Whats Next

Well hello! This is my first time ever creating a blog post here, and I thought I’d talk about my plans for this little game. I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to play, rate, and leave feedback. I really appreciate it! 

A lot of the comments had to do with “lack of options''. People seemed to like the core concept of a graph of actions in turn based combat, which I'm glad to hear! However there are definitely some problems in its current implementation. The biggest being not a lot of situations where you could choose paths on the graph, or create more paths. In addition it was really easy to get into a situation where you had no options and were just “clicking through the motions”. Basically there was little variety, and less meaningful choices. Lets fix that!

I think the core of this game is creating the action graph. In my opinion that's what's interesting and fun, so I plan on restructuring the whole game around that. Specifically, the current plan is this:

1. Each fight will be split into 2 phases. Phase 1 will be building your action graph from scratch. Players will have to choose from a limited number of arrows and selection of actions, while working around costs and “locked in '' options based on the scenario. You’ll also be able to see your opponents action graph, so you can plan accordingly. I want this to feel almost like a puzzle game, where you’ll need to create the correct graph to solve the puzzle/fight.  Phase 2 will be the actual fight, where you’ll pit your graph against your foes! Combat should happen quickly, so I definitely will “auto play” when there's no input needed from the player. 
2. Add new actions! I have a bunch of ideas for both active actions (such as splitting attacks into physical/magic/elemental), and passive actions (power up connected actions, next turn does 2 actions). I want every action to have value, so you most likely won't see the boring “wait” action.
3. Replace RNG/Roguelike aspects with premade quests. I honestly am not a huge fan of roguelikes, but they’re easy to make for jams. I plan on creating “quests” consisting of a string of (hopefully) well balanced fights. Each fight will have unique graph requirements and constraints, hopefully even unique actions and play types! I'm thinking of classic fantasy themes like “defeat the Dragon” or “pillage the ancient crypt”. 

I’m giving myself till the next Ludum Dare (the first week of October) to work on all this. Realistically I’ll probably only be able to spend 4-8 hours a week, but we’ll see. 

Also, if any pixel artists are somehow reading this and want to collaborate, send me a message!  

Wish me luck!