Author Topic: Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion  (Read 218194 times)

Jubal

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #510 on: March 24, 2018, 10:34:26 AM »
Please don't, these have taken up way too much time :P (Besides which, I'm not sure there are many achievements you could add extra to the game as it stands that would provide a good additional challenge without being really annoyingly reliant on RNG).

And I've got to finish writing the guides as well, so I need some time to get up to date with those :)
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #511 on: May 16, 2018, 12:54:52 PM »
The game is released!

https://steamcommunity.com/games/539400/announcements/detail/1656641115369264946

I want to thank you for all the playtesting, suggestions and help.

BTW, I just got confirmation from Nintendo, so the game will be available on Nintendo Switch console later this year.

Jubal

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #512 on: May 17, 2018, 02:04:37 AM »
Congratulations! I'll have to try and get the guides up to date, I'm in the US at the moment but I'll have some braindead time getting over jetlag this weekend when I'll hopefully be able to do it.

What're the plans now - more system ports, more features, or another project?
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #513 on: May 17, 2018, 06:54:26 AM »
Congratulations! I'll have to try and get the guides up to date, I'm in the US at the moment but I'll have some braindead time getting over jetlag this weekend when I'll hopefully be able to do it.

Awesome! Thanks.

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What're the plans now - more system ports, more features, or another project?

I feel like the Switch port will take a couple of months. I'm not sure about other platforms, most probably not.

I plan to have one big update with more heroes, enemies, weapons, items, special rooms in the future. I have a lot of ideas already worked out on paper and the graphics is ready, so I just need to do the animations and programming. This won't come soon, maybe by the end of the year or something like that.

I plan to start making a new game in 2019. I have a bunch of ideas, but still cannot decide which one would be the best. More on that after the SoaW big update comes.

Tusky

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #514 on: May 17, 2018, 07:52:28 AM »
Congrats from me too!

Nintendo port - that's really cool :)
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Jubal

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #515 on: May 20, 2018, 09:56:37 AM »
Bug report - it seems that you can smelt the Tar of Akhall with the portable furnace, which seems like a thing the game shouldn't allow you to do?

EDIT: Also, can I get HP numbers for the three desert bosses?
« Last Edit: May 20, 2018, 02:29:28 PM by Jubal »
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #516 on: May 20, 2018, 05:09:58 PM »
Bug report - it seems that you can smelt the Tar of Akhall with the portable furnace, which seems like a thing the game shouldn't allow you to do?

Should I change this? I mean, there's nothing special about the Tar that would protect it from smelting. I know it breaks the game and you cannot complete it, but consistency-wise?

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EDIT: Also, can I get HP numbers for the three desert bosses?

Sure:

Dragon Master
regular game: 3000 + players * 2000
casual game: 2000 + players * 1000

He has 2 phases. In the first phase he rides a baby dragon so all damage is halved until you knock him off. The dragon has 200 HP. So, you first have to do 400 damage to enter phase two. In phase 1 he is also using the spear magic. In phase two he throws spears at you, but doesn't use the magic anymore.

War Elephant:
regular game: 2300 + players * 1700
casual game: 1600 + players *  700

Medusa:
regular game: 1200 + players * 800
casual game: 750 + players * 400

Thorn Reaper:
regular game: 2500 + players * 1800
casual game: 1800 + players * 800

Jubal

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #517 on: May 20, 2018, 07:07:00 PM »
I think you should change it simply because it breaks the game. I think it's fine to say "you can't smelt this it's too magically protected" or whatever, it's literally meant to be the final super-powerful endgame item that we've been pursuing for seven levels, it feels more weird if it *isn't* special.

Thanks for the numbers :)
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #518 on: May 21, 2018, 09:54:32 AM »
I think you should change it simply because it breaks the game. I think it's fine to say "you can't smelt this it's too magically protected" or whatever, it's literally meant to be the final super-powerful endgame item that we've been pursuing for seven levels, it feels more weird if it *isn't* special.

Alright. Coming in today's update.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2018, 09:21:56 PM by bigosaur »

Jubal

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #519 on: May 23, 2018, 02:40:34 PM »
Cool :)

Right, I've added more to the monster manual, still got some flavour text to write. I've not got all the numbers on damage of different boss moves, I've got a fair percentage of it by testing but not there yet. Equipment guide I think is done with the exception of a section on mounts. Playing guide has a bit more to do, I'm working on a section on achievement hunting atm, and I might put more in about the different hero types and combat styles at some point but that might be a longer term aim :)
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #520 on: May 23, 2018, 07:58:34 PM »
Right, I've added more to the monster manual, still got some flavour text to write.

Checking it out now. EDIT: I noticed something strange, it looks like the damage number for Crystal Wizard ( 8 ) shows up as 8)

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I've not got all the numbers on damage of different boss moves, I've got a fair percentage of it by testing but not there yet.

If you want, just leave a mark like this in the text: (?dmg)

Once you mark all of those, let me know and I will go through and fill in the values.

Jubal

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #521 on: May 24, 2018, 12:18:45 AM »
Yeah, fixed that smiley code and marked all the stats I'm missing (I think) :)

Query - do all the achievements still trigger in all the barbarian challenge modes? I'm wondering if for some of the catacomb-clearance achievements "try this in a One Shot game" would be good advice to give?
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #522 on: May 25, 2018, 12:38:49 AM »
Yeah, fixed that smiley code and marked all the stats I'm missing (I think) :)

Updated. Few notes: the elephant charging across the screen doesn't do any damage to the players. It wasn't supposed to, but Medusa sword attack apparently does only 5 damage, and the animation is buggy (only one sword is shown although both swords can hit the player), so I will have to fix this.

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Query - do all the achievements still trigger in all the barbarian challenge modes? I'm wondering if for some of the catacomb-clearance achievements "try this in a One Shot game" would be good advice to give?

Take a look at the achievement description in Steam. If it says "in regular game" that one only triggers in regular game and daily challenge.

Jubal

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #523 on: May 25, 2018, 12:58:06 AM »
I came across the new version of the quiver in today's daily challenge as the archer, but it didn't appear to have any effect at all, my total damage was still 55 on the bow before and after picking it up :(

Also, I think archers may now be a bit over-powered. The fast draw speed means you can, for example, defeat trolls without needing specialist arrows as long as you have a rage attack available (fire one, fire rage shot, fire two, then you've still got time to fire a killing shot). It also means you can rob shops really really easily with snailbite arrows, rather than it being a matter of careful timing you can plug 2 or 3 arrows into the bushido well before he gets to you. Coupled with really high-powered upgrades, I found in today's daily challenge that I was one-shotting everything, yetis and jackal-gorillas included, from the start of the castle level onwards. I even killed one of the medusas with a single shot, though I think that was with a critical hit; with a crit on the final dragon master battle I did over 2000 damage which seems... excessive? I mean, I built my character and bow up pretty carefully, and in a setup that had plenty of replicators and runestones, but it just felt really weirdly easy compared to normal.

Anyhow - I've finished the guide section on achievements and challenge modes, so that's another thing done :) I'm still meaning to write a short feature suggestions list now the main version is done, I'll hopefully finish that in the next few days and finish adding the flavour text to the monster guide as well.
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bigosaur

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Re: Son of a Witch: Castle Crashers meets Isaac
« Reply #524 on: May 26, 2018, 11:23:44 AM »
I came across the new version of the quiver in today's daily challenge as the archer, but it didn't appear to have any effect at all, my total damage was still 55 on the bow before and after picking it up :(

Strange. I just tested and the damage is 60 after you pick it up. If this happens again, could you make a screenshot for me? Just make sure you pause the game so that the stats and the weapon info are visible on the screen.

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Also, I think archers may now be a bit over-powered.

I am thinking the same, but I need more runs to be sure. I mean, you can get OP with a mage as well, so it's more making sure they would be on par with each other. I need to do more runs to see if the Archer becomes OP every time or not. The problem with the archer is that he has limited choice of weapons and upgrades only upgrade damage. The fix will probably be to just lower the bow damage across all the bows, so that a single arrow shot does less damage and you need to fire more.

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Anyhow - I've finished the guide section on achievements and challenge modes, so that's another thing done :) I'm still meaning to write a short feature suggestions list now the main version is done, I'll hopefully finish that in the next few days and finish adding the flavour text to the monster guide as well.

A few tips that might be worth adding:

The Pyromancer in Safety Escort is always in a shop, so getting a silver coin on levels 1 or 2 is a really good idea. Once you reach the castle, you can simply teleport to him.

It is recommended that you kill the Necromancer boss before going into the catacombs for the Eye of Ramana. You can kill a couple of Vampiress shopkeepers and raise them before going into the old catacombs and with the staff you can revive them when they die and raise new ones. They have a lot of HP and can help you do the quest even with a weaker character. The drop rate for the Staff of the Dead is 100% until you unlock this achievement.

A good room to do the Lord of Thunder, Marksman and Bomberman is the throne room after the castle boss fight. Let the King summon a bunch of guards and then cast the Peace spell. If you have the slowdown scroll or a pogonip staff, slowing them down is a plus. Now you have a bunch of peaceful, slow moving targets and you can do it easily.

Buffed can be done with Mana Canteen + Twilight staff, or even Twilight Staff + Bare Bones amulet + a dozen mana potions.

Athlete can easily be done with a Mana Canteen. Just grab a staff from one of the Wizards in the castle and speed your self up. With some luck, it's also doable without Mana Canteen in some runs if you stack up on the mana potions.

Once the players finish the Eye of Ramana quest, Dracula becomes hard to do because of low drop rate of the Staff of the Dead. Since the old catacombs don't spawn every time, the chance is about 14% to even have all the prerequisites to try it and you won't know until you reach the 5th level. Because of this I added a hint, you can press F1 when you show up at the start in the forest and it will say "Dracula possible" or "Dracula not possible" near the end of the log.

For Magic Casters using the Meteor staff or Stormbringer is a good idea because you can hide behind the obstacles and kill the enemies while staying safe yourself. Ethereal bow is also useful for that, but it's much harder to obtain.