Messages

106

Bigosaur / Re: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

« on: July 07, 2019, 07:22:54 AM »

I'm finally back to 100% of the achievements got - decided to try a game for the first time in ages, and got the ninja achievement - elven shield early plus a really really high powered archer character with the three-arrow bow

Wow, that's puts you way ahead of me actually. I feel like you might be the best SoaW player out there. I had some players ask me if I know anyone who unlocked the barbarian as if that was some impossible thing - and that's ancient history for you. I've still got a bunch of achievements to unlock, but I always mess up the runs by experimenting or risking too much. I guess I should add more content to the game so I have excuse to play the game more.

107

Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Roadwarden [Fantasy/RPG Elements/Pixel Art] [DEMO]

« on: June 20, 2019, 08:40:20 AM »

I love the color palette and the game looks overall. You have some very nice visuals and it will attract attention from players for sure.

108

Arts, Crafts, Music & Drama - The Artisans' Guilds / Re: Pixel Dungeon Adventure - A Web Comic

« on: May 06, 2019, 04:22:21 PM »

Episode 72 is up and now I'm thinking whether the same tranquilizer works on automaton   Can't wait to read #73 to find out.

109

Arts, Crafts, Music & Drama - The Artisans' Guilds / Re: Mountain Leopards: An Adventuring Story

« on: April 16, 2019, 09:11:33 AM »

Was that noticeable as a reader/does anyone have any advice on it?

I didn't see it until you wrote about it. But I don't feel it's a problem even now that I notice it.

110

Bigosaur / Re: EGX Rezzed 2019

« on: April 12, 2019, 06:15:22 AM »

How've you been approaching the press/what else have you been doing thus far?

Well, mostly sending out e-mails. I admit I didn't go deep into it as much as I planned initially. For example, I know that Steamworld Dig got coverage because they made boxed sets with their game manual, stickers, a plushy, and some nice poster or something like that and sent them to game press. I wanted to do that for SoaW as well, but never got around to do it.

The problem with e-mail is that press is swamped with new games. I got zero replies and zero coverage for PC/Steam version. On the other hand, when I released to Nintendo Switch, all the news outlets I contacted covered the game.

111

Bigosaur / Re: EGX Rezzed 2019

« on: April 11, 2019, 11:01:39 AM »

Hey Jeff,

I had 3 pints of stout and a gin and tonic.

Awesome! I'm so glad.

Were you there?

Unfortunately I could not make it. Still I decided to sponsor as I'm trying to get any attention from press regarding my game. YouTubers play it, Twitch streamers play it, but press is completely ignoring it. I thought this sponsoring might draw some attention, but it looks like they just don't care.

At least now I know that people had good time  

112

Arts, Crafts, Music & Drama - The Artisans' Guilds / Re: Mountain Leopards: An Adventuring Story

« on: March 31, 2019, 08:45:38 AM »

That's some nice looking banner. I like it.

113

Arts, Crafts, Music & Drama - The Artisans' Guilds / Re: Pixel Dungeon Adventure - A Web Comic

« on: March 23, 2019, 09:58:20 PM »

Looks like there are some new episodes up. The story is coming along nice.

114

Bigosaur / Re: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

« on: March 20, 2019, 10:43:07 AM »

I'm not sure losing bows would make combat so 1-dimensional - she'd still have access to staffs, so she can always use the ice staff or either of the ice-related weapons. I switched to a staff a few times in my last paladin run and I had one or two changes of sword with me for different tactics, I didn't use a bow once and didn't find it limiting. I think the main thing it would count out would be using slow arrows to rob shops on early levels (which makes sense, one of my other thoughts would be just to ban paladins from starting shop robberies, they are paladins after all). So I still think that'd work, and it'd be something quite clearly unique to the character. Short of that, banning throwing weapons would be a lesser form of the same thing that would sort of make sense (in terms of the internal logic I'm basically thinking of paladins being super honourable and disliking sneaky ranged fighting).

Pretty good arguments. Now, only to figure out what to do with archery based rooms.

There's one it the forest where you have to shoot the hornets for runestones. I guess I could disable that one, although it's doable with ghost orb, astral projection or teleport staff. But players might get confused with NPC dialogue who asks you to shoot and gives you the bow.

The other is the Alchemist unlock room in the ice level. Paladin won't be able to complete it (except if you happen to run into Redhead warrior on the battlements), so I guess I better remove that one if paladin is playing because NPC dialogue would be confusing again and he gives you the medusa arrow.

There's also the archer unlock room where he gives you a bow to shoot. So it would be somewhat confusing for new players if they get the bow and then cannot shoot.

Since players would be able to obtain paladin early on, I think I should disable all of those when the only hero in the party is paladin.

BTW, I often use arrows to build full rage, and had to use that a couple of times in my successful Endless Arena run with the Paladin. So, blocking bows+arrows would remove that ability.

Can you think of any other instance where archery is required?

115

Bigosaur / Re: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

« on: March 20, 2019, 09:05:22 AM »

I still feel she makes the knight feel a bit too redundant.

Hm, I never thought about that. Yes, I can see it as a problem.

I wonder if she should have some other restriction outside her main area (literally not allowed to use bows, say, or starts with distraction like the barbarian, so you keep the power but lose some tactical options that knight players keep)

Distraction doesn't really feel like a Paladin thing. Not being able to use bows actually sounds interesting. Although, I fear that this might make the combat too one-dimensional. If you cannot neutralize tough enemies with ice arrows, you have to use the shield all the time. It's nice to be able to break from that pattern occasionally.

Maybe there should be something else. I'm thinking maybe disallow riding mounts or make her more vulnerable to poison?

Or perhaps it would be enough to lower the starting HP to 80 or 60?

116

Bigosaur / Re: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

« on: March 20, 2019, 07:56:22 AM »

The Paladin meanwhile I think is OP compared to the other characters. At present she has the same start melee skill as the knight, a different balance, but also the paladin invulnerability aura and double damage to undead which collectively are miles better than the knight's starting 25 shield points. I think her starting melee skill should be dropped to 80 to compensate, and would make her more clearly the defensive "tank" character.

I actually tried lowering the melee skill earlier, but it only made the fights longer and mundane. This is why I even added the damage bonus while the shield is up. Without dash rage attacks every fight would go on and on and on. On the other hand, if you get some rage upgrades or a Violet sword, she's basically unbeatable, so there's no point making the player suffer a long low-damage grind when he's going to win anyway.

Paladin was designed to be the "easy mode" type of hero, for players who have hard time playing with other classes. Yes, there are still players out there who complain that regular game is way too hard for them. Or for kids who play together with their parents. But even for experienced players, it's fun to be able to simply charge into a bunch of enemies knowing that there's nothing they can do to you. 

117

Bigosaur / Re: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

« on: March 19, 2019, 11:04:47 AM »

Would there be any way to spawn a few obstacles that only exist for some five-wave sections?

AI algorithms for many of the bosses rely on empty rooms. If I added obstacles, those would break and start behaving very strange. So, if I were to add any obstacles, I would have to program a new AI for most of the bosses. But even if I wanted it would be hard to make sense. For example, when the Golem rolls across the screen it would be really weird if he had to go around and up and down while rolling.

I think it'd make the arena more tactically interesting, and things like the ghost orb, astral projection potion, and teleport staff could become much more useful then. Ghost orb feels pretty pointless in the arena atm.

I will remove those from rotation in Arena mode.

Another thought, either replacing a current room, or opening as a special reward after wave 50, give players the favoured enemy room from the castle as a bonus. I think that wouldn't be too game breaking but would let the player feel they had more choices.

That thing uses the castle graphics set. I would have to redraw it for the dungeon style, but it could be nice. I was also thinking about adding all 4 altars in top,left,bottom,right room.

118

Bigosaur / Re: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

« on: March 19, 2019, 08:36:24 AM »

By wave 200

    

I decided that I'd done enough once I got to 200. There's nothing the arena can really throw at a character this powerful, and because my HP regen is based on vampire blood and I have the lizard pet, I can't even run out of supplies.

Do you think I should add some more challenging stuff after wave 100? I thought about doing it (maybe have only boss enemies spawn after that point), but it already takes about 100 minutes to get there, and since you cannot save the game and continue later it feels like getting players to play for hours doesn't make sense anyway.

Oh, and one major thing I noticed - there really ought to be something to tell you that you have bomb immunity.

I will add it.

119

Bigosaur / Re: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

« on: March 18, 2019, 07:45:38 PM »

The bigger battles get to a point where I just can't process the information on the screen or even sometimes see where my character is

I had such moments during that Paladin run. I was actually only listening to the sound effect of shield dropping and watching the rage bar at the top of the screen. Because I had no idea where my character was

which I don't really find enjoyable (I suspect I don't do split second decision-making etc so well as you do).

It definitely is the most twitchy mode of the game. If you still play at the same tempo like you did the last time I watched you, I imagine it's super hard for you. This is the only game mode where smarts are not enough to compensate.

Additionally, for some of the enemies the usual tactics don't work well, esp. those who show late in the regular game when you're already very powerful. I had to find new evasion patterns for Bats and Gorillas for example. And you have to learn which enemy combinations are deadly to neutralize those before it's too late. For example, I just got killed at wave 70 by a room full with Sky Wizards and the Elephant boss. None of those is specially hard on their own, but when the Elephant knocks you down, you cannot move for a while and then all those ice meteors fall right at you doing massive damage (when you fall down you are immune to all attacks except meteors). I actually had a lot of ice and poison arrows, so I could have prevented it by freezing the boss to death, but I never recognized the threat until if was too late.

BTW, it's also worth restarting with a seed if you find a good assortment of items in the shop. For example, Mammoth Amulet and General's Sword are a good combination to have, esp. to prevent early death by ice mages.

120

Bigosaur / Re: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

« on: March 18, 2019, 01:39:43 PM »

feels more of an endurance fighting slog with quite a lot of luck than a particularly fun new challenge

That is true. This is the reason why I avoided adding the arena mode so long. I played it in other games, and it's really hard to make it interesting without player simply becoming OP at one point. Definitely not something that more strategy-oriented players would be interested in a lot.