I hate that some enemies deal damage even after getting defeated, it just turns it into a reroll while running away until you find that one combination of 2 cards. Awesome game otherwhise
Awesome game, I've been coming back to it for weeks now. For a challenge, I've tried different game modes. You could add these as achievements for beating with these restructions:
1. Only pick hearts (more strategy when positioning as half of your hand is pawns)
2. Only pick pieces (pretty easy until the last few levels)
3. Only pick pieces and finish a run without losing a heart (pretty hard)
4. Only pick hearts and finish a run without losing a heart (Haven't beat it like this yet, takes a lot of RNG)
A lot of people get confused about which spaces the enemies attack. I don't think it can be a simple hover-over tooltip as the hit markers also change when some enemies die. I think a solution to this would be to have a toolbar where you can read about each enemy, or just put an infographic in the description of your game to refer to.
The game seems perfect as it is, I would enjoy more levels (some having obstacles that can't be removed for example), possibly different map shapes, different enemies, different game pieces (a random card that changes every turn) and different bosses. More ideas include a timed mode (either a certain amount of time per turn or per level). I have more suggestions that should be easy to implement.
You could even have power-ups, such as a one-turn shield, or have your piece attack in a square around the player. These powerups can be offered after beating a level as a third option, rather than choosing a piece or a heart. They would act as playable cards from your hand.
Also personally, I really enjoy the look of the game pieces more in this demo than in the updates you've been posting on Twitter (no offence). The demo's graphics are sleeker, more compact, and honestly look more finished.
Just my opinion. I don't think you need to spend a lot of time on graphics, but rather in more variety in the game.
Briefly put, this game is fantastic. I wanted to say that I am an experienced Chess, roguelike, and cards player and that I would love to help you make it even better by tossing ideas at you and hearing your ideas and giving you my input, be it by email, discord, skype, whatever. Cheers for giving me an amazing experience tonight!
Well, I would love to hear at least some of what you have cooking right now. Since we're not going to talk on Skype I'm going to write most if not all of the ideas that have been brewing in my head today. (Note #1: "My" "vision" for what this game could be may be a huge undertaking, so it may be more fitting for a sequel but I really hope (for both our sake) that something like it could be in this one. Note #2: Everything I'll be writing now is going to be under the assumption that you already thought of it and that it's completely obvious, and all credit of course goes to you for making this wonderful gem.)
Firstly, only due to ease of implementation, I suggest a score (self explanatory, something like StS's) and Acheivements (Same way in Dream Quest, where they're all outlined in the first place and you can choose what to go for). It's easy to come up with Acheivements for it, and I've even thought of a pretty good example: No Royalty For This (or something along those lines) for beating the game without ever using a king nor a queen. (Tons of other options: Never taking hearts, never losing hearts, etc. etc.) People dig Acheivements. And now I've misspelled that word for the third time.
Okay, now we get to the meatier stuff. In one word: Choice. Choice between ways to further the progression of your character. For this, we need to discuss some pertinent concepts, and following that I will provide examples for what I mean:
1) Action points: Starting with the obvious, this is a very powerful way to upgrade your character. More action points, more chances to kill and avoid damage.
2) Stop: The ability to stop a long range piece, as an upgrade for a piece or as some sort of ability. Somewhat helpful and especially for combos with other pieces. Perhaps a Stop and Go as an upgrade for such piece or an ability, which let's you stop and then go again, allowing you to change a direction with a piece mid-move.
3) Upgraded pieces: A Knight+ may move twice in a row (reasonable upgrade for a short ranged piece on a bigger board, which, btw, I think it should be), or perhaps is now allowed to attack one move diagnoally too (Similar to the Wizard in Omega Chess), Or say a Pawn+ may get a range increase for both his movement and as mentioned, a Rook+ or a Bishop+ could have a Stop or a Stop and Go.
4) Removal: Those pesky pawns bothering you? No longer need those old unpgraded pieces? Remove them and cycle your deck better to boot.
5) Hand size increase: Very powerful, obviously. Allows you more choices to play and cycles better.
6) Invincibilty: Take no damage this turn. Implementation example: Once you take it, you can use it once per level.
7) A bunch of other stuff.
So, now we can return to the concept of choice: I think every level, or 2, or 3, doesn't matter (Or even better, allocating experience points to monsters and leveling your character that way, which among other things would mean you could level mid-level. level mid-level. heh.), you should get a choice between two somewhat equally upgrades. For example: Gain 1 hand size or Invincibilty. Another example: Upgrade 2 pieces or gain one Action. Another one: Remove 2 cards or Gain Triggered 2 Action Points per level. And so on and so forth. The upgrades to your character should become more and more powerful as you progress, naturally.
You can rest assured that I spend most of my time thinking about mechanics to explore in the game, and have considered all of this at one point or another. :)
Okay so 2 things: 1, I can't wait to see what you can do in a month and a week after seeing what you did in one week. 2. Come on, throw a dog a bone. Can you tell me ANYTHING about your plans? Some mechanic? A direction? Anything
Sure! Here goes: rather than having queens in the regular card rewards, there will be a way to temporarily promote pawns when in the last row, as a core mechanic. This will make pawns more desirable to draw, and add another layer of strategy to positioning.
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Good !
fun game still
Please not another chess game.
You should definitely increase the difficulty near the end, but otherwise an amazing game.
can you please be clearer about what is happening in the game
love the game
I hate that some enemies deal damage even after getting defeated, it just turns it into a reroll while running away until you find that one combination of 2 cards. Awesome game otherwhise
Awesome game, I've been coming back to it for weeks now. For a challenge, I've tried different game modes. You could add these as achievements for beating with these restructions:
1. Only pick hearts (more strategy when positioning as half of your hand is pawns)
2. Only pick pieces (pretty easy until the last few levels)
3. Only pick pieces and finish a run without losing a heart (pretty hard)
4. Only pick hearts and finish a run without losing a heart (Haven't beat it like this yet, takes a lot of RNG)
A lot of people get confused about which spaces the enemies attack. I don't think it can be a simple hover-over tooltip as the hit markers also change when some enemies die. I think a solution to this would be to have a toolbar where you can read about each enemy, or just put an infographic in the description of your game to refer to.
The game seems perfect as it is, I would enjoy more levels (some having obstacles that can't be removed for example), possibly different map shapes, different enemies, different game pieces (a random card that changes every turn) and different bosses. More ideas include a timed mode (either a certain amount of time per turn or per level). I have more suggestions that should be easy to implement.
You could even have power-ups, such as a one-turn shield, or have your piece attack in a square around the player. These powerups can be offered after beating a level as a third option, rather than choosing a piece or a heart. They would act as playable cards from your hand.
Also personally, I really enjoy the look of the game pieces more in this demo than in the updates you've been posting on Twitter (no offence). The demo's graphics are sleeker, more compact, and honestly look more finished.
Just my opinion. I don't think you need to spend a lot of time on graphics, but rather in more variety in the game.
Cool puzzle elements, although I didn't catch the logic behind the enemies attack. Quite unpredictable.
Briefly put, this game is fantastic. I wanted to say that I am an experienced Chess, roguelike, and cards player and that I would love to help you make it even better by tossing ideas at you and hearing your ideas and giving you my input, be it by email, discord, skype, whatever. Cheers for giving me an amazing experience tonight!
Thank you! I hope to release a public alpha version for the full game in early May, and will be glad to hear any feedback then.
Well, I would love to hear at least some of what you have cooking right now. Since we're not going to talk on Skype I'm going to write most if not all of the ideas that have been brewing in my head today. (Note #1: "My" "vision" for what this game could be may be a huge undertaking, so it may be more fitting for a sequel but I really hope (for both our sake) that something like it could be in this one. Note #2: Everything I'll be writing now is going to be under the assumption that you already thought of it and that it's completely obvious, and all credit of course goes to you for making this wonderful gem.)
Firstly, only due to ease of implementation, I suggest a score (self explanatory, something like StS's) and Acheivements (Same way in Dream Quest, where they're all outlined in the first place and you can choose what to go for). It's easy to come up with Acheivements for it, and I've even thought of a pretty good example: No Royalty For This (or something along those lines) for beating the game without ever using a king nor a queen. (Tons of other options: Never taking hearts, never losing hearts, etc. etc.) People dig Acheivements. And now I've misspelled that word for the third time.
Okay, now we get to the meatier stuff. In one word: Choice. Choice between ways to further the progression of your character. For this, we need to discuss some pertinent concepts, and following that I will provide examples for what I mean:
1) Action points: Starting with the obvious, this is a very powerful way to upgrade your character. More action points, more chances to kill and avoid damage.
2) Stop: The ability to stop a long range piece, as an upgrade for a piece or as some sort of ability. Somewhat helpful and especially for combos with other pieces. Perhaps a Stop and Go as an upgrade for such piece or an ability, which let's you stop and then go again, allowing you to change a direction with a piece mid-move.
3) Upgraded pieces: A Knight+ may move twice in a row (reasonable upgrade for a short ranged piece on a bigger board, which, btw, I think it should be), or perhaps is now allowed to attack one move diagnoally too (Similar to the Wizard in Omega Chess), Or say a Pawn+ may get a range increase for both his movement and as mentioned, a Rook+ or a Bishop+ could have a Stop or a Stop and Go.
4) Removal: Those pesky pawns bothering you? No longer need those old unpgraded pieces? Remove them and cycle your deck better to boot.
5) Hand size increase: Very powerful, obviously. Allows you more choices to play and cycles better.
6) Invincibilty: Take no damage this turn. Implementation example: Once you take it, you can use it once per level.
7) A bunch of other stuff.
So, now we can return to the concept of choice: I think every level, or 2, or 3, doesn't matter (Or even better, allocating experience points to monsters and leveling your character that way, which among other things would mean you could level mid-level. level mid-level. heh.), you should get a choice between two somewhat equally upgrades. For example: Gain 1 hand size or Invincibilty. Another example: Upgrade 2 pieces or gain one Action. Another one: Remove 2 cards or Gain Triggered 2 Action Points per level. And so on and so forth. The upgrades to your character should become more and more powerful as you progress, naturally.
Yippity yippity yippity, that's all folks!
,
You can rest assured that I spend most of my time thinking about mechanics to explore in the game, and have considered all of this at one point or another. :)
Nice! :D
Okay so 2 things: 1, I can't wait to see what you can do in a month and a week after seeing what you did in one week. 2. Come on, throw a dog a bone. Can you tell me ANYTHING about your plans? Some mechanic? A direction? Anything
Sure! Here goes: rather than having queens in the regular card rewards, there will be a way to temporarily promote pawns when in the last row, as a core mechanic. This will make pawns more desirable to draw, and add another layer of strategy to positioning.