Author Topic: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion  (Read 218197 times)

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #165 on: February 19, 2017, 08:32:02 PM »
Yeah - I think I'm probably beating the game a slightly lower % than you, but if that's what you're aiming for then that seems about right :) I guess it may change once levels 4 onwards are in there, how strong the incentive is to save scrolls, etc.

Agreed that ice hammer would now be OK rage-based - especially now there are more weapons so less chance of getting it anyway. I really like the idea of doing that with the rune system; it would be very nice to occasionally be able to get a weapon and then add an elemental effect to it etc. As for potions, I more or less never drink potions unless I've ID-ed them or I've got a dragonfire potion handy at the moment, which may suggest the current risk is too high (though I'm quite a risk-averse player in some ways).
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bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #166 on: February 22, 2017, 11:43:31 PM »
Due to some players complaining about the difficulty, I decided to avoid having Easy/Normal/Hard option, but to give players some powerful boosts until they manage to beat the bosses. The starting boosts are Books your Witch mother left for you.

At first, you get a Book of Life that gives you 100 extra HP. You keep getting this book until you defeat the Ogre Mom. This helps with the fact that the player is still learning the ropes and the goblins do a lot of damage.

After you beat the Ogre, the subsequent runs give you the Book of Ice which freezes enemies for 3 seconds every time you enter a new room. This helps from dying too quickly against the guards. You gain a couple of seconds to survey the room and position yourself.

After you beat the Dragon, you start getting the Book of Fire, which sets all enemies on fire as you enter.

After you beat the Executioner, you start getting a random item. Those items aren't as powerful as Mom's books, but still provide some help.

The idea is that once you reach Mom in the Dungeon, you will unlock her (you can play as her) and then you won't be getting items anymore.

Any thoughs or comments on these changes are welcome.

P.S. Beside the books, there are 6 new items and 2 new potion effects in the game. The new version is already up, so you can try it now.

P.P.S. There will be a fourth book - the Book of Death. It will allow you to kill yourself and come back as undead. This will change the game as you won't be able to heal using the health potions, but by killing the enemies. You will have an appearance of a skeleton and maybe you will be immune to some things, like the magic the skeleton mages will use in the Catacombs level. I still haven't figured out this completely, so I'm putting this book aside until I create the Catacombs level and all the enemies there. However, if you have some cool ideas about playing as an undead, I'd love to hear them.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2017, 11:49:00 PM by bigosaur »

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #167 on: February 24, 2017, 03:11:59 AM »
Right, got all the new achievements - one thing to note, you don't currently seem to get the achievement for beating a boss if you barrel-roll-scroll it, I don't know if this is intentional!

I'll have a think about undeath - something like immunity to knockdown like the orc-thingies have would be a big and interesting change? Immunity to poison would make sense too, hard to poison a skeleton!
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bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #168 on: February 25, 2017, 01:28:13 PM »
Quote
you don't currently seem to get the achievement for beating a boss if you barrel-roll-scroll it, I don't know if this is intentional!

Yes. Also, Gamble scroll allows you to get the Dragon and Executioner achievement on the first level with goblins helping you beat the Executioner because they belong to different factions ;)

Quote
I'll have a think about undeath - something like immunity to knockdown like the orc-thingies have would be a big and interesting change?

I think it would be too hard to play without it. When you get surrounded on all sides getting knocked to the side is the only way to escape. Also, I feel like the skeletons should have even less poise than full bodied enemies.

Quote
Immunity to poison would make sense too, hard to poison a skeleton!

Yes, complete poison immunity is planned. And maybe inability to drink and eat since they have no stomach.

BTW, I was thinking how magic staves feel a bit weak, and the reasoning that you have no motivation to use the Life Staff or Heal Staff for combat. Because of this I'm changing the base orb damage for those from 6 to 10. I'm also buffing the Supercharger base damage from 6 to 8 to compensate for the higher mana cost of the lightning spell.

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #169 on: February 25, 2017, 09:11:05 PM »
Approve of the magic staff tweaks, that sounds sensible :) And yes, that's a fair point regarding being knocked back.
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bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #170 on: February 27, 2017, 12:32:01 AM »
A new version is coming soon. It features a new forest area (similar to the Troll area), where you need to stomp on the pests to get the rewards (they drop runestones):



And I have improved the UI to make the effect icons more understandable:



The Rogue Sword is getting an upgrade. When you are concealed, the next few attacks have Sneak Attack bonus which starts at +100 damage and quickly drops to zero. Basically, you can sneak up on one enemy and one-hit kill him, or maybe do about 150-200 damage to a boss if you swing the sword really fast. The bonus applies to any melee weapon.

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #171 on: March 02, 2017, 12:24:26 AM »
I really like the pest stomping - I wonder if having more pests that are there for longer but only say a 50% chance of getting a runestone might be better? It feels like there are very few of the pests and it's all over quite fast. But it's a good minigame and I really like it :)

Also, looks like I topped the leaderboard for another month, I should let someone else have a chance really :P
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bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #172 on: March 03, 2017, 12:58:07 PM »


The third themed forest area is the hunting ground. Well, not really hunting, but more like taming the beasts. Depending on the number of players playing there's one or more wild boars walking around. You have to chase them down, or hurt them from the distance to tame them. Once tamed, you can mount and ride them which gives you +2 speed.

While you are riding, all the damage taken is split between you and the animal. The boars eat all the food, which heals them. If you get the Hunger curse, you can remove it with the Dragonfire Potion, drink a Beer, eat a Mushroom, or find a way to get off the boar. For example, if a Goblin Shaman drops a meteor on your or someone stomps a Voodoo Doll you're marked with.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2017, 01:03:52 PM by bigosaur »

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #173 on: March 03, 2017, 01:01:23 PM »
Piggles :D

I've had some good runs lately (sadly not during the daily challenges in the last few days, but ah well), and worked out some nice tactics with the retaliator - if you can get poison immunity and the retaliator, and either some health potions or toughness potions or both, you can currently stand in front of a poison firer for a bit, take say 30pts of damage then heal up before going into the executioner level, and be doing some very, very big hits when you get there!
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bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #174 on: March 03, 2017, 01:22:00 PM »
Piggles :D

I've only played about 20 testing runs with them and I feel really sad when the enemies manage to kill them. But, they stay on the screen, so you can revive them with the Life Staff ;)

BTW, they aren't in the Steam version yet, I need to do more testing with various effects/situations. The version will be 1.6.5 or higher.

I've had some good runs lately (sadly not during the daily challenges in the last few days, but ah well), and worked out some nice tactics with the retaliator - if you can get poison immunity and the retaliator, and either some health potions or toughness potions or both, you can currently stand in front of a poison firer for a bit, take say 30pts of damage then heal up before going into the executioner level, and be doing some very, very big hits when you get there!

Yes! Similar with fire/ice immunity. But the poison immunity is even cooler if you get Mushroom level in the forest and bring those 11 mushrooms to the castle. You can buff the Retaliator like crazy and then just one-shot the boss ;)

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #175 on: March 03, 2017, 10:32:41 PM »
Look forward to seeing them, anyhow :) Will the other levels each have some special rooms possible as well?

And yes, I hadn't thought of that... it's interesting with the challenges at the moment how the points system really changes my playstyle, especially pushing me to drink extra potions etc to get points. I play very differently when I'm just doing runs on my own!
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bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #176 on: March 05, 2017, 10:24:00 AM »
Will the other levels each have some special rooms possible as well?

Yes, but not so many. The forest should have about a dozen in the final game, because you play the forest every time you start a new game and I want to make sure it's always interesting. I already have some ideas like a Jousting tournament, a pond for fishing, long-jump competition, ...

especially pushing me to drink extra potions etc to get points

Yes. I have seen this too, even if I know the potion is bad, I would still drink it for extra points. But I guess that's good - it makes the daily challenge special.


bigosaur

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #177 on: March 05, 2017, 04:38:06 PM »
I'm creating the sorcerer character currently and she has a staff that can create food. I'm not sure what would be a better description for the staff: "Provides food" or "Provisions food" ?

Glaurung

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #178 on: March 05, 2017, 05:05:43 PM »
I would choose "Provides food", or maybe just "Makes food". "Provisions" is already a noun meaning "food"; it's sometimes also used as a verb meaning "provides", but I think only in specific technical contexts.

Jubal

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Re: My Mom's a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #179 on: March 06, 2017, 11:06:27 PM »
Agreed with Glaurung :)

I got killed by the troll in the daily challenge again... I should really get over my pride and actually pay the fee sometimes, I just keep fighting the thing and dying because I don't want to pay :P

Also - I'm not sure there are enough things to counter poison at the moment. The two potions that do it aren't that common, and the number of poison shooters in the third level is quite large potentially...
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