine game is essentially the same cause and effect. I've seen it happen but thought I fixed it, though it is hard to track down due to appearing seemingly at random.
I'll try my hand at hammering those out properly soon, as for the unbreakable blocks problem that might be remedied with some new items and systems I have planned, though a safeguard pass in the generation is probably warranted.
