itch.io

Hey,
Just checked my list form 3 months ago and was amazed at how much things you've implemented. And yes, I know I wasn't the only one asking for some of these(most of these really), but still thanks for taking suggestions seriously.

Any chance you can implement the "end game by dialogue" and "better chests" sugestions?

To save you all the re-reading- "end game by dialogue" is a way to set a dialogue with an NPC as an end game event via a variable dropdown. Basically give you the dialogue text and then end the game. It would be huge for narrative games.

As for the "better chests" I suggested to have an option to unlock a chest via variable, the same as you can disable traps, open doors etc. It would be great because if you want to put a chest, unlockable when you finish a dialogue or beat a boss right now you need to waste at least 4 map tiles to put it in a room with a door(if you use a corner) otherwise it's up to 8, depending on the placement. That really wastes a lot of space which we don't have, since-small maps. I can live with small maps- there are some ways around that, but wasting space is not a good thing when you go for minimalism.

I'd also like to suggest you think of implementing an optional "wall of text" screen at the begining. Right now you go from title, directly into game. All the setting details, story and controls have to be explained on the itch page, which is not great. If you give designers a way to put in an optional screen of text between the title screen and the actual gameplay that would go a long way towards making things look more professional. Doesn't need to be star-wars like scrolling text either, just plain old text.

Edit: fixed some mistakes

Hey guys, just submitted a request for itch.io to add the engine to the engines list. Probably not the first to do it, but I figured it won't hurt the project.

Great job! I tried something similar for the 2nd TRS jam, but couldn't pull it off

Thanks man, much appreciated!

Thanks for playing the game and finding the cat :) There is no special dialogue for finding it, because of the one special dialogue(one dialogue triggered by variable) limit. I wanted the female scientist to thank you for finding it, but it is what it is...
 The other item in the closet was supposed to be a bucket(reskinned armor). Not my best job.
BTW I've updated my game from the previous jam with some of the new mechanics, so if you decide to revisit it at some point you'll probably like the results.

Yeah same here. Kinda bummed  the thumbnail does not correspond to the content

Thanks! If you liked that one might want to check my game from the previous jam. I updated it a few days ago to add some of the new engine mechanics

Way too meta for me, went over my head

Yeah, what Owltears said ;) Graphics should carry functional info(easy to spot what's what), narrative info(tell the story of the setting) and aesthetic info(keep to chosen unified style). Yours are great on narrative and aesthetic, but fail at functional level. That being said, I still like it :)

Always surprises me how much content you manage to shove in those little levels :) Oh, and nice cat!

Hi guys, another suggestion. You may want to think about allowing more than one alternative dialogue on per character. This way characters will be able to react to your binary choices and the dialogue skill might actually become useful

Yes and no. You can't start the game with a fixed skill at level 1, but you can rearrange the skills so you can get the skill on level 2 and then use the TESTING menu, to start the game with level 2 character. Theoretically you should have the skill. Haven't tried it though.

Sorry guys, but dividing the screen is not a real solution. A screen size of 8x8 tiles is just too small for that. Sure you can do it technically(I have done it on some screens), but it results in unremarkable levels, that look like series of corridors. 

Now, if you have an option to choose 2x screen canvas size(16x16 tiles per screen), that would fix that problem perfectly:

You won't have to add extra screens, keeping the existing 3x3 map grid(which I really like) and people will have enough space to make bigger games(if they want). It would be a win-win situation.


PS:
If you think 16x16 is too big(Whimtale uses 15x15 for comparison), perhaps try 12x12(1.5x default) tiles canvas? I'm pretty sure that size will make everyone happy.

I think leaving it as a drop down menu is actually the best way to do it. 0.8% looks ok on pc and 1.2% is ok on a phone, so  it's all around a winner implementation. Let people decide what's their preferred deployment platform. Once again great work!

Nice one! Again! 
Too bad the engine allows for only 3x3 maps, but great nevertheless.

The development of the engine is nothing short of incredible!
That being said you might want to dial back the strength of the breathing animation a bit. Right now it stretches the image way too much.  The movement should be subtle, otherwise it becomes uncanny.
Anyway, keep up the good work!

Great work man! Really like your demake series.

Ok, just checked the chest implementation. It's good, but it can be better. Here's how:
Put a switch on the chest to choose whether the chest is locked or unlocked by default. If it's unlocked it works the exact same way as it does now. If it's locked it works similar to the trap- you have a dropdown to link it to a variable that's unlocking it. This will allow for a huge amount of gameplay options, like unlocking a chest after a dialogue, after a lever pull, after a puzzle or after an enemy death.
Another thing you might want to change is how the random item chest works. From a design standpoint it's very rare to use a truly random item drop, especially in the small scope games you can design with your engine. What would be very useful  is some limited randomness, as in a chest that gives a random weapon(one of the swords), a random armor(either armor or boots) or random consumable(key, scroll, potion). This way the designer still has control over the type of loot you get(for example a weapon), but you keep the element of surprise. 
Implement these things and a way to trigger ан end game state through dialogue and you'll have everything you really need.
On a totally unrelated topic, I love the trap implementation. Now this works great!
Keep up the good work!

Hey, no problem. Glad I did not scare you off with the wall of text. I have some experience helping create and working with custom small game editors(and engines) so I know how it is. I'll add three more suggestions so I don't waste a perfectly good post ;)
1. Check your new font implementation. Left you a bug report on github, but I have no idea if you're checking that. Right now the font swaps normal for capital letters and vice versa.
2. Think on implementing limited randomness- if you implement containers(chests or something similar), the logical next step is to implement limited loot randomness. Basically have an object with 3-4 empty slots to populate with possible loot and the engine picks at random from those. Leaving one(or more) empty creates a possibly for having an empty chest. 
This can be something that's calculated at game start, as in all chests are populated when you start the game, doesn't have to be done when chest is opened.
3. Think about making it possible to disable the editor menu when exporting a game. While it's nice to have an access to the editor for people who are interested in actually designing something and want to check how things are done, it's useless for people who just want to play a game and makes the game look like a forever work in progress, since the editor is always one click away.

Congrats on the milestone. You have every reason to be proud- you made something pretty great. 

Thanks for playing the game!  And thanks about all the nice things you said about the pixel art.
A few notes if you decide to replay the game at some point:
1. The HUD was a mistake- disabled it at some point and apparently forgot to reenable it. It will be fixed after the jam scoring ends.
2. If you read all the signs twice and look at their surroundings they indirectly tell a small story. It's a story about a man doing his work- painting signs. They also tell the backstory of the skeletons.
3. The ability to speedrun is a feature, not a bug- I wanted to give you a chance to play the game without taking out all the enemies, or even most of them, which you demonstrated is quite possible after you know the layout ;)

Yeah i agree with you on the HUD. Apparently I disabled it for the final release and never noticed. My bad! Feel free to enable it and play like that ;) I don't feel it's fair to fix it myself before the jam voting ends- will fix afterwards.

Loved the bee sprites!

Well, don't off him then :) It's not like you're obliged to take out every enemy. But seriously, thanks! 

Thanks! It can be finished successfully, but you need to ration your weapons right and/or do some serious backstabbing. If you're not in the mood for that just rush the final lever and run back to the cage. It's not so satisfactory, but works most of the time ;)

Sweet little game! That elf ending was sneeky ;)

First things first—great little engine! Minimalist, simple, and to the point. Love the UI simplicity!

Now, some long winded notes and suggestions:

Skills

Allow for the enabling and disabling of individual skills. This way, you can create a "do-it-yourself" character build. Rename skills to have non class related names. For example, a skill like "Fire Mage" makes no sense if you're playing as a thief. Call it "Fire Walker" and it becomes universal. Some skill suggestions below (for illustrative purposes only):

• Undying: Automatically revive once after death.
• Silver Tongue: Unlock new dialogue options.
• Backstabber: 50% chance for double damage from the back.
• Alchemist: Potions heal full life.
• Fire Walker: You can walk on lava.
• Locksmith: Open locks without a key.
• Cautious: Pass through traps without taking damage.
• Booksmart: XP scrolls give you double experience.
• Weapon Expert: Your weapons have +1 on stats.

EDIT3: Already implemented

Dialogues

Have branching dialogue options. If nothing else, at least have a ✗ or ✓ as options to answer, to create a semblance of dialogue.

Tilesets

The tileset is suboptimal. It covers just one genre (fantasy), has way too many NPC assets (considering the small scope), and way too few environment assets (even for the small scope). 

The bigger problem is that right now, it stands somewhere between symbolic and literal representation. I would propose you move further into symbolic representation, with the optional import of other tilesets (modern, sci-fi, western, cyberpunk, etc.). To do this, you will need to implement name tags in dialogue and allow for duplicate (reused) NPCs and the renaming of NPCs in a scene. I know the asset import goes against the idea of having everything ready to export in a (short) string, but so does redrawing half or all of the NPCs to get what you need. If nothing else, at least think of including tilesets for the other genres I mentioned.

EDIT3: You need about 16 map tiles per one good looking environment. 

Variables

You probably need more. 16–20 sounds about right for a micro-game.

World

A bigger world map would be nice (perhaps have a switch between 3x3 and 5x5). The bigger option would allow for  overworld, one big(ish) and one small dungeon, which is perfect for a small game. Right now, the 3x3 map is more of a proof of concept than anything really useful.

Objects and enemies

• Enemy Stats: Allow for changing enemy stats (0–9 range)—click on the boxes and write a value. This way, you don't need to use a fixed enemy progression.
• Weapon Stats: Allow for changing weapon stats (0–9 range)—click on the boxes and write a value. This way, you can easily create armor suits if needed(low attack, high defense) or different weapon kinds.

EDIT3: While what I proposed about Enemies and Swords would be a great addition, the most important addition would actually be enemy rename- even though you can reskin an enemy, right now when you're killed by one it shows the name of the enemy from the editor.

• Rename Tabs: Rename the "Swords" tab to "Weapons."

EDIT3: Add Indication of weapon durability(and attack strength), the same way enemies have indication of their damage output. The player shouldn't have to count in his head, so either remove weapon durability and make them unbreakable or put in visual indication of their remaining durability.

• Add Traps: Add a Trap—basically a static enemy that has 1 life and adjustable damage(see above) or fixed low damage(1 or 2). It can easily be bypassed by careful players, advanced characters(who can take the hit) or characters with certain skills. Great for temporary closing off parts of the map among other things.
• Add Chests: Add a Chest that requires a key. When opened, it disappears leaving one (pre set from a list) item behind.

EDIT3: Right now you can do the same with walls and a door, but it wastes way too much level estate to use it often.

• End Game: The object should work similar to gates- activated by a variable. This way you can set a specific dialog as a condition to end game(great for narrative games).  

EDIT3: The object should stay as it, but create a named variable called END GAME that can trigger an end game condition so a dialogue can act as an end game trigger.

With the above changes to the objects and the addition of the trap and chest, you cover all the basic pillars of a good micro-RPG: 2–3 location-appropriate enemies, one boss, at least one cool weapon and item, one trap, one secondary location, an element of surprise, and some story.

Ideally, you should also have one resource to dump into upgrades, so think about implementing money and traders as a resource drop and mechanic; however, you can probably skip this if you make skills a binary choice at level up. This way experience becomes the resource you dump into upgrades.

EDIT: Noticed the sign post and speech bubble behave identically- they set a variable and display information. Would make more sense if the speech bubble disappears after it's interacted with. Otherwise it just hangs there.

EDIT2: After playing some more with the engine I realized  I was wrong on some points, so i crossed some things out.

EDIT3: After doing some more thinking about game mechanics(yeah I do that a lot) I revised some of my previous suggestions to keep more in line with what I understand as the spirit of the project. Light revisions to text for clarity.