Oooo! Exploration with secrets sounds really interesting! Looking over my comment now, I realize I didn't mention any positives. The last few rounds being more of a victory lap was actually satisfying rather than anti-climactic. Also loved the cute, boxy pixel-monsters, elegant rules and novel idea.
You got yourself a fan who'll buy the game on launch cx
LOVED this game. Won on my second run through with a zombie-build. My thoughts / suggestions in no particular order:
- I also had the menu collapsing on me all the time (Had a bazillion units), and I think it happens when the cursor pass over the corner between four thumbnails, where the rounded corners makes a tiny hole.
- In my very limited experience, mana / boost potions were rarely worth considering while pathing, but treasure chests created really interesting risk vs rewards dilemmas (which made me sad that you can only get one per floor). Maybe have smaller and bigger treasure chests for more variation?
- When I lost my first life on the first run, there was nothing I could do (I had simply fallen below the curve). I couldn't complete the level, so I didn't get any money, so I couldn't improve my deck, so I just lost again and again. Maybe set the difficulty back a couple of stages whenever the player loses a life?
- I had multiple units that had incrementally improving stats, and it was a bit of a chore to mouse over each one to see how far it had improved while rearranging. Maybe those units could have the stat in question displayed in the corner of their thumbnail?
- I have to admit I wasn't a huge fan of the pathing-phase. Primarily because I felt the dexterity challenge didn't mesh all too well with the strategic parts of the game. The fact that you can't see enemy attack range while moving, means I have to remember the entire path before starting to move. With the snake being a bit unresponsive on top of that made it a bit annoying.
- The shop selection being completely random meant I sometimes had few, if any, choices. During the later floors I was so rich I always just bought the most expensive unit available every time. Maybe adjust the selection based on how much money the player has? Or do the snrx thing where you can upgrade the shop itself.
- Two things that didn't feel very intuitive to me: 1). Items reset with each wave, but not items that has been moved by a minion? 2). You don't fail a wave even if you don't get a key, as long as one of your monsters survive?
- It was really frustrating when the key I needed was ON the exit tile :p Don't know if that needs fixing, but...
- The "proc" abilities are a bit hard to work with. It's completely random? In that case, I would personally be more intrigued by "once every 10 sec" or something.
- In later, bigger levels, multiple exits could be interesting.
Great job, look forward to re-visiting!
Thanks for the in-depth answer! Looking forward to playing when it's further along in development :D
It was maybe a bit arrogant of me to write such a lengthy review based on a single, unfinished play-through (obviously, my misconception about the classes solves quite a few of my issues (Not a ridiculous mistake, one of them were named "paladin" :P)). Looking at the character-specific upgrades again, I also think it will solve itself automatically once the shop has more stuff I'd want (so taking cash instead doesn't feel like you're foregoing one of the limited options for a permanent upgrade). I don't think you should underestimate how much better some of the upgrades are compared to cards though! (as they don't cost power, don't take up a card slot AND goes into effect immediately), so missing out on an upgrade should pay very well!
If shield was supposed to always disappear with a single hit, I think I ran into another, tiny bug
I see your first point about the hand-limit, but I don't think the "save up cards, then unload all at once" strategy sound so bad. In my experience, the only time i could use movement to "run away from danger" was against melee-enemies on the first turn, and it requires you to somehow mitigate the damage on the turns where you aren't doing anything. Also, these "god-turns" where you just decimate the enemy and feel super clever and powerful can be kind of fun. You obviously know the systems wayyy better than me though, so if you think it would break the game, you're probably right ;)
Rooting for you, good luck!
Know I'm kinda late to the party, but in the hopes that this project is still under development, I thought I'd give some feedback :)
Just finished my first and only run (after the tutorial) in the second loop after encountering a bug that stopped me from progressing. I used the "report incident" shortcut (F8), and hope you can find the cause. Despite the abrupt end, I had a good time!
First off, my biggest concern is the lack of strategic importance put on positioning (at least when playing paladin and mountain). I realize this might be rooted in a balancing issue, but I hardly ever used move cards at all, and after the first loop, I got rid of them. The enemy will swarm at you regardless, and having a bunch of cards that can't deal or mitigate damage is simply a handicap. In addition, I got one upgrade that gave me permanent cover, and another that gave me dashes every turn.
Secondly, I never had a man down (though I obviously never got that far), but I can see how that mechanic could potentially be frustrating. It means struggling players will have a harder time from then on, with the odds gradually stacking up against them. Considering how few and weak your options of healing are, I'm guessing it's pretty likely for the same character to die repeatedly (as they are only revived with 5 hp)
Thirdly, I think the virus mechanic is really cool, especially how their severity scales with how much power they take to get rid off, but I found that I would often spare the last opponent in a room just to wait until I could remove them. This is somewhat reminiscent of healing with certain deckbuilds in "slay the spire" which you mention as an influence, but I still think it can become a chore. Without the experience to back it up, I also think it will be strategic to just get rid of all your bad starting cards in the first, easiest loop, where the handicap of a virus is manageable, but I don't think that's the most fun way to play. Maybe make the power-cost decrease per room/battle instead of per use?
Fourthly, a couple of ui-issues: As someone else just mentioned, there are several points where I get a prompt to make a choice, and can't look at my decks or upgrades. I might just be spoiled after "into the breach", but I would also love some way of checking the enemy turn-orders (though I can see how this could be a little too "gamey"). There were also a few times where I wanted to check the AOE of a card, but had to make the power for it first. I think it would be nicer if you could select a card, even if you can't afford it.
Fifthly, I think the shield-mechanic is interesting, but has a few problems. It's already a bit weird that the shield you get from cover stays with you once you leave it, or that it helps you against attacks from behind, but once I got used to that, it didn't bother me. The real problem is scaling, and how after just one loop, enemies started dealing so much damage that the 3 shield you got from cover is almost negligible. It ends up as sort of a wasted mechanic with little impact. Maybe increase the amount gained from cover per loop? Also, the fact that almost half of the attacks that hit me would deplete all the shield I had, regardless of the amount, and how this obviously led to the "armored" status-effect just to counter it, is a bit clumsy. It makes going for a shield-build seem unreliable. Maybe remove or reduce the amount of shield-drain enemies, and make shields slowly deplete per turn instead?
Sixthly (are these even words anymore?), I think character-locked upgrades is frustrating. Several times I leveled up and got new upgrades, just to find that both characters got the one I wish I could put on the other, rendering them nearly useless. Especially since you have the upgrade rooms where you actually do get to choose as a comparison. One of the great joys in any tcg or rpg is the feeling of optimizing your build, and this made them feel clunky and imperfect.
Seventhly, I was a bit confused on this point, but I believe you only draw cards up to your hand-limit every turn. This means you are sort of punished for not spending all your cards, because you'll draw fewer in the turn to come (allowing you to play fewer cards overall). This incentivises individually strong cards instead of synergies (which are more fun in my opinion). There might be some aspect to this I haven't realized, but otherwise, I would heavily suggest to just allow the player to draw a set amount of cards, the delayed turn is punishment enough!
I'm not going to delve into features that are just a matter of more content, like more diverse enemies or interactable objects on the battlefields, but I do hope you make the card-pools character specific (the decks of my paladin and my mountain ended up very similar).
I also wanted to mention the theme, even if it isn't strictly criticism. I think what you touch on with the viruses and the sci-fi tech like teleportation is really cool, and I'd love to see this game take that matrix-esque direction. I'm personally a bit put off by the "modern warfare"-aesthetic, and I also guess some of the more lacking mechanics and designs are pulled along with it. I'm not suggesting to make the whole dungeon a simulation or anything (though saying that, it does sound cool), but it's something to consider.
As someone interested in game-design, I had a lot of fun writing this out, and if you can find some use for it, that would just be an added bonus!
PS: Sorry for the long comment!
